#but I think he's going to become the co-founder of this legacy

[jellysimbean-blog]

So I came up with this new sims legacy challenge, i call it Wild apple tree. It consists of 10 generation and each gen has specifics to complete before moving forward. I haven't come up with the storyline between each generation just yet but other then that I think it's done. I feel i might have gotten a bit carried away and if i add more to each generation it might be a little to much but at the same time I feel it has room for improvement and new ideas so if anyone have any input please feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

(I'm hoping all the ideas I came up with are feasible and can be done I am still playing thru it)

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Wild apple tree sims legacy challenge

Basic Rules

- Each generation must have an apple tree. It may be the founders tree and gets carried thru each generation or it can be a new tree but the new tree must grow from an apple off the last generations tree.

- Heir for each generation can be either gender unless stated other wise

- No money Cheats (optional)

- Color for each generation is optional

- May live where ever you choose unless location is specified.

- Each generation needs to complete their aspiration(all aspirations are whatever you choose)

- Must have the Career that is listed for each generation

- If you play this challenge and want to share please use #Wildappletree so it can be seen

- HAVE FUN SIMMING!

** This legacy challenge is ofc for your entertainment, the number one goal is to have fun. If you choose not to follow any of the rules or you dont have the packs use then that is perfectly A ok and feel free to change things up however you prefer **

1.Blended family - Golden Orange

*Founder can be any gender

*Your founder must be a single parent

*He/she must marry another single parent

*Both single parents must have one or more kids from their previous relationships prior to meeting.

* After Marriage have at least one more child using science

*Next heir must be Science baby

*Next heir must have ambitious trait and do well in school

Career- Career of your choice to start

2. Science baby - Jonagold yellow

*Attend a university(which ever path you choose)

*Have only one child while In university

*Don't have another baby till you are an adult and ,half way through the Science Branch

*Master Logic Skill

*Master Robotics Skill (Optional)

*Master Rocket science

*Visit Sixam At least once

*Always join Next heir to high-school(Must meet future spouse)

Career- Scientist but of course

3.High school sweethearts - Pink Lady

*Heir must marry their High school sweetheart of course

*Try for baby every time you woohoo(optional)

*Have relationship fail but never divorce

*Heir alway attend the romantic festival

*Have a child from someone other then spouse after marriage(preferably a co-star)

*Try for baby with more then one sim in the same day/week

*One Sim must have a bad relationship with their children.

Career- Acting for both Heir and spouse (Must Join when ever they get a gig)

4.We're Adopting- Empire Purple

*First child must be from adoption (preferably as an infant)

* Must have at least one boy and one girl

* Next heir must be male ( can be the adopted sim)

*Live/ Move to sulani

*Master fishing

*Own at least 2 fish tanks

*Have your teens work as lifeguards

*Only leave the island to dig for bottles in Tartosa

*Best friend a mermaid

*Go diving at least once a week(Bonus finding mermaid kelp)

Career- Conservationist, the Marine Biologist Branch

5.Single dad - Cosmic Blue

*Live in an apartment

* Meet your girlfriend at a party or bar

*Must have a baby girl

*Have your girlfriend leave you after you have a girl.

*Must never marry or date again but Can woo-hoo around

*Must live with and have close relationship to adopted sibling. ( preferably both heir and next heir)

* Must Leave your daughter to be raised by your sibling before she becomes a teen.(you can choose to do this however you like.)

* you may have more then one child but your daughter must be next heir*

Career- Military Man (Either branch)

6.Raised by my aunt/uncle - Multi-colored Ambrosia

*Have a great relationship with your aunt/uncle

*Heir must be Female

*Heir starts this generation as a child

*Have a Bake sale as a child

*Have only one child by a one night stand(Can not take pregnancy test or keep trying with the same sim)

*Master Baking

*Sell your baked goods(You can do this with a yard sale table)

*Build your own bakery and work it part time(Optional)

*Cook Ambrosia(Optional)

Career- Critic career, Art Critic

7.Happy little accident - Fuji green

*Master painting skill

*Only paint landscape and photos you take(optional)

*Start an art club

*Have more then one baby

*Have loves outdoors trait

*Own at least one cat or dog

*Own at least 2 small pets (one must be a hedgehog)

*Own some chickens

*Have a drone to record and stream you when ever you are painting

*Upload your painting videos (Optional)

Career- Freelancer (Artist)

8.Soccer Mom/Dad - Arkansas Black and White

*Marry someone successful ( go dig for gold with this one)

*Must have at least 5 kids

*Travel at least once a week with all the kids for a fun day out ( just has to be somewhere outside of the house)

*Heir Can only make money from trendi (Other sims in the home can work however you choose including the children )

*Must help with any school project brought home and try to help with homework often

*Aspiration Super parent

*Celebrate all Holidays and birthdays

*Build a tree house

Career- Stay at home parent

9.Raised in a nursing home - Granny smith Grey

* Heir Must have more then one child

*Heir Must become Elder before last child becomes a teen

*All kids must be moved out once they hit young adults except the last child ( The Next Heir )

*When Heir is an elder they must rent rooms to at least 4 other Elders

*Have a game night ever Wednesday with the elders ( this includes bowling)

*Have dance night every Thursday with elders

*Master dancing

*Have Movie night every Friday (can be at home)

*Never have a real career( May make money any other way)

*Next heir can't move till they have at least 3 kids

Career- Job hop part time jobs. Call out of work at least once for each job. Quit/retire once you are an elder

10.Fullhouse - Red Delicious

*Must have at least 6 or more sims living together during the entire generation( 2 sims preferably Aunts/Uncles)

*Take a family vacation every season

*Throw a party every other weekend( Include at least one slumber party)

*Build a tree house

*Have Grandparents visit often(Include stay overs)

*2 Sims must master guitar

*All Sims must master comedy

*3 Sims must master singing

*1 Sim must master dj

Career- Entertainer(Both branches split between entire house)

[thedorklegacy]

The Dork Legacy 1.0 part 1

Yeah...me too. legacy_writers challenge. I actually started playing as SOON as the founder was uploaded, but I haven't had time to post until now. So I'm late to the bandwagon. Hopefully you guys aren't too sick of our dear elfin friend.

Right on, dude. I hope you brought some Mountain Dew, cuz the pizza's all ready on the way! But we're not chillin' in my mom's basement this time, because it just so happens that our dear founder got his OWN place.

It's rocking. But hey...it's above ground level. That's a plus, right?

Anyway, I guess I better introduce you to your new DM founder, Caedmon Dork.

He's a Leo with who just loves the ladies. He has 10 outgoing points, and 4 or 5 in everything else. His dream is to become a Celebrity Chef, just like Chairman Kaga.

You can't name a legacy Dork and NOT have a computer in the house. This is his ghetto-rigged machine. Right off the bat he finds a job in the slacker career (not his LTW but he rolled a want for it, it'll do for now).

And then starts playing video games. Of course.

Caedmon, shouldn't you ease off the computer games a little?

"Lay off, would you? I'm reading The Culinary Art of Star Wars."

But...you're sitting at your computer. And it's on.

"I just like to be close to it. Feel the cool glow of the screen."

...Right.

GET OUT OF MY YARD. LEAVE MY PAPER ALONE.

I must have been slacking, these days legacy founders are all ready pregnant with Gen 2 by the time the Welcome Wagon arrives. Well, here's Caed's: Mink Feisty, CAS.

Jane Doe, co-founder of an alien legacy I probably won't post.

And the one horned one eyed flying purple paper stealer! Caedmon sends them all packing.

*reads 1up.com* "Oh my God...how many video game companies can EA BUY?"

Are you just going to leave it there?

Yeah, didn't think so. You might not be a neat sim by points, but I can see in it your soul.

This guy just stared at Caed's door with his arms crossed for like a half hour. Whatcha waitin' for, buddy? Christmas?

Caedmon's old school. He does the crosswords. Forget that Sudoku crap! Stick it to the...man, I guess.

To avoid a visit from the Social Bunny before the first EVENING of a legacy, I sent Caedmon to call a taxi. When I came back from the bathroom, he was chatting to some guy named Joe over the internet.

...Sigh.

HAWT. Caedmon is going to LEAVE this HOUSE, and he's going to LEAVE it PRESENTABLY.

Originally posted at katu_sims.

[quotesandmeditation]

Steve Jobs Motivation: Unveiling the Secrets Of Life

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, has long been celebrated as one of the most influential technological innovators of our time. His vision, perseverance, and relentless pursuit of perfection have not only shaped the way we interact with technology but also the way we approach life itself.

The Essence of Steve Jobs

Beyond the iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks, Steve Jobs was a man of profound wisdom. He believed in embracing failure, challenging the status quo, and following one's inner compass.

Motivational Quotes and Speeches

One of Jobs' most captivating skills was his ability to articulate his thoughts in a way that resonated with people across the globe. Some of his most inspiring quotes include:

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work."

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose."

The Meditation Connection

Jobs' fascination with Zen Buddhism and meditation was no secret. His spiritual pursuits led him to a sense of mindfulness and presence that undoubtedly influenced his approach to business and innovation.

Success, Business, and Wealth

Jobs' success story is nothing short of a marvel. From starting Apple in his parents' garage to becoming one of the wealthiest individuals on the planet, his journey is a testament to what can be achieved with determination, creativity, and a refusal to settle for mediocrity.

Legacy

Steve Jobs left behind a legacy that continues to inspire and challenge us. His life's work is a reminder that we have the power to shape our destiny and that true greatness lies in the pursuit of excellence, not just success.

By exploring #SteveJobsMotivation, #SteveJobsQuotes, and #SteveJobsSpeech, we can glean insights that are applicable to various aspects of our lives, be it motivation, meditation, business, wealth, or simply understanding the secrets of life.

[firelordizumi]

I've seen a lot of people talk about Katara as a trophy wife like the certain subset of fans wink wink. I'm not trying to start a ship war but I saw you felt similarly, so could you elaborate on that if you feel comfortable

yeah, sure. and i also don’t want to start a ship war so if you want to argue, please keep it out of my asks. 

i actually watched lok for the first time back in june because i wanted to see for myself how katara was such a trophy wife with aang, and i easily gathered from the first episode that she wasn’t. and as the series progressed, katara was anything but a trophy wife.

so let’s break it down: 

katara is introduced first and foremost as master katara. korra was born a waterbender in the southern water tribe, and with katara being the best waterbender of her generation, it’s without a doubt that katara would be korra’s master. it’s confirmed that she is in this comic, which in my understanding, is canon. case in point, in her lifetime, katara was the master of two avatars.

when katara is first introduced in lok, korra is in the middle of her firebending test. the order of the white lotus look to katara in order to see if korra has actually mastered firebending and can go on to master airbending. again, she is referred to as master katara. not avatar aang’s wife katara. master. korra doesn’t pass her test until katara says that she’s ready.

katara is world renowned for her healing. korra says that she is the best healer in the world, and korra trained under her.

katara outlawed bloodbending. 

katara is the matriarch of the only living airbenders in the world. say what you will, she is the mother and grandmother of the last airbenders and i think that’s pretty important to mention. 

katara is still in action. at the end of book 2, katara is healing all of the injured soldiers in her hut. there are a lot of them. just because katara is not out on the battlefield like she once was kicking ass doesn’t mean she’s sitting around doing nothing. she even goes on to heal korra full-time while she’s injured in the south pole.

all of this talk about how katara is nothing more than a sad old lady in the south pole who doesn’t do anything and doesn’t have a statue in her name negates the fact that 1) she is pushing 90 years old and 2) she is not dead. katara is not in her prime anymore, and hasn’t been for a very long time. she is not just avatar aang’s wife, she is master katara, a legendary fighter and healer in her own right. on top of that, she is still a loving mother and grandmother, and there is nothing wrong with that. the most motherly character in the show becoming a doting mom and grandmother is not out of character and does not diminish her legacy or make her any less powerful than she was in atla. 

of course she’s going to have an aura of sadness around her. her husband, the father of her children and her best friend, as well as her brother and most of her friends are gone. her children are grown up and living their own lives. just as we are sad about how aang and sokka and the rest of the gaang’s time has passed by the time of lok, katara is sad because the people she loved most are gone. 

katara not having a statue was a decision by the writers, and it’s kind of foolish to believe that she would’ve gotten a statue if she hadn’t ended up with aang or with zuko or whoever else (and this goes for aang being a bad dad too. it’s pretty ridiculous to think that if katara had ended up with zuko or someone other than aang that that person would’ve been a better father and she would’ve been in a happier marriage or something). if you think about it, katara probably doesn’t have a statue because she is still alive, or she has one and it’s just not shown. aang’s statue was likely not built until he passed, and zuko being the co-founder of republic city, they decided to carve one out for him too. same goes for sokka. toph, on the other hand, has three. it wouldn’t be surprising if she had just carved them herself (but two of them were in zaofu, which her daughter founded, so it makes sense why she would honor her mother). katara’s could’ve been in the southern water tribe, and we just didn’t see it. it’s clear that the writers knew just how significant katara was, hence why she is the one character from atla who makes the most appearances throughout lok. 

in conclusion: katara has never been a trophy because she cannot be won, and she was never a trophy wife. thanks for coming to my tiff talk.

[kitkat99]

Disney legacy challenge Post Hey everyone I decided to go ahead and upload another challenge that I plan on doing in the future rules today and right now I am doing back stories pictures for snow white's family and her dating relationship stories but I plan on up loading photos of all the house holds involved in this future challenge but I also plan on uploading the actual challenge gameplays videos to my personal youtube channel in the near future. I also will be adding a video of their backstories on my you tube channel as well.

Disney Legacy Challenge rules

All rules apply, except it is okay to pick an aspiration for all sims, as well as a secondary aspirations. Also, if needed, you can add sims that you create to the household. your sims may go on vacation at any time and go to University, unless noted otherwise. Generations are listed below.

Generation 1: Snow White

She was the first princess, so of course she has to be the founder! If you choose, you can create her as a teen and make her evil stepmother, but that’s not necessary. To start, create Snow as an Adult (or Young Adult if you wanted to go to University, but that is not recommended for this generation).

.Find love with someone of high authority and/or wealth

.Must have 7 children (dwarves) with the same baby daddy

.May not marry until the 7th child is a toddler, has learned to walk, talk and use the potty, and has maxed out 1 toddler skill at least, or until that child is a child

.Don’t open the door to strangers or talk to elderly women (this includes the matchmaker from Nightlife and Freetime!)

Generation 2: Cinderella

Although you grew up with six brothers and sisters, you somehow always ended up doing the cooking and cleaning. Your mother says you’re a natural, but is that really what you want to do with your life? This generation starts when Cinderella becomes a teenager.

.Must be a neat sim

.Must clean something every day and cook every meal

.Must reach at least level 8 of the cooking and cleaning skill before you become an adult

.May not marry until your mother dies

.May stop cooking all the meals and cleaning after your mother dies

.Marry, have children

Generation 3: Tiana

What has your family accomplished? Nothing! But you’re here to do something about it. You want to work, and work hard. This generation starts when Tiana becomes a teenager.

.Must be an active sim

.Must have the fortune aspiration

.Must get a teen job

.Must go to University (if you have the expansion pack)

.Father must die before she goes to University or becomes an adult

.Must own a pet (if you have Pets, otherwise just get a fish)

.Must marry a sim with green (hair, eyes, skin, etc.)

