#on the 'its not rituals' thing I also just wanted to make this poll more distinct from best of peterick since some of those
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i totally misunderstood the intent of the poll sorry, thank you for the update
what counts as composition? the pure sound part or the whole songwriting process like 'this is the first song we wrote with the p2 dynamic' and 'the post this got lines from has extra peterick implications' is also something that weighs on this? (i assume the process doesn't since that type of context surrounding the song is far removed from the lyricism for this and more in line with the 'it's the song they end all shows with' extras that you just clarified is not the point of this poll)
too late to change what's already been voted on ofc but to have an idea of what was intended and vote according to that instead
Hi! It's no problem no need to apologise aha, at the end of the day this is just for fun. I just know I personally like to come into things with clear understanding and wanted to give that to anyone who felt more unsure.
As for what counts as composition I'd say both the sound and the process; I don't think it's reasonable to really divorce the 'lore' or the way they write from these songs, I think personally they imply a lot about it, so things like 'Baby was the first thing written in their current style', 'sometimes it was Patrick confirming that Disloyal is about them', 'What a Catch, Donnie was written from Patricks POV', 'Where Did The Party Go is the first song written post hiatus', or, and I know it's contentious, but the fact that 'Miss Missing You was written by Patrick during hiatus' (whether you take that as pure sound or the lyrics too is up to you)... I think all of these things are fair game; I think they all influence the meaning and understanding we have of these songs and so personally I think it's fine to have those weigh on your choices. If you (general you not just you anon) disagree that's okay, just vote however you like :)
Also just an extra thought to add on, when I say the sound I do mean less 'I like how this sounds so I'll vote it' and more about the composition choices and how they impact and accentuate meaning to the overall song, especially if we're talking smaller details like the church bells in Church (or Headfirst Slide/Disloyal), or that part in Twin Skeleton's where it gets quiet after the jet black crow line. Again, it's your choice how you vote but this is what I was intending.
#answered#anonymous#on the 'its not rituals' thing I also just wanted to make this poll more distinct from best of peterick since some of those#like more than an hour or the gta lean have been covered there; it just feels more interesting to have a different angle to talk about#again though it's really no problem anon i just like to be upfront and open so no one feels confused#anyway hope ur having a good time anon <3#not bracket
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not the sea!
from this poll by @toushindai: Which natural feature thirsts most for human blood?
#the sea does not Care#the forest will devour you to feed the roots after the wolves have picked your bones clean (via @cheesiestart-redux)
#not the sea!#the sea doesn't give a shit when you die in the ocean it's not to malice or desire#it's the cold indifference of the ravenously greedy#the ocean is out here consuming continents you aren't even a blip on its radar#the forest loves you on the other hand#the forest will drink up your blood and entwine new life with your bones#until you are one and the same#poll#i have unexpectedly strong opinions about this#and for the depths of the earth...i feel like your bones mean more#the blood is just what comes first#and I'm not sure it cares either way (via @awaylaughing)
#the forest requires somekind of food--either to indulge in or survive off of. both are valid and known reasons.#the underbrush shall pick off your skin. the animals your flesh. the trees your blood. and the fungi your bones. (via @iamverynormalaboutocs)
#because the sea doesnt thirst but it does swallow whole#the mountains have no need for blood but it will invite your bones#the night sky only observes#the sun is blind#the depths of the earth of crave it but will never get a taste#the river is too busy feeding the sea#the desert can't taste#and the lake has had more than its fill of it#no it is the forest#it is the root that drinks eagerly as the blood seeps into the dirt (via @minimelo)
#the forest#takes your blood to make its offspring grow strong#you're watering the roots with your life#also all the dark rituals happen in the forest for a reason (via @sarcasticsciencefictionwriter)
#things in the sea may feed on your body but the sea is ambivalent#it doesnt care about your blood#your blood would be just another drop#the earth however#the earth demands everything back which it gives (via @playful-bi)
#most of these you are just too insignificant for them to want specifically your blood#the sea doesn’t want blood it wants to swallow you whole as do many of these#the forest though? the forest wants to hunt you and eat you and leave your blood sprayed across the branches#the flesh gnawed off your bones (via @thegreatgaydragon)
#forest#like the sea is imo the most likely to kill you but not because it thirsts for blood#your carry the sea with you that's why we have so much salt in us because our ancestors left the sea but brought it with them#it will take you back and it might be violent but it's not thirsty#the desert will kill you WITH thirst not because IT thirsts#the forest does thirst#but I actually like that about it? it's alive.#the roots are thirsty#the creatures in it are hungry#it's alive enough to thirst for human blood#anyway this is part of why I want to be buried in the woods I WANT the trees to eat me someday#although like. preferably when I have died of causes other than being exsanguinated by the forest. (via @teaandinanity)
#poetry in the tags y'all#I should be working#and yet I did this collection instead#BECAUSE THEY'RE RIGHT AND THEY SHOULD SAY SO#the sea accepts its due#the forest wants to eat you#also tea's tags made me laugh#so yk#*gigglesnort*
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why would you decline something offered to you if you want it?? if I offered someone a drink and they said no then I wouldn't bother asking again that's so dumb
hi anon! it sounds like we come from different hospitality cultures!
as you can see from the poll results that you presumably saw based on this question, the idea that you should decline something on the first offer isn't actually that uncommon of a stance---as of the current standing, it's one I share with around 25% of people who have voted (people who believe you should decline at least once, if not more), so even accounting for sampling bias, it's probably fair to assume that this is not entirely unusual.
so now that we've established that it isn't just me: why would I do this? the fastest version is that it's how I was raised, but on its own, that's not necessarily satisfying.
the bigger answer is that stuff like this is part of a sort of hospitality culture, as it were. there are whole unspoken rituals around what constitutes polite behavior, particularly in interactions happening in one person's home, and they vary from place to place. some examples may include:
if you're stopping by someone's house for a quick visit, is taking your shoes off polite, or does it assume (potentially rudely) that you'll be asked to come in and sit down?
is showing up unannounced rude?
should you say goodbye and then immediately leave, or should it be preceded by several statements about how you should be getting on your way soon?
if you're eating someone else's food, is clearing your plate good, because it implies you enjoyed their cooking, or does it imply that you weren't fed enough?
oftentimes, these kinds of things aren't stated directly; you're expected to pick up on what's polite and what isn't by watching how the people around you behave. and you often carry it with you even without consciously realizing! the region i'm from has a long goodbye culture; even though i'm living somewhere else now, it still feels kinda rude to me when people announce that they're going and then just leave.
so with a kind of broader context established, why decline the first offer?
it's polite!
while i can't guarantee that this is how everyone who declines the first time thinks of it, and this is dependent on my own ability to read social cues, the ask/decline/ask/accept script may in some cases function something like this:
host asks if the guest would like something, such as food or drink. (this is good hosting: you are making sure your guests are provided for.)
guest politely declines. (this is good guesting! you understand that your host is asking because it is polite. as a guest, you are already imposing on their hospitality, and in return are making it clear that you don't want to be a bother.)
host double-checks, or reiterates question. (this can be an 'are you sure?' or fully asking again a little bit later. implications (if not outright stated) are that this isn't a bother; getting a drink or a cookie or what have you is easy to fulfill, and the host is happy to do it.)
guest politely accepts. (you have been assured that this is no trouble, and if you want what's being offered, you can accept. depending on where you are it might be rude to decline at this point (implication: you're too good for the host's hospitality) but that's situational and beside the point.)
this can also be more casual and with the initial decline step replaced by a neutral/querying step; a favor between friends may go something like:
friend 1 broaches the idea of doing favor X for friend 2. (this is probably a genuine offer, rather than just politeness, but even so:)
friend 2 double-checks that they are not being burdensome. (this can be an 'are you sure?' or like, 'are you sure? i should be able to handle X myself'. implications are that you don't want your friend to feel obligated to do this for you; you would appreciate it if they did favor X, but they don't have to.)
friend 1 reiterates. ('yeah dude, it's no problem.' i want to do this. this isn't placing undue stress or burden upon me, or if it is, it's one that i'm happy to carry because i care about you.)
friend 2 may now accept with appropriate expression of gratitude. ('that would actually be really great; thanks', and so forth.)
This doesn't necessarily apply to every social situation, or even every hosting situation, because there are varying levels of formality, but it does show up!
It sounds like you're familiar with a more direct hospitality culture, so genuinely: thanks for asking! I hope this is helpful! We may not do things the same way, but understanding why people do things differently helps us treat one another with grace and kindness. :)
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From The Atlantic:
There has never been an American president as spiritually impoverished as Donald Trump. And his spiritual poverty, like an overdrawn checking account that keeps imposing new penalties on a customer already in difficult straits, is draining the last reserves of decency among us at a time when we need it most.
I do not mean that Trump is the least religious among our presidents, though I have no doubt that he is; as the scholar Stephen Knott pointed out, Trump has shown “a complete lack of religious sensibility” unique among American presidents. (Just recently he wished Americans a “Happy Good Friday,” which suggests that he is unaware of the meaning of that day.) Nor do I mean that Trump is the least-moral president we’ve ever had, although again, I am certain that he is. John F. Kennedy was, in theory, a practicing Catholic, but he swam in a pool of barely concealed adultery in the White House. Richard Nixon was a Quaker, but one who attempted to subvert the Constitution. Andrew Johnson showed up pig-drunk to his inauguration. Trump’s manifest and immense moral failures—and the shameless pride he takes in them—make these men seem like amateurs by comparison.
And finally, I do not mean that Trump is the most unstable person ever to occupy the Oval Office, although he is almost certain to win that honor as well. As Peter Wehner has eloquently put it, Trump has an utterly disordered personality. Psychiatrists can’t help but diagnose Trump, even if it’s in defiance of the old Goldwater Rule against such practices. I know mental-health professionals who agree with George Conway and others that Trump is a malignant narcissist.
What I mean instead is that Trump is a spiritual black hole. He has no ability to transcend himself by so much as an emotional nanometer. Even narcissists, we are told by psychologists, have the occasional dark night of the soul. They can recognize how they are perceived by others, and they will at least pretend to seek forgiveness and show contrition as a way of gaining the affection they need. They are capable of infrequent moments of reflection, even if only to adjust strategies for survival.
Trump’s spiritual poverty is beyond all this. He represents the ultimate triumph of a materialist mindset. He has no ability to understand anything that is not an immediate tactile or visual experience, no sense of continuity with other human beings, and no imperatives more important than soothing the barrage of signals emanating from his constantly panicked and confused autonomic system.
The humorist Alexandra Petri once likened Trump to a goldfish, a purely reactive animal lost in a “pastless, futureless, contextless void.” This is an apt comparison, with one major flaw: Goldfish are not malevolent, and do not corrode the will and decency of those who gaze on them.
In his daily coronavirus briefings, Trump lumbers to the podium and pulls us into his world: detached from reality, unable to feel any emotions but anger and paranoia. Each time we watch, Trump’s spiritual poverty increases our own, because for the duration of these performances, we are forced to live in the same agitated, immediate state that envelops him. (This also happens during Trump’s soul-destroying rallies, but at least those are directed toward his fans, not an entire nation in peril.)
Most leaders would at least have the sense not to relitigate every vendetta in their personal Burn Book at such moments. That’s what rallies and sycophantic interviews with Fox News are for, after all. Indeed, polls now suggest that even the president’s base might be tiring of this exhibitionism. But that is irrelevant to Trump. With cable news constantly covering the pandemic, he seems to be going through withdrawal. He needs an outlet for his political glossolalia, or his constantly replenishing reservoir of grievance and insecurity will burst its seams.
Even Trump’s staff—itself a collection of morally compromised enablers—cannot cajole him or train him to sound like a normal human being. Trump begins every one of these disastrous briefings by hypnotically reading high-minded phrases to which he shows no connection. These texts are exercises in futility, but they at least show some sense of what a typical person with friends and a family might want to sound like during a national crisis. Once he finishes stumbling through these robotic recitations, he’s back to his grievances.
Each of these presidential therapy sessions corrodes us until the moment when the president finally shambles away in a fog of muttered slogans and paranoid sentence fragments. In a time of crisis, we should be finding what is best in ourselves. Trump, instead, invites us to join a daily ritual, to hear lines from a scared and mean little boy’s heroic play-acting about how he bravely defeated the enemies and scapegoats who told him to do things that would hurt us. He insists that he has never been wrong and that he isn’t responsible for anything ever.
Daily, Trump’s opponents are enraged by yet another assault on the truth and basic human decency. His followers are delighted by yet more vulgar attacks on the media and the Democrats. And all of us, angry or pleased, become more like Trump, because just like the president, we end up thinking about only Trump, instead of our families, our fellow citizens, our health-care workers, or the future of our country. We are all forced to take sides every day, and those two sides are always “Trump” and “everyone else.”
Perhaps to call this daily abomination “therapy” is unfair, because therapy has a healing goal. As Jennifer Melfi, the psychotherapist for HBO’s fictional mob boss Tony Soprano, realized at the end of the series, when she finally threw him out of her office, counseling someone incapable of reflection or remorse is pointless; it makes the counselor into a worse person for enduring such long exposure to the patient.
Likewise, Trump’s spiritual poverty is making all of us into worse people. We are all living with him in the moment and neglecting the thing that makes us human beings instead of mindless fish swimming in circles. We must recover this in ourselves, and become more decent, more reflective, and more stoic—before Trump sends us into a hole from which we might never emerge. — Tom Nichols, Contributing Writer, The Atlantic, April 11, 2020
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Are you able to elaborate on what you told your students about the rise of Nazism and which graphic novel you had your students read? Do you have Autism? I saw you use the phrase info dumping which I typically associate as being used related to Autism and special interests.
Oh lord, it’s always hard to decide what to tell the 6th graders because this is my first year with that age group and we’re in the middle of a fascism resurgence. So I both want to edit my info to appropriate things for the age but also prepare them for the realities of the world. So between my excitement to be talking to students eager to hear about the topic (from me) and trying to make it appropriate, I’m sure I made some mistakes.
First, the book is not a graphic version of her diary but of her biography. It’s by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon and its authorized by the Anne Frank house museum in the Netherlands. My students took to the subject so much that many of them asked to read her diary.
Second, I wanted them to understand that while Jewish people were the largest part of the focus of their hate, they weren’t the only ones. I mentioned queer people, the romani (even mentioning that we often call them the g slur and it is a slur), immigrants of color, political prisoners, and those they deemed mentally/physically unfit. Later when I asked them what they learned from reading Anne Frank (what we shortened it to) a few mentioned that the Nazi’s hated and killed many different kinds of people. We had a long conversation about how Germany allowed this to happen. There are a lot of ways to answer this question. The book talked a lot about the economic and social factors that lead to it, the kind of stuff you get in your average high school history class (or maybe my HS history teacher was good). I kinda touched on that, but as this is something that I always wanted to know too when I was young, I mostly went a different route. The route is that of the social elements that were already in place that Hitler used to rise to power: things like rampant antisemitism weaved into European history, fear and shame from the Versailles treaty, lash back from the more liberal government prior to the first world war (it made a lot of social advances that the people associated with that shame, familiar *cough, cough*), how the pressure from confirmed Nazi’s wasn’t always outright. This last bit was a very hard line for me to walk because I wanted so badly to reference the current political climate, how there is a group of people who respond by rolling their eyes or shaking their head when they see a large group of Nazi’s parading in the street or, as a recent example, driving to polling places. We’re rural and chances are high that at least one of their families voted for him if not most, so all I said was that Nazi’s are still around.
Oh they had questions about this one. There are still Nazi’s? In Germany? No children, well maybe, probably, but mostly in this country and the United Kingdom etc. That we hired many German scientists after the war regardless of their political affiliation or war crimes committed. We call them neo-nazi’s in our country now, or things like the 3% or proud boys or the KKK. But there were many Nazi sympathizers in our country which is part of why we waited to enter the war (this almost got me into a tangent), there was a Nazi rally in New York City in the 1930′s and no one did a goddamn thing. They were also really curious about why people hated Jewish people, what started that. To be honest, I wasn’t sure but I suggested it came from the split of Christianity becoming a mainstream religion when the Romans started adopting it. But really it’s more innate than that, unfortunately. Whatever caused the hate to begin with doesn’t matter because of the thousands of years of building on that hate. There were periods of time in Europe where people genuinely believed that Jewish people stole babies and ate them as part of a satanic ritual. And like all things when people hate, anything different about the object of their hatred fed into that hatred. It’s a self perpetuating cycle that no one had stepped in to deal with. Much like anti-black racism in this country, among all the other kinds of racism in the country.
