#70s male canadian
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HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY GEDDY!!!!
(meme credit to u/rtphokie on reddit)
OH, AND WHAT’S THAT?!?! IT’S ALSO THE 49th ANNIVERSARY OF NEIL PEART JOINING RUSH?!?!
In order to celebrate these wondrous occasions, I have compiled 70 reasons why I love Rush (especially Geddy):
70. They don't have any unlistenable albums. I can put on any Rush album and at the very least enjoy it, which is saying a lot!
69. ANDDDD they have 19 studio albums!!! 167 songs!!!
68. Alex's iconic Hall of Fame induction speech.
67. The movie I Love You, Man. The main plot of that is just two guys geeking out about Rush and then going to see them in concert.
66. The Bb5 in "Cygnus X-1 Book 1: The Voyage". For the record, the other famous Bb5 sung by a male singer in rock is the high note in "Bohemian Rhapsody", sung by Roger Taylor.
65. Geddy's range in general. Say what you will about his voice, but he had range.
64. Their pre-concert videos.
63. "Hey baby it's 7:45 and I need to go to bed soon, let's fuck"- In the Mood. The debut album was something else, man.
62. They wrote songs during soundcheck when they were on tour. This includes songs like "Tom Sawyer" and "Chemistry".
61. They went to a Yes concert while recording Caress of Steel, and almost quit making the album. I, for one, am very glad they didn't!
60. The "rap" in "Roll the Bones". Sit back, relax, get busy with the facts...
59. Gene Simmons thought they weren't into women because they didn't want to party with KISS. True story!
58. They listed their baseball positions in the liner notes for Signals.
57. Neil wrote lyrics to a song using only anagrams. The song is called "Anagram (For Mongo)", and is on the album Presto.
56. They thanked themselves in the liner notes for Hemispheres. Listed as Dirk, Lerxst, and Pratt, ofc!
55. They would challenge themselves to write last-minute songs. Results of this experiment include "Hand Over Fist" from Presto, and "Malignant Narcissism" from Snakes and Arrows.
54. The mere existence of "A Passage to Bangkok". I wonder what their thought process was to put a song about smoking weed around the world after a 20-minute long dystopian prog rock epic...
53. "La Villa Strangiato". Just... everything about it.
52. The kimonos. You know the ones!
51. Their nicknames for each other!! (see above)
50. They had the second-longest stable line up in rock music! The only ones with a longer stable line up was ZZ Top.
49. They had a 40-year career! Even longer if you include pre-Neil and their adventures since the R40 tour.
48. The synth era. I unapologetically love 80s Rush, especially Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows.
47. "The Necromancer" basically being self-insert Tolkien fanfic. I wonder who the "three travelers" are supposed to be... OH WAIT!
46. They're giant nerds. All prog bands are, but they are especially nerdy.
45. Hugh Syme's awesome album covers. He did every single one from Caress of Steel onwards, barring the front cover for Snakes and Arrows.
44. The 7/8 section in "Tom Sawyer". That was my first intermediate bass line! Thanks, Geddy!
43. They're Canadian icons. Unironically, they're the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions "Canada" to me.
42. The horribly cheesy, terrible, but also really funny music video for "Time Stand Still". That song, btw, might be my favorite 80s Rush song, and is probably in my Top 5.
41. The triple-entendre pun of Moving Pictures. They're filming a movie (moving picture) of people moving paintings (moving pictures), while someone is getting moved by the scene (moving...pictures...).
40. They quote the 1812 Overture in the overture for "2112".
39. Geddy taught Les Claypool how to properly play "YYZ".
38. The Permanent Waves era glasses!
37. The opening of "Xanadu".
36. The weird stuff Geddy would have on his side of stage after he stopped using amps. This includes rotisserie chickens, washing machines, dryers, and popcorn machines.
35. "Music by Lee and Lifeson, Lyrics by Peart" on almost every single Rush song.
34. The ending of "Spirit of Radio". OF SALESMEN!!!
33. Their inside jokes. Example: The Bag.
32. They took French classes together, and began announcing their songs in French in Quebec.
31. The progressiveness of Counterparts. What other 40-year old rockstars were talking about healthy relationship boundaries and openly supporting gay people in 1993?
30. Their vaults are practically empty because they scrapped songs that weren't up to their standards. This is why we have no sub-par Rush material!
29. Choosing to end their careers with grace.
28. Ending the last show of their career with "Working Man", the song that got everything started.
27. "Dreamline"--"Learning that we're only immortal / For a limited time".
26. Geddy and Alex inducting Yes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
25. Then, of course, Geddy playing "Roundabout" with Yes during their induction! (Unfortunately, he did not play his Rickenbacker :( )
24. No decisions were made regarding the band without it being unanimous.
23. "Closer to the Heart". To me, that song is like a musical representation of their friendship, and it always leaves me with a warm, fuzzy feeling after listening to it.
22. Neil's books. Ghost Rider, in particular helped me get through a rough time earlier this year.
21. Geddy's Big Beautiful Book of Bass. I love that thing, and I am looking forward to his memoir in November!!!
20. That incredible Rickenbacker. I know it hasn't been his main bass since the early 80s but...
19. All their other creative projects. Geddy and Alex have a solo album each, Alex is involved with Envy of None rn, and Neil had his blog.
18. All their other stage interactions.
17. "ATTENTION ALL PLANETS OF THE SOLAR FEDERATION! WE HAVE ASSUMED CONTROL!" -"2112". Just... all of "2112".
16. They got me into prog. I wouldn't have this blog right now if it weren't for Rush.
15. The Lifeson chord. The F#7add11 voicing that you can hear in so many of their songs (it's the opening to "Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres").
14. Neil's drumming. They call him The Professor for a reason!
13. Geddy's bass playing. And his singing. And playing keys. And... yeah, we would be here all day!
12. The Dinner with Rush video. I make daily references to this that no one notices...
11. "The measure of a life / is a measure of love and respect"- "The Garden". The final song on their final album, and possibly the most amazing closer of all time.
10. Their charity work. IIRC, this includes giving away the aforementioned rotisserie chickens, as well as various fundraisers.
9. Their constant strive to improve themselves. Including Geddy working with a vocal coach, Neil working with Freddie Gruber, and of course, disavowing that Ayn Rand shit.
8. They give me something to strive towards, both as a musician and as a person. If I could make records half as good as Rush, and handle the fame with half the grace that they did, I would consider myself well-accomplished.
7. Neil's lyrics inspired me to get back into writing.
6. They inspired me to become a musician, and to pursue a career in music. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have stayed in choir or picked up bass, and I would've never considered a career in audio technology.
5. Their music helped me bond with my dad.
4. Geddy talking about his family's story of survival during the Holocaust. I think that's really important to talk about.
3. Other Rush fans. Well, okay, some of them like to brag about how many concerts they've been to, or tend to be a little gate-keep, but most of them are really chill people.
2. Their music helped me get through the toughest times in my life. Without getting too personal, I even credit them with saving my life on multiple occasions.
However, what I admire about Rush, above all else...
1. Their friendship with each other.
Once again, happy birthday Geddy! Your music has inspired me in so many ways, and I wouldn’t be the person I am today without it.
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Be better, you buffoons
I've been enjoying watching vids from Ian Runkle, a Canadian laywer. He's the primary way I've been following all the llama drama about Lauren the Mortician and Jeanette Braun.
Today he shared a link to a group 'cast put together by a US lawyer named Eric Hunley. Has to be a good guy if Ian's sharing it, right? Nope.
The first item Eric brings up for discussion with his primarily older white male lawyer group is something he prefaces multiple times with "I'm not trying to be judgemental." He also asks the group how they'd feel if they were on trial and *this* was the public defender assigned to their case.
What followed was some vid of an extremely busty woman in a tight blue top that showed off her boobs. Cue the snorts and giggles in Eric's audience.
The lawyer in question is Stephanie Mueller, a transwoman who practices in Seattle. She's 70, has been lawyering professionally for over 30 years, and as far as I know is good and competent at her job.
Except no one seems to care if she's good at her job, they're too busy making fun of her appearance. Eric and his buddies are no different. Or, at least, I assume they spend the whole time mocking her top; I quit watching after it became apparent the only thing they were going to discuss was her physical appearance. In one twitter thread multiple people were being openly transphobic about her. In another one someone posted a screencap of old school Lara Croft with the sentence "new lawyer outfit dropped."
It was gross. It was shameful. It was... not surprising, but definitely disappointing.
Personally, I wouldn't call her outfit courtroom appropriate, HOWEVER, she may have had good reasons for choosing it. Certainly it's distracting, and it's also causing everyone to underestimate her. That could work in her (and her client's) favor.
There was one fantastic bit at the end of the clip Eric shared where a reporter was asking her questions about the case and wanted to know if a trial date had been set. She said "yes" and talked a bit as she gathered up her things. He asked if she was going to tell him when the date was. She said "no" and sauntered away from the camera. XD
Is anyone talking about that moment? No. It's all "lulz boobs" and transphobia. Tsk.
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Unleash your rage, please tell me all about the giant malamutes. Also I love your beasties, they’re so cute and you put a lot of effort into them and it shows!
Ohoho I have spoken about this many times before but since you asked so nicely....
Alaskan Malamutes are a type of Inuit freighting sled dog. Inuit sled dogs still bred and used by Indigenous people who have traditions in dog sledding look a very specific way and this includes size. There's a clear, straight line between the function of the dog (hauling heavy freight in cold climates) and the size of the dog.
Let's examine other Inuit sled dogs:
The Greenland Dog, one of the most isolated land race dogs in the world for example (in that its development was and is currently very isolated from admixture of European dogs). Size is quoted in their standard as: "Height: dogs: 58-68 cms (23-27 ins) at shoulder; bitches: 51-61 cms (20-24 ins) at shoulder.
Weight: dogs: 34-47.5 kgs (75-105 lbs), bitches: 27-41 kgs (60-90 lbs)."
Proportionally the dog should be longer than tall.
The Canadian Eskimo Dog (also known as the Canadian Inuit Dog or Qimmiq), is a rare sled breed due to the dog culls that occurred in the 1970s. Size is quoted in their standard as: "
Height: dogs 58-70 cms (23-27½ ins), bitches 50-60 cms (19½-23½ ins).
Weight: dogs 30-40 kgs (66-88lbs), bitches 18-30 kgs (40-66 lbs)."
The Alaskan Malamute has a complicated history, but can most accurately be described as an Inuit style freighting sled dog bred specifically for work in the Antarctic expeditions. Several things to note is that:
1.) a huge majority if not a majority of dogs that make up the founding of the breed are not from Alaska, but rather Eastern and Central Canada, mostly Labrador Huskies (a type of Canadian Inuit sled dog specifically from the Labrador Region) as well as a known Greenland Dog (Bessie).
