#Control - Part 07 | No Commentary | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

writerbuddha · 3 years

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George Lucas on attachment from 1999 to 2021

BILL MOYERS: Do you know yet what, in a future episode, is going to transform Anakin Skywalker to the dark side?

GEORGE LUCAS: Yes, I know what that is. The groundwork has been laid in this episode. The film is ultimately about the dark side and the light side, and those sides are designed around compassion and greed. The issue of greed, of getting things and owning things and having things and not being able to let go of things, is the opposite of compassion--of not thinking of yourself all the time. These are the two sides--the good force and the bad force. They're the simplest parts of a complex cosmic construction.

George Lucas and Bill Moyers 1999, Time Magazine (http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,990820-2,00.html)

GEORGE LUCAS: He turns into Darth Vader because he gets attached to things. He can't let go of his mother; he can't let go of his girlfriend. He can't let go of things. It makes you greedy. And when you're greedy, you are on the path to the dark side, because you fear you're going to lose things, that you're not going to have the power you need.

George Lucas to Time Magazine April, 2002 (http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1002323-3,00.html)

GEORGE LUCAS: In this film, (Phantom Menace) you begin to see that he has a fear of losing things, a fear of losing his mother, and as a result, he wants to begin to control things, he wants to become powerful, and these are not Jedi traits. And part of these are because he was starting to be trained so late in life, that he'd already formed these attachments. And for a Jedi, attachment is forbidden.

George Lucas to CNN, May 8, 2002 (https://edition.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/07/ca.s02.george.lucas/index.html)

GEORGE LUCAS: Jedi Knights aren’t celibate – the thing that is forbidden is attachments – and possessive relationships.

George Lucas to BBC, May 12, 2002 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1989505.stm)

GEORGE LUCAS: Well, a lot of people got very upset, saying he should’ve been this little demon kid. But the story is not about a guy who was born a monster – it’s about a good boy who was loving and had exceptional powers, but how that eventually corrupted him and how he confused possessive love with compassionate love. That happens in Episode II: Regardless of how his mother died, Jedis are not supposed to take vengeance. And that’s why they say he was too old to be a Jedi, because he made his emotional connections. His undoing is that he loveth too much.

George Lucas to Rolling Stones, 2005 (https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/george-lucas-and-the-cult-of-darth-vader-247142/)

GEORGE LUCAS: The core issue, ultimately, is greed, possessiveness - the inability to let go. Not only to hold on to material things, which is greed, but to hold on to life, to the people you love - to not accept the reality of life’s passages and changes, which is to say things come, things go. Everything changes. Anakin becomes emotionally attached to things, his mother, his wife. That’s why he falls - because he does not have the ability to let go.

No human can let go. It’s very hard. Ultimately, we do let go because it’s inevitable; you do die, and you do lose your loved ones. But while you’re alive, you can’t be obsessed with holding on. As Yoda says in this one, [The scene in which Anakin seeks Yoda’s counsel] You must learn to let go of everything you’re afraid to let go of.’ Because holding on is in the same category and the precursor to greed. And that’s what a Sith is. A Sith is somebody that is absolutely obsessed with gaining more and more power - but for what? Nothing, except that it becomes an obsession to get more. The Jedi are trained to let go. They’re trained from birth, they’re not supposed to form attachments. They can love people- in fact, they should love everybody. They should love their enemies; they should love the Sith. But they can’t form attachments. So, what all these movies are about is: greed. Greed is a source of pain and suffering for everybody. And the ultimate state of greed is the desire to cheat death.

J. W. Rinzel - The Making of Revenge of the Sith page 213, published in 2005

GEORGE LUCAS: Anakin wants to be a Jedi, but he cannot let go of the people he loves in order to move forward in his life. The Jedi believe that you don’t hold on to things, that you let things pass through you, and if you can control your greed, you can resolve the conflict not only in yourself but in the world around you, because you accept the natural course of things. Anakin’s inability to follow this basic guideline is at the core of his turn to the Dark Side.

George Lucas to sci-fi online, 2005 (http://www.sci-fi-online.com/Interview/05-11-01_GeorgeLucas.htm)

GEORGE LUCAS: Love is a secret to the universe, which is compassion, which is love others, take care of others, help each other. (…) Struggle in Star Wars is about passion against compassion. Which is greed, against giving and giving up primarily and the whole issue is the flipside of greed is fear of losing. So you are either trying to get things or afraid to lose things that you’ve got and the idea is to let go of those things." - George Lucas, 2007, Devin Kumar Productions (http://www.devinkumar.com/interview-with-george-lucas/)

GEORGE LUCAS: The fact that everything must change and that things come and go through his life and that he cannot hold onto things, which is a basic Jedi philosophy that he isn't willing to accept emotionally and the reason that is because he was raised by his mother rather than the Jedi. If he'd have been taken in his first years and started to study to be a Jedi, he wouldn’t have this particular connection as strong as it is and he'd have been trained to love people but not to become attached to them.

But he become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village. The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he’s been prepping for this, but that’s the one where he’s sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate.

He’s greedy in that he wants to keep his mother around, he’s greedy in that he wants to become more powerful in order to control things in order to keep the things around that he wants. There’s a lot of connections here with the beginning of him sliding into the Dark Side.

(...)

Because of that, and because he was unwilling to let go of his mother, because he was so attached to her, he committed this terrible revenge on the tusked raiders.

George Lucas, Attack of the Clones DVD audio-commentary, 2008

GEORGE LUCAS: It’s fear of losing somebody he loves, which is the flipside of greed. Greed, in terms of the Emperor, it is the greed for power, absolute power, over everything. With Anakin, really, it’s the power to save the one he loves, but is basically going against the Fates and what is natural.

George Lucas, Revenge of the Sith DVD audio-commentary, 2008

GEORGE LUCAS: It’s pivotal that Luke doesn’t have patience. He doesn’t want to finish his training. He’s being succumbed by his emotional feelings for his friends rather than the practical feelings of “I’ve got to get this job done before I can actually save them. I can’t save them, really.” But he sorts of takes the easy route, the arrogant route, the emotional but least practical route, which is to say, “I’m just going to go off and do this without thinking too much.” And the result is that he fails and doesn’t do well for Han Solo or himself. It’s the motif that needs to be in the picture, but it’s one of those things that just in terms of storytelling was very risky because basically he screws up, and everything turns bad. And it’s because of that decision that Luke made on [Dagobah] to say, “I know I’m not ready, but I’m going to go anyway.

George Lucas, Empire Strikes Back DVD audio-commentary, 2008

GEORGE LUCAS: The core of the Force–I mean, you got the dark side, the light side, one is selfless, one is selfish, and you wanna keep them in balance. What happens when you go to the dark side is it goes out of balance and you get really selfish and you forget about everybody … because when you get selfish you get stuff, or you want stuff, and when you want stuff and you get stuff then you are afraid somebody is going to take it away from you, whether it’s a person or a thing or a particular pleasure or experience.

Once you become afraid that somebody’s going to take it away from you or you’re gonna lose it, then you start to become angry, especially if you’re losing it, and that anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. Mostly on the part of the person who’s selfish, because you spend all your time being afraid of losing everything you’ve got instead of actually living. Where joy, by giving to other people you can’t think about yourself, and therefore there’s no pain. But the pleasure factor of greed and of selfishness is a short-lived experience, therefore you’re constantly trying to replenish it, but of course the more you replenish it, the harder it is to, so you have to keep upping the ante. You’re actually afraid of the pain of not having the joy. So that is ultimately the core of the whole dark side/light side of the Force. And everything flows from that. Obviously the Sith are always unhappy because they never get enough of anything they want. Mostly, their selfishness centers around power and control. And the struggle is always to be able to let go of all that stuff. And of course that’s the problem with Anakin ultimately. You’re allowed to love people, but you’re not allowed to possess them. And what he did is he fell in love and married her and then became jealous. Then he saw in his visions that she was going to die, and he couldn’t stand losing her. So in order to not lose her, he made a pact with the devil to be able to become all-powerful. When he did that, she didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore, so he lost her. Once you are powerful, being able to bring her back from the dead, if I can do that, I can become emperor of the universe. I can get rid of the Emperor. I can make everything the way I want it. Once you do that, you’ll never be satiated. You’re always going to be consumed by this driving desire to have more stuff and be afraid that others are going to take it away from you. And they are. Every time you get two Sith together, you have the master, the apprentice, and the apprentice is always trying to recruit another apprentice to join with him to kill the master. The master knows that basically everybody below him wants his job. Only way to overcome the dark side is through discipline. The dark side is pleasure, biological and temporary and easy to achieve. The light side is joy, everlasting and difficult to achieve. A great challenge. Must overcome laziness, give up quick pleasures, and overcome fear which leads to hate.

George Lucas, explaining the Force to the Clone Wars writing team, 2010 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nFMBBrliyQ&t=41s&ab_channel=StarWarsCoffee)

GEORGE LUCAS: When you start to care about yourself and the things that you own and the things that you have and you’re greedy and you want things all the time and you don’t want to give them up because you’re afraid to give them up, you turn to the dark side. And that’s what happened to Anakin.

George Lucas Q&A: Field Museum, Chicago 5/8/2010 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRaVjM_goKM)

GEORGE LUCAS: The thing about Anakin is, Anakin started out as a nice kid. He was kind, and sweet, and lovely, and he was then trained as a Jedi. But the Jedi can’t be selfish. They can love but they can’t love people to the point of possession. You can’t really possess somebody, because people are free. It’s possession that causes a lot of trouble, and that causes people to kill people, and causes people to be bad. Ultimately it has to do with being unwilling to give things up.

The whole basis here is if you’re selfish, if you’re a Sith Lord, you’re greedy. You’re constantly trying to get something. And you’re constantly in fear of not getting it, or, when you get it, you’re in constant fear of losing it. And it’s that fear that takes you to the dark side. It’s that fear of losing what you have or want.

Sometimes it’s ambition, but sometimes, like in the case of Anakin, it was fear of losing his wife. He knew she was going to die. He didn’t quite know how, so he was able to make a pact with a devil that if he could learn how to keep people from dying, he would help the Emperor. And he became a Sith Lord. Once he started saying, “Well, we could take over the galaxy, I could take over from the Emperor, I could have ultimate power,” Padmé saw right through him immediately. She said, “You’re not the person I married. You’re a greedy person.” So that’s ultimately how he fell and he went to the dark side.

And then Luke had the chance to do the same thing. He didn’t do it.

George Lucas, 2019 (https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-oral-history)

GEORGE LUCAS: They (the Jedi) trained more than anything else to understand the transitional nature of life, that things are constantly changing and you can't hold on to anything. You can love things but you can't be attached to them, You must be willing to let the flow of life and the flow of the Force move through your life, move through you. So that you can be compassionate and loving and caring, but not be possessive and grabbing and holding on to things and trying to keep things the way they are. Letting go is the central theme of the film."

George Lucas, "Star Wars Archives 1999-2005" p. 72-73 (2020)

GEORGE LUCAS: Luke is faced with the same issues and practically the same scenes that Anakin is faced with. Anakin says yes, and Luke says no. (…) We have the scene when Anakin decides to save Palpatine and join him, so they could learn how to save Padmé. The equivalent scene in VI is when the Emperor’s trying to get Luke to kill his dad so he can save his sister.”

George Lucas, "Star Wars Archives 1999-2005" p. 421 and p. 212. (2020)

GEORGE LUCAS: The secret ultimately like in Star Wars is that you have to not be afraid. Fear is the enemy; fear is the Dark Side. If you afraid, you are going to the Dark Side. The Light Side is compassion. As long as you love other people and treat them kindly, you won't be afraid. So, the secret is to just love everybody - I know that sounds very 60s but that's what I grew up in - but it its fear that cause the problem. So you have to stop being afraid and be kind to everybody.

(...)

The main theme of Star Wars is that compassion is the good side, fear is the bad side.

(...)

I kind of lost control of Star Wars so it’s going off a different path than what I intended but the first six are very much mine and my philosophy. And I think that philosophy sort of goes beyond any particular time because it’s based on history it based on philosophy. (...)

The thing with Anakin is that he started out a great kid he was very compassionate , so the issue was how did he turn bad. How did he go to the Dark Side? He went to the Dark Side, Jedi aren’t supposed to have attachments. They can love people, they can do that, but they can’t attach, that’s the problem in the world of fear. Once you are attached to something then you become afraid of losing it. And when you become afraid of losing it, then you turn to the Dark Side, and you want to hold onto it, and that was Anakin’s issue ultimately, that he wanted to hold onto his wife who he knew, he had a premonition that she was going to die, he didn’t know how to stop it, so he went to the Dark Side to find, in mythology you do to hades, and you talk to the devil, and the devil says ‘this is what you do’ and basically you sell your soul to the devil. When you do that, and you’re afraid and you’re on the Dark Side and you fall off the golden path of compassion because you are greedy, you want to hold on to something that you love and he didn’t do the right thing and as a result he turned bad.

Mellody Hobson, George Lucas - Virtual Speaker Interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRqVdcE5oyI)

GEORGE LUCAS WAS ALWAYS CLEAR ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOVE AND ATTACHMENT, AND HOW "PREQUEL-ERA" JEDI PHILOSOPHY WORKS.

#george lucas #anakin skywalker #jedi culture #jedi order #attachment #love without attachment #star wars prequels #star wars #luke skywalker #light side #canon

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feelingofcontent · 2 years

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DNP Rewatch: I Try To Spend The Night In A Haunted Hotel - Ad

Date video was published: 10/27/2019 (X)

DNP Main Channel Rewatch: 402

Phil’s Halloween video for 2019. The first Halloween in a while without baking (I count pumpkin carving too), or a joint video in general.

0:00 - that is a big sponser for him! although the ad bits are much more intrusive into the video than the spons he usually does. he posted an ad for it on Instagram too

0:09 - that hotel room (at the Georgian House Hotel, as he says in the description) does have perfect creepy vibes. he posted a photo thanking the hotel too (and wearing a different jumper than he wore for filming)

0:38 - I do love this concept for Phil

0:49 - prime opportunity for a “phil.exe is not responding” annotation

1:20 - “he’s also grown up to be Ewan McGregor” lol

2:02 - love the room tour bit with Phil’s commentary

2:14 - he’s even got his Halloween socks on!

