On October 11, 2018, Edge of Alchemy was screened at the TOHorror Film Fest.

"But there is something particular about Cleopatra and the imaginative escape she offers for white performers. She presents a fantasy of a stately queen with an erotic power that white actresses can inhabit and take pleasure in without facing any of the difficulties faced by Black women. Like white European colonial settlers, they occupy her character though only briefly. And this is nothing new. In the seventeenth century, one aristocratic woman had her portrait painted as Cleopatra—a performative act in which it was possible to pretend to be the kind of woman she could never actually be within the chaste and virtuous bounds of Renaissance white womanhood. The sitter is identified as Lady Anne Clifford. A Jacobean lady in Egyptian regalia, according to seventeenth-century orientalist notion of national costume, holds an asp above her breast, iconically invoking Cleopatra. For a long time, it seems, white women have stepped into the fantasy of the dark queen. It seems odd that Antony and Cleopatra was not always viewed as one of Shakespeare's race plays. That is changing, finally. If theatre directors continue to centralise whiteness in their readings of the play, however, it in many ways replicates Caesar's triumph over Egypt. We relive Cleopatra's defeat every time we watch a white woman play her—due respect to Dames Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Harriet Walter, and Eve Best. But we begin to see more clearly the Egyptian Queen's own prophetic vision as she chose to end her life on her own terms. She imagined herself being performed for years to come by actors who do not resemble her in any way—and that is, for the most part, what has happened."

—Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper, The Great White Bard: How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race (emphasis mine)

David Tack - Dress by Antony Price for Stirling Cooper (19 Magazine 1971)

Cailey Fleming, Anabelle Holloway, Antony Azor and Cooper Andrews behind the scenes of 11C

i just know they'd be really good at word association games or sth 2gether

Love Never Stops Surprising You. Even When You Know How It Ends

#BenAldridge #JimParsons #SpoilerAlert

AGAIN?! ANTONI 😭AND HE'S NOWHERE MENTIONED AGAIN.

I think Sylvie deserves a threesome, as a treat

On March 24, 2017, Edge of Alchemy was screened at the Ann Arbor Film Festival.

Here's some new art to celebrate!

America-Philippines nuclear deal opens opportunities for investments and energy

Recently a landmark deal about nuclear power for peaceful purposes was signed between the United States of America and the Philippines which opens up opportunities for investments and energy that the Filipino people can benefit from, according to separate news stories (click here and here) published by the Philippine News Agency (PNA). To put things into perspective, posted below is an excerpt…

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Biden rebuffs UK bid for closer cooperation on tech

Press play to listen to this article Voiced by artificial intelligence. LONDON — Britain was rebuffed by the Biden administration after multiple requests to develop an advanced trade and technology dialogue similar to structures the U.S. set up with the European Union. On visits to Washington as a Cabinet minister over the past two years, Liz Truss urged U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo…

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Nigel Mansell & Elio de Angelis | 1979-1986

I wish I could remember that first day - Christina Rossetti | Elio de Angelis, 34 years later: the story of his brother Roberto | Remembering Elio – Nigel Mansell | Remembering Elio – Peter Warr | Thirty Years without a Friend – Nigel Mansell | Antony & Cleopatra: Act 1 Scene 3 - William Shakespeare | Finale - Pablo Neruda | Out of Time: Elio de Angelis | My Terracotta Heart – Blur | GPI Detroit - Keith Botsford | Spring Song – Mónica Gomery | Autosprint Q&A | Loving the Dying - Len Verwey | Spring Song – Mónica Gomery | 1984 GPI - Mike Doodson | Staying on Track – Nigel Mansell | Spring Song – Mónica Gomery | Staying on Track – Nigel Mansell | How the tragedy of Elio de Angelis changed F1 - Adam Cooper | Miss you. Would like to grab that chilled tofu we love - Gabrielle Calvocoressi | Staying on Track – Nigel Mansell | Autocourse 1986 | The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller | Staying on Track – Nigel Mansell | Miss you. Would like to take a walk with you - Gabrielle Calvocoressi | Poem (To F.S.) – Langston Hughes

Top White House official Brett McGurk is quietly floating a controversial plan to reconstruct Gaza after Israel’s assault concludes, HuffPost has learned, despite serious concerns from some officials inside the administration that it would sow the seeds for future instability in the region.

