#especially because i forgot to mention that our production was student directed

[agentravensong]

fuck it, more warm and fuzzies while i'm here:

if you happen to be one of the three people who saw the post i made about the play i saw my freshman year of college, where i glomped onto a certain character, then i hope you're happy to hear that i got to see the guy who played that character and graduated two years ago again yesterday! he came to mc for the acapella event i posted about. i grabbed him right after the show ended to tell him that a) i remembered his performance in that show from four years ago, b) it's good to see he's doing well, and c) theater at our college has been bouncing back since he left (specifically citing our hamlet production and the incredibly talented freshmen who led the show).

i didn't mention my name cause it wouldn't mean anything to him (we were in chorale together, but that was mostly over zoom). it was just good to see him, and he seemed to appreciate the stuff i shared with him. human interaction is worth it sometimes :)

[dragonpiango]

My review of 2019

January:

So I recently graduated from community college in the previous December, and I started university at HT with a scholarship for piano performance. Honestly I thought going to a HBCU was going to be weird, but turns out I’m not much of an outcast. It was a nice transition to a new setting and new people and a breath of fresh air! It was amazing having a practice room to myself and the mental thought of “getting to know my music” became a reality although my first piano lesson with my new professor was strange. His impression of me was way different than what I thought. Although he is a outstanding teacher, he might have overthought what I was capable of.... him assigning me my pieces and they consisted of Bach French suite No. 5 in G Major, Mozart sonata K.332 in F Major, Chopin Nocturne in D-flat Major, Chopin Scherzo No.2 in b-flat minor, and the most memorable piece IMHO Ravel’s Une Barque Sur L’Ocean from Miroirs.

February:

So still settling into a new university and meeting new people (although I just stayed in the music building bc that’s where all my classes were) it was Black History Month. Being apart of the choir at school and the only ensemble they offered, we were pretty busy with a lot of performances BUT it was enlightening too. Everyone has been so welcoming and coming from a background in classical music I’ve been introduced to Gospel music not only for voice, but piano. From accompanying spirituals to gospel it really has opened my eyes that music doesn’t have to be so strict. It is a way of expressing emotions and from then on I took my repertoire more seriously in the sense each piece had its own “character.”

March:

This month is a crucial one, not only did I find my “clique” at school, but they only consisted of two people. Ant and KayP. Not going to use their names but these two were the only two that understood who I was and I understood who they were. We might have drifted a little bit since one has graduated but in the mean time, during these few months, have been my shoulder to cry on. They were very talented vocalist who taught me a lot in the sense of accompanying and vice versa. Since our school is small, our “accompanist” was my piano teacher, so every rehearsal was around his schedule, until I came into the picture. They really pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and really get me to where I need to be. During this time, I was still working retail and I have a true appreciation for those who commit full time to retail because lemme tell y’all. That shit is a lot of work. Especially around holidays. Balancing out school and work was a struggle, but I managed through especially when I don’t have a piano at home. I have to go to school to practice and with retail, all my extra time would be working.

April:

By this time, everyone is stressing because of finals, but luckily since I grabbed an associates degree from COmmunity college, I didn’t have to take my core classes and cry. Music classes were all my focuses were on especially performance. I had a few performances in between for our seminar where we perform in front of all the music students, and for me, being a pianist, I didn’t have to rely on my teacher for rehearsals and accompanying. I just focused on me and this got me ready for our benefit concert that I was honored to be a part of. KayP being the current Miss HBCU and queen of the school, decided to raise money for students of troubled pasts who have really turned their lives around in college and made a great GPA would be rewarded with scholarship money that we raised. I was the one who got to close the whole show out and it truly was an amazing experience. Being able to perform for a great cause is always heart warming and I will cherish that moment forever.

May:

So the semester comes to an end and I have juries (where we perform our pieces in front of the faculty and get graded ) what I did not know is that since our school is so small, they invite and pay other professors from the biggest university next to us UT Austin and have them come sit and grade us as well. That to me was a shock moment, because coming from a university in a small town before we had enough people and knew everyone. Community college DIDNT have juries for piano which was odd, but this was a perfect opportunity to really put my hard work into good use. After juries, I did splendid with a few mistakes that I was able to recover from, and lemme tell y’all. No performance is perfect. And I have accepted that. My piano teacher hooked me up with one of his good friends who owns and directs her own music school and I became a piano teacher there. Oddly, I’m the youngest teacher there with no doctoral degree and am working on a BA still..... but none the less, this transition really opened my eyes.

June:

School is finally out, and I reduced my retail job to just Saturday. I finally got my reputation as a teacher at my new job and gained students rather quickly to where I was almost booked up Monday through Friday. With little to no teaching experience it was a trial and error process. I was taking over a studio of a former teacher who had visa issues. So all his students were a tad skeptical with me more so their parents. But after observing lessons and learning their names it was only a matter of time that I was teaching them and really became someone they look up to. It started off rocky because I wasn’t used to a build your own schedule, from what I’ve experienced with teaching at a music school is that someone does the schedule for you. Not in this case, so having to communicate and try to accommodate every students schedule was a tough start, but once I got used to it, the ride was easy from there. Unfortunately, most students were gone on vacation so I had to work with only a few who stayed in town and accommodate those who were in town for that week. That aside, my communication improved after constantly talking with parents 24/7.

July:

This is where life gets exciting. My boyfriend had surprised me with tickets to go to Chicago. I would go back because the city is amazing and food is delicious and it’s easy to get around in Chicago. It was a nice break from work and really helped me bond with my partner. During this time we had two cats. One names Roger and the other Gladys. So a little back story, when I moved in with my partner, his cats basically adopted me. Gladys was a daddy’s girl and kept to Todd mostly but she was very seeet with me and made adorable monkey noises when you picked her up and cuddled with her. She was diagnosed with cancer and the year before that we made the decision to remove her tumor and hope that she would live a healthy life. Well this is where the tumor came back full force and in Chicago, I was a wreck because I felt bad enjoying my time away and leaving her at home. My partner (who is the mature one in our relationship) had a sit down with me about what to do with her and I lost it. He didn’t want to put her down either, but it was for the best. We agreed to keep her comfortable until we knew it was time. Before the month ends tho, we are back home and my sisters boyfriend sends me a text saying he is serious about her and wants to marry her. The retail I work for is a jewelry store and he had asked me to help pick out a diamond for my sister since he knew what she wanted. So this was the good news. We find the diamond, and have it set in her favorite setting and my boyfriend who is full of surprises gets me a ticket to visit her in LA.

August:

So my birthday month is here, and I fly out to LA to deliver the ring to my now sisters fiancé and they fly out to Italy and he does the deed and she says yes. Happy note. But as school starts back up for the new semester, my partner had a issue to where he would be in a state to where he couldn’t move much due to a unusual circumstance. And before that we decided to put Gladys down. It was a tough decision but we gave her the best life we could ever had hoped for her and I was emotionally drained from everything. Having to keep a positive attitude for my students and going to school and being an adult in general. The only way I got thru this period is from my best friend and coworker who knows what it’s like to go through life and it’s always better to have an open mind and ear to talk to. I call her my mamma because she’s like a mother figure to me but also a amazing friend. Without her, I probably wouldn’t have been mentally there at all for anyone. In the time of summer until now I haven’t had a chance to practice because I forgot to mention that i had a Jr recital coming up which is why my repertoire was so big.

September:

After everything passed and I’m in a better mental state, I proceed to my schedule of school and work and find a time to practice in between. What’s great about this month is that since the semester just started, I had plenty of time to catch up on my practice and really get my lessons to become productive in shaping and understanding different musical styles. My partner is all better and life is great because I was in the best part of my life. Doing well in school, amazing texting job, and a best friend who is there for me and most importantly my partner. He’s been my rock since we first met and I can always rely on him and vice versa. He understood that with my free day off that I needed to spend it practicing and told me to go for it and be as productive as I can. I honestly wasn’t used to that kind of support but I am grateful.

October:

This is where reality hits and my recital is next month. I get very crazy about everything. I had all my music learned but because of my indecisiveness, I kept changing how I shaped everything and my mind goes blank. Probably a dark time for me because I didn’t know how to handle this kind of stress. I’ve put on hour long recitals before and the only thing different this time is that I’m getting graded and want to make such a great impression to further my education to a dictator degree. The dress was eating me alive and on top of that, one of my students decided he wants to enter in a competition and I say why not. Let’s do it. Getting him ready for that and keeping my sanity was hard to do but I managed. He did well, but not well enough to get a medal but his parents were very impressed with how quickly he progressed with me. That’s always a plus, right?

November:

The month has come for me to have my big recital and I invited all my friends and coworkers and they all made it. I was truly nervous but if you don’t get nervous, are you even human? It turned out wonderful although the first piece (Bach French suite) was shaky, I had to tell my self that I was having fun and everyone here is here to support me and want me to do well. That little talk was a confidence booster and ended the recital flawlessly. After my recital, my job has their student recitals so my focus was all on my students doing the best they can and having fun. This month was fun because I was selected to do masterclasses for piano students through out my job and it was very enlightening to see how talented the new generation of musicians are! Only positive comments because I couldn’t honestly find anything wrong with any of the students performances and their teachers are amazing.

December:

So getting all my students ready for their recital was a big time investment but totally worth it because they all performed so well and I honestly cried bc I felt like a proud parent LOL. But after that was time for the semester to end up and one class was making me go crazy. Everything ended well and I had ALL A’s and one B but I know what to expect for next semester and everything will be great. Honestly this year has me all sorts of fucked up with emotions and I proved to myself that when I stay committed, I can really achieve what I want. This year was a great year for me and a way to end a decade because when 2020 starts, I know what I need to do and where I need to be.

[nanonkorapat]

You like 2gether? Great! Check out these series now

I’m sorry the title sounds vaguely like an ad, it wasn’t my intention oof. Anyway, here are five (+2) series you should watch and fill the void (in no particular order)!