2:35 - I wonder if he had to bleep “bitch” for the spon...he usually doesn’t bleep that one

2:53 - alrighty then 😳

3:51 - ghost story time with Phil

4:16 - aww at him curling up and holding his knees

4:21 - of course he names the potential ghost

4:28 - well I’m glad he seems to be having water instead of coffee

4:32 - all cozy in his pajamas now too

4:42 - it’s definitely mechanical, lol

5:01 - the fact that he has to say this exact phrase a certain number of times in the video is somewhat hilarious

5:07 - do not believe the time stamps

5:21 - I would also be freaked out by any noise alone in that particular room

5:37 - “I don’t like it” aww Phil

5:48 - yeah no thanks. I just don’t want to know in hotel rooms 😳

6:13 - that is very specific. chimneys being a bit creepy I agree with though

6:47 - in parts of this he’s using a much softer and slightly deeper voice than his usual “on camera” voice

6:50 - he’s even got the Doctor Sleep book there

7:27 - sometimes I forget that much younger people also watch these videos

8:01 - he is playing this up so much

8:14 - I’ve “enhanced” it...sure

8:25 - “or horny” 😂

8:50 - Phil really doing some interpretation there

9:20 - he did get this out during the 'haunted curtains’ incident in 2020 (1, 2, 3, 4)

10:04 - guessing bringing his phone closer to that would do it...otherwise I am slightly freaked out

10:33 - how even...somehow not surprising that he’s dropped his glasses in the toilet before

10:55 - do wonder what in a bathroom caused that

11:33 - Phil realizing what he just said and laughing at himself is always great

11:41 - nice creepy Phil insert there

12:15 - he’s doing a good job of building up the creepy factor here

12:45 - a somewhat-normal air-quote there

13:03 - how even 😂 it’s not really noticeable though with the angles he was filming

13:15 - his hair is messier here

13:42 - messy-hair shower Phil. also: “a slight experience in the shower” um.

14:02 - the “important content” call-out

14:24 - guessing it’s definitely plugged into an outlet controlled by a switch somewhere else in the room

14:41 - that seems dangerous with Phil’s clumsiness

15:07 - dramatic music

15:20 - at least he was dreaming about goats instead of ghosts

15:54 - that is quite the hair look

16:17 - great annotations there

16:20 - he’s restyled his quiff (or filmed this in some other sequence)

I like this video, but I don’t tend to rewatch it a lot because the spon is such a big part of it. Also, it must have been much more scripted than his usual content...I’m sure he planned the different segments ahead of time. Which also means I don’t believe the time stamps or the order of the clips at all...he could have filmed all the pieces one right after another.

A couple days after this, dnp both posted content from exploring Kew Gardens (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), which they did with family for Martyn’s birthday.

#dan and phil #dnp #dnpRewatch #amazingphil #phil lester #amazingphil videos #I Try To Spend The Night In A Haunted Hotel - Ad

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collecting-stories · 3 years

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Tears Won’t Cry - c. 07 - JJ Maybank

Summary: You and JJ have sex for the first time and you hear something you’d rather not.

A/N: This chapter clocks in at a whopping 5.8k...I took some serious time with it so I hope you guys like it and, as always, thank you for reading.

You Are Ok Masterlist | Outer Banks Masterlist

✞ We’ll borrow happiness just for the night ✞

The more you thought about JJ’s offer the more tempting it seemed. Doing chores around the house, cooking, doing lessons, practicing piano for church, it didn’t matter what you were doing, that little voice in the back of your mind crept in, telling you that going with JJ would be the ultimate freedom. You wouldn’t have anyone telling you what to wear or who to talk to or what to do.

Your mom would tell you that was the voice of the ‘enemy’, the great evil that had turned Eve from god and caused immeasurable destruction. Every time the outside world came a little too close to the bubble your parents had created your mom claimed it was the work of the devil, persecuting her for her beliefs.

And didn’t Jesus spend forty days and forty nights in the desert resisting temptation from the very same devil? Hadn’t you been brought up in the church, taught the way of the Lord and encouraged, every day to resist those temptations that threatened your way of life? But here you were, spending every waking moment consumed with the idea of JJ. Maybe Jesus had survived out there but you were sure you couldn’t, not having been with JJ the way you had.

The one cardinal sin of your family, maybe more than anything else, was premarital intimacy. Sex was supposedly only good if you were married and then only intended for reproduction or for pleasing a husband. It was, according to both your parents, the most sacred part of yourself that you could give away. And even with the amount of thought you had given it, the careful consideration of your feelings and your future, you imagined burning in a holy fire or turning to salt like Lot’s wife were the only options left for you if you ever told them that you had given that part of yourself to JJ.

You had mulled over the decision for three nights, had even considered praying about it though you were sure that wasn’t the sort of prayer you addressed to God, but on the fourth night you were certain. Sitting there on the non-bunk bed in your room, listening to the sound of the faucet running as JJ brushed his teeth. You knew nothing about flirting techniques or subtle seduction...you really didn’t know anything about sex at all. Your approach so far, with every part of your relationship with JJ, had just been straightforward.

So, you were straightforward again. When JJ came out of the bathroom, shutting off the hall light and leaving your door slightly cracked the way you had told him you liked it to be, you sat up more against the head board, “I think I’m ready.”

“For?”

“For...us to have sex.” You stumbled over the words, sounding less sure out loud than you were in your head. You knew this was what you wanted; JJ was what you wanted. Even if you loved someone else someday down the line you wanted this moment to belong to the two of you.

“Right now?” JJ asked, hand still on the door knob.

“Well. I don’t really know how to initiate sex so…whatever you usually do.” You replied shrugging your shoulders.

JJ let the door stay open, leaving it to cross the room and sit down on the side of the bed. You moved closer to him, sitting sideways and letting one leg hanging over the edge, toes brushing the cold hard wood as you stared at each other. Maybe that was all that would happen, you would stare for a while, both too unsure to make the next move, until finally just resigning yourselves to sleep. JJ had always been confident in bed but this was different, everything about it felt like he was treading in uncharted territory, emotionally there was no way back from this once he jumped off the cliff.

He brought his hand up to your cheek like he’d done a thousand times before, leaning forward to kiss you. He could taste the floral chapstick you had on, a little tacky against his own lips as his tongue ran across your bottom lip. You had kissed before, made out with him pretty heavily, and though you still felt timid about somethings you tried to push that aside, shifting closer to him while breaking the kiss, biting his bottom lip as you did, JJ’s eyes opening for a second in surprise. The surprise gave way to pleasure as you kissed his neck, nudging the collar of his shirt out of the way with your nose in an attempt to access more skin.

“Here,” Eager to witness you in charge of this moment, JJ broke away to pull his shirt over his head, tossing it across the room. You smiled, a quick kiss to his lips before you were back to his neck and shoulders, the skin there tan and freckled from the sun. JJ hooked his hand under your thigh, pulling you toward him until you got the idea, hooking an arm around him for stability as you straddled his lap.

You resumed your work, alternating between leaving light kisses over the freckles on his shoulders and bruising the skin around his collar, gentle first and then eager and insatiable. Your other hand rested against his abs and you could feel his breaths under your touch, heavy and impatient. You were too afraid to ask him if anything you were doing felt good because you were afraid it didn’t. You knew you couldn’t kiss him forever but you would’ve been happy too, his skin was warm and when you scraped your teeth against his collar the moan he let out sounded heavenly. You could’ve listened to him for an eternity.

JJ caught your face in his hands, kissing you again and then leaning his forehead against yours. He liked you in control but right then, “can I?” He asked, one hand going to the hem of the shirt you were wearing for bed.

“Yeah,” you weren’t entirely sure how to proceed anyway, you were happy to let him lead. Before he could pull the shirt off, you let your leg drop off the bed, finding solid ground and stepping backward off his lap. JJ pouted, grabbing at you but you backed out of his reach. You gripped the hem of your shirt, keeping eye contact with JJ as you lifted it over your head, dropping it down by your feet.

You had imagined plenty of times that the first time you would ever undress in front of a guy it would be on your wedding night and it would be a dress that they were unzipping you from. Instead, it was an old gray t-shirt with a pun about Jesus on the front that your brother Robert had gotten at a youth retreat. Nothing special by far. But JJ looked at you like you hung the stars. He reached his hand out, grabbing yours and pulling you back to the bed. He stood you between his legs, hands on your hips.

“You alright?” JJ asked, looking up at you and smiling, thumbs rubbing circles into your hips. He was sitting there, staring at you almost entirely naked, standing in front of him and he felt like his mouth had gone dry. Frozen in some form as just the person who gets to look and he knew what a momentous thing that was for you. Just to let him see you this way.

You nodded, resting one hand on his shoulder, the other cupping his cheek and he turned his face into your palm to kiss you. The confirmation that you were okay and that the look in your eye was one of complete desire and love was the only motivation that JJ needed, pulling you into his lap again, his hands running up to your waist to hold you as he brought both of you further onto the bed.

In the prelude to sex JJ had plenty of opening lines, commentary on how hot a girl was or how she made him feel but as you kissed him again, twisting off his lap so your back was on the bed and you guide him on top of you, it all felt indescribable. JJ settled for an “I love you,” whispered into your skin as he pressed his lips to your collar, one hand moving up the expanse of your stomach while the other held him over you.

“I love you too,” your response sounded breathless, a result of JJ’s trail of kisses down to your chest. His right hand groped your right breast, thumbing brushing over your nipple repeatedly as his mouth closed the other one, pressing his tongue flat against it. The sensation was enough to have you squirm under him, tensing slightly, biting down on your lip as you griped the shorter hairs at the back of his head.

He pulled away, the cool area of the room chilling you as he switched his concentration, kissing just below your breast before his mouth to the other, hand moving to hold your side as you moaned at the feeling of his mouth on you. “Your so sensitive,” JJ commented, tone conveying the awe he felt as he continued to lavish your breasts with attention.

JJ kissed you like it was an art form, like you were something delicate and he wanted to take his time to savor every part of you. His mouth moved across your stomach, kissing parts of you that you harbored insecurities about. He stopped his appreciation of your body when he reached your underwear, resting his chin on your stomach as he looked up at you. Waiting. He’d moved himself almost off the bed, halfway to a kneel your legs hanging off the bed on either side of him. You pushed yourself onto your elbows, looking down at him as he smiled at you.

“This is what you want?” He had to be sure, wanted to hear you tell him you wanted him as much as you trusted him, as much as you loved him.

“Yes.” You felt the rush of a chill down your spine as JJ kissed the inside of your right thigh, his fingers slipping around the hem of your underwear to pull them down. Nothing spectacular, in fact-

“It’s not Thursday,” JJ laughed, reading the printed text on the front of your underwear. A gift four years ago, you still retained half the collection.

“Saturday sort of, got ruined by an early period.” You laughed, lifting your head up again, “is there usually this much talking during sex?”

“Shush,” JJ teased, nipping at the sensitive skin below your stomach. Though he didn’t say it then, any girl he’d been with before had kept themselves some level of shaved but you had obviously never felt the need to. It was no real difference to him, or so he discovered as he kissed the insides of your thighs again. As he did he pushed your legs a little further apart slating them on either side of his shoulders. You were still propped up on your elbows, watching him in fascination. No one, yourself included, had ever touched you like JJ was.

The most comprehensive sex education had skimmed over details of actual sex, promising that your future husband would know your body well enough to teach you about it on your wedding night. If Timothy had even crossed your mind while this was happening, you certainly wouldn’t have drawn any conclusions to him being this skilled.

You moaned unexpectedly, surprise laced with something else, something far more primal as JJ parted your lower lips, middle finger gently running up your slit, coating it in pre-cum, ghosting a circle around your clit. Your right thigh brushed his arm and moved onto his shoulder as the minute sensation had you trying to close your legs. JJ leaned his head against the same thigh, turning just enough that he could brush a kiss against your skin.

“I got you.” He promised.

As he continued, thumb brushing over your clit as he worked in slow circles, savouring the moment, hyper aware of every twitch, moan, or movement of your body, you fell back off your elbows. You laid flat on your back, hands gripping at sheets as JJ fingered you. He picked up the pace of his thumb, pressing a little harder as he did, his middle finger slipping back into your entrance, the movement slow but still making you jerk slightly, pressing your heel into his back.

“It’s okay,” JJ shushed, kissing you leg down to the apex of your thigh, “your okay.”

You hummed in response, in no position to use any actual words. He slipped his middle finger further inside, slowly letting you adjust to the feeling. JJ had never been this careful during sex but couldn’t deny that it was arousing in itself, taking his time, focused solely on the way you felt and not some endgame-moment-of-ecstasy. He added another finger and you squeezed your eyes shut, tensing at the feeling for a split second but it left just as quickly as it came.

JJ was off his knees, hovering over you, kissing your nose and then your mouth. “It’s okay,” he promised, “are you okay?”

“Yeah,” you were already breathing heavy, eyes fluttering open just enough to look at him. JJ’s expression softened as he moved again, hooking an arm around around you and helping you sit up, pressing his lips to your forehead.

“Not tonight?” He asked, before you could even form the words. He climbed onto the bed more so he could sit you in his lap, grabbing his discarded shirt and pulling it over your head as you caved into him.

“I thought I was ready.” You admitted, wrapping your arms around him, “I just-“

“It doesn’t have to be right now…it doesn’t even have to be soon. Whenever you’re ready.” JJ replied.

“Yeah but what about you?”

JJ shrugged, “I’d be happy with whatever you’re willing to give me.” He admitted, “it’s not…I mean you said yourself, sex is something really important to you and, I like having sex but it’s not like that for me so…I can wait. I’m not going anywhere. You should feel like it’s what you want it to be.”

“Can we just lay here for a while?” You asked, shifting so you could move up the bed to get beneath the covers. JJ followed suit, letting you get between him and the wall.

With the covers up around the both of you, JJ laid on his side, head propped propped on one hand while you held the other, fingers twirling the bracelets on his wrist. A familiar one stood out, buried under intricately knotted friendship bracelets, the neon green peeking through. You pulled at it, revealing the black ichthus that was stitched onto the cheap plastic thread.

“This is mine?” You almost laughed, holding his hand closer to your face to get a better look.

“I know,” JJ admitted, “I stole it the first night you let me in your room. I saw it on the desk and took it.”

