#well the context for Brett is A LITTLE DIFFERENT but I just found these scenes kind of similar | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dalekofchaos · 16 days ago

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The first What if scenarios.

Context

So I had a thought. What if in the timeline where William lives, instead of more suffering porn for Chloe, it's Max's parents who die in a car accident. With no relatives listed, The Prices take Max in as their legal guardians. Chloe does the best she can to help Max heal, but Max is still traumatized. Chloe retains her free spirit and positive energy, Max becomes a a goth, with a penchant for taking pictures. Like Lydia Deetz.

Losing her parents makes Max more withdrawn, while Chloe is there to help build Max up and help her throughout her mourning, just like she knows Max would be there for her if something happened to William. Since Chloe is technically Max's step-sister, there would be no Pricefield. But there would be potential for Marshfield and Amberprice.

Karen decides to stay for the kids, at least until Daniel graduates. Because Karen stays, she plays zombie with Daniel, avoiding Brett ruining everything and avoiding the Seattle incident.

Joyce finally chooses to be a mother for her daughter and stands up to David's abuse. What I mean is instead of only siding against David because Max said so. Maybe in episode 3, Max and Chloe talk about William, Chloe and eventually David. Max doesn't understand how they got together or how she can put up with David's treatment of Chloe. Joyce defends it like in episode 2, but a sudden crack in her voice. You can properly convince Joyce that David’s mistreatment of Chloe is wrong was wrong. Then David returns and David's blinded by rage and snaps at Chloe right in front of Joyce and Joyce has had it and finally stands up for Chloe by kicking him out. Joyce then hugs Chloe and apologizes for taking his side for all these years and Joyce realizing that she made a mistake and that all they really needed was each other

Always bothered me that Joyce only begins to side against David by Max's word. She might as well have screamed that Max was the golden child. Joyce spent literal years watching David treating Chloe like crap right in front of her, and even now that he’s raising his hand at her she’s not reacting, but the second he talks a little too harshly to Max, she jumps to take her side and honestly. Chloe cannot not have noticed that. Obviously she wasn’t going to start a scene about this since they were already all fighting with David, but I’m pretty sure she would’ve under different circumstances because. The audacity. I would’ve gone mad.

Gabe as the villain

Alternate Max

Lying to Rachel about the truth leads to Rachel being found alive. In LIS1 Chloe says her parents don’t believe she’s missing. So my suggestion is they give up on her if you choose to tell her the truth. But if you lie, then it leads to a search/manhunt lead by James to find Rachel and it results in Chloe, James and David finding Rachel alive and arresting Jefferson, Frank and Nathan

Frank and Damon are dead. Sera leaves. Chloe finds herself in the criminal underworld. She's had to deal with Damon's loyalists, many turned to be loyal to her. But those loyal to Damon tried to screw her over. Chloe killed them. She's in too deep now.

Chloe has gotten accustomed to a life of crime and the new drug kingpin of Arcadia Bay and Rachel is her partner in crime. At some point, Nathan is encroaching on her territory and she doesn’t like that. Not. One. Bit. So, Chloe sends Rachel to entice Nathan and lure him in a trap. Chloe busts into Nathan’s dorm and sees enough evidence that she could make it look like an accidental overdose. “Don’t mess with the Prescotts? More like don’t fuck with the Price” Chloe gets a reputation as the Raven and whatever the Raven says goes. “Quote the Raven, Nevermore”

Sean and Daniel clear their names

Inspired by these alternate endings

After learning of Safi's very clearly evil plan and instead of given the choice, she wakes up. If you chose Bae, Max wakes up in Chloe's arms. Chloe comforts Max. "Have a bad dream, Supermax?" "Not just bad, it was dumb." Max sees she and Chloe are in New York. Max's entries in New York have been framed in a Gallery and they are living large and they resemble their LIS 2 selves, meanwhile Chloe runs a Tattoo parlor and a garage on the side. They got their happy ending. If you chose the Bay, she wakes up in Warren's arms and sees they graduated Blackwell and UO, living their lives as a Photojournalist and successful Chemist and they are on their way to Arcadia Bay to pay their respects to Chloe. All is well.

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theampreviews · 6 years ago

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Dragged Across Concrete

When I sometimes attended my Film Studies classes at University one thing stuck with me from the Script Writing class; an economy of writing was critical to the success of your screenplay. It was a mantra echoing the sentiments of William Goldman’s “Arrive Late, Leave Early” approach to scene writing (as detailed in his books Adventures In The Screen Trade and Which Lie Did I Tell?). To his mind this prevents an audience getting “antsy”. It’s a notion S. Craig Zahler wholeheartedly disregards.

If Zahler’s first two films, Bone Tomahawk and Brawl In Cell Block 99, could be described as leisurely in pace (both clock in at 142min), then Dragged Across Concrete, with its hefty 159min, is positively lethargic (which, for context, is still only 10mins longer than the last Avengers movie and 5mins shorter than Blade Runner 2049), and will likely push most multiplex audiences to their limits. Holding it to The Goldman Standard; this could be the least economical screenplay ever filmed, but it’s all the better for it.

Going into this film you need to understand that you’ll have to bed down and submit to his tempo, which is at times almost static. Zahler builds scenes of great magnitude that draw his viewers in, enveloping them like a sphygmomanometer (I had to Google that), applying ever more pressure until it’s almost unbearable. Virtually scoreless throughout, there’s precious little to distract from Zahler’s writing, but thankfully he’s still one of the most refreshing wordsmith’s out there. He might not pack his dialogue with pop-culture references as Tarantino can do (someone he’s rather erroneously compared to), but his way with words is just as pleasing to the ear. It’s hard-nosed, pulpy writing that exists purely in a world of his creation - his actors chewing on his dialogue like a T-Bone. He can also show a man eat an entire sandwich in silence and have it pay off.

The most satisfying part of Zahler’s writing is that everything matters. There’s nothing throw-away about anything he shoots. The space he affords actors within the scenes allows them, and us, to take it all in without relying on cinematic shorthand to move things forward. No matter how long a scene is, it feels right, even (or especially) if that feeling is one of discomfort. The narrative drive of the film is relatively linear, we know exactly where we’re headed from early on, it’s in how Zahler stretches everything to breaking point in getting there that generates an anxiety that makes you shift in your seat; not the run-time. He can cut to the chase, but don’t be surprised if that chase is a leisurely tail across a freeway - the antithesis of Friedkin’s To Live & Die In L.A. but just as enthralling.

The other key attraction to a Zahler movie is his now notorious use of extreme violence. Whilst it would be disingenuous to say he has toned that down here (this is still far beyond much that you’ll see in your average movie these days), it is used more sparingly and dwelt upon less so than in his previous two. If Bone Tomahawk was sparse but unflinching in its depictions of depravity, and Brawl In Cell Block 99 relished the gonzo splatter effects of old, this time Zahler uses short, sharp jolts of violence to provoke the mind rather than overwhelm it. Often shots of explicit detail are cut away from so quickly that you’re still processing what you saw well into the next scene. It can have a disorientating effect, but one that makes you consider what you saw rather than simply have it thrown in your face.

Zahler also expands his eye for Old White Males, something I know many roll their eyes at, with his casting of Mel Gibson. Adding to the ranks of Kurt Russell and two time cast members Vince Vaughn, Don Johnson, Fred Melamed and Udo Kier, Gibson fits into Zahler’s aggressive, grim fatalism with ease. Some might consider this a role Gibson’s publicist might have urged him to avoid.

