#my culinary degree isn’t ALWAYS useless

[heycarrots]

There’s been a lot of discourse about the nature of James and Miranda’s relationship. There’s even been a lot of discussion on my podcast about it. One thing I want to make clear is that my podcast is a platform for discussion on all points of view. I’m not going to agree, 100%, with everything that’s said, but it makes the views of my guests no less valid. There’s no right or wrong, here, because this is art and therefore, it is subject to interpretation.

My intent, however, is to attempt to get as close to the original intent of the actors as possible because we look at a show or a film or a play as going through several layers of distillation. Each level purifies the intended narrative leaving its truest essence.

When we make a reduction sauce using an alcohol of some kind, let’s say a red wine, the heat applied to it burns off things we don’t need for flavor. You’re never going to get drunk off of red wine reduction because there’s almost no alcohol left in it. That all gets burned off, leaving only the flavor components, which is what we wanted all along, anyway. We want that extra element that enriches the flavor of the steak, by adding nuance.

So let’s take apart that meal.

We start with the birth of the idea. The story kicks around in an author’s head, trying to get out, growing bigger and more persistent until it outgrows the confines of the mental box inspiration is stored in and has to be let out. That idea, that’s the cow.

The author raises that idea, feeds it, watches it grow, and then, ultimately slaughters it. That sounds awful, but once you have that idea pulsing, growing, evolving and then finally commit the final draft on paper, it is a kind of death. The life of the story comes to an end and it becomes memorialized in a mausoleum. Readers will come to visit, spend time with it, lay down flowers, cherish it, and mourn its passing.

The next level is adaptation. That’s the steak. There are many ways you can slice the story, large roasts encompassing the whole story or a smaller, hyper-focused character study fillet mignon.

A writers room gets hold of the cow and carves it up. They choose what gets cooked and what gets tossed. A GREAT group of writers saves the bones. They take in the entire supporting structure of the piece and while the whole story may not make it onto the screen, they will have slow roasted the bones for a stock. When you watch a show like Black Sails, where themes are introduced that won’t fully be explained or explored until several seasons later, that’s what that is. It is the stock being used to flavor the whole dish. You’ve distilled the entire cow to its purest essence and so every scene, every line of dialogue, every acting choice, encompasses the entirety of the story. A line from episode one is defined by knowledge of the finale and in regard to dialogue, defined by an actors’ knowledge of a character’s backstory. There are many writers rooms who are creating the bones of the story as they go, which means they aren’t starting with a rich stock. You can’t trace back character motivations or choices to begin with because those motivations changed throughout production.

Black Sails, again, isn’t one of those shows. Steinberg and Levine came into the writers room with their stock pot full and sloshing, spilling story everywhere. The richness of the details they were laying can make season one a bit hard to consume unless you are ready for a story on that level. Viewers need to come to the table with some bread to sop up all those character details because we WILL need them later.

Over the course of finalizing scripts and blocking out episodes, the steak is cooked. Like any great steak, this story is medium rare. More juice comes out with every bite. It’s what makes the show infinitely rewatchable. It continues to cook on the plate, but because it wasn’t overdone, it never dries out.

When the actors get ahold of it, that’s the reduction sauce we were talking about. That sauce provides nuance and flavor. That’s the emotion. A line of dialogue on a page is just ink. It’s nothing until it’s spoken aloud. And like any bit of language in this world, it’s subject to interpretation. In this case, it’s the actor who does the interpreting.

I spoke on the podcast about the art of subtext and how huge a role it plays in Black Sails. One example we used is Jane Eyre. It’s one of the most frequently adapted novels in the English language and with each adaptation, we get a new version of our characters. The most volatile and subject to change is Rochester. There are MANY versions of Rochester that I find appalling (including the original beast in the book), but each actor has formed him into something else, based on their performance. Toby Stephens takes Rochester and turns him into a silly tragic romantic, broken many times over by a society he never really fits into, despite the status of his birth. He connects with Ruth Wilson’s Jane because she fully and happily inhabits that space on the fringes that Rochester thinks he needs to climb out of. Jane takes his hand on the outside of the wall, turns him away from the guarded palace and shows him the wild world that was at his back this whole time.

