#john is tough but -- even in his limited time on the show -- he does express his love for his sons. he is secretive and plays his cards | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bloodgulchblog · 1 year

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Over in rper town people were passing around some character questions that you're supposed to ask each other to answer. So I decided to do all of them about the Chief.

How aware is your character of their thought processes? Do they think about why they do what they do (however accurately)? Do they care about self-analysis?

John fucking hates self reflection. He has a list of John-acceptable reasons why he THINKS he does most things and he Absolutely Refuses to analyze whether it's actually true or not.

Is your character more likely to think they can overcome something even when they can't or to feel helpless even when they aren't?

John thinks it's his job to push himself through fucking everything. If he runs up against his limits because a human being can only endure so much, well, that means he is bad and should feel bad. Obviously.

3. What's one thing they're overconfident about? What's one thing they're under-confident about?

Over-confident: enduring terrible things, and also being responsible for all the bad consequences when he can't solve everything by just being tough enough.

Under-confident: John really does not see how much his humanity toward other people matters when he shows it, and that he's better at being kind than he realizes.

4. How aware of and in control of their physical presence are they? Could they ever be caught with their clothes inside-out or spinach in their teeth? Do they ever stop paying attention to where they're walking or hit things when gesturing?

John is very alert re: the state of his body and also his body language. He is troublingly accurate at assessing where he's hurt and how badly without a medical scan because... he has so much experience.

When it comes to body language, he's very careful about what he's expressing and (I've said this elsewhere) I think John is pretty conscious of the effect his body language has on other people. He knows he's big and intimidating. Most of the time he prefers to regulate that a little and keep the intensity low by keeping back from people and not making sudden moves, but if John is either in a bad enough spot that he's not, or if he wants to turn on the intimidation, he is suddenly Very Present And Standing Very Tall.

5. How good are they at accurately assigning blame? Do they think everything is their fault? That nothing is?

As stated above, everything is always John's fault? Forever? He is responsible for everything?????

6. Name something from your character's past that affects their behavior now in a way they don't realize and something that affects them in a way they do realize.

Spartan Training Absolutely Did Not Fuck Him Up In An Inexcusable Way What Are You Talking About It's FINE?????

John does understand how bad what happened with Cortana hurt him and has made him worse at the things he wants to do/be, even though he hasn't figured out how obvious it is to everyone who knows him.

7. Does your character overcompensate for anything?

You can probably count "I'm bad at socialization and lying so what if I just minimize how much I talk to people entirely?"

8. Does your character believe they're chronically lucky/unlucky? Why?

John has a reputation for luck that other characters acknowledge. He supposes he might as well lean in.

9. Does your character have an inner monologue? Are their thoughts about themselves more frequently positive or critical?

John is one of those people who doesn't have an inner monologue, but he absolutely does think himself in worry circles all the time about things he can't change. He likes himself and what he can do. His self-image problems are mostly in that he measures his own worth by how much he's doing for others, and if he is in a situation where he can't help or his attempts to do good work have failed, he feels pretty useless and bad.

10. Are there any values or beliefs your character espouses but doesn't live up to?

John's values for himself are pretty toxic. He has not shaken the idea he's internalized that the best thing he can be is a more perfect machine that does not hesitate because of feelings or pain.

It's good for him that he can't actually achieve it, though the trying still hurts him all the time.

11. How good at reading people is your character, usually? Do they think they're better or worse at it than they are?

John's ability to figure out when something's up with someone is better than he thinks, but the problem is he's usually not around anyone long enough to get a good baseline sense of a person for him to compare with. He will absolutely notice when someone he knows is breaking from their usual patterns, though.

That said, I think mostly he is not good at reading people. He's a Spartan-II, he's not very socialized, and he's usually more busy covering his own end of the interaction than he is paying detailed attention to the other half.

12. What sorts of things does your character use to evaluate someone they've just met—clothes, looks, attitude? Is there anything (besides bad behavior) that will give them a kneejerk dislike of a stranger? A kneejerk affection?

The first thing John assesses about a stranger is branch and rank, if signs are visible to him. (Because 99% of people John meets are UNSC) He's instantly on the alert with anyone that shows hallmarks of being ONI because you never know what ONI wants or what it's doing.

He is most comfortable with people who are calm and know what they're doing. He's a no-nonsense professional without being super uptight, and appreciates the same.

13. Would you say your character is too trusting, not trusting enough, or juuuust right?

Despite being a Spartan and raised in ONI secrecy, John is... honestly kind of too trusting. Just look at Guilty Spark.

It's in John's nature to believe people. Unless they're throwing big red flags, he usually will.

14. How susceptible is your character to perceiving or treating others like surrogate parents or children (or some other specific familial role)? Why?

Not really. John doesn't have a strong "family" mental framework to begin with, much less to slot people into. I call the Spartans his siblings because it's the most useful shorthand, but it's not a word he would use for that relationship.

I joke about how he's a dad now in Halo Infinite, but he's also really not.

15. Can they easily tell when someone is hitting on them?

He does get hit on sometimes and can usually tell he's being flirted with if someone's being straightforward or using common lines, but if they're trying to be clever or subtle about it he will absolutely not notice.

16. How sensitive are they to passive aggression or backhanded compliments? Do they ever read too much into things?

John notices these things and calmly controls the spike of indignation he feels. He's not one to overanalyze surface comments that seem neutral enough, and he will make an effort not to react to actual digs at him because it's not like his feelings are supposed to matter, right??? Being a professional means being a brick wall.

17. Does your character project anything in particular onto other people—thinking everyone is scheming because they're always scheming themselves, for example?

Part of the reason why John tends to default to trusting people is because John is always doing his best and trying as hard as he can, so he wants to naturally assume that is what's going on inside other people too.

18. Are the standards your character holds other people to higher, lower, or equal to the standards they hold themselves to? Do they notice that?

John holds himself to a higher standard than other people because he has swallowed the idea that being a Spartan-II means he has exceptional ability and thus he must live up to exceptional expectations.

Otherwise he is being bad.

19. How noticeable is your character? Do they stand out or fade into the background? Is that intentional or innate?

Our boy is seven feet tall and usually wearing a shit ton of armor. He's hard to miss.

That said, like I was saying when talking about his body language: I think he has a good ability to downplay his body language's energy and stay back. You won't miss him in a room, but he's not inherently looming and threatening in the way he carries himself.

20. What's the first thing they want other people to notice about them? Is that what most people actually usually notice?

John wants other people to recognize that he is a Spartan, and by golly they sure do.

21. Besides just being more formal in formal settings, do they ever change how they behave around specific people? Is it on purpose? What happens if they're in the room with two of those people at the same time?

John doesn't really have many friends, but he is a little more warm and playful with them. You see this with Cortana most. He used to be like this with the Spartans more, but time and authority wore him down.

Presence of strangers/superiors will mute this behavior again unless he can do it, say, privately over a comm channel.

22. Does your character wish people perceived them differently than they do? Do they have any qualities they wish got more recognition? Is there anything about your character's background or personality that they try to hide but can't?

Every now and then, he does scare somebody without meaning to. And that always feels like shit.

He also wishes he could pass a little more easily for "normal," but it's purely for the ease that would offer him. He likes who/what he is.

23. Does your character come across the way they intend to come across—cool when they're trying to be cool, intimidating when they're trying to be intimidating—or is there a mismatch?

Most of the time. Unless he's pretty bad off, or trying to tell people not to worry about him re: things that are unhinged to not worry about him for.

24. If someone hated your character for no apparent reason, how would they take it? Would they try to change their minds? Could they live without knowing why?

He absolutely could live without knowing why. John does care about what the people close to him think, and he wants to be useful and helpful and good, but if some rando is super antagonistic to him for no apparent reason and won't back down about it he's just ???? Okay????

He will figure out how to avoid it if he can and work around it if he can't.

25. What if someone openly adored your character for no apparent reason? Flattering or uncomfortable?

It's nice when people say nice things, sure, but oh man do not get clingy or weird or over-invested with him. He will be so uncomfortable. This is not an energy he can match and he wants out of this conversation, please let him go.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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13 Best Blumhouse Horror Movies Ranked

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Has any single person had a greater impact on horror this century than Jason Blum? The one-time Miramax executive struck out on his own in the 2000s when he founded Blumhouse Productions, a company where he remains the CEO. And in the ensuing years, Blum’s production label would define, and redefine again, the trends of horror movies and thrillers.

Operating on the philosophy that a horror film with a micro-budget will almost always turn a profit, Blum frequently allows directors broad freedom to make what they want within the genre, and in the process has kept multiplexes perpetually spooky. In 2009 Blumhouse helped reinvent the found footage horror aesthetic, and in the 2010s, the modern phenomenon of talent-focused horror gems began with Blumhouse’s gambles.

Working with filmmakers like James Wan, Scott Derrickson, Ethan Hawke, and Jordan Peele, Blumhouse Productions’ title card is now a promise of something different, if still eminently commercial and entertaining. It even paved the way for the controversial modern discourse around “elevated” horror, with Peele’s Get Out being the first chiller to win an Oscar for screenwriting since The Silence of the Lambs.

So with a new Blumhouse horror movie in theaters this Friday the 13th, we thought it a good time to count down the 13 best Blumhouse efforts that paid off with a bloody good time.

13. Hush

At the bottom of our top 13 is this taut thriller from Mike Flanagan, director The Haunting of series and Doctor Sleep fame. Flanagan and his co-writer and star (and also wife), Kate Siegel, wanted to make a horror movie with little to no dialogue. So they came up with this concept of a deaf-mute woman (Siegel) in a remote house, who is stalked by a killer with a crossbow. Hush is at its peak in the first 20 minutes as the masked man (10 Cloverfield Lane’s John Gallagher Jr.) realizes his quarry can’t actually hear him and begins to play games.

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The pair’s relationship with sound makes an interesting dynamic in this tense home invasion movie, though the cat and mouse chase does grow somewhat repetitive and generic as the film progresses. Still, a fine performance from Siegel and an indication of what Flanagan could do on a small budget make this very much worth checking out. – Rosie Fletcher

12. Happy Death Day

The Groundhog Day formula where an odious person is doomed to relive the same day countless times has proven remarkably flexible. And Happy Death Day is no exception with its horror-comedy blend of Punxsutawney hijinks and ‘80s slasher movie clichés. Starring a ridiculously game Jessica Rothe as Tree, the sorority girl who is constantly waking up with the hangover from hell, Happy Death Day follows the typical “Queen Bee” slasher archetype, and forces her to relive the same horror movie again and again. Until she can figure out who her masked killer is, and maybe how to be a better person, she’s condemned to die in increasingly preposterous ways. Worse still, she must also wake up in a dormitory afterward.

