View allAll Photos Tagged Explains,
Stand-alone classic vector infographic on the cover of the Health and Science Section about different types of touch screen technology and future developments. Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
Online version: www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/touchscree...
*Not my photo/ art*
Oni is what my style of mecha are called here is a quick short backstory.
1185 A.D. gave raise to the first age of the Samurai. Samurai were mighty warriors that worked for powerful families in the ancient lands, the samurai were both loyal and disciplined there was no warrior more powerful. Like a wave the samurai grew in numbers and power taking over control of all of the ancient lands, until they came, the Oni. All around the world there are myths and legends of mighty monsters able to single handedly defeat armies of men. The home of the samurai received the main force of these monsters and with only a stroke of luck the samurai were able to defeat and trap most of the demons. The years passed and many forgot the truth, many stories meant to save the truth were dismissed as folk lore and legend, and so the world moved on without a care.
The year is now 1304 N.A. (new age) in this era the world, Exia, is filled with many races from other worlds and unimaginable technologies and magic. Sadly warfare is still a common plague the human race, factions owned by the five kingdoms of the world fight to gain power. Many of these factions do not fight with men but with incredibly powerful machines called Mecha; war machines that come in many different shapes, sizes, and origin; each having its own unique abilities. The most powerful mecha are of humanoid form and piloted by highly skilled individuals...
One of the kingdoms on a quest to protect their home unlocked the secrets of the ancient lands. Chaos and death in the form of demons soon followed the discovery. The three most powerful kingdoms banded together to drive back the demons known as Oni. Amid the chaos a small nation known as Zephyria was able to capture injured Oni. With the use of magic and technology the kingdom was able to bend the will of the Oni to their own.
Only pilots with immense mental skill and will power have a chance to sync their mind with the Oni, if the Oni takes over it steals the mind of the pilot and go's on a rampage as a demon killing the pilot in the process and if the pilot takes over all the Oni's power yields to the pilot and the pilot's personality and skills shine through. Pilots must have a compatible style to be accepted by the Oni. Once a pilot syncs (80%+) a Oni no other pilot can enter the Oni...
Olivia explains that this is the claw that kills the prey. A wonderful visit to Feathers and Fur where we learned so much about these amazing animals and were able to watch them at close quarters. A very memorable morning. Something I can recommend highly!
Oh hi. This is grainy as the f-bomb. Let me explain:
So. I ran out of hard drive space and haven't edited photos for over a month. I never realized how in love I am in RAW. This is effing JPG and you can tell because of how grainy and unsharp everything is.
Anyway. I figure I should upload something... Even though I am running Windows 7 for kicks and don't have any of my RAW software installed... (I should get on that and check out the hyperthreading on this Core i7 biznatch.) Kevin renewed my Flickr account for Christmas and I've been a lazy girl to get things together.
Happy Inauguration Party. Happy birthday to me. Happy pager duty on the eve of my birthday. Happy belated new year - welcome to the year 2009!... And of course, congratulations on finding out the true identity of Big Foot. (I forgot that the wide angle does that...)
See you all soon. I have hard drive space now!
the macro mondays group’s theme for this week, 2/24, is sweet and/or savory and i think i have 3 possibilities :) ........... in new england we have a little quirk. if you want chocolate sprinkles, you ask for jimmies. no, i'm not sure who jimmy was-- maybe i should research that later after i dither and then choose.
Slut Walk, Toronto © Linda Dawn Hammond / IndyFoto.com '11
The Slut Walk protest march was held in Toronto on April 3d, 2011 in response to offensive remarks made by a Toronto police officer during a safety forum at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School this past January. Constable Michael Sanguinetti allegedly told the meeting that “...“I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this, however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.” (as victims of sexual assault). It was yet another example of blaming the victim for their behaviour rather than that of the perpetrator.
Walk co-founders Heather Jarvis and Sonya JF Barnett addressed the crowd at the start of the march. Barnett explained the provocative decision to incorporate and thus re-appropriate the word "Slut "', which she conceded "... is a strong word with a strong meaning. If we had not used it many less of you would be here today... " The "Slut Walk" dress code did not require participants to necessarily 'dress like a slut', the point being made that to be targetted for rape does not require any particular outfit, let alone a provocative one, on the part of the victim. Nor should wearing clothes designed to attract be considered an invitation to assault or absolve an attacker of responsibility for their actions.
Hundreds of protesters and supporters, male, female and other, walked from Queen's park to the Toronto Police Headquarters on College Street. Speeches were held at police station by Deb Singh of the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, Michael Kaufman of the White Ribbon Campaign, Alyssa Teekah, SWTO York Liaison, and Jane Doe, the activist and author who successfully sued the Toronto Police in July, 1998, for failing to warn her about a serial attacker, known as the Balcony rapist, who was operating in her neighbourhood. "Doe" is still under a publication ban and could not be documented.
See the following sites and articles for further information.
SLUTWALK Toronto website
The Story of Jane Doe
A Book About Rape
Written by Jane Doe
www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=97806793127...
‘Sluts’ march against sexual assault stereotypes
www.thestar.com/news/article/968466--sluts-march-against-...
Nicki Thomas Staff Reporter
Toronto 'slut walk' takes to city streets
CBC News, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/04/03/slut-walk...
Who is JANE DOE? CHATELAINE, January 1999, Vol. 72, No. 1, Kim Pittaway
www.walnet.org/jane_doe/news/toronto_99/chatelaine-9901.html
We were happy to have our vehicle washed at the Heritage Christian School car wash; students raising money to fund a trip to Vancouver Island
mirage, 2017 // I realize I don't have to explain my absence from the photography world, yet I still want to try. The problem is it’s essentially impossible to convey why without writing a memoir lmao. My hiatus was not really done out of choice, but because life had taken what felt like a giant metaphorical shit on me. Many aspects of my life started deteriorating in 2013 and by 2015 I had just fully given up. What I was dealing with took everything out of me, leaving nothing left for my art. This sounds corny but at times it felt as if what/who I was fighting and my inability to create were duking it out to see who was gonna kill me first. I’m aware that this was probably the most vague ass explanation for my absence possible, but I’m just so grateful to be able to freely create again. Am I afraid that the creative part of my brain has calcified? Maybe! Who cares! I know the alternative and it's a garbage life, so I’m just excited that I get to be me again, whoever she is. Thank you for being patient and never forgetting me.
The Lost World (20th Century Fox, 1960).
youtu.be/h1CLA-gJbmA?t=5s Trailer
Irwin Allen, the producer who would go on to make the disaster film a huge success in the seventies, brought us this Saturday afternoon fodder with giant lizards posing as dinosaurs. Starring Michael Rennie, David Hedison, Claude Rains and Jill St. John.
Intended as a grand sci-fi/fantasy epic remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. The first film adaptation, shot in 1925, was a milestone in many ways, but movie making and special effects had come a long way in 35 years. Irwin Allen's Lost World (LW) & 20th Century Fox version was derailed on the way to greatness, but managed to still be a respectable, (if more modest) A-film. Allen's screenplay followed the book fairly well, telling of Professor Challenger's expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon upon which dinosaurs still lived. Aside from the paleontological presumptions in the premise, there is little "science" in The Lost World. Nonetheless, dinosaur movies have traditionally been lumped into the sci-fi genre.
