#theatre is one of the most human arts. it's completely about people. people come together to create these worlds to watch for 2-3 hours.

[saba-ody]

man theatre gets a bad rap ngl like. everyone fuckign loves tv shows and movies but as soon as it's in front of your face and you can see the wires you pull the cringe shit out. fuck you. there is beauty in performance and you're too blind to see it.

[rabbitcruiser]

Global Movie Day

Global Movie Day is celebrated on the second Saturday of February every year, to coincide with the Oscar season. This year, it takes place on February 11. This day was established to celebrate the power of movies and their capacity to inspire and move people, and transform lives. Global Movie Day offers people an opportunity to celebrate movies and catch up on the latest movie releases. Set in the thick of Oscar season, the date is perfect for movie buffs to come together to watch and discuss the latest movies. This allows them to bond over their shared love of good stories told on celluloid!

History of Global Movie Day

Global Movie Day is celebrated on the second Saturday of February every year. This day was established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences so movie-lovers around the world could celebrate their favorite movies. The Academy also wanted to offer people the opportunity to take one day to come together and discuss movies with the Academy as well as other movie buffs. A special day set aside for movies gives people an opportunity to revisit classics, rewatch their favorite films and catch up on the latest releases.

Setting the day in the midst of Oscar season was deliberately done to encourage people to participate in the excitement surrounding the Oscar-nominated films as well as the best releases of the year.

Movies are a visual art form that uses a series of live-action photographs. These are then presented in sequence at the rate of 24 frames per second. Because of a phenomenon called a “persistence of vision,” the pictures appear to move to the human eye.

The movie industry in the United States, commonly referred to as Hollywood, has an enormous influence on the film industry. American cinema has been historically a leading force in the industry and is considered to be the oldest film industry.

Today, films use sophisticated cameras as well as advanced computer graphics and software to tell stories in interesting ways. As people consume media via different platforms, movies are being seen as yet another type of ‘content’, which is transforming the way producers and consumers look at storytelling.

Global Movie Day timeline

1893 The Black Maria is Completed

Edison’s Black Maria, also known as the cinematographic theatre, becomes Thomas Edison’s film production studio.

1912 Production Companies Set up in California

A number of major film companies set up production facilities in Southern California in Los Angeles because of good weather conditions that support filmmaking year-round.

1929 The First Academy Awards is Held

The first Academy Awards is hosted at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel — a total of 15 statuettes are awarded on the day to various artists.

2020 The Academy Establishes Global Movie Day

The first Global Movie Day is set up by the Academy before the 92nd Oscars.

Global Movie Day FAQs

Is it legal to watch movies on YouTube?

Yes, YouTube has a set of ad-free-supported movies that they made available in 2018.

What is the best movie app?

Some of the best movie apps include Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and HBO.

How long does a Netflix download last?

Depending on the film, a download may last between 24 hours to seven days.

Global Movie Day Activities

Watch some movies

Host a drive-in movie night

Discuss your favorite movies

Is there any better way to celebrate movies than by watching them? Settle down with your old favorites or get tickets to one of the latest movie releases and mark the occasion!

If you have a projector and a flat white wall, host a drive-in for your neighborhood. Set up your film and projector outside, invite your neighbours, and settle in to watch!

Discuss your favorite films with other movie buffs. Everyone’s connecting online on social media so get a discussion going.

5 Cool Facts About The American Movie Industry

A lot of genres began in America

Hollywood is the most successful commercially

America produces 700 movies every year

Hollywood is an important cultural resource

There’s an archive of the Oscars

Cinema genres such as musicals and war epics, as well as the ones common among the other arts such as comedy and drama were birthed by the American movie industry.

American movie studios have produced films that are commercially successful at home and around the world — they are also known to produce movies that have the highest ticket sales in the world.

Hollywood and other independent producers together generate hundreds of films throughout the year.

As globalization intensifies, the American government relies on the worldwide appeal of Hollywood to export American culture around the world.

The Academy Film Archive has recordings of every award ceremony since 1949 in a variety of different formats.

Why We Love Global Movie Day

We love movies

We want to catch up

We want to talk about movies

We love sitting down and getting lost in the story on screen. We’re delighted to have a day set aside to watch and discuss movies with other movie buffs around the world.

It’s hard to keep up with the latest movies, especially during Oscar season. We love having a day to just relax and watch a few movies!

If we talked about movies all year round, people might get bored! So we’re excited to have a dedicated day on which we can discuss all the great things we enjoy about movies.

Source

[washingtone]

THE PLAY SHAKESPEARE

hakespeare can be a very intimidating subject to introduce. Isn’t the language archaic and difficult? There is no way children today can relate to it! Actually, once examined and simplified, many of Shakespeare’s plays are incredibly relatable. The themes within the plots were created not only as pure art but also to entertain the masses, so Shakespeare’s plays were the hot ticket in his day, and they can still be enjoyed that way today.

You don’t have to wait for high school to do Shakespeare with your kids. If you do any reading aloud or movie watching together, you can do Shakespeare together at any age. Shakespeare can and should be introduced to children. The discussions about betrayal, cowardice, truth, and love can wait for high school, but the enjoyment of the plots, the characters, and the language doesn’t have to wait. Introducing children to the world of the plays will help them feel more at home and navigate those deeper waters later in a more knowledgeable and understanding way because they’ll already know the stories.

STEP ONE: INTRODUCE THE PLAY IN A FUN WAY

The first step is to do basically a Cliff’s-Notes version of the play. When the plot and the storyline are known beforehand, then the attention is free to enjoy the details without having to keep track of who is who. Be sure to introduce the play with an engaging retelling.

Start off with a little history lesson about who Shakespeare is and what his Globe Theatre was like. Then introduce the basics of the plot. Try to find a beautiful picture book version of the story.

STEP TWO: WATCH THE PLAY

Shakespeare was meant to be seen, not read. Find and watch multiple versions of a play and see how differences of inflection, of setting, and of context put completely different spins on the lines. This is the beauty of Shakespeare. None of them are “Right.” Scripts allow actors room to interpret their characters and get into character, reflecting on humanity as they do so. Is Hamlet’s ghost to be trusted? How that ghost is portrayed will affect how you feel about that central plot point. Shakespeare’s plays and themes are complex, as life and people are.

Of course, you, as the parent, should always watch a Shakespeare production yourself before viewing it with your children. You’re going for an experience that will leave your children with a positive enjoyment of Shakespeare, so watch the movie options beforehand and try to find ones that will be a good fit for your family. You can also check Youtube for recordings of live productions!

STEP 3: BE THE PLAY!

Of course, the best way to engage with Shakespeare is to be the one performing it! True knowing and understanding can come when we make the material our own when we recreate or represent it in some sort of personal expression. In history or grammar, that might involve writing or speaking, but the most natural way to add personal expression with Shakespeare is to be the actor the play is directing. Add costuming and props in order to give your children the chance to act out Shakespeare. If your child is not big into acting, here are some other low-key, low-commitment ways to add doing to your studies:

Duplo or LEGO scenes & characters (try recording it for your own movie production)

Illustrated comic book versions of selected scenes

Monologues dramatically delivered

Puppets – handcrafted, popsicle stick, finger puppets, paper dolls – can be recorded to make a movie.

There are many facets of theatre, from stand-up comedy to Shakespeare! Drama Kids International allows children of all ages to experience everything theatre has to offer within our developmental drama program. Check it out today!

[reallyhardy]

went through the goes-wrong-verse playbills/programmes - that is, ‘the play that goes wrong’ and ‘peter pan goes wrong’ (thank you @cornleypolytechnicgoeswrong​ !) trying to piece together each society member’s career within the society PLUS if possible whatever it was they were doing at the polytechnic (university) course-wise, along with whatever other character snippets they give. this is mostly to inform me when writing but i thought it’d be useful for other mischief/goes wrong fans!

chris bean:

as of TPTGW is the ‘newly elected’ head of the drama society, and is known at the university for his charitable & philanhropic work. he has six acting credits within the polytechnic to his name.

i was going to presume his choice of course at the uni was acting or directing, but his PPGW bio states that his ‘dacting’ (directing and acting) is all self-taught, so who knows. maybe he’s just in the society because of his aforementioned charitable work.

robert grove:

has starred in 40 productions with the society since 2002 (when he began work at cornley polytechnic as a caretaker - i’m taking this to mean he was never actually a student there.) anyway wow explains why they call him a “veteran actor” lol.

he offers acting lessons (reacting, gesturing, emotioning and acting) and can be contacted via twitter @robertgoodactor. i’ve looked this twitter account up and it does exist it’s just not been used since 2017 - that said there are some in-character photos of henry lewis as robert and nancy zamit as annie on there and plenty of tweets.

he runs an extremely dubiously safe cornley youth theatre program and can be contacted at his email robertgoodactor@hotmail.com (membership fees are non-refundable.)

trevor watson:

in TPTGW is arbitrarily from ‘the north east’ (rob falconer’s portrayal, whereas chris leask’s portrayal is firmly and specifically scouse.)

he has a twitter account (rob falconer’s portrayal) @trevtechie, with i think probably the most tweets of the cornley twitters. stopped being updated in 2017.

his participation in haversham was to complete an electronics module - as the light and sound technician i’d assume his course was in this kinda field.

he states that after haversham he wants to never work with the cornley drama society again, but as of PPGW he’s “following in his parents footsteps” and has pivoted to possibly actually studying stage management. (his PPGW bio states that he’s in his final year at the uni for the 3rd time running. so it could mean his staying on with cornley is like partially due to failing his course?)

dennis tyde:

in his TPTGW bio it states that he joined the drama society after failing to get in to any other societies.

he didn’t live on university campus and commuted in from his parents’ house. he mostly just wanted to make friends - he’s interested in snooker and wants to meet like-minded people.

in his PPGW bio he still wants to make friends and says you can reach him via twitter @dennistyde. i checked this account too and again it does exist but hasn’t been used since 2013, and there are only 3 tweets so its much more bare-bones than the others. i like his one tweet about drinking a mug of bovril to calm his nerves before a show.

as of 2021 in promotional vids we learn that dennis and robert now live together.

max bennett:

in TPTGW bio it says he was a first year studying human geography and crime which i was surprised about but sure okay. it also says here that he happily donated “a large portion of his recent inheritance” to the society to help fund it.

at the bottom of TPTGW’s cast page it states that the west end performance of the play is “made possible by a generous legacy from claude bennett” who’s presumably max’s grandfather? or just father? idk

his TPTGW bio also says his favourite movie is the legend of bagger vance which i’ve never seen but is apparently a will smith golf movie.

his hobbies as listed in his PPGW bio are chess, cooking & hanging out with friends and fam. he also dedicates his performance in PPGW to his grandma claire, which is sweet.

annie twilloil:

as of TPTGW she’s designed, built, painted, costumed & stage managed every cornley show for the past 3 years. in the PPGW bio, it states she’s studying cognitive behavioural therapy and pottery, and has taken up life drawing at the student’s union (as the model.)

after haversham, she apparently had an internship lined up at the bolton octagon.

she has WILD backstory in her PPGW bio that says she dedicated her performance to her estranged husband julian who she hoped was in the audiance and two children frangipani and ylang-ylang. not sure if the kids are with her or with the husband but either way, wild. nuts. pretty funny but also pretty tragic.

she’s also got an ad out looking for a new bloke (i suppose if her husband isn’t in the audience) apparently she’s been left by boyfriends previously for an air hostess, a stripper, and a coal miner.

she also enjoys knitting and playing the banjolin (an instrument she made herself.) her email address is greatfunmum@hotmail.com.

she has a twitter account that again hasnt been used since 2017 (@annietwiloil). a couple tweets chronicle dave hearn’s shoulder dislocation but as max so i guess its canon that max also dislocated his shoulder, but he did it while trying to open a twix? lmao

sandra wilkinson:

in her TPTGW bio it states that haversham manor is her 11th production with the company. idk how frequently they put on shows.

she won some kind of local kids beauty pageant in 1998 and did some modelling for a local restaurant (the sunam balti house, which apparently the cornley crew frequent? or have at least been to - seems they struggled with spicyness levels there, especially dennis.)

nothing on her course at the university, i might just take a stab and assume she was actually doing acting, since her bio is mostly about her being a performer.

she’s a big fan of jeremy irvine, they mention him in both of her bios.

jonathan harris:

is a total health & fitness guy. his course at the uni is in physical education and he’s also a model, though who’s to say what for. in PPGW this is expanded and he’s moved on to being a combo model/actor/photographer/lifecoach.

he loves his outdoor sports: mountain biking & kayaking are noted.

he had a bath salts advert out and he hoped it was gonna go national.

lucy grove:

her surname IS grove! i wasn’t sure, but that’s confirmed. not really much about her in there, because the bio is written by robert and he just used it to gas himelf up.

can’t tell if she’s a student at the university or just in the society through robert. genuinely there’s just not a lot to go on when it comes to lucy.

another note is that the murder at haversham manor and the version of peter pan that the cornley crew perform are both written by ‘susie h. k. brideswell’ who i guess either chris knows or chris is a big fan of?

other notes... they try so hard to make out like the characters aren't all the same age like implying that robert is genuinely older than most of them etc etc but ofc the cast featured in the TV broadcasts are all visibly the same age... ofc all this is just comedy innit so you can take it or leave it

also i realised that the american version of TPTGW calls it “the cornley university drama society” since i guess you guys dont have polytechnics over there. a polytechnic is like... a university that offers the arts (among the classics you know science law what have you) basically. by 2021 in promotional videos etc. shields in character as chris has dropped “polytechnic” altogether from the group’s name (but varies between calling it ‘the cornley drama society’ and ‘the cornley amateur dramatics society’) i assume to reflect how much time has passed since the group put on their first production under chris’ leadership - and that now they’re simply operating unattached to the university because they’ve become a real family. love love love, sillyness and love.