THEORY OF LOVE (2019)

You can find it here.

“Third is a filmology major and a member of the Savage Team along with his best friends Two, Bone, and Khai, but he has a secret. Third has been secretly in love with Khai for years.”

Theory of Love is one of these series you don’t expect to like that much, but they surpise you. First of all, I still remember falling so deeply in love with this friend squad; they were so fun and wholesome (and yes maybe dickheads sometimes but that’s life). They were all so nicely written characters and I was always looking forward to seeing them every week. The story is a bit sad at first, but it will also make you laugh a lot. It also have lots of movie references! Loved that. Honestly, I’m not very good at reviews, but I can definitely say TOL was a series I still think fondly of, even to this day, like half a year later.

DARK BLUE KISS (2019)

You can find it here.

“Kao and Pete being in a blissful romance, have grown closer. But with Kao being closeted from his mother, he fears the dreaded thought of her finding out. His mother then introduces Non, a son of a colleague, as he requires tutoring from Kao. With Non constantly giving off ‘iffy’ vibes towards Kao, it only fuels Pete’s jealousy.”

I recently watched DBK and I was really taken aback by it. The fact that it dealt with some specific topics surprised me. We see Kao being scared of coming out to his mother, him being forced into a difficult situation mostly because he was trying to economically support his sister, Kao and Pete having problems because of miscommunication etc. It was something different. Of course, there were some bits I didn’t like, like the possesivness of Pete, but you can’t have everything in life. Overall a very good series, I would definitely recommend.

Note; DBK is a sequel of Kiss Me Again the series. You don’t have to watch it. If you want to, I’d recommend watching only the PeteKao cuts on Youtube.

HISTORY3: TRAPPED (2019)

You can find it here.

“The cooperation between police and the people create a harmonious new society. Police who are filled with justice are turned into the personal protection for gangsters. But one police officer becomes trapped in the underworld, as he develops feelings for a gang leader.”

God, I just realized how much I miss Trapped. It was one of the first asian series I watched and really loved. Look at the summary! It’s literally a fanfic I loved it. Jokes aside though, really nice plot, well written characters, nice twists, lots of funny moments, happy enging, what else would someone ask for? I fell in love with the characters and their stories. Literally, can’t even think straight and write a coherent review of this, I just love it, trust me.

WHAT DID YOU EAT YESTERDAY? (2019)

You can find it here.

“Kakei Shiro is a 45 year old lawyer who works at a small law firm. He is a good cook and a meticulous and thrifty person who keeps the monthly food budget to 25,000 yen. His partner Yabuki Kenji is the affable hairdresser in his 40s. The two of them share a two-bedroom apartment and the finer points of two men living together comes up at the dining table every day. Although two of them have been in a relationship for three years and Kakei’s parents know he is gay, Kakei never shares the fact that he is gay or Kenji is his partner to anyone.”

Looking for something sweet and wholesome? Watch this one. I have to thank whoever recommended this to me (I’m terribly sorry I forgot). The story of two middle-aged gay men, living their life in peace (most of the time at least). Involves lots of cooking, to the point it always made me hungry. It’s a relaxing series, one that will warm up your heart and make you smile.

HISTORY2: CROSSING THE LINE (2018)

You can find it here.

“Qiu Zi Xuan was an excellent volleyball player in the past, but he had to give up on on his dreams due to his injuries, but he still participates in the volleyball-related training. During the training, he meets a guy, Xia Yu Hao, a guy with a really bad temper who gets easily infuriated with people that make him angry, but he strives to acquire what he persistently wants to achieve.”

A lovely story. I think I watched it in like one afternoon. I couldn’t really resist to the dumbassery of Yu Hao. A story about coming to terms with your feelings and going after what you want. That’s it and, honestly, that’s more than one needs.

HONORARY MENTIONS (not bl, I just fucking love these series)

WHEN WE WERE YOUNG (2018)

You can find it here.

“A nostalgic story that revolves around high school students during the year 1996.

While chasing down a bike thief during the summer, Yang Xi gets injured by a lab explosion that renders her unable to compete in a long-distance run. When school opens, she realizes that the culprit behind her misfortune has transferred to her class and has even taken her position as class president. He is Hua Biao, a hot-blooded, rash and gifted genius of the science department. Hua Biao’s arrival immediately puts his classmates on guard and he must prove himself to be accepted by the class. Later on, they go through lots of ups and downs in life.”

Probably one of my favourite series ever and trust me I’ve watched quite a few. First things first, the OST. God, catch me still signing it under my breath. The visuals? Absolutely amazing. The plot and the characters? Honestly superb. The quotes? Made me cry every single time. This series gave me such a strong feeling of nostalgia, it had this whole vibe of being young and reckless, but at the same time knowing that you will grow old, that the world will change, that you will change with it. Imagine this; you are laying on your bed on a hot summer afternoon, you are young, loads of books are waiting for you, sprawled all over your dest, the radio is on, playing some old melodies mixed with static, you are reading a book or comics and you are waiting for your friends to come. This is it. This is the feeling this series has left me with. I know I may not be making sense for most people, but our languages sometimes are uncapable of expressing our feelings. You just have to experience it yourself.

THE LONGEST DAY IN CHANG’AN (2019)

You can find it here and here.

“744 A.D., Chang’an, the cosmopolitan heart of the Tang Empire. The remnants of a vanquished Central Asian kingdom have infiltrated the world’s largest city for a planned attack during the Lantern Festival. Meanwhile, the court is fraught with infighting. The aging Emperor is expected to announce the regency of the Right Chancellor during the festival and retreat to the mountains with his young lover. If the Right Chancellor becomes the regent, the reformist Crown Prince risks being deposed—or worse. Intelligence chief Li Bi, a young Taoist priest, and ally of the Crown Prince has only 24 hours to prevent both the attack and the regency. After a botched attempt to capture the infiltrators, Li Bi and his team call in the services of death row prisoner Zhang Xiao Jing — a war veteran, beloved police chief, and murderer of his last direct superior.”

Keep in mind that this is one of the most expensive (if not the most expensive) productions on China. The whole series covers the events of one day, one single day. What they did is actually amazing. The plot is so well structured, the costumes and set perfectly made, the actors plainly great. It might take a couple of episodes to understand the plot because especially on the first one there are a lot of things happened and lots of information getting thrown around, but it quickly becomes way more clear. The music, the twists, the morally ambiguous characters; one of the best things I’ve seen. I cried, I laughed, I feel in love and I now realize that no matter how much I praise this series, it won’t be enough.

Lowkey hope I haven’t done any mistakes because I don’t proof read anything and that’s the hill I’ll die on.

[rndyounghowze]

An Evening of Online Plays Right in our Living Room Directed by Missouri S&T Theatre

By: Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

St. Louis, Missouri

It was a cool and rainy evening when Dana and I followed the Zoom link and joined viewers across the country to see "An evening of Online Plays"

Produced by Missouri S&T Theatre. One of our dear friends Erin Lane had one of her pieces in the bill of four 10 minute plays to be presented that night and invited us to come watch. This night of online theater, produced by Taylor Gruenloh and presented by Missouri S&T theatre students was our first time reviewing a Zoom Production and definitely will not be our last.

This was directed by two students of Missouri S&T's directing program. When classes were cancelled for Victoria Hagni and Madeline Lechner their professor Taylor Gruenloh knew that unless they actually produced a finished project it wouldn't feel as if the two students weren't getting the most out of their independent study. So they quickly changed gears and commissioned ten minute plays from four playwrights from my graduate program Hollins University that would work perfectly in a Zoom format. This livestream is that final result.

It's worth mentioning what Dana and I are looking for when we review a production produced on an online platform streamed out of people's homes. We of course are looking at the level of acting and the production value of the plays but we are also looking at how this new medium of performance is taken advantage of and how the artists worked within those constraints. We are definitely as much beginners at reviewing this as the artists are performing in it. We also know that these students were ramping up and learning for something completely different than pioneering a new artform so we empathize. So now that we know we're both adjusting to a learning curve let's get down to the nitty gritty.

We've decided to talk about the plays grouped by the director not in the order that they were presented and since these were brand new plays written just for the production we're reviewing the plays too.

First we're looking at the plays directed by Madeline Lechner.

De-Equalized by Amy Lytle is a play about two students Katie (played by Natalie Arnold) and Jordan (played by Adam Bateman) who are working on a group project while they are separated on spring break.

I'll admit putting this play up as the first play we see was a very eerie experience. Not just because it was about two students talking about a group project over Zoom but also because this was Dana and my first primer into what a Zoom production is. Seeing the screen jump back and forth between the two actors like it was cutting back and forth like in a movie was bizarre but I was immediately intrigued by the possibilities.

I was very impressed with the actors trying their hardest to emote to somebody that is not physically in the room with them. I felt like Arnold did a better job at this than her acting partner. I can only imagine having to not only keep myself cheated open for the audience but also knowing that my acting partner is a small post card sized picture on a screen. Also knowing that your performance depends on the connectivity of your device and the tilt of your camera is probably as big of a rush as tightrope walking. But because of this feeling of risk some of their emotions seemed to go stagnant. I needed to feel like this energy could travel eight hundred miles.

This could have been an acting problem but I definitely feel like some of this sits on Lechner's shoulders as a director. If the energy isn't shaking the rafters you definitely need to find ways to ramp your actors up. But we also feel like the playscript didn't give them higher stakes to begin with. Not everyone reveals family secrets doing homework. Also Dana never believed she was going to walk out on him which really did kill the stakes.

As for the play Dana noticed there was a lot of exposition about scholarship and financial aid that anyone watching a college show would know. We would hope that in a further draft the playwright would trust her audience more. I loved the idea of students finding out something about a friend that they didn't know before but also wish that the action had started way earlier. The play spent so much time on exposition I feel like the play didn't start until the eight minute mark and then they only had two minutes left. In a future draft I really hope this is addressed.

