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365days365movies · 3 years

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May 6, 2021: The Martian (2015) (Recap: Part One)

We’re leaving lo-fi sci-fi, people. Kind of.

I mentioned before that films like Her are what I define as “lo-fi sci-fi”, which is a category that I’ve kind of made up. Basically, it’s the science fiction version of low fantasy, meaning it contains science fiction themes contained within an otherwise contemporary setting. In the case of Her, Joaquin Phoenix’s character, along with many others, live in a world and setting basically like ours, but with technology advanced enough to generate AIs (like Siri) that are intelligent enough to actually ascend our reality. Because we live in a society.

You give me Joaquin Phoenix, I’m gonna make a Joker reference; it’s in the contract of my existence. Anyway, that is admittedly kind of broad, right? I mean, that has the capability of crossing over with a BUNCH of sci-fi genres and themes. And, considering that we’ve already seen magic, speculative technology, time travel, monsters, and artificial intelligence, we’ve already touched on quite a bit.

And with science fiction, the sky’s the limit. Literally. So, I think it behooves us to re-examine lo-fi sci-fi a little bit. Specifically, we should note that it can also be defined as an extension of currently existing technologies and possibilities. Writers would call this “speculative sci-fi”, assuming in this case that it’s set within the present or a near and attainable future. Her definitely fits in this category, as does Westworld. But, let’s crossover to another genre by speculating upon another possibility. And it begins with this man. Probably.

Hey, Elon, what’s up? Now, Mr. Musk here is a...controversial figure, for COMPLETELY understandable reasons. Instead of touch upon the man himself, I feel like touching upon one of his recent focuses: space travel. With SpaceX and the various upcoming space trips and journeys that they’re planning, Musk has made it clear that he plans to shoot to the Moon. Again, literally.

In fact, this full plan is to go even further than that, and to fuel potential commercial space flights in the future, which is admittedly very cool. And of course, if you’re going to shoot for the Moon...

Guys...guys, that’s Mars. THAT’S FUCKING MARS

Is that not amazing? We have sound and pictures from FUCKING MARS! THAT’S A DIFFERENT PLANET, GODDAMN IT! It’s cooler than I have the ability to properly express, but it IS goddamn cool. And this means that, easily within my lifetime, we could (and likely will) land on Mars. Which is amazing. God, I really want to see that happen.

And so, landing on Mars is BARELY science fiction, but since we haven’t yet done so...yeah, it’s fictional at the moment. And so, any film about landing on Mars falls within this category. Well...to an extent.

2000′s Mission to Mars, for example, was a Disney-funded film (to my IMMENSE surprise; and it’s based off of an old Disney World ride, WHAT), and a movie that I saw a LOT when I was a kid. I also barely remember it, to be honest. But that film is straight-up science fiction because of, well...aliens. The idea of Martians is, as far as we know it, fictional. And most fiction involving Mars includes these aliens somehow. Whether it’s DC Comics’ entire civilization of Martians, as seen in Justice League, Supergirl, or Young Justice...

...Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s heavily mythologized civilization, as seen in the Barsoom series of novels (and another Disney film)...

...Or one of the best Looney Tunes characters.

Mmm. Yes. Isn’t that lovely?

But, yeah, Mars and aliens go hand-in-hand in our media. So, to properly look at lo-fi science and speculative science fiction in relation to the Red Planet, we’ll need a movie that goes to the planet, and doesn’t touch upon the concept of aliens AT ALL.

Enter...Ridley Scott?

Yeah, the director of Legend, Alien, Thelma and Louise, Blade Runner, Gladiator. Also the director of Kingdom of Heaven, Prometheus, Exodus: Gods and Kings, and...ugh, 1492: Conquest of Paradise. I’ve talked about his mixed record before, in my Recap of Legend right here.

In 2014, he was brought on to adapt a book by Andy Weir called The Martian, which is a great book! I’ve listened to the audio book, and I whole-heartedly recommend doing that. And because of that, I am VERY MUCH looking forward to watching this film, especially seeing as it’s often called one of the best science fiction films made during that year, and was critically acclaimed then and now. It got seven Oscar nominations (although it won none of them), amongst other awards. So, enough navel-gazing, huh? The Martian!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

On Acidalia Plantitia, at the landing site of the Ares III mission, a group of scientists are gathering samples. These scientists are commander and geologist Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain), pilot Rick Martinez (Michael Pena), systems operator Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara), surgeon Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan), German chemist Alex Vogel (Aksel Hennie), and overly talkative botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon).

The group seems to have a good dynamic, but that dynamic is interrupted by a massive dust storm, which is large enough to cause the entire crew to evacuate. However, in the chaos of the dust storm, Mark is hit by debris and lost in the shuffle. Although Lewis goes back to find him, she can’t get to him before they need to leave, and Mark is believed dead. This is reported (pretty callously) by NASA Director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) to the press soon afterwards.

But of course, that wouldn’t be much of a movie, now would it? Mark’s alive! And Mark’s alone. With his suit damaged, and low on oxygen, he trudges back to headquarters, which is intact and still contains breathable oxygen. He gets inside, and realizes that he’s been stabbed in the abdomen by some debris. He removes it, and stitches up his own wound. Which is...god, it’s fucking BRUTAL just to think about, nevertheless watch.

Once he’s finished, he records a log for the future, if he doesn’t make it. It’s day 19 of the 31-day mission at this point, and Mark’s basically screwed. He needs lasting oxygen, water, and food, and he might need that for 4 years, when the next manned mission can come to the red planet. Additionally, he has absolutely no way to contact NASA, leaving him completely stranded. Another dust storm rolls in that night, and Mark looks over the belongings of his colleagues, packing them up for their eventual return. It’s somber, to say the least. However, Mark affirms that he’s determined not to die on the planet.

After doing the math, Mark should have enough food to last him for about 300 days, especially if he rations it. Until then, he’ll need to figure out how to grow his own food, on a planet where nothing grows. Which is, of course, going to be a difficult feat to accomplish. But Mark Watney’s a botanist with botany powers, and he’s gonna do it.

It’s day 31, and Mark’s brought in dirt from the outside, and uses the bio-waste from the crew’s stay there for a form of compost. After 5 days, mostly full of him watching Happy Days on TV and trying to farm, he realizes that he needs water, both for himself and for the soil. To do that, he goes chemical and decides to use hydrogen-laden rocket fuel, wood from Martinez’s belongings, and good old-fashioned fire to make water! And since hydrogen + oxygen = water, it should work. With a minor side-effect.

So, yeah, he blew himself up. As as he records a video log, the sound mixing makes itself impressively known by subtly and realistically generating a tinnitus sound. It’s VERY well-done, holy shit. Anyway, he makes a stable fire, and the place is soon covered in condensation, moistening the room and the soil successfully.

We get to day 54, and Mark’s planted leftover potatoes from the crew in order to grow them. And while he’s being mourned at a funeral on Earth, and in NASA, he’s seeing the fruits (or shoots) of his efforts.

Back on Earth, Mars Mission Director Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is trying to convince Director Teddy to let him lobby for another Ares mission, despite the risk of bad press for the callousness of the proximity to Watney’s death. Meanwhile, satellite technician Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis) looks down at the Ares III site, and realizes that the site has changed visually, meaning that Mark may actually be alive.

Shocked by this, she tells Kapoor, Teddy, and media director Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig) about this, and they realize the absolute clusterfuck that this whole thing is. They can’t tell the other members of the Ares III crew about it, because it’d devastate them for the 10 months they have to get back to Earth, at the VERY least. They can’t tell the WORLD about this, because they just had a funeral for the guy, and they’d reveal that they left him stranded on Mars accidentally, destroying faith in the Mars Missions Program. And they can’t save Mark, who they’re sure will starve eventually. It’s a mess. And Kapoor also wonders what’s happening to Mark psychologically through all of this.

And yet, they reveal this to the world regardless, causing the clusterfuck reaction that they think it’s going to cause. But Mark’s busy on Mars, figuring out how to get to the site of the next Ares IV mission in 4 years, at the Schiaparelli crater about 50 days travel away. This is a struggle, as his Rover has only so much power and fuel, and he can only get more power by cutting out the heater is risking death by freezing. So, problems. However, he figures out a potential solution: radioactive isotopes! In a move that is, let’s face it, COMPLETELY INSANE, he digs up a radioactive generator from the ship in order to heat the ship.

On Earth, they try to figure out Mark’s moves, as well as how to resupply Ares IV sooner for Mark’s benefit. This is with the director of JPL, Bruce Ng (Benedict Wong), and the flight director of the ship Hermes, Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean), who insists that they tell the Ares II crew. They continue to monitor Mark, and note that he’s been travelling for 17 days in his Rover towards something. Kapoor figures it out, and flies to California.

