#i went to a 90s country themed drag show once and it was one of my favorite nights in the city probably ever | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tirednotflirting · 3 years

Text

when you're next to me and the music's loud

i joined the crew of people who wrote like, love letter fics to their city (though i will be back to do it again bc i’m a romantic about this place lol). so here is jalex in austin !

title and inspo from the ungodly number of times i listened to don’t come down by the maine. thank you to literally rian dawson on a podcast for getting me to sit down and finally listen to all of lovely little lonely lol

i don’t mention the name of specific places for the sake of allowing you to kinda picture whatever you want while reading this thing but if you’re curious, the boys are seeing a show at this restaurant/venue called stubb’s (the indoor part of the venue which i’m not sure if they ever actually played but they DID play the outdoor bit in like 2011 or something).

feel free to come chat w me about austin or the couple of other places i halfway mention if you wanna. i love my city w my whole little heart and miss dancing and singing at shows

here it is on ao3

Watching Alex watch a show is probably Jack’s favorite view in the world.

He’s traveled around the world more times than he can keep track of at this point. Watched the sunrise over a few different oceans and sunsets over crowds of thousands singing along to words Alex scratched out into journals over a decade earlier. He’s watched meteor showers and solar eclipses and yet none of them hold a candle to the smile he can see on Alex’s face as he looks back at him from the crowd in this tiny, packed room.

He just barely catches the wink Alex throws in his direction before the bartender is tapping his shoulder to hand him his card back. Jack thanks her and weaves his way back through the crowd to Alex’s side. A lemon-vodka-flavored kiss is placed against the corner of his lips in thanks as Alex starts singing along to the song he’s somehow already learned the words to despite having never heard of this band before they started playing an hour earlier.

Jack knows he should be watching the band up on stage thirty or so feet in front of him but his attention just keeps getting pulled back to the boy next to him. To the way the blue and pink lights shine against Alex and paint his hair a bright purple (he makes the mental note to mention to him later that he should consider it next time he decides to dye his hair). To the way Alex bounces on his toes in the same way he does when up on stage himself. It’s always been one of Jack’s favorite parts about going to shows with Alex, the fact that he watches shows in the same way he performs one. It’s further evidence of how in sync he always is with the people who come to see them play.

It had been Alex’s idea to find a show to go to on their off night in the city. The venue’s website had no notice that tonight’s show was sold out so after dinner they wandered down the street and bought tickets at the door. Jack bought the tickets and Alex bought their first round (This is like a rock and roll version of dinner and movie, right?).

He closes his eyes for a moment then and takes a breath before bringing his drink to his lips again. Jack has always loved coming to Austin. He’s spent his entire life in love with live music. He loves the volume that leaves his ears ringing and bright lights and screaming along with singers from crowds. It’s always been his favorite part of being in a band, that he gets to help create those moments. Sometimes he forgets what it’s like from this end though. And this city always feels like the best place to come to for a reminder. The city always feels like it’s singing, like there’s music coming from every corner. It’s a different feeling from LA or Nashville or any other big, bright city. It feels more pure and alive but in an unpolished kind of way. Austin is what live music is meant to feel like.

“What’s going on up there?” Jack hears as Alex’s lips brush against his ear while tapping a finger against his forehead. He opens his eyes to the bright lights and blinks a few times so he can focus on the room before turning to let his eyes lock with Alex’s. Jack watches the stage lights flash in the dark brown of his irises, another view he should be so familiar with by now but still knocks him out every time. His free hand drops to wrap around Alex’s waist to pull him into his side and his cheeks warm at the laugh he receives in response though the music is loud enough he can’t hear it.

“Just happy. To be here, to be with you,” Jack leans in to say so he can be heard above the music. He watches Alex close his eyes and smile in the flashes of colored light coming from the stage and Jack returns the grin when he feels Alex lean more into his side and drop his head against Jack’s shoulder. He reaches for Jack’s free hand with his own and presses his lips against the back of it and Jack figures it says more than what he would likely be able to hear over the crowd and the music.

Jack knows it’s a ridiculously cheesy thought but there really is something so intimate about standing in the middle of a crowd with the person you love. He can hear the music, see the lights and the colorful crowd around them, taste the tequila on his tongue but his head is full of nothing but a static of Alex Alex Alex. As he’s gotten older, Jack found he was proud of himself for his ability to be more present as he moved about life and the world around him. But every once in a while his heart clouds up what’s in front of his eyes and the weight of his smiling, singing boy against his chest is the only thing in the world. It’s a peaceful feeling. For as long as he can remember, even when they were rowdy, screaming kids, Jack’s brain has always automatically associated Alex with peace. It’s something he’s been thankful for, to grow up in this wild world they created for themselves while holding the eye of the hurricane against his chest.

Alex lifts his head from Jack’s shoulder then and returns to shouting and jumping along with the crowd. The song comes to a close soon after and Jack wraps an arm around Alex’s middle to sway them back and forth as they listen to the singer introduce what is to be the final song of the night. He thanks the crowd and tells them to come out back to say hello after they pack up. Jack smiles fondly as he remembers hearing similar words from another lead singer in the same room nearly a decade earlier. He hopes the boy standing at stage right all those years ago would be proud of where he’s at now, playing to bigger rooms further downtown and holding the boy he loves against his chest. (A younger Jack would probably be most surprised that he’s drinking tequila though, if he’s being honest.)

“Where are we headed after this? Zack and Rian are asking if they can join,” Alex says into Jack’s ear to bring him back out of his nostalgia.

Jack drops his head to rest on Alex’s shoulder, his arms wrapping further around his middle. “Girl at the bar was recommending this other bar basically across the street. Said they have a food truck too if the boys are wanting food. I’ll drop the location for it when we’re heading out.” “Always one step ahead, aren’t you?”

“Only when playing tourist,” Jack laughs before turning to press his lips to Alex’s hair. He stands up straight then as the song starts and this time he instinctively starts jumping with the rest of the crowd as he recognizes the tune coming from the stage. Alex joins him and then they’re both bouncing and dancing around in the middle of the packed room, loudly singing to a chorus they both only barely know.

Soon enough, their eyes are sparkling as they laugh and try to catch their breath, the room already clearing out as the crowd heads for the merch booth and the bathrooms. Jack shoots the name of the bar to the group message while Alex spins around in circles while tying his flannel around his waist, bopping his head along and singing to a song that’s no longer playing. “Come on,” Jack says while pocketing his phone and reaching for Alex’s hand. “The food truck has chili fries.”

“God, I love you,” Alex says dazedly as they reach the stairs to take them back to the street level.

Jack laughs. “Because I know where to get chili fries at nearly midnight in downtown Austin?”

“For so many reasons, my love, but at this moment, yes. Because of the chili fries.”

“Alright, silly boy. Love you, too.”

And then they’re back outside and somehow the magic of the crowd and the band and the lights hasn’t faded as they head for the crosswalk. Jack is used to leaving a show and stepping back into a reality that just doesn’t feel as special as the energy of a show. Maybe that’s the most special part about Austin, that the entire city carries that magic in the gentle breeze blowing under the hem of his t-shirt. He’s turning to Alex as they cross the street to describe the feeling to him and see if he even understands what he means, when the grip Alex has on Jack’s hand tightens momentarily.

“I can feel it, too.”