Synopsis
When his plane lands in London, crusty old professor George Edward Challenger is besieged by reporters questioning him about his latest expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon River. After the irascible Challenger strikes reporter Ed Malone on the head with his umbrella, Jennifer Holmes, the daughter of Ed's employer, Stuart Holmes, offers the injured reporter a ride into town. That evening, Jenny is escorted by Lord John Roxton, an adventurer and big game hunter, to Challenger's lecture at the Zoological Institute, and Ed invites them to sit with him. When Challenger claims to have seen live dinosaurs, his colleague Professor Summerlee scoffs and asks for evidence. Explaining that his photographs of the creatures were lost when his boat overturned, Challenger invites Summerlee to accompany him on a new expedition to the "lost world," and asks for volunteers. When Roxton raises his hand, Jenny insists on going with him, but she is rejected by Challenger because she is a woman. Ed is given a spot after Holmes offers to fund the expedition if the reporter is included. The four then fly to the Amazon, where they are met by Costa, their guide and Manuel Gomez, their helicopter pilot. Arriving unexpectedly, Jenny and her younger brother David insist on joining them. Unable to arrange transportation back to the United States, Challenger reluctantly agrees to take them along. The next day, they take off for the lost world and land on an isolated plateau inhabited by dinosaurs. That evening, a dinosaur stomps out of the jungle, sending them scurrying for cover. After the beast destroys the helicopter and radio, the group ventures inland. When one of the creatures bellows threateningly, they flee, and in their haste, Challenger and Ed slip and tumble down a hillside, where they encounter a native girl. The girl runs into the jungle, but Ed follows and captures her. They then all take refuge in a cave, where Roxton, who has been making disparaging remarks about Jenny's desire to marry him solely for his title, angers Ed. Ed lunges at Roxton, pushing him to the ground, where he finds a diary written by Burton White, an adventurer who hired Roxton three years earlier to lead him to the lost diamonds of Eldorado. Roxton then admits that he never met White and his party because he was delayed by a dalliance with a woman, thus abandoning them to certain death. Gomez angrily snaps that his good friend Santiago perished in the expedition. That night, Costa tries to molest the native girl, and David comes to her rescue and begins to communicate with her through sign language. After Gomez goes to investigate some movement he spotted in the vegetation, he calls for help, and when Roxton runs out of the cave, a gunshot from an unseen assailant is fired, nearly wounding Roxton and sending the girl scurrying into the jungle. Soon after, Ed and Jenny stray from camp and are pursued by a dinosaur, and after taking refuge on some cliffs, watch in horror as their stalker becomes locked in combat with another prehistoric creature and tumbles over the cliffs into the waters below. Upon returning to camp, they discover it deserted, their belongings in disarray. As David stumbles out from some rocks to report they were attacked by a tribe of natives, the cannibals return and imprison them in a cave with the others. As the drums beat relentlessly, signaling their deaths, the native girl reappears and motions for them to follow her through a secret passageway that leads to the cave in which Burton White lives, completely sightless. After confirming that all in his expedition perished, White tells them of a volcanic passageway that will lead them off the plateau, but warns that they must first pass through the cave of fire. Cautioning them that the natives plan to sacrifice them, White declares that their only chance of survival is to slip through the cave and then seal it with a boulder. After giving them directions to the cave, White asks them to take the girl along. As the earth, on the verge of a volcanic eruption, quakes, they set off through the Graveyard of the Damned, a vast cavern littered with dinosaur skeletons, the victims of the deadly sulfurous gases below. Pursued by the ferocious natives, Roxton takes the lead as they inch their way across a narrow ledge above the molten lava. After escaping the natives, they jam the cave shut with a boulder and, passing a dam of molten lava, finally reach the escape passage. At its mouth is a pile of giant diamonds and a dinosaur egg. As Costa heaps the diamonds into his hat, Challenger fondles the egg and Gomez pulls a gun and announces that Roxton must die in exchange for the death of Santiago, Gomez' brother. Acting quickly, Ed hurls the diamonds at Gomez, throwing him off balance and discharging his gun. The gunshot awakens a creature slumbering in the roiling waters below. After the beast snatches Costa and eats him alive, Ed tries to dislodge the dam, sending a few scorching rocks tumbling down onto the monster. Feeling responsible for the peril of the group, Gomez sacrifices his life by using his body as a lever to dislodge the dam, covering the creature with oozing lava. As the cave begins to crumble from the impending eruption, the group hurries to safety. Just then, the volcano explodes, destroying the lost world. After Roxton hands Ed a handful of diamonds he has saved as a wedding gift for him and Jenny, Challenger proudly displays his egg, which then hatches, revealing a baby dinosaur. The End.
The 50s had seen several examples of the dinosaur sub-genre. LW is one of the more lavish ones, owing to color by DeLuxe and CinemaScope. The A-level actors help too. Claude Rains plays the flamboyant Challenger. Michael Rennie plays Roxton, perhaps a bit too cooly. Jill St. John and Vitina Marcus do well as the customary eye candy. David Hedison as Malone and Fernando Lamas as Gomez round out the bill.
The first film version of LW was a silent movie shot in 1925: screenplay by Marion Fairfax. The film featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs by a young Willis O'Brien. Fairfax followed Doyle's text, but Fairfax added a young woman to the team, Paula White. Ostensibly trying to find her father from the first failed expedition, she provided the love triangle interest between Malone and Roxton.
Allen's screenplay tried to stick to Doyle's text as much as Hollywood would allow. It carried on Fairfax's invention of the young woman member of the group as triangle fodder. Fairfax had Doyle's ape men (ape man) but omitted the native humans. Allen had the natives, but no ape men. Allen revived the Gomez/revenge subplot, which Fairfax skipped. Doyle's story had Challenger bringing back a pterodactyl. Fairfax made it a brontosaur who rampaged through London streets (spawning a popular trope). Allen suggested the baby dinosaur traveling to London.
Willis O'Brien pitched 20th Century Fox in the late 50s, to do a quality remake of LW. He had gained much experience in the intervening 35 years, so his stop-motion dinosaurs were to be the real stars. Fox bass liked the idea, but by the time the ball started rolling, there was trouble in studioland. Fox's grand epic Cleopatra was underway, but was already 5 million dollars over budget. Cleo would nearly sink 20th Century Fox when it was finally released in 1963. To stay afloat, all other Fox films' budgets were slashed. Allen could no longer afford the grand O'Brien stop-motion.
Allen's production is often criticized for its "cheap" dinosaurs, which were live monitor lizards and alligators with fins and plates and horns glue onto them. (more on that below) These were already a bit cheesy when used in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. O'Brien is still listed on the credits as "Effects Technician," but all Allen could afford was lizards with glued on extras. Somewhat amusingly, the script still refers to them as brontosaurs and T-Rexes.
The character of Jennifer Holmes starts out promising. She's a self-assured to the edges of pushy, and is said to be able to out shoot and out ride any man. Yet, when she gets to the Amazon jungle, she's little more than Jungle Barbie, dressed in girlie clothes and screaming frequently. She even does the typical Hollywood trip-and-fall when chased by the dinosaur, so that a man must save her.
Bottom line? FW is a finer example of the not-quite-sci-fi dinosaur sub-genre. The actors are top drawer, even if some of their acting is a bit flat. Nonetheless, FW is a fair adaptation of Doyle's
classic adventure novel, given the constraints of Hollywood culture.
The Movie Club Annals … Review
The Lost World 1960
Introduction
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Irwin Allen's 1960 production of The Lost World. Nothing. It was perfect in every way. I therefore find myself in the unique and unfamiliar position of having to write a rave review about a Movie Club movie that was entirely devoid of flaws.
Faced with such a confounding task, I half-heartedly considered faking a bad review, then praying my obvious deceptions would go unnoticed. But the patent transparency of my scheme convinced me to abandon it posthaste. After all, leveling concocted criticisms at such an unassailable masterpiece would be a futile and tiresome exercise, the pretense of which would escape nary a semi-cognizant soul.
Thus, having retreated from my would-be descent into literary intrigue, I start this review in earnest by borrowing a quote from the legendary Shelly Winters, spoken during the 1972 filming of Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure:
"I'm ready for my close up now, Mr. Allen.” Shelly Winters, 1972
Review
A bit of research into the casting choices of Irwin Allen, who wrote, produced, and directed The Lost World, begins to reveal the genius behind the virtuosity.
The first accolades go to Irwin for his casting of Vitina Marcus, the immaculately groomed Saks 5th Avenue cave girl with exquisite taste in makeup, jewelry, and cave-wear. No finer cave girl ever graced a feature film.
