Kanye, I think it would help the conversation if you didn't jump onto the hyperbole mobile and drive it off a cliff shouting "Yippie kay-yay." Especially when you're putting words in someone's mouth that are not what they said.
There's a gulf between someone saying" it's not creepy" and them saying "she totally needs to learn how to accept a compliment", and you're pole-vaulting across it with the joyful abandon of a ballerina on speed here.
@Arkandel to be fair, they did the same thing when Pat Benatar showed up a couple of years ago, and she's a relatively rare Pokemon.
2017, if you take as many sleazebag politicians as 2016 took celebrities, we'll be even.
2016, Nicolas Maduro is still alive. You wanna, y'know, do something about that instead of killing cool people? Seriously
Ah, the recurring flaw of typing way too quickly and being way too eager to hit return.
In one scene back in CoMUX, I was playing America Chavez and in the middle of a scene, she was lying in wait to ambush someone with Kate Bishop. The pose ended with something along the lines of "Peeing around the corner, America gestures for Kate to come closer." Kate, understandably, stated she had no intention of coming any closer.
The other one was in a scene with Booster Gold, where my character wanted to say something to him in secret so he wanted to get his attention. What should have read as 'quietly nudges Booster' became 'quietly nudes Booster' - that one was almost as embarrassing as the time I examined a clock on the wall in a pose, and accidentally omitted an 'l'.
@Admiral To add to the suggestions, her comments directed at you can be considered harassment by most employers and Human Resources departments. Aside from reporting her to the chain of command, I would cry havoc and let slip the dogs of HR on her, hound her from so many corners that she has no choice but to quit. If she wants to proselytize, she can go work at a church or be Reverend Bakker's next mistress.
@meg ... now his recent penchant for idly flipping through canoe catalogs makes sense.
Rule of the day: Never be rude to the person on whom you depend to reach other people in the company.
Me: (Name of the company), this is Vorpal, how can I help you?
Them: says name of our CEO in a rough, ‘why am I speaking to you Peon’ tone, and nothing else. It's also muffled, so I repeat myself just in case the call has gotten cut off:
Me: ...I'm sorry?
Them: Repeats the name of the CEO, like it is some sort of magical word. And nothing else
Me: .... whom shall I say is calling?
Them: She says name and an acronym. And nothing else
Me: Alright. Please hold.
sends them to his voicemail instead
This has happened twice today. When you learn how to say "Please" and "Hello, could I talk to..." like a human being, you'll get to talk to the CEO directly. Until then, suck voicemail. B)
Any interest? Dear lord, yes! I love the witches, and I'd especially love playing another apprentice way over her head but too earnest to realize it.
So… please bear with me, but more production bitching.
Mr. Genius Stage Director has known from day one that, due to the configuration of the two theaters we’re singing in (there’s no pit, apparently), the orchestra has to be on stage. And stage left. And yet this goddamned m*@$&@#*er still staged the damned thing without taking that into consideration. The result is that 80% of the cast can’t, at one point or another, establish direct eye contact with the conductor.
Last night was the first (and only) rehearsal in the space with the orchestra before opening night (because this company can’t get its shit together.) During the mask trio- which we had been performing perfectly in rehearsals so far- things fell apart in a completely spectacular fashion.
I want you to picture this: for the trio, we’re laid out in a triangle and staring straight ahead, and the orchestra and conductor is to our left. I am at the leftmost point of the triangle and therefore the only member of the trio who can actually see maestro. Meanwhile my poor Donna Anna is on the opposite end of the triangle. She is also, at this point, getting eyefucked by a lighting tree that is blasting her face with intense light to the point that she can’t see a goddamned thing- much less the conductor. Donna Elvira, on the other hand, can’t see the conductor because of where I’m standing, which we didn’t know until today and she had no way of communicating this to me because we’re, essentially, too far away from each other.
Now, when the orchestra is in the front, before the singers, most of the singers get the same (more or less) delay… in this configuration, I’m the one getting the immediate feedback, whereas Donna Anna is the last one to hear. As a result of not being able to see shit, my poor Donna Anna was two measures behind as the trio got on. Donna Elvira was a measure ahead because she’s behind the orchestra and, again, can’t even see the conductor.
