‘RHOC’: We All Need to Lay Off Emily Simpson And Her Marriage With Shane – Femestella
Posted: November 7, 2019 at 5:44 am
Ever since joining the Real Housewives of Orange County in season 13, Emily Simpson has been in the news constantly.
Or rather, Emily and her marriage to Shane have been in the news constantly.
Shane has made many unsavory appearances on the show, especially in season 14. Hes often shown belittling Emily, mocking her, and ignoring her. Quite frankly, he comes off as a jerk.
Of course, fans have attacked Shane and rumors of their divorce are constantly swirling.
Unfortunately, most of these comments arent coming out of love and concern for Emily, but rather out of the pure love for gossip.
Emily has been extremely open about the struggles shes faced in her marriage. In a confessional on the show, she said,
Its hard because for 10 years, Ive always had a problem with the way he talks to. Thats what Im dealing with every single day, and I have little kids! This is really hard.
But according to Emily, Shane has made a huge effort to change his ways since the show aired. Emily told People TV,
When you have the opportunity to watch yourself, sometimes the self-awareness that you get is just an entirely different perspective.
She added,
[Shane] really saw and heard everything everybody was saying and really took it to heart. He watched with the intent from learning from it, and he learned a lot.
Emily has also shared images on Instagram of her husband standing by her side as she recovers from hip replacement surgery.
At the end of the day, viewers only see a very small, edited version of their marriage. And its nobodys place to judge someone elses relationship from the outside.
All we can do is wish the best for Emily, whether thats with Shane or without him. Emily is a good-hearted person who deserves to be treated well. And if Shane is doing that, then thats all that should matter.
Real Housewives; Luann de Lesseps Clears Up All Those Rumors About Her Sobriety
Feature Photo: Phillip Faraone / Bravo
Lena Finkel is the Editor and Founder of Femestella. Prior to starting Femestella, she worked at People, InStyle, and Tiger Beat. Her favorite Housewife is Bethenny Frankel and when shes not watching RHONY, you can probably find her obsessing over her tuxedo cat Tom or hoarding drugstore lipsticks.
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'RHOC': We All Need to Lay Off Emily Simpson And Her Marriage With Shane - Femestella
This Mom’s Been Sober For 3 Years, and Her Celebratory Photo Shoot With Her Son Is Everything – msnNOW
Posted: at 5:44 am
Erika Hurt, a mom who officially swore off drugs three years ago, has completely turned it around ever since police photographed her overdosing in a car in Hope, IN, in 2016. While the viral image of Erika at rock bottom is certainly disturbing, the most upsetting part was that her 10-month-old son, Parker, was in the back seat of the car at the time. After going to prison and getting the help she needed, Erika is now three years clean. To celebrate her sobriety and motherhood, she set up a photo shoot with Parker and enlisted photographer Ali Elizabeth to illustrate how far she's come.
"Today marks THREE ENTIRE YEARS of sobriety for me! Y'all already know, but allow me to recap," she wrote in an emotional Facebook post. "Three years ago I was receiving Narcan to bring me back to life after I had overdosed on heroin; all while my son, my mom, and her wife stood and watched. While those are such emotional moments for my family to recall, that's really not what is MOST important today."
"I was unable to hold a job due to my attendance. I was a liar, and a thief. I was homeless. I was depressed."
Because of just how serious Erika's addiction was at the time, there was nothing that could stop her from getting a fix, including her family. It wasn't until she overdosed and received Narcan - a medication that can help to stop an opioid overdose - that she knew she needed to seek treatment once and for all. "What is really important today, is the fact that Narcan saved my life. Narcan kept me alive until I wanted to live," she said. "While I can admit that my son was unfortunately NOT enough to keep me sober then, he is my motivation today. Had Narcan not been available to me; or had someone who felt that I DIDN'T DESERVE Narcan been there that day, I would have NEVER had the chance to get sober and my son would be growing up without ever knowing his mom."
Like many people who get sucked into opioid addiction, Erika's downward spiral began with a prescription. After she got a staph infection on her face at 15, Erika's doctor prescribed her an antibiotic and hydrocodone for the pain. By the age of 19, she was using heroin.
"I used drugs for a total of 10 years. I was unable to hold a job due to my attendance. I was a liar, and a thief. I was homeless. I was depressed. I became a felon," she told POPSUGAR. "I could not perform normal motherly duties to my son because I was dope sick and searching for my next high. My mental development was stunted and my financial health was depleted. I ruined my credit, and burned many bridges with family."