It’s derivative in a million different ways, but delightful in many more thanks to a cheeky atmosphere from director Christopher Landon and a very savvy, self-aware script by Scott Lobdell. Most of all though, it benefits from Rothe’s comedic talents on full display, as she backflips between initial verbal bitchiness and constant physical comedy. She even manages to find a little pathos, one stab wound at a time. – David Crow

11. The Visit

The Sixth Sense may remain M. Night Shyamalan’s masterpiece, but it was an oft-referenced moment from a different film that became key to Blumhouse pulling him back from the brink of irrelevance.

Having made four objectively terrible movies in a row, including the notoriously bad wind-smeller The Happening, Shyamalan seemingly decided to use what he’d learned from a very effective part of 2002’s Signs, where Joaquin Phoenix reacts to a tense home movie of an alien sighting, and took the next logical step: What if the director put together 90 minutes of unsettling home movie moments just like that?

Your mileage may vary with the handheld, mockumentary style of The Visit, but it’s hard to argue that this brisk, low-budget tale of two young siblings staying with some very, very odd grandparents they’ve never met before could play out more wildly than it does here. And Shyamalan certainly doesn’t pull many punches when it comes to putting those poor kids in peril during the film’s climax. – Kirsten Howard

10. Creep

No, not the one set on the subway, this Creep, directed by Patrick Brice, written by Brice and Mark Duplass, and also starring them both in a tense two-hander, is an altogether more unsettling affair. Brice plays Aaron, a videographer who answers an ad posted by Josef (Duplass), the latter saying he’s dying and wants a video diary made to leave to his son. But Josef’s behavior is weird – exactly how weird is too weird is the challenge faced by Aaron.

At just 77 mins long, this is a compact, unusual, often funny movie which picks at male relationships in the modern day, and how far kindness and politeness can override instinct. Duplass and Brice are incredibly natural in a film that’s extremely unusual, steeped in unease but not really like a traditional horror, with laughter and tension relief keeping you on your toes throughout. There’s a sequel which is good too, though if you can watch the first without spoilers it delivers a particular kind of dread that’s hard to replicate. – RF

9. Upgrade

A couple of decades ago, there were plenty of films around like Upgrade. You didn’t even have to move for fun sci-fi action movies, really! But the glory days of never having to wait for the next Equilibrium, Gattaca, Cypher, or even Jet Li’s The One are long behind us. It’s pretty tough to get a slick little concept movie made when you’re expected to compete with huge action tentpoles at the box office—unless you’re Leigh Whannell, one of Blumhouse’s integral puzzle pieces.

Whannell paid his dues at the production house for 15 years as both a writer and helmer before unleashing his sophomore directorial effort, Upgrade. The film, which follows ludicrously named technophobe Grey Trace after he loses his beloved wife in a violent mugging, sees a paralyzed hero get implanted with a chatty chip that allows him to regain the use of his whole body. Soon Trace become virtually superhuman—imagine an internal K.I.T.T.—but all is not as it seems.

It shouldn’t be as delightful as it is. Admittedly, the whole thing isn’t too far removed from an elevated episode of The Outer Limits. But if you miss old school sci-fi nonsense and feel nostalgic for a time when smart sci-fi projects didn’t end up as eight drawn out episodes on a major streaming service instead, Upgrade really scratches an itch.

Of course now might be a bad time to mention that an Upgrade TV series is in the works… – KH

8. Halloween

In resurrecting one of horror’s most enduring—yet stubbornly uneven—franchises, director David Gordon Green (working with screenwriters Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley) made the smartest move he could: He stripped away the ridiculously convoluted and nonsensical mythology the franchise had built up over decades. Instead he simply made a direct sequel to Carpenter’s 1978 masterpiece.

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The result was easily the best Halloween movie since the original itself, bringing the characters and the story into the present while reverting Michael Myers back to the enigmatic, unstoppable, unknowable force that was so terrifying in the first film. Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, and Andi Matichak as three generations of Strode women bring healthy feminine empowerment to the proceedings while the intense violence and uneasy psychological underpinnings give this Halloween a resonance that has been lacking for so long. – Don Kaye

7. Split

As the movie that suggested M. Night Shyamalan’s renaissance was real, Split is still a surprising box office win for the eclectic filmmaker. With a grizzly premise about a man suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as split personality) kidnapping teen girls to hold in a zoo, this could be the stuff of ‘70s grindhouse sleaze. While there is a touch of that to Split, more critically the movie acts as a buoyant showcase for James McAvoy at his most unbound.

Playing a character with 24 different personalities, a shaved and beefy McAvoy is visibly giddy bouncing between multiple alters that include a deceptively sweet little boy, an OCD fashion designer, and a bestial final form. The commitment he shows to each also becomes its own special effect, causing you to swear his physical shape is changing with his expressions.

Similarly, scenes with theater legend Betty Buckley as his psychiatrist also rivet with the energy of a stage play, and suggest a sincere sympathy for mental illness. A rarity in horror. Nevertheless, the movie still comes down to his alters’ obsessions with their kidnapped prize (Anya Taylor-Joy), a young woman who hides demons of her own. When these true selves finally cross paths in a genuinely tense finale, Split is maniacally thrilling. – DC

6. Sinister

An unsettling entry in the horror subgenre of writers who destroy their families, Sinister marked director/co-writer Scott Derrickson’s (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) return to horror after he detoured with an ill-fated remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Thus Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill concocted a unique, if somewhat scattershot, mythology about a pagan deity that murders entire families in the ghastliest ways imaginable.

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True crime writer Ethan Hawke discovers the extent of those murders in a box of 8mm films left in the attic of his new home (where the last killings took place), and it’s the unspooling of those films—along with long sequences of Hawke moving through the shadows and silence of the house—that provide Sinister with its sickening core and palpable dread. Derrickson sustains the film’s foreboding mood for the entire running time, making the movie an authentically frightening experience. – DK

5. Oculus

The film that brought much of the world’s attention to Mike Flanagan, Oculus turned out to be a preview for the horror filmmaker’s interests. It also remains a truly unnerving ghost story. Not since the days of Dead of Night has a film so successfully made you scared of looking in a mirror.

Officially titled the Lasser Glass, the mirror in question is the apparent supernatural cause of hundreds of deaths, including the parents of Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan) and her brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites). When they were children, their mother starved and mutilated herself before their father killed her. But now as an adult, Kaylie is convinced she can prove the antique glass is the true culprit, and she’ll document its evil power before destroying it. But the funny thing about evil mirrors is they have ways of protecting themselves, and wreaking havoc on a sense of time, place, and certainly self-image.

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With the movie’s near masterful blending of events occurring 11 years ago and in the present, Flanagan revealed a knack for dreamlike structure, and stories about the past damning the future. These are ideas he’s gone on to explore in richer detail with The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep, but Flanagan’s ability to juxtapose childhood trauma with a nightmarish present was never more potent, or tragic, than in Oculus’ refracted gaze. – DC

4. Paranormal Activity

It may take some mental gymnastics, but if you can take a step back and ignore all the sequels that followed in the wake of this surprise 2009 blockbuster, then you’d remember Paranormal Activity is a stone cold classic. It is also the movie that put Blumhouse on the map. Already mostly finished when Jason Blum saw a DVD screener of Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity, this $15,000-budgeted terror is arguably the most evocative use of found footage in all of horror.

While Peli is obviously influenced by 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, that earlier movie is as famous for its shaky disorientation as it is its scares. By contrast what occurs in Paranormal Activity is excruciatingly clear. Seriously, the camera barely moves! Instead we’re asked to sit back and watch in near slow motion as an unwise couple (Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat) meddle with forces that were better off left undisturbed.

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It begins when Micah brings a home video camera into their house to track apparent ghosts in the dark; it ends in a demonic rush of violence. Everything in between is tracked by a disinterested lens, which usually sits statically in a corner or on a tripod, capturing the tedium of everyday life in its everyday natural lighting. Only occasionally does the horned shadow on the wall manifest. But then Paranormal Activity is chilling in its isolation. – DC

3. Insidious

As the fourth feature film directed by Australian filmmaker James Wan, Insidious follows a couple named Josh and Renai Lambert (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne), whose son inexplicably falls into a coma and becomes a vessel for malevolent entities from a dimension called the Further. The family enlists a psychic named Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) in a battle involving astral projection and demonic possession.

Following an era of horror films that were more torture porn or police procedural (including Wan’s own Saw), Insidious was a return to the kind of horror filmmaking that was dependent on atmosphere, suspense, and what you don’t see lurking in the shadows. And Wan seemed to imbue that creepiness around the edges of every shot. Using actual adult characters and developing them (as opposed to the hipster teens that infested nearly every horror movie for at least 10 years previously) also set the film apart as a serious attempt at a genre that had been too often exploited in a tossed-off fashion.

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The world-building of Insidious left the door open for sequels, of course, and while the three produced so far have had their moments, none has matched the sheer invention and terrifying fun of the original. – DK

2. The Invisible Man

Leigh Whannell’s reimagining of the classic Universal Monster, the Invisible Man, was as much of a surprise when it hit screens earlier this year as the titular villain himself. As a smart social commentary on domestic abuse and gaslighting, while also being enormously effective as a straight up horror, this was a highly fresh take on an old standard.

At the core was the terrific performance of Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia, a woman stuck with her controlling boyfriend Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) in their high-tech, high security fortress of a home. When Cece finally manages to escape and Adrian appears to take his own life, she hopes her ordeal can finally be over. But in fact it’s just beginning.

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Playing on the true horror of not being believed, Whannell’s Invisible Man is as harrowing at times as it is thrilling. Yes, there are some extraordinarily shocking set pieces – the restaurant scene of course stands out – but it’s the increasing desperation of Cece, whose world is falling apart at the manipulative hands of a man who won’t let her go, which stays with you.

