#to unlock the Ultimate Dick path later on'

[alicelufenia]

My favorite thing so far about playing a fallen paladin in BG3, at least as far as the start of act 2, is that, Alice obviously knows she's done unconscionable things in pursuit of destroying the Absolute. Much of it on the word of an entity she has little knowledge of. She seriously doubts any further good she does could make up for it. None of her current companions think so, or care one way or the other.

So it feels even more poignant when she continues to try anyway.

She's appalled at the Society of Brilliance's aim to basically kidnap a Githyanki child, thinking to swindle the adventurer. But upon entering the Crèche, and seeing the conditions the children are raised in and Lae'zel confirming this is normal, she decides to at least hear out the caretaker. Only to find the last egg that failed to hatch, and is due for extermination. She even manages to get the blessing of Lae'zel and the Caretaker to give it a better home. It's still trafficking, but she has to feel like she's done something good in all of this.

This extends to when they escape from Crèche Y'llek after meeting the Dream Visitor face to face. She goes out of their way to avoid killing the rest of the Crèche, just the guards outside the inquisitor's chamber, and at the front entrance, because she had to tend to Ellyka's corpse, the last Tiefling she's seen on the road since... yeah.

As for Gale. It would be the easiest thing in the world for her to insist he not go through with his plan to blow himself up. She says so, and sees the doubt in him, sees him wanting to find another way before it comes to that, but already resigning himself to his fate, all for the sake of some god who, as Lae'zel so eloquently points it, "demands Gale's faith, but holds no faith in him."

Except that, if it destroys the Absolute, isn't that what she's been fighting for? Isn't that what she ruined herself to accomplish? To sacrifice whole families for the cause but not one wizard who, by all accounts so far, brought this on himself, would be the peak of hypocrisy, yes? Or is it a hypocrisy she's willing to take on, in the name of not digging herself deeper?

And then there's Minthara, the True Soul she allied with on the hope that the Astral Prism could do something for even someone so far gone as her. When she told her the voice of the Absolute fell silent when she was with her, Alice has kept that hope close to her heart this whole way. It's why she did not betray the Dream Visitor, even when facing a god bent on their destruction. It's how she was able to convince Lae'zel to see past Vlaakith's deceptions, and question her leader for the first time in her life.

And still all of this could be for naught. Already she's made an enemy of the Harpers and possibly Jatheira too, for continuing her cover as a True Soul. The darkness has so thoroughly seeped into her she can command it at will, snuffing out all light around her, channeling sorceries her divine conviction never permitted, even letting the darkness take over to save her from death if need be (Shadow Sorcerer makes a great combination with Paladin, and yes I basically made her a Dark Knight like my ff14 version of her). And for it all she's no closer to destroying the Absolute, only managing to GET close.

All of this is going through her mind even before meeting Z'rell, Ketheric, and Minthara at Moonrise Towers. However this goes, it could still shape what the future holds for her, and what she intends to do.

[bigskydreaming]

Fic title: Twenty Years Later (nightwing rebirth continuity?)

Dick Grayson has been dead for twenty years. In his place was Ric Grayson, a lost, confused and lonely man who inherited all the enemies of a hero whose face he had but whose role he never asked for���.leading to him going off the grid and hiding from the world when he realized what his great-grandfather and the Court of Owls really wanted him to do.

And then one night, twenty years later…Ric Grayson goes to bed…and in the morning its Dick Grayson who wakes up.

He has no idea what’s happened, why he’s suddenly so much older, how the world has changed…its like he blinked and twenty years went by in a flash. The last thing he can remember is the dream he woke from….of a dark, shadowed room filled with all kinds of laboratory equipment, but with most of it looking like it hadn’t been touched in years….and a young man with platinum blond hair, looking at him and saying he had to hurry, they were running out of time.

Wally West has been missing for twenty years. The last anyone saw him was in his cell right before a mysterious force plucked him out and into a mysterious Limbo, telling him there was a task for him….but believing he had no heroics left in him after everything that had happened, Wally ran. All the way across time and space in an attempt to get away from his demons….never stopping, not even to breathe.

And then one morning, twenty years later…there’s a crackle of lightning, a taste of ozone in the air….and when the flash fades, its Wally West standing in the middle of an empty street that looks as lost and lonely as he feels.

Donna Troy has been gone for twenty years. She withdrew from Man’s World, retreated to Themyscira. First Dick’s memory loss, then Roy’s death, Wally’s imprisonment and then disappearance, and then finally one day Garth too disappeared without a word….and that was the final straw, the step too far, the thing that pulled her back to Themyscira.

And then one morning, twenty years later, Donna Troy wakes with the rising sun, stirred from a dream of friends long gone…a dream that calls her forth, back into the wider world once more, in search of a dark, shadowed room and a young man with platinum blond hair and a desperate plea to hurry before its too late.

It pulls her night by night across the globe until she winds up in a secret laboratory buried deep beneath the Arizona deserts….and she’s not the only one. There’s Wally too, looking like he hasn’t aged a day since she last saw him twenty years ago. And Dick too…though Donna remembers a few seconds later, stumbles over her words and says “Sorry, I mean Ric.”

“Who the fuck is Ric?” Dick asks. And just like that, two of her oldest and dearest friends are back.

It turns out they’ve all been pulled by their strings, led by the same dream, the same stranger, to the same place at the same time….and deciding there was only one way to find the answers they were all seeking, they investigate the abandoned lab….and find the only working machinery hooked up to one stasis tube holding a very familiar face.

A very alive face, stasis notwithstanding.

And a chaotic frenzy of shouting and button pushing later, the three reunited friends are pulling a dazed and confused Roy Harper from his artificial sleep.

That’s when they’re attacked of course.

Who knows by who or what, they don’t recognize any of the creatures suddenly swarming them from the shadows, but then it has been twenty years since they were last in the game, Dick points out.

“Wait what?” Roy asks, confused. He still looks the same age as when he was thought to have died, and Wally and Donna of course both seem as young as ever. Its just Dick who seems the odd man out…which he sulks about. While strangling some demon monster type thing with his thighs, of course.

And that’s when the platinum haired stranger from their dreams bursts onto the scene as well…sending most of their enemies flying with a pulse of magic that looks and feels strangely familiar. Deciding that going with the only guy that seems to have a clue what the hell is going on beats standing here and fighting more demon thingies for however long they keep coming…the four Titans follow him out of the lab and across the desert to a magic oasis he’s set up as a refuge for them not far away.

Finally, he introduces himself. His name is Cerdian, and his father is Garth of Shayeris…but not the Garth they know. Or at least not the one they think they know.

He tells them about another timeline, other lives lived, and a great crisis that threatened the entire multiverse. He was just a baby at the time, living in Atlantis with his father and mother, Dolphin….when the Spectre unleashed his might on the great underwater city for reasons unknown to them. Atlantis was thought completely destroyed, but in a final desperate attempt to save his family and his people, Garth spent all his magic on his greatest working, perhaps the greatest magical working in millennia…..and he sealed himself, his family and his people away from the world in the seconds before the Spectre destroyed their city.

Garth’s spell stranded them in a space between worlds, between universes…stuck outside of time and space as events unfolded and Barry Allen rewrote the entire course of history. He’d exhausted his magic in taking them to their new refuge, had none left to get them home again….especially as their home, their universe no longer existed, at least not as it was.

But then, he’d known even as he worked his last spell that this would be the result, that it would take everything he had. That he would have nothing left to fix it, nothing more he could use to set things right.

