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ucflibrary · 3 years

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Welcome to Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!

It has been a difficult 14 months for the world, but our Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) brothers and sisters have faced even more struggles. From small harassments to intense acts of violence, the AAPI community has borne the brunt of American fears and grief relating to the pandemic. These malicious acts demonstrate as a country we are not living up to the ideals of our nation. As Americans and Knights, we need to demonstrate these ideals are worth fighting for. Actions you can take range from learning more about the AAPI experience and history to using any privilege we have to push back against racism and violence.

One way to learn more about AAPI history and experiences is to visit the Libraries’ Readings on Race guide. This guide includes a page for general information about racism in America and how to have conversations about it to pages specifically addressing the experiences of marginalized communities in the United States such as Asian America Pacific Islander, African American, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous. Take some time to familiarize yourself with lived experiences beyond your own race or ethnicity so we can stand together and become a more inclusive Knight community.

If you witness or experience incidents of discrimination or violence, report them to the university. If any of these incidents have impacted you, UCF has resources that can help. For more information, visit UCF Cares, Student Care Services or UCF Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) if you are a student, and the Employee Assistance Program if you are an employee.

For 2021 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, UCF Libraries faculty and staff have suggested these 20 books from the library’s collection by or about Asian Pacific Americans. Click the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links. There is also an extensive physical display on the main floor of the John C. Hitt Library near the Research & Information Desk.

A Burning by Megha Majumdar After a fiery attack on a train leaves 104 people dead, the fates of three people become inextricably entangled. Jivan, a bright, striving woman from the slums looking for a way out of poverty, is wrongly accused of planning the attack because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir, a slippery gym teacher from Jivan's former high school, has hitched his aspirations to a rising right wing party, and his own ascent becomes increasingly linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely, a spirited, impoverished, relentlessly optimistic hjira, who harbors dreams of becoming a Bollywood star, can provide the alibi that would set Jivan free - but her appearance in court will have unexpected consequences that will change the course of all of their lives. A novel about fate, power, opportunity, and class; about innocence and guilt, betrayal and love, and the corrosive media cycle that manufactures falsehoods masquerading as truths. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions and Collection Services

American History Unbound: Asians and Pacific Islanders by Gary K. Okihiro A survey of U.S. history from its beginnings to the present, this reveals our past through the lens of Asian American and Pacific Islander history. In so doing, it is a work of both history and anti-history, a narrative that fundamentally transforms and deepens our understanding of the United States. This text is accessible and filled with engaging stories and themes that draw attention to key theoretical and historical interpretations. Gary Y. Okihiro positions Asians and Pacific Islanders within a larger history of people of color in the United States and places the United States in the context of world history and oceanic worlds. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

American Panda by Gloria Chao A freshman at MIT, seventeen-year-old Mei Lu tries to live up to her Taiwanese parents' expectations, but no amount of tradition, obligation, or guilt prevent her from hiding several truths-- that she is a germaphobe who cannot become a doctor, she prefers dancing to biology, she decides to reconnect with her estranged older brother, and she is dating a Japanese boy. Can she find a way to be herself, before her web of lies unravels? Suggested by Pam Jaggernauth, Curriculum Materials Center

Asian American History: a very short introduction by Madeline Y. Hsu Madeline Y. Hsu weaves a fascinating historical narrative of this "American Dream." She shows how Asian American success, often attributed to innate cultural values, is more a result of the immigration laws, which have largely pre-selected immigrants of high economic and social potential. Asian Americans have, in turn, been used by politicians to bludgeon newer (and more populous) immigrant groups for their purported lack of achievement. Hsu deftly reveals how public policy, which can restrict and also selectively promote certain immigrant populations, is a key reason why some immigrant groups appear to be more naturally successful and why the identity of those groups evolves differently from others. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

Eyes That Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho A young Asian girl notices that her eyes look different from her peers'. They have big, round eyes and long lashes. She realizes that her eyes are like her mother's, her grandmother's, and her little sister's. They have eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea, crinkle into crescent moons, and are filled with stories of the past and hope for the future. Drawing from the strength of these powerful women in her life, she recognizes her own beauty and discovers a path to self love and empowerment. This powerful, poetic picture book will resonate with readers of all ages and is a celebration of diversity. Suggested by Pam Jaggernauth, Curriculum Materials Center

Frankly in Love by David Yoon High school senior Frank Li is caught between his parents' traditional expectations and his own Southern California upbringing. His parents have one rule when it comes to romance: ‘Date Korean.’ But Frank falls for Brit Means, who is smart, beautiful-- and white. Joy Song is in a similar predicament, and they make a pact: they'll pretend to date each other in order to gain their freedom. It seems like the perfect plan, until their fake-dating maneuver leaves Frank wondering if he ever really understood love- or himself- at all. Suggested by Pam Jaggernauth, Curriculum Materials Center

Ghosts of Gold Mountain: the epic story of the Chinese who built the Transcontinental Railroad by Gordon H. Chang The long-lost tale of the Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, helping to forge modern America only to disappear into the shadows of history. In this groundbreaking book, award-winning historian Gordon H. Chang recovers the stories of these "silent spikes" and returns them to their rightful place in our national saga. Drawing on recent archaeological findings, as well as payroll records, ship manifests, photographs, and other sources from American and Chinese archives, Chang retraces the laborers' odyssey in breathtaking detail. He introduces individual workers, describes their hopes and fears, and shows how they lived, ate, fought, loved, worked, and worshiped. Their sweat and blood not only fueled the ascent of an interlinked, industrial United States, but also laid the groundwork for a thriving Chinese America. A magisterial feat of scholarship and storytelling, this book honors these immigrants' sacrifice and ingenuity, and celebrates their role in this defining American achievement. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

Good Enough by Paul Yoo A Korean American teenager tries to please her parents by getting into an Ivy League college, but a new guy in school and her love of the violin tempt her in new directions. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu Everyday Willis Wu leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He's a bit player here too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy-- and he sees his life as a script. After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he has ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family, and what that means for him in today's America. Suggested by Ying Zhang, Administration

Last Witnesses: reflections on the wartime internment of Japanese Americans edited by Erica Harth To the writers in this book - novelists, memoirists, poets, activists, scholars, students, professionals - the World War II internment of Japanese Americans in the detention camps is an unfinished chapter of American history that mars the nostalgic glow that often surrounds the World War II home front years. Former internees, like John Tateishi and Robert Maeda, and children of detainees and of camp officials join with others in challenging readers to construct a better future by confronting this dark episode from America's World War II scrapbook. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

Minor Feelings: an Asian American reckoning by Cathy Park Hong With sly humor and a poet’s searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, it forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche—and of a writer’s search to both uncover and speak the truth. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services, and Ying Zhang, Administration

Monstress by Marjorie M. Liu Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900's Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steam punk, Liu tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both and make them the target of both human and otherworldly powers Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions and Collection Services

Paper Son: the inspiring story of Tyrus Wong, immigrant and artist by Julie Leung An inspiring picture-book biography of animator Tyrus Wong, the Chinese American immigrant responsible for bringing Disney's Bambi to life. Before he became an artist named Tyrus Wong, he was a boy named Wong Geng Yeo. He traveled across a vast ocean from China to America with only a suitcase and a few papers. Not papers for drawing--which he loved to do--but immigration papers to start a new life. Once in America, Tyrus seized every opportunity to make art, eventually enrolling at an art institute in Los Angeles. Working as a janitor at night, his mop twirled like a paintbrush in his hands. Eventually, he was given the opportunity of a lifetime--and using sparse brushstrokes and soft watercolors, Tyrus created the iconic backgrounds of Bambi. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Run Me to Earth by Paul Yoon Alisak, Prany, and Noi--three orphans united by devastating loss - must do what is necessary to survive the perilous landscape of 1960s Laos. When they take shelter in a bombed out field hospital, they meet Vang, a doctor dedicated to helping the wounded at all costs. Soon the teens are serving as motorcycle couriers, delicately navigating their bikes across the fields filled with unexploded bombs, beneath the indiscriminate barrage from the sky. In a world where the landscape and the roads have turned into an ocean of bombs, we follow their grueling days of rescuing civilians and searching for medical supplies, until Vang secures their evacuation on the last helicopters leaving the country. It's a move with irrevocable consequences--and sets them on disparate and treacherous paths across the world. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions and Collection Services

Searching for Sylvie Lee: a novel by Jean Kwok A poignant and suspenseful drama that untangles the complicated ties binding three women--two sisters and their mother--in one Chinese immigrant family and explores what happens when the eldest daughter disappears, and a series of family secrets emerge. Sylvie, the beautiful, brilliant, successful older daughter of the Lee family, flies to the Netherlands for one final visit with her dying grandmother-- and vanishes. Amy is too young to remember a time when her parents were newly immigrated and too poor to keep Sylvie, who was raised by a distant relative in a faraway, foreign place. Amy flies to the last place Sylvie was seen, retracing her sister's movements. It seems Sylvie kept painful secrets that reveal more about Amy's family than she ever could have imagined. Suggested by Rachel Mulvihill, Downtown Library

Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo Told from two viewpoints, teens Lucky, a very famous K-pop star, and Jack, a part-time paparazzo who is trying to find himself, fall for each other against the odds through the course of one stolen day. Suggested by Pam Jaggernauth, Curriculum Materials Center

Strangers from a Different Shore: a history of Asian Americans by Ronald Takaki In an extraordinary blend of narrative history, personal recollection, and oral testimony, the author presents a sweeping history of Asian Americans. He writes of the Chinese who laid tracks for the transcontinental railroad, of plantation laborers in the canefields of Hawaii, of "picture brides" marrying strangers in the hope of becoming part of the American dream. He tells stories of Japanese Americans behind the barbed wire of U.S. internment camps during World War II, Hmong refugees tragically unable to adjust to Wisconsin's alien climate and culture, and Asian American students stigmatized by the stereotype of the “model minority.” Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See This beautiful, thoughtful novel illuminates a world turned upside down, one where the women are in charge, engaging in dangerous physical work, and the men take care of the children. A classic Lisa See story—one of women’s friendships and the larger forces that shape them—this book introduces readers to the fierce and unforgettable female divers of Jeju Island and the dramatic history that shaped their lives. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

What We Carry: a memoir by Maya Shanbhag Lang Lang grew up idolizing her brilliant mother, an accomplished psychologist who immigrated to the United States from India, completed her residency and earned an American medical degree while nurturing young children and keeping a traditional Indian home. Her mother's stories motivated her, encouraged her, offered solace when she needed it. When Lang becomes a mother herself, her mother becomes a grandmother who is cold and distant. Reexamining the stories of her childhood, Lang realized that being able to accept both myth and reality is what has finally brought her into adulthood Suggested by Ying Zhang, Administration

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha In the wake of the police shooting of a black teenager, Los Angeles is as tense as it's been since the unrest of the early 1990s. But Grace Park and Shawn Matthews have their own problems. Grace is sheltered and largely oblivious, living in the Valley with her Korean-immigrant parents, working long hours at the family pharmacy. Shawn has already had enough of politics and protest after an act of violence shattered his family years ago. But when another shocking crime hits LA, both the Park and Matthews families are forced to face down their history while navigating the tumult of a city on the brink of more violence. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions and Collection Services

#ucf library #asian pacific american heritage month #aapi #booklr #reading list

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jinruihokankeikaku · 4 years

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Whenever you have the time (so no rush on this at all!) do you think you could explain your takes on the triads? (Time-Hope-Doom, Heart-Breath-Void, Rage-Life-Space, and Blood-Light-Mind) I'm really interested to hear your thoughts and opinions! Especially because I'm super into the idea of the triads but they're confusing to me lol

OMG anon.....i know u said no rush 8ut!!!!!!1! the Triads are one of my favvorite things to talk about and 8asically form the groundwork for ALL of my Classpect theories so I had to answer this one basically as soon as I read it. Here we go - fair warnin, this may devvelop into a Longpost.

I’ll start with Fig. 1 - The Canonical Classpect Wheel from the Extended Zodiac website with (apologies for the messiness) lines drawn to indicate the Introspective Trine in green, the Incipient Trine in gold, the Communicative Trine in red, and the Climactic Trine in violet.

So what do those terms actually mean with regard to their constituent Aspects? Well, each describes a set of tr8s certain Aspects share despite their diff’rences, and the way all three Aspects within a Trine contribute to the form8ion of a narrative. I’ll descri8e each one in turn... 8eloww the cut.

