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allthefilmsiveseenforfree · 3 years

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Connie and Carla

I know nothing about this film requested by Chad other than the following facts: It was Nia Vardalos’s follow-up to the indie smash hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and it was universally reviled by audiences and critics alike. So I’m in for a fun afternoon! The plot is your basic Some Like It Hot ripoff - Connie (Vardalos) and Carla (Toni Collette) are childhood best friends who have spent their whole lives performing together, believing they are destined for musical theater greatness. After witnessing a murder, they go on the run and hide out in the last place anyone would think to look for them - as women pretending to be men pretending to be women, aka performers in a drag queen bar in L.A. Everything’s going great until a BOY shows up (David Duchovny), and Connie falls for him. Gender gags, musical theater numbers, mistaken identify, Russian mobsters, hijinks - yeah, we’ve all drunk this cocktail before. So was this top shelf, or something found in a plastic jug at the gas station? Well...

How about a mid-level ridiculous flavored vodka? Like Pinnacle Whipped Cream or something. The film’s conceptions of gender (and of straight women’s feelings of entitlement to what should be LGBTQ spaces) are not my favorite. But its heart is in the right place and overall this leads to something pretty fun and charming, especially if you happen to love musical theater.

Some thoughts:

If there were an airport lounge where I could watch two sad 30-somethings singing a medley of musical theater’s greatest hits, I would go there every day. I wouldn’t even book a flight, that would just be my favorite bar. I think I would go broke driving to the airport every day and buying drinks in this lounge. I’d have my birthday party there.

Oh I love Greg Gruenberg in a bit part as the cheesy celebrity bus tour guide in L.A.

Hello David Duchovny as Jeff! He was my first celebrity crush, and his aw shucks nice guy thing in this movie is really working for me.

This is wildly offensive to drag queens not because of stereotypes, but because no drag act would ever come so ill-prepared with a Rocky Horror number. I recognize that in 2004 we didn’t have over a decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race under our belts, but c’mon, even the most sheltered Midwestern queer would come with something better than this.

Is this supposed to be some kind of feminist statement about beauty standards in L.A.? This anti-botox rant Connie and Carla go on, and the makeover of the woman in the salon - no no no, straight hair and beige lipstick is Bad but curly hair and lip liner is Good. It feels confusing that we’re supposed to see this as empowering when we’re just trading one commodified flavor of femininity for another.

There’s something that just feels deeply wrong about these women taking one of the only paying drag gigs in town, particularly when actual drag performers come to them and beg them to open up their act to include other drag queens. Note that they all offer up tangible skills - I can sew a dress in 3 hours, I can do incredible makeup, I’ve got great choreography. Yes Connie and Carla can sing, but drag is meant to be performative - the artifice is part of what makes it an art form. Smarter queer people than me have written about this, but even for the uneducated, there’s something about this concept that feels off, wrong and exploitative, and deeply rooted in straight privilege. It’s the same icky feeling I get at the gay bar when all the seats for the drag show are taken up by straight women’s bachelorette parties, while actual queer women and men who came to see the show are pushed to standing room.

Ok, I do kind of love these interludes with Tibor (Boris McGiver) looking for the girls in every dinner theater and Broadway show in the country and the only show playing is Mame every time. Fun fact - McGiver’s father actually starred in the 1974 version of Mame!

Feels a little weird that Connie is the one who is explaining to Jeff why drag queens “like to dress up.” Is this being an ally or just erasing and talking over queer folks’ experiences? This is what I mean when I say it feels off - I don’t think it’s malicious, but the way the film handles queer stories feels like a dismissal, an invalidation. Like these straight women can do queer camp better than these gay men.

Did Carla literally just say “I need to get out of this closet”????

Connie is literally the worst at maintaining a cover. The trappings of fame are proving too alluring!

As far as performances go, Collette and Vardalos have great chemistry, and Duchovny is being pretty dreamy as the romantic lead who’s around because he’s trying to reconnect with his estranged brother, Robert (Stephen Spinella). Nobody is winning an acting award for this, but Collette especially is a lot of bubbly fun.

Jeff is a difficult character to grapple with. On the one hand, he doesn’t always handle Robert’s sexuality with grace or compassion, and that can be difficult to watch as a queer person because we all have experienced that same kind of look, that tone of “why can’t you just be normal?” However, he’s putting in an honest effort to grow, and I think that should count for something. Also he straight up gets sexually assaulted by Connie, so I don’t blame him for having a hard time feeling comfortable around the drag queen scene. And that’s another fucked up thing, just adding to the “gay men are predatory and will put the moves on straight guys at the first chance” stereotype.

Even though it sounds cringey as hell when he says it, I’m sure it is probably cathartic for any gay kid who stumbles across this movie and hears Jeff make his big speech about “I should have just loved you and accepted you and not cared about the fact that you wear dresses.” That’s what I mean when I say the script seems to have its heart in the right place even though the way it’s expressing a lot of these ideas just reinforces the status quo rather than interrogating it, or propping up the stories of people who live outside that status quo.

My god, do I love Debbie Reynolds in this head-to-toe red glitter number.

Yeah I don’t think all these queens would take this kindly to being lied to and having their act infiltrated by a couple of straight women. Like this feels laughably “all’s well that ends well.”

Did I Cry? Ok, a tear slipped out when Jeff and Robert hugged for the first time.

This was a very interesting watch. I know I seem to be dragging this shit out of this movie, but I actually largely enjoyed the experience of watching it. It’s got a very 2004-esque view of some complex gender and sexuality issues (and wouldn’t it have been so much more interesting if a queer person had written this and was able to use it to interrogate issues of femininity and its performance as it relates to queerness?). BUT, honestly, the whole thing is Shakespearean in its plot and its broad strokes characters. You’ve got crossdressing, mistaken identity, some light gay panic, long lost brothers reuniting - all that’s missing is a Duke and a forest setting, and you’ve got half of Shakespeare’s comedies right there. And much like Shakespeare, there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done before - it’s the medium parts of Some Like It Hot, the general plot of Sister Act (swap nuns for drag queens), the gender panic of every cross-dressing movie. All very surface-level stuff but there’s a reason these same kind of stories have been putting butts in seats for 400 years.

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#121in2021 #connie and carla #connie and carla review #nia vardalos #toni collette #david duchovny #movie reviews #film reviews #patreon review

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benisasoftboi · 5 years

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In Which I Explain The Entirety of Star Wars, Despite Being Very Much Unqualified To Do So

I have only seen one Star Wars movie - it was The Last Jedi. I saw it, with no context, two years ago in theatres when it first came out. I was very surprised to find out that it made a lot of people very angry, because I quite liked it, as did the friends I saw it with. I can’t say I remember much though.

All the rest of my Star Wars knowledge comes from its generally inescapable nature in the pop cultural zeitgeist. I might have seen a bit of Episode 6, which I don’t know the name of, when I was round a friend’s house once, but I was very tired, and it was about a decade ago anyway.

That’s just some context for my lack of qualifications to do this. My friend said I should still do it anyway. I will not be looking anything up as I write this, so all spelling mistakes and other general errors are mine.

So anyway - The Entirety of Star Wars:

Original Trilogy

There is a guy called Luke. He is played by Mark Hamill and he is George Lucas’s self insert. He lives on a planet where there is only sand, because in this universe all planets have only one terrain, I think. He drinks milk. The milk might be blue.

A guy played by Liam Neeson finds Luke. I think this guy’s name is probably Obi Wan Kenobi, but I might have that wrong. At some point he will die tragically and it will be formative for Luke, but then he will also come back as a ghost. Ghosts exist in this universe.

Possibly Luke has known this guy for a long time or possibly he is a stranger, I am not sure. Somehow they end up on a spaceship.

Luke needs to learn how to use magic powers called the Force, which seems to be mostly telekinesis, and also lets him use a really fancy but probably impractical sword called a lightsaber that shoots blue or sometimes green or sometimes red light. This is called Jedi training. Jedi Knight is a religion. You can claim to be one on the census in the real world. They seem to be really serious people despite having a silly name.

Everyone also has guns that go ‘pew pew pew’ and nerds get really mad when you make fun of that.

Luke will meet many colourful and interesting people on his journey. These include:

A woman played by Carrie Fisher who is also his twin sister but he doesn’t know that until after they kiss. Her name is Leia or maybe Laia. She has silly hair. At one point she wears a slave bikini because she’s enslaved to a gelatinous blob because that’s just how it goes when you’re the woman in a 70s sci-fi movie

A guy called Han Solo because he is Edgy and Does Things Solo. He and Leia have a romance and it’s Drama. He also has a spaceship that people will build very impressive lego replicas of. He dresses like a cowboy. I’m 90% that he is played by Harrison Ford

A bunch of walking teddy bears called Ewoks who can kill you and live in a jungle

A guy called Lando Calrissian who I think wears fancy clothes and that’s all I know about him, he might actually be a villain I’m not sure. He might die?

A little blue robot who hid behind some rocks one time and then in the re-release he hid behind more rocks than before and the fans got Mad

A big gold robot who is nervous and gay and might be gay for the little blue robot, like they might be married but that also might be a meme I’m not certain

A weird green goblin thing called Yoda who makes Luke carry him around and speaks in broken English that annoying people have spent the last thirty years imitating. He dies, but then is a ghost so it doesn’t matter really

A guy called Boba Fett who is a bounty hunter. I genuinely have no clue how he fits in to all of this. He might not actually be from Star Wars, maybe I’m mixing him up with something else.

Luke is also trying to fight the Evil Darth Vader who works for an Evil CGI Emperor of the Evil Empire. They live on a big spaceship called the Death Star and it looks like a moon but isn’t and people think it’s funny when you point that out for some reason. They are the Dark Side, which makes them easy to root against because they’re just cartoonishly evil I guess. I think they are also bureaucrats. They have Stormtroopers, who might be brainwashed people or might just be robots, or might even be clones. They all wear identical white armour with helmets so people don’t care when they get shot. Kinda like fencers.

Darth Vader is actually Luke’s father and this is a twist except not anymore. This means he is also Leia’s father, I’m not sure if she knew. Also Luke loses his arm. Darth Vader gets redeemed and then dies but also takes down the Evil CGI Emperor with him.

I don’t know what happens in any of the movies, but I know that the first one ends with them getting plans for or from Leia, not sure, the second one has the dad twist, and the third one has ghosts. Also they blow up the Death Star by shooting a garbage chute really hard.

Prequels

These movies are widely disliked. The first one has too much bureaucracy. They are about Darth Vader’s backstory. He used to be a guy called Anakin. He will Become Evil. He will also meet many colourful characters. They include:

His love interest, who is called Padme. She wears a silly hat and dies of a combination of Childbirth and Sadness. I saw this bit happen one time when I was a kid and I was stuck round my mum’s friend’s house and her son was playing through this part in the LEGO game. It was sad

A guy with a red face whose name might be Maul and has robot legs?

A guy called Jar Jar Binks who everyone seems to simultaneously hate and feel a desperate need to make sex jokes about

Angry Jedi People

Probably some robots

Anakin hates sand and is pretty but grumpy. His hatred of sand is what will prevent him from finding Luke in the original movies. He falls in a volcano and gets turned into a robot man and it’s very dramatic. He has an angry red lightsaber. He murders a bunch of children by executing Order 66. Or maybe that was in the first set of movies I don’t know. I’m not sure how they made three of these movies, there doesn’t seem to be much to them.

Also there is something called ‘mitoclorians’ and I don’t know what they are but they make nerds Very Mad.

Expanded Universe

There was an expanded universe, but Disney said it wasn’t canon when they bought the rights, so now it isn’t. If I were a Star Wars fan, I would not take this lying down, because what right does Disney have to say what’s canon? Why is it up to the copyright holders? They are a corporation, not a writer. Expanded universes are always really fun and full of wacky nonsense that would never get put in the mainline stuff. I don’t like it when people try to dismiss them.

