#edward j kay

[r00kus]

More doodles / Eddie and Nate but he’s wearing the holy horrors fit 🔥 (I hate whisper sm 😡 I don’t like how he was sketched out)

[denimbex1986]

'It can be said that Christopher Nolan has always known how to end a movie. From Leonard Shelby concluding his journey where it began and asking “now where was I?” in Memento to the topper that wouldn’t stop spinning in Inception, this is a filmmaker who looks for the most potent image that will burrow its way into audiences’ heads.

Yet the final scene of his most ambitious film to date is something more impressive, if altogether disquieting. Oppenheimer definitely implants a grim idea in the viewer’s mind, but it does so by giving the uncanny impression that we are seeing it through J. Robert Oppenheimer’s eyes first. Standing by the duck pond that Albert Einstein (Tom Conti) has been consigned to by posterity, and where Oppie will be joining him in exile sooner than he realizes, the man credited with fathering the atomic bomb asks if Albert recalls Edward Teller’s theory about a nuclear explosion triggering the end of the world.

“I remember it well, what of it?” Einstein asks. “I believe we did,” Oppenheimer says while an IMAX camera plummets so deeply into Cillian Murphy’s blue eyes that the viewer feels like we are being left to drown in his despair—despair at the prospect of nuclear war, despair at self-annihilation, and the lingering, eternal despair that comes with the realization that for the rest of time on this planet, these weapons will be at humanity’s disposal. It’s a chilling signoff for a film that plumbs the ambiguities of Oppenheimer’s life without offering easy answers. While Nolan made a picture accessible to almost any viewer, he refused to provide any degree of comfort, reassurance, or easily memeable sentiment and message.

Which is one of the many reasons I’ve long been skeptical of the common criticism about Oppenheimer being too long or that “the trial” in the last hour dragged on and on. More than once, I’ve been told the movie could have ended after Trinity, the first successful detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945 which is shot and edited with all the tension of a thriller in Nolan and Jennifer Lame’s hands. It should be noted that the Trinity test, and the exuberant satisfaction Oppenheimer briefly feels toward his accomplishment as fellow scientists hoist him on their shoulders before the American flag, occurs at exactly the two-hour mark in the film.

The implication, therefore, seems to be that Oppenheimer should have ended on a note of triumph—a disastrous choice, to put it mildly, for the story of engineering a doomsday weapon—or that the movie could have glossed over Oppenheimer’s later years. Why should we care if Oppenheimer’s security clearance with the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was revoked, or that the architect of his downfall, Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), suffered his own public humiliation?

The answer, of course, is that it is these turns of events which elevate a riveting piece of biographic storytelling into a cinematic prophecy of doom that on its own will likely be with us for many years to come.

Living with the Bomb

The most crucial thing to understand about why Oppenheimer went on for a full third hour after World War II concluded in the shadow of a mushroom cloud is that there is no credible way to discuss this man without delving into the fact that the government which entrusted him to build the device also pillared and besmirched his name to the point of infamy.

During a panel with Meet the Press’ Chuck Todd on the 78th anniversary of the Trinity test, Nobel Prize Laureate and theoretical physicist Kip Thorne said he knew scientists early in his career who demurred from pursuing a public life in government service or policy-making because of how Oppenheimer was treated.

Said Thorne, “I was as much influenced by my father who dealt with McCarthyism as the chair of a faculty in Utah at the time. We had a governor who was dictating to the board of trustees to fire faculty with left wing tendencies. So I went through this in my own family.”

The implication that Oppenheimer was a traitor, or at least untrustworthy with American secrets due to his political leanings, sent a chill through academia and government institutions that lasted for generations. With a simple letter speciously raising doubts about Oppenheimer’s loyalty to his country, William L. Borden (who was working as a proxy for Strauss) was able to discredit and muzzle the most respected scientific mind of the 20th century in American life; the man who ended World War II and brought our boys home. If the far-right could do that to him because he expressed vocal opinions about the hydrogen bomb, no one was safe.

So any biopic about Oppenheimer legitimately needed to cover a life that eerily matched the arc of Greek tragedy to a tee. After all, historians Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin named their definitive biography on the man American Prometheus, and what is a Promethean tale if you skip the part where the gods condemn him to be chained to a rock so his guts will be pecked out each morning?

Oppenheimer dramatizes these elements, and does so with spectacular detail and specificity. Even biographer Bird remarked with astonishment at the same Trinity anniversary panel that Nolan did something he and Sherwin had not: he went through the transcript of Lewis Strauss’ failed confirmation hearing and discovered a surprise witness named Dr. David Hill (Rami Malek in the movie), who was called on to essentially smear an unprepared Strauss with the same kind of one-sided testimony Strauss used to decimate Oppenheimer in his security clearance hearing five years earlier. The dramatic irony that this was done as revenge by the scientific community against the political class’ most envious party was not lost on Nolan.

In fact, it creates one-half of the climactic crescendo wherein Strauss raves after his Cabinet post begins slipping away that “I gave [Oppenheimer] exactly what he wanted: to be remembered for Trinity! Not Hiroshima! Not Nagasaki! He should be thanking me!” Of course Strauss’ fury also articulates why the film is so much richer and, ultimately, ambiguous. It explores part and parcel the facts of Oppenheimer’s life, and in doing so invites you to descend down into the pits of Hades.

A Trial Without a Jury or a Verdict

The most powerful sequence in Oppenheimer arguably occurs at the top of the third hour. After an exhilarating taste of success and triumph, Oppenheimer is left out of the final, gruesome moments of World War II. Two nuclear bombs fell on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the span of three days in August 1945. Two hundred twenty thousand lives were snuffed out in biblical fire or the lingering, years-long horror of radiation poisoning. And J. Robert learns about it just like every other American—by listening to the radio.

Then comes Nolan’s cinematic flourish. He lets you live in Oppie’s nightmare just as it is beginning to coalesce. While giving a patriotic speech crowing about the success of the nuclear weapons’ use on Japanese cities, Oppenheimer’s unconvincing stabs at jingoism fade away as he can only hear the sound of a woman screaming; then comes a bright light as the face of a young girl melts away. It is a new world for Oppenheimer, America, and the whole the human species. But only after he has let the genie out of the bottle does the film’s interpretation of Oppenheimer begin to seriously grapple with the long term ramifications of that release.

There is an argument to be made that Oppenheimer should have shown the nuclear holocaust inflicted on the Japanese people. I respect this opinion, although Nolan’s choice to trap you in Oppenheimer’s large, yet still limited, vantage point is the dramatically right one. It took this scientist years to come to terms with the horror of what he wrought on Japan, and the movie lets it slowly seep in.

There is also the uncomfortable fact that this story is bigger than just World War II. In the film, Oppenheimer considers the irony that his former tutor opined in the press that the nuclear bomb not so much ended World War II as it began what we now call the Cold War with the Soviet Union (which really happened). But the point of the Oppenheimer film is that what those scientists at Los Alamos did was bigger than just World War II or the Cold War—or even the 20th century itself.

Oppenheimer built, sharpened, and fastened a global Sword of Damocles above our collective heads, and it hangs there still. It will, in fact, hang there forever, unless one nation finally pushes the button and invites the inevitable response.

The last hour is about Oppenheimer, as a character and a film, coming to terms with that legacy. This is not a typical biopic about a great man, but a portrait of a soul damned by unspoken regrets and second-guesses that he never articulated to anyone. The film even posits Oppenheimer went through the humiliation of an unwinnable security clearance hearing as some form of penance for fathering the bomb.

“Did you think if you let them tar and feather you that the world will forgive you?” his wife Kitty (Emily Blunt) asks. “It won’t.”

“We’ll see” is Oppenheimer’s cryptic response. While we suspect Oppenheimer’s fight for political survival was not quite so history book-minded, the reality is he truly did tell the President of the United States “I have blood on my hands,” and spent the rest of his brief public life attempting to steer the United States away from the infinitely more deadly hydrogen bomb and the arms race it inevitably courted. He was then banished to the duck pond next to Einstein for his troubles.

Dramatically seeing that destruction is as cathartic as it is disturbing, with Jason Clarke’s government attorney Roger Robb embodying Zeus’ hungry eagle which is always eager to feast on Prometheus’ liver. It should be noted, this context also is what allows Kitty Oppenheimer, a brilliant woman whose mind is left to curdle by the oppressive expectations of her era, to finally speak candidly in one of the best scenes in the movie.

In the end though, the finale asks the audience to interrogate Oppenheimer the man. Can you forgive him? Should you even bother entertaining the idea? The real man never publicly admitted remorse over what happened in Japan, and whether he felt profound guilt or not, he still ushered in a nuclear age without end. There is no escape from the future Oppenheimer has wrought—not even for J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is professionally and spiritually destroyed by the legacy he pursued with wide open arms.

