#when I think of his home world I envision it all 50s styled

[doctorsiren]

give this angle another tri

[snkpolls]

SnK Episode 64 Poll Results (for Anime Only Watchers)

The poll closed with 60 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Manga Readers’ poll, click here.

Anime only watchers, beware of spoilers if you venture over to the manga readers’ poll results.

---

RATE THE EPISODE 53 Responses

The poll closed with 54 responses. The overwhelmingly positive response to the season continues, with 97.9% of folks giving it a 4 or higher and not a single person giving a rating less than 3. 

10/10 acting, atmosphere and music

MAPPA couldn't have done a better job. Inhumanely impossible. 20/10.

Just pure hype

Amazing episode, one of the best in the entire series.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 53 Responses

The overwhelming majority of respondents enjoyed the last scene of the episode, with Eren transforming in the basement and assaulting just as Willy formally declares war on Paradis. Behind the climactic moment, the rest of the favored scenes were various moments throughout Eren and Reiner’s conversation prior.

WHICH INTERPRETATION (BY RBA) OF THE OLD MAN’S STORY DO YOU THINK IS CLOSEST TO WHAT THE MAN ACTUALLY THOUGHT? 54 Responses

The Old Man’s story and its motifs have been present all throughout this season, so it’s interesting to see how people see it. When it comes to understanding the Old Man’s thoughts specifically, the plurality (46.3%) agrees with Bertholdt’s interpretation. Others (35.2%) see more to Annie’s idea of the Old Man’s final thoughts. Only 18.5% believe that there’s little use in predicting what’ll never be known.

IN THE SAME VEIN, WHICH OF THE AFOREMENTIONED INTERPRETATION FITS REINER’S STATE OF MIND IN THE BASEMENT SCENE? 54 Responses

In that same vein, the plurality (42.6%) also believes that Reiner wanted to receive judgement, perhaps from Eren. Just a little under 26% believe that in addition to receiving judgement, Reiner also wants to receive forgiveness. Few believe Reiner solely wants forgiveness. Finally, a little under 15% simply aren’t sure what Reiner wants. 

He just cant take it anymore, he wanna die. If he stays alive he will become the reason of death of more people which he doesnt want

He wants it to be over 

He wants to be killed as an atonement because he can’t live with his contradictory feelings about what he’s done

He wants what happens after someone is judged- to be sentenced. Reiner already judged himself.

I dont care

WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET A HUG FROM PIECK? 54 Responses

An incredibly serious question with a lopsided result. Just under 69% would like to receive a hug from Pieck, in contrast to 13% who’d rather not. 18.5% don’t really care about stuff like this. 

DO YOU THINK HELOS ACTUALLY EXISTED? 53 Responses

The majority (little under 53%) believe Helos was a complete fabrication, down to his very existence. Some others (18.9%) think he existed, but wasn’t anybody special or (13.2%) think he existed and was actually involved with ending the Great Titan War. A bit over 15% just don’t care.

“I’M THE SAME AS YOU.” EREN SAID THIS TO REINER A FEW TIMES IN THE EPISODE. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? DO YOU THINK EITHER OF THEM HARBOR A GRUDGE AGAINST THE OTHER? 29 Responses

One of the episode’s focuses was the meeting between Eren and Reiner, in addition to their general relationship. Here’s what a few people thought about the central motif of the meeting: 

At this point Eren's attitude is all like "It's nothing personal." 

Eren is in the same state of mind like reiner, he wanted to become the hero, yet he became a villan in the enemy's eyes

I think Eren's right. They're the same, and S1 and S4 parallel their actions in multiple ways. I honestly don't think Eren has any kind of grudge against Reiner anymore. I think he's moved on from his hatred and is just doing what he thinks he has to. And Reiner just seems ready to die so he doesn't have any kind of grudge either.

I think Eren is definitely holding a grudge, it’s not like him not too. 

Hell no, Reiner is an irredeemable monster. Based on the preview for the next episode, whatever Eren does from here on out is justified.

If Eren kills someone dear to Reiner, maybe Reiner will hold a grudge against Eren, otherwise they understand each other reasons.

I think they recognise each other’s efforts to protect their homelands (even if it means destruction) and their determination to do so, and that they have the same motivations and values. i think they don’t have a grudge against each other because they are able to see they are similar people who have just been placed on opposing sides, and that it is nothing more than their duties to bring down the enemy, but at heart, they hold the same values and morals.

I think it mainly shows how Eren has matured over the last few years. He knows Reiner’s intentions now, and he can admit that the two of them are similar without lashing out at him immediately and labeling him as a completely evil man (like he used to). I think Eren might still have some harsh feelings towards Reiner, but it definitely doesn’t seem like it’s his priority right now. Reiner doesn’t clearly display that he has a huge grudge against Eren (though I bet he still isn’t very fond of Eren). More than anything, Reiner seems to be struggling with his thoughts about his time in Paradis. It seems like he can’t accept the fact that Paradis Eldians are not all devils; he may be struggling to suppress this new perspective, and he forces himself to commit to his “honorary Marleyan identity” instead. Thus, I don’t think Reiner hates Eren as much as he used to, as he seems to be showing slight signs of sympathy towards the Paradis Eldians.

No Eren is now a grown ass adult when je was making his decision. Reiner was a kid he was like 11? 12? He didn't know he was an indoctrinated child and he suffered all his life for that. Eren isn't at all the same as Reiner. 

I feel like that emphasizes that the people of Marley and Eldia are no different from each other, just that they are on different sides. I do not think Eren and Reiner harbor a grudge against each other.

They’re both pretty fucking broken. I don’t think Eren or Reiner hate each other because Eren said “if it’s to save the world, then you didn’t have much of a choice.” But I also think part of Reiner wants Eren to hate him because he hates himself so much.

i think the old eren would hate him but it’s been 4 years and now i think he has realized that they are in fact very similar. i feel it is very interesting what happened but i think there would still be a minor grudge against each other

They both have the same purpose but different paths, to protect their loved ones from a threat. Since it's not really a personal issue but a bigger picture I don't think they resent each other, it's just a coincidence how they both ended up against each other.

DO YOU THINK THAT EREN AND REINER ARE EFFECTIVE FOILS TO EACH OTHER? 52 Responses

The vast majority (88.4%) seem to agree with the notion of Reiner being a foil to Eren, be it a complete or partial foil. 9.6% dissent and argue that there’s no comparison.

LADY KIYOMI OF THE AZUMABITO CLAN SEEMED TO NOT STICK AROUND FOR TYBUR’S THEATER PRODUCTION. WHY? 52 Responses

An interesting development came in Episode 5 in the form of Lady Kiyomi of the Azumabito leaving Tybur’s Play before it started. The majority (just under 52%) thought it meant that she had ties to Eren and/or the SC. A large minority (34.6%) on the other believe that although she somehow found out about the attack beforehand, she has no ties to Eren. Some others were either already spoiled, believe she got lucky or think she had her own plans of assaulting Tybur during the play.

MR. LEONHART SEEMED ADAMANT THAT ANNIE IS STILL ALIVE AND WILL COME BACK HOME. WHAT DO YOU THINK? 53 Responses

When it comes to Mr. Leonhart’s appearance and his convictions, the vast majority (83%) believe that Annie is alive. The major division comes about whether Annie will be able to reunite with her father or not. Some others believe that Annie is neither dead nor alive and is more permanently stuck in her crystalline state. Only one person believes she is simply dead and that’s that.

REINER IS SHOCKED BY EREN’S PRESENCE ON THE MAINLAND. WHAT’S THE FUNNIEST WAY YOU COULD ENVISION EREN GETTING ACROSS THE SEA? 52 Responses

A bit of a less serious question came out here. How could Eren get across the sea in a less serious manner? Some thought him walking on water would be rather amusing, others believed piggy-backing on Armin’s Colossal Titan would be most humorous. Other options included free-styling across the sea or kayaking. 

A ship? Maybe one of those Marley sent to Paradis in the last four years?

bOAT

Had armin yeet him across 

He rode on David Hasselhoff

Used one of the Marleyan ships that was sent to Paradis to go to Marley

WHO IS THAT LANKY SOLDIER WHO TRAPPED PIECK AND PORCO IN THE HOLE? 53 Responses

A plurality (45.3%) believes the lanky soldier who trapped Pieck and Porco is someone we already know. Though a little under 23% think that it’s actually a new character only Pieck knows. In a similar vein, 13.2% think that it’s a new character from the SC. 17% appear to have been spoiled, however.

MAGATH ASKS, “HAS IT BEGUN?” WHEN HE LEARNS THE WARRIORS HAVE GONE MISSING. WHAT “IT” IS MAGATH TALKING ABOUT? 51 Responses

Just shy of 50% think that Magath was already aware of Eren and/or SC’s presence in Marley when noting that “it” has already begun. Others believe that he either had some other plan created in conjunction with Willy or was waiting on an attack from the nation of Hizuru. A little under 20% just aren’t sure. 

He was anticipating enemy attack

DO YOU THINK WILLY WAS TRUTHFUL WHEN REVEALING THE “TRUTH” TO THE WORLD? 51 Responses

When it comes to Willy revealing the “truth” to the world, the vast majority (72.5%) believe that Lord Tybur was largely truthful when it came to dropping bombshells, but also made sure to twist certain things to get a favorable narrative. Some others think that he was either completely or only partially truthful.

WILLY ACCUSES EREN OF WANTING TO UNLEASH THE COLOSSAL TITANS UPON THE WORLD. DO YOU THINK HE IS JUST DEMONIZING HIM TO GET THE WORLD TO ATTACK PARADIS, OR DO YOU THINK THIS IS SOMETHING EREN IS CAPABLE OF DOING? 51 Responses

A rather noted accusation from Willy rained down upon Eren in this episode. And as a result, we gained a rather colorful pie chart to boot. In it, a slight plurality (23.5%) seemed to believe Tybur’s accusation when it came to discerning Eren’s future plans. Slightly less (19.6%) thought that Tybur was making up BS about Yeagerboy. The same percentage (19.6%) took a middle group, arguing that although Tybur actually believes this is Eren’s plan, Eren actually wants something different. Some others simply note that Eren couldn’t do that dastardly act, even if he wanted to due to lack of royal blood. 21.6% were spoiled about the story’s future. 

Pretty sure Eren wants to kill every last person outside of Paradis and is going to use Zeke’s royal blood to do so, but I think Zeke will be tricked or forced into it sonehow

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW BADLY DO YOU FEEL FOR FALCO ABOUT THE WHOLE LETTER FIASCO? 52 Responses

When it comes to Falco and the whole letter fiasco, there is much sympathy for the boy. More than half gave a rating of either 4 or 5 and only 13.5% gave a rating of either 2 or 1. In conclusion, Eren is a mean poopy-head!

EREN TOLD FALCO LAST EPISODE THAT HE HOPED FALCO WOULD LIVE A LONG LIFE. YET HE TRANSFORMED ON TOP OF HIM IN THIS EPISODE. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? 52 Responses

Staying on the topic of Falco, and Eren’s actions being contradictory to his words, almost 56% believe that although Eren was honest with his words in regards to Falco’s future, he had no qualms about letting that get in the way of his plans. A noted minority (28.8%) think that Eren hoped Reiner would protect the young boy. A small percentage also thought that Eren was simply lying to Falco.

DID YOU EXPECT EREN TO TRANSFORM ON TOP OF REINER AFTER HIS SPEECH ABOUT THEIR SIMILARITIES? 51 Responses

When it came to the episode’s ending, the majority seemed to expect Eren’s transformation, be it because of spoilers or own predictions (58.8%). A noted minority (41.2%) did not expect it, however, predicting either a recruitment attempt from Eren or something else entirely.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

I loved the music. It made all so tense my heart was beating like crazy.

WILD AND AN EMOTIONAL ROLLARCOASTER

As an anime only, i think that the choice of ost in this episode was beyond good. I don't see why people are complaining about the ost. For me it was perfect because Eren's transformation was like a sudden turn and 2Volts is perfect for that just like when they reveal the owl as the Attack titan. Wayyy better that YSBG or any ost that these manga readers were hoping it to be. Mappa and the production crew doesn't deserve any of these hate. Done ranting fgs.

Grim Reminder 2.0, but with Marley and the Warriors finally getting what they deserve for what they've done? I'm DOWN for that!

I’m wondering whether Historia is still Queen and how much character development she had gone through as a monarch during war

The people who complain about the music choices of the directors are just pure titan idiots

Assuming he lives through this battle, I think Falco is going to be one of the main characters in season 4. He has been telling himself that he “does not want to fight anymore” and he was probably influenced by what Eren (Mr. Kruger) had said to him on the bench. I can see Falco maybe rebelling against Marley in the future, but for now he’s clearly still devoted to Marley. Overall, I loved this episode, and season 4 is finally picking up with the action. I was looking forward to seeing our protagonists (Eren and the Scouts) again, and I thought it was interesting how Eren seemed much more mature, yet still somewhat insane in this episode. I am very excited to see the next episode, particularly to see the rest of the Scouts and to see what happens in the “war” Eren starts. I am also curious to see if anyone from any other nations decide to side with the Eldians, or if all of them simply believe Willy and hate the Paradis Eldians too.

manga readers really need to shut up and put bigger spoiler warnings 😐 loved the episode despite getting spoiled.

It was one of the best episodes of AOT I have seen, I truly don’t understand why or how people could complain about it. I’ve seen the posts about the soundtrack not fitting the episode but I honestly do not agree. The whole episode was perfectly directed and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. 

Ost's totally fine, so is the CG. I think most are too invested in the episode to give a fuck except Manga readers. 

I wish the Paradisians would have found another way to achieve their objectives instead of killing innocent civilians, like maybe targeted attacks on key military targets, or demonstrations of strength or public information campaigns to dissuade Marleyans and other people from wanting to go to war against them.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 48 Responses

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again next episode!

[dweemeister]

Movie Odyssey Retrospective

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

Walt Disney seemed to have been mentally drifting in the 1940s, producing a scattershot of films without the artistic discipline he displayed prior to Bambi (1942). His attention wavered between the package animated features, his forays into live-action features and nature documentaries, and taking mental notes about the new medium of television. As Walt approached his 50s, the strain of the work he had thrust upon his studio and himself was beginning to show.  In his nurse, Hazel George, he found a rare confidant (it was a friendship, nothing more). He noted his personal need to move forward on projects, rather than tolerate any stalling. “I’m going to move on to something else because I’m wasting my time if I mess around with that any longer,” he told George about his projects stuck in development hell. That was the difficult reality facing The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad – directed by Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, and James Algar – as it became the final animated feature of the package era of Disney animation.

Walt was dividing his time between this film, building a personal miniature railroad in his backyard (the genesis of the idea that would become Disneyland), a nostalgic and personal dramedy of rural turn-of-the-century America in So Dear to My Heart (1948), the start of his True-Life Adventures series of nature documentaries with Seal Island (1948), and restarting the studio’s line of non-package animated features. Of all these things, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad probably consumed the least of his attention. A feature-length adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows had been in the works at the studio in the months before the United States’ entry into World War II, but was halted due various factors: the war, the Disney animators’ strike, and Walt’s belief that Grahame’s book did not justify a feature-length treatment. Work on an adaptation of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow began in 1946. But unlike The Wind in the Willows (which also resumed production in 1946), the adaptation of Irving’s story was always envisioned as a segment to a package film – not a standalone feature. Itching to return to animated features and still not convinced in the potential of a feature film surrounding Mr. Toad and friends, Walt announced the merging of the two projects in 1947.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad uses a live-action library as a framing device. The Wind in the Willows makes up the film’s first half; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow closes it out. Each half has a narrator that, at the time, was at their career’s peak. The opening half is narrated by Basil Rathbone (1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood and as Sherlock Holmes in fourteen movies from 1939-1946); the concluding half by Bing Crosby (best known for his musical career, but was also an enormous box office draw with the Road to… series among other films). Both Rathbone and Crosby hold up Mr. Toad and Ichabod Crane, respectively, as exemplary characters of their home nation’s literature.

