Daily Archives: January 28, 2022

In a surprising reveal this morning, Blizzard has just announced that its working on a new game set in an all-new universe never-seen before. Blizzards last new game was Overwatch back in 2016, a completely new universe with rich characters and lore that was built around an arena shooter. Since then, the company has released no new games but only remasters of classic titles from before.

Not much is known about this game as it has somehow not leaked so far, giving a rarely-seen opportunity to Blizzard to announce its own project before leakers do it for them. Regardless, this new game is in early-development right now so dont expect it to release anytime soon. Though, studio boss Mike Ybarra has tweeted that he has played many hours of the game already, suggesting it is ready in a playable state so perhaps Blizzard is already far in development of this title.

But, along with the announcement also came several job listings to hire new talent for this project which means that the game is notthatfar in development after all. Blizzard is hiring on all fronts including art, design and engineering for this new survival game. However, this all comes amidst horrible allegations of workplace harassment, abuse, and discrimination with several employees protesting, unionizing or outright leaving the company, basically giving not the best impression that Blizzard is where you should come to work. Which makes it extra difficult to run to the company and become a part of the team for this new game.

Thats because its so new that it doesnt have a name yet. What we do do know is that its a new IP with a brand new universe so expect new worlds, characters, stories and all that jazz. This will be Blizzards first-ever survival game since the company has largely focused on MMOs and RPGs up until now. The blog post announcing this game also mentioned that it would be cross-platform and will release on both PC and consoles. We even got two pieces of concept art showing off the game in its early form.

It looks like the game is set in a hybrid environment that uses both futuristic and ancient elements to construct the world, using a utopia as the foundation with technology added on top. This type of world-building is extremely common in games and Horizon: Zero Dawn is the most recent major game that adapted it. In the pictures above, it can be clearly seen that the world itself looks very typical survival RPG stuff with a hint of modernization stemming from the kids clothes and the bicycle in the first concept art.

This news comes a week after Microsofts $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard which means that this is technically the first new Activision Blizzard game under Microsoft. Apart from this new title, Blizzard already has two games in the oven: Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV that are set to release soon. So, with that, now Blizzard is working on three new seemingly massive games at the same time that should all release relatively soon. Heres hoping we dont have to wait another five years for this survival fantasy.

Read this article:

Blizzard Announces Theyre Working On A New AAA Fantasy Survival Game Set in An All-New Universe - Appuals

Until quite recently, the concept of spheres of influence seemed to have been consigned to the dustbin of history. Up to the end of the Cold War, of course, such zones had been an unexceptional feature of the modern international system. Great power routinely staked out geographic zones within which they limited the autonomy of weaker states often as buffer zones between themselves and potential adversaries or rival empires. But with the advent of the so-called unipolar moment in the early 1990s, such geopolitical contrivances came to be deemed pass, relics of a benighted past that had no place in the brave new liberal international order of the 21st century. Spheres of influence, or so it seemed, had been consigned to the dustbin of history.

But this has not proven to be the case. The unipolar moment has passed, the liberal international order is dead or dying and the 21st century is starting to look a lot more like the 19th (or 18th or 17th) than the new millennium promised by the end-of-history crowd in the 1990s. And as all this has happened as the transition from the historically aberrant post-Cold War era to a more normal era of great power competition has unfolded states have once again started to carve out spheres of influence. Motivated by a combination of insecurity, dissatisfaction with the vestigial liberal international order and desire for status and emboldened by the contraction of the United Statess own once-global sphere of influence great powers are once again seeking to dominate their own geopolitical neighborhoods.

In the Russian case, this has taken the form of efforts to institutionalize its dominance of the former Soviet space through Moscow-led organizations such as the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and the Collective Security Treaty organization (CSTO). It has also taken the form of efforts over the last decade to limit Ukraines freedom to decide its own foreign policy, most notably by seeking to intimidate Kyiv into abandoning all hope of joining Western clubs such as the European Union or NATO.

Similarly, Iran, though smaller in size and in economic and military power than Russia, is hard at work carving out its own sphere influence. Despite, or perhaps because of, U.S.-led efforts to contain it, the Tehran regime has continued to try to assert its regional dominance, both directly and via its vast network of proxy Shiite militias.

And then theres China, which is striving to attain undisputed control over the islands in the South and East China Seas, to dominate its neighbors in Southeast Asia and to exclude the United States from much of the Western Pacific. Through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Beijing is also seeking to build out its sphere of influence to include regions as distant from China as the Middle East and Latin America.

Even India has begun carving out a sphere of influence, taking concrete steps to dominate the Indian Ocean region and to challenge China for predominance in Southeast Asia.

Now, one might expect that clear-eyed practitioners of realpolitik in Washington would look at the new realities of great power competition and accept, however grudgingly, that spheres of influence are back. But this too has proven not to be the case.

The U.S. foreign policy establishment continues to view the very idea of spheres of influence other than its own, of course as a dangerous atavism that must not be allowed a second act. The return to a world of spheres of influence, or so the argument runs, would mark the definitive end of the quarter-century-long unipolar moment and the liberal international order that it spawned. It would, in effect, mark the end of the long march toward the sunlit uplands of an American-led utopia of peace, justice, prosperity and freedom. And, finally, it would drive home once and for all the fact that that the era of American primacy is over that the days when Washington got to write and enforce the rules of the game had finally passed.

As none of these developments are palatable to those who cling to the now-anachronistic idea that this is still a unipolar world dominated by the United States, they simply reject the underlying idea out of hand. Spheres of influence are so bad that their return is not only unacceptable but unthinkable. And those who would seek to revive them whether Chinese, Russian, Iranian, Turkish, Indian or other must be up to no good and therefore will have to be stopped.

But geopolitical facts are stubborn things. For a relatively short period of time, the objective conditions of international politics were such that spheres of influence entered a period of dormancy. But those conditions have vanished, and that period of dormancy is over. Spheres of influence are back, and sooner or later U.S. policymakers are simply going to have to accept this reality and deal with it. Lets hope its sooner rather than later.

Andrew Latham is a professor of international relations at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesot,a and a non-resident fellow at Defense Priorities in Washington, D.C. Follow him on Twitter @aalatham.

Visit link:

Spheres of influence are back (whether US policymakers accept it or not) | TheHill - The Hill

After a January that seemed to never end, we welcome February (and the downfall of Omicron) with open arms.

