In the wake of a mass shooting in Plymouth, England, fresh questions are being asked about incel culture and whether crimes committed by its adherents should be considered terrorism.

Jake Davison went on a shooting spree in his hometown, killing five people, including his mother, before taking his own life.

As part of our ongoing research into online radicalism, our team at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation archived Davisons social media profiles before they were shut down in order to investigate the extent to which he was engaged with incel subculture.

In the three months prior to the attack, he was active on multiple Reddit subforums (known as subreddits). He also uploaded eight YouTube videos in the month leading up to the attack. Davison had an Instagram account where he mainly followed pages of young, female Instagram models and a Facebook account, where he was ostensibly less active.

The term incel, a portmanteau of involuntary celibate, is used as a self-description by some individuals who desire sex but find themselves unable to obtain it. While this condition is not necessarily confined to one gender, inceldom exists largely in misogynistic online forums frequented by men.

Within this ecosystem women are demonised as the architects of mens failure to have sex. Incels claim that women control the sexual marketplace, leaving them without chance of a romantic partner if they are not considered good looking. While not all incels support violence, the subculture has been connected to a string of attacks.

Davison appears to have had an ambivalent relationship with inceldom. He did not explicitly identify as an incel but did describe his mental state as being blackpilled a term some incels use to describe a fatalistic belief that they will remain virgins forever due to a predetermined genetic order that rules them out of the social order. According to blackpill incels, no amount of self-improvement acts, often referred to as looksmaxxing can alter this.

In a Reddit post made three months prior to the attack, Davison admitted that reading about the blackpill was getting him down, describing it as toxic negative bullshit. However, in a YouTube video uploaded one month before the attack, he suggested that being blackpilled is increasingly common among men. He said that in modern society women no longer have need for average men as they are able to be more selective in choosing sexual partners, settling only for chad which is the term incels use for a stereotypical alpha male.

Davison also engaged in misogynistic tropes. In one YouTube video he described a lot of women as very simple minded and as being conditioned by social media to want to be treated like princesses by rich, good-looking men. This dehumanising language is typical of men embedded in the online communities of the manosphere, including inceldom.

Davison stressed that since being exposed to the blackpill he had become increasingly self-conscious about his looks. In multiple posts he expressed a desire to become leaner, posting three videos of his workout routine to YouTube, and shared multiple pictures of himself on various subreddits, asking users to rate his physical appearance. This indicates that he may have been interested in looksmaxxing.

In one of his final YouTube uploads, he lamented the fact that going to the gym for years had not changed his life outcomes. He also commented that 80 percent of men are plain looking and illicit no emotional response upon seeing them, indicating that he may have bought into the incel concept of hypergramy. This is the incel belief that only 20% of men are deemed attractive by 80% of women, known as the 80/20 rule.

While it is not yet known whether Davison spent time within more extreme incel communities, it is worth noting that the subreddits he posted in were neither extremist, nor places which necessarily indulged hateful aspects of incel subculture. The subreddits he frequented were dedicated to mocking commentary of incels, or in theory helping others out of inceldom.

These pages explicitly rule against posts containing misogyny or calls for violence. So although he went on to commit the gravest form of violence, we cannot automatically assume that his violence stemmed from violent incel culture specifically.

Davison also framed his lack of sexual experience as one of many problems he was facing, indicating that he wasnt singularly consumed with the incel subcultures obsession with a lack of sex. He also appeared concerned with his mental and physical wellbeing, as demonstrated by various posts he made to the r/Depression subreddit.

He said he was feeling socially isolated and beaten down and defeated. Davison also frequently referenced domestic tensions with his mother, whom he described as vile, and felt played a role in his lack of romantic success with women. Therefore, Davisons grievances cannot solely be associated with a lack of sexual success.

Davisons online footprint reveals a complicated picture. We know he was familiar with incel tropes and expressed views which were steeped in misogyny, yet his social media also suggests he may have attempted to distance himself from the incel label. Davison also appeared to struggle both with his mental health and his relationship with his mother.

The explicit motivations which triggered the attack remain unclear but Davison clearly had diverse grievances. That indicates the need for a broader conversation about how involvement with misogyny online, including the incel subculture, may interact with a persons other personal problems. That will better help us understand how violent acts ultimately happen.

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Incel culture: what we've learned from investigating Plymouth attacker's digital footprint - The Conversation UK

I am Gucci Grandpa.

I am excited for an anxiety-free summer.

If all else fails, I can just marry a monarch.

Prior to this year, these statements may have come across as arbitrary proclamations, grand statements of manifestation that fall into the category of obvious denial or irony but since the advent of @afffirmations, it might just be the most 2021 thing ever.