The Wind in the Willows begins in 1908 as J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq. harbors an insatiable appetite for adventure, rather than being shut in his elegant Toad Hall estate all day. His friends Rat, Mole, and Angus MacBadger (also his accountant) mostly tolerate Toad’s newest crazes. When, for the first time, Toad spots a motor car, his eyes widen and he is enamored with this newfangled contraption. Toad’s obsession turns into recklessness – leading him to some fraudulent dealings with weasels and legal trouble.

On the surface on Walt Disney’s concerns with The Wind in the Willows, I disagree that Grahame’s novel could never be a feature film.* As presented, the segment runs a neat and all-too-brief half-hour. In an era of communal moviegoing and when a single movie ticket often bought the purchaser a double feature (a B-picture followed by an A-picture, with film trailers, short films, serials, or newsreels in between), The Wind in the Willows is presented as the film’s B-segment. That should not be taken as a swipe on the segment’s quality, however. The Wind in the Willows is a marvel of narrative compactness and situational madness that tees up Alice in Wonderland (1951). Whenever necessary, the narration and newspaper headline montages accelerate the plot. The pace is breakneck, but that never threatens to make The Wind in the Willows incomprehensible. It is filled with dry English wit, benefitting from wonderful voice acting from Eric Blore (a regular supporting actor in Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals for RKO) as Toad and J. Pat O’Malley (Tweedledum and Tweedledee in Alice in Wonderland, 1954’s Dial M for Murder) as Toad’s horse, Cyril Proudbottom. When both Toad and Cyril are introduced in the short song “Merrily on Our Way (to Nowhere in Particular)” – music by Frank Churchill and Charles Wolcott, lyrics by Larry Morey and Ray Gilbert – it is a perfect overture to the madcap misadventure that is about to occur.

Animator Frank Thomas’ (the dwarfs from 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Captain Hook for 1953’s Peter Pan) character designs for Toad, Rat, and Mole are simple, fluid, without too much definition (think Winnie the Pooh). As such, all three are highly expressive figures easily adaptable to the comic scenarios that stumble onto. So much is related to the audience with a crazed grin from Toad, an exasperated sigh from Rat, and Mole’s concerned face. Similar praise must also be dedicated for a side character – namely, the Crown Prosecutor designed by Ollie Johnston (the three animated principal characters in 1946’s Song of the South, the fairy godmothers of 1959’s Sleeping Beauty). The Crown Prosecutor does not appear in the film for long, but his elastic limbs and body – outside Johnston’s wheelhouse – provide a simultaneously comic and menacing contrast to the anthropomorphized animals he towers over. Like all of Disney’s package film segments before it, The Wind in the Willows has numerous instances where the backgrounds and character animations compare unfavorably to the studio’s Golden Age works. But does the lack of painterly backgrounds or character design definition mean much when the piece in question is aiming purely for laughs? Not really. This is some of the best comic filmmaking made by the Disney studios in its history, even though it seems to have been overshadowed by what happens next.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow takes place in Colonial-era Sleepy Hollow, New York. Ichabod Crane, the town’s new schoolteacher, is a thin dandy (“lean and lanky, skin and bone / with clothes a scarecrow would hate to own”) possessing an enormous appetite. The man looks nothing like a ladies’ man, but he is exactly that – to the annoyance of town rogue and proto-Gaston, Brom Bones. Brom and Ichabod vie for the attention of Katrina van Tassel, the daughter of wealthy farmer Baltus van Tassel. Noting Ichabod’s superstitious ways, one night Brom tells the story of the Headless Horseman – a stratagem that succeeds in spooking the schoolteacher.

Mary Blair’s midcentury modernist design and coloration for Sleepy Hollow reflects the folksiness of the village, Ichabod’s occasional naïveté. Her curved lines for the surrounding countryside – notice how her trees curve in improbable ways – make it an inviting, down-home place to live. Putting the segment’s climax aside, the backgrounds lend an atmosphere similar to early autumn, as the calendar year begins to wither away.

This, of course, is turned on its head when Ichabod encounters the Headless Horseman. Blair’s backgrounds are blanketed in black, blue, and purple – emphasizing Ichabod’s physical isolation in these moments. The trees blend into an abstract tapestry, as if one cannot see only a few feet outside of the road. Outside of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’s uninteresting romantic wooing scenes, the segment is an exemplar of atmosphere and how to successfully change a film’s tone with animation. Wolfgang Reitherman’s (an animator who later became a prominent director with the Walt Disney Studios in the 1960s) smooth character animation specific to the Headless Horseman chase contrasts Ichabod’s flexibility with the sharpness of the Headless Horseman and his horse. Reitherman’s approach to the characters, combined with Blair’s style for the backgrounds, heightens Ichabod’s full-bodied terror against the Horseman’s frightening presence.

The segment’s pedestrian character animation is unfortunate and is the film’s most visible example of cost-cutting. Yet Ichabod and Brom’s designs – by Ollie Johnston and Milt Kahl (Prince Philip in 1959’s Sleeping Beauty, Tigger in the Winnie the Pooh short films) respectively – are excellent. Ichabod’s outwardly-angled, high-footed gait proclaims immediately his peculiarity in behavior and temperament. His impossibly thin body is bendable to achieve tremendous comic effect while still resembling something like a human. When providing three village women singing lessons, Ichabod (voiced, like Brom, by Bing Crosby), assumes many of Bing Crosby’s affectations while singing himself – those raised eyebrows, that jowl movement. This scene is much funnier if one is familiar with Bing Crosby’s film (and to a lesser extent, television) appearances. For Brom, his muscular frame is a first for a Disney animated feature, providing a somewhat threatening feel for the song, “The Headless Horseman” (which introduces the idea of the segment’s villain). On paper, Brom should be the segment’s antagonist, but things are not clear cut – especially because Ichabod himself has questionable motives in his pursuit for Katrina. Decades later, Kahl’s character design for Brom heavily influenced Andreas Deja’s design for Gaston in Beauty and the Beast (1991). Deja would take some of Brom’s features, add more details and exaggerations, and provide his antagonist a more sneering disposition for Gaston.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow also has the benefit of songs sung by Bing Crosby and composed by Don Raye (known for various Andrews Sisters songs) and Gene de Paul (1954’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers). The first, “Ichabod”, is the one number I always find stuck in my head and singing to myself throughout a given day (I also notice, while singing, I’m trying to imitate Crosby’s suave delivery, to little avail). It also serves as an ideal introduction to the character – outlining his personality in less than two minutes. Midway through the segment is “Katrina”, which is as musically uninteresting as the character herself. “The Headless Horseman”, also an earworm, plays on Ichabod’s fears and is a wonderful transition into this film’s most famous sequence.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is the best animated feature from the Disney package era. Its two halves – so distinct in style and narrative approach – are incongruent, some may say an unnatural pairing. But moviegoing audiences in 1949 so used to the B- and A-picture format of film exhibition were also accustomed to feature film pairings with little rhyme or reason. A flighty musical comedy might lead into a war movie; a romantic melodrama before a fast-paced swashbuckler; a seedy film noir giving way to a grand historical epic. Many decades removed from the moviegoing attitudes of this era, the pairing of The Wind in the Willows with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow pays off due to the stylistic distinctions between these two segments. Compared to its package era predecessors, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad has taken the time to shape its characters. For Toad, his motor car mania is a mostly innocent obsession that has endured; Ichabod Crane is forever associated with a harrowing chase through a gnarled wood. Their characterizations come through despite the limitations put upon the studio’s animation staff.

A modest success for Walt Disney, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is now mostly described as a transitional film. The film sees the Disney animators flex their artistry before the resumption of the studio’s traditionally-structure animated features. Sometime during the final stages of this film’s development, Walt and his brother Roy E. Disney fought over the former’s desire to return to features, to recapture the thrill that he felt when he produced Snow White. Under protest, Roy relented and approved a budget for Cinderella (1950) – the first film of Walt Disney Productions’ “Silver Age” films. While Ichabod and Mr. Toad wound down, more resources were being pooled into Cinderella.

This was the effective end to a creatively restrictive period in the studio’s history, but also to some of the most unique offerings in the Disney filmography. Audiences have seldom seen the concise characterizations, Warner Bros.-influenced outlandish humor, romanticized American folk storytelling and propaganda, and experimental animation in a Disney animated feature to the present day. Each of these aspects could be found throughout Disney’s package films – which, for any serious fan of animated film, cannot be dismissed offhand. In a decade of war and global reconstruction, the studio stood mostly alone in the realm of feature animation. But not for much longer. In Europe, animation studio Soyuzmultfilm was beginning to distribute its films beyond the Soviet Union’s borders. And with Walt Disney’s attention straying from his animated films, his animation studio’s record of sterling creativity – already hobbled by the animators’ strike and wartime budget cuts – would be further challenged.

My rating: 7.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

This is the eighteenth Movie Odyssey Retrospective. Movie Odyssey Retrospectives are reviews on films I had seen in their entirety before this blog’s creation or films I failed to give a full-length write-up to following the blog’s creation. Previous Retrospectives include Dracula (1931), Godzilla (1954, Japan), and Oliver! (1968).

* A “feature film” – as defined by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the American Film Institute (AFI), and the British Film Institute (BFI) – is a film lasting forty minutes or longer.

[magaprima]

Part 2 Episode 6 Analysis (3/?)

So when Adam 2.0 and Lilith are walking through the woods, it’s no freaking coincidence that the settling looks so idyllic, so lush and green, one could say it looks like Eden. She is essentially in a garden, a wild place (something that is considered home/sacred to Lilith in her mythology. If you want her to feel welcome where you live, make sure to keep at least a part of your garden wild), the sort of place not only was she created in, but first lived in, her first official home, and she’s walking with a man called Adam. We’re seeing here how Eden should have been, with Adam considering her equal, treating her with respect, walking side-by-side, happy, content and peaceful. It’s the biggest What-Could-Have-Been. 

Now, two interesting extra points about our first shot of this scene; the first is that Lilith has her arm linked through Adam’s. Not only does this mean they are strolling side by side as equals and also proves it’s a nice romantic stroll, but it also shows Lilith’s trust in him. Her arm is linked through his not the other way around, Adam is leading her, she is letting him lead her. She feels enough faith and trust and love for him to feel comfortable for what would be a small allowance for most people, but is a big thing for Lilith.

The second thing I want to point out is that she is wearing trousers. This is the first and only time we ever see Lilith wearing trousers. I have made a longer, more detailed post about this in the past, so I won’t go too deeply into it again, but I just want to point out how significant this is. Lilith, who always uses her attractiveness and her sexuality to manipulate situations to her best advantage, is wearing trousers. And though she is very stylish, she’s actually entirely covered, she’s dressed for fashion not for manipulation. Even her hands are covered, which they never are, her red nails are always visible, but she has gloves on, she’s wearing a belt, a jacket that, while a great cut, is not about showing off ‘assets’. And women’s trousers were, originally, seen as a symbol of freedom and independence. Desexualising women’s style and allowing them to do things men do, to no longer be held back by cumbersome dresses. Lilith, here is not only feeling free and independent, but also feeling no need to manipulate anything, she’s not working an angle, she’s not on edge or on guard, she is totally relaxed and natural and being herself. And herself likes the freedom of a pair of trousers. 

It does, on closer inspection, appear to be a bodysuit, but the details of the upper are covered by the jacket, as, like I said, she’s dressed for fashionable comfort, rather than sexual-men-are-idiots manipulation. That’s such a huge deal. 

“Mm, Adam. It’s so good to be away from that dreary little town”

Okay, first off, the way she says ‘mm Adam’ is so freaking content. The woman is STROLLING, this woman who is tense all the time, has to work all the time, manipulate all the time, be on the defence all the time, is strolling and smiling and going ‘Mm, Adam’. That says a lot which my little ole emotions can’t handle. And then there’s her saying how good it is to be away from Greendale. Because everything in Greendale reminds her of what she has to do, what she’s there fore. Everything in Greendale is to do with Lucifer and Sabrina, but out here, in the woods, out of the two, with Adam, it’s all about her, no one else. And the fact Adam has not just taken her for a day out, but out of the town, is all foreshadowing of his offer to take her much further, to take her far away from everything that is making her unhappy, even if she won’t openly admit it yet. 

Also when she told Sabrina she was having a personal day, she was wearing a purple dress. Did Lilith go to work, come home and change, then go out. Or did that one personal day lead to several personal days, and this is just like the third day in a row or something? And that’s why Stolas is stalking her and reporting back?

“You’ve always been devoted to Greendale, Mary” “Have I? Well, perhaps I’ve grown beyond it”

Okay, from Adam we get a hint at the type of person Mary was, the sort of interests she had, and the fact she’s obviously made it clear to Adam, she won’t leave the town. He then takes Lilith’s answer to mean she’s ready to adventure further, but we know this isn’t Mary and so her answer means so much more. Saying ‘Perhaps I’ve grown beyond it’, we know she’s talking about more than just the town, she’s talking about everything it represents and is linked to. Her dynamic/relationship/romance with Adam is waking Lilith up to some things, things she wasn’t happy with but was in survival-denial over, and now, with these escapes and personal days, she’s beginning to realise that. She’s grown beyond Greendale, Sabrina, Lucifer’s orders, the manipulations, the machinations for the throne. Lilith is ready for something different. She’s ready to explore things beyond Hell and beyond the Dark Lord, she’s finding herself growing tired of it all. 

The fact they come to stop at a bridge as she says this is a big deal. A bridge between two points, Do we cross the bridge? Once we cross the bridge we can’t turn back. The point of no return, the boundary between two realms. Lilith is metaphorically and literally on the cusp between two worlds. Much like Sabrina, at the beginning of Part 1, where she’s asked to choose between two worlds, Lilith is going to be asked to make a very similar choice too (the only difference, and significant one, is Lilith does choose to leave. She doesn’t choose both as Sabrina demanded. When given a choice of power or freedom, Lilith chooses freedom and that is so freaking significant to understanding her character).

Adam is so apprehensive when making his offer/suggestion to go to Tibet. He’s so expecting to be turned down. Lilith, on the other hand, thinks he’s joking. So much so, she bursts out laughing. Lilith finds the idea of being asked to join someone on a trip, as equals, asked to join them because they love her and her company rather than for any ulterior motive, that she actually laughs. And then when she sees his sincere, her expression goes from ‘oh. oops. Sorry. Wait, what?’

Even when she realises he’s genuine, her primary emotion is confusion. She just cannot compute this idea of him asking her. She’s not a doctor, she’s not a physician, she’s not anything that would be of any actual use in this medical charity, which means the only reason Adam is asking her is because he wants to be with her. And Lilith hasn’t had that in thousands of years. It’s strange to her. 

And then when he starts talking about the post she looks away like ‘yeah, yeah, here we go’. She seems to utterly expect him to say he’s going regardless, that he’s leaving for Tibet even if she doesn’t agree to go. She expects abandonment and being put in second place, because that’s what she always experiences, that’s how she’s always treated. And she doesn’t even look resentful at the idea, she just looks resigned and unsurprised. And then he makes that declaration:

“But I wouldn’t consider taking it, if you don’t come with me”

And that stops her. This person, this man, this mortal man, is openly declaring that she’s a deciding factor. That he won’t leave Greendale unless she leaves with him. She’s being told she’s more important than something, that she’s the most important, and I don’t think she’s ever had that. So she tries to dismiss it, like ‘Tibet? Adam, don’t be so absurd’. She’s dismissing it because it’s emotions she hasn’t experience before, but also part of her still can’t envision a world where she leaves, a life where she isn’t working to be Queen of Hell, an ordinary mortal life, even if only for the short time that Adam would live (consider she essentially lives forever). 

“Mary. I wanna show you the world”

And that’s the phrase that gets her. That’s the moment she’s utterly caught by his offer, speechless at his sincerity. She is around 6000 years old, there’s nothing of the world she hasn’t seen really, and yet here’s a 50-odd-year-old man offering to show the world himself. And perhaps, through his eyes, through this relationship of respect and affection and love, she would be shown the world for the first, a different world. This is, I feel, the declaration she wanted from the original Adam when she was in the Garden. To want to share the world with her, to experience everything side by side...and no matter how many millennia it’s been, that desire is still in Lilith’s core, and here it is, offered to her, by the one person who has shown her respect and love and affection in thousands of years. 

