#construction school in philadelphia

[pttedu]

William Bowie, a prominent figure in the construction industry addresses graduates of PTTI

At our Graduation ceremony, William Bowie, a prominent figure in the industry, delivers an inspiring address to the Philadelphia Technician Training Institute (PTTI) graduates. With decades of experience and a passion for innovation, Bowie shares invaluable insights and advice for the next generation of construction professionals. Join us as we celebrate the achievements of PTTI graduates and glean wisdom from one of the industry's finest.

[pttiedu]

How Does Construction Training Benefit High Schoolers?

Construction training plays an essential role in the economic growth of high schoolers. Dive in to learn the importance of construction training programs.

[kaijuposting]

Average Pacific Rim Headcanons

A local ice cream place offers kaiju blue milkshakes for sale (berry flavored with lime). A sign says that percentage of the profits are donated to kaiju blue poisoning treatment research.

If you were in school and lived in a coastal Pacific city during the kaiju war, you had kaiju escape drills.

You had PPDC officials come to your school looking for drift compatible students.

You know a girl who claims that she can channel the kaiju. She has a small online following who hang on to her every word.

Construction projects are delayed or halted in your city as iron is redirected to the jaeger program.

Anytime you and your friends say something at the same time, you joke about being drift compatible. Part of you hopes you really are.

If you were in college, you considered changing your major to biology or engineering, if it wasn't that already.

You follow several scientists researching kaiju or the breach on social media. Some work for the PPDC, some work for private labs or university labs. Some would host AME sessions. You watch as the scientists working for the PPDC all eventually announce that they've been let go and are going to work elsewhere now.

You follow several rangers on social media. One by one, they stop posting. Their deaths are announced on the news.

People joke about sending the citizens of Philadelphia to fight kaiju. They're so good at crushing invasive spotted lantern flies, they should be good at destroying kaiju.

Scientists announce the discovery of a bacteria that eats kaiju blue. Several more are eventually found all over the world.

[annieqattheperipheral]

NHLPA launches a new program to help players prepare for life outside of hockey

i.e. dad yelling at u to get a real job bc ur etsy shop aint be bumpin forever

the kids are getting a high school guidance counsellor and co-op term! what colour is ur parachute nursey

no wonder sabres on the rise oko's media hits so beautifully eloquent. they got smartypants mini gm at the helm

i just find this so interesting and wonderful ...and like if a big hockey butt wants to come hit me up for improv classes i'm not complaining🫠 imma make a union actor (nate. realistic) two time emmy winner (sid. dream on u don't have that ass) outta u

full article under cut:

Early in his time in the NHL, Darnell Nurse says he did not notice a lot of players talking about what to do after hockey. Going into his ninth season, the chatter is now normal.

“People are curious as to what there is outside the game and what you can do to prepare yourself,” Nurse said.

Plenty of players have taken it upon themselves to prepare for the future, like Zdeno Chara getting his real estate license and others finishing college degrees or exploring business opportunities. The NHL Players’ Association on Thursday launched a program that gives its members the chance to do a personality analysis and delve into real estate, business or other avenues while still in the league.

The hope is to help them develop interests outside of hockey while playing and ease the transition to life afterward.

“It’s something that’s been missing a little bit,” veteran center Lars Eller told The Associated Press. “It’s kind of well known that one of the struggles for a professional athlete is the transition on to the next thing once he’s done with his professional career. And this platform helps you with that transition, and it’s something you can start even while you’re still playing so you can sort of hit the ground running once you’re done.”

New union boss Marty Walsh made helping former players one of his top priorities. His arrival in March coincided with a process two years in the making, after player feedback indicated the desire for more assistance outside of hockey.

The result is the NHLPA UNLMT program. Retired defenseman-turned-psychologist Jay Harrison is available to do an assessment, and players can get involved with companies ranging from Money Management International to The Second City comedy and improv theater and institutions like the University of Florida and Stanford’s graduate school of business.

Former goaltender Rob Zepp, who’s spearheading the program as the union’s director of strategic initiatives, said an extensive survey provided the building blocks for something that was designed to be 1-on-1 and customized for players to figure out what might interest them.

“What we’ve seen so far it really runs the gamut: anything from enhancing one’s personal brand to starting a podcast to taking these certificate-level courses in real estate, in entrepreneurship, in business, in leadership, communication skills, networking skills,” Zepp said. “We have players that are interested in or are currently pursuing commercial real estate avenues or farming ventures or construction.”

Eller, Nurse and Buffalo captain Kyle Okposo are among the players who have tried UNLMT so far. Okposo has already graduated from Stanford’s business leadership program, while Eller has spoken with Harrison and taken some of the courses offered.

“They’re not waiting until people’s careers are over,” said Nurse, who is still in his prime at 28. “It’s something that you can dip your feet into and grab a hold of while you’re still playing and giving you resources and opportunities to kind of figure out what you want to do.”

Zepp got a degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the University of Liverpool the old-school way — tapes and textbooks sent by mail and tests taken in front of a proctor — while playing mostly in the minors and Europe before before 10 games with Philadelphia in 2014-15. He felt like having something to study made him a better goalie and understood there was plenty of idle time on the road.

Eller, who is a silent partner involved with helping start-up businesses, thinks the same way.

“We, as players, we have — not a lot of freedom once the season is starting — but we do have a lot of free time,” said Eller, who scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal for Washington in 2018 and is a pending free agent at 34. “It’s a huge positive if you have something else that you can take your mind off of hockey and do something productive with that time.”

Walsh got to know several Bruins alumni when he was mayor of Boston and has since talked to other former players and come away with a mandate to protect guys beyond their time on the ice.

“When they played, they gave it their all, and a lot of them didn’t really have anything after that,” Walsh said. “They didn’t make big contracts. They really didn’t have a strong pension system. A lot of them, even going back further than that, lost stuff. We can’t let that happen again.”

[petervintonjr]

Everybody say hello to Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons: activist, teacher, and researcher. Born in 1944 Memphis, Gwendolyn was the first generation in her family to attend college (Spelman, 1962). She credits her grandmother, Rhonda Bell Robinson, with having instilled in her the family's history and its reckoning with slavery, her own hardships growing up as a sharecropper, and how Mississippi was objectively the "worst of the worst" for Black people. Gwendolyn solemnly promised her grandmother that she would never go to Mississippi. (And don't even get her started on the epic confrontations with teachers and school officials about the "inappropriateness of her hair." Boy, it's sure nice that that sort of racial dress-code pettiness isn't a thing anymore, huh?)