[swissmissficrecs]

Favorite Sherlock Holmes fics from 2020

Usually I put a bunch of explanations and disclaimers on these lists but you know what, it was a weird year and I’m not going to try to justify or apologize for what I read or didn’t read so here are my favorites that were completed last year, in descending order of length:

and your very flesh shall be a great poem by CaitlinFairchild (151K, E, Johnlock) After a tragic confrontation with terrible consequences, Sherlock and John follow Mary as she flees to America.

Drawn to Stars by Silvergirl (107K, E, Johnlock, Sherlock/OMC) After the Culverton Smith case Sherlock is clean, working, and looking for a romantic partner—since John has told him that’s what he needs. Shame John didn’t mention he was interested in that role himself, before Sherlock went off to Rome with a gorgeous Italian copper to try to fall in love and become a complete human being. (This one is very slightly cheating because it was finished on 30 Dec 2019, but it didn't make it onto my 2019 list because I didn't read it until after I'd made the list. And it deserves to be on a Best Of list, so here it is.)

Thermocline by J_Baillier (83K, M, Johnlock) John "Five Oceans" Watson — technical dive instructor, dive accident analyst and weapon of mass seduction — meets recluse professor of maritime archaeology Holmes. As they head out to a remote archipelago off the coast of Guatemala to study and film its shipwrecks for a documentary, will sparks fly or fizzle out?

Do No Harm by Calais_Reno (79K, T, Johnlock) In 1923, Dr John Watson is on trial for the murder of his lover, Mary Morstan, a writer of popular mysteries. If convicted, he will hang. Sherlock Holmes sets out to prove his innocence, but finds himself more and more infatuated with the handsome doctor, and deeper and deeper inside the bohemian world of London's painters, playwrights, and poets. Will he uncover the evidence needed to acquit him in time?

To Be Human by ohlooktheresabee (78K, NR, Johnlock) There is a serial killer on the loose with a penchant for collecting the brains of his victims. Sherlock, John and Scotland Yard are on the case, but something about the chosen victims has Sherlock on edge. While they piece together the clues that will lead to the killer, John begins to realize that the way his best friend thinks may sometimes be more a hindrance than a help….

immediate and inglorious by simplyclockwork (72K, E, Johnlock) Bodies are showing up in back alleys, with no sign of a struggle, no trace of drugs. If not for the strangulation bruises on their necks and the scythe carved into their left shoulders, they could have died peacefully, in their sleep. With New Scotland Yard dumbfounded by the Grim Reaper Killer case, Sherlock is called in to consult. The more he investigates, the deeper Sherlock finds himself drawn into the work of London's newest serial killer. As his views of good and bad begin to blur, he risks losing himself to a darkness he never imagined. And, even more pressing: where does John Watson, grieving ex-boyfriend of the Grim Reaper's latest victim, fit into all of this?

Curtain Rising by tiger_in_the_flightdeck (61K, E, Johnlock) A disgraced television star is the target of a series of death threats just after a theatre production’s adaptation of The Sound of Music is announced with her as the lead. The suspect list is a mile long and growing, Rosie Watson is in the spotlight, and Sherlock might be getting too fond of his time on stage to focus on the case. With opening night approaching, can he and John figure out who wants their client dead before her final curtain rises?

The Fire Finds a Home by fearfully_beautifully_made (61K, E, Johnlock) After Sherlock and John decide to give having a relationship a go, this is how their relationship starts to develop. There a little bit of plot, if you squint, but it was mostly an excuse to write John and Sherlock having sex in a lot of different ways and learning to love each other.

Borrowed Ghosts by DiscordantWords (57K, M, Johnlock) In the aftermath of the Culverton Smith case, John spent one painfully stilted afternoon hanging out with Sherlock. He counted the minutes, finished his tea, and left for home without ever clearing the air between them. And once he'd left, he found it very hard to go back.

You Might Just as Well Be Blind by ArwaMachine (56K, E, Johnlock) When a serial killer starts targeting couples, Sherlock and John must do what they have to do in order to get to the bottom of things. Unfortunately, John already has a girlfriend. Surely pretending to be in a relationship with Sherlock won't pose any problems with his relationship, will it?

The Broken Tether by J_Baillier (54K, M, Johnlock) Maybe he thinks that you only enjoy his company because of the Work, because of the way his dazzling intellect shines when he's in his element, but the truth is this: it is when he is at his most human, most bare, that you feel closest to him.

how the light gets in by subtext-is-my-division (Quill_A)  (54K, E, Johnlock) Red wine always makes him tipsier than usual and he finds himself saying, the words slurring a bit. “You know, I’ve got to ask. Do you always shoot cabbies for people you barely you know?” John meets his gaze over the rim of his glass, and there’s something there that Sherlock can’t pin down. “Not for everyone,” he says, meaningfully, pointedly, his smile all teeth.

Erosion by saintscully (53K, E, Johnlock) Sherlock’s father falls ill, leaving the surviving family members broken and rudderless. James Sholto shows up in London unexpectedly, his intentions unclear. John has to navigate the consequences of crime, illness and death and their impact on his frayed relationship with Sherlock.

Hold You Like a Weapon by MissDavis (52K, E, Johnlock) Eurus shows up at 221B Baker Street in labour. Things go downhill from there.

Chances Are by Berty (51K, M, Johnlock) Sherlock is spending some time in his mind palace - so far, so normal. But why is John there, why do things keep changing and why are there only two exits from the sitting room at 221B, neither of which seem to go anywhere useful? It's a case like no other for Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

Sine Nomine by SilentAuror (45K, E, Johnlock) As Mycroft reviews the footage from Culverton Smith's morgue, he revisits his original question: whether John Watson would be the making of his brother, or make him worse than ever. He's come to a conclusion, but decides to give John one last chance. So he gives him a choice.

Cockaigne by HollyShadow88 (38K, E, Johnlock) When John’s contacted by an old uni friend about problems in his new art exhibition, he doesn’t think it will be worth Sherlock’s time. After a glance of the crime scene, however, they’re both pulled into the project in ways John didn’t expect. Will a week of erotic performance art finally be enough to bring them together in the way they both secretly hope? (Spoiler: it’s a tropey fic, of course it will)

Written in Ashes by 88thParallel (37K, M, Johnlock) Sherlock becomes the prime suspect in a homicide case, and recently unearthed memories of his childhood are complicating matters. It's up to John to track down answers — can he help Sherlock before it's too late?

A Desperate Indulgence by LollipopCop (34K, M, Johnlock) John thinks it's 2012 after waking up with amnesia, having no memory of Mary. Sherlock, exhausted from years of tension and hiding his love, pretends they got married instead.

Inhale With Ease by Vulpesmellifera (25K, E, Johnlock) In the years after Vivian Norbury's capture, life seems to work out just as John planned. He's got that respectable job at the surgery and goes home to his wife and child. He joins Sherlock on cases a couple times per week. It's a rhythm he can live with - just enough adrenaline highs to balance out the drudgery of a normal bloke's life. Until a pandemic, and Victor Trevor, arrive in London.

The House on Rue des Boulangers by Berty (24K, M, Johnlock) After being invalided out of the army and without any other prospects, John Watson has relocated to a small town in northern France. Now he has to decide what to do for the rest of his life. One morning there's a mad stranger in his garden chasing a swarm of bees, and it seems John's decision is made.

High Mountain Tea Leaves by disfictional (23K, E, Johnlock) A mountaintop robbery on a Japanese-occupation-era train where the only item stolen was a small case of mysterious tea leaves in a backpack? An ideal Christmas gift, two days late. Sherlock convinces John to travel for tea.

Detours by saintscully (22K, M, Johnlock, Sherlock/OMC) During the better part of the first year following Mary's death and the events at Sherrinford, Sherlock and John are slowly rebuilding their lives and their friendship. All seems (relatively) well and John takes comfort in once again being a father, a doctor and a friend. An unexplained shift in Sherlock's behaviour catches John by surprise, and he begins to worry about his place in his friend's life. John has to examine everything he thought he knew about Sherlock, himself and their relationship in order to win his rightful place yet again.

hands full of matter by simplyclockwork (21K, E, Johnlock) When Sherlock is captured in Serbia, Mycroft cannot afford to involve the British government in his rescue. Instead, he sends John. After two years spent thinking Sherlock was dead, John finds himself navigating not only Sherlock’s rescue but their fractured friendship as well.

The Victim Experience by J_Baillier (16K, T, Gen) A case takes Sherlock and John deep into the seedy underbelly of the haunted attractions industry. With audiences craving more and more intense experiences, is a real murder the next logical step?

On the Fence by BeautifulFiction (13K, T, Johnlock) The murder of the King's College fencing champion leads to revelations about Sherlock's past. Will it be the point that tips them from friends to lovers, or will they remain on the fence?

Plus bonus ACD era:

"Baker Street: The Sleep of Reason": A Memoir by John H. Watson, M.D. by Gaedhal (98K, M, Johnlock, Johniarty) This is a Victorian Era story in the "Sherlock Holmes" (2009) Ritchie-verse. The main characters are Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson and is from the doctor's memoirs. It was written before "A Game of Shadows" so there are differences in this story and film canon, mainly in the person and backstory of one particular character.

The Taste of Truth by sanguinity (25K, T, Johnlock) Two and a half years after Reichenbach, John Watson discovers the magical tree that caused Holmes to fake his death.

The Adventure of the Vatican Cameos by Garonne (18K, E, Johnlock) How should one behave when waking for the first time in the bed of one's dearest friend? Holmes and Watson solve a case in Catholic London while navigating the turbid waters of their new relationship.

Hot Water by wordybirdy (13K, E, Johnlock, Watson/Gregson) Dr. John Watson's libidinous affair with a respected Scotland Yard inspector abruptly judders to a halt when the former meets a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, for the very first time. The attraction between the two is strongly mutual, but misunderstandings only multiply and tensions abound, as all three men attempt to deal with the new situation.

[yandere-sins]

What about a stern priest that falls in love with a girl who just came to visit his church because she moved into his small town? Although very religious for his whole life, he's just accepting the girl for who she is, a complete opposite (even if they have the same interest in arts, books etc) First she's friendly but then becomes distant because notices his interest in her... And he's sure that this girl is a "god's gift" to him after all these years of loyalty and they're meant to be together

Can’t deny that I am always smitten with yandere’s that need to be ‘pure’ for some reason or another. Just a big ol’ weak spot of mine :D Enjoy!

»»———————— ♡ ————————««    

They were meant for each other.

Anyone opposing that fact was spouting profanities in the face of their own god. After all, it was the power from above that sent her to his church, made her find her way to his threshold. She was a blessing in the form of a human, just like him, and he could not have asked for a better gift after all these years of devotion to nothing but their Lord’s instructions.

Alone the fact that she returned to him in time for confession was enough to prove it. For a while, the Priest had feared that she might lose her way, seemingly nowhere to be found around the church. But thanks to the urging of the people in the community, she had been pushed back on the righteous way meant for her. Right back to him.

From the moment she had arrived in the small fisher’s town, she had changed up the ways of the people, teaching them new technologies and antics she learned in the big city she had come from. He hadn’t been all too happy with it, seeing how the people started to strife away from traditions and values. With the wind of change that she brought, other, less welcome members of society joined the community. Gamblers, corrupt salesman, harlots. Now it was a bustling place, and so was his church and especially his confession booth, as the people flocked in with tales of deception and infidelity.

But it would have been a lie if he said she didn’t move him too.

He had never been anything but the town’s priest, the position promised to him when he was just two days old. Every waking moment of his life had he spent studying the holy scripts, practicing ancient rites, and helping people over their problems no matter the topic, even when he was still too young to even understand them. A prodigy priest, that’s what he had become with just 16, and now, with 24, he was an important member of the community, even though the people began turning away from him.

It wasn’t his fault that he grew stern and cold. If anyone else had been confronted with the sins of humanity from such an old age, breaking down over fearing to fall into the same misery as other people did, surely, they’d began to grow a thicker skin too. And now that he had her, he knew there was at least one other person who understood him.

At least her confessions never spoke of her trying to steal another wife’s man, or how she murdered her brother - which she had five of, all younger than her, and corrupter, he was sure! - or even just about her problem with the good old wine. She only ever spoke of how she worried about other people and their problems, and how much she dreaded not being able to help them more, feeling like she was desensitizing from them the more she heard.

