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96thdayofrage · 4 years ago

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Hollywood and Broadway need to realize that you can tell the stories of people of color without whitewashing or blackwashing them. Real life, if not yet reel life, is already kaleidoscopically diverse.

Of course, this assumes these agents of cultural production want to tell these stories. Their answer, however, seems to be that as artists it is not their mission to tell the stories of people of color but to tell universal, human ones. This implies that the stories of people of color are not, or as British author Nikesh Shula has observed, “White people think that people of color only have ethnic experiences and not universal experiences.” Evidently so do some people of color.

The colorism controversy surrounding the lack of Afro Latinx representation in the Hollywood version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights is recent but not new. As Ishmael Reed pointed out in his 2019 critique of Miranda’s Hamilton, in addition to glorifying its titular slaveholding hero and the Founding Fathers as a whole, it fails to present the voices of the “Native Americans, slaves, and white indentured servants” they victimized, voices Reed himself would subsequently include in his play “The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda.”

In response to such criticism, Miranda generously conceded his limitations, while still defending his melanated whitewash of American history: “All the criticisms are valid,” he tweeted, adding, “The sheer tonnage of complexities & failings of these people [the Founding Fathers] I couldn’t get. Or wrestled with but cut. I took 6 years and fit as much as I could in a 2.5 hour musical.” The implication: the oppressive weight of these complex individuals somehow justifies jettisoning acknowledgement of the reality of their failing as slaveholding white supremacists.

In an interview with Reuters, Miranda once again invokes “tonnage” to defend his film: “To be quaint would be a dream come true. No one movie can encompass the sheer tonnage of stories we have to offer.” But “tonnage” vision may not be the only reason for the film’s failure to see Afro Latinx people. (Ironically, the Reuters interview begins with the observation that Miranda is “hoping [his] musical In the Heights changes the conversation in Hollywood about the wider appeal of such movies, just as Crazy Rich Asians did in 2018.”)

Jon M. Chu, the film’s director, provides another, noting that while the casting of Afro Latinx people was “discussed,” “in the end, when we were looking at the cast, we tried to get people who were the best for those roles.”

The sentiment is echoed by Melissa Barrera, one of the film’s white passing Latina: “I think it’s important to note though that in the audition process, which was a long audition process, there were a lot of Afro Latinos there, a lot of darker-skinned people. I think they were looking for just the right people for the roles, for the person that embodied each character in the fullest extent.”

Certainly, Miranda and Chu were aware that the film’s casting did not accurately reflect the racial demographics of Washington Heights, any more than the cast of Hamilton reflects the racial composition of the Founding Fathers. (Read another way, the dark-skinned Afro Latinx Dominican community of the Heights were the wrong people to be represented in a film about their own community.) But Hamilton’s oxymoronic, color-conscious colorblind casting is intentional. A similar intentionality cannot be read into In the Heights, and not just the movie version. (One wonders how the original Broadway musical addressed these issues during its 2008-2011 run: Were dark-skinned Afro Latinx people represented any better? Sadly, it seems colorism plagued these productions as well.

This is unfortunate, since just as Hamilton whitewashed the emotional, financial, and intellectual investment of the founding fathers in slavery and genocide, the film adaptation of In the Heights opts to omit the reality of colorism within communities of color, an issue that was suggested, albeit fleetingly, in the original Broadway production in which the father of Nina, a light-skinned Afro Latina, disapproves of her black, non-Latinx lover Benny. (Not only is this subplot excised from the film, but the romance between the two characters has also been truncated and Benny’s overall role in the film reduced.). In fact, Miranda decided to remove this suggestion of racism from the film, telling the LA Times, The film “isn’t about the parental disapproval of this interracial relationship because we wanted to focus on the specifics of the racial microaggressions Nina faced at Stanford, which Benny very much understands and has her back on. So it didn’t make sense for her to be fighting that war on two fronts.” What Miranda fails to appreciate is that battles against racism and its handmaiden colorism are swaged simultaneously on multiple fronts and that his own film’s conscious attempt to minimize these conflicts may itself be interpreted as a not so micro microaggression.

What makes the current conversation about colorism even more remarkable, is that we’ve had it before. This is not the first time Chu has been criticized for colorism. In 2018, when the Singapore-based Crazy Rich Asians was released, it was criticized there for not accurately portraying that nation’s diversity. The film’s leads are light-skinned East Asians, those in subservient roles are dark-skinned Southeast Asians. As Singapore journalist Kirsten Han, put it, “The focus is specifically on characters and faces of East Asian descent, which plays into issues of racism and colorism that still exist, not only in the U.S. but Asia.”

Responding to his critics, Chu told a press conference, “We decided very early on that this is not the movie to solve all representation issues. This is a very specific world, very specific characters. This is not going to solve everything.” Now, three years later, Chu has directed another film about a specific world and specific characters that excludes specifically dark-skinned people, creating more problems than those it was not intended to solve.

Still, Hollywood has had plenty of opportunities to clean up its act, only to squander them[3] as it deliberately continues to erase people of color from their own lived narratives. The film 21 (2008), based on a true story about a group of MIT students gaming the tables in Vegas, replaces Jeffrey Ma, a Chinese American, with a white character renamed Ben Campbell, while the rest of the real Asian American members of the blackjack team are similarly whitewashed. In an interview with The Tech, Ben Mezrich, author of Bringing Down the House, the book on which the film is based, said that he had been told by a studio executive involved in the casting that “most of the film’s actors would be white, with perhaps an Asian female.” In Stuck (2007), based on another real life incident, this one involving a black woman who accidently hits and kills a homeless man with her car, not only does the main character undergo a name and race change, but, adding insult to injury, the film’s race-switched white female lead sports cornrows.

Fictional characters of color are also subjected to whitening. In 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), the sequel to2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Bob Balaban is cast as Dr. R. Chandra, the creator of the sentient supercomputer HAL 9000, quite a departure from the Dr. Chandra, a.k.a. Dr. Sivasubramnian Chandrasegaram Pillai, of Arthur C. Clarke’s original novels. In the film Wanted, based on the graphic novel by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, The Fox, a character physically modeled on Halle Berry, is played by Angelina Jolie. Reuben St. Clair, the black social studies teacher featured in the novel Pay it Forward (2005), in the film becomes white Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey). Presumably, in the eyes of the filmmakers all these actors were “the best fit for the role,” even where the race and the names of the characters they portray were changed to accommodate them. If the shoe fits – alter it.

Movies, television and Broadway shows are entertainments not history (though they can be both). To be sure, actors should be given leeway to practice their craft, and escapist histories can provide a means of critically reexamining contemporary constructions of race and being (see for example, Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad). But such imaginative excursions devolve into extravagant indulgence when they substitute for or impede the production of stories that attempt to engage history, particularly history that has been erased by what Reed calls the “Historical Establishment.”

Sure, in the eyes of producers, a film about Anne Boleyn will capture a greater audience share than one about Sojourner Truth. A film about Boleyn starring a black woman could potentially outperform them both, if only because of the controversy it will generate. After all, Boleyn is a known quantity, a brand, a bankable historical commodity. Truth is not, at least to the gatekeepers of popular historical dramaturgy. As history, Gone with the Wind (1939) is irredeemable trash. Yet, for many, both in America and abroad, it offers, like its predecessor The Birth of a Nation (1915), a distorted vision of past American greatness.[3] As for Hamilton, aside from the entertaining irony of turning the melanophobic Founding Fathers into people of color, it tells us nothing meaningful about either but a lot about the marketability of sanitized history, just as In the Heights’s erasure of an entire darkly pigmentated community of color from its own storytells us all too much about our present.

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rpctts · 4 years ago

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MADS did it, and i’m nothing if not a little bitch who wants plots, so i wrote up my own connections list for my kiddos over at nex. WHICH HAS been around for five years and is still going strong, baby ! anyways, i play five bitches over there right now, and you’ll find my blog in the source link. anyways, WITHOUT FUTHER ADO !

if any of this appeals to you, or you want to join but not with any of my connections and you still want to plot ? feel free to hit me up on DISCORD : 𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖊𝖓#1978. or shoot me a dm !

general trigger warnings : abuse, death, alcoholism, rape, murder.

CAROLINE SARAH CRANE. nurse, thirty - two.

the lowdown : she’s too sweet for her own good, and she’s often letting people walk all over her. she had a SHITTY ex - fiance who was abusive, so she’s taking her time getting back into the dating game ———— there’s this guy, though, but she keeps trying to SELF - SABOTAGE to keep them apart since she thinks she’s the reason people leave. her parents died when she was pretty young and she and her sister moved to fort elms to live with their aunt. she was brought up like a traditional southern gal, born and raised in mississippi until she moved to with her sister claire.

WANTED CONNECTIONS :

sister. they have a relatively close relationship, but her sister was always liked a little - bit - more than caroline was, solely based on the fact that she was more outspoken. which is surprising, since they were raised in the south in mississippi. their parents died when caroline was fourteen, and they moved in with their aunt in washington, which is where they both live now (: requirements : mid - to - late thirties. 1/4 black and louisiana creole, unless adopted ———— however, preferably still a poc. would have a connection with brandon ( played by mads ), who is her ex - husband’s brother.

coworkers. as you’ll see later, i play two nurses. i’m like, 90% of the hospital staff right now, and i’d love to see more people who work there ! be it doctors, nurses, techs, whatever. i’d love for her to have a mentor or someone to look up to. requirements : none, besides being able to work in a hospital. would also be connected to nat ( played by alex ), and probably malachai ( played by me <3 ).

friends. everyone needs friends, and caroline’s no exception. right now she’s kind of limited on being friends with the guy she’s kind of dating and her sister’s ex’s brother. requirements : in their thirties. would possibly be connected to jack ( played by tasha ) or brandon ( still played by mads ), who’re the aforementioned characters.

CHELSEA ELISE CZERNY. college junior, music store clerk, twenty - one.

the lowdown : she has her own love life issues, and is a store clerk at camelot’s music. the shop across is where her best guy friend and long - time crush julian works, and she’s stupid and in love with him. recently she found out one of her best friends hooked up with him at a party, and that’s really put a damper on their friendship. :zany: anywho, chelsea didn’t have a great life. she was born in louisiana, but her folks moved to washington when she was four. she’s the youngest of five girls, and her parents wanted a boy, so she was chucked to the side unless she was being her dad’s punching bag. her mom was an alcoholic like her dad, and while her mom never laid a hand on her, she didn’t do anything to stop her dad and so of course chelsea resents her. her sisters tried their best to shield her, but she’s five years younger than the next sister, and thus they weren’t always around. she had a stint in a mental hospital, but then cps let her go home to the family because they’re big dumb. she also had an awful experience at a party her freshman year of college, where she was drugged and date - raped, so she’s very selective with who she allows physical contact from. she’s my saddest and most damaged character and honestly she deserves better !

WANTED CONNECTIONS :

sister. she already has one around, but there’s three more to go, baby ! i feel like the czerny girls very much have a relationship like the march girls, with chelsea being very much like amy outside of being a little shit ( love you amy ). they’ve always been very close, and while she’s not closest with the oldest, who’s in her late thirties, she has a very good relationship with the other three. requirements : mid - twenties to late - thirties. the youngest would be twenty - six, and the oldest can be whatever, just under fourty. should be blonde, which makes it pretty easy. would also be connected to christina ( played by mary ), who’s the second oldest, and julian ( played by mads ), who’s been chelsea’s best friend since he moved to fort elms, and is also their neighbor.

potential love interest. chelsea’s bisexual, even if she’s not fully aware of it yet. she’s spent the last five years of her life hung up on her best friend ———— very much a betty and archie situation, and now she’s crushed that he not only slept with her bff, but also that he probably doesn’t return her feelings. so she really needs someone to come in and swoop her off her feet. requirements : in their twenties. could be connected to kevin ( played by mads ) and pippa ( played by meredith ).

coworkers. chelsea works at camelot’s, which is the record store in fort elms’ mall. right now, she’s the sole employee ———— which is dangerous considering she’s a klutz and has already fallen off a chair once ! so please give her people to keep her company at work. requirements : none.

STEVEN MICHAEL KINNEY. chemistry teacher, twenty - six.

the lowdown : middle child, perpetual grump. his parents died when he was sixteen, and his baby sister was the only survivor. steven was left with a lot of anger that he didn’t know how to control or get rid of, so in college he joined the boxing team and eventually joined an underground fight club type of thing. he was good at it, and ended up being a crowd favorite and pretty popular with the crowd too. that changed when he hit a guy so hard he passed out, and the guy ended up dying in the hospital. steven wasn’t left without injuries, but his guilt is what’s really done him in. he’s pretty much ruining his relationship with his sisters because he’s punishing himself for the guy’s death by pretty much throwing himself into fights recklessly, hoping to get beat up and d*e. pretty dark and DEPRESSING, if you ask me !

WANTED CONNECTIONS :

cousin(s). after their parents died, the kinney trio were adopted by their uncle and moved in with him. well, steven and sawyer did. sienna had already yeeted herself away. steven would’ve been relatively close to any cousins his age, and they probably would’ve pranked sawyer and any younger siblings. probably would’ve grown apart when steven moved out for college and started withdrawing. requirements : it’d be nice for someone around his age, though maybe a little younger, so early - to - mid twenties. we never specified in canon whether it’s their mom or dad that was japanese, so it would be up to you on whether it’s the side of the family that their uncle’s on ! would also be connected to sienna ( formerly played by meredith, now dead in a ditch somwhere ), who’s the oldest, and sawyer ( played by mads ), who’s the baby.

ex - boyfriend. COLLEGE. a time for learning yourself, and reinvention. steven’s pansexual and he had a secret boyfriend in college. i say secret because it’s the 80s and sawyer is uber - religious. they dated their sophomore year into their junior year, and ultimately the other boy broke things off because, unfortunately, the guy that steven accidentally killed was in fact his best friend. and now that steven’s on the road to love, it’d be fun if someone came in and fucked with that a little bit. requirements : twenty - six / twenty - seven, to be in line with steven’s age. preferably a poc, but not a necessity.

coworkers. give me more TEACHERS ! who will teach the children math in the apocalypse ? it could be you ! requirements : if they’re a teacher, they gotta have a teaching degree sorry babie ! no fifteen year olds allowed.

MALACHAI COLSON KNOX. nurse, thirty - four.

the lowdown : he’s also a nurse, and he ALSO has romance troubles ———— that appears to be a common trend. he’s in love with his best friend of over twenty years who’s daughter he also raised. they have a complicated history, it’s fine. grew up in chino, they moved to washington after ava was born, and they’ve been living there since. everyone calls kai a simp, which i GUESS he technically is, because he’d do anything for odette. BUT THAT’S BECAUSE HE LOVES HER. gross. there was a time in his mid - twenties where they weren’t living together ( he was living with his ex - girlfriend, who wasn’t an ex at the time ), but THAT was a whole mess. homegirl was emotionally manipulative and a fucking bitch, which wasn’t great. he eventually got out of the situation and moved back in with odette, who he’s now dating ———— even though no one knows. honestly, he doesn’t even know, because odette’s scared of labels. they make her cry.