That’s as much as I can remember at the moment. I told them all this over multiple lessons over 6 weeks, some of it repeated because they asked similar questions and because there was a lot of info to take in.
As to your other questions, I am not diagnosed with ASD or ADHD, though I am currently considering, perhaps, ADS. However, the term info dumping for me came from writing. In writing, we apply it to mean when an author just gives a lot of backstory all at once in a less than skilled manner. I have heard it in the ADHD and ASD community as well and when I used it previously here, I guess I meant it in the writer’s term and hadn’t considered it through a neurodivergent lens. Hopefully that answers your questions.
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August Updates
Its a Saturday, and my only weekend day this week, as I'm picking up a shift for work tomorrow. People are back in the program setting, which is nice, but different, and a lot smaller. Not everyone is back yet, and we still can't really go out in the community with anyone. My shift tomorrow is residential, so we wouldn't be anyways, but, you know.
It's a peaceful morning. Alyssa is making breakfast, it's sunny but cool outside, and I got to sleep in. There is still a lot going on, of course, but I've been grateful with the feeling of rest I've been given this week. Last night, I celebrated my mom's birthday, and I've had a few more chances to spend time with friends I haven't seen since before the quarantine, and honestly, longer.
There's still work to do. BLM isn't a fad that we all needed to talk about for a few weeks and then ignore. Covid-19 is still killing people. Wear your mask in public, refrain from traveling, and quarantine if you do. Don't get angry if someone reports you for not following rules. The sooner we all comply, the sooner this will be over. Be safe and take care of each other.
I'm working on getting slightly more efficient routines in place for myself. I started an intermittent fasting program in order to improve my eating habits. I was fasting for 18 hours and eating for 6, but now that I'm back at work it's actually closer to 22 or so. I'm not super hungry, as I've gotten used to my routine, so it doesn't bother me too much, though at the same time, I haven't seen a lot of progress either. I feel better. I don't feel sluggish as often, but I'm not really losing weight. I know I need to incorporate more exercise, so I've started using another app called Fabulous, that helps create morning, afternoon, and night rituals for you to follow, to improve routine and fit in healthy practices that otherwise I don't always think about. Some of my goals are to actually stick to an exercise regimen, and feel more rested. (I could probably benefit from a better skin care routine too but y'know, baby steps.) Alyssa has been trying IF with me too, though she isn't doing it as intensely as I am. It doesn't bother me and I'm really good at sticking to it, except for when I forget and eat something random (Like a tomato from my mom's garden, or I lick a spoon while baking), but the nice thing is, you also get days off, and I've been using them on the weekends so far.
I'm also excited to exercise more, because I know that will benefit Kiri. Kiri is a little high-strung, though honestly, she does really well. We just need to take her for longer walks, especially now that she can't be trusted in our fence. She has gleefully realized it is very easy to leap the fence, and does so without any effort. She always comes back once she is free, but not before looping the house and sometimes the adjacent field and wood at lightning speed.
I tried to complete a second camp NaNoWriMo last month, to no avail. For some reason, it was really hard to just sit down and write a piece that was supposed to flow together. I plan to participate in the real naNoWriMo in November, and I worry that I'll struggle again unless I find some guidelines in the mean time to help me. I like writing short stories, and I've been told they're good. I think I need to piece the short stories into something more cohesive, and I can still follow some of the structure. It's just that the in-between parts, the explaining my world, the descriptions of characters, and how I want to portray their personalities officially seems more difficult. It feels like I should be ready by now. I have been telling stories about my characters for ages, literally these guys have existed for over 10 years, and yet when I sit down to actually tell a story that anyone could read, it feels like the way I want to tell it just wouldn't make sense to someone new. Maybe an outline would help. I don't know. One of my goals, leading up to November is to figure out some sort of guidelines for writing my first real draft. My other goal is to get more familiar with the political process.
I feel like I never really learned how to vote. I know it's importance, and I plan to make my voice heard, but that's not enough. I'll be the first to admit, I do not watch the news. I don't have cable and I don't want it. I watch netflix and that's good enough for me. (And honestly, I don't even do that all the time.) But the first time I voted, back in 2016, I realized I hadn't known that local government was elected during the presidential election. This might sound silly, especially coming from an all honors student, who carried that into the honors program in college, but I realized I know very little about the voting process. I've been participating since then. I've allowed some news sources and a lot of social media shape my views, and I know I need to improve. I need to listen to the debates, I need to better understand the process, and I need my voice to be one that is informed, so the people I allow to speak for me, the people I allow to govern me, were actually influenced by my own understanding of what that entails. That's all of our duty. That's something we all need to be better at. I know it can be daunting and exhausting and feel like it will never help. In some ways, I'm very afraid that it won't, especially with Trump. He's already saying the polls are fake and that they will be inaccurate, and there are a lot of people who believe him. The thing is, he's not wrong. The polls are being messed with. Gerrymandering ensures that certain regions don't get as much of a say in the voting process, and especially with Covid, there will be whole regions (Likely those of lower income) that find they are unsure how/where to vote. Their voices matter the most, though. With mail-in ballots, there's a terrible chance that it will be inaccurate, as Trump has warned, but I worry that will come from his side. I worry he will argue inaccuracy if he doesn't win, he will call for recount after recount until magically the issue is corrected. Maybe this sounds conspiratorial to you, but I wouldn't put it past him. He has manipulated our nation into so much distrust of the system, but he is one of the reasons to not trust the system.
Anyways, lets work together to get educated. We can't trust our officials to be honest with us, so we need to learn about it ourselves. You don't have to watch the news. Find a few good sources you trust, an online journal or something that gives impartial highlights, and go from there. Lets learn what it is we're supposed to be voting for. Lets form educations based on how we want to be governed, not how we want people to be taken advantage of. Not how we want to see certain people be stripped of their liberties. Lets vote for a nation that is supporting the people who live there, not attacking them.
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Fantasy Fest Series: Demon of Mine || Bu Fan [Demon!AU]
Credit to @buyuefan for the gif, which sparked inspiration for this fic!
Title: Demon of Mine
Pairing: Reader x Bufan
Genre: Witch!AU + Demon!AU + fluff
Word Count: 2,202 words
Summary: Magic can be tricky, especially when you accidentally summon a demon into your home.
A/N: My first fic in the Fantasy Fest series! At the time of me writing up this fic, demon!au is currently in the lead in the poll. Who else better to play the role of a demon that Bufan himself? Also, a disclaimer: everything is pretty much more or less fictional. I made up a few things as far as summoning demons go and I also didn’t want anyone to get any ideas, lol. Everything is under the cut because this is the longest fic i’ve ever written I think, oof. Enjoy demon!Bufan!
Warning: mild cursing, brief mention of blood
ya’ll asked for demon!au
so i gotchu boo
you come from a family of witches
magic has ran through your family blood line for generations, dating back to the early 1400s
contrary to popular belief, your family did not practice black magic or served the Devil
instead your family used magical skills in order to heal others, even opening an apothecary as a family business
all throughout your life, you loved learning about the functions of different types of herbs and ingredients and using that knowledge to create all types of potions and concoctions
you also had an affinity for spell-casting and charms
every so often, your parents would go on business trips and travel across realms, bringing back new knowledge of spells and potions that you had never heard of
sometimes they were gone for months or, rarely, a year
it did feel strange being on your own for long periods of time, but you grew accustomed to it
it also meant you were left in charge of running the apothecary, which you were all too eager for
as you flipped to a page in one of your many ancient potion-books to find the cure for nightshade rash for one of your clients, you scanned the ingredient list and saw that one of the ingredients was virtually illegible due to the fact that the ink was rubbed away over time
“damn. how am I supposed to make this potion now?” you sighed. “guess i’ll have to ask grandma.”
after closing up the shop so that no customers wandered in, you headed to the back room. shelves lined the walls and were filled with all sorts of magical ingredients, all neatly organized according to their use. the soft sound of the fire crackling under the fireplace and the bubbling of the cauldron hanging above it filled the room. books and papers written in latin littered the tables and floor messily, the aftermath of your charms studying session from earlier
with a flick of your wrist, the books and papers levitated and swirled in the air for a moment before tidying themselves into organized stacks. another flick of your wrist, everything including the furniture moved on their own and cleared the center of the floor
“hm... what was the spell that mom used?” you said to yourself.
you had never summoned your deceased grandmother before, let alone any spirit for that matter. usually it was your mother who did the spirit contacting
looking through a spell book, you stopped at one particular spell and figured this was what you were looking for
how to summon a loved one
according to the spell, all you had to do was draw a magic circle, provide a drop of blood and say a simple incantation. the circle will automatically summon the one you love, which you figured was your grandmother in this case
sounds easy enough
oh boy were you in for a surprise
you carefully used a piece of white chalk to carefully replicate the image of a large summoning circle, carefully sketching intricate patterns as you go. facing the fireplace, you slowly inhaled and exhaled, a stream of wind leaving your mouth and extinguishing the flames, turning the room almost pitch black. with that said, you lit a few candles around the circle. gently running your index finger over the other, a small incision appeared. tilting your finger, you let a drop of blood fall into the circle. it was time to start the ritual.
closing your eyes, you channeled all of your energy to your core and began reciting the spell incantation. feeling the magic run through your veins, you felt the air pick up and stir around you, creating a vortex at the center of the circle. shadows danced along the walls to the sound of your chanting that grew in volume with each repetition. the once tiny golden flames were now a roaring, brilliant amethyst.
your words came to a halt as you finished reciting the spell. the room around you also fell into a complete silence. opening your eyes, you were prepared to greet the spirit of your grandmother
except it wasn’t a spirit
hell (no pun intended) it wasn’t even your grandmother
floating in a fog of purple smoke above the summoning circle was a massive male figure around 6′3′’. his hair was a blood crimson, mirroring his glowing eyes beneath his closed lids. aside from wearing slightly loose black pants and a long trench coat, he was completely shirtless
(you were lowkey checking out his abs ooh la la)
but what caught you the most off guard was the lilac tint of his skin, the onyx curled horns above his head, deadly talons instead of fingernails, and the powerful presence of obsidian wings that were tattered and torn at the edges and looked at least twice your size
“oh shit i just summoned a demon”
at the sound of your voice, the demon’s eyes snapped open and glared at you with what you believe was murderous intent
fuck
you were going to die tonight
you were a healer, not a fighter rip you
just as the demon made a move to step out of circle, the spell broke. the magic that kept him afloat disappeared in a flash
causing him to plant face first onto your wooden floor
“....pfffft-”
you knew you probably shouldn’t have found the idea of a potentially dangerous demon in your home funny, but you couldn’t stopped laughing at how someone so scary looking could be so clumsy
meanwhile the demon only winced in pain as he stood back up and rubbed his face before shooting you a look of disbelief
most people would faint, pee their pants, cry, or at least scream in fear at the sight of him
but here you are laughing at him
who tf were you?
“are you done?” he deadpanned after watching you laugh at him for three minutes straight
wiping away a stray tear, you barely managed to settle down and responded, “y-yeah i think i’m good. are you?”
“peachy”
you felt the need to laugh again... until you realized that the spell you used was meant to summon:
a loved one
and it summoned this random demon
wtf was that supposed to mean
“wait, who the hell are you?” you interrogated
“my name is bufan. i’m a formidable demon of the Underworld!” his loud, deep ass voice boomed before leaning down his height to make eye contact with you
you felt your heart flutter a bit at how close he was
“that’s uh... nice...”
“just... nice....?”
“yeah....”
awkward silence
“so who are you and why did you summon me?” bufan questioned, raising a dark eyebrow at you
“oh! i’m (y/n). i kind of summoned you by accident,” you sheepishly admitted
“how do you accidentally summon a demon?”
“how do you accidentally trip and fall while getting summoned?”
“....”
damn you got him there
“anyway,” you coughed, “all i wanted to do was summon the spirit of my dead grandmother, not a demon. i’m not even sure why the spell summoned you in the first place. not to be rude or anything but can you go back to where you came from? I'm really busy and need to talk to my grandmother so i can start this cure already”
"i can't unless you give me your first born child"
“....say what now”
you gaped at his serious poker face before slowly watching it contort into a shit-eating grin. then he broke into a boisterous laughing fit that shook the whole room with its intensity
you pouted when you realized he was pulling your leg. “this is payback for earlier, isn’t it?”
he calmed himself down to a few chuckles, “i was just trying to break the ice. it’s not every day i get summoned to a cute little witch’s home”
you nearly forgot how much of a smooth talker demons were
blood rushed to your cheeks at his words
definitely not because he called you cute
(it definitely is)
“but i’m telling the truth when i say i can’t exactly go back. that’s not how this spell works. i’m already bounded to you by blood”
you wondered what he meant by ‘not how the spell works’
“the spell book doesn’t say anything about it either,” you sighed. “i guess that means you’re stuck with me for the time being- hey! be careful with that!”
you snatched a bottle of naga venom from bufan who already was snooping around at all of the magical ingredients and things around him
“you’re awfully calm. aren't you afraid i'll take your soul or something?" he says
"bold of you to assume I have a soul"
you were joking of course and he, being a demon, could sense that you indeed did have a soul and grinned at you
“just... try and behave yourself, ok?”
“i’ll be on my best behavior”
bufan was not on his best behavior
you should have known never to trust a demon smh
having bufan around was like taking care of three year old child
he’s constantly asking you questions every time you’re trying to make potions and just genuinely trying to annoy you
“(y/n), what’s that?”
“dragon’s breath”
“and that?”
“alicorn tears”
“this empty jar says teeth. who’s teeth?”
“it’s about to be yours in a second after i punch you in the jaw if you don’t stfu”
“are all you humans so snippy?”
“oh my god”
“more like oh my lucifer amirite”
you were a unicorn’s hair away from hexing him jfc
for someone so big, he was also extremely sneaky and sly
he’s always trying to play pranks on you and using his powers to his advantage
such as using his invisibility to randomly pop in front of you or poke your sides or face when you were doing something
or hiding your phone and other necessities all over the house and sending you on an entire scavenger hunt
despite his childish tendencies, bufan was also quite reliable
for some reason, he grew to be protective of you although he knew you could protect yourself with your own powers
whenever you traveled home alone at night, he insisted on flying you home on his broad back
which you secretly loved bc flying with bufan was always fun since he would always make it feel like a roller coaster ride by flying in loops and various speeds
there were times where bufan even acted like a mother figure which was both intriguing and terrifying
“(y/n), did you eat yet?”
“no i don’t have any time to-”
*proceeds to make eight different types of meals for you*
in addition, he always had liver medicine on hand and you have no idea how or why???
whenever you were having a bad day, he never hesitated to listen to your problems even if they didn’t apply to him as a demon
over the next few months of bufan living with you, your once quiet and uneventful home was now constantly filled with laughter, annoyed yells, and bustle. you found yourself noticeably happier
but a part of you always wondered if your happiness was only one sided
“bufan,” you called out to him one day while fiddling with your wand
he made a grunting sound from the couch that was situated a few feet from you, indicating that he heard you and was listening
“do you regret being summoned by me?” you nervously asked
no answer
feeling your heart drop when he failed to respond, you assumed the worse and laughed quietly to hide the sadness in your heart
“it’s okay if you do. i wont hold it against you,” you nodded timidly
hearing his footsteps approach you, you faintly remember hearing your wand drop onto the floor before he pulled you close to him
you’ve never felt so tiny oml
“what makes you think i regret being here?” he questioned, clearly confused as to why you were suddenly bringing this up
you shrugged, “i don’t know... i mean, you were kind of forced to. do you miss being on your own?”
“do you?”
it took you a moment to quietly reply, “i’ve gotten used to feeling alone, so if you wanted to leave, i would let you”
bufan could hear the loneliness that lingered at the edge of your words. little did you know, he already knew how much you meant to him from the very first day he met you. there was no way it was an accident. he pulled you tighter to him before kissing the top of your head
“silly little witch. who says i’m going anywhere?”
you tilted your head up at him in surprise, “you’re saying that if you had the chance to leave, you wouldn’t take it?”