Vitina Marcus, as The Cave Girl
She was the picture of prehistoric glamour, gliding across the silver screen in her designer bearskin mini-pelt, her flawless coiffure showing no signs of muss from the traditional courting rituals of the day, her perfect teeth the envy of even the most prototypical Osmond. Even her nouveau-opposable thumbs retained their manicure, in spite of the oft-disagreeable duties that frequently befell her as an effete member of the tribal gentry.
By no means just another Neanderthal harlot, Vitina had a wealth of talent to augment her exterior virtues. Her virtuoso interpretation of a comely cave girl in The Lost World certainly didn't escape the attention Irwin Allen. In fact, he was so taken with her performance that he later engaged her services again, casting her as the Native Girl in episode 2.26 of his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series.
Leery of potential typecasting, Vitina went on to obtain roles with greater depth and more sophisticated dialogue. This is evidenced by the great departure she took from her previous roles when she next portrayed the part of Sarit, a female barbarian, in episode 1.24 of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel TV series.
Vitina, as Sarit
Vitina's efforts to avoid typecasting paid off in spades, as she was soon rewarded with the distinctive role of Girl, a female Tarzanesque she-beast character, in episode 3.14 of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series.
Lured back from the U.N.C.L.E. set by Irwin Allen, Vitina was next cast in the role of Athena (a.k.a. Lorelei), the green space girl with the inverted lucite salad bowl hat, in episodes 2.2 and 2.16 of the revered Lost in Space TV series.
And with this, Vitina reached the pinnacle of her career. For her many unparalleled displays of thespian pageantry, she leaves us forever in her debt as she exits the stage.
For those who would still question the genius of Irwin Allen, I defy you to find a better casting choice for the character of Lord John Roxton than that of Michael Rennie. Mr. Rennie, who earlier starred as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, went on to even greater heights, starring as The Keeper in episodes 1.16 and 1.17 of the revered Lost in Space TV series. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Rennie often played highly cerebral characters with
unique names, such as Garth A7, Tribolet, Hasani, Rama Kahn, Hertz, and Dirk. How befitting that his most prolific roles came to him through a man named Irwin, a highly cerebral character with a unique name.
The selection of David Hedison to play Ed Malone was yet another example of Irwin's uncanny foresight. Soon after casting him in The Lost World, Irwin paved Mr. Hedison's path to immortality by casting him as a lead character in his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series. Although Voyage ended in 1968, Mr. Hedison departed the show with a solid resume and a bright future.
In the decades following Voyage, Mr. Hedison has been a veritable fixture on the small screen, appearing in such socially influential programs as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy and The A Team. Mr. Hedison's early collaborations with Irwin Allen have left him never wanting for a day's work in Hollywood, a boon to the legions of discerning fans who continue to savor his inspiring prime time depictions.
Irwin selected Fernando Lamas to play Manuel Gomez, the honorable and tortured soul of The Lost World who needlessly sacrificed himself at the end of the movie to save all the others. To get a feel for how important a casting decision he was to Irwin, just look at the pertinent experience Mr. Lamas brought to the table:
Irwin knew that such credentials could cause him to lose the services of Mr. Lamas to another project, and he took great pains to woo him onto the set of The Lost World. And even though Mr. Lamas never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his talent is not lost on us.
Jay Novello was selected by Irwin Allen to play Costa, the consummate Cuban coward who perpetually betrays everyone around him in the name of greed. In pursuing his craven calling, Mr. Novello went on to play Xandros, the Greek Slave in Atlantis, The Lost Continent, as well as countless other roles as a coward.
Although Mr. Novella never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his already long and distinguished career as a coward made him the obvious choice for Irwin when the need for an experienced malingerer arose.
Jill St. John was Irwin's pick to play Jennifer Holmes, the "other" glamour girl in The Lost World. Not to be upstaged by glamour-cave-girl Vitina Marcus, Jill played the trump card and broke out the pink go-go boots and skin-tight Capri pants, the perfect Amazonian summertime jungle wear.
Complete with a perfect hairdo, a killer wardrobe, a little yip-yip dog named Frosty, and all the other trappings of a wealthy and pampered prehistoric society, Jill's sensational allure rivaled even that of a certain cave girl appearing in the same film.
With the atmosphere rife for an on-set rivalry between Jill and Vitina, Irwin still managed to keep the peace, proving that he was as skilled a diplomat as he was a director.
Claude Rains, as Professor George Edward Challenger
And our cup runneth over, as Irwin cast Claude Rains to portray Professor George Edward Challenger. His eminence, Mr. Rains is an entity of such immeasurable virtue that he is not in need of monotonous praise from the likes of me.
I respectfully acknowledge the appearance of Mr. Rains because failure to do so would be an unforgivable travesty. But I say nothing more on the subject, lest I state something so obvious and uninspiring as to insult the intelligence of enlightened reader.
Irwin's casting of the cavemen mustn't be overlooked, for their infallibly realistic portrayals are unmatched within the Pleistocene Epoch genre of film. Such meticulous attention to detail is what separates Irwin Allen from lesser filmmakers, whose pale imitations of his work only further to underscore the point.
To be sure, it is possible to come away with the unfounded suspicion that the cavemen are really just a bunch of old white guys from the bar at the local Elks lodge. But Irwin was an absolute stickler for authenticity, and would never have allowed the use of such tawdry measures to taint his prehistoric magnum opus.
In truth, Irwin's on-screen cavemen were borne of many grueling years of anthropological research, so the explanation for their somewhat modern, pseudo-caucasian appearance lies obviously elsewhere. And in keeping with true Irwin Allen tradition, that explanation will not be offered here.
1964 - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Season One, Episode 7 - "Turn Back the Clock", featuring Vitina Marcus as The Native Girl. Produced by Irwin Allen.
And then there was Irwin Allen's masterful handling of the reptilian facets of The Lost World, most notably his inimitable casting of the dinosaurs. His dinosaurs were so realistic, so eerily lifelike, that they almost looked like living, breathing garden variety lizards with dinosaur fins and horns glued to their backs and heads.
The less enlightened viewer might even suppose this to be true, that Irwin's dinosaurs were indeed merely live specimens of lizards, donned in Jurassic-era finery, vastly magnified, and retro-fitted into The Lost World via some penny-wise means of cinematic trickery.
But those of us in the know certainly know better than that, as we are privy to some otherwise unpublished information about The Lost World. The lifelike appearance of the Irwin's dinosaurs can be attributed to a wholly overlooked and fiendishly cunning approach to the art of delusion, which is that the dinosaurs didn't just look real, they were real.
While the world abounds with middling minds who cannot fathom such a reality, we must follow Irwin's benevolent leanings and temper our natural feelings of contempt for this unfortunate assemblage of pedestrian lowbrows. In spite of Irwin's superior intellect, he never felt disdain toward the masses that constituted his audiences. He simply capitalized on their unaffectedness, and in the process recounted the benefits of exploiting the intellectually bereft for personal gain.
The purpose of all this analysis, of course, is to place an exclamation point on the genius of Irwin Allen, the formation of his dinosaur exposé being a premier example. Note how he mindfully manipulates the expectations of his unsuspecting audience, compelling them to probe the dinosaurs for any signs of man-made chicanery. Then, at the palatial moment when the dinosaurs make their entry, he guilefully supplants the anticipated display of faux reptilia with that of the bona fide article.
Upon first witnessing the de facto dinosaurs, some in the audience think they've been had, and indeed they have. Irwin, in engineering his masterful ruse, had used reality as his medium to convey the illusion of artifice. His audience, in essence, was blinded by the truth. It was the immaculate deception, and none but Irwin Allen could have conceived it.
Indeed, the matter of where the live dinosaurs came from has been conspicuously absent from this discussion, as the Irwinian technique of fine film making strongly discourages the practice of squandering time on extraneous justifications and other such trite means of redundant apologia. For the benefit of the incessantly curious, however, just keep in mind that Irwin Allen wrote and produced The Time Tunnel TV Series, a fact that should provide some fair insight into his modis operandi.