“I’m not sure a WWJD bracelet is something you would need to consult on a daily basis.” You said. Of all the non-Christian people you had encountered in your seventeen years, JJ was the furthest from the church you could think of.

“Why, what does it mean?” He asked, pressing his nose against your jaw, kissing the underside of your chin.

“What Would Jesus Do.”

“See,” he teased, “I thought it meant ‘what would JJ do’.”

“I think that would be WWJJD and no one would want to take that advice.” You replied, letting go of his hand to pull him into a kiss.

JJ hovered over you as you deepened the kiss, one hand at the back of his head, keeping him close as you imitated his earlier actions, tongue running across his bottom lip. You grabbed his free hand, resting on your hip, and dragged it up, pushing it under your shirt and onto your stomach.

“Can we see where this goes?” You asked, pulling away enough to look in his eyes.

“Anything you want.” He promised.

JJ’s movements were as slow as they had been last time, concealed now by the blanket that was over the two of you. He stayed close, where you could see him, kissing your neck, collar, face, lips, as he slipped his fingers into your still slick entrance.

You moved your hands down to the waistband of his shorts. He’d changed into a pair of basketball shorts to sleep in, easier access than the cargo shorts he had on earlier. When your hand slipped past his waistband he pressed his face into your neck, his fingers stilling for a moment inside you.

“I should tell you, I have no idea what I’m doing,” you mentioned, voice still breathless.

JJ was tempted to tell you that it wouldn’t take much for him to lose it. “You don’t have to do anything,” he replied, kissing your throat.

“I’ve never actually seen…” you trailed off, flustered at the thought. “I mean, in a textbook.”

“This is the hottest pre-sex talk ever,” JJ teased, enjoying the way your breath hitched when he pulled his fingers out again, “someday, I’m gonna make you cum.” He said.

Your eyes widened as he licked his fingers, smiling at you as he sucked them clean. JJ flopped down next to you, pushing his shorts down without any care in the world. You covered your eyes with your hands on instinct almost and JJ laughed, grabbing your wrists and pulling your hands down to his mouth so he could kiss your palms.

“Come here.” He instructed, guiding you to straddle him, watching as you sat over his thighs. “Let me show you?”

This, JJ decided as you wrapped your hand around his cock, thumb smearing pre-cum at the tip, was arguably the hottest thing he’d ever done in his life. He closes his hand over yours, guiding you as you stroke him, your eyes focused on the way his body responded to you. JJ’s chest and face were flushed red from arousal, his own eyes trained on you as he tried to keep his control over the situation. He didn’t want to spook you again, wanted to keep you comfortable. He had never been one to tap out early when it came to sex but he wasn’t sure how long he would truly be able to last. The condom that he’d found in his backpack after you told him you wanted to have sex and he went digging sat on your bedside table and he reached for it now.

When he was sure you were ready, he moved your hands to his stomach, telling you to brace yourself on him. You followed his lead as you sat up onto your knees, one of his hands gripping your waist as he guided you down on his cock, the stretch of your walls around him lessened from the angle. You moaned at the feeling of him, short breaths filling the air as you gripped his sides.

“Fuck.” You whispered the curse word, only the second time you’d ever said it though for a reason just as fitting as the first. You couldn’t think of many others that could’ve described the feeling you were experiencing.

There were a million things JJ wanted to say as he stared up at you, a thousand emotions pressing against his chest, each more in love with you than the last. He would’ve frozen this exact moment if he could’ve, just stayed like this for an eternity because how was he supposed to see you get engaged to someone else after this. Before he could get too in his head you shifted your weight forward, rolling your hips and lifting yourself up just enough that when you came back down, walls clenching around him, JJ’s hips jerked up and his hands gripped your hips tighter, fingers digging into your skin.

“Shit, holy shit.” He muttered, coaxing you to repeat the motion. You steadied yourself with your hands on his chest, rolling your hips again. “Just like that.” The third time you tried it JJ’s grip didn’t let up, instead he took the lead, picking up your pace for you. Once you seemed to catch up to the rythmn of his movements, trying your best not to overthink anything and just focus on him, JJ dropped one of his hands. You jerked at the feeling of his fingers pushing passed your folds, thumb finding your clit again and rubbing against it.

“Oh my god, JJ,” you moaned at the feeling of him overtaking your senses, your stomach tightening as he thrust his hips up to meet you, almost falling out of the rythmn he’d been keeping as you crested, orgasming first. Loud and panting, your hand slipped and you almost collapsed on him, the shifting angle and the way you clenched around him sending him over that edge with you.

It hadn’t felt anything but natural when it happened and with anyone else you didn’t think you would’ve felt as comfortable with yourself as he made you feel. JJ didn’t rush, he wasn’t impatient or self-serving. You’d read once, in a book you read sequestered in the library away from any eyes that might recognize you, about a rather steamy romance. The book was trash but you remembered that feeling of utter confusion as you read and re-read the line about feeling ‘worshipped’. How could any one person worship another?

The question answered itself in the way that JJ held you in the afterglow. And the pure, unadulterated bliss he felt when you placed kisses along his jaw, punctuating them with reminders of how much you loved him. He’d stayed with you those four days and at the Chateau before that, only a minute bruise near his hip still evident from the last time he was home and when you asked about it he claimed it was a surfing injury.

“She loves you,” Kiara had argued when he told her that he had no intention of telling you about his father. He could see, in a way, why your parents wanted to shelter you. They were just trying to keep you safe, to shield you from all the unsavory parts of life and he, in that same way, for that same reason, couldn’t bring himself to tell you about his dad.

“She won’t love that.” He was resolved to his decision. If he didn’t tell you than things could keep on going exactly the way they had been.

But it wasn’t his dad, in fact, that had any bearing on the course of things. Meeting up with each other once your parents were home returned to be a Olympic-level obstacle. You swearing that you were headed to Kiara’s for a ‘bible study’ and promising to be home before dinner, walking instead in the direction of the Chateau.

JJ wasn’t there yet when you knocked, John B answering the door instead. “Hey, I didn’t realize you were coming over.” He greeted, stepping out onto the patio with you, “this doesn’t bother you, does it?” He was referring to the fact that he was shirtless and you shook your head.

“It’s fine, I mean, it is your house.” You shrugged, sitting on the arm of one of the couches. You loved hanging out with Kiara and Pope, they didn’t just feel like JJ’s friends but yours too. There was just something about John B, you could never quite get there with him.

“JJ said your parents were out of town last week?” He asked, “Figured that was why it was so quiet here.”

“Yeah I borrowed all the loud energy for a few days,” you laughed, “it was nice though, getting to spend time with him without having to sneak around the island.”

John B nodded, walking across the small space to look outside. He paced back over to the other couch, taking a seat on the arm, mirroring your position. With your back to the screen you couldn’t see JJ approaching the house and later it was obvious that was John B’s intent all along. “Look, you seem really nice and I don’t wanna hurt your feelings, I think you’re a really cool person,” he started, pausing at the right spot to build anticipation.

“But?” You asked. You missed the sound of JJ’s boots on the steps for the creaky nature of the floorboards when John B stood up.

“But he’s only dating you for a bet. Sarah bet him $200 he could get you to sleep with him.” He replied, the sound of the door slamming open the perfect punctuation to the sentence.

“What the fuck John B!” JJ snapped, tackling his friend into the couch you were sitting on the arm of. You jumped, stumbling back a few steps, eyes wide as JJ punched John B in the ribs, pinning him down to the couch. The whole thing felt like it was playing out in slow motion but sped up at the same time. When John B finally managed to shove JJ off of him, throwing the blond to the floor, you snapped out of whatever trance it had ensnared you in.

“JJ!” You said his name before he could even get himself back on his feet and both boys looked at you. “Is it true?”

JJ stood up, grabbing his hat off the ground and clenching his fists around it. When he paid John B back it had been with the implied understanding that no one outside of their circle ever needed to know about the bet. Pope had urged him to tell you, insisting that maybe you would understand. But it was far too late for that. The bet was that the two of you had sex and you had and knowing about the bet did nothing but cheapen the moment.

“Is it true?” You repeated, trying to hold tears at bay as everything felt like it was crashing around you. This was exactly why your mom believed so strongly that the outside world was innately evil.

“It wasn’t that simple-“ JJ started to say but you cut him off.

“Yes or no?” You snapped, voicing raising more than JJ had ever heard, even when you were freaking out over lunch with Timothy’s family, “is John B telling the truth?”

“Yes.” JJ sighed, running a hand through his hair. You backed away from both of them and turned, pulling the door open and running down the steps. “Fuck,” he cursed, taking off after you. He called your name but you didn’t answer, going along the path he’d shown you between your house and John B’s. The moment you hit the yard he stopped, he couldn’t follow you there, as if the ground was poisonous to his touch. It was a natural repellent and he stood at the edge of the tree line, watching you head inside.

Minutes. It took minutes, and John B deciding to be an absolute asshole, to completely pull apart the only actual relationship he’d ever been in. He wanted nothing more than to go back to the Chateau and beat the shit out of John B until he felt better but he knew, in reality, that nothing was bound to actually make him feel anything but completely broken. You were gone. JJ changed course, heading instead to Heyward’s.

He had told Pope, while both of them were in the kitchen at John B’s, that he had slept with you for the first time. Kiara had told him, because he had blabbed to her too, that virginity was a social construct.

“You shouldn’t make such a big deal out of it.” She’d insisted.

“It is a big deal Kie, to her. It’s a huge fucking deal.” He had argued.

But none of that felt like it even mattered cause he had fucked up so badly that he wasn’t entirely sure how to fix it. He could certainly chance going to your house but he didn’t want to show up too soon. If you needed time he wanted to give that to you, whatever you needed, so long as, in the end, you believed him when he told you that it was all just a mistake. The bet, not you.

Kiara called JJ that night, you had come by her house after dinner, after asking your parents if you could sleep over, and apologizing for showing up at all. “I know this is shitty to do to you, JJ’s your best friend, I just…don’t have other friends to go to.” You had all but cried when Kiara hugged you, pulling you into her house.

You certainly couldn’t call any of your siblings, even the ones you were closest too would not be understanding. All they would see was a girl who broke her vows to the church by dating, by having sex, by lying and tricking your parents. There was no possible way that anyone in your house or your family or even anyone in your church would understand your decision to, in their minds, turn your back on God to be with a boy. So you went to Kiara’s and hoped that she wouldn’t turn you away. Whatever the bet with JJ was, you felt like Kiara was a friend, someone you could count on more than anyone else in your life right now.

“You can come over anytime, about anything.” She promised.

“I just feel so stupid,” you confessed, sitting on the bed in her bedroom, drinking a seltzer from her secret stash behind her desk. Losing your virginity, getting drunk, crying over a boy, you’d hit all your milestones in a week. If you were sober, if you weren’t so upset, you would be able to look at it for what it was but instead you stuck in this place, grieving over something you thought was so real. “John B said it was all just a bet.”

“What did JJ say?” Kiara asked. She knew about the bet but had felt like it was JJ’s place to tell you. Obviously, he had not.

“That it was, that John B was telling the truth.” You replied, taking another sip.

“Maybe you should talk to him?” She suggested. It was a tricky line to walk down but Kiara didn’t want you to give up on JJ. She knew he had feelings for you. “I’ve been friends with JJ for a really long time, I’ve never seen him like this.”

Kiara had known JJ since middle school and she’d watched him, since then, go through different relationships, if they could be called that. Dates required more effort than he was willing to give when they expected the same attention that he paid to his friends, quickly altering the way he approached relationships until they were just hook-ups. Just short lived moments, half the time too drunk to remember. He flirted, an empty gesture that compensated for his need to be physically close to people without him having to seem clingy.

“I just don’t know why he didn’t tell me.” You cried. “No wonder my parents never wanted me to date, it hurts so much.”

“I know,” Kiara lamented, crawling across the bed so she could pull you into a hug, your head resting against her shoulder as you continued to cry. It was like an endless sadness, you couldn’t imagine recovering from.

It was when you finally fell asleep, exhausted from crying and almost entirely drunk, that Kiara finally called JJ. She left you tucked in her bed, going into the bathroom and locking the door as she sat on the closed toilet to call him. It was nearing three in the morning but he answered anyway, immediately asking if she had heard from you.

“She took off toward her house and it’s not like I can call her or something. I followed her to her yard but I was worried her parents would see me.” JJ had hastily explained. He’d thought about going back later but when he did your mom was in the yard and he didn’t want to chance it.

“She’s here.” Kiara replied, voice low so her parents did come snooping when they heard voices. Her mom had been dying to get some kind of gossip out of you when you first showed up.

“John B told her about the bet.”

“Did you explain that you gave the money back?” She asked.

“I…I just kinda got into it with John B.” He admitted. “In my defense though, she didn’t let me explain!” He knew it wasn’t your fault, you were upset, but thinking that it’d been him, by proxy, that had hurt you like that had his stomach turning.

“I’m pretty sure finding out that the first guy you’ve ever dated or had feelings for was using you for a bet would be kind of traumatizing JJ! She doesn’t really wanna talk to anyone, she barely explained what happened, she just keeps saying how stupid she feels.” Kiara replied.

“I just need to talk to her.”

“Maybe just, give it some time?” She suggested.

“I don’t have time.” JJ replied, pulling at strands of his hair as he combed his fingers through it. “She’s eighteen in a week. Her parents set her up with this guy from Tennessee and she’s going be engaged on her birthday. I can’t let her go through with it.”

“That’s part of her life JJ, I mean, that’s what her family believes-“

“She deserves more than that!”

“And you can provide this? I don’t wanna be that bitch Jay but, seriously? You can provide something for her that’s better than, at least, some security. Something worth giving up her entire family for?” Kiara asked. She knew she sounded awful but she couldn’t help questioning him. The last thing she wanted was you trapped into a life you didn’t want but JJ playing like everything would be rainbows and good times if you left was impractical.

“I have a plan.”

“And what exactly, is that?”

“Look, I don’t fucking need you getting all high and mighty!” JJ spat, pissed as it was. Kiara had the nerve to tell him not to make such a big deal about sex but she could turn around and bitch him out for wanting to ‘interfere with your life’. He knew she was just trying to be a decent friend to you but he didn’t want her input, he just wanted her to put you on the phone.

“You’re playing with her life here Jay…if she chooses you, if you apologize and she gets back together with you…she will never get to speak to her family again. Is that what you want?” She questioned, “to have her ostracized from her family.”

