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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Many Saints of Newark Is a Trashy Gangster B-Movie, There’s Nothing Wrong with That

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When I first walked out of The Many Saints of Newark, my initial reaction was to call it a B-movie. What I didn’t say at the time, however, was how much I love B-movies. While I saw the flaws in the film and couldn’t wholly endorse it to cinemagoers spoiled by the perfection of The Godfather, Goodfellas, and New Jack City, I can wholeheartedly recommend it to people like me. Those who appreciate the low-budget gangster movies sometimes because of their warts. A majority of fans of The Sopranos will have the same reaction: Meh, The Many Saints of Newark could have been better. So when’s it playing next? I plan to see it again, more than once, on the big screen.

In one of the film’s quieter moments, the Soprano family is gathered around a TV set, watching the classic Key Largo (1948). The specific scene on the screen begins when Humphrey Bogart’s cynical combat veteran Frank McCloud defuses a tense situation with the gangster Johnny Rocco. Played by Edward G. Robinson, Rocco is very loosely based on Charles “Lucky” Luciano, the godfather of organized crime, who had been deported and barred from American soil. He is suffering the same doubts Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) worries about in the pilot episode of The Sopranos: Are the best days of this “thing” over?

All gangsters want, as the black and white film explains, is more. Will they ever get enough? They never have. I don’t suppose they will. It is the same for gangster genre fans. We want more. And it doesn’t have to be great. “I don’t want it good. I want it Tuesday,” Jack Warner famously said about the gangster films his studio excelled in. Warner Bros. invented the gangster genre, and I felt a thrill when their name came first on the screen during The Many Saints of Newark. WB’s Key Largo is a prestige film. It’s got John Huston directing, he’d go on to make amazing mob movies, culminating with his magnificent Prizzi’s Honor. Key Largo boasts an A-list offering with top stars like Lauren Bacall, Claire Trevor, and Lionel Barrymore. And it’s a pairing of two legends who take their performances seriously, and believe in the art of acting: Bogart and Robinson.

But Bogart and Robinson made four B-movie gangster classics before they made the prestigious Key Largo: Bullets or Ballots, Kid Galahad, Brother Orchid, and The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, which was so badly scripted that the two leads took to calling it “The Amazing Dr. Clitoris.” I’ve seen it eight times. Are there holes in the story? Of course. And they don’t get any better after the third viewing. What does get better is watching the performances of two professional actors in films they are on record as saying they did not like. Twice, as it turns out, because it was revived as a radio play a few years later, according to the book Bogart, by A.M. Sperber and Eric Lax.

Robinson played a psychiatrist, studying Bogart’s gangster, and the two characters bond while keeping a wary distance. This is very similar to the dynamic between Tony Soprano and Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) on The Sopranos. She even worried the mob boss was using their therapeutic sessions in the furtherance of crime, something Bogart’s character did in the B-movie gangster film, King of the Underworld, which is awful and I never miss. I love that movie, not in spite of Bogie’s misunderstanding of the meaning of “the moronic type,” but because of it. He doesn’t do that in other movies, even in the masterful B-movie gangster comedies, It All Came True and All Through the Night.

But Bogart also made Dead End (1937), a quality piece, which happens to be my favorite film, ever. Based on the play by Sidney Kingsley, it spends a lot of its time in the same way The Many Saints of Newark does: teaching the young generation how to be gangsters. This is seen even more blatantly in the film Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), which paired James Cagney with the Dead End Kids. But threads of this even reach the juvenile delinquent movie Blackboard Jungle, also not a big-budget film, but realistic enough to show the teenagers were actually moving swag for bigger names.

It happens in real life, the mob looks to street gangs for promising young movers. Future dons make their bones wearing colors. Gangster films capture this. From Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) in Mario Van Peebles’ New Jack City to Spike Lee’s Clockers, original gangstas groom carbon copies. Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola) sees potential in young Tony Soprano (Michael Gandolfini) during The Many Saints of Newark. Great potential.

When Tony and his young gang hijack the Mr. Softee truck and give out ice cream to kids for free, it feels like The Sopranos creator and The Many Saints of Newark co-screenwriter, David Chase, was chasing the feel of the East Side Kids. Old Bowery Boys movies were aired weekly in the New York/New Jersey area when Tony was growing up, and all those movies were made by the icon of B-Movie studios, Monogram Pictures.