Carl R.
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click to activate the icon of slideshow: the small triangle inscribed in the small rectangle, at the top right, in the photostream;
clicca sulla piccola icona per attivare lo slideshow: sulla facciata principale del photostream, in alto a destra c'è un piccolo rettangolo (rappresenta il monitor) con dentro un piccolo triangolo nero;
Qi Bo's photos on Flickr Hive Mind
www.fotografidigitali.it/gallery/2726/opere-italiane-segn...
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“You will not teach anything if those who listen to you do not perceive your emotion in doing so.”
STEFANO CHIACCHIARINI
…I was looking for an aphorism on emotions, I came across this, I think it can also fit well with photography, because the photographic story that I am about to present here, on Flickr, led me to experience intense emotions while I was taking my photographs , I took photos yes, but at the same time I had to make a strong effort to repress those emotions, because they were so intense that I risked being overwhelmed by them… thus risking losing concentration on what was materializing before my eyes…. The party I attended, thus realizing this photographic series, was held at the beginning of May in the town of Melilli, which celebrates its patron saint San Sebastiano, in reality the canonical feast is held on January 20 also in Melilli, however this town in the province of Syracuse, in early May a "Big Feast" is organized to commemorate an event that seems to originate now from a historical event (it would be reported on an ancient correspondence), now from a story that has the flavor of legend : the story tells that in April 1414 a ship coming from the Adriatic Sea was wrecked on an island near the coast, there were no deaths, and the event, considered miraculous, was attributed to the presence on the ship of a statue of San Sebastiano, which was kept inside a chest, a chest that became heavily immovable by anyone who tried to lift it, the story (or legend) has it that the chest containing San Sebastiano became light only when some inhabitants of Melilli tried to lift it, a sign that the Saint wanted to be brought to that country, and so San Sebastiano was satisfied. Talking about the feast of San Sebastiano di Melilli also means talking about the so-called "nuri", a Sicilian dialect word which indicates those who "naked" come on foot (even barefoot) from numerous towns in the surrounding area, even very distant countries: in reality the custom of walking "naked" covered only by a band in correspondence with the pubic area belongs to the past, when "naked" were only male, later with the participation also of the female, the "naked" ” they have covered themselves, wearing white clothes, including a bandana, with red bands tightened around the waist and trunk, so they come on foot, even barefoot, wearing or not wearing white socks; the children cannot be missing, and since for them the journey on foot is unthinkable, the parents take turns carrying their little ones on their shoulders, even very small ones (we are talking about distances to be covered on foot of even 40 or 50 km!; the “ nuri" arrive in groups, and if all the groups, who are expected according to a precise programme, do not arrive beforehand, the procession with San Sebastiano does not begin; the "nuri (or naked)" bring with them bundles of fresh flowers, the “nuri” from Solarino bring handcrafted paper flowers with them, because due to the distance they have to cover, often under a sun in early May which can be very hot, the fresh flowers would arrive completely ruined. inside the church, they approach the float on which there is the statue of the Saint, a beautiful statue whose face is extremely sweet, not large in size, it appears covered with gold and precious objects: one witnesses a unique ritual of its kind, the devotees ask the staff present on the float to bring their objects closer to the Saint, in this way these objects are considered so blessed (I photographed a very kind and nice gentleman who explained this custom to me, he himself he had a “Sicilian puppet” blessed!). When all the various groups of "nuri" have arrived, then the procession begins, which will carry the statue of San Sebastiano to another church, from which in the late afternoon it will leave for a new procession inside the town of Melilli, to then return to the "his" church.
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“Non insegnerai nulla se chi ti ascolta non percepirà la tua emozione nel farlo.”
STEFANO CHIACCHIARINI
…cercavo un aforisma sulle emozioni, mi sono imbattuto in questo, credo che possa adattarsi bene anche con la fotografia, perché il racconto fotografico che mi appresto a presentare qui, su Flickr, mi ha portato a vivere emozioni intense nel mentre scattavo le mie fotografie, scattavo le foto si, però al contempo dovevo sforzarmi fortemente nel reprimerle quelle emozioni, perché erano talmente intense che rischiavo di farmi travolgere da esse… rischiando così di perdere la concentrazione su ciò che andava materializzandosi davanti ai miei occhi…. La festa alla quale ho assistito, realizzando così questa serie fotografica, si è tenuta agli inizi di Maggio nel paese di Melilli, che festeggia il suo santo patrono San Sebastiano, in realtà la festa canonica si tiene il 20 gennaio anche a Melilli, però in questo paese della provincia di Siracusa, i primi di maggio si organizza una “Festa Grande” per rievocare un evento che sembra originare ora da un evento storico (sarebbe riportato su di un antico carteggio), ora da un racconto che ha il sapore della leggenda: la storia narra che nell’Aprile del 1414 una nave proveniente dal mar Adriatico naufragò su di un’isola nei pressi della costa, non vi furono morti, e l’evento, ritenuto miracoloso, fu attribuito alla presenza sulla nave, di una statua di San Sebastiano, che era conservata dentro una cassa, cassa che diventò pesantemente inamovibile da chiunque tentava di sollevarla, la storia (o leggenda) vuole, che la cassa contenente San Sebastiano diventò leggera solo quando alcuni abitanti di Melilli provarono a sollevarla, segno che il Santo desiderava essere portato in quel paese, e così San Sebastiano fu accontentato. Parlare della festa di San Sebastiano di Melilli, significa anche parlare dei cosiddetti “nuri”, parola dialettale siciliana che sta ad indicare coloro che “nudi” provengono a piedi (anche a piedi scalzi) da numerosi paesi del circondario, paesi anche molto lontani: in realtà l’usanza di mettersi in cammino “nudi” coperti solamente da una fascia in corrispondenza della zona pubica, appartiene al passato, quando “i nudi” erano solamente di sesso maschile, successivamente con la partecipazione anche del sesso femminile, i “nudi” si sono coperti, indossando degli abiti bianchi, inclusa una bandana, con delle fasce rosse stretta attorno alla vita ed al tronco, essi quindi vengono a piedi, anche scalzi, indossando o meno dei calzettoni bianchi; i bambini non possono mancare, e poiché per loro il tragitto a piedi è improponibile, i genitori a turni, portano in spalla i loro pargoletti, anche molto piccoli (parliamo di distanze da percorrere a piedi anche di 40 o 50 Km !; i “nuri” arrivano in gruppo, e se prima non arrivano tutti i gruppi che sono attesi secondo un programma ben preciso, la processione con San Sebastiano, non inizia; i “nuri (o nudi)” portano con se dei fasci di fiori freschi, i “nuri” provenienti da Solarino recano con se dei fiori di carta costruiti artigianalmente, poiché a causa della distanza che devono coprire, spesso sotto un sole di inizio maggio che può essere molto caldo, i fiori freschi arriverebbero completamente rovinati. I vari devoti, giunti dentro la chiesa, si avvicinano alla vara (il fercolo) sulla quale c’è la statua del Santo, una bellissima statua il cui volto è estremamente dolce, non di grandi dimensioni, appare coperto di oggetti d’oro e preziosi: si assiste ad un rito unico nel suo genere, i devoti chiedono al personale presente sulla vara di far avvicinare dei loro oggetti al Santo, in tal modo questi oggetti vengono ritenuti così benedetti (ho fotografato un gentilissimo e simpatico signore che mi ha spiegato questa usanza, egli stesso si è fatto benedire un “pupo siciliano”!). Quando tutti i vari gruppi di “nuri” sono arrivati, allora inizia la processione, che porterà la statua di San Sebastiano in un’altra chiesa, dalla quale nel tardo pomeriggio uscirà per una nuova processione dentro il paese di Melilli, per poi rientrare nella “sua” chiesa.
