Category Archives: Zeitgeist Movement

Teams tweaking their standard uniforms is commonplace in todays NFL. Apart from special alternate jerseys, throwback unis, and Color Rush combos, some teams tend to reinvent their uniforms as often as theyre allowed. A bigger helmet logo here, a flashy new number font there, a trendy matte finish to top things off. All-white. All-black. Maybe a sublimated pattern in the background or some extra swirls and stripes around the edges. It all makes for hype-worthy reveal videos on Twitter and certainly provides teams a boost when it comes to merchandising revenue.

But can you imagine a franchise just adding an entirely new out-of-left-field color that has nothing to do with their official on-the-field uniform, one of the most recognizable in all of sports, for an entire season simply because ownership wants to get in on a pop culture movement? This is the story of the year the Dallas Cowboys wore blue, white and red.

The United States celebrated the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1976. Plans for how the country might formally commemorate the Bicentennial had actually begun a full 10 years prior. Originally planned as a large exposition to be staged in either Boston or Philadelphia, the significance of the nations birthday seemed to grow exponentially in the hearts and minds of mainstream America as the date drew closer.

By the time New Years Day arrived that year, patriotism had reached a near-fever pitch from coast to coast. Watergate and Vietnam were in the past and a new American spirit was at hand. A red, white, and blue train was making a whistle-stop tour across the lower 48 states. Fireworks shows and parades were being planned in major cities. Historic tall ships from around the world docked in American harbors. Collectible coins were minted. Mailboxes and fire hydrants across the country got patriotic paint jobs from local citizens. The 1976 movie Rocky featured nods to the Bicentennial, dressing Apollo Creeds character as George Washington and then Uncle Sam on fight night. Commercial products in stores were rewrapped in star-spangled packaging.

As one of the first major cultural events to take place in the Bicentennial year, Super Bowl X played in Miami on January 18 included its own special acknowledgement. That day, both the Cowboys and Steelers wore an honorary uniform patch featuring the official Bicentennial logo: a stylized red, white, and blue star designed by the man who also came up with NASAs logo.

Super Bowl X proved to be the only time the patch was worn during an NFL game. The league decided against including it on teams uniforms for the 1976 season. With Bicentennial celebrations having culminated on July 4, enthusiasm had waned considerably by the time the regular season kicked off in September.

But not everyone was ready to snuff out the countrys birthday candles and declare the party over so quickly. The Dallas Cowboys had something subtle but special planned for 1976. It remains one of the quirkiest footnotes in the teams illustrious history.

A tiny blurb in the July 30, 1976 edition of the Los Angeles Times is perhaps the first public mention of what was to come. Under a heading reading Fashion note printed in bold type, the Times reported, citing a league memo:

In honor of Americas Bicentennial, the Cowboys will change one the blue stripes running down the center of their helmets to red for one season only.

Yes, for the duration of the 1976 season, the Cowboys official uniform was red, white, and blue.

According the book Glory Days: Life with the Dallas Cowboys, 1973-1998 by the teams longtime equipment manager William T. Buck Buchanan, the idea was pure Tex Schramm. The visionary team president and general manager was never one to miss an opportunity to promote the Dallas Cowboys brand by tapping into whatever was new and popular. If the country was crazy for the stars and stripes, the Cowboys would be a part of it. After all, they already had the stars.

The teams first two preseason games in 1976 were in Oakland and Los Angeles, explaining why an L.A. paper may have broken the news of the uniform modification. Californians were perhaps the first to see the unusual color combo on the Cowboys trademark helmets, but the striping scheme quickly made an impression on everyone else, too.

Buchanan tells the following story:

During a preseason game with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cowboy tackle Ralph Neely was asked by the opposing Pittsburgh lineman, How long have you been wearing that red stripe on your helmets?

The ball was snapped, and Ralph knocked his man on his butt.

Ralph turned to walk back to the huddle and fired over his shoulder, First year, but we may keep wearing em.'

Dallas did keep wearing them, and the distinct red stripe makes any photo from the 1976 season instantly identifiable as such.

The Eagles seem to be the only other team in the league to commemorate the Bicentennial with any sort of wardrobe alteration. Their uniforms from that season featured a small sleeve patch picturing the Liberty Bell with the number 76 cleverly woven into the design.

Of course, in todays NFL, there are jersey patches and helmet decals worn for a wide variety of reasons. Often, theyre league-wide efforts worn by every team, such as the patches that commemorated the NFLs 100th season or the pink ribbons (and accessories) worn during October to salute breast cancer research and survivorship, to name just two.

Similarly, individual teams frequently honor former players, coaches, or front office personnel with a special uniform feature to mark the occasion of their passing. Other notable events can get the one-time patch treatment, too. The Cowboys, for example, sported single-game uniform tweaks for their 2014 game played in London, the first game played in Cowboys Stadium in 2009, and the final game played at Texas Stadium in 2008.

But what the Cowboys did for the entirety of the 1976 season to mark the nations 200th birthday stands nearly alone in the annals of football history.

Bill Schaefer of the wonderfully exhaustive website The Gridiron Uniform Database was able to think of just two other occurrences where a lone team went rogue for a whole season and used a wardrobe change to call attention to a non-football movement.

Schaefer pointed out that the 1945 Cleveland Rams, in their final season before relocating to Los Angeles, wore a sleeve patch depicting an eagle perched inside a red, white, and blue capital C. The patch was said to have been worn in support of the war effort, Schaefer noted in an email exchange with Cowboys Wire.

The Rams were also the sole club to don a special drug abuse awareness patch for a portion of the 1988 season, according to Schaefer, in conjunction with President Reagans War on Drugs' initiative.

But much has changed in the years since then, and the NFL has taken monumental steps toward streamlining their behemoth of a brand. It is nearly impossible to imagine a solo team in todays league altering their uniform to the point of adding a new color to their trademarked palette just to take part in the zeitgeist moment of the day. In the present-day NFL, such a uniform modification would be either an official mandate across all 32 teams with stringently enforced rules on its appearance, placement, and usage, or it wouldnt be allowed at all.

[Note: Just this week, the NFL has entered into discussions with players regarding the possibility of helmet decals or jersey patches recognizing those impacted by systemic racism and police brutality for the 2020 season, according to a report. The decision to wear a decal or patch could be left up to individual players, or teams could choose to act as a whole.]

The Cowboys, though, have always had a reputation around the league as a maverick organization. Even in those days, they did things their own way.

Of the Bicentennial patches worn by Dallas and Pittsburgh in Miami in January of 76, Buchanan recalls in his book:

Before Super Bowl X, the league issued written instructions dictating where to sew the Bicentennial patch on our jerseys.

What do you think, Buck? Mr. Schramm asked.

Could be distracting to the quarterback, I replied.

Damned right, he said. Put the patch on the jersey sleeve.

The NFL letter says to put the patch on the upper left breast, I said.

No sir, he said. Put it on the sleeve.

But the letter was signed by Pete Rozelle, I insisted.

Buck, listen to me, Tex insisted, put the patch where I told you to put it.'

The Steelers wore the patch on their upper left breast, as ordered. The Cowboys wore it on their left sleeve. Not a word of reprimand came down from the league office.

Tex and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle were friends, Buchanan astutely notes.

During the regular season that followed, the Cowboys decision to independently add a red stripe to one of the most recognized pieces of gear in sports somehow wasnt as big a deal as it seems now. Maybe thats simply because we live in an age where it almost certainly would never be authorized to begin with.

Paul Lukas runs the exceptional website Uni Watch, dedicated to the aesthetics and history of sports uniforms. He has singled out the 76 red stripe as one of the top ten quirks of the one of the most iconic uniforms in all of sports, right up there with the Cowboys famously mismatched blues, silvers that arent quite silver, and retro Dymo Tape nameplates.

Of the Bicentennial stripe, Lukas told Cowboys Wire:

Its the type of thing that would get a huge amount of attention if a team did it now, but it kind of flew under the radar in 1976 and for some reason, never became a high-profile part of the teams timeline or story. Definitely fits in with the whole Americas Team thing, though.

Ah, yes. The Patriots and their Boston-based fans appropriately wear red, white, and blue every season, of course. But if any team was going to play up the stars and stripes factor as a one-off for the countrys 200th birthday celebration, of course it would be Americas Team.

Except heres the thing about that. In 1976, no one had yet called the Cowboys Americas Team. That nickname didnt happen until 1979, well after the year-long celebration and Dallass red-striped headgear. NFL Films invented that particular moniker, making it the title of the Cowboys team highlight video recapping their 1978 season.

So the Old Glory-inspired uniform tweak might have- at least subconsciously- helped give birth to the Americas Team nickname in the minds of those NFL Films editors two years later. But despite the conspiracy theory many opposing teams fans cling to as absolute (and ever-nauseating) truth, the red stripe flat-out couldnt have been the Cowboys attempt to rub their better-than-thou handle in the faces of the rest of the league.

Although the 76 Cowboys finished that Bicentennial season with a record of 11-3 and the NFC East title, they lost in the playoffs to the Rams, keeping the unique red, white, and blue-striped helmets from ever making a Super Bowl appearance.