Jack can only laugh in response, because of course Alex gets it. He always gets it. Later when they’re dancing around their hotel room, Alex will compare the feeling to something having to do with the formation of galaxies and exploding supernovas. Jack will smile and agree with every comparison Alex makes but when asked for his own, Jack will remember the weight against his chest during the show and the reflection of the city in dark brown eyes and give an answer with a more simple, four letter name.

#jalex #jalex fic #i am so so in love with this place and live music and i miss it all SO DAMN MUCH #that bar they go to has these super fun house drinks too like one of them has watermelon and rose water and they are So Damn Fun #i went to a 90s country themed drag show once and it was one of my favorite nights in the city probably ever

8 notes · View notes

chucklestheechidona · 4 years

Text

Freedom Fighters - An Unceremonious Death

For the love of god let them die

Look, I like the Freedom Fighters. More the reboot than the preboot, they have less baggage, but still, I respect what they did. But if you’ve read my other dumb things you also know I think Red Dwarf USA had a real chance of working, so maybe I’m just insane.

Either way, this whole Rally For Sally business has been going around and disturbing the usual culprits from their dens and I feel I should say something.

“The American Canon“

This is a stupid sentence and yet thrown around as you like. There is no American canon, there is just “The Canon” and “Non-canon.” Believe it or not, the people who make the product get to decide what’s done with it and what is canon.

If you made something and then in France they made an entirely different story with concepts and themes you didn’t want to explore, you’d be hesitant about including or acknowledging it. Same with Sega of Japan.

But then why did Sega allow this to be made?

Well, I think this needs a tad bit of history behind it.

We’re going to the 90′s

Denim was in, the future was here, everything in 2000′s would be chrome and the Y2k bug was on the horizon.

Ohno

But Sega of Japan had an issue. Their arcade machines were selling like nobody’s business but they wanted that sweet console piece of the pie, but had no winning mascot. Alex Kidd, unfortunately, wasn’t moving as many consoles as they had hoped, god knows not enough to rival Mario.

They needed something cool, something different, somethi- It’s Sonic. You know it is, I know it is, I ain’t dragging this on.

It did well enough in Japan, but Sega was focusing on international markets with this game. It had a somewhat universal design, helped by the basis being Felix and Mickey Mouse which were popular around the world, with catchy songs based on both Japanese and American releases from the past.

It was going to be a hit.

Or... was it?

Did they need to do more?

Well, Sega doesn’t just have Sega of Japan. It had SOE and SOA as well. Europe and America respectively. Others too I’m sure but my memory’s off.

SoA and SoJ had a somewhat shaky relationship with each other, but then again, so did other companies back then. It was a new foray into public relations. Japan built the consoles that actually sold, America had to sell them, but there was a big gap between the countries, how things were interpreted, different values, and let’s not forget, American pride and greed.

AMERICA in the 90′s

SOJ needed this thing to sell big. Sonic was going to be a global success if they could help it. And let’s be honest, it was.

America had it’s own plans on what Sonic should be, and SOJ actually listened to some of them. Madeline Schroeder, product manager at the time for Sega in the US, actually went to Japan to say what she thought Sonic would be. As of this, they removed Madonna and Sonic’s tie-in with a band, as well as changing certain design traits in the US because “Sonic looked too Japanese.“

And then had the gall to call herself the “Mother Of Sonic”

Again, in a world where shitting on other people’s culture is a big no-no, and for good reason, how that managed to be fine is insane.

It’s a Japanese fucking product, Madeline.

Alongside this, as SOA hadn’t had much access to the Japanese backstories (although, the manuals should have been fine enough), when it came to marketing the games as an ongoing story (and ready in time for the cartoons they wanted to push) SOA made their own Sonic Bible, for use outside of non-Japanese territories.

This would have the seeds of what most people know, Freedom Fighters, Eggman once being good, Sonic being part of the good fight, etc.

[Astoundingly, when they made the cartoons and everything, Fleetway would be the one to actually stick closer to this than Archie/Satam/Underground/Aosth ever did so who’s talking about canon now huh]

Japan didn’t really notice nor take heed. One could make a good case for their complete obliviousness to what SOA was doing. You can tell because absolutely nothing from the bible/comics/magazine ever appeared in a Japanese Sonic game. Spinball was Sega Technical Institute, an American Division. Not Sega of Japan.

On top of this, as I see a bunch of people who go “Sega is disrespecting the American canon”, interesting fact. In Europe and Japan, the manual for Sonic CD clearly states Amy Rose is in the game. Sega of America actually edited this to say Sally, despite not going through and changing the sprites. If that’s not disrespect towards the creators of the games I don’t know what is.

The Canon

The problem I find with this is that, let’s be honest, if we had to look at this from an objective viewpoint:

Japan released a game.

America sought to profit off it, but didn’t like it was very much Japanese, not American.

They changed the story to be more American themed, changed the art design to look more American drawn, and ignored the Japanese additions to the games by editing out the Japanese characters in the manuals.

Because they wanted to profit off a different culture’s work by changing it wholesale so it didn’t resemble the culture it came from.

Nothing about SatAm’s premise or creation says anything about the original material it came from, just heavily adapted without any input from it’s creators to resemble a more American product.

You know how Japan saw Sonic?

This cute lad who acted more like a cartoon Felix the Cat type figure.

Now I get it, especially in the 90′s, everyone was localising. The markets weren’t as much the same, god knows they gave Ratchet attack eyebrows to be appealing etc.

But this was so anti-Japanese that the fact they were profiting at all from a Japanese product is insane.

Adventure

Back in Japan in the 90′s, they didn’t really have much of an idea what they were doing with the canon. They had plans but they seemed to be not as stable as they would have liked. The amount of games they were pumping out with different Eggman attacks and characters and if the GG games fit in with the MD games-

They needed something a bit more stable.

So when it was their time for their biggest game yet, they started to reign things in. In Japan. In Europe.

In America.

Sonic Adventure would be the basis for the stories for the next decade or so, with some revisions on what came before, what was mainline, what have you.

At this point, SOA’s cartoons had all died and the only thing remaining in the Sonic canon from that time was the Archie comic, still ongoing. But yet America still pulled this stuff off.

In the original script, Eggman is still Eggman. None of this “I AM DOCTOR ROBOTNIK, GENIUS OF THE WORLD” schtick.

No changing the manuals this time at least, so they’re getting better.

Over time, the only surviving things to come out of the canon, which Sega was nice enough to do considering, was

- Chilli-dogs - I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG - Robotnik being Maria’s surname

Didn’t you have something to say about the Freedom Fighters?

Why yes I do.

So, the Freedom Fighters for me, as much as I like them as , represent an American centrism. Not only was America not a Sega dominated market, for Nintendo did better and Europe was buying Sega consoles like candy, but the characters and show weren’t that popular outside the country anyway.

Ask someone in Europe in the 90′s who Sally Acorn was and unless they had access to a specific channel they wouldn’t have the first idea. Amy Rose, for sure, she was in the games.

I didn’t know who Sally was until Mega Collection Plus came out, and the UK STILL manages to get Sonic games in the top of the charts when they come out.

Aosth was shown more abroad with more appeal, the comics weren’t sold internationally, let alone in Japan.

To be all “But these characters cemented the Western fanbase” is mental.