“I want her to be happy.” JJ replied, “and to know that none of this was fake.”

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beautifulchaostrash · 3 years

Text

Billy Lenz Commentary Notes

TW/CW: discussion of childhood abuse, alchoholism

Quick disclaimer: Billy Lenz is a horrifically unreliable narrator when it comes to what he’s thinking and saying, BUT, consider this: i suffer from brain rot and am willing to overlook that fact for the sake of character development because i love him and want him to be happy. So, I watched the Billy Lenz Commentary and took notes on everything he said and I even included time-stamps bc i am an Ultra Dork and have no friends :,D. (/lh) The commentary was recorded several decades after the actual movie came out, so Billy is around the age of 50-60.

Everything is under a cut bc it’s long skdskldj

Stims:

-(1:29)clapping

-lots of repeating lines/narrating/verbal ticks

-specifically repeats his “T”s a lot, lots of clicking noises

-imitating a British accent

-(10:24) imitates the sound of an incorrect buzzer

-meows a lot

Possible Spins:

-movies/acting

-The Shadow( it was a comic series popular in the early 1940′s)(12:46)

-Shakespeare (15:19)

-playing the piano(35:37, gets super upset when Peter destroys the piano)

-singing, choir (1:46, 46:51, 1:00:06, 1:02:32, 1:35:57)

-(1:02:39) quotes a Christmas Carol

-He’s seen/or read the shining!!! (1:34:30-1:35:48) he quotes a few scenes from the movie!

Likes:

-strawberries???(1:30)

-christmas is his fav holiday, unless this line is part of the Christmas Carol quote, I didn’t bother looking it up so imma role with it. He also likes pudding!(1:02:37)

-pastrami sandwiches(1:25:24)

Dislikes:

-seeing people kiss(5:37)

-not really a dislike per se, but he mentions a couple of times about getting pissed off and upset. Maybe has really strong emotions and has trouble dealing with them.(1:07:17, 1:09:11)

MISC Notes:

-wears glasses! (4:25, 1:08:26)

-(8:00) self aware, has been to therapy before

-(26:04)says some kind of math equation??? He was talking too fast and I couldn’t pick it out all I got was √5+1 or something?

-analyzes the movie and the underlying messages and themes

-was in a theatre troupe at some point(45:46)

-(50:44) billy’s dad was absent and his mother physically abused him

-(1:07:16) he calls John Saxon “daddy” ADJFSJDCBASJCSGHVA

-(1:20:40) he says he’s not gay (he is)

-(1:25:42, 1:28:07) good at mimicking voices

-(1:27:52) struggles with intrusive thoughts and impulse control

-(1:33:21) humms a song that I don’t recognize

SPECULATIVE(aka: me reading way to much into shit):

-(8:07) “I fell in love with a pig, the pig never loved me back” possible reference to something? Maybe abuse or neglect? Pig ie: mother = his mother never loved him

-(52:50) appears to go into some kind of dissociative state where he talks about a man named Dave, asking him “what’s wrong Dave,” and saying “Don’t go, don’t leave me Dave”. Potentially the name of Billy's father and he’s repeating what his mother said to his father before he left? For some reason it feels like he’s not quoting a movie here, i looked it up and couldn’t find anything. I could be wrong though!

-(57:36) yes I know he’s mocking barb in this scene but shut up okay I’m using this as evidence that he has high empathy cause literally shut the fuck up no literally shit the fuck up he blows his goddamn nose wich means he was actually crying you shut the fuck up /lh

-(1:31:51) talks about being in front of a court and not having a choice. Maybe he was put on trial for what he did to his sister?

-Mod Elith

#Billy Lenz #black christmas #black christmas 1974 #billy comentary #slasher #hcs #character analysis #i am taking the fact that lenz wears glasses to my GRAVE #mod elith

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ingek73 · 3 years

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‘They call us bewitched’: the DRC performers turning trash into art – photo essay

Dolls found in rubbish dumps, radio parts and discarded flip-flops are among items used to create surreal costumes by a Kinshasa collective highlighting political and environmental issues

Kris Pannecoucke

Published: 07:01 Friday, 20 August 2021

As a child, Shaka Fumu Kabaka witnessed the atrocities that took place during the six-day war between Ugandan and Rwandan forces in his home town of Kisangani in June 2000.

“It was not even our war, but a war between two foreign armies,” he said.

The fighting led to more than 1,000 deaths and left many more wounded in the northern city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “I lost relatives,” says Kabaka.

Kabaka, 33, is one of a small but growing band of multidisciplinary artists in the country’s capital Kinshasa who create elaborate costumes from household rubbish found at dumps or on the streets. Matshozi 6 Jours (Six Days of Tears) is a surreal outfit he made from scavenged dolls to honour the victims of the six-day war.

“Every time I see a broken doll lying around somewhere in the street, it reminds me of what happened in Kisangani. They symbolise the victims I saw with my own eyes,” says Kabaka.

It took a year to collect all the dolls. “The first time I wore the costume, it was a heavy burden. Not because of the weight, but because of the number of casualties it represents.”

Kabaka can often be found at the collective Ndaku Ya La Vie Est Belle, a group of Kinshasa street performers who turn their bodies into living sculptures. The collective has found a home in the Matonge district, where the singer Papa Wemba formed his band Viva La Musica. About 20 artists turn rubbish into bizarre wearable artworks. Using their costumes as political commentary, Kabaka says his work also highlights the desperate need to recycle in a city overflowing with rubbish and plastic.

Every time I see a broken doll lying in the street, it reminds me of what happened in Kisangani

Shaka Fumu Kabaka, artist

I lived on the streets. I was homeless but I discovered art and it has given me a voice

Falonne Mambu, artist

Despite their striking appearances, the artists say they are often ignored by the city’s residents (known as Kinois) or dismissed as eccentrics. “They look at us strangely,” says Kabaka.

“[I’m a] man with Rasta haircut who collects material at the rubbish dump – the inhabitants of Kinshasa call us crazy or bewitched.”

This August, Kabaka and his fellow artists will take to Kinshasa’s streets for KinAct, a week-long arts festival. Founded in 2015 by Eddy Ekete, who was born in Kinshasa, and Aude Bertrand from France, KinAct takes place in several of the capital’s neighbourhoods. As well as street performances, the festival runs workshops to introduce children to different art forms, including theatre, sculpture, painting and poetry.

Dressed in a piece made from drinks cans, Ekete was one of the first artists to roam Kinshasa’s streets in costume. The work, Homme Canette, was inspired by artists he had met in Brazil and west Africa.

Among the artists taking part in the festival is Kalenga Kabangu Jared, a student at Kinshasa art academy. Jared regularly takes to the streets dressed as Robot Annonce. The costume, made from broken radio parts, is designed to raise awareness of fake news. “People receive so much incorrect information and many inaccuracies are spread. I want to fight this,” says Jared.

Another performer, Falonne Mambu, drew inspiration from her past when she created Femme Électrique (Electric Woman) out of electric wire. “I lived on the streets. I was homeless. But I discovered art and it has given me a voice,” says the 30-year-old.

“In the dark, the residents dare not come out of their houses. If there were light, social control would be greater, more people would be on the street. What I experienced on the streets of Kinshasa as a homeless young woman and what many girls still experience today I address through my paintings and performances. I can talk about sexual violence through my work,” says Mambu, who has worn her costume at protests against sexual violence and kidnappings.

Flory Sinanduku, a member of art collective Farata, has made a name for himself in his neighbourhood – his courtyard is full of works of art. His costumes made of medicine packages and syringes are a statement about poor healthcare in the DRC, he says.

His friend Junior Nobiko opens a bag of plastic cable coatings. “You are the first to see it,” says Nobiko proudly. “But I don’t know yet if I’ll wear it at the KinAct.”

In the street, he asks some passersby to help him wriggle in and out of his costume.

#drc #democratic republic of the congo #performance art #kinshasa #street performer #ndaku ya la vie est belle #the guardian

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dailyaudiobible · 3 years

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07/22/2021 DAB Transript

2 Chronicles 6:12-8:10, Romans 7:14-8:8, Psalm 18:1-15, Proverbs 19:24-25

Today is the 22nd day of July, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian, it's great to be here with you today. Wonderful to come around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together in our week, in our month and in our year. This week we've been reading from the New Living Translation which is certainly what we plan to continue to do for the rest of the week. We have begun the book of 2 Chronicles this week and so that's where we find ourselves 2 Chronicles chapter 6 verse 12 through 8 verse 10 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so as we continue our journey through the letter to the Romans, we see Paul being really vulnerable and deeply confessional about his own life by telling us he does the things he doesn't want to do and the things that he wants to do he doesn't do, that he’s in a battle. So, lets zoom out just a little bit and understand that this is part of an ongoing conversation about the law and sin and how the law reveals sin. But if the law wasn't there, then how could you sin, you wouldn't know you did anything wrong. It's the law than that reveals you have transgressed. And, now Paul’s kind of talking about this dichotomy of when you die with Christ and are raised up, the law that had claimed, the law of sin that had claimed to you, no longer has any claim to you. There's this dichotomy that we still choose to do what we know is not right. So, the question is, is the law bad then because if it didn't exist then we would never be able to do anything wrong. We can do whatever we wanted, and if we have died to the law and are resurrected in Christ and the law of sin has no more control or claim to us than we can do whatever we want because we’re free in Christ. This is the type of argument or the type of conversation that Paul is systematically leading us through. So, as we begin our reading today, he says so, the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good, right. The law itself isn't the problem. It's there to show you not to transgress against it, because if you do, you step into spiritual sin. Same things apply in laws of our lands. Right, I mean, if you're in like a subdivision and there's a speed limit of 20 mph and you decide you, you're not…you're going to not obey…obey that law, you’re going a hundred. Then you are going to be jeopardizing people and you could kill someone so, you can break that law and maybe get away with it, but eventually that law is going to get you because it's there to protect people, to protect things. So, Paul’s like the law isn't the problem. The law isn't the bad thing. It's transgressing, it's choosing to break it which is what leads us to Paul's confessional language and some now I quote…I quote this because Paul's saying it from thousands of years ago, but I believe it pretty much nails every single one of us. Paul says “the trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don't really understand myself for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I'm doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good, so I am not the one doing wrong. It is sin living in me that does it.” So, what Paul is saying here is, if I do what I know is wrong then I am affirming the law because if it wasn't there, what I'm doing, that I know is wrong wouldn't be wrong because there'd be nothing to disobey. But then Paul acknowledges what a challenge this is and he almost kind of gives sin a personality or personifies in some sort of way like it's an entity of some kind, as opposed to a concept of some kind. He’s like, if I do what I don't want to do, I'm not really the one doing wrong. It's sin living in me that does it. And let’s continue, I have discovered this principle of life, that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind this power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. What a miserable person I am. Okay, so that's very confessional and very vulnerable and very much, pretty much I believe all of our story. This is what we’re experiencing. But, how can we be free from the claims of sin and the power of sin still resides within us? Well, that's because we have a choice. In some ways it's almost as if we have been made free and we have been given permission to live free. A claim of sin no longer has a hold over us and the primary implication of that is we are not separated from God. We can have an intimate, ongoing, always on, never off relationship with God directly. Not to sacrifice animals or any of the rituals, we are restored to God through Christ Jesus. In the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruits, they were in right standing with God. Everything was as it was supposed to be and even in that state, they had a choice and they made the choice. So, even in that freedom from sin state that we have in Christ Jesus. We still have choice. Sin is kind of like a squatter. Sin has no right to be here. We don't have a contract with sin that allows it to have certain access to our hearts at certain times of the day, and it pays rent. We already understand that the rent or the wages that it's going to pay is death. So, when we choose it, that's what we’re choosing. It doesn't have a right to be here. We just let it squat for free and bring death, which is weird when we think about it in those terms. Weird. So, what are we supposed to do? According to Paul, and I quote Paul “who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God the answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So, you see how it is, in my mind I really want to obey God's law but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.” So, in so many ways, Paul is saying, sin was a perpetual state. Christ came and set us free from the claims, the power of sin. We still can enter into sin any time we want. We can allow it to squat in our lives and bring the destruction that it brings. And it's a constant battle, but we are free from its claims through the Lord Jesus Christ and we do not have to participate. Paul says it like this and its famous “so now, there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus, because you belong to Him the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The Law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So, God, did what the law could not do, He sent His own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have and in that body God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.” So once again, we circle back to the fact that we are utterly dependent upon God. We can't do this but He has done it. We can choose to enter into sin and suffer the repercussions of it, but it has no claim to us. It can entice us so that we become a slave to it because, as Paul told us, we’re slaves to whatever we obey. But we are under no obligation here to allow this stuff to squat in our lives anymore.

Prayer:

So Holy Spirit, we invite you into that, so often we just we just try to make peace with some of this stuff, we know it's not helpful, we know it's harmful, just kinda always been there, it’s just kinda how things are done and how we cope, how we get along. But You've invited us to raise the bar. We continually ask You to help us grow and to open our eyes. We’re showing up here every day to allow the Scriptures to speak into our lives and so we have determined, at least in some part of our heart, we need to go further and that we need to go deeper and then this needs to matter more in our walk, in our journey through life. And so, You’re gonna continue to go after the big and little things inside of us. And sin, sin leads only one place and it's not at all where we’re going and so there may be squatters in our lives that keep tripping us up and that we keep obeying and enslaving ourselves that just need to be evicted, just permanently evicted. They don't have a right to be here. Help, help us Lord, help us Lord, we are utterly dependent upon You because we can't in our own strength do much of anything. So, come Holy Spirit and help us make moves in the right direction we pray in the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Prayers and Encouragements:

Hello Daily Audio Bible family, this is a Treasured Possession. My husbands out mowing the lawn and he’s getting a new job on Monday and my grandkids, I’m no longer watching them and he’s actually gonna go back to work, we’ve all been vaccinated and he’ll be wearing a mask and be safe and stuff. But, for the first time in a while I will be completely alone. And I gotta say I’m kind of scared about it. And so, I’m being outrageously brave cause I don’t normally ask for prayer because if…if you know a heart, a hope deferred makes the heart sick and I’ve experienced a lot of that in my life. So, I’m coming to you and I’m asking for prayer please help me. Please ask God to help me and really strengthen me. So, I don’t go down a weird rabbit hole. So that I can get my own schedule cause I’ve been so dependent on his schedule because we’re autistic. And I know you don’t know what that means but it…suffice it to say we’re just wired differently and we work together really well as a unit. But it’s just a bit odd. And I know that…I know I may come across as a bit odd but I’m hoping that as the Spirit in Christ is the same amongst all of us you guys can understand and hear…hear me. But I love you, I listen to you. You basically keep my life smooth. And thank you so much. God Bless you and thank you.