Since his original “cancellation”, Gibson has sought refuge in B-Picture pulp (Get The Gringo, Machete Kills, The Expendables 3) and couple of Father roles casting him as avenger/protector to wayward daughters (Edge Of Darkness, Blood Father) which all points to him acknowledging his new found villain status whilst also embracing a need for redemption (even the seeming outlier of Studio Festive Comedy Daddy’s Home 2 dines out on his asshole persona). Here though, the role of Brett Ridgeman felt too close to the bone for some; a bitter, mean son-of-a-bitch with a heavy-handed disdain for minorities. Be that as it may, Gibson is perfection and should be recognised for what is close to a career best - certainly it tops the list of performances in this second half of his career. Equal part hang-dog weariness and brittle rage barely concealed below a haggard surface, I can’t think of many others that could embody the character this wholly.

Gibson and Vaughn’s Anthony Lurasetti are police officers who find themselves suspended without pay for Ridgeman’s abusive arrest of a Hispanic drug dealer; an act captured on a cell phone and spread throughout local media. The idea that Zahler frames their subsequent descent into “crime to make ends meet” as right-wing apologist rhetoric for the "forgotten majority" has made many uncomfortable, and I don’t doubt for a second that this is by Zahler’s design. Do I think he holds those beliefs? I wouldn’t know, but this film is not one for the Red Hat brigade if that’s what concerns people, but it does wave those common red flags without flinching (look to the “Black Panic” scene in which Gibson’s daughter is tormented by black youths on her way home, Gibson’s character bemoaning his lowly wage forcing them to live in such a “shit hole” with a young daughter and disabled wife).

As counter-point, the third main protagonist Henry Johns, played by a revelatory Tory Kittles, offers another staple of the genre; the recently paroled felon in desperate need of cash (imagine Denis Haysbert’s role in Heat given more screen time) providing a cultural juxtaposition to the craggy old cop routine (he and his partner Biscuits even “whiting-up” at one point). Whilst he rises a notch or two above the others in the morality stakes, he’s no Magical Negro; his purpose is not to elevate or educate his white co-stars, he has as much stakes in the game as either (sharing a financial need for care-giving with Ridgeman), and just as much blood on his hands (and sometimes more...).

The Heat nod was clearly intentional, as Zahler cited that as a reference point in his Q&A, along with Dog Day Afternoon and Point Blank. Lofty comparisons they may be, but as a homage to those films, Dragged Across Concrete holds its own, albeit through the filter of a filmmaker that clearly loves exploitation cinema as much as any. Swimming in those waters, Zahler toes a fine line as to what audiences will find acceptable in both content and execution, and I think he’s pushed back against that line a little further here than he has before. It’s a provocative film without being insolently button-pushing and I’m sure it’s one that will divide audiences for some time (all but guaranteed to be a future Cult Favourite though).

There’s a scene that precedes the pivotal bank robbery that proved contentious to some during the screening I was at. We’re introduced to a character (one of the principle cast members) who we assume will form a large part in the film going forward, only for her screen time to be short lived and inconsequential to the plot. It makes for a quite harrowing and frustrating vignette, prompting one audience member to ask Zahler to account for its inclusion, a question met with spattered murmurs of approval around the auditorium. Zahler, clearly relishing the fact that this scene had struck a nerve, went on to explain (accurately) how everything from that point is framed in an entirely different way. It may have elicited anger from some of those watching, but he’s right in how that scene causes a shift in how you view the film and the protagonists going forward. He also acknowledged that, had he made this film under the watchful eye of a Studio and without his Final Cut deal, that scene would be the first thing any Producer would make him cut.

In a world dominated by audience pandering franchises, I think Zahler’s singular voice is one that needs to be preserved in tact, no matter how acquired a taste it may be.

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bentonpena · 5 years ago

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The Art of Topophilia: 7 Ways to Love the Place You Live

The Art of Topophilia: 7 Ways to Love the Place You Live http://bit.ly/2mVChGJ

If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know who are. –Wendell Berry

As time went by, I also realized that the particular place I’d chosen was less important than the fact that I’d chosen and focused my life around it. Although [where I live] has taken on great significance for me, it’s no more inherently beautiful or meaningful than any other place on earth. What makes a place special is the way it buries itself inside the heart, not whether it’s flat or rugged, rich or austere, gentle or harsh, warm or cold, wild or tame. Every place, like every person, is elevated by the love and respect shown toward it, and by the way in which its bounty is received. –Richard Nelson, The Island Within

Have you recently moved somewhere new, and still feel out of place? Or maybe you’ve been residing somewhere for years, decades even, and yet haven’t developed a sense of being rooted there. You may live in a town or city, but don’t feel you belong to a real community; you don’t feel as if you’re embedded within a context of meaningful relationships, environment, and culture.

While “at-homeness” might seem to be something that will come automatically with the passage of time, like every good thing in life, topophilia — a love of place — takes intentionality to develop.

Like coming to love another person, developing affinity for a certain place involves intimately getting to know it. If your current home base might be compared to a lady, you want to learn all the details about her, whether profound or mundane. You want to know her background, how she came to be the way she is. You want to enjoy the prominent foot she puts forward, while uncovering her little-known secrets. You want to really come to an appreciation for her strengths, not only to most fully enjoy them, but as a buffer that creates more tolerance for her flaws.

It’s not only possible to kindle this kind of topophilic love affair with “sexier” places chock full of well-hyped advantages, but also with so-called undesirable communities that aren’t on the cultural radar. Just as people who may initially appear lowly and unappealing, but have warm and welcoming personalities, come to seem more attractive the more we get to know them, so too can sleepier, less vaunted locales.

Even if you don’t think the place you’re currently residing is your “one and only,” to have and to hold ‘til death do you part, it’s still worth trying to develop a deeper relationship with it. A strong sense of place and rootedness is a worthy satisfaction to pursue, even if you know it won’t last. Cliche as it is, you really ought to try to bloom where you’re planted, for however long you’re planted there.

I know it’s possible to feel like casual, distant roommates with your current hometown, rather than intimate partners in life; even after 7 years of living in the Denver area, I have sometimes still felt like a foreign interloper here. But that’s diminished the more I’ve taken proactive steps to put down roots. Here are 7 I suggest to sink your own real or adopted hometown deeper into your heart.

1. Get to know the history of where you live.

A sure recipe for feeling like a transient spectator somewhere, is to treat a place as if it only sprang into existence once you moved there. By instead making a concerted effort to get to know the history of your neighborhood, town, and state, you’ll gain a greater gratitude for it, feel more like you belong, deepen your understanding of why things are the way they are, and develop more confidence in navigating its contours — both literally and figuratively.

Perhaps the easiest place to start in discovering the past of a place is by reading. Local bookstores often carry lesser-known regional histories that sometimes get as local as individual neighborhoods. Be sure to even delve into novels set in the city or state you live in; reading Centennial and Plainsong did more to help me understand Colorado than just about any non-fiction book could have.

It takes more than reading to get a feel for a place’s history though. That’s just a start. Visit state and national parks and monuments (and battlefields and trails), stroll through the nearest history center/museum, take a guided walking tour of downtown, and just generally get your feet on the ground to do some firsthand exploring (see #2). Don’t be afraid to drive two hours to go see something for one; even the drive time itself will enhance your understanding of the place you live — remember, there’s power in liminal spaces.