In recent weeks, McGurk has been pitching national security officials on a plan suggesting an approximately 90-day timeline for what should happen once active fighting in Gaza ends, three U.S. officials said. It argues that stability can be achieved in the devastated Palestinian region if American, Israeli, Palestinian and Saudi officials launch an urgent diplomatic effort that prioritizes the establishment of Israel-Saudi ties, the officials continued. Such a development is widely referred to as “normalization,” given Saudi Arabia’s refusal to recognize Israel since its founding in 1948.

There is a widespread belief that similar U.S.-led deals that involved Israel and other regional Arab governments — and that downplayed Palestinian concerns — have fueled anger and violence, including the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other Palestinian militants inside Israel.

Still, U.S. President Joe Biden has echoed his predecessor Donald Trump in arguing that those agreements are vital for the region’s future. Biden’s focus on an Israel-Saudi pact has been especially alarming for Palestinians and officials working on Israeli-Palestinian peace. And McGurk’s accelerated timeline has only caused more concern.

McGurk’s plan would use the incentive of aid for reconstruction from Saudi Arabia and possibly other wealthy Gulf countries like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to pressure both the Palestinians and the Israelis, per the officials. In this vision, Palestinian leaders would agree to a new government for both Gaza and the occupied West Bank and to ratchet down their criticisms of Israel, while Israel would accept limited influence in Gaza.[...]

A recently conducted poll of Saudis by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy found that nearly 96% believe Arab states should cut any ties with Israel over its conduct in Gaza, and Saudi Arabia has long maintained that it will not establish ties with Israel unless the Israelis permit the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, a host of other forces in the region would rage against an agreement perceived as sidelining Palestinians. That group includes the Houthis[...] “These plans are delusionally optimistic and have numerous spoilers and parties that will be unlikely to cooperate or do what the U.S. plans,” one U.S. official said, pointing to the Houthis but also Palestinians and Israelis[...]

Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week told Israeli counterparts that he expects them to do more to achieve a Saudi-Israel pact than they would have had to do prior to their campaign in Gaza, The Times of Israel reported.[...]

McGurk previously worked on Middle East issues under Trump, who promoted his set of agreements between Arab states and Israel — the so-called Abraham Accords — as one of his biggest triumphs.[...]

In his first public remarks after the Oct. 7 attack, McGurk claimed that he never sidelined Palestinian concerns in pursuing an Israel-Saudi agreement.[...]

“There’s a lot of deja vu in what we’re hearing about the allegedly new thinking,” said Khaled Elgindy, an analyst at the Middle East Institute think tank and former adviser to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. “I have a hard time believing that the administration that misread the region for three years before Oct. 7 and certainly deprioritized the Palestinians … can understand Palestinian aspirations.”

“Even if they did understand what was required, would any Palestinian leader be willing to trust them after they have facilitated the annihilation of Gaza?” Elgindy added.[...]

Blinken raised the idea of a new Palestinian Authority cabinet with Abbas this week and the Palestinian leader’s response was “poor,” a U.S. official told HuffPost. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller disputed that presentation in an email to HuffPost, writing, “This account is false in every respect.”[...]

Lawmakers have repeatedly said their interest in helping Israel make friends in its neighborhood does not outweigh their concerns about what the U.S. would need to commit to in diplomacy for a Saudi-Israel pact — likely a binding American defense treaty with Saudi Arabia and U.S. assistance with a Saudi nuclear program, among other enticements. Congress would have to approve a treaty and could also scrutinize or bar other U.S.-Saudi deals.

12 Jan 24

Spoiler Alert Premiere Night At Jack H. Skirball Centre For The Performing Arts New York 29.11.2022

#BenAldridge #SpoilerAlert