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popmusicu · 1 month

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GHOST IN THE RADIO

By Gabriel Salvador Contreras

“It’s ghost-like, isn’t it? That period between the ‘30s and ‘40s is between wars. And a lot of people had went to wars and never come back so there was a lot of uncertainty. It’s about ghosts, loss, and all these incredible lyrics. The weight of these tracks is incredible sometimes. Like one of the main guys I’ve sampled over the years, Al Bowlly, died in the war because a bomb landed on the house he was in. They say he would have been bigger than Bing Crosby, that he had a better voice. It’s very sad.” - Leyland Kirby (x)

The relationship within music and horror is quite as long as the history within humanity itself. When it comes to pop music though, we wouldn’t immediately assume there’s something sinister about it at first glance. The Caretaker is a solo project by Leyland Kirby, debuting in 1999 with “Selected Memories From the Haunted Ballroom”. The whole vibe from Caretaker is strongly nostalgic, moving, even anxiety inducing at times. One wouldn’t imagine such an artist would become extremely popular even with a younger generation, but this is proven wrong by the massive acclaim his LP, “Everywhere at the end of time”. From it’s terrifying yet realistic premise —a mind going through dementia, slowly forgetting everything about their lives, knowing as well the impact music makes in people’s memories and positive effects on dementia patients — to it’s atmospheric, slow progression into nothingness, nothing could predict its popularity in the internet sphere. The prevalence of this EP is so vast that it can be easily found — especially the first track, “A1 - It’s just a burning memory” — all over TikTok, YouTube memes, and with over four and a half million plays on Spotify. Considering it’s niche and artistic intent, one could easily forget about the music he’s sampling: ballroom, pop music from the 30’s and 40’s, as he says himself.

Was this music supposed to sound this eerie? Has pop music terrified listeners before like this? Could this be considered something undesired by the industry, would it stop it from be pop at all? In this text I’ll present my point of view about this matter. As I would love to make it longer, I’ll try to keep as concise as possible while I go through some examples of what I would consider some interesting cases of Pop turning a scare to the audience, songs being inspired by catastrophes that scarred the artists, or musicians that are just looking for a spook. PART 1: EVIL (IS GOING ON) - Before the 60s Fear has plagued the human mind since before history can reach itself. Therefore, we can assume that fear and the terrifying has been a common theme since folklore music. It’s deeply rooted in our brain, but when it comes to pop culture we might not notice at first how big of a theme it is. Here are some examples from various media where this phenomenon can be seen, usually songs with some religious subtext, Halloween, and “contemporary” witches, zombies and other spooks. Anatoly Liadov - Baba Yaga, Op. 56 (1904) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17szhwbiw_o The House is Haunted by Roy Fox (1934) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoJj7dCbEX8

Howlin' Wolf - Evil (Is Going On) (1958) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osnDVXlhxPw

Playlist with more Examples -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SisxwnlEiq0

There's something interesting I notice at this time, in contrast to our first example, on how nostalgia is not really an horrific thought, or at least not a popular one, and, pretty common when it comes to popular music, it's mostly lighthearted. Usually, folk horror and creatures born from pop culture are the ones in the front of the stage most of the time. However, things slowly take some interesting turns, as we will see...

(Coming Next: PART II: REVOLUTION 7 - 60’s, 70’s and 80’s)

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letterboxd · 3 years

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Wigging Out.

Choreographer and director Jonathan Butterell tells Gemma Gracewood about stepping behind the camera for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, his love for Sheffield, and making sure queer history is kept alive. Richard E. Grant weighs in on tolerance and Thatcher.

Of 2021’s many conundrums, one for musical lovers is why the narratively problematic Dear Evan Hansen gets a TIFF premiere and theatrical release this month, while the joyously awaited Everybody’s Talking About Jamie went straight to Amazon Prime.

And yet, as the show’s lyrics go, life keeps you guessing, along came a blessing. There’s something about the film streaming onto young people’s home screens, with its moments of fourth-wall breaking where Jamie speaks straight to the viewer, that feels so important, given the content: a gay teen whose drag-queen destiny sits at odds with the less ambitious expectations of his working-class town.

Director and choreographer Jonathan Butterell, who also helmed the stage production (itself inspired by Jenny Popplewell’s 2011 BBC documentary, Jamie: Drag Queen at 16) agrees that the worldwide Amazon release is a very good silver lining. “I made the film for the cinema but, in 250 territories across the world, this is going to have a reach that—don’t get me wrong, cinema, cinema, cinema, collective experience, collective experience, collective experience—but it will get to people that it might not have got to before.

Jonathan Butterell on set with star Max Harwood, as Jamie.

“It feels as niche a story as you could possibly be. But also for me, I wanted it to feel like a universal story, that it didn’t matter where on any spectrum you found yourself, you could understand a young person wanting to take their place in the world freely, openly and safely.”

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, with screenplay and lyrics by Tom MacRae and songs by Dan Gillespie Sells, sits neatly among a series of very specific feel-good British films about the working class experience, such as Billy Elliot, Kinky Boots and Pride. The film adds some historical weight to the story with a new song, ‘This Was Me’, which allows Jamie’s mentor, Hugo (played by Richard E. Grant), to take us into England’s recent past—the dark days of the discriminatory Section 28 laws, at a time when the HIV/AIDS epidemic was still ravaging the community.

Hugo’s drag persona Loco Chanelle (played in the flashback by the stage musical’s original Jamie—John McCrea from Cruella and God’s Own Country), sports a wig that looks suspiciously like the Iron Lady’s unmistakable head of hair. Grant confirms that was Hugo’s intention. “His heyday was in the 1980s, so as a ‘fuck you’ to Mrs Thatcher, what better than to be dressed up like that, at six-foot-eight, with a wig that could bring down the Taj Mahal!”

Richard E. Grant as Hugo, getting to work on Jamie’s contours.

In light of the current pandemic, and the fact that the 1967 legalization of homosexuality in Britain is only “an historical blink away”, Grant’s hope is for more tolerance in the world. “Maybe Covid gives people some sense of what that was like, but with Covid there’s not the prejudice against you, whereas AIDS, for the most part in my understanding, was [seen as] a ‘gay disease’, and there were many people across the globe who thought that this was, you know, whatever god they believe in, was their way of punishing something that they thought was unacceptable.

“The message of this movie is of inclusivity, diversity, and more than ever, tolerance. My god, we could do with a dose of that right now.”

Read on for our Q&A with Jonathan Butterell about the filmic influences behind Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.

Hugo in a reverie, surrounded by his drag menagerie.

Can we talk about the new song, ‘This Was Me’, and the way you directed it in the film? It’s a show-stopper, with Richard E. Grant singing in that beautiful high register, and then moving into Holly Johnson’s singing, as you go back in time to show that deeply devastating and important history. Jonathan Butterell: It felt inevitable, the shift, and necessary. Myself, Dan Gillespie Sells, the composer, and Tom MacRae, the screenwriter, we created this piece together, the three of us, and it’s a film by the three of us. We lived through that time, we went on those marches. Actually, in one of those marches [shown in flashback], Dan’s mum—actual mum—is in a wheelchair, by a young boy who was holding a plaque saying “my mum’s a lesbian and I love her”.

That is Dan with his mum back in the day, and it all speaks to our stories and it moves me, I can see it’s moving you. It moves me because I lived through that time, and it was a complex time for a young person. It was a time that you felt you had to be empowered in order to fight, and you felt very vulnerable because of the need to fight. And because of that disease, because HIV was prevalent and we lost people—we lost close people—it was a difficult time. I wanted to make sure that that story kept being told and was passed on to the next generation.

It’s so important isn’t it, to walk into the future facing backwards? It still exists, that need to fight still exists. The conversation, yes, has moved on, has changed, but not for all people and not in all communities.

What would be your go-to movie musical song at a karaoke night? My goodness. There’d be so many.

I mean, is it going to be a Cabaret, a Chicago showstopper, or something more Mary Poppins, something from Rent? I think what I would go to, which is what I remember as a little boy, is Curly singing ‘Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin’. It’s such a kind of perfect, beautiful, simple song. That, and ‘The Lonely Goatherd’, because I just want to yodel. It would be epic. Trust me.

What is the best film featuring posing and why is it Paris Is Burning? It’s always Paris Is Burning. Back in the day, I was obsessed with Paris Is Burning, I was obsessed with that world. In fact, at one moment I even met [director] Jennie Livingston in trying to make a theater piece inspired by that. I lived in New York for eleven years and I met Willi Ninja. I just adored everything about him, and he would tell me stories. And again, it was so removed from the boy from Sheffield, I mean so far. That New York ballroom scene was so removed from my world, but I got it. Those two boys at the top of the film, I just wanted to be one of those boys who just hung out outside the club.

Harwood and Butterell on set, with Lauren Patel (right) as Jamie’s bestie Pritti Pasha.

What films did you and Tom and Dan look at to get a feeling for how to present the musical numbers? Actually, a lot of pop videos, from present day to past. There’s an homage, in the black-and-white sequences, to a little ‘Vogue’ Madonna moment. Pop is very central to me in this story because pop is what a working-class kid from a working-class community will be listening to. That’s in his phone, that’s in his ears. Not that many young people listen to much radio at this moment in time, but that’s what will be on Margaret’s radio, that’s what’s coming into the kitchen. And that was central to the storytelling for me.

Bob Fosse also really influenced me, and particularly All That Jazz and where his flights of imagination take him. I felt that was so appropriate for Jamie, and again in a very, very different way, but I could see how Jamie’s imagination could spark something so fantastical that would lead him to dance, lead him to walk on the most amazing catwalk, lead into being in the most fabulous, fabulous nightclub with the most amazing creatures you’ve ever met in your life.

For me personally, the film that most inspired me was Ken Loach’s Kes, because that is my community. Both the world in which Jamie exists—Parsons Cross council estate, is my world, is my community—and the world of that young boy, finding his place in the world with his kestrel friend, I remember identifying with that boy so clearly. He was very different from me, very different. But I got him, and I felt like Ken Loach got me through him.

Ken Loach made a few films set in Sheffield, didn’t he? But also, Sheffield is a setting and an influence on The Full Monty, The History Boys, Funny Cow and that brilliant Pulp documentary. So Jamie feels like a natural successor. It absolutely does. Sheffield’s where I grew up, it’s my hometown. Although I moved away from it, I always return. To have a chance to celebrate my community, and particularly that community in Parsons Cross council estate. If you’re in Sheffield and you’re in a taxi and you said, “Take me to Parsons Cross,” they’d say, “Well, I’ll drop you there, but I’m not staying.” Because again there’s a blinkered view of that community. And I know that community to be proud, glorious and beautiful.

And yes, that community, particularly through the ’80s, really suffered because some of that community would serve the steelworks and had three generations of unemployment, so they became disenfranchised because of that. But the community I grew up in, my Auntie Joan, who lived on that road, literally on that road, was a proud, working class, glorious woman who served chips at school.

Aside from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, what would be the most important queer British cinematic story to you? (And how do you choose between My Beautiful Laundrette and God’s Own Country?!) You can’t. My Beautiful Laundrette influenced me so much because, one, Daniel Day Lewis was extraordinary in that film, and two, because of the cross-cultural aspect of it. I went, “I know this world”, because again I grew up in that world. And it affirmed something in me, which is the power and the radicalness of who I could be and what I could be.

With God’s Own Country, when I saw that film—and that was Francis’ first film, which I thought was extraordinary for a first-time filmmaker—I knew he knew that world from the inside, from the absolute inside. And I know what that rural community was like. I read that script, because we share agents, and I was blown away by it—again, because of the two cultures coming together.

Jamie Campbell, the film’s real-life inspiration, with screen-Jamie Max Harwood.

Richard E. Grant’s character, Hugo, is such a pivotal mentor for Jamie. What did you need to hear from a mentor when you were sixteen? Don’t let yourself hold yourself back, because I think it was me who put some limitations on myself. And of course I came from a working-class community. I was a queer kid in a tough British comprehensive school. And did I experience tough times? Yes I did. And did I deal with those tough times? Yes I did. But the song that speaks to me mostly in this is ‘Wall in my Head’, in which Jamie takes some responsibility for the continuation of those thoughts, continuations of the sorts of shame, and that’s a sophisticated thing for a sixteen-year-old boy to tackle.

I also was lucky enough to have a mother like Margaret—and a dad like Margaret as well, just to be clear! And I remember my mum, at seventeen when I left home, just leaving a little note on my bed. It was quite a long letter. She said, Jonathan, you’ve probably chosen to walk a rocky path, but don’t stray from it, don’t steer away from it. That’s the path you've chosen, there may be rock-throwers along the way, but you’ll find your way through it. That stayed with me and I think that’s what resonates with me. And when I saw that documentary, Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, I felt that that sparked the need for me to tell that story.

Sarah Lancashire as Jamie’s mum, Margaret New.

We need more mums and dads like Margaret, don’t we? We do, we do. And the wonderful thing is, Margaret Campbell will say it and I think Margaret New in the film will say it: she’s not a Saint, she’s an ordinary mum. And she has to play catch up and she doesn’t understand in many ways, and she gets things wrong and she overprotects. But she comes from one place and that is a mum’s love of her child and wanting them to take their place safely in the world and to be fully and totally themselves.

Related content

Eternal Alien’s list of films Made in Sheffield

Letterboxd’s Camp Showdown

Persephon’s list of films recommended by drag queens

Passion’s list of films mentioned by Jaymes Mansfield in her Drag Herstory YouTube series

Follow Gemma on Letterboxd

‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’ is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.

#everybody's talking about jamie #max harwood #john mccrae #richard e. grant #sharon horgan #jonathan butterell #musicals #drag queen #queer film #lgbtqia cinema #british cinema

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trashcankitty12 · 4 years

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Stella Headcanons:

You know her. You love her.

She’s bubbly, she’s fun. (And she’s pretty funny.)

She’s Princess Stella Sol of Solaria.

(These headcanons are all in relation to my ‘main verse’, which is the New Company of Light/Balance Verse. And it can also translate into my Left verse.)

Under the cut because it’s long.

