#its a very important part of their dynamic and i love how purposeful matt makes it

[ramblingguy54]

True Colors: An Emotionally Fantastic Serious Game Changer.

If we’re to look back at Reunion as Season 1′s dramatic pay off for Amphibia’s message of toxic friendships, as Anne & Sasha’s conflicting dynamic showed us, then True Colors is a colossal expansive note on this big theme of the series. True Colors makes Season 1′s finale look like a walk in the park for what angst goes down between our three main heroins in Season 2′s climatic resolution. Everything that can go wrong does go oh so painfully wrong for these three kids. Anne, to no one’s surprise, gets double crossed by Sasha leaving things between them a Hell of a lot more bitter than they were previously, as if that couldn’t already be topped when Sasha tried to kill the Plantars before. Anne has had enough of her lies and manipulation not being afraid to tell Sasha straight up how awful of a friend she’s been in general, even hitting her where it hurts most of all saying, “No, I’m done listening to you! I’m done trusting you! You’re a horrible person and I am done being FRIENDS with you!”, going so far as to get a shaken reaction out of Sasha dropping her brave face act, making this girl try to wipe away the frog family.

Right off the bat, True Colors makes it highly evident this isn’t just another story of stopping a bigger threat, but one hitting much closer to home, overall. Yes, King Andrias is certainly a dangerous villain, who makes his presence and intimidating nature known to the others by True Color’s final act, which despite this Amphibia isn’t entirely putting him at the forefront, rather focusing on a more intimate study of Anne, Sasha, and Marcy’s big emotional conflict. This finale knows exactly where to put its focus of importance on, so I love that instead of it being action packed we’re getting the spotlight shined on just how screwed up these three of a friendship have, in spite of Marcy claiming in The Dinner episode, “We’re supposed to be friends for life. We don’t split up!’ . Very ironic stuff right there, indeed.

True Colors’ most powerful strength it adds to Amphibia’s ongoing profound story about healthy friendships is the thorough deconstruction of these girls defined “ideal relationship” as people. Before Anne came to the world of Amphibia this kid was afraid to stand up for what she believed in, even knowing especially well that stealing the calamity box was morally questionable, but did it anyway. Sasha was super manipulative, abusive, and used her power to control people, like she did a lot of toward Anne in their lives. Marcy, while very smart, wasn’t the most competent physically, who soon grew into being more independent without needing to rely on Anne always having to be there for her. These three were changed immensely by the events of being thrust into this world of sentient amphibian creatures. Anne benefited morally most out out of all three in taking up the mantle of responsibility and ironing out her own issues. She’s become a much stronger person all around. 

This episode asks us an important question though in nutshell with, “Have Sasha & Marcy truly changed for the better?”, since Anne has reached a point in her arc feeling genuinely content with who she’s become and the bonds that have been made with the Plantar family shown most notably with Sprig Plantar. Hence the whole purpose behind the song, It’s No Big Deal, with Anne feeling proud for who she is, yet not noticing a bigger issue right underneath her nose. That previous episode was meant to bring Anne’s happiness up only to bring it all crashing down in a devastating display of new revelations in True Colors. Every dramatic emotional beat isn’t just earned. Each significant moment is completely knocked out of the park by terrific voice acting, beautiful animation, and music composition that gave me serious emotional goosebumps. True Colors did exactly as Not What He Seems accomplished for Gravity Falls in shaking up its own respective dramatic stakes just when you thought it couldn’t get any higher for these protagonists. Shit seriously hits the fan here.

Did it ever occur to you, Anne? Sasha? That one of you knew more, than she was letting on? That ONE of you might’ve gotten you stranded in Amphibia on purpose...?

The big bombshell twist of Marcy playing a part too in getting them into this whole debacle completely flips everything upside down. Sasha pushed Anne into taking the Calamity Box, yes, but if Marcy never sent that photo because of her desire to stay with them together forever, then they wouldn’t have been stranded in basically a world full of dangerous creatures and who knows what else. Easily my favorite part of the episode, considering it adds more nuance to a situation that defined Amphibia’s story. It wasn’t just one person’s fault at the end of the day. Sasha bullied Anne into taking the box, Anne didn’t put her foot down to make a stand for something morally questionable, and Marcy took advantage of them both to benefit her own selfish desires for supposedly a “happy ending” not involving them staying apart, due to her parents moving away for a new job. All three girls played an important part on why they got landed into Amphiba. It’s why Anne’s statement to King Andrias, “The three of us may have made some mistake, but you...You’re evil and I’m gonna stop you!”, holds such a real weight to it, as this story continues to solidify how genuinely fleshed out their dynamic is.

Marcy’s super desperate plea to be understood by Anne & Sasha when Andrias revealed her getting them thrown into Amphibia purposefully was hard to watch. On one hand, I felt for Marcy because she didn’t want real life circumstances to tear apart that close connection she had to Sasha & Anne. Sure, she could’ve just kept in touch with them over the phone or chatting online, too. However, Marcy had known them since very early childhood. When you’ve been so attached to someone it can be a devastating thing, depending on just how vulnerable you are emotionally, to start drifting apart. Marcy represents that embodiment of toxic need for togetherness and couldn’t bear to let a possibility, like moving away, throw a wrench into her happiness and friendship, as well.

Never mind Marcy wanting to stay permanently in a different reality, rather than face her’s, but it made this person feel like something more. It gave her a chance to feel truly special in being able to live out a fantasy dream of having such power and freedom that a kid, like herself, couldn’t have had. The freedom to know she is plenty capable of making it out there on her own without Anne having to watch this kid like a hawk. So, to have someone, or something, try taking it away from her terrified Marcy of facing a terrible truth. That she isn’t strong enough after all to live a life without Anne & Sasha by her side completely, where Marcy will never feel truly worthy enough to blossom into her own person. It’s why that line, “I just...didn’t want to be alone...”, carries such a deep pain to it all. Marcy just crumbles into pieces accepting her greatest weakness. As much as Marcy fumbled the ball big time, it’s so easy to empathize with her on the idea of feeling competent enough. Marcy never meant to hurt Anne or Sasha, but the sad crushing punchline is she very much did.

Speaking of which, Anne had every right to be upset and mad, obviously. Anne has been missing so many things from her life before everything went off the wall. Hopping Mall especially highlighted Anne’s emotional desire to give anything just to hear her mother’s singing again. This teenager has been really dealing with a lot of grief in general quite honestly. Anne got into a high stakes battle against Sasha to save new friends, who’d practically became like an adopted family, which left the poor girl traumatized and heartbroken over the end result. She thought finding Marcy would help compensate for it and eventually be able to mend those complications with Sasha to boot. It’s simply painful to see it all blow up in Anne’s face to know not only Sasha betrayed her trust yet again, but realizing Marcy also played a part of responsibility in getting them thrown here. Matt Braly really just decided to slap future trust issues onto Anne finding out Hop Pop, Sasha, and Marcy were all super dishonest in their intentions at one point or another. Damn, I feel so bad for her.

It makes their embracing hug back in Marcy At The Gates so much harder to watch. Anne was super glad to see her again. Anne had wondered what became of Marcy or even possibly started to think she could even be alive at all. Then come to find out later on Marcy having intentionally ripped her away from a normal life must’ve felt worse then what happened with Sasha. Anne, already done with all of Sasha’s bullshit, thought she could at least expect better from Marcy not letting her down, but that too wasn’t the case. Marcy is very much as flawed as Sasha in what she has done. To think, Anne wanted so badly to get back home, yet she’s staring the very person dead in the eye, who ripped her away from it to begin with. Marcy knew Sasha would talk Anne into taking the box from that thrift shop, even if she wasn’t completely certain it would successfully teleport them away. Regardless of whatever good intentions someone can have in why they did what they did, it still doesn’t absolve them of said mistake. Fact of the matter is, Marcy tragically made her own bed, by choosing to mess with forces she couldn’t begin to comprehend and now has to face consequences, in spite of her not deserving them.

What really got to me was when Marcy tried to spin around Anne’s personal growth and close friendship with the Plantars as all entirely thanks to her. When she said, “I gave you this! I gave you everything!”, I was like, “Nope, that couldn’t be any further from the truth.”, seeing everything that has culminated in Anne’s journey of bettering herself. Marcy didn’t give Anne anything, but a one way ticket to cutting the kid off from her family, presuming she’d be fine with this idea. It’s all kinds of messed up, however what it boils down to is Marcy undermining Anne’s independence and agency. Anne’s moral judgement in decision making was what allowed her to create this new life she made for herself in Amphibia. Anne’s honesty as a whole led her down a path of togetherness, while Marcy’s lying landed her in a result of not wanting to be alone, costing her so much.

“I don’t believe this. We were so focused on each other we couldn’t see what was right in front of us!”

True Colors excels at earning each of its emotional beats because they line up with character motivations down to the last letter. Anne doesn’t want to trust Sasha anymore because of their already rocky past, which leads to her helping King Andrias regain control of his kingdom. Sasha not keeping a lid on her temper, wanting to rule over Amphibia, and trying to reinforce that power dynamic with Anne & Marcy only made things worse for her image of a changed good friend. There wasn’t a chance in Hell Anne would hear Sasha’s reasoning after she flat out tried to take away her frog family, by attempting to use the Calamity Box a bit ago in the episode. Marcy wanted to believe there was a happily ever after in seeing this world traveling idea as their only chance for salvation as friends for life, but it turned out to be something much more sinister, when learning of Andrias’ backstory and his true scumbag nature. All three of their motivations come clashing together, blinding them from a much bigger danger. Something that effectively puts everyone at stake.

Amphibia’s Season 2 finale works so excellently, given it covers important dramatic elements it’s been stirring around since Season 1′s early rumblings. Amphibia is a story centered around people’s need for emotional connections. True Colors builds miraculously off what Reunion already did quite well in showing friendships can become rough and they are never easy to deal with. When you have to make a stand it can be a tough pill to swallow on the reality check of maybe this “good friend” of your’s isn’t as nice as you previously thought them to be. Anne having been hurt one too many times now by her former friend sends that message close to home, so much so even Sasha begins to question her morality as a human being. It poignantly encapsulates how this trio’s complex friendship is a serious growing issue needing to be reexamined, overall.

What if Anne’s right..? What if I am a horrible person...?

Something I absolutely love to pieces about True Colors, also a testament to Season 2′s darn good writing, is how much introspective we get from each character on what they’re feeling. We’ve seen plenty of Sasha’s vulnerability before in other episodes centered on her issues, but now we’re getting to the root of it. Sasha is really taking everything more to heart, little by little. Sasha’s understanding what kind of an effect she has on people, seeing the damage it has caused made evident by Percy and Braddock in Barrel’s Warhammer. Grime once told her, “Some dreams have a price and not everyone is willing to pay it.”, where she’s questioning that idealism every passing minute the invasion plan proceeds further into reaching success. Sasha isn’t sure what to do with herself anymore feeling aimless. Those previous episodes had a real impact on her priorities more than she cared to let on with Sasha’s typical tough girl act. This kid has let her guard down more, which scares and confuses Sasha. She’s always used to playing the role of protector it contradicts everything Sasha stands for when the roles are totally reversed because now Anne has made her feel the tremendous change in their growth as individuals.

Sasha’s lifestyle has been all about control that after somewhat learning to be more considerate to Anne & Marcy’s feelings she feels beyond conflicted about what truly matters to her. The most screwed up part of it all is Sasha didn’t want to fight anymore, taking up a pacifist approach after seeing what King Andrias had been hiding from everyone. It’s a fitting punishment for Sasha to try bringing Anne over to work together once more, but getting her pleas for companionship outright ignored. Anne was correct that Sasha had wasted all the chances to be reasonable. Boonchuy tried to hear out Sasha before at The Third Temple. One wanted to start things over again to iron out their serious issues, but the other was driven by bitterness, while only remorseful to a degree at best, of seeing their once weak friend become so independent, mature, and stronger that it drove her up wall. Sasha wanted to take away that “problem” being the Plantars, since in her eyes they’re the source of Anne’s strength, driving a wedge further between the two girls in their heated Reunion 2.0 battle.

True Colors demonstrates the horrific price of no trust, communication, nor teamwork from the three main girls that Andrias smoothly took advantage of, as if they were fiddles. 

“That’s the thing about friends isn’t it? The more you love them, the more it hurts when they go.”

King Andrias is quite literally what I wanted Lunaris to be, where DuckTales’ Season 2 finale didn’t impress me on doing. He’s a serious big baddie to the main cast, who follows through on his threats of violence to demonstrate his wide array of arsenal and power. Andrias doesn’t just emotionally manipulate characters, like poor Marcy, but utterly crush them without an ounce of remorse for his actions. When he dropped Sprig out that window after Anne willingly let him have the Calamity Box back I thought they were legit gonna kill this boy off. The way Anne’s flashback montage of her good times with Sprig were eerily shot really didn’t help either on that note. Anne’s Calamity power finally activating is easily up there among stuff, like Dewey risking his life for Della’s disappearance in Last Crash, where the cinematography is shot and animated brilliantly. You feel Anne’s blind raging sadness in every hit she landed on those robots and Andrias. If anyone didn’t believe Sprig was like a little brother to Anne, then I dunno how anyone couldn’t view their bond anymore as such after this hugely defining scene. Anne went bloodthirsty when she believed Sprig to be dead further evidenced when she hugged him in relief afterwards exclaiming, “Sprig!? You’re alive!? Oh, thank goodness...”, which cuts deep so damn much.

Anne was ready to fight every one of Andrias’ troops in that castle to the death, if need be. Before Sprig came back from falling, thanks to Marcy’s quick acting, to comfort Anne, her only goal was to slaughter every opponent in that throne room, along with making Andrias pay dearly for even daring to lay a single finger on anyone of the Plantars. I’m not gonna lie, this pivotal power up reminded me so much Gohan turning Super Saiyan 2 after Cell curb stomped Android 16 into pieces with a smirk on his face. Anne Boonchuy’s maddening outburst is a classic testament to the idea of, “Piss off the nicest person and they’ll make it their mission to instill the biggest kind of fear/terror into you.”. showing this kid at her most vulnerable mental state, yet. Sprig & Anne’s cathartic embrace really messed me up in reinforcing just how these two respect, love, and would go above any of their limitations to help the other out. Sprig’s “death” scene was a masterful bait by the writers into making us think someone was gonna die and it was gonna be a poor kid, no less.  

However, it was actually all just a bait and switch for the real, “Oh, shit. They really just did that”, moment with Marcy unexpectedly getting run through with Andrias’ gigantic sword. In a last ditch effort, Marcy wanted to atone for what she had a hand in getting them all into. Marcy was ironclad determined in making her own stand for what was right trying to save the people she endangered. Akin to what Sasha did in Reunion for saving Anne’s life, Marcy does the exact same here. Although, unfortunately this time, no one is here to protect Marcy from escaping death, like Grime catching Sasha from plummeting at Toad Tower. Marcy couldn’t react in time because she was so focused on helping her dear friends out. She wanted to prove to herself at least one time, “I’ve screwed up so much stuff with my friends. Maybe, just maybe. If I get my friends back home, it’ll prove I’m not an entirely crappy person for setting these events into motion.”. Marcy’s own deep seeded remorse is what saved Anne & the Plantars, while being the cause of her own untimely demise at Andrias’ hands.

This scene is what no doubt encouraged the warning sign for younger viewers Disney decided to make for them. It’s impressive how far Matt and his crew are willing to go for intense dramatic content. Andrias trying to crush Polly with his fist after destroying Frobo with casual ease, dropping Sprig out of the window from up sky high, and stabbing Marcy with his powerful sword displays his cold blooded brutality. Doesn’t matter who you are. If you get in the way of Andrias’ plans for multiverse domination, then he’ll throw anyone into their own grave, be it man, woman, or child. That’s the mark of a truly terrifying antagonist.

Andrias didn’t care who had to be hurt or manipulated to get back the box, so he could invade other worlds with Earth being his next prime target for invasion. Marcy’s fate is a horrifyingly poetic statement, since Sasha stated to Anne in a flashback from Marcy At The Gates, “One of these days, she’s gonna get herself killed.”, with True Colors tying back to this line in a disturbing manner. Something that sends chills down my spine is we get to see the full extent of how far Andrias shoved the sword through her body. We don’t just see the entry point of where it hit her, but it even zooms out to show the whole thing. Real talk, I got serious Avatar The Last Airbender vibes from this scene. Reminded me so much of Aang getting suddenly zapped with lightning by Azula when he tried to enter the Avatar state. Marcy didn’t want to be alone so badly she ended up inevitably dying alone trying to send Anne back home to their reality. One Hell of a way to close off Marcy’s last moments in Season 2, until her inevitable resurrection happens in Season 3 now that King Andrias has her in a tube tank that looks tied to his master.

True Colors ends on a deeply bittersweet cliffhanger leaving the fates of Sasha & Grime totally unknown if they’ll get away by the skin of their teeth, or get captured by Andrias’ soldiers and robots. Anne finally returned home with the Plantars, but at a deadly cost of leaving her other close friends behind in Amphibia. After all the isolation, heartbreak, and endurance she went through with her frog family Anne finds herself at a total loss for words. Once again, Anne is in a state of solitude of not knowing if her friends are really okay or not, mirroring the start of Season 1 when she landed into Amphibia’s world. It’s safe to say to say that, “Finally me and it’s no big deal.”, lyrics have aged terribly for Anne’s realization of finding her own identity came at the expense of getting separated from friends she’s known since kindergarten. Definitely see Anne becoming a lot more protective of the Plantars now more than ever after watching Marcy drop to the ground from being stabbed in front of her eyes.

Amphibia’s Season 2 finale is exactly how you capitalize on a winning story telling formula of dramatic writing, lovable characters with layered depth, and increasing the stakes of your story in an organic manner. True Colors is a finale that should be talked about for a long time to come, as it not only showed how worth the wait it was, but reinforces why Amphibia is a truly great series. It’s unafraid to take its characters to dark places in a way that feels totally earned.

Amphibia Season 2 is everything a sequel to a first film should be.

#amphibia true colors #amphibia spoilers #amphibia season 2 #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #sasha waybright #sprig plantar #polly plantar #hop pop plantar

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

bro I sent the matt/kate ask and you gave me kate/frank feelings so like if you want to can I have that as well?

How dare you. i have been waiting for years to be asked about frankate (also i feel the need to clarify that this is very specifically Nazar-fic-Kate)

What was their first impression of each other?

“this fucking idiot” basically. they meet when Matt is chained to the roof and Kate is like “pls stop terrorizing my bf” and frank is like “your bf is a moron”

What is their ship name?

Frankate...frankkate? anything that’s a chess pun (bishop...castle...get it...)

in my WIPs they’re spooks and snipers

Describe their relationship dynamic.

Kate: FRANK NO

Frank: FRANK YES

it’s honestly a lot of philosophical discussions about killing people, Frank calling Kate out on her bullshit, and Kate acting as an impulse check. One of the BIG THINGS with this relationship is Kate realizing that Frank can and will kill someone if she asks him to, no questions asked, and that is both terrifying and a turn on. The fact that Frank trusts her moral compass so completely--he realizes that he’s a little fucked up when it comes to that, so he will look to her for the thumbs up/thumbs down kind of thing. 

like. to the point Kate has to kick Frank out of a fancy Bishop party because if he stays she knows she’ll ask him to kill her dad and he WILL.

