Monthly Archives: August 2020

Cassie McClure, My So-Called Millennial Life Published 2:03 a.m. MT Aug. 16, 2020

Cassie McClure(Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News, )

Of all the things I haven't expected in my life, I didn't expect that I'd need to retake second grade. But, thanks to COVID-19, here we are. Here are many of us, back to thinking we escaped worksheets and algebra, only to be pulled back in like an old and tired Michael Corleone in his kitchen.

I remember my first go-around with the second grade, almost 30 years ago. I remember friends. I remember first crushes. I remember being exasperated with the amount of busy work that we did, culminating in a refusal to partake in making a hand-shaped cardboard turkey. The thought still peeves me.

In March, when the bottom dropped out of schooling for my daughter, we made do with her morning Zoom calls. She used my home office, seeing her familiar classmates in small little rectangles on a screen, and came out looking a little dejected. Fall will be better, I assured her. I suspected in May that wouldn't be the case and stopped saying that.

Honestly, I had been slightly ignoring the start date of school creeping up, but about three weeks ago, I received a phone call that I let go to voicemail as I worked. It turned out there was a spot open in a school to which we applied for our daughter during the Before Times. The school had held a lottery back in March. Did we still want her to attend?

I quickly consulted with my husband. Yes, we did. "Great, they said; we're in our second week of classes, so let me send you the teacher email, her new logins, and you'll get codes for getting online." OK, then. Suddenly, all the schooling was in our laps.

Yet, there wasn't just one online system. It wasn't just Zoom and uploading shots of worksheets to a mobile app previously used for reminding me about the monthly school calendar. It was two completely different systems used congruently, one for assignment management and one for doing the assignments sometimes. I think. I still haven't figured that out completely.

With my work, there was a combination of slowly digging out of the quarantine depression and someone else's retirement that hefted more responsibility on my shoulders. I started making a dedicated to-do list to wrap my mind around everything.

On the same day, I got another call offering my son a spot in pre-K. Did we want it? Both schools had already extended their in-person start dates and assured us that if we didn't feel comfortable and we wanted to stay in remote learning for a while longer, our kids wouldn't lose their spots. Deep breaths for me. Yes, we can figure this all out; I can figure this all out. If quarantine toxic positivity Instagram posts tell me anything, it's all about to-do lists. Maybe color-coded ones would be needed.

The following week, after a few emails back and forth with my daughter's new second-grade teacher in which we promised we'd catch up and set up a learning area complete with U.S. and state flags, I received very polite emails from another teacher, her coach. My daughter had missing assignments. Were we registered with her online class system?

It might have been the 30 years I don't know. But in a flood of horror, I did more scrolling. She didn't just have one second-grade teacher; she had an art teacher, a music teacher and a coach. All with worksheets or activities. All of whom skipped between online programs where we uploaded material, watched videos and uploaded work. And the Zoom links and groups kept coming, none of which my kiddo can do alone.

I came out of my office and put my head down on the kitchen table for a few minutes. More deep breathing. More pushing away the word anxiety mantra of how this was "unsustainable."

Check on your friends with Zoom-age kids. They're not going to be OK soon. They're starting to be knee-deep in an unsustainable lifestyle, complete with one or more eye-rolling mini coworkers stealing their computer and snacks. There are no water coolers for gossip. There are no happy hours. There will, however, be plenty of to-do lists with the hope that we can pull it off as we are pulled back in.

Cassie McClure is a writer, wife/mama/daughter, fan of the Oxford comma, and drinker of tequila. Some of those things relate. She can be contacted at cassie@mcclurepublications.com. To find out more about Cassie McClure and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at http://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/FyzBC4xv1RfJx3PlRtxB0VF?domain=creators.com.

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Bharat Mistry, principal security strategist at Trend Micro, discusses what working from home means for CISOs

Does your cyber security policy need a rethink?

When history comes to be written about the current decade, the past few months may well mark a turning point. Exactly how remains to be seen, but one thing has become abundantly clear: the way organisations work may never be the same again. This matters a great deal for CISOs, because if you were worried about insider threats before, the same risks could be many times greater among workforce working from home.

This is where user awareness training comes in. But simply putting a blanket scheme in place may not work some employees dont break the rules out of ignorance but because theyve made a conscious decision to do so.

With the risks less related to education and more to psychology, its time for organisations to take a more nuanced approach to employee security training.

A recent global study of 13,200 remote workers in 27 countries found that although awareness of cyber-related risks is high, many employees choose not to conform anyway. A majority (85%) say they take instructions from their IT team seriously, agree that cyber security is partly their responsibility (81%) and even claim they have become more conscious of security policies since lockdown. A majority (64%) also recognise that using non-work applications on a corporate device is a security risk.

Steve Bennett, enterprise solutions architect at OGL Computer, discusses the role of IT in ensuring business continuity in todays new normal. Read here

Yet over half admit to doing just that, even uploading corporate data to these apps. Other security issues respondents admitted to include using work devices for personal web browsing, accessing corporate data from a personal device, and even accessing adult content and dark web sites on work devices.

Its easy to understand why employees do what they do. CISOs have always had trouble convincing them that productivity and protection are not mutually exclusive that users can do their jobs just as effectively by following policies, accepting security controls and using pre-approved apps and devices, and especially while working from home, the shift to productivity at all costs has threatened to disrupt this delicate balance.

It comes as cyber criminals look to capitalise on distracted home workers, unprotected endpoints, overwhelmed VPNs, and distributed security teams who may be forced to focus on more pressing operational IT tasks. Google is blocking as many as 18 million Covid-themed malicious and phishing emails every day. It takes just one to get through and convince a remote worker to click, and the organisation may be confronted with the prospect of a debilitating ransomware outage, BEC-related financial loss, or damaging data breach.

With many organisations struggling financially in the wake of government-mandated lockdowns, few will welcome the costs associated with a serious security incident.

Research from Specops has found that four in five computer and IT firms (78%) have seen an increase in cyber threats while working from home. Read here

Best practice cyber security requires a combination of people, process and technology. However, the people part has historically been neglected, which is one of the reasons why phishing attacks are today the most popular cyber crime threat vector. Training programmes are too often one-way, one-off affairs, which may raise awareness for a short time, but do little to actually change behaviours in the long-term.

Part of the reason for this failure is that they assume all staff members are basically the same. Of course, they are not. According to Edge Hill University Cyberpsychology Academic, Dr Linda Kaye, there are four key employee personas based on their cyber security behaviours.

Fearful employees are nervous about wrongdoing that might expose their organisation to cyber risk. Theyre highly accountable for their own behaviour, even if they dont know what the risks actually are and how to manage them.

Conscientious types are probably the CISOs dream: they understand cyber-risk and act on advice, not just avoiding risk but taking steps to proactively manage it.

On the other hand, ignorant users are a major risk because they combine a lack of cyber awareness with minimal personal accountability for their own actions. Their risky behaviour, however, is rooted in their lack of understanding.

More dangerous still are daredevil employees who break rules not because of their ignorance, but because of perceived superiority. Others should be accountable, but not them, they believe.

So what can CISOs do with this information as employees continue working from home? Certainly, different strategies may work best with different character types. Fearful staff members may react well to real-world simulation exercises, which allow them to try and experience things that they wouldnt normally. They may also benefit from being mentored by conscientious personas, who can be used as security champions in the organisation.

Don Randall MBE, former Bank of England CISO and advisory board member at METCloud, discusses cloud security, his new role and what to expect from a CISO. Read here

Ignorant users need training and practical advice on how to mitigate risks. To keep them engaged, it may be necessary to use gamification techniques, or again those phishing simulation exercises, which can be updated each time to reflect current scams. Its also important to recognise that these personas may require additional intervention to help them understand the consequences of risky behaviour. Daredevils are perhaps the most challenging as they dont respond well to authority. However, even here, CISOs can achieve promising results, perhaps by using reward schemes to change behaviour.

Ultimately, no two organisations are the same. CISOs will need to approach this task according to their risk appetite and the type of tasks staff working from home undertake. The most important thing to bear in mind with user training is to keep lessons short and regular, and act on the feedback you receive to continuously improve courses. These should never be a chore for employees. With a more considered, personalised approach, CISOs can change user behaviours and build both an effective first line of threat defence and a security-aware corporate culture.

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What working from home means for CISOs - Information Age

There is, and seemingly always has been, a dance for every letter of the alphabet. From the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance of the Middle Ages (in which residents of the Staffordshire village run around with reindeer antlers) to the traditional Greek Zonaradiko (whereby dancers hold on to one anothers belts), we have always loved a good routine. Yet while you could peer into an 1870s debutante ball or a 1970s disco and see people following a set of steps, our modern era seems altogether less structured. In the 90s and early 2000s, only the occasional Macarena inspired a school dance hall to move in sync. Then, in 2017, along came TikTok.