Climactic or Conclusive refers to the fact that Time, Doom, and Hope are all associated with endings/conclusions. This is obvious when it comes to the associations between Time+Doom and death, but the connections go beyond that. These are all “staccato” Aspects - they don’t do their work, on a narrative or meta-narrative level, continuously, but rather in short and clearly demarcated bursts. Time and Doom, in addition to being associated with death, are perhaps paradoxically also associated with survival - despite the various deaths and half-deaths and potential future and past deaths they experience, Aradia, Sollux, Dave, and even Caliborn/Lord English are Alive at the end of the text of Homestuck, and even Mituna - though he’s dead before the narrative even begins - survives his sacrifice/martyrdom within the subnarrative of the Dancestors’ session (albeit at great personal cost). While the same cannot be said of Hope players (A/N: *cries in Eridan kinnie*), Eridan never truly realizes his potential as a Hope player, for as a Prince he continuously manifests Rage (Hope’s Opposite) during his brief tenure on-screen. Time has to do with actual/literal endings and patterns - ie, literal Timelines, the temporal dimension (which unlike the three spatial dimensions in unidirectional), and clocks/machinery, as its symbol, the gear, symbolically evokes. Doom has to do with inevitability and deduction/reduction/loss - death, (deductive) logic and reasoning, sacrifice/burnout (see our two tragic heroes and canonical Doom players, the Captors), and binaries/computation (which, in addition to connecting back to the aforementioned Logic, also involves the clear demarcation of categories/organization. Hope, while perhaps initially seeming like an outlier here, also ties into this pattern - Hope is associated with Climactic bursts of energy/activity (see Jake’s “Hope Field”, which manifests when he is at the height of his Hope-related power (courtesy of Aranea) and in the events directly leading up to the climax of Act 6 Act 6 Act 5, or Eridan’s quiet resentment building up to his climactic confrontation with Sollux. Hope predicts the ending - and faith, a domain of Hope, is about pure conviction, conviction beyond reason in the certainty of this prediction. Finally, Hope, Time, and Doom all share an orientation towards the Future and an affinity for prophecy and prediction - there is no true present Time, and one can neither be Doom’d in the present moment nor Hope for anything to occur in it. (For the present, we’ll have to turn to the opposite Trine.) Hope and Doom are opposed within this Trine, as Hope represents conviction, faith, and overwhelming flares of power, while Doom represents resignation, doubt/weariness, and fading or waning power. Doom and Time are opposed within this Trine, as Doom is associated with surrender, exhaustion/burnout, and acceptance of the inevitable, while Time is associated with struggle and effort and accomplishing the impossible. Time and Hope are opposed within this Trine, as Time is associated with death, destruction, struggle, and impermanence, while Hope is associated with resurrection, invincibility, and the permanent efficacy of grace.

Incipient or Immanent refers to the fact that Space, Life, and Rage are all associated with beginnings, expansion, multidirectionality, and the present moment. Space represents the three dimensions of physical space, as well as the “long-view” of the narrative as a whole - the overture as opposed to the individual motifs within it. Life represents evolution, social status, vitality, and youth, and is associated with momentary positive feelings of overwhelming Joy and Ecstasy. Rage represents devastation, social disruption, and violence, and is associated skepticism/metanarrative awareness. Space represents vastness and the Oceanic, concrete physical space and expansion/distance/isolation, and is associated with ontogeny, Creation myths, and the formation of the universe (through the Game). Together, they all comprise Aspects of continuity, fluidity, and vast, ongoing currents of power and change, power which may ebb or flow but which never truly halts in its course. Life and Space share ties to biological life and (ecto)-biology, including literal ties to reproduction and birth - this may be link’d to the association of Space with frogs/tadpoles and the ultimate goal of the Game, as well as with Life’s ties to animals, plants, and food/consumption, all of which are symbolic of and intrinsically linked to the sustenance of literal life. Space and Rage are united in the breadth of their scope - Space often being linked to themes of an entire narrative, or the existence of an entire universe or species (see Kanaya and Jade’s central roles in the literal salvation of existence and their respective species), and Rage being linked to metanarrative awareness, and knowledge, and the fostering of disbelief/skepticism in grand narratives and established ways of understanding (see the knack Gamzee and Kurloz have for showing up in places and parts of the text of Homestuck that they really ought not to). Finally, Life and Rage, whilst seemingly in opposition to one another, are both heavily linked to themes of re8ellion, rejection of established systems, and contrarian ideas - Feferi and Jane are both born to positions of privilege that they end up rejecting, and Gamzee is a member of a religious movement that he later lashes out against during a crisis of faith. One’s own Life, the Space one occupies, and the feeling of Rage experienced in moments of crisis and indignation are all phenomena of the present moment, discrete altogether from the irreversible march of time and the drive to contemplate the past and future. However, as with the Climactic trine, there are oppositions present here. For example, Life and Rage are opposed in that Life is associated with surges of positive affect - ecstasy, joy, comfort, and sustenance - whilst Rage is associated with surges of negative affect - apoplexy, resentment, anguish, and dissatisfaction. Space and Rage are opposed in that Rage often leads to violence and devastation, and is tied to images evocative of burning, breaking, or killing, whilst Space is the Aspect of creation, new birth, and the value of all parts of a whole. Finally, in perhaps the least obvious intra-trine opposition, Space and Life are opposed in that Life has to do with individuality/diversity, connection to one another and to other discrete parts of the biosphere through mutual support and sustenance, and is strongly associated with society, while Space has to do with the Unity of all things, the establishment of a cohesive whole, and isolation from one’s fellows, usually due to vast physical distance.

Now that I’vve outlined the Climactic-Conclusivve and Incipient-Immanent Aspect Trines, those that I wwould consider Impersonal, I’ll movve on to those I havve term’d the Personal Aspect trines - the other half of the wheel, so to speak.

Introspective or Internalizing refers to the way in which Breath, Heart, and Void all guide thought, attention, and action inward, toward the soul or essence of a person or an idea or a place or an object. Breath represents fluidity, motion, change, and individuality, journeys to the edges of the universe and journeys home - J. Egbert, our young person who took a seven-year odyssey from his bedroom to... their bedroom, Tavros Nitram, who went from a young idealist to a hero capable of rallying armies - these characters walked their own path, and they walked at at first clueless and vulnerable but ultimately on their own terms, liberated from social expectation and from all that had hitherto held them back. Heart represents the soul, the core or summation of one’s identity, the depth of romantic love and the love between the closest friends - Heart players and having or longing for relationships that transcend the Quadrants, and then our Prince struggling to unite the splinters of his soul and confront the prospect of touching a soul not his own - both come to mind. Void players know nothing, and are often avoidant of forming a coherent notion of self, but in this void of identity, the process of true self-discovery occurs - eventually; Equius sacrifices himself for a lowblood in (an attempt at) defiance of a highblood, and his (unwitting) martyrdom saves the Alpha Timeline; Roxy’s powers keep her session safely enshrouded in Void despite her own alcohol-enabled avoidance of addressing her identity, role, and fate. Heart and Breath share a focus on the individuals journey - first outward, and then returning to a home that they must make whole - Heart and Breath, in a sense, together comprise the soul or the spirit. Void and Breath represent the unknown, the sense of wandering or being adrift on forces beyond one’s control - surrendering to the journey as opposed to seizing control of the narrative. Heart and Void share what might be the strongest bond due to their deep connection with Feeling over Knowing, tapping into the actual essence of one’s identity and perhaps even reaching out to share that with another; Heart and Void bond over a shared sense of emptiness and a longing for fulfillment to match. Despite these bonds, however, conflicts also exist - between Heart and Void, there’s the contrast between Heart’s overflowing soulfulness belying a deep longing or feeling of emptiness, uniqueness, ability to stand out in a crowd, which stands opposed to Void’s knack for blending in, its players’ contentment with a blurred or faded identity, and their seeming shallowness or lack of distinguishing qualities which masks a hidden, but incredibly powerful inner core of identity. Void and Breath are opposed in that Breath’s prevailing sense of individualism clashes with Void’s tendency to blend in and conform to existing structures, and while Breath is constantly, almost involuntarily, self-aware and introspective, Void struggles to understand or think about their identity at all, and often, at least at first, tends to tie their identity to people, objects, or systems rather than having a strong inner sense of self. Finally, Heart and Breath clash due to Heart’s ties to romantic love, platonic love (and Platonic ideals), and the notion fixed or unchanging essence or Soul, while Breath tends to fluctuate, mutate, and transform when it needs to instead of tethering itself closely to any one concept, person, or thing - Breath is, in a sense, about the freedom that individual identity provides, whereas Heart is about the ways in which identity tethers us to the Universe and to one another.