When the team next took the field, it was 1977. The Bicentennial was history, and the red stripe was gone. Today, the Cowboys contribution to the Spirit of 76 exists only in those old photographs, a scant few collectibles still floating around, and the memories of long-time fans.

The Bicentennial helmets do claim a small bit of the spotlight at The Star in Frisco today, though. Largely forgotten by the modern era, the 76 uniforms are enough of an item of historical interest that they feature in an exhibit showcasing the teams uniforms throughout the years. Theres a mannequin front and center wearing Roger Staubachs No. 12 jersey and his signature double-bar facemask, with a bright red stripe running down the center of the helmet. Its a popular photo stop on the facilitys fan tours, and the red stripes make a good trivia question that the guides like to use to stump their groups.

In a 2018 poll, the Dallas Morning News offered up six uniforms from Cowboys history and asked readers to choose the best of all time. The 1976 red-stripe version came in dead last, with just 4% of the total vote.

For those that do remember the Bicentennial helmets fondly, though, it remains a beloved footnote in Cowboys history. Maybe because it was so subtle and quirky, maybe because they were the only ones to do it, maybe because they did it on their own, maybe because they never did it again, maybe because it would never happen now. It lives on as one of those little-known factoids that can win a bar bet or score points in a trivia contest, and it certainly helps true old-school fans size each other up with a knowing smile and a sly head nod.

But should the team decide to break out the red stripes one more time for the nations Semiquincentennial in 2026, it will be just about the coolest thing to ever happen to a whole bunch of nostalgic 50-something Cowboys fanatics.

You can follow Todd on Twitter @ToddBrock24f7.

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Spirit of '76: The year the Dallas Cowboys wore red, white, and blue - Cowboys Wire

The National Football Leagues Washington Redskins are reviewing their racist team name, signaling that the derogatory slur could be on its way out for good.

In light of recent events around our country and feedback from our community, the Washington Redskins will undergo a thorough review of the teams name, the team said in a statement Friday.

The team said it has been having internal discussions about a possible name change for weeks. The new review comes after a national anti-racist movement that has seen thousands of protests across the country following the police killing of Minneapolis Black man George Floyd.

Redskins team owner Daniel Snyder has stuck by the slur for Native Americans for years, which has been used by the team since 1933.

Snyders sudden change of heart was likely due to increased pressure from major corporate sponsors including FedEx, which demanded the team change its name earlier this week. FedEx also owns the naming rights to the Redskins home stadium in the Washington, D.C., area. Other companies including PepsiCo and Nike also demanded the team change its name, and Nike appeared to remove all Redskins apparel from its website.

Native American activists have pointed out, however, that indigenous groups have been calling for the Redskins to change its name for decades long before this current zeitgeist and corporate intervention.

As writer and scholar Adrienne Keene, a citizen of the Cherokee nation, noted, nearly 7,000 Native Americans signed a 2014 petition urging the Redskins to change its offensive name.

The team has also faced multiple lawsuits from Native Americans over the disparaging moniker.

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), whose district is home to several Native American tribes, applauded the decision by corporate sponsors to take action against the name.

I have been working on this for a decade because I believe all people, including Native Americans, should be treated with dignity and respect and not dehumanized as mascots, McCollum said in a statement. Now that the corporate community is joining the movement and putting the dignity of people over profits, it is a true example of transformative change and signals that we are at a tipping point. I commend Nike, FedEx, and others for taking action. Now it is up to the NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell, and team owner Dan Snyder to do the same. Change the mascot. Change the name.

Studies have shown that Native American sports mascots produce negative stereotypes and exacerbate racial inequalities.

Dominique Mosbergen contributed reporting.

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Black Lives Matter was created in 2013 by three Black women Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martins killer, George Zimmerman. Over the last seven years, it has evolved into something much bigger: a broad multiethnic liberation movement focused on criminal justice reform, racist policing, and adjacent causes.

During the course of this shift, the movement has not only expanded but become more radical in its demands for equality across the board. And yet, surprisingly, this has increased, rather than diminished, its appeal.

BLM had little support across the country as recently as 2017. But it has become steadily more popular, and in the aftermath of George Floyds murder, its popularity has surged to the point that its now supported by a majority of Americans. By any measure, that suggests BLM is succeeding culturally and politically.

But how should we think of Black Lives Matter as a historical phenomenon? Is it the sort of radical social movement weve seen before in this country? Or is it something new, something different, without any precursors?

To get some answers, I reached out to Michael Kazin, a professor of history and American social movements at Georgetown University and also the co-editor of Dissent magazine. We discussed how BLM fits into the long tradition of American radicalism, what its proponents can learn from previous eras, and why he thinks BLM is both a political and a cultural struggle.

A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

As someone who studies the history of social movements in America, how do you view this moment?

Its a remarkable moment in some ways, because we have a very unpopular right-wing president and a set of popular social movements on the left. Which is surprising, because usually social movements on the left get more popular when you have a liberal or progressive president in office. This is what happened in the 30s and 60s, for example. I think we might be witnessing the end of a conservative era.

What does the end of a conservative era mean?

Well, weve had Democratic presidents in this era, Clinton and Obama, but the guiding ideas of the time have been conservative ideas about government and labor and race. And now that could be changing in a very radical way.

If Democrats are able to win the presidency and tip both houses of Congress, then you could see another major vault to the left in American history, the kind of vault we saw during Reconstruction and during the progressive eras in the 30s and 60s and early 70s. But all of this energy doesnt always translate to big legislative revolutions. For laws to pass, itll take a combination of left-wing social movements and politicians who are willing to accommodate those movements in important ways.

The Black Lives Matter movement is at the forefront of this leftward push. Do you consider BLM a radical social movement, or does it just seem that way to those who are more invested in the current order?

Like all large social movements, it has its radical aspects and its more reformist aspects. That was true of the labor movement in the 30s, which had a lot of communists and socialists in it. It was true of Reconstruction too, in which you had more radical Republicans like Thaddeus Stevens, who wanted to confiscate the land of anybody who had fought for the Confederacy and give it to African Americans, to freed slaves. We saw it in the 60s as well, when the Black Freedom Movement had its reformist side pushing for integration of institutions and the Voter Rights Act, Civil Rights Act, and you had the Black Panthers and other Black Power groups who wanted one big revolution.

So you see this dynamic in every mass social movement. Its hard to say what will become of BLM. Youve got the different aspects to it. People can unite around some moderate demands like passing laws that will handcuff the police in terms of their capacity to use violence. The more radical aspects, like abolishing the police altogether, go much further. And there are conversations about reparations and restructuring the economy to ensure not just equal opportunities but equal outcomes.

As the movement gets larger, youll see more differences within it. But no single one of those manifestations will define the movement as a whole.

What makes a radical movement radical? Is it more about the nature of the demands? Or how those demands are perceived by the power structure?

Thats a very good question. The power structure, of course, often perceives any movement that wants to change the fundamentals of how the country operates as radical. Martin Luther King Jr. was perceived to be a radical and I think he was. But the demands he was making publicly, until the end of his life, really werent that radical. He simply wanted the 14th and 15th Amendments to be applied to Black people.

Any movement that goes to the root of things is radical. An anti-capitalism movement is radical. A movement which calls for reparations for African Americans is radical. Theres a radical ethics that diagnoses something wrong about the basic organization of society and seeks to undo that wrong, and conservative figures in power have always viewed these efforts as existential threats.

The New Deal was perceived as radically socialist by a lot of people in business and in the power structure, but in retrospect it was really just reformist.

The shifting perception of these movements is fascinating to me, especially in this moment. In the case of Black Lives Matter, its remarkable to see just how popular it has become. In the last two weeks alone, I believe, support for BLM has increased as much as it has in the last two years.

What does that signal to you?

It signals that racial attitudes in America, which began to change after World War II and then took a big step forward in the 1960s with the success of the Black Freedom Movement and the Civil Rights Act, have really evolved. This has been a very long and hard road, with moments of backlash along the way, but this is what youd expect because racism is so deeply woven into that fabric of American history and culture. Obviously, the horrific killing of George Floyd was a catalyst, but I think were seeing the results of young people coming of age and being much more open to racial equality than previous generations.

And BLM, whatever one thinks of it, strikes me as the continuation of some of the most successful social movements in American history.

I think thats right, and two of those movements, the Abolitionist movement and the Black Freedom Movement, were also organized around the demands of equality for African-Americans. Of course, you could say this is all part of one long movement, but it had various phases to it. I think what were seeing now is very much part of the Black Freedom Movement, which has had its ups and downs throughout its history. But the thread tying all of it together has always been the push for fundamental equality at every level of society and in every major institution.

Whats interesting about BLM is that it could be a catalyst to a reform movement in the same way the labor movement in the 30s was essential to moving the Democratic Party to the left. A lot of people dont know this, but it was really in the 30s that the Democrats began to move away from Jim Crow. It took a long time, obviously, but thats when it started, and it was because labor was interracial and labor was crucial to the success of the Democrats in the 30s and 40s.

How were these previous movements greeted when they emerged? I ask because the goals seem, in retrospect, so sensible and obvious, but I imagine at the time they were seen as extremist and threatening.