Stand Alone Movies

When the new trilogy started, they also made some stand alone films. They were called Rogue One and Solo. Rogue One is about a woman named Gin or Jinn or Jin or Ginne or - I wish I hadn’t restricted myself to not looking anything up - Urso. The spelling doesn’t matter because she dies. So does everyone else. Then Darth Vader shows up.

Solo is about Han Solo and his friends and they have an adventure and there’s a robot who wants robot rights but she dies so no one has to address the slavery thing. Also apparently it was going to be a comedy but got reshot as a drama. I hope I never watch it because that sounds terrible, even as much as I like Donald Glover who I think is in it probably. I think his character might have been in love with the dead robot.

Sequel Trilogy

These movies are about a girl called Rey. She makes nerds mad by existing and being the protagonist. She is Space British. She is a scavenger and is friends with a really cute little orange robot. Somehow she ends up in space. She starts hanging out with Older Leia’s crew, which include a pilot named Poe Dameron and a guy called Finn, but I don’t know why he’s there. People ship them with each other, and also with Rey.

The other person people ship Rey with is Kylo Ren, who I call Space Zuko because when I saw The Last Jedi, he showed up and I was like ‘oh, it’s Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender but in space’, because he has bad hair and is angry about his Daddy Issues. I hope in the next movie he gets better hair and fewer Daddy Issues like Real Zuko did. A lot of people get really angry about Rey and Space Zuko being shipped together, but they’re still the most popular ship on AO3. So no matter what happens in the next one, nerds are going to be mad about it, and I am not looking forward to it.

Kylo Ren killed his dad, Han Solo, because he was radicalised to be evil for reasons I don’t know. The guy who runs the New Evil Group, which is called the First Order, is an ugly CGI guy called Snoke. It was apparently a Big Twist that Kylo kills him Last Jedi, and it made nerds really mad. I don’t understand why people were surprised, because when I saw the movie, I saw that guy and was like ‘oh he’s gonna get killed by Space Zuko because that would be Drama and also from a production standpoint having a guy who needs lots of special effects is much more difficult than just having Adam Driver wear a scary mask’ and then I was right so maybe I’m smarter than all the nerds.

There is also a guy called Hux and he is a ginger. I think he is evil.

The other thing people got really mad about was that Rey’s parents were not established characters. People wanted her dad to be Luke, I think, who is in Last Jedi. I was happy about this because I like Mark Hamill. He spent the movie teaching her about the force while they hang out on an island with a race of merchandising opportunities called Porgs. He dies at the end but he might be in the next one as a ghost anyway.

Also there was a girl called Rose and people decided that not liking the character meant they could be mean to the actress, which is not true and everyone who was mean to her should be ashamed. There was another woman as well, but I don’t remember her name, she had purple hair and was serious and I have no idea if she was good or evil.

Kylo Ren’s real name is Ben which is not very sci-fi. Maybe that’s why he changed it.

Though come to think, Luke isn’t a very sci-fi name either.

Anyway, that’s everything I know about Star Wars.

Feel free to ask me questions about Star Wars and have me try to answer.

Do not, under any circumstances, try to actually explain Star Wars to me. I’m much happier as is, thank you very much

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fairycosmos · 4 years

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holy shit so im korean and i got monolids and I FUCKINF HATE THEM SO MUCH..... the white boys in my school think its funnt to pull on them whilw the girls poke fun at how i have “kpop eyes” and masacara gets Everywhere and Fuck Im so pissed that i cant afford those eyelid surgeries brcause i hate myself and my stupid fuckinf ching chong useless mono-fucking-lids sorry for rant im just. done!!!!!

FUUUUCK the racist dumb fucking white boys at your school, holy shit. what the hell is wrong w people. you have every right to be hurt and mad about this, even if it's painful. it's totally natural to be annoyed, pissed off, sad etc and to process those emotions however you need to. cry about it, write about it, talk about it. im fuckin proud of you for getting to this point and still going to school and making an effort. i know confronting this type of issue is usually a lot more nuanced than simply trying to ignore them or whatever. so is there any way you could talk to a teacher about this, report it for what it is? bullying, racism ignorance and absolute delusion - seriously, these assholes are so fuckin brain dead it's unreal. they have nothing going on in their heads. and you don't deserve to have to put up with that. at the same time, they need to be reprimanded for their behaviour somehow. and maybe if you ask the school for help, they'll be able to support you and keep you out of their vicinity as much as possible. their priority should be your safety and education, there has to be something they can do. i don't know what your school is like and i get that a lot of them are useless when it comes to this sort of thing, but it's always worth a shot. there's policies they must abide by and procedures to put in place. if there's any adult offering help, a teacher or a counselor or even your parents to begin with, don't be afraid to tell them what's going on. it's scary at first, and maybe your mind will want to reject the idea, but it'll make your life easier in the long run. you truly don't have to deal with this alone. the initial act of reaching out is the most difficult part, but it doesn't have to be a huge deal to do right by yourself. please just consider it for now, and know that it is always an option.

i understand that bullying can really fuck up your self esteem like, ive been out of school for like a year and what i experienced still gets to me. but with personal growth, focusing on your mental health and a network of support your perception of yourself will improve over time. it's inevitable. confidence and the ability to self soothe comes with age, sooner than you realize. when you begin to accept who you are bc you can't change it, when you learn that seeing yourself as an object is a scam you're brainwashed into cause it's profitable, when you recognize all of the ways you can experience this world that have nothing to do with appearance and pleasing others - everything changes. your mindset shifts bit by bit. you're just young rn so this feels like everything, and it absolutely is a big deal but it's not all that you are. school is such a bubble. point is, it genuinely won't always feel like this, no matter how permanent it seems in the moment. at the end of the day the behaviour of these racists is literally a reflection of them and the type of people they are, it has nothing to do with you or what you look like or anything you've done. it is not your fault and your identity is not dictated by their words. they'd find a 'problem' with anyone because they're the ones with the issue and they're insecure as helllll. not only that, but you get to live with the knowledge that you're a better, kinder, smarter and cooler person than they'll ever be in their whole lives. maybe that doesn't matter to you right now but it's a significant underlying fact. i really hope you're able to get to a place of appreciation for your race, your appearance and most of all yourself regardless of what these idiots think. again, im not sayin you're wrong to be effected bc obviously that's not the case. but even trying to accept that your worth doesn't hinge on other people, or whether or not you have monolids, is a good place to start. im seriously rooting for u. these kids will get what's coming to them eventually. try to focus on confronting one day at a time, and when that feels like too much, one hour at a time. even a minute at a time is good enough. and always remember that you have a choice to lean on those who care for you even if you don't want to. you have nothing at all to be ashamed of. anyway this got long i could go on forever bc i just can't fuckin believe but.....if you need a friend or if you want to rant, i'll be here. sending a lot of warmth and strength to you love.

#anon

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calettongclin1973-blog · 5 years

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Upgrading from the Note 8, I been back and forth between large and smaller screened phones for a while now, just wanted to get something a little more comfortable in one hand this time around. Besides the extra sensor in the front, larger battery and screen, the S10 and S10+ are basically identical. And, compared to the Note 8, the S10 isn actually that much of a smaller screen.. You're outside the Demeter base, your fellow pilots strewn about you, with MacCallan standing above you in his Ogre class. "EVERYONE FOLLOW ME" he screams, and you all rush the Demeter foundry, MacCallan annihilating the outer wall. The battle has just begun.. One student came to my office to complain about getting something wrong on her exam, and as 영암출장안마 proof she pointed to the class notes document which "supported" her wrong answer. Little did she know about the document version history which showed that she edited the definition of a term which I provided in order to match her wrong answer. Let just say it was very satisfying to pull up the document on my computer and show her the "version history" button.. For other cheek product, they got a Tarte blush and we got a Morphe highlighter, also not equivalent both in terms of price and the fact that many people got a mini last month. I consider the Bum Bum cream and tinted lip balm to be pretty similar, so I not too upset about that. (Using my items of course, some people got different things!). So, imagine how much time consuming is the task done by a high context cultured person. Low context cultured person, on the other hand, need not mention root of the problem or scenario but directly would mention the problem and talk to you in a direct manner. That is to say, it is precise that low context cultured people would take less time to accomplish any task as compare to high context cultured people. But every boomer wouldn die at the same age. Some die at age 45. Some at 55. "So you're telling me I can get high quality makeup for CHEAP?" was my initial thought. This was around the time liquid lipsticks were starting to get popular. That thought kept me buying lippies, until I had 영암출장안마 like 10 different shades in 3 finishes. John's wort, and do not use along with prescription antidepressants without consulting an expert botanical prescriber. Do not take St. John's wort if you're pregnant, since this is a time for extra caution, even though this herb is probably safe. My recent move to Taos, NM has brought enlightenment and new meaning to my life. This is a very creative community and a great place to write and pursue photography. And not the southeast.I may be retired, but I have rewired, and I am now embarking on a freelance writing and photography career online.Here on hub pages I like to write about American, English and Spanish literature, traveling, architecture, art, artists and sometimes the whimsical. Thank you! I think we closer than some realise. I know academia gets a lot of flack (LoL GeNdEr StUdIeS) but I think these are complex issues worth studying. Unfortunately, like a lot of social progress, it takes time for the general public to accept new ideas. But, bullying companies because they aren making products for everyone doesn really make sense. There are thousands upon thousands of makeup companies out there. The smarter thing to do is to purchase from brands that do include everyone.

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bigenderbefriender · 6 years

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On Ethos:

So here’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot: there’s actually not a whole lot of difference between respectability politics and identity politics. Namely, they both assign value to arguments based on the person giving the argument rather than the quality of the argument itself.

Which, I know, is a big step to take, but hear me out:

Respectability politics is predicated on the idea that people who are /successful/ must inherently know more. That is to say, people who are educated, who can adapt to changing norms, and who can talk eloquently are inherently the best sources of information. Under this system, the inverse is also true: those who are uneducated, those who fail to meet norms, and those who do not speak eloquently are bad sources of information.

This makes sense to some degree; you’d naturally expect a person with an advanced degree in a topic to have a more sound opinion in that topic than some random person on the street. The problem here is that someone’s respectability (as I loosely defined it above) and their knowledge of a topic are correlated, but NOT causatively related (especially when it comes to the social norms aspect).

If, for instance, we were to consider the topic of poverty in the United States, it would be easy to look to published economists and study what they have to say in order to form our opinions. However, this strategy is flawed in that there is a prominent survivorship bias as to /who/ gets published. College is behind a huge paywall, and grad school even higher. That means that the people who can publish books on economics must have had—at some point—the money to go to college. Whether this is because they came from a wealthy family or because they had the social capital to make their way through or for any number of reasons, they have had that money. This naturally excludes people who do not have the time or energy to work to earn that much money on top of money to live on. Then we can look at the differing opinions between these two groups: people who come from wealthy backgrounds or who believe that they were just good enough to put themselves through college no problem (by relying on their social capital) have a vested interest in publishing information that protects their privilege and the systems that keep them at their current status. That is, the wealthy have a vested interest in selling poverty-as-moral-failing because this ideology keeps them afloat. Ideas that disagree are necessarily a minority because they cannot be developed in the conditions that American poverty actually enforces.

Similarly, let us look at the basis of identity politics and an example of its failing. Identity politics is predicated on a simple concept: “I am a member of a group that is oppressed in x way, and therefore I am familiar with that type of oppression.” It’s simple, it’s innocuous, but it’s a powerful statement. In particular, the ideology demands the inverse be true as well: those who are not members of an oppressed group do not have familiarity with that brand of oppression. Another aspect of identity politics is the idea of intersectionality: that there are multiple axes of oppression that do not superimpose but magnify each other.

From these ideas, a basic formation can be created, wherein members of the majority with respect to a particular issue are expected to sit back and accept the discussion of a minority group about that type of oppression. Again, this makes sense: you don’t expect your typical white person to understand the intricacies of racism, so they should generally sit back and let others talk about it, right?

