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wrennwyrmnest · 10 months

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i’m very very curious about your arthurian retelling! who are the central characters? what do you find most interesting/exciting/compelling about them? what are your arthurian sources & inspirations (be that medieval texts or modern retellings)?

Hey there anon! Thank you so much for asking this question - this is going to be a bit of a long answer but I get the feeling that won't be an issue :D (Maybe grab a snack?)

Firstly I'll explain why I'm using 'reimagining' rather than 'retelling', namely it's because of moving Arthur and co into a high fantasy setting rather than just Britain etc. which, while of course there will be analogues, there's going to be a bigger part that other fantasy species play. Christian themes and I guess, reasonings, aren't found but linger where appropriate (Grail Quest is there but but Galahad doesn't like yk go to Heaven afterwards) as some media I've been inspired from as well as I think a big thing of Arthur's legend of moving from one world into another whether that be Pagan -> Christian or Anglo-Saxon -> Britain(* all the big asterisks there because yk fiction and history not aligning).

Characters

Oh boy. Firstly I'd like you to check out the chart that was added to the wikipedia for King Arthur's Family: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Arthur%27s_family *how I wish this was there last year :sob:* and basically this kinda gives a good scope of characters I have 'webbed' out. I've gone to both Welsh and French texts for inspiration since Welsh includes Arthur's trips to the underworld ( ;) ) and French is when we get Lancelot and the Grail Quest. Firstly know I have taken some liberties both in Arthur's family tree as well as some creative ways that account for say multiple parents (Lancelot is recorded as being the son of a King but also as a son of The Lady of the Lake ~plot reasons~ they're separate uh, instances lets say ;) of his parents in my story). But in terms of characters whose voice I have a pretty good grasp of, their emotional arc(s) and a clear image in my mind of what they look like are (and grouped for no particular reason...):

Arthur, Lancelot, Gwen, and two others in their polycule.*

Igraine, Uther, and Gorloris.**

Merlin <- think druidic Loki vibes, he's a pain in my ass and I love him.

Hector his daughter Ser Kay.

Nimue and The Lady of the Lake.

Morgause and her son Mordred.

Madoc and his brother Mark.

Morgaen and how they were separated from Arthur at birth.

... The notion database I've created by pulling all the characters from sources comes to 258 but the above lists some uh key figures that are fleshed out as protagonists, antagonists, and anti-heroes.

(*) I'll get to Arthur/Lance/Gwen's triad a bit more below, but what I will say is that polycule is an important term here as everyone isn't with everyone, if that makes sense? But imagine found family five-man-band vibes.

(**) SO fun fact, when I watched the movie Merlin as a kid I misheard Gorlois as Goloris so I just kinda stuck with it. Unsure if that'll upset people too much though aha.

Why Tho? Exciting/Interesting/Compelling reasons why these characters have my soul.

I'm a big fan of Fairy Tales, Folklore, and Mythology. Seeing comparisons and also seeing both the Disney-fied versions but also the original tales. Arthurian legends has scratched an itch of dragons, knights, and magic that I've loved and is also shared by other stories too - which in part is why I'm spending so much time worldbuilding up front so I have a whole world sandbox to play in and tell some other tales too with it.

Why did I go with Arthur instead of say the Little Mermaid & Harpy sapphic reimagining I've got stashed? Honestly? Because he answered the call to adventure - the quest I have planned - but also because the Arthur I have in my mind, a big theme for him is Courage and doing the thing even though you're scared to which I resonate with a lot. Lancelot came stumbling in as his best friend from their squire days after disappearing for a few years for a second chance romance plot. Gwen butting heads with her twin sister had a certain, fire let's say ( ;) ), that need to pull these two dorks out of their heads while also exploring themes of empowerment. Mordred's arc which I hope to pull off as well as Zuko's was. Merlin, whom I love, was the one who revealed the world to me and really sparked the magic of it all. But then two scenes came to my mind, in full colour and with a big emotional impact.

Arthur and Morgaen's next meeting after finding out they're siblings.

Lancelot's lost memories returning and Arthur knighting the man who had turned to stone to save him.

I'll need to go through and make a full list of tags eventually but uh, lots of Angst/Hurt/Comfort mixed in with wholesome moments. I'm leaning towards potentially writing in a serial format and also doing maybe side stories from different character perspectives.

Sources & Inspirations

In terms of Arthurian specific things:

Welsh sources: Black Book of Carmarthen; Red and White books of Hergest; Culhwch and Olwen; Mabinogion; and the Welsh Triads.

Geoffrey of Monmouth, notably for Arthur's connection to the Roman Empire and characters from that region.

French sources: Le Mort de Arthur, Tristan and Iseult, Perceval and other stories such as Lancelot and the Knight of the Cart (I cackled a bit when I read that one ngl).

I tend to listen to the Myths and Legends podcast by Jason (something) who will be coming out with an Arthurian book sometime which I am keeeen for.

In terms of post-medieval things, there's a lot of nodding to fairy tales such as Tom Thumb and any story where Jack is mentioned.

Merlin the 1998 miniseries with Sam Neill. (This is the one that I misheard Golois as Goloris aha.)

The Mists of Avalon 2001 miniseries. (I haven't read the books and don't plan to support the author or that estate in any way due to the abuse she aided and abetted in).

Sword and the Stone is a classic Disney film but the main thing here I took inspiration from was to really highlight The Great Game in some way... Which is also a nod to Talesin in the Mabinogian. Also enjoyed Quest for Camelot as well.

There's a sapphic scifi retelling that I love called Once and Future.

And I also watched King Arthur's Disasters as a kid which, ngl I prefer the Welsh versions where he's a badass but this was amusing at the time.

In terms of non-Arthurian sources and inspirations, oh boy this gets quite long but basically from the above there are offshoots that I've done in terms of exploring:

Other Welsh tales.

Folklore of Europe as well as Ireland, Scotland, and Britain.

A lot of dabbling in comparative mythology and folklore as well as such as the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index for folklore to create some original but familiar folk heroes and lore for my world.

Consuming pretty much everything on Overly Sarcastic Productions.

I've mentioned that Avatar the Last Airbender and Fullmetal Alchemist are two comparative points of media: the first being for the elemental magic system as well as just some solid worldbuilding and character arcs - one of my blocks with writing is that I have like this big epic quest, various wholesome slice of life moments, deep emotional beats, but then also some spicey scenes that come to mind; the latter is mainly for a nod to alchemy, and magitech as well as some character beats.

I've also mentioned ASOIAF and really want to highlight that there won't be any inc##t at all in my books. There will be dark themes such as abuse of power, manipulation, and there will be people who get hurt or take advantage of, but I just really don't like that plot beat at all. Hence why Mordred is no Arthur's son.

*flops* Okay thank you for sticking with me through all of that. Let me know if you have more questions or if you'd like me to elaborate on anything! Thank you again for your question, it means a lot that people are finding it interesting (helps stop the imposter syndrome voices yk?)

#arthurian #arthuriana #arthurian reimagining #arthurian wip #anon asks #drak'arna #wrennavere #arthurian inspiration #arthurian sources #arthurian retellings

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shyeehaw · 5 years

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Sean, Arthur, Lenny, Kieran with a SO who has social anxiety

Request: Can I request some headcanons for the boys (Sean, Arthur, Lenny, Kieran) with a SO who has social anxiety and how they help them. Bonus request? Maybe some headcanons how everyone in camp treats the reader or helps them. Maybe like a father-daughter relationship with Hosea/Dutch or a brother-sister relationship with other gang members, just like their reaction to the reader having trouble in social situations sometimes

Sean

Even though he can’t relate, Sean will empathize.

When you explain to him that being in the spotlight makes you really uncomfortable he will try to help you, in his own way

Once, Uncle had the brilliant idea to ask in front of everybody why were you so quiet.

Everyone turned to you, looking for an answer.

Almost instantly Sean noticed your eyes growing bigger, and created a diversion.

Later that night, you two laughed about how he willingly fell into his butt, just for you.

You make a great couple, in a way that he does all the talking that you don’t want to.

It’s like he draws the attention to himself, so when you are around him, you’ll usually be comfortably on the sidelines.

Through him you get to experience all the things only your wildest dreams allowed.

You’ll smile at your goofy boyfriend making everyone laugh.

But part of how they react to him makes you nervous too.

When you bring that up, Sean says that even though they complain, deep down they are finding it funny, they just won’t admit it.

And that sticks with you for a while. How even though he’s getting a bad reaction, he still has a positive attitude.

His confidence inspires you.

Doesn’t mind staying in with you, it’s not the saloon that is fun, is being with you.

So you two have drinks at camp around few others and is usually nice.

But if you try to make an effort and go out, it’s not that bad, because he’s there for you.

Introduces you to people you don’t know, but Sean tends to exaggerate adding “beautiful” or “handsome” before your name.

Most of the times, you are glad he convinced you to go, because you end up having a good time.

Arthur

Arthur is all about making you feel comfortable.

Ever since he found out you are not just shy, but get actual palpitations about being around others, he is always trying to help you out.

If you ever need to speak to Dutch, he offers to go with you.

And he already explained to him that you are not comfortable around others (so you didn’t have to, because that would be really awkward).

Ever since, if he needs to speak to you, Dutch will do it privately. No more including your name in speeches and making everyone stare.

Arthur likes to hold your hand whenever there’s too many people around you.

Side talks while the gang’s is having a party is common. He knows you feel more comfortable talking to fewer people.

If something is bothering you, but you don’t have the courage to say so, he will vocalize it as if it was bothering him.

Knows better than PDAs, because those draw too much attention.

He still will be happy with more discrete ways of showing affection, like hand holding or to sit beside you, slightly brushing his arm against yours.

Shows his support through words, but mostly encouraging squeezes and affection.

Will talk to you in the softest voice, trying to convince you that you will be ok.

It usually works. There something about looking deep into his calm eyes that gets you less worried.

He makes sure you know no matter what you think others will think about you, he’ll be there for you.

Lenny

Such a sweetheart, you don’t even have to tell him about what’s happening.

Lenny is observant and will try to talk to you about it.

“I’ve noticed you trying to avoid being around others, tell me why is that Y/N.”

When you tell him about how self-conscious you get and how it makes you shaky, he tries to put himself on your shoes.

“I’m here for you, alright? How can I help?”

Even when things go wrong, Lenny still sees the bright side in it.

Talked to someone and it was embarrassing?

He will point it out how proud he is that you even started the conversation in the first place.

He’s the best at seeing good things in you that you might not even believe it was there.

Eating in front of others always made you uncomfortable.

So Lenny will gladly keep you company while you have dinner at your tent.

You were only able to get through a ‘happy birthday to you’ with Lenny’s light squeeze on your hand.

It’s so easy to share your thoughts with him, you feel like he’s always willing to listen, even if you found them silly.

“I just know Karen doesn’t like me...”

“How do you know that Y/N? Maybe you are just supposing and now you see that way.”

He helps you identifying when your mind is getting trapped into these bad thoughts.

Time goes fast when you two talk, he’s a great listener and feels the need to learn more about the things that make you anxious.

A patient and dedicated boyfriend, Lenny is likely to help you improve instead of making excuses for you.

Kieran

Two little balls of anxiety together.

Kieran absolutely gets how nervous you can get around others.

In fact, that’s one of the things that brought you two together.

You would notice him lurking around, awkwardly getting a drink and sitting afar.

You just sat beside him, quietly keeping him company.

Kieran blabbed something about horses, or the weather, you can’t quite remember because you were nervous as well.

You two can be seen around chatting, caught up on a world of your own.

He’s been much happier lately for finding someone he can trust, and that gets him.

So are you, because for once you don’t fear to be judged.