In just three years, the video-sharing app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been downloaded over a billion times, making it the seventh most downloaded app of the decade. Immensely popular with Generation Z, TikTok hosts short clips ranging from three to 60 seconds in which people lip-sync, perform skits, or take on challenges. Yet it is dancing that TikTok is best known for. Every week, a different dance craze goes viral, prompting living rooms around the globe to shake as viewers join in the fun.

In the six months spanning September 2019 to February 2020, various renditions of the Renegade a routine set to the hip-hop song Lottery by K CAMP were viewed over 1.6 billion times on the app. The dance was shared by everyone from Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown to former FLOTUS Michelle Obama, and was covered everywhere from the New York Times to The Ellen DeGeneres Show. I love seeing people come together and have fun, says the routines original choreographer, 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon.

Moves like dabbing, flossing, and hitting the woah (making a circular movement with the fists before freezing on the beat) have spread far and wide thanks to online video and Fortnites emote actions. Yet TikTok is different. The app has not given rise just to one-off moves, but has birthed a number of complete and complex routines.

Despite its reputation as an app for bored teens in their bedrooms, many of TikToks most popular dances are created by professional choreographers. Social media and TikTok changed everything in our industry, says Greg Chapkis, a choreographer who created a dance to Daddy Yankees song Con Calma that blew up in February 2019. I was getting tagged in not just hundreds but thousands of videos with my choreography Its crazy that so many dancers and people that dont dance got moved by it.

Some popular TikTok routines take days to invent, others are created in five minutes; some are designed with internet fame in mind, others take off organically. TikTok virality has wide-reaching ramifications: the app has launched songs such as Lil Nas Xs Old Town Road and Roddy Ricchs The Box to number one spots on the US Billboard charts, and has given a new lease of life to old songs, such as when the 1956 hit Tonight You Belong To Me, by sister act Patience and Prudence, became popular in summer 2019. Though musicians dont directly make money from their songs being used on TikTok, many have recognised it as a powerful marketing tool, and some artists and labels pay famous TikTokers to dance to their music.

Yet despite the power TikTok choreographers have, it isnt always easy to determine the original creator of a dance. Dance challenges can explode so quickly on the app that it can be difficult to trace their origins, especially as many TikTokers like to put their own spin on routines. In practice, this means that already-famous TikTokers can often steal the limelight from lesser-known dancers. This has been particularly troubling for black creators, like Harmon, who have frequently seen white TikTokers get credit for their routines. Reporting on Harmon's Renegade in February 2020, New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz argued that mainstream influencers "co-opt" the "cutting-edge dance community online". Since the beginning of the year, many TikTok stars have begun tagging original creators in their captions.

Its no wonder choreographers want credit a successful TikTok account can bring in money from brands who pay influencers to post sponsored content and adverts on their profiles. My whole life revolves around TikTok, says 20-year-old influencer Michael Le, who frequently posts three videos a day to the app. Le now earns 80 per cent of his income from TikTok; he has more than 23 million followers, and labels have paid him to promote their music. Earlier this year, Harmon posted her first piece of sponsored content (for Warner Bros new Scooby-Doo movie) and also launched her own merchandise range; hoodies sell for $45 (36) on her official site. Still, other TikTokers struggle to earn money. The app has no in-built revenue-making mechanism like YouTubes AdSense, and so for many TikTokers tons of views dont equate to tons of money.

Despite TikToks Chinese origins, seven of the top ten most-followed TikTokers in the world are American. This is partly because the Chinese version of the app Douyin is run separately due to government restrictions. Though nearly four times as many people had downloaded TikTok in India than in the US (before India banned the app in July), TikToks 2019 round-up of its most popular videos demonstrated that Americans dominate the app, possibly because of the popularity of the English language and American music (this could change in the future as the US moves to restrict TikTok). Elsewhere, keen TikTokers often translate hit songs into their own languages in order to add their own spin to dance crazes.

Many of the dance routines that take off on TikTok are set to hip-hop songs. Erik Saradpon, a choreographer who has won honours at the World Hip-Hop Championship, puts this down to the genres universal appeal. Hip-hop and pop music are the most mainstream music to young people. Its the same reason why you see so much hip-hop in commercials, he says. Saradpon says that TikTok has now influenced particular movements and phrasing in hip-hop choreography, and says the app is definitely sparking creativity in people of all ages.

How does this creativity strike? Here, TikTok creators explain how they came up with their dances and demonstrate how you can give them a go.

Song: Lottery (Renegade) by K CAMP

The Renegade has 21 steps and should take between 15 and 20 seconds to perform. The dance is made up of moves involving the arm and upper body, making it easier than routines with tricky footwork. Start with a woah, followed by extending your arms into a downwards clap, then swing and wave your arms before snapping your fingers. Harmon explains the dance is a medley of already popular moves learn those and youll find it easier to master the routine.

Harmon takes hip-hop, ballet and jazz classes, and invented the dance after school in her Atlanta bedroom in September 2019. Im really proud to be a dancer right now because its a cool talent, she says. The Renegades huge success had multiple ramifications, from K CAMP retitling his song to include the name of the dance to the teens appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. I think its really cool when I see celebrities doing my dance, says Harmon, who now has over 2.3 million followers on TikTok and her own agent. For people my age, when youre a good dancer, youre popular, and a lot of people respect and admire you.

Song: The Git Up by Blanco Brown

Ajani Huff and Davonte House

Half-brothers Ajani Huff and Davonte House popularised The Git Up on TikTok off the back of country rapper Blanco Browns song of the same name. Brown uploaded an Instagram video of himself line dancing to the song in April 2019; Huff and House filmed their spin on the routine in a gazebo by a New York lake in May. Another teen TikToker, UK-based Harvey Bass, helped their routine go viral in June, and the brothers later collaborated with him, filming other dances together for the app.

To join in, start with your arms hanging out by your sides, bent at the elbows, before performing the footwork of the cowboy boogie crossing and uncrossing one leg behind the other. Grab the bottom of your shirt while thrusting, spin around, swing your knees in and out, and youve git it down.

We wanted it to blow up but we didnt expect it, says House, who explains he and his brother take between literally a minute and hours to choreograph dances for the app. The pair say the secret to TikTok success is something thats easy but hard at the same time. Like, youre capable of doing it, but it looks hard to others, House explains.

Song: Con Calma by Daddy Yankee feat. Snow

Greg Chapkis, choreographer on Daddy Yankees 2019 music video for Con Calma, didnt create the dance with social media in mind. Nonetheless, his routine took over the internet the music video has 1.8 billion YouTube views and the #ConCalma hashtag has 455 million views on TikTok.

To join in, lean backwards and tuck one leg behind the other while bringing your hands up. Turn around on the tips of your toes and slide your knee out to the side. People were asking me non-stop for a tutorial, says Chapkis, explaining that his social media profiles exploded after the dance was released. The choreographer has been teaching for 24 years his mother owns a studio in Ukraine, where he grew up before moving to San Francisco.

I feel dancers were always in the background to the artist, and now dancers are creating their own lane, he says. On YouTube, a behind-the-scenes video of one of Chapkis rehearsals for Con Calma has been viewed over 77 million times. He says virality has allowed him to teach sold-out classes across the globe, meaning it has also increased his opportunities to travel. I feel really happy and proud, he says.

Song: Savage by Megan Thee Stallion

I was scrolling through TikTok and I noticed people were basically doing the same dances over and over again, so I decided to switch it up a bit, says 19-year-old Keara Wilson, a military student from Ohio. Wilson spent an hour coming up with her routine to Megan Thee Stallions Savage in the hopes of going viral she created three or four different endings but decided on the least challenging option to help viewers.

For the main part of the dance, thrust your elbow to the side and then bring your arm over your head, shake your shoulders and bum before forming a cross with your arms, and stick out your tongue and waggle your fingers by your head in time with the acting stupid lyric.

Wilson, who hopes to make a career out of TikTok, was overwhelmed when the routine blew up in March 2020. She has been dancing for ten years and was also a cheerleader in high school. Since her routine went viral, Wilson has got an agent and launched her own merchandise though her career is just starting. In April, when Beyonc released a remix of Savage, Wilson dropped another routine which quickly accumulated just under 200,000 likes.

It made me speechless, very speechless, I was in disbelief, Wilson says of going viral the first time. I actually cried tears of joy because this is something Ive always wanted to do.

Song: 7 Rings by Ariana Grande

It was Christmas Day and Devin Santiagos best friend was feeding her newborn baby when he first came up with a routine to Ariana Grandes 7 Rings. Santiago, who is 26 and from New Jersey, took between 15 and 20 minutes to choreograph the dance while the baby ate; afterwards, he and his friend filmed the dance in his older sisters bedroom. I was so excited, its such a good feeling when you make up something and you feel so confident that its good, he says.

Santiago has been dancing for 18 years and is also in film school he says the outfits, backdrop, and theme to a TikTok video are almost as important at the dance itself.

To join in with the thousands of others whove danced his dance, swing each elbow to the side in turn before putting your hands up, palms outwards. Bring your hands down and your knees up while snapping your fingers, and then cross your arms and jump, splaying your legs, before doing your best spin.

