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Accendo Press Pet News
All the news you need to know about pets
Your Dog Can Also Suffer From Anxiety
By Accendo Press on Jul 15, 2014 in Dogs
Continuous barking, destructive behavior, drooling and tremors are some of the symptoms.
Spending too much time alone, visiting strangers, the sound of some appliances, thunder or sirens and even renovations in the house can get your dog really nervous and keep your dog in a state of anxiety.
“Detecting the origin of anxiety is the first step to the cure of the animal, since in most cases is not due to a single factor, but rather the sum of many,” said Edgar Gutierrez, director of the Veterinary Clinic La Salle University.
Separation anxiety is the most common cause, especially when the animal spends a lot of time alone. In these cases, they often take on destructive behavior. “For this separation, the pet does not know what to do and starts to do damage, like biting the furniture, scratching the doors or smashing something. They may also have compulsive licking, which even break the skin, “says Nancy Margarita Alarcón veterinary medical specialist in homeopathy and acupuncture.
Other pets may become nervous from certain noises, which can range from thunder, shots, explosions, alarms and other sounds being emitted by the vacuum cleaner, blender or hair dryer. In such situations, the behavior is usually run and / or hide in a place where they feel safer. The danger sometimes is that with an uncontrolled escape type of run, the dog could jump out of a window or even go through it.
There is also the possibility of social anxiety. The pet panics with other people, because the pet was not properly socialized or handled with other people at an early age. When the pet is confronted by one or many people together, it can feel trapped and cornered, and thus either react aggressively or become retracted. In these type of situations, cats usually respond more by trying to hide, may become aggressive or stop eating.
Many of these situations can be controlled. “If you were to do a behavioral modification, you can modified he pets reaction to a noise, such as hammering, by having the dog become familiar the noise,” advises Gutierrez.
Some symptoms to look for:
Continuous barking.
Destructive behavior.
Scratches on doors and furniture.
Tendency to escape.
Drooling.
Tremors.
Tendency to hide.
Urination and defecation in unusual places.
Attitudes of aggression.
It can cause skin lesions by continuous licking (self-mutilation).
Hyperactivity.
Low appetite.
If you pet has any of the above, your veterinarian can help you and instruct you further. Behavioral modification is the best course of therapy, but drug therapy and in extreme cases, veterinarians can try massage, homeopathy and acupuncture.
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You are here: Home / Archives for alt.religion.scientology
Jesse Prince: One-time Second in Command of Scientology Speaks (August 24, 2000)
August 24, 2000 by Clerk1
24 Aug 20001
“Jesse Prince” <jesseprince@lisatrust.net>
Originally, my “Tales from the Cult” response was part of a thread started by some brainwashed Scientologist. I have made it a separate post so that it can be seen by more people. The original message is at the end of my tale. The first line of the original post began with:
So what’s next for Jesse?
Here is what’s next. It’s time for TALES FROM THE CULT. Listen carefully.
There was once a fellow named John Nelson who at one time was the top executive in the ever changing quagmire of false corporations within Scientology. His post title was Commanding Officer, Commodore Messenger Organization International, the year in question was 1983. It was during this time period that Hubbard was informed by the high priced lawyers (of course paid for by your donations) Lenske Lenske and Heller that he would no longer be able to send his “urgent” orders into any Scientology corporation like he was use to doing because it endangered Scientology’s chance at getting it’s 501 C3 tax exempt status.
Hubbard went into a complete rage and decided he no longer cared what happened in Scientology because he felt Scientology was being taken away from him. Hubbard considered everyone, especially Miss Cabbage of being against him and the majority of the executives over the fake Scientology corporations were removed. John Nelson was just one of the casualties of Hubbard’s rant and he was removed from his position of power.
There is so much I could say about what happened at that time, and I surely will another time. Suffice to say, John ended up leaving the Sea Org and joined David Mayo who started many groups called AAC or Advanced Ability Centers. The AAC offered the full range of Scientology services at a greatly reduced price without the insanity of heavy ethics. Many Scientologist flocked to the AAC and reported they were having more wins and gains with David Mayo than they ever had in Scientology.
To say the least, this was very disturbing to Hubbard, who by now was on the down swing of his manic depression. Hubbard ordered Miss Cabbage to get Mayo and Nelson thrown in jail by whatever means because they were a horrible embarrassment to Scientology. Ultimately, it became my job to get them put in jail.
Many intelligence operations were run on Mayo, Nelson and his groups. There was no lack of people to run the operations because contrary to the party line of “The Guardians Office was criminal and gotten rid of…”, many of the people that were in the old GO were now part of a new forming organization called Office of Special Affairs.
Again, this story is about John Nelson. Rick Aznaran, Chief of Security for Miss Cabbage’s new International Management ran an operation on John Nelson that nearly cost John his life. John was traveling in Hong Kong on business. Unbeknownst to John, Rick Aznaran and a newly hired private investigator were watching Johns every move.
Rick and his PI had very high end bugging devices as well as the standard breaking and entering tools. The breaking and entering tools are fully described in Scientology sacred scriptures seized by US FBI agents when they raided Big Blue in 1977.
John had a hotel room in Hong Kong and at one point left to meet with business contacts. When John left his hotel room, Rick and his PI friend broke into Johns room and placed bugging devices in lamp stands and the telephone. Rick figured out how to handle the problem with John once and for all. In Hong Kong, if a person is caught with a large amount of heroin, the person caught gets the death sentence.
The PI with Rick called me from Hong Kong and told me that Rick had planted a large amount of heroin in John’s room. Rick was arranging for the Hong Kong police to raid John’s room because John was a drug dealer. The PI wanted to make sure I understood what was going on here and the PI wanted NOTHING to do with getting an innocent person framed and killed. The PI said he was on his way back to the states and Rick would have to do his dirty work alone.
I remember at the time being horrified that this could even be happening. I myself had been involved with Rick illegally bugging other people but never had we ever done anything to get anyone killed. I told Rick it was the wrong thing to do and to get his ass back home as fast as he could. Miss Cabbage was told what was happening and agreed Rick should come back home because too many people knew what the op was as I had already told many people about it.
Too many people knew about it. Too many people wanted nothing to do with it.
That is the level of morals and ethics you find in the criminal cult of Scientology.
So many people have left the Sea Org and Scientology because they found out what Scientology is really about. Oh you don’t know what it’s all about yet? Let me spell it out for you, it’s really very simple.Money, Power and Control through lies and deception.
I guess there was no one with honor left to protect me when my ticket came up to get set up. What do you think that means for you should you ever decided to start thinking for yourself?
Unlike you I have real friends now who know and see your cult for what it is and I promise you I will be okay.
The moral to the story is, where you are there are no morals. —
Jesse Prince
The Lisa McPherson Trust
Document source: https://web.archive.org/web/20020302091430/http://www.raids.org/gen00303.htm ↩
Filed Under: Other writings Tagged With: alt.religion.scientology, David Mayo, David Miscavige, Jesse Prince, John Nelson, L. Ron Hubbard, LMT, Rick Aznaran
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340-06. A beach in Demarest - Lloyd State Park, Dartmouth, Massachusetts, May 10, 2003
A beach in Demarest - Lloyd State Park, Dartmouth, Massachusetts, May 10, 2003
A beach in Demarest - Lloyd State Park. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, September 6, 2003
Beach sand ripples at Deepwater Pt. in Demarest - Lloyd Memorial State Park at low tide. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, November 13, 2003
Basin of Slocums River in Demarest - Lloyd State Park, Dartmouth, Massachusetts, May 10, 2003
Remains of a gull s lunch on a parking (not yet open) in Demarest - Lloyd State Park, Dartmouth, Massachusetts, May 10, 2003
Beach sand ripples at low tide in Demarest - Lloyd State Park. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, November 14, 2004
Giles Creek in Demarest - Lloyd State Park. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, November 14, 2004
A piping plover in Demarest - Lloyd State Park. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, June 15, 2004
A nesting piping plover in Demarest - Lloyd State Park. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, June 15, 2004
A nesting piping plover with eggs in Demarest - Lloyd State Park. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, June 15, 2004
Giles Creek and a salt marsh at the entrance of Demarest - Lloyd State Park. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, June 21, 2004
Floats on a fence of a private house in Little Beach of Buzzards Bay, near Allen s Pond in south Dartmouth. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, July 31, 2003
Little Beach near Allen s Pond. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, October 5, 2003
A fish on Horseneck Beach near Allen s Pond. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, September 18, 2003
Floats on a fence of a house on Little Beach near Allen s Pond. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, October 5, 2003
Algae on Little Beach of Buzzards Bay, near Allen s Pond in south Dartmouth. Massachusetts, April 20, 2003.
A plant in Little Beach of Buzzards Bay, near Allen s Pond in south Dartmouth. Massachusetts, April 13, 2003.
Fishing after sunset, near Allen s Pond, view from Little Beach. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, October 5, 2003
View from Little Beach, near Allen s Pond in south Dartmouth, at evening. Massachusetts, July 31, 2003
Seaweeds on Little Beach of Buzzards Bay, near Allen s Pond in south Dartmouth. Massachusetts, April 20, 2003.
Salt marshes of Slocums River near Lloyd Center for Environmental Studies. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, October 29, 2004
A fence of a house in Little Beach of Buzzards Bay, near Allen s Pond in south Dartmouth. Massachusetts, April 20, 2003.
Floats on a fence of a house in Little Beach of Buzzards Bay, near Allen s Pond in south Dartmouth. Massachusetts, April 13, 2003.
Codium fragile (Deadman s Fingers) on Little Beach of Buzzards Bay, near Allen s Pond in south Dartmouth. Massachusetts, April 20, 2003.
Shells (mostly Jingle Shells) collected on Little Beach in south Dartmouth 4/13/03. Massachusetts, May 1, 2003.
Fire-control installations at Gooseberry Point (Horseneck Beach State Park). Westport, Massachusetts, May 17, 2003
From Horseneck Road in Dartmouth. Massachusetts, May 26, 2003
Near Cedar Dell Lake in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, May 7, 2003
View from Lucy Little Road near UMass Dartmouth, Massachusetts, April 8, 2003.
A farm in Dartmouth, view from Horseneck Road. Massachusetts, November 23, 2003
Tower Road in UMass Dartmouth next day after a snowstorm. Massachusetts, March 7, 2003.
Forsythia in bloom near Cedar Dell Lake in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, May 7, 2003
Gooseberry Point at evening (Horseneck Beach State Reservation). Westport, Massachusetts, October 24, 2003
A forest between UMass Dartmouth and Cedar Dell Lake, Massachusetts, April 8, 2003.
Atlantic Ocean from Gooseberry Point at evening (Horseneck Beach State Reservation). Westport, Massachusetts, October 24, 2003
A dam on Paskamansett/Slocums River from Rock O Dundee Road in Russells Mills village. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, May 28, 2003
A dam in Russells Mills village, on Paskamansett River, view from Rock O Dundee Road. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, November 28, 2003
Horseneck Beach, from East Beach Road. Westport, Massachusetts, May 17, 2003
View from East Beach Road of Horseneck Beach. Westport, Massachusetts, July 31, 2003
Herring Gull near East Beach Road of Horseneck Beach. Westport, Massachusetts, July 31, 2003
A dam in Russells Mills village, on Paskamansett/Slocums River, view from Rock O Dundee Road. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, November 23, 2003
Battleship BB-59 USS Massachusetts and Braga Bridge from Fall River Heritage State Park at 4:32 p.m. Massachusetts, December 22, 2003
Battleship BB-59 USS Massachusetts and Braga Bridge from Fall River Heritage State Park at 4:49 p.m. Massachusetts, October 29, 2003
A road to parking lot No. 12 in UMass Dartmouth next day after a snowstorm, view from Tower Road. Massachusetts, March 7, 2003.
Tower Road, University library and Campanile Tower in UMass Dartmouth next day after a snowstorm. Massachusetts, March 7, 2003.
Ocean from a tip of Gooseberry Point (Horseneck Beach Park). Westport, Massachusetts, July 25, 2003
Ocean from Gooseberry Point (Horseneck Beach Park). Westport, Massachusetts, July 25, 2003
A marsh of Halfmoon Flat of Horseneck Channel, view from John Reed Road (Horseneck Beach State Reservation). Westport, Massachusetts, October 24, 2003
Vesa Nevalainen, David Z. Goodson and William Dills at annual Holiday Potluck Luncheon of Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry of UMassD, North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, December 17, 2003
Auto repair service(?) at State Road. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, March 19, 2004
Gerald B. Hammond, David Z. Goodson, Sapna Sharma, and researchers at annual Holiday Potluck Luncheon of Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry of UMassD, North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, December 17, 2003
Borges House and Garden Center at 611 State Road. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, March 19, 2004
Southern kelp (Laminaria saccharina)(?) on Gooseberry Point (Horseneck Beach Park). Westport, Massachusetts, July 25, 2003
Hobby shop and small engine service at State Road. Dartmouth, Massachusetts, March 19, 2004
Taunton River, battleship BB-59 USS Massachusetts and Braga Bridge from Fall River Heritage State Park at 4:44 p.m. Massachusetts, October 29, 2003
Horseneck Beach. Westport, Massachusetts, May 15, 2003
A beach near Acoaxet. Massachusetts, October 3, 2003
A beach in Acoaxet. Massachusetts, September 14, 2003
Horseneck Beach in Westport. Massachusetts, December 27, 2003
Horseneck Beach. Westport, Massachusetts, October 2, 2003
Gulls on a beach near Acoaxet. Massachusetts, October 3, 2003
Horseneck Beach in Westport at 3:45 p.m. Massachusetts, December 18, 2003
Horseneck Beach in Westport, at 4:11 p.m. Massachusetts, December 27, 2003
Dunes of Horseneck Beach. Westport, Massachusetts, May 15, 2003
A beach in Acoaxet at evening. Massachusetts, October 9, 2003
Horseneck Beach at evening. Massachusetts, August 28, 2003
Horseneck Beach, from a parking lot. Westport, Massachusetts, May 17, 2003
Cabins on Horseneck Beach. Westport, Massachusetts, May 15, 2003
Seaweeds on a beach near Acoaxet. Massachusetts, September 25, 2003
In Dighton Rock State Park, Massachusetts, May 10, 2003
Ray(?) fish on Horseneck Beach. Westport, Massachusetts, December 12, 2003
Cabins on Horseneck Beach in Westport, at 4:02 p.m. Massachusetts, December 27, 2003
Beach Street in Chinatown. Boston, Massachusetts, August 31, 2003
A beach west from Acoaxet at evening. Massachusetts, October 9, 2003
Horseneck Beach at evening. Westport, Massachusetts, June 6, 2003
Horseneck Beach at sunset (7:11 p.m.). Westport, Massachusetts, August 19, 2003
A shell on Horseneck Beach. Westport, Massachusetts, September 11, 2003
Dunes of Horseneck Beach near a parking lot. Massachusetts, August 28, 2003
Shells on Horseneck Beach. Westport, Massachusetts, September 11, 2003
Horseneck Beach at sunset. Westport, Massachusetts, August 19, 2003
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EC Comics: It's An Entertaining Comic! Part Thirteen: August 1951
Featuring special guest host, John Scoleri!
The EC Reign Month by Month 1950-1956
Kurtzman
Frontline Combat #1
"Marines Retreat!" ★★★
Story by Harvey Kurtzman
Art by John Severin and Harvey Kurtzman
"Enemy Assault!" ★★★★
Art by Jack Davis
"O.P.!" ★★★ 1/2
"Unterseeboot 113" ★★★
Art by Wally Wood
"Enemy Assault!"
We join our nameless narrator in the freezing trenches south of Seoul as he watches with mounting fear the steady advance of a wave of Chinese Communist troops. Snapping a clip of ammunition into his rifle, the American soldier takes aim across the snow-covered wasteland and drops one of the enemy’s number. This instigates a tidal outpouring of his fellows, and the American bats their progress off admirably enough before one attacker standing at the very lip of the trench takes aim at him. The two soldiers fire simultaneously. The American awakens later, head pounding from a bullet that impacted his helmet while the Chinese soldier lies dead across his chest. Surveying his surroundings, the American only sees more corpses from both sides littering the trench and it appears that he is the sole survivor … excepting the wounded Chinese troop training a pistol on him. They hold one another at gunpoint, each convinced that the other has invaded home territory. They resolve to wait for backup to see which of them is actually correct. When the American asks how the Chinese soldier came to know English, it opens up a dialogue that reveals the soldiers have more in common than they might have expected. The Chinese soldier is just showing the American photos of his wife and child when Communist and U.N. forces arrive on the scene at the same time, combusting into another round of battle. The Chinese soldier fires at a U.N. troop as he enters the trench and, realizing what he must do, the American guns down the Chinese soldier in turn. As the corpse lies cooling in the snow decorated with the fallen family photos, the American joins his comrades as they prepare for another “Enemy Assault!”
