#most valuable comic books of the 60's

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FEATURE: The 6 Best Books On The History Of Manga And Anime

  Say you’re a fan of anime and manga who’s looking to learn more about history or craft. Where do you begin? There’s whatever insight you can glean from the work itself, of course. There’s also a good amount of information available online, from animation blogs to translated manga interviews to personal pieces. But when all else fails, turn to the library. Here are some excellent nonfiction books on the manga and anime industry that I’d recommend to just about anybody. I’ve also read at least sections of every book on this list, so you have my guarantee of their quality!

  Image via Penguin Random House

  Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World reaches beyond manga and anime to encompass Japanese pop culture post World War II. But there are plenty of stories in here that fans of anime and manga might find fascinating: 

  The toy car that inspired top developers at Nintendo

How the karaoke machine led directly to idol culture, as music producers sought to produce music that ordinary people could sing

The manga-obsessed student radicals of the 1960s, many of whom came to work on later anime projects like Mobile Suit Gundam

  Author Matt Alt’s choice of interviewees and attention to detail marks Pure Invention as one of the best of its kind. If you’re a curious reader looking for an accessible (and recent!) popular history, I highly recommend this book.

  Image via Bloomsbury.com

  For fans abroad, the history of anime begins with the airing of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy on Japanese television. But this wasn’t enough for Jonathan Clements, a long-time anime and manga scholar who continues to blog on Schoolgirl Milky Crisis. His academic text Anime: A History begins in the 1910s, 50 years before the airing of Astro Boy, in fact, Astro Boy only appears halfway through the book! Clements is concerned not just with the medium of anime itself, but the cultural traditions, historical events, and individual people that brought it into existence.

  One of the greatest obstacles standing in the way of English-speakers seeking to understand the history of Japanese animation — besides, as Clements notes, the haphazard nature of even those resources available in Japanese — is the language barrier. Online writers at sites such as Sakugablog have done fantastic work in making some of this information accessible, but those same writers would be the first to acknowledge there’s still plenty we don’t know. Anime: A History synthesizes countless Japanese-language source texts and interviews about the history of animation, yet Clements is careful to acknowledge that the testimony of individual actors within the industry must be weighed against both their own agenda and the words of others. While Anime: A History would be a valuable text if it was nothing more than a synthesis, Clements’ ambition to build a coherent history of Japanese animation from a production standpoint that thoroughly examines its subject matter and context from all angles is what makes it essential.

  Image via Stone Bridge Press

  Jonathan Clements collaborated with equally prestigious anime and manga scholar Helen McCarthy to produce The Anime Encyclopedia, whose third edition was published in 2015. It’s an enormous text (over a thousand pages long!) that covers everything from summaries and critical appraisals of popular titles to specific themes and tropes to nuggets of cultural history and influence. If I were to criticize this project, I would say that recent anime writing outside the United States exposes The Anime Encyclopedia’s biases; for instance, the magical girl series Ojamajo Doremi only merits a few paragraphs despite its status as a beloved children's series in Japan. Keeping that in mind, it’s an impressive resource that is great fun to browse (and to disagree with)!

  Image via j-novel club

  Mari Okada is one of the most prolific and influential anime writers of the past decade. She’s worked on adaptations, original projects like Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day and KIZNAIVER, and even directed her own films. In her memoir, From Truant to Anime Screenwriter, Okada frankly discusses her personal struggles: her fraught relationship with her mother, her years as a young student when she couldn’t bring herself to attend class, and the process by which she gathered her courage to touch upon her personal experiences in her work. There are chapters of this book that wouldn’t be out of place in an Okada-written drama, which I suppose is the point.

  Okada’s memoir is in part a testament to her work ethic and her willingness to tackle any challenge no matter how difficult or annoying it is. But it’s also a rosetta stone for her work: not just in how it overlaps with her personal life, but in its emphasis on the importance of communication despite how difficult it can be to voice even simple feelings. Whether you’re a fan of Okada or not, I found this to be a great resource for writers nervous of the fraught boundary between fiction and personal experience or for readers who want to know what makes Okada’s work so distinct.

  Image via Stone Bridge Press

  Frederik Schodt is one of manga criticism’s greatest elder statesmen. His book Manga! Manga! put him on the map, not only for its editorial content but also for its translated excerpts of Japanese comics — including what would be, for years, the only available English chapter of Rose of Versailles! Yet that book was published in 1983 and sections can’t help but read as dated now. So I’m recommending the sequel here, 1996’s Dreamland Japan. 

  Like its predecessor, much of Dreamland Japan is devoted to detailing Schodt’s theories as to what manga is and how it works. But the sections of the book I personally find most valuable are the profiles where Schodt writes at length about specific manga artists he either personally enjoys or believes to embody a specific genre unique to manga. The freakish kitsch of Suehiro Maruo; Ryoko Yamagishi’s historical epic Hi Izuru Tokoro no Tenshi (Emperor of the Land of the Rising Sun); and alternative artists like Kazuichi Hanawa and Shungicu Uchida. These chapters stand as a stark reminder that despite the recent popularity of manga in the United States, many fantastic comics remain completely unknown to most English-speaking audiences.

  Image via ComiPress

  Finally, there’s Udagawa Takeo’s Manga Zombie! Translated into English by John Gallagher, it’s an eccentric and rewarding text that profiles several avant-garde manga artists from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Udagawa strongly dislikes the market-driven manga hits that would go on to rule the world from the pages of Shonen Jump and fights instead for the careers of authors whose work was published in the pages of pornographic magazines as often as they were in Jump or the alternative magazine Garo. Most of these authors have never been published in English, whether officially or through illicit means like scanlations. If not for the translation of Manga Zombie — or for Udagawa’s further works of manga scholarship — the artists he writes about might vanish into history without leaving a trace.

  The comics detailed in Manga Zombie can be grotesque, ranging from the “fleshbomb style” of artists like Masaru Sakaki to prescient weirdos like George Takiyama. Some might be repelled by the content here; personally, I’m disappointed by the lack of female comics artists featured, although Udagawa (who mentions the girls comic pioneers the 49ers in the foreword to his book) is certainly aware of them. But I love reading folks talking about their favorite work that I’ve never heard about, and Udagawa makes for an idiosyncratic tour guide to some truly unique material. For those willing to brave the world of Japanese exploitation comics, Manga Zombie is a hidden gem.

  What’s your favorite text about manga or anime? Is there an interview you consider especially interesting? Let us know in the comments!

      Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. When he isn't reading weird fantasy novels and horror fiction, he sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? You can find him on Twitter at: @wendeego

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a feature, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Adam Wescott

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #195: Assault on a Mind Cage!

May, 1980

... Wasp’s new outfit is just so terrible.

And I’m a little bummed that apparently Wasp is going to end up captured and have to be rescued by her husband and her husband’s spin-off character.

She’s on the Avengers now and Hank isn’t and I was hoping that she’d get to grow into herself a little bit.

But hey... first time Ant-Man, Yellowjacket and the Wasp are together in one book apparently? And first time the new Ant-Man is appearing in Avengers, the team that will ruin his life and then kill him.

H-hooray?

So last time: the Avengers had a quiet day (except Vision who broke a bunch of stuff because he was a poet and didn’t know it) which was ruined when an escapee from an institute for the criminally insane showed up and begged the Avengers to save him from people that were trying to kill him.

Instead of doing that, the Avengers handed Selbe back over to the Institute because, hey, their paperwork was all in order!

Wasp thought there was more going on than was apparent and followed back to the institute with the Avengers following after once they realized that Wasp was missing.

And that brings us to now, where the Avengers are lurking outside the Solomon Institute for the Criminally Insane in Southampton, Long Island.

The Wasp is inside, maybe.

Also, they picked up Yellowjacket and Ant-Man at some point on the way.

But they also never explained anything to Yellowjacket at some point along the way which gives an excuse for Captain America to recap the previous issue.

Iron Man chimes in some exposition that he learned off-panel about the Solomon Institute. Apparently this institute for the criminally insane is choosy who they accept as a patients, which is a weird quality for a psychological institute to have, right?

But not weird enough to get the Avengers a search warrant so instead they’re going to flaunt the law by having Yellowjacket sneak in to snoop around.

Oh and apparently the Avengers didn’t pick up Ant-Man. Yellowjacket invited him along and he’s been lurking tiny sized waiting to make a dramatic entrance, which he does when Iron Man laments having to send Yellowjacket in alone.

Although its less of a partnership and more of a... job shadowing?

Ant-Man: “YJ asked me to meet him here when he found out what the scam was. And being something of a neophyte in the super hero biz, I jumped at the chance to learn at the hands -- er, wings -- of an old pro!”

Intern Ant-Man. Antern-Man!

So with Captain America telling them to get on with it already, Yellowjacket and Ant-Man fly off to infiltrate.

And Yellowjacket thanks Scott Lang Ant-Man for coming along.

Yellowjacket: “I appreciate your coming along on such short notice, Scott. I know your job at Stark International is important, and --”

Ant-Man: “Say, look, I enjoy soldering transistors as much as the next guy -- but the reason I originally took your offer to be Ant-Man was because I craved excitement and adventure. And if that means being docked an hour’s pay, pal, then them’s the breaks!”

I like that transistors are still a huge deal in Stark’s company. Tony Stark doesn’t forget his roots.

But also I misread Scott’s line and briefly struggled with the incorrect revelation that Scott Lang invented PayPal.

I briefly existed in a very different and confusing world.

Anyway, Ant-Man, Yellowjacket, and a giant swarm of ants sneak in through the keyhole of a side door at the Solomon Institute. And nobody notices.

There’s a guard right next to the door and he doesn’t hear a giant swarm of ants flying through a keyhole.

I was under the impression that that many flying insects creates a racket.

So as the strangely hearing impaired guard trudges off to get coffee, Ant-Man and Yellowjacket climb into the ventilation system while Ant-Man tells his ants to split up, gang, to cover more ground.

The two size-shifting heroes take a tour through the vents and see that this supposed institute is very weird.

Like. Should a place for treating the criminally insane have so many guns in the big communal bedroom? Or a big communal bedroom?

And instead of therapy, they spot people doing combat drills. Or maybe its... physical therapy?

And further along, they spot a group of people talking about candidates, students and fulfilling an order for Dr. Octopus.

Why would Dr. Octopus need inmates from an institute of criminally insan-

Oh wait a dang minute.

This isn’t an institute for the criminally insane at all, or at least not in the mental health sense!

The Solomon Institute is a front for a training academy for all those goons that supervillains always seem to have!

Although to be fair, Ant-Man and probably some of the audience have probably wondered where all those faceless lackeys came from (they have a name, Scott, probably!)

And disguising it as a place for the criminally insane means nobody would suspect a thing because training camp/institute, they’d both have a lot of criminals hanging around.

But the tour is over because “Steed” the ant and friends have returned with news on the Wasp’s whereabouts.

And she’s. She was captured off-panel (dammit, comic) and is being kept in some kind of dumb oxygen tent to keep her unconscious with sleeping gas.

She’s the only one of the Avengers that had any kind of initiative and insight and you play her like this, this comic? Come on!

There’s so many other ways this could have been played other than having her be the damsel in distress.

She could be solid snaking the institute, looking for actionable informations. She could have set off one of those emergency beacons from last time to lead the Avengers to her position. Anything other than caught off-panel!

Hmph.

Anyway, Yellowjacket blames himself because clearly with him around to tell her what to do, this wouldn’t have happened. Ant-Man, more savvy to the combined effectiveness of Yellowjacket and the Wasp instead predicts that Hank would have ended up captured too.

Also, Ant-Man has an ant-plan.

I.e., he plans to use ants to solve this and every other problem.

Its what he does, what he knows, and what he’ll stick with, thank you very much.

So Ant-Man summons a big swarm of ants to distract the guards and random scientist with biting of the eyeballs and otherwise and then Yellowjacket flies down to shoot one with his disrupter blasts and Ant-Man does the growing uppercut thing that is a cornerstone of Shrink Fu.

Then they get Wasp out of that dumb oxygen/sleeping gas tent and she revives almost immediately.

I don’t know how sleeping gas works but it seems like maybe it would take longer than that but whatever.

And with Wasp awake and “Just... slightly embarrassed. I-it only hurts... when I think” she can recount What Happened To The Wasp.

So, yes. We get to see her damseled on-panel. Honestly, its a little better than the alternative. =\

So since she thought that Selbe was telling the truth when the Solomon Institute’s limo took him away, she followed on wing.

Wasp: “It was so cold... I was almost as blue as my boots by the time we reached the Solomon Institute... but that was nothing compared to the chill I felt when I saw those stormtrooper guards... and heard the orderlies told to prepare Selbe for some sort of operation!”

Hey. Maybe you wouldn’t be so cold if you didn’t design a new costume during wintertime that is missing a sleeve and a pant leg? Just a thought.

Seriously, why this new costume?

Sure she was right about shady business, Wasp slipped into Selbe’s cell and returned to normal size to try to revive him.

But that was a stupid move because apparently there were hidden cameras in the cell and the room was filled with fast-acting sleeping gas to incapacitate her.

And the next thing she knew, she was being woken up by Ant-Man and Yellowjacket.

And then she starts making out with Yellowjacket because that’s what you do when your husband rescues you from a fake institute that’s really a training camp for mooks. You get a little frisky.

But Ant-Man points out the obvious thing. If Selbe’s cell was monitored, what are the odds that this room is too?

Very. Very odds.

Dr Solomon: “A most perspicacious query, young man. Unfortunately -- it is also rather tardy!”

Geez. Its always a bit hurtful when the villains call the heroes dumbasses. Its usually true but its like adding insult to intended injury. Exactly like that, in fact.

And we meet Dr. Pernell Solomon, as spoiled by my putting his name on that offset dialogue.

Wasp exclaims - and I’ll take her word for this - that Dr. Solomon looks just like Selbe except thirty years older.

So Solomon reveals that Selbe IS HIM DUN DUN DUNNN! but for more information please join him in his study. And that please is just to be polite. The guns that attack the nervous system are the real please in this situation.

Meanwhile, outside, the Avengers continue to wait outside. In the snow.

Luckily Beast thought to bring coffee. Although when this happened will be a mystery. Maybe the Avengers just keep some instant brew on the Quinjet just in case. That would make sense.

Either way, the point of this vignette is a conversation between Wonder Man and Ms Marvel.

And the point of the conversation between Wonder man and Ms Marvel is how Carol is an overreacting, touchy feminist.

I cannot think of any other intended reading for this exchange:

Wonder Man: “I can’t help it, Ms. Marvel. I’m worried. Maybe Iron Man and I should have just smashed our way in and pulled the Wasp out. After all, we are --”

Ms Marvel: “--‘Men’? Are you still on that kick? Look, Simon, I know you were out of action for a long time, but this isn’t the 60′s anymore! You’ve got to learn that women are more than fair damsels waiting to be rescued by shining knights! The Wasp is a valuable team member, as competent as any of her male counterparts! She --.”

Wonder Man: “Ms. Marvel, what I was going to say was that perhaps we should have gone after the Wasp because we’re... her friends.”

Ms Marvel: “‘Her...?’ oh.”

=|

I choose to believe that the ellipses in Wonder Man’s reply is because he’s frantically trying to dig himself out of the hole he put himself in.