Communicative or Connective refers to the shared association with society, dialogue, and community or connection that Blood, Mind, and Light share. Blood represents both literal physical bonds as well as the conceptual/metaphorical bonds formed by promises, relationships, and social obligations - it could be tied to the notion of “blood brothers”, or “the blood of the covenant”, as well as bloodlines or familial/genetic chains - consider Karkat and Kankri’s shared mutant identity, Karkat’s blood pact with his Universe’s iteration of Jack Noir, and the sacrifices Kankri makes (as the Signless/the Sufferer) to unite or bind together his species. Mind is connected to society in that it’s connected to ethics, conversation, and decision-making - Terezi, our Seer of Mind, is an aspiring lawyer/legislacerator, and her connections to Karkat and Vriska - both of whom share Trine Aspects with her, incidentally - are forged through the similarities and differences between their approaches to ethical leadership. While Terezi is never a Leader in the same way as Karkat and Vriska, she does, in her behind-the-scenes, Passive-Class way, lead the story forward from behind the scenes, and things would, needless to say, have gone very differently in the absence of her Mind-ful approach to team collaboration and, of course, her role in setting up the retcon through her agent, Egbert. Light, seemingly an outlier here due to its undeniable ties to individual ego and pathos, shares the same ties that Mind and Blood have to social relationship - Light’s domain of attention or focus, after all, cannot exist merely internally, as an observation (objective or subjective) requires both an observer and a person, thing, or notion to be observed. Light also, as mentioned above, is linked to leadership and the assumption of control, exemplified by Vriska’s becoming the team leader despite her loner status early on, and also by her and Aranea’s parallel plot-domineering arcs. Conflicts are here apparent as well - Mind and Light exemplify the contrast between objectivity, ethics, and analysis/indecision preceding decision-making, all of which are of course Mind-linked concepts, and Light’s connection to subjectivity, swift and decisive action, and softer ethical lines (Vriska’s exemplifying these traits is obvious, but consider also the way Rose Lalonde blurs the lines between her Aspect and its opposite through her association with Derse and the Horrorterrors, and their shared fascination with the largely subjective and only softly scientific (at best) fields of psychoanalysis and luck/fortune). Light and Blood contrast through Light’s connection to fixation, and to future possibility, which stands opposed to Blood’s being tethered to actuality, the present moment, and shared agreement/conspiracy rather than individual scheming and planning (essentially, the difference between leading through one’s bond to one’s followers and leading through the schemes or plans one has personally lain out). Finally, there’s the contrast between Blood and Mind, two Aspects both associated with plotting (both in-narrative and in reference to the meta-narrative plot) that conflict due to Blood’s association with subjective ethics, decisions made based on relationships and obligations to actual, concrete individuals as opposed to Mind’s association with objective ethics (i.e., legal ethics) and decision-making based on in-depth, abstract thought, and ideals that exist beyond concrete and individual bonds in the present moment.

~~~

....and that’s wwhat I’ve got, for noww!! Sorry for the delay, and for the ludicrous wwall a text - I hope it answwers yr questions, at any r8!! ^^^^v^^^^ do let me knoww, of course, if you’vve got anythin else a8out wwhich you’re wonderin!!

#Classpect theory #Classpect analysis #Homestuck #Classpect #ask #anon #Aspect triads #Aspect trines

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agentrouka-blog · 4 years

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Searching for persimmon in my lexica, the first synonym that pops up is lotus. The lotus fruit is notorious for its use in the Odyssey: Ulysses men eat it from Kirke (if my memory doesn't deceive me) and forget about home. Does this fit into ASoIaF?

Does it EVER fit. Thank you!! :D

You just broke my brain because I hadn’t even been aware of the fact that the lotus-associated variety of persimmon fruit is also called a “date-plum” because it combines both tastes, which is just really enhancing my already exciting examination of dates and plums in the text.

Dany certainly turns the Ulysses lotus implication on its head. The persimmon is associated with her “return” to the House with the Red Door, with her violent dragon roots, the Dothraki ethos, with a rejection of alternative homes she could make for herself. This is a cute twist because it only starts showing up when Dany is actually diverted from her path westwards (starting in Qarth), yet it signals the moments the turns back around toward her fiery endgoal.

Even feeding the persimmon to Xaro doesn’t make him forget anything. He wants to send her to Westeros, offers ships, becomes her enemy when she refuses. Xaro is no Ulysses.

Perhaps this in itself is a hint that Dany is no Circe and people around her who appear to forget their roots… are faking it...

The theme suggested by the Lotus-Eaters seems more reminiscent of the general state of Westeros with regard to the ice and fire threats, related to the symbolism of the hedonistic peach in ASOIAF.

The text sample itself harkens of the Stark diaspora, Dany in exile, even Young Griff. They are all displaced, in relative comfort and might feel less internal pressure to return home. But still they will. Young Griff is on the march, Arya never truly forgets herself, Sansa believes herself part of a plan to return home. Bran is the only one in danger of true lotus-eating right now.

They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what had happened to them, but were for staying and munching lotus with the Lotus-eaters without thinking further of their return; nevertheless, though they wept bitterly I forced them back to the ships and made them fast under the benches. Then I told the rest to go on board at once, lest any of them should taste of the lotus and leave off wanting to get home, so they took their places and smote the grey sea with their oars.

But yeah, the date-plum. Inverted with Dany.

Dates and plums, separately, I’ll have to do on another day.

#asoiaf #fruit symbolism #daenerys targaryen #political!Jon #persimmon #lotus-eaters #odyssey

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weirdmarioenemies · 5 years

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Name: Satebo

Debut: Satellaview

“Weird Mario Enemies dot Squarespace dot Egg, are you going through fifty loopholes to justify including something that is ostensibly not Mario-themed at all on the blog?” Yes! Yes we are!

Satebo, alongside his friend, Parabo, was one of the mascots of the Nintendo Satellaview, a weird Japanese add-on for the Super Famicom which we have talked about before here! To put it simple, the Satellaview allowed you to download video games through satellite broadcasts, and Satebo represents the satellite that data would be sent to so it could be broadcasted in your homes. But what exactly makes Satebo a Weird Mario Entity?

Thank you again, Wario’s Woods Burst of Laughter Edition, for helping to make this post possible! As you can see here on the title screen, our favorite satellite, Satebo, is right up there in the corner, which legally makes him a Weird Mario Entity! That’s pretty much the entire extent of Satebo’s relation to anything Mario-related at all, but if we ended the post right there, it’d be pretty disappointing, no? So let’s dive more into Satebo’s role on the Satellaview, both as a mascot and as a character!

Every time you boot up the Satellaview system, the lovely face of Satebo will be there to help you out! And what a friendly face he is, as he is here to welcome you to your town and help you load up whatever games you want to play!

For those of you who did not know, the main “hub world” of the Satellaview was The Town Whose Name Was Stolen, stolen and unfortunately replaced with the name “The Town Whose Name Was Stolen.” Apparently Satebo worries about the well-being of this town a lot, though the exact extent to which he does, I do not know! Unfortunately, information on these characters takes a lot of digging around online, but there are fortunately some dedicated fans of this system and these characters, some of which I found myself, some of which helped me personally! Truly, informing the world of obscure video game characters is a team effort.

The Town Whose Name Was Stolen also appears in a series of games called Satellawalker, which turns the hub world of the system into an actual world of a game, meaning we get to see more of Satebo! Hooray! Apparently in one of the episodes, Satebo gets kidnapped! Less hooray! Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have Satebo living in my home, but kidnapping is never the right answer! Just invite him over to visit on Tuesdays and Fridays, I’m sure he’d understand!

In-universe, Satebo appears to be created by someone named Dr. Hiroshi, who I can find no information about online other than the fact that he’s the guy that apparently created Satebo and his friend, Parabo. Apparently Satebo is also his assistant, but I don’t have much more on that either! A comic that came with the system, however, showed an ordinary satellite and satellite dish transforming into these characters, so whether Satebo is some kinda robot or a once-satellite who transformed into a real boy is up to the imagination!

Oh right! Parabo! I suppose we can dedicate this post to him, too, since he IS Satebo’s best friend, and it feels rude to talk about one without the other. Since Satebo represents the satellite that broadcasts information into people’s homes, Parabo represents the dish that receives that information from the broadcast! In the comic, we learn that he was bored with his job as a satellite dish, and was considering quitting, but after learning about the exciting fun of the Satellaview from Satebo, decided to stay! Apparently Satebo is able to call Parabo using their Satellite antennae, which I think is very cute and charming, fittingly so for characters as cute and charming as these two! I’m not sure if I’ll talk quite as much about Parabo, since he isn’t even technically a Weird Mario Entity, but I feel like both of them deserve your love!

I mean look at this wonderfully cozy mid-90s CG art featuring the two characters! Most old CG art just looks kind of hilariously awkward these days, but this? Well, just just feels right. This feels comfortable. I want to live in this world. Can we get some more of this?

Thank you!

But I hear what you’re saying. “Oh, Great Mod Hooligon, is there any video game where I can play as either of these characters?” And to that I say, “You’re in luck!”

youtube

In the Satellaview game BS-X Shooting, which you can find here on the Satellablog, you actually PLAY as Satebo in a wild shoot ‘em up adventure! Throughout the game, there are enemies and bosses that look like Satebo and Parabo both, however... is this lore? Are Satebo and Parabo just at an early stage in their life cycle? Or are these enemies simply the same species as Satebo and Parabo under the effects of a dark evil? Perhaps these are malevolent mimics? Perhaps we are reading into a goofy video game too much again? All of these could very much be possible!

The Satellaview is such a strange and interesting part of Nintendo’s history, and this post is only scratching the surface of all there is to know about it, but unfortunately, the Satellaview hasn’t gotten too much acknowledgement from Nintendo ever since, well... the age of the Satellaview itself, save for a costume referencing the system in Super Mario Odyssey! And Parabo and Satebo have been acknowledged even less, not even getting a spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate... what a pity!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I’d love to see these characters make a return for really just about any reason, whether they’re mascots for some new online service, or as playable characters in a new IP, or even a new “Nintendo History” fighter in Smash, in the same vein as R.O.B. or Mr. Game & Watch!

...Then again, people have noticed that the DLC fighters in Smash don’t seem to be characters with spirits. Hmmmm....

#satebo #parabo and satebo #satellaview #mario #mario allies #mod hooligon

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insertfunnyusername01 · 4 years

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9/15

I was hoping to make a light-hearted post today, but instead would like to talk about a news article I stumbled across that has stuck with me all day. As I’m sure most of you have read by now, a nurse recently employed at an ICE detention center in Georgia has came forward about alleged mistreatment, horrific living conditions, and “jarring medical neglect” these humans being detained face every day. It’s no secret (although conveniently absent in many history books) that the United States has practiced eugenics since the 1800s. While it has lost momentum throughout the years (WWII obviously playing a big role in that) we still hear and read about these kind of practices, especially in poverty stricken individuals. While there seems to be a lack of proof (for now) to these accusations I think they still warrant attention, and an investigation. At this point in my post you’re probably asking yourself “how does this relate to Justice and The Good Life?” Well, it does. In these first few chapters of The Odyssey we see Odysseus exclaim his love for his wife and child, so much in fact that he’s willing to take on this long journey in order to return home. Isn’t that what these families are doing in a sense? These parent(s) love their families so much that they’re willing to risk everything they have to come to America in hopes of a better, safer way of living. Hospitality is another theme we see emerge in the first chapters we read. Guest-friendship was important to Greeks, and the men were expected to host visitors while following simple rules such as feeding them, providing them with a safe space to sleep and a place to bathe, etc. Is this America’s best display of hospitality? Welcome to America, here is your cage? Here is your free botched hysterectomy? It’s appalling to me how many Americans are justifying the acts of these detainment centers. Where is the justice for these humans who are seeking “the good life”?

Article: https://www.businessinsider.com/whistleblower-alleges-mass-hysterectomies-at-ice-detention-center-2020-9

Eugenics Timeline in the U.S. for those interested: https://eugenicsarchive.ca/discover/timeline

#pols383

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octaviadblake · 5 years

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Ὀδύσσεια + τό ἑκᾰτόν

OR The Odyssey + The 100, an in-depth look at parallels to Homeric canon in season 6, and how the themes and motifs present on Sanctum mirror Odysseus’s 10-year journey back to Ithaca.

DISCLAIMER: I was a Russian Lit major, not a Classics major, so I’m not an expert on this. I did study Ancient Greek and Ancient Greek Drama for 6 and 2 semesters in college, respectively, though, but my expertise is more on The Iliad than The Odyssey so just...cut me some slack lol

If you’re not down for this 2.7k word mini-dissertation, here’s your chance to turn back.

So for those of you who don’t know me, I’m a major Classics nerd. I studied The Iliad in the original in college (and yes, I will be writing a series of metas about how s1-5 are The Iliad so keep an eye out for that), but The Odyssey remains, arguably, Homer’s most prolific epic. I’ve never parsed the text in the original, so I’m not going to be doing any sort of text-to-quote analysis because I think using a translation would be a disservice to the text (major Classics nerd. cannot stress this enough.), but I’m gonna be doing a rundown of all the major stops on Odysseus’s journey and how The 100 has mimicked each and every one of those stops in season 6 thus far.

Still reading? Cool, let’s do this thing.

Some of you may have already read my theory on the anomaly and how I think what lies inside is something like the Island of the Lotus Eaters. If you haven’t read it, you can check it out here, but brief summary: the Lotus Eaters is the first stop Odysseus and his crew make. The Lotus plant is so entrancing that it makes people forget all about their lives outside the island and coerces them to stay there, stuck in a sort of opiate-like blissed out haze of chillness for the rest of their lives, and I think that may be what’s happening in the anomaly, not time travel like others have theorized. Cool, moving on.

The next stop of Odysseus’s journey is the island of Polyphemus, the cyclops who intends to eat him and his men.

(Giulio Romano, Polyphemus)

They manage to escape when Odysseus (using the fake name of “Nobody”) blinds Polyphemus and they hide under the bellies of his sheep in order to avoid detection as they escape his cave.