About Stella:

-Her fear of heights comes from a major fall she took as a child off of her grandfather’s pet dragon. (He was teaching her how to ride and… She wasn’t holding onto it well enough and down she went.)

-Stella is fluent in nearly 56 of the Magical Dimensions languages. (She was to stick to the languages spoken by the realms who interacted most with Solaria.)

-After meeting Bloom and spending a little time on Earth, Stella is also trying to learn a few of the Earth’s languages. (She’s mastered English and Spanish, but she’s still working on French and Russian.)

-She loves sweets. (And food in general. But considering she’s Solarian, that’s to be expected. They tend to eat more than most people in the Magical Dimension.)

-Stella may or may not glow in the dark. (It’s something she can control and she has to be focused to do it. She inherited that gift from her mother.)

-Stella’s mother was religious and has a close relationship to the Moons, while her father, despite being so close in relationship to the Suns of Solaria, isn’t religious. Stella personally has mixed feelings on religion. She likes the idea of spirituality and having a higher power to rely on, but organized religion makes her heart hurt. (They tend to talk down about those who don’t follow a ‘certain’ way of life, which to Stella isn’t a cool thing to do, unless, of course, the other people are actually hurting someone else.)

-She was almost a big sister. Her mother had been pregnant when she was seven. (They don’t ever talk about it. And, as an adult, Stella can see where this was a turning point for her parents and their relationship. Her mother just wasn’t quite the same after losing Diana.)

-Stella is a dog person and was so happy when she finally got a puppy for her birthday one year. (The dog was her best friend and her main confidant.) Unfortunately, Stella’s dog only made it to four years old. (It had an illness that not even magic could fix.)

-Stella hasn’t been able to stomach the thought of another dog since. (However, Brandon may or may not offer for them to get a dog later on. You know, as their “first child”.)

-Stella can spot patterns without trying. It’s so ingrained in her after being around fashion, and the practical applications of pattern spotting have made her life so much easier.

-Here’s the thing about Stella… She’s somewhat dyslexic. Words and reading do not come easily to her. On the flip side, Stella can give one hellova speech. Her charisma and charm make her a natural at hyping up a crowd.

-Stella had a fairy godmother until she was 13. An elderly woman named Glinda. Glinda helped Stella with her shyness and in her first fashion attempts. And Glinda was the one who helped Stella gain her magic winx the first time with encouragement and confidence. (After all, how else should a future queen bring out her power?)

-After gaining her wings, her father gifted her the Ring of Solaria. It was done in a ceremony to the Suns and Moons of Solaria and the Ring had to choose Stella just as it had Radius and their family before them. Once Stella and the Ring bonded, she shifted for the first time in public to show off her wings and magic. Her parents couldn’t have been prouder.

-She went to a private school on Solaria for her elementary and middle school education years, but she was somewhat isolated due to being the Princess of Solaria (making the other kids judge her ahead of time as some sort of prim and proper prep they didn’t want around) and due to some of her ‘uncool’ hobbies.

-(Those uncool hobbies? Stella is actually into comics and superheroes, but until meeting the rest of the Winx, she wasn’t interested in sharing that side of herself. Solarian Comics actually helped Stella with reading because of their writing structure. Stella is also a fan of learning cultures and wanting to see what benefits other places and if it could be replicated to help Solaria. And Stella was kind of a… Horse girl. She spent many, many, many summers and school holidays at her maternal uncle’s horse ranch in the Western Spaces of Solaria.)

-Stella tends to use her solar powers more than her lunar ones. It’s not because she doesn’t feel close to her mother or to her mother’s family, it’s just a little more difficult for her tap into that part of her magic. (Solar magic is easy and tapped into by thinking of warm and splendid times. Lunar magic requires a bit more… Reflection. And Stella doesn’t like having to think too long about things. Not because she can’t, but because if she starts to really think about things, she tends to overthink them which leads her down a dark rabbit hole.)

-Stella’s best friend growing up was Nova Rinae, despite being two years older than the other girl. Nova’s mother is the head of Luna’s guard, and Nova was often in the palace. (Making her one of the few children always around. And because she shared several of Stella’s interests, they clicked rather quickly.)

-(Her parents also encourage this friendship as it’s important to them for Stella to be close to those who may serve alongside her when its time for her to become queen. Friendships can be turned into unwavering loyalty, and that can mean life or death in certain situations.)

-Before she ever got her magic, Stella’s parents thought she may end up being the ‘New Host’ for the Light Dragon. (Bloom was never found, which meant no one could say for certain what happened to the Light Dragon, other than it had to be alive still. Otherwise the Balance would have been off.)

-Because of their thoughts on her having the Light Dragon, Stella was taught basic hand-to-hand skills as a child and was instructed to be wary of “golden eyes” in the shadows. She was also to learn Solaria’s history as well as Domino’s. (Though Stella mostly paid attention to how the two worlds overlapped instead of their separate histories.)

-Stella actually knew Layla, Sky, and Diaspro as children. But because so much can change from being five years old to being 15/16, she didn't recognize them when they met again. (They had all been at a major conference for the realms and while their parents ‘talked shop’, they went to play. It was their first and last time together like that until years later.)

-Despite being a princess, Stella tends to be a bit messy. At least, as far as her room itself. Her workspaces (wardrobe and vanity and tailoring areas) are the most well-kept areas in her care. (She likes to work in clean spaces… But in her room, the space where she lives, she likes it to look lived in.)

-Stella originally got into fashion at about 10 years old in an attempt to get closer to her mother. Her mother always had work to do as a queen, and for her off-time, she went to fashion shows (which in a way, were also work, because as a queen she’s expected to be aware of trends and present herself in a certain way). So to spend more time with her mother, Stella started having an interest in fashion. (Which quickly became a hobby she loved when she found the different ways she could express herself with fashion.)

-In a bid to get closer to her father, Stella took a major interest in cooking. (Her father can bake. He’s messy at it, but by the Dragons do his pastries and cookies taste of heaven.) Granted, Stella didn’t inherit the baking skill, but she can recite recipes and judge pastries and baked goods like its her job. (And for some of Solaria’s festivals, it is.)

-Have I mentioned she’s an expert equestrian in the Solarian Rodeo? Her go-to is barrel racing and square-dancing competitions, and she’s even dipped her toes into riding the bronco and in cattle roping.

-Stella has far-sightedness. She can see things far away, but things up close are blurred. She used to wear glasses, but after elementary school, she swapped to contacts. (However she does still wear glasses and keeps them close by just in case. They’re a stylish silver-blue and not quite thick-framed.)

-Stella has formal training in ballroom dancing. (Her favorite is the Eraklyon Tango. Or at least, it has been for the past few years. Wonder why…?)

-Stella also has a minor fear of spiders. (It’s not really a fear either… More like a squick. She doesn’t like them, but she doesn’t mind them being around if she doesn’t have to see them. It’s because one of her school teachers thought a great Life Lesson would be for the class to witness his pet tarantula eat a live meal. Not fun for little Stella.)

(Not fun for him either, once the parents got a hold of him…)

-Stella lied about what happened during her ‘real’ first year at Alfea. She honestly did blow up the Potion’s Lab… But it wasn’t because she was researching color theories…

-Just before Stella was meant to leave for Alfea, like a week or two before, she found out from Nova, NOVA, that her parents were getting a divorce. Luna and Radius never told her. Her friend told her.

-Stella didn’t want to leave after that, afraid that if she was gone, she couldn’t help them patch things up. (She truly believed they could work this out. She just needed to be there. She needed them to see her and remember why they fell in love.)

-They dropped Stella off, but still didn’t discuss or leave room to discuss the divorce. (Stella didn’t want to let them know she knew because she didn’t want Nova in trouble for listening in on their mothers’ conversations.)

-Which led to a panicked Stella trying desperately to pretend to be okay while in the presence of the others. (She’s a princess, she can’t show despair. Especially without reason.)

-Stella was angry that her parents still hadn’t talked to her and that they had sent her away. She was feeling left out and scared and confused. They were in love. Right?!

-So she started doing small things around Alfea to try and get her suspended. Not expelled, just suspended. (She needed time at home, before the holidays.)

-She verbally attacked other Alfea students, playing up the pompous princess act. No luck. She mocked Palladium. No luck. She even cut classes. No luck. So as a last resort, without having to go to Cloud Tower and stir trouble up there, was to mess around in the potion’s lab. It worked… Too well.

-She was expelled and sent back to Solaria. Her parents were upset with her, and disappointed (which was the worst ever for Stella who really wanted their approval in everything). Stella broke down and finally told them that she knew and that she didn’t want her family to break apart. That she was scared and shaken and angry. Angry that they could pretend so well that everything was fine when it obviously wasn’t.

-Luna and Radius decided to try a form of family counseling to try and help Stella. (They hated seeing their daughter so upset, but they knew in the long run that staying together would have damaged her further. She didn’t need to grow up with constant arguing and avoiding each other, that wasn’t a love story they wanted her to follow.)

-(They also explained the situation to Faragonda and promised to pay for the damages. Faragonda allowed Stella to return within the next school year if her progress with the counselor went well.)

-Stella, even though still upset with her parents’ divorce, was a bit more accepting of it after taking the school year to focus on them as a family. (Even one that was split.)

-Stella does have hope they’ll reunite, but she understands a bit more now why they split up. (And even though they are in separate palaces, Luna taking residence in the Lunar Sections now, she knows they love her very much.)

#winx club #winx club headcanons #stella headcanons #winx club stella #Princess Stella of Solaria #ray of sunshine #little sunburst

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sunlitanswers · 4 years

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Hi! Wondering if anyone has queer books, movies, tv, etc recommendations? Looking for educational resources to understand myself a little better, and just general queer representation for my little baby queer heart <3 sending you so much love, thank you for pouring into others as much as you do!

I am DELIGHTED that my queer energy comes through my mostly anonymous blog, so thank you very much for this!

I have a degree in media, specifically television, so I have a lot of thoughts about this. First I’d like to say that it is completely okay to interact with “problematic” media. There’s a lot of focus these days on what representation is the “best”, but I don’t find that a good parameter to judge. Most of my favorite queer content is on the older side, and these works tend to contain outdated concepts or aspects of their time of origin. We don’t have to fully agree with the creators or the themes to enjoy the media, it’s okay. We seek out media to see something other than what is already inside us, if we only absorb solely what we deem to be “right” then our options at understanding what came before are severely limited.

These are by no means perfect representations, these are just my personal favorite books and movies that I always return to!

Books:

- Left Hand Of Darkness (1969) - controversial to include this, but this scifi novel documents a culture that exists beyond gender and it transformed the way I though about gender in our world. It is not traditional queer representation but I think it’s cathartic to read as someone who exists outside the binary.

- Ruby Fruit Jungle (1973) - my mom read this in the 70′s when it came out and made sure I had a copy at the same age. This book changed my life. It’s about a small town lesbian who moves to nyc. The writing is snappy and bright. It made me ache in my soul to read about someone like me for the first time. It has elements of it’s time and some points that may wrinkle your nose now but it still hold up and I adore it. (fun fact: the author went on to co-write a series of mystery novels with her cat)

- Stone Butch Blues (1993) - hard to find physical copies, but pdfs are out there for free! It documents queer rights and communist activist Leslie Feinberg’s life as a gender nonconforming dyke in the 70′s. Can’t recommend highly enough for reading about gender exploration and presentation in addition to queer history.

- Fun Home (2006) - pretty quintessential graphic novel reading in addition to the authors famous comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For. An autobiography of a young woman grappling with her sexuality only to find out her deceased father had also struggled with his.

- Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe (2012) - a love story between two teenage best friends, it is one of the most beautiful YA romances I’ve ever read. Life changing.

Movies:

- Paris Is Burning (1990) - a documentary around the ballroom scene in NYC in the late 80s. This under represented, POC-lead subculture birthed tons of movements we see today and much of drag as we know it.

- The Watermelon Woman (1996) - an early Cheryl Dunye (on of my all time favorite directors) film, semi autobiographical, about the experience of a black lesbian woman. I absolutely love this movie. It’s slice of life-y and full of heart. Also shot BEAUTIFULLY.

- But I’m A Cheerleader (1999) - a cheerleader realizes she’s a lesbian and gets sent to conversion camp where she falls in love. A stylized dark comedy from the 90s, created by and intended for a queer audience, it’s visually striking and fairly light hearted given the subject matter!

- The Way He Looks (2010/2014) - there is a full movie of this, but the earlier short film is what stuck with me. Set in brazil, a blind teenager befriends and then falls for his new classmate. A very sweet film.

- Moonlight (2016) - follows the life of a gay black boy as he grows. Perhaps the MOST significant movie on this list, we wept in theaters to see a gentle and beautiful representation of black men in love. Important viewing for absolutely everyone. It is also a stunning, visually striking masterpiece. Cannot recommend highly enough!!!!!

- BPM (2017) - about the 90′s AIDs movement in france, will make you cry. It’s all about the power of queer revolution.

- Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) - idk how this is as far as representation goes, but its hands down a favorite of mine. Based on a true story, it focuses largely on a lesbian woman and her gay friend in the 90s pulling off a big con. It’s charming and dickish and i am quite fond of it.

- Portrait of A Lady On Fire (2019) - want several hours of unbridled wlw yearning? this is the one for you. absolutely a piece of high art. I saw this on a first date and we were so emotional afterwards we went on a 5 hour walk.

Thank you for letting me monologue! If you read/watch any of these let me know, if you’d like! Feel free to add more y’all!

#anonymous #advice #queer representation #Anonymous #recs

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just-4-xmas-today · 4 years

Video

A Gift of Song and Dance

Here is one of my three Christmas presents to you all. I want to thank @timebird84 for putting on an amazing Phantom Christmas as usual. This is a one-shot for you E/C fans. Read and then watch the video as an extra gift (put on headphones- though I caution it may be loud), All writing art and music is done by me for this one shot. —–

Erik was reading. This was something he often did, as Christine had come to learn. This had in a way, surprised her. She knew of course he was quite a knowledgeable man, knowing more languages than she could name. She had even seen his library before the mob three years prior. However, when she had first moved in, she simply had not been able to conjure the image of Erik doing anything… remotely quiet. Or distracting. Up until the first time she came across him early one morning, book in hand, quiet in front of the fireplace, she had only seen him being, well, him. Animated and almost always talking to her. At first they were shy rambles, focusing entirely on her and her own well being. ‘Does this stew taste good Christine’, ‘would you like a blanket Christine’, ‘would you like me to sing to you?’, so on so forth.

