what-about-sex-stories

[that-left-turn]

I really want to like your blog. You have these long posts that appear thoughtful. But what I also notice is your unwillingness to call the caryl stuff what it is. The fandom , which I’m apart of, is dying. Not because of amc or people who love that other ship. It’s because we believed in actors and chemistry that doesn’t have legs. The actual actors do not support us. The actual show runners and writers do not support us. We are grasping at straws to support something that doesn’t really exist. Whining and acting like toddlers instead of staying in our area and enjoying what we have. When they had Carol marry Ezekiel I had to call bs and let it go. This is not Valhalla or amc or richonne, it’s us not being willing to admit we saw something that will never be canon. Why can’t we be happy with what we have? You seem smart and I started following you recently because of that but we need to have some reality about us now because we are fighting ghosts and we look stupid. Carol could have married Daryl instead of Ezekiel or sleeping with Tobin 🤮 Daryl could have stayed to watch over the kids with Carol. We need to stop letting twd make us look stupid for trailing us along. And we keep letting them do it.

My perspective on Caryl is rooted in how these things are handled by studios and the productions. There are a lot of instances that want a say regarding what couple goes canon and when, and more than one factor as to why. I agree with you that the fandom is dying and that the "people who love that other ship" isn't the cause, but it's not because Caryl's chemistry wasn't there.

I'll run down the main points of my reasoning:

The industry has changed a lot since the start of TWD. AMC is a basic cable network, which means their traditional means of revenue are ad sales and syndication. Certain rules were observed regarding the main/big ships of the shows that existed in that market space and Caryl is a product of those parameters. The relationships from this programming era were teased endlessly to have people tune in from week to week and the general assumption was that the audience would lose interest once the couple went canon. Also, because episodes aired out of order in syndication, it was normal to try and preserve the status quo from episode to episode.

Daryl is an original character for the TV show, so AMC outright owns the rights to him. That's why he is the most marketed/promoted character—because they stood to profit the most from him. Male (romantic) leads are not written the same way anymore that was true for the early seasons of TWD. They were supposed to be unattainable and most often emotionally unavailable for one reason or another, so the show could maintain what was seen as the core story engine.

AMC is deeply steeped in a white male business culture. (The Dolans are essentially the Roy family from Succession.) As we've seen on TWD, the female characters are by and large irrelevant, interchangeable and something to be pitted against each other unlike their male counterparts. The execs thought they'd draw female viewers by promoting Daryl as the Bachelor of the Apocalypse, especially as he couldn't be paired up with the end-game ship.

Scott M. Gimple is a petty vicious little man.

"The writers" are innocent in all this. They can and often do have their own opinions, but they're not in charge of what happens to a ship. That's a negotiation between the showrunner and the studio. Changes in showrunner changes the vision of the show. Most often because the studio wants that change but sometimes because the showrunner touched someone in ways that are inappropriate. The writers are the Greek chorus: they're not individuals per se, they mimic the voice of the showrunner.

Unless the actors have gone on record somewhere (against the terms of their NDAs) on whether they support a ship or not, assumptions on the topic are subjective. One way or the other.

Ezekiel and Tobin were part of Carol's character arc. Tobin had the same body type that Ed did, so he was a step in Carol reclaiming her sexuality and like Ezekiel, it goes to show the level of control she needs over her intimate partnerships. However, there were also BTS reasons for those choices, which had to do with Gimple's vision for the show. And, Daryl couldn't stay to watch over the kids with Carol because he was headed for the spinoff.

The original Carol and Daryl spinoff was pitched by Josh Sapan who was the AMC Networks CEO (the big boss) at the time. He was aware that there was money to be made by marketing a show about these two characters, otherwise he wouldn't have pushed for it. The intention was for canon Caryl in the spinoff, but due to backstage maneuverings, the showrunner got fired, the concept was revised and "the other lead" was forced out.

Any fan who's happy and enjoying what they have, should continue to do so. I'm not arguing with anyone's feelings on the matter. Just like I think fans who aren't happy have the right to tell AMC what they will pay for; it's a negotiation of a business transaction. I have zero faith in Zabel and Nicotero was the point person for most of TBOC due to the WGA strike, so viewers should go into the situation with their eyes open regardless of their personal preferences.

Personally, I want canon because that's the payoff for how both Carol and Daryl's character arcs have been written—they mirror each other and their joint emotional arc has been romantically coded since the start. Promotion hasn't kicked off yet and I need to hear what TPTB say and, more importantly, what they don't to make an informed decision on what I think.

[starsandsuch]

Your 4th House Sign And Your Ideal Living Environment 🏡

Aries 4H: living somewhere that is a good launchpad for you to do other things. Only being home for short amounts of time. A place where you can be physically active: home gym, treadmill etc. A place with a good kitchen that’s well equipped: gas oven, microwave, toaster oven, etc.

Taurus 4H: living in a place that is luxurious and comfortable. A home or apartment with amenities. A home that is well built and sturdy, it has good structural integrity. Living in a area surrounded by nature, trees, flowers. Somewhere that is relaxing. Living in countryside or suburbs. Living on a farm.

Gemini 4H: living somewhere with multiples: multiple bathrooms, bedrooms, mirrors etc. somewhere where you can participate in hobbies at home. Having a garden, game room, community room etc. living with a friend or sibling. A place with good WiFi. Living in walkable city, you live walking distance to supermarket etc.

Cancer 4H: living somewhere that is peaceful and serene. Living in a comfortable environment. It is a pleasant sensory experience: quiet, gets great sunlight, prefect size etc. A place with good amount of privacy and security. Living Oceanside, near water or the beach. Living traditionally in a suburb or archetypal home. Living with family.

Leo 4H: living in a place that is like a castle. High rise apartment condo, house in the hills. A home fit for royalty. Living in a gated community. Living in proximity to celebrities. Living like royalty: having house staff. Living in an environment that looks glamorous.

Virgo 4H: living somewhere modern and clean. Everything is new, updated and functioning well. Somewhere efficient, and well organized. Properity is well taken care of. Living somewhere that is easy to keep clean: hardwood floors, marble surfaces. House is pristine and untouched.

Libra 4H: living somewhere peaceful and aesthetically pleasing. A place with good architecture, a home that is artistic in someway. It’s neutral overall: not to big or too small. It is close to city but not to far either. Prefers to live with spouse.

Scorpio 4H: living somewhere that offers privacy and protection. Living somewhere secretive that’s not accessible to public. Private gated community, hidden hills etc. Having security codes, access codes, doorman, front desk person etc. Home that has powerful spiritual energy.

Sagittarius 4H: living in and environment that is flexible. Like a studio. Living abroad or internationally. Living amongst foreigners and immigrants. Living somewhere that gives you freedom: having a month to month lease, renting short term etc. Living in a diverse major city. Metropolitan environment. Living in a big house with alot of space.

Capricorn 4H: living somewhere that is well structured. Building that is antiquated or prestigious. Home looks like office, you have your office in your house. Living in a traditional home or apartment, nothing too unique or out of ordinary. Living near the state capital or government buildings.

Aquarius 4H: living somewhere that is good for environment. Eco conscious living. Living with friends/ having communal living space. Prefers not to live completely alone but having friends, roommates or house staff. Having unique quirks in home, like gadgets, speaker system, solar panels etc. living environment is out of the ordinary for some reason.