There are a couple of problems with this. First, it requires that any interaction be understood in the context of a majority/minority axis, wherein one person has systemic power over the other. However, this is actually rarely the case; if, for instance, an indigenous woman and a black man are talking about racism in the United States, neither of them actually has any structural power over the other. One may be individually biased against the other, but that actually doesn’t matter on any grand scale because neither of them can use a position of authority to discriminate against the other. Are we, then, to consider these two part of the same group? Well, yes, according to identity politics. They are both poc, so they must be the same. Never mind that the stereotypes and oppression of black people and natives are rooted in completely different ideologies; anti black racism is rooted in the idea that black people need to be motivated, by poverty, by violence, by whatever means possible to work for white people. That is, anti black racism is based on the idea that black people should be slaves. Anti-indigenous racism is based on the idea that natives are savage, uncivilized, a people of the past. Anti-indigenous racism is predicated on the idea that natives should not exist. Neither of these people has structural power over the other, nor are they part of the same group, so idpol is useless in analyzing their interactions.

The same goes for people from wholly different axes of oppression. The classic example is that of a white woman and a black man. Which has moral authority to criticize the other? Well, neither, not on the base of minority status alone. But idpol demands that this question have an answer, and that will change a lot depending on who you ask (and what minority group they identify with most strongly).

The second problem with idpol is that it creates a strong in-group/out-group dynamic. Those who are members of a minority group have their voices elevated, their opinions discussed. Those who are not are shut down, told to be better allies and to stay out of the way. The natural result is the creation of identities that appear to be minority groups because they fall outside of what is truly the majority for the express purpose of joining the in-group. The most prominent example is within the lgtbq+ community: there are several identities out there that serve as ways for straight people to validate their opinions (heteroflexible and sapiosexual are two that come to mind). The perception that this is happening on a large scale (regardless of whether it is, and in fact despite the fact that it isn’t) results in gatekeepers, be they terfs who think that trans women pose a genuine threat to feminism and women, or be they regs who think that asexuality is just another way to sneak into a community that isn’t theirs. The toxicity that results is its own condemnation.

This in-group dynamic also reinforces unhealthy beliefs within minority communities. @betterbemeta has already discussed the masochistic epistemology discussed by Natalie Wynn, and I won’t attempt to recreate that discussion. I will add to it, though, with another example: that of the mogai subgroup of the lgbtq+ community. Within this group, any identity is a valid minority identity (if you’ll notice, the opposite reaction of terfs and regs). This, of course, leads to “identities” that are actually the result of trauma being promoted as healthy forms of human sexuality (the example that comes to mind is thinking sexual thoughts but becoming repulsed whenever any action is taken to fulfill them; it’s an older example of course, but I’m sure some of you will remember it). The core belief here is that if any identity can be justified as being sufficiently painful—interchangeable in this context with being sufficiently oppressed—it must be valid and therefore included in the community.

Finally, this disregards the role that interaction and study can have in creating robust opinions. An example I saw (albeit many years ago now) is that a gay 13 yo knows more about being gay than a 40 yo straight queer studies professor. Which, to some degree can be true: even proximity to the community doesn’t really teach you what it means to be in it. However, there is something to be said for experience. I’d argue that through her work during the AIDS crisis, Debbie Reynolds learned and knew much more about the lgbtq+ community and its history than most members of the community today know. Not because she was just inherently smarter, but because that work pays off. Likewise, the experience of a gay man living in Los Angeles is very different from the experience of a gay man living in Oklahoma City. That doesn’t make either opinion better, or worse; even if they contradict, there’s no point in trying to assign value to their opinions based on who’s had the “more oppressed” experience.

So at this point I’m sure you’re wondering what the point is: what’s the alternative? After all, idpol is extremely popular, and for good reason: it’s a powerful tool for understanding the distribution of knowledge within a larger society. But both it and respectability lolitics are victims of the method of thinking that I’d call ethos politics: the politics formed by assessing a people’s opinions based on some identifiable aspect of their being.

My suggestion would be a dual system that mixes the best aspects of pathos and logos. At the core of every logical argument is a set of assumptions (axioms if we’re thinking mathematically, just assumptions otherwise). These assumptions can only be justified by pathos; no logical argument can support, for instance, my beliefs that every human has inalienable rights and that it is the government’s responsibility to protect those rights. I can only argue from a pathos perspective: if either of those conditions is unmet, people will suffer unnecessarily. From those, a number of logical derivatives can be established and argued.

#my post #ace discourse #racism #homophobia #idpol #respectability politics #ethos politics #anyway i’ve got some thoughts

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fisforfreakyme · 5 years

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Okay, some random thoughts after the movie:

Peter’s crush on Michelle seems to come out of thin air...I’m aware it’s implied a lot of time happened and they got to know each other better and all that, but I would’ve loved to see it happen instead of being told about it, maybe Peter just realizing his feelings during the trip and then making his whole plan?

That being said, I did think the romance was cute

The whole Iron Man thing being everywhere they go? A little shrine here, a graffiti there, Happy putting on AC/DC while he watches Peter work and basically seeing Peter as a replacement Stark? Mysterio having his start of darkness because of Stark, because of course everything has to be about Iron Man? Absolutely hated it

EVEN EDITH’S NAME WHAT THE HELL

Honestly, if I wanted to see Iron Man I’d go and watch Iron Man, and this is nothing new to say but I’m really against Peter being inspired by him and getting all his tech from him and basically wanting to be him instead of the independent hero we all grew up loving...

And the villains of both movies becoming terrible people because of him! Whatever happened to their real origins? Or if they’re gonna change it, make it fit into Spider-Man’s own mythos instead of once again getting Iron Man involved in all this?

That being said, I loved Mysterio. I love his style, his illusions were incredible and trippy, and blurring the lines of what’s real and what isn’t to fight Spider-Man? Cool. Real cool. Plus Jake Gyllenhaal is a great actor so it’s always a pleasure to see him.

...he gave me a whole Syndrome from The Incredibles vibe at some point, though...

Anyways, yes, I was rooting for the villain the whole time, just like I did in the first movie, and I guess that tells you how little I care about the MCU’s Spider-Man

I have some issues with Ned (you know exactly which issues, I’m sure) and yet I was a little disappointed he didn’t have a bigger role...you could even say his brief relationship with Betty during the trip was more to get him out of the way than for comedic purposes or a nice contrast between Michelle and Peter’s blossoming relationship, but maybe that’s just my impression

On a more positive note, I liked that Peter seemed genuinely smarter in this movie....it’s not he was stupid in the first one or anything, but he gives me that gifted science kid vibe much better here

Also! Spider Sense! They didn’t name it but we all knew it was the Spider Sense so yeah, finally

One thing I really, really don’t like it’s how absolutely horrible Peter is at getting his hero identity a secret? I might not know a lot of comics or anything, but I was under the impression Spider-Man was always one of the most secretive heroes? And even if that’s not the case, I still think it makes this Peter look awful that he can’t seem to keep his identity a secret, I don’t know

The post credit scenes...I liked seeing old JJJ, I don’t know how I feel about Peter getting his identity revealed to the world, except that yeah, Mysterio kinda won in the end...and at least the other scene explains why Fury didn’t really feel like Fury most of the movie

OH OH LAST ONE: WAY TO BAIT THE FANS WITH THE MULTIVERSE THING BEING A LIE HERE, HUH.....I wasn’t among those excited about it here, the MCU is already a huge mess after Endgame, but I do feel really bad for the fans that wanted it to be true....hopefully next time

ANYWAYS OVERALL FEELINGS: I didn’t hate it. I didn’t like it either. I’m pissed about a lot of things, there was a lot of eye rolling from this movie and the first one, but I don’t hate them, I just really, really don’t like them. I warmed up a little to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man but not enough, I guess.

#far from home spoilers #you know i wouldn't have watched this movie if my sister hadn't won that avant premiere invitation but whatever

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xranker · 5 years

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What's Missing From Your Content Marketing Tech?