Eventually however, as he grew more confident she really was here to stay, he simply began to speak almost none stop. Ramblings of a man who had never been allowed to ramble to someone before. Sometimes she found it adorable, other times a bit tiresome, but generally she was simply fascinated. She was one of the few who knew Erik at all, and she had come to know him as a musical genius first and foremost. However, as time went on, she came to realize he was simply brilliant in every regard. History, culture, advance maths and sciences, and while often he would go so in depth that she could not fully comprehend everything he was saying, she loved to hear him talk. To see him so excited and happy.

He could talk about the most abstract nuisances in Greek tragedy until she dozed off late in the evening. Soon she would wake in their bed and there was a comfort in that knowledge, in the little life they shared. So to come across him not playing his organ or talking about advanced academics, had been something of a culture shock.

That had been months years ago however, and now she was quite acquainted to Erik sitting in front of the fire, reading a book. He had slowly cooling lemon tea with honey by him, something he drank regularly to help preserve his voice, and a book in an unknown language in his long thin fingers. Absentmindedly, he was humming a song she had never heard before. It was a waltz, she could tell that, and most likely a new composition she’d hear over the next week until it was utterly perfected and performed for her as his beloved audience, and sometimes Nadir, if she could convince him to crawl out of his shell enough to perform in front of someone besides herself.

She listened, laying next to him, tea dress hiked slightly so she could feel the gracious warmth of the fire on her stockings. It was a beautiful composition naturally, hummed by an even more stunning voice. She had yet to hear a composition of his that she did not like. In fact, she had yet to see or hear any art made by him she did not enjoy.

As she listened, her mind began to imagine a beautiful dance in a ballroom, filled with the colours of rich fabrics swirling with their dark cores, hands in hands, feet in sync as music carried them…

And suddenly a rather tragic thought occurred to her as she stood and moved to stand behind him. She bent down and nestled her albeit pointed chin on his boney shoulder. She looked blankly at the page as his humming continued, though she could tell he was thoroughly enjoying the contact as his body, always so stiff in posture, sagged slightly. Still she asked in a quiet voice, “Does it ever bother you that you can never dance to your own music? It’s always so beautiful and yet… You’d have to be so focused on really creating it, that you can not even fully enjoy it.”

He stopped humming and answered in a startlingly calm voice “It would if I could dance Christine. But, I can’t. So I am much happier performing so lovely creatures such as yourselves can enjoy.”

This took her by surprise. “There’s… Something you can’t do?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Apart from modeling? Yes. I can’t dance.” He laughed, voice warm and rich. Then he raised a leg that had been resting on a small automan. It ended in a stump, it’s walking prosthetic leaning against the small velvet stool. Part of his leg had been made unusable by the mob years ago, and the sight was so normal to Christine now that she had forgotten about it all together most days. “At one point I could with a bit of success, but now I can not. My prosthetic allows me to walk, and on a good day without a limp, and my organ one allows me to play but I can not walk on that one at all. However, neither of them could stand doing much more than basic walking and maybe jogging if absolutely necessary. Dancing would certainly break the mechanism I use to make the ankle function properly. So… I don’t dance.”

He did not sound bitter (so very different from his initial reaction to losing part of his leg), only accepting. Which in a way, was more depressing to the blond soprano. “That’s… I never considered that. I’m sorry for bringing it up.” A life without dancing while simultaneously surrounded by the world’s most amazing music sounded in that moment, like cruel mockery.

He turned his head to face her, no nose to hit her own as he did this. His skeletal features only held warmth for her now as she looked into those golden eyes. “Don’t be sorry dear. I encourage curiosity and I am utterly touched you care so much for me that you would want me to dance and enjoy music as you do.”

The smile on his non-existent lips held nothing but warmth and love, and she could not help but kiss him…

—

That was three weeks ago. And now she found herself pacing Meg’s parlour, a serious look on her face as Meg knit, watching her. All around them was Christmas cheer mocking Christine, right down to the last ornament on Megs small Christmas three -which was more ornament than tree at this point. “Christine… I think you are overthinking this. He’d be happy with a piece of paper you touched once.”

Christine glared at her mousy brown hair friend. “He deserves more than that. And… I don’t know Meg. Last year had been easy, but how am I going to top getting him that bloody cat? He practically picked her out when we passed the pet shop on our Sunday walks. This year he’s been more…”

“Secretive?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No… Relaxed. Like he seems too content with- with everything!” She said, for once wishing he

wanting for something.

“I mean, you could get him some meat on those bones. His deformity would not be nearly as pronounced if he just ate properly.” She snickered.

Christine couldn’t help but giggle a tiny and announce proudly “Actually I have had some success on that front. He actually gained a few kilograms since I started taking over dinner. I mean, I still feel his ribs but I can touch his stomach and actually feel a layer of something I front of his organs.“

Christine could tell it was a mark of how good Meg was as a friend, that she didn’t look disgusted, but instead nodded with approval. "But that still doesn’t answer my issue.” Christine sighed, the victorious moment passing.

“Why not make him something?” Meg asked, returning to her knitting.

“Because I can’t just knit him a sweater- no offense, he’d love it from anyone else- but I as in Christine his girlfriend, can not. It just seems so… lame. In comparison. He’s a genius and anything I do just seems so… insignificant."

Meg rolled her eyes. "I didn’t mean knit. I know you can sew or knit or anything like that without it turning into a tangled mess… but what about… music? You two got together because of it. Why not write him a song for once?"

Christine looked at her and then jumped into the sofa, hugging her friend tightly "oh Meg! You’re a genius!”

—

Across Paris in a small but well cared for flat, Erik slammed his fist on the wall. “I’m an idiot! This-these mere jewels just won’t do! She deserves even more! Angel that she is!"

Nadir rolled his eyes, sipping from his glass of wine and watching his dear friend pace like a caged tiger ready to kill it’s keepers. "you know. Any other woman would be quite happy with these… so why not Christine?” As he spoke he gestured to the table with had several Ruby and diamond necklaces and bracelets. Red was apparently her favourite colour according to Erik.

“Because it’s just- she’s just- too perfect Nadir! Nothing on this Earth seems good enough for that beautiful angel. Nothing.” Erik sulked.

Nadir shook his head fondly. “Well has she mentioned wanting anything recently?"

He sighed "No. Not like last year with the photo- wait… she. She did mentioned something about dancing and us enjoying my music… She wanted to dance with me but I couldn’t becau- Nadir I’ll be back some time- I have to go to the hardware store!” And with that he quickly hurried out, a normal sight for nadir as the man often went on his thoughts the moment they struck him. Regardless of the incoming snow…

—

Christine and Erik had never been more silent or busy. Erik barely noticed when Christine walked past him with a pile of books from his library, just as she barely noticed him struggling under the weight of a box filled with metal, wood, and rubber piping. She often locked herself in her old room which had been converted into her own office, just as he locked himself in his workshop.

Odd sounds filled the night under the Opera. For Christine, it was a lot of humming and cursing loudly in swedish. A few shattered ink bottles as well. Although when that happened she scrambled to cover her little project before awkwardly walking to Erik’s workshop to ask if he knew of a way to get the ink out of her crimson carpet.

Every time she knocked, she’d hear a loud clang or the sound of several objects falling, as well as Erik’s own fair share of curses, most in Farsi. After some scrambling he’d answer the door and help her without complaint and even offer her more ink.

The days were going to fast for Christine’s sake but Meg insisted she take a small break for dinner with her best friend. Erik encouraged this and right as the door closed he began to pace. His present had three parts two it. And what should have been the easiest part was proving to be his greatest challenge. Not to mention it'd be the easiest to detect, his paranoid mind had decided.

Still. He sat glaring at his organ, not a single note coming to mind. And after a quarter of an hour had passed, he got up, deciding a small snack could help him think (and Christine had left fresh biscuits out, much to his secret delight).

As he started eating be began thinking of the woman in general, and it occurred to him he had not actually seen her much lately, despite the fact they lived together. And then he realized for some reason she had been cooped up in her study…

Silent as ever, biscuit in mouth, he crept to the study. Slowly he opened the door which had been left open by a crack. And inside was the answer to his prayers…

—

Christmas day came and both people in the small house under the Opera were nervous and jumpy with excitement. They cooked and sang Carol’s together as they made a small feast for two. Tomorrow on Christmas day they would have nadir and Meg over as well but for tonight it was just the happy couple.

Christine found herself focusing on anything related to baking and Erik anything else just about. And soon the table was set, wine poured. It was all delicious of course and they spent the time discussing the latest news in Paris or in the opera. Christine was a bit of a gossip about Meg and Raoul just as Erik was about Nadir and his servant Darius, who was only two years older.

Then all too soon, it was time. “You first my dear. You look as though you will float away with excitement and I won’t deny when I say I am curious."

She nodded, knowing it was best to get hersbour if the way as she would be too nervous to enjoy Erik’s present. Slowly she pulled out her father’s violin. And with shaky hands adjusted music on a stand. Then she took a deep breath, feeling utterly stupid, and began to play.

Erik of course knew roughly what it’d sound like. But that did not stop his heart from stopping at what would become his favourite piece of musical literature. Sure, it technically had it’s faults. Christine try as she may could not perfectly play or compose. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was the fact it had more love in it than Erik could comprehend, making it imperfectly perfect.

And when she finished, he whipped a few years away before pulling her into a warm hug. No words were spoken. None needed to be.

Then he pulled back to kiss her and grin like the mad man in love that he was. "That has to be one of the sweetest gifts anyone has ever given me. Thank you my dear."

She bent her head and blushed slightly. "I’m glad you like it. Took me a while but … I’m glad I did it."

He chuckled and kissed her forehead. An act that meant just as much if not more to them than a normal kiss on the lips. She pulled back and grinned up at him. "alright Monsieur. I do believe it is your turn.”

He chuckled, this time a bit nervously. “Alright… now you’ll have to forgive me but I had a small peak at my present before but… it allowed me to make you this … and something else."

And from under the tree he pulled out a small box. It was rather heavy as she took it. Surprisingly so. She pulled off the red wrapping to see an exquisite jewelry box. It was red and gold with red rubies all around. The fold she realized was painted to be the melody to the song she had just played, with the rubies in place of the note heads.

Carefully and still in awe she opened the box, and inside were two still figures of… of herself dancing in a lavish red ball gown and Erik, holding her close.

Carefully Erik picked it up after a moment and twisted the small turn on its base. Inside the figures twirled Ina small dance. Then he sat it down as it started to play and cautiously offered his hand. "I… made a few modifications to my leg… so forgive me if I am out of practice but… care to have this dance?"

Christine looked up into his bright hopeful eyes and took his hand in hers.

They danced far all the notes had disappeared into the silence of one Christmas night, under the Opera.

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thecourtneychronicles · 4 years

Link

“Courtney Act says she’s enjoying an endless “hot girl summer”. Which, for those not initiated into American rap memes, basically means she’s having a damn good time.

“I’m kind of lubed up and ready for Mardi Gras, so to speak,” she says. As Australia’s most famous drag queen, active since the turn of the century, Courtney helped lead the mainstreaming of queer culture in this country along with figures such as Carlotta and Bob Downe.

But being a leader or pioneer doesn’t guarantee being comfortable in your own skin. Courtney says that until recently her understanding of sexuality and gender was actually quite limited. When she was performing, she was a woman, but when she stripped off her make-up, she went back to being Shane Jenek, a man.

“Although I did drag, my masculinity and femininity were compartmentalised in the binary,” Courtney says.

But over the past few years, as public discussion of gender, sexuality and identity has grown, she has discovered things are more complex than your genitals, clothes and hair.

“I think sometimes people think identity has something to do with the wrapping, but really it’s the gift underneath,” she says. “It’s about how you feel. For me, I definitely feel like I occupy masculine and feminine qualities.”

Courtney explores this journey in her pop-cabaret show, Fluid, showing this week at the Eternity Playhouse in Darlinghurst as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival. It’s a change of pace for her after focusing on television in recent years; first by winning Britain’s Celebrity Big Brother in 2018, then as the runner-up (with Joshua Keefe) on last year’s Australian Dancing with the Stars.

It’s also a far cry from her humble beginnings in the DIY world of drag, which has never been regarded as high art but remains a staple of gay bars and culture worldwide.

“There’s a lot less hot glue and sticky tape in this show, which makes it feel a lot more professional,” Courtney says of Fluid. “I don’t know if that will hold until opening night.”

Set to original music, Fluid was written by Shane and American comedian Brad Loekle. For the most part it’s a one-woman show, with some help from a ballroom dancer in the second half. (“It’d be weird doing a ballroom dance by yourself,” she says.)

The show acknowledges that, more than ever, people are being flooded with “ever-changing and flowing ideas of who we are, what we are and what we might become”.

This is something we should embrace, says Courtney. “We change our clothes every day – we change our hairstyles, we change our jobs. Everything is constantly in motion and constantly fluid. But we have this idea that our identities are fixed. When we look at our lives they’re actually a lot more fluid than we think.”

Courtney, or Shane, doesn’t identify as trans but has said that seeing more transgender people represented in the media was liberating and allowed her to explore her own doubts about gender. She’s previously been described as “gender fluid, pansexual and polyamorous”, although she no longer embraces those labels as she once did.

“They all work,” says Courtney, who prefers to identify as “just generally queer” these days. “It’s funny … so many of our groups identify so strongly with labels and they’re so important to us. I kind of feel less attached to those labels.”

She also understands why some people might feel confused, or even confronted, by the politics of queer identification. The acronym LGBTQIA+, which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and others, has expanded over the years to the point that some critics deride it as “alphabet soup”. Even those who are part of the community can be intolerant.