Now, as a mom with a few years of sobriety under her belt, Erika is thankful for how much her life has changed. "My life is SO different. First and foremost, my son and I share an inseparable bond," she said. "I provide 100 percent for him. I am honest and trustworthy. I am responsible and I am dependable. I am making progress financially and mentally. I have wonderful self-awareness and I can accept criticism."
As for any other parents who may be struggling with addiction? Erika recommends getting help as soon as possible. "My suggestion to parents who are struggling with addiction is to link up with a local small group and connect with a core group of healthy sober people working a 12-step program," she said. "Please don't make the same mistake I did."
Scroll ahead to get a look at Erika's celebratory photo shoot, because three years clean is a huge deal.
Originally posted here:
This Mom's Been Sober For 3 Years, and Her Celebratory Photo Shoot With Her Son Is Everything - msnNOW
Review: Horror movie’s devilish scares are well-calculated – The Ithacan
Posted: at 5:44 am
Does anyone actually read the terms and conditions before agreeing to them? Based on the plot of the horror movie Countdown, perhaps they should.
Countdown, written and directed by Justin Dec, features demons and an app that can tell a person when they are going to die, all within a 90-minute runtime. While the characters can be annoying and the plot laughable at times, Countdown is filled with jump scares that create a truly terrifying experience.
The film opens with a high school party that features a few mediocre actors. Tired stereotypes of high school behavior set up the film for disaster. However, many of the characters in the first scene are irrelevant to the rest of the film, and the introduction is rather quick.
Individuals at the party download an app called Countdown onto their phones, and, after accepting the user agreement without reading them the app tells the user how long they have until theyre going to die. The app is viewed as a joke, and characters laugh off their countdowns. The app tells Courtney (Anne Winters), a girl at the party, that she will die in just a few hours. While trying to evade her death, Courtney receives a notification that she had broken the apps terms and conditions, and she dies soon after.
The app is purposefully portrayed as gimmicky, making loud noises that are startling but not scary. When a user breaks the apps terms and conditions agreement, a dark creature comes to drive the user to madness until their time of death arrives. Though the creature is never really seen, it exists as a darkness that intensifies the films scariness.
Courtneys boyfriend, Evan (Dillon Lane), introduces the app to hospital staff members after being admitted for injuries related to a car accident, and the audience finally gets to know the main character, Quinn Harris (Elizabeth Lail). Lail portrays Quinn as an average, likable and smart character, but nothing about her stands out.
When Quinn downloads the app and sees that she will die in just a few days, she decides to go to an electronics store for a new phone when the app will not delete. This is where she meets Matt Monroe (Jordan Calloway), who is also desperately trying to remove the app from his phone.
Calloways portrayal of Matt makes him a character one cannot help but adore. Hes kind, funny and complementary to the high-strung Quinn. Talitha Bateman plays Jordan Harris, Quinns younger sister, and also balances Quinns personality with her sassy nature. These three main characters are the focus of the film. They fit well together and prove to be an entertaining trio.
The characters are not overly complex, which is ideal for the nature of the film. The storyline feels secondary to the films purpose to make the audience jump. Countdown is not a conceptually scary film. The poorly developed demon storyline, which is revealed by an especially ungodly, goofy priest, is crude at best. It feels like a thin rope that barely strings together scary scenes.
However, Countdown excels in its jump scares. As Quinn, Matt and Jordan desperately try and survive past their deemed death hours and beat the app, the demon lurks every time the lights are low, punishing them for failing to adhere to the terms and conditions. The film does not drag a viewer along a creepy, complex storyline but instead spontaneously elevates audience members heart rates when the main characters turn a corner. The jump scares are well placed and at times unexpected, creating a successful scary viewing experience.
Countdown is mildly thought-provoking. It encourages self-awareness in this age of technology, featuring Death? Theres an app for that on its posters. Among a predatorial doctor, an intentional overdose and a deceased mother, Countdown has a mismatched plot in which, while lacking real scares, is involved enough to keep viewers engaged in the film.
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Review: Horror movie's devilish scares are well-calculated - The Ithacan
In these trying times, I’m finally happy to admit I’m a hippie – The Age
Posted: at 5:44 am
For all the potential in every alternative practice to mislead and misguide, woo woo is, for the most part, harmless. Clutching a rose-quartz crystal wont solve any of the worlds problems, but its nice to hold something pretty in your hand and permit yourself to believe, if just for a few seconds, that it might help you in some small way.