And no matter the consequences, no matter how ridiculous an idea she might feel it is, no matter how much she knows it would mean giving up the throne, how much she knows Adam will age and she won’t.....she can’t resist it. She agrees to consider it. And she says it so sincerely, looking at him so intently. And you know what? He doesn’t push, he doesn’t say ‘what’s to consider?’ he doesn’t ask when she will have an answer, the fact she says she’ll consider it is more than enough, and he smiles, that’s the end of the conversation. Adam never pushes her and that’s very important for Lilith, I feel, considering her other dynamics and the way people tend to treat her. 

When she goes to throw the pebble and Adam tells her to make a wish, she freaking does it. Lilith, the First Woman, the First Witch, Mother of Demons, Dawn of Doom....makes a wish on a pebble like a freaking love-sick teenager. And she actually thinks about the wish, you can see her concentrating as she genuinely picks what to wish for, and the way Adam watches her as she does, even though she doesn’t see him watching him is so affectionate and romantic. She throws it so unceremoniously though, which makes me laugh. And it makes Adam laugh too. Because it’s meant to be a gentle throw and Lilith just hurls it through the air. 

And then we see Bitch Snitch Stolas watching and flying off which makes us feel all kind of bad, even before we knew what was going to happen. 

Now as Adam was watching Lilith without her seeing, now Lilith looks at Adam without him seeing. This is a key thing of being in love. You do it a lot. Just watch the other person when they don’t know you’re watching them, you just study them, gently looking at them, quietly admiring and appreciating them. And the fact they both do it to each other, show how much in love they both are.

And then when he looks at her and she laughs with him, she freaking leans into him, leans against him as he hugs her, they’re standing there hugging each other and laughing. Lovesick kids, man.

[xvi-the-tower]

here's a few for youuuu, my love! 50, 35, 6

Guess who actually did the thing!  It me!

Anywho, I did two.

6 (teasingly kissing the tip of the nose) and 50 (tending to a wound) for Rowan x Callista

Rowan was a warrior.  Callista had known this even before her heart had made its slow transition into his possession.  Still, she wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to treating the myriad injuries he came home with. As a healer, she was used to treating wounds with a certain level of detachment required of her position, but she loved Rowan too much to detach.

This time, she decided not to ask how he’d ended up at her door, pale as death, with an arrow sticking out of his shoulder.  She’d learned that the details would do nothing to ease her mind. Wordlessly, she helped him into a low chair that would allow her to reach the injury despite their height difference.  Since his shirt was already ruined as it was, he didn’t argue when she cut it away.

The arrow came out easily enough.  Gentle hands folded over the bleeding wound and poured a steady stream of healing magic into it until the bleeding stopped.

Briskly, she crossed over to a cabinet and returned with a small, amber bottle.  By now, he recognized the serum that would help his body replace the lost blood faster, so she didn’t need to speak even as she handed it to him.  He knocked back the bitter liquid like it was cheap whiskey while she returned to work spreading a salve on the injury to prevent scarring.

Even with the wound essentially taken care of, Callista couldn’t help her racing thoughts.  What if the arrow had been just a bit higher and hit an artery?  Or lower and hit his heart or his lung?  What if he was attacked again the next day and the soreness from his freshly-healed injury made his sword arm just a bit slower? What if he wasn’t so lucky next time? What if…?

With her face so close to his, Callista’s silence did nothing to hide her worry.  He watched as her brow furrowed, her lip trembled, her eyes glistened with the threat of tears.  He couldn’t stand it.  He said her name gently, and she turned her head to look at him.  When she did, he kissed the tip of her nose.  As he’d hoped, the sudden, confusing gesture made her giggle reflexively.  He smiled weakly at her, and she smiled back.  Without the need for words, she’d found comfort in him, if only for a moment.

35 (running your finger down their spine) for Amaranth x Rhea

These were her favorite moments, truly.  Sitting naked with Rhea in the privacy of her room.  No costumes or pretenses, just the matching necklaces they wore to let the other know they were thinking about them.  The Count and the courtiers were off on the other side of the world for all either of them cared.

They were both lounging on the bed.  Rhea was lying on her stomach with her arms under her head, her face toward Amaranth, who sat with her back against the wall, gently stroking her lover’s hair. They’d been quiet for a few minutes now, and Rhea was finally relaxed enough to begin drifting off into some much-needed sleep.

Amaranth brushed Rhea’s hair off of her back idly and smiled warmly at what she found.  A tattoo? There, on her lover’s upper back, just below her neck, was a tattoo of a lotus.  She’d never seen it before, likely because it was always covered by either clothing hair.  Amaranth envisioned her own tattoo.  It too was a lotus, big and bright in her mother’s art style, while Rhea’s was simple and elegant.  Despite the differences in execution, they were practically a matched set, just like their wearers.

Heart filled with the warmth of her musings, Amaranth lightly touched Rhea’s tattoo before letting her fingers slide slowly down the length of her lover’s spine.

“That tickles,” came the grumbled response.

Amaranth withdrew her hand and chuckled, trying to keep her voice low.  “I’m sorry, love,” she cooed.  “Go back to sleep.”  

Rhea mumbled something unintelligible before her breathing slowed once more to a sleeping speed.  Careful not to jostle her, Amaranth settled down beside her.  As her own eyes began to drift shut, Amaranth whispered, “Goodnight, my love.”

[taylorswiftstan4ever]

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Hi Taylor,

So as my last ever ranking, I put together all of the rankings I did for your eight masterpiece studio albums, as well as songs you wrote for other artists, songs you were featured on, and songs that you released that were not on your studio albums. I omitted covers for the purpose of these rankings, even though your covers are always top-notch.

Some people are bound to disagree with my ranking, but it is based on my own preference during my current mood. In fact, some of the tracks are listed in different order here than they are in the studio album rankings simply because my rank changes depending on the moment. Anyway, this was definitely the hardest one so far and thankfully, the last. So here we go…

157. Half of My Heart - John Mayer **I'll be honest...I really like this song with your vocals, but since I can no longer listen to it without thinking about how the relationship behind it ended up, I put it last***

156. Christmas Must Be Something More

155. Girl at Home

154. How You Get the Girl

153. Untouchable

152. Sweeter Than Fiction

151. So It Goes...

150. Don’t Blame Me

149. You Are in Love

148. I Think He Knows

147. Highway Don't Care - Tim McGraw ***Love your vocals on this one***

146. ME!

145. SuperStar

144. Wonderland

143. It's Nice To Have A Friend

142. Only The Young

141. Beautiful Ghosts

140. Eyes Open

139. I’m Only Me When I’m With You

138. The Moment I Knew

137. Long Live

136. This Is We Can’t Have Nice Things

135. The Outside

134. Both of Us

133. London Boy

132. Innocent

131. Shake It Off

130. I Know Places

129. Ours

128. Come In With the Rain

127. The Other Side of the Door

126. Jump Then Fall

125. King of My Heart

124. ...Ready For It?

123. A Perfectly Good Heart

122. Cold as You

121. The Man

120. Welcome to New York

119. Mean

118. Stay Beautiful  

117. The Lucky One

116. Look What You Made Me Do

115. The Best Day

114. Mary’s Song (Oh My My My)

113. Out of The Woods

112. New Romantics

111. Breathe

110. Tell Me Why

109. You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home - Miley Cyrus ***I would love to hear you perform this to see what your take on it was when you wrote it***

108. Change

107. Come Back...Be Here

106. If This Was a Movie

105. This Is What You Came For- Rihanna ***I love Rihanna, but I also really love the videos of you performing this live and am so happy that you are finally getting the writing credit you deserve***

104. Holy Ground

103. Stay Stay Stay

102. Superman

101. Christmas Tree Farm

100. Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince

99. Treacherous

98. Sparks Fly

97. Never Grow Up

96. I Almost Do

95. All You Had To Do Was Stay

94. Haunted

93. False God

92. Better than Revenge

91. Fearless

90. I Forgot That You Existed

89. End Game

88. Our Song

87. Starlight

86. Tied Together with a Smile

85. Babe – Sugarland ***I LIVE for the concert videos of you performing it***

84. I Heart ? ***This song NEEDS to be on Spotify***

83. peace

82. the lakes

81. Safe & Sound

80. Sad Beautiful Tragic

79. State of Grace

78. The Last Time

77. I Don't Wanna Live Forever

76. A Place in the World

75. Red

74. Gorgeous

73. seven

72. epiphany

71. mirrorball

70. Paper Rings

69. I Wish You Would

68. Christmases When You Were Mine

67. You Need To Calm Down

66. The Story of Us

65. You’re Not Sorry

64. Invisible

63. Clean

62. illicit affairs

61. Style

60. Bad Blood

59. Call It What You Want

58. mad woman

57. the 1

56. Dress

55. Two Is Better Than One

54. Everything Has Changed

53. Dancing With Our Hands Tied

52. Beautiful Eyes

51. Enchanted

50. Daylight

49. Speak Now

48. Better Man - Little Big Town ***I usually listen to the version of you performing this at the Bluebird Cafe because I can hear how you envisioned it when you wrote it, but I still love LBT's version too***

47. the last great american dynasty

46. Hey Stephen

45. I Did Something Bad

44. hoax

43. The Way I Loved You

42. Best Days of Your Life - Kellie Pickler ***Love your vocals on this one***

41. Picture to Burn

40. I Knew You Were Trouble

39. Afterglow

38. Lover

37. august

36. cardigan

35. 22

34. Forever & Always

33. Mine

32. invisible string

31. Should’ve Said No

30. Today Was A Fairytale

29. Cruel Summer

28. Love Story

27. Cornelia Street

26. You Belong With Me

25. Dear John

24. this is me trying

23. Crazier

22. White Horse

21. Tim McGraw

20. Death By A Thousand Cuts

19. Wildest Dreams

18. The Archer

17. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

16. my tears ricochet

15. Delicate

14. Last Kiss

13. New Years Day

12. Begin Again

11. exile

10. Blank Space

9. betty

8. This Love

7. Getaway Car

6. Back To December

5. Teardrops on My Guitar

4. Fifteen

3. Ronan

2. Soon You’ll Get Better

1. All Too Well

Alright. Now that the rankings are done, I can start doing way less stressful posts haha As always I hope that you and your family are safe and healthy.

Sincerely,

Holly

@taylorswift

@taylornation

[buzzdixonwriter]

The Rise Of Skywalker Review [SPOILERICIOUS]

=0=

I’m going to post all the SPOILER stuff way below in section 3, so as not to ruin anything for anybody who hasn’t seen the movie yet.

You’ll get plenty of warnings.

=1=

In my old age I’m starting to divide creative works into three groups:  Good, bad, and not-so-good.

A good creative work is any where the strengths overwhelmingly outweigh the weaknesses; a bad one is the obverse.

A not-so-good work is one where the strengths and weaknesses balance each other out.

It’s the kind of a work that will doubtless please those audience members who really enjoy the strengths in it, and equally irritate those annoyed by the weaknesses.

In my estimation, a not-so-good work is one done with straight forward intent and as often as not, a fair degree of technical and aesthetic competency, but fails to jell as a cohesive whole.  

No one need feel ashamed for enjoying a not-so-good work, and no one involved in the making of a not-so-good work should feel bad about their contribution (unless, of course, their contribution turns out to be one of the weaknesses that should have been avoided).

Theodore Sturgeon famously observed “90% of everything is crap.”

I think that’s a little harsh.

I agree with him that only 10% of anything is good, but think only 40% falls into the crap bin.

Most stuff falls in the 50% I call not-so-good.

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker is in that 50%.

. . .

The good stuff is really good.

Elsewhere I’ve posted my enthusiasm for Star Wars Episode VII:  The Force Awakens and Star Wars Episode VIII:  The Last Jedi hinge in no small part on just how emo Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) could get, and holy cow, does he ever deliver in The Rise Of Skywalker.

Easily my favorite parts of the picture.

Doesn’t really mesh with anything else in the movie but, hey, ya can’t have everything, right?  (I’ll discuss his performance in a little more detail in section =3=.)

Other performances range from adequate to doing-the-best-they-can-with-the-material to okay-smartass-you-try-recreating-a-dead-actress-via-CGI.

The dialog in The Rise Of Skywalker is the worst of any film in the series, with the possible exception Star Wars Episode III:  The Revenge Of The Sith, which I haven’t seen and have no intention of seeing (but more on that below…).

It’s not an attempt to depict characters talking, it’s a series of shouted declarative sentences.

Elsewhere I’ve referred to The Rise Of Skywalker as the best Jason Of Star Command episode ever made.

For those who don’t get the reference, Jason Of Star Command was a low budget albeit imaginative Saturday morning kid-vid Star Wars rip off by Filmation Studios.

To make sure the youngest kids in the audience understood what was going on, they tended to hammer home plot points repeatedly.

  DRAGOS Jason!  In just sixteen hours my space fleet will destroy Star Command!

  STAR COMMAND Jason!  Dragos is going to destroy us with his space fleet in just sixteen hours!

  JASON Don’t worry, Star Command!  I’ll stop Dragos from destroying you with his space fleet in sixteen hours.

  NARRATOR (i.e., Norm Prescott) Jason has only sixteen hours to stop Dragos from destroying Star Command with his space fleet!

  There is far too much of that in The Rise Of Skywalker.

Ten minutes into the movie, and there was already far too much of that…

The opening credit crawl reveals an off camera plot development that literally deserved an entire film of its own to fully explore.

There is no sustained coherent plot to The Rise Of Skywalker:  

Well, we gotta do this,

now we gotta do that,

first we gotta find this thing,

then we gotta find that thing,

now I’m feeling blue,

now I’m gonna get encouraged,

etc., etc., and of course, etc.

Everything feel frenetic, not fast paced.

There are far too many scenes that exist just to sell action figures and toy vehicles.

There was a desire to tie off loose ends and say good-bye to favorite characters and that was a mistake.

It undercuts the urgency of the story (or rather, the desired urgency; the fact the film is called The Rise Of Skywalker means everybody in the freakin’ audience ALREADY KNOWS HOW THE DAMN THING IS GONNA END!

(This is not a problem unique to Star Wars.  Gene Siskell famously upbraided Roger Ebert for spoiling the ending to the third Star Trek movie, to which Ebert retorted, “Oh, come on!  They’re going to call a forty million dollar movie The Search For Spock and not find him?!?!?”)

There is one nice little breather scene (“little” only in screen time; visually it’s pretty big and impressive):  The Festival of the Ancestors on the desert world Pasaana that gives a nice touch of exotic space opera flavor to the proceedings.

All of the Star Wars movies offer really great art direction and visual design, and The Rise Of Skywalker certainly delivers in that category.

Which makes the occasional mediocre special effects shots all the more obvious.

The Rise Of Skywalker has a few painfully obvious matte shots, a few shots obviously composed in post-production, and a few shots where the audience becomes aware the actors are performing in front of a greenscreen. 

You can get away with mediocre visuals so long as there is consistency in their mediocrity.  

If everything else consistently looks great, a so-so shot spoils the illusion; if everything consistently looks so-so, it’s simply part of the work’s look.

Indeed, you’re better off with consistently mediocre work highlighted by a few great shots than consistently great stuff undercut by a few mediocre ones.

Best thing about the movie is the complete lack of Jar Jar Binks.

=2=

Before diving deeper in The Rise Of Skywalker, let’s look at the series as a whole (just the numbered theatrical episodes, not standalone films, TV series, video games, comics, novels, etc.).

I’ve said the original Star Wars was the movie an entire generation had been waiting all their lives to see.

George Lucas wanted to do Flash Gordon but when Universal turned him down, created his own space opera.

Lucas, it needs be noted, is not a good writer.

Whatever visual talents he has, they don’t extend to telling a good story.

One can easily find early drafts of Star Wars online, and while they all share certain elements, they’re all pretty bad.

The development of Star Wars the movie grew organically with storyboard and production art, characters and incidents changing and evolving along the way.

It’s long been rumored that a more skilled writer than Lucas came in to do the final draft; one thing’s for sure, the shooting script is head and shoulders above the earlier drafts.