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Jim is going to explain how we can all showcase our work, hopefully when something is tweaked for us on his land tabs (all a mystery to me :P). By taking a pic by what we consider to be our best work and submiting it to the guide we can not only improve visitors to the gallery but also show the virtual world our own special style. More info coming later maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rainbow%20Park%20Island/11...
The HUGE amount of text to follow here is mainly for my own reference (because I'm having some memory issues at the moment and really don't want to forget this, plus I need to work out the order things happened cause my head was in a rather thick fog at the time....)
I'm writing this like I'm explaining it to you, well because I thought it would make more sense than me just talking to myself... And who knows, it may be of some interest to you if immersive theatre is your kind of thing..........
This Saturday saw my return to Temple studios in Paddington for my second visit to Punchdrunks The Drowned Man
On my previous visit, I had no idea what the hell was happening!
We were handed white masks, bundled into a lift, told this was a wrap party for the filming of 'the drowned man' and then the lift doors opened and we were let loose.
As soon as we stepped out of the lift we were greeted with the most chilling music that actually made every single one of my hairs stand up on end.
And there we were...
Alone in a dark hall way....
Not knowing where to go or what to do.
We spent most of the first hour rummaging around the set/studio. Wandering (and wondering) around film sets, prosthetic room, wig rooms, Dr's office, cinema, motel rooms, shops in a town, mirror mazes, pitch black mazes, woods, caravan parks (complete with caravans) a masonic temple, a bloody desert!
(I shit you not, this place in it's self is a farking epic! master piece)
We roamed in and out of dark room, full of objects, scripts and pieces of information.
Information we didn't have a clue about...
But saying that, even as bunch of numpties fumbling their way through the dark, trying to piece together clues to a story we knew next to nothing about, the details and attention taken to create this amazingly intricate 4 store set was not lost on us.
We took in every sight, sound and smell around us. And as we continued on our masked journey we slowly started to run into the members of the cast.
The only unmasked people around...
That trip I took in various snippets of scenes. The fool and Lila, the psychotic seamstress (with a Frankie fetish), Frankie, the evil Dr doing his experiments on people. A fair bit of story line from Ramola, Faye, Dwayne, Miguel and the ill fated Marshall and Wendy.
But with all the exploring we had done I still didn't have a bloody clue what the hell was going on!
And of course when I came out after the finale, where I'd seen just how many characters I'd missed out on, I knew I had to go back.
I had to know more about what the hell was going on in that place!
I started searching the interweb on the train ride home.
I found various bits of information about the story lines going on within temple studio. Partly based on The day of the locusts and Woyzeck. (yep...read em both)
Then I found the spoiler group on facebook. And that was me hooked!
I booked my next show.
Sadly because I got ill I had to postpone until last weekend (which is probably lucky or else I know I would have tried to fit in a 3rd maybe a 4th visit before it closes it's doors next week.... (yes...it's THAT good!) )
And of course because the way I am physically (and mentally) affected at the moment, I now had to take into account that running up and down 3 flights of stairs trying to follow characters would probably fucking kill me (or kick off the paralysis....not sexy at all.)
Running up to the weekend just gone I was on the hunt for information. Without wanting to know too much. But still needing to know more.
In simple terms, the whole story line is an hour long. Then it resets, runs for another hour and resets a final time before the big finale.
That gave me time to work out which parts I was interested in seeing.
Funnily enough I wasn't interested in pursuing the 4 main characters William and Mary (William kills Mary for her infidelity) and Wendy and Marshall (Wendy kills Marshall for his infidelity)
You're given a card at the beginning with their story line on it, so I kinda knew that part all ready.
But there were 2 certain dance scenes that were kind of the main scenes for those character, that also involved a lot of the cast so I figured those were a good place to start.
If I could make it to the Orgy for one loop where Wendy kills Marshall, and then to the hoedown for the second loop I'd see Mary cheating on William as well
Ta da a plan of attack!
(3rd loops just mill around and rest....)
So I went to the 5000 strong group of spoilers (some of whom have been over 30 times!!!!) and asked which characters I could follow that wouldn't be too energetic for me (no way I was I gonna miss this last visit because my damn brain fucking hates me! Screw you brain!!!!!)
And with their help I had a set route and characters to follow.
Saturday arrived and I woke up feeling like shit.
My heart was feeling really tight in my chest (don't know why it does that, but it does) my speech was fucked and my left hand side was not in the mood to function without great effort (and pain)
Great..... Just what I need......
I then spent the rest of the day trying to chill the fuck out.
I became a master of Zen.
I meditated like a bad ass mother fucker!
I became completely anti social and drowned the world out with the most chilled music I could get my mitts on.
And you know what...
I actually worked!
By the time it was time to head to Paddington I was pretty functional.
Ok, so my head was cloudy as fuck. My speech was painfully slow and my left arm still ached.... I owned the underground that day!
I owned sitting on the floor while queuing.
And despite my heart pounding away in my chest (nerves I guess?) I made it in! :D
I have my plan. I'm going to get out of the lift, head to the town and follow the green grocer.
Only the lift takes us to the basement....
DAMN!
That's 2 flights of stairs I need to get up!!!
Rushing is just not an option at this point.
I head into the masonic temple. And there are weird masked people (not with masks like we have on, weird bald headed mask, kind of like the president masks in point break)
And then there is Stanford.
The head of the studio.
If I were such a spaz I'd be following him cause he is pure evil! And dark personalities have always intrigued me...
I may as well stick around and see whats going on.
The 3 masked people have baseball bats and are dancing around the black and white checkered floor harassing Frankie (the studio's up and coming star)
They start beating him, shove an orange in his mouth and as the music reaches it's crescendo Stanford pulls out and gun, shoves it in Frankie's face and.......
They all laugh.
This is Frankie's initiation into the evil that is temple studio.
YAY! I'd actually really wanted to see that scene because those masked characters appear on the guide book(?) thingie. Ha ha ha!
I decide I'll make my way up to the 2nd floor and see if I can play catch up with the grocer who I need to follow for the Hoedown.
On my way towards the town I run into (quite literally as he was storming towards me) a man in a suit (no mask)
No one is following him....
SCORE!
I whole actor to myself!!!!!!!!
(this is hard to find especially later on with the amount of people around)
Now I haven't mentioned yet that the characters interact with the white masked audience. We had witnessed it the first show, when the Dr took a woman into the room and locked the door on all her friends. And when the toy shop owner did the same
Which is why I'm so excited to have this dude (whoever he is) all to myself.
Who knows... Maybe I'll get lucky and land a bit of interaction with him...?
I follow him into the board room
He has a collection of pictures of Frankie with him and spreads them all over the table where he dances and writhes around on top of them.
When he is done he tidies them up and then stares me straight in the eye.
He looks kind of pissed at me, like I'm there invading his private moment.
As he slowly moves around the room he is still holding my gaze (I feel like I'm in a stare out, no way I'm looking away first! Even though he is very intimidating)
He exits and I'm right behind him striding down the corridors.
Holy crap he is bloody fast!
Uh oh....
From this moment on my mind has blurred all the events into a kind of mash of happening, so I'm using a cheat sheet for his loop to help me piece it all back together in order....
We go into a studio and he watches Frankie and Andrea dancing/auditioning, then somehow (and I can't quite remember how) we are chasing Frankie down the stairs, where suited man seems to sexually harass Frankie, who eventually gives in and the pair full on snog at the bottom of the stairs right under a spotlight (perfectly timed and positioned if I say so myself!)
Then we're back in the masonic temple for the orgy. Oh my gosh I LOVED this scene!
The choreography and music are amazing!
It's a good scene to see as it help me figure out the cast members I don't know the names of.
Delores seduces Marshall as Wendy watches on horrified.
When the orgy is done and the other characters have left the suited man tries to seduce Frankie again, and seems to spurn him this time.
So that's that, we're off at a trot again (fuck it, I'm not giving up now!)
