#consistent narrative that links her public life and her music

[theblogofmarilyn]

Taylor Swift and The Relationship Approach

Taylor Swift is a musician who has become renowned for her narrative songwriting which often centers around her personal life and has received widespread media coverage and critical praise throughout her career. Just this year, Swift released new music and embarked on her massively popular Eras Tour, which has been a significant part of her activities this year. This tour and her new music releases have allowed her to break or extend several records. Additionally, Swift re-released two of her albums in 2023, both of which topped the charts for a second time. This re-release not only signifies her continued relevance and popularity but also her ability to recreate success with her previous works.

In the case of Taylor Swift, the role of public relations is multifaceted and crucial for maintaining and enhancing her public image, managing media relations, and influencing public perception. For example, engaging with fans and the public is a significant aspect of public relations. For Swift, this means maintaining an active and personal presence on social media, sharing updates, and interacting with fans.

The concepts from the Relationship Approach theory can be directly related to Taylor Swift's approach to her relationship with her fans, best known as "Swifties". This theory emphasizes the importance of authenticity in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) communication, focusing on three key dimensions. This includes genuineness, reflection of true identity, and consistency.

The approach defines genuineness as being sincere, with no strategic fabrications of the truth in communication. Taylor Swift is known for her genuine interactions with fans, often sharing personal stories and experiences in her music and social media, creating a sense of sincerity and trust​ within her audience. Reflection of true identity involves communicating in a way that aligns with the organization's core values and identity. Swift's public persona and her music consistently reflect her personal values and experiences, resonating authenticity. She has been able to maintain a distinct and consistent personal brand that fans recognize and appreciate​. Consistency in CSR communication involves aligning actions with words over time. Taylor Swift's consistent engagement with fans, whether through her music, social media, or public appearances, has helped build a loyal fan base. Her actions and communications are consistent with her brand identity, fostering trust and loyalty among her fans​.

Overall, Taylor Swift's career, marked by narrative songwriting deeply rooted in her personal experiences, has not only captivated a global audience but also set new benchmarks in the music industry. The pivotal role of public relations in Swift's career, particularly in shaping her interaction with her devoted fan base, the "Swifties," cannot be overstated. It is through the lens of the Relationship Approach theory that one can truly appreciate the depth of Swift's connection with her audience. Her approach, embodying genuineness, a true reflection of identity, and consistency, not only aligns with the core tenets of authenticity in communication but also enhances the bond she shares with her fans.

References:

Lim, J. S., & Jiang, H. (2021). Linking authenticity in CSR communication to organization-public relationship outcomes: Integrating theories of impression management and relationship management. Journal of Public Relations Research, 33(6), 464-486

Beverland, M. B., Lindgreen, A., & Vink, M. W. (2008). Projecting authenticity through advertising: Consumer judgments of advertisers’ Claims. Journal of Advertising, 37(1), 5–15

Morrow, Brendan (2023). Taylor Swift's records in 2023. The Week. https://theweek.com/culture/entertainment/1025810/taylor-swift-records-2023

[smellslikeonedirection]

i'm going to regret even dipping a toe into this discourse i know it might delete later but - my personal two cents on HL coming out is that, for them, every option is high risk high reward. it's a terrible position and i don't envy them or their teams.

upfront disclaimer, of course each of them should only come out if and when they feel safe, comfortable, and enthusiastic about doing so, and like they can do so in a way that's consistent with their values. but honestly, we don't know their values and i'd imagine they likely have a lot of values that, as applied to this particular situation, are in conflict. so, it's the most important thing, it's also the thing we know least about and will always know least about because harry and louis are real people with complex inner lives and we don't actually know them. it's a very important black box we're just putting to the side for now.

that said, i think in a lot of ways they're each in a very difficult position. i think coming out could cause a lot of damage to their careers and difficulty in their personal lives. i also think coming out could do really good things for their careers and personal lives. i personally am a big believer in the idea that the answer to most either/or questions is both. for example: i think young people underestimate the amount of homophobia that exists, both within the industry at the level of its power brokers but also in the general public. i live in san francisco, my family continues to live in kentucky, being a queer person is very different in one place compared to the other. but that's not meant to be dismissive of young people who believe that! because young people are a huge portion of both harry and louis' audiences, and so they have to navigate a fan base that contains a large number of fans who do believe that. i think an obvious illustration of this issue is the increasing perception in queer spaces that harry is queerbaiting.

there's also the constant tension between a mass audience (which tends to be more conservative) and the most interesting, leading edges of pop culture (which have always been significantly more diverse than the mass audience). every artist has to walk the line between continuing to push the boundaries enough to seem innovative and interesting and relevant without isolating a mass audience, and coming out is right on the line of that. in my personal opinion, publicly out queer artists are basically only just now hitting that middle ground (i'm looking at fletcher performing with miley cyrus for her nye special, and i find it fascinating that when emrata had to re-start her career post-divorce, one of the earliest things she did to establish the image she wanted was "come out" as bisexual via tiktok trend. like... it's emrata. she wants to be relevant but hardly revolutionary.) which does, in fact, reflect that h&l are lagging! and have missed the chance to be part of that leading edge push, which is an especially wild missed opportunity to me on harry's part. again... if emrata beats you out... lol.

i think coming out for either of them is both made more possible and more risky by larry as a fandom. more possible, because it derisks some of the coming out process if a significant portion of your fans already see you as queer and already believe in a narrative that squares some of the contradictions in your past behavior. more risky because all of the very well-known speculation means that they each have to have a narrative that squares some of their past contradictory behavior. they really can't just pull a miley or an emrata and say "oh i'm bi" and let that cover their past public relationships with women. the speculation will lead non-larrie fans to feel like they were inauthentic, and i think as the social media landscape has shifted, fans now prioritize authenticity over access. so, celebrities are allowed to be much more private about the day to day of their personal lives than they were in the '00s and early '10s, but fans want to feel like what they do see is authentic, especially where there's a parasocial relationship established. that's why fans pushed kit connor to out himself - it wasn't really about knowing more about his personal life, it was about wanting to know that he wasn't being inauthentic (with lots of other issues tangled up in there but). so, larry is big enough that any coming out would have to include a narrative that navigates all those years of not coming out, and, if larry as a fandom has proved anything, it's that neither harry nor louis have as strong of an ability to control the online narrative about them and their lives as they'd wish. so they run the risk of losing control of that story, which could be seriously problematic. my very personal opinion is that the easiest way to handle that complication is to turn simon cowell into a public scapegoat, he's largely past the point of relevancy and has a pretty dumpster fire reputation as it is, but truly i don't have enough info to know how possible that is.

for harry in particular, i think coming out is complicated by the fact that some of his past pr relationships have been with women about whom there is also a lot of speculation about their sexualities (taylor swift and kendall jenner), to the extent that his coming out could risk outing them if they are queer (especially, again, if in part because of larry people believe that harry has been lying about his past relationships anyway). and more than that, it's complicated by his gender identity. he's been much more open about it than i would have ever expected him to be years ago (pink and blue forever indeed) but i think that particular conversation is much further away from the leading edge/mass market middle ground in pop culture than sexuality is, and so becomes much riskier and much more complicated and in some ways a much more personal story he'd be expected to tell if he wanted to be more open about it. and with louis obviously the mere existence of bbg as a phenomenon is a massive complication on a number of different levels.

but to me, it really seems like for both of them, maintaining the status quo is also very risky - for harry, he's beginning to read as inauthentic, and i think as much as in a perfect world he could just keep his sexuality private, in the world we live in he'll face the assumption that he's straight and queerbaiting so long as he continues to publicly date only women, and he'll become less unique and interesting as an artist the more other artists are telling similar stories in a more open way (i think it's interesting that you often hear in queer spaces that people should be listening to artists who are out, there's an undertone there of out = actually queer vs not out = queerbaiting that's unfair and problematic but again, world we live in). for louis, i think he'll continue to find it difficult to have a compelling story to tell about himself as an artist. based only on the data we can observe (public socials data, public sales/streams data), fitf promo didn't significantly expand his audience beyond the fanbase he already had, and i don't see how you hook more fans or even keep existing fans this dedicated long-term if you just continue to do the same things over and over.

idk, i could talk around this in circles for hours, i'm sure harry and louis and their teams have done just that, in much more depth and specificity. i think it's thorny no matter what. my (personal) opinion is that at some point they just have to take the leap, let the chips fall where they will, and deal with it moving forward, but until they come and ask me, it's literally just my opinion.

[cicadacreativemag]

Navigating Black Allyship as a Non-Black Person of Color

Herman Luis Chavez, Managing Editor

For non-Black people of color, it can be difficult to navigate allyship with the Black community, especially for those who are only just now beginning to educate themselves on Black justice. This article provides an introduction to the first steps and best practices you can take to be a better ally for Black folk in the U.S. as a non-black person of color. 

Allyship is a complicated ordeal, especially for non-Black people of color. 

In the wake of the recent nation-wide demonstrations in response to the disproportionate effects of police brutality on Black communities, many white individuals have found themselves inspired to seek education that confronts their white privilege, that exposes the history of white supremacy in the U.S., and that lays bare the realities of racial disparities in police systems. Yet, communities of non-Black people of color have been either silent or selfish, such as the hesitancy to join in protests or the reports of Hispanic neighborhoods ousting protesters in Manhattan.

Colorism is prominent in Hispanic communities, where we see darker-skinned Latinos are more likely to experience racial descrimination and are more likely to experience worse mental and physical health. A preference for lighter skin in Latino communities often begins in the household, with families praising lighter-skinned children and treating darker-skinned children worse, often calling them racially charged terms such as “indio” or “prieto” that teaches a distinction between lighter skin and darker skin. Latinos carry this with them in the way they treat Black people. The racial ambiguity of Latinos make it all the more difficult to deconstruct their relationship with racism both in and out of the Hispanic community.

Similarly, in Asian communities, a preference for lighter skin complicated their relationship with Black justice. This white preference is often made explicit through health products or procedures, like those from Thailand, that promote a change in image in pursuit of lighter skin. The k-pop musical genre that is immensely popular in the U.S. is largely based off of Black musical styles—a sign of cultural appropriation—and the powerful k-pop industry has largely stayed silent in the wake of Black Lives Matter.

These instances of racial preference in non-Black communities have very real consequences for Black communities. We should not forget Hmong-American Tou Thao’s complicit behaviour as Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck, when he stood nearby and ignored Floyd’s repeated pleas to breathe. It is difficult for those of us who identify as non-Black people of color to acknowledge colorism or racism in our own communities that are already discriminated against in American society, but it is vital to deconstruct our concepts of race to support Black individuals who suffer the most systemic violence and oppression in the United States.

So… how do we do that?

Step One: Understand that to be an ally, you must be actively anti-racist. This means moving past being simply “not racist,” where your complicity allows racism to continue in yourself and in those around you. The National Museum of African American History & Culture’s guide to being anti-racist says it best: “Being antiracist results from a conscious decision to make frequent, consistent, equitable choices daily.” This means challenging racism whenever you see it, whether in yourself or in others; it also means incorporating anti-racism into your daily life, such as dedicating yourself to sign at least one petition, read at least one article, or contact at least one elected official every day.

Step Two: Acknowledge that we are on both sides of the issue, and that is valid. On one hand, people of color do experience racism everyday in this country, from the anti-immigration rhetoric used against Hispanic individuals to the anti-Asian rhetoric that has grown out of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, on the other, we do experience privilege due to the lighter color of our skin, and we are not as systematically oppressed as Black people. We must recognize that our own racial and ethinic suffering is valid while also understanding the importance of supporting Black communities.

Step Three: Confront your own anti-Black tendencies and those in your household. Does your family call you “moreno” and prefer your lighter-skinned sibling? Do you still subconsciously cross the street when you see a Black person walking in your direction? Take some time to take stock as to how racist rhetoric, no matter how small, has manifested itself in your daily life. We must understand when we have been programmed for racism and actively counter those measures. This is especially important to do at home, to ensure that we don’t pass along those dangerous perspectives to future generations.

Step Four: Empathize. We need to understand that the loss of Black lives are not just names or numbers on your old college friend’s Instagram story; these are human beings, with lives and relationships like us who remember them. By understanding the humanity of the suffering of Black families, where 1 in 1,000 Black men can be expected to die at the hands of police brutality or whose children are funneled through the school-to-prison pipeline, we open ourselves to how necessary it is to become an ally in anti-racism.

Step Five: Education. Deconstruct your relationship with whiteness and power by centering the Black experience in narrative, qualitative, and quantitative manners. Read books by Black authors, listen to podcasts that break down Black history, study articles on systemic racism in police systems. By spending the time acquiring knowledge on the Black experience, you become better equipped to challenge your own viewpoints and to educate others. Here’s a starting point: go back to each of the links throughout this article and read them. Next step? Visit the end of this list for some more resources to get you started. By simply reading every link in this article, you are already taking an important step in anti-racism and supporting Black communities.

You can also put all of these steps together.

Take the time to listen about their stories from those who knew them. While it may be uncomfortable, confronting the humanity of the victims of police brutality allow us to open our hearts more to understanding the experience that these communities endure. I have been attending a weekly webinar titled Black Minds Matter,  a public course intended to raise the national consciousness about issues affecting Black children in education (you can attend the last three sessions; they’re coming up now!), where academics, educators, and guest speakers discuss the importance of valuing Black knowledge at all levels of our education system. In our last session, we heard from Gwen Carr, Eric Garner’s mother. Here are a few quotes that Carr mentioned about Garner, which gave the audience a depth we couldn’t understand only from a name and a statistic:

“The family always wanted him at the functions, he was the life of the party.”