Monogram Pictures sat on Hollywood’s “poverty row,” and churned out pictures as fast as Detroit made cars. The Bowery Boys comedy troupe made almost a picture a month alone. But just like the Warner Brothers assembly line occasionally manufactured transcendent art, some of the cheapies are magnificently crafted. Sopranos fans should watch Angels in Disguise, one of the lesser-known gangster comedies, directed by Jean Yarbrough in 1949. It is, if not the first, one of the first mock-documentaries, and it is a good bet David Chase saw it, more than once. Leo Gorcey is even more of a master of the malaprop than Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. (Ray Abruzzo) on The Sopranos.

Monogram Pictures also caught the attention of French directors François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, who structured films based on their model, according to the book The Films of Jean-Luc Godard by Wheeler W. Dixon. It is no wonder, the studio’s almost-no-budget 1947 quickie Dillinger turned RKO contract player Lawrence Tierney into an icon of film noir. The Fall Guy, from the same year, dared to coke up the star Leonard Penn, and we’re not talking soda pop.

Also in 1947, 20th Century Fox’s low budget Kiss of Death introduced the screen audiences to the sadistic Tommy Udo. The role earned Richard Widmark an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and the admiration of “Crazy” Joe Gallo, whose insurrection against the Five Families of New York crime was the basis for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.

Low budget studio production paved the way for the independent film movement in America, which The Many Saints of Newark proudly emulates. Director Alan Taylor recently admitted to Den of Geek that he’s “drunk deep at the well of Scorsese,” and we can see Mean Streets all over the Sopranos prequel. Also in evidence is Barry Shear’s Across 110th Street (1972), which pitted the Italian mob against Black gangsters; John Cassavetes’s 1976 indie classic, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie; The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), directed by Stuart Rosenberg; and Abel Ferraro’s King of New York (1990).

The Many Saints of Newark is also too closely related to Wim Wenders’ 1977 gangster film, The American Friend, which cut corners on plot points as much as it did on budget. Logic is replaced by street smarts, and continuity is a game of three card monte in B-movie gangster films. The Many Saints of Newark is not exempt. There is a scene where one mobster’s mistress is sleeping with the rival for his turf. Except for one rude stare, the audience doesn’t see it coming. But how it turns out, with the convenient surf and turf to cover the evidence, is telegraphed from a mile away.

Movies

Once Upon a Time in America Is Every Bit as Great a Gangster Movie as The Godfather

By Tony Sokol

Culture

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Real-Life and Pop Culture

By Tony Sokol

Arthur Penn’s genre-redefining Bonnie and Clyde came out in 1967, the same year as The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Roger Corman spared every expense for his B-movie mobsterpiece. There are scenes where it is visibly apparent that a fleet of vintage background cars are just the same few automobiles driven in circles around the set. I’ve seen both movies multiple times, and enjoy them equally each time.

Just because The Many Saints of Newark isn’t a perfect film does not make it less of a classic. It certainly doesn’t make it less appealing for repeated viewings. The film follows a grand tradition of gangster filmmaking: street legal over mainstream currency, it could have fallen off the back of a truck. I would love to see whatever scenes were cut to make it fit into a two-hour viewing, because the film felt rushed. But I will watch it again.

The Many Saints of Newark premieres in theaters and on HBO Max on Friday, Oct. 1.

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ty-talks-comics · 5 years

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Best of DC: Week of March 27th, 2019

Best of this Week: Detective Comics #1000 - Various Writers and Artists

Possibly more controversial than I'm thinking it'll be, I'm glad Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo did the job of reintroducing Slam Bradley into the DC Universe. Slam Bradley, of course the way I choose to remember him, was one of DC's first characters and the precursor design to modern day Superman. He was a 1930s dick (detective in this case) who made his name in infamy with racist depictions of Chinese people being swung by their braids with toothy grins. He's likely the reason DC won't reprint some of the early Detective Comics works in a compendium.

This is without a doubt, a great celebration for one of the greatest comic book characters of all time, if not THE greatest. The difficulty in reviewing something like this, much like Action Comics #1000 (if I reviewed that one, I don't remember) is that so many stories have their ups and downs, hits or misses and there's so much ground. But some of these were so good that this book is getting an entry all on it's own this week.

He's been made better in recent years with a badass run as a side character in Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke's Catwoman (2001) as a cool former police officer with a son by the name of Slam Jr. on the force. He was probably some of the best parts of his short time there and was very compelling in interactions with Selina.