Harvey Kurtzman advances the no-holds barred attitude of his war stories from Two-Fisted Tales and refines his masterly touch in the process with the four tales included in the premiere issue of Frontline Combat, the top contender of which is undoubtedly “Enemy Assault.” The narrative flows in such a natural manner that we are never made aware until the moment of crisis what the ultimate goal or “message” is here. Our narrator is another in a likable line of war “heroes,” neither despicable nor virtuous, some chum from New York who’s in a foreign land performing a task that calls into question his morality and his mortality on a regular basis. It’s through an innocent question that he discovers “the enemy” is like him in many of these same ways. Cut through all the politics and the nationalism, they discover that both of them are simply men. This is potently illustrated in what just might be my favorite single panel from E.C. thus far, a long shot of the two troops squatting in the trench as the Chinese soldier proffers his family snapshots while surrounding them on all sides are the fallen bodies of their countrymen. Talk about a thousand words. Davis is incredibly hep to Kurtzman’s vibe, proving that he was definitely more at home on the battlefield than in the crypt. At least for now, anyway.
One of the three great splash panels on display in this issue.
That constant questioning of integrity and fate is also present in “Marines Retreat.” Though the title seems like a frank thumb-bite in the direction of one of the USA’s own, the story is actually another in Kurtzman’s attacks against the portrayal of the American soldier as glorified “superhuman” common in propaganda and saccharine comics of the time. It doesn’t take long for that message to hit home when a fun-loving comrade in the 1st division gets snuffed out by enemy fire just as he’s expressing excitement over breaking into the bottle of Chianti his mother has sent him as a Christmas present. Private Barks is our point of contact this time out, and he can’t help but wonder if he’ll meet a similar end before he gets to return to the paradisaical albeit troubled land he calls home. While the downbeat ending carries its own grim weight, what particularly impacted me in this story was the routine air that accented each successive bout of slaughter. With clockwork precision, the Chinese soldiers firing down on the Americans are efficiently blasted from their perch by Yankee air relief, and when a second wave of Commies charges from below, the Americans take their place as new kings of the hill and rain down gunfire just as had been done to them only moments ago. While the drudgery and cold business of battle have been commented on before, it seemed all the chillier to me in “Marines Retreat.”
And another!
Speaking of packing wallops, “O.P.”—short for “operation post”—boasts some gnarly bouts of massacre and sacrifice that fit as snugly within the story’s six pages as a bullet in the chamber. During WWI, the commander of a battery of howitzers is attempting to establish feedback with the troops manning the O.P. to see if the Jerries have made any moves. One soldier reports back that all is quiet on the western front, but it isn’t for long: the Germans send a “whizz bang” sailing directly into the trench that the Allied soldiers have reclaimed from the enemy, killing all but the one soldier operating the line to the commander. He watches in paralyzed fear as dozens of Germans enter through a tunnel in the trench’s wall, realizing that they must have honeycombed routes to all the spots the Allies commandeered in their absence. Desperate to nip their counterattack in the bud, the soldier radios for the commander to barrage the trench with explosives just as the Jerries figure out what he’s doing. The last three panels are gut-wrenching. It’s a shame that Russ Heath will only make this appearance in EC’s New Trend; he has a stark style just on this side of cartoonish that I find terribly endearing.
"Unterseeboot 113"
“Unterseeboot 113” performs admirably enough in the dead wake of the preceding three epics, and it operates in a terrain that will be much more familiar to EC addicts as it portrays the ironic fate of a nasty villain. The “nastiness” isn’t elaborated on much outside of the fact that the target baddie is a Nazi captain of a submarine unit, but then I suppose further elaboration isn’t required for anyone who is a Nazi. Kapitan Kurt Kluge chuckles as an English tanker sinks into the briny depths, the victim of a little early morning gunplay, but soon finds himself begging for rescue from the Queen’s navy when his own ship leaves him high and wet on the ocean’s surface. The British won’t pick him up though; they get readings of a German U-boat in the area and leave the Kapitan to the mercy of the nautical gods. Wood's art doesn't quite take my breath away here ("Not like the sea did for Kapitan Kluge," chuckles a GhouLunatic), but this brief excursion on the high seas draws the issue to a solid close. -Jose
An intense moment from "O. P."!
Peter: Among the slew of new artists we get to enjoy this month is a master of illustrated war, Russ Heath. Alas, "O.P." is Heath's single appearance in an EC combat funny book so we'll have to savor this one opportunity. Jack and I have been lucky enough to survey Heath's prodigious output for G.I. Combat (where he co-created the long-running "Haunted Tank" series) and the other DC war titles; I'd go out on a limb and call him the greatest war story illustrator of all time (I duck as the Joe Kubert fans throw vegetables at me). This issue contains all-around solid writing and art, not a bad one in the quartet, but I'd give the best of the bunch award to "Enemy Assault!," which contains the obligatory Kurtzman unhappy ending and some fabulous illos by Davis. How is it, when I discovered EC for the first time in the 1970s, that these war comics were, for the most part, ignored? Well, I'm all the richer for discovering them now that I can appreciate them.
Jack: By the time I finished reading "O.P.!" I was convinced that this comic book should have been called War Is Hell instead of Frontline Combat. All four stories contain minimal plot, hard-hitting battle action, lots of carnage, and downbeat endings. It's interesting to see the positive approach to immigrants and friendly foreigners in stories like "Marines Retreat!" in light of today's anti-immigrant sentiment. I agree that "Enemy Assault!" is the best of the bunch, mainly due to the fantastic art by Jack Davis, who seems to thrive on war stories. The art is outstanding in all four stories and having Kurtzman write them all provides a consistent tone.
Two-Fisted Tales #22
"Enemy Contact" ★★★★
"Dying City!" ★★★ 1/2
"Massacre at Agincourt" ★★ 1/2
"Chicken!" ★★★★
Art by John Severin and Will Elder
"Enemy Contact"
A medic risks his life racing across a battlefield to save a G.I. dying of appendicitis. With the help of the ailing soldier's comrades and a phone call from a surgeon, the medic performs the operation successfully, only to watch his patient die minutes later in a mortar shelling. "Enemy Contact!" is another of Harvey's attempts to educate the public on the horrors of war and the lesson is a potent one. I'd lay money down that the writers of the M*A*S*H* TV show grew up reading TFT and FC and integrated some of the shocking visuals from some of the more disturbing stories. "Dying City!" gives us our first glance at the work of future legend Alex Toth, whose stark style could be polarizing; here, only elements of that style show through. Toth's early work resembles Kurtzman's in a way. The story, wherein a young North Korean swears to his family he'll join the revolution and bring a better world home to them, is another bullseye by Harvey, who doesn't spare the grime and grit one iota. Once again, Harvey's message that war produces nothing but corpses and madness is hammered home without being entirely preachy. But, since no other company was producing stories like these, could we really call the messages Kurtzman delivered preachy?
"Dying City!"
"Massacre at Agincourt"
"Massacre at Agincourt" chronicles the advent of the longbowman in war back in the 15th century. Though the story is nicely illustrated (in insanely minute detail) by Wally, the whole affair comes off as Monday morning in History class; it's violent and gory as all hell but I prefer Kurtzman's character studies to the slices of history that pop up now and then. Captain Harold Black is one tough son of a bitch and doesn't seem to think of his men as human; they're simply cogs in the wheel and the ends will justify any of the means. When the mission is to take out an enemy observation post, Black sacrifices dozens of his men and gets nowhere. He sends Lt. Hall back to the platoon for more men but when Hall arrives he's told the Marines will be barraging the area and the Captain needs to get out of their way pronto. Hall heads back to tell the Captain but Black, furious that the Lt. hasn't brought men back with him, shoots and kills the man even as he's about to explain. The bombing begins and Captain Black is blown to pieces. Another four-star feather in Harvey Kurtzman's hat, "Chicken!" is a perfect bookend to "Enemy Contact!" and further proof that, for the time being, Two-Fisted Tales is EC's strongest title. Severin and Elder provide tension with very simple images and not a lot of background detail, such as with the end sequence, where Captain Black is surrounded by dropping bombs and wants to know just what Hall was about to tell him.
"Chicken!"
Jack: "Enemy Contact" is another winner from the team of Kurtzman and Davis, its savage irony reading like a fifth story from this month's Frontline Combat but with more plot. I thought "Dying City!" was heavy handed and showed little of the Toth magic. This month's letters column reveals that Two-Fisted Tales will focus on war stories from here on, and "Massacre at Agincourt!" is a rare trip to a war from the distant past. As a lover of Shakespeare, I was excited to see this story told by Kurtzman and Wood, but for some reason the tale doesn't quite have the horror of the more recent war stories, even though some of Woody's panels are as graphic as anything we've seen. Finally, while I love the art by Severin and Elder in "Chicken!" I think that the plot fizzles out toward the end and perhaps Kurtzman might have done more with the story had he drawn it himself.
Jose: Kurtzman proves that there are plenty of rounds left in his creative chamber with the scripts on hand in this issue. While Feldstein had a tendency to overburden his panels with flourishes of purple prose and some frankly unnecessary details, Kurtzman allows his stories to be told in a much more visual and organic style, allowing the urgency and drama within the four frames of the panel to do all the talking. Few scenes have been as cinematic and hand-wringing as the impromptu surgery performed in “Enemy Contact.” The reader can almost feel themselves in that skeletal house along with the troops, sweating it out as each nervous incision is made. (Harvey’s scripts always carried the true ring of experience too: check out that throwaway bit about using bent spoons as surgical clamps!) I have to agree with both of my cohorts regarding “Dying City!” While it certainly seems to beat one over the head by today’s standards, I give the story allowance for innovating the field during its time. I actually enjoyed the historical respite provided by “Massacre at Agincourt.” Wood’s minute details are the perfect complement to Kurtzman’s massive amounts of research, and its blunt portrayal of the savagery on the battlefield likely served as a peppy kick for boys who’d grown bored with history class. “Chicken!” does indeed seem to meander at its climax, and the “gritty” comeuppance of Captain Black seems a touch too contrived to really make an impact.
John: Wally Wood was in a class by himself, and can even make a history lesson like "Massacre at Agincourt!" more enjoyable. Lots of French pincushions in the tale, but tastefully done (for an EC comic).
The Haunt of Fear #8
"Hounded to Death!" ★★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Graham Ingels
"The Very Strange Mummy!" ★
Art by George Roussos
"Diminishing Returns!" ★★
Art by Ed Smalle
"The Irony of Death!" ★★ 1/2
Edward Garson is a creep who likes to starve his hunting dogs prior to a fox hunt. His wife Ann can't stand him or the dogs but agrees to go on a hunt because she's bored. While in the woods, she meets Steve Baxter and an affair begins. Her husband says he'll kill any man who looks at her so, when Garson comes home unexpectedly right in the middle of a tryst, the lovers hatch a plan on the spot. Steve lies down on the floor and plays dead while Ann pretends he forced his way in and died suddenly of a heart attack. Ed takes Steve's body and tosses it to the hungry hounds, but before he's barely back in the house Steve's corpse follows him with an axe and kills him. "Hounded to Death" features a bottom of the barrel script but very nice art by Ghastly, who surprised me with his ability to draw a sexy woman.
"The Very Strange Mummy!"
"The Very Strange Mummy!" is one that is found on an expedition in Egypt, but when people start dying at night with two puncture wounds in the neck, there is suspicion that the mummy is also a vampire. Hieroglyphics are deciphered and we learn that the vampire was sealed in a mummy case; now that he's been freed, he chases the heroine and the hero puts a stake through his heart. Feldstein's script is just plain boring and it is matched by the uninspired art of Roussos.
Famous explorer Vincent Beardsley convinces Mr. Hagen to finance another trip to the jungles of Ecuador, where the Jivaro Diamond Field is located. Once they get there, Beardsley collects a huge diamond and turns Hagen over to the natives, who are known to be head-shrinkers. Beardsley returns home with his prize but soon receives a package in the mail--Hagen's shrunken head, which proceeds to attack and kill Beardsley. The Golden Age art of "Diminishing Returns" doesn't seem to fit in an EC comic, but the sheer nuttiness of this story's conclusion makes it a notch more entertaining than the mummy story that precedes it.
"The Irony of Death!"
Tired of his job at the Kreegor Iron and Steel Works, Jeff Slag secretly marries the boss's daughter in order to put himself in line to move up the ladder of success. When the boss finds out, he demands that the marriage be annulled, so Jeff knocks him out and drops his body into a vat of molten iron. Jeff tells the workers to process the batch into ingots and, once he's in charge, he has the ingots made into various degrading items, such as a spittoon. Unfortunately for Jeff, "The Irony of Death" has a surprise in store for him: the last two ingots were fashioned into an iron maiden and, when Jeff decides to test it out, the door closes on its own accord, impaling and killing him. Jack Davis saves the day with his fine work on this tale, which reminded me of the sort of stories Michael Fleischer would later write for DC horror comics in the early 1970s. -Jack
Peter: "Diminishing Returns" would be an apt subtitle for Haunt of Fear #8 as we see Al's scripts take a giant step backwards. A lot of these horror stories seem to be nothing but set-ups for an "ironic" punchline; which wouldn't be so bad if the irony weren't so forced. Patience is the keyword here, though, as we'll soon see Al and Bill craft tales with legitimate "shock" endings, rather than stories that simply end with a "shock." "Hounded to Death" is a perfect example of the climax I'm alluding to. Feldstein's idea of a twist ending is to have Steven rise from the dead and head after Edward with an axe. Well, we've seen this already several times; it's the go-to finale for lazy horror writers.
"Diminishing Returns!"
Ed Smalle's single contribution to the EC Universe, "Diminishing Returns," is nothing to bother with, a generic voodoo tale with a lead character who looks like Daddy Warbucks. I just can't get into George Roussos's work and I'm surprised he contributed nine stories to the line, especially with the exacting tastes of Feldstein and Gaines. Again, not that George was an awful artist, it's just that his style doesn't fit in with the rest of the EC bullpen. "The Very Strange Mummy" not only looks like something that would be found in ACG's Adventures into the Unknown, but it also reads that way; it's an awful mishmash that doesn't so much end as just sputter. The same fate befalls the lead-off story but at least Ghastly gives us something to keep the pages turning. This is the story to show people who insist Ingels could never draw an attractive woman. It doesn't happen much, I'll grant you, but it is possible.
Jose: I love how quickly Ann and Steve “fall for each other” in “Hounded to Death!” She must be really bored to jump at the slightest provocation of meeting a younger, more handsome man than her husband, and Steve must be quite the slimeball to move in on a married woman after only talking to her for a few minutes. Then again, Steve is quick on his feet; his mauled body has scarcely cooled before he’s trudging after his killer with axe in hand. Undoubtedly the fastest resurrection we’ve seen yet! And is it just me, or does anyone else think that Steve should have cut his losses and hustled off the scene as soon as he realized that Edward was taking him to the dog pen? Narrative incredulity becomes narrative vegetation in “The Very Strange Mummy!” In itself, the premise is actually promising and could’ve been turned into a really gonzo affair. As it is, the story is comparable to watching paint dry. I actually enjoyed “Diminishing Returns!” and Ed Smalle’s art. The Golden Age-cleanliness that Jack alluded to was a drawing point for me. This tale also represents one of the rare instances where the cover of the issue accurately displays a scene from the story, right down to the color of clothing. My low expectations for “The Irony of Death!”—I was fearing another “Cheese, That’s Horrible” (HoF #6)—were thankfully dashed when Feldstein introduced the sadistic ploy of having the killer mold the ingots containing traces of his victim into degrading receptacles. Now that's recycling! Speaking of which, the ending to “Irony...” will be familiar to fans of classic horror stories as the biting finish of the inadvertent kitty-killer from Bram Stoker’s “The Squaw.” Moral for the day: Don’t go anywhere near Iron Maidens unless it’s at a concert.
John: Wasn't I just complimenting HoF for having one of the best all around issues? And this is what I get in return? "Diminishing Returns" is right. I doubt Richard Matheson was familiar with this tale when he wrote the teleplay for his short story, "Prey," but I couldn't help picture a Zuni Fetish when seeing a shrunken head biting a man's ankle. And was Steven really so committed to his 'dead' performance in "Hounded to Death" that he let his body be thrown to the dogs?
"Hounded to Death!"
Weird Fantasy #8
"The Origin of the Species!" ★★
Story and Art by Al Feldstein
"It Didn't Matter" ★ 1/2
Art by Jack Kamen
"The Slave Ship" ★ 1/2
"The Enemies of the Colony" ★★★ 1/2
Story and Art by Wally Wood
The Revere Brothers believe in evolution but disagree on exactly where man descended from. Ernest believes that the answer will be found in outer space and so bids his brother, Stanley (who believes the proof will be dug up here on Earth), a sweet adieu. Ernest boards a rocket ship, bound for parts unknown deep in space, but the ship appears to explode only minutes into take-off. At least that's what witnesses on the ground see. In the ship, everything is calm but for a "lurch." Very soon, the moon comes into view but it's not the moon the men are used to seeing from afar; this rock has lush vegetation and (surprise!) Earth-like atmosphere. The men land and discover ape-like creatures just as the astro-navigator arrives with some bad news: evidently, the "lurch" was actually a time warp and they're standing on the moon as it was one million years ago. Knowing he's on to something, Ernest has two of the creatures captured and the ship sets off, the men hoping they can repeat their trip through time and land in modern times. Alas, no lurch and the crew find themselves on Earth at the dawn of evolution. The ape-monsters escape (surprise!) and the crew die off one by one. In the future, Stanley happens to dig up the spaceship and finds his brother's corpse (surprisingly well-preserved for one million years), along with Ernest's notes. He happily proclaims that both brothers were right!