In the 1960's, inspired by several Spelman professors (to include Howard Zinn), Gwendolyn actively and enthusiastically became involved in the SNCC against her family's wishes. She participated in sit-ins and endured several arrests, ultimately jeopardizing her Spelman scholarship. She helped prepare curricula for Freedom Schools and coordinated mock voter registrations, working under Bob Moses (see Lesson 112 in this series) and alongside James Forman and her fellow Spelman alum Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson (see Lesson 66). Eventually she came into the orbit of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and ultimately found herself taking over as director of the Mississippi Summer Project in 1964 when its previous director, Lester McKinney, had been picked up by Laurel police. She herself was arrested in Jackson following a march; being held, beaten and tortured for 15 days in a makeshift prison constructed on the county fairgrounds.

Gwendolyn later moved briefly to New York, and then to Atlanta where she worked on Julian Bond's state campaign (see Lesson 72). She continued to work with the local chapter of the SNCC, authoring a controversial position paper on Black Power that argued against expelling its white members. Around this time Gwendolyn also (unsurprisingly) found herself on the FBI's notorious Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) target list. Inspired by the speeches of Malcolm X, Gwendolyn joined Nation Of Islam in the late 1960's and changed her name to Zoharah (also taking her husband Michael Simmons' last name), and moved to Philadelphia. However her strong feminist principles contravened a number of NOI teachings, putting her at odds with the organization's stance on women as submissive helpmeets. Over the next 20 years she worked for the American Friends Service Committee, travelling to Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and (significantly) Palestine.

Gwendolyn retired from the University of Florida in 2019; conducting and leading research that explores Islamic feminism and the cultural impact of Sharia law on Muslim women. Today Simmons is senior lecturer emerita, continuing to travel and lecture on gender equality, and on many other issues affecting Black Americans, feminism, and social inequities. Her and Michael Simmons' daughter Aishah Shahidah Simmons, is herself an accomplished documentary filmmaker. (Teachers: Need some resources to engage your students this Black History Month? I'll send you a pile of these trading cards, no cost, no obligation. Just give me a mailing address and let me know how many students in your class. No strings attached, no censorship, no secret-relaying-of-names to Abbott or DeSantis or HuckaSanders.)

[thenationaltreasuregazette]

Does Ben Gates have Ph.D?

It depends who you ask.

The textual evidence in the first National Treasure movie suggests no. (Or at least doesn’t present direct evidence for yes.)

As we discussed in the Navy article, the first film lists Ben’s education as follows:

degree in American history from Georgetown

degree in mechanical engineering at MIT

Navy ROTC, Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center

Like I argue there, my instinctual reaction is that the degrees are read in order of acquisition. That’s just the most common way to read them, especially when you’re constructing the history of a person, be that on a resume or an FBI profile.

That would suggest that American history a bachelor’s degree and mechanical engineering is a masters.

But wait there's more! Text, drafts, titles, and headcanons below!

As I point out:

There’s also the difference between a bachelor’s and masters’ degree to consider. The higher you get in higher ed, the more specific you get. A bachelor’s in American history would give Ben the greatest breadth of study, and the freedom to explore any and all topics he was interested in. A masters’ degree in the same field would ask him to zero in on a topic, perhaps more than he’d want to. Likewise, I think that depth over breadth would benefit him in his engineering degree. That way he could focus in on the areas most relevant to him and treasure hunting.

It’s also plausible to read this list in reverse order. That would suggest Ben got a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering (perhaps in an attempt to get Patrick off his back by making it appear he was not directly pursuing treasure hunting?) and then master’s or doctorate in American history.

While this is completely possible, I don’t consider it as likely based on the way it’s presented in the movie. The inclusion of the Navy stuff last makes it sound like Ben is progressively narrowing his field of study as he hones in on his Charlotte-was-a-ship theory. He starts with a broad foundation in American history, then proceeds on to the more specialized technical skills once he realizes the ship is lost/sunk and he’ll need them.

I also think it squares with Ben’s personality and interests. I just

don’t see Ben putting off the history degree. It’s his real passion, and there’s always the risk that he wouldn’t get to go back for a second degree for any number of reasons.

That said, the 2003 script does make it clear that in that version Ben does have a Ph.D in history.

When the treasure hunt seems to be at a Declaration of Independence-induced halt early on, Ian says

IAN You have your PhD in History. Maybe you can teach high school history.

The National Treasure Wiki lists Ben’s education history as:

Ben went on to receive a Bachelors degree in archeology and cryptology at the University of Philadelphia, a Masters degree in mechanical engineering degree from MIT and a Doctorate in American History from Georgetown University. While in Georgetown, Ben also enlisted in the US Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps for the next four years and received official certification from their Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center before continuing the six generation family tradition of treasure hunting. 

But I don’t see a source for this, so take it as you will.

Ben having a degree in archeology and cryptology seems important for the FBI to mention in their profile of him. Also if he went to the University of Philadelphia that seems relevant to the Philadelphia foot chase? But it’s Ian and crew who seem to be familiar with the streets. Ben doesn’t try to lead them anywhere tricky or clever that would suggest he’s familiar with the area. Even Abigail and Riley go to the more Philadelphia-specific location of Reading Terminal Market than Ben, who seems to be running toward any random place he might be able to hide or escape.

Titles

There’s also the matter of how he’s addressed.

In the first film, the only time anyone calls Ben by a title is when he’s being arresting him in Philadelphia.

SADUSKY Hello, Mr Gates. AGENT JOHNSON Mr Gates, face your father's car and put your hands behind your back, please.

The rest of the time he’s simply “Ben” to his friends and “Gates” to his enemies.

Now, not everyone with a Ph.D uses the title “Dr.” Not using it would fit with Ben’s personality as both a pretty humble person (he doesn’t flaunt his other degrees either) and someone on the outs with the academic community. More on that later.

However, I don’t know that that’s the case based on how other people are titled in the film.

Abigail is always “Dr. Chase.”

Her assistant, Ben, Agent Johnson, and Ian all refer to her as “Dr. Chase” at various points throughout the movie.

Ben obviously starts calling her “Abigail” as they get to know each other better, but even when he’s listing his requests to Sadusky at the end, he refers to her by title. And damn right. Respect her.

Maybe Abigail simply uses the title—as a result of her job, personal preference, or both—and Ben doesn’t. It does seem like the kind of thing that would come up both to her and in general to establish Ben’s credibility though.

There’s also the potential to ready Sadusky’s line as knowing Ben has a Ph.D but choosing to be disrespectful. As in:

SADUSKY Hello. Mr. Gates (derogatory)

This, I think, is the least likely option, though, because Peter Sadusky is unfailingly polite, even regarding the people he’s pursuing.