Ah, she understood it so well.

The same scenario played that day. A farmer’s daughter had become pregnant from a merchant on travel, and she came here in the young lass’ stead to ask for forgiveness. Both of them knew there wasn’t more to do than that, the daughter probably ending up with a bastard’s child and shunned by her own family after all.

“What a pity it is,” the priest spoke, holding away the curtain from the booth to let the woman of his peculiar dreams out. The touch they shared as he held out his hand for her to reach for as she stumbled out of the dark, wooden box, was way too short for his taste.

“Is it, though? Isn’t it wonderful how she’ll experience motherhood?” was her quick and witty response, never having been a girl too shy to say what was on her mind. “Perhaps,” he pressed forth through gritted teeth, having nothing more to say. It should have been his duty to console even people with greater mistakes than an unplanned pregnancy, and he should have been the one to tell this woman of how everyone was supposed to keep themselves pure until marriage. But he wasn’t one to talk back to her, much rather wanting to hear more from her instead of his own voice.

“You have stopped coming to the church lately, has something happened?” he asked. Directly, blunt. Just like he was.

“Oh, Father, I...” Unusual for her, she grew timid, wringing her hands in front of her as she looked down. She always looked as if her mind was far away on a new adventure, but today, she seemed especially reluctant to share what was going on inside her. Their shared walk to the front of the church came to a halt, her back turned away from the door so she could face him, despite not being able to look at him.

He only allowed himself to gaze at her longingly for the moment she wasn’t aware of her eyes on him. She was as pretty as a jewel, as colorful and fun as the trees in fall. People gathered around her, her laugh as sweet as the singing of the birds, with eyes shining like sun rays on top of the ocean. There was nothing more he wished for as to reach out and hold her in his arms, take in her shining aura on top of his dimmed, almost vanished one.

If anything, he was the Hades to her Persephone, characters he only heard about in theatre, though they made so much more sense now. And he wanted her. Wanted her to stay here by his side, in these old, traditional stone walls. It would have been enough if she became what he always thought her to be, a friend to the people, a sister of the order he was under. To serve them and live modestly by his side until death does them part.

“I fear...” she muttered, bringing her hands to her chest. “The reason I cannot come anymore is because...”

She seemed abashed, hurting beneath her sunny exterior. A gasp escaped his mouth as the realization hit him, that in her good will and helpfulness, no one ever seemed to take care of her in return. She was always alone with her own worries and fears. The only time she allowed herself to bring them up was with him, behind the grid of the confession booth. Yes, he understood her. And he understood her reasons. They were the same as his, after all.

No one knew her better than he did.

“No more words,” he ordered strictly as he pulled her to his chest, enveloped her body in his ropes. On his face, a never known warmth spread, his heart filling with joy and adoration, as well as thankfulness for the divine dispensation. “I understand even without you saying it. And I must confess... I feel the same way. I, too, am scared of those feelings I harbor for you, and I fear how the people will react if they find out. But it’s alright, as long as we are together, just like we are meant to from above--”

“But, Sir!” she stirred, pushing away from him and tearing apart the blissful moment of intimacy they shared, leaving a bitter taste on his feelings.

“I do not fear my own feelings! But I fear yours! It’s you I fear the most, Father!”

She was quick to take a few, precautious steps away from her. Her eyebrows were furrowed in concern, hands held up defensively. Just like a deer in the eyes of a predator. But that’s not what he was, right? Yes, he was stern and strict, and sometimes too possessed by old values, but he wasn’t an animal, right? He wouldn’t even kill a fly, much less hurt a person.

Before he could say anything, she turned, her clothes captured by the wind of her motions as if they were taunting him. Taunting him to reach out, to grab her and tear on her, and not let her go. Her arms swang back and forth as she made her way out of the church hurriedly, and she almost succeeded, one hand on the large, cold door handle.

The priest’s grip made her squeak from surprise, his fingers adding a crushing weight on her wrist. She twirled around because she was forced to, not because she wanted, her free hand wrapping around his pleadingly. Just for a moment, their eyes met, and he caught his own reflection in those scared, miserable gems of hers. His expression, the bared teeth, the angry shine in his eyes, the many, many wrinkles in his face of anger, concern, and desperation.

That was the only time that he realized that what she saw wasn’t the town’s priest. To her, he didn’t seem like the person everyone else liked and encouraged her to meet. Even when he thought they were so similar, from their taste in books to their dreams for the village, she had been the only one with keen eyes, purity seeing through all evil that was harbored inside of him.

And it was just her who could see the absolute demon he was.

[astrovian]

Richard Armitage interview for The Guardian (08/10/2020)

Full transcript under the cut

You were playing the doctor, Astrov, in Ian Rickson’s triumphant West End production of Uncle Vanya when the pandemic closed theatres. How did the last night feel?

We were lucky in that we’d completed the majority of the run – there was about six weeks left. We were quite surprised that our houses were full every night. Then Broadway went dark and you could feel the change in the atmosphere within our company that it was inevitable. The following week we came into work and were told it was all off. We sat on stage for a while, not knowing what to do, we all had a little drink with the crew and that was it – we were in lockdown.

As time progressed it became clear that we weren’t going back. Like most other commercial theatres, opening to a socially distanced audience is financially not possible but also logistically it’s really difficult for those old London theatres.

What was interesting for me in that last week was that so much of the play, from the doctor’s perspective, is talking about living with epidemics and the stress of life. It started to resonate in a different way. When Chekhov was writing the play he was dying of tuberculosis and they had just been through two epidemics. As a doctor, Chekhov had been on the front line. For Russians watching the play at the time, the idea of a disease that would definitely kill you was much more immediate. Suddenly within the last weeks of performance, the play felt so much more relevant. It was quite extraordinary.

The play’s environmental concerns also resonate with this pandemic year and our renewed appreciation of the natural world.

People thought the environmental elements of the play had been added on because it felt so contemporary – the conversations about deforestation and this one man’s efforts to replant the woodland. But it’s there in the original, probably in a slightly more detailed form as Conor McPherson was more economical with the language in this version.

After closing to the public, the actors returned to an empty theatre to film Uncle Vanya. Had a cinema version always been planned?

There was going to be an NT Live – they’d been in to do a scratch recording. So it was a huge disappointment but the fact we were finally able to make a film – and much more of a hybrid production than anything you’ve seen before – was really exciting. Hats off to [producer] Sonia Friedman who just took a leap of faith.

How is it different to other filmed plays, like the recording of The Crucible that you made at the Old Vic?

Usually when you’re capturing live performance, one of the benefits is that you include the audience on the night you shoot. We shot over a week and did an act a day using six cameras in various places in the auditorium with different lenses; the cameraman would also come on to the stage with a handheld and move around with us for some innovative, detailed shots that you’d never be able to capture without staging the play specifically to film it. Even audiences who came to see the play will get something more than the day they saw. There were certain moments in the play which in the rehearsal room we really wanted to be intimate but when you are performing to 800 people you have to open up the play. So we were able to bring it down into a much more intimate, claustrophobic place.

What was it like to perform in an empty theatre?

We were so enthused to get back on stage. Initially the camera team and crew felt like a sparse audience. Every day I’d stand there and remember watching the audience gathering. It was a real sense of nostalgia, sadness actually, wondering how long it will be until we can get a full audience again. It’s not a luxury but a natural instinct to want to gather in a room and watch something live – whether it’s standup in a pub or jazz in a basement bar. There’s just this human instinct to want to come together.

What do you think of the government’s response to the crisis in the arts?

The government is trying to spin many, many plates. Our industry is vulnerable – we can’t really go back to work without audiences. I do feel like the response has been late and there probably hasn’t been enough initiative in terms of how do we make it work. We could have done something for theatres like the “eat out to help out” scheme – if theatres could operate at 30% capacity, maybe the government could have subsidised to get them towards breaking even. That hasn’t happened. I suspect it’s because there’s too many industries in trouble. For some reason the arts is never seen as a critical industry. Everybody in the arts felt incredibly insulted by the idea that the arts aren’t viable. It does make money. If theatres die in small cities then the hub of the community is gone. You need a more long-term view in investing and keeping these places alive.

The Haymarket in your home town of Leicester was one of the first theatres to go out of business because of the pandemic.

I’d been there recently. My little nephew wants to be an actor and I’d seen him perform in an amateur production there. It was a great theatre space. Leicester is fortunate because it does have other venues. But there are some smaller towns that don’t have many arts hubs and when they’re gone, they’re gone. We’re kind of hanging on by a thread. The news of cinemas suffering is another nail in the coffin.

You’ve done a lot of voice work and recorded audio books – what’s the appeal in lending your voice to a project rather than your appearance?

I love reading. I think that’s what brought me into this profession. It wasn’t watching films and wishing I could be in them but reading books and, in my imagination, creating a mini movie out of them. An audio book is very similar to that. I get real satisfaction out of it. Very rarely have I found a book that I didn’t connect with. I read as if I’m reading to one person. It gets to the root of why I do what I do. I just love storytelling.

[foreverdavidbyrne]

David Byrne’s interview in NME magazine

In 1979, David Byrne predicted Netflix. “It’ll be as easy to hook your computer up to a central television bank as it is to get the week’s groceries,” he told NME’s Max Bell, sitting in a Paris hotel considering the implications of Talking Heads’ dystopian single ‘Life During Wartime’.

He predicted the Apple Watch in that interview too: “[People will] be surrounded by computers the size of wrist watches.” And he foresaw surveillance culture and data harvesting: “Government surveillance becomes inevitable because there’s this dilemma when you have an increase in information storage. A lot of it is for your convenience, but as more information gets on file, it’s bound to be misused.”

In fact, over 40 years ago, he predicted the entire modern-day experience, as if he instinctively knew what was coming. “We’ll be cushioned by amazing technological development,” he said, “but sitting on Salvation Army furniture.”

The 68-year-old Byrne says today, “You can’t say that you know,” chuckling down a Zoom link from his home in New York and belying his reputation for awkwardness by seeming giddily relieved to be talking to someone. “It’s crazy to set yourself up as some sort of prophet. But there’s plenty of people who have done well with books where they claim to predict what’s going on. I suppose sometimes it’s possible to let yourself imagine, ‘Okay – what if?’ This can evolve into something that exists, can evolve into something more substantial, cheaper – these kinds of things.”

It’s been a lifelong gift. Byrne turned up at CBGBs in 1975 with his art school band Talking Heads touting ‘Psycho Killer’, as if predicting the punk scene’s angular melodic evolution, new wave, before punk was even called punk. In 1980, Talking Heads assimilated African beats and textures into their seminal ‘Remain In Light’ album, foreshadowing ‘world music’ and modern music’s globalist melting pot, then used it to warn America of the dangers of consumerism, selfishness and the collapse of civilisation. Pioneering or propheteering, Byrne has been on the front-line of musical evolution for 45 years, collaborating with fellow visionaries from Brian Eno to St Vincent’s Annie Clark, constantly imagining, ‘What if?’

The live music lockdown has been a frustrating freeze frame, but Byrne was already leading the way into music’s new normal. Launched in 2018, the tour to support his 10th solo album, ‘American Utopia’, has now turned into a cinematic marvel courtesy of Spike Lee – the concert film was released in the UK this week. The original tour was acclaimed as a live music revolution. Using remote technology, Byrne was able to remove all of the traditional equipment clutter from the stage and allow his musicians and dancers, in uniform grey suits and barefoot, to roam around a stage lined with curtains of metal chains with their instruments strapped to them. A Marshally distanced gig, if you will.

“As the show was conceptually coming together, I realised that once we had a completely empty stage the rulebook has now been thrown out,” Byrne says. “Now we can go anywhere and do anything. This is completely liberating. It means that people like drummers, for example, who are usually relegated to the back shadows, can now come to the front – all those kinds of things – which changes the whole dynamic.”

With six performers making up an entire drum kit and Byrne meandering through the choreography trying to navigate a nonsensical world, the show was his most striking and original since he jerked and jived around a constructed-mid-gig band set-up in Jonathan Demme’s legendary 1984 Talking Heads live film Stop Making Sense.

The American Utopia show embarked on a Broadway run last year, where Byrne super-fan Spike Lee saw it twice and leapt at the chance of turning the spectacle into Byrne’s second revolutionary live film, dotted with his musings on the human condition to illuminate the crux of the songs: institutional racism, our lack of modern connection, the erosion of democracy and, on opener ‘Here’, a lecture-like tour of the human brain, Byrne holding aloft a scale model, trying to fathom, ‘How do I work this?’

“I didn’t know how much of a fan Spike was!” Byrne laughs today. “He’d even go, ‘Why don’t you do this song? Why don’t you add this song in’. We knew one another casually so I could text him and say, ‘I want you to come and see our show; I think that you might be interested in making a film of it’.”

Are the days of the traditional stage set-up numbered? “Yes, I think so,” he replies. “At least in theatres and concert halls the size that I would normally play, yes. The fact that we can get the music digitally [means] a performance has to be really of value. It has to be really something special, because that’s where the performers are getting their money and that’s what the audience is paying for. They’re not paying very much for streaming music, but they are paying quite a bit to go and see a performance, so the performance has to give them value for money… It has to be really something to see.”