What was their relationship like before they got together?

once they got done bitching at each other over Daredevil (and Kate yelled at him a LOT) they worked pretty well together? Kate helped Frank figure out the drug smuggling thing (turns out Derek Bishop was involved with that). They would get each other coffee and check in with each other’s mental health. Frank is very soft with her, in a lot of ways. But also not, they did beat each other up at least once and Frank shot her very much on purpose but they always were fond of each other. 

once they meet back up after Matt ~dies~ they’re....really, really good for each other. Kate feels like she’s able to be honest with Frank in a way she can’t be with anyone else, because what the hell could she say that would scandalize Frank? She doesn’t need to step lightly around him because Frank’s never stepped lightly in his life. Kate feeling like she has more leeway to be brutally honest around Frank means he feels freer to be honest around her, and she’s seen some shit so he respects her in a way he doesn’t respect a lot of people. 

Kate gets to be angry around Frank in a way she can’t with anyone else, except maybe Clint, and that’s really important.

They both like coffee and dogs, i mean, what more do you need

How would they describe each other?

Kate: That asshole

Frank: fuckin’ fed

What do they love about each other?

absolutely nothing. they barely even know each other! what are you talking about?? go away.

they love how fighty the other is, even if it drives them crazy. the inability to leave well enough alone, the willingness to do stupid stuff together.

What do they have in common?

WEAPONS. Kate doesn’t use guns professionally but she does love going to a range every now and then. Kate knows bows and grenade launchers and long range rifles, but doesn’t care for handguns. so there’s a lot of very sexually charged shooting dates where Kate lets Frank put his hands on her and around her to correct her grip, and he knows she’s just letting him, for the most part, but they both like it. she teaches him how to use a bow, and he’s terrible. it doesn’t help that Kate smells really good and she’s very very close and he’s never going to need to know how to shoot a recurve, so he doesn’t feel bad about not paying attention. Kate has general gun knowledge so he gets super obscure stuff to teach her how to shoot. like a musket, or the kind of rifle you’d take down a hippo with, something with a shitton of recoil so he can brace her against him. He’s not a proud man, okay, he’ll take his excuses to hold Kate close in public wherever he can

Frank likes dressing Kate up in body armor and Kate likes dressing Frank up in sweaters and suits. 

Also dogs. The have Lucky, and the dog Frank rescues. Kate names him something terrible. Like Charm (lucky and charm, get it?) or (apple) Jack (lucky charms and apple jacks) or Oberon

What are some differences between them?

Frank is very willing to kill. Kate is not. Frank is very mission-oriented--he’s a soldier, he gets a job, he does it. Kate’s been a leader, she’s worked with bureaucracy, she thinks about the optics of situations (yes it makes sense to have a shootout on the boardwalk but perhaps we could go to a less family-friendly location?)

What made them realize they were in love?

almost losing each other--or thinking they were almost losing each other. also, the day Sarah Lieberman kisses Frank. That’s when Frank has the realization of “okay, the kissing, that’s fine, but there’s actually someone specific I’d like to do this with” and with Kate it was more like “ (: i’m so happy ((: frank has found some happiness. i am not jealous of him kissing someone else (((: that would be silly”

What are their love languages?

so much physical affection. so much wound bandaging. Frank bringing Kate coffee to work or food to a stakeout. Beating up muggers together. Cooking together, they’re so disgustingly domestic. cuddling. all the time cuddling. hands in back pockets, pinkies linked, Frank just COCOONS her in bed (which is not to say Kate is always the little spoon. Frank loves being little spoon every now and then) they both get very octopus-limbed with each other. “if i’m plastered to you you can’t leave without me” kind of thing. they’re lowkey possessive

Do they get married? Who proposes and how?

Frank proposes, but getting to that point is a team effort, yanno? They're out in LA and Kate's in the kitchen stock still because she's living??? With Frank castle??? And kind of has been for a WHILE? And Frank's wrestling with Lucky and Kate suddenly realizes she loves him so much and there's like pasta boiling on the stove and its domestic and unexciting and neither of them are bleeding and Kate sort of dazedly says “hey Frank, would you be interested in getting married someday?”

and Frank doesn’t answer, just rummages around in one of his bags, pulls out a small box that he tosses to her. Inside is a ring. “took you long enough,” he says

What would happen if they never met?

they’re both very sad and depressed. i feel like being with Kate gives Frank more moral nuance and being with Frank makes Kate rawer, in a way. So without each other, they are really closed off emotionally. Kind of frozen.

Who dies first? How does the other one react?

Woooof ok Frank probably dies first and Kate is fucking FURIOUS about it. It's not unexpected because hes the punisher for god's sake, and he's older than her by almost a decade but still

It could happen, though, that Kate dies first, sudden and unexpected. And Frank loses. His. Shit. Idk who kills her, Fisk or Masque or Russo or all three, but you can bet your ass Frank gets his bloody revenge. And he doesn't technically kill himself, but he's reckless and gets shot a lot and bleeds out on Kate's grave. Yeah.

Are there any love rivals?

BILLY RUSSO, Totes makes a move on Kate, and also he’s in love with Frank so there’s that. 

Matt isn’t really a rival? In a perfect world they’re ot3 but do not ask me how we get from Matt pretending to be dead to a happy healthy polyamorous relationship, i don’t know

Describe your favorite moment of that ship!

the pining! the mutual yearning! and both of them are like “this is not a good time for a relationship” and then the dumb jealousy! Frank is jealous of Billy Russo, who is trying to get Kate to work for him, and Kate is jealous of Micro’s wife, Sarah, when she kisses Frank, the YEARNING

What do other characters think about this relationship?

“What. the hap. is fuckening”

Micro gets it, he thinks they’re idiots and adorable af, you know, for people who are such deadly shots, but most of the people on Kate’s side of the equation just don’t get it or think Frank’s a rebound. America and Cassie are the first ones to realize he’s sticking around.

Karen’s not to sure about them, but she likes them both and thinks they’re good for each other. 

Curtis think they’re both morons (fond) but in different ways so they balance out.

Most people on Frank’s side of the equation get it. People on Kate’s side are like “you went from self-castigating catholic lawyer to vengeance-fueled murder machine, are you ok?” 

Describe or write a really fluffy scene!

ohhhh ok so this is. probably one of my favorite scenes ever. not because it’s particularly well-written, but because i like the idea behind it

Kate has her legs wrapped around Frank, her arms draped over his shoulders as they watch the sun set over the ocean. He is very much a person to drape oneself over.

"Frank," she says, a touch of reverence in her voice as the light catches something. "Frank."

"What?"

"You've got grey hair."

"The fuck? Seriously, Spook, you gotta point that out when we're doing the romantic thing?"

Kate wraps her hands around his skull, tipping it this way and that. It's hard to tell when he has it this short but—yeah. It's there. Kate swallows down an unexpected lump in her throat as Frank continues to bitch until she drapes herself more over his shoulder and turns his head so she can shut him up with a kiss.

Kisses.

A lot of kisses, actually.

"Jesus," he pulls back after a minute, the pad of his thumb rough on her cheek as he swipes at the moisture under her eyes. "You cryin' over some grey hairs?"

"I didn't think you'd stick around long enough for me to see them," she admits.

"Not goin' anywhere, Spook. You're stuck with me."

He's not getting it. Kate presses her forehead against his, her fingers finding the spot where a bullet entered his head and changed his life. "Frank, I didn't think you'd be alive long enough to get them."

Describe or write a really angsty scene!

how about matt comes back aftermath

“You’re not going to make me choose?” Kate’s voice slips out of neutral, into something like hope. Not the kind of thing she’d ever thought Frank would be suggesting, but--

“I’m not gonna make you choose, no.” He smiles at her, a wrong kind of smile, and turns slowly, heading towards the door. His hand is on the knob before her brain processes this enough to send words to her mouth.

“Where—what are you doing, Frank?”

He doesn’t face her. “I’m leaving.”

“You’re—leaving.” The words feel strange, they sour in her mouth and panic wraps brittle fingers around her throat, choking her. “Why—are you leaving?”

“I just said, Spook. Not gonna make you pick.”

Realization and rage burn through her, bright and quick. “So you’re leaving? You’re not making me choose because you’re doing the choosing for me?”

“That’s what you want.”

“No it’s not! Stop making decisions for me! I don’t—I don’t know what I want, yeah, but I know what I don’t want!”

“You told me you still love him. Best thing is for me to go.” He says it with no inflection, as if he wasn’t ripping Kate’s heart out and his too.

“No, I don’t want you to leave! You leaving is the opposite of what I want because what I want--” her voice breaks. “Is for you to stay. I don’t know what to do, but I don’t want you to leave, Frank. I love him, but he left me. He hurt me. And I love you, too. And I like you, which is more important, sometimes, and you helped me when I couldn’t find myself, you just—you let me be, you let me be angry and ugly and awful and you didn’t make me apologize for it or feel sorry about it, or guilty. And I owe you for that—that’s not why I want you to stay, but if you do stay because of it—god, that’s bad, right?” She takes a shaky breath. “Frank. Please stay. I want you to stay.”

Talk about a headcanon you’ve never talked about before.

Frank poses as Kate’s bodyguard when she’s Kate Bishop, heiress who doesn’t know self defense. They were at a party and Kate’s sister Susan was like “huh, you look a lot like mass murderer frank castle, there, pal.”

and of course frank says no he’s not he gets that a lot, and Susan gets right up close to him and says “i don’t care who you are, i just see how my little sister looks at you, and if you break her heart like the last guy did i will litigate your ass into the ground, sir. the GROUND”

also, like, an entire 1920s mafia au where derek is the man behind frank’s family being killed (which is why frank is working for him) and he’s kate’s bodyguard and he covers for her sneaking out and kicking ass

What does a typical date look like for them?

not to be basic but walking dogs and drinking coffee together. stopping a drug deal along the way. going to a shooting range. 

What’s a really significant moment in their relationship?

Frank gets roped into being Kate’s backup on a SHIELD mission. Frank takes a shot at the target and Kate’s pissed because she was supposed to take the shot, and it’s this whole thing. About Kate being angry that Frank could have been made and Frank being angry that Kate wouldn’t take the shot, putting herself in danger, and both of them are just PISSED until they realize that both of them are just AFRAID and FRANTIC. they’re both just like “what would I do if something happened to you?? huh???

#Anonymous #kate bishop #hawkeye #young avengers #frank castle #frankate #my stuff #god i have a lot of feelings about these two #i am working on the other ones i PROMISE!!!

[c-is-for-circinate]

An M9 major arc breakdown: part 1

Arc 1: Who the fuck are you? (I think we might be mercenaries??): episodes 1-25

I was going to do a nice gloss over what I see as the four major arcs of the Mighty Nein story so far in one post, and then I realized that I am (*ahem*) long-winded, we’ll say.  And there’s a lot to be said!

Instead, a separate post for each arc, why not.  [I will stick links to parts 2-4 here when they’re written and posted!]

So: arc 1.  Covering 24 episodes and, according to critrole stats, about 35 in-game days, this arc manages to be both one of the longest and one of the shortest.  It covers levels 2-5, and everything from the first meeting in Trostenwald all the way through leaving Hupperdook.  It’s a lot!  And I thought a lot about trying to split it up, but the more I looked for a breaking point in these episodes, the more every possible division felt really arbitrary, and reinforced the idea that this chunk of episodes has the same theme at the center all the way through.

The arc of these episodes is specifically the progression of the Mighty Nein from not being a thing at all to maybe, sort of, somehow being a thing.  It’s full of great character moments, and lays the groundwork for, I suspect, pretty much every important thing to happen throughout the entire campaign, (with the possible exception of some of Caduceus’s stuff, but even then, I have suspicions), because Matt is Good At His Shit.  It’s also super interesting in terms of the entire show, because even though it establishes everything, the unsteady conclusion it seems to reach about who the M9 might be or might become gets almost completely (seemingly) thrown out the window by the very next arc--but more about that in the next arc’s post.

In this arc I think we need to take just a moment to get meta in terms of players vs characters, because this is the one part of the story so far where that division is actually, actively important.  There’s two big reasons for that.  One, the players are still learning who their own characters are, even as the characters are learning each other.  Two, there is one single, central, and encompassingly important fact that the players all know that the characters don’t, and resolving that disconnect shapes the tone of this entire arc.

The members of the Mighty Nein are going to be together for a very long and very epic journey.  It’s a fact.  Even if individual characters die or choose to leave, the group itself is destined for something big, because everybody at that table has every intention of playing straight through to level 20 all over again.  What’s more, everybody at that table is already family in nearly every real-life way that matters.  The audience knows that this group is going to be something special, expects them to become family in their own right before they’ve even met.  The DM knows.  The world itself probably knows, in-game--a group of strangers meet in Trostenwald and somewhere on her celestial plane, the Raven Queen is probably watching a bunch of fate-threads tangle together and make a mess of her pretty fate tapestry all over again.  The only people who don’t know how meaningful this group is going to be, to the world or to its own members, are the characters themselves.

And that leads to a fascinating dynamic, where these characters run into each other in Trostenwald, and then stay together for reasons even they can’t necessarily fully explain.  They never sit down and say, “okay, let’s be mercenaries together”--they get kicked out of Trostenwald and say, “I guess let’s go to Zadash together, maybe?”, and then they just...never break up.  The number one question for the whole first chunk of this arc is, “Why am I even with these assholes?”  Sure, the easy answer is, “because the players have decided the characters are going to be,” but that’s boring and kind of besides the point.  Yes the players have decided that the characters are going to be together--and that creates a story where the characters and the players both have to figure out why as they go along.

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The way this plays out is different for each character, but there are some commonalities:

Caleb and Nott both have long-term goals, and even though neither of them knows it at first, they both have the same long-term goal: somehow get back to the way the world used to be.   The trouble is, this is a really distant goal for both of them, something that requires the kind of intense magic they don’t understand and barely even believe in.  Their short-term goals are a much more basic ‘survive and also keep this other person alive long enough to figure out how to achieve that long-term goal’, and that’s what they say they’ve signed up with the rest of the group for.  It’s a relatively simple answer that ends up getting ever more complicated in reality.

Caleb and Nott’s relationships with the group actually parallel each other a lot at this early stage, and it isn’t just because they come as a prepackaged duo.  Both of their long-term goals have an undercurrent of desperate loneliness that they’ve each been living with since their lives fell apart.  In theory, getting what they’re after will help fix that one way or another--but in the mean time, suddenly they’re surrounded by people, and they can’t help but care.  They just also don’t trust the rest of the group, because how do you trust people at all, ever?  Nobody’s been particularly kind to either of them since everything went to shit, and if the universe had any kindness to begin with it never would’ve happened in the first place.  But there’s this undercurrent of...maybe, if they learned to love and trust this group, they’d find out they don’t need what they’re trying to get to begin with, because they’ve already got the secure love and acceptance they’re really craving.  Maybe.  Certainly neither of them have started to figure that out yet.  They can barely admit to liking their compatriots at all.

What’s even more tricky is that neither of them actually have much of a plan for getting from their short-term survival goals towards their long-term goals.  Nott literally doesn’t know how Caleb could turn her back into a halfling--she just has faith that he can, if he gets powerful enough, and it leads to things like the stolen letter for an academy Caleb would not set foot in again for all the love or money in the world.  Caleb is so bad at bridging the gap between what’s in front of him in this world right now, and the big nebulous world-shattering Thing he wants to eventually achieve.  After all, what’s in front of Caleb right now doesn’t matter, or it won’t once he twists the whole world into a new shape anyway--except that it is in front of him right now, and needs to be survived and dealt with, somehow, and that’s distracting in its own right.  So the whole first arc is full of moments like Caleb trying to take the spell scroll and Nott trying to steal Fjord’s letter, where they’re grabbing at an apparent immediate step towards their long-term goals at the expense of the people around them, and maybe even to the detriment of those ultimate aims.

Basically, for Caleb and Nott, being with this group is supposed to be a means to an end--but they don’t really know how being with this group is going to help them achieve that end, they’re just...pretty sure it will.  Somehow.  They’re definitely eating better now, and maybe if Caleb gets into that library it’ll help, or something, maybe, he hopes.  The unspoken question for Caleb and Nott both, as Arc 1 progresses, is--do they actually think being with the group is going to help them achieve those all-important goals, or do they just like being here?  Nott will follow Caleb anywhere, because he’s her way out of this goblin life, but she doesn’t encourage him to leave to progress somewhere else.  Caleb argues with himself when he’s alone, but he always stays in the end.  Is it practicality?  Is there a plan?  Or did they just accidentally fall in with a group of people they actually like, and the group’s constant shenanigans are a useful distraction from having to admit what they're apparently willing to sacrifice for the sake of being here rather than alone?

Fjord and Jester, meanwhile, both claim to have long-term goals, but they sure don’t show any indication that they care about pursuing them.  Which makes sense, because Jester and Fjord show up in Trostenwald with personal quests that are devoted to a very nebulous, hypothetical sort of belonging (contrast with Caleb and Nott, who want to belong in very specific ways, in places they once already lived).  Their worlds have both fallen apart, too, but far more recently and a little less dramatically.  They’re not looking to get back to what they once had, they’re looking to replace it.

Or, to be more specific: Fjord’s entire adult life thus far has been defined by his job.  Being a sailor wasn’t just his profession, it was his identity.  It’s what he did; it’s where he lived; it’s where he found the only person who ever really cared about him or called him family; it’s where he found his self-worth and his social worth, the first and only place he ever felt valuable to anyone else in the community or the world at large.  Heading up to the Soltryce Academy to figure out what’s up with this sword is about finding a whole new self, with a new purpose, a new job, a new person who can tell him what he’s good at and good for and where he belongs now.

Jester’s entire life has been defined by her mom.  Marion is her entire world.  Jester literally doesn’t know anybody outside the Lavish Chateau, and aside from the Traveller, the few people who do know she exists at all are servants or coworkers of her mother.  Jester’s world is tiny, with Marion at the center of it.  If Fjord’s self-worth is caught up in his job and what he does, Jester’s is entirely determined by making people joyful and happy, and the only two people she’s ever really had the chance to please in that way are her mother and the Traveler.  So she’s looking for her other parent, to replace the one thing she’s always had right there.

In many ways, the particulars of what Fjord and Jester are pursuing don’t actually matter that much.  Fjord doesn’t need the Soltryce to give him a job or a purpose.  He jumps headfirst into the mercenary business almost overnight; they’ve been in Zadash less than a week before he’s chatting with the Gentleman about professional networking like a man who’s about to pull out his company business cards.  Jester doesn’t need a dad, she just needs people to love her and be delighted by her presence.  It turns out that this team of people just so happens to address that core need for both of them, and that’s enough for Jester and Fjord.  They’re in this head first.

The thing about Fjord and Jester is, though, neither of them are asking any questions about the long term either.  Because rolling with the Mighty Nein is hitting all the right buttons to get at the root of what they need, they’re both super blase about letting certain details go without question.  Why does Fjord have these new powers he’s now starting to understand?  What kind of relationship does Jester actually want with a parent?  And where does the rest of the group see this whole situation going in the next weeks, months, years?  Jester and Fjord aren’t asking--and that makes sense too, because if they’re not asking, then they don’t have to face the answers.  If Fjord doesn’t ever make it to Soltryce, nobody can tell him he’s not good enough, and if Jester never quite gets around to meeting her father, she doesn’t have to find out why he never came back.  If they don’t ask questions about the group, maybe nobody will ever remember to leave.

