#strange fruit (2004)

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo's Queer Cinema Syllabus

Had a busy couple weeks, but here I am, returning to @bengiyo’s queer cinema syllabus. I am currently working my way through Unit 4: Heartbreak Alley, the totally light-hearted, definitely not agonizing section of the syllabus where I get to watch countless acts of violence be committed against queer people. Thank fuck I have Lesbians waiting for me at the end of this unit. The films in Unit 4 are: Bent (1997), Strange Fruit (2004), Boys Don’t Cry (1999), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Parting Glances (1986), Philadelphia (1993), The Living End (1992), Holding the Man (2015), Jeffery (1995), and Boys on the Side (1995).

Today I will be writing about

Strange Fruit (2004) dir. Kyle Schickner

[Run Time: 88 min, Available: had to purchase a DVD, Language: English]

Content Warning: lynching, racism, homophobia, rape, violence/gore

Summary: A New York attorney must return home to Louisiana to investigate the death of a childhood friend who, like Boyals himself, was both black and gay. 

Cast: 

Kyle Faulcon as William Boyals

Berlinda Tolbert as Emma Ayers

__

Well.

First of all, I guess, a thank you to @bengiyo is in order for discovering that Strange Fruit was available on DVD so that I was actually able to watch it. This has joined the likes of Mysterious Skin on my ‘definitely something I needed to watch, but can probably never watch again” list. 

I want to warn anyone that is considering finding this film and watching it that it starts with a lynching. I…. I’m not sure I have the words. Not to get too real on main, but I have some pretty major trauma related to hangings, and I am just desperately glad that I did not watch this last week, as that was the anniversary and I am not confident I would have been able to finish this film. As it is I have been sitting in complete and utter silence since finishing the movie because a) holy shit b) the rope burns on his neck c) holy shit. 

How do you watch a film like this knowing that lynchings still happen all the time? How do you watch a film where a gay Black man in a small, rural country town is brutally beaten, raped with a branch, and hung from a tree on screen while knowing that just last week a Black man was found hanging from a tree in a small, rural country town? For a movie that was filmed on a budget of only $250,000 (according to Wikipedia, the director was offered 6 million if he didn’t make the lead character both Black and gay and he turned it down) it is absolutely packed with very important, nuanced social commentary around queerness, around race, around homophobia in general and homophobia within the Black community specifically, around how the police uphold power, around the relationship between intellectualism and the South, and around how the queer community survives. 

(sorry for the abysmal photo quality, there are no photos of this film and I watched it on my TV so I was not able to take screen shots)

For as cheaply as it was made it packs a motherfucking punch let me tell you, watching Kelvin scream for help, call for his mother, was just gut wrenching. Watching William desperately plead with the Black men who were lynching him not to do so because they were perpetuating the cycle of violence done by white men to black men not that long ago. How some Black men were fine with that because Kelvin, because William were faggots. How others killed themselves when the dust settled, understanding the realities of what they had done. The speech at the grocery story between Mrs. Ayers and Mrs. Boyals about how desperately Mrs. Ayers had wanted to disown Kelvin for being gay and how grateful she was that she hadn’t because she lost Kelvin too young. 

The way small town loyalties and small town fears intersect, Matthew being so grateful that William protected him all the way back in fifth grade that he went against the orders of the other cops to tell William everything he knew, and how he was so afraid to be considered a homosexual if he stood up for a queer man. The way Sheriff Jensey was a racist, homophobic piece of flaming dog shit who still was doing everything he could to prevent people from knowing his nephew was gay. How he was reduced to ground meat for it. (Though, he can die, I have no remorse for him whatsoever). The way Mrs. Ayers calls out the fact that William can pass as straight but Kelvin couldn’t. The way that the queer community was silent in the wake of Kelvin’s death because that was the only way to guarantee the survival of community pillars. The fact that there was no new coverage of Kelvin’s death that we could see, but when the white man was lynched, there were news trucks all over the place because someone in power was affected. 

And perhaps my favorite example, Duane, who refuses to step foot in a gay bar for fear of looking gay when he first starts investigating his brother’s murder with William who is ready to throw hands at Sheriff Jensey’s nephew when he makes a homophobic comment, putting his parole at risk, who ends the film driving around in William’s rental car which has the word Faggot spray painted on the back. The way he was angry at William for the stupid, elitist shit he was saying, about how everyone in Louisiana had an IQ below 80, how he refused to call this place his home anymore. Duance handled those moments so beautifully. There are so many important scenes in this film, I don’t think I can count this one as my favorite, but I do need to acknowledge how happy I was that Strange Fruit let a Black man cry on screen. Like, so much of Kelvin’s murder, and William’s attempted murder was incredibly upsetting, but I felt very deep in my soul the pain, the grief, the nausea that Duane must have been feeling looking at the memorial to his brother at his murder site. 

I know because (again to get too real) for every day for months after my hanging related trauma I had to walk past a memorial for the person who passed, and let me tell you that shit was fucking brutal.��

There is so much more that could be said about this movie, but genuinely, I cannot find the words. The production team knew what they were doing when they didn’t put a backing track on the end credits, opting for a silence that was interrupted by only the chirping of crickets. Because that is what this movie is, that is what this movie does. I am not exaggerating when I say that the only thing I could do for thirty minutes after the screen went to black, was just sit on my couch, frozen, and feel the weight of the silence around me. 

Favorite Moment 

I talked about this a bit above but my favorite moment in Strange Fruit is when Mrs. Ayers and Mrs. Boyals run in to each other in the supermarket and Mrs. Ayers gives a very passive aggressively polite talking to to Mrs. Boyals about her homophobia, trying to get her to go back on her decision to disown William after finding out he was gay. I do think it is vitally important that we get a scene where a mother of a queer son, who just lost her child because of it, is able to admit that she struggled with his sexuality, that she desperately wanted to be rid of Kelvin, that she desperately wanted to forget he even existed. The way she was spared from having a major regret in her life because she ultimately did not do that. She lost Kelvin when he was too young, she understands at a cellular level the precious nature of time, and how easily it can be squandered and she is trying to spare Mrs. Boyals from that pain. I appreciate it strikes enough of a chord with Mrs. Boyals that she attempts to visit William at the hospital, even if ultimately she is not able to make it through the doorway to his room. 

Favorite Quote

“See that’s the thing about the bayou, no matter how much you try to push it back ‘ventually it’s gonna claim what belong to it. This is where you from man. This is where home is. Don’t matter how many degrees you got, you country.”

As a Southerner who did flee North, Duane’s words are still ring true. Even when my home state wants to dispose of people like me, even when states I have called home express their hatred of people like me, there is still a part of me that feels the emptiness of being away from home. I miss the mangroves, I miss the mountains, I miss the food, I miss the people I love who love me. It feels impossible to have the type of community I had back home up where I am now, and I am trying as hard as I can to cultivate it. I just love this line so much because I think it is important to remember where you came from, especially because William just before this was insulting the intelligence of people in the South, his people, from his home. I’m really glad he apologized for that. 

Score

8.5/10

If this was a grade based on just emotional manipulation, the film would get a 10 cause...fuck. But structurally I think it's probably like a 7 or an 8 so I am gonna give it an 8.5.

#bengiyo queer cinema syllabus #bengiyo queer media syllabus #queer cinema syllabus #strange fruit #strange fruit (2004) #strange fruit the movie #unit 4: heartbreak alley

[hawkins-losers]

Please just some eddie fluff. My heart is shattered and I'm trying to heal that hole 😭 So fluff with eddie where he is just really happy and proud of his partner because he loves her so much please and thank you

Eddie fluff you asked and Eddie fluff you will get! 

p.s. I got this idea from the scene of Eddie and Dustin in episode 8

-

‘’Last one to skull rock pays for the pizza tonight.’’

‘’Deal.’’ Eddie didn’t bother saying ‘go’ and sprinted, leaving you there. Cheater. ‘’Hey! Wait for me, I have little legs!’’ you called after him, trying to catch up, leaves crunching under your sneakers. 

Needless to say, you didn't catch up to him and completely lost track of Eddie. You couldn't even hear the clinking sound of his chains as he ran anymore because of how far away he already was. 

Thankfully, you knew the way to Skull Rock. Or else you would've easily gotten lost in those woods.

The birds were chirping as you pushed at the small trees and bushes to make a path. 

‘’You are such a cheater, Munson. You could’ve at least said ‘go’ and given me a fair chance before-’’ A frown formed between your eyebrows, not seeing Eddie's curly head and denim vest. ‘’Eddie?’’ you called. 

He couldn’t not have arrived yet. He left before you and runs faster. 

You checked around the massive rock and behind some trees - places someone would hide at, knowing he loved to scare people and make them jump -, but he strangely didn't seem to be there. 

Worry began creeping on your face. 

‘’Ed-’’ 

A loud thump came from behind you, accompanied by a growl, scaring the shit out of you. ''Ahh!'' 

You let out a death scream and a deep mocking hearty laugh echoed in the woods, giving away the spook-er’s identity. That's what you get for dating someone who has a flair for the dramatics. Daily jump-scares and dramatic antics.

You swiftly whirled on your feet with a scowl on your face. ‘’What is wrong with you?! You don’t scare people like that in the middle of the woods.’’ You smacked his chest and he grinned amusedly, taking the playful hits. 

‘’What were you thinking it was, a bear? I don’t think bears can jump down from rocks, Sweetheart.’’ He reached out to tuck a piece of hair behind your ear and you melted into his touch, allowing him to pull you in closer.

You snaked your arms around his middle, bathing in your lover's embrace, enjoying the quietness of nature. It was nice to be away from nasty glares and the whispers whenever you were walking down a hallway. You couldn't wait to graduate in two months and get the hell out of Hawkins.

Of course, Eddie had to disturb the moment by being his annoying self. 

‘’For the pizza, I was thinking we could get extra cheese and maybe some…pineapple.’’

The mention of the yellow tropical fruit had you pulling back. Eddie knew your hatred for pineapple on pizza - it doesn’t belong there - and loved to tease you about it and threaten you to order one with it. 

‘’Careful with that you do, you might end up eating that pizza by yourself.’’  You detached yourself from him, taking a few steps black with your arms crossed.

Eddie raised an eyebrow. ‘’Are you really mad at me for that? Baby, come on...’’ 

‘’Yes.’’ 

You bit your cheek really hard not to laugh, trying to keep your face on, but Eddie saw through you and charged at you like a wrestler. He scooped you up and twirled you in his arms, making you scream and giggle wholeheartedly.

-

Taglist: @broadway-or-noway @violetsleftfist @thelaststraw3  @cursedandromedablack  @Slashersimpfor  @savagejane1   @wh0reforbucknasty   @eddiemunson-slut   @slvdsjjk  @hehehehannahthings  @dreamdancers-world  @grace-loux  @iamharrystyleslover  @matildavol6  @Original_babababoo  @eddiemunsonbby  @notbeforelong  @lexi-2004 @violetrainbow412-blog  @tatespillows  @alwayslexii  @lilygreennn   @milkiane  @imahomeslice  @bunnygrl16 @cwritesforfun @marauders3rawh0re  @your-mom21 @parkersmyth @voguesir @milkiane @andrewgarfields-girlfriend @lilygreennn @alexxavicry @charlie-chick

Eddie Munson taglist: @nighttwingg @yourfavoriteakutagawakinnie @heizenka @eddiemvunsongf @Eddie_munsons_girlfriend @magicalchocolatecheesecake @eddiemunsonistheloveofmylife @avril-reblog-cave @Fandomfaeryreads @harrys-tittie @straycatarang @fourlokiss  @eddiemattress  @ghoulishlygrey   @paola-carter @bubsonnobx @pauldanoswifereal @ofherscarlettwitchways @kiszkathecook  @truewdw1

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson blurb #stranger things #eddie stranger things #stranger things imagine

[limesnlawnchairs]

Bleeding Edge Goth Dolls homepage as of 6 June 2004. Each corner is the swirling skull logo, with a banner made out of different pictures of dolls. Both the top and bottom have the text "Bleeding Edge" and a green link that says "Click here to enter."