But that’s not the intended reading. I know that because the very next panel has Beast smirking across the distance and Jocasta suggesting they put more sugar in Carol’s coffee.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Isn’t it hilarious how tightly wound she is?

I don’t want to pretend I can guess the motives of the creative staff behind these books from across the gulf of time. But considering whats in store for Carol, a writing out of the book that would make Classic Doctor Who go ‘geez that’s fucked up’ I can’t think that otherwise.

At least in Avengers so far, Carol has been pretty chill about her feminism and Wonder Man has been stuck in the past.

But this swaps things so Wonder Man is the poor, put-upon misinterpreted well-meaning dude.

Bah.

Anyway.

Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Yellowjacket are taken at gunpoint to Dr Solomon’s office so he can explain EVERYTHING.

Why? Because otherwise how would we, the audience, understand what was going on?

Basically, Selbe is a clone of Dr Solomon.

DUN DUN DUN

Well. Its slightly more obvious if you know German since Selbe apparently means “same.”

Because Dr Solomon was born with a weak heart and a rare blood type so it would be hard to get a transplant. So obviously the most correct and obvious solution is to just grow a new heart that is genetically identical.

This raises the question, if Selbe is just a clone of Solomon, wouldn’t his heart also be weak? But surely a scientific genius who explains his whole plot to superheroes would have thought of that.

Selbe is just a few months old, by the way. Artificially aged up.

Why is it even necessary for the clone to be self-aware if he’s just an organ harvest or why it even needs to be a full-bodied clone if you’re just after a heart is a mystery.

Because here’s what happened. Selbe heard that he was going to be killed to be harvested and also heard about the Avengers and decided ‘fuck this shit, i’m out’ and escaped to look for the Avengers’ help.

Of course we all know how that went. With him right back where he started and several Avengers being forced to listen to exposition at gunpoint.

Wasp actually questions why someone intelligent enough to set up a secret training school for supervillain mooks would need to create a full, self-aware clone just to get a heart but Solomon reveals that he’s just an administrator. He didn’t set this up. And if it gets out that he was using resources for a personal project, geez would he be in trouble!

He has no trouble saying that in front of several of his guards who no doubt would never blackmail him.

Dr Solomon: Pretty smart dude.

Also he notices that Yellowjacket has been wiggling his... shoulder wing things.... and tells him to cut it out.

But wiggling his shoulder things allowed Yellowjacket to build up a charge for his DISRUPTER BLASTS!

FZZAK ZZAK!

And Ant-Man punches a guy too. Good job, Ant-Man.

Dr Solomon tells his remaining two guards to “jangle them!” because the neural attacking guns are called janglers.

Takes some of the menace out. JANGLE THEM YOU FOOLS! See?

But the two guards find their guns clogged with ants.

Good job, Ant-Man! And Yellowjacket had detected the ant controlling signals so that’s why he knew it was safe to attack.

Dr Solomon decides he’ll try to strangle Wasp because she hasn’t contributed to the escape attempt at all so she must be a pushover.

And granted, I was just about to complain about that but when Solomon grabs her, Wasp introduces his chin to the heel of her palm.

“This ‘lady’ -- is a champ!” indeed!

Also “Nice teamwork, people” indeed. Wasp is just saying all the right things.

I begrudgingly forgive her of her new costume.

More guards burst in but rather than wide-dispersal *snrrk* janglers, they’re carrying cartridge weapons so everyone shrinks down to avoid the guns or perhaps lasers and then Yellowjacket and Wasp combine their respective blasts to COLLAPSE THE ROOF ON THE GUARDS

DANG

I can never get a bead on how powerful the disrupters and bio-stings are supposed to be...

Meanwhile, outside again, the Avengers notice a vehicle approach and land at the institute.

“The sinister craft glides slowly down from a gun-gray sky... hovers for a moment... and then settles with a metallic whisper. The master has arrived!”

The Avengers boggle vacantly at how advanced the ship is and Wonder Man says that they should be ready for anything.

But meanwhile, inside again, I’m noticing that although the Avengers are involved, this is basically an Ant-Man, Yellowjacket, and the Wasp team-up story.

The three of them find Selbe’s chamber and there’s only one guard guarding it. So Wasp flies inside his ear and whistles

REALLY LOUDLY

And then flies out, grows, and chops him in the back of the head to knock him out.

While complaining about how waxy the guy’s ear was.

It was your decision to go for this tactic, Jan.

They unlock Selbe’s cell. Wasp tells him they’re getting him out of here and they’re going to find the one really behind all this madness and-

Aw dang.

The one really behind all this madness found them.

And beat up Yellowjacket and Ant-Man so quickly and so off-panel that Wasp didn’t even notice.

Taskmaster: “My moniker’s the Taskmaster, shuggy, and I run this little operation -- along with a dozen or so others. My shtick is teaching the teachers, an’ I’ve just decided that you an’ your sleepyhead partners here would make perfect visual aides for my next class. It’s one o’ my favorites, dumplin’. I call it -- DISMEMBERMENT 101!”

Yup. Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiintroducing, Taskmaster! And he’ll be staying around for a while.

Just like the Terrible Tinkerer was introduced to explain where the villains got all their fabulous toys, the Taskmaster was introduced to explain where villains got their never ending armies of vaguely competent henchmen.

But as you can tell by the next issue caption, this is a three-part story. So to be continued next time.

Follow @essential-avengers. I’m at 13 followers. Sad, ain’t it? But with seven more, I can be forced to cover some alternate Avengers that aren’t the main 616 ones. What Ifs?, alternate universes, terrible terrible cartoons. The spectrum of everything is your menu.

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | Q&A w/ THEO ELLSWORTH (Missoula, MT)

From DIY comics, art zines, animations, drawings to hand drawn woodcuts, artist Theo Ellsworth has doodled his way from childhood and high school to galleries and museums all over the world. One look at his body of works, you’ll find yourself drawn into a detailed, imaginative, stream-of-consciousness narrative realm, where strange creatures, surreal beings, and dreamy landscapes flow and blend into one another, with no beginning or end. Not only one thing, Theo also is the house artist for the London based electronic record label, Astral Industries, creating art for bands like Flying Lotus, Ramona Falls, and Algecow. Learn more about Theo Ellsworth’s art and what his early artistic influences are, what materials he loves to work with, and what he has coming for the rest of 2017.

Photographs courtesy of the artist

Introduce yourself?  Hello, I'm Theo Ellsworth. I draw a lot. Pretty much whenever I can. I live in Missoula, Montana.

My drawings take many forms: I make hand drawn woodcut art for galleries and museums, I also make comics and art zines. Sometimes I do large scale drawings on walls. I do illustration work of all kinds. I'm the house artist for the London based electronic record label, Astral Industries. I've also made album art for Flying Lotus, Ramona Falls, Skeleton Farm, and Algecow. I've been dabbling in animation and I'm currently excited to be learning woodblock printing. My work's been featured in Best American Comics, Cicada Magazine, The Treasury of Mini Comics, Smoke Signal, The Graphic Canon, and the upcoming book, America 2020.

When did you first get into drawing?  Was it a hobby turned career or something you knew from the start? I've loved drawing since I was a kid, but it was in high school that it really became an essential part of me. I started out just doodling a lot with straight sharpie on whatever piece of paper I had on hand. Something about just letting my hand run free to follow whatever shapes it wanted to make, really helped me relax my brain in this weird new way. It was never an absent minded kind of thing. It never felt I was spacing out. It felt more like the act of drawing helped me carve out a personal thinking space where I could concentrate and function more naturally. I got sent to the principal's office for drawing in class all the time in high school and I used to get bad grades in my high school art classes for not following the assignments correctly. Now, I feel lucky to be making a living making art. If I don't draw regularly, I get grumpy and hard to be around. Something about making art seems to keep me feeling intact and able to face the world.

Who were some of your early artistic influences? Reading comics and children’s books as a kid really had an impact on me. I always knew I wanted to make narrative work with my art.  When I discovered the world of self publishing, zines, and mini comics  at the Small Press Expo in San Francisco back in 2003, I realised that I could do it all myself. The first zine I ever printed was a series of drawings on receipts. I started a photocopied comics series called Capacity, which was eventually collected into a 335 page book published by the Brooklyn based small press, Secret Acres. My newest published book is a 128 page, wordless psychedelic horror comic called An Exorcism, published by the excellent Latvian small press, Kus Komikss.

What mediums do you love to work with? What are your essential art tools? I’ll use any kind of pen, but my favorite is the Rapidograph, which is a technical pen that can be refilled with india ink. I also love just drawing with cheap ballpoint pens.  I love to draw on folded paper. I like the idea of drawing on a sequence of pages as opposed to drawing on a single sheet of paper. The act of drawing becomes more of a thought process; a series of drawings that travel somewhere, as opposed to a single static image. Some of my folded paper notebooks have been reproduced as art zines, such as Logic Storm, Antidote, and Relax, We Have Alien Vehicles. These zines are probably fairly cryptic objects to any viewer expecting a narrative, but working on each one helped me navigate the time period they were drawn in. I carried them around with me and worked on each one a little at a time, until they were filled. I Like having an ongoing work like this in motion that I can take my time with and slowly build on. I like to draw on a folded paper size that can be easily reproduced on a photocopier and potentially made into an art zine and I draw on both sides of every page, so the zine is an exact reproduction of my notebook. Sometimes I only make a few copies or none at all of any given piece, but keeping that format keeps me locked into a sequence of pages that I have to work my way through.

Do you keep a sketchbook or work your ideas as you go along?  What type of sketchbook do you keep – disorganized chaos or neat and clean? Besides my folded paper drawing notebooks I keep, I don’t really keep a sketchbook. I don’t really do preliminary sketches of ideas for the most part. I always have this impulse to make everything a finished drawing.

What was the first show you ever exhibited in? What was your last show? My very first show was at a coffee shop called Butterfly Herbs in Missoula, MT. By most recent show was at Giant Robot in LA.

Where did you learn your knowledge of art or making art? Art School or Self taught.  For the most part, I'm self taught, though I'm currently learning woodblock printing from an incredibly print maker named David Miles Lusk and I've been learning a lot of great animation tips from my friend Stefan Gruber, who's a genius animator.

Describe your artistic process for us. It’s all pretty stream of conscious. It might be easiest to describe my process with my woodcuts. I started making the woodcut art, originally because I got tired of framing work for shows and wanted by gallery work to be something that felt really different from my illustration work. I got a scroll saw and started cutting out shapes in hard-wood plywood, drawing on them, then coating them in varnish.  I’ll go into my little woodshop in my garage and draw out as many shapes as possible on a big piece of plywood and cut out a whole pile of them, so I have a nice stack to work on. I never completely know what they’re going to look like until I’m working on. They just start out as these vague person, animal, or house shapes,and it’s a true joy to sit with each one and discover the details. I do a yearly solo show of my woodcut pieces at Giant Robot in Los Angeles that I usually make at least 75 new pieces for. I had a show there this past June. Right now I have 3 pieces in a group show at Grumpy Bert in Brooklyn, NY and 9 new pieces are about to go to a show at Radius Gallery in Missoula, MT.

What makes you smile when viewing art? What is it you’re looking at – composition, color, line? I'm inspired by all kinds of work. I love outsider art and folk art. I love weird art comics, but I also still have a huge love for 60s, 70s, and 80s superhero comics. I love ancient art and textures and patterns in nature. Any art that really feels like it was made from an inner artistic impulse usually ends up getting me excited and inspired. I love art that feels a bit crude or awkward but full of feeling and personal expression. That kind of art does way more for me than something super polished and calculated. I love children's art and I collaborate with my 2 young kids whenever I can.

What’s a common misconception about artists? I don’t think many people really understand the focus and effort that goes into a single work of art. I love having a studio that I can ride my bike to, close the door and have periods of time where I'm totally immersed with no distractions. I also like sitting up after everyone in my family has gone to bed and working on my zines or woodcuts. I get significantly less sleep than everyone else in my family, but making use of that quiet time is so essential. The most valuable thing to me about making art is simply the experience of focus and concentration; the satisfaction of putting care into something. The journey of following a vague impulse until something tangible and often unexpected has come into existence. It sort of feels like developing a photograph of something from my subconscious, like I'm actively engaging with something mysterious and beyond my understanding.

Do you have a favorite artist(s) that does a completely different medium than yourself? Oh yeah! I have a huge love for art environments. One of my favorites is Le Palais Ideal in France, made by Ferdinand Cheval. He was a Postman in the late 1800s who built a complex and beautiful homemade structure on his land. He had no prior experience with architecture. He simply followed this mysterious artistic impulse and made something startling and unique. There’s nothing else like it.

What are your favorite Vans? I like it when people draw on them and add personal touches.

How are you not just ONE thing? Everything I do feels like it’s part of the same world and comes from that same initial creative impulse, but I definitely need that variety of approaches and focuses. It keeps me inspired and seeing things from new and different angles..

What’s on the horizon for the rest of 2017? Right now, I'm working on a new series of folded paper notebooks called Thrill Mouth. It's more of a pure comic book, inner-space explorer adventure series drawn in ball point pen. I printed some copies of the first issue a few weeks back. Some of the copies have hand drawn glitter gel pen details on the covers. I usually can't stop myself from getting labor intensive and ridiculous with anything I make. I've been making zines and mini comics for about 15 years. It actually was relief when a publisher first contacted me, wanting to put out a book, and I love working with the publishers I've been lucky enough to work with so far, but making these little self published art booklets is an important personal practice and I always try to have one in the works.  I’m also working on a graphic Novel with author Jeff VanderMeer.

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[willridgard]

Norwich pubs, beers and breweries: What’s not to love?

They often say that ‘you do anything for the people and things you love’.

For me. If I had to pick, I’d highlight football, my favourite Chinese takeaway, my girlfriend Poppy, former Ipswich Town striker Shefki Kuqi, and my Mediterranean tortoise named Coco as some of the most valuable things in my life. Not in that order I might add!

Oh. I almost forgot. Cask ale, often known as ‘real ale’ or ‘ale from the hand-pump’, is mostly certainly now in the upper reaches of that adorable list. You see, my taste buds have strayed from the mainstream lagers in the last few years, and cask ale is now known as my ‘new love’ that I seemingly can’t go anywhere without!

Especially on celebratory events like Valentine’s Day. Days full of laughter and fun and days to cherish and remember. Valentine’s Day 2020 was therefore spent trying to please, and spend valuable time with, the people and things that matter the most! OK, I’m not Superman, and didn’t manage to fit everyone / everything in, but I’d say that attending a Beer Festival with more than 60 ales to choose from was the perfect setting for Valentine’s Eve💖!

Of course, I didn’t go on this quest alone. If I had to guess some of Poppy’s ‘priority list’, I’d go for: exploration, visiting new places, sightseeing, culture, food, wine, socialising, travelling, shopping, talking, and Pickled Onion Monster Munch 👾. Hopefully I’d be somewhere in there too!

