Prior to Momofuku Ando releasing his revolutionary Cup Noodle into the world in 1971, he went on a fact-finding mission to America. There, he saw Americans taking his previous invention, the chicken noodle, breaking it in half, putting it in a cup instead of a bowl and eating it with a fork instead of chopsticks. […]
Gorgeous! The movement of fabric and musculature is really stunning.
Photographer and filmmaker Niv Novak is passionate about dance. This love of movement shines through in the ultra-slow motion photography of ballet dancers that has been a hallmark of his work. Now, he’s taken his art to a new level with Missed Nuance, a ballet art film that has been two years in the making.
Working with accomplished dancers from The Australian Ballet, Bolshoi Theatre, The Royal Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo and Queensland Ballet, Novak captures their every movement in stunning detail. By slowing down time, Novak allows viewers to drink in the spectacle of dance; and to enhance the experience, he’s coupled the dancers with incredible fashion. Costume designer Belinda Pieris has curated the dancers’ attire (each of them fashioned by Australian designers), which helps show the relationship between dance and fashion.
“Subtle gradations in movement, light skimming across a dancer’s physique, muscles activating, ligaments stretching, fabrics flickering, bending, and floating—countless moments of expression are missed–lost to speed,” declares Novak. “While photography reveals instants of such beauty, Missed Nuance captures all.”
Now available on iTunes, the hour-long 4K film is a masterful piece of artistry. Each dancer is lit to perfection, allowing viewers to focus on the power and grace of their movements.
We had a chance to speak with Novak about the creation of Missed Nuance and his hopes for the project. Read on for My Modern Met’s exclusive interview.
Jake Mangakahia
What is it about dance that inspires you so much as a photographer?
The precision, athleticism, beauty, and the striving for higher ideals through ballet and dance is what inspires me.
How was Missed Nuance first conceived?
As a passionate photographer of dance, I realized that so much of the beauty is missed—lost to speed. I wanted to capture it all, lit as beautifully as a photograph.
Can you share a little bit about the process of creating ultra-slow motion photographs?
There are technical challenges for high-speed studio photography at 1,000 frames per second. One needs five times the light intensity when compared to shooting film/video at 24fps. Bright lights are traditionally very hot. New LED lights run cooler but are not bright enough.
Regular incandescent light bulbs also flicker (because the heating element cools and heats up by the factor of the 50Hz-60Hz refresh from the electric current). The trick for slow-motion capture is to find a light source where the flicker frequency is not lower than the refresh rate of the camera sensor. The data requirements are also significant. The camera records 11GB per second and so we would record 4-6TB on most days.
Zoe Cavedon
Why is this your preferred method for capturing dance?
The mesmerizing beauty of the instants when a dancer is in flight is wondrous. To see all the remarkable details up close requires us to slow time. One second of light through my lens becomes a 40-second film.
What inspired the integration of fashion into the piece?
The combination of dance with interesting fabrics/fashion and high-speed is absolutely spectacular! I could say more but it’s best to see examples.
How did you go about selecting the participating designers and what was their reaction to the project?
I teamed up with Belinda Pieris, a talented designer and former dancer who has a passion for movement in dance and fabric. We learned a lot about fabric dynamics—it’s a fascinating study. Belinda introduced leading Australian designers to the project.
Designer support and reactions to the work have been extremely positive. I hope to collaborate with talented designers worldwide for future projects.
Callum Linnane
What was the most challenging part about creating the film over the past two years?
1. Lighting 2. Lighting 3. Lighting.
I was set on lighting dancers as beautifully as a photographer lights a portraiture subject. It took me 18 months to figure it out for high-speed photography.
What do you hope that people take away from Missed Nuance?
Literally, there is beauty in every other instant. Practice seeing it.
On a higher level—look at how remarkable we are (our species). Respect each other and get along.
Missed Nuance is a celebration of movement in dance and the human spirit.
What’s next for both yourself and for the film?
The film is the result of a two-year exploration of imaging, movement, and time. I’m so excited to share the project and hope it can inspire.
Yuumi Yamada
Missed Nuance, Niv Novak’s stunning ballet art film, is now available on iTunes in 4K.
My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Niv Novak.
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alright so it’s annual donation drive time over on AO3, and I’ve already seen the usual “this is ridiculous/this is shady/what are they doing with all that money” so here’s your yearly reminder:
servers are fucking expensive
there are no fees or ads and they’re not selling your information anywhere, so the only money comes from donations
the budget is always public and the 2019 update is here if you want to see for yourself exactly where the money is going
I've only ever been a mildly interested Harry Potter fan (except where Hufflepuff is concerned), but this is definitely summing up one of my huge pet peeves with the series.
Crafter Stephanie Pokorny creates the best Halloween costumes for her kids. Pokorny, also known as Crochetverse, produces pop culture-inspired ensembles for her boys using crochet techniques. Each full-body outfit is crafted with fine details and special touches like real lighting that’s embedded within the designs. For Halloween 2019, Pokorny has just fashioned Skeletor from Masters of the Universe and a Xenomorph from the Alien film franchise. In addition to characteristics like ferocious teeth and plated armor, Pokorny has engineered Skeletor’s eyes to light up red and for the Xenomorph to glow in the dark.
Despite having first learned the craft when she was 16 years old, it wasn’t until Pokorny’s fourth son was born that she started to really flex her crochet skills. “My youngest son was the first recipient of one of these costumes,” she tells My Modern Met. “Over time, it has become an absolute tradition my boys look forward to. They get to tell me what they want to be and I then work to create it for them.”