“I get that LGBTIQA+ is a little cumbersome from a marketing standpoint,” says Courtney. “But if you find yourself with the time to complain and be confused by a few extra letters, then you’re one of the lucky ones. If there are people that get to understand themselves more because of a letter in an acronym, I’m all for it.”

“I definitely feel like I occupy masculine and feminine qualities.”

Courtney casts a sceptical eye over everything, including the rise of cancel culture, a predominantly left-wing phenomenon which argues that anyone who says or does something deemed to be racist, sexist, homophobic or in any way offensive should be called out, shamed and, preferably, silenced.

Lamenting the state of political discourse while appearing on the ABC’s Matter of Fact program last year, she said: “The volume’s too loud now and everybody’s yelling.” While history showed that people sometimes need to raise their voices, “when you actually sit down opposite someone and have a conversation with them, you get so much further”.

How, then, does Courtney view the debate over religious freedom that has raged ever since Australians voted to legalise same-sex marriage in 2017? She says it’s clear that sometimes people, especially older white males, perceive other people gaining rights as a threat to their own. She says religion can be a lost cause because it is, by definition, about faith rather than rational argument. Still, queer people have to make the effort to engage.

“The way to do that is to get people to picture themselves in other people’s experiences. That’s the only way you can foster that empathy.

“Rather than yelling aggressively back at the people trying to oppress us, I think the most important thing to do is to share our stories.”

Another thing you can do, of course, is march. This weekend, Mardi Gras culminates in the annual parade up Oxford Street, which will feature more than 200 floats and 10,000 marchers. For the first time, Courtney will co-host the coverage on SBS with comedians Joel Creasey and Zoe Coombs Marr, and Studio 10 presenter Narelda Jacobs.

She had something of a practice run hosting the coverage on Foxtel some years ago. “I saw a clip of it the other day,” she says. “And I’m definitely hoping to redeem myself.”

As a character, Courtney has been on the gay scene for about 20 years. The person behind the facade, Shane, turned 38 last week. He grew up in Brisbane and remembers watching the parade on television as a teenager in the 1990s, huddled up close to the TV so he could quickly switch it off if his parents came downstairs.

Shane came to Sydney when he was 18 and attended his first Mardi Gras. “I just remember it was such a melting pot of people,” he says. “It was the first time I really understood what a community was: that there were all these different parts, and we all faced different challenges and struggles.”

But even then, Shane says he failed to really comprehend about what Mardi Gras was all about. Just like many heterosexual critics over the years, as a young man he gawked at the giant dancing penises, fetish-wear and nudity and wondered: why?

“I remember thinking: why can’t they just be normal?” Shane says. “Have your parade, but why does it have to be about sex and penises? Because I had shame about all of those things. I realise now that the parade’s brash display of sexuality liberates the shame … it’s a really radical way to shake people and say there’s nothing wrong with sexuality – not just homosexuality but sexuality in general.”

The queer community has given Shane a lot: acceptance, identity, a career and fame. It has taken him to Los Angeles, where he was based for some years until 2018, and now to his new home in London.

Love, on the other hand, remains elusive. He is “on the rebound” at the moment, though eternally optimistic. “It’s Mardi Gras time, it’s summer in Sydney, I think this is the perfect time to be single. Maybe I’ll find love under a disco ball at the after-party.”

Incredibly, at 38, Shane is about to attend his first ever wedding, straight or gay – his friend Tim is marrying his partner Ben. It is set to be a baptism of fire. “They have asked my ex-boyfriend and me to give the best man’s speech together, which could be slightly sadistic,” he says.

Shane is still adjusting to the relatively new world of same-sex marriage. It’s not for everyone – many queers still think of it as a conservative and unnecessary institution – but it’s growing on him. “Weirdly, seeing all these people get married, I feel like my cold heart has melted a bit,” he says. “I think there’s something really beautiful about marriage.”

It’s a reminder of why events like the Mardi Gras are still so important – a celebration of diversity at the same time as the old divisions between straight and gay are knocked down. As well as marriage, this can manifest in small shifts, like the politics of Bondi Beach.

“I was at North Bondi on Saturday [and] it was surprisingly unlike North Bondi,” Shane says. “It was all families and those banana umbrella things. I was like, ‘Oh, I remember when this used to be [gay nightclub] ARQ, but with more light.’"

“I guess that’s the progress we fought for – the families are happy occupying the gay beaches now.”

Fashion director Penny McCarthy. Photographer Steven Chee. Hair Benjamin Moir at Wigs By Vanity.

SBS’s Mardi Gras broadcast airs live from 7.30pm on February 29. Fluid will return for a tour of Australia and NZ in spring.

This article appears in Sunday Life magazine within the Sun-Herald and the Sunday Age on sale February 23.”

Courtney’s interview for The Sydney Morning Herald - February 21, 2020

#ca interview #21.02.20 #courtney act #sydney mardi gras

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wearejapanese · 6 years

Link

By Gwen Fujie

As a sansei American of Okinawan ancestry born to Higa and Kaneshiro parents and legally adopted by a Naichi (person with family roots in mainland Japan) father, Toshio Nishizawa, I submit this essay with sincere gratitude for my Okinawan family, the Okinawan community and my adopted dad.

At the recent 2016 Hawaii United Okinawa Association installation banquet, attended by over 900 people, a Naichi friend of mine asked with amazement, “What is it about you Okinawans? You have so much spirit and pride for your culture! For decades, you continue to hold annual picnics and shinnen enkai that fill the ballroom; you run the largest cultural festival every year — and you seem to do it all with such joy.” I told him that while it is a lot of hard work, we do it with yuimaru — cooperation — and chimugukuru — heart and soul. That spirit has sustained us for generations.

Like my Naichi husband, some of these dear friends of mine call themselves “Uchinanchu wannabes” or “Uchinanchu-at-heart.” I love those labels! I’m sure our Issei and many Nisei could not imagine a time when people would look to us as a strong and positive force in the community, or witness an American of Okinawan ancestry being elected governor of our state, or seeing people of other ethnicities proudly wearing an “Uchinanchu wannabee” button! Ji-san would say, “Akishamiyo!” (OMG!) with a twinkle in his eye.

Some would credit this success to the organization of the HUOA, made up of 50 member-clubs with approximately 40,000 individual members. Others might say it’s the andagi (Okinawan doughnut) and nantu (Okinawan mochi) served at our meetings, the eisä drums that rev up our spirit or the awamori (Okinawan distilled liquor) that just makes us happy people. Actually, it could be a combination of all of the above, and then some.

All kidding aside, I believe our successes have come through adversity and challenges. As our parents and grandparents rose above them and became better and stronger, eventually, we did, too. Our people faced challenges for simply being who they were: Okinawan. While they struggled through it, they never taught us to hate or to retaliate. It is only fitting, then, that the least we descendants can do to honor their determination and grit is to overcome the pain of the past by building pride in our identity as Okinawans, reviving and preserving our culture and arts, and doing it with gratitude and humility.

In writing this essay, I learned that many of my fellow AJA Sansei have no knowledge of what life was like for our Okinawan Issei and Nisei as they settled in Hawai‘i. While they endured the same challenges faced by all immigrants to Hawai‘i, they were also painfully subjected to prejudice by their own countrymen, Japanese people, who looked down upon them. According to my mother, it was because Okinawans were different. They were not as refined as the Japanese and their language was not standard Japanese. Many of our people were pig farmers, and because they were butchers, they were considered low class to the Japanese. Additionally, their language, music and dances were completely different from that of the mainland Japanese. In those days, “different” was not as accepted as it is today.

“Okinawa ken ken, buta kau kau” is a phrase that many Okinawan Sansei know because our parents told us about their schoolmates’ hurtful teasing and bullying. Can you imagine how these young, good-looking teenage girls felt as they helped their fathers and brothers pick up buta kau kau (food scraps, or “slop,” to feed pigs) every evening at the homes of their classmates and endured such teasing the next day at school? As Mom would say, “We were so shame.” From this harsh experience, my mother taught us to always treat others with respect and kindness. This reminder of the Naichi-Uchinanchu relationship of the past is not made to point fingers. Rather, it is to show how understanding the past can inspire our present generations to live without resentment or ill will and create a better community through understanding and an appreciation of differences, as our Obaban and Ji-san did.

My mother and many other Okinawans existed in a world between shame for being Okinawan when amongst Japanese people, and immense pride when amongst their fellow Uchinanchu. The feeling of shame left an indelible mark on my mother’s life for many years. However, as time went on and our Okinawan Nisei and Sansei leaders came together to begin the work of overcoming that feeling of shame and instilling pride in our unique history, culture and language, this mark began to fade.

I can say with certainty that the Okinawan Sansei generation has gone beyond any of our ancestors’ wildest dreams. I believe it is due, in part, to our appreciation of their unique struggles and our strong desire for their struggles to not have been in vain. It is important to us, personally, to maintain pride in our unique culture and arts, as an homage to them. As a result, today our odori (dance), uta-sanshin (singing while playing sanshin), eisä, kobudo taiko (martial arts taiko), classical taiko, koto, Okinawa karate, shishi mai (lion dance), Shimakutuba and Uchinaguchi language classes, and cultural recitals and performances have grown in popularity by leaps and bounds. People of all ages, from 3 years old to 80-something, myself included, take lessons to learn odori or uta-sanshin or any of the aforementioned classes.

By our best guess, there are today over a thousand people enrolled in one or more of these classes taught by certified and highly revered sensei (teachers), many of whom are of our generation and from Hawai‘i or Okinawa. We are indebted to these sensei for their dedication and generosity. To our Sansei Japanese Americans and Americans of Okinawa ancestry, chibariyo, ganbare (Okinawan and Japanese words, respectively, meaning “persevere”) and “go for broke!”

#Uchinanchu #Okinawan #Discrimination #Okinawan Culture #Hawaii #Nikkei #Nikkeijin #Gwen Fujie

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sweetlifetownsville · 5 years

Text

It's A Bugger ...But Maybe A Blessing, Too. Do We Need To Clean Up More Than The Mud And Mould?

The deliberate managed flooding of Townsville should be the catalyst for a far-ranging review of how we do things in this city and maybe the way forward is to know how we should not have done them before. Are we entering the phase of the faceless spokesman? Seems so, as Mayor Mullet suddenly refuses to comment on some matters. The floodwaters might have receded but some leeches are still hanging around firmly plonking their suckers on the public tit one exponent of the big suck is particularly prominent or has Shayne Sutton departed our company? and never the twain should meet its not just the Astonisher having problems with keeping the wrong ads away from the wrong story one of Britains more respected papers has dropped a complete clanger Plus your regular illustrated Trump gallery But first Damned If Adani Do, Damned If Adani Dont The Pies favorite acid-tongued columnist, the Guardians Marina Hyde dropped a wonderful line the other day, and while she was referring hopeless and hapless British conservatives, it is so apt for our Queensland goofarium in George Street, The Pie will borrow it the Palaszczuk Government is like a gif of someone lighting their own fart and then being consumed by the fireball. Jackie Treacherous Trad has the box of matches, and our premier is the one whos been chugging down the vindaloo and frothy XXXX, or should that be Adani Ale. Adding to the fireball was Queensland Resources Investment Commissioner Caoilin Chestnutt, who became a roasting chestnut when she described the Black Throated Finch controversy as an absolute mess which would delay any subsequent approval of the Carmichael mine by between six months to two years. That was a bit rich of her, considering she was talking in New Delhi, in a country which knows a fair bit about messes in politics and social ethics. But those critical of what they see as a cynical and dishonest delay are particularly incensed that arch-Greenie Associate Professor Brendan Wintle has been driving the review they see that as akin to having, say, Clive Palmer being out in charge of an inquiry whether chocolate doughnuts should be outlawed. But Bentleys on to the nutty professors game, who seems to have taken a page out of the hunting with hawks manual.

Still Searching For Icebergs

The mans sensitivity and sense of timing (not to mention decency) was on full display at the Casino ballroom a few nights ago, when Clive Palmer hosted a lavish dinner promoting his unicorn plan to build a replica of Titanic. This affair had a feel of as Rome burns, being staged just as the devastating extent of the flood disaster was becoming fully apparent. Clive seems fatally attracted to things that have been destroyed by natural disasters dinosaurs, the Titantic, but the cynical Yabulu disaster was all his own doing but his only nod on the night towards the immense local disaster was a pledge of $100,000 to help fund any class action against insurers that may emerge from a flood inquiry. Very handsome of the man willing to splurge $500million on a wild whim. But the bombast didnt finish on the night. A day or two later, Palmer called for the TCC to be put into administration and the mayor sacked, because of her handling of the flood disaster. While that scenario has been put in this blog and elsewhere as a question to be answered, it hasnt been asserted as a fact, until Clive came along. The response was predictable, but what was interesting was that although a subsequent headline said Mayor Hill Rejects Palmers Claim, the funny thing is she didnt. In fact, as far as The Pie has heard, she hasnt said tickety boo about his attack, and about claims from others that shes going to have to carry the can on this one. Instead, all of sudden, the mayor went all media shy and we got this

Now, all that be as it may, the thing that caught the beady eye were the words a council spokesman. That phrase has been as rare as rocking horse shit ever since former editor Mick Carroll ten years ago ruled that all such spokespeople needed to supply a name and position, no anonymity. (Dolan Hayes went thermonuclear over that one, but he lost anyway.)