The comics sold somewhere in the tens of thousands in their hey-day. At the same time, Sonic games were selling millions. The comic and show are so old that unless you were part of the 20,000 buying the comics recently or pirated them, you don’t even know who they are.

Fleetway was the only Sonic comic we got in the UK, and there’s more fans that have grown up with Sonic Adventure being the basis which had absolutely no inspiration from the Western products.

These characters are relics of America taking the mick out of a Japanese product in order to make more money and produce shows.

To say they’ve made a big impact on Sonic in the world is really stretching it.

F.A.Q

But you said you liked the FF’s!

I do, but in the same way I like AU’s. It was interesting, of it’s time and it said a lot about the culture it was made in. Like, comparable to Tails gets Trolled or Fleetway

B-but I really like the FF’s!

Good for you, don’t let me stop you. Again, I like a bunch of the stories.

Are you a Japanese purist?

Fleetway is cool and I liked the Boom show, and I liked Robotnik better than Eggman as a name.

I heard that some Japanese fans actually liked the FF’s though...

And more power to them. Again, Red Dwarf USA does a lot to shit on what made the UK version so good but I respect what it tried to do. Again, even I like the FF’s to an extent.

Why did you write this all out?

Seeing all this Rally for Sally has brought out all the insane people who shout at SOJ for being gits for not respecting the American canon despite the American canon being born from a disrespect to the Japanese creators.

What about IDW?

Ironically I actually liked Reboot more but also I was younger when I read them.

What do you think of Tangle and Whisper getting in?

I need to read more of IDW but they’re good enough. As for getting in the games, these designs were vetted and passed through SOJ first and the comic is overseen by them. On top of this, T+W don’t come from a place of SOA taking the mick.

But Sega has used these characters before and ESTABLISHED this as canon why are they changing it now-

I see this a lot, usually with certain people. Dobson’s a good example of why this is stupid. When the Japanese revert changes made to characters like Mario/Zelda/Samus by the West, they didn’t radically change their personalities, they just reset them to what Japan intended.

Japan never intended for the FF’s, the three heavily contrasting cartoons and Knuckles is Jesus Christ Superstar.

They just reverted him back to the sole guy on Angel Island.

Do you think Sally should get in to Sonic Dash?

No more than I think Tekno or Sonia does. They’re old, irrelevant, gone. If they do get brought in for a cameo I’d be happy enough, I like dumb nods to non-canon things.

However, there are crazy people out there and you give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. Best to leave it.

Hotel?

#Sonic the hedgehog #Freedom Fighters #Sally Acorn #Rally4Sally #America #Japan #Hotel?#Trivago

2 notes · View notes

erhiem · 3 years

Link

For their SS22 collection, GmbH’s Benjamin Alexander Husby and Serhat Ik ask: What does ‘white’ dress mean? Written, which can be read as an unnecessarily incendiary question – ‘But I don’t see the color!!’ – An opposing jib of the post-identity era. Since ancient times, however, white fashion designers have seen the color. They have alienated and belittled other deemed wholes, filtering rich cultural heritage through myopic Western-centric approaches to create outfits suitable for anything other than racist cosplay. At all times, in fashion, at least, whiteness and its associated cultural capital have remained relatively immune to appropriation—until now, that is.

This season, the Berlin-based duo present White Noise, a body of work that evokes the archetypes of whiteness with elegance, humour, sensuality and wit. This creates a subtle undercurrent that runs through their AW21 collection – an investigation into how items such as jodhpurs and riding boots, Fair Isle knits and luxurious furs become coded as assets of a social environment – rich white posho, basically – and the subversive power of putting gray and black bodies in those clothes.

If the pair with subtlety backs their point and then slips under your radar, then, darling, you sure as hell won’t miss it anymore. The white typologies he studied are hardly esoteric—cropped, ruched knits styled with white double-zip-fly denim jodhpurs and calf-swaddling riding boots deliver the full polo-player fantasy, While the sweaters are unintentionally slung over tight shoulders, the poplin shirt tied across Daisy Duke’s front shows Tilly and Rosie watching the match from the sidelines. The clean denim look gives off a nostalgic, blue-jeans Americana air, blended neatly by baseball stripes, and sandy shirts worn with brown vegan leather trousers that call to mind a Midwestern sheriff. keep.

As you will probably have noticed from the description above, for all the seriousness of their chosen subject matter, Benjamin and Serhat’s work has a lightness—that is to say, it is steeped in satire and camp. The fundamentalists he invokes are, for all intents and purposes, very hysterical. Through them, however, they manage to parody the ethnographic strategies of white social institutions in a way that “almost drag, isn’t it,” Benjamin says. “It reminds me of this scene” Paris is burning where the category is ‘Town and Country’.”

Of course, GmbH does not in any way use fashion as a means of questioning, appropriating and destroying the cultural right of whiteness. Among the most notable people to do so in recent memory are the heroes of 90s hip-hop and R&B culture, who took on brands, looks and even clothing that once ‘aspirated’ white ideals. and made them his own—think Aaliyah and Destiny’s Child in Tommy Hilfiger, or Mary J. Blige’s iconic cut denim look. The collection’s closing chapter pays homage to this chapter in fashion history, a suit of denim and pastel faux-fur outerwear in the viral décolleté-bearing ‘Revenge Dress’ silhouette, which they launched last season, which Inspired the creation of GmbH’s Demi. clothing line.

That it’s given a collection with cerebral heft, but for all its cleverness, it doesn’t get lost in the concepts. The clothes we see emerging from the white haze in the presentation film directed by Matt Lambert are accessible and, above all, really fucking hot. Here, Benjamin and Serhat fill us in with the thoughts behind one of the standout menswear collections of the season so far.

So, white noise. Tell me about the title.

Benjamin Alexander Husby: It was partly inspired by this Don DeLillo book that I recently re-read. It touches on a lot of the volatile suburban themes surrounding death and the mediocrity of everyday life, which now feel very connected to our lives. On a more thematic note, however, our collections have always been very responsive, reacting to how we felt and what was happening in the world over and over again. This time it was more about an interest in studying what whiteness and white culture really is. As BIPOCs, we constantly have to deal with our own brownness, our blackness – we have to constantly defend and investigate it – and white people don’t have that. They don’t need to think about whiteness cause it’s right are you there, it’s just supposed to be the default.

Serhat Isik: It’s an exploration that we actually started last season, but not many people picked up on the codes we were alluding to – horse riding, skiing and all these activities that, in general, are not well reserved. but are known to be part of upper-class white culture.

Bah: Yes, That Very WASPy, Country Club Fantasy

and: Somehow, it wasn’t really clear enough for people, so this season is basically making it clear to us! GmbH as a project has always been about freeing our minds from colonization through fashion and in collaboration with our community. We’ve always been expected to describe our own cultures – and that’s a big part of what we do and what we’ve done so far. But the culture we are looking for here is what we were born in, and yet it has always been said that we are not a part of it. We wanted to find out what it looked like for a brand like GmbH to flip things over and suit white culture.