Definitely. The great Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci talked about how social movements can change the common sense of society. What we all take to be normal or moral in society can change pretty quickly, and it changes because of the force and success of social movements. Black Lives Matter has been enormously successful in this respect. Any movement pushing for this level of change will be opposed by people who dont support those changes thats just an axiom of politics. Whats astonishing about this movement is that its not provoking more backlash at least not yet.

Well, I wonder about the not yet part. I worry about movements like Black Lives Matter or abolish the police becoming so sprawling and disjointed that they lose their focus, or get overwhelmed by revolutionary spasms that may undercut the key goals.

Are there important lessons from the past on this front?

I was a New Leftist in the late 60s. I was one of those people who went too far. I think I undermined some of my goals, even though in the end we were successful in winning our main demands, which were to fight for racial equality and an end to the Vietnam War. But along the way I did some stupid things.

I think one big lesson is that mass lawbreaking undermines a movement. As MLK used to say, you want the other side to be seen as the violent side, you want the other side reacting to your civil disobedience, to your respect for order. You dont want to be seen as running amok without leadership, without discipline, because youre trying to bring about change and people are scared of change. You dont want people to be scared of you at the same time theyre scared of change. Thats one lesson.

Another lesson is the importance of building alliances. One of the reasons why I keep saying that leftists should support Biden and ally with Pelosi and Chuck Schumer this year is that we have to get as many Democrats as possible elected because only then will there be the political space to go further than they would like to go. There are limits to what a movement can create on its own. Eventually, youve got to get laws passed, and a movement cant pass laws by itself.

Is it better to view BLM or abolish the police less as political projects and more as cultural movements that shift the zeitgeist and therefore pave the way for political changes in the future?

Its a great question, and I think its both for me. As I said before, its obviously helped to change the attitudes of a lot of white Americans and thats a cultural change in consciousness. Without that change in consciousness, we cant get real political changes because there would be too much resistance to them, and politicians are averse to doing things which are unpopular.

So its important to demand immediate change but also wise to not expect it to happen that fast. These things take a long time. If activists dont have a longterm strategy, theyre going to fail. This isnt easy, of course. On the one hand, you want movements to build on a sense of urgency when outrage happens, the way it did with George Floyd and with other Black Americans killed by the police. But at the same time, you cant let that sense of urgency impede you from organizing for the long-term.

My sense is that were still very much in the beginning of whatever this is, and so theres a lot of symbolic activism and a lot of enthusiasm but not necessarily a clear strategy for seizing power. What do you think a movement like this can do to channel all this energy and goodwill into enduring, concrete changes?

I think it has to find ways to work with other movements on the left. The change these activists seek is one of economic equity as well as an end to racist treatment by the cops. That was true for the Black movement in Fredrick Douglasss day as well as the freedom movement led, in part, by MLK in the 1960s. The fight to have the power over how the police treat you is necessarily a fight to gain more power and resources on the job, in ones neighborhood, and in education. But Black people cant win that fight by themselves. It will take allies from other races and a demand for universal programs in health care, the environment, housing, etc. and interracial institutions like labor and, yes, the Democratic Party.

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For the first time in four decades, there won't be a jazz festival to attend in downtown Detroit this September.

But there will still be free, live jazz music: The Detroit Jazz Festival will becomea virtual event this Labor Day weekend a four-day show that will air digitally, on television and on radio.

Yielding to the realities of the coronavirus pandemic, festival officials and Mayor Mike Duggan announced the move Wednesday. Rocket Mortgage is aboard as presenting sponsor.

The 2020 jazz fest will run Sept. 4-7featuring mostly local talentperforming live on three soundstages in the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center. The performance spaces will be fashioned after the festival's traditional stages, but without audiences.

It was a Cool night at the 40th Annual Detroit Jazz Festival on Sept 1, 2019.(Photo: Christopher M. Bjornberg, Special to the Free Press)

More: Watch 'Suzi Q,' documentary about legendary Detroit rocker Suzi Quatro

The fest will streamonline on the city of Detroit's Channel 22 digital station and the festival's own digital platforms, withperformances also broadcast on Detroit Public Television, WDET-FM (101.9) and WRCJ-FM (90.9).

The Detroit Jazz Festival's original 2020 lineup, announced in March, included artist-in-residence Dee Dee Bridgewater, along with Herbie Hancock, PharoahSanders, Gregory Porter and others who would have traveled to perform. While they won't be heading to Detroit for the virtual event, fest director Chris Collins hinted they'll have some kind of role.

"I have a hunch you'll be seeing them in some form during the four-day programming," Collins said.

Performances at the RenCen will be staged under a set of intensive protocols, including onstage social distancing and regular disinfecting of gear and green rooms.

The move to a "health-conscious" virtual fest followed consultation with local, state and federal authorities, Collins said, and officials evaluated several contingency plans for an in-person event before opting for the streamed edition.

Jazz fest officials were part of a 100-plus-personentertainment subcommittee that submitted a package ofevent reopening and safety recommendationsto the state of Michigan in June. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hasn't yet adopted the proposals.

The Detroit Jazz Festival is holding open submissions for Detroit musical talent. Artists can apply through July 15 at detroitjazzfest.org.

The festival has also put out an open call for visual artists, one of whom will be selected to design the event's officialposter ideally capturing the spirit of the music and the 2020 zeitgeist, including the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement.

Proceeds from poster sales will go to the Detroit Arts Fund, established earlier this year.

There's no word yet on the status of two other prominent September festivals, including Soaring Eagle Arts, Beats & Eats in Royal Oak and the Movement techno fest, scheduled Sept. 11-13 in downtown Detroit after postponing its traditional Memorial Day spot.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

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Detroit jazz fest goes virtual for 2020; Labor Day weekend event to air on web, TV, radio - Detroit Free Press

The City of Stamford has received numerous requests calling for the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue, photograph on June. 19, 2020 at Columbus park in Stamford, Connecticut.

The City of Stamford has received numerous requests calling for the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue, photograph on June. 19, 2020 at Columbus park in Stamford, Connecticut.

Photo: Matthew Brown / Hearst Connecticut Media

The City of Stamford has received numerous requests calling for the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue, photograph on June. 19, 2020 at Columbus park in Stamford, Connecticut.

The City of Stamford has received numerous requests calling for the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue, photograph on June. 19, 2020 at Columbus park in Stamford, Connecticut.

Opinion: Decisions on Stamfords Columbus statue, park decisions need to be informed

Having read a multitude of social media posts and comment threads regarding the status of the Columbus Park statue which in Stamford has become a lightning rod in the larger zeitgeist of national statue removal, I thought I would offer a few comments.

Just recently, Columbus statues in Hartford, New Haven, Norwalk and Middletown have been removed. A few statues have succumbed to beheading and defacement, certainly not a way to resolve these contentious issues. The removal movement is now brewing in Bridgeport and Stamford with the Italian-American communitys most vocal in opposition. Bear in mind that Stamford has a sizable Italian community, and the Italian-American organization Unico commissioned the sculpture in the 1970s.

Donning my art critics hat for a moment, I will say that public sculpture in its best form should have a guiding principle namely that it is edifying and uplifting. I am not sure this particular Columbus statue speaks to those qualities. The stone carving depicts Columbus attired in full explorer dress and regalia, with sword in hand, his face tilted upwards. The figure stands on a globe supported by a pedestal that bears the Unico dedication inscription. The carving itself is stiff and rather crude; and essentially of mediocre sculptural quality. It lacks that evocative, emotional connection to pull the viewer in to an uplifting historical story.

Arguments on each side of the issue of this statue have their merits. The Italian-American community argues that taking down this statue cannot solve the pervasive problem of racism; while African-American, native American and minority residents have expressed feeling deeply offended by this statue given Columbus participation and profiting from the slave trade, and forced labor of indigenous people.

Bearing this in mind, the polemics behind what it takes for diverse constituents to actually agree on replacements will be interesting. Selecting a replacement such as Fiorello La Guardia if that is what the city intends on at a future point that would be universally agreed upon by groups involved in this controversy, may be an even more arduous task.

In Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the birthplace of W.E.B. Dubois, widely considered a great civil right leader, activist and writer there was a growing movement by a number of citizens to erect a sculpture of him at the Great Barrington public library. What seemed like a groundswell of support for a statue of this native son to have an eternal placement on library grounds turned quickly into a firestorm of opposition from veterans groups due to Dubois embrace of communism late in life. Town meetings featured opposing presentations from history professors dissecting Dubois notable contributions, and his embrace of communist ideology; as well as from veteran groups opposed to the erection of a statue to a man who espoused communism in his writing and speeches. After a number of meetings and hotly contested debate, the Dubois statue was approved by the town board, and will be installed at a location yet to be determined. But this democratic process even in its best of intentions, left a lot of bad will in the town among various constituencies.

You can take the Columbus statue down following in the footsteps of other Connecticut municipalities, but agreeing on what will replace it may be as bitter a fight as what is going on now. At the very least, lets call upon the Stamford Board of Representatives to commit to a thorough and fair democratic process that will amplify the diverse voices of our residents; and resist caving in to pressure from any one group, before making an informed decision on the statue and the parks future.

