#creative during Covid-19

[heartmachinez]

Embracing Accessibility and Diversity: The Vital Role of Remote Presentations in Game Conventions

In recent years, the gaming industry has witnessed an unprecedented surge in popularity and innovation. This phenomenon is often celebrated at large international conventions like Gamescom / devcom, where developers, enthusiasts, and creators from around the world gather to showcase their latest creations, share insights, and explore new horizons.

However, as the gaming community continues to expand, so does the need to ensure that these conventions remain accessible and inclusive for everyone. Enter the concept of live remote presentations – a powerful tool that preserves diversity, fosters representation, and empowers those who might otherwise be excluded.

During the pandemic, many conventions like GDC, Gamescom, Gen Con, etc. decided to go remote rather than cancel their events outright. Now that COVID-19 is under control, these same conventions have decided to return to an IRL format for the obvious benefits of fostering greater networking opportunity, spontaneous collaborations, personal branding, cultural exchange...among other advantages.

We were very fortunate this year that even though Gamescom / devcom was one of thsoe conventions that returned to an in-person format this year, they were able to accomodate our Founder / Creative Director Alx Preston's remote talk From Pixels to Polygons – Bringing the Hyper Light Universe into the Third Dimension. They decided to make an exception to the in-person only format this year due to Alx's specific health considerations.

But maybe a hybrid format should be the norm, and not the exception?

The Power of Representation and Diversity

One of the most valuable assets of the gaming industry is its diverse and passionate community. Gamers, creators, and developers hail from various backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives, enriching the industry with fresh ideas and innovative concepts. Embracing this diversity fosters creativity and leads to games that resonate with a broader range of players. But for this diversity to flourish, the voices and viewpoints of all members of the community need to be heard.

Accessibility as a Cornerstone of Inclusion

International conventions like Gamescom attract attendees from around the world, turning them into melting pots of ideas and creativity. However, the barrier of physical attendance can inadvertently lead to exclusion. Not everyone has the financial means, the physical health, or the time to journey halfway around the globe to participate in such events. This exclusion can inadvertently stifle unique perspectives and novel insights that could otherwise contribute to the growth of the industry.

The Crucial Role of Remote Presentations

Live remote presentations offer a solution that bridges the gap between physical presence and accessibility. By allowing speakers to present their ideas, projects, and perspectives remotely, conventions can ensure that individuals who might not be able to attend in person can still contribute meaningfully. Here are a few compelling reasons why this approach is essential:

Global Representation: Remote presentations empower voices from different continents, cultures, and backgrounds to participate and share their experiences, especially including folks from foreign countries who might encounter time or money difficulties getting visas to travel. This widens the scope of perspectives and ensures a more holistic representation of the gaming community.

Inclusivity: Everyone should have an equal opportunity to engage with the industry they love. Remote presentations provide a level playing field for those with limited physical abilities, financial constraints, or geographical limitations.

Time and Resource Efficiency: For busy professionals, remote presentations eliminate the need for extensive travel and time away from work or other commitments. This encourages a more diverse pool of experts to contribute without sacrificing their personal and professional obligations.

Reduced Environmental Impact: International travel carries a significant carbon footprint. Embracing remote presentations aligns with sustainability efforts and demonstrates a commitment to reducing the environmental impact of such events.

Technological Advancements: With the rise of high-quality video conferencing tools, remote presentations can be seamless and engaging. This eliminates potential technical barriers and ensures that remote speakers can effectively communicate their ideas.

Looking Ahead: A More Inclusive Gaming Community

In conclusion, the gaming industry's continued growth hinges on the cultivation of diverse ideas and perspectives. International conventions like Gamescom play a pivotal role in this process by providing a platform for individuals to share their insights. However, it's crucial to acknowledge the limitations that physical attendance imposes on accessibility and representation. By embracing live remote presentations, and offering a hybrid format, these conventions can pave the way for a more inclusive and vibrant gaming community.

In a world where technology connects us across continents, it's only fitting that the gaming industry utilizes these tools to break down barriers and amplify voices. By making remote presentations a staple of game conventions, we celebrate the richness of our community while ensuring that everyone has a seat at the table, regardless of their location, resources, or physical abilities.

Thank you so much to Nico Balletta and the devcom / Gamescom team for giving us the chance to share our projects with the world. Here's to an amazing Gamescom 2023!

#hyper light breaker #gamedev #hyper light drifter #public speaking #devcom #gamescom #gamescom 2023 #accessibility #livestream

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Dyani Lewis

Published: May 31, 2023

In India, children under 16 returning to school this month at the start of the school year will no longer be taught about evolution, the periodic table of elements or sources of energy.

The news that evolution would be cut from the curriculum for students aged 15–16 was widely reported last month, when thousands of people signed a petition in protest. But official guidance has revealed that a chapter on the periodic table will be cut, too, along with other foundational topics such as sources of energy and environmental sustainability. Younger learners will no longer be taught certain pollution- and climate-related topics, and there are cuts to biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics and physics subjects for older school students.

Overall, the changes affect some 134 million 11–18-year-olds in India’s schools. The extent of what has changed became clearer last month when the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) — the public body that develops the Indian school curriculum and textbooks — released textbooks for the new academic year that started in May.

Researchers, including those who study science education, are shocked. “Anybody who’s trying to teach biology without dealing with evolution is not teaching biology as we currently understand it,” says Jonathan Osborne, a science-education researcher at Stanford University in California. “It’s that fundamental to biology.” The periodic table explains how life’s building blocks combine to generate substances with vastly different properties, he adds, and “is one of the great intellectual achievements of chemists”.

Mythili Ramchand, a science-teacher trainer at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, India, says that “everything related to water, air pollution, resource management has been removed. “I don’t see how conservation of water, and air [pollution], is not relevant for us. It’s all the more so currently,” she adds. A chapter on different sources of energy — from fossil fuels to renewables — has also been removed. “That’s a bit strange, quite honestly, given the relevance in today’s world,” says Osborne.

More than 4,500 scientists, teachers and science communicators have signed an appeal organized by Breakthrough Science Society, a campaign group based in Kolkata, India, to reinstate the axed content on evolution.

NCERT has not responded to the appeal. And although it relied on expert committees to oversee the changes, it has not yet engaged with parents and teachers to explain its rationale for making them. NCERT also did not reply to Nature’s request for comment.

Chapters closed

A chapter on the periodic table of elements has been removed from the syllabus for class-10 students, who are typically 15–16 years old. Whole chapters on sources of energy and the sustainable management of natural resources have also been removed.

A small section on Michael Faraday’s contributions to the understanding of electricity and magnetism in the nineteenth century has also been stripped from the class-10 syllabus. In non-science content, chapters on democracy and diversity; political parties; and challenges to democracy have been scrapped. And a chapter on the industrial revolution has been removed for older students.

In explaining its changes, NCERT states on its website that it considered whether content overlapped with similar content covered elsewhere, the difficulty of the content, and whether the content was irrelevant. It also aims to provide opportunities for experiential learning and creativity.

NCERT announced the cuts last year, saying that they would ease pressures on students studying online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amitabh Joshi, an evolutionary biologist at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru, India, says that science teachers and researchers expected that the content would be reinstated once students returned to classrooms. Instead, the NCERT shocked everyone by printing textbooks for the new academic year with a statement that the changes will remain for the next two academic years, in line with India’s revised education policy approved by government in July 2020.

“The idea [behind the new policy] is that you make students ask questions,” says Anindita Bhadra, an evolutionary biologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata. But she says that removing fundamental concepts is likely to stifle curiosity, rather than encourage it. “The way this is being done, by saying ‘drop content and teach less’”, she says, “that’s not the way you do it”.

Evolution axed

Science educators are particularly concerned about the removal of evolution. A chapter on diversity in living organisms and one called ‘Why do we fall ill’ has been removed from the syllabus for class-9 students, who are typically 14–15 years old. Darwin’s contributions to evolution, how fossils form and human evolution have all been removed from the chapter on heredity and evolution for class-10 pupils. That chapter is now called just ‘Heredity’. Evolution, says Joshi, is essential to understanding human diversity and “our place in the world”.

In India, class 10 is the last year in which science is taught to every student. Only students who elect to study biology in the final two years of education (before university) will learn about the topic.

Joshi says that the curriculum revision process has lacked transparency. But in the case of evolution, “more religious groups in India are beginning to take anti-evolution stances”, he says. Some members of the public also think that evolution lacks relevance outside academic institutions.

Aditya Mukherjee, a historian at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Dehli, says that changes to the curriculum are being driven by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a mass-membership volunteer organization that has close ties to India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party. The RSS feels that Hinduism is under threat from India’s other religions and cultures.