The Invisible Man is a thrilling horror, for sure, with a feel good ending (if you want to read it that way…), but it’s something altogether more exciting than that too: a fresh, relevant take on a classic, expertly directed and boasting star power delivered on a moderate budget, which flexes exactly what horror can do. – RF

1. Get Out

More impressive than any awards it won, Jordan Peele’s Get Out encapsulates the essential draw of horror: through entertaining “scares,” it unmasks truths folks might find too horrifying or uncomfortable to acknowledge. In the case of Get Out, it is the despair of Blackness and Black bodies still being commodified by a predatory American culture.

Wearing influences like Rosemary’s Baby and Stepford Wives on his sleeve, Peele pulls from classic horror conventions for his directorial debut, but gives them a startling 21st century sheen. His movie’s insidious conspiracy is neither an obvious coven of witches or the openly racist heavies of a period piece. Rather Peele sets his story about a Black man (Daniel Kaluuya) coming to meet his white girlfriend’s parents in a liberal conclave of wealthy suburbia. Written during the final days of the Obama years, Peele casts these parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) as genial and welcoming, shielding cries of racism behind fashionable political correctness.

Yet once Peele moves past that trendy veneer, he finds a potent allegory in which the ghosts of slavery are still alive and well, even in Upstate New York. Peele also packs anxieties about interracial relationships, culture clash, and childhood trauma into a film that is nevertheless gregariously funny. Ultimately though, its final effect is triggering in the best way. Get Out offers an opportunity to confront real dread, one uneasy laugh, and then sudden jump scare, at a time. – DC

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triyune · 4 years

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Review: Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #1 + #2

Recently, or less recently by now, DC has decided to grant their older readers a little bit of more violence and psychological depth by releasing comics under their Black Label.

I greatly appreciate that effort since I really miss at least that depth in many comics.

Here, I am going to discuss the comics criminal sanity #1 and criminal sanity #2 in terms of storyline, art and even a bit of personal stuff, but who cares, I get no money for doin this!

SPOILER alert

Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity "written by #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author Kami Garcia", art by Mico Suayan and Mike Mayhew

Storyline I am starting to wonder how Kami Garcia managed to get on top of New York like that. When I bought Criminal Sanity 1 I was looking forward to a comic explanation of what is commonly perceived as sanity in respect of criminals. And hey, it did. It explains that with reference to real life killers like Ted Bundy or Ed Gein etc. It is like a comic where they decided to show us what would have happened if Harleen Quinzel had adopted another course and used her skills to help the police find killers. I can’t say that I like her vibe, but that is a personal thing. I understand that she’s displaying that arrogance because she feels hurt, not only because her girlfriend had been killed by the Joker, so we assume, and that this police department full of snug macho men is not a happy place for a woman, but well. I can’t say what it is but something’s not right with her. Maybe it is also because she’s often drawn with the same expression and she feels a bit one-dimensional to me. Anyway, as for the killings, I appreciate DC’s (new) Black Label since that way, the writers and artists are allowed to give the stories and images more depth and intensity. I would have been disappointed to see those corpses just beaten to death or anything crude of the like. It is obvious that they have done some research and want to present that in the comic. They are just about to create a certain image of the killer and the reader is clueless as for the definite meaning of those symbols. Of course we are clueless because we aren’t killers, are we. Would we put arms on a clock to express that someone’s running out of time? We wouldn’t. And so we have no clue. After reading the first volume I was hoping to see it going into detail, hoping for the hunt to pick up pace. Instead, the second volume turns out to become a trip into the past. No doubt it is a Comic Noir and quite enjoyable to see the style changing from black/white to colours, but sometimes, the change from John’s to Harleen’s POV is a bit confusing since it doesn’t 'connect'. The first change, for example, deals with the explanation of how John got those concussions, dislocated shoulder etc. and we are taken back to the past to see daddy beating his son and doing his brute thing. Next, we see Harleen going out for a drink and next we see the Joker-to-be entering a drinking hole. I fail to see any connection there and I guess it was just done to push on with his story. And don’t tell me that the alcohol is supposed to be the link, please. I just don’t want to believe that -__- Anyway, Harleen leaves the liquor store, meets her bro and we are taken to reminiscences of how cruel mother tortured poor Harleen. I’m led to think that we should see from that that Harleen’s had a tough childhood as well and that she did not turn into an artsy killer. So, what’s the difference between her and him, we should ask at reading these pages, right? Oh dear. However, then, I was really disappointed. We see Harl diving into the files again: Back to the past with young John-Joker roaming high school and dealing with further emotional abuse in his own way. Maybe I’m one of the few but it destroyed a lot of the atmosphere when I saw the Smartphones there. Laugh at me but I was born at a time when phones didn’t even exist in a portable way and I got introduced to the Joker in the 80’s when Tim Burton let Nicholson smile his way through a lost city. I am not used to seeing the Joker together with Smartphones. Again, I understand that they wanted to make the reader identify with the victim John and that is way easier when that figure uses the same shit everyone does these days so we got a Smartphone to feel closer to the figures. Awesome trope. Failed to achieve that effect with me, though. After we have finally been taught that eventually, high school John started fighting back but that he still didn’t stand a chance against his dad we go back to Harl’s POV again just to see how she’s watching a TV ad about a ring. We see that ad now again in the background of the killer’s basement, meaning that this is just happening at the same time now. And while Harl is talking to a suspect we see the killer going on a hunt for his next victim which he captures effortlessly. "I could tell you that this isn’t going to hurt...but that would be a lie." From a social media pranking kiddo to a sadistic and conceited killer. A bit insipid. When I started with the second volume I realized that Mick’s son, John, was going to be the Joker. I didn’t expect that since I didn’t think that it was just going to be another Joker origins story. It’s got a more fundamental psychological background than many of the mainstream comics, but after all it’s just the same dull violent-father-suffering-son and son-turning-violent-at-that cheese. I’m tired of reading Joker origins, even more so after the movie with Phoenix, but with that comic, it is just an attempt to explain his origins from a psychological point of view. Justified, but...we all know, don’t we. Least, we can imagine. I hope that I’ll be proven wrong and that John is not going to be the Joker in the end. That’s not possible? Oh, I do think them capable of twisting the story a hundred times around again so that John, or this milk face with the smeared make-up is not going to be who we know as ‘Joker’. Art Very refreshing. I have to admit that I do not own anything else but Joker comics so my visual horizon might be a bit limited in terms of various DC artists, but this one stands out, to me at least. The coloured bits are almost hyperreal and that is what makes it so scary. Their expressions are even a bit exaggerated which adds to that feeling of things getting out of control. A great deal of the atmosphere of that comic is due to its colours. The black and white style changes, sometimes paler, sometimes richer in contrast and simpler, which can be a bit irritating too. Here, colours are sparsely used to highlight things. After all, it’s just a matter of taste. All in all, it is meant to be on the dark side, art- and story-wise and it reminds me a bit of The Crow when the great teen villain is marching past super badass drunkards with his shredded bondage leather coat and heavy goth boots. It's a new take on the figure of the Joker. The question whether we need that or not is left with you. Bottom line

Four out of five groovy bloodstained razor blades.

I’m going to buy the rest of the books till the end, of course. Easy to make money with die-hard Joker fans like me, no matter how superficial, exaggerated or dull a comic is. Cheers Cheerio.

#joker #joker/harley: criminal sanity #joker/harley #DC comics #psychology #psychopath #serial killer #murder #pathologic #forensics #trauma #violence #emotional abuse #criminal sanity #harleen quinzel

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lunaticseye · 4 years

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Criminal Sanity review

I am going to present the comics “criminal sanity 1” and “criminal sanity 2” here which are dealing with Harleen Quinzel hunting a serial killer which we know as “Joker”. I will discuss the first two volumes in terms of storyline, art and even a bit of personal stuff, but who cares, I get no money for doin this!

SPOILER alert

Storyline

When I bought „Criminal Sanity 1“ I was looking forward to a comic explanation of what is commonly perceived as sanity in respect of criminals. And hey, it did. It explains that with reference to real life killers like Ted Bundy or Ed Gein etc.

It is like a comic where they decided to show us what would have happened if Harleen Quinzel had adopted another course and used her skills to help the police find killers. I can’t say that I like her vibe, but that is a personal thing. I understand that she’s displaying that arrogance because she feels hurt, not only because her girlfriend had been killed by the Joker, so we assume, and that this police department full of snug macho men is not a happy place for a woman, but well. I can’t say what it is but something’s not right with her. Maybe it is also because she’s often drawn with the same expression and she feels a bit one-dimensional to me, thus.

Anyway, as for the killings, I appreciate DC’s (new) Black Label since that way, the writers and artists are allowed to give the stories and images more depth and intensity. I would have been disappointed to see those corpses just beaten to death or anything crude of the like. It is obvious that they have done some research and want to present that in the comic. They are just about to create a certain image of the killer and the reader is clueless as for the definite meaning of those symbols. Of course we are clueless because we aren’t killers, are we. Would we put arms on a clock to express that someone’s running out of time? We wouldn’t. And so we have no clue.

After reading the first volume I was hoping to see it going into detail, hoping for the hunt to pick up pace.

Instead, the second volume turns out to become a trip into the past. No doubt it is a Comic Noir and quite enjoyable to see the style changing from black/white to colours, but sometimes, the change from John’s to Harleen’s POV is a bit confusing since it doesn’t ‘connect’. The first change, for example, deals with the explanation of how John got those concussions, dislocated shoulder etc. and we are taken back to the past to see daddy beating his son and doing his brute thing. Next, we see Harleen going out for a drink and next we see the Joker-to-be entering a drinking hole. I fail to see any connection there and I guess it was just done to push on with his story. And don’t tell me that the alcohol is supposed to be the link, please. I just don’t want to believe that -__-

Anyway, Harleen leaves the liquor store, meets her bro and we are taken to reminiscences of how cruel mother tortured poor Harleen. I’m led to think that we should see from that that Harleen’s had a tough childhood as well and that she did not turn into an artsy killer. So, what’s the difference between her and him, we should ask at reading these pages, right?

Oh dear.

However, then, I was really disappointed. We see Harl diving into the files again: Back to the past with young John-Joker roaming high school and dealing with further emotional abuse in his own way. Maybe I’m one of the few but it destroyed a lot of the atmosphere when I saw the Smartphones there. Laugh at me but I was born at a time when phones didn’t even exist in a portable way and I got introduced to the Joker in the 80’s when Tim Burton let Nicholson smile his way through a lost city. I am not used to seeing the Joker together with Smartphones. Again, I understand that they wanted to make the reader identify with the poor victim John and that is way easier when that figure uses the same shit everyone does these days so we got a Smartphone to feel closer to the figures. Awesome trope. Failed with me.