2. Explore on Foot or Bike

Few things will open your eyes to the details of your city like exploring its streets, neighborhoods, and trails via the power of human locomotion.

More days than not, I get outside for a walk, run, or bike ride. These excursions have helped me see the real beauty of where I live on a slower and smaller scale (that is, beyond just the mountains on the not-too-distant horizon). I’ve discovered little streams and patches of meadows riddled with wildflowers, as well as a bunch of small parks and playgrounds for the kids that I otherwise would never have found.

Carried along by foot- or pedal-power, you’ll naturally come to notice things that you would have missed had you been traveling by car. You’ll be able to really look around and engage all your senses. You’ll say hello to the people you come across, who are in fact your neighbors, even if you’re a few miles from home. Plus, it’s just fun to look around while walking — at the houses, at the sky, at the flora and fauna.

3. Embark on Microadventures (Even to Chintzy Places)

Even in your backyard there are new adventures, new sights, new perspectives: you just have to make the small effort to go and discover them. –Alastair Humphreys

Microadventures, as coined by modern-day explorer Alastair Humphreys, are expeditions in and around your locale that take only a few hours to a day. It could be a nighttime bike ride, a walk on a new trail, a visit to an overlooked museum, or any number of other outings. The idea is that adventures don’t have to be grand in scope to be fun and fulfilling.

A few years back the McKay family took up the habit of weekly microadventures, and Brett and Kate found that they “really enjoyed exploring more of [our] local community, and ended up feeling more connected to, and pride in, living in Oklahoma.”

Make it a goal to get out for a small adventure in your area once a week. Drive to a tacky roadside attraction, look at a map (a paper map!) and pick a park or small museum to visit, rent a canoe or kayak and paddle a nearby river or lake. All of these things will enhance your understanding of your community, and further your ties to it.

One of the very best ways to develop topophilia is to get out into the nature of a place, and really experience its unique weather, landscape, and environment. There’s something about getting the dirt of the terrain up into your nostrils, and coming to know how the air feels and smells at dawn and dusk, that really moves a place into the marrow of your bones.

But don’t neglect an area’s less wild and more popular spots either. When you live somewhere, it’s easy to take its tourist attractions for granted; if you’re not careful, the people who regularly visit you might come to know the cool things to do in the area before you do! You should know your hometown so well that you become an expert in making recommendations to your out-of-town guests as to what things to do there and what things to avoid. At the same time, being well acquainted with your city’s must-see attractions initiates you into a sort of club amongst the locals too, and you can actually end up feeling left out if you’ve not done them — hence our own family’s continued embarrassment of having never experienced Casa Bonita here in Denver.

4. Read the Local Paper

Most towns, even the small ones, have a local weekly newspaper. They’re often a touch boring and the writing sometimes leaves something to be desired, but they’re a treasure trove of the ins and outs of what’s going on in your community.

Be it information about volunteering, fun events and festivals on the calendar, restaurant openings, job listings, or simply news that might not be important to the larger region but sure is in your neck of the woods — the local newspaper is highly undervalued.

In the past, the little newspaper that lands on our driveway on Thursday mornings has been relegated to the firestarter pile without so much as a glance. But lately I’ve been making an effort to at least skim through it, and I sure feel that much more like a real local rather than a transient interloper.

5. Volunteer

If you remain a “consumer” within your city, you end up only seeing one “strata” of it — socially, geographically, and experientially. A great way to get more immersed in a place — to get a behind-the-scenes look at some of the locations and institutions you might otherwise just use superficially or pass by altogether — is to volunteer.

Teaching at church, tutoring at a school, coaching your kids’ little league team, helping at a soup kitchen, sorting books at the local library (I do this and it’s great fun) . . . whatever it is, your town has needs, and you certainly have skills that can help fill those needs. Not only will you be providing a service, but you’ll see immense benefits yourself too. It’ll be impossible to not feel a greater sense of care and responsibility towards the place you live and towards the people you live near. At the same time, you’ll meet different kinds of people than you might otherwise rub shoulders with, as well as like-minded and equally passionate fellow volunteers who might become your good friends.

6. Be a Regular Somewhere

In our younger days, my wife and I liked to venture out to as many new places as we could — breweries, coffee shops, trails, etc. While some novelty is still fun and important to us, what’s held even greater reward has been in becoming regulars at some favorite local spots.

You’ll get to know people — both employees and regular patrons — and you’ll get to hear the scuttlebutt around town. When you frequent a place, you won’t mind paying the higher prices of independent shops and you’ll even come to tip more at restaurants and coffee shops because you genuinely care about the people whose livelihood depends on your business.

Beyond that, you’ll gain a special sense of belonging. When the barkeep or barista asks how your kids are doing and comps you a drink now and then, you’re conferred a certain status that can keep you powerfully rooted to the place you live. One of our greatest human desires is simply to be known; being a regular helps scratch that itch.

7. Find Other Ways to Meet People in Your Community

Many of these things — volunteering, frequenting a local shop, even having a regular walking route — will inherently help you meet people. But sometimes you just need to intentionally get out and see some local faces. Attend your neighborhood block parties (even when you don’t want to), sign up for the 5K happening downtown, chaperone a kids’ field trip if you’re able. There are so many things you can do to just get out there in meatspace.

And really, you don’t even have to make friends (right away, at least). Just knowing the faces in your community offers some sense of recognition and makes saying hi at the grocery store a little friendlier instead of a little awkward. Research says we come to like people out of sheer familiarity alone. There are plenty of people in our neighborhood who I wouldn’t consider good friends, but that I can recognize when out and about and have a friendly conversation with. It’s just another one of those things that helps me feel like I belong here — more rooted — and therefore increases my feeling of topophilia for this northwest suburb of Denver; though we were strangers when we met, the more I get to know her, the more I’ve come to love her.

Listen to our podcast with Melody Warnick about the art and science of loving where you live:

The post The Art of Topophilia: 7 Ways to Love the Place You Live appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

via The Art of Manliness http://bit.ly/2NeG3FZ October 2, 2019 at 01:24AM

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theconservativebrief · 6 years ago

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Republican leaders, pretty clearly, were annoyed when sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh emerged but were never seriously troubled by them on the merits.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to “plow right through” Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school before even listening to any testimony. Soren Midgley of the Federalist put it even more bluntly, publishing a story Tuesday morning titled, “Why Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed to the Supreme Court even if he’s guilty.”

And virtually the entire party (with the honorable partial exceptions of Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska) has resisted any real effort to gather facts or information. At the end of the day, they like Kavanaugh and simply don’t care about Ford’s charges except as a political inconvenience.

Ford recalls that some time in the summer of 1982 (subsequent documentary evidence suggests July 1 as the most likely date), Brett Kavanaugh, along with his friend Mark Judge, cornered her in an upstairs bedroom of a center-split Cape Cod-style house in Montgomery County, Maryland, locked the door, and attempted to have his way with her — going so far as to put his hand over her mouth to silence her cries for help — before he drunkenly let her slip away.

Kavanaugh says this did not happen. But recognizing that Ford has no earthly reason to lie about this, Republicans are mostly coalescing around the idea that she is perhaps honestly misremembering. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) said during the hearing: “I think Dr. Ford is a victim, and I think she’s been through hell and I’m very sympathetic to her.” He just thinks she’s somehow gotten mixed up.