It was a tumbled rose-quartz crystal I clutched throughout the unbearable months of my second pregnancy. My little pink pebble gave me something to cling to, literally, as I lay in bed every afternoon, staring at my concealed, agonisingly unknowable daughter.
Her brain had bled a little bleed, in a tricky spot it will either be of zero consequence, or cause catastrophic disabilities the radiographer told me, with more kindness than the starkness of his words would suggest.
My little pink pebble gave me something to cling to as I lay in bed ... staring at my concealed, agonisingly unknowable daughter.
There was talk of presenting our case to an ethics committee, to determine if we should be allowed to terminate a very advanced pregnancy should the worst scenario come to fruition. I rolled that tumbled rose-quartz stone in my hand furiously for months, trying to get it under my skin, into my blood, all the while recoiling at this version of myself: helpless, terrified, seeking solace in a stone purchased for three dollars from a shop called The Angels Trumpet. You will be okay, I said to my baby over and over, rose quartz in hand.
The brain bleed turned out to be of no consequence: at six years old my daughter runs rings around me, physically and mentally. She wasnt, of course, saved by a stone. The stone was of no consequence at all. But it did give me a small measure of comfort at a time when I gratefully hoovered up the tiniest crumbs of it.
Ive also often sought guidance and this is a little harder to fess up to than a bit of crystal fondling from clairvoyants.
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While dutifully submitting to the teary labour of telling My Story to a succession of psychologists and counsellors, Ive never found a therapist whos been able to help me tackle my problemsin any meaningful way. Fifty minutes in the company of a stern woman brandishing a tarot deck, however, never fails to imbue me with a fresh sense of purpose and self-awareness.
Would I seek the services of a clairvoyant if one of my daughters were to be diagnosed with a mental illness? Never. But for tending to the psychological cuts and abrasions accumulated throughout the course of a bumpy but generally okay life, its the crystals, the healers and the psychics with whom Ive found the most comfort.
So Im doing away with making fun of woo woo. From now on, I choose to direct my insults at the people and things who are trying to harm the world, not make it better. But still, best you hide your Magic Happens cushions when I come round for (chai) tea. A leopard can change its spots, but it cant make them disappear.
This article appears in Sunday Life magazine within the Sun-Herald and the Sunday Age on sale November 10.
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In these trying times, I'm finally happy to admit I'm a hippie - The Age
Tina Fey Says This Is the One Thing She Will Never Do in a Movie – Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Posted: at 5:44 am
Actor and writer Tina Fey joined Conan OBrien on his hit podcast Conan OBrien Needs a Friend in October. The fellow comedians discussed Feys former NBC show 30 Rock, the currently-running Mean Girls Broadway show, memories from writing on Saturday Night Live, and finally, the art of acting itself.
Fey started her career in television on Saturday Night Live, eventually becoming the sketch series first female head writer, as well as a Weekend Update anchor. Fey went on to start her own show on NBC about the trials and tribulations of being a late-night comedy show writer titled 30 Rock. She also wrote the iconic teen movie Mean Girls, and starred in the films Date Night, Sisters, and Wine Country.
Fey clearly has a ton of experience on film and television sets. She has acted and improvised all over the entertainment industry. However, the SNL star confessed to OBrien she has certain limitations in terms of what she will do as an actor.
Acting is embarrassing, its just so embarrassing, Fey said on the podcast. But theres one thing thats more humiliating for Fey than all the rest of the things one might be asked to do on camera.
Ever one for self-awareness, Fey said she knows her own acting constraints.
Im very limited as an actor, she admitted on OBriens podcast. Its not about the commitmentthat part she enjoys, and does well at, with her long background in improv and sketch.
I dont mind trying, she said. Some comedy people do.
So where does Fey draw the line? When the scene gets sensual.
For me the boundary the one thing I cant do, Fey told OBrien, I would never be able to believe me no ones asking but I wont do like a sex scene thats the one thing.
The 30 Rock showrunner went on to explain why it was never going to happen. Its not a family values issue; it actually goes back to her days on the improv stage.
The comedy person part of me can remember in improv an older generation of improv where people would sometimes try to pimp you into something like that on stage just to be a jerk. Fey explained that she just doesnt trust it, even on film sets when the lines are scripted.
I have the like, nope youre not going to trick me,' she said. Thats the boundary Im not going to simulate intercourse in a movie.