As for the text on the screen, I could not fit that all in one screenshot, so I have a transcript below.

I have not slept in days.

The storm continues to rage outside.

The pounding raindrops are like tiny needles pecking at my skull. Peck...peck...peck...

The clock here in my chamber now strikes 12. Midnight is upon me.

I am haunted by images of a dark beauty shrouded in robes of lush fabric and elaborate detail. Is her clothing medieval or gothic?

To what can I attribute these manifestations? My collection of vampire pictures on the walls? Too many horror novels or films? Not enough chocolate? Am I going mad?                       

I peer out the window of my chamber, and notice that the rain has now ceased.

As I watch the sea of fog now crawling and curling across the landscape, she emerges.

This gothic beauty, parting the mist with deliberate grace.

I am intoxicated.

My curious eye cannot look away as it follows the dark siren on her path, when, there in the distance, I see them.

A coven of living gothic dolls has now congregated out in the cemetery.

Male and female. Equally beautiful figures with pale faces making mischief among the graves.

Like ghoulish children conjuring up splendid games and Halloween costume ideas the night before All Hallows Eve. I began to wonder what sort of tricks they would play, and what fiendish treats they would eat.

And as I observe these collectible figures in macabre costumes, I notice the little ones.

Oddly complected kindergoths, toddling like infant zombies.

They dance together like a mad cult of fashion goths in their fiendish frivolity.

My eyes dance by their side in the darkness. What a morbid and glorious site this is. The goths are so wonderful I could cease to exist.

Waltzing through tombstones like vampires, elegant and lithe in medieval dresses.

Beautiful makeup, and elaborate hair done like strange fashion collector dolls.

These pictures of witches persist. Almost as if my head were a cauldron and these goths were concocting a wicked brew of nightmarish gothic dolls percolating to perfection.

Suddenly, these fruits of lunacy made clear my purpose. I fantasize myself the dollmaker! The creator of this dark beauty and her macabre companions!

Now, the question is how? How to appease these beings that leave my brain teetering on the bleeding edge of insanity? How to exorcise these collector dolls from the caverns of my morbid mind, scratching, clawing, reaching towards freedom?

Of course! My father is quite the wicked craftsman, capable of bringing to life innumerable concoctions of collectible toys and figures for many generations.

Perhaps he could help me to squelch these haunting visions, and yet, bring them to their full and beautiful realization.

Dark gothic dolls and collectible toys, shrouded in ornate dress, with elaborate makeup and hairstyles.

A gallery of gloom, designed for the collector of dolls with a taste for the macabre, a glorious hunger for goths.

Sirens of splendid melancholy, tattooed, pierced and on the very edge of fashion...bleeding edge goths!

Their names shall be Dagger, Abcynthia, Trinity.   All are welcome in this factory of shadows.

And she, the dark beauty...my muse, I shall call her Storm!

Discover the "Wizard of Goth" on our About us page.

#wayback machine #bleeding edge goth #begoth #fashion dolls #advertisement #''well it took us an entire year to actually get products on our page. what do you want to put there?'' #''um...deranged ramblings about being haunted by my own dolls?'' #''perfect!!''

[maffickingcowplants]

Day 2 of 7, Fall 2004

TOP SECRET

INVESTIGATING AGENT: SILHOUETTE

AGENCY: ACUMEN CONSULTING

REPORT NUMBER: SV-001

SUBJECT: Investigation Report - Strange Phenomena in StrangerVille

The purpose of this report is to document the peculiar occurrences and unusual behavior observed in the town of StrangerVille. The initial assessment reveals a connection between reports of strange fruit and the alarming changes in the behavior of locals. I have established an office complex, this will serve as the headquarters for this investigation. As of the writing of this report, my observations indicate the presence of something deeply concerning and potentially dangerous lurking beneath the surface of this town. Several witnesses have mentioned encountering individuals exhibiting abnormal behavior, including twisted limbs, unnaturally wide smiles, and cryptic conversations about a figure referred to as "The Mother." This "possession" appears to be a key element in the strange happenings within StrangerVille.

BACKGROUND:

StrangerVille has come under our radar due to multiple reports of bizarre plant bearing remarkable fruit and an increasing number of persons, across all socio-economic backgrounds, exhibiting abnormal behaviors. An article was published in the SimCity Chronicles, which reports upon some of the strange behavior of locals. It was this news article that drew my attention the the town, and upon my first initial contact this agent's concern was great. Local rumors have circulated, linking these occurrences to "the Mother" and its potential influence over the town. It is imperative that we uncover the truth behind these phenomena and assess the potential threat they pose to national security.

INITIAL FINDINGS:

Upon my arrival in StrangerVille, I quickly established a network of contacts within the community, discreetly gathering information and monitoring the situation. Reports of Sims displaying strange behavior align with the presence of the peculiar fruit, which appears to be a catalyst for the possession-like state experienced by affected individuals.

The office complex maintained by Acumen Consulting serves as the perfect cover for our investigative activities. The seemingly ordinary façade conceals our advanced technology and training facilities, allowing for covert operations and analysis of the situation at hand. Our underground headquarters house a team of highly skilled agents and scientists dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of StrangerVille.

Witness accounts and my personal observations indicate that the affected Sims, when possessed, exhibit heightened communication abilities with "the Mother". It is unclear at this stage whether the influence is intentional or if it is a byproduct of something else. Further investigation is necessary to determine the nature of this connection.

Exposure to the spore clouds results in a temporary state of possession and an overwhelming compulsion to spread the infection further. It is imperative to investigate the source and nature of these spore clouds to uncover their connection to the enigmatic forces at play.

Through discreet inquiries and careful surveillance, I have discovered the existence of an underground laboratory hidden deep within StrangerVille. This secretive facility is believed to be the epicenter of the mysterious occurrences in the town. Access to the laboratory is tightly controlled, hinting at a clandestine operation that requires further scrutiny. I intend to infiltrate the facility covertly and gather more evidence regarding its activities.

CONCLUSION:

Based on my initial investigations, it is clear that StrangerVille is harboring something far more than meets the eye. The peculiar behavior of possessed individuals, the presence of toxic spore clouds, and the secretive underground laboratory all point towards a hidden agenda that poses a potential threat to national security.

I request immediate authorization to continue my undercover operations in StrangerVille, delving deeper into the enigma surrounding "The Mother" and the strange occurrences plaguing this seemingly ordinary town. Further investigation is crucial to understanding the full scope and implications of this case.

Additionally, I will expand my network of contacts within StrangerVille, focusing on key individuals who may possess valuable information or have experienced direct encounters with "the Mother". Gathering firsthand accounts and studying the patterns of possession will be crucial in understanding the motivations at play and developing effective countermeasures.

**Attachments:**

Photograph of Acumen Consulting StrangerVille Headquarters, possessed individual, military presence.

Aerial Surveillance of the location of the secret laboratory

I await further instructions and guidance to proceed with the investigation.

End of Report.

Posts about Operation Mother's Influence: « BEGINNING / NEXT »

Posts about Bella: « PREVIOUS / BEGINNING / NEXT »

#sims 4 #sims4 #sims 4 legacy #my sims #simblr #the sims #the sims 4 #the sims4 #ts4 #the sims 4 story #ts4 story #ts4 legacy #goth legacy

[rainbowxocs]

TW: Emotional and Physical Abuse.

Name: Keh Spo. (ケースポ)

Special Titles: Itako (イタコ), Miko (巫女)

Age: 19

Pronouns: He/They (In English.)

I Pronoun: Jibun (自分) (An incredibly formal neutral pronoun that portrays a bit of distance between the person who uses it and who they are talking too.)

Sexuality: Asexual, Demiromantic, Straight.

Gender: X-Gender (Musei). (Xジェンダー, 無知).

Species: Self Proclaimed Suzuhiko and Tennin (Human.) (Witch)

Disorders: Anxiety, Selective Mutism, DPDR, Depression, Suicide Ideation, CPTSD, Stuttering, Autism, Hypersomnia, Contamination OCD.

Physical Disabilities: Blind.

Recovering Addictions: Self Harm.

Religion: Shintoism.

Job: Shrine Maiden, Noh Actor, Paranormal Investigator.

Lives in: Okutama, Japan, 2024.

Languages: Japanese, JSL, Latin, Occult Languages.

Height: 5’5”

Ethnicity: Japanese.

Accent: Yamanote.

Powers: Supernatural Banishment, Healing, Potion Making, Advanced Magic Spells, Warding, Creating Charms/Sigils.

Weapons: Ofuda, Hamaya, Katana, Katashiro, Ojuzu, Shimenawa, Salt.

Wand: Suzu, Tamagushi.

Alignment: Neutral Good.

Text Color: Grey.

Main Hobbies: Occultism, Reading.

Favorite Drink: Lavender Tea.

Favorite Fruit: Oranges.

Favorite Meals: Chirashizushi, Zoni, Chazuke.

Favorite Candy: Taiki Hana Komon, Kohakutou.

Favorite Dessert: Green Tea Kakigori, Kuzumochi.

Favorite Flower: Sakaki, Forget Me Nots.

Scent: Incense, Smoke.

Awareness: Not Aware (Effect: None.)

Birthday: August 13th 2004 (Leo, Monkey, AB)

Theme:

Playlist:

Fun Facts: Is almost always seen wearing some sort of mask. Very rarely shows their face.

Special Interests: The Occult.

Stims: Worry Stones, Fidgets with his kandi bracelets.

Comfort Objects: Maneki-Neko.

Stimboard: LINK

Moodboard: LINK

Fashionboard: LINK

Family: Mae Spo, Mura Asahara. (Parents)

Kida Asahara, Yukimori Asahara. (Aunt and Uncle.)

Uru Nanamo. (Adoptive Half Brother.)

Hwan Asahara. (Half Brother.)

Atsu Kaigan. (Cousin.)

Friends: Kagayaki (BFF), Hana.

Romance: Akiko Spo (Wife.)

Patrons: Izanami.

Pets: Kappa (河童) (Shiba Inu.), Torii (鳥居) (Black Cat)

Brief Personality: Keh is incredibly quiet. In the town of Okutama he is considered pretty normal. But outsiders would probably find him a little odd.. He only is known to speak to two people, his best friend and his girlfriend. Other than that he just makes sure the shrine he works at is clean, and the yokai of the town stay in their place.

Brief Backstory: Keh was born an only child to his mother. His father wasn’t exactly in the picture and it was just him and her.. But Keh’s unusual appearance at birth made Mae believe that he was cursed. Strange things had been happening in the town lately, ghosts, goblins, yokai, and Mae assumed that her child was a wicked beast.

Mae locked him up in his room, not allowing him to see the outside world. His mother told him from a very young age that he was a monster, and that if anyone were to see him that his ugliness would kill them. That he would curse them and their entire bloodline.

Of course, Keh didn’t understand that his mother was lying to him. He believed everything his mother told him. He sometimes was allowed outside of his room on rare occasions and when he was he would read books about Yokai and Spirits.. so he could understand himself..

He would create paper masks to hide his face. and would pretend to be friends with the yokai. Until child protective services got wind of the child neglect his mother was inflicting on him. And she got arrested.

Keh bounced around from foster home to foster home. Nobody quite.. got him.. due to his upbringing he was an odd little duckling.. He always wore a mask no matter what, even to sleep and to shower.. He never spoke really.. only speaking in writing or vague hand gestures.

He eventually made his first two real friends when he went to high school. A boy named Kagayaki and a girl named Akiko. Both very persistent in gaining his friendship and trust. To this day they are the only two people who ever have seen his face. He was able to come out of his shell more and be able to make friends and embrace his “monster” side.. realizing that he wasn’t a monster at all.

#keh spo #Keh #oc #ocs #oc reference #my art #rp reference #rp #roleplay #Spotify

[thehappyscavenger]

Books Read in July 2023

This month was crazy. I can't believe I read 8 books. True they were also shorties but I started 2 really huge books as well and made headway into them. WTF.