The last hour of Oppenheimer is not about the father of the atomic bomb; it’s about the father of our tomorrow and each and every one that will come after. Until one day, maybe it won’t.'

[letterboxd-loggd]

Guilty Bystander (1950) Joseph Lerner

February 6th 2023

[mimble-sparklepudding]

The Etheirycrumb OCs Revisited.

A is for Amon, with charisma in spades, B is for Banri, and his collection of blades, C is for Clara, who’s often confused, D is for Damien, with shadow infused, E is for Estelle, who’s hard to outplay, F is for Feldspar, with his legs on display, G is for Gigi, the safety inspector, H is for Hwyl, the glamour collector, I is for Iris, genteel and refined, J is for Jess, who knows her own mind, K is for Kai, in a tender romance, L is for Lejo, who really can dance, M is for Mizuki, with her tricky upbringing, N is for Nate, and his magical singing, O is for Osric, both wolfish and brooding, P is for Podolly, and the warmth she’s exuding, Q is for Q'ruhka, setting sail through the sky, R is for Rowan, who at first seems quite shy, S is for Saeed, who vowed to resist, T is for Tsukia, a brave altruist, U is for U’lohi, the spreader of joy, V is for Valentin, that flirtatious boy, W is for Wolfram, and his undisclosed bond, X is for Xynal, drawing power from beyond, Y is for Yume, with an un-charming prince, Z is for Zuzunzo, and the skill he'll evince.

By Blake Primping-Muddles.

(With further apologies to Edward Gorey)

A couple of years ago I wrote a very silly poem, in the style of Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies, in order to celebrate some of the wonderful FFXIV blogs and OCs on Tumblr. You can find the original here. Recently I thought it might be fun to revisit the idea and celebrate some more of my favourite OCs...

Hopefully nobody minds me borrowing their characters for further silly purposes! And apologies to the many wonderful OCs I had to leave out - there are an awful lot of characters starting with M and S etc.

How many characters did you recognise? Why not follow their respective blogs and find out more about their stories!

Amon @spotofmummery

Banri @aoife-asturmaux

Clara @confusedau-ra

Damien @damienward-ffxiv

Estelle @viiioca

Feldspar @loldragoon-ffxiv

Gigi @gigifujijifu

Hywl @hywl

Iris @irisopranta

Jess @sasslett

Kai @kaitontenchu

Lejo @naejlas-axe

Mizuki @pumpkinmagekupo

Nate @calico-heart

Osric @osric-giroux-ffxiv

Podolly @roxinova

Q'ruhka @placesyoucallhome

Rowan @tallbluelady

Saeed @stalwart-spirit

Tsukia @tsukiakurotori

U’lohi @humblemooncat

Valentin @cadrenebula

Wolfram @xiv-wolfram

Xynal @qxynalvaleroyantb

Yume @firelightmuse

Zuzunzo @zuzunzo

[peachy-panic]

What are your top ten whumpy book recommendations?

Top 10, you say? How about a comprehensive list of every half decent whumpy book I've read in the last 3 years? (I tried to balance the order between my overall love for the book and the whumpiness level)

BLANKET TW FOR THESE BOOKS: noncon, abuse, domestic violence, med whump, lab whump religious trauma, institutionalized abuse

WHUMPY BOOK RECS

TOP 10

The Tarot Sequence - K.D. Edwards (series, ongoing)

Winter’s Orbit - Everina Maxwell

How To Bang A Billionaire - Alexis Hall (trilogy, complete)

The Darkness Outside Us - Eliot Schrefer (will rip your heart out)

All For The Game - Nora Sakavic (trilogy, complete)

Dark Room Etiquette - Robin Roe

HappyHead - Josh Silver (sequel in progress)

All That’s Left in the World - Erik J. Brown

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice & Virtue - Mackenzi Lee

Stars in Your Eyes - Kacen Callender (releases in October 2023)

OTHER RECS:

- We Are The Ants - Shaun David Hutchinson

- Tonight We Rule the World - Zack Smedley

- The Lookback Window - Kyle Dillon Hertz (just finished!)

- Dark Space - Lisa Henry (trilogy, currently reading)

- First, Become Ashes - K.M. Sparza

- Parker - Jack Harbon

- A Strange and Stubborn Endurance - Foz Meadows

- Docile - K.M. Sparza (BBU vibes)

- Into the Light - Mark Oshiro

- Young Mungo - Douglas Stuart

- A List of Cages - Robin Roe (minor main character)

- Deposing Nathan - Zack Smedley (minor main character)

- How to Bite Your Neighbor and Win a Wager - D.N. Bryn

- Mysterious Skin - Scott Heim

- Surrender Your Sons - Adam Sass

- Yes, Daddy - Jonathan Parks-Ramage

- Not Quite Out - Louise Willingham

- Runner - Parker Williams

- Fraternity - Andy Mientus

- A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara (honestly… maybe don't read this)

LADY WHUMP:

- They Never Learn - Layne Fargo

- The Girls I’ve Been - Tess Sharpe

- I’m The Girl - Courtney Summers

- Girls of Paper and Fire - Natasha Ngan

- We Set the Dark on Fire - Tehlor Kay Mejia (there’s a sequel)

[grandvhs]

lista de nomes masculinos que estava no meu bloco de notas e eu só lembrei agora

starting with A ;;

aaron.

adair.

adam.

aiden.

ajax.

alec.

alfie.

allistar.

anderson.

andrew.

andy.

angus.

antonio.

anthony.

archer.

archibald.

archie.

aries.

arlo.

arthur.

ashley.

ashton.

austen.

avery.

axel.

starting with B ;;

bailey.

beau.

beckham.

beckett.

bellamy.

benjamin.

bennett.

bentley.

blade.

blake.

blaine.

blaise.

blue.

bobbie.

bodhi.

brad.

brandon.

braxton.

brayden.

brent.

brett.

brock.

brody.

brooke.

bryson.

starting with C ;;

caleb.

callum.

calvin.

cameron.

carlisle.

carlos.

carson.

carter.

casey.

chad.

chandler.

charlie.

chase.

chaz.

christian.

christopher.

cody.

colby.

cole.

cooper.

colton.

connor.

conrad.

corbin.

corey.

starting with D ;;

dakota.

dallas.

damien.

damon.

dante.

darian.

darron.

darryl.

david.

dawson.

declan.

demetri.

dennison.

denver.

derek.

diego.

diesel.

dimitri.

dixon.

dominic.

donovan.

drake.

drew.

dustin.

dwayne.

starting with E ;;

eason.

eaton.

eddy.

edmund.

edward.

elijah.

elior.

ellias.

elliot.

ellis.

elyas.

ember.

emerson.

emery.

emilio.

emmett.

enzo.

eric.

ernie.

ethan.

ethaniel.

evan.

everett.

everson.

ezar.

starting with F ;;

fabio.

fallon.

farah.

felix.

fernando.

ferris.

felton.

finn.

finnegan.

finnick.

fitz.

fitzgerald.

fletcher.

floyd.

flynn.

foley.

forest.

francisco.

franco.

frankie.

franklin.

fraser.

frasier.

freddie.

fredrik.

starting with G ;;

gabe.

gabriel.

gale.

gallagher.

garcia.

gareth.

garrett.

gary.

gavin.

gene.

george.

gerard.

gilbert.

giovanni.

glenn.

gordon.

grady.

graeme.

grant.

greggory.

gregor.

greyson.

griffin.

gus.

guy.

starting with H ;;

hadley.

hale.

haley.

hamilton.

hamish.

hansel.

harley.

harris.

harrison.

harry.

harvey.

haven.

hayes.

heath.

hector.

hendrix.

henrik.

henry.

holton.

howard.

hudson.

hugh.

hugo.

hunter.

hyde.

starting with I ;;

ian.

ibrahim.

icarius.

idris.

igor.

iman.

immanuel.

imran.

indi.

indiana.

indigo.

indra.

inrique.

irwin.

isaak.

isaiah.

isaias.

ishmael.

isobell.

israel.

ivan.

ivey.

ivor.

ivory.

izzy.

starting with J ;;

jack.

jacob.

jagger.

jai.

james.

jamie.

jason.

jaspar.

jaxon.

jaydon.

jed.

jeremy.

jesse.

jett.

joel.

jameson.

jonathon.

jordan.

jose.

joseph.

joshua.

jude.

julian.

junior.

justin.

starting with K ;;

kade.

kai.

kalen.

kameron.

kane.

kasey.

kayden.

keaton.

keegan.

keenan.

kellan.

kendall.

kendrick.

kevin.

khalil.

kian.

kiefer.

kieran.

kingsley.

kingston.

klaus.

kohen.

konrad.

kristoff.

kyle.

starting with L ;;

lachlan.

lamar.

lambert.

lance.

landon.

langston.

lawrence.

lawson.

leeroy.

lennon.