Pisces 4H: living somewhere that is like a sanctuary. Home has powerful spiritual energy: good numerology, energetically cleansed etc. home is in isolated place. Living in home where you feel disconnected from world around you. Home seems haunted, spooky or abandoned. Living near the beach or bodies of water. Living in foreign lands. Living somewhere that’s hard to find.

[fakerobotrealblog]

Providing a deep analysis of all Studio Ghibli films would be an extensive undertaking, considering the studio's rich and diverse catalog. However, I can highlight key themes and elements that are often present in their films.

1. **Spirited Away (2001):** Explores identity, environmentalism, and the spirit world. The bathhouse setting is a metaphor for societal structures.

2. **My Neighbor Totoro (1988):** Focuses on the innocence of childhood, the connection to nature, and the acceptance of mystery.

3. **Princess Mononoke (1997):** Tackles environmentalism, the clash between industrialization and nature, and the complexity of human relationships with the environment.

4. **Howl's Moving Castle (2004):** Examines themes of war, love, and transformation, set against a backdrop of magical realism.

5. **Grave of the Fireflies (1988):** A powerful anti-war film exploring the impact of conflict on two siblings during World War II.

6. **Kiki's Delivery Service (1989):** Focuses on self-discovery, independence, and the challenges of growing up.

7. **The Wind Rises (2013):** Tells the story of an aeronautical engineer against the backdrop of historical events, reflecting on creativity, passion, and the moral implications of invention.

8. **Porco Rosso (1992):** Explores themes of identity, war, and redemption through the tale of a World War I flying ace transformed into a pig.

9. **Castle in the Sky (1986):** Features an adventurous tale with themes of environmentalism and the consequences of human greed.

10. **Whisper of the Heart (1995):** Focuses on adolescence, dreams, and self-discovery, emphasizing the importance of pursuing one's passions.

These brief insights into a selection of Studio Ghibli films highlight their exploration of diverse themes, including environmentalism, identity, and the human connection with nature. Each film is a unique artistic expression that often combines fantasy with deep, thought-provoking narratives.

[dyscomancer]

can you explain what happened with larian and hasbro? why are the next 5 years going to be so bad?

So, Larian had to purchase from Hasbro/WotC the usage rights for the Forgotten Realms setting and the D&D 5e systems, among other things, to make Baldur's Gate 3. Larian self-published the game; it was not published by Hasbro or Wizards of the Coast.

However, they still had folks from the WotC D&D team help them with the integration of a setting they did not own. Having folks on hand to provide visual reference for artists designing characters, items, and architecture, having lore bible folks checking the story and dialogue for lore consistency, having rules designers help to change the 5e rules for the reality of it being a video game and not live tabletop; that sort of thing.

Thing is, since then, Hasbro has let every single one of the WotC employees Larian worked with (with whom they had a great time, by all accounts) go in their recent downsizing layoffs.

Larian owner, Swen Vicke, has been outspoken about the video game industry's quarterly profit mindset and how it has been ruining the industry. These downsizing layoffs are emblematic of this toxic business structure; by nixing employees, you can claim to your all-powerful shareholders that you got a bigger profit than you would have otherwise! Because god help you if you have to tell the shareholders that you didn't double your fucking profit margins from the previous quarter. Don't worry about how you just let all your veteran talent go, I'm sure that won't have any effects down the line.

Recent news has confirmed that Baldur's Gate 3 will not be receiving any DLC, despite previous statements that the concept was being looked at. It will not get any expansions like BG games before it did. It will not be getting a sequel from Larian. It will not be getting any expanded content outside of further updates and patches. Big extra content like that requires the aforementioned involvement from the WotC team; the team that has since been entirely fired.

Larian, as a company that generally eschews firing people for bullshit reasons and don't adhere as much to the bean counting mindset, found this firing of people to be horrifyingly unethical, as many of its staff and ownership have publicly stated. This almost certainly had something to do with the previously mentioned 'no DLC/sequels' announcement. Why would you want to work with a company that treats its people like that?

The '5 years' statement I stated was just a rough estimate. Hasbro has already started up on publishing their own video game titles in-house without the aid of studios like Larian, and 5 years is a pretty good window for titles like that to be released in the future. And judging by how their previous titles from a previous effort (bad mobile games, bad steam games) were received, I don't see any reasons to believe that this push would be different.

Had they just not fired people to please a bunch of asshole suits from some holding company doing fuck-all but sitting in meeting rooms to collect money, they'd likely have had a better chance at working with Larian on more stuff for BG3, more Forgotten Realms stuff in the future, and just generally had more chances for quality products made by a passionate and proven team.

tl;dr; Hasbro fired all their people who worked with Larian, and Larian rightly saw this as a dick move.

[fefeman]

About eternal summer co-op structure

Okay, so if I understood Eternal summer's structure :

Everyone working on the game own (indirectly, via two co-op, but still have right to capital return) a part of the studio. and that amount to 75% total

That said, I'd like to know what "creative" means. Does it mean leads? or everyone in a creative position (and in that case, what count as creative and what doesn't)

It's cool that workers include freelance and outsourced. That means it's less likely there will be external workers used to have less people in the Worker's Co-op (since it's supposed to count them)

Decisions require between 50+% and 75% of voices. That mean "Creatives" approval is nescessary for any decisions, and that no other group have a veto power. Workers, specifically, are just bellow the "veto treshold", which mean an alliance of the other 3 could strongharm a change of structure. Perhaps it won't happen, but the workers should try to negociate (perhaps via union) to increase their share by at least 1%, so they can block changes to the structure if need be. It'll be important to have decisions that can't be negociated without your approval.

It's very cool that investors will have no way to force a decisions

It's cool the community have a sit at the table.

Overall, I think it's a very interesting structure, that do give the workers (and I guess creatives, even tho IMO it's the same group) some control & ownership of the means of production, and offer the community a place in the discussion. There are some point I'd wish to have more information about, and some stuff I feel need ironing, but I like it.

It's very cool they're doing that, and I hope not only that it will work, but it'll inspire others in the industry to try similar stuff.

[fans4wga]

SAG-AFTRA Takes Up Bethenny Frankel’s Fight To Unionize Reality Show Contestants & End “Exploitative Practices”

August 10, 2023

"SAG-AFTRA, which covers the hosts but not the contestants on reality TV competition shows, said today that it’s working “toward the protection of the reality performers” in an effort to end “the exploitative practices that have developed in this area” and “to engage in a new path to union coverage.”

“We are tired of studios and production companies trying to circumvent the union in order to exploit the talent that they rely upon to make their product,” the guild said.

The announcement comes after Bethenny Frankel, a former star of The Real Housewives of New York City, suggested that reality performers should go on strike in order to win residuals for their work and to combat abuses in the workplace. Reality show hosts, but not contestants, are covered by the guild’s Network Code, which is not part of its strike against films and scripted TV shows.

“Why isn’t reality TV on strike?” Frankel said in a recent TikTok video. “I got paid $7,250 for my first season of reality TV, and people are still watching those episodes.” Reality stars, she said, “are the stepchildren, the losers, the mules, the pack horses. The ones that the entertainment industry is going to rely on, right now, to carry the water and do the heavy lifting when real stars, real A-list Hollywood is on strike.”

