#this version is directly inspired from JB | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

jerepars · 7 years ago

Text

The Con Extended Chapter Notes

Hyperlinks appear in blue (underlined on mobile). The story is posted here. Direct link to this chapter is here.

The official theme song for this chapter is Kanye West and Chris Martin's "Homecoming", which pays tribute to Chicago. Not interested in any Kanye/Taylor drama, only interested in the line: Baby, do you remember when, fireworks at Lake Michigan?

> For the last few years, the very last ovation to summer happened on a boat. My friend Veronica, fellow dance academy survivor and Chicago socialite, threw an annual party on a yacht rented out by her father on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, the last night that the Navy Pier fireworks would grace the sky over Lake Michigan. Veronica’s party was like an expensive, exclusive booze cruise that left at 9 o’clock on the dot and docked at Burnham Harbor just before midnight. Canapés were floated around on silver platters by cater waiters dressed in all white and a buffet spread was set up on the lower deck, with guests free to choose where on the boat they wanted to eat. The exterior of the boat was lit up by tea lights and paper lanterns. A DJ was spinning an eclectic set and a section of the open-air upper deck served as a makeshift dance floor.

I saw these promotions for private chartered yachts in Chicago and I knew immediately that Veronica's party had to be on a boat. Those views of the skyline look incredible. I used the layout of the "Chicago Elite" yacht, with a lower deck, main deck, and upper deck, but I think it would need to be a bigger boat to accomodate both the sitting area and dance floor that are described in this chapter. It's Veronica. Of course it would be bigger.

Also, getting obsessive over the little details, I was trying to figure out how long these cruise yachts typically are (lengthwise, not timewise), so I could choose the appropriate harbor to dock at (seriously, who even thinks about this stuff?), but I couldn't find anything, so I just went with Burnham Harbor, the biggest one, which supposedly can accomodate fleet up to 100 feet in length.

> The party was exclusive, but as one of Veronica’s closest friends, I was allowed to bring anyone I wanted. The season-ending fireworks were much more enjoyable surrounded by drunk people that Veronica had hand-selected rather than bumping shoulders with college kids sipping Pabst Blue Ribbon wrapped in brown paper bags on the pier or on the Grant Park lawn. Chic had attended the party with me the year before with the girl he’d been trying to impress, Tomoko, his now-girlfriend. It had been his first Veronica Lodge party, something he’d said he could get used to. So he was down to attend before I even asked if he wanted to. Jughead had never been much of a partygoer but Chic only had to tell him about the buffet spread and he was in, claiming he could suffer through rich kids and “Despacito” if it meant the Kobe beef was free.

The Navy Pier fireworks in Chicago are twice every week (Wednesday and Saturday), all summer, from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

I found a helpful list of good places around town to watch the fireworks, but it seemed to me like they would all be crowded, yet another reason for the yacht party.

Also, it looks like I've repurposed Tomoko Yoshida as Chic's girlfriend in this story.

> All grown up though, Jellybean had just acquired more layers. She still loved listening to Pink Floyd and had an Alkaline Trio tattoo. She’d moved on from Meet the Press to C-SPAN. But she also read French Vogue (hence her bobbed haircut) and followed the original LiveJournal version of TMZ: Oh No They Didn’t! Being the socialite that she was, Veronica was an ‘it girl’, Instagram famous, someone Jellybean already followed. Jellybean said she’d be happy to go to the party.

I think JB's Alkaline Trio tattoo could be the classic heartskull logo:

...or any of these sailor tattoo ideas inspired by Good Mourning:

It's probably just the logo because I doubt Betty listens to Alkaline Trio on a regular basis, so she wouldn't know the specifics of a conceptual tattoo. BUT, Alkaline Trio are From McHenry, Illinois, which is less than two hours from Chicago, and I think Alkaline Trio are usually classified as a Chicago band. So it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that Betty could understand an album reference.

Anyway, I've been listening to a lot of songs that are about Chicago or mention Chicago, and bands that are from Chicago and the midwest. The song "Mercy Me" has been on heavy rotation because of the lines: It's been a long day living with this / It's been a long time since I felt so sick / I took a long walk straight back home / I could've walked back to Chicago. The chorus also goes oh, mercy me, God bless catastrophe. Mentions of "disaster" and "catastrophe" in songs are really working for me in this story. I originally intended for this to be the song that Jellybean and Jughead dance to, but I didn't want it to be overkill with mention of the tattoo and actually the one I ended up going with, I think, just works better.

The celebrity gossip page oh no they didn't, on LiveJournal, is in fact, still alive and active. Seems to me that if JB were to be into any form of pop culture she'd get it from that kind of source instead of tabloids and Entertainment Tonight.

> Archie leaned in close to me so his lips were near my ear when the song was about half over. He was laughing as he yelled, “This song is kinda raunchy.”

> And he was right. It was. The song was basically four minutes chalk full of innuendos, a duet of the singers telling their partner to please just go harder during sex without ever using those words directly. The beat was easy to groove to though.

> “Yeah, you’re nothing but bad,” I yelled back, speaking not of our dancing but with innuendo.

The song I had in mind that Archie and Betty were dancing to is "Love Me Harder" by Ariana Grande and The Weeknd. It doesn't have to be the same song in your mind. I think the description Betty gives could be about a lot of songs. Actually, in the Shell Games version of the story, the characters were at a club doing a late 90's/early 00's theme night and the song I used was "Too Close" by Next, which is like 4 minutes of a guy singing about his erection, haha. This chapter is vastly different from that one, but if there's anything I regret not being able to carry over, it's that I couldn't keep the theme night. Current "club bangers" just aren't the same as that late 90's R&B sound.