But human beings are exceptionally good at recalling the faces of people they know and the central elements of traumatic events. To the extent that faulty memory is an issue, it’s much more likely that Kavanaugh at least temporarily forgot about what would have been to him a not-particularly-noteworthy experience that happened to coincide with one of his seemingly frequent bouts of heavy drinking.

While most high school seniors do not drink heavily (even in the considerably boozier 1980s), it’s of course not exactly a rare occurrence for an 18-year-old. And in a stroke of bad luck for Kavanaugh, the drunken antics of his social circle happen to be recounted in two books Judge wrote: Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk, and God and Man at Georgetown Prep. And they’re documented in surprising detail on Kavanaugh’s own yearbook page.

This meant he’s had to get out from under the fairly clear reality that he got blitzed, did exactly what Ford said, perhaps forgot all about it, and then had it unexpectedly threaten to derail his career ambition. So he did exactly what he did during his 2004 confirmation hearings: He offered a range of false and misleading testimony to Congress about his drinking habits.

Some of his current contentions about booze are clearly untrue (that he was of legal drinking age in Maryland as a senior), disingenuous (that he and his friends referring to themselves as “Renate Alumni” was a gesture of friendship, not a smear on the name of fellow high schooler Renate Schroeder), or simply risible (that admission to Yale Law School proves he wasn’t much of a partier).

On its face, his nomination should have died at the end of his testimony. But it didn’t, in part because of blind partisanship, but more importantly because of what was revealed in an NPR/Marist poll taken before he testified: 54 percent of Republicans believe Kavanaugh should be confirmed whether or not he is guilty of the sexual assault allegations against him.

Neither Kavanaugh himself nor the senators on the Judiciary Committee have pressed this argument squarely. But it’s pretty clear that a key driver of pro-Kavanaugh sentiment from the grassroots to the White House and, likely, to Kavanaugh himself is simply a conviction that what Ford said he did is not seriously wrong.

Mollie Hemingway, a writer with the Federalist, one of the media outlets most in line with the spirit of Trump-era conservatism, offered a bon mot over the weekend that made it clear she believes Kavanaugh stands accused of nothing more than what you’d expect from any red-blooded American man in a social situation.

Alert to Senate Democrats: dude here at the bar appears to be making a move on the attractive lady he’s here with. Should I alert FBI?

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) September 29, 2018

Rod Dreher, a conservative pundit deeply inflected by social conservatism, concedes that it is “loutish” to trap a woman in the bedroom of a spare house and try to tear her clothes off, but observes that lots of people do loutish things as teenagers only to mature later.

I do not understand why the loutish drunken behavior of a 17 year old high school boy has anything to tell us about the character of a 53 year old judge. By God’s grace (literally), I am not the same person I was at 17. This is a terrible standard to establish in public life.

— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) September 17, 2018

Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), currently a candidate for US Senate, is one of the few elected officials to actually say what conservatives largely seem to think about this: that since Ford got away, it’s essentially a “no harm, no foul” situation.

Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer, the U.S. senate nominee in North Dakota called the Kavanaugh accusation “absurd” today because they were drunk and assault attempt “never went anywhere.” @CNNPolitics https://t.co/jc48DOKb6w

— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) September 21, 2018

The very first weekend the allegations aired, CNN ran a telling segment featuring Republican Party activists from South Florida who simultaneously maintained that Ford’s accusations were an outrageous smear campaign and that Kavanaugh is merely accused of doing things that every boy does.

Being less professionally trained than the 11 men of the Senate GOP Judiciary Committee, these women give voice to the shadow argument that Republican professionals don’t want to make: The outrageous slander isn’t to say that Kavanaugh did what Ford says he did; it’s to say that what Kavanaugh did was wrong.

As Vox’s Constance Grady’s brilliant deconstruction of rape culture in the 1980s film 16 Candles shows, the social mores that prevailed when Kavanaugh and Ford were young were very different from the overt message about consent that prevails in America today. And while 16 Candles is an unusually noteworthy example because its primary intended audience is specifically young women, cinema of the late 1970s and early ’80s simply abounds with relevant examples:

Critically, even though all these films are depicting what we would today call rape or sexual assault, it’s very clear from the context of the movies that, in the fiction, the men are not doing anything wrong. These assaults are conducted by heroic protagonists that the audience is supposed to identify with.

There is real moral ambiguity in some of these movies (about Deckard’s work, for example) but there’s no ambiguity about taking advantage of a drunk girl (it’s her fault) or using a little light force as part of a seduction strategy (it’ll probably work and end up with her glad you did it).

You just wouldn’t make scenes like that in today’s films, especially given that in almost every case, their construction — and at times, their presence at all — is largely incidental to the main story.

But it’s obvious that the large change in official norms about consent overstates the amount of actual change on the ground. Sexual assaults remain frequent and remain infrequently reported, since the mechanics of both the legal system and corporate HR departments remain fundamentally unequipped to enforce contemporary views about consent.

And, critically, most of the people who made and watched those old ’70s and ’80s movies and found their depiction of sex and consent appropriate are still around and running most of America’s institutions. The Kavanaugh nomination, but also the broader #MeToo movement, is fundamentally about whether America means what it now says about consent.

There’s a concept in the social science of political revolutions known as the “revolution of rising expectations.” It describes a scenario in which people rise up against the powers that be not necessarily because conditions are getting worse, but because earlier events led to the expectation of rapid improvement that has not come to pass.

One way to think about the emergence of #MeToo over the past several years is as precisely such a revolution. A cohort of women raised to expect something better than 16 Candles treatment is challenging America to live up to its currently stated norms and values. But after a couple of instances in which investigative reporting brought to light previously unknown facts followed by swift justice, it’s become clear that an entrenched culture of “himpathy” presents a powerful challenge to that revolution.

On one level, Ford’s critics are doubting her story. But they actually all agree that her testimony seemed heartfelt and sincere and that she has no conceivable motive to lie. The doppelgänger theory of the case is fairly ridiculous — especially since there is no evidence of the existence of any such doppelgänger. But it seems like a more politically palatable thing to say than for Senate Republicans to simply shrug their shoulders and say, “Who cares?”

But we really should care. Slogans about believing victims aren’t just about believing factual recountings of past events. It’s about believing victims when they tell you that their experiences were a big deal and did lasting damage to their well-being. And seeing Kavanaugh face consequences for his actions would send a powerful message to young men — something that conservatives openly acknowledge but see as a bad thing rather than a good thing.

As the father of a son, I’d like my boy to grow up in a country that sends a clear and unambiguous message about consent and that delivers real consequences to people who unapologetically violate the terms of the deal. That’s how people learn right from wrong and can come up asking appropriate questions about affirmative consent, self-control, honesty, alcohol, and all the rest.

Republican senators were obviously impressed by the sincerity of Kavanaugh’s outrage at hearings last week. And he really did seem to be very sincerely outraged. But the pairing of absolute sincerity with multiple clear instances of dishonesty is in fact the scariest thing of all.

He’s not telling the truth about his conduct as a student in high school and college, but he’s totally sincere in his conviction that he did nothing wrong, and genuinely indignant that people would think to hold a powerful person accountable for mistreating girls 35 years ago.

And on some level, I suppose I can even sympathize — it has not, in fact, been standard practice to hold men accountable for sexually assaulting women, and I can see why it could feel unfair to be punished for something that so many other people have gotten away with.