“I stopped them from picking on him, and I brought him home for dinner.” Carr recalls Garner saying this to her when she came home to find him with a classmate who had been bullied.

“‘Mom look! I did it, I got 100% attendance,’ and I said, ‘You did that?’ and he said, ‘no mom, you did. You got me up every morning.’”

“He was a strong student. He didn’t have too many problems in school with his classmates, the teachers talked highly about him, and they said that he was a person who if you confronted him, he would face it.”

By attending the Black Minds Matter webinars, for only 90 minutes a week, I am taking action for education that stimulates empathy and it turns allows me to be more successful when I engage in anti-racist work with myself and others. This is one of many examples of the type of actionable items you can take to support the Black community.

It is a difficult step to take, but an important one to bring about racial equality for everyone. By reframing our relationship with racism, becoming anti-racist, and supporting Black communities, we begin the change that breaks away at the strength of racism throughout our society.

..

More resources: 

A Google Drive folder with readings, videos, speeches, music, and more that focus on Black history and liberation

Free Yale Online Course: African American History: From Emancipation to the Present

Georgetown Anti-Racism Toolkit

USC Anti-Racist Pedagogy Resources

School of the Art Institute of Chicago Anti-Racism and Black Lives Matter Virtual Library

Petitions to sign

Colorism 101 for Educators

[freemanswood]

EDINBURGH FILM FESTIVAL REVIEWS

Ode To Joy: Martin Freeman shines in delightfully heartwarming rom-com (Review)

SERENA SEGHEDONI

JUNE 28, 2019

Jason Winer’s clever drama about a man who can’t experience happiness is a funny, uplifting, insightful story that surprises us with hilarious sequences and witty dialogues and features impressive performances by Martin Freeman, Morena Baccarin and Melissa Rauch.

What if experiencing strong emotions made your body shut down for hours? And what if the feeling that triggered you the most was the most important emotion of all? The protagonist of Jason Winer’s Ode to Joy (played to perfection by Martin Freeman) is a man who suffers from cataplexy, a symptom of narcolepsy that does just that: every time he feels an emotion to an extent he can’t control with “unhappy thoughts”, he collapses on the floor. And, though feelings such as anger, surprise and fear definitely affect him, the one that triggers him the most is the very same emotion that makes one’s life worth living: happiness.

I’m not just talking about that kind of happiness caused by one in a lifetime experiences. Charlie’s neurological disease can be triggered by seeing a mother holding her child, or by noticing a particularly cute animal while walking down the street. In fact, it can even be provoked by thinking about the feeling. And so, while major events are definitely risky, so are stories with a happy ending, cheerful music and unsolicited comments from strangers. If we stop to consider how many times we happen to think of something that makes us smile, it’s not hard to understand that, when we first meet Charlie, his life is not exactly the definition of easy.

With this premise, Ode to Joy could have easily turned out to be one of those mushy, predictable stories we’ve already seen a hundred times before, one that would focus on the illness and try to make us cry as much as is humanly possible. Instead, Jason Winer’s thoroughly enjoyable drama is an uplifting, endearing, genuinely hilarious and widely entertaining romantic comedy with likeable characters, delightfully absurd sequences, unpredictable turns of events and more than one lesson to teach.

We first meet Charlie (Martin Freeman) at a wedding, the perfect occasion to get familiar not only with our protagonist’s “adorable quirk”, as his brother Cooper (Jake Lacy) would later describe it, but also with his special brand of humour, that will keep us company throughout the film. Charlie’s coping mechanism consists in thinking “unhappy thoughts” whenever his cataplexy is about to overcome him. He has gotten used to avoiding happy situations and seeing the negative side of everything, and his daily routine is an endless source of perfectly timed and extremely funny sequences that keep us company for the entire duration of the film. And, while most of the credit is due to the excellently written screenplay, it needs to be said that Martin Freeman is absolutely perfect for the role.

Although we don’t always agree with the choices he makes, Charlie’s dry humour and expressive glances make him so relatable that he connects with us instantly, as a victim of circumstance whose absurdly comic endeavours can’t help but make us burst into laughter every time he says or does something out of the ordinary. And, just when you think you know where the film is headed, here comes an unexpected character or event that changes everything and makes you fall in love with Ode to Joy all over again.

The first surprising character is Charlie’s love interest, Francesca (Morena Baccarin). If our unhappy hero is the pessimistic but likeable protagonist Ode to Joy needed, Francesca is his perfect match and the one person who is able to balance out his sarcastic comments with her warmth and spontaneity. When we first meet her, she has just been publicly (and hilariously) dumped by an ex-boyfriend who couldn’t even begin to understand her, and who intentionally picked a public library to tell her the news, so as to prevent her from making a scene. Needless to say, Francesca does make a scene, and that is when Charlie, who happens to work at that very same library, intervenes. Which leads to a series of events that put to the test all the defence mechanisms he has put into place to keep all kinds of pleasant emotions out of his life.

There are so many reasons why it simply shouldn’t work between Charlie and Francesca, and yet they end up presenting us with a love story that is not only the source of many hilarious scenes, but also very real. The chemistry between the two leading characters (and the two leading actors) is undeniable, but there’s more than that. Ode to Joy enfolds in a completely unexpected way that keeps us guessing until the end, which is a very rare thing to find in a romantic comedy these days. It’s also what makes Winer’s gem of a film so compelling and so very watchable.

If Charlie and Francesca are the two protagonists of this story, they are not the only characters worth mentioning. Charlie’s little brother Cooper (Jake Lacy) is an excellent wingman: not only he provides much of the comic relief in the film, but his character is absolutely essential in this movie. Cooper helps move the narrative in unexpected directions, as he is much more impulsive and less empathic than his restrained brother, and Lacy’s performance brings his character to life in a very believable way.

Jane Curtin also makes an appearance as Sylvia, Francesca’s closest relative and source of infinite wisdom. Aunt Sylvia is yet another brilliantly written character who approaches a serious subject in an unconventional, unexpected way, acting as a guide for Francesca and helping us understand her motives and actions. It’s thanks to Aunt Sylvia that Ode to Joy can remain the funny comedy it is, while also approaching complex themes such as fear and loss in an immensely moving way.

But Ode to Joy‘s surprises aren’t over, as its most impressive character only shows up halfway through the movie. Played by The Big Bang Theory‘s Melissa Rauch, Bethany is Francesca’s hilariously boring co-worker and, therefore, perfect “girlfriend material” for Charlie – at least, according to Cooper. From the moment she unexpectedly makes an appearance, Rauch absolutely owns every single scene she’s in. We don’t even care if it takes our attention away from Charlie and Francesca: we can’t get enough of seeing her in (slow) action. And it’s not just her fascination with the most tedious subjects and her long, improbable speeches that make us laugh: Bethany is also responsible for the film’s funniest moment by far, a meme-worthy scene you wish you could rewind over and over again.

Ode to Joy is an unconventional, poignant, hugely enjoyable and wildly entertaining drama that combines the right amount of dry humour with a series of witty, well-timed and surprisingly meaningful turns of events. It presents us with a series of believable, well-rounded characters, it keeps us entertained with clever dialogues and twists, it touches upon serious issues with extreme delicacy and it ultimately sends across a thought-provoking, heartwarming, beautiful message.

Ode to Joy had its European premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival on 22nd June, 2019 and it was so well-received that it was chosen to be part of the Festival’s “Best of the Fest” Strand: another screening has been planned for 30th June, and tickets are on sale at this link.

[leahcrandell17-blog]

*Contextual Leadership and Exceptionalism*

https://youtu.be/ruNrdmjcNTc

The critical question I will be exploring is: “In this artifact, is the leader using their rhetoric to lead or speak the views of the demos? What are the benefits and disadvantages of doing so?”

The artifact I will be exploring to answer these questions is Toby Keith’s song “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)”. This song demonstrates how Keith uses rhetoric to speak the views of the demos as well as shows how certain aspects of the song like context and it’s rhetoric are beneficial to his message while it also encompasses some disadvantages based on who listens to the song and the target audience.

“Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)”  was inspired by the 9/11 attacks, personal tragedy, and his father’s (who was a military veteran) death. When the 9/11 attacks happened on the twin towers in New York, the entire American public was in complete despair. President George Bush took to the air that night in order to address the attacks saying, “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.” The president was focused on raising the moral of the people, making sure that they felt safe again on their own soil. However, Toby Keith took another route. When asked about how the song came to be, Keith said, “I was working out in the gym, just a few days after the [Twin] Towers came down...I was like, "What just happened to us? Are we supposed to just stand by and let this happen? Could we not be mad as hell about this?" So Keith wrote the song right then and there on the back of an fantasy football sheet and then proceeded to perform it for the first time at the Pentagon for a bunch of Marines that were about to ship out to Afghanistan for the first time. He had no intentions of recording the song until the commander came up to him and said, “You have to release it. You can serve your country in other ways besides suiting up in combat.' We will go kick their butts. But we survive on morale," (Leung 1). Toby Keith is using his rhetoric to speak the views of the demos and using his platform comes with equal advantages and disadvantages.

The clear goal, seen through lyrics like:  

Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,

And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist

And the eagle will fly man, it’s gonna be hell

When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell

And it feels like the whole wide world is raining down on you

Oh, brought to you courtesy of the red, white, and blue

was to remind the troops of the strength and frankly, the power that they can reign down on our enemies. Much like the President Bush quote I cited earlier, the lyrics remind the soldiers that our country's enemies are no match for our troops. While he is speaking the values of the demos, he is also in a sense leading them because the song was able to restore their morale. Keith used his platform and his rhetoric to make a battle cry, a call to action for the soldiers to motivate and remind them of why they are fighting. The ultimate honor in our country is to risk your life for it and those who decided to do so are the countries strongest, most dedicated and strong willed individuals that will stand tall in the face of any attack. The rhetoric of this song re-emphasized the patriotic feel and fired them up to want to make the enemy pay for their attack on our country. During what was and still is an emotional event, Keith's rhetoric was able to turn their grief, pain and confusion into motivation to get revenge on those who have done so much damage to the people of our country and the country itself. The rhetoric of the song brought the troops patriotic feeling back up by reminding them that the thing they are fighting for is too great to give up (Kleberg 1).

Not only did Keith speak the values of the soldiers, his song also rallied the people. In the first verse, Keith sings:

My daddy served in the army where he lost his right eye

But he flew a flag out in our yard 'til the day that he died

He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me

To grow up and live happy in the land of the free

While the intention of the song was to rally the troops, his personal experiences identified with a lot of the American people. Regardless of whether or not someone has had a person in their family serve in the military, most people have the common understanding and respect for the people who take on the dangerous responsibility of protecting our country. In the eyes of many people in our country and the rest of the world, America has the reputation of being the most powerful, untouchable nation. So when these huge acts of terror hit our soil, the security and protection that people feel was diminished, leaving the people to feel vulnerable. The American people needed a comeback, a pick-me-up, a sense of reassurance from someone other than the President of the United States. Keith was able to provide that to them in this song through his personal narrative. Throughout the song, Keith made many references to characteristics that everyone in America agrees are what makes the country so great. The line, “To grow up and live happy in the land of the free” ends with a line from the “Star Spangled Banner”, which has been our country's national anthem since 1931. He also referenced the Statue of Liberty, which according to history.com, represents freedom, democracy, and justice to all. The song depicts the statue saying, “ the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist” representing all Americans anger and vengefulness because these values that the Statue of Liberty represent were attacked. Keith also references “Mother Freedom” and the national bird, the Eagle, “And the eagle will fly and there’s going to be hell, when you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell”. Both of these references are easily identifiable to the public as representations of the United States. According to statesymbolsusa.org, the eagle is on the presidential seal and symbolizes “America the Brave” and “Mother Freedom” is a term used to represent “America-the Land of the Free”. All of these references are the values that the people of the United States hold and Keith’s rhetoric uses these staples because they resonate so strongly with the American public. Keith is reminding the demos by literally singing the values America was founded on and is doing so in a way that it brings the people together in one of the darkest times in our country’s history.

“Charismatic Leadership and Rhetorical Competence: An Analysis of Steve Job’s Rhetoric” written by Loizos Heracleous and L. Alexa Klaering analyzed the rhetoric of Steve Job’s, a charismatic leader to understand the fundamental link between charismatic leadership and rhetoric. The study concluded that there are links between rhetorical strategies customized to the intended audiences are influenced by the leaders perceived ethos in respective situations, which then also influences the extent of logos and pathos. These findings line up with the strategies used in Keith’s song. The credibility of Toby Keith is reliant on his fans and listeners and how credible they deem him to be. If they deem him to be a credible, meaning consistent in his messages and purposes, then they are more likely to logically agree with the claims he is making in his music. If his audience is patriotic and focused on American exceptionalism, and because a lot of his music is supporting that concept by being filled with American values, then his audience will find him credible and therefor, the logic of the lyrics in the song will not be questioned. Another thing that works well in Toby Keith’s favor, according to their study, is that his personal experiences resonate with the audience. Because he has been deemed credbile by his fans, making his logic agreeable, his ethos is the icing on top of the cake. Not only does his audience agree with his message (his song was….) but they also connect with the personal experiences that he sings about in his song. Even if they do not know someone who has served in the military, the common value of respect for those who do, makes his personal connection with his father who did serve in the military moving to the audience and connects them emotionally, strengthening his credibility and reinforcing the American values that they all hold so dearly.  