See, Mark needs a way to contact NASA, and he believes that the way to do so is through Pathfinder, the first probe ever sent to Mars in 1997, lasting for 9 months since landing until they lost contact. Mark digs it up, and the people at JPL in California start their own efforts for contact. And despite communication being extremely rudimentary, initially limited to yes/no questions that use a still-frame camera, it fucking WORKS! WHOO!

To boost this communication hurdle, the two camps figure out a hexadecimal system for communication, allowing them to communicate using a circular table of numbers that represent an alphabet. That allows them to teach Mark to hack into the Rover, allowing it to piggyback off of its broadcast signal and send them messages via keyboard. Nice! Now that communication is reasonably possible, Mark’s able to ask how the crew is handling his death. But upon learning that they haven’t told him. He’s understandably a little goddamn enraged. And so, they FINALLY tell the Ares III crew about this.

The news breaks the crew, even though Mark continues to stress that he’s all right, and that it wasn’t their fault. Meanwhile, Mark’s able to survive for 912 days with his potato plants, and things improve with the help of technicians on Earth. They plan to launch a supply rocket to him in the next year, and things are looking fine! Unless, of course...something goes horribly HORRIBLY wrong.

Well...fuck. Good place to pause for Part Two, then?

#the martian #ridley scott #matt damon #jessica chastain #kristen wiig #jeff daniels #sean bean #michael pena #chiwetel ejiofor #benedict wong #science fiction may #sci-fi may #user365 #365 movie challenge #365 movies 365 days #365 Days 365 Movies #365 movies a year #bookstofilm #whatelsecanwedonow

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deja-vux · 3 years

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Bandoleros-Ch.2 (Mingi’s POV)

Mingi x Reader x Yukhei StreetRacing/MafiaAU! Theme:How We Roll-Don Omar, Don’t Give a What-Itzy, Act a Fool-Ludacris Word Count:2,901 A/N:When I tell you the creative juices were flowing today this was originally suppose to be a chapter with Mingi and Lucas’s pov but i kinda got carried away so the next chapter will focus on Lucas’s point of view to give background before we get back to the story. Like always feedback is very much appreciated anyways hope you guys like it. Ch.1 / Ch.2 / Ch.3

~Earlier that day~

I walked into the crowded conference room taking a seat at the table as Director Reeves walked in with the senators and the governor as well the lights turning off as the projector came to life. Director Reeves took front and center to speak, “Over the last year, there has been an increase in drug trafficking in the area. The supplies coming in from Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. Although it was initially being snuck in through the border, the number of hand-off locations has been growing, including the port of Long Beach, an unknown location near LAX, and San Jose. We assume the following cases of highway heists are being pulled off by the same group of individuals as the M.O.s of each group are the same,” he spoke as he flipped through each of the slides.

“Three to six blacked out, unlicensed, and illegally modified Honda Civics,” I speak up knowing the details of the case all too well.

“That would be correct. The problem is they’re too good at what they do to the point where they leave no evidence so we have yet to find any suspects,” he said as the security footage of the latest heist from last week played, their faces and any form of identification unseen making the video useless to us.

“Well we do know who is supplying the drugs, Ernesto Galindo yet these guys seem like they’re stealing them instead of helping distribute them,” I interrupted stating what was ignored but obvious

“But why would nobodies want the shipments, know where to get them, and have the skill to successfully get the job done without fail? What do they plan to do with all those drugs? This has been going on for the past 2 years and it’s caused enough destruction I don't know how much longer we can keep this under wraps” the governor interrupted clearly annoyed from hearing the same information repeated over again.

“Because they aren’t nobodies. Clearly, they know what they’re doing and have trained for this. We know that over the last few years a group has reemerged to challenge the Galindo cartel. It is run by the son of the late Christian Bantol, Elijah Bantol, as they are looking to take back power. These guys could simply be muscle men for hire but if we take them down then we possibly take down Bantol and possibly Galindo as well.” the director optimistically stated.

“So how do we find them with no trail and no suspects” the governor retorted.

“Look at possible areas. Six months ago, my partner, Agent Sebastian Cordova went undercover to work for Bantol he’s the one who has been informing us about their plans to take over. While he’s been doing that we’ve noticed that SoCal more specifically the LA area has a big illegal drag racing community any big names that we could keep an eye out for, the more the better” I spoke up looking for any leads.

“I got those for you,” the local sheriff stated as he pulled out a stack of files filled with mugshots and criminal records placing them strategically on the center of the table spread out,” Young-ho “Johnny” Suh, Yuk-hei “Lucas” Wong, Vincent "Vince" O’Connor, and Mikayla Moreno are the more veteran drivers having a record dating all the way back to their early teens in middle school when they were caught boosting cars. They all served 2 years in juvenile detention. Most recently Lisa Manoban has been seen affiliated with them. She is the first female to join their crew since Mikayla was killed in a car accident turned hit and run 2 years ago. I had Miami PD send her record in once we caught her with Johnny four months ago speeding away from a race. Other than a few speeding tickets she has nothing illegal. She did have a possible murder charge which was later dropped after they found no evidence against her but she was near the scene of the crime and the case remains unsolved.”

“So she’s clean but dirty. Anyone else,” I speak up looking through each file.

“Exactly. There is one more but I’ve checked her record multiple times and she’s one hundred percent clean. No tickets, no illegal activity, not even a school suspension. Her name is Y/N Vicente said to be Wong’s new girlfriend.” he said dropping her file onto the table, “the only reason I keep her file in reach is because of who her parents were. Leo and Mia Vincente those 2 were street racing royalty back in the 90′s but dropped off the map back in the early 2000′s until they were found murdered in Rio leaving their daughter behind she was brought back to the states and custody was given to her grandmother, Mia’s mother. If anyone is involved its at least one of those four if not all of them,”

“Well, then I believe we have our suspects. Is that enough information for you Agent Song?” Director Reeves said as the room looked at me.

“More than enough. Thank you,” I replied.

“You go undercover starting tonight then. We were able to get the location of a meet up in Long Beach and I want you there. Meet up with Kim to choose your car.”

“Why are you sending a newb in it’s enough you sent his partner to go with Bantol. Other than the plan to take over he hasn’t sent us anything else how do we know we can trust either of them. Song’s record doesn't help him either” Agent Matthews retorted.

“What are you trying to say, Matthews?” I said shooting him a death glare.

“I'm saying that you’re no better than Wong and Suh. You’re scum just like them,” he spouted through gritted teeth

“Enough Matthews. Agent Song has reformed and rehabilitated himself, not to mention he’s been loyal to the force for the past 3 years since joining. We need to send someone who knows how the machine runs so unless you can assemble and restore a car and boast about its modifications you aren’t going. In fact, why don’t you tell me what car you’d choose if I did decide to send you” the director challenged raising an eyebrow at him.

“Why does it matter a car is a car I could probably race my Subaru and win” the sheriff laughed in his face not being able to contain himself.

“ No amount of mods legal or illegal could make that car run fast enough to beat anyone in a race, especially against those guys. Not only would you be a laughing stock you wouldn’t even get the chance to race. Agent Song please tell me you have a better option than your colleague here,” the sheriff said collecting himself.

“Any chance you guys have a Supra or a 240sx” I spoke leaning back in my chair.

“Not sure but I can definitely check. I have a good feeling about this guy Director Reeves I wish you the best of luck,” he said patting the director's back.

"You're gonna need it you have one month to get the job done," the governor warned.

~Present Time~

I pulled up to the warehouse parking my car and cutting the engine stepping out. I was greeted by a man around my height in a bomber jacket with black hair parted to the side, “Nice ride you got there you planning on racing newbie.”

Surprised he knew it was my first time attending a meet-up in the area I responded, “Yeah gotta make my name known somehow right?”

He laughed,” True that. If you're wondering everyone knows everyone around here so we know when there are visitors or newbs in town. I’m Seonghwa nice to meet you man,” he said holding his hand out to shake.

“Mingi, nice to meet you too,” I said shaking his hand.

“That over there is my friend Yunho,” he said pointing to the blonde man that was currently showing off the latest mods to his car to the growing crowd. Come on a race just started let me show you around while we wait for the next one,” he took me around the warehouse and the area surrounding it introducing me to people and telling me their significance in the community.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted Lucas talking with Vince before they walked back out the warehouse with the rest of the crowd that wasn’t busy getting drunk or shit faced as the increasing sound of roaring engines signaled that the current race was about to end. I followed Seonghwa’s lead as he met up with Yunho at the front of the crowd making a quick introduction between the two of us. I watched as Seonghwa took a giant wad of cash out of his pocket as we watched the first racer across the finish line in an RX7 the driver stepped out smiling. She was beautiful and I was distracted watching as Lucas walked over to her wrapping his arms around her and kissing her cheek before she returned the favor. For some reason, it lit a fire in me but a hand on my shoulder pulled me out of la-la land. I snapped out of it watching Seonghwa hand her and the other racers their share of the the prize money before turning to look at the owner of the hand Yunho shaking his head in warning. I stared in confusion, “I know what you’re thinking and I wouldn’t if I were you. Literally go for any girl you want here. Anyone except her, everyone knows that she’s Wong’s girl Y/N. Not to mention that group right there is basically royalty they’re the best of the best and no has been able to beat any of them in a race”

“Who says I can’t beat them,” I said liking the idea of a challenge.