Kevin Smith and Jim Lee have arguably done some of the best and WORST Batman projects ever, but through the good and the bad, both have immense talent and their tale “Manufacture for Use” added a beautiful layer to the significance of the metal plate that his emblem is made out of.

The book is simple enough, a montage of Batman fighting his greatest villains shows in the background while his alter ego, Matches Malone, has a conversation with a merchant peddling in the various pieces of gear left by villains. He has Harley hammers, crazy quilts and even freeze guns, but there's only one weapon Malone is interested in; The Gun belonging to Joe Chill. The weapon that killed The Wayne Family.

He and others had been leaving Batman clues since his first days as a hero to have him join a guild of detectives, solving unsolvable or very difficult cases and knowing that Slam is one of the detectives along with Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, The Question, Detective Chimp, Elongated Man and his wife, Sue Dibny is relieving and fantastic.

I'm glad DC hasn't shied away from him given his past history. Even his inclusion in Superman of China based on his former character, warts and all, seemed like DC was kinda ashamed of it, but here he is, as awesome as he was later in life!

Upon seeing it, Alfred questions why Bruce would keep it as a trophy, nothing the ridiculousness of The Penny and the Dinosaur, he sees the gun as strange or even perverse. Batman, however, wishes to never see it cause anyone pain again, melting and forming it into an oval adorned with the symbol of a Bat.

Batman has dedicated his life to stopping crime in Gotham at all costs, but not everyone see his methods as being right or just. Doctor Leslie Thompkins has been looking over Bruce since his parent’s murder and oped that he would take his pain and do something productive with it, actually fix Gotham, but instead she sees how vengeance has consumed him, turning him into something of a violent monster himself and she’s not wrong. They meet each other on the anniversary of his parent’s murder in Crime Alley and are beset upon by a group of teenagers whom Batman viciously slaps the hell out of. Dr. Thompkins stops him out of fear and Batman looks like the real villain here.

If that isn't chilling...

Brian Michael Bendis is a GREAT Batman writer. Checking out his 15 pages in the Batman Walmart 100 Page Giants, much like Daredevil, Batman is a character that is PERFECT for him. “I Know” drawn by frequent Bendis collaborator, Alex Maleev, is amazing. Penguin started becoming disillusioned with the meetings put together by villains like The Joker on how to finally get rid of The Batman, Penguin begins to muse about who had the money to fund Batman. I believe he proposed the idea to the others, but they all shot him down, citing times Batman showed up when Bruce was a hostage or how he “blubbered like a baby.”

Penguin didn’t let it go, however, and prepared Suicide Bomb Penguins to attack Wayne Manor while Bruce was hosting a ton of high profile Gothamites. It would have been the end of Bruce Wayne.

Warren Ellis writes some very character driven stories, but when he has to get technical, he is a master as good as any. In “The Batman’s Design” he goes over Batman’s methodology when taking on criminals, treating things like a chess game that he’s already won. He leads the criminals to a trap and plays them like a fiddle, setting off an explosion that knock out or send some flying, determining a sniper’s location and just being so terrifying that the leader just hands him a bomb switch before his ass gets destroyed.

Becky Cloonan does a great job of alternating between cool and warm tones for when Batman is in the shadows vs contending with explosions he’s setting off. Batman looks slim, but imposing regardless. This is definitely some of her best art so far!

Now… if you ask any of my friends from when I was in The Navy, they’ll tell you about how I waited in line for Batman: The Arkham Knight. I was excited. I was elated. The conclusion to an amazing trilogy of games that shaped a newfound love for the character for me! And it bloody sucked. I HATE Arkham Knight with a passion. If it’s not The Batmobile, it’s the Joker, if not the Joker, it’s the Knight himself, if not him, then Scarecrow as the shitty final villain.

I really loved the noir tone that was set by Elizabeth Breitweiser’s colors over Steve Epting’s art. Things are very dark and cool. Batman is shrouded in shadow and Doctor Thompkins acts as a small light by comparison. There is great contrast when action happens with warm tones as Batman slaps the teens and Batman standing in the shadows as Leslie and the kids are under the one light is powerful.

Suffice to say, I was not pleased when it was said that The Arkham Knight would finally be appearing in comics different than his video game counterpart, but… I dunno, I kinda like him here.

His characterization seems to be that of someone who has lived in Gotham and has seen Batman’s methods of treating the poor citizens, the weak and the sick. He sees Batman as a cancer, a darkness that needs to be exterminated for Gotham to truly thrive. The best thing, there’s precedent for this kind of character.