There are some advantages of Toby Keith using his rhetoric to speak the values of the demos. The first is he taps into what is already there by using patriotic rhetoric. He is using the values of the country and its people to connect with the audience, gaining their support for the songs message. Keith creates a patriotic narrative that tells the audience who they are, what the country is capable of, and what its people are capable of. The second benefit is that it makes a clear divide between “us” and “them”. Another benefit is that it establishes and recreates the tone surrounding the events. While the whole country is justifiably upset, Keith uses his rhetoric to turn that around. He even said in an interview, “Could we not be mad as hell at this?” Instead of despair, Keith uses his rhetoric to creates a battle call, to raising the spirits of the people. He changed their perspective, how they react emotionally.  The last benefit is that through his rhetoric, he took on a priestly role. He celebrates the destruction and the revenge the troops are going to bring, he affirms the feelings that other people are feeling, and by doing that it binds the people together. He is not critical of the country and its people, he is the exact opposite. He is reassuring them that the people who did this will get “ a boot in their ass, it's the American way”.

There are also some disadvantages of Toby Keith using his rhetoric to speak the values of the demos. One of the disadvantages is that is can cause offense to those who do not fully agree with what Keith is singing about. There was a lot of criticism surrounding the line, “We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way”. Other country singers thought that that statement made country music sound ignorant. Other people thought that Keith’s song was too extreme and politically incorrect (Kleberg 2). ABC even revoked their invitation for him to play at their Fourth of July concert because they thought the song would set the wrong tone due to its anger and hostility. While there was no dispute that what happened on 9/11 was terribly horrid, however Keith’s response to the attacks was viewed by some as unnecessarily angry and that his take on the matter was too controversial, ultimately narrowing the scope. Keith later went on to say, It wasn’t written for everybody. I was so angry when we were attacked here on American soil that it leaked out of me. Some people were emotionally moved” (Kleberg 3). When something so horrible happens, a whirlwind of emotions are going to expressed. But by taking such a controversial stand, it limited his audience and caused his positive and empowering message to be misunderstood or written off as too aggressive of a response. Especially because the release of the song came so close to the actual attacks, it was still very prevalent and not every person counters anger and violence with anger and violence. There was a clear bias in the song that does not resonate with every single person’s values or perspectives. A lot of what Keith said in his song was subjective, which can communicate a lack of validity in the argument he is trying to make.

Editors, History.com. “Statue of Liberty.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2 Dec. 2009, www.history.com/topics/landmarks/statue-of-liberty.

Gayle Thompson. “Story Behind the Song: Toby Keith, 'Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)'.” The Boot, 21 Apr. 2017, theboot.com/toby-keith-courtesy-of-the-red-white-and-blue-the-angry-american-lyrics/.

Heracleous, Loizos, and Laura Alexa Klaering. “Charismatic Leadership and Rhetorical Competence.” Group & Organization Management, vol. 39, no. 2, 26 Mar. 2014, pp. 131–161., doi:10.1177/1059601114525436.

Kleberg, Julia. “‘Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)".” Country Music Project, 1 Mar. 2016, sites.dwrl.utexas.edu/countrymusic/music/courtesy-of-the-red-white-and-blue-the-angry-american/.

Leung, Rebecca. “Courtesy Of The Red, White & Blue.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 19 Dec. 2003, www.cbsnews.com/news/courtesy-of-the-red-white-blue-28-10-2003/.

“National Symbols & Icons.” State Symbols USA, Nonprofit, statesymbolsusa.org/us/symbols/national.

“The Star-Spangled Banner.” Infoplease, Infoplease, www.infoplease.com/history-and-government/us-documents/star-spangled-banner.

“Toby Keith – Courtesy Of The Red, White, And Blue (The Angry American).” Genius, 27 May 2002, genius.com/Toby-keith-courtesy-of-the-red-white-and-blue-the-angry-american-lyrics.

[cleverflowerperson-blog]

The Flash: Screenwriters X Public (part III)

Why did Patty enter the narrative but was misused? Is it?

Well, Flash ended its first season full of serious problems, DC was in the jugular, in addition to being running against time, so it is necessary to make interventions in the narrative. The solutions to the Barry problem were complex, but they had a good point, Grant Gustin. He was talented, any investment in the script, he would account for it at the time of selling, that was reassuring. For Barry the writing was enough. Caitlin's conversation was another. The first season left writers and producers with a disturbing question in their hands; Caitlin did not set the tone for Killer Frost because the actress was technically limited or was she, influenced by her audience and popularity of the series, sabotaging the character?

Why did they formulate this question? The actress's behavior created this environment. Throughout the first season she did not sell her narrative to the public and to the press. In most of her interviews and postings there was the exercise of associating Caitlin with Barry and the Flash Team, she was the girl in the little boys' group, but she did not correct the questioners who asked their questions in the light of this perception. And this attitude has diverted attention from the actual narrative. The story of Caitlin was Ronnie, she had no home, car, family, pet, professional pretensions, musical, literary, etc. preferences. She is not the character, her story consisted of her bond with Ronnie; her loss would destroy her and she would become Killer Frost. Ready. That's what she had.

However the actress chose not to strengthen and enhance Caitlin's connection to Ronnie, instead she diluted it into something bigger, the Flash Team. As Ronnie was missing in the first half of the season the audience could not visualize the story, so it was up to her to campaign. She had to let the public, constantly, aware that Ronnie's loss could lead Caitlin to make disastrous decisions. Or that Caitlin was emotionally dependent on him and that his loss could influence a change in her behavior. That is, prepare the audience to be aware of the events that would affect the couple and thus instigate him to observe Caitlin's reactions. This is also the work of the actors, provoking the audience. Has anyone seen this? What was seen? One - there is no Caitlin without Ronnie (who exists is Killer Frost) or does Caitlin have a lot of fun with the boys?

Her decision to deal with what she had was real and what she did not have raised suspicion. If made a part of the public, who had not a minimum of information, raise eyebrows, what about professionals who have been in the market for years and who knew exactly what she was hired for ?! This was their scenario for her: if she was sabotaging, they would find a way to make her cooperate. If it was technical constraint they would need a plan B. What did they do to solve this?

They divided Caitlin into two worlds, real and fictional. In reality they would take measures to restrict it, in the fictitious they would test it. Patty gets in there. Thought I'd forgotten what the question was, right? No. I give you long answers so that you can see the reasoning applied and so you can develop your own analysis.

In the real world they did the following: a) they warned the public that Flash would be true to comics. b) brought Patty Spivot to the series. c) announced that she would be to Felicity Smoak by Barry Allen. d) informed her contract time. What were the objectives of these measures? Use the character? No, that's why people said it was misused. No one saw Patty, she added nothing to the narrative. At what point did she go to Felicity?

What we should look at this information is the date the contract ends. If they were informing the date on which she would leave the project, she notes that Patty's entry was not to lure the Caitlin audience who saw her as a competitor to Iris, giving her a more viable option, since Patty had a loving relationship with Barry in the comics, and Flash would be true to its origins. It did not make sense. Why direct an audience to a character who could fulfill his desire to replace Iris, making it clear that it had an expiration date? The account does not match. Would the public migrate to Patty for ten episodes and be left empty-handed? The public who hates Iris? Not even. And they knew.

Patty did not enter the narrative to fight the Snowbarrys, they were no concern, when Caitlin become Killer Frost, he would be dead. Or to add to the narrative. Just as she entered, she left, without leaving a finger. Patty entered the series to restrain Danielle. Not to the public, but to the press. There was a section of the press that used the academic title of Caitlin to value her and ignore Iris, creating a favorable environment for the actress. As attention is a dangerous pet, there was no guarantee that she would not be dazzled by all that exposure. Caitlin was regular, Frost was not. The transformation of her into a villain would put her in the position of being only triggered in the episodes in which Frost was active. So she was trying to extend the frisson?

For them it was so. How they would bring Caitlin's story with Jay (which would be developed for the same purpose as Ronnie's) and their time to create Killer Frost was running out. They could not take the risk that the actress would spend another season selling; the only girl in the little boys' group or anything other than the actual narrative. If she was dreaming, they would expel her from the dream. It was simple, they knew that intensifying the writing of Iris, was not going to serve, why? Caitlin was a non-character who was still being poorly illustrated, what was the reason for such excitement? Even worse than Iris's writing, she was a character, Caitlin was not. So to end the excitement about Caitlin they had to bring something similar. Devilish, is not it? They are fantastic!

Patty would attract the attention of this media. That it was the ones who fed on Danielle and gave her space, and so take the actress out of fantasy and condition her in what she really had. As an aspiring scientist and policeman, Patty had the perfect profile for these journalists to devote themselves to her and continue to ignore Iris, without blame. That is, they brought a focal point to be explored by the press, reducing the media's interest in Caitlin. Taking the actress to be only triggered by the events of the narrative, she could no longer defuse the audience. A subtle and very efficient strategy.

If they go back to the second season they will see a cooling on Caitlin in the first part, mainly because, in addition to Patty, they flooded the media with information, Wally, Francine, Jay, Terra Two, a new version of Harrison Wells, and she was the most insignificant, her story would repeat itself. Patty's length of stay matched the time they had calculated in the narrative, for Caitlin to make the transition. As time went by, they scheduled the events in Caitlin's life toward Jay in the first half of the season, because if the actress did not live up to expectations, they would give up on Killer Frost and go on to plan B. What happened eventually . So, Patty was not badly used, according to the objective of its introduction in the project, it was very well done.

Why did the producers and writers want Killer Frost so much?

The reason is very cool, a pity not to have worked. This, without a doubt, should be one of their greatest frustrations with Flash. To understand the relationship of producers and writers with Killer Frost, it is important to know another principle of adaptation, the Principle of Twisting, it is directly linked to the Principle of Perception. What does he mean? To use a character not belonging to a mythology, one must attach it to a point where twisting is possible, but not decharacterization. How does it work?

Open the mythology of the character you will adapt. And highlight all the striking elements. Let's open the Flash - Nora, CSI, Iris, Reverse Flash, Wally West, Central City, Rogues, Speed ​​Force, Justice League, Hal Jordan, Jay ... - There's more, but for what we need these are enough. Now we choose a non-mythological character. Killer Frost. Where can I put Killer Frost into this mythology without creating a decharacterization? Because it does not belong to this world, so de-characterization is easy. Simple, look within the mythology for a character who has the same characteristics as her and make the substitution, thus you provoke a twist, but not a de characterization. This is the Principle of Twisting.

In this case, we only have one place for Killer Frost within Flash mythology. The place of Leonard Snart. Captain Cold. He is a villain who manipulates an ice gun. Frost is a target villain who manipulates ice. That's it. The reason for the introduction of Killer Frost in the narrative, was because Snart would not be in the series, he would go to the Legends and later would be dead. The Rogues are a team. But how can he be a team if he does not have a leader? And the leader of the Rogues is a villain who manipulates ice, to change it to mean to characterize them.

This was the big surprise they were preparing for the public, a woman leading the second largest gallery of DC villains. It would have been epic if it had worked. But it did not. They fought. They were already considering her love affair with Barry for, perhaps, the painful end, she'd react. But with each episode Caitlin was killing Frost. All Caitlin's emotions were so empty, there was nothing left for Killer Frost, she died of malnutrition. Two seasons writing down his motivation, carving out his malicious nature, to the public question: Why Killer Frost Bad? Why did she attack the Flash Team? Why did she join Savatar so fast? Ruined! Total and completely ruined!

She is not the leader of the Rogues, she has no truth. His wickedness has no basis. How will others accept your leadership? Intimidated with what? Does she have what to offer them? Articulation? Strategy? Cruelty without limits? Total lack of scruples? Killer Frost is just a grumpy version of Caitlin. It is not threatening or shocking. She's just a woman who puts ice in her hands. Unfortunately, Killer Frost no longer serves the purpose for which it was incorporated, but that does not mean that it has become useless, after all Caitlin is a non-character who has been in the narrative for so long, it's a Record. But that has an explanation and I will tell you when to answer about Caitlin's death.

I promised amazing revelations. I hope to be fulfilling.

* The Flash is getting ready to solve your problems

Before continuing to answer questions I have to do a review of the second season, because from it Flash enters a new cycle. That is the current moment of seriousness and that the public reacted negatively. And I will show that this is not justified.

If you got here in this series of posts, you already know that Barry and Caitlin are big problems, each in his own way. The second season was all articulated so that producers and writers had everything defined in the first half. Because? If something did not work they would use the second half to prepare the territory. Caitlin, what was your narrative? The same exercise of the first: pain, euphoria, pain: Ronnie dies (pain), returns (euphoria), dies (pain). Jay is dying (pain), she finds healing (euphoria), a version of him dies (pain). They were breaking Caitlin, again. Jay became involved with Caitlin because he wanted to get closer to Flash, steal the powers of Flash, and kill Flash. Again, the motivation of Killer Frost's rivalry with Flash.

And again, it did not work again. The illustration was still poorly made. Only, this time they would not take any more chances. When it became clear that the actress did not reach high marks they gave up on Killer Frost as leader of the Rogues and departed for Plan B. As Barry's narrative was also being copied: Flash team, the great villain disguised as ally and Caitlin to make Killer Frost. His exercise was the same as the first season. After discovering who the Reverse was, he would isolate himself emotionally, becoming a solo superhero, Caitlin would become a villain, what would be left of the Flash Team would be only Cisco, which would be migrated to CCPD. Flash was thought like this. So they played the first season. When Barry found out who Zoom was, he would lose confidence in people, he would act alone, the team would sum up to Caitlin and Cisco, she villain and he would gain more space in the CCPD, Wells was from Terra Two. But as Killer Frost was lost they had to abort everything and reorient themselves.