The House of Skin by Karina Lickorish Quinn

This is a really short novella (about 60 pages) that is a haunting gothic piece. A London artist is adopted by this family of patrons who bring her to their mansion to work. More of a mood vibe than anything. Really liked it.

I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter

This was Hofstadter making a stab at human consciousness and trying to explain what makes humans different from machines. I'm not sure it works fully but the ideas are interesting. The first third has a lot of math explanations I found confusing tbh so that was a bit of a slog to get through but I enjoyed it overall.

My Stupid Intentions by Bernardo Zannoni

Something about books about anthropomorphic animals just get me every time. This is about the exceptional life of a beech marten and is just absolutely soul crushing and beautiful. Pitch perfect, loved it.

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

This was recommended to me by someone as the best book they read all year and, while I liked it while I was reading it, upon reflection it really falls apart and I hated it.

Part of it is about the rewilding of wolves in Scotland and part of it is a murder mystery following the lead character, a twin, and her sister who was abused so thoroughly she stopped talking. I found the abuse narrative like... shockingly dumb. I mentioned this on a book discussion forum I frequent and they mentioned lots of other books about the Scottish rewilding so I'm excited for that!

Fruit by Brian Francis

So I first heard of this when it came out around 2004 and it sounded interesting but it took me this long to read it! 19 years till I carved out time for this book during which it's become something of a modern Canadian classic.

This is about a little 8th grader in Sarnia who is fat and is struggling with his friendship and sexuality. Just pitch perfect and funny and heartbreaking. Hard recommend.

Bluebeard's Castle by Anna Biller

I got this as an ARC. I like Biller as a filmmaker and I was wondering how her unique style would work as a novel since her dialogue is so weird.

Oddly as it turned out. I feel like a lot of people are either going to hate this or not get it but while it's a very modern book her style of outright stating themes and blaring plot in neon lights is very reminiscent of early gothic works. Like 1700s gothic morality stuff. By the end I was won over by this so worth a shot imo.

Promise by Christi Nogle

Black Mirror-esque stories of worlds set in the near future. Like all short story collections this was mixed but there was plenty to enjoy and it left a favourable impression overall.

Blackouts by Justin Torres

I can't even explain this book except to say it's pretty brilliant. Even though I read an ARC of this I think I'm going to buy it.

It's fictionalized history and reminded me a bit of Autobiography of X even though it's about real people. I loved it though. Highly recommend.

#The House of Skin #Karina Lickorish Quinn #I Am A Strange Loop #Douglas Hofstadter #My Stupid Intentions #Bernardo Zannoni #Fruit #Brian Francis #Bluebeard's Castle #Anna Biller #Promise #Christi Nogle #Blackouts #Justin Torres #currently reading

[gorillazsharko]

Phase Two: Slowboat to Hades (2002–2008)

After attempting to kill 2-D and leaving Gorillaz, Murdoc headed off to Mexico to get some sun and relax, however after using fake dud cheques at a brothel, Murdoc was arrested and sentenced to thirty years at La Mesa State Prison on October 31st 2002. During this time, Murdoc met cellmates who taught him a bit of black magic, and acquired himself a pet raven named Cortez.

Meanwhile, that same evening, Kong Studios had been shut down tight in its owner's absence by local law enforcement after an unknown man was seen running, naked and in hysterics, in the marshes near the studio. The police proceeded to keep the area secured while they investigated the strange paranormal events surrounding Kong.

After Murdoc left, the next to leave was Noodle. Noodle went back to Japan in a fruitful attempt to uncover the secrets of her own past after suffering from nightmares and visions on the Gorillaz Tour. Noodle left for Japan on October 1st 2002, she checked into a capsule hotel, and began her search.

2-D was the next one to leave, 2-D headed out into the world of L.A., rubbing elbows with Brian Setzer, joining The Viper Room Club, and moving into an apartment flat with actress Britt Ekland. However, after Britt spent every night banging on the walls and building a wicker statue, and getting sick of the Los Angeles life style, 2-D decided to go back to Eastbourne and work at his father's funfair. 2-D returned to England on November 25th 2002. It was during this time 2-D's ego got a significant boost and he re-established his grip on reality, coming to terms with his newfound pop icon status with the ladies. He also began a friendship with Shane Lynch from Boyzone. 2-D also began to grow a resentment for Murdoc, breaking free of adoring his abuser.

Russel remained in L.A. for some time but became increasingly haunted by The Grim Reaper, who eventually banished Del from his body. Luckily, Russel was approached by Ike Turner who offered him sanctuary in his basement to recover.

After a year of searching in Japan, Noodle was close to giving up on her search, she decided to head down to a sushi bar in downtown Hong Kong, to eat in woe. While she was there a waitor called for an order of "Ocean Bacon" and all of Noodle's memories came flooding back. she was reunited with her mentor, Mr. Kyuzo who was working as a chef at the establishment and learned that she was part of a secret government super soldier project and could speak English fluently. Noodle was the only survivor after the project was scrapped. Mr. Kyuzo erased Noodle's memory using the words, "Ocean Bacon" and sent her off to England in the FedEx crate. Armed with her newfound knowledge and iron resolve, Noodle decided to return to Kong Studios. on October 27th 2003, Noodle returned to Kong, and discovered that the building had fallen under a state of disrepair during the band's absence. She also discovered that the building was invested by zombies and a monster infested darkness. Using the Kong security room as a safe house Noodle slowly cleaned the building of it's unwanted inhabitants. Now knowing English, Noodle began to soak up what was playing on her TV in the security room, and discovered society was being fed manufactured shit. It was here that Noodle began writing and putting together the concepts of the band's sophomore album "Demon Days".

While Noodle was clearing Kong, Russel was still recovering in Ike Turner's basement, it was here that Russel began recording demo's for a solo hip hop album. However, after seeing hallucinations of demons flying out the speakers, Russel decided to bury the demo tapes, believing that they were causing several world problems.

Finally, in February 2004, Noodle finally cleared Kong of the undead and began contacting her bandmates, but Murdoc was still in prison!

After spending a year in jail, Murdoc's patience began wearing thin, he teamed up with his cellmates and escaped from La Mesa State. He returned to the Chicken Choker brothel, to commit the same crime he did before, then heading over to the airports, and flying back to England.

Noodle texted her bandmates, and on March 3rd 2004, 2-D, Murdoc, and Russel returned to Kong Studios. Gorillaz were together again. The band caught each other up on what they had been up to, before Noodle unveiled her Demon Days project. Recording for the album began the next day.

Noodle drafted in Damon, and producer Danger Mouse to help out with the record. The main story of Demon Days was to depict a post 9/11 world, with each track dealing with a different topic/demon. Noodle also set out to make the album prove that Gorillaz were more then a marketing ploy gimmick, as many critics accused of Gorillaz in regards to their last album. Recordings completed in November 2004. A month later on December 12th 2004, Gorillaz announced their comeback with the release of a new music video for a new song called "Rockit". Along with this was Noodle setting up the "Search For A Star" contest. A competition in which fans could submit themselves doing a talent, and submit said video or piece of artwork to Gorillaz website. Gorillaz also launched the Reject False Icons campaign, which encouraged fans to reject false celebrity icons. The cherry on top of all of this was a complete renovation to Kong Studios, new rooms and new minigames for fans to explore and interact with.

on May 9th 2005, Gorillaz released the first single and music video off their Demon Days album "Feel Good Inc." featuring De La Soul. The song and video was a huge success. Once more bringing Gorillaz mainstream, charting increasingly well, and properly replacing Clint Eastwood as Gorillaz signature tune.

On May 23rd 2005, the "Demon Days" album released, the album received critical acclaim, topped many charts, sold millions of copies, and was listed on various publications lists of the best albums of 2005, and the best albums of the 2000s.

From June 6th - June 22nd, Gorillaz embarked on The Demon Detour; a series of live radio shows throughout America. Like always however, issues immediately began, when the band's tour bus was being shot at consistently every night. The band tried putting together who was shooting at them, suspects included Paula Cracker, Paulo Skinbacio, Alfred C. Klinker, Dr. Wurzel, and Noodles Government Bosses. To keep his mind stable, Russel began experimenting with taxidermy during this time. Eventually, the band getting sick of being shot at every night (as someone probably would), Murdoc decided to take things into his own hands, asking the tour manager Jimmy Manson, to see what he could do about the shootings. The next night, shootings stopped, and the tour continued as usual.

After The Demon Detour, the band returned to Kong, where Noodle hatched secret plans for the 2nd Demon Days music video. Noodle recorded the "DARE" music video, without letting any of the other band members know. The single and video later released on August 29th 2005, reaching No.1 on the UK Singles Chart, being the only Gorillaz single to do so.

Later that same summer, Gorillaz headed off to the deserts of Africa to record the music video for the track "Dirty Harry" featuring Bootie Brown. The single and video later released on November 21st 2005.

After the "Dirty Harry" shoot, the band returned to Kong, tired and double booked. The band was set to perform at the MTV EMA's, while also set to perform a five night concert at the Manchester Opera House. To fix this dilemma, the band drafted in Damon and the Demon Days collaborators to perform the album live. From November 1st - 5th 2005, Damon and his live band performed the Demon Days album live at the Manchester Opera House. The band attended these gigs in the audience for the first show, before heading over to Lisbon to perform "Feel Good Inc." at the MTV EMA's.

Later that Christmas, MTV Cribs released an episode where they receive a tour of Kong Studios from Murdoc Niccals. Murdoc also delivered the Queen's speech that Christmas Day.

On February 8th 2006, the band headed back over to America to preform "Feel Good Inc." at the Grammy's. After the award show an after party was held at Dennis Hopper's, in which Murdoc got into a drunken fight with ex Archies member, Jughead Jones, who claimed Gorillaz was a rip off of his band.

On February 15th, 2006, Gorillaz performed "Dirty Harry" at the Brit Awards featuring a huge choir of children and guest star, Bootie Brown.

Following the BRIT Awards, the plans began to be made for the final Demon Days music video. Murdoc received contacts from The Demon Detour tour manager Jimmy Manson, who revelated he had been following Gorillaz for awhile. He initially tried out for the guitarist role but was rejected upon Noodle's arrival, he stalked the band for sometime during their time in Hollywood in 2002, and finally got a gig as the tour manager for The Demon Detour. Manson reveled that he was the one behind the shootings and he pitched an idea to kill Gorillaz and cash in on their success. Murdoc agreed to this, and came up with an idea for the track "El Manana". Murdoc pitched the idea to Gorillaz and Jamie, in the video, Noodle would be on the windmill island from "Feel Good Inc.", and the island would be shot down by copters, Noodle would have a parachute, and the copters would have fake bullets. The rest of the band were a bit reluctant to this idea, but ultimately gave in. Especially Noodle who wanted to leave Gorillaz for a break, and had already packed all her stuff up in her room. She planned to leave straight after the filming of the "El Manana" video shoot. Murdoc and Jimmy hatched out the plan, in which Manson would hide out inside the windmill tower with guns, and come out and shoot Noodle. On March 7th, 2006, Gorillaz started the shoot for "El Manana" which starred Noodle on windmill island. Halfway through the video, the island was shot down and exploded as planned. However, after the video's shoot, Noodle was nowhere to be found, leaving behind a used parachute, panic exploded on set. Manson had never come out and shot Noodle. This was because Murdoc had actually double crossed Manson, by locking him inside the windmill, with the guns. The island crashing, with Jimmy Manson perishing along with it. In an attempt to calm fans and save face, Murdoc lied and said that Noodle had escaped by parachute and was chilling out in Maldives. In reality, Noodle was missing and supposedly dead. Murdoc noted that the copters that shot down the island, were not the same fake copters from "Feel Good Inc." but were actually real helicopters that came and shot down the island. Meaning that Noodle was being shot down with real bullets in the video and was not acting. The "El Manana" single and music video later released on April 10th 2006. Following Noodle's disappearance, Kong began falling under a state of disrepair once more, as if her presence was the only thing keeping the building alive.

