#detroit plays an important role in both stories

[revenantlore]

. WIP introduction .

a neon bloodlust spin-off / sequel

In the shadowy outskirts of Nocturna City, Vega Esperon earns his living by sentencing people to an early grave. His latest assignment from the syndicate narrows a target over the head of Prism Nightingale, the owner of Club Bloodlust and leader of the vampire coven nesting within its walls.

Vega is quick to discover that he is not alone in his pursuit of Prism: 86, a rival hitman with a cybernetic arm and fragmented memories, is always one step ahead, complicating Vega’s mission and temporarily redirecting his mark to 86.

Whatever it takes to keep Prism his.

Their rivalry takes an unexpected turn when they learn Prism is seeking the location of a technological artifact known only as The Ruby, an item said to contain the power to amplify Prism’s hypnotic abilities and potential to enslave both vampires and humans.

Faced with a common enemy and the looming threat of The Ruby falling into the wrong—or any—hands, Vega and 86 form a reluctant alliance. Together, they embark on a perilous espionage to infiltrate Club Bloodlust, navigate its bloodthirsty thralls, and uncover the truth behind The Ruby’s location.

As they navigate the perilous world of vampires and technology, Vega and 86 find themselves drawn to each other in unexpected ways, but will it withstand the challenges ahead once The Ruby is secured and their focus returns to eliminating Prism?

[more details on vega and 86 to come]

@winterandwords and @indecentpause probably want to know about this

[cosmogyral-cat]

Detroit: Become Human - chapter analysis "The Hostage"

Since I liked the first chapter of DBH a lot and thought it was a great opening chapter, I want to go a little in-depth about things the player learns throughout the chapter and what makes it so good in my opinion

The game starts with Connor doing a coin trick in the elevator while the date and time are given. This lets the player know that the game is set in the future and that in this future, androids are capable of incredible precision. Once he arrives at his destination, he readjusts his tie which highlights his role as the negotiator

The first things Connor can do are looking at a portrait and saving a fish - or leaving it to die, depending on player choice. Saving it increases the software instability, though the player doesn't know what that is yet, and it is one of the first things Connor can do that isn't part of his mission. He is then interrupted by a woman, depicted on the portrait and therefore assumed to be the mother of the hostage, asking him to save her daughter, until she notices that he himself is an android as well. She then pleads that the police send a human negotiator instead of an android to take care of the matter. Despite not knowing what's going on, the player is given the information through this interaction that an android has been involved and that it has had terrible consequences for the family that seemingly lives in the apartment

While at the crime scene, the player is barely given any spoken clues about what is happening: The police members and the SWAT team are uncooperative and are so tense that all the information Connor receives is through searching the rooms for clues and slowly piecing together what exactly happened before the deviant took the little girl hostage and why he is threatening to jump off the building's roof with her. Through all of this, the reconstruction feature is introduced and the time sensitivity shows the player that you cannot waste a lot of time in Connor's chapters

The level design is very smart because there are some clues in almost every room. This compartment style gives the player great insight into what Connor's story is about: It tells the player that Connor is great at deducing what happened based on evidence, it shows that he is capable of solving puzzles and that he understands circumstances in a quick manner, and that he is able to stay calm in stressful situations, unlike the deviant he has to deal with

The probability of success is a key feature in this chapter which helps the player understand how much they still need to find and what actions can help to succeed in their mission

The actual negotiation with Daniel highlights that it is either crucial to take a violent approach by shooting Daniel, or that it's necessary to take a more pacifistic approach through building trust. This is incredibly important for the player to know in future chapters since you are often given the choice to either play Red Connor (doing anything for the mission) or Blue Connor (making decisions that are regarded as humane)

This chapter has six endings which shows the tremendous amount of possibilities in the game and how many consequences your choices can have, both in exploration and dialogue

It is possible to succeed without further consequences for Connor, it's possible to succeed but to get Connor killed (though he comes back so there's no real consequence here aside from shocking the player that a character died right in the first chapter), and it's possible to fail the mission completely

The tense and dramatic atmosphere is something the player can immerse themselves in while being introduced to various of Connor's features which makes this chapter very fun and informative for the ones who play it. The soundtrack only adds to this intense feeling. But the most important part of what this chapter is trying to say is rather obvious: "Be careful what you do, your choices can have fatal consequences"

[maggot-monger]

what do you think lucifer was like pre fall

oh yes what a treat of a topic. the short answer is "popular & pretty & smart & knows it" but i'll say more lol

for me, one of the biggest things about pre-fall lucifer is that he was The Favorite. the most beautiful, the brightest, the one with the most promise, the best.

what does an excellent angel look like? well, most of what makes them great was probably their relationship to god, and to holiness as an abstract concept. godliness = goodness, for them, especially at the time, so how much they loved, revered, acted in accordance with, and even resembled god would matter a lot. so if lucifer was the best, then he would have been the one who loved god the most, who praised him most, who did things god approved most, and was most similar to him. there are a bunch of qualities that could also be tied up in similarity to god in the "god is gone" era of spn which is what i'm working with, but those are pretty vague and speculative so i'll mostly leave that alone. probably there's at least stuff like "powerful" and "righteous" in there. but!

the god-like quality i'm most interested in is the one i think it is the most solidly informative about lucifer's pre-fall character, which is "omniscient." has lucifer ever been omniscient? no. does he probably understand an incomprehensible-to-us amount? almost certainly yes. fate is fact for spn angels when we first meet them. it also seems to be based on cause-and-effect to at least some degree: the angels know more about what is happening and than humans do, so they know what things have to happen to make the "correct" outcomes become reality. fate seems to work kind of like the plot of a story: if it's a well-written story and you're picking up the clues the author is putting down, you can probably predict how things will turn out (and, if you know the ending already, you can see how each element along the way leads satisfyingly to that end).

god set up the pieces and wrote the story and ostensibly knows how it will turn out, so an entity that is like him should be a very good reader of the story — potentially good enough to be an editor who can help the story take place the way the author intended it to (angels, i think, are both characters in the story and editors, since so much of their job is to make sure fate turns out the way it supposed to with an awareness of where the plot is headed, unlike humans who do not have the same-meta knowledge or responsibility to the story).

so, i think lucifer was very smart in this way: very good at "reading" god's story, very curious about it, invested in and skilled at getting a lot out of it, and clever with understanding how to make things turn out the way they were supposed to. the lucifer of spn s5 demonstrates this with his commitment to rigidly following the steps set out for him to make sure fate plays out how it is supposed to, his ability to either predict or create the future by accurately claiming sam will say yes to him in detroit, his meta-awareness of his role in the story (e.g. "god wanted the devil") — that kind of thing.

the fact that lucifer is literally the light bringer is related to this but also is important because light helps others see. part of this makes him a good beta reader for god, so to speak, but it also potentially relates to his role with other angels as well. archangels are leaders of the angelic ranks, powerful in their own right but also tools to help the rest of the angels stayed on track. god spoke directly only to the four archangels, so all of them had access to more direct knowledge about the story's plot/themes/characters/motifs/etc than the rest of the angels did. it was up to them convey their knowledge faithfully and in ways that would be digestible and actionable to the other angels. so i think lucifer was not only very good at understanding god's plan, but also very good at communicating it. this plays into his insistence that he is honest: if a large part of his goodness was about passing information along so that jobs could get done well, being faithful to the source would be a big deal to him

(importantly "passing information along so the end result is faithful to the intention" is not the same as "being 100% concretely accurate to the original instructions"...lucifer tells the truths that he deems important to make sure the outcome is what it needs to be, but that truth is not always the complete truth. this would have been an asset pre-fall when his ideas were still in accordance with god's, as it might have helped him simplify things for broader understanding and action, but it makes him seem manipulative, conniving, self-serving, and creepy sometimes post-fall).

because of his ability to help other angels, heaven's/the pre-fall era angels' metric of impressiveness being identical to goodness, and the lack of possible goals other than "be as good as possible" for angels at that time, there would not necessarily be much reason for other angels to resent lucifer his status and confidence, so i doubt any of them did. they didn't have much awareness that it was possible for them to think for themselves back then or any reason to doubt, so if the general awareness is that lucifer is the best and helps them be better, then, well, great! good angel to admire, respect, and appreciate! so when i say lucifer was cool or popular or whatever, i don't mean that in a mean girls "she's a status symbol but she's a dick and we're all scared of her" way, i mean that i think pre-fall lucifer was legitimately popular in the sense of being both impressive and well-liked.

benevolence isn't the same as humility though lol and i don't think lucifer was ever humble. given how absolute opinions in heaven often are, there wouldn't have been a lot of room for lucifer to doubt his own excellence, pre-fall — which is not to say anything about lucifer being arrogant, necessarily; according to the standards he was being measured with, he probably was genuinely exceptional, so "confident" is a word i'd prefer over "arrogant," at least at first. but yeah, this is an angel who is really good at delivering a clear, rousing, actionable speech, not necessarily somebody you want helping you with your homework or comforting you when you're upset. charismatic, passionate, personable, and potentially sympathetic, but his place is high up and he acts accordingly. which, again, was fine at the time; he behaved appropriately for what he was and the job he was created to do. but still, if you wanted an archangel who would heal your hurts, you'd want raphael; if you wanted an archangel who would be approachable and friendly, you'd want gabriel — not lucifer.

(all of these characteristics lead into the kind of entity that would fall the way lucifer did, imo. he loved and admired god intensely, so he was distressed at the command to put humanity above him. he was impressive and had kind of an ego about it, so he was suspicious when directed to be subservient to them. he was motivated to understand the reasons behind the directions he was given, so he was curious about humanity and may have wanted to test them. he was committed to sharing information, so the test he came up with involved giving humanity knowledge they weren't supposed to have. he was charismatic and likable, so he was effective at making them give into temptation. and he had never had any reason to doubt his own judgment, his own abilities to understand things, so he felt confident in his opinion that the "humans above all" direction of god's plot was a mistake.)

...so yeah. popular, pretty, and smart, and knew it ':D

[premierdetroit]

This New Post was Just Published on Premier Detroit SEO

New Post has been published on https://premierdetroitseo.com/freelance-seo/best-seo-expert-a-decoding-success-story/

Best SEO Expert A Decoding Success Story

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Secrets of an SEO Maestro

An SEO Maestro, also known as a Google analytics specialist, is an expert in the field of search engine optimization. They possess specialized knowledge and skills to maximize a website’s visibility on search engines.

This is achieved through various techniques such as keyword research, on-page optimization, and content creation.

One of the secrets to becoming an effective SEO Maestro is having a strategic mindset.

They must possess qualities such as being analytical, adaptable, and continuously learning to stay ahead of the ever-changing SEO landscape. As a PPC expert, they understand the importance of aligning paid advertising campaigns with organic SEO efforts to drive maximum results.

Keyword research and optimization, as well as meta tag maestro expertise, are key components of effective SEO strategies. By identifying the right keywords, a Google analytics specialist, PPC expert, meta tag maestro, SEO audit consultant, and content optimization expert can effectively optimize a website for higher search engine rankings and increased traffic.

SEO

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They possess specialized knowledge and skills to maximize a website’s visibility on search engines.

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Becoming a prime SEO wizard requires a deep understanding of search engine optimization and the ability to adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape. SEO, or search engine optimization, plays a crucial role in improving website visibility and organic search rankings.

As a webmaster extraordinaire, a social media SEO strategist, local search advisor, global SEO consultant, and mobile SEO analyst, you will need to keep up with the evolving nature of search engines and stay updated on the latest SEO trends and algorithms.

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In addition, practical experience and experimentation are vital for developing expertise in SEO. Analyzing data and utilizing SEO tools will help refine strategies and achieve success in online marketing for a webmaster extraordinaire, social media SEO strategist, local search advisor, global SEO consultant, and mobile SEO analyst.

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Understanding the role of an SEO advisor is crucial for businesses looking to succeed in the online world. A top SEO expert possesses certain qualities that set them apart from the rest.

They must have the experience and expertise to navigate the ever-changing landscape of search engine optimization.

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When it comes to effective SEO strategies, an SEO advisor, who can be an ecommerce SEO technician, SEO marketing professional, SEO content analyst, user experience SEO specialist, or an SEO trend observer, can provide valuable insights. They understand the importance of identifying and targeting the right keywords to drive organic traffic to a website. They have the expertise to optimize website structure, making them a well-rounded team of experts in the field of SEO that includes an ecommerce SEO technician, SEO marketing professional, SEO content analyst, user experience SEO specialist, and SEO trend observer.

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[fallonmaree]

THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR

This 1973 political drama film, directed by Ivan Dixon, is a strong, intriguing, and investigation of race, power, and obstruction.

"The Spook Who Sat by the Door" tells the story of Dan Freeman, played by Lawrence Cook, a black man who becomes the first African-American CIA officer. However, instead of embracing his role within the system, Freeman uses his knowledge and training to organize a revolutionary movement aimed at empowering black communities and challenging the oppressive status quo.

One of the most striking aspects of "The Spook Who Sat by the Door" is its unflinching portrayal of racial inequality and the struggle for freedom. The film fearlessly confronts the structural racism and discrimination faced by black people, highlighting the harsh realities of life in a society that denies them equal opportunities and rights.

The performances in "The Spook Who Sat by the Door" are amazing. Lawrence Cook delivers a powerful and beautiful portrayal of Dan Freeman, catching the person's change from a faithful specialist not entirely settled and clever progressive. The supporting cast, including Janet League, Paula Kelly, and J.A. Preston also delivers compelling performances, adding depth and authenticity to the film's narrative.

Visually, "The Spook Who Sat by the Door" is gritty and raw, reflecting the harsh realities of the characters' lives. The film's cinematography, with its use of handheld cameras and natural lighting, creates an intimate and vivid experience for the audience. This visual style further improves the film's realism and adds to its overall impact.

"The Spook Who Sat by the Door" explores the complexities of black identity, the power dynamics within society, and the importance of self-determination. It raises important questions about the role of individuals in effecting social change and the lengths to which minimized networks should go to affirm their organization and request equity.

Another film similar to “The Spook Who Sat by the Door” is the 2017 film "Detroit." The two films explore themes of racial inequality and social unrest. Both films shed light on the struggles faced by African Americans and the fight for justice. While "The Spook Who Sat by the Door" focuses on the story of a black CIA agent fighting for change, "Detroit" dives into the real-life events of the 1967 Detroit rebellion. Both films are provocative and powerful in their portrayal of racial tensions and the fight for equality.

Overall I rate this movie 8/10

[universalinfo]

The Art of Place Making: Shaping Spaces that Resonate

For those who didn’t know the term, place making is all about turning spaces into places that are not only functional but also meaningful. It’s about creating environments that reflect the community’s values, needs, and desires.

Whether you’re an urban planner, a community leader, or just someone curious about how to make your surroundings more engaging, place-making is a concept you’ll want to dive into. So grab a cup of coffee, settle down, and let’s embark on this journey together as we discover how to shape environments with purpose through place making.

Understanding Place Making: A Beginner’s Guide

Let’s kick things off by getting to know what place-making really is. It’s more than just building structures; it’s about creating a sense of belonging and connection.