Song: Hey Julie! by KYLE feat. Lil Yachty

TikTok dances constantly evolve: while one person may create two or three steps to a song, someone else might add two or three more that push it to go viral. Multiple people can be credited with the moves in the viral TikTok routine to KYLEs Hey Julie!, but 20-year-old Michael Le from Florida was the first to popularise a full routine on the app (and has the coveted Original tag for uploading the song). It is likely the special effects he used in the background of the video helped capture attention his video is animated with light blurs and lyrics that pop up on screen.

In this case, the lyrics prove highly instructional. Wave your hands at Hey Julie, and pull at your shirt four times when you hear drip, drip, drip, drip. Throw your arms to one side and move them in sync to the lyric wrists, wrists, wrists, wrists then youve got the gist, gist, gist, gist.

Honestly, I made that dance up in ten minutes and we recorded it immediately after, says Le, who earns all of his income posting content on TikTok and Instagram. Le is paid by both record labels and brands to promote music and products he most frequently works with an energy drinks company and a clothing brand. In May 2020, he began to rent a luxurious house (complete with indoor and outdoor pools) with his influencer earnings.

In total, Le has nine years of dance training. The dancing on TikTok obviously isnt super-duper intricate or expert, but because I have training, Im able to execute movements in a way thats different from someone who doesnt have that experience, it looks a lot more natural, he says.

Song: Out West by Jackboys & Travis Scott feat. Young Thug

When famous TikTokers performed 19-year-old PR student Nicole Bloomgardens routine at an NBA game in February 2020, she decided it was time she got credit for her dance. Bloomgarden developed the #OutWestChallenge in December 2019, a day after the song was released, making it easy to replicate in the hopes of going viral.

Bloomgarden got her wish: famous TikTokers like Charli DAmelio began doing her dance in the following months and the challenge soon spread, but Bloomgarden got no credit (like Harmon, she didnt have the Original tag on TikTok because she didnt upload the track and her video together). When celebrities including Usher began doing the dance, she spoke out on Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube, finally earning recognition for the routine.

To do the dance: hit the whoa, clap your extended hands, shimmy your shoulders forwards, cross your arms, point your elbows to the side, and extend your arms to the ceiling.

All I want to do is entertain, says Bloomgarden, who went to dance classes when she was a child but is mostly self-taught. I want to be able to put people in a better mood.

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Meet the choreographers behind some of TikTok's most viral dances - Wired.co.uk

It was back in mid-May, during what he now calls banana bread week, that Jordan Firstmans fortunes changed. LA had been in lockdown for almost two months, and the writer and comedian, (Firstman has written for shows including Search Party) alone in his apartment and recuperating from a break-up, had been filling his time filming himself doing impressions and uploading them to Instagram. A cult following was forming then he posted his impression of banana breads publicist and everything blew up.

You should know, if you arent familiar with his work, that Firstman is no mimic he doesnt do famous people (despite the many messages he receives from confused people requesting impersonations of Donald Trump). Which isnt to say he doesnt do impressions of recognisable characters we all very much know the person he based his impression of someone getting nominated for an Instagram challenge on.

Everyday objects, mundane situations and abstract concepts are Firstmans fodder. His impressions are wonderfully silly, painfully accurate and crucially very, very funny. Mother nature, social media posts, haircuts, neglected clothes all have received the Firstman treatment. (One that a lot of women related to was my impression of truffle oil, he says.) He is now on season 15 of Impressions, has well over half a million followers and a growing celebrity fan club, which currently numbers Ariana Grande, Jennifer Aniston, Chrissy Teigen, Katy Perry and Sarah Jessica Parker. The last sent Firstman a really nice long DM that made me cry.

We are, naturally, speaking over Zoom. (So good is Firstman at lockdown that he actually invested in Zoom and Peloton the first day of quarantine. I think Ive made $67 so far.) He is in the midst of a break-up redesign and has painted the walls of his apartment with Dali-esque clouds against a sky-blue backdrop. His accent is pure LA millennial, an upward inflection turning every sentence into a question littered with likes a habit he is trying to kick. Im trying really hard to cut back on my like usage, so forgive me for the likes, Im working on it, he says shyly. It should be an impression, I suggest. Yeah, my impression of how shameful it is to be the word like.

Its a prime example of how Firstmans mind works, and where he finds inspiration. Im obsessed with subtext and I feel like I have a pretty good eye to know what someone means when theyre speaking. I write the thing that theyre thinking.

Sometimes its a little too relatable. The impression that people felt the most personally attacked by was his impression of someone doing the work.That one got reposted a lot. Sometimes Ill check what people are saying and there was a lot of Oh my God, thats me, he says, with mock horror in his voice. A certain demographic (read: white women who like coffee and yoga) will recognise themselves more than others. There are definitely a lot of LA stereotypes, he admits. Is anything off limits? I dont want to make fun of people that are already taken to task in the world, he says. I will continue to make fun of privilege.

Now that lockdown has eased and we are allowed beyond our four walls, is he getting recognised out in public? Um, yeah, he says coyly. Its very weird. I was out sitting in the park drinking wine by myself and someone was like, Are you Justin? And I was like, Its JORDAN. I was being funny but that may have been misinterpreted. But being stopped on a camping trip in Lake Tahoe was by far the craziest thing to happen to me. Crazier than DMing SJP? Yes! Ill say it again: I was in the middle of the wild-er-ness.

Firstman had the most 90s upbringing in suburban Long Island, the son of parents who both worked for a newspaper. As a teenager, he discovered Stephen Sondheims Company, which fully changed my entire life. At 21, he moved to LA and started forging a career in film and TV. Now, thanks in part to the widespread success of Impressions, he is working on three new projects and we may or may not be seeing him on screen more, too. Im open to a reality where that happens, he says, but my only true acting aspirations are doing Sondheim on stage.

Having Hollywood tell him hes funny has been, in some ways, surprising. Ive been told my whole career that Im niche, which in Hollywood is code for too gay, he says. So when this happened I was like, I knew it, I knew I wasnt niche. You fuckers lied to me!

TV shows like Fleabag and I May Destroy You have been monumental for young creators like myself to see that this kind of work can be done, he continues. Watching Michaela [Coel, who wrote and starred in the latter] and her creative evolution is just so inspiring. I would love to feel that way about a gay person. Hopefully Ill be that to somebody.I have no doubt he will be.

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How Jordan Firstman Became The Funniest Man On The Internet - British Vogue

Keone and Mari Madrid sit around their kitchen table la quarantinetheir fingertips brushing the surface, tapping to hidden dynamics of a Ben Sollee track as they weave in and out of one another's arms. The video, titled "Built for This," is a danced message of gratitude for health-care workers. Later in the film, out on their balcony, their arms subtly fluctuate from positions of prayer to praise, depicting the evening cheers for frontline heroes. It's unpretentious, human movement that has become their signature style.

Had a pandemic not shuttered the dance industry, they'd be unlikely to be in their San Diego home. COVID-19 way-laid both the Chicago run of Once Upon a One More Time (their new Britney Spears musical coming to Broadway) and the New York City performances of their first full-length production, Beyond Babel. It also took a toll on their own healthboth the Madrids and their now 1-year-old daughter Numah contracted the illness. All have since, fortunately, recovered.

Christian Peacock

Despite everything, the powerhouse couple still has much in the works, including choreographing both The Karate Kid and Once Upon a One More Time for Broadway, expanding their San Diego dance studio and working on a top-secret Disney project. Their wholesome brand of hip hop continues to connect with audiencesperhaps especially during this tumultuous time. As the country carries on the fight against racism, sickness, intolerance and abuse, they find inventive ways to use their sincere movement to encourage the best of their audience.

"It's their storytelling that is so impactful," says one of their dancers, Fabian Tucker. "It reaches people. Their choreography goes beyond this moment in time. It's timeless."

Keone was 15 when he attended his first formal dance class. A woman had invited his friend to take hip hop, and Keone joined as wingman. "It was a game changer," he says. Soon Keone was bouncing from high school football and basketball practices to the dance studiooften clad in sports gear. He joined a junior competitive team, Future Shock San Diego (the apprentice crew of Culture Shock San Diego), led by some of the area's top talent. When he became director of FSSD, one of his students began uploading clips from class to YouTube, landing Keone his first international job in Norway.

Mari, meanwhile, started out as a gymnast in Boulder, Colorado. When she decided to quit, her mother sent her to a weeklong hip-hop intensive instead. She fell in love with it and later joined the competitive dance team while at California College of the Arts. One of her friends there filmed a class she taught and put it on YouTube, opening up a variety of international teaching opportunities, including a fateful one in Norway.

Both dancers were offered the Norway gig at the same time, with the director planning to give the opportunity to whoever responded first. True to their natures, Mari took the day to think things through, while Keone said yes immediately. When Mari found out Keone had taken the job, she bristled. "I was like, 'Who even is Keone?' " she remembers. "My roommate at the time, Kyle Hanagami, had to show me a video of him."