Below: Labrador Huskies (yes they're still around!) from Northern Lights Dog Sledding:
2.) The standard for the Alaskan Malamute has been revised twice, most significant is the first revision which occurred after the studbooks were open to allow dogs of the M'Loot strain into registration due to the toll WWII work took on the original dogs (who were quite closely related).
3.) Three strains, or families of dogs, make up the modern Alaskan Malamute (Kotzebue (the original registered strain bred for the Antarctic), M'Loot (who were bigger in size and bred for companionship) and Hinman-Irwin (less a strain, more a handful of dogs owned by arctic explorers). This is significant information to understand because the while slight differences in these strains do exist, the dogs were so close in type they were breeding true during first generation admixture, were close enough in size, shape and overall form to be recognized as the same breed, and there are no pure strain dogs left today.
(Eva Seeley with four dogs from the first registered litter of Alaskan Malamutes including CH Gripp of Yukon. Parents were Yukon Jad and Bessie, a dog from Greenland).
The original Alaskan Malamute Standard has size as:
"Height: Of male dog averaging from 22 to 25 inches; of bitch averaging from 20 to 23 inches.
Weight: Of male dog averaging from 65 to 85 pounds; of bitch averaging from 50 to 70 pounds."
Prior to the M'Loot strain's inclusion into the breed registry the breeder of the strain, Paul Voelker lists his dogs as being: "mature dogs range from 23-26 inches at the shoulder and weigh 70-85 pounds".
(Paul Voelker with three M'Loot dogs above).
We know that many M'Loot dogs were larger than this, often exceeding 100 pounds much like my own dog, Sigurd who is 30" at the shoulder at 105 pounds (despite his Kotzebue heavy pedigree...), so seeing 110 pounds near the top of the LEAN WORKING WEIGHT would be an excessive animal by anybody breeding this dog's standards, but certainly not unachievable. Again, not desirable to Eva Seeley (founder of the Kotzebue strain, nor to Paul Voelker, founder of the M'Loot strain).
Because of this middle ground where both strains liked dogs around 85 pounds and 25 inches at the shoulder the standard was revised in 1960 to accommodate the inclusion of these slightly larger dogs. The standard now states: "There is a natural range in size in the
breed. The desirable freighting sizes are: Males—25 inches at the shoulders—85 pounds. Females—23 inches at the shoulders—75
pounds."
Proportionally the dogs are longer than tall.
So while there are several different families of dogs that make up the founding of the breed there is only ONE Alaskan Malamute. There is no secondary "type" that is gigantic (120-140 pounds like people like to claim). There is not "standard" Alaskan Malamutes and "Giant" Alaskan Malamutes because 1.) the standard already allows for and encourages the natural size range in the breed which is quite varied. 2.) nobody breeding these dogs in the historical context was calling their strains "Giant Alaskan Malamutes".
So let's examine WHY people call their dogs "Giant Alaskan Malamutes".
The answer is simple: Marketing. People love giant dogs and often see them as status symbols (if you've ever been in a dog breed group where people are bragging about their dog's weight regardless of what shape that dog is in (often overweight) you know what I mean).
More nuanced is that freighting sled dogs like Malamutes, Qimmiq and Greenland Dogs look absolutely behemoth next to "normal" sled dogs like Alaskan Huskies (where 70 pounds is HUGE and 50 pounds is normal) or Siberians which are of a similar size to Alaskans). They're a large dog breed, but they're not giant in the range of actual giant breeds such as Irish Wolfhounds or Mastiffs etc.
Many people breeding "Giant" Alaskan Malamutes also falsely believe and/or tell their clients that their dogs are "pure M'Loot" and spout the mythology that true Alaskan Malamutes from Alaska way back in the day (which is a breed myth, they're not from Alaska remember) were HUGE. like 120-140 pounds huge and use this to justify the size of the dogs they breed (which are just backyard bred, oversized, sometimes not even oversized but just overweight individuals). This myth is easily proven false because it's not like the weight of Voelker's dogs are an unknown, we have heights and weights on many of them and they are very true to many modern "standard" Alaskan Malamutes today. One cannot even claim that the original indigenous dogs were massive because 1.) they didn't exist as explorers at the time often confirm in their writing that the indigenous dogs in Alaska were much the same as those being used across the arctic and into the east 2.) Inuit still use sled dogs today. Traditional Freighting Sled Dogs and we know what they look like and we know what their size is like. The myth that the Alaskan Malamute is some "lost dog breed" is false and takes agency away from Indigenous traditional mushers.
Additionally a huge majority of "Giant" Alaskan malamutes today can be broken down into two categories: those from North America and those from Asia.
"Giant" Alaskan Malamutes from North America will often come from very similar pedigrees. You will see a lot of Cascade, Wakon (particularly this kennel...claiming the dogs are 35" at the shoulders and nearly 200 pounds) and Kingfisher in these pedigrees. These dogs are often long haired, breeders within these lines will often breed long haired dogs purposely as many buyers want very fluffy dogs. Often the dogs are not any bigger than "standard" Alaskan Malamutes, but some can be very big (there is rumor of non-malamute giant breed admixture occurring in the 1980's). Most people breeding within these pedigrees are not necessarily doing the fullest extend of health testing, but it is thankfully becoming more common (can we please for the love of gods tho get people to test more than just hips please). Some dogs in this pedigree type are often accomplish weight pull dogs (because long miles are not being asked of them....) and may or may not be of showable quality, just from a breeder that prioritizes size and breed mythology bs over everything else:
They range from functional and pretty breed standard looking:
To what the fuck is this:
These above dogs are not a "type" of malamute, just dogs with similar pedigrees no different than any other. There are always going to be dogs within a breed that share close pedigree with each other, it's literally just part of how this works. They are not separate unless you want to talk about hush hush paper hanging.
"Giant" Alaskan Malamutes in Eastern Asia unfortunately bear the brunt of the breed's lack of ethics. These dogs are bred HUGE in size, overly loose, overly flewey and the breeders are not shy about the fact that they've bred Tibetan Mastiff into these dogs to achieve the size and hair level. These dogs are bred as pure status symbols and are not getting proper health testing done. I have never once seen a dog from these types of breeders do anything remotely functional. This is a dog that is bred for looks ONLY:
I'm sure you've all see this video (screen shot shown below) of a dog that is absolutely suffering:
So when it comes to "Giant" Alaskan Malamutes there are some simple truths:
1.) They do not exist historically in Inuit freighting sled dogs
2.) Breeders in the mid-century, regardless of the strain of Malamute they preferred liked dogs around 85 pounds 25 inches at the shoulders.
3.) There are potentially hung papers within the breed histories of "Giant" dogs that may account for their overly large size.
4.) They are not a separate "sub-breed" or a different type of Malamute. They are simply all Alaskan Malamutes as the breed's standard allows for variation in size amongst the dogs.
5.) In my opinion breeding dogs overly large disrespects the purpose and function of the breed.
6.) Larger than average individuals can exist and often are produced from responsible breeders when breeding two ideal size or even smaller than ideal sized parents together. This is because genetics is complicated (Sigurd's mom was 80 pounds and his dad 25.5", 73 pounds. Sigurd is 30" and 105 pounds).
#dogblr#alaskan malamute#greenland dog#dog history#giant alaskan malamute#qimmiq#anyways because of the paper hanging and the NA 'giant' breeders distain for 'standard' dogs#it is unlikely that show/working breeders outside of their circles will associate with them#re: give them puppies or buy from them themselves#also lack of health testing until very recently#so i do suspect eventually they'll become a strain of their own#i can already kind of tell when a dog has certain kennels behind it bc i'm insane#but also even if they're recognizably pet bred 'giant' or whatever#they're still just alaskan malamutes#literally.
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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY
based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …
1634 – Ireland: "An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery" is passed by the Irish House of Commons, making anal intercourse punishable by hanging. The primary advocate of the act is Anglican Bishop John Atherton.
1872 – David I Walsh (d.1947) US Senator for Massachusetts, was named in 1942 by the New York Post as implicated in a sensational Nazi spy sex scandal.
It was alleged that he was a frequent visitor to a male brothel patronized by US Navy personnel, that had been infiltrated by Nazi spies. The brothel owner, Gustave Beekman, was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 20 years for sodomy, and three Nazi agents arrested and convicted.
Senator Walsh predictably protested his innocence, insisting that he had never been near the place. However, in statements to police, Beekman and others identified Walsh as a regular patron. President Roosevelt, in conversations with his vice-president and with the Senate majority leader, said "everybody knew" that Walsh was homosexual.
The scandal was complex in that it implicated the Senator as a homosexual, as a patron of a male bordello, and as a possible dupe of enemy agents. Homosexuality was a taboo subject for public discourse, so the Post referred to a "house of degradation." At one point a sub-headline in the New York Times called it a "Resort." In the Daily Mirror, columnist Walter Winchell mentioned "Brooklyn's spy nest, also known as the swastika swishery." The Post first suggested a scandal. Over the course of several weeks it hinted an important person was involved, then named "Senator X", and finally identified Walsh by name. Its sensational treatment of the story detracted from the seriousness of its charges.
The brothel's owner and several others arrested in a police raid identified Walsh to the police as "Doc," a regular client, whose visits ended just before police surveillance began. Some furnished intimate physical details.
On May 20, 1942, with a full report from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in hand, Senator Alben W. Barkley, the Senate majority leader, addressed the Senate at length on the irresponsibility of the New York Post, the laudable restraint of the rest of the press, the details of the FBI's report, and the Senate's affirmation of Walsh's "unsullied" reputation.
He declined to insert the FBI report in the Congressional Record, he said, "because it contains disgusting and unprintable things." Without addressing Walsh's sexuality, he said the report contained no evidence that Walsh ever "visited a 'house of degradation' to connive or to consort with, or to converse with, or to conspire with anyone who is the enemy of the United States." He denied the charges related to espionage. He provided no specifics about the sexual activity at issue and said the details of the charges were "too loathsome to mention in the Senate or in any group of ladies and gentlemen."The press treated the charges in a similar way. For example, the New York Times report of Barkley's speech said that the FBI reported that "there is not the 'slightest foundation' for charges that Senator Walsh, 69-year-old chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee, visited a 'house of degradation' in Brooklyn and was seen talking to Nazi agents there."
In other words, while outwardly saying the charges were untrue, they reiterated them.
1939-1945 – Canadian Gays at war find a new identity.
While there was a well-documented purge of gay servicemen during the '60s, '70s and '80s, the realities of gay life in the military a couple of decades earlier were quite different. During the Second World War, some gays were turfed, while others were tolerated. Often, getting kicked out of the military for being gay had to do with circumstance — when Canada's troop levels ran low, gays were far less likely to be discharged.
But for a generation of young men and women, the Second World War was both their coming of age experience and their opportunity to come out. The war changed the world of gay life indelibly. Several years of war helped thousands of young men and women explore their sexuality.