Star Wars the original Han-shoots-first-dammit theatrical release is very much a product of the 1970s.

20th Century Fox thought they had a good enough kiddee matinee movie for summer release; they expected their big sci-fi blockbuster of the year to be Damnation Alley.

Instead, they hit a nerve and found themselves with a blockbuster on their hands.

Lucas did show one great example of foresight:  He trademarked all the names / characters / vehicles and held the licenses on them, not 20th Century Fox.

This gave him the war chest he needed to build the Lucasfilm empire.

And let’s give Lucas and his crew their due:  They added immeasurably to the technical art of film making, as well as making several entertaining films.

What Lucas did not fully envision was how to mold his Star Wars material into a coherent and thematically cohesive saga.

He started out with grandiose plans -- four trilogies with a standalone film connecting each for a total of 15 movies -- but that gradually got whittled down to 12, then 9.

After Star Wars Episode VI:  The Return Of The Jedi, Lucas put the Star Wars movie series on hold, waiting for film making technology to develop to the point where he could tell the stories the way he wanted to tell them.

Okay, fair enough.

But the problem is that while the film making technology improved, the technology of the Star Wars universe didn’t.

As I said, the original Star Wars is very much a 70s movie in taste / tone / style / sensibility.

While the designs look sufficiently sci-fi, they reflect robots and spacecraft designs of the 1970s -- in fact, even earlier in many cases.

That fit in with Lucas’ “used universe” look and the tag line “A long ago in a galaxy far, far away...”

But compare the original Star Wars with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Kubrick spent a lot of time researching where technology was heading.

Long before visual displays and vector graphics became commonplace in real world aircraft, he showed them being used in the future.

The first example of what we refer to today as a computer tablet appeared in 2001 as a throwaway background detail.

Kubrick’s next film was A Clockwork Orange and he successfully predicted punk culture a decade ahead of reality (his only mistake being the assumption white, not black, would be the base color).

Star Wars Eps I - III take place a generation before the original Star Wars movie.

Star Wars Eps VII - IX take place a generation after.

Name a two generation span since the start of the industrial age that is not marked by radical technological change that produces an ensuing change in the social order.

Now I grant you, the Star Wars universe isn’t trying to tell that kind of story, but the story it is telling is static.

Characters in The Rise Of Skywalker talk about cloning as if it were A Really Big Deal.

Cloning today is cutting edge bio-tech, to be sure, but it’s already common place.

It’s as if the Star Wars characters were getting worked up over steam engines.

One can intercut scenes from the movies and, unless one is a familiar with each movie, it’s impossible to tell one film from another.

Lucas’ financial success enabled him to issue edicts re Star Wars (and other Lucasfilm projects) that undercut the strengths of his projects.

Lucas is a technological guru and a savvy businessman, but he really struggles to tell a story.

Frankly, I think he would have been a better film maker if he’d spent a decade or so making American Graffiti scale movies, not space operas and epic fantasies and adventure movies.

His decision to make the original Star Wars the fourth episode in his saga and going back to start his story with his villain was fatally flawed.

I grant following the Skywalker saga from Anakin to Luke to Rey could work if it started with Anakin.

But what he did was the equivalent of the James Bond movies jumping back in time to follow the pre-Bond career of Ernst Stavo Blofeld.

(And the Bond movies, at least up until the Daniel Craig era, are all standalone films insofar as one does not have to see any of the previous films to understand and enjoy the one being watched, not does the sequence they’re viewed in matter.  And the Craig films were conceived from the beginning as having a coherent overall arc, so in that case they are the exception to the rule.)

The joyous whiz-bang space opera of the original Star Wars got bogged down in a lot of meaningless politics and talks of trade treaties, none of which explained why anyone would want to conquer the universe in order to rule it as a decrepit, diseased dictator in a dark hole.

Look at Hitler and Stalin and Castro and Mao and the Kim family in North Korea.

These guys enjoyed themselves (well, Hitler did until things went south for him).  They loved the attention and went around preening themselves in public.

The off screen Empire (and implied Emperor) of the original Star Wars served that film well:  It was a story about a tactical conflict, not a treatise on the philosophy of governance.

Lucas’ universe does not make sense even in its own context.

And because of that, it becomes harder and harder to fully engage with it.

A sci-fi movie doesn’t have to explain everything, but it has to at least imply there is an underlying order that links up.

Lucas began subverting his own universe almost immediately.

The Force was originally presented as a spiritual discipline that any sufficiently dedicated intelligent being could gain access to.  (Robots seem to be specifically excluded from The Force, implying it needs a biological connection.  But that would seem to exclude intelligences that may not be organic in the commonly accepted sense of the word, which means such beings cannot appear in the Star Wars universe, which means…well, I digress…)

That was a big hunk of the original Star Wars’ appeal, the thought that literally anybody could become a Jedi if they so desired.

It speaks to a religious bent in audiences from many different cultures around the world, and it offers up an egalitarian hope that allows everyone access to the Star Wars fantasy (“fantasy” in this context meaning the shared ideal).

But already in Star Wars Episode V:  The Empire Strikes Back Lucas began betraying his original concept, sowing the seeds for self-serving deception and innate superiority as endemic in The Force.

By the time he got around to Star Wars Episode I:  The Phantom Menace, Lucas abandoned the hope established in the original Star Wars movie.

Now one has to be a special somebody, not just dedicated.

Mind you, that sort of story has its adherents, too.

Way back in the 1940s sci-fi fans were saying “Fans are slans” in order to claim superiority over “mundanes”.  Today many Harry Potter fans like to think of themselves as inherently superior to “Muggles”. 

It’s a very appealing idea, so appealing that the United States of America is based on it, the assumption being that white people are endowed with more blessings -- and therefore more rights -- than non-white people (add force multipliers such as “rich” / “male” / “Christian” / “straight” and you get to lord it over everybody).

Lucas with his stupid midichlorians robbed audiences of their healthy egalitarian fantasy and replaced it with a far more toxic elitism.

It appeals to the narcissistic stain in the human soul, and encourages dominance and bullying and cruelty and harm as a result.

It’s an elitism that requires a technologically and sociologically stagnant society, one where clones and robots and slaves can all co-exist and nobody points out they are all essentially the same thing.

A progressive society -- and here I use “progressive” strictly in a scientific and technological sense (though as stated above, advances in scientific fields invariably lead to changes elsewhere) -- does not let such conditions exist unchanged for generations.

As technology changes and improves, the culture/s around it change (and hopefully improve, too).

As I mentioned above, I’ve never seen Star Wars Episode III:  Revenge Of The Sith.

My reason for not seeing it?  Star Wars Episode II:  Attack Of The Clones.

Little Anakin Skywalker and his mom are slaves in The Phantom Menace.

He saves the Jedis and Princess Padame’s collective asses in that movie.

Okay, you’d think at the end of the movie that Padame would hand Qui-gon her ATM card and say, “Here, go back to Tatooine and bail the kid’s mom out.  He did a solid for us, it’s the least we can do for him.”

No, they leave her there because there is no desire to change the underlying social order of their universe.

There can be no changes in Lucas’ bleak, barren moral universe.

There can be no help, no hope, no improvement.

When an edict is issue -- be it Jedi council or Emperor (or president of Lucasfilm) -- it is to be obeyed without question or pause.

Daring to say one can change their status -- change their destiny -- results in tragedy (and ironically, proof that is their destiny).

It’s dismaying enough that a large number of people enjoy cosplaying Star Wars villains, especially storm troopers, as that seems to indicate they’re missing the whole point of why the rebels were striving against the Empire in the first place.

Originally that could be written off as (at best) just enjoying the cool costumes and props or (at worst) finding an excuse for bad behavior (i.e., “I vuz only followink orders”).

But Lucas’ tacitly endorsing a sense of innate superiority pretty much destroys everything about The Force that the original Star Wars audience found enlightening and ennobling.

The Star Wars universe has become at its core a very ugly thing, and The Rise Of Skywalker doesn’t really clean it up.

SPOILERS ahead.

=3= 

Seriously, SPOILERS follow.

Holy crap, The Rise Of Skywalker is a damn mess.

Nice eye candy, but a mess.

It pretty much undoes everything good in the previous two episodes.

I’m glad it’s the “official” end of the original saga because now I never need to see another Star Wars movie ever again.

(Oh, I’ll keep my DVD of the original Star Wars and if I find Solo in a bargain bin somewhere I might pick that up, but as far as the rest of Star Wars goes, I am D.O.N.E.)

The series stopped making sense long ago, so I’m really in no mood to analyze why nothing links up or really works.

It’s full of absurd, stupid ideas, such as space barbarians galloping across the deck of a star destroyed on their space horsies.

The whole back and forth between among Palpatine / Kylo / Rey goes on for two long.  If hating somebody is bad because it sucks you over to the Dark Side, then why doesn’t somebody start building Terminators that can track down beings with midichlorians and kill them?  (They’ve got the technology to detect midichlorians, that’s canon.)

It’s not anywhere near a good movie.  It’s not as bad as George Lucas’ Star Wars Episodes I - III, but it’s clearly the worst of the last trilogy.

The scene where Rey gets off camera encouragement from all the dead Jedi?  It seemed awfully familiar to me, as if the writers consciously or unconsciously remembered the John Wilkes Booth / Lee Harvey Oswald scene in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins where all the presidential assassins and would-be assassins past and future encourage him to plug Kennedy.

Not what I want in a Star Wars movie.

I think we may be seeing the end of Star Wars.  It’s been crammed down our throats for too long.  I’m aware of The Mandalorian series and how insanely popular it is, but y’know, sooner or later every pop culture craze dies out.

Star Wars has nowhere to go.  Star Trek is hemmed in, too, but nowhere nearly as bad as Star Wars.

We’re about to enter a generational shift in America, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a badly dated 1970s sci-fi concept fails to make the cut.

It ends on a frustrating note, taking much too long to come to a close, far too much self-congratulatory bullshit, and the deliberate planting of clues for a future set of sequels should the Mouse start jonesin’ for that sweet, sweet Star Wars franchise money fix.

It’s a really bad script, and dragging Carrie Fisher’s digitally reanimated corpse into it and then killing her off by suicide is a damned stupid / offensive idea.

Mark Hamill’s ghost walking out of the flames of Jedi hell (thank you for that analogy, David Brin)?  Wow, who didn’t see that one marching down the avenue?

Harrison Ford coming back as a memory / hallucination to tell Kylo to do the right thing?  Skrue dat noiz.

(Though I have to say Kylo Ren is the best thing about the movie and his character turn parallels both Luke’s and Vader’s in The Return Of The Jedi only his is much more believable and poignant so dammit, Disney, you could have done a much better job with this movie than you did.)

The plot and pacing is straight out of a video game.  First do this, then do that, now ya gotta do another thing -- feh!

And unless I misheard the dialog, this whole film supposedly takes place over a span of sixteen hours!!! 

They visit a half dozen worlds, crash and repair spaceships, go undercover, get captured and escape, fight duels to the deal -- all in sixteen hours?!?!?

Yeesh.

And I’ll say this, the last line is wrong wrong WRONG.

If the Star Wars saga has taught us anything, it’s that Force users are a threat to everything.

They should be eliminated for the good of the universe.

Rey shouldn’t have buried the Skywalker lightsabers.

She should have destroyed them -- and the one she made, and any others she found lying around.

And when she’s asked at the very end what her name is, the answer should have been:  “Rey…just Rey.”

I know I put The Rise Of Skywalker in the not-so-good bin, but truth be told, that’s the nostalgia talking; it’s only a eyelash away from being bad.

The whole epic saga is a failure as far as I’m concerned.  One and done is the way to go; the moment it started making money as a toy franchise it went south.

  © Buzz Dixon

[awkwardanime]

Why I love Hayao Miyazaki

One huge aspect of the film and TV industry I adore is the fact that no style is definitive in the current climate, nor should it be. Animation is where this statement holds truest I feel, as millions of creators sit at their desks and worktops trying their hardest to produce something truly unique. Not only through a compelling story, but aesthetically too.

“I’m not a storyteller, I’m a man who draws pictures (laughs). However, I do believe in the power of story. I believe that stories have an important role to play in the formation of human beings, that they can stimulate, amaze and inspire their listeners.” - Hayao Miyazaki, 2002 interview

Hayao Miyazaki as an Animator famously is known for his extraordinary creatures and stunning backgrounds, however every single one of his movies include very plain looking people. He has stated numerous times that he prefers to make his main characters appear “simple”, as this betters the connection between the audience and the story that he’s trying to tell. Miyazaki’s best trait, in my opinion, is his ability to create a truly affectionate atmosphere. What I mean by that is that when I watch any one of his works, I never feel like anything is out of place - even though he does everything to make it seem like it should be. Making me connect to a fantastical creature to the point of familiarity, is one of my favourite aspects about Anime and Hayao Miyazaki does this oh so well. If I were to define Hayao Miyazaki’s style in one sentence, it would be: Surrounding ordinary with extraordinary.

“I can only create animation in 2D. There is no other choice for me. I don’t even know how to use a Smartphone”

Solely using hand-drawn animation in most of his works, Hayao Miyazaki I can say has a definitive style that he sticks to and abides by. He creates a connection between the audience and character by putting us in this unique world, constantly reminding us that even though no one is special to start off with, it is the curiosity and determination that allows us to plant our feet wherever we want to. The world renowned Director does rely on his one style and abides by it, with recurring elements in each of his films which help define Miyazaki’s particular storytelling techniques.

“It was through observing the daughter of a friend that I realised there were no films out there for her, no films that directly spoke to her. Certainly, girls like her see films that contain characters their age, but they can’t identify with them, because they are imaginary characters that don’t resemble them at all”

The 50 year veteran of Japanese Animation has recurring themes and factors in each of his films. Most of his main characters are female, which has given the younger generation hope for their future while bringing much critical acclaim. The way Miyazaki handles female leads in his films is great, by not following the stereotypical “fearful and dainty turned into strong and beautiful”. Instead, from my point of view, the man treats his main characters as simply that, main characters. He has stated many times that he prefers to use females as it falls in the unknown category for him, but what I see each and every time is someone who appreciates what it is like to be a young child - no matter if you are a boy or a girl, as a child we all are filled with fear, curiosity and longing to fit in.

“Many of my movies have strong female leads – brave, self-sufficient girls that don’t think twice about fighting for what they believe in with all their heart. They’ll need a friend, or a supporter, but never a savior. Any woman is just as capable of being a hero as any man.”

I actually cite this as one of the reasons his two most popular works involve females as lead characters - My Neighbour Totoro (1988) and Spirited Away (2001). It’s not about putting females as leads just to create a buzz in the film industry, but more importantly to write compelling characters for the audience to digest and be intrigued by. Breaking away from the uninteresting tropes of usual “chick flicks” Hayao Miyazaki tries to shape his female characters how he envisions the life of a 10 year old girl to be, producing something truly special for girls of all ages to relate to and enjoy.

“Anime may depict fictional worlds, but I nonetheless believe that at its core it must have a certain realism. Even if the world depicted is a lie, the trick is to make it seem as real as possible”

The hardest task of any storyteller is to effectively world build. Putting all your time and effort into a reality that we don’t live in is hard to implement effectively, but this was always a strength of the storyteller. Miyazaki’s worlds are a mash of real life problems that feel very familiar to what we deal with in the real world, but taken to a whole new level with the inclusion of ambiguous fantastical creatures and elements. All Ghibli films, not just Miyazaki’s, somehow always manage to hit that perfect balance of reality and fantasy, as all animators intend to bring their ideas to life. After all, that is what it means to animate. To bring to life.

“The animator must fabricate a world that seems so real, viewers will think the world depicted might possibly exist”

Why I adore this one man’s particular world building, is quite simple to be honest: Hayao Miyazaki is an amazing liar. Yes, I do say that as a compliment. I believe that to create a world that is intended to immerse your audience into vulnerability, you must first be able to lie to the world around you. This animator does this brilliantly, ensuring that every second tries to entice its viewer. By including realism in every aspect, we are able to not only connect to the world, but develop.

