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intersectionalpraxis · 5 months

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The idea behind a boycott truly seems lost on some. Percy Jackson and the Olympians was watched 13.3 million times since it's release, what, a couple days ago? It's on Disney+ aka the Pressure list on BDS, the author wrote a stupid blog post after 10/7 saying there are "two sides" to the issue, and many people who worked on the show are Zionists. What happened to the good ol' days of pirating? It's all Free Palestine until a show you want drops, huh? And from an author who has never written Arab/Muslim characters well.

I was reading a post on X recently about how someone had to tell her friends to boycott Starbucks because they didn't know it was one of the major companies that so many creators decided to start with because they were the most direct and influential (alongside McD's and Disney). Her friends were happy to do so, it's just they were 'unaware.'

This person also argued that unless you're "chronically online," you wouldn't know about what is happening, and depending on the media you are consuming (especially if it's mainstream western sources because we know they weave a VERY and vastly different story about what is happening in Palestine). I can understand a fraction of what she is saying, while at the same time I think this automatically reveals the willful ignorance that permeates our societies. How so many people can 'turn off,' and not engage or at least not know about what is going on across the globe based on many factors (which includes their governments and censorship -like in Canada it's hard to access videos on the ground in Palestine on Instagram unless you see it on X or Facebook or use a VPN, otherwise we/I can't access Eyes on Palestine on Instagram), is all very confounding to me. Because even without being 'online,' I do believe it's our responsibility to know, at bare minimum, what is happening.

I think at the crux of this (and these are just my opinions of course) is that many people in the global north, firstly, don't want to unpack their complicity in imperialistic and colonialist structures of violence in the global south because of their degree of consumerism (how the systems set up -and how so much of how we live depends on the mass hyper-exploitation of people 'elsewhere' where 'we don't have to see.'). So that in itself is something I think of when I see that there are people who either refuse to boycott big tech or industries that align or support genocidal regimes and powers, extensively so -because that would mean getting uncomfortable, being reflexive, demanding changes from these despicable companies (like refusing to buy from them until the are ethical and sustainable beyond paper), and overall changing your habits. And I don't mean shaming working class/poor people to stop shopping at major conglomerates to buy their groceries because that's not fair -not everyone can afford to buy local and go to farmer's markets. I'm talking about the excessive aspects of capitalism. Or watching/viewing content from places like Disney because they have the privilege to 'look away.'

We all know that if no one consumed a damn thing from these companies, that they'd change their tune very quickly, and it's just frustrating and beyond tragic to see Disney thrive despite how evil that corporation is, and only recently became 'inclusive,' but even so there's many stories and voices they leave out, or don't do justice. I hear you. I know what you mean, and seeing it is disappointing. Because even if you wanted to see those fucking films or series -yes there are OTHER means, but the fact that people will pay to see it and subscribe to it is just frustrating.

As always, boycott Disney.

#feminist #feminism #social justice #free palestine #freepalastine🇵🇸#palestine #free gaza #boycotting #boycott disney #boycott mcdonalds #boycott israel #bds movement #boycott divest sanction #boycott starbucks #western imperialism #us imperialism

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adultswim2021 · 3 months

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Paid Programming: "Icelandic Ultrablue" | November 3, 2009 - 4:30AM | Infomercials

At this time I was a very diligent Adult Swim recorder. The idea that the network might, at any time, air something weird caused me to record entire blocks, “just in case” on my TiVo. I would then scan through everything and save anything that looked interesting or novel to a DVD-R. For a short time, I archived bumpers as completely as I could.

I would also pour over schedules and look for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. I can’t say this with certainty, but I feel like I must’ve seen “PAID PROGRAMMING” on a schedule or maybe on my TiVo program guide and thought “wait, Adult Swim doesn’t air PAID PROGRAMMING usually. I wonder if that’s going to be something?” And so, I recorded Paid Programming and, eventually, I watched it, and a few minutes in I heard what was clearly David Cross’s voice and thought “oh, okay. I get it. He’s trying to do something here.” And that was roughly how I’ve felt about this ever since.

This one is fairly auspicious for the fact that it's technically the first entry into Adult Swim’s celebrated (but wildly hit-and-miss) “Infomercials” series. The concept was that people watching at home would see “PAID PROGRAMMING” in their cable guide while flipping around and, of course, they’d turn right to it, awaiting an earnest infomercial trying to sell them the Phillips CD-I or something like that. But instead of that, you get something CRAZY and WEIRD and HILARIOUS! Is this crazy and weird and hilarious? Well, I guess those descriptors are in the eye of the beholder. But since this blog is about my beholding eye, I will answer: “nah, not really”.

The content is, roughly: an infomercial for what appears to be a miracle drug, whose applications are somewhat vague, other than it making you feel better or solving whatever terrible personal problem you have. This is hosted by a “doctor” (admittedly he’s just dressed as a doctor, and refers to his experience as “36 years” ”spent hanging out in the medical community”), who eventually introduces a jingle contest for the wonder drug. This leads into clips of various entries, which eventually leads to a video of the producer of the most professionally produced entry talking about the importance of air-filtration while producing music. This leads to an extended pitch for the Icelandic UltraBlue air-filtration system, which is illustrated with a cartoon where good air particles round up bad air particles in an over-the-top, Nazi holocaust-esque cartoon.

This is roughly how the rest of the show plays out: a commercial for one aspect of the Icelandic UltraBlue empire suddenly turns into a different commercial, usually for a different iteration of Icelandic UltraBlue. The previous sketch segues into a sketch about a cash-for-Nazi-gold place, which segues into a sketch about a medical office that specializes in removing splinters (the owner of this establishment casually wears a diaper, and it’s treated as a very normal thing. It’s one of two times I laughed), which segues into a commercial for an embalming fluid that keeps your beloved’s remains fresh for up to three months after passing, so you can continue hanging out with their corporeal form. This segues back into a jingle entry, which turns into a sketch about chest-rash cream set at a gay guy bar. There’s gross zoom-ins, awkward acting, macabre premises, sexual inappropriateness, transgressive invocations of touchy subjects, and, uh, well? Maybe two laughs. If you’re wondering what the other, non-diaper-related one was, it was the racial slur. I’m sorry.

The problem is, this very much feels like the writers (David Cross and H. Jon Benjamin) are trying very hard to approximate Tim & Eric’s entire carefully cultivated style of humor. The casting of awkward, borderline-amateur actors, the jokes about consumerism, the attention to verisimilitude, etc. There’s a little more Mr. Show-style satire thrown in, but the entire thing comes off as a pale imitation of either or both of those things. If one can glean a set of objectives from creating this (other than “it’s called PAID PROGRAMMING and it’s gonna MESS with people, man!!”) one could also easily observe Tim & Eric accomplishing those things much better, in a less forceful way.

The casting in particular is far less inspired than Tim & Eric’s; it runs the gamut of people who either seem like they themselves are trying to imitate pre-existing characters from Tim & Eric’s wack pack or at worst seem like they were poached from a low-level UCB class. Not that Tim & Eric are exactly pure in their intentions with their cast of “outsiders”, I sense more mean-spiritedness in hiring some guy, calling his character “Fatfuck” and having him wear a diaper.

This was retroactively deemed the first episode of “Infomercials”; a proof-of-concept that, for my money, exemplifies the worst aspects of the “miss” installments in the “hit and miss” tapestry of the Infomercials milieu. Wow, what a great, non-pretentous sentence I just wrote. Anyway, it feels especially pathetic to me that David Cross had previously put Mike Lazzo on blast for taking the concept of Paid Programming and running with it. I too, would feel wronged, but feigning any kind of pride over this is, well, I already used the word pathetic. But it’s pathetic.

David Cross is a person who I still respect and think can be brilliant. I even watched a few of his new video podcasts on YouTube. It was nice, like checking in on an old friend. Cross is one of those guys who, when many people discover him and become fans, seems impossibly funny and almost infallible. The more you become familiar with the whole package, the more you realize that he’s a pretty regular guy, who is capable of turning out bad work. He’s also not a particularly friendly person, and can rub people the wrong way very easily. I am not trying to damn him here; I find him to be uncomfortably relatable. Many of his flaws are also my flaws. I should basically be best friends with him. Unless he reads this, that is.

An illustrative example of his humor to me is the embalming fluid sketch. In it, a man uses it on his wife, who dies of a splinter. They both lay in bed, and he takes her hand, puts it in under the covers, and uses it to jack himself off with. I’m not knocking it for any other reason that I just found it to be not particularly funny; it’s an easy vulgar laugh.

A sketch from Mr. Show featured a similar gag; a riff on the song Monster Mash about a guy who is working through a traumatic mental breakdown from experiencing this horrifying monster party. While he’s confessing some sexual encounter or something, we cut to an “expert” who has been seen in talking-head segments watching this footage, furiously masturbating. I recall Cross proudly inserting this joke into the sketch, noting the big laugh it gets from the studio audience, despite apprehension from the other writers. Even as a teenager, I remember seeing that and thinking “I could do without that joke”. It’s too easy, and it just makes ME want to masturbate.

The episode ends (after a sketch set in a gay bar that already felt stale in 2009) with the “doctor”/host ominously talking into a wrist microphone that “phase one is complete”, and then it cuts to a “To Be Continued”. I reread the back-and-fourth between Cross and Lazzo, and he actually does mention his plans for the series arc: it’s aliens. Cool!

I don’t mean to minimize the Lazzo-theft accusations or imply that they aren’t valid. I also don’t mean to imply that David Cross is completely in the right, either. If I were in either of their shoes I’d feel like the other guy was slinging at least a little bit of bullshit at me. Cross’s specific gripe is that he pioneered the concept of airing the thing at 4AM with a deceptive title, which does make a little sense. Lazzo’s defense is tenuous at best, and sorta clouds that main issue.

But, I don’t know. It does sorta seem like the kind of idea a lot of people have had, but then deemed impractical. I’m sure other people have thought “wouldn’t it be cool to air a parody infomercial at the time actual infomercials air?” I guess I can’t think of anything else that’s really done that. The closest I could come up with were tongue-in-cheek infomercials that behaved like parodies of infomercials, but actually were unironically selling something. In 2003, The Ben Stiller Show came out on DVD, and they produced an infomercial called “Wake Up Your Smile”. The Beastie Boys did one in 1998 for Hello Nasty. Mystery Science Theater did one in 1996 hawking their mail-order VHS tapes. Hell, Adult Swim did actually produce an infomercial for Williams Street records, as noted on this blog. It sorta seems like the ingredients were all right there, man. You know?

Mr. Show did a fake infomercial too, as a best-of special for season one. Damn. I guess David Cross really did invent this shit.

MAIL BAG

handbananad writes:

I am so genuinely sorry you're stuck in titan maximum hell. At least it's almost over? Is it almost over? Was this one of those early 2000's shows with a 40 episode season and you're going to be here forever?

Thank you. The show is only 9 episodes (including a half-hour first episode), so that's a silver lining. But yeah, it feels much longer. But it is nice having a show that I can outwardly hate and gloss over defiantly. It also makes me appreciate Robot Chicken more, which is tough to do.

On the other hand, I'm real glad to be watching Venture Bros, but those write-ups are much more demanding. What's a blogger with readers in the single-digits to do?

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #paid programming #icelandic ultrablue

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deltaengineering · 3 years

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that was the winter anime 2021 that was

Still not quite ready for a dozen posts about how terrible the likes of Combatants Will Be Dispatched are, sorry. Watch Vivy though, it owns. Here’s some more things that are (mostly) good. As always, worst to best.

Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki S3

Yatogame has long run out of hot Nagoya facts and its ensemble comedy never amounted to much, so now it seems mostly content to just spam more and more wacky character designs. About the only thing that it has left going for it is that 3 minutes a week are more effort to drop than to watch, so I expect them to make a movie next. 4/10

Go-toubun no Hanayome S2

Quints is a weird one. S1 was a barely good enough (i.e., well above average) implementation of the ages old harem chestnut. S2 is actually better at the core of its appeal, since it gives all the characters a sharper profile (things like taking Nino from joke to badass and making Ichika a villain are no mean feat), but it does pay a steep price for it. You see, to deliver a steady drip feed of meaningful character moments it apparently has to rush through the source material at a breakneck pace, which completely wrecks the "story" part of this story and makes every episode seem like a recap. And it still keeps wasting precious time on vestigial nonsense like its framing device and the Kyoto flashback scenario that was already the worst part of S1. But by far the most annoying aspect is its insistence on keeping all the options valid, since it prevents any real progress and makes everything seem arbitrary and pointless. So sure enough, after a season of much ado we still don't end up anywhere — you can't really raise the stakes if all at stake was "who wins" to begin with. It's watchable and even enjoyable scene-for-scene but it's getting harder and harder to call it a solid show overall. 5/10

Skate Leading Stars

I was watching this primarily because I didn't like Yuri on Ice much and wanted to see if something that is a blatant attempt to cash in on it would be better — because while YoI delivers on one aspect (being hella gay), it really is an absolute shambles of a sports show. And sure enough, Skate Leading has none of the auteur appeal of YoI, but it just works much better. In particular I appreciate how it managed to make me care even a little about a cast of assholes, which is a nice contrast to the nauseatingly ingratiating way YoI tries to make you love its characters. Also, Skate Leading is just generally cheap and unambitious, so not susceptible to trying hard and painfully flaming out on the presentation side like YoI is. But at some point you gotta let go of these comparisons and on its own Skate Leading is... just fine, I guess? Competent, mildly engaging, not very memorable. And that's probably where it loses to Yuri on Ice in the end after all, even if I think it's "better". 6/10

Idoly Pride

Idoly Pride sold itself on me with a really good (and hilarious/tragic) first episode that was just too bizarre to ignore — I mean, how can you ignore GHOST IDOL MANAGERS. Well, the majority of the show isn't like that. It's a competent and solid version of the idol franchise show, yes, but it really had more potential than that. Especially midseason, it gets lost in these dozens of characters, and while they're all likeable, it does seem like a waste of a good story just centered on Mana/Kotona/Sakura. By the end it comes back around to the heart of the matter with a Maeda-style sob story, which could be a disaster but seasoned veteran Jukki Hanada makes it work anyway. Overall, there's quite a bit of ridiculous hacky melodrama in this, but quite honestly that's the best part and I wish it would concentrate more on it. The rest is just okay. 6/10

Yuru Camp S2

Yuru Camp is still likely the best pure iyashikei show when it gets down to business. Compared to S1 though, this seems to happen less and less. At its peaks (i.e., basically any quiet moment with Rin) it's at least as good as ever, and there's some good cast additions like Mini-Inuko, but it appears that Yuru Camp simply has run out of things you can do with camping and it fills up the time with other... stuff. This stuff includes the generic school club shenanigans it was never particularly good at, and a gigantic helping of crass consumerism. Yeah, I would say the majority of Yuru Camp is just a straight up infomercial at this point, which itself ranges from the perfectly acceptable (which cute anime isn't about food constantly), to the sketchy (I don't know whether the Izu tourism board cut this production a fat check, but if they didn't, Yuru Camp still gives its best effort to make it seem that way) to the highly irritating – I am aware that camping requires gear and you can't just ignore that, but you most definitely do not require whole arcs dedicated to talking about raising funds for the purposes of acquiring the Lamp of Comfy Happiness at your friendly local Caribou™ either. Not to mention an arc where the aforementioned lame school club does the same, for double irritation. Make no mistake, this show is so riddled with scenes that beg for a solution to embed affiliate links in video files that it makes me wish I was watching something as anticapitalist and underground as Love Live. And irritating really is the last thing a show with this core concept, as stellar as it is at that, can afford to be. Bummer. 6/10

SKOO the Infinity

Skoo has one really huge asset: ADAM, its magnificent villain. It also has one really huge liability: Reki, its not magnificent protagonist. To be more specific, it's very good at anything outrageous, physics-defying and silly, such as most scenes ADAM is in, and quite bad at anything serious, dramatic (in a serious way) and down to earth, such as most scenes Reki is in. So, what's the verdict? Well, the rest of the cast is more ADAM-like, and Reki's co-protagonist Langa is fine as the straight (yeah, right) man. The tedious buddy drama is a comparatively small part of this show, and at least it pays off quite well in the end. Seriously, I was ready to give this a 6, but the final episode is probably the best one of the show, in all of its aspects. That's really not something you see often. Skoo's a great time. Except when it's not. 7/10

Non Non Biyori Nonstop

Speaking of the rare good ending, what about we gave one of those to a slim and inconsequential slice-of-life show? NNB has always been solid, comfy and amusing quality with a couple of standout moments (usually something with Renge), and Nonstop has that plus an ending as conclusive as any show of this type is ever going to have. Besides, it does a lot of things right by focusing on more characters than the central 4 (especially Konomi has great material in S3), it expands the universe just enough to not get stale, and it moves things forward — It's definitely a lot better than the movie, is what I'm saying. Apart from that, well, we're three seasons in, if you have any interest in this you probably don't need me to explain what's good about NNB at this point. Bonus points for being nothing but an ad for the manga. 7/10

Wonder Egg Priority

Oh boy, so here's the big one. Wonder Egg is the rare Meaningful Arthouse Show About Real Issues You Guys, as you might have heard. And well, the long and short of it is that it's a very good show with quite a few glaring problems (besides not actually being finished due to production issues, but what we have is enough of an ending to be able to meaningfully talk about it). In particular, one problem: WEP is, at its core, one of these metaphorical Magical Girl-ish series that are just a thin layer of abstraction over coming-of-age or societal problems. The issue is that "metaphorical" in this case means "literal" and "thin" means "basically nonexistent". This show is not subtle regarding what it's about, at all. This is a double-edged sword — on the positive side, some things really should just be said aloud, and I'm really, really fucking tired of the Ikuhara style of "here's some wacky things, maybe a blog post will eventually tell you how it's actually about the most important thing ever" obfuscation — if it's really so important, just spell it out. On the other hand, there are limits to this and when a second, different Ai appears I don't really need a voiceover line telling me that yep, this show is about parallel universes now. WEP spells out many important things, but it also spells out many things that are implicitly clear or better left vague. Not to mention that with being so obvious up front, the show's tendency to leave figuring out what it's actually saying about it up to the viewer can leave the wrong impression. Again, I settled on the opinion that it's subtle after all where it counts the most, but you might easily get the impression that it pulls its punches (Ikuhara does this the exact other way around — once you figure out what the fuck he's talking about it's abundantly clear what he's saying about it).

In fact, this show is so good at subtle, quiet character moments that it calls into question the need for big huge fighting fantasy layer in the first place, especially since I'm not a fan of the fantasy designs and the fights aren't great. Sure, they look impressive on a technical level (this show is very good looking in general), but the lack of actual impact or rhythm makes me think this is not made by people who are very familiar with action and maybe they should have asked some seasoned shounen veterans for this — or just, you know, not do it. They can (and do) impress with character acting in quiet scenes just the same. And while Ai's character story actually does pay off quite nicely by the end we got, and Momoe and Rika are also handled well, Neiru's backstory is significantly less good, not to mention the whole Frill subplot regarding the show's mythology that they introduced just before (and that's the part to be resolved at a later date), which is a huge can of worms. We'll see how well they handle that, I suppose, but as it is it's a weird and vestigial detour that doesn't add much besides thematic headaches.

But yeah, apart from all that — I like it, a lot. Great character writing in the details, cool looks for the most part, tons of ambition, and a message that I consider to be appropriately handled — for the most part, and for now. Not quite ambitious arthouse anime at its finest, but also not a pretentious disaster like Sarazanmai, Monogatari et al. 8/10

#anime #review #winter2021 #Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki #Go-toubun no Hanayome #Skate Leading Stars #Idoly Pride #Yuru Camp #sk8 the infinity #Non Non Biyori #wonder egg priority

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manychocolatefactories · 3 years

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CatCF Milk Chocolate: Part 1, the kids

About this version: Milk Chocolate was inspired originally by a mix of the book, the vibes of the 1971 movie and the Tim Burton movie aesthetic. A bit more goofier and whimsical than the other versions. In term of era, I thought of it as a mix of 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

In this version seven Golden Tickets are spread throughout the world, and each time one is found the same female reporter (her character is a reference to the musical) goes to interview the children. Another recurring joke is that while the hunt is going on for the Tickets, there are all sorts of ridiculous debates on television such as: do the Golden Tickets really exist, or is this just a hoax ? Do the Golden Tickets give cancer? Can animals go on a tour like humans? What happens if a Golden Ticket winner dies before the tour? Are the Golden Tickets linked to the rise of youht delinquence? Are the Golden Tickets a proof of Wonka's alleagiance to the obscure sect of the Golden Bird?

First Winner: Augustus Gloop

(Based on Augustus Gloop)

This Augustus was actually based on an idea Stained-by-the-sea allowed me to "borrow" a bit. Stained noted that Augustus always made him thought of this section from the movie "North", about Buck and the Texan parents. If you don't know what I am talking about, I'll leave links down there. And this is such a perfect matc I had to dig a bit down there.

This Augustus is basically a mix of all the archetypes associated with Texas and Nevada. But more precisely, he is basically "Buck" from North - a boy whose family (and his own mindset) embody the motto "bigger is better".

The Gloop family always thought that they should be "the biggest and the bests" and that "bigger is better". Ironically, the Gloop parents themselves are regular-sized people, but they clearly enforced this mentality on their son. Augustus is a big boy. Literally. He is tall, he is thick, he is fat, he is very, very big. He is probably one of the tallest, and definitively the largest boy on the tour (in fact, he once or twice gets stuck in the doors of Wonka factory). He eats ten meals per day, and we are not talking of regular sized meals. We are talking piles of ribs, kilos of potatoes, entire chickens... His parents also prepared for him a "big" and "best" future - paying the local sportive teams to claim he is a sports champion despite Augustus never setting a foot on a sports field, arranging his marriage with the local beauty queen of the state he lives in, already preparing the three different houses he will live with his fifteen kids... As a result, Augustus isn't just big and fat physically, he also has a massive and bloated ego. He thinks that he is the best at everything, and that he should have absolutely everything he wants.

The Gloops themselves are actually the masters of the state they live in, so to speak. They are the wealthiest and most influential industrials of the area: they built highways, casinos, hotels, private villas, they are cow-farmers, owing a lot of slaughterhouses, and also dig for oil and gold. They want their business to be the "biggest there ever was" and all they do is exaggerately big: their villas are enormous, their hotels are everywhere, their farms hosts several thousands cows, their mines are among the deepest in the world...

Trouble is that, due to their expansion and consumption of everything, they are a threat to the landscape and the environment - destroying forests to build their roads and buildings, drying out the lands to feed their farms... in fact, part of the reason why their state looks like the most desertic parts of Texas and Nevada is due to their actions.

Think... Buck from North. Think Art Land from Mar Attack. Think an evil (and obese) version of Clay Bailey from "Xiaolin Showdown". In fact, if I remember well in one episode Clay turns into a sumo for one of the Showdowns... this would probably be Augustus' appearance in this version: sumo Clay Bailey. (Edit: Yes, I checked out, it is episode 23 of the series).

Second Winner: Clarence Crump

(Based on: Clarence Crump)

Clarence didn't had any kind of personnality in the original drafts outside of a desire to prove he was right. As a result, I decided to have a lot of fun and create my own character.

The idea of vanity has already been touched several times with the other brats, but I wanted to give it its own character and kid. I also wanted to create a polar opposite of Augustus, denouncing the fact that being skinny can be just as bad as being fat when in excess. As a result, Clarence Crump is here a boy obsessed about being thin, and proud of being too skinny for his own good.

Mr. Crump is a pseudo-health guru that keeps writing phony and very dangerous diet books, the kind that will advice you to stop eating altogether to lose weight. As for Mrs. Crump, she is a beauty pageant champion (local and regional, and while she acts as if she was some national beauty champion, she always failed at nationals). From their union was born a child who inherited their vanity, pride and obsession with "health"

Black haired, very pale, very thin, very slender, to the point his bones show, Clarence delights in being skinny, and works as a teenager model promoting the "thin-fashion". He is also the embodiment of fat-shaming, never missing an occasion to insult fat people (in fact he often calls Augustus a big fat cow). He uses however the excuse of health for that (a trick his parents taught him) - promoting extreme thinness by talking about health and fat-shaming people in the name of health allows one to be much more horrible than normally accepted.

A good proof of how Clarence actually is just very vain and obsessed with being thin, and not at all defending health - Clarence condemns sports for being unhealthy, because according to him "muscles are unhealthy because they don't make you look beautiful, they make you look ugly".

He always wears short and black sleeveless tank-tops, the point being that he needs to show as much as his body to the world as possible, to be a "living example". He even wears his black short and tank-top during the tour (despite it being winte - the only thing he wears on top of his clothes to not get cold is a skunk fur coat).