The handcrafted Halloween costumes are a true labor of love. “Each piece takes somewhere between 40 and 50 hours as of late, and I work on them over the course of a few weeks usually,” she explains. “Each year, I really work to improve my skills and develop new ways to manipulate the crochet to achieve the results I desire.” Her sculptural approach to crochet makes it possible to recreate the characters’ elaborate features and makes the costumes instantly recognizable. Choosing to work with yarn has another benefit, too. “We live in upper Ohio and so cozy crochet has really worked in our favor for Halloween,” Pokorny says. “Sometimes it snows here!”
Crafter Stephanie Pokorny creates crochet Halloween costumes for her sons that cover them from head to toe. Here’s what she created for 2019:
Here are past years—all are inspired by popular culture:
Researchers used artificial intelligence to analyze adjectives used to describe men and women in 3.5 million books written in English between 1900 and 2008. They contained around 11 billion words. The results from this large data set confirmed what we already knew.
“We are clearly able to see that the words used for women refer much more to their appearances than the words used to describe men. Thus, we have been able to confirm a widespread perception, only now at a statistical level,” says computer scientist and assistant professor Isabelle Augenstein of the University of Copenhagen’s computer science department.
***
Their analysis demonstrates that negative verbs associated with body and appearance appear five times as often for female figures as male ones. The analysis also demonstrates that positive and neutral adjectives relating to the body and appearance occur approximately twice as often in descriptions of female figures, while male ones are most frequently described using adjectives that refer to their behavior and personal qualities.
Augenstein explains why these words matter to artificial intelligence, as such algorithms are made to detect recurring patterns as "true," while humans understand that just because something is prevalent or long-lasting doesn't make it right. Read more about the research at the World Economic Forum. -via Boing Boing
Oh god this sounds nightmare-ish for me but it could be cool for someone deaf to allow them to feel more subtleties of auditory vibration than just a bass thump.
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If you’ve ever stood close enough to the speakers at a loud concert, you know that you can actually feel the low bass notes vibrating through your body. This immersive sensation is exactly what the Woojer team have recreated with the Woojer Edge series. The wearable strap and vest are designed to enhance the experience of listening to music, gaming, or watching a movie by allowing you to feel sound.
“You know that oomph you feel in your body? That energy pulsing into your bones? That’s what Woojer feels like. It gives you everything that your headphones simply can’t,” say the team behind the designs. The product was recently launched on Kickstarter, and with just a week to go before the campaign ends, it’s already received almost 10,000 backers who have together pledged over 1 million Euros (about $1.1 million), surpassing the €18,253 ($20,050) goal by a landslide. It’s no surprise that the product has received so much support—there’s nothing quite like the incredible Woojer Edge series on the market.
So, how does it work? Using haptic technology, the Woojer team has developed an “Oscillating Frame” that accurately reproduces frequencies up to 500Hz—including subsonic frequencies that are below the threshold of the human ear (1-20Hz)—as physical vibrations. “The frictionless motion guarantees precise harmonic reproduction and reduces distortion,” explain Woojer. “It’s the perfect combination of tactile sensation, size, weight, and power consumption.”
The Woojer team wanted to make sure users could experience feeling sound in a variety of ways, so they created two models: the Strap Edge and the Vest Edge. “We’ve rigged this series with CSR APTX low-latency Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and Texas Instruments built in analog headphone amplifier,” say the designers. “We played around a bit with the arrangement of the transducers, improved the Osci, and kept the incredible sensation to ensure that the Woojer Edge Series is for everybody.”
Perfect for listening to music or working out, the Strap Edge is designed to be worn on the go, around your hips, on your chest, or cross-body. The Vest Edge covers the wearer’s torso, providing an even more powerful experience. “The Vest Edge gives you 360 degrees of immersion, delivering accurate and detailed sensations that’ll raise your pulse,” say Woojer. “It’s got out-of-the-box stereo haptics, and is the perfect companion for at-home gaming and VR. If you’re a music pro, this’ll pump the low-frequencies through your body as it engages you in a unique and mesmerizing audio experience.”
You can find out even more about the Woojer Edge project—as well as support and get your own—on Kickstarter.
Introducing the Woojer Edge series: A wearable strap and vest designed to enhance the experience of listening to music, gaming, or watching a movie by allowing you to feel sound.
The Woojer team have developed an “Oscillating Frame” that accurately reproduces frequencies as physical vibrations.
The Strap Edge is designed to be worn on the go, around your hips, on your chest, or cross-body.
The Vest Edge covers the wearer’s torso, providing an even more powerful experience.
so easy; to make fun of the internet poets and the webcomic artists and the fanfiction authors
i hear a man snorting into his beer about it on a tuesday night. i am waiting to pick up my boss’s dinner. i am waiting to go home to my own empty fridge. “that’s not real,” he says. “anybody can do that shit.”
once, i saw a description of modern art as “i could do that + yeah but you didn’t.”
so easy to sneer at self-published. at etsy store. at youtube singer. so often i see posts: “it’s not poetry because you hit enter”. “graffiti is vandalism, though.” “i don’t think that’s real music.”
i understand, you know. the desire to make it seem small. how easy to package art and never open it. to blame ribs or galaxies or whatever other internet trend. it is safer to live under the rock than to burn in the sun above it. i picture a life of poems they never copied out of their journals.
i understand. i laugh at my own work, but i will not cringe. it is worth it to love something so much - to love writing. it is worth it, you know. to be crushed, time and time again. it is worth it for exactly one moment:
i get a note from a young kid. “thank you for this. it helped me keep going.”