Also directed by Lechner was Breathe by Erin Lane a play about Dory (played by Raelyn Twohy) and Michael (played by Michael Ellis) two parents having to coparent while being separated and trying to calm each other down while also trying to appear strong for the other.

I love that this play made use of ANY kind of action and it was a great refresher from Lechner's previous piece. I still would have asked for much more. Also Dana got the sense that this play was supposed to have a lot of chaos in it but in her words it was "the calmest chaos she's ever seen". I agree. Especially if this is a play about getting the results of a test be it Covid-19, AIDS, pregnancy, or even strep I think you would feel a TAD more tense than that. This harkens back to what I said before about Lechner and getting energy out of her performers. As a director I will tell her you have to do whatever it takes to get that energy out of your cast because if we as an audience don't feel it we're gone. This was a great first outing and if I'm sounding tough it's because I feel she does have potential to do well in the future. Just get that energy in!

As for the acting it seemed that while Dana and I believed the Dad instantly we felt something was "held back" from us. We don't know if that was an acting problem or a writing problem. I am leaning heavily towards acting because of the several "I forgot my line" pauses and constant repeats of cue lines we normally see in high school productions. I personally think it must have been hard to show so much emotion just using your eyes and not having a full stage to work with but if these pauses normally just slow down a stage show on Zoom they felt like an eternity.

This play utilized my very favorite kind of exposition where everything we needed to know about the action was fed to us through something that we already knew. We all know that kind of back and forth between a Mom and Dad as they suss out parenting. But then you have this through the lens of long distance. Someone can't be home and now they have to trust someone else to get it done. This is the coolest kind of love story for me. However due to dropped lines and pauses I totally lost the part where Dory is a nurse and that she's taking a Covid-19 test. Dana had to tell me based on her scrubs. I hope that a future production of this play has the faster pace and the higher stakes it deserved.

Also a quick note: I know that no one is really pioneering Zoom set design just yet but I feel that I have to mention the black curtain behind Ellis's back. Dana and I have a running joke where we wonder if there is a "different play behind the curtain" that's more interesting than the one we're seeing. This presented a literal version of that for us where we spent more time wondering what was behind that curtain than listening to what he was saying. Out of love for these actors and with mad respect for what they're doing even if the curtain is hiding dead bodies we kinda hope it isn't there in the future. You guys rock and deserve better than that.

Next we'll be talking about the plays directed by Victoria Hagni.

In Scaramouch and Pinochle by Mike Moran we meet Lizzie (played by Megan Baris) and Bella (played by Haley Jenkins) two sisters who were separated when they were little and adopted by families across the country. Now they're reconnecting.

I loved that this play involved some action that fills up the camera frame and that Hagni gave the actresses some business to do such as painting nails and looking for things. If you think of the screen as your proscenium arch then you start to realize that you can utilize all of that space to tell your story.

Dana loves the use of props and the chemistry between the two actresses even though there were some moments that seemed like they were talking more at the screens than to each other. As you guys know I'm a sucker for puppets so even a sock puppet wormed it's way into my heart.

As for the script I feel like the realization about the Mom’s death and other family drama wasn’t "earned". There was no build up to it so I don't know whether it really happened or if our character was just lying. Where the chemistry between the actresses seemed natural the tense moments in the play didn’t seem natural. Overall it was a very cute play and with a couple more revisions it would be perfect.

In Folies a Deux/Pas de deux by Kevin D. Ferguson we meet Amanda Toye as Woman and Luke Goekner as Man. They are a couple with an interesting history and reconnecting after a long time.

I absolutely ADORED the use of the whole kitchen and room as a playing space. Having her start "upstage" at the counter and then moving the camera around as she moved dropped us into the world of the play. This was the first time that I forgot I was watching a Zoom play and just started watching the show. If I have to give one criticism to Hagni at all it is that I would have loved to see this kind of blocking in her previous piece.

I really commend the actors for really knowing their lines, really getting this blocking down, and committing to it. I mean somebody made cupcakes for this show! That's commitment.

Dana feels like this one was the most theatrical because it would definitely work on a stage AND online. This was the play that she absolutely believed with all her heart. I was totally pulled in. This is one of those plays that just make you want to sit in front of a computer and write a play.

The hardest part I'm going to notice about directing and writing for this medium is that you're simultaneously directing a theatre production and producing a movie. The actors aren't just actors they become directors of photography. The only difference between these plays and a movie is that a movie would be recorded for later and edited by someone else. I'm predicting that the most successful Zoom productions will be the ones that blur these lines. Is this naturalistic theatre or an indie found footage film. Who knows and who cares? Actors are not just emoting as if they're in the smallest of black box theaters but also thinking in terms of setups and dynamic camera angles. This is going to be a hard skill to master and in thirty or so years we'll be reading textbooks about the people who started this trend thinking about how we were all just figuring it out.

Also I'm looking forward to the day when we literally don't have the big pink elephant of COVID-19 in the room with us. Right now anytime you see a play livestreamed we all kind of know why it's not being presented onstage. So effectively even if the play doesn't explicitly say so it inherently is about this pandemic I know it's going to be at least a few years before this isn't the case but I will welcome it with open arms.

You have one more opportunity to see this production tonight May 9th at 7 PM Central Time. For those of you teaching theatre right now it might be an excellent tool or opportunity to talk about this evolving theatre climate. Follow this link right here and enjoy the show!

[ridiculous-dilettante]

TRANSLATION V. 3.0 UPDATE #2: The Judge welcomes you to the world of OFF

Hello! RecDra here again with the next translation update.

This is an updated version of the same update post on my Patreon. It includes changes my patrons have proposed. If you would like to get updates early, have first say on certain changes, benefit from other perks and goodies, or just plain support your local OFF translator, you can pledge to me there!

Also, Tumblr resized the images in this post, so to see them in full, make sure to view the image, and then replace “500″ with “1280″ in the URL.

If there are any changes you don’t agree with, or any suggestions, just head over to my ask box and drop them in there!

Let's have a look at the Judge's opening dialogue, and how it has changed over the years - under the cut.

The Judge is perhaps the biggest challenge of this game's translation; his dialogue is so complicated that even Mortis Ghost needed assistence from a French language student to bring him to life. You can imagine how, being from a German-speaking country and fifteen years of age at the time of version 1.0's release, I might not have been properly equipped to satisfyingly translate his lines. Some of the flaws from that version carried over to version 2.0, so let's see if I can do better now that I've read my fair share of English literature:

The Judge meets the Batter; introductions all around.

First row: This opening line was the first big hurdle. My old proofreader, Isaiah, gave me quite a bit of advice on making these lines flow better in English, or connect better to certain facts of the game's world: "living beings" became "other living beings" in order to show that the Judge himself is alive; however, I decided to revert this change in the new version in order to create a certain ambiguity about whether the Judge himself is actually there at all. Two characters who are questionably alive meeting each other feels like an interesting setup to me, and a fitting introduction to the strangeness of the game's world.

"déduis", or, in its infinitive form, "déduire", translates to "deduce"; the Judge is quite certain of his judgment on the fact that the Batter is not actually there, and "assume" didn't convey this fact properly. The word "hence" also shows the process of his deduction, or what his deduction stems from.

There is also the addition of a semicolon, making the Judge look all the more deductive. (this change was proposed by a patron)

Second row: The only change to this line is the replacement of "elusory" with "illusive"; when I first worked on the translation, I thought that, in order to convey the Judge's old-fashioned French, I would have to use as many archaic words as possible. In this case (as in many others), this was a mistake: "elusory" does not properly convey the Judge's meaning here. The Batter isn't fading, or hard to catch (elusive); he is more like an illusion to the Judge.

Third row: The translation in version 2.0 is not necessarily false here; version 3.0's translation is just more direct from the french "être investi de".

Both Judge and Batter show their awareness of our control over this world.

First row: Here we have a more indirect translation that had far-reaching consequences: Making the player be described as a puppeteer rather than, as it is in the original text, a "controller", spawned many a fanart of the Batter as a puppet on a string. This is so engrained in the fandom of this game that I did not want to change it, although a more accurate translation would read: "It is a pleasure, although it was not the body I was addressing, but the soul that it harbours. What is your name, controller?" Of course, one can see this description of the player as a breaking of the fourth wall, a "controller" being what is often used to "control" a game; and as such, the decision was made to include the word at the end to prevent word repitition as well as have its benefits. (this change was proposed by a patron)

I also opted to remove the last “dear” in this line because there is no such word in the original text, and I feel like the Judge wouldn’t refer to someone like that unless they were acquainted.

Second row: Due to these screenshots being based on multiple seperate playthroughs, name and gender of the player will sometimes vary. No change in the dialogue here.

Third row: All that was changed here is the order of the verbs "see" and "hear" to correspond exactly to that same order in the original text. This may be seen as a petty change, but I feel that the dialogue flows better this way.

First row: A couple of words didn't exactly gel in version 2.0 here: The use of the word "spectre" in the original text is important, because it sets up their presence in this world. "inexistent" also didn't fit, because it is not a proper translation of the french word "imaginaire". This word, translated here as "imaginary", makes reference to the fact that the Judge still believes us to be products of his imagination.

Also, Mortis forgot a period at the end of the Judge's dialogue here. I chose not to carry this over to the English build.

Second row: While I did like the way the word "services" was picked up on and repeated by the Judge in version 2.0, it was neither an accurate translation nor a sensible change: The Batter simply asks for "aide", or "help", and the word "services" for such a thing feels like it's more unique to the way the Judge talks.

Third row: No changes here. In my subjective opinion this is, perhaps, the most perfect bit of dialogue from the Judge in the entire game.

Because he's right. Everybody DOES love cats.

First row: "in the most insistent manner" was inaccurate, due to the absence of a superlative in the original text. This has been rectified. Also note the difference between french and english punctuation here; French texts (especially literary ones) tend to have long run-on sentences that combine many different thoughts into one; carrying this over into the English translation would be a mistake.