Bah: However, it’s important to say that it’s done with a bit of twisted humour. And also it’s not just about whiteness – trying to understand the tropes and archetypes of this American Dream ideal of white culture was our starting point, but then we went back to something we were always interested in – Exploring how brown and black people have historically appropriated or distorted white culture. It was pretty obvious to grow up in the 90s, it became a very influential thing in music culture, for example

Yep, there’s a switch around Look 20 where it started to remind me a little bit of Janet Jackson and Mary J Blige. But what got you interested in knowing how those kinds of figures are associated with whiteness in the ’90s next to the wealthy white fanatics we see before?

and: For me, it was really about shifting the narrative. Working in the post-identity era, I feel like there’s so much noise out there that I almost wanted to step back for a moment and focus on doing something there that was before we started GmbH. Get out of the conversation. We always say that fashion is a tool we use to raise awareness or talk about things we want to talk about, so we need a moment to regroup and rethink. How can we do it without doing the same thing. This is what drew me personally to continue researching the topic and really turn it around. Even if someone came along and said, “Oh, now they’re enforcing white culture?!”, that’s already a different conversation, and it’s the one I’m interested in hearing because It plays. I instead say, ‘They’re celebrating their culture! I love Middle Eastern patterns!’, because that’s what’s always expected of us. And it’s beautiful, sure, but now, let’s fuck things up!

Bah: I think we are all tired of constantly battling with our identities.

and: There is also a point that I get bored with it. It’s almost like we’re hoping to play into this narrative of introducing one Middle Eastern, quirky-inspired collection after another. But now we’re saying: No — let’s talk about you. Let’s talk about whiteness. Let’s talk about how we’re adapting to your culture, and see how you respond.

Bah: And if we talk about race and colour, one thing has to be acknowledged that we did not name ourselves ‘Brown’ or ‘Black’. This nomenclature is the product of a white colonial culture – so maybe whiteness is the problem. Maybe that’s what we need to understand and explore.

Here you do this by looking at the white typology, but you do it with a fairly light touch. Some of it is really camp – there’s the reality of varsity polo matches, baseball players, cowboys, Daisy Dukes… What drew you to the specific ideals you sought?

and: In some ways, it was because they were so obvious. And because codes are so important in what we do, especially codes that are used to oppress people of color, it’s also about investigating where the power lies. On another level, though, we just wanted to show everyone how we can make these archetypes really sexy in a way that might not be expected.

Another key feature of this season is your collaboration with queer Palestinian label Trashy Clothing. Tell us a little more about it and how you started working together.

BAH: It is run by Shukri Lawrence and Omar Brika, two Palestinian people based in Jordan. They reached out to us a while back, and we started a conversation about doing something together. They’ve done a lot of research into Palestinian graphic design, both political and non-political, and we’ve decided it makes sense to do something on our show – for a very visible T-shirt called Free. is Palestine. The T-shirt is for charity, but I think it’s important to point out that this is not what Palestinians are primarily asking for; They are demanding solidarity and visibility, and their voices be heard. We realized that making a very simple statement at a fashion show was one of the ways we could help keep that conversation going. This is a very serious situation, and for the first time in my life, I feel that the mainstream narrative is changing. We want to continue that conversation and momentum, no matter what.

and: That’s what’s great about fashion, and that’s one of the things we love about it — there’s a banter to it, but it’s very immediate.

The post GmbH SS22 collection review – i-D appeared first on Spicy Celebrity News.

#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes

aion-rsa · 5 years

Text

The Tenth Girl Exclusive Trailer Reveal & Author Interview

https://ift.tt/2Zv6bD8

Get a sneak peek at The Tenth Girl, a gothic psychological horror debut teeming with originality.

facebook

twitter

tumblr

Out on September 24th, The Tenth Girl is the perfect read for the fall season and beyond. The story follows Mavi, an Argentine teen who flees 1970s Buenos Aires and the military regime that took her mother for a remote girls boarding school located on a remote cliff in Patagonia, at the very southern tip of South America where she has been hired to teach English to the school's elite pupils.

Spooky context? Vaccaro School is haunted, supposedly cursed by the indigenous people whose land the European colonizers stole and built the school on. When Mavi realizes one of her students, the tenth girl, is missing, and students and staff begin to behave like they are possessed, Mavi must solve the mystery of what's happening at Vaccaro before it is too late.

The Tenth Girl is one part Jane Eyre, one part The Haunting of Hill House, and all parts original, with a twist that you will not see coming. It is deeply inspired by Gothic horror fiction that has come before and by debut author Sara Faring's own family history, but is something entirely new. We are so pleased to be able to debut exclusively the trailer for The Tenth Girl, which hopefully gives you an idea of just how perfect this book is for the upcoming Halloween season...

Den of Geek also had the chance to talk to Faring about creating this vivid, immersive, and utterly original world for The Tenth Girl. Here's what she told us...

There are so many vividly-realized elements to this book. I'm curious if there was a very clear place where it started, for example a character, setting, or idea?

You know, actually I, this book sort of came to me when I was on a trip with all of the female relatives in my family on the Argentine side. We went to Paris of all places to celebrate my grandmother's 85th birthday. One of my cousins is a psychotherapist, which is, in Argentina it's the country with the most psychotherapists per capita. Anyway, fun fact!

And so, one night, she led us in this hypnotherapy group session, which sounds so strange and it was, kind of. It felt like a seance. And we started to share stories from our families' spoken history, I guess you'd say. And I started to hear about the stories I'd never heard from Argentina in the 70s and the era of the military regime there. And, after that, I became obsessed with learning everything I could about this time period, about my family's experience in Argentina for the past century or so. And this book blossomed out of that.

How long ago was that?

It was five years ago because this October we're celebrating my grandmother's 90th birthday.

Oh, that's so cool.

She's one of those people who, even though she's turning 90, will dance until 6:00 am and get angry at anyone who doesn't.

Wow. She sounds amazing.

Yeah, she's pretty incredible.

So besides that, I did have an idea of the twists in my head when I started writing. So I wanted to explore what it meant to be human, which sounds really over the top, but the reason I love speculative books is because I love books that help me view life with a fresh astonishment, you know? That will make me re-examine the human experience with mind-bending thoughts. I think writing is a great way for me to honor my family history in Argentina and also explore these themes that I love reading about and watching [in TV shows].

This is a YA book, but I feel like it is on the cusp of it being an adult book. I'm curious why you wanted to make it a YA book or where that decision came from.

Yeah, no, good question. I do think that when I was writing this book, I gave some thought to why I wanted to write in general and, when I was younger, books just, they, it sounds cheesy and it is, but they completely changed my life. They were my best friends. They were a way for me to explore my place in the world, to learn, to discover new corners inside myself.

So I knew that I wanted to have a younger protagonist, a teenage protagonist who was coming to terms with who she was and what it meant to be an independent person now that she's no longer with her mother and is kind of going off into the world on her own. That's always just been a really compelling stage for me and I'm sure as I get older that'll change.

But I love exploring that, the mindset of someone who is 17, 18 and I loved reading about that when I was even younger than 17, 18. I think, even when I was like 14, I loved reading about protagonists who were kind of on that cusp, you know, that stage of their life. For me, books made me feel like I wasn't alone when I was teenager. And I just knew I wanted to write for people that age.

And I do think you're right, this book hopefully will appeal to younger people and older people, but I couldn't be happier that it's coming out as a young adult book for many reasons. I'm sure you also know just how passionate and engaged YA readers are which is just unbelievable. I mean it's extraordinary. Yesterday, a blogger posted a photo of how she'd painted my cover on her leg. It was beautiful. It was more beautiful than my cover.

You have two main perspective characters in this book and I'm curious if one of them came first and why you felt it was important to have both Mavi and Angel's points of view and telling this story?