Let’s think, how does this relate to our heroes? What’s happening right now on the show, going into episode 6x12?

(gif credit: @commander-anya)

Clarke is pretending to be Josephine in order to blindside the Primes and help her people escape.

In The Odyssey, this is a continuation of the theme of “hosting” or “guest-friendship” (a term I’m borrowing from wikipedia since I’ve been out of school for over a year and don’t feel like actually thinking for this pseudo literary analysis). We saw this with the Lotus-Eaters, and we see it again with Polyphemus. But the Cyclops is a bad host. So are the Primes.

Polyphemus’s host gift to Odysseus is that he tells him he’ll eat him last. He won’t spare him, but he’ll give him longer to live than the rest of his men. One of the drawbacks, is that means Odysseus is going to watch all of his people die, one by one, until he meets his demise.

God, how many times have Clarke and Bellamy watched their people suffer? And now the Primes have a way to make nightblood. They’ve turned Echo into a nightblood. Who’s next? Presumably all of them, one by one, until all the Primes are brought back to life. And with Clarke masquerading as Josephine, how many of her people is she going to watch be tortured? How many might she lose in tonight’s episode and in next week’s episode before they manage to beat the Primes and escape? How much have they lost? How much more must they lose?

We also get our first hint of the theme of “cunning over strength” (a term I’m borrowing from SparkNotes because, again, I really don’t feel like putting more effort into this than I already am lmfao) at this point in The Odyssey. Odysseus devises a plan to escape the Cyclops that involves very little violence compared to the blood-soaked battles that we saw in The Iliad. Rather than brute force, he uses his cunning to escape.

Clarke is going in as Josephine. She's not going for brute force. She’s not barging in with an army (that part comes later). This move is pure Clarke, all head. Going with the most cunning plan, not the most direct, not the most violent, the most strategic.

Clarke Griffin is Odysseus.

GODDAMN IM LOVING THIS. I digress.

The next major plot point in The Odyssey is Odysseus running into Aeolus, the god of the winds.

(source unknown by me, but this image is public domain)

He gives Odysseus a bag containing the four cardinal winds which, when opened at the right time, will send him straight home to Ithaca. His men think that the bag secretly contains a treasure that Odysseus is hoarding for himself and they open the bag, releasing the winds, and sending their ship even further off course than before, prolonging their journey.

I stumbled over this one for a second because it could be a few different moments in season 6. Gabriel giving Clarke info on how to take down the Primes? No, where’s the sabotage there? Murphy attempting to help Josephine to get mind drives for him and Emori? No, he ends up doing the right thing and puts them on the right track. Spacekru & friends devising a plan to defeat the Primes and Madi attacking them, sending them off the proverbial course? Hmm, sounds about right.

To make this easier for me, let’s call Bellamy, Echo, Emori, Murphy, Jordan, Miller, and Madi Spacekru 2.0. Well, they’re trying to make their plan to “work with” the Primes so they can get a compound, a home, for them and their people. But Madi is the crew to Spacekru 2.0′s Odysseus. She has her own agenda. She wants the treasure, she wants her revenge.

She attacks the Primes, releases the winds as it were, and all hell breaks loose.

(gif credit: @bellamyblakepositivity)

They’re thrown off course. How will they ever get their compound now? How will they get their home?

[Fun etymology fact break: Homecoming is stylized in The Odyssey as “νόστος” (nostos), when an epic hero returns home via voyage by sea, aka the MAIN theme in this epic. We get the word “nostalgia” from nostos, mixed with άλγος (algos) which means pain. Nostalgia is the pain of yearning for the past or for home. Is nostalgia/homecoming not one of the key themes of The 100? Is it not one of the key themes of The Odyssey? (also you could probably write an analysis of how nostos is a hero returning by sea and the way that space and the sea are often visually/metaphorically compared, the way you navigate both domains in a ship, the way you have an odyssey and a space odyssey....but that’s a discussion for another time)]

Next up on the journey? Aeaea, Circe’s island.

(gif credit: ? if anyone knows, hmu so i can give credit please!)

Circe was a witch who turned men into animals (mainly pigs in The Odyssey, but in another myth, into a woodpecker, which isn’t relevant, I just think it’s funny). Here we get the motif of transformation and false appearances, a continuation of the Nobody plot, and a motif that we also see with the Primes taking over other people’s bodies, constantly transforming their appearances.

While climbing a mountain to reach Circe’s palace, Hermes points Odysseus to a plant which will make him immune to Circe’s transformation magic. Why does this sound familiar......

The neural mesh in Clarke’s head gives her resistance to the mind drive allowing her consciousness to survive the “transformation.”

Like the Island of the Lotus Eaters (and the anomaly) Circe has the ability to manipulate the passage of time, or rather, the perception of the passage of time. Odysseus loses quite a significant amount of time trapped on her island. (It’s not actually 5 years, the mini-series fudged that bit a little since Homer never specifies how long it is, but I’ll forgive you, The Odyssey mini-series, because I love you so very much that I cried when I found you on DVD in a tiny Wal-Mart in the backwoods of Tallahassee two years ago)

We also get another look at the complicated theme of guest-friendship on Circe’s island. She is, quite simply, a terrible host. She traps Odysseus’s men, just like the Primes trap Spacekru 2.0. Odysseus frees them. It’s on Clarke to free her people from the terrible hosts that are the Primes. There’s a joke in there about the Primes bodies being hosts to the mind-drives. Anyway.

Odysseus’s next stop is the land of the dead. He descends into Hades (a very perilous feat) to talk with the blind prophet Tiresias. He also talks to Anticlea, his deceased mother.

My god, if that stop isn’t exactly 6x07 Nevermind.

Clarke talks to Jake Griffin, and tells him she thinks she’s dead, she’s ready to give up, she’s ready to let go. Odysseus tells Anticlea he feels the gods are against him, his journey is fruitless, he’ll never make it home. I don’t think that parallel could be more obvious if it punched you in the face.

I think maybe Monty is Tiresias in this scenario, giving Clarke advice and helping her navigate the mindspace so she can send a message to Bellamy that she’s alive which will give her the advantage of having an ally on her side. Odysseus promises Tiresias he’ll make a sacrifice to him once he gets back into the world of the living bc the dead feast on blood or something like that, but that’s like Clarke promising Monty she’ll do her best to continue to honor his challenge to her to do better. So cool. Love it.

(gif credit: @janemichaels)

Thematically, this mimics the theme of “testing” that’s present in The Odyssey (thank wikipedia again for helping me on this one lmao). You get Odysseus’s men’s loyalty being tested, and you get Odysseus’s identity itself being tested.

Clarke is tested when she is faced with the option of giving up and letting go. Spacekru 2.0 (and particularly Murphy and Emori) are tested when they learn Clarke is gone, then learn she’s alive. Will they be loyal enough to her to save her? Hint: yes, obviously, because Spacekru 2.0 is way better than Odysseus’s crew. Will Clarke decide to push forward and fight for her life? Hint: yeah, duh, because she’s just as badass as Odysseus.

Next comes the sirens.

Odysseus’s ship sails through the isle of the sirens, whose song lures sailors to their deaths. Odysseus makes his men stuff their ears with beeswax so they won’t be tempted by the song, but he ties himself to the mast, wanting to hear it. I kinda struggled with this one, but then I realized, at this point, we’re not looking at Clarke as Odysseus.

We’re looking at Octavia as Odysseus.

Octavia is faced with her greatest fear. She ends up running into the anomaly after Diyoza. If I’m right about the anomaly being sort of the Lotus Eaters, then we could assume that the anomaly holds Octavia’s deepest desires; that might have been what she’d have seen if she’d chosen the green box. She hears the call, and resists. The temptation and the overcoming thereof.

I think that’s clear enough, so I’m gonna skip ahead to the passage between Scylla and Charybdis.

Earlier, Circe had warned Odysseus of this choice he would have to make. Choose the 6-headed monster on the left and lose at best, 6 of his men. Choose the whirlpool on the right, and lose them all.

[Sidenote: how interesting is it that the anomaly is associated with a spiral shape, mimicking that of a whirlpool? Should we believe that if they enter the anomaly it is, in fact, certain death that awaits them? Or is it a metaphoric whirlpool, and they’re just being sucked in, never to return to their original mission of returning home (*cough* Lotus Eaters again *cough*)?]

(gif credit: @aryastarktheshewolf)

So I think this choice is reminiscent of Octavia’s choices of the red box versus the green box. Presumably, face her greatest fears or her deepest desires. She chooses the red box. Better to face her fears and risk dying that way than face her desires (the same green of the anomaly anyone??) and risk getting sucked in like Diyoza was, never to return.

She never saw her deepest desires in the forest (from what we saw) so it makes sense that she would choose the red box. She knows she can escape her fears. Blodreina no more. But if she faces her desires, who’s to say she could ever turn back?

(gif credit: @daeneryskairipa)

Cool cool, so freaking cool, I love these parallels so much, y’all.

Now we get to explore the most Prime-like example of “guest-friendship” in The Odyssey.

Ogygia. Calypso’s island.

[Fun etymology fact break: “Kαλύπτω” (kalupto), the word that lends its root to Calypso’s name, means “to conceal” or “to deceive.” Calypso is “the one who conceals,” she’s “the deceiver.” “Ὠγύγιος” (ogugios), which lends its meaning to Ogygia, means “primeval” or “primal.” The Primes...the first settlers of Sanctum...the ones from the earliest ages (another interpretation of the word). The Primes, the deceivers. The Primes, the primeval ones. Hmmm.]

(screencap from The Odyssey mini-series, 1997. btw, Vanessa Williams will ALWAYS be Calypso in my mind)

Calypso offers Odysseus a home on Ogygia, but he will have to abandon his dream of returning to Ithaca, to his home, to his wife, Penelope, and to his son, Telemachus. She actually prevents him from leaving for seven years (more warped passage of time a la the anomaly), effectively keeping him prisoner. But he wants for nothing there. He is fed and clothed and bathed and sheltered.

Our heroes are offered a home on Sanctum, but it’s not all it appears. It’s not the paradise they’re lead to believe it to be. They’re deceived.

[EDIT: Leah @braveprincess offered an interesting take on Calypso, which I absolutely HAVE to share with y’all:

Anyway, let my rant continue]

In order to stay, they must sacrifice Clarke, Madi too, and well, now, all of their people the Primes want to make into nightbloods. They’re prisoners in Sanctum. They can’t leave, not only because the Primes won’t let them, but because what awaits them is the Children of Gabriel and the mysteries of this new planet. Their best chance at survival is with the Primes. But that also means compromising and losing people they refuse to be without.

Bellamy is Odysseus now. Clarke is his Penelope.

(gif credit: @bellarkedaily)

He won’t negotiate with the Primes. He won’t sacrifice Clarke. Shut up, I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Athena asks Zeus to intervene, so he sends Hermes to tell Calypso she must release Odysseus. Odysseus leaves to continue the next, and last, part of his journey. His return home.

Bellamy leaves Sanctum to save Clarke. Once he has her back, they can continue their final journey, building a home on this new world. Or so we hope.

But who knows? We haven’t seen the finale yet. Maybe they’ll stay on this world. Maybe not.

Some people have been theorizing that they’ll return to Earth (via time travel or whatever it is, which I don’t really buy but whatever), which would be a really nice conclusion to the theme of nostos, but the problem with that is right now, there is no Earth to return to. Nostos only works if there’s a home to go back to. And that home, usually, must be unchanged from when the hero left to fit into the proper meaning of the word.

So, what would be the best way for The 100 to get our heroes back to Earth to fulfill this Odyssey-esque narrative that they (probably unwittingly) have set up?

SEND ‘EM INTO THE ANOMALY!

Let them chill there, enjoy a little bit of paradise, let time pass super fast in the outside world while it passes normally for them, let Earth recover, and send ‘em back. But that bit is more of a pipe dream than anything else and I doubt that’s what they’ll do. I’m not a big fan of most anomaly theories, but I think that could be a cool one. Who knows.

Anyway, that’s all I have for today. Next week post-finale, I’ll probably work through the rest of The Odyssey, with Odysseus’s return to Ithaca, defeating the suitors, and winning his wife back, if all goes to plan with beating the Primes. So if you liked this (admittedly rambling half-cocked mini thesis paper), keep an eye out for that one.

After this season, I’m gonna be doing a series on how seasons 1-5 are actually The Iliad, so if you wanna scream about Classics & The 100 with me, just drop a line in my ask :)

#the 100 meta #meta #the 100 #the100meta #the 100 spoilers #the 100 is homer and you cant convince me otherwise #my transliterated greek is ancient greek pronunciation not modern greek #so dont @ me about that lmao ik upsilons are different in modern #i hope u enjoyed and uhhhh come yell with me about classics

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saint-severian · 5 years

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Japs, Jews, Aussies, an Anglo and an Italian: My favorite directors and my favorite of their films

Hayao Miyazaki

1. Princess Mononoke (1997), 2. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984), 3. Spirited Away (2001). If you don't like anime, that's okay, because neither does Miyazaki. Despite being one of the best-well known anime directors in the world, he famously said "anime was a mistake" in reference to where the genre has gone. I, at least, don't think his films were a mistake, quite the opposite. His work will endure as long as animated films are popular or discussed as some of the peaks of the medium. Although it's easy for this kind of thing not to be your thing (which is true for most of these directors), if you are interested in anime or have a child to whom you will allow exposure to animated films (foreign, no less), I recommend old man Miyazaki, a fascinating chsracter unto himself, or at least Princess Mononoke, especially for those inclined environmentally.

Akira Kurosawa

1. Seven Samurai (1954), 2. Yojimbo (1961), 3. Rashomon (1950), 4. Dreams (1990). If Hayao Miyazaki is the Hidetaka Miyazaki of anime, then Akira Kurosawa is undoubtedly the emperor of japanese cinema. Seven Samurai is long but worth it, as one of the best films ever made, and is notable particularly for its depiction of the vast difference between the character of the samurai warriors and the peasant farmers they swore to protect (these two along with their enemies, the bandits, fit nicely into an Evolian caste triad, if you're that autistic). Rashomon famously (re)introduced the concept of an unknowable situation, obscured forever by subjectivity and human corruption and desire. Dreams is a bit of a trip but fascinating in its aesthetic and dreamlike psychological exploration. Yojimbo is tragically much less well-known than the Western remake, a movie you might have heard of starring a certain scowling cowboy.

Sergio Leone

1. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, (1966), 2. A Fistful of Dollars (1964), 3. For A Few Dollars More (1965). Akira Kurosawa gave life to the Western genre unwillingly in his depictions of the life of a drifting Ronin samurai in Yojimbo by inspiring the plot and main character of Leone's Fistful of Dollars, a tense and visually compelling film that spawned the Spaghetti Western genre and two "sequels" which in some ways surpass their origin. Like Seven Samurai, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is very long and very well acclaimed. If nothing else, you should watch it for Ennio Morricone's score (you'll know it when you hear it).

John Milius