WANTED CONNECTIONS :

ex - girlfriend. she's crazy, and a bitch. she manipulated kai throughout their entire relationship, and it really fucked with his mind and is part of the reason he was so hesitant on things with odette. there was probably a lot of gaslighting in that relationship. he did love her, however, and if she showed back up in fort elms that would certainly make things difficult for him ! so of course i love it. requirements : mid - thirties, looks like a bitch. would also be connected to odette ( played by mads ), who she probably hates.

friends. kai needs some buds. mads has a wanted connection for a childhood friendof theirs, which would be great, but i’d also just love some new friends as well. people he can go grab drinks with, or do other friend things with ! requirements : in their thirties, probably, but no specifics.

coworkers. see above, in caroline’s wanted connection. requirements : should be old enough to work in a hospital.

NOAH HASTUR WRIGHT. contractor, twenty - four.

the lowdown : former football star and resident player. UNFORTUNATELY. for me, anyways. he had lots of relationships in high school, but his most frequent was sawyer, with whom he was very on - again - off - again with. at the end of the football season in his senior year, he tore his acl, which ruined any shot of a football scholarship to a big university. so instead he went to trade school, joined his cousin julian’s band, and now he also deals pot to the town of fort elms. it’s very opposite of who he was in high school, though he’s still a big player. has a shitty relationship with his dad, because who doesn’t ? and also doesn’t believe in LOVE. though he’s pretty sure he might be in love with sawyer, so that’s real rough on him.

WANTED CONNECTIONS :

ex - girlfriend(s). like i said, in high school he was a player. he was also attractive and popular, so he was a good target for flirtaionships. if he wasn’t dating SAWYER, he was hooking up or dating some other girl, and i’m sure he probably strung some girls along. give him some evil exes that someone has to fight, or girls still really hung up on him. requirements : twenties, between 20 - 28, i guess, since he definitely would’ve dated older girls as a freshman / sophomore. would also be connected to julian ( still played by mads ), who’s his cousin.

friends. a clear trend with my characters is that they need more casual friends / acquaintances. he’s buds with the boys in the band, but he really needs people outside of it to hang out with too. requirements : in their twenties.

buyer(s). he’s a pot dealer, and i’m sure that lots of people in fort elms buy ! it’d be cool to have a relationship that’s like a i’ll text my dealer, he’s cool kind of deal. he’d definitely come by and play video games, maybe even give you a discount on prices if you kicked his ass. requirements : none.

hookup. he’s pansexual and very sexually active. like said, he’s a player, so he’d definitely still be sleeping around with people, but it’d be nice to have a consistent person he can turn to. the kind of person he can call at 3am and they meet in a parking lot, or something. the kind he can count on. requirements : no minors.

his mom. he has a great mom ———— she’d rival juli’s, if i were strong enough to go against mads. but i don’t. she is a great mom, though, and she raised both noah and his teen sister to the best of her abilities. she’s been a single parent since his sister was born, and she’s now fourteen, so their mom’s had a little bit of learning to do. she forced her kids to learn polish, even though she’s not as in touch with her heritage as her sister is, but it’s there ———— paczki every saturday morning with breakfast. she’s not very overbearing, but she is a little nosy, and she gives noah grief for dealing out of her house, but he pays rent so she lets it slide. requirements : early forties, can be any white lady, though preferably jewish. would be connected to julian ( yep, still played by mads ) as his maternal aunt.

#rp #rph #rpc #wanted connections #wowie this took the first like. 2 hours of work #love that #salem speaks.#nex related

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dawns-trollhunting-shit · 6 years ago

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Hey, could you write any possible ideas for my team Creepslayerz AU? (It's basically Steve, Eli, Aja, Krel, Mary, and Shannon becoming the Creepslayerz team, with a little Witch!Shannon thrown into the mix 😄)

Creepslayerz A.U

Members: Steve, Eli, Aja, Krel, Mary, Darci, and Shannon.

Steve: He's the leader. Maybe he's not the smartest and maybe he does really stupid things and makes dumb mistakes but Aja and Eli make him a better person. He has heart and he's no longer a buttsnack. He cares about his team and although he's the "leader" he knows he's not actually running the team.

Eli: Eli's one of the brains on the team. He knows about the paranormal and the strange. He acts as a guide giving information to his teammates so that they can fight. He always tries to make contact first and gets into trouble for being to impulsive and excited but gets his team out of trouble with the knowledge he possesses.

Krel: While Eli is more experienced with the paranormal and supernatural Krel is knowledgeable on aliens. His sister has always wanted to be a warrior so she dozed off during History and Culture lessons about other planets but Krel has always been intrigued with alien cultures eveywhere. From technology to art and music and different traditions Krel is well versed in alien life and culture. He always knows if an alien is there to cause harm or bring peace.

Aja: Aja is a heavy hitter. She's smart, fast, and a good fighter so whenever it comes to battling monsters she's the first to charge. On the team she keeps everyone together when fighting and although impulsive she always brings the enemy down in the end. She'd rather fight then talk things out but if the Creep is friendly she's the first to apologise for attacking.

Darci: Darci is good at getting information. Her father is a cop and because of this she has access to files her friends wouldn't. If something weird happens Darci is almost always the first to know about it and where it happened. It makes her a valuable asset and helps the Creepslayerz a lot. It helps that she also has access to lots of weapons and can get ahold of any evidence the team may need.

Mary: Mary is the falsifier. She cares about her friends and she doenst want them getting in trouble or getting hurt. With all her followers and her social media fame along with her Photoshop skills she's the person whos able to cover everything up. She keeps people off the Creepslayerz tracks and is the perfect person to make excuses on why they weren't where they could get into trouble.

Shannon: As a self taught witch in training Shannon is new to all of this. She discovered her powers when she was younger and since then she has had to keep them a secret. Shannon is good at forging evidence, getting the crew out of bad situations, lying, and embellishment. Having learned to lie at a young age and never getting caught she's perfect at keeping her groups secret safe and teaching them to stay out of trouble.

Some Headcannons

~ Steve wasn't super into the idea of all these girls joining what was originally a boys club but he figured if his girlfriend could kick ass surely they could too. He learns to be more excepting of gender and through the Creepslayerz a deeper respect for woman.

~ Aja loves that now her friends know what and who she really is. She's so happy that she can truly be herself around them. She likes learning about girly earth things and although some terrian customs are weird she likes that her friends share them with her.

~ Shannon knew about the supernatural and the paranormal but she didn't think aliens were real! She begs Krel and Aja to teach her more and becomes infatuated with alien life. Her and Eli swap stories and conspiracies they've been told and Shannon learns to really open up around her friends and be herself.

~ Shannons a young self trained witch and because of this she makes mistakes and her powers don't always work the way she wants. This is why she's so sneaky and rarely gets caught doing things she's not supposed to, she had to teach herself not to get caught at a young age. Eli knows more about her world than she does but together they are one of the strongest duos on the team and they learn together.

~ Krel perfers science to magic but when he meets Shannon he becomes more curious about magic. Arkiridion is known for it's scientific advancements but more than once they've bumped into magic users. Eli and Shannon gladly teach him about the paranormal and now Krel cam bond with Shannon over music and magic !

~ Mary and Darci once they get involved in Creep hunting realize Claires behaviours match their own. They find out she's like a Creep hunter too and hope someday she'll feel like she can come out to them about her hobby. They want to open up to her about their hobby too.

~ Mary teaches Krel all about human technology and shows him her skills. He becomes intrigued and the two bond over computer stuff and apps. Maybe earth tech is a bit dated but used the right way Krel learns it can be super fun.

~ Aja teaches everyone on the team how to fight! If their going to be going into battle they need to know how. Creepsalyerz have training days where they all work out and have fun sparring together

~ When the group aren't out hunting Creeps they chill, watch movies, munch on snacks, and just have fun. The kods share stories about growing up and compare human life to alien life everywhere.

#trollhunters #3below #creepslayerz #trollhunters a.u #3below a.u #my work #my writing #steve #eli #krel #aja #shannon #mary #darci

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loadcom326 · 4 years ago

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Motion Controllerseffective Curriculum Ideas

MOTION UNIT SUMMARY. Cluster: Describing Motion (Lessons - ) Overview. Children heighten their awareness of motion in their surroundings by going on a Motion Search. They practice describing an object’s motion with words and drawings and learn to incorporate aspects of distance, time, speed, change of speed, and path into their descriptions. The way curriculum is defined or viewed will directly affect the instruc-tional decisions necessary to implement curriculum in multi-tiered RTI models. Three Types of Curriculum Researchers and curriculum specialists have explored the fact that different types of curriculum operate simultaneously in the classroom (Eisner, 2002.

Motion Controllerseffective Curriculum Ideas Activities

Motion Controllerseffective Curriculum Ideas 4th Grade

Motion graphics are awesome and highly versatile storytelling tools, which makes them a great addition to your brand’s content marketing mix if you’re looking to tell an interesting story in a succinct format, engage people on social media, or explain your product.

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Online video has been on the rise now that mobile is pervasive and social platforms are more video-friendly. And while there are many types of content that can engage people, motion graphic videos are particularly suited to help brands tell their stories.

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The Best Motion Graphic Examples

If you’re just starting to explore motion graphics or looking for a little inspiration, you’ve come to the right place. Here, we’ve rounded up 100 great motion graphic examples to show you how diverse, creative, and entertaining the medium can be.

This collection (listed, not ranked) shows a variety of styles, stories, and subjects, both branded and editorial, from all sorts of industries. Whether you work in tech or nonprofit, there’s a little something for everyone, plus a few tips to help you get started making your own.

100 Great Motion Graphic Examples (1-25)

We hope you find this roundup helpful—and we hope you’ll let us know if you’ve seen any motion graphic examples we should add. Enjoy!

1) Anatomy of a Computer Virus by Patrick Clair

This animation was created for Australian TV program HungryBeast and provides a breakdown of the world’s first weapon constructed entirely out of code: Stuxnet.

2) Luibelle by Toondra Animation Studios

Motion Controllerseffective Curriculum Ideas Activities

Great motion graphic examples of branded content make us very happy. Luibelle used motion in this great explainer video.

3) Bananas by Xander Marritt and Elias Freiberger

Some of these motion graphic examples get a little weird, which we like. In this, bananas are used to symbolize life and the subconscious and conscious in this strange and quirky motion graphic.

4) 29 Ways to Stay Creative by TO-FU

The inspiring minds at TO-FU give tips to stay creatively productive with this animation, which is sure to help anyone in need of a little advice.

5) Journey Alpha by Weltenwandler Design

This beautiful motion graphic has the look of a video game, creating a feeling of submersion, but it is completely non-interactive.

6) Haïkus in Motion by Sébastien Girard

This animation series brings poetry to life with expressive imagery.

7) The ABC’s of Architecture by Andrea Stinga and Federico Gonzalez

This delightful animated rendition shows buildings associated with the world’s best architects.

8) Skype for Business by Column Five

This lesson contains the following Essential Knowledge (EK) concepts for the. AP Calculus course. EK 1.1A1 EK 1.1A3 Click here for an overview of all the EK's in this course. 1.1 limits graphically calculus answers. If ny love for you were an equation it'd be Because it has no limit. 1.1 Limits Graphically Calculus For 1-5, give the value of each statement. Name: If the value does not exist, write ' Practice does not exist' or 'undefined.' F(l) = f(-l) = limf(x) = lim f(x) = i.

Learn about the value of Skype and how this tool can increase efficiency for your business in a cost-effective way.

9) Game of Thrones: An Animated Journey by BlackMeal

Relive the highlights of HBO’s Game of Thrones with this beautiful animated rendition of the popular show.

10) Bitcoin Explained by Duncan Elms

Curious about Bitcoin? This motion graphic breaks down the important information about the electronic currency in three minutes.

11) I <3 Camping by Monologue and George Zestanakis

Animations are a perfect way to introduce consumers to products and services, such as mobile apps like the one featured in this eye-catching video.

12) Cinematics by Pier Paolo

Unit 1: early chinamacs history. Teaching Unit 9.1 World politics and the global economy after World War II Teaching Unit 9.2 The two big powers and their Cold War 1945-1990 CE Teaching Unit 9.3 A multitude of sovereign states 1945-1975 Teaching Unit 9.4 The scope of wealth and poverty 1945-present Teaching Unit 9.5 The world at warp speed: science, technology, and the. WorldHistoryUnit1EarlyHumanSocietiesChapters12.pdf - Google Drive. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators.

This adorable animation illustrates the timeline of classic films and characters, bringing historic cinematic characters to life in a whole new way.

13) How to Bloody Mary by Matteo Inchingolo

Great motion graphic examples use the medium to teach something quickly. This one shows viewers how to make a classic brunch beverage.

Motion Controllerseffective Curriculum Ideas 4th Grade

14) How to Feed the World by Denis Van Waerebeke

Captivating animations are a perfect way to educate young adults and children about important issues, such as world hunger.

15) Coffee in 200 Frames by Dum!Dum!

No matter the length, animations can still bring to life everyday tasks in a stimulating manner, such as this short, which illustrates the steps for brewing a cup of coffee.

16) Be Sexy, Be Smart by PlusOne

This motion graphic, made for Soa Aids Nederland, delivers a powerful message in an accessible manner through colorful and engaging imagery.

17) A Dash of That by J-Scott

Animations are a perfect way to promote blogs and other social media outlets. This cute and colorfully designed animation promoting the Tumblr account A Dash of That is an excellent example of that use.

18) The Pursuit for Educational Equity by Column Five

This perfectly addresses the gap in educational equality and provides useful information on how to close the access gap, making it one of those motion graphic examples that blends great design with educational content.

19) Subprime by Beeple

Many of these motion graphic examples help people understand difficult concepts, much like this video, which illustrates the housing market crash in the U.S.

20) Chemistry and Energy Efficient Buildings by Diemo Barz

This animation, created to illustrate the results made by BASF, is a comprehensive and accessible way of conveying the information to its audience (conference attendees).

21) Inspiration by Rafa Galeano Font for mac free.

A colorful animation is a great way to tell a story or illustrate a conceptual thought.

22) The World is Obsessed with Facebook by Alex Trimple

Great motion graphic examples bring information to life in a more exciting, as this piece does.

23) Social Media and You by Binalogue

This was made for The British Council to help them launch their brand new social media strategy pack.