Fey took another opportunity to poke fun at herself, saying sarcastically no matter how many people call!
Conan OBrien agreed, saying its indeed very awkward to film sex in front of a crew of 50 people or so.
People wanna go to lunch, he said.
Tina Fey appears in Amazon Primes anthology series Modern Love, which is based on the popular New York Times column and subsequent podcast. Fey plays the wife of an actor, who is played by John Slattery. The couple, of course, does not have any sex scenes. We applaud Tina Fey for setting boundaries and sticking to them.
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Tina Fey Says This Is the One Thing She Will Never Do in a Movie - Showbiz Cheat Sheet
From Rock Bottom to Rising Phoenix – Thrive Global
Posted: at 5:44 am
What if we go through life, wholeheartedly believing in one Truth, only to discover that theres a way of being that we never knew existed?
I grew up in the stereotypical New Jersey suburb. I was fortunate to have a supportive family, went on to become a serious competitive dancer, and considered myself a high-achiever in all academics. I wore the words ambitious and overachiever like a badge of honor, priding myself on always giving 110% to everything I did.
The way I showed up during my adolescent and young adult years represented the fraction of myself that was validated by society, by my environment, by my peers, and by the ones I love. I fit perfectly into what was expected of me, which led me to feel secure and safe in being that version of myself. I didnt know any differently or have a reason to believe there was any other way to be. This was my reality.
You dont know what you dont know.
As Steve Jobs once said, You can only connect the dots backwards. Only in hindsight did I realize that those qualities I wore with pride were the very things that lead me to my Phoenix Moment. The moment where I deteriorated to ashes, but ultimately to emerge as the most whole, renewed, revived version of my authentic self.
Junior year of my collegiate career, I tore my labrum in my right hip. As a dance major and a dance team member, consumed by fear of who Id be without the very thing that defined me, I chose to push through the pain for the next two full years of my college dance career. And so began my disintegration to ash.
My physical pain soon became the axis around which my entire life revolved. While my body broke down, my mind gripped onto any ounce of control it could. And my health, self-worth, and relationships all began to deteriorate along with my body.
When I graduated and my injury was properly diagnosed, I opted for surgery thinking that it would fix everything so I could go back to living my reality. But no less than 6 years later, I still battled with debilitating chronic pain and I had no idea what to do.
When my pain didnt resolve after surgery, I looked outside myself for any and all solutions. I tried everything I knew of to heal myself: acupuncture, acupressure, chiropractic adjustments, physical therapy, massage therapy, pain management doctors, trigger point therapy, multiple cortisone injections, marcaine injections, cupping, dry needling, nerve blocks, resting, progressive strengthening
and nothing made a long-term difference. I couldnt understand how I was in my early 20s, young and healthy, and yet my physical pain somehow wouldnt heal in the hands of the medical system we learn to trust wholeheartedly.
Hitting rock bottom seems to be full of only suffering, but what if its divinely orchestrated to disrupt the pattern were living in and redirect our path to reconnect with the core of who we are?
Six years later, I decided I could no longer live with my life on pause. This time, I sought out the only option I hadnt considered yet: talk therapy.
Therapy was the only option I tried on my path to healing that redirected my efforts from seeking solutions outside of myself to looking inward. And to my surprise, talking to a psychologist was the catalyst that sparked everything in my life to change.
This was the first step in my inner journey of transformation that lead me to become 100% pain free within just one year.
There are two causes of transformation:
Pain both physical or emotional can be sudden and disruptive. It challenges us to look inward and find a deeper understanding of our reality. Hitting rock bottom seems to be full of only suffering, but what if its divinely orchestrated to disrupt the pattern were living in and redirect our path to reconnect with the core of who we are? Most awakenings that lead to reconnection with ones purpose come after a disorienting dilemma that sets a person on the path to becoming a more resilient, embodied version of their authentic self.
Like Arianna Huffington came to realize when her health and well-being caved in, our mental and physical wellness is inextricably connected. Our subconscious mind holds our unique, internal structure of beliefs about who we are, what our life should look like, and what is possible for us.
The subconscious mind runs on autopilot, so were projecting from mostly unconscious beliefs that control our thoughts, emotions, behaviors, actions, and results. Reprogramming our subconscious mind not only gets to the root of whats reinforcing our unsustainable behaviors, but also recodes our physiology. We have the power to become our own self-healers.
