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rinsuniverse · 1 year

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request: "Woozi with a creative-type significant other? As a writer that dabbles in creative non-fiction and poetry, the things woozi creates in his music is just inspiring and makes me want to reach people just like he does through my works ^^ btw ur woozi stuff is so cute. Ur content is the things I want to dream about"

[6:03]

i feel like woozi would LOVE having a creative s/o!

so here are some scenarios for a creative-type reader x woozi 🫶

i think since woozi would love having your company, it wouldn't be uncommon for you two to be on a video call whenever he's doing work in his studio

you both would do your own things and not even bother talking with each other much

so imagine he's at his studio and you're at your house

on your screen is jihoon (who's practically completely out of the frame), but you can see the purple lights in the studio and the windows behind his desk

you're focusing on researching inspirations for a novel you're writing!

"oh wow! that's cool, i didn't think of it like that," you say to yourself as you research

"hm?" he hums, moving so his face is in in the frame of the call

he's def not looking at himself on call so he can make sure he looks good for you. psh.

"oh, you know that novel idea i had? i'm looking for more inspo for it"

"that's cool. what have you researched so far?"

"well, actually, i'm reading fan theories behind your song lyrics."

he gives you the most judgmental face istg "what?"

"like deeper meanings behind your music. it's really inspiring"

he chuckles and rests his cheek on his fist as he adores you in the camera

"tell me about it"

he pauses his work to carefully listen to all the hidden meanings fans theorized about for his music

sometimes, he finds himself surprised that fans interpret it so well

he loves listening to you ramble about things you find inspiring or interesting

he'll sit there and listen to you, all of his attention on you for that while

he can't help how his cheeks become rosy when you say his music inspires you

i mean, that's something he wishes his music did for people

and when he hears your positive feedback, it means so much more than the endless feedback he gets from fans and coworkers

he'd definitely make more songs that you tend to find inspiring for your creative works for future albums (aka putting even DEEPER meanings into his lyrics just so he can see how you interpret it yourself)

another scenario!

imagine you're both at your house

you're listening to seventeen's music in your earbuds and jotting down some poetry as you listen

this is another scenario where you're both kind of doing your own thing in each other's company

he's had a lot of time doing his own thing that he notices after awhile that you're actually there with him

and so he moves closer to you, sitting next to you (shoulder-to-shoulder)

he gently places a hand on your thigh and leans his head gently on your shoulder, trying not to disturb your train of thought

you immediately close your notebook and set it aside, making him slightly pout

"do you need something, ji?"

he shakes his head. "no, but what were you up to?"

"just writing some stuff"

he nods. even though he's so curious, he doesn't push it.

"what are you listening to?"

"this really cool group called seventeen"

he laughs, grabbing the earbud you're offering him and putting it in his ear

"you know, i have the guide for this song in my computer at the universe factory if you ever want to listen to it"

"that'd be great," you smile. "wanna know what i was writing about? this song inspired the poem."

he nods, leaning off of your shoulder to watch you open your notebook again

"it's embarrassing to read this, to be honest," you chuckle

"don't be embarrassed. don't worry so much, it's probably great."

and you read him the poem

and like

WHEN I TELL YOU THIS MAN IS WHIPPED FOR YOU AND YOUR CREATIVITY

"this is so good, y/n/n, this is crazy."

he would love listening to you read. he loves listening to you talking (bonus points if you sing).

but when you read something you wrote yourself out to him

he feels this sense of pride

like "oh my god, i'm dating such a creative person... how did i get so lucky?"

when like? stfu why would he even think that when he is who he is 😭 but he def would think that

he'd def ask for your permission to use some of your poetry in his songs!

one last scenario for other creative-type readers! (since this post is kinda short)

if you dabble in visual arts, this is for you!

woozi is so- he's so pretty and cute and like- literally has me dying (i draw him realistically or doodle-like sometimes!)

and imagine you're at his studio and you're sitting on his couch, sketching him in some outfits or doodling him doing wooahae or other silly things

he's working on his music (SURPRISE!)

and you say "hey, jihoon, i'm gonna step out for a bit to use the bathroom, i'll be back"

and he nods and you disappear for a bit

he gets to a stopping point and stretches his arms, pushing his seat away from his desk

he turns to look at where you were sitting on the couch to remember "oh yeah, they needed to use the bathroom"

and he gets up and can't stop himself from looking at the open sketchbook on the couch

his ears get rosy when he sees drawings of himself, but his jaw def drops when he notices how talented you are

like? you might've mentioned you liked art but? what the hell, he had no idea you were this good?

he may or may not have taken a picture of the drawings lmao

he goes back to his work and pretends nothing ever happened

it's not until you're talking to him many weeks later about feeling down or disappointed in yourself that you find out he's seen your drawings

"yeah, i know i'm worrying too much, but i just feel really down about myself... i'm not anything special, to be fair."

he listens to you thoughtfully, but he hates listening to you talk down about yourself "you're very special, don't think that about yourself or say anything bad about yourself. you're worthy of great things. i mean, not everyone is as talented as you or sweet or thoughtfu-"

"talented?"

"um, yeah? have you seen your art?"

"you've seen my art?!?!?!"

he has to explain himself and reassure that seeing your art isn't anything for you to be embarrassed about and tells you that you're so so talented, and he loves how creative you are

so yeah 🙇‍♀️

anyway, thank you for the request and for your support! i hope you loved woozi x creative-type!reader 🫶

(p.s.: requests are now open!✧( ु•⌄• )◞◟( •⌄• ू )✧)

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falciesystemessays · 2 months

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As a game designer, I will say something you probably don't expect from me:

Online personality quizzes are video games.

They are interactive digital media for the purpose of entertainment. There is no reason not to consider them in conversations about game design unless you think of them as simply a lesser medium. I'm going to be talking about them here through the lens of game design, because it's honestly fascinated me for a long time. If you want to check out my track record, check out this quiz I made in high school as a supplemental for a tabletop game, and this quiz that essentially functions as a Gender Dysphoria Diagnosis. Now then!

What is the core appeal of a personality quiz? Well, it's pretty straightforward, to discover something about yourself. It's kind of an inverse of the character creator, instead of self-expression the aim is to find something that you can't express. But even so, answering the questions themselves are a form of self-expression. I feel like expression and self-discovery are often left out of conversations about design, because they're a lot more personal and difficult to quantify than something like challenge. But they are often vital to making a play experience work. It's really important when you play that you feel like your style of play is your own.

To get philosophical for a second, the nature of a personality quiz will necessitate two core assumptions: 1) that there are distinct types of people that can be neatly categorized, and 2) that answering questions in an online quiz is an adequate way to determine someone's type. This is not uncommon, it is the basis for psychological diagnoses after all, but inevitably it leaves gaps in capturing the full human experience. In quizzes this usually manifests in two ways: Either the answer doesn't capture your experience, or the questions don't.

This is a really noticeable thing on uQuiz, and anybody who's been on that site knows the common pitfalls: Asking you to pick song lyrics from an artist you don't listen to, asking you to pick aesthetics when none of them really resonate, or lacking the appropriate nuance when talking about complex issues. At that moment, the game breaks down. It stops being about expressing the self, and becomes about what kinds of people the quiz's creator can imagine.

There is a certain narrative component to all this. A quiz tells a story, even if a small one. It can tell you something about yourself, but it will also inevitably say something about the person who created it. And that doesn't have to be a bad thing. If you ask the right questions, and ask them the right way, you can guide your audience towards realizing things just by how they how they answer. You can, with effort and care, make a solid piece of art out of an online quiz. But not everybody is looking to do that.

Look, I've skirted around it for a long enough time. We all know uQuiz is mostly populated by people in high school or younger than that, and most of them will never read this post. This is functionally a site for amateur game developers to make something quick and easy, but they're not using the same gamic language as itch.io or Newgrounds or Scratch. And that's fine, like i'm not saying it's bad that young girls and queers have a space to be creative and have fun. But it does mean that, as someone who is Not a teenager and who works in engines like SRPG Studio, i am not exactly built to thrive in this climate.

The quizzes that get the most popular tend to be the most immediately clickable, stuff about fandom or relationships or whatever meme phrase is popular that day. Anybody who makes art for the internet knows the importance of clickability, of being immediately eye-catching with a promising pitch. And what a lot of these titles end up emphasizing is the quiz creator themself. There is an undeniable social component to making or taking a quiz. Because the quiz maker can see all of your responses, there is an extent to which both the creator and the taker are getting to know each other. This is, honestly, the secret sauce that I only realized as I was writing this. There is a real community and sense of fellowship with modern online quizzes.