24) Stanley Kubrick by Hyejin June Hong

Motion graphics are a great way to illustrate the history of a product or person, like this animation about filmographer Stanley Kubrick.

STANLEY KUBRICK A FILMOGRAPHY from Deadly Puppies on Vimeo.

25) A History of the Title Sequence by From Form

This animation provides beautiful imagery illustrating the history of another art form: title sequencing.

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thekillerssluts · 7 years ago

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Arcade Fire talk employment, American Dream, 'Everything Now'

Art-rockers Arcade Fire are trying to make us think. They've always tried to push their audience toward social responsibility and awareness. But with their 2017 release Everything Now, they're pressing even further, overinflating their lyrics and live shows with hot-air messages of consumerism, hoping their fans will once again wake up and pop the balloon.

In light of that prevalent issue, I wondered, what's their perspective on opportunity in the U.S.? Do they feel they have too much stuff themselves? How do they avoid working too much to fund their own lifestyles?

Ready to dig deep into all that and more, multi-instrumentalist Will Butler and bassist/guitarist Tim Kingsbury sat down to talk with me before the show.

Cecilia Johnson: Hey, thanks for talking with me. Between "Everything Now" and "Creature Comfort," you guys have been focusing on possession and overabundance on the new album. What's something in your life that you have but could do without?

Kingsbury: I just got rid of a lot of stuff. I moved houses, so it was a big purge. It felt good. Still feel like I need to get rid of more stuff. I could do without CDs at this point in my life.

I also think about consumerism and overworking as really linked -- more money to buy more stuff. How do you avoid working too much, or how successful are you at that?

Butler: We've always worked how we've wanted. Luckily, we've had success from the get-go. I mean, obviously, we've worked really hard. But from the moment Funeral came out, we haven't had to have day jobs. Which has been affirming of the work. It's like, "Oh, that worked, so just keep working as you are."

I mean, toward the end of a touring cycle, you start to feel a little crazy physically, and emotionally, and spiritually.

Kingsbury: Yeah.

Butler: But it's also [that] playing for people and putting on a show is quite meaningful. Like, nothing we do is a money grab. But we've definitely become more of a business. We're literally 70 [people] on the road, so there's six of us, and then the rest of the people are technically our employees. We're employing 64 people to go around the world, and build this crazy stage, and cook for us and cook for the crew. In addition to the local crew. Which is a funny feeling if you think about it.

Kingsbury: I do find that sometimes, further into a tour -- as I get a little more existential about what I'm doing -- I think, "Whoa. All this production. This is crazy." But then that goes away, and I'm like, "There's nothing better than playing these songs to people that want to hear them." It feels very good.

Do you try to keep in mind anything in particular about being a boss? Knowing that these 64 people are your employees, how do you take care of people?

Kingsbury: I just try to talk to everybody, partly. Stay tuned in.

I mean, we have a great tour manager, and our production manager's amazing. I think [it helps to] have a team that you know is communicating well together.

Butler: Yeah, a lot of the crew are rigging stuff at 6 in the morning, and then they rig down after, from midnight to 4 in the morning. We're on utterly opposite schedules.

But we're really intimate with the stage crew. The keyboard tech, Don Lee, has become our studio manager. He's been with us for...ten years?

Kingsbury: Since Neon Bible.

Really? I didn't know that. Do the same guidelines play into how you work with each other as a band?

Kingsbury: It's very different. It doesn't feel like an employee/employer relationship at all; it's more of a partnership. We're not hired to be here. So it's more challenging balancing it with the rest of our lives. Having families and doing all that stuff. It doesn't get easier to balance that stuff, I don't think. It's a constant negotiation.

I thought one of the coolest parts of Everything Now was the way it's sequenced: how it starts with "Everything_Now (continued)," goes right into "Everything Now," and ends with "Everything Now (continued)." Why did you guys want to play with chronology and sequencing like that?

Will Butler: I think we've always made records. We've never had a hit song; we've only had records, and we've technically had three number-one records now. [laughs] They've only lasted a week or so. But albums are the art we make. So we've always deeply thought and sequencing, and pace, and flow, and naming. All of those things really matter.

Tim Kingsbury: I don't know if you noticed, but at the end of the record, it loops straight back into the beginning. We get very nerdy and excited about that kind of stuff. [We like to] pay attention to the whole record as an entity.

Do you each have a favorite song off Everything Now? I know you think of the album as a thing first and foremost, so if that's the answer, that's cool.

Butler: No, it changes as you play them live. Currently, "Put Your Money On Me" is a technical challenge for me that I really enjoy. I have to twiddle a lot of knobs at the start of it, and it still feels a little panicky, and that's a good thing.

That's funny -- I saw your tweets a few days ago about messing up, and they were cool. It is genuinely cool to see someone working for what they're playing, even if they slip up once in a while.

So "Peter Pan" talks about a "dead-eyed American Dream," and there's "the white lie of American prosperity on "Creature Comfort." Do you think the American Dream ever existed? If so, where's it at now?

Kingsbury: Well, I'm a Canadian, so I don't know if I can answer this question.

Butler: What do you think of the Canadian Dream?

Kingsbury: The Canadian Dream is basically to not be America. [laughs] It was like, "Let's stay British. Britain doesn't want us? Oh. Okay, let's not be American." [all laugh]

Will, what about you?

Butler: I think you can have a complex and accurate relationship with American history -- the first Butlers came to Boston in 1630, and they've kind of fulfilled the John Adams idea, where it's like, "We're going to war so that our children can be mathematicians so that their children can be teachers so their children can be artists." That's very much been the arc of my life's path.

My great-grandfather on my mom's side was Mormon, and their family was literally driven from America by shotguns and pitchforks, and they went to Utah because of their religious belief. And then my grandmother grew up in a traveling band. Like, poverty wages. Pre-Great Depression. They would go camping in the summers. They're like, "Remember when we used to go camping and we brought the cow?" And then one of them would be like, "You know we were homeless, right? We weren't camping. We were homeless."

But then they provided for my mom who provided for us. So for us, [the American Dream] has been true. But I think you can also have a really keen eye as to how that has not existed for numbers of people. I think you can be of both minds -- it's a lot easier to be of both minds when you're a rich white person, like myself. But I have heard enough passionate defenses of [the American Dream] from people throughout history that I know there's some truth to it.

Yeah, how do you stay in the present? When you talked about your grandmother being homeless, it reminded me of how we like to romanticize the past. You can do that as a band; fans of the band can do that to your career, too. How do you stay in the now?

Kingsbury: In terms of the band, it's just 'cause I don't want to keep playing the same old songs over and over. It's compelling to explore new ideas. Do you mean in general, or just in the band?

Either or. I guess as a band.

Kingsbury: It's a little bit challenging, because not all of us live in the same city anymore. It takes more of a concerted effort to get together and be like, "Okay, we're gonna do something." When we started, Will was gone for part of it, but we basically all lived in the same place and could just get together.

Butler: On tour, playing the music, you can retreat into the music. It is actually creating stuff in the moment, and people are responding to it. It's rare to be in a line of work where you can actually do that. So there is a very distinct nowness to making music -- almost more than other arts. You're literally just shaking the air between you and someone else.

Kingbury: Mm.

Butler: It doesn't always happen. Sometimes you're just like, "I am doing a job." [sings and mimes punching synthesizer] "I'm doing a job. I'm doing a job." But I find you can retreat into the music whenever it gets dark.

The last thing I wanted to ask was whether Will, you had a favorite song on Tim's new Sam Patch album. Have you had a chance to listen?

Butler: Yeah, it's great. I actually really loved the opening and closing synth swoop of "Must Have Been an Oversight." To me, that's classic. It's like an archetypal sound of the world. That's so cool.

Now that I'm thinking of solo projects, I'm wondering: have you two ever been to Eaux Claires [Festival]? I knew Richard [Reed Parry] and Sarah [Neufeld] have played there.

Butler: No, we're interested. We'd love to do it someday.

Kingsbury: Yeah, it'd be fun. We talk about it.

Thanks for taking the time.

#Arcade Fire #will butler #Tim Kingsbury #interview

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biofunmy · 5 years ago

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25 best TV shows of the year, from ‘Fleabag’ to ‘Pose’

After 2019, TV will never be the same.

This year, TV got bigger than we ever could have imagined back when there were only three channels. Over 500 scripted series premiered new episodes, two major new streaming services (Apple TV+ and Disney+) debuted, “Star Wars” and Meryl Streep came to TV and “Game of Thrones” ended with massive ratings but disappointed fans. And yet we still are mostly talking about where we’ll be able to easily access reruns of “Friends.”

But there were some really fantastic TV series we hope some of you managed to watch between all the Twitter reactions and marathons of Disney animated movies. And spoiler alert: “Thrones” and its terrible ending didn’t make the cut.

You still have plenty of time before New Year’s Day to catch up on USA TODAY’s top 25 series of 2019.

Joe (Penn Badgley) stalks a new woman (Victoria Pedretti) in “You” Season 2. (Photo: Tyler Golden/Netflix)

25. ‘You’ (Netflix)

The soapy thriller starring Penn Badgley was a pleasant surprise in its original home on Lifetime, and became a sensation once it moved to Netflix, which will stream its second season Dec. 26. The second outing with self-aggrandizing stalker (and murderer) Joe is just as addictive as the first, if a little repetitive. But of all the current series that traffic in bad men doing bad things, “You” remains one of the few that asks interesting questions about its bad guy.

24. ‘Evil’ (CBS)

Akin to “The X-Files” for religion – in which a psychologist, a priest-in-training and a tech expert investigate claims of miracles and demonic possessions – “Evil” is a hard sell on paper, but a surprisingly coherent and gripping series. Created by Robert and Michelle King (“The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight”), it is thought-provoking as an investigation of organized, institutional religion and as a source of thrilling horror stories about exorcisms and evildoers.

23. ‘Living With Yourself’ (Netflix)

Paul Rudd is one of Hollywood’s most charming (and ageless) actors, and he does welcome double duty in this dark comedy about a man who ends up with a clone that is significantly better at living his life. Full of existential angst and pratfalls, the series neatly balances comedy and drama. It’s also a great showcase for Irish actress Aisling Bea, who turns in a breakout performance that isn’t overshadowed by Rudd’s star power.

22. ‘Country Music’ (PBS)

Ken Burns rarely disappoints. The legendary filmmaker turned his lens on the history of a uniquely American music genre for this 18-part documentary that traced its roots and rise. It may have also changed some minds about what country music really is and who it is for.

Sadie Sink, Noah Schnapp, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, and Caleb McLaughlin in Stranger Things 3 . (Photo: Netflix.)

21. ‘Stranger Things’ (Netflix)

After a disappointing and derivative second season, the ’80s-set supernatural series – Netflix’s most popular – returned with new episodes that took more risks and repeated fewer plot points. With the Soviets as new villains, new horror inspirations for the monsters and new relationships to explore – particularly the friendship between Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Max (Sadie Sink) – the series crafted a third season that was almost as captivating as its breakout first.

20. ‘Veronica Mars’ (Hulu)

In our current nostalgia-obsessed TV era, there are plenty of truly terrible reboots, remakes and revivals (“Fuller House”), but sometimes bringing back the original cast and creators years or even decades later results in good TV. The most successful attempt in recent years is “Veronica Mars,” the cult neo-noir series canceled by CW in 2003, revived in 2014 for a movie and brought back yet again for eight episodes by Hulu. Kristen Bell and creator Rob Thomas found a mystery worth Veronica’s talents, and room for the beloved-but-damaged detective to grow. Its shocker ending divided fans, but nothing about the new “Mars” felt cheap, forced or dated, and that’s a true achievement.

19. ‘A Black Lady Sketch Show’ (HBO)

If you missed this small but mighty new sketch comedy series in August, it’s worth catching up on all six episodes of the hilarious first season. Created by Robin Thede and produced by Issa Rae (“Insecure”), the series’ talented black women comedians excel in sketches that are unique to their experiences and universal in their humor.

Mj Rodriguez as Blanca, Billy Porter as Pray Tell on “Pose.” (Photo: Michael Parmelee/FX)

18. ‘Pose’ (FX)

FX’s groundbreaking LGBTQ drama became bigger and more intimate in its excellent second season, homing in on its best characters while making its stories more ambitious, tragic and complex. The season was more focused and compelling than its promising first year, with especially strong performances from Emmy-winning Billy Porter as Pray Tell, Mj Rodriguez as Blanca and Indya Moore as Angel.

17. ‘Stumptown’ (ABC)

There is nothing particularly revolutionary about this procedural drama starring Cobie Smulders, but it stands out among the new network offerings this year because of the thoughtful and fresh way the writers make age-old detective stories. Smulders shines as Dex Parios, a deeply caring if not always smooth private investigator, and her performance elevates “Stumptown” beyond just-another-network-cop-show.

16. ‘The Good Fight’ (CBS All Access)

Despite getting a little more fantastical every year, CBS All Access’ “Good Wife” spinoff is still the drama that best captures the current sociopolitical era. Its third season, with the addition of Michael Sheen as a Roy Cohn-inspired lawyer, was a little wacky without getting too weird, with smart scripts and great performances, most notably from Christine Baranski and Audra MacDonald.

15. ‘The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’ (Netflix)

This prequel to Jim Henson’s 1982 film manages to go above and beyond the beloved original. On aesthetics alone, the series is a huge achievement, but it also tells a fantasy story as lofty and politically complex as “Game of Thrones.” That “Crystal” manages to make fully-realized characters and plots through mesmerizing puppetry rounds out a superb epic.

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II on “The Crown.” (Photo: Sophie Mutevelian/Netflix)

14. ‘The Crown’ (Netflix)

God save the Queen, whoever happens to be playing her. Netflix’s British royals drama proved it can go deep into the reign of Queen Elizabeth II by successfully swapping its original cast for an older set of actors, including Oscar winner Olivia Colman in the lead role (previously played by Emmy winner Claire Foy). The third season has a few bumps, and struggles to make Elizabeth the center of her own story, but the addition of a young Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) and his romantic escapades makes up for Colman’s brief screen time.

13. ‘Superstore’ (NBC)

Like a cheap bottle of wine at Target, “Superstore” just gets better with age. NBC’s workplace comedy is smarter and funnier every season, and 2019 episodes represent the show at its peak. “Superstore” kept its stories and character dynamics fresh this year by promoting Amy (America Ferrera) to manager of the Cloud 9 big box store, changing her socioeconomic status in an instant and drastically altering her relationship with her co-workers, including boyfriend Jonah (Ben Feldman).