This is what Toby Stephens, Luke Arnold, Louise Barnes, Zethu Dlomo, and really all the actors for whom their subtextual choices make them reflect like prisms, have done with their performances.

In the final distillation, character motivations and emotions are finalized by the actor. Writers can pontificate, the source material lies dead in its lovely tomb, but stories live and breathe by their storytellers.

What we’re left with is Toby’s face telling the world how deeply Flint loves Silver. Every single choice tells this story.

We’re left with Luke showing us how much Silver is repressing in his feelings for Flint. Luke’s face shows us an incredible depth of feeling and a door slamming shut.

We’re left with the incredible intimacy between James and Miranda, which speaks of a decade of shared physical intimacy. There’s an openness, a freeness to it until the moment in episode 3 when Miranda learns that James has found the Urca and is leaving soon to pursue it. She gives some of it away when she says “I thought I’d have you all to myself”. She is mourning the loss of intimacy that she only gets in short windows of time. They aren’t strained because James isn’t attracted to her, but because he’s rarely there. She has him for a few days at a time before he’s off on another hunt. The coldness starts from the moment he tells her he’s leaving in a few days because I believe she thinks he won’t be coming back, that this is the hunt he won’t survive and she’ll finally have lost both James and Thomas. From the moment Richard Guthrie darkens her door, she’s looking for a way to weaponize him and get them out. For her, it’s a race against the clock and she’s willing to sacrifice a bit of her relationship with James in the present to secure happiness for them in the future.

This is also why James still has sex with her before leaving, even though he’s furious for her reading Meditations to Richard. This is how they connect. They connected through physical intimacy in the flashbacks, as well. Him stroking her thumb in the carriage before the kiss. Tactile contact to seal their understanding of each other. Miranda bracing her hands on his chest during important moments in the Hamilton’s home, something she also does to Thomas, to show physical connection, physical intimacy. Miranda thrives on physical touch.

To think that, for 10 years, James is lying there like an object for Miranda to use, is, to me, short sighted. To think that James doesn’t love Miranda outside of a group, is also ignoring the fact that, 10 years on, James will not leave on a hunt (angry as they both are) without physically connecting with her, trying so hard to reach beyond his anger and the wound freshly opened from sight of that book he’s chosen not to look at for probably the better part of those 10 years. The way his hands hover over her back after she comes and he desperately wants to be with her in that moment, like the best of their moments, but he just can’t, speaks to the depth of his love for her.

So many fans of the show point to this sad sex scene as one of the most important character moments for James and Miranda, but I consistently come to the opposite conclusions about WHY it’s important and what we learn from it, because I’m taking my cues from the actor’s choices, not the director or the writers. On the page, in plain ink, he hates having sex with her. Toby and Louise show us, however, that they are trying to recapture a thing that is fleeting, reaching out to each other to patch up an old wound from which the scab has been picked off, leaving it seeping and raw.

From Toby’s performance, regardless of the words he uses years later to describe it, we see not a character who “loves men” or a character who “loves women”, but a character who LOVES. I don’t see Flint defining that love in terms of boxes and parameters. He’s a character who must be coaxed out, but then loves without reason, without a safety net, as he proves with his love of Silver. As was also referenced by a guest on the podcast, he places a sword in Silver’s hand and says “do it”.

Anyway, this post got away from me and took several turns, but the love between James and Miranda being dismissed by so many in the fandom has been bugging me for a while and I just needed to emotionally vomit on tumblr.

[hellfireprince]

@bornhybrid

~

"I wanna go to culinary school."

Aryan looked up from his coffee with a frown as Raven set down a huge plate of bacon and eggs for the family. It was a rare moment Raven willingly cooked for everyone, when she would normally either be asleep, or only cooking for Toren - maybe her mother. Raven didn't cook for Aryan unless she wanted something, and he had een expecting her to ask for money, or a car, or some other meaningless thing to fund her rebellion of the upper class.

Toren were both purposefully silent as he reached for the food, not even looking up at his father or his sister, while Hope reached for Aryan's hand to remind him to step cautiously.