In a unexpected way, you two do good to each other, complimenting the other when they do something out of their comfort zone.

It’s a relationship that allows growing to both sides, since you two struggle with the same thing.

But at the same time is easier to indulge in avoiding others, since neither you or him will suggest that.

In the end of the day, it's really nice to have someone around who goes through the same things as you.

Besides being your lover, in Kieran you find a best friend. Someone to rely on.

And by the way he talks, so carefree, you guess he did too.

General Gang HC:

Abigail is usually one to help you out, she sees you as a younger sibling and her mom mode kicks in.

She will tell others (ok, uncle probably) to stop teasing you about it.

Charles is one of the few people you get to feel more comfortable around.

His quiet, reserved nature is always one to shut down intrusive thoughts.

Like, if you are anxious and start being hard on yourself, Charles presence makes you wonder “Would he really think this mean things about me, or it’s just in my head?”

Javier is always interested in what you have to say, since you rarely talk.

He also values your opinion a lot, which encourages you to express it more often.

Mary-Beth is really comprehensive, and enjoying activities like dominoes gets your mind gradually off the things that worry you.

When you notice, you are playing with her, talking to Tilly and Karen at the same time.

Hosea acts like a worried dad and it’s so cute!

He will always challenge you to put yourself out there, without being to pushy.

He worries about you, and wants to understand what you go through better.

That leads to long fishing trips where you two talk about it, he calls it “that trip”.

Dutch, in the other hand, may not be so aware like Hosea, but he also helps.

He values the skills you developed with guns to compensate not being the greatest con(wo)man.

Dutch will send you in jobs where your assets can be useful, instead of focusing on your inability to connect.

When you told him you felt guilty for not being able to help like that, he reassured you.

“It’s not a weakness Y/N, just a trait like Uncle being lazy, or Mary-Beth being a bookworm, we all have them.”

#sean macguire #sean macguire x reader #sean x reader #arthur morgan #arthur morgan x reader #arthur x reader #lenny summers #lenny x reader #lenny summers x reader #kieran duffy #kieran x reader #kieran duffy x reader #rdr2 requests #rdr2 headcanons #rdr2 fanfic #rdr2 #writing requests <3

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cooperhewitt · 5 years

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NDA 20 YRS | Q&A with Tinker Hatfield

Tinker Hatfield is the recipient of the 2019 National Design Award for Product Design. After studying architecture at the University of Oregon, where he was coached by Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, Hatfield joined Nike in 1981 and currently serves as vice president of creative concepts. Known for his inventive imagination, relentless drive toward improved performance and disruptive aesthetic footwear, Hatfield has earned global recognition for his collaboration with Michael Jordan on the Air Jordan line at Nike. He has created specialized Nike performance products for champion athletes and entertainers, including LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Laird Hamilton, Gabrielle Reece, Renaud Lavillenie and Justin Timberlake. Hatfield lives in Portland, Oregon, and mentors young Nike designers to help build the Nike of the future.

The National Design Award recipients will be honored at a gala dinner and ceremony Thursday, Oct. 17, in the Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden at Cooper Hewitt.

What three adjectives define “good design” to you?

Thoughtful, Appropriate, Courageous

Who is a designer, historic or working today, that you would invite to a dinner party?

Brad Bird, writer, designer, and voice talent for The Incredibles.

How do you relax on your day off?

Go for a bike ride around Portland with my wife Jackie, have lunch at a cool bistro along the way, and play some music in the afternoon.

Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 (2016). Photo: Nike

What inspires you when you’re feeling stuck?

I’m constantly doing new and fun things like physical activity, traveling, meeting interesting people, going to live music events and watching sports. All of these activities and more inspire me. I can’t think of a time when I have ever been stuck. Have I been wrong? Yes. But stuck? Nope.

What do Cooper Hewitt and the National Design Awards mean to you?

I’m extremely honored to be recognized by the Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards.

Since Cooper Hewitt is an arm of the Smithsonian, there is a historic component to this award that seems very permanent or lasting. I’m just a guy from small town America (Halsey, Oregon, population 900 or so) and to think that I’ve been chosen to represent the design world on a national level is pretty mind boggling. Of course, I’ve been so fortunate to work with talented people at Nike and at Jordan for all these years, so I consider the whole thing a “collective award” for all my collaborators as well.

How did you get your start in design?

I started my “design life” in college as an architectural student (I hadn’t done any preparatory work in high school). I was also a wear tester for Bill Bowerman. Mr. Bowerman was my track coach at the University of Oregon and he also co-founded Nike. His designs were revolutionary, and I was fortunate to be one of his favorite test subjects, which involved some design thinking on my part.

Nike Air Max 1 (1987). Photo: Nike

How has mentorship influenced your career?

I have had many mentors but three stand out.

My father Tinker, Sr., who taught me to work very HARD.

Bill Bowerman who taught me to work SMART.

Phil Knight who taught me to work with PASSION.

They were all innovators and quite successful as well.

My father was once National High School Track Coach of the Year.

Bill Bowerman invented Jogging in America, and coached several Olympians.

Phil Knight is world renowned for, well, for just about everything he’s done. From starting NIKE out of the back of his car to giving away billions of dollars to help cure cancer.

Looking over your body of work, is there one design project that holds personal significance for you?

The Air Jordan 11. Michael Jordan had retired, and I was asked to stop designing Jordans. There was a belief that great design alone would not resonate with people without Michael wearing the product on court. So, I designed the Air Jordan 11 partly under the radar. When it went to retail it was incredibly successful, and to this day when it’s re-released, it continues to be extremely popular. All these years later, it’s still worn by many of the best players. The Air Jordan 11 proved that sometimes the most successful designs come from trusting your gut and taking risks.

Nike Air Jordan XI (1996). Photo: Nike

How do you think design will change in the next 20 years?

Design is changing all the time, and pretty much has been since the Industrial Revolution of the early to mid-1800s. The pace is ever quickening, and 20 years into the future might equal all the innovation that has occurred before it. The limitless boundaries of invention and imagination are inspiring. Imagine if we could invent more products that adapt to the user, like we did with the Nike HyperAdapt. Or imagine if we could create products and new processes of manufacturing that are not just sustainable, but also even clean and improve our world in all ways at all times.

What are your words of advice to the next generation of designers?

Learn how to write, speak, draw, think and to be fearless. Good design is often disliked or mistrusted. Don’t be afraid to go up against the establishment in order to make design better, to make life better.

About the National Design Awards

Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Awards is the only annual program of its kind, bringing national recognition to the ways in which design enriches everyday life. Launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council, the National Design Awards were established to promote design as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world. Twenty years later, the National Design Awards continue to honor and support excellence, innovation, and lasting achievement in American design. Cooper Hewitt continues to broaden access nationwide to the vision and work of the country’s design leaders through National Design Week and NDA Cities, inspiring people of all ages to engage with design and design thinking.

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the National Design Awards, Target will offer free admission to all visitors of Cooper Hewitt during National Design Week, Oct. 12–19, to make design accessible to all. Target will also sponsor a series of Cooper Hewitt programming broadening access to the vision and work of the country’s design leaders and inspiring people of all ages to engage with design and design thinking.

from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum https://ift.tt/2n0NK7q via IFTTT

#cooper hewitt #design conversations

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letstraveltoorion · 6 years

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Why a story about Master of Orion? (Part 2)

2018-09-10

Although I explained why I’ve decided to do a story on Master of Orion, I’ve never really explained the reasons behind that story. Reasons that are both complexes and quite nebulous in some area.

First, I must admit this is not my first attempt at writing. For as long as I remembered, I’ve tried very hard to come up with a story. Usually, those attempts were basically my take a story I liked and spines it my way. Today, I recognized those failed attempts as trial runs for a story one day I will write. Some of these failed starts were based on Yoko Tsuno (French Graphic novels), Robotech (my favourite setting), Battletech, Jovian Chronicles, Heavy Gear and others. All of them grandiose in my mind … all of them, except maybe one, were sent to oblivion.

To be frank, I’ve lost faith in my abilities to come up with a good story. I keep dreaming but I never come up with anything … worth writing for. That is, until a couple of years ago … sometimes in 2016, I stumble upon “the dialogue”!

The Seed

One particular weekend of 2016, not fully awake yet, I surprised myself imagining a conversation between two entities in regard of a third party. It went like this:

“They’re courageous and clever … maybe we should help them a bit?”

“No!” Responded the second being. “Leave them! They are below our considerations, not worth our energies.”

“Really?” interjected the first being, “I notice they have mastered the primary basic of nuclear energy, and they have managed to build a starship to travel beyond their solar system…”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Protested the other one. “Giving enough resources, time and a good dose of luck, any animals could develop nuclear weapons and build starships! It doesn’t mean they have reached enlightenment at all…”

At this point, I “woke up” with the realization that “I got something! I do not know what it is, but I got something!”

This realization leads me to reflect on our perception of civilizations throughout history and how we “rank” them through their scientific and technological achievements … but then, I came to ask: What if another civilization had “other” criteria’s? How “we” will be judged by “them”? What if a civilization put more value on the philosophical concepts rather than technology? Or how good are we to make the lands fertile and bountiful? Or in a more exotic way, what if they value magic or psi powers?

Sure, I must not be the first one to think about these concepts but, it got me thinking about how I could explore these concepts…

This was the seed for my story.

The Field

Having the seed is one thing, but to explore this seed to its full potential, I needed a canvas, a sandbox, where I could explore and play with it in any way I saw fit. I chose “Master of Orion” mainly because I enjoyed the game and working a story in that setting should to be fun to do. I said “should”, as it turns out much more work than I originally thought. To be honest, Master of Orion is just a frame for my story. A strong and solid frame in where I can weave anything I want. This frame provided me with textures and flavours along with a general guide line or a starting point to depart from.

Since that frame is quite neutral, neither good nor bad, this means for the story I’m writing that it success or failure will rest solely on my shoulders…

Damn! This is pretty heavy.

The Water

Following my original reasoning, I started to gather data to assist me in my world-building process. During that time, I stumble upon two pieces of information that would shape both the type of story I will tell but also the background of the story…. The primordial “spark” if you wish.

The first information was the myth of Orion himself. On how he would hunt and kill every creature of the Earth was stopped by a scorpion sent by the gods and also, on how both were placed in the sky as constellations … the Scorpion forever chasing Orion in the Milky Way.

Now, I’m sure the people at Microprose probably never thought of the full implications in symbolism then when they put out their second game Master of Orion: Battle at Antares. On how this title fit perfectly with the mythology of Orion.

The second information I stumble upon was the fact that Orion was known as Osiris by the ancient Egyptians. This in turn, let me investigate the ancient Egyptian’s myth which proves to be a bountiful as I’ve found many elements I could apply into my story.

As you can see, this is an opportunity way too good to pass up…. Those ancient myths, or at least some part of them, could be used a background source for long past events that shaped the current universe. So, Mythology will be the water of my story; past events have dramatically affected the galaxy and those ramifications are still felt today.

Mythology also gave me a way to study the interaction between the gods and the mortal. Why? Because: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” (Arthur C. Clark). Which means that if mankind has to, one day, deal with a type II or type III civilization (from the Karshev’s Scale), their achievement will look like magic to us and they will probably act like gods toward us.

As water is required for life to grow, I will use mythological tales to infuse life in my story; especially when I have to deal with occurrences that happened thousands of years ago that are still impacting the current events of today.