Kayvan Novak as Nandor and Harvey Guillen as Guillermo on “What We Do in the Shadows.” (Photo: John P Johnson/FX)

12. ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ (FX)

Based on the cult 2014 film from Jemaine Clement (“Flight of the Conchords”) and Taika Waititi (who directed “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Jojo Rabbit”), “Shadows” is the funniest show this year, an outright bacchanalia of vampiric failures, energy draining and nerdy virgins. The comedy moves its focus from hapless vampires in New Zealand to an even more inept clan in Staten Island, New York, with lofty goals such as taking over the world via city council meetings.

11. ‘The Good Place’ (NBC)

The philosophical afterlife comedy hasn’t been quite as brilliant in its fourth and final season, but even at 85% strength, “Good Place” is still smarter and funnier than most shows on TV. Nailing an ending to a series that asks questions as big as this one does (what does it take to be a good person?) is always tricky, and most crucially the series is staying true to its delightful characters.

10. ‘Shrill’ (Hulu)

At last, “Saturday Night Live” standout Aidy Bryant has a starring role worthy of her talents in Hulu’s “Shrill.” The actress finds a quieter side of her comedy in this Portland, Oregon-set series based on writer and fat-acceptance activist Lindy West’s memoir. It marks the best portrayal of life as a plus-size woman on TV, neither patronizing nor unrealistic, and tells stories beyond its protagonist’s weight on a scale. With just six hilarious episodes, it’s one of the few TV series that would have excelled if it had expanded.

Merritt Weaver, left, and Toni Collette play detectives who initially butt heads but learn to work together in Netflix miniseries “Unbelievable.” (Photo: Beth Dubber/Netflix)

9. ‘Unbelievable’ (Netflix)

True-crime stories can be many things: seedy, enthralling, vindicating, angering or satisfying. Based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica article, “Unbelievable” is both infuriating and triumphant, highlighting the deep flaws in our criminal justice system while also celebrating the work of two genuinely heroic policewomen. With a stellar cast, “Unbelievable” tells the story of a rape victim (Kaitlyn Dever) who isn’t believed by police, and the two detectives (Toni Collette and Merritt Wever) who bring her attacker to justice years later – after he raped several more women.

8. ‘Undone’ (Amazon)

As deeply emotional and affecting as it is unsettling, Amazon’s animated series gets under your skin, in a good way. The series’ rotoscoping technique, in which animation is drawn over live footage, provides an eerie edge as it tells a magic-realist story of a stagnant 20-something woman (Rosa Salazar) who can travel in time and communicate with her dead father. But for every psychedelic trip Alma takes, she also takes a more grounded one as she tries to repair damaged relationships and plot her next course.

7. ‘Dead to Me’ (Netflix)

Christina Applegate gives her best performance in Netflix’s black comedy about a widow who unknowingly befriends the woman (the great Linda Cardellini) who killed her husband. Twisty but not gimmicky, “Dead” is addictive. The series has an abundance of acting talent, including James Marsden, who finally gets a role that takes the sheen off his perfect smile.

6. ‘Watchmen’ (HBO)

Although it started off a bit unsurely, HBO’s very loose adaptation of the graphic novel has blossomed into one of creator Damon Lindelof’s best series, and from the man behind “Lost” and “The Leftovers,” that’s some achievement. The series has a superb cast – including Regina King, Jean Smart, Jeremy Irons and Tim Blake Nelson – that elevates smart scripts that get better as the season progresses. Lindelof and his writers find surprising ways to bring the superhero story from the 1980s into today’s culture, helping “Watchmen” upend the comic book formula once again.

Asante Blackk in “When They See Us,” Ava DuVernay’s retelling of the Central Park Five. (Photo: NETFLIX)

5. ‘When They See Us’ (Netflix)

Ava DuVernay’s striking miniseries gives voice to the so-called Central Park Five, a group of five black and Latino youths wrongly convicted of assault in one of the biggest trials of the 1980s. With an extremely talented group of young actors as the falsely accused adolescents – Asante Blackk, Caleel Harris, Ethan Herisse, Emmy-winner Jharrel Jerome and Marquis Rodriguez – the series brings the story to the screen as a brutal, unrelenting tragedy.

4. ‘Back to Life’ (Showtime)

This British tragicomedy, starring and created by Daisy Haggard (“Episodes”), focuses on Miri, a woman who returns to her small seaside village after spending 18 years in prison for a crime that’s explained as the series progresses. Although Miri has left iron bars and jumpsuits behind, her small town is a prison of its own, where she is hated by all but her parents, her new boss and her kindly neighbor. Touching on themes of forgiveness and deception, the series is breathtaking in its emotional scope, despite the small story it tells over just six episodes.

3. ‘Chernobyl’ (HBO)

The brilliance of this historical miniseries, which chronicles the 1986 nuclear disaster at a power plant in Soviet Ukraine, creeps up on you as you watch its five episodes. Despite portraying so much death and despair, “Chernobyl” is never crass or exploitative, but rather it simply, anger-inducingly explains the failures and hubris that led to the disaster, and the people who tried to mitigate its consequences.

2. ‘Leaving Neverland’ (HBO)

Among 2019’s many true crime documentaries that made viewers question established media narratives and powerful people, this one – about two men who accused Michael Jackson of sexual abuse when they were children – stood out. Wade Robson and James Safechuck were given a platform to tell their harrowing stories, and director Dan Reed is unflinching as he captures the pain and suffering of the men and their families. Tough to watch, it’s also an eye-opening look at the lasting effects of abuse, and the way the media handles allegations against powerful men.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Fleabag in Amazon’s “Fleabag.” (Photo: Amazon)

1. ‘Fleabag’ (Amazon)

Could there be any other choice for No. 1? Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s dark comedy ran away with the 2019 Emmy Awards for good reason. Few series have ever been as emotionally affecting and brilliantly written as “Fleabag” in its second season. The story of a self-hating and self-destructive woman (Waller-Bridge) falling in love with a Catholic priest (Andrew Scott) was both a shocking sequel to the first and an exquisitely perfect ending to Fleabag’s tale. We’ll miss her dearly.

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amazestuff · 7 years ago

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A MAZE. / Johannesburg 2017 - Official Games Selection

“The games we’ve selected for the festival are showing unforgettable experiences, immersive narratives and playful interaction, that describe a growing international and local movement of experimental and artistic game authorship.” - Thorsten S. Wiedemann, director of A MAZE.

All games in the official selection are competing for the glory of the 3rd A MAZE. Johannesburg Awards. On Saturday September 16, 2017 at 7pm - on the final day of A MAZE. / Johannesburg 2017 we will announce the winners of the three remarkable categories. The trophies are made and designed by the digital artist Rick Treweek.

Previous winners are:

2015 The Pinkest Game of Show Award Boxer by Cukia Kimani and Ben Crooks (South Africa)

2016 The Pinkest Game Award Wrestling with Emotions by TeamLazerBeam (South Africa) The Most Thought Provoking Game of Show Award Aurion: Legacy of the Kori - Odan by Kiro’o Games (Cameroon)

The Weirdest Game of Show Award La Discipline du Rectangle by One Life Remains (France)

More about A MAZE. / Johannesburg 2017 progamme and ticketing - check our website: www.amaze-johannesburg.co.za

9L17CH (South Africa)

By Rohun Ranjith / @hi_rohun

2D puzzle platformer that uses a glitch mechanic to solve puzzles

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE GAZE (United States of America)

By Molleindustria / @molleindustria

A Short History of the Gaze is an experiential essay for Virtual Reality about the relationship between gaze and violence. From the evolution of sight in a pre-cambrian sea creature to the dominance display of a primate, from a landscape of billboards begging for attention to an infinite panopticon, the player traverses and affects the virtual scenes by simply looking (or not looking) at things.

All YOU CAN EAT (Croatia)

By Gamechuck / @gamechuck

“All You Can Eat" is an interactive comic that gives you control over a modern hero of our times, a man so lazy he decided to quit his job and just spend his life inside an All-you-can-eat diner. As years go by, his freeloading nature becomes legend, but then a tragedy occurs - the diner is about to close down! Will our hero finally settle down and ...?

ALONE (South Africa)

By Jason Sutherland and Richard Pieterse / @driftprism and @nekropants

Alone is an experience of patience and self reflection.

ARMEL (South Africa)

By Kimard Studio / @kimardamina

Armel is a 2D mini puzzle platformer game where the character has been reduced is in a music sheet world and is living composed music. Avoid various obstacles to reach to the music notes that help you move forward by building the next music lines of the world. The character runs, jumps and can push a rock to get the puzzle right and move to end a level. Armel was sent in exile by the evil queen on his world because he refused to play for her as he was the best musician. For this, she threw a curse on him and sent him to go and make compositions before he returns.

BLIND DRIVE (Israel)

By Lo-Fi People / @blinddrivegame

Blind Drive is an audio-based, arcade-style driving game with a dark and humorous narrative. You're blindfolded and driving against traffic as a mysterious voice gives you suicidal commands on the phone. Swerve away from on-rushing vehicles using only your hearing to guide you.

CLOSER (Canada)

By Mary Claire Flanagan / @omarieclaire

Closer is a game for two people: to start you must stand close together, and to succeed you must work together.

COURAGE, DEAR HEART (South Africa)

By Bahiyya Khan and Claire Meekel / @breakinbahiyya

Courage, Dear Heart is a vignette fmv game that explores the life of Lilith Grey who was molested as a child and how it informs her present life. It also explores what it's like to live with Borderline Personality Disorder (which comes as a result of her molestation) and aims to educate people on how these issues may affect young women.

CRICKET THROUGH THE AGES (South Africa)

By Evan Greenwood and Jason Sutherland / @CodeOfTheVoid

The grand history of the fabled sport of cricket, as it evolved through the ages, and as humankind evolved alongside it. Played out as a two player, two button, video game.

DRESS TO EXPRESS DANCING SUCCESS (South Africa)

By Team Lazerbeam / @teamlazerbeam

Dress To Express Dancing Success is dating sim and dancing sim hybrid that explores personal identity, social anxiety and shaking your limbs in front of strangers.

FROG SMASHERS (South Africa)

By Mike Scott and Ruan Rothman / @rrza and @mikescottiskiff

Frog Smashers is a local multiplayer game about hitting frogs with baseball bats. It tells the tragic tale of the downfall of frog civilization following a tragic misunderstanding at a bus stop.

FROM DARKNESS (Austria)

By gold extra / @extra_gold

The documentary single-player experience FROM DARKNESS (currently in alpha 0.6) takes you to the streets of Eastern Africa. It’s a compelling interactive journey. Nairobi, capital of Kenya and sprawling power hub of Africa’s East, becomes the starting point of an intense investigation exploring the lives of journalists, shop owners, community workers, and urban refugees.

GENITAL JOUSTING - THE STORY OF JOHN (South Africa)

By Free Lives / @Free_Lives

Play through the narrated life of a penis named John. Struggle with him, as he escapes corporate life, masters materialism, travels the world and, eventually, overcomes his greatest enemy: himself.

GORN (South Africa)

By Free Lives / @Free_Lives

GORN is a ludicrously violent VR gladiator simulator, made by Free Lives, the developers of Broforce and Genital Jousting. Featuring a unique, fully physics driven combat engine, GORN combatants will be able to creatively execute their most violent gladiatorial fantasies in virtual reality. The most brutal and savage VR face-smashing game ever produced by man.

HENKA TWIST CAPER (United States of America)

By OriGaminc / @shawnpierre

Twist your body. Twist the controller. Stay in the box. Find the sweet spot. Stop everyone else.

ISOMETRIC EPILEPSY (GERMANY)

By Ludopium / @ludopium

Isometric Epilepsy (IE) is a rhythm based 3d platformer with an isometric view. The players have to overcome various obstacles to proceed in the game.These obstacles change in sync with the music. The players have to memorize patterns and solve environment-specific riddles while playing to the beat of the music.

JODIO (South Africa)

Keanu Texiera, Rohun Ranjith and Kirsten-Lee Naidoo / @kirsty_lee0

A game where players interact with 'Johannesburg' in order to make weird music and accompanying visuals. The game is a kind of audio visualizer that uses low poly art assets. It was made for a second year exam project that was based on the topic 'Urban' with a setting of Johannesburg and the group decided to focus on the sounds of Joburg.

LIFE, LOVE & Tentacles (Germany)

By Firepunchd Games / @firepunchd

Life, Love & Tentacles (VR Tech demo) is the story of a giant monster who falls in love with a human and the ensuing complications of living in a unfortunately scaled environment. The story unravels in a set of mini games in which the player tries not to wreck total havoc while attempting to lead a human-like everyday life. The game will be in full time development later this year, but this early demo let you sneak a glimpse at basic gameplay and tentacles' physics.

MOLOCH (ZERO) (United States of America)

By Seemingly Pointless / @just404it

MOLOCH (Zero) is a narrative game that puts the player through a shift manager job interview. The player must control the flow and speed of workers as they progress down hallways. MOLOCH (Zero) has the player question and balance their own personal in-game ambitions against the health and safety of their workers. Fast is efficient, yet it risks the lives of the workers. How badly do you want this job?

MOSH PIT SIMULATOR (Poland)

By Sos / @Sosowski

Mosh Pit Simulator is a game about punching, stretching and throwing wobbly humans in an unrealistic sandbox setting. The game takes place in a number of locations (city, in a helicopter, on a train, in space). And it's all about fight people off and funny things.

MUDDLEDASH (Scotland)

By slampunks / @nialltl and @slampunks

Muddledash is a couch-competitive octopus racing game. You are a wriggly little octopus, trying to get to the most bopping party of the year with a gift in hand before all your friends. Just one catch - there's only one gift. Fashionably late is now out of season.

NIDHOGG 2 (United States of America)

By Messhof / @messhof

The wurm has returned and it must feed! Shed your garments and paint the walls with the flesh of your enemies, for only one can be worthy of sacrifice.

NONGÜNZ (Spain)

By Brainwash Gang / @SindiecateArts

Nongünz is a nihilistic action platformer which combines hectic shootouts with the management of a mysterious idle game.

NOUR (United States of America)

By Terrifying Jellyfish / @sd

In a post-soylent world, we tend to forget how much of a luxury food is. Nour is an experimental food art game with no goals or objectives, just have fun while you play with your food as if you're a kid again. You are presented with scenes full of ramen noodles, boba tea, popcorn etc, and you mash buttons to interact with the food in curious and unconventional ways.

PALMYSTERY (Canada)

By Paloma Dawkins / @PalomaDawkins

Welcome to the castle of Palmystery where the spirit of a princess guards the entrance into the the realm of hands. Once you enter, you will find that Palmystery is more of a surreal psychedelic trip through a never ending imaginary world of cartoony hands and anxiety inducing techno music than a videogame. This is a game that was made with an emotional tone in mind; the experience lasts about 15 minutes and is meant to leave you feeling shocked, disturbed, and in awe (like IRL life).