Take the “soot sprites” in Totoro, we see Mei trapping one in her hands and scurrying across the rooms in this vast new home. The way she is animated, her minute movements, from her eyes widening to jumping and running around, every frame is done with accuracy to create a sense of illusive reality. From walking, to portraying excitement, nothing is left out to entice the audience into the film, and into this world. You leave yourself vulnerable and allow yourself to drift into this fantasy which has suddenly become more real than it should have ever been. That is how I feel when watching Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki’s works. Lying to himself about what is real to create such worlds is what I find truly interesting about world building and how this one man who rarely watches movies, can create such ideas.

The above is just the tip of the iceberg as to why I love the work, motives and values of the well respected Mr. Hayao Miyazaki. With his “final” project coming up in the next year, endless praise and love will come from around the world for everything he has given us, and he deserves every single bit of it. Never change, Mr. Miyazaki, thank you for introducing me to a different side of animation and storytelling that I didn’t even think was possible.

“Don’t follow the instructions of just one person. Strive to find your own path”

Check out my piece on the late Isao Takahata here

[justforbooks]

REBECCA CHAPMAN, who has a master of arts in English and comparative literature from Columbia University, hit bottom professionally last summer when she could not even get a job that did not pay. Vying for an internship at a boutique literary agency in Manhattan, Ms. Chapman, 25, had gone on three separate interviews with three people on three different days. “They couldn’t even send me an e-mail telling me I didn’t get it,” she said. 

It’s a story familiar to anyone seeking to break into the New York publishing world. Willie Osterweil, 25, an aspiring novelist who graduated magna cum laude from Cornell in 2009, found himself sweeping Brooklyn movie theaters for $7.25 an hour. And the closest that Helena Fitzgerald, a recent Columbia graduate, got was an interview at a top magazine, during which the editor dismissed her literary career dreams, telling her, “C’mon, that’s not realistic.”

Which explains, in a way, how they all ended up on a crisp November night, huddled together at an invitation-only party at a cramped, bookshelved apartment on the Upper East Side.

It was the weekly meeting of The New Inquiry, a scrappy online journal and roving clubhouse that functions as an Intellectuals Anonymous of sorts for desperate members of the city’s literary underclass barred from the publishing establishment. Fueled by B.Y.O.B. bourbon, impressive degrees and the angst that comes with being young and unmoored, members spend their hours filling the air with talk of Edmund Wilson and poststructuralism.

Lately, they have been catching the eye of the literary elite, earning praise that sounds as extravagantly brainy as the thesis-like articles that The New Inquiry uploads every few days.

“They’re the precursor of this kind of synthesis of extrainstitutional intellectualism, native to the Internet, native to the city dweller,” said the novelist Jonathan Lethem, an early champion.

“They’re not trapped within an old paradigm,” he added. “They’re just making it their own.”

The New Inquiry is edited by Rachel Rosenfelt, 26, who graduated from Barnard College in 2009. Though she had some luck finding work, her exposure to the literary establishment left her unimpressed. “It killed my interest in publishing,” she said of her internship at The New Yorker during her freshman year. “It just felt like they had all ‘arrived.’ It was boring. No one talked. The only real rule was, ‘Don’t mess this up.’ ”

Young, Web-savvy and idealistic, she and two friends — Jennifer Bernstein and Mary Borkowski — wanted to create their generation’s version of cultural criticism, equally versed in Theodor Adorno and Britney Spears. Finding contributors was easy: their social circle was filled with overeducated, underemployed postgrads willing to work free to be heard on subjects like Kanye West’s effect on the proletarian meta-narrative of hip-hop.

After earning a master’s and writing on a farm in upstate New York, Ms. Chapman returned to the city uncertain about what to do next.

“I met Rachel on one of my first days back,” she said, “and she was like, ‘Be our new literary editor.’ ”

There was no thought of turning a profit. But who cared? No one was making any money on the traditional path, anyway.  

“There’s something incredibly liberating,” Ms. Rosenfelt  said, “when you realize that climbing that ladder is a ladder to nowhere.”

Ms. Chapman added: “My whole life, I had been doing everything everybody told me. I went to the right school. I got really good grades. I got all the internships. Then, I couldn’t do anything.”

Ms. Rosenfelt and her collaborators envisioned a kind of literary salon reminiscent of the Lost Generation of the 1920s. So once a week, about 20 of The New Inquirer’s contributors and guests gather at an unmarked clandestine bookstore, a sort of literary speakeasy, in a second-floor, three-room apartment on the Upper East Side.

At 9 p.m. on a recent Thursday, Ms. Rosenfelt, wearing a black sweater, miniskirt and combat boots, appeared behind a blue door in the unimposing prewar apartment building. The door creaked open to reveal a disheveled space that looked like a used-book store in any college town, with shelves of yellowing volumes of Dostoyevsky and Camus reaching to the ceiling and air thick with the musty smell of stale tobacco and old paperbacks.

This space belongs to a bookseller in his 50s, the godfather for The New Inquiry, a man with bushy brows and the affably abstruse mien of a coffeehouse intellectual. (He asked that his name and identifying details not be published because his building prohibits a shop in the space.) He opens only by invitation, when he feels like it.

Ms. Rosenfelt described meeting there as a form of “urban hacking.”

For the first hour, attendees, most in their mid-20s and many dressed in untucked oxford shirts and off-brand jeans, mingled around a rickety table packed with half-empty Jim Beam bottles.

Despite the fact that everyone was young and attractive, no one seemed to flirt or network. Instead, they traded heady banter about the Situationists and reveled in an atmosphere of warmhearted mutual support; it felt like an oral dissertation mixed with a ’70s encounter group. 

At one point, a few debated, only half-ironically, whether a new bank in a former Dunkin Donuts nearby was philosophically akin to the French reactionaries’ construction of the Sacré Coeur basilica on the site of the Paris Commune’s insurrection in 1870.

Then, around 10 p.m., Ms. Rosenfelt called everyone into the main room. The highlight of each salon is a group reading in which each person selects a three-minute reading on the predetermined topic.

“We’re reading about ‘failed revolutions’ tonight,” Ms. Rosenfelt reminded the crowd. She started with a passage from “To the Finland Station,” “in which Edmund Wilson couches the inevitable failure of Marxism in Edmund Wilson’s idea of the national and ethnic identity of Marx.”

The room exploded in vaudeville-style hoots.

Continuing around the circle, Ms. Fitzgerald, the would-be magazine writer, read from “The Cantos,” by Ezra Pound. Mr. Osterweil, the frustrated novelist, read from Guy Debord’s “Society of the Spectacle.” Tim Barker, a junior at Columbia, awkwardly admitted that he, too, had chosen a reading from Debord. (What are the odds?)

One young attendee offered a reading from Gustave Flaubert’s “Sentimental Education.”

“A lot of this book takes place during the revolutions of 1848,” he explained. “The part that I think has a good point for revolutionaries is how quickly a failed revolution can descend into careerism.”

The word hung in the air, as noxious as cigarette smoke.

DESPITE its slacker-revolutionary spirit, The New Inquiry is starting to tiptoe toward the publishing mainstream.

With an audience that understands references to consumerism as “a hedonic treadmill,” many articles in The New Inquiry make The Paris Review look like a beach read. Arch and often aggressively leftist, the articles dance effortlessly from Jacques Derrida to Lady Gaga.

Recent pieces include a review of Ben Jeffery’s “Anti-Matter”; a critical survey of the novels of the French provocateur Michel Houellebecq; an essay on the class struggle portrayed in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”; and a personal piece by Malcolm Harris, a young writer who recalled growing up in the suburbs and finding sanctuary in Borders.

The journal counts cultural savants like Todd Gitlin, Douglas Rushkoff and Mark Greif, a founder of N + 1, as early champions, and articles have been linked on Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Beast blog and the National Public Radio Web site. Even barbs by the establishment elicit pride, like when James Wolcott of Vanity Fair called Mr. Osterweil’s film criticism “Maoist” on Twitter.

On Sunday, the journal is to make a social debut of sorts among the city’s literary A-list, organizing — in partnership with the publisher New Directions, Google and others — a marathon reading of Frederic Tuten’s novel “The Adventures of Mao on the Long March,” featuring 60 readers, including writers like A. M. Homes, Kurt Andersen and Oscar Hijuelos, at the Jane hotel in the West Village.

And even though staff members routinely serve up gloomy eulogies over the “death of print,” the publication plans to roll out a quarterly print edition next year, along with an iPad magazine for $2 a month. Its breakout stars are even starting to climb publishing’s “ladder to nowhere.”

Atossa Abrahamian, 25, an editor, has written for New York Magazine. Sarah Leonard, 23, is an associate editor at Dissent. Mr. Harris, 22, who was sifting through grad-school rejection notices a year ago, has written for N + 1 and Utne Reader and has been called out by Glenn Beck on television. 

This is not to say that the generational angst fueling The  New Inquiry is likely to vanish soon. At the most recent salon two weeks ago, Will Canine, the operations director, showed up with 5 o’clock shadow after spending 35 hours in jail following his arrest at the Occupy Wall Street protests. 

Tim Barker, a junior at Columbia, said he was drawn to the salons for the chance to “discuss ideas at an extremely high level, without worrying about status or material support of traditional institutions: publishing houses or universities.” He added, though, that while he aspires to be a history professor, he was “extremely conscious of the contraction of job opportunities” in publishing and academia.

Inside the bookstore, however, the turmoil of the outside world seemed far away. The lights were low, the conversation crackling.  

“This is my fantasy: a room full of books, people talking about books — it smells like books,” explained Ms. Chapman, the journal’s literary editor. “It’s the literary community that I had read about when I was younger. It’s Moveable Feast-type stuff.”

Despite her upbeat take on the proceedings, Ms. Chapman admitted she wasn’t feeling chipper. It was her birthday. A happy occasion? For most, maybe — but not, she explained, when you are turning 25, having graduated summa from Cornell, with a master’s from Columbia, only to find yourself unemployed and back living at home with your parents.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[holdontohopelove]

Well, that was...

Anti-fucking-climatic.

Let me explain (lots of spoilers and not one bit of brevity):

- Okay, so the funeral was beautiful. And brief. Which is almost just as well because I could not have handled much more than that even though Sharon deserved whole episodes dedicated to mourning her. I wanted to see more familiar faces in the crowd. Pope. Brenda. Fritz. Morales. Jack. Gavin. Judge Grove. I know, I know, schedules and guest stars are hard, but it lost something without them.

- Emma Rios bit the dust. I’m not surprised. The foreshadowing was on point. Mostly, I’m glad it wasn’t Brenda. Sorry, Emma. ALSO, off topic, but homegirl is 35 and has that kind of house with a pool in LA? Man, I love subtle reminders about how underpaid my profession is. Also, this means she was prosecuting the Stroh case at 30 so damn.

- Andrea Hobbs losing her shit was all of us. That was the one moment that I nearly lost it. I wanted to hug that woman so badly.

- I did have a moment when I envisioned Taylor and Sharon greeting Emma in heaven and I had to start reciting multiplication tables to not cry.

- The wedding photos. God. Just make it stop. I want to be free of this pain. I think I said motherfucker about 50 times during these episodes and at least 10 of them were that scene. More on when I said the other 40 coming up...

- Was I the only one who disliked Sharon’s videos? I mean, I loved seeing Sharon, but...I was just like meh about them. I feel like those things are good in theory and bad in practice. It never sounds as heartfelt or genuine as an actual conversation and then that’s all you have left of your loved one. For me, it seemed very rehearsed and un-Sharon. Her last words to everyone just seemed so weird and not her. I also was a bit disappointed that Rusty got his own and no one else did. I almost feel like a letter to each person would have been more Sharon’s style (but of course not dramatic enough for TV or Duff).

- I’m glad Andy had a moment of actually showing minor anger towards Sharon.  I still think she put herself in harm’s way - #sorrynotsorry. To quote Brenda, “you didn’t have time to call it in, but you had time to take pictures?!” Sharon, you were too busy to go home even though you were sick but you had time to make videos in case you died? (And also, we later found out that Gus got the call about Sharon being in the hospital between 8pm - 9:30pm. So Sharon was working that late for that confession after being told to calm the fuck down?Great).

- I literally wanted to punch someone when Sharon called Ricky her firstborn. THEY COULDN’T EVEN GET HER POST-DEATH LEGACY VIDEO RIGHT? God, Duff, what the fuck. Do you even watch your own show?

- Okay - the Stroh case. I was almost glad to have something else to focus on instead of the grief, but what a fucking anti-climatic shit show. 

- I don’t give a damn about the hacking accomplice. I’m mostly mad no one’s caught onto him yet and the scenes where we had to watch him watch the squad annoyed the shit out of me. Are we supposed to feel bad if he dies? Because I won’t. 

- I really don’t give a good golly fuck about Stroh’s backstory. I would have, perhaps, if we’d gotten one on Sharon or Andy or even Amy or Tao or ANYONE or even Sharon AND Andy as a couple, but since we didn’t, then I don’t want nearly two hours of TV devoted to Stroh’s sociopathic past. Probably 20 of the roughly 40 remaining motherfuckers I said were directed at various parts of this storyline.

- Phillip Stroh became the “Red John” of this show (heyyy Mentalist people!), but instead of devoting seasons to developing the story line, we get it pelted at us in four episodes, on top of grief and wrapping up the series and the minor fucking relationship story lines. Joy. 

- Thank God they caught onto the whole “Gus saw Stroh at his restaurant.” That was perhaps the only redeeming thing in the case that happened.

- Chief Mason is a fucking idiot. It’s like literally everyone else in the free world is aware of the threat of Stroh BUT him. Half of the time tonight was spent with basically everyone trying to convince Mason to give out protective details. ARE YOU SERIOUS? The rest of the motherfuckers I said were devoted to Chief Mason...what an honor.

- I swear to God, the promos that ran during 24 Hours of A Christmas Story for tonight’s episodes had a part where it showed “Rusty is next” scrawled on a wall in what looked like Sharon’s condo. Or somewhere. And that did not appear once in tonight’s episodes so WTF.

- I’m over Rusty and Gus and Cami and Wes. I don’t care. DON’T CARE.

- Is Wes the guy on the motorcycle? Because Provenza clearly sent him uncover to do whatever the fuck needed to be done and I’m pretty sure that’s him and not Stroh on the bike in the episode and in the elevator with the helmet on in the promo. I don’t want Wes to be the hero of this story. I barely want Rusty to be the hero of this story and he’s been around since Day 1.

- Can we talk about how Tony Denison got fucked over? He said himself in his Facebook live that he doesn’t do much in the final 3 episodes except look in Sharon’s office and look sad and damn if that isn’t the truth. He said in the vid that most of his role lately had been about being with Sharon and since she’s gone, he has nothing to do. That’s fucking sad. Andy was a prominent figure on TC and MC and Duff reduces him to this? This is EXACTLY what we complain about with female characters. Tony Denison also deserves better. And I don’t think, from the looks of it, he’ll be a major figure to take down Stroh and that sucks. I’d love to see Andy take him out for Sharon and to protect Rusty for her dying wish.

- ALSO, Duff said we would know what Sanchez wanted to ask her AND IT WASN’T SAID TONIGHT. More lies. I can’t.

- And, finally, it KILLED me when they ran the opening credits for 6.10 and Mary’s name had been removed. Ugh.