Any trio, but particularly a Mozart trio, is a clockwork affair. Few things can fall apart as spectacularly as a Mozart trio- with Verismo you can sort of get back on the horse, there’s a lot more fluidity and leeway allowed before the audience realizes that, oh shit, it’s falling apart! Mozart? Not so much.
That was just one of the issues….aaaaand this was the only rehearsal with the orchestra in the space before opening night on Friday. And bonus points: on Saturday, we’re singing at a completely different theater that we won’t get to rehearse in.
This will totally be the last production I do with this company. What a hot mess.
It’s a drag, because the singers they rounded up for this are pretty damned impressive.
At the end of the day, Second Life is first and foremost all about used-created content. That can be sex dungeons in the adult sims, clothing and fashion stores for avatars… Avatar stores so you can look however you want to look- art galleries, chats, forums, concerts, roleplaying sims, social gatherings, etcetera. There’s an entire collection of sims known as “Caledon”, for example, where people dress and live the Steampunk aesthetic. There’s fantasy sims, star wars sims, star trek- it really can be a very interesting experience. The sophistication of some of these roleplaying sims can be quite impressive- many have custom-made combat systems (like the Final Fantasy VII combat system, for which I created the spell effects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su3ctmZN7AE )
The tricky part is navigating it or finding what you want, which is why you look for destination guides or look for blogs that specialize in covering locations in Second Life.
For a while I was part of the classical music community and performed several live concerts, but I haven’t done that in a while. I still attend concerts by friends in both popular and classical music fields- one of the staple duos there being Jaycatt and Frogg, two old friends of mine. There are a lot of very talented musicians, popular and classical, who do regular concerts.
It is a very interesting place with a great deal of freedom- which means you can find anything. And the downside is that you can find anything.
This will totally be the last production I do with this company. What a hot mess.
I hope you intend to let them know exactly how fucked up they are once the performance is over and why you'd rather have spikes shoved into your eyes than work with him again.
I suppose that might get around to other companies? But hell, this is opera. They're used to divas so it shouldn't reflect poorly on you, especially if this guy has a bad rep already.
I definitely intend to let them know why I’m not coming back.
The guy is basically a failed tenor who is a pain to listen to- he’s a proponent of the Can Belto school, so most of his ‘performances’ is him screaming in pitch with an enormous wobble and calling himself a ‘heldentenor.’ Until a few years ago he kept getting work as a tenor because he has cast iron pecs and it looks like he’s smuggling small cantaloupes in his arms, but the voice got far too horrifying for people to pay for him to sing in main roles nowadays. Now he does character baritone roles because he screams less in the baritone register, but he keeps trying to do roles that showcase the fact that no, he’s a natural-born tenor with the typical low tenor register (that is, nothing audible below the tenor’s low C).
This is his first production as a ‘stage director’- depending on the reviews, it might be his last. I certainly hope so. What irked me the most about working with him is that he kept trying to give the singers vocal tips and musical interpretation tips… when that is the province of (respectively) their voice teachers and the music director, who is in charge of who does what musically.
I’m sorry, but when your head wobbles like a goddamned POP Vinyl toy when you sing because you’ve got enough sub-glottal pressure that your larynx could be used as a cannon that could launch a morbidly obese squirrel across a football field, you don’t need to be giving any technical tips to anyone.
Players do need to take the initiative and be willing to create their own content- but what most players get to do is micro-plot. Plot staff often tends to pick up the other end of the deal by working on the macro-plot, the over-arching threads that can make really cool stuff happen by incorporating some of the things going on into a Big Thing.
When plot staff stop being active, things tend to stagnate pretty quickly. Speaking as someone who is playing less and less on his once-favorite MU*, the lack of a good plot staffers can make a place feel more and more like splashing around with your bath-tub toys. You make a splash and then it stops, and that's where it ends.
I've always wondered why people keep wanting to catch flies through all of these methods.
Me? I swat them.
... I promise honest to god I am not a supervillain.
@tragedyjones
... BUT WITH CARNIVAL!
Infinitely more terrifying than a Big Daddy.
I post on my wall concerning the latest American Family Association nonsense. I make an off-the-cuff mention that I find it ridiculous that people who live by myths and fairy tales want to impose laws on the rest of the world based on those myths in order to make relationships and people they don’t like illegal.