For example, he also always calls Ian "Mr. Howe." In the surveillance van near the Intrepid he says

SADUSKY If that's not Mr Howe, I want to know who it is.

And when he’s arresting Ian in Boston he says

SADUSKY You're under arrest, Mr Howe.

So my reading is that Sadusky always uses someone appropriate title. If he knows Ben has a Ph.D, I think he’d refer to him as “Dr. Gates” because he has no reason to know if Ben prefers not to use the title.

Book of Secrets

There is one time where Ben is referred to as “Dr.” on screen, and that’s in Book of Secrets.

When Abigail meets Mitch at the restaurant, she receives a call from Ben, finishes decoding the “Laboulaye Lady” clue, and hangs up because she can tell Mitch is overhearing. Regarding the call, Mitch then asks

MITCH Dr. Gates?

There are four possible readings of this line that I can think of.

Ben does have a Ph.D, it just wasn’t mentioned in the first movie for whatever reason

Ben does not have a Ph.D, but Mitch incorrectly assumes he does

Ben does not have a Ph.D, but Mitch is attempting to flatter Abigail by flattering her (ex) boyfriend*

*Is this a good strategy? No. Do I find it a plausible character action? Sure.

And finally there’s my preferred reading

Ben did not have a Ph.D during the events of National Treasure, but was awarded an honorary doctorate after finding the Templar treasure.

Why does he need one?

Ben is clearly piecing together a custom-built treasure hunting resume. It’s logical to me why he would want to start out studying history then pivot to more specific technical and engineering disciplines once he realized he would need those skills. I’m not sold on why he would go back for his doctorate.

A Ph.D is an incredibly specialized degree. Ben would be spending years writing a thesis on a single topic.

If that topic is the Templar treasure, Ben would have a nearly impossible time defending his thesis. We know that his surname alone is well-known enough in the historical community that Abigail knows about his family’s reputation just from hearing his name. Ben would be subjecting himself to years of derision, skepticism, and humiliation on a thesis he is not able to defend because we know he has yet to convince anyone but Ian and Riley of the existence of the treasure.

Or the topic is not the Templar treasure, in which case, what is he doing there? He’s spending years of his life studying a thing that he does not want to be studying. Maybe he thinks he can do his treasure hunting on the side, but graduate school is a black hole like no other.*

There’s the classes, papers, research, readings, not to mention that he’d probably be expected to teach as well. He’d might also need a part-time job to make ends meet, because while most Ph.D programs provide a stipend, it’s usually barely enough to live on and definitely not enough to fund treasure hunting on the side. Given the way Patrick frames the family's finances, I don't get the impression that Ben's big on saving up.

*I have a less intensive graduate degree in a less intensive field, and I could barely keep my head above water doing the literal thing I was there to do. I cannot fathom attempting to run another massive project on the side.

That’s not to say, however, that Ben didn’t attend a Ph.D program at some point though.

Headcanon time

First of all, I think the story is funnier the more Ben is just “some guy.”

Similar to how I think that “retired Naval officer Ben Gates” changes the flavor of the story for the worse, I think “rogue historian Ben Gates” changes the flavor, if not for the worse than simply for the less interesting.

My personal reading of the situation is this:

Ben gets his bachelor’s in American history, develops his Charlotte-is-as-ship theory while in school, then proceeds directly into the engineering degree + Navy ROTC because he’s discovered that the Charlotte wrecked and knows he’ll need to salvage her. (When he goes to MIT Patrick’s like, thank god he’s finally doing something sensible. When he learns Ben’s doing salvage diving he’s like, well fuck.)

After school Ben salvage dives to pay the bills, and treasure hunts in his spare time. At some point either the money or his free time takes enough of a hit that Ben needs to make a change. Thus, he starts applying to Ph.D programs. And/or he needs particular resources or expertise at this point and additional study is the best way to get them.

He stays in the program for a few years, but not being able to truly pursue the treasure grates on him. Constantly being told—directly or not—that you’re stupid for what you’re interested in or for the way you want to pursue the subject absolutely sucks. (See also: my time in academia.) The derision and the strain on his treasure hunting time ware down on him until the program isn’t worth it anymore. He got what he came for, so he leaves. Ben briefly wonders if finishing with a non-treasure thesis would finally make Patrick proud of him, but decides against it.

It’s during these next years that he refines his theory, discovers critical information needed to realize that the Charlotte never actually sunk, but went adrift in the Arctic circle, recruits Ian to finance the search now that he as a tangible plan, and pulls in Riley to do the computer modeling that Ben can’t do on his own.

After he finds the treasure, his undergraduate alma matter Georgetown awards Ben an honorary doctorate. Patrick, Abigail, and Riley attend the ceremony. They’re all very proud. Ben gets unexpectedly emotional, at least on the inside. He hadn’t realized before that moment that this actually was something he wanted, and that he’d actually felt pretty torn between academic study—which he does excel at and enjoy—and treasure hunting.

Conclusion

So, there you go.

Does Ben have a Ph.D?

Only if you want him to.

[cruetrimeblog]

The Unfortunate Story of H.H. Holmes

H.H. Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett in Gilmanton, New Hampshire in May 1861. His parents were Levi Mudgett and Theodate Price. Holmes was the third of five total children. His siblings' names were Ellen, Arthur, Henry, and Mary. The Mudgett's were a Methodist family. Many people believe that Holmes tortured animals and also suffered abuse from his father. However there has been no solid proof to back up either of these accusations.

Holmes graduated from high school at 16 years old and went on to be a teacher. He married a woman named Clara Lovering in July 1878. They went on to have a son named Robert in February of 1880.

Holmes enrolled in the University of Vermont when he was 18, but dropped out a year later. He then transferred to the University of Michigan where he studied medicine and surgery. He graduated in June 1884. After school Holmes worked as an apprentice to advocate of human dissection, Nahum Wight. After his crimes, Holmes admitted to using cadavers to commit insurance fraud in college.

Roommates of Holmes witnessed him be very abusive to Clara. She moved back home in 1884. She didn't talk to him very much afterwards. Holmes then moved to New York. It was rumored that he was the last one seen with a young boy before he disappeared. Holmes told everyone that the boy had gone back home to Massachusetts. There was no investigation into the boy's whereabouts, and Holmes quickly left town afterwards.

Holmes traveled to Philadelphia where he took on a job as a keeper at a hospital. He quit a few days later. He then accepted a job at a drug store. A boy died while Holmes worked there after taking medicine that was bought at that specific store. However, Holmes denied being involved. He then left Philadelphia and moved to Chicago. It is here that the officially changed his name to H.H. Holmes to avoid being exposed.