Beau and Molly would be so pissed at being grouped together here, which is not actually why I did it, but is a nice additional nuance.  (Part of why they hate each other so much is because they’ve got a lot in common deep down--they both care very deeply and project an image of not caring very much at all, and it pisses both of them off constantly.)  The truth is, Beau and Molly are both with the Mighty Nein because they literally have nowhere else to go.   Caleb and Nott are trying to regain their old lives; Fjord and Jester are trying to replace their old lives; but Molly and Beau don’t really have lives besides this, or at least not lives they’d admit to.

These two are the closest thing to Professional Criminals in the group when it all gets started--Nott and Caleb might steal and con to survive, but for Beau and Molly it’s been an actual job, with coworkers and workplace etiquette, and bigger heists with full crews arguably similar to the M9 in the past.  The circus was Molly’s everything and it got smashed to bits within the first four episodes, but the core Mollymauk of it all means that his life fundamentally doesn’t change with its loss.  He is still on the road skipping from place to place, living out of bedrolls and carts and inns if there’s good luck; he’s still slinging bullshit and the odd con, doing a good turn when he can and keeping an eye out for coin; he’s still messing around with a couple of swords, trying not to get beat up or thrown in jail or run out of town, killing a bit when necessary; he’s still embedded in the middle of a group of walking disaster weirdos full of Issues and interpersonal conflict who somehow have to live together and rely on each other with all their broken bits and strangeness.  Beau played local contact for every reasonably-sized crew of criminals to come through Kamordah, and not a one of them ever kept her around for the long haul, but she knows seedy underbellies and she knows how to punch people for pay and she knows about honor among thieves and she knows how to trust fundamentally untrustworthy people just exactly as far as she can throw them.

So just the basic everyday operation of being part of the Mighty Nein, the important job skills and general lifestyle, is more in line with what Beau and Molly have already been doing than it is for anyone else in the group.  There’s also less conflict with their overarching long-term life goals.  Neither of them have any, besides ‘keep doing this as long as I can’.  I don’t think either Molly or Beau have any real vision of what a future even looks like, Beau because she’s young and too busy rebelling against to think about building towards, Molly because with no real past he barely even has a concept of change or becoming anything other than what he is.  The most either of them can really picture would be a life they don’t want: the Proper Lionett Daughter or Lucien Whoever-The-Fuck.  Those are nightmare scenario lives that belong to other people, and Beau and Molly will run from them literally as far and as fast as they can.

While Caleb and Nott are avoiding the question of “is this group really going to help me get what I want?” (because the answer might mean they should leave, and they want to stay); and Fjord and Jester are avoiding the question of “should I actually try to find the thing I came looking for in the first place?” (because real answers are so much scarier than unsolved questions); Beau and Molly are determinedly avoiding the high school guidance counselor question question of “where do you see yourself in five years?”.  They have no long-term plans, and neither of them want any.  What they’ve got going on right here is good.  They don’t have to be alone (which Beau has been all her life, and Molly has never been once, and they both want so badly to avoid).  They get to stay in constant motion, running and fighting and drinking and earning money and occasionally experimenting with illegal ethereal-plane-enhancing substances, and that’s just fine.

Yasha doesn’t quite fit in with anyone else because Yasha is gone so damn much, but also because she doesn’t quite match any of the categories.  Her whole life fell apart, just like practically everyone else’s, but she’s not trying to get it back, and she’s not trying to replace it.  And Yasha does have somewhere else to be, a path she thinks maybe she ought to be following if she could just figure out where it is.  She keeps coming back because Molly is the closest thing she has to family; she keeps coming back because fate keeps bumping her into the group and saying she should; she keeps coming back because it’s good coin and easy killing-things work and they’ll have her; she keeps coming back because she likes them, because Caleb is awkward with people but lends her his cat, because Jester is bright and smiling and also loves flowers, because Beau fights next to her and Fjord respects her and Nott gave her flowers once, and that matters.

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As Arc 1 progresses, as the players get to know their characters better and the characters get to know each other, they begin to collectively answer “Why am I with this group?” with another question: “Just what is this group, anyway?”.  It’s a little out of order and a little bit of a mess, just like the party itself, just like life, but the truth is that the members of the Nein find themselves more or less attached to this merry little band before they’ve even really defined what said band is.  The characters become a group by accident, by fate, by will of the players, because they’re all desperate for things and avoiding things and because why not.  Many decisions about what kind of group they become, though, are a lot more deliberate.  

‘Mercenary’ is the first thing they pick up, and they specifically don’t choose it for themselves.  (It’s also the first thing they lose when the next arc starts, or maybe at the very end of this one.)  They roll into Allfield in the middle of a gnoll attack, and Bryce offers cash for gnoll ears before they can even ask ‘what’s in it for us?’.  They already had weapons in hand to deal with the threat--it’s impossible to say what the team would’ve done without that offer, and they were all broke as fuck and badly in need of money anyway--but they didn’t present themselves as swords-for-hire until someone was already asking to hire them.

Allfield teaches them that they can be mercenaries (and gives them an excuse to stay as a group), while Zadash begins to teach them what kind of mercenaries they want to be.  It becomes very clear very quickly that this group does not like institutions of power (something I’ve already written about at length).  They do a single job for the crownsguard and then immediately turn around and start working with back-tavern insurgents and underground smugglers.  While their individual opinions may vary, collectively they do Not Like The Empire.

They also establish themselves as a group that does not trust in general, either the outside world or each other--and furthermore, a group that will push and investigate and uncover answers every time a mystery pops up.  They don’t take the Knights of Requital at face value, they investigate around the back end; they track down the Gentleman just because he’s there.  They demand answers from each other, from Molly baiting a trap to catch Nott stealing from Fjord to the whole group teaming up to demand ‘Lucien’ explain himself.  Caleb doesn’t trust Callie, and Beau doesn’t trust Caleb, and nobody trusts Fjord’s stone-swallowing, and there’s no resolution, only more questions.

Likewise, they are not trustworthy.  While they take jobs and generally deliver on what they pay for, they also ad-lib and change direction for their own benefit, and their loyalty to their employers is debatable at best.  The argument over the spell scrolls in the High Richter’s house is a major division at the time, but by the time they’re clearing out necromancy for the Gentleman, nobody really sides against stealing the journal or Yasha’s sword.  They just come up with a plan together to cheat the Gentleman effectively.  When they clear out the merrow in his safehouse in the swamp, they have no problem taking as much of his stuff as they can.  They are out for themselves, and the jobs they take are a means to their own ends, not particularly important in and of themselves.

The M9 feel very small, as a group, in the face of a world that’s very big, and we see that tie back in with the past two points over and over again.  So much of the Zadash part of the arc involves the stirrings and edges of the war with Xhorhas, and the Nein’s almost instant response of, okay, we want to stay as FAR FROM THAT AS POSSIBLE.  The major powers of the world are big enough to crush them, and they are afraid of that--but, the attitude seems to go, the major powers of the world are also big enough to miss noticing them, and that matters too.  They steal the dodecahedron and disappear off into the shadows because they know it means something huge, and that’s scary, and therefore grabbing this piece of it might somehow protect them or the world in the long run.  They’re able to do it because they’re small, because in this clash of international titans they’re still nobody.

Lastly, this group desperately wants to be doing something moral, they just don’t necessarily know how.  They debate over whether the Knights of Requital are good guys, over whether they should help the crown, over the right thing to do with the Krynn assassin.  They are so much more comfortable working for the Gentleman, who’s a criminal right there on the surface but doesn’t appear to be actively hurting anybody, than assisting the local law.  Even when it’s not a job, or maybe even more when it’s not a job, they find themselves going out of their way to be good people: rescuing Kiri, helping Callie, finding ways to help Horace and Dolan after the attack on the spire explodes everything.  For a group of self-proclaimed mercenaries, there’s a constant undercurrent of...should we be doing this?  Is this the right thing to do?  Should we totally betray our employers because that’s the right thing to do?  They’re not loyal to anybody in particular, except maybe each other, but they’re struggling to find some kind of ideal or guiding principle to be loyal to.

All of this culminates in Hupperdook.  The group is finally unbending a little, coming to trust each other that little bit more.  Beau talks about her childhood, and Caleb says Astrid’s name, and Nott says Yeza’s, and Fjord talks about the orphanage where he grew up.  They go down into a prison to fight a whirling death-robot, and it’s sort of because Rissa’s dad promised them a reward but also sort of because Rissa is Theirs Now, and more than anything it’s to save the parents of a bunch of penniless near-orphans.  It’s a way to say fuck you! to the Imperial system; it’s a way to combine two jobs at once for their own purposes.  It is above all a very new-feeling exploration of the idea that, small or not, they can in fact actually make a meaningful difference in the world.  They have power, and that power can be used for good.  

It’s by far the least mercenary-like job they’ve taken.  Between the bail money they pay for the Schuesters and the additional cash they leave with them to take care of Kiri, they probably spend half as much on the whole endeavor as that new fancy crossbow was worth to begin with.  They did something good, and it feels better and more right than all their fumbling maybes.

Aside from Trostenwald, where crisis came to them and the whole story was about getting themselves out of trouble, Allfield and Hupperdook very much bookend this arc, and that makes a lot of sense, because there’s a very similar feeling to both jobs.  They’ve done something dangerous, and saved lives, and helped people--regular, good people who hadn’t hurt anyone to get into the situations they were in.  They made some profit doing it.  Those things are not mutually exclusive, and maybe, maybe they can build something of a career path out of finding the places where they intersect.

This first arc doesn’t exactly conclude--because with an ongoing show like this, nothing ever quite concludes--so much as it reaches a point where many of its primary themes and issues begin to look as though they could, in theory, someday be resolved.  There’s a visible path ahead that combines altruism and self-interest.  The group members are talking to each other, slowly and carefully.  There are still a lot of unanswered questions about who everyone is and what they want, but it seems like the group might just be heading in a direction towards those questions at least eventually getting asked.

It’s maybe the most optimistic place the group’s been in so far, which is of course why this is the point where everything in the whole world comes crashing down--but that’s for the next arc.

#critical role #driveby meta attack #mighty nein #campaign 2 spoilers #mostly only for the first block of episodes

[vinylexams]

A very special fireside interview with XUXA SANTAMARIA

Check Insta for our thoughts on this landmark album from Oakland duo XUXA SANTAMARIA. Stay right where you are to read a really fun interview I scored with the band this week. They’ve just released Chancletas D’Oro on Ratskin Records out of Oakland and Michael blessed me with my very own copy. It was so good I knew I needed to tell you all about it and I wanted to pick their brains a little bit, too. Without further ado, please enjoy:

//INTERVIEW

You’re still breaking into indie world at large, but you’ve already got a huge following back in California and your home-base in Oakland. What has it been like to be featured in major outlets like The Fader?

SC: We are a funny project; we ebb and flow from being total hermits to having periods of relatively high visibility (relative to aforementioned hermit state). I wouldn’t say we have a huuuge following in CA but I do think that the ‘fandom’ we’ve developed here is really genuine because we don’t play shows out of an obligation to remain visible but instead do so because we feel super passionate about the work and the audience and I think people respond to that energy. I for one, and perhaps this is because of my background in performance, have a hard time performing the same stuff over and over without change which accounts for us being selective with our playing live. That’s also why videos are such an important part of what we’re about. The piece in The Fader was important to the launch of this album because it established some of the themes and, to an extent, the aesthetics of this album in a way that can be experienced outside of a live setting. None of this is to say we don’t like playing live, in fact we love it, we just like to make our sets pleasurable to ourselves and to our audience by constantly reworking it. We strike a weird balance for sure but we’ve made peace with it. If we ever ‘make it’ (lol) it’ll be on these terms.

Chancletas D'Oro is a pretty incredible record and while it reminds me of a few bands here or there, it’s got a really fresh and unique style that merges dance with all sorts of flavors. How would you describe your music to someone who is curious to listen?

MGK: Haha, we generally struggle to describe our music in a short, neat way (not because we make some kind of impossible-to-categorize music, but just because it’s the synthesis of a ton of different influences and it’s hard for US to perceive clearly). But with that caveat in mind - IDK, bilingual art-punk influenced dance/electronic music?

SC: Thank you for saying so, we’re pretty into it :) Like Matt says, we struggle to pin it down which I think is in part to what he says – our particular taste being all over the place, from Drexciya to The Kinks to Hector Lavoe- but I think this slipperiness has a relationship to our concept making and world building. As creative people we make and intake culture like sharks, always moving, never staying in one place too long. Maybe it’s because we’re both so severely ADHD (a boon in this instance tbh) that we don’t sit still in terms of what we consume and I think naturally that results in an output that is similarly traveling. Point is, the instance a set of words - ‘electronic’, ‘dance’, ‘punk’- feel right for the music is the same instance they are not sufficient. I propose something like: the sound of a rainforest on the edge of a city, breathy but bombastic, music made by machines to dance to, pleasurably, while also feeling some of the sensual pathos of late capitalism as seen from the bottom of the hill.

The internet tells me you’ve been making music as Xuxa Santamaria for a decade now. What has the evolution and development of your songwriting been like over those ten years?

MGK: Well, when we first started out as a band we were so new to making electronic music (Sofia’s background was in the art world and mine was in more guitar-based ‘indie rock’ I guess - lots of smoking weed and making 4 track tapes haha), so we legit forgot to put bass parts on like half the songs on our first album LOL. We’ve learned a lot since then! But in seriousness, we’ve definitely gotten better at bouncing ideas back and forth, at putting in a ton of different parts and then pulling stuff back, and the process is really dynamic and entertaining for both of us.

SC: This project started out somewhat unusually: I was in graduate school and beginning what would become a performance practice. I had hit a creative roadblock working with photography - the medium I was in school to develop- and after reading Frank Kogan’s Real Punks Don’t Wear Black felt this urge to make music as a document of experience following Kogan’s excellent essay on how punk and disco served as spatial receptacles for a wealth of experiences not present in the mainstream of the time. I extrapolated from this notion the idea that popular dance genres like Salsa, early Hip Hop, and Latin Freestyle among many others, had served a similar purpose for protagonists of a myriad Caribbean diasporas. These genres in turn served as sonic spaces to record, even if indirectly, the lived experiences of the coming and going from one’s native island to the mainland US wherein new colonial identities are placed upon you. From this I decided to create an alter ego (ChuCha Santamaria, where our band name originally stems from) to narrate a fantastical version of the history of Puerto Rico post 1492 via dance music. We had absolutely no idea what we were doing but I look back on that album (ChuCha Santamaria y Usted - on vinyl from Young Cubs Records) fondly. It’s rough and strange and we’ve come so far from that sound but it’s a key part of our trajectory. Though my songwriting has evolved to move beyond the subjective scope of this first album - I want to be more inclusive of other marginalized spaces- , it was key that we cut our teeth making it. We are proud to be in the grand tradition of making an album with limited resources and no experience :P

We’re a big community of vinyl enthusiasts and record collectors so first and foremost, thanks for making this available on vinyl. What does the vinyl medium mean to you as individuals and/or as a band?

MGK: I think for us, it’s the combination of the following: A. The experience of listening in a more considered way, a side at a time. B. Tons of real estate for graphics and design and details. C. The sound, duh!

SC: In addition to Matt’s list, I would just say that I approach making an album that will exist in record form as though we were honing a talisman. Its objecthood is very important. It contains a lot of possibility and energy meant to zap you the moment you see it/ hold it. I imagine the encounter with it as having a sequence: first, the graphics - given ample space unlike any other musical medium/substrate- begin to tell a story, vaguely at first. Then, the experience of the music being segmented into Side A and Side B dictate a use of time that is impervious to - at the risk of sounding like an oldie - our contemporary habit of hitting ‘shuffle’ or ‘skip’. Sequencing is thus super important to us (this album has very distinct dynamics at play between sides a/b ). We rarely work outside of a concept so while I take no issue with the current mode of music dissemination, that of prioritizing singles, it doesn’t really work for how we write music.

MGK: We definitely both remain in love with the ‘album as art object/cohesive work’ ideal, so I would say definitely - we care a lot about track sequencing, always think in terms of “Side A/Side B” (each one should be a distinct experience), and details like album art/inserts/LP labels etc matter a lot to us.

What records or albums were most important to you growing up? Which ones do you feel influenced your music the most?

SC: I know they’re canceled cus of that one guy but I listened to Ace of Base’s The Sign a lot as a kid and I think that sorta stuff has a way of sticking with you. I always point to the slippery role language plays in them being a Swedish band singing in English being consumed by a not-yet-English speaking Sofía in Puerto Rico in the mid 90s. Other influences from childhood include Garbage, Spice Girls, Brandy + Monica’s The Boy is Mine, Aaliyah, Gloria Trevi, Olga Tañon etc etc. In terms of who influences me now, that’s a moving target but I’d say for this album I thought a lot about the sound and style of Kate Bush, Technotronic, Black Box, Steely Dan, ‘Ray of Light’-era Madonna plus a million things I’m forgetting.

MGK: Idk, probably a mix of 70-80s art rock/punk/postpunk (Stooges, Roxy Music, John Cale, Eno, Kate Bush, Talking Heads, Wire, Buzzcocks, etc etc), disco/post-disco R&B and dance music (Prince, George Clinton, Chic, Kid Creole), 90s pop + R&B + hip hop (Missy & Timbaland, Outkast/Dungeon Family production-wise are obviously awe-inspiring, So So Def comps, Jock Jams comps, Garbage & Hole & Massive Attack & so on), and unloved pop trash of all eras and styles.

Do you have any “white whale” records that you’ve yet to find?

MGK: Ha - the truth is that we’re both much more of a “what weird shit that we’ve never heard of can we find in the bargain bin” type of record buyer than “I have a custom list of $50 plus records on my discogs account that I lust over”.

SC: Not really, I’m wary of collectorship. That sort of ownership might have an appeal in the hunt, once you have it do you really use it, enjoy it? Funnily, I have a massive collection of salsa records that has entries a lot of music nerds would cry over (though they’re far from good condition, the spines were destroyed by my Abuela’s cat, Misita lol, but some are first pressings in small runs). For me its value however, comes from its link to family, as documents from another time and as an amazing capsule of some of the best music out of the Caribbean. I’m glad I am their guardian (a lot of this stuff is hard to find elsewhere, even digitally) but I live with those records, they’re not hidden away in archival sleeves, in fact, I use some of that music in my other work. Other than that, the records I covet are either those of friends or copies of albums that hold significance but which are likely readily available, Kate Bush’s The Dreaming or Love’s Forever Changes, or The Byrds Sweetheart of The Rodeo as random examples

Finally, is there a piece of interesting band trivia you’ve never shared in another interview?

SC: haha, not really? Maybe that we just had a baby together?

//

Congrats on your new baby, and also for this wonderful new album. It was a pleasure chatting with you and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you and your music!

