#link goes to the tweet! support them and you can also see the cool art :)

[karl-updates]

Karl replied to a fan that made a TFTSMP game!

[Image ID:

Image 1: A tweet from 「✨kio✨」🔶 TFTSMP GAME !! @/kiolite_ that says “Tales From The SMP: The Haunted Mansion - https://kiolite.itch.io/tftsmp-the-haunted-mansion… hi guys ! i made a tftsmp game just for fun !! :] go ahead and check it out as me and my friends worked hard on it !! #tftsmpfanart #tftsmp”.

Image 2: A tweet from karl :) @/KarlJacobs_ that says “WHAT! Is this serious? I feel like I have a moral obligation to play this”.

/End ID]

[jinbedreams]

Tā moko and Blackbeard - PLEASE READ

Omg Blackbeard’s tattoo’s are so cool-

Wait a second . . .

WHOA WHOA WHOA HOLD ON A MINUTE THERE

That went from zero to 100 REAL quick lets get some education about tā moko up in here before we make these wild claims! Tatau or tattoos have been found all over the world in many civilisations, but it was absolutely the Age of Sail and the colonisation of the Pacific Islands that popularised it and spread it around the world. Tatau is a samoan word that means to strike, and many polynesian cultures have a rich history of tattooing with very specific meanings and connections. Western sailors visiting the islands got their own and soon brought tattoos back to white civilisation where we know and love it today as artistic body modifications. Western tattoos usually come with deep individual personal meaning as opposed to the widespread cultural meaning that occurs in polynesian tattoos. Tattooing has also had a big impact on the queer community too which makes the ofmd connections all the more interwoven (it’s about the intricate rituals)

Edward “Blackbeard“ Teach from Our Flag Means Death is played by Taika Waititi, a Māori and jewish man, and as part of his character design, Taika’s own tattoos were added upon to create the visuals of blackbeard! These tattoos are an essential part of the character and it makes sense that anyone drawing or especially cosplaying Blackbeard would want to make sure that these tattoos are included. Unfortunately there has already been a few (probably well-intentioned) call-out posts for doing so (see above), saying that cosplayers should not be drawing on tattoos that have specific cultural significance! Which is absolutely correct! The problem is these posts have also failed to recognise what is and isn’t Māori tā moko and what is literally just . . a regular tattoo 🙈  Here’s Taika and his tattoos:

The eagle on his chest, the little Rita Ora tattoo on his hip and yes, those black bands on his arms are all likely to have very personal meaning to Taika but they are not tā moko.

Tā moko is the practice of tattooing that is specific to the Māori people and a quick google search will show you just how recognisable tā moko is, a tradition that goes back hundreds of years.

Tā moko is usually the more traditional type reserved for the face and the more modern concept of tattoos as body art can be referred to as Kirituhi. Every piece is unique to the wearer, with koru (spirals) that represent family and the darker infilled parts using various symbolic patterns.

Here to give some input as Māori people themselves are my friends on twitter speaking about the specific tā moko that Taika has that you shouldn’t try to reproduce: The tā moko on his leg, the whare (meeting house) on his wrist, and the traditional imagery of rā the sun on his back (seen in the above photo of Taika also) 

@neonbirb

@weylandyuutani

@ceylonthae

So to conclude: YES as a non Māori person you should avoid drawing on tā moko as part of a cosplay as there is very deep cultural and personal significance in those specific tattoos, and Māori people who see their culture misrepresented in a poor rendition of tā moko will likely take offense. but unless Taika himself has asked people not to there’s nothing wrong with drawing on the tattoo’s that aren’t tā moko, including the eagle on his chest and yes, those two black bands on his arms. BUT ALSO: do not erase tā moko from fanart of blackbeard, if you want to draw the whare on his wrist or the rā on his back, or the kirituhi on his leg - power to you!!! And don’t bloody whitewash the man either or I’ll set the kraken on you!!!  ☠🐙 (Please go retweet and support my friends on twitter I have linked them all above their tweet screenshots!)

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Okay I was gonna do another SG:WoT post anyway because we’ve got a new King interview but THEN, he released the cover to issue four so you KNOW I gotta geek out about this.

(Sorry that this blog is all SG:WoT, all the time now, but I am just. Insanely excited that Evely is drawing Supergirl. Feel free to block/mute these posts as needed. XD)

Okay, so!

First! The interview!

It’s on (ugh) screenrant so I’m not gonna link, I’m just gonna nab the interesting bits:

On the different direction of the book, and if he wanted to go back to the original Adventure Comics vibes: “So, the idea of this thing was to strip her story down, because Supergirl has a majorly weird history in terms of continuity. At least 13 writers have rewritten her origin over the years. Her dad has 13 origin stories; sometimes he's evil, sometimes he's a robot, sometimes alive, sometimes he's dead. She's changed dramatically in the last 10 years, between coming back to life to the New 52 to Rebirth. She's gone through so much that it's hard to get a hold of her. Not to mention in the '90s, when I was coming up, she was like an ectoplasmic space angel. There's so much there, and I just wanted to take all that stuff off and get to the core of the character; get her out of her normal environments and her normal conflicts. It seems like all our stories are about her dad or her relationship to Superman. Instead, let's see the purity of that character.”

On starting the book the way he did: “...I wanted to start out with a very human moment of a person turning 21 and getting drunk. And a person who is getting drunk because they want to be alone, and they just want to forget about the shit that's happened in their past. That's such a human moment. And the fact that she's Supergirl, so she waits till it's legal - because these super people, they follow the rules. She waited, and now it's legal and she can have this moment. She goes off by herself, with her dog that always follows her, and she has a moment where she can be free. For a lot of people in the US, whether you've been drinking since you were 14 or started that day, your 21st birthday and the day after are days you remember for the rest of your life. It's a day of freedom and consequence, and I wanted to show Supergirl going through that.”

On rising to the challenge of helping Supergirl perform better, sales/popularity-wise: “ When I first got on this book, I called Steve Orlando, who had just written a Supergirl run. And he was the one who opened my eyes to how good the character is. He had such insight into her. He was like, ‘There is a difference between Clark and her, and what she's gone through.’ He just laid it for me.”

On starting the book off with Ruthye’s journey, and gradually building to Kara’s: “ I was like, "Okay, this is going to be from the point of view of someone under Supergirl." And so I switched the point of view to this new brand new character, whose name is Ruthye. And we went from there: we start with Ruthye's story, we see her discover Supergirl, and she's our audience. She's our way in, the way Robin has always been the way into Batman.”

On whether or not other characters will show up, outside of Supergirl and Ruthye: “It's like my Superman: Up in the Sky, where it's a distillation of the character. You'll see other characters, but the focus of every issue will be on Supergirl. And it's something where at the very end, you can be like, "Why is Supergirl great? Why is she important to the DC Universe? What is her future in the DC Universe? Here, read this one trade that can answer all three of those questions at once."So, there will be other characters in the Super universe. But the focus will always be on her; on Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. It's her finding out about herself and her own strength.”

On Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow vs. his other titles: “Supergirl is my first 2021 book, or my first book of the 20s. That wrapped up my books of the teens, and now we're in a new generation. God willing, from the moment I started this book, I was like, ‘I'm gonna take a risk, and I'm gonna write books that are a little brighter.’ I know that's coming from me, and it's not to say we're going to avoid conflict or we're not going to explore the depths of the human soul. All that stuff will be in there. But these books are made from a place of joy, not from a place of anger; from a place of hope, not from a place of despair. It very much contrasts to those other books, in my mind.”

On how he thinks folks will react to the Krypto cliffhanger: “I mean, they're gonna think it's a good cliffhanger. That's how I think they're going to react. They're going to say, ‘I want the next issue.’ That's literally my job as written in my contract. Something where at the end of an issue, someone says, ‘I want more.’ So, that's how I hope they react.”

As mentioned, this is not the full interview; the whole thing can be found on screenrant, and I think Tom King shared a link on his twitter. 

And now, as always, SOME THOUGHTS:

I love that he brings up the fact that so many Supergirl stories focus on Zor-El and Clark, and how he was like, ‘let’s not do that.’

That’s my big gripe with modern Supergirl comics; they are trying so hard to make a statement on why we need both a Supergirl AND a Superman, that they end up spending ALL THEIR TIME talking about Clark, instead of, you know. Telling a fun Supergirl story.

Same thing with Zor-El! I know folks love Rebirth--I like it quite a bit myself--but I think the nostalgia goggles prevent folks from remembering that the whole first arc of that book was re-doing the ‘Cyborg Superman’ garbage from the Nu52. 

Speaking of Rebirth, really like that of all the recent SG writers he coulda talked to, he talked to Steve Orlando.

Like, if ya can’t get Gates on the phone, get Orlando.

(I get the sense that Gates doesn’t like this book, actually, based on a vague tweet. But don’t quote me on that.) 

Looks like Ruthye is gonna be our POV/audience insert character for the whole run. I’m...mmmm. I don’t love it, but I understand the logic here. Especially since he compared it to Batman and Robin--how you use Robin as your entry point for a bat book. 

And you know what? Kara’s supporting cast needs some help, so. Welcome to the Superfam, Ruthye.

I also love the explanation behind the drinking thing, as well as the fact that Kara waited until it was 100% legal for her to drink because OF COURSE SHE WOULD.

I am so worried that Krypto is gonna die b/c of what we saw in Future State. I’m over here with my Pepe Silva board like, ‘Well, what if Kara agrees to help Ruthye because Krem MURDERED HER DOG?!?! WHAT IF THIS IS JOHN WICK IN SPACE?!?!?!’

So I am DISMAYED that King does not reassure us AT ALL.

Thus I am forced to cling to this tidbit here: “ But these books are made from a place of joy, not from a place of anger; from a place of hope, not from a place of despair. It very much contrasts to those other books, in my mind.”

Killing the dog would not be joyful. XD So, like. I’m REALLY HOPIN’ HE’LL BE OKAY.

AND LASTLY, (Except not really)

I have some additional, miscellaneous thoughts unrelated to the interview b/c I’m me and I’m loving having a Supergirl comic back on the shelves, however polarizing it may be.

Something I realized, when details started to come out regarding the book, and that other folks have now noted as well: Kara was 16 when Rebirth launched in 2016; she’s just turned 21 in 2021, making her one of the extremely few comic characters to age in real time.

I don’t think that was planned, but it is cool.

It occurred to me on a re-read that Ruthye never calls Kara Kara in her narration, only Supergirl. And I was a little sad! But then I remembered that Kara wouldn’t necessarily reveal her identity to people she’s helping, she would just be ‘Supergirl’ to them. 

I really do love how, so far, there has been NARY A MENTION of Kara angst-ing over being in Clark’s shadow, or being Superman’s cousin.

It appears that her drinking alone on a remote planet is more related to trying to forget her trauma/grief related to Krypton. MAYBE. We don’t know yet.

The Clark thing could still come up. I hope it doesn’t. 

(Interesting to note! Kara recently appeared in Action Comics, helping Clark and Jon investigate some Kryptonian refugees; IDK how closely these books will necessarily ‘work together’ in terms of continuity, but! It’s possible that the discovery of those mysterious refugees was triggering, thus sending her on her way to her own solo title.)

(Well. That’s gonna be my headcanon, anyway. XD)

AND LASTLY, (for real this time)

ISSUE FOUR COVER!!!!

Okay, some immediate thoughts:

GOOD LORD IT’S STUNNING.

I loooooove the fire motif, reminds me of a part from the Rebirth run, where Kara met the Super-Man of China, and they visually referenced All-Star Superman, having the Kryptonians kind of...become the sun.

Also STAR CHART?!?! PIRATE MAP!?!?!?! 

The VIBES I tell you, the VIIIIIIIBES.

Also I love that it’s just Kara.