Third Winner: Miranda Grope

(Based on: Miranda Grope)

This character was based on Dahl's own character of "Miranda Grope" from early drafts of the story, the horrible and atrocious girl allowed to do "whatever she wants".

In my version, the Grope parents are hippie-like people, the father having a very long beard and being covered in fleas, while the mother is covered in flowers and oss (plants that grew over her), and both always wearing rose-tinted glasses. They are the kind of parents that refuse authority and orders, seeing these (and social norms as a whole) as a "dictatorship". They prefer to trust their daughter to find her own way in the world, believing that experience is the best teacher in life. The result? They lazily raised her by telling her they would never forbid her anything and that she could do anything she wanted.

Miranda is a devilish little girl who does only what she wants, and becomes extremely violent when prevented from doing something. Or when people say something she doesn't want to hear. Or just when people she dislikes are near her. She shouts, the screams, she insult, she kicks, she hit, she throw enormous and terrifying tantrums. She has a very wide range of insults, and a truly evil mind : most of the things she wants to do are borderline crimes. It seems for her only chaos and destruction is "fun", a true little punk.

Miranda has a disastrous haircut because she cuts her hair herself, and she is always wearing the same clothes that she rarely washes): a white shirt, a blue sweater with long sleeves, and a plaid tiles skirt. An outfit that looks strikingly like a school uniform - but it is pure irony, because Miranda hates more than anything in the world school. She doesn't go to school, and the only time she went near one was to try to burn it down. (Her appearance is in fact based on Lauren Child's illustrations for Miranda, if you are wondering).

Fourth Winner: Veruca Salt

(Based on: Veruca Salt)

For this Veruca, I wanted to do something slightly different... here, Veruca doesn't want everything just because she is a spoiled rich brat. She is still one, but she is also the product of post-WW2 consumerism.

This Veruca was born surrounded by advertisements, logos, slogans and product placements. On television, in the streets, in shops, in journals, at the radio... She grew up with them and was influenced, brainwashed by them. As a result, she is obsessed with obtaining everything that was advertised, and she herelf looks like a walking billboard since she is covered in big, flashy logo and keeps reciting different brands' slogans and mottos. As soon as she sees something she saw publicity of before, she needs to obtain it at once. She is a true zombie, only hearing the call of the shopping mall and of the television advertisements.

One idea I had was that the Salt parents actually worked for (or where at the head of) a wealthy advertisement company, known to produce, design and create all kinds of famous publicities and slogans - and that they used their daughter as a guinea pig for their tests, and delighted in Veruca being so addicted to consumerism. In fact, they may have named her Veruca because at the moment of her birth they were working on advertisements for an anti-wart product, so that's all they had in mind.

Fifth winner: Herpes Trout

(Based on: Mike Teavee)

I went with this version of Mikee Teavee with the focus on "violence" already present in the original work, but also heavily used in the opera (and touched a bit in the 2005 movie).

This Herpes Trout is the embodiment of the fear of kids becoming violent upon watching television and playing video games (his only two passions in life). He has a true fascination with guns and firearms - US soldiers shooting aliens, gangs shooting each other, cowboys shooting at bandits, it's all he ever plays and watches. Herpes worships violence, and is absolutely obsessed with war (here I am thinking of all the wars present from the 60s to the 80s, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars...). War propaganda and the fight being glorifyed heavily influenced him - as a result his biggest dream is to go at war in some foreign country to kill everyone there and come home a hero.

Herpes comes from a family of rednecks and hillbillies from the deep country. They are not poor however, they are wealthy enough to have television and several video games, but they are uneducated people full of stereotypes, discrimination and hate. They named their son Herpes because they ignored what it meant but just thought of it as an "intelligent" name. Herpes has everal brothers and sisters, and all have a disease name.

Herpes himself is a big and strong kid, who followed body-buildings process a la Charles Atlas and military training, becoming impressively muscular. However, he retained a soft, childish and chubby "baby face", which kind of ruins the effect of this massive, muscular, almost adult body. Always dressed in a military outfit, he carries everywhere with him guns and firearms, the question being: are they real? Or are they not?

Sixth Winner: Violet Glockenberry

(Based on Violet Beauregarde)

I wanted with this version to take back the idea of a competitive and "sportive" girl obsessed with contesting and winning - introduced in the Tim Burton movie.

This Violet is a tall, muscular and strong girl. She won numerous sportive competitions, but this doesn't make her just arrogant and prideful like in the Tim Burton version. In my version she is also very aggressive and violent (a bit like in the original novel). She is a nasty and rude bully easily prone to anger (in fact, if she keeps chewing gum it is mostly to calm her down sot hat she doesn't punch everyone around). Her parents originally pushed her towards competitions to manage her anger issues, but sports only gave her more strength and destructive power. In fact, they became terrified of her, while she considers them losers here to serve her - she basically thinks of herself as self-made, literaly.

Seventh Winner: Charlie Bucket

(Based on: Charlie Bucket)

For this Charlie, I wanted to go with a Charlie similar to the original illustrations of the character: blond hair, blue eyes, a white boy...

Basically, he is the original Charlie. Very sweet, very innocent, a gentle kid, the best of the group.

However I changed slightly his background. Charlie in this version is not the grandson of four grandparents, but rather the big brother of four younger siblings - and his family here struggles with trying to feed five children (and a total of seven mouths) despite having very humble and low-paid jobs. I think Charlie has taken the role of a parentive figure for the siblings, but at the same time him spending so much time with young children helped him keep in touch with his "childish" side.

#charlie and the chocolate factory #catcf #milk chocolate #retelling #charlie bucket #violet beauregarde #mike teavee #augustus gloop #veruca salt #miranda grope #clarence crump

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ducktastic · 3 years

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2020 Gameological Awards

Over on the Gameological Discord, we have an annual tradition of writing up our games of the year not as a ranked list but rather as answers to a series of prompts. Here are my personal choices for the year that was 2020.

Favorite Game of the Year

I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into Paradise Killer. I knew that I liked the vaporwave resort aesthetic from the game’s trailer and figured I was in for a Danganronpa-style murder mystery visual novel with an open-ended murder mystery at its core. Those assumptions were… half-right? The game definitely plays out like the exploration bits of Danganronpa set on the island from Myst but with far simpler puzzles. What I didn’t expect was to fall so deeply in love with the environment—its nooks and crannies, its millennia of lore, its brutalist overlap of idol worship, consumerism, and mass slaughter. It makes sense that the world of Paradise Killer is its strongest feature, since the cast of NPCs don’t really move around, leaving you alone with the world for the overwhelming majority of your experience as you bounce back and forth between digging around for clues and interrogating potential witnesses. And despite what the promo materials indicated, there IS a definitive solution to the crimes you’re brought in to investigate, the game just lets you make judgment based on whatever evidence you have at the time you’re ready to call it a day, so if you’re missing crucial evidence you might just make a compelling enough case for the wrong person and condemn them to eternal nonexistence. Am I happy with the truth at the end of the day? No, and neither is anybody else I’ve spoken to who completed the game, but we all were also completely enthralled the entire time and our dissatisfaction has less to do with the game and more to do with the ugly reality of humanity. I’ve always been of the mindset that “spoilers” are absolute garbage and that a story should be just as good whether you know the twist or not and any story that relies on surprising the audience with an unexpected reveal is not actually that good a story, but Paradise Killer is a game about piecing together your own version of events so I feel that it’s vital to the gameplay experience that people go in knowing as little as possible and gush all about it afterwards. Just trust me, if the game looks even remotely intriguing to you, go for it. I’ve had just as much fun talking about the game after I finished it with friends just getting started as I did actually solving its mysteries myself.

Best Single Player Game

I honestly missed out on the buzz for In Other Waters at launch, so I’m happy I had friends online talking it up as Black Friday sales were coming along. The minimal aesthetic of his underwater exploration game allows the focus to shift more naturally to the game’s stellar writing as a lone scientist goes off in search of her mentor and the secrets they were hiding on an alien world. It only took a few hours for me to become completely absorbed in this narrative and keep pushing forward into increasingly dangerous waters. In Other Waters might just be the best sci-fi story I experienced all year and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi novels, regardless of their experience with video games.

Best Multiplayer Game

Look, we all know this year sucked. 2020 will absolutely be chronicled in history books as a fascinating and deeply depressing time in modern history where we all stayed inside by ourselves and missed our friends and family. It was lonely and it was bleak. Which is why it made my heart glow so much more warmly every time I got a letter from an honest-to-goodness real-life friend in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Knowing that they were playing the same game I was and hearing about their experiences and sending each other wacky hats or furniture, it lightened the days and made us feel that little bit more connected. Sure, when the game first launched we would actually take the time to visit one another’s islands, hang out, chat in real-time, and exchange gifts, but we all eventually got busy with Zoom calls, sourdough starters, and watching Birds of Prey twenty-two times. Still, sending letters was enough. It was and still is a touching little way to show that we’re here for one another, if not at the exact same time.

Favorite Ongoing Game

Zach Gage is one of my favorite game designers right now, and when I heard he was releasing a game called Good Sudoku I was sold sight unseen. The game as released was… fine. It’s sudoku and it’s pleasant, but it was also buggy and overheated my phone in a way I hadn’t seen since Ridiculous Fishing (also by Zach Gage) seven years ago. Thankfully, the most glaring bugs have been fixed and I can now enjoy popping in every day for some quick logic puzzle goodness. Daily ranked leaderboards keep me coming back again and again, the steady ramp of difficulty in the arcade and eternal modes means I can always chase the next dopamine rush of solving increasingly complex puzzles. It’s not a traditional “ongoing” game the way, say, Fortnite and Destiny are, but I’m happy to come back every day for sudoku goodness.

Didn't Click For Me

With Fortnite progressively losing me over the course of 2020, finalizing with my wholesale “never again” stance after Epic boss Tim Sweeney compared Fortnite demanding more money from Apple to the American Civil Rights movement (no, absolutely not), I dipped my toe into a number of new “battle pass”-style online arena types of games, and while Genshin Impact eventually got its hooks into me, Spellbreak absolutely did not. With graphics straight out of The Dragon Prince and the promise of a wide variety of magic combat skills to make your character your own, the game seemed awfully tempting, but my first few experiences were aimless and joyless, with no moment of clarity to make me understand why I should keep coming back. Maybe they’ll finesse the game some more in 2021, or a bunch of my friends will get hooked and lure me back, but for now I am a-okay deleting this waste of space on my Switch and PC.

"Oh Yeah, I Did Play That Didn't I?"

I remember being really excited for Murder By Numbers. Ace Attorney-style crime scene investigation visual novel with Picross puzzles for the evidence, art by the creators of Hatoful Boyfriend, and music by the composer of Ace Attorney itself?! Sounds like a dream come true. But the pixel-hunt nature of the crime scene investigations was more frustrating than fun, the picross puzzles were not particularly great, and the game came out literally a week before the entire world went into lockdown which makes it feel more like seven years ago than just earlier this year. I remember being marginally charmed by the game once it was in my hands, but as soon as my mind shifted to long-term self care, Murder By Numbers went from hot topic to cold case.

Most Unexpected Joy

I was looking forward to Fuser all year. As a dyed-in-the-wool DropMix stan, the prospect of a spiritual sequel to DropMix on all major digital platforms without any of the analogue components was tremendously exciting, and I knew I’d have a lot of fun making mixes by myself and posting them online for the world to hear. What I didn’t expect, however, was the online co-op mode to be such a blast! Up to four players take turns making 32 bars of mashups, starting with whatever the player before handed them and adding their own fingerprints on top. It sounds like it should just be a mess of cacophony, but every session I’ve played so far has been just the best dance party I’ve had all year, and everyone not currently in control of the decks (including an audience of spectators) can make special requests for what the DJ should spin and tap along with the beat to great super-sized emoji to show how much they’re enjoying the mix. Literally the only times my Apple Watch has ever warned me of my heightened heart rate have been the times I was positively bouncing in place rocking out to co-op freestyle play in Fuser.

Best Music

youtube

Only one video game this year had tunes that were so bumpable they were upgraded to my general “2020 jams” playlist alongside Jeff Rosenstock, Run the Jewels, and Phoebe Bridgers, and that game was Paradise Killer. 70% lo-fi chill beats to study/interrogate demons to, 20% gothic atmospheric bangers, 10% high-energy pop jazz, this soundtrack was just an absolute joy to swim around in both in and out of gameplay.