Keone felt bad, so when he and Mari later taught at the same workshop in the U.S., he decided to make amends. "I wanted to introduce myself and be nice," he says. "But she was pretty cold, and I thought, Well, there goes that. Then she took my class." Keone reached out to Mari through MySpace and asked if she would choreograph for his FSSD team. "It took four days of spending time together to become a couple and say 'I love you,' " Keone says. "We just knew."

However, it wasn't immediately obvious to either that they should work together. In fact, they avoided it for the first six months. "We were in the honeymoon phase and didn't want to introduce something that could potentially make us fight," Mari says.

Eventually, an opportunity came up to create a competition set for Choreo Cookiesthe dominant, San Diegobased competition team the Madrids would dance with for eight years. "It worked," Keone says. Over time the two started exploring partner-work together, and established an identifiable style that consists of immensely intricate movement weaving in and out of their two bodies in mesmerizing ways.

Mari admits they used to fight often when creating new work. "We still fight here or there," she says, "but we have become more comfortable disagreeing with each other. We know how to do it respectfully. That is, we disagree efficiently by listening to each other."

Their approach has changed over time, too. They used to start by trying to come up with specific movements. "Now we turn on music and just bounce off each other," Keone says. "We say, 'Oh, I like that' or 'Let's try something else.' We have a dance vocabulary built between us that we trust to take over."

Christian Peacock

That vocabulary has opened a world of opportunities: They've choreographed music videos for Justin Bieber, BTS, Billie Eilish and Ed Sheeran; pieces for "World of Dance," "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Dancing with the Stars.'' Altogether, their videos on YouTube have amassed more than 2 billion views and counting.

With their dancers, Keone and Mari apply a leadership style that's based in community gathering. Tucker recalls assisting the pair when they auditioned dancers for Beyond Babel. "They talked to everyone about not stressing out, being supportive and approaching it like class," he says. "Everyone is always going to be their best in that environment. After the audition, a bunch of people came up to me and said it was one of the funnest experiences they have ever had."

Although Mari was still dancing onstage at seven months pregnant at Coachella with Billie Eilish in 2019, the couple's path has changed since Numah was born. A week before Mari went into labor, they got a call telling them they'd been promoted from choreographers to directors for their first Broadway production, Once Upon a One More Time. The show would keep them in one place for an extended period, something their usual commercial jobs didn't allow.

Even the offer to choreograph in the first place had surprised them. "I thought, Don't you want Brian Friedman?" Mari says. But once they read the script and saw the heart of the story (how a group of fairy-tale princesses discover feminism), they were hooked.

Movement that tells a story has always been at the center of the Madrids' work. They'd already been doing short-form storytelling for years. Beyond Babel, which the pair co-created and starred in, proved they could tackle long-form, as well. The contemporary retelling of Romeo and Juliet comments on today's social issuesin particular the proposed border wall.

The show's New York City run had just been extended and the Madrids were in rehearsals for Once Upon a One More Time when the pandemic halted everything. "Things were moving so fast and then just stopped," Mari says. "The first couple of weeks were scary while we dealt with the illness. The silver lining is we have gotten to be with our daughter. She has started crawling, and got some teeth. We've had so much time that we wouldn't have had otherwise."

After making a full recovery from COVID-19, an opportunity to expand their San Diego studio, Building Block Dance, arose and quickly sucked up any free time. The vision for the school is holistic dance training: Beyond teaching choreography, they offer a total mind, body and spirit approach to dance, including meditation, nutrition, mental health, stretching, exercise and fine-tuning creative skills.

The new space doubles as a film studio with white walls and professional lighting so the pair can offer virtual classes similar to MasterClass, the popular online teaching tool. "We had talked about creating an online platform before COVID-19, but it was always on the back burner until now," Mari says. "Nothing will ever take the place of in-person training, but this is an opportunity to share our work with people who we wouldn't have been able to work with previously."

Beyond the expansion of their school, Keone and Mari have also been working on a still-to-be-announced short film for Disney that celebrates dance as a storytelling device. "I wanted a film where the entire world was one of dancewhere dance was not just something you did, but it was how you moved," says director Zach Parrish.

From the beginning, he knew he wanted Keone and Mari to choreograph. "They have an incredible ability to communicate both emotion and story very clearly through movement. It feels like a superhuman exaggeration of real life."

More than just their work, Parrish was drawn to Keone and Mari because of who they are as individuals. "The stories they tell, the way they look at the work inclusively-, the way they treat those they work with, their daughter, and each other shows what genuinely good people they are," he says.

Beginning in May, shortly after the murder of George Floyd, Keone and Mari took inventory of their own lives and the ways they might unknowingly contribute to systemic racism. They made a public statement that they would no longer call their genre of dance "urban," acknowledging the harmful racial implications of the term.

The change highlighted an interesting challenge. "Going from hip hop, to being told I'm not hip hop, to 'hip hop with air quotes and an explanation,' to 'urban dance,' to discarding a word that clearly doesn't work, and back to an orphan of genre has been an interesting journey, but a beautiful learning experience nonetheless," Keone captioned an Instagram post.

Just weeks later, the two released a video meant to champion the Black Lives Matter movement. When some viewers criticized the work for perceived saviorism, the two announced a plan to amplify Black voices in and out of the dance community, starting with Instagram takeovers.

Despite everything, Mari believes this time of turmoil will ultimately bring dancers together. "The wonderful thing about dance is that it is an outlet," she says. "All you need is your body and maybe some music. We will all come back with a greater desire to lift others up through dance."

Read this article:

The Storytellers: Keone and Mari Madrid Capture What it Means to Be Human - Dance Magazine

It all started with a pair of old curtains. In late March, as Colorado, USA, creeped into lockdown, 23-year-old Jonathan Simanjuntak began his search for a new hobby. Quarantine was getting really serious, he tells me from his home in Aurora, a city spread across two of the states hardest hit counties. It didn't take him long to land on sewing. If Im being super honest, the fact that I cant afford Gucci and APC had a lot to do with it.

Before the local government could stop him, Simanjuntak raided thrift shops for fusty fabrics, damaged clothes and any rag that might prove useful. Three months later, after a lot of trial and error and YouTube tutorials, he uploaded his first big project to the 260k-strong Reddit community /r/sewing: A Dickies-inspired work jacket, upcycled from a blanket and some floral curtains he found at Goodwill. It immediately shot to the top of a subreddit almost entirely dominated by dresses. Thank you everyone for the nice comments, he wrote at the top of the post, which gained seven thousand upvotes. Im smiling a lot rn!

It should come as no great surprise that /r/sewing has grown in popularity. As stringent lockdown measures loomed, the world got busy keeping busy. Google searches for sewing machines jumped by 400 per cent in the US, and John Lewis reported that sales of them had risen by 127 per cent over April. What might come as a surprise, however, is the amount of men who began posting their own creations from face masks to full outfits on the forum, a real rarity before the pandemic hit. I see a lot of new seamsters like me popping up in the subreddit every day, Simanjuntak tells me. The first time you put your own work on your body feels like magic its wild addicting.

According to Merchant & Mills, a former warehouse-turned-sewing emporium in Rye, East Sussex, more men than ever are taking to the craft. The British draper received a months worth of orders each day at the start of lockdown, but it was their template for a mens workwear silhouette that reigned supreme. The Foreman Jacket shot through the roof. It was the best-selling pattern by miles, says Carolyn Denham, who co-founded the company ten years ago. Even before lockdown, she noticed that men were finally beginning to see the value in producing their own clothes with long-lasting materials. Sewing doesnt have to be this mumsy, cutesy thing with pink scissors, she tells me. "Men relate to it being a 'quality' thing. I think they hook straight into that."

When you start sewing, spending six to eight hours on a garment, you realise the value of your clothes."

Why do so few men sew? In truth, the history of the sewing machine is bound in misogyny a depressing totem of how emancipation and oppression can intertwine. The breakthrough tool was hailed as a huge time-saver upon its invention in the mid-19th century, but the major beneficiaries turned out to be factory owners. Foot-powered sewing machines allowed crowded, poorly ventilated sweatshops, staffed almost entirely by women, to mass-produce clothes for the first time. For several months of the year, it was common for poverty-stricken British seamstresses to work twenty-hour days sewing la mode dresses for wealthy women. Needless to say, they were often expected to craft and fix clothes for their own families, too. The industrys pitiful wages were compounded by the fact that men, who controlled the bespoke tailoring trade, blocked women from joining their trade unions.

Of course, that problem has never gone away its simply been outsourced to poorer countries and hidden from plain sight. Less gendered, sure, but just as unequal. This year, The Guardian discovered that a factory in Leicester that provided clothes to Boohoo, the biggest fast fashion company in the world, was secretly paying labourers 3.50 an hour to work through lockdown with no social distancing measures. For Redditor Mehedi Sarri, the scourge of modern slavery was one of the main reasons he picked up a needle in the first place. When you start sewing, spending six to eight hours on a garment, you realise the value of your clothes. Then you start doing the maths and it doesn't add up. How is it possible to sell clothes so cheap? he says. I understood that the sewing process is industrialised, but it is at that moment that you really realise the exploitation of others and our planet.