1. Conan the Barbarian (1982), 2. Apocalypse Now (1979), 3. The Wind and the Lion (1975). Milius, a spiritual successor to the hardness and masculinity of the former two directors, was famously unpopular in Hollywood for being a bit too unapologetically Ur. Conan (called by him a "pagan film") is the purest exemplar of this unadulterated muscularity of mind and body, though Dirty Harry, with its contemporary setting amd darker tone is much more effective and controversial. John Milius did not direct his best film, Francis Ford Coppola gets the honor of having put together Apocalypse Now, but it would be nothing without Milius's writing. Here's a tip: watch the extended version. It's worth it.

Stanley Kubrick

1. A Clockwork Orange (1971), 2. Barry Lyndon (1975), 3. The Shining (1980), 4. Eyes Wide Shut (1999), 5. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Enough people on the internet talk about Kubrick, its very easy to find analyses on the man, his work and its influence (I recommend Collative Learning on YouTube). I'll mention Barry Lyndon because its unreservedly less well-known. Although it is slow (even for Kubrick), it's a beautiful and somewhat offputting portrayal of 18th century Europe.

Roman Polanski

1. Chinatown (1974), 2. The Ninth Gate (1999). Chinatown always reminds me of Rango (2011) by Gore Verbinski, who also directed Pirates of the Caribbean (the first of which is one of the best adventure films). Tbh, an underrated director, unlike Polanski, who gets his due. I haven't seen enough of his work to say anything complex about him, but certain sources have also recommended the Tenant (the same source has also recommended David Lynch, particularly Mulholland Drive).

George Miller

1. The Road Warrior (1981), 2. Mad Max (1979), 3. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), 4. Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Not much to say here: Mad Max speaks for itself.

John Boorman

1. Excalibur (1987), 2. Zardoz (1974). These films are filled with themes that lie at the heart of the Right, particularly Excalibur, an absolute triumph of a film, while Zardoz is a somewhat more Nietzschean and surreal science fiction experience, it is nonetheless well worth watching.

Peter Jackson

1. The Return of the King (2003), 2. The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), 3. The Two Towers (2002). You know I had to do it to em. These movies are popular for good reason. If you're interested, look up the esoteric analysis by a Hindu priest. Needless to say Tolkien understood the decline of our world.

Peter Weir

1. Master and Commander (2003), 2. Dead Poets Society (1989), 3. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), 4. Gallipolli (1981), 5. The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). Peter Weir is perhaps the most European director. In their themes, characters and settings, something is deeply European about his films - or at least deeply Anglo. They are enduring - thematically, visually, and in their characters. Although The Year of Dangerously and Gallipolli are vastly different films, Mel Gibson proves himself relatable and inspiring in both (as always). Picnic at Hanging Rock is a bit obscure, understandably, as a film which is very difficult to characterize except to say that it is simultaneously sexy and perverse, mysterious and simplistic. It is unsettlingly dark and yet blazed in the light of the Australian day. Somewhat reminiscent of The Lord of Flies. Dead Poets Society, its much more popular, much less outwardly depressed younger brother is one of very few films almost exclusively about male groups. In its story, culture, and aesthetic, Dead Poets seems, like many of Weir's films, like a vanished world, one close to home but just out of reach. As for Master and Commander, it continues on the trend of outward lightness and optimism with a dark underbelly, not unlike all of Anglo civilization. I've seen it four times, and every time it gets better.

Honorable Mentions films:

They Live (1988)

Akira (1988)

Alice (1988)

#lmao that wasn't even intentional #spooky

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narkinafive · 5 years

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essay update~!

inching ever closer to the right word and page count!! mobile users, i apologize if the read more function doesn’t work bc this one is a doozy

as always, PLEASE don’t hesitate to read and critique, bc i need that sweet sweet criticism babey

Few franchises can match the breadth of Star Wars, and fewer still can claim to be as iconic. Not only have the characters, dialogues, settings, and aesthetics been directly referenced and lovingly parodied across all genres, so too has John Williams’ music. Yet Williams’ music is perhaps most referenced, riffed on, and remixed within the franchise itself; it is difficult to find a piece of Star Wars media which does not contain any number of Williams’ leitmotifs, such as the bombastic “Main Title” fanfare, the sweeping majesty of the Force theme, or the foreboding, villainous “Imperial March.” Within the many, many Star Wars related properties that require the use of music, composers for the franchise’s “lower tier” [properties], i.e. any property outside of the nine-film “Skywalker Saga,” are presented with a difficult challenge: how does one emulate and reference Williams’ original, titanic score, keeping a coherent sonic aesthetic, without copying him directly, and allowing space for the composer’s own musical language?

By the 1950s and 60s, the practice of using Romantic music to accompany films was dying out; music by composers such as Max Steiner, Erich Korngold, or Leonard Bernstein was slowly being replaced by popular music of the era, or, as was the case with many science fiction films, electro-acoustic music. For example, Bernard Hermann in The Day the Earth Stood Still (dir. Robert Wise, 1951) used electronic instruments for the bulk of his orchestra, along with innovative techniques in overdubbing and tape-reversal. Five years later, Bebe Barron, alongside husband Louis Barron, would write one of the first entirely electronic scores for Forbidden Planet (dir. Fred Wilcox, 1956). Outside the realm of science fiction, films such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s (dir. Blake Edwards, 1961) or The Graduate (dir. Mike Nichols, 1967) used popular music partly for aesthetic purposes, and partly to exploit the songs’ commercial success outside of the films. Lucas himself elected for the use of a completely pop soundtrack for his film American Graffiti (dir. Lucas, 1973). Stanley Kubrick’s decision to use classical music for 2001: A Space Odyssey (dir. Kubrick, 1960) was unique in film at the time; his use of 19th and 20th century music even more so.

“Traditionally, music for the sci-fi genre would use a language inspired by twentieth-century musical modernism-atonalism, twelve-tone technique, aleatoric music, and so forth-or would use electronic instruments, timbres, or even musique concrete to provide the musical equivalent of futuristic or hyper technological worlds… Stanley Kubrick in [2001: A Space Odyssey] chose to combine images of deep space and unseen worlds with a compilation of repertoire orchestral pieces--after having rudely rejected Alex North’s original score [commissioned specifically for the film]. The selection spanned from classic pieces like Richard Strauss’ Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30, 1896) and Johann Strauss Jr.’s The Blue Danube (An der schonen blauen Donau, op. 314, 1866) to contemporary art music like Gyorgy Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna (1966), Atmospheres (1961), Requiem (1963-65), and Adventures (1962)... Yet Kubrick’s choice was also the consequence of a lack of trust in film composers. ‘However good our best film composers may be, they are not a Beethoven, a Mozart or a Brhams. Why use music which is less good when there is such a multitude of great orchestral music from the past and from our own time?’ Lucas rejected the modernist and electronic options and chose Kubrick’s approach. He wrote the script while listening to the late romantic symphony repertoire…”

Jonathan Rinzler recalls Lucas’ choice of a more traditional, Romantic sonic language as being entirely deliberate, in order to help ease the audience into the extremely unfamiliar fictional world with the use of familiar music. “[Lucas] didn’t want, for example, electronic music, he didn’t want futuristic cliché, outer space noises. He felt that since the picture was so highly different in all of its physical orientations – with the different creatures, places unseen, sights unseen, and noises unheard – that the music should be on fairly familiar emotional ground.”

The larger Star Wars chronology can be broken into three general eras: the Original Trilogy era (OT), which focuses on the time represented by the films A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Rogue One, the Sequel Trilogy era (ST), which is comprised of the films The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker, as well as the TV series Star Wars: Resistance, and the Prequel Trilogy era (PT), as represented by the films The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and Solo, as well as the TV series The Clone Wars. Of these properties, Williams has obviously scored the lion’s share of the films; Rogue One’s soundtrack was composed by Michael Giacchino, Resistance by Michael Tavera, Solo by John Powell, and The Clone Wars by Kevin Kiner. Kiner’s other work for Star Wars was the score of another TV series, Star Wars Rebels. Rebels occupies an interesting place within the greater Star Wars chronology, qualifying as a prequel due to taking place before the events of A New Hope, yet both aesthetically and narratively more aligned with the OT, rather than the PT. Though Rebels is nominally a prequel, Kiner’s musical language sets it firmly within the OT era, with frequent sonic callbacks to Williams’ score, with each aesthetic connection serving not only to link the viewer to the OT era, but also, through its absences and deviations, highlight the narrative differences between Rebels and the original films. This is particularly exemplified in the parallels and contrasts between the heroes of Rebels and the OT, Ezra Bridger, and Luke Skywalker.

From the outset, several contrasts and parallels can be drawn between Ezra Bridger and Luke Skywalker: both are orphans from provincial areas of the galaxy, both are accidentally caught up in insurrectionist rebel activity against the Empire, and both discover that they can wield the powers of the Force. They are even roughly the same age, born within days of each other. Contrasts do abound, however. Ezra receives several years of Jedi training from a former Jedi, while Luke receives very little; Ezra is actively involved with the Rebellion from the beginning, while Luke steps in at the last second to secure one of the Alliance’s largest victories; Ezra’s primary motif is connected to the twin moons of his home planet of Lothal - this, in contrast to the famous scene of Luke Skywalker gazing into the twin sunset of his planet of Tatooine; and so on. Even their character designs are oppositional; Luke is quite white, blond-haired and blue-eyed, a country farmer from a family of farmers, kind but naive, whereas Ezra is coded as Jewish or Middle Eastern (his parents’ names are Ephraim and Mira, a name likely derived from Myra, Miriam, or Maryam--this, coupled with his physical features, points to a certain ethnic origin. Mira, in flashbacks, even wears a headscarf, and is one of the few human women in the larger Star Wars universe to do so), with dark hair and darker skin, a homeless city orphan who is more than well-acquainted with the Empire’s atrocities. When it comes to their roles in the Rebellion, though, both Luke and Ezra initially start their adventures with the promise of Jedi training, and find themselves drawn in to the major political and martial action of the Galactic Civil War.

Set five years before the events of A New Hope, the backdrop of Rebels depicts the formal declaration of the Galactic Alliance, the establishment of the famous rebel base on the planet of Yavin IV, and numerous references to the secret construction of the Death Star, alongside several integral character cameos, including Lando Calrissian, Princess Leia, and Obi-wan Kenobi, while the main thrust of the story centers on the crew of the Ghost, an early rebel cell, and the journey of its newest crew member, Ezra Bridger. Described by Dave Filoni, Executive Producer and creator of Rebels, as a con artist, and Taylor Gray, the character’s actor, as “very street smart, he’s a pickpocket, he’s a little thief,” Ezra happens upon the crew of the Ghost as they commit a minor act of terrorism against the Galactic Empire, stealing several crates of supplies. Rather than pick a side in the conflict, Ezra elects to steal a crate of the same supplies for himself, outrunning the comedically incompetent Imperial police force, and dodging the members of the Ghost crew as they try to get the supplies back, until Ezra is forced to seek refuge on the Ghost to escape the marginally more competent TIE figher pilots. After helping the crew in distributing the supplies - namely, food - to a nearby refugee camp, Ezra is convinced by the Ghost’s pilot and leader, Hera Syndulla, to assist in a rescue mission. Despite his initial capture and subsequent escape from Imperial custody, Ezra chooses to see the rescue mission through to the end, and witnesses the Ghost’s second-in-command, Kanan Jarrus, wield a lightsaber, revealing himself as a survivor of the presumed-extinct and quasi-legendary Jedi Order. Recognizing that Ezra has the same gift as him, Kanan offers to train him to wield the Force in order to continue fighting against the Empire, dispelling any notion that the Jedi are gone with a triumphant declaration, “Not all of us.” Ezra agrees, and thus begins their partnership which will last for the next four years, as Kanan, who never technically made it past the rank of apprentice, passes on his fragmented training, and they both become more and more deeply entwined with the Rebellion.

Luke’s introduction to the Rebel Alliance appears to be as coincidental as the above, though one can argue that it was ordained by the Force, or some kind of similar higher power. When his uncle and adoptive father Owen purchases a pair of droids for the farm, Luke discovers a secret message hidden within one of them: Princess Leia’s plea to a mysterious Obi-wan Kenobi for aid. Luke’s first instinct is to help her, seeking out the reclusive loner Ben Kenobi for more information--with the added gratification of disobeying his uncle, who is currently keeping him tied to the family farm, and will not let him leave the planet. When the Empire, inevitably, comes looking for its stolen property--stolen Imperial secrets hidden within one of the droids--Luke is too late to warn his aunt and uncle, and finds his homestead burned to the ground. Grief stricken and alone, Luke begs Obi-wan to take him with him to Alderaan, in order to learn how to be a Jedi like his mysterious father. After hiring smuggler Han Solo to take them to Alderaan, they instead find the Death Star, and Luke convinces Han to mount a daring, ill-planned rescue of the Princess. While they do rescue Leia, they lose Obi-wan as he stalls the Imperials, buying them time to escape. Thoughts of becoming a Jedi are pushed to the background as Luke volunteers to be a part of the attack on the Death Star, despite Han’s insistence that he should take his cut of their reward money and run. Up against an implausible and unbelievable behemoth of a killing machine, a massive weapon capable of genocide on an unimaginable scale, it is Luke and his superhuman abilities which allow him to fire the shot which destroys the Death Star and everybody on it, immediately cementing him as not only a hero, but the hero, from both a Doylist and a Watsonian perspective.

These parallels are further underscored by their respective musical motifs. Consider Luke’s theme, the “Main Title” fanfare. In the words of Williams himself, from the liner notes of the original 1977 LP release:

When I thought of a theme for Luke and his adventures, I composed a melody that reflected the brassy, bold, masculine, and noble qualities I saw in the character. When the theme is played softly, I tended towards a softer brass sound. But I used fanfarish horns for the more heraldic passages. This theme, in particular, brings out the full glow of the glorious brass section of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Comprised primarily of perfect intervals, the theme begins with an ascending fifth, an opening salvo so famous that music students everywhere, yours truly included, use it to identify perfect fifths in other contexts. As Lucas notes, the principal instrumentation is in the brass section, immediately conferring an old-world heroic air to Luke. “[The Main Title theme] conveys the heroism at the heart of the saga with the economy of its opening fifth (reaching upward), descending triplet (gathering strength for another try), and triumphant lift to an octave above the opening note (attainment of the goal).” Peter Nickalls compares this to the “perfect rising fifth” of “Siegfried’s Horn Call” from Wagner’s Ring Cycle as emblematic of many heroic melodies.