Christian apologist jumps at me and basically says I am attacking and demonizing all Christians.
Puzzled me inquires as to why, considering the context of my post was exclusively focused on the AFA, Focus on the family and similar organizations that want to make religion into law.
The answer? Because I apparently consider religion as nonsense, I am attacking and demonizing Christians everywhere. I will reiterate- here is a grown man who basically considers any dissenting opinion concerning their beliefs… an attack, and bigotry. And called me a bigot for it.
What’s even more precious is when I turned the tables on him and proceeded to point out that, as a Christian, if anyone came up to him and tried to convince him that they believed in Zeus, or Mazdra, Ganesh or fairies, he would regard their beliefs and wrong and, in many cases, nonsense. Because Christian doctrine is monotheistic and therefore regards all other religions as false.
Congratulations, I told him. By your own definition, you’re a bigot. I haven’t heard from him yet.
It’s Monday morning- I shouldn’t be craving a shot of Bailey’s.
I did briefly stop by the game, ages ago, out of sheer curiosity. As a gay male, I guess I fit the demographic of the place. Unfortunately, though, while sexy pretend times can be fun... once in a while (with a good reason for it to happen, character development-wise), the focus on most of the RP I encountered was the Pizza Delivery porn flavor. It isn't really a place for character development combined sexy funtimes, it seems like it's just mostly sexy funtimes
Which is totally fine if that's your speed, but not for me. But power to them for going with it! In the brief time I was there, I never felt unwelcome or ill at ease, so one of the goals of the place is working, at least.
But back on topic... I really don't understand the outrage. I mean, say, a gay guy wants to create a sex club that caters exclusively to guys who want to do other guys... are we really going to spring into full outrage mode and demand he allow women, or vituperate him for excluding women from... a gay... male... sex club? It rather seems the heights of ridiculousness.
I mean, it'd be like someone demanding to play a Male Amazon in Themyscira because it's unfair that men are exclu-
-Ok, let's pretend the Azzarello run didn't happen and Manazon-children-of-rape aren't a thing, ok? (Donna Troy killed them all, anyways, and Greg Rucka is doing his best to sweep that whole thing under the rug....)
@Arkandel Agreed 100%. People weren't 'tired of superheroes' before when Daredevil and Elektra and Batman and Robin came out. They were tired of bad superhero movies, just like they got tired of bad sci-fi movies at one point.
To totally mug Field of Dreams and leave it bleeding in an alleyway: If you write it well, they will come.
@Ganymede said in Flights 'n Tights MUX:
@surreality said in Flights 'n Tights MUX:
You don't have to fight every social battle, but you ought not be offended when others point out that you have intentionally declined to do so, and that such act cements what is perceived to be another form of discrimination.
Whoa, whoa, whoa there. Have we reached the level of sheer insanity here, where indulging in something one likes (MEN) and where others can indulge in it is now considered declining to fight a social battle? Are we really taking the attitude here that, in the name of inclusion and tolerance, niche interests and groups are gauche because they exclude people (that is: everyone who isn't part of the interest the group was meant to focus on)
I'm all for portraying real segments of the population in a story... but they don't all have to be in there, at once, in the same story/MU*. I'm sorry, but if we have devolved to the point where we're going to insinuate "well, by opening a gay male centric MU* you're discriminating against everybody else and really you should be thankful that someone else has pointed out your social obscurantism at you" then we really need a sense of perspective. Especially when we're saying "You don't have to fight every battle" while also coupling it with "You shouldn't be offended when someone guilt-trips you about not fighting every battle."
No. To hell with that passive-aggressive guilt-tripping. What the hell are we, nuns?
@Kanye-Qwest I always thought that that, like the Ancient One, was a no-win scenario. Danny Rand was originally white, so if he's cast white then he's a "mighty whitey", but if they were to cast an Asian actor for him... honestly? "He's a kung-fu fighter so he has to be Asian" seems to me just as big of a stereotype.
For Dr. Strange, making the ancient one a Celtic immortal woman (how did she end up in Tibet? I guess she must be a Travelocity member?) was a creative way of dodging the damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't trap.
Of course, since Tilda Swinton already portrayed an immortal character in film before (Orlando, based on Virginia Woolf's novel), in my mind I'm going to go watch Dr. Strange pretending the Ancient One is Orlando.