Sunnier days are ahead and with them, our desire to do more things. All the things, including the in-theater return of the SF Independent Film Festival, Oakland First Fridays' 2022 debut, hunting for unique goods at the Antiquarian Book Print & Paper Fair, a Chinatown Lunar New Year pop-up at The Ferry Building, and so much more.

See you out there.

Face your inner self at Homebody, a massive art-meets-tech immersive installation. Created by Oakland's acclaimed etherealist artist Hueman, the projecta combination of painting, AR, and custom soundspans 20,000 square feet and challenges us to reconnect with one another while we also confront the isolation of the past two years; through February 28th. // Ciel Creative Space, 2611 Eighth St. (Berkeley); tickets at huemanhomebody.com

Flow through the week with strength and balance by starting your Monday with a Haum vinyasa yoga class accompanied by live music. Depending on your comfort level, there is both an in-studio class as well as a live stream option; Monday at 6:15pm. // Haum, 2973 16th St. (Mission); register at momence.com

Get yourself to Yoshi's for a Marvin Gaye tribute by SFJazz Collective member Martin Luther. The SF native has collaborated with musicians like The Roots and appeared in the 2007 Beatles film Across the Universe. He will be joined by fellow Bay Area musicians; Thursday at 8pm and 10pm. // Yoshi's, 510 Embarcadero West (Oakland); tickets at yoshis.com

Whether you believe in seasonal superstitions or not, catch Bill Murray in Groundhog Day on Groundhog Day; Tuesday at 7:30pm. // Balboa Theater, 3630 Balboa St. (Outer Richmond); tickets at balboamovies.com

If you live by the commandants that "Anything is possible if you just manifest that shit" and "John Mayer can't be trusted," join the Giggly Squad for their live tour stop in SF (Feb. 2, Palace of Fine Arts). Then, stack your calendar with more live comedy and podcast events from Another Planet Entertainment. Upcoming shows include SNLs Chris Redd at Bimbos 365 (Feb. 17), Fortune Feimster at Palace of Fine Arts (Mar. 12), and more. // See the full lineup and get tickets at apeoncerts.com

Thank you to our partners at Another Planet Entertainment.

'Tis the skeeson for Brewskee-Ball. Looking for a social activity that doesn't require sweating or athletic ability? Head to Thriller Social Club for a kick-off party for season 38 of SF's only Skee-Ball league; Wednesday at 6pm. // Thriller Social Club, 508 4th St. (SoMa), thrillersocialclub.com

If your self-love supply is feeling a little low these days, consider a Love Meditation to guide you deep into your heart center. On the first Wednesday of each month, Cavallo Point Healing Arts Center & Spa hosts a guided meditation on a unique topic; Wednesday at 6:30pm. // Cavallo Point Lodge, 601 Murray Circle (Sausalito); tickets at cavallopoint.com

Coming to a theater near youincluding your living roomthe 24th Annual SF Independent Film Festival returns this week with a mix of in-person and virtual events. This year's lineup includes 42 shorts and 26 full-length features from 10 countries, plus 20 live presentations at the Roxie; Thursday through February 13th. // Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St. (Mission); tickets at sfindie.com

Dax Shephard is stepping out of his armchair and onto the big stage with Armchaired & Dangerous, Live! Joined by cohosts Monica Padman and David Farrier, the monthly podcast touches on the psychology, history, and why behind the world of conspiracy theories; Thursday at 8pm. // The Masonic, 1111 California St. (Nob Hill); tickets at livenation.com

Show your love for the Fox Theater where it's about to be a busy month. Kick things off with Caifanes (Thursday), then get tix for more shows including Tig Notaro (Friday), Dream Theater (Sunday), plus Wale, Caravan Palace, Bill Maher, and Caribou later in the month. // Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph Ave. (Oakland); for lineup and tickets, go to thefoxoakland.com.

Thank you to our partners at Another Planet Entertainment.

Come together to celebrate Black Love at Oakland's First Friday of 2022. The blocks-long party features food and art vendors, live music, bar specials, and community; Friday, 5pm to 9pm. // Telegraph Ave. between West Grand and 27th St. (Oakland); details at oaklandfirstfridays.org

Have a stellar night of after-hours fun at Chabot Space & Science Center's First Friday: Winter Skies. Test your astrophotography skills, uncover the thousands of planets that have been discovered in the last 20 years, and level up your astrology game with stories from an expert stargazer; Friday, 6pm to 10pm. // Chabot Space & Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd. (Oakland); tickets at chabotspace.org

Grab your dancing shoes and headphones and head over to Discology, a silent-disco-moving-meditation-dance-party inside SF's most beautiful church; Friday at 6:30pm. // Grace Cathedral, 1100 California St. (Nob Hill); tickets at e.sparxo.com

Calling all bookish typed! Shop for first edition books, rare posters, art, maps, photographs and more at the return of the San Francisco Antiquarian Book Print & Paper Fai; Friday and Saturday. // South San Francisco Conference Center, 255 S. Airport Blvd. (South SF); tickets at eventbrite.com

No soup for you! That is if you don't get yourself over to the 7th Annual Sausalito Souper Bowl. More than 15 restaurants will square off in hopes of winning the Lom-Bowl-Di trophy. For $20, you'll get to visit all the restaurants to taste their soup and vote for your fav; Saturday, 1pm to 5pm. // Ferry Landing, (Sausalito); sausalito.gov

Catch a live painting session (with wine!) by British abstract artist and designer Joe Henry Baker. You can also book a tasting reservation to experience limited production wines with sweeping views of Howell Mountain; Saturday, 11am to 4pm. // Faust Haus, 2867 St Helena Hwy (St. Helena); tickets at tock.com

Bjrk is back, and just like that nature is healing. For two nights only, our favorite Icelandic export brings her acclaimed production Cornucopia, based on her 2017 album Utopia, to Chase Center. Called a "feast for the senses" by Brooklyn Vegan, Bjrk's distinct vocals, intricate lighting, and theatrics will energize you; 8pm Saturday (and Tues. Feb. 8th). // Chase Center, 1 Warriors Way (Mission Bay); tickets at ticketmaster.com.