 Writers and producers got together and made the list of problems they had to find the solution. From there, Flash would live up to its goals. That were:

 -Made and automate Barry Allen;

- Kill the Flash Team; 

-Deleting the paternal figures of Barry; 

-Find a new leader for the Rogues;

-Deactivate Caitlin Snow;

-Zero issues hinted at the first season.

The final half of season two no longer has to be publicly attractive or coherent, it now functions as the basis for what lies ahead. Flash prepares for your Flashpoint. The last episodes of the season bring elements necessary to achieve all the objectives, which were:

 - The creation of the concept of remnant of the time, fundamental for the arc of Savatar; 

-Barry loses his powers and recreates a new exposure to dark matter, key to Jesse's bow. Jesse's transformation into a speed, has a great goal;

-Barry goes to Speed ​​Force, they create a very important concept. The Speed ​​Force has the power to debug Barry. This concept is essential for controlling the tone of the series.

-Henry is dead, eliminating a paternal figure (now there are three) and provoking Flashpoint.

The Flashpoint series is not exactly how people think it is. It's not an episode of Season Three, but rather the time period when Flash closed to solve its problems, planning has accused the need for three seasons to put everything in place. In this case, Flashpoint is seasons 3,4 and 5. Flash is still experiencing Flashpoint.

So far I answered the questions under the angle of the show's problems, from here, since we are in Flashpoint, I will respond under the angle of the applied solutions.

To be continued…

Original source https://omundonarrativa.tumblr.com/

[pooja-r-bi]

April: Fourth Week

Finally we came up with story and an idea for our opening sequence. Since our team can’t meet face to face to plan our pre-production we decided to use technology in our favour, and as a result we arranged zoom meeting and conference calls to share our ideas and finalized a story. 

Story

A girl named Akansha who has social anxiety, schizophrenia OCD, her only family is her stepbrother whom she’s really close to. She is a 20 years old fine arts and theatre artist.

During her theatre rehearsals she’s meet a guy named Aarav, who’s handsome, polite and humble. She madly falls in love with him which slowly starts turning into obsession and tries to be her best version around him, as she’s extremely comfortable with him. As she has schizophrenia she starts believing that Aarav too has feelings for her. then another girl named Idaya also joins Akansha and Aarav’s theatre group. Idaya too is of the same age as Aakansha, she good at socializing, gets comfortable with everyone easily an is very pretty, Aarav eventually falls for her which makes Akansha jealous and disturbed. Then while sharing her feelings with her brother she tells him about how much she hates her, its strikes to her brother that he could take an unfair advantage of the situation. As her brother goes in a debt of millions and has no money left with him, the only way to save himself for him is to use his late father’s wealth which he left for Akansha only according to the will. So he slowly starts drugging her heavily without her knowledge, makes her believe in her delusional fantasies of Aarav and guides her towards murdering Idaya which would lead to her going into prison and all of the wealth would be his.She soon an becomes an addict, due to which growing closeness between Aarav and Idaya disturb her more. Her brother then convinces Akansha to kidnap Aarav’s girlfriend so that she gets to spend more time with him and eventually he will forget about his girlfriend.

 However, Aarav suspects that something is wrong. While high on drugs Akansha threatens Idaya (girlfriend) that she will kill her but Idaya tries to escape and during that attempt Akansha tries to stop her but instead she ends up killing her. After the murder Akanksha is caught red-handed sent to prison and re-hab center where she finds out that she was being drugged but her brother is not caught. 

After Akansha is sent to the prison Aarav is shattered and goes at her home to collect the guitar he gave her, where he finds out the truth, then he saves Akansha and after she’s free he leaves for Boston to start a new chapter of his life. In the end, Akansha is back at her studio trying to accept the reality and that her actions were a result of her delusions, her brother goes to the prison and Aarav too pursues a new journey. 

Since we finalized the story, so now we have to create the screenplay, shot division and master break down for our opening sequence. Our director is going to create the screenplay using celtx. But to design the master breakdown we needed to visit our location to visualize our screenplay. We didn't have flexibility to choose the desired location due to pandemic so we marked school as location as it would be convenient for everyone to be present there. We shortlisted our art room, Dance room, music room and parking lot as our key locations for the shoot.  We scheduled a 2 days visit to the school with our teacher to finalize everything for the upcoming week.

Below is the screenplay

Going through the storyline we remembered that we didn’t pre planned on what genre we are going to write our story, besides we already wrote the story. Although this was our second time planning the pre production we still made this blunder. Now that we already wrote the story we mentally tried to match the elements of our story with different genres and we came to the conclusion that it is a hybrid of Crime/Drama/thriller.

Then we researched the codes and conventions of the same

What is a Crime Thriller? 

• A crime thriller usually consists of a battle between a protagonist character and an antagonist character, normally when there is a disruption in the equilibrium. The storyline then normally shows a chain of bad events that usually build up tension and suspense for the audience. The aim for the protagonist is to restore justice and peace to the community whereas the antagonist seeks to destroy the peace.

Conventions of a Crime Thriller 

• Low key lighting 

• Quick cuts 

• Shadows 

• Tense music 

• Changes in the angles of shots 

• Diegetic sounds of heavy breathing 

• Black and white shots 

• Montage of shots 

• Protagonist 

• Antagonist

Characters 

• Protagonist The protagonist is often a brave individual male who tends to seek to restore the equilibrium. 

• Antagonist The antagonist will usually have a hidden identity from the audience and will be uncovered as the film progresses. Often the antagonist seeks out revenge from a pervious past event.

Themes of a Crime Thriller 

The storyline will be designed so that the audience will think that it can happen to them, this will make them feel scared which is what the producers want. 

Cinematography of a Crime Thriller 

• There will normally be a lot of close ups and extreme close ups of the protagonist character, it is often to show the characters emotions, also it can be used to focus on props to aid the narrative 

• The shots of the antagonist character will be quickly cut and normally will aim to hide the identity of them, for example a shot of the back of the character or a low key shot/shadow. 

Editing of a Crime Thriller 

• The director will include lots of jump cuts because there will be things happening that the audience will most likely be unaware of but this is an essential part of the film to make sense. Cross cutting is a key point in editing, this is because it is used to build suspense which is essential in a crime thriller. Continuous editing is used to help the audience understand the film in a better way.

Sound of a Crime Thriller 

• Music is an essential part of any film, it allows the target audience to understand the mood of the characters and hint main parts within the film. In crime thriller films the sound will often start slowly and build up, this will add tension and make the shots seem more dramatic than they need to be for the audience. Generally start with a slow tempo and relatively quiet› Eerie music to create suspense› Music that keeps the audience guessing to what could potentially happen› Silence  Creates tension and panic3. ›› 

Mise-en-scene 

• The location of a crime thriller film is important for the film because it helps the audience establish the theme.  Typically it would be a dimly lit warehouse, even a dark alley, cities etc. Using claustrophobic spaces to portray the ‘entrapment’ in the characters mind.

• Lighting in a crime thriller is often low key.  Different levels of low key lighting that creates suspense or a mysterious atmosphere. Low level lighting creates shadows. Creates fear and tension› Black and white coloring increases the effectiveness of shadows. Title of film could be written/colored in specific ways to portray the film. Color is a direct link to emotions and thought so dark greys are used.

• Costumes- antagonist will be in dark clothing so the audience cannot see them compared to the protagonist will be in ordinary clothes.  Naturalistic costume and make-up to make it more believable as how we present the characters is how the audience will perceive them.

• Theme-In plots about crime, thriller films focus less on the criminal or the detective and more on generating suspense. Common themes include, terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit and romantic triangles leading to murder.

• Make up-Lack of make-up can make the characters seem more natural and normal like an everyday person. To show fear in a woman for example, smudged eye make-up can suggest that she has been crying displaying her emotions.

• Film stroke (Black and white or colour) black would go with confusion and uncertainty.

This week we also learned about video nasties and video recording act 1984.

When video recorders were first introduced in the UK in 1978, there was no legislation governing what could be released on video or to whom video recordings could be supplied. Because of the lack of legislation, small distributors who produced low budget horror and pornography sought to release their films that had previously been refused classification or cut by the BBFC. Some of the films released contained scenes that contravened UK laws on animal cruelty and obscenity, and were available to children of any age.

After public and political concern, the BBFC introduced a voluntary scheme for rating video recordings. Although the major companies submitted their titles for age rating, there was no obligation for smaller companies to do so and therefore the problem still remained. In response, The Director of Public Prosecutions issued a list of videos that he believed to be in breach of the Obscene Publications Act. This came to be known as the ‘video nasties’ list. However, a work could only be prosecuted once it had been released and so many copies of these ‘video nasties’ were already circulating peoples’ homes.

Following the ineffective prosecution of the ‘video nasties’ list and the reluctance of the smaller companies to submit their works for classification voluntarily, Parliament passed the Video Recordings Act in 1984. This act required that all video works (including laserdiscs and DVDs) must be rated – and, if necessary, cut or rejected – by an authority designated by the Home Secretary. From 1985, all video works released in the UK would be submitted to the BBFC and be rated at an appropriate category. The supply of age-restricted videos to persons under the age stated on the certificate would become illegal and the supply of unrated videos would also become a criminal offence.

[songwritingswift]

Ugh, that buzzfeed article... 

I’m putting this under a read more because I had a lot of thoughts about this. But basically, this article manipulates the facts to suit its opinions and much of its ‘evidence’ is based on pure speculation. We all make good decisions and bad, Taylor included, but any arguments against her should be based on truth.

I don’t even really know what to say. Taylor is flawed, of course she is, and she has done things that I don’t agree with, but this article is frankly ridiculous. To say that she has played the victim her entire career is a completely simplistic view of her. 

I’m going to go through this point by point. Hold on to your hats, people.

The Kanye West thing. Bloody hell. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on what happened here but as I understand it, Taylor was upset about the line ‘I made that bitch famous’, which West had not made her aware of. The idea that she was okay with but changed her opinion after the song came out is speculation as far as I can tell. Please correct me if there’s evidence of this but I haven’t seen anything so far. 

Now, while I think Taylor’s Grammy speech has a good message, I don’t think the timing was great. It felt more than a little provocative, but the article neglects to consider any view other than its own. While they interpret it as Taylor ‘playing the victim’, we interpret it as Taylor doing what she always does: turning her experience into something productive. There are different ways to view everything and my overwhelming view of this article is that it just pulled together everything that could be viewed as playing the victim, just to make a point.

Ugh, the VMAs. Again, there will always be different views on this. West has since said that he was making a point about racism in the industry but regardless of any good intentions, he humiliated a teenager in front of millions of people. He interrupted her receiving an award for her work and said that she shouldn’t have won it. That’s what he did. And he was apparently very remorseful for doing that, implying that he also believed he was in the wrong. As a person of significant fame, there were plenty of ways to make that point without creating a media circus that has done damage to both of their reputations. He was the one who did that; he put Taylor in the middle of that. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think you can play the victim if you actually are the victim. The article fails to recognise any of this. It describes it as ‘PR gold’ for Taylor, but answer me this: is there anyone on the planet who doesn’t try to make the best of bad situation? Can Taylor be blamed for that? And if her reactions were solely for PR, why did she refuse to talk about it? Wouldn’t it have been more PR savvy to do one big interview where she talked about how she felt? But no, she didn’t. She’s never done that. 

While her love of fairytales and happy endings might fit into the image of ‘white feminine fragility’, it’s also congruent with the dreams of millions of teenage girls across the world. Especially as teenagers, we are the subjects of our upbringings. Taylor was very fortunate in her upbringing so of course it has influenced her view of the world. Apparently the ‘notion of sexual innocence emerged’ when she wrote about Abigail giving ‘everything’ to a boy. Has Taylor ever said anything about that line relating to virginity? This is a conclusion drawn by other people. That doesn’t make it the truth.

The article picks out lyrics to support it’s own view, that Taylor is always the victim. Yes, she’s written songs about being treated badly. So has every other artist. Are they getting picked apart? No. And they neglect to mention any different viewpoint. They don’t mention any of the lyrics where she takes the blame: “So I start a fight ‘cause I need to feel something” from Cold As You, “me and my stupid pride are sitting here alone” and “all the things that I misread” from The Other Side of the Door, “stupid girl, I should have known” from White Horse. Or any of the lyrics where she builds other people up: “And every time you shine, I'll shine for you” from Jump Then Fall, “but I believe in whatever you do, and I’ll do anything to see it through” from Change, and “you've got a smile that could light up this whole town” from You Belong With Me. And the lyrics about how life is more than relationships: “But in your life you'll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team” and “back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday but I realized some bigger dreams of mine”. As human beings, we are multifaceted. We are the victims, we are the heroes, we are the bad guys. All of us. Taylor has written songs from many different positions and it is immature to ignore that.

When it comes Joe Jonas, I think it’s worth pointing out that she didn’t go on “primetime TV to assign the blame firmly to him”. She went on television to do an interview, something that all artists do, and she was asked a question about him which she answered. Maybe it wasn’t the best response but the article is twisting the facts to suit its agenda. And Jonas wrote a song called Much Better which would appear to be about Taylor (he implied it was about her in interviews): they’re on an even playing field in terms of fame and the platform to speak or write about that relationship. 