Norwich was the chosen location for our Valentine’s getaway. Norwich. Home of Colman’s Mustard. Home of The Cathedral. Home of The Canaries: Norwich City FC 🟡🟢. The Canaries. Oh how Ipswich used to beat them regularly and proudly perch as the ‘pride of East Anglia’. But such dreams are now a distant memory for many increasingly-poignant Ipswich fans like myself, and come to think of it, I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to cheer on the Tractor Boys 🚜 in another ‘Old Farm Derby’ again! Such is the current demise and perilous position of the boys in blue and white 🔵⚪.  

But, “forget the football for once,” I told Poppy. It was time to explore a beautiful, cultural, vibrant and historic city blessed with an array of fantastic shops, market stalls, and of course pubs and breweries. Our getaway was planned at the very last minute – and Norwich was perfect for our plans and interests. I think the conversation in the car on the way to work on the Monday went something like ‘Shall we do something for Valentine’s Day this year?’ Four days later and we’re living our best life. After all, they often say: ‘Live in the moment’, ‘life is for laughing’, ‘treat yourself’ etc.

Talking of treats. Naturally, a treat = beer. The airport beer. The shower beer. The hotel balcony beer. The kitchen beer while she’s getting ready. The straight to the pub from work beer. The Sunday afternoon beer garden beer. The Friday before Christmas beer. There are so many great beers everywhere. Especially, in Norwich where a plethora of tasty, excellent beers are produced by Norfolk breweries and then sold in great numbers at various watering holes across the city.  

One of which, the Georgian Townhouse, was where we were lucky enough to stay. With an excellent choice of boutique bedrooms and luxury apartments, the Georgian Townhouse offers a truly unique retreat in a glorious setting in the heart of the city – and I’d highly recommend it. Boasting a Roberts Revival digital radio 📻, a Smeg fridge and a Nespresso machine ☕ , we were in some kind of hotel heaven when we unpacked our bags. Blimey! Heaven turned into paradise when we saw the size of the humongous bath in the en-suite🛀. I thought about going swimming at one stage 🏊 !

But that’s not it. The fantastic Georgian Townhouse staff even presented us with two local beers from St Andrews Brewhouse – Wensum Ale, a best bitter, and Grocers Ghost Pale Ale (more on those later) – to sample on arrival. And with a small bottle of champagne, and a bunch of freshly picked, roaring red roses that definitely were not bought from Tesco (how did they even get there!?), the scene was set for a cracking couple of days!

And a cracking couple of days were had. Starting with dinner in the restaurant: Delicious roast chicken served with coleslaw, chips and salad. Just what the doctor ordered. 

The service was also very good – and after scanning my QR code to record my visit on the CaskFinder App – significant interest in the App generated as some members of staff wanted to become ‘beer experts’ by vowing to learn all of the tasting-notes for the 10,000 beers on show! I opted to wash dinner down with two lovely pints of Woodforde’s Wherry. A beer that has grown on me in recent times, with its delicious citrus aftertaste going down very well indeed.

From here, we took the mutual decision to move onto The Trafford Arms for the Valentine Beer Festival! With Storm Ciara beginning her windy, wet warm up, and the choice of 60+ beers to look forward to, it’s fair to say that Poppy was not the most enthused on the chilly walk through the housing estates en route to The Trafford. In fact, I’d say she was uncharacteristically quiet. Which really is a rarity! But that soon changed as we entered the pub’s welcoming doors. Bingo! Their Cask Marque certificate greeted us at the door. After registering the visit on the CaskFinder App, it soon became apparent that we were to make this public house our home for the next few hours.

Of course, I’d done my research, and found that the Valentine Beer Festival was a popular annual, week-long event. With a huge variety of beers ranging in appearance and ABV%, as well as live music, what’s not to love about it really? So as Poppy sipped on her fruit-filled gin n’ tonic, I tested my taste buds. All while listening to the dulcet tones of The Rum Dogs, who, in their own words, perform ‘funky, folk music with humour and passion’.

If I had to pick a ‘beer of the night’, I’d go for Ampersand’s ‘On the wing’, a hop forward pale session ale brewed with oats and heaps of late Amarillo, Citra, Ekuanot & El Dorado hops. But I wasn’t alone in trying new beers. The pub had a very friendly, absorbing vibe about it, and it was great to see it packed full of drinkers – young, old, male and female – all testing their taste buds and indulging in some beautiful cask ales.

We were sad to leave The Trafford, armed with our packets of Salt & Vinegar crisps to detract our attention away from a strengthening Ciara, but will certainly aim to visit again. I believe the Beer Festival continued to be a hit – and, whisper it quietly, I think beers were being served at £2 a pint towards the end! We’ll definitely be back if that’s the case!

After a well-deserved sleep (this drinking business can be tiring), we went down to breakfast – the most important meal of the day. Apparently! We were not left disappointed. There was plenty of choice: from cereal and fruits to pastries and yoghurts to cooked meals, the menu was expansive – and partnered with excellent customer service. Personally, I opted for a few slices of cantaloupe melon – after demolishing a freshly-cooked Full English that smelt as good as it looked!  

This set us up perfectly for the day’s activities, and, as avid believers of living life on the edge, we just immersed ourselves in the beautiful, windy Norwich lanes, streets, and marketplace. We bought a few birthday gifts (happy 23rd to my sister Ellie), and enjoyed our time stumbling across many a hidden gem – including Chef Ron’s Kitchen and Roman’s Juice Bar, who really sold us their appetising pizza slices🍕 and tasty smoothies🥤.

After eyeing up quirky rugs, lampshades, and other home essentials, we then fell upon FREE ping pong and table football inside Castle Quarter. Which was an absolute game-changer! Unfortunately, the table tennis was so popular that we didn’t have the patience to wait, so Poppy’s interest and undenied passion for ‘the beautiful game’ intensified even further when she challenged me to an encounter of table football. And, after a comically entertaining match, which saw the Ipswich Town Blues defeat a Norwich team, playing in their red away kit, 10-5, I fully expect our game to be shown first on Match of the Day this weekend. Shefki Kuqi top scored (there’s only one f in Shefki) with eight of Ipswich’s 10 goals. If only these dreams became a reality…

In all seriousness, both facilities are well-maintained and are cracking ideas. In a world being domineered by iPhones and other such technological advances, they offer a great opportunity for family members and friends to enjoy one another’s company – and with a competitive element thrown in too. Hey, I won lunch! Wake me up, I’m dreaming again… Talking of lunch, once our match, which included full-match commentary, much to the amusement of several passers-by, reached its conclusion, the quest for good food and drink was on. In my book, the clock striking 1pm means only one thing: beer time! As we all know, shopping can be tiring and can work up an appetite so it was imperative we found a place that could satisfy our bodies and minds.

Step forward, St Andrews Brewhouse! It’s easy to see why this brewery-turned-pub is regarded as one of the best food and drink establishments in Norwich. Home to their very own microbrewery, which produce some amazing beers, St Andrews Brewhouse is a real favourite among Norwich folk with their popular restaurant, bar area, and functions room nearly always fully populated.

See it for yourself here:

In my opinion, one of the best things about pubs is the range of people they attract. People-watching is also a proven, favourite past-time of the human race! The guy sitting by the window at St Andrews Brewhouse with just a book and a beer for company looked like he was having a great time. As did the three suitcase-carrying friends hungry for a good meal after landing from their holidays. Of course, Poppy and I were probably seen by others as ‘the Valentines’ – enjoying one another’s company, alongside the superb Macaroni Cheese and two pints of lovely Wensum Ale – a best bitter with a sweet, malty and fruity finish. Spot on.

And, as we made our way out, hand-in-hand, looking for the next stop in our exciting jaunt, Poppy declared that ‘the St Andrews Brewhouse is one of the best pubs I’ve been in; I loved it’. And I’d have to agree. Good food. Good beer. Good times. It’s simply a must-visit! Add it to your Norwich bucket list!

It was then by complete accident, that after crossing the bridge on St Georges Street, that we found the Playhouse Bar! Again, Miss Brown wasn’t overly keen when I suggested that we gave it a look as ‘it’s different’. But, again, her opinion quickly changed when we set foot inside! The adjectives quirky, funky, and mesmerising are ones I’d used to describe a unique bar setting and atmosphere! Playhouse Bar’s ceiling is a colourful collection of artworks portraying a city scape. 

The project was started in 2011 by members of bar staff, many of whom are former art students. Art was probably my worst subject at school, but I had a serious case of ‘ceilingopolis’! We couldn’t help but stare at the ceiling – and managed to find The Olympic Stadium, an IKEA and Jurassic Park – to name but a few places of interest on top of us. It’s certainly very interesting and worth a visit. The sucker fish was entertaining too. I wonder what he’s seen – and forgotten – in his lifetime. In all honesty, we could’ve stayed people and ceiling-watching for hours…

It was at the Ribs of Beef where our journey ended – obviously after taking some selfies and photo-bombing one another first.

I opted to try a trio of tasty local beers to round up – and was not left disappointed with some fruitful tasting beers from Lacons, Wolf and Moon Gazer Ales cleansing the palette perfectly. Norfolk is the home of these fine breweries – and it was fantastic to see each of the pubs I visited support local breweries.

That’s the thing. Norwich really is a community of beers, breweries, and pubs. Partnerships between all will certainly heighten in May, when the 10th Norwich City of Ale Festival officially opens. An 11-day celebration of some of Norwich’s finest pubs, and the region’s excellent brewers, City of Ale 2020 promises to be packed with Ale Trails and fun events to keep consumers entertained. I really can’t wait for it to begin! Thursday, May 21 to Sunday, May 31. Save the dates! Plan the action! Come and see what Norwich has to offer.

With a handful of the 45 pubs involved in City of Ale also being Cask Marque accredited, they appear on the CaskFinder App’s ‘World’s Biggest Ale Trail’. May 2020 seems the perfect time to tick off a few pubs yet to visit and a few beers yet to try! The never-ending, full-of-fun, beer adventure just keeps continuing…

[mst3kproject]

1114: At The Earth's Core

Well, as long as I'm Journeying to the Centre of the Earth via MST3K, there's this.  I don't know if it's possible to be the Rob Liefeld of prose, but if it is, Edgar Rice Burroughs is our man – his books are peopled entirely by musclebound, practically-naked individuals who never strike a realistic pose.  I can't stand his writing, and the more a movie based on his work deviates from the source material, the better I tend to like it.  I haven't read the novel At the Earth's Core, but the movie version is dull, stilted, and generally misconcieved, so I suspect it's fairly faithful.

Brilliant steampunk scientist Dr. Abner Perry, funded by dim-but-wealthy David Innes, has created the Iron Mole – an exceptionally phallic digging machine designed to penetrate the most private parts of Mother Earth, which are doubtless impregnated with valuable minerals.  When Perry and David test this mighty tool, they find it has far more thrust than they anticipated, and soon they've plowed themselves right into a prehistoric world At the Earth's Core!

Okay.  I'll let that go now.

The land of Pellucidar turns out to be populated by cave people, orcs, and men in ridiculous rubber monster suits, and ruled by giant telepathic pterodactyls who use the rest of the inhabitants as slave labor or snack food.  Dr. Perry sets about translating ancient tablets in search of the pterodactyls' great secret, while David runs around beating up the cave people and orcs and whatnot.  Together the two men unite the warring tribes of Pellucidar and overthrow the pterodactylocracy, then return to the surface after David's new girlfriend, Dia the Cavewoman, breaks up with him – probably because she wasn't willing to trade in her leather miniskirts for a corset and sixteen layers of petticoats.

I'm so glad Joel decided to do some Caroline Munro movies – basically everything she was ever in would make for good MST3K subjects, and you can expect to see her in the Episodes that Never Were section shortly.  Then there's Doug McClure, who was apparently the Ben Murphy of the 60's; a dull, mediocre actor, who bargain basement studios liked to pretend could carry a film.  He doesn't have half the screen presence of Peter Cushing, and this movie features Peter Cushing at the worst I've ever seen him.  Cushing looks like he's already been dead for two weeks and clearly does not give a single lonely, isolated fuck about this film.

I first saw this movie as a teenager in the 90s, having rented it from Blockbuster (that was back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, but fortunately I was able to outrun them on my rollerblades).  I think I might have been thirteen, but I remember recognizing even then that Grand Moff Tarkin did not care. He'd been given stupid comic relief lines about excitable foreigners and remembering his umbrella (in case it rains at the centre of the earth), and he whistles his way through them while waving his arms in a weirdly C3P0-ish fashion.  If I'm being honest, the result is surprisingly enjoyable.  Dr. Perry could have been the Dropo of this movie, the character we all want to see die but know won’t, but Peter Cushing manages to keep him tolerable.  Jonah and the bots are never reduced to yelling “SHUT UP!” or begging David to kill him, and that’s actually quite an accomplishment.

At least part of the reason Cushing comes across relatively well is because everybody else is so thoroughly bland. Doug McClure is as dull as an overcast day and never seems very committed to his cause or particularly interested in Dia.  Even when he vows that the pterodactyls have to be destroyed, he looks and sounds more like he's annoyed about a child's poor report card than enraged by the needless death of innocents.  Caroline Munro doesn't have anything much to do except deliver exposition and pout cutely. She's not nearly as into it as she was in Starcrash, but then, Starcrash gave her a much meatier role (I mean, it was ridiculous, but at least Stella Star was part of the plot). In At the Earth's Core she doesn't really seem to be trying.

Of course, At the Earth's Core isn't really about its characters – as in a lot of modern movies (by now you can probably guess the one I'm thinking of), the story and characters in this movie only serve as an excuse to show us fantastical sights. Rivers of lava!  A steampunk digging machine!  Prehistoric monsters of every possible description!  This is a film meant to be all about its visuals, so how do those fare?

No surprise, the answer is 'badly'.  The lava looks okay in some shots, mostly the ones in which it is represented by liquid lit red-orange.  Scenes in which there is fire on the surface look like exactly what they are: water with a little burning oil on the top.  The caves all this lava is flowing through look distinctly stryrofoam-ish.  The Iron Mole, on the other hand, actually looks pretty neat – it's obviously a model, but it's a large and detailed one with many moving parts, and the designers put a lot of thought into how it would move through the earth, although none at all into how one might steer it.

As for the creatures... well, the orc-like Sagoths are all right, looking like something one might see in Star Wars.  Everything else is terrible.  The stupid Parrotsaurus that menaces David and Perry soon after they leave the Iron Mole looks like it should be fighting Gamera.  The carnivorous bipedal brontotheres are significantly less convincing than the 90's Ninja Turtles movies.  The hippo monster David fights in the arena mostly makes us think about how much better Return of the Jedi would do this scene six years later.  There's a giant glow-in-the-dark Venus Flytrap that looks like it's mostly made of fiberglass, and we can't possibly forget the random fire-breathing frog that appears out of abso-fucking-lutely nowhere to menace Dia in one scene. It's definitely the cheapest monster in the movie, which is understandable when you consider that they were planning to blow it up.

And of course there are the pterodactyl monsters, the rulers of Pellucidar.  Since they're the most important 'creatures' in the film, one would expect some effort to have gone into their portrayal, but they're stiff and cheap and barely move, because whenever they do it becomes laughably obvious that they are people in suits.  The fact that all their monsters are people in suits is the single biggest movie-ruiner for At the Earth's Core.  Not a single one of the beasts we see on screen has a plausible anatomy except for the Sagoths, and they only work because they're supposed to be humanoid.  If ever there were a movie that really should have sprung for stop-motion, this is the one.