The 32-year-old librarian, from Toulouse, France, learned to sew when he lost his job back in 2017. I had to cope with societys judgment of my status, he tells me. When youre unemployed people can be very harsh, so I had to make use of my time and not get in the wrong state of mind. A new job in 2018 meant that his hobby fell by the wayside and eventually vanished, but lockdown presented the perfect opportunity to get back on the horse. A fan of Japanese fabrics like Kokka and Nani IRO, he crafted his own shirts, coats, trousers and, of course, face masks. Three of my friends expressed their will to have some training sessions with me.That made me so happy, he says. I also taught one friend how to sew right after confinement, and he made a bunch of masks.

"Just me and my machine is a perfect combo."

Sewing with quality materials can be expensive more expensive than buying clothes from a high street shop, anyway and the equipment costs can be prohibitive too. But the ethical upcycling movement, spearheaded by designers like Emily Adams Bode, Sam Nowell and Greg Lauren (nephew of Ralph), is encouraging people to make the most of what we already, collectively, have. Jonathan Simanjuntak's aforementioned floral jacket, a one-of-a-kind item, cost 15 to make. Ishmael Jasmin, a 20-year-old Redditor from Los Angeles, has even started selling his own streetwear pieces crafted with woven blanket materials, including a pair of Space Jam-themed shorts. Sewing has been very beneficial to my mental health, he tells me. Dont get me wrong, some projects can be draining and annoying. But when Im creating something, I dont have to really worry about any outside noise. Just me and my machine is a perfect combo.

The global crafts market is expected to value $51 billion by 2024, and Merchant & Mills's Carolyn believes that its rapid growth is being driven by the twin pursuits of mindfulness and sustainability. When I opened the business, it was about just taking time to sit down peacefully at your sewing machine and make yourself something to wear, she tells me. [But I also] wanted to express my outrage at the profit-driven, disposable ravages of the fashion industry and share the gift my Mum gave to me: satisfaction through sewing.

Some would say she's fighting a losing battle. In 2017, a report by MPs found that the UK fashion industry throws away 26.7kg of clothes a year, the most in Europe, and a poll by Bernardos found that, in 2019, Britons spent an estimated 2.7 billion on clothes they only wore once. Meanwhile, a survey by Hobby Craft revealed that only one in five of us could sew on a button (the number of men who are up to the task is likely much lower).

Esquire Style Director Charlie Teasdale has always tried to support the callus-thumbed crafters of the fashion industry as much as possible, but he believes that men could stand to learn some DIY skills. "I think clothes-making is one of those lost arts that our ancestors would be saddened to learn the death of. (Sorry, ancestors. We have Arket now.) Its the kind of thing we should probably all have a basic knowledge of," he says. "Not so much in terms of making clothes, but it would be better for the world if we all had a grasp of how to fix things."

We cant mend all of society's problems with a needle and thread, but we can do our bit. Learning how to create, alter, and fix clothes is pretty crucial, but I dont expect everyone to pick it up, says Simanjuntak, who has been uploading more pictures of his charity shop creations despite the easing of lockdown restrictions. "This is definitely a time for people to be more in control of the quality and production of the goods they consume. Im still going to be sewing a lot when this is all over."

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Rise Of The Sew Bro: The Male Crafting Movement - esquire.com

There's a new gal in town and she's chatting up some pretty impressive people.

These are busy times for Ruby Locknar. The singing actor has been serving as producer for Jim Caruso'S CAST PARTY and VIRTUAL HALSTON, while helping clients with their tech needs and maintaining two Youtube channels. After picking up a healthy following with her occasional appearances on Jim's and Julie's shows, Ruby got back to her roots and did a live streaming concert, and it is clear that her fan base is growing. So, what better thing to do than start a show of her own?

Beginning September 1st on the Cast Party Network Youtube channel, fans previously established and brand new can catch THE TALKBACK WITH Ruby Locknar, an interview program during which Ruby will be talking to some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry. Before that starts, though, I wanted to give Ruby a chance to talk about her life as a show business Jane-of-All-Trades and introduce herself to the Broadway World Cabaret audiences that will, definitely, be tuning in to see her in action.

This interview was conducted digitally and is reproduced here as originally received.

Hi Ruby! Welcome to Broadway World Cabaret and thanks for visiting with us today! Truth is, I've been wanting to chat with you for a while, so I'm glad we are finally getting around to this - and you with an exciting new adventure about to occur!

Hi Stephen! I'm beyond thrilled to be chatting with you today!

So you are an actor, a singer, an online producer, and an influencer - do you get enough sleep when you're on a regular work schedule?

Yes, I wear many different hats! It's crazy, but I have somehow learned to totally balance it all. I've always been a go-getter and someone who has their hands in tons of different projects at once, so keeping incredibly busy feels pretty natural at this point. Sleep and taking care of myself physically is also super important to me though, and because I work for myself, design my own schedule, and am currently not in a show due to the pandemic, I try my best to stop working no later than 8 every night.

You've been a part of the Birdland family for some time - walk me through your history with the club and the people there.

Birdland has been a huge part of my life, starting from the time I was 6 years old. My mom, Victoria Shaw, is an award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer, and had been to Birdland a few times before taking me. She brought me and my sister, who was 4 at the time, to Cast Party one Monday night and I was practically begging to sing on stage. The rest is history! Jim, Gianni, the Cast Party orchestra, and the entire Birdland staff became like family. Cut to 2020, I still go to Cast Party every chance I get, and my mom has done countless shows at the club; it's truly like a second home.

In May you did a virtual concert, after weeks of producing online content for other people - how did you like the experience of streaming performing?

I had a blast! Since most auditions are currently on hold for the time being, and I've been producing non-stop for other clients, I loved just getting to do something for myself and sing whatever came to mind. I even had a couple producing clients of mine pop in and watch who had no idea I sang in the first place!

Your work as a producer is impressive, and invaluable to your clients. Where does a person pick up that particular skill in life?

I've always been very "techie" from a super early age. Whether it was editing YouTube videos, putting together audition tapes, or producing songs on GarageBand, it all came very naturally to me and provided another creative outlet. Right when the pandemic hit back in March, and all live events were cancelled, I knew that someone was going to have to step up and help these shows pivot to this new online broadcasting medium. I had experimented with a few live streaming platforms in the past to use in conjunction with my own YouTube channel, so I basically just jumped in, said "let's do this," and my business truly took off overnight. I also think the fact that I'm a performer myself, and also have a bit of stage management training/ experience truly is what sets me apart, because I know how to communicate with a wide array of clients.

You maintain two different Youtube channels, one as a performer and one as a beauty consultant & lifestyle coach. Share the story of that development with our Broadway World readers, won't you?

I love that I get to talk about this! I still don't have a true uploading schedule for my singing channel, but my beauty/lifestyle channel has really grown into its own little community, and I'm really proud of it. YouTube honestly just started as a hobby for me- I never thought it would turn into a source of income and a part-time job. It definitely didn't happen overnight though; I've been creating content on my beauty/lifestyle channel for over 10 years. I became a YouTube partner back in 2017, and my videos were monetized then as well. Again, I just treat it as another creative outlet, and a way for my followers to feel like they have a more personal connection with me. I definitely wouldn't consider myself a "lifestyle coach," but I try my best to be a positive influence and post the most authentic content I know how to.

See Ruby's Health and Beauty Youtube channel HERE

See Ruby's music Youtube channel HERE

And now, after months of producing Jim Caruso's Cast Party & Virtual Halston, you are embarking on your own online programming, THE TALKBACK WITH Ruby Locknar. How did this opportunity come about?

A few weeks back I was chatting with Jim Caruso about more ways to expand his YouTube network. I brought up the idea of creating a talk show that was aimed at the "rising class" of theatre stars because in a time where theatre schools are closed for the foreseeable future due to the pandemic, and high school/ college students/ those entering the post-grad world are looking for ways to still gain information, I truly don't think that there are enough affordable resources out there (tickets to The Talkback are only $10.) Initially I thought Jim would host, and I would just hop on as the technical producer, but then Jim suggested that I host the show and it kind of just grew from there!

What does The Talkback With Ruby Locknar look like?

The Talkback with Ruby Locknar is a monthly talk show where we are going to chat with some of the biggest names on Broadway, as well as some in the casting and management industry as well. We're going to go through everything: how they got their start, how they got exactly where they are today, and their advice for the "rising class" of theatre stars. I wanted to make sure that this show was also interactive, so we're going to select 5 audience members every episode to come on and ask their questions live! My first guest is my dear friend Kristin Chenoweth, so you are seriously not going to want to miss this.

There was a time when it was easy to be starstruck by celebrities that one encounters, even as an industry professional - do you think that the era of social media has worked toward creating a greater ease when working with one's idols and role models?