#xuxasantamaria #interview #oakland #music #electronic #electronicmusic #ratskin #ratskinrecords

[snicketsleuth]

Slackin’ with the Sleuth: reviewing Netflix’s “The Vile Village”

After two sluggish double-episodes, we are now headed to the three best two-parters of the second season, nay, of the entire show until now. Today, we’re going to talk about direction. “A Series of Unfortunate Events” has suffered not only from being overwritten, but also from being under-directed.  Not an unfortunate consequence of the original writer being involved in the production of the television series, but rather of the other writers not controlling him enough. Episodes written by Daniel Handler get a bad rep amongst the fandom, but from their structure it’s pretty clear that he was more than willing to change his own outlines and listen to the contributions of other people. That being said, it’s hard to criticize the guy who came up with the work you’re supposed to adapt. Which is why episodes written by other people and peer-reviewed by Handler tend to fare better, as his role is to remind everyone of what made the story so successful in the first place.

We’ll see how this contributed to the improvement in direction in the latter half of Season 2. Most of it comes from the production team finally treating the series not only as an adaptation, but also as its own cinematic work. Let’s determine why below the cut.

DISCLAIMER (NOTHING TO DO WITH THE REVIEW):

I missed you guys, it’s been a while.

I apologize for abandoning the blog for so long, to the point that some of you people started worrying about me. I do appreciate the concern, so thank you. Most of my absence can simply be explained away by the many hours I’ve had to put into my day job. This has led to difficult choices regarding my hobbies and extra-work activities, writing for this blog being one of them. Truth be told, I don’t feel this blog fulfils as interesting a purpose as it did before. I’ve already talked about most book theories I cared about, and the books have been discussed to death at that point. As to other types of analyses, there are plenty of talented people on Tumblr who do it as well as me, so I didn’t feel the need to add much to the debate. But I’ve had time to think about plenty of Snicket-related topics during my absence, so no, the blog isn’t dead, just… much less active as it was a few years back. Stay tuned for more, my love for the books and their associated material is very much alive and kicking.

With all due respect (and affection) for our community, your duly devoted Sleuth.

This is the most atmospheric episode to date, and a beautiful one at that. While episodes of the first season certainly had their ambiance, most of it came from the introduction of new musical themes. The second season tries to bring the direction to the next level by fashioning each double-episode after a certain genre, which influences the entire aesthetic of the piece from its writing, colors and camera work. This is perfectly in line with the tone of the original series: each book focuses on a vivid and peculiar location which becomes a character in and of itself, and also parodies specific literary tropes. In keeping with this tradition, the televised version of  “The Austere Academy” mocks coming-of-age teen movies, “The Erstaz Elevator” has shades of musical romantic comedies from Hollywood’s Golden Age, “The Vile Village” pays homage to Westerns, “The Hostile Hospital” is a straight-up horror exploitation flick and “The Carnivorous Carnival” is a neo-expressionist drama. Or rather that’s what we were supposed to infer. In reality, “The Austere Academy” and “The Erstaz Elevator” don’t have anything special in terms of direction to truly allude to their models, and while “The Carnivorous Carnivale” is a blatant remake of “Freaks”, so was the book in the first place. Only with “The Vile Village” and “The Hostile Hospital” do we see the direction add a substantial commentary on the original aesthetic of their respective book. So while the intention is laudable, the execution is somewhat lacking as far as the entire season is concerned. More on that in the next review.

But for now let’s just gush over the gorgeous visuals of “The Vile Village”. Westerns describe the struggle of civilization in a lawless territory, a perfect setting for the crux of a book concerned with legality and mob psychology. While the introduction of the Nevermore tree leaves something to be desired, we do eventually get some fantastic shots. The integration of the CGI and the digital matte paintings significantly improves from this episode on, although whether the artificiality of previous episodes was an intentional choice from the directors is anyone’s guess. The scene of Hector’s first flight aboard the self-sustaining mobile home is a work of beauty. One must regret his line about crows being too “scary”, though. Not only is this an unnecessary change to his character (he is fascinated by the crows in the book), it doesn’t even make sense as the adaptation does not portray Hector as being scared of crows in any shape or form otherwise. He actually has a line about admiring them in the first part of the episode! What on Earth were the writers thinking?

The feels of Western movies is well-rendered, with an impressive focus or lighting. What the director seems to have forgotten is how dusty the Village of Fowl Devotees should look. This is pretty unforgivable given that the book insists on the unbearable feeling of dirtiness which permeates the town. There’s an egregious continuity error where the Baudelaire orphans escape from prison in a massive cloud of debris… then come into the next shot with immaculate clothing. This is a major sin as far as immersion goes.

Another blatant directorial choice is the tendency to film scenes across a two-dimensional space, with characters moving from one side of the screen to the next. This ever-present horizontal axis gives the series a somewhat stiff aspect, with characters not being able to express themselves in a dynamic body language in action scene. There are two possible reasons for this camerawork. Firstly, it makes certain scenes easier to follow (we must not forget that the series is expected to remain watchable for small children), although a little boring on the visual side. Secondly, it does imitate the format of a theater stage, and the theater world plays an important role in Snicket’s world, from “The Marvelous Marriage” to “La Forza del Destino”. I do think the showrunners went a little too far in this direction, though. If they’re so deadest on reproducing the feel of a theater production, maybe they should just pitch the series as a Broadway show rather than a television series. The chase sequences in this double-episode look more like a Street Fighter screen than a cinematic production.

But by far the greatest contribution of this episode is the merciful introduction of SILENCE. What a relief to hear the godforsaken concertina shut up for one minute and let us enjoy the dialogue! The heart of the double-episode comes from the back-and-forth dynamic between Jacques and Olaf (or, to a lesser extent, Esmé and Olivia). Truly a battle between blind, hopeful idealism and cynical nihilism. Major props to Nathan Fillion, who remains possibly the best actor in the entire series, and Neil Patrick Harris who should ruin the seriousness of the scenes with his constant bebopping but somehow doesn’t.

This however comes as the expanse of the Baudelaire orphans themselves, whose presence is somewhat secondary in this episode. The symbolism of them escaping the town in a fire truck is a strike of genius… but the Isadora couplet subplot is drastically skipped over and the unnecessary introduction of Mr Poe drastically reduces their screentime. It’s more forgivable than in “The Erstaz Elevator” as most scenes between the adult characters do help move the plot forward and provide interesting information, but it’s still one of our major criticisms for this season. The writers are clearly infatuated with the adult actors, which hurts the pacing of the story. It’s a shame as the child actors’ acting shows major improvements in the second season. Louis Hynes comes into his own in the prison scene, but the breakneck speed of the scene’s direction does not leave him enough room to grow. We will however concede that Jacquelyn and Larry don’t overstay their welcome in this episode, and that Jacques and Olivia’s romance is sweet to look at. While we disagree with the changes made to Olivia’s character on the whole (we’ll get to that in my review of “The Carnivorous Carnival”), it did produce some well-written, well-acted scenes. Less appreciated is the unnecessary and overstated introduction of a Violet/Duncan romance subplot… this is what happens when you base 90% of an adaptation on what admittedly amounts to fan-pandering. It’s sweet, then it’s sweeter, then you’ve got diabetes.

As far as character development goes, it’s pretty hit-or-miss. Esmé is as usual fantastic. The writers have managed to attain a difficult equilibrium regarding her character dynamic: she obeys enough not to overshadow him, but she also acts as her own antagonist, pursuing her own goals and betraying him if the need arises. The rest of the troupe also has an interesting dynamic with her and her integration in the crime family feels pretty seamless.

But so far we’ve saved the worst for the last paragraph, and as you’ve probably guessed, we’re going to have to speak about Hector. Gods almighty, what a waste of a perfectly good character. Josephine’s death was shot in a very disrespectful manner, but at least her character remained mostly the same. Here the Hector from the books, a tragic and heartbreaking portrayal of peer pressure and social anxiety, is reduced to a joke. To add insult to injury, it’s not even a funny joke: his constant fainting gets tedious quickly. And the ultimate twist about his mom’s fate not being the source of his trauma after all basically reduces his arc to a complete waste of the viewer’s time. If the writers hated him so much, why not just cut his screen time instead of demeaning his entire existence? This does not bode well for a potential adaptation of “All The Wrong Questions”, as Hector’s outlook on family loyalty and peer pressure is somewhat of a plot point in this series. I truly cannot begin to understand these choices as Hector plays a similar role to Hal, Charles and Jerome, who also have likewise personalities… but the writers have adapted Hal, Charles and Jerome faithfully and cleverly, so what gives?

#0542 #Lemony Snicket #ASoUE #a series of unfortunate events #review #daniel handler #Sunny Baudelaire #klaus baudelaire #violet baudelaire #Hector #esme squalor #count olaf #Arthur Poe #jacques snicket #neil patrick harris #nathan fillion #asoue netflix

[truthbeetoldmedia]

The Critical Role of 'Critical Role'

It’s any given Thursday night, roughly 9:50 pm Eastern Standard Time, and my house is filled with the scent of oven-fried chicken and the driving thrum of Celtic percussion and string instruments. The PS4 Twitch app is open, streaming an impressive flow of themed fan art over-scored by the aforementioned tune. My loved ones are gathered; we hunker down with our meals, eagerly anticipating the clock’s turn to 10 pm. It’s time for Critical Role.

Critical Role is a weekly Dungeons & Dragons campaign livestream, currently available on both its own Twitch channel Critical Role, as well as the Geek & Sundry Twitch. The series features live gameplay of a home-brewed world, created and made manifest by the talents of popular voice over artist Matthew Mercer, acting Dungeon Master, and featuring live unscripted performances by his equally-gifted friends. The core players are Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham; special guests also occasionally join in, such as Khary Payton, Mark Hulmes, Sumalee Montano, and Ashly Burch, who've all appeared briefly in this campaign.

If some of these names are familiar to you, that’s because the talent involved in Critical Role are renowned, tested, and aggressively committed actors/members of the production, animation, television, film, and gaming industries. Their varied skills, gravitas, and dedication combine with Matt’s ceaselessly creative mind and quick thinking into an amalgam so dense and compelling that it’s hard, as a viewer, to escape the show’s pull. Not that I’d want to; I’ve long since passed the event horizon and I’m in it until the end.

Currently, Critical Role is on its second iteration. Campaign 1 ran for several years as a private home-game amongst friends, then was translated into a format fit for livestreaming. It followed the heroic band of adventurers known as Vox Machina,  made up of characters birthed from noble archetypes; imperfect yet admirable individuals with the heart and skill to face world-rending, inconceivably fearsome enemies; a story intricately laced with nuance and lore, but grander and more sublime for it.

Campaign 2 is quite different in flavor, though still seated in the same world as its ancestral adventure, some 10 years after the fact. The team is now The Mighty Nein, a name blithely transplanted from an in-joke made by the Twitch chat and the cast themselves. The new characters are deeply flawed, broken, and self-centered individuals brought together by aligned goals and a specific brand of apathy only possible in jaded, wounded souls who just want to do at least a few decent things in their blighted lives. Despite this somewhat bleak tapestry, Matt and the Players have managed to weave in glittering threads of love, charity, hope, and devotion. It's tragic and beautiful; both rough and soft to the touch, depending on which swatch you feel.

Given that Campaign 1 is so voluminous in its scope, breadth, and tenure, it is understandably overwhelming as a starting point for the uninitiated. For this reason, I recommend diving in at the beginning of Campaign 2, launched on January 10, 2018 and available for free on Geek & Sundry’s YouTube.

I’m aware that modern media is crawling with genre stories: you can’t walk three feet without banging your toe on some phylactery or superpowered humanoid. And while Critical Role takes place in an indisputably fantastical setting, where the characters level up and come into powers which they often don’t initially comprehend, this is not a “coming of age” tale. There are no “Hero’s Journey” tropes. The growing pains explored are generally relegated to the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. The Mighty Nein learn and develop in tandem, outside the constraints and moors in which storytelling often entrenches itself. That’s the beauty of Dungeons & Dragons. Regardless of what the Dungeon Master has planned for each session, if they’ve given the Player Characters enough freedom, the emergent narrative is wholly original.

Being a Dungeon Master is famously likened to wrangling cats, though I find it more like wrangling cats who’ve learned to use laser pointers and Roombas on their own. One of the areas where Critical Role shines is that Matt is always over-prepared for whatever path the characters may choose, not to mention remarkably quick on his feet in adapting this sandbox he's established in response to how the Players decide to play, and the Players do him the courtesy of self-regulating their out of character moments and the silliness which often accompanies the excitement of roleplaying with your friends. Each session accumulates calculable progress.

But now that I’ve described the scaffolding on which Critical Role is built, I’d like to talk about the more abstract reasons I feel the series is so important, and why it’s absolutely worth your time.

One obvious benefit is that the series is live. Live broadcast media, in recent memory relegated mostly to sketch shows, soap operas, and the exhausting 24-hour news cycle, has been reinvigorated by the podcast, vlogging, and gaming communities. It’s a special joy to be present when something momentous occurs — a precious time-locked thing you share with a community made up of those who love what you love. An intangible communion of experience: in this instance, one where you cannot rely on your knowledge of narrative structure, because not only are we learning new things about these characters with the passage of time, but the actors who portray them are learning as well; all of which is packaged in breathtaking improvised acting.

The Players who make up The Mighty Nein are unafraid to make bold choices, to do things which until that precise second they didn’t know their characters would do. They don’t pander to the audience in order to provide the story beats which will make us comfy and complacent; these actors are so dedicated to maintaining organic character growth that, on occasion, some of their actions will frustrate, annoy, or anger the audience. However, the beauty in this is that none of the Players’ calls are pre-fabricated to elicit a specific reaction from the audience. You’ll love some stuff and hate some stuff, but there’s no onus, no learned helplessness, no pretense or smugness or hubris: those very things which can drive us up the wall when dealing with a lot of media these days.

Like most fandoms, there are some bad apples here and there, but Matt and the Critical Role team are dedicated to creating and maintaining an inclusive, intersectional environment where we can all thrive. The Critical Role cast and staff do everything possible to step in on behalf of their core players, special guests, and fans alike, in order to defend against, mediate, and mitigate the sporadic flares of anger, cruelty, and general suckiness which pervade so many other fandoms. They are humble and grateful and express it often, with deep sincerity.

Fan artists and other creators are welcomed, embraced, appreciated, and encouraged. Cosplayers are readily provided reference images and showcased on the official series Twitter. The Critical Role production group is even working on programs meant to provide new players and novice DMs with guidance for the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons game system, as well as help navigating the more complicated aspects of RPG group dynamics. Every Critter is celebrated and bolstered in an open-source, accessible, super-fun community.

This show has brought pure, distilled hope and joy to so many, while also maintaining its initial purpose: a group of close friends who nerd out roleplaying and having a blast. The only thing that’s ever changed is that now we get to be part of it, too.

Critical Role airs Thursdays at 7 pm Pacific Standard Time on either the Critical Role or Geek & Sundry Twitch channels.

#Critical Role #Live Action #Livestream #Roleplaying

[angstymarshmallow]

About Diamond Choices Part ?

On and off I’ve been thinking about the parameters of diamond choices. What makes it so different? Why does it matter? Why are they sometimes so many in one chapter let alone an entire book? Could there be another system to replace it?

The answer to most of these should be straight cut and dry, but very little things in life are. Instead it becomes complicated when we consider several factors and the mixed opinions of the general public.

First and foremost diamond choices are in nature exclusive content that a player has to be willing to purchase. Whether it’s for clothes to stick out among their peers and be showered in compliments, for approval from other characters, steamy diamond scenes that arguably makes you more compelled to love a character or to further the impact of a plot. These are only some of the most noticeable notions I have given some thought to after playing the mobile app for about a year (and a little bite). Mostly diamond choices work under the idea that there is some reward worth buying into. Its again – exclusive but should be exclusive for a reason. In no way do I believe that diamond content if they are to be what I’ve defined – supposed to be included in regular content.

The problem is this becomes frustrating for people for a numerous amount of reason. A common phrase pay to be gay when for the better half of certain books; female love interests are sidelined and creates an unfair dynamic and ratio for men to women. In some cases, I try to think of it as plot related reasons but other times I’m not convinced that placing any LI under the eye of a lot of diamond choices won’t encourage the everyday player to stick to them. Before I get off topic here; it isn’t the only thing ‘wrong’ with the system. While I understand the relevance of diamond choices (and often prefer them because hey I want to support the developers of the game, its writers etc), I do understand the frustration with other options.

Clothes Clothes!

Diamond choices in choosing clothes for instance. I tend to like that certain diamond choiced clothing impact and influence the story (because why else have the clothing option to begin with?) For instance, in the royal romance; the way your MC dresses does matter. Granted the free choices aren’t very appealing, it matters because it involves MC’s standing at court – the way the Corodnian media views her and honestly shows her ‘embracing’ a sort of cultural relevance in Corodnian society. To them it matters that MC dresses in the proper attire during the apple ceremony, or more recently having the Corodnian pin on her outfit from last week’s chapter in a show of support. There are other instances when this isn’t as important (which by all means skip) but I do see the importance of it.

This isn’t the same for all stories however. Smaller books such as Home for the Holiday, the Haunting of Braidwood Manor has little importance to the storyline (except for that santa dress) and It Lives in The Woods has nearly no emphasis on clothes (it’s too busy coercing me to buy a whole bunch of little animals and weapons); where choosing the diamond options have little effect.

And some books fall in between.

In Endless Summer, arguably there are a few of the diamond choices presented through clothing that unlocks an extra scene or leads to another clue for the player to uncover. The most extremely useful is that andromeda armor (because it lets you exploit approval from MC’s friends), but for the most part a lot of the clothes serves for a purpose.

In the Sophmore for the first half of the book; as MC throws parties, it is encouraged if not highly implied for MC from her friends and the game itself to change her clothes and choose a diamond option in order to throw a more successful party. It’s avoidable to be honest, because the parties doesn’t seem to have a lasting impact – but does this mean this is a case where the diamond choices don’t matter?

And then there are books where it’s apparent that the diamond option for clothes serves no other purpose than just to be aesthetically pleasing. I don’t think that’s necessarily bad – if a player has the money to spend it on more frivolous decisions than by all means. It is apart of the reason why the free options are never as glamourous. Ultimately why would it be when the non-free choices are trying to entice you the entire time you’re reading?

Plot

I spoke about this a little earlier but not in great length. In a lot of cases, I am totally for spending diamonds on uncovering more about a character, the plot or something deeper that doesn’t necessarily have too much of an impact on the overall plot. Players that don’t spend money on diamond choices, shouldn’t have a bad experience playing a book because of it. However, their experience shouldn’t be the same as someone that’s paying for those extra choices to begin with. I think there has to be some sort of balance (and while people will never be truly happy with that), I do think again the reward has to be worth it for the diamond scene to be enticing to begin with.

For example, Endless Summer has a mountain of diamond scenes. Especially in book 2 with all the idols and certain parts of book 1 (collecting all the dossiers). These two specifically served a purpose. They gave extra scenes to players who were fortunate enough to spend (that much) on diamonds to begin with. I like this. It makes sense, and despite how expensive it made it for me (I literally stopped playing Endless Summer until I could afford to dump a whole bunch of diamonds into it lol), it made my experience that much better. Granted, I don’t think I understand everything that’s going on in that book (does anyone?) it would have probably given me a different experience if I had played the entire thing without spending any money on diamonds.