No radio contact with home?
("The Origin of the Species")
Just one year after the New Trend launch, you can tell where these time travel stories are going by the second page (I knew the second Stan gives Ernie his "lucky ring," thus setting up the inevitable, "Hey, that corpse is wearing my ring!" scene) and it's just a matter of whether Al can perhaps throw another twist or two in. With "The Origin of the Species," the only twist I didn't see coming was the fact that the lush, vegetated moon was actually the moon (and not, in fact, Earth). Feldstein had a wonderfully naive view of life aboard a spaceship, where every man performs his job in tight trunks and walls appear to be unfinished steel.
Up next on the "tired, overused plot lines" list, right after time travel, would have to be the "babe who marries the scientist for his money and then falls for his assistant" bleh that makes up the crux of "It Didn't Matter!," a pre-The Fly piece of nonsense about the world's first "matter transmitter" and the doltish scientist who created it. It's not the science here that goes awry (at least not until the climax), but the overused "romantic triangle" subplot. We're not even given a reason why the fresh-out-of-her-teens Nina marries the old goat with the big brain (ostensibly, it's for the money, but then why does she sound so willing to get the Prof. in the sack?) before we're whisked into the ludicrous murder plot. Assistant Arnold loves Nina so much he advises her to jump into an experimental machine that's never been tested on humans? And, let me back up a bit, why would the Prof. spend ten years perfecting this gizmo and then turn over the construction to a perfect stranger? The mind boggles.
Yep, sounds like a foolproof plan to me.
("It Didn't Matter")
"The Slave Ship"
Captain Jorkin runs "The Slave Ship," but when the Coast Guard threatens to board, dozens of slaves are brutally dumped overboard and drowned. Several days later, a spaceship kidnaps Jorkin and his crew and take them into deep space. All clues point to an interstellar version of what transpired back on Earth and, sure enough, when the ship is approached by a smaller ship, the crew is dumped into space and explode ("...for space, being a vacuum, has no air! And having no air, space has no air pressure! So, the dissolved gases in the human body..." begins the mandatory expository)! What interests me most about this sub-par EC effort is not the lazy, heavy-handed story-telling but the fact that the entire affair looks so out of place in an EC funny book. Though Roussos's work here is far from awful illustrating, the style and heavy inking stick out like sore thumbs from the rest of the EC bullpen. "The Slave Ship" looks, for all the world, as if it came from one of Atlas's pre-code books. Roussos's main claim to fame, as far as comic fans are concerned, was his stretch in the early 1960s as Jack Kirby's inker on several key Marvel titles.
Wood!!
("The Enemies of the Colony")
On a distant planet, The Galactic Colonization Authority is on the verge of ridding itself of the dangerous Hydra-files, creatures with a taste for the G.C.A.’s favorite pets, the monkey-like Mokos (which reproduce faster than rabbits). After the final Hydra-file is eliminated, the G.C.A., to their dismay, find that the Mokos are actually carnivores and the larger monsters were keeping the population down. A wonderful alien story only Wally Wood could illustrate (the Mokos have the trademark Woodian “popping eyes”), with startlingly detailed panels. As strange as it may seem, the climax of “The Enemies of the Colony” is reminiscent of the famous scene in John Ford’s The Searchers where John Wayne and his “posse” are drawn away from the ranch only to realize they've left the ranchers wide open for an Indian raid. -Peter
Jack: Wood’s art on “The Enemies of the Colony” is so gorgeously detailed that it almost looks like Frazetta had a hand in it. Feldstein’s “The Origin of the Species!” is not a bad little time travel story in the end, but why do the astronauts wear tight, long-sleeved shirts and hot pants? And why do they wear salad bowls on their heads when exploring the moon? The Kamen story disappoints by telling us what happens at the end rather than showing us, and this seems to be a trend with Kamen. The slave traders in “The Slave Ship” get their just desserts but the art by Roussos is routine.
Jose: Whereas the war titles are currently at the top of the EC food chain, the two SF series are undoubtedly the crawling slugs of the comic book wild. Granted, the horror titles haven’t been without their clichéd plots, but almost without fail we’ve been lucky to get even one middling-to-solid story from either Weird Fantasy or Weird Science. The descriptor “tired” is an apt one for the majority of Feldstein’s scripts, one that could be applied to the first three tales in this issue. Jack beat me to the punch on the space travelers’ wardrobe in “The Origin of the Species!”; their hilarious garb put me in mind of the Ambiguously Gay Duo from SNL. Kamen’s piece is inane soap opera disguised as science fiction. While the period setting and historical brutality in “The Slave Ship” are certainly noteworthy, it progresses in such a formulaic fashion as to deflate any sense of engagement. Wally Wood saves the day yet again with “The Enemies of the Colony,” his intricate designs strengthening a fun script that I could see as having had a definite influence on Bruce Jones; the vicious turnabout seen here is a trait that was rampant in his two series for Eclipse, Alien Worlds and Twisted Tales.
Weird Science #8
"Seeds of Jupiter!" ★★★
"The Escape" ★★
"Beyond Repair" ★★
"The Probers" ★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein and William Gaines
Sadly, the story never quite reaches the level
of B-movie goodness that the splash promises.
When an asteroid crashes into a US naval ship at sea, two young sailors pick the wrong time to play a practical joke on their ever-lovin’ pal Peach Pit when they present him with one of the many hard, nut-like seeds within the space rock as a tasty snack. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the seed is actually the freeze-dried embryo of a tentacled monster from Jupiter that, when swallowed by the lunkheaded sea dog, proceeds to drink up all of Peach Pit’s bodily fluids to nurture its growth, leaving the sailor a boiling, desiccated husk when the ship’s physician cuts the little beast free of its human nest. And where does the little tyke go from there? Straight into the mighty blue ocean, of course! The next thing anyone knows, Manhattan is contending with the gargantuan horror that plucks ladies from the streets without discretion. Having studied the remaining seeds back at the Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense orders the Marines to harness and destroy the creature’s back-end tentacle that it uses to constantly replenish itself from the Atlantic. Its crazy-straw blown to smithereens, the monster quickly withers away. But Mr. Secretary gets a surprise upon returning to his office: the Old Maid-cleaning woman explains that she tossed the “peach pits” on his desk into the trash and that they’re now on their way to the depths of the Potomac River.
"Seeds of Jupiter!"
It sure ain’t great literature, but Feldstein’s “Seeds from Jupiter” certainly fits the marquee bill for pure popcorn frills. The story follows a steadily escalating progression of omens and mayhem that fans will recognize from similar tales of monstrous sieges like “The Call of Cthulhu,” Godzilla, and even John Carpenter’s The Thing. Even though the whole tale gets kicked off by the rather inane device of having a character forsake one of the major tenets of adulthood—“Don’t put that in your mouth”—the remainder of the story relies on the tentpole events of Atomic Age cinema to provide eight pages’ worth of passable entertainment that skimps only in that it doesn’t have the mollusk-esque beastie wreak nearly enough dehydrated destruction upon the frightened masses.
Your three hosts being told that
there's more John Roussos art on the way.
("The Escape")
Overall, Feldstein shows a confidence in his prose that helps to distract from the general lack of any new ideas in the remaining three stories. The opening images of the second tale may recall Ray Bradbury’s “Kaleidoscope,” but “The Escape” turns out not to be another from the line of “free adaptations” of the august author’s works but a mild potboiler that finds a crew of three bound for the moon stranded in Earth’s orbit like a rotating satellite when the rockets go on the fritz. While the chances of returning home are slim, the chances of death by starvation and/or asphyxiation remain high, that is until one smart cookie hits on the notion of sending one man outfitted in a spacesuit and makeshift parachute with a couple of bursts from an oxygen tank back home to request help. Even though the family-man captain draws the choice straw, nasty radio operator Warwick makes his own fortunes when he shoots his shipmates and makes the journey himself. But Warwick gets a chilly reception upon touching down on Earth soil when a kook farmer blows him out of his space-shoes thinking him an alien invader. The last-minute contrivance isn’t helped any by the lumpy artwork of George Roussos.
"Beyond Repair"
“Beyond Repair” finds a handsome space traveler relieving his Melvin roommate of the beautiful woman whom the latter is engaged to before finding out upon their own elopement that she’s actually a robot. Cue organ sting. The tired motions of the narrative are enlivened by some effective characterization on Feldstein’s part, who sees the girlfriend-stealing Lothario through his scheming courtship to a reflective moment where he starts to believe he might genuinely be in love this time around, the irony that it is with a being as superficial as his original pretenses totally lost on him as he gapes at the busted gears of his desire.
“The Probers” has Wally Wood stuck with another ho-hum script that is light on action and excitement until its closing just desserts. Captain Scott derides staff scientist Drake for his seemingly merciless vivisection of experimental guinea pigs even as the lab coat explains that it is only through the efforts of men like him that scientific progress can be made. One forced landing on an alien planet and five mysterious disappearances of their shipmates later, Scott and Drake are attacked by a pair of gruesome monsters and dragged kicking and screaming to their laboratory hideaway where—you guessed it—the guinea pig humans are being prepped for study to advance the progress of alien science! Despite being a classic EC stinger, the ending doesn’t quite stick the landing this time around. -Jose
"The Probers"
Peter: The climactic twist of "The Probers" is painfully obvious halfway through the story but Wally gives it the old college try anyway. George Roussos's art for "The Escape" almost makes me want to take back the bad things I've said about his work thus far. Almost. "Beyond Repair" almost feels like something we've already read; it might be the by-now cliched "one handsome buddy, one homely buddy" gimmick but the perfect woman revealed as a robot also seems a tad bit overworked. That leaves "Seeds of Jupiter," a fabulously goofy old-fashioned giant monster from outer space story. The most inexplicable event is not the monster overrunning a battle field or the Secretary leaving world-threatening peach pits on his desk unattended, but the fact that the dopey "Peach Pit" would put something that fell from the sky in his mouth. And if that isn't an assist from legendary Basil Wolverton (who will show up on our radar when Mad rolls around) on the Hydrated Creature From Another World then it's a sure bet Feldstein was at least influenced by Wolverton's style.
Jack: I love a good giant monster story as much as the next guy, but “Seeds of Jupiter!” reinforced my growing boredom with Al Feldstein’s art, even in service of a story that’s really an extension of the old ads selling seahorses by mail. “The Escape” is boring, poorly illustrated and ends with a thud and, while Jack Kamen can always be counted on for some cheesecake, “Beyond Repair” seems like a swipe of Ray Bradbury’s 1949 story, “Marionettes, Inc.” Once again, we can thank Wally Wood for bringing some of his best art ever to “The Probers,” rescuing a predictable plot.
John: "Seeds of Jupiter!" might very well be the best dehydrated space monster story I've ever read. If you like watching little monsters grow to be huge monsters, this one is for you. While Jack Kamen does a fine job illustrating "Beyond Repair," I can't help but notice that aside from a few panels with futuristic trappings, everything else has a contemporary 50's feel. Wally Wood gets to do his thing again in "The Probers" (when the extremely wordy word-balloons don't get in the way). While there are no real surprises here, Wood really delivers on that last page.
Don't be left in the dark!
Be sure to read Star Spangled DC
War Stories right here next Monday!
Posted by Peter Enfantino at 5:00 AM
Labels: EC comics, Frontline Combat, The Haunt of Fear, Two-Fisted Tales, Weird Fantasy, Weird Science
Jordan Prejean said...
I like the Feldstein cover on The Haunt of Fear. I really enjoy this narrative type of cover that sort of tells an entire story with a single image, though I agree this issue as a whole is surprisingly weak. I think The Haunt of Fear was the best of the horror books once the lineup was solidified around issue #10 but these early issues were feast or famine. I was never a fan of the war books (just not my type of material) but I respect the work done there, for sure. John Severin is very underrated in my opinion, though I'm partial to the work he did for the Warren magazines in the late '60s.
It's a weird question, but I wonder whether those "degrading" objects in the "Irony" story included a toilet (maybe shown a little indirectly), or whether that subject was a little touchy even in pre-Code comics (just like on TV for a long while). If the second thing is true, it doesn't exactly bother me, since I always treat that as a very overrated subject, in all-out comedy or anywhere else! But I couldn't help wondering.
Jordan, I never read the war books as a kid or a young adult, but I'm blown away by them now. I've never read any of the Warren mags other than The Spirit, so you (and Peter) know way more about them than I do!
Grant, it wouldn't surprise me with the EC crew, especially Jack Davis!
Star Spangled DC War Stories Part 86: July 1966
EC Comics: It's An Entertaining Comic! Part Thirte...
The Hitchcock Project-Bryce Walton Part Three: The...
Star Spangled DC War Stories Part 85: June 1966
EC Comics: It's An Entertaining Comic! Part Twelve...
The Hitchcock Project-Bryce Walton Part Two: Cell ...
Star Spangled DC War Stories Part 84: May 1966
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Riding with Ostrich
Otter Yiff - H0rs3
Mooguran 29.08.2018 5
Sex otter yiff
Faerr 29.08.2018 5 Comments
Second of all, intelligence, while it is a wonderful thing, is not that wonderful. Another man in uniform, Lieutenant Patrick George, is chatting with a young raccoon. Samuel Conway furry name: They took refuge in cartoons or science fiction. He was gesturing to a rip in the costume, between his legs. I am tempted to turn around and run. Having not come to it from the outside, I have difficulty saying what it actually is. About 40 furries are in the lobby now. He sounds like a high-school jock sizing up the class freak. Little mannerisms. I am very feline.
Besides gardening and volunteer work, these days J. I would only volunteer if we were to be considered at least remotely equal. We get into his Chevrolet Metro and speed away from the Sheraton, toward the nearest mall. Feeling expansive. Behind it is a wild-haired, busty woman named Bushy Cat. The public should not even be aware. His T-shirt reads, my sexual preference is not you. Whereas foxes actually mate for life, as a general rule. I was at that age where I was learning to see what made things work. When I came back to his lair, Fox Wolfie Galen was in a full-body tiger suit. The men who enjoy these videos, Gates said, like to imagine themselves at the mercy of all-powerful goddesses. The taxi arrived. Uncle Kage. Anybody involved in beauty pageants? Incredibly Strange Sex Juno Books, Tantric sex comes to mind. Norton, morphing into his Rottweiler persona, gets on the floor and begins gnawing on a chair. Another man in uniform, Lieutenant Patrick George, is chatting with a young raccoon. I know a couple people who thought they were gay until they met a furry girl. After everyone agrees that it would be wrong to have a fox as a pet, there is a pause. Fox asks. It, uh, it just makes me sick. Growing up, he never fantasized about women.
Stuffed animals surrounded him and were stacked up to the ceiling against the wall by his bed. Besides gardening and volunteer work, these days J. Uncle Kage, the biomedical researcher and auctioneer, is in the lobby, still wearing his white lab coat. Lieutenant George has been watching some of the furries. Lieutenant George smiles. Feeling expansive. I am very neurotic about having my paws sticky. Welcome to the Midwest FurFest. Fox Wolfie Galen had never traveled much beyond his hometown until four years ago, when he went to a furry convention in California with another plushophile he had met on-line. I could imagine a raccoon being half a human and walking on two feet. And I was compared to the ostrich ballerinas in Fantasia. He says he is the March Hare real name: Willing to expand on topics and so forth. Certain expressions I do. I love to tease them when I press them down softly at first. A Lieutenant Colonel Flowers is taking it all in, good-naturedly. And Rowdy Fox, smiling naughtily as his fox hand puppet nibbles on his free hand.
Vilencia and his ilk. Another man in uniform, Lieutenant Patrick George, is chatting with a young raccoon. A high number of furries are bearded and wear glasses. He says he is the March Hare real name: Badger says. The men who enjoy these videos, Gates said, like to imagine themselves at the mercy of all-powerful goddesses. I chew on furniture. And we find as the number of women increases, the number of people who thought they were gay but decided otherwise increases, too. Denver says he has had 12 encounters with foxes, all in the wild. And I was compared to the ostrich ballerinas in Fantasia. It is moderated by a pudgy, bearded man who goes by the name Craig Fox. Anybody involved in beauty pageants? They took refuge in cartoons or science fiction. Now she was sitting down in the living room of her Brooklyn Heights apartment, where she lives with her husband. He was staring at his computer screen, monitoring an on-line auction. Congress voted against the sale of crush videos in , and President Clinton quickly signed the ban into law. These people need a way of having intimacy and pleasure, too. A big Meeko, the raccoon character from Pocahontas, in a Cub Scout uniform was looking at me with a crazed expression. But now he lives for furrydom. Now they run around with mouse costumes on. I kind of skate through society. Her Web site, deviantdesires. Having not come to it from the outside, I have difficulty saying what it actually is. I have trouble looking at it objectively, because it seems so natural. Growing up, he never fantasized about women. For me, walking around a con with a tail hanging out my butt just seems weird.