Look, I think that we all still get a "starstruck pass" from time to time, but I think social media is a wonderful tool. It can really make your followers feel like they have a more personal connection with you, and like they already know you in a sense. I personally love those though who don't just treat their social media like a highlight reel, but also show the messy parts of life- it reminds me that we're all just human at the end of the day.

Is there a celebrated artist that might make you even the tiniest bit nervous?

Growing up in and around the entertainment industry, it's very rare that I've ever found myself nervous; however, anyone who knows me at all knows that I would absolutely freeze if I ever had the chance to meet Billy Joel. His music shaped who I am as a songwriter, his album The Stranger is the most masterful piece of art in my opinion, and I'm honestly not quite sure I'd be able to keep my cool if I was ever introduced to him.

Ruby, the continued sustenance of any art form rests on the shoulders of the young people who will carry it into the future. As the next generation of an industry that is currently learning just how important growth and change is, what do you see as moves everyone can implement to assist in the evolution of small venue performing?

Well, before we can get back to any type of live performances, no matter the venue size, people must WEAR. A MASK. If my generation wants a future in the arts, we can't get back to "normal" until we are all taking our health and safety as seriously as the next person. On a much deeper level, I think that my generation is making sure that the conversation regarding equal representation in theatre has only just begun. I'm confident that the evolution will continue, and theatre will come back stronger and better than ever.

Thank you so much for chatting with Broadway World Cabaret today and have a great time with THE TALKBACK WITH Ruby Locknar!

Thank you so much!

INFORMATION ON THE TALKBACK WITH Ruby Locknar

Premieres September 1 at 5pm ET

Cast Party Network on YouTube

With Very Special Guest

Tickets:

$10

-Name

-Venmo handle (We will send request for ticket $)

-Questions for guest

We will pick 5 people with the best questions and email them a private link to join StreamYard to ask their question(s) live!

NOTE * Can only buy tickets up until 3 days before show.

Read more:

BWW Interview: Ruby Locknar of THE TALKBACK WITH RUBY LOCKNAR on The Cast Party Network - Broadway World

The 100 brings back Bellamy Blake for a transformative adventure beyond the wall / in Mordor / BYO pop culture reference. Here is our review.

Well, well, well. Look who isnt dead. And more importantly, look who isnt old! Praise Cadogan. I love it when Im wrong. (Sometimes.)

Eleven episodes into the final season, and The 100s self-proclaimed heart has started beating again, for what seems to be a very apropos final arc about losing touch with the very things that kept that heart beating love, family, humanity and hopefully rediscovering that which make Bellamy so quintessentially Bellamy before the end.

And yes, you can call me an otherwise sensible woman, because Bellamys absence sure did put a dampener on my enjoyment of the final season. Particularly because I was tuning in every week half-expecting him to pop up for a big reveal and growing increasingly frustrated when he didnt. (I will forever believe that this would have gone over a lot better if we had simply been told in advance that his absence would last for two thirds of the season.)

But hey. Hes back now, which is great, and I know that a certain dedicated group of fans who love this show and character (and have worked much harder than I ever did to show it) are very, very happy that he has returned. So at least we can all go forth on the final leg on this journey together.

And how great was this episode? While I definitely have some issues with the pacing and justification of Bellamys big turn, the writing and direction was top notch, the visuals were stunning, and I really appreciate getting a whole Bellamy-centric episode before the end! It was about damn time.

Lets dive into the void Etherea, expertly written by genre buff Jeff Vlaming and directed by Aprill Winney.

(I see your Jon Snow, and I raise you)

Bellamy arrives on Etherea, on what quickly becomes a not-so-solo pilgrimage, because the disciple that he was holding at knifepoint on Bardo whom I regret to report is not in fact called Doucheroy, as I initially heard it transforms into his companion and spiritual guide for the entire episode.

Doucette (you know what? Nope. His name is Doug now) is very keen on killing Bellamy, because, um, I suppose he has momentarily lost touch with his otherwise so prevalent I love all humans equally philosophy? I dont get the Bardoans, I really dont.

Anyway, they have a kerfuffle, and Bellamy being Bellamy spares Dougs life.

This shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone. Mercy and the ability to see the humanity in his enemies have always been part of Bellamys DNA. Sparing his enemies lives is kind of his thing, actually, and even while fighting fiercely for his people, he has more than any other character (aside from Clarke) been thrown into storylines that forced him to join forces with his would-be enemies. First it was Shumway on the Ark. Then it was Clarke. Then Lincoln. Then Kane. Then Maya. Then Indra. Then Roan. Then Echo. Then Gabriel. And probably others that Ive forgotten.

So maybe its fitting that his solo episode is one more instance of him insta-bonding with a would-be foe, even if I admit that Id have preferred to see him spend this time with someone that mattered to him (and us), and who might have allowed for more than very shallow insight into who Bellamy is as a person.

After jumping up and down by a wall a few times and realizing that hes stuck on planet video game and needs an NPC companion to advance to the next level, Bellamy goes back to feed Doug some healing potions.

Bellamy nurses Player 2 back to health with the posthumous help of Charles Pike, a neat little nod to the past: Pike, too, had to learn to fight side by side with his enemy, right before his untimely demise. (If there was ever a point when we needed Pikes no-nonsense BS detector, it was season 7.)

Referencing back to Pike is probably also a tool to remind us of how Bellamy has always, consistently made choices he believed were in the best interest of his people, even when that included closing himself off to their individual needs and wants (I do it every day).

In fact, I would even argue that the only thing thats ever really changed for Bellamy is how small/large of a group he considers his people to be, and then his head (strategic, cold) vs heart (impulsive, impassioned) balance has shifted accordingly.

In season 3, he had come to see everyone in Arkadia as his people, which made him colder and more logic/head-led than wed ever seen him; we saw him willing to sacrifice individuals and individual relationships (imprisoning Lincoln; handcuffing Clarke) for the greater good. He acted similarly in season 5, when he tried to be big-picture and thus sacrificed Madi and Octavia (and again, handcuffing Clarke) in an attempt to secure a wider peace.

When he is most in touch with his heart, however, he drops everything to save the one (or one of his many, if you say so). In season 1 and 4, it was Octavia; in season 6, it was Clarke. Bellamy is no less ride-or-die for his people, hes just shifting his definition of how many people need him to ride or die for them.

And for his final arc, it seems that Bellamy will go full big picture; now that he is drinking the Cadogan kool-aid (or should that be kombucha? The Cadokombucha? Hows that for a finale title?), he is shifting into for all mankind-mode, and will therefore be at the most ruthless, impersonal, Clarke-handcuffing end of his head/heart spectrum.

(And my inner lover of storytelling symmetry of course hopes that it is Clarke who, once again, drags him back to the heart-side, where I like him best.)

And since were on the subject of Pike (kinda), it is super interesting to see how despite how different the sources of he and Cadogans convictions were similar they are in terms of having blind faith in themselves, and how that self-confidence in turn makes Bellamy fall under their spell.

Bellamy, as much as hes come into adulthood and leadership in his own right, has on some level always been looking for a good, strong, charismatic adult to show him the ways of the world some might say hes looking for a dad and while Cadogans powers of persuasion are of a more ~Ethereal (hahah) nature, Bellamy is falling to his knees for much the same reason. He believes hes found the man who will save them all; someone to believe in. And he will do whatever it takes to ensure that mans victory.

Anyway, Im getting ahead of myself.

Bellamy and Doug spend a few weeks in the cave of wonders, during which Bellamy picks up a training manual reads up on the life and lies of Bill Cadogan. He is skeptical, of course, of what are still hilariously illogical instructions for culthood 101.

It is however clear that Bellamy is somewhat lost for purpose; he recognizes better than most the futility of constantly losing and finding his people, and of trying to herd them to safety like cattle, even as they keep being picked off by monsters in the woods.

Yes, he can find his way back to his blurred-lines one true love person Octavicholarke and probably manage by sheer force of will to get them all back onto the right planet and in the right bodies at the same time, and they might even all survive for a while after that, but then what?

There is no permanent peace in sight for any of them, and Bellamy knows that; hes known it since the beginning, even as he kept soldiering on, his life an uninterrupted struggle to get back to one person from one place and get another person back from somewhere else; every victory temporary and incomplete.

So of course the idea of a legit, guilt-free permanent happily ever after for everyone at once is a temptation Bellamy struggles to resist, and one you see him angrily laughing off here, not just because he doesnt believe in it but because he so desperately wants to.

Bellamy has always carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, from the minute Aurora Blake put baby Octavia into his arms, and while hes tried to live up to the responsibility, some part of him always wished thered be something someone bigger and wiser than himself to take the weight from him. Someone who might actually take responsibility and do what Bellamy doesnt believe himself capable of.

The tragedy is that Bellamy never noticed, and now might never get the chance to notice, that somewhere along the way he grew up and became that person himself.

As Bellamy and Doug move through their cosplay trials, from Frodo/Sam over Jon/Tormund and to Luke Skywalker/Hux, they come upon a second cave. The man cave, if you will.