[insert sheet music here, recap]

As a theme, it is punchy, energetic, intrinsically tied up in the “Rebel Fanfare,” and generally underscores moments of onscreen heroism and stylistically valiant acts.

By contrast, while Ezra’s theme is also played by the horns, they are muted, thinner, ringing out more softly over shimmering, sustained strings. [insert sheet music here, recap] Ezra’s theme mostly serves to underscore the character’s moments of emotional reflection, rather than his superhuman action, which is usually accompanied by the “Force” theme, the “Rebel Fanfare,” or the Ghost’s musical motif.

Luke’s theme in its first non-diegetic appearance, that is, its first appearance outside of the main titles, is a little different than one would expect; the melody is still a solo, but played in the horns, implicitly sonically identifying Luke as the protagonist, according to Nickalls, and with a much tamer underlying harmonization. Instead of an alternating pattern of quarter notes and triplets, underscoring the martial aspect of the narrative to come, the “Wars” part of the saga, the harmonic rhythm here is much simpler, with gentle, almost sweet chord bursts on the second and fourth beats. Steven Galipeau, in his analysis of Luke Skywalker as a modern myth, writes of this narrative moment, “We meet [Luke] as a discouraged, frustrated young man stuck on his uncle’s farm, dreaming of going to the galaxy space academy with many of his friends. As he goes with his uncle to meet the Jawa sand trawler and the droids they bring, his aunt calls out his name: ‘Luke! Luke!’ The music and sequence immediately set him apart.” Simple, full of youthful energy, this moment is an aural demonstration of Luke at the beginning of his journey. He is not yet the hero of the Rebellion, nor the famed last of the Jedi; he is simply Luke, whose primary goal at this moment in the narrative is to leave his little hometown, by any means possible. Furthermore, beyond being the first narrative iteration of the title fanfare, it is the first recognizable melody in quite some time. While the audience is treated to several recognizable motifs in the opening sequence, such as Princess Leia’s theme, the Rebel Fanfare, and the original theme for Darth Vader and the Empire (the Imperial March would not be introduced until the next film in the sequence, Empire Strikes Back), the music of the sequence of the droids wandering across the desert is highly reminiscent of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring; Lucas even used Stravinsky as a temporary score during the editing process. Famous for inciting a riot in the streets of Paris at its premiere, the Rite of Spring, and by extension, Williams’ scoring of this scene, is strange and almost frightening, meandering and unmoored--perfect for representing the precarious journey of the droids, but difficult to recognize as a melody in the traditional sense. The return to standard melodic form also functions as an auditory notice, as it were, to the audience, politely calling attention to the arrival of the protagonist.

The first iteration of Ezra’s theme plays as he assists the crew of the Ghost handing out food supplies to a group of poverty-stricken refugees who live in a small cluster of ramshackle tents, named “Tarkintown” in universe, a clear reference to the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression. One refugee thanks Ezra directly for his efforts, putting a hand on his shoulder, but walks off before Ezra can weakly admit that he actually had no part in this, apart from physically walking the crate from the ship to the town. Deeply affected by this refugee’s actions, he retreats out of the village, and watches the Ghost crew and the villagers from afar. The day’s events have overturned his entire world view, and he is taking time to process them all; rather than abscond with the supplies stolen from Imperials, the crew of the Ghost chooses to give most of them away, an action which is clearly baffling to him (though, as the audience sees, a crate of weapons will be sold by the crew to a shady businessman for income), particularly as Ezra’s first instinct had been to sell them himself, to any number of the black market dealers with which he has become familiar growing up. At this moment, Ezra is struggling with a great many mysteries, chiefly the question of why the crew had even offered him refuge on their ship. Surely, if they were like any other thief or smuggler, they would have left him behind to be killed by the TIE Fighter pilot, either as a punishment for stealing the crates in the first place, or simply to get him out of the way. (Later, he will be even more shocked that they turn around to rescue him from an Imperial Star Destroyer, one of the Empire’s largest and most heavily guarded space vessels, despite having accidentally left him behind earlier in their haste to escape.) “Who are you people?” he will ask later, befuddled by their seemingly conflicting acts as they alternately help and, to his mind, hinder him. “I mean, you’re not thieves, exactly.” Now, however, this emotional confusion, coupled with a handy tug from the Force, compels him to sneak aboard the Ghost and snoop, where he stumbles on Kanan’s lightsaber and holocron, a treasure trove of Jedi information that only Jedi can open, which he promptly steals.

Similarly to the film example above, this moment cements Ezra’s place as the protagonist of the series. It arrives more than fifteen minutes into the episode, the bulk of which had been taken up by reworkings of Williams’ motifs; the Imperial March, the TIE Fighter theme, and the Rebel Fanfare are quite prominent, while Kiner’s most incorporated theme is his theme for the Ghost crew, which chiefly plays as its old members size up its eventual new one. Nestled in a flurry of exciting musical moments that recall the thrilling spaceflight chases of the OT, the slowness and pensiveness of Ezra’s theme, in contrast to the previous fifteen minutes of music, also brings the audience’s attention to the forefront. The musical change signals a similar change in mood, content, and focus, from heroic action to emotional reflection. Indeed, this is the first truly character driven moment of the series, and the first moment of an onscreen character struggle, as Ezra tries to reconcile the altruism he has just seen with the cynicism he has known for his entire life.

[better setup] During their grand escape from the Death Star, Luke and Leia, separated from Han and Obi-wan and on the run from a pack of Stormtroopers, nearly run off the edge of a platform into a bottomless pit. With a sequence lifted right from the screen of a mid-century swashbuckling pirate film, Luke throws a rope across and swings him and Leia to the safety of the other ledge of the hallway, before proceeding with the rest of their escape. The accompanying motif is appropriately heroic,

Ezra was born on “Empire Day,” the day that the Clone Wars were ended and the Galactic Empire was declared by Palpatine, formerly Senator, then Chancellor, and now Emperor. (It was that same day that the Emperor launched his assault on the Jedi Order, wiping nearly all of them out in one overwhelming blow. Incidentally, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa were born two days later.) For Ezra, Empire Day comes with its own baggage--this day is also the anniversary of his parents’ arrest for treason, which left him homeless and alone. This Empire Day, however, Ezra is not alone, but instead has joined up with a rebel cell determined to cause some mayhem and headaches for the Imperial occupiers. With Imperials distracted by preparations for a local parade, and their search for a particular Imperial data-worker named Tseebo, Ezra and the rebels happily ruin the parade, and, while hiding in the abandoned apartment which used to be Ezra’s childhood home, discover Tseebo already there. Tseebo was, by Ezra’s admission, a friend of his parents, though Ezra himself wants nothing to do with Tseebo now, who “went to work for the Empire, after they took my parents away.” In the years since, Tseebo has allowed himself to be implanted with cybernetic enhancements by the Empire in order to increase his productivity, before downloading several caches of Imperial secrets, and attempting to flee. With all of the information in his head, Tseebo is little more than catatonic, able to walk and spout random information, but not truly understanding what is going on around him--until some turbulence aboard the Ghost appears to knock him back into consciousness. Seeing and recognizing Ezra, and perhaps knowing that he has a limited amount of time, Tseebo frantically tries to tell Ezra that he knows what happened to his parents, who he had presumed to be dead all this time. Sadly, Tseebo cannot remain lucid for very long, and Ezra must go and help draw the pursuing Imperials off of their tail, in order to get Tseebo to Hera’s rebel operative, the mysterious Fulcrum. Ezra will not discover the true fate of his parents for some time; at this point, however, he claims it is merely a moot point, telling crewmate Sabine, “I've been on my own since I was seven, okay? If I'd let myself believe my folks were alive, if I let myself believe they'd come back and save me, I'd never have learned how to survive.”

The arrest of his parents was clearly a traumatic event for Ezra, one he, truthfully, hasn’t processed until the events of this episode. Part of a Jedi’s training is learning to deal with one’s emotions in a healthy manner; Ezra, who refused to believe the possibility that his parents were alive, finds himself blocked, unable to tap into or use the Force beyond small bursts of instinctual panic, until he tearfully admits his fear that they may still be out there, and have been for all these years, to Kanan. Open to the Force, in battle with the Imperials, Ezra demonstrates the beginnings of his remarkable skill in connection, particularly with animals and other creatures, until, backed into a corner, he uses the Dark Side in order to summon a monster. With the Imperials beaten back, and Tseebo safely in the hands of the rebels, Sabine finds Ezra ruminating over the days’ events in one of the ship’s turrets, events which have shifted the galaxy on its axis, upping the stakes and changing the characters’ views of each other permanently. Sabine, who had previously treated Ezra as something of an irritating stranger with a misplaced crush, finds a kindred spirit in him as someone who has had their family torn apart by the Empire. For his belated birthday present, she gives him a data-disc which she had picked up while hiding in his childhood home; on it, amidst all the other corrupted data, is an old family photo of his. Too grateful for words, Ezra barely even notices her leave, his attention fixed on the image, as the camera exits the ship, zooming away as the Ghost heads off towards parts unknown, and his musical motif resounding in a full, stately, horn chorus. [insert sheet music]

In a pair of episodes chock full of this motif, [insert count here], this iteration in particular stands out from the rest. Firstly, it is clear that this final iteration is meant to be louder than the others, at least a mezzo-forte rather than a mezzo-piano; secondly, all the voices are working together in a moment of greater homophony, instead of a single voice over an aesthetic accompaniment; and thirdly, the top, melodic line arcs upwards, rather than downwards. These changes, in part, reflect Ezra’s newfound awareness of his own feelings regarding the disappearance of his parents. Rather than shame, which causes him to hide and suppress his emotions as he has done his entire life, he admits his fear and overcomes it, and he lets his joy and happiness at seeing the photo come out fully, rather than trying to save face in front of his peers and continue to keep playing the part of carefree, scrappy, ne’er-do-weller. It is a turning point in several ways, both narratively and musically; from this moment on, Ezra will begin making leaps and bounds in his Jedi education, going on to construct his own lightsaber in the next episode, a ritual which, in universe, historically marks the transition to a proper apprenticeship. Concurrently, instances of Ezra’s theme decrease dramatically.

[Luke example - death star run?]

[fix this part lmao] Sadly, Ezra’s quest to find his parents ends in tragedy. When a Force-inspired dream pushes him [find his parents again?], Kanan and Hera reveal that they have been trying to do the same for months. Ezra’s parents, according to Tseebo, were arrested and taken to an Imperial prison--one of thousands--somewhere in the galaxy, though soon after, news comes from the Rebel leadership of a prison break; guided by the Force, Ezra is certain that the prison break was orchestrated by his parents. Brimming with excitement and pursuing this new lead with a mildly alarming doggedness, Ezra returns to Lothal to find Ryder Azadi, the former governor of the planet, and friend of his parents. Azadi, a Rebel sympathizer, allowed the Bridgers to make their anti-Imperial broadcasts, and was subsequently arrested and imprisoned with them. Ezra, again, perhaps guided by the Force, seems to know what has happened before it is even said; though Mira and Ephraim did orchestrate the prison break, they perished in the attempt. His mourning spills into the next episode, where he and Kanan have to devise a way to get new supplies to the Rebellion without alerting the Empire to their covert benefactor’s identity--who is none other than Leia Organa, in a cameo appearance. Leia finds Ezra quietly crying over the photo of his parents that Sabine had saved for him. His musical motif this time is in the strings, not the horns, and loops repeatedly.

[Ezra’s journey from start to finish recap] Initially, Ezra joins the Rebellion not because it is the right thing to do, but because it is convenient to him at the time; the Ghost functions as a roof over his head, its crew members as a new set of parents and siblings, and its missions as a source of food and income, along with the added bonus of learning how to use an incredibly powerful, specialized weapon, despite the target it paints on his back. Filoni himself states [need src] that Ezra decides to join the Ghost not only to learn how to use a lightsaber, but because he is in need of a family, having lost his own parents at the age of seven, when they were arrested for their underground, anti-establishment radio broadcasts. Ezra’s larger journey over the course of Rebels is re-learning how to think beyond himself, regaining his trust and faith in others after having it completely shattered at a very young age, and following through with what he needs to do for the greater good of this fight against tyranny to which he has dedicated himself, not just the good of his family and friends--but, as one would expect, at the very beginning of his story, he is far more selfish than selfless. It is more than halfway into the first season before Ezra begins to truly understand and act on the Jedi lessons Kanan has attempted to teach him, beyond lifting rocks with his mind, as he finally admits and begins to face his fears while in the middle of a vision quest (presided over by the disembodied voice of Master Yoda). Over the course of the series, Ezra has frequent, deep brushes with the “Dark Side” of the Force, becoming more and more inclined to fight, hurt, or even kill in the name of pragmatism, earning victories for the Rebel Alliance through dubious and increasingly terroristic means, before the desolation of his homeworld and the loss of his mentor wrench him firmly back on the heroic path.

This is not to say that Kiner never chooses to use Ezra’s theme in a heroic context. Most notably, in the series finale, his theme plays triumphantly over his great sacrifice, as Ezra summons enormous, semi-legendary whale creatures called the Purrgil, to destroy the Imperial blockade over Lothal, and spirit away the remaining ships beyond the edge of the known galaxy, with both Thrawn, the series’ chief antagonist, and Ezra still on board. From an in-universe, narrative perspective, Ezra, of course, would have to sacrifice himself in some manner in order to explain his absence in the events of the original trilogy; Yoda on his deathbed tells Luke, “When gone am I, the last of the Jedi you will be,” leaving, unfortunately, no room for any other Jedi left in the galaxy, lest the entire narrative of the OT fall apart. It was inevitable that both Kanan and Ezra would have to vanish, though while Kanan died, Ezra merely disappeared, with Filoni confirming that both he and Thrawn are alive, somewhere off the edge of the map. It’s a fitting moment, then, for his theme to return in full force here; a far cry from his introduction as a scrappy street rat, Ezra has fully come into his own as a Jedi in his own right, and understands the role that he plays, both in-universe as it pertains to the fate of the Rebel Alliance, and in a meta-sense, as both precursor and herald to Luke Skywalker. Happily and willingly, he chooses to sacrifice himself in order to save his planet, and the hundreds of civilians who live on it, and the victorious music confirms this. Four years earlier, he stubbornly declared that he would never risk his life in this manner for people he didn’t know: “You know, this whole [rescue] mission thing is nuts. I'm not against sticking it to the Empire, but there's no way I'd stick my neck out this far. Who does that?” Hera, in reply, simply declares, “We do.” His journey with the crew of the Ghost, his apprenticeship with Kanan, and his role in the Rebel Alliance has transformed him, and his music, from shy, unsure, and sorrowful to confident, powerful, and determined, though the core of his music, and by extension, his character, remains the same; this heroism was within him all along.