How does David Byrne envisage the future possibilities of live performance?

“I’ve seen a lot of things that hip-hop artists have done – like the Kanye West show where he emerges on a platform that floats above the stage,” he says. “I’d seen one with Kendrick Lamar where it was pretty much just him on stage, an empty stage with just him on stage and a DJ, somebody with a laptop – that was it. I thought, ‘Wow’. Then he started doing things with huge projections behind. There are lots of ways to do this. I love the idea of working with a band, with live musicians. ‘How can I innovate in this kind of way?’ It’s maybe easier for a hip-hop musician who doesn’t have a band to figure out. The pressure is on to come up with new ways of doing this.”

In liberating his musicians from fixed, immovable positions, American Utopia also acts as a metaphor for freeing our minds from our own ingrained ways of thinking. As Byrne intersperses Talking Heads classics such as ‘Once In A Lifetime’, ‘I Zimbra’ and ‘Road To Nowhere’ with choice solo cuts and tracks from ‘American Utopia’, he also dots the show with musings on an array of post-millennial questions: the health of democracy; the rise of xenophobia and fascism; our increasing reliance on materialism and online communication; the climate change threat; the existential nightmare of the dating app; and, crucially, the distances all of these things put between us.

“The ‘likes’ and friends and connections and everything that the internet enables,” he argues, “even Zoom calls like this, they’re no substitute for really being with other people. Calling social networks ‘social’ is a bit of an exaggeration.”

Byrne closes the show with the suggestion that, rather than isolate behind our LCD barriers, we should try to reconnect with each other. In an age when social media has descended into all-out thought war and anyone can find concocted ‘facts’ to support anything they want to believe, is that realistic?

“I have a little bit of hope,” he says. “Not every day, but some days. I have hope that people will abandon a lot of social media, that they’ll realise how intentionally addictive it is, and they’re actually being used, and that they might enjoy actually being with other people rather than just constantly scrolling through their phone. So, I’m a little bit optimistic that people will, in some ways, use this technology a little bit less than they have.”

A key moment in American Utopia comes with Byrne’s cover of Janelle Monae’s ‘Hell You Talmbout’, a confrontational track shouting the names of African-Americans who have been killed by police or in racially motivated attacks – Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd and far, far too many more. Does Byrne think the civil unrest in the wake of Floyd’s death and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement make a serious impact?

“We’ll see how long this continues,” he says, “but in projects that I’m working on – there’s a theatre project I’m working on in Denver, there’s the idea of bringing this show back to Broadway, there’s other projects – those issues came to the fore. Issues of diversity and inclusion and things like that, which were always there. Now they’re being taken more seriously. The producers and theatre owners realise that they can’t push those things aside, that they have to be included in the whole structure of how a show gets put together.”

“At least for now, that seems to be a big change. I see it in TV shows and other areas too. There’s a lot of tokenism, but there’s a lot of real opportunity and changed thinking as well.”

Elsewhere, he encourages his audience to register to vote, and had registration booths at the shows. He must have been pleased about the record turnout in the recent US election? “Yeah, the turnout was great. Now you just got to keep doing that. Gotta keep doing it at all the local elections, too. It was important for me not to endorse a political party or anything in the show but to say, ‘Listen, we can’t have a democracy if you don’t vote. You have to get out there and let your voice be heard and there’s lots of people trying to block it.’ We have to at least try.”

Will Trump’s loss help bring people together after four years with such a divisive influence in charge?

“Yes. I think for me Trump was not so much a shock; we knew who he is. He was around New York before that, in the reality show [The Apprentice], we knew what kind of character he was. What shocked me was how quickly the Republican party all fell into line behind him, behind this guy who’s obviously a racist, misogynist liar and everything else. But it’s kind of encouraging – although it’s taken four years and with some it’s only with the prospect of him being gone – that quite a few have been breaking ranks. There are some possibilities of bridge building being held out.”

But, he says, “It’s too early to celebrate,” concerned that Senate Majority Leader and fairweather Trump loyalist Mitch McConnell will use any Republican control of the Senate to block many of Biden’s policies from coming into effect. “[This] is what happened with Obama… I want to see real change happen. [Climate change] absolutely needs to be a priority. The clock had turned back over the last four years, so there’s a lot to be done. Whether there’s the willpower to do everything that needs to be done, it remains to be seen, but at least now it’s pointing in the right direction.”

How will he look back on the last four years? Byrne ponders. “I’m hoping that I look back at it as a near-miss.”

American Utopia is as much a personal journey as a dissection of modern ills. Ahead of ‘Everybody’s Coming To My House’, Byrne admits to being a rather socially awkward type. He claims that a choir of Detroit teenagers, when singing the song for the accompanying video, had imbued the song with a far more welcoming message than his own rendition, which found him wracked with the fear that his visitors might never leave. How does someone like that deal with celebrity?

“In a certain way it’s a blessing,” Byrne grins, “because I don’t have to go up to people to talk to them – they sometimes come up to me. In other ways it’s a little bit awkward. Celebrity itself seems very superficial and I have to constantly remind myself that your character, your behaviour and the work that you do is what’s important – not how well known you are, not this thing of celebrity. I learned early on it’s pretty easy to get carried away. But it does have its advantages. I had Spike Lee’s phone number, so I could text him.”

Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz’s recent book Remain In Love suggests that the more successful Byrne got early on, the more distant he became.

Byrne nods. “I haven’t read the book, but I know that as we became more successful I definitely used some of that to be able to work on other projects. I worked on a dance score with [American choreographer] Twyla Tharp and I worked on a theatre piece with [director] Robert Wilson – other kinds of things – [and] I started working on directing some of the band’s music videos. So I guess I spent less time just hanging out. As often happens with bands, you start off being all best friends and doing everything together and after a while that gets to be a bit much. Everybody develops their own friends and it’s like, ‘I have my own friends too’. Everybody starts to have their own lives.”

The future is far too enticing for David Byrne to consider revisiting the past. “I do live alone so sometimes it would get lonely”, he says of lockdown, but he’s been using his Covid downtime to cycle around undiscovered areas of New York and remain philosophical about the aftermath.

“We’ll see how long before the vaccine is in, before we return to being able to socialise,” he says, “but I’m also wondering, ‘How am I going to look at this year? Am I going to look at it as, “Oh yes, that’s the year that was to some extent taken away from our lives; our lives were put on pause?”’ We kept growing; we kept ageing; we keep eating, but it was almost like this barrier had been put up. It has been a period where, in a good way, it’s led us to question a lot of what we do. You get up in the morning and go, ‘Why am I doing this? What am I doing this for? What’s this about?’ Everything is questioned.”

Post-vaccine, he hopes to “travel a little bit” before looking into plans to bring the ‘American Utopia’ show back to Broadway, and possibly even to London if the financial aspects can be worked out. “Often when a show like that travels, the lead actors might travel,” Byrne explains, “but in this case it’s the entire cast that has to travel. So you’ve got a lot of hotel bills and all that kind of stuff. We wanted to do it. There might be a way, if we can figure that out.”

Once we all get our jab, will everyone come to recognise that, as Byrne sings on ‘American Utopia’s most inspiring track, ‘Every Day Is A Miracle’? “Optimistically, maybe,” he says. “There will be a lot of people who will just go, ‘Let’s get back to normal – get out to the bars, the clubs and discos’. That’s already been happening in New York; there’s been these underground parties where people just can’t help themselves. But after all this it’d be nice to think that people might reassess things a little bit.”

And with the algorithm as the new gatekeeper and technology beginning to subsume the sounds and consumption of music, what does the new wave Nostradamus foresee for rock in the coming decades? Will AIs soon be writing songs for other AIs to consume to inflate the numbers, cutting humanity out of the equation altogether?

“It seems like there’ll be a kind of factory,” Byrne predicts, “an AI factory of things like that, and of newspaper articles and all of this kind of stuff, and it will just exaggerate and duplicate human biases and weaknesses and stupidity. On the other hand, I was part of a panel a while back, and a guy told a story about how his listening habits were Afrofuturism and ambient music – those were his two favourite ways to go. The algorithm tried to find commonalities between the two so it could recommend things to him and he said it was hopeless. Everything it recommended was just horrible because it tried to find commonalities between these two very separate things. This just shows that we’re a little more eclectic than these machines would like to think.”

And in the distant future? Best prepare to welcome your new gloop overlords. Byrne isn’t concerned about The Singularity – the point at which machine intelligence supersedes ours and AI becomes God – but instead believes that future technologies will emulate microbial forms.

“I watched a documentary on slime moulds [a simple slimy organism] the other day,” he says, warming to his sticky theme. “Slime moulds are actually extremely intelligent for being a single-celled organism. They can build networks and bunches of them can communicate. They can learn, they have memories, they can do all these kinds of things that you wouldn’t expect a single-celled organism to be able to do.”

“I started thinking, ‘Well, is there a lesson there for AI and machine learning, of how all these emerging properties could be done with something as simple as a single cell?’ It’s all in there… when things interact, they become greater than the sum of their parts. I thought, okay, maybe the future of AI is not in imitating human brains, but imitating these other kinds of networks, these other kinds of intelligences. Forget about imitating human intelligence – there’s other kinds of intelligence out there, and that might be more fruitful. But I don’t know where that leads.”

His grin says he does know, that he has a vision of our icky soup-world future, but maybe the rest of the species isn’t yet advanced enough to handle it. But if we’re evolving towards disaster rather than utopia, we can trust David Byrne to give us plenty of warning.

December 18, 2020

[raffy0421]

TECHNOLOGY : A Blessing or a Curse?

Technology has become an inevitable part of our lives. We cannot imagine to survive without technology in today’s fast-moving world. When employment, socialization and cultural propagation happens with globalization, we cannot survive without technological involvements. The Corona virus pandemic has moreover proven, how important technology is for us, to stay connected, work, communicate and basically survive. In fact, this can be an opportune moment for researchers to attend to journal call for paper with the topic of technology becoming an inseparable part of our lives, such that soon we will move, eat, sleep technology.

As time goes by technology becomes more advance and innovative which leads to more many discoveries. However, as technology improves, people as well gives their definition through their own understanding. But what does really technology means? It might seem a straightforward question, but technology is about more than gadgets and gizmos.

Technology ("science of craft", from Greek τέχνη, techne, "art, skill, cunning of hand"; and -λογία, -logia") is the sum of any techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, or it can be embedded in machines to allow for operation without detailed knowledge of their workings. Systems (e.g. machines) applying technology by taking an input, changing it according to the system's use, and then producing an outcome are referred to as technology systems or technological systems.

Technology is not a neutral word. Different people will give it different meaning depending on their viewpoint and context.

Andy Lane explains what it means to different people. The role and impact of technology in both our personal and working lives is ever growing. Understanding how people shape technology and how technology shapes people's interactions with each other and the natural world is important not only for those who research, develop and implement new technologies but also for all those people and organizations that have to use those technologies in their working and personal lives.

Research has found evidences on the contribution of technology to our daily lives. In fact, technology can save lives. Major operations, scans and medical diagnoses happen through scientific and technological discoveries. Communication, work and education are almost impossible without technology today. For researchers and academicians, journal call for paper are more readily available because of digital publication platforms, all of which involve technology. Technology has filled our time with meaningful content and entertainment so that we feel satisfied and happy.

However, let us reflect on 7 most important reasons for which we require technology:

Communication– The first and foremost purpose that technology serves is communication. Social media and other technological applications have brought families together. Today we can find long lost school mates over Facebook, twitter, Instagram and we can reinstate our communication. In fact, we can even communicate with world leaders, prominent figures over these platforms. Communication is required in professional fields as well, and technology ensures that we can communicate with the world from wherever we are. We cannot imagine our lives without a smart phone, but there was a time when there were no mobile phones at all. Families are much less worried about their children these days, because phones give them the information about the whereabouts of children, so they are much more relieved about their safety than they were before. Technology Helps in Legal Work– With our safety comes the safety of the community and the prime responsibility falls upon legal systems. Technology has helped a lot in improving law and order. Today we have phone cameras, CCTV cameras etc. which testify for crime scenes. We have the computer and internet to find any criminal from anywhere with a global database. Improved technological gadgets have helped in improving forensics, cyber crime treatment to a great extent. Security– Technology provides us security. Several home security devices like spy scam, door cam, anti-theft applications are linked with our smart phones. Most of them are electronically built for better safety and security purposes. Today we use a camera to see who stands outside our door, in place of an eye-hole. We can in fact, talk to the person before opening the door. Again, mobile phones make us very confident on streets. When we have a gadget of communication, we know we can make a call whenever in trouble. Internet– Globalization wouldn’t have been possible without internet. The fact that we can connect and work from any part of the world is because we have internet. We can have client meets and requirements from all over the globe and we can assimilate information and process delivery because we have internet. In fact, Covid has proven that internet can keep our lives going even when we are locked down in houses, barely anything is affected for our work, if it is internet based.