Celebrate and support Chinatown's most beloved small businesses at a Lunar New Year pop-up. Shop gorgeous goods and tasty treats with a portion of the proceeds benefitting the nonprofit San Francisco Community Business Resources; Saturday and Sunday, 7am to 8pm. // Ferry Building (Embarcadero); details at ferrybuildingmarketplace.com

Give old treasures a second life by shopping at the largest antique show in Northern California. The Alameda Point Antiques Faire is back this weekend with more than 800 vendors stocked with everything vintage and antique for your home and closet; Sunday, 6am to 3pm. // 3900 Main St. (Alameda); details at alamedapointantiquesfaire

Fill the Freda Salvador-size hole in your heart (RIP Fillmore Street boutique) at the grand opening of Shoppe Amber Interiors' first NorCal store, at Marin Country Mart. The beloved footwear brand is popping up for a six-month stint at the concept shop, where you can peruse home furnishings and accessories alongside the Sausalito-designed, made-in-Spain kicks. // 1201 Larkspur Landing Circle, Suite C (Larkspur); details at 7x7.com

View original post here:

20 Fun Things to Do This Week (1.31.22) - 7x7

Installation view of My Favorite Software Is Being Here by Alison Nguyen on the Everson Museum of Art faade.

Light Works Urban Video Project (UVP)presents No Emoji for Ennui, a group exhibition featuring the work of filmmakers Lana Z Caplan, Ross Meckfessel, Alison Nguyen and Matt Whitman. The installation will be on view from Jan. 27-March 26 at UVPs outdoor projection site on the north facade of the Everson Museum of Art at 401 Harrison Street, Thursday through Saturday, from dusk until 11 p.m.

No Emoji for Ennui explores the difficult-to-define emotional tenor of our timeone that often leaves us overstimulated and underwhelmed at the same time it demands endless positivity. The seductive surface of the touchscreen shatters and the polygon meshes underlying our shared social reality peek out from under the digital skin.

What does it feel like to be a person in a world in which our sense of self has been thoroughly disoriented by technological entanglement and co-opted by neoliberal capital?

By turns unsettling, contemplative, humorous and filled with existential dread, the resulting show is a collective selfie of who and what we are now.

Along with the exhibition, UVP will host a free screening of the No Emoji for Ennui program, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers, on Thursday, Feb. 24, at 6:30 p.m. ET.

For those unable to attend in person, we will offer the screening a second time as a livestream on Thursday, March 10, at 6:30 p.m. ET.No Emoji for Ennui is the second exhibition in the UVP 2021-22 season, titled Its Not a Bug, Its the Future. More information is available at lightwork.org/uvp

Lana Z Caplan, Autopoiesis2017 | 7:15

#aerialskiers #PyeongChangWinterOlympics #divers #LeniRiefenstal #Olympia #OpticalIllusions #SpeculativelyGeneratedOuterSpace #SelfHypnosis #SunRa #SpaceIsThePlace #4ECognition #AssaultByHashtags #MeToo #BlackLivesMatter #StillMarching #GiletJaune #Brexit #IdeasofUtopia #AfroFuturism #HashtagActivism #YouAreASystem #ConstantlyBuffeted #Maintain #LoveWins

Lana Z Caplan works across various media, including single-channel films and videos in essay form, interactive installations, video art and photography. Her work is inspired by notions of utopia and the relationship of the present to history and memory. Caplan has exhibited and screened at Anthology Film Archives (New York), Antimatter Film Festival (Victoria, British Columbia), Arte Contemporneo (Mexico City), Chicago Underground Film Festival, CROSSROADS Film Festival, IC Docs (Iowa City), Inside Out Art Museum (Beijing), Microscope Gallery (New York), Moving Image Festival (Scotland), Museo Tamayo, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival and San Francisco Cinematheques Alchemy Film. Caplans work is represented by Gallery NAGA (Boston) and her films are distributed by Collectif Jeune Cinma (Paris) and Filmmakers Cooperative (New York).

Ross Meckfessel, Estuary2021 | 12:00 | 16mm stereo sound

When you question the very nature of your physical reality it becomes much easier to see the cracks in the system. Estuary charts the emotional landscape of a time in flux. Inspired by the proliferation of computer-generated social media influencers and the growing desire to document and manipulate every square inch of our external and internal landscapes, Meckfessel considers the ramifications of a world where all aspects of life are curated and malleable. As time goes on, all lines blur into vector dots.

Ross Meckfessel is an artist and filmmaker who works primarily in Super 8 and 16mm film. His films often emphasize materiality and poetic structures while depicting the condition of modern life through an exploration of apocalyptic obsession, contemporary ennui and the technological landscape. His work has screened internationally and throughout the United States, including in the Antimatter Film Festival (Victoria, British Columbia), IC Docs (Iowa City), Internationales Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, New York Film Festival, San Francisco Cinematheques CROSSROADS Film Festival, The Artifact Small Format Film Festival (awarded best 16mm film) and Toronto International Film Festival.

Alison Nguyen, My Favorite Software Is Being Here2020-21 | 19:47

A collaboration between Nguyen and a machine learning program created with Achim Koh, Andra8 is a simulacral subaltern created by an algorithm and raised by the internet in isolation in a virtual void. From the apartment where she has been placed, Andra8 works as a digital laborer, surviving off the data from her various freemium jobs as virtual assistant, data janitor, life coach, aspiring influencer and content creator. As she multitasks throughout the day, Andra8 is monitored and surveilled, finding herself overwhelmed by a web of global client demands. Something begins to trouble Andra8: Her life depends on her compulsory consumption and output of human dataor so shes been told. Andra8 explores the implications of such an existence, and what happens when one attempts to subvert them.

Alison Nguyen is a New York City-based artist whose work spans video, installation, performance and new media. Her screenings include Ann Arbor Film Festival, Channels Festival International Biennial of Video Art, CPH:DOX, Edinburgh International Film Festival, e-flux, International Film Festival Oberhausen, Microscope Gallery, Open City Documentary Festival, San Francisco Cinematheques CROSSROADS Film Festival and True/False Film Festival. Nguyens residencies and fellowships include BRIC, the International Studio & Curatorial Program, The Institute of Electronic Arts, Signal Culture, Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center, and Vermont Studio Center. Her grant awards include the Foundation for Contemporary Art, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and The New York Community Trust. In 2018, Filmmaker Magazinefeatured Alison Nguyen in their 25 New Faces of Independent Film. In 2021, she received a NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellowship in Video/Film.

Matt Whitman, CANT ANSWER YOU ANYMORE (ON FACES)2019 | 2:19 | Super8 film transferred to video | Silent | Color

Matt Whitman, HOW MUCH LONGER (ON BALLONS)2019 | 2:27 | Super8 film transferred to video | Silent | Color

These poetically elliptical, darkly humorous pieces feature extreme close-ups of the detritus of online interactionemojis, gifsshot on Super8 film. This mediums low resolution and prominent film grain defamiliarize the textureless screen images while out-of-sync framerates create a fluttering, off-kilter vision of the present as future past.

