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Nov. 24th, 2015 07:28 pm* "My Position On the Syrian Refugees:" http://grrm.livejournal.com/455639.html
* Turkey has shot down a Russian fighter plane in their air space after ten warnings to return to Syrian air space. There is a strong suspicion the plane was hunting Turkmin minorites for Assad, and the plane crashed into the Turkmin refugee camp in Turkey. The Russians are denying everything, of course, including Turkish radar images of their plane in their airspace.
* Re Syrian Refugees: I know victim blaming, immediate capitulation to the whims of religious extremists, and tossing out the Constitution in favor of an oppressive distopian police state in the knee jerk Republican reaction to any stimuli at all, but just this once can we please, please, please do the right thing as a country?
* "Trump stands by 9/11 lie as campaign takes dark turn:"
( Embed: )
* "Laquan McDonald shooting video to be released:"
( Embed: )
* "Minoru Yasui, hero, to receive timely honor from White House:"
( Embed: )
* 5 protesters were shot at a Black Lives Matter protest in Minneapolis by three white men.
* 13 months ago, police murdered Laquan McDonald. The police officer emptied his clip into the child's back 30 seconds after arriving on the scene. 14 of the bullets were after the child was down on the ground. Chicago Police immediately sprung into action to cover up the crime, systematically erasing video surveillance tapes at a nearby Burger King, disbursing horrified witnesses to the execution, and taking a witness who insisted on giving a statement to a holding cell where they intimidated and threatened her because she wanted to tell the truth about what she saw. The police declined to investigate the murder as a white police man murdering a black child and destruction of evidence to cover up said murder are not considered a crime in this country, but protesters and repeated FOA requests for dash cam footage finally forced them to arrest the murderer because the dash cam footage was released today.
I am choosing not to link footage of the policeman murdering the child in cold blood at this time, as the family did not want the press to show their child being murdered over and over on TV, but you can certainly go look it up if you need to see it.
* "What I Wish Everyone Knew When They Talked About Abortion:" http://www.buzzfeed.com/kayetoal/what-i-wish-everyone-knew-when-they-talked-about-abortion#.ad0D7p7jw
* "Meet the drama teacher who had the best response to a homophobic text:" http://www.mic.com/articles/129006/meet-the-gay-drama-teacher-who-responded-to-one-mom-s-homophobic-comment-perfectly?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social#.WTbR2a80N
* "John Oliver rips Huckabee over refugee fear-mongering: ‘More men named Mike have killed people’:"
( Embed: )
* The Hollow Crown: Henry V. Caveat: this is not a play I know well. I read it a couple times back in the day, and I've seen the Olivier and Branaugh versions back in the mid-90's. (I remember preferring Branaugh), but it's never made a strong impression on me. I mean, sure, everyone remembers the famous St. Crispin day's Speech, but do you remember much of it besides that? I mostly didn't. This is a yet another time the continuity of casting between the plays really helped them out. In so many ways, this play finishes off a bunch of people's arcs from the previous two. Henry is coming to his own as King, and that is the central thrust of the play. You also get to find out what happens to Fallstaff, Bardolph, and Pistol, plus bonus Llewellen, York, etc., but the play really doesn't stand on it's own character wise, and plotwise is basically a play about a battle, what led to it, and the immediate aftermath. Having the same actors playing all the recurring parts and watching them all together really helps with the emotional resonance as what we are seeing is not character arcs within the play for anyone except possibly Henry, who does mature a bit in the course of the play, but not much as most of the growth was back in Henry IV pt. 2., but rather the end of arcs previously established. This has been a serious problem for stand alone productions, and a fundamental weakness of the play for modern audiences who generally weren't clamoring for the sequel to come out so they could see what happens to the characters, the way the original audience was. This production does include a short flashback montage of Bardolph to help out the students who likely will be watching this in either isolation or with a long separation between plays. It's manipulative and unsubtle thing to do, but I really do think it's there for the students of the future and not for people like me watching it as a miniseries and odds are students are going to be the largest audience for this production as for pretty much any filmed production of Shakespeare. As with the Henry IV pt.1 battle sequence, the Agincourt battle sequence is harmed by the lack of budget to do it properly, but I think this director did a much better job of making it work, though it still was a weakness. This is just somewhere you need to have money to really pull it off. The acting was solid all around, and as with the other three installments, the use of real locations, quality costuming, and natural sounding delivery of dialog was a strength. They made good work of one of the more uneven Shakespeare plays on a limited budget, but odds are, I'll have forgotten most of it again by the end of the week.
IMDB tells me they have a second season coming up in 2016, which I await with some excitement. They are doing the War of the Roses next. My feelings about the RL people and the plays are complicated, but I am fascinated to see what they do with them.