Shortly after the video's shoot, Damon and the live band once more performed a residency of five shows at New York's Harlem Apollo from April 2nd to April 6th 2006. 2-D and Murdoc attended these gigs in the audience, while Russel stayed behind at Kong. After the Apollo gigs, 2-D and Russel left Kong Studios, while Murdoc stayed behind by himself in the crumpling building. 2-D headed off to Jamaica to get a degree in law, while Russel put together and toured a new Gorillaz project Gorillaz Sound System, a project in which Russel performed remixes of Gorillaz tracks live. Later that year, on October 26th 2006, Gorillaz released their autobiography Rise Of The Ogre, the same day as the book's release, an emergency transmission from Noodle was received in the Brain Room at the ruins of Kong Studios. Murdoc discovered that the coordinates of the transmission were being transmitted from the depths of hell. Murdoc attempted to travel through the bowels of hell in order to bring her back but failed. Following the rescue attempt, Murdoc put Kong Studios up for sale, and headed off on a bender around the world. During this time, Murdoc released another compilation album, "D-Sides". Similarly to "G-Sides", D-Sides consisted of the bonus tracks, b-sides, and remixes off the singles of Demon Days. The album released on November 19th 2007, and performed similarly to G-Sides. Not long after D-Sides, director Ceri Levy was preparing on releasing a Gorillaz documentary titled Bananaz. The documentary was about the making of Gorillaz first two albums from the perspective of Damon and Jamie. The documentary premiered in Berlin on February 7th 2008. Murdoc responded to the documentary via a drunken threating voice message to Ceri. An online war began between Murdoc and Ceri, which resulted in Ceri leaking a audio tape of Murdoc having sex. Murdoc called off the war following the leak.

eating this

#𖤐 ;; asks

[kaleidescopicmind]

Welcome to my hot mess of a blog!

Want to know what some of my interests are specifically, that are featured on this blog by means of reblogging/posting of my own content, on here? See down below

Films

Yup theres a lot, but again there may be some scattered posts featuring other films

Addams Family Values

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Black Swan

Cyberpunk/Futuristic films: Ex Machina, Ghost In The Shell, Her, Tron Legacy

Dead Poets Society

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Interstella 555: The 5tory Of The 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

Makoto Shinkai films: Weathering With You, Your Name

Phantom Of The Opera (2004)

Sci-Fi films: Alien & Aliens, Contact, Interstellar, Sunshine

Sofia Coppola films: Lost In Translation, Marie Antoinette, The Virgin Suicides

Studio Ghibli films: Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, The Secret World Of Arriety, When Marnie Was There, Whisper Of The Heart

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

The Devil Wears Prada

The Red Shoes (1948)

Tim Burton films

Treasure Planet

TV Shows

Avatar The Last Airbender

Flesh & Bone

Penny Dreadful

The Haunting of Hill House & The Haunting of Bly Manor

The Last Of Us

Supernatural

Ugly Betty

Video Games

Alien Isolation

Life Is Strange

Oxenfree

The Last of Us

The Sims 4

Hogwarts Legacy (currently playing)

Anime

Fruits Basket

Kaichou Wa Maid Sama

Ouran Highschool Host Club

Yuri On Ice

The Ancient Magus Bride

Music

My top favourite band, but there may be some scattered posts featuring other artists/bands

Daft Punk: a long time fan since 2010

Poetry

I don't really have a specific genre of poetry I like... but a few points on the poets I currently like:

Walt Whitman - I mostly heard a few of his poems in one of my favourite films of all time, Dead Poets Society, which was shown to me in my highschool Advanced English class. So I grew to be fond of some of his poems featured in that film as well as a few others I discovered on my own.

John Clare - Much like Walt Whitman I heard a few of John Clare's poems recited in the TV show Penny Dreadful, a big time favourite show of mine I revisit every year. So I became curious about romantic poetry through that show and discovered more of his poems in my own time online.

T.S Eliot - I studied a fair few of T.S Eliot's poems in my highschool Advanced English class. Through his poetry I grew fascinated by the darker more modern themes and imagery he addressed and painted in his poems.

Walt Whitman

John Clare

T.S Eliot

ENJOY & HAPPY SCROLLING :)

#daft punk #the band ghost #atlantis the lost empire #black swan #ex machina #ghost in the shell #tron legacy #dead poets society #eternal sunshine of the spotless mind #interstella 5555 #weathering with you #your name #alien #contact #interstellar #sunshine #sofia coppola #lost in translation #marie antoinette #the virgin suicides #studio ghibli #sweeney todd #the devil wears prada #the red shoes #tim burton #treasure planet #atla #flesh and bone #penny dreadful #phantom of the opera

[whisperthatruns]

Stings

Bare-handed, I hand the combs. The man in white smiles, bare-handed, Our cheesecloth gauntlets neat and sweet, The throats of our wrists brave lilies. He and I

Have a thousand clean cells between us, Eight combs of yellow cups, And the hive itself a teacup, White with pink flowers on it. With excessive love I enameled it

Thinking ‘Sweetness, sweetness.’ Brood cells grey as the fossils of shells Terrify me, they seem so old. What am I buying, wormy mahogany? Is there any queen at all in it?

If there is, she is old, Her wings torn shawls, her long body Rubbed of its plush--- Poor and bare and unqueenly and even shameful. I stand in a column

Of winged, unmiraculous women, Honey-drudgers. I am no drudge Though for years I have eaten dust And dried plates with my dense hair.

And seen my strangeness evaporate, Blue dew from dangerous skin. Will they hate me, These women who only scurry, Whose news is the open cherry, the open clover?

It is almost over. I am in control. Here is my honey-machine, It will work without thinking, Opening, in spring, like an industrious virgin

To scour the creaming crests As the moon, for its ivory powders, scours the sea. A third person is watching. He has nothing to do with the bee-seller or with me. Now he is gone

In eight great bounds, a great scapegoat. Here is his slipper, here is another, And here the square of white linen He wore instead of a hat. He was sweet,

The sweat of his efforts a rain Tugging the world to fruit. The bees found him out, Molding onto his lips like lies, Complicating his features.

They thought death was worth it, but I Have a self to recover, a queen. Is she dead, is she sleeping? Where has she been, With her lion-red body, her wings of glass?

Now she is flying More terrible than she ever was, red Scar in the sky, red comet Over the engine that killed her--- The mausoleum, the wax house.

Sylvia Plath, Ariel: The Restored Edition: A Facsimile of Plath’s Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement (HarperCollins, 2004)

#sylvia plath #stings #ariel #ariel: the restored edition #ariel: the restored edition: a facsimile of plath's manuscript reinstating her original selection and arrangement #poetry

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo's Queer Cinema Syllabus

I am currently working my way through Unit 4: Heartbreak Alley, the totally light-hearted, definitely not agonizing section of @bengiyo's queer cinema syllabus where I get to watch countless acts of violence be committed against queer people. Thank fuck I have Lesbians waiting for me at the end of this unit. The films in Unit 4 are: Bent (1997), Strange Fruit (2004),Boys Don’t Cry (1999), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Parting Glances (1986), Philadelphia (1993), The Living End (1992), Holding the Man (2015), Jeffery (1995), and Boys on the Side (1995).

Today i will be talking about

Philadelphia (1993) dir. Jonathan Demme 

[Run Time: 2:05, Available on: YouTube for rent, Google Play, Amazon, Lang: English]

Summary: When a man with HIV is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.

Cast: * Tom Hanks as Andrew Beckett * Denzel Washington as Joe Miller * Antonio Banderas as Miguel

___

To steal a comment from @lurkingshan, it has been awhile since I’ve watched a good legal thriller. Philadelphia is brilliant, and I don’t just mean in the general sense, I mean it is smart. It is smart in how it sets itself up. We start with Andy and Joe on opposites sides of a court room, we can see the rapport between them, but we set them up on opposite sides from the beginning. We move from there to Andy at the hospital, receiving his transfusions, looking across the way to a man whose karposi’s sarcoma has advanced to the end stages a look to where Andy himself will end in this film. And then to Andy’s law office where there is physical touch, after physical touch, after physical touch. Some that happen so quickly, others that linger, that the camera focuses in on, and I only wish that we’d seen Andy the day after that meeting, because I would be curious to see if and how the physical touches changed with people in the office. 

But that’s not what we get, and we don’t really need it because what is truly important is that Andy is sicker than he originally let on. The point is that the law firm set Andy up while he was away. The point is that at so many stages in this film I was mad. And that was how I was supposed to be. I was mad at all the homophobic pieces of shit that were sitting there making excuses, that based a significant portion of their legal argument about not discriminating against Andy because he was gay with HIV, by trying to discredit Andy’s character because he was gay. [and of course the law office used a woman as their representation and had a Black man at their table as well…you know they were really trying to look good]

gif by @rancidtofu

You might know by now that I love a complicated relationship, so I was really thrilled that Joe eventually decided to represent Andy. Because Joe was homophobic as fuck, and he very much did not want to take the case. But again this film is smart, we never have to hear from Joe’s mouth or anyone’s for that matter that Joe decided to work with Andy after seeing how he was being treated by the librarian, but we know there’s no way it isn’t informed by experiences of racism in Black communities. The way Joe was stared at by a library worker when he was sitting at his table, the way Andy was stared at by a library worker when he was sitting at his table. The way Andy was being suggestively ushered away to somewhere out of view to other library patrons. 

I loved that Joe was viciously homophobic because it demonstrates so well the boundary between work and personal life. Joe is able to do his job and do it well, and eventually after months of working with Andy, is able to come around, even touching Andy’s face which we know even has a lesion on it, by the end of the film. That is huge from someone that started the film literally running immediately to the doctor to make sure he didn’t have AIDS from shaking Andy’s hand. From a modern lens I can totally see how that would probably feel stereotypical or derivative or something like that but I think it is important to keep in mind that this film was one of the first Hollywood movies to feature HIV/AIDS and also portray gay people in a positive light. I haven’t actually been adding the for/by/about designations to the Heartbreak Alley films because something about doing that didn’t really sit right to me when we’re discussing the violence to and death of queer people. But this film definitely was not made for queer people, and Tom Hanks acknowledges that he was cast in the role for his “non-intimidating screen persona” and that “one of the reasons people weren’t afraid of this movie was because I was playing a gay man.” 

The casting here was strategic to further assist audiences in sympathizing with a gay, HIV positive character. 

gif by @rancidtofu

I really love all the little moments of solidarity, the smiles between the Black secretary at the law office and Joe because They Know™ about experiences of discrimination in the workplace. The solidarity between the secretary with AIDS and Andy. I loved that a Black woman was teaching Andy how to apply make up to cover his lesions. I loved that Andy’s entire family knew that he was gay, knew he had AIDS, knew he had a partner and that they all loved and accepted him, and that he had so many people in his life that truly, well, and deeply cared for him. 

And I love how that is used to deliver maximum emotional impact, at least to me, in one single stupid opera line. 

I genuinely enjoyed essentially sitting in a court room for two hours watching Joe strategize, and execute his traps for the jury to win them over. I love how you know that they have won the second that a juror repeats verbatim a line Joe had said repeatedly throughout the trial. I am grateful the film was kind enough to let Andy be awake and alert enough to know that they had won. That his one of his last acts on earth was getting to engage with the part of law he loved most: “that every once in awhile, not often, but occasionally, you get to play a part in justice being done” Justice was done here, Joe and Andy both played a role in what could potentially become another precedented case in the roster to build towards a stronger future for gay people in the workplace. I think that (though likely coupled with how much his body was beginning to fail) is what finally made him ready to go. Because for so much of this film he would hesitate when it came to death. 

gif by @rancidtofu

He froze over the line “the actual physical [death]” when quoting the line about AIDS causing a social death. He talked about planning his memorial to try to get a reaction out of Miguel, and when Miguel gave him a response he very much did not want to hear “maybe you should” he took Miguel to a party, he talked about opera instead of practicing his Q&A. 

I am grateful the film ends at his memorial, not just for the memories, though I am especially glad it ends on a video of Andy as a child (to appeal to the ‘he was somebody’s kid type of crowd) but that the memorial was not entirely gloomy. There was life, there was conversation, there were smiles, it made things feel more real. Just like all “see you tomorrow” lies everyone knew they were telling themselves felt real. 

Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington are such powerhouses of actors and I am so so grateful that they did this project together. 

Favorite Scene 

(I am acknowledging that these gifs by @antoniosbanderas have nothing to do with my listed favorite scene, but I just need you all to know that the scene of these two laying in bed was cut from the final edit of the film, so I didn't actually get to watch it, so now you know it exists if you didn't already)

My favorite scene is when the law firm is questioning Melissa Benedict, a secretary that used to work with one of the lawyers in his previous firm. Melissa was diagnosed with AIDS after a blood transfusion, and she was put on the stand to prove one of the lawyers knew what AIDS lesions looked like and therefore was able to identify that Andy had HIV a week before he was fired. 

I was ready to reach through my screen to smack a bitch when the law firm’s representation started trying to make a moral argument, that Melissa’s AIDS was acceptable AIDS to have in an office because she involuntarily contracted the disease through a medical procedure, whereas Andy had had gay sex and therefore voluntarily risked acquiring HIV. And you can just see Melissa looking over at Andy so often when the law firm is trying to make this argument, and trying to get Melissa to answer questions in a way that would make her seem like she is actually of the law firm’s opinion. 

And she doesn’t let them do that to Andy. Instead she looks right at him and she qualifies her response saying: “But I don’t consider myself any different from anyone else with this disease. I’m not guilty, I’m not innocent, I’m just trying to survive” and it is just a beautiful moment for me. Especially because this film is trying to portray queer people in a positive light, having a straight, white woman with a disease she had no way of preventing say that she was just like anyone else with AIDS is hugely important to driving that message home. 

Favorite Quote 

gif by @fran-kubelik

I am so sorry in advance for how long this quote is, and that 90% of it is technically just Andy translating an opera but: 

“‘Look the place that cradled me is burning.’ Do you hear the heartache in her voice? Can you feel it Joe? Now in come the strings and it changes everything. It’s like the music, it fills with a hope. And that’ll change again. Listen. Listen. “I bring sorrow to those who love me” oh oh that single cello. “It was during this sorrow that love came to me.” (sobbing) “A voice filled with harmony. It said, live still. I am life. Heaven is in your eyes. It’s everything around you. It’s the blood and the mud. I am divine! I am oblivion. I am the god that comes down from the heavens to the earth and makes of the earth a heaven. I am love. I am love.” 

The level of emotion, the implication behind each and every line that he translates, the way that those lines spoke to me as a queer person. “Look the place that cradled me is burning” this body, his body is failing; this life, his life is coming to an end. “I bring sorrow to those who love me” we see that with Andy’s mom, with his entire family for that matter, we see how loved he was and know that his death is going to be a devastating blow for a lot of people. “It was during sorrow love came to me” Miguel is there for all of it, through all of it. When he collapses in court, his family is the first to get to him, to try to help him. When he’s in the hospital the entire hallway is flooded with people that love him. Andy breaks at this point in his monologue, choking out the line “A voice filled with harmony. It said, live still. I am life. Heaven is in your eyes. It’s everything around you. It’s the blood and the mud.” I do not think Andy was ready to go until the very end when he finally said he was. Live still. Andy wants to live still. I am life. Heaven is in your eyes. It’s everything around you. It’s the blood and the mud. He will see Heaven soon, he is looking at the world through the lens of a dying man. “I am the god that comes down from the heavens to the earth and makes of the earth a heaven” We have one life to live, we should use it well, Andy has so much love in his life, that’s truly such a heavenly thing to have. He is seeking justice, in such a way that others might be protected the way he wasn’t. “I am love. I am love.” 

I just. 

I don’t know y’all I just really liked this film. 

Score 

9.5/10

I’m salty that Denzel wasn’t nominated for an Oscar, though I am wholly unsurprised, and I am glad Tom Hanks won and that his speech included praise of Denzel. 

““And an actor who put his film image at risk and shown because of his integrity, Mr. Denzel Washington who I very much share this with”

Lovely film, highly recommend.  Now on to The Living End

#bengiyo queer cinema syllabus #queer cinema syllabus #unit 4: heartbreak alley #philadelphia #philadelphia (1993) #denzel washington #tom hanks #antonio banderas #and with this film I am now 60% of the way through Unit 4 #I can see the finish line

[myhotel-year]

Tonight's Movie: Three Extremes (2005)

TW: SAW levels of gore and torture. includes an on screen abortion, and a dream sequence assault of a child

i have found a new hyperfixation and cannot find any other works by these people or any other context for the making of. can be found on freevie and the sequel is on tubi, free to use and relatively tame ads.

first we have Dumplings, [writ. Park Chan-wook dir. Fruit Chan] adapted from the 2004 film also known as Gau ji. First interesting thing to me, it is 37 mins while the full length movie is 90. They are two completely different endings of the same movie; similar story lines and many of the same shots, but the characters change entirely with new scenes and a different translation. A woman eats aborted fetuses to be young again.

second is the Cut, [writ. Haruko Fukushima dir. Park Chan-wook] a hilariously strange take on class commentary? Is the husband lying to save his wife, or is he actually a terrible person in disguise? probably the bad guy is the one who killed his wife and tricked you into killing his son and your own wife, just saying.

third: box. [writ. Pik-wah Lee dir. Takashi Miike] contortionist Emily Dickinson is haunted by her little sister who died trapped in a box. whose fault is it? your groomer. maybe it's all a dream? i'm still gonna blame him. i'd love some cultural context on this one, cause he's almost a nice guy except for the pedophilia/incest.

in conclusion, looking for some more thoughts on this from those who particularly enjoy horror, especially things along the line of Saw, Hannibal, and IT

#three extremes 2005 #park chan-wook #fruit chan #haruko fucushima #pik-wah lee #takashi miike #dumplings 2004 #dumplings 2005 #the cut 2005 #box 2005 #gore #horror #body horror #assault #blood #checkup #tonight's movie #mine

[maffickingcowplants]

Day 3 of 7, Fall 2004

TOP SECRET

INVESTIGATING AGENT: SILHOUETTE

AGENCY: ACUMEN CONSULTING

REPORT NUMBER: SV-002

SUBJECT: Investigation Report - Strange Phenomena in StrangerVille

SUMMARY:

In continuation of my investigation into the mysterious occurrences in StrangerVille, I have engaged in conversations with several individuals, shedding light on the happenings surrounding the "Secret Lab" and the presence of both military personnel and scientists in the town. In order to not generate too much suspicion around my questions, I wore a red wig and an outfit I thought more suitable to the locality. I was not recognized and provided a false name to those I met. The information gathered during these encounters has raised intriguing questions and prompted further exploration.

1. Freddie Mims, Military Personnel:

Freddie Mims, a resident with ties to the military, displayed skepticism towards the conspiracy theories circulating about a cover-up at the Secret Lab. According to him, these theories lack credibility, dismissing them as the ramblings of crackpot enthusiasts. Despite his dismissal, I sense there may be more to the story.

2. Beatrix Ervin, Conspiracy Theorist:

Beatrix Ervin, a self-proclaimed conspiracy theorist, expressed a belief that the local library is frequented by scientists conducting research on StrangerVille's archives. This revelation piqued my curiosity, suggesting a connection between the library and the mysteries surrounding StrangerVille.

3. Mayor Ted Roswell:

Encountering Mayor Ted Roswell during a possession episode, I was met with a flurry of repetitive utterances, I believe I heard him say the word "Beauty" repeatedly - but I think I also heard him say my civilian name, though we had not met and I was in disguise. Upon his return to lucidity, he exhibited reluctance to acknowledge his peculiar behavior. He did mention the increased presence of scientists at the local library, prompting me to consider the significance of this recurring observation.

4. Erwin Pries, Curio Shop Owner:

My visit to the Curio Shop provided me with an opportunity to converse with its owner, Erwin Pries. He mentioned rumors of a Secret Lab located in the crater outside town, aligning with previous information I have gathered. While the purchased curio did not yield immediate insights, I suspect there may be hidden depths to the shop's offerings. I purchased a bizarre fruit, which is unlike any I have seen before, which Pries claimed to come from the plants which grow around StrangerVille. He advised against consuming the fruit, but would not provide more details or state if he had ever eaten one.

5. Brooklyn Fay, Scientist at the Secret Lab:

At the library, I encountered Brooklyn Fay, a scientist who admitted to being relatively uninformed about StrangerVille. However, she revealed that her recent focus has been on the Secret Lab within the crater. This revelation bolsters the claims made by various individuals about the lab's existence and its potential connection to the town's anomalies.

OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS:

One common thread that emerges from these conversations is the prevalent mention of the Secret Lab and the increased presence of scientists at the local library. This convergence of information underscores the significance of these locations in the StrangerVille investigation.

Additionally, the familiarity of Erwin Pries' name struck me as I recalled his recent article in the SimCity Chronicle. Further verification at Acumen Consulting headquarters confirmed his involvement, suggesting a potential link between his writing and the mysteries surrounding StrangerVille.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Conduct further investigations into the Secret Lab located in the crater outside town.

2. Explore the research activities of the scientists at the local library, particularly regarding the StrangerVille archives.

3. Establish contact with Erwin Pries to gather more information and ascertain the extent of his involvement.

4. Monitor the behaviors and activities of Mayor Ted Roswell and other possessed individuals, searching for patterns or triggers.

5. Continue analyzing the purchased curio from the Curio Shop for potential clues or hidden meanings.

Intriguingly, despite the openness of individuals to discuss the Secret Lab, their knowledge of StrangerVille remains limited. I suspect there may be a deeper layer of secrecy and a need for caution as I delve further into this investigation.

Further updates and findings will be provided in subsequent reports.

End of Report.

Posts about Bella: « PREVIOUS / BEGINNING / NEXT »

Posts about Operation Mother's Influence: « PREVIOUS / BEGINNING / NEXT »

#sims 4 #sims4 #sims 4 legacy #my sims #simblr #the sims #the sims 4 #the sims4 #ts4 #the sims 4 story #ts4 story #ts4 legacy #goth legacy

[risu75fifthblog]

VIRTUAL LUNCH

:: SATURDAY, MAY 12, 2001 ::

The Possum

I just found out that I have an opossum (North American: "possum") living in my back yard. He (or she) snuck in to eat the cat food in the bowl by the back door the other night as I was reading in my comfy chair in the kitchen. 

I heard a crunching sound, and assumed that it was one of my cats snarfing down food. To my surprise, it was a cat-sized critter, with snaggly grey and black fur, a pink face, a long naked pink tail, and so on. Definitely not one of my cats. 

I think I was more startled than scared, when I looked down and saw the possum, not two feet from MY feet, snarfing cat food. I reacted with an audible intake of breath (what's the opposite of a sigh?) and scared the possum (one of the most scaredy-cat/possum animals), who ran out the door. 

Surprisingly, twenty minutes later, it came back inside, checking if the coast was clear. Upon seeing me, still in my chair, I guess it figured that the coast was definitely NOT clear, and ran away again. 

Later, I researched opossums on the net, and found out that they don't carry rabies, but they do carry fleas and ticks. Also, they consume almost anything, including "roof rats" (whatever they are), cockroaches, ants, decaying fruit (they especially like persimmons), and so on. So now I have a fourth "cat" named "Possie". 

Oh, well. 

:: POSTED BY JZAHN AT 1:05 PM ::

:: FRIDAY, JUNE 01, 2001 ::

The opossum has adopted me. Well, at least he/she has adopted my house. 

I live in a brownstone in Jersey City and have a back yard garden. I often leave the door to the garden open so my three cats can enjoy the outdoors in the fenced-in garden. The cats are smart enough not to stray from the back yard, because they know where their food is, and they are would HATE to find the door shut. 

The possum continues to inhabit my, and several other, back yards, but has turned out to be a delight rather than a pest. 

After doing some research, I found out that possums (1) do not carry rabies, in fact their metabolism is set up to REJECT rabies — one has a higher risk from a dog, cat, racoon, or HUMAN bite than from a possum.