Hello fellow DABers. I want to let you know that I pray for you every day on the prayer line and on the weekend community prayer. Let’s do what God expects of us and leave Him to do His part. All He expects is that we believe He is able to handle all that we’re experiencing. My call today is for Vincent Walking in Love in Connecticut. Vincent the promise Jesus made in John 10:10 abundant life is absolutely true. If this was not the case then Jesus would be a liar and he is not, however, there are conditions we must abide in him. John 15:4 for starters. I gave my life to Christ Jesus while I was a teenager in school and I've continued to walk with him ever since. Now, I'm in my 60s and I've never regretted for one moment, committing to my life to Christ. Someone said when God saves you, He not only save your soul but your life and as I look back I can see how God take care of me even when I made decisions that led me into sinning. I repented and got his forgiveness. God has indeed been gracious to me over the years. I have peace of mind, a family, a career, a good paying job and resources so I can share above all His presence. David said unless I had belief to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, I would've fainted some Psalm 27:13-14. God is faithful and you…He can be trusted to make His abundant life a reality for you. Just get to know Him. Randolph from Toronto.

Good afternoon DAB family today is July 18. Tomorrow marks a year when my sister found me unconscious in her room and I am just so incredibly grateful and that God saw fit that should still be here. That I can celebrate this occasion, this moment with my sister and just look back at what I've overcome and I couldn't be more thankful, grateful now to my sister who was my rock during this whole ordeal. That I had gone through different transfers of hospitals and rehab. Not once did COVID touch me and I had some setbacks but nothing so serious that my life was in danger and I’m just so incredibly thankful. And I just feel so blessed and I had to share this and it seems so inconsequential to just keep saying thank you Lord, thank you but that’s…that’s all I have. And to just say I am just so blessed to have family and friends who prayed for me and who hung in there with my family and just stayed in the fight with us and I’m just so thankful. I just had to say this. Thank you for allowing me to have this forum. Thank you, Brian and I love you DAB family. Take care.

Hi everyone this is Souring on Eagles Wings from Canada on Sunday, July 18th. __ from California you’re battling things in your mind you are doing things you don’t want to do and you want freedom from the strongholds that are seeming to overpower you, your right knee needs healing and your children and grandchildren you’re asking for prayers. I am praying for you and I and I am praying with you. Mike from New York you're also being bombarded with in your mind with feelings of death and I'm taking both of you to the throne of grace this evening. Ephesians 6 verse 11 through 12 says put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the whiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. So, I am praying for both a you as you wrestle with these things that are wanting to overpower your mind, that our heavenly Father through his Holy Spirit would deliver you from that which is wanting to take you down and you will focus on our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us some authority to tear down strongholds in his name and I tear down the strongholds over both of you so that you would have freedom to enjoy the life that the Lord has given you and in service to Him. I pray for your children and grandchildren too.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family, I’m Zack and I was gonna call to ask for prayer for guidance for me and my wife. We’ve been through a lot and we’re trying to find, just guidance through a rough patch but I want more so pray for the woman that says she's been shipwrecked. I just want you to know that if anyone understands how you're feeling or going through, it’s the Lord who sees you. It’s the Lord that that hears you. It’s the one that knows you and is acquainted with all of your ways according Psalm 139. And when you talk about that like this place, you’re at it reminds me of Psalm 42 like this pit that you feel like you came from this miry clay that you can’t get out. And one thing I love about…about the Lord is the passage where it says cast your cares on the Lord for, he cares for you. Another translation is cast your anxieties on Him for He cares for you. Many people in this life, ask us how we are doing multiple times a day without really carrying how you're actually doing. But God is the one person you don't have to explain or worry about misunderstanding. He’s the one person that when you actually pour out your heart to, He casts your cares Him, He actually cares for you and how beautiful that is. And I hope that your…I hope you know that God sees you and I pray that God restores you and comes alongside you, and if anything, that you would not feel alone, because I know…I feel like I can relate to you if anything, maybe you can pray for my wife and I where we felt stuck. But if anything, I just pray God responds with his perfect love.

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textjacket1 · 3 years

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Content

Neuropeptides.

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Unlike with collagen and elastin products, peptides cannot be inserted just anywhere on your skin. This is because the peptide molecules are too large to penetrate through many of your skin's layers. These molecules do have the ability to interact with the dermis and connective tissues though. But this happens after they have been integrated and couldn't be further from the truth. The right way to use peptide supplements is to replenish your body's supply of these building blocks and you will see the results immediately.

Peptides have a number of uses. They can act as neurotransmitters by delivering information across the synapses. Peptides can activate or inhibit the different enzymes and receptors that carry out the transport of information across the synapse. Peptides also have roles in immunity and growth. Peptides have also been shown to be involved in the production of different enzymes such as histone acetyl-transferase, which helps in the synthesis of collagen and elastin and non-genetic RNases, which help in the production of DNA strands as well as various protein fragments.

Neuropeptides.

The reason for the confusion is that some people think that the use of peptides is like applying muscle building compounds to the skin, in that it "weals" the skin by increasing the number of amino acids that are present. In reality, peptides are single-protein molecules, composed of a single chain of amino acid. Unlike amino acids that are found in proteins like the casein protein, which is found in mammals and other living organisms, peptides are nonprotein materials that cannot be converted to proteins.

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The best way to understand how peptides work is to consider how DNA is formed. DNA is a string of fifty amino acids that, when put together in the right way, form a strand of genetic information that makes up the genetic code of a cell. The sequence of amino acids that make up DNA is called A, C, G, T, and J. While the sequence itself doesn't change, the arrangement of the atoms that make up this DNA structure does change. For instance, when you compare your DNA to the genetic code in bacteria and other organisms, you will see differences in how the letters of the code are written. This is how scientists identify living things with a genetic code.

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Another ingredient with a lot of potential is the use of copper peptides. Shop BPC157 Online is considered a very important mineral and a lot of experts believe that it has very positive effects on the health. The use of copper peptides is believed to increase the availability of oxygen and supply of nutrients to injured cells.

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Ingredients you should never mix with vitamin CVitamin C + Benzoyl peroxide. Vitamin C + Retinol. Vitamin C + AHAs/BHAs. Vitamin C + Niacinamide.

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Another peptide, an amino acid called arginine is also being looked at. A recent study showed that the intake of arginine peptides significantly promoted the formation of collagen and elastin. Collagen and elastin are the building blocks of connective tissues and are very important in skin, muscle and ligament fibers. Another peptide that is believed to promote health is the L-glutamine. Recent studies showed that L-glutamine prevents the breakdown of muscle protein.

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There are two main ways in which peptides are used today. One uses their use to stimulate or improve an existing biological function, such as the production of collagen in the skin or breast tissue or the production of neurotransmitters in the brain; the other uses their use in supplements designed to improve a person's diet or enhance his or her body's ability to fight disease. Research has shown that peptides can reduce the symptoms of arthritis, improve muscle growth, increase the production of neurotransmitters in the brain, stimulate cell regeneration in the brain, fight infections, and perform many other physiological functions. Some research indicates that peptides may also prevent cancer and extend life. More research is still needed to determine whether or not these claims are valid.

The amino acid bodybuilders use in their diets is a source of peptides; however, there is no scientific evidence that these bodybuilding peptides have any beneficial effect on muscle growth. On the other hand, peptides have many uses in the medical and health care field. Peptides play an important role in many functions in your body, including immunity, wound healing, and the body's thermostat control. Because of these many uses, peptides are a promising alternative to more traditional forms of protein supplementation.

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Peptides are relatively non-proteinous components of proteins. a company that offers consist of chains of up to thirty amino acids, attached by peptide chains, or peptides. Chains of less than fifteen or twenty amino acids are known as peptides and comprise polypeptide chains, tripeptide chains, and hexapeptide chains.

No need for a long period of time period off in between cycles; the recommended time of duration for regular cycles would be Time on +PCT, so for a typical 6 week cycle as well as 4 week PCT, an individual would certainly need to wait another 10 weeks after PCT to begin another cycle.

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Peptides have biological activity, which includes formation of chemicals called peptides and release of neurotransmitters (neurotransmitters are chemicals that send signals across the nerve cells). Peptides have multiple effects on the body; some are considered important for survival, others are involved in metabolism, others are involved in development and some play a role in immunity. Peptides can be classified according to their molecular type (amine, cysteine, glycine, proline, taurine, GABA, molybdenum, methionine, arginine, etc.) and according to their metabolic function (cytoplasmic, exocytosis, metabolism, etc.). pharmalabglobal.com 99% Purity Tb500 free trial can be classified further according to their physiological role (cytoplasmic, myostatin, glycolysis, etc.)

These peptides are effective in increasing skin cell proliferation and improving collagen and elastin fibers. They have been shown to improve skin firmness and elasticity. You can get thicker, fuller looking skin from the use of these ingredients.

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Peptide types for bodybuilding Bodybuilders may be particularly interested in peptides known as growth hormone secretagogues (GHS). The most popular GHSs people use for bodybuilding include: Growth-hormone releasing hormones: such as sermorelin, tesamorelin, CJC-1293, and CJC-1295.

Peptides are long sequences of amino acids, attached by peptide bonds, which are part of many protein complexes. Commonly known as peptides, chains of up to fifteen or twenty amino acids are known as monomers and include peptides, thermoform, unfolding peptides, polypeptide chains, peptides and ribosomes. The term 'peptide' is derived from the Greek word pets, meaning 'protein', and logos (peptide head) are visible in chemical structures (such as a polypeptide bond) when light has broken a bond. Peptides can be single-stranded (one-chain) or double stranded (two chains). The double-stranded form is more soluble and is generally considered less bioavailable than the single-stranded form.

Peptides can combine with other amino acid molecules in a peptide chain to produce new proteins (which are also known as peptides). The most common type of peptide is a mixture of amino acids known as peptides. These peptides have an extended base that is complementary to another amino acid, which is called a peptide chain.

Peptides can be made in the lab from proteins that have already been analyzed or are available in raw form in a variety of foods. Alternatively, peptides can be derived from peptides derived from non-protein sources. Peptides serve as building blocks for most proteins and are involved in many chemical reactions that change the shape of amino acids and other molecules. They are used in medicine to synthesize many medications, including antibiotics, hormones, and blood-glucose regulators. Peptides also play a role in the body's immune system.

While there are some people who believe that amino acids can help people to build strength and muscle mass, very little evidence exists to support this belief. Although it may be true that amino acids help to build strength and muscle mass, there is no clear evidence that they do so. Similarly, while it is true that some people may have an easier time developing muscles than others due to their intake of creatine peptides, there is no scientific evidence to support this hypothesis.

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ataswegianabroad · 3 years

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Alone Amongst the Gum Trees Part 3 - It Was Murdoch All Along

NOTE - this article has been migrated to Medium. As of 2021, A Taswegian Abroad will be closed down, and all of my writing will be published on my Medium profile.

“For some time, Australia’s democracy has been slowly sliding into disrepair. The nation’s major policy challenges go unaddressed, our economic future is uncertain and political corruption is becoming normalised. We can’t understand the current predicament of our democracy without recognising the central role of Murdoch’s national media monopoly.

There is no longer a level playing field in Australian politics. We won’t see another progressive government in Canberra until we deal with this cancer in our democracy.”

- Kevin Rudd - THE CASE FOR COURAGE

Foreword

I started this as a brain dump on July 25th, 2016 just before I flew back to Australia for 4 weeks. I decided to wait to finish it as an “Alone Amongst the Gum Trees” piece after the 2016 US election as it would have directly impacted the outcome.

That was the plan, anyway. I forgot entirely that I had written this draft for almost 5 years. The next thing you know: it’s early 2021, I’m married, have a dog, a car, and my first child is due in August.

My last political opinion piece was from April 11, 2016: a piece on how Bernie Sanders was being treated in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.

So what happened from mid-2016 to early 2021? I didn’t jump back down the political commentary rabbit hole. No more rants on Tumblr blogs. No angry posts on Facebook. The odd spicy tweet about the current election happening between my old home (Australia), my new home (Canada) and the messed up cousin next door (United States). I instead chose to divert my love of writing to sports (see https://thefiftyfooty.com/), technology, and music.

From a political standpoint I chose to mostly stop talking, and to listen. Now don’t become misconstrued: I did not ignore it. I was very active over the Provincial and Federal Canadian elections of 2015 and 2019, I followed the unprecedented US political climate very closely given our proximity to the United States (and learned a lot in the process), and I voted in the most recent 2019 Australian election (my third from Toronto since leaving in 2012).

If I take a step back - I still need to be self-critical: I was defeated and I surrendered to the tidal-wave of the far-right. I was watching the US tear itself in two over race, alternative facts, and radical ideology. I was watching the UK go down a similar path with Brexit and Boris Johnson. I was watching my beloved homeland of Australia continue to confusingly elect damaging conservative governments despite the polls, trends, movements and more indicating it was time for a change.

As I matured into my late 20′s and now early 30′s (*gulp*) I was asking myself: was this how it was going to be? Did the western world just decide “we’re done with progressive views, let stick it in reverse for a bit and see how we go”? If that was true, then why did Canada buck this trend with Trudeau in 2015 & 2019? Why was New Zealand thriving under Arden after 2017 and 2020?

I went to a dark place on this.

But then something amazing happened. Enter former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd talking about wanting a royal commission into Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp empire who control 70% of print media in Australia.

Did he say 70% of all print media in Australia?

I STRONGLY recommend taking 15 minutes to watch this video. It will do a much better job of painting the scene than I ever could. If not, you can still read on through.

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After doing some looking into this: all I can say is that I didn’t have to dig very far to have my fire reignited. All I can think about now is this #MurdochRoyalCommission

My world view has changed, and what I am about to write next will explain a few things that I hope will change yours too.