However, due to my mother tongue, German, having that same property, I sometimes do use too many run-on sentences in my writing. If you find any in this translation, please, let me know.

Second row: No changes here; the translation remains accurate.

Third row: Here, we only have a change in punctuation; I felt like ellipses didn't fit the Judge's analytical character - at least not at this point in the game.

The first mention of the Batter's mission.

First row: No changes.

Second row: No changes either, although I would like to quickly talk about the game's use of the word "purify": I was considering using the word "purge" at first, due to its genocidal implications and its similarity to the word "purgatory" - that basically being what the Batter transforms the zones into after killing their guardians. However, its religious undertones and the similarity to the same word in the original text made me decide to stick with "purify" - the fact aside that "Purification in progress..." is superior to "Purging in progress...", which would have made for a strange accidental reference to the "purging" of eating disorders.

Third row: This line is pretty much translated exactly as it is in the original text. No need for changes here.

---

And that would be that! If there is anything you would like to see changed or don’t agree with, my ask box, as always, is open.I apologise for the slight delay of this update; I hope to get the next one, which will show various zone 1 Elsens, out much more quickly.See you all then!-Rec

[deathgroup]

Introduction, Reading I (Situated Knowledges in Design Practice) by Yi, 23 Sept 2018

| ‘What is an Author’: Towards a Critical Discourse of Practice as Research.|

When I was doing my portfolio for applying MA, my advisor kept asking me “why do you use this shape/color/font etc. ” “Why do you choose this one not that one” these super detailed questions. Which in my head before, assuming that it was because they just look fine under these choices. Then she told me, always ask yourself why when you are doing design, because design is not an independent entity, it always links to other concerns, knowledges and even unconscious. I remember clearly the first time when she brought it into my mind is when I decided to use circles as the main shape in a children game installation. At the very beginning of the whole project, she asked me, why do you choose circle? That question really surprised me, because that was the very first shape came into my mind and why would there be any reason or explanation for that? So she gave me a day to search all the knowledges and evidence that can support my choice. Among all the directions she pointed, “try anthropology” still so impressive to me. I would never link circle with anthropology if she didn’t mention that.

So actually I didn’t do that project in the end, and I already forgot all the knowledges and evidences I found. But from that moment, the way I see this world began to change. Maybe it sounds like a pointless question for some people, they may think why bother to bring this small question into a huge context, isn’t it making a mountain out of molehill?  But I do feel really good about it. It made me realize that everything’s connected and you can always find a bigger world through a tiny hole, as long as you really think about it.

In Brad Haseman’s article, he addressed that “the task of mapping these discursive field would, in the first instance, have fallen on the artist rather than the critic”. In my understanding, he’s saying that the artist him/herself, should be the first one realizing his/her own design logic and knowing the whole operating system, because the whole design process should always be in the ground and under every step, should be some supporting columns. It’s kinda like writing essay, make your own contention based on other works’s argument. However, the difference is you don’t need to show the proof, but you should always think of it. Nothing is new under the sun, so there must be something you can always dig, explore and relate to when you reflect your own discourse. And those things you found can also bring you more inspirations in meantime. I think Foucault already concluded clearly: “Author function means the author is not considered as a named individual but rather a function, a construction.” Though we always see design and art as something really creative and inspirational, but they are never ever “the sole invention of individual artist/researcher as we have seen, but are forged in relation to established or antecedent methods and ideas.”

Another thing I’ve been thinking a lot is what “design” means to me, why I choose design as the only thing I really want to do. Back to that “writing essay” metaphor. When I was studying literature, I wrote many essays, and I found I’m super bad at expressing myself through words. I’m not good at logic, it always took me a very long time to do the proof, to link my contentions with the arguments (I guess I just don’t have the talent). But meanwhile, I’m good at understanding and realizing, there are lot of things I can connect to. If I’m an author, the only language I can use to articulate my thoughts is text, but if I’m a designer, there would be more ways and languages for me to choose, and I can always use the most proper one after comparing. So for me, design is the tool to substitute mouth, it is the means but not the aim. And what I need to learn is how to make this means the most efficient, accurate and intriguing.

      Adopting Foucault’s definition of author-and-work as “mode of existence, circulation and functioning of certain discourse within society” requires us to consider not whether the work is “good” or “bad”, but to focus on the forms the work takes and the institutional contexts that allow it to take such forms. (<Towards A Critical Discourse Of Practice As Research>p137)

Don’t Judge! 

|  The Way We Think Now: Toward an Ethnography of Modern Thought  |

In phenomenology, the terms “the other” or “the constitutive other” is my favorite conception. It has this weird alluring attraction to me. When I was preparing the final test for Western Literary Criticism course, I even prayed that there could be one essay question about that. Saïd said "the Orient that appears in Orientalism, then, is a system of representations framed by a whole set of forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and later, Western empire. If this definition of Orientalism seems more political than not, that is simply because I think Orientalism was, itself, a product of certain political forces and activities. ” And he mentioned Nietzsche’s notion:

      A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms—in short, a sum of human relations, which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which, after long use, seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are.

This is what I thought of when I started reading <The way we think now: toward an ethnography of modern thought>, especially when the author address the question: “how meaning in one system of expression is expressed in another-cultural hermeneutics, not conceptive mechanics”. The birth of anthropology is due to the Westerners' need for the understanding of primitive culture. But recent years, more and more anthropologists, by taking a look at the cultural other, in turn, look at the Western culture and society, and finally realize that the Western knowledge system that being regarded as the standard in the past was originally artificially constructed, from the perspective of value and variety. I guess it is human’s nature to imagine and construct the things that we aren’t familiar with using our own experience and social values. we tend to measure the value of others with our own value. And this is where bias and crowds come from. Like Geertz mentioned in the book : “ What it forms a threat to is the prejudice that the pristine powers that we have in common are more revelatory of how we think than the versions and visions that, in this time or that place, we socially construct.”

The confirmation of local knowledge has potential deconstruction and subversive effect on the traditional unified knowledge view and scientific view. The concept of local knowledge naturally requires that each researcher and student first learn to tolerate the other and the differences, learn to understand the kind of mindset from the cross-cultural standpoint. Only by consciously cultivating the position and mentality of cultural relativism can we avoid ideological imagination and prejudice in the face of the “other”.  Melville J. Herskovits, the American anthropologist, drew this conclusion: “ The core of cultural relativism is a kind of social training that respects differences and requires mutual respect. It emphasizes the value of multiple lifestyles and seeks to understand and live in harmony, rather than judging or even destroying things that are incompatible with their own culture.”

If we think about why we should learn these knowledges and what can we get from anthropology, the idea might be the realization of “reflexive perspective”. Always keep sensitive and suspicious, be aware of our own opinions and judgements. Be inclusive, show respect. Don’t judge!

| Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective |

Last year, in the first class of “Design as critical practice”, Arja asked us what do you think of the point  “everything’s political”, I hardly thought about politics in my life, so I couldn’t agree with that. However, later on, I gradually realized that it’s not about me consciously doing things with political mindset, it’s about how those social values/standards in our daily life unconsciously influence/ shape us, and the truth that we hardly realize or trace back the very origin of those social rules and knowledges. Like Haraway said: “No insider's perspective is privileged, because all drawings of inside-outside boundaries in knowledge are theorized as power moves, not moves toward truth……science is rhetoric, a series of efforts to persuade relevant social actors that one's manufactured knowledge is a route to a desired form of very objective power.” This point reveals that science knowledge is closely related to power and it is political or have complex connections with politics. According to Haraway, in the traditional philosophy of science, the object is resourced and there is no initiative, however, it is definitely another “constitutive other”. In situated knowledge, the object is also an actor with initiative, and only by facing up to the initiative of  “object” can we avoid the various errors and false knowledge in these sciences.

[aureus-ignis]

When I was young, I fell in love with the Pokemon series. I loved the RBY and GSC games, I watched the anime on TV every weekend, bought the movies, played the TCG, and collected the PokeSpe manga zealously. But as the years went by, the newer Pokemon games failed to hold my interest, and I soon stopped following Pokemon entirely. Last year, the generation of Alola was announced, and after watching a few trailers, I found myself drawn to the music. The adorable Rowlet also caught my eye, and on top of that, it seemed like the story was going to be interesting. A conservation society full of nice people dressed in white that looked strangely sinister at times? Hell yesssss. So I decided to buy the game... and then I fell deeply in love. Once again I was in Pokemon heaven (or hell).

So when Mei asked me if there was any series we could cos together that'd be fun and simple to do, I suggested Gladion and Lillie, since their costumes are fairly simple (c o u g h). She agreed, and that was the beginning of it all.

I started working on stuff around mid-June this year. People who know me know that accuracy is pretty high on my list of priorities, and I was determined to get the not-very-logical hair of Lillie and Gladion as good as I possibly could. Lillie's problem, of course, was the thickness. She has two insanely fat braids that had to be made up of almost all the hair on a normal human head, yet somehow still has a thick wide mane of loose hair behind her. So I had to spend time wefting as many extra rows of fibre into the wig, and then crafting removable bases for the braids from batting and more wefts.

Testing!

Batting base WIP HAHAHA

And the final result was worth it <3 <3

Next was Gladion. When it comes to the subject of pulled back hair, I've gotten to the point where I can ONLY accept lacefront. Anything else is too fake for me. For me, cosplay has always been about portraying the characters as if they were real, no matter how zany and strange their designs may be. I wanted the hair to look almost as though it grew on me. I ripped out almost the whole front to get rid of the fringe, and sewed in longer wefts, adjusting the direction of the hair to the left so that they would comb back naturally. Then ventilating hell began

Darkness, my old friend, we meet again. ;___; My hooking skills have improved since I first started ventilating, but it's still a long, tedious process. School started before I could finish, and I had to work on everything else too...