Don’t get me wrong! I like Ruthye just fine so far! But yeah, yeah, give me some more solo-Kara focus, even if it’s just in the art.

Just realized that once this thing gets collected as a TBP, we might get some Evely art backmatter. OhHhhHHhhH YESSSS. 

Anyways, the long wait for issue 2 begins! 

[differenceenginegirl]

Everything seems a little dark and scary at the moment, so I have complied a list of links to cultural and/or educational things (and some just streams of cute animals, or just plain fun) that are available to watch or listen to or do for free (mostly) online. Some of these will only work for the duration of the current situation (marked with a *), but most are permanent (so far as I know) so can be kept around for a little bit of sunshine on a rainy day.

Feel free to add to this with your own links or ideas, and remember, we’ll get through this together (with the appropriate social distancing). Follow the advice that’s been given, wash your hands, and be kind to one another. 

The majority of links were brought to my attention by @theyahwehdance, @elleflies, and @buckysleftarm (plus a bit of a deep dive through my drafts). Under a cut because hoo boy it got long... 

(Some links in the linked lists may be broken, some may be region-locked, and some may be duplicated, I haven’t checked them all.)

Culture and Education!

The Metropolitan Opera, free nightly (19:30 EDT, 23:00 GMT) broadcasts of operas, available for 20 hours following the broadcast too. (Schedule for the first week)*

Berlin Philharmonic: 30 days free access to their virtual concert hall (redeem before 31st March 2020)*

Playbill have compiled a list of 15 professionally recorded musicals you can watch at home (Not all free) and are inviting people to join them in watching Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella Starring Lesley Ann Warren on 20th March at 20:00 ET! (video may be region locked) 

12 highlighted virtual museum tours and a whole load of others from around the world!

Science Twitter, a series of Skype with a Scientist virtual lectures! (A sign up with an email is required through the link in the tweet, running from 12:00-14:00 EST, (16:00-18:00 GMT)

30 virtual field trips! Links to virtual tours and live cameras of many different places! (Aimed at kids)

Animals!

Cincinnati Zoo Facebook Live virtual safaris, every weekday at 15:00 EDT (19:00 GMT)* Completed safaris will be posted to their website shortly after the Live finishes, and also kept on their Facebook.

Live Monterey Bay Aquarium Cams: 10 different cams showing various tanks and enclosures, and the bay itself!

Live San Diego Zoo Cams: 9 different cams showing various creatures in their habitats! 

Atlanta Zoo Panda Cam

Danish Sea Eagles Cam (this site in Danish, and may go dark, as the equipment is solar powered): A live feed of a Danish Sea Eagle nest!

Peregrines in Norwich and Bath!

Live Animal Cam, Ohio: A cam focused on a feeding station, with night vision so the feed continues even after the sun goes down! (This shows wild animals, so there is no guarantee that you’ll see creatures)

Shedd Aquarium let their penguins out to explore! (Under supervision) More exploration here! 

Two Oceans Aquarium did too, and look at these little cuties on the stairs!

A livestream of adoptable kitties!

And here’s a thread with some of these cams, and more!

Music!

Various people (started by cellist Yo-Yo Ma) playing/sharing music that comforts them on Twitter.

Virtual High School Musicals! (Original Thread) (Wider Hashtag) Many High School kids are now finding themselves unable to perform the musicals they’ve been working so hard on, so Laura Benanti invited them to video themselves performing and share it with her, so they still get to perform for an appreciative audience! (Some of these are absolutely stunning!)

Never before heard Hamilton track demo! 

A playlist of Quarantunes on Spotify, compiled by Rita Wilson (Tom Hanks’ wife)

A playlist of 101 Feel-Good songs on Spotify, compiled by @lanamlouise 

This guy made a really cool instrument out of PVC pipes!

A group of engineers in Stockholm turned a set of stairs into a piano to encourage people to use them rather than the escalator!

Stories!

Josh Gad reads a bedtime story (Olivia goes to Venice) with voices!

Various celebrities reading kids stories, as part of a charity initiative to keep kids fed during school shutdowns.

A bunch of free short stories, essays, audio and video by the wonderful author @neil-gaiman (Plus two photos of him in an ancient hat!)

Find your local indie bookstore and support them while also getting a new book! (US only)

And of course, you can’t leave out the marvelous Archive Of Our Own for fanfiction and fanworks for almost every fandom you can think of! (Remember to make use of the tags and filters to narrow your search or avoid things you don’t want to see/read!)

Food!

A recipe for Norwegian Christmas Butter Squares! (Apparently like sugar cookies, but in bar form and better)

A fudgy brownie-in-a-mug recipe!

A really nice chocolate pudding (in the British sense, so like a cake) with spiced chocolate sauce! (I love the whole cookbook that this is from, and it’s especially good for Discworld fans. Available from various sellers, I have linked my favourite money-sink, the Discworld Emporium: Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook)

My favourite biscuits (cookies) to make! Honey and cinnamon, with a picture book (Honey Biscuits by Meredith Hooper) that you can read alongside to explain to kids where all the ingredients came from!

Creativity and learning new things!

LUNCH DOODLES with Mo Willems! (13:00 ET weekdays, videos remain post-stream) Aimed mostly at kids, but don’t let that stop you doodling with the  Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence!

A little list of doll makers/dress-up sites!

How to take really good photos of the night sky with a phone! (Please continue to observe social distancing rules while taking your pretty pictures)

Fancy making a language? Here’s a site with resources to help you get going with that!

A long list of sources of inspiration, arty websites, and some that are just fun!

Make your very own Peaches the Mouse by @my-darling-boy!

Want to learn 3D modelling? Fusion360 is free (for hobbyists and students) and professionally used, with a good network of tutorials and an, imo, fairly intuitive interface! (I use this a lot)

Want to play with Photoshop but don’t have the money? Here’s a free, in browser version! (Has ads, but they’re unobtrusive)

Want to try your hand at creating a sim? The Sims 4 Character Creator Demo is free! (Limited options, but still fun to play with)

Whether you play D&D or not, this is a really cool custom miniature creator, with loads of options that are being constantly added to updated! (And if you have the money, you can get it in a printable format, or printed for you in a variety of materials!)

Fancy learning something new? Memrise has a load of free courses, ranging from real languages like French or Spanish for beginners to fictional languages like Quenya (one of the Elven languages from LotR) or Klingon, or trivia bits like Harry Potter Spells or Noble Houses in Game of Thrones, and many more! (Available in multiple languages, although not all courses may be available in all languages)

Ever fancied trying to build armour or cosplay props from foam? R31 Studios has you covered with free PDF templates for all sorts of bits!

Meditation and Calm!

60 second meditation tool! Put a worry into a star, and watch it float away with a calming soundtrack and 

Meditation with Lizzo!

Customisable Rain Sounds!

Customisable Train Sounds!

And many more customisable noise generators!

Play with liquid/particles! (Warning: this one made me feel a bit motion-sick, but pretty!)

Interactive generative art!

Random bits I couldn’t catagorise!

Don’t want to dine alone? Have dinner with the Gaffigans!

A series of Mildly Interesting images from @catchymemes!

A group of stuntmen doing Super Mario!

Another list of Good Links (Really well organised!) by @secretladyspider! 

@thelatestkate draws wonderfully reassuring cartoons! (On Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook too!)

World Record Egg Instagram! Lots of nice little positive cartoons.

Happy news from The Happy Broadcast on Instagram, The Happy News, and HuffPost Good News!

Here’s an ongoing list of good stuff by @pftones3482! (Check the notes for more good stuff, and the latest addition)

Some feel-good browser games!

And finally, a little frog here to give you some reassurance!

[davewakeman]

Talking Tickets: 17 April 2020--Refunds! Restarts! Support! And, More!

Hey! 

Thanks for being here again this week. If you are enjoying this newsletter, tell your friends and colleagues to sign up by visiting this link.

How is everyone holding up out there?

If you need someone to chat with, let me know. I’m here for you if you need a proper chat as my friend, Cat, would say.

I made a typing error about the strategy webinar. It is going on this coming Tuesday.

Have a few minutes and want to grab a drink? We may not be able to have a drink in person just yet, but we can have a virtual happy hour. Join me and Ken Troupe for what is becoming a Friday tradition for happy hour with sports business folks at 5 PM EDT.

If you are interested, we’ve got a nice Slack community with folks from around the world and all areas of the industry, exchanging ideas, connecting, and thinking about the future of their businesses.

I’ll share a bunch of links to resources and other places to connect in the newsletter.

Hopefully, I’m able to strike a proper balance for all of you…between, “Wow! This is nuts!” and “We will get through this.”

To the tickets!

————————————————————————————————————

1. When will events return? No one knows but we are learning more:

Dr. Zeke Emmamuel says he doesn’t see large scale events coming back until the fall of 2021.

Shane Harmon, CEO of Sky Stadium in New Zealand shared some interesting information from his government on when restrictions might start to be loosened and things can begin to normalize a little. Patron Base also put together a nice resource guide for their customers that y’all may find useful.

In Europe, the UK is preparing for 3 additional weeks of stay-at-home orders, pushing the opening of events back a bit further.

In the US, we still have no clear strategy for what reopening will look like, what we should expect, and how we will start to regain any sense of normalcy.

We do have a reopening panel and we do have a desire to reopen events, but, again, unfortunately, no clear direction.

I think we all have to try and take a balanced approach to our expectations here. First, we have the economic factor and that’s impacting all of us here immensely. Second, we have to deal with the safety concerns of the population and recognize that liability will drive a lot of the decision making process. Finally, never lose sight of the impact of fear and emotionally driven decision making on mass society. As quickly as people are gung ho to get back to ballparks, if an outbreak happens that was accelerated by a ballgame and that link is made, that could do more long-term damage than anything that has happened to this point.

Because, unfortunately, none of us really know the right answer here.

But I am hopeful after seeing the PGA Tour aim for June and the Australian Football League talking about July. 

2. The economic impact of these shutdowns becomes more and more apparent:

Baseball America wrote up a piece on why fan free games aren’t going to make sense for MiLB and what not playing in 2020 would mean for minor league baseball going forward.

The economic challenges are going to be felt all over. Colleges are likely going to be put in a position to cut sports like the University of Cincinnati did with soccer this week.

As a holistic thing, Research and Markets put together a report this week that tries and cover everything about the entertainment industry and the impact of the virus on folks.

Like a lot of stuff, the analysis and the information coming out from reputable sources needs to be parsed with for context and when you see anyone tell you something is all or nothing…take that with a grain of salt.

Bill Sutton tweeted out a call for teams to get on the virtual season tickets now and over the years I’ve been calling for folks to think more seriously about their membership model, their email lists, and how they are developing their global fan bases.

Harry DeMott from Ticket Evolution wrote up a good piece on restoring liquidity to the ticketing ecosystem as I was finishing this up that is worth a read.

Whatever position you find yourself in right now, your strategy going forward is going to be more important than ever. And, if doing things the way we’ve always done things is a bad idea in the best of times, right now it is a really bad idea to settle for that answer.

3. StubHub, refunds, cancellations, and more continue to make the news: 

The regulators in the UK continue to look into the merger between Viagogo and StubHub. And, as was mentioned in the press this week, “worst timed acquisition ever“?

Vivid Seats did announce their refund and exchange policy this week and it looks a lot different than Ticketmaster’s or StubHub’s.

AEG is offering a 30-day window for fans to get refunds and once a new date is announced, fans will get another 30 days.

While many of us have focused a lot of our attention on the platforms and technology companies, the same uncertainty is trickling into other areas with college football programs feeling the pinch because of the compromised place they find themselves.

Let’s be real here, college programs are only feeling the pinch now because most of them had the earliest deadlines…at a certain point, this is going to be a refrain that all of us are going to hear. Again, it goes back to the point above…we need clarity, information, and guidance on what the next several months look like before folks are really going to feel comfortable doing much of the stuff that we consider normal.