If youve been on Instagram at all since January, you may have noticed people sharing these affirmations to their story. @afffirmations is easily recognisable through its cooked or fried aesthetic nothing to do with food, but everything to do with the incomprehensible level of overstimulation experienced when viewing. Its posts consist of heavily saturated, glowing stock images stretched to a square ratio, reminiscent of tacky 2000s real estate pamphlets, and accompanied by glowing sans serif font as the icing on the cake. Theres a glorious sense of ugliness, absurdity and viral subversiveness to the pieces.

Mats Nesterov Andersen is the genius (I would be careful using terminology as such, he warns) behind what he terms a Global Self Hypnosis. This is what I usually say that Im doing. Im doing self-hypnosis on stories and posts, he says.

Andersen joined me on an evening Zoom call (mid-morning for him in Norway) seated outdoors at a cafe wearing his signature sunglasses, rugged up in a tan Fred Perry track jacket zipped to the top. We chatted about the weather and our mutual newfound interest in being outside. The only pauses in our conversation were when he ordered a coffee, lit a cigarette and unzipped his jacket. It was almost surprising that he maintained the exact persona he exudes on the account, oozing an ironic level of seriousness and entertaining conviction that is perhaps only paralleled by Mr Worldwide himself.

Anyone who has watched the Instagram Reels of Andersen enthusiastically reading affirmations,each with a different backdrop,may wonder whether its all just a joke (the baguette he flourishes throughout this first video may have something to do with this feeling). But the authority and confidence in his voice, as well as his unrelenting 10-affirmations-a-day content schedule, may just command us into feeling genuinely affirmed. Perhaps this persistent output is just him putting into action one of the earliest affirmations on his page: I CAN BECOME AN INFLUENCER.

I dont know how people consume [@afffirmations]. Im not sure if many people think its satirical, which its not. Its not ironic. Im being serious when Im doing this, he says.

The practice of manifesting and using mantras has entered Westernised practices as a vehicle of actualising our goals and intentions through sheer will. The trend was further popularised through TikTok at a time when hitting goals became an unactionable impossibility. While Andersen is firmly part of the wellness phenomenon on social media, he distances @afffirmations from the aesthetic of simplicity and minimalism associated with more typical wellness accounts. I would say most of these wellness accounts are very bland aesthetically speaking and boring, he says.

Andersen says he created the account as a form of high conceptual art that involved months of research prior to launching at the beginning of January. Eight months on, @afffirmations is creeping towards the 700,000 follower mark a testament of popular success that Andersen expected considering how young people are experiencing an age of loneliness.

This didnt surprise me, I knew that this account would make a huge impact. The thing about doing it in 2021weve spent a lot of time alone [and] looking in the mirror. [@afffirmations is] sort of a reflection of how we are relating ourselves to the world right now. If not me, somebody else would have made this account, he says.

Indeed, it does feel like an inevitability. The account is inseparable from a New Age context centred around secular spirituality, where horoscopes, binaural beats and healing crystals are critical practices of self-care. Revitalising the popular quarantine practice of manifesting, with a post-ironic touch, makes @afffirmations particularly consumable for audiences particularly young people that now view goal-setting as a memory reminiscent of a distant reality. The mere thought of chasing self-improvement and creating memories in lockdown feels prescribed by hustle culture and online productivity gurus where memes, irony and post-irony are the only weapons worth wielding in the face of this hopelessly ridiculous expectation.

@afffirmations artstyle draws on inspiration from early web art, childrens cartoons and Y2K culture, which perhaps appeals to 20-somethings nostalgic for simpler times, and, whether intentionally or not, engages with post-capitalist imagery and consumer culture. @afffirmations has nothing to do with politics whatsoever, says Andersen. But I realised that where we are in the world right now, neoliberal tendencies dominate in our culture. The music scene revolves around materialism and wearing gold chains and using designer clothing. I realised that people are familiar with these things. What Im trying to do is commentate and capture it in some sort of way, Andersen says.

Perhaps then, @afffirmations is the best example of a newer and transcendent kind of art practice one that is able to distill abstract vibes and atmospheres into just a few words and images and genuinely resonate with thousands of people. When asked about how he, as a 20-year-old, was able to start @afffirmations and coin such ~relatable~ terms as CONTINENTAL VIBE, he points to his variety of life experiences.

I was a black metal musician. I wont talk too much about that. I dont do music anymore. And Ive actually written two books in our region. But I have no plans of releasing it. Its just something I did for recreational purposes, he says. In some ways, its hard not to see @afffirmations as a reactionary account,journaling the anxieties and emotions felt by young people from issues ranging from COVID, to student loans and climate change; the cryptic messaging only furthering its appeal. With terms like Epic Life and Coastal DJ having entered my everyday vernacular, I cant help but wonder whether the affirmations are working.