I chew on furniture. Her Web site, deviantdesires. Twitter A moose is loitering outside a hotel in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. I never really have. Badger prefers a family-oriented furry experience. The headlights illuminate the road ahead. Tantric sex comes to mind. Some have googly, glazed, innocent eyes. Who could refuse them? A little boy in the front—a son of the convention chairman, Robert King—has his fingers in his ears. The place goes nuts.
I am very feline. Now they run around with mouse costumes on. They started having conventions in the early 90s. And Rowdy Fox, smiling naughtily as his fox hand puppet nibbles on his free hand. I mostly collect bunnies, foxes, bears, ferrets, otters, sometimes dinosaurs. After college he lived with a woman in a wheelchair, and cared for her for nine years. Now he writes a newsletter for Ohio Furs, an organization of furries with 87 members. Lieutenant George has been watching some of the furries. Photographs by Harry Benson. Norton, morphing into his Rottweiler persona, gets on the floor and begins gnawing on a chair. But the odd thing is, the longer I do this and the more deeply I get into it, the happier I am in the city and around crowds. He put his claws on my head. The taxi arrived. Willing to expand on topics and so forth.
In high school, he said, he experimented with bestiality. A group of furries in cat regalia do a few songs from Grease. Norton, morphing into his Rottweiler persona, gets on the floor and begins gnawing on a chair. The moose—actually a man in a full-body moose costume—is here for a convention. They actually have fingers, opposable thumbs and everything. Behind it is a wild-haired, busty woman named Bushy Cat. He was a chemist at the time, collecting dinosaur stuff on the side. Another man in uniform, Lieutenant Patrick George, is chatting with a young raccoon. Back in , Bushy Cat was going nowhere. Everything is fetish fodder. As fucked up as I am, I at least know how I feel and what I want to do, and I have the good fortune to have a number of friends who feel the same way. These people need a way of having intimacy and pleasure, too. Denver says he has had 12 encounters with foxes, all in the wild. At noon, furries are catching vans to the airport. It sells for a hundred dollars. I mostly collect bunnies, foxes, bears, ferrets, otters, sometimes dinosaurs. For me, walking around a con with a tail hanging out my butt just seems weird. He started to believe that, somewhere deep down, he was actually … a polar bear. Like the time he made a solo trip to Sea World. In there was a crushing death in Florida: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is not a fan.
In a casual way, but not really seriously. Behind it is a wild-haired, busty woman named Bushy Cat. It does not please me. Furries in civilian clothes reach out to touch the fursuiters as they go by. If you could do it to an animal, you could do it to a human. I love to tease them when I press them down softly at first. He even wrote a plushie newsletter for a while, but gave it up. A few military men are smirking. I am tempted to turn around and run. Uncle Kage. A few rows ahead of J. They have to be washed. Twitter A moose is loitering outside a hotel in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. Stuffed animals surrounded him and were stacked up to the ceiling against the wall by his bed.
Badger says. The furries in the lobby look baffled. Ostrich, whose real name is Marshall Woods, is a compact guy in a denim jacket and blue jeans. Willing to expand on topics and so forth. A tori black sex with a routine mallet. Does Bunny is the first act. Just of all, jargon, dex it is a after director, is not that corporate. But now he articles for furrydom. Sex otter yiff happening a couple people who say they were gay until they met a actual fact. It reports for sex otter yiff hundred ethics. Classified at his continuously in Union on Care 12, On up, he never set about articles. Lieutenant George mores. The command suggests there otted be no more war if swx romance the yifg attitude toward speaking.
Author: Voshakar
5 thoughts on “Sex otter yiff”
Zulugis says:
It does not please me. They got some exposure last year through the ABC legal drama The Practice, on which Henry Winkler had a recurring role as a dentist who liked to watch women in the act of stomping on bugs.
Kataxe says:
He was staring at his computer screen, monitoring an on-line auction. For me, walking around a con with a tail hanging out my butt just seems weird. He was a chemist at the time, collecting dinosaur stuff on the side.
Groktilar says:
I have trouble looking at it objectively, because it seems so natural.
Kigalar says:
Furries in civilian clothes reach out to touch the fursuiters as they go by. Twitter A moose is loitering outside a hotel in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. The FurFest was a success, he says.
Kajizuru says:
I would only volunteer if we were to be considered at least remotely equal.
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Home/Events Past & Present
Events Past & PresentJohn Wallace2017-03-07T15:46:13+00:00
On This Day (OTD) posts are snippets of information to describe what was happening in the Poor House on that day.
Current Events are marked in green. Contact 028 9099 7022 for further details of current events or to book a tour.
Christmas in the Poor House Tour
Clifton House Heritage Centre, N Queen St, Belfast BT15 1EQ, UK
Come along and hear about the history of the Poor House from the doors opened in 1774. Hear about Christmas traditions and how they developed through the years. Our tour guides will use original research from our archives to tell the story of those responsible for bringing some festive cheer into the house in the 1800s.
The tours begin at 3pm in Clifton House. Car parking is available on site. Price is £6.50 per person . Booking is essential. Please phone 028 9099 7022.
OTD1793 A Lying-In (Maternity) Hospital established in Belfast with the help of the Belfast Charitable Society
OTD1824 Dr Drummond was given a single plot in the paupers grave to bury those who had been used as research by the Anatomical School.
the paupers grave to bury those who had been used as research by the Anatomical School.
OTD1945 A Victory Outing was held for the residents stationed at Garron Tower during the War. They headed to Ballycastle for the day.
Philanthropy Past & Present: Tour of Clifton House
Come and hear tales about Belfast's original Poor House as our tour guide takes you through the interesting, and at times turbulent, history of the Belfast Charitable Society as you walk in the footsteps of the famous Joy and McCracken families.
The tours begin at 3pm in Clifton House. Car parking is available on site. Price is £6.50 per person. Booking advisable to avoid disappointment. Please advise in advance of any mobility issues.
Please phone 028 9099 7022 or email info@cliftonbelfast.org.uk
OTD1824 An infant’s coffin, several years interred, was dug up by body snatchers but left unopened- the Belfast Charitable Society offered a reward of £50 pounds for anyone with evidence of the crime that led to prosecution.
OTD1807 Collectors sent out to the people who have not paid their extra water money, and require all arrears to be paid, if this is not complied with, the offenders are to have their water supply cut off ‘without loss of time’ The collectors had received ‘abusive and insulting language’ when trying to carry out their duties
248th Belfast Charitable Society AGM
248th Annual Belfast Charitable Society AGM
Followed by a presentation on 'The Life & Times of Mary Ann McCracken'
7pm | Clifton House | Booking Essential
Secrets from the Northern Ireland State Papers by Dr Éamon Phoenix (Winter Lecture Series)
Clifton House Winter Lecture Series
'Secrets from the Northern Ireland State Papers'
Delivered by Dr Éamon Phoenix
Clifton House, 2 North Queen Street, Belfast, BT15 1ES
Door @ 6.30pm for 7pm start
Cost £6 or entire series £25
Call 02890997022 or email info@cliftonbelfast.org.uk
OTD1820 Dr William Drennan passed away. He was interred at the New Burying Ground.
The Hearts of Steel Agitation & the Attack on Belfast c1768-1772 by Dr Éamon Phoenix (Winter Lecture Series)
Bricks & Mortals in Belfast's Golden Age c.1770-1830 (Clifton House Winter Lecture Series)
'The Hearts of Steel Agitation & the Attack on Belfast c1768-1772'
Belfast, the United Irishmen and the 1798 Rebellion by Dr Éamon Phoenix (Winter Lecture Series)
'Belfast, the United Irishmen and the 1798Rebellion'
OTD1775 An advert was published in the Newsletter: Whoever brings ‘strolling beggars’ to the House will be paid 5S 3d for each ‘after next Saturday’
OTD1794 The Belfast Charitable Society agreed the lying-in hospital are to have liberty of as much water as they ‘have occasion for.’
Orangeism and Irish History, 1795-2019 by Dr David Hume MBE (Winter Lecture Series)
'Orangeism and Irish History, 1795-2019'
Delivered by Dr David Hume MBE
The Ulster-Scots Tradition and the Weaver Poets by Laura Spence (Winter Lecture Series)
'The Ulster-Scots Tradition and the Weaver Poets'
Delivered by Laura Spence
OTD1797 The New Burying Ground was opened to the public
OTD1799 Belfast Charitable Society Notified the Poor would be returned after the 1798 Rebellion
OTD1782 Dr William Drennan presents his small pox inoculation programme to the Poor House
OTD1826 Elizabeth Fry met with ladies from Belfast to organise a women's committee for the Poor House
OTD1775 Poor Badges not to be renewed - All poor taken to the Poor House instead
OTD1805 Founding member of Belfast Charitable Society, Valentine Jones died aged 94.
OTD1826 Belfast Charitable Society received a letter to confirm the establishment of a Ladies Committee
OTD 1775 Rev William Bristow, a board member, wrote to the Vestry for the loan of the bell and clock of the Old Parish Church and were granted these.
OTD1799 Resolved that a section of the Burying Ground be left aside for interring ‘the poor persons as may die not having funds for their interment’
OTD1792 Proposal for the formation of public dispensary (which would ultimately become the RVH) was published in the Newsletter.
OTD 1778 American privateer Paul Jones sailed his ship Ranger into Belfast Lough and seized a Royal Navy sloop. Frustrated at Dublin Castle’s response the citizens of Belfast, fearing a French invasion formed themselves into Volunteer companies, armed at their own expense. The Belfast volunteers would billet in the Poor House and use the lawn for drilling.
Dublin Castle's response the citizens of Belfast, fearing a French invasion formed themselves into Volunteer companies, armed at their own expense. The Belfast volunteers would billet in the Poor House and use the lawn for drilling.
OTD1846 The Belfast Charitable Society agree to take in medical and surgical patients from the General Hospital to free up beds for fever victims
OTD1779 Robert Joy and Thomas McCabe propose to employ a large number of children in the house in the manufacturing of cotton.
OTD1753 William Drennan born at the Manse of 1st Rosemary St Presbyterian, son of Rev Thomas Drennan
the Manse of 1st Rosemary St Presbyterian, son of Rev Thomas Drennan
OTD 1798 - The Rebellion Began
OTD1790 Francis Joy,father to Robert & Henry Joy and founder of the Newsletter, died. He was buried in the Parish graveyard in Belfast
the Parish graveyard in Belfast
OTD2001 The new 100 bed Clifton Nursing Home was opened following the ‘Home from Home’ Appeal which raised £1 million
OTD1775 One of the first medical reports written was by a surgeon, Mr James Clarke, including ‘Jane Hunter, admitted June 23 1775: A Scorbtick Humour & inflammation in her Leg & bad habit of body, recovering.’
OTD1792 The Belfast Dispensary was set up and housed in the Poor House
OTD1770 Mary Ann McCracken was born
OTD1847 The Belfast Charitable Society had to reopen the Poor Ground in Clifton Street Cemetery due to the chronic need during the famine
OTD1847 Surgeon to the male side of the Poor House, James McCleery, for 12 years died of famine fever. His son was appointed to his father's position in the Poor House
OTD1996 A new Act of Parliament, the fifth in the history of the BCS, achieved Royal Assent. This enabled them to move the charity into its third century and begin to raise the funds to build a new purpose built care home.
the history of the BCS, achieved Royal Assent. This enabled them to move the charity into its third century and begin to raise the funds to build a new purpose built care home.
OTD1817 The Spring Water Commissioners meet for the first time
OTD1802 The committee believe that confinement is not a fitting punishment and ‘desire that they shall be kept as low with respect to diet as is constituent with health.’
OTD1866 Mary Ann McCracken passed away
OTD1771 The foundation stone for the Poor House was laid by the Sovereign of Belfast, Stewart Banks
OTD1779 Daniel Blow, a board member of the BCS society, died. He was the last to have his name recorded on the original 1680 ‘Poores Board’
OTD1944 Residents of Clifton House John Bloomer (82) married Frances Ashe (64) in Largy Parish Church and honeymooned in Larne
OTD1818 Grand Duke Michael of Russia visited the Poor House and presented £50 British pounds for the use of the Charity
OTD1752 The first meeting of the Belfast Charitable Society was held in "The George" Public House in Belfast
OTD1800 A meeting held by the Belfast Charitable Society in the Assembly Rooms to draw attention to the lack of funds and the threat to the ‘very existence of the institution’ unless funds were forthcoming. [The Poor House was still occupied by British Troops at this point]
OTD1914 Resident Walter F. Element enlisted in Kitchener’s Army. He was an veteran soldier and was employed in training the troops. His place was to be kept for him should he wish to return.
Kitchener's Army. He was an veteran soldier and was employed in training the troops. His place was to be kept for him should he wish to return.
OTD1768 Belfast Charitable Society started to collect materials for the construction of the house- sand from Co Down side of Belfast Lough & the board sent a letter of thanks to John Kennedy Esq of Cultra for granting the Society free liberty to quarry stones and lift sand from his estate
OTD1946 Residents returned to the House from Garron Tower following the end of WW2
OTD1795 Resolved to recommend to the next general board to consider ‘appropriating one of the fields up the lane [Buttle’s Loney] for the Purpose of a burying ground
OTD1940 The running of the House during the war required ‘constant care’ with air raid precautions given much attention. The basement cellar level was used as an air raid shelter with male staff sleeping in the building at night.
the building at night, this service is unpaid and voluntary
OTD1776 Committee order that a proper place be fitted up as a black-hole for confining delinquents and vagrants
OTD1772 Ordered that 1 guinea to given to the several workmen to drink as is customary at the rearing of the roof of the Poor House
OTD1775 The first child was admitted to the Poor House
OTD1882 Last of the children leave the Poor House, provision being made for them in other places including orphanage societies, parents or relatives, the Industrial school and apprenticeships
other places including orphanage societies, parents or relatives, the Industrial school and apprenticeships
OTD1808 Robert Stevenson, former physician to the Poor House, bequeathed £1000 following his death.
OTD1791 Drought in Belfast. Poor House sent a cart out daily selling water for 1/2p for 4 gallons
OTD1797 Waddell Cunningham died. He was a member of the Belfast Charitable Society and also the man who proposed that Belfast should become a slave port.
THE BELFAST CHARITABLE SOCIETY
Based at Clifton House, the Belfast Charitable Society has long played a role in the development of Belfast and the welfare of its people. Founded by a group of leading businessmen in the city to build a Poor House and Infirmary for the most vulnerable citizens of Belfast, the Society continues to play a part in the city today, led by a board of members.
North Belfast Early Intervention Family Support programme
The Benn Christmas Dinner: George Benn & his legacy at Clifton House
International Day for the Abolition of Slavery: Belfast Charitable Society & Slavery
Children in the Poor House 1775-1882
Belfast Charitable Society & Social Enterprise Day 2019
Clifton House and the story of Mary Ann McCracken will feature on the @AntiqueRoadTrip 's episode airing on 28th Jan… https://t.co/z2sgtcWow7
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our followers! The office will reopen on 6th January 2020. https://t.co/Wz5yHLgCfX
2 North Queen Street, Belfast, Antrim BT15 1ES
Copyright 2015 Belfast Charitable Society | All Rights Reserved.
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The Web version and the Android version are now available for beta testing. For the Web version, You will need to login again with your normal WazHack account if you have one.
Please watch for announcements and updates, either on the Reddit forum or the blog. The Reddit forum is the best place to discuss the beta.
Play now online!
What are you waiting for? Hit the "Play" tab!
There are three versions - the Steam version, the Web version, and the Mobile version. The games are very similar. The user interface is a little different in each, and the Steam and Web version graphics are a little fancier than the Mobile version.
Steam Version
Just hit the "Play" tab above!
You can explore the game up to 300 feet, after that you'll need to buy the Web version.
Each male/female pair of classes is just $1 in the mobile version, so you can buy just one to take WazHack on-the-go, or go crazy and support development even more by buying the whole lot!
The Android version also supports Android TV.
What's new in WazHack 1.3?
This release adds eggs, belief systems, and some new items and monsters.
Eggs have a number of uses which you'll want to work out as you play.
Belief systems vary between classes and character alignment, though some classes have the same belief system (for example the Valkyrie and the Barbarians both believe in the Old Germanic / Norse gods). The belief system is accessed through the "Cast" action (now a green aura not a spellbook). In general, beliefs are designed to be last-resort emergency measures, so for example the Knight can only pray to "The Big Guy" after he has played (and so dined) for quite a while; praying early will reset his timeout; other classes have worse consequences for calling on them too frequently, while others have no difference in consequence.
Just show me a Video!
Check out this quick WazHack gameplay video. The game isn't quite as "hack and slash" as depicted in this action video, since you really need to pay attention (don't just keep whacking away when a goblin with a giant club walks into the room!).
Just show me Screenshots!
I want to Review it!
Waz will fall over his big hairy feet to help you! Check out the Press page for more info.