In the latter half of 2019, several new Star Wars properties are set to launch, including the video game Jedi: Fallen Order, the seventh season of the revived Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated show, and, of course, the ninth and final film in the so-called “Skywalker Saga,” Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Each of the listed properties’ accompanying trailers, with music scored by Gordy Haab, Stephen Barton, and BLAKUS, composers for the video game Star Wars: Battlefront II, Kiner, and Williams, respectively, have one unexpected thing in common: the “Main Fanfare” theme is nowhere to be found. In the trailer for Jedi: Fallen Order, Haab’s score is much more reminiscent of Alan Silvestri’s Marvel’s Avengers in its melody and harmony than anything else. Though there are two instances of Williams’ themes in the trailer score, they are both short and incomplete; we hear a somber and foreboding four notes of “The Imperial March” as the protagonist gazes anxiously at his broken weapon, and we hear just the beginnings of the Force theme as the title of the game is revealed, though the theme is reharmonized in order to blend with what will doubtless become the protagonist’s own leitmotif. Similarly, in the trailer for The Rise of Skywalker, Williams chooses to only incorporate one of his themes, “Princess Leia’s Theme,” with splendid, yearning sixth intervals over long, drawn out horn and percussion crashes, partially as an homage to the late Carrie Fisher, and partially due to Leia Organa’s rumored key role in the film itself. For The Clone Wars season seven trailer, Kiner does not use any of Williams’ original score; instead, the trailer begins with the theme he created for the breakout character of the show, Ahsoka Tano, before moving into entirely his own new material.

Though the so-called “Skywalker Saga” is ending, Disney has planned nearly another decade’s worth of Star Wars content in the form of spin-off titles, television series, games, books, comics - any and every medium imaginable, and there are currently no signs that production is slowing down. Perhaps it is inevitable, then, that all traces of Luke Skywalker, visual, narrative, and musical, are disappearing from the greater Star Wars landscape as the universe continues to expand and include new protagonists and stories. Die-hard fans will of course decry this as an attack on a precious childhood memory, as they do for any piece of Star Wars media released after 1998. [Kiner demonstrates it’s possible to have the best of both worlds]

#essay tag #i'm........ extremely proud of a lot of this #there's some lines in here that are lit if i do say so myself #anyway pls give me critiques ;; thank u

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starwarsnonsense · 6 years

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Top 10 Films of 2018 (So Far)

Since I quite like continuing old traditions, I wanted to do a post rounding up what I consider to be the ten best films of 2018 so far. This list includes a few films that came out in 2017 in the US, since they were only released here in the UK this year.

Have you seen any of the films I cover below? Have I piqued your interest in a title you might not have heard before? Let me know, and do share your favourites too!

1. Annihilation, dir. Alex Garland

This was my most anticipated film of the year, and my hype for it was more than rewarded. This is a marvellously rich and transporting science fiction film that isn’t afraid of taking the viewer to some very weird places. However, Annihilation doesn’t simply rely on its strangeness to succeed - it is also firmly rooted in its characters and themes, which has made it incredibly rewarding to return to. Natalie Portman is fantastic as Lena, and Annihilation is a brilliant showcase for her - Lena is a complex and frequently self-destructive character, riddled by guilt and regrets that shape the pulsating, luminescent world of the mysterious ‘Shimmer’ that she has to venture into. The Shimmer might seem like an environmental phenomenon at first, but it’s really more psychological, being a space that adapts according to the people who enter into it. This film overflows with fascinating and thought-provoking ideas, and it was entirely worth the hike I made over to Brooklyn to catch one of the final showings at the theatre (since Annihilation was denied a theatrical release in the UK, I made a point of seeing it while I was on holiday in New York). I think it will go down as one of the great science fiction films, and it belongs in the same conversations as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris.

2. Beast, dir. Michael Pearce

This little British film - shot mostly on location in Jersey by a first-time director - was easily the biggest (and best) surprise I’ve had so far at the cinema this year. I literally had no idea this film existed until a day or so before I watched it, and that made the experience of viewing it even more wonderful. Moll (Jessie Buckley) is an isolated young woman who is stifled by her controlling family and quiet life on a remote island, as well as a secret sin that bubbles away underneath the surface. Her life is predictable - safe, repetitive and dull - until she meets Pascal, a mysterious local man who she finds she has an affinity with. However, there is a murderer haunting the island, taking the lives of young girls in the night. Who’s to blame, and what impact will the killings have on Moll and Pascal’s swiftly escalating romance? While that is a synopsis more than a review, I felt it necessary to explain the premise to try and compel you to seek this one out. Beast is raw, woozy and utterly absorbing - the love story between Moll and Pascal is one of the most passionate and gripping you’ll ever see on screen, and their chemistry is simply sensational. There’s a real gothic, fairy-tale edge to the story which appealed perfectly to my (admittedly rather niche) tastes. This is a real hidden treasure of a film - do yourself a favour and make it your mission to watch it.

3. Lady Bird, dir. Greta Gerwig

This film was so, so relatable, despite my not really having experienced an adolescence anything like “Lady Bird’s”. While the details of her life are very different from mine, I think anyone can relate to the sweeping brushstrokes - the tensions that can arise between parents and children, the thirst for freedom and independence that builds the closer you get to the final days of school, and the feelings of love and loyalty that are always there even when they’re unspoken. Greta Gerwig captures all of this and so much more with marvellous delicacy, balancing little moments that add colour and spark with more serious scenes so deftly that it’s amazing to think that this is her first feature. Lady Bird is a very specific and very beautiful film, and it’s special precisely because it feels universal even as it feels small and personal to its director.

4. Eighth Grade, dir. Bo Burnham

This is the perfect double bill with Lady Bird, and the people who have dubbed this film “Lady Bird Jr” are right on the money. Elsie Fisher has a real star turn as the heroine Kayla, who is a very special child - she’s kind, sensitive and thoughtful, which basically means she’s my kind of superhero. But even as she is a good and sweet person, she is also going through all of the trials you’d expect a 13 year old to be facing in 2018, as she wrestles with acne, confusing feelings about super-dreamy boys, and the escalating anxiety that comes with a comment-free Instagram post. Like Lady Bird, this film succeeds in being both very specific and highly universal - the only social media I had to deal with as a teen were MySpace and Bebo, and I found that seeing Kayla wrestle with a whole kaleidoscope of feeds, devices and platforms made her strong grip on her integrity as a funny and deeply warm-hearted individual all the more remarkable. Bo Burnham, as with Gerwig, made a pretty incredible film here - in particular you should watch out for the father/daughter dynamic, which is my favourite part. Eighth Grade is funny and generous, and the perfect medicine if you’re feeling demoralised by the state of the world right now.

5. The Breadwinner, dir. Nora Twomey

The Breadwinner is a really lovely animated film telling the story of Parvana, a young girl living with her family under the Taliban. When her father is taken off to prison, Parvana sees no other choice but to dress as a boy to provide for her mother and siblings. But how long will her disguise last? The story here was what really gripped me - it’s very simple, in both the telling and the themes, but it is truly beautiful in that simplicity. The emotions are very raw, and this film goes to some shockingly dark places at times - while I think it can be watched with children as long as they are mature enough for some challenging themes and upsetting moments, it’s likely to speak most strongly to adult audiences with a fuller appreciation for the context in which the film is set. It’s a great and moving alternative to more mainstream animated efforts, and is well worth your time.

6. Phantom Thread, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

This was a delightfully twisted film with an absorbingly complicated and twisty relationship at its centre. Vicky Krieps is an absolute marvel as Alma, and it’s wonderful to see how she battles to bring the fragile and austere designer Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) to heel. It’s also a beautiful film with rather fabulous fashions - if you love couture, particularly from the ‘50s, this will be a real treat. I also appreciated the many allusions to classic cinema - there are strong shades of Hitchcock’s Rebecca, as well as the underrated David Lean film The Passionate Friends. Check this out if you like your romantic dramas weird and entirely unpredictable.

7. Revenge, dir. Coralie Fargeat

Revenge is angry, sun-soaked and batshit insane - and it is pretty great for all of those reasons. It follows Jennifer, the teenage mistress of a sleazy married man. After a horrifying assault Jennifer returns, phoenix-like, to wreak her revenge upon her attackers. This movie was very much inspired by exploitation flicks, with their penchant for showing scantily clad (and frequently bloody) women wielding shotguns to hunt down the brutes who did them wrong. However, first-time director Coralie Fargeat takes every one of those tropes and owns them, ramping up the blood and giving the action a propulsive energy that keeps you gripped even as you know exactly where things are going. The soundtrack here is also one to look out for - it’s all pulsating synths that do a great job of building the suspense and tension from the get-go.

8. Lean on Pete, dir. Andrew Haigh

This is a very painful film in many ways, but it’s only painful because it does such a great job of earning your emotional investment. The lead of this film is Charley, a sensitive and quiet teenage boy who becomes attached to an ailing race horse as he seeks to escape his troubled home-life. When he finds himself in crisis, Charley takes the horse and they head off on a journey across the American heartland. Charlie Plummer is extraordinary as the lead here - Charley is the kind of character that makes you want to reach through the screen so you can offer him a hug of reassurance and support. The photography of the American countryside is exquisite, and means this film really deserves to be seen on the big screen - the breadth of the landscape gives all of the emotional drama some (richly deserved, in my view) extra punch.

9. You Were Never Really Here, dir. Lynne Ramsay

This is a very weird film (you’re probably noticing a theme at this point) but it’s completely absorbing. It’s very much actor-led, and the film rests on the shoulders of Joaquin Phoenix’s gripping and unpredictable performance - in some scenes he’s muttering in deference to his mother like a modern-day Norman Bates, while in others he’s portrayed almost as a lost boy in an overgrown body, disorientated by his environment and engaging in acts of extreme violence as if in a sort of trance. The narrative is fuzzy and unfocused, but I didn’t find that mattered much since I was too busy following every evolution of Phoenix’s face.

10. Thoroughbreds, dir. Cory Finley

Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy make fantastic foils to one another as two appallingly privileged teenagers whose obscene wealth is only matched by their resounding lack of morals. This is a film that plays with your loyalties, trying to wrong-foot you at every turn - it’s frequently difficult to figure out what’s genuine here, and while that did sometimes leave me feeling a bit emotionally detached that’s usually the point. This film is more of an intellectual puzzle than a lean, mean, emotion-extracting machine (see: Lean on Pete), and it succeeds brilliantly on that level. The simplicity of the story means the fun lies in picking apart lines and expressions, so go in prepared for some close viewing.

#annihilation #films #cinema #movies #list #movie recs #beast #lady bird #lean on pete #the breadwinner #phantom thread #Eighth Grade #you were never really here #thoroughbreds

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grigori77 · 5 years

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Lost Classics #21

DRAGONSLAYER

Dir. MATTHEW ROBBINS; Wri. HAL BARWOOD & MATTHEW ROBBINS; Music. ALEX NORTH; Starring. PETER MacNICOL, CAITLIN CLARKE, RALPH RICHARDSON, JOHN HALLAM, PETER EYRE, SYDNEY BROMLEY, CHLOE SALAMAN, EMRYS JAMES, IAN McDIARMID; R.T. 109 mins; 1981, USA

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: In the dark, superstitious pre-Christian Saxon Britain of the early 6th Century, the kingdom of Urland has cowered under the tyrannical threat of an aged dragon, Vermithrax Pejorative, for decades, appeasing its wrath with bi-annual sacrifices of virgin girls chosen by state lottery. Desperate to end their suffering, a small delegation of commoners, led by brave, outspoken youth Valerian (Clarke) – a girl masquerading as a boy to avoid a gruesome, fiery fate – seek out the aid of venerable wizard Ulrich of Craggenmoor (Richardson) and his apprentice Galen Bradwarden (MacNicol) in ridding the land of the dragon with magic, but they’ll also have to contend with Urland’s cynical ruler, King Casiodorus (Eyre), and his brutal enforcer Tyrian (Hallam).

WHY IT’S LOST: These days, especially in the wake of the immensely popular Pirates of the Caribbean films, the concept of a darker, more grown up fantasy adventure film is no great shakes for Disney, but back in 1981 this was the most mature film the studio had ever produced, and its violence, decidedly adult themes and even a brief moment of nudity provoked considerable controversy with audiences expecting more family-friendly fare. As a result it significantly underperformed on release, seeming to die a death until its resurrection and eventual salvation on home video, becoming a major cult film in subsequent years. Some believe its initial downfall was what led to Disney’s creation of sister studio Touchstone Pictures in 1984 for more mature films, which makes you wonder if this would have fared differently if it had come along just a three years later …