Lynn Villency Cohen is a Stamford resident.

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Opinion: Decisions on Stamfords Columbus statue, park decisions need to be informed - The Advocate

Jambiani, Zanzibar. Around 700 children from two local schools cleaned up the village and collected 57 garbage bags.

widnica, Poland. Waldemar Woniak, a retired postman, cleaned up the local river and collected 2000 garbage bags.

There is also Zsuzsanna Ferraos family from India (100 bags), Daniel Toben from the US with friends (50 bags), volunteers from the Greek Island Kos ( 114 bags), and hundreds of people around the world who collected thousands of garbage bags. They all have two things in common. The first one: they actively work for a cleaner Earth. The second: thanks to a tiny Polish start-up Planet Heroes anyone can financially reward them for their social engagement.

Planet Heroes describe itself as the first-ever eco-crowdfunding platform for people who want to clean up the Earth. Unlike other crowdfunding platforms, where the money is raised for something that is yet to eventuate, Planet Heroes makes it possible to reward cleaning efforts that have already taken place. If someone wants to arrange donations for their actions, they first have to clean up an area, then send photo documentation and go through a double check. The first check is required by law for international money transfers. The second one, based on data from photos, is to establish whether the area has actually been cleaned up and the garbage disposed of in the right place.

Despite its young age, the start-up has achievements that plenty of more developed companies can only dream of. The company won the UN competition for an ecological start-up at the United Nations Forum in Nairobi. It became a partner of the UN Habitat Waste Wise Cities Campaign which aims to solve problems of the 40 biggest cities in the world. As the first start-up in history, it had its official launch at the UN Science Policy Business Forum in Canberra, Australia. Also, it received a grant from Amazon to develop an Artificial Intelligence module. This will allow them to use Amazons cloud capabilities to analyze photos of dirty areas with a lot of rubbish.

Planet Heroes business model is based on commissions on bank transfers from donors to the various clean-up causes (standard practice for crowdfunding platforms), as well as various contributions to those causes from the revenues of their business partners. But when you talk to Przemysaw Pyziel, the companys co-founder, you get the impression that money comes second. Although they have built up the company from their own savings and they still keep pouring money into it, they have kept their commissions on bank transfers very low. They also dont encourage users to make the highest possible transfers. And they reject business partnership proposals if the applicant company does not comply with their ethics. We want our platform to be seen as a community that is focused on environmental activities. And not as a business project that sells cheaply to, for example, a cigarette manufacturer, Przemysaw Pyziel states.

Worldwide more and more companies think like the Planet Heroes founders: Money is a factor yes, but it is more important to use technology to find a solution to important problems. Like fighting climate change, reducing waste, addressing exclusion. These global trends, although a little late, are also reaching Poland. For several years now these new types of companies can be seen on the start-up stage. Professor Bolesaw Rok from Kozminski University, who for 20 years has been researching responsible business practices in Poland, calls such companies positive impact start-ups.

This is a new global wave of positive business. There are several reasons why they are emerging in Poland right now. It has certainly been influenced by the social zeitgeist associated with such initiatives as school climate strikes, the social justice movement. Plus, also by EU regulations. For example, a ban on single-use plastics, and by peoples disillusionment with big business. For 10 years I have been running post-graduate studies on Corporate Social Responsibility. Until now, graduates have always wanted to work in corporations. This year, for the first time, most of the group wants to start their own company. Because they know that in a large corporation, they will not be able to realize their passion to change the world, Bolesaw Rok explains.

In a report published in June, he found over 400 such firms. The list is very diverse. There are both simple companies such as Caf PoWoli, a caf run by people with disabilities, and very technologically advanced companies. Such as Bio2Materials that has developed technology to produce textiles from apple pomace (dry pulp).

Some trends are easy to spot. The first is healthy food and plant-based food. The second is ethical fashion, while the third is natural cosmetics and cleaning products. There is a lot happening here. When we look for start-ups focusing on local and circular economies, these trends are less visible. These types of companies are just starting to appear.

One of the companies that are part of this general trend is BACTrem. The company deviates from the image of a typical start-up. It was not founded by an angry young man who is mad at big business. But instead by a group of scientists led by Prof. Magdalena Popowska, a specialist in microbiology.

It all started with the patented bioremediation vaccine. It contains a dozen or so bacterial strains that purify areas polluted with oil-derived substances. In simple terms, the bacteria selected by Prof. Popowskas team eat oil and decompose it into uncomplicated and harmless compounds. Today, the product portfolio also includes a vaccine for bioremediation of areas contaminated with creosote. Which is a highly toxic and carcinogenic substance that is used impregnate railway sleepers (the wooden beams on rail tracks) or wooden telephone poles. Another application is in soil preparations for farmers that reduce the effect of glyphosate and restore the natural biodiversity of soil microflora.

The market tells us what products to make. We take on projects that will solve specific problems related to environmental protection for certain people. In the case of bioremediation of creosote, it all started from media reports that people are burning old railway sleepers. This is extremely stupid! That is why we wanted to create a technology that would be cheap so that everyone could use it. We developed soil preparations because the state of the soil in Europe is getting worse. Thats why we created preparations that restore the soil, and then less traditional fertilizers are needed, says Andrzej Berezowski, COO at BACTrem.

There is one more thing that differentiates Polish positive impact start-ups from their Western counterparts. They cannot count on institutional support, either from the government or investors. In Poland, this sector is still unprofessional because there are no qualified incubators or accelerators dedicated to sustainable start-ups. There are only a few individual initiatives. The impact investment market is still in its infancy. I am trying to get various investors involved in the impact investment trend. Everyone I tell about it says: great, but we still have to make money. Capital is international. I am convinced that impact funds will start to look more closely at Poland because there is a very interesting market here. When this happens, support for sustainable start-ups will finally be seen as normal, Bolesaw Rok adds.

Meanwhile, children from Jambiani village in Zanzibar are not aware of the problems that start-ups in Poland have. By the end of June, they have managed to collect 673. The first computers for local schools will be bought with this money. The collection for them lasts until the end of July.

Read the original here:

New wave of sustainable start-ups from Poland - Innovation Origins

When it comes to taboo subjects on screen, period sex serves up a double whammy. Intercourse and menstruation who wants to see that, right? Certainly not Hollywood. In the history of cinema, the vanishingly rare instances of sexual flow-down are portrayed with more focus on the horror of women surfing the crimson wave, as Cher from Clueless puts it, rather than reducing the stigma.

Who can forget the moment, in both the original 1976 Carrie and 2013 remake, when the titular heroine is terrified when she discovers blood coming out of her vagina in the school showers? A similar scene of fright occurs when Brooke Shieldss young castaway Emmeline gets her period for the first time in The Blue Lagoon (1980), while Ginger Snaps (2000) wraps a teens transformation into womanhood with becoming a werewolf. Its even implied that Ginger gets attacked because the wolf, to quote Brick Tamland from Anchorman, can smell the menstruation!

In recent years, however, movies like 20th Century Women and American Honey, both released in 2016, have tried to combat the culture of period-shaming. The latter movie, written and directed by Andrea Arnold, sees Sasha Lanes character remove her tampon before having sex; a quiet gesture that speaks volumes for the reality of the feminine sexual experience as well as positioning intercourse from the female perspective.

We need to grow up about periods being a normal and very regular part of our lives including in the bedroom, says Emma Barnett, broadcaster and author of Period. Its About Bloody Time in which a chapter is dedicated to the subject of period sex. Anything which depicts period sex as part of life and debunks myths and doesnt use the scene as another chance to show menstruating women as dirty or weird but just a woman having what is a very humdrum regular biological occurrence can only be progress and a good thing.

New indie comedy Saint Frances fits this definition perfectly. In an early scene, our lead Bridget (played by the films writer Kelly OSullivan) wakes up after a night of passion to find blood on hers and her male sexual partners face. Bridget initially feels awkward, but soon the pair laugh it off as they change her bloody bedsheets. It becomes a sweet statement of intent for the rest of the story that will deal further with menstruation as well as motherhood and abortion.

It was important for me to say from the very beginning, This is the movie that youre in for and were not going to shy away from womens bodies, OSullivan says. If people are going to have sex with each other this is going to come up every fourth week and I wanted to portray it in a way that was an exploration of intimacy.

The writer-actor laments the lack of films dealing with this subject, though recalls an episode of Sex and the City in which the character Samantha, fearing she was going through menopause, is relieved for her period to come on during sex, though her male partner is horrified by the discovery. If somebody is an asshole about you having a period during sex, theyre gonna be an asshole in general, she says. But there is a discussion thats emerging into the zeitgeist about period sex and about how different people react to it: the shame that some people are made to feel about it but also the acceptance that other people have.

Most of our pushback was from men, but we were unapologetic

Many women report this being one of the times theyre most interested in having sex outside of ovulation, and orgasms have been shown to help ease period pains, says Frances Rayner, founder of the Clit Test a campaign to change the way sex is portrayed on screen. I think well quickly start to see this change as women slowly gain power in all aspects of content production.