Leadership 101 stuff.

4. How are you connecting with your fans and customers during the pandemic?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve highlighted some really cool examples of using assets, content, and ideas to connect with folks.

The link above is from my friend, Blair Hughes, down in Brisbane. He’s been focusing on fan engagement since 2013 and he updated his resource guides this week to include a few new ideas that will work even when you are socially distanced from your fans.

The Indianapolis Indians were lauded by the governor. The Red Sox dropped coloring sheets. There are tons of free videos and performances from organizations all over the world. 

I’ve struggled with this a little bit because what do you offer folks when there is so much uncertainty. My path has been to continue to figure out how to add value and share ideas with folks. (To be fair, it is selfish as well because focusing on others helps me overcome the gaping void of being an entirely inadequate 4th-grade teacher and helps keep some of those negative thought processes at bay.)

But what are you doing to connect with folks now? Let me know and I can try and highlight some of these ideas as well.

5. The ticketing industry is doing a lot of stuff to help everyone weather this crisis together: 

This week INTIX announced a relief fund, the INTIX Member Covid-19 Relief Fund. 100% of funds will go to member assistance to help members of the ticket community bridge the economic gap while we wait out the pandemic.

Any gift matters, even $1.

As Maureen says that all folks want to do is help and I agree. So if you can, support this effort.

On top of the relief fund, Maureen and her team are hosting a weekly Zoom call on Wednesdays at 12 PM EDT. Anyone can join, no matter if you are a member or not. This week’s had over 200 folks.

The ALSD has a list of resources and ways for folks to learn and connect during the pandemic.

Global Citizen has put together the Live Aid of the Covid-19 crisis for tomorrow, 18 April.

Crew Nation is Live Nation’s effort to help the crews that make the shows happen. The Arts Council in the UK is also working to help freelancers and other folks impacted by the shutdowns. Theatre Support as well.  Indie venues band together to form a group to lobby congress for support of the industry.

While it isn’t about giving any money to support folks, MLS put up a training site so folks can keep their soccer skills fresh during the social distancing. And, if you have a young kid, this is likely enough to make you weep.

This is on top of all the other things I’ve highlighted over the last few weeks. If you or your organization are doing something to help folks, let me know and I will highlight it and share it here and with my community as well.

As I finish this up, I love when folks run and do challenges in their local communities…so I saw this one from Rob Sibbitts in Atlanta and he has completed his challenge…but maybe we can convince him to run another race for a local nonprofit.

My buddy, Greg Turner, who lives outside of Hong Kong just translated a report for anyone that is interested in learning more about the Chinese market for arts and entertainment. It doesn’t fit into the weathering the crisis theme, but it does give you something new to explore and since China is slowly starting to return to normal activities could give you some food for thought about what to think about in all of your home markets.

—————————————————————————————————————-

What am I up to this week?

Guess what? I’m still at home! I am doing the webinar that is listed at the top and I’m starting to drop new content on the podcast feed.

Want to chat? Let me know. Between my duties as an awful elementary school teacher, I’ve got plenty of time and will to chat. And, I’m happy to be here if someone needs someone to talk with. 

Please follow and like us:

Talking Tickets: 17 April 2020–Refunds! Restarts! Support! And, More! was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

[blessuswithblogs]

Katsura Hashino is a Big Fat Creep and Other Observations

(for the record all uses of the word “queer” in this post are meant in the academic sense as shorthand for a wide umbrella group of gender and sexual minorities and not as a slur i hope that is evident from my past history and status as Big Gay Bitch Who Loves Girls but let it never be said i don’t cover my ass)

A few weeks ago, Catherine: Full Body Edition or whatever gross subtitle it got was released. Catherine has had a very checkered history as one of those games that is just kind of slimy, though it has endured with a cult following and a surprisingly successful competitive community by way of the game's multiplayer mode where you compete to see who can climb The Dream Sex Tower the best. Honestly, I don't know that much about Catherine because it is difficult to think of a game that repulses me more on a visceral level, but I want to do my due diligence and not talk out my ass. One of Catherine's initial claims to fame was that it was by Atlus Japan, specifically the same people who made the much beloved Persona games. This is evident in the game's art, music, overall style of delivery, and being basically hate speech.

The original Catherine was a greasy, misogynistic mess with some really vile politics about trans people in particular. Deadnaming your own fictional character in the credits is some next level petty malice. Full Body returns with, stupendously, a double down on this ideology that is actually kind of comical in how convoluted it gets in trying to decry the Degenerate Queer Lifestyle. The game adds a scene with Rin, who is apparently a gay crossdresser from space(???????), getting slapped away and running away crying from their love interest after he learns The Terrible Truth. In another game, with a different writing team, this could have been a teachable moment about the destructive consequences of taking too narrow a view of human sexuality and gender expression, but as it stands it's just another tiresome example of Trans Panic with a sheepish admonishment from the other characters that gosh maybe slapping their hand away was a mean thing to do.

So we're already firing on all cylinders here, but the best is yet to come. The bulk of the outcry comes from the addition of a weird "true ending" cutscene where Catherine, who is also from space, goes back in time to make everybody's life better. Or something. This is already pretty stupid on the face of it because its Fucking Time Travel Out of Nowhere, but the scene then depicts a pre-transition Erica, the game's trans character who got deadnamed in the credits the last time. There has been a lot of exceptionally tedious discussion about exactly when this scene takes place in the game's chronology and what it means for Erica, and some brain geniuses have tied their thinkmeats into pretzel shapes to prove definitively that all this means is that she delayed her transition in this Better Timeline, that might not actually be better, because Catherine is weird and selfish, maybe. And. Fine. Sure. Okay. Let's accept that for now. Given the game's previous track record, and continuing insistence on using Erica's pretransition name in the credits even in the rerelease, it is meanspirited at best to show her before her transition at all (many real life trans people would be utterly mortified for such a thing to happen to them) and overall just in poor taste and pretty lousy writing at that because it's so unclear what any of this actually means. Since the game has not yet received an official english localization, the context of this scene is to begin with muddled by amateur translators on the internet all with slightly conflicting interpretations of the scene. It's a fucking mess, by and large.

So I would disagree that this is a fake controversy manufactured by those damnable essjaydubyas. Even with the most charitable interpretation possible, it's still just really sketchy and gross. Erica's english voice actress, who seems to be very fond of the character, has been vocal about her dissatisfaction with the new scenes on twitter and has recently come out to say that the localization team is going to try and take some steps to make things less blatantly hateful. Between this and Jennifer Hale's recent tweet about it being time to grab our pitchforks in response to Activision-Blizzard's mass layoffs, I'm starting to think that voice actresses are pretty cool. I mean honestly I always thought that but we're getting off topic. One of the top competitive Catherine players, who was by all accounts really hyped for the release of Full Body, just straight up said on twitter that he was quitting the game because he couldn't support something like that in good conscience. I don't know if he's remained consistent on this position since, but it was a bold statement, to say the least.

Now, whenever an incident like this happens, the inevitable string of More-Progressive-Than-Thou white boys who watched an anime once and thought the bouncing titties were a little much appears to start pontificating about the cause of such untoward elements in media. And it's basically all just a bunch of Orientalist bullshit. Every time. For whatever reason, people still really love to be racist towards Japanese people because it's still sort of socially acceptable when couched in the language of "oh japan!!! ecks dee" and so the neverending procession of softboi neckbeards declared with confidence that Atlus's continual inclusion of Actual Hate Speech towards LGBTQ+ people was the result of the inscrutable Japanese Mind and its Mysterious, Antiquated Culture. Many mentions of the philosophy of Wa, wherein the nail that stands out gets pounded down, and lots of very lovely psuedointellectual claptrap. Evidently, people just seem to think that queer people don't live in Japan, or that they don't fight just as hard as we do for equal rights and protections under the law. They do live there, and they do fight as hard as we do. Obviously. You fucking imbeciles.

In their quest to clearly illustrate their moral and intellectual superiority to the backward, collectivist Asiatic Peoples, these highly reasonable and enlightened manboys forsook a very important logical principle: Occam's Razor. Sure, you could blame jApAnEsE cUlTuRe for Atlus's impropieties and just conveniently ignore all of the fantastic queer media it has produced in recent years like My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, Horou Muskou, Nier Automata, etc. Or you could go for the simpler and more logically consistent option: Katsura Hashino is a big fat creep. Who is Hashino, you ask? He is the director of every Persona game since 3, as well as Catherine, and all of these games' gross shit and self-contradictory themes of self-acceptance and rebellion against an unust society (unless you're gay, ew) can probably be traced to him and his gaggle of accomplices. In addition to the fact that Atlus games not by Hashino's team tend to just. not have these problems to nearly as large a degree or even at all, Hashino himself has gone on record saying some really kind of hilariously backwards shit. Most infamously, when asked why in Persona 3 literally all of your social links with girls ended up with Hot Makeout Sessions regardless of like. Previously Committed to Relationships. Hashino simply said he couldn't imagine friendships between boys and girls. So that's where his brain is at. Since subsequent games in the series graciously allowed the player the option to not be a Huge Cheating Bastard, one can assume either his moral development has progressed past early puberty or somebody on the team convinced him this wasn't actually a normal thing to think. Given the man's output, I would say it's probably the latter.

It is because of this man's decisions and behavior that so many people are simply unwilling to give Full Body the benefit of the doubt. The game's director is, quite simply, a well known louse, and not in the endearing, Roger Smith way. Once again, it requires far fewer leaps in logic to assume that Hashino is just being a bigoted creep again than to go through some fuckin galaxy brain Kingdom Hearts-esque dot-connecting to justify it as just a LITTLE BIT bigoted not REALLY SUPER bigoted, or simply blaming the whole ordeal on some strange ineffable property of the Japanese Character. He's a gremlin! An overgrown manchild with a warped view of human interaction and society put in charge of games about exploring those concepts for.... reasons. My bet is that his dad knew somebody and then Persona 3 was successful enough for the rest of Atlus to just go "alright fine let him do it while we do mainline games". Unfortunately, Persona became so popular that the mainline games sort of switched places and became side-projects, at least in the eyes of the Western consumer base (which let's be real is the only perspective that any of these Serious Online Commentators even pretend to care about).

So I would once again caution everyone against just assuming that Japan is some sort of quaint anachronistic country of weird gameshows and backwards social mores. This is both a gross oversimplification of an entire culture and the struggles of their own subgroups and minorities and simply a grand display of lacking self-awareness. Like have you fucking seen the guys in the White House? The preposterous media that gets routinely greenlit on prime time TV, theaters, and digitally? Don't make me laugh. The West has no claim to any sort of progressive superiority to anybody else. The white cishet bubble of comfortable middle class affluence might distort what you see of the rest of the world, but believe me: we got problems too. Big ones. Even the presupposed bastions of Demsoc Virtue like Sweden have an awful track record of discrimination and eugenics. But Dazzlyn that's different, you cry! All of these groups and forces don't represent the entirety of Western culture! Yes. Exactly. Oppression is not culturally bound like cuisine or art. It is a nasty, universal thing that worms its way into everything, and it will use any excuse it can find to murder and exploit. It's against Christian values! It represents a genetic defect that must be purged! It's ostentatious and immature! The list goes on. And every time you giggle and go "oh those silly japanese" you're just being another expression of the same vile ideas.