Yeah, so I would say I knew I always needed to have both because, frankly, when I read books, I love for there to be reveals happening throughout. I love to feel like I'm being led into some secret, and I wanted there to be this tension between the two points of view and the information we're getting from each side. And I also just always thought it would be a lot of fun to see Vaccaro School from both perspectives: the perspective of a teacher who's brand new and views it as one thing and the perspective of a... I don't even know how to speak about Angel in an interview. It gets juicy really fast. From the perspective of someone who is working through pain with humor and is using the house in a very different way, I would say.

And it, to be honest, it was also really fun to write a book in two very different voices. And I know I always wanted Mavi's to feel like a nod to the traditional Gothic works of fiction and then we could have Angel's voice—which would be completely disorienting—have these bits of dark humor and pop culture references and feel sometimes goofy and bizarre.

For me, when you're exploring dark themes, it is just such a breath of fresh air to have injections of humor throughout. So, yeah, they both came about at the same time. I did rewrite Angel's part many times because I wanted to get the tone right because it was easy to fall into a sort of melancholy spiral, if you will, [with that character].

Well you did such a good job distinguishing their voices. I definitely got the Gothic themes from Mavi. From the very beginning, I was like, 'This reminds me of Jane Eyre and other classics,' and then to also have Angel just like dropping like Harry Potter references... They felt very distinct and that is so important I think especially when you see the same events more than once from different perspectives. It can be very hard to do in a way that doesn't feel redundant, but you do a really good job of making that interesting.

Oh my gosh, I am so delighted to hear that, I'm so thrilled. Yeah. I ... because that's something I kind of privately nerd out over, you know, the multi-perspective. But you're right, it can, it can drag, so, you never know.

Obviously, this book was so inspired by your mother's side of the family and you've mentioned also that your grandmother is still alive and very engaged with things. I'm curious if they've had a chance to read the book and also if they gave you specific like feedback or details on, you know, the 1970s Argentinian setting because they were there so that's obviously a great resource.

No, it's funny you say that because, so almost all of them read an early draft and I was getting feedback from my grandmother and from my mother saying, 'Oh, you know, actually like this one sensory detail of this one story you inserted, that to anyone else would have been like...' OK, we don't need to get in the weeds on that. They were like, no, this is wrong. Like the pavement smelled like this...

Anyway, so I received a lot of that or like the detail of... there's a story in the book, an anecdote about a young man who has a molar filled with poison that he bites down on and that's a real story of a family friend. So I wanted to make sure that, even though the context is fictional, it honored their memory of the situation.

And, beyond that, I'm very proud to report that... Even though, especially with the twist, it was not necessarily all of my family members ideal genre if that makes sense—not that I like to ascribe genre labels to anything, but I think with the twist, you know, you, it definitely appeals to a certain kind of reader and may be slightly jarring, hopefully in an interesting way to another type of reader—they loved it.

But they also saw how much I layered in from all of our lives. It's actually kind of funny when family members read books. I did get a few reactions where they're like, 'Oh, you're just this character, right?' And I'm like, no, that's not how it works.

So you do such a wonderful job constructing the setting of the school. And I'm curious if there were either real world buildings and or fictional buildings that served as inspiration for the school?

There is a building in Buenos Aires, in Recoleta, which is like this posh neighborhood, and it is an abandoned mansion. It's just... it's ridiculous. This building is amazing and there's just nothing being done with it and it's falling into disrepair and it's totally derelict. And it's on a really busy, posh street. So that did inspire some of the aesthetic.

But I just love building Gothic atmosphere. It's one of my favorite things in anything I write: the gloomy, the spooky, the grand, the forgotten, the abandoned. I love that. So that was always sort of simmering in my brain and my imagination for years. But, in Patagonia, I'll be honest, I haven't found a building like Vaccaro School.

Yet.

Yet. Yeah, I went last October again, looked for one, couldn't find one, but I'm going to try again. I'm going to try again this year, so...

And you'll have lots of readers to help out soon.

Yeah, I hope so. Right? I've already gotten some cool photos that people have sent me. Like, 'Oh, is this like Vaccaro School in this country?' Including a cliff mansion in Slovenia, which was pretty amazing.

Do you think about how readers in Argentina will respond to this book perhaps differently from readers in other places who don't know as much about the setting and the time period?

Well, I didn't grow up in Argentina. I went very often, my family, you know, half my family lives there. But, while I was writing this, I was very aware of the fact that not only did I not grow up there, but I didn't live through this time period. So I'm relying on my family members' very specific perspective on it. And I tried to deepen that and also to explore other perspectives on it by interviewing other people down there, doing a lot of research.

But, ultimately, I wasn't looking to obviously create any kind of, I'm not going to say exhaustive, but any detailed reflection of what that time period was like. I really just wanted to draw, especially for young adults, younger American audiences' attention to this period of time there, especially because with so much going on now, we can forget history, especially outside of the States. And there are many interesting parallels, at least to me, in what's happened in Argentina and other parts of the world and what's happening right now.

Without going further down that path, I just really wanted to draw attention to this time period, which even as someone growing up in California with Argentine parents and family, I knew not enough about. And it's been really exciting for me to see this book go out into the world and also to see other books of friends, especially other Latinx authors, who are putting out books about periods of history in their countries and their family's country that younger readers don't necessarily know that much about.

So I think it's a good way to, through an ideally compulsively-readable plot and characters you're invested in, pique interest in a time period that's not touched on very much in curriculums.

Yeah, well I definitely learned a lot and had a lot of fun, like stopping and Googling things to learn more about them.

Yay! Oh my gosh.

Yeah. So it's definitely not just a young person thing, obviously.

We've alluded to the big twist in this book, but there's a certain degree of mystery throughout. How did you decide on the pacing for when you would reveal certain things, especially the big plot twist?

Yes. Well, for me, it came down to rhythm and while, at first, I tried to use a more traditional structure, like a three-act structure. I tried at first to kind of loosely follow those kinds of structures, but I realized I had so much information and so many twists to handle because that's just how I like to read. So I wanted to write something that followed the same constant reveal structure. I went by rhythm, just intuitively.

Obviously, with a book of this length [editor's note: the book is 464 pages], you want to have enough [to keep people reading]. I think, even within the book, there are different kinds of twists and different kinds of reveals. So I had to be aware of the fact that what a kind of twist that was compelling for one reader, it might not for another and kind of lay them out so that there would be enough for each kind of reader. Because when you have something that, in my mind, does genre bend, you want to make sure that there's enough to appeal to different kinds of readers.

Yeah, definitely. And I think you're right with the length. I think you have to get a little bit more creative in terms of structure or like at least not following that traditional three act structure, which people like, you know, use and don't use in different ways.

Yeah. And it's almost fun to know how the structure works and then tried to subvert it. But it's funny because people, readers grow to expect those beats sometimes. And, yeah, it's an interesting thing to think about because, for the most part, I'm writing just what I enjoy to write, which was a privilege to do and have it still sell, but I feel like, on some level, it's also interesting to be conscious of reader expectations when it comes to hitting beats when readers expect them. It's something I'm still thinking about. I do it in my second book.

And I think you're right about, you know, reader expectation. I think story consumers today are more literate than ever in storytelling. So that is something to think about, definitely.