.Have children

.Reach the top of career choice and may never retire

Generation 4: Aurora

Because of your mother’s hard work, everything just came to you, except for love. Your father rarely let you in the outside world for fear of something happening to you. This generation starts when Aurora becomes an Adult (may not go to University this generation)

.Must be a lazy sim

.Can only know three people outside her family

.Mother must die before Adulthood

.Must meet future spouse at night while her parents are sleeping

.Have a private wedding

.Only have 2 children (having 3 children by having accidental twins is fine)

Generation 5: Elsa (Requires Apartment Life, if not, see generation 5.5)

Where exactly did your powers come from? How exactly did you get it? Well, let’s just say, a certain friend gave you a curse… but that doesn’t matter. You spent all your time thinking about it, so much time, you became secluded from your entire family. You even missed your own parents’ funeral because you were too scared to show yourself! This generation starts when Elsa is a teenager.

.Must become a witch by the end of her teenage years (can not be cheated, can be good or bad)

.Have parents die as a teenager (can be cheated)

.Never marry, have one child (it was an accident)

Generation 5.5: Anna (If you have Apartment Life, you can do Anna and Elsa together)

After your sister was a child, she secluded herself from you, leaving you lonely and depressed. What did you do to deserve this? And after your parents’ death, she didn’t even show up to the funeral! What exactly is going on? When Anna is a teenager, this generation begins

.Don’t talk to sister until adulthood

.Have parents die as a teenager

.Find love with someone in the criminal career and/or a grouchy sim

.Have lover cheat on her, get engaged with loved

.Find someone new after breaking up with lover

.Marry, have one child

Generation 6: Rapunzel

You were never allowed outside your little house. So, to pass the time, you chose to do a lot of painting. But, why exactly did your mother never trust you out there? This generation begins when Rapunzel becomes a teenager.

.Must be a shy sim

.Must reach at least level 8 of the creativity skill before adulthood

.Must paint for an hour each day

.May only leave the house for school

.If you go to University, you may only talk to boys (if you don’t have University, just move in a handsome adult sim)

.Lover must be in the criminal career

.Lover must quit job before getting married (can get another one if they want)

.Marry, have kids

Generation 7: Belle

You have always found a love for books. It has transported you away to another universe. They taught you not to judge by appearance, but by character and personality. But, your father had different ideas. He set you up with the most handsome men, but none of them fit your standards. This generation begins when Belle becomes an adult.

.Must have Pleasure or Romance aspiration

.Date at least 5 men

.Find the man of your dreams- a werewolf (this may be cheated if necessary). If you don’t have Pets, just make an ugly sim

.Marry, have kids

.Werewolf is cured after marriage (if you don’t have Pets just try to make him less ugly or use hacks and cheats to change his appearance)

Generation 8: Ariel

You loved the water and everything about it. It just transported you away to another dimension, with mermaids and fish that talk to you. You always dreamed about being a mermaid, and you hope to one day make this dream a reality. This generation begins when Ariel becomes a teenager.

.Must be an active sim

.Must own a pool and swim in it for an hour or more each day

.Must marry a beautiful sim with at least two attraction bolts (if you have Nightlife)

.Have kids (no limit)

Generation 9: Jasmine

Living the rich life has its ups and downs. To you, it seems like mostly downs. The only thing you find comfort in is Raja. All your father wants from you is to marry rich, but you’re willing to give it all up just to be normal. This generation starts when Jasmine is a teenager.

.May only leave the house for school

.Must meet future spouse on a community lot dressed as a “poor person”

.Must marry a poor sim

.Lover must have a pet (if you have Pets)

.Go on vacation to all three vacation areas at least once

.Make use of the genie! (May not be cheated, can wish for anything besides hidden Give Me Youth)

.Have 4 children

Generation 10: Merida

You always wanted to know why your mother gave up her riches for a poor boy. Who in their right mind would do that?! Trying to learn more about this and your other “adventures” has landed you in lots of trouble over the years. When Merida becomes an adult, this story beings.

.Must be an active sim

.Lose siblings and mother in an “accident” (may be cheated)

.Resurrect them as zombies (use the resurrect-o-nomitron)

.Never marry or have kids

Generation 10.5: Mulan (for those who want a happier ending)

After your mother married her lover, she realized she wanted her children to live the life she did. She wanted all her children to marry rich, and succeed at life. But you wanted nothing but glory. When Mulan becomes an adult, this generation begins.

.Must be an active sim

.Must be in the military career

.Fall in love with a co-worker once you reach the top of the career

.Marry if you wish, but never have children

.Never retire

[365days365movies]

May 7, 2021: TRON (1982)

Starting to leave lo-fi sci-fi with this one.

Can I just say, I am VERY excited for this one. Mostly because it’s hard to get more ‘80s than this movie, specifically in terms of computers. I’ll explain. Y’know Jurassic Park? Yeah, the same movie I’ve brought up far, FAR too many times this month. Is...is that my favorite sci-fi movie? Shit, it might be? I’ve read the books, I’ve seen the movie COUNTLESS times...I’m pretty sure it is! Huh. Go figure. Anyway, where was I?

Oh, right! Remember the most irritating character in the movie? This is, in my opinion, older sister Lex Murphy. In the book, for the record, she’s a VERY different character. She’s the youngest sibling amongst the two, and she’s a sports nerd who hates dinosaurs. And she’s also the most annoying character in the book, so at least they kept that consistent. However, you may be saying to yourself: “Jesus, this dude really loves Jurassic Park. Even in the intro for Tron, he’s talking about it. Why the hell does he keep bringing it up?”

Well, allow me to explain. When I was 9 years old, I was super into two things: dinosaurs and reading. You may think that I wasn’t very popular in school as a result. And the truth won’t surprise you. Anyway, on January 3rd, 2001, it was a cold morning in the supermarket when

...OK, lemme get to the point. IT’S A UNIX SYSTEM!

See, this moment when Lex hacks into the computer to reactivate the locks (a task given to Tim in the book, but whatever) does two things. One, it makes Lex relevant in a film and story where she’s almost entirely unneeded. And two, it established something in the minds of movie-watchers everywhere: a completely misguided idea of what computer programming is.

And this is just one of MANY examples of Hollywood weirdly representing computers to the public. This was kind of a trend throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, as computers were beginning to become available to the public. Examples are:

WarGames (1983), dir. John Badham

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), dir. James Cameron

Revenge of the Nerds (1984), dir. Jeff Kanew

Weird Science (1985), dir, John Hughes

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), dir. Russo Bros

That last one isn’t a great example, and it’s not even within the right time period. I just love Arnim Zola, and he NEEDS TO RETURN to the MCU. Goddamn it, I want this guy back, complete with his full robot body! COME ON FIEGE, LOOK AT THIS GUY! That last one may or may not be my fanart for the character with my own design NEVERTHEGODDAMNLESS!

Look, all you gotta do is connect the various machinations of Arnim Zola to the foundations of AIM, which is easy given their link in the comics. Zola and his fellow Paperclip scientists helped fund Aldrich Killian’s AIM, and the project to give Zola his sick-ass robot body eventually wound up being a part of the project that would create the hovering robotic chair used by this guy.

THIS IS ALL I’VE EVER WANTED PLEASE

...Ahem.

Anyway, the weird-ass ways that Hollywood’s represented computers, hacking, and all other associated things can be traced back to 1982, when the first film to use mostly computer generated imagery for its setting was created. This was, of course, Disney’s TRON. And while I haven’t seen it before...I’ve see its sequel in theaters?

On a related note, Tron Legacy might be a mediocre film with a mediocre soundtrack, but GODDAMN DO IT LOVE THE FUCKING VISUALS. It’s genuinely my favorite aesthetic. That whole “outlined in light” thing? Goooooooh, BABY, how I love it.

Style over substance, but OH THE FUCKING STYLE

Anyway, despite that, I’m looking forward to seeing where the whole thing came from. I dig that style, too. Is there a name for those aesthetics? Let me know, so I can devote my life to it forever. Anyway, shall we get started?

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

So, we start this movie off with a BANG, jumping into an arcade where two kids are playing none other than Lightcycle, and jumping into said Lightcycles to meet one of the drivers, Sark (David Warner). A sadistic program, he takes great pleasure in executing programs in Lightcycle races.

One of these programs, in fact, is being brought into imprisonment now, to be set against Sark in a race. The program, Crom (Peter Jurasik), speaks with fellow prisoner Ram (Dan Shor), where we get some idea of the lore of this place. Many programs believe in “the Users”, god-like figures who they believe created them and tell them what to do. However, the mysterious Master Control Program is rounding up the programs that believe in Users, taking over their functions or executing them. Diggin’ the lore so far.

In the real world, we meet Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a computer programmer commanding his own program, Clu (also Bridges), and...look, I’m not sure what they’re doing, but OHHH. IT’S A UNIX SYSTEM, BABY. The beautiful bullshit that this movie uses to denote computer activity and programming, it’s...MMMMMMMMMCHEF’SKISS, it’s so FUCKING GOOD!

Anyway, Clu’s apparently being sent to find some information, but he’s caught by Master Control. Jeff Bridges shows off some pretty over-the-top acting, but it’s charming as hell. Clu’s interrogated by Master Control Program (also Warner), and killed, or “derezzed”. This frustrates Flynn, but why?

Well, we get a clue from MCPs concentration with Ed Dillinger (David Warner), who arrives at his office in the COOLEST FUCKING HELICOPTER I HAVE EVER SEEN. I will never make enough money to have this helicopter, but maybe one day I can do it to a car, holy shit. Anyway, Dillinger lands and enters the ENCOM building, where he speaks with his computer table, which contains MCP.

Is this a thing with computer programmers? Do they, like, physically talk to their programs, and the programs talk back? Is this a thing that happens? Are the conversations interesting? Are IT people literally computer-whisperers? I gotta talk to my friends in computer sciences and IT about this.

Apparently, Flynn’s been snooping around their servers for a specific file, and they’re trying to stop him from getting that file. Meanwhile, in an office in the building, a man named Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) is blocked out of the system in an attempt to flush out Flynn’s location. Bradley’s summoned to the office for what seems like a routine interview, but is actually more of an investigation. Doesn’t go anywhere.

On a side note, by the way, it would appear that MCP is somewhat in control of Dillinger. Although, how and why is unknown. In any case, he’s attempting to amass power. Additionally, the fact that he’s directly speaking to one of the Users is...interesting. And on a second side note, Bradley is preparing something, a security program called “Tron”. That might come up later.

MEANWHILE, elsewhere in the building, a group of scientists are conducting an experiment to digitize solid matter and transport it into computers. It succeeds with an orange, much to their delight and celebration. One of these scientists is Lora Baines (Cindy Morgan), Flynn’s ex-girlfriend and Alan’s current girlfriend. They go to the arcade to reconvene with Flynn, much to Alan’s irritation.

Flynn not only owns the place, he’s also a game whiz, brilliant computer programmer, and recently fired ex-employee of ENCOM. He’s also been sneaking into the ENCOM system, and he details exactly why he’s moving against them. While working for ENCOM, he had started writing programs for some very complex video games, which could’ve have made him quite a bit of money. But Dillinger stole his files, and uses it to climb up the ranks to Senior Executive of ENCOM, while Flynn lounges in relative poverty. He’s planning on getting into the system to get evidence of Dillinger’s wrongdoing.

The trio plots to take down Dillinger and get the evidence together, breaking into ENCOM that night. Meanwhile, Dillinger’s meeting with Walter Gibbs (Barnard Hughes), a co-founder of the company, and one of the other scientists who made the digitizing machine. Dillinger says YOUR TIME IS OVER OLD MAN, and brushes off his concerns about he’s handing the company.

He’s not the only one with issues, as MCP decides to take over FOR Dillinger. Apparently, Dillinger’s talents are stealing data and creating Cybernet/HAL 9000. Good job, buddy. But that may end, when Alan goes to finish and install his program, Tron, which will hopefully take MCP down. Meanwhile, Lora and Flynn go to the basement with the digitizing machine. At the computer terminal, MCP decides to stop Flynn by...well, you know where this is headed.

Yup! Flynn’s brought into the computer by Lora’s machine, and is digitized and put into the game grid. And since we’ll be spending a lot of time there, I think I need to acknowledge something: I really love how this movie looks. The CGI is rudimentary, but it’s used surprisingly well. Consider that this is also made in an era where this is the kind of imagery that computers could literally generate at the time, and you’ve got a pretty great movie in-context.

Flynn, now in those spiffy program duds, is sent by the MCP to compete in the Game Grid, under Sark’s supervision and tutelage. He’s thrown into the brig with the other imprisoned programs, where he learns more about this world. Once brought into the throes of the Game Grid, he’s told that those who believe in the Users are to be trained poorly, ensuring their inevitable death. Meanwhile, those who renounce their belief will be spared. And of all the programs who still believe in the Users, there is none quite as powerful...as Tron (Bruce Boxleitner again).

We see Tron’s badass skills in Ultimate Frisbee. And OK, it’s not Ultimate Frisbee, but you throw discs that contain all of your essence and all of the things you’ve learned in your time there. You basically pour your entire essence and being into the disc as you throw it. So, really, it is Ultimate Frisbee, according to that one dude who’s REALLY into Ultimate Frisbee.

Flynn is commanded to play one of these games, and he winds fairly easily. However, when he defeats his opponent, he’s almost about to die. However, Flynn refuses to finish him off, leading Sark to do so instead. And Sark is tempted to kill Flynn as well, but he holds off at the last moment.

Flynn finally gets to meet Tron, where he feigns being a program that knows of his User, Alan. Of course, Tron looks exactly like Alan, which is why Flynn blurts out his name. But as they’re discussing this, Flynn, Tron, and fellow prisoner Ram are sent to compete in the Lightcycles. And, yes, I’m now looking for a game like this on my phone, because GODDAMN to I love Lightcycles. Can’t WAIT for the Disney World ride, oh my GOOOOD. 

So, our guys get in the Lightcycles, and they outmaneuver Sark’s guys. They’re actually able to escape the arena and the Game Grid, making it outside the citadel. They encounter a, uh, bitstream, and soak up some energy before moving on. On the way, though, they’re nearly killed by Sark’s guys in tanks, and Tron is separated from Flynn an the unconscious Ram.

Flynn and Ram finds a place to rest and hide, and Flynn discovers that, as a User, he actually has the ability to somewhat manipulate the reality within the computer, and he makes a version of MCPs ships, the Recognizers, which resemble the villains in Flynn’s game that Dillinger stole. Now realizing that Flynn is a user, Ram asks him to help Tron, before dying and disappearing into pure code. Whoof.

Tron, meanwhile, ends up finding an input/output program named Yori (Cindy Morgan), who helps him in his escape. She takes him through the city, where we see some interesting designs for control programs, almost like a Hunger Games Panem sort of deal.

Flynn has trouble driving his ship, as he meets a “bit”, a small bit of data that only answers in yes or no. He, too, ends up in the city, and you start to notice that this film has a really heavy influence in our cyberpunk concepts and fashions today. Honestly, I really dig this whole thing. Kevin uses his programming powers to disguise himself as one of Sark’s guards, while Yori and Tron find their way through the main citadel of the guards.

They make their way through to the access tower, where they ask the program Dumont (Barnard Hughes again) to let them access the interface that will allow them to speak with the Users, specifically Alan. Reluctantly, Dumont agrees to let Tron through, where he goes to the access port. Which, for the record, looks awesome. He goes to speak with Alan, and he does that one pose. Y’know, the famous Tron pose that’s on the poster?

Yeah, that’s the good stuff. Anyway, he gets information written onto his disc that’ll allow him to kill MCP. Neat. And unfortunately, that’s exactly when Sark and his guys show up, taking Dumont away as Tron and Yori escape. Yori gets them onto a Solar Sailer, a device that will transport them to the central computer. Tron fends off some of Sark’s guys with video game noise kicks, and the Solar Sailer arrives to take them away.