This is not a left vs right piece. This is not a blame, shame, or complain piece either. I won’t curse or abuse, because this is a self reflection, a cry of encouragement, and a call to action to all who live in and want to protect the political integrity of democracy around the world.

I am here to explain my thought patterns with the goal of having at least one more person under the thumb of Murdoch’s “beast” realise just what’s going on, and to encourage that person to make more informed decisions knowing the facts.

The Path to En-frightened-ment

February 2014 was the last time I updated the long-form political arm of my blog. Back then as a young man exposed to his first bout of political and social disappointment after the 2013 Australian election - I felt the need to get it all out and I did in a little more linguistically brash Part 2 of “Alone Amongst the Gum Trees”.

I was in an interesting position then. I was a 23 year old finding his place in the world - personally, politically, spiritually, environmentally. I was mostly deciding whether or not I was done with Toronto and it if was time to stay home permanently after spending 3 months back in Australia.

I chose no. I left. I came back to Toronto and the rest is history.

Then one day a couple of years later I got us flights back to Australia for a visit. After nearly 3 years avoiding it (mostly because of my post-election distaste for Australian ignorance), it was time to bite the bullet and go home for a bit.

In 2014 I mentioned:

...let’s talk about Australia, how things changed, how it looked from outside the huge wall that the government apparently has built around the country now, and how it looks from a bloke who literally can not wait to leave again.

I had been anxious about that trip for a while. Not because I hadn’t seen everyone for so long or because it was my wife’s (then girlfriend who became my fiance on that trip) first time visiting, it was because Australia had a chance to move away from the “ignorance, inequality, narrow-minded idiocy, and over-conservatism” I mentioned in 2014.

But we didn’t. Turnbull won the 2016 election. I was so angry at the Australian people. I was so scared of that ignorant, greedy, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, narrow minded, privileged, climate denying creature that seems to be slowly devouring the planet.

From that point in time, all I could think about was some sort of big right-wing populist shift happening across the globe. Outside of the obvious ones: Trump in the USA, Johnson in the UK and Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison in Australia, there were a few more extreme cases: Putin in Russia, Marine Le Pen in France, Viktor Orban in Hungary. Then there’s Cambodia, Brazil, Turkey, Egypt etc who saw this as a huge advantage as well. It may not be the end of a progressive vision of the world but it definitely seemed like the beginning of a big switch.

One thing I learned during my political writing hiatus while serving my self-induced “exile” to Canada is that this country was one of the few blips in this trend. Why did Canada choose to elect Justin Trudeau in 2015, a left wing liberal, after 9 years of Harper’s conservative government? Was it simply because Canadians were good and fair people? Did they just fundamentally understand that you need both conservative and progressive governments to advance society? Perhaps they do, and Canadians are most definitely good and fair people regardless of election results. I am even set to become a Canadian citizen myself (and a dual-citizen overall) in 2021.

So where is this all coming from? Why are the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom on a continued path to segregation, protectionism, populism and division while Canada and New Zealand show basically zero of these tendencies?

The News Corp cancer that is Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is the deciding factor.

So What Does Kevin Rudd Have To Do With It?

Mr. Rudd has been living in the USA for the last 5 years and is firmly spearheading the charge in that Rupert Murdoch’s media behemoth “News Corp” has been unlawfully influencing Australian opinion and undermining elections in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States for close to 3 decades (more predominantly in the last 8 years).

Before you read any further I have to be transparent about my opinions of Kevin Rudd. I accredit his “Kevin 07″ campaign as the catalyst for my interest in politics, my decision to study economics at university, and my ongoing support for progressive policies in every federal and state election since 2007. His work has played a big part in shaping me into the person I am today.

Despite my positive position on Mr. Rudd, I am also disappointed he did not action this during his time as prime minister. However, I am “all in” when it comes to what he is standing for, and that is:

Eradicating monopolies in all forms (be it political, business, journalism, etc)

Improving media literacy to encourage fair and unbiased journalism

Avoiding the pitfalls of Murdoch's divisive influence on the USA happening to Australia

There’s a few key factoids to his claims of mass-media bias:

70% of print media in Australia is owned by ONE MAN: Rupert Murdoch (100% owned in Queensland)

Print media influences the national conversation on a daily basis

Rupert Murdoch owns the biggest YouTube channel in Australia (news.com.au)

The line between fact-based and opinion-based reporting continues to blur, resembling that of CNN (Democrats) and Fox (Republican) extreme partisanship in the USA

All of Murdoch’s papers have backed the Liberal/National party in all 19 out of the last 19 federal and state elections

The ABC is breaching the Australian Broadcasting Act of 1983 by not standing up to Murdoch media purely out of fear

Politicians are not standing up out of fear of character assassination

Whether or not Murdoch is backing left or right, Labor or Liberal, the question still remains:

Do you think it is healthy for a FOREIGN PRIVATE ENTITY to own a monopoly level of influence on a sovereign country’s political system for that private entity to use for their own personal gain through targeted media attacks and character assassinations?

Watch This Space...

There are utter mountains of evidence to accompany these claims, and to make sure you can digest what I am trying to say, I recommend that you sink your teeth into the following videos to validate and truly comprehend the size of the tumour we are dealing with:

Feb 20, 2020 - 1h - Friendlyjordies informal interview with Kevin Rudd

This is right before the Covid outbreak in March, which delayed Mr. Rudd’s ability to move for a formal commission into media bias

Provides excellent insight into the ABC’s lack of action, the opportunism of the Green party, and the complete absence of unbiased reporting in Australia

Feb 18, 2021 - 1h 30m - Kevin Rudd Officially Requesting Royal Commission to Australian Senate

The first 20-30 minutes provide Mr. Rudd’s summary of the situation

The remainder of the video consists of questions from both Labor and Liberal senators about Mr. Rudd’s claims

Mar 1, 2021 - 2m - Kevin Rudd speaks to Sunrise about the Murdoch monopoly

Mr. Rudd went on a national flagship morning show to discuss his concerns regarding News Corp

LISTEN to the questions being asked of him: completely disregarding his valid points and dismissing him as “sour grapes”

Channel 7 is not News Corp, so why try to discredit Mr. Rudd? Fear of being targeted by News Corp

Mar 9, 2021 - 1h - National Press Club: The Case for Courage

Mr. Rudd stands up in front of The National Press Club of Australia to promote the four big challenges facing Australia in his upcoming book “The Case for Courage”

He takes questions from journalists from both Murdoch and non-Murdoch media outlets

As I start to conclude this piece, for action to happen, an independent royal commission is required to get to the facts. Mr. Rudd already gathered over 500,000 signatures that were recently sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison asking for the royal commission to take place, but this is not enough.

Even former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a friend of Rupert Murdoch and political opposite to Mr. Rudd, signed the petition and said the following:

Mr Turnbull, a former Liberal prime minister, said the Murdoch media used to be a group of traditional right-leaning outlets but has now become "a vehicle of propaganda."

He told ABC television's Insiders program on Sunday that Australian democracy was suffering for allowing the "crazy, bitter partisanship" of social media to creep into the mainstream.

"We have to work out what price we're paying, as a society, for the hyper-partisanship of the media," Mr Turnbull said.

"Look at the United States and the terrible, divided state of affairs that they're in, exacerbated, as Kevin was saying, by Fox News and other right-wing media."

I recently sent a (somewhat long) letter to Mr. Rudd expressing my concern for the state of Australia’s media landscape, with it culminating in the following questions:

I am deeply moved and inspired by your bravery to take on "the beast" as you so aptly name it, and I want to boldly ask: how can I help? How can I get involved?

I am yet to hear back from Mr. Rudd himself - but I think if you’ve gotten this far, you know what I am about to say next.

I want to help, learn more, or get involved.

That’s amazing. We’re not asking for money, just action. Here’s some ways you can help is stop the rot:

SUBSCRIBE TO and FOLLOW direct updates from Kevin Rudd:

Website / Newsletters

https://newsroyalcommission.com/

https://kevinrudd.com/

Social media alongside the #MurdochRoyalCommission hashtag on all platforms:

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Boycott News Corp media sites, publications, and channels

I’ve linked a list of all assets by News Corp above

This includes steering clear of ALL mediums of news owned by these publications and outlets including the respective:

Social media channels and pages

Television and radio news channels

Print and online newspapers and articles

SHARE and spread the word of this cancer affecting our democracy

Talk TO your friends and family (not AT them) and LISTEN to their views - people are not dumb: this will make sense if given time to digest

WATCH the videos posted above as a start, alongside a few more recommendations:

This interview between Friendly Jordies and former Labor Leader Bill Shorten from earlier in March 2021

I learned more about Bill Shorten in the last 20 minutes of this interview than I did in his entire run as opposition leader.

This just goes to show you how utterly mistreated he was by Murdoch media

For a laugh - every episode of Kevin Rudd: PM from Rove McManus’ late night show

I want Australia to remain a safe, secure, and lucky country to raise my family in someday. I care about this very much and plan to ramp up my content around this until we are free from the Murdoch beast and its lies.

Thank you so much for reading, as always, I am happy to discuss.

List of Murdoch (News Corp) Owned Outlets [Expanded Below]

Television

Foxtel (65%)

Australian News Channel

Fox Sports Australia

Streamotion

Fox Sports News

Fox Cricket

Fox Footy

Fox League

Kayo Sports

Binge

Sky News Australia

Sky News Weather

Sky News Extra

Sky After Dark

Australia Channel (News Streaming channel)

Sky News New Zealand

Sky News on WIN

Internet

Punters.com.au — Australian horse racing and bookmaker affiliate.

SuperCoach

Australia Best Recipes

hipages

odds.com.au

Mogo

One Big Switch

Knewz, a news aggregator

Realestate.com.au

Advertising, Branding & Tech

Global

Storyful

News UK

bridge studio

wireless Group

wireless studios

urban media

First Radio

Switchdigital

TIBUS

ZESTY

News Corp Australia

SUDDENLY - Content Agency

Medium Rare Content Agency

HT&E (Here, There & Everywhere)

News Xtend

Radio

News UK & Ireland

wireless Group

talkSPORT

talkSPORT 2

talkRADIO

Virgin Radio

FM104

Q102

96FM

c103

Live 95FM

LMFM

U105

Scottish Sun 80s

Scottish Sun Hits

Scottish Sun Greatest Hits

Times Radio

Magazines and Inserts (digital and print)

News Corp Australia

Big League

body+soul

Broncos

Business Daily

delicious

Escape

Foxtel

GQ Australia

Hit

Kidspot

Mansion Australia

Motoring

Sportsman

Super Food Ideas

taste.com.au

The Deal

The Weekend Australian Magazine

Vogue Australia

Vogue Living

Whimn

Wish

News & Magazines (digital and print)

News UK

The Sun

The Times

The Sunday Times

Press Association (part owned, News UK is one of 26 shareholders)

The TLS (Times Literary Supplement)

News Corp Australia

The Australian including weekly insert magazine The Deal and monthly insert magazine (wish)

The Weekend Australian

Australian Associated Press

news.com.au

New South Wales

The Daily Telegraph

The Sunday Telegraph including insert magazine sundaymagazine

Victoria

Herald Sun

Sunday Herald Sun including insert magazine sundaymagazine

Lions Raw

Samizdat

Queensland

The Courier-Mail including weekly insert magazine QWeekend

The Sunday Mail

Brisbane News

South Australia

The Advertiser including the monthly insert The Adelaide magazine

Sunday Mail

Tasmania

The Mercury

The Sunday Tasmanian

Northern Territory

Northern Territory News

Sunday Territorian

Community suburban newspapers

Cumberland/Courier (NSW) newspapers

Blacktown Advocate

Canterbury-Bankstown Express

Central

Central Coast Express Advocate

Fairfield Advance

Hills Shire Times

Hornsby and Upper North Shore Advocate

Inner West Courier

Liverpool Leader

Macarthur Chronicle

Mt Druitt-St Marys Standard

NINETOFIVE

North Shore Times

Northern District Times

NORTHSIDE

Parramatta Advertiser

Penrith Press

Rouse Hill Times

Southern Courier

The Manly Daily

The Mosman Daily

Village Voice Balmain

Wentworth Courier

Leader (Vic) newspapers

Bayside Leader

Berwick/Pakenham Cardinia Leader

Brimbank Leader

Caulfield Glen Eira/Port Philip Leader

Cranbourne Leader

Dandenong/Springvale Dandenong Leader

Diamond Valley Leader

Frankston Standard/Hastings Leader

Free Press Leader

Heidelberg Leader

Hobsons Bay Leader

Hume Leader

Knox Leader

Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader

Manningham Leader

Maribyrnong Leader

Maroondah Leader

Melbourne Leader

Melton/Moorabool Leader

Moonee Valley Leader

Moorabbin Kingston/Moorabbin Glen Eira Leader

Mordialloc Chelsea Leader

Moreland Leader

Mornington Peninsula Leader

Northcote Leader

Preston Leader

Progress Leader

Stonnington Leader

Sunbury/Macedon Ranges Leader

Waverley/Oakleigh Monash Leader

Whitehorse Leader

Whittlesea Leader

Wyndham Leader

Quest (QLD) newspapers

Albert & Logan News (Fri)

Albert & Logan News (Wed)

Caboolture Shire Herald

Caloundra Journal

City News

City North News

City South News

Ipswich News

Logan West Leader

Maroochy Journal

North-West News

Northern Times

Northside Chronicle

Pine Rivers Press/North Lakes Times

Redcliffe and Bayside Herald

South-East Advertiser

South-West News/Springfield News

Southern Star

The Noosa Journal

weekender

Westside News

Wynnum Herald

Weekender Essential Sunshine Coast

Messenger (SA) newspapers

Adelaide Matters

City Messenger

City North Messenger

East Torrens Messenger

Eastern Courier Messenger

Guardian Messenger

Hills & Valley Messenger

Leader Messenger

News Review Messenger

Portside Messenger

Southern Times Messenger

Weekly Times Messenger

Community (WA) newspapers

(50.1%) (Formerly)

Advocate

Canning Times

Comment News

Eastern Reporter

Fremantle-Cockburn Gazette

Guardian Express

Hills-Avon Valley Gazette

Joondalup-Wanneroo Times

Mandurah Coastal / Pinjarra Murray Times

Melville Times

Midland-Kalamunda Reporter

North Coast Times

Southern Gazette

Stirling Times

Weekend-Kwinana Courier

Weekender

Western Suburbs Weekly

Sun (NT) newspapers

Darwin Sun

Litchfield Sun

Palmerston Sun

Regional and rural newspapers

New South Wales

Tweed Sun

Tweed Daily News

Victoria

Echo

Geelong Advertiser

GeelongNEWS

The Weekly Times

Queensland

Bowen Independent

Burdekin Advocate

Cairns Sun

Gold Coast Bulletin

Gold Coast Sun

Herbert River Express

Home Hill Observer

Innisfail Advocate

Northern Miner

Port Douglas & Mossman Gazette

Tablelander – Atherton

Tablelands Advertiser

The Cairns Post

The Noosa News

The Sunshine Coast Daily

Townsville Bulletin

Toowoomba Chronicle

Townsville Sun

weekender

Daily Mercury (Mackay)

Tasmania

Derwent Valley Gazette

Tasmanian Country

Northern Territory

Centralian Advocate

International

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea Post-Courier (63%)

United States

New York Post

Wall Street Journal

realtor.com

Move (80%)

Dow Jones & Company

Consumer Media Group

The Wall Street Journal – the leading US financial newspaper

Wall Street Journal Europe closed

The Wall Street Journal Asia closed

Barron's – weekly financial markets magazine

Marketwatch – financial news and information website

Financial News

Heat Street - news and opinion website

Mansion Global - global luxury property website

Enterprise Media Group

Dow Jones Newswires – global, real-time news and information provider.