After we have finally been taught that eventually, high school John started fighting back but that he still didn’t stand a chance against his dad we go back to Harl’s POV again just to see how she’s watching a TV ad about a ring.

We see that ad now again in the background of the killer’s basement, meaning that this is just happening at the same time now. And while Harl is talking to a suspect we see the killer going on a hunt for his next victim which he captures effortlessly.“I could tell you that this isn’t going to hurt...but that would be a lie.”

From a social media pranking kiddo to a sadistic and conceited killer.

A bit insipid.

When I started with the second volume I realized that Mick’s son, John, was going to be the Joker. I didn’t expect that since I didn’t think that it was just going to be another Joker origins story. It’s got a more fundamental psychological background, but after all it’s just the same dull violent-father-suffering-son and son-turning-violent-at-that cheese. I’m tired of reading Joker origins, even more so after the movie with Phoenix but it is just an attempt to explain his origins from a psychological point of view. Justified, but...we all know, don’t we. Least, we can imagine.

I hope that I’ll be proven wrong and that John is not going to be the Joker in the end. That’s not possible? Oh, I do think them capable of twisting the story a hundred times around again so that John, or this milk face with the smeared make-up is not going to be who we know as ‘Joker’.

Art

It is very refreshing to read these comics. I have to admit that I do not own anything else but Joker comics so my horizon might be a bit limited in terms of various artists, but the coloured bits are almost hyperreal. It was a pleasure to rest my eyes on these.

The black and white style changes sometimes paler, sometimes richer in contrast and simpler, which can be a bit irritating too. Colours are sparsely used to highlight things.

After all, it’s just a matter of taste.

All in all, it is meant to be on the dark side, art- and story-wise and it reminds me a bit of The Crow when the great teen villain is marching past super badass drunkards with his shredded bondage leather coat and heavy goth boots.

Bottom line

Despite expecting more depth I’m going to buy the rest of the books till the end, of course. Easy to make money with die-hard Joker fans like me, no matter how superficial, exaggerated or dull a comic is!

#joker #harley quinn #harleen quinzel #criminal sanity #dc #black label #psychology #pathologic #serial killer #anamnesis #case study #review #discussion #presentation #personal

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annabedssen-blog · 4 years

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Host Bar Alba Hoppa

The new television show, "Amish Mafia," is creating quite a stir in both the Plain and English communities. Reports indicate that this is the most successful show ever launched by the Discovery Channel and that there are now in excess of 3 million viewers per episode.

A small group of Amish and Mennonite men and women are portrayed as an organized crime family, with "Lebanon Levi" heading the operation and directing its activities. Levi Stoltzfus, the son of an actual Amish Deacon (David Peachey), has a number of henchmen, including Alvin, John and Jolin. In an initial episode, Alan Beiler, (the adopted son of a Lancaster Mennonite family and described by his colleagues on the show as "Schwarz Amish") was indicated to have been a key associate of Levi's, but criminal charges landed him in hot water with both the gang and the Pennsylvania State Police. He disappeared from subsequent episodes but just reappeared at the end of the season, being shown leaving prison. Levi also has a love interest, Esther Schmucker, a woman portrayed in what is described as Amish garb, who is the sister of John Schmucker, both in the show and in real life. Alvin Lantz, described and portrayed as Amish, acts as Levi's right hand man. He is second in command and takes over when Levi travels to a Florida beach for a get away with Esther.

John and Esther express dissatisfaction with John's limited role in Levi's operation. Their father had headed this organized crime operation prior to his death. For some reason, John was unable or unprepared to step up and take over. Levi stepped in to fill the void. 호빠 John is also frustrated by the limited income he receives for his efforts. He is the only gang member who has yet to have enough money to buy a car. This is a source of significant conflict between John and the others. As a result, John becomes an easy recruit for Merlin, an Amish-man from Holmes County, Ohio who is looking to extend his criminal enterprise to Lancaster County. He has plans to force Levi out and take over his operation in Lancaster.

Merlin, who explains that he became tough while serving a sentence after a criminal conviction as the only Amish inmate in an Ohio prison, comes to Lancaster to compete in what Levi describes as a "Pimp Your Buggy" competition. This event takes place in conjunction with a small car show and includes a number of buggies. Merlin arrives in his very fancy buggy and, based on a prior understanding with John, expects to win the money that goes along with first prize. That plan goes awry when a ringer, a friend of Levi, shows up in a hot rod t-bucket type buggy. At that point Merlin realizes he has been outmaneuvered. He becomes very angry and describes how he will get even.

The final episodes of the first season depict Merlin's efforts to make this happen. He recruits John to arrange and stage buggy races. The show indicates that such races are very popular in Ohio and a source of revenue for Merlin's operation. Levi does not allow such races in Lancaster. John is successful in putting a race together. There is much betting on the several entries. Alvin and Jolin find out about the race, show up, and proceed to destroy John's buggy at the conclusion of the race. Merlin, unhappy with this show of strength by Levi's guys, follows Levi and Alvin to a bar in Lancaster. While Levi and Alvin are inside drinking, one of Merlin's strongmen smashes out the front window of Levi's Cadillac with an ax. To be sure that Levi understands who was behind this act, a business card with the name "Merlin" is left under the driver's side windshield wiper. Subsequently, Merlin's associates destroy Levi's office and then torch the temporary trailer he was using as an office.

Levi and Alvin then drive to Ohio to meet with Merlin's Bishop. When Merlin goes to collect protection money from one of his "customers", the client will not deal with him. It is said that Merlin is being shunned at the Bishop's direction and that it can take up to six months to be reinstated into the community. Merlin is angry and he vows to get even. About the same time, Alan Beiler is being released from prison. He borrows a cell phone to call Levi. He tells Levi that he is mad because he spent four months in prison after Levi called the cops on him. He warns Levi to "watch his back."

The stage is set for the drama to continue in the second season.

A key question being raised among viewers (evidenced by numerous message board posts in response to newspaper articles about the show), bloggers and the media is whether or not this show is portraying actual events or if the show is a total fabrication.

The promotional material on Discovery's website states that for many years the Amish, "due to a distrust of outside law enforcement," have turned to this gang in order to maintain peace and order within the Lancaster County Amish community. The site provides the following description.

"This is a side of Amish society that exists under the radar, and the Amish church denies the group's existence. Amish Mafia provides eyewitness accounts of the incidents, misdeeds and wrongdoings within the Amish community, as well as a rare look at Levi and his team members who work together to maintain harmony. To protect participants and their family members, some identifying information and property has been changed. Some scenes have been reenacted."

There are many scenes in which members of the gang are shown engaging in violence, using profanity and acting in ways many may think do not show the Amish community in a positive light. In a scene in one episode, the gang responds to the report of an Amish Bishop in a motel room with a prostitute. In another, Esther, now infatuated with Jolin, accompanies him to a gun range and is shown shooting Jolin's AR-15 rifle. Esther is shown attending a fair with a girlfriend and riding a mechanical bull. She comments that both of these activities are not permitted for Amish women.