Patternless?? Jeez, some people are ridiculously skilled.
Stephanie Porkorny is a master of the crochet hook. Every year, she asks her kids to choose what they will dress up as for Halloween. This year, Jake chose the xenomorph from the Alien franchise.
45 hours of work later, the boy is ready to hunt for prey. The entire project was done freehand with no patterns. The green-tinted yarn is glow-in-the-dark, which will be especially terrifyingly adorable on Halloween night.
Fabulous illustrations of various harajuku genres of fashion and a breakdown of some older American fashion trends for teenagers (not adults) that evolves into a surprisingly lengthy discussion on aging and attention that ends on an upbeat note with some fab older women fashion icons.
It's natural for adolescents to rebel against their parents and try to find ways to relate to their peer group instead. An easy way to do that is through fashion, as folks inevitably find out when their children begin choosing their own clothing. Artist Myfanwy Tristram was puzzled by her 14-year-old daughter's look, but not exactly shocked. After all, she herself was a rebellious teenager once. A goth, in fact.
Fine: I’m proud of this fierce individual that appears to have inherited my own peacock inclinations. Not so fine: I find myself envious that she has a period of wild experimentation ahead of her — and a figure that means she fits into pretty much every thrift store find.
So, uncomfortable with this disagreeable feeling, and at risk of falling into the parental cliché of “you’re not going out dressed like that!” I realize that there’s just one thing to do. I need to try and understand more about where the crazy looks are coming from. Instead of sighing heavily at the mess and fruitlessly asking, once again, for her to just try and keep it in check, I sit down and ask her to give me a beginner’s guide to her style. She is delighted to assist.
Trendy teen looks in the 21st century have a twist: instead of being spread by the fashion industry, they owe more to peer influence from around the globe via internet. Read Tristram's findings as her daughter explains where her style comes from, and how it contrasts with her mother's experiences, in a delightfully-illustrated chronicle at Longreads. -via Metafilter
Wow, those are some seriously beautiful men in awesomely elaborate costumes, and really good photos of same. Definitely click on the link to the gallery https://imgur.com/a/x31uAtm
Thursday night was the annual Mister Global competition in Thailand. The 2019 winner of the male beauty pageant was Kim Jong-woo of South Korea. If you have an hour, you can see the entire competition, including the swimsuit stroll, on video.
Or you can see all the contestants in portraits of their national costumes in a gallery at imgur. Although some appear a bit over-the-top, they do not approach the levels of the Miss Universe national costumes, and each contestant paid a lot of attention to representing their nation's culture. Well, except for the guy from the USA. -via Metafilter
Japanese artist Atsuko Yukawa runs a small studio called Trill where she primarily spends her time illustrating birds. But recently, in her spare time, she’s been experimenting with simple wire sculptures. At first sight they don’t seem like much, but that’s because they’ve been designed for a very specific purpose: to be carefully balanced on […]
When you look at statues, sculptures, or paintings of people, you can't help but wonder how they must have looked like when they were alive or if they were flesh and blood. Through the hyperrealistic works of Joongwon Jeong, you will be able to see some of these classical art come to life.
Joongwon Jeong is a Korean painter and a freelance illustrator who specializes in hyperrealism. This time the artist took inspiration from some classical pieces of art and recreated them as hyperrealistic portraits that almost look like photographs.
Gwen: What is this thing? I mean, it serves no useful purpose for there to be a bunch of chompy, crushy things in the middle of a hallway. No, I mean we shouldn't have to do this, it makes no logical sense, why is it here? Jason: 'Cause it's on the television show. Gwen: Well screw that! I'm not doing it! This episode was badly written! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqVqxWU-Itg
Mary was a beautiful baby, sweet and affectionate, but by the time she’s three she’s turned difficult and strange, with fey moods and a stubborn mouth that screams and bites but never says mama. But her mother’s well-used to hard work with little thanks, and when the village gossips wag their tongues she just shrugs, and pulls her difficult child away from their precious, perfect blossoms, before the bites draw blood. Mary’s mother doesn’t drown her in a bucket of saltwater, and she doesn’t take up the silver knife the wife of the village priest leaves out for her one Sunday brunch.
She gives her daughter yarn, instead, and instead of a rowan stake through her inhuman heart she gives her a child’s first loom, oak and ash. She lets her vicious, uncooperative fairy daughter entertain herself with games of her own devising, in as much peace and comfort as either of them can manage.
Mary grows up strangely, as a strange child would, learning everything in all the wrong order, and biting a great deal more than she should. But she also learns to weave, and takes to it with a grand passion. Soon enough she knows more than her mother–which isn’t all that much–and is striking out into unknown territory, turning out odd new knots and weaves, patterns as complex as spiderwebs and spellrings.
“Aren’t you clever,” her mother says, of her work, and leaves her to her wool and flax and whatnot. Mary’s not biting anymore, and she smiles more than she frowns, and that’s about as much, her mother figures, as anyone should hope for from their child.
Mary still cries sometimes, when the other girls reject her for her strange graces, her odd slow way of talking, her restless reaching fluttering hands that have learned to spin but never to settle. The other girls call her freak, witchblood, hobgoblin.