So with the last of his magic, at the tail end of his spell, he made four keys to time and space, matter and energy….mystical keys to unlock whatever doors or barriers stood between the world as it became and the world as it was supposed to be. And he entrusted those keys to those he trusted most….sending them forth to be magically infused into the souls of his four oldest and dearest friends. Knowing, trusting, that no matter what happened to the world in his absence, in the universe….no matter what this crisis was reshaping reality into, no matter how they ended up separated by time and space and alternate events….the Titans would always find each other. 

They were bonded for life, for all lives. Reality was no barrier to the kind of ties they’d willingly wrapped around themselves and each other. No matter what happened and no matter how long it took, Garth knew…their souls would be drawn together once more, and the keys would end up in the right time and place to unlock the door to the past, and drag the whole world back through it with them.

Of course, there are always forces that stand in the way, that like things the way they are….and those forces pulled strings of their own, shaped events, tweaked the strands of fate, all in an attempt to keep his friends divided, apart before they had a chance to bring Garth’s spell to completion.

And so Dick was shot in the head, waking with no memories and no desire to return to a hero’s path. And Wally’s power slipped free of his control and caused a terrible accident with his grief and guilt leaving him wide open to a little push here, a little tug there. And Roy’s body was spirited away and hidden in a lab before anyone had a chance to realize that he was distantly descended from Vandal Savage himself, and it took the right kind of trauma - one infused with the Speedforce itself, the ultimate catalyst - to jumpstart his own immortality. And only Donna and Garth were left, drifting further and further apart as their grief and loss pulled them in different directions…

Donna’s drawing her to solitude. Garth’s driving him forward in a desperate quest. In search of any magic, any spell, that could undo all that had gone wrong and give him back his friends…no matter the cost.

His search led him to that space between universes, where his previous incarnation still remained with his wife and son and subjects…. and revealed the truth of their world’s history and his own plan to make it right again, no matter how many timelines and lifetimes it took.

And so this Garth, the one they remembered, sacrificed himself, made a trade so that someone from there could take his place here….and with his older self still depleted of magic, he sent his now grown son Cerdian to take his place. To find his old friends. Reunite them. Bring the keys together. Unlock the past.

And set things right again.

Once and for all.

[scifigeneration]

The 2018 Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival Returns to New York City This Week

by Daryle Lockhart

This week marks the return of The 2018 Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival, which will present a full lineup of critically acclaimed films, exclusive premieres, panel discussions, virtual reality installations and international animation. The electrifying sixth annual event will also feature appearances by special guests Armand Assante, Charles Baker, Jonny Beauchamp, Nicki Clyne, Nana Gouvea, Michael Ironside, Vincent Pastore, Tom Sizemore, Chuck Zito and more special guests. Screening in the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, the festival will run from February 23-25, 2018.

Passes to screenings at Village East Cinema (181-189 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003) can be purchased at www.thephilipkdickfilmfestival.com. Passes to screenings at Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, NY 11106) can be purchased by contacting the venue at members@movingimage.us . 