WHY YOU SHOULD DISCOVER IT: No matter how it fared, you can’t deny it’s a good thing time told on this film, because it’s a CORKER. It marks the directorial debut of screenwriter Matthew Robbins (a respected contemporary of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg) – he went on to direct another initially overlooked Disney cult classic, Batteries Not Included, although these days he’s probably best known for his collaborations with Guillermo Del Toro (Mimic, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Crimson Peak) – and is most famous for its near-revolutionary pioneering visual effects work by Phil Tippet, who built on initial experiments into the “go motion” technique developed from classic stop motion during his work on The Empire Strikes Back (and which subsequently gained far greater attention on Return of the Jedi) to bring the film’s most important character to life – Vermithrax itself, who (quite rightly) went on to become one of the most popular and beloved screen dragons of all time (it’s certainly MY personal fave). It’s a truly spectacular movie monster that STILL stands up incredibly well today, but it’s more than just a gimmick – there’s a living, breathing VILLAIN under the effects work, Tippet and co (alongside a similarly skilled animatronics crew led by sculptor/operator Chris Walas) managing to instil true hate and predatory fury into the beast, while Robbins’ decision to drip-feed us glimpses while teasing its ultimate reveal is a smooth move comparable to the elusive nature of the shark in Jaws, lending genuine, skin-crawling tension to a series of nightmarish sequences before the spectacular underground confrontation and climactic showdown. It’s not just the dragon that makes the film shine, though – Robbins and co-writer Hal Barwood created a powerful, thrilling dark fairytale adventure complimented by a healthy and very welcome dose of believability, from the (largely) down-to-earth handling of the subject of magic to selection of all-too-real human “villains” and relatable, fallible everyman heroes, while the Dark Ages Saxon environment was realised with great skill and strong attention to detail. There’s a wide array of awesome performances on offer throughout, with sterling support from Peter Eyre as a snobbish, vain and cowardly paper-tiger of a king, Star Wars’ John Hallam crafting one of my favourite screen villains as a sociopathic killer who dresses up his sadistic actions as being for “the greater good”, and a typically phenomenal turn from the mighty Ralph Richardson; the film is dominated, however, by its two brilliant leads. Peter MacNicol of course went on to bigger, brighter things (not least a star-making role in Ally McBeal) after portraying Galen as an ambitious, wilful and inexperienced boy who becomes a man through a truly terrible trial by (literal) fire, but it’s a criminal shame that this is just about the only screen appearance from stage actress Caitlin Clarke – she was truly exceptional as Valerian, investing her with enough fire, guts and shrewd intelligence that I’ll always consider her one of the all-time great heroines of cinema. Capped off with a thunderously epic score from 2001: A Space Odyssey composer Alex North (which even utilised themes rejected from Kubrick’s film), this is one of my very favourite fantasy movies EVER (BARELY missing out on my Top 10), just about my favourite movie to EVER come out of Disney, and DEFINITELY one of the top movies on my list of criminally underappreciated masterpieces of cinema. It’s genuinely, undeniably, incomparably awesome.

#dragonslayer #matthew robbins #peter macnicol #caitlin clarke #john hallam #ralph richardson #live action disney #Awesome Movies #must see movies #quality fantasy #quality horror

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chorusfm · 6 years

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Coheed and Cambria – The Unheavenly Creatures

When looking for adjectives to describe Coheed and Cambria and their latest effort, The Unheavenly Creatures, I kept going back to the same word: epic. Coheed have never been strangers to expanding their repertoire of complex space odysseys and intermingled stories of fictional characters, but on this LP they have genuinely created something quite remarkable. This album grabs your interest directly from the first notes of “Prologue” that sets that stage for all that will come next in this saga. From the shiny and brilliant packaging of the entire album and its artwork, it’s hard not to get directly sucked into the vortex of Coheed’s world on this fantastic record. “The Dark Sentencer” was the first single released from the album, and for a good reason; it’s one of the stronger songs Coheed and Cambria have written in this decade. With the ever-brilliant dual guitar attack from Travis Stever and lead vocalist Claudio Sanchez, everything seems to click early on for this band. They continue to put out music that encourages deeper dives into not only the backing story, but the intricate parts of the songs themselves. “The Dark Sentencer,” sounds like a direct call-to-arms to Coheed’s fan-base, and makes it abundantly clear that this new chapter has all of the staying power that people have been clamoring for. The title track, with its synth dream pop piano interlude in the beginning, leads way to the aggressive guitars from Stever and Sanchez, with a strong backing beat courtesy of drummer Josh Eppard, breaks way to the well-timed hook and chorus when Claudio sings, “Oh, pretty angel, swinging from your cable/I fear, my dear, the end is near/So run, run, run, run, like a son of a gun.” As strong as the opening single was, I kept coming back to this track as one of the ones that sold me on this record. The choice to have a slow-burner of a track like “Toys” early on the sequencing may be seen to be a misstep to the untrained ear, but you need to trust in the process of Coheed’s story-telling to fully appreciate what they were going for on the record. The hooks and pre-choruses, in particular, are consistently solid throughout this LP, and you can tell that Coheed is firing on all cylinders and not taking anything for granted as they move us track-by-track. The down-tuned “Black Sunday” lets the catchy hooks take a brief backseat to the darkness that paints over the song. The lyrical content matches these darker tones found in the music with lyrics such as, “I’ll be the air you need when your lungs give out/Teasing, teasing, teasing.” The latter half of the track brings back some more of the hope from the despair found in the early stages of the song, and the closing choruses and chanting reminded me of the final notes of My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade.” The dark themes stay around for a bit in the middle portion of the record with songs such as “Queen of the Dark” and “True Ugly.” On the latter, Claudio shouts, “Divine, these monsters of flesh and bone/Oh, they make hate look so easy, loathe their kind/Oh, show me your true ugly,” it’s hard not to strip away some of the story for a bit and look at our society of spineless politicians spewing lies that they re-brand as facts. When making these types of comparisons, Coheed can become relatable in today’s world that seems to be growing darker by the day. However, the beauty of Coheed’s message, and story, is that these times never last forever. This is never truer on a song like “Love Protocol” which features a memorable chorus of, “Hold on to me/Tell me you’ve got me, sweetheart/The world is doing dim in my gaze,” and it’s the closest we’re going to get to a power ballad from our entrusted rock juggernauts. The second half of the record is filled with hit after hit, end-capped with some of the best songs in Coheed’s late-career catalog. “The Pavilion (A Long Way Back” features one of my favorite lyrics of hope in recent memory with, “Hang on, it’s clear that the roads about to get rough/Oh, can you hear its ringing its left in my ear?/Over and over, the light hits the dusk/It’s a choice that I make but for us I choose to give it all up.” In a lot of ways, this record is about looking for what matters most in our lives: finding that person we love and would do absolutely anything for, even as the world around us turns to shit. Other standout moments from this record, one that seems to have no shortage of them, is the blazing “All on Fire.” The songwriting and musicianship have once again returned to epic levels, and Coheed deserves our undivided attention as they guide us through a story that has many key takeaways. The “monsters” and “creatures” they reference in this album could easily be metaphors for the shallow and shameless people we have all likely encountered in our lifetime, but Coheed and Cambria have always allowed this to be open to interpretation for their fans to take their ownership of these songs. If the space odyssey story works for you, great, you can run with it. If you love these solid rock songs, that’s cool too as they are writing some of their best songs to date here. I would be remiss if I also didn’t highlight “Old Flames,” that features a rare piano-driven ballad that still fits into the grand scheme of the artistic vision they were going for. It’s also the closest Coheed have come to writing a simple pop-bliss song destined for new heights on the radio since “Blood Red Summer.” The closing song, “Lucky Stars” drives the point home that Coheed and Cambria wanted to solidify on this record: don’t lose hope in what matters most in your life, and continue to strive for what makes you happy in this mad world we live in. As I mentioned earlier, this epic landscape of a rock masterpiece should not be viewed as a band that was having trouble finding their footing in some of their more recent work. Instead, this is a band that truly knows the meaning of coming “home” in the many connotations of the word. “Thank your lucky stars that we can call this ours,” is Sanchez’s way of saying that they have found peace with what comes next in this never-ending book we call Coheed and Cambria. --- Please consider supporting us so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/review/coheed-and-cambria-the-unheavenly-creatures/

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zimmertw · 6 years

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NYC & Company and Nickelodeon Expand Family Travel Partnership to Include 3 Entertainment Properties

https://business.nycgo.com/press-and-media/press-releases/articles/post/nyc-company-and-nickelodeon-expand-family-travel-partnership-to-include-3-entertainment-properties/

“ 06/05/2018

—SpongeBob SquarePants and PAW Patrol Join the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as New Official NYC Family Ambassadors—

—New Advertising Campaign and NYCgo.com Content Debut Today, Encouraging Family Travel to New York City This Summer and Beyond—

New York City (June 5, 2018) — NYC & Company, the City’s official destination marketing organization, is joining with Nickelodeon—the number one entertainment brand for kids—to announce an expanded New York City family travel partnership that will include three Official NYC Family Ambassadors: SpongeBob SquarePants, PAW Patrol, and the return of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a third year. This will be the fourth family partnership opportunity between NYC & Company and Nickelodeon, as Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer, Dora and Friends and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have served as NYC Family Ambassadors in the past. With a multiplatform advertising campaign and refreshed age-specific content on NYCgo.com/family debuting today, the beloved Nickelodeon characters will encourage families of all ages to travel to New York City—just in time for kids’ summer vacations. “After more than a decade promoting New York City as a family-friendly destination, we are pleased to expand our partnership with Nickelodeon to advance our family travel platform utilizing new family brand properties SpongeBob SquarePants and PAW Patrol, in addition to building on the appeal of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” said NYC & Company president and CEO Fred Dixon. “By lending us three of their influential and diverse brands simultaneously, we have a unique opportunity to target three individual micro-audiences within the family segment, showcasing how all ages can enjoy New York City.” The new Nickelodeon brands inspiring family travel to New York City from now through early 2019 include: SpongeBob SquarePants, a fan-favorite series for nearly two decades, now also appearing on Broadway in a Tony-nominated musical; PAW Patrol (produced by Spin Master Entertainment), the number one ranked preschool series on all TV; and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the newest reimagining of the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlefranchise, set to debut on Nickelodeon this fall. Characters in the TMNT franchise previously served as NYC family ambassadors for the past two years beginning in 2016. “We are thrilled to continue working with NYC & Company for a third consecutive year by adding SpongeBob SquarePants and PAW Patrol, along with our newly reimagined Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as the faces of New York City family travel,” said Pam Kaufman, President, Viacom/Nickelodeon Global Consumer Products. “From the continued success of PAW Patrol with our preschool audience, to SpongeBob’s critically acclaimed debut on Broadway and the vibrant new look of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, these beloved characters truly embody the endless fun and exciting experiences found throughout New York City for kids and families of all ages.” Beginning today, a national outdoor media campaign will debut in Boston, Chicago, in 22 national shopping malls and across New York City. Three creative concepts are among the displayed advertisements (one for each family travel partner brand), with unique taglines in the voices of the Nickelodeon characters. To inspire families to plan their New York City adventure, a targeted digital and social campaign will run throughout the summer and drive to a newly imagined family section at NYCgo.com/family with comprehensive guides, itineraries and curated experiences, all designed to help families make the most of their NYC experience. Once on the family page, families can discover more “Things to Do” in New York City than ever before with online content tailored and themed by three specific age groups, corresponding to the Nickelodeon properties: teens (featuring SpongeBob SquarePants), tweens (featuring Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and young children (featuring PAW Patrol). NYC & Company estimates 12.8 million family travelers visited the destination in 2017—that is up from 11.9 million family travelers in 2016. New York City, the five-borough destination, is home to an incredible array of new and existing experiences for families: attractions, arts and culture, dining, hotels and more. New and upcoming family-friendly attractions include five blockbuster openings over the last year:Gulliver’s Gate opened in May 2017 and occupies 49,000 square feet of space in Midtown Manhattan. The attraction features built-to-scale miniature scenes of regions from across the globe (including models of NYC produced in Brooklyn) and hundreds of moving trains and vehicles, as well as ships that sail and planes that take off and land (gulliversgate.com). National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey opened in Midtown Manhattan in October 2017 in partnership with National Geographic and SPE Partners. The groundbreaking attraction transports visitors on an underwater journey without getting wet, thanks to cutting-edge technology and National Geographic’s rich history of storytelling (natgeoencounter.com). NFL Experience Times Square opened in December 2017 and is an interactive experience that brings football fans closer to the game than ever before. Including a 4D film with exclusive footage, interactive displays that dive into the players’ training regimen and game plan, physical challenges that allow guests to measure up against the pros and championship memorabilia, the first-of-its-kind attraction takes fans from the stands to the field (nflexperience.com). Opry City Stage opened in December 2017 in Times Square and is a four-story 28,000-square-foot entertainment complex dedicated to country music and Southern culture. With a performance stage featuring live music in the restaurant and bar, a menu of Southern favorites, a listening room for intimate ticketed shows and songwriter’s series, the venue brings Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry to New York City (oprycitystage.com). Spyscape opened in February 2018 in Midtown Manhattan and is the world’s largest interactive spy museum, featuring world-class artifacts, advanced technology and immersive experiences. Family visitors can test hacking, code breaking and espionage skills to discover their inner spy (spyscape.com). Ocean Wonders: Sharks! at New York Aquarium opens June 30, 2018, in Coney Island. The Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium will debut its new exhibit space, a 57,000-square-foot building that will house more than 115 species of marine wildlife, including sharks, skates and rays (nyaquarium.com).For more, visit NYCgo.com/family.About NYC & Company NYC & Company is the official destination marketing organization for the City of New York, dedicated to maximizing travel and tourism opportunities throughout the five boroughs, building economic prosperity and spreading the positive image of New York City worldwide. For more information, visit nycgo.com. About Nickelodeon Nickelodeon, now in its 39th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, digital, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon’s U.S. television network is seen in more than 90 million households and has been the number-one-rated kids’ basic cable network for 22 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB). ”

#NYC #nicklodeon #tmnt #rise of the turtles #Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles

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