> He eyed me skeptically. I showed him what to do, swinging my own hips from side to side. I guided his movement with my hands, trying to get him to mirror what I was doing. It wasn’t all bad once he loosened up. Archie wasn’t the ‘uncoordinated doofus’ that Jughead claimed him to be a few nights back. He didn’t have two left feet. I put one of my hands on his wrist and tapped the beat he should be grooving to. Maybe not in the most fluid of fashion—he wasn’t a natural—but he caught on. When he trusted me (and himself) enough that he was dancing properly, I stopped the metronome on his arm and rested my hand on his back, just under his shoulder blade.

Remember when I was writing Lionheart and the furthest I got away from hardcore punk was, like, pop punk. Ha. Nope. We are no longer in that territory. Because it's Justin Bieber's "Company" that I imagined was playing while Betty taught Archie to dance. Speaking of the late 90s, I think the reason I like this song is because when the beat drops, it makes me think of those 90's Max Martin-produced songs. I can't be the only one who thinks of "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" when they hear "Company", right?

Also, I'm now realizing that Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) could be a good alternative title to this story.

> It did remind me of ballet pas de deux. Pas de deux was, of course, about form and technique, but it was also about trust and connection. I had to trust that my partner was going to lift and catch me, and ease my spinning instead of breaking my momentum during pirouettes, when it was required. He had to trust that I would put myself in the right position for him to support me throughout. A big part of the reason I’d gotten a solo role in the Joffrey Ballet’s upcoming production of Giselle was because my current partner, Trev, and I danced so well together.

When I originally did the research for this story, I read and watched a lot about pas de deuxs but it didn’t make sense for me to have more than this in the chapter. Anyway, the coolest thing that I saw was a mini documentary simply called Pas de Deux, featuring two principal dancers from New York City Ballet (I swear I'm not trying to use footage from NYCB exclusively, they just seem to be the most prominent). The film shows POV angles as they are dancing the wedding pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty. The rehearsal is voiced over by the dancers and they describe what it’s like to be part of a pas de deux. Betty’s line about “spinning instead of breaking my momentum during pirouettes” is a reference to the documentary.

> Kevin, Veronica, and I landed in different places after high school, after the academy, transitioning to where we thought we belonged. Kevin loved dance and figured out that his passion was in choreography, not just ballet, but all kinds, mostly modern. He’d gone to LA the summer after graduation for an intensive camp at one of the big Hollywood dance studios where their faculty of choreographers got hired to compose for music videos and world tours. At the end of the camp he ended up as a backup dancer at the VMAs and, subsequently, he kept lining up more work, so he never came home. His latest project was as a backup dancer for a Top 40 radio artist making the rounds on late night talk shows. I was only teasing Kevin, and I was proud of him for making it in LA. I knew that his work was freelance-based. I knew how hard he had to hustle for his dreams.

The real story behind Kevin's career is that I'm addicted to watching dance choreography videos on YouTube. Here's one done to "Believer" from a dance studio in South Korea! Since I just mentioned it, here's one to "Company" from Millennium Dance Complex, in the LA area. Millennium is what I was thinking for Kevin. If you look into who the choreographers are for music videos, tours, and even those dance movies, I think you will find that they have taught classes at Millennium at some point in time.

> “That’s Chic’s best friend, right?” Kevin answered for me. “Tall, dark, and broody over there.”

> Kevin nodded in Jughead’s direction. It appeared that Archie hadn’t made his way back over to where Jughead was sitting. He was probably still in line at the cocktail lounge. It was an open bar, so it was sure to be busy. The expression on Jughead’s face was a somber scowl as he spoke to Jellybean and popped a spanakopita hors d’oeuvre in his mouth.

> Veronica followed Kevin’s line of vision. “Well, excuse me. Are the sleeves of his button down rolled up? How very East of Eden.”

Here's James Dean on the set of East of Eden, with cuffed sleeves:

> I chuckled at Veronica’s reference. Personally, I thought Jughead’s look for the night was more Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire than James Dean, but that was neither here nor there. If Jughead had his say, he would probably comment on the literary value of the original works before launching into his approvals and qualms with the film adaptations.

Here's Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire:

He doesn't have the rolled-up sleeves, but he does have the white undershirt and suspenders (as opposed to overalls), which are closer to Jughead's look in this chapter.

> My honest thoughts were that whether or not doom and gloom—as Kevin had put it—was still a thing, I was attracted to Jughead, and not just because of his looks. “I think Juggie would scowl and say,” I cleared my throat and did my best impression of Jughead’s voice, “‘Poverty isn’t an aesthetic, Veronica.’”

I wanted to write a Bughead story where it's Veronica's sweet 16 and she decides it's going to be a big bash and everyone has to get involved. And it's Jughead hipster hobo look, with suspenders fastened in place over shoulders, that she decides to use to dress the boys. But I don't even have any real plot ideas for that story. It lives and dies entirely on that phrase, of Jughead saying, "Poverty isn't an aesthetic, Veronica." I wanted to be able to use it somewhere, so I figured why not here, with Betty impersonating him? If by some miracle I do end up writing that story in the future, I guess it will just be in two places.

> “Anyway,” Veronica patted my arm as she finished off her drink. “Introduce me later, B? I think my channel could benefit from the hipster 90’s grunge demographic that aspires to teach Jordan Catalano how to read.”

This is a reference to the cult teen 90's show My So-Called Life, where there is a lot of flannel and sheeplined jackets, much like Jughead's wardrobe just...baggier. Jordan Catalano wears a lot of them. One of my favorite scences from the show is in episode 1x07 "Why Jordan Can't Read", when Angela is grilling Jordan about why he wouldn't read a love letter addressed to him if he found it and it was addressed to him. He had trouble reading it, only read parts of it, because he's dyslexic. I don't think I'm part of the "hipster 90's grunge demographic" but I do wish I could teach Jordan Catalano how to read.