“There is a movement away from rational thinking, against the enlightenment and Western ideas” in India, adds Sucheta Mahajan, a historian at Jawaharlal Nehru University who collaborates with Mukherjee on studies of RSS influence on school texts. Evolution conflicts with creation stories, adds Mukherjee. History is the main target, but “science is one of the victims”, she adds.

==

Well, at least it'll put them on par with the anti-science and biology-denial of US classrooms. China no longer has anything to worry about.

#India #hinduism #islam #science denial #evolution #evolution denial #science #anti science #biology denial #math #mathematics #physics #religion #religion is ignorance #religious stupidity #periodic table #periodic table of elements #religion is a mental illness

[englishstrawbie]

I've been thinking about Station 19 since the news broke yesterday that the show has been cancelled and season 7 will be its last. I said the other day that I feel disconnected from the ship and the fandom, so I haven't been overwhelmed with sadness. I wonder if that will come once the show comes back and I remember how much I love these characters, like I did in season 6?

But I am bummed and I am disappointed that the show has been cancelled because it's a show that means a lot to me. Marina came along just at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. During that first lockdown, we got to watch them fall in love; and all throughout the ups and downs of the pandemic, they were there. It's a show and a ship that made me fall in love with writing fanfic again, that has brought some wonderful people into my life, that has brought us hours of fun and conversation and creativity. I'm grateful to the show for all that.

Maya and Carina are also one of the few wlw couples on television and it sucks that we're losing yet another one. I know the news is still breaking, but I hope when all those initial feelings pass and the show returns in March, we can come together as a fandom to celebrate the characters and the actors, to celebrate the show, and enjoy these last 10 episodes. Let it go out with an almighty bang!

I do wish it was more than 10 episodes. There are a lot of stories that we will miss out on because of the short season - but I'm grateful that the decision has been made in time for the writers to incorporate the end of the show into how they write the story arcs this season. We have a good chance of Maya and Carina having a happy ending, and that is going to mean a lot.

Finally (because I'm a little hungover and in no mood for fuckwittery), if you're the kind of person who intentionally tags your posts either here or on twitter to gloat about the show being cancelled, knowing that people are sad and knowing that the characters, the stories and the representation mean a lot to people... kindly fuck off.

#station 19 #my rambles

[mariacallous]

Squander enough time on TikTok these days and the signs of creative deceleration are everywhere.

“Try-hard” slang is spreading. Competitive aging is a thing. Classic episodes of The Sopranos are fed to you in polished 25-second bites. Last October, the 2004 cult teen comedy Mean Girls was portioned into 23 parts to unanimous celebration. (Did I mention pirated content is on the rise?) Everyone, it seems, wants to revisit the world as it was two decades ago, of all places, on the so-called app of the future.

Relics of the New Millennium are again in vogue, and especially on TikTok, where you get the sense that everyone is chasing the fantasy of youth. Except, it’s just that—a fantasy.

“I keep getting served TikToks on [high-yield savings accounts] and 401ks,” one of my colleagues commented in Slack recently. “I believe the olds are in charge now.”

She’s right, of course. Millennials are currently outpacing Gen Z in the adoption of TikTok in the US, according to Pew Research Center data, which shows that the app's 30-49-year-old demographic is growing faster than its 18-29-year-old user base.

Such is the way on the social internet; still, the enshittification of TikTok continues.

One tell-tale sign of late-stage social media is the endless vomit of nostalgia regifted in pretty packaging. Tastes have aged, and the user experience is no longer one of giddy revelation—at one point, the only reaction the app seemed to generate among new users—but one of odd comfort.

It was inevitable, of course. Seasons change, apps pivot, and users learn to chase the adrenaline of the future through new and exotic machines of possibility.

When TikTok gained mass popularity in 2020 during the first outbreak of Covid-19, it signaled a reorientation of where we place value. Tastes were being reengineered. The app’s offerings were as robust as they were confounding: dance challenges, beauty recommendations, racial appropriation, expert sleuthing, and more fed its algorithmic churn. It wasn’t just endless but entertainingly so, earning a reputation for setting trends and establishing itself as an unofficial headquarters for Gen Z influencers—and, because the internet is a repeated comedy of errors, later platforming de-influencers.

Today, TikTok operates as the ideal precursor to AI and what the next digital revolution is ushering in—a blurring of realities, a blotting out. Ownership over “the sense organs of the public,” as Nicholas Carr phrased it, is the endpoint, the very future that companies like Meta and Apple want to build. And so TikTok persuades as the perfect tonic: a world of cyclical multimedia that lets you create, live in, or simply spectate at will. A 60-second harbinger of all that is coming, delivered on demand.

For many people, the sensations of digital life feel most alive on such an app. With art, suggests Jackson Arn, extreme sensation is a fraught strategy because of what it pulls off: As the artwork seduces, it also disgusts.

I now wonder if that was the point of socially-oriented technologies all along. They make you feel a little more alive. Again and again, they unlock dormant sensations: excitement, awe, satisfaction. Even disgust has the capacity to captivate. Because even in disgust there is a need to share, comment on, or understand the nature of spectacle, and how it functions. Only, the seduction of TikTok captivates a little too well, and as you age, carrying the experience of life on your shoulders while trying not to be crushed by it, you find yourself craving those sensations all the time.

That seems especially true for millennials, who were guaranteed a future that never arrived. They were dealt a bad hand—several bad hands—and saddled with the failures of those who came before them without a blueprint for a path forward. In February, I received a text from a family member. He'd applied for the SAVE Plan, and we exchanged mutual angst over our financial misfortunes, how so many friends are in the same bind, bonding over the recognition of unnatural loss, of another future we’ll never know.

Last week at the barbershop, I watched as a young man in his early thirties thumbed from video to video, his neck craned into his iPhone, blitzing through TikTok. He sat in the chair for about 40 minutes, and as the barber worked around him, not once did he glance away from his screen, except, to exclaim, “Look! You gotta see this one.”

So when I hear that millennials are usurping Gen Z as TikTok's leading demographic, I'm not shocked. The organs of our digital existence, like the body, are connected, flowing as they should even when complete comprehension evades reasoning. All of it is intertwined. The increasing thirst for mixed reality. Gen Z abandoning the rituals of digital life altogether for a more analog experience. The decline of TikTok as millennials eclipse the platform. The previous world is ending. So is social media as we knew it. And we again want to feel something—even if, and only for a little while, that something is 2004.

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

#fluid dynamics #fluids as art #ice #physics #science #timelapse

[theminecraftloser]

Grian Art Designs over the years

I adore Grian fans. The way the fanart of him has evolved over time is amazing! I’ve been watching since basically the start of EVO (description of EVO at the end of the post for those who don’t know it) and seeing all the different ways he’s been drawn through the years is crazy!

During EVO, Grian was drawn with his old skin until they updated enough that they got their current skins back. So all the fanart was basically a Link from Legend of Zelda cosplayer. Then when they got their skins back he was drawn as Just A Guy with a red shirt.

Flash forward to season 6 and he began as Just A Guy but then fans began drawing him with wings!

Grian was wing-ified due to his skill with Elytra! If you’ve seen season 6 he was awful at them at the start of the season because he’s never used them due to him playing mostly creative mode after a certain point with updates in Minecraft so he was unfamiliar with a lot of new features used in survival play. However, within a few episodes, he was one of the best fliers in the server, even setting up a complex elytra course in the shopping district for which he held the fastest time.

During season 6 Grian was often depicted with either white/black feathered wings or purple feathered/bug like wings. The purple wings relate to a popular Headcanon fans carried over from the ending of EVO when Grian became a watcher. In Watcher!Grian AUs there were various designs that depicted several different aspects such as masks, multiple eyes, being based on Biblically Accurate Angles, wings (sometimes multiple sets), claws, fangs, robes, etc. the list goes on and on.

Grian’s popularity skyrocketed during season 6 as HermitCraft is a well known series that had loads of fans prior to his joining and attracted many more to the series afterwords as well. So many people knew Grian to be proficient with Elytra and the general consensus among fans was “Grian has wings”.

Sometime between the second part of season six and early season seven, artists swapped his red shirt for a red jumper.

His design regarding wings was adapted in season 7 to give him parrot wings due to the Pesky Bird shenanigans. Season 7 also had a massive increase of viewers as it happened during the major part of the COVID-19 lockdown with the season kicking off in late February, just weeks before the lockdowns began. Once again, an influx of new fans seeing Grian in fanart being depicted with Red Parrot wings was majorly influential to artists designs.