Now that I've looked at the execution, I guess I have to talk about the concept.  Is this movie one hundred percent spectacle, or is it actually about anything?  Well, like pretty much everything else Edgar Rice Burroughs ever wrote, it's about how white people are best at everything.

Although there are a few black extras in some shots, the Pellucidarians are mostly played by white actors wearing various amounts of makeup.  Caroline Murnro is far darker here than she was in Starcrash, and David's BFF Ra looks particularly ridiculous in his spray tan and perm.  The ambiguously non-white tribes have no technology more complex than a spear, and have been unable to unite their squabbling peoples against their obvious common enemy.  Then Perry and Innes show up, discover how to beat the pterodactyls, and turn these dispararate peoples into a trained army of bowmen in what appears to be a few days.

Dr. Perry re-invents the bow and arrow despite having nothing to work with but a bunch of bamboo and his umbrella.  This could be forgiven, since as an engineer I suppose we could believe he has a good understanding of the principles behind the weapon – but then he masters it immediately, despite his own admission that 'I never had occasion to use one before'!  The cavepeople have to be trained in this new way of fighting, but with Perry it's 'bullseye!' on his first shot.  Cushing was nearly seventy when this movie was made, and not exactly in fighting shape.  I don't think anybody on the writing staff knew how difficult it is to pull a bow.  David, meanwhile, despite being a somewhat doughy-looking rich kid, wins wrestling matches with cavemen and battles with monsters, and squeezes through secret passageways.  Sure, that's plausible.

Now that I think about it... David doesn't do a whole lot in this movie that's particularly plot-furthering.  He fights a couple of creatures and kisses Dia, but it's Perry who designed the Iron Mole, Perry who figures out how to read the pterodactyls' writing and what their 'secret' is (pity he never shares the latter with the audience in any comprehensible form), and Perry who arms the cavemen against their oppressors.  Why isn't this movie just about Dr. Perry?  A comedy about a Victorian scientist who stumbles upon a lost world at the center of the Earth, saving the day and becoming a hero by total accident?  That at least sounds like it would have more personality than this movie, which at the end of the day is pretty beige.

At the Earth's Core is cheap and shoddy, but cheap and shoddy movies can be a lot of fun.  The problem here is that nobody thought they were making anything but a cheap and shoddy movie, and so nobody bothered to put in the effort that might have elevated it into an entertaining cheap and shoddy movie. A little of Caroline Munro's Starcrash overacting would have gone a long way, as would a bit more effort on the part of the screenwriter.  The stupid monsters are fun, but At the Earth's Core just isn't good enough or bad enough to be worth watching.

[the-record-newspaper]

Smoot Park Football: Remembering the game the way it used to be

The photo above, taken from the Thursday, Oct. 31, 1968, edition of The Wilkes News, shows members of the North Wilkesboro Eaglets before the team’s last game that season. The caption reads: The North Wilkesboro Eaglets finished their season Wednesday afternoon with a resounding 48-0 victory over Yadkinville. The win left the boys with a 6-0 mark for the season. They are pictured above. On the front are Tim Bundy, Mitch Blankenship, and Artie Groce. On the first row are Randy Huffman, Ken Clifton, Sonny Church, Mark Duncan, Gary Eldridge, Pat Hawkins, Ken Call, David Sink and Steve McCord. On the second row are Coach Bob Blakenship, Robert Duncan, Jack Fulk, David Brown, Steve Blankenship, Monty Minton, Mike Harris, Jim Lewis, Phillip Hennessee, and coach Harold Baker. Those on the back are Ricky Kilby, Rufus Colvard, Randy Rhoades, Mike Forester, Troy Mathis, Joe Johnson, Clate Holloway, and Irving McKenzie.

 By SONNY CHURCH

Special to The Record

 I had just entered the sixth grade in the fall of 1966, and I got my chance to finally play organized football.

If you put on pads before high school, back then, you had to play for Buster Bush’s North Wilkesboro Recreation Department.

The only game in town, so to speak, was based out of Smoot Park. No matter where you lived in Wilkes, if you played football before high school, you played for North Wilkesboro Recreation. You were an Eaglet, and your home turf was Smoot Park.

The Park of today is vastly different from when and where my football career began. There was no playground to speak of, save the swings that might have escaped from the carnival and that ungodly dangerous thing that went round and round expelling kids with incredible centrifugal force. There was no real swimming pool by today’s standards and there was most definitely not a locker room with showers.

Incredible as it may sound today, we actually dressed at the picnic shelters. That’s right, we stripped down to our skives for practice at the picnic shelters. We would go around to the far side of the table, take off our school clothes, put them in our gym bags and then put on our practice gear and pads. Cold, hot, rain, there was no respite from the elements except the metal roofs over the concrete picnic tables.

We were just kids and that is all we had, so we did what we were told and got ready for practice.

There were no facilities whatsoever, save the small smelly cinderblock bathrooms near the river and certainly no training room.

After practice, you unhooked your chin strap, took off your helmet and shoulder pads and walked up to the window where Danny Anderson sold those little juice box lemonades. They were 15 cents and darn well worth every penny.

There were two teams. I was on the younger sixth grade team in 1966, and the older guys were on the combined seventh and eighth grade roster.

As I recall, we had no set league to play in or definite game schedule. We played whatever team the coaches could line up a game with. Some teams were close to our size and talent. Others were on both ends of the spectrum. We never knew what we were going to be up against until we took the field. Some teams we played often, some we only played once, never to be seen again.

Most games took place mostly during the week, not really sure why, but they did. We would charter a Wilkes Transportation coach, usually paying somewhere around $2 each for the ride.  We got on the bus without even a clue where we were going, we rode out of town in search of a game. From Drexel, to Lenoir, Elkin, Yadkinville, to Lansing, we played them all. One time we went as far as Thomasville and it was an astronomical $5 a head, for the bus.

Hal Church, my dad, Vernon Church, and some other fathers pitched in and took care of the transportation fee, otherwise some could not have gone. The most memorable team we played — to me anyway —  was the N.C. School for the Deaf in Morganton.

We were mere children, literally playing against grown men. Most were much bigger and rougher than us. Lots of the players had facial hair and mustaches and some even had full beards.

Let me tell you, it is intimidating to be 13 years old, playing against stoic opponents that are older, stronger and larger than you.

We got our socks knocked off by grown men on a football field that was, except for the some grunts, silent on the other side of the scrimmage line. Because they couldn’t hear the referee’s whistles, you often got your clock cleaned after the play was blown dead. No flags were thrown or penalties assessed for late hits. You’ll never convince me they didn’t use this to their advantage sometimes.

Our volunteer coaches for the sixth grade team may or may not have played football, or even previously coached for that matter. They were just willing and able to show up at 3:30 p.m., at Smoot Park and blow the whistle for the seemingly endless wind sprints.

As I recall, one of our less seasoned coach’s credentials was that he owned a drive-in across the street and would feed the team hot dogs ever so often. Good enough reason for us to call him.

Another of our coaches was a man’s man of the 1960’s. I can still see his work shirt sleeves rolled up high on his biceps, hairy chest and the big cigar clinched between his teeth. At practice, one of the favorite drills was to form two single lines facing each other. There was no regard given to size or ability. You were opposite who ever came up in the front position of the opposing line

They would toss the ball to a player at the front one of the lines and scream, “Lower your head.” We would do just that, and run full tilt into each other with our heads leading the way, much like rams head butting each other.

Remember this was 1966 and we couldn’t even spell concussion.

During our first real game, we got trounced 41-6 against Drexel, and we were not allowed to even speak on the long trip back home on the bus. Later that season I scored my first touchdown on October 6th1966 against an Elkin team. My mom even got a charm bracelet engraved with that date and wore it proudly around town and to her Friday hair appointments.

Funny I can’t even remember lunch yesterday, but those things stay forever seared into my gray matter.

The next year, I got to move up to the seventh and eighth grade team. Instead of spending that summer at the Y swimming, as I had all the previous summers, I was at the new slot car track on 9th Street almost every day. I lolled about the air conditioned track and around lunch time I’d be eating and reading comic books at Horton’s Drug Store. When the first whistle blew at the park that fall, I found myself woefully pale and soft. I had a really average season and I remember little about it, but learned a valuable life lesson.

By the fall of 1968, the winds of change were blowing in the football world of Wilkes County and it threw some serious curves at a few of us. Civic clubs in the county were now sponsoring combined elementary school football teams. Wilkesboro Elementary, where I went to school, was championed by the Rotary Club. Ralph Steele and Harry Galifianakis were some of the coaches as I recall. This left myself, Art Groce, Mike Harris and a few other Wilkesboro guys as the odd men out. It was kind of like a dual citizenship.

A compromise was evidently made between the ruling powers. We could continue to play for Buster Bush’s North Wilkesboro Recreation, but not against any of the in county teams. We could continue to hop on the bus and play out of town and wear our jerseys on the sidelines at county games.

As far as I remember, no noses got bent out of shape and it really worked pretty well. I now reflect back with admiration on those wise compromises with the kids’ best interests at heart.

That year was also the first and only year that we finally beat the N.C. School for the Deaf. Big Joe Johnson romped up and down the sidelines with some huge runs and we were able to somehow match their physicality for that one game. I wouldn’t trade those surreal game experiences against the N.C. School for the Deaf for anything now.

At the end of the year, we had our little banquet at the Optimist Club House located at North Wilkesboro’s Optimist Park. The park seems so incredibly small today. The building itself is a church now and I think still holds services. I treasure a picture made that night with my mom as I was awarded Best Defensive Player of the 1968 Eaglets and given a trophy by the coaches. I had on a coat and one of those little skinny black ties. My mom was dressed like she was going to town, and my dad snapped the Polaroid in front of the fireplace hearth. It was so incredibly 1960`s I must say.

I took a lot of life lessons away with me from playing football at Smoot Park.

We didn’t have a lot, but we made do with we had. The experience made all of us better young men and better equipped us for the future on and off the field.

I still share quite a bond with those that I played with in those much simpler times. It was Smoot Park football in the 60’s…..We lowered our heads, got on the bus and, and honest to God, dressed at the picnic shelters. 

 Note: Sonny Church is a lifelong resident of Wilkesboro. He owns and operates Brushy Mountain Water & Coffee Company.

[somecynicalanimator]

Module - Animation Context

I’ve written up a large portion of my essay, although I haven’t had my essay critiqued yet either. I plan on reverse engineering the layout and sourcing/figuring system used in the essay Animation Best Practice (2016) in order to apply it to my essay.

Diving into Disney’s Soup of Potential Corruption

Cameron Davison

The University of Salford, UK

 Point 1

The Walt Disney Company’s recent acquisition of 21st Century Fox, or 20th Century Fox, one of the oldest major film studios still alive today, marks a significant time in the film industry. For the first time since the decay of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1980’s (Scott Mendelson, 2019) a major film studio/company has ceased to exist as an individual entity, being consumed by one of the largest behemoths of a company in the film industry, The Walt Disney Company (Todd VanDerWerff, 2019). The Walt Disney is one of the largest film companies in the industry, holding many of the most iconic franchises under the belt, including Star Wars, Marvel and its most famous comic book characters, and now Fox entities such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, not to mention a plethora of Fox owned movie franchises such as Avatar. With the acquisition of 20th Century Fox, the Disney company stands as one of the largest companies within the entertainment industry, a monolith comprising of numerous large companies and franchises amalgamated together, towering over its competitors. Both companies involved in this merger have long and storied histories. Disney has made countless successful and iconic films throughout the past century, having evolved from being a small animation studio run by one man, Walt Disney himself, into a media empire. The company today now owns a significant number of companies and properties, having acquired many other entertainment companies through its long history including Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, on top of numerous TV channels and theme parks (Mendelson, 2019). The Walt Disney company accounted for 26 percent of the box office revenue in 2018 (Peter Bart, 2019), with movies such as Avengers Infinity War and Incredibles 2. Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox is one of the longest surviving film studios from the golden age of Hollywood, having emerged around either 1915 or 1935, the studio’s beginnings being a bit cloudy. The company has been a prominent film studio throughout the intervening years between then and now, having produced iconic and well-known films throughout the past century: Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) to name just a few recent successes, not to mention TV networks. In the past year, aside from Deadpool 2 and Bohemian Rhapsody, 20th Century Fox didn’t have the best box office run in 2018 (McClintock & Bond, 2019). The company has traded hands amongst many interesting characters, from oil tycoons like Marvin Davis to Rupert Murdoch, a primarily a news mogul (Bart, 2019). Both of these companies are important and long-standing fixtures of the film and entertainment industries, having endured throughout the decades. Both of them are largely successful and continue to make movies that are very successful around the globe, which to many makes this merger all the more intriguing, given that the merger involves one very large company absorbing another one into its collective mass. A large portion of movie goers, film critics, and industry people alike are concerned for the ramifications of this merger.

 Point 2

The merger was first confirmed in December of last year (Dana Feldman, 2019), and since then there has been a lot of discussion surrounding the potential layoffs from Fox’s end of the merger, with upwards of 4,000 layoffs being expected after the transition, so that the Disney Company can save $2 billion in cost savings (Georg Szalai, 2019). Many executive producers and lower level employees are likely to loss their jobs, with Fox’s studio lot reported having become a lot quieter in the lead up to the merger, with the chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox Stacey Snider being expected to step down from her position after the deal is finalised (McClintock & Bond, 2019). Out of Fox’s 22,000 employees across the globe, approximately 7,000 of them are expected to soon be joining Disney’s 201,000 employees (McClintock & Bond, 2019) and factoring layoffs on Disney’s end, the total number of casualties expected to result from this merger are 10,000 employees being laid off (VanDerWerff, 2019). What's interesting to note in this merger is not only are the employees at Fox are at risk of losing their jobs, but executives, highly paid and valued employees, are also at risk, with one marketing executive having “sent his most cherished belongings to storage that day just in case he was forced to exit abruptly” (McClintock & Bond, 2019). Following the initial announcement of the merger, originally being priced at 52.4 billion dollars, came a bidding war between the Walt Disney Company and Comcast, owners of Nickelodeon and NBCUniversal, which began when Comcast gave a counter offer of 65 billion dollars (Cynthia Littleton, 2018). By the end of this bidding war, Walt Disney won out with a 71.3 billion dollar deal, in which not only would Disney gain 20th Century Fox, FX networks, National Geographic Partners, dozens of international channels and a majority stake in the online streaming service Hulu, if would also gain control of one of the broadband companies in the U.K., and Europe, Sky, with Fox not only already owning a 40 percent stake in the company, but had also been working towards gaining the remaining 60 percent at the time Disney first announced the merger (Littleton, 2018).

I took the time to find more sources for my essay, after being given a number of things I should improve. The main points can all be summed up together as “How does this relate to animation specifically, and what first-years can apply, or at least gain valuable knowledge from?”.