“you couldn’t get rid of me even if you wanted to”
and you swear that that was the moment you knew you had fallen for a demon
maybe performing that spell wasn’t a mistake after all
perhaps the universe knew that bufan was meant to be your loved one
because there was no better feeling than always coming home to a certain demon of yours
#idol producer#idol producer imagines#idol producer scenarios#idol producer writing#oner#oner imagines#oner scenarios#oner bufan#bu fan#bu fan imagine#bu fan scenario#bufan#bufan scenario#bufan imagine#qin#bc221#91%#91% scenarios#91% imagines#cpop#cpop imagines#cpop scenarios
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please, do not reblog this
I wish I could tell you the INSANITY of some of the daily rituals at work
but you would pinpoint them, immediately.
they’e not funny, they’re cult-like, invasive, oppressive, and just fucking weird
you get in trouble for not participating, and then have to do ‘emotional check-ins’ because they charge you with ‘hiding your depression from them’... because you didn’t want them to find out and do EXACTLY WHAT THEY’RE DOING TO YOU NOW
you know, I don’t care if they find this. maybe they would fire me and I could get out of their awful little contract that BINDS.
imagine, if you will, that every single fucking morning, at 9am exactly everyone has to gather around a table. Some days there are 15, some days closer to 30 people. One person reads the welcome to country, that’s fine.
They turn to the person beside them (either way, it doesn’t matter) and begin.
“How are you feeling?”
(You cannot answer anything that isn’t a Feeling Word, and if you say Good or Alright, everyone in the room will fucking verbally leap on you. The first day is very fucking confronting).
“What are your goals for the day?”
(You have to give something concrete, usually.)
“Who can you check in with?”
(Nominate a person).
Then, the asked turns to the person beside them, and asks the questions.
It goes on, and on, and on.
When it ends, do you get to go to work? No.
Then there’s the Quote Bear. Someone is given it, each day, and they have to provide an ‘Inspiring quote’ the next. Which is said verbally, and written on a white board all day long. The bear is given to someone else, to repeat the cycle.
-
At the end of the day, 5pm, you have to drop everything to come back and do community again.
“How are you feeling?”
“What was your highlight for the day?”
“What will you do for self-care?”
- - -
Of course, if you have training, or a meeting, you have a different set of questions.
You sit down in training or supervision, or in a meeting, or even an emotional fucking check-in that they will not stop invading your privacy with...
“How are you feeling?”
“What do you hope to get out of this training/meeting?”
“Who can you check-in with?”
And at the end:
“How are you feeling?”
“What did you learn/get out of the meeting today?”
“What will you do for self-care?”
---------------
My current record is having to do this fucking bullshit eight times in the one day.
Morning - Start
Training - x2, Start & End
Meeting - x2, Start & End
Meeting/Emotional Check-In (they don’t do with anyone else, but they have a thing about pretending to be ‘fixing’ your broken self even though you were fine until they started this shit) - x2, Start & End
Evening - End
--------------
They don’t like if you joke about it, or give a funny answer.
You can FEEL the anger from the Head Boss in the place. They believe it heart and soul, but a lot of people I have talked to recently go, “Oh yeah, that person’s fucking insane, good luck!”
They have a handful of buzzwords they claim is an organisational foundation or something - emotional intelligence, non-violent communication, growth and change.
You know, buzzwords. It’s all part of a fancy little model called:
Which we have to do refreshers on all the fucking time, and have to show evidence of using it in practice (the community rituals and the bear, and we also have to do that with clients too).
Then every few years, this ‘evidence’ is shown to some american university, and they approve its use or something, and basically the organisation pays a lot more money to be allowed to use the model for more years.
Like, my DUDE... you maybe think we could like, just make our own in Australia? Because the budget takes a hell of a hit just for something most of the workers resent, utterly?
Don’t ask me what this is, but it comes up in their slideshows about it
I don’t get it, it just looks like yoga gone wrong or some sort of advanced karma sutra move.
- - - - -
plus there’s this thing called self
------------------------------------
It’s literally basic shit, anyone would know and understand, and it would be fine if it wasn’t so INVASIVE, and constant.
i mean even at team meetings, one person has to make something on the damn sanc thing, and present it with handouts. everytime.
over and over again.
---------------
and the best bit, I didn’t tell you about the ROCK
So like, in the all staff meetings, some people get a certificate that says, “You rock at
for (list one or more of the 7 commitments)”
And with it, you get... The ROCK
literally.
it’s an actual FUCKING Rock, that gets painted one colour or another (in line with the colour scheme). when you get it, you have to add one (1) thing to it, before it goes to another person.
some put a googly eye on it, some give it a name, some put glitter, and sparkles and shit all over it. it... it really looks like a bunch of preschoolers went all in on craft day. it’s embarrassing.
like, seriously. when i try to explain the whole situation to people, they look at me with this sense of ‘you’re shitting me’
I have pictures, but if I post them, there’s no going back babes.
you know what, fuck it, let ‘em fire me
This is Rock #2. They need a new one for next time.
There’s a WHOLE CUPBOARD full of rocks in this office.
-----------------
so that’s some of the bullshit.
and a good reason I hate the whole system.
also it’s been months, literal months and no one thought to teach any of the new staff how to use the very specific computer systems that we have to use for every thing we do. we all had to work it out from team members.
one team leader actually said “We decided not to do training for (system) with new people, because it would be too difficult. We’re thinking we just let their teams ttech them, and maybe do a follow-up sometimes later in the year”
like that’s great for you to say but anytime i take a call, email or breath at a client... I have to document that, and I didn’t know how for a month and a half...
we’re still working out more complex things. it’s all just ‘do whatever’
---------
and the QUOTES my god, some are so fucking annoying
there’s a special emergency quote book in the meeting room for if someone with the bear is away, or forgot...
and the other day, I will never forget this.
the quote was the following:
“working hard for something you don’t care for is called STRESS
working hard for something you love is called PASSION”
and THEN head boss goes, “Hmmm, yes, I think we should all take the time this morning to have some self-reflection on that quote. And if you’re feeling stressed, perhaps you need to speak with your Team Leader about whether you are in the right job...”
Like, they always had something to say, but that just... wow.
Delusional.
Also, working hard for something you don’t love is called SURVIVING CAPITALISM
if we poll retail employees, they’d say they’re pretty fucking stressed... but they like to eat, and live in safety...
--------------------
Every five minutes they schedule some check in or just-to-bother-you meeting about something i was already goddamn doing.
Would I have taken this job with free will to turn it down?
I think the fuck not.
Did I have a choice? No.
Why? Because the new nonsensical governmental laws surrounding job seeking is insane. If you get offered something, and turn it down for any reason (say, it’s 3 hours from where you live), you get penalised into the ground.
I will bitch about that in an upcoming post.
-----------------------------------------------
Plus everything is so very Hands Off when it comes to telling you what your job Is. Very frustrating considering the complexity of the dual-role I play, especially when I take on other caseloads or roles when others are away lmao.
Let me tell you I have genuinely hoped to be run over by a fucking truck on the way there more than once.
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The Masque of the Red Death: Roger Corman Talks Pandemics and Restoration
https://ift.tt/3pjWssJ
During the 2020 lockdowns and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people at home sought isolated comfort. News reports continued to count the number of dead while people in charge downplayed its seriousness or offered dubious advice on dealing with the disease. It certainly didn’t interrupt many golf games. As workers were furloughed from jobs, they binged. One of the movies at the top of the playlist was The Masque of the Red Death, Roger Corman’s 1964 low budget masterpiece.
It told the tale of a wealthy medieval prince in a country decimated by an epidemic. The satanic overlord, played by the legendary actor and horror icon Vincent Price, locks his gates to his god-fearing dominions while he and his friends party like it’s 1999.
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” is about 2,300 words. Corman’s adaptation, which has been fully restored and can now be seen in its lush, psychedelic splendor, padded it with more Poe to reach 90 minutes. The screenplay by Charles Beaumont and R. Wright merged the tale with Poe’s “Hop Frog,” along with elements of the short story “Torture by Hope” by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam.
The devilish revelries came deep into a filmmaking cycle that began with American International Pictures executives Samuel Z. Arkoff and James Nicholson asking their in-house director Roger Corman to make two black-and-white horror films at $100,000 each. At the time, Corman had been producing tightly budgeted horror, science fiction, and juvenile delinquency quickies. With this opportunity, he pitched one film based upon Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” saying it would move AIP to up in the motion picture world, as the studio was regarded as the maker of exploitation pictures.
It was the first of a cycle of eight films. Poe is read in every high school and is part of America’s literary canon; Corman’s Poe cycle made the writer an international gothic horror fan favorite.
The Masque of The Red Death was the seventh in Corman’s series. The adaptation also stars Jane Asher (Alfie, Death At A Funeral), Hazel Court (The Premature Burial, The Raven), David Weston (Becket, The Red Baron), and Nigel Green (Jason And The Argonauts, Zulu).
The 4K restoration of the extended cut of The Masque Of The Red Death was done by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Additional funding came from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. The Masque of the Red Death opened the same year as Stanley Kubrick’s nuclear nightmare Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The fallout from an atomic war would result in a Red Death among survivors. Corman’s take on Poe was seen as a comment on the collateral damage of the Cold War, but it is a film which bridges generations of apocalyptic omens.
We spoke with Corman about the timeliness of his classic adaptation, as well as about stars Price and Asher, cinematographer Nicholas Roeg, and why Corman continues to find different delivery systems for message pictures.
Den of Geek: The last time we spoke, it was right before the inauguration. You had put Malcolm McDowell in funny hair and made him the president of the United Corporations of America. At the time, you said you hadn’t expected Trump to win. Today is the day after his (second) impeachment. Now that 2020 turned out to be a death race, did you expect him to be President Prospero?
Roger Corman: No. I assumed that [Joe] Biden was going to win. The polls all indicated that he was ahead. The polls have not always been correct, but in this case, they were so much in his favor, I assumed he was going to win.
Was there a conscious effort to put out The Masque of Red Death during the COVID-19 crisis with him as president?
Yes. Masque of the Red Death, in the United States, was on one of the platform streaming services, and the ratings on it went way up during COVID, because it was so appropriate. It’s actually more pertinent today than when it was made, because we do have the equivalent of the Red Death pandemic that is killing people all over the world.
In Masque of the Red Death, Prince Prospero brings together his friends, aristocrats and so forth, and they hold themselves up in the castle, to prevent the Red Death from killing them. And we have a somewhat similar situation today.
For instance, Trump is very careful. He claimed that the coronavirus was overrated. As a matter of fact, he said there was no such thing as coronavirus; it was “a hoax” perpetrated by the Democrats to make him look bad. But at the same time he was saying that, he was holed up in the lighthouse, going up primarily only to play golf or to hold big rallies. People were not protected within the rallies, but he himself made a real point of staying away from the crowd, to be on the stage and let the crowd get together and kill themselves, which they did.
The Mar-a-Lago of Red Death.
The Masque of the Mar-a-Lago.
Is it hard to keep a social distance when you’re squirming around on a floor like a worm?
It’s a little difficult, I would believe.
Vincent Price’s voice is beautiful in this movie. This is one of his most seductive parts. How quickly did he capture the character, from rehearsal to shooting?
He had the character pretty much set in mind when he came into it. Vincent always did a great deal of preparation. So what we would do [is] we would discuss the characters, just Vincent and me, before the rehearsals. He and I were in agreement on the character, and then he would bring that character to the rehearsals. We did not do a great deal of rehearsing because of the Screen Actors Guild rules. They charge you as if you are shooting when you rehearse.
Do you remember any notes you had to give him?
This is so long ago. It’s a little bit difficult to remember. But as I remember, I said, “The real key to Prospero’s character is that he believes God is dead.” And everything stems from that belief. That with the absence of God, he was free to do anything he wanted.
Did he always talk like that, like when he was ordering a bagel?
It was pretty much his normal voice. He added a certain drama to [lines], but basically that was Vincent. He was a highly educated man and very intelligent, so he spoke very well. And we simply heightened that somewhat in the films.
The film suffered some major censorship from the Legion of Decency, and the package booklet points out there was church involvement. Did you ever wonder whether you might be going to hell?
No, that never occurred to me. I’m sort of a lapsed Catholic, and I don’t believe there is a hell.
Is Red Death a disease or a sin?
The Red Death is a disease. That’s one of the reasons that’s a plague. You could consider it to be the Black Death of the Middle Ages. It would be the equivalent of coronavirus today.
In the booklet which comes with the DVD, it says that Father Miraliotta said the occult parts of the screenplay were “strung together gibberish” and “mumbo-jumbo Latin.” But did any of the satanic rituals have any validity?
No. We made up pretty much what we wanted. Actually, there were two writers, Chuck Beaumont and Bob Campbell, and I think it started with my discussions with Chuck.
How was Jane Asher to work with?
Jane Asher was wonderful to work with. She was a very young girl. She had worked on the stage. I think she was in the Young Shakespeare Group. And I don’t know if it was her first picture or not, but she was very good. She was an excellent actress and very good and easy to work with.
She was dating Paul McCartney when this was made, and her brother was a musician and a producer. Did you get to experience any Swinging London in-crowd during shooting?
A little bit. As a matter of fact, I can tell you a true story. Jane and I used to have lunch together in the studio commissary. And on a Thursday, she said a friend of hers was traveling through, on his way to London the next day. Would it be all right if he came and watched a shooting during the morning, and we could all have lunch together? And I said, “Sure, fine.”
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When Paul McCartney Braved the Set of Roger Corman’s The Masque of the Red Death
By Tony Sokol
So, I got a director’s chair, sitting next to mine, during the shooting. And it was a nice, young guy, and we talked during the shooting. And I explained to him a little bit between shots how it all worked. And then we all, Jane and he, and I, had lunch together. And it all went very well. I said at the end of it, “Jane tells me you’re going to London. What are you going to be doing in London?”
He said, “Well, I’m with a singing group from Liverpool, and we’re going to be making our debut tomorrow night in London.” He was very cool. He knew that as an American, I didn’t know who The Beatles were or what he was. And as he left, I said, “Well, good luck, Paul, on your debut in London tomorrow night.”
And I remember he was very cool. He understood and he didn’t want to say, “Listen, buddy, we’re the number one group.” He just said, “Well, we’re a singing group.”
And then I saw the paper Sunday morning headlines, “Beatles conquer London.”
Did he ever come back to the set again?
No. But it was very funny. We were at an Academy Award party, which was I think the Vanity Fair party, which was a big thing, of people who were invited and so forth. We were at the Vanity Fair party, and I saw across the room Paul McCartney. And I said, “Oh, there’s Paul over there.”
And my wife, Julie, said, “Let’s go over and talk to him.” And I said, “No. I had lunch with him 60 years or so ago. He isn’t going to remember some guy he had lunch with 60 years ago, and I don’t want to intrude.” because he was in a conversation.
And Julie said, “Well, I want to meet Paul McCartney.” So, she went over and talked to him, and he came over to see me. As he approached, he said, “Masque of the Red Death.” He knew exactly where we’d met.
I interviewed William Shatner a few months ago and I asked about The Intruder, a piece he’s still very proud of. What draws you to consistently infuse your works, in any genre, with at least social questioning?
I’ve always been on the left, liberal side of politics. The Intruder was a time when the desegregation of schools in the South started. The schools in the South had maintained separate schools for Blacks. They were separate, but equal. And the Supreme Court ruled they were separate, but they were not equal, which was correct. They were inferior, and schools had to be integrated rather than keeping them separate. And it caused tremendous rebellion in the South. Chuck Beaumont, who worked with me on a number of pictures, had written the book The Intruder about an agitator, a little bit like somewhere between Joe McCarthy and Trump, who comes in, talking about patriotism and being against integration.
And I bought that book, The Intruder, and made it with Bill Shatner. It was his first picture. He was a Broadway actor, and he just came to Hollywood, and he was wonderful to work with, and the picture got incredible reviews. I’m trying to think of one of them, which was really good. Oh, it said, “The Intruder is a major credit to the entire American film industry.” And it won a couple of awards at minor festivals nobody ever heard of, but it was the first picture I ever made that lost money.