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I CAN BECOME AN INFLUENCER: Wellness and post-irony with @afffirmations - Honi Soit

Updated / Thursday, 19 Aug 2021 09:27

More from Maynooth University

Opinion: if the pursuit of happiness makes us feel better, how come we're wracked by depression, anxiety and other lifestyle diseases?

The self-improvement industry is growing rapidly year on year, and its best-selling topic is happiness. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin hit the bestseller lists within minutes of being published. Cheryl Strayed's book Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found On the Pacific Crest Trail turned into a box-office phenomenon with gross sales hitting almost 50 million and a trail of coaches, consultants and "gurus" following who have made their money advising others how to be happy.

But if the pursuit of happiness makes us feel better, how come our society is wracked by depression, anxiety and other lifestyle diseases? Is it possible that we got it all wrong? Positive psychology, the science of wellbeing, may have some answers to these questions.

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From RT Radio 1's Drivetime, Dr Paul D'Alton from UCD on why it is the pursuit of happiness that is making us miserable

Over the last two decades, researchers in positive psychology have endeavoured to unpack what it means to be well and happy and have also tried to identify the myths of happiness that stand in the way of people feeling better. Research with adults and adolescents suggests that valuing happiness and pursuing it excessively is linked to lower levels of wellbeing and even increased experiences of depression and bipolar. Here are three evidence-based reasons why the pursuit of happiness might not be helpful for us, and may even be harmful if taken too far.

The day we decide to pursue happiness is the day we realise we are unhappy and want to do something about it. If happiness were a measuring stick, we see it in our mind's eye and place ourselves somewhere along its length. This spectrum reminds us that others are happier than us. Worse yet, we are reminded that our future selves will be happier than we are today. This is how we become more deficit-focused, which makes us feel worse.

One of the hallmarks of happiness is an ability to see what we already have for which we are grateful, regardless of how small it is. What helps us do this is downward comparison, whereby we look at others who are worse-off than us and we feel blessed that our situation is not as bad, which as selfish as it sounds, makes us feel more grateful, thus happier.

From RT 2fm's Jennifer Zamparelli show, Prof Brendan Kelly on his new book The Science of Happiness

However, the opposite happens when we begin to pursue happiness and value it too much in our lives. Instead of practicing downward comparison, we practice upward comparison. We start thinking of what others have that we do not have, which results in us feeling more miserable. This is one of the reasons why the pursuit of happiness is often associated with decline in wellbeing and experiences of depression.

We tend to become self-centred when pursuing happiness. We are focused on ourselves and not others. We think about what we want to get from life, not what we can give. Yet, research indicates that others' focus has a more powerful effect on our happiness. When we help others, it means that we have something valuable to give them. This increases our self-esteem making us feel happier.

Being self-centred does not serve us well because an inward focus makes us less mindful of the outside world. Yet, it is the people around us that can help us become happier. We smile 30 times more when in a group than on our own. Supporting others and knowing that we can receive support when needed is more likely to enhance our happiness than aloneness. People matter but we may forget to reach out to others by focusing too much on self, which is why the pursuit of happiness can make us lonelier.

From TED, psychiatrist Robert Waldinger on lessons from the world's longest study on happiness

When we value happiness too much, it prevents us from maximising our positive experiences and enjoying our lives. When we try to figure out why we feel bad, it has the potential of enhancing our wellbeing. When we try to figure out and overthink happiness, it is associated with a decline in wellbeing.

We become so stressed about finding situations that boost our wellbeing that we don't fully engage with the opportunities at hand which make us happier. Furthermore, when we are happy, we start worrying about losing happiness, which ultimately reduces our wellbeing further. This is yet another reason why pursuing happiness may be detrimental to us.

Happiness is not something we can catch and keep. It is a journey, not a destination. Don't ask yourself 'am I happy?' 'Am I happier than last year?' 'How can I become happier?' Insteada, focus on living a good life. Introduce healthy behaviours such as eating well, moving and sleeping soundly. Engage your mind in positive practices, such as reflecting on what went well for you, savouring the good times, boosting your optimism and hopeful thinking. All these activities will impromptu result in enhanced happiness and help you go on a happiness ride filled with peaks and troughs. After all, this is what life is all about.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RT

The rest is here:
3 reasons why the pursuit of happiness can make you miserable - RTE.ie

By FELICITY DARVILLE

A WOMAN of many talents, Bridgette Bell Bastian has found after decades of using those talents to help others, that all along, they existed for her to help herself most of all.