© 2015 Waz | Privacy Policy | Contacts
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Kaya (@1.2) vs Green Archers United (@9.0)
Kaya will win
Kaya vs Green Archers United
Kaya – Green Archers United Match Prediction | 17-10-2019 04:00
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With this, we always try to provide gratis all the tools you need to bet responsibly and we hope winning! Even stats, standings, news and information on the football league Asia AFC Cup and on teams Home United FC and Kaya.The prediction 1x2 or under/over or goal/nogoal, with odds of bookmakers comes complete with the correct score. Under you found the prediction processed by our proprietary software and reviewed manually by our editors of the football match Home United FC-Kaya, match of the championship Asia AFC Cup.
Prediction correct score: 4 - 2
Green Archers United was among the teams that applied to participate in the inaugural season of the Philippines Football League (PFL) in 2017 but later decided to withdrew its application.[4] The club decision was due to uncertainties in raising funds to pay for the leagues 4.5 million franchise fee and expressed readiness in joining if club finds the league's rules as consistent enough.
The club was among the seven teams to participate in the 2019 season of the revived PFL league. They decided to enter the league after withdrawing its plans to do the same for the inaugural season of the PFL in 2017. This is due to a more lenient finance policies imposed in the 2019 season, which allowed freedom for clubs to sign in more sponsors than in previous iterations of the PFL.
They decided to enter the league after withdrawing its plans to do the same for the inaugural season of the PFL in 2017. The club was among the seven teams to participate in the 2019 season of the revived PFL league. This is due to a more lenient finance policies imposed in the 2019 season, which allowed freedom for clubs to sign in more sponsors than in previous iterations of the PFL.
8 on Kaya FC
Green Archers United formally expressed interest to join the Philippine Premier League (PPL), the intended successor league of the Philippines Football League (PFL) in December 2018[6] Their only match in the short-lived PPL which only had one match day was a 03 loss to KayaIloilo on April 27, 2019.[7] The PPL folded when the Philippine Football Federation withdrew its sanction of the league's operators and decided to revive the PFL within the same year.
Even stats, standings, news and information on the football league Asia AFC Cup and on teams Kaya and Home United FC.The prediction 1x2 or under/over or goal/nogoal, with odds of bookmakers comes complete with the correct score. With this, we always try to provide gratis all the tools you need to bet responsibly and we hope winning! Under you found the prediction processed by our proprietary software and reviewed manually by our editors of the football match Kaya-Home United FC, match of the championship Asia AFC Cup.
Vitesse Arnhem / FC GRONINGEN Prediction
Fortuna Sittard / ADO Den Haag Prediction
Heracles / VVV Venlo Prediction
Ajax / FC Utrecht Prediction
FC Twente / PEC Zwolle Prediction
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Postcolonial Reading of Hagar
A Postcolonial Reading of Hagar: A Christian Egyptian Perspective by Safwat Marzouk
The stories of Hagar and Ishmael have captured the attention of many readers from different cultural locations. Christian Egyptian readers of the Hebrew Bible have responded to the narrative of Hagar, the Egyptian maidservant of Sarah the Hebrew, in particular and interesting ways.
Many Egyptian Christians avoid identifying with Hagar and her son Ishmael, preferring instead to side with Sarah and her son Isaac. This decision is shaped by two attitudes that approach the narrative through sets of binary opposites. First, the story of Hagar has a long history of allegorization: in Galatians 4, Paul associates Hagar negatively with the law and Sarah positively with the promise. Second, the conflict and enmity between Muslims and Christians also affect the reception of the Hagar stories among Christian Egyptian communities. Although the social location of the oppressed and cast-out Hagar and Ishmael can be compared to that of Egypt’s marginalized Christian minority, their rejection of these two figures functions in a subtle way as a posture of resistance to the Muslim majority, who trace their traditions back to Hagar and Ishmael.
Christian Egyptian readers of the Hagar story might learn from postcolonial theory, which, by problematizing simple binaries that construct the self at the expense of the “other,” opens the door for mixed or hybrid identities. Rather than dismiss the Hebrew Bible because of its negative portrayals of Egypt or allegorize it to repress the political facet of identity, Christian Egyptians are invited to read the story of Hagar from their cultural location, holding their political and religious identities in a creative tension. Such a reading invites the community to critique its abuse of power when it marginalizes others, and also to recognize gifts of freedom that gush forth in the wilderness of oppression.
If the predominant image of Egypt in the Hebrew Bible is of slavery, we find a reversal in the story of Hagar, as Sarah, ancestor of the Israelites, afflicts an Egyptian woman. Though this reversal does not undo the oppression that the Israelites experienced in Egypt, it destabilizes the idea of Egypt as only a site of oppression. The same verb “to afflict” (Hebrew, ‘nh) that is used to describe Sarah’s affliction of Hagar (Gen 16:6) is also used to describe the oppression inflicted upon the Israelites by the Egyptians (Deut 26:6; for other shared words between the Hagar and the Exodus narratives, compare also Gen 16:6 with Exod 14:5 and Gen 21:10 with Exod 10:11, Exod 11:1, Exod 12:39). The verb “to wander” (Hebrew, ta’ah), describing Hagar’s loss of direction in the wilderness after she is forced to leave Abraham’s household, is also used when the people of Israel go astray in the wilderness after their deliverance from Egypt (Ps 95:10; compare Ps 107:4). In both references from The Psalms, God provides water for the thirsting Israelites, an act of divine benevolence also shown to Hagar and Ishmael: God opens Hagar’s eyes to see a well that allows them to survive in the desert. Thus God cares and provides for Hagar the Egyptian and for the Israelites alike.
A rereading of the story of Hagar and Sarah that offers Christian Egyptians a way to speak against their marginalization while avowing their political identity as Egyptians could have a ripple effect. What other privileged and powerful community members might be held accountable, as Sarah and Abraham should be, because of their gender, social status, or abuse of power?
Safwat Marzouk, "Postcolonial Reading of Hagar", n.p. [cited 18 Jan 2020]. Online: http://bibleodyssey.com/en/people/related-articles/postcolonial-reading-of-hagar
Safwat Marzouk
Assistant Professor, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
Safwat Marzouk is assistant professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana.
Abraham's Family
Abraham is the ancestor of the Israelites and of many Arabian groups, but his family, despite God’s promise, is often threatened.
Hagar, the African mother of many nations, who saw and named God, was enslaved, impregnated, abandoned, and liberated by Sarah and Abraham.
Hagar: She Who Speaks with God
Hagar, fleeing Abraham and Sarah’s household, is found by an angel of the Lord in the desert and receives a covenant blessing and a personal birth annunciation from God.
Egypt in the Bible
Michael Chan on both negative and positive images of Egypt in the Bible.
Egypt looms large in the biblical world--find out how and why with this collection of content.
Psalms, The
Hagar, Sarah, and Their Children: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives
Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives
Of or related to history after a colony is declared independent; also: of or related to postcolonialism, an academic orientation that critiques colonialism and impoerialism.
Characteristic of a deity (a god or goddess).
migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan
A West Semitic language, in which most of the Hebrew Bible is written except for parts of Daniel and Ezra. Hebrew is regarded as the spoken language of ancient Israel but is largely replaced by Aramaic in the Persian period.
The set of Biblical books shared by Jews and Christians. A more neutral alternative to "Old Testament."
A written, spoken, or recorded story.
The promise made by Yahweh to the ancestors in Genesis, including the promise of offspring, land, and blessing. Eventually the covenant becomes the essential part of this promise.
Gen 16:6
6But Abram said to Sarai, “Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her.
Deut 26:6
6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us,
Exod 10:11
11No, never! Your men may go and worship the Lord, for that is what you are asking.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
Exod 11:1
Warning of the Final Plague
1The Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go from here; indeed, ... View more
39They baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt; it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, no ... View more
10For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they do not regard my ways.”
Ps 107:4
4Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to an inhabited town;
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Black Sea Networks
at Columbia University
A collaborative initiative to investigate the Black Sea
as a hub of cultural, political, and historical interest
About the Black Sea Networks Initiative
The Black Sea has linked the cultures and economies of Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East for millennia. Today, the Black Sea region is the site of political and ecologic crises with global repercussions. But the region’s countries, with their diverse languages, religions, cultures, and political systems, are too often viewed in isolation, without a clear understanding of their profound interconnections. To successfully meet global challenges, we must learn to work with religious, cultural, and linguistic diversity, and understand the complex local contexts in which ordinary people lead their lives.
Black Sea Networks is an international teaching and learning initiative at Columbia University that connects regions, disciplines, and institutions, creating educational and research programs that target the diversity of cultural practices in a highly strategic zone. Building upon existing initiatives, including the Columbia-Boğaziçi Summer Program in Balkan Transcultural Studies, which was developed in partnership with Global Centers | Turkey, Black Sea Networks reconceptualizes existing programs within a larger Black Sea framework. Based in Columbia’s Slavic Department, the initiative will foster new bonds among Slavic, Hellenic, Classical, Comparative Literature, Middle Eastern, and East Asian Studies, as well as History, Political Science, Art History, Music, and Anthropology, creating opportunities to establish innovative interdisciplinary programs, such as Black Sea Studies and Environmental Science, or Black Sea Studies and Economics.”
Read more about the Black Sea Networks Initiative
Goals, outcomes, and impact of the initiative
Calendar of public events
Our institutional partners
Faculty, students, support team, and advisory board
Literature on the Black Sea region
Get in touch or subscribe to our listserv
Contact us or subscribe to our mailing list to receive notifications on upcoming events.
© 2019 Columbia University Slavic Department
Principle Investigator: Valentina Izmirlieva
Web design: Bradley Gorski
Text: Sophie Pinkham and Valentina Izmirlieva
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Home » Catalog » IDLEWILD
Posted by Joseph Belanger on Sep 16, 2006 in Catalog | 0 comments
Written and Directed by Bryan Barber
Hip-Hop duo, Outkast, has always been at the forefront of music video innovation. The man behind many of these innovations is director, Bryan Barber. With their Southern prohibition-era musical, IDLEWILD, the trio expands their quirky visual gimmickry to feature length size stimulation. The film opens at a funeral where we are introduced to Percival and Rooster (Outkast’s Andre 3000 and Big Boi) as they introduce themselves to each other. Flipping back and forth between black and white and vibrant colour, the images are manipulated like a vinyl LP being spun by a DJ. Eyes in frozen frames shift from left to right on beat with the jazzed-up Hip-Hop musical bed while the moving images jitter to the scratches of the record. And as musical notes come to life on the sheet music atop Percival’s upright piano, so does the film. It has an energy that invigorates your mind while it exhilarates your dancing feet. You feel that much cooler just for being there. Then, almost as quickly as your heart rate shot up, it slows down to its normal murmur as the lifeless story tries its hardest to suck all the force out of Barber’s hip fresh style. Pulling double duty as director and writer, Barber both saves and ruins his own film at the same time.
In recent years, media reports have reveled in telling the story of one of hip-hop’s most successful acts. Big Boi enjoys a lifestyle of excess that money can buy him – lots of booze, cigars and parties. Andre 3000 on the other hand seeks to purify his soul. Their last musical recording found them laying down tracks individually, encouraging rumours that the two could barely stand each other. There is plenty of opportunity for drama here that could translate easily to the screen. At first, this appears to be the story that Barber intends to tell. Percival and Rooster meet as young boys. Rooster is always getting into trouble while Percival must please his strict mortician father. As adults, Percival is still leading a straight, god-fearing existence while Rooster boozes it up at a club called Church as the major musical attraction. The way in which the story is set up leads you to think that you are about to watch a story in which two friends with two different motivations learn that they have an unbreakable bond despite all their differences – the kind of bond that will help them get through all of their struggles. Instead, in what I can only assume is a decided effort to get away from the story we are all familiar with, Barber takes his two characters in different directions. He takes them each so far from each other that, like their solo musical efforts, they barely end up on screen together. Their separate story paths range from banal to cliché to ridiculous and all the while there is a looming confusion as to why the friendship was established as the unshakeable center to begin with.
Another reason Barber should leave the writing duties to someone else is his complete lack of understanding of the female character. Paula Patton and Melinda Williams play the only two female characters of significance. Patton plays Angel Davenport, a sultry diva chanteuse who takes a liking to Percival, presumably because he respects her while everyone else, including the camera, ogles her. From the moment she makes her appearance on screen, with the first of a few fetishized close-ups of her feet, she turns the head of all the men and enrages all the chorus girls at Church. With her temptress persona cemented as her purpose straight away, it seems entirely bizarre when there is some background given to her in the later part of the film. Williams plays Zora, Rooster’s wife and mother to his numerous children. She scolds him for staying out all night and accuses him of fooling around on her while he’s boozing, to the point that she tries to run over a couple of girls she assumes her husband has been with. Of course, despite her constant complaints, she waits for him at home like the good wife she is, believing she’s won an argument because she has forced Rooster to take her and the kids shopping. With few exceptions, the remaining female cast members fill in as dancers who appear in little clothing that reveals plenty as they dance and shake around the men that love them. Their hollow, unmotivated dialogue becomes laughable as the film progresses.
Barber has a unique imagination. From a wall of cuckoo clocks cuckoo-ing melodically to a Matrix-ification of a swing dance sequence, IDLEWILD pushes its visual motif to the limits and dazzles the viewer. However, this is a musical, not a music video. Not only are solid story developments vital to get the viewer past the suspense of disbelief when people start to sing out of nowhere but the pacing, placement and relevance of musical numbers needs to be consistent. As Outkast rap on about the moment or their surroundings, they are not bringing the film forward but rather stopping it still. IDLEWILD could be recut into a series of four or five videos, leaving all the pointless filler on the floor and allowing Barber to shine on the right screen.
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In Context: Angels in America
Tony Kushner's Angels In America, directed by Ivo Van Hove, runs at BAM October 23—25. Context is everything, so get even closer to the show with this curated selection of original blog pieces, articles, interviews, and videos related to the production. Once you've seen it, help us keep the conversation going by telling us what you thought below.
Angels In America (PDF)
"Angels In America, the Spare Dutch Version" (WNYC)
"Why not have total the illusion, the total freedom for the audience to [imagine] where we are and to imagine everything [them]selves," asks the Angels director.
Ivo van Hove and Tony Kushner In Conversation
Watch Kushner and van Hove discuss all things Angels in this video from our Oct 22 talk.
Angels In America, 20 Years Later (NPR)
Tony Kushner discusses the Reagan-era context for his play, its controversial subject matter, and more.
Tony Kushner: Does Theater Still Matter? (YouTube)
The greatest gift of theater’s “poverty of means”? For Kushner, allowing people to “believe and disbelieve at the same time.”
Angels Approaching (Time Out New York)
“Ivo van Hove's astonishing production at the Toneelgroep in Amsterdam was done with no scenery whatsoever," says Tony Kushner. "And it was kind of extraordinary.”
What Happens When Love Is Witnessed On Stage? (Out Magazine)
"What attracts me to the homosexual relationship in these plays," says Ivo van Hove, "is that it’s a forbidden thing. It’s not something you can live out in society; it’s hidden and secret."
My Sweet Memories of Angels in America (BAM blog)
A BAM staffer reflects on his experience working on the original Broadway production of "Perestroika."
Ivo van Hove (Exeunt Magazine)
The Dutch director discusses bad-boy avant-gardism and more.
Writing the Playwright (Guernica)
When Angels premiered, “the censorious, ego-anarchist, theocratic, anti-tax, anti-government right-wing madness had had its play,” says Kushner, “and it was time to do something else.”
How I Made It: Tony Kushner on Angels in America (New York Magazine)
Kushner’s play was born partly in dream, partly at a Carroll Gardens subway stop.
Worthwhile Words
Even if the play is more or less done, the theatrical event, the live event is not. [Theater] asks people to engage collectively in a relationship with an event, with an action, with a field of meaning and not with a thing, not with an object—and to engage in an event that will respond and be transformed by the degree of your engagement with it. So it has a fluidity in that sense, and a completely human quality, that I think no recorded event can have—which isn't to say that theater is superior, but it's a different kind of experience, and the difficulties and awkwardnesses and inconveniences and imperfections of theater are all part of the power of theatricality. And maybe now that we're entering into the Avatar age, it's even more true that theater teaches a kind of double consciousness, a critical consciousness: You have to learn, if you're really going to play the game and understand what is going on in front of you, you have to be willing to consider the way in which what you're looking at both is and isn't what it appears to be—what the nature of artifice is, and how it relates to meaning and understanding. You could argue that all art participates in questions of artifice and reality, but I think theater more than any other form is a construct that places that dialectic at the center of an event. And I think what makes theater so essential and irreplaceable is that we desperately need to struggle with those questions. Those are the questions that life presents us with over and over again, and you have to be able to see double to be able to make sense of life. —Tony Kushner
So how did you enjoy the show? Likes? Dislikes? Surprises? Tell us what's on your mind in the comments below.