Some fans began drawing winged ear things (don’t know the word for them lol), goggles, and bird feet/legs around this time also, further cementing his place as an Avian of some sort.

His design since then has remained mostly the same due to the similarity of his skin and no new justifications to have changed (excluding MCC art which shows him in his Team’s Colour for outfits rather than his typical red)

Grian has experienced yet another increase of fans/fanart due to the Life Series, especially double life. This gaining interest and Martyn’s inclusion of Watchers in his Last Life series has lead new fans to watching EVO and bringing back the popularity of Watcher AUs meaning there are Watcher!Grian designs circulating the internet again!

What is EVO?

Evolution SMP, commonly called EVO or EVO SMP, was a survival multiplayer series that began in late 2017. The players included Grian, SolidarityGaming (Jimmy), InTheLittleWood (Martyn), MiniMuka, NettyPlays, SalemsLady, BigBStatz, Tomohawk and SystemZee. Later in the series, Taurtis and PearlescentMoon joined as well.

The premise of the series was to take players back to old versions of minecraft and as time passed, upgrade into the next version. Often they would skip through a couple of versions each update as older updates didn’t add much to the game at a time. They updated by completing challenges and scavenger hunts as well as solving riddles and puzzles set up in the world by The Watchers.

As the name suggests, The Watchers watched over the world as unseen powerful entities. They created the portals that lead Evolutionists to the next versions. Grian has said that Watchers are meant to be the audiences of EVO because we watch the episodes. This is further shown when Grian leaves the EVO series because he was invited to join HermitCraft Season Six and simply didn’t have the time to manage both series. Grian departed the series and had a conversation with two Watchers (named Watcher 1 and Watcher 2) in an altered version of the End Poem that played after Grian defeated the Ender Dragon. At the end, Grian becomes Watcher 3 and says he looks forward to watching the rest of the EVO as he has now joined the audience.

Watchers were seen by fans in AUs as cruel tormentors who dragged Grian away from his friends in EVO that imprisoned him and forced him to become a watcher rather than a human that he was originally. This is an incredibly popular interpretation of the Watchers and one you will see very often if you engage with any Watcher AU content.

(My own opinion on the watchers disagrees with this headcanon however that’s discussed further in this post.)

#hermitcraft #evo grian #grian #evo #evo smp #the watchers #watcher au #watcher!grian #watcher grian

[iu-jjang]

[INTERVIEW] 221020 Vogue Korea - IU “Looking back on the past occasionally makes it more meaningful, doesn’t it?”

IU in Seoul, IU in Milan. Is she the same or different?

At ‘Vogue’, many photos were gathered of IU, Korea’s first female solo singer to have a concert at Jamsil Olympic Stadium then visit Milan as Gucci’s global ambassador. IU said, she asked herself, ‘How about this?’ and she started enjoying herself more.

Q: You attended the 2023 S/S Milan collection show as Gucci’s global ambassador. Was there anything memorable for you about the collection? Any look or item that you liked?

IU: The moment I entered, I felt that the showcase venue was small and cosy. There weren’t many seats either. Then in the middle of the show, a partition wall in the centre of the stage was lifted and I realised that it was like a decalcomanie and there was another show on the other side. The twin models who were walking on their side of the stage met in the middle and held hands as they walked. Whether visually or symbolically, it was an interesting performance. I like overalls and this season, there were overalls! I wonder if they have it in my size? I got excited.

Q: During the ‘Twinsburg’ collection this time, 68 pairs of twins appeared on stage. The mother of the creative director, Alessandro Michele, is a twin so it came from his own personal experiences. I think artists need to have the ability to not bypass little experiences in their lives or miss out on the opposite side of the lives they have become accustomed to and turn that into art. I think the way you tell stories through your music and the unique way you express yourself through your lyrics is an example of that. How do you convert your daily experiences into music? Do you observe or make notes or think on the flip side?

IU: I’ve actually been making fewer notes than before. I still write in my diary, but I’m not as obsessive about writing in it anymore. It’s like, ‘The words to remain shall remain, or else just forget them.’ It’s been awhile since the days when I tried hard to cling on to thoughts that are worth becoming items. (But when I work on my full-length albums with more tracks, I’m clearly going to cling on reluctantly again.) Nowadays, there are many artists that write lyrics by themselves that have character. I’m also the type to stick my flag (TL note: stake my claim) on mainly themes I’m good at writing and can hang on to for a long time. I’m hooked on ‘patterns’ and ‘rules’ these days. I’m gradually starting to realise that I’m someone who lives with many rules in my daily life. I get stressed when something falls out of place too. I wonder if I’ll be able to infuse such ideas in my music in future.

Q: We did the ‘Vogue’ cover photoshoot in the house of a Milan collector. It was a house filled with pictures and antique furniture, right? What’s your house filled with? Are you surrounded by them now as well?

IU: As I receive this question and look around me, I realise that I do have a number of pictures in my house here and there. I mostly spend my time in my room and in my room in particular, I have many pictures gifted to me by friends or my fans who drew them by themselves. There are pictures amazingly drawn on canvas and many sketches from my friend’s studio. Perhaps it’s because I have zero talent in drawing, when someone gifts me with a meaningful piece of art, I feel really touched. It contains the affection, time and effort of that person. The pieces that are really precious to me are gathered at one corner of my room. During my concert this time, there was a section that reproduced that part of my room too.

Q: Other than 2020 and 2021 when Covid-19 was severe, you’ve been putting on solo concerts every year since 2012. What does it mean to you to be able to have face-to-face concerts with your fans?

IU: It’s a celebration party with my fans after a year of farming. It’s difficult to replace a concert with another event. The fans who come for my concerts will clearly know what I mean.

Q: Your first solo concert in 2012 was ‘Real Fantasy’ right? Do you still remember what your first concert was like?

IU: I don’t remember it vividly, but of course I still remember it. I did a nationwide tour for my first concert. From gathering concert audience, to maintaining my condition, putting things in action, to ensuring that the tension stays up during my concert each week instead of weakening, I was at a loss about everything and felt scared. I blamed the producer a little then for not guiding me on what to do and asking so much of me from the start, but after my concert this time, I thought to myself, “Thank you for raising me to be strong” and contacted the producer separately too. What’s encouraging for me is that my parents who came to watch my first concert 10 years ago and said, “The stage seems too big for you to fill on your own” back then, told me this time. “The stage that extends beyond 100m does not look big at all.”

Q: The concert you had in September was really amazing. You were the first Korean female solo singer to have a concert at Jamsil Olympic Stadium, right? With about 90 people on stage, about 1300 staff making preparations together and about 80,000 fans in the audience. I’m curious about your overall thoughts on the concert.

IU: I felt, ‘I enjoy the stage more than I thought. Things really work when many people put their hearts together. I’m working with some really amazing people. I have a really great life.’

Q: In the teaser video on your ‘dlwlrma’ YouTube channel, you said, “I want to leave a mark in concert history.” Did you manage to achieve what you hoped for?

IU: Yes.

Q: Director Jo Hyunwoo who worked with you from the 2017 ‘Palette’ concert to the 2019 ‘Love, poem’ concert, as well as the 2022 ‘The Golden Hour: Under the Orange Sun’ concert, shared his thoughts on what a ‘perfect concert’ means to him. Usually when IU starts singing, the audience becomes quiet and only participate actively during the sing-along parts, but during your Philippines concert, the audience cheered so loudly that you couldn’t hear the music in your in-ears. You responded that, ‘A perfect concert means differently to different people. That was a perfect concert in a new way.’ In what way was the concert this time perfect?

IU: Despite the 3 year gap, not only me, but I felt that everyone was clear about their roles. At each position, it had to be that person. This concert was not a tour and there were only two days, but if I had the chance to go back again to that day, I would not have been able to make it any better.

Q: How did you feel when you fell asleep the night before your concert? How about after the concert?

IU: It was raining a lot the night before the concert and we didn’t manage to complete the run-through rehearsal, so I went back after work that day with an unsettling feeling. My backup singer who could tell how I felt sent me an image of ‘You can do it ability’, so I thought to myself, ‘That’s right, I’ve done everything I can. It’ll work out somehow’ and posted that image on my Instagram story before lying down in my bed. After the last day of the concert, I went for the after party. They didn’t make it obvious the whole time, but perhaps because the staff mostly felt pressured by the large scale of the concert, many of them were crying. Telling each other that they did well, it was the best, thank you for working together. Exchanging words with each other, I felt a surge of love for mankind that night. I got home late at night and read the concert reviews and felt overwhelmed with emotions which was something I had not felt in quite awhile. I think out of the concerts I had done, it was the concert with the highest level of audience satisfaction. That itself was enough to compensate for everything.