So now it seems the council, via a faceless, nameless spokesman (they probably rolled out the rapidly expanding Tony Bligh of the Legal Dept) as an organisation is pre-judging any official findings about what role the mayor played in the deliberate flooding of hundreds of Townsville ratepayers homes. Something to be learned there, Jenna Cairney .. as Mick Carroll said all those years ago, if there is no name and position to go with statements, whats to stop people thinking the paper just made it up. And that is far more relevant now than when Mick was in charge. It Looks Like Its A Whole New And Overdue Ball Game For Townsville A trusted correspondent on this blog we know as Memory Man has offered many intelligent insights here. During the week, he sent in this story from the Guardian

and attached these comments. This stuff is actually serious, and requires very careful consideration. Simplistic fluff from the likes of Col Dwyer about the poor old North not getting its fair share doesnt address the underlying drivers of risk / mitigation that frame the market for regional insurance. I know talking to colleagues in the global insurance market that cutting out a middle man or two would reduce premiums by about 10% straight away. This means going directly to the underwriters. Only a local authority-backed insurance operation can do this. The Gold Coast City Council did this some years ago. The flip side is also risk mitigation. In part this means making sure the right things are built in the right places. This is easier said than done, because the right things is a function of a minimal specification, which in turn is driven by a given assessment of risk and impact magnitude. Now, the rule has been to build to a 1-in-100 year event impact. This isnt as silly as it sounds. Folk whove derided it as a meaningless measure because such levels have occurred more than once in the past 100 years miss the point of of probability. The reason why the measure is relevant is that it also goes to balancing out the costs of building the right thing versus the probable costs of loss (or replacement). Over-engineering is costly to build, and in many cases also unnecessary. Societies accept that there are some things that can be built to a lesser standard, and other things need to be built to a higher standard. Thats what the public debate should be focused on. Critical infrastructure should be built to a higher standard; things that are more easily replaced can be built to a lower standard. Additionally, everyone needs to recognise that the probability of severe events occurring is increasing (as well as the severity of events themselves). So, what would be described presently as a 1-in-100 may be better understood as a 1-in-75, for sake of argument. It also means that so-called 1-in-500 events may have a greater probability of occurring in the future than was the case in the past. So a revision of probability estimates to say, 1-in-400, may be necessary. Bottom line though is that all asset owners need to take proactive decisions to ensure their assets are built to such as level as warranted by the owners own assessment of the trade-off between cost to build today versus value of loss + cost to replace. Where there is a social cost, this externality needs to be added to the equation. The lesson is severe weather is more likely but this shouldnt be a reason to stop things being developed. It simply means being clearer about the right things being built in the right places, with trade-off risks being clear to those concerned especially when it involves public implications. A well debated argument, and The Magpie believes that new infrastructure rules about flood plain developments require urgent review. Chronic Cronyism: It Really Has Got To Stop The massive upheaval at executive level in the council has given us a glimpse of the outrageously blatant jobs for the boys and girls culture that the likes of Mooney (himself a beneficiary of the rort) and the mayor make little effort to hide nowadays. A very good case in point is this woman

Shayne Sutton, who is also the wife of Stephen The Screaming Midget Beckett, the lately punted Mayoral shouter at staff and ratepayers. It is not surprising that the council became stacked with imported Labor odd jobbers with questionable qualifications once Mayor Jenny Hills poisonous report commissioned from the Nous group in Melbourne was adopted by council, but Ms Sutton has added a new dimension in the grandest let them eat cake style. The Labor old mates club could not be shielded from view when Mrs Beckett arrived in town, following hubby north after the Qld Labor Party decided because of his bad manners, bad temper and bad judgements were not appreciated in the corridors of central power in Brisbane. Shayne Sutton has been a Brisbane City Councillors for 14 years when they upped sticks for Townsville. But she hadnt been here five minutes it seemed when she landed a plum $44k p.a spot on Tony Mooneys Townsville Hospital Board this has been reported here more than once. Seems mr Mooney just couldnt find any involved local suitable to his requirements. But what The Pie has just been made aware of is as well as handling that onerous hospital task (less than 6 meetings a year), Ms Sutton was a few weeks later tapped on the shoulder by Mayor Mullet for a newly created, totally bullshit position as wait for it the Executive Director of the North Queensland Regional Organisations of Councils (NQROC). The what, you cry? Well, this

Gosh, that must take a bit of doing, you wonder. Sure does, as the job description attests. The executive Director draws on her deep knowledge of the region, its history and its priorities and Provides strategic advocacy and engagement advice to five North Queensland Mayors and CEOs Facilitates regional collaboration between key internal and external stakeholders to progress agreedstrategic priorities for North Queensland Media management Organisational governance and financial reporting This is a made-up position that in fact didnt exist before, and at a guess since the kings of featherbedding the LGAQ are involved probably commanded a salary of around $70-80K. Gee, well, you say, shed have her hands as well as her purse full maybe, but not so much that didnt apply for a job the board of TAFE as well. Dont known how that went, and maybe well never know the full extent of Ms Suttons contribution to a community in which she has lived for barely a year. But this murky NQROC position seems to have been suddenly de-created as far as one can penetrate the layers of obscurity around these goings on, so perhaps she is on her way. Madam, you are a massive leech and our already benighted community can hardly mourn it if you pass on from our midst to infest some other poor bastards treasury. Making The Best Use Of Your Townsville Bulletin This latest in the series of cringe-worthy self-promotions caught The Magpie eye on Friday.

And good on you Freda, you really do look a very sprightly lady. May The Pie add his hearty congratulations on a milestone hell probably not even get within cooee of. And reading your story, mdear, the old bird now perhaps knows the secret of your wonderful longevity you gave a hint when you said your daily dose of news from the Bulletin was what set me up for a good day. Its part of ones everyday routine and I just cant get on without it. Its the first thing I need in the morning. Indeed, Freda. As it does for so many others, probably works better than prunes and porridge at a guess, youd be getting on by page 3 most days. Guess She Finally Came Out Of The Closet Seems the layout blokes at the Scottish Herald had a wee dram too many when they put this page together but then again, it may just have been the world renowned Scottish sense of humour. Eh, Jenna?

New Aussie Tennis Rankings .. Just released

And The Week In Trumpistan

It has come to our attention that too many of you are paying attention. The New Yorker

.. Back again next week, Allah willing, but have your say 24/7 on blog comments, plenty of frisky opinion out there along with information you wont get anywhere else (that is, until the Astonisher trolls have read the blog Mt Isa railway crisis two weeks after the Nest, anyone?) Hope you enjoy what you read here, and any support for the Magpies Nest will be greatly appreciated, the how to donate button is below. http://www.townsvillemagpie.com.au/its-a-bugger-but-maybe-a-blessing-too-do-we-need-to-clean-up-more-than-the-mud-and-mould/

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djrelentless · 7 years

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“2014...Friend Or Foe?”

December 23, 2014 at 3:08pm

Well, another year has come and gone. And what can be said about the year that bought usThe Ice Bucket Challenge, Lumberjack Beards and The Battle of Celebrity Silicone Parts. 2014 cemented history for some and unraveled it for others. We watched the product of racism grow into an epidemic of police brutality and learned a lot more about ourselves than we wanted to know. So, let's jump right in and do a recap!

I can't think of anyone else who deserves this cover more than President Obama.

Politics is one of those subjects that we are told never to discuss at a dinner party, but this year I don't think any of us could escape this topic. In the United States, President Obamahad a roller coaster ride that I don't think any otter president has ever had to face. His uphill battle with the Republicans just got nastier as they continued to be "The Party Of No". It amazed me that their hatred for the first Black President would drive them to put in place rezoning laws to secure the elections later in the year. Republicans cunningly said "no" to many ideas just to later blame Obama for things not getting done. This hatred and racism would spill into other areas later in the year.

Here in Toronto, we started out the year with Mayor Rob Ford being defiant by not stepping down after admitting that he smoked crack on The Jimmy Kimmel Show. His arrogance would make him believe that he would win the next election. But as my grandmother used to say….."God don't like ugly (and he ain't too fond of pretty either)." Health issues would eventually take him out of the mayoral race and have his brother take his place in the running. But the good folks with common sense had the good taste of send the message to the Ford brothers that they are not welcomed in City Hall anymore. And although the gay community were really hoping that Olivia Chow would have been our next mayor, the inner core of downtown could not out voted the conservative suburbs and John Tory was voted in.

It was really interesting to watch the blogs and twitter-sphere talk about what was going to happen and what should have happened. I was surprised to see how many conservative acquaintances I had on my facebook friends list. I even had someone in my circle who is super-gay and a Ann Coultier fan. Talk about a walking contradiction…..I mean….who knew we had gay republicans in Canada? And one of my favorite things (….this is sarcasm), is watching some Canadians who only know what is sensationalized on the internet and on TV talk and post about life in the states. As if what they read or heard is the only life for Americans. Everyone has guns, everyone voted Bush in office in both elections and all Americans are stupid. That's no different than the Americans who think Canadians live in igloos and say "a-boot". I guess that's why many Canadians believe that the racial problems that happen in the states are not here in their own backyard. I often joke with my husband that I now know why Canadians get mugged and shot in The Big Apple. They go in with preconceived notions and carry their Canadian philosophies with them when traveling (like walking directly behind New Yorkers instead of giving a little breathing space while walking down the street…..definitely a good way to get shot or at least cursed out).

2014 could be described as history repeating itself. With the re-election of President Obama came more racial divide in the world. Remember….what happens over here effects over there. In his first term, the Republicans accused him of going on an Apology Tourthrough Europe. But Obama realized that in order to fix the US's standing in Europe, he had to repair relationships. Recently he began speaking about fixing things with Cuba. As an American (especially from Florida), I was surprised when I came to Canada and saw commercials for vacationing in Havana. This would never happen in the states. But with the Democrats' big loss in the Senate election this year, Obama lost any power in Congress. And try as he might to reach out to work with the Republicans……they are not having it.

The Ebola Crisis, Russia, North Korea, the Israeli-Palestine Conflict, the missing Malaysia aircraft, Healthcare Enrollment, "The Interview"……..whatever Obama said or did was not good enough or was not soon enough. But I guess the Republicans were not counting on him to remain so level-headed. Just once I wanted him to explode and show full anger for all the shit that he has had to endure as the first Black President. But he knows that he has to remain focused and stay on course. When it is all said in done after he leaves office, his legacy will out live the assholes who tried to sabotage him every step of the way. Let's just hope that Hillary Clinton really does throw her hat in the ring for the 2016 election (I wanna see the US make history again as Bill Clinton becomes the First Husband). So far, the Republicans have not presented a viable candidate.

Unfortunately for Obama, his presidency has brought up the old "Jim Crow" mentality. Just as the US took two steps forward, bias crimes and hatred slowly started to rise and knocked us four steps back. We are still recovering from the Zimmerman Verdict. Paula Deen andDuck Dynasty are still on the air (and I just got back from a trip to Florida where I was surprised by how many Redneck reality shows are in production). Chick-fil-a became the fast-food headquarters for homophobia while some gays tried to turn the situation into black people and the n-word situation nothing changed.

In July, I heard a report about a mentally challenged black man named Milton Hall being shot 46 times in Detroit. And then we watched on YouTube as Eric Garner died in a police choke hold because it was believed that he was selling loose cigarettes (known as a "lousy" on the streets) on Staten Island. Shortly after that came the news of Michael Brown being shot and left in the street in Ferguson. The reports of 12 year old Tamir Rice being shot and killed by police in Cleveland left me stunned. Earlier in February, I wrote a blog called"Hunting Season Is Open In The U.S." which talked about the rise of hate crimes against black youth. Little did I know that this blog would become a prelude to a summer of killings by the police. And all of these shootings would open a huge debate about what is excessive force. Of course we want to support the law enforcement officers who are really out there to protect our communities, but something has to be done about the percentage of cops who are hunting down people of color while the judicial system seems to not be holding them accountable. Yes….there are bad people and bad cops. Out of all the names I mentioned above, there were no cigarettes found on Eric Garner. The rest had probable cause to be stopped…..but not killed.

And while the internet can be the perfect place to see the world and learn new things, it can also be the breeding ground for hate and misinformation. It's scary to think what and who is lurking behind the keyboards out there. Agendas to start a race war and spread propaganda is at every turn. Folks writing sensational articles and blogs to get hits to their sites (without regard for who they hurt or discredit). For every positive article or blog there are probably hundreds to counteract that message. And unfortunately, many people don't check the sources or credibility of these sites and articles and then just accept them as truth. Look before you leap, people.

With the rise of cyber-bullying, teen suicide is slowly becoming common place. Many deaths happened in 2014 (including the death of Bill Cosby's image). And although we lost quite a few celebrities and icons this year (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Williams, Joan Rivers, Jan Hooks, Maya Angelou, Ruby Dee, Casey Kasem, Shirley Temple) there was one particular non-celebrity death that struck me really hard. It was the suicide of 16 year old Sergio Urrego. His story really got me because he did not kill himself because of bullying by classmates. No…he killed himself because of the faculty at his Catholic School in Colombia found a photo on his cellphone of him kissing his boyfriend and began harassing them both. Forcing the boyfriend to out himself to his parents about his sexuality then forcing him out of the school. Then they went as far as not releasing Sergio's records so he could not transfer to another school. The poor child posted the lyrics and the YouTube clip of Pink Floyd's "Goodbye Cruel World" on his facebook page on August 4th and then killed himself.

This is the danger of allowing religion into politics. People kill in the name of religion. And now people are killing themselves because of religion. And with idiots like Andrew Caldwellproclaiming that he is not gay no more and dancing around with the holy spirit on YouTube, it's hard to believe that in this same year Pope Francis in the vatican declared that "homosexuals need to be welcomed…..and have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community." But the majority of black churches are not following the Pope's words. In the communities of color, there remains homophobia (which is completely silly because there are plenty of gay people in the church). When will everyone understand that we are not free until everyone is free. It is hard to break down the years of institutionalized hatred, racism and homophobia. We must first look at ourselves and ask the question…."how would I like to be treated?"

Another topic that has risen since the summer is the appropriation of Black Culture. One of the great things about the United States is the concept of making something out of nothing. Ideas being turned into reality fuel the imagination and the economy. So, the concept of Hip Hop and Ballroom Culture being repackaged and marketing under white artists has come under fire. Since the Eric Garner choke hold, many of the black community have asked where is the outrage from folks like Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake, & Iggy Azalea. And it seems that since Iggy's sales have been through the roof and she has been deemed the new Elvis of Urban Music, she has been the subject of complaints. Rivals Nicki Minaj and Azealia Banks have voiced their distain for the gal from down under. Because I am leery of most things I read nowadays on the internet, I don't know what to believe about Iggy. I like her music and her flow, but is she really stealing thunder from other black artists? I mean….Kendrick Lamar seems to have moved on since the Grammy's. And it's funny that we haven't heard very much from Macklemore since all his accolades. The argument is that "everybody wants to be black to sell records", but when it comes down to actually being down for the cause of fighting for justice no one is around. Don't use our music and culture for record sells and then turn your back on us when we need your voices as much as ever. And don't think because you adopt black children that it gives you card blanche to say the word "nigger"….I'm talking to you Madonna. Even though you are about to drop your new album, I haven't forgotten your Instagram comment on your son, Rocco back in January.