The realization that his uncut wig looks like Mercy from Overwatch HAHAHA

But as with Lillie, the final result was worth it <3 <3 <3

With regards to his costume, I'd actually had the hoodie and pants tailored because I ran out of time. I'd wanted just the base made so I can do the rest of the details myself, but the tailor forgot and did everything for me... and ended up messing up the accuracy. It was a disappointment, so much so that after STGCC was over, and we planned to have a shoot at the end of the year... I decided to remake everything from scratch. I'm terrible at patterning, really, and Gladion's biggest problem was THE STUPID GRAVITY DEFYING HOOD. Ultimately I couldn't get it to look exactly like the original (because I didn't want extra seams and all, but it was close enough. And the second time round, all of the holes were in the correct areas HAHAHA.

I'd made his first waistpouch myself, but for some reason, despite my careful measurements, the size turned out far too large the first time. So I had to remake the whole thing a second time. The hardest part is sewing the damn thing together, because I'd had to put two layers of hard inferfacing for each piece and sometimes the needle just wouldn't. Go. Through. OTL In version 2, I had more time, so I paid more attention to getting the shape accurate. The stupid thing tapers towards the bottom and has a curved side. Even more stupid, the strap goes from FAT TO THIN TO FAT for some reason. But I succeeded!

New VS Old

Next was the Z-ring. Gladion's official art doesn't have one, but he obviously wears one in-game. I felt that it was important, because Nanu gave it to him. So I had to dig out references from the game screenshots 8D;;

This is how a lot of my prop drafts look like. ALGEBRA IS MY FRIEND.

Also crafted the Z-crystal thanks to Pythagoras' theorem 8D; I used liquid quartz to glue the clear acrylic sheet together without leaving traces.

Final result! I'm pretty happy with it =>

Before STGCC, there was one more segment that I worked really hard on. After we'd decided to do SuMo together, I thought of making a Nebby plushie for Mei to carry. Yes, Pokemon Center had already released their Nebby plush by then, but... For one, it's smaller than life-size. For another, the shape looks more like a sunflower than a starry cloud. I didn't want it to look like Lillie was just carrying a toy; I wanted to give the impression that Mei had an adorable, soft, beautiful real-life Cosmog. But how on earth would someone with very terrible patterning skills make a 3D cloud plushie that could be dyed for Nebby's distinctive gradient colouring, and still be nice and soft to hug?

The answer is, I struggled.

Set up a spraying booth to airbrush the gradient on. Due to a problem with shipping, I couldn't get my compressor in time, so I ended up having to splurge on compressed air cans, which were horrendously expensive oTL.

BUT LOOK AT THE FINAL RESULT. LOOK AT HIM. <3 <3 <3

Let it also be known that I tested to make sure he could fit inside Mei's bag the moment I finished the base HAHAHAHAHAHAHA-----

So that was part 1 of Project Alola! We went to STGCC together and met lots of Pokemon fans (quite a lot of people were very happy to see Nebby, in particular XD), and Laki offered to come shoot with us as Moon since she already had the costume. We then planned to have our shoot at the end of the year during my holidays.

As mentioned, I'd already planned to remake my entire costume and waistpouch, but aside from that... I had the mad idea that I wanted to make a Silvally prop. It's something I'd considered for STGCC too, but I was really short on time then, and Mei told me to FINISH EVERYTHING ELSE FIRST THEN DO IT IF YOU HAVE TIME.

The problem is... Silvally's official size in the Pokedex is 2.4m. That's 80cm taller than myself. )o) Sure, I could scale him down, make a tiny lap plushie like all the other cosplayers, but what would be the point? Although I'd never cosplayed from the Pokemon series before, I'd always thought that if I were to do so, I'd want to make life-size Pokemon so that it'd look like I actually have a Pokemon partner, and not just a Pokemon toy. But I'd thought then that my projects would be starters like Pikachu or Charmander or Cyndaquil, or maybe one of the Eeveelutions. Not a giant horse-dog like Silvally ^^;;;

I had to consider the fact that my house isn't very big and I'd have barely any space to keep him. I had to consider how I'd be able to transport him, and how to construct him so that I could take him apart. I also had to consider the amount of money I'd be spending on him, because honestly, cosplay is not a cheap hobby. Materials in Singapore are especially expensive. As an unemployed student, I'd be splurging a lot if I decided to go ahead with this crazy project. When I told this to Mei during one of our dinners out, she suggested just making his head and taking halfbody shots so no one can tell that he has nobody. Like a hobby horse, except it's a hobby Silvally.

Good idea.

So when school finished, I started drafting him out, and the basic paper draft itself took like three giant sheets of patterning paper taped together HAHAHA.

The base

Honestly, even though I had an idea of how I'd make him, I wasn't completely sure if it would work. As I've said repeatedly I really, really suck at patterning. I can never seem to envision where to cut darts in a piece of EVA foam to get the shape I want, so half the time I was just taping drafting paper on and folding and taping excess parts off, then that that up for a trial-and-error pattern.

With paper mache and paper draft pattern for the mouth.

That's how large the whole thing is 8D'

Apart from the making of Silvally, I'd also spent time searching for reference pictures and sketching storyboard ideas for our shoot. I went to check out the our shoot location (Sentosa Island) a few weekends back, so that we could decide where exactly we wanted to shoot. In hindsight, there were a lot more shots I could have planned to bring out the personality of our characters more, but oh well ;w;

The shoot itself went pretty well, for the sun was quite kind to us, and hid under clouds for most of the day. Sei's working style is quite different from mine, but she was very gracious and did everything I asked of her. Sakami and Greg were wonderful helpers, and some of my best memories from the day include our hilarious videos, and the shenanigans with the Pokemon.

I've already thanked my wonderful team mates, helpers and photographer in another post, so I won't go into details here. But everyone was very kind and obliging, and listened to all my ambitious plans, allowing me to be a bossy director. I'm very, very grateful to all of them.  

So now, a bit of reflection on Silvally, and the whole project.

The patterns for Silvally weren't perfect, and I messed up a lot. The final result was definitely far from what I had hoped for. Most noticeably, the top of the head is bumpy holey because I ran out of gesso to fill and sand. But the proportions also came out a bit off, and the neck piece patterning failed on the right side. But when I finished painting... I felt very, very happy. I'd gotten some small bouts of joy when I finished each stage of the crafting process, when I looked at what I'd done, but looking at the final product was just.... incredible. It wasn't as beautiful as it could have been, and I still regret all the imperfections that are so obvious to my eyes, but....I was so excited. I couldn't wait for the shoot.

Perhaps it was partly because I hadn't really been sure if I'd be able to make things work, so the success tastes that much sweeter. Some of my friends had told me I was crazy. I kept asking myself if I were crazy. All that money and time and pain sunk into a project that I'm not even getting paid for, with a success rate that seemed really low. My mom telling me straight out that I was 'too ambitious'. Was it worth it? Would it have been better to make a smaller, much more perfect prop, than an actual sized, flawed one, with half the effort and money? Cosplay is already an indulgence, but had I crossed the line into foolish waste zone?

When I looked at my completed Silvally, the answer didn't hit me like Mjolnir. I still don't know if it was the right thing to do, or if I was an irresponsible child wasting the money that could have gone into feeding me better food.

But it made me happy. So happy. I nearly cried as I stood there for a few minutes staring at him. He was truly a labour of love. I spent hours spraying gesso and paint because I love Silvally. I spent days sanding until my arms want to fall off and my eyes are dying from dust because I love Gladion. I spent hours cortorted in weird positions with a paintbrush trying desperately to stay within the pencil lines, sweat dripping into my eyes, because I love this art. Sure, the process itself was often painful; I suffered multiple burns from hot glue and a hot iron and cut my fingers open way too many times. I still hate hand-sanding with a burning passion because it's tiring as hell and I get blisters on my oversensitive skin. But the thought that all of the suffering helps to build the final piece of art that I envision makes me grit my teeth and soldier on.

Cosplay is my art, something that I would put 500% of me into. Whether the crafting of insanely large props, or the preparations for the shoot, or the styling of my entire team's wigs, or the endless sewing adventures on plushies.

Because I love it.

[dulwichdiverter]

A directorial debut

A local director’s first play fuses difficult decisions with dark humour to explore the turmoil of a young woman facing an unwanted pregnancy alone

Words by Elizabeth Rust

What’s it like to physically and emotionally go through an abortion? What are the steps? How much waiting is involved? These are the types of questions the play A Womb of One’s Own addresses when a young woman faces the decision to have a termination.

Directed by 20-year-old East Dulwich resident Holly Bond (pictured above, in the centre), the play follows an 18-year-old student who, through a journey of sexual discovery, goes on an emotional roller coaster of an unwanted pregnancy.

The play itself is creatively directed to explore the issues of abortion, sexuality and religion. Its main character, called Babygirl, has just started university. She’s escaped her crotchety, old-fashioned grandmothers and is learning how to explore her own sexuality.

But after her first sexual experience, she gets pregnant. Without a support network around her, she has to come to terms with the isolating decision to have an abortion. The play follows her path as she navigates life as a newly independent woman.

A Womb of One’s Own is a dark comedy, which might seem an unexpected genre for a play that explores such a sensitive topic. But according to Culturised reviewer Alex Killeen, it works, initially by helping audiences bond with Babygirl.  

He adds: “Later, when events take a darker turn and emphasis is placed on the stress, panic and trauma involved in the process, comedy is well utilised to ease some of the tension of the play without trivialising the issue at hand.”

“A few jokes are meant to make people feel uncomfortable,” admits Holly, who is studying English and drama at Goldsmiths. “We don’t hide away from graphic images. We want people to realise how painful it is.”

A Womb of One’s Own is loosely based on the play’s writer Claire Rammelkamp’s own experience. Like Babygirl, Claire was single, studying and unemployed when she had a termination, but unlike her protagonist, she wasn’t alone.  

“I have a supportive mum,” she says. “But this character is Catholic, and dealing with guilt. She was raised by her grandmothers and doesn’t have a maternal influence to guide her. She’s also just gone to university, and doesn’t have any firm friendships.”