She added, “Reality television exploits affairs, bankruptcy, falling off the wagon, not really having what you say you have, something inappropriate, risking cancellation every single time the camera goes on.”

To address the alleged abuse of reality stars, she’s engaged high-powered attorneys Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos to investigate the alleged abuse of reality stars.

In a statement today, SAG-AFTRA said that it “has engaged in discussions with Bryan Freedman at the Freedman + Taitelman, LLP law firm who has been retained by Bethenny Frankel around the subject of treatment of reality performers. SAG-AFTRA is the union that represents reality performers. Depending on the structure of the production and the performers involved, we can cover these performers under our Network Code Agreement.

“We stand ready to assist Bethenny Frankel, Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos along with reality performers and our members in the fight and are tired of studios and production companies trying to circumvent the Union in order to exploit the talent that they rely upon to make their product.

“We encourage any reality performers and/or members to reach out to SAG-AFTRA’s Entertainment Contracts Department so that we may work together toward the protection of the reality performers ending the exploitative practices that have developed in this area and to engage in a new path to union coverage.”

“Please be advised that the day of reckoning has arrived,” Freedman, working with Geragos, said in a letter sent to NBCUniversal on Aug. 3. “While our investigation is still ongoing, we have reason to believe that cast members and crewmembers on NBC reality TV shows have been subjected to disturbing mistreatment by NBCUniversal and/or its employees, contractors, and third-party affiliates.”

Building off Frankel’s union aims, the list of such mistreatment that Freedman lays out includes:

Deliberate attempts to manufacture mental instability by plying cast members with alcohol while depriving them of food and sleep.

Denying mental health treatment to cast members displaying obvious and alarming signs of mental deterioration.

Exploiting minors for uncompensated and sometimes long-term appearances on NBC reality TV shows.

Distributing and/or condoning the distribution of nonconsensual pornography.

Covering up acts of sexual violence.

Refusing to allow cast members the freedom to leave their shows, even under dire circumstances.

In response, an NBCUniversal spokesperson told Deadline that the company is “committed to maintaining a safe and respectful workplace for cast and crew on our reality shows. At the outset, we require our third-party production partners to have appropriate workplace policies and training in place.  If complaints are brought to our attention, we work with our production partners to ensure that timely, appropriate action is or has been taken, including investigations, medical and/or psychological support, and other remedial action that may be warranted such as personnel changes.”

@bethennyfrankel on Tiktok: This is a union. I’ve defined fair & reasonable terms & consider those making $0 on the bachelor to a housewife making millions. This is a 1st pass & how I’d negotiate, w/ my institutional knowledge & wisdom in this industry w/ over a decade on 8 tv, w/ 10 books, 5 podcasts, multiple businesses & what was the fastest growing spirits business in history. I know a contract. Looking into traditional TV residuals is like looking inside “a beautiful mind.” Content used later with no profit sharing & l exploitation of hard working talent is as archaic as calling empowered independent women “housewives,” a term setting back women 100 years then using them for drama.

This is the REALITY RECKONING aka THE REALITY REVOLUTION. The is the new BETHENNY CLAUSE. Reality TV has existed for decades & sustained entertainment during the last strike & exploded. This isn’t for people like me, who have thrived & succeeded and clawed their way to the top despite the odds. This is for the next generation. These are broad stroke terms subject to modification. This fight is just getting started. We’re rogue & nimble & not entangled & unwieldy. The intention here is to affect change, get things done and make history.

I’ve listed some names who have contacted me & want to get involved. People not on this list are Vanderpump rules talent & the Kardashians, ironically the most powerful entities in entertainment right now, with the most leverage. They should fight for others who paved the way & for those after them. Shows like Summer House and others in production should stand down. Viewers should not watch this content. This paves the way for nurses and teachers, essential workers, production members & glam teams that will be inspired to create a model of their own reckoning.

Change takes courage. I’ve alienated this industry & burned bridges with the entire network and streaming community in one fell swoop. This is not for the faint of heart but it’s for the greater good. This is correct. We will be sending these terms by email with the subject line: “Reality Reckoning” starting emails with: imwithbethenny Who’s with me?"

[crimethinc]

For over a year, a powerful social movement has defended the last remaining forest in Atlanta against the city government’s plans to build a giant police training center and corporate film studio.

Yesterday, in a brutal raid involving pepper balls and tear gas, police destroyed the inspiring structures that people have built to protect the forest. Today, they are charging five arrestees with "domestic terrorism" for allegedly participating in forest defense.

This is standard government practice whenever ecological movements threaten business interests. But it is capitalist profiteering, not eco-activists, that is destroying the environment we all depend on and hastening climate change. It is police, not eco-activists, who are terrorizing communities.

Please stand in solidarity with those who are fighting to keep the earth habitable.🖤🏴

Background on the movement to defend the forest:

https://crimethinc.com/CityintheForest

[maxwellatoms]

Do you think the new division of Cartoon Network Studios will end up exploiting and abusing AI to make new cartoons of their old properties?

I wouldn't put it past any studio to do this.

We're at the end of The Animation Industry As We Know It, so studios are going to do anything and everything they can to stay alive.

The way I see it is:

AI "art" isn't actually art. Art is created by humans to express ideas and emotions. Writing prompts allows a computer to interpret human ideas and emotions by taking other examples of those things and recombining them.

Just because something isn't art doesn't mean that humans can't understand it or find it beautiful. We passed a really fun prompt generation milestone about a year ago where everything looked like it was made by a Dadaist or someone on heavy psychedelics. Now we're at the Uncanny Valley stage. Soon, you won't be able to tell the difference.

It's not just drawings and paintings that are effected, but writing and film. It's every part of the entertainment industry. And the genie is out of the bottle. I've seen people saying that prompt-based image generators have "democratized" art. And I see where they're coming from. In ten years, I can easily see a future where anyone can sit down at their desk, have a short conversation with their computer, and have a ready-to-watch, custom movie with flawless special effects, passable story, and a solid three act structure. You want to replace Harrison Ford in Star Wars with your little brother and have Chewbacca make only fart sounds, and then they fly to Narnia and fistfight Batman? Done.

But, sadly, long before we reach that ten year mark, the bots will get hold of this stuff and absolutely lay waste to existing art industries. Sure, as a prompter I guess you can be proud of the hours or days you put into crafting your prompts, but you know what's better than a human at crafting prompts? Bots. Imagine bots cranking out hundreds of thousands of full-length feature films per minute. The noise level will squash almost any organic artist or AI prompter out of existence.

AI images trivialize real art. The whole point of a studio is to provide the money, labor, and space to create these big, complicated art projects. But if there are no big, complicated art projects, no creatives leading the charge, and no employees to pay... what the fuck do we need studios for? We won't, but their sheer wealth and power will leave them forcing themselves on us for the rest of our lives.

The near future will see studios clamp down on the tech in order to keep it in their own hands. Disney does tons of proprietary tech stuff, so I'm sure they're ahead of the game. Other studios will continue to seek mergers until they can merge with a content distribution platform. I've heard rumors of Comcast wanting to buy out either WB or Nick. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. The only winners of this game will be the two or three super-huge distribution platforms who can filter out enough of the spam (which they themselves are likely perpetuating) to provide a reasonable entertainment experience.

400,000 channels and nothing's on.

I do think that money will eventually make the "you can't copyright AI stuff" thing go away. There's also the attrition of "Oh, whoops! We accidentally put an AI actor in there and no one noticed for five years, so now it's cool."