Montreal writer Paul Jackson has found that the war not only showed soldiers a world they had never seen before, it also revealed a way of life that was equally foreign.
"For many queer servicemen, the transfer overseas represented a break with heterocentric Canadian social structures," he wrote in One of the Boys, a book that chronicles the wartime experiences of Canadian gay men. "Many found new opportunities for sexual self-discovery."
During World War II, military bases (which were already homoerotically charged) became brazen cruising zones. So it's not surprising that one of the most prominent wartime hotspots for gays developed in one of central Canada's traditional military strongholds — Kingston, Ontario.
Marney McDiarmid, who wrote about Kingston's queer history, says the war transformed the city's relatively quiet gay community. She wrote that, during the conflict, "the sheer presence of so many young men, far from home, transformed city streets into sites of sexual possibility."
For years after the war, the Kingston garrison remained quite large. Six thousand men were stationed in town as late as the 1960s. McDiarmid detailed the experience of one man, identified only as Earl, whom she interviewed about that period of time.
"One of the great hobbies was to get in your car and drive the La Salle Causeway," he said, referring to the road that bridges the Cataraqui River between downtown and the army base.
"[Soldiers] were short of money — naturally, in the military, they weren't paid too well — and they were always walking up the hill," he said. "So you'd stop and offer a lift — and they'd get back a lot later than they should have."
But even though the Canadian conscription crisis interrupted the homosexual witch-hunt that was, until then, being carried out by commanding officers, psychiatrists and snitches at home and abroad, being discovered as gay was still something that earned a soldier a dishonourable discharge.
Jackson wrote that military officials argued — and in some cases, still argue — that "the presence of openly homosexual soldiers would disrupt unit cohesion. Queer soldiers would be a disturbing influence, weakening the bonds that hold a group together and making it less effective."
But, outside the context of outright discovery, gay presence and gay activity was often simply ignored.
Gay sex and intimacy were often tolerated by soldiers on the ground. Solidarity among men on the front lines — both gay and straight — often trumped any pre-war prejudice or bigotry that might otherwise have caused divisions.
"There were secrets everywhere, and soldiers protected each other from [their superiors] in the army, navy and air force. It was to everyone's benefit to protect the unit," Jackson said.
After the war, Jackson said, Canadian society embraced a return to pre-war normalcy. There was a sense that Canadians needed "to put society back together again," he said. But for that simple, gay farm boy from Upper Buttfuck, Saskatchewan, there was no going back.
- (Adapted from Xtra! Jan 20, 2010)
1965 – Max Mutchnick is an American television producer. He has received an Emmy Award, a People's Choice Award, and several Golden Globe Award nominations.
Mutchnick was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Beverly Hills by his single Jewish mother.
Mutchnick got his start writing for game shows, Good Advice and The Wonder Years. He and David Kohan created Boston Common and Will & Grace. He also produced and wrote for Good Morning, Miami, and produced Twins and Four Kings with Kohan. The title characters of Will & Grace are based on Mutchnick and his best friend, Janet. Mutchnick, like Will Truman, is openly gay. He and Kohan have a production company, KoMut Entertainment, which is a combination of their two last names.
On June 7, 2006, Emerson College announced the naming of the Max Mutchnick Campus Center after Mutchnick donated a major gift. The apartment of Will Truman and Grace Adler resided in the Emerson College Library on display. The set was donated by Mutchnick.
Mutchnick married his partner, lawyer Erik Hyman, on October 25, 2008. The couple are fathers to twin girls, Evann and Rose, via a surrogate.
Mutchnick and Kohan created a half-hour comedy series for CBS called Partners in 2012, but was canceled that same year.
1975 – Two members of Gays of Ottawa lay a wreath at the National War Memorial. It is the first time a gay group is allowed to participate in the Remembrance Day ceremony.
1989 – Yanis Marshall is a French dancer and choreographer. He was born in Grasse, France. He specializes in a style of dance choreography in which dancers of all genders wear high-heeled shoes.
In 2014, he auditioned for Britain's Got Talent with two backup male dancers and ended up becoming a finalist. Marshall also has spent time working as a coach and choreographer on Dancing with the Stars and the Ukraine's version of So You Think You Can Dance. He is also the choreographer for Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas Zumanity show.
In 2018, he appeared as the dancing Deadpool in Céline Dion's video "Ashes", while Ryan Reynolds appeared as Deadpool in the speaking part. In 2019, he appeared in the 4th episode of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 11 "Trump: The Rusical".
Marshall is openly gay and has spoken about the role dancing plays in the coming out of people.
1992 – Australia removes its restrictions on gays and lesbians serving in the military.
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'Is Tom Ripley gay? For nearly 70 years, the answer has bedeviled readers of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley, the story of a diffident but ambitious young man who slides into and then brutally ends the life of a wealthy American expatriate, as well as the four sequels she produced fitfully over the following 36 years. It has challenged the directors — French, British, German, Italian, Canadian, American — who have tried to bring Ripley to the screen, including in the latest adaptation by Steven Zaillian, now on Netflix. And it appears even to have flummoxed Ripley’s creator, a lesbian with a complicated relationship to queer sexuality. In a 1988 interview, shortly before she undertook writing the final installment of the series, Ripley Under Water, Highsmith seemed determined to dismiss the possibility. “I don’t think Ripley is gay,” she said — “adamantly,” in the characterization of her interviewer. “He appreciates good looks in other men, that’s true. But he’s married in later books. I’m not saying he’s very strong in the sex department. But he makes it in bed with his wife.”
The question isn’t a minor one. Ripley’s killing of Dickie Greenleaf — the most complicated, and because it’s so murkily motivated, the most deeply rattling of the many murders the character eventually commits — has always felt intertwined with his sexuality. Does Tom kill Dickie because he wants to be Dickie, because he wants what Dickie has, because he loves Dickie, because he knows what Dickie thinks of him, or because he can’t bear the fact that Dickie doesn’t love him? Ordinarily, I’m not a big fan of completely ignoring authorial intent, and I’m inclined to let novelists have the last word on factual information about their own creations. But Highsmith, a cantankerous alcoholic misanthrope who was long past her best days when she made that statement, may have forgotten, or wanted to disown, her own initial portrait of Tom Ripley, which is — especially considering the time in which it was written — perfumed with unmistakable implication.
Consider the case that Highsmith puts forward in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Tom, a single man, lives a hand-to-mouth existence in New York with a male roommate who is, ahem, a window dresser. Before that, he lived with an older man with some money and a controlling streak, a sugar daddy he contemptuously describes as “an old maid”; Tom still has the key to his apartment. Most of his social circle — the names he tosses around when introducing himself to Dickie — are gay men. The aunt who raised him, he bitterly recalls, once said of him, “Sissy! He’s a sissy from the ground up. Just like his father!” Tom, who compulsively rehearses his public interactions and just as compulsively relives his public humiliations, recalls a particularly stinging moment when he was shamed by a friend for a practiced line he liked to use repeatedly at parties: “I can’t make up my mind whether I like men or women, so I’m thinking of giving them both up.” It has “always been good for a laugh, the way he delivered it,” he thinks, while admitting to himself that “there was a lot of truth in it.” Fortunately, Tom has another go-to party trick. Still nurturing vague fantasies of becoming an actor, he knows how to delight a small room with a set of monologues he’s contrived. All of his signature characters are, by the way, women.
This was an extremely specific set of ornamentations for a male character in 1955, a time when homosexuality was beginning to show up with some frequency in novels but almost always as a central problem, menace, or tragedy rather than an incidental characteristic. And it culminates in a gruesome scene that Zaillian’s Ripley replicates to the last detail in the second of its eight episodes: The moment when Dickie, the louche playboy whose luxe permanent-vacation life in the Italian coastal town of Atrani with his girlfriend, Marge, has been infiltrated by Tom, discovers Tom alone in his bedroom, imitating him while dressed in his clothes. It is, in both Highsmith’s and Zaillian’s tellings, as mortifying for Tom as being caught in drag, because essentially it is drag but drag without exaggeration or wit, drag that is simply suffused with a desire either to become or to possess the object of one’s envy and adoration. It repulses Dickie, who takes it as a sexual threat and warns Tom, “I’m not queer,” then adds, lashingly, “Marge thinks you are.” In the novel, Tom reacts by going pale. He hotly denies it but not before feeling faint. “Nobody had ever said it outright to him,” Highsmith writes, “not in this way.” Not a single gay reader in the mid-1950s would have failed to recognize this as the dread of being found out, quickly disguised as the indignity of being misunderstood.
And it seemed to frighten Highsmith herself. In the second novel, Ripley Under Ground, published 15 years later, she backed away from her conception of Tom, leaping several years forward and turning him into a soigné country gentleman living a placid, idyllic life in France with an oblivious wife. None of the sequels approach the cold, challenging terror of the first novel — a challenge that has been met in different ways, each appropriate to their era, by the three filmmakers who have taken on The Talented Mr. Ripley. Zaillian’s ice-cold, diamond-hard Ripley just happens to be the first to deliver a full and uncompromising depiction of one of the most unnerving characters in American crime fiction.
The first Ripley adaptation, René Clément’s French-language drama Purple Noon, is much beloved for its sun-saturated atmosphere of endless indolence and for the tone of alienated ennui that anticipated much of the decade to come; the movie was also a showcase for its Ripley, the preposterously sexy, maddeningly aloof Alain Delon. And therein lies the problem: A Ripley who is preposterously sexy is not a Ripley who has ever had to deal with soul-deep humiliation, and a Ripley who is maddeningly aloof is not going to be able to worm his way into anyone’s life. Purple Noon is not especially willing (or able — it was released in 1960) to explore Ripley’s possible homosexuality. Though the movie itself suggests that no man or woman could fail to find him alluring, what we get with Delon is, in a way, a less complex character type, a gorgeous and magnetic smooth criminal who, as if even France had to succumb to the hoariest dictates of the Hollywood Production Code, gets the punishment due to him by the closing credits. It’s delectable daylit noir, but nothing unsettling lingers.
Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, released in 1999, is far better; it couldn’t be more different from the current Ripley, but it’s a legitimate reading that proves that Highsmith’s novel is complex and elastic enough to accommodate wildly varying interpretations. A committed Matt Damon makes a startlingly fine Tom Ripley, ingratiating and appealing but always just slightly inept or needy or wrong; Jude Law — peak Jude Law — is such an effortless golden boy that he manages the necessary task of making Damon’s Tom seem a bit dim and dull; and acting-era Gwyneth Paltrow is a spirited and touchingly vulnerable Marge.