Place-making involves a collaborative process where community members, designers, and planners come together to create spaces that reflect the local culture and foster social interaction.

At the heart of place-making is the idea that people should have a say in how their environments are designed and used. It’s about encouraging creativity, building relationships, and ensuring that spaces are accessible and welcoming to everyone.

The Importance of Community Involvement

Place-making is nothing without community. In this section, we’ll explore why the community’s voice is essential in shaping environments that resonate with the people who use them.

By involving the community, place-making becomes a tool for empowerment, allowing people to express their needs, share their vision, and contribute to the design of their surroundings.

The result? Spaces that are more inclusive, vibrant, and meaningful. It’s not just about aesthetics; it’s about creating places that people love and cherish.

The Role of Design and Aesthetics in Place-Making

Design and aesthetics play a significant role in place-making. Here, we’ll dive into how these elements can help shape environments with purpose.

Creative design solutions that are mindful of the local context can lead to spaces that are both functional and beautiful. Through the use of colors, materials, and layouts, place making can transform mundane spaces into places that inspire and engage.

Place-making isn’t just about grand architectural designs; it’s about the thoughtful incorporation of small details that make a place feel unique and connected to its surroundings. Whether it’s the selection of street furniture, landscaping, or public art, these elements all contribute to the overall sense of place.

Success Stories of Place Making From Around the World

Place-making is more than just a theory; it’s a tangible process that has been applied successfully in various parts of the world. Let’s travel around the globe and explore some real-life examples of how place-making has breathed life into different spaces.

Barcelona, Spain — Turning Streets into Living Spaces

In Barcelona, city planners embarked on a unique project to transform regular intersections into small public squares. By reducing traffic and adding greenery, seating, and playgrounds, they created communal spaces that foster interaction and enhance the neighborhood’s overall quality of life.

Detroit, USA — Revitalizing a Historic Market

Detroit’s Eastern Market has been a hub of activity for over 150 years. A focused place-making initiative revitalized this space, introducing public art, improving infrastructure, and encouraging local entrepreneurship. The market now buzzes with energy, attracting locals and tourists alike.

Christchurch, New Zealand — Community-driven Recovery

Following the devastating 2011 earthquake, Christchurch’s community members took the lead in rebuilding their city. Using place-making principles, they created temporary installations, gardens, and gathering spots that brought joy, hope, and a renewed sense of community to a city in recovery.

Kochi, India — A Waterfront Transformation

Kochi’s waterfront was once an ignored and decaying space. Through a place-making initiative, it was transformed into a lively promenade with art installations, walking paths, and cultural events. This transformation not only rejuvenated the waterfront but also reconnected the city’s residents with their maritime heritage.

Medellín, Colombia — From Crime to Culture

Once known for its high crime rates, Medellín turned its fate around through an innovative place-making strategy. Investing in public libraries, parks, and transportation, the city successfully fostered social inclusion and cultural pride. What was once a city marred by violence is now celebrated for its vibrant community life.

Challenges and Pitfalls to Avoid in Place Making

Place-making is an exciting venture, but it’s not without its challenges. Here’s a closer look at some of those obstacles and ways to avoid them:

1. Lack of Community Engagement

Community engagement is the heart of place-making, and a lack of it can lead to unresponsive and uninspiring environments. To avoid this:

Initiate early and frequent conversations. Engage the community from the start and keep them involved throughout the process.

Use various engagement tools. From workshops to online platforms, utilize different tools to reach different community segments.

2. Financial Constraints

Budgetary limitations can put a damper on your place-making efforts. To overcome this:

Seek alternative funding sources. Look for grants, public-private partnerships, and community sponsorships.

Think creatively. Sometimes, less expensive solutions can be just as effective. Encourage community volunteerism, use local materials, and so on.

3. Regulatory Hurdles

Legal and regulatory issues can stall a project. To navigate through these:

Know the regulations. Familiarize yourself with local laws and regulations.

Build strong relationships with authorities. Work closely with local governments to ensure compliance and seek their support when needed.

How to Get Started with Your Own Place-Making Project

Embarking on a place-making project is an exciting and fulfilling adventure, but where to start?

The process begins with identifying the needs and opportunities within a community. This involves conducting surveys and interviews to understand what the community desires and needs, as well as analyzing the space to look for chances to enhance functionality, aesthetics, and social connections.

Also, collaboration is key in place-making. Building a diverse team that includes urban planners, designers, community leaders, and residents ensures that various perspectives are taken into account. Open communication within the team fosters a cooperative atmosphere where everyone’s voice is heard, and ideas are freely shared.

The design and planning phase is where creativity comes into play. Creating a shared vision that reflects the community’s input provides a cohesive direction for the project. Breaking down this vision into actionable steps is essential, with attention to both short-term and long-term goals to ensure the project’s success.

Next, implementation is where the real fun begins. Starting small with pilot projects or temporary installations allows for experimentation and learning. Regular evaluation of these projects provides insight into what works and what doesn’t, allowing for necessary adjustments along the way.

Lastly, don’t forget to celebrate and sustain your achievements. Acknowledging and celebrating milestones with the community fosters a sense of ownership and pride in the project. Thinking about long-term maintenance and fostering ongoing community engagement ensures that the space continues to thrive and serve its purpose.

Conclusion

And there you have it, a comprehensive look at how to shape environments with purpose through place-making. From understanding the concept to diving into practical examples and getting started on your own project, we’ve covered a lot of ground. For more details on place making visit us at https://www.philmyrick.com/contact/.

As you could see, place-making is more than a buzzword. In reality, it is a powerful approach that can truly transform spaces into thriving, inclusive, and beautiful places. So go ahead, take the ideas and inspiration from this guide, and start shaping your environment with purpose.

website : https://www.philmyrick.com/sb/the-art-of-place-making-shaping-spaces-that-resonate/

[digitalmarketingagenci]

Title: Catalyzing Success: Navigating the Digital Landscape with Top Digital Marketing Agencies in Chennai

Introduction: In the bustling metropolis of Chennai, the heartbeat of South India's business landscape, a quiet revolution is underway. Amidst the city's vibrant culture and rich heritage, a digital transformation is taking place, driven by the expertise of its digital marketing agencies. These agencies are not merely service providers; they are architects of online success stories, helping businesses of all sizes harness the power of the digital realm to achieve unparalleled growth.

Unveiling Chennai's Digital Marketing Dynamo: Chennai, often hailed as the "Detroit of India," is not only an industrial hub but also a thriving center for technology and innovation. This synergy has given rise to a vibrant ecosystem of digital marketing agencies that cater to a diverse clientele, from traditional businesses to tech startups. These agencies have recognized the potential of the online world and are adept at weaving captivating narratives that resonate with both local and global audiences.

Harnessing the Power of Digital Synergy: The digital marketing agencies in Chennai are well-versed in crafting comprehensive strategies that cover the entire spectrum of the digital landscape. From search engine optimization (SEO) to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media engagement to content creation, these agencies are well-equipped to navigate the ever-changing currents of the online world. By leveraging data-driven insights, they fine-tune campaigns to capture the attention of the right audience at the right time.

Personalization and Localization: Chennai is a city that cherishes its unique identity while embracing global influences. Similarly, the digital marketing agencies here understand the importance of blending personalization with localization. They adeptly tailor campaigns to reflect the cultural nuances of Chennai while ensuring that the message resonates universally. This approach not only enhances brand engagement but also establishes a deeper connection with the target audience.

Success Stories That Inspire: Behind every successful business campaign lies a tale of dedication, innovation, and strategy. Chennai's digital marketing agencies have played pivotal roles in numerous success stories, helping businesses carve their digital footprints. From startups experiencing rapid growth to established enterprises reinforcing their online presence, these agencies have been the driving force behind many inspiring journeys.

Chennai's Digital Future: As Chennai continues to evolve as a digital powerhouse, its digital marketing agencies stand as torchbearers of progress. With their finger on the pulse of the latest digital trends and consumer behaviors, they are well-equipped to guide businesses through the ever-changing landscape of the internet. In an era where online visibility is paramount, partnering with these agencies can be the differentiator between merely existing and thriving in the digital realm.

Conclusion: Chennai's digital marketing agencies are more than just service providers; they are enablers of growth, architects of brand identity, and custodians of innovation. As businesses in Chennai and beyond seek to establish a robust digital footprint, these agencies stand ready to navigate the intricacies of the digital landscape, ensuring that every click, like, and share translates into tangible success.

[historyhermann]

Smashing Stereotypes: Valerie the Librarian in “Spidey Super Stories” [PART 2]

See part 1 here.

Valerie tells the villain, The Vanisher, he can check out books, but only with a library card, on page 4 of a Spider Super Stories issue.

In later comics, Valerie is asked patron information about who had a book, gets her name in one comic on a placard at her desk, and realizes where she is a true hero: as a librarian, helping people. This is clear in one comic where the library is a mess when she isn’t there to help out, and it is noted that her job is important. [6] That’s not something you see in depictions of librarians every day. Her last mention in the Spidey Super Stories series is a comic in which she plays a secondary role, helping a detective, in some capacity, solve a case. She isn’t even seen in a library in that issue, which is unfortunate as its her last appearance in the comic, and it would have been better for her to go out on a better note than the last issue issue she appeared within. [7]

So it makes more sense as to why she was not remembered, as Valerie does not have consistent secondary role in the comics, sometimes more in the background and other times having a more active role. At the same time, it appears, according to the Hattie Winston Wikipedia page, that Easy Reader (voiced by Morgan Freeman) was Valerie’s girlfriend in The Electric Company series, which explains their relation to each other a little more with how they interact with one another in the comics. Other sources show that Sylvia and Valerie, in the same show, are not the same, as I had previously thought. The Root said that Valerie’s actress joined the cast in the third season, playing a “groovy librarian” who sings a duet with Easy Reader in one episode while wearing sunglasses in a library for some reason. This really makes me want to watch The Electric Company, appearing in 520 episodes according to the listing on her IMDB page. [8]

There is more to Valerie the librarian than what I have previously mentioned. For one, she is the only one of Black female librarians that I have mentioned on this blog and I have found in animated shows, films, and comics that has a MLIS degree. Neither Lydia Lovely in Horrid Henry, a Black woman who is voiced by a White actress, nor Clara Rhone in Welcome to the Wayne, a Black woman voiced by Harriet D. Foy, are noted as having MLIS degrees, although it implied that both have such degrees. The same can be said about the unnamed Black male librarian in an episode of We Bare Bears. Unfortunately, some characters are not shown to have professional experience because they are in fantasy realms. This includes two gay Black men, George and Lance in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, are self-declared historians who run a family library, making them de facto librarians, while O’Bengh / Cagliostro, a Nigerian man, in an episode of What If…?. As such, Valerie is the first Black librarian, male or female, that I have found who has a MLIS degree. And that it definitely significant!

People like Valerie are not common in the librarian profession, however. Currently the profession suffers from a “persistent lack of racial and ethnic diversity that has not changed significantly over the past 15 years,” with only 9.5 percent of librarians identified as Black or African American in the year 2020. [9] Despite this lack of diversity, there have been prominent Black female librarians who have their names etched in the annals of history. For instance, Catherine A. Latimer was the first Black librarian of New York Public Library. Dorothy Porter, who led Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, challenged the Dewey Decimal System’s racial bias and created her own classification system for Black scholarship. Marjorie Adele Blackistone Bradfield was the first Black librarian of Detroit Public Library, expanding the library’s Black literature collection. Belle Da Costa Greene was the personal librarian for J.P. Morgan, curating a collection of manuscripts, art, and rare books, but controversially passed as White. Alma Smith Jacobs was the first Black librarian in Montana, spearheading the construction of a modern library for the city of Great Falls. There are many more Black female librarians beyond the five mentioned in this paragraph, as these examples only scratch the surface of Black women’s impact on librarianship over the years. [10] In fact, one of the most outspoken Black female librarians in recent years is April Hathcock, who has been very prolific, passionate, and dedicated to librarianship.Her last post on her blog, to date, explains why she is leaving the American Library Association (ALA), calling it an organization “centered on promoting the ‘neutrality’ of white supremacy and capitalism.”

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[6] Spidey Super Stories Vol 1 49, p. 17-18, 22 (the story “Fargo’s Problem”); Spidey Super Stories Vol 1 53, p. 15-20

[7] Spidey Super Stories Vol 1 57, p. 17-18 (the story “Fargo’s Brother”).

[8] See all episodes cited here in note #8.

[9] AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees, “Library Professionals: Facts & Figures,” Fact Sheet, Jun. 10, 2021. Of course, being Black and a professional, as not stopped incidents like Stephanie Bottom, a Black female librarian in Atlanta, from being assaulted by police, who don’t care about professional credentials, seeing Black people through their racist mindsets.

[10] Evans, Rhoda. “Catherine Latimer: The New York Public Library’s First Black Librarian,” New York Public Library, Mar. 20, 2020; Nunes, Zita Christina. “Remembering the Howard University Librarian Who Decolonized the Way Books Were Catalogued,” Smithsonian magazine, Nov. 26, 2018, reprinted from Perspectives of History; Audi, Tamara. “Marjorie Bradfield: Put black history into library,” Detroit Free Press, Nov. 20, 1999; Bates, Karen Grigsby. “J.P. Morgan’s Personal Librarian Was A Black Woman. This Is Her Story,” NPR News, Jul. 4, 2021; Milner, Surya. “Honoring Montana’s first Black librarian,” High Country News, Feb. 15, 2021. Other examples of prominent Black female librarians include, as noted by Book Riot, Charlemae Rollins as head librarian at the Chicago Public Library, Clara Stanton Jones as the first Black president of the American Library Association, Eliza Atkins Gleason as the “first Black American to earn a doctorate in library science at the University of Chicago” in 1940, Sadie Peterson Delaney who was key in bibliotherapy, Annette Lewis Phinazee as the “first woman and the first Black American woman to earn a doctorate in Library Science from Columbia University,” Carla Diane Hayden as the current Librarian of Congress, Effie Lee Morris as the “first woman and first black person to serve as president of the Public Library Association,” Mollie Huston Lee as the “first black librarian in Raleigh, North Carolina,” Virginia Lacy Jones as the second black person to earn a doctorate in Library Science, Virginia Proctor Powell Florence as the “first black woman in the United States to earn a degree in library science from the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library School,” and Vivian Harsh became the “first black librarian for the Chicago Public Library where she passionately collected works by Black Americans” in February 1924.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Library Review.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Charter schools are money laundries

Critiques of charter schools usually focus on poor quality education (disproportionately affecting racialized and poor people) and dangerous ideology (the movement is funded by billionaire dilettantes and religious maniacs), and with good reason!

Charters hand public funds to private institutions with minimal oversight. Public money should not go to schools that endorse slavery and indigenous genocide, nor schools that deny evolution and claim humans and dinosaurs co-existed.

https://web.archive.org/web/20180604002542/http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-voucher-school-curriculum-20180503-story.html

Charter students know they’re getting substandard educations — that’s why the 2019 valedictorians for Detroit’s Universal Academy used their speech to denounce the school, its curriculum and administrators.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2019/06/10/salutatorians-criticize-charter-school-graduation/1381474001/b

The more we learn about charters, the worse the situation gets. Take New Orleans, where, post-Katrina, the Republican statehouse and wealthy dilettante “philanthropists” eliminated all public education in favor of charter schools.

https://www.nola.com/news/education/article_0c5918cc-058d-11ea-aa21-d78ab966b579.html

A decade later, the state education regulator gave half these schools “D” or “F” grades.