And the continuation of Ballroom Culture appropriation continues as many gay white men love to ki-ki and duck walk to RuPaul's "Sissy That Walk" (which is another kind of appropriation since Ru was never a Ballroom kid either). But the funny thing is watching"Paris Is Burning" and seeing all the appropriation of the 80s rich Republican Culture as they aspire to be all the things they watched on "Dynasty". And today's Kardashians don't help either. Getting rich off of poor people's lust for power and fame. So, who's wrong and who's right. Should we take this opportunity to adapt and accept each other's culture instead of pitting black women against white gay men? I mean….we can all be "Gone With The Wind Fabulous" if that's what we aspire to be. We are all guilty of admiring something about another race or culture. Some imitate it and others try to destroy it to make themselves look superior. Everyone wants to point the finger, but no one wants to look in the mirror.

So, as this year comes to a close I am grateful for a few things. One of the things I am most proud of for 2014 is that I received the 2013-2014 "Friends Of The Foundation Award"from the Toronto Peoples With AIDS Foundation for my fundraisers, POZ-TO andSUNDAY NIGHT FEVER. My husband and I have worked really hard to create a space for the HIV+ Community and raising awareness. My "HIV/AIDS IS EVERYONE'S BUSINESS" Campaign has brought a lot of people together to raise their voices in the fight. And we celebrated our second year anniversary of the POZ-TO event on World AIDS Day(December 1st). Another is the sense of community that rallied together to help me after my bicycle accident in October that left me with a fractured cheekbone and jaw accompanied with a chipped tooth. It was amazing to see how many people cared and came out to perform, donate and support me in my time of need. I am also grateful for reconnecting with my family. I know too many gay people who do not have the support of their biological family (and there is nothing wrong with our adopted family, but there is something really special about being connected to those who are in our blood line). And lastly, I am forever grateful for my loving husband, John Richard Allan. I have never met anyone who has understood me or supported me as much as this man. I am truly blessed.

I don't know what 2015 will hold. But I do know that our conversations and debates about justice and racism will probably be more intense until we change some laws and outlooks in the United States. I know that Bill Cosby needs to address all of the rape accusations against him. It's tough watching the death of another black man. I know that not all cops are bad. I know that not all black youth are bad. I know that shooting police officers just because they are cops is not going to help the solution of fixing what is wrong with the relationship between communities of color and the law enforcement. I know that there are still some good people out there who are working to make their immediate worlds better (and honestly….that's all we can do on a personal level). I know that if you can't see passed the bubble you live in, you are not gonna go very far in life. And as for me….I am looking forward to seeing what else I can do to make my immediate world a better place.

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lodelss · 4 years

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Soraya Roberts | Longreads | January 2020 | 8 minutes (1,978 words)

“And when they bombed other people’s houses, we / protested / but not enough, we opposed them but not / enough …” On January 3rd, Ukrainian immigrant Ilya Kaminsky quote-tweeted his poem, “We Lived Happily During the War,” after it went viral the day Iranian general Qassem Suleimani was assassinated on the order of President Donald Trump. The poem appeared in his long-awaited 2019 poetry collection, Deaf Republic, about a town that responds to the killing of a deaf child by itself going deaf, a parable of the present-day United States, a country that responds to its own demise (and the rest of the world’s) by blocking its ears. His tweet went up in the midst of increasing tensions between the U.S. and Iran and ahead of the death of more than 50 people in a stampede during Suleimani’s funeral procession. It went up months into bushfires ravaging New South Wales that have destroyed millions of hectares and killed roughly half a billion animals. It went up in the wake of a slew of antisemitic attacks across the country. Last Sunday, while thousands in New York marched in solidarity with the Jewish community, the Hollywood awards season kicked off in Los Angeles with the Golden Globes, and the media started gleefully tweeting about couture as though the destruction of the world had politely paused for the occasion. The timing made me think of a friend who recently asked: What if all the people who went to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — tens of millions of Americans — protested instead?

“Now’s NOT the time to live happily,” read Kaminsky’s tweet after he extended his thanks for his poetry’s dissemination. He did not squander the moment the way so many of us often do, advising instead that we “write quality journalism & spicy op-eds & protest poems, get out in the street if you’re able. We won’t live happily during another war.”

But aren’t we already?

* * *

In April, when the Notre-Dame threatened to burn to the ground, a bunch of billionaires fell all over themselves pledging to restore the Gothic cathedral (which turned out to be a lot of bluster — the fundraising goal was largely met by small donations). The mega-rich have been comparatively quiet in response to Australia’s bushfires, which are exponentially more devastating, broadcasting their priorities all the louder. Columnist Louis Staples noted that billionaires tend to run businesses with the sorts of carbon footprints that fuel climate change, the clear cause of the conflagrations. “Also Notre Dame is a landmark in a world famous city,” he wrote, “whereas the Australian wildfires have mostly affected rural, sparsely populated areas.” This confers a kind of poetry on their predilection. Notre-Dame is not only one of France’s most powerful religious and cultural symbols, it was also looted during the French Revolution because it was emblematic of the country’s — and the church’s and the monarchy’s — plutocracy. Marie Antoinette lost her head, but so too did Notre-Dame’s statues. That billionaires pledged to rebuild this historic monument to inequity amidst worldwide uprisings against oppression and large-scale environmental destruction speaks to where their allegiances continue to lie.

More than morals, more than guilt, the number one concern of the ultra-rich appears to be rebellion — the threat of those with less coming for those with more. In the New Yorker this month, a profile of the Patriotic Millionaires, “a couple hundred” rich Americans (at least $1 million in income; more than $5 million in assets) who push for policies to address income inequality, had them voicing this fear repeatedly. Tech exec William Battle, who was raised Republican but veered left after Trump’s election, somewhat comically told the magazine (in a whisper, I have to imagine), “We could have — I don’t want to say it, but, riots.” It tickles me to think of a bunch of exceedingly rich idiots walking around with their knickers in a twist of terror over an imaginary enemy, while in reality the horrors of the world largely originate with them. Paraphrasing Walter Scheidel, author of The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-first Century, the New Yorker’s Sheelah Kolkhatar explained, “levelling happens much more often because of the collapse of a state, such as the fall of the Roman Empire; because of deadly pandemics, like the black death of the thirteen-hundreds, which killed so many people that there were labor shortages and workers’ wages went up; and because of mass-mobilization warfare, such as the two World Wars.” Sound familiar? States are too in control to bow to pitchforks; what they can’t control are natural (“natural”) disasters. Fire, flooding, starvation, disease. Which isn’t to say they aren’t trying.

“Disarm the lifeboats.” This is the title Jonathan M. Katz, who made his name reporting on the 2010 Haiti earthquake, chose for his latest The Long Version newsletter. It’s a reference to journalist Christian Parenti’s 2011 book Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence, which builds on a model of panic proposed by Lee Clarke and Caron Chess. These two academics claim that panic weakens social bonds, reducing the likelihood of crisis resolution, but that it is in fact rare in disaster situations. But people’s enduring belief in this myth — the truthy trope that the public panics in a crisis — ironically leads to actual “elite panic”: powerful people hoarding authority and resources and withholding information. And this panic is actually worse. “Because the positions they occupy command the power to move resources,” Clarke and Chess write, “elite panic is more consequential than public panic.” To get an idea of the sort of consequences they’re talking about, go to any newspaper. It will bear out Parenti’s prediction that elite panic results in what he calls “the politics of the armed lifeboats,” where “strong states with developed economies will succumb to a politics of xenophobia, racism, police repression, surveillance, and militarism and thus transform themselves into fortress societies while the rest of the world slips into collapse.” The failure to mitigate disaster — through cooperation and redistribution, through working together instead of apart — inevitably leads to the collapse of these lifeboats as well.

But in the meantime, as Kaminsky wrote, “I was / in my bed, around my bed America / was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house.” Within the center of the country’s plush cocoon, far away from the laps of floods, or the waves of heat, or the growling hunger, or the roving pestilence, we are comfortable enough to be lulled into complacency. Sprawling homes constructed by capitalism have taught us to individualize and to consume, and so in the midst of a crisis, we respond by purchasing self-help, by buying into self-care, by looking after ourselves as a first port of call, as though anything else really comes second, as though after that massage we will actually extend a hand to anyone else. “I believe that each person has the opportunity to offer the gift of their own higher level of consciousness,” Oprah told The Today Show earlier this month. “You can only heal the world when you are healed yourself.” The feel-good cliché is hard to shake because it isn’t entirely wrong. You do have to be well before you can take care of others, right? Aren’t we always told during in-flight safety routines to put the mask on ourselves first? Except we never seem to get further than that. Those in distress, who feel less cocooned, always seem to be fighting alone. In a recent interview with The Guardian, DeRay McKesson discussed the burnout faced by people of color who have been part of Black Lives Matter protests while the larger population sat in bed and watched on TV. “We saw that people were going to say, ‘Oh, my God, people should be in the street,’ but would never join us,” he said. “We saw that people weren’t willing to risk much.” Outside the lifeboat, they got tired, and inside the lifeboat, the messiah — the one on Netflix, I mean — provided a higher calling.

* * *

“In the street of money in the city of money in the country of money, our great country of money, we (forgive us) / lived happily during the war.” The last line of Kaminsky’s poem seemed to be host Ricky Gervais’s inspiration at the Golden Globes on Sunday. Before anyone could even take the stage, he castigated the ballroom full of famous faces for living happily, despite some of them — including Michelle Williams and Patricia Arquette — going on to address the war raging outside. “If you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech,” he warned. “You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything.” And yet Gervais himself broke his own rule, pleading at the end of the show to “please donate to Australia.” I consider this about-face a positive sign, the synthetic lifeboat losing buoyancy despite itself. Gervais’s inability to follow his own dictate shows the weakness of the fortress the West tries so hard to enforce in the face of the current calamity; the invisible ruins have suddenly become visible, even when we are watching from our bedrooms. This is the sound of Australia denouncing its prime minister for refusing to acknowledge the climate change, the sound of Americans protesting their president for attacking Iran, it is even the sound of Anand Giridharadas’s viral tweet pointing out that 500 of the richest people in the world could save the planet, if only they would work together.

“Climate scientists have modeled out how global temperatures might shift in different geopolitical scenarios,” wrote environmental journalist Emily Atkin in her newsletter Heated last week. “And the scenario that always ends up with the planet in fiery climate chaos is the so-called ‘regional rivalry’ scenario — to put it simply, the one where everyone is fighting, borders are closed, and rich white-led countries like the U.S. are super racist toward less-wealthy countries filled with brown people.” Which means the opposite is also true, the planet survives in the global community scenario in which everyone is cooperating, borders are open, and all countries are equal. So here’s the choice: You can face guaranteed death in the comfort of solitude, the chaos outside muffled by Disney and Netflix, Justin Trudeau’s beard, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal defection, by any solipsistic interest, really, which does not involve engaging with the external world. Or you can face the cataclysm, you can bathe in discomfort and unrest, you can engage with it in your work and your life along with everyone else, and with them work toward survival. Refusing to rock the boat for fear of making anyone uncomfortable right now does not mean the boat is not still fated to sink in the end. If we keep continuing as we have, the Crisis of the Third Century, in which the Roman Empire almost folded due to combined political, social, and economic crises, could very well become the Crisis of the Twenty-First. In an interview with Chinese Poetry Quarterly in 2011, Kaminsky even compared present-day America to latter-day Rome. “The Roman Empire has produced many things that were valuable to modern civilization. But at what cost to other nations? This is the question anyone living in the U.S.A. today, particularly its authors, should be asking,” he said. “Anyone who reads and writes books should attempt to see with clarity the world they live in, pay taxes in, support by mere being there. Not everyone is guilty, Dostoevsky used to say, but everyone is responsible.”

By which he means: Rock the boat, especially if you’re in it, even if you don’t have a life jacket of your own.

* * *

Soraya Roberts is a culture columnist at Longreads.

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mastcomm · 4 years

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In Trippy Times, Bill Graham Took Care of Reality

Many concert promoters keep a low profile. Theirs is mostly a backstage job, dealing with the mundane: contracts and equipment, schedules and security, advertising and accounting. Yet those tasks are essential to building any live music scene.

Bill Graham — the promoter who got started in hippie-era San Francisco, opened the Fillmore East in New York City in 1968 and went on to present concerts worldwide — was by no means self-effacing. He made himself America’s best-known rock promoter from the 1960s to the 1990s.

In the late 1980s, when Graham presented annual New Year’s Eve arena concerts by the Grateful Dead, he would take to center stage at midnight in costume. As a young man he had wanted to be an actor; he got bit parts in “Apocalypse Now” and “Bugsy,” typecast as an agent and a gangster. Graham carved himself such an outsize public role that after his death, in a helicopter accident after a concert in 1991, San Francisco renamed its Civic Auditorium arena after him.

His career provides ample material for “Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution,” a fond multimedia exhibition — photos, videos, concert posters, instruments, costumes, even a light show — that opens on Feb. 14 at the New-York Historical Society.

A proximity-sensing audio guide orchestrates the show with vintage rock and soundtracks to the videos, including live performances from Graham’s “Day on the Green” concerts in Oakland and an excerpt from “The Last Waltz,” the 1976 farewell concert by the Band. The exhibition has plenty of artifacts to trigger boomer nostalgia, as well as reminders that the 1960s ended long ago.

Graham was a brash, scrappy entrepreneur who made himself indispensable to spreading San Francisco’s emerging hippie culture. The actor Peter Coyote famously described Graham as “a cross between Mother Teresa and Al Capone,” though the exhibition shows little of the Al Capone side. There is a Fillmore West staff basketball team jersey with a feisty logo: a raised middle finger with “BG” on the knuckle. But there are no contracts or other glimpses of how he built Bill Graham Productions.