So what do we make of all of this? Well, using the MDA framework, we can see that some of the core play aesthetics for an online quiz are Expression, Discovery, Narrative, and Fellowship. If I were to give some advice for people making quizzes, it would be to lean into these more. Give players more options for expression, ask more meaningful questions, give more insightful results, and make it your own in a way that's hopefully endearing and not irritating. Other avenues for quiz-making might be ones that lean more into fiction, asking players to roleplay as a character, rather than answering as themselves. It might be using the format to give specific goals, like asking players to find the way to a specific result. It might involve playing with agency, giving players intentionally few or too many options to comment on the nature of the question. But honestly? Just have fun! I take it on myself to think too hard about this stuff, because it helps me grow as a designer. I think it's really fascinating to see how game design crops up in places that aren't normally considered "games." But honestly, if this post caused the vibe of uQuiz or Quotev or whatever site to change, I'd be horrified. Honestly just, game design is really cool. That's the takeaway.

#game design #uquiz

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istherewifiinhell · 2 months

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were back to our (ir)regularly scheduled bullshit!

[ID: Splash page with the issue title and creative credits. Megatron is bound up in cables, some plugged into him, effecting repairs. He speaks: Remind me to thank you when i get down from here, Shockwave. Meanwhile, resumption of my command must begin now. Shockwave: You don't seem to understand. These autobots you see lying dead on the ground are there because I put them there. The Decepticons you see barely clinging to life are in that operating mode because of you. Until I intervened, Autobot victory over us was assured.* The evidence says your leadership was faulty, Megatron. Logic says I must assume command of the Decepticons. Editor's Note: *as seen in issue 8 END]

back to the USmarvel, The New Order, issue no. 5! (22-23 UK reckoning) from feb 1985!

Script: Bob Budiansky Art: Alan Kupperberg Letters: Rick Parker Colour: Nel Yomtov Editor: Jim Owsley EiC: James Shooter Digital Re-master by Digikore Studios Limited. Collection Edits by Justin Eisinger and Alonzo Simon. Editorial notes and assistance by Mark. W. Bellomo

now... welcome back digital re-master. just in time for me to rip you a new on... bare with my folks...

so this issue opens with new king bitch in town, shockwave, conducting research into humans via television. so uh.., they put honeymooners in my transformers comic?

[ID: Both images of a Full page B&W illustration, two men stand behind a table, one asking "Whatsa matter Ralphie-boy?" Ralph, staring wide eyed, dead ahead, grips a chair saying "Homina-Homina-Homina!" A woman looks in through a window, with a scowl. 1. The illustration uses blocked inks, and half-tones for the characters, but the background and objects have mid and dark halftones added in an almost painterly fashion. 2. The art now with most of the tones and shading removed, everything left either black, midtone, or stark white. END]

surely. one of these images is higher definition. but which one looks BETTER? now its possible this is actually about which master copies they were working from. perhaps a rights issues? (the uk printing replaces this page with a different image) but i note here ALSO. they removed the artist, Kupperberg's, signature form the bottom left corner. a hateful affair all told.

though, this doesnt just piss me off to see an artist works edited, and made to SUCK! (tho boy does it...) my friends... comrades, fellow bloggers. lend me your eyes. DO they see this the way mine do? cause ill eat my fucking hat if that's not DUOSHADE paper. the infamous medium of many a B&W indie. not familiar? check out my previous blogging on the friendly neighbourhood martial reptiles. but i digress.

if this. this INSULT to my very being wasnt enough. they also recoloured shockwave from a perhaps accidentally stunning shade of magenta to a cool lavender... which i personally just found quite boring. well. most of the time

[ID: 1. UK printing, Shockwave seated on throne like seat, coloured very warm toned purple. He listen to a sports broadcast and says "These humans are even more primitive than I thought." 2. Digital remaster, Shockwave's profile visible, coloured red, as he watches a news reporter. END]

the very first image of this post has another, red shockwave, btw. I suppose, they could be printing or colouring errors, but they could also be lighting/compositional choices by Yomtov (its not uncommon for his foreground characters to be done in monotone, particularly, purple) either way they corrected for it. and to me, this instance just comes of that whatever work flow being used, doesnt even flag the second figure AS shockwave, so a redwave remains...

i stress. i never blame any individual who does this work. its to them, just a job, and why should it not be? my ire is with IDW, and why they enact these "restorations" anyway, and why the fuck people ought to pay new money for old art that has been given so little respect...

anyway reading the print version meant a lot of tabbing between the us and uk printings. which is why i noticed this

[ID: The crediting for the colourist, Nel Yomtov. In the US printing the say "Colors" and in the UK "Colour", the S removed, and a U added. END]

im just amused by the effort taken... surely the kids dont care that much? and yes apparently they do this every time.

JEEZE CREESY WHO CARES. LETS SEE SOME ROBOTS

[ID: Shockwave watching the news, off panel dialogue Reporter: Ms. Beller, you have been called a computer genius even though you're only a few years out of high school. What is your role in this? Beller: It's true I designed the secondary and tertiary oil recovery systems Reveal of Beller, a very young looking woman in a jacket and a hard hat. She continues: --the semi-automated defense system, the refinery's non-polluting digitized micro-scrubbers. But I consider it all just a part of my job. END]

shockwave learns the alarming news that a new female character is being introduced!

[ID: 2 page spread, the bodies of almost every single introduced Autobot are hanging from the ceiling, damaged and "bloodied". Shockwave scrolls under them, saying "Indeed" END]

also. check this shit out

anyway WHATS going on between shockwave and megs?

[ID: Shockwave pointing to the still bound Megatron: You will explain now how you permitted our position to deteriorate so drastically, Megatron. Megatron, mostly off panel: As… Commander… it is your right to demand anything of me. It is my privilege to oblige. END]

OH. its like that huh?

[ID: Shockwave offpanel "--Should logic so dictate." A close on Megatron, he thinks "Talk, Shockwave..." A close on his repairing hand twitching "...talk while you still can!" END]

well maybe not for long...

anyway... turns out the WAS a reason we saw ratchet helping those EMT's

[ID: Ratchet driving into the hospital parking lot. Buster calls out "Ratchet!!" who responds "Greetings, Buster Witwicky how nice to see your carbon-based face again!" Buster asks "Ratchet, where've you been?" END]

I hope your all ready to become extremely endeared by ratchet, or else just put up with it. cause...

[ID: Buster and Ratchet, still in alt mode, continue to speak, while EMTs are searching for the source of this mysterious voice. Buster: If they attacked the Autobots they should all be broken-down junk-heaps by now! Ratchet: Wonderful! I knew your father was a human we could trust EMT 1: I'll look behind the grill, Mel! EMT 2: I'll check under the seat cushion, Gus! Four people react in shock as Ratchet shouts: Do you organic creatures mind? I don't go poking around your mouths to see how you talk, do I? END

my beloved....

[ID: Ratchet on the road, stopped at a red light, as Buster rides inside. Ratchet: Listen, friend traffic signal, we're in a hurry, so if you could please turn green… Buster: It doesn't hear you, Ratchet, it's only a machine. Ratchet: I'm a machine, and I hear you, Buster! Buster: Yes, but you're different, you're-- Inside view as the light turns green. Ratchet: Ahh, he changed! Thank you, friend traffic signal. May the rest of the day find you in proper working order. You see, Buster, you have to learn how to talk to people. Buster: I… I'll try to keep that in mind, Ratchet. END]

this is so charming can we get corey burton and uh. well rest in peace don messick.., so just corey burton twice will do, to record his.

oh and anyone interest in timeline of when tf lore gets introduced (me... thats... mainly just me)

[ID: Shockwave points to Megatron: As always, you underestimate Optimus Prime, Megatron. No, he will not be cut up into wires and microchips. His value is far greater to us if we keep him functional, for it is logical to assume that an Autobot of his stature contains within him--The Creation Matrix! Megatron thinking: By the divine weld! The Creation Matrix is the computer program that allows its possessor to construct new transformer life! Its power is the stuff of legends! Shockwave continues: It is said once every ten millenia a new Autobot leader is chosen and encoded with The Matrix. END]

MATRIX MENTION? everyone have their lore bibles out? someone WRITE THAT DOWN.

[ID: Buster stumbling through the Ark in shock, "N-no… it can't be true! There must be some explanation! There must be! Wait a second… I didn't see Optimus in there…there's still optimus… there has to be--" He walks into a room with Optimus Prime's severed head, plugged into grand machinery. Buster yells "--Optimus!" Prime, weakly: Buster Witwicky… You must help me… you are… the Autobots… last hope…" End card-- Next: Oil Rig Assault! END]

OH MY GOD!