Claire and Holly met at the National Youth Theatre last year where they were on the theatre’s first ever all-female epic stages course. They bonded over ideas about feminist theatre and decided to start their own production company, Wonderbox.

Their aim is to challenge taboos and showcase untold stories. But while searching for a script, Claire realised she had her own untold story about having an abortion, which she says she compartmentalised and forgot until she was brainstorming with Holly for ideas.

Holly supported Claire in her decision to write the play and she initially penned a 15-minute script. “We thought the 15-minute piece had some legs,” she says, “so I started writing more.  

“I wrote in the letter in the programme that [the play] had the growth process of a baby, because it kept doubling in size and grew in this month-to-month period to become mine and Holly’s baby.”

Four actresses play the role of Babygirl – Claire, Danica Corns, Larissa Pinkham and Carla Garratt, with each actress taking on different and often conflicting aspects of her personality.  

Claire wants audiences to empathise with women who have had an abortion. She insists that A Womb of One’s Own isn’t a man-hating Alanis Morissette-style rant. “This is not about men. Not everything is about men,” she says.

Instead this is a play about a young woman feeling alone, and how she copes with that isolation. Men are very welcome to see the play though – perhaps to learn how to support someone going through an abortion.

Once Claire had finished the script, Holly’s job was to turn the words into physical art. “I knew the play had to be over the top. Sharp and quick. It had to hold people’s attention,” she says, explaining that it is meant to be as educational as it is entertaining.

In her directorial debut, she learned quickly how to work with actors. She read Directing – a Handbook for Emerging Theatre Directors by Rob Swain, but eventually she just had to trust her gut, making hundreds of decisions about set design, lighting and sound.

Some decisions took her actors by surprise, like when she pitched the idea of them coming on stage wearing giant, unflattering knickers. “The concept was to show how vulnerable and awkward people feel on a first date,” she says. “But it wasn’t sexy,” she adds, saying that she’s keen to show the true female form.

Other decisions were much easier, like finding somebody to design the play’s programme. Through her network at Goldsmiths, people jumped at the chance to get involved.

Much of Holly’s time was spent listening and understanding her actors’ needs and ensuring their portrayal of Babygirl’s experience was believable. She also used improvisation techniques to get the cast to think outside the box.

Claire loves this about Holly. She loves that she’s not afraid to experiment. She especially loves that she can go away and then come back with a completely new and interesting idea.

“She’s very sensitive to my work as a writer. She doesn’t trash it. But she seeks to improve it and give it an extra spark of life,” she says.

Nevertheless, both Holly and Claire are also very aware of the topicality of the play, especially since the Conservative government formed a coalition with the anti-abortion DUP.

In the United States, president Donald Trump has expanded the global gag rule to eliminate US government funding for international health organisations that provide counselling, referrals or services for safe and legal abortion – even with their own cash.

No form of contraception is 100 per cent effective, and having an abortion is something one in three women will face during their reproductive lifetime according to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.  

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 190,406 abortions were carried out in England and Wales last year, and of these, 4,810 abortions were performed for non-residents of those two countries.  

Yet there’s still a stigma attached to the word abortion, even for those who are pro-choice. “People flinch when they hear the word. Our aim with the play is to get away from that flinch,” says Claire.

“If someone has had an abortion, I really want them to feel a sense of camaraderie – this is quite a common experience. And if someone hasn’t had an abortion, it would be nice to emotionally prepare them for it.”

The play debuted at an all-women scratch night in Clapham. It’s a night when a new piece of work is tried out in front of an audience. Once Holly read the feedback forms, she decided to scrap a couple lines from the play.

“They just weren’t necessary, they made people tense up,” she says. They also made the decision to expand on a lesbian relationship that develops before Babygirl has an abortion.

After workshopping the play a few more times they decided to take it to regional theatre, performing it in Birmingham and Bristol. In August they finished a week-long run at The Space performing arts centre on the Isle of Dogs in east London.

Critics have been positive about the play, with the University of Birmingham’s student newspaper, Redbrick, saying: “This is a production of filthy comedy and hard-hitting politics.”

Reviewer Becky Bryant added: “It is powerfully thought-provoking, exploring controversial issues, including religion, sexuality and abortion, prompting the audience to think and talk about these topics long after the production is over, breaking the taboo.”

Actor Paul McGann, who is famous for his roles in Withnail and I and Doctor Who among others, saw the production earlier this year and said: “I loved this. Skill and daring from a really promising young company.”

So what’s next for Holly and Claire? They hope to show the play in Northern Ireland, especially during the abortion debate. Then next summer they want to present at the Edinburgh Fringe. But all this costs money, so the duo are applying for arts funding.

They also want to continue working together. Claire is currently writing two scripts: one about a couple who stay together because they have the same illness and another about a women’s mental health support network that turns out to be a group of modern witches.

But it’s clear that these two have a firm artistic relationship too. “I hope she directs all my plays. I love working with her so much,” Claire says. “Holly really is my creative soulmate.”

..........................................

Any Dulwich resident in need of advice on the issues mentioned above can turn to their GP or the Camberwell Sexual Health Centre, 100 Denmark Hill, which is part of King’s College Hospital. Call 020 3299 5000 or visit kch.nhs.uk/service/a-z/sexual-health

[topicprinter]