Here’s the full schedule:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2018: Village East Cinema (181-189 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003) Block 1: International Sci-Fi Shorts + Special Guest Panel Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Program (2017) Director: Gabriel de Urioste Run Time/Country: 8 min, USA Synopsis: A young woman goes back to fix a broken relationship with a lost love. Metta Via (2017) Director: Warren Flanagan Run Time/Country: 10 min, Canada Synopsis: Set in the future, a young woman wakes up in a mysterious temple-like room and must figure out what her purpose is there. This in turn leads to her memories being unlocked and the true purpose of the temple, the strange sentient machines that surround her and ultimately her final destination. The Super Recogniser (2017) Director: Jennifer Sheridan Run Time/Country: 11 min, UK Synopsis: A normal guy has the very special talent of 90% facial recollection. He never forgets a face and you better hope he doesn't knows yours. Starring Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones) and Ritu Arya (Humans). December 17 (2016) Director: Yuji Hariu Run Time/Country: 15 min, Japan Synopsis: In the not-so-distant future of Tokyo, a six-year-old boy has been confined by his parents and all his activities are done at home. His old brother, on the other hand, is free to go outside and study in school. On the night of the boy's birthday, his brother persuades him to escape from their home. In Between (2016) Director: Scarlett Thiele Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA Synopsis: A young couple finds themselves on a plane in between life and death where they strive to save their lives. The story is a description of a near death experience, and a comment on the fragility of life and the unbiased touch of death. Smashed (2017) Director: Sean Lahiff Run Time/Country: 13 min, Australia Synopsis: A man has a thing for a woman, whose heart belongs to someone else. Egged on by his friends, he maneuvers everyone into making a hot-tempered and brainless move. This unreal drama of one night's events tells a tale of hubris, jealousy, complete loss of control and the desire to undo the past. Methane Momma (2016) Director: Alain Rimbert Run Time/Country: 40 min, France/USA Synopsis: Global warming, greenhouse gas emissions and wars. Life on Earth has disappeared and survivors wander in space aboard a spacecraft. In one of them, MEL, a scientist biologist is sent to retrieve a space module becoming crazy while seeking traces of water on an unknown planet. While MEL seeks the prospecting module, he has an accident, the ground breaks under his feet and he is driven to the bottom of a cave. His spacesuit tears up and he loses consciousness. MEL merges into the ether and then his conscience takes the form of a cloud of methane. As he regains consciousness in a cave that seems empty of all life, he sees a female cloud of methane with whom he falls in love. This happiness then plunges him into a reverie. Starring Daytime Emmy Award winner Melvin Van Peebles, prominently known for his legendary film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) and Paula Henderson in the titular role. Block 2: Feature Film + Special Guest Panel Time: 9:00pm - 11:00pm Alterscape (2018) — World Premiere Director: Serge Levin Run Time/Country: 88 min, USA Synopsis: After a failed suicide attempt, a young man coping with loss and depression submits to a series of trials that fine-tune human emotions but his unique reaction to the tests send him on a journey that transcends both physical and perceived reality. Starring Michael Ironside (Total Recall) , Charles Baker (Breaking Bad), Alex Veadov (Act of Valor), Serge Levin (Welcome to Willits), Debbie Rochon (Model Hunger), Mack Kuhr (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Olan Montgomery (The Blacklist) and Sara K. Edwards (Mad Women). Produced by Jon Keeyes (American Nightmare) and cinematography by Richard Clabaugh (Eyeborgs). Special Guest Panel: Actors Michael Ironside, Charles Baker, Mack Kuhr, Olan Montgomery, Sara K. Edwards and other principal cast members with director Serge Levin will be in attendance for a post-film discussion of Alterscape. Block 3: Extreme Cinema Shorts Time: 11:00pm - 12:00am Rabbid Jacob (2017) Director: Donovan Alonso-Garcia Run Time/Country: 22 min, France/Belgium Synopsis: Two meteorites have hit Brussels. There is little time left for Jacob to restore order and moral in the depths of a city in complete loss. MayDay (2016) Director: Sébastien Vaniček Run Time/Country: 13 min, France Synopsis: A man subject to violent hallucinations must overcome the imminence of death during his extradition flight towards United States. He will face head-front his delusions, other passengers' judgment, firmness of US law enforcement and the stress of an imminent crash. It Began Without Warning (2017) Director: Santiago C. Tapia, Jessica Curtright Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA Synopsis: "The time has come," the Walrus said. And all the little Oysters stood and waited in a row. Produced by Couper Samuelson, the executive producer of the Golden Globe Award nominated film Get Out (2017) and Efren Ramirez (actor, Napoleon Dynamite). Mental (2017) Director: Jax Smith Run Time/Country: 11 min, Canada Synopsis: A woman sees reality through a dream­like lens of externalized psychotic episodes. Caught in a loop of depression and anxiety she uses prescription drugs to numb herself. Unable to discern what is real and what is imaginary, she finally gives into her inner voice’s advice and embraces her biggest fear. Sometimes the only way out is through. Devil Town (2016) Director: Nick Barrett Run Time/Country: 15 min, UK Synopsis: An obnoxious letting agent in London is a man who is used to getting exactly what he wants but on this particular day, his world is about to crumble as he crosses paths with a most unusual nemesis – a man that may just save him from the end of the world. LOCATION B: Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, NY 11106) Block 4: Feature Film Time: 6:30pm - 8:30pm AYLA (2017) — East Coast Premiere Director: Elias Run Time/Country: 120 min, USA Synopsis: A man haunted by the mysterious death of his four-year-old sister brings her back to life thirty years later as an adult woman, with dire consequences. Starring Nicholas Wilder (Gut), Tristan Risk (American Mary), Saturn Award nominee Dee Wallace (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) and Sarah Schoofs (Gut). SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2018: Village East Cinema (181-189 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003) Block 5: Virtual Reality Installations with 3D Sound Time: 10:30am - 2:00pm The Making of Marine Butterfly (2017) Director: Alex Bartuli Run Time/Country: 23 min, USA/Canada Synopsis: Exploring the invention of the 3-Dimensional Audio System and where will it take mankind. The Last Chair (2017) Director: Jessie van Vreden, Anke Teunissen Run Time/Country: 15 min, Netherlands Synopsis: a documentary series about the last stage of life. With a mix of audio, 360º video and animation you step into the daily lives of two different people. Narrated by Blade Runner alum and Golden Globe Award nominee Rutger Hauer (Escape from Sobibor). Presented by WIDE VR. The 7th Night of Thelema (2017) Director: Gianluigi Perrone Run Time/Country: 8 min, China Synopsis: The story of a witches corps de ballets that haunts the body of a woman for kidnapping her souls. Presented by WIDE VR. Dreams of Blue (2017) Director: Valentina Paggiarin Run Time/Country: 12 min, Italy Synopsis: Human creativity has always pushed people to exceed their limits. Creating new life, in a God-like way, has long been a dream/nightmare of both scientists and artists. In a not-so-distant future where technological advancement has surpassed the need for ethical behavior, two scientists decide to activate an Artificial Intelligence (AI) bound to become a Singularity and explore what might happen inside the "mind" of an AI that becomes both self-aware and self-conscious. Block 6: International Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm Personal Space (2018) Director: Tom R. Pike, Zack Wallnau Run Time/Country: 30 min, USA Synopsis: Unbeknownst to the crew of a generation ship, their therapy sessions are being broadcast on Earth as a reality show. Starring Nicki Clyne (Battlestar Galactica) and the late Golden Globe Award nominee Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica). Special Guest Appearance: Actress Nicki Clyne will be in attendance for the screening of Personal Space. Resonance (2017) Director: William Minsky Run Time/Country: 21 min, Canada Synopsis: A reality where no one sleeps becomes a nightmare. Nano (2017) Director: Mike Manning Run Time/Country: 16 min, USA Synopsis: In the near future, nanotechnology administered into the bloodstream can sync with computer apps to augment the human genome. A new law mandating and regulating this once elective procedure meets resistance from hacktivists who are conspiring to thwart the impending roll-out of "Nano version 2.0." The Last Protester (2017) Director: Nicole Castillo Run Time/Country: 17 min, USA Synopsis: A father must come to terms with the oppressive government he works for upon finding out his daughter is rebelling against it. Sound From the Deep (2017) Director: Antti Laakso, Joonas Allonen Run Time/Country: 29 min, Finland Synopsis: An international research group is searching natural resources from the Arctic Ocean. They pick up a strange underwater sound from far north, and start to follow it to the uncharted waters. Inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Block 7: Philip K. Dick Adaptations and Inspirations Time: 1:00pm - 3:00pm The Pipers (2013) Director: Ammar Quteineh Run Time/Country: 15 min, France Synopsis: An army psychiatrist is puzzled by a case of a French soldier who returns from the war in Afghanistan and claims that he's a plant. Based on Philip K. Dick's short story Piper in the Woods. Angles (2016) Director: David Stone Run Time/Country: 8 min, Ireland Synopsis: Over several years a psychologist adopts the delusions of a patient that the world is ending. The doctor fears losing his own mind, while the patient becomes oddly serene and the power dynamic shifts. Back and Forward INC. (2014) Director: Martin Demmer Run Time/Country: 13 min, Germany Synopsis: Switching between visual metaphors and a near future possible way of living created by the company Back and Forward INC., a program is launched for the modern society that nobody has to fear the effect of the burnout syndrome any longer. It's a Clear Day (2017) Director: María Vázquez Run Time/Country: 14 min, Spain Synopsis: A woman is planning on giving a lecture on the famous science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. Everything seems like her everyday routine, except for a little excitement because of the event. But as time passes she will discover nothing is what it seems. Dystopian: Lovesong (2017) Director: Stefano Moro Run Time/Country: 25 min, Italy Synopsis: The future lies inside a pressurized suit where nobody can touch you: your personal mobile home 24/7. A young worker who scavenges his quadrant for antiques for his high city clientele is haunted by a vision he sees in his virtual sex encounters and during his dreams: a music box concealing a beautiful ballerina doll. Paleonaut (2017) Director: Eric McEver Run Time/Country: 16 min, Japan/China Synopsis: A scientist studying the first human time traveller falls in love with her subject. But if her research succeeds they will become separated by eons of history. She must find a way to connect with him across the ages or lose him forever. The Very Near Future (2017) Director: Sebastian Egert Run Time/Country: 5 min, Germany Synopsis: In the very near future, a man tries to order a pizza online. Times Of Zoe (2017) Director: Tim Carlier Run Time/Country: 10 min, Australia Synopsis: A scientist develops an artificial intelligence to prove whether or not there is a god. It takes a while. Block 8: Documentary + Special Guest Panel Time: 3:00pm - 5:00pm The Shaman and The Scientist (2017) Director: Sarah Hutt Run Time/Country: 15 min, USA Synopsis: This short documentary explores the topic of traditional plant medicine from two perspectives – that of Don Juan Tangoa Paima, a curandero who works with Ayahuasca medicine in the Peruvian Amazon, and through the research of Dr. Dennis McKenna, who taught ethnopharmacology for over 30 years and is the brother of ethnobotanist Terence McKenna, looking for new medicines to treat schizophrenia and dementia. The story takes viewers from jungle to lab asking what is the value of undiscovered knowledge in the world's most biodiverse biomes, and what is at stake if we allow those precious resources to be lost. Special Guest Panel: The screening will lead into an in-depth discussion about the making of the film, psychedelic medicine and more with Dr. Dennis McKenna, a founding board member and Director of Ethnopharmacology at the Heffter Research Institute and a key investigator in the first biomedical investigation of ayahuascaon known as the Hoasca Project, and the film's accomplished director Sarah Hutt, whose Emmy nominated documentary work has appeared on Animal Planet, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and MSNBC. Block 9: Feature Film Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm Yesterday Last Year (2017) — NYC Premiere Director: Jeff Hanley Run Time/Country: 90 min, Canada Synopsis: A love triangle gets even more complicated once a time machine enters the picture. Block 10: Feature Film + Special Guest Appearance Time: 7:00pm - 9:30pm The Wanderers: The Quest of The Demon Hunter (2017) — USA Premiere Director: Dragos Buliga Run Time/Country: 90 min, Romania Synopsis: A vampire hunter and a reporter investigate mysterious circumstances at a castle in Transylvania. Starring Primetime Emmy Award winner Armand Assante (Gotti). Special Guest Appearance: Actor Armand Assante will be in attendance for the screening of The Wanderers: The Quest of The Demon Hunter. Block 11: Feature Film + Special Guest Panel Time: 9:30pm - 12:00am Black Wake (2018) — World Premiere Director: Jeremiah Kipp Run Time/Country: 120 min, USA Synopsis: Specialists gather in a top-secret facility to investigate a series of strange deaths on beaches along the Atlantic Ocean and examine video evidence to uncover a possible parasitic explanation for the fatalities. When a determined detective sends one of the scientists the crazed writings of a mysterious homeless man, she slowly learns that the actual threat may be more dangerous – and far older – than anyone ever imagined. Starring Nana Gouvea (The Fever), Golden Globe Award nominee Tom Sizemore (Witness Protection), Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts (Runaway Train), Screen Actors Guild Award winner Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos), Jonny Beauchamp (Penny Dreadful) and Chuck Zito (Oz). Inspired by the cosmic horror of genre writer H.P. Lovecraft. Special Guest Panel: Actors Nana Gouvea, Tom Sizemore, Vincent Pastore, Jonny Beauchamp and Chuck Zito will be in attendance for a post-film discussion of Black Wake.