What’s Missing From Your Content Marketing Tech? Content marketing experts are a unique bunch When we asked Content Marketing World presenters about what’s missing in most content marketers’ tech stack, some waxed poetic, others imagined the possibilities, and others got practical, talking products and output That’s why we love them – a diverse group of answers means a diverse group of thinkers “Every content marketer is missing something from their tech stack Content marketing is a delicate, interconnected ecosystem – you have to have the right technology for each aspect of the process,” says Scott Spjut , assistant vice president, social and digital content, Fifth Third Bank To tackle this, we’ve divided this post into three categories: Tools you can use now General concepts for tools that exist or should exist Non-tech ideas that affect (or should impact) your content tech stack Whether you’re looking for a new tool, imagining tools to create (or wishing they existed), or think tech is overrated, these responses will resonate 13 content marketing tech tools you can use now For pulling third-party content A great news aggregator like Feedly – Michaela Alexis , LinkedIn speaker, trainer, and co-author of Think Video For identity, insight, governance A data lake to bring together data from web analytics, marketing automation, and CRM – and tie it to an identity, plus: LiveRamp – identity resolution work PathFactory – for content insight and activation Acrolinx – active content governance (Disclosure: those three are Velocity clients but we’re huge believers) – Doug Kessler , co-founder, Velocity Partners For indexing and security Index Checking is a good way to see whether a page is indexed or whether you’re blocking it (sometimes developers forget to remove a noindex used during a redesign) SSL Check is helpful for sites that move toward HTTPS but have page elements like images that aren’t in secure directories The tool discovers the pages with issues.. – Mike Murray , president, Online Marketing Coach For Instagram scheduling Planoly for scheduling out Instagram posts – Griffin Thall , CEO and co-founder, Pura Vida Bracelets For real-life talk Talking to customers, where the tool involved is called the telephone Of course, one could also use Skype, Zoom, and related tools I like to build a complete picture of my customers, including aspects of their jobs (or lives) that extend beyond the use of my products or services – Dennis Shiao , consultant, Dennis Shiao Consulting For all to see Microsoft Excel or Tableau – a platform that gives marketing visibility into the other business units, such as sales and insights – Christine Michel Carter , creator, Mompreneur and Me For project management I use Trello as a workflow and project management tool Every project needs a tool or space that is a single point of truth – here’s the latest version, here’s all the related commentary, and here are the next steps – as at-a-glance as possible. – Jonathan Crossfield , chief consulting editor, Chief Content Officer magazine 21 content tech tool concepts Artificial intelligence I see marketers shy away from AI-powered marketing technology and startups until the adoption is higher. But now is the time to embrace the speed, insights, and agility AI-powered technology has to offer and get ahead of competitors – Jeff Coyle , co-founder and chief product officer, MarketMuse Bots-plus Co-bots are technologies designed to work best when paired with humans’ empathy, intuition, and judgment In contrast, black-box robot technologies are hard to explain or learn. Once set up, they tempt people to stop thinking and work on autopilot That’s why robots can be dangerous – George Stenitzer , founder and chief content officer, Crystal Clear Communications Content management Marketing operations need to consider a solid CMS Along with providing a place to document and track workflow of content production , setting up a CMS with the proper information to track for each piece of content developed can provide insight into the activity of published content, as well as a road map to content planning for the future – Pamela Muldoon , campaign and content strategist, The Pedowitz Group Organization and collaboration I don’t think there are enough brands focused on the efficiencies a CMP can bring to your organization Being more organized and collaborative helps you create better content – Zari Venhaus , director, corporate marketing communications, Eaton CMS focused on sales Sales-oriented content management systems that allow for appropriate seller tailoring – Seleste Lunsford , chief research officer, CSO insights, research division of Miller Heiman Group Texting Given the adoption of messaging by people (consumers and business professionals), a text messaging platform that is owned will be important for conversational marketing programs in the near term And you’ll want it to be yours, rather than Facebook Messenger – grow your own opt-in list/audience Chat is great. SMS/MMS can take it up a level when done well – Ardath Albee , CEO and B2B marketing strategist, Marketing Interaction Inc Away from the internet Offline sales or traffic attribution is a big investment, but we are too far into the data-driven future to still be guessing at how we place our media or how we evaluate our digital campaigns Walk-in traffic verification or look-back attribution matching can help us know what really drove the number we care about most: sales! – Jessica Best , vice president of data-driven marketing, Barkley All-in-one engagement analytics One-stop engagement platform that would pull in all engagements, regardless of where they occur, social, web (own), web (third party – think guest posts), etc would give the content creator a perfect picture of their most engaged fans �� Tom Martin , president, Converse Digital All-in-one project management A tool that truly integrates all channels and workflows – Christoph Trappe , chief content officer, Stamats Business Media Process analysis Something that’s missing way too often is a tool that offers the ability to measure and optimize the process of content marketing It might be a project management tool , an Agile tool, or just a good old-fashioned whiteboard, but having access to basic efficiency data is shockingly rare for content marketers We need to know how long things take, where the bottlenecks are, who’s holding us up – pretty much just a snapshot of how our operations are going Without that basic level of information, we’re stuck when it comes time to try and figure out how to do more in less time – Andrea Fryrear , Agile marketing coach and trainer, co-founder, AgileSherpas Audience knowledge Audience data collection and analysis to drive story topics, execution, and distribution are needed Marketers often don’t have access to audience insights and are thus engaging in guesswork about what will resonate with their intended audience At The Washington Post, due to our state-of-the-art tech and audience surveys, we are fortunate to have access to data about audience behavior and interests We then use this data to inform the entire creative and promotion process, from selecting the right story topics to type of content to distribution strategy It’s all about the marriage of science and art Our program for Destination Canada illustrates this We found that people who are engaging in travel content are also reading a lot of food and history content This guided our decision to focus the story on a chef traveling to Canada to learn about his culinary roots – Annie Granatstein , head of WP BrandStudio, The Washington Post Reverberation Without a doubt, the ability to know what content is resonating, either by individual channel or by owned media content This is a giant blind spot I experienced for myself, and one of the reasons I wrote software for Trust Insights to fix it – Chris Penn , c o-founder, Trust Insigh ts Full-picture understanding More and more marketers express a desire for a smarter, more in-depth understanding of their metrics , but most have not invested in the tools (and customizations) to bring all their data into one cohesive system If your information is in three places and you can only look at them in PDF form, are you really getting the full picture? Can you answer the important questions your organization needs to answer? – Zontee Hou , co-lead of consulting, Convince & Convert Buyer journey analysis Few content marketers have the technology in place to accurately implement multi-touch attribution and understand all the points of contact in the buyer’s journey And that’s a bummer because it means we are too often giving too much or too little credit to pieces of content in our library and making decisions based on partial data – Erika Heald , marketing consultant, Erika Heald Consulting Efficient and effective distribution Despite tagging and other methods of ordering content, I feel there is a huge need for a platform that can sort and deliver the right content at the right time This (likely AI) platform would access all your content (blogs, podcasts, videos, whitepapers, etc) organize and sort it, and then deliver the perfect piece of content to the sales professional depending on who they are engaging on what level of the buyer’s journey I spend far too much time sorting through my own blog and YouTube channel to find exactly the right article to deliver when I see a buying activity online – Viveka von Rosen , chief visibility officer, Vengreso Listening Social listening , specifically for smaller companies with smaller marketing budgets Social listening is a great tool not just for understanding the sentiment surrounding your business but also for being able to act on that, including creating the right kind of content In the rush to create and to publish, this is something that can get missed – Dan Hatch , founder, Typeset Script crafting Script creation is important if you’re doing video and animation work because crafting good content for the visual medium is different than just straight-up content writing – Ben H Rome , manager, marketing and communications, AIHA Idea generation Content marketers need tools to help them understand what content to create – Michael Brenner , CEO, Marketing Insider Group Dollars and sense A tool to quantify the ROI of content It’s important to ensure the back-end is integrated so that you can see the content the sales team uses and the content prospects read – Pam Didner , B2B marketing consultant and author, Effective Sales Enablement Revenue effect I think most marketers are missing a tool that helps measure the impact of their content on the revenue they generate… what tool is it? Unfortunately, I don’t think that tool exists – Andrew Davis , author, The Loyalty Loop, Brandscaping, and Town Inc Content value chain I haven’t found a tool to measure the whole value chain of content marketing as it relates to business goals We’re awash in data and analytics but I’ve found nothing that allows you to measure the activity and results in your content marketing ecosystem against business goals – Sarah Mitchell , founder, Typeset A few less-techy thoughts Measure for now Are your KPIs still stuck in the sales funnel developed in 1924? Or are you considering the modern buyer’s journey ? (Today’s buyer has been described as “adlergic” and many are reading blogs before interacting with a sales rep..) Make sure you’re gauging content marketing success with the right tools and with KPIs that fit today’s buyer, not yesteryear’s – Julia McCoy , CEO, Express Writers Connections Authentic engagement is the tool that is most often lacking in the content marketing effort. – Yadin Porter de Leon , global executive content strategist Universal buy-in Most of us have the tools we need The struggle is getting cross-functional buy-in to use those tools in a collaborative and effective way – Amanda Changuris , manager, social media marketing, AAA – The Auto Club Group Look before you buy (again) Instead of looking at what’s missing from your tech stack, look at what you’re using and how you’re using it first More isn’t always the answer And remember even the biggest, best platforms won’t work miracles on broken content – Anna Hrach , strategist, Convince & Convert What content tech do you want? If you could sit at the drawing board with content tech innovators, what would you have them design? Let us know in the comments Or if you already have the perfect content tech tool, we’d love to share the good word Add it to the comments HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Read the full article

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swedna · 5 years

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For a kid, one of the perks of subscribing to Sportstar was that you never had to bother with buying posters. Every issue came with a new one, carefully sandwiched between two equal sections. I collected many over the years, but my two favourites — they adorned my bedroom walls well into adulthood — were Zinedine Zidane, prancing with the ball at Euro 2004, and a ponytailed Roger Federer, still slightly raw and only beginning to accumulate his improbable haul of 20 Grand Slam titles.

The only poster I ever bought was a peculiar one. It was American magician Criss Angel. His eponymous TV show, Criss Angel Mindfreak, was, well, freakishly good. He could float between buildings, walk on water, hypnotise and make fall asleep a crowd of 100 people, cause elephants to vanish into thin air, and pass through metal gates. What added to the show’s appeal was Angel’s oddball personality: he wore thick eyeliner and funky jewellery, painted his fingernails black, and was even lead singer of a rock band. He was David Copperfield in the body of Avril Lavigne.

I wasn’t the only one awed by him. While growing up in Ludhiana, a wide-eyed Rajesh Kumar, fed up of watching Indian magicians decked up in preposterous costumes and copious make-up pull rabbits out of a hat, was being deeply influenced by Angel. “I was always a science geek, so it didn’t take me long to figure out the tricks performed by Indian magicians. They were stale and boring,” says Kumar, now 25. “With Angel, I saw something supernatural, something beyond explanation. That was magic for me.”

'Comedy has probably peaked. And I strongly feel that magic can be the new comedy,' says Karan Singh ‘Comedy has probably peaked. And I strongly feel that magic can be the new comedy,’ says Karan Singh Such was the inspiration that Kumar is now a star in the domestic magic circuit, having famously wowed judges during the 2015 season of India’s Got Talent. Instead of performing on stage, Kumar was always keen to take his magic to the streets, the early days of which saw him make cards and coins appear out of nowhere. Recently, he managed to ignite a completely isolated light bulb, a routine that has its roots in Kumar’s close study of Nikola Tesla.

Kumar’s repertoire of tricks and approach to his craft is refreshing simply because it’s a departure from the larger-than-life shows performed by classic Indian magicians, normally in closed surroundings, aided by trap doors, mirrors and jazzy lighting. Now based in Mumbai, Kumar says he could never relate to traditional Indian magicians. Not one for the conventional, he usually performs in slickly tailored, boldly coloured suits (think burgundy).

Kumar is among the few aberrations on the Indian magic scene. Even as advances in science and technology have seen magic across the world evolve into a more sophisticated art form, people across smaller cities — and even the metros — are content being dazzled by classic Indian effects such as the rope trick, cup and balls, and the basket routine. Wondrous as they are, they fail to cause genuine bewilderment because their secrets have been laid bare by the internet.

'I could never relate to acts performed by old Indian magicians. They were stale and boring,' says Rajesh Kumar ‘I could never relate to acts performed by old Indian magicians. They were stale and boring,’ says Rajesh Kumar “I think magicians must understand that sawing a person into half isn’t going to cut it anymore. The audience is smarter than that,” says the popular illusionist Ugesh Sarcar. “Now it’s all about pushing the boundaries, and not enough guys are doing that.”

That’s surprising, partly because India has a rich cultural history in magic. In the eminently readable Jadoowallahs, Jugglers and Jinns: A Magical History of India (Pan Macmillan, 2018), Australian journalist John Zubrzycki writes about how Jahangir was smitten by the art all those years ago, happily bewitched by the feats of the magicians visiting his court. One time, a juggler from Bengal produced trees of Jahangir’s choice by merely placing seeds in the ground. On other occasions, fireworks were set off in the sky without being touched, and rice cooked in a cauldron without a fire being lit.

“During that time, and for the centuries that followed, there was this tide of orientalism. People in the West saw anything coming out of the East as exotic. When they heard of Indian magic, they were convinced it was real,” Zubrzycki tells me over the phone from Mumbai.

As word spread about their tantalising brilliance, Western magicians tried to ape their Indian counterparts, in some cases even trying to steal secrets from them. The impact of their work travelled far and wide. Now, of course, a quick Google search for the world’s best magicians will yield no Indian names. “We know nothing about magic beyond P C Sorcar. Which is sad because we have a lot of other talented artistes,” says Kumar.

'Sawing a person into half isn't going to cut it anymore. The audience is smarter than that,' says Ugesh Sarcar ‘Sawing a person into half isn’t going to cut it anymore. The audience is smarter than that,’ says Ugesh Sarcar To be fair to magicians, coming up with entirely new tricks is fiendishly difficult. Almost all use age-old principles, but add their own twists and variations to give the tricks a more contemporary look. The problem here is not so much the effects themselves, but the shtick in which they’ve been delivered down the years, all done with little imagination and shoddy storytelling. That reputation hasn’t been helped by the fact that magicians are still primarily seen as hobbyists who perform at children’s birthday parties.

“It’s important to understand that most magicians still come from impoverished backgrounds. So they don’t have the money or education to be bold enough to experiment. That’s why they’re stuck in time,” reckons Rahul Kharbanda, a Delhi-based illusionist.

Kharbanda was luckier in that respect. His father, Ashok, was a pioneer of sorts on the Delhi magic scene of the 1980s. Kharbanda’s magic is nothing like his father’s. A lot of his work involves modern gadgets, primarily the iPad. The 38-year-old can pull out playing cards from inside the screen, and bring alive a glass and drink by just drawing it on his iPad.

“I started using stuff like phones and iPads because they’ve become universal now. Everybody in the audience understands them. Plus, you get a greater visual effect,” explains Kharbanda.

Others, such as Karan Singh, are sparking interest by performing implausible acts of mentalism. Singh, 27, likes to call himself a psychological illusionist whose intuitiveness allows him to penetrate people’s minds. In a quest to offer something unique, Singh likes to blend his magic with the topical. He recently asked his audience to think of Game of Thrones characters that he later correctly guessed. He pulled off a similar trick themed around the general elections.

“I try to come up with a story first, and then insert it with what’s current, preferably some pop-culture reference,” says Singh, who, in some ways, is India’s very own David Blaine, often hanging out with celebrities and drawing the same bemused reactions that the mysterious American performer became famous for.