Minghella grapples with Tom’s sexual orientation in an intelligently progressive-circa-1999 way; he assumes that Highsmith would have made Tom overtly gay if the culture of 1955 had allowed it, and he runs all the way with the idea. He gives us a Tom Ripley who is clearly, if not in love with Dickie, wildly destabilized by his attraction to him. And in a giant departure from the novel, he elevates a character Highsmith had barely developed, Peter Smith-Kingsley (played by Jack Davenport) into a major one, a man with whom we’re given to understand that Ripley, with two murders behind him and now embarking on a comfortable and well-funded European life, has fallen in love. It doesn’t end well for either of them. A heartsick Tom eventually kills Peter, too, rather than risk discovery — it’s his third murder, one more than in the novel — and we’re meant to take this as the tragedy of his life: That, having come into the one identity that could have made him truly happy (gay man), he will always have to subsume it to the identity he chose in order to get there (murderer). This is nowhere that Highsmith ever would have gone — and that’s fine, since all of these movies are not transcriptions but interpretations. It’s as if Minghella, wandering around inside the palace of the novel, decided to open doors Highsmith had left closed to see what might be behind them. The result is the most touching and sympathetic of Ripleys — and, as a result, far from the most frightening.
Zaillian is not especially interested in courting our sympathy. Working with the magnificent cinematographer Robert Elswit, who makes every black-and-white shot a stunning, tense, precise duel between light and shadow, he turns coastal Italy not into an azure utopia but into a daunting vertical maze, alternately paradise, purgatory, and inferno, in which Tom Ripley is forever struggling; no matter where he turns, he always seems to be at the bottom of yet another flight of stairs.
It’s part of the genius of this Ripley — and a measure of how deeply Zaillian has absorbed the book — that the biggest departures he makes from Highsmith somehow manage to bring his work closer to her scariest implications. There are a number of minor changes, but I want to talk about the big ones, the most striking of which is the aging of both Tom and Dickie. In the novel, they’re both clearly in their 20s — Tom is a young striver patching together an existence as a minor scam artist who steals mail and impersonates a collection agent, bilking guileless suckers out of just enough odd sums for him to get by, and Dickie is a rich man’s son whose father worries that he has extended his post-college jaunt to Europe well past its sowing-wild-oats expiration date. Those plot points all remain in place in the miniseries, but Andrew Scott, who plays Ripley, is 47, and Johnny Flynn, who plays Dickie, is 41; onscreen, they register, respectively, as about 40 and 35.
This changes everything we think we know about the characters from the first moments of episode one. As we watch Ripley in New York, dourly plying his miserable, penny-ante con from a tiny, barren shoe-box apartment that barely has room for a bed as wide as a prison cot (this is not a place to which Ripley has ever brought guests), we learn a lot: This Ripley is not a struggler but a loser. He’s been at this a very long time, and this is as far as he’s gotten. We can see, in an early scene set in a bank, that he’s wearily familiar with almost getting caught. If he ever had dreams, he probably buried them years earlier. And Dickie, as a golden boy, is pretty tarnished himself — he isn’t a wild young man but an already-past-his-prime disappointment, a dilettante living off of Daddy’s money while dabbling in painting (he’s not good at it) and stringing along a girlfriend who’s stuck on him but probably, in her heart, knows he isn’t likely to amount to much.
Making Tom older also allows Zaillian to mount a persuasive argument about his sexuality that hews closely to Highsmith’s vision (if not to her subsequent denial). If the Ripley of 1999 was gay, the Ripley of 2024 is something else: queer, in both the newest and the oldest senses of the word. Scott’s impeccable performance finds a thousand shades of moon-faced blankness in Ripley’s sociopathy, and Elswit’s endlessly inventive lighting of his minimal expressions, his small, ambivalent mouth and high, smooth forehead, often makes him look slightly uncanny, like a Daniel Clowes or Charles Burns drawing. Scott’s Ripley is a man who has to practice every vocal intonation, every smile or quizzical look, every interaction. If he ever had any sexual desire, he seems to have doused it long ago. “Is he queer? I don’t know,” Marge writes in a letter to Dickie (actually to Tom, now impersonating his murder victim). “I don’t think he’s normal enough to have any kind of sex life.” This, too, is from the novel, almost word for word, and Zaillian uses it as a north star. The Ripley he and Scott give us is indeed queer — he’s off, amiss, not quite right, and Marge knows it. (In the novel, she adds, “All right, he may not be queer [meaning gay]. He’s just a nothing, which is worse.”) Ripley’s possible asexuality — or more accurately, his revulsion at any kind of expressed sexuality — makes his killing of Dickie even more horrific because it robs us of lust as a possible explanation. This is the first adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley I’ve seen in which even Ripley may not know why he murders Dickie.
When I heard that Zaillian (who both wrote and directed all of the episodes) was working on a Ripley adaptation, I wondered if he might replace sexual identity, the great unequalizer of 1999, with economic inequity, a more of-the-moment choice. Minghella’s version played with the idea; every person and object and room and vista Damon’s Ripley encountered was so lush and beautiful and gleaming that it became, in some scenes, the story of a man driven mad by having his nose pressed up against the glass that separated him from a world of privilege (and from the people in that world who were openly contemptuous of his gaucheries). Zaillian doesn’t do that — a lucky thing, since the heavily Ripley-influenced film Saltburn played with those very tropes recently and effectively. Whether intentional or not, one side effect of his decision to shoot Ripley in black and white is that it slightly tamps down any temptation to turn Italy into an occasion for wealth porn and in turn to make Tom an eat-the-rich surrogate. This Italy looks gorgeous in its own way, but it’s also a world in which even the most beautiful treasures appear threatened by encroaching dampness or decay or rot. Zaillian gives us a Ripley who wants Dickie’s life of money and nice things and art (though what he’s thinking when he stares at all those Caravaggios is anybody’s guess). But he resists the temptation to make Dickie and Marge disdainful about Tom’s poverty, or mean to the servants, or anything that might make his killing more palatable. This Tom is not a class warrior any more than he’s a victim of the closet or anything else that would make him more explicable in contemporary terms. He’s his own thing — a universe of one.
Anyway, sexuality gives any Ripley adapter more to toy with than money does, and the way Zaillian uses it also plays effectively into another of his intuitive leaps — his decision to present Dickie’s friend and Tom’s instant nemesis Freddie Miles not as an obnoxious loudmouth pest (in Minghella’s movie, he was played superbly by a loutish Philip Seymour Hoffman) but as a frosty, sexually ambiguous, gender-fluid-before-it-was-a-term threat to Tom’s stability, excellently portrayed by Eliot Sumner (Sting’s kid), a nonbinary actor who brings perceptive to-the-manor-born disdain to Freddie’s interactions with Tom. They loathe each other on sight: Freddie instantly clocks Tom as a pathetic poser and possible closet case, and Tom, seeing in Freddie a man who seems to wear androgyny with entitlement and no self-consciousness, registers him as a danger, someone who can see too much, too clearly. This leads, of course, to murder and to a grisly flourish in the scene in which Tom, attempting to get rid of Freddie’s body, walks his upright corpse, his bloodied head hidden under a hat, along a street at night, pretending he’s holding up a drunken friend. When someone approaches, Tom, needing to make his possible alibi work, turns away, slamming his own body into Freddie’s up against a wall and kissing him passionately on the lips. That’s not in Highsmith’s novel, but I imagine it would have gotten at least a dry smile out of her; in Ripley’s eight hours, this necrophiliac interlude is Tom’s sole sexual interaction.
No adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley would work without a couple of macabre jokes like that, and Zaillian serves up some zesty ones, including an appearance by John Malkovich, the reigning king/queen of sexual ambiguity (and himself a past Ripley, in 2002’s Ripley’s Game), nodding to Tom’s future by playing a character who doesn’t show up until book two. He also gives us a witty final twist that suggests that Ripley may not even make it to that sequel, one that reminds us how fragile and easily upended his whole scheme has been. Because Ripley, in this conception, is no mastermind; Zaillian’s most daring and thoughtful move may have been the excision of the word “talented” from the title. In the course of the show, we see him toy with being an editor, a writer (all those letters!), a painter, an art appreciator, and a wealthy man, often convincingly — but always as an impersonation. He gives us a Tom who is fiercely determined but so drained of human affect when he’s not being watched that we come to realize that his only real skill is a knack for concentrating on one thing to the exclusion of everything else. What we watch him get away with may be the first thing in his life he’s really good at (and the last moment of the show suggests that really good may not be good enough). This is not a Tom with a brilliant plan but a Tom who just barely gets away with it, a Tom who can never relax.
Tom’s sexuality is ultimately an enigma that Zaillian chooses to leave unsolved — as it remains at the end of the novel. Highsmith’s decision to turn Tom into a roguish heterosexual with a taste for art fraud before the start of the second novel has never felt entirely persuasive, and it’s clearly a resolution in which Zaillian couldn’t be less interested. Toward the end of Ripley, Tom is asked by a detective to describe the kind of man Dickie was. He transforms Dickie’s suspicion about his queerness into a new narrative, telling the private investigator that Dickie was in love with him: “I told him I found him pathetic and that I wanted nothing more to do with him.” But it’s the crushing verdict he delivers just before that line that will stay with me, a moment in which Tom, almost in a reverie, might well be describing himself: “Everything about him was an act. He knew he was supremely untalented.” In the end, Scott and Zaillian give us a Ripley for an era in which evil is so often meted out by human automatons with even tempers and bland self-justification: He is methodical, ordinary, mild, and terrifying.'
#Andrew Scott#Ripley#Matt Damon#The Talented Mr Ripley#Anthony Minghella#Steven Zaillian#Purple Noon#Alain Delon#Johnny Flynn#Dickie Greenleaf#Peter Smith-Kingsley#Jude Law#Gwyneth Paltrow#Robert Elswit#Caravaggio#Marge Sherwood#Freddie Miles#Philip Seymour Hoffman#Eliot Sumner
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Dollar Bin #15:
Gordon Lightfoot's Summer Side of Life
Forget Dylan going electric; let's talk about when Gordon Lightfoot did it.
I said so early on in our quest through the Dollar Bin, but I'll repeat it here: Gordon Lightfoot is The Lord of the Dollar Bin. He dwells there and holds the title because he recorded a zillion albums in the 60's and 70's that people are too dumb to seize.
Why don't they get seized? Maybe it's his perm; or maybe it's his occasional corpulence or his often regrettable mustache: Gordon always used his album covers to show off his latest look, and I'm not sure that was the best call.
Consider the cover for Dream Street Rose. Gordon presents himself as the stepdad you keep a leery eye on, the mechanic you supervise, the dentist you keep your mouth shut for, the first guy to get bounced out of the bar. He sure doesn't look like someone you should invite onto your turntable. He might knock it over.
His male peers were either handsome and/or goofy enough to grace their covers (Bob Dylan is a handsome dude and a goof; Bruce Springsteen is freaking hot) or they were smart enough, most of the time, to focus their album covers on something other than their gangly looks (here's looking at you Neil Young!).