LOCATION B: Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria, NY 11106) Block 12: Feature Film Time: 6:30pm - 8:30pm The Child Remains (2017) — NYC Premiere Director: Michael Melski Run Time/Country: 120 min, Canada Synopsis: An expectant couple's intimate weekend turns to terror as they discover their secluded country inn is a haunted maternity home where infants and mothers were murdered. Starring Suzanne Clément (Mommy), Allan Hawco (Frontier), Shelley Thompson (Labyrinth) and Géza Kovács (Scanners). SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2018: Village East Cinema (181-189 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003) Block 13: International Animation and Fantasy Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm Retimer (2017) Director: Robin Tremblay Run Time/Country: 8 min, Canada Synopsis: In the year 3020, war, poverty and diseases are no longer a part of daily life. A world order whose roots go back to antiquity have learned to control time use its power to create a perfect society. They do this by sending agents in the past, the Retimer, who are tasked to modify specific events and through ripple in times, create the perfect future they live in. One member of this elite team begins to question the ethics of his action through the canvas of time. The Time Traveller (2018) Director: Jonathan Nolan Run Time/Country: 15 min, Australia Synopsis: Based on and expanding the "The Time Machine" novella by H.G. Wells and incorporating work by H.P. Lovecraft and Nikolai Tesla, the story follows the ongoing adventures of a traveller in time and occasionally space. Siren (2015) Director: George Fleming Run Time/Country: 4 min, USA Synopsis: An astronaut on patrol crosses paths with a visitor who leads him on a game of cat and mouse. Niggun (2017) Director: Yoni Salmon Run Time/Country: 12 min, Israel Synopsis: After a long journey through space the last two believers are about to reach their destination. Ananda, the space archaeologist, hopes to prove that Earth is not a myth and that all mankind did originate from the same tiny blue planet - but mostly he wants to prove his colleagues and his father wrong and to make the biggest discovery in history. Astronaut of Featherweight (2017) Director: Dalibor Baric Run Time/Country: 27 min, Croatia Synopsis: From space spa colonies to alien plantations, everybody is forced to take care of their bodies in this dark vision of a hyper-capitalist trans-human society in which body is a commodity and money is immortality. The Intelligence: The Counterattack of Robots (2017) Director: Suisei Hoshii Run Time/Country: 20 min, Japan Synopsis: In a near future where earth is polluted by nuclear waste and cities have fallen, robots depict further crisis facing the planet. Fraktaal (2017) Director: Julius Horsthuis Run Time/Country: 4 min, Netherlands Synopsis: A fantasy science fiction short – without a story. Block 14: International Sci-Fi Shorts Time: 1:00pm - 3:00pm Re/Collection (2017) Director: Eva Konstantopoulos, Deborah Correa Run Time/Country: 18 min, USA Synopsis: In a world where technology has made memory a commodity, a desperate husband seeks out a risky procedure to save the love of his life. Trouble Creek (2017) Director: Stacey K. Black Run Time/Country: 15 min, USA Synopsis: There's something in the water in the small town of Trouble Creek – human bones. As the local sheriff delves into the mystery of the bones the townspeople must face themselves, new temptations, old family secrets, and the sinister and the town's mysterious past. Starring Jason Gedrick (Iron Eagle), Dean Cameron (Summer School) and Debrah Farentino (Eureka). They're Made Out Of Meat (2017) Director: Jason Housecroft Run Time/Country: 12 min, UK Synopsis: Alien visitors are appalled to find that the inhabitants of planet earth are made out of meat. The Tolls (2017) Director: Liz Anderson Run Time/Country: 20 min, USA Synopsis: In the final days of WWII while mourning the loss of his wife at sea, a corporal confronts a mysterious stranger who has infiltrated his base. The intruder possesses a top secret S.S. technology which transports them to a Nazi-occupied San Francisco. Here, he will put the lives of millions at risk in order to reunite with his lost love. Ghostcode (2017) Director: Patrick Defasten Run Time/Country: 9 min, Germany Synopsis: Advancements in sonic warfare lead to a net-born artificial intelligence. The Hard Sell (2016) Director: Tim Hunt, Adrian Pinsent Run Time/Country: 6 min, UK Synopsis: Exploring the question about what would one do with a 10-second rewind wrapped around their wrist. In Passing (2017) Director: Bittnarie Shin Run Time/Country: 16 min, USA Synopsis: Elderly ex-lovers are brought back together when their mutual friend passes away. Mimesis (2017) Director: Patrick Lee Run Time/Country: 4 min, USA Synopsis: Nothing is what it seems in the cycling of the natural world. Block 15: Feature Documentary + Post-Film Panel Time: 3:00pm - 5:00pm Cyborgs Among Us (2017) — East Coast Premiere Director: Rafel Duran Torrent Run Time/Country: 76 min, Spain/Denmark/France/Germany/Switzerland/UK/USA Synopsis: Cyborgs are human beings with electronic devices implanted in their bodies to extend their senses and/or enhance their physical and cognitive capabilities. Technology with the potential for human enhancement is already available, but its use is strictly restricted to remedial (medical) applications. However, the first cyborgs are already crossing the boundaries of their human limits just for the sake of it – at home, in basement workshops and tattoo parlors, using low-tech equipment and with a do-it-yourself attitude. They are a tiny minority, seen by many as weird or crazy experimenters, but in the near future we may be calling them pioneers. This film explores life as a cyborg through the stories of a few current ones and how close scientists are to taking the leap. The film will consider the philosophical, ethical and legal implications of going beyond human by letting machines become part of us. Post-Film Panel: The screening will be followed by an in-depth discussion with modern day cyborgs from Grindhouse Wetware, a biotech startup in Pittsburgh that enhances human capabilities through augmentation and develops initiatives for biohackers. Block 16: Horror, Supernatural and Surreal Shorts Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm The Walking Dead: March to War - Trailer (2017) Director: Hugo Guerra Run Time/Country: 1 min, UK Synopsis: The trailer for Disrupter Beam’s The Walking Dead game was created in a very stylized way. Each and every shot carefully crafted, zombies motion captured, 3D animation mixed with 2D – all layered with a comic book painting effect. Dead House (2017) Director: Travis Laidlaw Run Time/Country: 13 min, Canada Synopsis: Two men renovating a mysterious old house attempt to leave before the building enters lockdown and seals them inside. Unfortunately, the house has different plans for them. Eve (2017) Director: Marcello Mottola Run Time/Country: 13 min, USA Synopsis: Eve, a young teenage girl is abducted and hidden away in a new city. She becomes captivated with an ominous house across the street and a mysterious young girl that astonishingly appears to be her identical twin. Eve becomes seduced by the cryptic house acquiring its incarnate power and finds redemption against evil with the help of her own begotten design. A Forest (2017) Director: Thomas Geffrier Run Time/Country: 15 min, France Synopsis: A young woman meets a couple in a private party. Leaving with them, she finds herself trapped in some sort of twilight zone from which she cannot escape. Occam's Razor (2016) Director: Alex Parslow Run Time/Country: 15 min, USA Synopsis: Set in 1851, a postmortem photographer is called into a small community where dozens of children have mysteriously died. He soon realizes the spirits of the deceased are trying to communicate to him, leading him to uncover the town’s dark and twisted secret. Impuratus (2017) Director: Michael Yurinko Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA Synopsis: A police detective in circa 1917 is called to a remote mental hospital to witness the death-bed confession of a mysterious Civil War Vet that forces him to believe in the supernatural. Starring Holt Boggs (The Leftovers), John Savage (The Deer Hunter) and Saturn Award nominee Dee Wallace (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial). Sounds of Freedom (2017) Director: Holly Chadwick Run Time/Country: 5 min, USA Synopsis: Two veterans, one of the Iraq War and one of the Vietnam War, both suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. From their jobs at the local newspaper and through a series of flashbacks and sessions with a common therapist, they are challenged to the max when a serial killer strikes at home. Ovum (2017) Director: Luciano Blotta Run Time/Country: 17 min, Argentina Synopsis: When a reclusive fisherman finds a giant egg on his desolate beach and takes it home, his life takes a big turn for better or worse. Block 17: Oats Studios Presents Sci-Fi Shorts by Neill Blomkamp Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm Adam: Episode 2 (2017) Director: Neill Blomkamp Run Time/Country: 7 min, Canada Synopsis: In the second chapter of the Adam film series previously screened at the festival, the titular amnesiac hero discovers a clue about what and who he is. Adam: Episode 3 (2017) Director: Neill Blomkamp Run Time/Country: 9 min, Canada Synopsis: In the third chapter of the Adam film series previously screened at the festival, a new tribe of human survivors face a post-apocalyptic world. Zygote (2017) Director: Neill Blomkamp Run Time/Country: 22 min, Canada Synopsis: Stranded in an arctic mine, two lone survivors are forced to fight for their lives, evading and hiding from a new kind of terror. Starring Screen Actors Guild Award nominee Dakota Fanning (I Am Sam). Firebase (2017) Director: Neill Blomkamp Run Time/Country: 27 min, Canada Synopsis: Set during the Vietnam war, an American soldier enters into an ever-deepening web of science fiction madness. Rakka (2017) Director: Neill Blomkamp Run Time/Country: 22 min, Canada Synopsis: The story of broken humanity following the invasion of a technologically superior alien species. Bleak harrowing and unrelenting, the humans we meet must find enough courage to go on fighting. Starring Academy Award nominee Sigourney Weaver (Aliens). Block 18: Awards Ceremony Time: 8:30pm - 9:00pm Guests and filmmakers will be in attendance when awards are presented to the category winners as The 2018 Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival concludes.