Knowledge– Gone are those days, when we had to run from one library to another within our city to find books and materials for our school-college projects. Even then we would not get the appropriate information required in research work. But today, with the help of Google, we are able to browse, any type of and any amount of information required for attending journal call for paper. Even for enlightenment and knowledge, we can browse the web. We can learn if we want at any age, anywhere, because we have internet and computer.

Education– Technology has shown us how we can overcome the barriers of time and place with computer and internet. This has made education more accessible and affordable to people across the world. Today, one person in India can learn from Harvard or MIT, even from their home, because of online educational platforms which enriches learning. Online school and college is not just an idea or luxury; it is a necessity especially when there is a pandemic situation. Online learning is much for cost effective for students and universities, so every other university has shifted their programs online. This is in fact, gen-next education system where schools will move online for affordable and uninterrupted learning. Besides technological gadgets like kindle and tablet are making reading and writing easier and lighter.

Entertainment– Technology has contributed heavily to the world of entertainment. From video and computer games to smart televisions, a wide range of technological inventions have helped us engage our free time. Even today, movie watching is no longer limited to a theatre space. The way we read on a computer, we watch movies on digital platforms. Online streaming platforms and applications are moving the entertainment world to a complete digitization mode. We live in the age of technology. We commute by automobiles and airplanes and communicate by emails and mobiles. The media and the Internet provide us the latest information from all over the world. Movies filled with hi-tech special effects entertain us. Air conditioners and room heaters keep our life comfortable despite climatic inconveniences. The list goes on. Technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives. Of course, a few of us may have concerns about the pollution and environmental problems that technology has led to. But overall most people feel that technology has benefited us immensely.

In the mid-20th century, people have gained control technology sufficient to leave the Earth's atmosphere and space for the first time. The technology used to know the techniques or methods of organization to solve the problem by the method of right and serve the purpose. Technology affects the person and the possibility of other kinds of animals to adapt to the natural environment. Human species has begun using the technology that makes it simple natural tools. Discovery of prehistory, the ability to control fire increased food sources and the invention of the wheel helped humans to travel and explore your surroundings. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes to develop weapons and destructive power has evolved over the centuries, from clubs to nuclear weapons. Technology also has an impact on society and the environment in many ways. In many societies, technology has helped bring a more developed economy and allow the entertainment show class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products, known as pollution, and deplete natural resources, harm the earth and its surroundings. Different use of technology influences the values of society and new technology often increases the new ethical questions.

By the mid 20th century, humans had achieved supremacy of technology sufficient to leave the atmosphere of the Earth for the first time and space. Technology used for know the techniques or method of organization to solve the problem by the right method and serve some purpose. Technologies are affecting human as well as other animal kinds ability to adapt to their natural environments. The human species began to use technology by conversion the natural things into simple tools like How produce afire by a simple way, Wheel help the human in travel, Make a coat by simple way.

The aim of the technology when it began is good. The people want by simple tools make something help them in daily life. So, we invite a lot of something to help us and us it daily. Now, these things we can't life without it. Like Electricity, Air-Condition etc.

And a lot of things we use it and can't imagine our life without it. So, the technology helps us in our life to be more easily. When a technology has been used by communities to compete to develop themselves. Therefore, the technology has two faces are the face of good and the other face is evil. And with that despite the good start that was designed to facilitate people's lives. For example, when he invented dynamite was to open the mines know, and iron and other minerals, but after then used in World War this is how the beginning but the end is bad. So he makes Nobel PRIZE to encourage people to make a good invite which help the world and people.

Technology improves our goodness of life. By use the technology we have important discoveries. In our life we depend in technology in everything in our life. When you think about the technology you found yourself use it every minute. So, it is important in our life and the life will be different without it. The technology enters in all fields like pharmacy, medicine and engineering. It's difficult to see field without technology. In medicine it is make a big different. Now we can treat the patient without make meeting. It saves our time and effort and more and more in this field. The technology makes our life easier. And the big invite which convert the impossible to possible. It is the internet which can connect and communicate with people who are miles away from us. It's only one of the many examples we could give it to verify the fact that the technology is a blessing.

All media depend on the technology. Now we know what's happen in any region in world by the media. It's easy now but in the past it's like difficult to imagine it. But the technologies make a big Event in our life when something invite like computer, internet, cell phone.

These inventions changed a human life in twentieth century. But the important inventions in the past are we see it everywhere, in cars, trucks, airplanes, ships, car interiors, toys and more. Life will never be the same without wheels. They range from wooden carts and carriages, a simple device, but it provides over time developed. With so many uses and applications, is still part of the human race, and one of the first steps of civilization. Can you imagine that he does not take a taxi to the hotel? Instead of this situation, a few miles with tons of pockets? Or did he get an hour's walk to the mall?

People are left thumb, which led to the development of tools. Simple instruments such as the use of sharp rocks into knives and spears cut. Large rock as a used hammer has become a stream. We have our houses, animals, trapped in our rooms built and improve our way of life with tools. Interestingly, some mammals and birds use a variety of tools.

System in which waste collected and disposed of at the same time is more than somewhere useful. Old people saw it and were among the first to invent system. Today we rarely think of the network pipes beneath our feet and make sure that our waste stays out of our eyes and nose! I'm glad to know that we are not stool on the floor. Well, most of the time.

Dirt paths taken by hunters were from vehicles, but it was invented after the invention of the wheel, there is a real need for better roads. Dirt trodden path now, wood and stone and brick streets. For convenience of use, to transport routes, the world is a success. Today is the backbone of the economy and society. Consider buying a life without the road. We lived in the houses at random. Transported goods slowed. There will be more accidents.

The concept of efficiency in terms of human productivity, a term originally used only for machines, and challenge the traditional norms. Philosophical a discussion about current and future use of technology in our society, with disagreements about the technology improves the human condition or worsens the situation. So technology is not a blessing or a curse, is both. We cannot determine whether one of them. We live between technologies. Travel by car and aircraft and to communicate via telephone and email and telephone. The media and the Internet make us the latest information from around the world.

Movies packed with hi-tech special effects to entertain us. Air conditioners and heaters to keep our lives well, but climatic disadvantages.

Technology has changed virtually all face in our lives. Some of us may have problems with pollution and environmental problems as the technology lead. But in general most people feel that technology has benefited us more. The technology is now so fundamental to human life. No one can deny the benefits of technology.

But most people cannot see another hand. Technology has two faces. Despite the encounter, there are many problems caused by technology. For example, in the past, you rarely see people with glasses, now almost all teen glasses. The reason is that many teenagers are using computers for a long time, to the extent that destroys their own eyes. Moreover, people today rely on technology too.

Most people complain when they could not use computer for the special day with teenagers. People complain when the computer accident and not save the file you worked on. Humans rely on so much technology that no one would survive if there is no technology in the world.

Moreover, science and technology acted as helping hands in medical field and everyday life of each and every individual. However, the invention of the artificial intelligence has become the challenging aim of worldwide engineers. Scientists and engineers have joined much effort to promote communication by the invention of multiple devices showing more and more sophistication at all times. The creation of mobile phones, computers and the monstrous network commonly known as the internet allow people to keep in touch around the globe which is a blessing for many individuals separated from their family due to working purposes or studies. Thanks to the well-known device called webcam, one may visualize and converse with his partner live and direct through his personal computer although being distance apart. However, due to the unprecedented freedom in communication via network many people misuse it. We should ask ourselves, how many teenagers use the internet to chat and lose time together with money after unknown people?

During the last decades, the medical field has been witnessing many modifications brought about by the latest technologies to cure people with more efficiency and accuracy.In the past destroying tumerous cells without damaging the surroundings and producing side effects was a challenging aim for many doctors. Nevertheless, after the invention of infra-red apparatus and the ‘nanoshells’, this has become a child’s play. The nanoshells are microscopic silica particles coated with gold that sticks to the cancerous cells. Passing the nanoshells under infra-red rays increases the temperature of the cell and destroys it. Still although this experiment has been successful on mice, we have to wait up to year 2010 before this new therapy is applied on human beings. Moreover, scanning an unborn baby from the mother’s womb is today a reality. Isn’t it a thing that brings happiness to the future parents? However, it should be brought to mind that such curative way of diseases may act as a booster for the level of aging population resulting into overpopulation. If life expectancy may be prolonged, it will definitely be a problem for the coming generation.

As made obvious by latest observations, we should admit that information technology has invaded the life of each and everyone. All the daily routine depends on sophisticated electronic kits. The invention of the microwaves for instance has facilitated the life of numerous people around the world, be it in the kitchen or a restaurant. According to scientists, food coming from microwaves does not have side effects on the health of people. However the creation of such facilities may sometime be blame as people are becoming more and more lazy day after day. Hence, shouldn’t we blame information technology for the mercurial rise in the rate of obesity?

During the recent decades, engineers and scientists have joined hands together to put to existence the artificial intelligence commonly known as robots. The aim of this project is to conceive machines that may think on their own, work and develop emotions as well. As picturised in the science fiction movie ‘I. Robots’, it was made crystal clear that it’ll happen a day where Man’s inventions would like to conquer humanity, would revolt and revenge. If such day happens it would be terrible to every single individual. Then, who should we blame science and technology or the scientists themselves?

In the same line of thought, it should not be forgotten that the invention of so many machines will make unemployment reach its higher level. Moreover, massive destruction caused by biological weapons will definitely blame the new technology. Furthermore, the introduction of the newly invented system of RFID commonly known as Radio Frequency Identification in supermarket would greatly help in time saving.

As discussed in the above argumentation, science and technology have immensely helped in improving the way of communication across the world. Moreover, it greatly eased the way of curing diseases and has conquered the life of everyone. However, the invention of robots may facilitate as well as become a burden for humanity. Hence, information technology has brought much benefit to the world, but unconsciously it has caused much damage to Man. Therefore, deciding whether science and technology is a curse or a blessing remains quite complex.

In conclusion, technology is a blessing or a curse, is both. What does change in attitude is how they use it. We cannot coward on nuclear weapons for the damage it produces, which teaches that the epidemic. Everything is better as the technology used to create everything. What will stay in our consciousness, it's what we do with it either bless or curse our environment, and as a result of our own lives.

[allie1804-fan]

Malaise (Chapter 1 - Calling Tara)

Warnings: Mentions of escort services and sexual acts

Notes  - I wanted to try and write something that I imagine might be a bit closer to the real experience of Keanu than my stories with romance and babies etc. Not completely sure where it’s going just yet but thought I would put out my first 2 chapters and see what people think.

Keanu stared at the phone in his hand again, thumb poised over the green phone symbol. He didn’t quite know why he was hesitating.  He had found himself unable to make even the simplest of decisions with any speed lately. His hand drifted down to his groin where he rubbed himself absent-mindedly. He took a deep breath and tapped “call”.

 “Codename please” the robot voice said

 “KCR”

 “please type in your pin”

He punched in 090264 wondering once again if he should really try to cover his tracks with things like this but nothing had leaked in the 10 years+ of using the agency . They were discrete and the system was designed to shield the calls by using the pin system and he was careful with his phone, never giving details to strangers. Heaven forbid if his number got out to hackers and they figured out that he made fairly regular calls to an elite escort agency!

Once through to a human being at their end, he asked for Tara who was his regular. He needed sex and as soon as she was available.  He specified “the usual” and put the phone down, going out to sit by the pool and have a smoke as distraction from his horniness.

He’d  tried a couple of his “friends with benefits” before calling the agency but they were out of town and he didn’t want to call Autumn, she was too needy for how he was feeling right now. There was history there of an on and off relationship in the early 90s that had been one of the ones that proved to him that he wasn’t cut out for commitment. She couldn’t deal with his regular absences to shoot films and he couldn’t stay faithful for that long either. Still, even now, they’d  end up in bed together sometimes, but he knew she still wanted more, more than he could give so it wasn’t fair to her. Back in the day she’d been more wild and bohemian, more aligned with his view that sex was just sex and you could enjoy it with or without the emotional baggage.  And she’d been willing to let him try things in his younger days like anal sex and a bit of BDSM - she liked to be dominated. Neither of those things were really his bag now but he’d been on a journey  of sexual discovery back when they started adding sex into the mix and she’d been a willing traveller.

He’d been in London a couple of weeks back and met up for dinner with an actor /writer friend Doraly – she wasn’t seeing anyone just now either and they both needed release so they’d gone back to her flat afterwards and fucked. That had been the last time and now he was antsy.

He got a text from the agency about 15 minutes after placing the call. Tara could come tomorrow. With Tara, part of the deal was to share some conversation and food first, basically a bit of a fake date night. The irony wasn’t lost on him that he wanted to have the trappings of a date as part of the sex he was buying! He dropped her a text to ask what she fancied  -  she chose dim sum and wan tons - she knew him well enough to choose something he liked too.

Later when he went to bed, he jerked off not wanting to come too quickly the next day. He thought about Tara as he pulled on his cock, imagining her fragrant thighs astride his head. That was always the first part of ‘the usual’  - she had the most delicious pussy and he would always feast on that first before straight sex of some kind. He wasn’t required to specify positions for that, only if there was anything they classified as kinky or out of the ordinary.