But if change is going to happen, it needs to start somewhere. And Kavanaugh’s decision to handle these allegations from day one with angry denials and weird dissembling rather than an apology and a plea for mercy makes this an excellent place to start.

Original Source -> Republicans don’t care if Kavanaugh is guilty because they don’t think what he did was wrong

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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yes-dal456 · 8 years ago

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How 7 People Turned Their Passion Projects Into Successful Side Jobs

When Le’Donne Morris began his career in graphic design and web development, he felt like something was missing. So he began to brainstorm a side job that would provide a creative outlet and a chance to channel some of his personal interests into a concrete product.

The result, Limited Time Offer, is an enamel pin design business that draws its inspiration from his long time passions: pop culture and professional wrestling.

“Personally, I started this because my day job lacks creativity, it helps fill that void,” said Morris, who prefers to go by Don.

Of course, taking more than one job is nothing new and is often a means of survival. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that in 2016, the number of multiple job-holders hit a eight-year record high with more than 5 percent of all employed adults taking on extra work, USA Today reported.

In this context, a passion project is a privileged pursuit rather than a matter of making ends meet ― a chance to flex muscles not used during a day job. For some, the goal is to transition from a day job to a full-time position in their chosen field. For others, having a creative outlet that is self-sustaining is payment enough.

And many young people seek the opportunity to express themselves while making a little extra income: A survey from Career Builder found that workers between the ages of 25 and 34 were twice as likely as those 45 to 52 to have a second job.

No matter what your goals are, it’s hard to know where to start and how to fit a new enterprise into an already full life. But if you’re considering turning your passion into a side hustle, you’d do well to heed the advice of Morris and six other creatives who have successfully made the jump:

1. “My side job has led to more priceless, life-changing, unreal adventures than I could have ever imagined.”

Name: Crystal Sagan

Age: 35

Location: Boulder, Colorado

Full-time job: Owner of Cocktail Caravan, a mobile bar

Side hustle: Freelance writer/photographer at Powder Magazine

Why a side hustle? Having something outside of my real job as the owner of Cocktail Caravan, forces me to use different parts of my brain I wouldn’t otherwise engage on a daily basis. I’ve found that it’s changed things with my real job for the better because creative parts of my brain are primed and ready, and I’m able to approach things within my everyday office life with a more creative approach than I otherwise would.

Other than that, the actual process of telling stories has led to more priceless, life-changing, unreal adventures than I could have ever imagined. I didn’t always know that this is where I wanted to end up, but I knew what felt exciting and made me happy.

How does the money work out? There hasn’t always been a paycheck involved, but the deeper I get, the more rewarding, financially and experience-wise it becomes.

What’s been the hardest thing and the best thing? At the end of the day I’m constantly amazed at the people and experiences that I’ve crossed paths with because I took that first step. For me, the side hustle is about following something that brings me a deep level of satisfaction.

It’s hard work, and 95 percent of the time you’re already exhausted from your real job, life, and responsibilities, so you need to have some level of passion or it’s hard to find the energy to see things through.

What advice do you have for others? Taking that first step to committing to do something is scary and exciting and you never really know what you’ll encounter along the way that can have profoundly positive influences in your life.

2. “Don’t be afraid. Just start.”

Name: Noah Jacobs

Age: 28

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Full-time job: Preschool teacher

Side hustle: Writer

Describe what you do and why: I’m a full-time preschool teacher in Minneapolis and use what limited time I have during breaks of peace and quiet at work to check my phone and say connected with cultural happenings and what I can write about as a freelance writer. Still, I contribute weekly to Splitsider’s “This Week In Comedy Podcasts” feature and have begun writing longer pieces for them when I can, which translates to once a month or so. I stumbled into teaching in mid-2012, and started contributing to The A.V. Club’s podcast roundup Podmass with a one-sentence review of Julie Klausner’s podcast that posted on Aug. 19, 2013. Splitsider welcomed me late last year after I left Podmass due to some freelance cutbacks.

How does the money work out? Being a preschool teacher is my main source of income. Writing provides income but whatever I make, I use to treat myself.

What’s been the hardest thing and the best thing?: The thing about working with young children is that sometimes they respond to your love with anger and sadness. They can’t express appreciation like a grown-up can.

On the other hand, my words are everywhere on Andrea Silenzi’s press page. “Marty & Sarah Love Wrestling” did, like, a twenty minute bit about how excited they were when I named Sarah Shockey and Ryback “Cutest Couple” in 2016. As Frank Burns said on M*A*S*H, it’s nice to be nice to the nice.

What advice do you have for others? Don’t be afraid, just start your side-hustle, or ask someone if you can do it, if that’s something you need to do to begin. I had nothing to point to online when I started as a freelance writer and sent my pitches to an editor. I’m just fortunate and humbled that they responded and took a chance on me. It’s easy to be excited about what I’m doing when I’m excited about what I’m writing. I do what I know I can handle.

3. “I try to remind myself to be excited that I’m getting to do what I love.”

Name: Brian Davis

Full time job: Coffee roaster/barista

Side hustle: Filmmaker and owner of Motion Distillery

Age: 28

Location: Oceanside, California

Describe what you do and why: I split my time between working as a coffee roaster/barista for a small coffee company called Revolution Roasters and being a filmmaker. A few years back I started a brand/portfolio of my film work under the name Motion Distillery. I help brands, artists, and companies tell their stories through short films—essentially short commercials harnessing the essence of who they are.

I’ve been making films since I was kid, really, but professionally I’ve been at it for about five years. At the same time, I’ve worked in the speciality coffee industry in one way or another and it’s always been a steady side gig for me. It allows me to keep my dream alive of getting to pursue filmmaking. I really do love roasting and serving coffee, but I see filmmaking as my longterm career path.

How does the money work out? It’s paid off in experience. I used to get really down on myself for having to work in coffee to supplement my filmmaking, but now I see it as an opportunity to support myself and the passion I have for my craft.

What’s been the hardest thing and the best thing? It’s tricky to balance it all. I feel very fortunate to get to do something on the side, like coffee, that I quite enjoy, so that’s a positive. Lately I’ve been burning at both ends. I work three to four days at the cafe making coffee then the other days I’m out shooting, editing, or working on film projects. It takes a lot of energy to balance both schedules and make it all happen and it can be super overwhelming and even stressful. I just try to remind myself to be excited that I’m getting to do what I love—in both areas.

What advice do you have for others? Follow your passion project even if it begins with baby steps. It takes a lot of patience and time but it’s worth it to be able to pursue your passion, and it doesn’t hurt to have the extra income on the side. Staying passionate is hard at times, but it’s something I truly love, and it’s my art so I find ways to create and do it. Community is really important and it helps to surround yourself with other creative people who will spur you on to keep creating.

4. “The hardest thing is feeling overwhelmed.”

Name: Don Morris

Age: 29

Location: Los Angeles, California

Full time job: Graphic designer and web developer

Side hustle: Co-founder of Limited Time Offer

Describe what you do and why: For a little more than a year, my brother and I have run an online storefront selling enamel pins focused on pro wrestling. I’ve been into enamel pins for a while, even before it was a trend. Originally we started by focusing on pop culture designs, but pro wrestling was my brother’s idea. There’s a lack of decent merchandise available and we just want to make stuff for people like us.

How does the money work out? I work on my side project on top of my day job. My side hustle isn’t my main source of income but it’s financially self-sustainable.