PLUSH PUNCH ( South Africa)

By DoubleDate (Ben McInnes, Adoné Kitching, Daoyi Lui, Pieter Roodt) / @bsmcinnes

Plush Punch is an alternative controller game that lets the player be the villain. In an attempt to join the Ministry of Miscreants, you stomp through the plush forest punching cute critters right in the face! With every hit your pesky soul is depleted, and you get one step closer to proving yourself to your fellow scoundrels. But beware, the plushes fight back with hugs (sis) and love (yuck)! Every cute cuddle increases the count on your soul meter, and gets you further away from your nefarious dreams.

PUPPET FEVER (Sweden)

By Coastlebyte Games / @PuppetFever

Puppet Fever is about acting, shouting and peeking inside of your friends' heads. It's a new kind of local multiplayer VR game developed by Swedish game developer Coastalbyte Games. In Puppet Fever players are taking turns to be the puppet master of a virtual puppet theatre. The puppet master serves as game show host, judge and actor as the other players guess the hidden word, much like a game of charades.

ROTORING (Ukraine)

By Gregory Kogos / @aronegal

RotoRing is circular puzzle platformer with pretty lights and clicky knobs. More here: https://goo.gl/FBJeSm

SHHH (Spain)

By Ludipe & Celer / @lupide

A game about voices and oppression made for #resistjam

#SKIJUMP (Denmark)

By VRUnicorns / @VRunicorns

#SkiJump - jump like a unicorn in VR! Ski the slopes like a pro and jump higher that you would ever be capable of IRL. #SkiJump has it all (including snow balls).

SKY (United States of America)

By Bearwarp

Sky is a slow paced, atmospheric sound-explorer that allows the player to create relationships of sound, line and image by navigating an open world of clouds and constellations. These relationships unfold gradually as the player discovers constellations to identify areas and collects letters of cuneiform to develop the character.

SMILE WHILE (United States of America)

By Matthew Keff / @matthewkeff

Rule and order can be considered necessary to communicate ideas successfully. Many forms of communication need a structure to share information. If an experience is absent of rules, the individual is left to implement their own. Smile While is a game you can play by yourself or with others by looking for your own goals, or ignoring them altogether. There are many attributes in simulated environments that mimic physical space. By pulling those attributes out of alignment, this work aims to examine silly chaos and absurdity, building upon the imagination of the viewer.

SPACE KITTY (United States of America)

By Karina Popp and Alex Duncan / @knarniapop

Space Kitty is an infi-player zap-em-up that uses your computer's webcam and any flashlight to shoot on screen dogliens.

STAR SCOOTER (Zambia)

By Mwase Alister Phiri

This is an action-platform game. The titular protagonist uses the cosmic powers to stop the evil forces from taking over the Solar system. The game is actually tough and the controls for the playable character are slightly buggy. Passion, enthusiasm, inspiration and determination.

STIFLED (Singapore)

By Gattai Games / @thatjustinng

Stifled

TEMPORALITY (United States of America)

By James Earl Cox III and Julie Buchanan / @just404it

Temporality is a music experience that encourages narrative interpretation. The controls are simple: “A” to move your soldier forward through time, “D” to move backwards. Besides the title and credits, there is no in-game text. This allows for a music centered experience, where the visuals supplement the audio and where the player can reflect and ponder.

THE CATACOMBS OF SOLARIS (Australia)

By Ian MacLarty / @muclorty

Explore a colourful maze, but not too quickly. Take your time and soon something strange and unexpected will happen…

THE ORCHARD (Kenya)

By Broken Helmet Entertainment / @BrokenHelmet and @DavidKamunyu

This is a role playing, first person view, adventure game, set in a sand box, open world with simulation, survival, puzzle and crafting mechanics.

THE LAMP OF TRUTH (Algeria)

By Diaa ElHak Guedouari / @diaaxstudios

A puzzle platformer game about existential illusions. Use the lanterns to illuminate the reality and your path to the next level. Remember, anything that you can't see, doesn't exist.

SOKPOP GAME SELECTION (NETHERLAND)

By Sokpop / @sokpopco

Video game collective includes @arankoning, @tijmentio, @tomboogaart and @rubna_ (Aran will be on-site)

TRAMP (Spain)

By Laura Martorana, Leandro Estrella and Adrián Martínez Puente / @estrellaleandr

Tramp /tɹæmp/ - A long walk, possibly of more than one day, in a scenic or wilderness area.“We tramped through the woods for hours before we found the main path again”.

TRIGGERED (South Africa)

By Bracken Hall / @Count_Bracula

Triggered is a small local-multiplayer 2D action platformer that started with the question "Do players prefer shooting one big bullet that does 3 damage, or three small bullets that each do 1 damage?" Of course, JW already answered that in The Art of Screenshake, but TRIGGERED gives players the choice to play with both options, which makes for some pretty fun and interesting gameplay. NOW WITH BULLETJUMP.

VICIOUS ATTACK LLAMA APOCALYSE (South Africa)

By Bradley Hean, Jamo Taylor, Sashen Reddy and Matt Cavanagh / @roguecode

The world's best mass llama-slaughter roguelike-lite-ish couch co-op twin-stick top-down shooter.

WINDOW WASHERS (South Africa)

By Thomas Mathew, Annika Morris and Dan Park

This is a game about being a window washer in South Africa. It's very relatable and has very unique gameplay.

VINYLOS (Austria)

By Jonas Bo! and Josef Who? / @agentwell and @josefwho

vinylOS is an alternative controller (alt.ctrl) game console and media art installation based on a DJ turntable. The turntable is transformed into a screen by projecting onto it from above.

#altgames #Amaze2017 indiedev

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shirtlesssammy · 8 years ago

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Ladies Drink Free: Recap

Then:

Claire is a hunter in training.

Now:

Outside the Lucky Badger Ale House, a young woman texts her brother about her false whereabouts, but he catches her in her lie and they start walking home. She wants to head back to the bar, and he wants her to act her age. On the lonely, snow covered path, they hear a noise from the surrounding forest. Hayden, the sister, seems scared, and wants to turn around. Her brother insists there’s nothing scary out there, and proceeds to walk deeper into the dark woods. OOOoooOOO. Hayden is the one who screams though, and her brother rushes to find her knocked out in the snow. Masked attacker monster reveals himself, and Molo Ram’s brother’s heart right out of his chest.

At the BMoL high-tech trailer, Sam and Dean wait. Dean is impatient catering to the Brits, but Mick soon shows up with a case. In Wisconsin, a young man was found dead with his heart ripped out, his sister survived the supposed animal attack, but is in the hospital. Mick pings it as a werewolf attack. The boys wonder how Hayden survived. Then Mick nerds out over his fancy British boarding school for Men of Letters, Kendricks. He learned everything there is to know about Lycanthropy there. Sam’s impressed with the Hogwarts for Hunter-lites. Dean, not so much.

The boys are cool to take care of this milk run, and Mick wants to tag along. Dean’s still pushing back at working with the BMoL, but Sam thinks they can use their knowledge. “If he’s coming, you’re babysitting him,” Dean insists, before heading out.

Of course, once on the road, Dean is subjected to a hella interesting boring podcast of Mick’s.

Mick fills the brothers in on the British history of werewolf hunting. They’re efficient, and because of that, there hasn’t been a werewolf outbreak in Britain since the 1920’s. Sam wonders about friendly ones. They bring up Garth (GARTH!) but Mick doesn’t believe in monsters staying on the right side of the law. (STAY HIDDEN GARTH!)

They finally arrive at their destination (Boris strongly suspects they’re in Wisconsin Dells --this isn’t a fun times, water-park, resort weekend guys. There’s werewolves to hunt.) The Winchesters are a little overwhelmed with the 3-star, baby-shampoo, pool having lodge, but adjust just fine by morning. Dean even went for a swim (GAG REEL PLZ). Sam did more research. He discovered that in the 1930’s the BMoL were working on a plasma therapy to cure werewolves. “Useless, I’m afraid,” Mick interjects.

At the hospital the brothers try talking to Hayden’s mother, but she shuts them down cold. Dr. “Mick” Buckingham walks in and casually escorts the mother out for a quick exam. He discovers that Hayden was bitten, but declines to inform the brothers. Sam and Dean discover that the mother has been bombarded by “Big Foot Truthers” --one a young, pissed-off, blonde “Fish and Wildlife” employee --CLAIRE!

Claire is busy texting/lying to Jody about touring UW-Madison. She gets a call on her fake phone, and it’s just a trolling Dean. (Beatrice Quimby! 9 year old Boris is happy--although I thoroughly identified with Ramona.) She sees right through his nonsense. Meeting up at the hotel, Claire fills the others in on her investigation so far. Dean activates protective!Dad mode. Mick decides to take off, which allows the brothers to grill Claire about her shenanigans.

Dr. Buckingham pays another visit to the hospital, this time with a syringe of silver nitrate. He starts sending it through Hayden’s IV, but she awakens, all rabid werewolf-y, and attacks Mick. He plunges the syringe right into her heart, killing her.

The next morning, the gang get the low-down on Hayden’s death. The strangest thing about it all: Her wounds healed. “Ok, what the hell?” Claire wonders out loud. Mick continues to lie. The salient point being: whatever attacked Hayden is still out there. They split up to investigate further.

Sam and Claire head off to interview Hayden’s friend. Claire tells her “old skeezer” friend Sam to wait in the car. Aww, remember when Sam was Claire’s age? Where does the time go?

Dean and Mick head to the bar. Inside the bar they ask the bartender about Hayden. Dean tries to level him his best intimidation face.

It turns out that Conner, the other bartender with the douche tribal tat, had a thing with Hayden. (Not dating, though, bro.) Conner insists that he worked and then went straight home the night before but Dean presses him, insisting that he's lying. Dean turns to Mick and, as an illustration, asks him what he did last night. (Dean, you don't trust Mick one bit – you beautiful, clever, special crocus.) Mick stutters out a shoddy reply about writing a report and going to bed, clearly caught off guard.

Conner still insists that he did nothing wrong the prior night. Dean then asks if he met Claire. When Conner chortles about their less-than-stellar interaction Dean leans in nice and slow and says, “You ever touch her again, I'll break your face.” Thanks, Dad <3 (Stepdad?)

Outside Dean calls Mick out on his ultra lame alibi. Young girls – particularly new werewolves – don't just die out of nowhere. He slaps a hand on Mick's injured shoulder and Mick, the noob, grunts in pain. He admits to injecting her with silver nitrate. “She attacked me,” he protests, ��and...I had orders.” Oh, Mick. Mick insists that he's just doing the job, then needles Dean about “palling around with witches and demons.” MICK, them's fightin' words.

“Things aren't just black and white out here,” Dean insists. He brings up psychic Magda as an example of someone who deserved the second chance. (Oh, Magda, by Grabthar’s hammer...you shall be avenged!)

“That's your luxury,” Mick says. “We have a code.” Dean angrily reminds Mick that a mother has now lost both of her kids and, mic dropped, walks away.

Outside the school, Claire emerges triumphant. “You really do look like a creeper,” she tells Sam as he lounges outside the high school on her car hood. Which...yeah. True. Claire had success weaseling information from Hayden’s best friend. She found out that Hayden was dating an ultra-possessive guy - which was why she was at the bar that night.

Sam barely acknowledges the latest clue, instead shifting to ask her why Jody thinks she's in Madison looking at the University of Wisconsin. BUSTED. Sam didn't tell Jody yet about Claire’s werewolf hunt, but he presses her for information about why she's hiding her hunting.

Claire confesses that she did try hunting with Jody for a while. But instead of Claire taking an action role, she ended up sitting in the car or on the sidelines while Jody bad-assed her way through case after case. (I feel for you, Claire...but I also really want to watch Jody kicking ass all over the place. #torn) “I'm better off on my own,” Claire says. She imagines that'll make everyone happier.

“I'm so sick of you guys dive-bombing my life like you care,” she growls. She stalks off into the woods around the school to cool down, rage music blasting in her ears. Down at the school’s baseball diamond, Claire's spidey sense starts to tingle. She whirls to see the tall masked man from the cold open and whips out her knife.

The two engage in fisticuffs. Here, fisticuffs means she goes at him with the knife but he gets the better of her, presses her into the ground, rips aside her jacket, and bites her in the shoulder. (Hello, rape parallel.)

Sam rushes to help and gets her back to their swanky resort hotel. Claire burns with fever. When Mick tries to drop werewolf health care tips, Sam tells him coldly that they're done with him. He killed a kid; he can GTFO.

Claire asks how long she has until she turns. Dean kneels in front of her and assures her that she can live with lycanthropy. She just needs to lock herself up for a few nights every month. Claire chokes out, “Maybe some people control this, but I can barely keep it together on a good day. If there's any chance that I could hurt Jody or Alex or...anyone, I'd rather die.”

Sam, reading through the MoL book Mick brought along, suggests trying the blood therapy. One in nine test subjects were cured! Mick is less optimistic. “That study was on mice,” he explains. They once tested their blood therapy on a human but the subject died in agony. (Query: WHY wouldn’t you test it on an animal that’s a better physiological parallel to humans like pigs or monkeys instead of jumping straight to human trials? Amateurs.)

Claire is immediately on board with trying blood therapy.

“You don't get a vote in this,” says over-protective Dean.

“It's my life. I get all the votes,” Claire tells him. That's fuckin' right, Claire.

Dean, pissed off, turns to Sam for backup. Sam agrees with Claire (though he can't meet Dean's eye) – it's her life. Dean bows his head and begrudgingly asks Mick how the werewolf cure works.

Easy as pie - they need the sire's blood. Back to the case it is, then! Dean still suspects tribal tat douchebro bartender Conner. He orders Mick to stay behind, which seems like a questionable decision. However, Mick understands the threat that boils persistently under Dean's skin and acknowledges that if anything happens to Claire in his charge, then he's a dead man courtesy of Dean Winchester.

The boys intercept Conner outside of the Lucky Badger and immediately threaten him with a silver knife. The silver has no effect on Conner (other than scaring the poop out of him.) In the sky clouds begin to drift away from the full moon.

At the hotel Claire is in intense pain. Mick prepares another syringe of silver nitrate for his protection while Claire peels back her bandage. Before her eyes the wound heals. Claire jumps for the gun, ready to end her life, but Mick grabs it first. She begs him for death before it's too late. He tells her that he knows a man who would kill her without any hesitation. His instinct is to do the same...but his “instincts haven't been so grand of late.” Claire huddles miserably onto the couch. Mick proposes sedating and restraining her and, with any luck, she'll wake up cured.

“If I wake up,” Claire whispers. “I gotta call Jody. She's gonna be so mad at me.” She looks so young as she says this. It breaks my heart.