Also, I've been interested recently in how, as TV becomes, I mean I guess it's cheesy, but like golden age of TV and as people are watching such incredible television, which has a very different structure in my mind over the course of a season to films or to books, how you can kind of use that as an author. And, sometimes, I feel like I'm writing books more as someone who loves TV than someone who loves movies, if that makes sense?

Yeah. I think I read books like that so I totally understand. Because I also think that this golden age of television is marked by a break in structure and a creativity in structure. So that is a cool inspiration to take from that medium and bring into another.

Yeah, I think that some of the books I'm most excited about now do that as well. So yeah, I think we're on the cusp of something special or maybe we're well in it and I'm just not, you know, well read.

Yeah. It's hard to tell from the inside.

Yeah, exactly.

This book is such a good fall release. And was that like a discussion with your publisher and figuring out when the best release date would be for The Tenth Girl?

Yeah, it's funny because my editor knew immediately. Let me figure out when we like had our handshake deal... it was two years ago, basically. So she knew this was going to be the season, this is going to be the year. She immediately thought like the atmosphere is just the perfect thing for someone to curl up with on a stormy fall night. And I'm inclined to agree.

It's funny because the advance copies of this book had been going out over the summer and occasionally people will ask, 'Oh, you know, I received it. Should I read it on my beach vacation?' I'm like, 'Absolutely! Read it whenever you can.' But is it more fun to read on a stormy night? Yes. But, hopefully—I don't know where you're based—but, when it's a day like today, and it is so hot that you wish you could peel off your skin, it might be nice to retreat into a book where there's fog and storms and chills in the air.

I always like to ask people what stories they're really into right now, whether it's a book, a TV show, a movie, a comic book, whatever. What stories are you excited about as a fan?

I just blew through Euphoria on HBO. Which was really interesting to me and I'm still kind of working out my feelings about it, but I thought it was really kind of spectacular.

I haven't watched it yet, but it's definitely on my list.

It's, I'd be so curious. I'm curious to hear everyone's reaction to it, because. Let's see what else. Yeah, the structure is interesting how at the beginning of each episode it kind of gives you a little short and sweet or not sweet, I should say, but backstory on each of the characters you've been following and then it goes back into the kind of main narrative, which is interesting.

Besides that, I'm reading this book called The Need by Helen Philips. It's very difficult to describe. Basically it opens on this, on this mother who, I don't know if that's a spoiler or not, on this mother who like sees an intruder in her house and the intruder ends up being her. But from a different universe, kind of. And then at the same time, she's a paleobotanist. And she finds a Bible with she as the God pronoun, yeah. Anyway. Clearly it's almost impossible to describe, but it's very bizarre and unsettling and different and we'll see where it goes.

And then beside that a book I love, which you might've had on your list, but I don't know, is The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante. It's A YA book, basically about if human beings can physically take on another's grief, it's so much more than that. That's just like the speculative hook, I guess. And it packs a punch.

Yeah. That's pretty much what I have going. Besides that, I watch a disgusting amount of reality TV right now because I'm trying to get my brain off of everything.

Yeah, I do that too. I'm just like, I can't write about this for work, so I'm just going to watch this thing.

Exactly.

Well thank you so much for chatting with me today. This was so much fun.

Thank you. This was such a treat.

The Tenth Girl will be published on September 24th and is now available to pre-order via Macmillan. You can follow Sara Faring on Instagram and Twitter.

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

facebook

twitter

tumblr

Interview Kayti Burt

Aug 26, 2019

Horror

from Books https://ift.tt/30Dc0eS

#aion-rsa #Books

0 notes

furederiko · 7 years

Video

youtube

♪ I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy. To be calm when you've found something going on. But take your time, think a lot. Why, think of everything you've got. For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not... ♫ (Cat Stevens - "Father and Son")

NOTE: I've tried to keep this review free of spoilers as best as I can. Nevertheless, it might still contains hints towards one, whether intentionally or not. So please proceed cautiously with that thought in mind.

When the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie was released three years ago (my oh my, how time flew by soooo fast!), it undeniably explored the story of self-proclaimed 'legendary outlaw' Star-Lord, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), and his poignant connection to his late loving mother Meredith (Laura Haddock). A bond so special, that eventually ended up leading him to discover 'a family', in form of his unlikely misfit-friends: assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who is trying to get out of her ruthless Mad Titan Father's shadow; savage slayers Drax (Dave Bautista) who's filled with vengeance for the lost of his wife and daughter; bounty hunter Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), who is a product of illegal animal experimentation; and his companion, the sentient plant Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), who is the last of his kind.

In "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2", the time has passed only a mere few months. But although the team is new, they have spent a good amount of time with one another for a while now. After saving the galaxy on Xandar, the Guardians of the Galaxy have become a household name under the protection of the Nova Corps. They've since accepted odd-jobs and the likes from various customer, and gained benefits from them in return. So one could hardly call them a 'mission'. LOL. During a death defying 'job' on the Sovereign, things turned sour between them and the planet's cold arrogant queen, Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki). An unexpected situation that forced them to be on the run from their fleet. But Peter soon has a bigger but personal thing he needed to solve: the arrival of an unexpected figure from the past. His father, namely Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell), who has returned to Peter's life, alongside his obedient empath-assistant, Mantis (Pom Klementieff).

Yes, as has been widely reported, the movie's theme was about Father and Son. But it went beyond that, because the bigger theme was really about family. Amidst all the irreverent and occasionally rather-raunchy-ish humor, the bright-colored galactic spectacle painted with eye-popping visuals, and the non-stop fun of actions and thrills, the centerpiece of the movie was none other than the characters themself. The various personalities, which we got to know even deeper and personal this time around. So when the first movie ended with the question of "Something good, something bad?"... the answer turned out to be, "A little bit of... personal". And that's where audience's opinions are likely to be divided.

"Vol. 2" was more concerned in focusing on character's story, and the relationships between each Guardians. Which might be the reason why it might not work with everyone. I've read in several outlets, that some, if not many, critics were calling this to be "plotless", or "doesn't feel as fresh as the first". To a certain extent, they did have a point. After all, to each their own, right? With that said, I sincerely think that people who has deep feelings for their family, whether in form of their parents, siblings, child, and others, would be able to relate to this movie a lot better. Why is that? As I said, this sequel focused more on personal character growths and developments. Thus we got to see what made Peter lost in words, what ticked off Gamora, what caused Drax to laugh uncontrollably, the true reason to Rocket's shenanigans, and how Baby Groot managed to steal the scene everytime he showed up. More than that, we got to see another side of Nebula (Karen Gillan), and also Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker) that we haven't seen before. In case you forgot, all of these characters were painted on a broad stroke the last time we saw them. So it's here that we finally got to see their 'true colors'. What their hearts were really whispering beneath those facades of bravado. We didn't even need Mantis help to figure that out.

Problem is, there are people who expected spectacles over feelings, and bigger bombastic action over subtle emotions. Perhaps because they thought drama is dull and boring? Who knows. Perhaps they are surprised when the characters they thought they knew, turns out to be not as good/bad as they might seem? It's a possibility, because accepting facts can be hard. What I'm trying to say is, this approach might not work for everyone. And that's why some people did not, or failed to get the point of the movie. In my personal opinion, it's instead these small heartfelt moments that were exceptionally meaningful in "Vol. 2". They were the ones that really matters, because it's the driving force behind the character's actions. In fact, if you're not at all moved by them and how they've become through the course of this movie, I don't even think I should consider you to be a good person. Then again, is it because these group of audience don't like it when a movie is retelling their own struggle and pain? Too afraid to admit the reality that it's a mirror of what they've been through? Hmmm...