“I don’t remember girls being quite so stupid when I was that age,” her mother says, brushing Mary’s hair smooth and steady like they’ve both learned to enjoy, smooth as a skein of silk. “Time was, you knew not to insult anyone you might need to flatter later. ‘Specially when you don’t know if they’re going to grow wings or horns or whatnot. Serve ‘em all right if you ever figure out curses.”
“I want to go back,” Mary says. “I want to go home, to where I came from, where there’s people like me. If I’m a fairy’s child I should be in fairyland, and no one would call me a freak.”
“Aye, well, I’d miss you though,” her mother says. “And I expect there’s stupid folk everywhere, even in fairyland. Cruel folk, too. You just have to make the best of things where you are, being my child instead.”
Mary learns to read well enough, in between the weaving, especially when her mother tracks down the traveling booktraders and comes home with slim, precious manuals on dyes and stains and mordants, on pigments and patterns, diagrams too arcane for her own eyes but which make her daughter’s eyes shine.
“We need an herb garden,” her daughter says, hands busy, flipping from page to page, pulling on her hair, twisting in her skirt, itching for a project. “Yarrow, and madder, and woad and weld…”
“Well, start digging,” her mother says. “Won’t do you a harm to get out of the house now’n then.”
Mary doesn’t like dirt but she’s learned determination well enough from her mother. She digs and digs, and plants what she’s given, and the first year doesn’t turn out so well but the second’s better, and by the third a cauldron’s always simmering something over the fire, and Mary’s taking in orders from girls five years older or more, turning out vivid bolts and spools and skeins of red and gold and blue, restless fingers dancing like they’ve summoned down the rainbow. Her mother figures she probably has.
“Just as well you never got the hang of curses,” she says, admiring her bright new skirts. “I like this sort of trick a lot better.”
Mary smiles, rocking back and forth on her heels, fingers already fluttering to find the next project.
She finally grows up tall and fair, if a bit stooped and squinty, and time and age seem to calm her unhappy mouth about as well as it does for human children. Word gets around she never lies or breaks a bargain, and if the first seems odd for a fairy’s child then the second one seems fit enough. The undyed stacks of taken orders grow taller, the dyed lots of filled orders grow brighter, the loom in the corner for Mary’s own creations grows stranger and more complex. Mary’s hands callus just like her mother’s, become as strong and tough and smooth as the oak and ash of her needles and frames, though they never fall still.
“Do you ever wonder what your real daughter would be like?” the priest’s wife asks, once.
Mary’s mother snorts. “She wouldn’t be worth a damn at weaving,” she says. “Lord knows I never was. No, I’ll keep what I’ve been given and thank the givers kindly. It was a fair enough trade for me. Good day, ma’am.”
Mary brings her mother sweet chamomile tea, that night, and a warm shawl in all the colors of a garden, and a hairbrush. In the morning, the priest’s son comes round, with payment for his mother’s pretty new dress and a shy smile just for Mary. He thinks her hair is nice, and her hands are even nicer, vibrant in their strength and skill and endless motion.
They all live happily ever after.
*
Here’s another story:
Gregor grew fast, even for a boy, grew tall and big and healthy and began shoving his older siblings around early. He was blunt and strange and flew into rages over odd things, over the taste of his porridge or the scratch of his shirt, over the sound of rain hammering on the roof, over being touched when he didn’t expect it and sometimes even when he did. He never wore shoes if he could help it and he could tell you the number of nails in the floorboards without looking, and his favorite thing was to sit in the pantry and run his hands through the bags of dry barley and corn and oat. Considering as how he had fists like a young ox by the time he was five, his family left him to it.
“He’s a changeling,” his father said to his wife, expecting an argument, but men are often the last to know anything about their children, and his wife only shrugged and nodded, like the matter was already settled, and that was that.
They didn’t bind Gregor in iron and leave him in the woods for his own kind to take back. They didn’t dig him a grave and load him into it early. They worked out what made Gregor angry, in much the same way they figured out the personal constellations of emotion for each of their other sons, and when spring came, Gregor’s father taught him about sprouts, and when autumn came, Gregor’s father taught him about sheaves. Meanwhile his mother didn’t mind his quiet company around the house, the way he always knew where she’d left the kettle, or the mending, because she was forgetful and he never missed a detail.
“Pity you’re not a girl, you’d never drop a stitch of knitting,” she tells Gregor, in the winter, watching him shell peas. His brothers wrestle and yell before the hearth fire, but her fairy child just works quietly, turning peas by their threes and fours into the bowl.
“You know exactly how many you’ve got there, don’t you?” she says.
“Six hundred and thirteen,” he says, in his quiet, precise way.
His mother says “Very good,” and never says Pity you’re not human. He smiles just like one, if not for quite the same reasons.
The next autumn he’s seven, a lucky number that pleases him immensely, and his father takes him along to the mill with the grain.
“What you got there?” The miller asks them.
“Sixty measures of Prince barley, thirty two measures of Hare’s Ear corn, and eighteen of Abernathy Blue Slate oats,” Gregor says. “Total weight is three hundred fifty pounds, or near enough. Our horse is named Madam. The wagon doesn’t have a name. I’m Gregor.”
“My son,” his father says. “The changeling one.”
“Bit sharper’n your others, ain’t he?” the miller says, and his father laughs.
Gregor feels proud and excited and shy, and it dries up all his words, sticks them in his throat. The mill is overwhelming, but the miller is kind, and tells him the name of each and every part when he points at it, and the names of all the grain in all the bags waiting for him to get to them.