[itsworn]

Customs were Red Hot—In More Ways than One–During an Eventful 1957

Kustoms.

What a year this was for George Barris, starting with unprecedented media exposure and concluding with the disastrous shop fire that nearly put the planet’s best-known customizer out of business. George calculated damages to be a quarter-million dollars (equivalent to $2.2M now). Sure, the shop was insured for anything short of acts of God—one of which the courts determined to be exploding transformers, thereby relieving both the electric utility and insurance company of responsibility. Claim denied, the King of the Kustomizers had lost most of his shop and a dozen unpaid-for projects. No wonder he wanted to walk away without completing the Ala Kart that helped save the company with back-to-back wins as America’s Most Beautiful Roadster.

Full-custom pickups were all the rage out West, where the major magazines were produced. Prior to the fire, two radical trucks and reoccurring coverage in Petersen publications helped propel Barris Kustoms to new heights this year. Afterwards, those plus a third pickup helped keep the rebuilding company alive by touring car shows and media outlets. All three trucks were lucky to survive the night of December 7, for entirely different reasons. The Ala Kart was under construction in the only unsinged section of the building, saved by brave firefighters. The company truck, Kopper Kart, was on the way home from a Portland show. Rod & Custom magazine’s Dream Truck survived only because a fried transmission bearing delayed Editor Spence Murray’s delivery to Barris by one fateful day. Instead of unloading his pickup for additional custom work the next morning, Spence loaded his camera and recorded the devastation. All eight of his surviving frames appear for the first time in this series installment.

There’s a whole lot of George himself on these pages because (A) his creations had such an influence on the hobby and (B) Pete’s editorial staffs devoted such a disproportionate percentage of film and pages to the flamboyant self-promoter. Besides the black-and-white car features and how-to articles we remember from HOT ROD, Rod & Custom, Car Craft, and countless “one-shots,” Barris customs were often featured in full color by Motor Trend and particularly Motor Life. Collectively, in any given month of 1957, up to a million subscribers and newsstand buyers were bombarded by Barris projects. Much of that film was exposed by George himself, a skilled photojournalist who wrote out the accompanying stories in longhand, on legal pads. He was both a cover subject and a cover photographer.

Customs were red-hot in 1957, and young Dean Jeffries was another big beneficiary of Petersen exposure. Pinstriping cars built by Barris guaranteed magazine credits and introductions to Petersen staffers. Following his mentor’s path, the photogenic youngster furthered his own fame by participating in how-to articles on customizing and painting. Dean even brought a pretty model to the party: High-school-sweetheart Carol Lewis alternately appeared in print as a blonde and brunette. It was Carol’s famously flamed-all-over ’56 Chevy that Jeffries rescued after rushing from a nearby restaurant to unlock George’s burning building. Carol’s car and his own customized Porsche, which had been parked at the curb, were the only vehicles saved from the all-too-real flames.

Besides the geographic advantage of proximity to Petersen Publishing Co. headquarters, Jeffries, like Barris, shows up in so many behind-the-scenes outtakes because he was at the center of a scene that sold magazines. It didn’t hurt that young Dean was liked and befriended by those carrying notebooks and cameras, as easygoing a guy as George was polarizing.

As for the preponderance of young women in this series installment, we can offer no such explanations—only previously unpublished snapshots from the road, a teeny-tiny percentage of the spontaneous snapshots intended to bring smiles to the “lab rats” processing film back home in Hollywood. It’s about time the rest of us enjoyed them.

A dozen customer cars and most of George Barris’s building were incinerated before firemen extinguished a nighttime blaze ignited by a transformer explosion in the back alley. As Editor Spence Murray reported in the next Rod & Custom, “When sparks reached the paint area—blooie! Up it went.” The heat melted the considerable lead in a finished ’54 Merc custom that was here for upholstery only. That job was done; Bobby “Chimbo” Yamazaki was expected to pick up his car this very day. The new Imperial belonged to a forgotten oil-company executive. Spence evidently filled all 12 frames of a 120 roll on the premises, though the partial film strip containing Negs One through Four was discovered missing when their turn came for digitizing. The other seven surviving images were scanned and appear further into the layout. (Sixty-one years after the disaster, Barris fan Brad Masterson operates Masterson Kustom Automobiles on the same Lynwood, California, property.)