One way or another, it's gonna be a wild ride. As the canary in the coal mine, I hope we can all get some UBI before I'm forced to move into the sewers and go full C.H.U.D.

[mur4sak1]

How would genshin men react to seeing you in a dress?

A/N: Remember that English is not my first language so I hope I wrote in the best way <3

Situation: that day in the city there was a big celebration that had animated the whole town. The people were elegantly dressed, they laughed, lived and joked, filling even the smallest streets with joy. Due to the size of the city you and your man hadn’t met yet, until he, searching through the crowd, managed to see your face. But due to your appearance he was unable to immediately approach you.

Characters: Diluc, Kaeya, Wriothesley, Alhaitham, Kaveh

Diluc=People's shouts of joy could be heard from every corner of the city and they were so loud that they even echoed inside the buildings. Diluc, who until now had been working in his studio, was ready to go to the streets to enjoy the last moments of the party. As soon as he went out the structure, the muffled music that could be heard from the rooms was louder than ever, giving him a bit of relif after so many hours of effort. He went down the stairs of the city until he reached the long balcony overlooking the main square, tiredly leaning on it with his arms. His eyes looked at the crowd dancing casually and without following the rhythm throughout the area until a group of them fell, perhaps because they were too drunk. A laugh escapes from Diluc's lips which makes him roll his eyes at the clumsiness of what he had seen. However, a girl arrives to help the men on the ground to get up, she was dressed very well in a long tight dress which highlighted her curves and with his back free from tissue, illuminated by the light of the setting sun. The group thanked her and staggered away and Diluc thought of how kind she was to help them, even if the fault of that situation was theirs. The woman turned and the redhead immediately recognized your face, even though it was very far away; he had always seen something more in you and this event sparked something and him. It was so obvious, his face had turned the same color as his hair, a scene that if Kaeya had seen it, it would have been a great excuse to make fun of his brother for life.

Kaeya=The celebration in Mondstadt heated up the streets. Everyone was joyful, excited and drunk, and Kaeya loved to take advantage of these situations to flirt with anyone he could see and then walk away without accomplishing anything, just to have fun, just for the sake of feeling powerful. The crowd had gathered under the statue of the archon anemo and loud music led everyone to a free and wild dance that filled the square. The blue-haired man was leaning against the side wall of the church, surrounded by a few women who drooled over him and asked to tell them all his amazing adventures. “…and that's how I defeated a horde of Hilichurl completely alone” he concluded proudly while the women listened to him impatiently, as if they couldn't contain their excitement. As he spoke, focused on driving the desperate ones even more crazy, he saw a female figure pass in front of him. She was too focused on carrying a large bouquet of yellow flowers in her arms and not tripping over her heels to care about anyone around her. The long floral dress she wore fell softly on her hips, leaving her chest partially empty and allowing the flowers direct contact with her skin. The long hair had a few small green leaves, probably blown away by the wind from the bouquet and landed there; Kaeya had noticed all this in a couple of seconds. She walked along the entire pathway alongside the church and then approached an elderly lady and, crouching down slightly due to his short height, handed her the large bouquet. When she stood up she shook his dress and moved his head to make any residue fall out. It was in that moment that Kaeya recognized you, brighter than any little girl present, the only woman he really wanted and that, for some reason, he could never get. The old lady thanked you and you lowered your head slight, and then joined Barbara and Amber who were talking not far away. Having disappeared from his vision, Kaeya regained his composure and this allowed his attention to return to the small crowd surrounding him which was now bothering him quite a bit. “Okay misses, story finished, I have to go now” he said, then he made space between the women and walked away. In return he received disappointed gasps, but he didn’t care anymore, those women no longer interested him. He just wanted to get rid of it so he could finally reach you and try, for the umpteenth time, to conquer you... but you weren't going to give him an easy win.

Wriothesley=The festivals in Fontaine were always large and involved all members of the big region. The city was decorated in every corner, filled with various activities and food stands to spend the day in company. That year Furina was extremely excited by the idea and decided to give all of her employees the day off so that they too could appreciate and enjoy the hard work that was behind the creation. It was now late morning and Wriothesley was walking through the streets near Neuvilette while they were looking for a place to have lunch; they were sure that everyone would share their idea shortly, so they hurried and entered in a small pub that made the best sandwiches in the city to avoid a painful and long row of people. As soon as they entered, however, they found a crowd of drunk figures laughing and dancing to the music in the large area surrounding the counter. With his hands in his pockets, Wriothesley followed his friend to the cash desk, ready to order lunch and leave the restaurant as soon as possible. As he was selecting his choice from the menu, heard Neuvilette say hello to someone, and as he looked up, he saw Navia sitting at the counter with a beer in her hands. The man greeted her with a nod and returned to concentrating on his lunch. At a certain point his attention was called again by the woman's words “and don't you say hello to y/n?”. Wriothesley was confused, he was always alert and attentive to everything! You weren't there, otherwise he would have definitely seen you! But he was wrong...he looked up again and behind the blonde he saw a familiar figure in a tight short dress and high black boots, with loose hair framing her lightly made-up face. Their gazes met and the man immediately recognized your eyes, being struck by your appearance. He had never seen you so elegant... of course, he had always considered you an attractive woman in work clothes but he would never have imagined that you could be so attractive in a simple dress. “Won't you say hello to me Wrio?” You replied with a light laugh. Finally the man regained his composure and greeted you, but did so with a slight stutter. This made Neuvilette frown, and as he looked closer at Wriothesley, he immediately understood why. So he immediately turned to Navia and asked her if they could go for a walk around the outside streets to discuss some work things. Initially she refused because she wanted to enjoy the party with her friend and without thinking about duties. The man, however, looked at her intensely, pointing to something in the dark-haired that made her burst out laughing. Still in ecstasy, she stood up and started to leave for the fateful work talk, laughing. Maybe due to the alcohol or the liveliness of the moment but what she said to Wriothesley made him blush and become even more agitated than he already was: "If I were you I would keep more control of your friend in public hahahah". In fact the man hadn't realized it but y/n's dress had not only left him speechless, but also the one who was creating the bulge under his trousers.