Yet in a San Francisco underground that was inventing itself out of whimsical Beat philosophies, psychedelic revelations, idealism and hedonism, Graham made it his business to transform all-night ballroom jams into sensible financial propositions and create stable outlets for music that was anything but. Working in the trippiest days of the 1960s, Graham recalls in one of the exhibition’s audio snippets: “I always felt that someone had to relate to reality. That was me.”

Graham had a vital role in turning locally renowned San Francisco bands — the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane (whom he briefly managed), Big Brother and the Holding Company, Santana — into nationally known stars. A sense of whimsical camaraderie comes through photos from the scene; one brings together Graham and other band managers, with their hands in each others’ pockets.

From 1968 to 1971, Graham ran both the Fillmore West in San Francisco and the Fillmore East in New York City, theaters that were small by today’s standards (around 3,000 seats) but mightily influential at the time. The beat-up letters spelling out FILLMORE EAST at the exhibition are from the theater’s original marquee.

Graham’s visual choices, like the warped free-form typography of Fillmore concert posters and the pulsating blobs of concert light shows, are now inextricable from cultural memories of the late ’60s. When flower-child utopianism gave way to a more straightforwardly commercial music business, Graham was pragmatic and scaled up, producing events including a 1981 stadium tour for the Rolling Stones, and the 1988 “Human Rights Now!” tour to benefit Amnesty International, with 20 concerts across five continents.

This exhibition originated at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, and it has toured places devoted to Jewish history because Graham came to America as a Jewish refugee: Wulf (or Wolfgang) Wolodia Grajonca. His Russian Jewish parents had moved to Berlin, where he was born. In 1939, his family arranged for him to escape Nazi Germany on a children’s transport to France. He eventually found a foster home in the Bronx, where he traded a German accent for a distinctively Noo Yawk one. His Americanized last name, Graham, was the closest thing in the phone book to Grajonca.

There’s a galvanized tub of apples near the entrance to the exhibition because in the 1960s, concertgoers at Graham’s Fillmore theaters were greeted with barrels offering free apples. During desperate times in France, Graham had helped feed the transported children by stealing the fruit from a neighboring farm.

Graham embraced his Jewish identity as a public figure. In 1975 he financed the building of a public menorah in San Francisco’s Union Square. And in 1985, he vehemently protested President Ronald Reagan’s visit to a cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, where Nazi SS soldiers were buried, with newspaper ads and a speech at a rally. Graham’s office was firebombed soon afterward; the exhibition includes a melted telephone and a charred model of the Union Square menorah.

The exhibition lingers over Graham’s halcyon early years in San Francisco — the years of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Trips Festival, the Human Be-In and the original Fillmore Auditorium, which Graham booked from 1966 to 1968 before moving on to the larger Fillmore West. A wall of concert posters still vibrates with the era’s mixture of Op Art, Art Nouveau, twisted anachronisms and comic-book brashness. And the concert lineups, once the lettering is deciphered, reveal one of Graham’s personal agendas: mixing styles, slipping jazz and blues onto the bills alongside rock headliners. “I never give the public what it wants,” he said at the time. “I give the public what it should want.”

As rock headliners left behind theater shows for arenas, Graham closed both Fillmores in 1971, and he concentrated on the 5,400-capacity Winterland Ballroom, where “The Last Waltz” was filmed. Rock was no longer an underground; it had become mainstream entertainment. But Graham had built an infrastructure that could handle the larger crowds. When Bob Dylan and the Band teamed up for a 1974 arena tour, Dylan’s first major tour in eight years and a surefire sellout, Graham was the promoter.

He was adept at handling multiple superstar egos in one-time events, which made him a go-to producer for benefit shows. The exhibition includes his letter to performers at the marathon televised Philadelphia concert for Live Aid in 1985. He thanks the musicians profusely, but he also underlines that they must have “awareness of time,” insisting they be ready to go onstage at or before their assigned slot.

In a letter from 1980, during a Grateful Dead residency at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, Graham writes to his staff about broken seats, noise from a slamming door, and how to keep fans from pilfering Dead memorabilia during the last show. It’s not a distant, wealthy chief executive’s thank-you note; it’s a glimpse of someone concerned with the smallest details, making sure everything go smoothly behind the scenes. He was still determined to “relate to reality.”

Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution

Through Aug. 23 at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, Manhattan; 212-873-3400, nyhistory.org.

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biofunmy · 5 years

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2019 Emmy Awards: ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Fleabag’ Win Big, One Last Time

Big night for ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Fleabag.’

LOS ANGELES — The dragon did it one last time.

HBO’s “Game of Thrones” made television history at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, winning for best drama series and tying the record for the most wins in that prestigious category with predecessors like “The West Wing,” “L.A. Law,” “Mad Men” and “Hill Street Blues.”

The sprawling fantasy series, which had its finale in May after eight seasons of blood and intrigue, won 12 Emmys for its swan-song season, adding to its record total for the most wins of any television drama ever.

The night was also huge for Amazon, which won the best comedy award thanks to “Fleabag,” a series that grew out of a 2014 one-woman show by its creator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Waller-Bridge won three Emmys on the night, including for best actress in a comedy, a win that came as an upset. The much-decorated Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the star of “Veep,” failed to win that award for the first time in the show’s seven seasons. Waller-Bridge also won in the category of best writing for a comedy series.

“Well, this is just getting ridiculous,” Waller-Bridge said, laughing, after taking center stage at the Microsoft Theater to accept her third Emmy on the night, the award for best comedy series.

She has said that the show’s second season would be its last — and seemed to be sticking with her decision to end it. “To be honest, this feels like the most beautiful way to say goodbye,” she said after the ceremony, when asked if her Emmy success would make her reconsider.

As if to emphasize Amazon’s strong performance, even Alexa made an appearance, announcing the name of the nominees for best actress in a comedy as part of a bit put on by Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, who were presenters.

Last year’s winner for best comedy was also from Amazon, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” a show that won two awards on Sunday, with Alex Borstein winning for best supporting actress and Tony Shalhoub taking the prize for best supporting actor.

In keeping with Emmy tradition, HBO had a strong night over all, taking three of the top series awards, including a victory for a frequent winner, “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver,” as the year’s best talk show. The network also won in the category of best limited series for “Chernobyl,” which won 10 awards altogether.

For his work on “Game of Thrones,” Peter Dinklage won — for the fourth time — the award for best supporting actor in a drama. In his acceptance speech, he paid tribute to the show’s top producers, David Benioff and Dan Weiss.

“Dave and Dan, we literally walked through fire and ice for you,” Dinklage said. “And I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

HBO has undergone executive-suite changes since last year’s Emmys: Richard Plepler, the network’s former chief executive, stepped down in February. He was thanked by Weiss and Benioff, as well as by Oliver and by Jesse Armstrong, the creator of the corporate drama “Succession,” who won in a writing category.

The night also represented something of a defeat for Netflix, which went away empty-handed in the biggest categories.

It was the seventh consecutive year that Netflix was nominated for best drama — this time for “Bodyguard” and “Ozark” — and failed to win. Likewise, Netflix has never won in the best comedy category in six tries.

Another streaming platform, Hulu, won for best drama in 2017 for “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Billy Porter wins for his work on ‘Pose.’

Billy Porter was the breakout actor of the night.

Porter, one of the stars of FX’s New York City 1980s ballroom-scene drama, “Pose,” won best actor in a drama. It was the first time an openly gay black actor had won in the category.

“The category is love, y’all. Love!” Porter said, using his character’s signature catchphrase.

One of the nominees he beat out was Jason Bateman, who did not have to wait for long before taking the stage. Bateman’s Emmy came in the drama directing category, for “Ozark.”

Jodie Comer, a star of BBC America’s “Killing Eve,” won for best actress in a drama. In doing so, she bested her castmate Sandra Oh.

Oh has been nominated for 10 Emmys, eight of them for acting, and has yet to win.

HBO’s ‘Chernobyl’ takes the limited series category.

In the limited series category, HBO’s “Chernobyl,” about the 1986 nuclear reactor disaster in the Soviet Union, edged Netflix’s “When They See Us,” a series from the filmmaker Ava DuVernay about the Central Park Five, who were wrongfully convicted and sent to prison as teenagers for the 1989 rape and assault of a jogger in New York City.

“Chernobyl,” which appeared on HBO last spring without much fanfare, became an unlikely critical darling. It won a total of three Emmys on Sunday: Craig Mazin, the show’s creator, took the award for best writing, and it was honored for directing as well.

With the Emmys’ habit of rewarding the same shows in drama, variety and comedy year after year, the limited series category has become the ceremony’s most intriguing. With little chance of winning in other major series categories, Netflix was holding out hope that it would prevail with DuVernay’s show.

While it did not take the best limited series award, “When They See Us” still made an impression on Emmy voters. Jharrel Jerome won for best actor in a limited series for his role as Korey Wise, the eldest of the five. The actual Central Park Five were in attendance at the Microsoft Theater, and they leapt up from their seats when Jerome got the win.

The actor thanked his mother and DuVernay, adding: “But most importantly, this is for the men we know as the Exonerated Five.”

Beneath the competition between “When They See Us” and “Chernobyl” in the limited series category was the heated Emmys rivalry between HBO and Netflix. HBO took the crown this year, earning 34 Emmy wins compared to Netflix’s 27.

A changed-up broadcast from Fox.

The Emmys broadcast has been losing viewers in recent years, having dropped to a new low of 10.2 million in 2018. In an attempt to shake things up, it went without a host for the first time in 16 years.

The networks take turns broadcasting the program, and this year that task fell to Fox, a network without a late-night host or sitcom star who seemed a natural fit for the job of host.

Instead of an opening monologue, there was a series of handoffs at the top of the show. Homer Simpson, a three-decade Fox veteran, stood center stage before Anthony Anderson, a star of ABC’s “black-ish,” took over — and then Bryan Cranston delivered a sincere speech about television’s cultural impact.

Producers used the time usually devoted to an opening monologue to pay tribute to several shows that went off the air this year. The casts of “Game of Thrones” and “Veep” took the stage, and there was a farewell video that honored other outgoing series like “House of Cards,” “Broad City” and “The Big Bang Theory.”

The producers made other changes, too. The traditional red carpet was traded in for a purple carpet, and the orchestra was sent packing, replaced by piped-in pop songs.

In going hostless, the Emmys were following the Oscars’s lead: The Academy Awards broadcast went without a host this year, and it was rewarded with a ratings increase, with nearly 30 million tuning in.

The last time Fox broadcast the Emmys, in 2015, it turned to its “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” star Andy Samberg. That show was canceled by Fox last year — and is now part of the NBC lineup.

Television has never been more popular, and there has never been more money spent in Hollywood on original television series — but the town didn’t feel very celebratory in the days leading up to the ceremony.

More than 7,000 television and movie writers are in a bitter standoff with their former talent agents five months after having cut ties with them en masse on the advice of the Writers Guild of America unions. Amid the acrimony, the four major agencies canceled the Emmys parties they usually host this weekend.

Sahred From Source link Arts

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atlantaartisticweddings · 5 years

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Historic Wedding Venues in Atlanta

As a Atlanta wedding photographer I have a passion for historic wedding venues. There are so many classic wedding venues in Atlanta. You can go down Peachtree Street and see so many great venues. You have the Fox Theater, Georgian Terrace and Biltmore Hotel. Speaking of Biltmore there is even a Millennium Biltmore in Los Angeles that is also a beautiful historic venue.

My passion for historic venues goes way back. As some of you may know I have been involved in cultural resources for over 20 years. You can see some of my work in the Library of Congress . I still work in the field and shoot large format photography. I still use the same cameras as Ansel Adams.

When I find out that a wedding is at a historic venue such as Callanwolde. I get really excited. One the faculty lends itself to some grand photos. The Callanwolde arts center has one of the most beautiful stair cases in Atlanta. It has been used in several movies and television shows that you can see now. I have shot there several times and each time it is an inspirational experience. The mansion was built between 1917 and 1921 and is considered a severe and modern approach to the late Gothic Revival style of architecture.

When you a talk about historic venues you have mention one of my favorites I have shot at is Peabody Hotel in Memphis Tennessee. The Peabody’s story as one of the grandest, most historic hotels in downtown Memphis dates back to 1869 when the original Peabody Hotel opened on the corner of Main & Monroe, immediately becoming the social and business hub of Memphis. In 1925 a newer, grander Peabody was built at its present location of Union and 2nd Street, continuing the legacy of the "South's Grand Hotel." It was 1933 when ducks were originally placed in the hotel's lobby fountain, setting in motion an 85-year tradition that continues today with the March of the Peabody Ducks.

Of all the historic venues is Naylor Hall. There are many reasons to love Naylor Hall. It is not only a beautiful historic venue that has a beautiful lawn and facade with the classic southern columns. The biggest reason I love Naylor Hall is the people. The are consummate professionals. Sunny Bailey is the owner and has a passion for making your wedding the day a day to remember. Built in the 1840’s by Barrington King for H.W. Proudfoot and his wife, Euphemia, the original part of what would later become Naylor Hall was built as a home featuring a four room clapboard cottage with a central fireplace. Mr. King, son of the city of Roswell’s founder, employed Mr. Proudfoot as a bookkeeper in his newly constructed Roswell Mills, which would later become famous in its own right for its production of Roswell Grey cloth used in uniforms.

The Millennium Biltmore in Las Angeles is another one of those buildings when you walk into it you say “they don’t build them like this any more!”. It is has several two story ball rooms on the entrance level of the building. The Biltmore has been host to some of the most influential meetings and events. The founding banquet of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was held in our magnificent Crystal Ballroom in 1927. The hotel went on to host eight Academy Awards banquets in the ‘30s and ‘40s. John F. Kennedy stayed at the hotel and spoke in our ballrooms during the 1960 Democratic National Convention. It has the large hall way that is nearly 50 feet wide and 30 feet tall into the ballrooms. There is even a roman swimming pool in the lower level of the hotel.