In a later confession, Holmes admitted to killing former classmate Robert Leacock for insurance money. However, it was confirmed that Robert actually died in his home in Canada 3 years later. While still being legally married to Clara, Holmes married a woman named Myra Belknap in Minneapolis. He filed for divorce just a few weeks later, claiming it was because Clara was unfaithful to him. These claims weren't ever proven, so the case was dismissed. It's possible that Clara never even knew the case had taken place. Their divorce was never finalized.

Holmes had a daughter with Myrta named Lucy Holmes 1889. She grew up to be a school teacher. Holmes married for yet a third time in January of 1894. This wife's name was Georgiana Yorke. He was still married to both Clara and Myrta at the time.

After moving to Chicago, Holmes got a job in a drugstore owned by Elizabeth Holton. Holmes would eventually buy the drugstore from her. It was rumored that Holmes had killed Elizabeth and her husband, but this was later proven to be a myth.

Holmes bought some land near to the drugstore. He began construction on a two story building in 1887. He planned to use the upper floor for apartments and retail space. The bottom floor would serve as a second drugstore.

Holmes added a third floor to the building in 1892. He explained that this floor would be used as a hotel of sorts. This section was never completed due to the contractors backing out of the deal after they found out that Holmes had been stealing materials from them.

Many of the rooms were soundproofed. The hallway resembled a maze with many pathways to nowhere. Several rooms were also equipped with chutes down to the basement. Holmes stored acid and lime in the basement which he later used as a crematorium for his victims. The builders notified the public of Holmes strange habits. This caused the investors of the hotel to back out. Many years after Holmes arrest, an unknown arsonist started a fire on the third floor which destroyed a large portion of the building. It was later rebuilt and used as a post office until 1938.

The hotel was mostly complete by 1892. The first floor was used as a storefront. The second floor held many elaborate torture rooms. The third floor held apartment space. Police decided to check out the hotel in 1894 while Holmes was away. The found many disturbing things inside: rooms with hinged walls and false partitions, secret passageways, gas pipelines leading to airtight rooms, and the chutes used by Holmes to transport bodies to the basement.

The basement held surgical tables and medical tools. Holmes used these to dissect his victims to then sell their organs and bones. He sold body parts to medical facilities on the black market.

One of Holmes' first victims was his mistress named Julia Smythe. Julia and her daughter Pearl went missing on Christmas Eve 1891. Holmes claimed that Julia died during an abortion, but what happened to them was never confirmed. Emeline Cigrande began working at the hotel in 1892 and was also likely a victim of Holmes. The disappearance of Edna Tassel has also been linked to Holmes.

Holmes met Benjamin Pitezel while working at Chemical Bank, and the two became close friends. Pitezel had a criminal history and soon became Holmes' right hand man.

Holmes met actress Minnie Williams when she moved to Chicago in 1893. He offered her a job as his personal stenographer, which she accepted. The two became close enough for Holmes' to convince Minnie to sign over some of her property to "Alexander Bond" which was one of Holmes' aliases.

Holmes would then sign the property over to Pitezel. Holmes and Minnie rented an apartment together in Chicago. After Minnie's sister Annie came to visit her, she wrote to her mother that the two sisters planned to go to Europe to visit "Brother Harry." The two sisters were last seen alive on July 5, 1893.

Several insurance companies were trying to prosecute Holmes for arson. So much so, that Holmes fled Chicago in 1894. He was spotted in For Worth, Texas where he had inherited property from the Williams' sisters. He planned on building another castle there to use to swindle suppliers.

Holmes was arrested for the first time in the same month. He was charged with selling mortgaged goods. He quickly posted bail and didn't spend long in jail. But while he was there he met Marion Hedgepeth, a famous Wild West outlaw. At this time, Holmes was planning to fake his own death to get $10,000 in life insurance money.

Holmes offered Hedgepeth $500 to give him the name of a trustworthy attorney. He gave him the name of attorney Jeptha Howe. Jeptha thought Holmes' insurance plan was genius. However, the plan ultimately failed when the insurance company became suspicious and refused to pay up. Holmes quickly adjusted his plan to claim insurance money on Pitezel instead.

Pitezel agreed to fake his own death so that his wife could collect the $10,000. She agreed to split it with Holmes and Jeptha. Holmes originally planned to use a cadaver as the fake dead Pitezel, but found it easier to just kill him instead. Holmes chloroformed Pitezel and burned his body.

Holmes collected the insurance money and even manipulated Pitezel's widow into signing over custody of three of her five children over to him. Holmes traveled with the children all throughout American and Canada.

Holmes managed to keep all of this a secret from his wife. Holmes would later admit to killing two of the children by locking them in a trunk. He drilled a hole into the trunk to insert a tube connected to a gas line causing the children to asphyxiate. He buried their bodies in the cellar of the house he was renting at the time.

Philadelphia policeman Frank Geyer was appointed to the case of the missing children. He ultimately found their bodies in Holmes' home. Frank then headed to Indianapolis in search of him. Holmes had been spotted at a pharmacy there. He was purchasing drugs to use to kill the third child. He had also been spotted sharpening knives at a repair shop. He later used those knives to dismember the child. He burned the child's remains in his fireplace where bone fragments and teeth were later discovered.

Holmes didn't stop killing until he was arrested again in November of 1894 in Boston. He was located by the Pinkertons Detective Agency. He had a warrant out for her arrest in Texas for horse theft. His wife was very shocked to find all of this out.

Police began investigating the murder castle in July 1895. Surprisingly, there was no sufficient evidence found against Holmes in Chicago. Some people even began to believe that the torture rooms were a myth.

Holmes was put on trial for Pitezel's murder in October 1895. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Holmes later admitted to 27 murders and 6 attempted murders. The Hearst newspaper paid Holmes $7,500 for his confession. However parts of his confession were proved to be untrue. There were several "victims" of Holmes that were later found to still be alive.

Holmes described his wife differently depending on who asked him about it. Sometimes he claimed he was innocent, while other times he claimed to be possessed by the devil. Because he lied so often throughout his life, the truth is hard to come by. Holmes claimed to start resembling the devil more and more the longer he was in prison.

Holmes was hanged in Philadelphia on May 7, 1896. He was calm and friendly throughout the process. He wasn't upset or afraid. He requested for his body to be buried 10 feet down and to be encased in cement so that people wouldn't try to rob his grave. Holmes' neck didn't break which caused him to suffocate to death. He was pronounced dead after hanging for 20 minutes.