Its a beautiful thing to help others, and Bridgette gets immense satisfaction from that. But it wasnt until her husband, Vaklev and other loved ones encouraged her to value these talents more, that she began considering starting her own business. For many with a mindset like Bridgette had, they shouldnt be charging for these gifts. Deeply spiritual, Bridgette felt she was doing Gods work and found much satisfaction in making others happy. At some point, she had to realise the long hours and extreme effort she put into helping others would leave her drained and that she deserved compensation.

Today, Bridgette has successfully launched two businesses and there is a possibility even more will be born from this young woman. She is a gifted singer, artist, designer, photographer and so much more.

By profession she is a secretary of 28 years. By calling, she is a counsellor and mentor although she may have never called herself one her story made this evident.

Bridgette is enjoying how her life is unfolding. Because of this, she has chosen to share her story so that others who may be sitting on their talents, devaluing them, or not confident enough to make a business out of them, would be inspired to take a leap of faith and get even more out of life.

Maybe it was having to battle with cancer a few times in her life that made her value herself more and what she has to offer. Maybe its because she helps so many others with their cancer battle that she realised the significance of acting now. Whatever actually spurred her to make her own quantum leap, people have responded overwhelmingly and are supporting her in her business, showing her that it was a decision that was worth it.

Proverbs 18: 16 says a mans gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men... I have multiple talents and if I fail to use them, it would be displeasing to the Lord, she shared.

I loved art drawing and painting as a child. When my mother (Norma Bell) worked at various pre-schools then eventually had her own pre-school, she would give me the wonderful task of outfitting the walls with colourful ABCs. I would draw life-sized cartoon characters to go with them. I did that for years. As I got older, I began doing graphic art and photography.

She started using a programme called ProMaster back in 1993. She then learned Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign. She enjoys using Photoshop most because she has been able to edit her photos as well as create her many designs in the software. She began designing business cards, flyers, logos, stickers/labels, booklets, programmes, menus, brochures and signs.

Bridgette is a graduate of Bahamas Academy of Seventh-Day Adventists. After graduation, she studied Computer Information Systems at Success Training College. She gained additional professional certifications in Computer Information/ Business Administration from Sojourner Douglass College.

So, the talents were all given to me by my Heavenly Father, but none of them I went to school for, she said, explaining that she taught herself.

I started designing anything that people asked me to. I did it for years and years without charging. But everyone kept coming to me. It would take me hours and hours to get it done because I am a perfectionist.

Finally (through the advice of loved ones) I decided to charge for my services. Being one that fought with negativity, never feeling adequate or like I was worth much, I was reluctant to charge, but decided to give it a try. Someone came to me to create a programme for an event and I told them what it would cost. I was afraid but surprisingly, they said ok! I am happy I did because to date, photography and graphic design has become a source of extra income for me. I watched myself grow as I was challenged by some who asked me to create or design things for them and sometimes, I surprised myself! People began to put my work on Facebook, and others referred me by word of mouth. So without officially advertising, I got more customers and I would burn the midnight oil to fulfill the orders.

Bridgette named the business BNB Designs with the motto: If you can think or imagine it, I can create it! Her creative designs are even extending into interior home design something she may develop seriously in the future.

But Bridgette faced a series of health roadblocks that could have broken her, had it not been for her upbeat attitude and support of loved ones. She is a two-time breast cancer survivor. She first felt a lump in her breast in 2005. At that time, just in her early 30s, her doctors chose to watch the lump and for six months, and sent her home. When they finally sent her for testing, the lump was indeed malignant.

She had the first surgery to remove the tumor. After that, she took a natural, holistic approach and went to Uchee Pines Retreat, a Seventh-Day Adventist institution for natural treatment located in Alabama. She continued the healthy living regimen after the retreat.

In 2008, the cancer returned in the form of a painful, golf ball sized lump under her arm. This time, Dr Charles Diggis was her doctor, and she credits him for his exceptional care during a cancer journey that involved a total of ten surgeries to save her life, including the removal of 14 lymph nodes and a full hysterectomy, performed by Dr Charles Lorne. Dr Diggis performed all of her biopsies and some of her surgeries. For the series of chemotherapy treatments, she decided to seek care in the United States. She says Dr Krill and the staff at Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami were wonderful throughout a difficult process, but one that she overcame.