"Raven, you're an excellent cook, but you're going to business, law, or medical school," Aryan said measuredly.

"I'm not good at any of those things! I'm good at cooking!" Raven asserted, trying her best to stay calm. She had to wear her father down. Hope had already warned her that he wouldn't say 'yes' straight away, that he might not even say 'yes' at all this time around, that she'd have to work on it. She would do a better job of convincing him if she was calm.

"Yes, you're already good at it, you don't need to go to school for it," Aryan said simply, picking up his newspaper to read as if to signal the end of the conversation, but Raven wasn't going to let it slide yet.

"I want to go to culinary school. You want me to run a business one day, right? Why can't it be a restaurant? If I go to culinary school and do well, I can study business on the side."

A compromise. Raven wasn't very good at them, but when she really wanted something, she could barter for it.

"You're not wasting years of your life learning to cook full time. You will specialise your degree and you will get a stable job. Not one that rests on whether or not people like the flavour of the month. You can be as talented as you like, but businesses like restaurants can die in days. No, doctor, lawyer, business woman... I'll allow accountant if you're so inclined. Cooking is a hobby in this family."

"I don't want to do that stuff Dad!" Raven snapped. "I want to cook! I want to bake!"

"Then I suggest you find yourself a job that's going to pay off your student loans, because I am not paying for you to throw away your future!" Aryan snapped back.

"You're so unreasonable! You're always telling me to think about my future, the one time I do, you shoot me down! I don't want to join the stupid family business! I'm not one of you!"

Aryan glared after Raven as she stalked away, Hope sighing.

"You could have at least indulged her a little," she reprimanded. "She was happy to study business as well."

"No, she was happy to say she'd study business as well. Being a chef requires long, hard hours. She'd flunk out of business school in ten minutes."

"Dad, Raven doesn't want to follow in the family footsteps, she wants to go to culinary school. At least she wants to go to school!" Toren said pointedly. "If it doesn't work, she's got plenty more years to study something else!"

"You are still on probation for following a little too closely in the family footsteps," Aryan warned. "Don't push it Lieutenant."

"Most parents would be proud of their son for joining the military," Toren muttered under his breath as he got to his feet to follow Raven. "Raven's got a degree, let her do what she wants to do."

"She's got an arts degree. That will get her absolutely nowhere. I paid for that out of the goodness of my heart, I will not squandor money on more useless ambitions."

"Aryan, they're not useless to her," Hope reasoned quietly. "She has dreams, let her pursue them... Isn't that what you'd have wanted your mother to let you do?"

Aryan chewed his tongue at the question. He would have loved to pursue baseball, and he could have. He'd been offered a scholarship. But there were expectations on him that his mother made sure were fulfilled, and dedicating himself to a long shot wasn't on that list.

"Unless you think she knew what was best for you? Enlisting you, sending you away, choosing a school for you. Give Raven the choice you didn't have, Aryan. We're supposed to do better with our children."

~

"Raven, let me in.”

"Piss off."

"Raven... please?" Aryan tried. "Can we talk?"

"Talk."

"Let me in Raven, come on. Let's talk face to face."

Begrudgingly, Raven opened the door, glaring him down with red, puffy eyes that suggested she'd been crying. Aryan sighed, taking hold of her shoulder and steering her towards her bed.

"Listen, I... I need to apologise to you," he said quietly. "You know I want what's best for you, right?"

"No, you want what's best for the family image," Raven spat.

"Raven that's... that's not true," Aryan said truthfully. "I know I get angry at you, I know you think I'm unreasonable, but... that's not because I want you to follow in Daddy's footsteps. I... I don't like you partying because there's drugs and gangs and all sorts of crap going on at those places that's not good for anyone, I don't like you riding around on the backs of motorcycles because it's not safe. I want you to have the sort of education that is going to offer you a stable, lucrative career so you can live the life you have become accustomed to, since you have made it clear you don't intend to live here for the rest of your life."

"I don't need more reasons why you won't let me go to culinary school Dad."

"Well, that's just the thing... if that's what you want to do Raven, then do it. I'll... I'll pay your way."