So, in closing, I did not find tonight nearly as traumatizing as I did annoying and somewhat offensive. I want these next two episodes to be over. I need closure and good fanfiction in which Sharon does not die. And please, I need Brenda not to die so that I have something left to cling to when the final curtain falls. #PrayersforBrenda #YouCanNeverHaveTooManyAngels

[redeveningdresses]

PicturesIn a story where sensuality was the protagonist burlington coat factory @^((_!~cocktail dresses

Doreen: The proposal happened when we were on holiday at Jeju Island mother of the groom wedding dresses, South Korea in October 2012. We did a hike up to Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak) and Stephen proposed when we reached the top where it was just the two of us bomb prom dresses. It came as a total surprise to me because a proposal was the last thing on my mind after sweating and panting breathlessly from a mountain hike. It was certainly a top of the world feeling as nothing else mattered at that moment except that the two of us were going to be together forever after I said, 'Yes.' To help you decide on the right one for your big day, use this list of questions to help you decide if a photographer is right for you. However, do not print this list out and grill your photographer when you meet them! You may already have answers to some of these questions when you visited the websites of your shortlisted photographers and seen their portfolio. Instead, use this list of questions as a guide to help you make a decision on the photographer you'd like to engage for your wedding. Display your customised table number card by creating a stand using a small wooden peg, a thin wooden stick, some plasticine, a handful of potpourri and a small glass cup or clay pot. Now, wasn't that easier than 1-2-3? The best thing about customising your own table number card lies in the freedom to make the card any size, shape, colour and theme you want it to be in. You can even give your tables names instead of numbers, according to your wedding theme. We love how couples are going green at their weddings by repurposing their flowers and donating them after the celebrations, using potted plants for decor, selecting plant favours, or even by choosing an eco-conscious wedding package, such as the one offered by Marina Bay Sands. Other ways you can be make an impact on society with your wedding include hiring social enterprises as wedding vendors, as lovebirds Sherry and Yingkai did with their socially conscious wedding.

5. Dakota Johnson ' 50 Shades Darker? 50 Sombras M's Oscuras / Universal PicturesIn a story where sensuality was the protagonist burlington coat factory cocktail dresses, the wedding dress could not disappoint, and actress Dakota Johnson looked spectacular during her wedding to Christian Gray. This design by Monique Lhuillier with a mermaid cut was made almost completely of lace and revealed only the shoulders of the actress, completely highlighting her silhouette. When envisioning my 'dream home,' (or per NYC standards ' apartment!) I imagine a great wooden bookshelf built into the wall just filled to the edges with vintage fashion magazines queen victoria wedding dress. I think I'd even frame some of the covers as wall art, especially the oversize ones like McCall's which measure about a few inches taller and wider than the standard modern-day magazine ladies cambric hats. One should carefully go through the reviews and usage process and consult a specialist before going for any of those sygdljdress20112 products as no one wants to ruin one's special day and make it disastrous. The individual can also go for experimenting with his hair through new hair accessories, styles and hair color as a wedding is all about trying new stuff. You May Also Like: +the duo staleness decide what mortal suits... - wedding dresses look on internet sites relating for your requirements along with ... A-Line Chiffon Wedding Dresses One-Shoulder Tulle Floor-Length Evening Dresses Sleeveless 5……%@# most stores that sell cocktail dresses for women or ...

[beastlondoninfo]

The Best Horror Movies of 2020

All of us love films, irrespective of how previous or how new or what kind all of us love films. Why? As a result of films are entertaining they provide us story. Now there have been many automobile films made, however which one is the perfect automobile film? We'll choose automobile films primarily based on the automobiles within the film, the automobile scenes, and the racing. The Best Horror Movies of 2020

10. Sizzling Rod Lady (1956) - I'm not certain whether or not this film was meant to be an anti-hot rodding film or not. The plot is not a lot guys brother dies, town needs to cease scorching rodding and the children nonetheless need to race. Since that is 1956 there needs to be a rooster sport proper (it was a legislation in 50's Hollywood). Within the film there are a couple of 32 Fords (really plenty of 32 Fords), a 56 Chevy, a 56 Ford, 55 T-bird, and an Olds 88.

9. Dying Proof (2007)- The primary half of this film possibly appear a bit boring, its largely speaking and only a bunch of women consuming in a bar (not even a wild bar social gathering, only a group of three ladies consuming) however then it will get good, with a 71 Chevy Nova used as a weapon and later a automobile chase with a 69 Charger and a 70 Vanishing Level Challenger. The film is supposed to really feel like a 70's Slasher film crossed with Vanishing Level. Should you're a Mopar man test this one out!

Read More

eight. Street Racers (1994)- This film is named Street Racers nevertheless they is just one quick race within the film, and a pair of Automobile Chases. The film opens with a Automobile chase between a 56 Chevy being chased by the cops 56 Buick all to a badass Rockabilly music! There may be greaser violence (not Grease greaser violence however just like the Outsiders with a 90's humor twist), there may be nice Rockabilly music from Glen Glenn, Hasil Adkins and Johnny Reno!

7. Thunder Street (1958) - Let me inform the story, I can inform all of it... Really let's let Robert Mitchum inform you the story he can do it higher. This film starring Mitchum is about Operating Moonshine in Tennessee within the 50's and making an attempt to not get caught be the revenuers. It has plenty of loopy automobile chases that includes a 50 Ford Coupe, 57 Ford Fairlane, a 56 Chevy undercover automobile that may rip off automobiles bumpers and a music in regards to the film carried out by Mitchum himself! 6. Dazed and Confused (1993) - I have been Dazed and Confused for thus lengthy its not true! Which sadly that music just isn't on this film (it was suppose to be and Jimmy Paige was for it however Plant wasn't). This film is form of just like the 70's model of American Graffiti besides it is the primary evening of summer time not the final and the principle character is getting into Excessive College. Anyway they is a automobile chase between a 64 Buick and 72 Chevy Truck, there's a 70 Chevelle SS 454, 70 GTO Decide, Ford Maverick, 37 Oldsmobile and a 74 Trans Am!

5. Tales of the Crypt: King of the Street (1992) - OK I lied this one just isn't a film; it's an episode from HBOs horror collection Tales of the Crypt. Why is that this film on the record? WHY ISN'T ON THE LIST? As quickly because the episode opens we're greeted with a 69 yellow Chevelle SS road racing a 69 Crimson Dodge Charger to a rocking music by Warren Zevon. Later we get a automobile chase with the Chevelle SS and a police automobile and on the finish a Road race with the Chevelle SS vs. a 57 Chevy Gasser! There's a nice soundtrack by Warren Zevon, nevertheless solely one of many songs "Roll with the Punches" has been launched the opposite "Dangerous Street, Wretched Street" is simply discovered as a canopy by a band known as Insurgent Son.

four. Sizzling Rod (1979) - This film is difficult to search out, it was a made for TV made out of 1979. It in all probability has essentially the most Drag Racing scenes out of any film I've seen! The film has a Road race between a 65 Hemi Plymouth and a 69 Olds Cutlass at first, later a hemi powered 41 Willys Coupe Gasser, a couple of humorous automobiles, and rocket powered Humorous Automobile and tons of Drag Racing scenes on this film!

three. Vanishing Level (1971) - Kowalski is a supply driver who's delivering a 1970 White Dodge Challenger from Colorado to San Francisco. He does it by rushing the entire time and creates the world's largest automobile chase! Being pursued by the police the entire time!

2. Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) - Who wants plots? This film would not! All we want is a Driver, a Mechanic, a Lady, a man with a GTO, a 55 Chevy gasser and some random hitch hikers to make a terrific automobile film! This film is all about automobiles and nothing else! You get to see and listen to a pleasant 55 Chevy nearly each scene in addition to a GTO. The film opens with a Drag Race and ends with one!

1. American Graffiti (1973) - Was this actually a shock to any of you? Nothing however traditional automobiles, cruising, nice music, humor, a couple of races and plenty of enjoyable! We get a pleasant however piss yellow 32 Ford powered by a 327, a 58 Chevy Bel Air additionally powered by a 327, a woman in a 56 T-bird and a Black 55 Chevy (really the identical one from Two Lane Blacktop). This film actually is all about automobiles, not coming of age. The film ends with a terrific showdown between the 32 Ford and the 55 Chevy!

Irrespective of how a lot we concern, we hold coming again for extra. Moviegoers for over a century now have change into more and more demanding, and moviemakers have by no means stopped stretching the chances of visible leisure. There are two the reason why the cinema display screen is so huge, defined one film critic. One: it is as a result of there's lots of people watching it. Second: it is to place every particular person into film itself, as if he had been carrying a pair of digital actuality goggles and it was him within the lead function. Think about if this know-how had been utilized to the horror style.

Think about placing your self within the lead function of those horror movies, identified for his or her most artistic plots of sudden twists. Shall you survive the digital realm of terror?

In 2007, a movie adaptation of the comedian e-book mini-series "30 Days of Evening" (IDW Publishing, 2002) despatched shudders up and down the backbone of viewers throughout the US. It starred U.S. heartthrob Josh Hartnett and Australian actress Melissa George. The story begins within the northernmost city of Barrow, Alaska, identified for its 67 days of winter darkness. A tribe of vampires aboard a seaborne tanker stranded amidst thick ice floes stumble into the peaceable city and, profiting from the extended darkness, wreak havoc and feast upon its inhabitants. A handful of survivors trapped in Barrow huddle and scurry to flee detection by hiding within the attic of one of many deserted houses. What makes this movie very fascinating just isn't the vampires, however the predicament that compels the human spirit to protect and defend its personal even when bleached underneath insurmountable supernatural odds. This Senator Worldwide-Columbia Photos movie was directed by David Slade and Sam Raimi, the director who labored on the "Spiderman" footage starring Tobey McGuire and such horror classics just like the "Evil Useless" trilogy and "The Grudge."

Related Links:

https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-horror-movies-of-2020/

https://collider.com/best-horror-movies-2020/

Within the 2006 film "Silent Hill" (TriStar Photos), think about your self a mom frantically trying to find her lacking youngster. You skulk round a mysterious city you thought was empty however, when darkness falls, brings out malevolent creatures that solely exist to inflict sadistic torture. The darkness, in contrast to within the regular world that guidelines the evening, unpredictably is available in intervals after a couple of hours of daylight. Though the film merely made delicate success within the field workplace, critics hailed it for its beautiful imagery and visible results. However its most spectacular characteristic is its rendition of the afterlife. Whereas we now have at all times envisioned Hell in chaotic fireplace and brimstone, "Silent Hill" portrayed it as an deserted mining city of rising poisonous fumes dominated by a vindictive evil spirit.

Whereas within the topic of malevolent and vindictive evil spirits, how lengthy would you final in a home out within the backwoods haunted by one? Within the film Evil Useless (New Line Cinema, 1981), written, directed, and produced by Sam Raimi, just one out of 5 Michigan State College associates made it out alive. In its sequel Evil Useless II (Rosebud Photos, 1987), Ash, the survivor in its prequel, performed by Bruce Campbell, nearly didn't.

"Is there actually a Blair Witch?" This query continues to be raised at occasions each time the film "The Blair Witch Challenge" (Artisan Leisure, 1999) comes up in conversations. The story was offered in a type of a documentary that leaves the viewer guessing and shocked as to what occurred to its makers. The movie was an revolutionary success: from a finances of $500,000 to $700,000, it grossed a worldwide $248,639,099 within the field workplace together with worldwide acclaim. This film actually brings the viewer into the scene, maybe greater than any superior visible results and imagery can accomplish. The fashion of "The Blair Witch Challenge" may be related to the 1938 Orson Welles radio traditional "Battle of the Worlds" that despatched the United States-earth's strongest nation-into mass hysteria.

Think about your self touring within the Yorkshire moors of England and getting attacked by a werewolf. You miraculous survive. However entailing the survival resides the remainder of your life underneath the werewolf curse: that each full moon you endure a change that seeks to feed on the blood and flesh of humankind. How do you reside a life irrevocably cursed, powerlessly feeding on the flesh of these you're keen on and similtaneously a lot a prey to your individual situation because the hapless victims you might have and shall ever devour? In 1981, legendary movie director John Landis got here up with the cult traditional "An American Werewolf in London" (Common Photos/Polygram Filmed Leisure) profitable a Saturn Award for Greatest Horror Film and an Academy Award for Excellent Achievement in Make-up.

Related Topics:

Start A Profitable YouTube Channel

digital content agency in London

[xeford2020]

McKinley Thompson, Jr.: Designer, Maker, Aspiring Entrepreneur

As part of the William Davidson Foundation Initiative for Entrepreneurship, we have had the opportunity to explore a number of fascinating stories of entrepreneurs represented in our collections. Recently, we’ve examined the life and work of aspiring entrepreneur and automobile designer McKinley Thompson, Jr. While working for Ford Motor Company, Thompson conceived of an idea for an all-terrain vehicle that would do for Third World countries what the Model T did for America. This post highlights Thompson’s life and career as the first African-American automobile designer and sheds light on his little-known project for a vehicle ahead of its time, dubbed the Warrior. Finding His Passion On an October afternoon in 1934, 12-year-old McKinley Thompson, Jr., was stopped in his tracks while walking home from school. The reason? He had spotted a brand-new silver DeSoto Airflow, the first silver-colored and streamlined vehicle he had ever seen. In an interview from 2001, Thompson recalled that “the clouds opened up for the sunshine to come through… It lit that car up like a searchlight.” Awestruck by the unique design of the car, it was right then and there that Thompson knew what he wanted to be when he grew up: an automobile designer.

McKinley Thompson, Jr., undated (Photograph Courtesy of McKinley Thompson, Jr.) In his youth, Thompson showed promise in drawing and was particularly interested in futuristic themes. He participated in commercial art courses throughout high school and, upon graduation in 1940, completed drafting courses where he learned to plan projects and present his ideas through drawings and concept illustrations. With these skills, Thompson acquired his first job as a draftsman with the National Youth Administration. He then worked as an engineering design layout coordinator for the Army Signal Corps until he was drafted to serve in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. Following the war, he continued working for the Signal Corps until 1953, when he found an opportunity to pursue his childhood dream of becoming an automobile designer.  Seizing the Opportunity

“Do you want to be an Automotive Designer” contest article from Motor Trend magazine, March 1953 THF299257

In March of 1953, Motor Trend magazine sponsored an Automotive and Industrial Design contest with the goal of discovering talented young adults. The prize? One of five, four-year tuition-free scholarships to the prestigious Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles – one of the most respected schools for industrial design. Contest entry required several drawings and sketches, photographs, or models of cars and other products, along with an essay responding to the prompt, “What I think the trend in automotive design will be in the next ten years.” For McKinley Thompson, this was the chance of a lifetime – and he won.

Motor Trend magazine’s winning contest entries, September 1953 THF299267

McKinley Thompson’s winning entry in the article, “From Dream to Drawing Board to…?” in Motor Trend magazine, September 1953. In his essay, Thompson wrote that cars of the future would sacrifice aerodynamics to accommodate “more functional roominess and reduced size.” THF299268

Thompson’s gas turbine car, which incorporated reinforced plastic (an unusual choice of material at the time), won him the top prize. Thompson became the first African American to attend the Art Center, where he excelled throughout his course of study. After graduation, Thompson was offered a job with Ford Motor Company in the Advanced Styling Studio, finally realizing his childhood dream and breaking a barrier by becoming the first African-American automobile designer.

In the Advanced Styling Studio, designers were given a great deal of creative freedom. This suited Thompson’s interest in futuristic themes, allowing him to contribute sketches for fantastical ideas, such as a flying car and a nuclear-powered multi-trailered truck. He also worked on the Allegro and Gyron concept cars and collaborated on design ideas for the production Mustang and Bronco.

1961 Ford Gyron  THF299432 The Warrior While Thompson’s career at Ford gave him the opportunity to work on a variety of vehicles and concepts that could change the automotive industry, his most innovative idea had the potential to change the world. Thompson envisioned an all-terrain vehicle for Third World countries that would be easy to build and maintain, with low production costs. But his vision extended beyond the vehicle, which he dubbed the Warrior. He anticipated auto plants – located in the developing nations that would use the car – bringing jobs, better roads, and eventual economic independence to the host countries. Much like how the Model T brought America into the modern age and stimulated the economy through accessible and affordable mobility, Thompson believed the Warrior could do the same for Third World nations. His program was called “Project Vanguard.” The plan was to use Uniroyal plastic components – known as Royalex – because they were lightweight, durable, and relatively cost-efficient. The first phase of the plan involved building a facility where Royalex could be fabricated for use on the Warrior and other assets. The second phase would involve the building of the vehicle division (to encompass the Warrior and other future vehicles), followed by a marine division for constructing boats, and a container division where “habitat modules” would be fabricated for housing. Though Ford Motor Company was supportive when Thompson first brought his idea to the company in 1965, Ford ultimately passed on the project in 1967, believing that the vehicle would not sell in large enough quantities to warrant the investment. 