No wonder that charter teachers joined LA public school teachers on their Red For Ed pickets in 2019:

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-lausd-strike-accelerated-school-20190114-story.html

Charter schools pitch themselves as grassroots phenomena, made possible thanks to the passion of parents seeking quality educations for their kids. The reality is that the movement is funded and promoted through a corrupt network of ultra-wealthy ideologues.

The Kochs and the Waltons (Walmart) have secretly funneled vast fortunes into disinformation campaigns aimed at demonizing teachers’ unions:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/apr/12/teacher-strikes-rightwing-secret-strategy-revealed

They were joined by the likes of Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos, a fundamentalist who makes no secret of her view that charters can remove the barrier between church and state and institute publicly funded Christian indoctrination in schools:

https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/02/politics/eli-broad-letter-betsy-devos/index.html

Destroying public education is the sport of kings. Bill Gates blew $775m on a failed charter experiment whose subjects were children who got no say in the matter:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-06-27/here-s-how-not-to-improve-public-schools

Gates has solid teammates in his anti-public-education crusade. I mean, who can say no to Mark Zuckerberg?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/technology/silicon-valley-kansas-schools.html

Misery loves company, which is why the Sacklers — mass-murdering architects of the opioid epidemic — sunk so much blood money into the charter project (incredibly, this “philanthropy” is supposed to improve their reputation):

https://web.archive.org/web/20171113043810/https://www.alternet.org/education/notorious-family-contributing-opioid-crisis-and-funding-charter-schools/

But a critique of charters that starts with poor outcomes and ends with ideological billionaires misses the third leg of this stool: money-laundering and financial fraud.

Admittedly some of that has been in plain sight for years. Remember when an LA school board exec plead guilty to felony finance fraud and conspiracy for his role in the charter-backed takeover of the board?

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-edu-ref-rodriguez-resigns-20180722-story.html#

But “Chartered For Profit,” a report from Network for Public Education is by far the most comprehensive look at the means by which billions are transferred from public school districts to profiteers, at the expense of kids in both the charter and public system.

https://networkforpubliceducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Chartered-for-Profit.pdf

In an interview with Jacobin’s Meagan Day, NPE’s executive director Carol Burris discusses the blockbuster report, which is so damning that it prompted a bill in Congress that bans funding to charters that are managed by for-profit contractors.

https://jacobinmag.com/2021/07/charter-schools-for-profit-nonprofit-taxpayer-public-money-oversight-education-salaries-real-estate-burris-interview

Burris explains that even though nearly all charters are nonprofits (except in AZ), there’s a widespread practice of contracting with for-profit corporations to “manage” these schools; the for-profits are often owned by the schools founders or their relatives.

Others are nationwide chains that offer comprehensive management services — “comprehensive” in the sense of steering schools to procure materials, services and supplies from affiliates that overcharge and kick-back to the management companies.

From substandard, overpriced cafeteria fare; to janky, nonfunctional ed-tech; to unqualified, underpaid teachers, these for-profit entities figure out how to minimize costs, maximize profits, and disguise poor student outcomes so they can keep doing it.

They deploy opaque corporate structures to give the appearance of a thriving ecosystem of suppliers — meanwhile, the largest chain, Academica, consists of 56 companies at one address, more than 70 at another, and a network of real-estate, holding and finance companies.

Real estate plays a major role in charter profiteering. Profiteers scoop up tax-advantaged funding and subsidized loans to buy buildings, leased at inflated rates to charters, with the tax-payer paying their mortgage.

When the mortgage is paid, more tax dollars are used to buy the school at inflated prices.

But it’s even more profitable to run a “virtual school” where you can deliver canned lectures and fake attendance records and pocket vast sums in public money.

For-profits are also loan-sharks. They offer credit to the nonprofit charters so they can afford the inflated prices for educational “services,” charging high interest rates that ensure they get an additional rake off of every public dollar the charter receives.

NPE’s “Another Day Another Charter Scandal” page is a good look at the tip of the corruption iceberg — the crimes that get caught, from fake invoices to outright embezzlement. Charter execs use the school’s credit card to pay for fancy dinners even trips to Disney World.

https://networkforpubliceducation.org/another-day-another-charter-scandal/

Charters shouldn’t exist, period. But if they must exist, then the loophole that allows for-profits to run the notionally nonprofit charter sector must be closed.

Meanwhile, if you want a look at education “reform” that works, check out Andrea Gabor’s 2018 “After the Education Wars,” and learn how eliminating hierarchy, funding the arts, offering good wages and good training to teachers transform schools.

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/millionaire-driven-education-reform-has-failed-heres-what-works

The formula is rather simple, really: “a respect for democratic processes and participatory improvement, a high regard for teachers, clear strategies with buy-in from all stake-holders, and accountability frameworks that include room to innovate.”

“Robust leadership and strong teacher voice. Their success underscores the importance of equitable funding and suggests that problems like income inequality are far more detrimental to education that the usual suspects, like bad teachers.”

[unpopularwiththepopulace]

Don’t I Get a Dream for Myself ? – Bernadette Peters and the 'Gypsy' Saga

Gypsy. It’s perhaps the most daunting of all of the projects related to Bernadette Peters to try to grapple with and discuss. It’s also perhaps the most significant.

For someone notoriously guarded of her privacy and personal life, careful with her words, and selective of the questions she answers, the narrative around this show provides some of the most meaningful insights it is possible to derive in relation to Bernadette herself. The show’s ability to do this is unique, through the way it eerily parallels her own life and spans a large range in time from both Bernadette Peters the Broadway Legend, right back to where it all began with Bernadette Lazzara, the young Italian girl put into showbusiness by her mother.

The most logical place to start is at the very beginning – it is a very good place to start, after all.

(Though no one tell Gypsy this, if the fierce two-way battle with The Sound of Music at the 1960 Tony Awards is anything to be remembered. Anyway, I digress…)

Gypsy: A Musical Fable with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and book by Arthur Laurents, burst into the world and onto the New York stage in May of 1959. After closing on Broadway in March 1961, Ethel Merman as the world’s original Mama Rose herself led the first national tour off almost immediately around the country. Just a few months later, a second national touring company was formed, starring Mitzi Green and then Mary McCarty as Rose, to cover more cities than the original. It is here that Bernadette comes in.

A 13-year-old Bernadette Peters found herself part of this show in her “first professional” on-the-road production, travelling across the country with her older sister, “Donna (who was also in the show), and their mother (who wasn’t)”.

The tour played through cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, New Haven, Baltimore and Las Vegas before closing in Ohio in 1962. Somewhat uncannily, its September 1961 opening night in Detroit’s Schubert Theatre even returns matters full circle to the 2003 revival and New York’s own Schubert Theatre.

Indeed this bus-and-truck tour was somewhat of a turning point for Bernadette. She’d later remember, “I mostly thought of performing as a hobby until I went on the road with Gypsy”.

But while this production seminally marked a notable moment for the young actress as well as the point where her long and consequential involvement with Gypsy begins, it’s important to recognise she was very much not yet the star of the show and then only a small part of a larger whole.

Bernadette was with the troupe as a member of the ensemble. She took on different positions in the company through the period of nearly a year that the show ran for, including billing as ‘Thelma’ (one of the Hollywood Blondes), ‘Hawaiian Girl’, and additional understudy credits for Agnes and Dainty June.

The above photo shows Bernadette (left) with another member of the ensemble (Sharon McCartin) backstage at the Chicago Opera House as one of the stops along the tour. Her comment on the stage of the Chicago theatre – “I’d never seen anything so big in my life!” – undeniably conveys how her experiences were new and appreciably daunting.

Along the tour, she assumed centre-stage once or twice as the understudy for Dainty June, but playing the young star was not her main role. Unlike what more dominant memory of the story seems to purport.

Main credits of June went instead to Susie Martin – a name and a tale of truth-bending that’s now well-known from Bernadette’s concert anecdotes. While performing her solo shows as an adult and singing from Gypsy, Bernadette has often been known to take a moment to penitently atone for historical indiscretions of identity theft or erasure where her mother long ago conveniently left out the “understudy” descriptive when putting down Dainty June on her resumé, in an effort to add weight to the teenager’s list of credits.

Whatever happened to Susie Martin? – many have wondered. Well, she soon left the theatre. But not before appearing in two more regional productions of Gypsy and a 1963 Off-Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward with Liza Minnelli and Christopher Walken.

Bernadette too went on to other regional productions of Gypsy. She spent the summer of 1962 in various summer stock stagings with The Kenley Players, like in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and this time she did indeed get to play June.

Above shows photos from different programmes for these productions. While some may have featured odd forms of photo editing, they at least also bring to attention Rose here being played by none other than Betty Hutton.

The two women couldn’t have been in more different positions when they coalesced in these rough-around-the-edges, small-scale productions. A young Bernadette was broaching summer stock in starting to take on bigger roles in the ascendency to her bright and long career. Meanwhile, Betty found herself there while navigating the descent that followed her sharp but fickle rise to Hollywood fame in the ‘40s and early ‘50s. Top billing Monday, Tuesday you really are touring in stock after all.

While details aren’t plentiful for these productions, it was recounted Betty apparently struggled in performing the role. And understandably so. Following the recent traumatic death of her mother in a house fire, and the birth of her third child shortly before the shows began, it’s not hard to see why her mind might have been elsewhere. Still, she was apparently impressed enough by the younger actress who turned in one of the show’s “creditable performances” to make comment that she would’ve liked Bernadette to play her if a movie were made about her life.

Bernadette might not have done this exactly, but she did go on to revitalise Betty’s best-known movie role, when stepping into Annie Oakley’s shoes in the 1999 Annie Get Your Gun revival. With Bernadette’s first Ethel Merman show under her belt, the ball was soon rolling on her second.

The 2003 production of Gypsy was imminently beckoning as her next successive Broadway musical and it was Arthur Laurents who lit the match to spark Bernadette’s involvement. Laurents, as the show’s original librettist, drove the revival by saying he “didn’t want to see the same Rose” he’d seen before. Going back to June Havoc’s description of her mother as “small” and a “mankiller”, and Arthur’s take that Bernadette sung the part “with more nuance for the lyrics and the character than the others”, the choice of Bernadette was justified. Moreover, “Laurents – whose idea it was to hire her – [said] going against type is exactly the point,” and Sam Mendes, as director, qualified “the tradition of battle axes in that role has been explored”.

So Bernadette also had her own baseline of innate physical similarity to the original Rose Hovick, in addition to her own first-hand memories of the women she’d acted alongside as Rose in her youth to bring into her characterisation of the infamous stage mother.

But there was a third factor beyond those as well to be considered in the personal material she had access to draw from for her characterisation. Namely, her own real life stage mother.

Marguerite Lazzara did share traits with the character of Rose. She too helped herself to silverware from restaurants, and put her daughters in showbusiness for the vicarious thrill. Marguerite had “always wanted to become an actress herself”, but had long been denied her desire by her own mother, who likened actresses to being as “close to a whore as you could be without, you know, getting on your back”.

In that case, to “escape a housewife’s dreary fate in Ozone Park”, Marguerite channelled her latent dream through her pair of young daughters instead, shepherding them out along the road. Thus was produced a trio of the two children ushered around the theatre circuit by the driven mother, forming an undeniable parallelism and a mirror image of both Bernadette’s reality and Gypsy’s core itself. Bernadette didn’t see some of these familial parallels at the time when she was a child, considering “maybe I didn’t want to see” – “didn’t want to see a mother doing that to her daughter”.

It was coming back to the show as an adult that helped Bernadette resolve who her mother was and some of the motivations that had propelled her when Bernadette was still a child. She realised, “I think she thought she was going to die very young”, as her own father died young. So “she was rushing around to get as much of her life as she could in there”.

When she herself returned to the production in playing Rose, Bernadette conceded to sometimes bringing elements of her mother and her driven energy into her portrayal, and admitted too she looked “like her a lot in the role”. You can assess any familial resemblances for yourself, from the images below that show a young Marguerite next to Bernadette in costume as Rose, and then with the pair backstage in 1961 in a dressing room on the tour.

Marguerite was ambitious. From her own personal position and with the restrictions imposed upon her, it was ambition that materialised through her children. Irrevocably, she altered them. She placed Bernadette on TV as a very young child (“I was four when my mother put me in the business”); changed her daughter’s surname (“She told me my real name was too long for the marquees,” or really – “too Italian”); doctored her resumé (“Somehow the word ‘understudy’ vanished. ‘No one will know,’ said Marguerite”); and lightened her hair (“She’d say, ‘Oh, I’m just putting a little conditioner on it.’ But slowly my hair got blonder and blonder!”). All in the hope of giving her child a more favourable chance at the life she’d always wanted for herself.

On paper, a classic stage mother. “When I was a kid, she fulfilled herself through me,” Bernadette would say. “She put me into show business so she could get a taste of the life herself.”

But it’s important to consider Bernadette often qualifies that her mother wasn’t as brutal as Rose, nor was she herself as traumatised as June.

Bernadette didn’t begrudge her mother for her choices – at least by the time she was an adult, she’d rationalised them, explaining “naturally it was more exciting [for her] to go on the road with me than staying home and keeping house”.

As a child, Bernadette hadn’t necessarily wanted to be on stage, but there was a sense of ambivalence – not resentful belligerence – as she “didn’t care one way or the other” when she found herself there.

Like June, Bernadette may have been entered into and coaxed around a path she hadn’t voluntarily chosen. But unlike June, Bernadette had a deal with her mother that “she had only to say the word”, and she could leave.

Most crucially, she never did.

But that’s not to say Bernadette was enamoured with acting from the beginning.

She seemed to feel ‘outside’ of that world and those in it. And others saw it too.

It was in 1961 in Gypsy that Bernadette first met Marvin Laird – her long-time accompanist, conductor and arranger. The way he put it, he “noticed this one young girl, very close with her mother” who, during breaks, “didn’t mix much with the other girls”.

Beneath the effervescent stage persona, there’s a quieter and more reserved reality, and a sense of separation and solitary division.

When asked by Jesse Green in 2003 for the extensive profile in The New York Times if she thought her experiences on the road in Gypsy were good for her at that age, she gives a curious, somewhat abstract, predominantly dark, potentially macabre, response. He wrote:

She doesn’t answer at first but seems to scan an image bank just behind her eyes for something to lock onto. Eventually she comes out with a seeming non sequitur. “I didn’t know how to swim. I remember, in Las Vegas, I fell in, once, and they thought I was flailing, but I felt like: ‘It’s pretty down here!’ I might have been dying and I was thinking: ‘Look at the pretty color!’ And suddenly my fear of water was gone, and I could have stayed in forever.” After a while, I realize she’s answered my question. Then she dismisses the image: “But I had to get my hair dry for the show that day, so up I came.”