Alhaitham=It was now late afternoon and the party was coming to an end. The tired group of people was slowly decreasing and everyone was heading back to their homes. Alhaitham had walked alongside Tighnari all day as they tried, in vain, to contain Kaveh's contagious enthusiasm at every stand they passed. The city was not very large in size, but the numerous and intricate streets that were used as elevators to go up to the upper floors of the structure made it like a labyrinth and it was difficult to meet family figures. In fact, the man had not met you even once and this was remarked several times during the afternoon by Kaveh, who seemed to be your biggest admirer. Now half drunk, Alhaitham took him home and made him lie down on the bed, where he fell into a deep sleep. He went into the kitchen to prepare a quick dinner but while he was waiting for the water to boil to prepare a soup, his thoughts constantly ran to all those times that, after hearing your name from the mouth of his roommate, he searched for your face in in the middle of the crowd, without however having any results. Since he was a resolute man he decided to leave the house for a walk, in the hope of putting peace to the confusion in his head. By now the streets were deserted and walking had become much easier and more relaxing than it had been in the previous hours. Alhaitham took a small road that climbed upwards to reach a small gazebo that he loved so much, because it was isolated and had a magnificent view. He mentally retraced the road: as soon as he finished the short covered corridor he would have to turn left. He took the last steps but as soon as he turned around he realized that his isolated spot was actually already occupied. There was a woman from behind, sitting on a small stone bench, with her face turned towards the red sunset, the light wind was moving her hair and with it the hem of the short dress she was wearing. For the first time Alhaitham could not think; he was known for his intellectual qualities superior to the norm, and for always being a rational and cautious man in his actions. But this time it was as if his mind was turned off, struck by what his eyes were seeing. The woman moved her face slightly to observe the view from the other side too and the man immediately understood who he was looking at, it was you. The rotation of your head caused you to glimpse a male figure, gasping in fear. “Oh it's you Al, you scared me” you said giggling heavily, relieved it was him. “Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, I just didn't recognize you dressed like that,” he said, finally managing to compose himself. “The view from here is beautiful, right?” you said, turning your gaze to cover your embarrassment. The man answered after a while with a simple "definitely", which however was certainly not aimed at the sunset, but rather at the one thing that his eyes could no longer stop looking at. “Will you sit here with me or will you stand the whole time?” you asked, finally making the man come forward and sit next to you. You two looked at the sky for some time, in silence, without saying a word. However, if the two had opened their ears more, they would have heard a familiar laugh of joy coming from not far away; it was Kaveh who, woken up by the fall of the boiling pot, had gone out to get angry at Al for not paying attention but found him, after not a short time, with you. This made him explode with joy because he knew in his heart that he was partly the cause of everything that was happening, but also of his friend's first and only irresponsible behavior for which he could have teased him for a lot.

Kaveh=The city was so full of people that many had started to pass among the tables where other people were eating and drinking together. In fact, Cyno complained several times about this behavior while he was at a small square table with Kaveh, Alhaitham and Tighnari eating some skewers. The party was desert themed and for this reason you could occasionally see some child dressed as an Egyptian deity running through the crowd and stumbling due to the long white fabrics and the mask that partially covered their vision. Between one laugh and the next, time passed quickly but not having seen you yet caused a small sadness in Kaveh that he tried, as usual, to hide by transforming himself into the life of the party. After a couple of hours the boys were still sitting at the table talking about this and that when the blond felt hands covering his eyes and a figure standing out behind him. "Who is?" he asked . "Guess!". He immediately recognized your voice and showed the joy he had of knowing you were close with a big smile. “Y/n I know it's you, now let me see” he said laughing. You immediately did as requested and gave him a big hug from behind, wrapping your arms around his slender shoulders. Then you broke away and went to the other side of the table to say hello to all the boys. Due to the fact that you had suddenly appeared from behind, Kaveh hadn't yet been able to see you properly, but when he found yourself in his visual field, the boy was amazed. You wore a long white satin dress with two holes in the sides from which hung chains full of diamonds and gold decorations. The arms were covered by a thin white veil attached to the dress by a single seam at breast level while the back was completely empty, exept for a chain that started from the shoulders and went down in a "Y" shape until it found the fabric. In her hair there was a pin with a white flower and the face was decorated with long black eyeliner. Throughout the greetings, Kaveh had his eyes fixed on your outfit, so much that he didn't even realize that you were in the company of Collei (who was also equally dressed in the theme of the party) who immediately handed you a drink. The girl asked if you and her could join them and, after a positive nod from Tighnari, pulled up a chair and sat down next to him. You also did the same thing, but sat between Kaveh and Cyno. There was so much chaos and it was difficult to communicate between the music and the singing crowd. You sipped the drink your friend had offered you for the first time, exclaiming out loud that it tasted great, sure that no one had heard you. In reality you were wrong, as Kaveh took the moment to get close to your ear and whisper a phrase that would surely soon have more than unexpected results: "you're very good too".

[togglesbloggle]

In Defense of Bad Things

'Bad' here meaning mostly 'amateur'; stuff made enthusiastically by people at an unprofessional level. Art with visible gaps between what the artist imagined and what they achieved, products of flawed craftsmanship. I suppose everybody can appreciate them to some extent, it's a rare parent that doesn't put up their kid's drawings on the fridge in one way or another. But it turns out to be a fully general skill you can cultivate, and the more I do, the more I'm glad I did.

Partly, it's the teacher thing; finding delight in amateur work is one of the ways to find delight in the process of learning. Cultivating a love of striving-qua-striving can help make you a force for good in the world, as people start to feel safe trying to do things when you're around, even when their efforts are wobbly. You get to participate a little more in the process of atoms spinning themselves into ideas, even when there aren't any illusions about whether you're helping cultivate some revolutionary genius in the field.

And partly it's a fabulous way to build community. By necessity, our professional-level skills tend to be at the service of other people, performed for economic benefit; that's kind of how you get professionally good at something in the first place. When we're acting for our own sake, and among friends, most of what we do with one another is amateurish. I only cook middling-okay, I can't hold a tune that well, I'll never be a speed runner for anything. If you can only enjoy singing from the hundred best singers in the whole world, manufactured and polished by major studios, then you and your friends will sit shoulder-to-shoulder and passively listen to music. But it's so much richer an experience to sit face-to-face, actually singing together, even badly; you expose yourself to so many new ways to appreciate and respect one another, building relationships on what you've accomplished and not just by witty criticism or liking the same things.

And partly it's because some of the most powerful and innovative artistic experiences are in high-churn environments with low expectations and low barriers to entry, if only because those catch the passionate and driven young people that have been otherwise overlooked by our systems. The golden age of webcomics meant that a ton of the actual art involved was pretty lousy, but it also produced work that people still talk about today. D&D began as a profoundly unpolished collection of handmade rulebooks sold at cons in a plastic baggie. By the time these products of enthusiastic amateurs filter themselves through various levels of popularity and absorb mainstream cash influx, they're often risk-averse and missing a lot of the bold spark that inspired their fans in the first place; others will simply never drift towards the mainstream at all. I'm not saying you should be the person who goes out to dig through the slush piles of the internet looking for overlooked art, unless you want to be-- but sometimes a work of actual staggering genius also happens to be a Supernatural fanfic by a first-time author who's a little hazy on commas, and if that's a dealbreaker, you're going to miss out on some profoundly valuable experiences.

And hiding behind all of these things is, like...

Our appreciation of beauty has an odd structure, right? When things are done very skillfully, by brilliant artists with years of training, we can usually appreciate those accomplishments. And when we're looking at nature without human influence, and especially when we think very deeply about natural processes and understand them in context, we often rediscover that sense of beauty. There's just this bizarre hole in the middle where we declare things 'ugly'; as if a little skill is worse than none at all.

I really don't trust that gap. It feels like a trick my brain is playing on me, you know? It has me suspicious that a lot of what I consider 'ugly' or 'bad' is not a very direct experience of the world at all, or an informed judgment. That it is, rather, a declaration of (self-, social-) identity; a desire to be seen as a person of good taste, or as somebody who does things well, or just more primitively as one of the monkeys who is in the good-stuff-tribe and not one of the monkeys who is in the bad-stuff-tribe.

[caesarflickermans]

this entire post was pre-written—and even more parts than I'm sharing—based on the assumption we'd get a plutarch pov reveal today and I could share it asap.

as I still quite like my ideas, I want to not have it go to waste and now just share it as a nice concept for yall to enjoy ♡ it's first a "what plutarch's role could've been" and then a three-arc structure that summarises my idea on how that concept would've looked like.