Here, the Etherea storylines key and sorry Doug, you should have been Gaia only really interesting sequence unfolds: they discover the ascended golden Groots, and Bellamys spiritual awakening begins.

Now, I just have to say this because itll bug me if I dont: Im not sure I understand why anyone would see those glowy alien nightlights and assume that something good had happened to them?

The first thing I thought when I saw them was that theyd met the same fate as Bardos crystal giants, only consumed by fire rather than ice; Bill Cadogan might see phoenixes rising from the ashes, but I would see those things and run screaming in the other direction because they look to me like living beings trapped in their last, agonizing moments of being burned alive.

I understand that Bellamy and Doug feel something profound emanating from the figures that I obviously cant feel through a screen. But even so? Surely its not a coincidence that they were all in the same pose as Becca Pramheda as depicted on the wall in Polis, who was captured in her moment of burning to death, even while her mind ascended into the Flame?

(Or the disciple in Sanctum, who held that exact pose as she lit herself on fire? Or Pompeii victims? Or that charred drunk guy from the start of the epic 1995 point-and-click Discworld game starring the cast of Monty Python? You get my point.)

But okay. Lets say there is a ~feeling. Lets even say this cave-dwelling alien race did actually pass the God-not-Gods rapture test and ascend somewhere, leaving behind glowing imprints of their mortal husks behind. Would we not still be just a tad skeptical of why these so-called deities would be selecting chosen species from around the galaxy and, for lack of a better word, uploading them somewhere?

I mean, based on what we know about this universe, it doesnt seem like a reach to assume that this higher plane of existence is somewhat akin to what Beccas mind was to the Flame, and as Jahas followers were to the City of Light, right? Bodies destroyed, minds captured, into a collective that might actually be as devoid of individualism as Cadogan preaches.

At least seeing and feeling those things isnt enough to instantly transform Bellamy into a Last War truther! Hes seen enough weird shit at this point to just kind of roll with it, I guess, because it seems like he just kind of leaves the shiny people alone and lets his beard grow over the indeterminate amount of time he and Doug hang out and eat bugs at the front of the cave together, waiting for the endless storm to break.

This is the point when Bellamy is at his most hopeless and begins to long for the tranquility that has fallen over Doug. And even if he doesnt buy into the particulars of the Shepherds teachings, hes come to understand the comfort that faith itself can bring of giving up control and taking comfort in a greater plan and that, not the oversized fireflies, is what reels him in.

So he joins Doug in prayer. And then, things get weird.

Bellamy opens his eyes to find himself clean and fresh-shaven. Doug is gone. Call-me-Bill Cadogan appears before him.

WHAT!

Before we begin picking it apart, let me just say that I am thrilled by the fact that the Bill Cadogan / Second Dawn story is, on some level, something more than straight-up bullshit.

However Cadogan communicates with Bellamy here (if he even does), clearly, the belief guiding the disciples isnt completely without foundation. There is something akin to mysticism here, surrounding the glowing blobs. (Even if it turns out to be like Jaha and the City of Light.)

I enjoy being invited to wonder if Cadogan appearing to Bellamy is an actual spiritual deviation from the schmience that has guided the show so far; that this so-obviously-a-fraud character really could be the real chosen one, as Gaius Baltar was on Battlestar Galactica but I do hope we ultimately get an explanation that fits into the established reality of this story, because frankly, I always found the God did it explanation at the end of BSG a huge cop-out. But anyway.

There seems to be three ways to read this moment:

Which do you guys think it is?? Im frankly not sure. But Im leaning towards the technology-enabled mind meld situation, just because that would be a cool reveal, and also because it would help explain why he has been so present on Bardo even though hes mostly been locked away in cryo sleep.

The 100 season 7 brings another small, surprising, delightful cameo when Bellamy comes face-to-face with his mother Aurora (Monique Ganderton), whose name suddenly feels a lot more poignant.

She takes over from Cadogan and shows Bellamy the light, revealing one big giant shiny figure behind her and letting him see something, before he wakes up back in the storm.

This leads us to big mystery number two: what exactly did Bellamy see when he touched the vision blob that has convinced him to believe in Bill Cadogan and the need to get to the other side to the point where he puts all of his loved ones in direct danger to do so? It had to be something spectacular, right? Proof of what awaited humanity post-war?

Because while I dont have much trouble believing that Bellamy in this moment would be susceptible to the power of faith, having him leap to the conclusion that Bill Cadogan is the once and future king because of a sword and a cave and a bright light (hashtag all fiction is King Arthur fanfiction) is just further than Im willing to follow the story logic.

I hope its not controversial to say that, objectively, it is completely absurd that Bellamy has turned his back on the people that drove his entire existence based on a feeling and a fever dream. I get that he was very cold for three months on a mountain, and I suppose I could write this off as a brain freeze (or a cold heart), but. Come on. This is Bellamy Blake were talking about.

Having said that, its still an interesting story that opens new doors and provides interesting new acting challenges for the cast. And, as implausible and rushed as it feels, I think its objectively a good final arc for this particular character.

Bellamys story is and always has been about him loving too many people too fiercely and beating himself up for not being able to keep them all safe at the same time. Putting him in a position where he genuinely believes that the right thing to do is to put his individualistic love aside in order to save them all in a more abstract way will force him to really examine the core of who he is and reconnect with his heart once and for all, which feels like an appropriate note to end on.

Still. Whatever he saw better have been damn convincing.

So, Bellamy has become a True Believer. [Frankly it kinda feels like the thing he believes in is the power of friendship, not All Mankind, but] he saves his new BFF and they bop to the top, after which Bellamy briefly face-morphs with Luke Skywalker (I am willing to put money on this: for a split second, they layered Mark Hamill in there for real) before jumping through the eye in the sky

Landing on Bardo, embracing his one true love (I love everyone my ass, Douglamy forever), before laying eyes on Callmebill Targaryen and falling to his knees in reverence, like any good Stark would do.

Cadogan acts like he already knows Bellamy again, playing it with delicious ambiguity, because it could be true that Bill really appeared in the cave/Bellamys mind, but it also just could be that he recognizes Bellamy and deduces from his behavior that hes had a transformative experience and plays into it.

As it happens, Clarke, Echo and Octavia are breakfast buddies, making it so that Bellamys reunion is conveniently only with the women he name-checked earlier in the episode (Raven honey Im so sorry.gif).

And Gabriel is also there. 🙂

And here, as we take in the appropriately socially distant characters who have been proven to have very little in common aside from their love/grief for Bellamy, I just want to point out that if nothing else, Bellamys prolonged absence served to prove just how necessary he has always been to the story as a whole.

This scene or rather, how the energy shifts the moment he walks into the room is proof in and of itself of how Bellamy has functioned as the emotional glue that held together what were otherwise disparate women living separate lives and sporadically intersecting to try to murder and/or call each other sister.

Do I wish it had turned out that way? Honestly, no. Ive made no secret of the fact that I wanted the female characters to develop (and maintain) deep emotional bonds with each other, rather than have Bellamy function as a kind of emotional middleman between them.

But thats just how it worked out. And I didnt mind that! Because even while wishing the show had devoted more time to female friendships, Ive always appreciated The 100s willingness to bend gender roles and place the weight of pretty much all the main characters (non-familial) relationships on the shoulders of the male lead, because you dont often see that on genre shows. Or most shows, really.

As I believe I also stated repeatedly in my season 6 reviews, it is remarkable how hard it is to talk about Bellamy without talking about his relationships, because more than any other character on the show, he is defined by them. He is driven by his love for his friends, for his people, for the three* people in that room specifically and they are, mostly separately, driven by their love for him.

(*Raven totally got Harpered, didnt she? The disresPECT.)

Over the seasons, as love interests and peripheral foes-turned-allies came and went, I loved how the show consistently dug deeper and deeper into Bellamys emotional bonds with the mainstay cast (Clarke, Octavia, Raven, Murphy, Jasper, Monty and Kane in particular but thereve been a lot!). I loved how, while the women were busy saving the world and wrecking themselves on the inside, Bellamy was busy saving their lives and souls.

And however you feel about this you might consider Bellamy the Bechdel Tests public enemy #1 (which is hardly his fault; rarely are Clarke, Octavia and Echo allowed to talk about anything that doesnt involve him), you might think it is super cool and gender-role-defying that Bellamy has been made to carry most of the relationship-specific emotional weight of the story (which it is) removing him from the narrative certainly unstuck these characters from each other emotionally, and bringing him back restores some of the implicit unity between them.

And isnt that wild? Honestly more than anything else, I think its pretty spectacular to see the result of years and years of making Bellamy the core emotional lynchpin instead of Clarke and/or Octavia, who were both repeatedly separated from the main group and having that pay off, in a way, by how much his absence affected the series as a whole.

And that effect continues: even though hes physically present again, hes still not with them, making everything feel as jarring and uncertain as if he was still missing. You feel it as an audience member and you see it on the faces of Clarke, Octavia and Echo. Bellamy was the one you could always depend on; even in absentia, his name was held up as a moral beacon.