1974 Warrior Concept Car  THF92162 Despite this setback, Thompson still believed that his vehicle could succeed. He thought that if he produced a prototype car and could demonstrate the possibilities of this unique application of Royalex, he could garner interest for investment in the program. He gathered several friends to help in financing the Warrior prototype, including Wally Triplett – the first African American to play in the National Football League (for the Detroit Lions). By day, McKinley Thompson drafted concept drawings for Ford, but by night he worked tirelessly to bring his Warrior to life in a rented garage on Detroit’s west side.

McKinley Thompson and Crew Testing the Warrior Concept Car, 1969. Click here to check out other images of the Warrior from a scrapbook compiled by Wally Triplett!  THF113754

Once his prototype was complete, Thompson and his partners attempted to market it to other investors and groups. They reached out to the Small Business Administration, which turned them down because the endeavor would take place outside the United States. They tried to gain assistance from the Agency for International Development but received little interest. A group of people at Chrysler, who assisted small businesses in getting started, suggested to Thompson that he first establish a market for Royalex in the United States. Plastic-bodied vehicles were still an unusual concept, and American automakers at the time were only experimenting with the idea on a limited scale. Thompson realized he was caught in a classic catch-22: He needed a Royalex facility to establish a market for plastic-bodied vehicles, but he couldn’t get the facility built without an existing market for plastic-bodied vehicles.

Instability on the African continent derailed opportunities to conduct business with the nations themselves. Thompson even tried to secure a bank loan to build Warrior cars in Detroit, but he was ultimately denied in this attempt as well. (Triplett later recounted that he felt that race played a role.) While every potential investor he approached told him it was a good idea, Thompson simply was unable to secure the funding needed to pursue his idea, eventually causing him to shut down the project in 1979.

Image from a 1965 Royalex sales brochure, showing the possibilities of an amphibious vehicle using Royalex materials. Interestingly, the Warrior was designed to be an all-terrain vehicle – including use for crossing rivers and small inland lakes! Click here to check out the rest of this brochure in which Uniroyal has suggested other uses for Royalex. THF290896

An Inspiring Career Around the same time that the doors were closing on the Warrior, Thompson developed another way to influence and change people’s lives. He coordinated a traveling exhibit, featuring the work of other African-American automobile designers, to motivate and encourage young people toward careers in design. Thompson traveled across the country, staging his exhibit in schools and shopping centers.

Photograph from the Ford Motor Company publication, “Rouge News,” March 19, 1962 THF299429

McKinley Thompson had an impressive 28-year career with Ford. In 1962 he was awarded Ford’s highest honor for community service, the Citizen of the Year Award. He contributed to a variety of projects (including experimental concept cars), worked in the Thunderbird and Falcon design studios, and eventually oversaw 50 craftspeople and modelers before retiring in 1984.

Despite his career success, Thompson continued to regret that his Warrior vehicle and overall program never materialized – though he was proud of his accomplishment in building the Warrior and proving it’s basic feasibility. The Warrior project was ahead of its time in design and philosophy. The extensive use of plastic, so common today, was revolutionary at the time. Mr. Thompson’s larger economic prophecy was partially fulfilled in 1995 when Ewert Smith’s URI, an all-terrain vehicle designed for African topography, was manufactured in the small town of Witvlei, Namibia. The URI plant became Witvlei’s largest employer, providing economic stability to the area.

Even though the Warrior never made it to market, Thompson kept the car as a leisure vehicle, taking it on family vacations and occasionally using it to run errands – usually attracting a fair amount of attention. Thompson donated his prototype to The Henry Ford in 2001.

McKinley Thompson, Jr., passed away at the age of 83, after battling Parkinson’s disease, in 2006. Samantha Johnson is Project Curator for the William Davidson Foundation Initiative for Entrepreneurship at The Henry Ford. This post expands upon Bart Bealmear’s “The Warrior,” blog post from February 2014. Special thanks to Matt Anderson, Curator of Transportation, for his help in reviewing the content.

#1 Ford Daily | Đại lý – Showroom ủy quyền Ford Việt Nam 2019 Ford Daily là showroom, đại lý Ford lớn nhất Việt Nam: Chuyên phân phối xe ô tô FORD như: EcoSport ✅ Everest ✅ Explorer ✅ Focus ✅ Ranger… info@forddaily.com 6A Đường Trần Hưng Đạo, Phường Phạm Ngũ Lão, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh 711240 0901333373 https://forddaily.com/ https://forddaily.com/xe/ https://forddaily.com/dai-ly/ https://forddaily.com/bang-gia/ https://forddaily.com/tra-gop/ #forddaily #dailyfordhcm #fordshowroomhcm https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ford+Daily/@10.7693359,106.696211,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x1f188a05d927f4ff!8m2!3d10.7693359!4d106.696211

[briangroth27]

Kingsman The Golden Circle Review

I finally got to see this two weeks ago and really enjoyed it! I’m glad I caught it in theaters; despite some missed opportunities, it was a good, solid sequel that naturally grew out of the original while telling its own story. I was surprised it was as closely tied to the original as it was and that so many relationships were informed by the first movie. At the same time, it didn’t feel derivative or repetitive. I love the original and while I think it’s better and has more to say, The Golden Circle is definitely worth seeing!

Full Spoilers…

I really enjoyed Eggsy’s (Taron Egerton) evolution. I’m glad that even though he’d become a master Gentleman Spy, they still paid attention to Eggsy’s home life and kept the connections to that side of his character (though not nearly to the extent the first film did). The balance he found between his job as a Kingsman agent and his grounded life with his friends (Tobias Bakare, Theo Barklem-Biggs, Thomas Turgoose, and Calvin Demba) was great, and it was refreshing that Tilde (Hannah Alstrom) seamlessly fit in with them without becoming a caricature of a princess who disapproved of his lower class friends. Though we don’t see him with them very much, I absolutely bought into Eggsy’s circle of friends and was sorry when he lost some of them. They also managed to recapture the class divide even with Eggsy being one of the posh Kingsman agents by playing him against Tilde’s literal royal family, which was a nice payoff of the gentlemanly lessons Harry (Colin Firth) taught him. I’m interested to see how Eggsy continues to navigate the upper class in the proposed third film now that he’s married to a princess and how he handles being a married man and a spy. It was cool that they had Eggsy remain true to Tilde rather than allowing him to become a ladies man who didn’t care about anyone and got a new love interest in each film, subverting that portion of the Gentleman Spy trope. Making him actually worry about what Tilde would think about the seduction portion of his job was a great surprise. I also liked that they wrote against the stereotypes of Eggsy’s lower class lifestyle by not making him an expert on drugs or dosages (despite Harry referencing his use of them before the first film started); that drug users in the film came from all walks of life and professions rather than just being criminals and minorities was another cool bit of subversion. I was taken aback by just how much personal loss Eggsy suffers in this film; Egerton absolutely sold his sorrow over losing so many close connections and the agency that had become such a big part of his identity. Both in terms of the character and Egerton’s performance, it was impressive that even though Eggsy was clearly shattered by the losses he suffered, he didn’t lose his charm or engaging charisma, nor did his quest to stop Poppy (Julianne Moore) become a depressing revenge mission.

I thought Eggsy and Tilde had a well-written and believable romance, for the most part. I was surprised to see her back at all; I’d totally expected Eggsy to follow the Bond tradition of leaving his love interests between movies, so him actually striving to build a life with her was great. One of my few criticisms of the original movie was that Tilde was reduced to a sexual reward for Eggsy saving the world at the end, so giving her a much-expanded role here was awesome. That said, I didn’t quite believe her being OK with Eggsy sleeping with a target as long as they were going to be married. I wish we’d seen the two of them discuss that aspect of spycraft more, because it would have a serious impact on their relationship and the trust between them would have to be immense (particularly as it’s not a mutual arrangement, like on The Americans). Since they brought it up I wish they’d explored it more, but I give the film credit for having Eggsy tell her about it immediately and refuse to go further with Clara (Poppy Delevingne) than he had to (planting the tracker on her was an uncomfortable scene in its own right that I don’t think the film needed). However, I still think we needed more reconciliation between Eggsy and Tilde than what was essentially “Eggsy saved the world (and her life), so he gets forgiven for everything.” Even if she really was OK with the seduction part of his job because she had the security of their impending marriage (perhaps I simply haven’t seen enough of her character to say whether her choice was in-character or not), I still think that’s a big enough relationship roadblock that it deserved more attention than Tilde responding “what was I, target practice?”, ignoring his phone calls, and getting high. In addition to digging deeper into relationship issues like that, I’d definitely like to see Tilde’s role expand even further in a potential third film. Since she has real power, I’d love to see Tilde’s attempts to save the world in her own way rather than just staying at home, and how her style contrasts with Eggsy’s efforts within the Kingsman organization. That could so easily intertwine with whatever caper Eggsy is on, it’d be foolish not to incorporate her ability to influence the world for good. If they envision this as a trilogy, perhaps Eggsy leaving Kingsman to be head of her personal security as she tries to save the world through political means could be an exit strategy for him.

Before I saw the film, I didn’t think Harry needed to come back and after seeing it, I still kinda don’t. I like Harry a lot and Golden Circle established how much he meant to Eggsy perfectly—he could barely talk about Harry without tearing up—but I’m not sure he brought as much to the film as his return could’ve (or should’ve). I felt like his purpose had been served magnificently in The Secret Service, so I was worried reviving him would be a step backward into safe territory instead of forging ahead. I liked the role reversal of Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) trying to bring back Harry’s memories, even if I was also wondering if it’d be happier for him to not remember his life and get a second chance to live out his pre-Kingsman dream of becoming a lepidopterist (a fun character aspect). I’m glad they didn’t let Eggsy settle back into his old role as Harry’s mentee, but I also don’t think they did enough with Harry’s head wound-inflicted dementia (even if Firth played what he did get well). They gave Harry a cool, believably high-tech resurrection, but his mental haziness gave them the perfect opportunity to play him as getting too old for the job and they didn’t take it. He came back a little too perfect when it really mattered, so all his craziest actions—even shooting Whiskey (Pablo Pascal) in the head—were the totally correct things to do despite how addled his brain was supposed to be. Instead, they could’ve made Eggsy confront and deal with the idea that his father figure wasn’t the same man he’d remembered (another personal loss for him, even after recovering Harry), forcing Eggsy to be the “mentor” to Harry for one last mission, which would’ve been a stronger arc and a better parallel to growing up (as well as a continuation of their role reversal). They could’ve even wrapped the lepidopterist aspect back in as part of Harry’s retirement, with Eggsy having to let him go once again because he’s unable to continue as an agent. As it is, Harry suffered no real consequences or changes from his near-death experience except his lost eye, some temporary mental fogginess, and the need to regain Eggsy’s trust (which was really Eggsy needing to trust him all over again).

Merlin had a good showing in the field this time out and it was nice to see him and Eggsy on equal footing instead of trainer/trainee (or even boss/agent, like in the climax of the first movie). In behind-the-scenes interviews from the first film, Strong mentioned that he and director Matthew Vaughn took care to craft Merlin as not just a tough drill sergeant, but as someone who truly cared about the recruits. I think that shows here and playing him fully as Eggsy’s equal instead of a judgmental former instructor worked very well. The two of them having a drink (or several) for their fallen comrades was a great moment, as were Eggsy and Merlin’s reactions to the Statesman way of doing things. Merlin’s sendoff was very well done, referencing Eggsy’s father’s (Jonno Davies) death perfectly. I’m glad he also got to take out several of Poppy’s (Julianne Moore) guards in the process instead of just saving Eggsy’s life.

Poppy was a fun villain and I liked her 1950s-styled sensibility a lot! Moore played Poppy with a genial and friendly demeanor that was authentic and unsettling without ever undermining the believability of how deadly she was. It was also cool that Poppy was far more bloodthirsty and self-centered than Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson); most films would probably invert those traits in their male and female villains. Valentine was probably the better-conceived villain, but Poppy’s argument about the unfair drug laws and her desire to have her business acumen acknowledged by ending the US’ War on Drugs gave her a solid drive too. Despite Poppy’s goal of legitimizing her own drug trade, I love that these films give their villains social commentary that—if they weren’t murdering people—might make sense. Poppy’s loyalty-proving cannibalism was too much for me, but I liked the other aspects of her organization, such as the solid gold tattoos and her robot dogs. Her jungle-based lair was a cool, classic Bond villain locale (as was her mountaintop virus cure facility), while her 50s theming gave “Poppy Land” a definite Kingsman twist. I would’ve liked them to do a little more with that theme than just her demeanor and the architecture of her base, though.

My biggest disappointment was the total waste of Roxy (Sophie Cookson). I appreciated her being Eggsy’s best friend and that they continued to avoid the clichéd trap of making her his love interest; it would’ve been simple to use her and Eggsy’s common spy experiences to bond them as lovers who “only understood each other,” creating a love triangle between the two of them and Tilde (even her codename Lancelot implies a love triangle, now that I think about it). While I’m glad there was no animosity or jealousy between Roxy and Tilde—and Roxy coaching Eggsy through his dinner with Tilde’s royal parents was a fun moment—I wish we’d seen more of her and Eggsy’s friendship. I liked her a lot in the first film and was hoping she’d have an expanded role here, so I was very disappointed she died after just two scenes; her death hit me the hardest (though I was most shocked they killed JB!). There was a major missed opportunity to comment on sexism in the spy world (and spy movies) through Roxy, just like the first film spent a lot of time exploring classism. They could’ve had Eggsy championing Lancelot’s equal standing against the American machismo of the Statesmen just like Harry fought for him despite his lower class background. I will give both Kingsman films credit for always treating Roxy as Eggsy’s complete equal (and arguably, superior, given she did shoot her dog in the final test; a willingness to do whatever it takes that was never capitalized or even commented on, beyond being used as a jab to emasculate Eggsy), even if she wasn’t given much to do. Poppy’s love of retro culture—particularly that of the 1950s—could’ve absolutely provided the perfect basis for commentary on sexism too, given the gender expectations of that era in America. Furthermore, Poppy’s desire to have her business skills acknowledged could’ve paralleled Roxy’s desire to be seen as an equal among the Statesmen perfectly, which would’ve recreated the hero/villain parallel from the first film wherein Valentine also wanted to save the world. Aside from Poppy and Tilde, Golden Circle’s female characters in general lacked agency, as they’re killed, used as oblivious trackers and then killed, and stuck behind computer screens due to the whims of men; that seems to be the one area where the Kingsman films follow tropes in the classic Bond films too closely without subverting them. It would’ve been awesome for Roxy to fight Poppy alongside Eggsy, Harry, and Merlin and to go on to rebuild the agency with them; with his lower class origins and her being a woman, it would’ve represented an entirely new and modern iteration of the agency. Perhaps Eggsy can train a female replacement candidate for Roxy in the potential third film, but I wish they’d done more with the character they already had.

Charlie (Edward Holcroft) was a great surprise return from the original film! Surviving Merlin detonating Valentine’s implants due to Eggsy electrocuting him was a twist I never would’ve thought of. It set the stage for his evolution perfectly; I loved his robotic arm! Poppy calling it “ARMageddon” made me laugh (hey, I love a good pun!). Charlie’s personal vendetta against Eggsy and the Kingsman organization was played excellently. If he’d taken over his family’s resources, he could’ve worked as a main villain to reinforce the class struggle theme between him and Eggsy (as well as the fact that he would be going up against his old trainer and the man who killed his parents, Merlin). As it was, his history and connection to the heroes made him a great secondary villain and henchman for Poppy. 