Most of the so-called marketing "influencers" out there are celebrities.They've made it. They're not in the trenches anymore.They forgot how to "do" marketing; their employees promote their new books for them, build their new websites, launch their new products... all they have to do is sign their name under whatever new projects and Ka Ching! the money starts rolling in their bank accounts.That's what I thought when I was preparing my interview with Seth Godin for my podcast called Everyone Hates Marketers (how I managed to get him on the show is another story - http://imgur.com/a/1WhxU).Seth has published 18 books, is regarded as one the best marketing minds alongside Ogilvy or Tim Ferris, so he doesn't need to be in the trenches anymore.I chose to challenge him to take him out of his comfort zone and see if he still "got it".I asked him to:come up with a business idea on the flyexplain EXACTLY how he would launch this new business,describe how he would find his first customers,+ plenty of other questionsThere was one catch though: he couldn't use his name to promote it, he had only a budget of $1,000, and 90 days to be successful.What follows is the exact process Seth Godin uses to launch a new business (from scratch) with only $1,000 in the bank and 90 days to spare.0) Before we start:if you want to read this post on a Google Docs, away from distractions, here it is: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dDXF-AFGCV_2GMLKuyBrrzViQ_ADdgH9uVwpth7f4MA/editif you want to listen to the podcast episode directly, you can follow this link: https://everyonehatesmarketers.com/seth-godin-marketing-secrets/ (there's no annoying popup, you can listen to the episode directly from your browser).1) Market WITH people, not AT them"We, marketers, are selfish, lying, short-term thinking scum. We believe that our job is to manipulate people as we market to them." - Seth GodinThe time of scammy, in-your-face marketing is over.20 years ago, you could come up with an average product, invest a few thousand euros in TV Ads saying that your product was the best ever, and sell 10,000 units of it.Not anymore.People are immune to bad marketing.Don't believe me?When was the last time you bought SEO services from a cold email? When was the last time you subscribed to a new marketing software from an automated direct message on Twitter?That's right: never.We expect to sell using those shady techniques, yet we HATE it when it happens to us.The first step towards a launching a new business according to Seth Godin is to change your mindset. You can't come up with a product or service and THEN decide to market it.You have to involve people in the process.Your customers are humans just like you.They're not just a number on Google Analytics.Treat them as such.2) Focus on the tiniest audience possibleIn 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched a social network for Harvard students only.Look where Facebook is now.In 1970, Yvon Chouinard, co-Founder of Patagonia, was selling "homemade gear out of the back of his car, supplementing his income by diving into trash cans and redeeming bottles for cash".Patagonia is now worth $209M.I had the same dilemma when I started my podcast Everyone Hates Marketers. I wanted to reach ALL the marketers on the planet.I realized that I would stretch myself too thin if I was going down this road.So I trimmed my audience to the bone: I would focus only on digital marketers working in tech who are sick of shady, aggressive marketing.This was the audience I knew the best: I am a tech marketer sick of shady, aggressive marketing.By focusing on this small audience I have an edge over the generalist digital marketing podcasts out there.I can address their biggest, most specific pains. This is what remarkable marketing is all about.This probably goes against everything you learned about business. That's because this is the ugly, unsexy part.No, you're not going to become a millionaire this year, or even next year. It might take 9 years, 18 years, 25 years, who knows?So, how do you pick a tiny audience?This part takes discipline.You probably have an idea of a product or service you want to offer; now it's time to select the bullseye: who are the people who will benefit the most from using your product or service?When I asked Seth Godin to come up with a business idea on the fly, he came up with a concierge service to help tourists find an Airbnb in Paris.But "tourists" could be anybody: are we serving a Japanese family looking to go to Versailles for the first time or a Brazilian businessman who want a place to stay near Bercy for a seminar?So, Seth trimmed down his audience: he would help Californian families with young kids to find the best place to stay in Paris for their holidays.This is much more specific, and, all of a sudden, the problems they face and the solutions we can offer become much more specific, too.Californian families want high-speed internet to talk with their relatives who stayed in San Diego. They want to see the Eiffel Tower from their balcony just like in the movies. They want to taste the best croissants Paris has to offer since they can't find any in San Diego.See what I mean?You might fear that the audience you're thinking of is too small.Here's a tip I got from Philip Morgan (an expert in marketing positioning): if there's a conference especially organized for it, then your audience is big enough.For example, did you know that there's a conference for handcrafted soap makers (https://www.soapguild.org/conference/index.php)?The next one is in Atlanta, Georgia, and 450 attendees are expected. If the handcrafted soap maker conference organizers managed to make money from such a tiny audience, so can you!3) Create a remarkable productOk, ok, this might sound cliché but hear me out first.Remarkable marketing starts with a remarkable product.But, what's a remarkable product you ask?It's a product that your customers simply CAN'T live without; they love it so much that they tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends.You get the drill.The problem is that most of us try to sell average products to average people.Because the products are average, customers are not raving about them.They don't talk about them to their friends.As a consequence, we have to use shady, aggressive marketing to compensate for the loss in business.Do you think Slack had to use in-your-face marketing to sell their product?Nope.Anybody can use their product for free - there is no string attached. The product is so good that it IS their marketing. They went from 16,000 Daily Active Users to 2.7 Million in 2 years.As Seth Godin mentioned in the episode: did you start using Facebook because you saw their ads on a lifestyle magazine? Nope. Your friends told you about it.Have you heard of MailChimp because they sponsored a conference you went to?Nope.Their email tool was so good that you started to receive newsletters from businesses and people you knew, sent from MailChimp. You checked out their site, tried their email software for free, and loved the experience.Now here's the hard truth: you're not going to launch the next Facebook, MailChimp, or Slack. They're solving big problems for millions of people.But, to start with, you can create a remarkable product for a small audience.It’s time to get out of the building and talk to people:Identify one of their most painful, unsolved problemsWork your ass off to help them solve itGive a sample of your product or service for freeDo they rave about it and offer to share it with their friends straight away? You have a winner.If not, collect their feedback and start again.This is why Hotjar, the all-in-one analytics and feedback solution for your website, wanted to build a remarkable product. It took them only 4 weeks to come up with the first version of the product, built a very simple landing page, let 1,500 people use it straight away, and gathered feedback.The product was so good that those 1,500 early adopters referred an additional 17,500 people in less than a month. At this point, the Hotjar co-founders knew they had a winner.There is no silver bullet in building a remarkable product and it might take you months or even years to find the right recipe, but, if you start with a small audience and gather feedback on the way, your chance of coming up with a remarkable product or service will get much, much, higher.4) Create an abundance of confidenceHow do you get the word out about your product or service if you have only $1,000 in the bank?In the words of Seth Godin, "by giving people an abundance of confidence which will create an abundance of value and all I’m asking in return is to be trusted."Let's get back to the example mentioned earlier: a concierge service for Californian families who want to get to Paris on holidays and find a place to stay.To get the word out, Seth proposes to select the best 50 Airbnbs in Paris, take pictures, and create an amazing 50-page guide of where our potential customers should stay when going to Paris.This guide would be available for free, on Medium, for everybody to see.He would then contact 10 people he knows who fit the description of his ideal audience and see if they get any value out of it.If they do, they're probably going to share this guide to their friends, who will then share it with their friends and so on...If they don't, he would improve the guide until they do.Here's the catch: he would leave his email address at the bottom of the guide, and expect readers to contact with questions.He'd give great free advice, engaging with 100 to 1000 people a day back and forth, back and forth, until he'd the indispensable middle man.Airbnb owners would pay him to write a review about their place, while American families will reach out to find the best Airbnb apartment in the city center of Paris for less than 250$ a night.This concept can be applied to any time of products to services: to be trusted you must first give value for free.This requires patience.At the end of 2016, Unbounce, a landing page software, had more than 16,000 paying customers.How did they get there?They started blogging six months before their first product release (in 2010), but, what really helped them to become the most popular landing page software on the planet, was a guest post on Moz.com called "The Noob Guide to Online Marketing"; a giant guide and infographic containing TONS of value.They turned this post into an ebook which got downloaded 150,000 times.Unbounce got trusted as the go-to online marketing experts, and the rest is history.Can YOU do the same in your niche?5) Make a spinner and spin the wheelYou might feel overwhelmed by all of the above, and that's ok.You might not know where to focus on: there are so many things you could do, so many channels you could use, so many ideas running in your head.How do you choose which project to focus on first?Simple.Just pick one, or as Seth Godin would say: "Make a spinner and spin the wheel".Do a thing and stick to it.I used to act like a headless chicken when I started my career: I was impatient, switching from one project to another in a blink of an eye.7 years ago, I launched a blog about marketing (in French), wrote 9 articles, and stopped because there weren't enough people reading them.4 years ago, I wanted to create a community for cystic fibrosis patients to connect with each other (my younger brother has cystic fibrosis). I pitched the idea at a Startup Weekend, worked on it for two weeks, and quit.It is when I started interviewing no-nonsense marketers a few months that I had an epiphany: every one of my guests, in their own words, mentioned the virtue of tranquility.In stoicism, tranquility is defined by: “believing in yourself and trusting that you are on the right path, and not being in doubt by following myriad footpaths of those wandering in every direction”.I stopped checking my mentions on Twitter every 30 minutes, I stopped checking my website stats on Google Analytics every day, I stopped looking at my podcast downloads every Tuesday (when I publish a new episode on Everyone Hates Marketers).Instead, I've decided to make a spinner and spin the wheel. I've decided to deliver value every week and to stop expecting success to knock on my door tomorrow.I know that success will come; I just don't know when.It’s such a liberating feeling.Success is a byproduct of helping people solve their biggest most painful problems.Key takeaways:Market WITH people, not AT them. Your customers are human beings, just like you.Focus on the smallest audience possible. You can always expand later.Create a remarkable product. If your first 10 customers spread the word about it, you have a winner. If not, collect feedback and - start again.Create an abundance of confidence. Give away a huge amount of value for free so people trust you in return.Make a spinner and spin the wheel. There will never be a perfect time to do anything: do something and stick to it.Recommended resources:Seth Godin’s Marketing Secrets to Launching a New Business, podcast episode with Seth Godin: https://everyonehatesmarketers.com/seth-godin-marketing-secrets/Purple Cow by Seth Godin: https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-New-Transform-Remarkable/dp/1591843170Permission Marketing by Seth Godin: https://www.amazon.com/Permission-Marketing-Turning-Strangers-Customers/dp/0684856360Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy: https://www.amazon.com/Ogilvy-Advertising-David/dp/039472903XScientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins: http://www.scientificadvertising.com/ScientificAdvertising.pdfThe 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout: https://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Marketing-Violate/dp/0887306667Avoid best practices at all costs, podcast episode with David Darmanin, CEO of Hotjar: https://everyonehatesmarketers.com/david-darmanin-avoid-marketing-best-practices/Rand Fishkin's guide to inbound marketing, podcast episode with Rand Fishkin: https://everyonehatesmarketers.com/rand-fishkin-guide-to-inbound-marketing/Edit: Overwhelmed by your reactions! As a French dude who think he's a shitty writer your comments make a big difference. I'm going to write more :)

[cavannolanmasteryjournal-blog]

Visual Story Telling Mastery Journal

For this month, my largest goal was to put in reps as a cinematographer. I immediately signed up with another teammate whom I knew wanted to practice his directing skills to create our final project. With Hector as a teammate I was free to focus completely on lighting and camerawork when we began shooting. I also utilized my emotional video as another attempt to also practice my lighting skills, along with being involved in several of my classmate’s productions.

           The lectures while mostly retreading ground learned in the bachelors’ program were also a welcome refresher. The fundamentals of lightning lecture for example, was great to go through a second time. Relearning alternatives to the Rembrandt such as side and bottom lighting, and what emotions these setups evoke was quite enjoyable. The labs also served as a welcome refresher to grip gear. In the bachelors’ program, I spent most of my time in camera team, so being able to build back up my knowledge of the grip and electric side of cinematography was quite welcome.

           Relearning the light meter, especially how the spot meter works mathematically in tandem with the incident meter was extremely helpful. This lecture instilled in me the knowledge of how to mold shadows and swaths of light based on what I have set to eighteen percent gray. Because of this I now have a much deeper understanding of how to create dynamic images in the same style as Ansel Adams.

           Balance of contrast is another technique that was a welcome refresher. While I was taught this technique in the bachelors’ program, I was primarily concerned with wrapping my head around the ins and outs of the camera department. I grasped three-point lighting, and cross key lighting quite well, but forgot techniques on how to effectively light the background. This technique is another welcome tool in my cinematographers’ toolbox, along with previously mentioned lighting techniques, and foreground elements.

           Safety was another issue brought up heavily during our lectures and labs, especially dealing with electricity. Regardless of whether I know the information or not, the importance of constantly reminding ourselves and others about how to safely work on a film set is always crucial. It is good to know that my fellow students now know how to keep both themselves and others on set safe.

           Motivating light is another technique brought up in this class. It helps to consider what would be lighting the characters in your scene naturally to not only utilize that position as the key light but also to give the audience a reasonable explanation as to where the light is coming from. This technique is especially important in period pieces that take place before the lightbulb was invented.

           The second biggest issue discussed just below safety, is that ultimately the story should dictate all the lighting and framing. Sometimes a scene simply needs to be unnaturally lit and framed due to such things as say a ghostly presence, or a dream sequence. All the lighting and framing techniques mentioned above do work perfectly for the majority of film scenes, but there are rare occasions when those rules can be broken for an even stronger image.