Q: This concert was described as a “musical or Olympics opening ceremony”. In particular, the highlight was the hundreds of drones that formed a picture in the sky. What’s the stage equipment or effect that you were most into? On the contrary, was there anything you had to compromise for practical reasons?

IU: From the performance perspective, I think it would have to be the hot air balloon that went up as I sang ‘strawberry moon’. It’s something that the concert director insisted on strongly since the first meeting. A few months before the concert, together with a few key staff members, I went on a trip to Buyeo for a test run and that was how much we anticipated the hot air balloon performance. It would move depending on the wind direction, so it was very much weather-dependent and I thought I didn’t have a fear of heights at all, but once it went up by more than 10m, I couldn’t sing and whenever it wobbled due to the wind, my heart sank. As I was close to the fire, it was really hot to ride it in summer too. The director expressed his concerns (with a firm expression I had never seen from him in the many years we have worked together) ‘Just. Believe. In. It.’ I’m glad I did. The audience really liked it. What I had to compromise with was time, of course. From when the title of the concert, ‘Golden Hour’, was confirmed, we set the condition that ‘with the sunset as the background, we had to start the concert at 7pm sharp without missing a beat’. But for an outdoor concert, we couldn’t drag it too late into the night. So it was a shorter concert than what I used to do and we prepared for a runtime of 3 hours.

Q: What was a great hurdle for you for this concert and how did you overcome it? On the contrary, what was the most exciting part?

IU: The biggest hurdle was myself. Since a year ago, my ear has been giving me some issues. If I sweat a lot or produce loud sounds for a long period of time, a muscle in my ear rattles and opens up and sound seems to echo loudly inside. As I was preparing for my concert, I trained myself well and made great improvements, but it had been awhile since I stood on stage and on top of that, it was the biggest stage in singing career, so many complicated thoughts were running through my mind. I just kept practising. If my ear opened up, sounds became unclear to me, so I was cautious about singing loudly and afraid to do so. Even if it sounded weird to me, I would just sing it out aloud first and record that and listen to it again, trying to find a way to control it. As I kept doing that, I started to regain my confidence gradually. It can get worse if I go too overboard, but for now, I’m safe. Aside from my condition, the moment I decided to do a concert, I tormented myself and struggled with thoughts like, ‘Would I be able to fill such a large stadium?’ Whenever I had weak thoughts, I remember telling myself, ‘Hey, this is the Olympic Stadium, even if you can’t eat (handle) it, it’s a Go’ to make myself bolder.

Q: After your encore stage, ‘Love poem’, you said, “There’s an issue with my ear, so I nervously prepared for this concert. I could barely hear properly today, but I could sense the support from all of you.” You must have been taken aback when you first heard the diagnosis of your condition. How did you feel back then and how are you accepting it right now?

IU: After hearing the diagnosis, I was firstly glad that it wasn’t an issue with my hearing per se. Since my job requires me to use my voice a lot, although I was at a loss of what to do, I think it was a chance for me to have more humble feelings about my health and this job that I love. When none of the worst case scenarios I imagined happened and I managed to pull off my concert successfully, I’ll never be able to forget how thankful I felt at that point in time. After the articles went out, I was contacted by many people. I even received messages from seniors that I did not have their contacts. There were more people around me with this condition than I had thought. As we use our ears and throat a lot, many singers revealed that they faced the same issue and shared their encouragement and their own tips with me. I also helped those who asked me for help as much as I could. From the perspective of someone who stands on stage, the bond of sympathy and support that we shared gave me the reassurance that I would be able to recover quickly. That was another episode that I was overwhelmed with a love for mankind recently.

Q: During your ‘The Golden Hour: Under the Orange Sun’ concert recently, you started off by singing ‘eight’ without any accompaniment. You’ve mentioned before that it’s a song you want to sing during sunset and something you’ve been planning for a long time”, but what was the reason that you decided your opening for the concert to be this way?

IU: ‘eight’ was a song that I released when I was 28, during a time of Covid-19 blues and a sense of powerlessness myself, when I was tired with everything. As I couldn’t have face-to-face concerts during that time, I wasn’t able to gain strength from the audience. So when the field of performing arts started to become active again, I felt that if I were to hold my concert, I would have to sing ‘eight’ as the first song powerfully and mark an end to the times I felt tired of everything. It’s the only song that has never changed its position the whole time we were deciding the setlist.

Q: During your concert, you said after singing ‘Palette’ and ‘Good Day’, you would be excluding them from your setlist in future. You said, “Now that I’ve turned 30, you’re welcoming moments as good as you felt back then. There’s no reason for me to hang on to these songs anymore.” Over time, you’ve also graduated songs like ‘Marshmallow’ right? It’s not easy to let go of your shining history, is there a reason that you need to graduate your songs? I think it shows your growth as well.

IU: I think looking back on the past occasionally makes it more meaningful. As I work hard to release new songs, I would like to avoid a similar structure to my concerts every year. There’s some misinterpretation in the way it was reported in the news and although they will be left out of the key pieces that make up the regular setlist, during encore or with a freer atmosphere, I can still sing them if the audience requests for them. It’s also my will to continue to produce new songs to fill the empty spaces of the songs that have graduated, so I hope my fans don’t become too disappointed because of that.

Q: It seems that your choice above is influenced by you turning 30. Are there any emotional changes for you as you begin your 30s?

IU: I think it’s a time that I break free from my obsession that things have to be either ‘this way or that way’. As I start thinking to myself, ‘How about this?’, many things have started to become more enjoyable for me. I’m enjoying life, these days.

Q: With your concert over, you’re left with the release of your movie ‘Dream’! You started filming for it last spring, right? Besides ‘Dream’, what other projects do you have lined up?

IU: I would like to show a more relaxed side of myself. I’m always telling my fans, “I want to become uaenas’ hobby.” That’s my flow (TL note: how I’m doing things) these days too, whether it’s an album or other pieces of work, rather than breathless stories, I want to tell warm stories that allow our hearts to relax.

Translated by IUteamstarcandy

#IU #vogue #translation #magazine #interview

[restrainedgrace]

Getting new flood warnings every hour or so 😅

Can we talk about running a creative small business during climate change?

Just in the last year bestie and I each had to prep for a hurricane. And then put everything back so we could function in our homes again.

Remember when we all had Covid-19 shipping disclaimers for delays?

I think climate disaster shipping delays are about to become the norm. 🫠

If we’re going to work our way through the apocalypse, we’re gonna have to get a lot more patient with each other, real fast.

#climate change #climate crisis #flooding #small business #creative small business #handmade

[rikaklassen]

CW: COVID-19

Potent section from "Queer as in fuck you" written by anonymous and published by Sour Queer Press which resonates strongly:

What is fascinating to me is that queer community focuses so much on consent. It’s truly mind blowing to see people go back to dance and house parties, large and small events, unmasked. Poetry readings and community care events, all with either no or sloppy precautions that make no sense (fyi, if you require masks you better have a way of making sure people are wearing them or else you are still excluding disabled folks). The irony to me of a group that cares so much about community and being trauma-informed contributing to the spread of a disabling virus is too much. And there aren’t really words for seeing person after person let you down. All in the name of something we (queer militants) have a history of fighting: assimilation. Eugenics in the name of mental health. As if queer disabled people aren’t some of the most creative people I’ve met. And I’ve been so disappointed in the queer community that I forget: so much of the invisible (no thanks to you) queer community does care about covid. It’s the aesthetic, back-to-normal, eugenicist, assimilating queers that don’t care. And it dawned on me: y’all aren’t fucking queer. Your values align with every white woman you make fun of for being fragile, attached, sensitive. Queerness is more than a denim vest and who you fuck or don’t. Queerness means fighting for the very values “queer” (from this point on, y’all queer fuckers that don’t take covid seriously are getting a “”) people are abandoning. We lost an entire generation to AIDS, and the nightmare is a generation of “queers” who are happy to forget how hard we’ve fought for each other. It seems like people think queerness is more about how you look and not about how we move. So do me a favor, stop calling yourself queer. You don’t deserve the label. Go hang out with the boring ass cis hets who go to brunch on the weekend and go to that new restaurant for Wednesday night dinners. I’m sure they’ll appreciate your added spunk and since that’s what you’re assimilating into anyways, just get to it and stop pretending. In the meantime, we’ve been building community, whoever has a filter lugging it back and forth to houses, taking whatever money we can spend on masks for ourselves and each other, watching movies and making art. But I’m gonna be honest, that’s not good enough for me. That’s what you want anyways, isn’t it? For us to isolate in our communities. No, I think I’m going to start calling in our AIDS ancestors and bringing dead bodies and ashes to your doorstep.