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jfkjrtribute · 3 years

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July 17, 1999

LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, the search continues for the missing plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. and carrying his wife and her sister. We'll get an update on the search. We'll speak with friends and associates of John Kennedy Jr., next on LARRY KING LIVE. We open with, in Boston, Rear Admiral Richard Larrabee, first Coast Guard district commander; in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Roark of the United States Air force; and at Hyannisport, Massachusetts, Mike Barnicle of the "New York Daily News," formerly of the "Boston Globe," a close friend of the Kennedy's. We will start with Admiral Larrabee. Admiral, what specifically, at this point, are you looking for? REAR ADM. RICHARD LARRABEE, U.S COAST GUARD: Larry, this evening we have Coast Guard vessels, aircraft, and additionally an Air Force C-130, along with an H-60, and they are searching about a 550-square- mile area, an area that we have narrowed down since this morning. And they are primarily looking for debris and continue to look for any signs of survivors. KING: As time goes on, does it get futile from a Coast Guard standpoint? You have dealt with many things like this. Does that start to take over? LARRABEE: Not at this point, Larry. KING: When it gets dark, what do you do? LARRABEE: The Air Force H-60 is equipped with night-vision capability, and the Air Force C-130 is going to fly cover for them. They'll continue to fly tonight. In addition to that, our Coast Guard surface assets will continue to use illumination to do their search. We have also got the NOAA vessel, Rudy (ph), which is now on scene )with a site-scan sonar, and they have begun an extensive search of the debris field and the area that we think most likely would give us the best hope of finding something tonight. KING: Colonel Roark, in the past, has this type of equipment -- and you're with the Air Force rescue -- led to successful fruition in other instances? LT. COL. STEVE ROARK, U.S. AIR FORCE: It has from time to time, Larry. It all depends on the circumstances. We have been very fortunate in this case, in that we have been able to pinpoint a place to search, which is quite frequently the difficulty -- finding the starting point. KING: If you find things, like they found luggage or something else from the plane, does that automatically make you pessimistic? ROARK: Well, it certainly makes us realize what we're dealing with, and it's not a missing aircraft anymore. I think we found the aircraft, or the location of it, so that certainly helps us. KING: So, in other words, we know, Admiral Larrabee, that that plane crashed. Is that correct? LARRABEE: Larry, I think, from what we've seen with debris and what we know so far, I'd say yes. KING: And what else do we know, Colonel Roark? What do we know- know? ROARK: We don't know anything other than that, Larry. We're continuing every effort that we can, expending all resources available to us that will help us bring this to fruition. We can't do anything more than that. KING: Mike Barnicle, the famed writer -- Mike Barnicle, now with the New York Daily News," were you at the compound as a friend or journalist? MIKE BARNICLE, COLUMNIST, Kennedy FAMILY ASSOCIATE: I was there as a friend, Larry. I dropped by earlier today to express my condolences. And Mrs. Kennedy -- we have a home a couple of blocks up here. Several members of the family were there earlier in the afternoon. At that point, I think they were hopeful that something optimistic might occur with regard to their cousin and their nephew, John F. Kennedy Jr. They had a mass earlier today, celebrated by Father Jerry Creedon (ph) of Northern Virginia and Reverend Michael Kennedy, who was here from Ireland. The two of them concelebrated Michael Kennedy's funeral mass here 17 months ago. And the mass originally was intended to be a mass of -- a congratulatory celebration for Rory Kennedy, who was scheduled to be married this very evening. It became a mass of hope -- hope that something good might occur out in Nantucket Sound, which is off to my life left. But so far, no luck. KING: Mike, did the family know that you would come out and talk to us? BARNICLE: Yes, I think Joe did, yes. KING: And did he ask you specifically to say anything? BARNICLE: No, no, no. This is the weight of history in this very small village, Larry. Hyannisport is indeed a very small village. It's almost oppressive this evening. What most people refer to as the Kennedy compound -- if are out in Los Angeles or in Las Vegas, you might think it's some sprawling, 6,000-acre estate. It's two homes on a very little narrow lane that leads down to Nantucket Sound. And -- if I'm still on, I'll continue to tell you that… KING: You're on. BARNICLE: … John F. Kennedy used to come here and the little children. much younger children than John Jr. -- Robert Kennedy Jr., Bobby Kennedy, Joe Kennedy. They would have contests here in the summer to see which child was best behaved during the week, and the president's helicopter would land on the sloping lawn, about a hundred yards behind me. And whichever child was best behaved during the week would get to fly in the helicopter, Marine One, from here, Hyannisport, back Otis Air Force Base, about 20 miles west of here, where Air Force One awaited to take the president back to Washington. Robert Kennedy, his family retreated here in June of 1968, after Ethel's husband and Joe's father was killed. KING: Mike, with time limitations, how are they holding up? BARNICLE: They're holding up very well. Their faith in God holds them up through these incredible -- incredibly emotionally draining ordeals, when ordinary mortals, as you and I, would be crushed by the weight of this sadness. But they endure. KING: Thanks, Mike. Colonel Roark, what will happen the rest of the night? ROARK: Tonight, as the admiral said, we do have aircraft searching, some Air Force aircraft with night vision equipment that will continue to search and will continue probably through the night and certainly into the next day. KING: Admiral Larrabee, has the Coast Guard now gone back with it being night? LARRABEE: Larry, I'm sorry, I didn't hear your question. KING: Now that it's nightfall, has the Coast Guard stopped doing anything? LARRABEE: No, as I explained before, I have got two of my cutters still underway tonight, and we are coordinating the search with the Air Force assets there working for us. And I mentioned this vessel, the Rudy. has an extensive capability to do searching and, of course, underwater, and that's not bothered by tonight's conditions. KING: Thank you so much, all of you, Colonel Steve Roark, Admiral Richard Larrabee, and on the scene, Mike Barnicle. I met John F. Kennedy some years back. He kept calling me Mr. King, and it bothered me a lot. He was on our show in 1995, right after the start of his magazine, "George." He was with his then-girlfriend, later to be his wife. I remember that after the program, they took the 10:30 train back to New York. That took about four hours. It wasn't a metro line; didn't get in until about 2:30 in the morning. Here is a small portion before we talk to Christiane Amanpour, a lifelong friend of the Kennedys. Before we talk to Christiane, here is a portion of that interview. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, SEPTEMBER 28, 1995) KING: There are so many people with so much interest in you. I don't want to delve into the macabre interest, but the serious interest. Is it -- is it tough being a junior? JOHN F. KENNEDY JR.: I mean, sure. I mean, I wouldn't know -- I don't have the basis of comparison. KING: I mean, are there ever days you say, I wish my name were David? KENNEDY: No, I mean, I'd be happy with what it is. I mean, if you are asking of it's hard being me… KING: Well, it's brought you a unique life. KENNEDY: Absolutely, and great opportunities and some challenges. But all in all, I feel very fortunate. So it's not so bad. KING: Do you think… KENNEDY: I recommend it. KING: You do? It's very good to be the son of a legend. KENNEDY: I mean, it's complicated, and it makes for a rich and complicated life, so -- but that's, I think, part of the puzzle to figure out in my life. (END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: Up until today, this Kennedy family has had 11 major tragedies, three major incidents or setbacks. We'll review some of them later. I said Christiane Amanpour, our CNN -- CNN's chief international correspondent, was a close of the Kennedy's. I, in fact, meant she's a close friend of John F. Kennedy. Where did that friendship begin, Christiane? CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It began nearly 20 years ago in college. We were collegemates. I didn't go to the same university as he did, but we shared a house off-campus, along with others of his friends who remain friends today, for a couple of years. And we have kept up our friendship all these last 20 years. I never have spoken or felt it appropriate to speak about John in public before, and I'm doing so tonight because sometimes, and today is one of those cases, a friend needs a little bit of help. And so on behalf of his friends, I would like to say a few words and repay his loyalty and generosity on a day when we are all still praying for him to return safely. Last weekend, my husband and I spent the weekend with John and Carolyn and John's beloved cousin Anthony and his wife, Carol, up in Martha's Vineyard. It was a very happy, lovely, normal, friendly couples weekend. And I says this because that is the lesson that John has embodied to all of us and teaches us all the time. All of those who know him have been constantly impressed by the way he manages to keep his normalcy, to keep his sense of self, to be a man who is a happy man, a fulfilled man, a man who lives life to the full, despite the fish bowl that he has lived in all his life. And that really has been one of the things that we have all taken from John, and we continue to do so, particularly in this world where there is so much pressure and so much spotlight on him. KING: Back a little. What college did you go to, and where did he go? He went to… AMANPOUR: He was at Brown, and I was at the University of Rhode Island. KING: And they are right near each other? AMANPOUR: Yes, yes. KING: And you struck up a friendship through… AMANPOUR: Well, through college friends. You know, we met at parties; we met on campus. I had a lot of friends at Brown, and… KING: Did you like each other right away? AMANPOUR: Absolutely. Yes, we were friends almost from the beginning. But the thing about John is that his friendships speak to the man himself. He is a man who has kept the friends that he has made throughout his life. He is a loyal and generous and faithful guy, and if you look at his friends, they are all the people who have been with him for the last nearly 40 years of his life. And I think that is very, very, very important to realize that about this man. He wasn't swept away by the life he led, by the riches he had, by the fame. Instead, he wanted -- and does want -- to use that, and is a sort of man who believes that from whom -- to whom much is given, much is also asked. KING: He, of course -- and he still is officially alive, by the way. If you are just joining us, there has been no declaration of any. He has impressed, at least us at CNN when with us, well within himself. Is that correct? He was comfortable in himself. AMANPOUR: Absolutely, and all of us are still praying for him to come home safely, and, as you can imagine, his family as well. And let's not forget also that Carolyn's family, parents, are waiting for two daughters to come home. Her eldest sister is waiting for two sisters to come home. So, on behalf of those friends, we want to send that message out. But I think, you know, let's see what's important about his life. And I think that he lived so much of it in the public domain that many of you know much about him. The last time my husband and I saw him, we were come back to New York, and he was getting on his plane, his wife was saying goodbye to him, and he was going to fly to Toronto on a mission for "George." He was going to… KING: This same plane? AMANPOUR: The same plane. He was going to do a mission for "George," his magazine. And his magazine is an embodiment of him. If you look at the magazine, it's a witty magazine; it talks about serious issues, but in an accessible way. It is not self important; it is not pompous; it is not partisan. He has always tried and always wants to make politics accessible. He has been always the kind of man who is amused by life, serious about life, but has never been and is not cynical. And I think that comes across so often. KING: The magazine doesn't take itself all that seriously. Yet it is -- can be -- very serious. AMANPOUR: Well, exactly. I mean, it is a very serious topic that he chose to write about. And, you know, he took a big risks when he launched it. You know how difficult it is, in this day and age, to launch a magazine. He took a big risk. You know, there are many people who are just delighted to see somebody like John fail. He didn't fail. He succeeded. It's challenging, it's difficult, and he continues to push and work for that magazine. KING: Christiane, what prompted his interest in flying? AMANPOUR: It has been a passion for as long as I have known him. He started taking flying lessons in college. He dropped them for a while went on to do other things, and then when he had time, he finished up and got his license. It's a passion; it's not a frivolity. It's not something that he thought, well, you know, I can do it, why not? No, he used it for almost -- not just as a hobby, but also to facilitate his job. And, you know, went off on "George" missions, and he comes to Martha's Vineyard, and that's what he does with his plane. KING: Because many of the reports today were making it like not. So he has flown that a lot. AMANPOUR: Oh, absolutely. Yes, I mean, I think he bought the plane only several months ago, but he has flown a lot, yes. KING: We'll be right back with more of Christiane Amanpour. We certainly thank her for coming on with us tonight, the CNN chief international correspondent, a longtime friend of John F. Kennedy Jr. Still to come later, Senator Orrin Hatch, a very close -- best man at Ted Kennedy's wedding. We'll also hear from Hugh Sidey, Jack Valenti, and Steven Brill. Back with Christiane after this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, SEPTEMBER 28, 1995) KING: Has privacy been the toughest thing? KENNEDY: For me? KING: Yes. I mean, you go out, people follow you, right? I mean, you don't have a normal life. KENNEDY: I have a pretty normal life, surprisingly. I mean, you know, every now and then, sort of strange things happen. But, I mean, up until the cavalcade of publicity for "George," I was -- you know, I was a private citizen. KING: You weren't easily recognized on street? KENNEDY: No, but people, I think -- you are not in business of really selling your personality, so I think people kind of understood that. And, you know, sure, people would ask stuff. People are generally nice, and it's not a crazy situation. (END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: We're back with Christiane Amanpour. He just said to us, in that 1995 interview, that he wasn't that all bothered with -- he handled himself pretty well with fame. As you viewed it as a friend. how did he deal with that? AMANPOUR: Well, he was -- he is incredible about it, you know. I mean, for a boy who grew up from the first moment until now in the public spotlight -- I mean, imagine what it must be like, Larry, to simply know that every waking moment, everything you do is fodder for the public arena. And if you look at the pictures of John, you will always see him being trailed by cameras… you will always see him being trailed by cameras, being -- being, you know, followed all the time, and yet does he look like he's basking in it or glorying in it? No. Does he look like he's being rude and pushing people aside? No. He very graciously takes it as part of what has been hoisted upon him and lives his life with that in mind, and lives his life trying to just deal with that the best and most gracious and dignified way that he can. But of course it's been extremely difficult for his wife, who is a private person. He married a beautiful girl-next-door, not a starlet, not a celebrity. And she has had a terribly difficult time and is only just coming to terms with what it means to live in that spotlight. Imagine what it must be like for somebody to have had hoards of people camped outside, photographing her every mood -- move, you know, making up lies, writing things in the press, and yet they love each other, they live together, they have a lovely relationship, a lovely marriage, and they get through it. And this is an incredible tribute, and it's terribly, terribly difficult. And they have chosen not to be on the celebrity circuit, not to be on the benefit circuit. They do serious things and things that please them as individuals and with their friends and other members of their family. KING: A couple of other things. In all these years you have never discussed being a friend of his -- we didn't know you were a friend of his -- never written about him, never thought of that, never asked? I mean, you know, you've been a great friend to a very famous person. AMANPOUR: Well, a very famous person has been a great friend and is a great friend to all the people who know him. And again, that is a tribute to the person he is. And it is incredible. You know, in this society that we live in, you know, dime-a-dozen celebrities, cardboard-cutout imitations, he is the real thing. He is a big man with a big heart, a big mind. He's traveled a lot, he has many, many interests. Many people want to put their own projection and characterization on to him and make him fit into some kind of mold that they would like to create for him, but he has lived his own life. Look at his professional life, for instance. He has done public service, public service, public service. He was an assistant D.A. He could have been a high-priced attorney, but, no, he did the assistant D.A. He struggled through his bar exams, and when everybody ridiculed him he kept going and he did it. He chose when he left the assistant D.A. to do a magazine, to start a magazine. Yes, his name helped launched it but it doesn't necessarily help carry it. And he's fighting every day to make sure it's a good magazine, something that's relevant, something that's useful, something that is serious in a way that's not pompous. And I think, you know, that's the kind of man he is, and I think that's what his friends would like people to know about him. KING: And one other thing, Christiane, did you ever discuss or have you, yourself, thought about this curse that seems to harbor over this family? AMANPOUR: You know, his friends just always talk about the present and we don't look at the past and we don't project into the future. Everybody wants to say are you going to be president? Are you going to be a senator? We knew where to draw the lines and we simply watched the way he lived his life, in increments as it builds. KING: But how do you personally feel about what this family and this country? AMANPOUR: You know, the Kennedy family is an incredible, important family for this country and for the world, and I think many members have acquitted themselves with dignity and with stoicism and have been examples, really, for everybody who has been able to look at this family, and certainly I believe John is an example and somebody, as I say, where people are always trying to, you know, say something negative. And he was always above it, above that kind of trivial, petty, daily stuff. I'm not trying to sanctify him, I'm just trying to give you perhaps a different view. KING: You've done very well. Thank you so much, Christiane. We really appreciate it. Christiane Amanpour in Washington, CNN chief international correspondent, a longtime friend of John F. Kennedy Jr. A longtime friend of the family, Senator Orrin Hatch, they disagreed politically, but he's a great friend of Ted Kennedy's and of Ethel's. He'll give us his thoughts right after this.