Sark chases after them, but the pair manage to outrun his very cool-looking ship. MCP threatens to destroy Sark for his failure, but he promises that he’ll be able to get them. On the ship, Tron looks down at the side to see Flynn hanging on. Turns out that he was one of the guards that attacked the two. Tron pulls him up onto the ship, and Flynn reveals that he is, in fact, a user. He also reveals that Users aren’t exactly the gods that programs believe them to be.

Anyway, how’s Dumont doing?

Ah.

Well, the Recognizers find Tron, Yori, and Flynn, and chase after them on the light beam the Solar Sailer is on. However, with his User powers, Flynn manages to get the Sailer onto a different beam, while pulses on the original beam destroy the Recognizers.

Doesn’t end up mattering much, though, as Sark finally catches up and intercepts the group. The Solar Sailer is destroyed, and Yori and Flynn are thrown in the brig with Dumont, who’s still alive! Can’t say quite as much for Tron, apparently. But, again, I can only assume that Ton is still alive. We’ll see, though. Sark denies Flynn’s identity as a User for some reason (I mean, MCP told you who he was, but OK), and he sentences them all to death. Outside the ship, of course, is Tron, who’s hiding and waiting for the right time to strike. And that is when we finally see him.

Glorious. Absolutely goddamn glorious. MCP is taking the remaining programs that believe in Users, Dumont included, and incorporating them into his mass. Meanwhile, Sark has found Tron, and the two are fighting with a classic game of Ultimate Frisbee. Tron nearly defeats Sark entirely, but MCP revives him, and gives him the power to take out Tron. He grows gigantic, and it looks genuinely really convincing.

Flynn prepares to take out MCP once and for all, and kisses Yori just beforehand, which is weird as shit. He jumps into the program, and controls it just long enough for Tron to throw his disc at it and land the finishing blow. And with that, MCP is ended, and the threat of take over is gone! The I/O towers light up, and the Video Warriors have won! Don’t ask me what that means, I study birds.

And with ALL OF THAT DONE, Flynn gets the proof he needs from a print-out that, to be honest, I feel like he could’ve just typed up himself. It doesn’t look like that much. But, still, MCP is gone, Dillinger’s screwed, and Flynn now gets a cool-looking helicopter of his own, as the new CEO of ENCOM. And from there, he will become a deadbeat dad that abandons his kid to live in computers forever. Or something like that, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Tron Legacy.

And that’s Tron, a goofy movie of its time, but one that’s a lot of fun all the same. And with some effects that, to be honest...I actually really liked! But more on that...IN THE REVIEW! See you there!

[trans-advice]

WINDY CITY MEDIA GROUP

NATIONAL Biden tracker, Task Force, trans journalist, Cuomo, West Virginia

by Windy City Times staff

2021-03-14

GLAAD announced the launch of its Biden Equality Accountability Tracker—a real-time record of the Biden administration's executive orders, announcements, legislative support and speeches that impact LGBTQ people and rights, a press release noted. GLAAD has tracked at least 24 pro-equality moves in the first 50 days, as well as noted LGBTQ Cabinet and staff appointments in the first days of the administration. GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis introduced the tracker in her op-ed in Reuters, and in the statement. See https:// Article Link Here .

The National LGBTQ Task Force announced the addition of two new staff members and the consolidation of two departments as part of the organization's growth and restructure under the leadership of recently named Executive Director Kierra Johnson, a press release noted. Former Creating Change Conference Director Andy Garcia will now head a combined department of conference, policy and advocacy staff as director of the Advocacy and Action Department. Also, Ashawnda Fleming joins the Task Force Development Department and Leadership Team as the new chief development officer and Desiree Luckey has been appointed senior policy counsel, focusing on the organization's democracy work.

Trans sports journalist Christina Kahrl—a longtime ESPN senior editor and co-founder of both the Baseball Prospectus think tank and the Baseball Writers' Association of America—announced on Twitter that she will be the next sports editor of the legendary San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, Outsports noted. She will become the first out transgender editor of a major, metropolitan mainstream media outlet in the country when she takes the reins of sports coverage of the largest newspaper in Northern California. The Chronicle is the state's second major newspaper after the Los Angeles Times. In a message to Outsports, Kahrl said she recognizes the importance of her platform.

Many of New York's LGBTQ lawmakers are echoing growing calls for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign in response to numerous disturbing allegations of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment, Gay City News reported. U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, became the highest-ranking LGBTQ elected official in the state to call on Cuomo to step down when he issued a statement on March 12—the same day that new allegations surfaced. Congressmen Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres have also asked for the governor to step down.

Researchers at UCLA partnered with a researcher at West Virginia University (WVU) to publish a report addressing discrimination against the LGBT community in West Virginia, WDTV.com reported. Some of the key findings were that LGBT people in West Virginia experience discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations. For example, data show 39% of LGBT adults in West Virginia reported having a household income below $24,000, compared to 26% of non-LGBT adults.

A Houston bakery is facing two separate lawsuits from former employees alleging they were fired due to anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, out.com noted. Gilbert Johnson and Katherine Phillips told OutSmart the Dessert Gallery Bakery & Cafe fired them because Johnson is gay and Phillips is a lesbian. Johnson further alleged he was fired in part for hiring a transgender employee. "We take seriously any allegations like those outlined in these complaints but stand firm that these allegations are simply not true," Dessert Gallery said in a statement. "We believe the proper place to disclose the facts of this case is in the courtroom and look forward to that opportunity."

A bill to strengthen the sexually transmitted disease public-health infrastructure of California is better than a similar effort that had initially been introduced last year, a principal co-author of the legislation told the Bay Area Reporter. Gay state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) co-authored Senate Bill 306 with Sen. Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), who introduced it Feb. 4. According to a news release from Wiener's office, the legislation will "permit the Family [Planning Access Care Treatment] program to offer covered benefits to income-eligible patients, even if contraception is not discussed during the patient encounter; update California's [Expedited Partner Therapy] statute to include provider liability protections used in other states; permit HIV counselors to administer rapid STD tests; update state law to require congenital syphilis testing during the third trimester of pregnancy; [and] require coverage of home STD tests by public and private insurers."

Former First Lady Michelle Obama spoke candidly in a People Magazine interview about her struggles with low-grade depression during the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of 2020, encouraging people to speak more openly about their mental health, CNN.com noted. Obama told People magazine that she "needed to acknowledge what I was going through, because a lot of times we feel like we have to cover that part of ourselves up, that we always have to rise above and look as if we're not paddling hard underneath the water." She added, "We had the continued killing of Black men at the hands of police. Just seeing the video of George Floyd, experiencing that eight minutes. That's a lot to take on, not to mention being in the middle of a quarantine."

Thousands of Texans are slated to lose their healthcare provider after Travis County Civil District Court Judge Lora Livingston allowed the state to remove Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program, CNN.com reported. Texas has long sought to ban Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions in Texas, from Medicaid. Medicaid funding does not cover abortions except in cases of rape or incest or when the woman's life is at risk, due to the Hyde Amendment, dating back to 1976. In 2019, Planned Parenthood provided health care to more than 8,000 Medicaid recipients in Texas.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed Senate Bill 124, a religious refusal bill that could grant a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people across a wide range of goods and services in the state, a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) statement noted. HRC President Alphonso David said, "While she may see discrimination as a path to the national far right spotlight, she should understand the damage she is doing to the state of South Dakota and LGBTQ people who are simply looking to live their lives free of fear and exclusion." Noem also signed legislation that would bar transgender girls and women from participating in female sports leagues.

Over objections from Democrats, Georgia House Republicans passed a sweeping elections bill that would enact more restrictions on absentee voting and cut back on weekend early voting hours favored by larger counties, among other changes, NPR reported. The bill's sponsor—GOP Rep. Barry Fleming, who chairs the House Special Committee on Election Integrity—said the 66-page measure "is designed to begin to bring back the confidence of our voters back into our election system" after Republicans lost confidence in the GOP-backed voting system following Democrats' victories in the November presidential contest and both of Georgia's U.S. Senate races.

The National AIDS Memorial announced Isabel Fatima (Ima) Diawara, of Los Angeles, as the first recipient of the Mary Bowman Arts in Activism Award, a press release noted. The newly created and inspiring program, funded through a multi-year grant from ViiV Healthcare, offers support to artist-activists who are working and committed to making a difference in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The Mary Bowman Arts in Activism Award honors the life of Mary Bowman—a poet, advocate, author, singer and young person living with AIDS who passed away in early 2019 at age 30.

A statue of late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was erected in her hometown of Brooklyn on March 12—three days before her 88th birthday, USA Today noted. The unveiling also comes in the middle of Women's History Month as another way to honor Ginsburg's legacy and her fight for women's rights. The statue is part of a larger series called Statues for Equality, which has worked to increase the representation of women in public sculptures around New York City and beyond.

LGBTQ-rights advocates are uniting to support Noel Koenke, a former employee at St. Joseph's University who's appealing the dismissal of her LGBT-related anti-bias case against the university before it could reach a jury, Philadelphia Gay News reported. Koenke worked as an assistant director of music and worship at the university; however, pressure to stay in the closet eventually caused her to attempt suicide and resulted in the dissolution of her marriage�and she resigned in November 2017. Koenke filed suit in October 2019, claiming the university violated Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs receiving federal funds.

New York-based fashion designer Alexander Wang responded, again, to a growing number of sexual assault and harassment allegations, out.com reported. Wang had previously called the initial allegations "baseless," and said they were "fabricated"—but now, his tenor has changed starkly. On Instagram, he posted, "It was not easy for [the alleged victims] to share their stories, and I regret acting in a way that caused them pain. While we disagree with some of the details of these personal interactions, I will set a better example and use my visibility and influence to encourage others to recognize harmful behaviors. Life is about learning and growth, and now that I know better, I will do better." Attorney Lisa Bloom—who reportedly is representing 11 of those who have allegations against Wang—responded on Twitter, "We have met with Alexander Wang and his team. My clients had the opportunity to speak their truth to him and expressed their pain and hurt. We acknowledge Mr. Wang's apology and we are moving forward. We have no further comment on this matter."

Fox personality Geraldo Rivera posted a tweet announcing that he was pondering running for the seat that will be left vacant by retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who will not be seeking re-election in 2022, Yahoo! noted. Rivera—who regularly butts heads with Sean Hannity and Fox News contributor Dan Bongino for his moderate stances on things like immigration—said he would have run as a moderate Republican. But his political ambitions didn't last long as he posted another tweet less than 24 hours after the first one, saying that the run is not going to happen.

Lawyers for former U.S. Rep. Katie Hill and her ex-husband, Kenneth Heslep, told a Los Angeles judge that they remain hopeful of settling her allegations of harassment and years of abuse—but they still asked that the groundwork be laid for a possible trial of whether Hill's stay-away order should be extended, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff ordered both sides to prepare lists of witnesses and exhibits they would use during the trial and submit them a week in advance of April 8, when a trial-setting hearing is scheduled. The judge said he was extending the temporary restraining order Judge Anne Richardson granted Hill on Dec. 8 until April 30. Heslep has denied allegations of abusing Hill, who resigned her seat in 2019 after nude photos of her were published and news emerged that she had a three-way relationship with her husband and a female campaign staffer.

On March 8, the Cambridge (Massachusetts) City Council passed a historic domestic partnership ordinance aimed at recognizing and protecting polyamorous and other multi-partner families and relationships, according to an item from the Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition (PLAC). The ordinance was developed with detailed input from the PLAC, and is the first of what advocates hope will be a wave of legal recognition for polyamorous families and relationships in 2021. Last year, Somerville (also in Massachusetts) became the first U.S. city to allow domestic partnerships of three or more partners.

In California, the second annual "Pride Ride" returns to Homewood Mountain Resort March 25-28, The Bay Area Reporter noted. Along with skiing and riding, there will be a variety of mini-events on and off the mountain, including a dual slalom drag race, ski parade down Rainbow Ridge, virtual scavenger hunt and more. See https:// Article Link Here .

[monmotivation]

Best Monday Motivational Quotes and Images

It’s healthy to take a step back and remember why you took that independence step to become a homeowner, to make your dream come true. Today might just be the day you need a little encouragement and a reminder to not give up and "keep on going" (Joe Dirt).

Best Monday Motivational Quotes

There is no shame in accepting help when it is offered. Help can also take many forms. This could be the small business CRM that you use to track your customers and prospects. Or, it can be in the form of inspirational quotes that you keep near your desk.

In case you could use a few more, here are 101 of my #MondayMotivation quotes for small businesses:

The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow. – Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA founder

The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow. – Seth Godin

Please think about your legacy, because you’re writing it every day. – Gary Vaynerchuck

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. – Albert Einstein

The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do. – Roy L. Smith

Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once. – Drew Houston, Dropbox founder and CEO

It’s not that we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas. – Edwin Land, Polaroid co-founder

You’ll never find your limits until you’ve gone too far. – Aron Ralston

You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills. – Jim Rohn

We become what we think about. – Earl Nightingale

It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower. – Paul Graham, YCombinator co-founder

To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted. – George Kneller

You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good. – Peter Shankman, HARO founder

The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be. – Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder

To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart. – Sr. Thomas Watson

It is never too late to be what you might have been. – George Eliot

Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right. – Henry Ford

Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me. – Arianna Huffington

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. – Michael Jordan

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. – Henry Ford

Pain nourishes courage. You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you. – Mary Tyler Moore

If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large. – Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO

Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you. – Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. – Steve Jobs

The only way around is through. – Robert Frost

The golden rule for every business man is this: Put yourself in your customer’s place. – Orison Swett Marden

I can’t imagine a person becoming a success who doesn’t give this game of life everything he’s got. – Walter Cronkite

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it. – Arnold Toynbee

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. – Les Brown

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore, Dream, Discover. – Mark Twain

There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team. – Jason Fried

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked. – Warren Buffett

Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. – Will Rogers

The first one gets the oyster the second gets the shell. – Andrew Carnegie

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. – Alice Walker

Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is. – Seth Godin

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. – Benjamin Franklin

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. – Derek Bok

Start today, not tomorrow. If anything, you should have started yesterday. – Emil Motycka

If you think that you are going to love something, give it a try. You’re going to kick yourself in the butt for the rest of your life if you don’t. – Joe Penna

On our own we are one drop. Together we are an ocean.

Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, “make me feel important.” Never forget this message when working with people. – Mary Kay Ash

Life’s a garden- Dig it. – Joe Dirt

In every success story, you will find someone who has made a courageous decision. – Peter F. Drucker

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong. – Warren Buffett

You can’t fall if you don’t climb.  But there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground. – Unknown

Sheer persistence is the difference between success and failure. – Donald Trump

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. – Christopher Columbus

People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves. – Seth Godin

[suswous]

Honestly, one of the most fascinating groups/phenomena nowadays, particularly in terms of religion, is that of the Freezoners.

Free Zone, as it’s called, is basically a term for various groups/individuals who are not associated with the Church of Scientology, but still follow many Scientologist beliefs and practices. How closely they resemble the current practices of the Church of Scientology, or those of L. Ron Hubbard, varies significantly, but they’re all still based off of this original idea of Scientology, and reject or practice outside of the Church of Scientology.

And, what I find so fascinating about this group is what it says about religion in general. Like, the Church of Scientology is one of the most agreed upon cults. Obviously, not everyone agrees it’s a cult, especially not its members, but it’s still a widely shared opinion. Scientology is one of the most businesslike, least religionlike religions. Other sects that have been called cults are generally either nowhere near the size and scope of Scientology, or, while they may be harmful, are very clearly nowhere near as outwardly profitseeking or capitalistic. It’s based, not on previously existing religious beliefs, or other culturally entrenched ideas, but on Sci-Fi tropes, and on the work of one man, who died in 1986. 