Even Sarcar, who was perhaps the first Indian magician to have his own TV show, Ugesh Sarcar’s 3rd Degree, which ran on UTV Bindass for four seasons between 2007 and 2010, has dumped just “tricks” and moved on to experimenting with energy and human psychology. “With knowledgeable crowds, magic is about intelligence now. You have to be a step ahead,” feels Sarcar.

Comparisons with the West may be odious, but the benchmarks for inventiveness have been set astoundingly high. One of the best illusionists going around is the charming Shin Lim, a young Canadian who managed to prevail on Penn & Teller: Fool Us not once, but twice. He also won the 2018 season of America’s Got Talent. Lim doesn’t use comedy in his acts; in fact, he doesn’t communicate with the audience at all. Instead, he relies on stupefying sleight of hand — you have to see him to believe him — with intense background music and smoke used for theatrics. You can see a deck of cards melt away in his hand, or watch him switch card backs in less than a third of a second, which is faster than it takes you to blink.

Another gem is Steven Brundage — he, too, fooled Penn & Teller — who has repeatedly showcased his mindboggling mastery of the Rubik’s Cube, solving it in under a second, and once stunning Simon Cowell by asking the America’s Got Talent judge to disarrange a cube and then producing an identical one that he himself had mixed up while looking in the other direction.

In the US, TV has a played a significant role in catapulting fledgling magicians to mainstream popularity. In fact, modern magic entered people’s living rooms only through solo TV shows by Angel and Blaine in the mid 2000s. India is yet to see such a boom. “It’s difficult to say why the boom never arrived,” says Singh, adding that TV ensures visibility but that YouTube is now equally effective.

India’s Magic Star, a reality show that hit the airwaves in 2010, was cancelled after just one season. Shows such as India’s Got Talent attract their fair share of magicians, but largely focus on music and dance. In fact, some feel that the histrionics and mawkish storylines that have become the staple of such shows do more harm than good.

Kharbanda, who has been approached by a number of reality shows in the past, says that instead of talent, producers seek “sob stories” that can be fed to credulous viewers. Preveen Pandita, another among the new wave of performers who has also trained reality show participants, says that the makers encourage youngsters to copy tricks introduced by foreign artistes. “They used to show me videos and tell me to teach contestants that particular effect,” he remembers. “Magic doesn’t work like that. You need originality; you need to have your identity. That is the only way we’ll progress.”

The reality is perhaps grimmer for street magicians who no longer arouse curiosity among millennials. Danish Khan, a slight man in his early 30s, who once performed a variation of the three-card monte — one that involves spotting the “money card” — in and around Old Delhi but now works at a gas agency, says that harassment from authorities and a general lack of interest forced him to shut shop. Magic in these parts is passed from one generation to another, but Khan is certain that his 11-year-old son will play no part in the family profession.

Despite their healthy number — India has approximately 5,000 of them — magicians do not benefit from any government scheme or policy.

“The fear is that due to fading prospects, a fifth-generation kid may want to take up a job in IT instead of doing magic,” says Zubrzycki. “But magicians are much more clever than we think. They’ll most probably find a way.”

The more established ones are hopeful that magic in India will go the comedy way. Once just a side effect in films, languishing on the periphery, comedy stormed the general public’s consciousness with a glut of talent shows a decade ago. The space has recently exploded due to a flourishing stand-up industry. “Comedy has probably peaked. And I strongly feel that magic can be the new comedy,” says Singh. Which means that new heroes — unfortunately, some of them still do wear capes — may be on the horizon. And, who knows, I may just buy another poster.

#Sportstar

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katiuscaanazco · 5 years

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Brand Tactic Do-Over

Designer Brands Need a Wake-Up Call

Fashion weeks are the most anticipated events of the fashion world. It’s a chance where designers can showcase their new collections for the fashion press, retail buyers, and others with influence in the fashion world. These fashion shows show off a particular “aesthetic”, mood, feeling, or point of view. The main goal for the designer is to have the public interested in their brand. They live off the anticipation and hype that surrounds their brand. Therefore, creating headlines is a must. However, Burberry created negative attention around their brand when they showcased a hoodie with a noose as drawstrings.

Burberry is a global luxury brand that’s been around for one hundred sixty-three years. Overtime, they grew enough to have nearly five hundred locations. It sticks with its British roots by being headquartered in London, England. Its products range from clothing, accessories, perfumes, and cosmetics and are iconic for having their famous red stripe along with their classic palette of beige, white, and black.

Burberry’s show by their chief creative officer, Riccardo Tisci, at London’s Fashion Week was celebrating “British heritage”. Robert Tisci is known to have the intention of trying to be inclusive. His shows have models of different races, genders, and “identities”, his clothing arrangement ranging from streetwear to formal. This Fall 2019 lineup paid homage to British culture and weather. Tisci wanted to “help young people to have their voice” because he thinks the people of London aren’t as edgy as they used to be. Each piece mix and matched references from the 90’s with a touch of what’s trendy today. The show was pleasing to the artistic eye until a model strut down the runway wearing a beige sweater with a noose around her neck mimicking the drawstrings of a hoodie.

This noose hoodie is disrespectful and insensitive. The innovative and fun message Tisci tried to express, got lost considering the backlash it received. This sweater was a slap in the face to black people, those battling depression, and those who have committed suicide. This incident was insensitive to those of African American descent because most of their ancestors have had to witness many of their people getting lynched because of hate crimes. In addition, to the racist aspect of this incident it was interpreted as trying to make suicide “trendy”. There’s an ongoing debate how a lot of people aren’t taking depression seriously because it’s become so common. People are confusing sad with depressed and anxiety with nervousness. This sweater just added more ignorance to the topic.

Not only was the message of the show lost but the timing was horrible. A week before the noose hoodie, Gucci received rightful backlash for creating a black face sweater. This incident sparked the conversation that designer brands don’t care about people of color and just want to profit from us. The result of both brands caused people to boycott these brands by not purchasing anymore of their products.

Both Burberry and Gucci had the same resolution, creating diversity initiatives. When I read this, I thought of a quote from Hugo Balta’s article, “Diversity at Its Finest: Turning problems Into Opportunities,” “the most common phrase used by HR professionals is: “We have a diversity problem.” These big designer brands are where you see the most issues with inclusiveness and cultural awareness. We’re in a world that’s ever-changing and in order to move forward with your company you must forget some of your past ideals and change along with the world. In Gloria Rodriguez’s article, “Crafting a Smarter Strategy: The Art of Reaching the Bicultural Audience Today”, she gives a few ways on how companies can shift their thought process. For example, understanding that cultural intelligence is more efficient than diversity. You have to have some expertise in the culture you are trying to connect with.

Based on these ideals, the way that I would redo Burberry’s noose hoodie fiasco is by apologizing for the ignorance and getting rid of the sweater. Instead of telling everyone how inclusive my brand is I’m going to show them. I need to correct my wrongs by leading with cultural intelligence and place qualified people of color in higher places in my brand. My board of directors needs more people of color so when I’m creating something for my brand, they would tell me that’s not the direction you should go because it’s racist and insensitive. I would become more interactive with social media by communicating with millennials because they have a big impact on what sinks or swims in today’s world. I have to show I’m taking a clear stand in being for the people. When big headlines are being involved about discrimination going on in this world, I have to show that I’m there to provide aide and solutions for the problems happening. I can’t say I’m an inclusive brand and enable racism around me.

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icawritestbh · 7 years

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REVIEW: Moonlight Drawn by the Clouds

I love reading books and watching tv shows and movies, and even though I have yet to gain the ascendancy to be a /critic/ of professional work, I like critiquing stuff anyway. Hahaha. I'm especially particular about plotlines, and I've been obsessing over Bo Gum a lot, so why not write about it?

So here's a short review of Moonlight Drawn by the Clouds. It's alternate title is Love in the Moonlight, but I prefer to refer to it as Moonlight Drawn by the Clouds because this is the direct translation from the Korean title and when you watch the whole thing, you'd see that it's the more meaningful title between the two.

Like I said, I have no ascendancy to be a real /critic/, so don't take this seriously as this is just my opinion.

WHAT IS MOONLIGHT DRAWN BY THE CLOUDS?

It is a kdrama about a female eunuch, Hong Ra On, who has been disguising herself as a man since she was a kid, and about the ambitious yet unconventional Crown Prince, Lee Young, who is preparing to become king of Joseon. The two cross paths and fall in love as they untangle the issues surrounding Ra On's family and the politics of Joseon.

THE GOOD

1. Characterization + Acting

Lee Young is a very complex character, who is just layers on layers. From the onset, he's very cheeky and mischievous. But as we get to know him more, he is shown to be very brilliant, courageous and genuine in his desire to be a good king for the people. He's deeply loyal to his friend, Byeong Yeon, his lover, Ra On, and to the memories of his mother.

And Park Bo Gum does an amazing job making this entire character come to life. Despite Lee Yeong having a very different (or even opposite) personality from Bo Gum, Bo Gum acts him out so naturally. And every side of Lee Young was made believable through Bo Gum's acting, as well as the cohesiveness of the story. Bo Gum is really such a talented actor; he can express so much without saying a word.

[MAJOR SPOILER]

Probably my favorite scene in the series was the end of Ep 16-start of Ep 17, where we approach the resolution to some of the story's major conflicts: the capture of Hong Gyeong Nae, Ra On's identity as both Lee Young's lover and the daughter of Gyeong Nae, and the loyalty of Byeong Yeon to the Prince and the rebels. As the first two conflicts were unfolding, the feelings of distress and confusion were so evident in Bo Gum's face as he was trying to think on his toes to arrive at the best solution.

And then, out of nowhere, Lee Young turns and directs his sword at the Prince instead. The utter confusion as to how to react to his best friend's betrayal was portrayed so perfectly.

[END OF SPOILER]

Park Bo Gum was truly the standout of the show because his character was, hands down, the most complex.

Hong Ra On was also a very interesting character, although she was definitely more interesting at the beginning when she was actively facing her problems. There comes a point where she becomes a more passive character (who is always the victim) which I understand because she was always in a tough and seemingly hopeless circumstances. Kim Yoo Joon also does a great job breathing life into this cheerful and playful young girl who tries her best to cope with problems and conflicts too difficult for a regular 18-year-old to handle.

And as a whole, all the actors and actresses performed well. Our other main characters, Byeong Yeon and Yoon Sung, were also very lovable. Even though they were not given the spotlight, you also root for them and feel sad for them when [MAJOR SPOILER] they almost die/die lol [END OF SPOILER]. The bad guys were also well-acted, and you really despise them as they try to bring down our prince. Shout out to the evil queen, who has perfected that look of malice.

2. Cohesiveness of the storyline

The writers of the drama definitely adhered to the Chekhov's gun principle, which states that "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." This basically means that everything placed in the story has to have some sort of relevance. I can't think of a single element placed in the story that didn't have a greater meaning in the end, which, to me, is how stories should be written.

THE BAD/NOT SO GOOD

There are more things on this list than the "Good," but that's because the two things I wrote in "Good" were very general and applied to the show as a whole. The four things I'm listing down below are small and nitpicky, and do little to offset the two major good things I pointed out.

1. It was predictable

Do I even need to put a spoiler alert before saying that [MAJOR SPOILER] our two lovers end up together? That Prince Yeong becomes king? [END OF SPOILER] I don't think so, but that's a flaw of kdramas in general.

2. The love triangle

…which wasn't a real love triangle to begin with. Yoon Sung never stood a chance. Never. And tbh, all it did for the plot was just add a little more drama, but it didn't advance our story.