leo.

leonardo.

levi.

lewis.

liam.

lincoln.

lionel.

logan.

lorenzo.

louis.

luca.

lucas.

lucky.

lucis.

luke.

starting with M ;;

mackenzie.

madden.

maddox.

malaki.

malcolm.

manuel.

marco.

marcus.

marley.

marshall.

martin.

mason.

matteo.

matthew.

max.

micah.

michael.

miguel.

mike.

miles.

miller.

milo.

mitchell.

morgan.

moses

starting with N ;;

nadir.

naiser.

nasir.

nate.

nathan.

nathaniel.

naveen.

naydon.

ned.

nico.

neil.

nelson.

nero.

nicholai.

nicholas.

nila.

niles.

nixon.

noah.

noel.

nolan.

norman.

north.

nylan.

nyle.

starting with O ;;

oakley.

ocean.

octavius.

odell.

olaf.

oliver.

ollie.

omar.

omari.

orion.

orlando.

osborn.

oscar.

o’shea.

osten.

oswald.

otis.

otto.

owen.

oxley.

starting with P ;;

pablo.

page.

palmer.

parker.

parrish.

patrick.

paul.

paulo.

pax.

paxton.

payton.

penn.

percy.

perry.

peter.

phineas.

phoenix.

pierce.

pierre.

prescott.

presley.

preston.

prince.

princeton.

puck.

starting with Q ;;

qadim.

qadir.

quain.

quenby.

quill.

quimby.

quincy.

quinn.

quinten.

starting with R ;;

randy.

raymond.

reese.

reid.

remy.

reuben.

rhett.

rhys.

richard.

richie.

ricky.

riley.

robert.

robin.

roger.

roman.

romeo.

ronan.

ronnie.

ross.

rowen.

ryan.

ryder.

ryker.

rylan.

starting with S ;;

sage.

sailor.

salem.

samson.

samuel.

sascha.

sawyer.

saxon.

scott.

sean.

sebastian.

seth.

shane.

shiloh.

simon.

sinclair.

skyler.

sonny.

spencer.

stanley.

stefan.

steven.

stevie.

storm.

sullivan.

starting with T ;;

tamir.

tanner.

tate/tait.

tatum.

taylor.

teddy.

theo.

thomas.

timothy.

tobias.

toby.

todd.

tommy.

tory.

trace.

travis.

trent.

trevor.

trey.

tristan.

troye.

tucker.

tyler.

tyrone.

tyson.

starting with U ;;

umair.

umar.

urien.

usama.

starting with V ;;

valentine.

valentino.

vance.

vaughn.

victor.

vincent.

vinn.

vinnie.

vladimir.

starting with W ;;

wade.

walden.

wallace.

walter.

warner.

warren.

warrick.

waylan.

wayne.

wendall.

wes.

wesley.

west.

whitley.

wilbert.

william.

willis.

wilmer.

windsor.

winslow.

winston.

wolf.

wren.

wyatt.

wynter.

starting with X ;;

xachary.

xan.

xander.

xavier.

xeno.

ximen.

xylon.

starting with Y ;;

yahto.

yakub.

yasin.

yasi.

york.

ysrael.

yuri.

yusef.

starting with Z ;;

zachary.

zahir.

zander.

zane.

zavier.

zed.

zeke.

zion.

zolten.

[incorrect-oppenheimer]

Compiling a list of books everyone knows about. It's long so under the cut...

Novelty Books: Area 51 by Nick Redfern Los Alamos by Joseph Kanon Unleashing Oppenheimer by Jada Yuan Oppenheimer: The Complete Screenplay by Christopher Nolan Copenhagen by Michael Frayn The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J. Sawyer The Manhattan Projects by Jonathan Hickman

Books by others: The Advisors: Oppenheimer, Teller, and the Superbomb by Herbert F. York The Real Dr. Strangelove by Peter Goodchild The Tragedy of Edward Teller by István Hargittai Judging Teller by István Hargittai Martians of Science by István Hargittai Wisdom of the Martians of Science by István Hargittai Edward Teller: A Giant of the Golden Age of Physics by Stanley A. Blumberg and Louis G. Panos Energy and Conflict: The Life and Times of Edward Teller by Stanley A. Blumberg and Gwinn Owens Brotherhood of the Bomb by Gregg Herken The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes Atomic Spy by Nancy Thorndike Greenspan The Spy Who Changed The World by Mike Rossiter Physics and Philosophy by Werner Heisenberg The Meaning of Relativity by Albert Einstein Now It Can Be Told by Leslie Groves (With introduction by Edward Teller, who tried to be nice.) Oppenheimer: The Story of a Friendship by Haakon Chevalier The Man Who Would Be God by Haakon Chevalier (This is weird.) American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin Feynman by Ottaviani and Myrick Fallout by Ottaviani Trinity by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm Easton Press: Day of Trinity by Lansing Lamont The Man From The Future by Ananyo Bhattacharya The MANIAC by Benjamín Labatut Big Science by Michael Hiltzik Forks In The Road: A Life In Physics by Stanley Deser A Sense of the Mysterious: Science And The Human Spirit by Alan Lightman Pandora’s Keepers by Brian VanDeMark J Robert Oppenheimer by Abraham Pais An American Genius by Herbert Childs Lawrence and Oppenheimer by Nuel Pharr Davis The General And The Genius by James Kunetka J. Robert Oppenheimer And The American Century by David C. Cassidy Atoms In The Family by Laura Fermi Genius In The Shadows by William Lanouette Beyond Uncertainty by David C. Cassidy An Atomic Love Story by Patricia Klaus and Shriley Streshinsky 109 East Palace by Jennet Conant The Strangest Man by Graham Farmelo The Night of the Physicists by Richard von Schirach Oppenheimer and the American Century by David C. Cassidy Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist by Luis W. Alvarez Oppenheimer by Isidor Isaac Rabi and more. Bomb by Steve Sheinkin Fallout by Steve Sheinkin Surely You’re Joking Mister Feynman by Richard Feynman The Feynman Lectures by Richard Feynman When We Cease To Understand The World by Benjamín Labatut Enrico Fermi: His Work And Legacy by Enrico Fermi Suspended In Language by Ottaviani

Oppenheimer: The Open Mind Atom and Void In The Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (By everyone else.) These are the transcripts of the trials. Robert Oppenheimer Letters and Recollections edited by Alice Kimball Smith and Charles Weiner Science and the Common Understanding City of the End of Things by Northrop Frye, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Edward Togo Salmon Uncommon Sense Lectures On Electrodynamics

More added on reblog.

[posi-pan]

2022 books with pan rep 📚

At the time of posting previous lists, there were 57 books in 2020 and 141 in 2021. This year, there are 176!

30 Things I Love about Myself by Radhika Sanghani

Ablaze by A.H. Cunningham

All I’m Asking by J. Marie Rundquist

Apparition by Zahlia Amin

Attraction (Mobsters + Billionaires #3) by Kelly Fox

Bad At Love by Gabriela Martins

Barcelona (Circus After Dark #3) by Chloe Adler

The Barkeep and the Bookseller by V.L. Locey

Barnabas Bopwright Saves the City by J. Marshall Freeman

Bartholomew (The Temple Brothers #2) by Elle Sparrow

Ben and Beatriz by Katalina Gamarra

Bishop’s Opening by R.S.A Garcia

Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai

Blood Bound (Youkai Bloodlines #3) by Courtney Maguire

Blood Legacy (Avators of Ruin #2) by Tej Turner

Bloodmarked (Legendborn #2) by Tracy Deonn

Bound (Fangs with Benefits #3) by Aveda Vice

Bound (Kozlov Chronicles #2) by Elena Sobol

Carnal Cryptids 2: Southeast (Carnal Cryptids #2) by Vera Valentine

Changing the Rules (Rules of the Game: Evanston River Otters #1) by Brigham Vaughn

The Chasm (Finding Humanity #2) by Branwen Oshea

Cold Cases and Bitter Enemies (Cold Case Unit #3) by J.M. Dabney

A Cosmic Kind of Love by Samantha Young

Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

A Cruel and Fated Light (The Hollow Star #2) by Ashley Shuttleworth

Dance with the Devil (Mercenary Librarians #3) by Kit Rocha

The Darkest Edge by Lyra Blake

Dead Draw by Layla Reyne

Death by Society by Sierra Elmore

Dinner with the Schnabels by Toni Jordan

Dominance of the Heart by Char Dafoe

Dragon’s Honor (Irresistible Dragons #2) by Nora Phoenix

Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak (Unstoppable #2) by Charlie Jane Anders