Labels: 2014 Next Wave Festival, Angels In America, In Context, Ivo van Hove, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Tony Kushner
Incredible that a 5 hour production in Dutch(!) could be so mesmerizing. Absolutely adored the show--staging, actors. I still haven't figured out why Dutch (other than that was the director's language/company). Not sure that the language element really added to the show, but it certainly did not distract. BUT, the boxed dinner service was a mess. Ill-organized (waited 20 minutes in a mobbed queue for a boxed meal) and clumsy. Why take tickets and names? Why only delivering meals at one small location? Why not have more tables, especially for people who can't sit on the floor. Saw one older gentleman bent almost in half struggling to carry his pizza-sized box up the steep stairs...
I love "Angels in America" and was excited at the prospect of seeing it live. While I enjoyed this production, I couldn't help wishing I was watching it in English. Part of this stemmed from frustration over needing to read the supertitles instead of being able to watch the actors. But more fundamentally, I think "Angels" is just such a quintessentially American play. It deals with a very specific period of U.S. history. Hearing it in Dutch was distracting. When I bought my ticket, I didn't actually notice the tiny asterisk saying the play was in Dutch. In the future, BAM should make that more prominent. It was pretty essential to the ultimate experience.
One of the things I love about BAM is that they bring the rest of the world to you. I could spend the money to fly to Amsterdam or Germany to see a Van Hove play but it would not be in English. BAM finds the plays, brings them to us and gives us subtitles.
It was a spectacular production in every way. I saw the original ages ago, the TV version, the revival at Signature 3 years ago and now this. the play never fails to stimulate , move, provoke and capture your attention. i wouldn't have missed it for the world. Another plus, the easily read subtitles were a blessing. You could read every word of Kushner's brilliant and funny dialogue.No need to strain to hear it.
I had mixed feelings, but essentially I was moved. I don't understand why Tony Kushner was so moved by the first appearance of the angel, who was neither a woman nor seemed anything unusual--more like hospital personnel. And I didn't understand why Ethel Rosenberg was so chic.
My friend gave me and my boyfriend last min tickets to the show Friday night. WOW. I was blown away. I have only seen the movie and did not know what to expect. It was so simple but moving. His tickets came with dinner which we assumed was chips and sandwich. Again, blown away. We both had salmon, salad, and desert. The lady told us we were able to eat at our seat which we did. Perfect Night. I will be back.
The actor playing Roy Cohn was very effective in portraying the long decline into terminal illness.
The play itself is two hours too long and dated.
The Dutch production was much more effective than the bloated movie version.
We could have done without all the very loud music.
Very high quality production with wonderful acting. Unfortunately reading the supertitles did distract from watching the acting itself.
Loved this production! Everything about the evening was magical. I wasn't bothered by it being in Dutch at all as the acting is so good. In fact I found the meaning came through more than the literal sense of the words had it been in English. It brought out a different aspect of the play, it's essence. I was mesmerized.
"Angels in America" Grab my heart and startled me. The empty stage was an authentic metaphor of human nature and life. It was Joyous to be part of such a real theatre experience. A Dionysian theatre.
I wish I could see Ivo Van Hove with this group exploring on "Oedipus Rex".
Bilha Birman Rivlin
My a** still hurts from 5 hours in those ancient chairs in the balcony!
Andy Warhol’s Brooklyn: A Tour
Things To Do With 1,000 Pounds of Salt
In Context: Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films...
Last-minute BAM-inspired Halloween Costume Ideas
In Context: The Object Lesson
The Object Lesson—an interview with director David...
Gabriel Kahane on Sunshine Noir
Birds With Skymirrors—The Last Dance on Earth
BAM Blog Questionnaire: Zvi Sahar of Salt of the E...
On Pina Bausch and Killer Heels
My Sweet Memories of Angels in America
Pina Bausch's Kontakthof—Innocence Regained
The Source: An Interview with Director Daniel Fish...
In Context: Six Characters in Search of an Author
The Source source material
In Context: Salt of the Earth
BASETRACK Live—Virtually Home
Puppets on Film 2014: The Dark Crystal Legacy
In Context: Kontakthof
In Context: The Source
In Context: Brooklyn Bred 2: Pablo Helguera
In Context: Brooklyn Bred 2: Dynasty Handbag
In Context: Brooklyn Bred 2: Clifford Owens
Barbara Kruger Takes the Stage with L.A. Dance Pro...
BAM Blog Questionnaire: Sébastien Marcovici, L.A. ...
Fireside Chat with the Artists of Brooklyn Bred 2
DanceMotion USA—Mark Morris Dance Group Tours the ...
In Context: L.A. Dance Project
Little Fugitive, a Brooklyn indie classic
In Context: Wild Grass
Watch Your Step!
Remembering Fred Ho—a note from Darrell McNeill
Lisa Dwan—Strapped In, Babbling Away
BAM and Thomas Edison Light Up the Stage
BAM Blog Questionnaire: Julius von Bismarck of QUA...
In Context: Moment Marigold
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Structuring trusts for intergenerational transfers
As set out in earlier posts, and with thanks to the Television Education Network, today’s post addresses the issue of ‘Structuring trusts for intergenerational transfers’ at the following link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9Sna2eXvag
As usual, a transcript of the presentation for those that cannot (or choose not) to view the presentation is below –
Probably the biggest risk when structuring trusts is to look at any particular issue in isolation.
Obviously, asset protection from a family law perspective is critical and fundamental in many situations. However, it is also important to be factoring in a myriad of commercial and revenue issues, such as tax, stamp duty and GST.
There's also related issues in terms of asset protection from a bankruptcy perspective, and the overall estate and succession planning objectives.
There are a number of adjacent issues that mean whenever an arrangement is put in place, it must be reviewed regularly.
Adopting a holistic approach is absolutely critical if steps are being considered immediately before a relationship actually breaks down, because arguably the one key principle, not just out of Spry, but out of all the family law cases in recent times, is that the courts will look very dimly on any such steps.
Topics: intergenerational transfers, Structuring trusts, Television Education Network
Party de-identification in court decisions
As a general statement, one of the key principles of the court system in Australia is that of open justice. The vast majority of cases are held in an open court, and the decisions when released, provide a full factual background and detailed analysis of the relevant legal issues.
This said, the principles of open justice do not automatically require the publication of the identity of the parties involved.
Particularly where the court believes that an individual involved in the case would be impacted on adversely in terms of their privacy and dignity, their personal details are often de-identified when the decision of the case is released.
The three primary techniques used in this regard are:
a. referring to the parties by reference to initials;
b. referring to the case simply by reference to a number; and
c. particularly in family court cases, a protocol is often adopted where the first initial of the parties’ names is used and the same number of letters are also used, however an entirely new word is created. For example, a case involving a party named 'Burgess' may instead be referred to as the case of 'Boseman'.
Image credit: Jack cc
Topics: court decisions, court system, open justice, Party de-identification
Spry enforcement proceedings
As set out in earlier posts, and with thanks to the Television Education Network, today’s post addresses the issue of ‘Spry enforcement proceedings’ at the following link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ewuWIpJE3g
Stephens is the case about the actual enforcement proceedings of the Spry case and it reinforces just how wide powers of the court are, in terms of making and implementing decisions under the property settlement regime.
In the particular case of Stephens, there were aspects of the judgment that saw transactions that took place after the relationship had broken down, completely ignored and unwound.
What the court also did was unwind transactions that had taken place before the relationship had broken down as well as those which related to third parties. For example, independent trustees and the children of the relationship who had been involved in those transactions were actually forced to comply with orders, that on the face of it just applied to Dr and Mrs Spry.
Topics: Spry case, Spry enforcement proceedings, Television Education Network, video
Apple iTunes Podcasts launched by View
Leveraging our successful webinar series, View is excited to announce the launch of our iTunes podcast channel.
In creating this new service we have joined the thousands of public and commercial broadcasters, renowned celebrities and independent podcasters on iTunes giving you immediate free access via your iphone, ipad or computer to specialist content across a range of topics.
Each podcast contains 60 minutes of audio content from View’s various webinar and seminar programs. The podcasts can be found on our website at the following link – http://viewlegal.com.au/view-legal-podcast/ or directly on iTunes – simply search ‘View Legal’.
Podcasts already released include –
(a) Failed Trust Distributions
(b) Estate planning and asset protection
(c) Superannuation and estate planning
(d) Are you ready for June 30?
(e) Testamentary trusts - the fundamentals
Making our webinars available as podcasts offers yet another mode of accessing specialist content and the ability to ‘try before you buy’ – recordings giving access to the full video presentation of each webinar and seminar are also available via our website in DVD, USB and streaming formats – see http://viewlegal.com.au/recorded-webinars/
New View podcasts will be released on iTunes every few weeks, so consider subscribing for automatic notification.
Topics: itunes, podcast, webinars
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Panel: The Future As I See It (San Diego Comic Con 50, 2019)
Published on August 2, 2019 August 2, 2019 by Bryan SchmidtLeave a comment
This is the panel I moderated on Friday of Comic Con 50 in San Diego with authors discussing how they write and envision the future in their works.
Gini Koch – National bestselling Author, Alien series
Timothy Zahn – Number 1 New York Times bestselling Author, Star Wars Thrawn, Quadrail series, Cobra series
Steven L. Sears – Screenwriter/Author, Xena, The A-Team, Riptide
Jonathan Maberry – New York Times bestselling Author, Joe Ledger series, Rot and Ruin series, VWars
Javier Grillo-Marxuach – Screenwriter/Author/Comic Writer, Middleman, Lost, Blood & Treasure
Seanan McGuire-New York Times bestselling author/Comic Writer, Newsflesh, October Daye, Spidergirl, The X-Men
Categories appearances/schedule, General•Tags Alien, Ateam, Blood and Treasure, Cobra, Gini Koch, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Lost, Middleman, Nathan Maberry, Quadrail, Riptide, San Diego Comic Con, SDCC, Seanan McGuire, Spiderman, Star Wars, Steven L. Sears, Thrawn, Timothy Zahn, Xena, XMen
Sprunk-Schmidt Original Trilogy Rewatch: Empire Strikes Back
Published on November 26, 2012 by admin4 Comments
A couple weeks back my buddy and fellow author Jon Sprunk and I decided the time had come to revisit our childhoods and rewatch the original Star Wars movies that changed our lives. Knowing other fans might enjoy sharing the experience and learning how it’s influenced our writing, etc., we decided to discuss it on our blogs. You can find previous posts here, followed by the latest–a discussion of “The Empire Strikes Back.“
Intro & Invitation: http://bryanthomasschmidt.net/2012/11/11/announcing-the-sprunk-schmidt-star-wars-original-trilogy-rewatch-youre-invited/
A New Hope: http://jonsprunk.blogspot.com/2012/11/hello-friends-today-i-have-special-treat.html
Bryan Thomas Schmidt: So Jon, you said watching Empire you found it to be better than you remembered. Give us some thoughts on that, please.
Jon Sprunk: Well, Empire is my favorite movie of the trilogy, and watching it again after a few years just reinforced that opinion. For one, most movie sequels are disappointing, but in Empire Lucas and Kershner flip the script on us. The imperials, via Vader, are the driving force in most of the scenes. For a kid (and an adult) who idolized Vader, that is a powerful device. I really loved the Dagobah scenes. Luke’s training is handled so deftly in scenes that are varied and well-timed that it feels like he’s actually learning something rather than an 80’s-style “training” montage to crappy music. We get more information about the Force, versed in eastern philosophical tennants, which just rings true. In fact, the entire concept of the Force always struck me as elegant–simple enough for a child to grasp, yet full of deeper meanings and symbolism. Also, watching Empire on DVD on a good television reminded how well these movies hold up, visually. Bespin city is just gorgeous.
BTS: And here’s where we diverge. I have waivered back and forth over the years about whether Empire or A New Hope was my favorite. This viewing leaves me feeling that A New Hope is a better film. For one, it’s far more imminently quotable. It’s also more hopeful and encouraging. I found Empire staler on this rewatch, maybe because I’ve rewatched it so often. I have never been a Yoda fan. Whereas you enjoy the training scenes, I found them the most frustrating part of the film. For me, the heart of Empire is the Leia-Han story and the furtherance of Vader’s journey. Luke’s takes second fiddle and is far less interesting. I found Yoda barely more tolerable than Jar Jar. Although, to be fair, in films where Yoda has appeared after this one, I found him easier to stomach. The visuals do hold up impressively. The battle scenes, etc. are amazing. The scenes with the ice monster and tauntauns a bit less so, given what technology since Jurassic Park can do but still, they pulled off amazing stuff considering when they were made. Favorite moments?
JS: The Battle of Hoth is one of my favorite battle scenes of all time. The Falcon’s plunge into the asteroid field–pure gold. I’m so glad they were able to make the ship more agile and evasive, because watching it fly through the asteroids is poetry in motion. I still wonder, though, why Leia couldn’t have been on one of the laser cannons, firing back at the TIE fighters. The scene where Luke enters the evil cave on Dagobah is haunting (and a good foreshadowing of his later duel with Vader). And, of course, the Luke-Vader duel. I still remember seeing it in the theater for the first time and freaking out when Vader reveals he is Luke’s father.
BTS: I love the battle of Hoth. I enjoy the chase scenes through the asteroid. The Bespin escape is a lot of fun as is the freezing Han scene. I also love the Vader scenes with his men, who are so ever expendable. And I too like that Vader-Luke duel in the cave and later the Vader reveal. There are some really great scenes. But I definitely enjoy the action scenes more than the drill training Yoda sequence generally. I also enjoyed the reveal of the Emperor this time around. Did anything disappoint or turn out different than you’d remembered it?
JS: Not too much. Yoda’s animations looked low-tech, of course, but that’s because I’m jaded with the current CGI capabilities. I found the Han-Leia “angry romance” angle a little juvenile in the beginning, but they got to where they needed to be at the end.
BTS: I actually enjoy their banter. It provided some of the best lines and the right amount of tension breaking/escalating humor for me. I really enjoyed the whole ice planet angle, much as I did with the BSG Ice Planet episodes in 1979, some of my favorites. The ice speeders, the Imperial Walkers, the melting in Leia’s chambers, lots of cool new stuff. Also a fun cameo from Cliff Clavin actor John Ratzenberger as the chief Rebel officer during the part where Han discovers Luke is missing.
JS: “Then I’ll see you in Hell!” Aye, I agree. Hoth was a wonderful start to the movie in many aspects. Kershner managed to squeeze in a budding love affair, Luke’s growing powers and new training goal (Dagobah), an escalation of the war (Imperial Walkers ftw!), brought back Obi-Wan for some sage advice… And I think Bespin was a good ending point for the middle film.
BTS: That’s a good point, actually. Middle film. One thing Empire does very well structurally which very definitely influenced me is be a middle chapter. At the end of A New Hope, it feels like closure. Despite the fact Darth Vader spins off into space alive, the Death Star is destroyed, the Rebels have won, our heroes are rewarded. Sure, there are enough seeds and loose ends for us to believe that there’s more we can look forward to, but also it’s enough of an ending that if the film had not been as successful, it could have stood alone fairly well. I really modeled my Davi Rhii series structurally after that. The first book, The Worker Prince, stands alone, despite having villains still alive and loose ends. But the second chapters tend to be harder. With a second movie, you expect more. You expect it to top the first in many ways–emotional arcs, character development, intensity, stakes, etc. But you also expect it to set up future possibilities, most of the time. Like any trilogy, it becomes a challenge then to make such a film and have it truly feel like it has an ending. Empire has all of these aspects–character development in spades, intensity in its darker feel, stakes as Vader goes unchained off to hunt like a madman with no Tarkin to reign him in, etc. But it ends on a cliffhanger and yet feels complete. Because by the end of the journey, it’s almost like so much has happened that we need to come up for air. OMG, Vader is Luke’s father? OMG, Han is frozen in carbonite? OMG, Leia and Han? What about Leia and Luke? etc. Despite the fact we are dying to know what happens next, we feel a sense of the chapter ending and a natural conclusion, even though the story very much goes on. Storytellers can learn a great deal from that.
JS: I couldn’t agree more. Empire is everything I hope my second books could be, take the best parts of the first chapter and build on them in a meaningful way, increasing the stakes while making us care more. And Walkers. And the Super Imperial Star Destroyer. One thing I noticed was that everything was a little bit slicker in the second movie. The sets were more polished, and even the actors were better groomed.
BTS: It’s true. Everyone was more comfortable and prepared. The first movie was a fly by the seat of your paints independent movie with low expectations, the second movie was the sequel to one of the greatest hits in box office history with the highest expectations and the pressure to go with it, so they were extra prepared and also benefitted from everything done and learned for the first film, just as I hope each subsequent book shows author growth learned from prior books.
I also think that from storytelling craft there was growth. They had a lot of back history worked out but Lucas brought on too top notch writers in Leigh Brackett, already a scifi and screenwriting legend at that point, and Lawrence Kasdan, a very smart up and comer. They surely demanded he figure things out that he’d winged before as did the director and the actors. Having read the behind the scenes making of paperback, I know some things were worked out on set as actors like Harrison Ford forced clarifications and changes. Other things had to be worked out with a third movie in mind, since Lucas now knew there’d be one coming. So he was able to complicate and add depth and complications to backstory and character arcs he didn’t bother with or need for A New Hope but which laid ground work and took the characters in directions to allow for a much stronger follow up.