#some shit #wifi reads cisformers #wifi blogs marveltf #dont let me getting apoplectic about the remaster distract you. this issues actually pretty cute! nice... EVEN #now i could have split that off into its own post. but shit. you have the ability to scroll. now get yee gone #also. easter egg of sorts i suppose. any time the caps seem extra crunchy. thats the us print #the uk printing scan was easier on my eyes. but some of the pages are in B&W!#my oath of honour. i will always use bond megatron images as the headers. wear applicable #okay i have a couple of these in the can but posting this one in hopes i can go back to actually. READING THE DAMN THINGS #not right now tho i have to get out of my room its too hot and i need FOOD. fuck

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fredfilmsblog · 1 year

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Best of Original Cartoons: Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake

FredFilms Postcard Series 3.7

• How a casual web comic became a MAX series.

Don't think that Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake isn't for you.

Starting as a tossed off web comic by Natasha Allegri –then a storyboard revisionist, now creator/showrunner of Netflix's Bee and PuppyCat– in the summer of 2010, Fionna and Cake starred in some massively popular episodes included in the the original Adventure Time series and then spawned merch, costumes, cosplay and comics.

Mathematical! A woman had the chance to be the hero of her favorite show.

It wasn't uncommon to find gender reversed fan fiction in aughts. But of course, Natasha did her fan fic with art that was perfectly on point. Eric Homan, AT creative executive, put it on our Tumblr and the fandom went nuts.

Soon enough, Cartoon Network would greenlight an 11-minute one-off and lo and behold, an already hit series had it's most popular episode yet. More followed over the next several seasons and if you happened to be at a comic con women who had been cosplaying other series characters all of a sudden were all over the place as Finn-now-Fionna.

KaBOOM! comics knew how popular their Adventure Time was, but they couldn't have anticipated the success of the Natasha written/drawn F&C books.

What we have here is a gen-u-ine phenomenon.

Adam Muto, the showrunner and executive producer of Fionna and Cake, has been with the original Adventure Time series longer than even creator Pendleton Ward. He was Pen's sole Los Angeles co-worker on the original short we produced for Nickelodeon in 2006, went with the show to Cartoon Network in 2009, eventually becoming the creative director. When Pen moved to a consultancy role, Adam became the stellar showrunner, bringing the characters to new and continuing intriguing places. He ran the movie mini-series starring Finn and Jake, Distant Lands, and then took on the leadership of Sam Register's Cartoon Network Studios putting together a full blown F&C series.

Today, MAX drops the first two episodes of a complete Fionna and Cake cartoon series, cementing Adventure Time's status as a bona fide franchise, the coin of the realm in our streaming world.

A web comic-to-series success!

Rhombus!

.....

From the postcard back:

Congratulations! You are one of 125 people to receive this limited edition FredFilms postcard!

www.fredfilms.com

Adventure Time Fionna and Cake Created by Pendleton Ward Original characters by Natasha Allegri

Executive Producers Adam Muto Sam Register, Fred Seibert

Series 3.7 [mailed out August 28, 2023]

#FredFilms postcards #Series 3 #Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake #Fionna and Cake #Pendleton Ward #Natasha Allegri #Adam Muto #Sam Register #MAX #Cartoon Network Studios #Adventure Time

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 10 months

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Animation Face-Offs

I find it amusing that the first real major animated movie box office show-off is occurring some 35 years after the one that arguably started it all...

November 18, 1988... Walt Disney Feature Animation's celebrity-loaded modern musical OLIVER & COMPANY from first-time director George Scribner, and Universal's release of the Steven Spielberg/George Lucas-produced ex-Disney director Don Bluth adventure THE LAND BEFORE TIME...

This wasn't the first time two animated pictures opened next to each other.

In fall 1982, Hanna-Barbera's HEIDI'S SONG opened opposite a Looney Tunes clipshow anthology movie called 1001 RABBIT TALES. Combined, they made $5m at the domestic box office... Not great times to open an animated feature that wasn't Disney, and not that their distributors probably even cared at the time anyways.

Sometimes, there are around two animated features a month. It's not uncommon for two studios to share. Off the top of my head, you had - in November 2010 - MEGAMIND at the beginning of the month, and TANGLED before Thanksgiving. In the early summer of 2013, MONSTERS UNIVERSITY only opened about a few weeks before DESPICABLE ME 2. TROLLS and MOANA shared November 2016. Again, just random examples off the top of my head.

But usually, they're spaced out... TROLLS BAND TOGETHER and WISH are five days apart...

TROLLS 3 is projected to take in around $20-25m this weekend, which is significantly less than what TROLLS took in back in 2016, but still alright for this kind of movie. WISH is set to out-open it, with over $50m for the 5-day Thanksgiving weekend stretch. For a $200m-costing movie, it's going to need all the legs in the world to get by. TROLLS 3 will need to pull some good weight too to more than double its much more modest $95m budget. (Wild to think that $95m seems *low*... There was a time when a DreamWorks/PDI movie cost $75m... And for a good while, roughly $135m!)

I'm curious to see how each film affects one another. Families aren't made of money, and there's gotta be a kind of adult pull to really make big bucks, and I'm not sure if either of these films have that. Plus you have stuff like WONKA right around the corner... Thankfully no Marvel, Star Wars, or Avatar movie to counter with. Although, PUSS IN BOOTS Dos last year, woooooow. That cat held his own against the blue cat aliens.

But yeah, if you think about it... This is a rare head-to-head race.

One could argue we saw this in late winter of 2021 when Warner Bros. released their live-action TOM & JERRY, and then Disney Animation had RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON out a week later. But that was before vaccines got out for all age groups (they were distributed to the elderly first, I - who was 28 at the time - couldn't get my first shot until April.), and the films had simultaneous streaming debuts, so I don't really count that. Plus, Cinemark theaters refused to show RAYA over a disagreement on who got most of the earnings. (That would've been my return trip to the movies after a year-long hiatus, my return ended up being A QUIET PLACE: PART II two months later.)

It's funny how TROLLS 3 is Universal and WISH is Disney... Just like how LAND BEFORE TIME was Universal, and OLIVER was Disney.

The Disney-Universal race was successful for both. OLIVER took home $53m domestically (the $71m figure you often see comes from the film's 1996 re-release), LAND BEFORE TIME took home $48m. Worldwide is up the air, because Disney never released OLIVER's numbers, Universal reported that LAND made around $84m. Winner is unknown, but it was always assumed to be LAND. Maybe because dinosaurs are more Universal than a modern-day New York comedy? Who knows!

Perhaps greatly inspired by that double-whammy of animated hits, MGM/United Artists wanted to try that for themselves. Don Bluth split with Spielberg and Lucas due to creative disagreements during production of both LAND BEFORE TIME and his other Spielberg collab AN AMERICAN TAIL, and set up ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN with the lion. MGM/UA released ALL DOGS the same day as THE LITTLE MERMAID...

Bluth's movie got left to sink by the Ron Clements and John Musker-directed musical sleeper hit... It wasn't even close. $27m domestic vs. $84m domestic, and in addition that, MERMAID's worldwide figures put it at roughly $183m. (Again, in 1989-90, without the 1997 re-release counted.) ALL DOG's worldwide total is unknown.

This didn't entirely scare distributors away from trying again.

The fall of 1990 was originally set to see another Bluth vs. Disney face-off. If plans had held, MGM-Pathe would've released Bluth's ROCK-A-DOODLE on the same day as Disney's sequel THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER. MGM-Pathe ran into financial and legal problems, putting Bluth's film in limbo for a bit...

Instead, Warner Bros. went toe to toe with Disney, releasing an animated feature that wasn't a Looney Tunes clipshow: THE NUTCRACKER PRINCE... Suffice to say, it barely scrounged up $1m domestically, and Disney's sequel had troubles of its own, stalling at $29m domestically, $47m worldwide.

Two films fled from the autumn of 1991, as BEAUTY AND THE BEAST looked to not be a repeat of RESCUERS DOWN UNDER, but a repeat of LITTLE MERMAID and OLIVER's successes... 20th Century Fox - who had FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST - and The Samuel Goldwyn Company - who picked up ROCK-A-DOODLE - chickened, literally in the latter's case...

Only Universal had the guts to take on the beast... By releasing AN AMERICAN TAIL: FIEVEL GOES WEST the same day. The Don Bluth-less sequel made only $22m domestically, while BEAUTY AND THE BEAST made... $145m in North America alone, and blew up with $331m around the world...

After FERNGULLY and ROCK-A-DOODLE wisely fled from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, they duked it out in April 1992. DOODLE opened the first weekend of the month, with FERNGULLY following. FERNGULLY won with $24m domestically, DOODLE struggled with $11m. (It's worth noting that DOODLE first came out in the UK in August of 1991.)