(2) Possums eat all the icky vermin: mice, roaches, ants, slugs, etc. So, they're like little bio-vacuum cleaners. 

(3) My cats get along with the possum and don't attack it, even when it comes in the back door to eat their food. They, evidently, think it's another cat and part of the "family." The cats don't like squirrels, though. Felix and Rodentia families just don't mix. 

:: POSTED BY JZAHN AT 8:15 AM ::

:: FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2004 ::

Back to Broaddyke

Here I am, back in my OLD neighborhood, BroaDyke (and I didn't make that up). That's the intersection of Broadway and Dyckman Street (200th) in Manhattan.  It's almost as far uptown as one can travel in Manhattan without falling off the Island. 

I used to live near here when I first moved to Manhattan 20 years ago. Mark (my then-partner) and I bought a co-op apartment in Park Terrace Gardens (on 215th St. at the top of The Hill), after having moved here from Cleveland, Ohio. (The story about the Park Terrace Gardens apartment and my relationship with Mark will be in my book, Climbing Home, someday to be available on Amazon.)

Re-visiting the old neighborhood has been both strange and weird.

Strange: Many of my favorite stores and restaurants are no longer here. Some are still here, but have changed their names, proprietors and staff. There are lots of permanently-shuttered storefronts where once-thriving businesses used to be. Evidently, landlords decided before the crash that commercial rents could be raised to the roof —  which drove many formerly-successful businesses out of the neighborhood. 

For example: I learned that the old "Golden Rule" diner/restaurant on Broadway near 207th St. closed down after their monthly rent was raised to $6,000.  The "Golden Rule" was a place that old Irish ladies went for breakfast and had tea and toast.

I remember buying their "Thanksgiving Special" (a complete turkey dinner) for $11.95 and smuggling it into St. Vincent's Hospital for Jorge (another book), where he was confined in the first stages of his eventual demise from AIDS.

The restaurant is still open, under a new name (they didn't bother to put up a new awning, just pasted the new name over "Golden Rule") but I don't think I'll be going there anytime soon. 

Weird: Eerily, some store owners have somehow remembered me from many years ago and know exactly what I want before I ask for it. At 211 St. and Broadway, there is a bodega where I used to buy cigarettes and newspapers before heading to the subway for my daily commute. The same South Yemenese guys are still working there and they recognized me from 6 years ago.

The neighborhood is an interesting mix. It's Manhattan, but it smells and looks like The Bronx. I'll expand the following essay later, but here's the breakdown:

West of Broadway/North of Dyckman: Relatively inexpensive rents (compared to the rest of the Island) attract lots of Columbia University students, recently graduated and newly-employed professionals, young married couples (straight and gay), musicians, actors, singers, dancers, etc. who find that they can afford the fabulous pre-war (II) apartments and still have relatively quick and cheap transportation (30 minutes by subway A-train) to all that the city has to offer. And lots of old Irish retirees.

People actually own cars (rare in Manhattan) and can easily find parking on the street. It's also easy to get here from New Jersey, Upstate, New England, and Long Island via car, so some people live here and commute to those places.

East of Broadway: Lots of old, run-down tenement apartments formerly occupied by subway workers at the MTA Yard at 10th Avenue. Primarily occupied by Dominicans and Puerto Ricans (mostly Dominicans) who hate each other. Drug sales on the street. Tacky stores. Poor people who literally live in refrigerator boxes.

Also, there is a mixture of the "West of Broadway" that keeps seeping in as the various micro-neighborhoods become more gentrified. 

West of Broadway/South of Dyckman: is the fabulous Fort Tryon Park, including The Cloisters and Fort Washington the highest point in Manhattan, from where our Revolutionary War troops lobbed cannon balls to attack the British ships in the Hudson River.

Anyhow, I'm repeating my NYC Inwood/Broadyke experience at a higher level of the spiral and it feels like home...again.

:: POSTED BY JZAHN AT 2:03 AM ::

[dealgemeneverwarring]

De Algemene Verwarring #100 - 30 October 2023

The hundredth episode of De Algemene Verwarring was broadcast on Monday, October 30, 2023, and you can listen to it by clicking on the link below that will take you directly to the Mixcloud page:

Pictured below is The Fall and I can't think of a better band to be featured in the hundredth (pronounce thàt) episode of De Algemene Verwarring (well, there is one other band). Anyway, here they are in their 1988 line-up, the line-up that recorded the albums The Frenz Experiment and I Am Kurious Oranj, with Brix, Marcia Schofield, Craig Scanlon, Steve Hanley and Simon Wolstencroft. The Frenz Experiment is, I think, a rather under-estimated album by the band, at least it's not mentioned that much when people talk about the best Fall albums. However it features one of their biggest hits, the cover of The Kinks' "Victoria", but that is not even the best song on the album, it has also "Hit The North", "Carry Bag Man", "Oswald Defence Lawyer" and "Bremen Nacht" and those are all classics in my ears. I got first acquainted with The Fall thanks to the Kortrijk library, where in those mid-to-late eighties I picked up copies of Perverted By Language and This Nation's Saving Grace (PBL still being my all time favorite Fall record). In general, the Kortrijk library had an excellent selection of vinyls in those days, I owe a great deal of my musical memories to them. In the nineties I kind of lost connection with The Fall, it was the period that they incorporated more electronics into their music which didn't appeal that much to me and in all honesty, in the nineties I was more of a hipster indie boy listening to Sebadoh and Palace Brothers. I came back to the band in the noughties when they released excellent albums such as Fall Heads Roll and Imperial Wax Solvent, and finally got to see them live in Porto, of al places. Anyway, The Fall, probably the best band in the world, had a great influence on my musical taste, I still got lots of love for repetitive music (be it from Swans or from Lungfish or even Emeralds) and Mark E. Smith is a fookin' legend.

So, episode 100 is filled with 22 cover songs, featuring "Victoria" by The Fall, amongst others. I've added the band who recorded the original version in the playlist. Hope you enjoy it. And thanks for listening 100 times to my "duiding". And beneath the photo you can find the playlist for this show. Enjoy!

Playlist:

New Bomb Turks: I Hate People (Anti Nowhere League) (split 7” with Entombed “Night Of The Vampire/I Hate People” on Earache Records, 1995)

Complications: Stuck In A Cave (Chrome Cranks) (LP “Play Loud… & Pray Lords…” on Screamers Records, 2013)

Killdozer: Unbelievable (EMF) (7” “The Pig Was Cool/Unbelievable”  on Touch & Go Records, 1993)

Cows: You Are So Beautiful (Joe Cocker) (cd “Amphetamine Reptile >>Peel Sessions<<“ on Strange Fruit, 1992)

Sonic Youth: Hot Wire My Heart (Crime) (lp “Sister” on SST Records, 1987)

The Fall: Victoria (The Kinks) (lp “The Frenz Experiment” on Indisc, 1988)

Alaska Y Los Pegamoides: Doctor Spock (Spizzenergi) (lp “Subnormal Girls - DIY Post-Punk - 1979-1984 Volume 3” on Waiting Room Records, 2018)

The Rogers Sisters: Object (The Cure) (cd “Three Fingers”, reissue on Too Pure & Troubleman Unlimited, 2005, originally released in 2004)

The Raincoats: Lola (Kinks) (cd “Rough Trade Shops: Post Punk 01” on Mute Records, 2003)

The Vanishing: A Forest (The Cure) (7” split with Something About Vampires And Sluts “The Shameless Kiss Of Vanity (A Tribute To The Cure Volume 2) on Release The Bats, 2003)

US Girls: Bits + Pieces (The Dave Clark Five) (LP V/A “The Statement” on Clan Destine Records, 2012)

Rowland S. Howard: White Wedding (Billy idol) (lp “Teenage Snuff Film” on Mute Records, reissue 2020, originally released in 1999 on Reliant Records)

Skin: Black Eyed Dog (Nick Drake) (LP “Ten Songs For Another World” on Young God Records, 1990)

Einstürzende Neubauten: Sand (Lee Hazelwood/Nancy Sinatra) (2LP “Strategies Against Architecture II” on Potomac & Reihe EGO, 1991)

Roy Montgomery: Superstar (The Carpenters) (LP “That Best Forgotten Work” on Grapefruit Records, 2021)

Carla Dal Forno: Blue Morning (The Kiwi Animal) (LP V/A “A Short Illness From Which He Never Recovered” on Blackest Ever Black, 2019)

De Portables: No Bones (Dinosaur Jr) (LP “It’s Time To Leave This World Behind” on Almost Halloween Time Records, 2012)

Sebadoh: Riding (Palace Brothers) (CD EP “Beauty Of The Ride” on Domino, 1996)

This Mortal Coil: Fond Affections (Rema-Rema) (cd “It’ll End In Tears” on 4AD, 1984)

Thomas Bush: Private Dancer (Tina Turner, geschreven door Mark Knopfler) (2LP V/A “Labyrinth Of Memories” on Kashual Plastik, 2021)

Neutral: Japanese Superheroes (Le Forte Four) (7” “Neutral” on I Dischi Del Barone, 2017)

Chromatics: Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush) (cd “Night Drive” on Italians Do It Better, 2007)

#radioshow #de algemene verwarring #punk #post punk #experimental music #new wave #indie #noise #covers #episode100

[brn1029]

On this date in music history…

July 17th

2021 - Robby Steinhardt

American rock violinist and singer Robby Steinhardt died from complications of acute pancreatitis age 71. He is best known for his work with Kansas, for which he was co-lead singer along with keyboardist Steve Walsh.

2004 - Linda Ronstadt

Half of the 4,500 people in the audience walked out of Linda Ronstadt's show at the Aladdin Resort and Casino in Las Vegas after the singer dedicated an encore of ‘Desperado’ to filmmaker Michael Moore and urged the crowd to see his film Fahrenheit 9/11.

1992 - Guns N' Roses

The first night of a North American tour by Guns N' Roses, Metallica and Faith No More tour opened at the RFK Stadium in Washington DC.

1987 - Ozzy Osbourne

The Ozzy Osbourne Band started a 16-week tour of US prisons.

1982 - Irene Cara

Irene Cara was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Fame', which was based on the hit TV series about a New York drama school. Cara (who played the role of Coco Hernandez in the original movie) won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for the same.

1979 - Gary Moore

Gary Moore left Thin Lizzy, during a US tour and was replaced by ex Slick & Rich Kids guitarist Midge Ure.

1974 - Moody Blues

The Moody Blues opened what they claimed was the first 'Quadraphonic' recording studio in the world.

1968 - The Beatles

The animated film Yellow Submarine, premiered at The London Pavilion. The Beatles made a cameo appearance in the film but didn't supply their own voices for the characters.

1967 - John Coltrane

American jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane died from liver cancer at Huntington Hospital in Long Island, New York, aged 40. Worked with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie. Released the 1964 album ‘A Love Supreme’.

1967 - The Beatles

The Beatles single 'All You Need Is Love / Baby You're A Rich Man' (originally called 'One Of The Beautiful People') was released in the US. It became The Beatles 14th US No.1.

1959 - Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday died in a New York City hospital from cirrhosis of the liver after years of alcohol abuse, aged 43, (while under arrest for heroin possession, with Police officers stationed at the door to her room.) In the final years of her life, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings. The singer who had recorded classics such as 'God Bless the Child' and the civil rights anthem 'Strange Fruit' died with just $0.70 in the bank.

1946 - Petula Clark

Petula Clark made her UK television debut appearing on the Cabaret TV series at the age of 13. Clark began with guest spots on radio when she was only 9 and made her first film a year later. ‘Put Your Shoes On Lucy’ was released as her debut release in 1949, her ‘The Little Shoemaker’ became her first U.K. hit in 1954.