“I wouldn't unless you have cash to spare cause you won’t. Even if you did she’s still off-limits,” Yunho continued.

“Not to mention she’s basically head over heels for him those two are inseparable unless they're racing. Be best if you keep your distance” Seonghwa added as he approached us with a man whose arm was wrapped around his shoulder, “San this is our new friend Mingi, Mingi this the idiot who keeps challenging Wong’s gang and losing every time our friend, San,” he said referring to the dark-haired man next to him.

“Hey practice makes perfect and you shouldn't be putting your two cents in Park considering you don’t race anymore,” he said playfully shoving his shoulder, “Anyways nice to meet can’t wait to see what you got.”

We shook hands as we continued our conversation heading back inside. So she was Y/N due to her record being clean the only picture of her that was on file was of her as a baby when she was found by the local police officials in Rio. What was a girl like her doing in a place like this. Although she looked and acted as if she belonged at the same time she seemed out of place like china ready to break at any moment. As I listened to them telling the story of how they all met and the accident that would cause Seonghwa to stop racing, occasionally turning my attention to Johnny and Lucas who were in separate areas of the warehouse. After a while, I got up offering to get more drinks to distract myself after seeing Lucas basically making out with Y/N. On my way back to the group someone bumped into me the beers in my hand falling to the floor breaking while theirs spilled all over them. The shorter man that I recognized from the files to be Vince grabbed my arm pulling me towards him as I tried to walk off. His glare deadly as he spoke, “Watch were you’re going loser or else you might get hurt.”

“If it’s you I’m against I think I’ll be fine,” I chuckled not caring much for the threat.

At that moment i felt a fist hit the side of my face. The people nearby immediately turning to watch as he laughed mocking me. Letting the anger take over i threw a punch back inciting a full-out brawl with him the crowd clearing away to make room for both of us to hash it out. The crowd grew as the commotion stirred as i was knocked to the ground. Not wanting to lose I turned the tables throwing him off me and continuing to throw punches until I felt two pairs of hands pull me off while two guys picked Vince up. Both of our hair messy and nostrils flaring, the only difference was the blood dripping out of his nose. Both of us tugging against our arm restraints to have at it again but failing to succeed. “You think you’re the shit dont you newbie. You and me race now all or nothing, car for car,” he growled and without hesitation, I accepted his challenge the crowd erupting into a roar of oohs and ahhs before we all start to head to our cars to pull them up to the finish line. Two other cars pull up next to me and Vince and we each hand our money to Seonghwa as he walks by to collect our fees. As he comes to me he leans down leveling his face with mine, “ You gotta be crazy for this man. Do you know who you messed with Vince is part of Wong’s crew you better pray to whatever god you believe in that you win this race,” he tapped my shoulder before going to collect money from the last driver and Lisa took her place front and center pointing to each car alternating between sides, “On my mark..get ready.. steady... go,” as soon as her right hand lifted in the air we were off.

I floored it hitting the gas pedal. I looked over to see Vince going to hit his NOS button and I rushed to press mine, the both of us speeding past the other two competitors as Vince and I were in a persistent neck and neck battle for first place. Just as I am about to pass him he slams the right side of his car against mine trying to hit the front end of my car and it starts to swerve I quickly take control back before using the second tank of NOS to speed past Vince blowing him and the rest of the competition by a good amount of distance taking the last turn but for me that wasn’t enough. I needed to do something to really bruise his ego. I turned the car 180 facing Vince and I switched gears putting the car in reverse with no delay and began speeding down the rest of the road while sticking my hand out the window to flip him off a smirk plastered on my face as Vince’s rage grew as I crossed the finish line. I pulled to a stop parking my car as the people came to crowd around bombarding me with questions or congratulations. Seonghwa coming up to me after collecting the keys and paperwork from Vince and handing them to me along with my share of the prize money. “I was praying for something good but I was definitely not expecting that. How come you didn't tell me you were that good. Maybe you do have a chance against Wong. Keyword maybe,” he laughed patting me on the back as I stuffed the wad of cash in my pocket along with the keys of Vince’s or I guess now my Spyder.

“What can I say actions speak louder than words,” I shrugged my shoulders laughing.

I looked into the crowd to find no sign of Lucas or Johnny sighing as i had gotten distracted and lost them. I felt a pair of eyes on me and I looked up in the direction it was coming from just to find Lisa and Y/N talking up on the roof the warehouse the both of them laughing. I couldn’t help but smile as hers was contagious. I watched as they both headed inside and Seonghwa dragged me and the other guys inside to join the rest of the party as he offered to let me stay over at his place which i accepted. As the night passed I occasionally checked on Y/N from a distance but Lucas nor Johnny was anywhere to be seen. Vince would disappear soon after as well. Vince wouldn’t come back but Lucas and Johnny would later. I had let Seonghwa take the Supra to his home and I went to look for the Spyder when I bumped into Wong himself. I apologized not wanting to get into another fight and he shook his head and told me not to worry about it. For someone who was suppose to be main suspect #1 and the king of racers, he didn’t seem too intimidating or ruthless to me. He had charisma and charm and it was understandable why everyone respected him so much. After a short conversation we parted ways and I got into the Spyder making my way to Seonghwa’s house letting the events of the day sink in.

#yukhei imagines #wong yuhkei imagine #lucas wong imagine #lucas imagines #mingi imagines #song mingi imagines #ateez imagines #nct imagines #wayv imagines #superm imagines #street racing au #au #+×DejaVu×+#deja-vux #mafia au

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jigensass · 6 years

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Dr Strange Punk Rave Supreme Chapters 4 & 5 - The Vishanti (Chapter 4) The Truth (Chapter 5)

Chapter 4

Applause echoed through the entire floor as eyes peeked around to get a look at Stephen. The attention brought some anxiety over him as peering eyes and looks of anticipation were glued to every movement he made.

He was not even ready for the ceremony because he either didn't practice it or it was to come naturally to him. To him, it was not an honour and something he shouldn't have been flaunting around like a peacock. His outfit was the most casual one at the ball compared to the elaborate tailoring some sorcerers arrived in.

Clea was about to come to his side but was pulled back with the crowd as a mantra grew on the floor around him and then three beings, each around seven feet tall or higher entered the room and sat on cushions that were placed in the balcony.

He had never seen those beings face to face, merely in visions that whispered about his future accomplishments. They were the gods known as the Vishanti. Ethereal, ever-present, all-knowing, the usual traits of someone so mighty. Each one had an affinity that they held dear to their morals.

To the left was a woman with long black hair that was sprinkled with feathers. A circlet made of silver and an aquamarine stone rest upon her head. Her wardrobe was a kimono that personified the look of a swan. It draped below her shoulders to expose her collarbone. The blue and white colors of the air glittered on her for it was her element that she controlled with ease. Her beauty was just an illusion, for she was the creator of worlds and held more power than anyone could imagine for being an Elder Goddess. For it was the omnipotent Oshtur, creator of the Tome of Oshtur and possibly the Book of Vishanti.

To the right, a man sat appeared as if he could lift the entire universe on his shoulders with ease. He appeared to be of an Islander race, but this was a simple fallacy to tease the eye so he could easily be identified. A cold stare on his face peered in judgement at Stephen. His outfit was that of a fighter but was orange with black stripes complimenting on his belt, weight bracelets, and edges of his uniform. Orange stripes were painted on his biceps to contrast his darkened skin. A tiger that was larger than average slept at his side, uninterested in the festivities and probably just wanting its next meal. Hoggoth the Hoary was not a force to be trifled with easily. The banes he casted were the strongest ones in the books and only skilled magicians could be able to cast them.

And in between the two of them sat one of the most elegant beings Stephen had ever laid eyes on. His long, brown hair and facial hair were just as exquisite as his silk robes that were sprinkled with butterflies. He had a shit-eating grin while he smoked a hookah. The man had an eyepatch over his right eye, giving his identity away to Stephen. It was none other than the one he focused on the most, Agamatto. The man was created from a tear of Oshtur and the very first Sorcerer Supreme, even before Yao. He smirked at Stephen knowing what trials awaited him. Whether he passed or not was up to them.