D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding by Chenica C. Higgins

The Edge of Being by James Brandon

Electric Idol (Dark Olympus #2) by Katee Robert

Epilogues of Lost Gods (Unwritten Runes #2) by Cat Rector

Errant Vol. 1 (Errant #1) by L.K. Fleet

Eternal Hoptimist by Lee Blair

Every Word You Never Said by Jordon Greene

Exodus 20:3 by Freydís Moon

Extra Witchy (Fix-It Witches #3) by Ann Aguirre

Fabricated by Zoe Lee

The Fae Keeper (The Witch King #2) by H.E. Edgmon

The Fake Date by Trisha Bradley

Fate in Suspension (Horn & Haven #1) by Archer Kay Leah

Fault Tolerance (Chilling Effect #3) by Valerie Valdes

Fight + Flight by Jules Machias

Fighting Monsters: Part One (Fighting Monsters #1) by Sam Hall

Fighting Monsters: Part Two (Fighting Monsters #2) by Sam Hall

Forward March by Skye Quinlan

Furious Heaven (The Sun Chronicles #2) by Kate Elliott

Going Public (Jade Harbor Capital #2) by Hudson Lin

Got Me Looking (Vet Shop Boys #3) by Casey Cox

Griff by Ana Night

Grim and Bear It (Love Me Dead #2) by Heather Novak

Grounded for All Eternity by Darcy Marks

The Heartbreak Handshake by J.R. Hart

Her Stubborn Warrior by Kaylee Pike and Kyra Keys

His Heart Knows by Riley Long

The Hourglass Throne (The Tarot Sequence #3) by K.D. Edwards

Howl Down the Moon by Layla Dorine

How to Love a Dragon (Dragon Tamer #2) by Lila Mina

How We Ricochet by Faith Gardner

I Am Sebastian by Cameron James

I Bought Him, So He’s Mine by Kaylee Pike and Kyra Keys

Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

I F-ing Dare You by Emm Darcy

If I Were A Weapon (All These Gifts #1) by Skye Kilaen

The Immortality Trials (The Immortality Trials #1) by Madison Nicole

Incandescent by Christina Lee

Indigo: Nights (Indigo B&B #2) by Adrian J. Smith

Inked Temptation by Carrie Ann Ryan

In the City of Time by Gwendolyn Clare

Irresponsible Puckboy by Eden Finley and Saxon James

It’s Not Unusual To Be Loved by an Alien by Chloe Archer

Jamison by A.N. Waugh

Jilted: Jaren (The Foster Brothers #1) by Nora Phoenix

Just a Touch Away by Jae

Just One Date (Castleton Hearts #5) by Chelsea M. Cameron

Kieran by Avery Tu and Kota Quinn

The Kindred by Alechia Dow

Kink Camp: Hunted by A. Anders

Know It In the Dark (All These Gifts #2) by Skye Kilaen

Kostya the Fallen Star by Melissa Polk

The Last Hero (The First Sister #3) by Linden A. Lewis

Last Resort by Helene Gadot

Lead Me Astray by Sondi Warner

Let Me In (Gods of Hunger #3) by R.M. Virtues

Let the Light Shine Through by A. Marie

Lipstick Lies (The Order Duet #2) by Kris Butler

Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake by Mazey Eddings

London (Circus After Dark #4) by Chloe Adler

Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly

Love Me Gently by E.M. Dennings

Love You Like That by Scarlett Cole

Lunar New Love by Ophelia Silk

Man o’ War by Cory McCarthy

Match with the Demon by Chace Verity

Meet Me on St. Patrick’s Day by Bryony Rosehurst

Moon Dark Smile (Night Shine #2) by Tessa Gratton

MumFest & Murder (The Java Tavern #2) by Elizabeth Garver

Music Lights & Never Afters by C.L. Matthews

My Roommate Romeo (First Times #1) by Billie Bloom

Nestor (Green Hill Pride #6) by Catherine Lievens

Not Good for Maidens by Tori Bovalino

Not Your Type by Elizabeth Jeannel

Odder Still by D.N. Bryn

Omega’s Study Partner (Sweet in Silford #3) by Hope Bennett

One Night With You by Laura Jane Williams

One Night With You by Sky McCoy

One Step at a Time by Lily Seabrooke

One Week with His Stepbrother (Daddy Tales #3) by Kelex

The One Who Loves You the Most by Medina

Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie

Paris (Circus After Dark #1) by Chloe Adler

Pitcher Perfect (Tap That Brewery #1) by Lee Blair

Playing for Keeps by Jax Calder

Play Me (Dragons Love Curves series #10) by Aidy Award

Pull (Love Is Love #1.5) by Nyla K.

Project Himbo by S.J. Whitby

Promote (Shattered Pawns #3) by Jennifer Cody

Pushing the Limits (Secrets Kept #2) by Riley Hart

Queen of Queens (Our Fae Queen #5) by Traci Lovelot

Queen’s Hope (Star Wars: The Padmé Trilogy #3) by E.K. Johnston

Reaper Hospital: Code Hot Nurse (Their Repear #2) by Lacey Carter Anderson

Recast (Handled #4) by Romilly King

The Redemption by Alexia Chase

Ripped (Kozlov Chronicles #3) by Elena Sobol

Rookie Mistake (On the Board #1) by Anna Zabo and L.A. Witt

Royal Exposé by Jenny Frame

Royal Lines (Boston Rebels #4) by R.J. Scott and V.L. Locey

Sasha and the Butcher (The Moretti Family #1) by Stephanie Kazowz

The Savior’s Rise (The Windermere Tales #2) by Talli L. Morgan

Scorpica (The Five Queendoms #1) by Greer Macallister

Seize the Castle (A Knight’s Revenge #2) by Elizabeth Dear

Shake Things Up (Love at Knockdown #2) by Skye Kilaen

Silent Secrets (The Secrets of Sorlphi #1) by Miranda May

Silhouette and the Shadows (Silhouette #1) by Delaney Andrews

The Society For Soulless Girls by Laura Steven

So This Is Ever After by F.T. Lukens

Spin the Damn Bottle (All the Games We Play #2) by Emm Darcy

Stiletto Sins (The Order Duet #1) by Kris Butler

Stitched (Kozlov Chronicles #1) by Elena Sobol

Stone Wings (The Gargoyles of Arrington #1) by Jenn Burke

Storm the Gates (A Knight’s Revenge #1) by Elizabeth Dear

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

Sugar Girl by Emma L. McGeown

Sweet to the Core (Lighthouse Bay #3) by Amy Aislin

Temptation Cove (Hot Takes #3) by T.S. Ankney

Tempt Me Tonight by Natasha Washington

A Tended Garden by J.P. Jackson

Thank You, Next by Andie J. Christopher

That Good Mischief (The Nine Worlds Rising #3) by Lyra Wolf

This Cursed Crown (These Feathered Flames #2) by Alexandra Overy

This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2) by Kalynn Bayron

Tracking Trouble (Spellster Universe #2.5) by Aldrea Alien

The Trow of Duncaster by Melissa Polk

Twilight’s Touch (Prairie Smoke Ranch #2) by V.L. Locey

Two Rights Make a Wrong by Chloe Liese

Undeniable (Bainbridge University #4) by Andi Burns

Uninhibited (Bainbridge University #3) by Andi Burns

Unlikely Savior (For the Gods’ Amusement #3) by Catherine Lievens

Untitled (The Councillor #2) by E.J. Beaton

Us Against the World by Shayne Prescott

VAMPS: Fresh Blood by Nicole Arend

Venice (Circus After Dark #2) by Chloe Adler

Violet is Nowhere by Faith Gardner

Warrior Queen (Our Fae Queen #6) by Traci Lovelot

Warwick (Rebel Sky Ranch #4) by Kelly Fox

What’s Mine Is Yours by Willow Renee

When the Walls Come Down by Harper Robson

Wicked Beauty (Dark Olympus #3) by Katee Robert

The Wicked Love by Pru Schuyler

Wrong Hunt by J.S. Harker

Have you read any of these books? Or books with pan rep at all this year? Let me know! Happy Pan Week!

[rockislandadultreads]

Trending Now: Oppenheimer

Robert Oppenheimer by Ray Monk

Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb—a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters.

In this volume, Ray Monk goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality. Through compassionate investigation and with towering scholarship, Monk tells an unforgettable story of discovery, secrecy, impossible choices, and unimaginable destruction.

American Prometheus by Kai Bird

American Prometheus is the first full-scale biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb," the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome fire of the sun for his country in time of war. Immediately after Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his generation-one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, the embodiment of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific progress.

He was the author of a radical proposal to place international controls over atomic materials - an idea that is still relevant today. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb and criticized the Air Force's plans to fight an infinitely dangerous nuclear war. In the now almost-forgotten hysteria of the early 1950s, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup, and, in response, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss, Superbomb advocate Edward Teller and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover worked behind the scenes to have a hearing board find that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America's nuclear secrets.

American Prometheus sets forth Oppenheimer's life and times in revealing and unprecedented detail. Exhaustively researched, it is based on thousands of records and letters gathered from archives in America and abroad, on massive FBI files and on close to a hundred interviews with Oppenheimer's friends, relatives and colleagues.