I’m still not entirely sure I know what she’s trying to convey here. My interpretation of this anecdote changes as I have re-visited and re-examined it on multiple occasions at different time points. It’s arguably multiply polysemic.

Was she simply swept up in a moment of childlike distraction, lost in the temporary respite alone away from the usual noise and clamour? Was she indicating comprehension that her feelings and perspectives came secondary to any practical necessities and inevitable responsibilities? Was she using the water to depict a muffling and fishbowl-like detachment from others her age who got to live more ‘ordinary’ lives in the ‘normal’ world above that she felt separate from? Was she referencing the pretty colours she saw as a metaphor for show business and how she became bewitched by them even despite potential dangers? Was she trying to legitimately drown herself, or at least exhibiting an ambivalence again as to whether she lived or died, because of what the highly pressurised demands on her felt like?

The underlying sentiment through her response in answer to Green’s primary question was that, in essence – no. Being a child actor was not “over all, a good experience for a youngster”.

Acting might have been something she fell in love with over time, but not all at once, not right from the beginning, and not without noting its perils.

It was a matter of accidental circumstance that landed Bernadette in the show business world to begin with at such a young age in the first place – “I just found myself here,” she would offer.

Her mother, who was “always crazy about the stage”, “insisted” that her sister, Donna take lessons in singing, dancing and acting.

A further point of interest to note is that, although it was Bernadette with her new surname who would grow up to be the famous actress, look to the cast lists from the 1961 touring production of Gypsy that featured both sisters in the company (see photo below) and you’ll find no ‘Lazzara’ in sight. Donna too, appearing under the novel moniker of “Donna Forbes”, had also already become stagified (nay, ethnically neutralised?) by her mother. As such it is clearly demonstrated that Marguerite’s intention at that point was to make stars of both her daughters. Correspondingly so, when her sister returned from her performance lessons some years before, “Donna would come home and teach me what she had learned,” Bernadette remembered. She may have gotten her “training second hand”, but the key element was that she got it.

For Bernadette, it was a short jump from emulating magpied tricks from her sister as well as routines from Golden Age Busby Berkeley musicals on the ‘Million Dollar Movie’ in front of the TV screen, to her mother getting her on the other side of the screen and actually performing on TV itself – belting out Sophie Tucker impressions aged five for all the nation to see.

The photos below show Bernadette in performative situations at a young age (look for criss-crossed laces in the second for identification).

“At first, as a toddler, Bernadette enjoyed performing; it came naturally, a form of play that people inexplicably liked to watch.” It was “just a hobby” and she “wanted to do it”.

But while she may not have detested it, she didn’t entirely comprehend what was going on either. “I didn’t even know I was on TV,” she said. “I didn’t know that those big gadgets pointed at me were cameras and that they had anything to do with what people saw on the television set.”

When she started gaining more of an awareness of how “such play [was being] co-opted for commercial purposes”, she grew less enthralled. “She didn’t care for the bizarre children, accompanied by desperate mothers, she began to see at auditions: ‘They spent their whole time smiling for no reason, you know?’”

Being a child who had become sentient of being a child performer began to grow wearisome and grating to the young girl who had her equity card, a professional (and strange, new) stage name, and an increasingly long list of expectations by the time she was nine. There’s a keen sense she did not enjoy being in such a position: “I wouldn’t want to be a child again. When you’re a child, you have thoughts, but nobody listens to you. Nobody has any respect for you”.

Gypsy did indeed mark a turning point for Bernadette as mentioned above – but not just in the way that seems obvious. Looking back at it now, it does appear the monumental turning point at which she started appearing in significant and reputable productions, beginning what would be the foundation to her ‘professional’ career. However it was also the turning point after which she nearly quit the business altogether.

When she returned from performing in Gypsy, Bernadette felt like she’d had enough. One way of putting it was that she “then retired from the business to attend high school”, wanting to have some semblance of a normal scholastic experience “without the interruptions”. But whatever dissatisfaction she was feeling as an early adolescent on stage, she didn’t resolve at school – going as far as saying that while at Quintano’s School for Young Professionals, “she was in pain”.

“When you’re a teenager you’re too aware of yourself,” she recalled. Being a teen and trying to come to terms with of the expectation of the ‘60s that “you are supposed to look like Twiggy, and you don’t, you feel everything is wrong about you”. Everything “was all about tall, skinny, no chest…[and] hair straight”. Little Bernadette with her “mass of [curly] hair and distracting bosom”, as Alex Witchel put it, was never going to fit that mould. “That was not me,” she stated. “At all.”

Her self-consciousness grew to the point that it became overwhelming and asphyxiating. “I was trying desperately to blend in and be normal, but that doesn’t allow creativity to come out,” Bernadette said. “I knew I was acting terrible. The words were sticking in my mouth and all I could think about was how I looked”. It was hard enough just to look at herself (“I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror”), let alone to have other people gawk at her on stage. So she stopped trying. She “didn’t work much from age 13 to 17” in the slightest. Bernadette would later reflect in 1981 in an atypically open and vulnerable interview, “I was very insecure. Insecurity is poison. It’s like wearing chains”.

It was a combination of factors that helped her overcome these feelings of such toxic and weighty burden to draw her back into the public world of performing and the stage. “The two people who helped her most, she says, were David LeGrant, her first acting teacher, and her vocal coach, Jim Gregory.” Jim helped with “[opening] a whole creative world for [her] with singing”; and it was David who’d give her the now infamous and often (mis)quoted line about individuality and being yourself.

Having these kinds of lessons, she reasoned, was “really a wonderful emotional outlet for a kid of 17”. The process of it all was beneficial for her therapeutically – “you have a lot of emotions at that time in your life, and it was great to go to an acting class and use them up”. And Bernadette felt freer on stage than she did out on her own in the ‘real world’, saying “[up there] I don’t have to worry about what I’m doing or saying because I’m doing and saying what I’m supposed to be doing and saying”.

Finally then and with considerable bolstering and support, she grew comfortable with the notion of being visible on stage and in public, and realised she was never going to blend in as part of the chorus so it was simply better to let go of such a futile pursuit.

David LeGrant’s guiding advice to Bernadette (“You’ve got to be original, because if you’re like everyone else, what do they need you for?”) wasn’t just a trite aphorism. For her, it was a life raft. It was the key mental framing device that allowed her to comprehend for the first time that she might actually have intrinsic value as herself. And that it was imperative she let herself use it.

She had always stuck out, yes, but she had to learn how to want to be seen – talking of it as a conscious “choice” she had to make when realising she did “have something to offer”.

Thus soon after Bernadette graduated, she stepped back into productions like in summer stock and then Off-Broadway as she made her debut at that next theatrical level at 18. It wasn’t long before she was discovered in what’s seen as her big break in the unexpected smash hit, Dames at Sea. And so Bernadette Peters, the actress, was back. And she was back with impact and force.

Besides, as she’s also said, she couldn’t do anything else – “if I ever had to do something else to earn a living, I’d be at a total loss”. An aptitude test as a teenager told her so apparently, when she “got minus zero in everything except Theater Arts”. So that was that. Her answer for what she would’ve done if she’d never found acting is both paradoxically exultant and macabre – “I don’t know, probably shot myself!”

Flippant? Maybe. Trivial? No.

Acting is thus undoubtedly related highly to Bernadette’s sense of purpose and self-worth. This is what makes it even more apparent that a show with such personal and historical connections for her, as in Gypsy, was going to be so consequential and impactful to be a part of again as an adult and perform on a public stage.

She’s called inhabiting the role of Rose in the 2003 revival many things: “deeply personal”, “life changing”, “like going through therapy” – to name a few.

In interviews regarding Gypsy and playing the main character, when asked what she had learnt, Bernadette would frequently say something like, “It taught me a lot”. Pressed further about specifics, her answers often hem close to vague platitudes as she maintains her normal tendency of endeavouring to keep her privacy close to her chest.

On one occasion, she actually elaborated somewhat on what she’d learnt, giving a fuller answer than the question is normally afforded anyhow. Beyond all it revealed to her about her mother, she extended to admitting “my capacity for love and my capacity for anger” as aspects in her that the show had permanently altered. Moreover, Rose to her was undoubtedly the “most rewarding and fulfilling acting experience” she had ever had.

But while such deep, personal and emotional depths and memories were being stirred up beneath the surface in private, she was getting vilified in public singularly and repeatedly by New York Post columnist, Michael Riedel.

Even before she’d set foot on stage, Riedel set forth in motion early in the 2003 season a campaign of vocal and opinionated defamation against Bernadette as Rose that she was miscast, insufficiently talented, and would be incapable of executing the role.

Too small, too delicate, too weak, too many curves (and too much knowledge of how to use them). Not bold enough, not loud enough – not Merman enough. Chatter and speculative dissent begun to grow in and around the Broadway theatres.

For such a prestigious and historic musical theatre role, it was always going to be hard to erase the large shadow of an original Merman mould. Ethel was woven into the very fabric of the show, with the rights to Gypsy Rose Lee’s memoirs being obtained at her behest in the first place, and the idiosyncrasies of her voice having been written into the songs themselves by their very authors.

To step out from such a domineering legacy would be a marked challenge at the best of times. Let alone when battling a respiratory infection.

Matters of public perception were certainly not helped when Bernadette then got ill as the show started its preview period and she started missing early performances.

Nor did it help with critical perception that the Tony voting period coincided so synchronously with Gypsy’s first opening months – giving Bernadette no time to recover, find her feet, and settle more healthily into the show for the rest of the run before the all important decisions were made by that omnipotent committee.

The tale of her illness is actually undercut by a more innocent and unsuspecting origin than you’d expect from all the drama and trouble it engendered. Bernadette decided nearing the show’s opening to treat herself to a manicure. In the salon, she was next to a woman very close to her with a frightful sounding cough. Who could’ve known then that this anonymous and inconspicuous lady through a fateful cause-and-event chain would go on to play such a part in what is among the biggest and most enduring Tony Awards “She was robbed!” discourses? Or even more broadly – in also arguably playing a hand in the closure and financial failure of an $8.5 million Broadway show after its disappointing performance at the Tony Awards that ominously “[spelled] trouble at the box office” and led to its premature demise?

Bernadette did not win the Best Actress in a Musical Tony that night on June 6th 2004. The award went instead (not un-controversially) to newcomer Marissa Jaret Winokur for Hairspray.

She did however give one of the most indelibly resonant and frequently re-referenced solo performances at the awards show just before she lost – defying detractors to comprehend how she could be unworthy of the accolade with a rendition of ‘Rose’s Turn’ that has apocryphally earned one of the longest standing ovations seen after such a performance even to date.

Even further and even more apocryphally, she reportedly did so while still under the weather as legend as circulated by musical theatre fans goes – performing “against doctor’s orders” with stories that have her being “afflicted with anything from a 103-degree fever, to pneumonia, to a collapsed lung”.

Seeing then as unfortunately there is no Tony Award speech to draw on here, matter shall be retrieved fittingly from that which she gave just a few years earlier in 1999 for her first win and previous Ethel Merman role in Annie Get Your Gun to wrap all of this together.

As has been illustrated, there are many arguably scary or alarming aspects in Bernadette’s Gypsy narrative. There’s undeniably much darkness and an ardent clamouring for meaning and self-realisation along the road that tracks her journey parallel to the show. But unlike Rose’s hopeless decries of “Why did I do it?” and “What did it get me?”, there was a point for Bernadette.

As her emotional tribute in 1999 went: “I want to thank my mother, who 48 years ago put me in showbusiness. And I want to finally, officially, say to her – thank you. For giving me this wonderful experience and this journey.”

Whatever all of this was, maybe it was worth it after all.

[idontfindyouthatinteresting]

The Last of Us Part 2: Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.

- Confucius

HUGE SPOILERS - DO NOT READ THIS WITHOUT HAVING FINISHED THE LAST OF US PART 2

This game was not for me. Let me be clear by what that means, I played The Last of Us Part 1 only this year, after hearing a lot about it being amazing and realizing I actually got the game for free with my PS4 many years ago and it’s sat in a drawer since. I don’t like horror games, I particularly don’t do zombies. I hit a couple of walls but I finished the game, and I was happy when I did. I felt and was very vocal about how the power of the performances and the narrative got me through that game and left me feeling good about something that was so contrary to everything I enjoy in video games and media generally.

The Last Of Us Part 2 pushed this to it’s absolute limit, came within a hairs width of breaking. When it was done I was overjoyed it was done, that I didn’t have to tear, hack and beat anyone else. 

If this game had an Uncharted style quote tag line, it would without doubt be “before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves” in playing this game, I felt like I was burying Ellie, the painful dichotomy of having to physically push her forward yourself whilst the entire time wanting her to stop,  every time she hit another mark, every time the rabbit hole got deeper and the people around her suffered, every time her ruthless pursuit of revenge dumped her in another Scrambler hell hole. The violence in this game is suffocating and I would not be critical of anyone who needed to put it aside and take a breath.

As much as the violence is one of the centre tenets of the game, those who enjoy that sort of game, probably won’t be into this one. It is constantly self critical, the effect of what the characters are going through is beautifully translated in the performances and counterpointed when you’re asked to view the last of humanity at war with one another for nothing beyond tribal angst or trek through the museum, zoo or aquarium, taking care of JJ, listening to Dina talk about her faith, in one of the games small moments of peace. Something Naughty Dog does well consistently.

The score, hell the score, from tender solo guitars to that heart pounding combat suite, was perfect. Tension was something I expected from this game based on the first and it delivered. 

Gameplay was great, I’ve seen some reviews state that it’s what was offered in the first game, still happy with it. It’s not what you got in the first game it’s more complex, satisfying and flexible. 

I love rooting and looting for things, I love the satisfaction of having a full kit and all the materials to craft more. There were minor changes to the system whereby your characters have to read prepper type guides to learn their skills and if you don’t find them you don’t get the skills. As I literally enter a level and follow the wall left until I’ve covered every surface I didn’t have a problem with missing too much (I don’t know how I missed coins, cards and journals my first play through, where the hell are they?!) but if you’re not thorough you’re going to struggle.

There were also new types of equipment and weapons, but also a whole new character. At the start, playing as Abby through the sort of tutorial run, and then seeing her kill Joel, I was not looking forward to playing as her. Concerned about the drive I’d have to play as that character, dreading it, really. You learn to care and love Abby very quickly, and I know I’m not alone in this. In truth, her and Ellie are the same, and if you can manage sympathy for Ellie in her fits of revenge, then you cannot be critical of Abby and what she did. The ultimate comment on the violence, that it’s circular, cannot be without consequence, on your heart and soul, on those around you. Dig two graves.

Abby is an amazing character to be. She packs a punch, her fight against the Rat King my god. A nod and a wink to Daryl Dixon in parts. She sacrifices everything she has to protect Yara and Lev, testaments to how the violence must stop, she’s becoming a protector of that and I’d love to see how that develops in a potential third game.

The most jarring part of Abby’s story is the point where you’re hunting Ellie, hunting yourself. This is an odd sensation, something that I found in Detroit: Become Human when you’re having a foot pursuit with, yourself. When you’re playing both sides, do you want to fight hard enough? how are you supposed to win? The thing, is you’re not. You lose either way. Another point of self criticism in this game.