One of the first few arcs for Detective Comics involved a cool set of villains known as The Victim Syndicate, people who have been hurt or grievously injured in Batman’s relentless pursuit of crime. These guys put Batman’s team through the ringer, almost turning Stephanie Brown against him completely as Tim Drake had been presumed dead at the time. Another casualty of war. If I remember right, The First Victim noted that there was someone or something coming for Batman soon and if that’s the Arkham KNight, then I am excited.

The Victim Syndicate was one of James Tynion IV’s best ideas during his run and I really hope whoever the creative team is for Detective Comics thus forth lives up to the quality. Peter J. Tomasi and Doug Mahnke are both amazing, so I have high hopes if its them.

But Penguin had an epiphany. Ending Bruce Wayne would not end Batman. Batman would become focused. Driven. Possibly to the point of killing. Bruce Wayne is the only thing keeping these villains alive, so Penguin relents and never reveals what he believes he knows, until years later when Bruce is old and mute… but who says that Bruce has lost a step? He zaps Penguin who is taken away as Bruce tells him that he knew, pretty much calling him a “coward ass bitch” as he’s taken away.

Overall, while there were few misses, this collection of stories had great ideas, great characterization, heart and was just fantastic. Looking forward to another 80 years!

This one was just cute. The Batfamily interacts with each other and take a FANTASTIC family photo drawn by Tony S. Daniel. Starring, Batman, Alfred, Nightwing, Batgirl, “Robin” Damian Wayne, Red Hood, Batwoman, Catwoman, “(Red) Robin” Tim Drake, Spoiler, The Signal, Cassandra Cain Ace the Bathound and Huntress. It’s a well put together double splash page and everyone, even Bruce seems happy.

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isleofelsi · 5 years

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Isle of Elsi Influences

Okay! So today I wanted to talk about some of the influences that inspired me to create Isle of Elsi. The first book in this middle grade graphic novel series is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter until May 2nd.

#1 is Carl Barks, who has been the “North Star” of this project from the very beginning. Everything from the type of stories I want to tell to the 4-tier page layouts I chose have been informed by the 6,000+ page body of work of my favorite cartoonist!

#2 is Bone by Jeff Smith which is my favorite comics series (excepting Barks!). Not only do his masterful comics inspire, but also the way they were originally self-published! They say don’t meet your heroes, but if Jeff Smith is one of yours, you should. He’s the nicest guy in comics!

#3 is the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. I was in my mid-20s when these books came out, but I had the same experience as kids all over the world—they taught me to love reading. Drawing her characters is the most fun I’ve ever had at the drawing board!

#4 is The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame. The relationship between the boy and the dragon is so endearing, I just want to go live inside this story. If you track down a copy make sure it has the original illustrations by Ernest Shepard, which could not be more charming.

#5 is The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White, especially the relationship between Merlin and Wart. This was a direct influence on my Draziw and R.J. Jr.. I also love the Disney version, which was singlehandedly storyboarded by Bill Peet…..

#6 is Bill Peet! His book How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head is hands down the greatest dragon picture book ever created. I learned how to draw dragons by carefully studying/copying his poses. If you don’t know Bill Peet, take yourself to school RIGHT NOW.

#7 is the work of my favorite poet, Ogden Nash. His two Custard the Dragon books were so fun, and his ever-present wordplay and wit inspired me to focus on similar themes in Isle of Elsi. The Quentin Blake-illustrated Custard versions should not be missed!

#8, in a similar vein, is Jerry Juhl, head writer of The Muppet Show. Juhl’s vaudeville-inspired setups and shameless use of puns and bad jokes has always tickled my funny bone. His work made me feel comfortable proudly putting similar material into Isle of Elsi.

#9 are the dragons that Nicolas Marlet drew for the How To Train Your Dragon trilogy. When those first end credits hit my eyeballs for the first time it was like a breathe of dragon flame washing over me. Get the art-of books too!

There are many other things in my life that influenced Isle of Elsi (see first image) but those are the BIG ones! If you like some (or ALL) of the same stuff, than I think you will really enjoy this book!