In looking back on my experience of pushing my body past its limits, I found that I had been slowly chipping away at my health and self-care over time in exchange for hustle and burnout.
Wellness is the integration of heightened self-awareness and shifted beliefs into consistent, daily action so we can unshackle ourselves and be free to live the life we deserve through sustainable lifestyle change.
One lesson I learned from Vishen Lakhiani, founder of Mindvalley, is the importance of turning our suffering into a superpower. My rock bottom taught me not to aim for perfectionism and higher standards to feel worthy, but rather break out of the mold of societal expectations to embrace true health and wellness through owning who I am and what I feel called to do. From what I can tell, it doesnt get any closer to freedom than that.
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From Rock Bottom to Rising Phoenix - Thrive Global
Self-Defense and Awareness Lesson to Benefit the VA Fisher House – Patch.com
Posted: at 5:44 am
Body Mind Systems will offer adult and children martial arts lessons open to the public. Attendees will be introduced to simple and effective self-defense and awareness skills during the adult self-defense lesson. Children will learn anti-bullying concepts and practice easy and effective self-defense skills.
Items donated by area businesses will be raffled.
Schedule: Saturday, November 9th.
10:00-11:00am - Children ages 6-9 years old.
11:00am-12:00pm - Children ages 10-15 years old.
12:00-1:00pm - Adult Self Defense and Awareness.
2:00-3:00pm - Introduction toTai Chi
Location: Body Mind Systems Martial Arts Center, 1739 Centre Street, West Roxbury MA.
$25 donation to attend the class. All donations and proceeds will go to the Fisher House Foundation of Boston. The Fisher House of Boston is a home away from home where military families can stay free of charge while a family member is receiving treatment at one of the VA medical centers.
For more information and to register:
Call: (617) 327-5100
Email:westroxbury@bodymindsystems.com
Or visit our event site:
Adults lesson:http://bit.ly/SelfDefense4FisherHouse
Children lessons:http://bit.ly/AntiBullying4FisherHouse
Originally posted here:
Self-Defense and Awareness Lesson to Benefit the VA Fisher House - Patch.com
Can the Satirical, Often-Scathing Memes About Men’s Fashion Impact Sales? – Fashionista
Posted: at 5:44 am
Photo: Imaxtree
Earlier this year, a now-viral tweetdeclared the all-black Air Force 1 as the shoe of choice for shady activity around the world, and considering that it quickly racked up close to 25,000 likes, it would seem the internet resoundingly agrees. Like the Nike Roshe Run before it and the Fila Disruptor II after it, the AF1 became so heavily memed that the shoe now stands-in as internet shorthand for a whole host of other associations seemingly unrelated to the sneakers themselves.
And it isn't just on Twitter: Today's menswear enthusiasts have taken the task of mercilessly mocking the products to all corners of the internet. The subreddit devoted to memes on r/malefashion now yields thousands of results, and on Instagram, there's been a proliferation of meme accounts dedicated to ruthlessly poking fun at the ripe-for-parody nature of mainstream men's fashion.
For a generation of internet-savvy stylish guys, cultivating a degree of disdain for seemingly innocuous designs (and not just the objectively egregious Fila Disruptor) is a means of signaling you're in the know, a roundabout way of indicating what you do like by expressly advertising what you don't.Today, a small subset of extremely online dudes can slander a specific piece (in the form of, say, a particularly savage starter pack meme), and, through sheer repetition, link the product so inextricably to the meme their followers wouldn't dare consider buying it.
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A number of niche meme accounts have emerged to provide a steady stream of spicy takes satirizing the fashion mainstream, where handles like @dickowensonline, @meme_saint_laurent and @raf_semens elevate meme-making to an art form, expertly employing intentionally slapdash aesthetics and a sense of wry self-deprecation in the form of obscure inside jokes and deep cuts even the most erudite of jawnz enthusiasts would be hard-pressed to place.Spend enough time scrolling through their feeds and you're likely to resurface, hours later, with more questions than answers and a nagging suspicion you're being made fun of. If you don't get it, it's because, quite frankly, you're not supposed to. IYKYK.
In 2016, Davil Tran mocked up a long black slicker with the word "Vetememes"printed plainly on the back. Tran's polyester raincoat cleverly parodied the white-hot label then helmed by a previously unknown Georgian designer named Demna Gvasalia, and caused an immediate internet sensation. Gvasalia had recently been appointed creative director of Balenciaga, largely due to the bump in exposure his profile enjoyed as the public face of the creative collective behind Vetements, and his influence on the industry was at its peak.Tran cites Balenciaga as one of the few brands to successfully establish its own identity in part through a willingness to laugh at itself.