The sorcerer gulped as all eyes in the room preened at hat he would do next. Never before had he felt so naked and afraid in his life. But he held onto the moment as he was taught and walked just under the balcony, his heels echoing throughout the marble floor. Whispers and gasps were heard through the ballroom as Stephen bowed, took a deep breath, and rose with a clear mind.

"Vishanti, I, Doctor Stephen Vincent Strange have been summoned to your call to take upon the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme. My teacher, the Ancient One, has decided on his terms that I am the one who is fit to protect the Earthen realm of all mystical threats. He is but a human, but you know my outcome for the near future. If I please your ends, I will greatly provide myself for the means that you wish for me to follow." There was not a choke in his voice as he brought forth his declaration. A sense of pride rushed through him that his speech was well done. Yao taught him well to never falter and to be able to face your fears. Though he did not arrive with his pupil, he hid amongst the watchers and attended the gathering to see how far his student had come from afar as to not pressure him into perfection. It was one of Stephen's weaknesses that he had to impress everyone with a flawless performance or the execution was considered a failure. He would have to learn to understand that you cannot always shoot for one hundred percent. Because it will end up costing you greatly in the long run. Yao knew that Stephen was going to learn the hard way soon enough.

Agamatto inhaled into his hookah, smiled, and let out a small chuckle. Hoggoth scoffed as Oshtur made a fan appear that complimented her kimono, closing her eyes as if to acknowledge his presence.

"Dr Strange.....?" Agamatto chuckled again and exhaled to make smoke rings come out of his mouth. "Why do you think you are fit to fill the role of Sorcerer Supreme?"

"And not anyone else's reasons," Oshtur's voice chimed like a bell, already knowing Stephen was first going to fumble past reasons that were explained to him.

It was always a trick question. A normal human would give a 50 slide presentation on their reasoning but answers were simpler as they appeared to be. Once again, Stephen closed his eyes and appeared as if he was meditating to think of what he would say a silent minute passed (to him it felt much longer), until he firmly let out,

"I gazed into Eternity and it gazed back at me, giving me the answers I needed."

"And what answers were those?" Hoggoth scoffed and smirked. He was not as omnipotent as the other two, so he had doubts if Stephen's words were lies.

"That there are no answers except for one: I, am the answer, you are the answer, everyone in the universe is the answer."

Yao grinned from ear to ear, proud of his pupil's accomplishments to come to terms with his suffering and welcome in enlightenment. Most magic users in the room could not comprehend the meaning since the mystic arts was not their method of practice, but the monks in the room chuckled and clapped.

The Vishanti were pleased as well and unanimously nodded their heads.

"Please move back! The Vishanti will now give their blessing!" The crowd shook with anticipation. Once Stephen took the Oath of the Vishanti, he would be blessed to be granted the powers of the three as needed for as long as he remained dedicated to his practice.

The ritual began as all three members extended their hands to Stephen which began to glow as he recited the Oath that was prompted to him. The sorcerer's body surged with energy, screaming in pain of the magic fusing with his own that caused him to float off the floor, his eyes glowing neon blue. He did read it was possible that he could die, but if Oshtur knew the outcome, why would they choose him unless they had a grudge? Or if his path was supposed to end here...

Over time, the magic did settle down and Stephen returned to equilibrium as the crowd applauded and cheered for his good ending. Wong and Yao approached him, shocking Stephen of his presence.

"Miss this? No, I came separately as to not bias your views so as you felt the urge that you had to impress me,” the sage smiled wide and gave his student a hug. “your journey truly begins Stephen, for try as I might, my journey ends here. It is your turn...”

“Master, what do you mean? I may have been blessed, but you still are the Sorcerer Supreme. You are an immortal, are you hiding away in Tibet?”

Yao pulled back from their embrace and gave a look of bliss at Oshtur who simply nodded. Others in the room began to shout in fright as visions of the incoming future that was doomed to be unravelled.

“The first lesson you learned was that you cannot control the actions of others, my student. In the end, some things are meant to occur to move the flow of time. May the Vishanti watch over you.”

Walking away for the last time, the mage was in pure shock of what that meant.

It couldn’t be...

There was no way...

Stephen gulped, realizing amongst the frantic running to push Yao out of the way, he summoned the Winds of Watoomb to blow them away. The crowd was angry and tried to fight back, but the Vishanti simply watched on the spectacle. Oshtur was pleased with this outcome of how the new sage was handling the situation. The other sages began to scream at the sorcerer began to scream at the Vishanti for not intervening in Stephen’s ‘reckless behaviour’ and he was ‘unfit’ to serve as the next Sorcerer Supreme.

It was quite the opposite. As omnipotent as she was, the goddess knew she was making the right decision.

“Mother? Should we really do something? Someone else will get hurt for sure. The others are not as wise as he is and the Dark Lord’s wrath will be brutal once he finds out his niece is here as well.” Agamatto blew on his pipe while turning to her.

“No, let our disciple do his work.”

He felt time slow around Yao and himself. The clacks of his geta on the marble chimed with the seconds.

clack A cloud of smoke surrounds Yao and he smiles at Stephen

clack the flames began to surround Yao, not burning him. Stephen smiled with tears in his eyes.

clack a dark figure about seven feet tall appears behind the Ancient One and stabbed a dagger in his back, casting Shield of the Seraphim to prevent intervention.

As it was done, members of the party whispered, ‘Dormammu’ as the new Sorcerer Supreme caught his master’s body and smiled, now seeing with his third eye that this was one of many ways that he could have died tonight. It was the cleanest and least gruesome way, but for now, he had a riot to deal with.

Wong was already by his side, furious at his actions, “Why did you let him come through?! How did he know we were here?!”

Tears still stained his eyes as he looked at Wong. “He traced the party back to a specific energy pattern. One of his own. And two, it’s better than being decapitated. I had no choice, Wong. Yao was leaving this world tonight and he couldn’t get around that. That’s why the Vishanti didn’t get involved. They knew it was going to happen. As for everyone else...that’s a different story. Take Yao’s body back to Kamar-taj, meet me upstairs. Other pressing matters are at hand...”

Chapter 5

Clea stared in shock at the ordeal. How calm Stephen was and how quick her uncle did his work. How could he?! She left no traces of evidence of where she was headed! The Faltinian even had a pixie shroud her in fae dust to hide her essence even more from her family to get away!

She rubbed her neck and up behind her ear, grazing her earring. The earring her mother gave- Umar! Of course! Clea removed the trinket and upon further inspection, saw her mother gazing back at her with a smirk. She gasped, dropping it to the floor and smashing it with her heel. She had to get out off here. But where would she go? Be part of the fairy court? It seemed like her only option. But where was Marie?

Clea huffed, frustrated that she escaped out of fear and left her behind or got pulled away with the other sorcerers. So much for being almighty, if they unanimously feared one thing it was Dormammu.

Now with Yao’s body in a safe space, Stephen asked person after person about a white-haired woman with a pixie went. No one could answer, they were too frightened that they were also on the Dark Lord’s hit list.

Failure after failure, he began to lose focus until something small slammed into his stomach.

“Excuse you! I-” The being groaned while rubbing her head. “Marie! Where’s Clea!?”

“You tell me, I was going to go after her, but that hellish general snatched me, sent me through a portal, and we ended upstairs to escape, but instead we found a couple of Mindless Ones. They’re dead now.”

“That’s not the point! Can you find her?”

“I can try...I’m not the best at divination...” As she held up her hands to perform the spell, a piece of paper appeared in flames with the following message:

3rd floor, 2nd room. Look for the broken earring. You’re welcome. 735-555-4355

“Either this is a trap or someone wants to take me out by helping me.” The mage frowned at the number but regardless, followed the instructions. Lo and behold, the broken purple earring was on the floor.

“That’s Clea’s!” Marie’s eyes were wide at these findings. Stephen, on the other hand, was worried. He touched the door in confusion as to why someone would be helping them so conveniently with all the answers?

“Definitely a trap. Could you go in and scot the place or are you too big?” The door did have an old-fashioned knob where the keyhole was big enough for an insect to crawl through.

“The smallest I’ve been is two inches. Right now I’m six.” The two tilted to guesstimate the height.

“Alright, to be safe.” He nodded at the handle for her to grab it as his left hand glowed with a missile that was ready to fire. “Alright 1, 2...”

The pixie shouted the shrillest battle cry he had ever heard as she yanked the door open and Stephen charged his hand yelling, “Dormammu I’ve come to-” but their spirits were calmed when Clea was on the bed, staring at the two in confusion with the Hellish general in a nearby chair, now having wings on his back while licking his fingers, sword in hand, and two dead bodies of what looked liked to be party guests, were on the floor, covered in blood.