"Wh- Really?"

Aryan nodded.

"Your mother pointed out that... dreams are best sought after. I don't want you to blame me for not letting you do what you want with your life. There's enough blame going around my family."

"I... thanks Dad. I meant it, I will open a restaurant. I'll work hard."

"I know you will. If there's one thing I know about you Raven, when you set your mind to something, you will work for it."

[webart-studio]

20 Freshest Net Designs, April 2019

Welcome to our roundup of the most effective new websites to be launched (or relaunched with important updates) within the final 4 weeks.

After final month’s flirtation with monochrome, this month’s set of websites return to the overriding pattern of 2019: shade. Large photographs are nonetheless standard, and parallax remains to be discovering its means into our scrolling experiences. Get pleasure from!

  Center Fork Speedy Transit

Center Fork Speedy Transit is an journey trip firm that transports you over 100 miles down the Center Fork river in Idaho. Its web site packs in as a lot as considered one of its journeys, and there’s tons of little particulars to get you fired up; I really like the animated raft, and the grub seems wonderful.

  To Style

To Style is my favourite recipe web site of the second. Full of meals concepts for each event and palette, the straightforward web site is laid out completely for searching, and selecting one thing to make is a culinary deal with. What actually makes it, as with all meals websites, is the mouth-watering pictures.

  The Face

Type bible The Face returned from oblivion this month, with a brand new crew behind the enduring publication. Its web site opens as daringly as you’d count on, earlier than slowing to a extra conventional, and extra usable weblog format.

  Kia ProCeed

The positioning for the brand new Kia ProCeed is exactly the kind of web site we used to construct again within the day. With interactive video, a singular navigation system based mostly on established design patterns, and thoroughly designed usability, it’s an attractive expertise.

  Hiraeth

Co-founded by Rooney Mara, Hiraeth is a vogue label that produces fascinating garments free from any animal product. Its elegant web site exudes high quality with beneficiant white area, and an virtually Scandinavian minimalism, matching the clothes completely.

  Way forward for Sustainability

In response to some estimates, we’ve simply 12 years till we face not simply local weather change, however local weather breakdown. Way forward for Sustainability desires to encourage you to alter the 2020s, earlier than it’s too late. It communicates a fancy, and tough message engagingly.

  Nicholas Jackson

Nicholas Jackson is a New York based mostly designer and artwork director. His portfolio web site is a daring, assured expression of the work he likes to do for shoppers together with Canon, The Wall Road Journal, The NY occasions, and Siemens.

  Mansi

Mansi makes a few of the greatest pasta this facet of Naples, and it has an equally scrumptious web site. Dotted all through the positioning are pasta shapes, a few of them animated, making Mansi’s web site probably the most applicable exponent of the blob pattern I’ve seen thus far.

  Azab

Azab is an structure agency with a love of mouse trails. Regardless of most designers abandoning them greater than a decade in the past, Azab’s web site is constructed fully across the path of your mouse on the display. It’s surprisingly compelling.

  Corpus

Corpus is an all-natural, all-vegan firm producing deodorants that don’t hurt you, or the planet. Its web site intriguingly turns a normal e-commerce structure on its head, by presenting merchandise up entrance, and the standard hero video, down under.

  Calidad Beer

Calidad Beer is a Mexican-style beer, brewed in California. With Levis-worthy artwork course, and model applicable animation, its web site is good for an unknown firm making an attempt to faucet right into a saturated market. Always bolstered, the model identification is vital right here.

  DEMO

The Design in Movement Competition, or DEMO for brief, takes place in Amsterdam in November, when 80 screens within the central practice station will showcase the most effective movement design work. The positioning itself options stunning interactive lettering that Saul Bass could be pleased with.

  Camille Pawlak

The net portfolio of Camille Pawlak is predicated round a stupendous central animation that rotates because it transforms into the subsequent undertaking. It’s a easy, however elegant method to navigate between initiatives, and the work that she’s showcasing is great too.

  Inexperienced Chameleon

Inexperienced Chameleon’s web site is just non permanent, with a full web site redesign on the horizon. However with a portfolio like this, full of parallax results, and useless easy navigation, I believe the Bristol company ought to keep on with what it’s received.