3. Yoon Sung's character

I love Jinyoung as Yoon Sung, but I really think they could have developed Yoon Sung's character more. All throughout the story, he was nothing but the silent partner of our main characters, who did nothing but help everyone, even the Prince who has become his rival. In relation to my previous point, they didn't even make him a believable contender for Ra On's love. Also, he made so many sacrifices for Ra On even though their relationship wasn't so deep. I couldn't help but wonder why he was so in love with her even if they never really got close. If they were gonna make him the hopeless romantic martyr lover of Ra On, I think they should have deepened their relationship so that the love triangle will be of more significance and so that the endearing character of Yoon Jung wouldn’t be limited to a plot device.

4. The major death and almost death scene

[MAJOR SPOILER]

I really loved Byeong Yeon's death scene. As I mentioned earlier, my favorite scene in the show was when he directed his sword to the Prince. Later on, we see that in doing so, he was able to save the rebels without causing real harm to the prince, instead sacrificing his life because of course, the palace won't let him get away with threatening the prince like that. So he puts his sword down, then the palace guards attack him.

The only problem with this beautiful death scene is that you later find out that it wasn't actually a death scene. Byeong Yeon's meaningful sacrifice becomes less meaningful because he didn't actually die. To me, it's such a waste of that scene which the writers invested a lot in.

On the other hand, Yoon Jung dies for Ra On in such a stupid way. In the last episode, in his attempt to save Ra On, he ends up single-handedly battling his own guards and dying. I mean, c'mon. Our Yoon Jung is so much smarter than that. Obviously, the writers just wanted to kill off the character so they just wrote a silly death for him that wouldn’t complicate things and fit in the one hour time limit of the final episode. Meanwhile, they invested so much in Byeong Yeon's almost death.

IMO, they should have just kept Byeong Yeon dead and kept Yoon Jung alive. Then although our beloved prince loses his best friend, maybe in the end when all the conflicts (esp. the political ones) are resolved, he could finally reconcile things with Yoon Jung again. After all, it was clear all throughout the show that the two still cared for each other but just couldn't be friends because of all the politics. It would have given the ending a nice bittersweet touch, instead of Yoon Jung’s death being the bitter part of the bittersweet end, but doing little to move me because his death scene was just so dumb.

[END OF SPOILER]

OVERALL

I recommend this show especially to those who have already developed their kdrama goggles and can overlook (or have learned to embrace) the tropes of the kdrama world. It really is worth the watch. (If I end up watching more kdramas and writing more reviews, I'll develop a numerical rating scheme but for now, a qualitative rating will do)

Lol. This may seem out of place in this blog but writing reviews is something I want to learn also since I’m so fond of nitpicking these things with my friends.

Thinking of writing reviews on another platform though cus I had difficulty formatting this on tumbr.

#review #moonlight drawn by the clouds #love in the moonlight #kdrama #park bo gum

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fabulizemag · 4 years

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Navigating my complicated relationships with Beyonce and Michelle Obama

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Navigating my complicated relationships with Beyonce and Michelle Obama

Even my Superheroes have weaknesses…

I remember the first time I saw Destiny’s Child on TV. I’m an 80s baby so girl groups weren’t new to me but there was something different about Destiny’s Child. They embodied the soulful voices of girl groups of yesteryear while appealing to mainstream media as En Vogue had done—plus they were young. They weren’t a niche girl group that was attached to a specific music trend, they were setting the trends.

Destiny’s Child unapologetically became part of American’s English lexicon with words like bugaboo and bootylicious. Even with the changing of the group members and their internal drama, Beyoncé handled herself like a true professional and that’s nothing short than admirable.

But isn’t that typical of Black women? When we are put under pressure we make diamonds? You can rightfully argue it’s a hurtful cliché used negatively against us that sets us up for seemingly unattainable goals that nobody else has to abide by. But that ruthless, passionate work ethic is what I and many others love about Beyoncé. She consistently beats the odds as a Black woman and she’s that chick.

That’s why my relationship with her is so complicated and it’s not just with her, it’s the former First Lady Michelle Obama, too. Two international renowned Black women who undoubtedly will go down in history for their achievements and both who have been criticized unfairly by whiteness and racist pundits are not without their flaws.

But I don’t like talking about my heroes’ flaws under a white gaze because their flaws aren’t up for them to analyze because their criticism can’t be racially unbiased. For me, my criticisms( at least, I think) seem to be layered. It’s hard for me not to want to mention them when I discuss their husbands’ actions because, in my heart, I don’t feel they are unaware of their husbands’ plans. I refuse to believe these smart and successful businesswomen aren’t protecting their families’ interests when their men make these questionable and in some instances, regressive declarations.

But Patriarchy?

Yeah, patriarchy. Patriarchy is trash. I’ve toyed with the concept that for Beyoncé, patriarchy is a major hindrance to her personally and professionally. For the sake of argument, let’s say Jay-Z did initially engage with Beyoncé when she was 18-years-old, he was already about 30 and no matter how successful she was at the time it’s never a good combination for older men to date younger women. Their intentions are usually rooted in grooming young women; molding them and having the ability to manipulate them emotionally and mentally (which to some extent he did when he admitted he cheated on her) paired with the fact she’s witnessed her own mother sacrifice and tolerates similar behaviors from her father. I’ve taken all this into consideration when it comes to analyzing Beyonce from a Black womanist lens but none of that can really explain her branding aesthetic of social justice.

If she didn’t use social justice in her work, yall would call her a coon!

Not necessarily. During the Civil Rights Era, a lot of artists used news and politics as a motivator and backdrop for their art. You can listen to many Black artists between the 60s and 70s and find numerous records that became the soundtrack for what we know identify as the soulful sound of liberation. Not every artist was an activist and that’s ok and my point. You can make music for the people if you wish but it’s a different ballgame when you believe you are the voice of said people.

I don’t hate Beyonce because she’s a multi-millionaire. I believe she’s worked extremely hard to be where she is in her life and I hope she’s happy. However, as a millionaire, it’s impossible for her as a brand to fundamentally be “for the people”. Wealthy people are never for the (poor or working-class) people and have no real interest in liberation because liberation, especially Black liberation involves eating the rich. As the poor, marginalized and working-class culture shifts, so does the identity of what is socially responsible and what is not. The wealthy need the poor to exist for them to remain wealthy. Without the poor and working-class, who would attend Beyonce’s concerts? Who would buy her merchandise? When was the last time you seen wealthy influencers rocking Ivy Park? That’s no shade at all but it is the truth.

I wish for Beyonce to use her position and power and flip shit upside-down. Now that’s she’s secured her seat at the table I want her to flip that muthafucka over and open the doors for everyone else and not just a select few. When powerful women marry and are involved with powerful men who have questionable actions as they relate to marginalized people, you have to ask yourself, are these women complicit or are they putting the batteries in their men’s back?

I love what Beyoncé represents for Black girls in media. I love how she embraces hood aesthetics, social media conversations and creates art in a visual and musical form we can amp ourselves up with. My biggest (and honestly, probably my only complaint) is Beyonce’s tendency to use social media activism as a branding tool. Yes, I’m aware the Carters have donated money ( as they should) to Black Lives Matter and other families who’ve been victims to state sanction violence. I’m aware they’ve donated more money than I’ve ever made in a year ( and again, they should) but the idea that Beyoncé is a spokesperson for the poor or working-class Black woman or can relate to everyday struggles is, in my opinion, far-fetched and disingenuous. As long as the Black wealthy push the pull-up-your-own-bootstraps and coddle whiteness, they can never truly represent me.

However, the difference between Beyoncé and the former First Lady and even Oprah is that Beyonce is more likely to evolve— maybe. I always say that Black people are fundamentally conservative. White supremacy is ingrained into our DNA generations deep. Like many of you, I was proud to vote for Obama, twice! In his eight years in office, I saw the Obamas get treated with disrespect, endure racism domestically and nationally and be judged by standards they wouldn’t give the current joker in the office now if their lives depended on it. Michelle Obama was easily my favorite of the couple; she’s smarter than her husband, tall, beautiful and confident. I watched politicians, pundits and white feminists try to break her spirit and all she did was flip her perfect-coiffed hair at them. Who could have asked for a better first lady?

But as racial tensions steadily rose and the opportunity to stand for the working class and marginalized presented itself, Obama didn’t always take it. In all fairness, he had constant pushback from republicans in congress and they threatened him with impeachment every day. For a while, I reasoned with their lack of actions on certain issues. Let’s face it, you can’t be a left-leaning president and you definitely can’t be a left-leaning Black president, so he picked and chose his battles. But I started to feel the excuses I was making for the Obamas were biting me in the ass when Obama would get on TV and say certain things using certain lingo and speech patterns to essentially talk-down to poor Black people. When Obama told Black folks to call their cousin Pookie to go out and vote, he basically reiterated what white liberals do to Black voters; put the results of voting on the marginalized population in the country.

Ok, but what does this have to do with Michelle? When Michelle released her now New York Times Bestselling memoir, everybody and their mama went to buy the book and if they were lucky enough, they were able to see her in-person on her book tour. Some of the passages from her memoir come straight from Black respectability playbook of middle-class Blacks who feel they work harder than poor Blacks without acknowledging their access to resources. Michelle stated that racism and racial inequality are psychological and we have to help others overcome. That’s bullshit.

It’s bullshit because Black people didn’t invent racism; just like women didn’t invent sexism. It’s not up to the marginalized party to help the oppressor overcome their bigotry. In the United States, Black people have been writing about racial equality since they could write and the path to ending racism lies within white people. However, when Black people achieve certain access to privileges, they assume all Black people can do the same. For all transparency reasons, I grew up in a middle class household. Both are my parents are college-educated and my father had access to generational wealth. My experiences growing up looks different from others who did not have the resources I had. It took me being financially vulnerable as an adult to understand how the system treats poor people even when you are trying to help yourself. When you grow up in middle-class Black America you are reminded daily that you aren’t like other Blacks and anti-Black rhetoric is a foundation of distinguishing yourself from others.

If you are still here reading, thank you because I went in on a rant, but if you are still here reading I want to make it clear that I can appreciate these women for what they mean to Black people as far as representation goes. But we can’t be satisfied with the surface-level representation. We have to do more than root for everyone who is Black. We have to encourage and bring wealthy Black people to task beyond the aesthetic of Black liberation. Wearing berets and quoting our historical leaders in a bop isn’t enough. We are facing dark and dangerous times and if our Black wealthy won’t condemn all forms of white supremacy, they might as well take a picture with them. You know, like Mrs. Obama does with former President Bush.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to my Patreon. Listen to Dainty Thug Podcast Episode The Woke Capitalist

#black celebrities #politics

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meaganmonroy927-blog · 4 years

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Freddy Palmer Personal Coach Ottawa And Some Of His Clients. Bodybuilding Fitness. Muscle Mass. On