* "Z Nation, Season Two, Episode Eleven: Corporate Retreat:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/11/z-nation-season-two-episode-eleven.html
* "Sunday Sweets: Doctor Who Day...ish:" http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2015/11/22/sunday-sweets-doctor-who-dayish.html
* EBAY:
( Embed: )
* Story Dragon Store: http://thestorydragon.com/?product_cat=owens-art
* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
* Turkey has shot down a Russian fighter plane in their air space after ten warnings to return to Syrian air space. There is a strong suspicion the plane was hunting Turkmin minorites for Assad, and the plane crashed into the Turkmin refugee camp in Turkey. The Russians are denying everything, of course, including Turkish radar images of their plane in their airspace.
* Re Syrian Refugees: I know victim blaming, immediate capitulation to the whims of religious extremists, and tossing out the Constitution in favor of an oppressive distopian police state in the knee jerk Republican reaction to any stimuli at all, but just this once can we please, please, please do the right thing as a country?
* "Trump stands by 9/11 lie as campaign takes dark turn:"
( Embed: )
* "Laquan McDonald shooting video to be released:"
( Embed: )
* "Minoru Yasui, hero, to receive timely honor from White House:"
( Embed: )
* 5 protesters were shot at a Black Lives Matter protest in Minneapolis by three white men.
* 13 months ago, police murdered Laquan McDonald. The police officer emptied his clip into the child's back 30 seconds after arriving on the scene. 14 of the bullets were after the child was down on the ground. Chicago Police immediately sprung into action to cover up the crime, systematically erasing video surveillance tapes at a nearby Burger King, disbursing horrified witnesses to the execution, and taking a witness who insisted on giving a statement to a holding cell where they intimidated and threatened her because she wanted to tell the truth about what she saw. The police declined to investigate the murder as a white police man murdering a black child and destruction of evidence to cover up said murder are not considered a crime in this country, but protesters and repeated FOA requests for dash cam footage finally forced them to arrest the murderer because the dash cam footage was released today.
I am choosing not to link footage of the policeman murdering the child in cold blood at this time, as the family did not want the press to show their child being murdered over and over on TV, but you can certainly go look it up if you need to see it.
* "What I Wish Everyone Knew When They Talked About Abortion:" http://www.buzzfeed.com/kayetoal/what-i-wish-everyone-knew-when-they-talked-about-abortion#.ad0D7p7jw
* "Meet the drama teacher who had the best response to a homophobic text:" http://www.mic.com/articles/129006/meet-the-gay-drama-teacher-who-responded-to-one-mom-s-homophobic-comment-perfectly?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social#.WTbR2a80N
* "John Oliver rips Huckabee over refugee fear-mongering: ‘More men named Mike have killed people’:"
( Embed: )
* The Hollow Crown: Henry V. Caveat: this is not a play I know well. I read it a couple times back in the day, and I've seen the Olivier and Branaugh versions back in the mid-90's. (I remember preferring Branaugh), but it's never made a strong impression on me. I mean, sure, everyone remembers the famous St. Crispin day's Speech, but do you remember much of it besides that? I mostly didn't. This is a yet another time the continuity of casting between the plays really helped them out. In so many ways, this play finishes off a bunch of people's arcs from the previous two. Henry is coming to his own as King, and that is the central thrust of the play. You also get to find out what happens to Fallstaff, Bardolph, and Pistol, plus bonus Llewellen, York, etc., but the play really doesn't stand on it's own character wise, and plotwise is basically a play about a battle, what led to it, and the immediate aftermath. Having the same actors playing all the recurring parts and watching them all together really helps with the emotional resonance as what we are seeing is not character arcs within the play for anyone except possibly Henry, who does mature a bit in the course of the play, but not much as most of the growth was back in Henry IV pt. 2., but rather the end of arcs previously established. This has been a serious problem for stand alone productions, and a fundamental weakness of the play for modern audiences who generally weren't clamoring for the sequel to come out so they could see what happens to the characters, the way the original audience was. This production does include a short flashback montage of Bardolph to help out the students who likely will be watching this in either isolation or with a long separation between plays. It's manipulative and unsubtle thing to do, but I really do think it's there for the students of the future and not for people like me watching it as a miniseries and odds are students are going to be the largest audience for this production as for pretty much any filmed production of Shakespeare. As with the Henry IV pt.1 battle sequence, the Agincourt battle sequence is harmed by the lack of budget to do it properly, but I think this director did a much better job of making it work, though it still was a weakness. This is just somewhere you need to have money to really pull it off. The acting was solid all around, and as with the other three installments, the use of real locations, quality costuming, and natural sounding delivery of dialog was a strength. They made good work of one of the more uneven Shakespeare plays on a limited budget, but odds are, I'll have forgotten most of it again by the end of the week.
IMDB tells me they have a second season coming up in 2016, which I await with some excitement. They are doing the War of the Roses next. My feelings about the RL people and the plays are complicated, but I am fascinated to see what they do with them.
* "Z Nation, Season Two, Episode Eleven: Corporate Retreat:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/11/z-nation-season-two-episode-eleven.html
* "Sunday Sweets: Doctor Who Day...ish:" http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2015/11/22/sunday-sweets-doctor-who-dayish.html
* EBAY:
( Embed: )
* Story Dragon Store: http://thestorydragon.com/?product_cat=owens-art
* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