Matt Whitman is a New York City-based artist working with moving images, photography, installation, writing and performance. He has exhibited and screened his work widely at such sites as 8 fest (Toronto), Anthology Film Archives (New York City), Brooklyn Film Festival (New York City), Ethan Cohen Gallery (New York City), La MaMa (New York City), SF Cinematheque (San Francisco), The Front (New Orleans), The Kitchen (New York City), The Lab (San Francisco) and Unexposed Microcinema (Durham, North Carolina). He has taught at Parsons School of Design since 2014.

Tulapop Saenjaroen, People on SundayThailand | 2020 | 20:53

People on Sunday is a reinterpretation, a response and an homage to the 1930 German silent film, Menschen Am Sonntag. However, this response arises from a different context, different country, different era and different working conditions. People on Sunday comprises episodic stories of moving-image-related workers who work in the same performance-art-video project about free time.

Tulapop Saenjaroen is an artist and filmmaker currently based in Bangkok, Thailand. His recent works investigate the correlations between image production and production of subjectivity, as well as the paradoxes intertwining control and freedom in late capitalism. In combining the genres of narrative and the essay film, he explores subjects such as tourism, self-care and free labor. Saenjaroen received an M.F.A. in fine art media from The Slade School of Fine Art and an MA in aesthetics and politics from California Institute of the Arts.

Saenjaroen has exhibited and screened his work internationally at sites including 25FPS (Zagreb, Croatia), Asia Culture Center (Gwangju, Korea), Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, CROSSROADS at SFMOMA, FICVALDIVI (Chile), Harvard Film Archive, Images Festival (Toronto), International Film Festival Rotterdam, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Locarno Film Festival, Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Museum of the Moving Image (New York City), Open City Documentary (London) and Seoul International New Media Festival.

Support for this exhibition comes from theNew York State Council on the Arts with the support of the New York State Legislature. The related event is co-sponsored by the Syracuse University School of Art Visiting Artist Lecture Series.

Link:

Urban Video Project Opens 2022 With 'No Emoji for Ennui' Group Exhibition and Related Screening - Syracuse University News

The job of the director ultimately boils down to creative problem-solving. When somethings going wrong or not working on set, it falls to the director to pool wits with the crew and devise an on-the-fly solution. Its just that these responsibilities usually do not extend to figuring out the mechanics of how to masturbate into ones own mouth.

John Cameron Mitchells 2006 film Shortbus which comes back to theaters this week in a 4K restoration engineered by Oscilloscope Laboratories that commemorates the original releases 15th anniversary opens in auspicious fashion, with wayward soul James bringing himself to an ejaculation he also hungrily receives, both for the benefit of the little camcorder whirring a couple feet away as well as his own private enjoyment. Its more difficult than it looks, and it never looked all that easy to begin with. Gravity and ballistics demand that he angle his pelvis directly above his face, a contortion possible only by hooking his feet onto the underside of a table-ledge while in what appears to be the middle of a backwards somersault. Its a feat of determined athleticism, and that doesnt even account for the labor that went into the shot offscreen.

Wed told [the camera operator] what the scene would be, and he stuck it out, but I found out after the fact he was not comfortable holding the camera on [actor Paul Dawson] during this scene, Mitchell relates to InsideHook from his new home in New Orleans. Hed turn the camera away to take the pressure off Paul, but then by the time hed turn it back, hed missed it. And a guy needs time to reload just like a camera needs to reload, so we waited six hours and the cameraman missed it again! We came back the next day, but I forgot to bring the sound kit, which was an issue because in this scene, hes crying and coming and we cant just loop that in. But if you remember, hes videotaping himself on that little DV camera for his own film, and that had sound! So our brilliant mixer took the sound from that and spliced it in. It was not an easy shot to get, very hard in many ways. And then, suddenly, not hard.

Mitchell knew full well that starting with a bang or at least half of one would send a clear message to his viewers: get off or, uh, get off. Capturing the auto-fellatio was worth the added hassle it required, in that the whole of Shortbuss rowdy yet softhearted spirit is contained within that determined show of onanistic will. Jamess unshy solo act announces the films queer vantage, its comedy of bodily imperfection, and its belief in the utility of unsimulated sexual content. That last point was an important one for Mitchell, who aspired to more than mere titillation with the copious, authentic scenes of copulation scattered through the film. In keeping with the plots worshipful attitude toward the transcendent, therapeutic powers of coitus, he wanted the depictions of sex to be as varied, personal and meaningful as sex itself. Were not watching a man swallow his own load for kicks; in time, well come to appreciate this as a symbol for his impulse to isolate, shutting everyone else out so he can play with and keep his hurt to himself.

I have no problem with porn; I only have a problem with unimaginative or disrespectful porn, Mitchell says. But people had relegated sex to porn, like that was the only place for it. I thought porn was too limited to handle the complexity of sex. It can be hot, but thats not the point. Well, maybe it is while youre having it. But beyond that, it can be a delivery system for all sorts of things like exposition, character development, plot. What are the characters doing? What are they missing in their lives thats addressed by the metaphors of sex?

James is one in a handful of discontented New Yorkers who convene in their searches for satisfaction at Shortbus, a salon/performance art installation/orgy based on events Mitchell attended as part of the Radical Faerie countercultural underground. The characters all bring their own baggage to the post-bohemian, post-hippie get-togethers in the hope that because their angst has roots in the libido, maybe they can fuck the pain away. James and his boyfriend Jamie are talking about opening their relationship, seeing as monogamy is for straight people. Sofia has never had an orgasm, a block linked to her deeper lack of self-discovery. The dominatrix Severin can bend men to her mercy, but cant bring herself to let one past her defenses. In each case, they bare the innermost parts of themselves when baring it all, to the extent that their performance cant be separated from its most explicit moments.

With ease, Mitchell can rattle off a laundry list of his favorite films demonstrating the unique potency of real or otherwise graphic sex: Nine Songs, Battle in Heaven, Fat Girl, In the Realm of the Senses, Taxi Zum Klo, Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song, Un chant damour. Oh, and The Brown Bunny, which wasnt very good, he adds. Weirdly, me and [star] Sook-Yin [Lee] ran into Vincent Gallo in the subway while we were working on this movie and we told him, Hey, were making a film with real sex too! and he said, Whatever you do, dont be in it. Theyll come after you! He couldnt help noticing that these films all had an undercurrent of despair to them, that the sex often came bundled with suicide or some other tragedy. Though the specters of AIDS and 9/11 loom over Shortbus Its like the 60s with less hope, muses attendee Justin Vivian Bond his goal was to imagine an oasis of acceptance lifting all visitors out of the lockstep bloodthirsty patriotism of the Dubya years and up to a nirvana of fulfillment.