> When I reached the seating area where our group had earlier staked claim, Jellybean was sitting by herself. I saw that Chic and Tomoko had taken to the dance floor, like many of the partygoers had, hands up and crooning along to a song about exactly what we would be witnessing soon: Lake Michigan fireworks. Jughead had moved to the port side. He was smoking a cigarette, profile illuminated by the moonlight, looking back at the city lights of the skyscrapers behind us.

> I waited until I was close enough that I didn’t have to yell to speak to Jellybean. “Alone again?”

> She flashed me an intentionally haughty smile and upturned her palms in the air. “Naturally.”

Here's the point in the story where "Homecoming" is actually referenced, talking about the fireworks at Lake Michigan. I always thought the line was fireworks up Lake Michigan, not "at", and I think I liked it better when I thought it was "up". Maybe I'll just live in denial.

The exchange of dialogue between Betty and JB here is doubly a reference to Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)" and Veronica Mars. It's what Logan and Veronica say to each other at the beginning of one of the most iconic moments of the show, the "epic" moment.

> Through it all, it was only Jughead that FP didn’t lose. There’d been a time when it got so bad, after Gladys and Jellybean left, that a 15-year-old Jughead would have rather made himself homeless than stay at the trailer. When Chic found out that Jughead was sleeping in the projection booth of the Twilight Drive-In, that was when he’d begged our parents to let Jughead stay with us. But even when Jughead wasn’t under his father’s roof, it never meant that FP had lost his son. Jughead was the only one who could really get through to FP. When Jughead begged and argued and said he was done, FP would stay sober for a few weeks at a time, as long as he could stand before he relaxed and relapsed. Jughead would stay at Sunnyside until FP fell off the wagon, and they would start the cycle anew.

With this being a party/dance chapter, I spent a lot of time listening to music that I considered to have a dance vibe when I was younger. I listened to Panic! at the Disco's debut album and what I thought was the best song on that album, "Camisado". I even looked up the demo version, "Relax, Relapse", which I remember downloading from like Purevolume.com way back in the day, which I might even still like better than the final album version. But anyway, I came to the conclusion that "Camisado" is my favorite P!ATD song that they ever put out and for a big chunk of writing about FP I played it on repeat. The lyrics to the song actually seemed really appropriate for the backstory I built for Jughead and FP's relationship, so I'm pleased that I was able to work that "relaxed and relapsed" part into this paragraph.

> It wasn’t the Mega Millions Powerball jackpot, because he’d only gotten the first 5 numbers. It was a small prize—relative to the grand prize—less than a million dollars after taxes. None of the crimes he’d been arrested or incarcerated for had ever been gambling or laundering related, so he got to keep the money. Being the man of extremes that he was, and prison having done a number on him, he gave Jughead power of attorney over his money. He said Jughead was the only person he trusted to do the right thing with that kind of money. He couldn’t make up for the years of not being a good father, couldn’t make up for the things Jughead had to go through, but it was what he could offer to make amends. True to his nature of extremes, it took prison and winning the lottery to set FP straight; three years sober and counting, the longest of Jughead’s life.

When I decided the story would take place in Chicago, I looked up every single MFA program in Creative Writing and every MA in English in that area. When I saw SAIC's writing program, I thought that would be a really cool option, to have Jughead at art school, because isn't that what novelists do, make art? Then when I saw SAIC's tuition, I thought that even with scholarships and financial aid, it would be out of reach. My exact words were, "well shit, he would have to win the lottery for that to happen."

Instead of going back to the drawing board to find another program at another school, that became my eureka moment. It became what if after what if after what if. Maybe I'm crazy (is that even up for debate? hasn't that long been established already?) and I have taken it too far this time with what I've conjured up. But my ideas have always been pretty alternative so I stuck to my gut and went with it. If people don't like it, it's okay, I accept that.

If FP went to prison for 18 months, then whether or not he wanted to, he'd sober up. And I think he'd turn to playing card games and small time gambling, like mentioned in the chapter. Also mentioned, he's a man of extremes, so it's an environment of prison and forced sobriety that would break him, that would be able to turn his life around for the better. Once on the outside, sober, I don't think he would be a heavy gambler, but yeah, I think he'd buy the occasional lottery ticket. And what if one of those tickets turns out to be a new extreme--FP winning at something for once. I think that the term "winning the lottery" would have multiple meanings for FP, not just the money.

This whole thing had me searching things on Google like misdemeanor jail time and jail vs prison and repeat offense sentence and can criminals win the lottery after release from prison. Do ISPs monitor Google searches? Because mine are all over the place for all of this research.

Did anyone else know that the prize for getting the first 5 numbers but not the powerball number for the Mega Millions lottery is $1 million (less after taxes, of course)? I thought it could be feasible for FP to win a (relatively) small amount of money. Definitely not the grand prize. I had to look that up.

Getting specific to the quoted paragraph though, I think it's both a strength and a flaw of Jughead's that he can't seem to completely abandon FP and give up on him. That's part of Jughead from canon that I wanted to keep.

> “I think you and Ju—you and him—” Jellybean corrected herself, stopping the blunder of saying her brother’s name out loud. The music had just cut out and people were shuffling to find a place to sit or stand, which meant the fireworks were due to start any minute. She rephrased, “I think you’d be good for him. But he uses sarcasm and anger as a way of keeping people from getting too close to him, so he doesn’t have to deal with how he really feels. And that means he can be kind of a dick sometimes. Be careful.”

Another nod to Veronica Mars. At the dance in 2x17, Gia says to Logan (0:05 to 0:20), "I think you use sarcasm and anger as a way of keeping people from getting too close to you."

> The crew, as I’d referred to them, settled into the lounge chairs for the show of fireworks. Jellybean and I stayed beside each other, while Archie took to my other side, Jughead took to hers, and Chic and Tomoko sat beside him. I glanced at Jellybean nervously a few times, in between colorful explosions in the sky, but she never looked back at me. She snuggled into her brother’s side, blue eyes bright as she watched streams of light shoot up into the sky and change color as they exploded high above the Ferris wheel and reflected on the water. She looked just like she did when she was six years old, eyes wide and full of wonder, in the bed of FP’s old mint green truck at the Twilight Drive-In.