And yet!

This idea, this organization that was founded only in 1953, based off a book and article published in 1950, still is unable to control its beliefs. Hell, one organization claims to have been founded before the Church of Scientology was, on the basis of Hubbard’s works. Even before Church was founded, Scientology did not belong to it!

And I just find it fascinating what this says about religion in general, and how impossible it is to control a religion or belief once it enters the public sphere. Religions belong to the people, not to organizations or the individuals who created it. No matter how rotten the fruit, people will find ways to build on it, to make something that is their own, and is independent. And of course, they’ll often be apologists for previous actions of the Church, as it’s a lot easier to believe in something that was originally good but then corrupted, rather than that which was corrupted from the start, but it also speaks to the lack of control over one’s legacy when it comes to religion. Some of the groups that split after Hubbard’s death lionize Hubbard, and claim that it is the new leadership that is the source of the problems with the CoS, that they’re distorting his work, which ignores a lot of the shitty things Hubbard did. But it also steals Hubbard’s legacy away from him. He’s no longer a person, he’s a religious figure, he no longer exists as a human being, but as a holy mouthpiece. They cite quotes of Hubbard saying “The work was free. Keep it so” and use it to justify practicing Scientology separate of the the Church. And, of course, the Church of Scientology quotes Hubbard back at them to justify their own actions. Hubbard becomes not a person, but a collection of works and quotes used to justify and support one’s beliefs.

People often say that the difference between a Religion and a Cult is whether the founder is still alive or not. Obviously that’s quite a simplification, and doesn’t entirely apply to this, as many organizations split before Hubbard died, but it still makes sense, I guess? When Hubbard was alive, he could say things, he could say what his opinion of a situation was, he could object to someone using his words, he could denounce someone as Wrong. But, now that he’s dead, he can’t. People are free to pick and choose his words to argue what he would think, or what he did think, and quite often they can find evidence that they can interpret as supporting their beliefs. People can argue over how to interpret something, and they can project their own beliefs onto him, without him being able to dispute it. So there sorta is some truth to the saying. Obviously, that’s not the sole difference, and Cult, in its most common usage, is a subjective term, that’s mostly just a value judgement, but still. When someone puts an idea into the world, they no longer control it, but they still hold control over people who put faith in them to interpret and express that idea. Others can disagree, and interpret it differently, but, for most, what’s the point of following a religion, when you disagree with the founder, who based the religion off of nothing but himself? But, when the founder is dead, there’s no one left to further explain the idea. People are left to interpret what is left, and I’d argue, that’s when it goes from being a Movement, or a Religious Movement, to a Religion (which, of course, doesn’t mean it’s not a cult, or that was before, or anything).

It’s sorta like this feeling I get when people try to simplify widespread religions into being, like, One Thing. Like claiming that Christianity has always been about X thing, or Y thing, whether that’s good or bad. And it’s like, it has been around for over two thousand years, and has been practiced so many different ways by so many different people in so many different places. Like, if a Religious Idea that was founded 60 years ago still has breakaway sects and splinter groups who don’t follow the Centralized Church, it seems ridiculous to claim that any more widespread or older religion is any one thing. Any religion that survives will be split apart and have disagreements, whether the religion is centralized or not. And, I think, if Scientology does continue to exist into the far future, it won’t be because the Church of Scientology, but because of individuals who follow the ideas and beliefs of Scientology, and incorporate it into their daily life, syncretizing it with folk beliefs and whatnot as they go, without solely dedicating their lives to a moneymaking scheme. Although, considering how small the Free Zone movement is, and how few people know about them, it’s not very likely to happen.

[olko71]

New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on http://yaroreviews.info/2021/02/jeff-bezos-exits-as-ceo-but-his-role-at-amazon-will-likely-be-little-changed

Jeff Bezos Exits as CEO, but His Role at Amazon Will Likely Be Little Changed

Behind the scenes, the founder had been laying the groundwork for such a move for years, according to people who work closely with him. So much so, that when Mr. Bezos signaled to the board around six months ago that he was ready to move to a new role, the directors weren’t surprised. He had already been involving himself less and less in day-to-day management, said one of the people.

Among the most successful entrepreneurs in history, the famously driven Mr. Bezos developed a hard-charging work culture in Amazon. AMZN -2.00% Over the past several years, the 57-year-old has focused much more on high-level strategic decisions, and has made clear he would like to build a legacy for himself that goes well beyond Amazon.

Tech founders are often succeeded by their opposites, typically older executives with greater managerial experience. Mr. Bezos wanted someone more like him.

Andy Jassy, whom Mr. Bezos promoted five years ago to CEO of Amazon’s cloud business and who will take over as CEO of the company later this year, fit the bill. He started his career at Amazon in 1997, acted as Mr. Bezos’s technical assistant early on, and drove the creation of Amazon Web Services, which dominates cloud computing and accounts for the bulk of Amazon’s operating income.

“Jeff always made clear that his greatest fear is that ‘if I got hit by a bus, you would pick somebody to succeed me who was unwilling to take risks and launch new efforts,’ ” said Tom Alberg, a longtime director who retired from the board in 2019. Amazon’s board has a succession planning meeting every year to discuss major moves at the company.

Andy Jassy, pictured in 2018, will become Amazon’s CEO later this year.

Photo: KAMIL BIALOUS for The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Bezos was front and center in the CEO role last year in ways he hadn’t been for a while, as he publicly guided the company’s response to Covid-19 and was drawn into intensifying U.S. government scrutiny of Amazon’s competitive practices.

The pandemic initially disrupted Amazon, putting new demands and risks on its huge workforce of warehouse and delivery workers. It has since proven to be a boon to the company, propelling revenue for 2020 up 38% to $386.1 billion.

Mr. Bezos accelerated hiring, and Amazon increased its employee count by 63% last year to 1.3 million. People close to Mr. Bezos said he was involved every day in guiding Amazon’s pandemic response during the crisis.

Strategic guide

Mr. Bezos likely reversion to his role as Amazon’s strategic guide has left many Amazon shareholders sanguine that the company’s trajectory won’t change much. Amazon’s stock, which rose 76% last year was up nearly 4% so far in 2021 before sliding 2% in Wednesday trading.

“I don’t worry about this as a major change in the direction of Amazon, or that it will lose its way,” said Trip Miller, managing partner of Gullane Capital LLC, which he said owns roughly $25 million in Amazon stock. “This has been in the works for a while obviously. [The pandemic] was one more challenge Amazon faced in the last year, and it performed quite well in a struggling economy.”

In Amazon’s first decade or two, Mr. Bezos was involved in the minutiae of its operations. “There is no rest for the weary,” he wrote in a shareholder letter reviewing 1998. “I constantly remind our employees to be afraid, to wake up every morning terrified.”

As the company grew, Mr. Bezos was drawn to specific projects that fascinated him, including the 2014 Fire Phone, which flopped, and the Echo smart speaker, powered by a virtual assistant called Alexa, which was a success. The idea came from Mr. Bezos’s vision of a home equipped with a device like the spaceship computer on “Star Trek.”

In April 2016, Mr. Bezos gave bigger titles to his two top lieutenants. Mr. Jassy, who had been senior vice president, was named CEO of Amazon Web Services, and Jeff Wilke, who ran the better-known retail operation, became CEO of Consumer Worldwide.

The move was widely seen as an indication of succession plans, something the board had become especially attentive to the previous decade, after Mr. Bezos survived a helicopter crash in Texas in 2003.

The appointments also underlined that Messrs. Jassy and Wilke had more authority over day-to-day decision making, enabling Mr. Bezos to spend more of his time on nascent Amazon businesses, including its Hollywood arm, Amazon Studios. He was less visible in the company’s routine operations.

Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon’s Consumer Worldwide division, in 2019.

Photo: Joe Buglewicz/Bloomberg News

Mr. Bezos would quip that the only time he really knew all that was going on at Amazon was in its annual budget meetings.

“He’s not super involved in the day-to-day operations,” Matt Garman, a veteran of Amazon’s cloud-computing division and top lieutenant to Mr. Jassy, said of Mr. Bezos in a 2019 interview. “I met with him more in the first 18 months than I probably have since.”

In an interview on stage at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., in 2018, Mr. Bezos emphasized his hands-off approach, saying he rarely took meetings before 10 a.m. or after 5 p.m., and focused on strategy over detail. “If I make, like, three good decisions a day, that’s enough,” he said.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

How do you think Jeff Bezos’s new role will affect Amazon? Join the conversation below.

He had long championed innovation and reinvention, exhorting his employees to treat Amazon as a startup long after it had become a colossus.

In that spirit of reinvention, he increasingly became fixated on projects and goals beyond Amazon. He purchased the Washington Post in 2013, and had started rocket company Blue Origin in 2000.

Founders of the tech giants have shown a penchant for taking on ambitious new projects. Bill Gates stepped aside as Microsoft CEO after 25 years and devoted himself to reinventing philanthropy. Google co-founder Larry Page, even before stepping back from his management role in 2019, had devoted his time and wealth to side projects developing flying cars.

Mr. Bezos has taken particular interest in Blue Origin, which competes with Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, run by Elon Musk —Mr. Bezos’s rival for the title of world’s wealthiest person.

Mr. Bezos celebrated the successful launch and landing of a Blue Origin rocket in 2015.

Photo: Blue Origin/Planet Pix/ZUMA PRESS

Mr. Bezos for years has funded Blue Origin, whose annual budget tops $1 billion, by selling some of his shares in Amazon. He devotes every Wednesday to Blue Origin, using a conference room to take meetings and get updates.

In a public appearance in 2018, Mr. Bezos described Blue Origin as perhaps more important to him in the long run than Amazon because it would help keep human civilization dynamic and avoid stasis.

Other changes were happening in Mr. Bezos’s personal life. In 2018 he surpassed Mr. Gates to be declared the world’s richest man. The father of four, who had long depicted himself as low-key despite his wealth, started spending more time at Hollywood parties and events, as Amazon’s entertainment business grew.

In January 2019, Mr. Bezos announced he and MacKenzie Scott, his wife of 25 years, would divorce. Mr. Bezos, often with his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, appeared at concerts and flashy beach clubs like Club 55 in St. Tropez, hanging out with celebrities and yachting around with other billionaires.

In April, members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee demanded he testify after a Wall Street Journal article showed that Amazon employees had used proprietary data on outside vendors that use its platform to create rival products—something the company had publicly denied doing.

Mr. Bezos spoke via videoconference during a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on July 29.

Photo: Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse/Bloomberg News

At a subcommittee hearing in July where Mr. Bezos testified with three other Big Tech CEOs—his first such appearance before Congress—Mr. Bezos often appeared uncertain about how Amazon and its products worked, and pledged to find answers later.

In August, Amazon announced that Mr. Wilke would retire. He told the board months earlier, one of the people familiar with the matter said. The move left Mr. Jassy as the heir apparent.

About six months ago, Mr. Bezos told the board he was ready to make the move to executive chairman. The news was a closely guarded secret within Amazon, with some senior executives not knowing until they saw the press release Tuesday, according to other people familiar with the situation.

Several of Mr. Bezos’s latest Instagram posts have been related to Blue Origin. On Jan. 14, he posted a picture of himself stepping into a space capsule.

About a week ago, he shared a picture of a “hotfire test” of a Blue Origin engine. “Perfect night!” he wrote in the caption.

Write to Dana Mattioli at dana.mattioli@wsj.com and Sebastian Herrera at Sebastian.Herrera@wsj.com

Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

[intransigent-boy]

My Top Ten Films of The Decade.

10. Her

Okay, so whether you like it or not, this movie is about the present. This movie tells a very powerful story with an embarrasingly personal narrative. You feel sorry for the main character, it makes you so uncomfortable. And the reason is, because we are all in some sense are like this guy, Theodore. We have better relationships online, and with our advices, than with real people. It’s a really bizarre conception, but we should face it, and ask ourselves: Where is the limit?  The script is just brilliant, but also has very controversial scenes. Joaquin Phoenix is simply the perfect choice for a lonely man, like Theodore. Melancholy everywhere, and great visuals. Arcade Fire made the music for this, and it was pure melancholy. Very interesting film.

9. The Place Beyond The Pines

Derek Cianfrance is an exceptional director. He can wonderfully create an atmosphere with great lighting techiques, unique musics, and of course with talented actors. This movie has a linear, but quite unusual story-structure. The main theme haunts you after you watched this. Legacy! 

8. Nightcrawler

Louis Bloom is something of a loner who is unemployed and ekes out a living stealing and then reselling copper wire, fencing and most anything else he can get his hands on. When late one night he comes across an accident being filmed by independent news photographer Joe Loder, he thinks he may have found something he would be good at. He acquires an inexpensive video camera and a police scanner and is soon spending his nights racing to accidents, robberies and fire scenes. He develops a working relationship with Nina Romina, news director for a local LA TV station. As the quality of his video footage improves so does his remuneration and he hires Rick, young and unemployed, to work with him. The more successful he becomes however, the more apparent it becomes that Louis will do anything - anything - to get visuals from crime scenes. The conception is just brilliant, and screams to your face, what kind of society are we living in. I think Psychopathy is going to be one of the biggest issue in our generation asides with mental illneses. And this movie reflects perfectly. You understand the character, which is geniusly performed by Jake Gyllenhaal. 

7. Inside Llewyn Davis

The Coen brothers' exquisitely sad and funny new comedy is set in a world of music that somehow combines childlike innocence with an aged and exhausted acceptance of the world. It is a beguilingly studied period piece from America's early-60s Greenwich Village folk scene. Every frame looks like a classic album cover, or at the very least a great inner gatefold – these are screen images that look as if they should have lyrics and sleeve notes superimposed. This film was notably passed over for Oscar nominations. Perhaps there's something in its unfashionable melancholy that didn't hook the attention of Academy award voters. But it is as pungent and powerfully distinctive as a cup of hot black coffee. This movie is about sacrificing everything for your art, directionlessness  (is there such a word?) , and finding the right path. Existential theme, with surpisingly good acting from Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, and Justin Timberlake. This is an Odyssey-story from the 1960′s America. What more you could ask for? 

6. Dunkirk

Reinventing a genre is quite exceptional. And Nolan did it. The best war movies of the last 20 years, including Saving Private Ryan and Hacksaw Ridge, have also placed viewers in the centre of battle. Nolan has not reinvented that immersive approach, but he comes close to perfecting it. The story structure is-again- brilliant. There’s no main character in the movie-just like in a war-but only  scared people. They want to go home. But they can’t. We’re with them with their struggle, and fears. We’re in the air, land, or water, it’s just a haunting terror.  And the soundtrack from Hans Zimmer is really remarkable. You hear it, and you recognize the movie. That’s what I call a score. Reflects perfectly, and holds the attention throughout the whole movie.

5. Hell or High Water

Another genre-twister masterpiece. This Neo-Western is just pure art. Hell or High Water is a film about a criminal  who commits the ultimate offence of putting his gorgeous and much nicer brother in a ski mask for several minutes of this film. Okay actually it’s about a career criminal brother and his he-wasn’t-but-he-is-now criminal brother who team up to commit a series of small-scale bank robberies across Texas, with the aim, finally – after several generations – of lifting the family out of seemingly inescapable grinding poverty. The part of Texas they live in is dying on its feet so career criminal is pretty much the only career left open that doesn’t involve serving in a diner or herding the few remaining cattle. It would’ve been easy for Hell or High Water to to turn out a cliche-ridden double bromance as there are quite a few movie tropes in this love story / revenge thriller, so it’s a tribute to director David Mackenzie that it’s actually a very touching, at times funny, at times quite brutal story. With a bit of grudge-bearing thrown in at the end to stop it being too redemptive. Memorable scenes, great acting, and a deromanticized western-feeling. After this film, you want to live in Texas, where everything’s slower, but sometimes you can chase criminals. It’s nice, isn’t it? 

4. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Martin McDonagh’s fiercely written, stabbingly pleasurable tragicomedy stars a magnificent Frances McDormand; watching it is like having your funny bone struck repeatedly, expertly and very much too hard by a karate super-black-belt capable of bringing a rhino to its knees with a single punch behind the ear. He’s a scriptwriter genius, it was shocking, how perfectly the dialouges and the actions were constructed. It is a film about vengeance, violence and the acceptance of death, combining subtlety and unsubtlety, and moreover wrongfooting you as to what and whom it is centrally about. The drama happens in a town with an insidiously pessimistic name – Ebbing, Missouri, a remote and fictional community in the southern United States, where the joy of life does seem to be receding. There is a recurrent keynote of elegiac sadness established by the Irish ballad The Last Rose of Summer and Townes Van Zandt’s country hit Buckskin Stallion Blues, a musical combination which bridges the Ireland which McDonagh has written about before and the America he conjures up here, an America which has something of the Coen Brothers. The resemblance is not simply down to McDormand, though she does give her best performance since her starring role as the pregnant Minnesota police chief in the Coens’ Fargo in 1996. It was brutal, controversial, and violent. 

3. Midnight in Paris

The definitive poem in English on the subject of cultural nostalgia may be a short verse by Robert Browning called “Memorabilia.” The past seems so much more vivid, more substantial, than the present, and then it evaporates with the cold touch of reality. The good old days are so alluring because we were not around, however much we wish we were. “Midnight in Paris,” Woody Allen’s charming film, imagines what would happen if that wish came true. It is marvelously romantic, even though — or precisely because — it acknowledges the disappointment that shadows every genuine expression of romanticism. The film has the inspired silliness of some of Mr. Allen’s classic comic sketches (most obviously, “A Twenties Memory,” in which the narrator’s nose is repeatedly broken by Ernest Hemingway), spiked with the rueful fatalism that has characterized so much of his later work. Nothing here is exactly new, but why would you expect otherwise in a film so pointedly suspicious of novelty? Very little is stale, either, and Mr. Allen has gracefully evaded the trap built by his grouchy admirers and unkind critics — I’m not alone in fitting both descriptions — who complain when he repeats himself and also when he experiments. Not for the first time, but for the first time in a while, he has found a credible blend of whimsy and wisdom.

2. Beautiful Boy 

This supersensitive and tasteful movie is all but insufferable, suppressing a sob at the tragedy of drug addiction afflicting someone so young and “beautiful”. It is based on what is effectively a matching set of memoirs: Beautiful Boy, by author and journalist David Sheff, his harrowing account of trying to help his son Nic battle crystal meth addiction, and Tweak – by Nic Sheff himself, about these same experiences, the author now, thankfully, eight years clean. Steve Carell does an honest, well-meaning job in the role of David and the egregiously beautiful Timothée Chalamet is earnest in the part of Nic, David’s son from his first marriage. This is like a modern-day Basketball Diaries. Honest, and Raw. Most underrated movie of the 2010′s, with an unquestionably important topic. 

1. The Social Network

Before Sorkin wrote the screenplay, Ben Mezrich wrote the book based on Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook titled: The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal. It was published in July 2009, and most of the information came from Facebook “co-founder” Eduardo Saverin, who in the film is played by Andrew Garfield. The screenplay that Sorkin wrote was blazing, he wrote the characters like they were in a William Shakespeare play, with a story full of lies, jealousy, and betrayal. I especially love how Sorkin balanced the story between 2003, 2004, and then 2010. It goes back and forth between the past when Facebook was just an idea for Mark, and in the current day when he is being sued by Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss for, in their minds, having stolen their original idea, and by his former best friend Eduardo for having him pushed out of the company. In fact, some of the very best dialogue (and the film is full of great quotes) happens during the deposition scenes. Well-recognizable, rapid-fire dialouges, wonderful directing, with Trent Reznor’s greatest soundtrack. The movie’s probably going to outlive the Facebook itself, and that’s just great. 

[adrianodiprato]

+ "They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary." John Keating | Dead Poets Society (1989)

Thank you, Mr Keating

During the coronavirus I have found myself doing more reading and also connecting more with film’s that have motivated me to abandon binary thinking and be open to new perspectives. One such film has been Peter Weir’s seminal Dead Poets Society. A new English teacher, John Keating, played by the late Robin Williams, is introduced to an all-boys preparatory school that is known for its ancient traditions and high standards. He uses unconventional methods to reach out to his students, who face enormous pressures from their parents, the school and the entire society. It is a story that affects me about the qualities of inspiration itself: the possibility for our passions to move and motivate people around us to enact a new normal.

In recent days, transformation for our time, to a new normal, has been brought on by things beyond our control. The coronavirus crisis has changed our world. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would ever have to deliver an entire school’s curriculum remotely, from the home campus. We now need to embrace the fact the world has changed. Our well-loved stories – our words, our ways, our practices and processes - are suddenly expressions of what used to be, not what is, far less what will be.

In today’s new world, we are all required to continually learn, unlearn and relearn. And it is our teachers that have seized the day in this regard, much like what the character Mr Keating, in Dead Poets Society, advocated for with his students. The coronavirus crisis has provided an opportunity for our remarkable teachers to shine, to show that they can ensure that students stay connected and engaged with their learning and wellbeing, in a time of great uncertainty and for some, chaos. Principal of Strathcona Girls Grammar in Melbourne, Marise McConaghy recently wrote this in her opinion piece for The Sydney Morning Herald, “Giving teachers the agency to adapt and apply creativity in delivering lessons to students has been a masterclass in what it means to be agile in the 21st Century. In no time at all, teachers have dramatically pivoted the way they conduct their work and deliver learning to children.” McConaghy goes on to highlight the profoundness of strong relationships in school communities and dismisses the long-held misconception that emerging technologies has made younger generations socially distant, stating “…many of our students have checked in with their teachers to ask about their wellbeing and offer support. Certainly, it is our job as educators to pastorally care for our students, and for school leaders to check in on staff for the same reasons, but how beautiful it is that our students think to do this for their teachers. Teenagers are, after all, not as self-obsessed as they sometimes are made out to be.”

Schooling as we once knew it is officially over. And the misguided application on standardisation, a feature of the once heralded and, now, outdated industrial model of schooling, with its over emphasis on testing, league tables and pitting students against one another, has come crashing down under the weight of coronavirus. Because of this global pandemic the exciting precipice of doing schooling differently just came into sharp focus. Founder of Unfold Learning Willian Rankin recently wrote that the future of education must be about generating whole, competent, humane citizens. “What the world needs moving forward — and this is especially clear as the novel Corona virus burns off what’s irrelevant — is people who can apply information to meaningful contexts to create serviceable knowledge and solutions (creating knowledge) and people who can enculturate knowledge to produce culturally relevant contexts and wisdom around that knowledge (creating wisdom). Unlike processing data and information, these are profoundly human enterprises, tasks where machines have no fluency. Lamentably, many in modern education consider it too difficult, messy, and subjective to show that students are more considerate, compassionate, mature, collaborative, or humane when they finish our courses. It’s so much easier to show that scores on a particular test rose by 3.6% year over year, that 14% more students successfully completed a course, or that failing grades declined by 6% in a given cohort. The current system settles for this easy information, despite the fact that it’s functionally meaningless.” And “We can beat the wasteful swords of linear consumption and instructionism into the generative and regenerative plowshares of creation and constructionism. We can abandon education for learning.”

Swiss-based futurist Gerd Leonhard believes the biggest trends to have emerged from a world dealing with a pandemic, economies in crisis and many citizens in lockdown are:

Increased global collaboration

A widespread adoption of remote work practices, from home offices to Zoom meetings

Travel bans and an acceptance of remote working crippling the travel industry

The use of technology for remote work accelerating the digital economy

Education is not immune to such far-reaching disruption that Leonhard speaks of. The industrial model of education was designed to ensure factory workers were punctual, docile and above all compliant. The concept of a teacher standing in front of a room full of students who listen and respond to direction is increasingly a thing of the past.

The only people that appear to have been blindsided by the phenomenon of a new normal in schooling and learning, during the pandemic, are some conventional school leaders and conservative governments fixated on holding on to a broken learning paradigm. The OECD’s 2018 TALIS Insights and Interpretations report stated, “The real obstacle to education reform is often not conservative followers but conservative leaders who stick to today’s curriculum rather than adapt pedagogical practice to a changing world, because it is so much easier to stay within everybody’s comfort zone...” (page 57).

John Keating, in Dead Poets Society, said this during one scene, as he stood on his desk, "Why do I stand up here? Anybody? I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way." The end of the industrial model of education is a remarkable opportunity for a bold rethink to finally move to a new normal, a different way. A new learning paradigm that allows for experiences that are a blend of on campus, online, in context and in country, all becoming part of the fabric of this new normal.

Andreas Schleicher, the Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently shared his perspective on the coronavirus crisis via an interview with hundrED, “…education is no longer just about teaching students something, but about helping them develop a reliable compass and the tools to navigate with confidence through an increasingly complex, volatile and uncertain world.”

So, imagine if students have more opportunities to learn at different times in different places. With anytime, anywhere learning becoming the new normal for our students. Where online tools facilitate opportunities for a more highly personalised learning experience of individually targeted stretch and challenge tasks. One that is self-paced, self-determined and incorporates relevant and real-world inquiry-based learning. Resulting in all classrooms being flipped, meaning the knowledge and skills part is learned outside the classroom, at home. Where on campus class time becomes one of deep collaboration, teamwork and the practical application or transfer of knowledge and understanding, of real-life issues. Where taking tests will be replaced by students’ growth and achievement through creative and collaboration projects to problem solve these difficult real-world questions.

So, imagine if teachers assume the crucial role of learning designer and mentor. Becoming the central facilitator in the jungle of information that our students will be navigating their way through. Assisting each young person with developing their independence and agency, academic competence and confidence skills, as well as the development of learning goals, interests and future directions. Supporting each young person through obtaining growth around agility and adaptability in our collective quest to foster their personal resilience and overall mental and physical wellness. Therefore, making a significant emphasis on social and emotional competency central to all learning and interactions. With on campus, in context and/or in country curricular activities such as competitive sports, music, visual arts, language and cultural immersions, play and even cooking as accelerators for quicker social and emotional skills and global competency attainment.

So, imagine if in an online environment, with access to unlimited information, the focus on memorising things loses its meaning, and is replaced by the need to know how to select and use the information appropriate to each context. Where there is a universal step away from control, compliance and human “data” collection and we give permission to our highly able and innovative teachers the freedom to shape curricular, in partnership with students, to suit the needs and interests of all learners.

So, imagine if all school leaders had the courage to lead. Where all school leaders join the ranks of those that already have the courage to lead through this crisis, not simply manage a response. Expecting the expected, what was once “normal”, is simply not adapting to the global reality of our times. Where all school leaders accept that they need to manage the present but remain focused also to plan for a new normal for 2021 and beyond. And where all school leaders accept that perhaps, just perhaps, this is your crucible moment.

Paul Reville, the Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at Harvard Graduate School of Education recently stated, “In this situation [covid-19], we don’t simply want to frantically struggle to restore the status quo because the status quo wasn’t operating at an effective level and certainly wasn’t serving all of our children fairly.”

Carpe Diem is a most commonly remembered line from Dead Poets Society, alongside “Oh Captain! My Captain!”. Explaining to his students that their lives are fleeting, John Keating implores them to seize the day, to make their lives count, to leave a legacy of “carpe diem.” This stirring call to ‘seize the day’ endures. John Keating, yet another example of a remarkable teacher, tries to encourage his students to break free from the norm, go against the status quo and live life abundantly. Much like the John Keating character, perhaps I’m simply agitating all school leaders to contemplate life and therefore learning, from a different way. And much like the films core theme, my hope is that all school leaders, and conservative governments for that matter, choose courage over comfort, are simply bold and brave to doing schooling differently.

I’ll leave you with this final quote from Dead Poets Society, "Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Don't be resigned to that. Break out!"

Ultimately, it is in how we define responsibility and learning, for their future. So, the big question for all school leaders is – When you had the opportunity did you choose courage over comfort or were you resigned to quiet desperation?

In order to make their lives extraordinary, for the young people in our care, I choose courage over comfort. Thank you for today’s lesson, Mr Keating.

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

[magog-on-the-march]

The idea of exploiting workers in order to tell a story condemning the exploitation of workers is grimly ironic to put it mildly, so when we sit down at E3 to speak with Lanning and Oddworld executive producer Bennie Terry III, we ask what crunch was like for Oddworld on Abe's Oddysee, and if it's improved since.

"No one wants to say, 'This product was done by people who worked 9-to-5, and they all had great healthcare, weekends off, three weeks of vacation, and everyone had that. Here you go.' If it's not great, everyone goes, 'Who cares? Why didn't they lose some fucking sleep to get it done and get it better?'

"The audience is absolutely ruthless, and we should never suspect for a second that they're not. They're absolutely ruthless. They don't care how many people died making the product. [laughing] I mean literally. They don't care. We're ruthless with how we spend our money. We live in a culture that's based on 'Wal Mart's cheaper. Let's go there for our stuff. Amazon Prime delivers without shipping costs. Let's go there.' And that shapes our world. At the end of the day, it's about the quality of what's on screen."

(Full article under the cut for posterity)

The Irony of Oddworld

Lorne Lanning on crunching to make games about the exploitation of workers

Brendan Sinclair | North American Editor | Thursday 25th July 2019

gamesindustry.biz

The 1997 PlayStation-exclusive Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is very clearly concerned about the exploitation of workers. It centers on the Mudokons, a race that has been enslaved and forced to work in factories by a ruthless company willing to literally putting them through the grinder in an attempt to boost profits.

Clearly, creative director Lorne Lanning has some opinions about capitalism, and he's not exactly shy about it.

But Lanning is also the co-founder of the company behind the game, Oddworld Inhabitants. He was the boss of a company making a video game for profit, in an era where crunch and overwork were pervasive, when the subjects were talked about as virtues in the press on the rare occasions they were mentioned at all.

The idea of exploiting workers in order to tell a story condemning the exploitation of workers is grimly ironic to put it mildly, so when we sit down at E3 to speak with Lanning and Oddworld executive producer Bennie Terry III, we ask what crunch was like for Oddworld on Abe's Oddysee, and if it's improved since.

"It was always terrible," Lanning admits. "And it's still terrible. It's not a burden we try to put on every individual, but for Bennie and I, it's just terrible. And different people at different times rise to the occasion."

He says the idea of a 9-to-5 job in game development is increasingly possible, particularly for "huge companies that have mega-IPs that are doing billions and billions of dollars." Even so, he adds it doesn't seem to be a very common situation for developers.

"I mean, we're past EA Spouse," he says, referring to a 2004 LiveJournal post from the wife of an EA employee detailing numerous issues with the company's treatment of workers. "We're past that, where everyone realized they were basically being exploited for the extreme gain of a select few of the executive class. That's still going on in different places in the world."

Ultimately, Lanning says the problem of crunch in games stems from its nature as an entertainment business.