Behind the outrageous set pieces that see the National Anthem sung into a mans ass or one womans orgasm end the Northeast Blackout of 2003, theres an earnest effort to foster nurturing and healing. Its a realistic kind of utopia, in that these characters are all damaged and working through it, Mitchell says. Its not a dystopia, but the characters pretend toward utopia and fail. Which I think is better than dystopia as the only answer! All childrens literature is dystopia-focused now. That doesnt seem like a great thing to teach your kids, that were all fucked, but theres evidence for that, isnt there? In our case, Im fascinated by utopian communities the experiments, the failures, the chosen families. Its a queer thing to be interested in, because often queer peoples families wont understand them or might reject them. So we find our own.

On screen and off, Mitchells techniques rebutted the predatory side to sex that divides us into binaries of objects and consumers. The actors shared authorship with their director, choosing names and backstories informed loosely by their own experiences. They were given a script and then told to paraphrase all their lines in a vernacular that made them feel natural and comfortable, a trick Mitchell picked up from John Cassavetes and Robert Altman. We borrowed from their lives, with me constantly asking how they feel about where we were at, he says. With Sook-Yin, I asked her how we could make her as comfortable as possible around the crew. Why dont we do a rehearsal where all the crew is nude? she said. So we did! It was just me, the cinematographer, and another sound person, but it really helped. We were like, Oh, god! for five minutes, and then we all got over it.

Despite the scandalizing potential Vincent Gallo prophesied, Shortbus generated only a modest amount of controversy in 2007. The expected watchdogs decried the infiltration of pornography to wholesome movie theaters. Actress Sook-Yin Lee was dismissed from her job at the CBC and reinstated in the wake of a petition chockablock with celebrity signatories, and a ban on the film in South Korea was lifted after extensive judicial review. But we werent big enough to really get on the right-wing radar, goes Mitchells reasoning. Though the real victory there was that the Korean Supreme Court had to watch the movie. Id love for the US Supreme Court to see it.

John Cameron Mitchell (third from right) and the cast of Shortbus at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival

Jesse Grant/WireImage via Getty

No longer mistaken for a smutty novelty, the film returns to a world with drastically changed notions about sex and cinema. The once-outr sensibility of kink has drifted toward the mainstream, now the stuff of premium cable and Oprah-approved short story collections. But at the same time, the U.S. film industry has been thoroughly neutered in the interim, mired in what Mitchell calls a sex-panic due in part to the past decades revelation of how pervasive abuse has been in Hollywood. Today, I think the pushback on the film would probably come from the left rather than the right, he says. Theres a panic about sex among Gen Z, a concern that if someones having sex they must be getting exploited. Young people are having less sex, maybe because the IRL experience has gotten scarier It feels like a good time for Shortbus to come back out.

Posterity has suspended Shortbus between trends, ahead of its time in its unabashed sex-positivity but alienated from the present in its willingness to show it. Even so, Mitchells prescience leaves him with the last laugh. For one, he anticipated Grindr with the proximity-based hookup app Yenta. (My lawyer told me I couldnt patent it unless I actually made it. Ive never spent time thinking about how to make money, though I probably should. Its more fun to imagine having it.) Moreover, his open-mindedness about fidelity has bled into the monoculture, with twentysomethings and married couples alike adopting polygamy in increasing numbers. (You may remember, the worry was that the gays would redefine marriage. Well, it could use some redefining!) As for what he sees in the fate of his horny, impassioned cult classic: Id love someone to adapt Shortbus for the stage. Real sex on stage, every night! Why not?

In his sensitive collaborations with his actors and his trust in eroticism as a deeper narrative engine, Mitchell formed a carnal refuge in a confusing, conservative America. Whatever your anxieties about the current state of the nation, this pansexual haven invites you to come as you are. With sex, theres no need to be scared, he says. I grew up Catholic and sex-phobic myself, so I understand it. But with this film, I wanted to de-mystify, to use sex in a way I hadnt seen before One of the actors said, Hey, were doing all this, you might as well have sex too. And I said, Okay, what should I do? Well, you either get fucked up the ass, or youre gonna eat pussy! And Im like, Ill try the latter restaurant, which I have never visited. So theres a scene where Im, you know, downstairs. And it went great! And I never could have done that with another film.

This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.

View original post here:

The Complicated Legacy of "Shortbus," The Sex-Club Cult Film With a Heart of Gold - InsideHook

From the volcanic plains of Morrowind to the lurching fjords of Skyrim, to the sprawling sands of Elsweyr and the towering sierras of Daggerfall, The Elder Scrolls Online has become a vast and varied version of Tamriel that is unprecedentedly immense in scope. In fact, the designers at ZeniMax Online Studios are actually running out of space on the continent thats why the next location coming to the game, High Isle, has never been visited before in this universe.

Thats not the only thing being added to the game in the upcoming Legacy of the Bretons expansion, though. Obviously, a story about Bretons requires, well Bretons. We sat down with The Elder Scrolls Online lead writer Bill Slavicsek and loremaster Leamon Tuttle to discuss all things Bretonic and beyond.

We chose the Bretons because we havent done much with them since the launch game, Slavicsek tells GLHF. Weve been looking for What havent we done yet? and they were an obvious choice. They deserve more of a spotlight than theyve had before, and were going to give them one with the Legacy of the Bretons.

For those of you who enjoy The Elder Scrolls but are more well-versed on races like Nords, Dark Elves, and Khajiit, the Bretons according to the folks at ZeniMax Online Studios are significantly more intriguing than people have been led to believe. Their society is a Thronesian one, where abrasiveness is eschewed for subterfuge and petty political squabbles are quickly elevated to full-fledged coups dtat.

We did a lot of research on the actual medieval period in Europe how that played out and how the various noble houses dealt with and around each other, Tuttle explains. Theres a ton of intrigue and conflict between various noble houses thats gonna definitely have a spotlight put on it. There are several noble houses, two in particular that the player is going to be well acquainted with over time. Theres the whole neo-feudalism side of it, but theres also the magical side of it. One of the things that often gets lost in the shuffle is that Bretons are one of the most magically adept races in Tamriel, from the king all the way down to the serfs.