Potential role in SOTR

— Plutarch might be an intern/apprentice/junior Gamemaker. We could get an insight into the Gamemaker's office and decipher the difference between actual live footage and what the Gamemakers decide to show to Panem. Here, we could learn about who decides on the "story" for that year's arena (Head Gamemakers, President, powerful sponsors?). Plutarch might learn the first aspects on the craft of propaganda and manipulating a story to shape it to the Capitol's advantage.

— We might learn more about his personal motivation to rebel, such as the previously mentioned death of colleagues following Haymitch's victory, and the influence of his family; perhaps the Heavensbee's were involved in education, hence the Academy hall, and Plutarch might have a unique access to historic knowledge.

— Giving us more insight into beloved characters, such as various victors, the Flickermans, Snow, Tigris, Snow's classmates/their children.

— Learn more about the Capitol's class system and inner power structures.

— We could learn more about how the mentor system worked for the 50th Hunger Games as, outside of Haymitch, it is unlikely every District had four victors to mentor a single tribute.

— Learning more about Snow at the time, potentially exerting his influence over Plutarch & potentially learning more about Snow’s and Tigris’ relationship at the time and first (or continuous) cracks in that relationship that might allude to why they fell/will fall out

— Find out how Haymitch and Plutarch grew to trust each other, potentially by elaborating on the victory tour; maybe Plutarch was one of the remaining Gamemakers who came out alive, hence accompanied Haymitch on his victory tour.

Potential story structure for SOTR

— Act 1: The day of the reaping begins with Plutarch’s first day in the Gamemaking office. We might learn about how the arena was constructed and how last minute preparations work. We could gather a deeper understanding how the Games function as a TV show: Deciding for interesting characters, creating an engaging story for the viewers, how the score evaluation functions. Potentially, we could learn more about the personnel working behind the Games but not in the Gamemaking studio, such as escorts, stylists (Tigris?), and host (Caesar).

# Potential characters to appear: Plutarch, Snow, Tigris, Caesar, various previous victors

— Act 2: The Games themselves occur. We might learn about various tributes, and gather insight in how the games happen live from the various cameras in the studio, and what the Gamemakers decide to air, who to focus on, and what stories they depict. We might learn about how that affects sponsors and viewers, as well as the Districts by seeing the first-ever Final 8 interviews happen. Plutarch might be part of, or otherwise participate in, the Final 8 interviews and potentially go to one District, such as a Career District, or interview Maysilee’s and Haymitch’s friends and family. In addition, we might learn more about Haymitch’s rebellious act, and whether the footage Katniss saw was the truth or whether it had been manipulated, and if so, how.

# Potential characters to appear: Plutarch, Caesar, various previous victors, the family of the Careers, various District 12 characters such as the Everdeens, Mellarks, Undersees, and Abernathys

— Act 3: The aftermath of the Games and victory tour. Plutarch might have lost a mentor figure and several colleagues to Snow's anger. We could learn about how the decision is made to kill Haymitch’s family and how Snow overall reacts to another District 12 victor. We could learn more about how the media shaped the narrative of the 50th Hunger Games, and how the victory tour happened. This could be the true opening of the rebellion where a confused and uncertain Plutarch tries to gather like-minded individuals. He might be told to accompany Haymitch for the victory tour as no one higher up wants to or is dead, and he might use this as an opportunity to befriend and get closer to Haymitch.

# Potential characters to appear: Plutarch, Caesar, various previous victors and specifically Chaff, various District 12 characters such as the Everdeens, Mellarks, and Undersees

— Epilogue: This epilogue could mirror Snow's; whereupon Plutarch sets out to rise in the ranks of the Gamemakers for the purpose of a rebellion he has a clear vision after Act 3. Potentially, he could be featured as trying to gather insight, planning the 51st Games, or going to visit potential future allies, such as Tigris.

[wilcze-kudly]

If worked for the team who made Avatar TloK. How would you rewrite TloK?

To be completely honest, rewriting tlok wouldn't fix all it's issues. Tlok just needed to have longer seasons, an actually established amount of seasons so they weren't pressured to make every single season a complete story for fear of not getting more time.

But let's say, hypothetically that I murdered mr Crabs or whoever is in charge of Nickelodeon and removed any studio meddling from the show.

My perfect world would include:

More filler episodes that focus on a singular character. Think Sokka's Master or the Painted Lady. The Krew are all fascinating characters with a lot of potential, however, due to the runtime of the show, their storylines are rushed... or completely nonexistent. Give me more details of Mako and Bolin's childhood. Show me emore of Asami struggling with her father's arrest.

I'd try to cut down on the westernisation of the show. I can see why these foreign aspects slipped in, since the closer the Avatarverse inches to our modern times, the more blurred the lines become. At least to my whiteass. I'd try to lean towards silkpunk, rather than the much more west based steampunk. It would be a fascinating endeavour to imagine what a world with mostly eastern influences would look like.

I'd make Vaatu the overarching villain/final boss of the story... it would require a bit of moving around of the timeline but I think I'd structure it as: Red Lotus> Kuvira> Amon> Vaatu. However I'd blur the timeline more. Make Amon a background threat in the eariler seasons, only for him to rise in popularity and power after people see what benders like Kuvira are capable of, for example.

This would also allow for certain villains to become redeemed or at least helpful in some way, later on. Mayhaps Amon and Kuvira team with the Krew to defeat Vaatu in some way.

Also, instead of destroying Vaatu completely, I'm leaning towards Korra absorbing him, in a way. Yes Vaatu is a dark spirit, but 'darker' urges are necessary for humans' survival and happiness. Korra embodies the duality of man very well. I think it would be a fascinating idea to see the Avatar become the embodiment of both light and darkness.

In general, making Vaatu and Raava more morally ambiguous, rather than the simple good spirit/bad spirit thing they had in the og show would be a fascinating concept.

I'd do my best to pull away from the show's original centerist narrative. Have Korra learn from the villains and make active changes to the world, showing her growth as an Avatar and person. Perhaps she's reluctant to see the Red Lotus' point of view at the beginning of the show, but sympathises with Amon at the tail end of the story.

Make the entire Krew queer. And talk about queerness more, in general. Have the characters have open conversations about queerness in their respective enviornments and cultures. Tlok already has a very queer undertone to it, even before korrasami became canon, but touching on this subject more overtly would provide great opportunity for characterisation and worldbuilding.

Have the story span several years. Watch the Krew grow up. Tlok works very well as a coming of age story even in its original form. Have Vaatu and his darkness and chaos symbolise the uncharted waters of maturity at the end of teenagedom. This especially works if Korra merges or accepts him like i suggested.

There... that's some basics. I think that most of my criticisms of the show could mostly be solved if the studio wasn't being a bitch but well. We can't have nice things, can we?

I took a while to answer this ask because it was genuinely such an interesting, but overwhelming question.