I'm going to relate some of my own personal experiences, because as a noted Big Gay Bitch Who Loves Girls, I feel like maybe I have some authority on the matter? Just a little? Enough that if I make a well reasoned argument it can't be dismissed out of hand? Let's hope. So, what's the gayest game I've ever played? Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn. Look yeah I know I'm talking about it again but come back this is important. Final Fantasy is a series that has had a lot of LGBTQ+ undertones pretty much since forever, and while they have largely been in keeping with the times in terms of tact and representation (the Crossdressing Cloud debacle is a deeply bizarre, uncomfortable sequence in a lot of ways but there's also some genuine Good Gay Shit in 7 like Cloud's surprisingly cute and genuine date with Barret. I think. It's... it's been a while.), by God, it was at least there, and 13 had honest to god Lesbians, Harold in Fang and Vanille. I don't want to say it has pedigree, but the series has dabbled. XIV continues on the tradition with a vibrant world that's actually got a lot of characters and NPCs that are just incidentally there and kind of gay. The adventurer couple that befriended the Tonberries in Wanderer's Palace, a vendor that appeared in the Rising cosplaying as Minfilia at her wife's behest, a miqote lady bathing in the oasis that lets on she wouldn't mind having cute girls stare at her instead of grabby boys, every horny Elezen in Ishgard, Samson and Guydelot (shoutouts to Lulumi Lumi), and probably more that I've missed. More than that, though, is that because FFXIV is an MMO, it is by necessity a social space, and in my experience it has been one that has gone out of its way to be inclusive to everybody, from the GMs handling reports of abusive behavior right up to the top decision makers who made same sex player marriages a thing just immediately on its implementation and letting boys wear the gold saucer bunny costume too (albeit after quite a bit of pleading). The game's got a huge queer community of which I am kind of part of sort of. It's one of the reasons I keep coming back to it. Hell, they've recently partnered with a pride group in Australia to have an FFXIV float in a parade. I usually turn my nose up at such things as meaningless corporate grandstanding, but it does seem to be more meaningful than two boy pastas getting married or rainbow colored oreos because like. Cheesy as it sounds, it's more than just a brand to a lot of people, it's a place, sometimes the only place, they can go to feel safe and accepted in a community. Having official, vocal support from the dev team means genuinely a lot, I think.

Now, there is one quality about this game of which I am speaking that might strike you as noteworthy: it is Japanese. It's made by Japanese people, in Japan, under a Japanese company. A middle aged Japanese man goes up on stage in Gunbreaker cosplay to speak in Japanese about the upcoming expansion, while a meme obsessed gremlin translates for him. It's not perfect, there are problems, etcetera, why do I even need to qualify that in 2019, when everything sucks, god. But it's better than most things. I hope that it serves as an example to people that even in the supposedly regressive countries of the world, queer communities are still living, fighting, and sometimes even being heard, and that the only thing you're enriching by dismissing them wholesale as socially backwards is your own internet penis. And nobody fucking cares about that you simpleton. I expect 5.0 to be gayer than ever before because they're taming up with Yoko Taro to do a Nier themed raid and by the 12 Warrior of Light Dazzyn Reed is going to kiss 2B or an equivalent model right on the robot lips.

[iwroteyoualoveletter]

Megumi Ogata Livedoor Interview (May 2018) [1/2]

I could make it this far because I overcame that adversity. Megumi Ogata on fighting to the end with Kurama during her newcomer period.

The Female Voice Actors We Fell in Love With

It’s been more than 10 years since I first heard their dreamy voices from anime men, charming my heart completely. In the blink of an eye I was dazed, to find out the possessors of those voices were female, so astonishing it was not to be forgotten. Completely different from the “sweet girl” voice actresses, it became natural to chase after them. Despite their dignified femininity, they could still voice powerful men, sway my heart with mysterious sex appeal, and manage to sound more boyish than a real boy in vocal purity and forwardness… at that time, I fell in love with their colorful voices, the same ones that color the anime world today.

Here at Livedoors, we’re featuring the women behind those cool and charming voices who are continuing their fight on the frontline. There are 3 interviews in total. In this second feature, I listened to the story behind Megumi Ogata’s acting of the ever calm and composed Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho.

Photography: Tetsuya Arai

Reporter: Kaori Aoyama

Hair & Make-up: Naoko Sugiura

Pushing my senior voice actors out of the way and getting to the mic, that’s how the recording began.

In 1992, Yoshihiro Togashi’s popular boy’s comic Yu Yu Hakusho (Shuueisha) became a TV animation. Killed in a traffic accident, juvenile delinquent Yusuke Urameshi goes through a series of events that allow him to return to life, and the story follows his activities as a spirit detective. Ogata played the role of a former demon thief.  Appearing first as an enemy, he later becomes an ally to Yusuke in protecting the human world.

-- In December 2017 it was announced there would be brand new animation for Yu Yu Hakusho’s 25th anniversary Blu-Ray boxset. Please say how you felt when you heard the news.

First, “Will the cast be the same?” was something I wanted to know. I didn’t want to celebrate prematurely in case they changed the casting, so until I knew I kept a careful watch. (laughs)

-- When they pitched it to you, how did you feel?

I was happy. “I can act him again.” Now that the staff are earnestly working on production, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

-- I believe the fans are waiting with heartfelt anticipation too! Next, I’d like to hear about the period of time around the anime’s original airing. Yu Yu Hakusho was your debut work, wasn’t it?

It was my first work, so it was a lot to absorb. Even the terminology in the script, things like, “OL(※1)” and “PUN UP(※2),”  were words I didn’t understand…

-- That terminology isn’t something a newcomer can go somewhere to learn, right?

That’s right. There were so many things I didn’t understand, and it was a really big role, so I felt like there was pressure building up on all sides. (laughs) At the same time, it was decided I would be in “Tsuyoshi Shikkari Shinaisai” (in the role of Yamaguchi Shizuo). Both required all my strength, and I knew I’d have to give them my all or die trying.  

-- Did you receive advice from any of your seniors at the studio?

Yes. For example, in the beginning I couldn’t use the mic well, and I was told, “You don’t need to try so hard. It’s going to pick up your voice anyway.” (laughs) For Yu Yu Hakusho, we had 3 mics, and since the lead(s) spoke often, there was a dedicated “leading role mic.” The other 2 mics were used by supporting cast.

When Kurama first appeared in the “Three Bandits” scene, there were two others with me. Because we had to record the protagonist Yusuke’s voice too (voiced by Sasaki Nozomu), the 3 of us had to use the 2 remaining mics. I was new so I worried over, “Which mic should I be using…” until the scene finished.

-- You must have been nervous about the timing of when to start speaking alongside your seniors.

(In the role of Gouki) Norio Wakamoto was an actor who used to be part of the police riot squad. His way of speaking and moving was loud, because of the training he’d received as an officer, and he approach the mic with his whole body saying, “Uwooo! Haaaa!” while waving his arms about. Then, alongside him was Hiei’s voice actor Hiyama (Nobuyuki). At first, Hiei also required quite a bit of energy so he was shouting, “Haaaa!” waving his arms around too. I thought someone was going to get hit. (laughs)  

While I was debating where I should go, their scene finished. The voice actress for Kurama’s mother, Kumiko Takizawa, guided me by saying, “You can just push them out of way and take your place,” and Wakamoto also said, “Come over here.” I gave a timid, “O-okay then” and made my way over. (laughs) That was my first appearance, my first recording.

Editorial Annotation:

OL(※1)  - Overlap - While the first video is running, the scene gradually becomes the next scene’s video.

PUN UP(※2) - The camera angle pans from down to up.

“Don’t lie to the heart” The teachings of the audio director live on even now.

-- What was the atmosphere like at the studio?

In the animation business now, people tend to gather with others from the same generation, but back then everyone was on their own. I was the only real new one. Though Hiyama was also relatively new, he’d still started before me, and above me were other young people who’d already made a name for themselves like Nozomu and Megumi Hayashibara.

Above them were the backbone actors, like Mayumi Tanaka (Koenma) and Shigeru Chiba (Kazuma Kuwabara), and then above them even we had people like Tesshou Genda (Younger Toguro) and Hisako Kyouda (Genkai). Because there were so many people of that generation, it really encouraged me to learn a lot.

-- So many prominent people!

Among my superiors was the audio director Kan Mizumoto, who had a large presence. When overlaying the audio, he’d say things like,”It’s ok if it doesn’t match to the second (while pointing at his chest) as long as it doesn’t lie here.” Cute or cool voices aside, more than clearly pronouncing the sounds like “ga” or “wa,” he said it was important to be honest, because real stories came from the heart. Keeping the meaning of those words in mind, I continued on with the story more at ease with my acting.

-- What a lovely piece of advice!

Isn’t it? But there were times my superiors were against me too. Scolding me like, “Just now, you sounded too much like you’re acting in a romance and it wasn’t good. Can you stop that?” I’d listen to them shaking but only be thinking, “In any case, I didn’t lie” or “My heart is one with the role.”

-- Those words have stayed with you even now, haven’t they?

Yes. Because of that, if I thought I’d done a really good take, even if it was slightly off I’d negotiate with the director about altering the art to match. It wasn’t digital like now, it was film and not an easy thing to fix, but the director (Noriyuki) Abe really did his best to accommodate me. I felt nothing but gratitude towards him.

Masafumi Mima, the audio director in my other debut work “Tsuyoshi Shikkari Shinaisai,” was of a similar mindset, insisting it was critical for one to be “born into the work.” Those two had a huge influence on me in my first 2 years. Really, I owe a lot to them, that I came to embody those words in my heart and turn them into habit. The director of “Haameru no Biolin Biki” Junji Nishimura who I’ve worked with once told me, “You’re the least suited voice actress in Japan for lip syncing.” [T/N: Lip syncing as in pacing her words to the already animated mouth.]

-- What!

While laughing the director continued, “But, when I’m listening to your acting, I want to change the work to match you, so it’s fine.” I believe that having those supportive directors and audio directors allowed an unskilled actor like myself to get by. Of course, it wasn’t that I didn’t see the arrogance in asking them to change the animation to suit me, but in my heart I always felt that I wanted the work a certain way, for the work to resonate with people. Of course, the effort it takes to be in sync [with the animation] is a major premise too! (laughs)

Pressure from all sides! … Troubles with no one to listen.

-- When we interviewed Hongo Kanata, who you worked with on “Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School,” he said, “When I nervously entered my first recording session, I was really happy when Ogata took the time to introduce herself to all of the cast.” Would you say you’ve always been that mindful of and considerate towards others [when working]?

During my newcomer days I didn’t have that kind of time at all! I didn’t know anything about the business, and suddenly I was a regular on a major production. There was so, so much going on. Like I said earlier, “there was pressure from all sides.” At that time, the production company president said to me, “If you keep putting in your best effort, your relationship with this company might improve,” and I was shaking like, “But it’s only my first time doing this…!” (laughs) There was a lot other than that, but it felt like fighting for my life every day, thinking, “If I mess up this role, there’s nothing after!”

-- By “all sides,” do you mean there was pressure other than that from the production company?

Yes. One was, not counting child roles, but roles from high school and older, I was the first voice actress to attempt voicing a young man.

--  You have an amazing story for how you were chosen at the audition. The first thing you did was give your name, “Megumi Ogata” and they immediately reacted, “This is the exact Kurama voice we’ve been searching for!”

(Link to Tweet story.)

Yes. When I went to the recording studio, the staff said things like, “If we compare you to [someone else] your balance is a little… well, we picked you, your voice suits the role. But, it needs a bit more something?” I worried, “A bit more ‘something’? What should I do?”

-- That’s when you received those words about “a story that doesn’t lie” from the voice director Mizumoto…

He was the person to say, “You’re forcing your voice lower, but you don’t need to.”

-- How were you able to overcome that obstacle?

I’ve casually spoken about it before, but I was aware my vocal cords were on the rare side and long for a female. Japanese people often have short vocal cords, but mine are more like a black person’s… That’s to say, they’re vocal cords with the possibility to expand. You can think of vocal cords the same way you think of a violin or double bass. The violin’s strings are short and produce a high sound, the double bass has long strings that produce a low sound.