The dynamic duo bent down cautiously to inspect them. Both of the corpses were wearing a mask and just as he bent down to remove one, the demon stopped him by responding,

“Ah, I wouldn’t do that. Mindless Ones are so hard to kill, it was lucky you know. I ran into her just as they were dragging her into a portal. I could have been terrible and wasted her life,” Stephen scolded him for his arrogant attitude, “but since she meant something to you, I made an exception. My new adversary needs a love interest.” He smirked at Stephen as he rose, his blade now clean of the taint.

“So you want nothing in return?” He rose to face the back of the winged one, glaring at this back.

“Oh! I will get my bill paid at a later, you simply won’t expect it.” Seeing up close and sober, the man was silver-tongued as they come but just as attractive. The shit eating grin symbolizing that he had won something out of this encounter worried he had his own plans at this party.

“One more thing, that number I gave you, I change it monthly so take my opportunity soon. And ring for Mysterio Amortensis. Sometimes it goes to my king and he definitely wouldn’t like you and me to get involved.” A slight chuckle left Mysterio as he sheathed his sword and portalled away to the Hell Dimension, just as Wong was returning from Kamar-taj

“So...you gonna call him?” Marie stared at Stephen with child-like wonder. He returned the stare, raised an eyebrow, and threw the thought away. More important matters were at hand.

“First things first, we have to get Clea and everyone else out of here if they haven’t left already and if there are more Mindless Ones, we need to get rid of them.” He looked towards Wong and sighed, “Really hate to do this, but, please Wong.”

“I’m not your Uber Driver.”

“Please?! I’ll give you my Netflix password anything! Just get her back to the Sanctum!”

“She could be a spy!”

“I am not a spy!” Clea explained her escape plans from the Dark Dimension and how he was being tracked.

Wong and Stephen thought for a moment and without explaining, stripped Clea of all her jewellery and trinkets.

“HEY! THAT’S NOT! PERVERTS!”

“Even her garter?” Wong questioned.

“Anything that could be enchanted. At least scan her dress and put a ward on it.”

“I-I’ll take care of that!” Marie interjected and pull Clea to a separate room to insist her to change. The Faltianian and pixie came back out in different clothes. Clea was in a purple unitard with black stockings that had white circles on them and Marie was wearing a Tinker Bellesque dress.

“No more trinkets, enchantments, or wards?” Stephen crossed his arms and shared a concerning glance.

“None.” Marie and Clea unanimously stated.

“Alright, you two, back to the Sanctum Sanctorum,” A portal opened beside Stephen and the two girls walked in.

“Is this the right choice?” Clea wondered with sad eyes.

“For now, my home has wards that can protect you two.” Stephen returned the same sad eyes.

“Thank you, Stephen, for everything.” The portal closed and his attention turned back to Wong. “I know the Vishanti can handle their own but, we have to check... Dormammu didn’t want to just kill Yao, there’s something else going on here.”

“For once Stephen, I actually agree with you.”

A proud smile lit up the sorcerer’s face as the two of them headed back down to the ballroom to see what remained of the massacre at hand.

OH BOI PHEW DID NOT EXPECT TWO CHAPTERS BUT I DID IT!

Thanks again to @doobler for providing the idea of punk rave supreme. I just write it!

Also thanks to:

@your-dark-magic-man-mysterio

@askmarietheapprentice for letting me borrow their muses!

We’re gonna end this arc soon but where do we go from there? WHO KNOWS!?

#punk rave supreme

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stupendoustaleobservation · 5 years

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Nutrition

Nutrition Nothing's perfect, right? That includes things that are good for you, like super foods. I have written a few articles (and even a book) on super foods; mostly glowing accounts of their nutritional value and potential health benefits. Those are all true and good things, of course, but there are also some possible unusual side effects you may face when you eat large amounts of these foods. They are harmless, but they may make you say, "ick" or in case of a couple of, scare you a little bit. Asparagus Pee: Asparagus contains sulfurous chemical compounds that give your urine an unusual odor. It does not happen to everyone, but it's fairly common. It happens quickly, too, so if you have eaten asparagus and you have not smoked anything funny, next time you peed, you are not one of the lucky ones who have this reaction. Aside from the unusual odor, asparagus is good for you. A and C. It is also possible that the compounds in asparagus can reduce your liver breakdown byproducts of alcoholic drinks - as long as you go before asparagus to eat it in low-calories, high in-fiber, high-fiber. out drinking Here's a lengthier description of asparagus pee. Green Leafy Poop Spinach and kale are two fabulous super foods because they are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber and a bunch of phyto chemicals that may have health benefits. If you eat lots of them, you will also have green stool. It may be more common if your "transit time" is too quick and the greens are not properly digested. It may scare you the first time you notice it, but it's rare for green poop to cause any type of health issue. It's the other colors you need to worry about. Amber Tresca, our Inflammatory Bowel Disease Guide at About.com, has scoop on colored poop. Red Beet Pee Yeah, I know there's kind of an excretory theme here. If you eat a healthy help of beets, you may notice that red or pink urine later that day or next. It can be horrifying because it looks like blood, and peeing blood is never a good thing. Red beet pe is harmless and it is actually a official name: Beeturia, which I think sounds like a good name for a Pokemon. Red urine is not a reason to give up on beets. They are low in calories, high in vitamins and fiber, plus some of these red pigments may have some health benefits. Peggy Trow bridge Filip pone, our Guide to Home Cooking here at About.com, has everything you need to know about picking and cooking beets. Garlic BO Nutrition Garlic makes almost all the super foods lists and there is a ton of research on it's health benefits. It can help reduce cholesterol, and aid in high blood pressure. Some people believe it helps prevent many forms of cancer as well. The thing is, if you eat lots of llic (or some laxlic supplements), you may probably be going to suffer from the lens of induced body odor. It's probably due to your body's unfortunate reaction to allicin, active chemical found in garlic. Dr. Cathy Wong, our Alternative Medicine Guide, has the lowdown on garlic. (Did you notice I did not make any garlic vs vampire jokes?) Carrot Skin Nutrition Carrots are rich in carotenes, which are related to vitamin A. They are found in the orange pigments and are good for you, but, if you eat lots and lots of carrots, you can make your skin a yellow or orange cast . It's mostly noticeable on the soles of your feet and palms of your hands. If you have every "sawless tanning pills," they probably are just high dosage beta-carotene pills. You will not get tan, you will turn orange. Officially this condition is called carotenemia and it is the most common in children, since they are less (do not worry - it's harmless). Dr. Vincent Iannelli, our Guide to Pediatrics, has the details on carotenemia. I guess I could also give a "honorable mention" to legumes and cruciferous vegetables like brocoli, brussels sprouts and cauliflower. They are all good for you, but their high-fiber content can also lead to potentially large bouts of flatulence.source HumariWeb. Read the full article

#6typesofnutrition #nutritionarticles #nutritionscience #typesofnutrition #whatarethe3typesofnutrition?#whatis nutrition inbiology #whatis nutrition pdf #whyis nutrition important

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lataclale · 4 years

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$16.64- (+127.47%) Tony Robbins: FOCUS ON YOURSELF LIVE Kodak HOT STOCK...HomeMailNewsFinanceSportsEntertainmentSearchMobileMore...Yahoo FinanceSearchGeorgeMailFinance HomePremium - Try it free2020 ElectionWatchlistsMy PortfolioScreenersPremiumMarketsNewsPersonal FinanceVideosIndustriesTechU.S. markets close in 4 hours 5 minutesS&P 500 3,385.49-0.02(-0.00%)Dow 30 27,792.52+52.79(+0.19%)Nasdaq 11,280.97+16.02(+0.14%)Russell 2000 1,552.80-11.50(-0.74%)Crude Oil 41.83-0.99(-2.31%)Gold 1,949.50+3.00(+0.15%)Eastman Kodak Company (KODK)NYSE - Nasdaq Real Time Price. Currency in USDAdd to watchlistVisitors trend2W10W9M6.93-0.25 (-3.52%)As of 11:55AM EDT. Market open.SummaryChartConversationsStatisticsHistorical DataProfileFinancialsAnalysisOptionsHoldersSustainability1D5D1M6MYTD1Y5YMax