#1999

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briangroth27 · 6 years

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A Quiet Place Review

A Quiet Place is an excellent movie! It's confident about what it wants to be and very effectively achieves that terrifying goal while still crafting characters who are easy to care about. It also makes great use of the fact that the characters are almost never able to speak vocally to each other or make any sound at all, lest alien monsters hunt them down.

Slight hints at spoilers...

Every one of the actors was great at expressing emotion despite limited spoken speech and I think Emily Blunt got to show off the most range. Blunt was fantastic at conveying love, concern, terror, and agony, but still found small moments to inject levity and even a bit of romance into the proceedings. I do wish she had more to do as Evelyn Abbott, but there's no question that going into labor without being able to make a sound (and later keeping a newborn baby quiet) is an incredibly effective way of ratcheting up the tension. Plus, she never came off as incapable of defending herself or her kids and the movie does show she can be tough; her final moment is a great one.

John Krasinski (also the director, executive producer, and co-writer) gave a great performance as Lee Abbott, a father desperate to protect his family and discover the invaders' weakness...if they have one. Krasinski nailed the worn-down father still clinging to hope while struggling to show his kids he loved them and that they should keep their hope alive too; definitely not a role I’ve seen from him before. I liked that even though the end of the world had clearly taken a toll on him, he hadn’t become a hard man despite huge losses and still took the time to have positive moments with his wife and kids (even if one of his children didn’t see it that way). His arc did feel a little predictable (not that the only way for a movie to be good is complete unpredictability), but I absolutely felt the emotional intensity of his relationship with his family (especially his daughter Regan, played by Millicent Simmonds) despite the growing sense that I knew where things were going.

The kids—Simmonds, Noah Jupe (Marcus), and Cade Woodward (Beau)—were very good too. Simmonds gets the deepest emotional range to work with and totally knocks it out of the park! Though Regan could’ve easily come off as a defiant teen whose rebellious nature puts her in unnecessary danger, her reasons are completely understandable and Simmonds’ acting made her sympathetic. Her bravery and reasoning skills in the face of horror were also great to see. Marcus’ near-constant terror and stress felt appropriate to the situation and Jupe never felt like he was over the top or one-note. Marcus also gets a bit where he can play a board game and an excellent moment of release when Lee shows him a place where it’s safe to scream; rare moments where this family’s lives aren’t horrible and a kid can still be a kid. Woodward was also solid as a child who—much more than his siblings—just wanted to be a kid in this horrible situation. Their dramas felt like realistic kid struggles and the question of whether their father still loved them after an incident felt like real doubts teens might have; a nice connection to reality in these outlandish circumstances. Even though the kids do make some foolish mistakes, they were honest accidents or character-driven moments rather than beats where they were written as “dumb” just for the sake of creating danger.

Krasinski created an excellent, foreboding sense of terror throughout the whole movie. He also achieved a brisk pace that moved quickly without feeling rushed at all. Everything the movie sets up is paid off well—even if it’s not exactly how you think it will happen—and there’s just enough exposition to give us an idea of the backstory without feeling unnatural or unnecessary. I wouldn't mind seeing more of this world, but the movie also feels totally complete and satisfying as is. Including a deaf character was very cool and I liked the use of sign language throughout the whole film. I thought Lee and Evelyn still whispering a bit as they signed was exactly what I'd do had I learned it to communicate with my child, lending it another layer of relatability. It was great that Krasinski insisted on casting a deaf actress as Regan so that she could bring authenticity to the role and help with nuances in the cast’s use of ASL, as well as how each character would sign with their own variations on the language; a brilliant addition that added a lot of character to their interactions. Beyond all that, representation is simply important: everyone should all get to see themselves in stories. The sound mixing was really well done, switching between full volume with spoken speech on the rare occasions when it was safe, the hushed panic of trying to evade creatures while making the least amount of sound possible, and total silence when we experienced the world from Regan’s perspective. I thought the score weaved into the fabric of the film without feeling obtrusive or undercutting the idea that there wasn't much sound happening.

I loved that even though there were relatively few monsters, they could be anywhere and were extremely quick to show up at the slightest sound. I also appreciated all the thought that went into making the Abbott home as sound-free as possible, from paint marking squeaky floor boards to sand used to dull the crunch of leaves and even cloth game pieces. That gave credence to the "you can never make a sound!" idea. The film also employs a wide variety of things doing just that to imperil our heroes, making the jump scares very effective at fueling the growing dread of the overall film. I was shocked one apparent jump scare from the advertising actually resulted in a death that stuck; I sat there stunned for a good while after that! They took a risk showing what was essentially an enlarged ear within the monster heads, but it worked and the whole design of the creature was very cool and scary. I liked the movable plates of "armor" they had, and Krasinksi was very smart to mostly imply the kills rather than dig into the gore; it's much better and creepier this way.

A Quiet Place is one of my favorite movies of the year so far and definitely worth seeing! If you're looking for a confident and creepy horror thrill ride, this one’s for you!

Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!

#a quiet place #john krasinksi #emily blunt #millicent simmonds #noah jupe #cade woodward #lee abbott #evelyn abbott #regan abbott #marcus abbott #beau abbott

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lovefollowsknowledge · 7 years

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The Feminine Hero

Last night, I watched Wonder Woman, and to my surprise, it was an explosion of truth! I’m not sure what the comics say about her, what the intent of the author was, or what the intent of the director was, but it spoke so many levels of truth, and the one I want to focus on is that of femininity. I don’t know what people’s impression of her is, but to me, she represented beautifully what the feminine genius is. I’ll try to limit myself to 3 reasons why I found this movie so awesome, and I’ll do so using quotes from a couple of Greats in the Church.

1) “Perhaps more than men, women acknowledge the person, because they see with their hearts. They see them independently of various ideological or political systems. They see others in their greatness and limitations; they try to go out to them and help them” - Pope St. John Paul II

What struck me about Diana (Wonder Woman) was how her heart cried out for mankind. Her whole mission was to get to the heart of the War, where the battle was at its worst. When she gets there, she arrives at a village where she meets a woman who says they have been enslaved. Upon entering the village she sees tortured animals, a child crying for his mother, wounded soldiers laying on the sidelines. Her heart instantly breaks for these people, and she’s quick to jump into action. But Steve, her male counterpart I guess you could say, stops her and says there’s no time to save everyone. Throughout this scene, Steve is constantly telling her she can’t save everyone, almost implying they’re in an impossible situation - there’s no getting past No Man’s Land. There’s another part where Diana is shocked at the violence the men are so drawn to, how they’re determined to fight to the end out of hatred for one another. She expresses her concern to Steve and how they have to do something about this, but he tells her, “Maybe some people are just bad,” again implying that they’re in an impossible situation. But every time, Diana refuses to give up. When Steve says, “we can’t save them all,” she replies “that’s what I’m gonna do,” and she runs into battle. When Steve says it’s a hopeless cause trying to save these men from their evil actions, she refuses to let that be the end. She refuses to give up on mankind because she knows they are just being corrupted (by Aries). She knew that deep down that they were still good. She saw their intrinsic worth when everyone else only wanted to see the evil they've done. JP II teaches that women have this innate sensitivity to see the goodness of the human person, and you can see that so clearly in Diana’s example. She just shows the true beauty and gift of the heart of the woman.