Please check it out and help me spread the word. THANKS! -Alec

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spiderdreamer-blog · 5 years

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Batman: The Animated Series Reviews: “On Leather Wings”

It’s been 26 years since the premiere of Batman: The Animated Series, and despite its wide-ranging influence in completely changing the game for American action cartoons, there’s still not quite anything else like it in terms of the feelings I get from dropping in on an episode. And it really does feel like I’m dropping in; this is not a cousin to today’s animated action series, often focused much more on serialization, but a series of miniature movies with a few bits of progress here and there. Despite everything that’s happened since, I love this show, warts and all, so in celebration on its absolutely gorgeous HD remastering, I’m going to be reviewing random episodes as I see fit: the good, the underrated, and maybe even the bad. Let’s dig in, shall we?

We start at the beginning with “On Leather Wings”, a premiere that has some occasionally wonky bits/early installment weirdness, but is just as often a remarkably assured debut for the series. This is a pulpy world of shadows and secrets, power, and one man who knows how to wield both properly. Mitch Brian’s script lacks much of the wit and nuance that later episodes would, as well as the tighter economy, but it’s an agreeably hard-boiled horror homage all the same. And while Kirk Langstrom might not be that interesting as a villain, I confess a certain fondness for Marc “Beastmaster” Singer’s staccato line readings, sounding nothing so much like a Universal Studios scientist who has Tampered With Things He Does Not Understand: “It’s IN ME, Batman!” And, well, he doesn’t have to be interesting, I suppose, when we have Man-Bat, still a marvel of design and animation. It’s terrifically schlocky B-movie werewolf stuff (Langstrom’s business of calling it a different personality is complete nonsense scientifically), but it’s committed to seriously without a hint of Westian camp (not that I don’t love me some Adam West, but that tone doesn’t fit here).

The voice acting, as noted, is something of an interesting blend. Director Andrea Romano, who I will stan forever, pioneered a realistic-yet-heightened theatrical style of performance here (and it speaks much of her that she could shift between this and shepherding far more “cartoony” modes of acting in series like Animaniacs), which is still working out the kinks in this outing. Clive Revill, a very talented British actor, is nonetheless too dour and low-voiced as Alfred; he would be replaced shortly by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.’s sprightly deadpan, which is a much better contrast for Kevin Conroy’s moody-but-humanistic Batman/Bruce Wayne. Conroy is already mostly the way there, with a great scene where he switches back between his Bruce and Bats tones effortlessly. (Side note: while it remains exemplary acting work, his Bat-voice here is decidedly different from how he would develop it in later series and movies like JustIce League: a lot more rasp, for one thing). On the flipside, Bob Hastings is already note-perfect as the weary-but-committed Jim Gordon, as is Robert Costanzo as the ever-abrasive Harvey Bullock, and Lloyd Bochner always felt underrated as Hamilton Hill, the weak-willed politician par excellence (Richard Moll also gets one line as Harvey Dent, putting him in our minds for later). On the guest end, Singer as noted is pretty fun, Rene Auberjonois gets to do his brand of cranky-likable briefly as bat expert Dr. March, growling THEY’RE SURVIVORS, NOT PESTS about bats, and Meredith MacRae of My Three Sons and Petticoat Junction fame gets a couple nice moments as Dr. Francine Langstrom.

Kevin Altieri directs with a sure hand, bathing the landscapes in shadows and Art Deco buildings; if nothing else, this establishes the signature style of the series right out of the gate, and the difference it makes compared to other action cartoons of the time is unmistakable. Spectrum handles animation duties on this outing with great aplomb, giving us fluid, subtle expressiveness in the characters (there’s a great bit where Man-Bat cowers in fear and shame after being discovered by Francine) and a real kick to the action scenes like a tracking shot as Man-Bat flies over a blimp with our hero in tow. Shirley Walker provides a fantastic score that sets the tone, spooky and exciting by equal measure.

If there’s anything holding this back, it’s, as noted, that it lacks much of the depth that would characterize the best episodes moving forward. The mystery/misdirection with Batman and Man-Bat being confused for each other is fun, but it ultimately doesn’t play that much of a role beyond a botched attempt by Bullock to catch the former, and we peg Kirk as the mastermind pretty quickly. His characterization is pretty bog-standard “mad scientist” and lacks the palpable, messy humanity that the likes of Dent, Mr. Freeze, Jervis Tetch, Harley Quinn, and others would give us. Batman’s characterization also hasn’t been quite nailed down yet; while it’s not like this version lacked humor or warmth, he’s a little too quippy/smirky here, lacking the dry, slightly weary badassery that would become a hallmark of later interactions.