Television has done a better job at dealing with the subject and that might be due to the increasing number of female showrunners. Lena Dunhams Girls, Marja-Lewis Ryanss The L Word: Generation Q, Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKennas Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and, more recently, Michaela Coels I May Destroy You, offer open depictions of period sex that have each earned praise from viewers.

Periods are something so normal its weird to see how its been stigmatised to be something strange when it happens, says I May Destroy You star Weruche Opia. It was shocking to see the things that you would talk about with your friends, but not actually see on television, in the script.

Its a brilliant show of Michaelas work to be able to be very frank and bold about it.

The great thing about being an independent film, its not filmed by committee, OSullivan says. You dont have to get the OK from 100 people in a way that you do if youre a studio film or network show.

So we had some lovely investors who asked if there had to be so much blood and we were like yes, because, thematically, the core of this film is about acceptance and its something that women have been told for the longest time is dirty or shameful, she adds. Most of our pushback was from men but we were unapologetic.

OSullivan hopes that her film will inspire both men and women to become active participants in the normalisation of period sex both on-screen and in real life too.

Its really important that if there is going to be a progressive movement it cant be one-sided, she says. Its too much work for just women. We need the other half of the population to hurry up and come along with it.

Saint Frances is released on 10 July.

Continued here:

About bloody time: is cinema finally going with the flow of period sex? - The Guardian

The previous five articles in my film-by-film analysis of the Marvel Films have covered most of 2018, a year which was an undisputed high-water mark for comic book films. The year began with Black Panther (Coogler, 2018), which so perfectly hit the zeitgeist of America that it instantly became a cultural touchstone. That was followed by Avengers: Infinity War (Russo Brothers, 2018), which was not as culturally important but was an even bigger global hit and an enormous blockbuster.

After that, Marvel films such as Deadpool 2 (Leitch, 2018) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (Reed, 2018), as well as non-Marvel comic book films such as Incredibles 2 (Bird, 2018), Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (Michail & Horvath, 2018) and Aquaman (Wan, 2018), each distinguished themselves by following a unique approach and executing that approach very well. Even the most disappointing and regressive of the year's comic book films, Venom (Fleischer, 2018), was a financial success.

Indeed, comic book films in 2018 were varied, interesting, culturally significant, popular and plentiful. However, the most jaw-dropping, unique, original comic book film of 2018, the one that will doubtless be considered the most cinematically influential film of the bunch, is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Persichetti, Ramsey & Rothman, 2018).

Photo by on Unsplash

One can approach Into the Spider-Verse from at least four different perspectives and it excels at all four. 1. As a comic book superhero film, it presents the most out-there, 'comic-booky' plot ever adapted to film. It explores inter-dimensional travel and the intersection of alternate versions of the same superhero, perhaps the pinnacle of geekiness in comic books. It presents this complex, ridiculous plot with humour, heart and relatability, making it one of the best superhero films ever made.

2. As a coming-of-age story, the film presents an insightful story of a teenager grappling with mentors while trying to find his path through the world, as well as a thoughtful meditation on the nature of heroism. 3. As an action comedy, the film balances exciting, endlessly inventive action beats with the silliest bits of comedy imaginable.

And most importantly 4. as an animated film, Into the Spider-Verse presents some of the most unique, gorgeous pop-art ever put on film. It marries animation styles and techniques from across the world and the decades alongside elements taken directly from comic books to create a frenetic, colourful comic book come to life. And so, as equal parts love letter to comic book fans, relatable coming-of-age tale, inventive action comedy and animation masterpiece, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is one of the most remarkable films of the century so far.

Sony Pictures approached producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller about a comedic animated Spider-Man film in 2014. This was revealed to fans prematurely by the hack of Sony's computer systems in November 2014. The film was officially announced in April 2015, and it was made clear that it would take place in an alternate universe to the live action Spider-Man films. Lord and Miller were established experts at taking potentially terrible ideas and producing shockingly good films, such as 21 Jump Street (2012) and The LEGO Movie (2014). They approached their Spider-Man film with a desire to make it as different as possible from the Spider-Man films, comic book films, and animated films that came before it.

They wanted to use the medium of animation to create a film that looked like the inside of an old comic book, adapting the visual style of the original medium in addition to the characters and narratives. In service of that, Lord, Miller and their collaborators blended computer animation with hand-drawn elements, used certain colouring and lighting techniques, and added comic book staples (such as text on-screen) to create a visual style that hadn't been seen before. Furthermore, after so many recent Spider-Man films already released, the filmmakers needed to make this a story worth telling. That led them to the idea of including multiple alternate versions of Spider-Man in one film. Most importantly, the film would focus on Miles Morales, the popular successor to Spider-Man who had never before been depicted on screen.

Alternate versions of characters is a common trope in superhero comics. Over the years, writers have introduced these versions for fun, for a gag or, more interestingly, to explore new story possibilities. Often they interrogate the fundamental characteristics of characters by placing them in totally different circumstances or tweaking their origins. For example, would Superman still be a fundamentally "good" character if he had landed in the Soviet Union, rather than the United States, during the Cold War and became an instrument of the Soviet government? These stories can be fascinating, placing the familiar into the unfamiliar and seeing what results.

As one of the most popular superheroes of all time, there have been countless alternate versions of Spider-Man in the comics. What if Spider-Man was a cartoon pig? Marvel Tails Starring Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham (November 1983) What if Spider-Man existed in a cyberpunk future? Spider-Man 2099 #1 (November 1992) What if Spider-Man was a private eye in the '30s? Spider-Man: Noir #1 (February 2009) These are just a few of the many examples.

In the late-'00s, the longtime writer of Amazing Spider-Man, Dan Slott, collaborated on the video game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (2010), which unites four versions of Spider-Man. Inspired by the narrative possibilities, Slott conceived of a comic book event that would feature every version of Spider-Man that had ever appeared, and introduce a few new versions, united against a common, dimension-hopping threat. The "Spider-Verse"event was published across many Marvel comics in 2014.

Marvel.com

New versions of Spider-Man included Peni Parker/SP//dr, introduced in Edge of Spider-Verse #5 (October 2014), and Spider-Gwen, introduced in Edge of Spider-Verse #2 (September 2014). Spider-Gwen is an alternate version of Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man's long-dead girlfriend, who was bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker. The character was very popular, and has starred in an ongoing series ever since.

The most successful alternate version of Spider-Man began in Ultimate Spider-Man #1 (October 2000). The Ultimate Marvel Universe was a line of comics intended to retell classic Marvel stories, but streamlined and updated for modern sensibilities. Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley kept Peter Parker in high school and reimagined his classic rogues gallery to primarily result from genetic engineering at OsCorp. The series was critically acclaimed and continuously successful, but its most significant innovation occurred in the aftermath of Ultimate Spider-Man #160 (August 2011), in which Peter Parker dies protecting his Aunt May from the Green Goblin. As the aftermath unfolded, Ultimate Fallout #4 (August 2011) introduced the world to the new Ultimate Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Partially inspired by the election of President Barack Obama, partially inspired by debate over casting Donald Glover in The Amazing Spider-Man (Webb, 2012), Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli chose to explore Marvel's most iconic character through the lens of an Afro-Latino boy from Brooklyn, New York. Miles is a bright kid who wins a chance to attend a private science-focused school in Brooklyn.

He looks up to his Uncle Aaron, and is unaware that Aaron works as a high-priced burglar known as the Prowler. Aaron raids an old OsCorp facility and inadvertently takes a genetically-engineered spider back to his apartment, where it bites Miles. Miles develops powers similar to Peter Parker, with the additional powers of invisibility and an electrically-charged "venom blast". He is initially hesitant to become a superhero but, inspired by Peter's death, he gives it a try. Miles is immediately thrust into a role formerly occupied by the slightly older, much more experienced Peter Parker, and must find his place amongst pre-established villains and threats.

Miles was a sensation, arguably the most popular new Marvel character in years and certainly the most successful unique character in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. In 2012, Bendis wrote the five-issue Spider-Men series, where Miles meets the regular Marvel Universe version of Peter Parker. But the Ultimate Universe was failing. What began as a way to quickly update and retell old stories, preparing new readers to jump into the regular Marvel Universe, had ballooned into its own long-running, continuity-rich universe. But readers were increasingly disinterested.

The 2015 major event story "Secret Wars" collapsed the Marvel multiverse, officially ending the Ultimate Universe. One of the few survivors was Miles, whose backstory was rewritten to place him in the regular Marvel Universe alongside the rest of the Marvel characters. All of this backstory, all of this universe-swapping in the comics, provided a lot of material for the Into the Spider-Verse filmmakers to draw from as they brought Miles and the concept of alternate versions of characters to the big screen

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse focuses on Miles (Shameik Moore), a 13-year-old half-black half-Puerto Rican boy who lives in Brooklyn with his father Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry) and his mother Rio (Luna Lauren Velez). Miles has recently gained admission to a prestigious science academy, but he doesn't feel like he belongs and misses his neighbourhood school and friends. Oh, and also, the city is home to a superhero named Spider-Man (Chris Pine).