Every Breton can boast some resistance to magic and some basic aptitude for learning it if given the opportunity. I mean, some of the greatest mages in Tamrielic history were Breton. Another aspect of society that were dealing with is Druidism. Early on in theElder Scrolls releases, there was a reference to the Druids of Galen. It was kind of dropped and never really talked about that much. But were really getting into the history of the Bretons in terms of their relationship with the Direnni elves and how that all started, these basic kinds of early religion aspects with druids.

Its worth lingering on that point for a moment. As Tuttle says above, part of preparing for this expansion involved going back to old lore in order to maintain consistency with the Elder Scrolls universe. This is pretty standard in unique sci-fi and fantasy worlds with their own inherent rules and rituals, although Slavicsek jokes that, Were fantasy, we make it up when we mention the fact that Mass Effects loremaster would often crunch the numbers for concepts like using mass relays to achieve FTL speeds.

The challenges that we face are different from the challenges that youd see in a game like Mass Effect, Tuttle says. Were not crunching numbers on mass relays and stuff, but I do a ton of research on a bunch of different stuff, including all the lore thats taken place up until now. Its a lot of reading, but one thing I always try to consider is that as loremaster, our job is not to treat all the lore as totally inviolate. Were the stewards of what is the best version of ourselves. Were trying to safeguard the best aspects of the franchise and make sure that they get a chance to shine.

Theres this idea that the loremaster gig is just kind of smacking peoples hands with big books and being like, No, you cant do that! or whatever. But really, its about trying to find a way to achieve what were trying to achieve while protecting the best aspects of the franchise.

Slavicsek builds on this point, stating that Tuttles role isnt necessarily to say no and smack the writers with a dusty old text from The Elder Scrolls: Arena. Its to turn around and say, How can we make that work? when faced with a new idea that could potentially be at odds with a previous or future one. Slavicsek, meanwhile, focuses on ensuring that these stories are all consistent with every three-month gap between releases. Compared to single-player games and even a lot of online ones the amount of quality content The Elder Scrolls Online produces on the regular is pretty wild.

Thats a fascinating point to muse on, too. Obviously, The Elder Scrolls Online is massively popular now, which makes the decade its been since a single-player Elder Scrolls game all the more ostensible. Some fans of the series are of the opinion that ESO has usurped its single-player predecessors, although the folks at ZeniMax Online Studios dont like to think of it that way.

Were not in competition with our brethren at BGS, Slavicsek says. I just try to put out good stuff and hope the audience likes it.

We both get to play in the same universe, but we play in different ways, Tuttle adds. Thats one of the cool things about games generally is that theres variations on the theme, and different studios do different things in different ways. People clearly love our game, and they definitely clearly love the mainline titles in The Elder Scrolls. I think with all of our studios, were making people happy in different ways.

ESO, however, has had to experiment with said ways in abnormally rapid succession. As mentioned at the beginning of the piece, the size of Tamriel has already been established. The races who inhabit the continent their histories, mythologies, and cultures are known to fans the world over. How can ZeniMax Online Studios continue to put out new hefty chunks of new material on a quarterly basis while ensuring its world doesnt outgrow the shell that keeps it contained, but focused?

I mean, wed like to go to new places, Slavicsek explains. Were running out of room on Tamriel thats one of the reasons were going to the archipelago in this next package. Weve covered most of the main continent at this point. But we also believe in the rules of the universe and there are certain mysteries that will never be answered. The Dwemer are one of those we are not going to step anywhere near that.

We may do some hints here and there, we may tease you a little bit. But there are things that they say we should never touch, and thats one. We will never touch those things. But were creating new stuff all the time we have to or wed never put out any content. The Ascendant Order is new, High Isle is new. Last time we showed parts of the Deadlands that were never seen before. Thats become second nature for us and its exciting. We love doing it.

For those who are curious about the upcoming material referenced above, the Ascendant Order is an all-new antagonistic faction that is opposed to the Three Banners War. Their quest for a crownless utopia marks them as the kind of villainous organization that isnt just armed to the teeth with twirly mustaches and dastardly laughs though. Its staffed by people with real conviction in a lofty goal they see as just, and which other people concur with due to the fact they market themselves as people who are anti-violence in Tamriel.

Thats actually a good thing, right? We want to end the war, Slavicsek says. Its a matter of how they go about doing it that becomes the driving force of the story. And their leaders weve got a few of them that youll meet across the length of the story are these individuals that at least on the surface have noble goals and believe in things that most of the common folk of Tamriel would probably support until people start dying.

The studios confidence in terms of introducing whole new factions in large, year-long expansion stories has bred ambition, conviction, and a kind of self-awareness in the MMO space that maybe not all companies are capable of recognizing. The people at ZeniMax Online Studios know that what theyre doing is good. They can identify why it resonates with so many people, and can clearly see a future for ESO that isnt affected by rivals or future Elder Scrolls games developed elsewhere.

Were telling good stories, Slavicsek says. I think our storytelling is some of the strongest happening in the industry. We approach the storytelling for an MMO much differently than most other MMOs and Im very proud of that. Were doing good stuff and people are noticing.

I think its important to give props to the community itself, as well, Tuttle continues. I mean, a game like this does not exist in the way that it exists now without a really awesome, thriving community of players that are contributing in different ways writing articles, doing fan art, or writing fanfics. One of the cool things about doing this is theres this kind of communication between us and people who really love this game. I think thats a huge part of its success.

Speaking of which, ESOs community surpassed 20 million players just last year. As was the case with many games, people all over the world found solace in video games throughout the pandemic particularly in highly sociable ones like MMOs. While the team has been working from home for almost two years, they havent missed a single deadline throughout that time. They know just how important its been for players to be able to inhabit this world.

Personally, what Ive been doing when Im not writing for the game and working is playing video games, because I cant leave my house, Slavicsek explains. I think video games have given people a way to get through this unique situation were all in, at least if youre fans of that particular medium. Im glad weve been able to provide people with something that could get them through this. Were gonna continue to do that.

Both Slavicsek and Tuttle have words for those people, too which includes you if youre reading this. Thank you, Tuttle opens with. Thats first.

Our game is unique, Slavicsek says. You can start anywhere you want. If you decide you want to start with Legacy of the Bretons, its a perfectly good jumping-in point. Its a political story. Its a down-to-earth story. Its a people story. Youre gonna learn a lot about the Bretons and their history and their lore. But youre also going to deal with the current problems of the day in Tamriel. Be ready to run in and have some fun.