The next day, he went for a long ride up PCH to clear his head and kill some time.  Tara was due to his house at 6.30 and the dim sum at 7. He’d got a fine bottle of Chablis, her favourite white and he was looking forward to catching up with her. She was always interested in his work and she enjoyed theatre, movies and books so there was always something interesting to talk about. Best of all, there were no demands. He only had to give what he was willing to and mostly that was wanting to be sure she had at least one orgasm – he derived at least some of his satisfaction from that as well as the obvious appreciation she had for his body. There was no need to keep her at an emotional distance because she didn’t ask for emotional closeness from him, not beyond the session that is. She was good at the whole date night scenario as long as it lasted though and that’s what he wanted tonight.

With the other women in his life, barriers were put up. Sometimes that was in quite a formal way so if he was with someone new, he’d make clear he wasn’t able to commit to a long term or monogamous relationship. He’d usually blame this on work and of course that was a major practical factor, but a voice inside told him there were probably other things in his personality or life experience that prevented him from wanting a long term relationship. He valued his time alone as well – not just the time to pursue his career and help run the Arch business. He wanted to be able to spend a day reading or playing chess against the computer or simply taking off on his bike or to the beach without anyone being pissed off about it.

The other barriers to closeness he put up were more subtle. He was always very guarded about sharing personal information beyond what he liked in the arts and what food he liked, he would avoid introducing women to other friends or family and would rarely go out with them in public, ostensibly to protect them from publicity.

In his younger days, he simply had not been ready to commit to one person and the practical issue of going away so often for filming or publicity had made that impossible too in combination with his healthy appetite for sex - he wasn’t able to go without for that long. Then as he’d got older and more famous, meeting someone who was really interested in him as a person,  not as a meal ticket or a connection to exploit, became increasingly difficult and led him to put up barriers. And then there had been Jen and Ava, a terrible situation filled with loss and angst that had finally closed the door, he was pretty sure, for good. In truth, he hadn’t gone into that relationship with monogamy or kids in mind either, it had been thrust upon him but he had loved her and the loss of both the baby and then her left him feeling like him being in a relationship was a curse that he should not inflict on anyone.

He thought about all this on the ride. He knew his physical needs could not be met without ‘work’ (at maintaining a relationship or multiple ‘special’ friendships) or resorting to calling on Tara or one of the other escorts when she wasn’t free. That need for sex was one of the reasons he had 2 or 3 friends with benefits on a kind of rotation and why he sometimes, against his better judgement usually, embarked on a fling with a fellow cast member, or occasionally there would be a random meeting in everyday life like Anita who had worked as a PA to his mother for a while. Those flings could sometimes be quite passionate for a month or so, sometimes longer and he knew his instincts for generosity and chivalry could sometimes war against those proclamations of not wanting commitment. That had caused some fiery endings  such as with Lynne Collins. He’d even been quite public with her, eating out, shopping, flying up to New York to see her in “As you Like it” and attend the after party as her date – all signals, along with the good loving he always tried to give his ladies, that suggested he hadn’t really meant it about not committing – but he had and she sure did not like it, dropping him like a hot potato when he made that abundantly clear. That wasn’t an unusual pattern in terms of how women eventually responded to his lack of commitment. He was always clear about his position up front, but it didn’t always put off the women who did want something longer term. They probably thought they could change him and those behavioural mixed signals no doubt kept them thinking they would be the one to break him! Eventually though, they would lose interest and the cycle would start again.

He loved sex and exploring women’s bodies, getting to know them – that’s one reason he kept going back to the same friends and escorts. The flings came in for the thrill of the new he guessed, it wasn’t that he was looking for ‘the one’, at least he didn’t think so.  With a few women in the past there had been a real connection and intimacy that had been monogamous for a time but that was a long ago now.

He returned from his ride at around 4 giving him time for a shower, a nap and putting fresh sheets on the bed before Tara arrived in her cab.  He hadn’t seen her for a few months having been away on a shoot  - as she stepped out of the car and came up the drive, he saw she was as slender,  beautiful and well turned out as ever. She was tall with long, wavy chestnut hair and in keeping with his taste, quite large breasts – all natural too, another preference. He greeted her with a kiss on the cheek and invited her in.

@penwieldingdreamer @fortheloveoffanfic @kindainlovewithkeanu @ladyreapermc @witty-wallflower @gatsbynouvel @bitchyslut99 @keanureevesisbae @omg-imagine @iworshipkeanureeves @fics-not-tragedies @ficsnroses @kindainlovewithkeanu @paperplanesandwallflowers

[smilegirl64]

Two Moons Chapter 2

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30001866/chapters/73993602#workskin To put it simply, Virgilious Arrowwood was not calm. He was trying to be calm, but was very much not succeeding. But really, who could blame him for his panic? There were currently two moons floating in the sky. They were both waxing, which was interesting. Usually, with this kind of horror, it was two full moons. Nevertheless, he stayed inside. He didn't want to be out there when the world ended. He glanced out the window in his room to his rather spacious backyard and frowned a little. Since when had he planted roses there? He rubbed his eyes to see if he was hallucinating. Nope, there were definitely roses growing along his fence. He looked at the trees that separated his neighbor's backyard from his. On his half, the flowers were fully in bloom, with small cherry blossoms decorating the trees. On his neighbor's half, however, he didn't seem to see any flowers. His heart rate shot up as he looked around at his strangely floral backyard. What was going on? Where had all these flowers come from? A breeze then began to blow. It carried the cherry and rose petals along with it, swirling in the middle of his backyard like a tornado of pinks and reds. Virgil watched with wide eyes, scared yet intrigued. The petals seemed to fuse together, creating the vague silhouette of a human. In a flash of red light, the petals had turned into...a person?! Virgil ducked down before peeking at the stranger that was now standing in his garden. It appeared to be a man around his age. He was wrapped up in a white robe with gold accents, a red sash draped across his chest. A red and gold rose flower crown sat atop his head, his eyes the same color as the cherry blossoms that had given him form. The man rubbed his arms, which were wrapped in leaf covered vines. Virgil flushed as he took in the man's appearance. He was impossibly beautiful, his jawline sharp and skin tanned. His muscles were toned and clearly visible. Virgil shook his head in an attempt to snap himself out of it. Despite how beautiful this man was, he couldn't let himself be hypnotized by his appearance. After all, the prettiest of faces could mask the ugliest of intentions. Crap! His breathing hitched as the man noticed him. He just missed the man's smile as he ducked down, hiding. He ducked under his bed, grabbing his hoodie on his way under. He grabbed his pocket knife out of one of the pockets, ready to fight this person if he chose to intrude. He tensed at the sound of the sliding glass door skidding open. Why hadn't he locked it? He could hear the sound of the intruder's bare feet slapping against the ground before becoming inaudible as the person walked on the carpet that led up the stairs and down the hall. His breathing sped up as the person checked the rooms. They didn't seem to find him. Then, they called out. "Hello? Mortal? Thee can cometh out. I hold no ill intent!" Virgil tensed more as the man's voice reached his ears. What the hell was up was this guy? Not only was he walking around his house, but he was talking in Shakespearian English! Was this man drunk or high? Was Virgil? Was this just some sort of fever dream? A fever nightmare? He was snapped out of his thoughts by the man entering the room. He retreated to the corner of his bed as the man looked around. "Mortal? Art thou there? I can hear thoust air intake." Virgil squeezed his eyes shut. This was it. The man was going to find him. He was gonna find him and do...something to him. He wasn't sure what, but it definitely wasn't gonna be good. Though, after a few minutes, nothing seemed to happen. He opened his eyes, only to see the man laying on his stomach and looking at him, his expression concerned. "Mortal? art thee feeling well enow?" Virgil raised an eyebrow, letting out a confused "what?" The man seemed to realize something. "Oh! My most humble apology, mortal. I believeth 'are you okay' is the the modern way to speaketh. Thy English is so strange." Virgil looked at him, his fear now being overrun by confusion. "Why the hell are you talking like that?" The man shrugged. "This is merely how I speaketh." He extended a hand to him. Virgil hesitated before taking it and letting this stranger pull him out from under the bed. Virgil sat up, pulling his knees to his chest while the man sat cross-legged. The robed man adjusted his sash before looking back up. "What is thy name?" Virgil chuckled softly, now a little amused by his speaking mannerisms. "Virgil, you?" The man brought a dramatic hand to his chest, smiling brightly. "Thou mayest refer to me as Roman." Virgil blushed a little as he listened to him speak. His voice was deep and bombastic, almost like he was constantly projecting his voice to be heard by people in the back of a theatre. He had a very thick, yet still understandable Scottich accent, with each word filled with a rather fun energy that Virgil only knew to exist in Patton, and even he had his down days. Virgil extended one leg, resting his chin on the other knee. "So, I've got some questions." Roman nodded, encouraging him to ask. "First off, what was up with the flower petals?" Roman smiled. "That is how I travel to thy realm." Virgil nodded slowly. "Secondly, why do you keep calling me 'mortal?'" Roman did a dramatic flourish. "Why, because I am a god!" Virgil frowned, not convinced. "Riiiiiiight. So, what are you the god of?" He put on his hoodie. "Why, love and beauty of course!" The man spoke with a bright smile, as if not completely picking up on Virgil's suspicion. Virgil sighed, causing the smile to drop. "Why the hell are you in my house?" Roman looked at him, tilting his head to the side. "Mine friend and I hath decided to visit mortals we hath found to beest interesting. Thee must has't noticed the two moons." Vigil sighed softly. So he wasn't going crazy. "Can anyone else see the moons?" Roman shook his head. "The moons art gone now." He nodded a little bit, relaxing as relief flooded him. "Well, what were the two moons for?" He chuckled softly. "It's how mine friend gazes upon his mortal of choice." Virgil rolled his eyes. "And your friend couldn't choose a less creepy way to watch this mortal?" He shook his head. "We cannot chooseth our abilities." Virgil nodded, understanding. "I'm guessing I can't tell anyone about this visit?" Roman nodded. "Well, thee can, but I don't bethink other people art going to believeth thee." Virgil paused. "What about the other mortal?" Roman thought for a moment. "your meaning escapes me. t depends upon whether or not thee knoweth the mortal." Virgil facepalmed. "Obviously. What's his name? What does he look like?" Roman looked off to the side, a thoughtful frown pulling at his lips. "His name is Patton. he hath curly hair the color of caramel and eyes the color of a cloudless sky. Freckles dot his visage like the trees of the forest." Recognition flashed across Virgil's eyes. "I think I know who you're talking about." The god nodded and stood. He pulled at the window, unsure how to operate it. Virgil chuckled and unlocked the window, opening it and popping the screen out. "There you go, you himbo." Roman raised an eyebrow. "Him...bo...?" Virgil shook his head. "Nothing." Roman nodded, taking a deep breath. He made direct eye contact with Virgil, a gentle smile on his face. "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." And with that, he turned to petals which were blown into the distance by the wind.

[rabbitcruiser]

Global Movie Day

Global Movie Day is celebrated on the second Saturday of February every year, to coincide with the Oscar season. This year, it takes place on February 11. This day was established to celebrate the power of movies and their capacity to inspire and move people, and transform lives. Global Movie Day offers people an opportunity to celebrate movies and catch up on the latest movie releases. Set in the thick of Oscar season, the date is perfect for movie buffs to come together to watch and discuss the latest movies. This allows them to bond over their shared love of good stories told on celluloid!

History of Global Movie Day

Global Movie Day is celebrated on the second Saturday of February every year. This day was established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences so movie-lovers around the world could celebrate their favorite movies. The Academy also wanted to offer people the opportunity to take one day to come together and discuss movies with the Academy as well as other movie buffs. A special day set aside for movies gives people an opportunity to revisit classics, rewatch their favorite films and catch up on the latest releases.

Setting the day in the midst of Oscar season was deliberately done to encourage people to participate in the excitement surrounding the Oscar-nominated films as well as the best releases of the year.

Movies are a visual art form that uses a series of live-action photographs. These are then presented in sequence at the rate of 24 frames per second. Because of a phenomenon called a “persistence of vision,” the pictures appear to move to the human eye.

The movie industry in the United States, commonly referred to as Hollywood, has an enormous influence on the film industry. American cinema has been historically a leading force in the industry and is considered to be the oldest film industry.

Today, films use sophisticated cameras as well as advanced computer graphics and software to tell stories in interesting ways. As people consume media via different platforms, movies are being seen as yet another type of ‘content’, which is transforming the way producers and consumers look at storytelling.

Global Movie Day timeline

1893 The Black Maria is Completed

Edison’s Black Maria, also known as the cinematographic theatre, becomes Thomas Edison’s film production studio.

1912 Production Companies Set up in California

A number of major film companies set up production facilities in Southern California in Los Angeles because of good weather conditions that support filmmaking year-round.

1929 The First Academy Awards is Held

The first Academy Awards is hosted at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel — a total of 15 statuettes are awarded on the day to various artists.

2020 The Academy Establishes Global Movie Day

The first Global Movie Day is set up by the Academy before the 92nd Oscars.