“Didn’t know the fair folk were much for machinery,” the miller says.
Gregor shrugs. “I like seeds,” he says, each word shelled out with careful concentration. “And names. And numbers.”
“Aye, well. Suppose that’d do it. Want t’help me load up the grist?”
They leave the grain with the miller, who tells Gregor’s father to bring him back ‘round when he comes to pick up the cornflour and cracked barley and rolled oats. Gregor falls asleep in the nameless wagon on the way back, and when he wakes up he goes right back to the pantry, where the rest of the seeds are left, and he runs his hands through the shifting, soothing textures and thinks about turning wheels, about windspeed and counterweights.
When he’s twelve–another lucky number–he goes to live in the mill with the miller, and he never leaves, and he lives happily ever after.
*
Here’s another:
James is a small boy who likes animals much more than people, which doesn’t bother his parents overmuch, as someone needs to watch the sheep and make the sheepdogs mind. James learns the whistles and calls along with the lambs and puppies, and by the time he’s six he’s out all day, tending to the flock. His dad gives him a knife and his mom gives him a knapsack, and the sheepdogs give him doggy kisses and the sheep don’t give him too much trouble, considering.
“It’s not right for a boy to have so few complaints,” his mother says, once, when he’s about eight.
“Probably ain’t right for his parents to have so few complaints about their boy, neither,” his dad says.
That’s about the end of it. James’ parents aren’t very talkative, either. They live the routines of a farm, up at dawn and down by dusk, clucking softly to the chickens and calling harshly to the goats, and James grows up slow but happy.
When James is eleven, he’s sent to school, because he’s going to be a man and a man should know his numbers. He gets in fights for the first time in his life, unused to peers with two legs and loud mouths and quick fists. He doesn’t like the feel of slate and chalk against his fingers, or the harsh bite of a wooden bench against his legs. He doesn’t like the rules: rules for math, rules for meals, rules for sitting down and speaking when you’re spoken to and wearing shoes all day and sitting under a low ceiling in a crowded room with no sheep or sheepdogs. Not even a puppy.
But his teacher is a good woman, patient and experienced, and James isn’t the first miserable, rocking, kicking, crying lost lamb ever handed into her care. She herds the other boys away from him, when she can, and lets him sit in the corner by the door, and have a soft rag to hold his slate and chalk with, so they don’t gnaw so dryly at his fingers. James learns his numbers well enough, eventually, but he also learns with the abruptness of any lamb taking their first few steps–tottering straight into a gallop–to read.
Familiar with the sort of things a strange boy needs to know, his teacher gives him myths and legends and fairytales, and steps back. James reads about Arthur and Morgana, about Hercules and Odysseus, about djinni and banshee and brownies and bargains and quests and how sometimes, something that looks human is left to try and stumble along in the humans’ world, step by uncertain step, as best they can.
James never comes to enjoy writing. He learns to talk, instead, full tilt, a leaping joyous gambol, and after a time no one wants to hit him anymore. The other boys sit next to him, instead, with their mouths closed, and their hands quiet on their knees.
“Let’s hear from James,” the men at the alehouse say, years later, when he’s become a man who still spends more time with sheep than anyone else, but who always comes back into town with something grand waiting for his friends on his tongue. “What’ve you got for us tonight, eh?”
James finishes his pint, and stands up, and says, “Here’s a story about changelings.”
Ever think about where you would have ended up in a movie as a character? For me, I’ve always known that I’d never be the “romantic lead” or a character that had her s … tuff together. I’d basically always be Zooey Deschanel characters, and that’s not okay with me. Yet again, when does Hollywood care about actual character growth?
So, many of us on Twitter took to sharing our own stress over who we would be as a character in a movie, and honestly, the results are hilarious—while also being extremely frustrating, because who really acts like a male or female romantic lead in a movie? Are any of us Matthew McConaughey? Is Matthew McConaughey even Matthew McConaughey?
The thread goes on and on, but to be fair, this is a great look at how many of us would play out in a movie. We’re all just reading ourselves.
Hello, I’m a professor in a movie, I only reach the main point of my lecture right as class is ending. Then I yell at students about the reading / homework as they leave.