Joel is a constant specter in this game. In the first game he provides stability, consistency, the moments that he’s unwell and failing are some of the most terrifying, begging for him back. Joel will know what to do. The truth of it is, is that Joel is just swept up in the story, completing his dead friends final wish, a delivery job. 

The one act that he has that is his own, the one thing he does to drive the narrative beyond simply survive is take Ellie out of that hospital and lie to her, dooming humanity in the process. The difficulty is of course, I’d have done the same.

The importance of that moment and that decision cannot be understated, that hospital door returns and returns like a fever dream in Part 2 for both Ellie and Abby it was their defining moments for much of the game and truly the narrative is how they overcome what happened in that room. For Abby it houses guilt and Ellie it houses lies.

Still in part 2, despite being dead Joel is stability, familiarity in a strange world, warmth and home. The non-linear elements provide a breath of fresh air when it’s needed. He’s such a likable character, papa bear who just can’t let go and it’s endearing.

I hadn’t seen the spoilers, I don’t know if people saw his death scene before the game came out, but I hadn’t and when I finally did it was truly horrendous. Ellie’s pleads for him to get up I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget them, that if he’d just get up everything would suddenly be fine just proves his role as a source of stability. Just like Ellie the whole game I was waiting for Joel to turn up, to miraculously and inexplicably be ok and sort everything out. The hopelessness of this is very real and powerful.

Sometimes, we watch films, listen to music, experience art that is upsetting, and makes us reflect, this game is that. There are no winners, I didn’t beat this game, this game beat me, relentlessly. But this experience is important, and thought provoking, and powerful. Effortlessly beautiful, all about the details. 

This is not what anyone expected from a sequel to The Last of Us, but it’s what it needed to be. It stands alone in this genre but should stand proud.

Play this game, but take care of yourself as you do it. It asks a lot of you.

[low-budget-korra]

The first text I made was over 2,000 words so I’ll try to summarize it.

First I'm going to talk about what I think is Bury Your Gays and poor writing of minorities.

For me, Bury your gays is when certain productions kill the lgbt character for the sake of shock value, often in the most stupid ways possible. A famous example of this was what happened to Lexa in the 100. When it feels like the character only died because he is gay.

And for me, poor writing for minorities (poc, lgbt, people with disabilities ...) can be characterized as:

1. Productions that want to portray the image of progressives and put a poc or lgbt character (which are the most common cases) without personality, unimportant, without development ... Character that are just there for decoration

2. When they even create an interesting character but soon create a reason to kill him to shock the audience. Kill them because they are poc.

And for me having a poc or lgbt character (since these are the boxes where I identify with) interesting, important ... this is the word: Important! whether it is important directly in the plot as a protagonist who carries the story or a supporting role with a good role on the story and a good development, it is much more significant than a character forced only for certain productions not to be accused of racism, sexism or lgbtphobia.

Of course, each case is different. I will now comment briefly on Atomic Blonde, The Last of Us part II and The Legend of Korra.

In Atomic Blonde we have the death of Delphine, a lgbt character who has generated some discussions about being a "bury your gays". I don't particularly agree because I believe that if she were a man or straight, she would die anyway. Since the protagonist's other love interest had died in the beginning and he was a heterosexual white man, and because the character of Delphine, despite being a spy, did not belong in that work or life style . Something even commented by herself. She was an inexperienced agent in the worst possible scenario to be one . But i now understand and why some people still think It was bury your gays.

In The Last of Us part II I saw many people complaining about the death of Jesse, Yara and how Lev was just a supporting character. The Last of Us part II .... a game that is not afraid to kill loved characters without any ceremony simply because in that world, one mistake can cost your life. Regardless of gender, sexuality, age, skin color ...

Jesse and Yara played Asian American characters and died. Mel, Joel, Owen ... were Caucasian, cishet characters who died too. None of them die because they are asian american or caucasian, they die cuz that world is fucking ruthless.

And about Lev not being important just because he is an supporting character... First that he is for Abby what Dina is for Ellie, both of them are extremely important support for the protagonists and Interesting characters with their own internal struggles and development. I think it is very unfair to throw this away with the argument like: "ah, but he is not the protagonist so it is not important"

And still about The Last of Us part II we are talking about a game and for those who do not know the gamer community is toxic, full of sexism, racism, lgbtphobia ... And the game developers had the balls for not only make two protagonists women outside the steryotype of femme fatalle or defenseless love interest(still very present in games) and one of them a lesbian, but also introducing an important trans character in a mainstream high-budget game.

People, until recently the only image we had of women in games was that of a busty model running around, made purely to please male players, good and important black, asian and lgbt characters was really rare or just didnt exist at all.

And today we have characters like Ellie, Lev, Kassandra (AC Odyssey), Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield who were reimagined more humanely in the remakes of Resident Evil, Lara Croft herself in the 2013 Tomb Raider remake, Max and Chloe(Life is Strange), Lee and Clementine(TWD from telltale), Marcus (Detroit Become Humam ), Connor (AC3) ... I know, there is still a long way to go until we have achieved the equality and representativeness that we want in the world of games but we are advancing. They may be a baby step but they still are steps forward. We should continue to support this initiatives and demand better representation.

Now about The Legend of Korra ... Reading the comments in the post i get the feeling that people were much more angry with Bryke for being cishet than with questions related to the narrative.

It bothers me the fact that it seems that whoever made the posts (originally from twitter) did not watch avatar or simply watched without paying attention. It was NEVER about Korra needed suffering but about finding Meaning in suffering. And yes, they are two different things.

When in the end Korra is talking to Tenzin, about understand the why she had to go through all that , for them be abble to be more compassionate of others. That shit is real. When you have a panic attack , for exemple, you become more abble to help someone who also suffers from that. Or when some people lose someone for a disease or acident and choose to become a doctor to help others, wanting no other person had to go through that pain... In this case, the person didnt have to lose someone to be a doctor but maybe after saw all the fight that the doctors put in to save someone and the pain of losing someone may have made the person spend the rest of his life saving people. Get It?

And in Avatar, both TLA and TLOK, people have suffer.

Aang: Cast aside by his friends when people discover he was the Avatar. Runaway and lose all of his people. Had to see the devastation for himself and find the bones of his friend and possible father figure. Almost die a few times. For many years had the weight of been the last of his people. And in a part of the journey, lost Appa.

Sokka and Katara: Lost their mother. Their dad leave to fight and possible die in the war. Sokka was only a teen when he was the man responsable for his tribe. Katara had the weight of being the only waterbender of her tribe and be the only one that could calm Aang once he was in Avatar State.

Toph: as a blind kid, her parents think of her as someone unable to do anything. Had to choose between save Appa or save the others in some point of their journey

Zuko: When i start with him?

Azula: oh Boy...

Iroh: Lose is only son. Had to see his brother burn Zuko's face. And Zuko betrayed him, kind of, in the end of book2.

Asami: Her mom was murdered , maybe even in front of her. Her dad was a evil genius. She probably suffered with Korra in those 3 years.

Mako and Bolin: They grow up as orphans on the streets...

I could go on and on, dude, even the cabbage man had suffer from losing his cabbages over and over.

But all of the sudden, Korra now had to have plot armor or else Bryke is wrong and are terrible people.

Everybody loves to talk about how perfect Zuko's arc and development is. Zuko, who was one of the characters who most have suffered in the show. But for him all was necessary, had meaning, perfect storytelling and structure but with Korra.... "She cant suffer cuz she is brown"

And its not like Bryke was making something up outta nowhere just to torture the character. All she face it was a consequence direct or indirect of her actions and actions of other people.

Amon and the Equalists? Aang didnt kill Yakone nor put him in prison for life, just took his bending. Yakone was a terrible father, and one of the reason Amon hate bending (even himself been a waterbender) so much to the point of him do what he did. The same to Tarrlok. He turn his sons into monsters. And the triads only help them, because they use their bending to rob the non benders.

Vaatu? Look up The Beginning epsodes because this one is more complex.

Unalaq? Look, the worst villain of Avatar. But he took advantage of things that happen as consequences of the ending of book1

Zaheer? Direct consequence of that happen in the finale of book 2.

Kuvira? Direct consequence of things that happen in book 3

Again, i could go on and on and go deeper on all that. But this is already getting to big.

But what pissed me off most is ... Look im years in this fandom. As a Brazilian i saw and read stuff from the fandom here in my country and the fandom here in Tumblr. And in those years i read so much about how Korra journey help people overcome their struggles with ptsd, anxiety, depression...myself included. How much Korra was important to lesbians and bissexuals girls, especially girls of color.

And them we have those few people throw shit on all this and "cancel" you for not agree with them...

The Legend of Korra ended 2014, 6 years ago and still is so loved, so important to so many people, for the most diverse reasons.

For a cishet, Bryke did a amazing job creating this amazingly beautiful universe. With the most diverse inspirations, coming from places that are forgotten on western media. But i guess its easier criticize, and cancel them and the show than do what they did.

I know that sometimes we just wanted a scape from our difficult reality but seriously, if you Just want a movie/tv show/book...100% happy, rainbow and sunshine with no suffering at all, stick with the fanfics because even romcons sometimes have their among of "i you make you cry and suffer" kind of shit.

Suffer is present in our life and what a lot of movies/tv shows/games/books...try to do is bring our struggles and our suffering into them. Why? Its easier have simpathy for characters who look like us, characters who had been through the same stuff as us.

Is so difficult talk those things in another language. I always feel like i didnt express myself right. And im really sorry if i offended anyone, it wasnt my intention.

[keiziahknight1886]

Change

[Change (A Connor x Reader story based on Detroit: Become Human)]

Chapter Fifteen

Epilogue: Their Future Together

xX0Xx NOV 15, 2038 PM 02:45:34

It had been four days since the successful android revolution.

After the revolution and when Connor had reunited with the Andersons, Y/n had offered for Connor to stay with her and Hank since he had nowhere else to go. Hank was a bit hesitant to have what is basically his daughter's boyfriend staying over but he, nevertheless, agreed.

It was a little awkward, to say the least.

-

"Y/N! What the hell is burning out there?!" Hank comes out of his room and rushed to the kitchen and saw Connor holding a frying pan and something black inside.

Smoke came out of whatever Connor was making and Hank saw Y/n by the window trying to air the some out of the kitchen, she was coughing and Connor had a guilty look on his face. Connor turned to Hank's direction and he looked even more sorry when he saw the older man.

"Sorry, Hank. I was trying to make something for you two." Connor looked at the frying pan and Hank grimaced.

"Jesus... Now we know what you're not good at."

They decided to not let Connor cook unless supervised by either of them

-

"This isn't a very accurate representation of Alexander Hamilton's life. In fact, the battle between Burr and Hamilton didn't-"

"Shh..." Y/n placed her hand softly on Connor's mouth and he blinked at her. "It's a musical, they sound good and it's dramatic... just enjoy it."

Connor didn't fully understand why Y/n decided to watch the Hamilton Musical at 10 PM but since she said it was one of her favorite things so he wanted to see why she liked it so much. He stared at the colorfully dressed stage actors and listened to Aaron Burr sing The World Was Wide Enough.

"They do sound good..." he spoke and Y/n nodded.

"Right?" she smiled and he did as well.

-

The next morning, Hank woke up earlier than he had expected. He walked out of the room to get started on their breakfast but when he walked to the Livingroom he saw Connor sitting absolutely still on the couch. He stared at him for a few seconds and since he wasn't moving, Hank went closer to question him.

"Connor, what the hell are you doing just sitting still all creepy and shit like that?"

"Good morning, Hank." he greeted, slightly turning his head towards the older man's direction. "I can't move."

"Why the hell can't you-?" 

Hank got closer to the couch and saw that his daughter's head was on Connor's lap. She was peacefully sleeping with a blanket over her body and Hank understood why Connor wouldn't move. It somewhat ticked him off but Hank decided that it was too early for him to be annoyed.

"Just- whatever... Just make sure she wakes up soon."

Connor blinked at Hank as he entered the kitchen, seeing as the older man didn't say anything else, he turned his attention to the sleeping woman on his lap and went back to playing with Y/n's hair, he continued to stay perfectly still for her comfort until Hank spoke up again.

"Oh, when she wakes up, turn on the TV. We're watching the Detroit Gears game I missed and I'll teach you a thing or two about sport."

Connor looked back at Hank whose back was turned and felt grateful that Hank also wanted to get closer to him.

-

Y/n and Hank weren't used to living with other people aside from them so having Connor now stay with them was something new. They didn't have a guest room or any other area people could stay in so, for the duration of his stay, Connor had to make do with the couch in the living room.

He didn't mind, though. Even if he was a living being and he now had free will, he didn't need as many things as humans do so he didn't mind staying in the living room until things were more sorted out.

Connor enjoyed having more time with both Y/n and Hank since he and Hank would watch reruns of Detroit Gears games on TV and would even have friendly banters about which players are the best. It was fun spending time with the older man but he especially liked the moments with Y/n.

Although they haven't had a serious conversation about their relationship or what their label was, something he read people who are interested in each other would do at the early stages of relationships, they would often spend time just talking to each other. 

Or in this case, Connor asking Y/n questions about all the things she liked and disliked and doing the things she liked.

Connor knew that he was still new to romantic emotions and what they really are so, he didn't want to mess anything up when it comes to his relationship with Y/n. Thankfully, she gave him time and he did his best to discover and learn about his emotions.

He would find time to read about articles or studies that would help him in his growing relationship with Y/n and he found that knowing the little things about one's partner was something important. He wanted to know everything about her so whenever they had the time that's what they'd do.

Y/n didn't mind all the questions, she enjoyed the fact that Connor wanted to learn so much about her and, even though she wanted to talk about their relationship and what exactly it is, she decided to let him discover the flow of his own emotions before diving deeper.

When he's ready, she'll be there for him.

Now for the outside world, things were starting to move.

All of the humans had evacuated from Detroit but after the peaceful ending of the revolution, humans who wished to come back were allowed to. There were some who did but most were hesitant to come back, those who did come back were welcomed by the androids.

The androids took temporary lodgings at places that weren't owned or had been abandoned and Markus specifically told them to not take what was owned by humans, there were a lot of open spaces for androids to stay at but most still didn't know what to do with their newfound freedom.

The Senate has yet to make a formal statement about what they would do with the android situation but, seeing as public opinion was moved due to the peaceful revolution, there have been speculations that they were leaning into having a formal meeting with Markus and his select council to discuss the androids side of things.

Connor had been invited to be a part of the council and although he was a bit nervous with being given a role in building their life and society he felt secured to know that Y/n was behind him.

Today was the first time they were going to formally meet after the revolution and he was given the address of 8941 Lafayette Avenue. Markus told Connor to invite Y/n along and although he wondered why, seeing as they were an all android council, he didn't question him.

"Woah, this place looks really nice."

When they arrived at the address they saw a beautiful two-story house surrounded by greenery, Connor saw Y/n look around the area and he smiled at her.

"It does look very nice."

"So you mean to tell me that Markus lives here?" She raised a brow at him and he nodded.

"Yeah, he said this was his home address."