Universal initially thought they'd have WE'RE BACK! A DINOSAUR'S STORY ready to compete with ALADDIN, but they likely realized that that was not a great idea... WE'RE BACK! opened over a full year after ALADDIN and still flopped hard. It opened nearby BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM, which also made a paltry amount.

From there on out, things were typically spaced out. Sometimes the smaller efforts opened close to each other.

And now here we are, Thanksgiving week of 2023... We have trolls vs. wishing stars. Universal vs. Disney. It'll be fun to watch, but I hope the two film crews of both get to put food on their tables once more.

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playthelaughtrack · 2 years

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A Rabbit and a Mouse Walk Onto a Movie Set...

Updates and Announcements.

Hey y'all! I've been writing off and on for this fic, and wanted to drop a bit of behind-the-scenes information.

First off, as I am both a student and a working actor, I write for this fic in between classes, rehearsals, and auditions. Thank you all for your patience thus far!

Second, this fic will be posted here and on my AO3 account, playthelaughtrack. New chapters will appear on AO3 before they are uploaded here!

And finally, I've rewritten this first chapter so many times, amd I think I've finally latched onto a start I like. That being said, if you'd like to read a non-canon, previous part of the first chapter, it will be under the cut below! I felt like it was a bit too bland of an intro for the silly tone I wanted to set, but it's an interesting read nonetheless. I hope you enjoy this little crumb while I desperately try and finish this thing lmao

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It's almost comforting, in a way to be as exhausted as you currently were. After all, less sleep meant more work was done, more hours well spent! Or, at least, that's what you liked to tell yourself. Maybe it was for your own conscience, to convince yourself that not only was horribly messing up your sleep schedule a normal thing, but also was what made you so successful.

That, or you were too tired to rationalize anything better. Probably a mixture of both.

As writers stumbled into the room, you could tell they felt the same way— eyebags, sleepy yawns, and cups of various caffeinated drinks were donned by every person present. That was the life of a working creative.

As soon as everyone is settled, you stand up from your chair at the end of the table. The room falls into a hush.

"Thank you, everyone, for coming in this morning," You begin, stepping towards the whiteboard hanging on the back wall. "I know this film's had more than a few rough spots, but we're going to pull through. You all need to be working double time— yeah, yeah, I know. Whoever groaned in the back, I felt that. But it's gotta be done! With the arrival of Bugs and Mickey—"

WIth that, you pin a piece of paper onto the board from the company CEO, ordering that the film would feature multiple cameos from big name toon stars to generate more income at the box office. The room erupts into chaos. The Bugs Bunny and the Mickey Mouse?

It wasn't uncommon, per say, to hear those two names in the same breath. The pair of faces from rival cartoon studios were constantly the main topics of cartoon critics everywhere, endlessly debating over who had the best ratings, characters, gags, merchandising… you couldn't help but wonder how the two actors personally felt about this silent competition.

A part of you felt weirdly sentimental about it. Clawing your way to the top, stepping on so many toes to get where you were, working long days and nights was just the way of life for a famous director, like yourself, to make it anywhere.

It wasn’t uncommon to antagonize other directors, writers, anyone whenever they got a little too good. But in a sense, it was almost admirable. The dedication put into every aspect of creating was enough to wear even the most determined souls down. You shake your head to rid yourself of the thought… There was business to discuss.

No use in wasting time to romanticize it.

You awoke the next morning to the usual sounds of falling anvils and fire alarms, taking a good look around your on-studio home— you wouldn’t consider yourself messy, but there was a good amount of takeout boxes in your trash bin accented wonderfully with stray bits of clothes scattered about. Home decor at it’s finest, really.

______________________________

Thank you for everyone who has stayed around for so long! Love you all. <33

#A Rabbit and a Mouse Walk Onto a Movie Set #looney tunes x reader #toon x reader #mickey mouse x reader #bugs bunny x reader #who framed roger rabbit

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compellingselling · 1 year

Photo

EA Sports FC branding is built around the triangle that’s central to game play

Nicely done. See the full range of applications here. Design by Uncommon Creative Studio

#branding #rebrand #logo design #advertising education #Uncommon creative studio #graphic design

0 notes

miniimapp · 2 years

Note

Can u Do Jesse X Reader Headcanons Pls

Gen ;; Fluff - Headcanons

Warnings ;; None

Proofread + edited ;; Probably not, no

Auth. Note ;; AOSJODBOBE YESSS JESSEEEEE - i love this man with my whole heart i can't help it please-

I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG !! YOU WEREN'T FORGOTTEN JUST SITTING (COMPLETED) IN MY DRAFTS FOR NO REAL REASON AHSJSDJFBV

Enjoy !! <3

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

Jesse is definitely one dramatic ass man

Like,, romantic gestures aren't uncommon in your relationship at all but when Jesse goes all out, he goes all out

I'm talking dim the lights with scattered rose petals on the bed as slow, romantic music plays on a gramophone in the background kinda all out

And he loves to do these sorts of things for you

Jesse knows that he can't always be around for you when you need him to be and he feels terrible about it

Mans has some issues with guilt and anxiety that we can get to another day

So he likes to make it up to you with big gestures and time spent together

Spending time with you helps Jesse relax and unwind

His love language is quality time

Jesse isn't an introvert or extrovert - he's a you-trovert

(that was so stupid but so help me it's staying in)

After long days of work Jesse is tired and clingy - though he tries his best not to be

Hold him,, just- just please hold him

Just being with you gives him the motivation to continue the day

Jesse is the biggest advocate for both of your privacy

Like,, if you guys aren't public or anything he will savour that shit like a drowning man savours his last breath of oxygen

Jesse definitely clings to what privacy he has left

He feels like a lot of what he wanted to stay private slipped through his fingers like sand and he mourns his losses deeply

Jesse loves his fans and being a part of 4*TOWN but he can't help but wish it didn't come at the cost of his privacy

Though sometimes he finds it really hard to stay quiet about you

Like,, impossibly hard

The other boys, specifically Robaire, will have to cover his mouth before he accidentally goes on a tangent about how ethereal you look 24/7

Jesse uses pet names a lot

He likes to have titles and names that mean something special - that are reserved just for the two of you

His go to pet names are: darling, love, sweetheart, sugar and honey

I have a feeling Jesse hates using baby and babe

Like,, if you use them it's fine, he loves it !!

But he hates how they sound when he says them.

If you're uncomfortable with pet names not to worry !!

Jesse will absolutely try his best to not let them slip out

If you didn't clue in earlier, Jesse feels all of his emotions very deeply

He's used to trying to bottle them up and feels uncomfortable talking about them

Jesse is kinda of the therapist friend in that regard,, very much not the healthiest when it comes to expressing himself

His art is a way that he chooses to let out his emotions without talking

I think deep down Jesse really does want to talk about things like this with the people he trusts but he just never knows where to start and how to go about beginning a conversation like that

Take notice of his behaviour - he'll start practically living in his art studio under the guise of having a creative overload

Jesse will also space out more or sometimes he'll hyperfocus instead

Just ask him what's up, let him know that he can talk to you and if actually saying words is too much he can always write down what he wants to say

Build a bridge between the two of you and give Jesse the option to cross over, to open himself up to you

He will,, just give it some time and don't push beyond your initial reaching out

PLAYING WITH HAIR AHSDIUBDF

This man loves to play with your hair

Specifically braiding it, mans loves a good braid

And hey if you want wanna run your fingers through his hair Jesse definitely isn't gonna complain

And he definitely uses so many hair care products

Jesse will tell you the best hair masks to buy for any and all hair types

If you ask him to help you take care of your hair or want to help him with his he will be over the moon !!

IF HE SEES YOU HELPING HIS KIDS WITH THEIR HAIR ??

MELTING

IMMEDIATELY ON THE FLOOR CRYING

HE'S SO GONE FOR YOU ISTG-

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

i am so so sorry this took so long !! this has just been sitting in my drafts (completed) for the longest time because i've been so focused on the theater au that ISN'T EVEN FINISHED YET AKEBDIWBFSIB

hope you enjoyed <3

#4town jesse #4*town jesse #4town #4town jesse x reader #4*town jesse x reader #4town headcanons #headcanons #4town x reader #x reader

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paralleljulieverse · 2 years

Photo

70th anniversary of Jack and the Beanstalk Coventry Hippodrome, 164 performances (23 December 1952 - 28 March 1953)

This week marks the 70th anniversary of a milestone event in the juvenile career of Julie Andrews: the opening of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Coventry Hippodrome on 23 December 1952. It would be Julie’s fourth annual pantomime, following Humpty Dumpty (1948), Red Riding Hood (1950) and Aladdin (1951).