You consistently do social commentary in your work. What brings you back to it?
I stayed with it, but I tried to analyze why The Intruder got such wonderful reviews and such a great reaction, but the audience didn’t come to see it. And I thought, “I think I was too serious in this.” It was almost like delivering a message. And I remember years ago, some Hollywood producer said, “If you want to send a message, use Western Union.” And I thought, “I broke that rule.” And I thought, “I forgot that motion pictures are really basically an entertainment.”
So, from there on in, I used motion pictures as an entertainment, but as a subtext, with whatever theme or thought I was interested in. But first and foremost, the audience came to see and got the entertainment they paid to see. And as a bonus, as it were, there was the subtext, which sometimes was so slender that people didn’t get it. But [some] people got it. That was fine with me.
The restoration is really beautiful. I’d like to ask about the look. Your translation of Poe’s colors. Nicolas Roeg was the cinematographer. What was that collaboration like?
It went very well. It was the first I had done in England, except for a Formula One racing picture, which was in England and a number of other places. And they showed me a work of a number of English cameramen, and I thought Nic was the best of the group. And the collaboration went very well. I thought he did really, a brilliant job of camera work.
Afterwards he became a director. I never knew, did I inspire him to be a director, or did he feel if Roger can do it, anybody can do it?
So, he didn’t actually go through the Corman school of directors. I know you never produced any of his films.
I did not. He did it on his own.
You shot Masque on the set of Becket. What was different about having that as a cinematic playground, as opposed to shooting Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre?
It wasn’t really the set of Becket. What it is, Danny Heller, my art director, and I, always went to what was called a scene dock in studios where we’re going to work. The scene dock contained flats from previous pictures, just individual flats. Each of the pictures we shot in the United States, we were shooting at small rental studios, and the flats were not particularly impressive, but Danny would use them in the designs of sets.
When we did Masque of the Red Death, we found these magnificent flats from Becket. So they were not the sets, but we used those flats, and used them as an integral part of the sets.
Masque of Red Death was one of the first films that you had a longer shooting schedule. What was the first aspect of filmmaking that you noticed was affected by the extra time?
Well, two things. The English crews were very good. They were fully equal to the Hollywood crews, but they worked a little bit slower than the Hollywood crews. So I had a five-week schedule, whereas I had a three-week schedule in Hollywood. And I always thought I really had a four-week schedule, because we were working a little slowly.
Also, when we’d show up to work at 11:00, we would stop for elevenses. And then we would stop for lunch. And then in the middle of the afternoon, we would stop for tea. And I remember mentioning, I’ve forgotten who the assistant director was, but I said, “We’re spending half the day eating here. We should be shooting.”
But he said, “Well, this is the way we do it.”
In 2009, you made the Joe Dante series, Splatter, and each episode was shot in a week based on audience votes. Was that reminiscent of your early days of shooting on the 10-day schedules?
No. By that time, when I first started, although I did shoot a number of films in five or six days, in one picture, The Little Shop of Horrors, in two days. But my general schedule was two weeks when we started. As we moved along, starting with The Fall of the House of Usher, the first of the Poe pictures, I had three-week schedules. And our standard schedule for everything at that time was three weeks, so it was shot on a three-week schedule.
Did you really edit Little Shop of Horrors during a lunch break?
No. I shot Little Shop of Horrors in two days with a little bit of night shooting. So I’d say maybe two-and-a-half days. What happened, I had an office at a small rental studio in Hollywood and I was having lunch with the head of the studio. And he mentioned they had just finished a fairly big, slightly bigger budget picture. It was still low budget, and they had this really good, big set of an office. And I said, “Can you leave that up for a little while?” And he said, “Sure. We’ll leave it up until somebody comes in and rents the stage. And we’ll tear it down and put up the new set.”
So, after lunch, I went over and looked at it. And it was really a very good set, and I said [that] I was sort of experimenting with the concept of comedy and horror combined. And I thought, “It might be fun.”
I didn’t have a great deal of money at that time and nobody was going to back me with what I wanted to do. I thought, “I could shoot a picture here. And since almost everything is within this set, what I could do, I could shoot it in a couple of days, based upon this.”
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Little Shop Of Horrors & the Tale of its Lost Ending
By Seb Patrick
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The Roger Corman Fantastic Four Movie: The Most Faithful FF Ever
By Mike Cecchini
Screen Actors Guild salary structure was such that if you hired a person for a day, he got more money than one-fifth of what the weekly structure was. So I thought what I’ll do is hire everybody for a week. We’ll rehearse Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, because everything is in this set. And with everything set up, we can come and shoot on two days, on Thursday and Friday, which is what we did. And the whole thing was done sort of as an experimental lark.
It was quite successful. They made a Broadway play out of it and one thing and another, and a musical. And one of the reasons I think it was so successful was that none of us were taking it seriously. We were taking it and just sort of fooling around and having fun. And I think that attitude helped the picture, because the crew had the same attitude, and the whole thing permeated the shooting.
I remember we started shooting Thursday morning at 8:00. And at 8:30, the assistant director announced we were hopelessly behind schedule.
What are your favorite genres to shoot, and are they the same ones as the ones you watch?
Not particularly. I should watch more genre films to keep up with it. Actually, I watch a certain number, specifically to keep up and see what’s going on now. But I’m more inclined towards somewhat more serious films, and particularly foreign films, although I see fewer foreign films now than I did before. I don’t know why.
We were a production/distribution company, New World, which I founded in 1970, and we distributed for Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa, Volker Schlöndorff, François Truffaut, a number of others. And I was a great fan of those films and went out of my way to distribute them. I was very much interested in that type of film.
In your early films, were you watching Mario Bava to see what he was doing? And were you expanding on that?
Actually, I saw only one film by Mario Bava, who incidentally I think was a brilliant filmmaker. It was because Jim Nicholson, who was the head of American International, had seen the film and liked Barbara Steele in it. He suggested I see the film and possibly use Barbara Steele.
I saw that one film. I don’t remember the name of it, but I thought it was really excellent. And indeed, I did bring Barbara Steele over. I think it was The Pit and the Pendulum. She played the leading lady.
What did Poe bring to your storytelling that, say, Lovecraft’s adaptations didn’t provide?
Well Poe, and this was part of my interpretation of Poe, I think Poe was working with the unconscious mind, from a writer’s standpoint, the same way that Freud, a little later in the same century, was working from a medical standpoint. I think the concept of the unconscious mind was starting to influence thinking in the 19th century, so I always thought that Poe represented the unconscious mind, and I shot according to that. It was one of my themes.
For instance, I felt the unconscious mind doesn’t really see the world. The conscious mind sees the world with eyes, ears, and so forth, and simply transmits information. So I made a point on all of the Poe films of never going outside unless I absolutely had to do it. I wanted to have full control, to shoot within the studio. Whether it came through to the audience, I don’t know. But at least in my own mind, I was able to deal with special effects with a number of things, with the concept of the unconscious mind.
When I did go outside, I tried to make it something that was not normal. For instance, on the very first picture, The Fall of the House of Usher, the only exterior sequence is when a man, played by Mark Damon, rides through a forest on his way to the House of Usher. And before we were shooting, there was a forest fire in the Hollywood Hills. I saw a picture of it in the Los Angeles Times, and all of the trees were burned. Everything was covered with ash, and I immediately put together, I think, a three or four-man crew. And we were up there in the Hollywood, burnt out hills, showing Mark on his horse, riding through that exterior.
I also used the ocean, a number of times. I feel that essentially, we came out of the ocean, and I felt somehow there is something fascinating about the ocean, even today.
Hazel Court’s invocation sequence is exquisite. When you were putting it together, were you having fun experimenting, trying to capture the unconscious mind?
Yes, it was all of the above. It dealt with the unconscious. We were experimenting, and I was having a lot of fun. I give a lot of credit to Danny Heller, the art director on that, because he would construct certain backgrounds. I would then work with different colored lenses on the camera, and then we would go in to a special effects shop, and they would take what I’d shot and overlay certain images. It was just a lot of fun putting them together, but I think I used that concept in almost every one of the Poe films.
And then of course, many, many years later, when I did The Trip, which was about an LSD experience, I really went crazy with those sequences.
On the other hand, I have to say this, at the time they came out, I got a lot of critical praise for that. But if you look at them today, they look primitive because the special effects today are so brilliant and so far advanced, that not only my pictures, but everybody was pictures at that time, when we used special effects, there was no way we could get the effects you can get today.
What do you think we’ve lost from the Mitchell cameras and having to lug things around and meticulously put together special effects? What do you think is lost in technology making filmmaking easier?
What’s gained is the fact that the special effects are just beyond anything anybody ever dreamed of before. They’re just astonishing. What is lost is the fact that there’s a tendency for the special effects to take over the picture, and the story and the characters are secondary to the special effects. And we’ve lost that to a certain extent. I wouldn’t say all the way, but we’ve lost to a certain extent the examination of characterization and the simple narrative, and the writing of dialogue.
How do you work with your composers on your films?
I work with composers probably a little less than most directors do. I don’t pretend to have great knowledge of music. What I do [is] I talk with the composer and discuss the themes, the mood within each individual scene, the basic feeling I want from the music, and then I leave it to him.
For instance, directors are generally on the soundstage when they’re recording the music. I’m never there. I’m not a conductor. I leave that to the composer.
The last movie you directed was Frankenstein Unbound in 1990. What would it actually take to put you back in the director’s seat?
Well, what happened was because when I started in 1970, I started my own production/distribution company. And I had planned simply to take a year off from directing, because I was just tired. I’d directed about 60 films in about maybe 15, 16 years. And I thought I would take a sabbatical, one year off from directing, and just be a producer and a head of the company. But then the company became instantaneously successful.
It was really amazing. Our very first picture was a giant success, and so were all of the following ones. And I got so involved in all of that [that] I just stepped away from directing. But then Universal did some kind of research, and they came up with the idea that “Roger Corman’s Frankenstein” would be a success for a film, and they asked me if I would like to make it, to produce and direct it. And I said, “No. You may have that research, but in my opinion, it’s just going to be another Frankenstein film. There have been so many Frankenstein films. It isn’t worth going back.”
But they kept coming back to me, and they offered me so much money. Finally, I thought, “Geez, I’d be an idiot not to turn this opportunity down for what they’re now offering me.” And I said, “All right, I can’t say yes right now. But if I can find a new version, something that is a different interpretation of Frankenstein, I will do it.”
And I read a novel, Frankenstein Unbound, by Brian Aldiss, a very good English science fiction and fantasy writer. And it was a story of somebody from the future, who, through a time warp, is thrown back into the 19th century and meets Dr. Frankenstein.
In the novel, he was some sort of a diplomat. But in the movie, I changed him from being a diplomat to a scientist, so that the picture essentially brought a 21st century scientist back to meet a 19th century scientist. And I thought that was an original and new interpretation. So I said, “If you can buy that novel, I’ll make the picture.” Which we did.
With all the streaming alternatives now for new projects, do you think it’s easier for an independent director to break in, or is it still just the same corporate-owned studio stuff?
I think you would divide that into two sections. It’s a little bit more difficult today, particularly with the studios, because they’re making now primarily these giant special effects pictures, and they’re not going to give a new director a chance to play with a $200 million budget.
But new directors are breaking in pretty much the way they were when I started, which is on independent films and particularly on low budget films.
You’re both the producer and the director on Masque. Were there things that you wanted to do as a director that you wouldn’t let yourself do as a producer?
I was a producer and director on almost all of my films, so I never really had any problems with the producer. If there was a problem with the producer, it was a problem with myself.
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The Masque of the Red Death is available on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital now.
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The Clownish Way to Doom A Generation
By following Colin Kaepernick’s “they’re both the same, why vote” philosophy and skipping the 2016 election, progressives and Black abstainers opened the door for Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell to reshape the federal judiciary in a way that’s set to have dire consequences for Black people and progressives for the next 30 years.
Late in August 2016 as the American National Anthem blared through the Levi’s Stadium loudspeakers, reporter Jennifer Lee Chan tweeted a relatively innocuous photo shot from high above the field where the San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers were set to engage in a preseason contest.
A then minor detail captured in the picture confirmed the impetus for a story Chan’s colleague Steve Wyche had been keeping his eye on for the past couple of weeks. What it showed was 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick sitting during the playing of the anthem while everyone else in view of the lens stood. In and of itself, standing for the playing of the national anthem before a sporting event is a peculiar ceremonial ritual so boring that it only makes it to the TV broadcast for title games and big-time celebrity performances.
But once Kaepernick explained his rationale for not standing, and eventually kneeling, during the anthem, suddenly those two minutes of pre-kickoff pomp and circumstance became the biggest thing in sports.
As he would later go on to explain many times across multiple platforms, Kaepernick’s decision came in the wake of the police killings of Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Oscar Grant, and the ongoing systemic oppression faced by Black people in America.
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color," Kaepernick told Wyche. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
From the moment Kaepernick made known the reason for his protests the backlash was as predictable as the outcome, and thus his fate as an NFL quarterback was sealed in such a way that only an MVP-caliber performance could have extended his run. That didn’t happen and he hasn’t played another down in the NFL in nearly four years.
Kaepernick’s on-field performance in 2016 and 2017 left a lot to be desired. After being relegated to backup quarterback he was thrust back into the starting role after the team got off to a 1-4 start. His presence under center didn’t really change 49er-fortune as the team won only one of its remaining 11 games.
While statistics suggest Kaepernick’s performance wasn’t atrocious, it wasn’t good enough for the 49ers to make a long-term investment in him either. At the end of the season, the 29-year-old decided to opt-out of his contract and try his hand as a free agent, a designation that would allow any interested team to add him to their roster.
But despite having guided his team to a Super Bowl appearance just four years earlier and having declining but decent stats, not one of the NFL’s 32 teams took a serious look at Kaepernick. A few coaches and front office people made statements that someone should definitely pick up Kaepernick, just not their teams.
Was his performance poor? Yes. Was his performance so poor that 31 other teams couldn’t find a spot for him even as a third-string quarterback? No. Clearly the controversy-averse NFL owners, even if not overtly expressed, were in cahoots to ensure Kaepernick never received another shot in the league — a theory born out by the fact that in 2019 the NFL and Kaepernick reached a confidential monetary settlement regarding his claims that owners colluded to keep him unemployed.
But that part of the story we know.
They're All The Same?
As the Kaepernick controversy ballooned in 2016, the quarterback became the avatar for everything from the opposition of systemic racial oppression, the opposition of police brutality, and opposition of institutional racism to disrespect of the flag, disrespect of the country, and even (bizarrely) disrespect of the military.
The opportunity to drive a golf wedge into America’s racial fissures and exploit the emerging culture war wasn’t missed by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump who infamously said to an approving crowd of hootin’ n hollerin’ red state whites, “Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners when someone disrespects our flag to say, 'get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He's fired. He's fired!”
With the presidential campaign coming to a head, football season well underway, and the pro and anti-kneeling camps firmly entrenched, reporters asked Kaepernick to weigh in on the race between Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Kaepernick, clearly the most prominent voice in professional sports at the moment surprised many when he said he didn’t plan to vote because essentially all politicians are the same, including Clinton and Trump.
Specifically, he said, “Both are proven liars and it almost seems like they’re trying to debate who’s less racist. At this point, in talking to one of my friends, you have to pick the lesser of two evils, but the end is still evil.
"I think the two presidential candidates that we currently have also represent the issues that we have in this country right now," Kaepernick said. "You have Hillary, who has called Black teens or Black kids super predators. You have Donald Trump, who is openly racist.
"He always says, 'Make America Great Again.' Well, America's never been great for people of color," Kaepernick said. "And that's something that needs to be addressed. Let's make America great for the first time."
And that was the gist of his abstinence rationale —they’re all the same, so I’m not voting.
It’s a relatively juvenile argument most often posited by people who don’t want to do the work required to actually change the reality of their political choices. And not only was Kaepernick not going to vote, turns out he never even registered to vote in 2016 or ever as far as any records show.
However, to his credit, Kaepernick is not your average apathetic abstainer. In the years that he has been out of football, he has become a high-profile activist, highlighting the issues that led to his anthem protest, held forums on a variety of social justice-related topics, and raised and donated millions of dollars for various causes.