"Huh... Markus has done good for himself."

The two of them walked to the front door and rang the doorbell.

"Please state your name and business." The security system spoke.

"My name is Connor, this is Y/n. We're here for the meeting."

"Please wait while I inform Markus of your arrival."

The two waited outside the door and Connor saw Y/n look at him.

"You know, I still don't understand why I'm invited here. Isn't this supposed to be an all android council?"

"Markus said that you can come if you wanted to, I didn't ask but there must have been a reason."

"Well, I guess I'm the one asking then."

As they talked, the door automatically opens and the alarm system spoke again.

"Alarm deactivated. welcome and enjoy your stay."

The two entered the house and saw a very artistic layout, there were multiple paintings and decorations just at the entrance and the stairs, along with some walls, had a colorful pattern to it. The design was classical and yet colorful at the same time.

"Welcome, I'm glad you two can make it."

Markus walked out of what they would guess as the living room and gave them both a friendly smile.

"I believe this is our first time actually formally meeting. Y/n Anderson, nice to meet you." She greeted Markus and offered him a handshake which the man responded to.

"Markus. I have to thank you, you really helped my friends back then."

"It was the least I could do."

"Come in, the others haven't arrived yet but they're on their way."

Markus led them to the living room which was much more decorated than the previous one, there were different kinds of artwork, books, and even a large giraffe in one corner of the room. Y/n's interest piqued at the many things but she still had a question to ask.

"Excuse me, Markus? I just wanted to ask, why am I here exactly? I doubt I'd be much help in your android council."

"Ah, actually..." Markus gave her a smile and looked towards the door at the far right of the room before gesturing for them to sit. "When I saw you with Connor back at Jericho I saw a connection between the two of you... I knew there was something between the both of you."

Y/n and Connor sat down before looking at each other and both gave each a smile, Markus smiled at the two of them before continuing.

"So, there's actually someone I wanted you to meet. I was hoping you two would be friends."

Y/n raised an eyebrow at Markus and gave Connor a look but he also had no clue as to what Markus was talking about.

Soon enough, the door that Markus had looked at opened and a woman of average height with short brown hair and brown eyes came out. She was wearing a very colorful and yet artistic outfit and there was blue paint on her cheeks, she notices the three of them and smiles brightly.

"Oh! Sorry for the wait, I was cleaning up inside."

Markus stood up and walked over to the woman, he places his hand on her check and proceeds to wipe the paint away. Y/n and Connor could see the woman's expression turn into embarrassment but there was a smile on her face.

"It's fine, we were only just talking anyway. Here, I wanted to introduce you."

Markus led the woman and they both walked back to the couches whereas Y/n and Connor stood up to greet her.

"Rosa, these are Connor and Y/n. Connor, Y/n, this Rosa. She's my lover." Markus stated proudly and Rosa's expression turned bashful.

"Rosa Manfred, it's a pleasure to meet you." Rosa shyly introduces her self and puts her hand out to shake hands with Y/n and she did.

"Rosa Manfred? Daughter of the famous Carl Manfred?"

"Proudly so." she smiled brightly at the mention of her father and Y/n stared in wonder.

"I'm Y/n Anderson, it's nice to meet you..."

"Anderson?.. Are you... human?"

"Yeah, I am."

Rosa looked at her in shock but then it turns into a big smile.

"Ah! Now I understand why Markus wanted me to meet you, I didn't think I'd meet another human-android couple so soon."

It was Y/n's turn to look bashful now, she glanced at Connor who gave her a somewhat shy smile and she couldn't help the way her heart race at that.

"Yeah... I wasn't expecting the man of the revolution to be dating a human either."

"Well, it's a long story... I'd be happy to tell you, though!"

"Markus, you've got guests. They are North, Simon, and Josh." the alarm system spoke.

"Let them in and tell them to go to the living room."

After the alarm informed Markus of the other guests Y/n smiled at Rosa.

"I'd be happy to hear it, I'm sure it's one hell of a story since it involves our revolutionary leader here."

Rosa giggled and Markus smiled at them.

Connor hadn't been expecting Markus to be with a human woman but he now understood why, among others, Markus was okay when he saw Y/n. He also understood now why he had given Connor the advice to see Y/n before he infiltrated CyberLife. It must have been hard for him not to talk to his human lover during the revolution.

"Well, how about some snacks while we chat? We can go talk in the studio while they do their adult things." Rosa winked at Y/n and the other woman chuckled.

As they talked, the three other visitors came in and both Rosa and Markus gave North, Simon, and Josh a smile.

"Good afternoon, everyone." Simon greeted the four people in the room.

"It's nice to see you three again!"

Y/n and Connor saw Rosa smile brightly at the three as she walks over to greet them. She offers them a hand to which Simon takes first.

"We haven't met properly since the last time you were here everything was a rush but I'm Rosa, it's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, Rosa. I'm Simon, Markus is really fond of you." Simon smiled and Josh quips.

"I'm Josh. Trust us, you're all he talks about."

Rosa looks North who was just observing the three of them and she gives her a warm smile. Y/n knew, from her short interaction with her in Jericho, that she was the one who had the most dislike for humans. Still, Y/n was interested to see how she'd react to Markus' bubbly and welcoming human lover.

"Is everything okay?" Rosa's voice was laced with worry and North looked taken aback.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." she answered awkwardly. "North."

"Nice you meet you, North."

Y/n saw that Simon and Josh noticed her presence and the two politely smiled at her and Connor.

"It's also nice to see you both. I'm glad you're alright after what happened, Miss?.." Simon spoke and Y/n smiled at him.

"Oh, it's Y/n."

"Thanks for your help back then, Y/n." Josh smiled and Y/n felt glad she had helped them.

"Alright! Since everyone is here I'm sure you all have a lot of things to talk about. While you do that, me and Y/n here will take our leave. We'll be heading to the kitchen. Do you all need anything?"

"No, we're okay." Markus smiled at Rosa who smiled back.

"Well, Y/n? Shall we?" Rosa directed her smile to Y/n who smiled.

"Sure." she then smiles at Connor. "Good luck."

Connor smiled back as the two women walked to the kitchen area.

"Why don't you all have a seat, we've got a lot of things to discuss." Markus guides them to the dining table and they all sat to discuss their next plans.

-------

When Y/n entered the kitchen with Rosa she admired the design and simplicity of it, she then saw Rosa reach for a black cup with a smiley on it and she noticed that Rosa's smile turned into a sad one. That's when she remembered the news that Carl Manfred had died not too long back.

"I... I heard about your father, I'm very sorry for your loss."

"Thank you... It's been hard but Markus and I manage. He was also really close to my father."

"Have you and Markus been together long?"

Y/n saw Rosa bite her lip to hide her smile and Y/n couldn't help but smile at the woman who was shy about her relationship but, at the same time, radiated happiness because of it.

"Well... We've known each other for a long time but nothing really happened until the revolution."

"Now that is something I'd love to hear."

Y/n and Rosa ended up talking in the kitchen instead of the art studio and the two enjoyed their time together. Rosa excitedly told her about her relationship with Markus and how it had started and Y/n was shocked at how horrible the things the couple went through.

"I had thought it was over and I just stayed at home since my father died. So imagine my shock when I heard Markus play the piano one night while and I actually see him... Thinking back, it was incredibly romantic."

Rosa places both of her hands on her cheeks in embarrassment and Y/n chuckled at the woman. She could tell that Rosa hadn't had anyone to talk to about her relationship with Markus so Y/n was more than happy to listen.

"I'm glad I stayed and didn't evacuate. I wanted to be the first one to congratulate Markus and welcome him home." Rosa smiled lovingly at the memory. "How about you? I'm curious about you and Connor."

It was Y/n's turn to feel slightly embarrassed.

She wasn't ashamed about her relationship with Connor but, although they were both aware that they were romantically involved, they still hadn't discussed their relationship and lacked a title for it.

"Well... We're doing okay? Things happened so fast and since Connor's still testing the waters of his emotions, I figured that we'd wait for a bit before we talk about that."

"Well, I'm sure you'll both be able to sort things out." Rosa smiled reassuringly and Y/n was grateful to have someone like her to talk to. 

"I'm not really good with relationships... I've never been in one, actually."

"Really? Like... never?"

"Yeah, never. That bad?"

"No, no. I just wasn't expecting it. You're really pretty and I can tell you're smart too, it's impossible for someone like you to have not been in a relationship." Rosa stared at her in wonder and Y/n could hear the sincerity.

"Aw, thanks." She chuckled. "Well, things really didn't go as planned and even though I did have some people who showed interest, I was more focused on my family and career to even care. I guess that's what makes me a little worried about my relationship with Connor.

"He's trying to hard to understand "us" while I'm here, not understanding it either. I don't want to do something wrong in the relationship and I really don't want to mess things up. I want to talk to him about it when he's ready to but I'm kind of scared that I might not do things right."

Y/n sighed and she felt Rosa place a hand on her back in a comforting way.

"I get you, and honestly? There's no right way of doing things when it comes to relationships. Every person and every relationship is different. Markus and I love each other but I know, down the line, there will definitely be things that we'd fight or argue about.

"There will always be a moment in your relationship where you'd feel scared or anxious about things but, since there are two people in a relationship, all you have to do is talk and work through it. I know it's scary, and even more so because we're in love with androids. We're bound to get hatred for that but so long as you both hold on to each other and work things out, everything will be okay."

Y/n felt relief course through her as Rosa spoke and she felt extremely glad that she decided to go with Connor today. If she hadn't, she was still bound to meet Rosa but now that she did she just wished it happened sooner.

"Are you scared of it? The backlash? You're a human dating the most influential android out there."

"A part of me is... but, a bigger part is proud that I get to stand by Markus' side and show that humans and androids can live together and even love each other."

Rosa smiled widely at Y/n and proceeds to pour drinks to the cups she had set out, along with preparing light snacks for them to each while they talked. She offered one cup to Y/n who thanked her as she did.

"So, how did you two meet?"

"Ah... Well, we met because we were assigned to investigate deviants."

As Y/n answered, Rosa was already taking a sip from her cup, and, after hearing what Y/n said, she choked on her drink, and Y/n proceeds to pat her back.

"Oh my God, are you okay?"

"Yes!.. Yes, I'm fine... Uh, what did you say your job was?.." Rosa coughed and Y/n looked away, sheepishly.

"I'm a detective down at the DPD... Connor's... Well, also a detective."

"Oh, wow. Uh, I did not expect that."

"Did I not mention that before?" Y/n chuckled awkwardly.

"It's not that it's bad, don't get me wrong, but... aren't the police and army ordered to... well..." she didn't continue what she was saying and Y/n could see that she didn't like remembering the events and she wouldn't blame her after all, Markus was shot by a cop.

"Yeah... That was the reason why Connor and I worked together, we were assigned to investigate deviants but along the line... Things changed, perspective wise too."

"I'm glad..." she smiled warmly at Y/n. "I mean, I'm glad that there are officers like you... Officers who see androids as people too... I always thought that not all officers were as bad as the media made them out to be but having met you makes it much more real."

Y/n smiled back at Rosa and she could feel the ease that came with her words. She didn't think she'd meet anyone like Rosa, who was open to androids like she was and having met someone like her made Y/n hoped that they'd be good friends in the future.

"So tell me, how was it like working with Connor and solving crime? It must have been so cool!"

Y/n chuckled at Rosa's child-like excitement. "Oh man, where do I even begin."

They spent the rest of the time talking and laughing about the stories they exchanged that ranged from their relationships to their childhood and random stories they remembered.

It had been a long time since Y/n had a relaxing conversation with someone who wasn't Elizabeth and she was starting to really like Rosa. She enjoyed just laughing at such mindless things that it felt blissful to have another female to talk to.

"You two seem to be having fun."

When they looked back. they saw Markus leaning on the doorway. They both got down the counters since they chose to sit on it as they talked and the two smiled at the said man.

"Y/n's really fun to talk to!" Rosa smiled and Y/n returned the gesture.

"Yeah, I haven't had a nice chat in a long time."

"Well, we're done for today. I'm sure Y/n and Connor still have things to do."

Y/n tilted her head and saw that Connor was already looking at her, she gave him a smile and he returned it.

"Oh wow, I didn't notice it was already night."

Y/n checked her watch and saw that it was already 7 PM. "Oh yeah, you're right. I guess we'll get out of your hair now."

Y/n walked out to the living room with Rosa and Markus and saw that everyone was just about ready to leave.

"Thank you for coming today, we can have another meeting as soon as the President and her select senate make contact. For now, let's keep working with what we have."

They all exchanged goodbyes and Y/n took a final look toward Rosa and Markus, who were now holding hands as

Rosa waved at them from the front door.

"Do you think we can meet again some time, Rosa?"

"I'd definitely love that."

Y/n and Rosa smiled to each other before Y/n and Connor took their leave.

"Should I call for a taxi now?" Connor asked and Y/n looked at him for a moment before replying,

"Why don't we take a walk for a bit?"

"Okay?.."

During the meeting, Connor could hear Y/n's laughter from the kitchen where she talked with Rosa. He hadn't had many chances to make her laugh but he did like the sound of it. As they walked, he wondered what he could do to make her laugh.

It was silent and the snow was not that hard, they walked next to each other at a comfortable speed but Connor's mind was on Markus and Rosa. Seeing them be physically comfortable with each other to the point where they'd hold hands in public, regardless of their origins, was something Connor wondered what the feeling would be like.

His eyes glanced toward Y/n and down to her swaying hand and he wanted to hold hands with her too, he just didn't know how to initiate it. Connor had seen Markus just take Rosa's hand in his but he didn't know if Y/n would be okay with it.

They hadn't discussed their relationship and where they stand or what their boundaries were so he didn't want to do something that would make her uneasy, that was the last thing he wanted.

"Something on your mind?"

He saw Y/n look at him and he felt grateful that she was always mindful of him.

"Can I ask you a question, Y/n?"

"Of course."

"What would you say our relationship was?"

Y/n stopped walking, she looked at him and he did the same.

"Are you... sure you want to talk about this? I mean, are you ready?"

"I don't know... but... after seeing Markus and Rosa... I..."

Connor paused, he didn't know what to say and how to say it but Y/n was patiently waiting for him to get his thoughts straight. That was another thing he was grateful for, she was patient with him.

When he finally finds his train of thought, he decided to just go with whatever words would come out of him and say it as sincerely as he can.

"I... want to be able to do that too, hold your hand."

Y/n felt her heartbeat speed up, she had been expecting Connor to bring up their relationship sometime soon but she didn't expect him to say that he wanted to hold her hand. It was adorable and she couldn't help but swoon.

"Well... You can do that."

She offered one of her hands and Connor carefully held it. It was warm and he felt his heartbeat quicken at the sensation, he also felt her heartbeat do the same. He was curious about the feeling and sensation that it brought him that he didn't realize he was just silently staring at Y/n's hand.

"Connor?.." Y/n called out and Connor's attention shifted. "You asked me about us?.. About our relationship?.."

He looked at her and admired how the snow fell on her. Again, she was patiently waiting for him to speak and he didn't want to delay it further,

"We're... very close... You also didn't deny when Rosa said we were a couple... Are we a couple?"