The five months she spent in the US doing chemotherapy was, in itself, a journey: My big sister, Karen, left her home to spend five months with me in the US. The friends who had promised to take me in, changed their mind the week before my first treatment. A friend of Karens put us up for a week while we figured out what to do. Joseph Evans, Jr, was our first angel, then Carlisa Waters. They both opened their homes to me, never asking me for money towards rent or food. Karen and I had to catch the bus to my treatments in the beginning. She had to bathe me, feed me, dress me... she stuck with me every step of the way. I thank all of my siblings who stuck with me and stayed positive for me even when I was in pain and depressed at times. Biggest supporter, my ride or die husband, Vaklev Bastian, would call me and encourage me every day as he patiently waited for me to come home. My mom prayed and cried for me daily. A mothers prayer is very powerful and she kept me covered.

Twelve and a half years later, Bridgette has remained cancer-free. During her trials, she would often sing the song My Redeemer Lives by Nicole C Mullen. She sang that song with such belief and passion that today, she is still called on to sing that song at various church services and special events.

There were not all good days, but I was able to keep myself above water, Bridgette explained.

I would cry whenever I needed to, but I didnt stay there. I had to get up and be like, ok, its time to fight again; lets go, bring it on! I had to tell myself that this is not a death sentence. I had to say even if I have to die, I wouldnt go down just like that... I had to fight. When things happened to me, I used to say, Lord, why me? Now I say, Lord, why not me? You outfitted me to handle this because one day, I have to be an encouragement and a testimony to someone else... So why not me?

Since then, Bridgette has found herself encouraging many others who go through the cancer journey. People would come through and be so encouraged that they would tell others about how Bridgette helped them. In this way, new friends have unfolded in her life and she has found an even higher calling.

Even through her own trials, Bridgette had a burning desire to help her mother, who was getting up in age and all her children had left the nest. She faced medical issues and she also needed repairs to her home. Bridgette decided to sell nuts. She sourced what she felt would be the freshest nuts and found unique packaging for them. She combined her graphic design skills with her products and would personalise them for special occasions. Her friend and church member, Tamara Taylor encouraged her to take her nut business to a higher level, and even helped her to garner new sales. Today, Bella Bella Gone Nuts is a hit and her product line is growing.

As she continues on a quest for self improvement and spiritual advancement, Bridgette has learned that by believing in herself, anything is possible.

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FACE TO FACE: Seize the day and Bridgette's doing just that - Bahamas Tribune

Every great urban filmmaker has a personal metaphysics of the city, a sense that the synergies and mysteries of urban life can find their ideal form in images. Thats what Pola Rapaport reveals in her first feature, Broken Meat, from 1991, which is showing, starting Wednesday, on Metrographs virtual cinema (with her introduction) and is also streaming on Vimeo.

Its a film in a particular and too often narrowing mode: a documentary portrait of an artist, the poet Alan Granville, whose work doesnt appear to have attracted much attention beyond the movie itself. Broken Meat is the title of one of his works, which Rapaport reads, during a train ride, early in the film. The poets obscurity itself comes off as something of his lifes work, his self-chosen destiny, as he describes his lifelong hero, Vincent van Gogh. Considering a reproduction of a self-portrait that adorns his wall, Granville says that van Goghs gaze is not disturbed but steadfast, and that the artist awakened Granvilles first awareness that a person could lead an undiscovered life. Granville acknowledges that he himself is largely an unfulfilled poet, with no realistic hope of recognition, and the gap between his vast literary aspirations and his actual circumstances is the documentarys anguished drama. As realized by Rapaport, Broken Meat is a virtual film noir in documentary form, with an appropriately bold, expressive, howlingly harsh aesthetic, and echoes of the 1947 drama Nightmare Alley, with its shuddery final repartee about its fallen hero: How can a guy get so low? He reached too high.

The poetry that Granville delivers, or improvises, onscreen in the course of the film yields glimmers of ravaged beauty salvaged from the depths of unspeakable pain. According to the movie, he led something of an anti-charmed life: he describes being held in the state psychiatric hospitals Kings Park and Creedmoor and subjected involuntarily to shock treatments, and later falling into homelessness. He shows Rapaport a site in Riverside Park where he used to live and fear assault every night; at the time of the filming, he was in a grim residential hotel with childproof window guards fixed to the door panels for security. This is where I dwell, like a monk in his cell, he tells Rapaport, whom he calls Pola Pie. He was a heavy user of cocaine, possibly addicted to it, certainly dependent on it. His early life was marked by his mothers apparent mental illness; when he had no place else to go, in 1981, he moved in with her upstate. He speaks, mysteriously, of helping her to kill herself, and of being haunted by her death and consumed with a sense of impotent guilt.