Favorite Game Encounter

It’s wild that in a landscape where games let me live out my wildest fantasies, the single moment that lit me up in a way that stood out to me more than any other was serving Neil the right drink in Coffee Talk. Over the course of the game, you serve a variety of hot drinks to humans, werewolves, vampires, orcs, and more, all while chatting with your customers and learning more about their lives and relationships. The most mysterious customer, though, is an alien life form who adopts the name Neil. They do not know what they want to drink and claim it doesn’t make a difference because they cannot taste it. Everybody else wants *something*. Neil is just ordering for the sake of fitting in and exploring the Earth experience. It’s only in the second playthrough that attentive baristas will figure out what to serve Neil, unlocking the “true” ending in the process. Seeing the typically stoic Neil actually emote when they tasted their special order drink? What an absolute treat that was.

Best Free DLC of the Year

It’s still only a couple of days old at the time I’m writing this, but Marvel’s Avengers just added Kate Bishop, aka Hawkeye, and THANK GOODNESS. Almost every character in the game at launch just smashed the endless waves of robot baddies with their fists and that looks exhausting and uncomfortable. Hawkeye (the game calls her Kate Bishop, but come on, she’s been Hawkeye in the comics for over 14 years, let’s show her some respect) uses A SWORD. FINALLY! Aside from that, I’m just having a blast shooting arrows all over the place. She and Ms Marvel are the most likable characters in the game so far, so I hope they keep adding more of the Young Avengers and Champions to the game, and if the recently announced slate of Marvel movies and tv shows are any indication (with America Chavez, Cassie Lang, and Riri Williams all coming soon to the MCU), that seems to be what Marvel is pushing for across all media

Most Accessible Game

Nintendo is, first and foremost, a toy company. They got their start in toys and cards long before video games was a thing, and they still do more tests to ensure their video game hardware is childproof than anybody else in the industry (remember how they made Switch cartridges “taste bad” so kids wouldn’t eat them?). This year, Nintendo got to rekindle some of their throwback, simplistic, toys-and-cards energy with Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, a Switch collection of timeless family-friendly games like Chess, Mancala, and Backgammon, along with “toy” versions of sports like baseball, boxing, and tennis for a virtual parlor room of pleasant time-wasters. The games were all presented with charming li’l explainers from anthropomorphic board game figurines, and the ability to play quick sessions of Spider Solitaire on the touch screen while I binged The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix made Clubhouse Games one of my most-played titles of the year. Plus, local play during socially-distant friend hangs was an excellent way to make us feel like we were much closer than we were physically allowed to be as friends knocked each other’s block off in the “toy boxing” version of Rock’em Sock’em Robots.

"Waiting for Game-dot"

I get that everyone loves Disco Elysium. I saw it on everyone’s year-end lists last year. I finally bought it with an Epic Games Store coupon this year. This year was a long enough slog of depressing post-apocalyptic drudgery, I didn’t want to explore a whole nother one in my leisure time. I’ll get to it… someday.

Game That Made Me Think

youtube

Holovista was an iPhone game I played over the course of two or three days based on the recommendation of some trusted colleagues on Twitter and oh my goodness was I glad that I played it. What starts as a chill vaporwave photography game steadily progresses into an exploration of psychological trauma, relationships with friends and family, and the baggage we carry with us from our pasts. In this exceptionally hard year, I badly needed this story about spending time alone with your personal demons and finding your way back to the people who love and support you. Just like with Journey and Gone Home, I walked away from Holovista feeling a rekindled appreciation for the people in my life.

#video games #holovista #paradise killer #animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons #spellbreak #good sudoku #fuser #dropmix #in other waters #marvel's avengers #avengers #clubhouse games #coffee talk #2020

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a-skyfull-of-starz · 4 years

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Anime in the Time of Quarantine

This fine quarantine period, I have made it my mission to watch as much anime as possible, because I don’t know, I guess it’s better than wallowing in self-pity. Here’s a list of everything I’ve watched to date and how much I recommend them, because I don’t know, I’m bored or something.

This list does not contain anime I’ve previously watched, because that would make it normal life anime. So don’t ask me why Shingeki no Kyojin is not on the list. Of course it remains my favourite and I will continue to recommend it until my dying breath.

Also, this list is ordered in the order I watched them in, and does not reflect any standing other than that. Also also, I get bored really easily, so if an anime doesn’t grab me immediately, chances are I’ll close it very quickly. I’ve started a lot more anime than is on this list but got bored and closed it. Hence, this list is almost entirely positive recommendations. Also also also (I swear this is the last clarifier), I’ve been in a slice of life kind of mood, because my slice of life is boring and uninteresting to the extreme, so that genre is kind of over-represented here. So with that being said, on to the list (sorry that it’s so long, I have an issue with verbosity).

Stein’s Gate: I started watching Stein’s Gate two years ago, but didn’t make it past the five minute mark, because I just didn’t get it. I started watching it again a few weeks ago, and I still didn’t get it, but I persevered because I was bored and high on chocolate. By the end of the first episode…I still didn’t get it. I continued to not get it until probably midway through the third episode, but when I got it, holy hell did it hit hard. I absolutely enjoyed every second of this anime. I loved watching Okabe’s journey from imagined insanity into actual insanity and then back again. He went on a true hero’s journey, and I loved every second of it. Miyano Mamoru gives a masterful performance (I always watch the subbed animes, and I recommend that everyone else does too). The chemistry between Okabe and Kurisu is probably the best in anime that I’ve watched thus far (sorry Asuna and Kirito, your time has finally come). This anime is rich with emotion, humour, tragedy, (some) romance, friendship, mad scientists and beautiful characters. If you can stand being confused for the first three episodes, this anime will be an incredibly rewarding journey for you. I highly recommend it.

Ao Haru Ride/Blue Spring Ride: I saw a clip of this anime in a seiyuu video and I fell in love with the art style and decided to give it a watch. I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, the plot is interesting, although having watched similar anime, a lot of it is kind of cliched. That being said, I did like the message of being true to yourself, no matter the cost. And I appreciated the fact that Futaba (our main hero) wasn’t a stereotypical anime girl (although she really does cry a lot and I agree with Kou that it is annoying). I found Kou (our love interest) a very interesting and compelling character. The clear winner of this anime though is the art style. It is beautiful to look at. Unfortunately, the first season ends on kind of a cliffhanger, and there doesn’t appear to be a second season coming any time soon, which is really disappointing. If you like high school romance stories with an edgy bad boy in it, then this is the anime for you, but don’t expect a satisfying ending, because, well, there isn’t one.

Stein’s Gate 0: I watched this because my friend said that it made her cry after every episode (I personally didn’t think Stein’s Gate needed a sequel, but oh well). Based on her recommendation, I went in with high expectations, which were kind of mostly unmet. The plot was way more confusing, less compelling, it felt like the stakes weren’t that high, mostly because they were only introduced way later in the series (I know Stein’s Gate did the same thing, but it somehow felt more shoved in with this one) and because we already knew how it would end. Also the ending felt incredibly rushed. The only episode I really wholeheartedly enjoyed was the reunion between Kurisu and Okabe (sounds weird out of context, but I’m trying to remain spoiler free). For the rest, I was left with mixed feelings, although I have to say, I probably love Okabe even more in Stein’s Gate 0 and Miyano Mamoru gives us another stunning performance. I would probably have been happier if this entire series had just consisted of Okabe trying to move on from the fallout of what happened in Stein’s Gate and there was no drama of World War III. So, I guess if you’re curious to see what happens if Okabe does not look for Stein’s Gate in the previous season, this is for you. Honestly though, I’d probably be happier if I hadn’t watched Stein’s Gate 0.

Shigatsu wo Kimi no Uso/Your lie in April: THIS ANIME OH MY GOSH!!!! I did not even know that this anime existed until I saw it on Kaji Yuki’s Wikipedia page (I’m a fan, so what?). He’s barely in this by the way, but that doesn’t matter, because this anime is amazing. I knew how it ended because I unfortunately saw spoilers when I was reading what the plot was about when I was deciding whether or not to watch this, and I still cried for about an hour after the ending (and I don’t cry easily, especially not with anime). The writing here is probably the best in any anime I’ve watched (yes, better than SNK, the king has been toppled from his throne), the soundtrack is amazing (I’ve been listening to it on repeat for a week now), the acting is beautiful, the artwork is gorgeous (apart from Kosei’s disappearing glass frame, that was weird), and all around, this anime is just…perfect. If you enjoy teenage romance and drama, if you love classical music, if you feel like bawling your eyes out for an hour because right now your life is pretty boring and pointless, then this is the anime for you. And even if you aren’t any of those things listed, I still recommend this anime because it is gorgeous and deserves recognition for how incredible it is.

Welcome to the NHK: this is probably the direct opposite of Shigatsu wo Kimi no Uso in every way possible. I haven’t finished this anime yet because it is extremely heavy, and I can only manage two episodes a night, but I still highly recommend it. It’s a fascinating take on a lot of modern Japanese culture, specifically surrounding mental health, the hentai industry and consumerism. It’s also got a lot of black comedy in it, which I love. All in all (and depending on the ending of the series), I highly recommend this one for its interesting writing and plot and excellent acting.

Lovely Complex: honestly, this anime sort of crept into my heart as one of the most adorable, refreshing, hilarious and unexpected love stories of all time. It basically tells the story of two idiot friends who slowly realise they’re in love with each other, how this impacts their friendship and how they navigate the very dark waters of teen romance. If you’re looking for an uncliched high school romance anime, where the heroine is the opposite of a cute anime girl, where the broody handsome guy is not the object of our affection and where you get flashbacks of just how dumb you were as a teenager and how grateful you are to be out of that age group (if you’re my age I mean, I’m mostly talking about myself here), then this is definitely the anime for you. Also, the opening song is ska, how cool is that?

Orange: another time traveling story, except the time traveling is even more confusing here. Just kidding, the time traveling is probably the least interesting part of this story, which examines suicide, depression, guilt and bullying, and does it in a pretty mature way. Our hero (dear lovely confused Naho) is unfortunately not very smart, but that’s ok, because she has Suwa, the best human being in the whole world, to help her out. Honestly, this story would have ended very differently if Suwa had not been around and he deserves every award that can possibly be given to amazing human beings. This anime is sort of 13 Reasons Why, but in reverse, less exploitative and with better friends (you’ll understand what I mean when you watch it). If you aren’t going to be triggered by discussions of suicide, depression and bullying, then I really do recommend this, as it is very interesting, well-performed, and largely well-handled.

So that’s my anime watch list thus far. I plan to finish Welcome to the NHK soon, and then start watching Mushishi, as I’ve heard a lot of great things about it. Also, now that you guys have seen what my tastes are, I would love it if I could get more recommendations. Lord knows, I’m not going to be doing anything else until I can find a way home, so I might as well expand my horizons. Also also…no, that’s it. Have a good quarantine folks!

#anime #stein's gate #ao haru ride #stein's gate 0 #shigatsu wa kimi no uso #lovely complex #welcome to the nhk #orange #anime recommendation #anime review #quarantine thoughts #gimme recs please #textpost

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discourseanddicscovery · 4 years

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Beauty Youtube: How Influencers and Gurus Have Become Leaders in a Billion Dollar Discourse Community All About Makeup

The Beauty Industry amassed an estimated $89 Billion in gross revenue in the 2019, in the United States alone. A large reason for this is the world of Beauty on YouTube, from influencers, to beauty gurus, to cosmetic brand sponsored web shows and tutorial series, YouTube has created a space for all lovers of makeup to come together and be able to communicate. Like any other social media platform, YouTube has allowed and created a space where one does not need to be a professional in any field to take part in the conversation. Beauty YouTube is one of many subcultures on this platform, and it is heavily followed by professionals, makeup users, beauty brands, and people that like watching YouTubers apply their makeup for the exclusive purposes of entertainment or relaxation even if they themselves do not wear makeup, all have the ability to communicate with one another and speak a language exclusive to this discourse community.

This research collected when learning about this peculiar discourse community will take a look at the sensationalism associated with being an influencer on YouTube, the rhetorical language this discourse community uses to explain identity and feminism in both the beauty and Beauty YouTube community, the subculture within a subculture (Black beauty influencers and YouTubers), how Beauty YouTube influences consumer purchases by advertising to viewing members of this discourse community, and the factors that make the beauty industry and Beauty YouTube a discourse community.