Factiva – provides business news and information together with content delivery tools and services.

Dow Jones Indexes – stock market indexes and indicators, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (10% ownership)

Dow Jones Financial Information Services – produces databases, electronic media, newsletters, conferences, directories, and other information services on specialised markets and industry sectors.

Betten Financial News – leading Dutch language financial and economic news service.

Strategic Alliances

STOXX (33%) – joint venture with Deutsche Boerse and SWG Group for the development and distribution of Dow Jones STOXX indices.

Wireless Group

Talksport

TalkRadio

Books

HarperCollins

4th Estate

Collins

Ecco Press

Harlequin Enterprises

Harper Perennial

Harper Voyager

Kappa Books

Modern Publishing

Unisystems Inc.

Zondervan Publishing

Christian publishing company taken over by HarperCollins in 1988

Inspirio – religious gift production

#murdochroyalcommission #rudd #auspol #politics

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powos94833-blog · 4 years

Text

I Can't Live Without You!

A few months ago I heard someone say that they cannot live without their partners. This was not done because the person was incapacitated and therefore the person needed to face life. Also Read: https://blogginggyan.wordpress.com/2020/07/25/keys-to-be-successful-in-business-marketing/

No, that person was fully capable of taking life into his own hands. Although this was the case, the man gave the impression that he needed his partner.

K. And see

On the basis of whom they came, it can be said that their existence is associated with their spouse. Although they were capable people, most of them did not think so.

Then it didn't matter how healthy his physical body was or how developed his intellect was, because his emotional self was hurting him. Moved those parts to other parts.

Emotionally underdeveloped

On an emotional level, it is more likely that they will feel like a child. There are no strong adults who can support themselves. After that his physical age was emotionally different from his emotional age.

After all, they were not emotionally interdependent; You were emotionally dependent. As a result, they can ignore their needs and do what they can to meet the needs of their spouse.

Priority

It was not very fulfilling for him to experience life in it, but it was probably something like that. Ignoring one's own needs would be better than the given option.

If they did not know about this fear, they still had a lot of control over his life. For the emotional part of her being, parting was considered something that would have ended her life.

two parts

With this, they believe that something was wrong with him. Therefore, because of this they believed that their needs were not important, and someone else would have seen them as the reason for leaving.

It will be important to hide who you are and what you can do to make your spouse happy. The question is, one should not feel comfortable in one's own skin and be afraid of being released?

Early years

This shows that his early years were a time when he was not looked after properly. Perhaps it was a time when he was ignored and abused, which kept him from developing properly.

Instead of going through stages of development, they would have been in a dependent state. Not only that, they felt shame would separate them from their original values.

final thoughts

If one is concerned about this and wants to grow emotionally, one may need external help. This can be done with the help of a physician or physician. € With outside help, one can start working on their winning wound and thus they can become a more integrated person. Perhaps patience and perseverance are required for this.

Teacher, prolific writer, writer and consultant Oliver JR Cooper is from England. His prudent commentary and analysis cover all aspects of human transformation, including love, partnership, self-love, and inner awareness. With over two thousand in-depth articles related to human psychology and behavior, Oliver offers hope in addition to his in-depth advice. Also Read: https://blogginggyan.wordpress.com/2020/07/25/keys-to-be-successful-in-business-marketing/

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ansonmountdaily · 5 years

Video

youtube

Anson Mount’s Star Trek: Las Vegas 2019 panel (sadly, footage of the first 30 mins only without Jason Isaacs) - August 2 2019

TIMESTAMPS:

0:51 - What was the coolest thing for you to do on Star Trek: Discovery? 1:37 - What drives Captain Pike, what does he stand for? 2:20 - Are villains more interesting to play than good guys or heroes? How do you go about playing Pike with layers of depth? 4:40 - Pike is an inspiration for people with physical challenges, for combat veterans, etc. Pike knew his fate and he still makes the choice that he makes. How did you approach to play that? 6:50 - What does it mean to you to be this guy who is imbuing this character that so many people love and respect and think of as a hero? 8:23 - How was it like to be a newcomer on the Discovery lot? 9:28 - Talk about working with Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn. 9:45 - **Surprise appearance by Ethan Peck on stage!** 10:44 - Give as an example of a sci-fi book Ethan gave you to read (related to the previous question.) 11:07 - Lots of fans around the world and in this room want a full-on Pike/Spock/Number One series. How interested would you be if the opportunity actually occurs? 13:12 - We will see you in several of the Short Treks. How did they approach you about that? Were you already wrapped on the show when they brought it up? Was it after the fact? 13:46 - We know you can’t address specifics about the Short Treks but maybe tell us a little bit about the tone of them, and how much fun have you had playing this shorter format? How different are they? Are they adventures? The teaser trailer showed they had some comedy in it. 14:40 - **Anson’s reaction to the Discovery Season 2 dvd promo clip with the blooper reel and extra scenes.** 17:07 - Anson comments the actors did audio commentaries for the dvd. 17:20 - Fan: You have such great chemistry with everyone on set. Are you aware of it when you’re acting what great chemistry you have? 18:26 - Fan: I have a friend, she calls you her "husband", and her name’s Angie. Could you just say ‘hi’ to her? 18:49 - Fan: What was it like to prepare for the battle sequence in the Discovery finale and how was it filming it? 20:36 - Fan: Hell on Wheels was a lot of mud and dirt, and then Star Trek, a lot of CG. Which one was easier? 21:34 - Fan: How do you as an actor conjure the emotions for certain scenes (when Pike is crying, for example)? 23:43 - Tell us more about your podcast. I know that’s a deeply important project for you. 24:52 - Fan: I apologize for this question but you were part of other very large franchises recently. Can you talk about your experience on the Inhumans? 26:04 - Fan: What do you think about the fan reaction [to the Inhumans]? 26:37 - Fan: A couple of years ago I read David Beck’s Section 31 book Control. Does the concept for Discovery come from that book? 27:38 - Fan: I heard that during Season 2, Discovery had a series of re-shoots. Before the re-shoots Pike was actually a very religious man. He did a lot of praying, apparently. I didn’t know if that was just rumour. Could you share some light on the situation? 29:11 - Fan: A year ago at San Diego Comic-Con they set it up for you to meet Chris Hunter, the son of Jeffrey Hunter, the original Captain Pike. Was that your idea? Did they set it up for you? Did they surprise you with it? 30:09 - Fan: Are you prepared to work seven seasons for us because after three Short Treks, you’re gonna be on forever!

#star trek discovery #star trek las vegas #*appearance #*clip #short treks #anson mount #and finally we have footage!#lots of goodies in here #i like that he says pike isn't perfect and that he 'definitely has ego issues'#but that he's 'becoming mature enough to realize that'#like many others i crave his replies about ethan and rebecca and a pike show #the audience cheering when ethan shows up and hugs anson <3 #anson and ethan recommending each other books is cool #anson's reply to the husband question <3

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elizasvintagemoviesblog · 4 years

Text

Dirk Bogarde: Denial and daring...a star with a secret never told

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2011/07/16/16/624945.bin?w968

David Benedict on an actor, soon to be celebrated at the BFI, who let his choice of roles do the talking

Sunday 17 July 2011

Hot Hollywood agent Diane is in crisis: her cute movie star client Mitchell is on the rise, on magazine covers and, to her horror, on the brink of coming out. It's time for straight-talking. "Are you British? Do you have a knighthood? If not, shut up!"

The laugh that gets in Douglas Carter Beane's 2006 play The Little Dog Laughed reveals its truth. Take Sir Ian McKellen and Rupert Everett out of the picture and now try naming another out gay male movie star. You can't? That's because there aren't any. None. With secrecy and the fear of discovery still engulfing gay actors in 2011, is it any wonder that the career – and life – of the entirely closeted Dirk Bogarde was a conundrum and a contradiction?

A seriously handsome, bona fide star who had made 35 films by the age of 40, Bogarde was both British and knighted and made more arrestingly bold choices than any actor of his generation, taking name-above-the-title roles in The Servant and Accident with Joseph Losey, Death in Venice and The Damned for Luchino Visconti, The Night Porter for Liliana Cavani, Providence for Alain Resnais and Despair for Rainer Werner Fassbinder. All that from a man who as early as 1958 was the biggest draw at the British box office – pulling bigger audiences than Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn and Elvis Presley.

In addition, by the time of his death, in 1999, he had reinvented himself. He published six novels, plus collections of correspondence and criticism, and, crucially, seven best-selling volumes of memoirs throughout which he staunchly claimed to be straight. Actress Glynis Johns, a contemporary most famous as the suffragette mother in Mary Poppins, tartly observed, "I never believed more than one sentence of what Dirk wrote." She should know: she was once married to Tony Forwood who had divorced her and subsequently lived with Bogarde as his "manager" for almost 40 years.

Bogarde's position was, initially, understandable. Born in 1921, for his first 46 years homosexuality was against the law. Any man caught in "homosexual acts" faced imprisonment. That prohibition was ruthlessly policed. In 1955, 2,504 men were arrested for "homosexual offences", ie, about seven people every day. Even Ian McKellen, 18 years younger, didn't come out until 1988, when he was 49. Bogarde never did.

Although fully entitled to privacy, his blanket denials on television, radio and in print post-1967 legalisation became, for me, increasingly hard to stomach. Posthumously, the man behind the painstakingly maintained mask was uncovered in home movies and commentaries from family and friends in a BBC documentary The Private Dirk Bogarde (2001) and John Coldstream's biography. The great irony of Bogarde's position, however, is that no other screen actor has given such affecting and extraordinarily powerful gay performances.

Even now, the industry regards playing gay as being potentially career-damaging, an act so "brave" that your Oscar virtually comes with the contract – step forward William Hurt for Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1985), Tom Hanks for Philadelphia (1993), Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote (2005), Sean Penn for Milk (2008). Probably the only reason Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal didn't win for Brokeback Mountain was that their dual presence cancelled one another out.

Regardless of the authenticity – or lack thereof – of those performances by straight actors, they pale beside the still astonishing impact of Bogarde's shockingly truthful performance back in 1961 as a barrister embroiled in a secret gay affair in Victim.

Bogarde plays married barrister Melville Farr who discovers that a blackmailed young man who loved him has hanged himself in police custody rather than reveal their relationship. Realising Farr's intention to uncover the plot, the blackmailers threaten to expose him. In the central scene – whose dialogue was rewritten to more explicit effect by Bogarde himself – Farr is confronted by his distressed wife (played by Sylvia Syms).

Shot in high-contrast black-and-white, edged with the darkness of a sitting-room at night but trapped in a fierce spotlight, Bogarde is mesmerising. Crisply suited, dry-voiced and on the edge of tears, he painfully stifles the emotion threatening to destroy him. With the camera locked in close-up, he lifts his chin ever so slightly in defiance, his eyes widening into a glare of triumph that costs him everything.

"You won't be content until I tell you, will you, until you've ripped it out of me. I stopped seeing him because I wanted him. Can you understand – because I WANTED him."

I can still remember being transfixed – and terrified – by that moment when I first saw it by accident on television one night. It was the 1970s, I was a guilt-ridden, fiercely closeted teenager and I had never, ever seen or heard a man on screen or off express such piercing desire for another man. I felt physically torn between an absolute need to keep watching and the cramping fear that my parents would come in and instantly understand why I was watching something so incriminating.

Bogarde always maintained that the camera photographed thought. Nowhere is that more true than in that scene. It wasn't just this teenager who recognised the staggering truth behind that performance and its implications for the actor.

In a television interview to promote the film, he was asked the not-so-veiled question: "You must feel very strongly about this subject to risk losing possibly a large part of your audience by appearing in such a bitterly controversial film?"

With manufactured insouciance, Bogarde counters, "I don't think so, no. This is a marvellous part and in a film I think is tremendously important because it doesn't pull any punches: it's quite honest. I don't have to use any old tricks for the fans, it's a straightforward character performance."

Necessarily disingenuous as that was, in hindsight it's also seriously unconvincing due to his immensely camp "who me?" manner, his left eyebrow arched, his fingers playing with his ear and chin.

Being able to pinpoint a scene that changed a career is rare, but that's what that Victim scene did. And having just engineered his release from his constraining 14-year-old contract with the Rank Organisation, Bogarde accelerated to an international reputation taking on increasingly complex roles with adventurous directors. Contrarily, the finest of those performances were in roles amplifying his hidden sexuality.

He was memorably viscous as the vicious Barrett, the manservant manipulating imperilled, upper-class James Fox into sex-and-power games in Losey's superbly elliptical (and Pinter-scripted) The Servant. And, in 1971, he crowned his career with Death in Venice, playing a man who falls fatally in love with the ideal of beauty exemplified by a beautiful boy. With almost no dialogue, the film amounts to a 125-minute reaction shot. As casting director Michelle Guish observed of Helen Mirren the day after the first Prime Suspect aired, no other British actor could have played that role that well because no one else had that depth of screen experience.