You can train to a high pitch (singing range) and extend [your ability], but the length of your vocal cords is something you are born with, so people with short vocal cords cannot produce a low sound. But, for me to deliver my voice, teachers in my major said if I trained the muscles throughout my body that I needed like any average man, it seemed possible my singing range would naturally expand. I believed their words and started frantically working out at the gym.

-- You had multiple things within the company coming at you, pressure from the production management, pressure performing as a young male character, in addition to all the pressure you were feeling during actual recordings. Even though it was your first work, it was a difficult situation to be in. Did you have anyone you could talk to?

No, there was a lot more official stuff going on too, so there was little time for personal matters. I got the job and many other problems popped up around the same time… My family and friends were worried for me, as well as the classmates I’d had with me up till then, who as you’d expect talked with me.

I didn’t have any accomplishments to speak of, and there was a period I was regarded as the lucky newcomer. Outside the top tier, many staff and senior actors would say things like, “Your role should’ve been my role.” One senior actor actually said that to my face. Of course, not all the senior actors were like that! In any case, there wasn’t someone to talk to [about my troubles]. I had no choice but to make my own resolutions and overcome.

-- It was the first case of a woman acting a young male’s role, so I imagine not all fan reactions were genial.

In truth, though people said things, I did not get any complaint letters (about how I acted Kurama). At the beginning it was more that people thought things like, this popular character should be played by a normal male voice actor, or where did they get this nobody from to play this role.  But, in playing the role, it’s true I didn’t feel I had [the fans’] consent. Putting that thought out of mind also took personal effort.

-- While you were fighting with yourself you were still able to overcome so many challenges. I think that’s really incredible.

It’s only that I had to! (laughs) Conversely, you could say my first year and how I spent its beginnings sticking out Kurama’s role might be how I was able to do everything that followed to now.

-- Didn’t you ever think, “I don’t want to go to work anymore!”

At that time I never thought, “I don’t want to go.” Just, after the show had been airing for about half a year, suddenly my voice refused to come out. The doctor said to me, “It’s due to stress so if you rest about 2 weeks it’ll be fine.” That’s when a lot of stuff happened that I can’t say in interviews.

-- I see… well, how about when you heard people’s opinions that “Kurama’s voice is really lovely!” Did you feel something like relief?

Before the first event, one of my seniors who’d been a big anime’s lead teased me by saying, “I got hit with an egg.” (laughs) Other levels included things like, there might be razors in fan letters so be careful, and “what would you do if someone threw something,” all of which had me nervous.

The event began with the anime opening playing, with me on stage in the wings (where I couldn’t be seen from the audience). At the lyric Kurama is shown, I heard loud cheering. “Huh, maybe it’ll be ok…” I thought with surprise, and made my way on stage to meet the loud cheering. I was so relieved! For the record, I don’t think I ever received razors in a letter.

→ Part 2

Translator’s Note: Do not take everything written in this interview word-for-word. There were many places I struggled to find the appropriate English for and I might have misunderstood the original Japanese. If you noticed mistakes, please tell me so I can fix them and learn.

Part Two of this interview strays away from YYH and Kurama into what happened next in Ogata-san’s career as a voice actress and musician. As a huge Ogata fan, I’ll keep on plodding through for myself, but give a comment if you’d like me to post that too when finished.  

[thisdaynews]

The Myth of ‘Unchained Hillary’

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/the-myth-of-unchained-hillary/

The Myth of ‘Unchained Hillary’

As most Democrats look ahead to 2020, Clinton and her fans keep using Twitter to relive and recast 2016. Online, at least, there are still plenty of people who refer to her as “Madam President,” and she tosses this club a steady stream of caustic little bonbons: subtleMean Girlsreferences, snarky clapbacks, dry comments like “Yes, I am famously underscrutinized.” Fans responded to that one with cheers and GIFs of Rihanna putting on a crown. A writer forEsquiresummed up the sentiment: “You’re having fun now, aren’t you?”

The tweets have helped conjure an image of the former candidate you might call Unchained Hillary, or, as some of her Twitter followers have dubbed it, Hillary with “zero f—s left to give.” The idea is that, unconstrained by public office, unfazed by critics and trolls, Clinton feels free to unleash a looser, truer, more spontaneous self. Her Twitter account is the most reliable vehicle for this version of Hillary, but she has shown flashes of the persona at public appearances, too: flipping through a book of her emails at a Venice Biennale art installation and filming a Halloween bit for about the scariness of the Electoral College for theDaily Show with Trevor Noah. In early December, she spent hours chatting with Howard Stern, talking trash about Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, even addressing head-on the rumors that she’s a lesbian. (“Never even been tempted,” she said.)

Unchained Hillary is perceived not just as a set of tweets but almost a new character on the political stage, the candidate her fanswishhad run in 2016. She is casual, snappy, direct and less inclined to carefully triangulate every public statement. And her presence over the past few months, online and in a string of book-related media appearances, has sparked a whole new round of speculation: Could Unchained Hillary have beaten Trump? Could she swoop into the 2020 field? Is she laying the groundwork for yet another phase of a political career?

But Clinton’s fans might want to cool off their enthusiasm. If you take the full measure of Clinton’s career, her voice appears less as a reinvention than as a kind of solar eclipse: Without the candidate version of Clinton to dominate our view, delivering cautious speeches and walking rope lines, her online persona shines through far more clearly. And that persona isn’t a new thing. It’s a side of Hillary Clinton sharpened by what you might call the default voice of Twitter: Sardonic, mildly bitter, unafraid to say what everyone else is thinking. It’s the same voice her digital staff worked hard to craft in 2016. Hillary, and whoever still might tweet for her, has been good at that for a while. So what is she using her voice for now?

***

Donald Trump may get all the attentionfor being the first candidate who used Twitter to disrupt politics, but if he’d never come along, with his unspellchecked fire hose of insult and puffery, Clinton stood a good chance of being that person. Even before young upstarts like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar made emojis and quote-tweet clapbacks the norm on political Twitter—in fact, well before the 2016 race—Clinton’s digital staff was pioneering a new political tone on social media.

Early on, the Clinton team understood how to seize the made-for-internet moments that fell in their laps, as shown by one well-known episode in 2012 when Clinton was secretary of State and Reuters published a candid photo of her wearing sunglasses and staring at her BlackBerry. Two young Washington public relations hands launched a Tumblr blog featuring imagined text exchanges between this boss-lady version of Clinton and various public figures. One sample exchange from the blog went like this: Barack Obama: “Hey Hil, Whatchu doing?” Clinton: “Running the world.” Clinton’s staff had the instinct to capitalize on the moment: They quickly reached out to the bloggers, contributing an entry and inviting them to meet her. It was proof not just that she could get a joke, but that she could toss it back in fluent internet-speak. (There is a cautionary tale embedded here, too: It was literally that photo of Clinton on her Blackberry that prompted the initial questions about her use of a private email server.)

Imagewise, the moment felt like a stake in the ground, a sign of new-media savvy at a time when many veteran politicians found the internet a mystifying entity. And in the 2016 race, Clinton doubled down. To run her digital operations, she hired Teddy Goff, who had been President Barack Obama’s digital director in 2012, and led a staff of Brooklyn-based “content producers” who aimed for a savvy, conversational voice. “We’re not competing with Donald Trump on Facebook,” Goff told theNew York Timesat the time. “We’re competing with your best friend, your spouse, your mom, last night’s Olympics clips.”

Ultimately, though, Clintonwascompeting against Trump. And when you look back at the candidates’ bodies of social media work, you can see how hard Clinton’s campaign worked to match the energy of Trump’s insane, magnetic feed—and how successful it was in crafting something to meet the moment.

Trump wielded the medium much as he does now, with a reflexive mix of anger, pride, insults and oddball jokes. His tweets were an extension of his mood, his brain and his ego, and they felt like a manifestation of his true self. When his staff tweeted for him, it was often obvious: No one else could have crafted that voice. Clinton’s feed—which, like many other politicians’, was largely ghostwritten—was more tightly attuned to the social trends of the moment. Her staff balanced sly references to the Trump campaign with the salty terseness of Twitter clapbacks. “Delete your account,” read her most-retweeted entry. It came in response to a snide comment from Trump about Obama’s endorsement of Clinton. “(It’s only Wednesday.),” she tweeted in May 2016, above an image of a statement from her campaign chairman describing a rash of questionable behavior by Trump that week. “Vote your conscience,” read another, a reference to a speech Ted Cruz had made an hour and a half earlier at the Republican National Convention. (That tweet was paired with a link to a voter registration page.) Her feed was also savvy about pop culture; when Trump used an image of “Frozen” merchandise to defend himself against charges of anti-Semitism, Clinton shot back with a “Frozen” reference that eviscerated his argument.

Woven in with these grabs for clicks and cash were videos of the candidate at African American churches and talking with little girls—the kind of anodyne fare that, in a previous campaign, might have been the entire social media program. Clinton’s team didn’t have the luxury to fall back on feel-good messaging, so it made the most of the sometimes odd combination of her wonkish, earnest persona and Twitter’s hard-edged cynicism. The feed could be informal, curt, and bold. It aimed at looking effortless, even when tweets were layered with carefully considered meaning. In the case of the “Wednesday” tweet, for instance, Clinton was essentially dunking the ball after an alley-oop pass, adding humor on top of a substantive point—a tested social media trick to make the original point spread farther and wider than it would have on its own. “If there is one thing that the internet likes, it’s being really direct. If there’s been a change in how Hillary engages online, then that’s probably it,” Goff told Elle magazine in the summer of 2016.

The effort didn’t always hit the mark. Both supporters and critics on the left complained about the glibness of a tweet that asked, “How does your student loan debt make you feel? Tell us in 3 emojis or less.” Overall, though, Clinton’s social media operation was noted for its fluency in internet. “Hillary Clinton’s Twitter game is #Strong,” read one Elle social headline. A piece in Mashable explained “How the Clinton campaign is slaying social media.” By the July before the election, she had about 7 million Twitter followers, compared to Trump’s 10 million. (They’re now at 26 million and 68 million, respectively.)

The trademark success of her digital team was taking a candidate frequently knocked for her lack of charisma and building a charismatic online presence around the parts of her personality that matched. And in some ways, Twitter’s snarky milieu made that easy. In real life, Clinton “has a very biting, sharp sense of humor, or a very sharp, humorous way of making serious points,” says Philippe Reines, Clinton’s longtime aide, spokesman and debate-prep sparring partner. “Twitter allows us to say things that ordinarily would stay in your head, or in the room you’re in, and share it with the world.”

***

Today, Clinton’s staff is largely gone,and it’s safe to assume her Twitter voice is more reliably her own. “She has a very small office, and it’s mostly scheduling, correspondence—so there’s no ‘they,’” Reines tells me. Sometimes a staff member will have an idea for a tweet, he says, “but she’s not one of these absentee landlords on her Twitter account at all. And certainly nothing goes out without her, you know, putting her imprimatur on it.” Goff declined to comment for this story; another longtime Clinton spokesperson ghosted.

Clearly, there’s something real about the Clinton we see now, but the campaign DNA remains.

There’s the same dry sarcasm, as when she tweeted a clip of Trump talking about Ukraine to news reporters and commented, “Someone should inform the president that impeachable offenses committed on national television still count.” There’s a very non-boomery engagement with current pop culture. Over the summer, she had a brief exchange with pop singer Lizzo; last spring, she tweeted at Trump with a famousMean GirlsGIF in which Regina George asks, “Why are you so obsessed with me?” She wields hashtags like #tbt, which she artfully used to reference her time spent, as a young lawyer, on the Watergate impeachment inquiry. And she tweeted a fake letter from John F. Kennedy to Nikita Khrushchev, lifted from Jimmy Kimmel writers, that was obviously primed to spread like wildfire—much like the made-to-go-viral tools her campaign created, like a “Trump Yourself” filter that let users overlay Trump quotes on social media photos.