One night, Miles is taken to an abandoned subway tunnel by his Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali) to paint some graffiti, and Miles is bitten by a strange spider. Overnight, Miles grows a bit, gains added strength, and discovers his ability to stick to things. Realizing he has gained Spider-Man-like abilities, Miles returns to the spider that bit him. He learns that the abandoned tunnel leads to a supercollider built by the Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) to access alternate dimensions. Kingpin hopes to use it to replace his deceased wife and son with alternate versions. Fearing the dangerous possibilities, Spider-Man intends to shut it down.

(IMDB)

Miles walks right into the middle of a battle between Kingpin's henchmen and Spider-Man. Spider-Man saves Miles and damages the supercollider, but not before he's pushed into the collider's strange energy field. Spider-Man recognizes Miles' new spider-abilities and makes him promise to stop the supercollider once and for all, but then he's murdered by the Kingpin.

Miles struggles with the weight of the responsibility, and of how to master his new powers, until he meets Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson). Peter is the Spider-Man of another dimension, sucked into Miles' dimension when Spider-Man interacted with the supercollider's energy. Peter is older, more jaded and less in-shape than Miles' Spider-Man, but he eventually agrees to train Miles as they work to stop the collider and send Peter home.

Jake Johnson voices Peter B. Parker (IMDB)

Along the way, they run afoul of Kingpin, his chief enforcer, the Prowler, and his chief scientist, Dr. Olivia Octavius/Doc Ock (Kathryn Hahn). But they also meet up with four other alternate dimension spiders: the balletic loner Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), the '30s black-and-white Spider-Man Noir (Nicholas Cage), the futuristic anim teenager Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and her robot SP//dr, and the Looney Tunes-esque Peter Porker/Spider-Ham (John Mulaney).

Each spider-person is competent and experienced, regardless of how silly they may seem, and Miles feels intimidated. He discovers that the Prowler is actually his Uncle Aaron. Shortly after, Aaron is murdered by The Kingpin for refusing to kill Miles. Miles' lack of experience and confidence then force the spider-team to leave him behind as they race to destroy the collider. A talk with his dad gives Miles the confidence to become his own kind of Spider-Man. He arrives in time to fight Kingpin's enforcers, send the other spider-people home, defeat the Kingpin, and destroy the collider.

Nicolas Cage voices Spider-Man Noir (IMDB)

That's a brief summary of the geeky insanity that is the plot of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Just ten years prior to this film, comic book film narratives were still fairly grounded, if you will, mostly featuring mad scientists or psychotic killers. Over time, these films gradually introduced the wackier aspects of comic book plots, from aliens to space travel to time travel, acclimatizing film viewers to the more heightened genre concepts.

Into the Spider-Verse features alternate dimension versions of Spider-Man, from the past, from the future, male, female, black-and-white, anim and cartoon pig, all coexisting in the same scenes. This level of "comic-booky" plot would not have been accepted, let alone embraced, by mainstream audiences just a decade earlier. Like a frog in increasingly warming water, viewers gradually became ready for such a film.

Spider-Man was an inspired choice to base such a film around. Firstly, the character had starred in six popular solo films in the 16 years before Into the Spider-Verse was released, meaning audiences generally knew and understood him. Secondly, the popularity of Spider-Man largely stems from the character's relatability. Traditionally the most successful approaches to Spider-Man view him as an ordinary person (struggling with school, work, romance, finances, family) who has the added responsibility of superpowers. He is the answer to the question "what if an average person suddenly had superpowers?"

Spider-Man is an everyman superhero, in contrast to the unreachable paternal ideals of Superman, Batman, Iron Man or Captain America. Thirdly, that relatability and the full face mask has always meant that anyone can be in the Spider-Man costume. Of course, Spider-Man has traditionally been a straight, white man under the costume but, as the film states, anyone can wear the mask. Anyone can see themselves in the character's ordinary struggles, then easily extrapolate out to his fantastical adventures.

Into the Spider-Verse makes this explicit by focusing on a teenaged afro-latino Spider-Man, while also featuring a teenage white girl, an asian girl and, of course, a pig. This is a film where viewers of different races, ethnicities, and genders can imagine themselves as Spider-Man. It's incredibly powerful for people to see themselves represented in film, particularly as crowd-pleasing superheroes. It's especially important now when, as I write this, Black Lives Matter protests against police violence and institutional racism are happening across the United States. There are obviously more important things to address in society than representation in popular culture, but the representation has an impact.

The year 2018 was bookended by Black Panther and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, films that demonstrated that Black people, too, can be strong, smart, heroic and can make a difference. The focus on diversity of representation makes Into the Spider-Verse feel timely in addition to its other cinematic achievements.

The different types of spider-people also allow Into the Spider-Verse to deconstruct the nature of superheroes, and of heroism in general. The three primary Spider-Men allow the film to simultaneously depict a superhero at three stages of his career. Miles is the rookie, lacking confidence in his abilities and apprehensive about entering this world. This is an origin story for Miles. The original Spider-Man of Miles' universe is the perfect superhero. He's confident to the point of being casual about his power, he's enthusiastic about his work, and he exudes goodness. He also dies at the end of the first act, allowing the film to examine the impact of such a hero, and the loss of such a hero, on the city. This is the sadly triumphant final film for that Spider-Man.

And then there is Peter B. Parker, who has been a superhero for twice as long as the other Spider-Man. He's still highly-skilled and good to his core, but the thankless life of a superhero has taken its toll on his marriage and his body. This is the superhero story we rarely see, where the decades of life weigh heavily and the superhero has grown cynical. This is the superhero that's close to retirement.

The three characters are all in conversation with each other. Miles looks up to the perfect Spider-Man, who doesn't live long enough to disappoint him but casts a long shadow. Peter scoffs at that Spider-Man's perfection. Miles recognizes Peter's skill and sadness, and they make each other better Spider-Men through their interaction. Miles learns the job, and Peter learns to love it again. Passing the superhero 'mantle' is a well-worn comic book trope, particularly in DC Comics, but it has never been depicted like this on screen. Miles is a brand new Spider-Man, but he's inspired by the skill and self-sacrifice of six other spider-people as he begins his superhero career.

(IMDB)

And so, Into the Spider-Verse adapts deep comic book tropes such as alternate versions of heroes and passing the mantle. It does so using a hugely-popular, familiar superhero known for his relatability and potential diversity to make the concepts accessible to all audiences. Finally, it explores the nature of superheroes by embodying the different stages of a superhero career in several characters. The filmmakers present all this intelligently and entertainingly. That already makes Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse one of the greatest superhero films of all time. The visuals, however, elevate this already engaging film to a whole new level. The plot is good, but the animation is brilliant and groundbreaking.

Producers Lord & Miller, and directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman, began the film with a single animator to create a distinct visual style. Once that was established, the animation team increased to 60 people for most of production, and then up to 177 as the release date neared. At its core, the film is computer animated (like most animated films these days), but that style is overlaid with hand-drawn elements and colouring techniques to make it look distinctive.

The technical choices behind the film's animation are fascinating. The filmmakers used chromatic aberrations, basically refracting the light on some parts of the frame to render them fuzzy or out of focus. This adds to depth of field, making the film almost 3D-like, but without the glasses. It also directs the eyes of viewers to the important areas in the frame, which are in focus. Most of the film is animated at a standard 24 frames per second (fps), meaning 24 slightly different still pictures displayed each second, going by fast enough to give the appearance of movement. But the filmmakers played with that frame rate. For example, when Miles is still inexperienced, they double up each frame to have him move at 12fps alongside experienced Peter moving at 24fps. This makes Miles appear jerkier compared to Peter's smooth movement. It's a brilliant use of technology to inform character.

The filmmakers also purposely avoided using motion blurring during movement. If you wave your hand in front of your face, it appears as if your hand starts to blur with the motion. Animators have perfected ways to intentionally blur animated movement, making it appear more realistic. Removing motion blur means that every movement of every element is perfectly in focus in each frame, which is jarring to see at first. But this means that each frame of the film is a perfect image, like the panel of a comic book.

That's the main goal of the visuals in Into the Spider-Verse: recreating the comic book page. The shading and shadows in the film, for example, are achieved through criss-crossed lines, like a sketch. The colouring is often done using small coloured dots, much like the colouring in comic books of the '50s and '60s. In those old comics, printing errors sometimes resulted in colours being misaligned with the line drawings. At times, Into the Spider-Verse intentionally uses misaligned colour to add depth of field or enhance the emotions of a scene.

But much of the comic book aesthetic is more overt than that. Characters have motion lines, like in a comic book. Captions and thought bubbles appear, often manifesting Miles' thoughts and anxieties. Large onomatopoeia text appears during fights, just like the "WHAM!" "BANG!"s of a comic book. Shots are sometimes broken up into panels, just like a comic book page. And even some transitions between scenes are visualized as page turns. Many of these comic book-inspired flourishes don't appear in the film until Miles is bitten by the spider. They develop as Miles' powers develop.

Kimiko Glenn voices Peni Parker (IMDB)

And yet, all of those technical choices and comic book aesthetics are not even the full extent of the visual genius of Into the Spider-Verse, because certain characters also have unique styles. Peni, for example, is an anim character specifically modelled after the animated series, Sailor Moon. Spider-Man Noir is in black-and-white, with wind always blowing on him. Spider-Ham, meanwhile, has the colouring and movement of a Looney Tunes cartoon. For much of the second half of the film, these characters occupy the same frame as Miles, Peter and Gwen, who all share the common aesthetic of the rest of the film. Even so, Peni, Noir and Ham don't look out of place, which is impressive.