I’m not going to write about Better Than Revenge. Taylor has addressed this.

The public image of Taylor being constantly wronged by the many men she dates is one created by the media. Taylor has consistently pointed out that she has not dated as much as the tabloids say but they refuse to believe her and continue to spread rumours. And then she does what every other artist does: writes songs about her life. And again, the media speculates and spreads that speculation as fact. This is something no artist can control so to imply that Taylor can is unreasonable. I’m not saying that Taylor isn’t very skilled at publicity, she is. But the difference between her PR and the media’s obsession with her should be noted.

The narrative this article builds around a photo of Taylor sitting on a boat is laughable. No one knows the details of that moment but Taylor, and the media should stop pretending they do.

Regarding I Knew You Were Trouble, again, very few people know exactly what happened. Maybe she wrote the song and later related it to what had happened with Harry Styles, or she had the initial idea and finished it after they broke up. Taylor is the only one who knows that so we have to trust what she says about it. (By the way, it’s my opinion that the “British accent” during the Grammy Performance speculation should be abandoned. It didn’t sound like any British accent I’ve ever heard and I am British. I’ve lived in England my whole life.) The circulation of baseless rumours don’t do anyone any good.

But on Taylor’s shout outs at award shows (the VMAs for example), I’m not sure those were smart. They only stirred the rumours. Maybe that was the plan, maybe it was Taylor being a human being, feeling bitter, or impulsive. We’ve all done things like that, realised later that we could’ve handled something better. Guess what, Taylor’s human too. She just happens to be a human that has every move recorded and analysed a hundred times over. Oh, and she can’t control who the cameras pan to, by the way.

The article makes no mention of the media circus going on in 2013, how every magazine was spitting out hate. I don’t know about you, but it was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Everyone was hating her, just for living her life and writing songs. Have you ever seen that happen to anyone else? Have you ever seen that happen to a man? It seems to me that her sexism argument was well founded.

Can I also question this sentence: “By suggesting that the media’s portrayal of her dating life had been unfair and sexist, Swift was able to absolve herself of any blame for the way her relationships had been reported and perceived.” This seems contradictory to me. Surely, ‘the media’ is directly behind the way her relationships are ‘reported’, so how could she be to blame for that?

More dissections of lyrics. (Am I the only one thinking the interpretation of I’d Lie is odd? She’s listing the things she thinks are wonderful about a person. How does that make her obsessive?) It seems to me that the lyrics used are being taken out of context to support the agenda of the article, as they were earlier in the article. 

It is true that Taylor’s view of feminism seems to be somewhat limited. That is not surprising since she comes from a place of privilege. Feminism is about more than ‘girl power’ and she has made mistakes, but she’s learning, like all of us. We should all feel fortunate that our learning processes have not been so publicly analysed. I want to link to this article, because I think it is a much fairer evaluation of Taylor’s feminism and I couldn’t say it better. I do just want to make a couple of points about Taylor and the Women’s March though: it was likely logistically impossible for her to go (for her safety, something that would not have been disputed about anyone else), if she’d gone everyone would've complained that she was making it about herself (she can never win), and no one seems to be trashing other public figures who didn’t go or didn’t tweet about it.

Moving on to Bad Blood, I find the article’s argument to be pretty weak. They claim that she repeatedly changed the story, using three different quotes as evidence: “it wasn’t about a guy at all, but a woman in the industry who ‘tried to sabotage an entire arena tour’”, “that was about losing a friend”, and “I knew the song would be assigned to a person, and the easiest mark was someone I didn’t want to be labelled with this song”. To me, these all seem to be different parts of the same story.

The article also implies that Taylor’s connection with her fans is about selling her music. Newsflash, that’s how the music industry works. All artists do this to some degree, but one of the reasons fans are so loyal to Taylor is because she does more than she has to. She has encouraging speeches at her concerts (that mean a lot to a lot of people, and no one gets to say whether that’s allowed or not), but she also follows people on social media, does a massive number of free meet and greets, sends gifts, donates money, and so on. The fact that she does these sorts of things when she doesn’t have to is what fans love about her. 

So much of this article twists the truth to fit its own agenda. It picks apart every mistake Taylor has ever made, ignoring everything else. It does have a few good points but they’re backed up by speculation rather than actual facts. Her feminism might be undeveloped but she has been an incredible role model for young people, especially girls, with her songwriting skill, her dedication to her passion, and being the head of her brand and business. One very simple example is the number of women who started playing guitar because of Taylor. With the state of world right now, especially in America, feminism is more important than ever, but it’s unreasonable to put so much of that responsibility on a singer when this is something that should be coming from everybody, our teachers, our parents, our friends, as well as our idols. I’m not sure why people love to hate her, and pick apart everything she does, but I’m tired of it. She’s a human being. Let her live her life and write her music. Let her mistakes be mistakes rather than PR stunts. Let her be a hero, let her be a victim. Allow her the courtesy we allow our friends: to be right, to be wrong, to be valid, to learn. Allow her to be herself, to be human.

[ladystylestores]

Inaction That Cost Lives – The New York Times

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Good morning. Vaccine research is making progress. Chinese leaders have regained their swagger. And a new study shows the severe costs of delayed U.S. action on the virus.

By the final days of February, many public health experts were sounding the alarm about the coronavirus, and some people were listening.

President Trump did not.

On Feb. 26, he said — incorrectly — that the number of cases was “going very substantially down, not up.” As late as March 10, he promised: “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”

Some local leaders also continued to urge business as usual. In early March, Mayor Bill de Blasio told New Yorkers to “get out on the town despite coronavirus.”

If the U.S. had enacted social-distancing measures a week earlier than it did — in early March rather than mid-March — about 36,000 fewer Americans would have died, the study found. That’s more than one third of the current death toll, which is about 100,000.

If the measures had been in place two weeks earlier, on March 1, the death toll would be 54,000 lower.

These are hypothetical estimates, of course, and they’re unavoidably imprecise. But they are consistent with real-world evidence from places that responded to the virus more quickly, including San Francisco, Washington State, South Korea and Vietnam — where per capita deaths have been much lower than the U.S. average.

Jeffrey Shaman, the leader of the Columbia research team, told The Times: “It’s a big, big difference. That small moment in time, catching it in that growth phase, is incredibly critical in reducing the number of deaths.”

Related: Trump and some top White House officials are arguing that the reported virus death toll is overstated, The Times reports. Public health experts overwhelmingly reject this view.

A simple way to understand why experts believe the official count is actually understated: The number of Americans who have died in recent weeks is much higher than normal.

In other virus developments:

2. Flooding in Michigan after dams burst

The evacuations complicate the state’s social-distancing efforts. “It’s hard to believe that we’re in the middle of a 100-year crisis, a global pandemic, and we’re also dealing with a flooding event that looks to be the worst in 500 years,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said.

NBC News reported this week that the Pompeos had used taxpayer money to pay for lavish dinners that included Fox News hosts, a NASCAR driver and the chairman of Chick-fil-A.

4. China’s leader solidifies his rule

When the coronavirus began spreading from Wuhan, China, across the rest of the country, it seemed to weaken the Communist Party’s authority. Ordinary citizens were becoming bolder about their criticism of Xi Jinping’s regime, on social media and elsewhere.

“Mr. Xi, shaped by his years of adversity as a young man, has seized on the pandemic as an opportunity in disguise — a chance to redeem the party after early mistakes let infections slip out of control, and to rally national pride in the face of international ire over those mistakes,” The Times’s Steven Lee Myers and Chris Buckley write. “So far, Mr. Xi has largely succeeded in rewriting the narrative in China.”

Here’s what else is happening

BACK STORY: Progress for New York hospitals

Sheri Fink is an investigative journalist with a medical degree who’s won Pulitzer Prizes for her coverage of Hurricane Katrina and Ebola. She’s recently been covering the virus in New York. And as New York hospitals move past the worst of the epidemic, we asked her if she saw any parallels to her earlier reporting. She replied:

I was reminded of a moment when I was in Liberia in 2014 during the Ebola outbreak. There were so many horrific scenes and so many more sick people than could be cared for. And then, all of a sudden, the numbers started going down. And everyone was scared — were we just not seeing new cases?

But, in fact, it turned out to be real. The curve was bending, and it was due to the painstaking work of people in the communities and work that people did to keep themselves and their families safe. One thing that the drop in new Covid cases tells us is that whatever techniques were put in place have had an effect.

PLAY, WATCH, EAT, READ

When a mask makes a statement

Some picks: Escape your immediate surroundings with Conor Knighton’s account of visiting 59 national parks over a year in “Leave Only Footprints,” or trade real-life horrors for fictional ones with “The Return” by Rachel Harrison, a tale about a reunion of friends gone wrong. If you’re in the mood for a gripping sports read, there’s “The Victory Machine” by Ethan Sherwood Strauss, which tracks the Golden State Warriors’ rise.

Tips from our homes to yours

Our staff took to Google Docs to share recommendations of what they’re doing and eating and watching right now. (They’ll be updating the documents with new ideas.) Caryn Ganz, the pop music editor, listed all of the memorabilia she’s collected — including a 12-year-old slice of Britney Spears’s birthday cake — and there’s a horror movie guide by the reporter Taylor Lorenz.

A vegetarian manifesto: The writer Jonathan Safran Foer writes in the Opinion section, “If you care about the working poor, about racial justice, and about climate change, you have to stop eating animals.”

You can see today’s print front page here.

Today’s episode of “The Daily” is about a mysterious syndrome affecting children who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Lauren Leatherby, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Jonathan Wolfe and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.

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AutHer Awards 2020 Shortlist announced - Times of India

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/auther-awards-2020-shortlist-announced-times-of-india/

AutHer Awards 2020 Shortlist announced - Times of India

The AutHer Awards 2020 Shortlists for best women authors in Fiction, Non-Fiction, Debut and Children’s Literature were announced today by a panel of 12 eminent judges. The books have been chosen, post multiple layers of screening, out of a whopping 850 entries submitted by both publishers and individual authors for the coveted national award, the first of its kind in India.

The AutHer Awards – a joint venture between JK Paper and Times of India — are a celebration of women authors who have added value and creativity to the literary space. The jury considered books by women published in India between December 2018 and November 2019.

The chairs for the AutHer Awards jury consisted of author Ashwin Sanghi (Fiction), actor and author Sonali Bendre (Non-Fiction), columnist and author Shobhaa De (Debut), and author Bulbul Sharma (Children’s books). The other jury members were author Jaishree Misra (Fiction), author and former Deputy Secretary, Sahitya Akademi Gitanjali Chatterjee (Fiction), author Yasser Usman (Non-Fiction), author and journalist Manimugdha Sharma (Non-Fiction), author and comic writer Arjun Gaind (Debut), Co-founder of ScoopWhoop Rishi Pratim Mukherjee (Debut), actor, compere and Director of The Study School Shivani Wazir Pasrich (Children’s books), and author Ramendra Kumar(Children’s books).

The Longlists for the awards were announced yesterday. Seven books in Fiction category, nine books in non-fiction category, four in Debut category and seven in Children’s category made it to the Longlists. For the complete Longlist, click here.

The shortlisted books in the four different categories are: (The lists are in alphabetical order) Best Author Fiction

1. ‘The Far Field’ by Madhuri Vijay ‘The Far Field’ by Madhuri Vijay gives us a potent critique on Indian politics and class prejudice and traces history and relationships through a fractured family and state.

2. ‘In Search of Heer’ by Manjul Bajaj The book is a modern retelling of the 600-year old legendary love story of Heer and Ranjha.

3. ‘The Curse of Nader Shah’ by Sutapa Basu ‘The Curse of Nader Shah’, as the title suggests, is a fictional retelling of Nader Shah’s journey. The book follows the rise and fall of one of the world’s most notorious conquerors.

Best Author Non-Fiction

1. ‘The Anatomy of Hate’ by Revati Laul Looking back at the gruesome Gujarat riots and a decade long research, Revati Laul’s ‘The Anatomy of Hate’ is an important addition to the literature of violence and mob mentality.

2. ‘Tawaifnama’ by Saba Dewan ‘Tawaifnama’ by Saba Dewan traces the story of a family of courtesans, their history, culture and music- belonging to a bygone era. It is a walk through a forgotten landscape of Banaras.

3. ‘Coming Out As Dalit’ by Yashica Dutt In this deeply personal memoir which is also a Dalit narrative, journalist-author Yashica Dutt opens up about her journey of accepting her identity of being a Dalit. She also writes about the history of Dalit movements, their fight for equal rights, the caste injustices in our society and a need for change.

Best Author Debut

1. ‘Paper Moon’ by Rehana Munir Set in Bombay, ‘Paper Moon’ follows Fiza’s journey of finding herself and falling in love. When her estranged father passes away, he leaves a sum in her name hoping that she’ll open a bookshop– this changes Fiza’s life overnight. Meanwhile, Iqbal tries to woo her while she is still confused about her feelings for her ex-boyfriend Dhruv.

2. ‘This Is How It Took Place’ by Rudrakshi Bhattacharjee It is a collection of interconnected stories that touch upon the issues of mental health and loneliness. Some tales sound familiar and others are open ended, moving and thought-provoking.

3. ‘Looking For Miss Sargam’ by Shubha Mudgal Singer Shubha Mudgal’s debut book ‘Looking For Miss Sargam’ is a collection of short stories, each centered around music and misadventures!