He leads us (cause I'm not alone with him anymore. Other white masks have joined us) to a corridor with head shots of the 'stars' all over the floor.
He stops and has a little dance over them, then we're off to a room full of the head shots with their eyes cut out. (cause that's not creepy at all.....)
He's looking really fucked off now.
He find a picture of Frankie.
He comes towards me and places the picture up against my mask and starts to slow rip it.....
When he rips it down past my eye I can see that he is right up against me, his face nearly touching my mask.....
His eyes are intensely staring into mine again and he looks crazed!!!!
Yet again I dare not blink, or take my eyes from his.
He takes the ripped up picture and stuff it in my pocket.
Then we're off again!
By now I am so hyper reflexive that EVERY little noise is making me jump. Even the ones I can see coming (like doors opening and closing. It's mental!)
My heart is BANGING double time in my chest and I'm vaguely aware my left arm hurts.
I'm guessing my speech has fucked off my this point, but that's cool cause we're supposed to be silent the whole time, so who cares!
My head is so fuzzy the whole thing feels like a dream. Like I'm somewhere else watching what is going on.
We're in the snow set now (I forgot to mention earlier there is bloody snow as well! They have EVERYTHING in this place!)
He's watching Andrea dance. (She's Wendy's friend I think)
He goes up the snow hill through an open door and behind a wall where I can't see him.
I honestly thought I'd lost him at this point.
And have to admit I felt a little sad.
But no!
He's still in that little snow filled room, standing in front of a bright light, making the huge shadow of his hand move slowly and menacingly towards Andrea who's laid on the floor.
He comes back down, picks her up and takes her off to the dressing room.
I remember being in the dressing room, seeing the fool from the corner of my eye, but for the life of me can't remember what the hell he did in there.
It may have been where he gave Andrea and Wendy the invite to the orgy (insuring that Wendy see's Marshall infidelity with Delores)
Damn.
Such a shame I can't remember.
Now we're in the casting office with Alice Estee. And finally I learn that he is in fact Claude Estee (her husband I'm guessing)
The pair of them are characters taken from The day of the locust and dropped into the world of temple studio.
They are an evil pair, who are laughing and joking about the fact that they are rooting through piles of head shots dismissing almost all of them.
Until they get to Frankie.
They seem to really LOVE him.
After they have done a very cleverly choreographed chair dance, he heads out into the hall way off somewhere else.
And of course I'm hot on his heels.
He suddenly stops.
Turns and makes eye contact with me again.
He starts slowly moving towards me, holding my gaze all the while.
He pushed me up against the wall.
His face right up to mine.
His eyes burning into mine again
All I can think is 'damn it Elana, unfold you hands, they're going to be touching his balls if he gets any closer!!!!'
I manage to get them unfolded and down by my side just in time as he then pins me against the wall, puts his lips right on my ear and hisses something about me having talent, and that I should come find him later...
Makes all my hairs stand on end.....
Damn!
He pressed himself against me so hard he left a sweat patch behind!
maybe I should have grabbed his balls after all! ha ha ha ha ha!
And just like that he turns away, and we're off again.
This time he's with Stanford.
The pair look so threatening together as poor Faye comes in for an audition (I met Faye a few times last visit and she's quite a big part of The day of the locust)
I actually feel quite sorry for her, which is odd because before I didn't really like her as she was such a tease and rather irritating wanna be (even more so in the book!)
But the presence of the evil, unblinking, poker faced Stanford and the lecherous Claude makes me feel for the poor girl.
yep... I'm getting right into this story line now!
I guess Stanford and Faye leave, cause now it's Claude's turn in the big bosses chair.
He goes straight for me again, with those penetrating eyes
(I swear he could see me blushing under my mask he was staring that hard!)
He motions for me to move into the middle of the room (which is surrounded by white masks most of whom were watching the last scene)
He then motions for me to turn around.
Ha ha ha ha!
Cause I'm not already dizzy as fuck, hyper reflexive and completely fuzzy headed.
I make a rather lame attempt at giving him a twirl (which is more of a shuffle round in a rather lame circle)
He gets up, comes right up to me so his lips are once again on my ear and whispers 'I remember you.... You've got talent'
Seriously, he is such a slimy character and played so well it made me shudder!
While I recover from my public humiliation (damn I wish I'd put a bit more effort into that twirl....) Andrea comes in for her audition.
William is there as well, and Claude (still in the bosses chair) watches them audition for a scene that is dictated by the amazing disembodied voice of Stanford (even when that man's not present somewhere, he still manages to be everywhere.....)
We're in a hallway again and Claude bumps into the Dr and they have a pill together.
(Cause why the hell not I suppose, guess they are all into the drugging thing together)
Then we're off to the dressing room again.
Delores is in there and she and Claude do a little dance number. Which ends in him mocking her and telling her that she's getting old.
Off to another part of the set, where Alice is with Frankie auditioning him.
The 3 of them do a dance number.
I miss nearly the whole thing because there are LOADS of people and I'm way to short to see over their heads. So I sit it out.
After that Claude and Alice ask Frankie if he wants to meet the boss.
They rush down the stairs.
Claude disappears into a room and materialize
wearing the creepy point break mask just as the rest music sounds telling me I've just unknowingly and unintentionally followed his whole loop!
And a hell of a loop it was as well.
I oh so slowly make my way up their two flights of stairs to seek out the town where I know I can go sit and watch the drugstore girl for a bit. (Kinda hoping she'll offer me a drink cause I feel like I'm going to die!!!!)
In the town I finally find the drugstore (totally missed it first time round)
She's there behind the counter so I park my arse on a stool and watch her for a bit.
She's reading a script, I would read it, but my brain is beyond fucked now.
I'd be surprised if I'd manage to read the first line of it!
She heads out of the drugstore, I figure I'll follow. (I've sat down long enough, and if I stop any longer I'll start noticing my symptoms kicking in)
As luck would have it she goes to see the grocer and gives him an invite to the hoe down.
I'm guessing he got ready and went straight there (cause I'm fucked if I can remember him doing anything else)
And there we have the hoedown. Another beautifully choreographed scene with kick ass music!
William see's Mary cheating on him with Dwayne goes a little mental.
I'm wanting low impact after Claude's loop, so follow the grocers back to his store.
Back in his shop he turns to me.
Stares at me long and hard and then hold out his hand for me to take.
He leads me into his back room and locks the door behind us.
Pushes me against the door and fiddles about for a bit, before taking me around the shoulders and leading me through a low dark tunnel.
He sits me down and takes my mask off.
He then hands me a script to read (ahahahahaha! Are you kidding me, My brain stop cooperating waaaaay back with bloody Claude)
I manage to read the first few line.
I could be hallucinating at this point, but I'm pretty sure there is a voice (Stanford maybe) narrating what he is doing and what he is doing is exactly what's in the script....
My mind is fucked anyway so I just give up on pretending to read whats on the script.
He sits opposite me and takes my hands.
He starts to tell me a sad story about a boy who had a dream his mother died and he was left with his cruel father.
He seems really heart broken so I assume he is telling me his story.
He leans forward and gives me a really long sweaty hug.
I feel for the bloke so I give him a hug back and do the whole 'there, there' back pat thing (he's upset, what else was I gonna do, offer him a kleenex from my bra?)
Can't fucking remember the rest of what he said, but as he lead me back out of the dark tunnel he said some more stuff. Told me that his name is Eugene and that this is all a dream. They are stuck inside a dream and not to get stuck too.....
Which ties in with something the fool had said about it all being a dream when I saw him with Lila the first time round.
Fuck me, the old wheels started turning after that!
After he emerges out of the room he lead me into I follow him to the drugstore where he has a script for the drugstore girl.
They sit down and read it together.
They are acting out what is on the script and what is on the script is being said by the voice of (Stamford again) they repeat the scene over and over again and both seem to realize that they are trapped inside this loop.
Both aware yet unable to stop doing what is in the script and what Stanford is saying!