Global Movie Day FAQs

Is it legal to watch movies on YouTube?

Yes, YouTube has a set of ad-free-supported movies that they made available in 2018.

What is the best movie app?

Some of the best movie apps include Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and HBO.

How long does a Netflix download last?

Depending on the film, a download may last between 24 hours to seven days.

Global Movie Day Activities

Watch some movies

Host a drive-in movie night

Discuss your favorite movies

Is there any better way to celebrate movies than by watching them? Settle down with your old favorites or get tickets to one of the latest movie releases and mark the occasion!

If you have a projector and a flat white wall, host a drive-in for your neighborhood. Set up your film and projector outside, invite your neighbours, and settle in to watch!

Discuss your favorite films with other movie buffs. Everyone’s connecting online on social media so get a discussion going.

5 Cool Facts About The American Movie Industry

A lot of genres began in America

Hollywood is the most successful commercially

America produces 700 movies every year

Hollywood is an important cultural resource

There’s an archive of the Oscars

Cinema genres such as musicals and war epics, as well as the ones common among the other arts such as comedy and drama were birthed by the American movie industry.

American movie studios have produced films that are commercially successful at home and around the world — they are also known to produce movies that have the highest ticket sales in the world.

Hollywood and other independent producers together generate hundreds of films throughout the year.

As globalization intensifies, the American government relies on the worldwide appeal of Hollywood to export American culture around the world.

The Academy Film Archive has recordings of every award ceremony since 1949 in a variety of different formats.

Why We Love Global Movie Day

We love movies

We want to catch up

We want to talk about movies

We love sitting down and getting lost in the story on screen. We’re delighted to have a day set aside to watch and discuss movies with other movie buffs around the world.

It’s hard to keep up with the latest movies, especially during Oscar season. We love having a day to just relax and watch a few movies!

If we talked about movies all year round, people might get bored! So we’re excited to have a dedicated day on which we can discuss all the great things we enjoy about movies.

Source

[everwitch-magiks]

dance with somebody (ch. 14)

start from ch. 1 | back to ch. 13

“There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Dex looks up, startled.

There’s only a handful of people who know that Dex spends most of his lunch breaks in the theatre club’s wood workshop. Ford is in on it, of course, since she literally gave him a key. Then there's Joyo, who inevitably ran into Dex within less than a week – if there's one person on the hockey team Dex had known he'd encounter all the way across campus in the art building, it's definitely Joyo. It really hadn't been much of a surprise when Joyo had stepped out of the pottery studio right opposite just as Dex was locking up the workshop. Dex had been prepared, had already made up his mind to simply tell Joyo exactly what he was up to and ask that Joyo keep it a secret. (Joyo had sworn, most dutifully, not to tell a single living soul. It had been unexpectedly sweet.)

Other than that, the only people who know are the theatre kids themselves, who have graciously granted Dex the use of a corner of their workshop in exchange for his advice on the construction of a few of their more elaborate set pieces. Which is why Dex is more than a little bit surprised to find Whiskey standing before him, out of breath in a way that suggests he’s just run all the way across campus.

“How did you know I was here?” Dex can’t help but wonder.

“Ford,” Whiskey says, and suddenly Dex feels silly for asking. Of course Ford would tell Whiskey, if Whiskey needed to know. There’s probably more sacred pacts between Whiskey and Tango and Ford than between all the other team members put together. “This is kind of important, and she… Wait. What’re you doing?”

Dex looks down at his work for a moment, contemplating his answer. He’s actually gotten pretty far. The red oak boards he’s using for the surface of the table are glued together, and he’s currently in the process of using a hand plane to smoothen it out before he can move on to sanding. Still, there’s actually nothing that gives away what it is that Dex is making, exactly, which is presently to his advantage. He's always intended to tell as few people as possible, just in case.

“I’m using a hand plane to even out the surface of this red oak,” Dex settles on.

Whiskey looks down at the tool in Dex’s hands. He blinks, once. Then he shakes his head a little.

“Sure,” he says, and looks up to face Dex again. “D’you have a second? I’ve kind of got… This thing.”

“Of course.” Dex puts down his things and leans back against his work bench. “What’s up?”

Whiskey, who has obviously gone to great lengths to speak to Dex as soon as he possibly could, hesitates.

Dex raises both eyebrows, a little curiously.

Whiskey clears his throat.

“There’s this guy,” he says, the words coming out in a rush.

“Oh,” Dex says. He feels pleasantly surprised. "That's… That's great, Whiskey."

It’s been so long since their pivotal conversation out on the porch, during the first kegster of the fall, that Dex has started to Whiskey might never bring this up again. Apparently, he was wrong.

Whiskey sighs, running a hand through his hair. He isn't not smiling, but it's a near thing.

“Honestly? I'm not actually sure.”

"Okay," Dex says slowly. He's far from certain of how he's supposed to navigate this. Especially since Whiskey doesn't seem at all inclined to take the lead. "D'you wanna… What's he like?"

That makes Whiskey look away briefly, possibly in an attempt to hide the way his expression softens.

"He's, um. He's kind of amazing. Completely out of my league. I've got no idea why he keeps wanting to spend so much time with me."

Dex smiles.

"It sounds like he likes you, too?"

"I guess," Whiskey says carefully. "On some level, at least. We, um. We've been studying together, and also… Not studying together. Lately, it's kind of been more of the latter."

"Right." Dex tries not to grin too widely. "Good for you, man."

Whiskey cheeks turn a little pink. It's completely out of character and strangely endearing.

"Well, anyway," Whiskey says quickly, with a sudden willingness to move the conversation forward. "The thing is, I'm not out. And he is. And I really want something that's more than whatever we're doing right now, but it's not like I could ask him to go back in the closet. So I'm just not sure what to do."

"... Huh." Dex ponders that for a moment. "And you're not planning on coming out?"

"No," Whiskey says, very firmly. "I'm not going to. That's not an option, here."

"Alright," Dex agrees gently. "That's completely okay, Whiskey. I'm just trying to get the full picture."

"I know that," Whiskey says quickly. "It's just, I've been thinking about that a lot, myself. I'd be asking so much less from him if I at least thought I might come out at some point, maybe in a few years or something. But I'm just not going to do that."

"Right." Dex nods, smiling. "Years, huh?"

Whiskey frowns, a little defensively.

"That's completely okay," Dex repeats firmly. "What I mean is, you're clearly thinking about this guy in a very long-term sense. He must be someone pretty special."

Whiskey looks away abruptly.

"I know. I'm being so stupid," he says quietly. "He probably thinks of this as just a bit of fun, or whatever. And even if he doesn't, a lot of relationships don't actually last past college. I know that. It's just, I tend to consider any important decision in a very long-term sense, and I do really like this guy a lot. A lot, a lot. So much that I could definitely see myself with him years down the line. Even if that does make me a presumptuous fucking idiot."

Dex takes a moment to ponder that. Suddenly, he's almost tempted to tell Whiskey the true purpose of the unfinished wooden table next to them. He wonders how Whiskey might react, if he did. It's not something he's ever considered before – he's been too busy wondering what Nursey will think of it, once he eventually gets to see it.

It's the question that's been occupying both Dex's waking thoughts and his dreams, lately, whether or not Nursey will actually say yes.

"I don't think you're being stupid," Dex tells Whiskey softly. He traces his fingertips across the surface of the red oak. "It's not necessarily a bad thing to know exactly what you want from someone. I think the really important thing is going to be how you tell him."

Whiskey raises both eyebrows. He looks incredulous.

"You think I should tell him?"

"Well, yes." Dex smiles. "If you want to be with this guy, then he's going to need to know where you're at, here. He's not going to magically read your mind."

"But I can't just…" Whiskey begins, before faltering. "I mean. If I come on that strong, and that's not how he feels… Then what?"

"Well." Dex thinks for a moment. "You might not want to lead with the bit about years down the line. But I don't think you should necessarily leave it out. He might not have considered any of that just yet, for sure, but there's a major difference between asking him how he feels about it as opposed to just letting him know it's something you could see in your future."

"I guess." Whiskey sighs. "We might not even get to that point in the conversation. If he isn't okay with having a relationship behind closed doors, it's game over. And I sort of doubt that's anything he's ever dreamed of."

Dex hums. "Has he said something like that?"

Whiskey thinks for a second.

"Not exactly. But I can't imagine he came out because he's a big fan of hiding."

"Right," Dex agrees. "But I guess you've been meeting up pretty discreetly so far? For your, what was it…. Non-studying sessions."

"We do actually study, sometimes," Whiskey says quickly, his cheeks turning distinctly pink again – under different circumstances, Dex thinks privately, he'd have charged a major fine right there. "We have a class together and everything."

"Oh, let me guess," Dex chirps, grinning. "Anatomy of the human body. Project partners. In-depth study."

"Oh, for fucks sake. No." Whiskey rolls his eyes. "We've been kissing non-stop, if you must know. But nothing more. Not yet, anyway."

For a second, Dex mentally kicks himself for teasing Whiskey to a point where he felt obligated to share something so private. Except, there's a change in Whiskey's expression after he's said it. He catches Dex's eyes, a small smile playing over his lips, almost like he's waiting for Dex's reaction. And that's when Dex remembers – Whiskey doesn't actually get to do this, like, ever. He never shares in their jokes about being a disaster bi or too gay to function, never comments on whether Chris Evans is hotter than Chris Pratt or which one of them he'd rather fuck or marry. To Whiskey, boy talk is a rarity, a luxury he seldom allows himself to enjoy.

Suddenly, Dex wonders if he ought to have teased Whiskey more.

"Sounds like plenty of fun to me," Dex settles on, offering Whiskey a grin. "For what it's worth, it sounds like this guy is more than a little bit into you."

"God, I hope you're right." Whiskey runs a hand through his hair, almost absently. He's still smiling. "If him and I could actually work out, that’d be… I don't know. Almost too perfect.”

"Talk to him," Dex encourages readily. "And let me know how it goes."

"Yeah. Okay." Whiskey exhales. "Now I just need to come up with a decent plan."

Dex barely resists rolling his eyes. Of course Whiskey would require a solid strategy, before attempting a high-risk play like this.

"I'm sure you'll come up with something great. You already know this guy fairly well, right?"

"For sure, yeah, I… Wait." Whiskey snaps his fingers. "Yes. You're right."

Dex raises a curious eyebrow.

"So," Whiskey continues quickly. "On a not unrelated note... Is there any chance I could borrow your truck, sometime? Maybe this Sunday?"

"Of course," Dex promises. "Whatever you need. I'm rooting for you guys."

"Thank you." Whiskey smiles again, and there's a weight to his words that probably doesn't have a whole lot to do with Dex's truck, specifically. "Dex, thank you so much. Truly."

Dex returns his smile. He wonders, not for the first time, who the fuck he should offer his dibs to now that Whiskey already lives in the Haus.

"Anytime. And good luck."

ch. 15

[misedejem]

I wrote 75 headcanons about Kannao

25 for Kanji, 25 for Naoto, 25 for them as a couple

Why?

Why not.

 Kanji Tatsumi

1.     He does actually need glasses, but he was hesitant to ask for contacts, so he spent most of P4 struggling to see until Naoto brought up that he looked like he was having a hard time. He wore contacts for a bit, but eventually he just stuck to glasses.

2.     The scar on his head was a source of speculation for the other members of the Investigation Team for years, because he never cared to explain, resulting in some very wacky theories. Eventually they found out it was just from a fight with a gang member, but considering he got it when he was twelve, the story is still pretty interesting.

3.     He hates mentioning medical stuff to anybody, but he’s prone to fainting spells out of nowhere. Thankfully, it never happened in the TV, which several members of the IT very angrily said to him when he blacked out in front of them one day.

4.     He’s the spitting image of his father, only with shorter hair. He could never let it grow out for that reason.

5.     He’s the only one from the Investigation Team B to go to college. He studies textiles and trains to become a teacher in Tokyo. He ends up being an art teacher at a middle school.

6.     He’s actually pretty good at literature and humanities subjects, though he struggles applying those skills in a school setting until a teacher who hasn’t given up on him yet helps him through them.

7.     Rise forced him to take dance classes the minute he moved to the city because he was ‘super good at it dammit’. Ditto the drums. He can sing too, but she’s not allowed to know that.

8.     He actually just tends to go along with Rise’s plans a lot, partially because he knows her well enough to know stopping her is futile, and also because she understands his tastes very well once she learns what they are

9.     He doesn’t dislike the way he used to dress in high school, but it wasn’t quite him. It needed more cuteness, and softer colours, which is how he started to dress once he graduated high school.

10.  The black hair and glasses stay forever, but when he’s sewing, he still wears his hair pushed back. Yukiko gave him a hairband for it when she noticed him growing slowly more irritated with it getting in his eyes.

11.  As well as his nose and ears, he also gets an eyebrow piercing in college.

12.  He manages to make a small group of friends in college, with his course being the perfect way for him to find likeminded individuals who applaud his skills rather than shunning them

13.  Kanji is the best cook in the Investigation Team. His baking skills, especially, are exemplary.

14.  He has an online, worldwide store where he sells his plushies and the occasional drawing and outfit. He’s semi-fluent in English by the time he graduates college, so when Naoto travels abroad sometimes he goes too and hits up the conventions.