The murder castle mysteriously burned down in August 1895. It was reported that two men were seen near the building at around 8 pm that night. They could be seen leaving half an hour later. After the fire ended, police found a gas can near the back steps. The building was able to be repaired and was turned into a post office until it was torn down in 1938.

It was rumored in 2017 that Holmes may have managed to escape his execution. His body was exhumed for testing, but wasn't as decayed as it should have been due to being encased in cement. His clothes were preserved. His mustache was intact. However, DNA testing was done using Holmes' dental records, and the corpse is in fact his. Holmes was then reburied.

[char1ottee]

New York City Culture🗽

New York City is frequently the setting for novels, movies, and television programs and has been described as the cultural capital of the world. In describing New York, author Tom Wolfe said, "Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather."

The city is the birthplace of many cultural movements, including the Harlem Renaissance in literature and visual art; abstract expressionism (known as the New York School) in painting; and hip-hop, punk, hardcore, salsa, freestyle, Tin Pan Alley, certain forms of jazz, and (along with Philadelphia) disco in music. New York City has been considered the dance capital of the world.

One of the most common traits attributed to New York City is its fast pace, which spawned the term New York minute. Journalist Walt Whitman characterized New York's streets as being traversed by "hurrying, feverish, electric crowds". New York City's residents are prominently known for their resilience historically, and more recently related to their management of the impacts of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic. New York was voted the world's most resilient city in 2021 and 2022 per Time Out's global poll of urban residents.

Theater🎭

The central hub of the American theater scene is Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway. Many movie and television stars have gotten their big break working in New York productions.

Broadway theatre is one of the premier forms of English-language theatre in the world, named after Broadway, the major thoroughfare that crosses Times Square, sometimes referred to as "The Great White Way".

Forty-one venues mostly in Midtown Manhattan's Theatre District, each with at least 500 seats, are classified as Broadway theatres. The 2018–19 Broadway theatre season set records with total attendance of 14.8 million and gross revenue of $1.83 billion Recovering from closures forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022-23 revenues rebounded to $1.58 billion with total attendance of 12.3 million.

The Tony Awards recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre and are presented at an annual ceremony in Manhattan. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances at the 41 eligible Broadway venues. One is also given for regional theatre. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award.

Architecture

New York has architecturally noteworthy buildings in a wide range of styles and from distinct time periods, from the Dutch Colonial Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House in Brooklyn, the oldest section of which dates to 1656, to the modern One World Trade Center, the skyscraper at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan and the most expensive office tower in the world by construction cost.

Manhattan's skyline, with its many skyscrapers, is universally recognized, and the city has been home to several of the tallest buildings in the world. As of 2019, New York City had 6,455 high-rise buildings, the third most in the world after Hong Kong and Seoul.

The character of New York's large residential districts is often defined by the elegant brownstone rowhouses and townhouses and shabby tenements that were built during a period of rapid expansion from 1870 to 1930. Stone and brick became the city's building materials of choice after the construction of wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1835.

In contrast, New York City also has neighborhoods that are less densely populated and feature free-standing dwellings. In neighborhoods such as Riverdale (in the Bronx), Ditmas Park (in Brooklyn), and Douglaston (in Queens), large single-family homes are common in various architectural styles such as Tudor Revival and Victorian.

Arts🩰

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, anchoring Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is home to numerous influential arts organizations, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, New York Philharmonic, and New York City Ballet, as well as the Vivian Beaumont Theater, the Juilliard School, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Alice Tully Hall. The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute is in Union Square, and Tisch School of the Arts is based at New York University, while Central Park SummerStage presents free music concerts in Central Park.

New York City has more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more than 500 art galleries. The city government funds the arts with a larger annual budget than the National Endowment for the Arts. The city is also home to hundreds of cultural institutions and historic sites. Museum Mile is the name for a section of Fifth Avenue running from 82nd to 105th streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in the upper portion of Carnegie Hill.

Nine museums occupy the length of this section of Fifth Avenue, making it one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Its art museums include the Guggenheim, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Neue Galerie New York, and The Africa Center. In addition to other programming, the museums collaborate for the annual Museum Mile Festival, held each year in June, to promote the museums and increase visitation. Many of the world's most lucrative art auctions are held in New York City.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the Americas. In 2022, it welcomed 3.2 million visitors, ranking it the third most visited U.S. museum, and eighth on the list of most-visited art museums in the world. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments, and includes works of art from classical antiquity and ancient Egypt; paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters; and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, and Islamic art.

Fashion🛍️

New York has frequently been ranked the top fashion capital of the world on the annual list compiled by the Global Language Monitor. New York Fashion Week (NYFW) is a high-profile semiannual event featuring models displaying the latest wardrobes created by prominent fashion designers worldwide in advance of these fashions proceeding to the retail marketplace.

NYFW sets the tone for the global fashion industry. New York's fashion district encompasses roughly 30 city blocks in Midtown Manhattan, clustered around a stretch of Seventh Avenue nicknamed Fashion Avenue. New York's fashion calendar also includes Couture Fashion Week to showcase haute couture styles. The Met Gala is often described as "Fashion's biggest night".

Parades

New York City is well known for its street parades, the majority held in Manhattan. The primary orientation of the annual street parades is typically from north to south, marching along major avenues. The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is the world's largest parade, beginning alongside Central Park and proceeding southward to the flagship Macy's Herald Square store; the parade is viewed on telecasts worldwide and draws millions of spectators in person. Other notable parades including the annual New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade in March, the NYC LGBT Pride March in June, the LGBT-inspired Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in October, and numerous parades commemorating the independence days of many nations. Ticker-tape parades celebrating championships won by sports teams as well as other accomplishments march northward along the Canyon of Heroes on Broadway from Bowling Green to City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan.

[ocularpatd0wn]

hi! just wanted to say that i've just uploaded a new depressing chapter to my macden high school fic :-)

this one contains lots of sadness, catholic guilt and my interpretation of what the first physical fight between mac and dennis loked like.

as usual, i leave you a little excerpt i particularly like:

Mac ventured into his neighborhood, where the old houses that had seen him grow up offered him no comfort or sense of belonging. Sometimes, when he was a child, Mac liked to play at peering through the windows of other houses and imagine what it would be like to live inside them. He saw the faces of his neighbors and wondered what it would be like to be their child, if under those roofs there was room for hugs, if it was permissible to utter the words "I love you." He found a peculiar comfort in envisioning alternate lives, constructing impossible scenarios. Over time, he had crafted so many potential existences that intertwined, a torrent of overlapping and diluted fantasies that filled his mind and overwhelmed him. Soon, the solace of fantasy turned into a bitter ache for the loss of an unlived life, unexplored possibilities. Mac found himself in constant mourning for that parallel existence that would never merge with his own reality.