Hi, I’m a black guy in I movie. If I’m not a gang member, drug dealer, drug-dealing gang member, or star athlete with a troubled background, then I’m a secondary character with street smarts, the comic relief with street smarts, or Will Smith. I’m very likely to die. https://t.co/dquXtCUgKm
Hi, I’m an N.Y.P.D. Firefighter in a movie. I don’t need Breathing Apparatus when I go into an atmosphere that would kill with a couple of Breaths. We always rescue a dame, a puppy or our brother, while the skyline explodes behind us. https://t.co/MwFxKSbKDn
Hi, I’m a bar manager in a movie. I inexplicably clean the bar counter with a glass cloth, I can always hear what the customer is ordering despite it being 5 deep and nobody ever orders a Guinness. https://t.co/wOu9Bszs7T
Hi I’m a woman in a movie. I have perfect hair and make up even when I’m in a perilous situation. I have amazing sex without looking ugly or removing my bra and the leading man’s shirt always fits me like haute couture in the morning https://t.co/rEHkhaFMTW
Hi I’m a mentally ill woman in a movie. My mental illness will never be fully explained but it’ll always be the reason I kill / haunt / stalk your non-mentally ill protagonist xxx https://t.co/UbroQWgeEk
Hi, I’m a disabled woman in a movie. I rarely exist, AT ALL. But when I do, I’m almost never an actual character. I exist purely for the benefit of abled characters & to make audiences feel “inspired”. Most disabled ppl in movies are “fakers” or make miraculous recoveries 🙄 https://t.co/iXlAmtx4yr
👋🏻 I’m a fat person in a movie. I’m the comic relief, usually entirely self-hating. My redemption comes in the form of before/after and weight loss storylines. I’m usually played by thin women in fat suits. https://t.co/1wUeXSKHkx
I’m the fat Black girl in a movie. With no storyline of my own. I’m funny. I’m also here to inspire “confidence” in the skinny [YT] protagonist. To tell them to love themselves before anyone else. Maybe I’ll throw in a neck roll for good measure & a “girlfriend!” on top of that. https://t.co/0pfqnizMAl
I’m the quirky girl in a movie. I wear band t-shirts and read books while wearing Harry Potter glasses. I may end up with the male lead’s nerdy best friend or I have no purpose other than to give advice to the female protagonist, this is my destiny. https://t.co/YezX7m9B3J
So, who are you? Are you the quirky best friend, the romantic lead who has no character traits aside from being in love, or something not even a cliché? Let us know your defining film characteristics in the comments!
Aww these have a charming Eeyore quality that I like a lot.
Attracted to the stories that walls tell, British street artist Hayley Welsh enjoys engaging in public space and adding her own artistic flair to the environment. By playing with the textures and features of these walls, she creates a surreal world filled with imaginary characters. These approachable, yet dark, creatures resemble familiar animals, but with a unique twist.
Mainly painted in black and white, Welsh’s creatures were initially more timid and bird-like, but over time have envolved into curious creatures more akin to bears or rabbits. “Each creature usually comes from a conversation I’m having with myself,” Welsh tells My Modern Met. “A voice inside, like an inner child or conscience, with a wisdom of what really matters. I guess they’re like a guide for ‘how to adult’ in today’s world.”
In many cases, Welsh’s cast of characters are accompanied by uplifting phrases like “Life is Short, Let’s Make It Sweet” or “Be Happy in This Moment.” These motivational words of encouragement push spectators to be a bit more thoughtful, and kind, as they walk through the world. The words also act as words of wisdom for these creatures, which Welsh views as figures who have lost their way and are trying to get back home.
In the end, Welsh isn’t concerned about the message that others take away from her work, as long as they’re moved. “People will either love it or hate it. I guess as long as my art has made one person feel something, then I’d be happy and if they could take anything away, then my one wish is that it would be ‘hope.’ ”
Hayley Welsh decorates walls around the world with her surreal, melancholy creatures.
She sees them as beings that have lost their way and are looking for the path home.
Welsh’s street art murals often incorporate uplifting and inspiring messages of hope.
Danish recycling artist Thomas Dambo is known for his incredible outdoor sculptures that depict huge, mythical trolls. For his latest project, he was commissioned by Tomorrowland Festival to transform De Schorre park in Boom, Belgium into an enchanting forest that seven of his “friendly giants” have claimed as their home.
The new installation of wooden sculptures is part of the 15th anniversary of the electronic festival as a gift to the local community. Hand-built from old shelves from a supermarket, pallets, and branches from fallen trees, Dambo had the help of over 200 people to collect the materials needed to craft his new cast of creatures. The characters range from 7 to 18 meters long and it took Dambo and his crew of 15 people around 25 weeks to build them. The various wooden figures can be found dotted throughout the forest—some appear to be busy doing chores, while others are taking it easy after a hard day’s work.
“Since I was a child I always loved to hear different fairytales and folklore stories, and dream myself away into magical worlds filled with dragons and trolls,” reveals Dambo. “As a teenager I started writing my own stories as a rapper, putting out records, touring and creating a universe, where I could tell these stories. In my latest project, I combined all of the above. Recycling, Rapping, Nature, and Sculptures.”
Dambo’s 7 Trolls and The Magical Tower installation tells an enchanting fairytale, where seven giant trolls invite the “little people” of the world to their peaceful life in the forest, away from human destruction. “I hope to lure people away from concrete cities and computer screens, into the wild and reconnect them with the natural world,” he says. “I build all my enormous sculptures of recycled materials to show the potential in this precious material, which is often discarded and becomes a threat to the natural world.”
Check out photos of the 7 Trolls and The Magical Tower installation below and see more of Dambo’s work on his website.
Recycling artist Thomas Dambo was recently commissioned by Tomorrowland Festival to install 7 of his friendly trolls in De Schorre park in Boom, Belgium.
The incredible outdoor sculptures are hand-built from old shelves, pallets, and branches from fallen trees.
Dambo not only crafted his colossal sculptures by hand, but he also wrapped the entire story in this heartwarming video.
I am delighted by the mental image of the snail pipe with a plume of smoke puffing out of it.
Arcangelo Ambrosi is an Italian woodworker who specializes in handcrafted smoking pipes. Each one is a whimsical work of art. Simple pieces of wood become fantastic beasts at play and work. For Ambrosi, the pipe "is an object that I’ve always loved and I’ve found it to be a wonderful means of expression."
From early neanderthals to modern day humans, we have come a long way from the dawn of civilization. People have not only developed emotionally and intellectually, but our facial structures have also changed over time. When you look in the mirror, the face you see is the result of millions of years of evolution. This is what inspired Swedish sculptor and archaeologist Oscar Nilsson to hand-sculpt a series of faces using excavated bones as a reference.