Rusty Gray (Early 2015), How Small Studios can be your BIG break, Skwigly

This article, part one of a series of articles, was written by Rusty Gray, the title of the article being How Small Studios can be your BIG break (2015). The article is about an animator discussing his early experiences in his career, how he wanted to be an animator at a massive company such as Pixar, but ultimately found working for a smaller studio more enriching. The article is based upon the personal experiences of the writer, as well as quotes from larger figures in industry. The article was published in early 2015, and despite its age it is relevant as it covers animation and the career path of an animator, and specifically it tackles the notion of having to work for large company like Disney and Pixar in order to be a “success”. The article is based upon the personal experiences of the writer, in tandem with quotes from prominent figures in industry. The article was published by Skwigly Online Animation Magazine.

Jim Sterling (2019), EA and Activision CEOs Among The Most Overpaid in America, YouTube

This video, published by Jim Sterling, is titled EA and Activision CEOs Among The Most Overpaid In America. This video, while mostly covering recent news in the video game industry, makes an interesting point about mistreatment of workers in creative- and general- industries, making a point about the threats of lay-offs potentially hindering creativity and work ethic. An excellent example of this is brought up, when the game company Nintendo was struggling financially a few years ago, its CEO Satoru Iwata took a 50% pay-cut to his salary. The video bases its information on news articles and largely speculation, the point of the video being to state an opinion based upon recent news and information. The video is current, being released on the 26th of February this year. The video is relevant as it covers aspects of business and its effect on the creative industries, while basing its information on articles. The purpose of the video is to interpret information and convey the creator’s opinions on business practices in the creative industries.

Paul Bond & Georg Szalai (12th December 2017), Fox-Disney: Now Get Ready for the Power Struggle, The Hollywood Reporter

This is an article written by Paul Bond & Georg Szalai, titled Fox-Disney: Now Get Ready for the Power Struggle. The article discusses the early stages of the merger, revealing what was happening and why, along with how much Disney was taking versus how much Disney was leaving behind. The article is based upon official information and speculation from industry insiders, mainly information released to the press from the companies involved. The article was published on 12th December 2017.m It’s still relevant, however, as it covers the topic of the merger. It was published in the Hollywood Reporter, its main purpose being to inform, although there is also a lot of opinion espoused by the article.

[blackgoddessofsassiness]

DC Universe Streaming

Need to purchase X-Men t-shirts on-line? Whether you could have a love for The Avengers, Incredible Four, Thor, or X-Men there are a lot or t-shirts and different merchandise to personal. My childhood included a love for 60s and 70s Marvel and DC comics, and my means to draw originates partly from studying the stories I learn in these days. We worked for a yr collectively on the piece to plan and draw it. Toy companies like Hasbro and Kenner used to provide 1000's of Batman motion figure than is launched every year with some variation in it. Transformers 2, the science-fiction movie is the newest sensation, and is essentially the most awaited film of the 12 months. Let's take the movie Avatar for instance. Once in a while I went back to the sport to take a couple of more screenshots to extend a plot. Inside a couple of minutes, I began making comic strips. Not like his other comic strips, in Battling Boy, the hero is a child, who is on a mission to avoid wasting the town.

The truth is, the opposite series of battling boy became common. To conclude on this matter, I think it's a terrific thought to present our youngsters the humorous comics created method-again-when, comics from your and my childhood. To learn a story in adventurous manner is quite exciting for all the kids. You have got to overcome the restrictions of speech bubbles and the issue of telling a story body by body. Admit it you've! I’m sure you will have heard this common online retailer. Since Kids's Graphic Novels are actually just an outdated idea with a fancy new name, why shouldn't you discover taking previous successful comicbook ideas and reinventing them for a new generation? The thought was to convey the same meaning with phrases that I prompt by means of colors, textures and images. Popular Online Comics solidify a meaning of a phrase because pictures assist that means to phrases. The nomination was a major achievement for an artist who had - fairly literally -started out small, drawing Put up-it notice sized comics and hiding them in different people’s work in bookshops. The primary comic strips appeared in Germany in 1865. It was about two boys who are getting punished for always getting into mischief.

Moreover, if we are honest with ourselves, we all know that a whole lot of mischief is downright funny. Why are old coins value more than right now's coins? Complete collections will fetch so much greater than random particular person comics. Our purpose is to offer our readers a good piece of entertaining and academic comics on which is able to grow up not considered one of the future generations. These blockbuster motion pictures performs a vital role within the comeback of comics. People who wish to cherish their childhood reminiscences with the comics; they can easily discover low cost comics to start their comic assortment. In at the present time of "I want the most recent and latest," we actually discover that some of the true treasures are issues of outdated. Comic books are detailed stories. Apart from conventions, yard sales and used e book shops can also be extremely cost efficient sources for collectible comic books. A comic e book adaption in addition to a novel publication is being completed for the movie's promotion. That assumption is unsuitable and is an insult to your entire comedian book group.

These comic guides give you the sort of data you want like where to get the uncommon and precious comics and the place you may get first problem comics as properly because the back challenge ones as effectively. By selling and buying and selling comics you might be there have been the artwork work is most enjoyed and valued. Apart from, that is the place you get the meet fellow lovers and catch up on the most recent within the comedian books world; data that can prove invaluable. Some comedian books editions are collector's gadgets and if preserved in mint high quality condition. Books are restricted as a result of the reader cannot physically see what the writer envisions. Are these behaviors to be condoned? Eyes change into circles or dots, mouths are reduced to curved traces, and noses or ft are triangles. Get the most recent news. Those that already evaluate vast skills of our web site, confess that it is absolutely the most handy and easy option to be in contact with the newest improvements of the world of comics.

Nicely aware of the advantages that come from reading comics. Which Marvel comics must you read earlier than (or after) Captain Marvel? Repetition. Return to your day by day newspaper and glance on the comics’ page. The cartoonist is utilizing repetition to identify the character. Subsequently, we could say that it has nothing to do with a altering traits, whatever is new and trendy, photo to pop artwork print stays in the midst of its known usability in subject of art. I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! There actually is something for everyone. Cosplay additionally means costume play and the fans often come to the comedian conventions dressed in costumes. Eight delectable Expansions that followed added to the joy of the sport play. Then by all means, use it. By way of the use of these exaggerations, it doesn’t matter what different details I include. The possessed doll first hit the screens within the 1988 horror traditional 'Child's Play'. Corey Haim, the lead of the unique horror film, and Corey Feldman, the 2 Coreys, reprise their unique roles. However, in 2003 Hasbro would relinquish management to Batman's rights to Mattel. You additionally get preferential therapy in some cases and entry to particular occasions and performances.

Read Comics Online - An Offshoot for Valuable Entertainment Alcohol can find its way into the hands of characters in fiction. It's often used as being a device to demonstrate each time a character is an anti-hero or perhaps a villain, along with your more pure characters abstaining from something could alter their mental state, or not bothering given it has no relation to them. Some characters, however, use a history with alcohol that is certainly less about setting them up as bad boys for example Wolverine, but a little more about establishing them as human with very real flaws.

There is little the Hulk cannot accomplish together with his strength, which only grows stronger along with his anger, which I think is a direct reflection with the negativity that resides in a lot of people. "The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets!" To quote the smoothness himself. When Bruce Banner 'Hulks out', he or she is nigh DC Universe Premier invincible: rapidly healing from otherwise fatal wounds, able to run for miles without losing breath or momentum, and in a position to fell a building along with his bare hands.

The second option you will have to consider can be used bookstores. Used bookstores that exchange literary wares will invariably possess a long stack of comics that can vary from modern age to silver age and beyond. Sometimes you will see a good bookstore employee which will explain to you where they keep their vintage copies of golden age options and will sell these to you an inexpensive price. Without apology, I admit that I am the consummate collector of Batman paraphernalia. Recently, the astonishing work, The Batman Files, found its way into playing. Anyone who appreciates the mystique of The Dark Knight will cherish this book. And while I admit that readers often say of proper books, "I could not put it down," that has been truly my experience. I poured on the design and relished the high quality illustrations for a few hours after opening it. Asterix Comics or The Adventures of Asterix and Obelix happen to be translated into greater than 30 languages worldwide and have also received numerous awards across the years. I personally love the Asterix Comics for his or her amazing love of life and tongue-in-cheek interpretations of assorted people and events.

[superherostudentproject-blog]

Understanding Superheroes; Abilities, Weaponry, and Beyond.

          Superheroes and comic book characters alike have appealed to a wide range of audience members throughout time, and will most likely continue to do so. Characters like Batman, Aqua Man, Cat Woman, Wonder Woman, or Supergirl all come from very distinct backgrounds, hold a vibrancy of unique abilities, and some even are literally out of this world. Quite possibly what distinguishes one superhero from the next, is how they defend themselves and fight for justice in the rage of fury. Thor has his hammer, Captain America has an indestructible shield, while Wonder Woman wears a complete battle armor ensemble. So how do these weapons and abilities tie into what makes a superhero, a superhero?

           The first printed superhero comic book with a distinct costume and superhuman abilities was Action Comics #1, released in 1938; staring Superman himself. It arguably was the faint beginning of major franchises like DC and Marvel, and still to this day is the most valuable comic book in existence. ( An estimated $3.2 million at its peak) Since then, audiences have seen these characters have deal with deep seeded personal issues, politics, social issues, even times of war and terror. The ideas behind creating Superman originated during the Great Depression, when people sought after a new world, one to give hope and bring optimism. Soon after came a darker, but still determined Batman, and eventually sidekicks like Robin or Toro. After Wonder Woman joined the game, writers chose to represent current political reflections of groups like the Axis Powers and the Allies by creating different universes. Not everyone within the general public supported the age of Superheroes however, as it defied authority, in addition to highlighting provocative romance and bloody violence. Some advocated for superheroes to work alongside the police and detectives, as a way to truly represent unity. By the mid 50’s and early 60’s, powerful clans like the Justice League and Fantastic Four introduced a newer, more specialized set of guardians like Iron Man, Aquaman, Captain America, Spiderman, and Black Widow.

          By the time we had reached the late 80’s and early 90’s, writers with audience members alike felt it crucial to expand on character development as it may relate to the reader. We learn that Iron Man was once an alcoholic, Spiderman may have been molested as a child, Hulk was viciously abused as a youngster, and Batman’s parents were murdered point blank in front of him. Eventually as we all know, the superhero franchises went on to make billion dollar films with A-list talent, in addition to selling out on everything from trading cards to board games, t-shirts, dolls, Halloween costumes, even auctioning for props used in the films.

          With the immense and almost overwhelming amount of characters being developed on such a consistent basis, how can we distinguish good from evil, a hoax hero from a warrior? How does weaponry, sexuality, or appearance play into a role?

          For the last several decades the demigoddess Wonder Woman has been the face of feminism, furthermore representing appreciation of culture, strength of character, and dignity. Not to mention, her armor tells a story of its own.  Her royal tiara not only represents a physical symbol of her royalty and heritage, but its jagged edges are used as a throwing weapon with a boomerang effect frequently. Her Lasso of Truth not only has a pretty cool glow to it, it still was designed as an apparatus for pulling truths from villains in times of crisis. Her magical sword doesn’t have as much of a strong history as the rest of the ensemble, except that if needed, the sword could take down Superman and allegedly break through the smallest of atoms. The Sandals of Hermes give her abilities to fly, increase in speed and in strength. Her entity is a direct reflect reflection of the type of warrior she is.

          A common factor in deciphering men and women in comic books, is seduction. Rogue from X Men for example, harnesses the ability to absorb power over her enemy by a simple touch. She gains exclusive access to an archive of thoughts, emotions, and memories, in addition to being able to strip ones abilities if touched long enough. While a hero like Storm who also makes an appearance in X Men, holds a direct line to mother nature herself. Storm controls the elements; wind, fire, earth, sea, and sky.  Scarlet Witch who too is connected to the franchise, has the ability to manipulate reality in a number of ways, most notably with a single stare.

          On the opposite side of this superhero spectrum, we find heroes like Superman, Spider-Man, and Iron Man. Juxtapose to feminine ideals of holding integrity and pride, even celebrating sisterhood, more male dominated heroes are seen as protectors or providers. Superman was meant to represent the American Way in his farm boy roots, he cuts down on the war on crime, and without him, the world would basically fall apart. Masculinity is the driving force behind each of these men. Notice that more often than not, the majority of male figures grapple more so with each other than against the enemy. Batman vs. Superman for example is initially built upon misunderstanding, but ultimately becomes territorial. In the DC world more male figures hold strengths through physicality’s and less through weaponry, as seen in a Marvel World. While Batman and Spider-Man may hold sophisticated gadgets as accessories, characters like Iron Man and Captain America strictly rely on their suits to give them power in battle.

          Going a bit more in depth, perhaps the initial attraction to Captain America was his unique relatability to the audiences of the time. In the midst of war, Steve Rogers decides to enroll in the army by doing his part to give back to our great nation. When turned away for his frail figure, he joins an experimental program designed to make him the next super-soldier. Though the experiments increased his overall muscle mass, his star spangled shield makes him stand out from the rest. His arsenal is comprised of everything from assault rifles, to pistols, firearms, and bombs. And why not? He is Captain America. He’s normal just like everyone else but with his impressive gadgets, anyone could be the next guardian of our galaxy.  Once again, reinforcing principles of masculinity and power through physical actions, less through spoken word and emotion.

          If there is only a single concept both male and female superheroes share, it is calling to fight for a better world despite their original circumstances. Superheroes resonate with their audiences in a much deeper capacity then we may fully be able to comprehend; they ultimately represent the people we one day hope to be. 

Written By: Ashley Burton

Sources:

May, Cindi. "The Problem with Female Superheroes." Scientific American.       SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, A DIVISION OF NATURE AMERICA, 18 June 2015. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.

Moore, Rose. "Wonder Woman's 12 Most Powerful Weapons." Screen Rant. Screen Rant, 11 Nov. 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Casalena, Emily. "15 Most Powerful Female Superheroes Of All Time." Screen Rant. Screen Rant, 21 Nov. 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2017.

Parrish, Robin, and Skywalker Says. "10 Awesome Superhero Weapons." Forever Geek. Splashpress Media, 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.Rosenberg, Robin. "The Psychology Behind Superhero Origin Stories." Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, 01 Feb. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

"Superheroes 101: A History." Review. Web log post. Hellblazer. Comic Vine, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

Contributor, George Marston Newsarama. "10 BEST FEMALE Superheroes Of All Time." NewsaRama. Purch, 01 Dec. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.

Newquist, Vadim. "Mindhut Ranks: The All Time Greatest Super Hero Weapons!" The Mindhut. SparkNotes, 12 Nov. 2014. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.

[theonyxpath]

Gag! Choke!

Yes, the They Came From Beyond the Grave! Kickstarter funded last week, and we’re all really thrilled that it will be over-printed to get copies in stores and that now it can start building some extra projects thanks to the generosity of our backers.

Thanks, folks!

With three weeks left to run, we figure that with good word of mouth we’ll be able to open up a good solid handful of monsters for the Monsters From the Crypt book we’re building with Stretch Goals, as well as more projects we haven’t yet revealed.

So, spreading the word if it looks cool to you is important – please do it if you get the chance!

But if support trickles in rather than gushes – that’s OK, too! What we want with our new games is enough support in terms of backers so that the Kickstarter lives up to its name. A little kick that gets the final book into stores and the hands of folks who will play it, or a great big kick into even more of both are both excellent outcomes. One is just more biggerer and means we’ve got a larger base group to start with.