Best Author Children

1. ‘A Cloud Called Bhura’ by Bijal Vachharajani ‘A Cloud Called Bhura’ by Bijal Vachharajani is a funny and interesting tale about the changing global climate and the havoc it can cause to humanity.

2. ‘Flyaway Boy’ by Jane De Suza Jane De Suza’s ‘Flyaway Boy’ is a realistic representation of how children of the contemporary era are being pressurized to move along with societal demands.

3. ‘Being Gandhi’ by Paro Anand ‘Being Gandhi’ not only traverses through the Gandhian ways having relevance in the modern world but also raises some pertinent questions on our society.

For the Shortlist, click here.

The winners of the AutHer Awards 2020 will be announced in a grand ceremony on Women’s Day, i.e. March 8, at Taj Palace, New Delhi. The winners in each category will be given a prize worth Rs 1 lakh. Apart from this, a Lifetime Achievement Award will also be given to a woman author for her lasting contribution in the field of literature and a Popular Choice award will be given to the author selected through public voting. To vote for your favourite author, click here.

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Artist: Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven

Venue: Fridericianum, Kassel

Exhibition Title: AMVK

Curated by: Anders Kreuger

Date: November 9, 2018 – February 24, 2019

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release, and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Fridericianum, Kassel. Photos by Nicolas Wefers, 2018.

Press Release:

An exhibition of Fridericianum Kassel. Curated by Anders Kreuger, M HKA Antwerpen. The show is the further development of a presentation trilogy that was previously shown in M HKA Antwerp as well as Kunstverein Hanover and Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach.

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven strategically uses her initials as if they were a global corporate brand. She consciously chooses the distanced anonymity for her work, which for more than 40 years has been fed by the cultural inventions of the underground. Graffiti-like drawings are just as much part of her work as shrill music and eccentric performances. AMVK contrasts the proliferation of technological progress and artificial intelligence with the timelessness of human sensations.

The starting point of Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven’s work was and remains the human brain, with its analytical and irrational possibilities of perception and cognition. She was born in 1951 in Antwerp, where she still lives and works. Her work has always been consistently interdisciplinary. She and her partner, the artist Danny Devos, founded the noise band Club Moral in Antwerp in 1981. It existed until 1991 and was revived in 2001. Since 1982, they have been publishing the magazine Force Mental together. Since 1977, AMVK has collaborated with the neuroscientist Luc Steels and since 1982 with his Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence (Brussels, today Paris). As a result, visual languages characterized by scientific imaging processes became prominent in her work: diagrams, graphic animations, text/image compositions. These and other collaborations have always been typical for

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven’s working method. For her, everything is based on a clear, even merciless commitment to the societal critique that her work seeks to articulate; here the child of 1968 ‘outs’ herself.

The artist herself explains her work in a manifesto: ‘In contrast to the arbitrariness in which the origin of written and spoken language lies, I have allowed the unspoken, the mystical to have its say. From despair to ecstasy – that is how far the field of the mystical reaches. This is the devouring lust for life and love. Unification, not detachment from the rest of the world. No ego, no boundaries. The created becomes one with the Creator.’ And further: ‘I call it the analogue. […] The analogue is a ritual, a mystery, a longing, a desire, a lust – while the digital means control, technology, sublimation, dependence, reduction, transparency. The analogue and the digital together make up what constitutes man: Perspective.’ (Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Some Sort of Manifesto, 2016–17)

In her early oeuvre rapid, seemingly improvised yet almost supernaturally precise line drawings played an important role. Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven studied graphic design in Antwerp in the 1970s. She sketched her surroundings with jagged scribbles and distorted them playfully and humorously into the grotesque. Later, large-format paintings were added, often in a pop-inspired reduction of colors and shapes, but also in combination with materials and pictorial levels otherwise considered alien to painting. The focus is often on the female body: this is the excessive self- observation of someone who thinks for herself within feminist awareness. In her videos and installations, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven often uses her drawings, but also pictures of pin-up girls, alienating colors and collage techniques. Other films combine different views of an event. An ingenious relationship between text and image runs through the entire oeuvre; analogue and digital image worlds complement and contradict each other. Familiar formats of technological aesthetics – Plexiglas, computer graphics, professional prints – are used and at the same time charged with visual power by the fast, subjective and spontaneous gesture of overpainting and overdrawing.

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven’s oeuvre is a large portfolio of works: drawings, prints, paintings, films and (video) installations. She has remained an influential, but also controversial, pioneer in Antwerp’s creative scene until today, and in this role she is now also internationally evaluated and appreciated. The current exhibition in Kassel concludes an exhibition tour that had already brought her oeuvre to two institutions in Germany (Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach and Kunstverein Hannover) and one in Belgium (M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp). Each presentation had unfolded its own visual life. Anders Kreuger, Senior Curator at the M HKA, who is familiar with Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven’s work, regards the exhibition at Fridericianum as the final installment of a trilogy: ‘If the exhibitions in Mönchengladbach and Hanover represented the “thesis” and were based on a series of twelve chapters allowing a comprehensive view of AMVK’s intellectual biography, the later station in Antwerp was the “antithesis” entirely based on visual flow. In Kassel, as a conclusion, the spatial narrative is resurrected in a kind of Hegelian dialectical “synthesis”.’

Kassel, October 11, 2018

Link: Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven at Fridericianum

Contemporary Art Daily is produced by Contemporary Art Group, a not-for-profit organization. We rely on our audience to help fund the publication of exhibitions that show up in this RSS feed. Please consider supporting us by making a donation today.

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Parrot’s Anafi 4K Drone Is Actually Far More Than A Traveling Toy.

The Giornate del Movie house Muto honours the half a century presence of The Parade's Passed. British movie chronicler Kevin Brownlow's traditional narrative history poll was 1st published in 1968. Despite a distressing local forecast and also a delayed learn, 6 people joined today's walk from Gisburn over Weets Mountain to Barnoldswick and lifesportblog.info had a little sun as well as no rain therefore, perhaps, the training of this particular is to neglect the foresight and receive out into the clean air. And also the location to bottom is actually The Eagle Harbor Inn, a petit hotels and resort actions from the port, treking tracks, and also the main road of Winslow edged with boutiques, coffeehouses, a glass of wine tasting, dining establishments, a movie house and among the last, wonderful private bookstores, The Eagle Port Manual Provider (Snow Falling on Cedars was actually authored on Bainbridge, and has actually enthused a whole creation of authors listed here). I pointed out, 'Quenton, you don't have to go home.' He said, 'Zero, Mother, it is actually opportunity to start my life.'" Pair of times after he left behind the program, in April 2013, Ann found her kid lifeless from an overdose in his Cincinnati bed room. Area Rail Walk - Wednesday, April 1st coming from Entwistle to Bromley Cross. I haven't observed any kind of films concerning hip-hop that are actually as interesting as The Band Wagon" or Singin' in the Rain" or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." Those and lots of various other films made use of the music of the time. Our experts have walks aplenty to tempt you outdoors consisting of a Rail Rambler to Delamere Rainforest on November 5th, Ribble Valley Rambler on Nov 6th as well as Area Rail Stroll on Nov 12th. One more hectic walking weekend break producing an Area Rail Stroll on Saturday from Flower Grove to Clitheroe (see pertinent webpage for information) as well as DalesRail on Sunday. Thirteen people joined our Area Rail Stroll from Accrington to Burnley using the outdated railroad and also Hameldon Hill. Please review this website concerning the Traveling Arrangements for each Rail Rambler Walk to guarantee around time details. Some of one of the most prominent concerns regarding E-M1 Mark II is definitely the capacities in low lightweight shooting along with higher ISO use. If you like your general network setup of black pubs with whatever history, this is actually where you would certainly adjust the health pub shade to black (click strong, choose dark from the shade example). I presume the limit of sluggish shutter capturing is actually a subjective one, I can certainly not go much more than 1 2nd hand-held along with E-M1 but I have listened to accounts (even in this particular opinion thread) of folks capable to steady their hands for 2-4 secs long. Hitler's Prepared Executioners: Ordinary Germans and also the Holocaust (1996) is a publication through Daniel Goldhagen providing the premise that the German nation as such was comprised of willing death squads of the Jews because of an one-of-a-kind eliminationist antisemitism" in the German folks, with long historic origins. After what seems a grow older, the following Rail Rambler takes place this happening Saturday along with a chance to discover the Pennine community of Marsden as well as its own links to Last of the Summer A glass of wine - along with, possibly, a touching browse through to Auntie Wainwright's outlet - and the widely known Standedge Tunnels nearby. Just a details regarding this Sunday's Rail Rambler to Parbold - Parbold rests within the Wayfarer ticket region so it might be more affordable to use a Wayfarer Ticket than to make a reservation for a Day Profit coming from your starting point. From uproarious escapism to fragile passions, listed below are the year's must-see films.

[alexanderragland-blog]

Job Tips For University Freshman.

Image a male. 18) Be honest regarding family tree. Peppa Pig: No, George. My mom, Elizabeth Janette Boleman, was actually birthed in your home in Townville, in the year 1920, the 3rd little girl and also close to final little one of 5 in a rambling, white clapboard Victorian property. This narrative occurs in a nebulous portion from the Warcraft timetable. slutaataformycket.info Peppa Porker: It appears amusing, Daddy. He declares life-time banishment for Mowbray, whereas Bolingbroke is actually eliminated for ten years as well as later on six years on the disturbance from his uncle, the papa of Bolingbroke. One of the absolute most productive but sometimes distressing opportunities to fish goes to evening. Of my grandma, I will certainly say she was actually a straightforward yet beautiful lady that resided a normal life, full of passion. My uncle must possess been actually motivated due to the account of the Von Trapp household singers promoted by the famous Oscar-winning movie, "The Sound of Music". Their region, called Lenapehoking (Lenape nation"), approximately covered the properties drainpiped due to the Delaware River (in Delaware and Pennsylvania), New Shirt, and the lesser Hudson Stream Valley in The Big Apple Condition. The account of The White Queen begins nine years in to this blood-spattered as well as lengthy cordial war in 1464 where your home of York and our home of Lancaster contest the due master of England. Inevitably 5 or 6 individuals appear at Court of law having actually read exactly what looks like the plain language on answer and they are turned away and told they will definitely be getting a brand new Court of law day in the mail. This's very clear to observe that heaven chip REITs that dealt with to preserve their returns remittances throughout 2008 and 2009 ought to be even a lot better prepared for the uncertain opportunities that are ahead. Sometimes folks are incapacitated as well as need help with their shopping. She had 3 major really loves in the course of her lifetime, all female, and she spent the final forty years in The big apple Area along with a women partner, Edith Lewis. In exchange for developing the Maritime Web link, and making it possible for Nalcor Power to transport electrical power at no transmission expense over the Hyperlink, Emera was to receive 20% of the electrical power for 35 years. Whether its own a rip off from other movies like Result Nemo or SharkTale, it is actually still worth a check out - at the very least for youngsters if ones trying to find an enjoyable film to see on family film night. The only people he respected was his household, perhaps given that a normal family life is actually the the main thing he consistently wished for. Storyteller: Peppa and George are having a masquerade celebration. Cooper has gained Coretta Scott King honors for his pictures, as well as he poignantly brings to life a memorable-- however nerve-wracking-- time in a younger child's lifestyle. I and also my enthusiast possessed some concerns which brings about our break up since after at that point my lifestyle has never coincided i tried all procedure in order to get him back however they were just misuse from attempt and also wild-goose chase. That's a place where folks still stress over their plants and also put on John Deere hats - as well as the Grange Hall is the happening position on Sunday night. A lady can easily make love with multiple males over a brief amount of time without creating more kids. Daddy Swine: Mommy Porker and also I discovered this aged box in the attic. Father Swine: I ask yourself if this time you tossed Mr Dinosaur only a bit too high. A bunch of incorrect relevant information in this website, there are actually many publications when it come to the Iceman, one a bio and one or two written by private investigators. Hynes and White divided as a pair Ten Years back, but unlike the loved ones in "Little Dog," they can easily interact -- as parents along with producers. Storyteller: George has actually discovered some outfits to always keep the snowman wonderful and cozy. I used to oversleep the sitting room from our house sometimes and if I possessed trouble sleeping I will explore the corridor where the restroom was actually.