J. Robert Oppenheimer by Abraham Pais

Award-winning biographer Abraham Pais introduces us to a precocious youth who sped through Harvard in three years, made signal contributions to quantum mechanics while in his twenties, and was instrumental in the growth of American physics in the decade before the Second World War, almost single-handedly bringing it to a state of prominence. He paints a revealing portrait of Oppenheimer's life in Los Alamos, where in twenty remarkable, feverish months, and under his inspired guidance, the first atomic bomb was designed and built, a success that made Oppenheimer America's most famous scientist. Pais describes Oppenheimer's long tenure as Director of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, where the two men worked together closely. He shows not only Oppenheimer's brilliance and leadership, but also how his displays of intensity and arrogance won him powerful enemies, ones who would ultimately make him one of the principal victims of the Red Scare of the 1950s.

J. Robert Oppenheimer is Abraham Pais's final work, completed after his death by Robert P. Crease, an acclaimed historian of science in his own right. Told with compassion and deep insight, it is the most comprehensive biography of the great physicist available. Anyone seeking an insider's portrait of this enigmatic man will find it indispensable.

The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Priscilla J. McMillan

On April 12, 1954, the nation was astonished to learn that scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer faced charges of violating national security. Why had the charismatic leader of the Manhattan Project— the man who led the team that developed the atomic bomb that ended World War II—been cast into overnight disgrace? In this riveting narrative, bestselling author Priscilla J. McMillan draws on newly declassified U.S. government documents and materials from Russia, as well as in-depth interviews, to present the truth about the downfall of America’s most famous scientist.

[nem0c]

Vietnam War - Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, June 1968

Sourced from: http://natsmusic.net/articles_galaxy_magazine_viet_nam_war.htm

Transcript Below

We the undersigned believe the United States must remain in Vietnam to fulfill its responsibilities to the people of that country.

Karen K. Anderson, Poul Anderson, Harry Bates, Lloyd Biggle Jr., J. F. Bone, Leigh Brackett, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mario Brand, R. Bretnor, Frederic Brown, Doris Pitkin Buck, William R. Burkett Jr., Elinor Busby, F. M. Busby, John W. Campbell, Louis Charbonneau, Hal Clement, Compton Crook, Hank Davis, L. Sprague de Camp, Charles V. de Vet, William B. Ellern, Richard H. Eney, T. R. Fehrenbach, R. C. FitzPatrick, Daniel F. Galouye, Raymond Z. Gallun, Robert M. Green Jr., Frances T. Hall, Edmond Hamilton, Robert A. Heinlein, Joe L. Hensley, Paul G. Herkart, Dean C. Ing, Jay Kay Klein, David A. Kyle, R. A. Lafferty, Robert J. Leman, C. C. MacApp, Robert Mason, D. M. Melton, Norman Metcalf, P. Schuyler Miller, Sam Moskowitz, John Myers Myers, Larry Niven, Alan Nourse, Stuart Palmer, Gerald W. Page, Rachel Cosgrove Payes, Lawrence A. Perkins, Jerry E. Pournelle, Joe Poyer, E. Hoffmann Price, George W. Price, Alva Rogers, Fred Saberhagen, George O. Smith, W. E. Sprague, G. Harry Stine (Lee Correy), Dwight V. Swain, Thomas Burnett Swann, Albert Teichner, Theodore L. Thomas, Rena M. Vale, Jack Vance, Harl Vincent, Don Walsh Jr., Robert Moore Williams, Jack Williamson, Rosco E. Wright, Karl Würf.

We oppose the participation of the United States in the war in Vietnam.

Forrest J. Ackerman, Isaac Asimov, Peter S. Beagle, Jerome Bixby, James Blish, Anthony Boucher, Lyle G. Boyd, Ray Bradbury, Jonathan Brand, Stuart J. Byrne, Terry Carr, Carroll J. Clem, Ed M. Clinton, Theodore R. Cogswell, Arthur Jean Cox, Allan Danzig, Jon DeCles, Miriam Allen deFord, Samuel R. Delany, Lester del Rey, Philip K. Dick, Thomas M. Disch, Sonya Dorman, Larry Eisenberg, Harlan Ellison, Carol Emshwiller, Philip José Farmer, David E. Fisher, Ron Goulart, Joseph Green, Jim Harmon, Harry Harrison, H. H. Hollis, J. Hunter Holly, James D. Houston, Edward Jesby, Leo P. Kelley, Daniel Keyes, Virginia Kidd, Damon Knight, Allen Lang, March Laumer, Ursula K. LeGuin, Fritz Leiber, Irwin Lewis, A. M. Lightner, Robert A. W. Lowndes, Katherine MacLean, Barry Malzberg, Robert E. Margroff, Anne Marple, Ardrey Marshall, Bruce McAllister, Judith Merril, Robert P. Mills, Howard L. Morris, Kris Neville, Alexei Panshin, Emil Petaja, J. R. Pierce, Arthur Porges, Mack Reynolds, Gene Roddenberry, Joanna Russ, James Sallis, William Sambrot, Hans Stefan Santesson, J. W. Schutz, Robin Scott, Larry T. Shaw, John Shepley, T. L. Sherred, Robert Silverberg, Henry Slesar, Jerry Sohl, Norman Spinrad, Margaret St. Clair, Jacob Transue, Thurlow Weed, Kate Wilhelm, Richard Wilson, Donald A. Wollheim.

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 16, 2023

Sleep deprivation and hippocampal ripple disruption after one-session learning eliminate memory expression the next day. Aleman-Zapata, A., Morris, R. G. M., & Genzel, L. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(44), e2123424119.

Aversive memory formation in humans involves an amygdala-hippocampus phase code. Costa, M., Lozano-Soldevilla, D., Gil-Nagel, A., Toledano, R., Oehrn, C. R., Kunz, L., … Strange, B. A. (2022). Nature Communications, 13, 6403.

Sleep preferentially consolidates negative aspects of human memory: Well-powered evidence from two large online experiments. Denis, D., Sanders, K. E. G., Kensinger, E. A., & Payne, J. D. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(44), e2202657119.

How do (perceptual) distracters distract? Dumbalska, T., Rudzka, K., Smithson, H. E., & Summerfield, C. (2022). PLOS Computational Biology, 18(10), e1010609.

The induced motion effect is a high-level visual phenomenon: Psychophysical evidence. Falconbridge, M., Hewitt, K., Haille, J., Badcock, D. R., & Edwards, M. (2022). I-Perception, 13(5), 204166952211181.

Salience memories formed by value, novelty and aversiveness jointly shape object responses in the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia. Ghazizadeh, A., & Hikosaka, O. (2022). Nature Communications, 13, 6338.

Recurrent Hippocampo-neocortical sleep-state divergence in humans. Jang, R. S., Ciliberti, D., Mankin, E. A., & Poe, G. R. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(44), e2123427119.

Cone opponent functional domains in primary visual cortex combine signals for color appearance mechanisms. Li, P., Garg, A. K., Zhang, L. A., Rashid, M. S., & Callaway, E. M. (2022). Nature Communications, 13, 6344.

Hippocampal gamma and sharp wave/ripples mediate bidirectional interactions with cortical networks during sleep. Pedrosa, R., Nazari, M., Mohajerani, M. H., Knöpfel, T., Stella, F., & Battaglia, F. P. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(44), e2204959119.

Generalizing the control architecture of the lateral prefrontal cortex. Pitts, M., & Nee, D. E. (2022). Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 195, 107688.

Natural scene sampling reveals reliable coarse-scale orientation tuning in human V1. Roth, Z. N., Kay, K., & Merriam, E. P. (2022). Nature Communications, 13, 6469.

Stable Working Memory and Perceptual Representations in Macaque Lateral Prefrontal Cortex during Naturalistic Vision. Roussy, M., Corrigan, B., Luna, R., Gulli, R. A., Sachs, A. J., Palaniyappan, L., & Martinez-Trujillo, J. C. (2022). Journal of Neuroscience, 42(44), 8328–8342.

A Midbrain Inspired Recurrent Neural Network Model for Robust Change Detection. Sawant, Y., Kundu, J. N., Radhakrishnan, V. B., & Sridharan, D. (2022). Journal of Neuroscience, 42(44), 8262–8283.

Distinct organization of two cortico-cortical feedback pathways. Shen, S., Jiang, X., Scala, F., Fu, J., Fahey, P., Kobak, D., … Tolias, A. S. (2022). Nature Communications, 13, 6389.

Predictive coding, multisensory integration, and attentional control: A multicomponent framework for lucid dreaming. Simor, P., Bogdány, T., & Peigneux, P. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(44), e2123418119.