Print editon [PDF, 2.6MB, archived] | Read edition [PDF, 14.7MB, archived] | Audio [MP3, 72.5MB, archived]

You can follow Queer Sour Press on their blog or on Mastodon or email them here: [email protected].

Fucking depresses me no one is cautious during deaf events or pride events even though deaf people are more disproportionately likely to be disabled; and queer people are also disproportionately more likely to be disabled. Even more infuriating when one of the reasons why we don't have many queer elders over the age of 40 was because of the AIDS epidemic and we have had campaigns like safer sex awareness and consent as well as distributing harm reduction supplies such as free condoms.

#Sour Queers Press #Antidote Zine #zines #Minneapolis #We Keep Us Safe #COVID denialism #mutual aid #against the fascist creep #queer assimilation #queer liberation #queer zines #necropolitics #eugenics

[lilmagiceverywhere]

"A PSALM FOR THE WILD BUILT" by Becky Chambers

4.75/5 ✨️

I had found A Psalm For The Wild-Built recommended to me searching through various solarpunk/hopepunk tags a while ago, and noted it in my mind to come back to it later.

But to be honest, I doubted that I would ever actually get around to reading it. My college classes kicked me straight into a horrible reading slump since I started them at sixteen years old, and it’s been hard for me to get through books ever since. And I have read books outside of those textbooks, but it’s only been an average of one or three a year, not a big number.

Yet I found the book pop up on my phone again in December, and it planted a seed in my head. I wanted to read the book, I really did, but I didn’t want to add to the pile of physical books I’ve bought in the past and wanted to read, so I decided I would go about it differently.

I got my copy through the library.

I know to some people, going to the library isn’t as revolutionary as they might expect. But I hadn’t used a library in years, and the library I have access to is an actual building, not a small converted ranch house with barely enough room for all the bookshelves. And I could reserve the copy online and pick it up, I didn’t have to spend hours searching for a book and somehow end up lost in the accounting books looking for a sci-fi book.

Libraries are great, y’all.

Anyway, let’s actually talk about the book. Spoilers beyond this point, you have been warned.

A Psalm For The Wild-Built is a novel (or perhaps a novella, it is on the shorter side) by author Becky Chambers. The story is quite simple– Dex, a tea monk, feels unsatisfied with their job, and can’t figure out why. One day, while traveling between settlements, Dex comes in contact with the first robot any human has seen in centuries.

The novel is mostly conversational. Unlike other stories I’ve found myself drawn to in the past, the conflict doesn’t rely on saving the city/the world, defeating an evil authoritative figure (be it a king, queen, or weird demon), or a revolution. The conflict is more internal. Dex is suffering from what I would consider Severe Burnout™, and it takes them from a life of comfort to literally climbing up a mountain.

But I find myself drawn to this sort of conflict now. As much as I love the stories of revolutionaries overthrowing authoritative figures, maybe with a bit of magic or sci-fi jumbo thrown in as well, having that be the only story I enjoy for years has made me a bit yearnful for something more mundane. I suppose that’s where the genre of “cozy scifi/fantasy” comes in. It’s not epic quests or large adventures, it’s the story of everyday lives in a more extraordinary world.

Dex’s conflict is dealing with burnout. Something that I’ve been feeling myself for a while, not just creatively. Even though it’s been years, the COVID-19 burnout that I felt during my college years really took a number on me. I was depressed, I hardly left my single dorm room, I didn’t go out and experience a lot of things, and I only made myself do the bare minimum in order to graduate. At the time, I felt like it was necessary for my survival to do that. I graduated almost two years ago, and recently, I’ve been reconsidering that philosophy that pushed me through college. Was it necessary for my survival, or if I had pushed myself more, would my experiences have been marginally better?

Having Dex’s conflict be internal like that spoke to me a lot. Even though the reasons for burnout are different, the symptoms are the same. The solution, in a sense, is similar as well. I’m not going to free-climb up a mountain any time soon, but I think getting out in nature has helped me recover from the COVID-19 burnout.

I got a job at a place that’s going to remain redacted for my privacy’s sake, but it’s a place that gets me close to two different things– people and nature. The people part is mostly just customer service, but I work at a nature-place, which has biologists and horticulturalists and researchers who are actually looking into ways we can help the planet within the ongoing climate change crisis. Half of my coworkers are vegetarian or vegan, and being in a place like this has inspired me to do more about my physical and mental health.

Dex’s solution to their burnout was also to retreat to nature, though theirs is much more literal. They detour from the path they’ve set themself on recklessly, going towards the uncontrolled wilderness of their land of Panga (which I’m assuming is a reverse Pangea situation) instead of the next town they were supposed to visit. In the wilderness, there is supposedly a monastery for those seeking respite from the city life, and even though it’s been years since a human last stepped foot there, Dex makes it their mission to visit it, thinking it might be the cure to their weird affliction (which, to be fair, they aren’t recognizing as burnout).

While on the road there, Dex encounters Splendid Speckled Mosscap, a robot. Centuries before Dex’s time, the robots who worked for the humans gained a sudden consciousness. It is not a violent robot revolution, in fact, it’s a more philosophical one. The robots promise to see the humans again, but they need some time to themselves. To discover things, to discover what life truly is all about.

Mosscap is a robot who volunteered to play the role of ambassador, to return to the humans to see what the humans need help with. And it just so happens that Dex is the first human it comes across.

I’m not going to dive too in depth more about the plot and conflict of the book, because I really want to encourage anyone reading this to experience it for themselves. I love the dynamic that forms between Dex and Mosscap (my beloved). They have such interesting conversations, from the nature of humanity, to the differences between robots and humans, to even the more mundane things, like cooking, and taking a less-traveled path.

The book is pretty character and dialogue heavy, but it works out perfectly for the type of conflict its supposed to reflect. If you like more action and description in your books, though, this might not be the one for you, and that’s okay! But if you’re intrigued at all by this book, I suggest you check out your library to see if they have a physical or digital copy you can borrow. It’s a delight of a book, and there’s even a sequel I now get to patiently wait for to return to the library so then I can check it out!

#a psalm for the wild built #a psalm for the wild built becky chambers #becky chambers #book review #story review #original

[thewales]

The Telegraph:

The Prince and Princess of Wales are to break with the classic mould of royal engagement as they combine ribbon cutting with generating hard cash for local communities.

The couple are determined to change their way of working in order to create change in the areas they visit.

Rather than the traditional “away days” that have long involved members of the Royal family sweeping into towns and villages across the UK, greeting crowds, unveiling plaques and then leaving, they aim to create a “lasting legacy.”

The Prince and Princess today piloted the new model, called a Community Impact Day, in Scarborough, North Yorks.

The couple announced during the “extremely significant” visit that £345,000 had been raised through a collaboration between their Royal Foundation and the local Two Ridings Community Foundation.

The money was donated by local individuals and organisations and will be used to galvanise long-term support for young people’s mental health in the town.

It will be distributed by a grant panel tasked with deciding where it is most needed.

Further pilots to be rolled out

The Prince and Princess plan to roll out further pilots of this kind next year in different parts of the UK, each focused on one of the Royal Foundation’s specific interest areas.

They include conservation, early childhood, emergency responders and Covid-19.

The couple will continue to take part in more traditional visits but will combine them with the new model, representing an evolution of the royal engagement, Kensington Palace sources suggested.

The Prince and Princess spent time at a local community hub called The Street, where they met the grant panel of young people who helped decide on the allocation of funding and representatives from three beneficiaries.

Sources said that the funding would not have been available without the work of the Royal Foundation.

The cash will be used to boost the provision of safe spaces, affordable sports and outdoor activities, youth work, creative workshops or mentoring

#The Prince of Wales #The Princess of Wales #BRF

[ausetkmt]

A brave new voice has emerged on the independent film scene. Meet Nazenet Habtezghi, a Black creative who’s carved out a niche for herself as a documentary filmmaker. Her latest project, where she serves as both director and producer, is “Birthing A Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney” (MTV Documentary Films). It’s a story that takes the audience on an emotional rollercoaster as Habtezghi carefully unpacks the life of an enslaved woman who’s hellbent on preventing her enslavers from controlling her reproductive future. While the subject somewhat eerily mirrors some of the issues of agency that women are facing today, Habtezghi is able to keep the integrity of the era in which Mary Gaffney lived using testimonies from formally enslaved people. The film is only 19 minutes long, but each second grabs you in such a way that you’ll be thinking about Mary Gaffney many moments later.