[nuncaestarassolo]

2006, A new method of playing with illusion and reality, Chungwoo Lee

A new method of playing with illusion and reality – Gwon O-Sang

 “A new technique of illusions making tiny but visible cracks in the territory of the Korean art scene established by the 1990s”

Chungwoo Lee, Art in Culture, Editor-in-Chief,  http://crazyseoul.com

Leaving behind all that is “so 1990s”

On February 17, 2004, at the opening of the Real Reality show at Kukje Gallery, the artist Gwon O-Sang seemed to have put everything that was of the 90s behind him, and in doing so, marked a small but significant victory. Through Real Reality, Gwon became the first artist to come knocking on the doors of commercial success, and move beyond the obscure fray of the present art scene, largely made up of “second-generation baby boomer” artists and established by the tendencies of the 1990s. (“Second-generation baby boomers” refers to those born in Korea in the early-and mid-1970s. The birth rate statistics chart for post-war Korea resembles a camel with two humps. The first generation of baby boomers was born in the mid-and late-1960s, and the talkative and problematic 386 generation constitutes its core group.[1]  While the population momentarily paused in 1971, the figures exploded again in the mid-1970s. Those born during that time are the second-generation baby boomers, known as the “Seo Taiji” [2]generation, which led the way to a mass consumer culture.) Real Reality represented a very significant event, as the first show within the domestic commercial gallery system that featured young Korean artists in their early 30s as the exhibition headliners. (In form, Real Reality was a four-person show that included Bae Bien-U (b.1950), Gwon O-Sang (b.1974), Lee Yoon-jean (b.1972) and Lee Joong-keun; in actuality, it was more like a three-person show of Gwon, Lee Yoon-jean and Lee Joong-keun.) When editions of the works in the show sold in large numbers following the opening, this served as proof that a domestic market able to handle young Korean artists really did exist. Did this mean that a new “niche market” had been cultivated?  Sure enough, a little later on in February 2005, Gwon captured the public eye when he was chosen by Ci Kim (Kim Chang-il), head of Arario Gallery, to be a represented by Arario, and the artist soon entered a one-year hiatus. (As of 2006, Arario Gallery represents a total of 8 Korean artists: Gwon O-Sang, Koo Dong-hee, Lee Hyungkoo, Chung Sue-jin, Baek Hyun-jin, Park Sejin, Lee Dong-wook, and Jeon Joon-ho; and seven major Chinese artists: Wang Guanyi, Yue Minjun, Zhang Xiaogang, Liu Jianhua, Sui Jianguo, Fang Lijun, and Zeng Hao.)

The Korean art scene’s current situation is a rather strange affair. Actually, for the past couple of years, the same tiresome state of affairs continued. However, maybe because a “conversion to good quality” was naturally bound to come around, a period of change that diverged from the “1990s system” finally arrived. For the past couple of years, the art scene was based in a value system forged during the 1990s, with a number of exhibitions and events playing a pivotal role in its formation: the 1993 Whitney Biennale in Seoul; the 1998 Seoul in Media—Food, Clothing, Shelter show; ArtSonje exhibitions, the Ssamzie Residency Program, and the formation of alternative spaces like Pool, Sarubia and Loop. However, the emergence of a “young artist boom” following the 1998 Seoul in Media show did not directly translate into commercial success and resembled more of a bubble effect, with the only fruits of success harvested, without exception, by the generation of artists led by Lee Bul and Choi Jeong-hwa. However, Lee already looks on the verge of being over-consumed and exhausted, while Choi, who for a while seemed to have fallen behind in the competition, gave up the possibility of making the 1990s truly his own. (Choi Jeong-hwa’s first museum solo show had been planned for October 2004 at Rodin Gallery but was cancelled. “Victory” very nearly could have been his.) Yet these already obvious shifts could have just been due to the change in major exhibition spaces. The decline of 1990s values started to become visible following the close of Ho-Am Gallery in February 2004, and was even more acutely felt after Director Kim Sun-jung’s ArtSonje closed its doors in December 2004. And of course, that is not all.

The alternative spaces so vocal in the past about their founding objectives, seem to have become, somewhat differently from their inception, the gateway for “study-abroad students” coming back to have “homecoming” exhibitions, (or maybe that was what they were supposed to be from the beginning?), and they, along with their selected artists, appear to be in the process of aging prematurely. Out of the blue, Alternative Space Loop built a building and turned into an awkward commercial gallery in late 2005, and Alternative Space Pool closed its Insa-dong period and moved to Gugi-dong in 2005, while Insa Art Space, which claimed that “it had never been an alternative space in the first place,” moved to Gwanhun-dong in 2006, saying that it would now “focus on archiving and developing research” (namely, it would no longer concentrate on exhibitions). The Ssamzie art industry, which split up and expanded into Ssamzie Space, Ssamzie Residency, Ssamzie Art Warehouse, Ssamzie Gallery, Ssem-Ssem Clubhouse, etc., seems unable grasp what real planning entails, with Director Kim Hong-hee focusing her attention on organizing the 2006 Gwangju Biennale (Although the artists in the 2005 residency program are much better than those in the previous one). In the case of Art Center Nabi, headed by Director Noh So-young, it is rather negligible in terms of the influence it has on the art world (unlike Ssamzie or ArtSonje), even though quite a lot of money was spent over the years. Of course, while the opening of the new Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in October 2004 brought some fresh air to a Korean art world clouded by the signs of premature aging, it was nothing more than the axis of a new power that brought about the demise of 1990s values. Then, is it possible for the Arario Gallery artists, with Gwon O-Sang at the head, to open up a new territory? This period in February 2006, just before Gwon’s second solo show, is a strangely dimwitted and forward-looking moment.

For a while, Gwon was called the Korean artist who “had talent, but no luck,” having applied to the Ssamzie Residency program three times and getting dropped each time. But after showing at Kukje Gallery and signing on with Arario Gallery, hardly anyone considers him an artist short on luck. So before we see the new works in his upcoming show in March 2006, let’s take a careful look at what he has produced in the past.

The beginnings of his work: Making light sculptures

Gwon’s photo-sculptures, which look as if David Hockney’s panorama photo works had been turned into solid, three-dimensional bodies, give such a strong impression that they are hard to forget after seeing them just once. His first works, “A Demand of Proof” and a series called A Tenacious Report on Power, all made in 1998, had the slightly unfinished feel of amateur work, but were equally as strong. The works from 1998 were large enough to fit on top of a studio work table, and were completely hollow inside. A sculptural mass was constructed by means of a panoramic montage, or to put it differently, a solid object was made by piecing together photographs. The work process used in these first pieces could be considered quite important. After different parts of the model’s body were shot with the same light source, the film was developed and the prints pieced together to form a sculptural body (made without looking at the model). The fact that Gwon used this process to achieve a sculptural end-result is without precedent in the history of contemporary art. In fact, from the get-go, Gwon’s works have contained an infinite amount of possibilities, since they were born between the two families of the photographic arts, which have increasingly declined to the level of a techno-baroque craft, and the sculptural arts, which have already declined so much that it is hard to make out a direct line of descendants.

The artist, who graduated from the Hong-ikUniversity sculpture department, said that “The gist of earlier works was to make ‘light sculptures.’” So while his photo-sculptures look as if they are solely photographic in nature, they are undoubtedly the offspring of the sculpture family. (On artist Kang Young-mean’s homepage, there is a link to Gwon’s own site, and he is surprisingly introduced as a sculptor. In the Korean art world, Gwon has been widely recognized as someone working in photography; not once has he been called a sculptor. So, Kang’s usage of “sculptor” to introduce Gwon struck me as very strange.) However, it seems that the artist did not precisely calculate the relationship between the surface appearance created by the photographs and the sculptural mass. Because the first works that he made in 1998 were paper sculptures made solely with photographic prints, they were incredibly weak; so when he increased the size shortly thereafter, he made an “interior structure” to support the paper-sculptures. Once he created these interior structures, his early rationale of using a sequence of photo prints to construct solid bodies immediately converted into an aesthetic of Potemkin facades (This term refers to fictitious, optical-illusion architecture and derives from the false buildings and facades that Gregory Potemkin made for Catherine the Great in the late 18th century.) Thus, afterwards, it appeared that Gwon was able to create, in a fairly fascinating manner, variations on a world of false sculptures that resembled the props and sets of television shows. (The relaxed rules of his work conditions appear to have secured for the artist a certain amount of semi-autonomy.)

The development of photo-sculptures as photogenic as TV show sets   

Gwon’s first major work, “A Family Photo of 440 Pieces Composed of Tenacity,” was completed in 1999. This piece featured the artist’s parents seated on chairs and appears to have been the first piece where a metal armature was produced. But because of structural problems, the artist has kept the partially damaged work in his studio. Looking at documentary photos of the piece, it was originally displayed along with a photo of the four members of the artist’s family, and judging from the documentation, it looks as if the artist might have initially planned on making photo-sculptures of all four members. However, the piece that really fit the bill for his initial goal to create “light sculptures” came with “Unbearable Heaviness,” made in the same year. This sculpture of a rock made from photos taken of a real one easily captured a sense of irony, while the inside of the sculpture was filled with urethane foam. But it doesn’t look like the artist went to the trouble of turning the rock upside down and shooting the bottom. So in a sense, this work too was a fool-the-eye Potemkin façade. It only makes sense that strict modernist heroes would feel hostile toward Gwon.

On the other hand, “A Crumpled Plan on a Dreamy Journey” (1999), a three-dimensional work made by crumpling up C-prints, was unable to establish a sense of irony because of its rather vague line of thought, and thus slides off the side of the network of meaning. The artist called this “the work that couldn’t capture people’s attention,” and this piece, which was part of a series, tended to try a little too hard to look like a “work of art.” The fact that the piece was firmly “installed” above the bathtub in a public bathhouse was rather contrived, but also in the case of the Spoiled Journey series, it’s hard to understand why these photo-sculptures made from crumpled photographs had to be nailed into warped wooden frames. Is it that the warped frames were metaphors symbolizing a “spoiled reality?” (By all means, I would hope not. The only term that has a lamer status than “metaphor” in the contemporary art world would probably be “expression.”) (But the crumpled sculptures do still seem as if they have lots of potential. In contrast to his earlier works, “Pyeongchang-dong” (2002), a piece where a view of Pyeongchang-dong has been crumpled up and put into a section of a window frame, is very successful. As a rare piece by Gwon that is site-specific, issues of landscape and its photographic shooting, the notion of the frame, and the result of a three-dimensional body being made from a crumpled print can all be read in one, clearly explained effort. Of course, in terms of the work process, there is some disappointment over the fact that he couldn’t take the shot without including the window.)

Gwon’s probably best-known work, “A Statement of 280 Pieces on the Absolute Authority and Worship in Art,” was made in 1999, and consisted of a Jesus-like figure nailed to a cross. Thanks to the way this extremely photogenic piece used an illustrative composition that combined religious imagery with Marshall Arisman-like images, it gained much attention. (It’s possible that this was Gwon’s piece de resistance.) But then the brain has a way of tiring immediately of the sugar-coated narrative. A naked man with a dog’s head strung up like Jesus and “ART” written across the top as the name of the crime—-this is, like the title of the piece, a bit long-winded. Thus, even though it has only been five years since its completion, the piece already looks hackneyed, and it seems like the artist considers it a little embarrassing as well.

Seeking diverse work logics

On the other hand, “A Statement of 540 Pieces on Twins” and “A Statement of 420 Pieces on Twins,” two works created in 1999, appear stable even when seen today. Actually, it is no wonder, for this is because these works basically add on classic twists of irony to his original, earlier works.

However, in contrast to the stability of the external appearance, something is a little shaky about the rationale used to construct the works, for, the two circuits making up these twins– their being photo-sculptures, and their Jacques Carelman, “Impossible Object”-like sense of irony—do not quite fit together and form a rather disconnected, short-circuited  relationship. Of course, if the artist states that the work is an examination on the possible differences that arise when making a pair of identical sculptures from repeating identical prints, then the doubts that I raised about the “sculpture of irony” can be dismissed. (If the artist claims that “A Demand of the Reduction Composed of 300 Pieces,” a piece from 2000 where the head has been reduced, is a study of size reduction in photographs, then it is possible to defend the work’s logic.)