Kristen Forbes, the author of “Examining the Beauty Industry’s Use of Social Influencers” states that a rather important factor for the widespread reach of social media influencers is how relatable they are to the audience they are attempting to reach, considering as well that whether a discourse community about the followers shared love for makeup and beauty, the influencers are ultimately career makeup merchandisers at a global scale, “These influencers, dubbed online as “Beauty Gurus” online, use their skills in makeup to partner with cosmetic brands, earning big bucks while building brand awareness around products. Influencers have gained popularity due to the rise of social media and their ability to connect with their consumer peers,” (Forbes 2016).

https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/communications/journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/153/2017/06/08_Kristen_Forbes.pdf

Florencia Garcia Rapp, the writer of the academic journal titled “The Digital Media Phenomenon of YouTube Beauty Gurus: The Case of Bubzbeauty” discusses the social requirements of being a Beauty YouTuber that amasses millions of dollars yearly in beauty brand recommendations and reviews, sponsorships, ambassadorships, and affiliate codes that get used and purchased by their subscribers. She also states that there is a correlation, however direct, between making money on YouTube as a beauty guru, and treating your subscribers like actual members of the community by keeping the fans and viewers a part of the conversation, “They usually treat their audience as friends, gaining feedback from them and offering tips by sharing personal thoughts on a variety of topics such as love, life, or career. Through this ongoing sharing of their personal lives and creativity to create looks and explanatory video tutorials, many have successfully positioned themselves as YouTube celebrities, enjoying the economic and social benefits this status entails,” (Rapp 2016).

Within the Beauty YouTube community, a subculture of YouTube already, there is what is known as Black Beauty YouTube. Much like Black Twitter. Black Beauty YouTube is a subculture of content creators that are predominantly or exclusively Black, and they engage in discourse that is political, based on their personal activism for the inclusion of rich and dark skin tones when in defense of Black consumers that cannot find their shade in the complexion category because brands do not make foundations, concealers, or powders in the darkest of shades because “they are not commercial enough.” Faithe J Day, the writer of the academic journal “Quaring YouTube Comments and Creations: An Analysis of Black Web Series through the Politics of Production, Performance, and Pleasure” writes that “while cultural productions acts as a way for Black artists and producers to speak back legacy networks, the role of cultural content producer can be seen as an inherent aspect of Black identity and the history of performance that Black people used to succeed and gain acceptance within society,” (Day 2018). She implies as well that when it comes to engaging in discourse about the Black identity on YouTube or other social media outlets, it is imperative that Black voices be the ones leading the discourse.

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/145831/fjday_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

As an example of this phenomenon, one can observe the Black YouTuber Jackie Aina who since starting her career has collaborated with major beauty brands like Anastasia Beverly Hills and Too Faced. Most Specifically, because of her following that has upwards or three million followers, she, along with her fans throughout all social media platforms were responsible for the launch of eighteen new complexion shades that included the darkest, as well as the fairest of skin tones in their line of foundation titled “Born This Way,” This is just one of many examples where black content creators have challenged brands to be more exclusive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cprGVN3_nFA

When answering the question of who in reality is allowed to partake in the discourse community that is Beauty YouTube, it is of relevance to state that the rhetoric of identity and feminism is both of importance to this discourse community, and at the same it is not exclusively necessary to engage in this particular rhetoric to be a successful member of this online group. Lehua Ledbetter, the author or “THE BUSINESS OF FEMINISM: RHETORICS OF IDENTITY IN YOUTUBE’S BEAUTY COMMUNITY” talks about her experience as a Beauty YouTuber in which she felt as if she was lying to her audience, as well as other members of the community for actually being an academic but not portraying that in her videos. She then realized that what is being discussed is the makeup, the techniques, and the brands, something she also came to learn because of her ability to monetize her videos because of the number of views she was receiving.

What was of highest importance to Ledbetter was to acknowledge that her internal struggle of trying to be a feminist while also exploring the income earning features of YouTube is that there is nothing more feminist than a female entrepreneur, “I was thinking entrepreneurially while also thinking critically about my entrepreneurial actions,” Ledbetter 2014. In other words, what could be more feminist than a woman making money while looking as powerful as her bank account. Fundamentally, that is one of the most appealing things about this particular discourse community, the ability to connect with women, men, and queer people that have a love for makeup, but that also post, share, and show off their recreations of YouTuber tutorials or original looks they create themselves. Anyone has a potential to influence in this community because everyone is needed for this community and the consumer aspects of beauty YouTube to be as popular and high grossing as they are.

One of the most important, if not the most important aspect of this discourse community is that consumer aspect this community engages in for the purpose of promoting, and further advancing the reach of this discourse community. Kyungji Lee, the writer of the academic journal “The Influence of Beauty-Related YouTube content on Consumers' Purchase Intention” states that “the emergence of the Internet, consumers are able to share their opinions with others without a face-to-face interaction. In addition, due to the characteristics of the Internet, consumers are able to provide and share their opinions related to products with people who are known as well as total strangers,” (Lee 2018).

https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6558&context=utk_gradthes

To further explain the influencer phenomenon, the reason consumerism is such a large aspect of this community is because of two specific reasons. The first is the simple fact that YouTube, whether a video or the comments section of a video allows anyone to share their opinion, the second is that a consumer purchase intention is implied for any member of this discourse community, particularly because one must purchase makeup to be able to use it. Tanjeet Nijjar also states that the reason this discourse community is as popular as it has become is because of the how involved all members of this discourse community are, “In order to thrive in a certain discourse community, one must be very involved and knowledgeable on the goals and communication methods that belong to that group of people. Every community may have members of different levels of involvement included in their group,” (2017). As stated before, any member of this community can buy, share, rate, review, or recommend products to any other member of Beauty YouTube.

http://fycjournal.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Makeup-as-a-Discourse-Community.pdf

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louiseisfucked · 4 years

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A “masculine” product under fire for going against toxic masculinity

You may have seen this image going around the internet as a meme since last year. This ‘Bro! Not cool’ meme surfaced ever since January 14th, 2019 when the Gillette YouTube channel uploaded a short film titled "We Believe: The Best Men Can Be". In one scene of the video, a man tries to approach a female passer-by only to be immediately stopped by another man. But, why exactly did this 1 minute and 45 seconds long video become famous?

On contrary to the advertisement that Gillette released back in 1989 titled “The Best A Man Can Get”, the video starts with images of remarkably troubled looking men as a narrator refer to bullying, sexual harassment, and toxic masculinity. Instead of showing clips of masculine men’s dreams like how the old advert did, this one depicts a series of very ugly and negative behaviors, including bullying, fighting, sexual harassment, and blatantly interfering with a woman speaking in the workplace. The ad goes on to state it is time for men to stop making excuses and to renounce the idea that “boys will be boys.” Gillette concludes that by calling for and showing images of men holding other men accountable and emphasizing that the boys of today will be the men of tomorrow.

It took me on surprise when I saw that the new advert received a lot of backlashes. It currently has 1.5 million dislikes on Youtube and not to mention thousands of hate comments. Because it has been 31 years since the old advert was released and changes have been going around our society, it was expected that people would’ve agreed that gender norms should no longer exist. But apparently, I was wrong, and to be honest, it’s understandable.

Men have been expected to be masculine, physically strong, and dominant for as long as humanity can remember. Wrongdoings in which included violence and actions that degrade women have been normalized around our society. Simply, because ‘men will always be men’. It is also true that movements have been made to be going against this standardized society but, they were mostly by women and human rights activists or what the conservatives would call ‘leftists’ Therefore, for a well-known profit-oriented company, with their product being marketed towards masculine males, telling them what it is to be masculine or to scolding them for not doing enough to address an issue, might cause an issue.

Some of the responses on Twitter caught my eye,

I could understand Candace and Piers’ points of view. Sometimes it is hard to see the bad in things if you’ve been projected by it your whole life. But, let’s discuss what they might see as what shouldn’t be an issue in this video:

1. Scene of two young boys wrestling (0:33) It is safe to assume that Candace thinks kids wrestling is normal because it’s normal for young boys to have physical fights as that’s what they were born to be anyway, to be tough. Or probably those two young boys were just playing around and no one could get hurt. In my opinion, it is never okay to include violence, whether it’s playing around or not. Even though games and movies do play a part in depicting violence to youngsters, it does not justify them to do it in real life as it would be rooted in their young minds that it is okay to hurt others.

2. Showing dominance to hinder women (0:28) There’s this term called ‘mansplaining’. Wikipedia defines mansplaining as: “(of a man) to comment on or explain something to a woman in a condescending, overconfident, and often inaccurate or oversimplified manner". They often repeat what the woman had to say just to show they’re righteous or would be heard more. Frankly, a woman could tell you just how many times they had to deal with this in their workplace or environment. This habit and many other things are not universal flaws of the male gender, just the intersection between overconfidence and cluelessness where some portion of that gender gets stuck. Therefore, by acknowledging this flaw, it is possible to prevent this from happening to our generation.

3. Sexually teasing women (0:25) Do I need to explain the wrong in this? It degrades women, it causes women to be easily targeted for sexual harassment, and it’s one of the many reasons 78 women are getting raped each hour, and that is in the U.S alone.

Despite all of that, there had been a discussion about whether a company like Gillette must address this issue. Quoting relevantmagazine.com, “But the second is that giant corporations are not to be trusted with the moral development of society, and the best thing they can do to correct our culture’s much-needed shift away from consumerism is get out of the way.”

Yes, having a profit-oriented company to be discussing this issue is like skating on top of thin ice for them. Some even speculated that this was a way of their marketing.

I’ll let a quote by Mark Borkowski answers this one, “It is no longer enough for brands to simply sell a product, customers are demanding that they have a purpose – that they stand for something,” he said. “Masculinity is a huge part of Gillette’s brand, and there is a recognition in this ad that the new generation is reworking that concept of masculinity, and it is no longer the cliché is once was.”

Toxic masculinity, bullying, and sexual harassment exist. These issues should be left in 2020. But it won’t be happening soon if nobody’s starting the conversation.

As Pankaj Bhalla, Gillette’s North American brand director said "We expected debate. Actually, a discussion is necessary. If we don't discuss and don't talk about it, I don't think real change will happen.”

"Because the boys watching today will be the men of tomorrow," I shivered as a voiceover said at the end of the ad.

#gillete #feminism #toxic masculinity #masculine #society #analysis #essay #why we need feminism

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years

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30 Minute Experiment: Work #30ME

So I’ve already gone through a couple Pink Floyd titles and one from The Cult, so I might as well start working my way through The Godfathers’ Birth School Work Death in terms of topics for this 30 Minute Experiment. (For anyone just joining, the idea is that I pick a topic and write about it for 30 minutes straight, without interruptions. When the time is up, I post. No edits, no re-reads, probably many regrets.) Okay, let’s do this...

It will surprise absolutely no one that I’m a bit of a workaholic and I’ve been one for most of my life. I think my first job must have been when I was 14 or 15 or so when I got a bicycle and started delivering newspaper, a job that I quite liked because it was a quiet suburban neighborhood in Westport where not a lot happened. (I do remember one day being flashed by an older woman who came to the door wearing absolutely nothing not realizing I was on the other side leaving her newspaper.)

One of the weird things going on in this pandemic is that after losing a writing gig I had just started, it gets harder and harder to push myself to do the much-needed work I have to do, whether it’s doing these #30Mes or writing my weekly Weekend Warrior column or cleaning or working on some of my long dormant screenplays or even writing to my imprisoned penpal (who I just got a letter from so I need to get back to him fairly soon.)

At a certain point, everything seems like work, even if it’s just scheduling time to hang out on Zoom with friends or family, which is something I did far less of in the days pre-pandemic (Can we maybe start a new numbering system so that 2020 is Year One and every year that follows would be 1 Post-Pandemic for 2021, etc? It feels suitable.)

But this whole time and even over the past four years I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to find some form of steady work, and sadly, things were so unstable pre-pandemic that it’s only gotten harder as more of my movie-writing colleagues are losing jobs and there are far more opportunities. I mean, anyone who reads my Weekend Warrior every week (or EVER!) will know that there are still movies being released, even if not all of them are getting any kind of theatrical release. Some of them are even quite good.

I was talking to one of my colleagues last night about the work situation and how everything just came to a stop in March when most of us had things planned or in the works, which unfortunately revolved mostly around movies.