The Brooklyn-based journalist-turned-filmmaker is a nurturing, compassionate storyteller who takes pride in disrupting the system. Habtezghi took her time to ensure she could frame Gaffney’s story in the most impactful way.

“It was important for me to say her name," said Habtezghi. “I like to say that Mary found me. I came across her testimony, and I was initially fixated on the part where she talked about chewing cotton root. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?  The thing that you’re being forced to pick on the plantation is what you’re using to control your fertility,’" said the first-time director.

Gaffney’s audaciousness in defying her slave breeders is what makes her so badass and she wasn't the only one. There were others who also chewed on the cotton root as a "natural" contraceptive, exercising control of their own reproductive futures. “I was lost in that part of her testimony. It was just so incredible."

Habtezghi was working at Firelight Films, producing, researching, and developing a different project about the Transatlantic slave trade, when she came across the archival testimonies from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a government work release program that provided 8.5 million jobs to Americans during the Great Depression in 1935. Most of what she discovered were detailed interviews with 2,300 formerly enslaved men and women.

“After reading buried testimonies of enslaved people, enslaved women, and enslavers talking about how they raped women, I was in this emotional space,” said Habtezghi.

She later explained how a mentorship with historians Dr. Jennifer L. Morgan and Dr. Daina Ramey Berry, both of whom are featured in the film as experts on the enslaved, helped her gain a greater understanding of the relationship between Black women’s physical labor and their reproductive labor and how, when combined, it emphatically dictated and sustained slavery in America through the 19th century once the Transatlantic slave trade market was no longer an option.

“It fueled slavery and gave rise to capitalism in the United States," said Habtezghi.“Capitalism could not have existed if it wasn’t for Black women. It’s Mary’s story but it’s also the collective [story] right? It’s important to be rooted in her resistance but then become empowered by it.” 

When COVID-19 happened, the project was put on pause. As luck would have it, another opportunity presented itself through Firelight Films and MTV Documentary Films. They were looking for filmmakers to create short films that could speak to the forgotten or unknown parts of Black history. Habtezghi knew exactly what story she wanted to tell. It took almost two years to bring details of Mary Gaffney’s life to light. Now, the film has been nominated for a Black Reel Award in the "Outstanding Short Film" category.

Habtezghi’s connection to this story goes even deeper. Her emotions get the best of her as she describes her personal journey as a young girl, fleeing her home in the war-stricken African nation of Eritrea and migrating to the United States. She grew up in Dallas, Texas, and would graduate with a B.A. in Journalism from Oklahoma University. In time, she landed her dream job as an editor at ESSENCE magazine. 

Habtezghi has earned her bones by contributing to documentaries that have been featured on PBS, Netflix, and HBO. She co-directed The ABCs of Book Banning with esteemed documentarian Sheila Nevins for MTV Documentary Films. Nevins, who has produced hundreds of projects for HBO, is also a 32-time Emmy winner.

In her next project, Habtzghi is set to produce and direct “American Problems, Trans Solutions,” a docuseries in partnership with transgender activist Imara Jones. She has made quite an entrance in the documentary filmmaking arena with Mary Gaffney’s story, masterfully breathing life into a buried tale and giving a voice to an otherwise unknown Black woman whose secret defiance in the face of slavery deserves to be told.

#Nazenet Habtezghi Unravels the Untold Story of an Enslaved Black Woman’s Bold Decision To Control Her Own Destiny #Birthing A Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney #Mary Gaffney #formerly enslaved #Black Women #Nazenet Habtezghi #Black Women Filmmakers #Youtube

[cosplayinamerica]

Writer : Amy Densham

Whether your kids live in rural Iowa or downtown NYC. If they have cosplaying parents or only they just learned about Halloween. Astrid and Leah bring that excited, welcoming, Con energy to their student’s computer screens all over the world.

The platform is Outschool. It’s been around since 2015 and started as a go-to for homeschoolers. During the  COVID-19 pandemic, Outschool grew beyond homeschooling. It became a place for learning and socializing whether you homeschool or not. Now serving over 1 million learners in 195 countries, Outschool has thousands of classes for ages 3 - 18. Learn about dinosaurs from a paleontologist. C# coding from a game developer. Or cosplay from an expert seamstress and a professional actress.

Astrid Turner, bubbly and all smiles, remembers standing in line at a Con: “The cosplay community is one of the most supportive and wonderful communities out there. When I cosplay, it’s not attention on me. It’s attention for something we share. We already know we like the same things. The craftsmanship, the idea that you’re there together, dressed up, having an experience together.”

Astrid teaches Cosplay Costume Design and Creation Workshops and anything else costume-related (just send her a request). She can pleat a skirt, put a bodice in, and bring kids out of their shells with ease. Part of her class includes real-world skills like comparison shopping; if you’re asking mom to buy it, you need to have a plan.

What does Astrid hope her students walk away with from taking her class ? Ask about her experience teaching online classese.

With a classroom maximum of 5, Astrid gives personalized attention to all of her students. Some enroll with a  clear costume vision. Others just love Anime. Either way, Astrid helps them follow their own creativity and make it a reality.

Do they need a sketch? No problem. Does the fabric need to be washable? She knows just the thing. And costumes are just the beginning. Her eyes light up when she talks about intuitive, introverted students growing and connecting as the weeks go by. Someone who barely spoke in their first class is now the first one to share their progress and welcome a new student. They find their people and their voice.

Leah Johnson, artful and confident, talks about her experience at Cons: “It feels like everyone is a family. They want to welcome you in. It’s an excitement of sharing. Always. Of what they’ve made, what they’ve done, other cons that they’ve gone to, and people they’ve met. Everyone there wants to inspire each other.”

Leah teaches Special FX, Halloween, and Cosplay Makeup or one-on-one classes by request. Some of her students want to become professional makeup artists. Some want to scare their grandmas with fake wounds. In both situations, Leah is raring to go! And so is her washable Mehron Practice Makeup Head - currently sporting terrifying clown makeup from her last class.

Every class is unique. Some learners pop in with full, top-of-the-line makeup kits and some join with leftovers from the makeup wearer in their house. Part of the fun for Leah and her students is figuring out how to create looks with what you’ve got. It’s a great life lesson too. Sometimes you’ll need a specific product but sometimes you just need to be resourceful. Leah playfully refers to it as preparing for the zombie apocalypse when you won’t have all the tools. Her personality beams through the screen as she uses her makeup head to show makeup techniques, up close, and with student-requested variations. For Leah, the online part wasn’t her favorite. There’s an unquantifiable distance when you’re interacting online. You aren’t in the same space. It’s not the same as in person. But she makes that work too. And it’s a small inconvenience compared to the big benefit: bringing creative, accepting spaces to students wherever they are in the world.

Every class is unique. Some learners pop in with full, top-of-the-line makeup kits and some join with leftovers from the makeup wearer in their house. Part of the fun for Leah and her students is figuring out how to create looks with what you’ve got. It’s a great life lesson too. Sometimes you’ll need a specific product but sometimes you just need to be resourceful. Leah playfully refers to it as preparing for the zombie apocalypse when you won’t have all the tools. Her personality beams through the screen as she uses her makeup head to show makeup techniques, up close, and with student-requested variations. For Leah, the online part wasn’t her favorite. There’s an unquantifiable distance when you’re interacting online. You aren’t in the same space. It’s not the same as in person. But she makes that work too. And it’s a small inconvenience compared to the big benefit: bringing creative, accepting spaces to students wherever they are in the world.

HOW IT STARTED

Astrid and Leah both grew up loving costumes but they didn’t find out about cosplay until much later. In each of their separate hometowns, they were that kid in full costume at the grocery store. Or decked out like crazy on Halloween. Sound familiar?

Astrid remembers her first Ren Faire: “My first costume was a disaster but I was so proud of it! Ever since then, I knew I wanted to make costumes.” Growing up in a rural area outside LA, she always wanted to go to the San Diego Comic-Con but she didn’t have anyone to go with and didn’t want to go by herself. None of her friends were cosplayers - a term she didn’t even know existed.

She taught herself to sew, learning by creating more and more complex projects. Elaborate Elizabethan gowns with striking details for the next faire.

As she grew older, Atrid took a detour, exploring other career paths but she came back to sewing when her kids were small. Making clothes and costumes for them brought back that magic. And the internet showed her there was a whole community out there. No longer the only cosplayer in town, she dove in head first.

Now Astrid and her 3 kids (ages 13, 10, and 7) attend Cons every chance they get. In full costume, of course. She enters competitions in the handmade category and, though she’s modest, has taken home more than one win. In middle school, Astrid was big into theatre, Shakespeare, and creating Renaissance costumes.