  Flwr

Flwr is a New Zealand based mostly florist with a contemporary method. Its web site makes use of textual content to masks its stunning pictures, creating an intriguing and welcoming mini-site. It even embraces the split-screen pattern to nice impact.

  Daly

Daly is a PR company based by Alex Daly, from her contacts constructed serving to a few of the world’s most profitable crowdfund campaigns attain their targets. Its web site is daring, colourful, and enjoyable. The interval after its title isn’t new, however I really like the best way it follows you down the web page as you scroll.

  Pacto Navio

When the best Cuban rum is launched to French wine making traditions, you get Pacto Navio. The rum, distilled close to Havana, is served by a superbly artwork directed web site, that includes model illustrations, and a distinctly Caribbean feeling.

  Cheval Blanc

The French have a fame for refined hospitality, and that pattern is mirrored of their love of subtle web pages. The positioning for Cheval Blanc isn’t any exception, with a just-right degree of parallax scrolling and refined typography.

  Staat

Staat is a design company specializing in occasion design for a few of the world’s greatest identified names. Its web site options video case research of its work, and the positioning itself takes a step backwards and permits the portfolio to shine.

  Festa da Francofonia 2019

The 2019 competition for Francophones, is a competition celebrating the 220 million folks worldwide who converse the French language. Celebrated from Morocco to Canada, the occasion’s web site is a colourful, worldwide feeling affair, applicable for a multi-cultural occasion.

Supply hyperlink

source https://webart-studio.com/20-freshest-net-designs-april-2019/

[cannabisinformation-blog]

Cooking with Cannabis!