But don't be fooled by Gord's covers; every Lightfoot album, from the greatest hits collection Gord's Gold (for which he wears the most pleather of jackets) to Back Here On Earth (for which he sniffs a daisy, sensitivey) is a Dollar Bin steal. And Summer Side of Life is a Dollar Bin behemoth.
Summer Side of Life came out on the heels of what most Gordos (that's what you can call the most serious fans of Gordon, like me) consider his masterpiece, 1970's Sit Down Stranger (which was reissued almost immediately as If You Could Read My Mind). That record saw him do more than offer up one of the greatest songs ever written (that would be, of course, If You Could Read My Mind; and if you don't consider that song to be one of the greatest songs ever written, please, reader, read my mind: you are wrong.) 1970 also saw Lightfoot pivot up to Neil's own Reprise Records, and with the move you can hear him beginning to trade his humble Canadian penchant for simple folk-country production for the orchestration and grandeur one associates with "serious" 70's artists.
Take a listen to his expanded palate on Poor Little Allison. The guy who once lived off rice, beans and brewskies has ordered up some guac.
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So, let's call Sit Down Stanger/IYCRMML his version of Bringing it All Back Home: new instruments come in, and there is even a whisper of drums in the mix, but he's not ready/allowed to leave his winning folky formula behind for good.
Summer Side of Life, recorded in late 1970, is where Gord puts his foot down and declares full revolution, complete with bayonets, cannons and intrigue; Summer Side of Life is therefore his Highway 61 Revisited. Is it as good as that? No. Nothing is! But Summer Side of Life is awesome enough for the analogy to (mostly) hold up.
Let's go song by song on this edition of the Dollar Bin, and thereby demonstrate that Gord is indeed gold.
Side 1.
The record opens with a reminder that Lightfoot likes to write about the weather. The sleigh bells in his classic Song for a Winter's Night take us out into the glistening snow; and of course he knows all about the Early Morning Rain. And so we are instantly comfortable and hooked by 10 Degrees and Getting Colder.
And the characters! By verse two I'm already anxious about the roving musician who's trying to get home to mother. Listen for the tambourine to come in, especially during the bridge. No one is playing the Moog or a sitar here, but Gord's already on track to redefine his signature sound.
And then we come to the second track, Miguel. Drop the needle immediately on Gord's passionate, stirring and straight-up lovey rewrite of Spanish is the Loving Tongue.
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Was Gord reading All the Pretty Horses while he wrote this? Hell no; that book came out 20 years after this song. Rather, Cormac McCarthy must be a big deal Gordo. Feel free to skip the novel, says I. You can just listen to Miguel instead.
The third track, Go My Way, is classic Lightfoot: three minutes of note perfect confectionery. It's like eating cream puffs while drinking beer. They're good together!
And then there's the title track. The omnipresent Kenny Buttrey shows up in a big way on Summer Side of Life, reminding us that this is a Nashville Record. What doesn't good old Kenny play on from this era? Was he the only drummer in Nashville? His Wikipedia page must be as long as Chewbacca's. They're both in everything, and they are always driving the beat/spaceship. They even kinda look alike!
But the real jedi master on Summer Side of Life is Richard Haynes on bass. He sounds like Jaco Pastorius here, and that dude was probably about 6 years old at this point. Listen to Haynes riff above the melody rather than dwell passively below.
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I love this track. Everything swells and sways. Gord was always too polite to write anything abrasive and reckless to compete with Like a Rolling Stone. But I'd argue songs like this one show he could write on an epic scale all the same. I'd be good with this song playing, alongside Carefree Highway, on giant speakers while my grandkids spread my ashes about in the backyard while cracking jokes about their crazy grandpa. Check that. I'll be stoked if that's what happens.
I suspect that the next track, Cotton Jenny, is why this record is not considered a masterpeice on par with IYCRMM. There's nothing wrong with the track - the arrangement is dense and complex and, when compared to what Dylan had done early that year to Little Sadie in a studio next door, the song is utterly masterful - but the melody falls into Gord's bubblegum category alongside other Lightfoot lightweights like Rainy Day People and Boss Man.
Perhaps it's because of Cotton Jenny's upbeat, sing-song riff that it was chosen as the only song from this record, other than the title track, to appear on Gord's Gold.
For anyone out there who doesn't own Lightfoot records and yet is, bizarrely, still reading this: Gord's Gold is your best first purchase. The Dollar Bin has plenty of copies, despite the fact that I routinely buy the record for my friends. I just feel like everyone deserves a copy.
I came of age listening to Gord's Gold. My buddy Eric and I would jubilantly declare our own bedtime long after midnight during our middle school sleepovers by blasting his dad's copy of disc 1. Lightfoot's trembling vibrato served our teenager idea of irony well when paired with our favorite song of that era, Dinosaur Jr's The Wagon.
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Purberty was dropping our voices in its uniquely erratic fashion at that point so singing along with good old Gordon about the Ribbon of Darkness checked every box of hilarity we needed.
But we'd fall asleep long before Cotton Jenny ever came on, and whenever I did make it that far in Gord's Gold I always found the track skip worthy. It was too happy, too pop-infused, too sweet. So when my wife brought Summer Side of Life home from the thrift store for me 6 to 10 years ago, I was polite but not stoked. I already had the song Summer Side of Life on Gord's Gold, and none of the other titles looked promising. Plus Cotton Jenny was on it.
However, my wife, for reasons best known to her, loathes Gordon Lightfoot. So her gift was a very generous one, even it had cost a grand total 50 cents. So I played it. No one else in the family cared too much, but I was instantly ashamed of having passed Summer Side of Life by in the Dollar Bin for 20+ years.
Let's all pause for a moment and acknowledge my sainted wife. She isn't Dylan girlfriend material: she doesn't cook, sew or make flowers grow for me; rather she is the greatest human in the history of humans. And she bought me Summer Side of Life.
Back to our song by song meander:
Happily, after we make it through Cotton Jenny, Gordon ends Side 1 with one of his greatest and least appreciated songs. You won't find Talking in Your Sleep on Gord's Gold, or even on any of the subsequent and expanded "best of" packages that followed. But it's a better love song than Softly or Beautiful and it's a worthy successor to the best story of strained love this side of Blood on the Tracks, If You Could Read My Mind.
Enjoy the perfect picking, sway along with Buttery's driving murmur, reach out for the pulsing bass, and then, midway through, marvel at The Jordanaires' odd, yet perfect, backing vocals. Slow down, my friends. Slow down and listen to Gordon Lightfoot calling out to us, lending each of us some pure Dollar Bin beauty on this fine Friday.
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Side 2!
We open with a bilingual piece of grace, Nous Vivons Ensemble. I love hearing English speaking artists sing in French, a language I cannot count past un du tua in. Think of Leonard Cohen crossing that surreal, trembling border in The Partisan, or Sandy Denny explaining Dylan to French people in Si Tu Dois Partir. Remember Mick Jagger busting out his grammar school knowledge of the language in Brussels in 73 while he struts and sweats and whoops. Best yet, think of James McNew mangling the language and probably the entire culture on A Plea for Tenderness.
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Lightfoot, alternatively, clearly speaks French well enough to write a song in the language, then warble it over a hunting piano borrowed from the Bryter Layter sessions. Hey Gord: Je vous aime. Like, totally.
And then there's Same Old Loverman. Yes, Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song with that title and he sings it with a straight face. It's pure and perfect schmaltz, and I love every note. Again, listen to the bass! There are two separate and glorious lines of it side by side in the opening, then again in the bass solo at the 2 minute mark. Yes, this song has a bass solo, and that allows Gordon ample time to drop in on seven separate ladies midsong. All of them swoon.
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I find it incomprehensible that Dylan, who is a huge Gordo himself, has never covered this track. My Famous Brother is probably standing up and shouting at this moment that Dylan did indeed cover Same Old Loverman in February, 1996 while touring Sweden on the Neverending Tour. If that's indeed the case, spend me a link Bro! I'll bet Bob sounds like he's singing about a Sane, Bold Lumberjack. I hope he plays Handy Dandy directly afterwards.
Redwood Hill finds us suddenly in Cajun country; Lightfoot sets the stage for much of the rest of Paul Simon's career here by successfully dipping a beautiful big toe in a foreign genre for one single song before abandoning that genre and moving on. If I was a Ragin' Cajun I'd call this cultural appropriation. But I'm not Ragin' or Cajun, so I'm into it.
Love and Maple Syrup should be as awkward as the title, and the transition between verses is a bit clunky, I guess, but otherwise this is classic hometown Lightfoot. People in Gordon's hometown don't just talk about the home team, which is still on fire. They also contemplate the laws of nature and line up to rob the forest of her wine; everyone longs to be understood.
Three different times in the track there's a slightly unhinged guitar piece that Gordon doubles with his voice. Keep in mind that this was recorded pretty much at the same moment as Moondance and Stephen Stills' paean to all things terrible, Love the One your With. In 1970 Stephen Still was just beginning his reign of harmonic terror and Van Morrison was still figuring out what music could be made with his voice. Meanwhile, Gordon was recording his sixth album. Five years later Van the Man would record the greatest jazz/pop live record of all time by any grumpy, anti-vaccing white dude, but in 1971 Gord was his Dad. And Stephen Stills forever trembles before them both, cowering.
Cabaret ends the record and is its oddest song. The track definitely is not Lightfoot's Desolation Row, so my Highway 61 analogy has fallen on hard times at this point. But the song's title is apropos: this is really a collection of unrelated side by side performances rather than a unified song. Belle and Sebastian's future horn section jumps in and out early on; the guitar work initially doodles without any direction. It all sounds odd, especially for someone as finicky about arrangements as Lightfoot.
But then, mid-track, we find ourselves in a totally unrelated road song. We're on our way to Reno from north On-tar-I-0. And that's a long drive! I checked Google Maps and they refuse to even calculate the distance or drive time. But the bass is once again bubbling conversationally and we fade out of this wonderful record wishing we were taking an even longer drive with good old Gord.
Rest in peace, Gordon Lightfoot. Thank you for forever lording over the Dollar Bin; you made timeless beauty for us all to treasure.
#Youtube#gordon lightfoot#james mcnew#van morrison#stephen stills still sucks#bob dylan#dinosaur jr.
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Additional notes on Acceleracers OCs
Barb is based on Barbie since they made by the same company (so technically it's Barbie in Highway 35/Accelracers lol).
That explains why the theme color is pink; Barb's design also echoes Barbie (blond hair ahshahaja)
Barb and Anjel were friends prior to HW35
In the original draft Barb was supposed to be Dr. Tezla's daughter from a previous marriage. Their relationship would be strained.
Tamika and Tork are an item; she also helps pay for the Metal Maniacs' repairs from her modelling career
There is an Battle Force 5 version of Barb; she's part of the tea and wears pink. Her personality is mostly the same but her backstory is different.
Markie developed feelings for Anjel; during his stint in prison she visited him as much she could
Kurt may also have feelings; which stemmed from her standing up to him. He liked that fire.