He even started the Know Your Rights Camp, a non-profit organization that holds seminars for young people across the country to “advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders.”
He even managed to get one of America’s most beloved brands, Nike, to side with his efforts. According to various financial news outlets, Kaepernick’s partnership with Nike for their 30th Anniversary “Just Do it” campaign resulted in $163 million in earned media, a $6 billion brand value increase, and a 31% boost in sales, which includes the $50 t-shirts and $150 jerseys that routinely sell out in hours, with a portion of proceeds going to charity.
But corporate sales numbers aren’t really the ones that matter.
Inside The Numbers
When the dust settled on the 2016 presidential campaign Hillary Clinton received 65,853,516 votes to Donald Trump’s 62,984,825 but lost the election thanks to the Electoral College, a holdover from a bygone era that lifted two of the last three presidents who received fewer actual votes than their opponent (George W. Bush and Donald Trump) into the White House.
Having long outlived its usefulness and practicality as a means to ensure less populous states have a voice in the election outcome, the Electoral College process has shifted focus away from states with the most people and onto a handful of smaller “swing states” whose election-day results typically determine who becomes president.
In 2016 it didn’t matter that Hillary received nearly three million more votes than Trump because Trump received 306 of the possible 538 electoral votes to Hillary’s 232.
Despite the electoral vote total, a closer look at the numbers shows just how close America was to avoiding the four-year national nightmare/embarrassment/sideshow that has been the Trump presidency.
In Pennsylvania, Hillary lost the popular vote 2,970,733 to 2,926,441, a difference of 44,292 votes that resulted in Trump receiving the state’s 20 electoral votes.
In Wisconsin, Hillary lost the popular vote 1,405,284 to 1,382,536, a difference of 22,748 votes that resulted in Trump receiving the state’s 10 electoral votes.
In Michigan, Hillary lost the popular vote 2,279,543 to 2,268,839, a difference of 10,704 votes that resulted in Trump receiving the state’s 16 electoral votes.
Had Hillary Clinton won these three states, she would have won the presidency, leaving “shithole countries” and kids in cages for the next Mad Max movie instead of the front page of The Washington Post.
A Midwest trifecta for Hillary was plausible because it’s not as if these three states are deep Republican strongholds. Barack Obama won all three in 2008 and 2012.
Exit Stage Right and Not College-educated … and White
Exit polling showed that Donald Trump was able to pull off the biggest political upset since Truman defeated Dewey in 1948 by turning out trailer-loads of Rust Belt whites without college degrees, many of whom had never voted or previously voted for the Democratic candidate.
This so-called silent majority of disaffected white people bought into Trump’s sales pitch and promise to save them from the murderous, marauding hordes of Brown people threatening to rush the border and sack their suburban enclaves while he would simultaneously rewind the hands of time, bringing back jobs technology and environmental regulation had long-since shipped off to the Third World and China. And most importantly, he would “Make America Great Again” — a curious phrase that simultaneously causes his white followers to well up with star-spangled pride, while Black people, women, immigrants, the entire LGBT community, Muslims, and many more wonder just what great period he’s referring to because America has only very recently begun to consider treating us relatively civilly.
And while pundits point to some questionable campaign decisions made by Hillary and the underestimation of her unfavorability among the electorate, Trump’s ability to turn out record numbers of white voters without a college degree was the biggest factor in his victory.
However, an argument can be made that the biggest reason that Hillary lost is that she was unable to turn out voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania at the same level as Barack Obama.
In fact, Hillary wouldn’t have needed to worry about the white voters that jumped ship to the Republicans had she reached the Obama threshold with Black voters.
Analysis of the polling data shows that Black voters who previously voted for Obama didn’t cast a vote for Trump, instead a large percentage simply didn’t vote at all — a critical mistake.
Turning Out and Falling Off
According to the Pew Research Center, overall Black voter turnout fell from 66.6% in 2012 to 59.6% in 2016. The 7% drop might not seem like much but it represented the largest turnout decline of any racial or ethnic group in 30 years and was the first time in 20 years the Black voter turnout rate declined. 2016’s numbers represented the lowest Black turnout rate since 2000.
Even among Millennials, voter turnout increased for every single racial group except Black Millennials. The general Millennial turnout percentage increased from 46.4% in 2012 to 50.8% in 2016. The Black Millennial turnout decreased from 55% in 2012 to 50.6% in 2016.
A Slate article analyzing the 2016 election results cited a study by researchers from the University of Massachusetts and Indiana University that found the Black voter drop-off was sharpest in states where Trump’s margin of victory was less than 10 points. In Michigan and Wisconsin, Black turnout dropped by more than 12 points.
The combination of rises in white votes combined with declines for Blacks set the table for Trump to claim the electoral victories in those key states and thus win the presidency.
With all else remaining the same, had Black voters turned out in the same numbers like 2012, Hillary would have won Michigan. If white voter turnout remained at its 2012 level instead of going up, Hillary would have won Michigan and its 16 electoral votes.
In Wisconsin, the turnout rate among Black voters dropped 19% from 74% in 2012 to 55% percent in 2016. Turnout for Asians and Latinos also dropped by 6%. Coincidentally, the 2016 presidential election was the first time Wisconsin’s new voter ID requirement was in effect. Critics of the requirement and multiple studies have found that minority voters are less likely to have a driver’s license or another form of ID that satisfies the eligibility requirement. And this could be the reason Black voter turnout was disproportionately low in the state, allowing Trump to be the first Republican since Ronald Reagan to win Wisconsin.
A study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that nearly 17,000 potential voters in Milwaukee and Dane counties did not cast votes due to the voter ID requirement put in place by Republican Governor Scott Walker and backed by the majority of Republicans in the State Legislature. Hillary lost Wisconsin and its 10 electoral votes by less than 23,000 votes.
In Pennsylvania, where Black voters comprise 10% of the electorate, the .2% decline in Black voter turnout wasn’t as sharp as it was in other key states, but it was the only turnout decline recorded among the voting groups identified in the Center for American Progress study of 2016 voter trends. Had Black voter turnout matched its 2012 levels, with all other factors remaining the same, Hilary would still have lost the state because of a 4% increase among white voters without a college degree.
The election outcome proved Trump’s effectiveness at weaponizing white grievance to drive up uneducated white turnout — gains that were not offset by a necessary increase in minority voters and were assisted by the low Black turnout, even though even more Blacks were eligible to vote than in 2012.
All-Star Influencer
In terms of the pro-athlete social activist hierarchy, in late 2016, Kaepernick was king. Even four years later he remains 1 or 1A with LeBron James despite their nearly 116 million combined Twitter and Instagram follower gap. While LeBron is famous for his willingness to tackle topics and causes of importance beyond the basketball court, his legendary basketball feats remain the primary draw. With Kaepernick’s NFL days increasingly far behind him, the activism is the draw.
According to sports marketing and data analytics firm Hookit, in the months before the Green Bay game, Kaepernick was gaining approximately 50 followers per day on his Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.
In two weeks just after his protest and the rationale behind it were revealed, Kaepernick began gaining approximately 18,000 followers a day — an increase of 35,394%.
According to Hookit, from Jan. 1 to Aug. 25, Kaepernick gained 40,372 followers on Twitter. Between August 26 and September 8, he added 98,730 Twitter followers.
In the same two-week period Kaepernick had seven unique social media posts that were liked, commented on, or shared an average of 46,553 times per post — nearly four times more activity than his posts received prior to kneeling.
His mentions were also way up, with Kaepernick’s name tagged or mentioned 235,549 on various platforms during the two weeks — nearly 10 times more mentions than in the previous eight months.
And those numbers have only increased with Kaepernick possessing 3.9 and 2.4 million followers on Instagram and Twitter respectively.
But in November 2016, long before reporters rushed to LeBron for comment on the latest racial injustice, Kaepernick was the man at the center of the storm.
With his profile, his voice, his exposure, his activism, and his traditional and social media presence increasing exponentially in short order, it’s even more baffling that Kaepernick would choose not only to not endorse a candidate but to simply not vote at all.
In hindsight, it is a move that was counterproductive and best and wildly irresponsible at worst.
Woke Dummies and The Big Problem
The so-called Woke community of activists, to whom Kaepernick and Bernie Sanders are probably patron saints, is looking to push American society far to the left concerning all aspects of public policy and social life. The progressive agenda includes defunding police departments, abolishing prisons, criminal justice reform, ending fossil fuel usage, free college, healthcare for all, universal basic income, etc.
Depending on where you stand on the political spectrum, these moves can be viewed as either necessary steps to achieve social equity and justice or pipe dreams from people disconnected with theories related to practical application.
The problem for supporters of these issues aren’t the issues themselves, but the fact that enactment of any of them requires a political solution, and when challenged, a legal outcome favorable to the proponents.
By adopting the Kaepernick, “I’m not going to vote because they’re all the same” position, abstaining progressives ceded critical political and legal ground to the Republicans who, in the past four years, have plowed ahead making moves that will entrench their policy positions as law to be upheld by the conservative judges they’ve helped install — for decades to come.
If we reverse engineer the Republican masterplan, we can start with the U.S. Supreme Court, where President Trump has successfully appointed three justices to life terms. With his latest appointment of Amy Coney Barrett, who replaces liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the balance of the court has shifted 6-3 in favor of the conservative and ultra-conservative wings.
What this means for progressives like Kaepernick is that any law that seeks to fundamentally change or challenge the status quo or anything not rubber-stamped by a conservative think tank is likely to be struck down by a court packed with justices who believe the words written by slaveholding, sexist, landowning, rich white men in frilly tops, writing with quills, are still the standard by which rulings should be made almost 250 years later.
And again, Supreme Court justices are appointed for life, with most serving well into their 80s. The three Trump-appointed justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett are 53, 55, and 48 years old respectively, meaning they will likely be ruling against progressive interests for the next 20-30 years, dooming a generation.
But that presumes the cases even reach the high court. The path to the Supreme Court winds through federal courts where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been hard at work for the past six years working to ensure his insidious plan to put a conservative stranglehold on the federal judiciary came to fruition.
When Donald Trump began his presidency 105 empty federal judgeships had not been filled by President Obama — and that was by Republican design.
When Republicans won back control of the Senate in 2014 they obtained the final say on who got to fill or not fill the federal court vacancies.
In the two years before Republicans took the Senate, nearly 90% of Obama’s nominees were confirmed. After McConnell and the Republicans took over, that rate fell to 28%.
To achieve this result Republican senators used various tactics to either obstruct or delay the confirmation process. A Democrat-sponsored effort in 2013 removed the filibuster, a classic delay tactic often used by the minority party to continue debating an issue to prevent a vote, as it pertained to nominations to executive branch positions and federal judgeships.
This led to the Senate confirming more of Obama’s nominees at a higher rate because they only needed a majority of senators to vote to end debate and move on to the confirmation vote. While Senate Democrats confirmed many of Obama’s nominees, many judgeships were left vacant because a backlog of potential federal judges was created by the Republican stall tactics.
However, in 2014, when Republicans gained control of the Senate, it became clear that the “nuclear option” to eliminate the filibuster was going to come back and bite Democrats in the ass — and boy did it ever.
When McConnell became majority leader confirmation of Obama nominees ground to a near halt, culminating in the prevention of a confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, Obama’s pick to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who died in February 2016.
In what would turn out to be perhaps the millennium’s boldest act of hypocrisy, McConnell justified holding no hearings for Garland claiming that in an election year the American people should have the chance to weigh in on the decision by allowing the next president to fill the vacancy — despite the election being nine months away.
Once Trump was elected McConnell shifted his plans for the federal judiciary into high gear and the Senate began moving to fill every vacancy with what Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee member Diane Feinstein called, “young conservative ideologues, many of whom lack basic judicial qualifications.”
From expressed opposition to everything from the Affordable Care Act to Abortion Rights to equal rights for LGBT Americans to environmental regulations to voting rights, and much much more, Trump appointees check nearly all of the boxes the religious right, conservative fringe, and a sizable number of racists have been waiting for generations to see reflected in the federal courts.
And in the off chance some progressive policy enacted into law in a blue state gets challenged and lands before the Supreme Court, McConnell’s machinations will likely result in the court striking it down with the approval of the six conservative justices, including Barrett, who McConnell saw sworn in just days before the 2020 election, forgoing all that stuff he said in 2016 about not confirming nominees in an election year.
Do you Really Care?
It would be one thing if Kaepernick didn’t care about social justice or Black people or right and wrong. But the fact that he clearly cares about those things makes his “I don’t vote, they’re all the same” position even more infuriating because, again, every progressive idea he supports requires a political and legal solution to be put into effect.
And once they’re put in place, they aren’t necessarily safe from political or legal processes.
For example:
The Affordable Care Act — The Supreme Court full of conservative justices will decide the fate of the Affordable Care Act as Republicans seek to strip away the means through which millions of Americans are able to receive health care during a deadly global pandemic.
Police Abuse — The decision to bring criminal charges against police officers who abuse and murder Black people or any people is made by the district attorney, an elected official, or, as in the case of the killing of George Floyd, the state attorney general, also an elected official.
Elimination of Qualified Immunity — Qualified immunity is the doctrine that prevents government officials, police officers in particular, from being held personally liable for misconduct on the job that would get the average person locked up for life or paying a huge monetary settlement. In 1982 the Supreme Court expanded the definition of qualified immunity ( https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/457/800/ ) and police unions and prosecutors have used it for decades to justify a lack of criminal accountability in scores of cases involving claims of police abuse.
A Reuters investigation examined how qualified immunity has made it extremely difficult to hold police officers accountable for misconduct and abusive behavior.
In one incident, qualified immunity was invoked after a police officer in Utah gave an unarmed man brain damage after slamming him to the ground during a traffic stop.
In 2010 a Houston officer shot Ricardo Salazar-Limon in the back during a traffic stop after claiming he thought the man was reaching for a gun. There was no gun.
Salazar-Limon claimed his constitutional rights were violated and sued the city of Houston and the officer who shot him. In federal court, the defense argued that the officer was protected by qualified immunity, the courts agreed, a summary judgment was entered, and the matter never went before a jury.
When the case reached the Supreme Court, a majority of justices agreed with the granting of qualified immunity to the officer.
In the dissenting opinion Justice Sonia Sotomayor was joined by Ginsburg in stating, “Only Thompson and Salazar-Limon know what happened on that overpass on October 29, 2010 … What is clear is that our legal system does not entrust the resolution of this dispute to a judge faced with competing affidavits. The evenhanded administration of justice does not permit such a shortcut.
“Our failure to correct the error made by the courts below leaves in place a judgment that accepts the word of one party over the word of another. We have not hesitated to summarily reverse courts for wrongly denying officers the protection of qualified immunity in cases involving the use of force. But we rarely intervene where courts wrongly afford officers the benefit of qualified immunity in these same cases.”
Restrictions to the application of qualified immunity would require the Supreme Court to hear a related case and come to a different conclusion, thereby setting a precedent for lower court rulings.
Voting Rights — Efforts to suppress the votes of Black people in particular and people of color generally have deep roots in America. In recent years Republicans across the country have led efforts critics have said are specifically aimed at suppressing or denying the votes of African-Americans. The reduction of the number of polling places in predominantly Black communities leads to hours-long waits to vote. Voter ID laws disproportionately impact minority voters who are statistically less likely to have the necessary documentation. The attempt to reduce the number of ballot drop-off locations in densely populated urban areas disproportionately impacts minority voters. Solutions and corrections to all of these issues require a political or legal solution and sometimes both.
Gerrymandering — Gerrymandering is the process by which politicians draw voting district lines to create districts in which one party is all but guaranteed to hold power indefinitely and doesn’t need to be responsive to anyone other than members of their own party. This has been a crucial tactic for Republicans looking to maintain power even as political shifts show more people moving away from their party. Bringing an end to gerrymandering or even drawing districts in a more logical, straightforward fashion requires a political solution that will almost certainly be challenged in federal court.
Abortion — This is the Holy Grail for conservatives who have been waiting for nearly 50 years to get enough right-leaning justices on the court to reverse the landmark ruling that protected a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. With a court now full of conservative Catholics, that dream is closer to fruition than ever.