Just then the masked werewolf breaks in. He knocks Mick out, then punches out Claire and drags her away. (Fuck you, werewolf.)

Sam and Dean bust in and Dean immediately looks like he's ready to make good on his threat. Mick protests that he tried to prevent her abduction. Furthermore, he can be useful. He put a tracker on Claire. And...now he’s pissed off Sam now, too. “You can kill me later,” he tells them. It's time to find Claire.

At a house in the woods, Claire is tied up in the kitchen while Hayden's boyfriend Justin does his evil villain speech.

Justin had been part of a happy pack until hunters found them and broke them apart. He attacked Hayden so he could rebuild a pack again. “I'm a nice guy,” he protests to the woman he turned and tied up against her will. He pulls out a refrigerated heart and shoves it in her face – literally.

She spits the heart – and his words – into his face. She has a family so he can fuck right off. Claire doubles over in pain again and when she lifts her head her eyes glow yellow.

Just then the Winchesters bust in. Dean rushes up to Claire and then backs away cautiously when he sees her bloodied face and yellow eyes. She breaks free from the ropes.

The werewolf gets the drop on the boys. It looks bad until Mick shoots him in the back. We all freak out about the werewolf cure and then Mick takes a vial of blood from an injection site on Justin’s back and fills up his plasma syringe with the sire's blood.

Claire stands up, growling as Dean takes the syringe from Mick. “She wanted this, right?” he double checks with Sam, and then they inject her. (<-- I really like this consent angle.)

The blood therapy is rough. She writhes, whimpering on the couch for who knows how long. It's long enough that Dean needs to leave the room to “get some air.” So...probably a fuckin’ long time.

Claire suddenly lies still, stops whimpering, stops breathing. Sam sorrowfully calls Dean back in. Dean shoves his emotions down about as far as they can go.

Suddenly, Claire's fingernails retract, she opens her eyes which leach of yellow, and she starts breathing again. “You guys look like crap,” she says to everyone's relieved faces.

Later, outside the lodge, Mick looks on her in wonder. She's fully cured and packing her car to go. “That girl is a walking miracle,” he marvels. Dean agrees and you know at least one layer of that is him just being a stupid soppy dad about it. (Dean, you snuggly tulip.)

Dean continues his streak of thanking people he doesn't particularly like for saving those dearest to him and thanks Mick “for the win.”

“So we're good,” Mick says happily. Eh, not so fast. Mick gets just one more chance to prove he's not a useless bag of dicks.

Claire comes up and jokes about craving a milkbone. Oh, Claire-bear. She apologizes to the Winchesters, thanking them for being there when she needed them. They hug and she's off.

Claire calls Jody, leaving a confessional on her voicemail. She's hunting. It can be scary, but it's something she needs to do on her own. “I'm ready, but I never would have been if it wasn't for you being my mom. I love you guys.” Oh, Claire. <3

Claire drives off into the world, lone cowgirl, ready to kick some ass.

Natasha:

(whispers: But I'm still so worried about Gaaaaaarth)

(also whispers: weremiiiiiiiiice)

It’s Better if I Quote Alone:

You either get good fast, or you get dead faster

Long story, and like, Downton Abbey boring

So your foreign exchange student is totally lame

I didn't sign up for this reporting to duty crap

I'm ruined, Sam. Those limey sons of bitches ruined me.

Those three stars are wasted on you

They're like nerd soulmates

Things aren’t just black and white out here

Eat me, Teen Wolf

#spn picspam #spn 12x16 #ladies drink free #spn recap #dean winchester #sam winchester #claire novak #mick davies #supernatural season 12

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mrmichaelchadler · 7 years ago

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A Lit Fuse: The History of the Mission: Impossible Franchise

With this week’s release of “Mission: Impossible - Fallout,” it is time to accept an increasingly undeniable fact—the “Mission: Impossible” series is quite possibly the standout film franchise of its time. From a financial standpoint, its significance cannot be denied; the first five films in the series—“Mission: Impossible” (1996), “Mission: Impossible II” (2000), “Mission: Impossible III” (2006), “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” (2011) and “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation” (2015)—have pulled in over $2.7 billion dollars and, barring some unforeseen disaster, the new one should put it well over the $3 billion mark. With grosses like that, it would be easy to simply treat the series as a sort of annuity that one could return to every couple of years to make a lot of money simply by repeating the basic formula established by the previous films for as long as audiences are will to pay to see them. And yet, thanks to the combination of things up by adding new and intriguing elements to the mix each time, the unique approaches to the basic material employed by a strong and eclectic string of directors and, of course, the indefatigable efforts of producer/star Tom Cruise to thrill moviegoers by any means necessary, a series that should by all means have become creatively moribund years ago has instead gotten better, craftier and more entertaining with age. If all blockbuster-sized entertainments were even half as ambitious and ingenious as these films have been, moviegoers would be infinitely better off.

The inspiration for the series is, of course, the long-running television series that aired between 1966-1973 that chronicled the globe-trotting adventures of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), a secret quasi-government organization of secret agents who went out on missions, should they choose to accept them, that found them going up against enemy spies, dictators and, once budget cuts forced the producers to reduce the scope in later years, homegrown criminal organizations. In the first year of the series, the group was led by Dan Briggs (Steven Hill) but in the second season, the character was dropped and replaced with Jim Phelps (Peter Graves), who would lead the team for the remainder of the series as well as a short-lived revival of the show that appeared in the late 1980s.

Seen through today’s eyes, the show is more than a bit odd—this was a program in which most of the episodes seemed to involve the IMF working on assassination plots (though in nearly every case, it would be left to someone else to actually pull the trigger so as not to sully the reputations of our heroes) but the terse approach to the material—the characters were all business and almost never delved into their personal lives—was interesting, the labyrinthine plots (which often included multiple layers of deception and elaborate disguises) were fairly complex by contemporary television standards, the cast (which also included the likes of Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Leonard Nimoy, Sam Elliott, Greg Morris and Peter Lupus) did solid work and the theme song by Lalo Schifrin remains a stone-cold classic.

In the Eighties going into the Nineties, spurned on by the success of the “Star Trek” movies, making big screen versions out of familiar small screen titles suddenly became the rage for a while. With its well-known title and memorable theme music, Paramount Pictures was keen to make a “Mission: Impossible” film but the project remained in limbo until Tom Cruise, at the very apex of his stardom, decided not only to do it but to make it the first effort from his newly-formed production company. Sydney Pollack was attached to the project for a while but eventually it went to Brian De Palma—the notion of the generally iconoclastic filmmaker doing a potential tentpole project of this sort must have seemed strange at the time but his last major box-office success had been an adaptation of another television show, “The Untouchables” (1987). A number of top writers, including Robert Towne, Steve Zaillian and David Koepp, worked on the script but it reportedly went into production without a completed screenplay. There were also rumors of friction during the shoot between Cruise and De Palma that appeared to be tacitly confirmed when De Palma dropped out of the film’s press junket on the eve of its opening.

When audiences first sat down to watch “Mission: Impossible” in May 1996, those with an actual working knowledge of the series must have felt right at home. From the start, the film trotted out the most familiar ingredients—the theme, the opening credits featuring a rapid-fire assortment of clips from the story we were about to see and, most of all, an IMF team once again led by veteran Jim Phelps (now played by Jon Voight) and including his wife, Claire (Emmanuelle Beart), and various experts in their respective fields (played by such familiar faces as Kristin Scott Thomas and Emilio Estevez). Most importantly, there was point man Ethan Hunt (Cruise) choosing to accept a mission in Prague to recover a top secret list of CIA agents from the American Embassy that requires clever moves, hi-tech gadgetry and, of course, an elaborate disguise or two. Then, in classic De Palma fashion, things quickly go sideways and the once-cocky Ethan is left standing helpless as the rest of his team is killed off one by one and the list vanishes. To make matters worse, when Hunt reports to his superior (Henry Czerny) for debriefing, he learns that the entire mission was a ruse designed to ferret out a mole who was intending on stealing and selling the list to a secretive arms dealer known only as Max—since he was the only survivor, the assumption is that Ethan was the guilty party. He escapes easily enough and, after putting together an ad-hoc team consisting of a couple of disgraced former IMF operatives, computer genius Luther Stickey (Ving Rhames) and pilot Franz Krieger (Jean Reno), and Claire, who survived the attack after all, creates an elaborate plan to steal the real list himself in order to lure the person who framed him while at the same time escaping the pursuit of his former employers.

The film got reviews that were decent but hardly spectacular with many of them complaining that the storyline was too convoluted for its own good. Therefore, it may come as a shock to people revisiting it for the first time in a while (or those who have never seen it before) to discover just how strong it really is. Yes, the systematic destruction of the IMF team in the opening scenes, coupled with the later revelation that—Spoiler Alert!—it was Phelps himself who was the mole, shocked and outraged fans of the original show (not to mention some of the original stars, who gave interviews to show their displeasure with the film). And yet, this move proved to be as dramatically clever as it was audacious. The times had changed considerably in the years since the original series went off the air and the notion of a clandestine spy agency going on officially unsanctioned missions to mess around in other countries was simply not going to play in the same fashion. By blowing things up in this way, the film managed to clear the decks for a “Mission: Impossible” designed for the current world while managing to throw most moviegoers for a loop early on in the proceedings.

It is funny to note that this film was once derided for its alleged incoherence because the narrative seems remarkably clean and efficiently told, especially in comparison to what passes for blockbuster filmmaking these days. When it is seen a second time—and this is the rare modern screen spectacular that actually plays better on repeat viewings—one can more clearly see just how smartly written it really is. (I especially love the scene in which Ethan and Phelps reunite and catch each other up on what is happening and Ethan quietly realizing that he is being lied to by his former mentor.) The performances are also quite good as well, which also comes as a surprise since quality acting is not usually the highest priority in films like this. Cruise does an excellent job of playing against his generally cocksure screen persona, Voight adds weight and even a slight degree of poignance to his turn as Phelps and as the mysterious Max, Vanessa Redgrave turns up in a couple of scenes and pretty much steals the show—when she and Cruise have their big scene together, the screen crackles with so much electricity that one wishes that someone could have found a project that would have given them more chances to play off of each other. (The only sort-of disappointment in the cast is Beart, who is nowhere near as electrifying here as she was in films like “Manon of the Spring” or “La Belle Noisseuse” [1991], though that might have something to do with the last-minute deletion of scenes suggest a love triangle between Claire, her husband and Ethan.)

The best thing about “Mission: Impossible”—not to mention one of the key elements that would go on to drive the subsequent films—is the way that a film that was presumably launched primarily as a star project managed to morph, with the approval of the star/producer, into perhaps the most auteur-friendly franchise in operation today. Since it is a film where he was hired to interpret someone else’s material, this is clearly not a “pure” Brian De Palma movie in the manner of such self-generated projects as “Dressed to Kill” (1980), “Blow Out” (1981) or “Femme Fatale” (2002). However, this is one of his most successful attempts at channeling his own particular obsessions into a more overtly commercial framework than is usually found in his more personal efforts. Although not necessarily the kind of story that he might have designed wholly on his own, this story allowed De Palma to tackle subject matter that has long fascinated him, such as voyeurism, technology, mistrust of the very organizations that are supposedly there to protect us and stories that feature unreliable narrators. The film also allows him to demonstrate once again that he is one of the great visual storytellers of our time and includes some of the most memorable extended set pieces of his career. Under normal circumstances, either the opening sabotage in Prague or the climactic fight aboard and on top of a train speeding through the Chunnel would be duly enshrined as the absolute peak moments in the career of an ordinary filmmaker. With De Palma, they aren’t even the high point of the film thanks to the masterful sequence depicting Ethan and his team infiltrating CIA headquarters to steal the list of spies from a room rigged to sound off alarms at even the slightest hint of an intruder in the room—even a simple drop of sweat could do the trick. The entire sequence is a breathtaking wonder that is pretty much a master class in filmmaking all by itself.

When “Mission: Impossible II” came around, Robert Towne was once again pulled into the fold to write the screenplay but the directing reins were passed on to John Woo, the Hong Kong filmmaker who dazzled audiences around the world with such jaw-droppers as “A Better Tomorrow” (1986), “The Killer” (1989) and “Hard Boiled” (1992) before going to Hollywood to make “Hard Target” (1993) and the smash hit “Face/Off” (1997). This time around, the story revolves around Ethan being sent off to track down Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), a rogue IMF agent who has stolen both a deadly virus and its cure, planning to release the former into the world and sell the latter to the highest bidder. To accomplish this, Ethan recruits professional thief and former Ambrose flame Nyah (Thandie Newton) to seduce her one-time lover and help him recover the virus and antidote—complications inevitably arise when Ethan winds up falling in love with Nyah himself. Yes, this is roughly the same plot as the Alfred Hitchcock classic “Notorious” (1946), though to be fair, “Notorious” did not contain nearly the amount of crazy stunts or over-the-top fight scenes on display here.

“Mission: Impossible II” is usually considered to be the weakest entry in the series but while it is undeniably not quite as good as its predecessor, it is still better than its reputation might otherwise suggest. The story is not much to speak of but it is presented with enough style and energy to keep things humming along nicely enough. The action sequences, starting with the sight of Cruise doing a free solo climb in Moab, Utah and climaxing with a crazy-ass duel with motorcycles, are appropriately hair-raising as well. Most significantly, the series has once again allowed a noted filmmaker to play to their strengths and idiosyncrasies instead of trying to tamp them down. This may not be a great John Woo film in the way that “The Killer” or “Hard Boiled” are but, as was the case with De Palma, he manages to make a film that is undeniably his while still serving the basic needs of any tentpole project. Woo has always been a filmmaker with a taste for grandly melodramatic stories and the swoony romantic triangle at the center of the narrative, not to mention the notion of good and evil being separated by only the thinnest of lines (illustrated at a couple of points by having Ambrose donning a mask to make himself look like Ethan), certainly accomplishes that here.

After flirtations with David Fincher and Joe Carnahan, it was J.J. Abrams, then riding high on the twin successes of “Alias” and “Lost," who was brought on to make his feature directorial debut with “Mission: Impossible III.” In this installment, Ethan has finally left the field work behind in order to train new agents for their own future missions and is even engaged to marry Julia (Michelle Monaghan), who is under the impression that he works for the DMV. During his engagement party, he is informed that one of his trainees (Keri Russell, perhaps inevitably) has been taken captive by international bad guy Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). He and his team (including Jonathan Rhys Myers, Maggie Q and Rhames) swoop in to make a rescue, but it all goes wrong and Ethan finds himself under suspicion from the new IMF head (Laurence Fishburne). Without official authorization, Ethan and the team set off to nab Davian and while they are initially successful, things once again fall apart and the fates of both the world in general and Julia in particular are at stake.