In poverty, frustration, isolation, and the torment of memory, Granville delivers himself and his life to the camera with liberating energy, hearty antics, and fractured glimmers of ecstasy. He projects his wild creative power throughout the spaces of the city that he inhabits in body and mind, and the city in turn seems to concentrate both its crushing might and its orchestral glory on him as he passes through it. Broken Meat is one of the great cinematic city symphonies, a genre dating back to the silent-film era. Rapaport, working with the cinematographer Wolfgang Held (theyre married), films Granville and New York, together and separately, with a sense of devoted and tremulous awe. The movie is a sort of mutual celebration of the poet and the city that fuses cautionary terrors with rapturous exaltations, and evinces an awareness that the two are inherently inseparable. The peep shows that dominated Forty-second Streeta view that was formerly his through the window of another grim residenceare seen at street level, as are the doorways of flophouses, with passersby filmed in slow motion to capture the hidden aura of grandeur and pathos in their daily rounds.

For all of Granvilles evident misery, he loves comedy and enacts it free-spiritedly both for and with Rapaport, as in a sequence at a thrift shopwhere shes buying him a winter coatwhich starts with a travelling shot through the stores vast piles of unwanted merchandise, including discarded baby carriages, and which carries an air of enduring loss, and dissolves into antics as Granville chases Rapaport with a floppy rubber hand. On a visit to an incongruously placed park near the site of Creedmoora visit that sparks Granvilles anguished memories of his appalling abuse therehe and Rapaport ride a seesaw, from which he falls off raucously. A visit to a cemetery (filmed in a series of soulful tracking shots) gives rise to Granvilles exuberant speculations about life and death and the consolations of the afterlife. The city waterfront, which Granville visits with the filmmaker Robert Attanasio (who was collaborating with the poet in a ten-year project), is his virtual stage for confessional reflections and sardonic street theatre.

Granville is first seen sitting naked on the floor, looking into the camera. Rapaport films travelling shots up the length of his unclothed body, from angles that display its grizzled textures and its clean curves, and whichthrough film editingshe likens to the craggy grandeur of mountains. Granville is obscene, enraged, comedic, self-centered, and self-aware, in thrall to literature and seemingly even more tortured by the inability to read than by the inability to write. Throughout the film, Rapaport brings Granvilles voicespoken into her microphone or into an answering machine or delivered into a streetside pay phonetogether with visions of New York, of the Manhattan cityscape as seen from car windows on highways, of the grand latticework of bridges, the eerie isolation of tunnels, the mighty banality and collective energy of street views over road barriers and from overpasses, the faded gleam of luncheonettes, the cold and mighty vistas from the shore over the East River. These visions, filmed in moody black and white, have an air of timelessness, like vestiges of a distant, mythic age of urban heroism from which Granville has fallen, even if only in his own imagination.

Rapaport both directed and edited Broken Meat, and it is, among other things, one of the most thrilling displays of film editing that Ive seen in a while. She joins the sense of the citys overwhelming weight and abraded surfaces with the poets raw physicality (and the jaunty and mournful jazz score by Vincent Attanasio and Stuart Kollmorgen) to elevate the unbearably ordinary to ineffable heights. The films everyday yet rhapsodic images, assembled with bold juxtapositions and jolting yet poised rhythms, lend the dual portrait of the poet and the city an air of eternity.

Original post:
Broken Meat, Reviewed: An Astonishing Dual Portrait of a Poet and His City - The New Yorker

By KELLI CHAMBERS Youth First Inc.

When we talk to fellow parents about how hard our jobs can be, we often hear responses like, Oh yeah, Ive experienced that too. Thats just part of being a mom/dad. Sometimes it feels as if your childs needs are endless and seem impossible to manage. Of course our childs happiness is what we as parents strive for, but sometimes we need more.

We often hear about how people feel burnt out in their jobs or even in their relationships, but rarely do we hear about feeling burnt out on parenting. It almost feels taboo because parents have been taught that being tired, stressed and overwhelmed is just part of it.

Social media plays a big role with the expectation of being the perfect family who has it all together. These expectations are unrealistic and untrue. There will inevitably be times of stress, chaos and unhappy emotions in every family.

So what does parental burnout look like? Burnt out parents are exhausted from the never-ending demands of parenting. They can feel as if they are on autopilot or in survival mode. Your sleep can be negatively affected both the amount and quality. Going to work can serve as a relief. There, you might feel calm, focused and successful, where you might not feel that at home.

Parental burnout can be broken down into three categories: exhaustion, detachment and inefficacy. Just as it sounds, exhaustion is never getting to fully recharge. Detachment is being less able to take pleasure in day-to-day activities with your children. Lastly, inefficacy shows through when parents feel they are ineffective in their parenting.

We cant give what we dont have. It is our responsibility as parents to identify when we are struggling and to make a decision about what to do about it. Our kids ultimately feel the consequences of our lack of self-awareness or self-care.