An actor, director, voiceover artist, and singer, Leah cosplays characters from Arwen to Cruella De Vil to Mary Poppins. She teaches makeup and cosplay on Outschool but does both professionally for film, theatre, and events. To name a few, she designed costumes for the TV show Kookville and a stage production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She even did makeup and created costumes for the movie Demon Squad, which you can find in Season 13 of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. She believes that cosplay isn’t just about expressing yourself, it’s about developing yourself and creating a full aesthetic. Beyond that, she wants her students to know, they can make a career out of their creative passions. And she’ll help them do it.

Leah talks about her first Ren Faire experience: “It felt awesome because I was trying to be intentional about creating a costume for me. Not for a play. Not for someone else based on their vision. It was my vision. It was what I wanted to do.”

You feel different in your cosplay. The persona, the confidence. It can be hard to describe but Astrid and Leah teach toward that feeling in every class.

Specializing in Elizabethan and Italian Renaissance costumes, Astrid also cosplays Collei from Gensin Impact and loves growing her skills in the anime genre. She even runs a social club on Outschool where Genshin fans can hang out virtually and game together.

Astrid beams: “A lot of kids and adults choose a character and they try to match that persona. It’s a little bit of safety. I’ve had people scream ‘OH MY GOD ITS COLLEI’ and run over to me. Under normal circumstances that wouldn’t happen. But at Cons, it’s so exciting. It’s amazing to connect with other people through that persona.”

*** Leah, with her cosplay weapon collection behind her: “You feel more confident in your character’s costume. It’s a projection of your best self. A lot of work, your imagination, and your brain is now projected on the outside. People can see that part of you that they can’t see in any other situation.”

Leading by example, Leah shows her students that they can make their creative passions into careers. She beams when she talks about a student getting confident enough to make an Actor Instagram account. Or doing professional-level wedding makeup for their entire family.

Teaching online from Arkansas since 2018, Astrid volunteered for the first-ever Outschool Cosplay Convention in 2021. Now called GameCon, the 2-day event featured presentations at different times of day for different timezones. Sessions about costume design, makeup, theatre performance, and more. And, most exciting of all, the costume showcase. Every kid got a chance in the spotlight to show off their creations. Astrid, laughs now: “I burst into tears when I logged off. It was such a rush of emotions. I found my people! I wish I had this when I was a kid.”

***

#cosplay #remote learning

[cosmiccannibalcamille]

Venus Retrograde in Leo

If you’re unfamiliar with the love planet, let me introduce you. Venus is an important planet in astrology, representing love, beauty, relationships, harmony, money and pleasure. It’s the planet of your love style and love language. When Venus turns retrograde, it appears to move backward in the sky, creating a unique energetic influence. (Don’t worry, though, the planet isn’t actually turning backwards, because that would be a mind- f*ck.) Venus retrogrades are significant because they provide an opportunity for introspection, reevaluation, and growth in matters of the heart and self-worth. 

     The last Venus retrograde occurred from May 13 to June 25, 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Culturally, it encouraged a reexamination of societal beauty standards and promoted self-acceptance. It also brought about changes in relationships, emphasizing the need for deeper connections and more authentic love. Economically, Venus retrograde had an impact on consumer spending, with people reassessing their values and financial priorities. 

Venus Retrograde Themes   

  Now, when Venus goes retrograde in Leo on July 22 (just hours after the Sun enters the sign, btw), the fiery energy of Leo combines with the introspective nature of the retrograde, creating a unique set of themes and dynamics. Leo is a passionate and expressive sign, associated with creativity, self-expression, and romance. During this retrograde, there may be a focus on matters of the heart, relationships, and self-love. (You can read about my personal Venus journey of self-love, here.) It's a time to reassess how we express ourselves in relationships and whether we are truly honoring our authentic desires and needs. 

     Because Leo is a fixed zodiac sign, there may be a burning and unyielding need for attention and validation during this Venus Retrograde, but this fiery desire for external acceptance serves as an opportunity to develop a healthier sense of self-worth and cultivate self-love. In fact, all planetary transits involving Leo always bring lessons that help teach us how to authentically and unshakably love ourselves, and courageously accept ourselves just as we are. 

     This Venus Retrograde transit will emphasize those themes and teach us—by way of (potentially painful and dramatic) reexaminations of our relationships to ourselves, our passions, and our partners—how to love ourselves more proudly and with more ferocity. (I say potentially painful and dramatic because Leo is nothing if not melodramatic about discomfort; the astro-Lion also hates when it is forced to do something it doesn’t want to do—like look inward—and will roar. Loudly.) 

     What Venus Retrograde impacts

     Leo is–as mentioned–a sign of passion. As ruler of the astrological 5th House–which is the “house of Creativity, Joy, Pleasure, and Passion” and represents our individuality, personal passions, and the joy we find in self-expression–Leo acts from a place of creativity, love, and self-confidence. The sign then emphasizes embracing one's unique talents, exploring creative outlets, and finding joy in self-expression. This house governs all forms of creative expression, including art, music, theater, writing, and any activity that allows individuals to express themselves authentically. It also governs romance, dating, and the pursuit of pleasure and joy in relationships.

Read all about Venus Retrograde in Leo, here.

#zodiac signs #astrology #zodiac #zodiac facts #gemini #aquarius #aries #leo #sagittarius #astrology signs #venus #venus retrograde #horoscopes #natal chart #astro notes #love horoscopes #relationships/compatibility #relationship astrology #zodiac fact #zodiac relationships #zodiac sign #zodiac compatibility #horoscope #money #astrologer #astrology readings #5th house

[fatehbaz]

Velasco Ortiz and  Castellanos take us inside labor camps in Baja California and social housing complexes in Cancún to reveal how the logics of [colonialism and extraction] drive the configuration of physical space and in turn constrain people’s autonomy and ability to construct relations of mutuality with those around them. [...]

Words for change, go, move, and other related concepts exist in many languages. In Mixtec, Na ii kua’an inga ñuu means “person who went,” according Mixtec professor Tiburcio Pérez [...]. In Tsotsil, jxanbal means “(person) who walks,” according to Tsotsil linguist Satsak Nichim [...].

Because of migration or mobility, such communalism as a way of life also takes on new forms of support and care evident in the daily practices [...]. The work by Stephen, Blackwell, and Cruz-Manjarrez [...] shows how the construction of transnational/transborder community projects in cities such as Los Angeles works by means of collective actions. [...] Zapotec and Mixtec people [...] have reconstructed communality in a transterritorial geography.

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Mobile lives that spread families and communities out in multiple locations where they are not physically close to one another also produce challenges in terms of rebuilding connection, care, and solidarity [...]. In another case, we can see how hosting seasonal farmworkers in labor camps or in precarious housing results in isolation and segregation that has subjected a generation of Nahua, Mixtec, and Triqui youth to savage exploitation. Their only escape is to literally flee [...]. Castellanos brings us directly into the impact of COVID-19 on Mayan families living in Cancún [...]. His story demonstrates the ways in which “safe” zones have been built for tourists in Mexico while the health of the [...] workers serving them is a secondary priority. [...] Interestingly, in the Mayan communities described by Castellanos in Cancún and in Mayan and Mixtec communities of farmworkers in Oregon, relations and structures of care were fortified during the pandemic. Castellanos [...] [identifies] the concept of convivencia as caring for one another in the absence of the state.

In Yucatec Maya, the plural form of the Spanish word convivir translates to u kuxtal u yéetel u máatsil máako’ob, literally meaning “life with the miracle of men.” An individual who is part of a relationship of convivir is ti’ óol, which one of Castellanos’s interlocutors translates as “to be generous,” but which is literally defined as “your heart, will, energy, or spirit.”

Failure of the state to care for Mayan people is part of a long history of state violence, but the survivance and creative power of Mayan communities is as well. As Castellanos argues, the recentering of values of caring and celebration of life through convivencia offers a vision of a radically different present and future [...].

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Text by: Lynn Stephen and Laura Velasco-Ortiz. “Introduction: Mesoamerican Indigenous Mobilities in Mexico and the United States.” Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos Volume 39, Issue 1. Winter 2023. [Some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

#abolition #ecology #imperial #colonial

[grandmaster-anne]

Waste not, want not

By HRH The Princess Royal | Published 29 July 2020

EVERY year, month and day, I realise how fortunate and privileged I am to have grown up and spent most of my life in the countryside. It’s not only the space, appreciating the seasons, the wildlife, the plant life, the arable crops and the livestock, but, most importantly, it’s the people who live and work there and understand the complexity of their environment. I was equally fortunate that both my parents had a love and understanding of the natural world through their own experiences. Perhaps even more so for my father when, during his rather disjointed young life, he ended up at school at Gordonstoun and was introduced to the wilds of Scotland, both land and sea. Scotland had its influence on my mother, too, as did the big skies of Norfolk, and the huge fields and marshes of the Sandringham Estate. Windsor’s Home Park and Great Park were a constant presence for her, as they were for all of us. They had horses, dairies, hens, pigs—you could never be bored as a child. Windsor was and is a haven of peace, although not so quiet since the growth of air travel—until the lockdown.