Despite those flaws, the episode remains an exciting first step for the series. Next time, we’ll be covering an underrated favorite of mine, “See No Evil”. I hope that you enjoy this randomized journey with me.

#batman: the animated series #btas #reviews #analysis

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stardewvalleymatchups-blog · 7 years

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Most to least likely to want children. (Maybe how they'd react to their s/o bringing it up?)

Thank you for the great ask! I can’t say that any spouse wouldn’t want kids, so instead of a normal most to least I’m kind of going off a “most excited to most nervous” list. This also started to get incredibly long, but I didn’t want to split it up between bachelors and bachelorettes like I tend to do, since it was an ask. I also feel like I got off track and went from “how they’d react to their s/o bringing it up” to “how they’d react to having a kid in general” whOOPs. I really hope you’re okay with how it turned out! ^U^Most Excited / Ready- Penny - She loves kids! She’d be overjoyed if her s/o brought it up! “Kids? Oh! I’d love to have a one!” Honestly this sweetheart has probably been ready for kids on the farm for a while! One of her favorite things would be introducing their future child/children to Vincent and Jas! “Vincent, Jas, this is ______. Be careful, they’re very young…” Presumably Vincent will want to hold your child, and Jas too!- Elliot - He’d be so happy! He’d love reading to the kid, playing piano for it, teaching piano to it and so many more bonding exercises he’s already thought up! “Oh my, a child? Hmm.. Of course I would love to have one someday!” He’d get a little day-dreamy about it after his s/o mentions it the first time, what a big sweetie this guy is!- Emily - Emily is one eager beaver to have a kid around! She wont rush her sweet s/o, but if she knows her s/o is thinking about it she will certainly bring it up more often. “A kid would be nice to have, wouldn’t it?” and “It would be fun teaching them how to make clothes- Oooh I could make little hats for them!” are some things she’d say. Nervousness is not something she’d really feel on the subject, she’s just all for it!- Haley - Like her sister, Haley is eager to start a family! Unlike Emily, however, she does get a little nervous about the idea. “Do you think we’re ready for one, s/o?” She may need a confidence boost here and there, but she would adore her child or children to bits! Expect her to go crazy with baby photos.- Harvey - While Harvey is certainly excited to have kids, he’s also incredibly nervous! Like Penny, he’s been thinking about kids longer than his s/o may know, but kept it to himself he’s a worry wart over rushing his s/o! He can’t help but be so happy when his s/o brings it up!- Alex - Nervous? A little, but excitement is his dominant feeling over the subject. He’d love to have a kid that he could run around with and play sports with on the farm. He’d also love bringing the child to see their great grandparents; Evelyn would adore and spoil that child so much!- Leah - A kid to do art with? Leah would love that! However she may get pretty nervous, as she’s not sure if she and her s/o will be able to put so much time to something so big, as both of them do very time consuming work. Sacrifices would have to be made in schedules, and that may stress her out a little, but she is more than willing to do so!- Maru - Like Leah, Maru has an interest that takes up quite a lot of time, and so she’d be very nervous over having a child or children~ to look after. She’d be very surprised when her s/o brings it up, as she thought her and her s/o were on a mutual understanding about their work. But don’t take that the wrong way! Underneath the anxiety, Maru does want to have a kid or two+ with her s/o!- Sam - Oh baby! He’d have an initial rush of happiness, but then get SUPER nervous! The typical and understandable “What if I’m not a good dad/parent!?” fear. He’ll need lots of reassurance that he’ll be a great dad, and despite it all he would love having a kid. He, when the time comes, may even try to name it Sam Jr. Watch out!- Abigail - “Us, having a kid? Hmmm…” Abigail isn’t too sure how to feel. On one hand she would love to start a family, but on the other she is used to being more of a free spirit type, and is worried about what will have to change. However, the more she begins to realize that she’ll be able to teach the kid all the wonderful kinda spooky things she likes, she’ll warm up to it very quickly!- Sebastian - “Wait, what?” Surprised and anxious, Sebastian is definitely hesitant to start a family. There’s a lot this boy will think about before giving his s/o a definite answer, so be prepared for a few weeks of him not saying a word on the subject. But, he will come around, realizing how cute it would be to raise a kid. And how cute it would be to see his s/o take care of one lol.- Shane - Nervous. Nervous nervous nervous!!! This baby though proven to be a good parental figure when he gets his stuff together is terrified of having a kid! Honestly even if his s/o just said “Hey, what are your thoughts on having a kid?” it would set him off into panic mode. If his s/o is female, he’d would immediately start questioning if they’re pregnant. He really needs to be eased into it.. Like.. REALLY eased. That aside, he wouldn’t actually mind raising kids and Jas would love it too.