Approval

Without a doubt diamond scenes allow approval ratings with most characters to go up. Whether it’s just a conversation about their feelings or current predicament, or some one-on-one time in private; they do allow an opportunity to grow even closer to someone that would have otherwise not been as transparent. For fans of Drake Walker and Hana Lee for instance – I can tell you from personally spending money on their diamond scenes that I’ve come to appreciate them a lot more that I wouldn’t have if I didn’t pursue them. This doesn’t mean that I think it’s fair. It is nice, but I think some of their development relies too heavily on diamond scenes and prevents people that don’t want to spend diamonds on such things harder to enjoy the way their characters are. It’s sad that there isn’t much of a build up in relationships without paying.

Other characters have it worse.

Arguably Victoria Fontaine has been on the cruel end of this stick after last week’s Red Carpet Diaries update. The player has the free choice to meet up with Teja and Matt; explaining their side of the story as well as apologizing to one another. This isn’t even a choice for Victoria who is literally about to leave the country and when MC catches wind of this; you’re presented with the option of running after her as a diamond choice otherwise she’s completely out of the movie (and probably out of the story for at least a chapter). This was bold, really bold. It’s pushing the boundaries of making diamond choices matter more and maybe even placing the player in a situation where they’re realizing that while this is technically a free game – microtransactions are apart of what makes this company so successful (I could talk about microtransactions forever really). The even stranger part is that this intentionally apart of the plot, apart of Victoria Fontaine’s character that doesn’t only feel out of the player’s hand…but feels forced? Is this a case again of only understanding certain characters and only seeing their development through diamond scenes? As someone that’s spent most of my diamonds in Red Carpet Diaries on Seth and Teja (a little of Matt), I don’t get to see a softer and more understanding side of Victoria much but that doesn’t mean her character development should be reduced to something so simple.

The Pay to be gay term comes to mind and the more I think about it, the more I realize that there is indeed an undisputable pattern. It isn’t a fair playing field for both biological sexes and the more I think about it – the more I realize it hasn’t been for a long while. But how do we fix this problem? Why are we sacrificing one for the other? And doing the opposite doesn’t solve the problem either. Should diamond choices prevent the play from getting to know the characters, specifically love interests better?

The Choices that Aren’t Really Choices?

Nothing is more apparent than realizing specific choices you’ve made in the past doesn’t matter in a series of books like Zack and Brandon’s relationship. If you were like me and had no idea what the future had in store for them, you may have funnelled money into their relationship and several others such as Tyler and Abbie or the rest of the gang in this most recent The Sophomore book (I didn’t this time around because I’m stingy now). Zack and Brandon’s relationship doesn’t last, which makes the player question rendering them an option to date and helping them to date is useless? I’m not sure how much influence the player really has outside of those diamond scenes from The Freshman series because I spent a lot of time trying to get them to work – but I assume that they were always destined to break up; just as likely as I assume they would have gotten together anyway without your help. A lot of people were annoyed by this (myself included), but at the same time I understand. If we’re going to pour interest in a story app, the characters have to feel real. And people break up. People drift apart. It happens – but should it happen if we’re paying for it? The answer to that I think is complicated at best because it depends on how much we’re willing to compromise for the sake of story vs our own amusement.

Other examples are MC’s own career in #Love Hacks, when choosing to take Leah on that lunch date/hangout while they were still at Click It in order to win her over really doesn’t matter. At the end of the book, your MC chooses to quit anyway and so does Leah – rendering that choice useless. I’m mentioning it because I was very bitter over it but again I’m faced with the same burning questions of how much am I willing to sacrifice for the sake of the story and characters? If everything worked out the way I as the player wanted to – would I really be happy, or actually disappointed?

TLDR: This started off as series of thoughts that I’ve been having over the course of months, after seeing the amount of dislike, like and hate towards diamond choices. I began writing this as a way to figure out where I fit on that line, only to realize I’m probably somewhere in the middle. This isn’t to say I’m nowhere near done thinking and writing about this in length because honestly, there is a lot of factors to consider when you think about what makes a diamond choice a diamond choice – and why should it matter. I’m going to make a return to this but I just thought giving some of my very brief thoughts was a start.

Thanks for sticking with me to the end if you’ve read this. 😊

#candid essay #there is a lot i haven't touched a lot #and maybe i will #but i figured i could start somewhere #thoughts #long posts #and lots of examples i could include #maybe even screenshots next time #endless summer #lovehacks #the royal romance #it lives in the woods #home for the holidays #playchoices #choices stories you play #review of sorts #what i did instead of reading #I also ran out of time to catch the bus #please feel free to ignore my tags

[aftertheworldends-blog1]

10 questions

Oh wow, @kittensartsbooks I adore tag games, thank you so much <3 Sorry I took my time – it’s been an exhausting week.

(Also, omgjahflljajhflahfrhf you used a Nightwish quote, I love it!)

1. If your WIP was a TV show, what song would be the opening?

I’ve thought way too much about this.

I always imagined the show would be a similar format to BBC’s Sherlock, with each episode being its own little movie, but everything tying up neatly together in the end, The plot however would have the intensity of Game of Thrones.

As such, I want a proper, long, artistic opening sequence, with epic score music.

2. Do you write a poetic prose or do you prefer something more straightforward?

I use what I need. It would depend on the character POV, but I’d like to use more poetic prose when dealing with emotions. I’ve found it has greater impact. But since I write a lot of adventure, it’s hardly appropriate all the time.

3. Do your OCs have any jobs? If they do, what are they? If they don’t, what would they do for a living?

I mean, most of them are soldiers, largely by necessity rather than by choice. If they had to choose a profession though, I think only Marcus would have remained a soldier, simply because of his upbringing.

Richard would have been an amazing defence lawyer, but Matt Murdock style – he’d only take the honourable cases.

Liana would work in a crisis centre. Among my characters she is also the most likely to be a night-time vigilante, who delivers justice whenever the system fails to do so.

Gareth needs an extremely dynamic work environment with constant challenges. He’s more technically inclined, but likes to have a purpose, and use his brain, so I think in the right circumstances, he’d make an amazing paramedic. Any job would be too small for him, though, because he’s just too amazing. <3

Nastya would have been a manager at a large firm. She’s simply the boss.

Colby is a neurosurgeon now that’s he’s out of the Army and I think this is perfect for him.

Kemball is a computer genius but it’s his special interest. He’d like to do something beyond that. He’d probably be interested in doing translation of literary works and important historical documents, since he’s good with languages too.

Kia would be a farmer, so full of energy, embracing every morning, talking to her animals and loving her pretty flower garden. Felicity would travel around taking beautiful photos zie’d sell online, very often of nature, because it means waiting patiently in hiding for the right moment to capture on film.

4. Choose a color for each of your OCs.

Oooh, I’ve actually secretly done that already!

Liana burgundy red

Marcus indigo blue

Gareth yellow or white 

Richard sunset orange

Nastya brown

Kia pink

Fel beige

5. Choose parts of songs that describe each of your OCs perfectly.

This is going to be impossible. Let’s try! Xd

Liana:

“She's got a hold on me Maybe she is just what they want me to be

Even in these chains, you can't stop me. Even in these chains, you can't stop me!” ~Big Bad Wolf by ITM

Richard:

“Hit me like a ray of sun Burning through my darkest night You're the only one that I want Think I'm addicted to your light

I swore I'd never fall again But this don't even feel like falling Gravity can't forget To pull me back to the ground again

Feels like I've been awakened Every rule I had you break it The risk that I'm taking I'm never gonna shut you out” ~Halo by Beyoncé

Gareth:

“The meadows of heaven await harvest The cliffs unjumped, cold waters untouched The elsewhere creatures yet unseen Finally your number came up, freefall awaits the brave” ~Elan by Nightwish

Colby:

“Is it sick of me To need control of you? Is it sick to make You beg the way I do?” ~Sick Like Me by ITM

Kia:

“I walk through this world, just tryna be nice They say I'll get hurt, if I'm not like ice I know I've got friends, I still get so lonely That look in your eyes, I want you to hold me” ~Feelings by Hayley Kiyoko

I can’t do anymore, this is what I’ve got. Xd

6. Which of your OCs just want to belong somewhere? Which of them want to stand out and be something more?

Oh, oh, oh, this is very telling. I love this question.

Richard just wants to be left alone. He wants a life, a future, and peace. He doesn’t want to belong but he doesn’t want to stand out either.

Gareth wants to shine because he knows what he’s worth. Mostly, he loves a challenge, so he’s not blinded by greed, but he’d hate to just be one of the herd.

Liana aches to belong somewhere. She’s never had that, so…

Marcus wants to belong too. He’d go to great lengths to be accepted.

Colby loves his shiny awards. Achievements are very important to him.

Nastya loves to prove herself too, and she’d hate to hear people find her regular, or predictable.

Kia likes a calm life, and lots of friends who make her happy. She’d love to belong to a fun bunch of people who laugh at her jokes.

Fel loves a challenge. Zie’d like to know zie’s done better than the others in zer group.

7. What makes you excited to write your story?

I crave to tell stories, but this one has become so important, on a personal level. The After The World Ends series is about justice, and the world around us, and the future we could have vs the future we think we want.

8. If your novel was already published, which part of your story/chapter would you be more anxious to see the readers reactions?

I’ve already had that answered for me: Marcus/Liana interactions. Readers have no patience for Marcus, which was my goal, but it seems I’ve lost them with Liana’s “what the hell is happening, weren’t we supposed to be in love” POV. It has a purpose, but still… :/

9. What’s the line you’ve written that made you proud?

This one is from Blacklight; it’s not exactly a line, but it’s related to Gareth and Richard’s relationship dynamic. Richard tries to change the way he thinks of Gareth, so it goes:

Gareth—The Captain—Gareth

Or

The Captain—Gareth—the Captain.

I love how I’ve placed that to show his emotions and I’m super proud of it.

10. Which OCs don’t get together, but you could see being a nice couple?

Sal and Liana. They’d be super supportive of each other, and a great battle couple. But they’re just friends, sorry :)

Another great couple would have been Deanna Novakova and Greta Talles. They would be an amazing power-couple, and they have the same wonderful brand of encouraging, thoughtful, inspiring leadership.

Lemme see: @write-the-galaxy @crowgale @magnificentvoidarbiter @sapphicauthor @writerbi-day @newzealandgay

Stay readin’, folks!

Ro-ri

P.S. I did the tagging quickly so now I thought of a few more people

@kclenhartnovels @quillwritten @blackwidowrising if you feel like it? :) 

#writerblr #tag games #rori i does tag #10 questions #writer questions #book questions #wip #oc #original character #original works #work in progress #my work #my books #wlw #mlm #lgbt characters

[buko-pandan]

Taron Egerton, Golden Boy

by: Matt Genefaas

Action, explosions and impeccable tailoring, the new Kingsman film has it all. Following the worldwide success of the first film of the franchise, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is set to hit the big screens this September and packs a star-studded cast. Taron Egerton talks about the excitement of returning to the role of Eggsy for the sequel, his on-screen love interest and what to expect for the highly anticipated release.

Where is Eggsy when we pick up with him?

We meet Eggsy an undisclosed amount of time after the first [film]. But you can see in his mews house that there are three additional Sun headlines on the wall, indicating that he’s done a handful of missions on his own. And he is now going steady, to use a very 1950s term, with – shock horror – the Swedish princess from the first movie. Love blossomed in an unusual place. He’s trying to juggle the lifestyle of being a Kingsman and a full-time spy with also trying to nurture a blossoming relationship with a person who he really loves. He’s basically the same guy, just with a really important job.

He still has those rough edges?

Oh, the rough edges haven’t been sanded off. Eggsy still fucks up. That’s essential for the audience to have a window into the movie, to experience it through his eyes. He still has to escape through a sewer and emerge covered in shit. That’s not Harry Hart. That’s Eggsy. If we’d started the movie with Eggsy being Harry Hart, he wouldn’t have anywhere to go. He’s the rough-around-the-edges lad. We even see him return to an adidas hoodie – that’s who he is on his downtime.

This is your third film now with Matthew Vaughn, who also produced Eddie The Eagle. You clearly work well together – were you in contact with him as he pulled the movie together?

For the whole time he was writing, he always calls and says ideas. There is a real big kid in Matthew. When he has an idea he’s excited about he wants to share it. Just when you think you have a handle on Matthew, who he is and how his creative brain works, he comes in with something else which is really fucking clever. On a daily basis, it’s something I could never have thought of.

The first movie was your first time on a movie set. Did it feel easier this time?

On the first one I thought Matthew could fire me at any moment. I was a bit more tight-lipped and reverential. Now I give as good as I get. It felt easier in that I’ve spent far more time on film sets, and felt more certain of myself and how I function within a film set and this world I now occupy. In other senses, Matthew kept calling it the tough second album, and it is. People shout ‘Eggsy!’ at me in the street sometimes, and that’s quite a thing to reconcile yourself with, that you’re coming back and playing the same role again, and people have a level of expectation from you. They want the same thing again, but they also want it to be new and exciting. Kingsman has totally changed my life, so coming back, the overriding emotion was excitement, and real anticipation. The script was great, and it’s a really great story. I was so excited, and to be doing a sequel to your first film within four years of coming out of drama school, I am the luckiest man on the planet.

Have you changed your approach to the character?

On the first, I was constantly thinking about the accent and it doesn’t cross my mind now. He’s very much a part of me. I don’t think about it for a second now. I’ve played this character from his inception and I feel secure.

The best-kept secret in movies – that Colin Firth is back as Harry Hart – is now out. So what can you say about Eggsy’s relationship with Harry in this movie?

Well… we were on the same set, and we are friends and I love his company, and it was really nice to revisit a job well done. There were a lot of ways Matthew could have gone with the sequel, but in my mind, there was no doubt. I’m not sure how far the movie goes without that Harry and Eggsy relationship. That dynamic, and riffing on that dynamic, is the beating heart of the movie.

Has the relationship changed?

When they are reunited, it’s lovely. It’s very affecting and they’re pleased to see each other. But for undisclosed reasons, a tension grows in their relationship. That’s enormously fun and an interesting dynamic. When Harry and Eggsy’s relationship came to its untimely end in the first one, they weren’t on good terms. It’s quite sad. Eggsy hasn’t dealt with the situation particularly well. So in this movie you expect a reconciliation and you get it, but because of other facts it’s not always harmonious. Matthew knows that’s the key. You’ve got all the guns and fighting and that makes it brilliant, but for me it’s about Harry and Eggsy.

Early in the film, an attack on Kingsman has huge ramifications for Eggsy. What are those ramifications?

What it means for Eggsy is he was disenfranchised at the start of the first one, and aimless and not content. This wacky world he becomes involved with gives him direction and purpose, so to dash it to smithereens at the top end of this second episode is mad. Eggsy doesn’t really know what the hell to do. Sometimes sequels don’t work. This works because we get a reset. Everything was OK, and now it’s not again.

The big new additions to the film are the Statesmen, the American equivalent of Kingsmen, who Eggsy and Merlin discover in the wake of the attack on their own organisation. What can you say about these new arrivals?

The Kingsmen make their money through tailoring and that’s their front, but it’s more limited in terms of reward and finances than selling booze. The Statesmen are a level up. We thought our jet was good, but theirs is a fucking jet. You can see Eggsy being wide-eyed with wonder again.

The cast Vaughn has assembled for this movie is astonishing.

It’s amazing. One minute you’re working in Peacocks and then all of a sudden you’re sat at a table with Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth, Channing Tatum and Halle Berry! It’s a weird thing to be part of. They’re such great characters and so animated and larger than life and played by such great performers.

What’s the relationship like between Eggsy and the Statesmen?

I think to begin with it’s one of mistrust. These organisations aren’t aware of each other. They’re only supposed to become aware of each other in the event of a serious disaster. Eggsy and Merlin find themselves face to face with Agent Tequila, and have a fight… I don’t recommend fighting Channing Tatum. He’s a dancer, but that guy is like an ox. I had a few sore fingers after that.

Talk us through the Statesmen.

Ginger (played by Halle Berry) is the equivalent of Merlin. She’s very clever and you might describe her as bookish, she’s a quieter character. And then there’s Channing Tatum, who has a bit of bravado and is butch and manly. He’s quite gung-ho. He likes his weekend parties. He ends up in stasis, having taken some sort of illicit substance. Jeff as Champagne is really cool. He’s an alcoholic who doesn’t drink, but is forever swilling and spitting whiskey, or he sniffs the whiskey as he’s talking and trying to figure [stuff] out. Then there’s Pedro Pascal, who plays agent Whiskey, and he is a kind of seasoned veteran, their top field agent, who takes me under his wing. For a little while, it begins to feel like he might be a new mentor figure for Eggsy in the absence of Harry Hart, who is not quite what he once was. But you also get the sense that Whiskey might be a little reckless, and a little cold.

And, of course, there’s Julianne Moore as the villain of the piece, Poppy.

She has a dastardly plot that’s every bit as chilling as Valentine’s plot from the first movie. That’s thematic of these two films. There’s a very cold world in which you get what Valentine was saying about global warming. You can also sort of see where Poppy is coming from, depending on how conservative you are. But Julianne is lovely. She’s a children’s author as well and heard that I had two young sisters and she sent some of her books. She’s really great in the movie, really disturbing and saccharine and rotten to the core. The smile never reaches the eyes.

The first film pushed the envelope with its R-rated tone, exploding heads and stylish violence. Does the second follow that up?

You’re not going to be leaving the cinema feeling like Matthew played it safe this time. It takes a character like Matthew’s to be as resolute and uncompromising as that, in the face of all the pressures that come when it’s a commercially viable property. If you call the first one provocative, you’d call this one a punch in the face.

So it’s a movie that may ruffle feathers.

I think it may ruffle feathers more than the first one ruffled feathers.

#taron egerton #this is the actual interview w him #kingsman #kingsman the golden circle #let me post up the pics too from this one

[houseofvans]

Sketchy Behaviors | Jenny Sharaf (SF)

Never afraid to reinvent herself or her art, San Francisco based artist Jenny Sharaf’s works are fluid and spontaneous; her approach fearless and at times vunerable; and her style cool and comfortably bad-ass.  We’ve not only been fans of her visual and abstract creations, but also her passion to work with her community in SF and Oakland to spread art and creativity – from her work with the Lab’s 24-Hour Telethon, The Parking Lot Art Fair to her most recent project- the Public Art Tour.  Sharaf shares some insight into her work and process; important issues and themes; and her thoughts on the contemporary arts scene in this installment of Sketchy Behaviors.  

Photographs courtesy of the artist

Tell us a bit about yourself and your art background.  

My name is Jenny Sharaf and I live with my partner-in-all-things John in San Francisco where we are the parents of an 80lb blue nose pitbull named Lola. Though i live in San Francisco, my wanderlust is at an all time high and if I’m not traveling the world, I’m plotting my next escape.

I grew up in a relatively small beach town in Los Angeles called the Pacific Palisades. Surrounded by salt-licked-waves and girls tanning on smooth beaches, my favorite place growing up was the bluffs; where I could sit above it all and watch it from a distance. I certainly was not your typical California beach babe, but I was wildly inspired by its appeal.

I found myself in San Francisco and went back to school at Mills College to receive my MFA. At Mills my ideas about feminism and California culture collided and my art was heavily influenced because of it.