The Census — Conducted once a decade, the U.S. government uses the census to count the number of people living in the country. The census results determine how many representatives each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives, how an estimated $1.5 trillion a year in federal funding is distributed for the next 10 years, and how many electoral college votes each state is allocated. The Trump administration made repeated attempts to undermine the census, most notably by trying to add a citizenship question to the census intended to scare undocumented people away from participating, thus driving down the population totals in key Democratic states such as California and New York, diminishing their political power. Even though COVID-19 and social distancing restrictions made collecting census data more difficult the Trump administration successfully fought to cut the count short. That decision was upheld by the Supreme Court despite the argument that the decision will prevent a fair and accurate count.
Felons Voting — In 2018, Florida voters passed Amendment A that restored voting rights to people convicted of a felony who served their sentences. Many expected that a large portion of the 1.4 million newly eligible voters would vote Democratic but we may never know because the Republican governor and lawmakers quickly passed a law in response to Amendment A requiring people convicted of felonies to fully pay back fines and fees to the courts before they become eligible to vote. Depending on the person, the cost could range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars — effectively nullifying their voting rights.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit claiming the new law was unconstitutional because it created a financial barrier for people attempting to exercise their right to vote. In 2019 a federal judge sided with the plaintiffs and agreed that the law amounted to a poll tax and was unconstitutional.
But in September 2020, just two months before the presidential election, a federal appeals court overturned the previous ruling that will prevent any former felons who have not paid all of their back fines and fees from voting. Five of the six votes to overturn the ruling came from federal judges appointed to the court by President Trump.
Republicans know that Florida is arguably the most crucial state in their bid to capture the presidency. If Joe Biden or any other Democratic presidential candidate were to win Florida, the handwringing over states like Michigan and Wisconsin goes away because of the Sunshine State’s 29 electoral votes. Hillary Clinton lost Florida by 112,911 votes, a number that seems minuscule if you consider a pool of 1.4 million new voters, a majority of whom may lean Democratic.
Good intentions Meet Reality
While Colin Kaepernick is clearly well-meaning and puts his time, energy, and effort behind the causes he supports, it was unimaginably negligent of him to brag and boldly promote the fact that he does not vote, didn’t intend to vote, and voting doesn't matter because all the candidates were the same.
The margin of victory was so narrow for Donald Trump that there is no reason to think Kaepernick couldn't have moved the needle by choosing to use the soapbox upon which he stood in 2016 and the social media megaphone he wielded to push and encourage his hundreds of thousands of supporters to vote.
Is it improbable to think that the most prominent and popular politically active Black athlete could not have convinced a large number of Black people to cast a vote instead of sitting the election out?
And if you still think voting doesn’t matter, consider this as we continue to live altered lives under the cloud of a deadly global pandemic: In 2009, after multiple recounts and legal challenges, Al Franken became the certified winner of the Minnesota Senate election by 312 votes and became the 60th Democratic senator, a key number that allowed Democrats to end the Republican filibuster and vote to pass the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare aka the only reason many millions of Americans have healthcare access.
Every single progressive cause Kaepernick advocates for can be broken down to a simple equation:
Progressive Idea + Progressive Activism + Progressive Political Action + Progressive Legal Victories = Progressive Laws that move America closer to the fair, just, and equal society we should all be aspiring to.
Remove one part of the equation and things fall apart.
The idea that voting doesn’t matter and all politicians are the same is a position that is factually wrong, strategically incompetent, and downright imbecilic. That position makes Kaepernick and the abstainers just as responsible for Trump’s 220 judges and the decades of judicial beatings liberals and progressives will face as the MAGA hat-wearing racist Proud Boy.
Do not make the same mistake twice.
Do not be that stupid.
Go vote!
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Will the Low- and No-ABV Movements Survive Covid-19?
If it seems like everyone in your social media feed is drinking more right now, they probably are. According to IWSR data shared with VinePair, retail alcohol sales during Covid-19 have hit double-digit growth, mirroring “holiday-type” volume and value spending.
Of course, any current data should be examined with the caveat that on-premise sales have plummeted, and many are replacing those purchases with stay-at-home Quarantinis. There’s also stockpiling to consider, though IWSR figures signal that the bulk of this took place during a two-week period in March, and sales since then have remained strong.
But just as our interactions with the physical world are largely confined to the views from our windows, we should not overlook the subjectivity of social media feeds. Put simply: Not everyone is drinking more right now.
“If anything, I’ve seen this kind of outpouring of, ‘Here are all the ways that I’m taking care of myself,’ and lots of people doing yoga and meditation,” says Sam Thonis, co-owner of Getaway, an alcohol-free bar in Brooklyn. Opened in April 2019, the bar has become a brick-and-mortar signifier of the growing low- and no-alcohol movements.
Prior to Covid-19, these movements had started gaining significant traction, with coverage reaching national media. By the end of last year, publications such as The Washington Post and The New York Times had devoted significant column inches to the popularity of lower-ABV spritz cocktails and hard seltzers, and the growing interest in the “sober-curious” lifestyle. While it was harder to back the “trend” with sales data, low- and no-ABV drinks had by then entered the cultural lexicon.
But like everything else right now, the future of the low and no movements feels delicately poised. Convincing drinkers that it might be a good idea to lower their alcohol consumption is difficult enough at the best of times, let alone in the midst of a global pandemic. And looking forward, there’s the dark cloud of recession looming on the horizon, which is likely to impact consumer spending. That could be a particular challenge for the zero-proof category, whose products have been priced at retail similarly to the boozy libations they were designed to replace. To boot: The non-alcoholic botanical “spirit” Seedlip sells for around $30 for 700 milliliters, while a slightly larger bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin sells for $25. These issues raise the question: What does Covid-19 mean for the future of the nascent low- and no-ABV movements?
Drinking Habits In a Global Pandemic
For Thonis, there’s no question that the zero-proof scene was gaining traction prior to Covid-19. After Getaway opened, it received significant press. While skeptics could argue it seemed like a niche “New York” concept, multiple operators around the country reached out to Thonis and told him they wanted to emulate his model.
Sales, too, seemed to indicate that the city that never sleeps was willing to take the occasional night off from booze. “Before March, when everything changed, the two normal months of 2020 were our best months yet,” he says. “We were on a serious upswing.”
Sadly, those sales have now crashed to nothing. Unlike some New York cocktail bars, Getaway hasn’t pivoted to takeaway or to-go options. And when stay-at-home orders are finally relaxed, Thonis realizes his bar’s offerings might be deemed as a luxury by some. “[Non-alcoholic cocktails] are not human necessities, unlike food and arguably alcohol,” he says.
Lifestyle writer Ruby Warrington has noticed contrasting attitudes on her social media feeds. In 2018, the New-York-based British author wrote a book on alcohol abstinence titled “Sober Curious.” Some have even credited the work with popularizing the no-ABV movement. Warrington also hosts a podcast of the same name and interacts via social media with a community of people who choose not to drink.
Many of those interactions have included people speaking about how glad they are that they don’t drink right now and don’t need to navigate hangovers in the midst of a pandemic. But when she opens her Facebook feed, which has a lot of people from her “pre-sober-curious life” in the U.K., she notices some friends repeating the kind of statements that could double as a quarantine meme, such as “How early is too early to start drinking?” and “Drinking alone doesn’t count in a crisis.”
“It almost feels like there’s a lot of bravado, a ‘let’s drink our way through it’ sort of attitude,” she says. “With my sober-curious goggles on, it does seem like underneath there’s a lot of fear.”
Her evaluation is backed by psychological science. “It makes a lot of sense that people are drinking more during this time: They want instant relief from anxiety, boredom, depression, and just not wanting to feel their feelings — alcohol offers a solution to that,” says Lindsay Hayden, a New York-based licensed mental health counselor who specializes in addiction.
Hayden warns that without the structure and routine of normal life, those who are using only alcohol as a coping mechanism could soon be facing more serious issues. “Not everyone who is relying on alcohol will come out of the pandemic with an alcohol addiction, but it is definitely something people should be watching out for,” she says.
Drinking Habits During a Recession
While the “new normal” of quarantine life is unprecedented to all experiencing it, at least some of what comes after Covid-19 is not without parallel. By many accounts, the world economy is headed into a long and potentially deep recession. The IMF predicts the coronavirus crisis could knock as much as $9 trillion off global GDP over the next two years. If previous recessions are benchmarks, that doesn’t spell good news for the low- and no-ABV movements.
During the eight-month 2001 recession, whose economic impact lasted for several years, alcohol volume sales grew year-over-year, totaling a 4 percent increase between 2001 and 2004, according to IWSR’s chief operating officer, Brandy Rand.
While alcohol sales growth was somewhat flat during the Great Recession of December 2007 to June 2009, that was only because of declining beer sales. “[U]nemployment rate at the end of 2009 was 10 percent, yet there was still an upward consumption trend outside of beer,” Rand explains.
The purchasing habits from both of the most recent recessions indicate that when economic times are tough, consumers turn to the bottle. Amid the uncertainty, and with less cash in their pockets, they also favor higher-ABV beverages to leverage more bang for buck.
Lisa Laird Dunn, executive vice president of Laird & Company, predicts a similar trend this time around. Founded in 1780, her family runs the oldest licensed distillery in America. In its 200-plus-year history, Laird & Co. has survived more than 30 recessions, two world wars, and even Prohibition.
While known for its Applejack, the distillery’s portfolio contains a broad range of products, priced from high- end to value brands. Laird Dunn confirms that the company’s lower-priced value brands typically sell best during a recession and expects to see a repeat of this trend following Covid-19. “I think you’ll find that there will be more price shopping versus just brand shopping,” she says.
But national sales statistics and the experience of recession-defying distilleries paint just part of the picture.
In January 2013, the University of Buffalo published a study on alcohol use during the Great Recession. Polling more than 2 million Americans between 2006 and 2010, the study uncovered notable increases in heavy drinking (3.9 percent) and frequent binge drinking (7.1 percent), but also found a slight increase in abstention from alcohol (0.8 percent). Put more simply: Not everyone decided to drink more. And there’s more than just anecdotal references to prove the same thing is happening right now.
On Thursday, global research firm Wine Intelligence published its first Covid-19-related consumer analysis report. Based on data collected at the end of March and beginning of April, the report found that, on average, wine consumption has remained stable during lockdown. But once again, this trend only tells part of the story.
“We’re seeing an increase in frequency of wine consumption amongst more engaged wine drinkers,” says CEO Lulie Halstead. “So those who were already drinking wine at higher frequencies are increasing that frequency.”
On the flip side, younger drinkers who were just discovering wine are now drinking it much less frequently than before, she adds. While this finding is based on data collected in Australia, Halstead says early examinations of international data appear to show a similar trend in other markets.
Hope For the Low- and No-ABV Movements
During previous recessions, those who opted not to drink were limited to sodas, seltzers, and water. But this time around, the market is already awash with interesting alcohol alternatives. From no-ABV beers to zero-proof spirits, there are a number of non-alcoholic options that taste just like the real thing (or pretty darn close) without the alcohol and with fewer calories. If consumers can get past price concerns, the compelling flavors and low-calorie appeal of these products could help keep the low and no movements humming along.
As one notable example, Scottish brewery BrewDog has reported strong demand for its range of alcohol-free beers this year. Compared to the last four months of 2019, volume sales on its e-commerce platform have surged more than 350 percent between January and April of this year.
“Just last week, we had our strongest day of online sales ever with the launch of our newest NA beer: Ghost Walker,” says CEO Jason Block. Demand from wholesalers has been stronger still, with volume growth reaching quadruple digits during the first four months of 2020.
The thirst for no-ABV spirits appears to be similarly strong. Ritual Zero Proof, a non-alcoholic beverage brand that offers gin, tequila, and whiskey alternatives, sold its entire six-month inventory in just five weeks when it launched in September last year. Despite the current global pandemic, March 2020 sales were up 16 percent over February, and April sales are on track to double that.
“Spirit alternatives like Ritual are today what veggie burgers and almond milk were a few years back: New, easy to knock, and so broadly desired there are now sections in the grocery store dedicated to them,” says founding partner Marcus Sakey. “Almond milk did $5.3 billion in 2018.”
Support from internationally acclaimed bartenders has given these alternatives further credentials. At Bar Kumiko in Chicago, partner and director Julia Momose curated an extensive “Spiritfrees” cocktail menu. The bar is currently offering five of these drinks as part of a temporary to-go menu.
One of the most vocal supporters of low- and no-ABV cocktails has been Derek Brown, owner of Washington D.C.’s Columbia Room. In February, Brown authored a high-profile article on embracing “mindful drinking” and detailing his own complicated relationship with alcohol.
Brown believes zero-proof cocktails can be just as delicious, interesting, and thought-provoking as those with booze. While he’s also noticed an anecdotal increase in alcohol consumption, he doesn’t think that will harm the low and no movements. In fact, Brown believes our current situation might serve as a wake-up call for many. “A lot of people who went into this wondering whether they had a drinking problem will come out of it knowing the answer to that,” he says.
For those who do, there’s never been a broader range of alternatives and support to help change those habits.
The article Will the Low- and No-ABV Movements Survive Covid-19? appeared first on VinePair.
source https://vinepair.com/articles/coronavirus-impact-low-no-alcohol-movements/
0 notes
Text
Will the Low- and No-ABV Movements Survive Covid-19?
If it seems like everyone in your social media feed is drinking more right now, they probably are. According to IWSR data shared with VinePair, retail alcohol sales during Covid-19 have hit double-digit growth, mirroring “holiday-type” volume and value spending.
Of course, any current data should be examined with the caveat that on-premise sales have plummeted, and many are replacing those purchases with stay-at-home Quarantinis. There’s also stockpiling to consider, though IWSR figures signal that the bulk of this took place during a two-week period in March, and sales since then have remained strong.
But just as our interactions with the physical world are largely confined to the views from our windows, we should not overlook the subjectivity of social media feeds. Put simply: Not everyone is drinking more right now.
“If anything, I’ve seen this kind of outpouring of, ‘Here are all the ways that I’m taking care of myself,’ and lots of people doing yoga and meditation,” says Sam Thonis, co-owner of Getaway, an alcohol-free bar in Brooklyn. Opened in April 2019, the bar has become a brick-and-mortar signifier of the growing low- and no-alcohol movements.
Prior to Covid-19, these movements had started gaining significant traction, with coverage reaching national media. By the end of last year, publications such as The Washington Post and The New York Times had devoted significant column inches to the popularity of lower-ABV spritz cocktails and hard seltzers, and the growing interest in the “sober-curious” lifestyle. While it was harder to back the “trend” with sales data, low- and no-ABV drinks had by then entered the cultural lexicon.
But like everything else right now, the future of the low and no movements feels delicately poised. Convincing drinkers that it might be a good idea to lower their alcohol consumption is difficult enough at the best of times, let alone in the midst of a global pandemic. And looking forward, there’s the dark cloud of recession looming on the horizon, which is likely to impact consumer spending. That could be a particular challenge for the zero-proof category, whose products have been priced at retail similarly to the boozy libations they were designed to replace. To boot: The non-alcoholic botanical “spirit” Seedlip sells for around $30 for 700 milliliters, while a slightly larger bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin sells for $25. These issues raise the question: What does Covid-19 mean for the future of the nascent low- and no-ABV movements?
Drinking Habits In a Global Pandemic
For Thonis, there’s no question that the zero-proof scene was gaining traction prior to Covid-19. After Getaway opened, it received significant press. While skeptics could argue it seemed like a niche “New York” concept, multiple operators around the country reached out to Thonis and told him they wanted to emulate his model.
Sales, too, seemed to indicate that the city that never sleeps was willing to take the occasional night off from booze. “Before March, when everything changed, the two normal months of 2020 were our best months yet,” he says. “We were on a serious upswing.”
Sadly, those sales have now crashed to nothing. Unlike some New York cocktail bars, Getaway hasn’t pivoted to takeaway or to-go options. And when stay-at-home orders are finally relaxed, Thonis realizes his bar’s offerings might be deemed as a luxury by some. “[Non-alcoholic cocktails] are not human necessities, unlike food and arguably alcohol,” he says.