I can not say enough kind things about the Fox Theater in Atlanta. That historic venue is where I proposed to my wife 30 years ago. The Fox theater is rich in details and Atlanta history. It was where the premier of Gone with the Wind was held. There are many intricate carvings in the walls and staircase. But my favorite part of the Fox is the ceiling! It is painted in this royal blue and has lights representing the night sky. So when you are inside the venue it is like it is bigger than life and full of royal grandeur.

In 1928, the Fox was originally conceived as a home for Atlanta’s Shriners organization. To create a headquarters befitting the group’s prominent social status, the Shriners looked to the ancient temples of the Far East to inspire a mosque-style structure befitting their stature. Storied architectural gems like the Alhambra in Spain and Egypt’s Temple of Kharnak heavily influenced the building’s elaborate and intensely ornate design. Bursting with soaring domes, minarets and sweeping archways, the exterior of the building gave way to stunning gold leaf details, sumptuous textiles and exquisite trompe l’oeil art (an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create optical illusions) inside.

Thank you so much for visiting this Atlanta wedding photographers blog. I hope that you learned a little insight to the historic wedding venues in the Atlanta area. I would love to hear from you. Please go to the contact section of the website and I will promise to get back to you.

Thanks again!

David

#wedding #bride #love #weddingday #weddingphotography #weddingdress #photography #weddinginspiration #weddingplanner #makeup #fashion #prewedding #party #weddings #bridal #weddingphotographer #groom #bridetobe #engagement #weddingideas #photographer #event #weddingphotographers #Atlanta #Atlantaweddingphotographers #AtlantaArtisticWeddings #blackandwhite

#historic wedding venues #Atlanta #Atlanta wedding photographers #wedding photographer

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creativescotland · 5 years

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Introduction

This anthology is designed to open people's eyes to the wonderfully creative culture that exists in Scotland. Creativity is a rather broad term, and in reality, so is this anthology. The creative works of Scotland come in multi-medium approaches as a way of expression. In this anthology, not only is there key pieces of works that are revolutionary, but also those that show the wide variety of creative endeavours this nation is capable of producing. These works focus on issues of identity, what it means to be a Scotsman, what makes a strong woman, and on the beauty and nature of Scotland. This cloudy and grey country has a lot more to offer than most people believe, and despite being a part of the United Kingdom, Scotland has a separate identity. The goal of this anthology is to showcase the beautifully unique culture and creativity of Scotland through various art forms, for example, poems, songs, novels, plays, and films.

The title of this anthology took some inspiration from the Government Agency entitled Creative Scotland, which supports and funds creative projects for Scottish artists. I thought it would be interesting to entitle my project the same, and our goals are quite similar. Even though I cannot financially support these endeavours, it does mean that I cannot give them a platform to receive further views and praise. The pieces in this collection are of importance to me, for not only showcasing the diverse talents of this small nation, but also for the lessons and messages they instil in the viewer. They remind me of the fond memories I have in Scotland, and remind me of how I long to go back. These works inspire me, and perhaps they can inspire other viewers as well.

To continue on the reasons for this anthology’s existence, I consider myself to be rather creative. As a young child, I always found myself more into arts and crafts rather than sports. In primary school, my best subjects were English, creative writing, and art class. I was always a dreamer, and found that the arts allowed me to express myself and my thoughts and feelings in a positive way. I grew up dancing, playing the violin and saxophone as well. I became musical, and developed a deep appreciation for music and those who played music or wrote music professionally. I dragged my mum to all the art museums I could, and she happily took me to see the Portland Symphony orchestra play. I was thirteen when I went to my first concert, and seeing live music became an addiction for me. The atmosphere was unlike anything I had ever experienced, a bunch of people from all different backgrounds coming together over a shared interest. That felt like black magic to me, how something so simple, so beautiful, could bring people together.

That is what this anthology does for me, it brings the creatives of Scotland together into one easy to navigate anthology. It features multi-medium works to show how the arts can have these bonding effects on humans. We are all brought together over commonalities, these works all provide a creative way to look at different art forms. Within these art forms, lies references to different art forms, which perpetuates the importance of creativity and the arts in general. However in this particular anthology, it perpetuates this importance not only in general, but also within the context of Scotland as a nation itself.

To begin, I picked the first work of Scottish writing I have ever had the pleasure of reading, Tam O’Shanter. This incredible poem highlights the beauty of the Scottish art of storytelling, and its importance to the Scottish culture. The first time I read this work, was in its original form which was written in Synthetic Scots. A language invented in order to preserve yet again another art form, the art form of language. Scotland was rapidly losing its distinct national language in favour of English. Burns felt that by expressing this story in synthetic Scots, he could perhaps demonstrate the need to preserve the Scottish language, or create a new one in order to keep the tradition, culture and language of Scotland alive.

Second up is Disney’s Brave, which showcases the Scottish culture to a massive worldwide audience. This film touched upon several important topics regarding Scottish culture, tradition and identity. Within the film, which is a creative art form itself, it depicts other art forms, such as weaving and the importance of weaving as a traditional art form within Scotland. Here storytelling also plays a large role, as the father constantly tells the story of the bear whenever he gets the chance.

Third is the poem In Praise of Old Vinyl by Liz Lochhead. This poem speaks towards to the feelings that music can invoke when you listen, and the importance of music in Scotland. Here specifically she talks about old vinyl, which is a vintage way to listen to music in these digital days. This calls upon the traditional nature of Scotland, and their appreciation for music in its best and most authentic forms. It also calls upon nostalgia, a theme often present in these various forms of art, as Scotland looks back on its rich traditions and history.

Fourth is the play Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off also by Liz Lochhead. Granted I read this in book form, instead of watching it be performed by a theatre group, but I just had to add it. Mary Queen of Scots is an icon for Scotland, and putting this narrative into the form of play seemed genius to me. It furthers the tradition of storytelling, to the acting of these stories and histories out loud. The play provides the viewer a visual representation of the story with added music, and choreography to accompany it.

Fifth is the iconic song Barrowlands Ballroom by Amy MacDonald. The Barrowlands is the most iconic music and dance hall within Glasgow, and a key historical monument for Scotland. Glasgow in Scotland was the world’s first UNESCO world city of music, and the Barrowlands was known for being the centre of the music scene at the time. Here MacDonald sings an ode to the beloved concert venue, and acknowledges the other art forms this venue held. It holds concerts, dance nights, dancing competitions and open mic nights.

Sixth is another poem by Robert Burns entitled The Birks of Aberfeldy. I have been to the Birks of Aberfeldy myself twice, and have absolutely loved it both times. This poem highlights the beauty of nature and the picturesque landscape of the region. It is said to be the place where Burns often went to think, and brainstorm his ideas. This work highlights the usage of synthetic Scots once again, and focuses on the beauty of language and nature.

Seventh is the film Trainspotting directed by Danny Boyle. This film focuses on the underrepresented members of Scottish society, and the real issues surrounding Scotland. With an emphasis on heroin addiction, and the AIDS epidemic, this film highlights the reality of living in any society. Edinburgh used to be the #1 in Heroin usage in Europe, as well as the world capital for AIDS. It highlighted the aesthetics of heroin chic, which would later emerge into the grunge movement in fashion and of punk, indie and hard rock music.

Eighth happens to be the novel Trumpet by the Scottish Makar Jackie Kay. Her novel highlighted the importance of music, and it’s ability to make us feel and belong. Trumpet is about complex issues in gender identity, race and sexuality, as well as parent/child relations. Based on a true story, this novel provides us with another look at underrepresented communities within in Scotland, and allows us to explore the world of jazz music.

Ninth is the song I’m Gonna Be/500 Miles by the Proclaimers. This song became the anthem for our class trip to Scotland, and holds such fond memories within its lyrics for me. This love song speaks to the dreams of this man, and his hopes in order to be with the one that he loves. Dreams are an important goal that we create and imagine in our heads, the importance of imagination and hope are prevalent themes within this song.

Lastly, I wanted to end this anthology with my mixtape entitled Strong, Sexy and Scottish. It is an ode to powerful women in the music industry in Scotland. Music at first was an art form that was reserved for the men, and these women have taken a male dominated industry and become successful. This mixtape features songs that are about women's empowerment, equality, independence and love. I wanted to end with this mixtape to show something in which I have created. A collection of Scottish women I admire put together by a woman herself.

#creativescotland #scottishmusic #scotland

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houstonlocalus-blog · 7 years

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I’m Not An Astrology Major: An Interview with B.o.B

B.o.B Photo courtesy of the artist

Atlanta-based hip hop artist Bobby Ray Simmons, also known as B.o.B, has been a pop culture staple for nearly a decade. While he has four studio albums — his latest, Ether, dropped just a few months ago — the 2010 album B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray is the one that threw him into the world of airplay, especially with smash hits like “Nothin’ On You” and “Airplanes.” Just last year, Simmons garnered attention for speaking out on his views relating to the “flat earth” movement, which he explained in several Twitter posts last January, and even prominent astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson responded in an (unsuccessful) attempt to convince him otherwise. Prior to his performance at Warehouse Live on Saturday, FPH spoke to B.o.B about the current state of his career, what gets an artist to the top of the charts, and his views on science and technology.

Free Press Houston: You released your latest full-length Ether a while back, your first in four years. How long did this project take to complete?

B.o.B: Really, a lot of those songs were written before I even began to work on the Elements mixtape. If those songs from the record were already done, then the mixtape really sculpted this one.

FPH: Are you planning on putting out another EP in the near future, or perhaps even a full-length?

B.o.B: Yeah, I always have something in the works. I never stop. I’m working on something right now.

FPH: Speaking of your EPs, the “Concept” ones, i.g. NASA, water, fire, earth air; what is the meaning of them?

B.o.B: They represent the physical world that we can see with our eyes, but also the unseen forces that act upon nature as well.

FPH: What do you mean by “unseen forces”?

B.o.B.: Unseen forces refers to the the ideas of Nikola Tesla, which talk about the realm in which all matter and material moves through. So, Tesla was way ahead of his time, you know; he invented wireless power, and that was 50-plus years ago. He came up with free energy. Lots of things that he invented — basically, the powers that be are not one. To hide that stuff, making life easier for humans, they went with Edison’s blueprints instead, so they can charge us for power. You know, just to keep stuff more controlled.

So yeah, not to get off topic, but the mixtapes kind of speak of all aspects of the physical and unseen world that we live in.

FPH: I find it cool when hip-hop material is an obvious concept project, for example Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. Speaking of him, have you kept in touch with him since the feature you both had on that T.I. song? I mean, he’s performing in Houston the same night you are.

B.o.B: No, I actually haven’t seen him since then. I mean, we’ve shared a few words, but other than that, not too much.

FPH: Well he’s undoubtedly one of the biggest rappers right now, and you also had some chart topping singles. What is it that keeps talented, fresh groups like Shabazz Palaces and Run the Jewels from really blowing up like the two of you?

B.o.B: I mean, I think a lot of people are huge because of the hype around them. Not to say anything about anyone in particular, but I think once fandom reaches a certain point everyone else will just jump on board, you know? I think it’s a part of human nature to flock to wherever the crowd is. It just depends on the wave that’s moving. That’s where the term waves is in now, because it’s really like catching a wave. So I think there are a lot of people talking about the same thing me, Kendrick [Lamar], and Lupe [Fiasco] are talking about. The list goes on. I think it’s just really about timing, getting big while everyone is watching.

FPH: So I was checking out your Twitter page and couldn’t help but notice that your profile photo was set to the United Nation’s logo; what’s up with that?

B.o.B: The U.N. logo is believed to be what the earth actually looked like.

FPH: Of all the followers you have, more than two million, who are you most excited about that follows? Do you think it’s cool that people like Lil B follows you?

B.o.B: You know, since last year I’ve gotten a lot of new followers — shoutout to them. It kind of all happened at once. It was pretty wild. It’s literally like a lot of celebrities that follow me, and I can’t even begin to narrow the list down. I also have a lot of celebrities that come up to me and commend me on my outspokenness, because they aren’t in a position to do that themselves. So I feel the support and whatnot.

FPH: Obviously those tweets you made about the shape of the earth got a lot of attention, and certainly a large amount of criticism. Do you think that whole situation was handled fairly?

B.o.B: Well, you know, the world is never fair. I feel like the relaventness of that tweet was more important than it being handled fairly or not, or what people believe. They may have used those to discredit it or make me crazy for some clicks on an article. But it kind of gave new life to something that many people never knew existed. But in my eyes it’s a win.

FPH: It seems like Elon Musk is a modern day rockstar, and one who wants to get us to Mars. But is that the only one we’re going to be able to get to, if we get there at all?

B.o.B: I feel like we as a culture have not talked about what planets really are, so when people ask me if I think planets are flat, I think that they don’t really know what planets are. I’ve done so much extensive research on heliocentrism and geocentrism, pre-Galilean astronomy dating back to ancient times. I just feel like somewhere along the way the same people that didn’t want Nikola Tesla’s inventions to be used changed shit and started teaching the wrong way. There’s a lot we have to learn as a culture that we can’t just take one side of. I’m not saying that everything from the past is more accurate, though. We just can’t rule out what people thought in the past, because a lot of the so-called “new” technology actually existed before. A lot of that stuff was just written out of history. In today’s world you work all fucking day, and when you get home you just want to watch football. Who wants to go to a fucking library and dig up dusty books and research shit. Nobody is trying to do that. So it’s like you have to understand the world we live in and try to meet people halfway, which is a real challenging thing, but still. Especially when you’re in the business of making music, you know. I’m not an astrology major.

I don’t know about the second part. I feel like Earth could be a colony, and that there are other places like it that are already colonized, but we’re just separated from it. We think that there’s nothing out there colonized.

B.o.B will perform at the Ballroom at Warehouse Live (813 St. Emanuel) on Saturday, July 15 with London Jae, Jaque Beatz and Havi. Tickets are $25 presale or $30 at the door with doors at 9 pm.

I’m Not An Astrology Major: An Interview with B.o.B this is a repost

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