The Fertilizers

Because a story is, like any other story, a living thing that will grow and evolve as I’m writing it, I will also require some “fertilizer” to help it grow. In this particular case, this will apply to the multitudes of books, novel, comic books and Bandes-dessinnées (French Graphic Novel) I have at my disposal. As I move forward, those books and publications that inspire me for this story will be posted into my Bibliography section of my blog. Also, by reading the description I’ll write about them, you’ll be able to see and understand what part of this specific book or story is fuelling my imagination. But here a few examples:

RPG

Among these sources, you’ll find Role Playing Games (RPG) such as Traveller and 2300 AD, mostly for their world-building materials (very good sources of inspirations). Empire Galactique, one of the rare French RPG by François Nedelec which I love because it gave me a sense of grandeur of what could be a real Galactic Empire. Although the rules are a bit obsolete, its encyclopedia galactica gave me a sets of rules for commerce and judicial systems.

There is also the series Numenéra and their Cypher system by Monte Cook, which include other universe like the Strange, Predations, etc. But Mostly Numenéra because it gave me a visual look of what could be the left-over of a type one or two civilizations. Without their work, my imagination would never have flared up as it did for this project.

But before I go any further, I must also do a special mention to an almost forgotten RPG from TSR (now Wizard of the Coast); the grandfather of the sci-fi genre in the RPG industry… I named Starfrontiers! Launched on the heel of Advanced Donjons & Dragons, perhaps around the same times as Traveller, this game capitalized on the AD&D enthusiasm, this little space opera RPG, although quite cheese by today’s standards, had quite a few details right and to my surprise, can still be relevant today with only a few slight modifications. But what I retain the most from that game was their antagonist: the Sathar! The sathars were an alien race that were enigmatic, sneaky, highly advanced in cybernetic and very deadly … all the marks of a great villain.

There is also the multitude of books of the G.U.R.P.S. by Steve Jackson Games. Due to the intensive research that went into those books, they provided me background or layout on subject I was not familiar with or, like the rest of us, got warped vision of Hollywood and TV shows.

Also, I need to include the multitude universes published by Palladium Books. Their unique take on different subjects was enough to fire my imaginations. Going from their high fantasy world of Paladium World to their post-apocalyptic future of Rifts, and not forgetting their take on the Vietnam War, or the Robotech franchise to their Superhero or super spy genre, every one of them had something to contribute or get inspiration from.

Lastly, I must also include the work of Games Workshop in Warhammer 40,000. Not because of their dystopia future they describe but for the simple fact it was the, maybe not the first, but the most recent example of what it would take to have an Empire on a GALACTIC scale. On that level, their take on the subject is unchallenged and unmatched.

Books and Novels

Other sources of inspiration come from old stories and novels, such as the work of A. E Van Vogt (more specifically the novella “The Monster [a.k.a. Resurrection]” published in 1948. There is also the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs [mostly the Barsoom series] who are still a great source of inspiration for me.

Another writer is Edmond Hamilton who happens to be the writer of one of my childhood hero Capitaine Flam [Captain Future in English]. I didn’t make the link between both of them until a few years back. At the time my favourite story by him was “the Dead Planet”, which I read as part of an anthology. It was when I started to do my research for this current work that I came to the realization of who he was and de facto gave me a greater respect for the man and his work.

Of course, there are many other writers whom I can name here but let just say it will be easier to simply read about them in my Bibliography section of my blog. However, I can’t end this part of my reasoning without talking about one of the most influential piece of science-fiction to me: Perry Rhodan.

Perry Rhodan is a German science-fiction serial novel that started in 1961 and still going strong today. The brainchild of Karl-Herbert Scheer and Clark Darlton, their story started with the first venture of man to the moon and ended up pitching our hero onto a massive galactic background. Right from the beginning, the series had beam weapons, jump drives, teleportation, psychic powers, alien [both humanoid and not], positronic brain, robots, a dying galactic empire, etc. If one thing could define the series, it is the scales of things: EVERYTHING is done on an epic scale. Going from ships that vary between 800 metres and 2.5 km, to planet size arsenal and factories, to engineering on a galactic scale … everything is HUGE. Trust me, what could be a better source of inspiration if you want to do an epic space opera than the grandfather of the genre?

Out of my French side, there are also two little-known writers that I really enjoyed and have influenced my work: Frank Dartal and P.-J. Hérault. Frank Dartal, on which I could barely find any information at all, wrote stories in the 70s and 80s that are still readable by today’s standard … which is quite an achievement if you think about it. The second, P.-J. Hérault, impressed by his profound humanity and his love for flying which he managed to infuse all of his work.

Games

As I mentioned earlier, two games that I plan to use as a source of inspiration and, also I might also include elements of both in my story. The first one is another computer game by Binary System and the other is Galactic Empires, the collective card game by Companion Games.

Starflight … back in the late 80s that game was one of the best in the genre. Part action, part quest, part exploration and part business … but most important, 100 percent fun. Back then, it is quite poetic to have a ship for which you had to hire the right crew and be sent on a mission to find the cause that makes your sun going nova. As you explore the space around you, collecting minerals and clues, meeting aliens and fighting some implacable enemies, until you find the culprit and destroy it. As I said, 100% fun! However, it was in their sequel, Starflight 2, that Binary System lifted the veil on some of the questions that were left unanswered in the first game. Mainly who were the Uhlek and where they came from. This origin story game me the idea of a great antagonist, a Sauron or Galactus type of antagonist that may, one day come to threaten all life in the galaxy, if not the universe itself. Lastly, because the game was so good, I might include some of their alien races in my story. The beauty of it all is that it will mix perfectly to what I want to write and it will not contradict what was already published in Master of Orion. But don’t worry I’m still very far from that goal and I do not even know if I’ll ever reach that point … as it stands right now.

This brings me to the second game: Galactic Empires. This game came out in the wake of Magic the Gathering card game. However, although well thought the game never really took off. However, they had some great ideas in it. Because of this, I intent to use some of them in my story. More specifically things like spatial phenomena, some space creature, a few strange planet and, of course, some alien races. Among those are the Krebiz Capitalist Alliance, the Indirigan Tribes [space nomads] and but not least, the Space Dragons.

What? Space Dragons? Well, since there was a space dragon event in the very first Master of Orion, I thought it could be nice to reintroduce them in my story … but I intent of tweaking them to make them a bit more … galactic!

That said, there are also numerous movies and TV shows that I could name but I need to conclude this so…

In conclusion, the main reason why I’m doing this is to give a canvas for my creativity and a means to keep my sanity. In the last few years, I came to realize that one of the reasons I was not happy at my work was the simple fact that I had no venue for my creativity. The day-to-day work only serves to grind my mind and personality into dust. That if I didn’t do something fast I was running the risk to see my soul die! And because the feeling of being useless and powerless can kill a man as surely as a gun or cyanide would be the main motivation for this story.

I am not looking for fame or fortunes. I just want to write and tell a good story that will entertain you and make you dream a bit… If you like what I wrote and make you want to know more … then I have reached my goal.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Come on board, the journey is about to start and, I hope, it will be amazing.

Alain Vollant.

#Why #Orion #MOO #Writers Notes.

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loadsuperior898 · 3 years

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Crimebustersthe Creative Archive

Meera Borwankar JCP, Mumbai and head of crime branch

Crime Busters Wiki

Earn 125 points on every ticket you buy. Rack up 500 points and you'll score a $5 reward for more movies.

The Kickstarter campaign for the first issue of The Crimebusters is complete, and was a rousing success. Thanks so much to everyone who supported it! Im really looking forward to sending out the comic and hearing what you all think. And Im hard at work already on issue #2, so Ill certainly be sha.

She made history on July 21, 2004, when she took charge of Mumbai?s famed crime branch to become the first woman ever to head the department, which has to contend with, among other things, one of the world?s most organised mafias. The 46-year-old mother of two teenage sons pipped Arup Patnaik, special IG of the Special Reserve Force, and K.L. Prasad, an IG at the state police headquarters, to the post. Borwankar is known as one of the toughest officers Maharashtra has had ? her bosses, subordinates and the criminals she has tackled will heartily vouch for that. During her stint with the state Crime Investigation Department from 1993-95, one of the important cases she investigated was the infamous Jalgaon sex scandal in which local politicians were accused of duping young girls with false promises of jobs and loans. For her work, Borwankar has received the President?s Medal for meritorious service in 1997, apart from the Police Medal and the Director General?s Insignia. Educational high point? She has studied policy analysis in law enforcement at the University of Minnesota in the US.

G. Aswati ASP, Gadchiroli

When asked about how a woman police officer can make a difference in the lives of ordinary women, Aswati replies, ?A woman is seated in front of me right now. She is telling me about things in her life that she can never tell a male police officer?. Aswati (seen here with her husband C. Dorje) emphasises that women will certainly make a difference as far as crimes against women go. She may be the daughter of acclaimed Malayalam filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, but her aspirations have little to do with art. Known as an officer of integrity, she belongs to the 2000-batch of Assam cadre and was posted in Assam before being transferred to Maharashtra as assistant superintendent of police of the Naxal-infested Gadchiroli region.

Made in Maharashtra: Maharashtra has in fact a high number of women police officers compared to other states. Apart from Borwankar and Aswati, the state police has Sridevi Goyal, special IG, railways; Rashmi Shukla, deputy IG, prisons; Archana Tyagi, superintendent of police, Ratnagiri district; Maria Fernandes who is posted as deputy commissioner of police, headquarter-II, Mumbai police; Supriya Patil-Yadav, DCP, state intelligence department in the state police headquarter in Mumbai, deputy inspector general of police (prisons), superintendent of Arthur Road jail, Swati Sathe; and deputy commissioner (traffic) Pradnya Saravade. Saravade works as the deputy commissioner of the social service branch which falls under the direct supervision of Borwankar. As DCP in-charge of the port zone, she had unearthed a racket of exotic foreign-made cars being imported into India through corrupt port officials.

Blog Archive 2020 (152) July (25) June (30) May (31) April (30). Picturescape biology. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Damayanti Sen DCP, DD, Calcutta

On the phone Damayanti Sen, deputy commissioner of police (special), detective department, Calcutta, sounds as no-nonsense a person as she later transpires to be. She doesn?t mind interviews, she says, provided the talk revolves around her ? no personal questions, please! When you see Damayanti Sen (left), sitting in her large Lal Bazaar detective department room, she looks incredibly young, a tiny figure in her large straight-backed leather chair. But she exudes self-confidence. Because she doesn?t think that one?s gender makes any difference to the job at hand. Not in her profession and not in any other. ?No, I don?t think that women are better or worse off in a job. The only reason people ask a lot of questions related to my gender, is because there are fewer women in my profession now than men. But as that changes, people will stop being so interested.? Sen did her bachelors and masters in economics from Jadavpur University, both with a first class first. She took her IPS exams in 1996 and says she just happened to drift into the profession. She is married and her husband is in teaching.

Kanchan Chowdhury DGP, Uttaranchal

The country got its first woman director-general of police with Kanchan Chowdhury taking over as the head of the force in Uttaranchal since last year. Chowdhury wants to do ?something concrete for the women of Uttaranchal? and is planning to set up counselling centres in every district, not only in Uttaranchal but in the entire country. ?These centres could provide shelter, counselling, rehabilitation and other needs of oppressed and depressed women,? she elaborates. When asked how she felt that about being the new DGP of Uttaranchal and commanding a force of so many men, she says, ?Nothing special. But being the head of the police force, I shall see that my command is obeyed in letter and spirit.?

Chowdhury is, interestingly, the inspiration behind the Eighties? TV serial on a woman cop, Udaan.