Lots of music references here. Another option for the song Jellybean and Jughead dance to would have been "Say I Won't (Recognize)" by The Gaslight Anthem, because apparently I can't go a single story without making reference to their music. The Navy Pier Ferris wheel (it can be seen in the second picture at the top of the notes) always makes me think of this song because of the line meet on the warm sand and waltz out the twilight, and watch the carnival lights explode. I really like the instrumental post-rock band Explosions in the Sky and, well, that's what fireworks are, so of course I had Betty say that.

I've rediscovered and listened to the band Stars a lot lately, and they have a song called "Lights Changing Colour", so in my own roundabout way I referred to that, too.

> Jellybean managed to get the DJ to play a song by The Cure. Well, it was a more danceable cover of a song by The Cure, but it got her on the floor. It also meant that Jughead was dragged to join us, unable to say no to Jellybean’s pouty lip and her come on, please, Juggie? since they wouldn’t see each other again until Thanksgiving. He looked cute and awkward, shuffling his feet and bouncing at his knees but very clearly not into it. A few times, he twirled Jellybean and gave her a dip, which made both of them laugh. It was nice to see him that way, not so guarded. His genuine smiles could set off fireworks in the pit of my stomach. They made my insides feel like butter on a summer day. But it was so much more than his looks that had made me like him for so long. If it were only his appearance that attracted me, I would have gotten over my crush years ago.

The song by The Cure (because you know JB definitely listens to The Cure) that I chose is "Close to Me". Or, more specifically, the cover I chose is The Get Up Kids' version of "Close to Me". If you have strong feelings about The Cure, it might not be your cup of tea, but I don't have strong feelings about The Cure, and, admittedly, I really like this cover because I'm a big fan of The Get Up Kids. They're from the midwest and that fits in with my theme of listening to a lot of midwestern/Chicago bands while writing this story.

I thought that Betty's line about butter on a summer day was a good description of how Jughead's smiles make her feel and also appropriate since it's at the very end of summer at this point in the story. The line is taken from the opening of "Megan" by Smoking Popes: Butter on a summer day when she's around. Actually the version I always listen to is the acoustic cover by Bayside, featuring Josh Caterer (who is the vocalist for Smoking Popes). Smoking Popes are from the suburbs of Chicago, of course.

I guess this paragraph was very cover inspired. Didn't think about that until I wrote this out.

> Even after everything, he was quick to say that his father’s money wasn’t his money. When people found out how the Joneses had gotten the money to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak, and they asked Jughead in a condescending tone what it was like to become rich overnight, he shot them down. He would say that he’d gotten money to pay off his student loans and he was given money for grad school and a place to live, but it wasn’t his. He would say that graduating from the University of Michigan had been a good thing for him. He would say that moving to Toledo to be in the same city as his sister and supporting himself without eating Top Ramen for every meal was a step up from his teenage years. Because those were his; that was what he’d done for himself, that was what it was like.

One of the first things that struck me during my first time watching Riverdale was the irony that it is the Jones family who are most unable to abide by the idea of "keeping up with the Joneses". Because, you know, they are the Joneses. I've been looking for a place to insert this since I starting writing about Bughead, and I finally found the right spot.

> Jellybean’s song request ended and transitioned into a mid-tempo Drake song. Since Kevin and I were dancing beside the Joneses, I saw her roll her eyes. I giggled and she caught my gaze. I saw the glint of mischief form in her eyes right before she reached out to grab me.

I'm mentioning Drake directly in the story, what? And maybe it seems like it's "Passionfruit" that I'm talking about, especially because I've loved the cover by Paramore all summer long. But it's actually "Controlla" that I envision Betty and Jughead dancing to. If you compare "Passionfruit" and "Controlla", the latter is slower, and there are a few different beats that you can pick out, including one layer that's actually quite slow. The lyrics even sort of work. And this one's on Views ("Passionfruit" is not), which maybe somehow plays into the story later on. Don't ask me how Drake wound his way into my stupid story twice. Underneath it all he's still just Jimmy from Degrassi, right?

#je repars notes

2 notes · View notes

un-enfant-immature · 6 years ago

Text

Why a bunch of people are suing Epic Games over Fortnite’s dance moves

A growing cluster of actors, musicians and viral internet stars have Fortnite in their crosshairs. The smash hit third-person shooter is free to play but generates mountains of revenue through in-game microtransactions. Those purchased lure avid Fortnite players to spend real life cash on virtual cosmetic items, like special character skins (today: a winter skiing set!) and, most importantly, dance moves.

Now, Fortnite creator Epic Games faces two new lawsuits over dance moves: one from actor Alfonso Ribeiro who played Carlton on 90’s TV hit Fresh Prince of Bel Air and another from the family of Russell Horning, better known as “Backpack Kid,” who created a viral dance called “the Floss.” Horning’s lawsuit also names 2K Sports, maker of NBA 2K, for that game’s depiction of his dance. Earlier in December, rapper 2 Milly filed a lawsuit against Fortnite maker Epic over the game’s depiction of his dance move, the Milly Rock, which the game calls “Swipe it.”

youtube

Fortnite’s in-game dance moves are ubiquitous, both in-game and out — and that’s part of the problem. The game lifted its most popular dance moves from various online viral moments across the internet, TV, movies and music. In most cases the in-game dances are so well loved because they copy their source material so precisely. While the game lifts these dances move for move, making them widely recognizable, it doesn’t refer to the source material directly and renames the dances with generic nicknames. In Fortnite, the “Tidy” dance is Snoop Dogg’s “Drop it Like its Hot” dance, “Jubilation” is Elaine’s dance from Seinfeld, “Pure Salt” (not really a dance, some of these are just emotes) is from the Salt Bae meme, Psy’s Gangnam Style dance and so on.