Superficially, not much has changed since I was young; the Jersey herd is still there, although the cows now enjoy a robotic parlour. There are Sussex cattle in the Great Park and the crops are a different mix, but the forest is still there, as are ponds and wet areas, the Savill Gardens and Frogmore House Gardens. Buildings and skills that the Prince Consort would have recognised.

Prince Albert’s influence is seen so often at the forefront of research and practical application, not least in agriculture and building design. His model farm at Windsor, for instance, and nearly all the buildings at Balmoral improved the use of space and integrated more efficient use and better distribution of water. My father was impressed by Prince Albert’s approach to forward-thinking and sustainable developments and has added his own understanding to encourage others to build on the knowledge of their predecessors. The Royal Commission of 1851 was set up by the Prince Consort after the Great Exhibition to build on its success of creativity, innovation and trade. When my father was its president, he oversaw an extraordinary investment in talent across the whole spectrum of research, including the science and practice of agriculture and sustainable land use. I now have the privilege of being its president, which also reminds me of the wealth of knowledge that I have been exposed to throughout my life and the part my family has played in growing that knowledge.

Prince Philip has added his own unique talents by being very well briefed, then engaging and bringing together all interests that are part of the countryside. He is a very hard act to follow, but I’m grateful for the time he gave us and the example he set us.

It is only later in life that you realise how much you have been exposed to and how much you have absorbed from your early years. We were taught to observe and question, to be open minded, to understand differences, to treat every person as an individual with their own skills and to remember there is very little that is completely new under the sun. We are where we are because our ancestors not only survived by living off the land, water and air, but also innovated ways of doing so more easily and successfully; so successfully that a shortage of food seems a distant threat for much of the western world. However, although we may be growing more, the access to and distribution of good-quality foods is still a challenge.

We are living through a real global pandemic that is affecting literally every person’s life in some way, even if they and their countries have barely suffered directly from Covid-19. The effect on global food supplies through the restrictions on transport and logistics (see page 124) should raise our awareness of the vulnerability of the modern—just in time—demand-and-supply approach and highlight the strengths of local production and markets. Change will require all land users to work even more closely together to understand the most appropriate and least damaging way to increase production of crops and livestock that best suit our ground conditions and weather. It also means finding the right space and access for those who wish to enjoy the non-producing areas.

The restrictions that Covid-19 has placed on the entire population have accentuated the pressure between town and country. However, it has also shown that, thanks to historic houses, caravan parks, national parks, forestry enterprises, riding and cycling trails, rambling routes and assorted types of accommodation, access was quite well catered for already as an important contributor to the rural economy. The pandemic has highlighted the number of people and jobs that are crucial to that economy, too, be it the hospitality sector, conservation projects or the farming sector, such as the harvesting of many crops, fruit and vegetables and the care of livestock, especially sheep-shearing. Those jobs are still hard physical work that also need skills to achieve the standards that the buying public expect.

Technology is already making an impact in these areas and will make a bigger impact as the innovators and practitioners work out what is adding value and efficiency, without doing any more damage to the environment. Education and training play a big part in the shared understanding, success and enjoyment of the countryside. Our knowledge is derived from experience, evaluation and development and we need that information to be readily available. The royal agricultural societies, the county agricultural shows and societies (see page 120) —which are often the gatekeepers to public enquiry and understanding—the further-education colleges and universities that still maintain links with the rural economy (see page 128) and the people who live and work in the countryside are more important than ever, especially as there is no such thing as an unskilled job.

Research has made progress, but single-issue research must never lose sight of the overall subject. I mean that, for instance, one type of crop, with very specific qualities, may not be the best crop for every environment. Nature’s ability to adapt is, on the whole, better than humans or, indeed, computer-model-driven versions. How do we combine the best of both, the single-issue expertise and the need for a holistic view? Hopefully, by recognising that practitioners, residents and consumers can all access accurate information, education and training so that they can contribute to the debate and the research on best practice for the countryside.

How do I define best practice? Understanding how to work better with local conditions and working with Nature, which could be by using very traditional methods. Yet also using technology to support farming and related jobs, as well as extending the employment opportunities to those who would rather stay in the countryside. Not everybody does, which is just as well, as there is already a shortage of affordable houses in most areas (see page 118).

One of my pleas for best practice is quality, appropriate housing of the right type and the right numbers in the right places. Housing for local families that are priced out of the market; for young, single people who would like to stay and work in their home village or area; young families; and retired people who were born in the village and would like to return home. All of them could make the difference to having a viable school, shop or pub in the village. Importantly, these housing developments should be small and remain in the control of the local parish council, either for rent or shared ownership—preferably small because of two other best-practice issues: waste and energy.

Waste—produced by humanity and the way it chooses to live—that is not dealt with appropriately is up there with not understanding the value of small housing developments built to last as a major irritation to me! If you want to help the planet, controlling our waste is something everyone can do and it will make a difference. We will always produce waste, however efficient we become, so we must get better at reducing it at every stage and dealing with it better at the end. That means making things such as clothes, furniture, vehicles and supermarket trolleys that can be recycled safely and economically and not dumped on someone else’s ground. Did I mention that fly-tipping is another major irritation to me?

There are some perfectly good waste and recycling systems out there already, including anaerobic digesters and waste-to-energy plants. I would hope we can be more innovative and local in the way we deal with our rubbish to encourage everybody that it is worth making the effort to put waste in the right places, recycle more and have the confidence that it will make a difference.

Everything about life today seems to be about convenience and waste is seen as inconvenient; we must help make it more convenient to deal with. Raising the profile of the country code might help, especially as the post-coronavirus getaway to the country seems to have resulted in an increase of littering and vandalism.

Reliable energy supplies are critical to everybody and renewable energy created by innovative and local solutions will be a crucial part of the networks. Rural areas could be even more self-sufficient, especially if much of the equipment is to be electric. Replacing fossil-fuel generators has not been easy, but covering the countryside in solar panels and windmills isn’t really the answer, either. Using water better, using waste from crops, using waste from woodlands and the ability to store energy, possibly as hydrogen, can all help, but will require a more flexible grid and, therefore, the technology to make that work. Small nuclear reactors could have their place, but perhaps there is not the space to pursue that now.

In order to make rural life less isolated, even 5G coverage will not solve the problem of transport for farmers, shops, schools, pubs and the people who want to live and work in or from the rural environment. You need logistics to travel, to distribute, to deliver and to collect. Many businesses, good ideas and ambitions have failed because there are too few of any of the above and they are too expensive.

The need for appropriate vehicles and qualified drivers has not made it any easier to service the rural areas. I gained my HGV licence in 1974 after, I think, a two-hour test, all driving, starting with the handling test, which meant that, if you touched a cone, you were unlikely to pass. Then you spent the rest of the time driving—in my case, mostly in Reading. There was no theory test and, in relative terms, it didn’t cost very much. Now, it is a serious commitment in terms of time and money, which has resulted in a real shortage of HGV drivers. This, and the requirement for qualifications for nearly every other sort of vehicle, has made it even more difficult to maintain services. The needs of the rural communities during the coronavirus lockdown has underlined the importance of those people and their roles. We would do well to build on that experience.

I have lived at Gatcombe for more than 42 years (see page 80). We were not looking for a farm, but it has been a real privilege to try to work with what we have. Ours is an organic, extensive grass enterprise, usually complicated by running the horse-trial championships in early August. The woodland is a real mix of trees—mostly beeches, but huge numbers of ash of all ages. Who knows how many will survive, but I feel the naturally selected mix could be an important part of the answer.

Perhaps mix is the key. I write as a classic ‘Jack of all trades’, who has the opportunity to listen and engage with the masters of their subjects. Does the little knowledge I pick up make me dangerous or well informed?

Well, some of my information comes from COUNTRY LIFE , a publication that continues to reflect and promote all aspects of rural existence. This week’s edition has generously reflected some of my interests and those of people I believe are making a real difference. I hope the edition will leave you positively optimistic about our country’s country life.

#princess anne #princess royal #country life #guest edit #article #anne's article