Also now I have wayy too many ideas about a potential tlok rewrite, so feel free to ask me about that if you want to hear me ramble.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Copyright won't solve creators' Generative AI problem

The media spectacle of generative AI (in which AI companies’ breathless claims of their software’s sorcerous powers are endlessly repeated) has understandably alarmed many creative workers, a group that’s already traumatized by extractive abuse by media and tech companies.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/09/ai-monkeys-paw/#bullied-schoolkids

Even though the claims about “AI” are overblown and overhyped, creators are right to be alarmed. Their bosses would like nothing more than to fire them and replace them with pliable software. The “creative” industries talk a lot about how audiences should be paying for creative works, but the companies that bring creators’ works to market treat their own payments to creators as a cost to be minimized.

Creative labor markets are primarily regulated through copyright: the exclusive rights that accrue to creators at the moment that their works are “fixated.” Media and tech companies then bargain to buy or license those rights. The theory goes that the more expansive those rights are, the more they’ll be worth to corporations, and the more they’ll pay creators for them.

That’s the theory. In practice, we’ve spent 40 years expanding copyright. We’ve made it last longer; expanded it to cover more works, hiked the statutory damages for infringements and made it easier to prove violations. This has made the entertainment industry larger and more profitable — but the share of those profits going to creators has declined, both in real terms and proportionately.

In other words, today creators have more copyright, the companies that buy creators’ copyrights have more profits, but creators are poorer than they were 40 years ago. How can this be so?

As Rebecca Giblin and I explain in our book Chokepoint Capitalism, the sums creators get from media and tech companies aren’t determined by how durable or far-reaching copyright is — rather, they’re determined by the structure of the creative market.

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

The market is concentrated into monopolies. We have five big publishers, four big studios, three big labels, two big ad-tech companies, and one gargantuan ebook/audiobook company. The internet has been degraded into “five giant websites, each filled with screenshots from the other four”:

https://twitter.com/tveastman/status/1069674780826071040

Under these conditions, giving a creator more copyright is like giving a bullied schoolkid extra lunch money. It doesn’t matter how much lunch money you give that kid — the bullies will take it all, and the kid will still go hungry (that’s still true even if the bullies spend some of that stolen lunch money on a PR campaign urging us all to think of the hungry children and give them even more lunch money):

https://doctorow.medium.com/what-is-chokepoint-capitalism-b885c4cb2719

But creative workers have been conditioned — by big media and tech companies — to reflexively turn to copyright as the cure-all for every pathology, and, predictably, there are loud, insistent calls (and a growing list of high-profile lawsuits) arguing that training a machine-learning system is a copyright infringement.

This is a bad theory. First, it’s bad as a matter of copyright law. Fundamentally, machine learning systems ingest a lot of works, analyze them, find statistical correlations between them, and then use those to make new works. It’s a math-heavy version of what every creator does: analyze how the works they admire are made, so they can make their own new works.

If you go through the pages of an art-book analyzing the color schemes or ratios of noses to foreheads in paintings you like, you are not infringing copyright. We should not create a new right to decide who is allowed to think hard about your creative works and learn from them — such a right would make it impossible for the next generation of creators to (lawfully) learn their craft:

https://www.oblomovka.com/wp/2022/12/12/on-stable-diffusion/

(Sometimes, ML systems will plagiarize their own training data; that could be copyright infringement; but a) ML systems will doubtless get guardrails that block this plagiarism; and, b) even after that happens, creators will still worry about being displaced by ML systems trained on their works.)

We should learn from our recent history here. When sampling became a part of commercial hiphop music, some creators clamored for the right to control who could sample their work and to get paid when that happened. The musicians who sampled argued that inserting a few bars from a recording was akin to a jazz trumpeter who works a few bars of a popular song into a solo. They lost that argument, and today, anyone who wants to release a song commercially will be required — by radio stations, labels, and distributors — the clear that sample.

This change didn’t make musicians better off. The Big Three labels — Sony, Warners, and Universal, who control 70% of the world’s recorded music — now require musicians to sign away the rights to samples from their works. The labels also refuse to sell sampling licenses to musicians unless they are signed to one of the Big Three.

Thus, producing music with a sample requires that you take whatever terms the Big Three impose on you, including giving up the right to control sampling of your music. We gave the schoolkids more lunch money and the bullies took that, too.

https://locusmag.com/2020/03/cory-doctorow-a-lever-without-a-fulcrum-is-just-a-stick/

The monopolists who control the creative industries are already getting ahead of the curve on this one. Companies that hire voice actors are requiring those actors to sign away the (as yet nonexistant) right to train a machine-learning model with their voices:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d37za/voice-actors-sign-away-rights-to-artificial-intelligence

The National Association of Voice Actors is (quite rightly) advising its members not to sign contracts that make this outrageous demand, and they note that union actors are having success getting these clauses struck, even retroactively:

https://navavoices.org/synth-ai/

That’s not surprising — labor unions have a much better track record of getting artists’ paid than giving creators copyright and expecting them to bargain individually for the best deal they can get. But for non-union creators — the majority of us — getting this language struck is going to be a lot harder. Indeed, we already sign contracts full of absurd, unconscionable nonsense that our publishers, labels and studios refuse to negotiate:

https://doctorow.medium.com/reasonable-agreement-ea8600a89ed7

Some of the loudest calls for exclusive rights over ML training are coming not from workers, but from media and tech companies. We creative workers can’t afford to let corporations create this right — and not just because they will use it against us. These corporations also have a track record of creating new exclusive rights that bite them in the ass.

For decades, media companies stretched copyright to cover works that were similar to existing works, trying to merge the idea of “inspired by” and “copied from,” assuming that they would be the ones preventing others from making “similar” new works.

But they failed to anticipate the (utterly predictable) rise of copyright trolls, who launched a string of lawsuits arguing that popular songs copied tiny phrases (or just the “feel”) of their clients’ songs. Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s got sued into radioactive rubble by Marvin Gaye’s estate over their song “Blurred Lines” — which didn’t copy any of Gaye’s words or melodies, but rather, took its “feel”:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/robin-thicke-pharrell-lose-multi-million-dollar-blurred-lines-lawsuit-35975/

Today, every successful musician lives in dread of a multi-million-dollar lawsuit over incidental similarities to obscure tracks. Last spring, Ed Sheeran beat such a suit, but it was a hollow victory. As Sheeran said, with 60,000 new tracks being uploaded to Spotify every day, these similarities are inevitable:

https://twitter.com/edsheeran/status/1511631955238047751

The major labels are worried about this problem, too — but they are at a loss as to what to do about it. They are completely wedded to the idea that every part of music should be converted to property, so that they can expropriate it from creators and add it to their own bulging portfolios. Like a monkey trapped because it has reached through a hole into a hollow log to grab a banana that won’t fit back through the hole, the labels can’t bring themselves to let go.

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/08/oh-why/#two-notes-and-running

That’s the curse of the monkey’s paw: the entertainment giants argued for everything to be converted to a tradeable exclusive right — and now the industry is being threatened by trolls and ML creeps who are bent on acquiring their own vast troves of pseudo-property.

There’s a better way. As NAVA president Tim Friedlander told Motherboard’s Joseph Cox, “NAVA is not anti-synthetic voices or anti-AI, we are pro voice actor. We want to ensure that voice actors are actively and equally involved in the evolution of our industry and don’t lose their agency or ability to be compensated fairly for their work and talent.”