Having had both in the forty-some KSs we’ve run, there are challenges to either situation. A lot of biggerer KSs, for us and for a lot of other TTRPG companies, wind up being logistically hard to handle because no one involved is truly ready for how problems multiply at 4,000+ backers.

But littler KSs can sometimes not make enough to cover the costs if printing or shipping suddenly goes up. We’ve been lucky in that we never had a KS that actually ran at a loss, but it has been close! So, challenges for both, like I said.

Finally, in talking about They Came From Beyond the Grave!, I just wanted to give you some first-hand thoughts about our game that was played at our Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Con a month-ish ago.

First, here’s the link to our Actual Play on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/qLEFXntIa3g

If you’re not into watching an hour-plus of a gang of gamers explore a creepy old house in the 1970s, or at least roleplay doing that as we sit in little windows, I’m told that the Onyx Pathcast on Friday, August 7th will contain an audio presentation of this gaming session.

I really was looking forward to playing this. It was my third game in three days, which is the most TTRPG playing in that amount of time that I’ve done for years. But, I went into it knowing I’d be playing a Professor, and one that had been a bit messed up by the secrets he had uncovered through his career. So, I figured he’d be a natural for shouting out lines and Quips, which would make diving into a new game much easier.

In fact, I’d just been in a game that weekend with Dixie, but I’d never had Matthew as a GM, and didn’t know Ian or B. Dave. Fortunately, once again the weird Professor role allowed me to do my thing while getting used to how they played their characters – and if you watch the Actual Play, you can see that Ian worked up to his character a bit, as he had a dark secret or two, while B. Dave went all-in from the start.

Which was a delight, and allowed Dixie and I to work out some banter and methodology for how our characters worked together: she was hip and driven, and I was weird. Our time partnered up even gave me a chance to come up with pseudo-scientific catch-phrases in addition to the Quips Matthew provided!

V5 Let the Streets Run Red art by Ken Meyer, Jr

Here’s Dixie, with some thoughts about the game:

“I love how it does camp along with actual horror, and the cinematics like costume change and dramatic meteorology make for amazing scene changes. I had so much fun watching B. Dave’s character and also getting lost in the red room and drenched in blood was a highlight.”

Speaking of costuming, I really think this game could be a fantastic opportunity to wear both 60s/70s and kinda Victorian clothes while playing. And the “costume change” cinematic card did come in handy for us after getting soaked in blood up to our waists, as Dixie and I used the card so that as we entered the room where the other characters waited, we were in two totally different, but non-blood soaked ensembles!

For myself, I did adopt one bit of costume: round tinted glasses. In the webcam, no one could easily see my eyes, which was really interesting and helped me keep a little mystery going along with the weird science stuff. In my mind, I was modeling myself on the dark glasses-wearing Quincy Harker from the old Tomb of Dracula comic by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. It must have worked too, because at one point Dixie wondered if the glasses were because I actually was a vampire or at least a ghoul.

Which was a great example of how just one bit of costuming or prop can create a whole different set of reactions while we’re playing.

System-wise, everything flowed really easily and intuitively and the added system elements like Quips and Cinematics made sense where they fit into the base Storypath System.

By the time we realized that we needed to head towards the episode’s denouement, it was obvious that the four of us could have played these characters locked in a broom closet and still have come up with tons of fun roleplay, so it was very smart of Matthew to move us towards the big reveal or we probably would still be playing and have only gotten through half the mansion (and plot).

And a satisfying ending it was, too. Everybody got to do their characterful things, and Matthew got to give us the big reveal (no, I’m not going to tell you. You gotta check it out!). Some fiery atmospherics, and we were out in the murder mansion’s driveway again, battered but maybe a tad wiser. Maybe. And with clues towards a larger menace to face in the future!

Here’s Matthew’s takeaway of the session:

“They Came From (in both its iterations) is always a joy to run, with players and audiences alike responding well to its combination of madcap laughs, hammy acting, and fun, gameplay and narrative altering mechanics. I really couldn’t have asked for a better group to show the game off at Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention, with Ian, Rich, and Dixie each adding their own creative flair to their characters, while B. Dave Walters stole the show with his smoooooth P.I., using the Raconteur Archetype.

One thing that stands out most to me from that session, is how differently it played to the session I ran for Red Moon Roleplaying (the third episode of which they’re uploading tomorrow!). Both games were great fun, but struck a different tone and style, and I think that speaks to the flexibility of the game and the characteristics the players brought to each game. Both are great fun and contain a lot of laughs, so please check them out!”

Nuff said! Please give it a look-see!

Titanomachy art by Felipe Gaona

What Did We Talk About At Today’s Meeting?

Thanks for asking!

For World of Darkness fans, it’s the return of the Dog Days of Summer Sale at IPR. From July 30th to August 31st, all Vampire 20th Anniversary deluxe books, screens, and dice are 50% off! And so are select Werewolf 20th and Wraith 20th deluxe books and screens! Exclusively at Indie Press Revolution!

In our ongoing efforts to try and connect gaming with helping out our communities during this tough period, a good number of the Twitch games running on our channel this week will donate proceeds to various charities including RAINN, the US’s largest anti-sexual violence organization; The Trevor Project, the national 24-hour, toll free confidential suicide hotline for LGBTQ youth; the Transgender Law Center, the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all people; and The Bail Project, a national nonprofit organization that provides free bail assistance and pretrial support to thousands of low-income people every year.

If you have a chance, you can enjoy watching some great gaming and elect to contribute to some worthwhile causes.

Yugman‘s art by Shen Fei

As a reminder, as I think I mentioned this last week, we’re doing our annual Gen Con “What’s Up With the Onyx Path?” panel virtually this year at Gen Con Online. Join Dixie, Eddy, Danielle Lauzon, maybe Matthew if the trans-Atlantic timing works out, and myself as we discuss just what we’re doin’ these days, dontcha know!

Finally, as I’ve gone on about pretty much since the pandemic started, we’re looking at more and more ways to enable folks to play our games virtually. This week we have a Virtual Table Top “encounter pack” going on sale at DTRPG that is usable for your VTT playing: Hunt for the Red Widow, a short encounter designed starting Talents in the Trinity Continuum Core setting.

It has the storyline written up, character tokens for the antagonists, maps, and some new powers, all the pieces needed to play through chasing down the Red Widow and her minions after their theft of a valuable artifact hidden by the Aeon Society. It’s designed to be easily fit into your virtual gaming, and just as easily into face-to-face gaming, too!

Give it a run through and let us know what you think! After all, we need to hear from you as to which of the many projects we’re getting out there work for you, so that we can create more ways to explore our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

The They Came From Beyond the Grave! Kickstarter funded last week, and as it finishes its first full week we have opened up (like a crypt!) the Screen and the first section of Monsters from the Crypt: a book containing More Monsters! Next up in Stretch Goals are the T-Shirt and even More Monsters!

Thanks to all of you who have pledged to enable this fantastic project and its Stretch Goals!

Here’s a specially-made special trailer by the brilliant Larry Blamire:

And keep your eyes open for:

Onyx Path Media!

This week: Scion Status Update Roundtable featuring the affable Neall Raemonn Price!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

With They Came from Beyond the Grave! haunting Kickstarter, let’s take a look at some of the media related to that game!

Over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath, Vorpal Tales are running their first campaign of They Came from Beyond the Grave! This follows their fantastic They Came from Beneath the Sea! campaign, and I really think you should check it out! Their YouTube channel has episode one right here: https://youtu.be/Q6na0WHTfjo

Meanwhile, over on YouTube, our friends at Red Moon Roleplaying have started their own They Came from Beyond the Grave! story, with their usual excellent editing, quality, and in this case, a lovely cast of players led by Director, Matthew Dawkins! Come join in and listen to the Cult of Abaddon at play: https://youtu.be/RDYzNbk7VkQ

Also on YouTube, Larry Blamire’s hilarious trailer for They Came from Beyond the Grave! has dropped and is there for your viewing pleasure. It’s a testament to the kinds of stories you can tell using this game: https://youtu.be/NP65PlAw7mI

And finally, also on YouTube, in case you missed it we have the actual play of They Came from Beyond the Grave! that Matthew ran for Rich Thomas, Ian Muller, Dixie Cochran, and B. Dave Walters. Dare you enter Karnstein Manor? https://youtu.be/qLEFXntIa3g

This week on Twitch, expect to see a whole heap of games, including a lot of games we’re running for charity!:

Scarred Lands – RAINN

RPG Chaos, with Danielle Lauzon – Transgender Law Center

Cavaliers of Mars, with Vorpal Tales – The Trevor Project

They Came from Beneath the Sea!, with Ravyn Evermore – The Trevor Project

V5, with Gehenna Gaming – RAINN

They Came from Beyond the Grave! – The Bail Project

They Came from Beneath the Sea!, with PolishedCryptid – The Trevor Project

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale

Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous

Exalted Essence, with Monica Speca – Transgender Law Center

Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds

Chronicles of Darkness – Tooth & Claw

Get watching for some fantastic insight into how to run these wonderful games and subscribe to us on Twitch, over at twitch.tv/theonyxpath

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Storytellers with Coffee: Technocracy Reloaded – https://youtu.be/hb44inqafmE

Changeling: The Lost – Littlebrook Reunion Episode 23 – https://youtu.be/-O-74ePyQC4

(Matthew’s favourite) Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds Episode 8 – https://youtu.be/PFBYHw5TqoM

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale – Session Zero – https://youtu.be/5u9haYcXHa8

Storytellers with Coffee – Changeling: The Lost and Other Games – https://youtu.be/K7STCgIi8RY

Storytellers with Coffee – The Games of Onyx Path – https://youtu.be/QxRRq-WQytg

Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

The ExaltCast continues with its superb breakdown of Exalted, hosted by Monica Speca and Exalted Writer Chazz Kellner. Check out their array of episodes (the show’s only just started!) over at http://www.exaltcast.com/

Our very own Chris Allen continues his chronicle of Werewolf: The Forsaken here and on Twitch: https://youtu.be/FyghldnRGPM

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

We’re told that the App Dev is currently creating an updated version for the latest devices, so keep an eye open for those!

Virtual TableTop!

This Weds, we are releasing a Virtual Tabletop encounter pack for the Trinity Continuum Core: Hunt for the Red Widow on DTRPG!

Hunt for the Red Widow is a short encounter designed starting Talents in the Trinity Continuum Core setting. When a renowned but mysterious thief known as The Red Widow steals an ancient artifact from the Æon Society’s vaults, it is up to the party to track her down and recover the device. She is heading to an old ruin said to unlock the artifact’s true power. Can the heroes reach her in time?

Inside you’ll find:

A short encounter for use with the Trinity Continuum Corebook

Two new antagonists: The Red Widow, and her minions, known simply as “Ghosts.” Virtual tabletop tokens are included to represent the antagonists

Two maps, ready to be uploaded into your virtual tabletop platform of choice

New Anomaly Powers.

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order

It’s the return of the DOG DAYS OF SUMMER SALE!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, part the fourth of Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad, a multi-part PDF for Scarred Lands will be adventuring on DTRPG!

This section of Yugman’s includes:

6 new Backgrounds detailing Devotional and Political societies

Two new subclasses

Nine new spells

New equipment and magic items

Plus, as mentioned above, also this Weds, we are releasing a Virtual Tabletop encounter pack for the Trinity Continuum Core: Hunt for the Red Widow on DTRPG!

Hunt for the Red Widow is a short encounter designed starting Talents in the Trinity Continuum Core setting. When a renowned but mysterious thief known as The Red Widow steals an ancient artifact from the Æon Society’s vaults, it is up to the party to track her down and recover the device. She is heading to an old ruin said to unlock the artifact’s true power. Can the heroes reach her in time?

Inside you’ll find:

A short encounter for use with the Trinity Continuum Corebook

Two new antagonists: The Red Widow, and her minions, known simply as “Ghosts.” Virtual tabletop tokens are included to represent the antagonists

Two maps, ready to be uploaded into your virtual tabletop platform of choice

New Anomaly Powers.

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

Keep an eye out for our games being run at the online version of GenCon at the end of the month, as well as our What’s Up With the Onyx Path? panel currently slated for 1pm, Thursday July 30th!

https://www.gencon.com/online/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Prometheus Unbound (was Psi Orders) (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

No Gods, No Masters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution Fiction Anthology (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Post-Approval Development

Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Indexing

Lunars: Fangs At The Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Tales of Aquatic Terror

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS)

Aberrant

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant – Sam doing fulls for this next. Contracting out all the rest.

Legendlore

Technocracy Reloaded

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

Scion: Dragon (KS) – Splats contracted.

Masks of the Mythos (KS) – KS art contracted, a couple of finals already in.

Scion: Demigod (KS) – KS art in progress.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS) – KS running.

TC: Adventure! (KS) – Cover is in.

Geist: One Foot In the Grave

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

TC Aeon Terra Firma

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – Almost wrapped up, still working on Loresheets.

Pugmire Adventure

Scion Titanomachy

Trinity Core Jumpstart

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart – PoD files updated.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Indexing.

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

At Press

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – PoD proof on the way.

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Shipping from printer to KS fulfiller, PoD proofs on the way.

Pirates of Pugmire – Shipping from printer to KS fulfiller.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Files at press.

Dark Eras 2 – Files at press.

Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet – Files at press.

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition Dark Eras Compilation – PoD proof on the way.

Contagion Chronicle – Press prep.

Contagion Chronicle Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Lunars Wall Scroll Map – Files at press.

Lunars Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Scarred Lands Creature Collection – Printing.

Scion Companion – PoD proofs ordered.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Today marks 80 years since the first named appearance of Bugs Bunny on screen. A Wild Hare in 1940 was his first appearance as Bugs. He did appear earlier as a Bugs-like rabbit in Porky’s Hare Hunt, but he was unnamed in the episode. Guess they liked the reaction to his character enough to give him a name. For several generations that grew up with the cartoons, especially run in blocks on TV, Bugs was an anarchic, rebellious, and sarcastic role model – very often the first that young minds were exposed to.

You can tell because even to this day we quote certain lines, like my old WW buddy Ken Cliffe who often replied to questions about whether the text for game books would hit deadlines with “Could be, rabbit. Could be.”

[beanburrito1015]

Are required classes more important that Fine Arts?

A while back in my junior year English class, my teacher asked the question along the lines of, “Are Fine Arts just as important as subjects like Math, English, and Science?” Now, I come from a very conservative town, so most of my classmates had very traditional views, resulting in the majority of them answering no, Fine Arts are not as important as the other subjects. But alas, we never got the opportunity to have that debate in class, but I was ready. That question has been pestering my mind since that day. Growing up, my parents would always tell me to get good grades in Math, English, and Science, because “those were the ones that mattered”. I never thought much about it until hearing that question. Why was it that my grade in Pre-Algebra mattered more than my grade in Theatre? Why have we been taught this from such an early age? 