Tran initially set up Vetememes'Instagram account to promote his own products, but started posting memes when he grew tired of reposting pictures of people wearing Vetememes in the wild. Tran credits Gvasalia for lending the labels he designs for a sense of self-awareness. "Fashion shouldn't be taken so seriously," Tran says. That ethos informs the images that end up on the Vetememes account today, where Tran is just as likely to repost a meme celebrating the sui generis style of Adam Sandler as he is a particularly painful fit pic fail.
Although Gvasalia recently announced he'd be leaving Vetements for good, his impact as one of the first designers to wholeheartedly embrace meme culture by understanding the power of internet virality is undeniable; Gvasalia designs for the internet, not in spite of it. Many of the looks he sends down the runway are memed almost immediately, and his ascendance to the top of the industry food chain points to the internet's capacity to influence consumer sentiment and how important it is for today's customers to feel like they're constantly in conversation with the brands they buy.
For Karsten Kroening, Tran's account was the first of its kind to popularize the specific type of menswear meme making the rounds today. Kroening runs Meme Saint Laurent, an account that mocks "normies" that might mistake Rick Owens Ramones for regular Chuck Taylors as readily as it does Carol Christian Poell enthusiasts that derive the entirety of their self-worth from their collection of rare clothing. Kroening says he put together his account out of a passion for starter pack memes but quickly pivoted to focus on fashion, and praises Tran as a true pioneer.
"I think a big reason [these accounts] keep popping up is because it's a natural progression of the subculture," Kroening says. "There are whole accounts that are music memes or TV show memes. I'm surprised that it didn't happen sooner to be quite honest."
Max Womack, the man behind the meme account Raf Semens, says he was inspired to start his account because of ones like Vetememes and Meme Saint Laurent. Womack points out that fashion as a discipline can be "pretty pretentious" and that opens the industry up to parody, even, and perhaps especially, from those who follow it closest. According to Womack, memes are about not taking clothing too seriously because "there's much more important things in life than the shit you're wearing." Kroening agrees; he tries to "get everyone to learn to laugh at themselves and realize it's not that serious. It's just clothes at the end of the day."
Both Kroening and Womack say there's a sense of solidarity in sharing a set of common dislikes. Meme-making is also a form of constructing a community, i.e. by finding other like-minded fashion heads that understand the day-to-day struggles of being the best-dressed dude in an endless sea of swagless homies. There's definitely a community around fashion meme culture, Womack says "a slightly depressing community, but a community nonetheless."
Yet the two quickly concede that platforms like Instagram have also encouraged a more homogenous sense of personal style across the board. Instagram hasn't elevated the median taste levels of the typical user by helping to indicate what products are hot trash right off the bat. Instead, as Tran puts it, Instagram has "made everyone dress like shit." Consumers look at clothing with a different perspective now, Tran notes, focusing on what pieces will yield the most likes and not on what looks best IRL.
"Instagram has definitely created a mindset that suppresses originality," Womack says, noting that people don't develop a sense of personal style "when they can open Instagram and see what other people are liking/disliking." That memes play a part in contributing to this homogenization is no question. "Memes influence people and what they buy," Kroening notes. "Even more directly than influencers, because memes spell it out really clearly:This is cool. This isn't. People don't have to interpret whether their favorite Instagrammer or whatever is still popping."
According to Matt Powell, a sports industry analyst at the NPD Group (and a notoriously skeptical expert on the hype surrounding the sneaker market), it's not likely any of these memes are making or breaking a product. "I don't see these trivial accounts as having any material impact on the business," Powell sums up bluntly, pointing out that social media likes aren't the most accurate indicator of actual customer sentiment. When it comes to a silhouette like the black AF1s, it's unrealistic to anticipate any sort of online "stigma" ever seriously impacting sales of the style, no matter how viral the tweet.
Yet Kroening of Meme Saint Laurent, maintains that memes, and the public opinions people are exposed to online, do influence purchasing decisions, at least on a micro-level. He's not wrong: Accounts like Meme Saint Laurent might be too small to substantially impact a company's bottom line, but for many of the roughly 60k Instagram users that make up Kroening's following his memes are law.
"It's an odd position to be in, but I'm the authority now," Kroening says. "Memers are controlling a lot of what people are buying."