Yet you no longer have room to make excuses for the disjointed quality of his works with “A Statement of 360 Pieces on the Field of Multiple Vision” (2000), where three ducks’ heads have been attached to a human body. Accordingly, I prefer strictly figurative works like “On the Languishment of 340 Pieces” (2000), where there are no disparate elements that have been juxtaposed, no changes in the human scale, and the basis of the piece is simply the reproduction of photographs through a three-dimensional sculpture. Works like “A Castrated Entry” (2000) and “’Re-assembled Flower Petals” (2000), which could be read as up-scaled sculptural works made with enlarged prints, can also be considered good works. However, I’m a bit displeased by the rather incoherent titles. The majority of his works seem to have been named after their completion, and these rather heavy-handed titles are hard to take in. (Of course, in the case of the sculptures where the number of prints used in their construction has been established, the amount of prints had to be pre-recorded; in which case, the numbers in the titles have been decided beforehand.) Although the artist said that “Because I didn’t consider the titles to be that important to the work, I initially tried to give them an ‘untitled’ feel,’” but it is hard to get this “untitled” feeling, especially when he names a work of a flower with petals and no stamen “A Castrated Entry.” This is why I prefer rather blunt works that have plain names like “A Traveler’s Suitcase” (2000). (It would have been better if works like “Meaningless Emission,” (2000) a reproduction of a heavy-duty garbage bag filled with trash, was just called “Trash.”) If it’s an “untitled feel” he was after, “A Statement of Meaningless 360 Pieces” (2000), which was part of his installation, “A Comfortable Journey,” would have been about it.

Deodorant Type

Gwon says that beginning with his first solo show in 2001 at Insa Art Space, he started to gain recognition as an artist. At his first solo show, where the allegory of a “Deodorant type” was used in the show’s title, a new thread of logic unseen in previous works could be detected. Deodorant type, which could seemingly suggest some new type of photo printing, was borrowed from Nivea brand deodorant. There’s no reason why a deodorant used to cover up armpit smells would sell very well in Korea, but it was at least successful in awakening the interest of an artist named Gwon O-Sang. Then exactly what kind of social narrative does the deodorant allegory elicit? Does this mean that Gwon’s works demonstrate a cover-up and surface-illusion quality, just as the term “deodorant type” suggests the effect of a superficial cover-up? Then does this mean that this exhibition is about concealed set-like constructions and the illusionism of photographs?

The work that first gained attention was “An Alien—A Statement on the Viewfinder Composed of 350 Pieces” (2001), which was used for the show’s advertisement poster. Religious imagery was again used here. The piece was installed so that its feet were lifted slightly off the ground and features an alien-like naked figure in the Amita pose, which symbolizes the present, transient life. I was at a loss to discover what kind of relationship this piece had to the other works. This is because at about the time of this exhibition, Gwon began to borrow from aesthetic elements found commercial advertisements. A quick glance through Gwon’s work notebook revealed that he had made scraps of several images taken from advertisements and fashion magazines. What was really eye-catching was how he had borrowed model’s poses for his sculptures. The position of the Siamese twins featured fighting with their own images in “A Statement of Entangled 480 Pieces” was taken from the poses struck by models in a Gucci ad, while the woman sitting on the ground with one leg extended out in front of her in “A Statement of Meaningless 360 Pieces” (2000) cites an Ungaro ad campaign. Then where did “ChineseGarden,” a piece that reproduces an oddly shaped ornamental rock, such as those particularly loved by the Chinese, find its source? The artist’s response is extremely fascinating:

I have a lot of interest in advertisements. At around the time I was making this piece, the “zen” look was in. Westerners first took in Chinese, Japanese and other Asian cultures as Orientalism, and that Orientalism became revived as a retro trend in the 90s, and I found it fascinating that the style was in turn imported into a country like Korea, where it was circulated and distributed as a very odd form of fashion.

It was at this point that I was able to figure out the hidden thread of the exhibition, and I became slightly restless, as if I had discovered a fascinating secret.

If you look closely, it appears that the photo-sculptures created after his solo exhibition all contain certain elements found in advertisements. This is the case in “Tender” (2002), a piece where a man in a yoga pose has soap suds covering his hands. In the artist’s work files, ad images have been neatly gathered and among them, Dior’s bubble-and-soap suds ad campaign and the Korean fashion shoots that borrowed from the Dior ads catch the eye. Goodness, the artist was much more thorough and precise than I had previously imagined. I made similar discoveries with the three photo-sculptures that he showed at Kukje Gallery. The works featuring his friends from university all take on rather tense poses, and little wonder—the man standing in the hooded tee in “Action Sampler” is the artist-cum-singer and occasional poet Baek Hyun-jin, who gained a name as the singer in the Uhuhboo Project; the man with his head in the bushes, or in “Hyde Park” (2003), is the artist Lee Hyungkoo, who makes strange optical devices; the woman in “Miss” (2003) who is bent over backwards and showing off her shoes is the artist Koo Donghee, known for making witty videos. Looking through the artist’s files, it appears that in the case of “Miss,” the pose from a doll in a Diesel ad was borrowed. (Even more striking are the other ads that feature the same backwards-bend pose.) In the case of the two other works, it is difficult to pinpoint their specific origins, but it is certain that they too have an element of appropriation.

For young artists, the first solo show is an important rite of passage. Most artists become discouraged by the fact that people do not immediately show an enthusiastic response, and they may even feel frustration toward a harsh reality (there are surprisingly few artists who realize that it is not true that a show has to be good in order for magazines and newspapers to write a review), but in fact, good exhibitions have a way of creating unexpected footholds. Gwon’s solo exhibition caught the eye of ArtSonje Director Kim Sun-jung, and Kim purchased the oddly-positioned twins caught up a bad relationship, or “A Statement of Entangled 480 Pieces.” For Gwon, this was his first sale. The artist said that he gained confidence afterwards. And this was probably not only a confidence booster in terms of his work, but a boost because a piece lacking structural stability had been sold. And just in the knick of time—the artist had just before contemplated selling the prints used to make the sculptures by framing and editioning them, just to sell some work. (The artist said that he had arranged the prints used in photo-sculptures in a flat format in an actual exhibition.) However, after this first purchase, those kinds of works were not realized. This is how a sharp-eyed collector’s small decision became a large boon, and not just in terms of money, to the artist. ( “Fear of 280 Pieces” from 2001, which was featured in his solo show, was sold in Japan when it was exhibited there. This was the first overseas sale for the artist.)

The easy overcoming of a sophomore complex

Young artists are often troubled by a sophomore complex (particularly the more so if they succeed with sparkling ideas). However, Gwon was easily able to push this period aside. Beginning in 2002, Gwon gained much popularity as an artist and was asked to participate in both small and large exhibitions abroad. Once they are consumed by the system, many artists cannot get a hold over themselves and, being unable to produce new works, waste energy trying to match the schedules of any exhibition within sight. Gwon was no different. Over some drinks, the artist quietly mumbled the peculiar words, “I didn’t even have the chance to get depressed over the fact that I had turned 30 because I’ve been so busy.” But in contrast to the other artists his age, he was able to gain some time by creating a new series called The Flat (2003) (and in the process gained a little money too). The Flat series is the safety work that has secured the artist some time for thought, so that he can make further progress. On top of that, this work continues on the theme of the strange contrast found in his photo-sculpture works, and as another “big idea,” makes his previous works look even more striking.

The Flat series is the culmination of an eye-fooling Potemkin façade. In this work where photographs of watches have been cut out from magazines and laid out according to different types and then re-photographed, he stimulates people’s worldly desires. But the objects so teeming with life in the works are all fake. Some of the ads stand on paper legs, but others, propped up on wires, can barely hold their ground. If you look closely at the print, little bits of wire are visible. This mischievous piece has so many possibilities and directions that it can go in, it’s fun just thinking about what future spin-offs might look like. (The artist said that for later works, he is thinking about shooting all of the objects featured in the March issue of GQ magazine, or perfumes, cameras, etc. The idea of shooting the magazine issue is undoubtedly a fabulous idea. That’s definitely a sharp one.) When I first saw this work, I thought that Gwon was simply exploiting countless photographers. Probably the most difficult and laborious thing to shoot are those objects deemed “luxury goods.” Each object is shot using the best conditions and photographers. (Especially in the case of products that have a reflection like watches, the shooting must be even more rigorous so that the photographer or camera is not shown in the watch. It is no easy task.) Each of the aesthetic heights of perfection attained within this elaborate system is quite simply appropriated in The Flat. This is an “art of plundering” that cannot be blamed. It’s fantastic. But the episode that started it all is even more so.

One day, the artist Lee Hyungkoo was visiting Gwon’s studio and out of the blue, he said that if you go to Namdaemun Market, you can get “bling-bling watches” that look real, and that it would be a riot if Gwon bought one and was seen wearing it at an art opening. So on the spot, Gwon cut out a “bling-bling watch” and fastened it around Lee’s wrist. It was as good as gold. Afterwards, the paper watch was placed on the wrist of the “twins” piece found at the entrance to Gwon’s studio, and the artist remarked that no one had a clue that it was just a flimsy piece of paper. Once this began, Gwon, who had initially made up his mind to make still life photo works, began to work on “still life works” made from magazine cut-outs. Props to Lee Hyungkoo.

Spielraum[3]–The space that will unfold next 

Just because Gwon is spending his time on “still life photos” does not mean that the questions and themes posed by his earlier works have been resolved. Gwon needs to come up with a more elaborate, historically-bound reasoning to deal with the issue of flat photographs becoming three-dimensional forms. Of the remarks made on his works by critics, the one that bothered him the most was that “well, if you look at the work as sculptures, they don’t amount to much.” The precise quote is the following. “…If you read his works as sculptures, no real issue is posed by them. This is because they are no more than sculptures made by using an easy formula where the obligation to depict something is just put onto the photograph….” (Kim Seung-hyun, Jirokwima,[4] exhibition preface, 2000). This is the vital point that indicates with certainty that the artist thinks of his work as “sculpture.” However, in order for the artist’s photo-sculptures to be recognized as a legitimate child of the rather old-fashioned family of contemporary sculpture, there are a number of processes that must be elaborated upon. If the historical phase that his works carry as sculptures becomes clearer, then through that, the history of sculpture itself will have to take into account those things that exist beyond a traditional history of the sculptural arts—like the previously-excluded Potemkin façade entities that resemble TV-set props; this process would entail going through a grueling trial. But if the rationale behind the artist’s works do not become clearer, then his photo-sculptures, different from the conceptualized, “objectual” sculptures of artist Chung Seo-young, may not succeed in gaining the status of “legitimate children of the sculpture family.” Unfortunately, the responsibility of establishing proof lies with the artist.

And that’s not all. In order to properly conserve and sell his works, he has to solve the difficult problem of structural durability. (For quite some time, in the case that a photo-sculpture is sold, he has promised to repair defects. But after becoming a so-called “successful artist,” it would be a rather embarrassing thing to go about doing repair work.) And there’s still more. The selected facets borrowed from advertisements are still vague. Only afterwards when more works have accumulated, will it be possible to read and evaluate a meta-narrative of those hidden threads, but if those works start to be read according to the artist’s arbitrary choices, then they could become nothing more than forms of “self-expression.” Of course, it’s still too early to worry. He is but a young artist of 33, still at an age where he has just reached the door of success. The spaces that will open up before him appear as if they will grant him quite a lot of semi-autonomy. Already, in his right hand he holds the rights to a diamond mine (photo-sculptures), and in his left hand he possesses the rights to a gold mine (flat works). If he chooses to dig the diamond mine, he will have to continue struggling, but for now, he will gain some time by exploring the gold mine. (As the critic Hal Foster said) This can only be successful if the artist’s semi-autonomy is used as a tactical method. If the artist unduly grants himself an unprincipled semi-autonomy, then the unlimited freedom and time that unfolds may become a fatal poison. Gwon O-sang now stands at the crossroads.

* This essay was originally prepared in April 2004 as a part of the “Korean Contemporary Artist Studies Project and was revised in February 2006.

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