That Jack and the Beanstalk was a provincial production -- rather than a West End show -- could be misconstrued as a career comedown for the young star. After all, twelve months earlier she was principal girl in Aladdin at the London Casino and the following year she would headline the 1953 production of Cinderella at the London Palladium. But an appearance at the Coventry Hippodrome was no small affair.

The Showplace of the Midlands

Dubbed “The Showplace of the Midlands”, the Hippodrome was an ultra-modern Art Deco entertainment palace lovingly built and managed by automobile industry baron cum entertainment impresario, Sam Newsome. With a massive 2000-seat auditorium, multi-levelled foyers and bars, twelve dressing rooms and its own broadcasting studio, the Hippodrome occupied over one and a quarter acres in the heart of Coventry. It was the biggest and most up-to-date theatre in the country -- and it quickly established itself as the foremost Midlands venue for touring dates, attracting a stream of headline acts and hosting regular seasons from major companies including The D'Oyly Carte Opera and Sadler’s Wells Opera (Newman 1995).

The Coventry Hippodrome was especially celebrated for its spectacular Christmas pantomimes. Newsome took “personal pride and delight in his pantomimes” and ensured they “possessed a thoroughly exclusive quality” that distinguished them from run-of-the-mill seasonal fare (Stephens 1965, 6). Planning for each year’s panto would start months in advance with generous budgets, top-notch creative talent, high production values, and big star names.

It was a calculated business strategy on Newsome’s part. Not only would each Christmas panto be an assured money-earner for his theatre, but, once it had debuted in Coventry, it would subsequently be re-mounted -- using the same scripts, sets, costumes and, sometimes, cast members -- in other theatres. It was not uncommon for a different Newsome pantomime to be playing simultaneously in five or six theatres around the country (Auty, 20; Newman, 77). In the case of Jack and the Beanstalk, for example, Newsome would re-stage the show repeatedly over ensuing years including runs at the Dudley Hippodrome in 1953/54; the Derby Hippodrome in 55/56; the Swansea Empire in 56/57; the Brighton Hippodrome in 57/58 and the Bradford Alhambra in 59/60 (The Stage).

Launching Jack and the Beanstalk

In early 1952, Newsome announced that his next Christmas pantomime at the Coventry Hippodrome would be an “entirely new and magnificent production” of Jack and the Beanstalk, a popular source for pantos since the early-19th century and a sure-fire crowd pleaser. A “firm believer in maintaining the well-loved traditional features of Pantomime”, Newsome’s production of Jack adhered faithfully to the plot of the well-known fairy tale about the adventurous village lad turned Giantslayer, but with lashings of pantomime essentials of music, spectacle, comedy and dance. (Newsome: 1).

Overseeing the production and taking on directorial duties was Laurence Green, something of a right-hand man for Newsome throughout this era. The book was developed by the celebrated lyricist team, Barbara Gordon and Basil Thomas, who were also Newsome panto regulars. Other key members of the production team included costume designer, Michael Bronze, and set designers, Josef Carl and Tod Kingman, who created a series of impressive backdrops and props including a giant hand that in one scene whisked Julie aloft into the theatre fly tower (Foxon: 6; Whetsone: 3). In terms of music and dance, there were seventeen full musical numbers with a mix of classics, pop standards, and bespoke compositions, all arranged and orchestrated by the Hippodrome’s longtime music director, W.E. Pethers. Celebrated choreographer, Pauline Grant was commissioned to develop several dance routines including an Act 1 closing ballet sequence and a grand finale parade.*

As always, one of the most important elements in the show was its roster of on-stage talent. And for Jack and the Beanstalk, Newsome assembled a star-studded line-up from the fields of theatre, variety, film, and dance. To optimise marketing potential, the principal cast was announced in June, a full six months before the show was set to open. Julie was cast in the principal girl role of Princess Bettina, alongside Joan Mann as Jack; Eddie Henderson as Dame Durden; and, the undoubted comic star of the show, Norman Wisdom as Simple Simon (‘Norman Wisdom to star’: 6).

Stories and profiles about the stars were fed in regular instalments to the local and regional press, ensuring continued exposure and boosting public anticipation (’Pantomime Star’: 4; ‘Julie is so determined’: 6). Julie even made a ‘surprise’ PR visit to Coventry in the first week of November to join the theatre’s special Birthday Show (‘Behind the footlights’: 9). The star-driven marketing paid off handsomely with brisk ticket sales. By early-December, a quarter of a millions seats had been booked -- a theatre record -- and the run was extended from 12 to 14 weeks (’Quarter of a million...”: 4).

The Singing Princess

Though she would be second fiddle to the show’s top billed player, Norman Wisdom, Julie was an important drawcard for Jack and the Beanstalk. Much was made of her youth and the fact that, at just seventeen, she was the youngest principal girl ever to appear in a Newsome pantomime (’Pantomime Star’: 4; ‘Julie is so determined’: 6).

And, as John Cottrell (1968) notes, “[f]or the first time in her life she was treated like a star” (62). She was given one of the theatre’s best dressing rooms with its own private bathroom -- and Newsome made sure that it was decked out with fresh flowers each week, even during rehearsals (Andrews: 146; Cottrell: 61).

Julie also commanded a star-like fee, securing a contract for a whopping £250 per week, reported to be an era record for a pantomime principal girl (Cottrell: 61). It was a burst of newfound wealth that allowed the young star to buy her first car -- which she dubbed ‘Bettina” in honour of the character she played in the show -- and assume control from her parents of the mortgage on ‘The Old Meuse’, the family home in Walton (Andrews: 147).

As Princess Bettina, the object of Jack’s affection who is rescued by the young hero and united with him in the mandatory happily-ever-after finale, Julie had one of her biggest stage roles to date. Combining moments of royal pageantry, abduction and imprisonment, thrilling rescue, and budding romance, the script afforded an opportunity for the young actress to flex her growing dramatic talents.

Needless to say, Jack and the Beanstalk also showcased Julie’s most famous asset: her voice. She was given six full musical numbers in the show -- four solos and two duets -- comprised of:

‘If You Feel Like Singing’: This popular Warren-Gordon song had only recently been introduced in the 1950 MGM film, Summer Stock, where it was performed by Judy Garland (Larkin 1992). In the show, Julie sings the number in Scene 1 as her character is wandering alone in the forest and is spied by Jack who instantly falls in love wth her. With its lyrical ode to expressive singing and repetitive tra-la-las, the song would have provided a perfect showcase for Julie’s brand of light coloratura trilling.

‘Am I in Love’: Another newly-minted Hollywood number, this Oscar-nominated song by Jack Brooks was first performed by Bob Hope and Jane Russell in the 1952 Paramount release, Son of Paleface (Benjamin and Rosenblatt 1993). In the show, Julie sings it in Act 1 as a duet with Jack (Joan Mann) and reprises it again a few scenes later as a solo.

‘You Made Me Love You’: This well-known pop standard by Monaco and McCarthy was first performed by Al Jolson in 1913. It quickly became an international hit and part of the Great American Songbook, covered by a wide variety of famous vocalists including Jeanette MacDonald, Bing Crosby, Doris Day and, in a slightly revised version, Judy Garland in The Broadway Melody of 1938 (Whitburn 1986). In the show, Julie sings it in Act 1 as a duet with Norman Wisdom in the comic star role of Jack’s bumbling younger brother.

‘Yesterdays’: This classic ode to lost loves from the 1933 Kern and Harbach musical Roberta has been performed by many singers over the years including Irene Dunne, Mario Lanza, Barbra Streisand and Kiri Te Kanawa (Larkin 1992). One can only imagine how lovely Julie’s version would have been, sung as the imprisoned Princess pines for her home at the start of Act 2.

‘The Belle of the Ball’: Written in traditional Viennese style, this bouncy LeRoy Anderson waltz was introduced in 1951 and quickly became a light classical standard that has been played over the years by countless pop orchestras and school bands. It also has a lesser known sung version with lyrics by Mitchell Parish (Whorf 2012). It is that version that Julie performed in the show as her final solo. Hippodrome music director W.E. Pethers clearly liked LeRoy Anderson because Jack and the Beanstalk featured another of the composer’s orchestral works, ‘The Syncopated Clock’, used for the opening dance in Act 2.

‘You Belong to Me’: This romantic ballad was another newly-minted hit in 1952. First recorded by Joni James, it was made famous by Jo Stafford in a chart-topping single that became an international sensation. With its lilting melody and evocative opening lyric -- “See the pyramids along the Nile...” -- it became one the era’s most popular love songs and was recorded by many of the biggest vocalists of the 1950s such as Ella Fitzgerald, Patti Page, Dean Martin and, in the UK, Alma Cogan (Larkin 1992). The song was used in Jack and the Beanstalk as the final love duet between Jack and Princess Bettina.