My life now is a state of constantly making art. Whether it be painting, working on something digital or organizing big public art events in the city, or climbing some construction scaffolding in Paris to smack one of my stickers on the side of a building, I am always finding news ways to reinvent myself and my art.

How did you end up creating art and doing it professionally? And what have you learned along the way?

I’m just doing what I love doing and sometimes people agree to pay me for it. I create new work and new concepts non stop, I contact people that inspire me in hopes of collaborating. Even though I’m afraid at times to be vulnerable, I put myself out there every single day in hopes of new people discovering my art and hopefully falling in love with it. Being an artist can feel very scary, I think maybe I love being scared.

You’ve mentioned “process” as an important aspect of your work.  Could you take us through your creative process?

When I’m in the studio or working on a project on site, I always love that intense moment of chance and not having a plan. It takes a serious level of trust in yourself and the materials.  Those are the wonderful times that feel one-the-line and frightening, but are always rewarding.  In those painting meditative moments, I have no sense of time and space. My best work and most dynamic ideas come out of a period of making and thinking simultaneously.

What important issues and themes do you find yourself and your work drawn too?  Why are these important to you and how do they permeate into your works?

Artists are vitally important to our culture, our story and our future. They represent our freedom of speech and expression. The contemporary moment that we are living in feels very historical. Artists are more necessary now than ever and we all should critique the world around us through whatever means possible.  As I’m finishing this interview, I’m watching Trump’s first week in office. It doesn’t feel real, but it very much is. This is a call to duty. This is the first president that rose to power on twitter and a tv game show. Currently it’s scary times. I suggest everyone find a great apocalypse outfit.

The colors and abstract drips of your work are some of our favorite things.  You recently created a beautiful interior for last year’s Fog Fair and a mural for the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs.  How did this come about and how do you approach the design of interiors and exteriors?

Both of these opportunities came through curators & designers following me on instagram. Charles de Lisle and Cultured Magazine invited me to collaborate with them on a “reading room” for the FOG art fair. It was a lot of fun and it was a moment to make something large, inclusive and accessible to an art crowd. For Ace Hotel, their art director at the time; Matt Clark, approached me after seeing an instagram post by artist, Thomas Campbell. The art world is sometimes a really nice place after all! It’s also really wonderful when one project leads to the next.

Whether you’re calling it “placemaking" or whatever new buzz word we’re using, it’s rewarding to create a work of art that people want to include in their own story. I will always love painting on canvas, but it feels much more exciting to do “murals” or large-scale installations, where the audience can insert themselves and interact with the art directly. It’s less egocentric, even though I do always appreciate a @tag :), but mainly just so I can see others enjoying my work!

From painting, murals, videos, installations to paint on paper and digital works, do you have a preferred medium and if so what do you specifically enjoy about it?  Is there a medium you’ve have yet to tried and are dying to?

I’m always dying to try new things, new ideas, new materials. I probably have about thirty ideas going in my head at any given moment.  As as a preferred medium, I love paint and always have. It’s the most temperamental and if you do the dance, it will talk back in this amazing way. It’s literally fluid (duh), so you have to be a bit go-with-the-flow to fully embrace the stuff. There’s nothing better than a painting session with your headphones blasting and paint just flowing oh-so-naturál. There are a million things I want to try that I haven’t yet.  It’s hard to predict where it will go….That’s part of the reason I love being an artist.

What has been some of the best art advice you’ve gotten and some of the worse?

Best art advice– Dream bigger. Don’t be shy. Don’t glass-ceiling-yourself.

Worse art advice–  Be practical and realistic.

Not only are you a passionate artist, but you’re really activity in your community with various projects that are focused on community engagement and about promoting the arts.  Can you talk specifically about how you founded The Lab’s 24-Hour Telethon and tell us about it and its purpose.  What other community based activities are you working on or currently developing?

Throwing big art events in the Bay Area is really important work to me it helps keep the art scene alive for the community and for myself.  I was approached to come up with the task to raise money for the The Lab. I grew up on TV and I’ve always been particularly enamored by it because my parents were in the business. They were TV journalists and were always deep diving into the life of some interesting personality. I loved the idea of bringing that to life in a new form and so the The Lab’s 24-Hour Telethon was born. It helped majorly that Cinefamily had been doing a super awesome telethon as well. It was in the zeitgeist. San Francisco needed a version. It ended up being a big success that I am extremely proud of. Since then, I’ve done projects with San Francisco’s Department of Public Works that involves giving new life to public places by highlighting our local contemporary artists.

Most recently, I’m working on a program called Public Art Tour. It’s going to be an online experience and a series of big public events, bringing attention to local artists and San Francisco’s downtown public art. We are scheduled to do a massive party under the Bay Bridge, closing down the Spear Street’s cul-de-sac and making some legally permitted-noise;) Maybe Vans wants to set up a skate ramp? Call me.

The Parking Lot Art Fair that you founded in the Bay Area sounds like a super fun and exciting get-together.  How would you describe this event to folks?  What has been the best aspect of this for you?  

It was a blast. Basically, The Parking Lot Art Fair was a renegade art fair outside of a “legit” art fair at Fort Mason (in San Francisco).  All the artists set up very very early morning, as soon as the parking was free and permitted. At that point, the chaos began. The best part was being able to see the Bay Area art scene spread out in oceanside parking lot and realizing how much talent and weirdness this place still has left. San Francisco and Oakland have had many growing pains in the last few years and because of it the art scene has also foregone many changes. In terms of housing costs (studio space, etc) a big portion of our community has had to leave. So to be able to celebrate a more fringe art scene feels insanely gratifying.

How would you describe your personal style? Favorite Vans?

My personal style is all over the place. I like to be comfortable. When I’m not in my painting white or navy onesies and painted Vans (raw canvas pair I’ve probably had for 10 years), I love to play with fashion and try on different looks. Right now my look is very Gloria Steinem plus a sixties-Italian-cyclist inspired; ripped black jeans, my boyfriend’s cashmere sweater and a fringe black suede jacket. I always wear sunglasses - my look never feels complete without them.

My favorite vans are the classic black and white checkered low tops. They always look effortless. OR the high top surfer-girl-chic sneaks.

Name 5 of your favorite artists, followed by some of your top 5 favorite bands / musicians to create too.

Artists: Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, John Baldessari, Joan Brown, Alicia McCarthy

Music: Paul Simon, alt-J, Jungle, Ace of Base,Haim

What are your thoughts on the state of contemporary art?  The good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good - the art world is accessible than ever because of social media and the internet.  You can basically get anyone to see you work these days, which is a big change from ten years ago.  

The bad - there’s still a lot of old white guys that seem undeserving of shows, but they know people and they already have money to create massive bigger-the-better machismo art.

The ugly - the art world is huge, and can be incredibly hard to navigate and can be mean. We should all work harder to be nice to each other, especially about something as special as art.

You’ve worked with various clients and done many collaborations.  What have been some of the most rewarding projects? What do you like best about collaborations and what are some of the aspect you’d like to see changed or evolved if any?

I love collaborating with cool brands. Working with the Ace Hotel is always awesome. Such great people and a company that really gets the creative experience. I just worked with this handbag line Luana Italy. They really let me do whatever I wanted and honored my voice as an artist, which I always greatly appreciated. I think big brands are finally embracing and empowering the artist's’ voice– allowing the space it takes to achieve that.

What would you tell folks who want to follow in your footsteps?  Pitfalls to avoid and/or words of inspiration.

I’d say, don’t follow in anyone’s footsteps. That’s always something to remind yourself.  Make your own path and listen to your own visual / conceptual impulses.There is absolutely no rule book or how-to guide to being an artist. It looks different for everyone.  I by no means have figured it out, but I do try to practice trusting the inner voice and taking risks.

Lastly, what’s up for 2017?  Any exciting projects you can let us in on?

For 2017, I plan on working hard, painting like a madwoman and traveling. I’m doing some fun projects with B&O Play by Bang and Olufsen as a cultural ambassador- public art events, listening parties, contemporary art experiences.  Also, I’m curating a weekend at Ace Hotel and Swim Club Palm Springs on March 18th called “What’s Your Name / Who’s Your Daddy” featuring Sahar Khoury, Alicia McCarthy, Francesco Igory Deiana and Jess Meyer. Also, planning some mural projects overseas, but it’s too early to talk about. Don’t want to jinx it! Follow me on instagram to keep up with it all:)

Website | Instagram | Public Art Tour

#vans #vans art #vans girls #jenny sharaf #painting #sf artist #mural #arts

[netmetic]

Replicating the Success of REST in Event-Driven Architecture

This post is a collaboration between Fran Méndez of AsyncAPI and Solace’s Jonathan Schabowsky.

Jonathan explained in his last blog post how the loose coupling of applications associated with event-driven architecture and publish/subscribe messaging is both a strength and a weakness. As part of that, he touched on the fact that request/reply interactions using RESTful APIs are still the dominant application integration paradigm, even in hybrid cloud, machine learning and IoT use cases that benefit from event-driven interactions. There’s still tons of use cases for which RESTful request/reply interactions are perfect, but it’s important to be able to mix and match the right exchange pattern (Command, Query and Event) for the job especially where event-driven would be best suited.

In many cases, exploring why one thing has established or maintained popularity can help you understand why something else isn’t quite as hot, even though it seems like it should be. With this post I’ll investigate why the use of RESTful APIs is still so prevalent, and see if the reasons for its persistent popularity might act as a blueprint for making event-driven popular and mainstream. So, how did REST come to be the most popular way to connect applications? And why does everyone think it’s so easy?

How did REST get to be so hot?

REST’s popularity arose out of the need for data exchange and interactions between the web browser and backend services. In that context it became a de facto standard because it integrated so well with JavaScript and was so much easier than SOAP (a decent protocol that became bloated and complicated over time). From there, developers started using REST to connect internal enterprise applications, IoT devices and even microservices. It might not have been the best fit for all those use cases, but it got the job done.

As Matt McLarty mentions in his blog post Overcoming RESTlessness, a complete examination about why REST started to be used in places that it’s not ideal for “would ignore the power that comes from REST’s universality.” He’s referring to the fact that REST has become universal because developers “get it” and it’s surrounded by a thriving ecosystem of complementary technology and tools. Without this ecosystem that REST inherited from the web world, that universal adoption simply would not have happened.

The Building Blocks of REST’s Success

If you look closely at this ecosystem (foreshadowing) you can see that it’s composed of some foundational components upon which the open source and vendor community have built what I’ll call “enablement tooling.” Here’s what I mean:

Foundational Components

Web servers were the workhorse of the web for years before REST came into existence. They were much simpler than the application servers of the time and optimized to deal with large numbers of lightweight request/reply communications interactions like serving up a web page that somebody requests.

Development frameworks like Spring, JAX-RS, Restlet and Node.js reflect the fact that people invested time and energy to make the developer experience easy, i.e. keeping them from having to write boilerplate connection code so they could focus on the hard part of developing and refining business logic.

Security frameworks like OAUTH for authentication and authorization, and TLS for encryption, established the means by which interactions and information can be made secure.

Enablement Tooling

API Management: Companies like Apigee and MuleSoft built platforms that provide an API portal so developers can describe and discover APIs in design-time, API gateways to ensure security, management and API mediation, and finally usage analytics which inform which APIs are most and least used. These API management solutions are used increasingly for sophisticated API creation and design, and to act as API marketplaces.

Runtime API Discovery: As APIs and applications have become increasingly dynamic and distributed due to continuous delivery, containerization, cloud-bursting, discovery tooling such as Netflix Eureka and Istio/Envoy (service mesh) have been created to reduce the complexity of API clients and enable them to connect to services anywhere.

Specification for API Description: OpenAPI was created as a machine-readable metadata specification in order to document, design and consume APIs. This is incredibly valuable for use by testing tools, clients and document generation.

Code Generation Tools: Swagger and its associated code generation tooling lets developers easily take an OpenAPI definition and generate either client or server code, drastically reducing the amount of work it takes development teams to use APIs.

Without the foundational components, not only would the enablement tooling not have been possible, there wouldn’t have been any need or demand for it. This ecosystem of tools has facilitated REST’s ascension to its position as the de facto standard for application interactions today. While I lament the fact that event-driven hasn’t achieved this same level of adoption and devotion, I understand why, and know that without similar tooling it never will.

How Event-Driven is Following in REST’s Footsteps

There is no reason why the event-driven world can’t learn from the RESTful API world by leveraging and developing similar foundational components and enablement tools. In fact, some very exciting initiatives are underway and picking up steam in the industry and within Solace:

Foundational Components

Event Brokers: This one is easy as many simple (RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ) and advanced event brokers (Solace PubSub+, Kafka) exist today. Many of them are battle-tested and used widely in organizations that are event-driven.

Development Frameworks: Spring Cloud Stream makes writing event-driven microservices easy, and Paho for MQTT makes it easy to create event-driven IoT sensors in many programming languages.

Security: Frameworks like OAuth enable authentication and authorization in the event-driven world along with TLS for encryption for confidentiality/integrity.

Enablement Tooling

Event Management: While advanced event brokers perform many functions similar to those of an API Gateway, no vendor offers a platform that does everything for events that API management platforms do for RESTful API interactions. There are no “event portals” for developers to use, for example, in order to design, document and discover events.

Runtime Event Discovery: In the Eventing world, the ability to deliver events to consumers is even more complicated than with APIs because of the combination of 1-many event distribution, guaranteed and in-order quality of services along with event producers and consumers being just as dynamic and distributed as what is found with APIs. This has challenged infrastructure and operations teams for years all while client applications should not be burdened with these complexities. The event mesh is an emerging architectural concept that provides similar functionality to the service mesh but is targeted towards asynchronous interaction patterns. This removes the complexities previously described by enabling producers and consumers to exchange events regardless of where they are physically deployed all while maintaining event delivery qualities of service.

API Description Specification: AsyncAPI is on a mission to standardize event-driven API interactions and support the wide variety of messaging systems available. This is a corollary to OpenAPI – a universal language for all the different messaging protocols and event schema formats. The purpose of AsyncAPI is to enable architects and developers to specify the event payload definition, channel name, application/transport headers and protocol– thus fully specifying the application’s event-driven interface. This was previously not available but, thanks to Fran Méndez and the AsyncAPI Initiative, event-driven applications will receive the same love as RESTful APIs.

Code Generation Tools: AsyncAPI is also working in this direction. For instance, the ability to take an AsyncAPI definition and generate event-driven applications is underway for Spring Cloud Stream. This will drastically reduce the effort to create new applications!

Conclusion

EDA’s popularity has started to drastically increase as many companies are realizing they MUST react in real-time to their customers, decouple their systems and transform into event-driven organizations. However, for event-driven interactions to achieve the same level of adoption as REST, the build-out of tooling for eventing must continue. Now is the time to transform and support all the patterns modern applications need for interaction, i.e. commands, queries… and events!

Solace is committed to helping organizations realize the advantages of being event-driven. We’re active on all these fronts by continuing to advance the state of the art with our PubSub+ event broker and event mesh, enthusiastically supporting Spring Cloud Streams, and actively contributing expertise and financial support to AsyncAPI. Stay tuned for more information around how event management and API management are similar, how it is a key capability that organizations need, and what Solace is doing about it!

The post Replicating the Success of REST in Event-Driven Architecture appeared first on Solace.

Replicating the Success of REST in Event-Driven Architecture published first on https://jiohow.tumblr.com/

[siliconwebx]

WordPress Explores Proposal for New Block Directory to Host Single Block Plugins

WordPress core contributor Alex Shiels has published a proposal for a WordPress.org block directory that would host JavaScript-based, single block plugins. The directory would make blocks searchable and installable from within the Gutenberg editor. Building a directory for discovering blocks and seamlessly installing them is one of the nine projects that Matt Mullenweg identified as a priority for 2019.

Block collections have become one of the most popular ways for distributing a group of related blocks but this method can cause bloat. Users currently cannot search for individual blocks by name and plugin names and descriptions are not always a good indication of what the blocks do.

Shiels proposed the new directory be limited to single block plugins, frontend JavaScript blocks with no UI outside of the editor. It would be a separate section inside the Plugins Directory, optimized for users to find blocks by name and description. Developers would be required to use a block.json file with metadata as outlined in the Block Registration RFC, which provides a technical specification for block type registration.

The most controversial part of the proposal is having blocks installable from within the Gutenberg editor. The long term goal is to make that process as seamless as possible. Block collections and blocks that do not meet the requirements of the single block directory would still be available via the normal plugin installation process. This could be confusing for users who do not know that blocks can be found in two separate directories.

“The Gutenberg editor should NOT be a plugin installation source,” Matt Cromwell commented on the proposal. “That just seems ripe for scope-creep. That’s not its purpose or function. Let it be an editor, layout builder, content manager, etc. Moving into searching an external library and installing plugins is the definition of losing site of the purpose of a ‘product.'”

Cromwell suggested a centralized block manager as an alternative that would offer a better experience for searching and installing blocks. He also echoed other participants’ opinions on the importance of including dynamic blocks in the directory, instead of limiting it to “JavaScript only” blocks.

“A centralized Block Manager like has already been suggested is a far better user-experience for searching and installing blocks than doing that in the Gutenberg editor. I like the idea of single-block plugins being the only option in the Directory. But make sure Dynamic Blocks that depend on other existing plugins or outside functionality are able to be added to that very important Directory as well. I really don’t see a benefit to limiting this Directory so much.”

WordPress developer Jamie Schmid also expressed hesitation about pursuing a solution that puts block installation inside the editor, as it may discourage users from thinking about their block usage across the entire site.

“I am not convinced that making blocks searchable and installable from within the editor is the best solution,” Schmid said. “This, along with page level block controls and style overrides, is encouraging a very short-sighted, page-level solution to an issue that is very likely a global site (or content or even business) issue. I’d love to instead see a central view for all installed blocks – similar to how plugins are, but more organized by type/function/etc and with a visual alongside. This will encourage making decisions at the site level, encouraging some bigger-picture reflection. And same to being able to apply access controls to the installation of new blocks.”

The proposal would place the single block plugin search interface inside the block inserter in the Gutenberg editor. This would enable users to quickly search for and install a block if they don’t see one they need among the existing blocks.

A mockup of what inline block installation might look like

Riad Benguella, Gutenberg’s technical lead for phase 2, encouraged participants in the discussion to think about blocks as pieces of content that do not rely on the post editor but can be configured anywhere inside WordPress.

“It is important to think of blocks as its own unit that have a meaning on its own, and that can be used in different contexts,” Benguella said. “A block is a piece of content (static or dynamic) that can be configured and rendered anywhere.” This includes blocks found both inside and outside post_content, content in a full site editor, inside the WordPress admin, a headless application, or even another CMS.

“We should be ambitious and think about all these contexts (the final picture), but at the same time we should be pragmatic and iterate to achieve this goal,” Benguella said.

The discussion regarding the new block directory and block plugin architecture continues across WordPress contributor teams. Shiels said the proposal was meant as a starting place and contributors are still in the preliminary stage of exploring ideas.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐WPTavern

#Silicon Web Design #Ahmedabad #India #Web Development #WPBeginner #Silicon URL #Web Site #Cloud Host

[dorcasrempel]

From the Marines to MIT

It has been more than a decade since Brent Minchew donned his dress blues, but reminders of his days as a U.S. Marine are everywhere in his office at MIT: a photo with Vice President Al Gore taken at Andrews Air Force Base in January 2001; a matte army-green road bike propped up in the corner, his shaved head and military stature; and, best of all, some spellbinding stories.