COOK WITH CANNABIS THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD! Smoke one and get busy learning to cook with your cannabis. :) Top 10 Marijuana Cooking Troubleshooting Tips 1. Over grinding the plant material when making marijuana butter or cannabis oil. For some reason the majority of internet sites tell people to finely grind the marijuana being used to infuse marijuana butter or cannabis oil. There is even a commercially made electronic gadget for making marijuana butter that includes a built in electric grinder. I have never understood this advice. If you want better tasting edibles, DO NOT FINELY GRIND THE MARIJUANA! What you are trying the extract, the plant’s resinous trichomes, are ON the buds and leaves not IN them! All grinding accomplishes is to put more plant material into the finished product which in turn increases green color and unwanted herbal flavors. Marijuana Infusions made With and Without Water in the Mix2. Not adding water when infusing cannabutter or marijuana oil. OK, this one isn’t a mistake as there is more than one way to infuse. Some people do not like to add water to the mix, but I do. Especially on the stovetop, the water will help things infuse at a lower temperature and avoid things burning and scorching which will result in unappetizing taste and THC that’s rendered useless by being cooked at too high a temperature. The water also helps with appearance and flavor by washing away some of the green color and strong herbal flavor. The photo at the right shows marijuana butter made with and without water in the mix and marijuana oil made with and without water. The same type and amount of marijuana was used for each of the infusions in the exact same amount. In all instances there was a better final yield when using water, and a lighter color and less herbal flavor. The amount of water is not important, but I always add at least as much water as butter or oil. I do this even when infusing in the slow cooker. Click to find instructions for how to make marijuana butter and cannabis oil. Cannabis Cooking for Home Cooks Course3. Cooking marijuana at too high a temperature. Generally speaking, lower cooking temperatures are better. THC is completely degraded at temperatures in excess of 392 degrees F although it starts to break down long before that. Since water boiling never gets above 212 degrees F, I always recommend adding water when making cannabis infusions (see point 2 above). You will also need to pay attention to cooking temperatures when using the infused butter and oils, or when cooking with marijuana concentrates. Do not use infused marijuana oils for direct sautéing for frying. If you are making something battered, make sure the medicated part is inside the batter. You can cook at oven temperatures up to 375 degrees F, as the food itself will not get that hot. 4. Not decarboxylating the cannabis first. While too much heat will kill your THC, some heat is necessary. Most people do not realize the raw cannabis plant contains no THC at all. It does contain THC-A (or THC-acid). It takes the process of adding heat or decarboxylation to make the chemical reaction that converts THC-A to THC. If you are infusing butter or oil, decarboxylation is taken care of in the process of infusion, mostly. But lab tests show that even when making infusions, decarbing first will up the percentage of THC extracted. If you are cooking with kief you will need to decarboxylate first. I recommend this step when cooking with hash too, as it can help maximize THC potency. Simply put your concentrates in an ovenproof dish or your crumbled plant material on a baking sheet and heat for about 20 minutes at 250 degrees F. Once decarboxylated the marijuana or concentrates are ready to cook with. 5. Adding too much cannabis/over medicating. There is no easier way to ingest too much marijuana than by eating it. Sometimes people are impatient and think “it’s not working” and eat more. By the time it all kicks in they have overdone it. While “overdoses” are not dangerous in that they are never fatal, they won’t shut down your organs, they can make you feel anxious, paranoid, and/or disoriented. Dosing edibles is somewhat of an art, a lot of factors need to be taken into consideration and people’s tolerances run a wide range. An amount that one person does not even physically feel might be enough to make someone else experience couch-lock for hours. When cooking with marijuana, especially new plant material you are not familiar with, it’s a good idea to vape or smoke a little to get general idea of its potency. Keep in mind that cooking can intensify potency somewhat. If you do find a batch of your edibles is more potent than you intended the remedy is easy – eat less! Learn more about dosing when cooking with marijuana at this link. 6. Adding too little marijuana/undermedicating. Likewise, if you ever find yourself with a weak batch of food, eat more! If you make a batch of infused butter or oil that is less potent than you’d like, you can always augment it later by heating gently to dissolve some decarboxylated kief or hash into it before using in recipes. I know marijuana is an expensive ingredient and the natural urge is to use as little as possible. But think of it this way, you can always eat smaller portions, but if your batch of edibles does not deliver, there’s no way to avoid disappointment. I won’t say that you “wasted” the weed as you will still be getting medicinal benefits even if you don’t feel high, but if you were expecting/desiring a buzz and you use too little, then you certainly did not put your plant material to its optimal use. Learn more about dosing at this link. FREE Dosing Course 7. Not paying attention to portion size. If you don’t know how many portions your recipe makes, it will be difficult to determine how much medicine to add. To get a proper dose divide the total amount of cannabis or infused marijuana butter or oil in the entire recipe to achieve an amount that usually works for you. Exercise will power if necessary. Marijuana cooking with hash and kief Marijuana Cooking with Hash and Kief 8. Improperly Incorporating Concentrates Cooking with kief is a joy. Its fine texture allows it dissolve almost instantly in warm (and sometimes even cold) liquids and other ingredients like mayonnaise, yogurt, sour cream and more. Hash can be a little trickier. It can come in many textures from dry and crumbly to sticky and putty-like. Dry hash can be sent through a small food processor or coffee grinder to turn it into a fine powder. You can even use a mortar and pestle for this. The sticky variety is best heated in a liquid until it dissolves. Even so, hash can sometimes leave a slight gritty texture, which is why when given the choice, I choose kief. Learn more about cooking with hash and kief here. 9. Using too delicate a hand with seasonings. Most people do not like the green herbal flavor of marijuana shining through their foods. Likewise recipes with lots of spices and flavors going on tend to mask this better than delicate and subtle fare. Use as much or a little more seasoning and flavor adding ingredients (such as onion and garlic) when cooking with cannabis than you would if you were cooking without marijuana. Marijuana Cooking -- Cannabis Infused Brownies 10. Believing brownies, cookies and sweets are the only foods suitable as marijuana edibles. The number of people who think that sweets are the only kind of edibles you can make with marijuana consistently surprises me. The fact is most any food can be infused with cannabis. In fact, it is usually easier to hide the green herbal flavor that most people don’t like in spicy and/or savory foods. There are lots of terrific cannabis cookbooks on the market to help you expand you cannabis culinary repertoire, including my own Cannabis Gourmet Cookbook. You can also find lots of recipes, both savory and sweet, on this blog.