"I tell this to people we work with all the time, particularly young people," Lanning says. "You have to realize something: we are a luxury class. We're not doing anything important. The important people are picking up your garbage, fixing your medical problems, growing your food, supplying electricity. Those are the important people in civilization; they actually provide a benefit. We're just entertaining people. It's complete luxury; they don't need us."

On top of that, Lanning says entertainment media are in a difficult position because the audience is concerned only with the end product, not the methods of its production.

"No one wants to say, 'This product was done by people who worked 9-to-5, and they all had great healthcare, weekends off, three weeks of vacation, and everyone had that. Here you go.' If it's not great, everyone goes, 'Who cares? Why didn't they lose some fucking sleep to get it done and get it better?'

"The audience is absolutely ruthless, and we should never suspect for a second that they're not. They're absolutely ruthless. They don't care how many people died making the product. [laughing] I mean literally. They don't care. We're ruthless with how we spend our money. We live in a culture that's based on 'Wal Mart's cheaper. Let's go there for our stuff. Amazon Prime delivers without shipping costs. Let's go there.' And that shapes our world. At the end of the day, it's about the quality of what's on screen."

He likens it to athletes who want to win Olympic gold. They're expected to sacrifice to achieve that goal, from strict diet and exercise regimens to not having a dating life.

"In entertainment, if you want real stability -- and this is where I feel I'm just being honest and not necessarily saying what's politically correct -- if you want to make entertainment that stands out, show me where you can do that where people don't put everything in to get there," Lanning says. "The only ones that are able to do that are the ones who have reached the bar where they now have perfection."

He points to Pixar as an example, saying the animation studio has never had a film that wasn't a hit (although he adds some were bigger than others).

"In the beginning, if you watch [Pixar executive] John Lasseter's videos, he [points to a corner of the room and says], 'And that's my sleeping bag. And that's where I sleep to get these projects done. And if you want to be a great animator, that's what you're going to do too.' That's the legacy of entertainment."

He adds, "I don't believe there's anyone you could talk to who built anything in this business who didn't really persevere night and day to get it done. I've been doing that my entire career. I've had health issues because of it. I wish it weren't that way, but it kind of is."

Lanning asks if we've seen Bohemian Rhapsody. When we say no, he asks if we have a problem with Queen, the band the film was about. We love Queen, we say, but weren't interested in a film that played so fast and loose with the facts.

"Maybe, but see, this is Hollywood," Lanning says. "We're not trying to replicate what was actually true, we're just trying to make something that's inspiring, that you felt was a moving experience."

He then talked about an inspirational scene of the band working through the night to create the song Bohemian Rhapsody.

"Usually with great art, that's what it takes," Lanning says. "I think it was Martha Graham, the founder of modern dance, who said the dilemma of being an artist is living with the dissatisfaction of feeling like nothing is ever complete, done, or as good as it could be. And I think that goes for designers, for directors, for people that are really craftsmen in an artistic sense. The ambitious team is usually going to beat the unambitious team unless you're so fat, like some of the biggest media companies are so fat they can fail and still succeed because they just keep throwing money and bodies at the project."

Given that Abe's Oddysee and the upcoming Oddworld: Soulstorm are about the player character's attempts to organize an exploited labor force to gain power against their oppressors, we finish the interview by asking Lanning about his stance on unions.

"It's kind of like my stance on the death penalty," Lanning says. "Philosophically, I'm fine with the death penalty. I think lots of people deserve not to be here with the rest of us. Practically, I'm concerned about who has that power. If we have such a thing, is it going to be abused and are we just going to shut up political dissidents and stuff like that? Unions are kind of similar.

"My stepfather was a teamster. I saw a lot of things and heard a lot of stories about unions through there. Part of the problems with unions is that they start to encapsulate power and use that in a different way that becomes counterproductive, possibly sometimes, to the industry they're trying to unionize. If we lived in a really healthy, honest world where everyone was fair, we wouldn't need them. But because it's not a fair world, sometimes we do. What would happen to this industry is it would put out most of the small people, but the big ones would survive just fine."

[gummybuddha]

Lord of Expectations

Blizzcon is only days away, and everyone is excited about what might potentially become an absolute shit show. Blizzard’s recent plague of controversy involving the banning of Hearthstone player  Chung ‘Blitzchung’ Ng Wai, their shitty appeal to the Blizzard community at large, and the embarrassment of having the US government sending a public letter telling Blizzard to kindly go unfuck themselves, was easily enough fuel to ensure that Blizzcon would have been a three-ring circus with Blizzard playing the role of the fucking clowns.

But before you think this was the end of the spectacle, it was just recently discovered that Blizzard will have no open Q&A’s on this years Blizzcon schedule, possibly suggesting we are seeing a Blizzard that is desperately trying to get the public to focus on “just the game.” Now I know what you are thinking. Kyle, why are you being so mean? Why can’t you just focus on the positive, like new WoW expansions or the possibility of Diablo games? Because I can’t help but think of Bobby Kotick getting a shit-eating grin at the idea that he or anyone else at the head of Activision Blizzard is just going to successfully hide from public scrutiny. Just…no…no…

But for the sake of the discussion, I would personally be overjoyed at the idea of a polished up version of Diablo II. Even if it was just touched up enough to run on modern systems, the game is such a classic, that it’s preservation needs no real justification at this point. It’s earned its place in gaming history. 

But when people ask me about another Diablo game, a Diablo IV if you will, then I can’t help but destroy their expectations. I can’t help but remind them that until Diablo Immortal drops, Diablo 3 is the worst Diablo game in the series.

I know that seems unrealistically unfair considering Reaper of Souls did so much to fix Diablo 3’s issues and make the game enjoyable. I would even admit that I have played many hours of Reaper of Souls and quickly paid for the Necromancer pack without hesitation, a rare moment of don’t give a fuck for me. 

But all of those things don’t hide the fact that at launch, Diablo 3 was an absolute cluster fuck. I have a hard time choosing what was the worst offender for me, the painfully dry story, the utterly neutered imagery, the horrible loot drops, or the fact there was no secret cow level… Ha, sorry, I’m obviously joking. It was the god damn Auction House. You knew it was gonna be the auction house. 

I mean just look at that down there. Someone had the fucking nerve to ask another human being for 135 dollars for shitty crafting materials. That’s more than the cost in USD for two fucking copies of Diablo 333333333333! 

I don’t think I have to say much more than that. The idea that players would have to pay money for items in a genre focused on item acquisition is ludicrous; even back in 2012. Players were obviously pissed about this aspect and as a result, Blizzard’s official forums were full of posts trying to understand why there was such a poor jump from Diablo 2 to 3.  What happened after would be fit for a soap opera. In a rare interview with Blizzard North co-founder David Brevik at Gamescon 2012, David was asked about his thoughts on the game and the community reaction. The interview, done by Diabloii.net, went show that Brevik was not really digging the itemization in Diablo 3 either, pointing out a few key elements that he found rather perplexing. But the drama to unfold was focused on one particular comment Brevik made on how he thought Diablo 3 would affect the overall Legacy of Blizzard North’s work.  

This comment quickly found it’s way back to the staff that made Diablo 3, which were shocked about the criticism and mad about the idea that Blizzard North had obviously been an original A-Team, not easily replaced. 

It was a rare glimpse into the culture of Blizzard employees at the time. It showed that there was a portion of Blizzard that felt no responsibility for turning their backs on fans and embracing the absurd corporate culture that the game industry was slowly being poisoned by.  But the moment was quickly stolen by Diablo 3 lead director Jay Wilson, who simply posted: “Fuck that loser.” A quip that was so outrageous, that it ran on several news sites.

That was years ago. Eventually, Jay ”Fuck that loser “ Wilson was pushed out of the lead role and was replaced by Joshua Mosqueira and Kevin Martens. Reaper of Souls managed to improve upon the game, getting rid of the real money auction house and making loot drops more valuable to the player picking up the items in question.

But even then, with all the improvements, Diablo 3 was still in no way the sequel I was expecting, and I expect Diablo IV to be an even larger departure.

I know that some people will defend Blizzard, saying they had a chance to learn from D3 and even the launch of World of Warcraft: Classic. But although classic WOW proves there is a demand for old school Blizzard games, I doubt it will have any impact on how Blizzard will ultimately approach another Diablo game.

And the recent controversy with China does not assure me that Blizzard is just not moments away from glazing its entire community with jizz over the very idea that players will be opening their wallets again. I don’t think Blizzard has the self-control at this point to make another Diablo game that is not absolutely full of bullshit mechanics designed to print Bobby Kotick another Telsa in his driveway. Want more evidence for that, look at Battle for Azeroth and all its time-gated content, the rep grinds, and systems designed to ensure that you are going to spend 15 dollars a month.  But Kyle your playing World of Warcraft.  Yes, I am. But that does not mean I can’t be critical of the game. I love large elements of Blizzard’s games, and so far the good has outweighed the bad. But there will be a day where I can’t justify the bullshit. There will be a day that no matter how much I love the worlds that Blizzard has made, I will have to push myself away from the computer and find something else to do. Hopefully, that day is a long time away. But it can be surprising how fast that day comes for certain things you like.

[ill-skillsgard]

Sweet Demons, Part 1 - Zeitgeist/Axel Cluney

Title: Sweet Demons Description: It's the weekend of Friday the Thirteenth, the biggest motorcycle rally and festival in the Western Hemisphere but nothing is more enticingly chaotic to her than the mysterious new member of the famous Motor City Sweet Demons. Warning: 18+ Mentions of drugs/alcohol/violence, eventual smut/various kinks

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

"Angel? You don't mind hanging all of this up in the backyard would ya, sweetheart?"

Dad carried a big basket full of freshly washed towels and bedding. With a fake sour look I took the basket from his grip and sighed, "Well, I suppose if you're having me here for the Summer I might as well make myself useful, huh?"

"I've got to run out to grab provisions."

"That wouldn't happen to include a trip to the liquor store would it?" I asked him, faking innocence this time.

Dad tried to avoid my stare as he shoved his wallet, cigarettes and lighter into the inner pockets of his leather vest. "Remind me again how old you are?"

"Old enough to drink, old man," I leaned over and gave him a small peck on his stubbly cheek while giggling. "I'll take a bottle of red wine. Any kind will do. Oh! And some gin. And if you're going to the grocery store would you mind picking me up some ginger ale and lemonade?"

"Damn kid, can't you just drink beer like the rest of us simple folk?"

"Simple folk? Dad... These are your people."

"Ah, quiet you. Will you write me down a list?"

"I can text you just as easily."

"I hate my piece of shit phone. Just write it down or you'll get what I remember and the way my mind is going-"

"Yeah, yeah, okay. Give me a second."

I jotted down a list of items on the back of a liquor store receipt and handed it to my father, He jokingly snatched it from my hand and read it incredulously. After a wink and a promise to be back in an hour, I watched him make his way out of the house and down the driveway to his truck. I took notice of his worsening limp. It filled me with curious remorse to see him struggle to hoist himself up into his ridiculously over-sized truck like my lengthy absence had somehow made it worse since my visits had been infrequent over the years.

The distant drone of motorcycles soon drowned out my thoughts and I huffed, snatching the basket of laundry to go outside into the backyard clothesline. The July sun was ablaze and the sound of people hooting and hollering over blaring radio rock music sounded from all directions. Everyone was in their backyards barbecuing and drinking, enjoying the perfect weather.  Not only that, but leagues and leagues of motorcycles were already starting to make their way into town for Friday the Thirteenth- a tradition in my town that had been going on for longer than I had existed.

Every year and sometimes twice a year for the die-hards, hoards of bikers came to our little beach town in gathering to celebrate Friday the Thirteenth. It was a legendary motorcycle rally that drew hundreds of thousands of people into town. Given that the population hovered over six thousand, it tended to get crowded and downright overwhelming. Every single year since before I was born, thousands of bikes would come chugging into town from every direction to line the streets with metal. Biker gangs, clubs, racers, leisure riders, and tourists flocked into the streets, cutting off most of the normally lazy town's circulation for one day.

Friday the Thirteenth meant so much in my town that they had even attempted a world record but had failed due to a technicality. Each year it got bigger and bigger, and growing up among the bi-annual chaos had been equal parts amazing and terrifying. It helped shape me and exposed me to things that no young child shoulder ever bear witness to.

Besides the streets I played in being flanked by rows upon rows of motorcycles, there were hoards of bikers and the clashing of egos that usually came with being around a bunch of scary guys who may or may not have been in and out of jail cells. When I was young, I found it all very scary but as I grew up with it I also grew accustomed to the company of the less-than-civil. After all, my father owned a bike shop and had been fixing, building, buying and selling motorcycles his entire life. The smell of oil alone was something that could give me nightmares.

As I got older, there were a couple of years when Friday the Thirteenth was the most exciting time of my life. It was better than Christmas to me because I got to hang around people who had travelled the world and had unbelievable stories to tell. People came and went from my house regularly because of my father being so well-known in the community and as he would like to believe, all across North America. His bike shop was a haven for cyclists and served as the clubhouse every year when his old bike gang came into town.

His old gang was called the Motor City Sweet Demons because of the co-founder, Frank Sweet. He had passed away before I was born but I heard many stories about him from Dad. Frank Sweet and my father had grown up best friends and started working on dirt bikes together as young boys. Their bond and mutual interest solidified a pact that they would open their own shop and ride motorcycles until death. Unfortunately, an accident had claimed Frank Sweet's life, but the gang continued on and my father became the President for decades.

Once his health began to rapidly decline, he retired from the gang and called in Frank Sweet's son Max to take over the role of President. That gang had spent many nights under our roof and became somewhat of an extended family to me; A family that returned a couple times a year to drink excessive amounts of alcohol and smoke too many cigarettes while revving their engines loudly through the nights.

The older I got, the more I hated the tradition, and the more I wanted to escape my hometown. I began to hate bikers and the sound of motorcycles annoyed the hell out of me. It was no help when my dad tried to rope me in as an apprentice, claiming I was his only heir to his legacy. Respectfully enough, I declined the offer. He knew that bikes weren't my thing and, although deeply disappointed that I didn't share his affinity for bikes, he was also strangely understanding. He never over-pressured me to become anything besides what I wanted to be and for that, I was thankful.

I managed to get away for a few years on the premise of going to school. It was the only option I had after high school to make it so I never had to spend another shitty Friday in November or a freezing Thirteenth of February in my town ever again. Yet there I was, in my dad's backyard, hanging up clothes on the day before my first Friday the Thirteenth in almost four years. I had finished school and was forced to move again. Because of the squeezed job market, I couldn't find employment and certainly could not afford my own apartment with how much student debt I had accrued so I was left with no convenient choice but to move back in with my dad until I found another way out again.

The four years that had passed was enough for me to evolve from an apathetic teenager to a somewhat less apathetic adult with a taste for drinking and a love of partying. My dad didn't know that I had spent a giant portion of my time in school going to raging parties all the time and had procured a partiality to spending my nights wasted, dancing and fucking. The idea of a Friday the Thirteenth celebration actually sounded rather inviting now that I was of age to be taken seriously among the likes of the Sweet Demons and countless other famous bike gangs from across the country. 

I preemptively decided that I was going to have a really good time and woke up the morning of Friday the Thirteenth by the sounds of bikes ripping by my old man's house at nine in the morning with a smile on my face. 

I showered and put on a pair of black jeans that I had cut off at the knee and a black tank top before bouncing down the stairs to get the day started right. The kitchen fridge was just as stocked with beer as it had been the night before. Without a second thought, I opened one with a satisfying tssst and started drinking it before my dad found me because I knew he would have something to say about the fact that my first meal of the day had come out of a brown bottle.  

After I chugged it down, I brought the bottle to the garage where all of the empty ones were stored but found that somebody was already there and it wasn't my dad. It was Braun.