A model of autonomous interactions between hippocampus and neocortex driving sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Singh, D., Norman, K. A., & Schapiro, A. C. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(44), e2123432119.

A robust core architecture of functional brain networks supports topological resilience and cognitive performance in middle- and old-aged adults. Stanford, W. C., Mucha, P. J., & Dayan, E. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(44), e2203682119.

Optimal noise level for coding with tightly balanced networks of spiking neurons in the presence of transmission delays. Timcheck, J., Kadmon, J., Boahen, K., & Ganguli, S. (2022). PLOS Computational Biology, 18(10), e1010593.

Dissociating the involvement of muscarinic and nicotinic cholinergic receptors in object memory destabilization and reconsolidation. Wideman, C. E., Minard, E. P., Zakaria, J. M., Capistrano, J. D. R., Scott, G. A., & Winters, B. D. (2022). Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 195, 107686.

Inducing forgetting of unwanted memories through subliminal reactivation. Zhu, Z., Anderson, M. C., & Wang, Y. (2022). Nature Communications, 13, 6496.

[denimbex1986]

'Clocking in at just over three hours, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is his longest and arguably most ambitious film yet.

The biopic sees Cillian Murphy giving a sure to be Oscar-nominated performance as the titular physicist, who is known as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’.

Its not just the lead star who is being tipped for award season glory either, with his cast mates, director Nolan and the film’s sound, special effects and wardrobe teams also likely to make it onto shortlists.

We’re still many months away from the Golden Globes and Oscars nominee announcements but to tide you over, here are 15 behind-the-scenes facts that remind you just how impressive Oppenheimer is...

The Trinity Test recreation was filmed without special effects

Nolan is no stranger to recreating dramatic events on the big screen but in perhaps his most ambitious move yet, the director decided to film the atomic bomb test without using any CGI or visual effects. That means what you see on screen really did take place – although on a smaller scale.

Visual effects supervisor Scott R. Fisher has explained how his team created real ‘miniature’ explosions and filmed those.

He told Total Film: “We don’t call them miniatures; we call them ‘big-atures’. We do them as big as we possibly can, but we do reduce the scale so it’s manageable.

“It’s getting it closer to the camera, and doing it as big as you can in the environment.”

In order to create the intense burning created by the successful test run, Scott’s team used gasoline and propane, while aluminium powder and magnesium were added to replicate the blinding white light of a nuclear explosion.

Scott added: “We really wanted everyone to talk about that flash, that brightness. So we tried to replicate that as much as we could.”

The opening Prometheus quote is a nod to Nolan’s source material

Oppenheimer opens with an ominous opening caption, which reads: “Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity.”

The film is based on Kai Bird’s 2005 Oppenheimer biography American Prometheus and explaining the comparison, Kai writes in his book: “Like that rebellious Greek god Prometheus—who stole fire from Zeus and bestowed it upon humankind, Oppenheimer gave us atomic fire.

“But then, when he tried to control it, when he sought to make us aware of its terrible dangers, the powers-that-be, like Zeus, rose up in anger to punish him.”

Cillian Murphy got his role without auditioning

Oppenheimer marks Christopher and Cillian’s sixth film together – following the Batman trilogy, Inception and Dunkirk – and given their close relationship, the Irish actor no longer needs to audition for roles.

During an interview with Radio 2, Cillian recalled the moment when he received a casual call from Nolan, who explained he had the perfect lead role for him.

“If you’re lucky you get one or two of those [calls] in your career, you know?” he said. “It was the best, best feeling. It was kind of euphoric, and then you go ‘oh that’s a lot of work’. So I immediately just started working.

“I had like six months before, between when he called me and we started the shoot. The script was solid and was there. It was one of the greatest scripts I’ve ever read. It was magnificent.”

The cast lived together during filming

Oppenheimer sees America’s greatest scientific minds living together at the Los Alamos facility in New Mexico and for the movie, Nolan also moved his cast and crew into digs together.

Emily Blunt likened the situation to ‘summer camp’ and told People: “We were all in the same hotel in the middle of the New Mexican desert. We only had each other.”

But Cillian skipped their group hangouts

Longterm pals Emily and Matt Damon organised group dinners for the cast during filming – but the former’s on-screen husband RSVP’d with a firm no.

Mary Poppins actor Emily added to People: “The sheer volume of what he had to take on and shoulder is so monumental.

“Of course he didn’t want to come and have dinner with us.”

Cillian added: “You know that when you have those big roles, that responsibility, you feel it’s kind of overwhelming.”

Another contributing factor was the Irish star’s strict diet, as he lost weight to play the scientist, who in real-life subsisted on cigarettes, martinis and not so much food.

“He was losing so much weight for the part that he just didn’t eat dinner, ever,” Matt told Entertainment Tonight.

The hard to hear dialogue is (sort of) intentional

While Oppenheimer is very much deserving of its five-star reviews, cinema-goers have complained about one thing: the sound levels.

Posting on social media after seeing the movie, numerous fans noted that some of the speech sounds muffled and exchanges on-screen can sometimes be difficult to fully hear.

This is down to the fact the IMAX cameras used by Nolan aren’t soundproofed.

Most directors would work around this by getting actors to re-record dialogue in post-production to make it clearer, but this is something he isn’t a fan of.

“I like to use the performance that was given in the moment rather than the actor re-voice it later,” Nolan told Insider. “Which is an artistic choice that some people disagree with, and that’s their right.”

The script was written in first person

In another unusual move, Nolan wrote the script in first person in order to reflect how most of the film is being told from Oppenheimer’s perspective and using his memories.

Matt Damon told Vulture: “I’ve never seen that done before. Instead of ‘Oppenheimer walks across the room,’ it’s ‘I walk across the room.’ This was a way for him to signal that, Okay, this is what the movie’s going to feel like. It’s going to feel immediate.”

Kodak had to manufacture a new type of film especially for Oppenheimer

Film purist Nolan filmed the biopic on large format cameras with IMAX 70mm film, but there was one small problem.

Oppenheimer features two timelines with one in colour and another in black-and-white. Unfortunately, black and white IMAX 70mm film didn’t exist so cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema put in a call to Kodak.

He told Variety: “They came out with test rolls for us to run through our camera. We had to re-engineer our cameras a little bit, and we had to remake our pressure plates and our backend lab work needed to be readjusted.”

“I do remember when Chris and I were sitting in the cinema and watching the results of our first black and white test and it was just freaking amazing. We had never seen anything like it.”

Cillian had no physics knowledge – but one co-star was well-prepared

The Inception star has admitted that he doesn’t “have the intellectual capacity to understand quantum mechanics” but the same can’t be said for Benny Safdie, who plays Edward Teller.

Prior to becoming an actor, Benny was a budding scientist and studied nuclear physics in high school.

“I was working with a physicist at Columbia University,” he told Vulture. “I was doing cosmic rays. It is a deep passion of mine.”

And another actor previously starred in another Oppenheimer-inspired project

Christopher Denham, who plays Klaus Fuchs, appeared in the 2014 series Manhattan, which took its name from the project developing the atomic weapons.

We won’t spoil the TV drama but Christopher’s Manhattan character, the entirely fictional Jim Meeks, has parallels to his Oppenheimer alter-ego.

There are no deleted scenes and there’ll never be a director’s cut

Nolan’s love of IMAX cameras and 70mm film makes movie-making incredibly expensive, so he makes sure every single second of his movies is mapped out before yelling ‘action’.

Cillian told Collider: “There’s no deleted scenes in Chris Nolan movies. That’s why there are no DVD extras on his movies because the script is the movie. He knows exactly what’s going to end up – he’s not fiddling around with it trying to change the story. That is the movie.”

Oppenheimer features Nolan’s first ever sex scenes

Despite having directed 11 feature films before starting work on his latest, Nolan had never directed intimate scenes before.

Oppenheimer features sex scenes with the titular scientist and Jean Tatlock, a member of the communist party who was his lover before and during his marriage (played by Florence Pugh).

Justifying the intimate moments, Nolan told Insider they are “essential” to understanding Oppenheimer’s life as a whole.

“His very intense relationship with Jean Tatlock [...] is one of the most important things in his life,” he said. “But not least for the fact that Jean Tatlock was very explicitly a Communist and his obsession with her therefore had enormous ramifications for his later life and his ultimate fate.

“It felt very important to understand their relationship and to really see inside it and understand what made it tick without being coy or allusive about it, but to try to be intimate, to try and be in there with him and fully understand the relationship that was so important to him.”

Florence Pugh’s topless scene is very different in some cinemas around the globe

The intimate scenes between Oppenheimer and his lover earned the film its R rating, but some cinema-goers noticed an odd addition to one scene.

In countries including India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, digital censoring has been used to cover Florence’s body with a CGI black dress.

Nolan had been thinking about Oppenheimer since he was a teenager

The director grew up in England in the 1980s when the scientist was “a part of pop culture then, without us knowing a lot about him.”