In Acceleracers proper, Barb and Tamika are racers while Anjel works the mechanics
Anjel is Afro Latina (specifically Dominican&Cuban), prefers comfy older fashions that she doesn't mind getting dirty; and has a more 60s/70s style
Barb has a y2k/McBling/2010s style; she also likes graphic design and flower pressing
Tamika loves fashion inspired by other cultures such as Japan, Swana, etc. She also lobes to travel
Tamika also has a close bond with Markie, hoping to help him work through his anger.
All the girls are there so that there'd be more female drivers/cast bc i am salty over the lack of Esmeralda ok
Originally Tamika was a member of the Metal Maniacs so they have a female driver opposite to Karma Eiss. Barb would've been a member of the Teku and Anjel a separate party
It was decided for them to have their own team as a neutral group not involved in Maniac vs Teku rivalry and to include an all female team to rival the all-male Maniacs
The original name was Speed Queens; Ryde N Stylez is a pun on "riding in style" and tbh fitted the fashion motif better
The girls' musical motif are R n' B, Pop, and Country rock. Basically a blend of the Teku and Maniacs
Barb's main flaw is her tendency to judge others at first glance; she learns to actually get to know people and through that she starts to know herself
Anjel's flaw is her wishy washiness; she learns to make firm decisions and have them stick
Tamika's flaw is her inability to let someone else think for themselves. She learns to trust people to solve their own problems instead of people pleasing
Barb and Vert are a couple (well slowly become one)
Anjel enjoys ballet and tinkering on cars
Tamika and Karma are friends (much to their teammates despair)
Barb's headcanon voice is Cree Summer; Anjel's is Chiara Zanni, and Tamika's VA would be Enuka Okuma (Canadian and all lol)
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This Week’s Horrible-Scopes
It’s time for this week’s Horrible-Scopes! So for those of you that know your Astrological Signs, cool! If not, just pick one, roll a D12, or just make it up as you go along. It really doesn’t matter.
Aries
Tee shirts are made mostly of cotton for two good reasons: First you can make company merch printed ones for cheap. And second, you can’t fold creases into it like you can polyester. As a demonstration, get a Canadian five dollar bill and crease it… then try to UN-crease it! It’s easier than trying to fold a Canadian 1 dollar.
Taurus
Don’t own more than two sets of bed sheets. One set should always be on the bed while the other sits waiting in the Clean Laundry Pile. You will go insane trying to fold that fitted sheet. Can you imagine what Niagara Falls Hotel staff are like with Heart Shaped Fitted Sheets?! Be kind to yourself and remember this.
Gemini
Your love of Marvin Hamlisch is… “off putting". We know Trekies and Trekkers, Bronies and Whovians, but what do we call people like you who love Marvin’s work, but not enough to remember he died in 2012?! “Casual”. Commit to your quirks, already!
Cancer Moon-Child
You’ve been questioning your sanity and we can put your fears to rest: Yes, in the 70’s there really WAS a lollipop, made by the Spangler Candy Company, in the shape of a whistle! They were discontinued for a long time, but a new company, Chupa Chups, have brought them back calling them “Melody Pops”. Buy some to give out to the kids of parents that you hate - since, you know… buying those kids recorders to play is too obvious these days.
Leo
Before you think there are musical instruments that can’t get you chicks if you’re performing concerts, let us remind you that Liberace, Elton John, and Freddie Mercury all played piano! Which just goes to show you, pianists have to date whomever they can because of their instrument… which is still better than the lack of attention the bass player gets.
Virgo
You want to complain about it still snowing even though we’re past the vernal equinox. In Sweden, meteorologists define the beginning of spring as the first occasion on which the average 24 hour temperature exceeds zero Celsius for seven consecutive days. Meaning “Spring” isn’t a date so much as it’s a realization that Mother Nature is a fickle bitch.
Libra ()
One “Nice Bribe” for you coming up, Libra. In the 70’s it wasn’t just unusual, but fashionable, for men to wear dress shirts opened to mid-chest level, showing off all kinds of male cleavage and curly hairs. We think you’re still in shape enough to single-handedly bring this fashion statement back……… Even you ladies!
Scorpio
Car troubles lie in wait for you this week. Yes you can Tokyo Drift easier in the rain with those old racing slicks, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should. You’re driving a 21st Century vehicle, not a 1974 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am 455… though that WAS a sweet ride!
Sagittarius
We don’t mean to scare you, but it’s only SIX MONTHS UNTIL HALLOWEEN! You pushed it all off until the last month last year, don’t make that mistake again THIS year! Break out the smoke machines and make sure they’re still working correctly. Ditto the sound effect systems. Just don’t do it at three in the morning after slamming a triple-strength pot of coffee.
Capricorn
Here’s some facts you might not know: His middle name is “Matthew”, he’s of Yugoslav-Ital-English decent, he graduated high school as a straight-A student at 16, has a degree in Architecture, had his poodle named “Bela” on one of his album covers, and used to work at Ninety-One-Point-Three KCPR’s 310 Watts of FM power! (*Pause*) C’mon… You know who this is. Don’t spoil the surprise for anyone else.
Aquarius
It’s been thirty-one years and we STILL don’t understand how Ariel didn’t have SOME idea of what a fork is. Shouldn’t she have seen it like we see a dagger is just a small sword? I mean, a spoon to mer-folk would be a tool for scooping sand, not drinking soup since… you know… Underwater and all. But Go find your VHS copy of The Little Mermaid and donate it somewhere.
Pisces
Bloom County’s “Bill the Cat” was designed to have the most repulsive, vile, disgusting, unattractive design so that he could never be loved for his looks or wanted to be turned into a stuffed animal for marketing. And yet, just like Billie, people love your looks no matter how you think you look to the world. So long as there are opthamologists, there will be people who like the way you look.
And THOSE are your Hobble-Scopes for this week! Remember if you liked what you got, we’re obviously not working hard enough at these. BUT! If you want a better or nastier one for your own sign or someone else’s, all you need to do to bribe me is just Let Me Know! These will be posted online at the end of each week via Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and Discord.
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Feminist Psychology
“Like all Sciences and all valuations, the psychology of women hitherto has been considered only from the point of view of men.”
– Karen Horney.
Karen Horney coined the term Feminist Psychology, to focus on gender and how gender affected individuals. Her critique of Freud’s theories regarding ‘Penis Envy’ and several others resulted in this branch of psychology. It is a prominent fact that women were left out of Freud’s definition of mental health (the ability to love and to work) since women wanting jobs was attributed to a masculinity complex or envy of men. In 1969. The Association for Women in Psychology (AWP) was created in response to the American Psychological Association’s (APA) apparent lack of involvement in the Women’s Liberation Movement. Female psychologists believed that there was a glaring feminist issue within the field and in order to raise awareness the Association was created.
Historically psychological research has been done from a male perspective with the view that males are the norm. This branch mirrors the values of Feminism and endeavours understanding psychological concepts from an equal perspective of gender and societal structure. Now how does one study these concepts? Gender issues can include but are not limited to the way people identify their gender, how they have been affected by societal structures related to gender such as gender hierarchy, the role of gender in the individual’s life such as stereotypical gender roles, how the physical and mental development of genders differ along with any other gender-related issues. Just like Feminism this field puts emphasis on gender equality and women’s rights.
In the 70’s, as the women’s movement grew stronger and stronger the AWP demanded APA for more inclusivity with regards to gender issues and to enhance the studying of psychological concepts with an egalitarian approach. This resulted in the APA establishing the Committee on Women in Psychology (CWP) in 1973 which is currently known as the Society for the Psychology of Women (SPW). Other notable organizations in feminist psychology are the Psychology of Women Section of the British Psychological Society and the Section on Women and Psychology of the Canadian Psychological Association (Anderson & Martinez, 2014).
There were three important aspects that emerged out of feminism and psychology intertwining with each other:
Feminist psychology began to explore the distinction between sex and gender. It attempted to understand how both concepts are flexible and do not strictly adhere to binaries.
This area also focused its research on the ‘intersectionality’ of various identities like race, socio-economic class, disabilities, sexual orientation, ethnicity, educational status, and religious affiliations. Another important area covered within intersectionality was ‘compounded discrimination’ – a situation where a person suffers discrimination on the basis of two or more grounds at the same time and where one ground adds to discrimination on another ground.
Last but not least, Feminist Therapy and Counseling emerged as a result of this movement. Feminist Therapy mainly emerged from three aspects of the women’s liberation movement in the 1960s: consciousness-raising groups, battered women’s shelters, and the antirape movement. Consciousness-raising (CR) groups were groups in which women met to discuss their experiences as women and analysed their experiences in terms of the patriarchal and oppressive society. The goal of CR groups, however, was societal transformation, not individual adjustment. Battered women’s shelters and the antirape movement also looked at male violence against women as major problems in society that supported violence against women (Evans et. al., 2005).
Psychology at its foundation has always been about understanding the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of an individual and the collective society. But, in the beginning, the male gender overpowered all and restricted the scope of Psychology to better the mental health of every individual. In today’s times, however, we should feel proud about how far we have come in the fight as Feminists within the field of Psychology and beyond. While in this article we explored the relationship between feminism and psychology, to better understand Feminism head-on to the article – How Accurately Do We Understand Feminism?
– Urveez Kakalia and Ferangiz Hozdar.
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Put On Your Raincoats | Educating Nina (Anderson, 1984)
Educating Nina is notable for two reasons. One, it represents the feature debut of Nina Hartley, one of the true legends of the business, all the more remarkable because she managed to stick around for over three decades and seems like a well adjusted person to boot. Much respect. (I used "feature" debut because she has a Swedish Erotica short listed on her IMDb from a few years prior, but everywhere else I've seen this cited as her debut. When in doubt, hedge your bets.) People of my generation are most likely familiar with her as a more mature figure, having aged like fine wine, but time works both ways and like many of us, she too was young once as she is here. Two, it's one of the few directorial efforts of Juliet Anderson, who started in skin flicks and the like in the '60s and entered hardcore pornography in the late '70s, also staking out a name for herself in mature roles, and left the business after some bad business dealings related to this movie. (I'm a fan of her supporting performances in Taboo, Taboo II and Purely Physical.) In that sense it represents a passing of the MILF torch, from one of the OGs to one of the GOATs, a dynamic made explicit in the final sex scene where Hartley excitedly takes notes while Anderson and her friend Lili Marlene go to work on Dan T. Mann. (Apologies for the jargon, but it's important to be technical when discussing these things.)
As for why Hartley was taking notes, that goes back to the premise, where Hartley is a student doing her Master's thesis on the "positive effects of sexual fantasies", which she plans to study by getting her friends to re-enact the sexual fantasies of her subjects and making porno tapes out of the experiments. (In the scene where she recruits her friends, she wears a "Cat Lover" t-shirt and pets a cat, which is very important to note.) Now, I didn't do a Master's degree, but her academic rigour reminds me of the time I used a high school project about Canadian culture as an excuse to watch Strange Brew. (For research, you see.) But what this means for the movie is that we get a series of brief interviews in between sex scenes with a variety of scenarios depicted.