The drugstore girl gets up goes over to the phone box and falls down dead (of an overdoes apparently)
Eugene sadly and knowingly walks over moves her body (as he has done a thousand times before) and leaves.
He leads us downstairs to the birthday tent in the woods.
Where he strips down to his underwear.
Plus out a red sequin dress, wig, heels and red lipstick and starts to dress himself up.
He puts the red lipstick on and takes me hand. Plus me close and kisses my mask.
Just then Delores and Frankie turn up.
It's Delores's birthday and Eugene is the entertainment. Impersonating her.
Wendy and Marshall rock up to the party as well.
Eugene gives them a bit of a show and then pulls Wendy up on stage.
He and Frankie distract her by dressing her up in Eugene's red sequin frock, while Delores seduces Marshall.
Eugene and Frankie finish, Wendy is all dressed up, looking ridiculous and laughing at how funny she looks.
She see's that Marshall is looking very comfortable with Delores, and Delores begins to laugh as well.
A nasty cruel laugh, at Wendy.
From there they all go off and the orgy scene happens not long after.
I've already seen that, so I hang around to see the rest of Eugene's loop.
Alice Estee comes into the tent just as Eugene has put his normal clothes back on.
She looks at the heels and wig and scoffs at him.
She then says she has a part for him.
A grocer!
He seems hesitant to take the role and she tells him that he will be the grocer.
He agrees and takes the script from her and heads back up to the shop.
'Abe's general store.'
Guess that's why he wanted me to know his name. Because he's not really Abe. He knows his real name and is trying to hang on to that before he becomes nothing more than the role he has been given in the script, on a constantly repeating loop in a tragic dream he can't get out of...
This time he takes someone else into the back room, I dig out the script from the draw.
And sure enough, it's his script. All the things I have seen him do as the grocer (he dusts off peas a lot and served some customers as well while I was in the shop) and sure enough, the scene with the drugstore girl is in there. exactly as it played out. So he must know in advance that she is going to die.
I'm curious if the script she was reading when I went in to the drugstore is the same one as this now only with her story inside in it....
Then the reset music sounds again and it's the third loop.
Time to head up to the top floor desert to get some sand in my shoes and see if I can find the dust which, who I have yet to see in any shape or form even during the finale!
First I bump into Mary (who I haven't seen before) she's dancing with someone on a car.
Don't know who it was! ha!
Getting really tired now and not giving much of crap about where I'm heading.
I head up to the sand dunes to find Miguel, who is having a fight with Dwayne.
I already know what's going to happen because I caught this scene on my first visit, so instead I have a nose around to see if I can find the secret tunnel in the sand dune.
Go in there, have a nose around.
No dust witch.
Miguel heads down to the hoedown.
I've already seen that as well so I go into the town to see if anyone of any interest is about.
And sure as shit there is a big crowd around the toy shop because the owner Mr Tuttle is about.
White masks love him!
Mainly because he drags you into the back of his shop for a 1 on 1, much like I had with Eugene, but does a whole load of batshit crazy stuff and then covers your mask in blood (red paint)
This time hes off out on a mission.
He heads to where the car is with his pot of paint and must be finishing off some graffiti he has been doing in his previous loops. 'Beware. the red moon is rising'
No idea what that means (I'll ask the spoilers at some point) I'm guessing there is a shit ton of red moon shaped clues and objects around this place. It's bound to make sense to the folk who have searched for the stuff (in their 30 odd visits....)
The security guard sees him and comes running over and chases him (I'm not fucking running, so I miss what is said between the 2 of them)
Tuttle heads back to his shop and Miguel and Faye come out of the hoedown. I decide to pick up following Miguel.
The have a little sexy, flirty dance and Faye leads him off the a motel room.
He lays on the bed. She starts taking her clothes off.
Something suddenly catches his attention outside so he bolts.
Faye sits and starts to cries. I get the fuck outta there to follow Miguel into the street, where he is holding tarot card. Couldn't see what it had on it though I'm guessing death?
He starts saying 'Mary' over and over. Then leaves the card in the rafters of William and Mary's house before heading up to the sand dunes.
I'm moving at a crawl now so kind miss what hes doing in the shack up there.
My guess is this is usually when Mary get's kill by William, as Miguel was repeating her name a hell of a lot.
But this is the end of the 3rd loop which means that we are discreetly lead away and back down to the wooded area where the finale of Wendy killing Marshall (with scissors) takes place.
I search the entire cast on the stage for the dust witch. Still can't see her!
Oh well.
And that...
Is what I can only describe as another mind boggling final trip to temple studios to see the breathtaking, bewildering master piece that is the drowned man.
I'll be fucking amazed if anyone has read up to here! ha ha!
I guess now I'm going to have to resort to go and read all the spoilers for all the characters, and read all the conspiracy theories that surround this to see if anyone has worked the whole thing out.... ( though I highly doubt it)
From the photoblog Chillimatic
Posting a photo of a shop called "Party World" here is an odd way to memorialize someone. Bear with me, I'll explain further down the page. Firstly a little on how I came to know about Jon Claremont and his work.
The service provider for my photoblog, Chillimatic, is called Expressions. Expressions won't be rivalling Flickr any time soon and perhaps due to the small number of subscribers, or perhaps due to the good work of the people who run it, Expressions is a genuine ‘online community’ (prior to joining I had thought this phrase an oxymoron) brought together by a shared love of photography.
Some particularly high quality photoblogs are nestled alonside my own (frankly amateurish) site. Chief among these is a blog I discovered during my earliest nose around Expressions called ClaremontPhoto - Jon’s photoblog.
The aesthetic of Jon’s pictures was so different to that which currently prevails in photography that it was a shock when I first landed there. My eyes had become too accustomed to the diamond-sharp, perfectly colour-balanced images that digital technology has made possible to immediately accept photos taken with film cameras and developed at the local One Hour Photo. Jon's snaps were often blurry and overexposed with no apparent colour scheme. His subjects rarely sat nicely in measured compositions.
Even when he was photographing the patrons of the shabby café-bars of Montemor-o-Novo, the town in Portugal where he lived - subjects who were in fact seated and immobile - there was always a touch of anarchy, a touch of humanity, his photos were alive. He once remarked in an e-mail to me that he didn’t do “pretty pictures”. He was wrong. His photos were beautiful, and in a way that all those diamond-sharp digital images could never be.
I started leaving comments on Jon’s site, he on mine, and our intermittent e-mail exchanges began. Just as one had to get past the aesthetic shock and look carefully at Jon’s photos to fully appreciate them so he looked carefully at others’. More than once he remarked on something in one of my shots that I hadn’t noticed myself. For this reason his words of encouragement were valuable to me; his appreciation was genuine.
Jon's warmth of character was a further quality as apparent in his photos as his mails. Most of his shots were of the inhabitants of Montemor, a village lost in the countryside 40 miles to the east of Lisbon, a town not pretty enough for tourism nor rich enough for chain store homogeneity.
Similarly, Montemor’s inhabitants are neither charmingly rustic nor the neat, presentable Gap-clad men and women that the global economy has moulded. They're a scruffy lot, spending their evenings sitting awkwardly on bar furniture, drinking cheap beer straight from the bottle, looking up slack-jawed at the football on the telly. In viewing Jon’s photos I was often reminded of Oscar Wilde’s famous aphorism “Work is the curse of the drinking classes”.
Most photographers, I think, would maintain a certain distance between themselves and such subjects, one that would translate into a mocking tone in their photos or a falsely reverent one: ostensibly honouring such ‘salt of the earth’ characters, covertly pitying them. Jon did none of that; the section at ClaremontPhoto compiling his ‘people’ shots is titled “Friends and Neighbours”. Quite right, they were not his subjects, he was one of them. The warmth and camaraderie so apparent in his photography were equally evident in his words to me.
Soon after I was first in contact with Jon he was appointed as Community Ambassador at Expressions, bringing to the members’ attention the work of other Expressions contributors, and continuing to offer words of encouragement and genuine appreciation to so many of us. He was very much the glue in our online community and I know that I am not alone in saying how greatly missed he will be.