He told Bulletin: “I think I first encountered Oppenheimer in that relation; I think he was referred to in Sting’s song about the Russians that came out then and talks about Oppenheimer’s ‘deadly toys.’

“It was the peak of CND, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Greenham Common [protest]; the threat of nuclear war was when I was 12, 13, 14 – it was the biggest fear we all had,” he added.

And there’s even an Oppenheimer reference in Tenet

In the same interview, Nolan recalls learning of how the Los Alamos scientists were told there was a chance the atomic bomb could destroy the world.

He explained: “That struck me as the most dramatic situation in the history of the world, with any sort of possibility being an end to life on Earth. That’s a responsibility that nobody else in the history of the world had ever faced.

“I put a reference to that in my last film, Tenet; there’s dialogue, a reference to that exact situation by Oppenheimer. That film deals with a science-fiction extrapolation of that notion: Can you put the toothpaste back in the tube? The danger of knowledge, once knowledge is unveiled—once it’s known, once it’s fact—you can’t wind the clock back and put that away.”'

[balioc]

BALIOC’S READING LIST, 2022 EDITION

With one exception, this list counts only published books, consumed in published-book format, that I read for the first time and finished. (There was one serious-seeming book that, as far as I know, exists only in free-floating PDF form.) No rereads, nothing abandoned halfway through, no Internet detritus of any kind apart from the aforementioned, etc.  Also no children’s picture books.

1. The Blue Castle, Lucy Maude Montgomery

2. The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, Priya Parker

3. The Girl and the Mountain, Mark Lawrence

4. There Is No Antimemetics Division, qntm

5. Dreamsnake, Vonda N. McIntyre

6. War and State Building in Medieval Japan, Various (ed. John A. Ferejohn and Frances McCall Rosenbluth)

7. Legal Systems Very Different From Ours, David Friedman, Peter T. Leeson, and David Skarbek

8. The Revolutions, Felix Gilman

9. Age of Ash, Daniel Abraham

10. When the Sea Turned to Silver, Grace Lin

11. Summer in Orcus, T. Kingfisher

12. The Thousand Eyes, A. K. Larkwood

13. Kingfall, David Estes

14. Surrogation, Suspended Reason

15. The Hands of the Emperor, Victoria Goddard

16. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro

17. Hakkenden -- Part 1: "An Ill-Considered Jest," Kyokutei Bakin

18. Claws of the Cat, Susan Spann

19. Blade of the Samurai, Susan Spann

20. Flask of the Drunken Master, Susan Spann

21. The Ninja's Daughter, Susan Spann

22. Betrayal at Iga, Susan Spann

23. Trial at Mount Koya, Susan Spann

24. Ghost of the Bamboo Road, Susan Spann

25. Fires of Edo, Susan Spann

26. The Discord of Gods, Jenn Lyons

27. All the Seas of the World, Guy Gavriel Kay

28. Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley, Edward Plunkett, Lord Dunsany

29. Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success, Ran Abramitzky and Leah Bousyan

30. Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

31. Perhaps the Stars, Ada Palmer

32. Dreadgod, Will Wight

33. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore

34. Manfred, George Gordon, Lord Byron

35. Friend to Mankind: Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), Various (ed. Michael Shepherd)

36. Locklands, Robert Jackson Bennett

37. The Jade Setter of Janloon, Fonda Lee

38. Spring Snow, Yukio Mishima

39. Against All Gods, Miles Cameron

40. Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

41. Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century, J. Bradford DeLong

42. The Golden Enclaves, Naomi Novik

43. The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Vol. I, George R. R. Martin, Elio M. Garcia Jr., and Linda Antonsson

44. A Garter as a Lesser Gift, Aster Glenn Gray

45. The Night-Bird's Feather, Jenna Moran

46. Absolution by Murder, Peter Tremayne

47. The Lost Metal, Brandon Sanderson

48. Shroud for the Archbishop, Peter Tremayne

49. Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter, Richard Parks

50. Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate, Richard Parks

51. Yamada Monogatari: The War God's Son, Richard Parks

52. Yamada Monogatari: The Emperor in Shadow, Richard Parks

53. Pulling the Wings off Angels, K. J. Parker

54. Laurus, Eugene Vodolazkin

55. The Ogre's Wife: Fairy Tales for Grownups, Richard Parks

56. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Plausible works of improving nonfiction consumed in 2021: 7

[“plausible” and “improving” are being defined very liberally here]

Works written by women consumed in 2021: 23

Works written by men consumed in 2021: 29

Works written by both men and women consumed in 2021: 4

Balioc’s Choice Award, Fiction Division: The Remains of the Day

>>>> Honorable Mention: Laurus

Balioc’s Choice Award, Nonfiction Division: Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

>>>> Honorable Mention: War and State Building in Medieval Japan

Series Award for: A Deeply Flawed Work of Luminescent Genius, No Really, This Thing is Artistically and Intellectually Important and Its Flaws Only Make It More So, Dear God What Were They Thinking Not Giving It the Hugo -- the Terra Ignora books, by Ada Palmer

Series Award for: I Cannot Begin to Articulate How Mad I Am That These Books of All Books Have Become Cultural Touchstones of My Local Social and Artistic Circle -- the Locked Tomb books, by Tamsyn Muir

Series Award for: I Must Give Credit to a Brave Author Who Makes Unexpected Moves and Tries New Things with Every Book, Even if Everything She Tries is Terrible -- the Locked Tomb books, by Tamsyn Muir

**********

Fiction-wise, this was actually a better year than you'd think from just eyeballing the list. The overall numbers are still below par, and there's too much shlocky formulaic mystery-series-type stuff; but there was a lot of real quality in there. I had real trouble deciding on my top two, and I ended up not giving either prize to a book by Jenna Moran writing at her normal level of quality, so that says something. There were a number of books that disappointed by not being amazing but that I'm still glad to have read (e.g. Summer in Orcus, The Hands of the Emperor). Even the shlocky formulaic stuff had more merit than you might expect, in many cases.

Serious contemplatively-emotional litfic is real good, at its best. Turns out.

Non-fiction-wise, this was a shitshow of unparalleled proportions. I read almost nothing, and what I read was uninspiring. (I started s number of things that I failed to finish, which didn't help.) I seriously considered making this a "no award" year. I am once again asking for your recommendations for really good, deeply-informative, blow-your-mind-open non-fiction.

[kitwalker02]

Devil’s Night part 2

A/N: Besties I am so sorry with how rushed and not good this is but there was so much halloweeney drama so I just want to give a quick thanks to my little sister for holding it together and getting in the halloween spirit for these headcanons...love you girl and family is FOREVER

-Devil’s night this year was suppose to be spent at Tate’s house cuz last year it was at James’ but because Tate tried to sneak the remaining Evan’s into the murder house for Halloween he was grounded and could no longer participate in the event

-Tate is mournful and spending halloween alone (rip and dedicated to my little sister who this is based off of)

-This year, since Austin is new to group, he tries to come up with so many new ideas to make it more fun and suggested everyone should dress up

-Kit just came from work so he was a mechanic (but everyone thought he was michael myers which made him cry)

-Kyle was a homecoming king zombie

-Jimmy was the scare crow from the wizard of oz

-Rory dressed up as his infamous role from my roanoke nightmare and went as edward mott

-Kai goes as his hero Mr. Donald J Trump

-Everyone silently judges him

-Gallant not so silently

-Gallant goes dressed as Trisha Paytas 

-Austin goes dressed as musical legend, sweeney todd

-He looks really hot and this pisses James off who insults him with “Who are you suppose to be? Nosfaratu?” To which Austin swiftly retorts with “I’m not your mum.” -James is fuming

-All the way back at the murder house, Tate is chilling in his Kut Cobain gear and gets yelled at by ben to stop singing pumped up kicks

-James was the only one who did not get the memo to dress up since that was decided back when Devil’s night was at Tate’s house 

-James was not originally invited

-Lol

-Upon discovering this, Kyle is thrown out the nearest window and splats directly outside the borders of the hotel

-Kit curses james out because Kyle was his ride home and now he won’t see him until next halloween

-James decides to secretly wreak the party by inviting edward mott

-The real edward mott

-Upon seeing Rory’s OFFENSIVE attempt at being him, edward screeches “NO DOUBLES!” and eats Rory’s head off before devouring the rest of his body

-Gallant who was in the bathroom at the time did not realize rory was eaten and hangs out with edward the whole night thinking it was rory

-Tate party of one??? MORE LIKE TATE PARTY OF FUN

-With everyone dying and Kit looking like michael myers, James tries to blame him and say he killed kyle and the real rory

-Kit is in distress and puts his sorrows into a bunch of fun sized kit kat bars

-Unfortunatley the candy  had been spiked with fetynal and Kit realizes he was drugged and has seizure