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Can the Satirical, Often-Scathing Memes About Men's Fashion Impact Sales? - Fashionista
‘Freaks And Geeks’: Interview With Paul Feig About The Cancelled Show – Junkee
Posted: at 5:44 am
Freaks and Geeks was the right show at the wrong time.
Before Bridesmaids, Spy, and an attempt at rebooting Ghostbusters, writer and director Paul Feig is in a meeting with a lawyer.
Feig should be working on the TV show he created, Freaks and Geeks, but its a tense time. The meeting is about to be interrupted by an up-and-coming producer: Judd Apatow.
I was in a lawyers office because my mother died two days before and I was sorting that out, Feig tells me hes in Australia to promote his new film Last Christmas.
It was this very weird thing, Judd called me and he was so upset, and I was just so emotionally drained, and it was one of those moments where youre like, of course, what else can the universe do to me right now?
Freaks and Geeks was the right show at the wrong time. The authentic high school dramedy, inspired by Feigs own experiences as a teenager, pre-dated what would become the norm on TV for the decades that followed with shows like Friday Night Lights, Stranger Things, Veronica Mars, Girls, Master of None and Love.
The low-fi approach to capturing teenage life stood in contrast with the popular glossy, fast-paced teen series from the 90s like Beverly Hills 90201 and Dawsons Creek.
Freaks and Geeks was a flashpoint for Feig and Apatow.
Feig was a writer and performer, whose biggest credit was playing Mr. Eugene Pool on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Apatow was graduating from comedy writing to producing. Freaks and Geeks was a big break for the duo and the shows young cast: Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Phillips, Linda Cardellini, Martin Starr, Ben Foster, Lizzy Caplan, Ann Dowd, Rashida Jones, Shia LaBeouf and Jason Schwartzman.
They all did well for themselves.
Each time I ask Feig anything about the short lifespan of Freaks and Geeks (1999 2000) he sighs with the self-awareness of a guy who put his heart into something but got the worst luck.
When you get cancelled and you havent even finished your first season we only did 18 out of 22 shows youre like, its gone, Feig says.
I spent four years in mourning because it was a forgotten show.
Apatow once said that everything hes done throughout his career has been out of revenge for the cancellation of Freaks and Geeks and its true.
If you look at everything I do, its all shades of Freaks and Geeks. Its always about an underdog who cant figure out their place in the world, Feig says.
Theres a misfit at the centre of Last Christmas, Kate (Emilia Clarke), the employee of a specialty Christmas store in London with dreams of being a singer. Kates life is chaotic and shes prone to bad decisions, but that changes when she meets Tom (Henry Golding) who encourages her to make small changes to her life.
Last Christmas is inspired by the music of George Michael, and co-scripted by Emma Thompson (who plays Kates mum). It lives on the same wavelength as Love Actually, the film that triggers a culture war each year between lovers and haters. I suggest to Feig that he needs to prepare an opening argument for Last Christmas in case it gives Love Actually a rest from the hot takes this year.
Im friendly with Richard [Curtis] and were both very positive guys. We like good natured things and we believe in people and I wanted to illustrate that in this film but not in a treacle-y way.
Thats why I really responded to Emilias character, shes not doing what you want her to do but shes Scrooge, this is A Christmas Carol in a way its just that women arent normally allowed to play the character who is always misbehaving.
Early screenings of Last Christmas confirmed Feigs suspicions about Kate.
We had some test audiences that we just like ohhhh because they had a problem with her being unlikeable, Feig says.
But shes a three-dimensional character, you dont have any problem when its Scrooge or when its Bill Murray, so why cant it be Emilia Clarke doing this.
Feig overdosed on opinions about female characters, mostly online, after he directed the all-female reboot of Ghostbusters, which outraged people the millisecond it was announced. The experience changed the way Feig viewed the internet.
It didnt change how I use the internet, it changed how I face the internet, Feig says.
I had such a good relationship with the internet before Ghostbusters. I had heard people get attacked by haters but I was like I never have any of those but when it happened en-masse it was an assault and it triggered all my memories of being bullied as a kid.
You think I thought I was safe from this but I am an adult and in my 50s: why is this happening to me?
Going into Ghostbusters Feig knew people would have an issue with him touching a classic film, he totally understood why, but it was the broader hatred that wore him down the most.
A lot of the time I was pretending this is hilarious but then Im getting death threats, and it also showed me all these fucked up world views, Feig says.