The reconstruction sculptures depict people throughout history, and give us fascinating insight into how those people looked at the time. “By using this forensic technique, it makes it possible to see what an individual looked like, even though there are thousands of years between us,” Nilsson tells My Modern Met. “It’s a way to make history more intimate, emotional, and personal, and a way to feel closer to the individuals.”
Using a combination of scientific research and artistic skill, Nilsson based each sculpture on real bone remains he found during archaeological excavations. He explains, “The technique is based on both measurements of the tissue depth of the face, and the rebuilding of the facial muscles.” Each incredibly realistic sculpture reveals an amazing amount of detail, including bone structure, facial hair, and even wrinkles.
In one piece, Nilsson recreated the bust of a young Greek girl who lived 9,000 years ago, during the Mesolithic era (around 7,000 BCE). Featuring a protruding jaw and a scowling expression, her striking appearance gives some insight into what life was like at the tough time she lived. Her strong jaw is thought to be caused by chewing on animal skin to make it into soft leather—a common practice among people of that era. “Having reconstructed a lot of Stone Age women and men,” says Nilsson. “I think some facial features seem to have disappeared or ‘smoothed out’ with time.”
With help from a team of specialized craftsmen and scientists, Nilsson provides his historical people sculptures to museums worldwide. You can find out even more about his fascinating work on his website.
Swedish sculptor and archaeologist Oscar Nilsson hand-sculpts the faces of historical people using excavated bones as a reference.
Adelasius Elbachus, VIII century AD
Estrid Sigfastsdotter, XI century AD
Each piece gives us fascinating insight into how people looked at the time.
A young woman who lived during the Stone Age about 5,500 years ago
British man from the Saxon era
Birger Jarl, ruler of Sweden from 1248 until his death on October 1, 1266
Neanderthal woman
Swedish viking, XI century
British man from the Iron Age
A teenage girl from the Mesolithic era
Woman of Romano-British descent
A man who lived about 3,700 years ago during the Bronze Age
Mitten crabs strutted their very best form in Eastern China’s Hongze Lake Harvest Festival. The crab fashion show, where at least 150 participants joined is actually a 70-year old Huai’an tradition to celebrate the harvest of mitten crabs.
Some strutted on the runway decked with bling, some in traditional chinese wedding garments, some are dressed to match to their owners, and some are hand-painted. A new addition and development to this 70-year old tradition was that a drone now flew the models / contestants to the runway.
2019 will be remembered as the year that fanfiction mothership Archive of Our Ownwon a Hugo Award. If you have ever contributed a fanwork to the site, you’re a part of this.
Many talented people won at the 2019 Hugos at WorldCon in Dublin. Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars won for Best Novel; Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers won Best Series; Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won for Best Dramatic long form presentation, and The Good Place for short form; the iconic Charles Vess waltzed off with Best Artist; my old editors Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders scored Best Fancast for their podcast Our Opinions Are Correct; Jeannette Ng won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and promptly launched into her speech by proclaiming that John Campbell was a fascist. (Here’s Ng’s speech.) It was, on the whole, a glorious night.
But what set Tumblr, Twitter, Discord, and text chats alight across the world was the news that Archive of Our Own won the Hugo for Best Related Fanwork. This was the Archive’s first time being nominated, news initially treated as somewhat contentious by those who still don’t want to try and understand the vital, ever-growing, incredibly rich and variegated culture of fan-created work. (Our friends at Uncanny Magazine, who walked away with the 2019 Hugo for Best Semiprozine, recently wrote a piece for The Mary Sue about why their magazine wouldn’t exist without fanfiction.)
Archive of Our Own’s win felt like a real victory for millions of us who write and create fanart, videos, podfic, meta essays, and more. It sure is nice to have that shiny rocket statue and acknowledgment from one of the most prestigious award-giving bodies in genre fiction that we are here and crafting wondrous things.
— Kelly Robson – Dublin WorldCon (@kellyoyo) August 18, 2019
Author Naomi Novik (also nominated for Best Novel for Spinning Silver that night), a founding member of Archive of Our Own, or “AO3,” accepted the award with a speech that meant a whole lot to a whole lot of us. Here’s the full text of Novik’s speech, via The Organization for Transformative Works, which oversees AO3:
All fanwork, from fanfic to vids to fanart to podfic, centers the idea that art happens not in isolation but in community. And that is true of the AO3 itself. We’re up here accepting, but only on behalf of literally thousands of volunteers and millions of users, all of whom have come together and built this thriving home for fandom, a nonprofit and non-commercial community space built entirely by volunteer labor and user donations, on the principle that we needed a place of our own that was not out to exploit its users but to serve them.
Even if I listed every founder, every builder, every tireless support staff member and translator and tag wrangler, if I named every last donor, all our hard work and contributions would mean nothing without the work of the fan creators who share their work freely with other fans, and the fans who read their stories and view their art and comment and share bookmarks and give kudos to encourage them and nourish the community in their turn.
This Hugo will be joining the traveling exhibition that goes to each Worldcon, because it belongs to all of us. I would like to ask that we raise the lights and for all of you who feel a part of our community stand up for a moment and share in this with us.