A Who’s Who of Jack and the Beanstalk

Alongside our Julie, other key talents involved in the cast of Jack and the Beanstalk included:

Norman Wisdom as Simple Simon: The beloved 'sentimental clown’ of British theatre, film and television, Wisdom shot to meteoric fame in the late-40s and early-50s with an appealing brand of character-based physical comedy. Sporting a trademark crumpled suit and upturned tweed flatcap, he crafted an endearing persona nicknamed "The Gump," a well-meaning, bumbling Everyman who failed at everything but won hearts in the process. A talented musician and vocalist, Wisdom included songs as a central part of his act which he would use to great effect in accentuating the warm-hearted pathos of his comedy (Bullar and Evans: 186). As with many stage performers of the era, Wisdom made frequent forays into pantomime, starting with a well-received debut in Robinson Crusoe at the Alexandra Theatre Birmingham in in 1948/49. By the time of Jack and the Beanstalk, Wisdom was a major star and the show gave him free rein in several set pieces including five songs, three of which he wrote himself. In his memoirs, Wisdom (2002) fondly recalled his time in the show, making special mention of Julie who, he writes, “had a freshness about her that was totally captivating” (181). Following Jack, Wisdom went on to an even bigger career in film with a string of hit comedies for Rank that saw him become one of the most popular stars of British cinema of the 50s and early-60s. Though his style of sentimental slapstick would fall out of fashion, Wisdom remained a much-loved national icon. In recognition of his contributions to British cultural life, he was knighted by the Queen in 2000. He passed away in 2010 at the grand age of 95 (’Sir Norman Wisdom’: 29).

Eddie Henderson as Dame Durden: Though he is little remembered today, Scots-born Henderson was a popular figure of mid-century British theatre and variety. A self-taught dancer and comic actor, Henderson had a diverse career that stretched across music hall, cabaret and ‘legitimate theatre’. In the inter-war years, he toured widely in revues and productions around the UK and abroad. He played opposite a young Ronald Colman and even co-wrote a play with Reginald Furdell (Ashley: 2). Henderson was especially renowned as an accomplished panto Dame. He played a long line of comic Dames from the 1930s into the early-60s, earning him the soubriquet “Queen of Dames” (Durbridge: 5). Jack and the Beanstalk would be the first of several pantomimes that Henderson would do for Newsome during the 1950s, before retiring in the early-60s.

Joan Mann as Jack: Welsh-born Mann trained as a dancer and started touring the variety circuit in her teens where she appeared on bills with stars including Max Miller and Tommy Trinder. A tall attractive brunette with a pleasant voice and shapely dancer’s legs, Mann was a perfect pantomime boy. She played in top pantos in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Liverpool, before making her Coventry debut in Jack and the Beanstalk. Julie relates in her memoirs that she and Mann roomed together during the run of Jack and, despite a 15-year age difference, they became firm friends. Mann would re-team with Julie in 1953 as part of the musical revue, ‘Cap and Belles’ (Andrews: 146). Mann’s greatest fame came as part of the celebrated Fols-de-Rols variety troupe with whom she performed for almost two decades. She also starred opposite Dame Anna Neagle in the hit West End musical, Charlie Girl in the late-1960s. Mann died in 2007 aged 87 (P.N.: 53).

Finlay Brothers as Rack and Ruin (The Broker’s Men): One of the many novelty acts popular in mid-century variety, the Finlay Brothers started as a comic musical trio in the late-30s. Billed as “the English replies to the American Marx Brothers”, they blended song, dance, slapstick, sketch comedy and vocal impressions into a fast-paced routine (’What’s On’: 10). When one of the brothers called it quits following the war, Jack and Herbie Finlay continued as a duo, using a classic straight man/clown pairing. One brother would try to sing and act dramatically but the other would forever interrupt with ludicrous gestures and facial expressions, setting the scene for a manic spectacle of physical comedy. It played well in the era and, come Christmastime, the Finlay Brothers would be in demand as comic supports for panto. In Jack and the Beanstalk, they played the comic duo part of the Chancellor’s bumbling officials with much opportunity for audience-pleasing slapstick. The Finlay Brothers continued variety touring and Christmas pantos into the late-50s before retiring (’Pantos last’: 4).

The Four Fredianis as the Giant’s Acrobats: Part of a multigenerational lineage of Italian circus performers dating back to the 17th century, the Four Fredianis was a family group of acrobats comprised of father, Giovanni, and his three sons, Rolando, Guglielmo, and Bruno (Cochran: 38). Giovanni had grown up performing in his own father’s circus troupe in Europe before branching out on his own. He settled in the UK where the Four Fredianis moved from circus work into the more stable and lucrative field of variety and theatre. In fact, the Fredianis shared an earlier variety bill with Julie as part of the Look In revue which toured through the spring of 1952 (‘At the Theatre: 4). In Jack and the Beanstalk, they were cast as ‘The Giant’s Acrobats’ encountered by Jack on his way to the Giant’s castle, but their role was essentially to bring increased spectacle and physical excitement to the show’s proceedings.

Gerald Cuff as King Hal: Playing the part of Princess Bettina’s ‘merry monarch’ father, Gerald Cuff started his career in repertory where he performed for many years as part of the celebrated Derek Salberg Company in Wolverhampton (’Personality’: 13). During out-of-season spells he would appear frequently in pantos, many of them for Sam Newsome. In fact, he would reprise his role as King Hal in the Dudley Hippodrome season of Jack and the Beanstalk the following year (B.M.: 6). Cuff’s lasting claim to fame came in 1958 when he was cast as ‘The Bosun’ in the popular British TV series of Popeye (Ashley, R.: 20). In his spare time, Cuff was a publican in his hometown of Wolverhampton. He died in 1963 at the sadly young age of 58 (’Obituary’: 7).

Carole Greer as Fairy Goodheart: Trained as a ballet dancer from childhood, Scottish-born Greer started her theatrical career at age 16 when she first appeared in pantomime during school holidays. She then toured the variety circuit for a few years as part of a dance duo with Barrie Manning. Greer was subsequently championed by choreographer, Pauline Grant, who cast her as principal dancer is several shows, including Jack and the Beanstalk (Thespis: 9). She appeared for two seasons with the Gyndebourne Opera Company, including a tour of Germany (’Flying opera’: 5). She also performed in a few London shows, notably Fun and the Fair at the Palladium in 1953. Like others in the cast, Greer would reprise her role as Fairy Goodheart in the Dudley Hippodrome season of Jack and the Beanstalk the following year (B.M.: 6). Thereafter, the public trail for Greer grows cold. Like many women of that era, she may have married and changed her name and/or possibly retired from the stage.

Humphrey Kent as Giant Blunderbore: Born in Hertfordshire, Kent was a regular in regional theatre throughout the 40s and 50s. He had an early success as part of the cast of the touring production of Lesley Storm’s Great Day in the mid-40s. Thereafter he seemed to settle in to a steady stream of local productions with the occasional brief appearance in film and TV. He did some film voicework including working with Julie on the British dubbed version of the Italian animated feature, The Rose of Barghdad (1952) where he voiced the part of Tonko (’Rose’:43). A tall, well-built man with a booming voice, Humphrey was ideal for the part of the Giant, a role he would reprise several times over the years (’Panto Giant’: 9).

John C. Wright as Demon Discord: Born in Northampton, Wright studied at the Repertory Theatre where he appeared opposite Sonia Dresdel and Freda Jackson. A classically trained tenor, he performed widely in opera and musicals in the interwar years, including several seasons with the Carl Rosa and Sadler's Wells Opera Companies. After the war, Wright went on to become manager of the Sadler’s Wells Opera but continued to perform periodically in various theatre productions. He did some early TV work including an appearance in the the landmark serial, Quartermass Experiment (Foxon: 6). In Jack and the Beanstalk, he played the Giant’s malevolent henchman, the Demon Discord, a role he would recreate the following year at the Dudley Hippodrome (B.M.: 6). Wright died in 1963 at the age of 64 (’John Wright’: 21).