Not everyone was against the women thing but there was enough there to go, God, theres other guys out there who are having a real hard time with this in a way where you go, why is this such a problem for you?
So, after working on a film with a gigantic budget based on beloved franchise, hes back with a modest romantic comedy, but Feigs old foe factors into the equation again: timing. Its a volatile period for films that arent blockbusters, or part of shared cinematic universes. Feig is more than aware of the climate that greets Last Christmas.
The word I always use at our company is: undeniable. Whats an undeniable idea. Because theres plenty of things where you go I can watch that when it comes out but whats the idea that makes people go, I gotta go to the theatre and see that opening weekend!
But it doesnt have to be a $200 million movie. Case in point: Jordan Peele. Both his movies were undeniable one cost $5 million the other was around $10-$15 million. So its up to us as filmmakers to give people a reason to go to the cinema.
But even if a film or TV show flops on its initial release theres always a second chance, which is what happened with Freaks and Geeks.
When we were making the show, this was before they would put out shows on DVD so you kinda go, what is our chance of living beyond this one airing we have or maybe the re-run, says Feig.
And the only thing youd have is if you could keep going, if you had seasons and seasons and youd get 100 episodes, and you get into syndication and then people would watch it, then you can go: now were part of culture.
For years Feig truly believed Freaks and Geeks was non-existent in the pop culture landscape. Hed noticed people always gave it a shout out as the great one-season wonder but he doubted the show had a fanbase.
Feigs outlook changed in 2004.
When Shout Factory finally ponied up the dough to pay for the songs, it happened. Wed had offers before to put it out on DVD but then wed have to take the music out and I could not do it, it was like killing one of the characters, Feig says.
So we do a signing at Tower Records in L.A. and there were huge crowds and the I was like, oh, maybe it does have a life beyond. Every day I am always amazed that people still care and watch it, its nice cause you never know when something is going to tap out or youre going to feel old and antiquated.
Weve been talking about Freaks and Geeks for 20 years. You did good Mr. Feig.
Last Christmas is in cinemas 7 November 2019.
Cameron Williams is a writer and film critic based in Melbourne who occasionally blabs about movies on ABC radio. He has a slight Twitter addiction:@MrCamW.
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'Freaks And Geeks': Interview With Paul Feig About The Cancelled Show - Junkee
UT alum turned cinematographer shoots Austin Film Festival movie – UT The Daily Texan
Posted: at 5:44 am
Charlie Pearces film needed work.
After turning in his first project in a UT production class junior year, Pearces professor told him to make it in the industry, he needed to improve.
That hurt, but it opened my eyes to what filmmaking takes, Pearce said. I learned how to think critically and objectively about my work.
After graduating in 2014 from the University with a degree in photojournalism and radio-television-film, Pearce has since worked as a director of photography on several feature films. Most notably, he worked with Duncan Coe on A Room Full of Nothing, which officially premiered at the Austin Film Festival in October.
This was the first feature film I ever shot, Pearce said. Ive shot three since then, but ultimately my goal was to shoot a feature and learn and grow from it.
The story of A Room Full of Nothing comes from a personal place for co-director, actor and producer Coe. The narrative follows an artistic couple who, after receiving scathing reviews of their work, wish for everyone in the world to disappear. They wake up to find they are the last two people on Earth.
(The film) goes from this sort of sarcastic look at the life of struggling artists to this psychological drama of be careful what you wish for, Coe said.
Coe and Pearce met while working as crew members on a local film and worked together on many other sets.
It seemed to be in this genre-fluid area I could relate to and make cool cinematography with, Pearce said. (Coe) hit me up to see if I would donate, and I (said), Ill do more than that. I want to shoot your movie.
As director of photography, Pearce worked with the lighting team, production designer, Coe and his co-director Elena Weinberg to take (their) vision and translate that into technical aspects.
(Pearce) has an eye for what filmmakers want, said Ivy Meehan, the female lead of the film. Most importantly, he can achieve it in what appears to be an effortless manner.
This effortless manner of delivering a visual result comes from listening to cast and crew, Meehan said.
In addition to working on and learning from the project, Pearce said getting into this years festival felt like an accomplishment that would make his past professors proud.
UT gave me a network of people I still work with, Pearce said. It also gave me the self-awareness and objectivity of my own work and realizing theres a certain standard I need to reach.
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UT alum turned cinematographer shoots Austin Film Festival movie - UT The Daily Texan