It boils down to the futures of the youth and the practicality of their future careers. Compare the amount of times you have heard parents or school counselors encouraging kids to become doctors or lawyers or engineers to the amount of times you have heard parents wanting their kids to be actors or artists or musicians. The difference is drastic, and understandably so. In most cases, the adults in a kid’s life want what is best for them. Being a doctor is a very practical job, usually coming with a steady income and benefits. There is a sense of stability that comes with having a practical job, something that everyone wants. But what if I told you that the jobs that adults don’t want the kids to get are just as important, if not more important as the others? What if I told you that fine arts are a defining part of every culture? 

There are considered to be seven different fine arts, those being architecture, sculpture, painting, literature, dance, music, and since the twentieth century, film/cinema. Those might vary a little bit between who you talk to and where you are from, but those are the main seven. 

Architecture

Every single building you have ever been in, of any sort, was made possible by the architect(s) who designed it. You would not have a house, a physical school, an office building, or anything in between if it weren’t for the art we call architecture. These things are necessary for everyday life, whether we realize it or not, and society as we know it would collapse without them. 

Sculpture

This one might not seem as important as the others, but think again. It could one hundred percent be argued that pottery is a form of sculpture. According to the Ancient History Encyclopedia, “pottery is one of the most common types of items found by archaeologists during excavations, and it has the potential of providing valuable information about the human past”. Had it not been for ancient peoples inventing and creating different forms of ceramics and pottery, we would know a lot less about them, and we wouldn’t have the basic eating and drinking utensils that we have today. Furthermore, think of the most iconic sculptures in history. David, by Michelangelo. The Statue of Liberty. The Great Sphinx of Giza. Although these aren’t essential parts of human history, what they symbolize are important parts of our cultures. 

Painting

Painting, along with sculpture, are huge parts of culture and history, most notably, The Renaissance. Renaissance is defined as “the revival of art and literature under the influence of classic models in the 14th-16th centuries”. Think of paintings like The Last Supper, or The Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Each of those are important to many Christian religions today, and are iconic pieces of work that basically define Christianity as a whole. I would argue that religion as a whole would be very different if it weren’t for the artwork created many years ago. Or think of the cave paintings left behind from thousands and thousands of years ago, giving us a glimpse of what life was like back then. Painting also paved the way for other forms of artwork to take place, such as animation and graphic design, things that we use/consume every day. 

Literature

If literature wasn’t taught in schools, everyone would be… you guessed it: illiterate. Literature and language go hand in hand. If it weren’t for literature, it would be extremely hard to learn how to use language. And vice-versa. If it weren’t for language, literature would cease to exist. Every single book about anything you have ever read, whether it be business, self improvement, history, textbooks, or even fiction stories would not even be possible without literature. The Bible, Quran, Torah, and any other sacred religious text, which are the texts that a lot of people base their morals off of, wouldn’t be here, resulting in nobody knowing what each religion is about, causing religion itself to crumble. Most forms of news are written down, on a newspaper or online, and without that we wouldn’t know about the world around us. Sure we have live news networks on TV, but more on that later. So yes, literature is important. 

Dance

Dance has been a way to express emotions for thousands of years. Swing dancing, slow dancing, or even mosh pits are ways to connect with other people, and have been for quite a while. Without dancing we wouldn’t have things like Homecoming and Prom, which can be big parts of the adolescent experience. Dancing is a great way to socialize with others and convey emotions without even having to say a word. Furthermore, dancing is a great cardio workout, which is great for your physical health.  

Music

What do you think about when someone mentions the 60s? The 70s? The 80s? You might think of the crazy hair styles, the politics, the hippies, and the ridiculous fashion (which is definitely making a comeback), but something that never goes without saying is the music of those decades. The rise of pop, disco, alternative rock. The Beatles, Bee Gees, Journey. Bob Dylan, Elton John, Michael Jackson. In fact, you could talk about any decade from the last century, and the music of that time will always be a defining part of that discussion. Even centuries ago, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Chopin were superstars! Music has always been something that humans have loved and enjoyed, and it always will be. It is something that people can identify with. People can find a community of others with similar music taste, they can feel welcome and accepted because there are others like them. People feel pride when they hear their national anthem. Musicians write songs about politics, social issues, historic events. “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel is a great example of this. After 9/11, Alan Jackson wrote a hit country song called “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” about the tragic events that happened that day, and tells us that the greatest thing we have is love. On the opposite end we have “Weird Al” Yankovic, who makes ironic parodies of existing songs. Music has always been a way for people to express themselves and their ideologies, and to have fun. I have heard so many times that “this song/band saved my life”. Music is more than just instruments and sounds, it’s real, raw emotions, that covers every topic that a person could think of, and is a huge part of world culture. Without music we couldn’t connect with others nearly as well as we can with it. 

Film

Have you ever seen someone get offended when someone else hasn’t watched Star Wars? I have seen that way too many times, mostly because I am a person who hasn’t watched Star Wars. But why does it matter so much? I am beginning to sound like a broken record, but it is because of the cultural importance of that movie. Star Wars is a universally known movie series. If you haven’t seen it, you know what it is and a basic summary of what it is about. Along with music people can find friends through having a similar interest in movies, for example, Comic-Con. Movies basically run every single marketing campaign ever. Whenever there is a new Disney Pixar movie coming out, you’ll see fruit snacks shaped as the characters, and McDonald’s happy meal toys based after the movie. You will constantly see posters and commercials advertising for the movie. Film, like music, lets the writer or director express their emotions and ideas to others. Film is just like literature, just easier to understand. It can teach and educate us, make us feel emotions, and blow our minds. Get a job in the film industry, and you are set. Another part of the film section of fine arts is TV broadcasting. TV can bring us the news, sports, and lots of other forms of entertainment, all of which are important to humans. 

Either the kids in my junior year English class didn’t know what fine arts even were, or they didn’t know what the hell they were talking about, or both. Sure, the other subjects are very important, and help us further innovate technology and the world around us. Sure, having a career in STEM will be a great career, but you could make a career out of any of the fine arts above just as easily. Remove any one of the fine arts from society, and the world would be wildly different. Saying that the fine arts aren’t as important as Math, English, and Science is an ignorant and uneducated statement, and it shows that you know nothing about the world around you. 

[weekendwarriorblog]

BIRDS OF PREY REVIEW: ED’s Very Important Thoughts on That Superhero Movie with a RIDICULOUSLY LONG TITLE!

On paper, Warner Bros’ decision to make a Birds of Prey movie with Margot Robbie reprising Harley Quinn, a character she pulled off so beautifully in David Ayers’ otherwise problematic Suicide Squad movie, seems like a good enough idea. Robbie is more popular than ever thanks to her two 2019 movies, and the character has become a fan-favorite among younger women (and presumably some men) both from the comics and her new DC Universe cartoon.

But where do I even begin talking about a movie that so desperately wants to be Deadpool in every possible way but also wants to be taken as seriously as any of the Batman movies?

Granted, I’ve never been the biggest Harley Quinn fan. I loved her as introduced by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm in “Mad Love,” and I give a lot of credit to Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Connor for what they’ve done to make the character so hugely popular in comics form, but like Deadpool, I can take or leave her.

For those entirely unfamiliar with the character, Harley is introduced via a crazy animated origin story, but as the movie begins, Quinn’s in a funk having broken up with the Joker. This also  removes any protection she might have had from the criminal element she’s angered as “Joker’s girlfriend.” It’s a fairly frenetic way to open the movie, which might be expected if you’re even remotely familiar with Harley in the comics.  

The actual story begins with Harley pissing off club owner/gangster Roman Sionis aka Black Mask (played by Ewan McGregor) when she maims his driver for a rude remark made towards her. Eventually, the plot becomes more of a chase to retrieve a valuable diamond that’s been stolen and swallowed by Ella Jay Basco’s teen pick-pocket Casandra Cain. I cannot even begin to tell you how one leads to the other since my head was spinning trying to keep up with Harley. Part of this movie’s existence can be attributed to wanting to introduce more DC characters to moviegoers, and the new characters introduced are mostly decent inclusions. Even so, like Joker, there are only loose connections to any previous movie or the overall DC Universe mythology. The Joker is mentioned, as is “Bruce” (as in Wayne), after whom Harley names her pet hyena, but otherwise, there’s very little for those hoping for any cohesion between Birds of Prey and even Suicide Squad.

The Huntress, a long-time Batman family anti-hero who has a vendetta against the mob after the murder of her own crime family, is played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead (one of my favorite actors), but she spends much of the movie acting grumpy, something which eventually becomes a source for some humor. There’s also former child star Jurnee Smolett-Bell (from Eve’s Bayou andRoll Bounce!) playing Dinah Lance aka Black Canary, a blues singer at Black Mask’s club who becomes his driver but one disgusted by his psychotic behavior. It’s a different take on the character for sure but not one that immediately connected with me. In fact, the movie’s greatest casting achievement is getting the amazing Rosie Perez to play detective Renée Montoya, although there just isn’t enough of her in the movie.

Who even knows what Ewan McGregor is doing with his erratic and over-the-top scenery-chewing performance as Roman Sionis? Surely, blame can be put on the late Heath Ledger for his Oscar-winning performance in The Dark Knight that has made every actor think they can achieve something similar by acting deranged.

Otherwise, director Cathy Yan does as we as anyone can possibly expect working with such eccentric material, but the result is semi-safe movie that lacks any sort of distinct identity or personality, other than maybe the action scenes or the score by Daniel Pemberton when it’s not being interrupted by needle drops.

The lack of stylistic identity is most apparent in the movie’s depiction of Gotham, which rarely looks like anything other than downtown L.A. (Gotta love those wonderful new California tax credits!) We’ve seen so many different Gothams over the years, from the stylish Tim Burton take to Nolan’s real-world grounding by filming in cities like Chicago and Pittsburgh. Even Todd Phillips’ Joker made an effort to give Gotham its own distinct identity. As much as everyone keeps reminding us that Birds of Prey takes place in Gotham, only two locations actually feel like it: The Ace Chemicals plant that Harley blows up and that amusement park location at end. Everything else just bodes of lazy filmmaking with no clear vision.

As much as Harley stays in line with how she’s depicted in recent comics withRobbie narrating much of it with Harley’s trademark squeaky voice and accent, while changing outfits for every other scene, calling the movie “Birds of Prey” is quite the misnomer.  Despite the inclusion of Huntress and Black Canary, Birds of Prey has very little connection to that actual comic book entity, which was a group of crimefighters united by Barbara Gordon’s wheelchair-bound Oracle to do her legwork. For whatever reason, Gordon is nowhere to be found, instead replaced by Harley. (This is one of those cases where having a cameo by Gordon in an end credits scene might have actually saved the movie for me.)

Even if you like some of these other characters, they disappear for such large chunks of time after being introduced to instead focus on the relationship between Harley and Cassandra, probably the least interesting aspect of the movie… oh, and Black Mask. The way the other characters pop in and out makes Birds of Prey seem like it’s trying to be five different movies merged into one with each actor acting as if they’re in their very own completely distinct movie.

It’s not until the last 20 or 25 minutes of the movie before all these disparate pieces start fitting together. as Harley and the other women take on Black Mask (now actually wearing a mask) and his army of masked henchmen at an amusement park. This is where the John Wick stunt team earn their paycheck with impressive action pieces that almost make-up for how lame the movie had been up until that point. It makes it far too obvious how well Robbie’s Harley works as part of a team, but how aggravating she can be when given too much of the spotlight.

Maybe it can be expected since Robbie is the film’s first-credited producer, followed by former WB President of Distribution/Marketing Sue Kroll, who clearly knew how this relatively bland movie could be marketed to seem more fun and exciting than it actually is. Incidentally, this statement has nothing to do with the filmmakers being women – and it’s sad that we live in a society where I have to clarify this point. It just feels like the movie might have avoided some of the obvious pitfalls I’ve mentioned with more experienced filmmakers. (Or maybe not, going by how the first Suicide Squad movieturned out?)

It always feels like everyone involved with making Birds of Prey was trying their hardest, but using Deadpool (or any Batman movie, for that matter) as your benchmark is just setting you up for failure. Deadpool was as deliberately different from any previous Batman movie as it is from any other superhero movie. Birds of Prey’s weird mix of tone and styles in trying to blend the two puts it more in the vein of the Joel Schumacher Batman movies or even the ‘60s Batman series, without the campy nostalgia inherent in either. The fact that the movie rarely elicits a single laugh is how it diverges even further from the Deadpool movies, and it doesn’t help when you cast a truly funny comedian like Ali Wong in a dour and unfunny role that does nothing to serve any aspect of the story. I mean, what was even the point?

It’s genuinely puzzling how a movie that starts out from such a promising place can become so dull and unentertaining as it goes along. It’s a shame, since there’s so much great source material in the comics that seem to have been ignored in order to create something new and distinct, but ultimately forgettable. Birds of Prey is so schizophrenic in terms of look and style and tone, it won’t be changing Martin Scorsese’s mind about comic book movies any time soon.  

Rating: 5.5/10

[shingekiqts-blog]