On the other hand, Clinton issues even more tweets that feel like official communications from an ongoing campaign. There are plenty of cheery, milquetoast tweets promotingGutsy Women, the book she co-wrote with her daughter. Policy endorsements get threaded in, sometimes less artfully; after the World Series, she turned a congratulatory tweet for the Washington Nationals into an endorsement for Washington, D.C., statehood. Still pinned to the top of her feed is a line from her 2016 concession speech about the value of little girls.

Reines agrees with the notion that there’s nothing new about Clinton’s public persona—and that, over her decades of public life, as she’s taken on a broad range of public roles, people have always tried to search for hidden meaning in the same old communications. “Look, I started to work for her in 2002. I’ve gone through this ‘something’s changed’ routine,” he tells me. “I really think it’s in the ear of the beholder.”

So if she’s still maintaining the persona, and the presence, her staff built to run for president in 2016, what’s it all for this time? Clinton has publicly pushed back on the idea that she’ll run again. But there are clues scattered throughout her 2017 postelection memoir,What Happened. The book was mostly infused with a sense of mourning for a presidential administration that wasn’t to be and a place in history as the first female president. At one point, she shared a passage from her planned election night victory speech, in which she imagined meeting her mother as an 8-year-old and telling her that her future daughter would grow up to be president. It seemed clear that she saw her loss, not just as a shock or a thwarting of ambition, but as something closer to personal tragedy. It was an emotional defeat she could manage in part by retreating from public life: walking in the woods, spending time with her grandchildren, going to the theater.

Now, though, she has recovered and rebounded is and back on the public stage, through some combination of circumstance and calculation. She wrote a book about successful upstart women, with a massive book tour scheduled for the run-up to an election year—and a built-in reason to maintain a Twitter presence. And the fact that her book appearances coincide with the Trump impeachment drama makes her loyal fans cling even more fiercely to their alternate vision of 2016, the fact that she won the popular vote, the lingering “I-told-you-so” factor. She’s still a political player, but the campaign is different this time: It’s a bid to solidify her place in history. And without the grueling work of actually going out on the stump, she still gets to act like a candidate. Occasionally.

Read More

[its-just-like-the-movies]

September 2017 Viewing List

Damn! Ain’t we back on a roll again?

Ingrid Goes West (17, B): You wanna make Mr. Ripley even more noxious? Swap in a palpably ill stalker. Plaza the exception of a smart cast. - Sept. 1

Death Note (17, F): Awful as an individual property, truly heinous & offensive as an adaptation. How could this protagonist be made so bland? - Sept. 2 (review)

You can palpably feel how much the Death Note people wanted Evan Peters and Emma Roberts for this. Also this is gross as shit.

I’m so fucking mad

John Dies At The End (12, B+): Who needs a budget to make something this fun and trippy? Keeps finding new ways to explore itself. - Sept. 3

Heavenly Creatures (94, A): Mad, yes, but everyone emerges as humans with their own, sometimes terrible wants. Love is in the air, and it hurts. - Sept. 3

That last scene, but especially that last shot of Melanie Lynskey, is gonna haunt me till I die isn’t it?

Citizen Kane (41, A): Hyperbolic sets the perfect living spaces of a man too big and finally too small to properly fill those rooms. - Sept. - 4

Beatriz at Dinner (17, B+): What else would the death of the world inspire but it’s own righteous anger? Why is that always scarier? - Sept. 4

Raising Bertie (17, A-): No tweet, but please rent it on iTunes. - Sept. 6

Modern Times (36, A+): Also no tweet, and streaming on Criterion so. Find it and savor it if you can. - Sept. 6

The Passion of Joan of Arc (28, A+): No tweet. Criterion. Pure fucking brilliance right here folks. - Sept. 6

Little Evil (17, D): Nothing again! But honestly, there’s just so little to say about it. - Sept. 7

Gremlins (84, B+): Amazing that you can be this morbid and this fun without bungling tone. Perfect antidote to all that holiday cheer. - Sept. 7

Is it really kid appropriate> Not sure how much it woulds resonated with my tiny ass save Frances Lee McCain(!!) slaying all those critters.

It (17, B+): So much dread and humor and kindess, in so many stripes. Marvelously made and indelibly cast. Has its kids and eats them too. - Sept. 9

Lady Macbeth (17, B): Impressively constructed as a taut, almost nasty experience, though so much so tough choices wind up easy to suss out. - Sept. 10

It (17, B+): This is such a great movie you guys. So amazingly made. Probably my favorite ensemble of the year. Who else wants to go? - Sept. 10

It’s so incredible that Pennywise and Georgie’s scene at the beginning somehow isn’t (or is it?) the film’s best scene yet fits the tone so perfectly.

I kept thinking of Juliette Lewis’s and Ileana Douglas’s big scenes with Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear. Those actors were amazing together. Fuck

The Conversation (74, A): Amazing that a story of paranoia stars a character so resistant to being seen, who winds up being even less. - Sept. 11

So many contradictions. That calm, maybe too calm score. A crime where every party plays the wrong roles. Spies who keep getting spied on.

Trouble the Water (08, A): Finds two of the best people to lead us through a terrifying, preventable, and poorly handled disaster. - Sept. 11

Get Out (17, A-): No tweet but friends. Romans. Countrymen. See it.Set it again. Or see it three times, like me did. - Sept. 11

Heathers (89, B): Amazing this satire has survived near 30 years of one of the most livewire topics alive. Or dead. You hear how it died? - Sept. 12

(Talking to someone who hates it) I definitely think it could use more punch in editing, acting. Not an all-timer. But I love how ridiculous it makes the school’s reactions.

Even if the suicides were real everyone uses them for personal gain and learns nothing. The onlookers get satirized more than the corpses.

Starlet: A- (17, A-): Plays like watching lives being lived. Funny, deft, and so very substantial while feeling light as a feather. - Sept. 13

Watching Besedka Johnson realize she got bingo was the happiest I’ve felt in what feels like a long, long time. Way to go girl.

*me, every time I watch a film where they look at the sky through gnarly, cool-looking tree branches* the cinnamontography

mother! (17, ??): Mise-en-scene, sound impress. I get the point it’s making but this felt like the ugliest way to do it. Not going again. - Sept. 14

I really liked parts of this. Pfeiffer’s rad. But I didn’t feel good watching this, and practically the whole theater rebelled. Poor Her.

It felt awful watching all that happen to her. And for what? Is this what it means to be with A Great Man? Fuck men! That was fucking gross.

The Big Sick (17, B): The warmest blanket of a movie 2017 could offer in counter to last night’s . . . . spectacle. Ace cast, script. ❤️❤️❤️ - Sept. 15

True Romance (93, B): Super fun! Eclectically and charismatically cast, with a corker of a script. Badlands link weird but hey, it kinda works. - Sept. 15

The Girl Without Hands (17, B): Simplicity of tone and tale is a marvel next to so many modern Grimm adaptations. Art style grew on me. - Sept. 16

It Follows (15, A-): Looking at it one way, getting mono was terrible. Looking at it another way, thank fuck that’s all it was. - Sept. 16

It (17, B+): No tweet, but guys. Go. - Sept. 17

Maudie (17, B+): Colorfully in league with A Quiet Passion for distilling the life of a fascinating artist, with an equally inspired lead. - Sept. 17

Baby Driver (17, C-): The more Baby became the film’s moral center, and the worse it treated the other characters, the less I liked it. Bleh. - Sept. 17

Raging Bull (80, A): This is how you implode over the course of 20 years, and how everyone puts up with the fallout till they can’t. - Sept. 19

The Color Purple (85, B+): Not quite the novel, but stacks up as an adaptation that carries visual and emotional power. Goldberg’s a miracle. - Sept. 19

Agnes of God (85, D+): Actors try, Nykvist goes above & beyond. But script stinks, pacing is off. Flails with ideas it barely grasps. - Sept. 20

Twice in a Lifetime (85, B): Applause for evoking so many points of view with such empathy. More than anyone else, the cast makes it special. - Sept. 20

Ex Libris - The New York Public Library (17, B+): I wish we spent more times in certain areas but there’s no denying how fascinating it is to be in this library. - Sept. 21

Prizzi’s Honor (85, C): I love Hickey’s odd vibe, but be it script, direction, or other performances, everyone’s their own kind of uneven. - Sept. 21

mother! (17, B-): Remember how I said I wouldn’t see it again? Most interesting to me for the wronged wife stuff. And fun to talk about. - Sept. 23 (review)

Would you believe everyone I saw mother! with had visceral, negative reactions to it?

Arrival (16, B): I can’t be Totally There with it, but there’s no denying its ambition, not just with temporal narrative but with sound. - Sept. 25

I think Adams is fine with it, but I kept imagining how well Louise would fit Sigourney Weaver, and especially how interesting Kristen Wiig might be. 

Obit. (17, C): Politics and process of memorializing, favorite features of reporters intrigue. Not sure there’s a feature film here. - Sept. 26

The Girl With All The Gifts (17, B): Smarter about unsettling mood, world building, dystopian elements than so many adaptations. A gem. - Sept. 26

The Mist (07, B): Not great with techs, but marvelously realized on a budget, and tight as a drum with story and character. Cast on fire. - Sept. 26

Plenty (85, B): Tracing of messy, self-destructive lives impressive in a film that never shakes the feeling of being an adaptation. Streep! - Sept. 27

Columbus (17, C+): Rapport of mature leads eventually becomes more interesting than lusty affair between the cinematography and those sets. - Sept. 28

Fantastic Planet (73, B+): Style feels a bit cramped, but imagine adapting anything this odd with all its sharp, unusual edges intact. Hot damn. - Sept. 28

Kiss of the Spider Woman (85, B+): I want to talk about its politics, it poignancy. Does so much, I want to make sure I’m not missing a thing. - Sept. 30

Lost in America (85, B+): Sometimes, to reinvent yourself properly, you have to fail at it miserably. Brooks, Hagerty a wonderful duet. - Sept. 30

Don’t forget to check out my horror faves montage and the Supporting Actress Smackdown for 1985! Thanks for checking in folks! Happy October Halloween!!

[brendagilliam2]

50 design agencies to follow on Twitter

Whether you work in graphic design, web design or 3D, the web is full of inspiring content – and Twitter is a great place to find it. But the social media platform can be an overwhelming experience if you don’t know where to look.

So to help you out, we’ve rounded up this list of top design agencies to follow on Twitter. They’ll point you in the direction of awesome creative content and industry insight in no time.

01. johnson banks (@johnsonbanks)

A veteran brand consultancy with over 20 years’ experience under its belt, johnson banks specialises in cultural, educational and not-for-profit clients, which makes for an inspirational Twitter feed. Recently the team has been celebrating founder Michael Johnson’s D&AD President’s Award, while giving his book, Branding: In Five and a Half Steps, a well-deserved boost. 

02. Sawdust (@sawduststudio)

Sawdust’s Twitter feed is full of innovative new design work

Sawdust, the creative partnership of Jonathan Quainton and Rob Gonzalez, has won D&AD and Type Directors Club awards, as well as coming a creditable 11th in Computer Arts’ 2016 rundown of the top 30 UK design studios. The pair’s Twitter feed is a great place to catch up on recent work, cool stuff and the odd Photoshop tip; apparently Batch Automate Sequential Saving has changed their lives.

03. Happy Cog (@happycog)

Web design and user experience consultancy Happy Cog specialises in targeted, effective content and standards based design. With multiple tweets a day, this is a brilliant Twitter feed to follow to keep up-to-date with all things in the world of web design.

04. Supereight

Supereight is a small and friendly UK studio that creates lovely websites, apps, icons and illustrations. The team don’t tweet so often, but everything they post on their account is certainly worth reading.