15.  Ann is his go-to model once they meet. He helps her with outfits for a college final once and they work together so well that she sticks with him.

16.  The reason Koromaru dislikes him is that he can tell he’s kinda rough with physical affection. He doesn’t realise it for the longest time because nobody points it out. He is really good with animals otherwise though, and he’s also really good with kids.

17.  He’s a back-up fighter for the Shadow Ops should they need him, by virtue of being married to their resident detective.

18.  The main reason he keeps training his body though is actually because Chie is determined to beat him at arm wrestling one day, and he’s too proud to let anyone win without a fight.

19.  When Naoto’s cat, Mochi, had kittens, he got to name the one they kept. His name is Pocky. He has a little leather jacket that Kanji painstakingly crafted one night when he couldn’t sleep.

20.  He needs a lot of alcohol to get drunk (which makes nights out with the IT interesting for him, given that the others are all serious lightweights)

21.  If you give him a life sim, especially that one with the cute animals, you will not see him again for days at a time. He’s not huge on video games, but life sims will take over his life

22.  Even if he does retreat into a cave to build a pristine village though, he will still probably emerge with a smooth face because he doesn’t grow facial hair very easily. He can, but it takes a while.

23.  He can’t sleep as easily unless he’s holding something soft.

24.  The easiest time to get him to speak his mind about certain things is when he’s sick and more vulnerable, which doesn’t happen very often. For example, the IT had no idea their jokes at his expense bothered him until he confessed it while extremely out of it on cold medication one time. He doesn’t remember saying it either, but he did notice they were more sincere with him after that.

25.  Everybody in the Investigation Team ends up facing their Shadow again in their adulthood, but by the time Shadow Kanji returns, Kanji has become so accepting of the self the Shadow had represented in the past that he takes on a completely different form. Naoto is the only other person with this same experience.

Naoto Shirogane:

1.     By the time they stop growing, Naoto is nearly 5’1” and they absolutely make it a point to let their friends know

2.     They don’t really know how to look after their hair at all, hence the cap and general messiness. They tend to forget about it until it becomes too long and gets all tangled.

3.     They’re very accident prone, and are covered in a lot of scars from their childhood. The worst one though is one on their back from that time Sho stabbed them at Junes.

4.     One of said scars came from their neighbours’ huge dog biting them when they were five. To this day, they’re still absolutely terrified of big dogs.

5.     They’ve experienced panic attacks for most of their life, though they occur less frequently as an adult.

6.     They resemble their mother more than their father, but the height comes from the Shirogane side. Grampa Shirogane was quite small as well.

7.     They are the only member of the Investigation Team who can tolerate Rise’s cooking. The others suspect potential spice immunity.

8.     As well as piano and ballroom dance, they were also trained in a choir as a child, but fell out of favour with it in their teens. The Velvet Siblings hold a final Theatre Showdown with their guests in 2019, and this is when Naoto fully rediscovers their musical side again.

9.     If you ask Naoto how much those specially tailor-made clothes cost, they will mumble and then change the subject

10.  Naoto returns to Yasogami as a full-time student in third year after Mitsuru enrols Labrys in the school out of nowhere, intent on investigating her motives.

11.  They hold the school’s record for highest graded paper for decades. It was on Sherlock Holmes.

12.  Naoto has written a lot of Sherlock Holmes fanfiction as a kid. The others are aware this exists, but are not allowed to read it.

13.  They don’t attend college after graduation, but don’t have much time to figure out what they will do. The mental shutdown incidents begin the same year, and Naoto decided to help the Shadow Operatives with it as much as possible.

14.  Naoto hates the title ‘detective prince’, and actively tries to shed it. Akechi was a godsend in that light.

15.  They actually hate the media’s attention in general but figured that they may as well use the platform they have for a good cause. They want to be the kind of person they needed to see on TV as a kid, but they very vocally opposed the ‘detective prince’ crap until it ended – which it did quite abruptly when the truth about Akechi came out.

16.  Much of what Goro Akechi likes, he got from Naoto’s indirect influence, from the way he dresses to knowledge of that jazz club in Kichijoji. They’re more of a regular there than he is.

17.  Rise set them up on social media, but they don’t really get how to use it. Their fans discovered it though, so they still have a fair number of followers.

18.  Naoto has a slight friendly rivalry with the people who run a local escape room place. Their goal as a company is to one day leave Naoto stumped.

19.  Naoto doesn’t actually like coffee. Too bitter. Tea is their go-to.

20.  They got a standard-size motorcycle at eighteen but doesn’t drive a car. Yakushiji and Kanji refuse to let them behind the wheel.

21.  After becoming comfortable with their childish side once again, they became openly enamoured once more with Neo Featherman, and have a lot of very expensive figures on display in their house. They even cosplayed at a convention once with some of Kanji’s college friends (though it was difficult to convince them to do it)

22.  Yosuke was paid back all the money the IT owed him shortly after Naoto joined the team and discovered they were mooching from him. Yosuke doesn’t know for certain where it came from.

23.  They adopted a kitten they named Mochi in 2017, who they found abandoned outside a supermarket (in an old box that had contained a shipment of mochi, hence the name). She’s an orange tabby, and she became something of a comfort animal when Naoto was at their lowest.

24.  Their grandfather died from an illness in early February 2017. They didn’t handle his loss well, and they ended up falling into a depression that they never really came out of, though they weren’t able to admit that they weren’t okay. It was an encounter with their Shadow that eventually led to them seeking help.

25.  While they’re still a Private Detective in theory, most of the work they do following the events of P5 are Shadow-related. The Shirogane Agency became one of the Shadow Operatives’ closest allies. Makoto Niijima is currently doing an internship there (they met after the Phantom Thieves helped the SOs deal with another incident in Tokyo in 2018)

Kannao

1.     Naoto ‘came down with a fever’ around the time of the Love Meets Bonds festival that had absolutely nothing to do with their friend Kanji suddenly seeming way cooler than before.

2.     The ‘fever’ got worse when they started having classes together in school, and Naoto agreed to help Kanji with his college entrance exams.

3.     At this point Kanji had kinda accepted his feelings existed, but were unrequited, and that he didn’t want that to interfere with their friendship. Naoto was one of the only people who really got him, and he didn’t want to lose them so soon after building a rapport with them. Little did he know.

4.     Naoto was the first one to eventually confess, once Rise, Yu, Grampa, Nanako, several books and google searches, and a random stall vendor at the summer festival in their hometown had convinced them that the weird feeling in their chest wasn’t actually an illness. They did it in the summer of 2013, at said festival.

5.     They were also the first one to say they were in love. The realisation hit them one day as they were watching Kanji play a cute life-simulator game in his college dorm.

6.     While they’re no longer awkward around each other all the time, there are ways they can still make the other very flustered. For example, with Naoto, it’s any time Kanji is wearing a suit.

7.     They got married at Christmas in 2019. Kanji had a proposal planned. Naoto misread the vibe and proposed early and spontaneously on the day he had planned to, though he still got to go ahead with his as well.

8.     Kanji doesn’t really like PDA. They get a lot of people staring at them anyway because of how they look, or because Naoto is recognisable from the TV, and he doesn’t want to make the stares worse. In private though, he’s the more affectionate one.

9.     Naoto accidentally fuelled the rumours that ‘Kanji Tatsumi is in a biker gang’ again when they first started dating by parking their motorcycle outside the textile shop. Ma Tatsumi was quick to tell anybody who questioned it that it belonged to her son’s significant other long before she was supposed to know they were dating

10.  Kanji keeps forgetting to specify which number in his phone is for Naoto’s personal phone and which is for work, which has lead to such wonderful anecdotes as ‘I accidentally hired a private investigator to fix my broken car’

11.  They’re both used to the other bolting upright in bed at 3am because they’ve had an idea for a new pair of socks for the cat, or another hypothesis for a case. Naoto also wakes up quite a bit due to nightmares.

12.  They lived together with the rest of the Investigation Team since 2016, but they don’t get an apartment as just the two of them until the year they get married. It doesn’t take long before there is an entire room in that apartment filled from floor to ceiling with toys.

13.  Kanji is much tidier and more organised than Naoto, even though Naoto isn’t bad, so he’s the one who figures out where things should go. Decorating the house is his favourite thing

14.  They are the unparalleled board-game kings. Somehow, they’re an unstoppable force of nature when paired together for them.

15.  Surprising everyone, Naoto is the more likely of the two to use pet names. They are the only person who won’t be threatened if they call him ‘Kan-chan’.

16.  Before it became common knowledge amongst Naoto’s fanclub that Kanji was their boyfriend, they thought he was their bodyguard. (The Risette fandom had the same idea)

17.  Kanji never helped that rumour die, considering that when the media tries to shove cameras into Naoto’s face, he yells obscenities and gets in the way until the footage is unusable.

18.  They have a daughter in 2025, when Naoto is 30 and Kanji is 29. She’s named Chihiro, mostly because it’s like a phonetic portmanteau of Kanji’s father’s name (Koichi Tatsumi) and Naoto’s grandfather’s (Yasuhiro Shirogane). But also, that was the name of the actor who played Naoto’s favourite version of Feather Swan. Naoto isn’t creative enough to come up with a portmanteau.

19.  They are each 80% of the other’s impulse control

20.  Naoto couldn’t care less that Kanji isn’t the brightest, despite common misconception. The Shirogane family, and the people who work for it, always placed emphasis on a person’s intelligence (hence Yu’s requirement for a lot of knowledge to start the Fortune link) but Naoto is strongly opposed to that mindset. To them, it’s freeing to have somebody around who doesn’t want to be an intellectual 95% of the time.

21.  They are very private when it comes to their relationship, to the point that sometimes even friends or colleagues have no idea what’s going on in their lives until it’s let slip somehow. When Junpei and Yukari – the Shadow Ops Naoto worked with the least - found out they were expecting, it first had to be explained to them that they’d been married for five years.

22.  They sometimes get mistaken for father and son at restaurants until their early thirties, to which point Naoto will make a scene of ordering a lot of alcohol to prove they’re old enough. Naoto can’t really handle booze.

23.  They’re really bad at making face to face announcements about anything big to their friends, so they always find some way to do it elaborately instead. They told the IT they were having a kid, for example, through a series of puzzles put together by Naoto

24.  Kanji loves making couples costumes and outfits, but then gets too embarrassed to wear them

25.  Naoto is a fiend for stealing Kanji’s clothes as pyjamas. They are large and warm, and when they’re travelling for work, they remind them of him. It got to the point where Kanji would pack a shirt of his secretly in Naoto’s suitcase, knowing that’s why his clothes always went missing.

[oatmilkovich]

Willa, I cried so much watching Come From Away earlier. They way they filmed the beginning, like of NY and everyone walking into the theater, it really just hit me how much we haven't had live theater and going to watch things like that with large groups of people. I genuinely didn't realize just how much I missed that until then. I think people in the future, who didn't live through covid and lockdown, being able to watch this recording of Come From Away and seeing all that beginning footage before the show is really important. I think it does a really good job showing how much of an impact covid has had on everything, especially live theater. Kind of how in a similar way, Inside does a really good job of showing how it's been for people in the future to see.

And the show! I've never had the pleasure of seeing CFA in person, so I've ever only seen it from a bootleg. And as much as I appreciate that, we all know that boots aren't the best quality. CFA is my all time favorite musical, and seeing a proshot like that really just took my breath away and it really made the whole meaning and everything of the show hit hard. Not to mention it's the 20th anniversary, as well as everyone having been in a very shitty world the past year and a half.

Come From Away truly is just the perfect show. It's funny as hell, heart wrenching to the point you'll cry, so happy you'll cry, and full of so much love. The choreo, the lighting, the music, the characters, the band, it's all just so magnificent.

anon!! ❤️

this made my heart so so happy. come from away is one of the most wonderful, heartwarming and emotional shows i've ever seen. i was lucky enough to see it in london a few years back and it's at the top of my list to see in person again when i finally get round to it. i completely agree, it's a perfect show. there's such a wonderful balance between the characters, the music, the subject matter – there's no leading role and i think that's what gets me the most. it's truly an ensemble show about humans coming together in a time of need. i bawled my eyes out from the beginning to the end from being so impacted by it – right from the get go with welcome to the rock (which is one of my favourite opening songs from any musical ever).

the show deals with such a difficult period – one that's risky to create work around – and yet they did it with such grace and humanity that you can feel the love bursting at the seams. i'm so so happy that you were able to watch a pro-shoot, it's so important for art like that to be accessible – especially when it deals with such things. and you're right, after such shitty two years it's nice to be reminded how good people can be – love is at the core of us all.

looking back at this recording in a couple years is going to be very special, it's hard to put into words how important it feels being an audience member again. live theatre suffered severely in the last two years – it breaks my heart to think about it – but come from away is the perfect show to come back to.

thanks for sending me this, it really made me so happy. please feel free to come here whenever you want to chat about anything theatre related ❤️