Minchew was 17 and chasing a life of adventure and purpose when he enlisted in the Marines straight out of high school in 1995.

“I grew up in a very small-town mindset, so I’d seen only one very small subset of culture,” he says. “I wanted to see the world and I wanted to understand how other people lived.”

After basic training, Minchew was chosen to join HMX-1, the squadron responsible for flying the president of the United States, the vice president, other heads of state, and Department of Defense officials. It wasn’t exactly the life of adventure he desperately sought, but it is one of the highest honors to which an enlisted Marine can aspire. Now, with the clarity of time, Minchew recognizes the historic moments he was privy to, including ferrying foreign dignitaries to Camp David ahead of international peace talks.

Then on Sept. 11, 2001, his squadron responded to the attack on the U.S. Pentagon, where he and his squad members were charged with transporting important personnel and papers to Camp David for safe keeping. Months later, he requested and was given permission to join the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and shortly afterwards was deployed, first to Mosul, Iraq, and then to Djibouti on the eastern horn of Africa.

For his final posting, Minchew was stationed in Monrovia, Liberia in the midst of the Second Liberian Civil War, arriving just ahead of United Nations peacekeepers. After nearly eight years in the military, Minchew says he finally found himself doing the humanitarian aid work for which he had originally joined.

“That was a really fitting end to my career as a Marine,” Minchew says.

Today, Minchew’s daily responsibilities are a far cry from flying helicopters full of foreign dignitaries. An assistant professor in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), he is researching ice sheet dynamics and leading the Glaciers at MIT research group, where he heads a team looking at the mechanisms of ice, hoping to solve the most complex problems in one of the world’s formidable environments.  

“I kind of took a non-linear approach to life,” he readily jokes.

Non-linear as his career may be, the common thread through Minchew’s path from the Marine Corps to MIT is a determined pursuit of adventure and insatiable curiosity for the extreme, only-partially-understood places on Earth.

“Best childhood ever”

Michew attributes his curious nature in large part to his childhood in Texas. Minchew was born in Pasadena, a small working-class town just southeast of Houston, where his mother was a computer programmer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, a place that provided an early taproot for his love of the sciences.

“I would go to work with her and get to hang out on the actual Space Shuttle mockup, where the astronauts trained,” he says. “It was the best childhood ever.”

When his family moved to a small town north of Dallas, Minchew brought with him a fascination with flying, an admiration for John Glenn, and, perhaps most notably, a curiosity for how helicopters worked. Joining the Marine Corps, he says, perfectly wrapped all those things together.

“It was just so obvious that that’s what I wanted to do,” he says.

When his military service ended in 2004, Minchew returned to Texas to spend time with family and start an academic career, taking classes at the University of Texas at Dallas as physics major before transferring to the University of Texas at Austin to major in aerospace engineering. As a master’s student in orbital mechanics, Minchew planned to design spacecrafts to complete sample return missions from Enceladus, a moon of Saturn with geysers.

His interests soon shifted, however, when a professor introduced him to Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) remote sensing, a type of radar that measures motion by calculating the change in phase of the radar waves between two separate images. 

“To me, it was roughly equivalent to having something like 10 million GPS stations scattered all over the ground. I just thought it was absolutely fascinating that you can measure deformation at centimeter-scale accuracy over huge areas with really high precision and very high resolution,” Minchew says. “As soon as I saw it, I had to know more.”

Minchew quickly changed his master’s focus to remote sensing and then, perhaps unsurprisingly, choose the most adventurous area to study: glaciers, in Antarctica.

“Antarctica is like this sense of inherent adventure,” he says. “It’s impossible to think of Antarctica and not think of adventure.”

Minchew left Texas for the other Pasadena — in California — heading to Caltech to complete a PhD in geophysics. At Caltech, Minchew worked under geodesy expert Mark Simons, before joining the British Antarctic Survey as a postdoc, hoping for the chance to see the glaciers of Antarctica in person. However, the year he planned to make the trip, there was a major fracture in the ice that endangered a British research station, forcing him to stay home.  

Today, Minchew is one of the country’s leading experts on ice sheet dynamics, a topic he has an infectious passion for and speaks about animatedly, with the ever-slightest Texan twang.

“I think a lot of people tend to mistake the ubiquity of ice with some sense that it’s sort of a normal and typical material but it’s not,” he says. “It’s a fascinating material with all kinds of interesting properties.”

It floats, for example, he says. “Almost nothing else floats in its solid phase.” Less well-known is that it’s still highly viscous even at its melting temperature. Even more remarkably, he continues, is that ice can be brittle at its melting temperatures. “Nothing else that I know of is brittle at its melting temperature. That’s amazing.”

For glaciers, he explains, that has all kinds of interesting dynamical implications that inform how ice sheets evolve and couple into the climate system. Last January, Minchew was hired to answer these questions, leading Glaciers at MIT.

A part of something special

Minchew’s office in the Green Building is remarkably tidy. A dry erase board spans an entire wall, facing a huge glass-plated map of Antarctica with a sticker in the corner that reads: “I [heart] Geodesy.” On the map, a thick black line separates the halo of floating ice shelves from the solid mainland ice sheet. Those margins, Minchew explains, keep the ice sheet from disappearing into the ocean by providing back stress, almost like a levy.

“There is this common misconception that ice shelves, the floating bits, have a major role to play in sea level contribution,” he says. “But by themselves, they don’t necessarily matter. They’re already floating, so they’ve contributed whatever they’re going to contribute to sea level. However, they can play a major role in setting the sea level contribution of ice sheets because they are resisting the flow of the ice from the land to the ocean.”

How margins behave — and thus how the ice sheet will respond to changes in climate — is one of the three primary areas of interests for Glaciers at MIT. The team will use novel remote sensing techniques to look at the mechanics of how cracks form in the ice and how glaciers slip along their beds.

The latter is arguably the largest source of uncertainty in understanding projections of sea level rise, says Minchew, at least for ice sheet models. It’s still unknown how the drag, or resistance, at the base is related to the speed at which ice is traveling. For example, whether the resistance increases the faster the ice flows, whether it’s independent of speed, or whether the resistance lessens the faster the ice flows, perhaps because the ice becomes more disconnected from the base as it increases in speed.

“All these things are possible, so we don’t quite know how to represent resistance in our models,” he says. “That problem has been around for a long time because it’s really hard to figure out what’s going on at the bottom of two kilometers of ice.”

Another unknown is how cracks in ice form and travel. Rifts, or fractures, tend to spread in spurts, with stress building up at the crack until, upon reaching a tipping point, it rips through the ice until it “runs out of gas,” Minchew explains. But that’s a “pretty superficial” understanding of fractures, he says. The glaciers team will dig into the next level-details: how fast rifts propagate, how that rate feeds back into the whole propagation.

For example, Minchew supervises EAPS PhD student Joanna Millstein, who uses satellite observations to map how the stress field changes on Brunt Ice Shelf before and after the propagation of a long rift, called Chasm 1 — the same one that kept Minchew from Antarctica.

Despite the freezing rain drops outside his window, Minchew says he, his wife (a teacher), and their 7-year-old daughter “couldn’t be happier here.” The opportunity to spearhead Glaciers at MIT seems to have outweighed their initial hesitancy of Northeast winters.

“This has been just a really great opportunity to not only carve out my own space in ice sheet dynamics, but to carve out my own space among all these other very interesting and admirable people here,” he says.

In addition to the caliber of his EAPS colleagues and students, Minchew was also attracted to MIT because of its close connections with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, which was responsible for a lot of remote sensing development. It seems Minchew has found at MIT a team as dedicated and permanently curious as he.

“There’s this idea here that people feel like they are a part of something special, a part of the growth of something special,” he says. “I’m proud to be a part of that.”

From the Marines to MIT syndicated from https://osmowaterfilters.blogspot.com/

[travelguy4444]

Overtourism: How You Can Help Solve This Worldwide Problem

Posted: 9/6/2018 | September 6th, 2018

Years later, I returned to the scene of the crime: Costa Rica. It was in that country that I first fell victim to the travel bug, a disease that would infect me for the rest of my life and lead to where I am today. There was no place I was more excited about revisiting than Manuel Antonio National Park. Its wild jungles, deserted beaches, and bountiful animal life was the highlight of my first visit and I couldn’t wait to relive it all in this seaside town.

But then wonder turned to horror.

The quiet road to town was lined with endless fancy resorts. Hotels lined the park’s edge. Tour groups cluttered the once peaceful park. They fed the wildlife. They littered. The abundant troops of monkeys had vanished. So had the colorful land crabs. No deer roamed. And the beaches were a sea of bodies.

It was my first experience with seeing a destination shift into “overtourism.”

Overtourism is the term used to describe the onslaught of tourists who take over a destination to a point where the infrastructure can no longer handle it.

While not a new problem (that trip to Costa Rica was in 2011), this “trend” has been in the news a lot the past few months (heck, there’s even a Twitter feed about it) as many destinations have started to push back against the onslaught of visitors inundating their streets, communities, and overtaking their natural resources.

“Stay home!” they scream to visitors. “You’re no longer welcome!”

I believe travel can change the world. Done right, it expands people’s minds, fosters understanding, makes you a better you, and provides an economic boost to local communities.

But, thanks to cheap flights, the sharing economy, and (let’s be honest) an explosion of Chinese tour groups around the world, destinations have gotten a bit crowded lately.

I see it everywhere I travel these days.

There’s the Palace of Versailles, where years ago, I was able to film a video free of crowds. Now, it’s wall-to-wall tour groups slowly shuffling from room to room in the most insane queue ever. Its hard to even enjoy the experience!

There’s Tulum, once a quiet Mexican town, now awash with Westerners trying to turn it into the new Bali (which is also overrun with tourists and where “digital nomads” can float from yoga studio to cafe to retreat to wherever without ever actually having to interact with locals). There’s Iceland, where Reykjavik’s main street, complete with a Dunkin’ Donuts, is now a sea of people, and the city’s roads are cluttered. (Don’t even get my Icelandic friends started on this subject. They are none too happy about all the tourists.)

There the crushing crowds in Prague, Barcelona, Paris, Venice, Edinburgh, the Gili Islands, Ko Lipe, Chiang Mai, and Queenstown, where tourists are overrunning locals, acting idiotically, and littering.

Sure, crowded destinations are simply a by-product of a globalized world where travel has become attainable for more and more people. The number of international tourist arrivals is expected to increase by 3.3% worldwide each year until 2030 when it will reach 1.8 billion. And, on balance, that’s a good thing if you believe in travel as a transformative tool.

Yet the very things that make travel cheaper — budget airlines, Airbnb, ridesharing, etc. — have also made destinations unable to cope with all the visitors — and pushed out locals in the process.

Now they are starting to push back.

Barcelona is no longer allowing new hotels and is limiting the number of cruise ships. Dubrovnik is floating the idea of putting limits on the number of tourists. Chile is curbing the number of tourists to Easter Island and how long they can stay and Ecuador is doing the same for visitors to the Galápagos. Venice is trying to restrict Airbnb and the number of tourists (after restricting cruise ships). Paris is also restricting Airbnbs in the city. Iceland wants to limit the number of foreigners who buy property. Amsterdam is launching a campaign to reign in the partying in the city. Majorca has had continuous protests against tourists.

The world is saying “enough!”

And I, for one, am all for this.

Of course, I don’t think people intentionally try to “ruin” places. No one is saying, “Let’s go overcrowd Iceland and piss locals off!”

Most people just don’t even think of their actions causing harm.

Which makes education and these initiatives even more important.

Because there definitely needs to be a better balance between visitors and residents. Overtourism doesn’t help anyone. No one wants to visit a crowded destination – and no one wants to live somewhere that’s overrun with tourists.

While no one is talking about banning tourists outright, there should be better ways to control their numbers and the problems overtourism causes.

Take Airbnb. It’s one of the biggest problems in travel today (which is a shame, because I love the service).

It started out as a way for residents to earn money on the side and get travelers out of the hotel/hostel dynamic and into a more “local” way of life.

But that original mission has been perverted. As rentals have become more lucrative, Airbnb has turned a blind eye to the fact that real estate companies, property managers, and other individuals can list as many properties as they want. These companies, tapping into tourists’ desire to have a home away from home, buy up properties in the city center, which then decreases the supply of rental properties for locals, increases rental prices, and forces residents out.

Driving locals out defeats the purpose of using the service! Too many town centers have been decimated by Airbnb. While a man’s home is his castle, I do believe there should be some restrictions on Airbnb because it’s driving people out of city centers. That’s not good for anyone, especially the locals who live there and, since Airbnb won’t do anything about it, local governments need to step in and start cracking down. Personally, I’ve started to only rent rooms in an Airbnb (instead of an entire property) so I know there’s a local there benefiting from my stay.

“But what about social media?” you may ask.

One can’t deny YouTubers, Instagram “influencers”, and bloggers like myself have helped popularize travel and made it more accessible to the masses by destroying the myth that it’s an expensive thing only a few can do. We’ve shed light on destinations around the world and gotten people to visit places they might not have otherwise.

I don’t feel bad about that.

More people should travel.

And there’s always been the idea of that travel media “ruins” a place. The Lonely Planet effect. The Rick Steves effect. The Bourdain effect (which I experienced first hand since he came to my hometown).

I mean people have been opining about mass tourism for decades. Once it’s in the Lonely Planet, a place is dead, right?

But social media has an amplifying effect that didn’t exist in the past. It makes it easier for everyone to find – and then overrun a destination.

Do I really think my one article on (insert destination) created a crush of people like there is some Nomadic Matt effect? No.

But social media and blogging leads one person to a place and then another and then another and then suddenly everyone it taking a picture of themselves with their feet dangling over Horseshoe Bend, sitting on that rock in Norway, or having breakfast with giraffes at that hotel in Kenya.

Everyone wants to do what they see on social media so they can tell all their friends how cool and well traveled they are.

This is also one of the downsides of the Internet. For me, travel is an act of discovery – and respect – and we constantly talk about being a respectful traveler but, for many influencers and bloggers, they don’t balance their actions and influence with responsible travel (I mean you had Fun for Louis rationalizing his North Korea propaganda movies) and try to educate their audiences to become better, more respectful travelers.

After all, we are as much a part of the solution as we are part of the problem. There are ways to mitigate your impact and create a mutually beneficial relationship between you and the local population.

Here are seven ways I think we can help mitigate the overtourism crisis:

1. Skip Airbnb homes – Airbnb is one of the biggest villains in this whole drama. Don’t rent an entire Airbnb home unless you can be 100% sure that you are renting from a real human who is just on vacation. Look at the photos, talk to the host, ask them if they live there. If this is a rental company or the person has multiple listings, skip them. Don’t contribute to the emptying of communities. Rent a room instead!

2. Spread your travels around – Don’t stick to the most popular areas in a destination. Travel outside the city center. Visit the smaller neighborhoods. Get out into the countryside! Getting off the beaten path not only means fewer tourists but also spreading the benefits of your tourism around. There’s more to Italy than Venice, more to Spain than Barcelona (seriously, nearby Costa Brava is amazing), more to Iceland than Rekyavik, more to Thailand than Pai, more to everywhere than where everyone is posting photos from! Get out there and find those hidden gems!

3. Visit in the shoulder season – A corollary to the above is to not visit during peak season. If you visit a place when everyone else does because “it’s the best time to go,” you’re just contributing to the crowds (plus facing peak-season prices). Travel during the shoulder season, when the crowds are fewer, the prices lower, and the weather still (mostly) nice.

4. Don’t eat in touristy areas – If you eat where all the other tourists are, you’ll pay more for lower-quality food. Open Google Maps, Foursquare, Yelp, or your guidebook and find restaurants where locals eat. Follow my five-block rule: always walk five blocks in any direction and cross the invisible line most tourists don’t. You’ll get away from the crowds, spread your tourism dollars around, and enjoy a more authentic experience.

5. Be an informed traveler – Read up on the destination before you go. Learn its customs. Learn its laws. Learn its history. The more respectful and knowledgeable you are, the better it is for everyone involved!

6. Don’t be a drunk idiot – Part of the growing pushback against tourists is not just their sheer number but their disrespectful behavior too. Heck, that is part of why the folks in Amsterdam are upset — they’re tired of drunk tourists! If you’re going someplace just to party, don’t go! You can get drunk back home. Don’t treat a destination like it’s your playpen. People live there after all! Treat them with kindness. You’re a guest in their home.

7. Be environmentally friendly – Finally, don’t waste a place’s (limited) resources. Don’t leave the lights on. Don’t litter. Don’t take long showers. Don’t involve yourself in environmentally dubious activities. The more you can preserve a destination, the longer it will last and the more the locals will want tourists like yourself there. After all, if you ruin it, how will you ever be able to go back? Here are some resources on the subject:

Is eco-tourism really eco-friendly?

How to balance tourism and the environment

How to ethically volunteer anywhere in the world

***Overtourism has been written about a lot lately (see the plethora of links from above) and it’s an issue I’ve been thinking about by another name for years and especially this summer as I jostled through the crowded streets of Amsterdam and my home away from home of New York City.

I think we’re going to see a lot more destinations limiting the number of visitors and placing restrictions on the travel industry. People are just fed up – and they have every right to be.

Let’s not love places to death. Just like it’s important to protect animals and the environment when we travel, so too is it important to protect residents and the destinations themselves.

Do I think lots of tourists are suddenly going to go “Oh, I didn’t realize we were doing this! Let’s change our ways!”?

Nope.

I think tourist behavior will, for the most part, continue as before. I think tourists are still going to act stupid. I think people will still be short-sighted.

But I’m glad this subject is being talked about. I’m glad there is more action around the issue.

We’re the cause – and part of the solution – to this problem and, the more responsible we act, the better it is for everyone involved.

Overtourism is a problem that can only be solved by residents and tourists together.

The post Overtourism: How You Can Help Solve This Worldwide Problem appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

source https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/overtourism-solutions/

[jeffreyclinard]

Overtourism: How You Can Help Solve This Worldwide Problem

Posted: 9/6/2018 | September 6th, 2018

Years later, I returned to the scene of the crime: Costa Rica. It was in that country that I first fell victim to the travel bug, a disease that would infect me for the rest of my life and lead to where I am today. There was no place I was more excited about revisiting than Manuel Antonio National Park. Its wild jungles, deserted beaches, and bountiful animal life was the highlight of my first visit and I couldn’t wait to relive it all in this seaside town.

But then wonder turned to horror.

The quiet road to town was lined with endless fancy resorts. Hotels lined the park’s edge. Tour groups cluttered the once peaceful park. They fed the wildlife. They littered. The abundant troops of monkeys had vanished. So had the colorful land crabs. No deer roamed. And the beaches were a sea of bodies.

It was my first experience with seeing a destination shift into “overtourism.”

Overtourism is the term used to describe the onslaught of tourists who take over a destination to a point where the infrastructure can no longer handle it.