-Gallant then proceeds to give kit mouth to mouth but this only suffocates and kills kit and transfer the fetynal to gallant

-Gallant tries to get hlep from “rory” who refuses and this is when he realizes it was not his friend rory but the real edward mott

-This realization since gallant into shock and he dies

-Kai is hanging candy corn from his nipples still dressed as donald trump

-Jimmy says he loves candy corn and asks to eat one of kai’s

-Kai says candy corn is the worst candy and punches jimmy in the face

-Jimmy is inconsolable

-Kai is set on fire

-No one knows how it started but they think the fetynal got into gallants very flammable hair and started a fire

-Turns out the fetynal was actually a very evil halloween spirit and it devours edward mott

-The evil halloween spirit is about to kill of james too but Austin saves the day and stabs it with his sweeney todd barber blade thus saving the day

-”Can Nosfaratu do this?” Austin asks James rhetorically

-”Actually-” James begins to lecture austin on how powerful nosfaratu actually is and that he shouldn’t question his power

-Austin and James decide to screw the hotel and road trip to surprise tate alone at the murder house

-Tate then gets in even more trouble and james couldn’t be quiet enough and couldn’t find a good hiding spot from ben

-It ends with James and Austin being driven back to the hotel and Tate having to live in a shed outside

-(Once again dedicated to my little sister and her friend. Rip you guys)

[ulkaralakbarova]

An itinerant farmer and his young son help a heart-of-gold saloon singer search for her estranged husband. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Matt Calder: Robert Mitchum Kay Weston: Marilyn Monroe Harry Weston: Rory Calhoun Mark Calder: Tommy Rettig Dave Colby: Murvyn Vye Sam Benson: Douglas Spencer Minister at Tent City (uncredited): Arthur Shields Young Punk (uncredited): Larry Chance Prospector (uncredited): Chuck Hicks Dance Hall Girl (uncredited): Ann McCrea Bartender (uncredited): Ralph Sanford Prospector (uncredited): Fred Aldrich Surrey Driver (uncredited): Claire Andre Young Punk (uncredited): Hal Baylor Ben (uncredited): Don Beddoe Prospector (uncredited): Phil Bloom Council City Barfly (uncredited): Buck Bucko Prospector (uncredited): Roy Bucko Leering Man (uncredited): John Cliff Barber (uncredited): Edmund Cobb Prospector (uncredited): Cecil Combs Man in Saloon (uncredited): John Doucette Prospector (uncredited): Tex Driscoll Dance Hall Girl (uncredited): Geneva Gray Wagon Driver (uncredited): Al Haskell Gambler (uncredited): Ed Hinton Prospector (uncredited): George Huggins Prospector (uncredited): Michael Jeffers Prospector (uncredited): Dick Johnstone Prospector (uncredited): Mitchell Kowall Prospector (uncredited): Richard LaMarr Young Punk (uncredited): Anthony Lawrence Saloon Dancer (uncredited): Jarma Lewis Prospector (uncredited): Jack Low Council City Townsman (uncredited): Hank Mann Card Table Dealer (uncredited): Jack Mather Young Man (uncredited): Harry Monty Dancer (uncredited): Fay Morley Prospector (uncredited): Charles Morton Prospector (uncredited): Paul Newlan Blonde Dancer (uncredited): Barbara Nichols Prospector (uncredited): Anton Northpole Council City Barfly (uncredited): George Patay Prospector (uncredited): Jack Perrin Prospector (uncredited): Charles Perry Prospector (uncredited): Ford Raymond Prospector (uncredited): John Rice Prospector (uncredited): Robert Robinson Prospector (uncredited): John Roy Prospector (uncredited): Danny Sands Settler (uncredited): Lucile Sewall Pianist (uncredited): Harry Seymour Council City Barfly (uncredited): Cap Somers Council City Barfly (uncredited): George Sowards Prospector (uncredited): Charles Sullivan Prospector (uncredited): Jack Tornek Young Punk (uncredited): John Veitch Prospector (uncredited): Fred Walton Council City Barfly (uncredited): Bob Whitney Prospector (uncredited): Harry Wilson Trader (uncredited): Will Wright …: Joe Phillips Film Crew: Original Music Composer: Cyril J. Mockridge Editor: Louis R. Loeffler Producer: Stanley Rubin Art Direction: Addison Hehr Screenplay: Frank Fenton Director: Otto Preminger Sound: Roger Heman Sr. Sound: Bernard Freericks Assistant Director: Paul Helmick Costume Design: Travilla Director of Photography: Joseph LaShelle Story: Louis Lantz Songs: Lionel Newman Art Direction: Lyle R. Wheeler Set Decoration: Walter M. Scott Set Decoration: Chester L. Bayhi Special Effects: Ray Kellogg Orchestrator: Edward B. Powell Choreographer: Jack Cole Makeup Artist: Ben Nye Stunts: Bob Herron Stunts: Bob Hoy Stunts: Harry Froboess Stunts: Bob Morgan Stunts: Helen Thurston Stunts: Harry Monty Stunt Coordinator: Fred Zendar Stunts: Tim Wallace Music: Leigh Harline Makeup Artist: Allan Snyder Second Assistant Director: Donald C. Klune Stunts: Dan Heather First Assistant Editor: Orven Schanzer Songs: Ken Darby Movie Reviews: John Chard: What are you chasing Calder? After a stint in jail, Matt Calder is reunited with his son Mark and sets both of them up at a riverside lodge. One day he helps aid a couple who are struggling with their raft down the river. It turns out to be a dubious gambler named Harry Weston and his saloon singer girlfriend, Kay, whom both Matt and Mark have already been acquainted with. Turns out that Harry is in a rush to register his mining claim that he has just won, and sensing his journey will be considerably quicker and safer on horseback, steals, after a fight, Matt’s rifle and horse. Agreeing to let Kay stay behind with the Calder’s, Weston sets off. Once roused and ready to tr...

[project1939]

200 Films of 1952

Film number 194: Colorado Sundown

Release date: February 8th, 1952 

Studio: Republic 

Genre: western 

Director: William Witney 

Producer: Edward J. White 

Actors: Rex Allen, Mary Ellen Kay, Slim Pickens 

Plot Summary: When Rex’s sidekick Slim inherits a ranch, he discovers he must share it with two other parties. One third goes to Jackie, a city girl who wants to get away from it all and settle in the country. The third share goes to a brother and sister with an evil scheme up their sleeve. 

My Rating (out of five stars): **¾  

This is my final western! It’s a modest little B picture with yet another singing cowboy- Rex Allen. He holds his own pretty well with Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, I must say. He’s got a lovely singing voice, his acting is on par with the others (not great, but not awkwardly terrible), and he’s got a good deal of charisma. Honestly, I think I prefer him to Rogers! But I have such a crush on Dale Evans, I could never swear off Rogers completely! (some spoilers)

The Good: 

Rex Allen. As I just said, he made a very good singing cowboy. He was probably the most macho and traditionally handsome of Autry and Rogers, and his singing voice sounded the most classically trained. He fell in the middle of Autry and Rogers when it came down to tone- Autry is almost tongue and cheek, with a heavy dose of self-awareness and a twinkle in his eye, and Rogers takes himself more seriously. 

The music. There were only three songs, but they were all very enjoyable and well performed. The final number was pretty silly plot-wise, though. I also wish we had gotten a song at the end. 

The plot was interesting and effectively structured. It wasn’t overly simplistic, and it never dragged. 

The acting was pretty good for a B western. No one was cringey. 

The Bad: 

The darkness of all the murder plots didn’t match the singing cowboy tone overall. Bad girl Carrie was seriously evil, easily willing to kill people left and right!

Everyone lives when they get shot by a gun at close range?! How realistic is that? 

The character of Mattie, who played a large black maid to Jackie, was very racially stereotyped. She was childishly jolly at nearly every moment, giving off that “I just love serving white people!” vibe. She also had the terrible dialect of almost every black person in a Hollywood film then. (“Is you sho’?”) That said, she wasn’t the least bit stupid, and the white people around her treated her like she was just one of the gang. 

There was an asinine fat joke made after Mattie’s character got shot. The doctor said, “For once, it paid to be hefty, because the bullet was spent by the time it got through all of those layers of layers.” 

Here we had another appearance of the tiresome trope of a pacifist character who must abandon his pacifism and fight to prove his manhood. 

There was no hiding that this was a cheap film. For example, the comical rear projection had me howling more than once. 

There were some dangling threads left at the end. What exactly happened to Daniel? And what about Jackie? Was she romantically linked with Slim Pickens? Or Rex? Or no one? 

The title was a blatant rip-off. For Project 1939, I watched a Gene Autry film called Colorado Sunset. This was a singing cowboy B movie made by the same studio, Republic Pictures! (They were also both about getting a new ranch.) Colorado Sundown... Colorado Sunset... Come on!