The game draws from a wide pool of source material, but black creators in particular have spoken out about Fortnite’s monetization moves. Black artists have a long history of seeing their work achieve broad mainstream popularity without commercial or credit to accompany it. When Chance the Rapper tweeted about Fortnite’s relationship to black artists in July, BlocBoy JB — creator of the dance the game calls “Hype” — endorsed the idea that artists like himself should be paid if Fortnite is making money from their moves.

Wat You Said We Need Dat Cash @FortniteGame @EAMaddenNFL https://t.co/hFRH0Db1Mx

— BlocBoy JB (@BlocBoy_JB) July 13, 2018

youtube

Fortnite’s default in-game emote is a dance that actor Donald Faison performs on the show Scrubs, and Faison has also taken notice.

Dear fortnite… I’m flattered? Though part of me thinks I should talk to a lawyer…

— Donald Faison (@donald_faison) April 1, 2018

Fortnite’s decision to animate its characters doing popular dance moves in and of itself isn’t new. Overwatch creator and Epic competitor Blizzard includes popular dance emotes in its own multiplayer shooter and before that in multiplayer RPG World of Warcraft. In Blizzard’s case, the selection of dance emotes, some for sale via lootboxes, isn’t as on the nose.

For example, the Overwatch character Junkrat does a version of the running man dance that looks a lot like a version of the dance by Will Smith’s character on The Fresh Prince. That dance was itself popularized by Janet Jackson in her Rhythm Nation music video. Other Overwatch dance emotes are drawn from traditional Japanese dance and anime. In World of Warcraft, the blood elf race dance emotes are drawn from the movie Napoleon Dynamite and Britney Spears music videos, but these moves weren’t for sale in-game. The microtransaction model hadn’t yet really taken off during the game’s heyday.

Epic Games was likely aware that lifting these dance moves and selling them to gamers might cause a stir among some creators, but by that time it was probably already making too much money to care. Notably, the company faced a high profile copycat accusation from the creator of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), a battle royale-style game widely understood to have inspired Fortnite’s gameplay. PUBG dropped the lawsuit in June of this year, likely after a substantial settlement.

Epic also appears to have quietly paid at least one creator to settle a potential legal threat. Dancer Gabby David, who created the Fortnite dance called the “Electro Shuffle,” appears to have settled with Epic Games around a year ago for the game’s depiction of her choreography, according to forum posts and her Twitter account. Epic Games declined to comment to TechCrunch about the details of the settlement.

youtube

All three individuals suing Epic Games over Fortnite dances are being represented by intellectual property lawyer David L. Hecht and we’re likely to see more artists and internet stars signing on with Hecht before this is all over. We don’t know Epic’s next move, but as some players have suggested, it would be easy enough for the gamemaker to add some kind of tie-in crediting the creators for their dances. Epic happily partners with entertainment companies and even the NFL for sure to be lucrative in-game promotional crossovers, so it’s tough to say something like this would be out of place in the game.

Given the complexity of copyright law and the fact that none of the individuals holds copyright of their respective dances, it’s not clear if any of the latest legal action against Fortnite’s creators will hold water. Still, given its deep pockets — Epic just raised a $1.25 billion round two months ago — settling a handful of small lawsuits over the game’s well-loved dance emotes is a small price to pay for Fortnite’s colossal success.

PUBG’s creators are suing over Fortnite similarities

#TechCrunch

0 notes

kenpaisworkshop · 8 years ago

Text

Cyber-Sin: “The Wake Up”

Subject: @sinquest Cyberpunk AU, Cyber-Sin Characters: Cyberpunk!Ken’pai, Cyberpunk!Tomis, Ken’pai, Tomis,

Author’s note: So…I got inspired to try Cyberpunk because it’s always been one of my favorite aesthetics. Ever. And the idea was given to me to maybe to a cyberpunk version of Sin-Quest and…well, here we are.

So far this story just has Ken’Pai and @tomis-jb, but future installments will include futuristic versions of @tehcomicsans, @a-sinful-lime, @wdlewdster, and @eli-sin-g, y’know, if they allow for it. I’ve…already gotten some design ideas and roles in mind. And Tomis already drew Ken’pai and Armonia and it’s…hnnnnggggg good.

Anyway, I hope this is easy enough to follow. It was a blast to write.

“You have to focus, Ken'pai.”

The dream was surreal, to put it mildly. He watched the scene intently, straining with his brain to keep him here, in this moment, for just a bit longer. It was a quiet night in some…ancient forest, the kind you’d only read about in picture-books, or visit whenever the urban sprawl became too much to bear.

This wasn’t one of the Vita-parks though. This wasn’t a curated experience, it was wild. Untamed.

He looked at two figures, kneeling in front of each other in the light of a campfire. One of them, a black-robed figure wearing a skull-like mask, was leaning forward, resting his hand on his companion’s shoulder.

The other was a Lizard-man, wearing cyan goggles.

It looked almost exactly like him. Even had part of his name.

“Ken,” the robed one spoke.

The name shocked him. His name. Apparently this…doppleganger had his name.

“Focus.”

This other him, this “Ken'pai,” held his hand out, staring at it. A blue glow began to emanate from his palm, as he held his other hand to his chest, also glowing blue. He appeared to be wincing in pain.

“It hurts, Tomis! Are you sure…it hurts so much!”

Tomis? Wait. No. What?

“It hurts at first,” ‘Tomis’ said, “But that’s your soul trying to keep itself safe. Once you finish this first step, it’ll know that you don’t want to hurt it. But you have to keep going. You have to push harder!”