It wasn't fair. He didn't understand why there wasn't room in that life for love, affection, tranquility. Why he only knew anxiety, desperation, abandonment. Maybe he was born condemned. Perhaps he was being punished for his father's sins, locked in the prison, where he probably wouldn't have a chance to confess between the four walls of his cell. Maybe he wasn't praying enough for him, or for his mother, or for his friends. Maybe he wasn't going to mass as often as he should.

[accuratepicuresofanthropologists]

William Willis

William Willis was born in 1921 in Waco, Texas. His parents were affluent, college-educated African Americans. His father served first as an educator and then started a construction company. The family moved to Dallas when Willis was two "partly in response to an ultimatum from the Waco Klu Klux Klan" (Zumwalt 1). His father died a few years later and he was raised by his mother. Although he attended segregated schools, his family also traveled widely -- a habit he would keep up throughout his life.

William Willis from his Howard yearbook, via AmPhilSoc (as are all other images in this page)

Willis was a quiet, bookish child and went on to Howard University, where he graduate cum laude in 1942. It was there that he developed an interest in the sociology and history of the Black experience int he United States. Once out of school, he volunteered to join the Coast Guard and spent the war stationed in Boston. Afterwards, he decided to attend graduate school in anthropology at Columbia because he "assumed that this discipline was the vanguard in the attack against racist thought" (Zumwalt 2). He was thus in the same class of students as Eric Wolf, Marvin Harris, Morton Fried, Sydney Mintz, and Robert Murphy. He became interested in the history of Black and Indian relations, as wrote a dissertation based on library research on "colonial conflict and the Cherokee Indians, 1710-1760" and recieved his Ph.D. in 1955.

During his time at Columbia he married his life partner Georgine "Gene" Upshur, who came from a prominent African American family in Philadelphia. Her father was a Republican congressman in Pennsylvania's lower house and also, as it happened, the mortician who buried Bessie Smith, the great blues singer. She earned a BA in sociology and wanted to go on to study social work, but he father agreed to support her studies only if she also went to mortician school so that she would have a steady source of financial support. "People will always need an undertaker" he told her (Zumwalt 5). She was doing her masters in social work when she met Willis.

From 1955 to 1964 Willis tried unsuccessfully to pursue a career in anthropology. He applied to the Ford Foundation for a research grant and was turned down. He applied for teaching positions but was told by Duncan Strong (the department chair at Columbia) that no one would hire a black person. He and his wife lived in New York for nearly a decade and Willis published work while teaching part-time as a lecturer at Columbia and City College. In 1963 Willis's mother died of a heart attack and Willis and Gene decided to move back to Dallas to live in the family home.

Willis's luck turned on his return to Dallas. It was 1964, the high-water mark of the civil rights movement, and Southern Methodist University was looking to integrate its faculty. In 1965 he was hired to a position in anthropology. He was a tremendous success at the new institution, drawing large classes of students and helping to establish an MA and Ph.D. program in the department. He earned tenure and became a full professor. His wife became active in several local organizations -- at last, the Willis's were flourishing.

In the late 1960s, life again became difficult for Willis. His department chair, a racist, began harassing him -- this included actions like changing the locks on the office to his door and not giving him the key. Administrators above him supported his chair's behavior. Radical black politics came to campus, and militant student activists began making increasingly large demands on the administration. Willis -- a quite, reserved man who alway wore a bowtie in public -- found himself deeply sympathetic to the activists and became radicalized himself. As the only black professor on campus, he became a key player negotiating their relationship to the administration. It was in this context that he wrote his piece "Skeletons in the Anthropological Closet". He considered alternate titles for the essay, including "anthropologist as vulture" and "anthropologist as exploiter".

Willis at SMU, via APS

The Willises found it difficult to bear the brunt of the constant harassment they faced at SMU. Their health began to break down. Willis experienced constant pain in his abdomen and was afraid it was cancer -- in fact, it was stress. Gene began fainting in public. Willis decided to take a leave of absence in 1971 to recover. The administration then altered his request to make it a 'terminal leave of absence', making it sound as if he had resigned his position! Willis fought back against this attempt to remove him, but soon realized that if he stayed at SMU he would spend his entire life fighting the administration for his rights. When his leave of absence was over, he resigned from SMU. He had been there less than a decade.

Willis and Gene moved to Philadelphia, Gene's home town. They moved in with her mother and Gene's mortician experience ended up proving valuable, and the family business helped support both her and Willis. One of the upsides of the move was that the American Philosophical Society was based in Philly. Willis began his next and (as it turns out) final project there, combing through the massive archive of the Franz Boas paper. He became a fixture in the reading rooms of the society, well-known to the librarians and archivists who worked there. His initial plan was to write about the sort shrift Boas and his colleagues gave to Black Americans, but the more time he spent reading Boas, the more ambivalent he became. He came to see Boas as both an anti-racist activist and someone who at times seemed to harbor racist views of Black people.

Willis in the PBS Special "Shackles of Tradition" about Franz Boas. The entire documentary is on YouTube

Wilis began writing a book on the history of American anthropology's study of African Americans. Alas, this study was never to be finished. On 8 August 1983 Willis left the reading room, went home, and died of a massive heart attack. He was 62 years old. His papers are now in the APS library and his wife Gene has established a fund to support the study of race (APS Willis feature).

Via APS

Willis had little lasting influence on the discipline of anthropology. Although his "Skeletons" essay is now more widely taught, he did not train graduate students who could keep his memory alive. The first chapter of his book on Boas was published posthumously, but the rest of the work was already created. Today, Willis is remembered as a pioneer of African American anthropology but, to be honest, his biography shows us both the story of a model scholar and the tragedy of race in America.

Willis's final volume is available on JSTOR.

[pttedu]

Are Construction Training Programs The Best Way To Learn About The Construction Industry?

Construction is a dynamic field that values practical skills and safety. Explore how construction training programs help develop vital construction skills.

[pttiedu]

Construction training and certification are essential for the success of construction workers. Dive in to understand the impact of certification on salary.

[zoekeating]

Concerts! A new studio!

Hello Listeners,

Happy Summer! I did some much-needed holidaying in foreign lands rich in pastries and protected bike lanes. I hope your summer has also had some joy in it.