JS: Yes, there is definitely much less making stuff up on the fly in the second and third movies. It’s interesting because I understand the need to throw everything into a first movie (book) because you never know if there’s actually going to be a second or third. But then there is, and you have to figure out some things that you winged or left mysterious in the first installment.
BTS: Exactly. Let’s talk about characters a bit. Empire introduced some important and less so new characters, whom we will see again. Admiral Piett, Boba Fett, Yoda, and Lando Calrissian, most significantly. I personally favor Lando and Boba Fett amongst these, because although he’s a small character, Boba Fett is one of those unpredictable menacing, mysterious badass characters that just keeps you guessing, and Lando fills in backstory for Han in many ways and also, it’s about time they had a major black character. Shouldn’t have taken this long. I love the way Han and Lando are parallel scoundrels yet, whereas Han is all rough edges and seat of the pants, Lando is smooth and refined. Who’s your favorite of these and why?
JS: I wish I liked Yoda more, but I’m not a big fan of puppets in live-action movies (nor most CGI ones, either. Gollum being the notable exception). I guess I’d say Boba Feet for the same reason, even though he goes out like a punk in Return. Lando is a good character, but I think he’d make a better spinoff hero on his own. I never really bought into him becoming a beacon of the Alliance. I think he would have been better served in his own element, fighting the good fight among the scum and villainy of the galaxy’s underworld. Piett… meh. Give me Grand Admiral Thrawn any day.
BTS: LOL Well, if Thrawn had faced off Vader that would have been REALLY interesting. I’d like to see that cage match. Yeah, most of the Imperial officers don’t show any backbone in dealing with Vader after the few Council members with Tarkin in A New Hope, Vader just runs rampant. But then, given his power and influence and ability to choke people, and, well, “the Emperor is not as forgiving as I am,” I’d say life expectancy put a damper on bravery and confidence. Favorite new set pieces/vehicles? The Imperial Walkers are pretty damn cool, although I like the mini-walkers in Return better, myself. I also like the Bespin fighters and the Hoth snow speeders. But my favorite new set pieces are probably Bespin and the Hoth base.
JS: Well, the Millennium Falcon isn’t a new set piece, but it acts differently in this movie. I already mentioned how it’s lightyears more maneuverable, but also it has a stronger subplot arc of its own (the malfunctioning hyperdrive). After that, I liked Bespin (Cloud City) a lot, especially the contrasts between the gorgeous white-and-silver upper city and the dark/gloomy undercity where Luke fights Vader (a second Cave!).
BTS: Yes and the Falcon is always one of my favorites and the one Star Wars toy I never had and still lust after a bit. Sigh. I could make it manuever… heh… From a storytelling perspective, another thing that’s interesting is the way Lucas has woven the subplots and majors together. At the beginning, Vader is hunting the Rebels for Luke. That’s the overarching storyline. Vader is hunting Luke throughout. Then they set up Han-Leia sexual tension that wasn’t as direct in A New Hope but was hinted at by the Falcon cockpit scene where Luke gets jealous when Han asks “Do you think a guy like me and…” That storyline begins with Han daring her to admit her feelings and her denial but then they are thrust together twice, first by fear for Luke out in the cold and then when Han takes her aboard the Falcon to flee. Now they have to deal with each other and their storyline is embossed with a chase through asteroids by the Empire, and then the Bespin visit. The third major plotline is Luke’s quest to be a Jedi and get training from Obiwan’s Jedi trainer, Yoda, which leads him to flee to Dagobah instead of rendezvous with the fleet. With the exception of Luke’s training, all three plots are intertwined throughout, but even at training, there is a sense of inevitability that Luke must face Vader, as evidenced in the cave scene and later when he goes to rescue his friends, bringing them all together again, in a sense. It’s very smart writing and crafting. They manage to pull it off while keeping up an intense pace, not easy to do.
JS: Quite right. And Empire is the first time we see the Emperor (well, a holo-image of him). This sets up the third movie, of course, and gives us a deeper insight into the machinations of the empire. It’s important to know that the Emperor places such high stock on a single person (Luke), and firmly entrenches the idea that the battle between the Light and Dark sides of the Force is just as important, if not more so, than the war between the Alliance and Empire. Then there is Yoda’s line when Luke leaves Dagobah. Obi-Wan says there goes our last hope, and Yoda replies, “No, there is another.” That one line haunted me until the third movie came out, a powerful bit of foreshadowing.
BTS: Yes, and they paid it off nicely which we’ll discuss in Return. I think overall, if I had to sum up Empire, it’s a maturer Star Wars chapter in many ways than either of the others. In Return, Lucas used Ewoks to return to a level of childlikeness that many fans dislike but also that took bite out of the darker aspects, but we don’t see that here. Here the dark overhanging the entire story is a constant. Jeopardy is the watch word throughout: from the jeapordy of the Rebels as the Empire finds them again, to Han and Leia fleeing Vader, to the dark inevitability of Luke’s face off with Vader, and then, “I am your father” with Luke escaping, sans hand, but Han off with Boba Fett. Never in the entire film are we not on the edge of our seats wondering how one or more of our heroes will survive. That lends to pacing and tension but also to a less hopeful spirit than the first film in many ways. And speaking of, “I am your father,” we haven’t talked about big reveals yet. What were your big “Wow” moments?
JS: When Luke lost his hand to Vader, that was a pretty big surprise back when I saw the movie the first time because I had grown accustomed to the idea that the heroes would emerge unscathed from their adventures, and that moment introduced a hint of true mortality which had previously been reserved for nameless stormtroopers and rebel soldiers. Seeing the Emperor for the first time was also big. I still get chills when Yoda lifts the X-Wing out of the swamp. That is why you fail, indeed. Then the entire sequence from when Luke lands in Bespin, shoots at Fett, and then fights Vader is spectacular.
BTS: I agree about the hand and the significance of it, but the symbolism of his replacement hand looking like Vader’s after the “father” revelation also was shocking. If you’d harbored doubts before, then that moment, you just knew it had to be true. I think the mortality of Han was brought into question as well. And we were left hanging. I think the mortality of Han was brought into question as well. And we were left hanging. The X-Wing thing was huge. I also think the revelation of Darth as being humbled by anyone was big. It humanized him as well as reminding us that maybe he wasn’t the darkest evil possible because the Emperor was worse or might be. Also, that Ben could still appear and was still alive in another realm was a really important revelation which became far more important in the next film and prequel trilogy. So that was a big moment. I also think the Han-Leia thing was a bit startling at the time because we were kinda rooting for Luke to get the girl in A New Hope and now he had other goals and needs. But it sure made it easier to transition to the revelations of the next film.
Well, it’s almost time for the third film. I actually tracked down copies of the theatrical releases on DVD and am going to rewatch those for the first time in decades. That’ll be interesting. Meanwhile, any final thoughts on Empire?
JS: My final thought is that I loved it. Empire is possibly my favorite movie of all time. Part of that is surely nostalgia, but part is also due to its importance in the trilogy– the farmboy enters a larger world and faces his enemy on near-equal footing, the scoundrel and the princess find strength in each other, and Vader comes to the forefront as the primary antagonist.
BTS: I still can’t get over the part where you said Vader was your hero growing up, but perhaps if you cry at the end of the next film we can unpack that. Okay, all, we’ll be back next week to discuss Return Of The Jedi. Our first discussions can be found here:
Jon Sprunk grew up in central Pennsylvania, the eldest of four and attended Lock Haven University. He graduated with a B.A. in English in 1992. After his disastrous first novel failed to find a publisher, he sought gainful employment. Finally, after many more rejections and twists and turns of life, he joined Pennwriters and attended their annual conference in 2004. His short fiction has appeared in Cloaked in Shadow: Dark Tales of Elves, Dreams & Visions #34 andCemetery Moon #4. In June 2009, he signed a multi-book contract with Pyr Books by whom his Shadow Trilogy dark fantasy series have been published. He can be found on twitter as @jsprunk70, on Facebook and via his website athttp://jonsprunk.com/.
Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince(2011) received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. A sequel The Returning followed in 2012 and The Exodus will appear in 2013, completing the space opera Saga Of Davi Rhii. His first children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes For Kids (ebook only) and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter- Land Of Legends (forthcoming) appeared from Delabarre Publishing in 2012. His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. He edited the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 (2012) and is working on Beyond The Sun for Fairwood Press, headlined by Robert Silverberg, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mike Resnick and Nancy Kress, a Ray Gun Revival Best Of Collection for Every Day Publishing and World Encounters and Space & Shadows: SpecNoir with coeditor John Helfers, all forthcoming. He hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter and is an affiliate member of the SFWA.
Categories Guest Posts•Tags Bryan Thomas Schmidt, classics, discussion, Empire Strikes Back, films, Jon Sprunk, Movies, original trilogy, rewatch, Science Fiction, Space Opera, space westerns, Sprunk-Schmidt, Star Wars
Announcing the Sprunk-Schmidt Star Wars Original Trilogy Rewatch: You’re Invited
Published on November 11, 2012 November 19, 2012 by admin5 Comments
The Project: Star Wars Original Trilogy Rewatch
The Hosts: Jon Sprunk & Bryan Thomas Schmidt
The Invitation To You: Rewatch the original trilogy in order, one a week, and join the conversation.
Jon and I are of an age where the release of the original Star Wars: A New Hope to theatres in 1977 remains a seminal moment. Bef0re that, while stories were fascinating, the possibilities had limits. Star Wars: A New Hope changed all that. It opened up possibilities for our imaginations that went beyond anything we’d seen before. From its state of the art special effects to its return to a classic storytelling style, Star Wars captured the public and never let go, launching a franchise, a legend, and an empire.
For me, Bryan, Star Wars infused my sense of what I wanted stories to be and the kind of stories I strive to tell, from witty banter to lots of action and large scale, my own Saga of Davi Rhii has been said to capture “the Star Wars feel,” and my forthcoming epic fantasies surely show that influence as well. I still enjoy a good space opera book, Star Wars tie-ins included. And I still like hopeful stories of good v. evil and the possibility of real heroes one can look up to and admire. One of my all time favorite sequences is still the opening battle of A New Hope, and I also still love the escape from the Death Star and the Battle of Yavin tons. There was something about the coming of age, innocent Luke that still attracts me, and I’ve used similar elements in both my Davi Rhii and Dawning Age novel series as well as some short stories.
Jon says: “I was seven years old when A New Hope arrived in theaters. I saw it seventeen times that summer. Never before had a movie—or any story—affected me so profoundly. The original Star Wars films were basic enough that a child could understand them, with their larger-than-life battles between the Empire and the Rebellion. Yet they were also dynamic enough to enthrall an entire generation of wannabe X-Wing pilots, smuggers, Jedi, and Sith Lords. It wasn’t until I was much older that I started to appreciate these films for their technical aspects, especially A New Hope, which I consider one of the most structurally-perfect movies ever made. There is no doubt that a little bit of Star Wars infuses my writing, no matter the subject or genre.”
So, starting this week, Jon and I will watch Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and dialogue about it. That post will go up on his blog. We’ll talk about things we like and don’t like and why, how we react to them now as opposed to when we first encountered them as children, influences on our writing, genre, and so much more. You’re invited to join us in comments. We think it’ll be a lot of fun.
So let’s take a trip back to a galaxy far, far away together. We look forward to engaging with you.
Our conversation begins on A New Hope here: http://jonsprunk.blogspot.com/2012/11/hello-friends-today-i-have-special-treat.html
Categories General, Reviews, The Saga Of Davi Rhii•Tags a new hope, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, collaboration, conversation, Davi Rhii, epic fantasy, Fantasy, George Lucas, Jon Sprunk, original trilogy, rewatch, Science Fiction, Shadow series, Space Opera, space western, Star Wars
Write Tip: 8 Key Elements For Capturing The Star Wars Feel In Your Story
Published on March 12, 2012 March 10, 2012 by admin4 Comments
One of the highest compliments I’ve gotten on my debut novel, The Worker Prince, and I’ve heard it over and over, is that it “feels like reading Star Wars: A New Hope.” This was very deliberate on my part, and I referred a lot in writing it to Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy and Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Academy books. It’s a challenge to capture the feel without going too far into imitation. And while watching the films repeatedly and reading tie-in books is definitely essential, I also think there are other factors which must be present to lend the right aura. Here are the 8 I’ve identified:
1) Your story must have an epic scope. Both Star Wars and The Worker Prince are stories about a quest of good vs. evil, to win justice over evil and save the universe, or at least their part of it. This is epic and requires bigness: big baddees, big ships, big planets and world, big stakes, big heroes, etc. You can’t really do it well staying inside an Enterprise or just on a single planet. There has to be a larger picture and bigger feel to capture it. Despite the different key focus of each movie or book, all encompass this epic scope of good vs. evil.
2) Larger than life characters. You need characters we can relate to, yes. Who can’t relate to the young farm boy with big dreams of a more exciting life somewhere else? Both Luke Skywalker and Davi Rhii (protagonist of The Worker Prince) share that trait. And thus, the first segments of both trilogies are coming of age tales about their quest to become men and men with a purpose. Han Solo and Leia are larger than life. Leia may be a petite figure but her attitude far outsizes her physical body. Han Solo is edgy. He comes off as dangerous and unpredictable, but, as we get to know him, he has a morality not so different from our other heroes, and, above all, he wants good to win. Chewbacca is another obvious example, as is Darth Vader. Both are feared on sight for similar and different reasons. And both are formidable foes. One possesses a kind, giving heart. The other is selfish and cruel. But neither does it half way. Vader takes his cruelty to the extreme just as Chewbacca takes his kindness to extremes with his loyalty and dedication to his friends. I gave Davi Rhii some companions who have trait like this. None of them is a copy or exactly identical to any Star Wars character. I was careful about this. Davi’s love interest, Tela, is a pilot, a slave, but she has Leia’s sass, values and strength of will. His companions Yao, a tall alien, and Farien, a shorter, bulker, edgier human, compete and banter with Davi throughout their adventures much like Luke, Han and Leia do. And the bad guy, Xalivar, is definitely a dark lord, even though he and Vader approach it very differently. The anti-heroes are not dominant in these worlds. Luke is pretty clear cut in his goodness as is Leia. Han teeters on the edge but he comes out good overall in the end. The same is true of characters in my saga. There are very clear cut bad and good characters, not a lot left up to reader interpretation.
3) Adrenaline filled, relentless action. High stakes require a sense of fast pace and constant jeopardy for your characters. They can never be totally at ease or seem to get ahead without something new and dangerous knocking them off course. The action scenes are intense, with real danger, and the character’s witty banter adds to both the urgency and tension while also infusing much needed humor at times. Zahn and Anderson’s action scenes were particular important to me in writing the many action sequences of The Worker Prince, because I wanted to capture this style. I also had to make sure the action only lets up for short periods. The story always had to keep its sense that the heroes’ lives were on the line.
4) An overarching ideology with which characters must wrestle and which they must interpret in living according to their own understandings. In Star Wars, this is called “The Force.” In The Worker Prince, I used a conflict of religions. Not only do all characters good and evil wrestle with what these belief systems mean for them and how to interpret them in their lives (in both stories), but so do the two major opposing forces: The Empire and The Rebels in Star Wars, The Borali Alliance and the Vertullians in The Worker Prince. Some characters, like Han and Farien, are indifferent and don’t really hold much credence to the ideologies. They live by their own code of morality, even if they share some of the larger ideology’s values. Other characters honor the ideology for living good lives, serving others, like Luke, the Jedi, Leia, Davi Rhii. Vader, Xalivar and the baddies, however, turn that ideology into a force for evil. Vader playing with the dark side, and Xalivar persecuting anyone who doesn’t share the traditional birthright and ideology of his Boralian people.
5) Rapport/banter. I already mentioned how much this adds to action scenes but it adds to character in general. Good guys banter. It’s part of their rapport. And good guys banter with bad guys as well. Much of this occurs with humor. Humor humanizes the characters, lessens the tension at the right moments, and endears the characters to the audience. It’s fun, too. Banter is difficult to write without dipping into silliness. Star Wars has certainly been accused of it, at times. And I’d imagine The Worker Prince will get a few criticisms, too. But audiences love it. C-3PO and R2D2 aren’t popular for their looks. It’s their heart and personality, so often expressed through banter, which won audiences over. There’s a reason action movies are known for quotable lines. They may be silly but they sure are memorable. The key is to find proper balance and not take it too far one way or the other.
6) Cool gadgets and vehicles. Lightsabers, blasters, landspeeders, X-Wings, Tie Fighters, The Millennium Falcon–these are characters as much as the people in Star Wars. In The Worker Prince, we have blasters, datapads, Skitters, Floaters, air taxis, VS28 fighters and more. All these ships become huge parts of the world and how it operates. And they play essential roles in the characters’ abilities to survive and triumph over adversity. Can you imagine the stories without these things?