Kanwaljeet Deol JCP, Delhi

As joint commissioner of police, Delhi headquarters, she has reduced several hardened criminals to their quaking knees, and as an official who brooks no oversight from her teams, is regarded with considerable awe by her colleagues too. Currently holding two posts, she is also the acting special commissioner of police, administration. She swears by T.S. Eliot and Marquez, but when it comes to her own literary skills, prefers to write something like 101 Tips To Survive The City (Penguin, 2002). Deol belongs to the Union Territory cadre, and joined the IPS after an MSc in physics from Punjab University in 1977, chiefly to be with her husband, Shamsher Deol, who had qualified for the IPS the year before. She says she owes her knowledge of the nitty-gritties of the police system to her first posting in 1978, in Panjim, where she had three police stations under her. She thinks policing is like mothering. ?Policing has been regarded a man?s profession for a long time. It?s a fallacy. I think policewomen give a more palatable image to the public. Team. They provide a soft side to a hard profession,? says Deol, who is on a mission to create a more effective police force in the 10 years of service that she has left.

Vimla Mehra JCP, Crime Against Women Cell, Delhi

Crime Busters Wiki

As joint commissioner of police, crime against women (CAW) cell, Delhi, she is taking joint commissioner Kanwaljeet Deol?s work forward (it was Deol who was at the forefront of the cell in 1986). Mehra, who has been heading the cell since 2002, and has brought in some very effective changes in its functioning, started with a posting in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after her induction into the IPS in 1978, but has held an array of posts which required a fair amount of courage on her part. She was posted as additional DCP, south, after the infamous 1984 riots in Delhi, and has worked in the Central Reserve Police Force for four-and-a-half years, which included two years in the Rapid Action Force (RAF). The CAW cell deals mainly with matrimonial crimes, including domestic abuse, dowry deaths and other related crimes. Mehra may also be credited with starting the 1091 Helpline, a 24-hour distress call centre for women, a mobile helpline which immediately starts for the destination called from and a post box service, where women can write to P. Box 5353 for help. Now a strong 170-member force, the women?s crime police also imparts training in self-defence. ?I am all for improving our gender sensitivity in 2005,? says Mehra.

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clarinetu · 3 years

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Discovering the Bass Clarinet — Rocco Parisi Clarinet U Interview

Rocco Parisi, born in San Pietro a Maida — Italy, studied in Holland, where he gained brilliantly which is the Getuigschrift diploma in bass clarinet, and in Italy gained “cum laude” the clarinet master degree at the Conservatorio “F. Ghedini” of Cuneo.

He has been the winner of various international competitions, including T.I.M. Rome, the Orpheus Prize in Antwerpen, Concorso Internazionale di Stresa…

Parisi took part in Giuseppe Garbarino’s masterclasses at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena for four years, each year gaining a special grant, and earning at the end of the four years a Diploma of Honor. Maestro Garbarino subsequently asked Parisi to become his assistant at the Academy. Recognized as a talented interpreter of contemporary music and as an innovator of new techniques for the bass clarinet, many original compositions have been dedicated to Parisi, these being performed by him at important Italian festivals, including Chigiana Novità Siena, Settembre Musica Turin, Biennale of Venice, Nuovi Spazi Musicali Rome and Spazio Musica Cagliari.

He also gave the world premiere of “Sequenza IX c” for bass clarinet and the Italian premiere of “Chemins II c” for bass clarinet and orchestra by Luciano Berio.

A deep collaboration in direct contact with Ennio Morricone, Sylvano Bussotti, and the Italian poet Edoardo Sanguineti allowed him to record some world premiere on CD, playing their compositions in prestigious concert halls.

As a soloist he has performed with several orchestras including “ Thailand Philarmonic Orchestra” in Bangkok, giving the premiere of “Rocco e Rollo” concert for bass clarinet and orchestra by Arthur Gottschalk, “Flemish Chamber Philarmonic Orchestra” Bruxelles- Belgium, giving the premiere of “Danzas Mestizas” for bass clarinet and orchestra by Arturo Marquez, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Slovakia), Kansas Symphony Orchestra (USA), Dinu Lipatti Philharmonic Orchestra Satu Mare (Romania)…

He gave concerts and masterclasses in several foreign countries (Germany, Turkey, Portugal, China, France, Switzerland, Spain, Thailand, USA) and at prestigious venues: Thailand International Composition, Festival Strobel Studio Freiburg, Centrum Sztuki Wspolczenej Warsaw, Music Academy of Kracow, UHR kleinersaal Leipzig, Lisbon Music Conservatory and the Beijing Central Conservatory, “Festival Cervantino” Mexico.

He was invited by the l.C.A. (International Clarinet Association to) give concerts and masterclasses at the world clarinet convention in New Orleans (Louisiana) USA; Stockholm (Swede); Salt Lake City (Utah) USA, Austin (Texas) USA, Assisi (Italy), Baton Rouge (Louisiana) USA, Madrid, Lawrence –Kansas City (USA), Orlando (USA).

The RAI, BRT, and WDR are just a few of the many radio and television stations to have recorded Rocco Parisi. He has performed as bass clarinetist with a number of Italian orchestras, such as Giovanile Italiana of Fiesole, the “Arturo Toscanini” of Parma, the Orchestra da Camera of Padua, Orchestra Sinfonica “G. Verdi” of Milano and RAI O.S.N. (Italian Radio Television National Symphony Orchestra). Parisi has recorded CDs for labels Taukay, Stradivarius, DDT, Nuova Era, AOC Classic — Edizioni Leonardi, Concerto Music-Media, Amadeus, Brilliant classic. He is currently a professor of clarinet and bass clarinet at the conservatory “Antonio Vivaldi” in Alessandria — Italy.

M: When did you approach the world of music?

R: No one in my family was a musician and I grow up in an environment with a great interest in music. When I was a kid, I stopped playing with other kids to listen to music. I felt hypnotized by any kind of music. My first real experience with a musical instrument was when I was fifteen years old. I learn my basic technique by playing the saxophone soprano in a wind band in my city

M: WHEN DID HE APPROACH THE BASS CLARINET?

R: It happened when I finished my regular studies at the Conservatory. I was studying with my teacher Garbarino who at the time was head of the ANSAMBLE GARBARINO group, specialized in contemporary music. We were talking about a bass clarinet during a class and he asked me, “Rocco, do you like it?” I said, “yes!”. The master replied, “it’s always a problem to find a good bass clarinet player. I’m looking for him, so please study seriously!” and I just listened to him.

M: WHAT EXPERIENCE MADE YOU PARTICULARLY PROUD DURING YOUR CAREER?

R: It is not easy to answer this question briefly. The thing that has made me prouder in my career is the fact that I have been esteemed by great composers such as Luciano Berio, Ennio Morricone, Arturo Marquez, and many others. these composers studied my musical philosophy and I discovered new points of view, different from mine. I will be very happy to talk to you more about this topic next time.

M: Were you inspired by anyone in particular during your studies?

R: I was inspired by my teacher Giuseppe Garbarino. his point of view on music is very close to mine. He understood me when I played repertory pieces in different moods. He has a different approach to music than the others. He is deep and himself in the pieces.

M: Do you have any advice for warm-up?

R: We’re usually we usually go in a hurry but I think spending time warming up is very important. Heating is very useful for preparing mouthpieces, reed, and lips. In my opinion, it is better to warm up; prepares me to find harmony with my instrument. How can we do that? warm-up before playing anything. Long sounds are a great exercise to control our sound and we all know that breathing well means good sound. I also suggest playing exercises for tuning. I find it amazing, tune and play. Work on shades with different techniques such as arpeggios and scales.

M: How often do you play the clarinet in b flat?

R: I always play with the soprano clarinet in my piano concerts. But I practice clarinet when I have time for it. Next month, for example, I should play is plan to soda by Igor Stravinsky, and I’m going to use the clarinet in B-flat. If covid restrictions allow us to do so.

M: In which musical genres have you tried during your career?

R: Bene. Gioacchino Rossini Gioacchino Rossini did not distinguish music in genres but between Gioacchino Rossini did not distinguish music in genres but between interesting music and uninteresting music. This is my thought. I love music. I have had and still have many different experiences. From electronic music, I also record a CD with the great Italian poet Edoardo Sanguineti, to jazz, playing with pianist Riccardo Zegna and clarinetist Gabriele Mirabassi. I went from classic to pop. Two things are important to me: know exactly what I’m doing and play without instrumental limits. Luciano Berio said that virtuosity is the conflict between the musical idea and the realization. I grew up with my bass clarinet with these ideals and I’m still going this way.

M: How much covid affect our work?

R: We are in a strange situation and we would all like to get out of it as soon as possible. Activities like music and theatre need an audience, we can’t play without it. Streaming concerts are better than not doing any concerts, but they’re no better than real ones. We need the warmth of the audience. Playing for the camera is unusual because the camera is not warm. The most important part of a concert is with the audience, their relationship and no relationship in streaming can be established. Online classes are only good for those with a medium-high level of music, but there are several issues to establish sound quality or sound for students with a different level.

M: How do you recommend dividing the studio for those who play both instruments?

R: Clarinet and bass clarinet are very similar but are not the same. I suggest playing both instruments with the same frequency, use a mouthpiece with the same opening and the same pressure with the lips to simplify, switching from one instrument to another. During my masterclasses around the world I meet many guys who play both instruments with different techniques;

M: Do you have any advice on correct breathing? And on circular breathing?

R: We all know that playing is easier if we have good breathing. How is it possible? There are a lot of exercises in many books, but not all of them are useful. I believe there’s some confusion about that. I have been lucky because my teacher Giuseppe Garbarino studies for a long time and explains everything to me. Keep in mind that time and practice are fundamental to a child. The secret briefing is an important, but not a strictly necessary technique for a performer. I studied it a long time ago when I had to play a contemporary piece, with very long sounds. The composer suggested me to use a circular briefing but I decided to use regular briefings to great surprise on my part and also on the part of the public.

Interviewed by Maria Maiolo

Published by Clarinet U

Maria Maiolo was born in Soriano Calabro in Calabria, Italy, and graduated from the ITC Institute “G.GALILEI” in Vibo Valentia on 2018. She studied at the “B.Maderna” Conservatory in Cesena to obtain a bachelor’s degree in clarinet. She is the protagonist of several concerts around Italy occupying, in the orchestra, the role of second clarinet. Different events, lead her to write the first novel: “THE COURAGE TO CHANGE”. Later She is a guest of several libraries, educational institutions and important events. Her novel, is present in several libraries, including that of Vibo Valentia, Cirimido and Orbassano. It has been adopted as an in-depth text in several secondary schools and to date has more than 400 copies sold.

Maria recently published her second novel: “BROKEN LIVES” dedicated to Filippo Ceravolo innocent victim of the Mafia and the struggles of his family.

#clarinet #clarinet u #instrument #bass clarinet #clarinetist #musician #interview

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perfectirishgifts · 3 years

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Polestar Stars In Balenciaga’s First Virtual Runway Videogame, “Afterworld”, Set In 2031

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/polestar-stars-in-balenciagas-first-virtual-runway-videogame-afterworld-set-in-2031/

Polestar Stars In Balenciaga’s First Virtual Runway Videogame, “Afterworld”, Set In 2031

Visionary designs from the Polestar design competition feature in Balenciaga’s “Afterworld”

Balenciaga and Polestar are an unlikely couple. One is the Paris luxury fashion house known for instilling a little attitude to couture. The other is the highly technical, rigidly minimalist premium Swedish electric car brand. Both share an element of futurism. Now the two have teamed up in a video game featuring Balenciaga’s autumn/winter 2021 collection and a handful of Polestar’s concept vehicles.

The project was Balenciaga’s idea. Following a turbulent start to the year, hoping to change the industry’s unsustainable pace, it made the radical decision to reduce its annual fashion shows to just four key read-to-wear gender-inclusive collections, as well as a more exclusive haute couture line. What’s more, starting with this 2021 collection, the shows will be performed to an exclusive list in digital format and through virtual runways via headsets, while animated and interactive video games will be available to a wider global audience.