[jansegers]

Simple English Word List

SIMPLE1540 : a simple English wikipedia word list based on the XML export of all articles related to the nine major groups: Everyday life, Geography, History, Knowledge, Language, Literature, People, Religion, and Science and retaining all word forms appearing 7 times or more in this corpus. The total number of words in this corpus is well over the 100.000 words. a A.D. ability able about above absence abstinence abstract academic academy accent accept access accord account across act action active activity actual actually ad add addition adherent adjective adult advance advice affect after again against age agnostic agnosticism ago agree agreement agriculture air alcohol all allow ally almost alone along alphabet also although always amateur amendment among amount an analysis ancient and angel animal annals anonymous another answer anthropomorphism any anyone anything aphasia appear apple apply approach archaeology architecture area argue argument around arrange art article artificial artist ask aspect associate association astronomy at atheism atheist atomic attack attempt attribute audience author authority available average avoid award away B.C. baby back background backpack bad bah balance band baptism base basic basis battle BCE be bear beautiful beauty because become bed bee before begin behavior behind being belief believe believing belong below best better between beyond bias biblical bibliography big billion biological biology birth bit black blind blood blue body book born both bottom boundary box boy brain branch bring brown buffalo build building bull burn business but by c. ca. calendar call can cancer canon capital caption car carbon card carry case cassette cat category cathedral catholic cause cell center central century cerebral certain change chapel chapter character chemical chemistry child china China choice choir choose chronicle church circumcise circumcision cite citizen city civil civilian civilization claim clan class classical cleanup clear clergy click climate close closer clothes clothing coast coauthor code codex cognitive col cold collection college colonization colony color column com come commentary commission common commonly communicate communication communion communist community companion company compare competition complete complex compose composer computer concept conception concern condition confuse confusion congregational connect connection conquer conquest consciousness consider consistent constitution construct construction contain contemporary content context continent continue contrary control convention conversation conversion convert cook cooking copy core correct could council country course court cover covered create creation credit crime critical criticism crop cross crust cultural culture current currently daily damage dark data date day dead death debt decadence decadent decide declaration decline deconstruction deep define definition deity demonstrate denomination department depth describe description design detail determinism developed development device devil diagnosis dialect dictionary die difference different difficult difficulty diphthong dipstick direct directly dirt disagree disambiguation disbelief discipline discover discovery discussion disease disorder distance distinct distinction distinguish distribution divide divine do doctor doctrine document dog don't door down Dr. dream drink drown druid due during dynasty each earlier early earth easier easily easy eat economic economics economy ed edge edit edition editor education effect eight either electric electricity electronic element elevation else emperor empire encyclopedia end energy engine engineering enlightenment enough enter entertainment environment environmental epic episode equal era error especially establish etc. etymology even event eventually ever every everyday everyone everything evidence evil evolution evolve exact exactly example except exchange exist existence expansion experience experiment expert explain explanation express expression external extinct face fact failure fair faith fall false family famous far fast father feature feel feeling female feudal few fiction field fight figure file find finding fire first fish fit five fix flow folk follow food for force foreign foreskin form formal former fortune fought foundation founded four fourth frame framework free freedom frequently friend from front fruit full function functional further future gas general generally generation genre geographer geographic geographical geography geology geometry germ get give glass global go god gold golden good government grammar great greatly green ground group grow growth guide guillotine hair half hall hand handbook handicap handle happen happens happiness happy hard have he head heading health hear heat heaven help hemisphere her here heritage hero high highly him himself his historian historical historiography history hold holy home homo hope hot hour house how however human hundred hunter hypothesis hysteresis I ice icon idea identify identity if illiteracy illiterate illusory image importance important impossible improve in inc. incense include increase indeed independence independent indigenous individual industrial industry influence information inquiry inside instead institute institution instrument instrumentation intellectual intelligence interlinear internal international internet interpretation into introduce introduction invent invention involve iron island issue it IT itself job join journal journalism judge just keep key kill kind king kingdom know knowledge la LA label lack lake lamp land landlocked landscape language large last late later law lead leader leap learn learned least leave legacy legal legend let letter level lexeme library life light lightning like likely limited line linguistic linguistics link liquid list literacy literary literature little liturgy live local location logic logical long longer look lord lore lose lot love low lower mac machine magazine magic magnetic magnum mail main mainly major make male mammal man mankind manuscript many map march March mark market mass material mathematical mathematics matter may May me mean meaning meant measure measurement meat median medical medicine medieval mediterranean medium meet member memory men mental mention mercury message metal method mid middle might migrate migration military millennium million mind minister minute misconception miss model modern modernism modernist moment money monologue monophthong month monument moon moral morality more morning most mostly mother mount mountain mouth move movement much museum music musical musicians must my myth mythology name narrative nation national nationality native natural naturalism naturally nature near nearly necessarily necessary need negative neither neologism network neurogenesis neuron neuroscience never new news newspaper next night nine no non none nor normal normally not note nothing noun novel now nuclear number object objective objectivity observation observe occupation occur ocean octane of off offer office official officially often oil old older on once one online only open opera opposite or oral orbit order org organization organize origin original originally orthography orthology other others our out outer outside over own oxygen p. pack pagan page paint palace paper paradigm parent parish park part participant particular particularly party pas pass past pasta pattern pay peace peer penguin penis people per percent percentage perception performance perhaps period peroxide persecution person personal personality perspective persuasion pet phenomenon philosopher philosophical philosophy phoneme phonetic phonetics photo phrase physic physical picture piece pilgrimage place plan planet plant plat plate play please poem poems poet poetry point pole police policy political politics polytheism polytheistic popular population position positive possession possible possibly post power powerful pp. practical practice praise pray prayer precise predict prediction prehistory present preserve press prevent priest primary principle print printing private probably problem process produce product production professional program project pronounce pronunciation proof property prophet propose prose proselytism protection protein provide province psychological psychology public publication publish publisher publishing punishment pure purpose put pyramid quantum question quickly quite quote race racial rack radiation radio rain range rate rather read reader real realism reality really reason receive recent recently reclamation recognize record recreation red ref refer reference referred reform reformation regard region reign rejection relate relation relationship relatively relativity reliable relic religion religious remain remember remove renaissance replace report republic request require research researcher resource respect response result resurrection retrieve return revelation revert review revision revival revolution rhetoric rich right rise ritual river rock role room royal rule ruled ruler run rural sacred sacrifice safe saga sage saint salad same sample satellite saw say schizophrenia scholar school science scientific scientist scope sea search second secondary section secular see seek seem selection self sense sent sentence separate sequence series service set seven several sexual shall shaman shape share she short should show shrine side sign significant silence similar simple simply since single situation six size skill skin slavery sleep slightly slow small smell smith snake so social society sociology soft soil solar soldier solid soliloquy some someone something sometimes song soon sortable sound source space speak speaker special specie specific speech speed spell spirit spiritual spirituality split sport spread square st. stage stain standard star start state statement station statistic statistical statue status stick still stone stop story strange strap strong structure struggle stub student study stutter style subject successful such sugar suggest sun sung sunlight superior superiority supernatural support suppose supreme sure surface survey surveyor sushi sustainability sustainable sweat symbol symbolic system table take talk tam tan task teach teacher teaching technique technology tectonics teeth tell temperature template temple ten term terminology territory tertiary test testament text textual than thank that the their theism them themselves then theology theoretical theory therapy there therefore thesaurus these they thick thing think third this those though thought thousand three through throughout thumb thus ticket tight time title to today together toilet tolerance toleration tongue too tool top topic total towards tower trade tradition traditional train translation transport travel treat treatment tree trench trial tribe tried trig true truth try turn twentieth twenty two type typical typically ultimate ultraviolet under understand understood union unit united universal universe university unknown unsortable until up upon upper urban urbanization usage use useful usually valley value van vandalism various vassal vegetable verb verbal verse version very video view violence virgin visit vitamin vocabulary voice vol. volume vowel vs. wale wall want war warm warmer wash waste water wave way we weak wealth wear weather web website weight well what when where whether which while white who whole whom whose why wide widely wild wilderness will window wisdom wise witch witchcraft with within without witness woman word work worker world worship would write writer writing wrong yam year yellow you young your

China, March and May made this list because china, march and may are on it and I didn't want to decide in favor of the common noun or the proper noun; all other proper nouns have been omitted (even the ten other months that met the criterium of appearing more then 6 times). #SimpleWikipedia #SimpleEnglish #wordlist #English #words #level1540 #Inli #nimi #selo1540

[latenighters-show]

Danae Stratou, Aisxylia '17

Client: Danae Stratou Date: 09.06.2017 – 15.10.2017 Our role: Project Management & Executive Production, Communication & PR

  photo: Panos Kokkinias

Danae Stratou –  UPON THE EARTH UNDER THE CLOUDS* Palaio Elaiourgeio Eleusis Aisxylia Festival 2017 , Eleusis 2021 European Capital of Culture

The installation Upon the Earth Under the Clouds by Danae Stratou, is presented from June to October 2017 at the Old Oil Mill of Eleusis, within the context of Aisxylia Festival 2017.

Upon the Earth Under the Clouds is a large-scale site-specific installation conceived for the Old Mill and the city of Eleusis. Using water and soil as its core materials and ceramic pots as its dominant morphological feature, the work enters into a dialogue with the rich history of Eleusis, from antiquity to the long industrial history of the city and its present-day structure. Woven into its narrative are the myth of Demeter and Persephone, mortality, the notion of voyaging, the existential quest for a destination, and migration, not only as a defining feature of the city’s history, but also as a repeated historical occurrence.

Through this project, the artist aims to connect past and present, using water as the conduit. Reflecting the sky above, the water’s surface joins earth and sky, the out-of-reach with the tangible and, by extension, the imaginary and the real, mortality and the transcendent, the familiar and the unknown. Flowing water moves and carries us along with it, crossing and connecting places and civilizations. It reflects the vastness of space and hints at the “vast”, eternal flow. It alludes to those communal experiences which bridge conflicts and differences: angst and the adventure that is life, shared by everyone “upon the earth under the clouds”. Stretching out from across the Old Mill, the sea is one of the watery elements conceptually linking the beginning and the end of the installation, being its symbolic entrance and exit.

photo: Panos Kokkinias

Water also acts as a means to explore Space, a dimension that permeates Danae Stratou’s body of work. Space here is a specific place that resonates with history, brimming with human stories of various cultural and psychological hues tied to human settlement, birth, co-existence and how people build their lives. The viewer becomes the sensitive receiver of all these aspects and is urged to consider how space influences thought and, conversely, how thought and man’s presence affect space.

Upon the Earth Under the Clouds is a contemporary installation. Its sparseness aims to capture the significance of fundamental questions about life. Focusing on these, incorporating the specific into the general, it hopes to contribute to a viewing of reality with greater clarity and perceptiveness.

Finally, the work is an opportunity to ponder on larger issues such as the role of art in a time of crisis, the political and ethical aspects of art and the way in which the production of a work of art can involve a local community and the resources of a region, particularly in the present circumstances.

photo: Panos Kokkinias

*The title comes from a phrase spoken by Panagiotis Farmakis, the protagonist in Filippos Koutsaftis’ documentary Agelastos Petra (Mourning Rock).

Duration: 9 June – 30 July & 19 August – 15 October Visiting Hours: 18:00 – 23:00 *During the festival’s music and theatre events,
the installation will be open until the performance begins. Palaio Elaiourgeio (Old Oil Mill) Eleusis More information: www.aisxylia.gr , www.eleusis2021.eu , www.danaestratou.com

Collaborators: Curator: Alexandra Koroxenidis Landscape implementation design & supervision: ECOSCAPES Handmade ceramic pots production: Pottery Art Houlakis Sound Design: Studio 19 Lighting: No Dark Project Management & Communication: Medianeras Executive Production: Vital Space & Medianeras Video Documentation: Panos Kallitsis

Danae Stratou was born in Athens, Greece, studied at Central St. Martins School of Art, London Institute, acquiring her BA (Hons) in Fine Art – Sculpture, (1983-1988) and has been Adjunct Professor at the Superior School of Fine Arts (Masters of Fine Arts Degree), Athens, Greece, since 2007. Her work consists of large-scale installations and tactile audio-visual environments. She has exhibited widely, including in the 48th Venice Biennale, Italy (1999), the 1st Valencia Biennale, Spain (2001), the Bienal International del Deporte en el Arte – BIDA 2005 Seville, Spain (2005), the 5th International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Gyumri, Armênia (2006), the 1st Thessaloniki Biennale, Greece (2007), La Verriere, (Fondation D’ Enterprise Hermes) – Solo Show, Belgium (2010), Istanbul – Culture Capital of Europe 2010 International Program, Turkey (2010), the Adelaide International Festival 2012: Restless, Australia (2012), the Annual International show Icastica, Arezzo, Italy (2015). In 2010 she initiated and co-founded the non-profit organization Vital Space, a global, interdisciplinary, cross-media art platform addressing the pressing issues of our time.She is one of the three members of the D.A.ST Arteam collaborative, who created Desert Breath, one of the largest Land Art projects on the planet, covering 100,000 m2, located in the eastern Egyptian Sahara bordering the Red Sea, Egypt (1997).Recent distinctions include the Runner Up Prize in the National Public Art Competition for the airport high street of the City of Austin Bergstrom International Airport, Texas, USA (2014) and the Commission’s Panel Award in 18th Biennale of Cerveira, Portugal (2015) awarded to the video installation The Globalising Wall.

Organizers & Sponsors:

  Danae Stratou, Aisxylia ’17 was originally published on medianeras

[arichardsonbbbwc-blog]

Research notes from the beginning of the project

Feminism, Domesticity and Popular Culture, Gilles and Hollows.

  “Whites have used blacks as a screen upon which to project a montage of the primitive for at least three hundred years.”

(The vulgar) “Contemplation would give way to noise. Aristocractic taste had been trained to transcend the narrow limits of time, place, and self and to view the world from the stillness of a larger perspective. Democracy is sunk in the here and now of pantheism, and the one subject available for its art is the individual, because ‘each citizen of a democracy generally spends his time considering the interests of a very insignificant person, namely himself’. The democratic artist cannot with a straight face write about gods, myths, or traditions. These are stuff of refined, transcendent culture, and the democrat who makes these his themes must end in pretension. The poet who is true to his democratic roots must be a vulgarian… He will be loud and common… He will depict passions and ideas rather than men and deeds… Noisy, primitive, and self-centred, the democratic ideal generates a vulgar pantheism. In the American South, this pantheism moves in an orbit with Romanticism and black primitivism. All these elements fuse in rock, the music of vulgar American democracy.”