(Drumroll-like cello tapping)

MY NEW STUDIO IS COMPLETE!!! Here it is:

There are tiny little things to be done, bits of trim, tweaks to the acoustic treatment, furniture etc… but it is functional. The whole thing took an epic 18 months from planning, to permitting to final construction and a few weeks ago I moved in and started using it! Once my son is back to school in September I will seriously get to work in there. I have several pieces already composed for another album and recording all those fiddly little cello parts will be my first project in this new space. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to finally have a quiet, private, lovely-sounding (it does sound nice) place to create again. It’s been a few years….five, to be precise. I can no longer call this beautiful room my Cello Cave I think. It’s more of a Cello Chapel.

What else have I been up to? I spent a couple months working on the score to a science series. I don’t think I’m allowed to say much about it yet but whenever the program is ready for the world, of course I will tell you. Other things that happened in the spring: I wrote (and conducted!) a piece for a pair of ensembles for Rehearsing Philadelphia, a joint project between musicians at the Curtis Institute and Drexel. It was a fun challenge to write music for other people to play. I’m going to continue this and have a new commission from the Vermont Symphony Orchestra to write a piece for their Jukebox Quartet.

Meanwhile, I have CONCERTS. Real live in-person concerts.

Sept 16 & 17 - Burlington, VT

Nov 11 - Boston, MA

Nov 12 - NYC, NY

Nov 13 - Philadelphia, PA

Nov 14 - Alexandria, VA

Nov 18 - Minneapolis, MN

Nov 19 - Madison, WI

Nov 20 - Chicago, IL

tickets for all at http://www.zoekeating.com/perform.html

You might've heard that the calendars of mid-size venues are crowded beyond belief. At the early part of this year, a tour in November was the soonest I was able to arrange and I did my best to get this one in before Thanksgiving. West Coast, I am sorry that we weren’t able to get in any shows this year. March/April 2023 is when I hope to get out there again. Also, traveling around Europe and seeing all the modern and lovely unclassifiable artists playing at festivals - gosh I would also love to play in Europe next year too. I don’t have representation there but will cast about to try and make that happen. As always, thanks for listening.

Celloly yours, Zoë

[philadelphia-hq]

“Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to be possible and truth doesn't.”

JORDAN WALLACE

Age: 34 Gender and pronouns: Male, He/Him Occupation: Former crime reporter & novelist Neighborhood: Manayunk

BIOGRAPHY

tw: heart disease, death

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Jordan Wallace is the oldest of four children created by a construction worker turned developer and a dental assistant. They were a large family yet a generally happy and well-balanced family. His biggest obsession as a child was basketball. Anywhere and anytime he could play, Jordan had a ball in his hands and dreamed of one day being in the NBA. If at all possible he wouldn’t miss a game on television, and often got in trouble for dribbling and tossing that ball around the house. He played for the YMCA, youth leagues, and his schools. Which eventually earned him a scholarship to the University of Washington.

Aside from basketball, the biggest dream he had was to be a writer. It was something he shared with his grandfather, his love for books and reading. They’d talk about all the books they read, sometimes even read the same so they could compare notes, and his grandfather had once told Jordan that he wished he had gotten into the publishing business. It inspired Jordan once in university, he studied english and creative writing, played basketball and picked up beach volleyball, and somewhere along the way he ended up taking a bit of a detour. In needing to fulfill credits and requirements, Jordan took a journalism class and his writing got him noticed. He ended up really loving the writing style and found that he had natural instincts as an investigator.

Once he graduated Jordan had a few daily newspapers seeking him out but he chose the The Philadelphia Inquirer to return home and began working the crime desk. It turned into a bit of an obsession for Jordan. The job, he worked non-stop, covering the biggest crime stories in the city, and while he built up a reputation and eventually won himself a Pulitzer Prize it all came at the sacrifice of his family and friendships. Every single relationship he tried had failed due to him not being present enough. Jordan always put the work and writing first, he believed he was doing important work and was going to make a difference, and had always been very proud, but it eventually took too big of a toll.

When his mother was diagnosed with a heart condition, Jordan wrongly assumed he had more time than he did and not only missed out on most of her suffering and being there to be a support for her, he hadn’t been there when she passed away. Instead, Jordan had been off investigating a story. The story turned out to be one of the biggest of his career, and maybe also the most dangerous. One that challenged him as a human being; his values, what he stood for, who has the right of justice.

A woman had reached out to him, telling him about something that had been happening on cruise ships. It was something she had done her own little investigation into because her friend went missing at sea. Digging into it he found that there was a history to this, something that has never really been made hugely public and garnered enough press attention. So Jordan went on the investigative hunt trying to find out what happened with this missing woman and found out there was one before her and almost a year to the date. In the end, he uncovered the truth and found the person responsible, but committed his own crime in the process. Something Jordan now has to live with himself over.

After that and the passing of his mother, he kept the promise he had made to himself and quit investigative journalism. He’d always intended and had meant to be a novelist. Since then he’s written five New York Time’s Best Sellers. Using some of his experiences as a crime reporter for inspiration.

JORDAN WALLACE has the face claim of KENDRICK SAMPSON and is played by CHANDLER.

[petervintonjr]

For only the second time since beginning this series in the summer of 2020, I have had to resort to drawing a much more abstract illustration --in this instance, the long-demolished President's House in Philadelphia-- as there appears to be no visual representation of the individual that I want to talk about (which in itself already speaks volumes).

Almost paralleling these last three years of this series, there has been an embarrassing (nay, alarming) uptick in the number of proposed so-called "divisive concepts" legislation brewing in various state legislatures. The (stated) intent behind such performatively-drafted law is to "protect" public school students from the "trauma" of studying American history in such a way that they won't be made to feel embarrassed or uncomfortable about the history of their own country; that the curriculum should instead focus primarily on instilling an all-pervasive sense of pride and patriotism. I think on this creeping propaganda (against which my own home state is sadly not immune), and immediately begin to reflect on the life trajectory of Oney Marie Judge (in some instances spelled Ona), whose greatest claim to fame (if one can call it that) is having been one of President George Washington's slaves. Oney Judge is assumed to have been born sometime in 1773 at Washington's Mount Vernon estate --the daughter of an enslaved mother, Betty; and a white English father who had been hired by the Washingtons as a tailor. As was so often the norm for the time, Oney's relatively light complexion promoted her to house status instead of field hand, and by the age of fifteen had become Martha Washington's personal maid. On paper, Oney and her mother Betty were considered to be the property of the Custis estate, and would pass back to the ownership of that family upon Martha's death --specifically to Martha's granddaughter Elizabeth ("Eliza") Custis.