What’s been the hardest thing and the best thing? The hardest thing is just feeling overwhelmed. I was stressing about running our social media accounts earlier this week, but I try to avoid this by staying organized. For instance, I have a notebook to help schedule stuff out and jot down notes or sketches.

The most rewarding thing is seeing customers’ photos on social media. It’s awesome knowing people like our stuff enough to wear it or post a picture on Instagram.

What advice do you have for others? You definitely have to love whatever you’re doing to pursue a passion project. If it isn’t fun in some way it probably isn’t worth doing. I almost gave up after releasing our first designs. They were irrelevant and relied too heavily on nostalgia. It’s okay to fail though, without failing we wouldn’t have found our niche. It also helped that we were able to adapt our original ideas to fit a new theme.

5. “I’m working to one day make the transition so that my side hustle can be a full-time job.”

Name: Brett Shumaker

Age: 30

Location: Pittsburgh, Pa

Full time job: Barista

Side hustle: Promoter/founder of Don’t Let the Scene Go Down On Me! Collective

Describe what you do and why: I kind of fell into being a promoter and show booking. I was in a band of my own ten years ago and was booking our own shows. When the band broke up, I still wanted to be involved in that process.

How does the money work out? My day job is the way I pay my bills but I’m working to one day make the transition so that my side hustle can be a full-time job.

What’s been the hardest thing and the best thing? There’s always that one show every now and then that does way worse than I imagined and I lose a lot of money and I wonder for a second why I still do this, but then I remember all the good I’ve done with this and I just keep moving right along and try harder. The most rewarding part is watching people enjoy the shows I book and the bands telling me how happy they were with the show - that really keeps me going.

What advice do you have for others? It can be hard to find the balance between your day job and your side hustle, especially when your day job is paying the bills. Making other people happy is what keeps me going. As I try to make the transition to just doing my passion project, I’m taking on more of a workload, so feeling overwhelmed is something I am learning to deal with. If it’s something you love, don’t give it up.

6. “Music is something that feels like a calling”

Name: Claire Morales

Age: 27

Location: Denton, Texas

Full time job: Graphic designer

Side hustle: Musician

Describe what you do and why: I’m a graphic designer for my main job. My passion project is music. I play guitar and sing in a band that’s billed under my name. I kind of think of myself as double majoring in life, half design, half music. I was 13 when I started playing shows at coffee shops and have been writing songs and making records and performing since then.

How does the money work out? Graphic design is my main source of income. I make money from album and music merchandise sales and live shows, but pretty much all of it gets funneled back into producing new records.

What’s been the hardest thing and the best thing? There was a time when I was working and commuting about 60 hours a week all together for my day job. Finding time to book shows and write songs and have band practice was extremely difficult. I kind of woke up to just how stressed I was and how bad my quality of life was becoming. I went freelance so that I could basically stay sane and be more in control of my own time.

I love graphic design, but it never feels very personal to me. It’s always for someone else. Music is something that feels like a calling, something that’s in me that I should be doing, and it’s a great feeling.

What advice do you have for others? Find meaning and satisfaction in the process. Realize that just like a regular job, you have to put in a lot of time and effort in to get the most out of it. Try to find ways to enjoy that work and find fulfillment just in the act of doing it and doing it well. I find that keeping a mix of small, more realizable goals and also bigger more broad ones helps me to keep dreaming and also get stuff done every day. Don’t compare your progress to others. I try to be excited that there are so many great musicians around me. I think it’s better to inspire one another and think of others in your field as peers rather than competitors.

7. “When you’re ready to give up, that’s the time to dig in further into your passion”

Name: Heather Quinn Gage

Age: 26

Location: Fort Worth, Texas

Full time job: Development Manager (fundraising) for a nonprofit theater company

Side hustle: Consulting for nonprofit organizations

Describe what you do and why: My first day job definitely matched what I wanted in a job, but as I got further out into the workforce I realized that there will never be a perfect job that marries what I want to do with the right culture and meets my personal goals; I needed to create it.

The way I started my consulting was to do three things every day that led me to clients or work. That’s how I stayed motivated and felt like I was accomplishing something each day.

How does the money work out? My side hustle is funded by my full-time job. I pursue it more to pursue a location-independent lifestyle and have my time be more valued than a traditional job.

What’s been the hardest thing and the best thing? There are times when I do feel overwhelmed, especially when I am having more issues in my personal life that I feel I need to focus on. In these moments, my best advice is to focus on self-care. If you feel your business is important to your future, don’t drop it in these moments. That’s when you double down on investing in your business and taking care of your physical and mental health.

The best part is feeling like I’m using a broader set of my skills than just the ones I use in my day job. I can help people in ways that feel more authentic to me.

What advice do you have for others? When you’re ready to give up, that’s the time to dig in further into your passion, it’s not time to drop it. In the end, if it’s what fuels your fire and fulfills you, it will ultimately make you stronger in weak times. I suggest making your own checklist for what you know makes you feel the best mentally and physically and what the necessities are for doing your best work. During a hard time you can look at it and see if you’ve met your own criteria for showing up your best.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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ongames · 8 years ago

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How 7 People Turned Their Passion Projects Into Successful Side Jobs

The result, Limited Time Offer, is an enamel pin design business that draws its inspiration from his long time passions: pop culture and professional wrestling.

“Personally, I started this because my day job lacks creativity, it helps fill that void,” said Morris, who prefers to go by Don.

1. “My side job has led to more priceless, life-changing, unreal adventures than I could have ever imagined.”

Name: Crystal Sagan

Age: 35

Location: Boulder, Colorado

Full-time job: Owner of Cocktail Caravan, a mobile bar

Side hustle: Freelance writer/photographer at Powder Magazine

How does the money work out? There hasn’t always been a paycheck involved, but the deeper I get, the more rewarding, financially and experience-wise it becomes.

2. “Don’t be afraid. Just start.”

Name: Noah Jacobs

Age: 28

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Full-time job: Preschool teacher

Side hustle: Writer

How does the money work out? Being a preschool teacher is my main source of income. Writing provides income but whatever I make, I use to treat myself.

3. “I try to remind myself to be excited that I’m getting to do what I love.”

Name: Brian Davis

Full time job: Coffee roaster/barista

Side hustle: Filmmaker and owner of Motion Distillery

Age: 28

Location: Oceanside, California

4. “The hardest thing is feeling overwhelmed.”

Name: Don Morris

Age: 29

Location: Los Angeles, California

Full time job: Graphic designer and web developer

Side hustle: Co-founder of Limited Time Offer

How does the money work out? I work on my side project on top of my day job. My side hustle isn’t my main source of income but it’s financially self-sustainable.

The most rewarding thing is seeing customers’ photos on social media. It’s awesome knowing people like our stuff enough to wear it or post a picture on Instagram.

5. “I’m working to one day make the transition so that my side hustle can be a full-time job.”

Name: Brett Shumaker

Age: 30

Location: Pittsburgh, Pa

Full time job: Barista

Side hustle: Promoter/founder of Don’t Let the Scene Go Down On Me! Collective

How does the money work out? My day job is the way I pay my bills but I’m working to one day make the transition so that my side hustle can be a full-time job.