There's one where Aaron Stuart has breakfast in bed while his wife Karen Summer gets it on with their maid Nina Hartley (who shows up in a cute maid outfit, which is very important to note). Stuart eating breakfast is an important part of the fantasy apparently, so we get lots of close ups of him chewing on his toast and reading the paper while more interesting things are happening nearby. (1984 was an election year, so it's understandable the news had his attention.) And then there's Billy Dee as a male stripper in an impossibly sparkly outfit, showing off his dance moves until he invites Hartley to the stage to get it on. This is probably the most fun scene in the movie, as it feels the most dynamic in conception and lets Hartley put her experience in stage shows to use. And you can't argue with Billy Dee's dance moves. The next interview raises some concerns. The subject starts describing a fantasy that...I'm not going to judge, but imagine if you go to a fancy steakhouse and only have the bread. Guy, Nina Hartley is making you a complimentary personalized porno, use your imagination.
Thankfully, the scene that proceeds is nothing like what he was describing, and has Stuart spying on his wife Lili Marlene while she has a threesome with Mike Horner and Nick Niter (who strongly resembles Barry Gibb from the Bee Gees). Surprisingly, he seems pretty cool with it, conceding it's a fair price to pay to keep their marriage as strong as it is. (The guys are from a lawn care business called "Loving Hands", which seems a bit on the nose.) Then there's a scene where Dan T. Mann gets propositioned by Karen Summer, who compliments his posterior (he wears frighteningly short short-shorts) and takes him to a gym locker room to get it on. Mann returns in the final sex scene, playing a guy who's beating off to a layout of Juliet Anderson in a porno magazine while calling her for phone sex, and then through some miracle, she appears in his room with Lili Marlene for a threesome. During these years, I understand that if you wanted to rent one of John Cassavetes' movies to show somewhere, for a pretty reasonable fee, you could go up to his house to pick up the movie and get to meet him and Gena Rowlands. The scenario depicted here seems like a similarly good deal. (The end credits feature an ad for her phone sex line. I'm going to assume the number is no longer in service.) And then the movie ends with everybody saying they learned something from the proceedings, and Hartley announcing that her thesis went great and she plans to continue these explorations. (I assume she's doing a PhD.)
On one hand, the premise is clearly an excuse to string together a series of sex scenes with some nominal variety, but I did find it interesting the way it foregrounded the way the genre serves as a vehicle for fantasy. In that sense, it might pair nicely with Little Showoffs from the same year, which has a similar structure of interviews punctuating sex scenes, but I think it's quite a bit better as it interrogates that relationship a bit more thoroughly and is executed with a great deal more style. (In that movie, I detected a slight and not unwelcome twang in Lili Marlene's voice. Alas, that twang is absent here, thanks to her precise diction.) That movie had the benefit of being a presumably reasonably-budgeted film production, while this is a crude shot-on-video affair, replete with lo-fi title text and fairly static camerawork, with the odd zoom or pivot punctuating the extremely basic shot setups. (There isn't much of the fluidity or aggressive fourth-wall-breaking you see in some of the early gonzo efforts a few years later.)
That being said, I had a good time with this as the atmosphere is consistently pleasant. The cast is quite appealing and fun to hang out with, and while this is very much targeted towards a straight male audience, the movie does seem appreciative of the male cast, with hints of female gaze appearing in in scenes with Dee, Horner, Niter and Mann, which helps alleviate the tawdriness that might result bargain basement production values. As hokey as it is, the bit at the end about everybody learning a lesson does add to the good vibes here. And as for Hartley, while you can't credit this movie with the entirety of her success, it does seem like a pretty good showcase for her talents (even if it moves her to an observational role after the first few sex scenes, but I suppose she needs to learn by both seeing and doing to do her thesis). And most importantly, during the interview scenes she wears sweaters and scarves in consistently interesting colours as well as a gigantic pair of glasses that appealingly frame her deep blue eyes. The ideal version of this movie would have consisted entirely of these scenes, or at least had her in these glasses for the entire runtime, but alas, they don't make these movies for just me.
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“Selective Service Plan Outlined,” Sault Star. April 9, 1942. Page 3.
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Individual Rights To Protected As Far As Possible Be
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OTTAWA April 9— (CP) — The government's National Selective Service program will impose a measure of regimentation but will be applied in a democratic, Canadian way, with the rights of the individual protected as far as possible, Elliott M. Little, National Selective Service Director, said last night in an address over the national network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
In his first public address since his appointment, Mr. Little summarized the manpower program in this sentence:
“The whole purpose of selective service is to give each Canadian the Job he or she can do best in this war."
Public employment offices will become increasingly important in the program he said asking both employers and workers to use these offices which would be increased and enlarged to aid in the selective service program.
Mr. Little’s address included clarification of a number of points on which he said there had been some misunderstanding.
“We are mobilizing our manpower and our womanpower but we are doing it the Canadian way,” Mr. Little said. “The government will protect the rights of the individual as far as possible.
“People are asking what they should do. While we are putting this program on its feet they should stick at their present work. A tremendous amount of time and energy is lost by people hopping from one job to another, all too often just for the sake of a change. The shift-over to complete war production can really be made gradually.
“As additional workers are needed in war plants we’ll let you know.”
Total war meant a life-and-death struggle which must be fought in the factories producing weapons in the fields growing food and on the battlefield wherever the enemy could be met.
Still Below Germany
Canada at present devoted 40 per cent of her national energy to prosecution of the war on the production front a big increase from the 10 per cent peak of the first Great War but still far below the 70 per cent in effect in Germany, Mr. Little said.
“As a free people we don’t like the idea of regimentation but we are beginning to wake up to the fact that we must accept a measure of regimentation in Canada temporarily, if we are not to have slavery forced upon us permanently,'” he continued.
“National Selective Service may have phases which will hurt as time goes on but I would point out that these regulations are no more drastic than such economic regulations as the price ceiling and wage control which had no precedents in any democracy.”
The need for 300,000 additional people in the next 12 months— 100,000 in munition production and 200,000 in the armed forces — would be met by encouraging workers to transfer from non-essential jobs to war industry and the fighting forces by increasing the number of women in industry and from boys and girls coming of age, Mr. Little said.
All Will Be Affected
“All will be affected by this program in time,” Mr. Little said. “This means a certain measure of regimentation but I assure you this adjustment will be brought about with the least possible compulsion. That is the democratic way and your government is depending on your cooperation rather than on the force of law.
“The law will of course have teeth for the few who have to be persuaded."
The program would provide an answer to the question “What can I do to help?" and would be put into effect as quickly as possible, with every effort made to avoid confusion through careful planning already underway.
Clarifying the regulations on restricted industries and restricted occupations which apply to able-bodied men between the ages of 17 and 45, Mr. Little took bookkeeping as an example.
Bookkeeping was a restricted job whether it was in a munition plant or a confectionery shop. “This does not mean that if you are a male bookkeeper between 17 and 45 and physically fit, you must quit your work. It means that if you are between 17 and 45 and physically fit, you can't take such a job if one is open unless you have a permit."
In issuing work permits for restricted occupation the selective service officers at present local managers of the unemployment insurance commission would use great care before issuing a permit to single men in the age groups subject to draft t call 21 to 30 years but would show 'more leniency to married men with dependents, Mr. Little said.
#public address#director of national selective service#selective service#canadian broadcasting corporation#conscription of wealth#conscription of labour#conscription in canada#conscription#restricted occupations#national mobilization#total mobilization#canada during world war 2
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sebastian 'baz' calhoun dev
BASIC INFORMATION
FULL NAME: sebastian thomas calhoun
NICKNAME(S): seb, bastian, baz
PREFERRED NAME(S): baz
BIRTH DATE: july 14, 1981
AGE: 40
GENDER: cis male
PRONOUNS: he/him
ROMANTIC/SEXUAL ORIENTATION: heterosexual/romantic
NATIONALITY: canadian
ETHNICITY: white
CURRENT LOCATION: wayfield, bc
LIVING SITUATION: a 3 bed, 3 bath townhome near the water that he shares with his daughter and sister.
BACKGROUND
BIRTH PLACE: toronto, on
HOMETOWN: toronto, on
PLACES LIVED: all over, honestly. 6 months here, 6 months there. the longest he ever lived anywhere was 5 years in ottawa and 4 in vancouver.
SOCIAL CLASS: upper middle
EDUCATION LEVEL: masters in [blowhorn noises]
FATHER: joseph calhoun, 72
MOTHER: claire calhoun, 70
SIBLING(S): jenna, 35 and harper, 30.
BIRTH ORDER: baz, jenna, harper
CHILDREN: ivy calhoun, 12
PET(S): none currently but ivy's banking hard on getting a dog and baz will probably cave.
OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIVES: none
PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS: a string of failed relationships, including his marriage to ivy's mother, none of which bother him at all because he's moved on.
ARRESTS: no
PRISON TIME?: no
OCCUPATION & INCOME
PRIMARY SOURCE OF INCOME: freelance work as [blow horn noises]
SECONDARY SOURCE OF INCOME: n/a
TERTIARY SOURCE(S) OF INCOME: n/a
CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THEREOF): it's been a long road to get to a place where freelance work can be a primary source of income for baz and he's really happy with it because it lets him be around more for ivy
PAST JOB(S): many, many, many service jobs before "graduating" to corporate which he loathed but made good money at.
SPENDING HABITS: fairly frugal.
MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: probably the television in his living room, honestly.
SKILLS & ABILITIES
PHYSICAL STRENGTH: A+
OFFENSE: B
DEFENSE: B+
SPEED: B-
INTELLIGENCE: A
ACCURACY: A-
AGILITY: A
STAMINA: A+
TEAMWORK: A+
TALENTS: he honestly doesn't think he has any but he's good at math (take that, math homework!) and multitasking
SHORTCOMINGS: he tends to take things a little too seriously, though he blames this on being a dad, tends to not know when to take breaks
LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: english, french
DRIVE?: yes
JUMP START A CAR?: yes
CHANGE A FLAT TIRE?: yes
RIDE A BICYCLE?: yes
SWIM?: yes
PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?: no
PLAY CHESS?: not very well
BRAID HAIR?: by virtue of having a daughter, yes
TIE A TIE?: yes
PICK A LOCK?: yes
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS
FACE CLAIM: eric winter
EYE COLOR: blue
HAIR COLOR: brown
HAIR TYPE/STYLE: close cut, more shaved on the sides than the top, rarely styled in any significant sort of way.