Most of the images on these pages were captured by this quartet of Petersen staff photographers (clockwise from top left): Eric Rickman, Al Paloczy, Bob D’Olivo, and Colin Creitz. The first two hired, Rickman (1950) and D’Olivo (1952), remained with the publishing company until retirement.

The all-time-ultimate barn find would be James Dean’s infamous Porsche 550 Spyder—which looks nothing here like the wreck in photos from the accident site and subsequent storage in Cholame, California. Rather, George Barris folded a sheet of aluminum over the ripped-open driver’s side, welded it to the stripped shell he acquired from a Porsche racer, then toured this exhibit at shows and traffic-safety exhibits for three years. A pallet held up the mangled chassis. In Lee Raskin’s book of photos shot by Sanford Roth on Sept. 30, 1955, between Dean’s hometown of Sherman Oaks and the accident site, Jeffries is said to have watched Barris Kustom workers “beat the aluminum panels with 2×4’s to simulate collision damage.” It was last seen in public around 1960. In subsequent interviews, Barris alternately insisted that the car vanished from a sealed truck or a sealed railroad car. (See James Dean: On the Road to Salinas.)

In late January, the first fire to strike a famous hot rod shop consumed part of Ak Miller’s Garage and most of his El Caballo II, the Hemi-powered sport special originally intended for the Mexican Road Race (cancelled in the wake of seven 1956 deaths), now being prepared for Europe’s Mille Miglia less than four months away. Ak’s employees and buddies were rebuilding before the ashes cooled. Tinsmith Jack Sutton rolled out a second custom skin for the modified Kurtis 500-X sports-car chassis. In May, Miller became the first American driver in the first American car to start the famous Italian road race. (See Mar. ’57 Motor Trend; Apr. & July ’57 HRM; Nov. ’11 HRD.)

Barris and Jeffries led a caravan of customers to NorCal for the big winter shows in Oakland and Sacramento (“No trailer queens yet,” quips historian Greg Sharp). Car Craft Editor Dick Day followed the Kopper Kart into the studio of NBC’s Sacramento affiliate to shoot a sequence of George hyping the eighth Autorama. His radical ’56 Chevy was voted Most Spectacular of the National Roadster Show and earned an Outstanding Award in Sacramento. This is an outtake to the lead photo in an Aug. ’57 CC article, “Make Your Car a Movie Star.” (Also see May ’57 & June ’58 CC; June & July ’57 Motor Life.)

George Barris and Dean Jeffries couldn’t resist the toothy mouth of this sporty roadster during Autorama setup. The kustom kingpins were shopmates and close friends before the relationship gradually soured over conflicting claims to projects that became particularly famous (e.g., James Dean’s Porsche and the Monkeemobile). They remained estranged at the time of Dean’s 2013 death, at age 70. George passed away two years later, at 89.

While in Daytona Beach for NASCAR’s acceleration trials, HOT ROD repaid Plymouth for the donor car by displaying Suddenly in a local dealer’s showroom. The name and number were inspired by the factory’s futuristic ad campaign for ’57 models: “Suddenly, It’s 1960!” Editor Wally Parks and Tech Editor Ray Brock flat-towed the Hemi-powered sedan from L.A. behind Brock’s ’54 Olds. On the beach, Wally’s 159.893-mph average was the fastest two-way flying mile ever recorded by a stock-bodied American car. (See Sept. & Nov. ’57 HRM; Nov. ’11 & Mar. ’16 HRD.)

Carroll Shelby (left) and mechanic Joe Landaker pulled double duty at Daytona, entering John Edgar’s Ferrari 410 Sport in both the straight-line acceleration trials and the first sports-car race staged during NASCAR Speed Weeks. Rough sand on the usual road course forced a venue change to New Smyrna Beach airport for an SCCA-sanctioned event financed by bandleader and racing buff Paul Whiteman, “The King of Jazz.” Shelby’s victory here was among 19 straight wins this season. The 24 Hours of Le Mans was another in the incredible streak.

Lucky Shelby won the race and got the girl, too: Model, actress, and Daytona trophy queen Jan Harrison would become the second Mrs. Shelby (of seven!) in 1960.

Never before or since has any particular powerplant impacted a motorsport like Cliff Bedwell’s unblown Chrysler did on February 3 at Lions Drag Strip. Back-to-back blasts of 165.13 and 166.97, fully 9 miles per hour faster than any reputable speed to date, got all fuels other than pump gasoline banned overnight, literally: Santa Ana announced its ban the next day, followed by Lions and most other SoCal tracks. NHRA went gas-only for the 1957 Nationals (then nationwide in ’58). SCTA introduced a dozen gasoline classes intended to wean lakes racers off of nitromethane. We thought that HRD had published every file photo from that fateful day until we recently stumbled onto this lone frame on a roll labeled “1932 Ford Coupe.” Though driver Emery Cook and engine-builder Bruce Crower developed the barrier-busting combination, Ed Iskenderian’s saturation-ad campaign convincingly credited a “fifth cycle” of combustion unleashed by a cam that Isky rebranded as the 5-Cycle Hyperbolic Crossflow 7000. (See Oct. ’57 HRM; Nov. ’11, Mar. ’14 & Mar. ’16 HRD.)

Had Norm Grabowski not succumbed to cancer in 2012, at 79, news that his iconic roadster pickup recently resold for $484,000 surely would’ve stopped his heart. Man and machine were captured during setup for Oakland’s ninth National Roadster Show.

At a March office party, Racer Brown received one of the countless custom greeting cards that Tom Medley drew for colleagues on special occasions. HRM’s popular Tech Editor was quitting the publishing racket to open Racer Brown Camshaft Engineering, specializing in hardcore-racing applications.

Just when we started to accept that every archive image of these T-buckets together at the Santa Ana Drags had surely been published at least once, the late Wally Parks gifted us this shot from the staging lanes. Contrary to erroneous reports in publications including HRD (ouch!), this was not their first match. They’d previously raced at Saugus Drag Strip, advises Tommy Ivo, who claims both wins. They never did again. After Roy Brizio Street Rods finishes restoring Grabowski’s T to its Kookie Kar glory, we’ll look forward to an overdue reunion. (See Apr. 20, ’57, Life; June ’57 HRM; Aug. ’57 CC; Mar. ’16 HRD.)

“Notice how far back the motor was in the car,” says Ivo (left). “I was killing them in Street Roadster class until the next-fastest guy noticed one day at Lions. You couldn’t have more than 10-percent setback. When they finally measured, I couldn’t even run Competition Roadster, which allowed 25 percent; I had to run Tony Waters with his fuel roadster! Well, that was the end of that. My crew guy is Dick Henman. His shirt says ‘Tom,’ so it must be one of mine. That roll bar was attached to the Model A frame with 3/8-inch bolts. I wonder why I had a rag in the end of the header. Maybe I was afraid of ants getting into the motor?”

We e-mailed all three outtakes from the Sunday that Life magazine visited Santa Ana Drags to 82-years-young TV Tommy, who called in fellow Road King member Jim Miles, 85, for assistance identifying the sharp dressers. (“Jim is older, but he hasn’t had as much tire shake!”) Ivo pointed out the white Road Kings club shirts, adding, “If guys wanted to be part of the pit crew, they had to wear white pants, as well. Going right to left, Larry Sutton is standing next to me, Dick Henman is on the passenger side, Ron ‘Reggie Rughead’ Rayburn is next to him, and between them, in the rear, are the head and shoulders of Dale Nordstrom. The others are spectators.”