2) “In all these areas, a greater presence of women in society will prove most valuable, for it will help manifest the contradictions present when society is organized solely according to the criteria of efficiency and productivity…” - Pope St. John Paul II

What I feel like he’s saying here is that when solely men are put in charge, things are organized by efficiency and productivity, but when women come into play, we see something else. He says women “bring the richness of [their] sensitivity, [their] intuitiveness, [their] generosity, and fidelity.” They see beyond productivity and efficiency. So with the corruption of mankind, Steve saw little reason to save them because they appear to no longer offer anything good. But Diana saw more than that, she saw more than their evil actions; she saw goodness beyond productivity and efficiency. And what I mostly wanted to point out about this was a specific moment when one of the men on her team wants to give up because of how afraid he was in the last battle, how he appeared to not be as strong or useful, and how because of that he almost seemed to hold them back, thus making him less efficient and productive for the betterment of the team. But Diana’s response was, “But, Charlie, who would sing for us?” I just love that! She saw worth that most people wouldn't see, wouldn't deem worthy and necessary. But she saw his specific gifts, the goodness of his heart and saw that even in his weakness, he still had value and a role to play. I just think that’s so beautiful and something so unique to women. We don’t just see the strict skills needed for a certain task, we don’t just see if someone checks everything off a check list. We see the beauty of their heart, their unique gifts, their particular strengths…at least we have the unique capacity to do that. Haha because I for one do not have the most tender and compassionate heart…yet ;)

3) “To a great extent the level of any civilization is the level of its womanhood. When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more noble her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness – the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women.” - Venerable Fulton Sheen

Finally, one of my absolute favorite parts was when Diana ran into No Man’s Land. Just as she was ready to run in, Steve explained that it’s called No Man’s Land because no man makes it past the enemy lines. Once you enter the battlefield you’re pretty much shot dead. But this does not discourage her in the least bit. This was the same scene when Steve says, “We can’t save them all,” and she responds, “That’s what I’m gonna do,” and she runs into the battlefield. As predicted she was shot at right away, but Diana had no fear, no hesitation, she just went forward with all she had. And to their surprise she was more than safe. She was strong and brave and more than holding her own ground. And in that moment the rest of her team, which was made up of men, looked at each other and were not just encouraged but were called on by her heroic actions, and then jumped into battle right behind her. It was Diana’s bravery and devotion to “truth, justice, and goodness,” that calls her team on to be better men, stronger men, to be men of greater courage. Diana’s strength didn't demean her men, but rather it called them on, it held them accountable and even empowered them to be greater, to be the men they were called to be.

I loved Wonder Woman because she was a feminine hero. She was a hero without having to become manly. She was still beautiful, still wore clothes that fit and complemented her body type. She didn’t try to look or act like a man. She didn’t hide the sensitivity of her heart. One of my other favorite parts was literally one moment that could easily be overlooked; in fact, it was probably mostly for comic relief. But when she arrived to the city and got all dressed up to look more professional, as they’re walking to the offices, she gets distracted and says, “A baby!!!” and almost instinctually goes straight for the baby, but of course Steve said there was no time for that. And though he was right, I just love that DC didn’t take that feminine side out of her, because what woman can resist a cutie patootie baby?? I just love that they didn’t compromise her femininity in order to make her a hero. Even when they explain the creation story of the Amazon Women! They say Zeus created them because the world needed peace and love, and the Amazon Women would provide that, which is such the feminine heart! But that wasn't their only job. They were also created to protect! Which yes typically is a masculine feature, but there is also a certain fierceness in the heart of a woman that will stop at nothing to protect her children, be it biological or spiritual.

I love Wonder Woman because she’s a hero that embraces her femininity. And that didn’t mean being anti-men! Which I feel like is so crucial because in feminism today there’s like two extremes. 1) In order for women to have equal pay and equal treatment, they feel they have to act like a man. They have to be tough and ruthless, and they even have to dress like a guy, the whole power suit and shoulder pads thing (not to say there’s anything wrong with a woman in pants, but I’m just saying that was started so women could better fit in with men). 2) In order to affirm the strength and gift of womanhood, they feel they have to put down men, degrade them and make them feel almost useless, like they’re in the way of women (which is ironic because that’s the exact attitude we fight against for women). So it’s like we either totally imitate men to exert fairness or we declare they’re basically useless, and we can do it all without them to illustrate our true strength. But the truth is, as JP II said, “Woman complements man, just as man complements woman: men and women are complementary. Womanhood expresses the “human” as much as manhood does, but in a different and complementary way…Man and woman share equal responsibility from the start.” AKA Man needs woman just as much as woman needs man, and Diana totally recognizes that! She recognizes their importance and how much she needs them to win this battle. She never once resists the idea of having to work with men on her team.

And finally, my absolute favorite line was when Aries was trying to convince Diana of the uselessness of mankind because of how horrible they are, how evil and full of hate they are. He tries to convince her that it’s better they destroy them because they don't deserve gods like them, they don't deserve to be saved and cared for. And Diana’s response (which is actually inspired by Steve, hence the complementarity) goes, “They’re everything you say and so much more. It's not about what they deserve. It's about what you believe. And I believe in love.” Boom baby! No matter what, for the sake of love, a love we’re all called to, a love that is full of truth, beauty, and goodness, a love that is full of mercy, hope, and life, in the name of Love, mankind is worth defending, saving, and redeeming. Boom. Freaking. Baby. Wonder Woman is an unexpected, beautiful example of the feminine genius because even in her strength and heroism, she brings a heart that is tender, compassionate, fierce, and unrelentingly loving and ready to fight for the goodness of mankind’s heart.

...Ok so I didn’t quite stick to 3 points but whatever, it’s an awesome movie for our times and you should go see it! #femininefreakinggenius

All Glory to God through Mary!

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taylorwarren · 7 years

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I know you are struggling right now. You are not the prettiest, or the thinnest, or the best at dancing at the Laine Theatre Arts college. You have never properly fitted in, although you are sharing your Surrey school digs with really nice girls. You have bad acne. You think the principal has put you at the back of the end-of-year show (in a humiliatingly bright purple Lycra leotard) because you are too plump to go at the front. (This may or may not be true.) There is a red telephone box outside the school and you have just rung your parents, crying, “I can’t do this, I miss home, I’m not good enough.” And Mum has told you to come home. “We’ll go to Lakeside and buy a new pair of shoes,” she said. It’s tempting. But then Dad got on the phone: “Stay there, prove everyone wrong.” If you’d listened to Mum, you would be going to Lakeside. (Shoes are important, just not right now.) It would be the easy solution. And I’m writing to jolly you along, to offer consolation and encouragement, and to tell you, aged 18, to be strong. You haven’t forgotten being bullied at school, have you? Do you recall that first day at secondary school? Most children were wearing their own coats and had the latest cool bag, but not you. Kitted out in the full St Mary’s High School uniform, you stood in the freezing playground while other teenagers walking past threw soggy tissues and old Coke cans that they plucked from the puddles. But the thick skin that you developed then is already standing you in good stead, and it will do so for the rest of your life. Your complexion will sort itself out (in fact you will launch your own make-up brand); as soon as the Eighties are over, your perm will die down, and your weight will settle itself. At school you eat Super Noodles and boxes of Frosties because they say they are fat free, and you will endure many other silly fad diets (including an addiction to green juices). Instead, learn to embrace your imperfections – that is what I want to tell you. Let your skin breathe; wear less make-up. (And don’t ever let that make-up artist shave your eyebrows! The effects last forever.) You will always be addicted to Elnett hairspray but you will tone it down. Less of the “Hello! I just got stuck in a wind tunnel”, please. And I should probably say, don’t mess with your boobs. All those years I denied it – stupid. A sign of insecurity. Just celebrate what you’ve got. Do answer an ad in The Stage, looking for candidates to form a new girl band. Line up around the block and audition to change your life. You love musicals – Miss Saigon, Cats, Starlight Express and Les Misérables – so you will perform “Mein Herr” from Cabaret, while everyone else sings a Madonna song. You haven’t yet heard of the internet or electronic mail or smartphones. Nor have you perfected the art of the selfie for Instagram (you can’t even turn on a computer right now, and Dad still drives to London to send a telex). But one day you will find that audition performance again online, and at the same time discover that your name brings up 47,800,000 search results on Google. The judges of the competition will match you to four other girls, all misfits in their own ways. Together you will make it OK to look different. And, as the Spice Girls, you will sell 75 million records. You cannot possibly imagine your future life right now. You will travel on private planes, visit incredible countries, stay in fantastic hotels. (At the beginning, you will steal the hotel mini shampoos, shower gels and conditioners, but you soon realise that they leak in your suitcase – often disastrously.) You will storm into people’s offices, leap on to tables in hotels and go crazy (although you will also be the one checking that the table isn’t going to collapse). You will meet Nelson Mandela, Mariah Carey and Elton John. But please, I implore you, keep a diary. There will be so many amazing moments, and you will forget. There will also be down days and bad days. You will often be so busy that you will be in a different country every day. And being young and a bit silly, you’ll complain and sit in hotel rooms and moan about being tired. Go out and see the country where you are. Go to galleries, go to museums. Soak up the culture. You are lucky to be there. If you don’t join the Spice Girls, you might always be that insecure person in that little shell, and you will never become who you truly are. With this in mind, be kind, be polite, be considerate of others’ feelings, because I know that every one of us would sit here now and say they’re not the main culprit, but we didn’t fully appreciate each other a lot of the time. So practise what you preach when you sing “friendship never ends”, and celebrate everyone’s uniqueness. You are going to have so much fun with your clothes – PVC catsuits; chokers that say absurd things; weird spiky blonde hair. It will never occur to you that you appear ridiculous. You will turn up at awards ceremonies resembling a drag queen. But I look back at you and smile. It will add interest to your life to go from one extreme to another. I love the fact that you will feel free to express yourself. Fashion will take on added stature one day, but try not to be stifled by it. You will learn, as you mature, to swap heels for Stan Smith trainers, minidresses for crisp white shirts. And you will never be one of those people who just roll out of bed. Wear sunglasses a lot. Even inside. Especially at airports. They turn a nothing-outfit into something quite pulled together and cool. You are going to really like Aviators. (Then one day you will develop your own!) On boyfriends and lasting love: learn more about football, especially the offside rule. And yes, love at first sight does exist. It will happen to you in the Manchester United players’ lounge – although you will get a little drunk, so exact details are hazy. While the other football players stand at the bar drinking with their mates, you will see David standing aside with his family. (He’s not even in the first team at this stage – you are the famous one.) And he has such a cute smile. You, too, are close to your family, and you will think how similar he feels to you. He’s going to ask for your number. (He still has the London-to-Manchester plane ticket on which you wrote it.) I’m afraid that most of your first dates will be in car parks, which is not as seedy as it sounds. It is because your manager, Simon Fuller, will warn you, “Don’t let anyone see you out together or you’ll get hounded.” At the time, you won’t understand why. You are going to be very, very famous, both for the band you form and because of the man you marry, and then later for a fashion business you will launch in your own name. You will get used to fame. Although you cannot set a price on losing privacy, you will learn to use celebrity to your advantage. For good things. For charity. One day you will have the privilege to campaign on behalf of the United Nations to end mother-to-child transmission of HIV and Aids in Africa. And people will listen. Changes will happen. That is not to say you won’t be affected by what you see of yourself in the press. It will hurt you when people comment on your weight. It will continue to upset you whatever age you are, because we women are very tough on ourselves. The paparazzi will become part of your life, their long lenses waiting. Some are nice, some not. They may make your children cry, or they may give you a compliment – but you will not be able to control every image they publish. When you are pregnant with Brooklyn, they will snap you sitting by the pool at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles in a black-and-white bikini, and the picture will make the front page of a British newspaper. It is an unkind shot and so upsetting that for the rest of the tour you will barely leave your hotel or sit outside. And I’m the same now. Do I relax on the beach in a bikini? No. I am still hugely self-critical, and because of that I can be a little uptight. My 60-year-old self would probably say the same thing to me as I am telling you now: enjoy yourself a little more. Be less image-conscious. Learn to relax. You are going to make mistakes – of course you are. You will be super-super-successful, but you will find out that you can lose it all much more quickly than you can earn it. That is a hard lesson to learn. Collectively, I now see, the Spice Girls were victims of our own success, believing we could do anything, that the sky was the limit, that we could do it all on our own. You will learn from that, and when you have another opportunity you will not lose it again. On being a mother: once you are a parent, you worry. And you are going to have four, so that’s a lot of worry! Mum likes to say, “You might be 42, but I still worry about you.” Children mean that you will be constantly tired and will develop big bags under your eyes. Your children will always come first, but never forget who you are and what you want to achieve. Is it possible to have it all? To be a successful working mother? You will hear this question asked by many women as you grow older. What you will realise is that by working hard, yet always putting family first, it will be possible to achieve that balance. Nothing will be perfect, but it is only now that I have learnt to appreciate all I have and all I have been blessed with. I am happy. A word on school sports day: never wear platform heels and flares if you have to take part in the mothers’ race. And never believe another mum when she says she will stick with you at the back of the race. Because she won’t. And when they announce, “It’s the taking part that counts,” it’s not. It’s all about winning. You will shout at home but never at work. Be a nice boss. Ultimately, go with what you think, but don’t smother those who are talented. (If they are not, then admittedly I get frustrated – I’m not very tolerant.) On marriage: have patience. Bite your tongue. Be supportive. And preserve a bit of mystique. Never let yourself go completely (at least brush your hair, clean your teeth, have a bit of a brow going on because you will always want him to look at you and feel attracted). Always make time for each other. Because if you don’t, everything will revolve around the children and I’m not sure how sexy that is! And do not forget the person you fell in love with. You will follow your man around the world, moving from Manchester to Spain, and then America. In Spain you will revel in watching him enjoy some of his best footballing days. Spain is also where you will lay the foundations for your own fashion brand by collaborating with others on denim and sunglasses. But I need to warn you: a lot of your time there will be really hard. I’m not afraid to say now what a horribly difficult time it was. People will say awful things. You will be a laughing stock. Every time you turn on the television or look at a newspaper it will seem as though someone is having a go at you and your family. You will learn how mean other women can be. (And it will teach you always to support the women around you, to take them on a journey with you.) Others would crack under the pressure, but you won’t. Use that time to close off, to focus, work hard and protect the children. In relationships people will throw obstacles in your way, and you either manoeuvre around them or you trip up. You will never discuss with David how many children you both want; you don’t say to each other, “Where shall we live?” You don’t discuss any of that because you will be young and in love. Even when you don’t necessarily want the same thing, your support for each other will mean that you will stick together and grow up together. And it will be worth it. Most days, you will look at your life and think, “Wow! I was never the one who was supposed to get all this.” I want to tell you that I still feel that way now. Recently I was in New York for the British Vogue cover shoot in a penthouse at the Carlyle hotel. I looked out of the window and I could see the sun shining and all the yellow cabs below and I pinched myself. You are going to have many of those moments. Don’t take them for granted.