GLASSES/CONTACTS?: no
DOMINANT HAND: right
HEIGHT: 6'2
WEIGHT: 175 lbs
BUILD: athletic
EXERCISE HABITS: he goes to the gym pretty consistently, less because he wants to work out and maintain and more because he likes the way he feels after
SKIN TONE: more tan than pale
TATTOOS: no
PIERCINGS: no
MARKS/SCARS: none
NOTABLE FEATURES: intense stare only exacerbated by those blue eyes, wide smile when it happens
USUAL EXPRESSION: a slight resting bitch face but unintentionally so
CLOTHING STYLE: 90% casual, jeans, casual sneakers, opened button downs over tshirts, henleys, casual jackets, workout hoodies
JEWELRY: a watch
ALLERGIES: none
DIET: he will eat what he wants, in moderation, but will indulge in some things every once in a while
PHYSICAL AILMENTS: none
PSYCHOLOGY
ENNEAGRAM TYPE: 8
MORAL ALIGNMENT: chaotic neutral
TEMPERAMENT: melancholic
ELEMENT: earth
PRIMARY INTELLIGENCE TYPE: intrapersonal
MENTAL CONDITIONS/DISORDERS: anxiety, mostly relating to his abilities as a father and doing what's right for ivy
SOCIABILITY: with the right people, he's fairly sociable but don't expect him to be that way if you've just met him for the first time
EMOTIONAL STABILITY: fairly strong, not one to let his emotions guide him unnecessarily but prone to letting them take over when certain people are involved or situations arise
OBSESSION(S): none
COMPULSION(S): none
PHOBIA(S): none
ADDICTION(S): none
DRUG USE: no
ALCOHOL USE: socially
PRONE TO VIOLENCE?: no
MANNERISMS
SPEECH STYLE: fully enunciated, clipped if he's less than happy
ACCENT: none
QUIRKS: he's worn the same watch every day since he got it 15 years ago
HOBBIES: pretty well anything his daughter is interested in he'll pick up in an effort to understand the things she likes even if it means dropping it in six months bc she's no longer interested
HABITS: chewing on his bottom lip, chewing on pen caps
NERVOUS TICKS: none
DRIVES/MOTIVATIONS: making sure ivy is happy and well rounded, not screwing up his freelance job.
FEARS: something happening to ivy, not being a good father. probably the top two and most important, everything else is unimportant
POSITIVE TRAITS: adaptable, compassionate, decisive, disciplined, hardworking, objective, loyal
NEGATIVE TRAITS: blunt, cautious, strong willed.
SENSE OF HUMOR: 50% dad humour, 50% dry humour
DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?: tries not to around his kid but otherwise he's a believer in the right curse word adding emphasis to certain thoughts
FAVORITES
ACTIVITY: spending time with his daughter doing whatever it is she wants to do
ANIMAL: dogs
BEVERAGE: orange juice
BOOK: not an entirely voracious reader but the classics are good
CELEBRITY: celebrity culture sucks
COLOR: forest green
DESIGNER: no
FOOD: a good sandwich
FLOWER: ehh not really
GEM: no
HOLIDAY: christmas
MODE OF TRANSPORTATION: car
MOVIE: honestly anything as long as it's not disney
MUSICAL ARTIST: journey, pink floyd, aerosmith. classic rock ftw
QUOTE/SAYING: your life isn't yours if you always care what other people think
SCENERY: lush and green
SCENT: anything clean, fresh cut grass
SPORT: hockey
SPORTS TEAM: canucks
TELEVISION SHOW: anything funny
WEATHER: warm and sunny
VACATION DESTINATION: anywhere. it's been a long time since he's been on a vacation
ATTITUDES
GREATEST DREAM: honestly he's pretty content with his life, for the most part. he's not sure he even has a greatest dream.
GREATEST FEAR: something happening to ivy or his family
MOST AT EASE WHEN: around his kid, with people he trusts
LEAST AT EASE WHEN: around people he doesn't know well
WORST POSSIBLE THING THAT COULD HAPPEN: anything happening to ivy
BIGGEST REGRET: nah, no regrets. life is too short for that.
MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: literally any time he's been roasted by his twelve year old
BIGGEST SECRET: none really
TOP PRIORITIES: ivy, his family, his job, everything else after that
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SXSW PROTESTS AND MUSIC
Amid controversy over military ties, bands delight crowds
South by Southwest concluded one of its most divisive music festivals in 37 years Saturday.
Eighty bands pulled out over the festival’s ties to the U.S. and Israeli militaries.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted disparagingly about the artists who did so, and SXSW chimed in to disagree with him via social media.
Musicians pushed back not just on who was underwriting the conference or being platformed at it, but the core ethos that has long driven the scene: Playing for exposure is worth it.
Saturday night at the Intercontinental Hotel, Austin band Fuvk paused its set to read a statement of protest, calling SXSW’s response to criticism about where its funding comes from “pathetic and gutless.”
The statement said it felt “perverse” to perform and said it would
“This decision is way overdue, but it feels like the only right thing to do at this point.”
Beharie
Norwegian singer who backed out of a SXSW showcase over the conference’s U.S. Army sponsorship and its platforming of Raytheon, which supplies weapons to Israel probably be the band’s last SXSW gig.
Toronto’s Sam Tudor joked onstage about how his guitarist had an Uber booked for 8:35 p.m. so she might have to leave midperformance.
She had been filling in for other Canadian acts all week.
“Too bad she’s not being paid by the show,” he said.
Then he deadpanned: “Is anyone in the audience a tech billionaire? We’re not allowed to make money in America, as per our visa.”
Tudor played the Driskill gig at the last minute when Norway’s Beharie took to Instagram hours earlier to say he would back out of the showcase over SXSW’s U.S. Army sponsorship and the conference’s platforming of Raytheon, which supplies weapons to Israel.
“This decision is way overdue, but it feels like the only right thing to do at this point,” Beharie wrote.
When asked for a comment Sunday, event organizers shared the same statement they used to rebut Abbott on Tuesday.
The statement defends the artists’ rights to free speech and explains that the defense industry is a leader of tech discovery.
“The Army’s sponsorship is part of our commitment to bring forward ideas that shape our world,” the statement said. It also asserted the festival’s continued commitment to “human rights for all.”
“The situation in the Middle East is tragic, and it illuminates the heightened importance of standing together against injustice,” it said.
Behari did play later at an unofficial gig at the Shiner Saloon.
And it was magnificent and moving soul music.
It was an existential SXSW politically, but the musicians who chose to play gave area patrons a reliable overload of astonishing work.
Electronic pop duo ÄTNA were so good the German government flew them over as cultural ambassadors.
Heffner restored my faith in male-fronted, conventional rock music with, oddly enough, an amazing Spanish- language cover of Los Angeles Negros.
The Flamingo Cantina packed in tightly for an Afrobeats showcase with some of the most exciting hip-hop voices from West Africa.
R& B, jazz and reggaeton music shined on every street corner.
The Black Keys showed up to celebrate 70-year-old blues journeyman Robert Finley.
Peso Pluma, the most-streamed YouTube artist of 2023, performed for free.
LAIR, an Indonesian rock band that makes stringed instruments out of clay, cracked one on a flight to the U.S. from Jakarta and made a brand-new one here.
The punk spirit persisted amid controversy.
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申请税务法院立案许可报告:Canadian philanthropic entrepreneur. Semi-disabled old man. Contribute to the country. Pledge to donate land and houses.File your own defense to protect state income taxes. File a lawsuit."Report on Application for Registration License by Individuals and Companies"
Dear: Court: Chief Justice, Registrar, Leader of the Court: Your Excellency: Hello.
My name: Yang Xuanwen, male, age, 70 years old, Canadian citizen, driver's license number: 9131888, residential address: 5584 Laburnum St Vancouver, BC, V6M 3S8. Email [email protected], phone number 7788911777, I am Chinese. I do not speak English. I can communicate via email text, using Google Translate, twitter.com/aacd2014, facebook.com/aacd2015, linkedin.com/feed/,
I learn about Canadian law and court procedures every day. I submitted six grounds for application to the court: please review and approve.
1. In accordance with Canadian law and court regulations. Can I apply?
2. I am old and sick and cannot speak English. I hired a translator. I have a disability. Can I get approval?
3. I am a taxpayer. I contribute to the protection of the country: "Income Tax", I contribute to donating land and houses to charity, I contribute to the protection of (national image + security),
I contribute to protecting the dignity of the law
4. I am willing to pay top dollar for a lawyer. Due to the language barrier, I hope the court can help make recommendations. Paid lawyer.
Hire a lawyer. “Unbundled agency.
5. Classic legal case: extremely special. The amount of tax evaded is hundreds of millions of Canadian dollars. The amount is huge, the nature is serious and the impact is extremely bad.
6. Affidavit from my company: If I am dishonest, lie, or misrepresent, I will bear legal responsibility, my assets will be confiscated, and I will be sentenced to death.
North American Chinese Mutual Aid Cooperative + North American Sunshine Tourism Company + Yang Xuanwen
March 10, 2024
加拿大做慈善企业家.有障碍老人.为国家做贡献.承诺捐献土地房屋,
申请自己代理辨护,为保护国家所得税.立案起诉
《个人及公司申请立案许可报告》
最尊敬的法院:登记注册处.书记官.及领导:阁下:您好.
我的名字：杨宣文,男, 年龄,70岁,加拿大公民,驾驶证号:9131888,居住地址：5584 Laburnum St Vancouver,BC,V6M 3S8.邮箱 [email protected], 电话7788911777,我是中国人.我不会英语.我可以用邮件文字交流，我用谷歌翻译， twitter.com/aacd2014, facebook.com/aacd2015, linkedin.com/feed/,
我天天学习加拿大法律和法院规定程序,我向法院提出六条申请理由：敬请您们审批
1,依据加拿大法律和法院规定.我能否可以申请?
2,我年老多病,不会英语,我聘请翻译,我有障碍,我能否得到批准？
3,我是纳税人.为国家:”所得税”做贡献,为慈善捐赠土地房屋,为保护(国家形象+安全),
保护法律尊严做贡献
4,我愿意出高价聘请律师,由于语言障碍,我希望法院帮助推荐付费律师,
聘请律师.非捆绑式代理
5,法律精典案件:具有非常”特殊性.偷漏所得税金数亿加元,金额巨大,性质严重恶劣,影响极坏
6,我公司宣誓书: 如果不诚实,说假话,报假案,承担法律责任,没收资产,判我极刑,
北美中国互助合作社+北美阳光旅游公司+杨宣文
2024-3-10
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2023 Canadian Responsible Investors Opinion Survey
“Two thirds of respondents (65%) are interested in responsible investment (RI), with younger respondents generally expressing greater interest than older respondents, and female respondents more interested than their male counterparts. Unchanged from last year, 70% of respondents know little or nothing about RI, including 21% that have never heard of it.”
[COMMENTARY] The anti-ESG seems to have…
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