The Statesman agents were fine, but I wasn’t enamored with them. Tequila’s (Channing Tatum) demeanor was wildly different from Eggsy and Merlin’s, which made for good conflict between them, but he didn’t get much to do and his character was taken out of action for most of the film. Since he’s joined Kingsman by the end of the film, his recruitment may be setting up a new culture clash between his American style and the British standard, which could be fun. I liked that Whiskey (Pedro Pascal) had an agenda of his own that aligned with Poppy’s plan and the President’s (Bruce Greenwood) goals while also selfishly serving the Statesmen, but I wasn’t invested in him and didn’t feel betrayed when his true motives were revealed. Champagne/Champ (Jeff Bridges) felt like the trustworthy American version of Michael Caine’s Arthur, but they didn’t subvert that to make him stand out. Similarly, Ginger Ale (Halle Berry) was fine as a tech agent whose career was sidetracked by Whiskey, but it didn’t feel like she had much to do. That said, I’m glad she finally got promoted to be an agent in the end and I wouldn’t mind her returning. I think my biggest problem with the Statesman was that they just seemed like the American version of the Kingsman agency and nothing more. While that produced some funny comments like Eggsy’s “skipping rope” line, it felt like the impact of losing the entire Kingsman organization had been lost. If Merlin and Eggsy can relatively easily enlist the help of a nearly identical spy organization right after losing their own, what’s the point of destroying Kingsman? Sending Eggsy, Merlin, Harry, (and if I were writing it, Roxy) off against Poppy on their own without support would’ve increased the stakes dramatically. Perhaps not introducing the Statesmen until the end of the film—only having the surviving Kingsman agents encountering Whiskey as a tertiary antagonist with mysterious backers in the field—would’ve worked better. Or, maybe Eggsy and Co. could’ve been dismissed by the Statesmen, only to have Whiskey go rogue to “help” them. That way, the agents we’re invested in would’ve had to really scramble against the odds to stop Poppy while preserving the means to rebuild their agency through the now-helpful Statesmen at the end.

The President of the United States wanting to let all the drug “addicts” in the nation die while pretending to care was great. That was clever social commentary on the ethics of drug use and how society judges those who use drugs regardless of their reasons for doing so. I don’t think people would stand for the literal cages he put people in—there’s no way someone didn’t sneak a camera past the military helicopters somehow and film the interior of those stadiums—but otherwise I liked how hypocritical he was. Elton John had a highly entertaining extended cameo that I didn’t see coming at all, but fit in perfectly. I also liked the connection to the first movie, wherein Poppy kidnapped him when Valentine was rounding up celebrities, so no one suspected her. I didn’t get a grasp of Michael Gambon’s Arthur from his brief scenes, so I don’t know how he was different from how Caine’s acted; did he also disrespect Eggsy’s background, or was he more enlightened?

The retro spy tone paired with modern sensibilities from the first movie seamlessly fit into this sequel; it felt unmistakably “Kingsman.” I love that the movie never took itself too seriously, like most modern spy films have tended to do (as the first Kingsman pointed out), instead continuing—and even heightening—the already-heightened reality of the series. The use of classic and iconic spy gadgets continued here as well and I absolutely loved the over-the-top technology in the film! Moving into cybernetic limbs and robots felt like a natural evolution from the weaponry in the first film, especially Gazelle’s (Sofia Boutella) prosthetic sword legs. If they make a third film, I’m all for the technology continuing to escalate; these movies fearlessly digging into comic book science fiction is awesome! Aside from some noticeable CGI in the opening car chase (which even then wasn’t too distracting), all the effects were great. Charlie’s retractable robot arm looked totally real, which can’t have been easy or cheap to do. The fights were very well choreographed and varied, and I liked that the redone “Manners Maketh Man” scene echoed the original while highlighting Harry’s impairment. The pop soundtrack was just as fun as in the first film while Henry Jackman & Matthew Margeson’s score again invoked classic Bond films while remaining its own animal. I also loved the ads for the film, which took credit for the solar eclipse and launched a fake, 90s-styled Kingsman board game! What an A+ promotional department!

 While The Golden Circle certainly misses opportunities to dig deeper into the themes and characters it introduces, it’s still a fun roller coaster and a solid action film. I definitely think it’s worth seeing and I really hope we get a third Kingsman!

[biofunmy]

‘The World According to Jeff Goldblum’ is curious for ‘Jurassic’ star

CLOSE

Jeff Goldblum shares the inside scoop on his new show from National Geographic ‘The World According to Jeff Goldblum’ set to premiere on Disney+. USA TODAY

Jeff Goldblum has earned acclaim for wildly diverse acting roles, but he’s having a lot of fun these days as a less fantastical but increasingly popular character: Himself.

Goldblum, who returns to make-believe when “Jurassic World 3” begins filming next year, is front and center as the title character in “The World According to Jeff Goldblum,” a Disney+ docuseries (now streaming) in which he immerses himself in the fascinating history, science and culture surrounding everyday items, from tattoos to denim to coffee. 

He makes use of advice from his renowned acting teacher, Sanford Meisner, that has served him well preparing for such varied roles as a mathematician witnessing a dinosaur rampage (“Jurassic Park”), a technician helping save the Earth from aliens (“Independence Day”), an elder of the universe (“Thor: Ragnarok”) and even a winged insect (“The Fly”).

Jeff was a fave: A week of Disney+ with my kids: What I learned streaming ‘Mandalorian,’ Marvel and Jeff Goldblum

Jeff Goldblum contemplates the magic and mystery of ice cream in an episode of his Disney+ series, “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” (Photo: Susannah Wilkinson, National Geographic)

“He said, ‘I know you want to be interesting as an actor, but you’re interesting to the extent you’re interested,’” he remembers. “So, you make use of your own real, authentic interest in the other actors and the world around you. That serves me in this, too.” 

Series producer National Geographic (now owned by Disney) picks the topics for the show, but Goldblum is an avid explorer. 

Streaming along: Here are all the new Disney+ shows and movies, from ‘Mandalorian’ to ‘High School Musical’

“I’m very curious, but I think curiosity is our birthright,” he says. “I have a 4-year-old boy and a 2-year-old boy, and I don’t think it’s just my genes. I think kids and all sapiens must be curious; we need it to survive.”

Goldblum’s trademarks – a rhythmic vocal style that conveys words almost as music; a finger to pursed lips that underlines interest; a conspiratorial quip that connects him to viewers – are on display in interviews with experts in their habitats, from entrepreneurs flashing wads of cash at a sneaker convention to an ice cream scientist searching the forest for new flavors.

Jeff Goldblum, jumping with basketball, shows off his court form during a sneaker episode of ‘The World According to Jeff Goldblum.’ (Photo: Aisling Browne, National Geographic)

Other topics for the half-hour episodes include BBQ, gaming, bikes, RVs, pools, cosmetics and jewelry.

Goldblum, 67, envisions himself going on a ride with viewers, as the show focuses on “science and the unexpected and surprising aspects of ordinary things around us,” he says. “I’m not teaching anybody, but kind of (inviting) people to come along with me and learn things. 

It’s personal, too, as Goldblum offers his personal connection to various topics, backed by family photos and his own home movies from his youth in Pittsburgh in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Jeff Goldblum, seen here in 2018’s ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,’ will start filming “Jurassic World 3” next year. (Photo: UNIVERSAL PICTURES)

Dinosaur reunion: Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill to return for ‘major roles’ in ‘Jurassic World 3’

Jeff Goldblum, center, interviews the real-life Ben & Jerry – Ben Cohen, left, and Jerry Greenfield – during the ice cream episode of ‘The World According to Jeff Goldblum.’ (Photo: Susannah Wilkinson, National Geographic)

He doesn’t make much of the personal style that is central to his appeal, as evidenced by a 25-foot London statue depicting his “heartthrob” character from “Jurassic Park.”

“I’m sure it attracts some people and some people are not attracted. So it’s a case-by-case basis. I haven’t affected anything in order to make an impression. I tried to be so-called authentic,” he says.

He resumes his role as mathematician Ian Malcolm when the latest “Jurassic” sequel starts filming next year, for a scheduled 2021 release. It again reunites the actor, who last appeared in 2018’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” with Sam Neill and Laura Dern.

“Laura and Sam are joining me, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard (will be back) and Colin Trevorrow, who’s just fantastic, is going to write and direct,” he says. “I read the script for the first time (recently). When I get up every morning, I read it and go through my part a little bit. So, I’m slow-cooking because we don’t have to shoot in London till June-ish. I’m very excited about it.”

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Last SlideNext Slide

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2019/11/20/world-according-to-jeff-goldblum-disney-plus-jurassic-world/4205214002/

Sahred From Source link TV and Movies

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2XyDTUJ via IFTTT

[kathrwn]

Lana Del Rey is rotting your brain

Read with footnotes here.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: Lana Del Rey does not exist. No, since she is the character performed by the artist Lizzie Grant, whose uncritical approach to American nostalgia does more to invoke the helplessness of American apocalyptica than to make us yearn for simpler times. And just as Lana does not exist, neither does any depth to the project of Miss Del Rey. Between winged eyeliner, prairie dust photo filters, and an affected croon, Lana Del Rey manages to be both campy and pretentious, and does neither particularly well. 

Looking at Lana Del Rey music videos, there are similarities which together comprise a Lana “image,” or a sort of aesthetic uniform which unites the Lana Del Rey Cinematic Universe. Often there are post-production filters which evoke old-school photographs of your mom’s cousin in the 60s, references to film and music stars of the 50s, and a misplaced fetish for the “good ol’ days” of America which turns grit into surface-level beauty. 

Thematic focus is good, especially when the singer is a construction, like Lana is. Critics are quick to notice her sharp devotion to her bit, calling her music a “Southern Californian dream world constructed out of sad girls and bad boys, manufactured melancholy and genuine glamour,” or “a blown-out Hollywood production.” Lana has described herself as a “Lolita got lost in the hood” or even a “Gangsta Nancy Sinatra” which critics have called straight “manufactured.” 

While plenty of songstresses presently play with the heights of glamour that women are expected to summit in the spotlight--Lady Gaga, Cher, and Dolly Parton come to mind instantly--many of them inject irony or camp into their performances, their outfits, their presentation. Parton in particular loves to joke about herself, famously quipping “I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde.” 

It undeniable to say these three women also play characters in their music--Lady Gaga is not nobility, Cher’s Twitter is filled with political commentary, Dolly Parton is, of course, not even blond. Lana also plays a character, but why is the Lana character a failure compared to the others? It’s not for want of production--many women pop stars are over-, perhaps even hyper-produced to drive the point home about the disinfectant power pop music holds over artists. Lana is also over-produced, somehow giving her music an auditory sepia tone, as though it were a film from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

But perhaps that’s it--Lana, as a character, is reactionary. She invokes a time well-past, and one well-past for good reason. The 50s and 60s were not heavenly for all, certainly not for black people, not for gay people, nor political dissidents. Lana’s music draws on themes that attempt to highlight the teeming hate and anger of midcentury America, but ultimately fail when she refers to herself as “[y]our Venice bitch” and prides herself on wearing “his favorite sundress” but with a strange sincerity. Often times, Lana infantilizes herself, referring to her lover as “Daddy,” or worrying that he is so superficial he might not love her, perhaps most famously, when she is “no longer young and beautiful.” 

That is not to say that Lana is vapid, but she has adopted the veneer of being so. She has unwittingly become a crooner for the past when her worth was tied to a sexual currency. Her uncritical love for glam and grand cinematisme is part of her pastiche act. But because she is nostalgic, and rarely, if ever, scathing when she sings about outdated courtship and relationship dynamics, she shows just how empty her actual songs are. In dying to know if she will be loved when her skin is no longer elastic, Lana never manages to find validation and closure in herself, instead tying her worth even tighter to a man she calls her “sun,” who plays with her “like a child.” Cool and normal. Newer songs follow this same trend, with cuts like “You’re beautiful and I’m insane, We’re American made” doing little to flatter herself, then listing off American inventions like “Hallmark” and “Norman Rockwell.” (The Norman Rockwell thing is especially weird when she follows it immediately with references to sex and then calling herself--again!--“your little Venice bitch.”) 

There’s nothing many Americans love more than Americana and sincerely yearning for a time they never experienced. Lana, perhaps, is the most “I was born in the wrong decade” singer to grace our airways. Her songs make love, even uneven and abusive love, the ultimate goal. Letting summer--a time that is eternal in the LDRCU and, supposedly, California--wash over her and her lovers until the cocaine and ocean consume them. 

Then, it’s no surprise this cheeky political compass places Lana in the libertarian right segment--she is made to sell, to hit some pleasure center in impressionable brains, to be a sweet spot in pop music that guarantees profits will be made from her work. Her songs are chock full of concrete imagery, which allows them to become realized in her audience's mind, rather than relying on letting the listener make their own emotional connections. There is nothing wrong with that, but it shows why the Del Rey song formula is as successful as it is soulless.

Take, for instance, her famous “Summertime Sadness.” From the red dress she wears, to the pale moonlight, to the “telephone wires above... Sizzling like a snare” we can recreate the scene in our heads. These lines are so evocative, so palpable in what they describe, it wouldn’t be hard at all to envision yourself standing in her same pair of high heels.

However, there is a marked absence of irony or self-awareness in her discography. Her sincerity is her downfall. When she sings “Let me kiss you hard in the pouring rain, You like your girls insane,” does she mean it. And she really means it. She prides herself on her lyrical tendency to degrade women. 

This is not a new criticism of Lana. She herself has said “the issue of feminism is just not an interesting concept. I’m more interested in, you know, SpaceX and Tesla, what’s going to happen with our intergalactic possibilities. Whenever people bring up feminism, I’m like, ‘God, I’m just not really that interested,'” which is proof that Lana is so massively lacking in any self-awareness that her music becomes pointless, useless, and dumb. How is being interested in SpaceX and Tesla at all incompatible with the basic philosophy of women’s liberation and complete personhood? What about the women who were unable to be astrophysicists in the past, but are now writing the algorithms that take us to those “intergalactic possibilities”? How about the droves of young women who unironically listen to this schlock, call themselves insane, and then have no clue how to be a part of a functioning, normal relationship, because they think they have to be a crazy minx? Actually, even better, what about the bat shit insane way Elon Musk treats women, like when he famously pulled his bride aside and told her he was “the alpha.” It’s just bonkers how popular Lana Del Rey’s line of thinking is. That somehow feminism is incompatible with the fetishism of science? 

Perhaps that’s where Lana Del Rey stands out. As soft rock and easy listening DJs give us “Fight Song” and “Firework” ad nauseum, we have grown weary of the female empowerment song. Any song that wasn’t “You’re So Vain,” is extraneous to the genre of girl power pop. Maybe this makes Lana appealing, if only because she shakes up our expectations. Her yearning is to be submissive, not to be dominant, a far cry from the way many chanteuses have embodied the lyrics of Patti Page’s “Conquest.”

If that were all, maybe it could be forgiven. It would be a sweet rebellion against the popular themes of the day, one that has its problems but isn’t overly regressive. Only, the more you dig, the worse it becomes. Not just the content of her lyrics, and her constant playing of the damsel, but the visuals she chooses to use in her videos and albums are beyond simply self-stylized misogyny. Lana has a nasty habit of racializing her character, trying to make simple the complex legacy of mid-century American counter culture.

For instance, in her epic three-song music video Tropico, Lana appears to us in several visions. Once as Eve, once as a sex worker, once as a woman escaped from the city to be with her lover. The first one is the color of the dream of a flower-crown-era-Tumblr aesthetic blogger, the last is similarly as harmless. But that one in the middle is an iffy exploration of the actual economic conditions of sex workers, but absurdly tone deaf in the light of her comments about feminism. And all of the above is extremely tone deaf within the LDRCU. Is she supposed to be the girlfriend of a gang member, styled in heavy eyeliner and bandanas reminiscent of cholo culture? Or is she, as is inline with much of the rest of her videography, an upper-crust, Jackie-O-esque trophy wife with a listless stare? Neither are particularly good characters to play, relying on stereotypes and hazy filters to get the point across. 

But Lana has always had an issue with understanding the fundamental issues of her middle-distance gaze into American history. Yes, it’s cool Lana has A$AP Rocky play Kennedy, that’s pretty neat; but it’s also extremely uncool to do so while adopting a Cuban-sounding name while turning up the nostalgia factor on figures who, like Kennedy, did great harm to Cuban and Cuban-Americans. The conflict she creates within her own character is glossed over by her, and much of her audience. While critical pieces of Lana do exist, many fans--including myself at times!--get lost in her Venice Beach Baddie persona, and forget her self-awareness trends in the wrong direction. 

With the release of “Norman Fucking Rockwell” on the horizon (at the time of writing), though, we’re going to have to ask ourselves--is that a normal name for an album, or are we all having a collective fever dream?