The dreamer found himself uncomfortably close to this “Ken'pai” now. Almost as if they were overlapping in space-time. He could feel a deep knot in his heart that felt like it was pulling itself out of his chest.

“Keep going!”

“It…hurts! It…”

His vision began to fill with a brilliant cyan light, starting at the edges and creeping into the center. The forest began to fade away. The robed figure was gone. There was only him. Him and Ken'pai, in one exact place.

“Push!”

“I…I c-can’t…!”

What the hell is this?!

Why did it hurt so much?!

More blue. Expanding endlessly. More pulling. His heart couldn’t bear it anymore. His breathing became raspy. His face and hands began to tingle, until…

Ken gasped as his reptilian eyes shot open.

The lizard-man’s first glance was toward the window, giving a brief sigh of relief at its mere existence. Raindrops slid down the surface, refracting a multitude of neon glows into the dim of his studio apartment, coalescing into a fascinating, albeit familiar light show on the opposing wall.

He lifted himself and propped up against the wall, tugging at his gray tank-top to get it unstuck from where it dug into his scales. He rubbed the side of his face for a moment, taking stock of the odd dream he’d just had, before holding a hand to his heart. Nothing.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blinking green light on his Spex. He’d missed a few messages, but more than that, he had to make a quick comm to somebody else. He scooped them up and attached them to the studs on the bridge of his nose, pressing the power button. The rectangular lenses snapped open over his eyes, covering them in a gentle cyan hue.

His vision adjusted to the sight of tiny messages scrolling quickly below the rim of his lenses as he skipped straight to the top, sending the neural impulse to click on the “make a call” button, landing on his friend’s icon and “clicking” that within milliseconds.

“…”

“C'mon, I know you’re up.”

“…–hey Ken. 'Sup?”

“Tomis, hey. Got a sec?”

“Yeah, took a break from streaming, but not long. What’s going on?”

Ken shook his head for a moment. “I had this…weird dream. You were in it…I think?”

“You’re calling me about a dream?”

He closed his eyes. Tomis’ tone told him it was a stupid idea. “Yeah, forget it.”

“No, no no no no I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just…weird? Sorry, must’ve really bugged you.”

“Yeah, I dunno. Just wanted to check in.”

“Right. About that, we’re still on for tonight, right? How’s SecuWatch?”

Ken'pai focused on the left side of his vision. “Same as yesterday. No new developments, but if something happens I’ll come up with a distraction.”

“Heh, good,” Tomis chuckled. “I still can’t believe you landed a job with them. Sneaky lizard.”

“Well, they’re pretty eager to hire somebody who knows how to close a critical security flaw. They just don’t have to know that I made that flaw to begin with.”

“Yeah, well, just be ready for tonight. Probably won’t get too far without you, 'Gray.'”

“Heh, thanks for the confidence, 'Warlock,’ now get back to streaming.”

“Will do. I’ll meet you guys on site with the equipment. Don’t forget, Elle said our best chance is around 1 am.”

“Understood, fearless leader.”

[–END CALL–]

Ken sighed again as he scrolled back to the messages he missed.

— Off early tonight, wanna meet up @8 or so? –Zed

—Yeah, gotta talk about what we’re doin’ anyway. –ARM

—Yeah, I’m down. Work is a slog anyways. –Magus

—You just wanna see Elle perform anyways, Zed! –ARM

—Whatever, shut up! You comin’ Gray? –Zed

He glanced at the clock. 6:58. Whoops. He supposed he had enough time for a shower before heading out. He let his implants click the Reply button.

—Sure. I’ll catch you guys there. JB’s streaming so he won’t make it probably. I’ll catch him up. –Gray

He finally rolled out of bed, scooping up a couple pieces of clothing from the littered floor as he made his way to the bathroom. He glanced at his computer station for a moment and pondered doing some diagnostic checks, but then caught a glance at his equipment piled into a nearby chair and came to decision to just wait until he was already at the club.

Ken flicked on the bathroom light, waiting the usual five seconds for the fluorescent light to finally start burning as he took off his shirt. He stared into the mirror, yawning and taking the opportunity to check his mouth out for a second before closing it again. His aesthetics were all still in working order, although it wasn’t surprising. They were pretty much fool-proof, and easy to fix.

He mainly focused on his favorite aspects, his horns. He wasn’t much on appearance, but having his horns redone was perhaps his favorite improvement. Hollowed out and covered with thick, clear plastic, they attached into his neural implants to generate a soft neon-blue glow. Not too bright to be distracting, but just enough to spark his need to stand out…just a bit.

The black plastic plate running from his forehead down his nose also had a blue trim, following a preferred theme that he was told “brought out his eyes” by Elle. His eyes, also were a soft shade of blue, albeit lacking any sort of glow themselves, they tended to stand out, so he supposed Elle had a point.

He turned his attention to his right arm, and its white-plastic prosthesis that ran its entire length, down over his hands. It was only surface-level, meaning that it wasn’t attached directly to his skeleton, which meant getting to the irritating part. He undid the seven latches that ran down the backside of his arm, afterwards pulling it apart at the seam. He grunted in pain as he removed it from his arm, the long spikes that bore into the holes in his flesh glistening under the light. Afterward, he grabbed seven small plugs, inserting them into each hole in his arm and making sure they were secure before he showered.

It was important to clean under the prosthetic, after all.

He removed his boxer-briefs, set his Spex on the counter and stepped into the shower, waving at the infrared sensor at the back in order to trigger it on. The water was cold at first, as usual. His apartment was fairly cheap, and way up on the top floor of a twelve-story building, but it didn’t come with its usual share of problems, most of which he’d fixed himself, but others, like the hot-water heater, he didn’t exactly have access to.