Bird Watching is a recreation anyone can enjoy at anytime of the year

robber W. BenjaminBird Watching is a recreation anyone jar enjoy at anytime of the yearHobbies Articles | April 19, 2006Do you ever have a daylight when you have scratch to move ?, You know them times during your on the World Wide Web in some chat room, and you type ' I'm fatigued ! ', or your flipping completed the box channels, and you s... Do you ever have a sunshine when you have nullity to complete ?, You know them times albeit your on the cyberspace in a little chat room, and you type ' I'm tired ! ', or your flipping ended the station channels, and you claim to yourself or out loud ' 250 channels, and scratch good to watch ! ', yes, you appreciate what I am talking about. straightaway you have something you can do on them so christened boring days, go feathered creature watching.No thing where you live you probably have birds of some kind, even people in modern York have central estate and another places situation they package go game watching. efficient are trinity things you should have when feathered creature watching, the above-mentioned are a pair of binoculars, a watch tv series online free and a game guide. Binoculars can be purchased for under $60 at most Kmart or Walmart stores. Binoculars with a magnification of 10 x 50 are superb for feathered creature watching. injunction think that a other powerful team of binoculars like 20 x 60 or 30 x 80 are better, this is not the case. firm binoculars are fine if you are into major gazing, but they are horrible for bird watching. The above powered binoculars need a tripod to use them without shaking, and even without a tripod, the powerful binoculars are greater and jar be appropriate heavy to carry around, the 10 x 50 ones are perfect for every occasion.A small notebook or journal can be purchased at most stores, don't earn nothing valuable just a small circular one will do fine. Now the last point is the most relevant item when it appear to game watching. conceding that you are truly mobile to ticker birds, you should perceive what description of game you are looking at when you spot a new one, so appointment your neighborhood book plethora or stare in the birding sector of an online bookstore, such as amazon, at the top of this article I have a website ZIP code that has some of Amazons best bird guides, videos, binoculars and more.Ok, so you have your binoculars, diary and pencil, and your bird guide, now lots go farther and pep bird watching. I last sure you won't have to hike very long to shot a game or two. I prevail lucky enough to directly live attending in the country, all I have to accomplish is accessible my opening and I will pick up the accent of birds. If I step foreign my obverse door, I can much see parous or finches, in the spring past the garden always has a team robins caper around, and crows express around the nearby woods, high upper I much see blockhead buzzards lofty against the blue sky. One second I not closed my fore door and across the road in the leading of a large shrub a acute owl was sitting, it stayed there for backward 10 minutes, turning it's head regularly as it looked around.If you have any grassy, wooded or open operation with trees or bushes, you package usually bonanza birds. sole of the best baggage about feathered creature watching is anyone bottle do it, even if your in a wheelchair, you bottle sit and watch birds. It's a great pleasure for public that is alone, or for the whole family to do together. although you get-up-and-go out, recognize to cut your bird watching feature with you, your binoculars, notebook and pencil, and bird guide. When you spot a bird peek in your binoculars too see all it's artistry in adjacent detail, if you end not admit the sort of feathered creature your seeing, get out your game guide and look it up. although you understand the category of fowl you see, write descending in your notebook the following information; ' the name of the bird, the range where it was spotted, the date, and past '. comic information in your notebook, helps you understand what types of birds constant your area, it again is pleasant neet being able to read rearward and look when you spotted a new or rare bird. If you have a yard, timber or smooth a bay window you jar attract fowl by invest a simple feeder. Bird feeders are very cheap and they have laborer that jar hang on a sapling branch, or fence, or even cane to the outside of a window.Attracting different description of feathered creature often desire different description of fowl seed and other food. Hummingbirds are attracted to red, roseate and apricot flowers, they especially alike trumpet vines or more tubular-flowered plants, they are also actual attracted to hummingbird rancher filled with sugar saliva or cardinal sweetened kool-aid. Robins agnate mowed lawns, so in the flexibility and summer if you want to see robins, mow your grass, the birds hit looking for bugs and earthworms that are further easily attainable because you cut the grass length. Goldfinches appreciation thistle seed, thistle is more high then greater common game seed, but you cannot beat it if you want to attract goldfinches. Blue Jays are huge and sometimes noisy, but if you want to bring them, put out a laborer full of black grease sunflower seeds. Cardinals are very slick looking, there is zero nicer then looking out the bay in the winter, and seeing a bright rose cardinal sedentary on a nearby wood branch or feeder. shawl are alike Blue Jays, in that they both love a diet of black slick sunflower seeds. If you want to attract sparrows, a sack of open mixed fowl seed will do equitable fine. skilled is adding machine Software that is manufactured just for ' fowl Watching '. The software is called: ' feathered creature Watcher licensed ', you can see the details and load a preliminary version of it for free at this website address:http://www.rb59.com/bwproHere is a website address that has any of the best game Guides (Books), Videos, Binoculars and new birding furnishings that hussy sells:http://www.rb59.com/bwpro/bird-watching-information.htmlBy robber W. BenjaminCopyright 2006 You may distribute this commodity in your ezine, pamphlet or on your net site as long as it is reprinted in its gross and after modification barring for formatting needs or grammar corrections. Robert W. Benjamin get been in the groupware business on the ARPANET for over 5 years, and acquire been bringing forth low-cost operating system for the past 25+ years. He first liberated software on the AMIGA and C64 computer organization in the late 1970's-80's.RB59 Software http://www.rb59.com/software

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Bird Watching is a recreation anyone can enjoy at anytime of the year

rebut W. BenjaminBird Watching is a relaxation anyone package enjoy at anytime of the yearHobbies Articles | April 19, 2006Do you ever have a daylight when you have nihility to accomplish ?, You know them times meanwhile your on the World Wide Web in part of chat room, and you type ' I'm tired ! ', or your flipping completed the station channels, and you s... Do you ever have a bright when you have nihility to execute ?, You know them times although your on the WWW in a little chat room, and you type ' I'm tired ! ', or your flipping through the eye channels, and you respond to yourself or out loud ' 250 channels, and scratch good to watch ! ', yes, you recognize what I am ranting about. straightaway you have something you can end on them so called boring days, go fowl watching.No material where you live you probably have birds of some kind, even horde in different York have central lawn and other places situation they bucket go bird watching. There are trinity things you should have when game watching, the above-mentioned are a pair of binoculars, a notebook, and a fowl guide. Binoculars can be purchased for under $60 at highest Kmart or Walmart stores. Binoculars with a magnification of 10 x 50 are superb for fowl watching. refusal think that a further powerful pair of binoculars like 20 x 60 or 30 x 80 are better, this is not the case. vigorous binoculars are fine if you are into leading gazing, but they are horrible for bird watching. The greater powered binoculars need a tripod to use them without shaking, and alike without a tripod, the powerful binoculars are largest and can be bare heavy to carry around, the 10 x 50 ones are perfect for every occasion.A small notebook or diary can be purchased at most stores, don't earn nothing lavish just a small circular one will do fine. Now the last information is the most great item albeit it get to bird watching. granted that you are truly progressive to timepiece birds, you should perceive what type of game you are looking at when you spot a new one, so stopover your limited book stock or glimpse in the birding zone of an online bookstore, such as amazon, at the end of this article I have a website ZIP code that acquire some of Amazons best bird guides, videos, binoculars and more.Ok, so you have your binoculars, diary and pencil, and your bird guide, now lotus go out and pep bird watching. I breathe sure you won't have to tour very bit to shot a bird or two. I prevail lucky sufficient to right away live hither in the country, all I have to execute is accessible my opening and I will pick up the sounds of birds. If I step out my frontal door, I can repeatedly see spores or finches, in the spring time the courtyard always include a couple robins dance around, and crows flying around the nearby woods, high aerial I repeatedly see simple buzzards flying against the blue sky. One point I not closed my frontal door and across the road in the top of a large forest a stinging owl was sitting, it stayed there for backward 10 minutes, turning it's head much as it free streaming movies around.If you have any grassy, wooded or open operation with sapling or bushes, you bottle usually bonanza birds. specific of the best baggage about feathered creature watching is anyone bottle do it, even if your in a wheelchair, you bucket sit and watch birds. It's a great diversion for all that is alone, or for the whole clan to execute together. meanwhile you animation out, commemorate to take your feathered creature watching information with you, your binoculars, notebook and pencil, and bird guide. When you spot a bird look in your binoculars too see all it's beauty in warm detail, if you complete not perceive the sort of bird your seeing, get out your feathered creature guide and look it up. When you get the type of fowl you see, write descending in your notebook the following information; ' the name of the bird, the field where it was spotted, the date, and second '. comic information in your notebook, helps you understand what types of birds constant your area, it again is pretty neet being able to read rearward and see when you spotted a new or rare bird. If you have a yard, timber or smooth a bow you jar attract feathered creature by plant a transparent feeder. fowl feeders are very inexpensive and they have feeders that vessel hang on a sapling branch, or fence, or even cane to the outside of a window.Attracting different category of fowl often requires different breed of feathered creature seed and other food. Hummingbirds are attracted to red, roseate and titian flowers, they especially related trumpet vines or new tubular-flowered plants, they are also authentic attracted to hummingbird peasant filled with sugar H2O or red sweetened kool-aid. Robins related mowed lawns, so in the bound and summertime if you want to see robins, mow your grass, the birds materialize looking for bugs and earthworms that are new easily attainable because you cut the grass length. Goldfinches tenderness thistle seed, thistle is more valuable then better common feathered creature seed, but you cannot beat it if you want to attract goldfinches. Blue Jays are giant and sometimes noisy, but if you want to bring them, put out a grower full of black oil sunflower seeds. Cardinals are very precise looking, there is nihility nicer than looking out the fenestella in the winter, and seeing a bright glowing cardinal in situ on a nearby timber branch or feeder. Cardinals are cognate Blue Jays, in that they the two love a diet of black oil sunflower seeds. If you want to attract sparrows, a backpack of transparent mixed fowl seed will do decent fine. effective is Computer Software that is made just for ' Bird Watching '. The spreadsheet is called: ' fowl Watcher experienced ', you can read the specifics and program a preliminary version of it for free at this website address:http://www.rb59.com/bwproHere is a website address that has a few of the best game Guides (Books), Videos, Binoculars and new birding material that fury sells:http://www.rb59.com/bwpro/bird-watching-information.htmlBy robber W. BenjaminCopyright 2006 You may publish this article in your ezine, pamphlet or on your net site as long as it is reprinted in its fullness and outdoors modification saving for formatting needs or grammar corrections. Robert W. Benjamin acquire been in the groupware business on the World Wide Web for over 5 years, and acquire been fertile low-cost operating system for the past 25+ years. He first liberated software on the AMIGA and C64 computer systems in the late 1970's-80's.RB59 Software http://www.rb59.com/software

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Arts Martiaux Sports Extrascolaire Activités Sur La Côte D'Azur.

Joe Gold, the proprietor as well as programmer of Gold's Gym had visions way back in the 60's of having his very own health club and also in 1965 he built his dream fitness center, which came to be the Mecca Of Bodybuilding, we know it and we know it as Gold's Fitness center. All five young people enjoyed in terror as the building emerged in a large implosion, evidently taking their close friend Alpha Five and their advisor Zordon in addition to it. After the dirt worked out, the 5 teenagers break from their preliminary shock, as well as realize for the very first time that their days as Power Rangers more than - permanently. You could position up to 10 Pokémon in fitness centers at any kind of one-time, and while it deserves placing strong beasts therein, you might need to keep your greatest for assaulting various other gyms. You're not enabled to press your opponent into the dirt, also if you wish to (this seems particularly true for ladies, and may be one reason that gym classes are overwhelmingly without men). I sure really hope Zordon was right in picking me to be the advisor of the Terran Rangers. After years of inactivity, Carlos returned as the Black Space Ranger to help the Galaxy Rangers fight the Psycho Rangers. I haven't check out the secret yet I assume the power conveys the very same message that remained in the trick, from a different angle. To Billy went the Triceratops Power Coin, offering him the power of the Triceratops, and also control of the Triceratops Dinozord. Childhood excessive weight gets on the increase, as well as this is one reason fitness centers are ending up being so prominent. Sometimes, when the lightbulb needs replacing, you need to ride up and down in the dark, which is when my ideas return to that frightening haunted lift scene from The Eye. The function of the outside all-weather stair lift is to assist the impaired in accessing outside actions while stepping in and also out of their houses. Nonetheless, some sceptics have actually articulated issues over the security of utilizing workout devices without clothing on. Neil Newberry, assistant chief fire officer, will write to raise proprietors to inform them of the brand-new plan. The power hitter's best asset is their ability to create bat speed through the hitting area. A Power Rangers Alternaverse that discovers the bitter fruitage of abandonment, fraud, as well as betrayal. Alongside her, as well as all the various other Power Rangers for that issue, I feel so misplaced. Awaken Physical fitness, an Acrobatics Bodies affiliate, is located in Denver as well as is among the initial of its kind. I simply wanted my brow area raised and the deep grooves between my eyebrows to be removed. They are the fight fields of the Pokémon globe, but till your trainer reaches degree 5, you can not also enter a fitness center. The sidewalks and actions around the gears were when the fiefdom of a lift driver, who rushed about the control area, pulling bars to increase or reduce a bewildering selection of gateways. She was a solid lady who depended on her very own giving off an aura of power and intelligence. If you're tied into a year-long agreement (typical at lots of health clubs), you might be linking on your own in to around ₤ 1,000 worth of gym time, despite what does it cost? you use it. If there is a minimum notification duration, examine. The timing, particularly offered the success of Deadpool, is ideal for a sharp as well as spiky , irreverent comic-book film that uses its Japanese roots and provides Cranston (that actually articulated beasts Double Male and also Snizard in the initial collection) and also Banks the chance to eat furnishings like two starving goats caught overnight in a branch of Ikea. Raise bridges, turn systems and also move entire buildings all with the power of your mind. These difficulties to top-down power are coming alive once more today not only in times of governmental political elections (where they are frequently missed by the prospects) yet likewise in the numerous social motions of our age. You likewise have the choice to leave a Pokemon behind at your group's health club to aid in its protection. One troubling aspect of this publication is that, a number of times, Pfeffer cites study showing that race and also sex impact power in companies. I have actually gotten the sun icon from guide as a tattoo to represent the power of love. The worth and take advantage of the shoe comes largely from the security you receive (and really feel) as well as the effective application of power in your lifts. Focused solar power (CSP) technology, as it is recognized, is seen by several as a simpler, more affordable and a lot more efficient means to harness the sunlight's. power than other methods such as solar (PV) panels. Rito as well as Goldar infiltrated the Command Center as well as took the Crystal, right before the explosive gadget they had actually planted previously went off, leaving the Command Center in damages, as well as the Rangers without a head office. We're gon na really drive with our heels as well as we're gon na raise our hips as high as we can. Action on environment is long-overdue, as well as the Clean Power Plan is a crucial step to curb the carbon pollution that drives hazardous climate adjustment and intimidates our kids, our areas, and our world. Take some time to discover the advantages and disadvantages of every sort of Interlocking Rubber Floor tiles as well as the outcome would be a fantastic home fitness center flooring. But I additionally know that the procedure is more crucial compared to the goal I'm mosting likely to enjoy this set, but I'll be back in the health club on Monday. Health clubs have actually made a company out of taking apart old-time tasks, reconstructing them, injecting elegant packaging and also providing them to clients in a pretty workshop. As http://arbeitansichselbst.info/selfie-drone-7s-deutsch-review-drone-fuer-selfies/ who submitted their work to our close friends at prove, having the at home gym of your dreams isn't really simply convenient - it's really workable. The Total Fitness center 1000 actions 88 inches long by 16 1/8 inches broad by 44 inches high when deployed for use. It is this mindset that got him preferred to represent Angel Grove at the World Teen Summit, a peace meeting in Switzerland he participated in, leaving the Rangers with Trini Kwan and also Zack Taylor that left a void in the group which was after that filled by Rocky DeSantos. On a recent visit there were shelves of plastic tubs of supplements behind the counter and a notification on the door revealing that the fitness center was closed on Friday afternoons for Muslim prayers. A system lift is a machine that is powered to lug as well as increase power chairs and also the people who are utilising them. Much more suspicious is the assertion, on the leading lift sharing internet site,, that it is much more enjoyable. It deserves having a look at which Pokémon remain in the health club you want to attack before opting to enter into fight making sure you have the ideal kinds of Pokémon to be successful. L'entraînement par accélération sur les plates-formes Power Plate ® procure une foule d'avantages notables put atteindre, voire dépasser, les objectifs de condition physique. Lewis, resting on the ground, blood leaking down his face, reaching out for the last key to his power. So while energy power station gyms might not generate blinding light, their existence does leave a bit much more light at the end of the tunnel. Individuals that frequently flock to plastic surgery centers to have a mid lift are those in their 40s or 50s. What dispirits me inutterably is that children, that are inquisitive as well as fresh, will certainly go to this movie and also, for 88 mins, the motion picture will certainly do just what it can to weaken their creativities. When you battle in a gym you're never in fact combating an additional gamer: the safeguarding Pokémon are controlled by an AI, as are yours later, when they're resident in the gym and also defending. This is a listing of authors, ideas, and also publications mentioned in The Power of Fifty Bits, which may be valuable for future reading. The court activity was brought by the Office of Fair Trading versus Ashbourne Management Provider, which creates arrangements as well as gathers settlements from health clubs with a total of more than 500,000 members. Power Tattoo ® recommend une toute nouvelle façon de jouer et permet aux 7-12 ans de s' affronter n'importe où, n'importe quand.