This is as good a distillation of the true Luddite ethic as you could ask for. After all, the Luddites didn’t oppose textile automation: rather, they wanted a stake in its rollout and a fair share of its dividends:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

Turning every part of the creative process into “IP” hasn’t made creators better off. All that’s it’s accomplished is to make it harder to create without taking terms from a giant corporation, whose terms inevitably include forcing you to trade all your IP away to them. That’s something that Spider Robinson prophesied in his Hugo-winning 1982 story, “Melancholy Elephants”:

http://www.spiderrobinson.com/melancholyelephants.html

This week (Feb 8–17), I’ll be in Australia, touring my book Chokepoint Capitalism with my co-author, Rebecca Giblin. We’re doing a remote event for NZ on Feb 13. Next are Melbourne (Feb 14), Sydney (Feb 15) and Canberra (Feb 16/17). I hope to see you!

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[Image ID: A poster for the 1933 movie ‘The Monkey’s Paw.’ The fainting ingenue has been replaced by the glaring red eye of HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.]

[germanpostwarmodern]

In their time the brothers Hans & Wassili Luckhardt were spearheads of modernist architecture and technology: their experimental housing development on Schorlemerallee (1924-30) and the houses at Am Rupenhorn (1929-30), both in Berlin, are indelible parts of 20th century architecture included in the major surveys of the modern movement. In view of their historical significance it is remarkable that the last comprehensive survey of their work dates back to 1990 when the Akademie der Künste devoted an exhibition and publication to the work of the brothers. Almost three-and-a-half decades later Carsten Krohn dedicates the latest volume in his series of surveys of key modern architects to the Luckhardts. Again written together with Michele Stavagna and published by Birkhäuser, it collects their 40 realized projects and documents them, where still extant, in new photographs and plans that capture the impressive quality of their work.

The visual documentation is complemented by Krohn’s and Stavagna’s essays that provide artistic as well as technological insights into the Luckhardts’ varied oeuvre. They first received attention as contributors to the „Gläserne Kette“, the utopian correspondence initiated by Bruno Taut in 1919 to discuss and fantasize about architecture. In their drawings the brothers showed quite differing ideas about a future architecture: while Hans leaned towards expressive forms, Wassili focused on structural aspects as basis for his designs. But although in their first projects the expressionist forms dominated, in the long run rational forms prevailed. Their proving ground became a plot on Schorlemerallee where they experimented with brickwork, steel framing and concrete but also realized their own studio together with their partner Alfons Anker.

With the power grab of the National Socialists their career markedly slowed down and Alfons Anker had to flee to Sweden. In the years following they survived on private commissions but successfully continued their work after the end of the war.

With their latest book the duo Krohn/Stavagna provide a long overdue new survey of a significant German architectural practice. Highly recommended!

[whereserpentswalk]

There is a cryptid in your house. You got warnings about this type of thing when you moved into this neighborhood, but your girlfriend wanted to live somewhere where you could have a single family home but that's still close to the subway lines, and this was your best option that you could afford.

You start seeing the cryptid in the boiler room and basement, but it's brash enough to go into your kitchen when it wants to. It's horrifying, with razor sharp teeth, glowing red eyes, claws of rusted silver, and a shape just human enough and just animal enough to be recognized as both and neither to your mind. You think it sleeps in the communal driveway out back, it makes you thankful your house isn't big enough to have a backyard to see it out there.

When you first saw it you thought you would die. But it stays away from you. It's scared of you of anything. East Coast cryptids are used to urbanized humans, they've adapted to be afraid of them most of the time, especially here in the city. It's only in here because it wants the food in your kitchen, it spends more time in your walls then it even does in your house. But if it sees you, it'll run.

Eventually you learn to live with the cryptid. You know when it tends to come around, what it likes to do. It'll keep eating food out of your kitchen, so you have to buy a surplus, eventually out of convenience you just start leaving out meals for it rather then letting your refrigerator take abuse.

It starts fearing you less. Both of you know eachother exist. You don't understand what power allows it to get into your house, and it doesn't understand the social structures that makes the house yourse. You just live with eachother. Eventually it becomes normal. When you invite your girlfriend's freinds over you forget to even tell them you have a cryptid, which leads to a lot of apologizing that night.

Eventually, you find out what species of cryptid it is. On a weekend visit to the American Unnatural History Museum uptown, you find a metal skeleton, in a display filled with the skeletons of countless varities of extant cryptids, that looks exactly like your cryptid. It's something called the Mid Atlantic Rushwaurt, quite common in coastal cities. It's rated as sentient, it can't talk due to its face shape, but this creature is theoretically as smart as you.

You decide to start interacting with your cryptid more. Your girlfriend has an office job while you work from home, so you're alone a lot. And it's a small enough house so that you can't avoid him anyway. When you see your cryptid you'll talk to him, tell him about what you're dealing with, though it's still weird to see that razor toothed mouth smile back to you, it's clear he enjoys the company.

You start watching TV with him more, letting his pale wraithlike body sit on your couch in a way you've never expected you'd allow. You'll even pet the flowing black hair ontop of his head if he let's you, or let his twin tails rest upon your legs as you watch.

He isn't a pet though. You know he would bite your head off if you threatened him. And when he leaves you don't ask why, and can't tell him no. Nobody can tell a cryptid no.

You'll show him illustrations you're working on now, he has a good eye for that sort of thing, and you communicate well enough so you can tell what he likes. You're part of a small game studio, and you find that he's a good playtester, especially for things that normal playtesters aren't good at showing because they know too much about games. The cryptid will show you his own art too, sculptures made out of bone and glass, things beautiful in a a way no human could ever create, but so clearly from an intelligent mind.

Eventually you get a visit. It's from the HOA, with a very well dressed woman who you've seen driving an obnoxiously large car telling you that she's here about the cryptid situation. Your house is attached on both sides, people can hear your cryptid on either side of you, and with the communal driveway they can see him sometimes. She tells you to get rid of him or else there will be legal grounds to reposses your house, she sounds serious.

You tell your cryptid that he has to be more quite, that he can't go out in the driveway as much. He doesn't seem to understand. You tell him it isn't your choice.

People keep asking you about your cryptid. You've never really spoken to the neighbors before. You tell them you're doing everything you can. That excuse buys you a few months at least.

Eventually you get another visit. A man in a green uniform is at your door. He's from the New York City Cryptid Protection Agency. You've seen him around the neighborhood, he's a veteran of the Third World War, he takes cryptid control more seriously then anyone else you've met, and he always carries a crossbow. He tells you that you have eight days to deal with the cryptid, you understand how urgent it is with him.

You tell your cryptid that he has to leave. That it's deadly for him to stay here. He doesn't understand what you mean by that. You beg him, explain that you don't have a choice. He doesn't leave, he doesn't understand why you would ever want him to leave.

You take a fire axe in your hands, and tell him in a seriously voice "leave". He hisses at you, but you can see fear in his eyes. You swing the axe at him, not to hurt him, just to make him afraid. He runs, you're not sure if he spared you or if he was afraid of you. You'll never see him again.

You still leave food out for him at first. It's weird thinking he isn't there. It's lonely being at home without him, and you don't have anyone you can show illustrations you're working on to.

The neighborhood thinks you're a hero, you chased away a cryptid with an axe. You can't explain to anyone how you aren't.

[flowergardeninthewall]

To the rest of QSMPblr everything is going to be ok. It may take a bit, but the right pressures are being put on Q studios for significant change.

Things will get better, and honestly, I think the project will be so much better than it's been in the past after the reconstruction of the power structure.

🫂 <- us rn