One of the biggest effects on our kids is when we are not able to attune to them. We cant be our most patient, loving and nurturing selves if we are disconnected from our own needs.

Parents often struggle with taking time to do something for themselves when they could be doing something for their child instead. By taking care of ourselves, our kids are reaping a bigger benefit. They get a parent who is fully present and engaged. Here are a few ways to alleviate some of your burnout symptoms:

1. Reach out to your doctor or therapist to discuss any concerns.

2. Ask your partner to take something off of your plate or utilize daycare to give yourself time to rest or do something that makes you happy.

3. Give yourself permission to say no to demands that will stretch you too thin.

4. Communicate your needs to your partner/loved ones.

5. Prioritize your sleep.

6. Take care of your body through exercise, healthy eating, etc.

Another good way to do a self-check is to use Dr. Oscar Serrallachs acronym SPAN. Identify what your true needs are and determine what you need to do to fulfill them.

S- Sleep

P- Purpose

A- Activity

N- Nutrition

Parenthood, at times, can be a difficult and thankless job, but it is a job many of us would not trade for anything. Being mindful of your needs allows for a better version of yourself, and your kids will directly benefit.

Kelli Chambers, LCSW, is a Youth First social worker at Central High School in Vanderburgh County. Youth First Inc. is a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening youth and families. Youth First provides 78 master's level social workers to 105 schools in 12 Indiana counties. Over 60,000 youth and families per year are served by Youth First's school social work and after-school programs that prevent substance abuse, promote healthy behaviors and maximize student success. To learn more about Youth First, visit youthfirstinc.org or call 812-421-8336.

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The burnout we don't talk about - The Herald

The Chicago Cubs may not have a general manager, but they do have two presidents! Jed Hoyer is the president of baseball operations and Crane Kenney is the president of business operations. And together, they run the Chicago Cubs organization. Theoretically, Kenney has zero influence on the baseball side of things, but you can draw a straight line from his job (generating revenue, which helps set the baseball budget) to Hoyers job (using that budget to mold the Cubs into a winner), so their perspective on whats coming is useful fodder for discussion.

Recently, both presidents addressed the future of the club, and, at a minimum, demonstrated the sort of self-awareness youd hope to see out of those in-charge: Let me also say to our fans, Crane Kenney said, per NBCSC, we know our current play on the field is not what you expect or deserve. And we assure you that winning another World Series continues to be our No. 1 goal.

Empty words? Eh, maybe a little. It is, of course, the goal of every organization to win the World Series. But hey, even if youre one the more skeptical among us, and you believe that the actual No. 1 goal of Kenney/the Cubs is to make as much money as possible, well, winning the World Series is an extremely good way to do it. Period.

But Im not quite so cynical, personally. Although I didnt see the same championship-caliber roster when I went to Wrigley Field on Saturday, I do see an organization with a ton of flexibility in every conceivable way. The payroll is minuscule going forward. The prospect capital is as high as it has been in five years (and arguably going up). The roster has about as many vacancies as any team could imagine (which opens a lot of doors). And all this comes just ahead of a brand new Collective Bargaining Agreement. We may not like the way we got here, but now that were here, Im not actually sure the situation is quite as dire as it appears.

Heck, even on the field, things probably arent quite as bad as they seem: Were playing shorthanded, Jed Hoyer said, per NBCSC. And I think thats very clear. Were not going to be playing shorthanded going forward.

The Cubs, having traded away such a substantial chunk of their roster, are not playing with the kind of team you would otherwise construct at thestart of a season. Hoyer is effectively saying this group, plucky though they may be, is not exactly what youd put together for the Cubs in 2022.

Its not even just the guys the Cubs have traded away, either. At the moment, the Cubs are without Willson Contreras, Nico Hoerner, Nick Madrigal, and Adbert Alzolay. Would any one (or even all four) of those guys make a meaningful difference in the standings? No. Not likely. But lets not pretend like missing three starting-caliber position players and a starting pitcher is nothing. The team is likely better off at present than it appears on the field. Thats just the reality. It is *not* good enough. But it is not as bad as it seems.

And Hoyer knows that: My guess is that well find some interesting things over the next two months, Hoyer said. But those will be probably individual, one-off things that we can use going forward. And its exciting to let these guys have opportunities to play and to prove that.