It is with the latter project where Polestar has been called in. “Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow” is the first in a series of augmented-reality interactive video games. This one is set in an imaginary 2031, with Balenciaga’s avatars wearing costumes of upcycled materials and faux-fur made through advanced techniques to signify fashion as enduring and sustainable.

A fan of the Polestar brand, Balenciaga’s artistic director Demna Gvasalia had apparently come across the recent design contest and had been really impressed with the winning concepts. Since his “Afterworld” needed some movement and texture, he contacted the Swedish firm to place the vehicles in this gamified futuristic city.

The Polestar Precept concept car stars in Balenciaga’s video game

Together with Maximilian Missoni, head of Polestar design, they agreed on the final selection to include an example of the marque’s vision for the future – represented by the Precept concept car – and several of the concept designs by “members of our incredibly active, worldwide Polestar Design Community”, he tells me over email.

Polestar’s 2020 design competition was open to student and professional designers. Working to the title “Pure” – to express Polestar’s minimalist design philosophy – the idea was to sketch a car, a boat or any product that stretches the boundaries of the imagination and visualizes the marque in 2040 – with some fascinating results.

“Afterworld The Age of Tomorrow” with Polestar vehicles from the design competition

Balenciaga’s Polestar vehicle selection largely reflects the collection as well as enhance the futuristic “Afterworld” landscape. It includes Polestar MMXL by the professional category winner Konrad Cholewka – a highly geometric autonomous transport pod with its core form defined by a cylindrical shape intersecting a rectangular box form. The flexible living room style cabin is accessed through a single rear door, while the front bench can swivel around for a social space.

Other chosen vehicles animating Balenciaga’s video game are another Polestar professional category finalist Arthur Martins. His Spänning 004 is an autonomous electric yacht – the simple and brutal form contrasts with the flowing water around it to make a strong impact.

Konrad Cholewka’s geometric Polestar MMXL 003

Also staring in the video game is Polestar’s own Precept concept car. Central to this study vehicle is the user experience side of design and finding a healthy balance between man and machine. The Precept features technical and ecological fabrics – 3D-knitted plastic bottles, recycled cork, fishing nets and flax-based composites – some of which are new to the auto sphere but chime with what’s happening in fashion design and in particular with Balenciaga’s “Afterworld” collection.

Since the video game is set in a near and hopeful future, explains a Balenciaga representative from the Parisian headquarters, to help make the setting more realistic and exciting, they chose to involve other “forward-thinking companies” and populating the game with their newest designs. “The innovative electric vehicles, compliment Balenciaga’s ideas on luxury and sustainability and so made a great addition to the project,” says the source.

Balenciaga’s interactive video game is a new way of showcasing the latest fashion collection

I asked Missoni what it is about the “Afterworld” project that felt connected to the Polestar brand. “As an emerging brand in a very traditional industry we could immediately relate to the innovative and courageous approach that Balenciaga took, leaving conventions behind and expanding the traditional format of a fashion show to the virtual world.” he replies.

Polestar has been strong on collaborations since its inception a few years ago – especially when it leads to innovation. “Our aim is to be a leader in the shift to sustainable mobility, as we design towards zero,” says Missoni. “When Balenciaga reached out and explained the ‘Afterworld’ project, inspired by the slow return to a healthier balance of nature and industry, we felt it was a perfect match for us.”

Polestar Precept animating Balenciaga’s “Afterworld”

See and take part in “Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow” here.

See what happens when Louis Vuitton’s Virgil Abloh And Mercedes-Benz’s Gorden Wagener collaborate on a project; read how Polestar and sister brand Lynk & Co are challenging the conventional retail model; find out why the Polestar Precept is at the cutting-edge of sustainable design; and take a ride in the Polestar 2.

More from Cars & Bikes in Perfectirishgifts

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glatisants · 4 years

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Albion: The Legend of Arthur (Closing Thoughts)

I’m gonna start with some really general, spoiler-free notes on what I liked, what did and didn’t work, the characterization choices, and that kind of thing. Further down will a more specific discussion of the story and writing decisions and such, and that will get into more spoilery territory.

also before I get into my subjective opinions about the series, I want to say that this should be taken with a tremendous grain of salt, given that

I am probably not the best person to ask for lit recs in general, given that my favorite piece of Arthurian lit is unironically, wholeheartedly The Dream of Rhonabwy;

My standards for audio media are probably lower than most people’s—I used to listen to 1940s radio for fun and that has absolutely numbed my palate;

I’m a little biased, in that I think Owain/Ywain is sort of underrepresented in Arthurian media, and as such I get irrationally excited whenever he’s included as a character in anything, however loose that characterization may be (my caveat, though, is that I strongly dislike the real historical Owain mab Urien; I want a cool Owain/Ywain who is also very obviously fictional).

***

All in all, I liked it, but I’m not sure I liked it as an Arthurian adaptation. Something like this is kind of a departure for me—honestly, I’m not usually a fan of Arthurian adaptations that do away with the Round Table and make Arthur a 5th century warlord. Legendry, and particularly Arthurian legends, can be this very odd thing, in that it lies in this liminal space between pure mythology and, like, history fanfiction, and honestly that makes me very uncomfortable.

I get the sense that the writers’ main sources were mainly “chronicle”-type things and Welsh bardic poetry—things like Nennius, Aneirin, Taliesin, Geoffrey of Monmouth, maybe Layamon’s Brut, and possibly the Welsh Triads and the Mabinogion. When certain familiar narrative elements are stripped away—no Round Table, no Grail, no courtly love—it can be difficult to reconcile that with more traditional takes on Arthuriana. Still, it’s not like I’m an expert on adaptational integrity, and I know modern authors do weirder takes all the time. And some things—such as the sword in the stone, and the idea of a Round Table—are hinted at in a way that are tailored to the more “grounded” nature of the story, while still capturing the ideas that live behind the symbols. And magic and fantasy do enter the story, in a deeply satisfying way, even as the story is largely focused on politics and warfare.

The gritty, “realistic” setting of Dark Ages Wales can be a dealbreaker for some people; honestly, I’ve felt that way before. I did appreciate it wasn’t overly violent, and there wasn’t any rape/sexual assault—there is one scene where a character is implicitly threatened by a group of Picts (but to put it mildly, things turn out well for her), and in the final episode one character is almost forced into an unwanted political marriage, but those are the only moments I can think of. And the series as a whole ended up being more optimistic than I thought it would be. The main themes are that hope is a beacon that lights the way into the future, and that stories are powerful and immortal (a bit cheesy, perhaps, but I love that sort of thing).

Characterization Notes

Gwenhwyvar—I absolutely loved this take on Gwen; something about the way she was written just hit perfectly for me. She was incredibly clever, perceptive, and protective of her people above all else; she was serious, astute and pragmatic, but also kind and gracious. She commanded an army, and yet always approached conflicts with the priority of peace.

I’m not usually a fan of Warrior Princess Gwen because it can remove a lot of the subtlety of her character, but that problem didn’t come up here; they make a point of showing how she’s underestimated by her peers and uses this fact to her advantage in order to wield her power discreetly. But when she met for political negotiations with councils of men, they always spoke as equals, with nothing but respect for her.

Arthur—Honestly, he fell flat for me compared to the other characters, and I felt like I couldn’t get a good sense of him. Arthur can be a tricky character to write, because there’s this inherent need to make him stand out as a heroic figure, and that usually entails either seeing him eye to eye or elevating him to great heights; either he’s written as someone someone people can emotionally connect to and see in a personable way, or he is extraordinarily capable and thus untouchable. Here, I think that the pathos was largely found in characters like Anna and Owain, and that untouchable capability in Gwenhwyvar, and it seemed perfectly natural that the focus would move away from Arthur and towards them as the series progressed.

Honestly this might have been intentional—one of the points we’re left with by the end is the idea that Arthur grew to be far more than he ever could have realistically been, and that the hope he inspired was the reason he lived on in the stories, rather than who he might have been as a person.

Medraut—I found him a bit underdeveloped, and that was a shame—I really wish we’d gotten to see more of him. There were some mentions of his past friendship with Arthur, but that tension was hardly felt until they finally met in battle; I think there could have been a lot of potential there, and besides, he was a fun character. He was charismatic and affable, manipulative and petty, stuck on nursing old grudges; but he was also without friends, family or country, completely alienated and digging himself into a deeper ditch with every move he made.

Owain—Genuinely uncertain how I feel about this characterization! He was intelligent, good-hearted, courageous, caring, and thoughtful; he was extremely likable, and I found that…a bit odd, honestly. I can’t really articulate my thoughts further than that.

Others: Myrddin—this is the only take on Merlin I’ve ever genuinely liked. He’s such a nuisance and just beautifully weird. Aergol—I found him really interesting, and I was actually a little surprised by how much he grew on me by the end. Cynon—I found him such a tragic, miserable character, equal parts contemptible and heartbreaking.

Room For Improvement

The pacing mostly fine, but a little bit odd in places—I felt like the final act could have used a bit more buildup.

Audio coherence could’ve been better during some of the action scenes—there were definitely a few parts where I was not totally sure what was supposed to be happening. Most of the time it didn’t bother me, but when it’s something like Arthur facing off against Medraut, that should be a dramatic high point, and I want focus and clarity; otherwise, whatever is trying to be conveyed will inevitably come across as anticlimactic.

I might’ve liked to see music used in more interesting ways, bc it can be really integral to effective sound design. There were a couple scenes where it was used really well (the leadup to the Battle of Badon, for instance), and I would’ve loved more of that.

I don’t know if this was supposed to be an intentional choice, but I could not take the Saxon characters seriously at all—they were performed in such an over-the-top way that they made me laugh more than anything else. The other characters were portrayed very well, I found the voice acting quite strong, so the sheer oddness of the Saxons stood out to me.

***

Okay spoilers below

I was all about Anna’s storyline and I think it was one of the strongest parts of the series. I loved the idea of this woman, killed unjustly for fiercely clinging to her ideals in spite of tremendous pressure, finding strength in her fallen ancestors and rising again as a powerful enchantress determined to seek revenge. It felt right for her, totally cathartic, and I was glad that she was treated so sympathetically.

I tried not to think about it too deeply, but I think I saw her as sort of a Morgan/Morgause composite; obviously the name Anna is associated with Morgause, and she’s linked with Lewdwn (aka Lot) of Gododdin, but her transformation to enchantress led her to call herself Morgan.

It was pretty clear that Owain had feelings for Arthur, but I sort of wish it was a little less implicit (fyi for people who haven’t read the other recaps, they’re the same age and not related in this). Like, I guess they were involved in a major plot point that was a pretty clear allusion to Achilles and Patroclus, and other characters kept mentioning rumors about them, but the most direct reference we got was Arthur confessing to Gwen that they had been together briefly when they were kids, and while Arthur never loved him, he had never thought to ask Owain how he felt. By the end, you kind of get the sense that Owain’s main motivation all along has been this love/loyalty, but it’s done in such a subtle way it leaves a lot of room for interpretation, and the fact that there was so much in their dynamic that went unspoken just exacerbates that.

I wasn’t sure how to read the ending and especially the final line. What I’m going with—just my personal interpretation—is that both Anna and Owain are stuck somewhere between life and death, possibly in a literal way as well as a figurative one. One of the recurring themes is, like, legendry as a means of resurrection and even immortality; legends are a place between life and death, where the dead are made immortal to walk among the living. So by the end, both of them have come to see firsthand how legends are made, and have become people tied to the liminal space of legendry, and thus belong to neither world.