Not saying the movie was perfect. Nope. Nothing is. Back in 2014, I said that one major issue in the first movie was its classic 'Lost in Translation' problem. This time, the sequel repeated itself in that department. A lot of those 80s to early 90s references were lost during my viewing, particularly to the younger audience who I presumed to be millenials. It didn't draw out genuine laughters from the crowd like it's supposed to. I could even properly attest to this, because I went to see it with a nephew (who's finally old enough to see it now), and some of the jokes went pass his head because he just didn't get it. Older audience (like yours truly... *cough cough*) who have been through that period, would easily have a blast, because they would know what the movie was talking about. It was obviously made worse for international audience as well, because their knowledge of the material would be limited at best. For example, our country was lucky enough to have seen "Knight Rider", so all the fun nods towards that action show made a lot of sense. But other bits like "Cheers"? Nope.

While the first movie was compact, swift, and tight, this sequel did drag on a bit during the 2nd arc. As I've pointed out, it focused more on drama, so clearly there'd be more intimate scenes filled with dialogues and exchanges. The kinds that challenged the strength of your heart, and tested your ability to hold back tears. Thus making you lost or distracted in a pool of emotion every now and then. The absence of several characters from the first movie was also felt, but you would discover plenty of other surprising characters in their place. Some looking familiar, some are not... and in a way, this ended up becoming an issue as well. These Marvel-related ones? I believe only those who are familiar enough with the comics would be able to understand. Even the actors who portrayed these amazing cameos, would not be familiar to a younger, modern eye. Last but not least, no matter how you see it, the movie is once again a space opera. Even if it takes more risks and goes even outlandishly geeky than before, those who are already not fond of the genre? I doubt they're going to like it.

If I have to (unfairly) compare it to other Marvel Cinematic Universe sequels, then this ranked slightly above "Avengers: Age of Ultron", but definitely not at the heights of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". It's indeed the funniest and most hillarious of them all, that's for sure. There were bits that did feel like "Age of Ultron", but I could see how this one would easily work better with audience, particularly general ones. In a way, "Vol 2" was basically the antithesis, the reverse scenario of "Captain America: Civil War". This is a character-driven movie that told a story of a family who became a much stronger unit, which was the exact opposite to what recently happened to the Avengers. Suffice to say, a different metaphor of a dysfunctional family. Which would make it more interesting when the two teams cross each other's path in "Avengers: Infinity War" next year.

When it comes to Marvel Studios movies, I don't think I can stop talking about it. So I need to exercise self-restraint, otherwise I might end up spoiling all the juicy details. With that said, I'm going to wrap off this review now. To be honest, I had a hard time wrapping my head around this movie the seconds I've finished seeing it, because it's... tough to put it into words. But afterwards, as I spent the time deep in thoughts, understanding about the core message of it all, I finally saw the light (literally too, because it was raining when we got out, so the sun was out! LOL). Yes, the movie had great action scenes that would thrill and entertain every audience young and old. Yes, it was colorful, whether in visual or comedy, with the risk of getting your face all exhausted due to changing expressions too much. But I won't get tired of repeating this over and over again: it's the roller coaster layers of emotions that truly counts. It's the character moments that would no doubt make you relate and connect to them, and probably react in a deeper personal manner. The exact element of 'sorcery' that Marvel Studios have been using to wow us all these years. The sequel is a great continuation that will let you know closer of these a-holes, as many of the questions left hanging in the first movie will be answered, probably in a surprising way too. If I can quote a particular sentence from a wonderfully-written review, "It's everything you want, but not what you expect".

This movie arrived 10 years after my Dad departed to the other side. Is that a coincidence? It might be so, but I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason, so I can almost see it as fate. Similar to Ego's situation with Peter, my Dad could be considered a workaholic, more occupied with work than his sons. Thus I'd always wished to spend more time with him. Which was why "Vol 2" hit me pretty hard, and felt undeniably very personal to me. As soon as I arrived home from the theatre, I asked my mom about a certain steel wristwatch. It was the one my Dad gave me when I was much younger, the one I would proudly wore everywhere I go. Mom kept this item all these years, eventhough it has stopped working for such a long time. I never did change the battery, because I've migrated to a new one, the one I bought with my own money back then. A proof of growing up, one might say. But now that I have it in my hand again, I'm going to make it work once more. And I'm going to proudly wear it again, because it's a symbol of a father's love for me. It's one of the simple things that reminded me, that despite his limited time with me, my Dad was there for me, and I was loved. James Gunn, Marvel Studios, and their small movie called "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" has helped reminded me about this crucial but forgotten fact. To rekindle myself with the respect and love to my Dad, because I would never come this far without the warmth of his presence. For that, I give them my deepest gratitude. With a sincere hope, that we will be treated with another emotional journey, when "Vol. 3" arrives a few years from now...

Overall Score: 8,3 out of 10 PS: True to Gunn's own word, there are FIVE mid/post credit scenes in this movie. Don't worry though, eventhough most are included just for fun, they are effectively placed so that staying through the end credit is actually FUN. Nope, I'm not kidding. I think this was the first time ever in the MCU, I've experienced that. There's one particular that would get you really excited for "Vol. 3". Also, you can even spot three special cameos during the roll! One from this movie, one from the first movie, and one from... upcoming Marvel Studios movie. Don't miss them out!

#movie #Marvel Studios #Guardians of the Galaxy #guardians of the galaxy vol. 2 #review #Just for Fun #melancholymoments #awesome #music

2 notes · View notes

newstechreviews · 4 years

Link

The author and poet Claudia Rankine witnessed the collective muted response after James Byrd Jr. was dragged to death along an asphalt road in Texas in 1998. She watched widespread resistance rise against the nascent Black Lives Matter movement in 2013 and 2014 following the murder of Trayvon Martin. Whenever she wrote books or essays about white privilege or racism, she expected to receive waves of denial or personal attacks, because she knew how white people deny white privilege and Black death.

So she was surprised when in late May, white people stormed the streets alongside people of color across the world to protest racial violence and injustice following the murder of George Floyd. “That was the most hope I’ve felt in a long time,” Rankine says in a phone interview. “I think we are suddenly seeing the same reality.”

Rankine’s life’s work has been driven by getting people to understand these grim realities. In searing works like Don’t Let Me Be Lonely and Citizen–which was a National Book Award finalist–she has explored how anti-Black racism has manifested in ways both mundane and tragic. For many years, it seemed as if Rankine was screaming into the void, laying bare a version of America that many people refused to accept. But Just Us, her new work of poetry, personal essays and historical documents, arrives into a changed climate, in which many people are finally coming to grips with uncomfortable truths.

Still, Rankine argues in the book that Americans have a long way to go toward understanding how deeply anti-Black racism is embedded into nearly every aspect of our society, from corporate culture to classrooms to even hair color. “It’s really a moment for us to slow down and understand that a white-supremacist orientation has determined almost everything in this country,” Rankine says. “For us to reroute, we have to ask more questions and really be uncomfortable.”