In recent years, fanfiction has become more mainstream in a way that would have astounded me when I first started reading and writing it as a teenager. AO3’s ascendance is a large part of this seachange. Creatives and stars address fic on social media and at conventions. Previous opponents have retracted their stance; I even heard Anne Rice, the oldest foe, say at NYCC that while she couldn’t read fic of her work for legal reasons, she was no longer against it. More and more published authors of “original” fiction are now proudly stating that they came out of fanfiction; many published “original” works these days are adapted from stories first shared on sites like AO3 and Wattpad. Acclaimed figures like Novik continue to write fanfiction and produce fanworks alongside their other work. I’ve been a guest at Novik’s yearly Yuletide fic-writing party, a joyous celebration of people rushing to finish their prompts before time runs out, around sips of holiday punch.
If you’re the sort who likes to insist that you don’t understand fanworks and won’t have any part in them, that’s fine. I’m not here to convince you. There are dozens of articles on the merits of participating in a vibrant, diverse community of fellow fans and creators working for ourselves. Today I’m here to celebrate the accomplishment of AO3, its thousands of volunteers who wrangle every corner of it into order, and the millions of people whose love and creative energy contributed to the makings of a site that is now award-winning. There are a lot of us—the Worldcon auditorium alone proved it.
Best Related Work is… unsurprisingly… Archive of Our Own!! “Art happens not in isolation, but in community”, and what a great tribute to that this is! They raise the lights and ask community members to share this win with them!#Dublin2019#Worldcon2019#Worldcon#HugoAwardspic.twitter.com/ZrXvO2Estr
— Ruth EJ Booth (she/her) at #Dublin2019 #Worldcon (@RuthEJBooth) August 18, 2019
Also Naomi Novik asked everyone who felt like a part of the Ao3 community to stand up and said it was our award too and there were so many of us and it was very emotional.
CONGRATS to Archive of Our Own for winning a Hugo Award! Exciting & well deserved! I wrote this @Slate piece after the nom about how this recognition is a triumph for both diversity in science fiction AND diversity in technology development. #HugoAwardshttps://t.co/FcbrGEu5ml
So, congratulations to all the people who have written, who have read, who have favorited, who have commented, who have written the code, who built out the tags, who advocate, who share, who believe.
Make no mistake about it, this is a big deal, not just to those of us excitedly texting each other that we plan to add “Hugo Award Winner” to our bios. As Aja Romano at Vox notes in an essay on AO3’s win and its founding history, “Hugo members have never nominated unpublished fanfiction before. But now the Hugo voters have sent the emphatic message that not only does an entire fanfiction archive constitute a single ‘related work,’ but that work is worthy of standing alongside some of the most renowned sci-fi/fantasy authors around.”
AO3’s Hugo Award is a triumph for fandom and a well-deserved recognition of the hard work that goes into every element of maintaining and forwarding an inclusive, non-profit, entirely for-fans-by-fans space. There’s never been anything like AO3 before, and this award will only help it continue to grow and expand. More than five million stories and fanworks have been published on Archive of Our Own since its founding in 2009. Only imagine where we’ll be in 2029; I for one can’t wait for the holodeck version of 2329.
darcy doesn’t sing a single note even during conversations where everyone else is singing at him that is until the argument following his first attempt at proposing to lizzy where you can see his restraint fall away
his first big solo is the letter he writes her
gelsey bell is mary and the unofficial narrator and she sits down at her piano to describe whats going on but before she can ever reveal her feelings on the matter, starting with that gelsey bell scream, mr bennet comes over and does the whole ‘that’s nice dear but give someone else a turn’
mr wickham has this huge ballad about how darcy ruined his life and its super melodramatic and touching
mr collins proposal to lizzy is an absolute bop that he gets so into he forgets for a moment what he’s doing he’s just owning the stage
wickham has a song where he’s trying to seduce lydia but she’s not even listening she’s just monologuing about how excited she is to get laid
during darcy’s second proposal he keeps hesitating waiting for lizzy to interrupt him like she has done every time before but she doesn’t say anything until he’s finished
at the end mary sits down at the piano and right where she’d usually be interrupted, kitty joins her and harmonises
jane and bingley have the adorable upbeat romantic duet which is just them being super polite like ‘oh so nice to have you here’ ‘so nice to be here’ interspersed with their inner monologue which is just them being like fucking jesus I’m so in love
the bingley sisters probably have a really cool mean solo
lady catherine has this terrifying disney villain song in the garden
Victo Ngai is a New York based illustrator from Hong Kong, who graduated from Rhode Island School of Design majoring in illustration. Victo is not a boy nor a typo but a nick-name from “Victoria”- a leftover from the British colonization.
Apart from being a Forbes 30 Under (Art and Style) honoree and a Society of Illustrators NY Gold Medalist, her work has received recognition from the New York Times, Communication Arts, American Illustration, Spectrum, SOI NY, SILA, 3X3, Applied Arts and CMYK mag, Digital Artist UK and many more.
Prior to Momofuku Ando releasing his revolutionary Cup Noodle into the world in 1971, he went on a fact-finding mission to America. There, he saw Americans taking his previous invention, the chicken noodle, breaking it in half, putting it in a cup instead of a bowl and eating it with a fork instead of chopsticks. […]
Stephanie Pokorny: Website | Facebook | Instagram
(Image credit: Mister Global)
Japanese artist Atsuko Yukawa runs a small studio called Trill where she primarily spends her time illustrating birds. But recently, in her spare time, she’s been experimenting with simple wire sculptures. At first sight they don’t seem like much, but that’s because they’ve been designed for a very specific purpose: to be carefully balanced on […]