I learnt of Jon’s passing on Friday and that same day Shanolyno, a fellow Expressions user, posted a comment on my photoblog. I mailed him to say thanks and told him the sad news. His words in reply voiced my own thoughts perfectly: “Seems strange to mourn for someone that I feel I know so well, yet I never met.”
I never met Jon Claremont either, I never even spoke to him and yet he touched me in some way, he inspired me, and I will miss him. For those that did know this clearly exceptional man, his family and friends, the loss must be very great indeed and my thoughts are with them.
So, the photo of “Party World”. It was taken in July of last year with a DSLR which I’d just bought, on the day I arrived in Sardinia, my holiday destination. During the preceding months I had spent much time on photography: taking photographs, tending to my website, reading about photography, viewing the work of others and occasionally exchanging e-mails with Jon.
Shortly before I left we had a quick exchange about Martin Parr, whose work we both admired. I wrote: “Regarding Martin Parr, yes the man is a genius, but I also kind of hate him because it's become impossible to take photos in certain areas (supermarkets and seaside towns in the UK particularly) without thinking of his brilliant photos. He kind of owns all that now. If I ever find myself in a run down bar in Portugal and I'm unable to take photos because you've taken all the ideas and own that environment I'll let you know.”
When I arrived in Olbia this throwaway comment had transformed into prophecy. Maybe it was the intensity of the sunlight (in Jon’s outdoor shots the walls and streets of Montemor appeared sun-bleached) or maybe it was the slightly tattered look that much of Olbia still has despite a recent influx of tourists courtesy of EasyJet, but I was unable to take pictures of the place, I saw Jon’s photos everywhere.
Thwarted in my attempts to take my own photos I decided to produce some imitation Claremonts. I turned the exposure up a notch to get the bleached look, switched the focus setting to “auto” to lose some sharpness and took a couple of shots of shop fronts which I imagined wouldn’t be out of place in Montemor. This shot was the most successful. I had intended to send it to him but, very regrettably now, never got round to it.
But "Party World", though? Surely not the best way to memorialize someone? Like I say - bear with me. This shop, despite its apparent banality, despite the cheap plastic knick-knacks it displays in the window, proudly proclaims itself “Party World” and this is in keeping with the meaning I read behind many of Jon’s photos. Despite the tawdriness of their surroundings; despite their shabby clothes; despite the cheap beer they’re given to drink every night; despite the fact that they live in a forgotten hinterland, held there just above the breadline; despite the fact that they’re old and working class (both characteristics that were once a source of pride but not so much these days); despite all this and much more, the people in Jon’s photos are mostly smiling. They’re happy.
My favourite of Jon’s photos is of a frail old man who sells lottery tickets from in front of a bar. According to the text accompanying the photo he’s there every week with the same patter, every week he has “the big one”. There he is - leaning against a rubbish bin, an expression of rapt wonder on his face as he eyes the little scraps of paper in his hand which, despite the 10-million-to-one odds, are going to bring in the jackpot. The Don Quixote of Montemor, he is both a fool and a hero.
As summations of the human condition go, it's hard to beat. We are born into a world without purpose or meaning where there is but one truth: that one day, soon, we will be gone from it, obliterated. We have no chance; we are playing a machine we will never beat, which metes out suffering so much more than joy... And yet we still believe, holy fools that we are, that we're going to land "the big one", that “A vida é uma festa!” Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Party World.
So rest in peace, Jon Claremont, and thank you for showing me all this.
If you've read this far I hope you'll click on the link for ClaremontPhoto. Many of his older photos (including the lottery ticket seller) have disappeared but there remain many photos of exceptional quality.
Yesterday’s project submission (Imani) will explain how I met Kya. We were in the new Student Learning Centre of Ryerson University in downtown Toronto. Kya had declared herself camera shy and basically threw her cousin under the bus when I made my project request. Once I photographed Imani, however, Kya got brave and gave it a go.
I posed Kya facing alongside the windows of the Learning Centre and Imani held my reflector to even out the light a bit. Kya was not that comfortable in front of my camera so I really appreciated her yielding to my friendly entreaties to give it a try. We took a few photos with her hat on and a few without. In an effort to relax things I asked some questions about the wonderful hairstyles both girls had and found out that it’s a rather time-consuming process that one wouldn’t want to have to redo more often than necessary. I followed up by saying “I hope I’m not being too nosey but I’ve always been curious about that hairstyle and figured here was my chance to ask.” They didn’t seem to mind and I wound up feeling pretty darned lucky to be a man. The money I don’t spend on my hair is available for buying coffees.
After the photos were taken, we returned to the spot where Iman and Kya had been sitting and where I had dumped my coat, hat, and bag. Once I completed my interview of Imani, she had to go to class so I proceeded to get acquainted with Kya. That’s when I learned that they are cousins, not classmates.
Kya is also 18 and attending university in Montreal where she lives. She is planning to go into Social Services which is my own former profession so we chatted a bit about that. She wants to specialize in youth services and I mentioned that I worked for several years in a child and family clinic before specializing in adults. When I asked about Kya’s name she said her mother told her she heard the name in a Bob Marley song and liked it. It is a very nice name.
In addition to school, Kya is an accomplished athlete and plays on two basketball teams. I don’t follow basketball but she is a point guard and clearly takes her athletics seriously. In terms of personality, Kya told me she’s an adventurous sort who doesn’t like staying indoors a lot but is known for always being on the go and really knowing her way around downtown Montreal. Her friends are always surprised when they consult her on urban questions because she usually knows where things are and what’s happening. Her biggest challenge? She said it’s balancing out her social time, her sports time, and her study time. She feels pulled strongly in all directions so she is working on finding the successful balance.
She has been in Toronto for a week to visit her cousin and has been having a fun time but will soon have to return to Montreal to resume school and basketball. Thank you Kya for taking a chance and participating in my 100 Strangers project. It was fun meeting you and your cousin. You are #729 in Round 8 of my project. I’m glad you’ve had a fun time in Toronto and I hope you will return to Montreal a little less camera-shy. You took a lovely portrait.
Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by the other photographers in our group at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page.
Let me explain. I am mildly alergic to Cats, they give me hay fever like symptoms, so no cats at home. All the cats l photograph belong to neighbours or family or l have come across them in the street. A year ago I visited Ashbourne Animal Welfare , a charity that helps rehome stray cats and dogs. They also rescue some very ill cats who will never be well enough to be rehomed, and these can be sponsored by people. l started sponsoring Fruitie a couple of months ago and have now found out she is the office manager. She directs the Chair and Vice Chair in their duties in the office. ! They call her the Office Cat but we know different. We've seen the office. And we know who has most chairs!
They don't know her age , but guess its about 18 . Unfortunately her owner died and it was a while before she was rescued , and she was in a poor state . Ear mites had destroyed her hearing and despite an operation she is totally deaf and is a bit unsteady on her paws. The unusual ears are a result of the operations. Luckily she has ended up with the largest pen in the home and constant company , which is nice as she enjoys a good fuss. She has silky smooth fur , probably from constant stroking.
Have a look at the website www.ashbourneanimalwelfare.org or go to one of their open days if you are in the area.
Danielle Paterson and Harrison Cole in 'Guy Fawkes It Up!" by Laughing Mirror theatre company, at this year's Edinburgh Fringe.
The play was directed by Chad Porter. I know both Harrison and Chad from last year's Fringe when they were in 'The Baffling Adventures of Question-Mark Man'.
I cannot explain why there is a brick wall in our house. This is the front entrance to the house. I like it, but don’t get it! I actually got to meet the man who built it 25 years before I moved in. Wish I had thought to ask him. ODC: brick
AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF VR on Nikon 1 J5 using FT1 adaptor. 60 frame focus stack shot as JPEG Basic Small with Nikon Z6 and AF-S Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G.