I say this could be in a literal way as well as a figurative one bc Anna was given new life both through a physical transformation and the stories people would tell about her, and possibly some combination of both. And I think this could apply to Owain as well—maybe when he chose to take on the mantle of Arthur, he and his bronze sword somehow joined that part of the Otherworld with Anna and Merlin, and he became the proverbial King Asleep in the Mountain. But that might be a bit of a stretch.

***

That’s all I have to say about this. I think the combined word count of all these posts could be a full-fledged novella, so thank you for your patience and for reading!

#honestly i just needed to get this out of my head and i'm dumping it here #if anyone actually reads all of this i will be genuinely shocked #albion the legend of arthur

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lyndonriggall · 4 years

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A 2020 Vision

In the late, great Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Ford Prefect tells Arthur Dent that “time is an illusion” and “lunchtime doubly so.” The new year sometimes feels just like that: an illusion, a fabricated creation where a year or a decade ends and begins. Perhaps these little rituals we have—these resolutions and intentions and goals—are just another thing we’ll have in the bin by the end of January, along with the final scraps of our Christmas leftovers. Yet for me the delineation has always meant more than that: I take my goals and resolutions seriously. I like closure and I like new beginnings. To me, a new year feels like opening a brand-new exercise book always did when I was a child… Arbitrary or not, it speaks of a fresh start.

In all of the ways that I know how to measure these things, 2019 has been my most successful, rewarding, happy and fulfilling year. I have loved every moment of it, and I am sorry to see it go, but equally excited to see what comes next. What do I hope for from this new year and decade? On a personal level, I have all of the usual things in my notebook: the commitment to exercise and good diet, devotion to work (including my own creative work), setting time aside to refresh, to grow, and to take pleasure in friends and family and art and the things that renew me. I want to stay optimistic, particularly as a teacher, and to continually rekindle and ignite my enthusiasm for all of things that I do and love; to focus on hard work and kindness in everything that I do. Specifically, this year I want to be clearer and more deliberate in the way that I spend my time helping others and make a greater effort to support financially charities that I feel are doing important work. My life is increasingly socially-driven, and the fatigue of a thousand micro-interactions can often be incredibly draining. I want to remind myself that in each moment and with each person I must always be curious, always wanting to know more and examine the gaps in my own perception—listening, rather than merely waiting for their own chance to speak.

I have dreams for the world this year, too. In Australia this summer we are seeing the horrific devastation of bushfires, intensified dramatically by extreme weather conditions. No matter what our differing beliefs are on the causes and consequences of the fires that blaze throughout our world, I deeply hope that we can reverse some of our exploitation of this beautiful planet. I would love for those of us who vote this year to have the courage to vote with the earth in mind, to work a little harder to minimise the waste that we produce and the amount of resources that we consume and exploit. For my part, I will be focusing on minimising and managing my travel plans and consumerism while shifting my eating habits to vegan for a majority of my meals. This year I loved reading John Marsden’s The Art of Growing Up, and in a world that continues to denigrate its young people (very much in keeping, I’m sorry to say, with cultural norms of a hundred generations before us), I would love us to turn our perceptions away from “snowflakes” and “self-absorbed teens” and a “lack of resilience” and actually listen to what our young people are asking of us and need from us. No generation is perfect, but as someone who works with teenagers every day I can attest to the way that they have continued to inspire me with their amazing compassion, their creativity, their profound forms of expression, their awareness, their acceptance of each other, and their desire to see things change for the better. In this regard, too, part of my pledge for the coming year is to believe in the students that I have the privilege of teaching: to listen to them, and to not look down on them or take them for granted. The world will one day be theirs, and we have created a lot of work for them—sometimes the best thing that we can do to help is simply to clear the way.

2019 has been particularly kind to me, but I accept that this is partly a matter of simple good luck. I know that for some of you the year will have been challenging—even incredibly difficult or heartbreaking—and that you walk into the twenty-twenties with cautious steps. If nothing else, I hope that you can be kind to yourself this year. We have become so well-attuned in our lives to the needs of others that we sometimes forget that we must fill the cup for ourselves as well. I hope that you take time to do the things that you know will renew you: to read wonderful books, to listen to an album that you once loved but had almost forgotten about, to reach out to a friend you miss, to hold an animal or a baby in your arms, or to take a moment by yourself in nature, simply to be with the world as it already was—long before you were ever part of it—with no expectation of needing to capture or share it.

I know that there is a lot that we can feel despair about, but as we enter this new era we must also recognise in the simplest terms that the world exists as it is in this moment, and optimism, hope and action are our only ways forward. Personally, and collectively, as with every new beginning, we must turn ourselves to a bigger question:

What do we want to become?

Happy new year to all of you. I hope it’s a cracker.

(📸:Me in my natural habitat, taken by Kate Tuleja.)

#original #new year #2020

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networkingdefinition · 4 years

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Bulldogs Quotes

Official Website: Bulldogs Quotes

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• A bulldog can whip a skunk, but sometimes it’s not worth it. – Bradley Nowell • Always, always powder your T-zone and the lines going from your nose down around your mouth so you don’t look like a bulldog. When those areas are shiny, it’s awful. And gloss will keep your lips from appearing dehydrated. – Gisele Bundchen • As Cole left school that day with Peter, they stopped beside the bulldog statue. “You two are wrecking our school!” shouted one of the jocks walking by. “You can’t wreck something that’s already wrecked!” Peter shouted back angrily. “Hey, Peter, we’re Spirit Bears,” Cole reminded his friend. “Spirit Bears are strong, gentle, and kind.” Peter thought a moment. “You got mauled, so that proves they can get ticked off too. – Ben Mikaelsen

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Bulldog', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_bulldog').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_bulldog img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Bob Brannum was my body guard on the court. He was 6′-6 and built like a bulldog. – Bob Cousy • British Beatitudes! … Beer, beef, business, bibles, bulldogs, battleships, buggery and bishops. – James Joyce • Bulldogs have been known to fall on their swords when confronted by my superior tenacity. – Margaret Halsey • Change is like putting lipstick on a bulldog. The bulldog’s appearance hasn’t improved, but now it’s really angry. – Rosabeth Moss Kanter • Franchesca and Sharkey, my French bulldogs, have their own blog. And they are brilliant at it. – Martha Stewart • He is not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. – Arthur Conan Doyle • Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible. – Abraham Lincoln • I grew up in a home where animals were ever-present and often dominated our lives. There were always horses, dogs, and cats, as well as a revolving infirmary of injured wildlife being nursed by my sister the aspiring vet. Without any conscious intention on my part, animals come to play a significant role in my fiction: in Three Junes, a parrot and a pack of collies; in The Whole World Over, a bulldog named The Bruce. To dog lovers, by the way, I recommend My Dog Tulip by J. R. Ackerley — by far the best ‘animal book’ I’ve ever read. – Julia Glass • I have both English bulldog determination and Bengal tiger strength. – Bikram Choudhury • I know this golf tournament has my name on it but it’s not about me. It’s about the Louisiana Tech family. There is nothing greater than being a part of the Bulldog family. – Terry Bradshaw • I never question a success, any more than I do the right of a bulldog to lie in his own gateway. – Josh Billings • I thought it would be lovely to use [pet bulldog] Noelle as an example to teach the importance of being who you are. For me it’s important to inspire children in a positive way, and at times they understand more messages through entertainment than when one is talking to them directly. – Gloria Estefan • In a contest between me and a bulldog, you would say the bulldog is cuter. – Sylvester Stallone • It is dog friendly nail polish, before we even go there because I know that is an issue. She’s a bulldog, she needs all the help she can get. We’ve tried to feminize her a little bit and make her feel sexy! – Victoria Beckham • Men credited with all kinds of ability, talent, brains and know how, including the ability to see into the future, frequently have nothing more than the courage to keep everlastingly at what they set out to do. They have that one great quality that is worth more than all the rest put together. They simply will not give up! When a man makes up his mind to do something then it’s only a matter of time. Staying with time take bulldog persistence. This seems to be the entrance examination to success – lasting success — of any kind! – Earl Nightingale • Now sir, said the bulldog in his business-like way. ‘Are you a animal, vegetable, or mineral?’ – The Magician’s Nephew – C. S. Lewis • Once you’ve got a bull terrier, you never want another dog. I’ve got six bull terriers, a rottweiler and a bulldog. – Julian Dicks • Sir Julian Huxley, one of the world’s leading evolutionists, head of UNESCO, descendant of Thomas Huxley – Darwin’s bulldog – said on a talk show, ‘I suppose the reason we leaped at The Origin of Species was because the idea of God interfered with our sexual mores.’. – Julian Huxley • The bulldogs with the first points on the board. Tim Tebow looking to change that. – Verne Lundquist • The liberation of women has brought a lot of equality to the man, in the emancipation of the man as a bulldog; we can also be soft. It’s interesting, because sometimes I maybe push the men a little bit more than the women, because it’s a little bit less expected. – Mario Testino • The lovers of beauty must unite in a league, and carry out some great propagandist work through the country. They must demand the extermination of the bulldog and the dismantling of the cheap villa, both of which are responsible for a deal of our contentment amid ugliness. – Robert Wilson Lynd • There’s probably no subject with quite so many conflictin’ opinions about it as there are about food, and ’tis better to swap bubble gum with a rabid bulldog than challenge a single one o’ the varyin’ beliefs your average human holds about nutrition. – Tom Robbins • Three English bulldogs count for one kid. – Troy Polamalu • We had an old Victrola with the old bulldog they used to have there. The horn would come out. – Jay McShann • We’re not just dogmatic about this-we’re bulldog-matic! Sola Scriptura is non-negotiable! – Steve Lawson • When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon. – James Crumley

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'a', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_a').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_a img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'e', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_e').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_e img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'i', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_i').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_i img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'o', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_o').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_o img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

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equitiesstocks · 4 years

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Bulldogs Quotes

Official Website: Bulldogs Quotes

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bountyofbeads · 5 years

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The politics of the Joker, explained

BY MATT ROSZA | Published October 8, 2019 7:15 PM ET | Salon | Posted October 8, 2019 7:18 PM ET |

Politics is inextricably linked with popular culture, and few characters are as fraught with political meaning as those who have appeared in America’s recent Batman films.

As comic book fans flock to cinema to see “Joker,” the new Todd Phillips film about the iconic clown prince of crime starring Joaquin Phoenix in the title role, let’s take a closer look at cinematic depictions of the title character:

The shooting at a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in 2012 actually had nothing to do with the Joker.

This touches on a particularly sinister urban legend. After mass shooter James Holmes murdered 12 people and wounded 70 others at the Century 16 theater in Aurora, Colorado, many media outlets erroneously reported that he had dyed his hair orange and referred to himself as “the Joker” after being arrested. Although Holmes did dye his hair, George Brauchler, the 18th judicial district attorney and prosecutor of the case, said the fact that a Batman film had been playing at the cinema where the shooting transpired was incidental.

“If it had been ‘The Avengers,’ he would have been there. If it were ‘Jurassic World,’ he would have been there,”Brauchler said. “It had nothing to do that we can find with Batman.”

Despite the fact that the Joker had nothing to do with the shooting, the cinema announced that it would not screen the new film out of respect for the victims and their families.

“The Dark Knight” was widely perceived as having a neoconservative bias, with Batman representing the security position of President George W. Bush and the Joker standing for the abstract concepts of terrorism, chaos and anarchy.

When the film was first released in 2008, the last year of the Bushera, Andrew Klavan of the New York Times wrote that the year’s biggest blockbuster was “at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.”

This interpretation has been supported by other pundits, including Josh Xiong of the Encyclopedia Britannica blog and Leon Thomas of Renegade Cut, who captured the same points even if they did not necessarily share Klavan’s assent. After all, this is a film in which the hero tortures people, violates national and international law and engages in mass spying in order to stop a villain who just wants to watch the world burn. While the Joker is certainly not a theocrat in the vein of Islamist terrorists, his anarchic philosophy is accurately summed up in his famous monologue to District Attorney Harvey Dent:

“You know what I’ve noticed? Nobody panics when things go ‘according to plan.’ Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all ‘part of the plan.’ But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!”