“Mission: Impossible III” is easily the most mixed bag of the entire series. Part of the problem with this one is that the main story too often comes across as a rehash of the first film’s plot without any of the genuinely surprising twists or narrative drive that its predecessor demonstrated in spades. The bigger issue is that while Abrams has gone on to direct some of the biggest films imaginable (he is the only guy to direct installments of both the “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” franchises), he was just taking his first tentative steps into telling stories on that scale here and it shows. The action scenes are fast and noisy and frantic but for the most part, they lack the style and precision that De Palma and Woo brought to their set pieces, though comparing the efforts of a relative novice to experts like those two may be a little unfair. That said, Abrams seems more at home with the material involving Ethan’s personal life and the seeming impossibility of balancing a normal life with being called upon to save the world on a regular basis, which was also one of the key themes behind “Alias.” He also injects the series with a much-needed sense of humor courtesy of the introduction of Simon Pegg as a nerdy tech guy who would go on to become a series regular. The most significant aspect of the film, however, is the presence of the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain. This was offbeat casting, to be sure, but it proved to be an extraordinarily effective choice—he is such a genuinely menacing presence throughout that even though you pretty much know going in that Hunt will indeed save the day, Hoffman forces you to consider the possibility that maybe he won’t after all.

When “Mission: Impossible III” was released in the summer of 2006, it came at a time when Tom Cruise’s stock as a star had dipped (this was the period of his sofa-hopping antics and the like) and while it was a success, it would prove to be the lowest-grossing entry in the series. Perhaps in response to this, “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” (2011) made a couple of additional tweaks to the formula that might have seemed risky—both literally and metaphorically—at the time but which proved to inject some needed energy into the franchise. The storyline was not necessarily a departure from the usual array of international goings-on: after being falsely accused of blowing up the Kremlin while on a mission to spring a key information source from a Moscow prison, Ethan and his officially disavowed team (which adds Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner with newly promoted Pegg) are assigned to pursue a Russian nuclear strategist (Michael Nyqvist) who is responsible for the bombing and who is hellbent on kicking off a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia. But this was arguably the first time that the mission had the feel of a team effort that allowed everyone a moment to shine, from the suspiciously adept defensive moves from seemingly ordinary analyst Renner to the thrilling brawl between Patton and deadly assassin Lea Seydoux that might have been the unquestioned highlight of an ordinary movie.

This is not to say that Cruise was exactly slacking off this time around. While he had always been a galvanizing physical presence in the previous films—one of the reasons that the stunts had such a visceral impact was that he was clearly doing the vast majority of them himself—perhaps he knew with this one that he had something to prove to audiences who might have thought that the series was beginning to die out. In turn, Cruise goes the extra mile with results that are both exhilarating and exhausting to watch. In the film's most famous moment, we see him climbing on the outside of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower, the world’s tallest building. Sure, he was strapped to the building with numerous cables that were later removed in post-production but the sight of a real person hanging from a real building over a great height has a weight and gravity to it that the grandest of CGI spectacles can hardly hope to approach.

The film marked the live-action directorial debut of Brad Bird, who had previously made a name for himself for helming the beloved animated features “The Iron Giant” (1999), “The Incredibles” (2004) and “Ratatouille” (2007). Once again, the decision to put such a huge project in the hands of someone who had never made a film of this size or scope raised more than a few eyebrows at the time, but that was nothing compared to the amount of eyeballs that popped upon seeing what he had done with it. Bird brought his animator’s eye to the staging of the massive action sequences and part of the fun of the film was watching all of the disparate elements come together with a great degree of humor, split-second timing and a remarkable degree of clarity (which included the smart decision to eschew 3-D for the more impressive visual gimmick of shooting a chunk of the film in the high-resolution IMAX format). From the opening Russian jailbreak to the centerpiece Dubai segment (which eventually expands to include both a high-speed chase and a giant sandstorm) to the climax in which Ethan and the big bad guy do battle in an automatic car park in Mumbai that finds both fists and automobiles flying with carefully calibrated abandon, the film feels at times as if it is indeed a live-action cartoon (in the best sense of the word). Even at its most outlandish, however, there is still a human element at its center that keeps both the story and the character grounded at all times, at least metaphorically.

“Ghost Protocol” instantly reenergized the “Mission: Impossible” series (it would prove to be the most successful of the films to date as well as Cruise’s biggest hit) but it did it so well that it almost seemed to paint the franchise into a corner—just the idea of trying to top it in terms of thrills and spectacle seemed to be a doomed prospect. And yet, not only did “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation” live up to those expectations, it somehow managed to exceed them. Taking over the co-writing and directing chores this time around was Christopher McQuarrie (who had worked with Cruise before on “Valkyrie” [2008], “Jack Reacher” [2012] and “Edge of Tomorrow” [2014] and who did uncredited rewrites on “Ghost Protocol”) and tell a story that tie in together rather than acting as stand-alone narratives. In “Rogue Nation,” with the IMF once again disavowed and placed under the aegis of the head of the CIA (Alec Baldwin), Ethan goes off on his own to investigate The Syndicate, a shadowy organization comprised of presumed-dead agents from around the world to serve as a sort of ad hoc terrorist group. Although old colleagues like Luther and Benji, now officially part of the CIA, turn up to help him prove the existence of the Syndicate and clear his name, Ethan also receives assistance from Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a mysterious assassin who is either a British intelligence agent posing as a Syndicate operative or vice versa.

More so than any of the previous sequels, “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation” did the best job since the original of balancing the white-knuckle action scenes with a story that served as more than just a laundry line to connect the setpieces. Much of the promotional hype surrounding the film was based around the opening sequence in which Cruise is seen dangling from the outside of an airbus in flight. This was a knockout scene to be sure but McQuarrie managed to top those later on with a couple of equally amazing scenes—one involving an extended brawl with a sniper in the wings above the Vienna State Opera during a production of “Turandot” and the other involving Ethan infiltrating Syndicate headquarters by swimming through a pressurized underwater cavern and reprogramming a computer in under three minutes and without the use of air tanks—that demonstrated a heretofore unexpected flair for action filmmaking that rivaled anything seen in the series, or anywhere else for that matter. The writing was just as strong—the chief villain, a former MI6 agent named Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), who seizes control of the Syndicate for his own means, is more interesting than usual, the narrative unfolds in a manner that is complex and twisty without slipping into confusion and contains some very funny moments to help lighten the mood—my favorite is an apparent homage to the old “Scenes We’d Like To See” feature from Mad Magazine that finds the IMF in front of a government commission to answer for the destruction they caused over the course of the earlier films. Best of all is the inclusion of the Ilsa Faust character, a real wild card who, thanks to Ferguson’s star-making performance, serves as both Hunt’s equal and a possible romantic foil, not that they have much time for anything like that here.

Which brings us, at long last, to “Mission: Impossible - Fallout,” which, in a break with tradition, finds McQuarrie returning to write and direct a story that ties directly into its predecessor and while I suppose that the original film remains my favorite of the franchise thanks to the contributions of De Palma, this one is a legitimate work of grand popular art that serves as a wonderful payoff for longtime fans of the series and as a top-notch entertainment on its own. You have no doubt heard about many—though hopefully not all—of the jaw-dropping stunts on display and they all live up to the hoopla. Needless to say, this is one of those movies that needs to be seen in the theatre, preferably on the biggest possible screen. At the same time, the screenplay does an equally impressive job of telling a complex and consistently surprising story that meets all of the genre requirements and still leaves room to allow us to get a better idea of who Hunt is and what it is that drives him. The film even takes time to acknowledge its own now-considerable history with nicely done moments that do everything from pay homage to Max from the first film to resolving the relationship between Ethan and Julia that had been left in a sort of limbo after “Mission: Impossible III.”

And then there is Cruise, whose luster may have dimmed a bit in recent years with such misfires as “The Mummy” but who once again reminds us of the very qualities that made him one of the biggest movie stars around in the first place. Physically, he throws himself into the proceedings with a heedlessness that is bracing to behold—just watching him as he goes about his running and jumping will be enough to exhaust most viewers—but for the first time in the films, he is willing to acknowledge, albeit subtly, that he is getting older, an interesting move for someone who normally plays up his youthful nature whenever he can. He puts just as much effort into the dramatic beats as well and while this is not the kind of performance that will go on to win any awards, I cannot imagine anyone inhabiting the role with even a sliver of the conviction that he continues to bring to it even after all these years. As long as he remains its driving force, the “Mission: Impossible” franchise will hopefully maintain the absurdly high standards that it has already set for itself. However, as many have noted, he is getting up there in years, at least by action hero standards—is there a possibility that he might step away from the series anytime soon? No one can say for sure right now, but I suspect that if you listen to his last line of dialogue in the film, you will have your answer.

from All Content https://ift.tt/2mFxhCe

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vileart · 8 years ago

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Queen of The F*cking Dramaturgy: MarysiaTrembecka @ Edfringe 2017

Queen of the F*cking World – Marysia Trembecka

Never be a Princess – be the Queen

Don’t ever be a princess – be queen of your own f*cking world. Join Marysia Trembecka and her wild bass guitar on an audience-empowering ride through the ups and downs of sexual politics and power.

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Rocking the audience through the show is a fiery exotic dancer who reveals the story of her work, life and lovers – and why she has the words “Queen of the Fucking World” emblazoned on her dressing room door.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

The character ‘turned up’ whilst I was devising my previous Singing Psychic show into a full hour piece in 2014. I had spent so long putting off fully realising my Singing Psychic character that I knew I had to focus on getting that done, rather than trying to develop two completely different characters and shows. However the reaction of my fellow improvisers, who were also developing their own work, to this Queen character who popped up for a second .. to the point of being asked about her 2 years later when I bumped into one of them at Edinburgh Fringe 2016.

All it was a pose, leg on chair looking seductive but the words she was saying – (perceptive and mocking) was diametrically opposed to what her body was saying (selling a fantasy of a woman).

Also years previously I had toyed with the idea of making a show about women and their femininity, what it is to be a woman, how we are critiscised and judged for using our beauty and our sexuality. Having been a bond dealer in the City, to becoming an actress who is often type cast as yummy mummies or crazy strong women – when I play a crazy yummy mummy the film always wins awards, a cabaret artiste and indeed a model, I have always been aware of the seeming pull/push of using ones femininity and sexuality as a woman, how it is a line that we must change depending on the career we are in.

Hence in 2016, after I felt the Singing Psychic was established (4 & 5 star reviews, a Best Show, Funny Women 2016 nomination and European gigs including the official Brit Awards After Party at the 02, I started pulling the strands together.

I did an 8 min showing at a workshop in October 2016 and realising I needed to do a huge amount of research and interviews to fully look at the subject. Depending on ones life experience, marital status, sexuality, economic wealth, education, background: female power is seen as being many things , for some to overuse ones sexuality is seen as ‘wrong’, for others it is the only choice to feeding your children.

Hence I decided to apply to the Arts Council for funding for the first time, which I received, to include a small research portion so I could interview people from the English Collective of Prostitutes, to the Consultant Gynaecologist who has set up the only sexual health clinic in Scotland that caters largely for sex workers (50% of the clinics clients are Romanian)

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

I believe it can be a more direct connected way of discussing things than watching TV as a passive half interested viewer, tapping on your smart phone at the same time. Live performance, human to human always creates a relationship and it is in that relationship, uncomfortable, confrontational or comic, that discussion for both performer and audience to grow. Being fed even a balanced documentary or discussion watched via a monitor is never the same as feeling the energy live in the room, with the opportunity for feedback and q&a’s.

Given my cabaret and solo theatre viewpoint that the audience should be a living partaking piece of the work, I feel that this discussive energy is even more enhanced. In every show I create I expect to be changed by the audience every night, by their reactions and energy. I also pursue this interaction deliberately by having audience interaction embedded within the show.

This is true of this new Queen show, getting the audience involved and also having a couple questions I ask them via paper at the beginning of the show, and that I look through live on stage.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I have always written songs, words, characters and told stories. I am an ex bond dealer and have to leave the City as my creativity felt under-utilised, even though talking of the various new economic data or politicians comments as to their impact on FX or bond prices feels as much story telling as anything I now do in a wig!

I am a ‘straight’ actress as well and love telling other stories on film or theatre, but I need to tell my own stories. I started by making cabaret shows, with linking stories between the songs. Each show I have made has become more ambitious in range of medium, subject matter and my reach which in turn has given me the fire to then make more ambitious stuff.

For example I made over 140 videos as The Singing Psychic , including a 21 episode webseries of the pros and cons of the EU Referendum in June 16, doing all the research myself using my banking background. This led me to then feel I was equipped and able to do the research and pull together the relevant strands to make Queen.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

It all comes from character, listening to the character and the characters around them in their life. I do not feel that I write the characters, more that they come through me. So I play physically, and vocally, improvise in character. For example I was improvising in the character of the Queen’s dresser Marta, in her voice and she said ‘She even has Queen Of The F*cking World on her dressing room door in neon’, hence giving me the title of the show.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

No. I have never done interviews with various people on their viewpoints and points of specialist knowledge. From ballet dancers, choreographers, women in industry to strippers, sex workers and actresses they all gave me a piece of a puzzle I then had to choose to build it together and allow the knowledge to inform my character. I also did a huge amount of historical research on women in history such as Emma Hamilton, Lord Nelson’s love of his life to London in Roman times and women as seen through Shakespeare and Chekhov’s eyes.

Feedback was asked for as well unusually from the two showings which was invaluable as to what people wanted more of as well as what was confusing.

I also chose to use my bass guitar, writing original songs as needed such as a Queen Of The F*cking World song which someone asked for. I also used some songs that seemed to have almost been written for the show from my earlier live album IF YOU CANT MAKE LOVE MAKE COFFEE which seemed to reflect Queen’s journey.

I first worked with solo theatre director, Colin Watkeys (Ken Campbell and Claire Dowie) to look at the narrative arc of the work in my Singing Psychic show, and have used him again to help me shape the narrative. I have also consulted with Phil Ryan, the brilliant singer/songwriter on using my bass with a Roland synth to develop a soundscape as I play. Mary Hammond, formerly the head of the Royal Academy of Music Musical Theatre MA, who has given me singing lessons over the years, has also been brought in to consult on using the voice as an instrument to further the story.

What do you hope the audience will experience?

My story on modern sexual politics from a historical perspective hopefully will give some new information and education. I certainly have learnt a huge amount from the research and interviews, and realised where I have been judgemental in some areas of my life. When you talk to a sex worker or a woman having to go on the game to pay for her disabled son’s required care because of benefit cuts, it can open your eyes to what else is going on around. Looking at how erotic dance has gone from being sacred to the profane and how sexual mores have been set has opened my eyes and hopefully my audiences to look at the topics in a new light.