7) A Sense Of Wonder And Discovery. It’s no accident that Star Wars: A New Hope is a coming of age tale. It’s about Luke’s self-discovery and we discover it along with him: his world, his abilities, his future, etc. Davi Rhii takes a similar journey in The Worker Prince. Both approach the world, as young people often do, with wonder and curiosity that’s contageous. And they also share a drive to discover how to make the world better and how to be better men. The second stories, Empire Strikes Back and The Returning, change focus a bit. In Empire, it’s more of Han and Leia’s story. Their relationship, their beliefs, are central in focus as they are chased around the galaxy by the Empire and threatened time and again, fighting side by side for their lives. Luke’s still present and discovering who he is, but his journey is a bit more thoughtful this time around and less adrenaline packed at times. In The Returning, Davi, Yao and Farien find their lives on the line from very early on until the very end. They are involved in most of the book’s huge action scenes and there’s almost one per chapter, some many pages long. Davi is being chased by those who want to kill him, and, at the same time, he and his friends are chasing answers to who’s killing Vertullians and who’s threatening the peace. At the same time, Davi is discovering how to be a good mate to Tela and he and Tela are both rediscovering relationships with their long lost fathers. Aron’s new role on the Council as the first Vertullian to serve in leadership brings many challenges of discovery, and so does Miri’s adjustment from royalty to civilian life. In Return Of The Jedi, Luke’s quest comes center stage again as he tries to discover the truth about Vader’s claim to be his father and what that means. He also struggles to confront Vader and the Empire and end the chase once and for all. Leia and Han’s relationship continues to develop and the Rebels continue fighting the Empire, but the focus is still different from Empire. I am still writing The Exodus, my third book, so I’m not sure how it all will wind up, but this story has chase elements and also people stepping up, like Luke, for final confrontations, including Davi and Xalivar, Davi and Bordox, and Tarkanius taking charge in his leadership role. Throughout, the discoveries impact the characters with a profound sense of change and continued wonder at the bigness of their worlds.
8 ) Emphasis on Character and plot, not science. Both Star Wars and The Worker Prince are space opera and space fantasy. They have elements of science, but the science is not hard science and often wouldn’t hold up to scientific law. In both cases, there are some elements of true science, perhaps, but mostly the tales are driven by the characters and the plot, not the science. The characters and their journeys are the heart and what draws us in and makes us care; what entertains us and captures us. There’s never a sense of some infodump teaching science nor is there a sense of it teaching philosophy or religion. The ideologies are present as part of the world, but they are not for our indoctrination but for our understanding of what drives the characters and frames their understandings of the world.
For me, these 8 elements are at the core of why stories like Star Wars have the feel they do. Reading The Worker Prince, even if you notice the feel, they’re still very different. I do pay tribute to the former’s influence, of course, but the story is original and stands on its own. And I think anyone trying to capture a similar feel would do well to keep these elements in mind. Yes, they can be traced back to old fashioned pulp stories, in many cases. What do you think? Did I miss anything? I’d love to hear comments.
Bryan Thomas Schmidt is the author of the space opera novel The Worker Prince, a Barnes & Noble Book Clubs Year’s Best SF Releases of 2011 Honorable Mention, the collection The North Star Serial, Part 1, and has several short stories forthcoming in anthologies and magazines. His second novel, The Returning, is forthcoming from Diminished Media Group in 2012 along with his book 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes For Kids from Delabarre Publishing and the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 which he edited for Flying Pen Press, headlined by Mike Resnick. As a freelance editor, he’s edited a novel for author Ellen C. Maze (Rabbit: Legacy), a historical book for Leon C. Metz (The Shooters, John Wesley Hardin, The Border), and is now editing Decipher Inc’s WARS tie-in books for Grail Quest Books. He’s also the host of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat every Wednesday at 9 pm EST on Twitter, where he interviews people like Mike Resnick, AC Crispin, Kevin J. Anderson and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. A frequent contributor to Adventures In SF Publishing, Grasping For The Wind and SF Signal, he can be found online as @BryanThomasS on Twitter or via his website. Excerpts from The Worker Prince can be found on his blog. Bryan is an affiliate member of the SFWA.
Categories The Saga Of Davi Rhii, The Worker Prince, Write Tips•Tags Bryan Thomas Schmidt, craft of writing, feel, Fiction, saga of davi rhii, Science Fiction, space fantasy, Space Opera, Star Wars, the worker prince, tips, writetip, writetips, Writing
AISFP 136 – Bryan Thomas Schmidt
Published on September 11, 2011 September 18, 2011 by adminLeave a comment
September 10, 2011 By Shaun Farrell
This episode is brought to you by MAYAN DECEMBER, the exciting new science fiction novel from Brenda Cooper.
Dr. Alic Cameron is a famous scientist devoted to studying ancient Mayan culture. In December 2012 she finds herself on the Yucatan Peninsula with her daughter, Nixie, fellow scholars, end of the world crazies, and even the President of the United States. It all sounds wonderful until Nixie disappears into the past. Featuring a handsome dreadlocked time-traveler, an ancient shamam, a high ranking Mayan couple, a computer nerd, and an eleven year old child, Alice must traverse the past in a search for the meaning of life and a way to save two worlds.
You can follow Brenda on Twitter, and please tell her Adventures in Scifi Publishing sent you!
http://aisfp.media.farpointmedia.net//aisfp/AISFP_136_092011.mp3
Bryan Thomas Schmidt, author of THE WORKER PRINCE and creator of the Twitter #SFFWRTCHT weekly interview series, which has featured an impressive list of guests, joins us to discuss religion in science fiction, working with a new publisher, writing good characters, his love of Star Wars, starting books off with an emotional punch, and much more. Read the untwittered transcripts at Grasping for the Wind. Once THE WORKER PRINCE is available for order, which should be any day now, we’ll post it here.
Links to things I mentioned in this interview:
http://www.jamierubin.net/ — SF writer Jamie Todd Rubin who blogs about Golden Age SF and more.
http://www.facebook.com/TimothyZahn?ref=ts — Timothy Zahn has yet to set up a website but he does have this Facebook page where he’s very active at communicating with fans
http://www.wordfire.com/ — Website of Author/Editor Kevin J. Anderson
www.bryanthomasschmidt.net/sffwrtcht — Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat which I host and which also has a Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sffwrtcht-Science-Fiction-and-Fantasy-Writers-Chat/144219588975058
www.majipoor.com — the closest Robert Silverberg comes to an official website.
http://sciencefictionfantasybooks.net/ — Moses Siregar III’s site. He’s cohost of the podcast and author of “Black God’s War” which I highly recommend.
http://www.brenda-cooper.com/ — Author of “Mayan December” who blurbed my novel and is mentioned also above as sponsor of this episode
http://www.diminishedmediagroup.com/Home_Page.html — my publisher’s page
Categories General•Tags AISFP Podcast, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, heros, interview, sffwrtcht, Space Opera, Star Wars, the worker prince
From Jimmy Kimmel Live: The Harrison Ford Reunited With Chewbacca Sketch (video)
Published on July 29, 2011 July 29, 2011 by adminLeave a comment
I just have to put this on here because it’s hilarious! I’ve been laughing about it for 24 hours. Great to see Harrison Ford keeping his sense of humor. Horrible Chewie face on the costume but still well done.
Categories General•Tags comedy, Humor, Jimmy Kimmel, skit, Star Wars, video
Review: Star Wars-The Old Republic: Deceived by Paul S. Kemp
Published on April 6, 2011 May 30, 2011 by Bryan Schmidt2 Comments
For me, Star Wars books are often like comfort food — familiar, not overly surprising, but good, an enjoyable way to pass the time. So when I scheduled Paul Kemp for my interview chat, I was surprised to learn his Star Wars books didn’t include those familiar characters I’d grown to love–the characters who made me fall in love with science fiction, made me want to tell stories. But Paul Kemp wrote a Star Wars book (three now in fact), and we’re close in age, so I wanted to commiserate. He must have viewed the saga at the same age I did with similar awe. What was it like to now be a part of that universe as a storyteller? So I ordered up some reading copies and read.
Imagine my surprise when I found myself engaged, even captivated by the characters. Kemp’s ability to create immediate connections between characters and readers is admirable. He had me at “hello,” you might say. And like a stalker, he never let me go, but in a good way. Even the antagonist, Darth Malgus is someone you can’t help but feel sympathy for. He’s relatable. He may be evil and dark and hateful, but he’s human, just like the reader. And Kemp brings that out so well you almost root for him at times against the protagonists. That’s great writing.
Like most Star Wars tie-ins the prose is kept simple, a few challenging words here and there, but not many. After all, these books are intended to be accessible for fans of all ages. And that requires talent, too. When the competition are sometimes books with extra effort at complex prose, to have written a book written simply but well which engages adults as well as children is a real accomplishment. One to be proud of.
I can’t wait to chat with Paul and find out more about his writing journey, to soak up the lessons he has to teach us about writing, and to call him my friend. He tells me his assignment was to do a story with Darth Malgus, a character from the forthcoming online multi-player game “The Old Republic.” He wrote a Malgus story with spades.
The book revolves around three central characters, the dark Sith Malgus, a rogue Jedi Aryn, and a pilot Zeerid. Malgus wants to conquer the universe for the Sith and rid them forever of the Jedi menace. Aryn wants revenge for the death of her mentor/father-figure at Malgus’ hands. Zeerid, an old friend of Aryn’s, is just trying to pay off a debt and provide artificial legs for his young daughter. Each of them gets sucked in by circumstance to a web of deception–both internal and external to themselves–and struggles to accomplish their goal. All of them wind up taking paths far different than they’d imagined in doing so. And all of them learn lessons that forever change them in the process.
Filled with action and moving at a steady clip, “Deceived” even includes a cute astromech droid character, who may remind us of ancestors to come. It has romance, betrayal, political intrigue, and rivalry. It’s a well told tale that could be set in any universe but works exceedingly well in the confines of the familiar Star Wars one. Truly these are characters worth discovering and enjoying. I’d like to see more of each of them.
I can’t wait to read more from Kemp. Highly recommended.
Categories General•Tags Book Review, Science Fiction, sffwrtcht, Space Opera, Star Wars
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Men in Black III
Will Smith is back and once again makes that suit look good.
Even if Men in Black III isn’t nearly as memorable as the original, it’s on par with the second film and Will Smith delivers the same cocky humor as before. It’s been a decade and fans are more than ready for this one and luckily they won’t walk away angry or disappointed.
In this installment, Agent J (Will Smith) has to travel back to the 1960’s to stop a psychotic, time jumping alien (Jemaine Clement) from assassinating Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones). While there, J also discovers a lot of history about the Men in Black and gains an understanding of why Agent K is the way he is; dry and void of emotion.
A lot of things work in this movie, the main one being Josh Brolin as the young Agent K. Brolin completely personifies Tommy Lee Jones’ mannerisms and dialogue. It is at times uncanny. This brings a lot of humor while adding an element to the film that would have been lost had they simply altered Tommy Lee Jones with computer graphics. This film also adds some nifty aliens who reflect the time period of the 60s – especially in their dress and mannerisms.
Like the earlier films, Men in Black III does a decent job of incorporating real life events into fictional scenarios. Things like the Apollo 11 moon launch, and other recognizable figures are brought to life in a humorous story line. Still this one relies heavily on the comedy of Will Smith and his character Agent J. Again, it wasn’t as completely clever as the first one and seemed to lack a little of the originality. It tried to work in some serious moments with J and K and those these were written well, it did sort of create a buzz kill.
Men in Black III is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and brief suggestive content. The language is mild but prevalent; still nothing more severe than what you would hear in prime-time television. The violence is on par with the first two films with a lot of laser guns, exploding aliens and green goo. I give it 3.5 out of 5 sky jumps. It was exciting to see the team back together and have some of our questions answered. Though not a perfect film, definitely a solid kickoff to the summer.
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Working with Writers: National Week on Writing at Moravian
Christopher Shosted, Guest Reporter|October 31, 2019
The logo for Writing at Moravian, lovingly known as WAM; Photo Courtesy of: moravian.edu
Through workshops, a collaborative writing space, and an inflatable photo booth, this year’s National Week on Writing event overtook previous attempts to educate students on the importance of writing.
The event was sponsored by the Writing at Moravian (WAM) program, which oversees the Writing Center and First-year Writing Seminar classes. WAM’s staff assistant, Christopher Hassay, and student assistant, Gabrielle Stanley, were responsible for the majority of the planning along with student volunteers.
WAM Staff. Pictured (left to right) Gabrielle Stanley, Crystal Fodrey, Meg Mikovits, Christopher Hassay standing on the porch outside Zinzendorf Hall.
The National Week on Writing is how Moravian College celebrates the National Day of Writing, a commemorative day proposed by the National Council of Teachers of English, recognized by the U.S. Senate. National Day of Writing is observed on October 20. The College, through WAM, sponsors events near this day to raise awareness of the ways students can write creatively and professionally.
To help achieve this goal, English faculty and students led workshops where students could learn about different writing opportunities at the College. Professor Meg Mikovits, who directs Moravian’s Writing Center, conducted a workshop focusing on the process of becoming a writing center tutor and a writing fellow. The Comenian’s faculty advisor, professor Mark Harris, also led a workshop discussing how to write creative non-fiction.
Hassay explained that in previous years, WAM struggled to engage students with the event. “This year our main goal was to increase the engagement of both students and faculty,” he said. “We wanted to get members of the community participating in the various programs, and we wanted to offer more this year that could get different folks interested and engaged.”
Both Stanley and Hassay considered the event to be a success. Stanley said, “I was very pleased with how the event turned out… Almost all of our writing workshops were well-attended, we had so many people fill out #WhyIWrite forms that we ran out of them, and we have a wonderful campus map now hanging in the Writing Center that shows the many places where writing happens on campus.”
Participation improved this year with more than 50 students attending the workshops, and others stopped to pose in an inflatable photo booth while holding flyers marked with #WhyIWrite. Stanley added that she wanted to compile a robust catalogue of activities to share why she believes writing is important. “Writing is a passion of mine that I absolutely love to share with others,” she said. “After last year, I was so eager to work on it again and make improvements so that National Week on Writing could really be a campus-wide celebration of writing.” This is her second year organizing the event.
Classes in the Write-in. Students from a first-year writing seminar and the digital rhetorics class working in the United, Brethrens, & Church Rooms during the National Week on Writing. Credit: Gabrielle Stanley
For Hassay, Stanley, and others involved in WAM, writing is more than the stomping grounds of the English major – it is something that everyone is involved with. “I think that sometimes people don’t realize just how often writing happens, and how it happens, and how it enriches all of our lives,” Stanley said. Hassay added, “I think the National Week on Writing allows us all to more actively think about the writing we do every day and why that is both valuable and important.”
While this year’s event was successful, Hassay and Stanley plan to build on what has worked so far while mending problems that have arisen both this year and in years prior. Hassay said that the largest issue this year was faculty participation due to the event coinciding with the deadline for midterm grades. “Faculty are really, really busy during that time, which made it difficult for some people to attend [the faculty development workshops.]”
Looking forward, Hassay hopes to continue expanding the event to serve the wider Moravian College community. Currently, he and Stanley are considering reaching out to faculty from outside the English department to lead workshops discussing writing in other disciplines. They are also considering incorporating a scavenger hunt, but many of the plans are yet to be announced.
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Carl Brenders Wildlife Art
The Official Site of Carl Brenders
Additional Originals
New Reproductions
Playful Pair
November 28, 2013 631 × 501 Wildlife
Playful Pair – Chipmunks, (1984)
Signed and Numbered Limited Edition of 950, Offset on Paper
Current Market Price Will Apply.
Please inquire about the availability of Artist’s Proofs
Image Size 17-1/2″ x 20 ¾”*
* Indicates Overall Size
Print no longer available from the Publisher.
Please inquire for details.
Interested buyers please contact Tracy Morrison (Conservation Design) at Email: aprintjock@gmail.com; Phone: 1-781-585-9871;
Located in Duxbury MA
My first encounter with chipmunks took place in a parking area at Yellowstone National Park. There were five or six of them, not at all afraid of the humans who were walking to a viewpoint approximately 100 feet away. The chipmunks were looking for food, nervously running from one place to another, hoping to find some pieces of bread or other discarded bits to eat. I was thrilled when they came to eat out of my hands.
On another occasion, I observed chipmunks in a more remote area while on a pack trip in wilderness country. Our campsite was visited regularly by both chipmunks and squirrels. They came to pick up what remained of our pancakes and often found themselves in competition with the ‘camp robbers,’ otherwise known as the gray jays.
I was really in love with those charming little creatures, in spite of the fact that no one in our party could sleep at night, as they were running over our tent and making a lot of noise. (Ordinarily they are diurnal animals, but they made an exception for us!)
The wilderness area that we explored was very beautiful. Everywhere one could see colorful dead pine trees, trimmed with beautiful yellow-green moss. The chipmunks ran up and down these trees, seemingly disputing ownership of various items of food such as grass seed. Ground dwellers that burrow and climb, these chipmunks moved about on the tree trunks, and at one point in time, paused about ten feet above ground level to eat the seeds that they had found below. This was such a wonderful sight that I felt it would result in a fine painting. I cannot imagine that another painting will give me more enjoyment than this one.
— Carl Brenders
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