After it finally warmed up, his body moved into automatic pilot as his brain wandered back to the dream he’d had earlier. It wasn’t like anything else he’d experienced, but he could already feel that it wasn’t a malfunction of his implants either. He had half a mind to run some deep system repair checks just to make sure, but something about this was so surreal that it wouldn’t have been something accidentally sent to his headjack. It was disconnected while he slept anyway.

He held his hand to his chest again, over his heart. The painful pulling was still fresh in his memory.

“My soul trying to keep itself safe…? Well…I suppose that wasn’t 'my’ soul but…it was? Or it wasn’t? I don’t fuckin’ get it.”

Once he rinsed off most of the lather, he moved his tail under the faucet for a final rinse before stepping out and grabbing his towel, the shower stopping itself once it detected that nobody was inside. He ran the towel over the front, then down the back and all the way to the tip of the tail before letting it drop to the floor and stepping on it to dry his feet.

He removed the plugs and groaned again as he re-attached his prosthesis, snapping the latches shut again. He clothed himself, pulling up a pair of dark grey slacks to tuck in his tank top and snapping the front closed, followed by the back to keep it over the tail. He donned his favorite red button-up t-shirt, tugging on it one final time and checking himself in the mirror before reattaching his Spex, flicking the cyan lenses back on.

Exiting the bathroom, he grabbed a small shoulder bag and began scooping various pieces of equipment into it, almost as if it were by memory. First, his mini-comp and its associated wires. Next, a couple of backup drives just in case, followed by his phone and his bank chit, noting the two points he soldered off for easy modification. Such simple security measures. He scoffed a bit.

Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he made his way out of his apartment, looking into the bag one more time to make sure he had everything. “Travelling light” he liked to call it.

After the apartment door slid shut, he entered his twelve-digit passcode, waiting to hear the locks close before heading toward the elevator. After pressing the green G button, he backed up against the wall, checking his bag again before he reached the bottom floor.

Outside, the rain still hadn’t let up, which was unsurprising for this particular city. Or rather, section of the city, since they tended to run together. He tapped his phone on, giving it a few more taps before replacing it in his pants pocket.

Only a few minutes passed before a bright yellow car hovered close to Ken’s position, lowering itself as the door slid open, a single step protruding itself. He stepped inside, immediately pulling out his mini-comp and flipping it open.

[-WELCOME TO CITICAB. PLEASE SELECT DESTINATION.-] The gentle female voice recited from the console in front of him.

“Club Sixty-Six.”

[-CLUB SIXTY-SIX REGISTERED. YOUR FARE WILL BEGIN IN FIVE…FOUR…-]

Before the computer’s voice had a chance to finish the countdown, Ken had already run a cable from his mini-comp to the console, making a few expert keystrokes. The console’s lighting changed from green to yellow, and the fare-counter’s display shut off completely.

[-OVERRIDE ACCEPTED. SECUWATCH COMMANDEERMENT MODE ACTIVATED. PLEASE SELECT DESTINATION.-]

“Club Sixty-Six.”

[-DESTINATION REGISTERED. PLEASE SELECT PREFERRED SPEED.-]

“Normal traffic speed. No need to go any faster.”

The console blinked back to green again with a happy chime.

[-THANK YOU FOR USING CITICAB. WE HOPE OUR COOPERATION HAS BEEN ADEQUATE, AND AWAIT YOUR SECUWATCH REVIEW.-]

Ken raised his arms and rested his head on his hands, giving a contented sigh.

“Yeah, I guess it’s good enough.”

youtube

#Short form #Series #CyberSin #Sinquest #Cyberpunk #re-upload #Cyber!Ken'pai #Cyber!Tomis #Cyber!Zuphlas #Cyber!Armonia #Cyber!Pae #building up to something #Got a third one on the brain #So I'll start off this blog with this #queued post #My Work #Writing

6 notes · View notes

williamsjoan · 6 years ago

Text

How Fortnite’s dance moves sparked new lawsuits against Epic Games

Ribeiro’s lawyer provided TechCrunch with the following statement:

It is widely recognized that Mr. Ribeiro’s likeness and intellectual property have been misappropriated by Epic Games in the most popular video game currently in the world, Fortnite. Epic has earned record profits off of downloadable content in the game, including emotes like “Fresh.” Yet Epic has failed to compensate or even ask permission from Mr. Ribeiro for the use of his likeness and iconic intellectual property. Therefore, Mr. Ribeiro is seeking his fair and reasonable share of profits Epic has earned by use of his iconic intellectual property in Fortnite and as a result is requesting through the courts that Epic cease all use of Mr. Ribeiro’s signature dance.

Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP is also pursuing similar claims against Take-Two Interactive and Visual Concepts, developer of the NBA 2K series of video games, on behalf of Mr. Ribeiro.

youtube

Wat You Said We Need Dat Cash @FortniteGame @EAMaddenNFL https://t.co/hFRH0Db1Mx

— BlocBoy JB (@BlocBoy_JB) July 13, 2018

youtube

Fortnite’s default in-game emote is a dance that actor Donald Faison performs on the show Scrubs, and Faison has also taken notice.

Dear fortnite… I’m flattered? Though part of me thinks I should talk to a lawyer…

— Donald Faison (@donald_faison) April 1, 2018

Fortnite’s decision to animate its characters doing popular dance moves in and of itself isn’t new. Overwatch creator and Epic competitor Blizzard includes popular dance emotes in its own multiplayer shooter and before that in multiplayer RPG World of Warcraft. In Blizzard’s case, the depiction of dance moves, some for sale via lootboxes, isn’t quite as on the nose nor does it mine current internet culture as thoroughly.

youtube

Other Overwatch dance emotes are drawn from traditional Japanese dance and anime. In Blizzard’s classic game World of Warcraft, the blood elf characters feature dances culled from the movie Napoleon Dynamite and Britney Spears music videos. In World of Warcraft’s case, these moves weren’t for sale in-game — the microtransaction model hadn’t yet really taken off during the game’s heyday.

youtube

PUBG’s creators are suing over Fortnite similarities

How Fortnite’s dance moves sparked new lawsuits against Epic Games published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

0 notes

fmservers · 6 years ago

Text

Why a bunch of people are suing Epic Games over Fortnite’s dance moves

youtube

Wat You Said We Need Dat Cash @FortniteGame @EAMaddenNFL https://t.co/hFRH0Db1Mx

— BlocBoy JB (@BlocBoy_JB) July 13, 2018

youtube

Fortnite’s default in-game emote is a dance that actor Donald Faison performs on the show Scrubs, and Faison has also taken notice.