The Kingpin, meanwhile, is depicted as a head and two hands on an enormous black shape that grows or shrinks depending on the situation. He's almost abstract in his presentation. Other visual flourishes include the dimensional glitching that occurs when the supercollider is activated. These glitches, which also painfully strike the alternate universe characters at inopportune moments, are based on cubist art. All of these artistic styles come together for the climax, when pieces of every universe emerge and are mashed together in a psychedelic, kaleidoscopic asterisk at the centre of the collider. It's a tour-de-force work of animation to cap off a pop-art masterpiece.

Liev Schreiber voices Wilson Fisk (IMDB)

The most impressive aspect of the animation, with its frenetic style-switching and sensory overload, is that it never becomes off-putting or too much to process. The filmmakers are smart about giving a rhythm and release to the crazier visual moments, allowing the viewers' brains time to relax and process. Given all of this, it's no surprise that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse earned a well-deserved Best Animated Film Academy Award. But despite the technical achievements, it would not be as well-received or as well-regarded if it's story wasn't relatable. That's all down to Miles and his coming-of-age story.

Miles is a relatable protagonist from the moment he's introduced in his room, singing along to a song but forgetting some of the words. His struggle is figuring out his path, his future. He moves from mentor to mentor, trying to decide who to emulate before ultimately realizing that he must forge his own path. Before the spider bite, Miles' mentors are his father, Jeff, and his uncle, Aaron. Jeff pushes Miles to go to his new school, excel, reach his full potential, and Miles feels like he can only disappoint his father. By contrast, Aaron is easygoing, comfortable, appreciating Miles' natural skills while never pushing him to grow. The conflict of mentors is highlighted by the book Miles is given by a teacher at the start of the film: Great Expectations. Jeff has great expectations for Miles, whereas Aaron has no expectations for him. The former is too much pressure, the latter is unchallenging, easy.

After he acquires his powers, Miles meets Spider-Man, who offers to train him. This Spider-Man is the perfect role model, so of course he's killed minutes later. Miles is stuck with Peter B. Parker, an imperfect mentor who's even more of a mess than Miles. Peter channels Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid (Avildsen, 1984) in this way. He warms up to Miles quickly, offering the right pushes, encouragement, and tough love. The film even develops Peter as a secondary protagonist. His marriage ended because he was afraid to have kids, but mentoring Miles helps him overcome that fear.

Miles gradually achieves small victories, such as learning to turn invisible and learning to swing on webs. But he also has disappointments, such as failing to jump between buildings early in the film, accidentally breaking the device that can destroy the collider, and discovering Aaron is the Prowler. This is all compounded by the rest of the spider-people, who are experienced, competent superheroes in their own way.

At a certain point, they challenge Miles at a rapid-fire pace about his ability to be like them, overwhelming him and causing him to leave. But each spider-person has their own unique approach which would be impossible for Miles to emulate. Peter might have been a useful mentor alone, but the whole spider-team creates an unreasonable expectation for Miles and he can only disappoint them.

This is character-building. The crazy visuals and plotting and alternate versions of Spider-Man only exist to externalize Miles' story. He must learn to accept, among other things, that he can never float through the air when he smells a delicious pie, like Spider-Ham. It sounds silly, but the script brilliantly ties in the impossible standards of each mentor as they relate to Miles, grounding every crazy concept. Without Miles and his character growth at its core, Into the Spider-Verse would be a beautiful mess, nothing more.

John Mulaney voices Spider-Ham (IMDB)

Every spider-person is ready to answer the call, ready to sacrifice themselves to send the others home and stop the collider. But Miles is from this universe, and he made a promise to fix it, so he must rise to the occasion. After Aaron's murder, the spider-team leave him behind. They do it with love and care, but it's the last big disappointment for Miles. But then Jeff comes to Miles' door. He tells Miles that he sees a spark in him, and that Miles will be great at whatever he chooses to do. This takes the pressure off Miles. His father simply believes in him, has great expectations for him, but isn't telling him how to live his life.

Miles immediately gets an old Spider-Man suit, spray paints it black, and sets out to the collider. His self-actualization is visualized in my favourite shot of the film. Miles leaps off a skyscraper with full confidence, and falls down towards the skyline. But the image is flipped, showing Miles falling up. It's beautiful and instantly iconic. When he joins the fight at the collider, he proves his worth to the rest of the spider-team. He sends them home and is able to face Kingpin alone.

The message of Into the Spider-Verse is that anyone can be a hero. The filmmakers hoped to inspire young people to be heroes, and inspire older people to help them be heroes. It's a strongly-stated, universal theme at the heart of Into the Spider-Verse that keeps the film grounded and meaningful, despite all of the wackiness.

But that wackiness is vital as well. This film is so much fun, especially for superhero fans and Spider-Man fans. The sheer volume of Spider-Man jokes and references is staggering, and requires multiple viewings to fully process. The film opens with the Comic Code Authority seal of approval, which was featured on the covers of mainstream comics through the '60s. Each spider-person is introduced with a narrated montage, explaining their backstory.

The first Spider-Man is an amalgam of each previous cinematic Spider-Man, but everything is a bit different. His Uncle Ben is briefly voiced by Cliff Robertson using audio from Spider-Man 2). This Spider-Man is seen stopping a train (as in Spider-Man 2), kissing Mary Jane upside down (as in Spider-Man), stretched between two weblines (as in Spider-Man: Homecoming) holding cars on a bridge (as in The Amazing Spider-Man), and even embarrassingly strutting down the street (as in Spider-Man 3). Even the iconic theme song from the 1967 animated series is included.

(IMDB)

Peter B. Parker's montage features similar scenes, but then goes further through his bankruptcy and divorce to find him crying in the shower. These are the Peter Parker/Spider-Man characters with which we are familiar. The other characters get more straightforward montages. Gwen's is coloured and styled to match the distinctive appearance of her comic book, and faithfully retells her origin. Peni, Noir and Ham are introduced together, so their origins are intercut and eventually cut off by Peter. The film ends with Miles adding his own montage to the pile, having come into his own as a superhero. These montages are love letters to longtime Spider-Man fans (like myself).

The film is full of inventive action beats mixed with the silliest comedy beats. Case in point: Peter escapes a facility by walking casually, although dressed as Spider-Man, through the break room and taking a bagel. When they're chased, Peter tosses the bagel to Miles, who throws it back at one of their pursuers. As the bagel hits a person, the word "bagel!" appears on impact. In the climax, one of Kingpin's enforcers terrifyingly rips into Peni's SP//dr robot, which is intense until a cartoon anvil falls on his head, the music becomes loopy and Spider-Ham strolls into frame. In the same fight, Peter, Gwen and Miles team up against the formidable Doc Ock. After some fighting, they square up for more to come, and then Ock is just hit by a city bus that comes out of the collider portal. There are too many gags to list.

Music builds early in the film as Miles prepares to jump off a skyscraper, then abruptly turns and goes back down the stairs and picks a shorter building to jump from. Black-and-white Spider-Man Noir is flummoxed by the colours of a Rubik's Cube. Spider-Ham says "that's all, folks" as he leaves the film, to which Peter responds "Is he allowed to say that? Legally?" And yet, just like the frenetic visual style, the fast-paced action and rapid-fire jokes enriching a film already overflowing with assets.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a masterpiece. It tells a narrative deeply-rooted in the geekiest, most potentially-inaccessible comic book lore, and yet it's perfectly relatable. It uses a broad mixture of animation and artistic techniques to create a distinctive visual style that feels like a comic book brought to life. But the heady narrative and frenetic visuals are all in service of a coming-of-age story. It's accentuated by inventive action beats and hilarious comedy and riddled with references for comic book fans to appreciate.

Despite its positive points, the film opened in North America with a relatively-small $35 million opening weekend. But it was praised by critics and audiences, and strong reviews word-of-mouth helped the film sustain well. It ultimately made $190 million in North America and $376 million worldwide. This makes it the lowest-grossing Marvel Film of 2018. And even so, the strong positive reactions and Best Animated Feature Oscar all point towards a much larger impact.

Sony Pictures has announced a sequel to be released in 2022, a potential spinoff featuring all-female characters, and a possible television series. In the future, people will either look back on Into the Spider-Verse as a stunning, one-of-a-kind masterpiece, or as the start of something transformative in the superhero or animation genres. Either way, I have no doubt that this film will be discussed for decades.

* * *

Stan Lee Cameo Corner: In his first posthumous cameo, Stan Lee appears as the owner of a shop that sells Miles a Spider-Man costume after Spider-Man dies. He claims to have known Spider-Man, and that he will miss him. This was a poignant moment to see just weeks after Stan died. Lee also appears on every train that passes by and as a bystander in some scenes, because animators loved including him. The film ends with a Stan Lee quote about being a hero. It's dedicated to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the two creators of Spider-Man who both died in 2018. That's 36 cameos in 52 films.