While not a new problem (that trip to Costa Rica was in 2011), this “trend” has been in the news a lot the past few months (heck, there’s even a Twitter feed about it) as many destinations have started to push back against the onslaught of visitors inundating their streets, communities, and overtaking their natural resources.

“Stay home!” they scream to visitors. “You’re no longer welcome!”

I believe travel can change the world. Done right, it expands people’s minds, fosters understanding, makes you a better you, and provides an economic boost to local communities.

But, thanks to cheap flights, the sharing economy, and (let’s be honest) an explosion of Chinese tour groups around the world, destinations have gotten a bit crowded lately.

I see it everywhere I travel these days.

There’s the Palace of Versailles, where years ago, I was able to film a video free of crowds. Now, it’s wall-to-wall tour groups slowly shuffling from room to room in the most insane queue ever. Its hard to even enjoy the experience!

There’s Tulum, once a quiet Mexican town, now awash with Westerners trying to turn it into the new Bali (which is also overrun with tourists and where “digital nomads” can float from yoga studio to cafe to retreat to wherever without ever actually having to interact with locals). There’s Iceland, where Reykjavik’s main street, complete with a Dunkin’ Donuts, is now a sea of people, and the city’s roads are cluttered. (Don’t even get my Icelandic friends started on this subject. They are none too happy about all the tourists.)

There the crushing crowds in Prague, Barcelona, Paris, Venice, Edinburgh, the Gili Islands, Ko Lipe, Chiang Mai, and Queenstown, where tourists are overrunning locals, acting idiotically, and littering.

Sure, crowded destinations are simply a by-product of a globalized world where travel has become attainable for more and more people. The number of international tourist arrivals is expected to increase by 3.3% worldwide each year until 2030 when it will reach 1.8 billion. And, on balance, that’s a good thing if you believe in travel as a transformative tool.

Yet the very things that make travel cheaper — budget airlines, Airbnb, ridesharing, etc. — have also made destinations unable to cope with all the visitors — and pushed out locals in the process.

Now they are starting to push back.

Barcelona is no longer allowing new hotels and is limiting the number of cruise ships. Dubrovnik is floating the idea of putting limits on the number of tourists. Chile is curbing the number of tourists to Easter Island and how long they can stay and Ecuador is doing the same for visitors to the Galápagos. Venice is trying to restrict Airbnb and the number of tourists (after restricting cruise ships). Paris is also restricting Airbnbs in the city. Iceland wants to limit the number of foreigners who buy property. Amsterdam is launching a campaign to reign in the partying in the city. Majorca has had continuous protests against tourists.

The world is saying “enough!”

And I, for one, am all for this.

Of course, I don’t think people intentionally try to “ruin” places. No one is saying, “Let’s go overcrowd Iceland and piss locals off!”

Most people just don’t even think of their actions causing harm.

Which makes education and these initiatives even more important.

Because there definitely needs to be a better balance between visitors and residents. Overtourism doesn’t help anyone. No one wants to visit a crowded destination – and no one wants to live somewhere that’s overrun with tourists.

While no one is talking about banning tourists outright, there should be better ways to control their numbers and the problems overtourism causes.

Take Airbnb. It’s one of the biggest problems in travel today (which is a shame, because I love the service).

It started out as a way for residents to earn money on the side and get travelers out of the hotel/hostel dynamic and into a more “local” way of life.

But that original mission has been perverted. As rentals have become more lucrative, Airbnb has turned a blind eye to the fact that real estate companies, property managers, and other individuals can list as many properties as they want. These companies, tapping into tourists’ desire to have a home away from home, buy up properties in the city center, which then decreases the supply of rental properties for locals, increases rental prices, and forces residents out.

Driving locals out defeats the purpose of using the service! Too many town centers have been decimated by Airbnb. While a man’s home is his castle, I do believe there should be some restrictions on Airbnb because it’s driving people out of city centers. That’s not good for anyone, especially the locals who live there and, since Airbnb won’t do anything about it, local governments need to step in and start cracking down. Personally, I’ve started to only rent rooms in an Airbnb (instead of an entire property) so I know there’s a local there benefiting from my stay.

“But what about social media?” you may ask.

One can’t deny YouTubers, Instagram “influencers”, and bloggers like myself have helped popularize travel and made it more accessible to the masses by destroying the myth that it’s an expensive thing only a few can do. We’ve shed light on destinations around the world and gotten people to visit places they might not have otherwise.

I don’t feel bad about that.

More people should travel.

And there’s always been the idea of that travel media “ruins” a place. The Lonely Planet effect. The Rick Steves effect. The Bourdain effect (which I experienced first hand since he came to my hometown).

I mean people have been opining about mass tourism for decades. Once it’s in the Lonely Planet, a place is dead, right?

But social media has an amplifying effect that didn’t exist in the past. It makes it easier for everyone to find – and then overrun a destination.

Do I really think my one article on (insert destination) created a crush of people like there is some Nomadic Matt effect? No.

But social media and blogging leads one person to a place and then another and then another and then suddenly everyone it taking a picture of themselves with their feet dangling over Horseshoe Bend, sitting on that rock in Norway, or having breakfast with giraffes at that hotel in Kenya.

Everyone wants to do what they see on social media so they can tell all their friends how cool and well traveled they are.

This is also one of the downsides of the Internet. For me, travel is an act of discovery – and respect – and we constantly talk about being a respectful traveler but, for many influencers and bloggers, they don’t balance their actions and influence with responsible travel (I mean you had Fun for Louis rationalizing his North Korea propaganda movies) and try to educate their audiences to become better, more respectful travelers.

After all, we are as much a part of the solution as we are part of the problem. There are ways to mitigate your impact and create a mutually beneficial relationship between you and the local population.

Here are seven ways I think we can help mitigate the overtourism crisis:

1. Skip Airbnb homes – Airbnb is one of the biggest villains in this whole drama. Don’t rent an entire Airbnb home unless you can be 100% sure that you are renting from a real human who is just on vacation. Look at the photos, talk to the host, ask them if they live there. If this is a rental company or the person has multiple listings, skip them. Don’t contribute to the emptying of communities. Rent a room instead!

2. Spread your travels around – Don’t stick to the most popular areas in a destination. Travel outside the city center. Visit the smaller neighborhoods. Get out into the countryside! Getting off the beaten path not only means fewer tourists but also spreading the benefits of your tourism around. There’s more to Italy than Venice, more to Spain than Barcelona (seriously, nearby Costa Brava is amazing), more to Iceland than Rekyavik, more to Thailand than Pai, more to everywhere than where everyone is posting photos from! Get out there and find those hidden gems!

3. Visit in the shoulder season – A corollary to the above is to not visit during peak season. If you visit a place when everyone else does because “it’s the best time to go,” you’re just contributing to the crowds (plus facing peak-season prices). Travel during the shoulder season, when the crowds are fewer, the prices lower, and the weather still (mostly) nice.

4. Don’t eat in touristy areas – If you eat where all the other tourists are, you’ll pay more for lower-quality food. Open Google Maps, Foursquare, Yelp, or your guidebook and find restaurants where locals eat. Follow my five-block rule: always walk five blocks in any direction and cross the invisible line most tourists don’t. You’ll get away from the crowds, spread your tourism dollars around, and enjoy a more authentic experience.

5. Be an informed traveler – Read up on the destination before you go. Learn its customs. Learn its laws. Learn its history. The more respectful and knowledgeable you are, the better it is for everyone involved!

6. Don’t be a drunk idiot – Part of the growing pushback against tourists is not just their sheer number but their disrespectful behavior too. Heck, that is part of why the folks in Amsterdam are upset — they’re tired of drunk tourists! If you’re going someplace just to party, don’t go! You can get drunk back home. Don’t treat a destination like it’s your playpen. People live there after all! Treat them with kindness. You’re a guest in their home.

7. Be environmentally friendly – Finally, don’t waste a place’s (limited) resources. Don’t leave the lights on. Don’t litter. Don’t take long showers. Don’t involve yourself in environmentally dubious activities. The more you can preserve a destination, the longer it will last and the more the locals will want tourists like yourself there. After all, if you ruin it, how will you ever be able to go back? Here are some resources on the subject:

Is eco-tourism really eco-friendly?

How to balance tourism and the environment

How to ethically volunteer anywhere in the world

***Overtourism has been written about a lot lately (see the plethora of links from above) and it’s an issue I’ve been thinking about by another name for years and especially this summer as I jostled through the crowded streets of Amsterdam and my home away from home of New York City.

I think we’re going to see a lot more destinations limiting the number of visitors and placing restrictions on the travel industry. People are just fed up – and they have every right to be.

Let’s not love places to death. Just like it’s important to protect animals and the environment when we travel, so too is it important to protect residents and the destinations themselves.

Do I think lots of tourists are suddenly going to go “Oh, I didn’t realize we were doing this! Let’s change our ways!”?

Nope.

I think tourist behavior will, for the most part, continue as before. I think tourists are still going to act stupid. I think people will still be short-sighted.

But I’m glad this subject is being talked about. I’m glad there is more action around the issue.

We’re the cause – and part of the solution – to this problem and, the more responsible we act, the better it is for everyone involved.

Overtourism is a problem that can only be solved by residents and tourists together.

The post Overtourism: How You Can Help Solve This Worldwide Problem appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Traveling News https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/overtourism-solutions/

[tamboradventure]

Overtourism: How You Can Help Solve This Worldwide Problem

Posted: 9/6/2018 | September 6th, 2018

Years later, I returned to the scene of the crime: Costa Rica. It was in that country that I first fell victim to the travel bug, a disease that would infect me for the rest of my life and lead to where I am today. There was no place I was more excited about revisiting than Manuel Antonio National Park. Its wild jungles, deserted beaches, and bountiful animal life was the highlight of my first visit and I couldn’t wait to relive it all in this seaside town.

But then wonder turned to horror.

The quiet road to town was lined with endless fancy resorts. Hotels lined the park’s edge. Tour groups cluttered the once peaceful park. They fed the wildlife. They littered. The abundant troops of monkeys had vanished. So had the colorful land crabs. No deer roamed. And the beaches were a sea of bodies.

It was my first experience with seeing a destination shift into “overtourism.”

Overtourism is the term used to describe the onslaught of tourists who take over a destination to a point where the infrastructure can no longer handle it.

While not a new problem (that trip to Costa Rica was in 2011), this “trend” has been in the news a lot the past few months (heck, there’s even a Twitter feed about it) as many destinations have started to push back against the onslaught of visitors inundating their streets, communities, and overtaking their natural resources.

“Stay home!” they scream to visitors. “You’re no longer welcome!”

I believe travel can change the world. Done right, it expands people’s minds, fosters understanding, makes you a better you, and provides an economic boost to local communities.

But, thanks to cheap flights, the sharing economy, and (let’s be honest) an explosion of Chinese tour groups around the world, destinations have gotten a bit crowded lately.

I see it everywhere I travel these days.

There’s the Palace of Versailles, where years ago, I was able to film a video free of crowds. Now, it’s wall-to-wall tour groups slowly shuffling from room to room in the most insane queue ever. Its hard to even enjoy the experience!

There’s Tulum, once a quiet Mexican town, now awash with Westerners trying to turn it into the new Bali (which is also overrun with tourists and where “digital nomads” can float from yoga studio to cafe to retreat to wherever without ever actually having to interact with locals). There’s Iceland, where Reykjavik’s main street, complete with a Dunkin’ Donuts, is now a sea of people, and the city’s roads are cluttered. (Don’t even get my Icelandic friends started on this subject. They are none too happy about all the tourists.)

There the crushing crowds in Prague, Barcelona, Paris, Venice, Edinburgh, the Gili Islands, Ko Lipe, Chiang Mai, and Queenstown, where tourists are overrunning locals, acting idiotically, and littering.

Sure, crowded destinations are simply a by-product of a globalized world where travel has become attainable for more and more people. The number of international tourist arrivals is expected to increase by 3.3% worldwide each year until 2030 when it will reach 1.8 billion. And, on balance, that’s a good thing if you believe in travel as a transformative tool.

Yet the very things that make travel cheaper — budget airlines, Airbnb, ridesharing, etc. — have also made destinations unable to cope with all the visitors — and pushed out locals in the process.

Now they are starting to push back.

Barcelona is no longer allowing new hotels and is limiting the number of cruise ships. Dubrovnik is floating the idea of putting limits on the number of tourists. Chile is curbing the number of tourists to Easter Island and how long they can stay and Ecuador is doing the same for visitors to the Galápagos. Venice is trying to restrict Airbnb and the number of tourists (after restricting cruise ships). Paris is also restricting Airbnbs in the city. Iceland wants to limit the number of foreigners who buy property. Amsterdam is launching a campaign to reign in the partying in the city. Majorca has had continuous protests against tourists.

The world is saying “enough!”

And I, for one, am all for this.

Of course, I don’t think people intentionally try to “ruin” places. No one is saying, “Let’s go overcrowd Iceland and piss locals off!”

Most people just don’t even think of their actions causing harm.

Which makes education and these initiatives even more important.

Because there definitely needs to be a better balance between visitors and residents. Overtourism doesn’t help anyone. No one wants to visit a crowded destination – and no one wants to live somewhere that’s overrun with tourists.

While no one is talking about banning tourists outright, there should be better ways to control their numbers and the problems overtourism causes.

Take Airbnb. It’s one of the biggest problems in travel today (which is a shame, because I love the service).

It started out as a way for residents to earn money on the side and get travelers out of the hotel/hostel dynamic and into a more “local” way of life.

But that original mission has been perverted. As rentals have become more lucrative, Airbnb has turned a blind eye to the fact that real estate companies, property managers, and other individuals can list as many properties as they want. These companies, tapping into tourists’ desire to have a home away from home, buy up properties in the city center, which then decreases the supply of rental properties for locals, increases rental prices, and forces residents out.

Driving locals out defeats the purpose of using the service! Too many town centers have been decimated by Airbnb. While a man’s home is his castle, I do believe there should be some restrictions on Airbnb because it’s driving people out of city centers. That’s not good for anyone, especially the locals who live there and, since Airbnb won’t do anything about it, local governments need to step in and start cracking down. (Personally, I’ve started to only rent rooms in an Airbnb (instead of an entire property) so I know there’s a local there benefiting from my stay.)

“But what about social media?” you may ask.

One can’t deny YouTubers, Instagram “influencers”, and bloggers like myself have helped popularize travel and made it more accessible to the masses by destroying the myth that it’s an expensive thing only a few can do. We’ve shed light on destinations around the world and gotten people to visit places they might not have otherwise.

I don’t feel bad about that.

More people should travel.

And there’s always been the idea of that travel media “ruins” a place. The Lonely Planet effect. The Rick Steves effect. The Bourdain effect (which I experienced first hand since he came to my hometown).

I mean people have been opining about mass tourism for decades. Once it’s in the Lonely Planet, a place is dead, right?

But social media has an amplifying effect that didn’t exist in the past. It makes it easier for everyone to find – and then overrun a destination.

Do I really think my one article on (insert destination) created a crush of people like there is some Nomadic Matt effect? No.

But social media and blogging leads one person to a place and then another and then another and then suddenly everyone it taking a picture of themselves with their feet dangling over Horseshoe Bend, sitting on that rock in Norway, or having breakfast with giraffes at that hotel in Kenya.

Everyone wants to do what they see on social media so they can tell all their friends how cool and well traveled they are.

This is also one of the downsides of the Internet. For me, travel is an act of discovery – and respect – and we constantly talk about being a respectful traveler but, for many influencers and bloggers, they don’t balance their actions and influence with responsible travel (I mean you had Fun for Louis rationalizing his North Korea propaganda movies) and try to educate their audiences to better, more respectful travelers.

After all, we are as much a part of the solution as we are part of the problem. There are ways to mitigate your impact and create a mutually beneficial relationship between you and the local population.

Here are seven ways I think we can help mitigate the overtourism crisis:

1. Skip Airbnb homes – Airbnb is one of the biggest villains in this whole drama. Don’t rent an entire Airbnb home unless you can be 100% sure that you are renting from a real human who is just on vacation. Look at the photos, talk to the host, ask them if they live there. If this is a rental company or the person has multiple listings, skip them. Don’t contribute to the emptying of communities. Rent a room instead!

2. Spread your travels around – Don’t stick to the most popular areas in a destination. Travel outside the city center. Visit the smaller neighborhoods. Get out into the countryside! Getting off the beaten path not only means fewer tourists but also spreading the benefits of your tourism around. There’s more to Italy than Venice, more to Spain than Barcelona (seriously, nearby Costa Brava is amazing), more to Iceland than Rekyavik, more to Thailand than Pai, more to everywhere than where everyone is posting photos from! Get out there and find those hidden gems!

3. Visit in the shoulder season – A corollary to the above is to not visit during peak season. If you visit a place when everyone else does because “it’s the best time to go,” you’re just contributing to the crowds (plus facing peak-season prices). Travel during the shoulder season, when the crowds are fewer, the prices lower, and the weather still (mostly) nice.

4. Don’t eat in touristy areas – If you eat where all the other tourists are, you’ll pay more for lower-quality food. Open Google Maps, Foursquare, Yelp, or your guidebook and find restaurants where locals eat. Follow my five-block rule: always walk five blocks in any direction and cross the invisible line most tourists don’t. You’ll get away from the crowds, spread your tourism dollars around, and enjoy a more authentic experience.

5. Be an informed traveler – Read up on the destination before you go. Learn its customs. Learn its laws. Learn its history. The more respectful and knowledgeable you are, the better it is for everyone involved!

6. Don’t be a drunk idiot – Part of the growing pushback against tourists is not just their sheer number but their disrespectful behavior too. Heck, that is part of why the folks in Amsterdam are upset — they’re tired of drunk tourists! If you’re going someplace just to party, don’t go! You can get drunk back home. Don’t treat a destination like it’s your playpen. People live there after all! Treat them with kindness. You’re a guest in their home.

7. Be environmentally friendly – Finally, don’t waste a place’s (limited) resources. Don’t leave the lights on. Don’t litter. Don’t take long showers. Don’t involve yourself in environmentally dubious activities. The more you can preserve a destination, the longer it will last and the more the locals will want tourists like yourself there. After all, if you ruin it, how will you ever be able to go back? Here are some resources on the subject:

Is eco-tourism really eco-friendly?

How to balance tourism and the environment

How to ethically volunteer anywhere in the world

***Overtourism has been written about a lot lately (see the plethora of links from above) and it’s an issue I’ve been thinking about by another name for years and especially this summer as I jostled through the crowded streets of Amsterdam and my home away from home of New York City.

I think we’re going to see a lot more destinations limiting the number of visitors and placing restrictions on the travel industry. People are just fed up – and they have every right to be.

Let’s not love places to death. Just like it’s important to protect animals and the environment when we travel, so too is it important to protect residents and the destinations themselves.

Do I think lots of tourists are suddenly going to go “Oh, I didn’t realize we were doing this! Let’s change our ways!”?

Nope.

I think tourist behavior will, for the most part, continue as before. I think tourists are still going to act stupid. I think people will still be short-sighted.

But I’m glad this subject is being talked about. I’m glad there is more action around the issue.

We’re the cause – and part of the solution – to this problem and, the more responsible we act, the better it is for everyone involved.

Overtourism is a problem that can only be solved by residents and tourists together.

The post Overtourism: How You Can Help Solve This Worldwide Problem appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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