The Astaires as Ethel the Cow: No pantomime would be complete without a ‘skin’ role and in the case of Jack and the Beanstalk that is Dame Durden’s long-suffering cow. Variously named Daisy, Buttercup, Daffodil, Mabel or, as here, Ethel, the cow is an important part of the story and a source of competing comedy and pathos for the audience. Pulling it off while cloaked in a heavy costume and operating multiple parts is no mean feat. In the case of this production, the job fell to Jimmy and Ernie Astaire, two brothers from a family of entertainment troupers. Their father, George Astaire founded a stilt-walking puppet troupe, the Seven Gullivers, that toured the country and was especially popular as a novelty act in pantomime. After their father died, the sons continued the troupe while also branching out with their own novelty duo act whose showpiece would see them tap dance on stilts up and down a staircase. They even performed the act as part of the 1947 Royal Command Variety Show. The Astaires did double duties in Jack and The Beanstalk, playing both Ethel the Cow and also leading the Seven Gullivers troupe who played the part of the Giant’s Henchmen (’It’s Hard Work’: 5).

The Betty Fox Babes: One of many companies of dancing juveniles popular in the era, the Betty Fox Babes were products of the Betty Fox Stage School in Birmingham which was started in 1938 by -- you guessed -- Betty Fox (Norris: 29). The School grew to be one of the biggest in the Midlands and it would provide troupes of well-trained juvenile dancers for most of the area’s big theatres, especially for pantos (’The Babes’: 3). In 1988, on the occasion of the School’s 50th anniversary, it was claimed that the Betty Fox Babes had appeared in over 150 pantomimes (Norris: 29). In Jack and the Beanstalk, Fox provided a group of 12 ‘babes’ who performed in several of the show’s lavish dance sequences, both independently in the ‘Pantry Playtime’ sequence and alongside the show’s adult Corps de Ballet in the two big act-closing ballets choreographed by Pauline Grant.

Critical and Popular Reception

Jack and the Beanstalk was well received by audiences and critics alike. The following excerpts give a sense of the uniformly glowing notices earned by the show, with particular mention of Julie:

Coventry Evening Telegraph: “[T]he S.H. Newsome presentation, Jack and the Beanstalk, which began its run at Coventry Hippodrome last night, is...a huge parcel of enjoyment....There are jolly songs, lively dancing, and first-rate speciality acts. All this and Norman Wisdom, too...Then there is Julie Andrews, pretty, fine-voiced, 17 years old and already an experienced artist. A charming princess, she... never indulges in the tiresome tricks of some panto principals. She sings instead of cooing, smiles and looks straight instead of simpering. This is a pleasantly fresh interpretation of a role easily sugared into inanity" (Whetsone: 3).

Coventry Standard: "Jack and the Beanstalk...is the finest, most opulent and attractive spectacle in the series of “Newsome shows”...Norman Wisdom is a comedian of undoubted gifts and great personal charm [and] Julie Andrews sings most pleasingly and looks lovely” (J.T.: 7)

Birmingham Gazette: “It takes a true hero, too, to be worthy of Julie Andrews’s princess. Were she a classical ballerina, this pretty heroine could not set herself on such a pinnacle of remote and exquisite purity as she does in song. Her voice soars and sails, sweet or gay, into quite winning melody. She acts, too, with a clear-eyed simplicity” (Harvey: 5).

Evening Despatch: "Jack and the Beanstalk...is put on by Mr. S.H. Newsome with the customary lavishness. There are...a dashing Principal Boy in Joan Mann and a Principal Girl in Julie Andrews who has poise and assurance far beyond what might be expected in a 17-year-old” (Holbrook: 3).

The Stage: “Here is a pantomime to ‘bite’ on, and the traditional story line, without pantomime licence, is sufficient vehicle for a three-hour entertainment...Joan Mann’s principal boy is a tonic of gaiety and verve, and one is impressed by the sweet simplicity which Julie Andrews introduces into the part of Princess Bettina. Norman Wisdom...gain[s] the immediate sympathy and clamour of the audience” (’Christmas Shows’: 11).

Jack and the Beanstalk was equally popular with audiences. When the 14-week season ended on 28 March 1953 after 164 performances, Jack and the Beanstalk had broken every previous pantomime record at the Coventry Hippodrome. It had sold close to 300,000 tickets and attracted theatregoers from across the Midlands and as far afield as London. Taking to the stage on closing night, Sam Newsome thanked “this brilliant company who have given us a great deal of talent, enthusiasm, team-work and zest” (’Pantomime sets’: 3).

Notes:

* As an aside, Jack and the Beanstalk would be the start of two important relationships for Pauline Grant: with Julie -- who would become a frequent professional collaborator throughout the 50s and a lifelong friend -- and with Sam Newsome who Grant would end up marrying a few years later (Andrews: 146).

References:

Andrews, Julie (2008). Home: A memoir of my early years. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Ashley, Lewis (1939). ‘Lewis Ashley’s pageant.’ Sunday Sun. 24 December: 2.

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Auty, Donald. (2003). ‘Pantomimę profiles of times past.’ The Stage. 4 December: 20.

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Benjamin, Ruth and Rosenblatt, Arthur (1993). Movie Song Catalog: Performers and Supporting Crew for the Songs Sung in 1460 Musical and Nonmusical Films, 1928-1988. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland Press.

B.M. ‘This week’s shows: Dudley Hippodrome.’ (1954). Birmingham Weekly Post. 1 January: 6.

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Holbrook, Norman (1952). ‘Mr. Wisdom has punch and verve.’ Evening Despatch. 27 December: 3.

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#julie andrews #jack and the beanstalk #pantomime #theatre #British #coventry #coventry hippodrome #1950s #variety #music hall

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themainspoon · 11 months

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Thinking about the misery that is Silent Hill: Ascension again. And also consequentially thinking about how fucked up it is that gamers aren’t all staunch anti-capitalists again.

Like, I love video games, and I agree with people who say that they can be art (I may go a little harder on that belief than most, thinking that games should therefore be criticised as art, and that since games are art they therefore don’t always need to be fun or enjoyable to be good. [yes, I’m one of those people]). But if video games are art, than what is true for all other art is also true for video games, in that capitalism is bad for them.

If video games are art, than the Silent Hill franchise deserves so much better. Silent Hill has a huge legacy within the medium, Silent Hill 2 alone is a major source or inspiration for many later works, and a work that had cultural impact much greater than any capitalistic metric focused on sales or profits could ever show.

PT wasn’t even a full game, it was a teaser, and yet it was revolutionary. PT was a trendsetter and a trailblazer that stood as a powerful demonstration of the potential that video games as a medium had for horror as a genre, and for evoking powerful emotional experiences. It is a work that should have been preserved, archived for it’s immense cultural impact, made easily available for everybody who wanted to experience it. And yet, it now exists only on a few old PS4’s that are slowly deteriorating and that are inaccessible to the general public. The only way to get this game now is through piracy and jailbreaking a PS4. If video games are art, than a work as influential and important as PT being inaccessible is unacceptable.

If you truly believe that video games are art, than the current state of the medium should horrify you. No other artistic medium gets so cynically and consistently desecrated as video games do. We may think of this medium as one with immense artistic potential and value, but those who run the industry continue to show that they don’t. Witness what they have done to what was once one of the most important horror properties in the entire medium, it is not just bad and embarrassing, it is symbolic of how those in control of the medium view it. To shareholders and CEO’s, video games are not art, they are content to be cynically produced and consumed, not appreciated. To make money, and nothing else, Silent Hill: Ascension is merely an extremely egregious example of this fact.

As many before me have said, fuck Konami. But if we love this medium, than we have to realise that Konami isn’t the real issue. The real issue is that we live in a system that is actively hostile to art, and a medium as young as video games, and that requires as much effort to create as video games do, is one that is uniquely susceptible to the worst of what art becomes under capitalism. Artistic vision stifled for the sake if profit, bland and inoffensive taking precedence over bold and expressive, profit over creativity, consumerism over preservation and archiving.

Developers, the artists and creatives behind games, are treated horribly. We’ve all read the stories of inhumane crunch conditions and inexcusably cruel abuse that come out of big studios. We all have at least a vague understanding of just how hard being an indie developer is, we’ve all seen the good but flawed games released by double A teams who had to choose between releasing an unfinished game or watching their offices power get shut off. And we’ve watched as more triple A games get released in buggy, unoptimised, and incomplete states because greedy shareholders and corporate entities demanded their profits asap, with no concern for the quality of what was actually being released.

This is by no means a new or uncommon take, but the fact that every issue video games face as a medium, almost every valid complaint that the people who play them make, is unambiguously the result of capitalism cannot be overstated. And it really does beg the question, how do gamers not all become staunch anti-capitalists after seeing the effect this economic system has in their favourite artistic medium?

#a certified themainspoon classic

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fireintheflames · 1 year

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An IRL Update!

Just a general update on things, and some fun life hacky adjacent type things!

It's been a busy summer for sure, been trying to find something fun to do every weekend so I can hibernate guilt free in the winter. Some highlights:

Concerts! Including Styx in the rain, which was very fun! Learned that earplugs at concerts are 100% a must for anything inside, if only for the crowd noise. We used cheap Harbor Freight ones, like $5 for 100, worked pretty good!