After his popular election in 1787, Washington travelled first to New York, and then to Philadelphia, to serve as President of the new nation while a more permanent capital city was being constructed. Washington brought Judge and seven other slaves with him from Mount Vernon, taking up residence in what would become known as The President's House at the corner of 6th and Market Streets. Significantly, as befit her elevated status (such as it was), Judge was permitted to travel about the city unescorted and pay for such things as shows, dresses and other clothing, and even making social visits on Martha's behalf. Judge intermingled with Philadelphians and became VERY aware of the city's abolitionist sentiment and its markedly large population of free Black people. Philadelphia had passed an Emancipation law in 1780 (one of the very first such laws in the new nation), which included a Gradual Abolition Clause; a policy of automatic emancipation of any slaves who remained in the city limits beyond a six month time-frame. For obvious reasons George and Martha took particular care to strategically rotate out their slaves, each time sending them back to Mount Vernon "to visit family" just shy of this deadline.

On May 21, 1796, under the guise of appearing to pack for her next not-quite-sixth-month return to Virginia, Judge fled, and escaped aboard a ship called the Nancy bound for Portsmouth, New Hampshire. An advertisement went out on May 23rd asserting that the escaped slave had "no good reason for running away." By September of that year a family friend of the Washingtons recognized Judge in Portsmouth and sent word back to Philadelphia. Under the terms of the very Fugitive Slave Act that he himself had signed into law three years earlier, Washington could have forcibly kidnapped Judge back to Virginia, but undoubtedly mindful of the public optics, he opted not to take action. While he expressed undisguised annoyance at Judge's actions and wrote at length about "loyalty" and "unfaithfulness," privately his real resentment was that he would be expected to reimburse the Custis estate for lost property. After Washington's term in office ended, he made another attempt to retrieve Judge, this time asking the help of a nephew and several New Hampshire public officials to do so. Fortunately then-Senator John Langdon got wind of this attempt and warned Judge, who then fled to the town of Greenland where she eventually settled, learned to read and write, became a devout Christian, married, and had three children --even though she legally remained a Fugitive Slave to her dying day.

Judge's story would have faded into history as just another footnote to the life of George Washington, had it not been for a lengthy interview she gave many years later in an 1847 issue of William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator. In the article she detailed the events of 1796 from her point of view, which had never before been known, though she never gave up the name of the Nancy's captain nor crew, nor the names of anyone else --including many free Black people in both Pennsylvania and in New Hampshire-- who had aided her. This very month (March 2023) a mural to Judge's bravery is underway in Portsmouth as part of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire: https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/2023/03/03/black-heritage-trail-nh-seeks-to-honor-ona-judge-staines-with-mural/69957500007/

Which brings me back to my earlier point about "divisive concepts" legislation and its stated intent --and the hard, un-ignorable truths that such laws intend to erase from the public discourse. Truths such as the fact that it is not possible to study, in any meaningful way, anything about the administration of our country's literal first President, nor his time in office, without eventually bumping up against the reality of Oney Judge and what she endured. The phrase "Black history is American history" is neither hyperbole nor a trendy slogan --it is an objective fact. And even as Women's History Month 2023 draws to a close, I can assure you that this art series will continue to throw light on that fact. For as long as it needs to.

[daisiesonafield-blog]

Although that would now seem rapturous in comparison to what Styles might be receiving for his follow-up, a polite and anonymous melodrama that should provide the confirmation many were looking for. Just weeks after his misfiring comments surrounding gay sex were being rightfully critiqued, it appears that his performance will also be, a turn just as tepid as his soundbites. The film, based on the novel by Bethan Roberts, isn’t exactly a washout but it’s not exactly much of anything, a disappointingly drab and stridently straightforward love triangle saga overstuffed with furtive glances and maudlin moping while underpowered by a blank lead performance. If the wheels were coming off pre-festivals, consider the train completely crashed now.

Styles might look like the handsome movie star he’s being aggressively pushed as with his sleek matinee idol hair always in place but he’s all construct and no conviction, a performer as unsure of his ability as we are. There’s a crucial dissonance between the confidence he exudes on stage and the awkwardness we see on screen, a star fizzling out right before our very eyes, as uncomfortable for us as it appears to be for him. There’s too much of a visible process to his acting, the joins of what he’s doing, or trying to, always on display, with a messy, uneven accent requiring an added level of thinking to his every line of dialogue, making the character’s many instinctive moments feel sluggish and stilted. Words are over-pronounced with a sort of stage school affect that clashes with what’s supposed to be an earthy, beer-drinking vision of hyper-masculinity.

Defenders might argue that Styles’s second guessing is in fact perfect for a character trying to hide his sexuality but that would be an overly generous reading for even in his most intimate and private sexual moments, he remains overly, distractingly hesitant. Navigating the world as a queer person, especially in a time when it was still punishable by law, requires too much complexity for someone still testing out his sea legs, it’s essentially two roles at a time when he struggles to play one. He’s drowning in the deep end and it sinks the movie around him.

Not that an actor of more skill and experience could do that much more with something that’s painted in such boringly broad strokes. The characters are based less on real people and more on romantic drama types, lacking in idiosyncrasies and texture, familiar more to people who have watched others be in relationships on film than people who have actually been in them themselves. The queerness does little to differentiate the triangle from so many others we’ve already seen and what’s frustrating for those with even a cursory knowledge of gay cinema is that so many films before it have carefully navigated similarly tricky territory with ease and insight, from Basil Dearden’s Victim and William Wyler’s adaptation of The Children’s Hour both in 1961, James Ivory’s Maurice in 1987 and, more recently, Terence Davies’s devastating Benediction. The stinging tragedy of being gay at the wrong time in history is something that will always prove ripe for emotive, painful drama but director Michael Grandage struggles to pull our heart-strings, an easy target easily missed.

His direction insists that we find meaning or emotional resonance in the small details of the everyday but Philadelphia screenwriter Ron Nyswaner’s perfunctory script rarely gives us enough reason to. It’s a prestige shell for a film that mostly plays like a stodgy soap opera, a misguided hope that we might be suckered into thinking that this is all of more substance if it’s presented in more elegant packaging. Corrin and Dawson are easily more effective than Styles but still a little too mannered to pierce through and so it’s up to the elder iterations to do the heavy lifting and while Everett is stuck in a thankless role that essentially just requires him to dribble and wail, in small, all-too-fleeting bursts, McKee and Roache manage to make us believe in a difficult dynamic against considerable odds. Exploring the festering consequences of a marriage built on this specific kind of lie is far more dramatically interesting than the blandness of what comes before and a better film might have tipped the balance in their favour. Their scenes arrest but the rest of the film is nowhere near as charged as it should be.

The Guardian review by Benjamin Lee - Not full review, read here.