Was it arrogance that pushed the controlled Bogarde to the brink of self-exposure in this and other defining roles? He destroyed almost all of his personal papers, so we'll never know. Whatever conclusion we try to draw, the screen evidence survives.

'He Who Dared', a two-month Dirk Bogarde retrospective, begins at the BFI Southbank on 3 Aug

source: independent

#DB #Dirk Bogarde #a charming man #article #vintage collection

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jstengl1-blog · 4 years

Text

Web Design Final - Julia Stengle and Dan Rahill

Project 3: Longform Journalism Experience

For this project, Dan and I re-designed the experience of Jack McCallum’s Sports Illustrated article, “Remembering Action Park, America’s Most Dangerous, Daring Water Park.” The assignment required us to make a single, responsive webpage using HTML and CSS. We were tasked to incorporate 4 images, 2 pull quotes, 1 audio clip, and 1 video clip into our re-design.

Part 1: Research

Ideation for this project began with discovering long-form journalism articles with compelling interaction and designs. We admired the altering left/right alignment of Propublica article linked here: https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story.

The images of Pitchfork’s Janelle Monae’s article, too, provided a nice example of color inclusion which we wanted to incorporate into our article. ( https://pitchfork.com/features/cover-story/reader/janelle-monae/)

We liked the animation fade in and fade outs also present in this article: https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/

Lastly, this NBC news article inspired our header image with the full-width video content: (https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/there-s-shortage-volunteer-ems-workers-ambulances-rural-america-n1068556)

Part of this process included examining each available article for Project 3 on Sakai. We were assigned Action Park and were drawn to the park’s screwball nature and felt we could create a fun experience, given this non-fiction narrative. Sports Illustrated’s original article merely broke up text sections with pictures and had limited interaction. The site, too, did not really change between desktop, Ipad, and mobile.

Part 2: Inspiration

Once we read our article, we split the content up into seven sections: 1)

Remembering Action Park, America's Most Dangerous, Daring Water Park“You control the action” - video of a guy swinging, 2) Action Point Interview with Johnny Knoxville2. Have trailer and stats on the side (reviews, box office, budget) 3) Alpine Center (Alpine Slide) 4) Motor World (bumper cars, speed boats, etc). 5) Water World (Cannonball Loop, Tarzan Swing, Aqua Scoot) 6) Tragedies and 7) Legacy of Gene Mulvihill.

We looked to Action Park maps, commercials, merchandise, stickers, and accounts of fearful, true stories to better understand the world of Action Park. Our pull quotes came from the Mental Floss article and the rest of our inspiration is linked here:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/536412/action-park-water-park-oral-history

Action point logo

Bloody Action Park

Action Park Logo

Funny t-shirt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKWJpFEJw9M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r6bOaJ4ww0

https://www.barstoolsports.com/newyork/this-13-minute-short-film-about-how-action-park-was-the-most-dangerous-amusement-park-ever-is-damn-near-must-watch-for-people-in-the-tri-state-area

https://sometimes-interesting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/vernon_nj_postcard.jpg

https://sometimes-interesting.com/2014/02/07/action-park/

Part 3: Style Tiles

This is our original style tile. We wanted to mimic the chaos of Action Park with an 80s style of a black background with vibrant colors. We felt this mirrored the saturation of older images and spoke to the madness that the park was. After class commentary and early coding stages, we decided to stick with this theme.

Early wireframes for this style tile are pictured below. As you can see, we attempted to incorporate fade-in animations, a video header, and split right and left sections. Notice we carried over a video header and fade in animations, but modified the left and right split.

This is our second tile, which eliminated the neon, 80s look and focused on a more blue-tone. As you can see, the font and pictures choices do not change much between the first and second style tiles. Although we did not select this style tile, we still incorporated different blue hues within the Parks and rides sections.

Early wireframes for our second style tile are picture below. The differences between the first and second style tiles are within the right and left alignments. There is more content separation between the text and images, which we did incorporate into our final site.

Part 4: Wireframes

Using the wireframes we had already created, we developed ones for desktop, ipad, and mobile. We focused on combining the right and left alignment patterns within one of our sections for this part. Such sketches influenced our digital mockups and wireframes.

Part 5: Digital Mockups

Throughout our process, we went through three rounds of creating digital mockups. The first image relates to our first style tile and focuses on a colorful theme. We utilized notions of the right/left alignment and pulling in extra content. After creating a full mockup, we decided to go with a different direction. We wanted to utilize a darker background to help the colors pop.

For our second round, we were messing around with different color combinations to make the site more chaotic and bright. While we didn’t end up using this color combination, we carried over the idea of a black background and bright colors. The yellow hue became a color in our final wireframes and site.

Our last wireframe, and the one we went with, is more in alignment with our original style tile. This layout incorporated a introduction with a black background which allowed the various colors to pop. The colors were then utilized throughout the site and related to each section. We utilized the right/left alignment after the introduction which was also one of our original ideas. Below is an example of mobile and desktop.

Part 6: Deliverables

This process led to our final deliverables. Below, you will find images of our final deliverables for mobile and desktop! We enjoyed working together and this project was definitely a challenge! Head to our site to see the final product!

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thedistantstorm · 5 years

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The Lion’s Heart 10

A shield, she realizes. The Traveler has gifted me a shield. I am a Defender: the last, lonely sentinel.

The tale of a different kind of Guardian: one who does not want the accolade of saving the world, who does not understand why she would be chosen to wield the Light remaining in the Shard. Once a reckless, dazzling Striker, the Traveler’s chosen is reborn a silent Sentinel. This is Kira’s story; About bringing people together, reclaiming their city, and overcoming the darkness despite it all.

Previous Parts: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09

Cayde thinks he’s funny.

He always has.

Kira just isn't as good at following along anymore.

She tries to laugh, tries to react how he - how he expects everyone to react - but it’s hard. The one time she tries to force out the words, he cuts her off, exasperated that it takes her so long.

She doesn’t try after that.

He doesn't mean anything by it, she knows, he just operates to the tune of his own schemes: easy-going and free, the picturesque idea of a Hunter. It's easy to get lost in the lush, humid, Vex-twisted forests of Nessus; Easy to forget for a moment what's happening at home, until some Red Legion scum tries lining her up in her sights and she has to shake off the images of Towerfall, hiding behind a rock formation until she feels the restless hum of the void and bathes her enemy in violet-blue.

She wonders if that's why Cayde's come here. Wonders why he and Ikora didn't come when they heard Zavala's message.

They had to have heard Zavala's message.

Then, he tells her why he has the Vex Teleporter he's procured. So, maybe it's not, she thinks. Maybe he is helping, in his own way. Of course, he thinks it's the single item that's going to win them the war. Ghost tells her the teleporter is mid-range at best.

Kira doesn't really care about shady Vex tech. She really just wants to go home.

Right now that's a cot that isn't her own, and a place that smells like wet grass and campfire; Quiet voices that curl like smoke in gentle whispers to cut through her dreams.

Cayde, like he can read her thoughts, tells her he'll go to the Farm, but she'd better go get Ikora.

“Time's 'a wastin’,” His voice crackles, like a whip. “Once the three of us get together, with you in the mix, that ugly space rhino will be a breeze!”

Kira sighs, and tells Ghost not to bother when his optic narrows and his shell shivers in barely concealed rage. “You're not just some weapon,” He seethes privately. She shrugs. It's not worth arguing, she's never been able to pin down what Cayde thinks. Ghost doesn't comment that she's not trying to speak again, just hovers dutifully over her shoulder as she clomps tiredly back to their ship.

He patches her into Earthen comms once they're back in orbit. Cayde's in there already, barking over Hawthorne's voice - “Hey, heard you guys missed me,” And Zavala is already sighing heavily. Cayde's ship left not a minute before she did. Seems he didn't want to waste any time, she thinks. Even without solar flares and meteor showers, he's still hours away from even breaking Earth's atmosphere.

There's a blip on her comm, a private request. She does not miss how Zavala tells Cayde in a harsh bark that he may listen, but there are missions underway and he can fraternize when his boots are on terra firma.

“Kira, report,” Zavala's voice cuts, sounding leagues closer than the static-laiden radio droning in the cockpit. She missed where Ghost had patched the request in, so she jerks a little at the sound. His voice drops lower, as if he might have expected as much. “Did everything go alright?”

“Yes,” She answers, immediately.

There's nothing but quiet breathing on the other side. Long, slow, deep breaths. It's calming. A difference from the chaotic cry of distant Vex hydras and dragon-birds that squawk through humid red-brown forests. She sighs. He's waiting for the rest, wants her to tell him more, but everything really did go fine and she doesn't want to talk about it.

“Cayde has informed Hawthorne that he's sending you to Io.”

“He has,” She confirms.

“If the situation were not nearly as dire, I'd have you come back first, but… we cannot afford to waste time. I need Ikora with us.”

“Understood.” Quieter, she mumbles ruefully, “I can handle it.”

He chuckles, and the exchange almost feels routine. Normal. “Even so.”

When another silence spans between them, she takes a deep breath and asks: “Is everything alright there?”

Zavala collects himself, speaking evenly, “Hawthorne is preparing her speech to put Cayde in his place. I'm sure you heard him already trying to override her.”

She hums, tipping her head back against the headrest. She'd slept for a week, but she already feels tired again. “Don't let him.”

“I won't. Not completely,” He assures his charge “You sound protective of her.”

“She's good people.”

“Yes,” Zavala agrees. “I believe she is.”

Kira smiles - a tiny, lopsided little thing - and closes her eyes.

“Cayde is rambling about the Vex,” Ghost comments idly, scoffing, “Pretty sure we did all the fighting.”

There's only static for a couple moments. Then, tentatively, “Did you... happen to,” Zavala ventures, “Shoulder charge any Minotaurs?”

Kira blinks open her eyes in soft surprise. “I did,” She replies softly.

“How many times to bring it down?”

“One,” She answers immediately, thinking back to another time and place.

“You should have seen it, Zavala!” Ghost wobbles and feints across the small cockpit. “It wasn't a small one either!”

“You've grown,” He tells her. She can hear the smile there, in his tone. It makes her feel warm inside. “I'm proud of you, Titan.” He clears his throat, trying not to be too sentimental but failing all the same. “More than words could say.”

Ikora’s words blister her ears.

“What good is a resistance when you are the only one who would survive?”

Through the white noise, the static in her brain, and the clenching of her fists so tightly she thinks she’s going to rip apart her gauntlets, Kira realizes one powerful truth. The Warlock Vanguard is paralyzed by her fear of permanent death.

Kira resists the urge to tell the Warlock Vanguard that no small part of her wishes she had died back there.

Angry words burn at the back of her throat like bile, the replies for the Warlock's commentary kept at bay. Kira knows what fear and futility feel like. She can empathize with Ikora feeling like there was more she could have done.

She doesn't feel upset when Ghost tells the Warlock Vanguard that there's nothing she could have done, even if she thinks otherwise. Ikora should have come home, she thinks. At least Cayde had wanted to, but he'd gotten… stuck.

When they have Ikora reasonably convinced - her conviction to go home is encouraging - and the Taken under control, Asher Mir makes himself known. His near constant yelling and degradation makes her uncomfortable.

She isn't his assistant, damn it.

Asher's plain disdain for Titans makes her furious. Not so much for herself. She doesn't care what he thinks of her. No, not one bit.

Asher's ire is pointed squarely at her Commander. Her Vanguard. The man who embodies everything she aspires to be. The man who is willing to die to take back their home, to keep his people safe, while this coward hides and screams about everything and everyone and impatiently waits for the end.

Kira stays silent while she listens to the two Warlocks spin theories and talk down to her - not her specifically, but she's a Titan too, damn it all - while she runs around thwarting the Taken and the Vex. All for a Warmind to tell them something they already know.

When the Cabal leave a system - win or lose - they leave nothing behind.

If they wanted to consult a Warmind so badly, she gripes silently to Ghost as she hops on her sparrow, They should have gone to the Cosmodrome.

Asher mocks Zavala again over the comms, as if he can hear her thinking unpleasantly about them. She bites her lip so hard that it bleeds.

Ghost cuts off the feed to her helm, and she slows her speed, projecting her concern that something's gone wrong. “Everything’s fine,” He's quick to clarify. “I'll keep tabs on the comms, at least until we get to the base. If they say something relevant, I’ll fill you in.”

When they return to Asher, and Ikora formally bids them farewell - she's going to rejoin her Fireteam on the premise that Zavala will do something stupid - Kira stands firm and silent before him.

"Finally,' Asher says when they're alone, "I thought she'd never leave. Come now. There are several things I need you to do for me before you go back, assistant."

She regards him coolly and does not follow him back to the alcove of shell-like rock that serves as his operations base.

"I certainly hope you are not proving to be like the rest of your ilk," He growls, when she makes no indication of further interest, simply stares him down. Asher's voice carries like a thunderclap. "Assistant! Pay attention!"

Kira's eyes slide over to him, and her Ghost appears over her shoulder, looking at her in worry. His broken ceremonial shell twitches in concern.

"Kira," He warns.

But the Guardian does not stop. She stands toe to toe with the Vex-compromised Warlock. What she does not have in towering height, she has in broad shoulders. She is not a small woman. Her eyes narrow, almost maroon in the shady shadows of the inlet.

"I am not your assistant," Kira snarls are him. "I'm going home."

"Ah yes, typical Titan idiocy. Unable to complete a simple task without the order from your superior." He laughs. It's meant to be a dig at her. If he notices her anger, he does not care. "Well, go on then, back to your precious Commander. If the system implodes, I'll know it was you headbutting something you shouldn't have."

The Titan straightens. She does not have to speak loudly to demand his attention. "For all your demeaning conversation," Kira imparts in a volume barely above a whisper, "You've told me nothing I hadn't managed to infer before."

"The Great Vu-vu-zela knew the Cabal's Flagship would destroy the sun, did he?"

She remains quiet. They'd had theories, but nothing confirmed. “We-”

"That's what I thought. Now, if you'll excuse me, Titan, I have to find another assistant as mine has shown her true colors."

#commander zavala #asher mir #cayde 6 #ikora rey #destiny fanfiction #destiny stories #destiny 2 #nessus #io #the red war #tw: ptsd #zavala is tower dad #suraya hawthorne #collection: the lion's heart

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