Lifestyle writer Ruby Warrington has noticed contrasting attitudes on her social media feeds. In 2018, the New-York-based British author wrote a book on alcohol abstinence titled “Sober Curious.” Some have even credited the work with popularizing the no-ABV movement. Warrington also hosts a podcast of the same name and interacts via social media with a community of people who choose not to drink.
Many of those interactions have included people speaking about how glad they are that they don’t drink right now and don’t need to navigate hangovers in the midst of a pandemic. But when she opens her Facebook feed, which has a lot of people from her “pre-sober-curious life” in the U.K., she notices some friends repeating the kind of statements that could double as a quarantine meme, such as “How early is too early to start drinking?” and “Drinking alone doesn’t count in a crisis.”
“It almost feels like there’s a lot of bravado, a ‘let’s drink our way through it’ sort of attitude,” she says. “With my sober-curious goggles on, it does seem like underneath there’s a lot of fear.”
Her evaluation is backed by psychological science. “It makes a lot of sense that people are drinking more during this time: They want instant relief from anxiety, boredom, depression, and just not wanting to feel their feelings — alcohol offers a solution to that,” says Lindsay Hayden, a New York-based licensed mental health counselor who specializes in addiction.
Hayden warns that without the structure and routine of normal life, those who are using only alcohol as a coping mechanism could soon be facing more serious issues. “Not everyone who is relying on alcohol will come out of the pandemic with an alcohol addiction, but it is definitely something people should be watching out for,” she says.
Drinking Habits During a Recession
While the “new normal” of quarantine life is unprecedented to all experiencing it, at least some of what comes after Covid-19 is not without parallel. By many accounts, the world economy is headed into a long and potentially deep recession. The IMF predicts the coronavirus crisis could knock as much as $9 trillion off global GDP over the next two years. If previous recessions are benchmarks, that doesn’t spell good news for the low- and no-ABV movements.
During the eight-month 2001 recession, whose economic impact lasted for several years, alcohol volume sales grew year-over-year, totaling a 4 percent increase between 2001 and 2004, according to IWSR’s chief operating officer, Brandy Rand.
While alcohol sales growth was somewhat flat during the Great Recession of December 2007 to June 2009, that was only because of declining beer sales. “[U]nemployment rate at the end of 2009 was 10 percent, yet there was still an upward consumption trend outside of beer,” Rand explains.
The purchasing habits from both of the most recent recessions indicate that when economic times are tough, consumers turn to the bottle. Amid the uncertainty, and with less cash in their pockets, they also favor higher-ABV beverages to leverage more bang for buck.
Lisa Laird Dunn, executive vice president of Laird & Company, predicts a similar trend this time around. Founded in 1780, her family runs the oldest licensed distillery in America. In its 200-plus-year history, Laird & Co. has survived more than 30 recessions, two world wars, and even Prohibition.
While known for its Applejack, the distillery’s portfolio contains a broad range of products, priced from high- end to value brands. Laird Dunn confirms that the company’s lower-priced value brands typically sell best during a recession and expects to see a repeat of this trend following Covid-19. “I think you’ll find that there will be more price shopping versus just brand shopping,” she says.
But national sales statistics and the experience of recession-defying distilleries paint just part of the picture.
In January 2013, the University of Buffalo published a study on alcohol use during the Great Recession. Polling more than 2 million Americans between 2006 and 2010, the study uncovered notable increases in heavy drinking (3.9 percent) and frequent binge drinking (7.1 percent), but also found a slight increase in abstention from alcohol (0.8 percent). Put more simply: Not everyone decided to drink more. And there’s more than just anecdotal references to prove the same thing is happening right now.
On Thursday, global research firm Wine Intelligence published its first Covid-19-related consumer analysis report. Based on data collected at the end of March and beginning of April, the report found that, on average, wine consumption has remained stable during lockdown. But once again, this trend only tells part of the story.
“We’re seeing an increase in frequency of wine consumption amongst more engaged wine drinkers,” says CEO Lulie Halstead. “So those who were already drinking wine at higher frequencies are increasing that frequency.”
On the flip side, younger drinkers who were just discovering wine are now drinking it much less frequently than before, she adds. While this finding is based on data collected in Australia, Halstead says early examinations of international data appear to show a similar trend in other markets.
Hope For the Low- and No-ABV Movements
During previous recessions, those who opted not to drink were limited to sodas, seltzers, and water. But this time around, the market is already awash with interesting alcohol alternatives. From no-ABV beers to zero-proof spirits, there are a number of non-alcoholic options that taste just like the real thing (or pretty darn close) without the alcohol and with fewer calories. If consumers can get past price concerns, the compelling flavors and low-calorie appeal of these products could help keep the low and no movements humming along.
As one notable example, Scottish brewery BrewDog has reported strong demand for its range of alcohol-free beers this year. Compared to the last four months of 2019, volume sales on its e-commerce platform have surged more than 350 percent between January and April of this year.
“Just last week, we had our strongest day of online sales ever with the launch of our newest NA beer: Ghost Walker,” says CEO Jason Block. Demand from wholesalers has been stronger still, with volume growth reaching quadruple digits during the first four months of 2020.
The thirst for no-ABV spirits appears to be similarly strong. Ritual Zero Proof, a non-alcoholic beverage brand that offers gin, tequila, and whiskey alternatives, sold its entire six-month inventory in just five weeks when it launched in September last year. Despite the current global pandemic, March 2020 sales were up 16 percent over February, and April sales are on track to double that.
“Spirit alternatives like Ritual are today what veggie burgers and almond milk were a few years back: New, easy to knock, and so broadly desired there are now sections in the grocery store dedicated to them,” says founding partner Marcus Sakey. “Almond milk did $5.3 billion in 2018.”
Support from internationally acclaimed bartenders has given these alternatives further credentials. At Bar Kumiko in Chicago, partner and director Julia Momose curated an extensive “Spiritfrees” cocktail menu. The bar is currently offering five of these drinks as part of a temporary to-go menu.
One of the most vocal supporters of the low- and no-ABV drinks has been Derek Brown, owner of Washington D.C.’s Columbia Room. In February, Brown authored a high-profile article on embracing “mindful drinking” and detailing his own complicated relationship with alcohol.
Brown believes zero-proof cocktails can be just as delicious, interesting, and thought-provoking as those with booze. While he’s also noticed an anecdotal increase in alcohol consumption, he doesn’t think that will harm the low and no movements. In fact, Brown believes our current situation might serve as a wake-up call for many. “A lot of people who went into this wondering whether they had a drinking problem will come out of it knowing the answer to that,” he says.
For those who do, there’s never been a broader range of alternatives and support to help change those habits.
The article Will the Low- and No-ABV Movements Survive Covid-19? appeared first on VinePair.
Via https://vinepair.com/articles/coronavirus-impact-low-no-alcohol-movements/
source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/will-the-low-and-no-abv-movements-survive-covid-19
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Dear Trick or Treater
Dear Trick or Treater!
Please don’t feel obligated to use my prompts! This letter is just in case you might want to poke at some more of my prompts/likes. Generally, I’m open to a lot, and I will be delighted with any rating from gen to explicit. My AO3 account is here.
If you want to write me a crossover, great! If you need to check if I know the canon please go through the mods.
My prompts are pretty ridiculous in places. That is not a preference to the treat-side, that’s just where my brain goes first. If you want to scare me, then definitely go for the creeping existential horror. It doesn’t even need to be detailed, I freak out really easily.
(If this letter cribs a lot from my other letters, it’s because I’m lazy, and my likes don’t change around that much :D You can find some of my other letters under the exchange letter tag. I hope you have fun creating!)
General likes:
loyalty
odd couples
found family, dysfunctional families that nevertheless love each other
historical stories for same-sex pairings that aren't unhappy but that fit with the society of the time (so like, spinster ladies living together; bachelors-for-life)
cultural differences, age differences, height differences
heists, rescue missions
dragons, fairy tales, magical realism, urban fantasy
competent characters
people not realising they’re the most competent at their job/hobby
people failing their way to success
happy endings, earning your happy ending, open yet hopeful endings
cynical humour
mutual pining
suits, corsetry, fancy dresses
Identity shenanigans (secret identities, mistaken identities)
Blatant Lies
Enemies becoming friends and/or lovers
outsider POV
epistolary
orange/blue morality (that is, not entirely human morality); grey/grey morality
people not usually found in law enforcement solving crimes
non-verbal expressions of affection
Kinks:
wall sex
shifting power dynamics
semi-public sex
lots of foreplay, drawn out orgasms, edging
desperate sex, drunk sex, we-just-can’t-help-it!sex, sex for life-affirming
sex toys
sex toys in public (though I get embarrassed if someone else notices)
General dislikes:
infidelity in mentioned pairings
suicide
non-con (dub-con is totally fine though; as are consent issues due to power imbalances, people not knowing all the facts, or drunken sex-polleness)
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Silas, Miss Lupescu
trick or treat; fanart or fanfiction
I'm very interested in their backstory, alone and together -- how did they meet? What's the purpose of the honour guard aside from killing all the Jacks?
But if you want to explore Miss Lupescu’s death — that would also be terrific (fix it! or make me cry because I will cry; either way is good)
Also here for: what scares a vampire? Other adventures Miss Lupescu went on. Where did she learn how to cook? What's up with the ghoul fighting? (How do Silas and Miss Lupescu earn a living? Do they pay taxes?)
Wynonna Earp (TV)
Xavier Dolls
trick or treat; fanart or fanfiction
Xavier Dolls is (SPOILER ALERT) a dragon. What's up with that? Does he hoard weapons? books? uncomfortable situations?
I'd be very interested in something that explored his supernatural side. Does his dragon-self work like a werewolf? Is he only mostly dragon? does he need to bathe in lava to grow?
Also terrific would be: Xavier Dolls knows that dragons exist, and revenants -- but ghosts?
Alternatively, Dolls hoards a collection of hats. Doc and Wynonna can never know.
Nirvana in Fire (TV)
Consort Jing
Trick or Treat; fanart or fanfiction
Consort Jing is very quiet. She also has a lot of dead friends. Maybe she's constantly surrounded by them?
Or: The real reason nobody stands in her way is that she’s a world class assassin. Or a witch, maybe.
Would also most definitely read a lot of words before anyone died and she was happy. Would also read her mothering her son, or Lin-shu, or quietly helping the other concubines in the palace.
Gokusen (Manga)
Sawada Shin, Yamaguchi Kumiko
Trick or Treat; fanart or fanfiction
Holiday-appropriate fic! Ghost houses! A school trip to the ghost forest where people kill themselves. One of these three is not like the other, but I would read all sorts of stories about these characters. Post-canon would be great, but anything goes really. I'd like additional appearances by any other of the cast, but it would be icing on the cake.
Focusing on just one character would be terrific. Kumiko has adventures with another class, or her minions! Shin goes to Africa, but gets lost in a different universe on the way there!
I ship Shin/Yankumi but gen is delightful also.
10 Things I hate about you
Kat Stratford, Patrick Verona
treat or trick; fanart or fanfiction
Kat and Patrick go to make-out in an abandoned factory. Too bad there's a ghost interrupting them every five minutes.
Would also read: Zombie apocalypse; Kat is a literal witch who devours boys and Patrick is her (virgin?) sacrifice. Obviously, you can probably come up with much better stories :D A look at what they do in ten, twenty years would be great, too! Separately, even!
Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Jane Marple
treat or trick, fanart or fanfiction
St. Mary Mead’s police is convinced there’s a ghost robbing/murdering people. Miss Marple is convinced they have all been too deep in the bottle.
Miss Marple has always been able to see ghosts. They usually have nothing much to say, and are quite nonsensical, but this one is different.
Or: zombie apocalypse! Or it’s Miss Marple who is the ghost.
Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Molly
treat or trick; fanart or fanfiction
Tbh, I just want Molly to be the protagonist of her own adventures. Molly is the best at riding the Folly of vermin like bed bugs, ghosts and the occasional angry spirit. Her cooking is a little bit magic.
Or: She has to fight with the traders at the market for magic ritual ingredients every time, since the Folly isn’t well liked among the demi-monde.
Also, what’s up with her heritage? Fae? Not Fae?
Original Works
Space Traveler, Incubus, Ghost Jellyfish, Incompetent Fortune Teller, Part-Time Ghost Exorcist, Eldritch Abomination In A Human Skin-Suit, Time-Travelling Artificial Intelligence, Long Abandoned Sentient Ship
trick or treat; fanart or fanfic
I think these tags speak pretty much for themselves. Feel free to combine them! I read anything from gen to explicit. Femslash, slash or any other relationships are great, too. If you want to take a look at my likes/dislikes see my letter.
How would a ghost jellyfish be different from a non-ghost jellyfish? Why would it turn into a ghost?
What kind of ghost stories do they tell in space? Space halloween traditions?
Tbh, I would read a story containing all those characters. It is by no means necessary, though!
Space Traveller: Tell me of the Halloween traditions that survive into the space age! Are there new traditions? What kind of scary stories do they tell in space?
Incubus: I have a thing for magical creatures doing totally mundane things, while being supernatural about it. Would also work for me if combined with any of the other characters! Also here for an Incubus dub-conning someone with sex pollen.
Ghost Jellyfish: How would that work? How would a ghost jellyfish be different from a non-ghost jellyfish? Why would it turn into a ghost? Maybe it’s a familiar of the Part-Time Ghost Exorcist?
Incompetent Fortune Teller: Ooh. In what way are they incompetent? Do they tell people what they want to hear, because they are incompetent at telling the future? Or are they incompetent at being a fortune teller, and tell people their future? Maybe they only see two seconds into the future -- maybe they are cursed and nobody believes the truth they are telling ;)
Would also read if the Incompetent Fortune Teller was made incompetent by the Time-Travelling AI and was pretty angry about that... or any other combination, really
Part-Time Ghost Exorcist: As I mentioned, I love when the mundane meets the supernatural. What’s the other part-time? Is the ghost exorcising business only hiring part-time workers so they don’t have to insure their workers? (This is admittedly very US centric. Would also love an AU where a part-time job can have a living wage! Or any other setting)
Would also love a space travelling ghost exorcist.
Eldritch Abomination In A Human Skin-Suit: Existential horror freaks me out pretty quickly, but this is such an interesting concept. Why is the Eldritch Horror using a Human Skin Suit? Because they can? Is it like, a life-style choice? Is the EA doing it for the experience, or to be edgy? Would also read if the Eldritch Horror is the thing that gets exorcised. Would also read if there’s no existential horror.
Time-Travelling Artificial Intelligence: What is the AI doing while time-travelling? Does anyone find them out? Why is it time-travelling? Does it abide by Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics? Would also read a story where the AI figures out to be human -- or tries having sex with someone, or maybe they get best upon by an Incubus and there’s confusion all around.
Long Abandoned Sentient Ship: How does the sentience work out, did it become sentient through its abandonment, or is the ship even self-aware? Does it model itself on its creators? Is the ship going crazy in a mild way, or in a creepy way? Or maybe the sentience isn’t very human-like, and it doesn’t need contact at all, and is just merrily continuing its mission to map the unknown space? Maybe it collects hitchhikers. Maybe nobody knows how or who had created it, and it’s just there.
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Masturbation Relieves Anxiety, Helps You Sleep, and Boosts Your Sex Life. So Why Don't More Women Do It?
New Post has been published on http://www.sextoyorgasm.com/wp/masturbation-relieves-anxiety-helps-you-sleep-and-boosts-your-sex-life-so-why-dont-more-women-do-it/
Masturbation Relieves Anxiety, Helps You Sleep, and Boosts Your Sex Life. So Why Don't More Women Do It?
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After centuries of being treated as the act that shall not be spoken of, female masturbation is finally shaking off some of its cultural baggage.
Broad City’s Ilana Glazer and Insecure’s Issa Rae have casually sought out ménage à moi on screen. Actress-turned-singer Hailee Steinfeld praises solo sex in her breakup ballad “Love Myself.” And in this month’s Bust magazine, Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez publicly laments that she once felt guilty about self-love. The message is clear: Everybody’s doing it. Right? Well, not everybody.
RELATED: The Better Sex Workout
In a new national survey, roughly one in five women say they have never masturbated in their lifetime. Never ever. Which is notable, given that masturbation is not only the safest kind of sex, but it also promises health benefits from better sleep to less painful menstrual cramps—and it can empower women to better understand their sexuality. So, why aren’t more women lending themselves a hand?