The image of the Joker was used to ridicule Barack Obama in one of the most famous examples of right-wing street art during his presidency.

The image shows Obama’s face with photoshopped make-up made to look like that worn by the character of the Joker in “The Dark Knight.” The word “socialism” appears underneath the banner, thereby conflating the Joker’s malevolent agenda with an ideology which conservatives wrongly ascribed to the Obama administration. (Obama was, in fact, center-left). Yet the poster grated not merely because it tastelessly compared a progressive politician with a comic book villain but also because it did so by lightening the skin of America’s first African-American president.

As Ben Walters wrote in the Guardian in 2009, “The simple fact of publishing an image of a black president with his face covered in white greasepaint but for the eyes and a red slash of a mouth can’t help but evoke a minstrel aesthetic, even if it’s in reverse.”

When the image was used to promote a strip club in Virginia, the NAACP turned out and protested it as being racist.

The Joker isn’t the only famous Batman villain who has been appropriated to advance a right-wing agenda.

The character of Bane from “The Dark Knight Rises” has become something of an icon among the alt-right, who embrace his anti-elitist message as a reflection of their own values and has been referenced in hate speech in response to Black Lives Matter protesters and across the most vile, trolling corners of the Internet. (Full disclosure: One of America’s most prominent neo-Nazis, Andrew Anglin, wrote an anti-Semitic hit piece about this journalist while quoting the character.) When Trump used music from “The Dark Knight Rises” in one of his re-election commercials, it was recognized as a dogwhistle and removed after Warner Bros. raised its hand in protest.

This brings us to the controversy with the new “Joker” movie, which some critics feel will inspire the same right-wingers who gravitated toward the Joker from “The Dark Knight” and Bane from “The Dark Knight Rises.”

“Joker” tells the story of Arthur Fleck, a rent-a-clown with severe mental health issues who is repeatedly mistreated by society and eventually becomes violent. The concern seems to be that, while Fleck’s story is not a direct parallel to those of the types of right-wingers who become violent, there are enough similarities that the film could inspire future acts of violence.

“In America, there is a mass shooting or attempted act of violence by a guy like Arthur practically every other week,” Stephanie Zacharek wrote in “Time Magazine.” “And yet we’re supposed to feel some sympathy for Arthur, the troubled lamb; he just hasn’t had enough love.”

Zacharek’s views were echoed by David Ehrlich in IndieWire, who described the film as “a toxic rallying cry for self-pitying incels, and a hyper-familiar origin story so indebted to ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘The King of Comedy’ that Martin Scorsese probably deserves an executive producer credit.”

#marvel #movies #arts and entertainment #entertainment #joker 2019 #us politics #politics #republican politics #u.s. politics #politics and government #gun violence #mass murder #u.s. news #movie review #trump administration #president donald trump #trumpism #cult 45 #culture

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vinnystreets-blog · 5 years

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All 10 Play Summaries and Analyses + Monologues

Julius Caesar is the story, mostly of the aftermath of Caesar’s death. There are essentially two schools of thought regarding the character of Caesar himself. One is that his arrogance is what leads to his death, as numerous warning signs are greeted with apathy my Caesar. The other theory is that fatalism or divine intervention brings about the events which occur on the Ides of March. I favor the latter interpretation, as Caesar’s death is also the result of Cassius’ envy and pride, Brutus’ dependence on others to do his thinking for him, and Antony’s hedonism which distracts him from protecting his friend and sovereign. One monologue from Marc Antony stands out as an exceptionally emotional piece to include. Shakespeare is always more brilliant than anyone when it comes to conveying attachment and emotion in written form:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones;

So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus

Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest–

For Brutus is an honourable man;

So are they all, all honourable men–

Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me:

But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause:

What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

2. Jesus Christ Superstar is in many ways a parallel story to that of Julius Caesar , and not just because JC is the main character. It begins with Judas criticizing Jesus’ popularity in much the same way the conspirators in the beginning of Julius Caesar do. Judas criticizes Jesus’ vulnerability and weakness just like Caesar was humanized by Cassius and Brutus’ conversation. What does exist in JCSS is more of a dialogue between the titular character and his followers. Judas is quick to criticize Jesus’ flaws without looking at his own ambitions. In this same way, Brutus believes he is looking out for the people of Rome, but fails to examine his own or Cassius’ reasons for violence and acquisition of power thoroughly.

Uniquely, the play touches on specific instances of how such a man as Jesus would have lived, maintaining relative biblical accuracy while taking creative liberties. The scene in which Jesus tries to heal the lepers, only to be overwhelmed exhibits the struggle of draining oneself to take care of others. Mary Magdalene then struggles with loving Jesus, as how does one love someone without destroying a part of what that person is, or trying to possess them? The only monologue/ solo song I could find that I wanted to do is for Jesus’ tenor part, but maybe one day I can pull it off:

JESUS

I only want to say

If there is a way,

Take this cup away from me,

For I don't want to taste its poison.

Feel it burn me, I have changed,

I'm not as sure as when we started.

Then I was inspired,

Now I'm sad and tired.

Listen surely I've exceeded expectations

Tried for three years seems like thirty,

Could you ask as much from any other man?

But if I die,

See the saga through and do the things you ask of me.

Let them hate me, hit me, hurt me, nail me to their tree.

I'd want to know, I'd want to know, my God.

Want to know, I'd want to know, my God.

Want to see, I'd want to see, my God.

Why I should die?

Would I be more noticed than I ever was before?

Would the things I've said and done matter any more?

I'd have to know, I'd have to know, my Lord.

Have to know, I'd have to know, my Lord.

Have to see, I'd have to see, my Lord.

If I die what will be my reward?

Have to know, I'd have to know, my Lord.

Why should I die?

Oh, why should I die?

Can you show me now that I would not be killed in vain?

Show me just a little of your omnipresent brain.

Show me there's reason for your wanting me to die,

You're far to keen on where and how and not so hot on why.

Alright, I'll die!

Just watch me die!

See how I die!

Then I was inspired,

Now I'm sad and tired

After all I've tried for three years, seems like ninety,

Why then am I scared to finish what I started,

What you started - I didn't started it.

God, die will is hard,

But you hold every card.

I will drink your cup of poison,

Nail me to your cross and break me,

Bleed me, beat me, kill me, take me now - before I change my mind

3. Macbeth - William Shakespeare: Though Macbeth wasn’t my favorite play at first, as I failed to see how it differed greatly from Julius Caesar in terms of general themes, I later came to enjoy it upon reflection. Macbeth mirrors Brutus in that he is a good man brought to crime by circumstance and ambition. Unlike Brutus, he has his ambition and pride guarded by a supernatural prophecy in which he believes wholeheartedly. Macbeth paints the picture that while hard work is important, ambition unchecked by morality is not viable. Furthermore, the harder one grasps onto power and status, the more quickly they seem to fly away. The true depth of Shakespeare’s work comes mostly not from examining what transpired, but creatively imagining how things could have turned out differently.

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well

It were done quickly. If th’assassination

Could trammel up the consequence, and catch

With his surcease success: that but this blow

Might be the be-all and the end-all, here,

But here upon this bank and shoal of time,

We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases

We still have judgement here, that we but teach

Bloody instructions which, being taught, return

To plague th’inventor. This even-handed justice

Commends th’ingredience of our poisoned chalice

To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,

Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,

Who should against his murderer shut the door,

Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been

So clear in his great office, that his virtues

Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against

The deep damnation of his taking-off,

And pity, like a naked new-born babe,

Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, horsed

Upon the sightless couriers of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye

That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself

And falls on th’other.

What I like particularly about this soliloquy is that Macbeth seems to have knowledge that this deed will not be the last, and when he ends, seems to resolve not to kill Duncan. Yet I imagine those seeing it for the first time rarely imagined that this resolve would only last until his wife returned to convince him once again to murder his liege. The reversing of gender roles in her strong will is unique, but is also paid karmically in turn when Lady Macbeth cannot bear the guilt of murders committed by her word on her conscience.

4. Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller: Though DoS strikes many as a tragedy regarding the mundane workforce lifestyle, capitalist competitivism and mental illness, I see more as a tragedy in Willy’s failure to be a good father figure. From the beginning of the play, he is critical while taking little action. This is perfectly understandable, one of the continually stressed themes of the play is the great fatigue put on Willy by his job and travel. It may very well have killed him. But he also commits adultery, chooses, a profession which he clearly has no passion or talent for, fails to assist or guide his children morally or practically, etc.

Despite this, one can’t help but pity him. He’s wise enough to regret some of his choices, like not going off to Alaska with his brother. And he still makes a fair deal of effort to support his family. It’s just that his miserable job, lack of friends, mental illness and general difficult circumstances overwhelm him. Linda seemed like a very flawed character to me. She tries to support Willy, but can’t muster up the courage or will to drive him to change his situation the way Lady Macbeth does with her husband, albeit she goes too far. At the end, she says, “we’re free.” This is a hauntingly familiar feeling for anyone who has lost a loved one who was also a burden to them.

And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. ’Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eighty-four, into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people?

5. The Crucible - Arthur Miller: I enjoyed this more than Death of a Salesman for a couple of reasons. The first was that, While DoS is an American tragedy written for a modern audience (modern at the time), Crucible is a play set in a foreign time and somewhat foreign culture which already seems to take some of the qualities of a historical artifact. What do I mean by this? I mean that people in a future society will see the way John Proctor acted to maintain his reputation in exchange for death, and ponder it in awe. They will have no idea how to relate to such a concept, though I hope the same honor propagates itself in society consistently.

In a way, Elizabeth kills John. She refuses to corroborate his story of the affair. Ostensibly, this is to protect John’s reputation. But this makes no sense, as his reputation will be tarnished as a liar, and is, when she says that he has been faithful. More likely, it is that she cannot bear carrying the shame with her and her name, regardless of whether John lives or dies. Perhaps she even wishes his death as justice for his affair.

Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies unbaptized in the earth. Believe me, sir, you never saw more hearty babies born. And yet, each would wither in my arms the very night of their birth. I have spoke nothin’, but my heart has clamored intimations. And now, this year, my Ruth, my only – I see her turning strange. A secret child she has become this year, and shrivels like a sucking mouth were pullin’ on her life too. And so I thought to send her to your Tituba – Tituba knows how to speak to the dead, Mr. Parris. Who else may surely tell us what person murdered my babies? They were murdered, Mr. Parris! And mark this proof! Mark it! Last night my Ruth were ever so close to their little spirits; I know it, sir. For how else is she struck dumb now except some power of darkness would stop her mouth? It is a marvelous sign, Mr. Parris!

6. The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde: Wilde’s bombasity and artistic character are reflected in much of this play’s jovial nature, in Cecily’s and Algernon’s respective characters specifically. There are few monologues as the dialogue is quite witty, playful and back-and-forth, but most of the scenes are quite entertaining. In particular, I love the scene where Cecily and Gwendolen are piecing together the stories of the guys’ fabrications and giving each other suspicious cobra eyes, while also intending to be as polite as possible. The ending scene in which Lady Bracknell is entirely only interested in Cecily’s monetary prospects also has hilarious stage potential. Overall, this is an ideal comedic example for those who haven’t seen it. I’d love to do Act 1, scene 1 or 2 someday. An excerpt:

“How you can sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless."

"Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them."

"I say it’s perfectly heartless your eating muffins at all, under the circumstances.”