Rankine was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and immigrated at the age of 7 with her parents to the Bronx, where she says racism was palpable but mostly latent. While Rankine was an acclaimed poet in the early ’90s, her work took on increased urgency and focus after she learned of Byrd’s lynching: “I just thought, Who are these people we live among?” she says.

I first met her on a frigid day back in February, when the world was buzzing about as usual, and she was preparing for the premiere of her play Help at the Shed in Manhattan, which portrays fraught encounters with white men around the world. While I had many lofty questions prepared for her, Rankine initially just wanted to talk about my hair. I had recently dyed it bleach blond, inspired by Frank Ocean, BTS’s RM, and an unholy mixture of curiosity and boredom. Rankine, smirking slightly, took pictures of my desiccated strands, saying she had written an essay about “whether people consider blondness in terms of whiteness.”

I was startled by the sentence and, frankly, a little defensive. What did my dyeing my hair, on a whim and inspired by artists of color, have to do with whiteness or reinforcing racist systems?

I didn’t press the issue, and any chance for a follow-up conversation evaporated when COVID-19 quickly began spreading across the U.S. Help closed after two previews; Rankine went back home to New Haven, Conn., where she is a professor of poetry at Yale. She was staying at home–a previous bout with cancer made her a higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19–when in May, new videos showing threats or violence against Black people began to spread across the Internet. These videos were grief-inducing to Rankine. “For all of these deaths, you feel the same depth of devastation,” she says.

But she also recognized that they revealed, to a captive world, the array of indignities and dangers that Black people can face on a daily basis. “The Amy Cooper video was, to me, a real gift to society, with her performance of fear, her uses of civility,” she says. “I hope it gets taught in classes. This kind of white woman who weaponizes her fear in an attempt to have Black people murdered: we’ve seen it again and again.”

Over the next few months, Rankine watched in amazement as rhetoric about whiteness and racism that might have previously been perceived as radical now began to receive support in mainstream discourse. She celebrated as books about racism and antiracism, from Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility to Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist, surged to the top of the best-seller lists.

“White men and women are beginning to have a shared understanding and a shared vocabulary for what’s going on,” she says. “I don’t feel like I’m starting at the beginning in these conversations.” Despite this progress, however, Rankine knows that the country still has miles to go in terms of fully confronting its racist past, especially with a current leadership that often defends white supremacists. “For some people, it is a PR moment,” she says. “We’ll see whether people will follow up this initial response with more sustained inquiries and modes of shifting within their own organizations, corporations and institutions.”

Rankine hopes that Just Us will encourage readers to have these deeper and more difficult conversations. While she finished the book before the current moment of unrest, its themes have made it prescient. “I feel as if the book is addressing everything that lives below that,” she says of the pandemic and the protests. “The circumstances that Just Us addresses haven’t changed.”

The book includes uncomfortable vignettes from dinner parties, racist writings from Thomas Jefferson, and data elucidating the wealth gap between Black and white families. It shows how anti-Black racism haunts preschools, college campuses, police precincts and everywhere in between.

But the part of the book that struck me most was the essay on blondness that Rankine had mentioned months back. In it, she traces the preference for blondness, from Italian Renaissance writers through Nazi Germany through to the Trump family. She points out that many of the most famous blondes, from Marilyn Monroe to Princess Diana, weren’t actually natural blondes but were just following beauty standards.

“If white supremacy and anti-Black racism remain fundamental structural modes of violence by which countries continue to govern,” Rankine writes, “blondness might be one of our most passive and fluid modes of complicity. It points to white power and its values as desirable, whether the thought enters one’s head or not.”

Reading the chapter, my pitch-black roots having once again assumed control of my scalp, I felt a gut punch. So many seemingly trivial matters are tied to centuries of oppression–and all of us as individuals are complicit in many of those systems.

But for Rankine, the point isn’t so-called cancellation, but interrogation and growth. When I mention my shame to her, she laughs it off and then widens the scope of the conversation. “Do whatever you want,” she says. “But one of the things I’m trying to say in Just Us is there is a history behind all of our decisions–and we should make them with the full consciousness of what that history is.”

#Blogger

0 notes

awkwardlyamusing-blog · 5 years

Text

Weekday top 5: Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival changing name, Auburn drug bust, Auburn food truck wins prize | Local News

New Post has been published on http://doggietrainingclasses.com/weekday-top-5-finger-lakes-musical-theatre-festival-changing-name-auburn-drug-bust-auburn-food-truck-wins-prize-local-news/

Weekday top 5: Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival changing name, Auburn drug bust, Auburn food truck wins prize | Local News

Soft training: Union Springs man raises service dogs for children with autism

For Fred Horning, training emotional support dogs is about desensitizing them to everything except harsh behavior.

“We’re much more focused on the behavior than we are the obedience,” he said.

Horning takes the five or six puppies in his care on road trips to Boston and the docks of New York City to expose them to the crashing of shipping crates. However, he makes sure to train them “soft,” without using a loud voice. That’s because Horning’s service dogs will be paired with children with autism, and the dogs need to be emotionally sensitive enough to reflect what the children feel.

“You can tell what the child’s going through by how the dog is. If the dog’s happy and boisterous, it’s a pretty good indication that the child is OK,” Horning said.

He breeds chocolate Labs at his farm in Union Springs every two years, and picks two out of every litter to train as service dogs for children with autism — which comes at no cost to the families. Horning said he works with an organization called Paws 4 Ability that chooses the children who receive the service dogs.

Horning chose chocolate Labs for their easy-going and nonthreatening nature, as opposed to another common service dog: German shepherds.

“There’s almost no perceived threat to a Lab. So when you give someone a service dog that already has social anxiety, giving them a dog that keeps people away is not really a way to fix or counteract that social anxiety,” he said.

Horning also tries to gradually breed his dogs to be smaller to better accommodate the families, and so the dogs can accompany the children in smaller spaces like planes.

The first thing Horning does to train his puppies is put them in a car to go on long rides, and bring along his four adult Labs to demonstrate calm behavior. The puppies also learn to track scents if their child ever goes missing, show their teeth with a disguised command if the child ever feels threatened, and bark at the scent of human urine.

Another part of the desensitization training involves hanging around a couple of barber shops in Syracuse so the dogs can get used to all kinds of physical, racial and cultural diversity.

“It’s very easy to raise a pup in your little nucleus of your world, and then the pup freaks out when it sees somebody that’s over six-and-a-half-foot tall or somebody that wears a western cowboy hat or somebody whose skin’s a different color,” Horning said.

He’ll also put the dogs in the bed of his truck and take them around Auburn, where he often hears strangers’ stories about their own dogs: “They relay a story about loss or they relay a story about life, and I’ve gotten very good at redirecting people’s sorrow,” he said.

One of the dogs in the pack, T.J., is Horning’s own PTSD service animal. Horning was electrocuted 13 years ago while on the job repairing telephone lines, and sounds of crackling and popping bring back traumatic memories. “I spent an unbelievable amount of time in a hospital bed, in my head,” he said.

But, once he got home, Horning’s dogs didn’t care about the physical changes that impacted his own sense of identity. He then went on to train PTSD service dogs before switching to his current training for children with autism.

“I have a quote on my fridge and it says, ‘The meaning of life is to find your gift, and the purpose of life is to give it away,'” he said. “And that has been probably 90 to 95 percent of the driving reason why I do this. I want to know that I make a difference.”

Autism dogs 5