I would say from the lore perspective, if you really wanted to get some more lore from the Bretons, you will not be disappointed, Tuttle says. Theres plenty of it to go around. And if youre one of these people who thinks that the Bretons are really boring you should play too, because well prove you wrong.

Written by Cian Maher on behalf of GLHF.

See the article here:

The Elder Scrolls Online lore interview we won't step anywhere near the Dwemer - For The Win

Newcastle United have changed their objective as they are targeting Galatasaray defender Marcao as an affordable 15m alternative to Diego Carlos, according to reports.

The Magpies have signed two players this month as they have brought in Kieran Trippier and Chris Wood.

Newcastle are desperate to sign a new centre-back before the transfer window shuts on Monday. They have been heavily linked with Sevilla star Carlos.

Are Man Utd playing long game in Lingard loan row?

This transfer has now fallen through and Carlos is quite happy to be staying at Sevilla.

TuttoMercatoWeb (via Sport Witness)are reporting that Newcastle have opted to change their objective.

They are now targetingGalatasaray centre-back Marcao. He is valued at 15m and he is seen as an affordable alternative to Carlos.

The 25-year-old has been at Galatasaray since 2019. They paid an initial fee of 4m to sign him and he has played 126 times across all competitions.

Newcastle are also said to be interested in Jesse Lingard. Stuart Pearce believes the midfielder would be a commodity for several Premier League teams:

Jesse is a commodity that is not playing for his football club that would be a benefit to a lot of clubs in the Premier League, that would be my personal opinion, Pearce said (as cited by The Metro).

Our [club] is certainly one of them, there is no doubt.

Everyone is aware that we tried to get Jesse back again last summer and that will continue probably in this window as well but that is down to Jesse.

Jesse has six months of his contract left, he will decide and Manchester Untied more importantly will decide what his future is for the next six months.

Pearce went onto suggest that it is a real shame that Lingard has not been playing consistently:

I always feel it is a real shame when a player of that talent is probably not playing regularly.

Especially his contribution when he came and joined us and had a wonderful six months and got himself back in the England fold as well, so it has helped Gareth Southgate as well.

Listen, I will be delighted if he goes and plays, wherever he goes and plays. If he turns up at West Ham over the next four days it will be utopia.

If he goes and plays anywhere else in the Premier League I will still be pleased back seeing him play again.

View post:

Newcastle United 'change objective' as they eye 'affordable' 15m alternative to Diego Carlos - Football365

In Star Trek: First Contact, Captain Picard explains to a 21st-century visitor, The economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesnt exist in the 24th century.

Yusaku Maezawa, a multibillionaire who recently traveled to space, could double for just such a visitor. He recently echoed Picards idea in a press conference he gave from the International Space Station, saying,

Someday, money will disappear suddenly from this world. . . . my bank account will be zero. Everyones bank account will be zero. And everything in stores [will be] free. So, everyone can take everything for free from stores. If you love cars, you can ride a Ferrari as soon as you wantfor free.

The fashion tycoon added that capitalism is not sustainable and should be replaced with a money-free society as soon as possible, a view he promises to explain in a film he plans to make (which no doubt will cost a small fortune to produce). Is this a truly futuristic ideaone we should strive for? Or is it actually rather primitive and unworkable?

Capitalism, to the extent it has existed, has been incredibly successful at lifting most of humanity out of poverty, incentivizing the creation of incredible, life-enhancing technologies, such as those Maezawa used to make his fortunenot to mention, travel to space. But its long had its critics, and he is far from the first to propose a sort of Garden-of-Eden world where everything is plentiful and free. Karl Marx envisioned a similar utopia. Communism, he said, ultimately would bring about a world without money:

In the case of socialised production the money-capital is eliminated. Society distributes labour-power and means of production to the different branches of production. The producers may, for all it matters, receive paper vouchers entitling them to withdraw from the social supplies of consumer goods a quantity corresponding to their labour-time. These vouchers are not money. They do not circulate.

And although society distributes labour-powermeaning government planners tell people what to do to ensure that things (such as free Ferraris) get madeworkers could also all pursue whatever hobbies or occupations strike their fancy. [I]n communist society, Marx explained,

where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, to fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have in mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.

Because, in such a world, society regulates the general production, only social planners would need to worry about how all of this somehow adds up to meet everyones needs. The worker need not concern himself with producing in-demand goods that he can trade for others. As a modern utopian and self-described social engineer, Jacque Fresco, explains:

all goods and services are available to all people without the need for means of exchange such as money, credits, barter or any other means. For this to be achieved, all resources must be declared as the common heritage of all Earths inhabitants. Equipped with the latest scientific and technological marvels, humankind could reach extremely high productivity levels and create an abundance of resources.

In other words, a handful of technocrats would somehow make possible a couch potatos paradise. Thats not an idea that resonates with me or with the ambitious young people I know. On the other hand, burned-out Chinese workerswho recently launched the lying flat movement to popularize opting out of Xi Jinpings continual struggle toward tech dominancelikely would welcome the respite. Ironically, though, the Chinese Communist Party views this widespread acknowledgment of fatigue as subversive childishness, evidencing the individuals supposedly immoral desire to put his own selfish interests above those of the nation.

Under communism, a handful of technocrats would somehow make possible a couch potatos paradise. Thats not an idea that resonates with me or with the ambitious young people I know.

But, if not in the heart of communism, might Marxs Eden be workable elsewhere?

Although Marx considered himself a social scientist and economistand although his ideas are still some of the most widely taughtthey arent much taught in social science or economics departments, except as foils. Thats because virtually all of Marxs hypotheses have been debunked. For one, whos going to build the free Ferraris that Maezawa has dreamed up, never mind tackle more mundane tasks, with no incentive? But for those who dont find such commonsense thought experiments convincingor who think, as Marx did, that human nature will somehow mysteriously changethe impracticality of Marxs moneyless state was demonstrated by what Austrian economists have come to call the calculation problem. Ludwig von Mises once explained the problem as follows:

If a hydroelectric power station is to be built, one must know whether or not this is the most economical way to produce the energy needed. How can he know this if he cannot calculate costs and output?

We may admit that in its initial period a socialist regime could to some extent rely upon the experience of the preceding age of capitalism. But what is to be done later, as conditions change more and more? Of what use could the prices of 1900 be for the director in 1949? And what use can the director in 1980 derive from the knowledge of the prices of 1949?