But the current situation has become a great equalizer in terms of people needing to cover a lot more smaller indie movies, TV series and streaming stuff if they want to keep their jobs. I’m pretty sure that the job market is going to look very different in a few months as the country starts slowly reopening, and I think the people who don’t want to do the actual work like going to see movies and having varied tastes, won’t survive. They’ll just give up and go take one of those regular 9 to 5 desk jobs that are out there.

Believe me, I’ve been ready to make that transition for a couple years as I lost a lot of freelance outlets, some being closed, others just going in a different direction. It’s tough out there, and it’s really hard for me to take any sort of dog-eat-dog mentality when it comes to work, because I don’t like seeing my friends struggling. That hurts me almost as much as my own struggle (which I’m happy to say has taken an interesting and slightly positive turn this week).

Sure, I’m definitely ready to be done with this and to get back to work, even though it’s been some time since I’ve had any steady work hours -- probably the Tracking Board where I was doing a 9 to 5 shift five days a week -- and I’m going to have to get back into some of the good working habits. I already try to go to sleep at a reasonable hour and don’t stay up past midnight playing video games (or Android games) or doing some of the other distractions that would keep anyone else from getting work done.

I mean, if you read today’s Weekend Warrior, you’ll see that I spent a lot of time watching and writing about a bunch of movies just so that people will have some idea that there is good movie entertainment still coming their way which hopefully they’ll look into it. I don’t want to too far down the tangential wormhole of the movie biz right -- I’ll have plenty of time to talk about that over the next few months -- but the pandemic equalizer that I mentioned hasn’t really helped the smaller indie movies as I’d hoped since people still would rather throw on Netflix or Hulu or HBO and binge watch some show or another.

I have a LOT of stuff that I’ve been meaning to watch but my desire to keep my brain in gear and stay motivated in terms of my writing has led to things like this experiment, which I’ve done a pretty good job keeping up with. If I really look at this to see how it helps me in terms of earning a living, I think I can say fairly that it’s a daily job that forces me to think and write quickly, which is something that’s important for most of the better writing jobs out there. And it only takes 30 minutes a day, so it’s not like it’s taking me away from any of the time-wasting activities I’d love to do instead.

Sure, I’m definitely trying to use this time productively even if the “work” I’m doing doesn’t do much to help me financially, although I will say that doing this stuff helps me both mentally and emotionally, which is half the battle when you’re dealing with a job and people you have to work with. I learned that the hard way at a few of my recent jobs post-CS, but I’m not going to get into all of that. I believe very strongly that sometimes you just have to do something to maintain your own mental health even when it’s not the best decision on the grand scheme of things.

I do miss having some of the structure of a job in my life even though I feel my calendar is just filling up with other things, even if it’s just doing things to help support my friend’s own mental and emotional health by taking part in their activities. Believe me, as much as the monotony of the day-to-day may have been getting to me a few weeks back, I feel like I’ve moved past that, and now I’m so focused and disciplined about getting things done, who knows? Maybe I’ll even have a few screenplays done by the time I’m allowed to go to a movie theater or press screening again.

I can only imagine how much harder this is for my friends and family who have gotten used to going to an office five days a week and have built their entire lives around that structure. Of my immediate family, only my sister and her husband and kids were doing anything in that vein, since both my brother and I have always been homebodies for the most part.

Right now, I’m not sure if I could even deal with going on the subway every day to go to a job, but thankfully, more businesses are figuring out how to stay running while allowing employees to work from home. At least as a writer, I don’t necessarily have to be anywhere, although as I’ve said before, I still prefer to see movies on the big screen... preferably without my own name watermarked across it. (This is done to avoid piracy, obviously, since it can be traced right back to me.)

Although I’m slowly inching towards a point in life where most people are ready to retire, I think I’ll be good to keep working in some capacity or other for at least the next ten years. The down time in between jobs these past few years has made it far easier for me to be thrifty so it’s no like I’m trying to support a ridiculous comic book habit anymore and have less need for consumerism.

I can’t remember if I discussed during the “money” topic but I do feel better when i know i have money just in case I want to do something fun when that’s allowed again. There have been too many times in recent years where I’ve had to decline an invite to go somewhere just because I was worried about how even spending $20 might affect my ability to eat for that week. (Yes, things got that bad!)

I guess we’ll see where things go in the next few months, but I don’t think you’ll meet another person who is more than ready to go to work for 40 to 60 hours a week once again, since I’ve also gotten better at scheduling my time. I mean, it’s still not great but when it comes to working, especially as a writer, I feel that I’m always getting better at facing new challenges, and I do hope some will still come my way.

I have about five minutes left to go in today’s #30ME, and I’m not sure if I have that much more to say about “work” right at this moment, but I do want to say that if you got far into today’s ramble, I hope you’ll drop me a line with some suggestions and opinions. It doesn’t mean I will change what I’m doing since as I’ve said, these are more for me than anyone else, but it would be nice if someone is reading them and maybe it changes their opinion of me (hopefully in a favorable way).

That’s it for me today but I’ll be back tomorrow..maybe talking about the “Birth” or “Death” part of that Godfathers song.

#30ME #30MinuteExperiment #Work

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mcfrey · 5 years

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something I wrote about BigHit on my phone at 2am to try and organise my thoughts that nobody asked for or has to agree with, but I just thought some people might find interesting to think about (it seems over dramatic with the layout but I swear that's just how I punctuate stuff in my phone sorry)

it finally happened

and by that I mean I'm gonna talk about something that's been bugging me

SO ANYWAYS

yeah

it's bighit

I felt it with answer not having all the songs on. they only left 2 songs and skits off of HYYH so like... to leave what was it like 6 songs off of answer?

sea, pied piper, paradise, love maze, 134340

okay that's the only 5 I could think of but it still applies

and it's like they chose those ones so that people have to buy all 3

I know I'm biased because those were literally my favourite ones and im still salty but

it feels like they chose to put in the ones with American producers and writers over prioritising fan favourites?

bighit

WYD

then came

burn the stage the movie

which didnt really bug me

lowkey just made me really happy but also really sad

although to have a YouTube series and a movie??? like I get that it costs a lot to make but if felt a bit weird

I got over it once I saw it though

but I still feel like their money making is hardly subtle

someone mentioned how bighit effectively make money off of overworking the boys through things like burn the stage and that's the upsetting truth. it raises awareness for what they do, but then they'll just have more fans so there will be more pressure and it will just get worse

okay wait part 2 should have been bon voyage

like yeah it's cute but breaks that are semi scripted with cameras in your bedroom shouldn't be classed as breaks

and then we watch it

we purchase it

it works

so they do it again

sometimes you get things which are meaningful out of those videos like when they were on the boat

or when they read letters on run

but are they actually meaningful? probably, but not compared to what happens off camera because

that's all we see

we dont know what goes on the rest of the time

how many actually genuinely meaningful moments there have or havent been

it's hardly news that we're not really a part of bts' story as individuals. not truly. so why fake it? why not embrace what it is?

next we have LY in Seoul screenings

kind of chill because not everyone gets to see the tour, plus even if there was a DVD it would be region locked

and it's just a nice chance to see them on a bigger screen and meet other armies so I cant really complain. nobody's making me go and for some people it's a really good thing.

but also kind of not chill because renting it on YouTube would be like 3£ and a cinema ticket is like 15£

*edit: and to do it when the tour is still going on feels strange to me? someone pointed out that some people couldn't go because it spoils it

and bighit push all this stuff about the boys overworking which we already know and feel guilty about but then they overlap this with their schedule when it makes so much more sense to promote and release this at a time when they're either on a break or working in the shadows so that we can get prerecorded content whilst they're resting*

bt21

cute and wholesome, but the collaborations with everything?

wait, this can apply to just bts themselves too

here's the thing, bighit, you may profit a lot from all these things but at the end of the day it's the partner who wins because people buy things they never wouldve thought to buy before bts' face was on it because that's just how consumerism works. bts are under your contract and by accepting every single deal presented to you one could argue that you are in fact damaging their image by contradicting the message of their music. we know that the members arent sincere in their promoting without even having to ask them. there is nothing spiteful about it. the members arent in the wrong or trying to deceive us. they're just doing their jobs. the problem is that people support bts because of their music, lyrics, and speeches which are all, just to name a few, anti capitalist, anti consumerist, and anti racist, and you make money off of them because they show those traits, and it's because it's all clearly sincere.

but you also make money off of them through their advertising campaigns with luxury products, fast fashion designs, and uninclusive makeup lines.

you cannot show two sides of BTS to the world without making one of them emotionally worthless.

and if I were you, I would not for a second risk losing the quality and sincerity of the message in bts' music that got you where you are today.

what makes it hurt more is that bts are still so passionate.

they make songs and remixes in their own time.

why arent they incorporated into the discography? why is the discography simultaneously over saturated and lacking? rushed yet milked?

their performances are still so strong, but they collapse at the end

is it really worth it in your eyes? why cant they simply perform less and better? is their hardworking image being abused for further popularity, exhibiting their sleep deprivation like its part of what attracts people to them?

and this stadium tour

now this is different

because it's not bad at the moment, just confusing

what I think it means is that bighit wasnt brave enough to try for stadiums the first time, then realised their mistake when every arena sold out in minutes or even seconds?

or worse, he knew they would sell out and wanted them to so that the show could be labelled as Sold Out

which is fair enough, and clever

but it's also really not

like there are hundreds of thousands of people missing out on the tour who want to give you their money but the venues were too small or there were too few dates

or you avoided their state, country or continent altogether

and now you could argue you're fixing that by going back with a larger capacity and giving them a chance but why with 9 days notice?

look I get that nothing can be perfect but this has just been piling up recently and I think it's the deals and tours that bothered me most

dont get me wrong, I'm much madder at the way *edit: i put a company name here* capitalizes and could probably be even more mad if I actually learnt about it rather than just using instinct (get it it's funny)

and I'm even more mad at *edit: I put a different company name here* for their poor management and neglect of what people actually want

but bighit really have bts

The BTS

and that gives them so many choices

yet they seem to make some really irrational ones

and now its 2:39am

and we'll end it on that beautiful negative note

*edit: please dont hesitate to let me know what you think about this or if you think it's just going to stir up something and I should take it down

and thanks for sitting through this whole thing*

#bts #bighit #bangtan #bangtan sonyeondan #bangtan boys #bighit entertainment #bts love yourself #speak yourself #love yourself

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quarantineroulette · 5 years

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Seditions of You: An Interview with Filmmaker Joe Wakeman

vimeo

Joe Wakeman’s second feature, The Shoplifters (not to be confused with the Palme d’Or-winning film of the same title, but hopefully SEOs are none the wiser) is “a series of tableaux depicting the follies of a group of naïve Marxist would-be radicals” striving to be revolutionaries, only to discover that “what they really want is to be seen wearing berets.”

Although he began work on it a decade ago, The Shoplifters carries some very timely themes about online activism, consumerism, and the shallowness of modern culture as a whole. With fairly little effort, its thought-provoking vignettes resist passive cultural consumption and its stylistic fluidity keeps it visually stimulating as well. Its 70 minutes also offer a lot of seamless humor, from a slightly slapstick dressing room shoplift to a smart, satirical "revolutionary bake sale” in Washington Square Park.

Ahead of The Shoplifters’ appearance at the NewFilmmakers New York Film Festival on February 6, I spoke with Joe via email about collaborations, Maoist propaganda and Communism as fashion statement, among other fun topics.

1) What ignited your interest in Marxism & Maoism?

I've been interested in Marxism since I was a teenager, probably about when I was 13 and first encountered the politically inclined punk of The Sex Pistols and The Clash, and Dead Kennedys -- I think it's somewhat common for young suburbans to go through a "Communist" phase. What I didn't realize at the time was that my interest in Marxism was really less about politics, which admittedly I knew precious little about (though I do lean rather strongly to the left) and more about the iconography of Communism: I would go around with sickle and hammer belt buckles and spell "Revolution" with a backwards “R.” That sort of corny thing.

Later on, when I was 18 or so, I saw Jean Luc Godard's La Chinoise and his Groupe Dziga Vertov films with Jean-Pierre Gorin, all beautifully boring films depicting sexy French Maoists who do very little real revolutionary activity, despite their ability to quote at length from Marxist texts. These films made it apparent to me that what we think of in the US as "Marxist," where Communism has never been a reality, is as much a set of fashion and cultural signifiers as is the uniform of a typical "Goth" or "Emo Kid" -- berets, fists in the air, shabby clothes, shiny boots and cigarettes.

2) I believe you've mentioned that you started working on -- or had least conceived of -- The Shoplifters about 10 years ago? In what ways has it changed in that time?