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Here's his #1 stock pick.SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman urges Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: KODK) investors with losses in excess of $250,000 to submit your losses now. A securities fraud class action has been filed and certain investors may have valuable claims. Class Period: July 27, 2020 - Aug. 7, 2020 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Oct. 13, 2020 Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/KODK Contact An Attorney Now: [email protected] 844-916-0895Eastman Kodak Company (KODK) Securities Class Action:The complaint alleges that Defendants perpetrated a scheme to profit from the use of material non-public information by misrepresenting and concealing material facts regarding a purported deal Kodak reached with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). 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Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email [email protected] Hagens Berman Hagens Berman is a national law firm with nine offices in eight cities around the country and eighty attorneys. The firm represents investors, whistleblowers, workers and consumers in complex litigation. More about the firm and its successes is located at hbsslaw.com. For the latest news visit our newsroom or follow us on Twitter at @classactionlaw.Contact: Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895INVESTOR ALERT: Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Announces Investigation of Eastman Kodak Company (KODK) on Behalf of InvestorsNEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 20, 2020 / Jakubowitz Law announces that securities fraud class action lawsuits have commenced on behalf of shareholders of the following publicly-traded companies who purchased shares within the class periods listed below.NEW YORK, Aug. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Kirby McInerney LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of those who acquired the Eastman Kodak Company (“Kodak” or the “Company”) (NYSE: KODK) securities during the period from July 27, 2020 through August 7, 2020 (the “Class Period”). Investors have until October 12, 2020 to apply to the Court to be appointed as lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. According to the complaint, defendants throughout the Class Period made materially false and/or misleading statements as they misrepresented and failed to disclose material information pertaining to the Company’s business and operations, which were known to defendants or recklessly disregarded by them. Specifically, the defendants failed to disclose that the Company had granted several insiders millions of dollars’ worth of stock options immediately prior to the Company publicly disclosing that it had received a $765 million loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to produce drugs to treat COVID-19, which defendants knew would cause Kodak’s stock to immediately increase in value once the deal was announced. In addition, while in possession of this material non-public information, Company insiders purchased tens of thousands of the Company’s shares immediately prior to the announcement, again at prices that they knew would increase once news of the loan became public. As a result of the foregoing, defendants’ statements about Kodak’s business, operations, and prospects were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis when made. When the true details entered the market, the complaint claims that investors suffered damages.If you acquired Kodak securities during the Class Period, have information, or would like to learn more about these claims, please contact Thomas W. Elrod of Kirby McInerney at 212-371-6600, by email at [email protected], or by filling out this contact form, to discuss your rights or interests with respect to these matters without any cost to you.Kirby McInerney is a New York-based plaintiffs’ law firm concentrating in securities, antitrust, and whistleblower litigation. The firm’s efforts on behalf of shareholders in securities litigation have resulted in recoveries totaling billions of dollars. Additional information about the firm can be found at Kirby McInerney’s website: www.kmllp.com.This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.Contacts Kirby McInerney LLP Thomas W. Elrod, Esq., (212) 371-6600 [email protected] www.kmllp.comHere's the Full List For 2020 So FarLOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 20, 2020 / The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces the filing of a class-action lawsuit against Eastman Kodak Company ("Kodak" or "the Company") (NYSE:KODK) for violations of §§10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the U.FE ALERT: The Klein Law Firm Announces a Lead Plaintiff Deadline of September 28, 2020 in the Class Action Filed on Behalf of FirstEnergy Corp. Limited ShareholdersNewsfileKODK INVESTOR ALERT: Bernstein Liebhard LLP Announces that a Securities Class Action Lawsuit has been Filed Against Eastman Kodak CompanyBusiness WireNEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 20, 2020 / The Law Offices of Vincent Wong announce that class actions have commenced on behalf of certain shareholders in the following companies.Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP, a Leading Securities Fraud Law Firm, Announces Investigation of Eastman Kodak Company (KODK) on Behalf of InvestorsNEW YORK, Aug. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Attorney Advertising -- Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Eastman Kodak Company ("Kodak" or the "Company") (NYSE: KODK) and certain of its officers, on behalf of shareholders who purchased or otherwise acquired Kodak securities between July 27, 2020 and August 7, 2020, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm’s site: www.bgandg.com/kodk.This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading and/or failed to disclose that material adverse facts. Specifically, the defendants failed to disclose that the Company had granted several insiders millions of dollars' worth of stock options, immediately prior to the Company publicly disclosing that it had received a $765 million loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to produce drugs to treat COVID-19, which defendants knew would cause Kodak's stock to immediately increase in value once the deal was announced. 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If you suffered a loss in Kodak you have until October 13, 2020 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a corporate litigation boutique. Our primary expertise is the aggressive pursuit of litigation claims on behalf of our clients. In addition to representing institutions and other investor plaintiffs in class action security litigation, the firm’s expertise includes general corporate and commercial litigation, as well as securities arbitration. Attorney advertising. 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(AYX) InvestorsBusiness WirePeople Also WatchSymbolLast PriceChange% ChangeNKLANikola Corporation39.93-1.01-2.47%MRNAModerna, Inc.66.66-1.15-1.70%SRNESorrento Therapeutics, Inc.10.42-0.51-4.67%VXRTVaxart, Inc. - Common Stock8.27-0.54-6.07%WKHSWorkhorse Group, Inc.16.32+0.19+1.17%FinancialsAnnualQuarterly Revenue EarningsRecommendation Trends Strong Buy Buy Hold Underperform SellAnalyst Price Targets (1)Low 1.00High 1.00Company Profile343 State Street Rochester, NY 14650 United States 585 724 4000 http://www.kodak.comSector(s): Industrials Industry: Specialty Business Services Full Time Employees: 4,922Eastman Kodak Company provides hardware, software, consumables, and services to customers in the graphic arts, commercial print, publishing, electronic displays, entertainment and commercial films, and consumer products markets worldwide. 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In addition, it offers intellectual property licensing solutions; and leases technology center and industrial complex. The company sells its products and services through third party resellers and distributors, as well as directly and indirectly to enterprise accounts and customers. Eastman Kodak Company was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in Rochester, New York.KODK vs SectorMore detailsKODKSector - IndustrialsInnovationHiringSustainabilityInsider SentimentEarningsDividendsAdvertise With Us© 2020 Verizon Media. All rights reserved.Data DisclaimerHelpSuggestionsPrivacy DashboardPrivacy (Updated)About Our AdsTerms (Updated)Sitemap

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deltamovies · 6 years

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Jurassic World Free Full HD watch online & movie trailer

Release Year: 2015

Rating: 7.0/10 ( voted)

Critic's Score: /100

Director: Colin Trevorrow

Stars: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins

Storyline 22 years after the original Jurassic Park failed, the new park (also known as Jurassic World) is open for business. After years of studying genetics the scientists on the park genetically engineer a new breed of dinosaur. When everything goes horribly wrong, will our heroes make it off the island?

Writers: Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, BD Wong, Judy Greer, Lauren Lapkus, Brian Tee, Katie McGrath, Andy Buckley, Eric Edelstein, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cast: Chris Pratt –

Owen

Bryce Dallas Howard –

Claire

Irrfan Khan –

Masrani

Vincent D'Onofrio –

Hoskins

Ty Simpkins –

Gray

Nick Robinson –

Zach

Jake Johnson –

Lowery

Omar Sy –

Barry

BD Wong –

Dr. Henry Wu

Judy Greer –

Karen

Lauren Lapkus –

Vivian

Brian Tee –

Hamada

Katie McGrath –

Zara

Andy Buckley –

Scott

Eric Edelstein –

Paddock Supervisor

Taglines: The park is open.

Details

Official Website: Official site |

Official site [France] |

Country: USA

Language: English

Release Date: 3 Jan 2015

Filming Locations: Louisiana, USA

Gross: $1,670,400,637

Technical Specs

Runtime: 124 min

Did You Know?

Trivia: Gray shares a number of similarities to Tim Murphy from Jurassic Park (1993) the hyperactive son of divorcing parents, he's the younger of two siblings, though visibly intelligent for his age in addition to being obsessed with dinosaurs, similar to how interacting with Tim caused Dr. Alan Grant to open up more emotionally through surviving among the dinosaurs, Gray's experiences with Zach in Jurassic World helps to strengthen the bond between the two. See more »

Goofs: Zach and Gray enter the old Visitor Center driveway in one of the old Jeeps that are there. This would not be possible, since in the more than 20 years since the Jeeps were abandoned, the tires would have deteriorated and gone flat, the battery would have gone dead (which is why the boys are shown replacing it), and the gas would have become a viscous, almost varnish-like, gel. In addition the heat and humidity would have rusted many of the engine components. See more »

Quotes: [

User Review

Author:

Rating: 10/10 First of all I think people need to understand that film is a lot like music, you can't listen to a new Justin Bieber song and complain because it's not a Mozart masterpiece. And you definitely can't watch Jurassic World expecting a mind-boggling, emotional Inception type film. I would put Jurassic World in the same category as most Michael Bay films, the story line won't make you think, the characters won't go through any psychological changes but you will be thoroughly entertained by the special effects. I think it's fairly obvious throughout the original trilogy and this film that we are the visitors to the attractions, Steven Spielberg gave the parallel Earth a new unimaginable attraction, one which surprised the audience so much, it's rated as one of the best films ever. Period. Fast forward twenty two years past the films of Interstellar, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, we as a human race have seen a lot of original, unique things, a plain old dinosaur film will not bring us the same thrills as it did in 1993. Therefore we are once again, the visitors to the attraction. We will never feel the same buzz as first seeing that T-Rex crashing the gates over, or the same chill down the neck when first hearing that Raptor shriek. However, we can still be entertained. Which is what happens throughout the film. The characters are fairly bland, there are only a couple likable ones, but they all seem to grow on you near the end, the bloodbath that is left by the new Dino is quite emotional and gives you a side to pick fairly easily, the surprises throughout the film keep it exciting and the special effects, well we are in 2015 and they did have a lot of money to spend so lets just say they are incredible as expected. If you're looking to be on the edge of your seat for two hours and trust the film to not bore you, then you have nothing to worry about, the line graph representing excitement just climbs up and up, if you're expecting another Shawshank Redemption, well please don't slate the film when it doesn't satisfy your needs. I think that films should have two ratings, one for overall, and another for it's main sub-category, for example as an overall film I'd give it a 7.5-8, it's sub-category of excitement I'd give a solid 10, a comparison to the first Transformers which I'd give an 8 for excitement and a 5 overall. Therefore I really do recommend this film for anyone who like me, enjoys special effects, good excitement and two hours to just sit on the edge of my seat and thoroughly enjoy my time. I can only say I can't wait for the second one and I'm sure you will too after you watch it.

The post Jurassic World appeared first on The Movie Entertainment of the 21st Century!.

from http://ift.tt/2jDfpH9

#Jurassic World #Action #Movies

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music-research-strategies · 7 years

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Marshall Trammell on Music Research Strategies

http://soundamerican.org/sa_archive/sa15/sa15-marshall-trammell.html

Originally published in Nate Wooley’s Sound American “Propaganda Issue” April, 2016

Photo Credit: Agatha Urbaniak (Brighton, UK)

PART 1

Bradford, Roper, and Wong perform on a loom of interpersonal rituals and dialogic relationships at San Francisco State University in March of 2016. This band, Purple Gums, is a marked territory. The brassy trio (cornet, tuba, and saxophone, respectively) performed for a master class in the Creative Arts building for about 25folks in a medium-sized band room. For this performance, percussionist Vijay Anderson played with the usually drummerless trio. Minutes into the in-class performance, [William] Roper authoritatively erupts a spoken phrase through his mini-tuba: “Assume the position!” A bolt shivers our bones. He continues, invoking an aspect of life in this country. Purple Gums knows what this means. It’s imprinted upon the psyche of generations. Purple Gums refers to themselves as representative of a circular history: a story that’s not yet past. [Cornetist Bobby] Bradford tells us the excess of melanin in the skin causes relative coloration in the gums, and of the racial slurs attributed to it within and outside of the black community. He gives a sermon on the usage and appropriate inflection of the term motherfucker.

The band has had a 14-year interval between hits.

Why did they choose that moment to reconvene?

Purple Gums expresses an oppositional consciousness. Direct transmission of strategic methodology of pissedness and resistance technologies volley across the bandstand; seeing signs in culture (semiotics), analyzing these signs (deconstruction), synthesizing related forms (meta-ideologizing), erecting new principles of action (differential movement), and deploying egalitarian practices (democratics). Chela Sandoval’s seminal work Methodologies of the Oppressed exists for the purpose of generating dissidence and “revealing the rhetorical structure by which the languages of supremacy are uttered, rationalized—and ruptured.”

I entered the room with these lenses on. Gums speaks for themselves:

Purple Gums views music as narrative. A tune starts, by the time it ends, territory has been crossed, a story has been told. Most of the time the band lays down a backdrop for the audience to spin out their own creations within their heads. But on occasion, any one of the band's members will step to the mic and spin a yarn for you. Like the music, these stories are created extemporaneously—knowing the carnival ride you've stepped onto doesn't guarantee that you'll recognize the ride you step off of.

The nature of the signified totality of the presence of this group is that of their agency to produce musical sounds reflective of location/dislocation, dialogic inferences, traditions in/out of music, cultural signifiers, arbitrariness, and any, every part of their engagement.

This and related events were part of ImprovisAsians!, an annual performing arts and community-building event sponsored by Asian Improv aRts (AIR). The goals since 1987:

1) To make it possible for artists to create innovative works rooted in the diasporic experiences of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage.

2) To engage a next generation of community members in the arts through arts education.

3) To enable sustainability for artists and arts organizations in a challenging economic environment.

4) To facilitate creative collaborations that bring together major institutions, artists, and multigenerational audiences and participants.

The introduction—this introduction—into the subject matter of messages or propaganda or poetics of politics in art/music production is a reflexive process.

When I came to San Francisco 25 years ago as a student/street activist, I literally tripped over people like [saxophonist] Francis Wong, whose worldview and political consciousness shifted in response to the beating death of Vincent Chin near Detroit, Michigan, in June of 1982. Chrysler autoworkers—incensed about recent layoffs attributed to the boom in the Japanese car market—beat Chin to death with baseball bats outside of a bar at his bachelor party. The murderers received lenient fines and three years’ probation, and the state was satisfied. Asian Improv aRts was founded five years later by Wong and others. A bell can’t be unrung.

On the ride home from the class and performance, Vijay Anderson, an AIM devotee, shakes his head remembering how melodic Francis and Bobby are together. I think that overall harmony of difficult material is a binding substance for examination here.

Listen to Black Spirituals

PART 2

“the streets our brushes, the squares our palettes”

Constructivist motto

Russia, 1917

La Paz Middle School is located in Salinas, California, a historic town in Monterey County near the Central Coast of California named for its salty marshes and fertile agriculture. Reflective of the population of the town, La Paz has a high Latino concentration, presumably descendants of generations of farm laborers. Just weeks before I delivered a two-day arts practicum on the visual culture of the Underground Railroad, a 16=year-old was murdered by the police fairly close to the school. The history curriculum is a complement to instructor Jason Flores’s constructivist education framework (ultimately based on the work of Jean Piaget). The classroom centers on meaning-making by exposing the tenets, on which the social construction of everything in the classroom is based. As a facilitator, Flores serves to remove obstacles to learning by cultivating cognitive development through a series of observable, didactic activities. Students, as makers-of-meaning themselves, engage in the democratic learning environment as they construct representations of history individually and collectively.

I taught four classes of La Paz Panthers waist-high in the stories of Frederick Douglass, Civil War battles, and coded Black Spirituals. I engaged these young investigators to synthesize their own expertise and acquired knowledge through a socio-historical, tactical arts practicum centered on the intervention of the Underground Railroad quilt codes. “Re-Imagining UGRR Quilt Codes” illustrates connections and dynamics between the Civil War–era Underground Railroad to currently existing underground railroad dynamics and the relevance in their lives today. A conductor is clearly more understood as a coyote in the parlance of La Paz students; a station is a safe house.

Using the tools of perception, production, and reflection, these students demonstrated they had shared an interpersonal relationship with history beyond that of a solely fact-based curriculum.

1) Perception: students study works of tactical media in historic relevance to emancipatory practices

2) Production: students use basic skills and principles of the art form and put their ideas into visual form

3) Reflection: students assess their work according to personal goals and standards of excellence in the field

In art, Constructivism has origins in the 1917 Russian Revolution, where artists built meaningful objects reflective of the resources used for construction. It was an art form rich with materials for producing a new culture through assigning art to a practical, socially useful role in everyday life. For good or bad, they rejected “autonomous art” and the idea of the individual artist in favor of collective movements, like Bauhaus or De Stijl. As a theory of knowledge in education, Constructivism demonstrates an interaction between experiences and idea development. In classrooms, the convergence of social and practical elements in learning advances discourse and an interpersonal, cultural connection to the learning experience.

The improvisational nature of the Underground Railroad is aligned with the collective and individual experiences of slaves and fugitives. “The struggles waged against domination and enslavement in everyday life took a varied of forms,” according to Saidiya V. Hartman. She continues:

Exploiting the limits of the permissible, creating transient zones of freedom, and re-elaborating innocent amusements were central features of everyday practice. Practice is, to use Michel de Certeau’s phrase, ‘a way of operating’ defined by the ‘the non-autonomy of its field of action, internal manipulation of the established order, and ephemeral victories.’

The dual invocation of the slave as property and person was an effort [that] wed reciprocity and submission, intimacy and domination, and the legitimacy of violence and the necessity of protection. By the same token, the law’s selective recognition of slave humanity nullified the captive’s ability to give consent or act as agent, and, at the same time, acknowledge the intentionality and agency of the slave but only as it assumes the form of criminality.