Credits Scene(s):

After the credits, we're introduced to yet another Spider-Man: Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac). He learns of the disruption in the multiverse and is fitted with a wrist device to travel between dimensions. He uses it to travel to "Earth-67", where he faces off with the 1967 animated Spider-Man (Jorma Taccone) in a recreation of the "Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man" meme that is popular online. Hopefully both versions appear in the sequel

First Appearances:

Speaking of the sequel, all we know at the time of this writing is that it will continue Miles' story. So, Shameik Moore will return. I would not be surprised if much of the rest of the cast also returns, but that remains to be seen.

Next Time: The MCU finally produces a solo female superhero film with Captain Marvel.

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Animated 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' Is a Pop-Art Masterpiece - PopMatters

This is the week when the movement to reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act got serious. The Justice Department released a substantive report suggesting multiple reforms. I was positive about many of them (my views here). Meanwhile, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has proposed a somewhat similar set of changes in his bill, introduced this week. Nate Jones and I dig into the provisions, and both of us expect interest from Democrats as well as Republicans.

The National Security Agency has launched a pilot program to provide secure domain name system (DNS) resolver services for US defense contractors. If thats such a good idea, I ask, why doesnt everybody do it, and Nick Weaver tells us they can. Phil Reitingers Global Cyberalliance offers Quad9 for this purpose.

Gus Hurwitz brings us up to date on a host of European cyberlaw developments, from terror takedowns (Reuters, Tech Crunch) to competition law to the rise of a disturbingly unaccountable and self-confident judiciary. Microsofts Brad Smith, meanwhile, wins the prize for best marriage of business self-interest and Zeitgeist in the twenty-first century.

Hackers used LinkedIns private messaging feature to send documents containing malicious code which defense contractor employees were tricked into opening. Nick points out just what a boon LinkedIn is for cyberespionage (including his own), and I caution listeners not to display their tattoos on LinkedIn.

Speaking of fools who kind of have it coming, Nick tells the story of the now former eBay executives who have been charged with sustained and imaginatively-over-the-top harassment of the owners of a newsletter that had not been deferential to eBay. (Wired, DOJ)

Its hard to like the defendants in that case, I argue, but the law theyve been charged under is remarkably sweeping. Apparently its a felony to intentionally use the internet to cause substantial emotional distress. Who knew? Most of us who use Twitter thought that was its main purpose. I also discover that special protections under the law are extended not only to prevent internet threats and harassment of service animals but also horses of any kind. Other livestock are apparently left unprotected. PETA, call your office.

Child abusers cheered when Zoom buckled to criticism of its limits on end-to-end encryption, but Nick insists that the new policy offers safeguards for policing misuse of the platform. (Ars Technica, Zoom)

I take a minute to roast Republicans in Congress who have announced that no FISA reauthorization will be adopted until John Durhams investigation of FISA abuses is done, which makes sense until you realize that the FISA provisions up for reauthorization have nothing to do with the abuses Durham is investigating. So were giving international terrorists a break from scrutiny simply because the President cant keep the difference straight.

Nate notes that a story previewed in April has now been confirmed: Team Telecom is recommending the blocking of a Hong Kong-US undersea cable over national security concerns.

Gus reminds us that a bitter trade fight between the US and Europe over taxes on Silicon Valley services is coming. (Politico, Ars Technica)

Nick and I mourn the complete meltdown of mobile phone contact tracing. I argue that from here on out, some portion of coronavirus deaths should be classified as mechanogenic (caused by engineering malpractice). Nick proposes instead a naming convention built around the Therac-25.

And we close with a quick look at the latest data dump from Distributed Denial of Secrets. Nick thinks its strikingly contemporaneous but also surprisingly unscandalizing.

Download the 321st Episode (mp3).

You can subscribe to The Cyberlaw Podcast using iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or our RSS feed. As always, The Cyberlaw Podcast is open to feedback. Be sure to engage with @stewartbaker on Twitter. Send your questions, comments, and suggestions for topics or interviewees to [emailprotected]. Remember: If your suggested guest appears on the show, we will send you a highly coveted Cyberlaw Podcast mug!

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of their institutions, clients, friends, families, or pets.

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The Cyberlaw Podcast: Using the Internet to Cause Emotional Distress is a Felony? - Lawfare

Following the 2016 election, pundits frequently predicted that Trump would usher in a new era of protest art. After decades of going relatively unnoticed, the argument went, his polarizing election would push sidelined protest art into the mainstream. The months and years that followed helped validate that argument in multiple ways: late-night comedians found new audiences through more political humor, stories of government oppression like 1984 came back in vogue, and shocking pieces of art denouncing Trump made headlines and stirred controversy. To some, it seemed like Trump redefined the zeitgeist overnight.

But the story is more complicated than just one election. Art in reaction to Trump is certainly everywhere; still, sometimes it takes flashpoint cultural moments to bring that existing work to the forefront of our minds.

Enter Algiers. The Atlanta band fronted by Franklin James Fisher released its third studio album, There Is No Year, on Jan. 17, but the album failed to chart in every country but Germany. While the band had by then eclipsed one million plays on Spotify with some cuts from their self-titled debut and 2017s The Underside of Power, none of this albums tracks have received the same attention. Mixed reviews from Pitchfork and The Needle Drop suggested the album failed to leave a lasting impression on listeners. This critique seemed accurate before the events following the horrific murder of George Floyd at the hand of Minneapolis police officers.

Algiers bring a sound to There Is No Year that is less consistently hard but more varied than The Underside of Power. Wait For The Sound illustrates this dichotomy well. Similar to their debut's remarkable Blood, the track's beat consistently builds throughout the run time, refusing to relent. "Blood" focuses on the constricting, generational impact of slavery and oppression. As such, the song never lets Fisher escape its beat. His emotional final verse still falls in line with the backing track, which then continues for a full minute after that last verse has stopped. But where "Blood" never fully boils over, "Wait For The Sound" eventually repositions itself behind Fisher's cathartic vocals, creating an emotional outro that ends as soon as Fisher's cries stop. Other songs such as "Hour of the Furnaces" take inspiration from "The Underside of Power" closer "The Cycle / The Spiral: Time to Go Down Slowly" by experimenting with layered vocals and larger soundscapes. As a whole, the album feels much funkier than their past efforts, and songs like "Chaka" display a band that's both confident and introspective.

As indicated by the album art which depicts the letters of Algiers tumbling over a picture of a falling man There Is No Year deals with a world in freefall. Fishers lyricism shines here, by bringing an unparalleled sense of urgency to his message. Indeed, Fisher's lyrics seem downright prophetic when listened to now, especially for listeners whose concern for racial injustice has arisen only recently. The very first words of the album Now its two minutes to midnight," off the titular track warn of an imminent revolution. Fisher writes of a salient contrast between demonstrators and bystanders. The Streets are raining fire in Wait For The Sound, but on the other side, Hour Of The Furnaces depicts Outright denial / Of the dying and the sane. Fisher further explores this opposition to the movement in songs like Losing Is Ours, with lines like Let the sirens sing out their nightmare because Theyll be too in denial to know." The ultimate dagger to the resistance is indifference. The final words of the album, from Nothing Bloomed, detail how Everything starts to fade under the weight of silence. It is hard to listen to these words and not be reminded of today's activists, whose main enemy is arguably the silence surrounding them.

It is too simplistic to say There Is No Year has a singular thesis and it shouldnt have to but the standout track Dispossession is the albums closest thing to a mission statement. Sonically, the songs production is refined but invigorating, and the choruss backing vocals make the tune undeniably catchy. The tracks brilliance, though, lies in its message. Fisher acts as a harbinger of the coming revolution, telling the listener to Run around, run away from your America / While it burns in the streets / I been here standing on top of the mountain / Shouting down what I see. The larger message is not one of hope but rather the necessity of fighting back: Everybody wants to break down, he sings, but You cant run away from the struggle. While the band explored similar themes over the course of "The Underside of Power," Dispossession hits on all of these themes at once. The song blends elements of unity: We are the blade and the groove that come together; and force: We are the rain of fire thats coming down. Dispossession coalesces into a cohesive narrative of resistance, one that is so accurate that it has been used to caption photos of protestors.

Overall, There Is No Year could not sound more relevant at this point in time. Critics myopically dismissed the album as frustratingly opaque, as if they would have preferred a narrower, easier-to-digest rebuke of the Trump administration. Algiers leaves those rebukes for other artists for an important reason: The last few weeks have made disturbingly clear that societal problems, while greatly exacerbated by Trump, extend far beyond his reach. Fishers cries for action can only be read within a broader history of Black activism and suffering. Protest art reflects both new problems and old, particularly now, as tentacles of hate that reach back into this countrys roots threaten to suffocate it.

While There Is No Year is not an album for optimists, Fisher hopes out loud in Dispossession that Freedom is coming soon. When is soon? Nobody knows. Until then, however, There Is No Year deserves to be recognized as one of the most important albums of recent memory, the protest art the country needs to hear not just in the wake of George Floyds death, but throughout the ongoing struggle for racial justice.

Staff writer Jack M. Schroeder can be reached at jack.schroeder@thecrimson.com.

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'There Is No Year' is Prescient Protest Art | Arts - Harvard Crimson