05. Zurb

Californian product design company ZURB is a close-knit team of product designers who help startups and larger companies design websites, services and online products. As you can see from their Twitter feed, they’re very responsive to their 32k+ followers and keen to engage in conversation with them.

06. SmashLab (@smashLAB)

Based in Vancouver, SmashLab is a creative agency with expertise in digital, brand and advertising. Its Twitter feed is a hearty mix of all the things agencies do best on the social network: sharing design process insights and useful articles, and truly engaging with the community.

07. Digital Jungle

Digital Jungle is China’s largest independent content-focused digital marketing agency, boasting 120-plus staff in China and Asia. Its main focus is working with Western organisations to deepen the relationships between their brands and Chinese consumers – so the firm’s Twitter feed often offers fascinating insights into how the East and West is working together.

08. SapientNitro

Sapient Nitro describes itself as a “new breed of agency redefining storytelling for an always-on world”. Find out what that means in practice by following its informative and regularly updated feed.

09. Stink Studios

Follow Stink Studios for cutting-edge industry insights and inspiration

With offices in  London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Shanghai and Berlin, Stink Studios is an award-winning production agency and creative studio that’s home to over 100 full-time developers, animators, designers, digital producers, film producers and directors. We give them top geek points for holding a wide-ranging Twitter debate in binary.

10. Tool of North America

Tool has been “convincing people to buy things they don’t really need to buy since 95”, as this integrated product company proclaims on its homepage. It’s this sort of tongue-in-cheek honesty that makes the broadcast and digital agency a must-follow.

11. Reading Room

Follow Reading Room for up-to-date industry chat

Reading Room started with a staff of two from a flat in north London in 1997. Its now providing digital communications to clients around the world with a staff of more than 180 working from the UK, Australia and Singapore. Actively engaged with the design community, its Twitter feed is a must-read for anyone keen to keep up with the latest industry hot topics.

12. UNIT9

UNIT9 is a multi-disciplinary production company working across mobile, physical installations and the web in London, Stockholm, Florence and San Francisco. The agency makes good use of its Twitter account, making you feel part of every debate, development and activity it gets involved in.

13. Huge (@HugeInc)

The Twitter feed of the, er, huge global agency Huge is a great resource for design-related posts. Not ones to be selfish, the team regularly support and share their fellow designers’ work and news. They’ve also mastered the art of using 140 characters to attract attention too. Killer tomatoes? Come on, who wouldn’t want to read about that?

14. Pentagram Design (@pentagram)

For anything design related – announcements, recent news, new work, interviews and so on – this is the feed to follow. One of the world’s leading multi-disciplinary design firms, Pentagram continues its great work on Twitter with continuous updates providing informative and inspiring creative content.

15. Mother London (@motherlondon)

The Mother crew have taken a novel approach to their Twitter feed

Want something a bit different? Then check out the Twitter feed from creative agency Mother London. Instead of using it in the normal, self-promoting way, these guys decided to open it up to one and all and every week allow a different person to control the ‘Tweet seat’. There’s no agenda and anything goes, so follow to find out!

16. The Barbarian Group (@barbariangroup)

If you like a bit of humour and fun in your Twitter feed then you should definitely follow the guys at creative agency The Barbarian Group. Not only is it a great resource for design-related information, they also tweet random amusing things to put a smile on your face, including the odd cheeky animated GIF.

17. The Neighbourhood (@neighbourhood)

There’s a friendly, personal and chatty Twitter feed from the guys at The Neighbourhood. As well as occasionally plugging work, the team also regularly engage in conversation with their followers, and fully support other designers and creative agencies.

18. Big Spaceship (@bigspaceship)

The Twitter feed of digital creative agency Big Spaceship is very matter-of-fact but, at the same time, it’s an absolutely brilliant resource for all things design. Whether it be web design, user experience, strategy or just pure inspiration – there’s a tweet here for everyone. If you don’t already, you should follow them immediately.

19. Studio Output (@StudioOutput)

For a regular dose of creative content, check out the Twitter feed from the guys at Studio Output. The personal, friendly tweets share interesting finds, images, informative posts as well as just saying hello. We really like the way the guys sign off some of their individual tweets too, a lovely personal touch.

20. Made by Many (@madebymany)

The Made by Many team are all over their Twitter account, constantly updating it and pointing the world in the direction of cool, design related content. We’re loving that most of the tweets have a short opinion on the stories they link to also. A friendly, honest and infomative feed.

21. The Partners (@the_partners)

This is a central account for brand and design agency The Partners, so tweets come from London, Singapore and New York on a daily basis. The friendly, engaging feed is full of links to awesome design projects and events. The New York office also posts a regular picture on ‘Bagel Thursday’.

22. Landor Associates (@LandorGlobal)

Leading brand consulting firm Landor Associates has a very active Twitter feed, featuring hints and links to lots of helpful and informative design-based information. If you’re interested in branding in particular, then this is one account you should definitely follow.

23. SapientRazorfish (@SR_)

Stay informed with Sapient Razorfish

If you like interactivity then give design agency SapientRazorfish a follow. Not only do they tweet regularly, they also regularly support other creatives and reply to users messages.

24. Digitas (@Digitas)

If you like all things digital then follow top global integrated brand agency Digitas. With at least three tweets surrounding digital design daily, you’re sure to find something of interest here.

25. Ogilvy & Mather (@Ogilvy)

The Twitter account of advertising and marketing agency Ogilvy & Mather is great for any creative. Tips, photos, insights and helpful retweets are posted regularly so if you’re looking for some inspiration then this is one for you.

26. David & Goliath (@DEFYyourGOLIATH)

The guys at advertising agency David & Goliath take both creativity and fun seriously, and you get lot of both through their Twitter feed. With regular updates, they’re short on words and big on pictures. Oh, and they have a thing for hamsters…

27. Ideo (@ideo)

IDEO likes to share

Global design consultancy IDEO clearly likes to share. With an active and regularly updated feed, IDEO tweets about everything design-related, and for an added bonus retweets inspiring content from other designers and creatives. With short and to-the-point tweets, IDEO lets its work do the talking.

28. Fantasy Interactive (@F_i)

The tweets by global digital agency Fantasy Interactive are short but sweet. The company regularly updates its feed with news of its latests works, which is all worth taking a look at and engages with its followers daily. Fi also shares cool content found and created by other creatives in the community.

29. AKQA (@AKQA)

The Twitter bio for digital service company AKQA says, “where the work does the tweeting”. And that it does. The feed is a mixture of informative links to creative content and personal, friendly messages to the online world. A great one to follow for inspiration, and finding other talented designers and creatives.

30. Form (@Form_design)

Award-winning London design studio Form is an avid Twitter user, and with over 20 years’ experience in the industry, its feed is definitely worth a follow. Tweets focus on design and related events in the industry, posting links to relevant articles and images. The team are very friendly and engaging, and clearly don’t take themselves too seriously – just what you need when limited to 140 characters.

31. B-Reel (@B_REEL)

B-Reel’s work is incredibly inspiring

If you want news from the world of digital design then you should definitely follow the Twitter account of digital production company B-Reel. This feed is rammed full of posts pointing you in the direction of crazy, cool stuff. The designers behind this account seem to really enjoy themselves, using the minimal character count in a very honest and humorous way.

32. Leo Burnett (@LeoBurnett)

American advertising company Leo Burnett specialises in advertising, digital, social media and much more. And it shares all the work it creates through this busy, friendly Twitter feed. So, if you’re looking for daily inspiration, you should give these guys a follow.

33. BBH London (@bbhlondon)

One of the world’s most famous creative advertising agencies, Bartle Bogle Hegarty‘s Twitter feed is certainly worth a follow. The team use the company account regularly, posting details of new work and job opportunities. It’s a very friendly feed, full of useful information.

34. ustwo (@ustwo)

The team at digital product and design studio ustwo are big Twitter fans. With multiple tweets a day, these guys post details of new work, support other designers with retweets and regularly engage in conversation with their followers.

35. I Love Dust (@ilovedust)

Multi-disciplinary design boutique I Love Dust is a relative newbie to the world of Twitter. However, since registering, the team are all over the social networking site, tweeting daily with details of new work and job opportunities in a relaxed, tongue-in-cheek style.

36. Plank (@plank)

Based in Montréal, Plank specialises in developing high quality websites, mobile apps and social media campaigns. While some agencies treat Twitter as an alternative RSS feed, just pushing out their own messages, Plank takes the trouble to share useful articles the team have read and retweet the day’s best tweets from the community. Good on them for that.

37. Dare (@thisisdare)

A “creative agency for a digital world”, Dare has offices in London, Bristol, Vancouver and Toronto. Its Twitter feed is a lively mix of industry news, insider insights and random musings.

38. Wolff Olins (@WolffOlins)

Not only is Wolff Olins a massive brand agency with branches in New York, San Francisco, London and Dubai, it also has a keen interest in the industry as a whole. The agency’s Twitter feed is rammed with links to fascinating articles on topics like “Why tech needs to bring us back to the real world” and “Using the connectivity of the web to rethink education”.

39. Sagmeister & Walsh (@sagmeisterwalsh)

New York outfit Sagmeister & Walsh never tire of creating wonderful, inspiring designs, and the studio’s Twitter feed is the perfect place to keep up-to-date with the cool things they’ve been up to lately.

40. North Kingdom (@NorthKingdom)

A Swedish digital agency of note, North Kingdom‘s Twitter feed is a must-follow, bringing you up-to-date news of its own design projects, new developments in the industry, and more.

41. R/GA (@RGA)

R/GA is a full-service, international digital agency with offices everywhere. But its Twitter account is far more than just a corporate news feed: fun and often frivolous, it’s filled with interesting tidbits from the world of design and beyond.

42. Hvass&Hannibal (@HvassHannibal)

Danish duo Hvass&Hannibal‘s Twitter account is very on-message, comprising mostly of links to articles where they’ve been mentioned and images of their latest work. On that note, their latest work’s always worth a look.

43. Marshmallow Laser Feast (@marshmallowlf)

To be honest, there’s a little too much U2 in ace video installation firm Marshmallow Laser Feast‘s recent Twitterings for our liking. On the other hand, there’s plenty of excellent video stuff. Swings and roundabouts.

44. Freytag Anderson (@FreytagAnderson)

There’s a great mix of content in Freytag Anderson‘s stream; just the right blend of recent work, office craziness and weird stuff from the internets. What better excuse to link to the image set above, which we love but couldn’t justify doing a proper story about?

45. Vallée Duhamel (@valleeduhamel)

Follow Vallée Duhamel for instant inspiration

Feel slightly cosmopolitan by hooking up with Montreal-based Vallée Duhamel‘s stream: sometimes it’s in English and sometimes it’s in French. Best of all, it often features great work by the Canadian duo.

46. Lundgren+Lindqvist (@lndgrnlndqvst)

If you like lamps, you’re going to love Lundgren+Lindqvist‘s Twitter stream. It’s not like all the agency’s posts are about lamps or anything like that – that’d be just weird – but there’s definitely a higher proportion of lamp-related tweets than you might expect. Luckily we love lamps, and there are plenty of other attractive things in the Instagram-heavy feed as well, so it’s all good. Lamps!

47. SomeOne (@SomeOnes_Tweet)

Officially the UK’s number one design agency for 2016, SomeOne is certainly an important account to follow. The team work on big projects like rebranding the electronics chain Maplin across their 200-plus UK stores, and have a highly enthusiastic and positive Twitter feed.

48. Horse (@horse_studio)

Horse is a must-follow on Twitter

With a new website waiting in the wings, Twitter and Instagram are currently the only ways to keep up-to-date with Horse – and we strongly recommend that you do. Horse is an independent design studio with only four full-time employees, yet the team picked up design agency of the year at the FAB awards last year. 