Dear fortnite… I’m flattered? Though part of me thinks I should talk to a lawyer…

— Donald Faison (@donald_faison) April 1, 2018

youtube

PUBG’s creators are suing over Fortnite similarities

Via Taylor Hatmaker https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

0 notes

thepoolscene · 7 years ago

Text

The Pool Scene - - Independent

New Post on http://thepoolscene.com/?p=21913

June is for Junior Norris!

The 2017 Junior Norris Memorial Shootout!

June 21st-25th , 2017

When it comes to pocket billiards in the U.S., one can’t deny that there are many legends of the game. And, in Wichita Falls, TX there lived a man named Junior Norris, born in 1925, he was a World War II veteran and patriot who played pool most of his life, Junior referred to the pool hall as ‘home’. A dear friend to Mike Massey who Junior competed against as far back as the 1960’s; Mike could joyfully regale you with stories of Junior Norris, like how Junior could pick up 13 balls with one hand to Mike’s 8 balls in one hand.

Junior lived on to the ripe age of 90 years old, before his passing in March of 2016. Survived by his daughter, Sherrie Glenn and two brothers, David and Charlie, the ‘Junior Norris Shootout’ which, started in 2013 as a birthday tournament for her Dad every month of June, but has since grown to become an annual gathering of over 150 players paying tribute to the man who found his home on the rails.

‘Play The Game’ at this June’s Shootout!

This year’s Junior Norris Shootout will be held at a 50,000 square foot, former shopping space on Seymour Hwy, featuring 46 bar-box Valley Tables courtesy of Gary Benson, High Country Promotions and Accu-Racks provided by Chris Renfro’s, Outsville company. There are 5 separate events scheduled from June 21st-25th which are already taking registrations on the Junior Norris website. Playing 8, 9 and 10 ball competitions, with additional ‘Charity Event’ open to 16 teams of players that is almost filled. And to keep the ‘hot shots’ on their toes, this year’s ‘Shootout’ also includes a bonus, 16 player ‘big boy 10-ball, ring-game’ tournament with a $100 entry and $500 added.

Food and Drinks!

The Junior Norris events will have a full service bar thanks to the efforts of The Silver Dollar Saloon, unlimited coffee and tea, pastries in the mornings, and a variety of food options all week. With a Huge Big Texas Style BBQ on Saturday June 24th. “DON’T YOU DARE MISS IT!!”

Live-Internet Broadcast on ‘POVPOOL’

Point Of View Pool Media is both, proud and honored to bring viewers free live-action coverage of this year’s Junior Norris Memorial Shootout, which can be accessed atwww.povpool.com or directly on our YouTube Channel at: www.youtube.com/povpool/live

Live Tournament Brackets will be provided by: CompuSport

Exhibitor space is available to vendors; we invite you to join us at this grand arena where players and spectators can also meet and shop for their products:

Vendors onsite: Bryant Billiards, Jerry Olivier Custom Cues, Joe Salazar Cues, Outsville, Play The Game Clothing, Co. ,Taylor Cues, Behind The 8 Ball, Mike Massey,��Keeno’s ‘Taste Of Texas’ Jerky, JB Cases,Silver Dollar Saloon,

Registrations•Sponsorships•Exhibitors •Contact Sherri Glenn by email or by phone: [email protected] / 940-733-8846 •

Special Update: Custom cue-maker, Jerry Olivier at www.JOCues.com and custom case maker, John Barton at www.JBCases.com are building a ‘one of a kind’, ‘Texas Legend’ Cue and Case, each to be displayed and held for a exclusive auction at this year’s Junior Norris Memorial Shootout Event!

POV Pool would like to thank: Sherrie Glenn and the Norris Family, Frank Nordmann, Steve Mansfield, GoPlayPool, KDFX News and all of the sponsors of this year’s event.

Tournament Operations and Tables: Gary Benson at High Country Promotions

Remembering The Texas Legend, The Inspiration: Junior Norris

Junior’s journey in life began in 1925 in Wichita Falls, TX where he was also raised and like many kids in the early 1930’s, Junior at the age of 8 years old began playing his own mocked up version of pocket billiards with marbles and sticks in the back alley behind the local pool room. That said, Junior’s life wasn’t just a long series of pool stories, as his fate was sealed when he and his two brothers were called to serve with the military during World War II before they could finish high school.

After his tour of duty, Junior returned to Wichita Falls and was employed at Mid Central Fish Company but, his love for pocket billiards did not fade. In the early 1960’s, Junior Norris would attend every tournament at The Stardust in Las Vegas (aka ‘The Stardust days’) where he competed and cashed with some of the world’s best players to enter the arena. Throughout his life, he would take on different roles in the auto and oil industry, but pocket billiards turned out to be his biggest passion. It has been noted by Junior’s daughter, Sherrie Glenn that his home used to be the pool-hall and his second home was ‘home’.

A feared and seasoned pool player, a tough competitor; Junior played in many World Championships and often cashed. In 1995, Junior Norris was inducted into the Texas Billiards Hall of Fame, but probably his most treasured memory is from 2015, when he and his brothers were honored by the United Sates Military with their high school diplomas and military decorations which, were finally presented 70 years after their service; a story that made headlines in Texas. (Watch it here).

0 notes