Most Hesitant / Nervous

Also side note - lord this is a big post - I try to leave these as open as possible for everyone to enjoy, if I somehow offended anyone with the pregnancy comment in Shane’s section; I’m very sorry!

#Stardew valley #stardew #stardew headcanons #stardew penny #stardew elliot #stardew harvey #stardew haley #stardew alex #stardew shane #stardew abigail #stardew sebastian #stardew leah #stardew emily #stardew maru #stardew sam #Im so sorry I got off track if you want a list that's their first reaction to their s/o bringing up kids let me know omg #stardew bachelors #stardew bachelorettes #ask

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zipgrowth · 6 years

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From Advocating to Letting Your Nerd Flag Fly, Educators Are Grateful For Lessons From Students

When all the stuffing, sauces, hams, turkeys, and pies are out of the oven, there is often a moment of peace during the holiday season where families sit around the dinner table and remember what they are grateful for. This year, we gathered with a community of educators during EdSurge’s Tech Leader Circle at the MakerDepot in Totowa, New Jersey to pause and have a similar moment of reflection.

For this EdSurge OnAir holiday special, we cut through the noise of the 3D printers to ask educators, “What is the one lesson their students taught them, that they are most grateful for?” From advocating for those in need to letting your nerd flag fly, it is no surprise that the lessons shared from these tech leaders will stay with them for many years to come.

The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Listen to a complete version of the interviews below, or on your favorite podcast app (like iTunes or Stitcher).

To start off our special on the lessons teachers are thankful for, I tell a story of my own.

I was in the middle of teaching a class when I saw it. A relatively thick English book on the corner of this young Turkish girl’s desk. But I waited until the end of the lesson to ask her about it.

“What are you reading?” I asked.

“The Diary of Anne Frank” she replied.

I will never forget the goosebumps that came all over me when she said it. I looked at her intensely.

“Why did you pick up this book?” I hesitated.

“Because of your lesson,” she replied casually. “I wanted to learn more about her.”

I still get a bit flustered and emotional when I think about it. I taught English for three years overseas, in Istanbul, Turkey. That place, for a history nerd like myself, is truly one of the most mindblowing cities in the world. But when I first started teaching there, it was hard. I will never forget the fear and terror in some of the students’ eyes when they first saw me, pointing and running because I was the first black person many of them had ever seen in person or interacted with. Yes, it stung a little.

When I realized many of my students knew a lot about Ataturk but nothing about other famous figures like Nelson Mandela or Anne Frank, something inside me would not settle for just teaching these kids a language. I began to slip little anecdotes about these figures into my lessons. Who says the passage we read about in a grammar lesson can’t be from Martin Luther King, Jr.?

But the problem was, I never knew if any of it mattered to them, until I saw Elif reading The Diary of Anne Frank.

Which brings me to the lesson my students taught me that I am most grateful for. The power of education and exposure. Seeing her read that book changed me. I was thrust into teaching overseas after other professions I desired didn’t quite pan out, and was lost in the work. Seeing Elif reading that book to learn more about Anne Frank in a society where people made anti-semitic comments in public on a regular basis meant my work mattered.

Educators from the New Jersey EdSurge Tech Leader Circle. Photo Credit: Marisa Kaplan

This week I talked with other educators who shared their powerful stories: Elaine Mendez (an instructional coach from Belleville Public Schools) and AJ Bianco (a 7th and 8th grade Social Studies teacher from Harrington Park School)—who learned to make mistakes and show off their nerdy sides.

Elaine Mendez: My first year teaching, I spelled a word wrong. A kid pointed it out. That's the day that I learned it's okay to make mistakes in front of the children and use it as teachable moments.

AJ Bianco: The one thing a student taught me was to be myself. Don't put up a front. Don't try to be somebody else. One of the things that the student appreciated about me was the fact that I let my nerd flag fly. I let out my comic book personality and my love of superheroes. It doesn't look like that's the kind of person I am, but when this student found out how much I love Superman and the Justice League, we connected. We bonded. For the three years, he was in school with me, he came to me for everything and helped me create a whole bunch of different clubs and classes. So I'm grateful for him for allowing me to be myself.