 “The source of rock is the primitive as interpretated by vulgar, democratic Romanticism, and the white man’s motive for adopting the primitive is his desire to get moved, to get real, real gone for a change.”

 “Rock’s credo of feeling leaves it open to attack as a mindless species of musical barbarism. The attack has been the more persuasive because a movement holding instinct and feeling as its central values appears confused and inarticulate and therefore unable, unwilling, or uninterested in defending itself on the battleground of rational debate selected by its opponents. But in rock, as in the pantheism from which it springs, confusion and inarticulations are virtues substained by a network of Romantic arguments about self, world and change.”

 “Pantheism need not share Whitman’s unyielding cheerfulness, but its never tragic… Tragedy demands a seemingly immensurable chasm between us and some immense power. When we cannot span it, we tumble into the intervening abyss of suffering. There is no gap in pantheism. Our suffering is whole, organic, and our own. Suffering and death are merely projections of our own self-ignorance. They are finally eradicated by blasts of self-sustaining energy. Death, tears, and defeat are the stuff of many rock lyrics, but always enveloped in an extravagance of words and music that is in the end comic… Rock has no room for the spiritual catharsis of tragedy, substituting for it the physical catharsis of the dance floor”

Because it cannot support tragedy it also cannot support heroic depictions

 “Rock’s is the aesthetic of Romanticism vulgarized… The artistic virtues of rock and Romanticism are originality, primal order, energy, honesty, and integrity. The bad critics of the zombie world consistently misread these as incoherence, lack of discipline, immorality, madness, and confusion.”

 Romanticism’s aesthetic is elitist because only few can recognise the artistic quality.

Genelle standing passively to metal because she has not been instructed to mosh

Constructed romanticism, me representing all the bad critical responses to romanticism.

   “I suggest that we ‘unsettle’ feminity by pushing it over the postfeminist edge and I put forward the term postfeminity to highlight the challenges and paradoxes of a postfeminist feminity/domesticity that can no longer be conceptualised along a sharp split between feminism and housewifery, agency and victimization, work and family life. This is to acknowledge that femininity can be changeable and can operate in a variety of ways, acquiring a range of different meanings that have come to the fore in our postfeminist present. Post-ing femininity thus involves a certain amount of re-thinking, not a reversal of well-established dualisms, but a process of resignification that threatens to reinscribe what it also transposes.”

 “Reality television uses relationships to illicit raw and spontaneous outbursts of emotion, what Laura Grindstaff (2002) refers to in relation to the talk show as the money shot… The currency placed on the unscripted emotion in ‘reality’ television can be related to the trend towards the commercialisation of feeling.”

FREUD’S NOTIONS OF THE HYSTERICAL WOMAN/

 “Oprah Winfrey, calls moral entrepreneurship: making money through the sensationalising and exploiting emotional expression.”

“The transmutations of emotional life- the move from the private realm to the public realm, the trend towards standardisation and commercialisation of emotive offerings are being recycled back into individual private lives; emotional life now appears under new management… opens the family home to a larger world of feeling rules.”

 In preparation for the slave market (“African women and men aboard he slave ships were only the intial stages of an indoctrination process… into a slave, so that (they) would be marketable as a ‘docile’ slave in American colonies.”

 Camera positioned as casting call- pornography

 “As American white men idealised white womanhood, they sexually assaulted and brutalised black women.”

“As white colonisers adopted a self-righteous sexual morality for themselves, they even more eagerly labelled black people sexual heathens. Since women was designated as the originator of sexual sin, black women were naturally seen as the embodiment of female evil and sexual lust.”

"younger artists no longer feel responsible for a black- ness that is itself increasingly hypervisible in the global market of multicultural commodity fetishism.

How to rewrite/refilm history when the very model of history is so much a product of the history the group wished to refilm/rewrite?

There’s a problem with placing a person in a situation where they have to act in a musical culture that is not their own

  “The aversion to fiction, is what keeps me interested in the non-fictive, it’s what keeps me interested in questions of the historical, because they act as a powerful counterbalance ….to amnesia.” (Tate, 2015)

Genelle in her bedroom smashing things with a vinyl recorder

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

this video made me want to be more collaborative in my approach and also do an interview with me and Genelle.

  mlle bourgeoise noire lorraine o grady

  “Minaj’s performances do not have the anti capitalist logic that most performance art has, by on the contrary she is situated in and expertly marketed as a highly consumerable product that imbues many historical and cultural narratives that she appropriates. Capital was always a necessary component (if not foundational principle) of black performance art… especially when its practioners were so often fungible commodities themselves.” (page 206)

 “The late Stuart Hall, writing in 1992, characterised black popular cultures in exactly this way. If, as Hall argues, there are no pure forms in black popular cultures (but instead only hybridised ones), black popular cultures are also highly charged, mixed, and clashing spaces where cultural identities are imagined, stylised, theatricalised, and rendered ‘mythic’.”

…popular culture is highly mythic…”

 “If fantasy itself is a part of identity formation, as Anne Anlin Cheng argues, then Minaj’s often-hyperbloic performances can be understood as an aggressive and imaginative form of self making… this has often taken form of her transubstantiation into mythic-like selves- a process I have been terming avatar production” (page 207)

 CRITICISM- is Minaj exacerbating the angry black woman trope?

 “Forsaking authenticity, respectability, and even reality, Minaj and her mouthy avatars instead embrace (even boast about) their pointed failure to properly perform any of these attributes, suturing hip-hop’s typically masculine braggadocio to frenetic, if oddly juvenile, paeans to a plastic artificiality.” (Page 208-209)

 ‘She wields grotesque aesthetics as a skilful strategy of self-estrangement. In doing so, while Minaj is in accord with the polygot meanings the grotesque suggests- its disruption of order, challenge to notions of the normal, and strange ability to evoke both fear and desire from audiences.” (Page 213-214)

 OPTICAL DOUBLE TAKE

“The character’s operatic misbehaving is a rupture that punctures the tautly scripted understandings of proper behaviour, particularly for black women.” (page 217)

 white background white sheet- armless

 “Studies of heavy metal invariably link the preference for heavy metal among adolescents and people in their early twenties with issues such as low socio-economic position (Straw 1983), unsettled family life (Arnett 1991, 1996) and postindustrial risk and anomie (Locher 1998). Moreover, it is argued, the factors influencing a preference for heavy metal make for a ready associations on the part of disempowerd and disaffected young people with what Harrell (1994) terms the poetics of destruction in heavy metal lyrics, the latter frequently focuses on issues such as death, mutilation (Grooss 1990; Harrell 1994), physical violence and misogyny (Walser 1993; Sloat 1998).”

 “Although appearing on the surface to be an individual act of daring or exhibitionism, stagediving relies both upon the willingness of the group performing to allow members of the audience up onto the stage and coordination between relies both upon the willingness of the group performing between stagediver and crowd… Despite the risks they are always caught.”

 “… Cock rock performers are aggressive, dominating and boastful, and they constantly seek to remind the audience of their prowess, their control. Their stance is obvious in live shows; male bodies on display, plunging shirts and tight trousers, a visual emphasis on chest hair and gentials.”

 “… the way that rock music in general, and death metal in particular, places the group, the fan and the ideology in opposition to the entrenched values of society- the ‘we’ vs ‘they’ mentality… serves to elevate the metalhead to a position of moral superiority.”

 The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel.

Among the aspects of the romantic movement in England may be listed: sensibility; primitivism; love of nature; sympathetic interest in the past, especially the medieval; mysticism; individualism; romanticism criticism; and a reaction against whatever characterized neoclassicism . . . The term designates a literary and philosophical theory that tends to see the individual at the center of all life, and it places the individual, therefore, at the center of art, making literature valuable as an expression of unique feelings and particular attitudes (the expressive theory of criticism) and valuing its fidelity in portraying experiences, however fragmentary and incomplete, more than it values adherence to completeness, unity, or the demands of genre. Although romanticism tends at times to regard nature as alien, it more often sees in nature a revelation of Truth, the "living garment of God," and a more suitable subject for art than those aspects of the world sullied by artifice. Romanticism seeks to find the Absolute, the Ideal, by transcending the actual, whereas realism finds its values in the actual and naturalism in the scientific laws the undergird the actual. (Harmon, 6th. Edition).

 Gothic horror functions as an extension of the Romantic notion of literary pleasure, that literature should inspire deeply felt emotional responses. Gothic horror sought to instill a pleasing sort of terror and thrill from its emphasis on taboo subjects, such as satanism and matters of the occult, that both fascinated and repelled polite English society. The Romantic, Byronic hero equates to the brooding gothic villain in that both figures are tortured souls placed at the center of action.

 William Wordsworth, the father of British Romanticism, gave us. He said that poetry is the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility"

One of the most complex developments during this period is the transformation of religion into a subject for artistic treatment far removed from traditional religious art. The Enlightenment had weakened, but hardly uprooted, established religion in Europe. As time passed, sophisticated writers and artists were less and less likely to be conventionally pious; but during the Romantic era many of them were drawn to religious imagery in the same way they were drawn to Arthurian or other ancient traditions in which they no longer believed. Religion was estheticized, and writers felt free to draw on Biblical themes with the same freedom as their predecessors had drawn on classical mythology, and with as little reverence.

Fake emotion versus real emotion

Being true to the romantic spirit by being true to yourself, a romantic reaction to romanticism.

 Neoclassical works (paintings and sculptures) were serious, unemotional, and sternly heroic.

  INSPIRATION

Mikhail and Sonia Boyce

John Akomfrah

Simone Leigh’s Breakdown

Yinka Shonibare Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz

Lis Rhodes Whose History

Ana Menedieta

Centre Jenny

Nicki Minaj

 PLAN

 SCENES Genelle with dripping green paint over her body, disappearing into the background

Falling into the stage dive

Ana Menedieta

Silence

Action Language Genelle at the desk looking at pictures of water and pours from out the screen

Slowly getting faster to ridiculous levels- never gonna give you up

Depictions of the primitive in romantic art

Black feminism

She takes the camera from me and films me

Selfie

Find her at home listening to her music Her snapchat In a gallery next to romantic artwork- by placing her next to the paintings, she becomes part of the history in modes of representation

Filming her eyes with my camera on her camera phone Metal sounds slowed down Flashes of light to light up the dark room

Chantel Ackerman- Jeanne Dielman- 23 quai du commerce

Sally Potter’s Thriller

Found footage

Film camera

Record metal sounds, growling

Drawings to overlay, Ed Pool

Lighting from only phone screens

Narcissism- compensation for lack of phallus, Freud, Otherness

Film her getting ready

Projection on the wall

Create vintage borders with subtitles for lyrics- bad music video

Good music video of Genelle singing

Rnb moves to  metal, metal moves to rnb (dance) NO

‘I want you to do this” ‘why’ Re-creating an authentic scene- deconstruction of a music video, behind the scenes

Emotional labour

Poses= femininity/performance

Romanticism of death

Genelle in artificial nature- technology Psychology of listening to different kinds of music

Past ‘feminine’, present not ‘feminine’

Genelle holding things walking down a tunnel The camera lowers and gives her respect for doing work Project in bedroom

Black women ‘s portrayal in media

A narrative in a narrative, a deconstructed music scene

Black panther

Gang violence

Colonislism, imperialism

Genelle going crazy and smashing domestic items (bad)

Totalitatarism

Active/Passive

Breaking the fourth wall Grace Kelly

Metal music- death associations

Devil horn sign

The Emporium- 88 London Road

Marwoods- coffee shop

The Marlobrough pub.

Textured walls- bricks

Green scene- coffee shops

Costa/Starbucks décor

Semotics of coffee shops

Korakrit Arunondchai- deconstruction of large social narratives music videos, rnb

Camera always circling round, various voiceovers- Trinh T Minh Ha- Reasssemblage, writer. The frame by frame.

Jump cut, silence vs noise

Genelle reads out the iron maiden songs slowly

Stages of grief

 First scene- Genelle in normal clothes- comes into the studio, seeming happy.

Second scene- Genelle putting on makeup clothes and changing- eye from phone

Second scene- reading out the lyrics for Iron Maiden (CLOSE UP )Genelle criticises the song because it’s about native American Indians not black people- I respond ignorantly

Third scene- putting on fake tears (CLOSE UP) Fourth scene- anger- moshing Fifth scene- PTSD- shaking Sixth scene- Metal sounds Two cameras- non objective, objective

Seventh scene- Long shot of her reading out the lyrics slowly

Eighth scene- Moshing

Ninth scene- Lunch break- her being quiet looking at her phone.

Last scene- she walks out, (LONG SHOT)

Tenth scene- playing dead (MID SHOT)

Eleveth scene- running to the hills

Twelth scene- reading out the lyrics (LONG SHOT) native criticism, well you’re all minorities

Stomping foot

 Criticises the violence of the song and imagery

Green screen could have paintings from the romanticism era

 Why metal and what song-

The romanticism of death and how we come to use it to come to terms with the horror of death and contemplating our own mortality and expressing that contemplation helps alleviate the anxiety around it. and hyper masculine performance – what the director intends to portray as satricial

The way that metal talks about important horrific issues such as war as an outlet for expression.

Talks about death with Genelle- make up a narrative about a racial issue.

Don’t use the green screen to project at all. Have the metal songs on laptop in the background off set.

Have Genelle putting on makeup offset

The atrocities of world war- The (emotional?) reactions against/by war

LOCATIONS Church/Graveyard

Somewhere where it is priviledge white male dominated

Coffeeshop