Yes, at that time my friend Taylor Bruck (who plays Che Smith in the film) and I were also sometimes engaged in the "cool crime of shoplifting." There was a certain politically oriented moral code about it, where it was okay to shoplift from big corporations like Barnes & Noble but not right to steal from local businesses. But after seeing the Godard films we talked about how goofy it would be to take those politics further and call ourselves "revolutionaries,” which became the kernel of the absurd story for The Shoplifters that we wrote together.

The original script had a lot more characters and more action, arsons and assassinations and a lengthy courtroom finale at the end, where the Shoplifters are put on trial for sedition and theft. All that sounds exciting, but keep in mind, this was the script of a teenager. It's really rather cringe-worthy to read today. I threw the whole thing out when I reworked the film, though a couple scenes survive: the opening speech and the fitting-room sequence, where we pile on layers of stolen clothes, are both from the original version of the movie. We tried to shoot scenes from that script at that time, when I was 18 years old, with some borrowed equipment from the TV studio I was working for at the time, but we shot on damaged tapes and botched the sound recording. The material was practically unusable so, dejected, I hung up The Shoplifters for awhile and dedicated myself to working on other things and developing more before taking another crack at it.

3) Do you see The Shoplifters as sharing any similarities with your first feature, They Read By Night? Although stylistically different, they both seem to lovingly mock certain countercultures. I also like that they both have "nested" films within films (the short in They Read by Night and the music video and "Post-Capitalist Potential for Mass Education in the Internet Age" sequence in The Shoplifters).

Definitely. Actually They Read By Night was an attempt, after the first failure of The Shoplifters, to write a similar film on a smaller scale. I swapped out the berets for leather jackets and the characters became greaser-rock ‘n’ roller juvenile delinquents instead of revolutionaries, but the point is essentially the same -- that their so-called rebellion is still a symptom of capitalism, buying into another kind of "outsider" fashion.

As for the films-within-the-film element, I've always been attached to the idea that a movie does not have to tell one story, or focus on the story, or even just be one type of film. This is the other big element learned from the likes of Godard and other counterculture filmmakers, Dusan Makavejev, Warhol et al. -- that the "plot" of a film is not so important as the ideas which animate it, and to express those ideas more in the form of a lively discussion that, in a movie, can be shown with images rather than just spoken with words. Let's make our characters watch a film together and see how they react, or in The Shoplifters they educate themselves about Mao Zedong by reading about the Cultural Revolution on Wikipedia and from there its a free-flowing association of images culminating in some psuedo-Greek philosophy. It's the kind of methodology that people experimented with in the ‘60s and you see less often today, though occasionally you do see it, in Sion Sono's excellent recent Antiporno. Or, actually, the web-browser screen cap stuff in The Shoplifters is inspired by the 2014 teen horror film Unfriended. It's kind of a limitation of the cinema's potential when a movie just tells you a story one way, unless the story is really good, like Titanic or something.

vimeo

4) Both films also have musical sequences (the fight scene in They Read By Night and "Style Revolutionaries" in The Shoplifters). Given your involvement in the music scene here in Brooklyn (Joe is in the band Toyzanne, who you should definitely check out, and directs music videos as well), would you ever consider doing a musical?

I love musicals! They're a popular illustration of that same idea -- the story stops, and somebody sings a song that comments on it, or sometimes the song continues the story, or presents a separate situation which is analogous to the story. I was raised on musicals and I think they can still be cutting-edge as a genre, even though many might regard them as old-fashioned. I composed a lot of the music for The Shoplifters, together with DP Torey Cates and help from musician friends from the Brooklyn scene: Brendan Winick (also in Toyzanne), Frank Rathbone and Jenna Nelson (of Sic Tic), Kate Mohanty. Holly Overton and Sannety (who also stars in the film) contributed their unique stylings for different sections of the film as well. When I showed my friend John Sansone an early cut of the film, he remarked that he didn't realize that it was a "musical" which surprised me because there's no singing, (except for the Smiths cover and "Style Revolutionary"). But when I considered the role music plays in the film, it's really not too different from a musical in structure and tone, which was something that made me feel very happy about it. I'd like to eventually do a proper musical with lots of songs that plays with the genre in a more direct way, but I also don't think I'm mature enough yet as a filmmaker to attempt that.

5) How did the various collaborations in the film (the score, and the sequences from Oliver David and Preston Spurlock) come about?

Oliver David had made two music videos, one for my old band Bodega Bay and one for ONWE that had this style of a slow-motion fashion advertisement for the bands. I really enjoyed these videos and wanted Oliver to do something of a "remake" of the same style, this time advertising the revolutionary cadre in the film instead of a rock ‘n’ roll band, making the not-so-subtle commentary even less so. Likewise, when I was preparing to make the film I became close friends with Preston Spurlock, who makes these mind-blowing video collages of old commercials and such that are like wading through cultural toxic waste dumps to tap into some unconscious reflections that can't be put into words. I connected these in my head to stuff like Godard's Histoire(s) du cinema or the work of Adam Curtis (HyperNormalisation, The Century of the Self) and thought they would add a lot to the dialogue of images I was trying to present in the film.

I think that it's unimportant for an artist to be the "sole author" of a film. It is more interesting when I think, “Oh, Sannety can do things with electronic music that I don't even understand,” or “Oliver and Preston work in video in a completely different style from me which can form a relationship with my style, so why not ask them to contribute and make it a real dialogue rather than a constructed one.” I think collaboration is key in filmmaking -- it keeps the spirit of montage living through and through the work, which if you consider Eisenstein and Vertov, is really "Revolutionary" filmmaking. 6) I liked the criticisms of Internet activism the film presented. In the ego-driven realm of social media, do you feel there is any way for a pure act of protest or activism to thrive or even exist?

Yes I do think real activism can exist and can even be given a lot of strength through the Internet and social media -- those things have leveled the playing field and given voice to marginalized communities who hadn’t had that kind of visibility before the advent of these networks. Community organizer Candice Fortin, introduced to me through Gwynn Galitzer and Suffragette City Magazine, is another voice present in the movie, in keeping with the collaborations that exist throughout the film. She explains activism in the modern era and what people can do to start enacting change very eloquently midway through the movie, and i don't think I can say it better than the way she did in the film. She is constantly posting about progressive candidates, organizations and other concerns through social media to bring about political change on a grassroots scale. You can follow her @candicefortin for a start, but mainly pay attention! These opportunities to help are all around. 7) Do you have a favorite piece of Maoist propaganda?

Yes! This Maoist ballet from the cultural revolution, encouraging women to form feminist revolutionary cadres: The Red Detachment of Women. You can watch it on Youtube. Footage from it appears in Preston Spurlock's section of the film, I think it's beautiful and absurd, but I think weirdly Old Hollywood despite its anti-Western screed, like An American in Paris or something but cheaper looking. I really get a kick out of it. Perhaps when this one-day musical comes to fruition I’ll dole out some political ballet as a quiet (or more likely, loud) nod.

The Shoplifters is screening as a part of the NewFilmmakers New York Film Festival at Anthology Film Archives on Feb. 6, 2019. RSVP here.

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g20210031 · 2 years

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SOAD TALK: Let's Swap! 23/02/2022

A talk by the founder of The Fashion Pulpit, Raye Padit.

Although I'm not a fashion student and honestly don't understand much about fashion I chose to attend this talk to gain a new perspective from someone who is not in the graphic design industry. I've chose to attend this talk also because it was related to sustainability and service.

Summary

The talk started off with a short introduction and a clip from the documentary about fast fashion called 'True Cost'. Then Raye talked about how he started this company called The Fashion Pulpit and how he was inspired to start it. It ended off with a short Q&A session to know more about the founder of this company and his views on the fashion and design world.

My Notes

I took down some note and quickly jotted down my thoughts while listening through this lecture series.

Conclusion

Overall, this talk by Raye was eye opening and insightful, I like how it started off with a short video on materialism and consumerism;Overall, this talk by Raye was eye opening and insightful, I like how it started off with a short video on materialism and consumerism; it was impactful and it left me thinking about how much I actually spend on buying clothes from these kind of companies (fast fashion companies). The problem with fast fashion and how it impacts today's world around us. It was an impactful video that left me thinking about how much I actually spend on buying clothes from these kind of companies (fast fashion companies). I went ahead to watch the full documentary after the talk as the video got me curious to know more.

I like how concise the question and answer section of the talk is, it got me thinking deep about how I'm spending on clothes, where are all my clothes from, being mindful of my purchases not only on clothes but everything in general.

I've also thought of how this 'swapping' could apply to things other than clothes or fashion items, could we swap electronics? or perhaps books, art materials and more? This would bring along an interesting service design concept and I would want to explore this concept in future projects.

#SOAD LECTURE

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magzoso-tech · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/instagram-founders-join-30m-raise-for-loom-work-video-messenger/

Instagram founders join $30M raise for Loom work video messenger

Why are we all trapped in enterprise chat apps if we talk 6X faster than we type, and our brain processes visual info 60,000X faster than text? Thanks to Instagram, we’re not as camera-shy anymore. And everyone’s trying to remain in flow instead of being distracted by multi-tasking.

That’s why now is the time for Loom. It’s an enterprise collaboration video messaging service that lets you send quick clips of yourself so you can get your point across and get back to work. Talk through a problem, explain your solution, or narrate a screenshare. Some engineering hocus pocus sees videos start uploading before you finish recording so you can share instantly viewable links as soon as you’re done.

“What we felt was that more visual communication could be translated into the workplace and deliver disproportionate value” co-founder and CEO Joe Thomas tells me. He actually conducted our whole interview over Loom, responding to emailed questions with video clips.

Launched in 2016, Loom is finally hitting its growth spurt. It’s up from 1.1 million users and 18,000 companies in February to 1.8 million people at 50,000 businesses sharing 15 million minutes of Loom videos per month. Remote workers are especially keen on Loom since it gives them face-to-face time with colleagues without the annoyance of scheduling synchronous video calls. “80% of our professional power users had primarily said that they were communicating with people that they didn’t share office space with” Thomas notes.

A smart product, swift traction, and a shot at riding the consumerization of enterprise trend has secured Loom a $30 million Series B. The round that’s being announced later today was led by prestigious SAAS investor Sequoia and joined by Kleiner Perkins, Figma CEO Dylan Field, Front CEO Mathilde Collin, and Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

“At Instagram, one of the biggest things we did was focus on extreme performance and extreme ease of use and that meant optimizing every screen, doing really creative things about when we started uploading, optimizing everything from video codec to networking” Krieger says. “Since then I feel like some products have managed to try to capture some of that but few as much as Loom did. When I first used Loom I turned to Kevin who was my Instagram co-founder and said, ‘oh my god, how did they do that? This feels impossibly fast.’”

Systrom concurs about the similarities, saying “I’m most excited because I see how they’re tackling the problem of visual communication in the same way that we tried to tackle that at Instagram.” Loom is looking to double-down there, potentially adding the ability to Like and follow videos from your favorite productivity gurus or sharpest co-workers.

Loom is also prepping some of its most requested features. The startup is launching an iOS app next month with Android coming the first half of 2020, improving its video editor with blurring for hiding your bad hair day and stitching to connect multiple takes. New branding options will help external sales pitches and presentations look right. What I’m most excited for is transcription, which is also slated for the first half of next year through a partnership with another provider, so you can skim or search a Loom. Sometimes even watching at 2X speed is too slow.

But the point of raising a massive $30 million Series B just a year after Loom’s $11 million Kleiner-led Series A is to nail the enterprise product and sales process. To date, Loom has focused on a bottom-up distribution strategy similar to Dropbox. It tries to get so many individual employees to use Loom that it becomes a team’s default collaboration software. Now it needs to grow up so it can offer the security and permissions features IT managers demand. Loom for teams is rolling out in beta access this year before officially launching in early 2020.

Loom’s bid to become essential to the enterprise, though, is its team video library. This will let employees organize their Looms into folders of a knowledge base so they can explain something once on camera, and everyone else can watch whenever they need to learn that skill. No more redundant one-off messages begging for a team’s best employees to stop and re-teach something. The Loom dashboard offers analytics on who’s actually watching your videos. And integration directly into popular enterprise software suites will let recipients watch without stopping what they’re doing.

To build out these features Loom has already grown to a headcount of 45. It’s also hired away former head of growth at Dropbox Nicole Obst, head of design for Slack Joshua Goldenberg, and VP of commercial product strategy for Intercom Matt Hodges.