It is also meant to be super entertaining and inspirational. The core message ‘Don’t be a princess, you gotta be a queen’ is what I want people to leave with singing, seeing how to strengthen that sense of self responsibility in their children and in the way modern rhetoric is used.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audiences experiences?

I am focusing on the narrative strand, is there a story here? Can they follow it? Does it make sense? Do the audience hear what I think I am saying?

I also have two bits of audience interaction, as it is something I love, so that is less of a strategy and more of a MARYSIA TREMBECKA show experience.

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On advice I have added a guitar synth, more tech than I have ever used in a show to make my bass guitar sound different through the show. A bass guitar and a female voice are rarely heard on their own so filling the sound is something I have had to look at.

Trembecka, a former city bond dealer and now actress, draws on a deep well of personal experience in her exploration of the challenges faced by women and the LGBT community in today’s world, and what it takes to rise to the top.

And her conclusion is: “All through history we have been judged by who we choose to sleep with. And the judgements are often made by a certain privileged selection of men who say one thing and do another. It’s time for that to stop.

“The message is simple, whatever your gender or sexuality, never be a princess – unleash your inner queen. I’m encouraging everyone to be queen of their own fucking world, because queens don’t need a prince to rescue them, they can do it themselves.”

Trembecka’s show has been developed with Arts Council funding which has allowed her to interview and learn from a cross section of women including sex workers, strippers and others at the sharp end of 21st century gender politics.

Premiering as part of the PBH Free Fringe, it’s a fierce, dark one-woman theatre-cum-cabaret performance that embraces everything from Shakespeare and Chekhov to RuPaul. There’s also humour, audience interaction and even a smattering of Burns’ bawdry in there too.

It’s also informed by Trembecka’s research into the experiences of women from the past and from literature, including Lady Macbeth.

This new show comes from a consummate entertainer whose Singing Psychic was a hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, toured Europe, earned five-star reviews and a Best Show Funny Women 2016 nomination, as well as featuring at the Brit Awards official after-party.

from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2vgDICl

#Theatre #Blogger #visual art #Edinburgh Fringe #Experimental Critique

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mfaunlv · 8 years ago

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Meet the New Class!

It is our pleasure to announce the writers who will join our UNLV community this coming Fall 2017 semester! Congratulations to all of them, and welcome to Vegas!

PHD/BLACK MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE FELLOWS

Sam Gilpin is a poet from Portland, OR. He received a BA in English from the University of Utah and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is a voracious reader interested in 21st century poetry, critical theory, and the avant-garde. His work has appeared in Prism Review, Prime Number, and Ruminate, among others. He is an avid people watcher, jazz aficionado, and a devoted cat dad.

Wendy Wimmer Schuchart is a Green Bay writer and editor. She is currently managing webinar and editorial projects at an online tech publication. Wendy is a graduate of the UW – Green Bay English program and received her Master of Arts in Creative Writing from UW – Milwaukee. She has spearheaded a small indie digital writer conference held in Green Bay annually for the last thirteen years that has raised over $30,000 for local charities and most recently co-founded a book and author festival called UntitledTown which in its first year attracted more than 2000 festival participants and hosted over 80 authors Margaret Atwood, Sherman Alexie, Dan Chaon, Ben Percy, Nickolas Butler, Kate Harding and Michael Perry. Her passion is in community building and connecting with writers and readers. Her work has been published recently in Per Contra, Barrelhouse, Drunken Boat, Paper Darts, Blackbird, and more. She is currently a fiction editor for Barrelhouse literary journal. Her short fiction has won numerous awards and been nominated for Best New American Voices and the Pushcart Prize. She is also active in organizing area writing workshops and other writing events.

MFA Fiction

Daynee (die-nay) Rosales is a journalist and award-winning radio producer from Cochabamba, Bolivia. She received her BA in English from George Mason University in 2011, after which she moved to Alaska to pursue her dream of becoming a radio DJ/ambulance driver. Part serious and part whimsy, Daynee is passionate about using her creative abilities to make a positive impact in her community— wherever that may be (she has moved too many times to count). Her latest radio project, CHISPA, features the stories of latinx and LGBTQ youth speaking about their personal experiences with immigration, exile, and loss. Her next project could easily be a one-act play about a missing sock crisis. With Daynee, you just never know.

Roy Johnson grew up in Seattle, Washington, where he attended high school on Mercer Island. He received his BA in philosophy from Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California, and later studied history at Dixie State University in Saint George, Utah. Roy loves to read and to hike with his daughter, the Z.

Karli Tokala Rouse was born in the Sandhills of western Nebraska but grew up in Las Vegas. She inherited the love of storytelling from her father, a citizen of the Ihanktonwan Dakota Oyate, who would take their family on annual road trips back east, passing down traditions and the history of places they passed along the way. Her writing results from following threads, seeking to reflect multiplicities rather than absolutes. When not swimming in the sea of written word, she spends her time hiking, practicing Tai Chi, drinking copious amounts of coffee, and discovering unconventional uses for the plethora of spices in her kitchen. She will be graduating from UNLV with her BA in English this spring.

Dylan Fisher is from the California suburbs, not any suburb, but a California one, a San Francisco one, one he promptly left behind to attend Grinnell College, there receiving a B.A. in Anthropology, after which he remained in the Midwest, first moving to Duluth, Minnesota, on the shore of Lake Superior, the greatest of the Great Lakes, but then back to California, and then on to Austin, Texas, where, at the time of this writing, he works as a grant writer for a perpetually underfunded nonprofit, the latest in a long string of jobs that have taken him -- always by means of his 2003 Ford Taurus, which, bless our hearts, is still running to this day -- from one American city to the next.

Lindsay Olson grew up in Salt Lake City but has spent the last five years in Pontiac Michigan, just outside Detroit where she dabbled in oil painting, floral design and completing her BA in Creative Writing. She is the founding editor of The Oakland Arts Review and her work has appeared in Quarterly West, The Oakland Journal, and Inscape among others, with publication forthcoming in Prison Pedagogy. She considers herself a nonfiction writer, but has a tendency to make stuff up. She owns 127 ceramic mugs.

MFA Poetry

Maxwell Gontarek moved to Baltimore from Philadelphia to earn a BA in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University. His work has appeared in Apiary, Blazevox, Vector, Zeniada, and Jenkem Magazine. Poetry is everything to him and music is everything else. He enjoys making up various pseudonyms almost as much as he enjoys making music under various pseudonyms such as Percy Sludge, Pace Fortune, Beast Install, and D.S. Burner.

Leisa Loan is from Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a degree in Musical Theatre and Creative Writing. In recent years she has found herself on many Greyhound buses living between New York City, Boston, and Nashville. Her passions aside from the obvious reading and writing are singing and seeing live music...the louder and messier the better. She is very concerned her East Coast blood may cause her to melt in the desert heat, but also considers it to be the work of fate that the year she moves to Vegas they will be getting their own NHL team. So at the very least she can see her beloved Boston Bruins from the comfort of an ice cold arena and feel at home. She feels very odd but also a bit regal writing about herself in the third person like this.

Antonie Frankie Aquino’s native roots web between the holographic computerized colosseum and the barren Mohave’s infamous playground, Las Vegas, where he competed for his modern medal in Bachelor’s of English. A 2016 Winter graduate of the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, Antonie gracefully was supported by troops of Pepsi cans and nuclear family. Besides his academic checklists, his other lists come by as suits: a photographer, visualizer, and speculator of the stellar sector. He enjoys smoked out books and boots which spur his quantum wheels. With his map still rolling and dice loaded, Antonie thinks that deserts deserve two s’s.

Claire Morgan received her B.A. in English from the University of Georgia, where she was a member of the rowing team. Since graduation, she has spent time in central Italy teaching English to children, as well as interning at The Georgia Review in Athens, GA. Claire's interests include micropoetry, medieval literature, horror anime, and Troll 2.

Tyler Smith is a poet from Maiden Rock, WI, a town on a lake too small for its own good. Most of his days were spent dockside reading the works of Tim O’Brien or eavesdropping onto patio bar conversations across the railroad tracks. Travel, strong drink, and strange company inspire him in all creative endeavors. He considers himself a stargazer kind of guy. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Recently he has taken to wearing pants.

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nofomoartworld · 8 years ago

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8 things i’ve learnt during the last edition of the STRP biennale

Outside the historic Philips Klokgebouw where the biennale unfolds

A few weeks ago, i visited STRP Biënnale, the mega festival of art, technology and music in Eindhoven. The theme of the event this year was Senses & Sensors. Both the huge exhibition and the two-day event of talks and discussions called Conference for the Curious explored perception in all its guises and meanings. Some of the questions raised during the festival included: How can technologies hinder or expand our senses? Can the same technologies enable us to develop new senses? What role do technological sensors play in our perception of the world? But also, and perhaps more interestingly, how can we make more sense of technology?

As usual, there was a lot to take in, discover and ponder about at STRP. I’m just going to highlight the most interesting ideas and works i discovered while i was there:

1. We will soon miss the computer accent

popstar Claire L.Evans, The Sound of Post-human Music at STRP conference

Writer and popstar Claire L.Evans opened the conference with The Sound of Post-human Music, a talk which focused on the role that artificial intelligence will soon play in the composition—and appreciation—of music and art. She believes that “artificial intelligence could be like the electric guitar for future musicians.”

The talk was full of witty comments and nods to science fiction. The most memorable moment for me was when Evans talked about the computer accent. We see it as a failure, a flaw, but soon we won’t be able to distinguish it anymore from human speech and we will miss it (check out this story recently published: Chatbots Have Entered the Uncanny Valley.) And do we really need to use only humans as a benchmark for success anyway? Evans doubts it. Besides, she believes that A.I.’s own sense of beauty will eventually surprise us.

There’s more details in the feature she wrote for Motherboard: The Sound of (Posthuman) Music.

2. Dries Depoorter has one genius idea every hour

Some of them he actually turns into artworks.

He gave a really fun talk at Conference for the Curious. It took the form of a brief overview of his portfolio. That’s when i learnt that his work Tinder In had been shamelessly copied by a famous multinational electronics company. They used his idea in an advertisement campaign, got a 10,000 dollar prize for it and obviously never credited the artist for the original idea. He sent them an invoice of 10,000 dollars. They didn’t find it amusing.

Depoorter is now working on a couple of new projects. One of them is a dating website where you do not have to fill in any formulaire. The system will find your ‘perfect’ match according to your browsing internet history.

The artist was showing a new work on the turf outside the Philips Klokgebouw. Flipside Audio allows visitors to connect a headset directly into the grass and listen in real time to the other side of the world, 13,000 kilometers below you.

3. Segregation, tolerance and other social issues have their own smell

Artist and smell expert Sissel Tolaas told us how our world has been cleaned up, sanitized and perfumed to the point that we ignore precious information about what surrounds us. A few years ago, she decided that she wanted to record her own life through the smells she encountered. She has since been collecting, recording, putting inside little cans and labeling the smells she wishes to remember.

One of her projects consists in mapping the smells found in various cities around the world. She takes inhabitants on smell walks and invites them to explore the ‘smellscapes’ of neighbourhoods where they might otherwise never go. As a result, the participants start to develop a new, more open understanding of the people who live there. Tolaas believes that smells can tell you a lot about income differences, respect for the environment, level of social engagement, etc.

Her work has so much meaning and power that the US military approached her after having heard of her project FEAR 01/21. For this work, she synthesised the smell of fear from 21 sufferers of panic attacks. The U.S. army thought that her project would be the starting point for the development of new methodologies that would enable them to “smell a terrorist and other totally naïve notions.” She turned down the offer.

4. Speaking of smells… data leaks should be given smells, just like dangerous gases

vimeo

Leanne Wijnsma, The smell of data

Contemporary society under-appreciates what human sense of smell can do for us. It helped our ancestors survive, just like it helps other animals navigate the environment and detect incoming danger. Designer Leanne Wijnsma‘s research project The smell of data looks at how a simple device we’d leave next to our computer could emit scent and vapour and warn us of any leak or other threat to data security on the internet.

Wijnsma was one of the winners of the new STRP – Creative Technology Award (ACT) which supports creative thinkers and makers with vision and imagination.

5. Mug is the new tote

My very own Conference for the Curious mug

We got to keep the mug we were using during the STRP conference coffee pauses. Brilliant idea! First, because we refilled our mugs instead of going through several paper or plastic cups during the day. Second, because who needs another festival tote? Please conference/festivals, take note and steal the idea!

6. Sometimes the opening act is more exciting than the ‘headliner’

Koert van Mensvoort at Conference for the Curious

Satellite map of North Korea at night

Koert van Mensvoort from Next Nature introduced keynote speaker Kevin Kelly and managed to say more interesting things in 10 minutes than the American tech guru in one hour. Kelly is a true visionary, i share his admiration for the lettuce bot and i’m sure his book The Inevitable is great but i don’t buy his ‘tech is fab and AI will make the world a better place’ promises. Maybe this is going to be true for the Silicon Valley clique but I don’t think everyone will benefit equally from a future in which we (or at least some of us) will cheerfully work in unison with machines.

Back to van Mensvoort. He showed us the earth by night as captured by satellites. It turns out that even from that distance, we can guess the political choices of various countries. Demonstration above, in the satellite map of North Korea at night.

7. Some media artworks are way too thrilling for me

vimeo

Daniel de Bruin, Neurotransmitter 3000

Daniel de Bruin’s Neurotransmitter 3000 is a kind of rollercoaster thrill ride. The machine is controlled by his own biometric data. Heart rate, body temperature, muscle tension and other bodily data are measured and translated to variations in motion. And vice-versa. That’s what true interaction should be like!

The work’s great and i’m a wuss, there’s no way i’ll ever sit on that contraption.

8. My heart beat is really really slow though

At least according to Other/Self, an immersive sound, light and haptic experience in which two visitors gradually get to feel the heartbeat of the other person. It’s an incredibly intimate and disconcerting experience. I experienced the work in the company of the guide who was explaining Other/Self to visitors. She had tried the installation with several visitors before me but was surprised at how slowly my heart was beating. I don’t know whether this is good or bad. I probably need to investigate.

The work is part of Hack the Body, an innovation program that explores the blurry boundaries between intimacy, privacy and technology. More of that, please!

Other moments and works i enjoyed:

More photos: STRP Biënnale 2017, Conference for the Curious, Opening STRP Biënnale 2017, Press images STRP Biënnale 2017, STRP Sounds x Albert van Abbe, etc. I also have a flickr album.

from We Make Money Not Art http://ift.tt/2oI4D36 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #We Make Money Not Art

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