"What the fuck? Braun? What are you doing here?" I asked, shocked to see my old high school friend hard at work on a bike's skeleton that only had the front wheel on it.

"Oh... Hi Angel. I'm just working on my bike before the show today."

"Your bike?" I asked, incredulous and still taken aback that he was in my dad's garage.

"Y-yeah. I, uh, yeah. I kind of work for your dad now."

"He's my apprentice," my dad's gruff voice sounded from behind me.

I turned around, forgetting about the empty beer bottle I had clutched in my hand. His eyes automatically landed on it and he shook his head. "Little early to be catchin' a buzz, isn't it, Angel?"

"Can you guys stop fucking calling me Angel. You know I hate that shit."

"Well," Dad said, eyeing the bottle in my hand once more with only a tinge of disdain but mostly amusement. "She certainly don't act like it, does she?"

"So you finally found somebody worthy enough to work in the garage, huh?" I asked.

"Ah, he's as good as any apprentice. Aren't you, Braun?"

"I'd like to think so," Braun said quietly in that nervous way that reminded me instantly of how he was in my high school memories of him.

Not much had changed for Braun except for now he had the permanently stained hands of a mechanic, a nose that had been broken one too many times and had grown nearly another foot. He was easily six foot three and just as gawky as I remembered him. Braun stood out in my mind forever because I had famously rejected his prom proposal and he made a huge crying scene over it, earning him a very unflattering nickname for a guy that was just starting to experience full-throttle puberty. I toyed with the idea of reminding him that a couple of months proceeding our senior prom, kids all over school called him Sniffles.

Recalling that memory made my mouth twist as I tried to contain a giggle. Both of them looked at me until I shook my head, remembering that I had gone into the garage to dispose of the empty beer bottle but instead got caught red-handed.

"The Sweets will be here any minute so open that garage door and move that piece outta here, Braun. We'll need all the room we can get on the driveway and in here."

"Don't the bikes usually fit on the driveway?" I recalled inquisitively.

"Not since there have been new members."

"Oh, shit... Max recruited?"

"I don't know," Dad waved his hand dismissively. "The kid does whatever he wants. Any fuckin' kid with a bike and an attitude can join the Sweets now. When I was President, you had to be one of the meanest, baddest motherfuckers around to even ride with us. Max has gone all soft over the years. Lettin' girls into the gang and bragging about how he's all open-minded."

"Max let a girl in the club? Now that's awesome." I smiled and it was apparently infectious because Braun smiled too.

"He's a good kid but, shit, is that club miles and miles away from what Frank and I started."

"Welcome to the twenty-first century, Pops! Did you know they let women vote now?" I chimed, shoving the empty bottle into a box with several other musty bottles.

The real party didn't start until the Sweet Demons rolled up onto our normally quiet suburban street and started filing into the long driveway that led up to the open garage door. It was a noisy parade of shiny black bikes, blaring engines, glinting helmets, demonic face masks, aviator sunglasses and matching leather vests; assaulting to the senses and perhaps a bit frightening for anyone new to how we celebrated Friday the Thirteenth. I stood at the top of the driveway beside my dad as they all pulled in, Max first and the rest of them following behind like they had rehearsed it all before. My dad had been right, there were at least five more bikes than I remembered, bikes that I didn't recognize with unfamiliar people riding them.

Once Max rolled up on his 1985 Virago 1000, he killed the engine and the rest of the gang did the same one after the other, all lining up to park their bikes side by side on the cement. He pulled off his helmet and set it on the seat of his bike, yanked a glove off one hand and approached my father with it stretched out. Even though dad had just been ragging on him, he greeted Max with a hearty slap on the back that was returned just as enthusiastically if not more so.

"Fuck, be careful, kid, I'm frail these days," Dad said.

Max was a dashing young guy with a pretty face and just about everything about him reminded me of a Disney Prince from his blue eyes to his blond hair. If it hadn't been for his black leather vest with the word "President" embroidered in white and his gold tooth, he could have easily passed for a model.

Behind him, I recognized Jimmy and Bradley Fox, two brothers that had known me since I was born. Being away for over four years had aged them all from what was in my memory. Jimmy had much more gray hair and Bradley had become softer in the belly and had permanent crow's feet that branched out towards the old English-style tattoos on his face. When I was twelve, I had had a crush on Bradley Fox, a man twenty years older than me all because we knew him around town as Foxy Bradley or just Fox. He was known for being a lady killer but when I saw him then, it looked like he had been killing cases of beer, pizzas and cartons of Paul Malls.

Nevertheless, I greeted them with nothing but kindness. I was all swept up in the pleasantries of seeing people that had been a part of my life not all that long ago that I didn't notice somebody unfamiliar coming up the driveway. It must have been one of their recruits because I had never seen him before and he looked to be only slightly older than me.

He wore the most obnoxiously green boots as if the scattered tattoos on his arms weren't enough to draw attention. He had this way of sauntering that was noticeable mainly due to his height but also because his fashion choices were totally questionable. When I noticed the mesh tank top underneath his leather jacket I rose my eyebrow in his direction. He didn't quite notice me for a moment as he was taking in the scenery of the garage but when he did, fuck did our eyes ever meet.

His brown hair was all wind-swept backward, and he looked like he hadn't shaved in a week but the sharpness of his cheekbones drew my attention anyway. I started taking in the little details about him like the tattoo on his neck that said eat shit and die. 

Oh damn, I thought, we have a bad boy in our presence.

I could just tell from the first thirty seconds of him being around me that he was full of destruction and I couldn't look away. He was an accident waiting to happen and the adrenaline rush I got just from locking stares with him was enough to assure that. His eyes scanned me from head to toe and back up again like lasers and once we looked too long we both pretended like we didn't really see each other in the first place.

"So Max... Are you going to introduce us to your newcomers?" I asked, only giving a slight indication that I wanted to know more about the tower of a guy with the green boots and mystical eyes.

"Yeah, of course. Guys... This is Al and Angel. You all know about Al and this is his daughter."

"I was head of your club when you were still shitting your pants," Dad said loudly enough for everyone to hear and laugh too.

Out of the group, the woman was the first to approach us and offer her hand to shake. She was tall in her heavy leather riding boots and had a long shiny, tightly wound black braid that came down from the base of her skull and laid over one shoulder like a thick tail. She must have been in her thirties and looked just as forbidding as any biker I had ever met. She was friendly though and introduced herself as Janet Adams.

Then it was bad boy's turn to introduce himself. He gripped my dad's hand tightly and shook it with a nod. "Name's Axel. Nice to meet you and your daughter, sir."

"What, do you have to be over six feet to join the Demons now? I feel like I'm talking to a bunch of circus freaks!"

Axel laughed with my dad and they both expressed how great it was to meet. As much as Dad liked to give people the shit, he was one of the most welcoming people in the world. Despite his outlaw background, most anybody willing to share a beer and a conversation could do so pleasantly enough with him if they could take a roasting here and there. 

Axel then turned to me as more conversations took over in the garage. He nodded his head curtly but didn't offer his hand. Instead, he hooked his thumbs on his hips and stared at me as though he expected me to do something about it. I noticed the word "Zeitgeist" was embroidered on his jacket. I knew that meant something. Nobody in the Sweet Demons was allowed to have patches that weren't approved let alone having something embroidered into the coveted material that was the vest. I immediately wanted to know what it meant but before I could open my mouth, I decided to withhold all questioning.

"Uh, hi," I said as I cocked my head in his direction after noticing his eyes lingering with questions.

"Angel?" he verified.

"Yes?"

He simpered at me and dropped one square hip with attitude, "I guess we'll see about that."

The angles of his face shifted with his smile as mine must have in my surprised reaction.

"Alright, alright!" Dad piped up over the low crawl of the dozen people that had piled into the garage. "Between here and the clubhouse, you're all welcome to stay, come and go as you please but with respect. If I catch anyone touching my bikes, I'll break your fingers. Same goes for the daughter!"

They all hooted, clapped and cheered and just as quick as they came, they made short work of taking over the place. It was easy to get lost in the chaos and with more bikes pouring into town by the minute the more distractions there were. 

Down by the beach all manner of people were clogging up the streets, overfilling the storefronts and restaurants and spilling out over the sand and the pier. Street vendors had already erected their tents and the town was in full swing by noon. Friday the Thirteenth mode was activated. It was the only time of the year when anybody could walk down the street in front of a cop with a beer in hand so people liked to take full advantage of it. 

I was no stranger to the hurricane of noise and the sweltering heat created by hundreds of engines growling in the summer air. It was such a hot day that even the beach was no refuge from it. The arcing bar of sand was so jam-packed with towels that it looked like a bustling mosaic from the pier.

I didn't spend much time outside, merely walked the main strip of the town where the majority of the attractions were set up. Once I had had enough of it I went back to the house and found it empty of people. I grabbed my bottle of wine and made my way to the clubhouse, which was really just a space above the garage that my dad had turned I to the ultimate hang out spot.

The clubhouse was a highly stylized, dimly lit cave with three small rooms and a row of couches for lounging and crashing on. Dad had put a pool table and a bar inside it too, of course. No biker clubhouse would be complete without the key attraction of billiards and alcohol consumption. The decor was exactly what you would expect to see in a biker flophouse; vintage road signs, Harley Davidson memorabilia and a couple nudie posters from the eighties. I used to never be allowed in the clubhouse but since I was an adult now, I walked through it proudly, like I owned it. 

The later it got the more people came up to experience the splendor that was the original Motor City Sweet Demon meet spot. All the Sweet Demons were perched at the bar and acted as a leather-clad human barrier between other visitors and the alcohol stores. Most people brought their own alcohol and weed anyway. It was all people that knew my dad and the drunker I got the more I realized that I hardly knew a soul besides the guys who had been coming around for decades.

Braun came up to me in the clubhouse and flashed a meek smile before approaching. I had been sitting at one of the tall bar tables next to a couple playing pool. He shoved his hands into his pockets in that nervous way that made me think about school and how long it had been since I had been home. 

"Hey, Ange-... I mean-"

"It's fine. I don't really care. I know it's out of habit."

"Sorry. I know you probably hate it."

"Don't worry about it... Mister Sniffles," I tittered.

"Oh, come on! You can't bring that up."

"Sorry, I thought we were calling each other by nicknames that we had in high school."

"Fair enough," Braun took his hands out of his pockets and held them up in surrender.

He was skinny and his long, thin arms made it even worse. Braun had these monstrously large hands with fingers like an arachnid. The sad part about it was that he hadn't been too bad looking before he broke his nose. It never did heal right and I remember thinking how shitty it was to see him walking the halls at school and the streets with a busted, swollen, purple nose.

I knew that he still liked me by the way his eyes kept sinking down from my face to my chest and then, catching himself, would shoot back up to my face. I didn't want to draw attention to it either because I knew that it could have an effect on his work with my dad and that was something I couldn't throw a wrench into. Luckily, my attention was pulled away when I saw a pair of acid green boots clunking up the stairs of the clubhouse.

Axel had this pout that existed whenever he wasn't paying much attention and watching the way he smiled when he was greeted by friends made something inside of my stomach begin to stir. His smile was something else, his eyes, devastating. I could not look away from him. My gaze followed him as he passed, took notice of the bar and approached it with his arms stretched out to wrap around the shoulders of Max Sweet and Jimmy.

He was just as tall as Braun and even had a similar body structure except Axel had lean muscles, legs that walked with purpose and a face that was hard to forget. I watched him lean over the bar and before it became too obvious I forced myself to rip my eyes away, though the image of him in his mesh tank and green boots was burned into the back of my brain.

Braun quirked the corner of his mouth. "I can't believe Max let that guy join the Demons."

"What makes you say that?"

"I don't know, look at the way he dresses. It's just... Weird."

"Have you seen half the people in this town right now? He fits right in."

"Not really. He kind of sticks out like a sore thumb."

"And the rest of them don't? I think you're just jealous that you don't get to ride with a crew... Yet."

"Big Al says he'll put in a good word for me with Max."

I hopped off the tall bar stool I had been sitting on for long enough to lose feeling in my legs and before I exited my conversation with Braun I looked him up and down and said, "if you want to get in with the Sweets you might want to start taking fashion advice from Axel then. Or better yet... Bradley Fox. He can fix you up with some nice face tattoos!"

"Yeah, right," Braun chortled as I walked away from him.

There was an opening at the end of the bar that I claimed and once I poked my head over I caught my dad's attention. He and I hadn't really seen much of each other that day as he was busy hosting and being revered for his legendary status and I was milling around town drinking red wine from a plastic cup, getting drunk on my drink of choice while almost everybody else did the exact same thing. I had stopped to talk to some folks that I knew from down the street and bumped into more old high school friends but I didn't have much of a chance to talk to any of the guys from Dad's old club.

When Dad saw me he cut his conversation with Jimmy off and approached, joking about needing to see an ID card before he opened me a beer that I didn't ask for. When he slid it over the bar top I took it in my hand and acted confused.

"This isn't the Jager I ordered."

"Quiet you and drink your beer!" Dad admonished. "I can't believe I'm saying that to my own daughter."

"Yeah, Angel," said Bradley Fox. "Last time I saw you, you had to have been four feet tall."

"Where does all the fucking time go?" Jimmy added.

Although everyone was talking to me, I couldn't help but stare at the opposite end of the bar where Axel was chugging a beer down, his larynx bobbing in his long throat, lips pursed around the neck. His hair was slick from the grease of having a helmet on but he still looked good and when he slammed the empty beer bottle down on the bar he said, "I agree with Angel. I think it's time for a shot of Jager."

"Listen here, newcomer, I'll decide when it's Jager time," Dad said, looking down at his watch and then back up again. "It's time."

Six shot glasses were lined up and filled with the thick, dark liquid that had been the culprit, or at the very least the accomplice of many booze-fueled shenanigans caused in town by the Motor City Sweet Demons. When we all raised our shots, Axel and I looked at each other but instead of looking away, we kept our eyes locked, threw back our shots and then put the glasses back down on the bar top.

I wanted to talk to him but I didn't know how to get him alone. Axel seemed to have made close friends with the rest of the Demons and was often enthralled in conversation with somebody else. I tried not to pine too much over him but every once in a while I would catch him staring and it would make me smile, causing him to smirk. 

It wasn't until they started singing karaoke that he and I solidified something, an intention for later.

The first person to start singing was Bradley Fox and he chose a Guns 'N Roses classic as he usually did. It was only amusing to me because I had watched him perform the same song nearly every year and each time it for worse and worse as his crowd grew bigger and bigger.

My dad got up on the little makeshift stage and sang Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd. Mostly everybody joined in for the gang vocals, even me. 

The alcohol was really starting to get to me and I figured if I was going to get up on stage to blow everyone away I might have to chug a glass of water and have a cigarette to center myself. It wasn't that I was nervous, it was just that I wasn't sure if I could still pull off the song I wanted to do. I had an idea and popped up off my stoop to find Braun.

"Braun!" I exclaimed when I found him in line for the bathroom.

"Hey, Angel, what's up?"

"I wanted to ask you something... Do you remember back when Olivia Gardiner used to have karaoke parties?"

Braun laughed, "yeah, of course, I do."

"Remember the song we did together?"

"You mean the song we learned all the lyrics to and then you chickened out?"

"Yeah... Do you want to like... See if we can give it a go?"

Braun's sunken cheeks turned a little pink with the thought of going up on stage in front of all the guests and the members of the Sweet Demons but with a little more gentle begging I got him to agree to do the female part of the song What's Your Fantasy by Ludacris.