It was not only educators who shared what they learned from students at the Maker Depot in New Jersey. Both principals and one member of our EdSurge research team also had stories at the event. Marisa Kaplan (a research project manager from EdSurge and former special education teacher), Jennifer Wirt (a principal from Glen Rock Middle School), Erica Ripston (a 3rd grade teacher from Memorial Elementary School), and Daniel Borghoff (a middle school MakerSpace and STEM Design Teacher from Hackensack Middle School, learned how to get out of the way, and not judge themselves so harshly.

Marisa Kaplan: I spent 11 years in classrooms in New York City as a special-education teacher, an ELA teacher and an instructional coach. One of my early teaching jobs was as a special-education teacher in a first-grade inclusion class, and some of our students had motor impairments, used wheelchairs and walkers. Our classroom was designed well to support the needs of all of our students, and so was the rest of our school, but the outside world wasn't. That made things like play dates and field trips really tricky for some of our students. I remember one of my first graders was having a birthday party at a bowling alley, and he was inviting everybody in the class. His mom came in one morning a little bit teary-eyed and said that her son had asked her to make sure that the bowling alley was wheelchair accessible so that his best friend could come and bowl with him.

She told him that she was sure that it was, but that she'd call anyway to double-check. When she did, she found out that it actually wasn't accessible. Her son was devastated. They spent a lot of time talking about it, and they worked together to make a bunch of calls and eventually found a bowling alley that was accessible to all of his friends. They changed the location of the party. I remember her thanking me, like somehow I had taught her child to care about his best friend, but I told her that he was the real teacher in that moment. He was a real role model and we should all aim to be a little bit more like him when we grow up.

It might seem like a small action, but in that moment, a six-year-old taught us all a lot of lessons. He made a bunch of adults realize the need for universal design. He prompted his family to consider a set of needs they hadn't before, and he demanded equity for his friend. For me, the lesson I'm most grateful for is that he taught me that age doesn't matter when it comes to making a change, that young people can make a big change that really matters, too. I tried to keep that as a mantra every year moving forward in my classrooms, and it's a lesson that I'll always be grateful for.

Jen Wart: When I was an administrator, I had a student who had gotten in trouble for something. He had been in trouble a lot of times for a lot of different things. So I told him I would make a deal with him. He was a very good artist, and I told him if he brought me a picture he drew, that we would waive some of his detentions. Kind of an art-for-time situation. He's not the type of kid that'd follow through on anything, but the next day, he brought me a picture that he had drawn and said, "Here, I want to follow up." The fact that he was willing to do that was impressive and showed me that you can work with kids in different ways.

Erica Ripstin: When I was first teaching, I met a little boy who was a little insecure. When we were at a presentation, and he told me that he wanted to change himself and be better so that he could be more physically active. I could tell that he felt bad about himself, but I loved him exactly for who he was. He was kind to the other kids. He let them go first in line. He would share his snack. It didn't really matter to me or to the other kids what he looked like. That's when I knew that I wanted to teach my students how to treat each other and how important it is to be kind and caring and to see somebody else's perspective. He taught me that, and I think it was really amazing.

Dan Borgoff: I'm most grateful for my students telling me to get out of the way. When I first started out teaching technology, I would teach them the standard way of teaching, in steps. My students would get really bored really fast and not be into it.

Then, one day, I said, "All right, you know what? I don't know if you're really getting this." Then they told me, "We are. We just are getting it faster than you're giving it to us." So I told them, "All right, you teach me now. You tell me what you know."

They knew 10 times more than what I was teaching them, so I just sat back and said, "All right. I'm going to give you an end goal. You reach it." Then they replied, "Yeah, no problem. We already did that. How about we give you an end goal?"

Then they gave me an end goal, saying, "All right, we want to learn this really cool stuff. We want to learn how to do this. If you could just help us get there, that would be great."

Lead, follow, or get out of the way is really what it turned out to be. They were in charge. Now, when I teach, I've learned this from them. On the first day of school, I tell them straight out, "I'm not here to teach you. I'm here to facilitate your learning and making sure that you don't cut anything off. That's it. I'm giving you an end goal and the tools to get there, and it's your responsibility to get there on your own. If you need help, I'm here, but other than that, you're on your own.”

From Advocating to Letting Your Nerd Flag Fly, Educators Are Grateful For Lessons From Students published first on http://ift.tt/2x05DG9

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