6. “Music is something that feels like a calling”

Name: Claire Morales

Age: 27

Location: Denton, Texas

Full time job: Graphic designer

Side hustle: Musician

7. “When you’re ready to give up, that’s the time to dig in further into your passion”

Name: Heather Quinn Gage

Age: 26

Location: Fort Worth, Texas

Full time job: Development Manager (fundraising) for a nonprofit theater company

Side hustle: Consulting for nonprofit organizations

The way I started my consulting was to do three things every day that led me to clients or work. That’s how I stayed motivated and felt like I was accomplishing something each day.

How does the money work out? My side hustle is funded by my full-time job. I pursue it more to pursue a location-independent lifestyle and have my time be more valued than a traditional job.

The best part is feeling like I’m using a broader set of my skills than just the ones I use in my day job. I can help people in ways that feel more authentic to me.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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imreviewblog · 8 years ago

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How 7 People Turned Their Passion Projects Into Successful Side Jobs

The result, Limited Time Offer, is an enamel pin design business that draws its inspiration from his long time passions: pop culture and professional wrestling.

“Personally, I started this because my day job lacks creativity, it helps fill that void,” said Morris, who prefers to go by Don.

1. “My side job has led to more priceless, life-changing, unreal adventures than I could have ever imagined.”

Name: Crystal Sagan

Age: 35

Location: Boulder, Colorado

Full-time job: Owner of Cocktail Caravan, a mobile bar

Side hustle: Freelance writer/photographer at Powder Magazine

How does the money work out? There hasn’t always been a paycheck involved, but the deeper I get, the more rewarding, financially and experience-wise it becomes.

2. “Don’t be afraid. Just start.”

Name: Noah Jacobs

Age: 28

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Full-time job: Preschool teacher

Side hustle: Writer

How does the money work out? Being a preschool teacher is my main source of income. Writing provides income but whatever I make, I use to treat myself.

3. “I try to remind myself to be excited that I’m getting to do what I love.”

Name: Brian Davis

Full time job: Coffee roaster/barista

Side hustle: Filmmaker and owner of Motion Distillery

Age: 28

Location: Oceanside, California

4. “The hardest thing is feeling overwhelmed.”

Name: Don Morris

Age: 29

Location: Los Angeles, California

Full time job: Graphic designer and web developer

Side hustle: Co-founder of Limited Time Offer

How does the money work out? I work on my side project on top of my day job. My side hustle isn’t my main source of income but it’s financially self-sustainable.

The most rewarding thing is seeing customers’ photos on social media. It’s awesome knowing people like our stuff enough to wear it or post a picture on Instagram.

5. “I’m working to one day make the transition so that my side hustle can be a full-time job.”

Name: Brett Shumaker

Age: 30

Location: Pittsburgh, Pa

Full time job: Barista

Side hustle: Promoter/founder of Don’t Let the Scene Go Down On Me! Collective

How does the money work out? My day job is the way I pay my bills but I’m working to one day make the transition so that my side hustle can be a full-time job.

6. “Music is something that feels like a calling”

Name: Claire Morales

Age: 27

Location: Denton, Texas

Full time job: Graphic designer

Side hustle: Musician

7. “When you’re ready to give up, that’s the time to dig in further into your passion”

Name: Heather Quinn Gage

Age: 26

Location: Fort Worth, Texas

Full time job: Development Manager (fundraising) for a nonprofit theater company

Side hustle: Consulting for nonprofit organizations

The way I started my consulting was to do three things every day that led me to clients or work. That’s how I stayed motivated and felt like I was accomplishing something each day.

How does the money work out? My side hustle is funded by my full-time job. I pursue it more to pursue a location-independent lifestyle and have my time be more valued than a traditional job.

The best part is feeling like I’m using a broader set of my skills than just the ones I use in my day job. I can help people in ways that feel more authentic to me.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from Healthy Living - The Huffington Post http://huff.to/2qzOhL7

#Healthy Living - The Huffington Post

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petrichorate · 8 years ago

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The Sun Also Rises: Thoughts

The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway)

The more I think about The Sun Also Rises, the more fascinating the different themes seem to be—the book is rife with contradictions and opposing theories of living. The style of the writing is sparse and self-conscious; scenes in the book seem to hint at Hemingway’s own thoughts about writing (for instance, Romero’s bullfighting technique seems to parallel the modernist writing of the period). Hemingway’s “iceberg principle” is prominent—dull dialogue conceals a sense of meaninglessness underneath, and simple gestures play at larger messages.

As I was reading the book, I was pretty ambivalent about it—I feel that reading Hemingway’s writing and getting something out of it takes a lot more than just a surface reading. This might be one of the biggest changes in my perspective on education since high school; in high school, I was part of the crowd of “we’re overanalyzing this, why can’t we just read the book and enjoy it without looking for deeper meaning?” Now, I really appreciate the discussions about context and style in my classes, and while I still try to maintain some skepticism about accepting all “deeper” interpretations, I often find that a thoughtful analysis contributes quite a lot to my understanding of a book.

What I found most interesting were the seemingly conflicting theories of living introduced in The Sun Also Rises. One theory seems to be of “exchange value”—where an emphasis is placed on money and getting your money’s worth. The narrator, Jake, seems to encompass this theory; throughout the book, there are allusions to his desire for a simple exchange in value. But even in the same passages, there are these moments of rituals and codes—where the process, or the technique, or performing something outweighs the final result itself. This is repeated over and over again, through the characters’ interactions with activities like fishing, drinking, and going to church (and perhaps, the entirety of the ending fiesta is a monument to ritualized action). The world of The Sun Also Rises is a world where authentic experience and significance is constantly in battle with an overwhelming sense of meaninglessness. At times, the characters even muse that coded rituals are all that matters.

Other interesting themes throughout the book are those of faulty memory, the relativity of time (the specificity in the details of events in the book illustrate, with further contextual knowledge, that the timeline has collapsed), and the uncertainty of the age in which the characters move.

Here are some of the passages that struck me:

Robert Cohn, a demonstration of naïvety and the idea that life is passing by: “‘Listen, Jake,’ he leaned forward on the bar. ��Don’t you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you’re not taking advantage of it? Do you realize you’ve lived nearly half the time you have to live already?’ ‘Yes, every once in a while.’ ‘Do you know that in about thirty-five years more we’ll be dead?’ ‘What the hell, Robert,’ I said. ‘What the hell.’ ‘I’m serious.’ ‘It’s the one thing I don’t worry about,’ I said. ‘You ought to.’ ‘I’ve had plenty to worry about one time or other. I’m through with worrying.’ ‘Well, I want to go to South America.’ ‘Listen, Robert, going to another country doesn’t make any difference. I’ve tried all that. You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There’s nothing to that.’”

On the difference between emotions during the day and during the night: “This was Brett, that I had felt like crying about. Then I thought of her walking up the street and stepping into the car, as I had last seen her, and of course in a little while I felt like hell again. It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.”

A masterful passage about Jake trying to pray (illustrates a coded ritual): “I knelt and started to pray and prayed for everybody I thought of, Brett and Mike and Bill and Robert Cohn and myself, and all the bullfighters, separately for the ones I liked, and lumping all the rest, then I prayed for myself again, and while I was praying for myself I found I was getting sleepy, so I prayed that the bullfights would be good, and that it would be a fine fiesta, and that we would get some fishing, I wondered if there was anything else I might pray for, and I thought I would like to have some money, so I prayed that I would make a lot of money, and then I started to think how I would make it, and thinking of making money reminded me of the count, and I started wondering about where he was, and regretting I hadn’t seen him since that night in Montmartre, and about something funny Brett told me about him, and as all the time I was kneeling with my forehead on the wood in front of me, and was thinking of myself as praying, I was a little ashamed, and regretted that I was such a rotten Catholic, but realized there was nothing I could do about it, at least for a while, and maybe never, but that anyway it was a grand religion, and I only wished I felt religious and maybe I would the next time; and then I was out in the hot sun on the steps of the cathedral, and the forefingers and the thumb of my right hand were still damp, and I felt them dry in the sun.”