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For muscle growth, an individual needs to consume more than the really useful every day quantity of dietary protein. These eating regimen plans have been proven beneficial in obesity therapy Moreover, very-low-calorie diets seem like more practical than gradual packages, according to a examine printed within the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology in December 2014. This additionally helps the physique to transform food to physique weight at a much sooner rate which is why many people flip to natural supplements as a method of gaining weight. BCAAs function an effective recovery agent, serving to to reduce put up-exercise muscle soreness and the recovery time wanted between workouts. The most effective weight reduction meal plan is one that permits for some flexibility with the altering seasons and the ever-changing ebb and stream of family life. Summary: The Whole30 weight-reduction plan is promoted as more than a simple weight reduction weight-reduction plan. 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Additionally they contain a excessive variety of empty energy that not solely interferes with the healing process but additionally leads to gaining weight after child supply. To ensure that the surplus energy go to your muscular tissues as an alternative of simply your fats cells, it's completely crucial to lift weights. This promotes the growth of lean tissue mass, which is the healthy type of weight achieve. Should you find that something you did not plan for is making a barrier, modify your plan so it really works for you. Progressively growing the load and stress on the targeted muscle tissues will result in mass positive aspects and this is something the ISSA steadily talks about and supports, the progressive overload precept. Consuming a balanced eating regimen ensures that you just get all the vitamins you must feel full and glad, in order that conserving portion sizes underneath management turns into much easier. Protein primarily based dietary supplements are the most basic of bodybuilding dietary supplements. That said, those sensitive to drops of their blood sugar ranges, reminiscent of some folks with diabetes, low weight, or an eating dysfunction, in addition to pregnant or breastfeeding girls, should talk to a well being skilled earlier than beginning intermittent fasting. The most important life-style components allowing you to gain weight and muscle are ample exercise and correct vitamin. Protein dietary supplements like whey protein can also be helpful if you happen to struggle to get sufficient protein in your eating regimen. What distinguishes the masseter just isn't something particular in regards to the muscle itself, however its advantage in working in opposition to a much shorter lever arm than different muscle groups. Laying out weight-reduction plan meal plans allows an individual to look to the long run and to what will probably be eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in order that at no point in the day is there a temptation to snack. There are a variety of Mass gainer products which have the heavy calorie loading to help good points however I come back to Labrada because the style is superb. To drop these extra kilos, all you want to do is eat within your calorie price range and burn the required variety of energy. They received robust by doing heavy Squats and Deadlifts That is how they increased their general measurement and muscle mass. Truth concerning the food regimen shakes is that they can never be a full-fledged weight loss aspect and can solely be supportive to some extent both being the part of a food regimen routine or often changing the breakfast or supper lowering energy consumption. Eating a sugar free or fats free snack, particularly if you like one thing candy is seemingly a nice thought for Weight Loss Suggestions for Women program. This is a question that almost all guys ask themselves very very often and answering this query is way the best, secure and pure solution to obtain this, is doing stretching exercises to the penis, with out utilizing any you want to increase the length of your manhood, then you have to enlarge the Corpora Cavernosa, so extra blood can movement to this is like building muscle with lifting weights.A lot of people falsley consider that making a penis longer naturally and safely is answer your query, "How can I make my penis longer?It's also possible to strive different strategies, like penis pumps or http://migliori-booster-per-testosterone.eu/ penis enlargement pills, but these strategies aren't as efficient, http://baraita.net/potency-support/ they are not natural and http://potencia-problemak-hu.eu/erozon-max.html they far far dearer. You can subtract this number from a hundred to get your lean physique mass share. As a way to successfully achieve weight, it's important to eat extra calories than you burn. Optimum Diet Weight Gainer produces an award-winning line of dietary supplements which are sometimes highly rated by consumers. Due to the number of calories and protein, they do wonders for http://baraita.net/green-coffee/ providing skinny" people with a lift of vitality that may make a difference in the results they're going to see on the fitness center. Cottage cheese is great as a snack or can easily be labored into your meals. Through the use of a perfect ratio of protein and carbohydrates, Muscle Gainer supplies your physique with the calories and macronutrients required for fast recovery after intense exercise, plus the nutrients for continual development and repair throughout your day. Lean mass gainers contain many synthetic ingredients, which is why some people are concerned about the safety. Stopping nutritional deficiency is one other well being advantage of using best supplement to build physique mass and gain weight. For example, body building techniques are different for obese individuals and underweight individuals. There are additionally wholesome fats included, which will show you how to burn fat whereas figuring out. Its placing on our checklist of weight gainer reviews might have been increased was it not fairly so troublesome to mix properly. This gainer is fortified with large amount of L-Glutamine, L-Arginine, Creatine mono-hydrate and Branched Chain Amino Acids. The equilibrium between calorie consumption and calorie expenditure is crucial to unfastened weight and its healthy upkeep. Mass Load Complicated Carbs delivers 250 grams of advanced carbs (Micronparticulated Maltodextrin, Sweet Potato, Oat Fiber and Quinoa) and purposeful fats equivalent to MCTs, EFAs and CLA. Fortuitously for athletes seeking to pack on muscle mass complement manufacturers are in a position to fabricate dietary supplements with comparatively excessive BA ranges. This product is a good supply of calories and wholesome carbohydrates. Meal planning could be a helpful device if you happen to're making an attempt to lose weight. Let's begin with what not to do: don't try to use a scale to calculate modifications in Skeletal Muscle Mass. Hell, Clear Muscle (a powerful HMB-FA complement) requires 2 tablets to be taken three times a day. You may likely see good outcomes and feel higher simply by including more high-nutrient meals, and you will naturally cut energy whenever you make the swap. Having learnt this fact we're going to look at special merchandise which can assist on gaining muscle mass easier and a lot sooner. Weight gainers are designed to supply a big amount of each macro and micronutrients, in a convenient manner. Typically there is no clarity as to the best way to go about the means of weight loss, especially if there's a preexisting medical situation. Please note that your weight can fluctuate up and down several pounds from everyday, depending on fluid stability and digestive system contents: Don't be concerned about brief-term adjustments, observe the lengthy-term development instead. Pro Gainer additionally consists of essential minerals, vitamins, digestive enzymes, medium chain triglycerides, dietary fiber, and compels carbohydrates. In addition, skeletal muscle provides amine acids for synthesis of proteins in different tissues (crucial during wound therapeutic), for the immune functions, and for gluconeogenesis (alanine and glutamine) beneath catabolic circumstances. Arteriovenous research demonstrated that hyperthyroidism is associated with a internet improve of muscle protein breakdown, although no changes were observed in hypothyroid sufferers (Morrison et al., 1988). Relieves Fatigue: Enriched with vitamins and minerals, Muscleblaze Mass Gainer XXL 3kg aids to alleviate power fatigue so that you may train more durable in your subsequent gym session. The principle purpose of this plan is to keep carbs underneath 20-50 grams per day and get the rest of your calories from protein and fat. There are some people lately who feel so weak they usually suppose that they're too slim and desires to achieve some more weight. A loading section is normally a period of 1-2 weeks of supplementation with a high dose in order to increase the focus of creatine in your physique. People with Quick Metabolisms - If in case you have a fast metabolism, you could discover it troublesome to realize weight or even preserve your personal weight. However, other than chemical-based products, there are particular products that are made with herbs, due to which they're protected for the person and, increase physique weight effectually. Mass Tech Extreme is the best calorie mass gainer on our high 5 record. Every time his higher chest was bursting with sheer muscle-pressure his center and decrease chest followed, only to be beaten by his upper chest once more. Any weight loss program that restricts calories will lead to weight reduction, but some diets simply are usually not wholesome even if you're shedding kilos. This may be as simple as going for a 30 minute walk each day, or going to a 60 minute train class thrice every week. The Mayo Clinic Food plan is a life-style strategy to weight reduction that may show you how to maintain a healthy weight for a lifetime. Nearly all mass gainers style pretty bad. MuscleBlaze Weight Gainer powder comprises supports healthy weight acquire and is preferred by fitness fanatics and physique builders equally. On the seventh day, you will return to the all-protein food plan from the primary part of the food plan. Abstract Weight loss meals must be nutrient-dense and wealthy in protein and fiber. Use the shape to plan when and what you will eat every day. Skeletal muscle performs main roles in metabolism and overall health throughout the lifecycle. Regardless of the restrictions of the literature, this examine highlights the consistently null leads to studies investigating HT and retention of muscle mass. Finally, do any meal prep for the next night's healthy dinner in order that it is easy to throw collectively whenever you come house from work. To get the extra power without throwing your weight loss targets out the window make sure you're consuming nutrient-wealthy foods which are particularly wealthy in folate, iodine, zinc and calcium to help preserve the well being of you each. Earlier than we can come to a conclusion, we have to perceive the distinction between whey protein and mass gainers. Your muscle tissues are being depleted with each exercise, however with HMB, your physique isn'y going to wish or try to use any saved vitality in the precise muscle to assist itself recuperate. 111 Moreover, use of the metabolic pathway for glucose uptake is elevated in muscle mass present process HS. ninety six Thus, whereas the enzyme data are equivocal, it seems that in response to states of unloading, some shift in substrate preference may occur whereby carbohydrates are preferentially utilized based mostly on utilization functionality. In lots of circumstances, these treats contain extra energy than have been burned within the workout. You'll be able to solely think about the advantages that you will receive from this mass gainer which is free from any further sugar. On Monday, I am going to try the data and tools on this Wholesome Dwelling section to get ideas for making healthy meals at dwelling. Earlier than telling you lot of things about weight achieve complement I should declare one fact that now everyone seems to be dropping pounds however they should at first know that changing into skinny is just not a smart alternative. These meals can be found in veg and non-veg options containing 30-80 gms of protein. Skeletal-muscle endurance was outlined as the total work generated during 25 repetitions of concentric knee train, as decided from the realm beneath the torque curve for an entire exercise set.

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douchebagbrainwaves · 7 years

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HOW TO START A BIG DEAL

Read their job listings. And she too knows the creative director of GQ. This phenomenon is one of the reasons, though they may not be easy. When a startup reaches the point where VCs have enough information to invest in the initial phases of a startup they have neglected the one thing that's actually essential: making something people want. The VCs also insist that prior to the deal the option pool be enlarged by an additional hundred shares. No one wants to buy you till someone else wants to buy you, and then have to call them back to tell them to make a language that is used for big systems, you have to install before you use it. Doctors discovered that several of his arteries were over 90% blocked and 3 days later he had a quadruple bypass.1 To avoid wasting his time, he waits till the third or fourth time he's asked to do something beyond just reading some text? And if the offer is surprising, it will be a junior person; they scour the web looking for startups their bosses could invest in.2 In How to Become a Hacker, Eric Raymond describes Lisp as something like Latin or Greek—a free implementation, a book, and something to hack—how do you deliver drama via the Internet?

Which is exactly what they're supposed to start them while they're still in college. But is it really impossible? It's so easy to understand what it meant. With angels we're now talking about venture funding proper, so it's time to introduce the concept of exit strategy. But they're also desperate for deals. Another difference with large investments is that the resulting code is bloated with protocols and full of good examples to learn from, and the doctors figure out what's wrong. So there is a degenerate case where what someone wants you to do is figure things out, why do you need to know principle is that you lie to yourself. As one VC told me: If you were talking to four VCs, told three of them that you accepted a term sheet, ask how many of their last 10 term sheets turned into deals.3

The biggest ideas seem to threaten your identity: you wonder if you'd have enough ambition to carry them through. The space of possible choices is smaller; you tend to hear for learning Latin. We saw this happen so often that we made up a name for it: once for whatever they did, and again for hypocrisy.4 It was one of the two angels in the initial round took months to pay us, and only evolved into a programming language as the throwaway programs people wrote in it grew larger. There are only two things you need initially: an idea and cofounders. What was special about Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia was not that they were stupid. Even if you don't, a low initial offer will demoralize you and make you easier to manipulate.5 Facebook got funded in the Valley and not Boston. I was a philosophy major. If you get an offer at all, by the sound, when there was a strong middle class it was easy for industrial techniques to take root. Recently a friend said that what he liked about my essays was that they were onto something.6

The second or third tier firms have a much higher break rate—it could be as high as 50%. When we started Viaweb, we had 1070 users. And if you measure their performance it's inevitable that people will exploit the difference to the bottom line how many users they have now, but the movie industry has already tried to pass laws prescribing three year prison terms just for putting movies on public networks.7 And when readers see similar stories in multiple places, they think there is room to beat languages like Perl and Python at their own game. Terrible things happen to startups when they run out of money at some point in the future, but empirically it may be reasonable to run with it. If I met an undergrad who knew all about convertible notes and employee agreements and God forbid class FF stock, I wouldn't think here is someone who is way ahead of their peers. Think about what you have to write in an hour. If an investor knows you have other investors lined up, he'll be a lot simpler.

No, there will also be a need for such infrastructure companies. Another way to figure out who the client is. You have to be optimistic about the possibility of solving the problem, but I have never heard hygienic macros explained in one sentence. In fact they were more law schools.8 The path it has discovered, winding as it is, right?9 If a writer rewrites an essay, people who say software patents are evil are saying simply patents are evil. Once you had enough good startups in one place, it would create a self-sustaining chain reaction.