[topicprinter]

Most of the so-called marketing "influencers" out there are celebrities.They've made it. They're not in the trenches anymore.They forgot how to "do" marketing; their employees promote their new books for them, build their new websites, launch their new products... all they have to do is sign their name under whatever new projects and Ka Ching! the money starts rolling in their bank accounts.That's what I thought when I was preparing my interview with Seth Godin for my podcast called Everyone Hates Marketers (how I managed to get him on the show is another story - http://imgur.com/a/1WhxU).Seth has published 18 books, is regarded as one the best marketing minds alongside Ogilvy or Tim Ferris, so he doesn't need to be in the trenches anymore.I chose to challenge him to take him out of his comfort zone and see if he still "got it".I asked him to:come up with a business idea on the flyexplain EXACTLY how he would launch this new business,describe how he would find his first customers,+ plenty of other questionsThere was one catch though: he couldn't use his name to promote it, he had only a budget of $1,000, and 90 days to be successful.What follows is the exact process Seth Godin uses to launch a new business (from scratch) with only $1,000 in the bank and 90 days to spare.0) Before we start:if you want to read this post on a Google Docs, away from distractions, here it is: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dDXF-AFGCV_2GMLKuyBrrzViQ_ADdgH9uVwpth7f4MA/editif you want to listen to the podcast episode directly, you can follow this link: https://everyonehatesmarketers.com/seth-godin-marketing-secrets/ (there's no annoying popup, you can listen to the episode directly from your browser).1) Market WITH people, not AT them"We, marketers, are selfish, lying, short-term thinking scum. We believe that our job is to manipulate people as we market to them." - Seth GodinThe time of scammy, in-your-face marketing is over.20 years ago, you could come up with an average product, invest a few thousand euros in TV Ads saying that your product was the best ever, and sell 10,000 units of it.Not anymore.People are immune to bad marketing.Don't believe me?When was the last time you bought SEO services from a cold email? When was the last time you subscribed to a new marketing software from an automated direct message on Twitter?That's right: never.We expect to sell using those shady techniques, yet we HATE it when it happens to us.The first step towards a launching a new business according to Seth Godin is to change your mindset. You can't come up with a product or service and THEN decide to market it.You have to involve people in the process.Your customers are humans just like you.They're not just a number on Google Analytics.Treat them as such.2) Focus on the tiniest audience possibleIn 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched a social network for Harvard students only.Look where Facebook is now.In 1970, Yvon Chouinard, co-Founder of Patagonia, was selling "homemade gear out of the back of his car, supplementing his income by diving into trash cans and redeeming bottles for cash".Patagonia is now worth $209M.I had the same dilemma when I started my podcast Everyone Hates Marketers. I wanted to reach ALL the marketers on the planet.I realized that I would stretch myself too thin if I was going down this road.So I trimmed my audience to the bone: I would focus only on digital marketers working in tech who are sick of shady, aggressive marketing.This was the audience I knew the best: I am a tech marketer sick of shady, aggressive marketing.By focusing on this small audience I have an edge over the generalist digital marketing podcasts out there.I can address their biggest, most specific pains. This is what remarkable marketing is all about.This probably goes against everything you learned about business. That's because this is the ugly, unsexy part.No, you're not going to become a millionaire this year, or even next year. It might take 9 years, 18 years, 25 years, who knows?So, how do you pick a tiny audience?This part takes discipline.You probably have an idea of a product or service you want to offer; now it's time to select the bullseye: who are the people who will benefit the most from using your product or service?When I asked Seth Godin to come up with a business idea on the fly, he came up with a concierge service to help tourists find an Airbnb in Paris.But "tourists" could be anybody: are we serving a Japanese family looking to go to Versailles for the first time or a Brazilian businessman who want a place to stay near Bercy for a seminar?So, Seth trimmed down his audience: he would help Californian families with young kids to find the best place to stay in Paris for their holidays.This is much more specific, and, all of a sudden, the problems they face and the solutions we can offer become much more specific, too.Californian families want high-speed internet to talk with their relatives who stayed in San Diego. They want to see the Eiffel Tower from their balcony just like in the movies. They want to taste the best croissants Paris has to offer since they can't find any in San Diego.See what I mean?You might fear that the audience you're thinking of is too small.Here's a tip I got from Philip Morgan (an expert in marketing positioning): if there's a conference especially organized for it, then your audience is big enough.For example, did you know that there's a conference for handcrafted soap makers (https://www.soapguild.org/conference/index.php)?The next one is in Atlanta, Georgia, and 450 attendees are expected. If the handcrafted soap maker conference organizers managed to make money from such a tiny audience, so can you!3) Create a remarkable productOk, ok, this might sound cliché but hear me out first.Remarkable marketing starts with a remarkable product.But, what's a remarkable product you ask?It's a product that your customers simply CAN'T live without; they love it so much that they tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends.You get the drill.The problem is that most of us try to sell average products to average people.Because the products are average, customers are not raving about them.They don't talk about them to their friends.As a consequence, we have to use shady, aggressive marketing to compensate for the loss in business.Do you think Slack had to use in-your-face marketing to sell their product?Nope.Anybody can use their product for free - there is no string attached. The product is so good that it IS their marketing. They went from 16,000 Daily Active Users to 2.7 Million in 2 years.As Seth Godin mentioned in the episode: did you start using Facebook because you saw their ads on a lifestyle magazine? Nope. Your friends told you about it.Have you heard of MailChimp because they sponsored a conference you went to?Nope.Their email tool was so good that you started to receive newsletters from businesses and people you knew, sent from MailChimp. You checked out their site, tried their email software for free, and loved the experience.Now here's the hard truth: you're not going to launch the next Facebook, MailChimp, or Slack. They're solving big problems for millions of people.But, to start with, you can create a remarkable product for a small audience.It’s time to get out of the building and talk to people:Identify one of their most painful, unsolved problemsWork your ass off to help them solve itGive a sample of your product or service for freeDo they rave about it and offer to share it with their friends straight away? You have a winner.If not, collect their feedback and start again.This is why Hotjar, the all-in-one analytics and feedback solution for your website, wanted to build a remarkable product. It took them only 4 weeks to come up with the first version of the product, built a very simple landing page, let 1,500 people use it straight away, and gathered feedback.The product was so good that those 1,500 early adopters referred an additional 17,500 people in less than a month. At this point, the Hotjar co-founders knew they had a winner.There is no silver bullet in building a remarkable product and it might take you months or even years to find the right recipe, but, if you start with a small audience and gather feedback on the way, your chance of coming up with a remarkable product or service will get much, much, higher.4) Create an abundance of confidenceHow do you get the word out about your product or service if you have only $1,000 in the bank?In the words of Seth Godin, "by giving people an abundance of confidence which will create an abundance of value and all I’m asking in return is to be trusted."Let's get back to the example mentioned earlier: a concierge service for Californian families who want to get to Paris on holidays and find a place to stay.To get the word out, Seth proposes to select the best 50 Airbnbs in Paris, take pictures, and create an amazing 50-page guide of where our potential customers should stay when going to Paris.This guide would be available for free, on Medium, for everybody to see.He would then contact 10 people he knows who fit the description of his ideal audience and see if they get any value out of it.If they do, they're probably going to share this guide to their friends, who will then share it with their friends and so on...If they don't, he would improve the guide until they do.Here's the catch: he would leave his email address at the bottom of the guide, and expect readers to contact with questions.He'd give great free advice, engaging with 100 to 1000 people a day back and forth, back and forth, until he'd the indispensable middle man.Airbnb owners would pay him to write a review about their place, while American families will reach out to find the best Airbnb apartment in the city center of Paris for less than 250$ a night.This concept can be applied to any time of products to services: to be trusted you must first give value for free.This requires patience.At the end of 2016, Unbounce, a landing page software, had more than 16,000 paying customers.How did they get there?They started blogging six months before their first product release (in 2010), but, what really helped them to become the most popular landing page software on the planet, was a guest post on Moz.com called "The Noob Guide to Online Marketing"; a giant guide and infographic containing TONS of value.They turned this post into an ebook which got downloaded 150,000 times.Unbounce got trusted as the go-to online marketing experts, and the rest is history.Can YOU do the same in your niche?5) Make a spinner and spin the wheelYou might feel overwhelmed by all of the above, and that's ok.You might not know where to focus on: there are so many things you could do, so many channels you could use, so many ideas running in your head.How do you choose which project to focus on first?Simple.Just pick one, or as Seth Godin would say: "Make a spinner and spin the wheel".Do a thing and stick to it.I used to act like a headless chicken when I started my career: I was impatient, switching from one project to another in a blink of an eye.7 years ago, I launched a blog about marketing (in French), wrote 9 articles, and stopped because there weren't enough people reading them.4 years ago, I wanted to create a community for cystic fibrosis patients to connect with each other (my younger brother has cystic fibrosis). I pitched the idea at a Startup Weekend, worked on it for two weeks, and quit.It is when I started interviewing no-nonsense marketers a few months that I had an epiphany: every one of my guests, in their own words, mentioned the virtue of tranquility.In stoicism, tranquility is defined by: “believing in yourself and trusting that you are on the right path, and not being in doubt by following myriad footpaths of those wandering in every direction”.I stopped checking my mentions on Twitter every 30 minutes, I stopped checking my website stats on Google Analytics every day, I stopped looking at my podcast downloads every Tuesday (when I publish a new episode on Everyone Hates Marketers).Instead, I've decided to make a spinner and spin the wheel. I've decided to deliver value every week and to stop expecting success to knock on my door tomorrow.I know that success will come; I just don't know when.It’s such a liberating feeling.Success is a byproduct of helping people solve their biggest most painful problems.Key takeaways:Market WITH people, not AT them. Your customers are human beings, just like you.Focus on the smallest audience possible. You can always expand later.Create a remarkable product. If your first 10 customers spread the word about it, you have a winner. If not, collect feedback and - start again.Create an abundance of confidence. Give away a huge amount of value for free so people trust you in return.Make a spinner and spin the wheel. There will never be a perfect time to do anything: do something and stick to it.Recommended resources:Seth Godin’s Marketing Secrets to Launching a New Business, podcast episode with Seth Godin: https://everyonehatesmarketers.com/seth-godin-marketing-secrets/Purple Cow by Seth Godin: https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-New-Transform-Remarkable/dp/1591843170Permission Marketing by Seth Godin: https://www.amazon.com/Permission-Marketing-Turning-Strangers-Customers/dp/0684856360Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy: https://www.amazon.com/Ogilvy-Advertising-David/dp/039472903XScientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins: http://www.scientificadvertising.com/ScientificAdvertising.pdfThe 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout: https://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Marketing-Violate/dp/0887306667Avoid best practices at all costs, podcast episode with David Darmanin, CEO of Hotjar: https://everyonehatesmarketers.com/david-darmanin-avoid-marketing-best-practices/Rand Fishkin's guide to inbound marketing, podcast episode with Rand Fishkin: https://everyonehatesmarketers.com/rand-fishkin-guide-to-inbound-marketing/