For the survey, titled Sexual Diversity in the United States, researchers at Indiana University polled 2,000 men and women between the ages of 18 and 91 about their interest and participation in more than 50 sexual behaviors, from anal sex to public sex to spanking. The survey was conducted anonymously and confidentially. While about 64% of men and 40.8% of women reported masturbating in the last month, 8.2% of men and 21.8% of women said they’d never done it. And these numbers jibe with previous research.
“The majority of women have done it,” the report’s lead author, Debby Herbenick, PhD, tells Health. But “a lot of women are still raised with the idea that it makes you ‘slutty’ or ‘oversexed’ in some way to be interested in sexual pleasure.”
RELATED: 8 Ways Sex Affects Your Brain
The survey didn’t ask participants to qualify their responses, but sexual health professionals have a few theories about why many women have never gone (down) there—and practical advice for women interested in making a maiden voyage.
First, there’s the stigma. Broad City’s Glazer may luxuriate in an evening of solo sex—lighting a candle, shucking an oyster, turning on a slow jam—but pop-culture depictions of women masturbating just because are still relatively new.
Until recently, even acknowledging that some women masturbate as an ordinary self-care ritual akin to, say, going to the gym or treating themselves to a manicure has felt transgressive. In a 2002 study exploring how college students talk with their friends about sex, female students “reported more communication overall than did males on all topics, except for masturbation.”
And as recently as 2013, the writer Ann Friedman suggested in New York’s The Cut that masturbation is the last sex taboo for women, pointing out that in too many popular portrayals (think: this scene in 2005’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin), “It’s something bad girls do, not something every girl does.”
RELATED: How Often Should You Be Masturbating? We Asked a Sex Expert
Women’s perceptions of masturbation vary across the country, too. “Some women think that pretty much every woman masturbates, and others who are in more conservative friend groups would think that far fewer women masturbate,” says Herbenick. “So a lot of it depends on where you live and who you’re friends with.”
Considering these reasons, it’s no surprise some women feel hesitant—or ashamed—to masturbate. Especially older women. After the actress Beth Grant was asked to deliver a joke on The Mindy Project about self-love ("I masturbate all the time," her character, Nurse Beverly, tells her coworkers. "I did during this discussion!"), the then-65-year-old told Cosmopolitan, "I'm from a generation where you don't talk about masturbating. . . . Certainly you don't do it, or if you do, it is a deep, dark secret.” Speaking openly about it, she said, felt liberating.
For many religious women (and men), masturbation isn’t just stigmatized—it’s forbidden. Conservative Christian denominations, Catholicism, some Muslim communities, and other religious groups consider masturbation a sin, teaching that sexual pleasure should only exist between a husband and a wife. “Generally, people who go to religious services more than once a week tend to be less likely to masturbate, less likely to use vibrators,” says Herbenick.
RELATED: This Is How Masturbating Can Transform Your Sex Life
When devout members of religions that ban masturbation do engage in it, they often suffer from feelings of intense shame, Karen Beale, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Maryville College who studies the relationship between religion, sex, and guilt, tells Health in an email.
Perhaps more than anything, though, women are simply under-educated about masturbation. High school sex ed classes very rarely teach students about the anatomy of the vagina—or clitoris—or even mention pleasure. Parents, too, have a tough time navigating the how-tos of self-love with their daughters. “Most women don’t recall any conversation between themselves and their parents about female masturbation,” says Herbenick.
This lack of dialogue leaves many women feeling clueless. “These really smart, successful, super-accomplished women would come into my office and say, ‘I’ve never really masturbated, and I feel very embarrassed. I should have figured it out, but I haven’t.’ I saw this over and over again in my practice,” said Vanessa Marin, a sex therapist based in Los Angeles. “We need to create more resources for women who are struggling in this area. The main reason women give for not doing it is, I don’t know how.”
Marin stresses that learning how to masturbate can have a real, positive impact on women’s lives. “There are so, so many different benefits of masturbation for women,” she said, from decreased anxiety levels to increased immune response. It helps you learn what you want from a partner—and means you don’t need a partner. “I also think the process of learning how to bring your body pleasure is one of the most empowering experiences you can have,” adds Marin.
RELATED: Science Says Men Should Be Masturbating 21 Times a Month—Here's Why
To help women who no longer want to be the “one in five,” Marin created an online course wryly called Finishing School, through which she helps women all over the country learn how to masturbate and orgasm. Bottom line, she says? You’re never too old to try your hand. And don’t worry about whether you’re doing it the “right way”—start by just doing what feels good and adjust from there. (For more guidance, you can check out her free orgasm workshop.)
The dearth of resources also inspired sex-positivity activist and photographer Lydia Daniller to co-create OMGYes, an award-winning interactive site where real women demonstrate—on themselves—various paths to orgasm. Since Daniller and her team of researchers, filmmakers, engineers, designers, educators, and sexologists launched the platform in 2015, it’s been embraced as revolutionary. (Herbenick is one of her collaborators.)
“Female pleasure has carried a stigma for a long time—but what's exciting is that things are shifting,” Daniller said in an email. “People are hungry for more factual and realistic information about sexual pleasure.”
Masturbation isn’t for everybody, and not every woman who tries it will be into it. But it’s worth remembering: Our culture has a long history of struggling to accept the reality that women enjoy sex as much as men do—and that women can satisfy their desire on their own. The more our culture encourages women to enjoy the pleasure of their own company, the more attitudes will change. As Daniller put it, “We think the current taboo around women's sexual pleasure will seem absurd to people in the future.”
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I need a logical scientific explanation for all the artificial Game of Thrones hype. Can someone make a poll or something? Why is everyone giving this show a free pass? D&D can literally have nothing but 7 episodes of Kit, Peter and Emilia sitting silently on a rock, surrounded by dancing CGI wight polar bears with Macarena playing in the background and they're still going to be praised for their brilliant writing. What the hell is going on?
That’s the $10 million question, isn’t it? We’ve been trying to figure that one out for a few years now; someone even made a documentary trying to get to the bottom of it with no clear conclusions.
In my own observation, it doesn’t seem to be any one thing; several factors seem to be at play here...
1) HBO owns A LOT of the media, thus compelling many mainstream publications to be obligated to heap all the blind praise onto the show. Of course, that doesn’t explain why other HBO properties like “The Sopranos” or “Westworld” are fair game and have been taken to task when people felt they needed to be. On the other hand, though, D&D are kind of like lobbyists -- they wine and dine the media rather extravagantly. There may also be threats of restricting/denying access to certain media that dare criticize the show, but I have no concrete evidence of that.
2) There’s this myth that if something on TV is “controversial”, then it must automatically mean it’s “progressive”. Just because someone or something “pushes the envelope” doesn’t mean they’re pushing it in a helpful or constructive direction. And the fact of the matter is, D&D have been historically INCAPABLE of adequately defending their “controversial” decisions.
3) I have spoken to shownlies who have admitted that they think the show has visibly gone downhill the last few seasons but are unwilling/unable to break away from it because it has become a sort of “social ritual” that they don’t want to give up. Basically, they like being a part of the pop culture zeitgeist, even if the show is more of a “guilty pleasure” for them now. I know some other show fans who have read the books who are, like, secretly show-haters? They know the show is bad but they don’t wanna say so out loud for fear of social reprisal/rejection. Ugh.
4) In the first couple seasons at least, the show was legitimate “prestige drama”. Those who were fans and who were able to follow the intricate plots (or read the Wiki, or “read” the books -- I put the word in quotation marks because I feel like a lot of show-fans only read the books to seem more “educated” without really having any intention of understanding what they were reading) were deemed “intelligent”, or at least they FELT intelligent. Being a GoT fan was like a mark of superior intellect. But once the show started going down hill, instead of using this supposed intelligence to see the holes and say “wait, that’s stupid and makes no sense”, they instead went into some sort of cognitive panic mode -- if the show didn’t make sense, then THEY must have missed something; the fault must be THEIRS, not the “brilliant” show, no no no that can’t be, and so they begin to honeypot their hearts out to maintain their “prestige” status. This probably also explains why so many show-fans get SO BLOODY DEFENSIVE when someone criticizes the show -- because to call the show out on its flaws feels personal. To call the show stupid is like calling THEM stupid, as if they’re not smart enough to see the flaws for themselves -- which they are INCAPABLE of seeing anyway because they’re so invested in seeming smart.
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5 Ideas for Productivity in a Pandemic: Plus, Virtual Huddles That Work By Fiona Kesby
Virtual assistants are more familiar with the challenges of working in a globally distributed team than most people. They’ve been doing it long before this year’s pandemic. Still, 2020 has offered plenty of ideas for outlasting any fear, worry or doubt, and staying productive. Here are some of them.
“When times are tough, they reveal our character, our inner strength, perseverance, tenacity, and intensity,” Adrian Ding said. “They also reveal what matters to us most.”
Adrian is a CEO (Chief Empowering Officer) of Maximum Impact Philippines, a corporate training and coaching business. In July, he hosted a series of talks featuring entrepreneurs, sales leaders, and bestselling authors. He called it “Rise Up, Cebu.” It was his contribution to encourage the community in Cebu, Philippines (about 4.6 million strong) where GO-VA has operated for 6 years now.
All of us in the www.go-va.com.au tribe are grateful to Adrian for the chance to tell our story in the session last July 17. Online presentations offer a new set of public speaking challengesーit takes some practice to adjust to speaking to a screen and not seeing the faces of the people you’re trying to connect with.
Yet like all challenges, this one had its blessings as well. Here are 5 ideas I rediscovered while preparing for this talk and during the session itself, which lasted nearly 90 minutes.
1. Focus on psychological safety, and productivity naturally follows.
The topic Adrian and I agreed on was “Keeping Your BPO Team Productive.” He had mentioned a study done among 1,000 companies in Silicon Valley, which showed that the top priority for teams was psychological safety.
“When you make people safe, the innovation and creativity just continue to soar,” said Adrian.
In GO-VA, we decided last March to send computers to more than 300 tribemates’ homes because we had seen, based on the experiences of BPO companies in Metro Manila, that quarantine restrictions would make transportation to the office extremely difficult to find.
That decision has worked in everyone’s favor. No downtime and no disruption for our clients. And when we polled the team during an all-hands virtual event in July, majority said they preferred to work from home. The second biggest group suggested that they be allowed to work most of the time from home, with the option to report to the office occasionally, like when the power or internet connections tripped off.
Every week, the team and I review the attendance, punctuality, and other productivity trackers, and I am happy to say our numbers are looking great. (At least 98.7 percent or better!)
Of course, there are perks we miss, like being able to say hello or give each other high fives in the office. So we make up for that in our virtual huddles or one-on-one calls, when there are chances to ask: What’s stressing you out? What roadblocks can I clear for you?
Everyone deserves to feel safe and happy. People deserve to feel they are winning. In this pandemic, safety on more than one level (physical safety, psychological safety) tops our list of priorities.
2. We are all going through this. Reminders to be kind include being kind to ourselves as well.
In February, before the quarantines began, my brother (and GO-VA Founder) Matt Kesby and I had started conversations within GO-VA about mental health and about asking for help. There is no shame in asking for help.
As part of these conversations, we talked about how the brain works and how, once we are aware of this, we can move more quickly from those “Oh, crap!” moments to “OK.” (Matt talks about this framework here in this on-demand webinar.)
One of the things we are doing differently this year is communicating at a much higher rate than we previously had, and communicating in a way that builds trust. We work with the FranklinCovey framework, as demonstrated in The Speed of Trust, and this has helped us to talk straight, confront reality, and clarify expectations with people.
Most importantly, listen first, and understand where they're at in their specific situations.
Sometimes, as leaders, we focus so much on what others are going through that we forget about self-care. We forget that the temporary spells of anxiety, worry, and fear happen to us as well. For me, the first 2 months were hard. I missed those unplanned interactions with the team in the hallways, and I missed our culture events. In our gratitude celebration last February, we had enjoyed a Hawaiian luau whilst being entertained by fire dancers. It was magical.
We didn’t know then that it would be our last in-person gratitude celebration for who knows how many months.
That’s OK, though.
Working in these new conditions has created other opportunities, like enjoying lunch with the family (instead of at our desks) and finding more time for personal transformation. For some, that will mean meditation, for others more exercise, and for some, better sleep. Mostly likely, a combination of tactics is what we’ll all need. We each can choose to figure out what works for us and to do that.
3. Even in the midst of lockdown, recognize and seize the opportunities to create.
Last year, we spoke about the idea of sending a nurse on a motorbike to team members who were sick at home, so we could drop off medicine and check on how they were doing. We couldn’t get it quite right. It just wasn't scalable.
This year, as soon as the borders between cities here in Cebu tightened, we heard that team members were finding it a challenge to bring their parents (especially senior citizens) to a clinic for a check-up.
Then over a 6-week period that began around Easter, the dev team (whilst working from home) designed and built a remote video support software (Quicklook.to) so that business owners and their teams could see a site that they couldn’t get to fast enough.
We imagined that our clients, whether they provide IT support or property management or maintenance services, would want to be able to check out a situation or give quotes, using their customers’ camera phones.
And then we thought, why not take this software and provide telemedicine to our team members? Let's take it one step further, and offer telemedicine to their immediate families in their homes because we’re hearing these stories that people just can't go and see a doctor.
Our hope is that as we start to do this, and people hear about it, that others will offer the same as well, and that we can get more free medical care to others in the Philippines.
4. Embrace the challenge of bringing culture-building online.
Also whilst in lockdown, Matt (who lived in the office for the first 55 days) and the dev team have kept working on our productivity software DoThis.to.
Designed and built for globally distributed teams, DoThis.to helps business owners automate their onboarding processes and training so they can scale faster. Now, as virtual assistants, our team members had regularly used tools like Zoom and Skype for Business long before work-from-home became a necessity this year.
This year, though, as millions more made the leap to Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, we noticed that online meetings would run into frequent challenges. Participants would trip over each other. People would say, “Pardon me? Can you repeat that, please?” almost as often as, “You’re on mute.”
So, the team built a huddle board feature on DoThis.to where teams could more easily stay on track, foster accountability, and give encouragement.
A lot of cultural rituals that used to be done face-to-face, we’ve also adapted.
Since late March, most public gatherings have been prohibited. Now when we welcome new team members or celebrate a successful probation period, we gather on Zoom. And instead of gathering in the office for our monthly lunch, Values Awards, and the CEO presentation, we meet in a virtual conference space (AllIn.to) at virtual tables, with virtual whiteboards.
“Many CEOs at your level, they will find that (having tea with new team members or having lunch to celebrate a work anniversary) a waste of time,” Adrian observed. (He also very kindly said that our onboarding process was one of the best he had seen so far. Thank you, Adrian!)
In GO-VA, we don’t see these touch points as a waste of time at all.
We’ve just had to learn to do them differently.
5. Use your affirmations! “I'm not telling you it's going to be easy. I'm telling you it's going to be worth it.”
Adrian also asked: “Why do you have such a huge passion for building culture in the organization? And why do you think culture matters in strengthening your team?”
I think that when you tell another person that you believe in them, that’s the most beautiful gift you can give.
As human beings, we can be really hard on ourselves. Even in the midst of a pandemic the likes of which no one has seen in nearly a century, and for which no one has a playbook for guaranteed success.
We all spend so much time at work. (Maybe a little bit differently now, because most of us are working from home.) So, why not make work a remarkable experience?
Leading GO-VA continues to be an amazing journey. What’s it like? I liken it to building a plane as it takes off from the cliff, and you’re still building it while you're flying. I’m sure a lot of entrepreneurs have had those feelings, around constantly building as we’re growing.
However, it has also been a journey of blessings. The Cebuano culture is so incredibly kind and so incredibly talented. So whilst this year hasn't been easy, not by a long shot, it has also brought about a lot of lessons in how to achieve results. How to innovate. How to care for one another better.
We choose to focus on these blessings.
Yes, there is a better way to run your online huddles with your team. We’ve built a tool that can put you and your global team on the same page, literally, and we’d love to show you how it works! Download here
#fiona kesby#pandemic#covid-19#virtual huddles#huddles#virtual assistants#business outsourcing#business offshore
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