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lizzyleaf17 · 7 years

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Jack of All Trades, Master of None.

What does it mean to be a “Jack of All Trades?” Though I could undoubtedly bore you with a lengthy discussion on the etymology of this term, I’ll cut to the chase. Back in medieval times, the name “Jack” was used much in the same way we use “John” or “Joe” to indicate a generic individual with no pertinent identifying qualities, skills, or features. “Jack” was someone who could do anything, be anything, or go anywhere and not have much trouble adapting to situations. Over time, the term “Jack of All Trades” came about, with the eventual addition of “Master of None”, thereby giving the term a negative connotation. As we know it today, the phrase essentially means someone who knows about or is good at a variety of subjects and tasks, but has never mastered any of them.

The reason I bring this subject to the table is that it is something going on in my own life right now, and, quite frankly, it’s intensely frustrating. I have a variety of interests which include drawing, dancing, expanding my vocabulary, studying Korean, and writing. These are excellent hobbies that help keep my mind sharp and aid in my always changing perception of the world around me. The trouble is, I’m a master of none of these passions. I am adroit at all of them in various ways, but I have yet to fully conquer any of them in a full and complete sense.

Don’t mistake me—there is always room to grow and learn about anything. It is inherent in nature that nothing can truly be mastered. There will always be new information, new targets, new objectives that surface at different and random times. My issue, therefore, lies with my proficiency rather than my mastering.

You see, I am a very internally motivated, self-taught individual. There are a variety of reasons for that, but the primary ones are my personality type (I don’t need to be told to do things; I do them so long as I see value in the activity) and lack of finances (i.e. I can’t afford lessons). This is both a good and bad thing. It’s good because I am very stubborn and won’t quit a venture even in the face of adversity. It’s bad in that because I am so self-reliant, I often don’t seek out necessary instructions from others. After all, I have accomplished many things of my own volition. Why seek assistance for grasping a new subject when I’ve done so well teaching myself other things?

My arrogant (I prefer the term “confident” but we won’t talk about that right now) attitude aside, I have finally reached a point in my pursuit where I am at a loss for how to proceed with any of these hobbies. I’m tired of the same repetitious thoughts and expressions that come to me every time I engage in these activities. I am most certainly a “Jack” for all of them, but I cannot say I have truly mastered any of them. As someone who is always striving for continual self-refinement and improvement, this is beyond maddening.

I suppose this could also relate back to people who get into “creative ruts” or even just routine ruts. We reach a point where we feel we are not progressing—not learning—and the thing that was once bringing us so much joy is now leaving us irked and angry. We may find that we doubt our own capabilities, thinking that we have somehow lost our edge or desire to continue learning about the subject. To be fair, in some instances, we have. There are times in our lives when we actively decide to put down something and never (or rarely) pick it up again. Our reasons for doing so are varied, but there are definitely justifiable instances. There is nothing wrong with this, and we shouldn’t feel bad for letting go of something we were once so captivated with. Just as seasons change, so do people. We do, however, need to critically examine our personal situations and determine whether our reasons for giving up or taking a break are valid. For example, a child who is passionate about music but tells his mother he doesn’t want to continue with guitar lessons because they are “too hard” should be pressed to push through the difficulties until he comes out on the other side. On the other hand, a tenured musician who finds that playing with his band no longer brings him joy may be perfectly justified in his decision to temporarily step away from or altogether abandon this hobby. It’s not quitting, it’s realizing that there are other things he would like to pursue. With those differences laid out, allow me to say that I am more akin to the frustrated child than the tenured musician. I am not actively seeking out other means of education or entertainment, I simply feel that I have hit a rather large rough patch in my passions. What’s more, I have unceremoniously seemed to hit them all at the same time. This, I believe, is magnifying my otherwise very normal amounts of friction that one would experience with any of these hobbies.

So now that I have identified the problem, what am I to do? The most logical step, it would seem, is to seek outside assistance to help reignite my passions and help me to learn things that are challenging or impossible to teach myself. But once more I am faced with the financial dilemma that I mentioned earlier. Further compounding that is my ever-shrinking amount of free time available to engage in personal past times. (Please note that I’m not complaining, I’m just saying with a job, family, bills, friends, and miscellaneous commitments all vying for my attention, it’s not easy. My options are limited to free educational content, which admittedly is growing in abundance every day.)

Truthfully, I’m not even sure which is the best route to take. If I wanted to, I could temporarily or permanently abandon one or all of my skills and take up something entirely new. Additionally, I could try to find cheap means of receiving the instruction I need (such as friends or family who are willing to offer a lending hand or books, web articles, and online videos). Alternatively, I could try and push through the rough bumps in my educational roads, and simply apply myself even more diligently than I have been. Any of these strategies could work or fail for me, depending on how determined I am. But like I said, I don’t really know which is best. Perhaps I’ll try out a combination. Perhaps I’ll try all of them. Perhaps none of them.

My entire point in writing about this is to tell you that if you are going through this same thing—if you feel as though you are a Jack of All Trades and will always be a Master of None—you are not alone. Nothing is wrong with you. It’s okay to be frustrated. It’s okay to be angry! It’s totally fine if you decide you have given something your best, and you’re done trying to make it happen. If it doesn’t make you happy anymore, then you don’t need to force yourself to proceed. There is nothing wrong with picking up another talent or hobby that is better suited for you at this point in your life. There is no shame in this, and don’t allow the looks or doubts of others cause you to doubt yourself. But with that, I will say this: You do not have a free pass to quit when the going gets tough. I am in no way advising you to simply give up at the first obstacle you encounter. Things are hard, but they’re hard for a reason—to help you show yourself and others the grit, determination, and abilities you have. Things will be challenging, there’s no question about that. But it’s not this way so you can just walk away when faced with adversity. It’s this way so you can walk through the fiery trials, be purified, and come out on the other side even better than before.

My name is Lizzy, and I will continue to ardently pursue the answer to the “Jack of all Trades” quandary. Will you?

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