You’re looking at a 1950s version of the two-story tower complex, fully portable. C.J. and Peggy Hart’s beater hearse contained the homemade timers for the Orange County Airport taxiway that magically transformed into Santa Ana Drags on Sundays from 1950 to 1959.

A crowd gathered at Hollywood’s Competition Motors, the German-car importer and repair shop renting space to Von Dutch, for what looks like the unveiling of El Caballo II’s pretty paint. He’s standing to the right of owner-builder-driver Ak Miller (in airman’s jacket), beneath Dutch’s “wailing” wall art. A month after HRM’s Eric Rickman captured the scene, the car landed in Europe for what amounted to a 992-mile shakedown run. In a postrace letter to HRM from Italy, Ak listed the mechanical woes that made him the second entrant to drop out—well after prerace favorite Stirling Moss, whose brake pedal fell off eight miles from the start. (See Mar., Apr., May & July ’57 HRM; Mar. ’58 MT; Nov. ’11 HRD.)

No staffer got backstage as often as Motor Trend lead photographer Bob D’Olivo, who excelled whether shooting vehicles or people, especially celebrities. Bob was on the set of This is Your Life the day that singer-actor Tommy Sands was lured to the hit TV show by his parents. Among the teen heartthrob’s surprises was an enlarged gold record commemorating a million-plus sales of his hit 45, “Teen-Age Crush,” presented by a slick label guy while Mom and Dad posed approvingly.

Here’s one interesting photo that we can be 99.99-percent positive has never been printed. Extremely rare among archive images, double exposures resulted from staff photographers becoming distracted by something—or someone—and failing to advance the film roll between shots. Another pose of Barbara Martinez in a setting that the late Gray Baskerville might’ve called a “beachin’ background” ultimately ran on CC’s racy “Coming Attraction” page, teasing an upcoming tech article about the “reversed-rim wheel, the latest styling craze on the Pacific Coast. Starting out on pick-up trucks, the trend to wider tires has been taken up en masse by the custom car fraternity. Cost for reversing wheels generally run [sic] between 4 to 5 dollars. Chrome plating costs approximately fifteen dollars a wheel.” (See Oct. & Nov. ’57 CC.)

After what must’ve been a very long day of multiple outfit changes in three different photo locations, Barbara Martinez seemingly has had enough of that chrome-reversed wheel and her photographer, CC Editor Dick Day.

Former teen supermodel Sandra Dee had just landed in Hollywood when Bob D’Olivo photographed the aspiring actress reading an April 30 Los Angeles Mirror-News article that opened, “She may be another Elizabeth Taylor.” Indeed, Sandra soon became world famous for a movie role based on author Frederick Kohner’s young surfer daughter, Kathy, the real-life Gidget. (Last time we visited Duke’s Restaurant in Malibu, longtime-hostess Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman was still greeting customers near the beach that her story made famous.)

“Most businesses try to hide their mistakes,” goes an old journalism saying, “but we editors publish ours.” Not all of them surface in print, however: This sequence is the first we’ve seen or known of R&C’s company truck colliding with a ’54 Ford. In the final frame of Spence Murray’s roll, he was photographed from behind by someone using the Editor’s own camera.

Sorry, we have no results for the Triumph TR3 at Santa Barbara’s May road race.

Prankster Eric Rickman apparently put the pretty lady up to grabbing an unsuspecting Wally Parks from behind. She may or not be dancer-actress Cyd Charisse, who made a parade lap of IMS with the Borg-Warner trophy in the Indy 500 pace car.

For its third iteration, the ever-evolving R&C Dream Truck sprouted distinctive fins from Ohio’s Metz Custom Shop. The project pickup’s much-publicized “wide-base” wheels sped the nationwide transition from modified hubcaps to chrome rims. (See May ’57, Mar. ’58 R&C; Mar. ’58 HRM; July & Nov. ’57 ML; ’58 HOT ROD Annual.)

MT Editor Walt Woron must’ve been a fearless road tester to climb into one of these homemade contraptions for a Nov. 1957 cover story subtitled, “We Flew … and Drove … the Flying Car!” The inventor, described as a former Navy pilot and engineer, had built and flown three production models since unveiling a prototype at Robert E. Petersen’s 1951 Motorama show. The detachable wings and tail folded into a 400-lb. trailer. A reported half-million-dollar investment to date was “supported by wife Neil’s beauty shop, and selling stock at $100 a share,” said MT. Powered by 320ci, 143hp, air-cooled Lycoming engines, they reportedly reached 100 mph airborne, with a range of 300 miles, while topping out at 67 mph earthbound.

It’s a tough job, but somebody had to pose those “Coming Attraction” models smiling at us from the last inside page of every CC. The Mar. ’58 edition identified the blonde as, simply, Miss Virginia Bell, but historian Greg Sharp recognized a famous ’50s stripper known as “Ding Dong” Bell. Along with an extraordinary number of poses, staff photographer Al Paloczy’s film rolls contained a feature on painter Dick Jackson’s custom T-bird.

Television was still relatively new, but Barris had already mastered the medium. We can’t read the engraving on a trophy purportedly being presented in this Los Angeles studio in October, but suspect that George was promoting an upcoming custom show in nearby Alhambra.

Scallops were seen everywhere this year, including on the playground where pioneer custom painters Jeffries (center) and Barris (right) joined Joe Zupan’s ’56 F100 and John Chavez’s ’55 Olds for a Motor Life shoot. We didn’t find any of Al Paloczy’s aerial shots in our incomplete 1957-’58 ML collection, but both customs did eventually appear in sister titles. (See May ’58 HRM; June ’58 CC.)

Robert E. Petersen had plenty of reasons to celebrate a year that sent newsstand sales and subscriptions soaring to new heights. MT Editor and apparent bunkmate Walt Woron got the candid shot during a November tour of European automakers.

Junior’s Fiery Memories (As Told to Greg Sharp)

Hershel “Junior” Conway was still painting for Barris when it happened. December 7, 1957, was a windy, rainy night. The wooden roof was of course soaked in paint, solvent, and thinner. Boxer Archie Moore’s magnesium-bodied, Raymond-Loewy-designed Jaguar burned, as did Jayne Mansfield’s pink ’55 Jaguar XK-140. George wanted to pack it in afterwards—go get a job somewhere—until his then-fiancée, Shirley Nahas, convinced him to stick it out and finish the Ala Kart for the 1958 Oakland show. So, the building was rebuilt and extended to the sidewalk. That’s where Lloyd Bakan opened an accessory shop, Wilfred Manuel did upholstery, and Dean Jeffries painted and pinstriped. In the process of identifying pictured vehicles and people for these captions, Junior revealed or confirmed details that only an insider would’ve known. —Greg Sharp

The chopped ’41 Ford coupe with hardtop styling is a total mystery. George owned the ’56 Continental Mark II in the foreground, originally painted “Sam Bronze,” now pearlescent white. The ’36 coupe in the background belonged to Ron Guidry of the Long Beach Renegades (soon to be named CC’s Car Club of the Year for 1958).

Junior was stumped by the ’56 T-Bird and the full-fendered ’32 roadster getting quad headlights. Imagine the view of the busy shop’s activity from those second-floor apartments!

Jay Johnston’s latest revisions to “Chimbo” Yamazaki’s evolving custom included canted quad headlights, a ’57 Olds bumper-grille assembly containing two Edsel grilles, ’56 Buick taillights, and Cadillac bumper ends. Note the charred interior of Ron Guidry’s ’36 coupe and, just beyond, a ’51 Ford that sat outside after sectioning, awaiting an owner who never returned.