49. jonesknowlesrichie (@jkrglobal)

jones knowles richie is an independent design agency that’s worked with some pretty huge brands, including PG Tips, Dominoes and Budweiser. The team’s Twitter feed includes news and features from the world of design, and they do a lot of fundraising for different charities too.

50. Studio SutherI& (@andSutherland)

Studio Sutherl& (read it aloud and you’ll get it) only launched in 2014, but has quickly made a name for itself thanks to its stunning portfolio of work. The studio’s Twitter features some great examples of this, and is well worth turning to for graphic design and typography inspiration.

 Are you looking for typography related tips? If so, check out our article Typography Twitter accounts you must follow.  

That’s it for now! Let us know about other agencies to follow below!

This post comes from the RSS feed of CreativeBlog, you can find more here!

The post 50 design agencies to follow on Twitter appeared first on Brenda Gilliam.

from Brenda Gilliam http://brendagilliam.com/50-design-agencies-to-follow-on-twitter/

[mightbedamian]

#TMIishTuesday #56 - The Social Democrats are a lie! - On the discussion of same-sex marriage in Germany

Hey, No pre-things to say - enjoy this week's #TMIishTuesday. Well… "Enjoy" is probably not the right expression with this topic in mind. But nonetheless: I hope you like the post. Hey there mighty people of the internet! And welcome to issue #56 of #TMIishTuesday - my weekly Tumblr post about what goes through my weird mind and on what you guys want to know more about. It can be something very personal, it can be something political, it can be completely pointless - but in 99.9 % of the cases, it involves opinions. And mine as well. // Last week I told you how I felt growing up thin and rather small. The post focuses on how my peers reacted to that - and how they made me feel. Click the link above, if you haven't read it, yet. // A couple walks up to the civil registry office. The marriage registrar says: "Excuse me, you are men." and… No punch line. Reality. This translation of a tweet by @politischernate is a pretty accurate description of a situation that could arise any given day in any given German registry office. Sad reality. I already addressed the topic of same-sex marriage in Germany in previous posts (e. g. the Letter to Society and - shortly in my comparison between the Dutch and German cultures). But nothing has changed. So why should I bring it up again? Because f*ing nothing has changed! And that feels just surreal! Absolutely ridiculous! It's nothing short of a political disgrace! How can a country as progressive as Germany be behind so much on an equal rights issue? HOW ON EARTH can some ignorant little a*holes in parliament play god? Think that is exaggerated? Let me show you what happens and has been happening! 1. The German population wants marriage equality - for years and years For years and years there have been polls by many different pollsters. The outcome has always been the same: The vast majority of Germans are in favour of same-sex marriage and equal rights, e.g. adoption rights. The most recent survey I found sees 75 % of respondents pro same-sex marriage. 2. Parliament is pro marriage equality With the rather-left parties (the Left, the Greens and the Social Democrats) more than half of parliament are in favour. Most of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union (the two parties form one grouping in parliament, hence I will refer to them as the "Union" from here on) are still opposing, but that shouldn't matter. You got your 50 %. That's what counts. 3. Party discipline But if you thought this would do the trick, you're wrong. Cause why should a democracy be bound by democratic principles, right? Why should parliament take a decision that the majority of MPs appreciate? That would be… That would… No! That would be democratic! We certainly can't do that!! Instead let's pretend we are the f*ing rulers of the world! Oh and let's make our country less progressive than South Africa, Brasil, Uruguay, Mexico, and the like. That makes so much sense, right!? Okay, party discipline. A very simple concept: If the majority of the party in parliament holds a certain opinion, the rest of that party will vote for this opinion as well. Prohibited by constitution in Germany - as in most democratic countries. Still it widely exists and is carried out. How?! 4. Dealing The coalition of the Union and the Social Democrats are governing. And how this coalition works - given the two rather different approaches of both parties (with the Union being rather "right" and the Social Democrats being rather "left") - is by dealing. “You get this, if we get this, okay?” Remember when you and your childhood friend were 4 and he would let you borrow his cool toy truck, if you gave him your toy dinosaur? But the deal was only valid until one of you had enough of that toy and handed it back? That's exactly how this coalition works! The Social Democrats got their minimum wage, the Union got their child care subsidy. Both parties were very happy with one of these - and took the other one cause it was part of the deal. With same-sex marriage, however, there's a problem. Well… It's not a problem to the coalition it seems. But to the 75 % of Germans mentioned above. The Social Democrats told us they were pro marriage equality. And they really wanted to fight to implement it. That was back in 2013. When they were campaigning. But since it apparently was not too important of a topic for them, they dropped it when agreeing on goals with the Union when fixing their coalition. Instead we got a mere sentence in the agreement. It says: "We will eliminate legal hurdles discriminating same-sex civil partnerships", but, quite frankly: That's vague af! Also, (not so) fun fact: We're approaching the end of this election period and there are still hundreds of laws in place that discriminate against same-sex couples. 5. The incredible farce of the Social Democrats Yepp, you guessed it: I'm not happy with what the Social Democrats are doing with their political power. I used to be quite a supporter of them. I gave one of my two votes to them in the last elections of parliament. But I feel let down. Running the 2013 campaign saying "100 % equality only with us!" is a strong promise, yes. And I was aware that it might not be possible to achieve that 100 %. I totally get that, when you are in a coalition with the Union, it's not exactly the easiest topic to address. But: If you make such a strong statement - and if you decide to make it one of your core principles your campaign is about - I expect that you at least fight for it over the next election period! It might be a little harsh of me, but I'll say it like I feel it anyway: What the Social Democrats did regarding same-sex marriage is fraud! During their campaign they pinky-promised that they would fight for equal rights and marriage equality. Not even a month later, the coalition agreement was signed. And they had completely given in to the Union's request. The Social Democrats opted to live the Stone Age-like life instead of being the paving stone to what might have been historic. And this is where things get really hypocritical: The Social Democrats realised they messed up just now. Five months before the election. They had 4 years to make the change. And they didn't. They left the Union in peace. Instead of insisting to put the topic on the agenda, they - jointly with the Union - voted to not discuss it. Not 1 parliamentary week. Not 2 parliamentary weeks. Not 5 parliamentary weeks. Not 10 parliamentary weeks. Not 30 parliamentary weeks. 49 !!! parliamentary weeks! And bear in mind that parliament only has meetings in one of two weeks every time! And that there is such a thing as the summer break as well. All in all the oh-so-social Democrats voted to push the topic off the agenda f*ing 11 times! And now? Now all of a sudden they tell the Union: "Let's hurry! We need to make it happen!" Or… Well… They told them a month ago. By now - after the Union was like: "Why now? We don't have enough time left before the elections? Oh, and we need the constitution to change [which is total bullshit! Marriage is not defined in the constitution. It only says: “Marriage and family” are under special protection of the state (GG, Art. 6 (1))]. That's gonna take some time. Let's just… wait?" …by now the Social Democrats have changed their mind. Again. Now they say: "If we don't achieve same-sex marriage in this election period, we'll definitely make it happen in the next one."

Like… WOW! Thanks for nothing! Also: You are aware that not mentioning a strict deadline means you're gonna end up in March/April of 2021, trying to push the topic over the finish line once again? If - and that's IF - there's still a majority in favour then. It looks like the AfD will be featured in parliament quite prominently after the election. They are even more opposing of same-sex marriage than the Union. You don't want that to happen when pushing for same-sex marriage. Also: Sorry? But it was one of your core principles of your past campaign. And you committed fraud to that promise 11 times! YOU had the change to make it happen for FOUR years! YOU chose not to do it! If you were not completely OUT OF YOUR MIND, you would not declare marriage equality your goal for the next election period. DON'T YOU SEE? That just makes you look STUPID as FUCK! The chance to change was there. It was served to you on a silver platter. The opposition parties - the Greens and the Left - did ALL the work for you! They prepared a very detailed, very well-thought of proposal to change the law. All you had to do was NOD YOUR HEAD. That would have made it pass and become law. The Bundesrat didn't even have to approve anymore - after all that was the chamber in which the Greens and the Left proposed the law change. And the majority of the Bundesrat had already approved of the changes. But you did NOT nod your head. And to be honest, you denied yourself the chance. Simply by following the bad example of the oh-so-mighty Union - and putting it off the agenda, and putting it off, and putting it off, and putting it off… 11 f*ing times! But, okay. At least you realised you missed something over the last few years. But WHAT THE FUCK are you doing now!?? If I realise I did something bad, I apologise and do everything I can to change things. As quickly as possible. But not the Social Democrats! They proposed their OWN law change last week. Why? No one knows! Probably so they can say "Haha! It was US who brought to you same-sex marriage!". In ten years time this might actually be very handy. However… talking of 10 years ahead: If you ask me, the Social Democrats might be redundant in 10 years time, if they proceed to do politics the way they do at the moment. Schulz might be a good candidate. And tbh, I quite like him as a person. But that won't make me vote for them. They really disappointed me over the last couple years. And I feel that, if they don't change their "oh, the Union is so powerful, we are so helpless" policy, a lot of others will feel the same. For me this story just shows one thing: They do not deserve my vote! Full stop. If you really want to work towards equal rights, why don't you sign this petition for same-sex marriage in Germany? If you do, tweet me, or tell me on another social media. I wanna know who are with me! Before I go, tell me your thoughts on same-sex marriage (in Germany and elsewhere) and your opinion on the behaviour of the Social Democrats. I wanna know! Place a comment, tweet me, dm me, or do anything else you can think of to get to me. Queer Shoutout you say? You know that I adore Troye Sivan and his music. Now it has been announced that he'll be rewarded with the GLAAD award for his promotion of equality and acceptance. He'll be the youngest recipient ever. Well deserved, if you ask me! He speaks up so much for equal rights and knows how to use his platform. Well done, Troye! Keep going! As always: Next #TMIishTuesday next Tuesday. If you have any questions in the meantime, just ask away. Whatever you’re curious about - I don’t bite. :) Until then: Stay mighty! Linkage: - Link by politischernate: https://twitter.com/politischernate/status/832622707254534146 - Zeit: Umfrage: Mehrheit der Deutschen für "Ehe für alle":http://www.zeit.de/news/2017-04/02/gesellschaft-umfrage-mehrheit-der-deutschen-fuer-ehe-fuer-alle-02023803 - Dennis Klein and Micha Schulze for queer.de: Keine Ehe für alle: Merkel lässt Schulz abblitzen: http://www.queer.de/detail.php?article_id=28537 - Grundgesetz, Art. 6: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/art_6.html - Robert Klages for tagesspiegel.de: Gleichgeschlechtliche Ehen: Entscheidung über "Ehe für Alle" zum elften Mal aufgeschoben: http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/queerspiegel/gleichgeschlechtliche-ehen-entscheidung-ueber-ehe-fuer-alle-zum-elften-mal-aufgeschoben/13683888.html - Campact Petition zur Öffnung der Ehe: https://www.campact.de/gleichstellung/appell/teilnehmen/ - Jackie Willis for etonline.com:  EXCLUSIVE: Troye Sivan to Become Youngest Recipient of GLAAD's Stephen F. Kolzak Award: http://www.etonline.com/awards/213909_troye_sivan_to_become_youngest_recipient_of_stephen_f_kolzak_award_at_glaad_awards/

Oh, and here’s some self-promo: - Last #TMIishTuesday: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/post/158934445048/tmiishtuesday-55-have-you-always-been-that - My Letter to society: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/post/152304851890/tmi-ishtuesday-33-a-letter-to-society - My comparison between the Dutch and the German culture: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/post/151988181967/tmi-ish-tuesday-32-cultural-differences-between - All #TMIishTuesdays: mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/tmi - More #TMIishTuesdays on random topics: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/me - More very cool stuff: www.twitter.com/mightbedamian - Even more very cool stuff: mightbedamian.tumblr.com