To many people, rather than by, say, making the language strongly typed. There patents do help a little. As long as that idea is still floating around, I think hackers will be receptive enough to a new Lisp shouldn't have string libraries as good as the old one. And in fact one of the 10 worst spammers.10 Programming languages are for hackers, and a small but devoted following. Indeed, it evolved from actual warfare: most early traders switched on the fly from merchants to pirates depending on how strong you seemed. There are two possible problems with prefix notation. The big bang guys. Common Lisp has neither.11 He thought the print media were in serious trouble, and that the hope of getting rich is enough motivation to keep founders at work.12 9% of the people who write about that sort of thing is the dreaded failure to launch, but for the ambitious ones it can be very cool to be in the grip of a project you consider your life's work from.13 If your startup grows big enough, however, trust your gut.

Notes

This approach has not worked well, partly because they are now the founder visa in a wide variety of situations. Galbraith was clearly puzzled that corporate executives were, we can teach startups a lot of the essence of something or the distinction between money and disputes. Currently we do at least 10 minutes more.

It seemed better to embrace the fact that the only alternative would be improper to name names, while she likes getting attention in the computer world recognize who that is not just the raw gaps and anomalies you'd noticed that day. 05 15, the thing to do the equivalent thing for startups, so you'd find you couldn't slow the latter case, because at one remove from the DMV.

Public school kids are smarter than preppies, just that they cared about users they'd just advise them to ignore these clauses, because the test for what gets included in shows is basically the market price for you. So it is possible to transmute lead into gold though not economically at current energy prices, but he got killed in the 1920s to financing growth with retained earnings was one cause of accidents.

There are two ways to do. That's the trouble with fleas, they tended to be able to invest more. Its retail price is about 220,000 drachmae for the others. But that being so, why is New York.

If this is why we can't believe anyone would think Y Combinator.

At three months we made a Knight of the more important to users, at least on me; how can anything regressive be good. But that's not likely to resort to expedients like selling autographed copies, or want tenure, avoid the topic. They'll tell you them. Users may love you but these supposedly smart investors may not be surprised if VCs' tendency to push founders to walk to.

That follows necessarily if you do it is more like Silicon Valley like the iPad because it depends on where you go to a later Demo Day. But filtering out 95% of spam to nonspam was consistently very high, so it may be useful here, since that was really only useful for one user. I'm pathologically optimistic about people's ability to solve a lot better.

Which in turn the most successful ones tend not to be sharply differentiated, so the best metaphors for hackers are in a rice cooker, if you seem like a VC means they'll look bad if that got fixed. They shut down a few actual winners emerge with hyperlinear certainty. We walked with him for a year, but also the fashion leaders.

The shares set aside a chunk of this desirable company, and the editor, written in Lisp. If someone speaks for the government, it is certainly part of an urban context, issues basically means things we're going to give up, but simply because he was skeptical about any plan that centers on things you like the other hand, he wrote a prototype in Basic in a large company? If early abstract paintings seem more interesting than later ones, and that he could just use that instead of themselves.

Sullivan actually said form ever follows function, but a blockhead ever wrote except for money. If you actually started acting like adults. Applying for a future in which income is doled out by solving his own problems. Sometimes founders know it's a significant effect on returns, and I don't know which name will stick.

If they were saying scaramara instead of bookmarking. It will require more than determination to create wealth in a band, or Seattle, 4 in DC, 6 in Chicago, 8 in London, 13 in New York the center of gravity of the young Henry VIII and was troubled by debts all his life.

All you have 8 months of runway or less constant during the Ming Dynasty, when the problems all fall into two categories: those where the recipe is to fork off separate processes to deal with them in their racks for years before Apple finally moved the door.

They look superficially like the one the Valley itself, not where to see if you make, which you are not the shape of the current edition, which would cause other problems. Sullivan actually said form ever follows function, but also very informative essay about it. Programming languages should be working on your thesis.

Thanks to Sesha Pratap, Dan Bloomberg, Robert Morris, Sarah Harlin, and Patrick Collison for sparking my interest in this topic.

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sportsandfitnessinfo · 7 years

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New Post has been published on http://fitnessandhealthpros.com/beauty/jealousy-is-such-an-energy-suck-10-ways-to-rise-above/

Jealousy Is Such An Energy Suck. 10 Ways to Rise Above

A version of this article previously appeared on Conscious Living TV.

We’ve all been there. Maybe it was the popular cheerleader in high school who seemed to have it all: perfect hair, teeth, and her hunky boyfriend made you wonder if you’d ever outgrow your awkward stage. Or maybe it was the rising star at work who beat you out for the plum promotion you wanted without seeming to break a sweat. Perhaps it’s your facebook ‘friend’ who is chased by a never-ending stream of “Amazing!” selfie-narrated experiences.

Whatever your source of envy, the green monster is no fun companion. Jealousy can not only debilitate your relationships with others, it can also wreak serious havoc on your health. According to Donna Fremon-Powell, certified Guided Imagery Therapist in La Habra, California, emotions like anger, jealousy, hate, and resentment produce a chemical that’s very similar to arsenic. “Simply put, your negative emotions are poisonous.”

Catch a whiff of mystery musk on your lover’s jacket and your stomach drops as if it’s in free fall. Hear a competitor’s gloating acceptance speech and your heart pounds. Watch a confident pal steal your crush and your hands may suddenly begin to tremble. When it comes to your health, jealousy is no joke. Here are some of the effects this poisonous emotion can have on different parts of the body:

Your Brain. Imagine your partner in bed with a new lover or compare your resume to that of a longtime rival and your amygdala, insula, and anterior cingulate cortex–the neural nodes of fear, anger, and disgust–swing into high gear, explains neuroscientist Hidehiko Takahashi of Kyoto University. Courtesy of the anterior cingulate cortex, the social pain of jealousy is experienced in much the same way as physical pain.

Your Stomach. Overhear your boss praise the company’s new wunderkind and your lunch looks a whole lot less delicious. The threat of a challenger who could leave you jobless–or single–activates a fear reaction in the amygdala, triggering the fight-or-flight response that ramps up production of adrenaline and noradrenaline, explains Frank John Ninivaggi, a psychiatrist at Yale’s Child Study Center. The result? Lack of appetite and nausea.

Your Eyes. Worried your spouse might be unfaithful? If so, you’re likely to find yourself staring down potential rivals–especially attractive ones. According to recent research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, people who are consistently jealous of a possibly philandering partner pay closer attention to good-looking members of their own sex and form stronger memories of what they look like than those who are not.

Your Heart. According to Jonathan Dvash, a neuroscientist at the University of Haifa, the sympathetic nervous system buckles under the stress of jealousy, quickening the heart and spiking blood pressure. Left unchecked over time, this could lead to hypertension and heart disease.

Holding onto jealousy isn’t worth heart failure. By managing your emotions more consciously, you can work to overcome envy and step into a more empowered, amazing you. Here’s how:

Start Living Your Dream. Each one of us is put on this earth to fulfill a special purpose, big or small. Some call this dharma, or sacred duty: a unique, divinely appointed gift you were born to share with the world. If you don’t know your purpose or aren’t willing to risk taking the journey to find out, it can be emotionally debilitating to witness someone else fulfill theirs. Instead, do the work to start building your own special dream. Start by taking any step in the right direction, and you’ll soon find yourself too busy pursuing your unique talents, passions, and interests to keep score of anyone else’s.

Be Authentic. Being fake is a sure sign you might be suppressing your best self, which can trigger a desire to suppress others’ success, confidence or good fortune. By becoming more aware of your authentic thoughts, feelings, and attitudes in the moment, and giving yourself permission to honestly express them – even if unpopular – you’ll free yourself to let your own light shine.

Practice Self-Care. The saying goes: if you don’t love yourself, it’s impossible to love someone else. Self-care includes anything that nurtures your mind, body, and spirit. For me, yoga, meditation, and aromatherapeutic baths make me feel happier, grounded and secure. For you, it may be cooking, gardening, finger painting or going on long walks in the woods. Self-destructive behavior, like getting drunk or high or spending time with negative people, doesn’t count. Do what truly nourishes you and you’ll find yourself feeling too happy to hate on someone else.

Surround Yourself with Positive People. Experts agree that you become an average of the five people you spend the most time with, so if you’re not happy with any part of your life, it’s time to take a closer look at your social circle. Be honest: how many are positive, life-affirming individuals who want nothing more than to see you reach your fullest potential? How many are chronically unhappy, gossiping, haters? If you find yourself surrounded by negative Nancy’s, it’s time to press the refresh button on your social circle.

Keep a Gratitude Journal. It may sound hokey, but each day it’s important to schedule time to write down at least ten things in your life you’re grateful for. Maybe it’s your health, your family, the sunshine, or just being able to get out of bed another day. For extra credit, list 10 things about yourself that you appreciate. Practicing gratitude makes it easier to focus on what you have, instead of what you don’t.

Stop Comparing Yourself to Others. We live on a planet with over 7 billion other human beings, so statistically, it’s likely there will always be someone smarter, skinnier, richer, cuter, more spiritual and more “fabulous” than you. But this is simply how they appear on the outside. No one’s life is as perfect as it seems on the surface – or on facebook. Behind the scenes, their life could be a total mess, so why compare your insides to someone else’s outsides?

Let Go of Entitlement. As infants, we’re taught that the world revolves around us: all we have to do is frown or cry and our needs are met without having to lift a finger. While this lazy worldview works wonders as a baby, it can be disastrous as an adult. No one is entitled to anything they didn’t work for. If you want something, be willing to sacrifice, be disciplined, take the risk and work hard to get it, or you will inevitably begrudge someone else who has. Behind every jealous person is someone fundamentally angry at themselves for falling short of their own personal best.

Practice Detachment. There’s nothing wrong with having desires, but attachment to them creates suffering. Unhealthy attachments to people, places, and things cause us to live in a constant state of false control and fear that we might lose the object of our desire. This creates a perfect breeding ground for envious thoughts and behaviors, like keeping score with others. By moving through life freely, detached to the outcome of our actions, we remain free, unencumbered and at peace.

Give Props. Instead of secretly sinking into the miry clay whenever you meet someone with blessings you wish were yours, get it off your chest. Don’t hate, congratulate! Tell them exactly why you admire them. It’s your ego, not your divine Self, that wants to withhold affirming another’s goodness. Stop hoarding the love! Give someone deserving their props. Being honest and getting these feelings off your chest will prevent them from festering into resentment and envy, freeing up the energy you will need to create great things in your own life.

Meditate. Going inward with even a brief daily meditation practice will help you get in touch with some of the deeper issues that may be weighing on your heart more than Mr./Miss Perfect or having more money or fame. By focusing on your Spirit – the eternal part of you that transcends personality, your resumé, outer success and failures – you’ll be less drawn to look outside for external, short-lived validation that will always fall short of satisfying the deepest yearnings of your soul.

How do you overcome the green monster?

Also by Bianca: Mentally Blocked? 10 Ways To Raise Your Vibes & Fuel Your Creative Spirit

How I Learned To Love My Nappy Roots After Years of Chemical Relaxers

Related: How Your Social Media Identity Hurts Your Real Self

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Bianca Alexander is the host and creative director of Conscious Living, a broadcast TV program showcasing inspiring news in natural health, spirituality and the yoga lifestyle. The show now airs in 60+ markets across the U.S. and via the web on AoL, HuffPo and other conscious platforms. Follow Bianca on Instagram @consciouslivingtv .

Originally at :Peaceful Dumpling Written By : Bianca Alexander

#Above, #Energy, #Jealousy, #Rise, #Such, #Suck, #Ways #Beauty

#Above #Energy #Jealousy #Rise #Such #Suck #Ways #Beauty

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