It was a long and fast rap that I requested especially because it was so overly sexual to the point of comedy and anyone willing to learn the words was obviously not fucking around. 

When it was our turn it took a bit of tugging to get Braun on stage with me but when the music started it was hard not to let loose and go for it. I saw my dad behind the bar with his thick arms crossed over his chest, shaking his head with a smirk. 

Some of the girls in the clubhouse started dancing to our song and when Axel emerged from the clusters of laughing people he had an undeniable smile on his face and that's when I zeroed in on and started singing the lyrics right at him, forgetting Braun behind me on stage and all of the other people surrounding us. Axel crossed his arms too and watched on as we performed our song to completion much to the joy of everybody in the clubhouse. 

His eyes were stuck on me like a beam as I got off the stage and treated myself to one more drink. I had a feeling that I wouldn't have to go looking for him and I was right. He came up from behind where I was sitting on the bar stool and blinked profusely in a cartoonishly disbelieving way.

"Did that really just happen? Did you just perform Ludacris' hit song from eighteen years ago front to back without even looking at the lyrics on the screen?"

I tried not to laugh with liquid in my mouth but it was hard not to, as my plan seemed to have worked perfectly and I had impressed him with one of my limited amount of party tricks. Luckily for me, that seemed to take me far enough as to really snatch his attention.

"Are you going to do a song?"

"Me?" He laughed. "Fuck no."

"Why not? Everyone else is doing it."

"I might throw up."

"Aw, stage fright?"

"Something like that." He said with a hint of unease.

"That's alright, we can just watch Fox do a dozen Aerosmith songs for the rest of the night. He's so good at them."

Axel shook his head as we both watched Bradley Fox do his second song of the night.

"The man can sing but fuck his dance moves are bad."

"Something tells me you're not much of a dancer either."

"What gave that away?" He asked with a laugh. "My pale snow-white skin?"

"I have never seen a white man over six feet tall that was able to dance well."

"Oh yeah? Well, guess what? You're absolutely fucking right. I dance like someone's uncle."

I laughed maybe a bit too hard at what he said but when I saw him pull a pack of cigarettes out I settled down, mentally berating myself for being too giggly.

"Care to join me?" Axel asked, offering his elbow for me to hook my arm through.

I felt my heart jump up and punch me in the throat but I quickly slunk off the stool to take him up on it.

I don't think anyone saw me leaving with Axel but I also wasn't paying much attention to anything but how tall he was and the novelty of linking arms with him was made even more amusing by the length of his limbs. He pulled me closer, encouraging me to keep up with his step as we made our way down the steps to the backyard.

"You know..  You can smoke in the clubhouse," I told him.

"It's fine. I like the fresh air."

I looked up at the darkened sky but the beauty of the starscape was lost by the sound of engines revving and rubber burning against the pavement in the distance.

"So you're the heir of the Motor City Bike Shop? You don't seem like much of a rider." He mused as he opened his pack of cigarettes to offer me one.

I scoffed at him as I plucked one out from the pack and stuck it between my lips. "That's because I'm not and I don't know who you've been talking to but I'm not inheriting shit."

"You don't want to own this?" He motioned toward the clubhouse and garage.

"I don't care that much about bikes."

"Yeah," Axel agreed as he lit his cigarette and then mine. "I can tell you're more of an artsy type, anyway."

"Oh, you have me pinned already, do you?" I blinked profusely.

"I saw some textbooks when I went poking around in your underwear drawer," he admitted, a dastardly smile on his face despite his joking tone.

"Those could be anyone's books."

"But they're yours."

"You're right."

"I know I'm right."

"What about you? How did you become a member of the Sweet Demons? Last time I checked it was a pretty exclusive club."

"I guess I just found myself in the right place at the right time."

"And that?" I pointed at the embroidered word on his vest. "What's that?"

"That's me."

"Zeitgeist?"

"It's just a nickname."

"It can't be just a nickname if it's on your jacket."

"You and Al have this weird thing about club rules, don't you?"

"I just want to know the meaning."

"Join the Demons then if you want to know so badly," he said with a wink. 

[doomedandstoned]

Candlemass: 35 Years A Band

  ~A Doomed & Stoned Double Feature~  

Dare To Knock On   The Door To Doom

By Magnus Tannergren  

I don't know how well known it is that CANDLEMASS hails from the same hoods in the Upplands Väsby right outside Stockholm as both Yngwie Malmsteen and Europe. And it is a fact that Candlemass debut album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus was released just two weeks after Europe's smash hit album The Final Countdown. We all know that that album earned Europe worldwide fame. Candlemass, on the other hand, remained an underground affair for decades.

Yet the legacy of Candlemass cannot be underestimated in anyway when it comes to heavy music. Their slow, heavy Sabbath worship paved the way for a whole genre inspired by the heavy rock and proto-metal of the ‘70s that we call, up until this present day, doom metal. Ironically, Europe now days have returned to their roots and sound more like Deep Purple or Rainbow than anything else. The circle is complete.

Anyway, this is a review of the new Candlemass album 'The Door To Doom' (2019 - Napalm Records) and not a study of when two parallel universes collide. This album also completes a full circle for Candlemass in many ways, too. It sees the return of the mystery man who did the vocals on that legendary debut album that arrived more than three decades ago. It was shocking news when Johan Längquist was announced as the vocalist on the new album -- an album that was already done with vocals by longtime singer Mats Levén (Therion, Krux). Oh the drama...

But maybe this is exactly what Candlemass needed to get back on track. The band has not been able to really deliver the goods these past ten years or so, in my opinion. Maybe it's because of the lead singer issues that have been tormenting Candlemass for ages. The reunion with Messiah Marcolin back in 2004 went south, Rob Lowe had a great voice but didn't work out as a touring member, and so on. Add main songwriter Leif Edling’s struggles with chronic fatigue syndrome and it is easy to understand that this doomsday machine has not been firing on all its cylinders for a while.

Yet here we are now. The new album is out and it is a grand return to epic doom metal as we know it should be done by Candlemass. I am the first to admit that I was skeptical, as I always am, to these kinds of albums that try to summon the glory of the past by reuniting with old members. But I am also the first one to admit when I am wrong. This is a fantastic Candlemass album.

The Door To Doom by CANDLEMASS

The voice of Längquist has matured as a good wine. It depth and grandeur coupled with attitude and experience. The vocals add that extra drama to tracks like "Splendor Demon Majesty" and "Astorolus – the Great Octopus" (yes, there is a solo by Tony Iommi on this, so another completed circle), but there is also beauty to be had, such as in the epic ballad "Bridge of the Blind" with its echoes of the great old ones, like Dio. I'm glad Johan Längquist is back. His silence has been a waste.

Musically, Candlemass delivers an album that stands proud besides the classic first four albums Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, Nightfall, Ancient Dreams, and Tales of Creation. It measures up to the challenge to invoke the gods of doom in a way that sometimes sends shivers down my spine, as I recall the greatness of this band's early years. It bares the mark of true doom and the spirits of the old classics possess this album. The guitar works by Mappe Björkman and Lasse Johansson are stellar and the thunder of Edling’s bass and Jan Lindh’s drumming is spectacular.

The music bares all the marks that makes up the legend of Candlemass. It is, in the words of the band itself, “the sound of 666.” I already mentioned some of the highlights on the album, but I must also say The Door To Doom doesn't really have any weak spots. All the songs are very strong and the riffing is epic. Despite my skepticism, I got bewitched again.

A great doom metal record, indeed, executed with precision and power. I fully believe this material has focus to make Candlemass relevant as a scene-anchoring act in metal once again and I hope they succeed, because the world needs this band. On the other hand, if this turns out to be the last album by this legendary Swedish doomers, The Door To Doom will also serve as a fitting final chapter in the Book of Candlemass. I honestly hope it’s not.

Magnus is the founder and host of Into The Void Podcast. He is also a senior staff writer at Slavestate.se, one of Sweden's oldest and most important online zines about heavy and extreme music.

☠

An Interview with

Candlemass Co-Founder

  Leif Edling

By Willem Verhappen  

I must say I was very surprised when the new record was announced, since at the time of its release, you said 'Psalms for the Dead' would be the final Candlemass full-length record. What made you change your mind? >

The "House of Doom" single. It was great fun to write it! Also working with producer Marcus Jidell was fantastic. We're quite a team, I must say. There I got the inspiration back for an entire album. We had a couple of band meetings about it and it was very clear that the band shared the enthusiasm for a new record. They had been playing live without me for a couple of years, with good response, but without an album it is easy for you to become a retro band pretty quick. Don't want that to happen to Candlemass.

I see what you mean. It's quite a challenge to stay relevant as an "older" band, especially in this day and age, when everything retro seems to be cool. On one hand you have bands like Priest and Saxon, who are still releasing decent records, and on the other hand there's bands who've been past their expiration date for decades. Do you prefer to see a band over their top or just remember them as they were?

That one’s easy. Remember them as they were. But having said that, it is a joy to see bands like Angel Witch, Manilla Road, Pries, and Saxon today, because they can still deliver. When you can’t deliver the goods anymore, maybe stay at home instead. Hope somebody will tap me on the shoulder one day and say “Leif...It’s time.” (laughs)

"Too many discussions & arguments over the years. Maybe some heart was missing in it all."

Just before the Christmas of 2013, you had a bout with burnout and stepped away from live performances for a while. What made you realize you needed to take a break? How did you get the “fire” back again?

A bit better, but not 100%. I'm still struggling with it. I hope I can do the rest of 2019's shows without too many problems. Have to look after myself, rest as much as I can, eat regularly, not party too much. Well, this is very "rock 'n' roll" to say, but it is great to be back. You have to listen to your body. If it says "rest," you have to step back. If it says, “Go, you can do it,” I hope I can!

I hope so. too. As a diabetic. I know it's sometimes difficult to listen to your body and not get drawn into the excitement of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. Is it difficult for you? What do you do in these moments?

On the Candlemass tour with Ghost, there was lots of partying on the bus after the shows. I was there, but took it quite easy. Went to bed early, but still I felt tired in the morning. So if we go on another tour, I might have to stop drinking totally, to pull it off. Playing live almost every night takes its toll. I’m 50-plus, struggling with fatigue syndrome, on a tour bus to hell -- talk about the wrong man in the wrong place! (laughs) Said "yes" to it instantly, of course.

In 2015, you released Avatarium’s second album, 'The Girl With The Raven Mask.' Was it difficult for you to pick up writing again?

Yes, it was. Well, not super hard. The burnout gave me the time to rest and get new inspirado for songs. In a way, I’m glad that it happened. Think many people just go on and on without taking a break. They just keep on going and get themselves an aneurysm or something. I quit before that happened. Got lots of time to think about future and what to do with it. Songwriting is one part. That Avatarium album is pretty good, I think.

I agree. It's my favorite Avatarium record. But you're saying this like you're not as happy with the other two records. Is that the case?

No. I love all three of them, but the second is the best.

We spoke briefly at Roadburn 2017 and I don’t know who was more nervous, me for meeting you or you for getting back on stage, playing the first ever live show with The Doomsday Kingdom. I remember that you were afraid no one would show up. Luckily, the place was pretty crowded and you guys gave an amazing show. I still get goosebumps when I think of your emotional performance of "The God Particle." How do you remember your return to the big stage?

The stage wasn’t that big (laughs), but it felt rather good. I could have played better, plus it's true I was quite nervous. It was the first small step to a full return, I would say.

In September of 2017, I spoke to Markus Jidell at an Avatarium show and he told me you were working on something very special. This was shortly before the 'House of Doom' EP was announced, so I assumed he was talking about that. Was he or were you already working on 'The Door To Doom'?

We worked on the House of Doom for about six months before we started on the full-length album. If I remember correctly, we started the demoing of the new songs on November 1st. The full album took exactly one year to make. Too long! Next time, I hope I’m better, then I hope we can deliver an album in three to six months. Shouldn’t take more time than that.

Does that mean there will be more Candlemass music coming our way?

Well, eventually. Hopefully!

The only surprise bigger than a new record was the return of Johan Längquist. How did that come about?

During the recording, we felt something was missing. We had too many discussions and arguments over the years -- all of us. Maybe some heart was missing in it all. I'd worked my ass off for this record, but was struggling with my health. Too much work, too much business, too many arguments, too much bull! In the end, we took a band decision to bring in Johan again -- go back to the "ground zero" of Doom, so to speak. Mats had done a great job, but we needed to do something in C-mass to find the spark again and Johan was the answer. Now we focus on having fun, not letting any business take over. I have no clue if it will last a year or two. At least we will enjoy the time left.

Lyrically, as well as musically, I think ‘The Door To Doom’ feels like a very dark record. What were your inspirations while writing this album?

It’s a good thing that people see the albums music and lyrics in different ways. I don’t think it is that dark. We have done darker things in C-mass, definitely. The songs are about the state of the world, how I feel myself during the burnout process, sea monsters, and reflections upon life in general. This time around, I’m pretty satisfied with the lyrics.

"I have no clue if it will last a year or two. At least we will enjoy the time left."

It's no secret that you’re a massive Black Sabbath fan, owning over half a meter worth of vinyl of their debut alone. I can only imagine how special it must have been for Tony Iommi to play on your record. How did that come about and what was it like working with Tony?

We just asked him. Seriously. We asked and got a "yes!" Our manager emailed his personal manager. Couldn’t believe it when we had the positive answer back. I was over the moon. Tony Iommi will play on my song! Hardest thing was to keep my mouth shut for three months. (laughs) But, you know, if you aim for the stars, you might succeed. He sent us the solo after a while and it was absolutely great! A dream came true.

Amazing how easily these things can happen.

Yes, Dio said once in an interview that he would have loved to guest sing on records but he never had the question put to him.

You’re currently on tour, opening for Ghost. When I went to see your show in Amsterdam, I noticed their audience is turning more mainstream. For instance, before your show, I heard someone say: “I looked up Candlemass online. They sound kind of like AC/DC.” Do you recognise this and how have the reactions been so far?

I have heard that we sound like Iron Maiden and Motörhead, to mention a couple. AC/DC? That’s a first. But the crowd reaction for our short set during the Ghost tour has been really good, actually. Better than we expected, so we must have done something right. The reactions for the album have been fantastic. Super great criticism from all over the world. And the Cardinal said to us, “You are special guest on this tour. You’re not the support act.”

With a band like Ghost, I can imagine the touring life is quite the experience. Did you have a chance to interact with those guys much beyond the stage?

Not really, they play a nearly three-hour long set and they take it seriously, as you should. We did have a couple of record hunting trips with the Cardinal that were very pleasant. He is a real vinyl buff, so we raided some shops here and there.

I can only imagine how these raids go about. What's your best find this tour?

The first Steamhammer record. First press on Brain €50. I gave it to the Cardinal after the last show, since we really wanted it, too. He got it as a gift from me, saying thanks for a great tour.

Since you’re a record collector and a fan of old school metal, are there any new bands you’re into that you think everyone should check out?

I haven’t bought a record with a new band for several years. I have no clue what’s going on in the metal world anymore. I just buy old albums. Seems like they knew how to write songs back then. Lost art, unfortunately. Is Blood Ceremony considered to be a “new” band? They are pretty good, I think.

Do you have future plans for the band or will you be shifting focus to side projects like Doomsday Kingdom, Krux, or others?

We just released a new Candlemass album and the schedule for this year is already full, so I won’t have any time, this year anyway, to do anything other than C-mass.

True, your calendar is swelling with the Ghost tour and some festival appearances in the summer. Are there any shows you’re especially looking forward to?

Yes: Sweden Rock, Hellfest, Wacken and, well, all of them! (laughs)

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[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!