These nuances did not go unnoticed at La Paz. The young Panthers constructed reimagined coded quilt blocks, both mimicking the old ones and simultaneously inventing new ones. The students demonstrated their understanding of the need for safe houses, for a code, for a conductor, or coyote, to weave a network of mutual aid synthesizing technologies of the methodologies of oppressed persons. They taught me codes for safety in their everyday lives. Students exhibited a strong motivation to learn and a confidence in their potential for completing the project. We created nearly 100 new quilt blocks reflecting on both history and personal experiences and knowledge. These reflections of competence and belief in one’s potential to solve new problems are derived from first-hand experience of mastering problems in the past, and are much more powerful than any external acknowledgment and motivation.

PART 3

"A book neither begins nor ends; at most it merely feigns doing so."

-Le Livre, Mallarme

Above is a graphic from my 2006 graduate thesis (RPI) mimicking Jean-Jacques Nattiez’ semiological, symbolic mapping of Wagner’s controversial Bayreuth Festival production of The Ring (1976).

Simultaneously inspired by [Gilles] Deleuze’s analyses of Leibniz and the Baroque, the map fails to address the Improviser’s choice to approach their instruments, not as jazz machines or rock ’n’ roll machines, but as improvising-machines. An appropriate correction might be to adjust #13 to read simply: Performance. However, I still find comfort in my bold appropriation. The waveform is code emblematic of the persistence of cognition. It represents a translation across media and lineage. It represents a path of identity formation as a significant, recognizable, and navigable event.

Referring to Kantian aesthetics of beauty in his book Economimesis, [Jacques] Derrida writes, "One must not imitate nature; but nature, assigning its rules to genius, folds itself, returns to itself, reflects itself through art.” “Kant,” he continues, “specifies that the only thing one ought to call art is the production of freedom by means of freedom [Hervorbringung durch Freiheit].” Pretty righteous words; to be clear, neither author is speaking of freedom from chains. They speak of an absolute freedom of expression: an art signifying pure ideas. Mimesis can roughly be defined as a representation of reality transmitted through empathetic means; economimesis is regarded, quite simply, as a process that exemplifies that appropriation.

It was Jacques Lacan who taught us that humans acquire identity through the acquisition of language process. Ideologies ingrained in that exchange are likewise absorbed. And it is his student, Slavoj Zižek who emphasizes that the effects of ideology are pervasive, powerful, and a nearly inescapable aspect of our world. Zižek further emphasizes a “creative refusal” of ideology sparked by a profound political change in the S/self, such as the 1917 Russian revolt against capitalism. We can say that oppositional consciousness, a term from Third World feminist praxis, was acquired through discursive processes.

Listen to Marshall Trammell

PART 4

"His was an historical music. He began himself before he played with Fletcher Henderson, playing alternate piano in the orchestra when Fletcher conducted. In recent years he even brought Fletcher and Duke back with a sweetness and contemporary restatement that was thrilling.

Ra was so far out because he had the true self-consciousness of the Afro American intellectual artist revolutionary. He knows our historic ideology and socio-political consciousness was freedom. It is an aesthetic and social dynamic. We think it is good and beautiful!"

—Amiri Baraka, foreword

This Planet is Doomed: The Science Fiction Poetry of Sun Ra

In 1999, the “Improvising Across Borders” symposium at the University of California at San Diego introduced me to the subject. Pianist Dana Reason had organized the conference at which George Lewis, Pauline Oliveros, Douglas Ewart, Eddie Prévost, LaDonna Smith, JD Parran, Hafez Modirzadeh, and many more were present. I recently found a quote from LaDonna Smith on her experience:

One purpose of the Symposium was to explore one of the most previously slighted, but critically important fundamentals in music creativity and its true role in the shaping of musical traditions, styles, and current direction.

Pauline Oliveros gave a talk on Quantum Improvisation:

Quantum computing is a revolutionary method of computing based on quantum physics that uses the abilities of particles such as electrons to exist in more than one state at the same time. Quantum computation can operate simultaneously on a combination of seemingly incompatible inputs. By analogy or metaphor quantum Improvisation could mean a leap into new and ambiguous consciousness opening a new variety of choices.

At the same symposium, pianist and composer Vijay Iyer gave a memorable presentation on “African American Improvised Music and Embodied Cognition,” in which he analyzed Thelonious Monk’s music with the help of a multimedia display complete with transcriptions and minute details that delight me to this day. This moment greatly informed my thinking on analyzing music, as well as elucidated a process that I had unwittingly undertaken. Iyer’s presentation described and analyzed the way Monk’s fingers moved upon the keyboard with precision: the matrix of complexities pouring through expressive nodes in the body. As citizen-subjects, we often find ourselves to be subject to dominant ideological elements similarly quilted into our identities and woven into our imaginations. Robin D.G. Kelly’s book on Monk gives us a wealth of insight into the total social fact (Mauss) of the man, entreating us, as fans of his magic, to peer into this “bond between giver and gift.” We cannot ignore the conditions of cruelty and subjugation to admire the diamonds that such pressure creates. Iyer’s analysis of Monk’s embodied expression demands that Monk’s emulators reach beyond the sounds that come through one’s home speakers.

George Lewis’s essay “Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives” was weighed on my mind during this period in my development. I remember that John Cage’s body of work is known and accepted for his innovations and privilege, and Charlie Parker’s body of work is known and accepted for his innovations and remarkable lack of, and struggle for, privilege. Generations emulated Parker’s research and sound, along with other black musicians of that era; compelled by the representation of those artists’ lives in their music. I’ve wondered if their interest is in the actual conditions of their lives, or so it seems to me, the forces-in-motion that perpetuate those conditions. The oft quoted social theorist bell hooks writes, “Throughout African American history, performance has been crucial in the struggle for liberation.” She refers, of course, to minstrelsy. Moreover, Saidiya V. Hartman talks explicitly in her book about the auction block as a site of forced enjoyment, where slaves were made to dance and whoop it up at the crack of the whip

Locating:

I still see/practice “free music” and “creative music” as resistance music. I trace my interest in participating in music back to an exposure to Bob Marley, Parliament, and Earth, Wind & Fire as a youth. However, I am an Improviser. “Improvising Across Borders” addressed borders real and imagined, and made them all permeable. I was certainly in the right place at the right time! I had involved myself with this music as an extension of my political education, practices, and deep curiosity about how this form of resistance would change my sense of self, self-consciousness, and actions. I remember daring to raise my hand at that symposium saying that I thought there was going to be some kind discussion about the actual border: you know, the one between us and Mexico. There wasn’t meant to be one, although there is room enough for that to be my work.

Eleven years ago, the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) launched La Sexta from Laconcondon Jungle. This was the Sixth Declaration from the Zapatistas deep in the jungles of their autonomous zones surrounded by Southern Mexico, and the largest listening party the world has ever seen. Masked Zapatistas collected stories, complaints, recollections, evidence, and other data from the machinations of capitalism and status quo politics throughout the length and breadth of the country. The kick off in San Cristobal began with a peaceful occupation of the zocalo, or town square, by thousands of Zapatista and hundreds of press. Three musical acts took the stage, setting the tone. They played songs people knew. I imagined a performance by the World Saxophone Quartet in the zocalo in San Cristobal de las Casasin the State of Chiapas that New Year's Eve in 2005. What a gig?!? That stage was built with much more that wood and nails. I imagined WSQ, with all its members over time, ascending to the stage miraculously playing “The Hard Blues” together as the system of music to jump off such a project in the States, and I knew I had to be in a band worthy of that stage.

About the Artist:

Marshall Trammell is an African American percussionist born July 21, 1972 in Oceanside, CA and raised in Kaneohe, Oahu, Hawaii. Upon exposure to the Glenn Spearman Double Trio and ROVA's conduction systems, he has been a contributing member of the Bay Area Creative Music scene his arrival in San Francisco in 1993. Influences include Donald Robinson, Eddie Blackwell, Louis Moholo, Milford Graves & Papa Joe Jones are present in his performance on the drum set, while a deep exposure to Cuban, Haitian and West African linear drum systems shift his focus away from conventions in Jazz and Free Jazz.

Mr Trammell is a Soloist, Curator and Chief Investigator at Music Research Strategies. He curates "Decolonizing the Imagination: Arts Practicum & Democratics" and conducts "Black Fighting Formations," a conduction system based visual culture and cooperative economics of the Underground Railroad. Mr. Trammell has performed with such luminaries as Roscoe Mitchell, India Cooke, John Tchicai, Dylan Carlson & Saul Williams. He is a recoding artist as a member of the electro-acoustic duo Black Spirituals (SIGE Records) which performs internationally with Zachary James Watkins.

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