Jake, on the conflicting theories of living: “Enjoying living was learning to get your money’s worth and knowing when you had it. You could get your money’s worth. The world was a good place to buy in. It seemed like a fine philosophy. In five years, I thought, it will seem just as silly as all the other fine philosophies I’ve had. Perhaps that wasn’t true, though. Perhaps as you went along you did learn something. I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what it was all about.”

When you’re at some event that is really exuberant and chaotic, and everything seems almost unreal: “The fiesta was really started. It kept up day and night for seven days. The dancing kept up, the drinking kept up, the noise went on. The things that happened could only have happened during a fiesta. Everything became quite unreal finally and it seemed as though nothing could have any consequences. It seemed out of place to think of consequences during the fiesta. All during the fiesta you had the feeling, even when it was quiet, that you had to shout any remark to make it heard. It was the same feeling about any action. It was a fiesta and it went on for seven days.”

On the exchange of money being “sincere”: “Everything is on such a clear financial basis in France. It is the simplest country to live in. No one makes things complicated by becoming your friend for any obscure reason. If you want people to like you you have only to spend a little money. I spent a little money and the waiter liked me. He appreciated my valuable qualities. He would be glad to see me back. I would dine there again sometime and he would be glad to see me, and would want me at his table. It would be a sincere liking because it would have a sound basis. I was back in France.”

#reading list #ernest hemingway #the sun also rises #books

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nofomoartworld · 8 years ago

Text

Art F City: Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe Straddle NYC’s Past, Present and Future in ‘Paranoia Man In A Rat Fink Room’

“Paranoia Man in a Rat Fink Room” by Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe. Commissioned by Storefront for Art and Architecture and the New York Comedy Festival, 2016. Photo by Brett Beyer.

Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe: Paranoia Man In A Rat Fink Room Storefront for Art and Architecture 97 Kenmare Street New York, NY On view until February 18, 2017

New Yorkers are prone to nostalgia. It’s a byproduct of the city’s rapid changes and frequently traumatic displacements, which is why art addressing these constant evolutions is almost always relevant.

The latest project confronting New York’s transformations is Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe’s Paranoia Man In A Rat Fink Room at Storefront for Art and Architecture. While gentrification is well-trod artistic territory, the show takes a fresh angle on the subject by representing, at once, the city’s seedy past, transitional present and sleek future. Beyond the city, the installation also indirectly but successfully points out the alternative space’s anachronistic placement within the open-air mall of contemporary SoHo.

Paranoia Man In A Rat Fink Room is a trip into old New York hidden beneath a flashy new exterior. The duo hid Storefront’s easily recognizable moveable façade behind a wooden construction fence emblazoned with an advertisement for an ambiguous forthcoming store San San. What San San sells is anyone’s guess. The slick advertisement features a near pornographic scene of women splattered with a money shot of clear, glittery and brown liquids. It’s a spot-on satire of SoHo’s continually rotating set of stores. In fact, it felt so realistic that I walked right by the gallery’s longtime Kenmare Street location.

Inside, Freeman and Lowe take viewers through a series of three distinctive architectural installations. They consist of a defunct video store, a hideously tacky bathroom and a recreation of comedian Jackie Kannon’s Rat Fink Room, a mob-run comedy club. The first club dedicated entirely to comedy, the original Rat Fink Room was open from 1963 to 1969 on 50th Street and 3rd Avenue.

Part of the bathroom installation in “Paranoia Man in a Rat Fink Room” by Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe (photo by author)

The two rooms closest to the entrance will be familiar to anyone with an acquaintance with Freeman and Lowe’s bizarro aesthetic. The video store presents a menagerie of VHS tapes, DVDs and cassettes with hilarious titles including Let’s Have An Irish Party, Yogi Con Man and Because My Dad Looked Like Donald Duck. A few steps away, the bathroom features horrid wallpaper covered in a print of naked women, tchotchkes, a creepy closed circuit TV and an album by Kannon, fittingly titled Songs for the John. While amusing, it feels like the duo tread old ground in these two rooms, particularly when compared to the Rat Fink Room, which is deeper inside the installation.

The Rat Fink Room takes up the largest space in the installation. It projects a dimly lit, sleazy glamour. Portraits of Jackie Kannon and collages using the club’s rat mascot line the wood paneled walls. On one end of the room, there’s a stage with a singular microphone and on the other, a bar. Admittedly, a comedy club is pretty boring without comics (The New York Comedy Festival hosted a comedy series in the installation in November). But, as with many of Freeman and Lowe’s installations, the success of the Rat Fink Room is in the details. On the dark wood bar, there was a cup full of cocktail swizzle sticks emblazoned with the Rat Fink Room logo. With these minor and easily overlooked touches, it actually seemed as if I walked back in time. I could almost smell the stale cigarette smoke.

“Paranoia Man in a Rat Fink Room” by Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe. Commissioned by Storefront for Art and Architecture and the New York Comedy Festival, 2016. Photo by Brett Beyer.

This uncanny realism made me feel an unexpected nostalgia for a club that I never heard of before visiting the show. Granted, recreations of New York clubs in an art context are nothing new. But, these revivals are typically much-loved shuttered spaces like CBGB’s. The Rat Fink Room doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. From what I can find, its accessible written history consists of one blog post. What Freeman and Lowe achieve here is proof that New York’s frequent transitions can produce nostalgia for just about anywhere.

It’s also difficult to romanticize a venue run by the mafia. With the knowledge of its organized crime history, a looming sense of dread imbues the room. According to the press release, the club’s mobster owner Morris Levy recorded comics without their consent and if the performers disagreed with the illegally obtained albums, they’d receive threats. These weren’t necessarily simpler times. But, this history and the installation itself faithfully capture the ominous underbelly of old New York that appears far away from the chain store glitz of SoHo or the mass-produced kitsch of Little Italy.

Detail of the Rat Fink Room in “Paranoia Man in a Rat Fink Room” by Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe (photo by author)

By revealing this disconnect between city’s past and present, Paranoia Man In A Rat Fink Room becomes much more than a historical fun house. The most significant part of the installation may have been unintentional. An open door from the Rat Fink Room led to an alleyway that separated Storefront for Art and Architecture’s original façade from Freeman and Lowe’s ad-riddled exterior. Filled with garbage and other refuse, this thin strip of sidewalk represented a strange middle ground between the old Rat Fink Room interior, the present Storefront façade and the new construction. Standing in it was like inhabiting three different time zones at once.

Not only did this transitional space resonate with New York’s changes, it also reminded me of the symbolic placement of Storefront within contemporary SoHo. Founded in 1982, the gallery harkens back to an earlier era when the neighborhood’s loft spaces were ideal locations for studios and experimental art spaces rather than chic boutiques. With Artists Space recently leaving their longtime Greene Street location, Storefront is one of the last bastions of the alternative arts movement left in the area–a relic much like the Rat Fink Room. Sometimes, it takes an art installation to point out just how valuable that is.

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