Junior remembered the ’41 moving outdoors years earlier, abandoned by someone who failed to pay off the chop job. The Imperial was brought in by the president of an oil company.

In the first frame, customizer Jay Johnston (left) and longtime Barris employee Curley Hurlbert observe Archie Moore’s melted magnesium Jaguar. The ’54 F100 is the Wild Kat of Martin and Morris Srabian, a radical custom featured posthumously in CC (June ’58). After the shop rafters burned, a heavy-duty engine hoist further lowered the cab’s lid. (Wouldn’t we love to dig through that pile of parts?)

    The post Customs were Red Hot—In More Ways than One–During an Eventful 1957 appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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[zipgrowth]

MIA in School: Instilling a Sense of Purpose in Students

“Dad, I want a narwhal cake for my birthday.”

“A narwhal cake?”

“Yes, a narwhal cake.”

I have a ten year old who knows exactly what he wants.

“So you want a cake with a picture of a narwhal on it? The whale with the unicorn horn?”

“First of all, there is no evidence that unicorns exist. Second, it’s not a horn; it’s a tooth. Third, I don’t want a cake with a picture of a narwhal on it, I want a narwhal cake. A cake in the shape of a narwhal.”

I don’t know where his sense of purpose comes from. But it permeates everything he does. He knows what clothing combinations he wants to wear to school. He knows he wants to decorate his Valentine’s box with wolves. He knows that he wants to spend his Saturday morning creating an alpine landscape out of papier-mâché. He knows he wants to read Moby Dick over fall break. Yes, Moby Dick. We couldn’t talk him out of it. He is on page 108.

I should be grateful that I have a child who seems to know what he wants in life, knows what he wants to learn about, and moves confidently towards the future. This is actually quite rare. A recent MindShift blog, by Linda Flanagan highlights the work of Dr. William Damon who studies this issue. Flanagan writes:

“Having a sense of purpose is ‘the long-term, number one motivator in life,’ said William Damon, author of “The Path to Purpose.”To have purpose is to be engaged in something larger than the self, he said; it’s often sparked by the observation that something’s missing in the world that you might provide. It’s also a mindset that many teenagers appear to lack, according to research Damon carried out at the Stanford Center on Adolescence: About 20 percent of high school kids report being purposeful and dedicated to something besides themselves. The majority [of high schoolers] are either adrift, frenetic with work but purposeless, or full of big dreams but lacking a deliberate plan.”

School, for the most part, doesn’t help students find purpose. And the consequences are enormous.

Researchers found that 70 percent of students who didn’t finish high school said they were unmotivated. In college, the stakes are even higher. Recent studies show that most students do not graduate on time and over 40% of them do not graduate at all within six years of their start date. While there are many factors that play into this dismal outcome, according to the 2015 ACT College Choice Report, research has shown that one issue is the alignment (or lack of alignment) between a student’s core interests and their chosen major. This alignment, called interest-major fit, is positively related to persistence in a major or college. Other research demonstrates that this also correlates with a higher college GPA. When it is missing, students battle to complete their education.

How do we expect the next generation to design the future if they can’t design their own lives?

Students who struggle with a sense of purpose include some very high achievers. They appear “successful” by traditional measures of achievement but don’t always know what or why they are achieving. This can have serious consequences later on. I spoke with one former college student who had taken all of the AP classes he could at his high school, earned a high GPA, and was accepted into multiple universities. After a year of college, he dropped out.

“I didn’t know why I was there,” he told me. “I had just done everything that everyone said to do for so many years. I was pushed along. But I didn’t know what direction I wanted to go.”

We adults may be part of the problem. In many ways, we have designed what students may want and care about out of the structure of school experience. This can create a situation where students feel little personal ownership in their success. We unwittingly teach them that their interests and desires are subordinate to those of the textbook, the schedule, and our collective vision of their future.

We sort them by age, not aptitude; govern learning by bells, not mastery; teach to the test, not to their interests.

We are not creating leaders this way; we are creating followers. We are not creating innovators; we are creating consumers. How do we expect the next generation to design the future if they can’t design their own lives?

In my previous role as the Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education and in my present role as ISTE Chief Learning Officer, I am struck by how often we find that students, and even some teachers, feel disengaged with school. Nearly half of middle and high students in a 2016 Gallup poll reported being either not engaged or actively disengaged in school. And yet as I travel the country, I encounter examples of schools where nearly every student is fully engaged and excited to be there.

What’s different?

Where student and teacher agency is respected, supported, and rewarded, engagement skyrockets.

When students are given voice and choice in their learning, when teachers are given flexibility to respond to these needs and interests, the school setting becomes more meaningful for both of them. This flexibility opens the door for teachers to better align school experiences with the students own sense of purpose.

Purpose is not something we can give students, but it is something we can help them find.

In light of this, we at the Department worked to support more active, learner-driven approaches to educational technology. Whether it was updating guidelines for early learners to encourage active co-viewing of media with adults, or advocating for personalized learning systems to be more attuned to the interests of the students they were designed to serve, we encouraged leaders and educators to put the learner at the center of the active use of digital tools. And in my present role, we focus our ISTE standards for students on helping educators foster empowered learners who are knowledge constructors, innovative designers, and creative communicators.

This is exactly what drew me to participate in a design residency with IDEO’s Design for Learning team earlier this year: their ethos of re-envisioning learning systems to be deeply human-centered and their fierce advocacy for the students and teachers in those systems.

IDEO’s Purpose Project embodies this very human-centered approach.The Purpose Project provides an app paired with a set of collaborative, small group activities that high school and early college students can use to start discovering and building intention and purpose into their lives. It empowers students to design exploratory experiences that relate directly to their interests. Through this process, students become more reflective and intentional about their own interests and motivations both inside and outside of the classroom. And by approaching learning and life through the lens of what matters the most to them, they are able to bridge their learning in school with their lives outside of school.

IDEO isn’t the only one working to open up pathways for purpose. The Future Project places “Dream Directors” in schools to “unlock the limitless potential” of students by coaching them through a journey of self-discovery that leads to student-led, purpose-driven action that positively impacts the student’s school and community. GripTape Learning Challenge provides youth with an adult “champion” and a small budget to support them in intensively learning about something they are passionate about outside of school. RoadTrip Nation provides learners with thousands of career stories that “illuminate diverse pathways and careers” and an interactive tool to help them explore their own unique combination of interests and relate those to career possibilities.

Developing a strong sense of self, an understanding of personal strengths and acting on what a person finds most meaningful is not going to be listed on a high school transcript (at least not yet!). But those skills and experiences may be better at determining whether or not a student graduates at all.

Of course, many of us don’t know exactly what we want to do in life, and even if we think we do, we find our notions changing with time. That’s okay. But it is frustrating to lack the tools to help us get from where we are to where we might want to be. While high school counselors can help students with this process, a national average of 491 students to one counselor makes it extremely challenging to reach every student. By allowing students to lead their own learning and exploration, we are teaching them to be intentional. This helps them develop long-term capacity to shape their environment to better align to their needs and goals.

Whether that leads students to a college major that fits their interests or to a professional trade that they find fascinating or to satisfying explorations and experiences unrelated to their work life, they are much more likely to be invested in something that will ultimately help them feel happy and fulfilled. Something that will make their life more meaningful, more purposeful.

Purpose is not something we can give students, but it is something we can help them find.

MIA in School: Instilling a Sense of Purpose in Students published first on http://ift.tt/2x05DG9