The paradox of planning is that it cannot plan, because of the absence of economic calculation. What is called a planned economy is no economy at all. It is just a system of groping about in the dark.

In short, without prices, people have no relatable, quantifiable means of comparing and contrasting options about how to spend time and capital, which is vital for determining how best to use these naturally scarce resources. New Scientist magazine reported that in the future, cars could be powered by hazelnuts, said comedian Jimmy Fallon, in a skit that captures this point hilariously. Thats encouraging, considering an eight-ounce jar of hazelnuts costs about nine dollars. Yeah, Ive got an idea for a car that runs on bald eagle heads and Faberg eggs.

The paradox of planning is that it cannot plan, because of the absence of economic calculation. What is called a planned economy is no economy at all. It is just a system of groping about in the dark. Ludwig von Mises

But theres more. As has been shown with so many of Marxs ideas, a moneyless society is not only impractical, its also deeply immoral. Marx often grumbled about greedy capitalists alienating workers from their labor. The focus on efficiency, he said, reduced the worker to a mere extension of a factorys machines, rendering him a brute tool of capitalist exploitation.

Of course, workers chose industrial jobs because they paid better than those in agriculture and the like. And even if boring, such jobs rarely were so backbreaking as life on the farm. Far from alienating workers from their labor, the capitalist arranged new modes of production that vastly increased the value of that labor, not only for himself, but for workers, too. Whereas a slave truly is alienated from his laborhe works but is deprived of the fruits of his effortthe industrial worker could count on greater returns from his labor than ever before. Over the course of the Industrial Revolution and the following centuries, those returns have grown immensely and reduced the percentage of people living in extreme poverty from more than 80 percent to less than 20.

Money stores the value of ones effort. Its made possible by the legal protection of property rights. In the words of Francisco dAnconia from Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged:

Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders.

Just as the worker owns himself, he owns the values he produces, on which his life depends, either directly or indirectly via the sale of those values. Without money and the property rights that underlie it, we all would be truly and fully alienated from our labor, left without enforceable claim to the values we spend our timeand thus our livescreating.

"Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort." Ayn Rand

Thats an idea hardly fit even for science fiction, one best relegated to the dystopian genre.

This piece is republished with permission from The Objective Standard.

View original post here:

Is Star Trek's Dream of a World Without Money Utopian or Dystopian? | Jon Hersey, Thomas Walker-Werth - Foundation for Economic Education

News broke that Kayne West will be replacing Travis Scott at Coachella this year. Now a petition by Travis Scott fans is in motion to get the performer back on the Coachella stage.

This comes in after its been announced that the rapper is stacked up with lawsuits over the Astroworld tragedy have amounted to over billions at this point.

According to a Variety article, it was revealed that the festival informed Scotts longtime agent, Cara Lewis of the Cara Lewis Group, of its intent to pull Scott from the bill, which he was to headline, and that it would pay a kill fee for the cancelation, typically 25 percent.

I didnt know the exact details until you know minutes before the press conference, said Scott while interviewing with Charlemagne Tha God.

Its confirmed that 10 people have died on November 5 at Astroworld. People have criticized the role Travis Scott played in the dangerous environment. Some have called out his ranging culture to be the main cause for so much of the chaos that night

In the interview with Charlemagne, Scott was asked about the culture of ranging and the critiques that have come out about it.

Charlemagne asked, Raging has been a part of the culture of your shows Youve encouraged, I guess, the kind of energy that could have led to something like this happening. Do you think that contributed to the energy of this night?

Travis Scott replied, Its something Ive been working on for a while just creating these experiences and trying to show the experiences happening in a safe environment, us as artists we trust professionals to make sure that things happen and people leave safely . its was just like a regular show it felt like to me People didnt show up there to just be harmful people.

Travis Scott explained further, that people showed up to have a good time and concluded that the tragedy was something unfortunate happened

What is now left for the Sicko Mode Rapper? He is still facing mounting lawsuits, and while that is going on behind the scenes Travis Scotts has been keeping a pretty low profile.

He was spotted back in late December with his daughter Stormi for a Huston Holiday Food and Toy Drive. According to Billboard, the event was a collaboration between the city of Huston, Scotts Cactus Jack Foundation, and the Mayor of Huston Sylvester Turner.

His most recent post on Instagram was of himself for New Years Eve. He is also expecting another child with Kylie Jenner this year. His next album Utopia is expected to drop this year as well.

Only time will tell what is in store for Travis Scott the reminder of this year. Here are three ways Travis Scott can pivot and possibly prove that hes ready to take the Coachella stage.

Back in mid-April of last year, it was announced that artist SoFaygo, a Michigan rapper who blew up last year for his hit single Knock-Knock, which went viral on Tiktok, signed on to Cactus Jack Records .

As it stands, Cactus Jack has the likes of Don Toliver, Chase B, and Sheck Wes on the label. Travis Scott could take some time out of the spotlight and focus on furthering developing these artists careers.

Investing time and resources to help further push his record label can allow him to build up a good reputation for his label separate from him as an artist.

Playing in the background can allow him to get back to the music which seems to be his main focus when it comes to his brand.

Tapping back into his record label gives him full reign to step into his producer bag.

Travis Scott already has a history of producing some hit songs and albums. He has produced for Kanye West, Jay Z, Wale, Big Sean, Dj Khaled etc. This can be the perfect time to step into the producer space and continue to play a background force in the music industry.

Cactus Jack Records is a fertile ground for creating an environment for musical artists to thrive and take the music into their own hands. Pivoting into the producer role can allow him to still have an influence and make waves in the industry.

One major move Travis Scott and the team should focus on is the ways they can go above and beyond for the Houston Community. Many visitors of Astroworld were natives of the city and Scott intentionally investing in Houston would be a step in a good direction.

It was mentioned earlier in this piece that he participated in a charity event this past Holiday season. Travis Scott should build upon that work by tapping into mutual aid groups like Mutual Aid Houston. They are a BIPOC-led grassroots collective boosting mutual aid efforts within Houston, Texas.

This mutual aid organization was able to crowdfund up to $130,000 for families affected by the extreme cold and snowstorm that occurred last winter.

Teaming up with organizations that are on the ground and creating material changes would be a good way for the Astroworld Rapper to reinvest his image and influence.

Who knows what will happen after backlash from the Astrowrld tragedy will fizzle out? What do we know? Travis Scott fans will always be there for their artist and hopefully, their Coachella petition works.

See the petition (here).

The rest is here:

Travis Scott and Coachella: Could one petition be his saving grace? - Kulture Hub