Camping! which was delayed due to a combo thunderstorm/flood. We made hobo pies! Recipe: 1 cast iron pie iron (~$20) 2 slices of Hillbilly (TM) Bread, or similar soft wheat/white bread (think wonder bread texture) Fillings (i highly recommend PBJ for sweet, or cheese and pepperoni for savory, melty is ideal) Optional: Non-stick cooking spray (Spray inside of pie iron), put bread in each side, add filling. Clamp pie iron. Place in hot coals for about 5-10 minutes each side, flipping once. The edges should be dark, but not actively on fire. Remove iron from fire and unclamp, turn pie out onto plate and let cool until heat comfort level is reached. Eat!

Gardening! My lobelia, obedient plant, vervain, verbena, harebell, and anise hyssop flowered! I picked blueberries! My petunias have lived! I successfully transplanted lemon balm from cuttings (to a pot, the stuff is very aggressive and I'd like to bring it inside in the winter)/I somehow kept the "finicky" plants alive, but killed a nanny-berry (a notoriously hardy viburnum variety). The squirrels keep digging up my wild bergamot! But a 100% increase in bees and bugs, as was the goal! We have fireflies in our 1/4 acre city lot, which is very nice! (to see more bugs/birds, find out your city's grass cut limit and hang tight to it. Where we live it's a pretty generous 10", so lot's of "weed" plants can come up. We actually need to remove a lot of the beech and maples that are growing in places they really shouldn't (like 6" from the house foundation), but we've let all the clovers/violets/asters hang out. We also use a push reel mower and an electric weed whip instead of a normal two stroke mower, which both do a worse job of mowing grass but a better job of not annihilating the things we want growing!

Art fairs! I bought so many mugs, I'm going to need a second mug hutch! (My first mug hutch was the first piece of furniture I bought because I wanted it, not needed it. It is red, with dark green insides. The doors stick and the glass is cracked, but I adore it!). I collect mugs, but I may need to purge if I keep this up. I also bought a "rice vest". It's like a hot sock, but a vest. It has a bunch of little sections full of rice so the weight is evenly distributed. You can microwave it or freeze it. Great for my tense shoulders! I love it so much, I attached a picture!

Art classes! I took multi-media storytelling, which was basically working with collages! I made some pretty cool pieces, and it inspired me to start cleaning my side of the basement for an art studio. I'm going to sign up for more classes in the fall, see if I can get into the pottery courses (our local art center has all sorts of classes for adults, but the pottery ones are the most popular and actually have an order you need to take them to unlock them in). 100% recommend, it was nice doing something creative with other people.

Birding! Not too seriously, but I got a pocket guide and Miles bought some nice binoculars (the lad loves optics and lenses, it's the fun part of photography for him) and we take 'em on hikes! Highlights so far are some cedar wax wings (not uncommon, but not something we see a ton around where we live), a bald eagle, several great blue herons (the nature center by us is a big river/wetland, so lots of birds stop over), and a black crowned night heron. We also got caught in a surprise thunderstorm while looking at some red-winged blackbirds, which was an experience!

That's really for it, it's just been a busy time and I wanted to share! Have a wonderful day!

#actually blogging for once #long post #personal stuff

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thecalendarwomen · 2 years

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As both maker and muse, avant-garde fashion designer Emilie Flöge’s influence weaves through the history of Vienna and contributes to its allure as a cultural destination today. Born in 1874, Flöge advanced from seamstress to boutique owner at a time of rapid societal change. As she inspired—and was featured within—masterworks by the acclaimed Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, she also pioneered liberation for women through corset-free clothing with flowing silhouettes and ornate decorative motifs.

The fact that Flöge is better known for her collaborative relationship with Klimt neglects her exquisite craft and independent entrepreneurial success in Vienna during the fin-de-siècle. Flöge’s style was part of an international discourse that included French couturiers Paul Poiret, who removed bodices from his creations in 1906, and Coco Chanel, who introduced comfortable but elegant two-piece women’s suits. Though Poiret’s developments were primarily aesthetic, Flöge’s and Chanel’s were ideological and fanned attention to a sense of rebellion.

Flöge, with sisters Pauline and Helene, opened the salon Schwestern Flöge (which translates to “Flöge Sisters”) in 1906, four years before the first Chanel boutique opened in Paris. Being owned and operated by three women was an uncommon undertaking at the time, but its lively location on Mariahilfer Straße welcomed bourgeois women who became regular patrons. It was here that Flöge contributed to the expanding “rational dress movement” of reformed shapes, also known as the “Reformkleid,” where generous cuts with wide sleeves draped playfully over the wearer. Flöge embellished these dresses with patterns that drew inspiration from Eastern European embroidery, which imparted the smoke-like garments with a glamorous Viennese-bohemian spirit. This was radical, unrestricted fashion.

Schwestern Flöge was a predecessor to what we today refer to as a concept shop. Designed by architect Josef Hoffmann (who also imagined Klimt’s studio), it was uniquely furnished with geometric wooden chairs, checkered tables, carpets, and adjustable mirrors. It was also peppered with objets d’art and luxury items, crafted from tortoiseshell and lapis lazuli, that couldn’t be purchased. With the store’s detailed logo, which paired art nouveau text with a checkered border, a fully-formed brand captured the attention of Vienna’s high society.

Flöge’s role as creative head required everything from broad, trend-setting decisions to hands-on production work with clients. The studio expanded to 80 seamstresses at its height, and operated for 30 years. Both feats were a testament to Flöge’s acumen, as was her success beyond Vienna with a curious international market. At home, Schwestern Flöge became the leading fashion destination of its Viennese society—and this innovative venture paved the way for shopping in contemporary Vienna.

Today, concept shops and boutiques abound, from the hybrid fashion, art, and design store SONG, to Park, which highlights established and emerging Austrian designers. While Mariahilfer Straße is still a celebrated destination (especially with locals), Margaretenstraße plays host to the exhilarating boutiques Samstag, Unikatessen, Wolfensson, and more. Walking through the historic city center, as well as the Goldenes Quartier, provides ample access to items beyond clothing and accessories, too.

As fashion is ingrained in Vienna, so too is art. This is due in part to Klimt’s legacy, and his work appears in museums throughout Vienna—especially at the Schloss Belvedere, an acclaimed institution with a detailed Austrian art collection that also includes pieces by Egon Schiele and Koloman Moser.

In his time, Klimt purchased fashionable items from Flöge, but that isn’t how they knew one another. Their lives were intertwined long beforehand, with their first known correspondence taking place in 1895. Though it has been presumed they were in love, both were discreet about anything beyond friendship, which has been observed through nearly 400 written documents that they exchanged.

“Her intricate fashion was very much sought after and, much like Klimt’s paintings, a must-have among the fashionable and artistically minded.”

Sandra Tetter, director Gustav-Klimt-Centre on Lake Attersee

It’s her role in his art that has led to further assumption—from the “Portrait of Emilie Flöge,” where Klimt depicts her with shimmering splendor, to “The Kiss,” which is arguably his most famous work (and on display at Schloss Belvedere). In the former, Klimt displays the revolutionary golden style that will define him. With the latter, a couple—arguably Flöge and Klimt—passionately embrace, adorned with mesmeric attire that resembles her fashion.

In addition to painting Flöge, Klimt worked in collaboration with her. Together, they explored color and form, and she even produced designs that he made. In these, they were photographed together around Lake Attersee, a pristine destination (then and today) with exquisite panoramas. They regularly summered together in various villas along the lake, which today can be toured through the Klimt Artist Trail, organized by Sandra Tetter, director Gustav Klimt Center on Lake Attersee art center, which transports visitors to the artist’s time at the site where he created over 40 landscape paintings.

When Klimt died in 1918, part of his estate went to Flöge, and his purported last words were, “Get Emilie.” Klimt imbued Vienna with a golden luster that mirrors his own artistic achievements. For this, he has become a ubiquitous figure in the arts world, whereas Flöge has fallen into relative obscurity. Her legacy does live on, however, from an honorary grave in the Wien-Simmering cemetery to the global revival of attribution occurring today. Even Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli referenced Flöge’s “Reformkleid,” through liberated shapes and opulent patterns, with their Fall/Winter 2015 collection for Valentino.

A dazzling contemporary cultural attraction for its art history, grand café culture, extravagant ball season, and sheer natural beauty, Austria’s charm parallels that of Flöge’s—and to think of visiting Vienna or Lake Attersee means looking to her future-forward values and what they mean today.

#Emilie floge #Emilie Flöge #gustav klimt #art #art history #women in history #women in art #vogue #fashion #fashion designers

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