Still, the elephants in the room remain Slack and Microsoft Teams. Right now, they’re mainly focused on text messaging with some additional screensharing and video chat integrations. They’re not building Loom-style asynchronous video messaging…yet. “We want to be clear about the fact that we don’t think we’re in competition with Slack or Microsoft Teams at all. We are a complementary tool to chat” Thomas insists. But given the similar productivity and communication ethos, those incumbents could certainly opt to compete. Slack already has 12 million daily users it could provide with video tools.

Loom co-founder and CEO Joe Thomas

Hodges, Loom’s head of marketing, tells me “I agree Slack and Microsoft could choose to get into this territory, but what’s the opportunity cost for them in doing so? It’s the classic build vs. buy vs. integrate argument.” Slack bought screensharing tool Screenhero, but partners with Zoom and Google for video chat. Loom will focus on being easily integratable so it can plug into would-be competitors. And Hodges notes that “Delivering asynchronous video recording and sharing at scale is non-trivial. Loom holds a patent on its streaming, transcoding, and storage technology, which has proven to provide a competitive advantage to this day.”

The tea leaves point to video invading more and more of our communication, so I expect rival startups and features to Loom will crop up. Vidyard and Wistia’s Soapbox are already pushing into the space. As long as it has the head start, Loom needs to move as fast as it can. “It’s really hard to maintain focus to deliver on the core product experience that we set out to deliver versus spreading ourselves too thin. And this is absolutely critical” Thomas tells me.

One thing that could set Loom apart? A commitment to financial fundamentals. “When you grow really fast, you can sometimes lose sight of what is the core reason for a business entity to exist, which is to become profitable. . . Even in a really bold market where cash can be cheap, we’re trying to keep profitability at the top of our minds.”

#Miscellaneous

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thehappyspaceman · 7 years

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Assorted Thoughts on “Hallelujah Money” by Gorillaz

Hey guys, I’ve wanted to write this for a few days now and finally got the chance to do it. Sorry for not finishing my next video review, but I’ve had my hands full with homework, essays, and the recording of my first podcast. (I’ll make an announcement about that later!) But anyway, I’ve wanted to make this for a while, so let’s talk about the newest song released by Gorillaz, “Hallelujah Money.”

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Now let me first give some background. My parents raised me on a lot of older music from the ’60s and ’70s, but from about 2010-2015, I started discovering a lot of bands and artists from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s that I missed out on, like Muse, Foo Fighters, Depeche Mode, etc. One of those bands was Gorillaz, the collaboration between lead singer/pianist/songwriter Damon Albarn (formerly of Blur) and cartoonist Jamie Hewlett (creator of Tank Girl). I was first drawn to listen to their music due to the not often used concept of a band whose members are all cartoon characters, but when I actually did listen to their songs, I realized that this wasn’t just a novelty band. This was the real deal, so I bought all three of their albums, Gorillaz (2001), Demon Days (2005), and Plastic Beach (2010). Everyone should listen to these albums at some point in their lives. They’re that good and actually tackle serious topics, like depression, consumerism, gun violence, the War on Terror, and pollution.

However, it seemed that just as I was getting into their music, they broke up. In 2013, Damon announced a hiatus due to creative differences between himself and Jamie, which really depressed me. It didn’t help that the story arc shown in the videos of Plastic Beach was left permanently unfinished due to budget cuts from their record company, and their last two offerings before the split were somewhat underwhelming. I consider 2011’s The Fall as less of a cohesive album and more of a weird compilation of unfinished that Damon Albarn recorded on his iPad while on tour, and 2012’s “DoYaThing” was forgettable and brought little closure to the Plastic Beach arc.

But after two years of waiting, they finally announced in 2015 that they would get back together, and they’ve spent their time since then promoting the hell out of this album. I mean it, too. There have been several pictures of the characters posted to tease the new videos, with each one having had a redesign. A series of videos called “The Book of Gorillaz” were posted summarizing the Gorillaz’ story between the end of the unfinished “Rhinestone Eyes” music video and now, which directly goes against what happened in the “DoYaThing” video, but it offers much better closure for that arc. The band’s fictional guitarist Noodle has been super active, too; she got an Instagram account used to further tease the new album, she appeared in a Jaguar Racing commercial, and she even got an OKCupid online dating profile! Are cartoon characters even allowed to get profiles on that site?

The point is, they got me hyped, and I couldn’t wait to listen to the first taste of their new music. And just a few days ago, they dropped a new song, “Hallelujah Money,” and I rushed to listen to it. How was it?

…Eh?

This is a weird song for me. I have found so many things wrong with it, yet I still feel a need to defend it from other Gorillaz fans who hate it. It was certainly a strange choice for the first taste of their new sound.

Now I found out a few hours after I listened to “Hallelujah Money” that this isn’t actually the first single from their new album. I’m not entirely sure how to interpret that, though. Does it mean that this isn’t the first official single from the new album, but it will still be on the album? Or does it mean that it won’t be on the new album and was just a standalone song that they recorded and released separate from the album? Gorillaz have done that before; look at their past songs, “Rockit” and “DoYaThing.” Both of those were recorded and released separate from any album; “Rockit,” released in 2004, was not a part of Demon Days, and “DoYaThing,” released in 2012, will, as far as I’m aware, not be included on the upcoming album. So this is not uncommon to do; however, I was unaware of that when I listened to it. I thought it was a weird first song to tease the album with. I was expecting another “Clint Eastwood,” another “Feel Good Inc.,” or another “Stylo.” But this?

Okay, let me first defend this song by saying that people’s reasons for disliking it are kind of stupid. This song is very clearly about Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of the United States. I’ve avoided talking much about this topic, but I’ll sum it up by saying that it’s already taken a toll on my family and I’m scared for what’s to come. Anyway, people in the comments of this video are hating the song because it’s political, which I find kind of funny because Demon Days and Plastic Beach were both mostly about political-themed topics and nobody seemed to mind those albums.

But with that said, there are a few things I find weird about this song. Musically, it follows the same avant-garde style that was present in The Fall, which was not what I was expecting. The best description I can give for it is politically-fueled gospel to a trip-hop beat. For a song by Gorillaz, there isn’t really a lot of Gorillaz in it, not even in the music video; 2D shows up in puppet form to sing the chorus, and Murdoc appears at the beginning and end of the video as a still image. I was hoping for more cool animation in their videos, but we don’t get a lot of that.

The next problem is the featured artist, poet and singer Benjamin Clementine, who is featured more on the song than Damon/2D. He has a nice crooning voice. My only problem is that I have a hard time understanding what he’s singing/saying due to his British accent. The only words I recognize from him are ones about “building walls.” This wouldn’t be a problem if the song had a nice tune/hook to sing along to; the problem is that it doesn’t have that. Apart from the chorus, which just repeats the title, “Hallelujah Money,” and 2D’s part, I can barely remember how the song goes.

And then there is this weird part at the very end where it shows a clip from SpongeBob SquarePants of the title character running away and bawling. Why did the video cut to that? I’m not sure if it’s in the actual song or just the video, but it throws me off every time I watch it. Apparently, it’s SpongeBob’s reaction to when Mr. Krabs tells him, “You’re fired,” the catchphrase that Donald Trump takes credit for popularizing in his TV show The Apprentice, but it seems like sort of a vague reference to make. The only people who would get that are SpongeBob fans, and I doubt that there’s a very high crossover audience between SpongeBob fans and Gorillaz fans.

I will say this, though: at least with this, Gorillaz fans can’t claim that they’re getting too mainstream. There were some Gorillaz fans who claimed they were getting too mainstream in their last album, Plastic Beach, so now that they’ve released this, one of the least mainstream songs in their entire discography, fans can no longer claim that.

So, final thoughts? Well, despite all the criticisms I’ve made, I’ve listened to it a few times over and, well, it isn’t terrible. I at least see what they were trying to do. Whether they did it successfully is up for debate. I guess I like it more in concept than I do as a song. I agree with the political message—we live in an era where we could certainly use a Demon Days Part Two—and don’t think that they style they’re going for is an inherently bad one. For a better attempt at this, listen to track 13 of Demon Days, “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head,” with Dennis Hopper. I also don’t leave this with zero hopes for the new album. Yes, there is a chance that this could be what the entire album sounds like and that it could wind up being a huge disappointment, but they’ve worked on this album for around two years now. I’m still skeptical, but coming from the same guys who made “El Mañana”? C’mon. They have to have better stuff in store.

~TheHappySpaceman

#gorillaz #gorillaz phase 4 #hallelujah money #benjamin clementine #donald trump #gorillaz new album #2d gorillaz #2d #damon albarn #gorillaz 2017 #gorillaz 2d #murdoc niccals #jamie hewlett #spongebob squarepants #short review #assorted thoughts

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crookedtalks · 4 years

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Last book haul in a while

This is going to be last book haul in a while, since I’m on a No Buy to save for my first vacation overseas in 8 years (!!!). No buy seems to be having its moment on youtube right now, which I feel is a good thing and wholeheartedly support; I think we can all agree that a break from consumerism and non-stop haul videos can do no harm to our mental states and our wallets.

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Top:

《潜梦者》, 刑警陈猛著《82年生的金智英》, 赵南柱著； Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-ju 《我城》, 西西著； My City - a Hong Kong Story by Xi Xi

Bottom:

《怨女》,张爱玲著； The Rouge of the North by Eileen Chang 《呼兰河传》, 萧红著； Tales of Hulan River by Xiao Hong 《生死场》, 萧红著； The Field of Life and Death by Xiao Hong

I got these books during the 11.11 sale on Taobao. 《潜梦者》was just published in September of 2019 as far as I know and doesn’t have an English translation. From the blurb, it kinda gave me of Paprika vibes; it is about a how a detective and a psychological consultant work together to solve crime by entering dreams. It had not fantastic but decent reviews on Douban, but I thought the premise sounded interesting enough for me to give it a try.

《82年生的金智英》; Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-ju is probably not new to people who are into Kpop since it went viral after Red Velvet’s Irene shared that she read it (which was how it entered my radar). Soo Young of SNSD fame even had her first solo reality show named after it. It has been made into a film featuring Jung Yu-Mi and Gong Yoo, which I would definitely watch after finishing the book. South Korea has long suffered from deep-seated misogyny and one has to look no further than the backlash Irene got just from mentioning this book to see evidence of this. Even though this book was published a while back in 2016, the issue it covers is still relevant today sadly. Even though I’m not Korean, I think South East Asian culture do have its similarities with Korean culture so this should be an interesting and hopefully thought-provoking read.

《我城》 ; My City - a Hong Kong story by Xi Xi ----- Xi Xi is a writer that I have talked about before on this blog (in a previous book haul in fact) and I’m currently reading her book 《像我这样的一个女子》 (Alt title: A Woman Like Me). It’s taking me a while to got through that book but in the meantime I managed to get my hands on arguably one of her representative work, which seems to be out of print now. Super happy that I managed to track down a physical copy of this book, and I wonder how that will compare to her short story collection that I’m reading now.

Eileen Chang is a very prominent and influential feminist writer (to put it lightly) and 《怨女》 or The Rouge of the North is the novel based on a short story she wrote, 《金锁记》 or The Golden Cangue. I love the cover of this book, and I’m going to be read this book blind so as to not spoil myself. This is going to be my first Eileen Chang novel (most probably) so I’m really excited to read this and hopefully fall in love with her writing. (fingers crossed)

《呼兰河传》 is Xiao Hong’s most well known work. I don’t know much about XIao Hong other than that she is widely regarded as China’s first feminist novelist (from a quick google). There seem to be a recurring theme for this year’s Taobao book haul ^^; Again, I’m going to read both of these books blind, and I’m probably going to read one of them soon (within this year). I’ve heard that her writing style is very lyrical and beautiful so I have high hopes for these two.

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Ya can’t go wrong with Terry Pratchett. :D Took advantage of Book Depository’s End of Year sale so get these two (Night Watch and Unseen Academicals). I have a whole bunch of Discworld novels to get to and I really want to start a Discworld series reading marathon somewhere in the middle of the year after my (pending) graduation to celebrate. I’ve been wanting to start on the Discworld series for years and it takes so much willpower to avoid spoilers, but with the Good Omens series coming out last year I thought this year is as good a year as any to start. Super super excited to read these as Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite writers. Also, love the cover art by Paul Kidby.

Hope everyone had a happy and healthy week, and good reading vibes to all :)

#book haul

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