"Well... That would depend on you, Connor... To be a couple, we'd need to have a mutual understanding and agreement that we'd only see each other. Of course, the most important thing is if we both have the same feelings-"

"I do have feelings for you." he answered quickly and Y/n stopped talking. She blinked at him and she let out a chuckle.

"And I have feelings for you too."

"Then are we couple?" He asked and Y/n felt her heart swell.

"Would you like us to be?.."

Connor stared at Y/n and from all the articles and studies he read, being a couple would mean that you would be exclusively seeing each other. He liked the thought and he also liked that Y/n would be seeing him and only him. Still, Connor had fears.

He was afraid that since he wasn't built to be someone who knows about romance and romantic relationships, he would mess up and make Y/n unhappy.

"Hey, hey. You're doing that thing you do when you think too much."

Connor felt Y/n gently place her hand on his face and he leaned at the touch.

"I just don't want to mess anything up." Connor squeezed her hand. "I feel very strongly for you, Y/n. I care about you very much and what I want the most is to make you happy. I always want to see you smile and laugh and I want you to be happy with me too.

"I want to do things right and I'm scared that I might make mistakes and that your patience would eventually run out.. I'm scared of losing you..."

Y/n saw Connor look away with a frown on his face and she couldn't help but feel the surge of emotions that went through her. She saw Connor openly tell her how he felt and it made her feel happy and amazed that he was feeling those kinds of things for her.

She smiled at him and she rubbed her thumb across his cheek in a loving and comforting manner.

"Me too... I'm scared I might mess things up too. I care about you very much and I have very strong feelings for you too. I know things like this, things that are new, are scary but, Rosa told me a while ago that there isn't really a right way of doing things in a relationship.

"We're going to be having problems along the way but I know we're strong enough to go through those things together. So, even though we're scared about things, the least we can do is take one step at a time... starting with us officially becoming a couple. You okay with that?"

"Yes... I- I'd like that."

He momentarily stares at her and Y/n tilted her head in question.

"What is it?.."

"May I kiss you?"

Y/n's eyes widened at the sudden request but smiled and gave him a nod. She took her hand off his cheek and went to hold his other hand.

With his hands, now both holding hers, Connor closed the distance and placed a kiss on her lips.

This had been their first kiss ever since they started living together and they enjoyed the feeling. They couldn't really be touchy-feely since they were both living with Hank so moments like these were something to cherish.

Connor pulled away and he stared at Y/n's fully blown eyes. She smiled at him and he felt an overwhelming feeling of affection for her.

It would take time for the both of them to openly say that they loved each other; it would take time to say it out loud since they were both still getting the hang of the emotions they were going through but they both knew what they felt for each other and they couldn't wait to see how things will change from now on.

Their future together looked bright and as Connor and Y/n continued their walk, Connor couldn't help but be excited for it.

xX0Xx

A big thank you for everyone who read and stayed throughout the book! Thank you for all the nice comments and I'm so happy you all are here to read even though DBH is 2 years old!

If you're wondering who Rosa is, she's the MC from the Markus x reader story I wrote 2 years ago because I REALLY don't like North HAHAHHA I'm sorry but that was just way too forced so my remedy was that Carl had a daughter who's sweet and colorful and she was already connected to Markus even before he became deviant. Feel free to read that because MC here and Connor are also mentioned in that book but just like here it's in the epilogue. ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

I'm sure you all saw the choices of Connor being deviant or staying a machine in chapter 11 and you saw right! My good friend and beta reader (findart.me or in this case Miss Nemo who comments about correction in the chapters) is collabing with me with a short alternate version of if Connor chose to stay a machine. We're trying to fix the things in it so please bare with us and we hope that you get to enjoy it! Here ends Change (A Connor x Reader story based on Detroit: Become Human) : Deviant

[aion-rsa]

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 17 Review: Uncut Femmes

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 17

The Simpsons Season 32, episode 17, ” Uncut Femmes,” is a caper comedy, and criminals Sarah Wiggum (Megan Mullally) and Fat Tony (Joe Mantegna) steal every scene they are in. Over the course of the jewel heist parody at the center of the installment, we learn Chief Wiggum’s wife has a shady past, and the neighborhood mob boss has a paternal presence. They don’t have any scenes together, but they make crime pay off, and prove two or so wrongs can make a right.

“Oh, my hallway-walking God,” the episode opens, as a workplace atrocity leads to a nondisclosure agreement which results in two front-row seats at a Bob Seger concert. The rock star plays himself, but goes against the wind. Yes, this is the Silver edition of his Bullet Band, but when he learns both Homer and Chief Wiggum dumped an overnight field trip with the kids on their wives to make the show, he feels obliged to remind them: a wife, like rock and roll, never forgets. Who knew a Detroit belter like Seger could throw such guilt?

The trip is to a World War II battleship, retrofitted to look like it did back in May 1943. That was the last time it was scrubbed, and the kids and wives get keelhauled into breaking up everything but the barnacles. They swab the decks and are told they’re killing Oxees, which sounds enough like Nazis for Springfield Elementary. Nick Offerman voices Captain Bowditch, who Sarah Wiggum calls Captain Dingdong before robbing his liquor cabinet and sharing a bottle with Marge.  

The police chief’s wife also shares some unexpectedly relatable problems, like the pressures of being married to “a man with a dangerous job he’s just not good at” But her best comic line is about her husband’s health, and how every slice of cheese could be his last. The bonding scene is very effective, warm and witty. Both women give up so much because they are mothers.

Sarah Wiggum gave up a glitzy and glamorous life of crime, like the Ocean’s 8 masterminds. She was the getaway driver on the famed “Hourglass Diamond” heist. Her story is broken down in a flashback sequence with subtitles like “The Grab,” “The Camaraderie,” and “The Double Cross.” To give historical perspective, one of the items which the young thieves steal, while listening to Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” are MP3 players which held over 300 songs. 

In the segment entitled “The Honey Pot,” Sarah explains her own role in the robbery. “The Chump” denotes when she met Clancy Wiggum, then a mere security guard, working his way through one of his many attempts at passing the police academy. “I love a man in a rented uniform,” she says. 

Marge had to miss the one event she gets to share with her sisters’ friends, which includes the crumbs of the crème de la crème of Springfield’s LGBTQ community: Watching the annual Gen Gala on TV and making scathing remarks. Marge is jonesing for snark. She’s got an itch to throw good shade. This would be a blast to hear from Marge, who is “still working up the courage to call a man the B word.” This year’s Gala is themed, “The Audacity.” The prior year was called “The Nerve.  Marge breaks her usual reserve to tell Rihanna she listens “to the clean versions of all your songs.”

Marge is so consistently Marge-like, so clearly defined within the vantage point the series has set up for her. Marge’s first words, when trying to start a conversation with Sarah, are “the top 10 ways of starting a conversation.” When she is kidnapped, she observes whoever had the bag over their face before her was a smoker. Julie Kavner also pulls off amazing physical comedy in this episode, even though it’s vocal acrobatics. When Marge is bound by Sarah’s old gang, she hops away – chair, pole and all – to allow them to scheme. She points to their scheme-board with her high mound of hair, which she later uses to blur surveillance cameras. Kavner’s inquisitive or insistent moans fuel every blue follicle.

To distract the mark, Lindsey Naegle, Marge makes small talk about common household chores the VIP would never do herself, like paying attention to whether you switch delicates to extra warm when you’re doing laundry. “You’re not famous, so you don’t exist,” Lindsey, who pocketed the diamond for herself to buy a celebrity lifestyle, snorts at Marge. Her husband, Springfield’s beloved Rainier Luftwaffe Wolfcastle, takes this gag to an absurd conclusion. Wolfcastle has no idea what the two were talking about when he enters the scene, but he is more blinded by his celebrity. He asks his wife why she’s talking to an empty chair. It’s all a punchline which lands on “somebody stop those nobodies,” a masterful twist of social restraint.

Ultimately, one of the snarkiest lines turns out to be a comment on Marge, when she makes a very surprising appearance at the Gala. But only because “she looks like dirt” walking a red carpet designed for 20 plus-size gladiators to carry Beyoncé. The snide aside comes across as exactly what Marge would’ve wanted.

The episode has plenty of successful throwaway sight gags. Homer closes shop at his post at the nuclear plant with the same kind of cage storefronts lock up with after hours. We’re not sure if this means the workers on the other side are locked in the workspace without emergency supervision for the whole weekend, though.

The kidnapping is first reported by Chief Wiggum’s son, Ralph, who was watch commander on deck. Fat Tony will come to be simpatico with Ralph in hysterically edgy ways later in the episode. They both “know nothing about nothing.” Until he met Ralph, Fat Tony thought putting crumbled Oreos on ice cream would be redundant, but now finds it transcendent. It is like a grooming process; the police chief’s son even begins wearing a matching fur coat. And when a kid behind an ice cream counter tells Ralph not to grab at the Gummy Bears, Fat Tony says “if the boy wants this the boy wants to smooch, the boy will spook smooch.” He could be telling The Bronx Tale. Ralph’s rejoinder, “I love you, scary daddy,” is so in keeping with his character of cluelessly deranged innocence.

When Homer and Wiggum first learn their wives are missing, the police chief immediately blames Fat Tony. The reputed, reported, alleged and convicted crime boss is plainly being honest when he says he would never even consider such a crime. First of all, how would he finish the sentence “it would be a shame if something were to happen to?” 

Wiggum is very important to crime in the town. This episode points out how it flourishes under his lazy watchful eye. Fat Tony loves “Chief Bungles” because he’s a horrible cop. Even Sarah admits her husband is “better at planting evidence than finding it.” But, more importantly to Fat Tony, the chief loves the top cop because he is a selfish man. He’s on the take from Burns, Fat Tony, and we know from past episodes he’s in on schemes with Mayor Quimby. But some things, even a cartoon mob boss cannot forget.

Fat Tony is surprisingly woke in his off hours. It’s the espresso. His men only yell respectful innuendoes at attractive women. The boss not only tutors Homer and Clancy on ways to respect their wives, but takes care of Ralphie while he lets the men fix their marriages. The male gaze is all over this episode, and it gets poked in the eye repeatedly. From WWII books to gender-trading action movie remakes. The real Silver bullet is the truth. Seger’s concert T-shirt is actually a list of things he has to get done to keep his marriage happy, including getting a C-PAP for his snoring.

For Homer, this change is as sweet as a donut, the ordeal makes him notice what Marge looks like when she’s happy. Clancy realizes, for the first time in his long career, that there is a museum in town. At their heart, Homer and the Chief are really only paying attention to their wives for themselves. Oh, and for Bob Seger, they did promise him that. The lesson they learn when confronted with their selfish ways is: “it’s all about us.”

The final part of the scheme earns its subtitle as the exact kind of surprise double revenge twist we have come to expect from this genre. The only difference is what kind of spin the parody will take. Things have a special way of falling on The Simpsons. In a classic early episode, Homer took a memorable tumble down the rocky edges of a cliff in a failed daredevil stunt. So, he knows to get out of the way when Lindsey comes tumbling down the stairs at the Gala. She tumbles long enough for Wolfcastle to find a newer, younger, more trophy of a wife. In real life the fall would have killed her, and Marge would feel terrible. Thank god for animation. Kids, don’t try this at home.

“This isn’t about the cash, it’s about righting a wrong and looking damn good doing it,” Sarah convincingly explains when she lays out the premise of the heist. By the end, Marge declares it “best field trip of my freaking life,” which is what the episode seems to be going for. It’s fun, more fun than most school trips, and it teaches a lesson.

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“Uncut Femmes” is a fun and playful movie satire. It captures the suspense, romance, glamour and pace of a heist film, but puts The Simpsons touch on it. Marge shines in the unexpected, manages to clean house at the same time, and brings Homer into an understanding. The crooks get away with it, and nothing will change. Like so many crimes in Springfield, it’s got Chief Wiggum on the case, and that’s like having no one at all.

The post The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 17 Review: Uncut Femmes appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[historian--in--training]

Unsung Heroes: The Societal and Historical Suppression of Black Women Activists During the Civil Rights Movement

by Sarah Slasor

I asked my boyfriend what he knew about Rosa Parks, to which he replied, “she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white guy, right?”

While he is not wrong, his response got me thinking, why is this all he knows? Why is this all I know? Is this obliviousness a product of my own ignorance, or is something larger at play? I decided to dig deeper.

The involvement of female activists, specifically Black women, during the civil rights movement has been historically distorted and simplified. Important figures tend to be remembered for singular aspects of their extensive contributions, while male activists are promoted as representatives of the movement and, in turn, are studied in greater depth. Historical studies often mention Black women, but fail to include details about their activism or political thought.[1] Rosa Parks, who is known for her role in the Montgomery bus boycott, and Coretta Scott King, who is typically remembered as the widow of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK), have both made significant contributions to the movement that are seldom discussed. Both women are national icons, yet their lifelong efforts to achieve racial, economic and gender justice remain largely unknown.

The suppression of the voices and legacies of Black women in the civil rights movement is largely a result of the intersection of racism, sexism, and classism, as well as the nature of scholarship and the way history is digested. Women activists, having taken on the title of “invisible unsung heroes and leaders,” are often ignored by academia, as the history of the movement tends to focus on men as leaders while feminist scholarship tends to focus heavily on white women.[2] This essay will highlight the extensive accomplishments of Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, and Ella Baker, and will then explore the factors contributing to the suppression of their legacies and how the issue can be resolved.

Portrait of Rosa Park at Mrs. Anne Braden’s home, May 31, 1960.[3]

Rosa Parks is best known for her role in the Montgomery bus boycott, in which she denied a bus driver’s orders to give up her seat for white passengers. It was not that moment that initiated her fight for justice, but instead her entire life that had been leading up to it. Parks’ passion and love of learning was instilled in her by her mother and grandfather, whose examples Parks followed in dedicating her life to racial justice.[4] Before the bus boycott, Parks was elected secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and founded the Montgomery NAACP Youth Council, where she worked with the community and encouraged voter registration.[5] Parks led training sessions on desegregation following the Brown v. Board of Education decision, advocating against racial and sexual violence both nationally and throughout Alabama.[6] Following the boycott, Parks relocated to Detroit and pushed for Black freedom, helped elect John Conyers, a Democratic Michigan Congressman, in 1964, for whom she worked until her retirement in 1988.[7] In the 1980s, she co-founded the Raymond and Rosa Parks Institute for Self-Development to bring young people into the freedom movement. Parks, often described as quiet and meek, dedicated over sixty years of protest to the fight for justice.