7. Long Day’s Journey Into Night - Eugene O’Neil: This piece is the ultimate tragedy. While a glimmer of hope is seen at the end for Jamie and Edmund (Jamie admits some of his faults, Edmund’s father finally concedes to send him to a state-of-the-art sanatorium in hopes to cure his tuberculosis), Mary’s situation only gets worse. The play also gives a general sense that permanent situational betterment by the Tyrone family is impossible. The scenes in the play are very repetitive, often including arguments, and always around when the family gathers for a meal. Through this repetition, the fall of the brothers deeper into alcoholism, and a general familial obsession with past issues, it seems very unlikely that any of the Tyrone family’s issues will be confronted head-on. My sense is that O’Neil wrote this play as a reflection of typical families, including his own. The positive note he wishes to highlight is simply that some familial love is still built into the family, and you see it in Jamie’s drunken stupor in the final scene, and in Mary’s last words about falling in love with James Tyrone.

You've just told me some high spots in your memories. Want to hear mine? They're all connected with the sea. Here's one. When I was on the Squarehead square rigger, bound for Buenos Aires. Full moon in the Trades. The old hooker driving fourteen knots. I lay on the bowsprit, facing astern, with the water foaming into spume under me, the masts with every sail white in the moonlight, towering high above me. I became drunk with the beauty and signing rhythm of it, and for a moment I lost myself -- actually lost my life. I was set free! I dissolved in the sea, became white sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and the high dim-starred sky! I belonged, without past or future, within peace and unity and a wild joy, within something greater than my own life, or the life of Man, to Life itself! To God, if you want to put it that way. Then another time, on the American Line, when I was lookout on the crow's nest in the dawn watch. A calm sea, that time. Only a lazy ground swell and a slow drowsy roll of the ship. The passengers asleep and none of the crew in sight. No sound of man. Black smoke pouring from the funnels behind and beneath me. Dreaming, not keeping looking, feeling alone, and above, and apart, watching the dawn creep like a painted dream over the sky and sea which slept together. Then the moment of ecstatic freedom came. the peace, the end of the quest, the last harbor, the joy of belonging to a fulfillment beyond men's lousy, pitiful, greedy fears and hopes and dreams! And several other times in my life, when I was swimming far out, or lying alone on a beach, I have had the same experience. Became the sun, the hot sand, green seaweed anchored to a rock, swaying in the tide. Like a saint's vision of beatitude. Like a veil of things as they seem drawn back by an unseen hand. For a second you see -- and seeing the secret, are the secret. For a second there is meaning! Then the hand lets the veil fall and you are alone, lost in the fog again, and you stumble on toward nowhere, for no good reason!

*He grins wryly.

It was a great mistake, my being born a man, I would have been much more successful as a sea gull or a fish. As it is, I will always be a stranger who never feels at home, who does not really want and is not really wanted, who can never belong, who must always be a a little in love with death!

TYRONE

*Stares at him -- impressed.

Yes, there's the makings of a poet in you all right.

*Then protesting uneasily.

But that's morbid craziness about not being wanted and loving death.

EDMUND

*Sardonically

The *makings of a poet. No, I'm afraid I'm like the guy who is always panhandling for a smoke. He hasn't even got the makings. He's got only the habit. I couldn't touch what I tried to tell you just now. I just stammered. That's the best I'll ever do, I mean, if I live. Well, it will be faithful realism, at least. Stammering is the native eloquence of us fog people.”

8. Medea - Euripedes: I admire the simplistic form in which this play is such a straightforward tragedy. Jason abandons his wife, Medea, in the attempt to bolster his status by marrying Glauce, daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. In the one day that Creon gives Medea to plan her departure, she plots the murder of Glauce and Jason and her own two children. Fascinatingly, her wish to make Jason miserable overwhelms her maternal instincts and she murders her children before leaving in Helios’ chariot. Apart from some light comedy, there’s not much to uplift this play besides the badass (albeit gruesome) female-empowering theme of a woman who murders her children just to revenge her honor and make her husband suffer as much as possible.

“Human misery must somewhere have a stop; there is no wind that always blows a storm; great good fortune comes to failure in the end. All is change; all yields its place and goes; to persevere, trusting in what hopes he has, is courage in a man. The coward despairs.”

How I wish the Argo's sails had never swept through the dark blue Clashing Rocks into the land of the Colchians; I wish the pine trees had never fallen in the groves of Pelion, cut down to put oars in the hands of the heroes who went after the golden fleece for Pelias. Then my mistress Medea would not have sailed to the fortress of Iolcus' land, her heart battered by love for Jason. And she would not have convinced the daughters of Pelias to kill their father and would not have come to live here on Corinthian soil with her husband and children, winning over the citizens of the country she had come to as a refugee, and obliging Jason in every way. This is what brings the greatest stability at home: when a woman does not challenge her husband. It has all gone sour now, affection turned to hatred. Jason has cast aside his children and my mistress, and now goes to bed in a royal marriage with the daughter of Creon who governs this land. And Medea, in despair, rejected by her husband, howls out "the oaths he swore" and calls upon the right hand, a potent symbol of fidelity, and invokes the gods to witness Jason's treatment of her. She won't eat; she just gives in to her grief, washing away all her hours in tears, ever since she realized her husband had abandoned her. She never looks up or raises her face from the ground. She is like a rock or wave of the sea when those who love her try to give advice; except that sometimes she lifts up her pallid face and mourns for her dear father, her country, and the home she betrayed to come here with this man who now holds her in contempt. The poor woman knows from bitter loss what it means to have once had a homeland. And she hates her children, takes no pleasure in seeing them. I'm afraid of her, in case she has some new plan in mind. She is a deep thinker, you know, and she will not put up with this kind of abuse. I know her and I am terrified that in silence entering the house where the bed is laid she might thrust a sharp sword through the heart or kill the princess and the one who married her and then suffer some greater tragedy. She is frightening. It won't be easy for an enemy to come out victorious in a battle with her. But here come the children from their play. They know nothing of their mother's troubles for the childish heart is not used to grief.

9. The Seagull - Anton Chekhov: The play’s title comes from a scene in the first act. Treplev shoots a seagull and brings it to Nina, his love, to win her over. Trigorin, his literary rival (and Nina’s love interest) comments that he will write a story one day on how a girl is used and ruined by a man who has nothing better to do, just like the seagull. Towards the end of the play, Treplev has gained some ground in his career as a writer, but is still mostly receiving bad reviews. If Trigorin is a popular contemporary writer for his time, Treplev is the starving artist whose work will perhaps be remembered only after he is gone. Or perhaps, his ideas are too lofty and abstract, and it’s Treplev’s fault for not grounding them more concretely. Regardless, Treplev shoots himself after Nina confesses that after several years, she still loves Trigorin. While his death is perhaps not preventable, Treplev fits the allegory of Trigorin, only in reverse. He is ruined by his hope for a love with Nina. In part, she uses him by leading him on, and in part it’s his own fault for his obsession with a girl who is clearly passionate, independent and not very considerate, and who clearly loves someone else.

“NINA

Your life is beautiful.

TRIGORIN

I see nothing especially lovely about it. [He looks at his watch] Excuse me, I must go at once, and begin writing again. I am in a hurry. [He laughs] You have stepped on my pet corn, as they say, and I am getting excited, and a little cross. Let us discuss this bright and beautiful life of mine, though. [After a few moments' thought] Violent obsessions sometimes lay hold of a man: he may, for instance, think day and night of nothing but the moon. I have such a moon. Day and night I am held in the grip of one besetting thought, to write, write, write! Hardly have I finished one book than something urges me to write another, and then a third, and then a fourth--I write ceaselessly. I am, as it were, on a treadmill. I hurry for ever from one story to another, and can't help myself. Do you see anything bright and beautiful in that? Oh, it is a wild life! Even now, thrilled as I am by talking to you, I do not forget for an instant that an unfinished story is awaiting me. My eye falls on that cloud there, which has the shape of a grand piano; I instantly make a mental note that I must remember to mention in my story a cloud floating by that looked like a grand piano. I smell heliotrope; I mutter to myself: a sickly smell, the colour worn by widows; I must remember that in writing my next description of a summer evening. I catch an idea in every sentence of yours or of my own, and hasten to lock all these treasures in my literary store-room, thinking that some day they may be useful to me. As soon as I stop working I rush off to the theatre or go fishing, in the hope that I may find oblivion there, but no! Some new subject for a story is sure to come rolling through my brain like an iron cannonball. I hear my desk calling, and have to go back to it and begin to write, write, write, once more. And so it goes for everlasting. I cannot escape myself, though I feel that I am consuming my life. To prepare the honey I feed to unknown crowds, I am doomed to brush the bloom from my dearest flowers, to tear them from their stems, and trample the roots that bore them under foot. Am I not a madman? Should I not be treated by those who know me as one mentally diseased? Yet it is always the same, same old story, till I begin to think that all this praise and admiration must be a deception, that I am being hoodwinked because they know I am crazy, and I sometimes tremble lest I should be grabbed from behind and whisked off to a lunatic asylum. The best years of my youth were made one continual agony for me by my writing. A young author, especially if at first he does not make a success, feels clumsy, ill-at-ease, and superfluous in the world. His nerves are all on edge and stretched to the point of breaking; he is irresistibly attracted to literary and artistic people, and hovers about them unknown and unnoticed, fearing to look them bravely in the eye, like a man with a passion for gambling, whose money is all gone. I did not know my readers, but for some reason I imagined they were distrustful and unfriendly; I was mortally afraid of the public, and when my first play appeared, it seemed to me as if all the dark eyes in the audience were looking at it with enmity, and all the blue ones with cold indifference. Oh, how terrible it was! What agony!”

10. Our Town - Thornton Wilder: I chose this as my last play to read, both because I had never read Thornton Wilder’s work and because small towns hold a special place in my heart. I grew up in a town of about 2,000 people, Cooperstown, New York. Besides being ultimately somewhat tragic, a unique blend of gallows humor and breaking of the fourth wall serves to lighten the tone of the play to a hopeful lesson, rather than a complete tragedy. Some of the scenes, like Emily and George talking from the windows, and the morning of her twelfth birthday which Emily visits after dying, all seem very familiar and nostalgic to me. For me, Our Town represents the smaller things in life and how important it is to appreciate them. George wants to go to college, but rightfully gives it up to stay with Emily. Emily in turn, only lives a few short years with George. Yet she doesn’t express regret, even though she has every right to. She died in childbirth, and could have lived much longer. She finally only wishes to lay next to George, and reflects that the living never understand the truly precious and amazing nature of life. Her remark that the poets are the only ones who come close to understanding this essential nature, bolsters my courage in pursuing a starving artist lifestyle.

GEORGE: After a pause, very seriously. Emily, I'm going to make up my mind right now. I won't go. I'll tell Pa about it tonight.

EMILY: Why, George, I don't see why you have to decide right now. It's a whole year away.

GEORGE: Emily, Fm glad you spoke to me about that . . . that fault in my character. What you said was right; but there was one thing wrong in it, and that was when you said that for a year I wasn't noticing people, and . . . you, for instance. Why, you say you were watching me when I did everything ... I was doing the same about you all the time. Why, sure, I always thought about you as one of the chief people I thought about. I always made sure where you were sitting on the bleachers, and who you were with, and for three days now I've been trying to walk home with you; but something's always got in the way. Yesterday I was standing over against the wall waiting for you, and you walked home with Miss Corcoran.

EMILY: George! . . . Life's awful funny! How could I have known that? Why, I thought

GEORGE: Listen, Emily, I'm going to tell you why I'm not going to Agriculture School. I think that once you've found a person that you're very fond of ... I mean a person who's fond of you, too, and likes you enough to be interested in your character . . . Well, I think that's just as important as college is, and even more so. That's what I think.

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