But as in season 3, but in a more extreme way, Bellamy has shifted to big-picture thinking and is no longer going to be chasing and safeguarding individual members of his flock; instead he will risk their safety and well-being for their own collective good. So what the hell does that mean for the rest of them?

Well. It means or at least I hope it means that for once well have to see everyone Bellamy loves and has sacrificed so much for fighting for him, as opposed to the other way around. (Of course Hopes weird insert line about all the women supposedly willing to die for Bellamy kind of threw me off, because that was never actually the case, but are we meant to think it was?)

Its a very cool payoff for this character. Or it can be, if thats where theyre going with it. Who knows? As this is a week-to-week show, not a Netflix binge, and as I dont have the Shepherds gift of brain traipsing, and/or bullshitting, obviously I can only interpret the story as its told to me and react based on that.

For now though, its wonderful to have Bellamy back. His absence was a hole in the world, and his betrayal is devastating, because this characters capacity to love and be loved matters to the story, to the audience, and to the shows ultimate moral message.

Im nervous? and excited? to see what happens next.

More here:

'The 100' season 7, episode 11 review: Are you there God? It's me, Bellamy - Hypable

Moments before 40-year-old Terence Crutcher was gunned down with his hands up in the air by a white police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, another officer looking below from a helicopter on a walkie-talkie said that Crutcher a father of four who was in route home after taking a class at a community college "looked like a bad dude."

What exactly does a "bad dude" look like? By all accounts, Crutcher was far from being "bad." He was a family man, a father who loved singing in his church choir, so much so that he had enrolled into Tulsa Community College in hopes of earning an associate's degree in music appreciation.

On the day Crutcher was murdered, he was not committing a crime. He was not armed. He was not breaking any traffic violations. His car had just stalled. He had his hands up in the air when approached by the police. What could make the officer believe that Crutcher was a "bad dude" bad enough to kill him? The answer is simple implicit bias.

These false perceptions affect the criminal justice system, hiring practices, housing, pay equality, academic expectations, and more.

We constantly hear about Black people of all ages getting the police called on them for looking suspicious doing everyday tasks; or we're faced with another video of a Black person being murdered by either a rogue cop or neighborhood vigilante. It has become shockingly prevalent in the last few years but not surprising given the lack of representation in all facets of the media. The media is charged with telling stories through journalism, television, film, music videos, video games, and even advertising. When Black people are not the decision-makers at media organizations or a part of ownership, people who may not fully understand the complex issues facing our community are left to tell our stories. It's a recipe for disaster.

The Sentencing Project revealed that implicit bias from producers and journalists shapes how Black people are portrayed in the media. These false perceptions affect the criminal justice system, hiring practices, housing, pay equality, academic expectations and more.

That is why I launched kweliTV to address implicit bias and use storytelling as a strategy to change the narrative on what it means to be Black in America and abroad. Years ago, I was flipping through dozens of cable channels and shows not seeing anything I wanted to watch or could relate to: Black women were fighting on reality TV and most networks were playing the same Black throwbacks some laced with stereotypes. If you turn on the History Channel on a month other than February one would think that Black people played no role in history which we know is not true. After filming my documentary "Mom Interrupted" and screening it at a film festival, I learned firsthand the challenges that Black filmmakers face when trying to get distribution. Since then I've been obsessed with using storytelling to change the Black narrative.

If you turn on the History Channel on a month other than February one would think that Black people played no role in historywhich we know is not true.

KweliTV allows you to discover and celebrate Black stories and culture across the globe North America, Africa, Latin America, Europe, the Caribbean, and even Australia through curated indie films, documentaries, web series, educational kids programming, news, and live experiences. Kweli means "truth" in Swahili. Our mission is to curate content that's a true reflection of the global Black experience.

Our content educates and entertains our viewers, dispels myths, connects communities, and sparks activism by giving Black thought-leaders, creatives, and activists a space to have a voice. Many of our 400+ videos feature topics impacting Black people globally: such as criminal justice, the environment, political activism, women's rights, etc., while the rest of our content displays the rich culture of the global Black community that's oftentimes missing in Western media.

KweliTV creates a pipeline that pays talented filmmakers of color who have challenges getting distribution despite having a successful film festival run so they can produce more impactful content. We're currently working with more than 300 indie content creators from around the world 90% of our content creators are of African descent and half are women and 60% of our revenue is allocated to our content creators.

Our content educates and entertains our viewers, dispels myths, connects communities, and sparks activism by giving Black thought-leaders, creatives, and activists a space to have a voice.

When I first started kweliTV, I was so excited about what I was building but also extremely naive about the tech space. I had just won a $20,000 grant from NewU's Pitch Competition so I could build my beta. I knew that in order to raise a seed round of funding, I would need to get some type of traction from my MVP. And when we finally launched, we got an overwhelming positive response: hundreds of people were coming to the site to join just through word of mouth. We were actually bringing in a small amount of revenue in a matter of weeks. It was amazing. I knew that the next phase would be an investment round. But life didn't happen that way. I spent the next 24 months unsuccessfully trying to raise money. That's when I learned that Black women have the hardest time of all groups to receive investments only around 0.2% of Black women raise VC funds.

It wasn't until two years later when I got my next check through the Halcyon incubator program, which offers a stipend, free housing, and other programming to help social ventures like mine succeed. When I started at Halcyon, I literally only had $63 left in my company's bank account. It was a lifeline for my business at that time. That's when I began my "by any means necessary" approach and started looking at other ways to acquire funding. That same year, I also won the Harvard Business School's African Business Club pitch competition as well as a grant from the Voqal Fellowship Program. Fast forward to today, since launching our beta years ago we've only "raised" about $190K mostly from grants (like from the News Integrity Initiative), pitch competitions, and small convertible notes (like from TEDCO and Lightship Capital). We've been able to accomplish so much with so very little.

As the world continues to reel from COVID-19 and take to the streets to fight for Black lives, having platforms like kweliTV to tell authentic, impactful stories are important now more than ever. I've always understood how powerful media is even as a child. My discovery of Emmett's Till's death on my way to church as a 10-year-old was my first lesson. An avid reader as a child, on most Sundays I would take a book or magazine with me to occupy my time while sitting in the back seat of my parent's car headed to church. On one particular Sunday, I chose the latest issue of Jet magazine.

As the world continues to reel from COVID-19 and take to the streets to fight for Black lives, having platforms like kweliTV to tell authentic, impactful stories are important now more than ever.

For those who are unfamiliar with Jet, during its heyday, the weekly magazine and its sister publication Ebony magazine could be seen in most African American households, doctor offices, beauty and barbershop and more. The two publications owned Johnson Publishing, a Black-owned media company were staples in the Black community. Johnson Publishing was the first media brand that showcased the very best of Black America and kept its readers updated on the latest news impacting our community.

As my dad pulled out of the driveway, I zoned out from the noise of the radio and the chatter from my family and immersed myself in the issue. While flipping through the top Black stories of the week, I turned the page to a story about the anniversary of Emmett Till's death. It was my first time learning about his story of being falsely accused by a white woman, kidnapped by a white mob, and ultimately lynched. When I flipped the page expecting to read more, I was hit with the infamous photograph of 14-year-old Emmett Till's disfigured body lying in an open casket. Mamie Till, his mother, told the undertaker not to clean up his face because she "wanted the world to see what they did" to her baby. The image startled me so much so that I immediately slammed the magazine closed and sat in silence for the remainder of the ride. I couldn't read another word. When we arrived at church, I couldn't stop thinking about Emmett Till the image of his mutilated face was etched in my head.

I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that a kid just a few years older than me was being gruesomely murdered the way that he was. I told my naive, 10-year-old self it was the 50s a different time when Black people were regularly hunted down and murdered for no reason. But the reality was that those days weren't gone just suppressed. During my youth, cell phones were too bulky and definitely not "smart" enough to record crazy "Karen's" or rouge cops. As we've seen far too many times in the last decade, the story of Emmet Till is not a unique one thanks to technology and courageous citizens recording, live streaming, and uploading incidents of innocent Black men and women dying unjustly for the world to witness similar Mamie Till's bravery.

I told my naive, 10-year-old self it was the 50s a different time when Black people were regularly hunted down and murdered for no reason. But the reality was that those days weren't gone just suppressed.

Later on, I learned that Emmet's murder and subsequent coverage of his open casket by Jet magazine was seen as the catalyst that sparked the rise in activism that we now know as the Civil Rights Movement. And today, I see a resurgence in revolutionary actions after millions of people around the world watched the 8:46 death of George Floyd. As a founder of Black-owned media company, I believe it is my mission to use kweliTV's platform to amplify the stories of resistance in towns and cities across the globe while also creating a safe space for our customers to decompress from the constant images of Black death with films and documentaries of Black excellence, hope and resilience.

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Read more from the original source:

KweliTV is Combating Implicit Bias in the Media's Representation of Black People - SWAAY