Coretta Scott King at the Vietnam-In-Peace Rally, Central Park, New York, April 27, 1968.[8]

Of everyone I asked, those who actually knew of Coretta Scott King knew her as the wife of MLK. As it turns out, when Coretta Scott King met MLK in the 1950s, she was the political activist and influenced his decision to become involved. Like Parks, King claimed more than 50 years of activism before her death in 2006. During her career, she was a member of both Women Strike of Peace and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; led a campaign in support of school desegregation; met with Reagan to urge American divestment in South Africa and was later arrested during her protest at the South African Embassy in Washington; brought attention to Black poverty and the HIV-AIDS crisis; and worked to end discrimination against LGBT communities.[9]

From 1968 onward, King led the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, in which her husband’s papers were archived and educational community projects took place.[10] King spearheaded lobbying campaigns to recognize her husband’s birthday as a national holiday, and later lobbied for the passage of the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Bill that promoted full employment and fair compensation to combat rising poverty levels. In the last two decades of her activism, King served on the boards of the Black Leadership Forum, the National Black Coalition for Voter Participation, and the Black Leadership Roundtable, and was present at the signing of the Middle East Peace Accords and South Africa’s first free elections in the 1990s.[11] King was not simply the wife of MLK. Her activism was present from early stages of her life, and she used her platform to make extensive contributions to social change, the fight for freedom, and racial and economic equality. In doing so, King kept her husband’s legacy alive, and established herself as an unstoppable force in the fight for justice.

Ella Baker on September 18, 1941.[12]

Ella Baker is another name I admittedly had never heard. In the 1930s, Baker addressed the stigmas of gender, race, and poverty in her exposé, “The Black Slave Market.” In 1940, she was hired by the NAACP to organize branches throughout the South, and by 1945, Baker had helped the NAACP grow from 50,000 to over 450,000 members.[13] By 1958, she was the President of their New York branch.[14] Baker partook in leadership conferences throughout the 1940s, and in 1957, became the executive secretary of MLK’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), though she never obtained a leadership role. Baker disapproved of the SCLC’s male-dominated hierarchy, and of its centralized structure around MLK as a singular charismatic leader, as she felt that “group-centred leadership” would have been more effective than a “leader-centred group.”[15]

During the sit-in movement of the 1960s, Baker brought together student demonstrators to form the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which became known as the “shock troops” of the civil rights movement.[16] Through the SNCC, Baker created a “classroom without walls,” in which she educated young proteges and organized protests with the aims of non-violent action and voter registration.[17] Though the SNCC disbanded in 1972, its leaders continued to work toward Baker’s ideals with different organizations, and Baker joined the African liberation movement and fought for civil and human rights in her final years.[18]

Black Women: The Backbone of the Civil Rights Movement from medium.com.[19]

These women, among countless others, have incredible stories that go largely untold. The fact that these women are not the primary faces of the movement and their accomplishments go unrecognized at the surface-level of academia is the product of the three interlocking systems of oppression: racism, sexism, and classism. During the civil rights movement, societal attitudes toward Black women suppressed their voices. Today, social movement scholarship’s focus on men and elites as leaders, along with feminist scholarship’s focus on white women ignores the accomplishments of Black women in history.

Attitudes toward Black female activists, in the rare instances that they are actually studied, have been historically negative. Under the patriarchy, many looked to males for leadership, which, at the time, largely stemmed from religious traditions of having a male leader.[20] This was evident in the experience of Ella Baker, who was never given a permanent position in SCLC nor a salary comparable to any man who replaced her.[21] Many organizations, such as the Black Panther Party, maintained a male-heavy image, as their intention was to appeal to the “brothers on the block.”[22] While this attracted members, it shut out many female activists who struggled to be heard.

This male-dominated arena is perpetuated by historical scholarship, which tends to focus on formal organization and membership and ignores women’s radical protest and activism. As a result, history commemorates formal leaders and overlooks women, as leadership positions were often unattainable for women activists. Women of colour are frequently viewed as uninvolved in feminist organizations, and therefore unconcerned with women’s rights.[23] This was not the case, as pointed out by historian Gerda Lerner, who remarked that women’s liberation meant different things to different women during the mid-20th century, and emphasized that while the mainstream societal ideology of women’s primary place was in the home, Black women’s place was in the white woman’s kitchen.[24] Liberation was different for Black women than for Black men, and the repression of many women’s voices during the civil rights movement is reflected in the way scholarship digests history.

According to historian Bernice McNair Barnett, there are three major biases that influence the way that Black women’s history is construed: (1) Black women are stereotypically connected with “pathologies” within the family, such as female-headedness, illegitimacy, teen pregnancy, poverty, and welfarism; (2) there is a middle-class orientation that ignores poor and working-class women, a large percentage of whom are Black; and (3) there is an apolitical, non-leadership image of Black and poor women as political passivists as opposed to movement leaders.[25] In turn, the roles of Black women have been ignored in research of modern social movements. As such, it is generally assumed that the women involved were white, and the men were Black.[26] While the “great man” theory of leadership is often critiqued by sociologists, this perspective is perpetuated by history, as the leaders were predominantly male, and history loves leaders.

One of the foremost exceptions is Rosa Parks. Parks’ story is included with that of Malcolm X and MLK in history classes, but, in actuality, students only know of her for one event, despite the rest of her activist career being of equal importance. Along with Parks’ lifelong activism, history often fails to mention Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, Alabama State College English professor and president of the Montgomery Women’s Political Council, where Robinson had been actively planning a boycott of city buses months prior to Parks’ arrest.[27] History also ignores the hundreds of women, like Robinson, who were forced to resign from their positions at Alabama State University and other workplaces across the United States for making noise about equality.[28] Society has excluded, ignored, and oppressed Black women; and historical scholarship is no different.

The civil rights movement, though perceived to be led by men, was heavily bolstered by Black women. Though not typically recognized as leaders, Black women initiated protests, formulated strategies, and mobilized other resources necessary for collective action. Racism, sexism, and classism created an environment in which women were silenced, and, as a result, frequently go unnoticed in historical scholarship. Rosa Parks, largely known for her actions on one day in her sixty years of activism, Coretta Scott King for her marital status, Ella Baker for her association with the NAACP, and countless others are the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement. It is imperative that we recognize their accomplishments to cease history’s glorification of male leaders when Black women were integral to the success and legacy of the movement, and look past what history wants us to believe.

All sources cited in this essay are written by women.

_____

Notes

[1] Dayo F. Gore, Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War, New York; London: NYU Press (2011): 161.

[2] Bernice McNair Barnett, “Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: The Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class,” Gender and Society 7, no. 2 (1993): 163; Ibid, 164.

[3] Portrait of Rosa Parks at Mrs. Anne Braden’s home, May 31, 1960. Photograph. 3.5 x 5 inches. Louisville, Kentucky. Highlander Research and Education Center: Highlander Research and Education Center Records, 1917-2005.

[4] “Rosa Parks Interview, 1992 February,” Connie Martinson.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid; Christina Greene, “Women in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements,” Oxford University Press (November 2016): 3.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Coretta Scott King at the Peace-In-Vietnam Rally, Central Park, New York, April 27, 1968, photograph.

[9] “Women in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements,” 3; Vicki Crawford, “Coretta Scott King and the Struggle for Civil and Human Rights: An Enduring Legacy,” The Journal of African American History (January 1, 2007): 112.

[10] Ibid, 114.

[11] Ibid, 116.

[12] Ella Baker on Sept. 18, 1941. Photograph. Afro Newspaper/Gado/Getty Images, from Time Magazine.

[13] “Women in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements,” 5.

[14] Anne Romaine, “Anne Romaine Interviews, 1966-1967: February 1967; SCEF Office, New York; Ella Baker Interviewed by Anne Romaine,” 11.

[15] Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson, “Ella Baker: A Leader Behind the Scenes,” FOCUS: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (August 1993):4.

[16] “Women in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements,” 5.

[17] Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press (2003): 284; “Anne Romaine Interviews, 1966-1967: February 1967; SCEF Office, New York; Ella Baker Interviewed by Anne Romaine,” 12.

[18] “Ella Baker: A Leader Behind the Scenes,” 5.

[19] Black Women: The Backbone of the Civil Rights Movement. Photograph.

[20]  “Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: The Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class,” 175.

[21] Ibid, 176.

[22] “Women in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements,” 9.

[23] “Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: The Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class,” 164.

[24] Ibid.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Ibid, 165.

[27] Allison Berg, “Trauma and Testimony in Black Women’s Civil Rights Memoirs: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It, Warriors Don’t Cry, and From the Mississippi Delta,” Journal of Women’s History (2009): 89.

[28] “Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: The Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class,” 174.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Baker, Ella. “Interview with Ella Baker, April 19, 1977.” Interview by Sue Thrasher. Documenting the American South, n.d. Retrieved from https://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0008/G-0008.html

Black Women: The Backbone of the Civil Rights Movement. Photograph. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@nadiarising411/black-women-the-backbone-of-the-civil-rights-movement-618b9859a5c

Coretta Scott King at the Peace-In-Vietnam Rally, Central Park, New York, April 27, 1968, photograph. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/us/coretta-scott-king-fast-facts/index.html

Ella Baker on Sept. 18, 1941. Photograph. Afro Newspaper/Gado/Getty Images, from Time Magazine. Retrieved from https://time.com/4633460/mlk-day-ella-baker/

Parks, Rosa. “Rosa Parks Interview, 1992 February.” Interview by Connie Martinson. The Drucker Institute, February 1992. Retrieved from https://dp.la/item/81d0ae423e14a2f67d20fdb34b3b0cc3

Portrait of Rosa Parks at Mrs. Anne Braden’s home, May 31, 1960. Photograph. 3.5 x 5 inches. Louisville, Kentucky. Highlander Research and Education Center: Highlander Research and Education Center Records, 1917-2005. Retrieved from https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM52893

Romaine, Anne. “Anne Romaine Interviews, 1966-1967: February 1967; SCEF Office, New York; Ella Baker Interviewed by Anne Romaine.” Recollection Wisconsin, Wisconsin Historical Society, 1960-1968. Retrieved from https://dp.la/item/5493d0d6be916f0b12a9cc57534d3906

Waldschmidt-Nelson, Britta. “Ella Baker: A Leader Behind the Scenes.” FOCUS: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, August 1993.

Secondary Sources

Berg, Allison. 2009. “Trauma and Testimony in Black Women’s Civil Rights Memoirs: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It, Warriors Don’t Cry, and From the Mississippi Delta.” Journal of Women’s History21 (3): 84-107.

Crawford, Vicki. “Coretta Scott King and the Struggle for Civil and Human Rights: An Enduring Legacy.” The Journal of African American History 92, no. 1. January 1, 2007.

Gore, Dayo F. Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War. New York; London: NYU Press, 2011.

Greene, Christina. “Women in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements.” Oxford University Press: Oxford Research Encyclopedia, American History, November 2016.  

McNair Barnett, Bernice. “Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: The Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class.” Gender and Society 7, no. 2 (1993): 162-181.

Ransby, Barbara. Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003.

[seeselfblack]

13 destinations for African-American history and culture

Visit these significant sites of memory and perseverance across the country.

In 1860, the schooner Clotilda—the last slave ship to bring African captives to the American South—arrived at the Alabama coast, its hold containing 110 people smuggled into the U.S. more than 50 years after importing slaves was outlawed. After an intensive yearlong search, supported by the National Geographic Society, marine archaeologists have located the Clotilda. Few slave vessels have ever been found, so this groundbreaking discovery unlocks a mystery that many thought lost to history. (Read more about finding Clotilda.)

Such breakthroughs help preserve our shared heritage and tell the stories of the estimated 389,000 Africans delivered into bondage in mainland America from the early 1600s to 1860. For some descendants of slaves, artifacts such as the Clotilda represent a tangible connection to their ancestors. For travelers, such discoveries can present an opportunity to learn more about U.S. history.

“The African-American experience is the lens through which we understand what it is to be an American,” writes Lonnie G. Bunch III, the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The national collection in Washington, D.C., is just one of many diverse museums and monuments across the country that help visitors connect to significant moments in black history and to learn about the country’s legacy of racial injustice. Here are 13 destinations for discovering more about African-American history and culture.

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Despite initial funds provided in 1915 by black Civil War veterans and a signed Public Resolution from President Calvin Coolidge in 1929 establishing a commission to plan its construction, it wasn’t until legislation signed by then President George W. Bush in 2003 that the museum had the authorization it needed to be created on the National Mall. Since the museum opened in fall 2016, visitors will be able to explore more than 400 years of artifacts and historical information detailing the African American experience. (Read more about the museum.)

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

Established in 1965, this Detroit museum holds the world’s largest permanent collection of African-American culture. Among the more than 35,000 artifacts, find interactive kids stations, displays on trailblazers in science and engineering, and stained-glass windows by Samuel A. Hodge that depict stories of notable African Americans from dancers to civil rights activists. The annual three-day African World Festival held in August celebrates the cultures of the diaspora with hosts free performances by gospel legends such as the Clark Sisters, African drummers, and dance troupes.

Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum in Detroit, Michigan

The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, the first squadron of back military airmen, weren’t considered equals in the eyes of the law but that didn't stop them from defending the country. The museum details their training and the role they played in desegregating the military. Also find monuments to the men who served as “Red Tails” all over the country, including a National Park Service site in Tuskegee, Alabama, in their honor.

National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama — Informally called the lynching memorial, the first U.S. commemoration of the thousands of men, women, and children who were murdered—primarily because of the color of their skin—opened in Montgomery in April 2018. This Alabama site holds 805 hanging, steel rectangles in the shape of coffins, each representing one of the U.S. counties where a documented lynching took place, as reported by legal advocacy nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative. Steps away, visitors may explore the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, which opened on the same day and displays the history of racism in America—beginning with slavery before examining lynching, the Civil Rights era, and the present. (Discover the new U.S. Civil Rights Trail in Alabama.)

Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana — A slave cabin from a South Carolina plantation sits among the exhibits at the NMAAHC. At the Whitney Plantation, visitors can walk the fields once toiled in by slaves and learn the history of this brutal time in American history. Informed docents provide tours through memorials, slave cabins, and the great house with a unique focus on the slaves’ perspective. (Plantations are a dark chapter in American history—here’s why to visit.)

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio — The intricate, secret network of allies that runaway slaves relied on to escape to freedom was called the Underground Railroad. Although slavery ended in the United States roughly 150 years ago, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center works to keep the story and the message alive for the current generation. With exhibitions that highlight slave trades of the past and present, the center presents interactive exhibits, films, and even includes a slave pen from Kentucky built in the early 1800s. The moving tribute is even more relevant given the approximately 27 million people estimated to be enslaved around the world today. (What if Martin Luther King Jr. were never assassinated?)

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri — Long before Jackie Robinson became a household name, African American baseball players were making a name for themselves on the field. The Negro League offered these men a place to play in a segregated America. The museum highlights the successes and struggles of the players (both superstars and the unknown) and provides a glimpse into the incredible talent kept out of the mainstream. The museum is located in the historic 18th and Vine district with the American Jazz Museum, also worthy of a look for those in town.

Black American West Museum in Denver, Colorado — What started as an ode to black cowboys has grown to include tales and artifacts of African Americans who made their way west to forge new lives, whether driven by professional or personal circumstances. Located in the former home of Colorado’s first female African American physician, Justina Ford, the museum is packed with photos and artifacts is best experienced with a pre-arranged tour.

California African American Museum in Los Angeles, California — This 44,000-square-foot museum does a great job of showcasing items from African American history while also heralding contemporary themes. The exhibition “Oh Snap! West Coast Hip Hop Photography” is just one example of how the museum makes the collection interesting, informative, and accessible to younger audiences.