The list of things the Cubs can find out or at least begin to find out is significant. In the rotation, they have four starters auditioning for long-term role: Keegan Thompson, Justin Steele, Adbert Alzolay, and Alec Mills. In the bullpen, there are three guys attempting to stake a claim on a seventh-inning or later role next season: Rowan Wick, Manny Rodriguez, Codi Heuer. And on the positional side, we still need to learn what kind of starter Nico Hoerner can be, what type of role Rafael Ortega, Patrick Wisdom, Frank Schwindel, and Michael Hermosillo can play, and whether guys like Ian Happ, David Bote, and Matt Duffy have any significant Cubs playing time in their future.

Now, even still, I concede that those aremostly peripheral roster decisions. When the Cubs traded away Kris Bryant, Javy Bez, Anthony Rizzo, and Craig Kimbrel (and probably also Ryan Tepera and Andrew Chafin) they let go of nearly all of their star/impact talent. And that means that even if every single one of those lets wait and see guys broke out, the team is still probably not good enough to compete legitimately next season.

But Jed Hoyer knows that. Or, at least, he responded with a Sure, when asked if the Cubs must add impact talent this offseason in order to avoid a 2012-style rebuild, which has been their refrain.

And thats sort of where Im at right now. I know so many of you are in Ill believe it when I see it mode, but Im just one-step more optimistic than that. The Cubs have SO MUCH money available to spend and enough prospects and young pre-arb players to make an impactful trade if they wanted to go that route, not using it doesnt really make any sense. Now, we can disagree on how they might go about spending their money some smart folks prefer the top-end shorter-term plays (think of how the San Francisco Giants went about this last offseason) as well as some meaningful starting pitching, but I think one truly big offensive addition makes sense if the guy is young enough and there are several options out there.

Either way, two things seem clear to the two Cubs presidents: (1) The current product on the field is sub-par, and (2) the only way to change that meaningfully before next season will be through significant external investment. Now its up to them to actually do it, and get it right.

Brett Taylor contributed to this post.

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The Two Chicago Cubs Presidents Reiterate: Rather Than a Lengthy Rebuild, Winning Again Soon is the Goal - bleachernation.com

Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, When summer opens, I see how fast it matures, and fear it will be short; but after the heats of July and August, I am reconciled, like one who has had his swing, to the cool of autumn.

Readers may feel like their swing through summer books was all too brief, before autumns highly anticipated books begin arriving in September. No matter. There is still plenty of daylight and time left to explore a wealth of fiction and nonfiction titles published this month.

Books can provide a change in perspective, a different angle on a subject we think we know well. Whether the topic is poet Emily Dickinson or the patriarch of the Kennedy clan, the titles this month explore alternative viewpoints.

As August leans into September, the book satchel may not travel to the beach, but it doesnt need to hang in the closet. These novels, memoirs, and works of history are well worth carrying into fall.

1.Emilys Houseby Amy Belding Brown

Irish immigrant Margaret Maher works as the maid in the family home of poet Emily Dickinson, cleaning, cooking, and defending her mistress from prying eyes. Margarets Tipperary-tinged voice brings this captivating novel to life; its a perspective rife with honesty, humor, and clever observations. Upon discovering Emilys verses, Margaret breathes, Like sparks they were tiny scraps of light.

Books can provide a change in perspective, a different angle on a subject we think we know well. Whether the topic is poet Emily Dickinson or the patriarch of the Kennedy clan, the titles this month explore alternative viewpoints.

2.The Human Zooby Sabina Murray

A Filipino American writer named Ting flees to Manila, where her extended family lives in fading, upper-class ease. As she researches a native tribe for a book on human zoos, Ting witnesses the human and political damage inflicted by the countrys strongman leader. Sabina Murrays smart, idea-packed story grapples with corruption, identity, and loyalty, building to a searing climax.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

3.Agatha of Little Neonby Claire Luchette

When people saw our habits, they ceased to see our faces, muses Agatha, one of four young nuns tending to the residents of Little Neon, a lime green-colored halfway house in Rhode Island. The relationship between individuality and faith underpins Claire Luchettes spare, deeply sympathetic debut. Sharp dialogue and fresh observations bring the characters quirks and doubts to life.

4.The Madness of Crowdsby Louise Penny

Louise Pennys 17th mystery in her Chief Inspector Gamache series deals with hot-button issues, from free speech and academic freedom to euthanasia. Set in a post-pandemic world (Penny wrote the novel during the coronavirus lockdown), this riveting murder mystery explores moral quandaries with her trademark incisiveness.

5.The Husbandsby Chandler Baker

This feminist noir mystery is a gender-flipped Stepford Wives in which high-powered working women attain their dream careers while their men handle the domestic duties. With satirical wit and insightful compassion, author Chandler Baker gives voice to the frustrations borne of societys expectations of women. The books thriller undertones make for propulsive reading.

6.The Long-Lost Julesby Jane Elizabeth Hughes

When a suspiciously charming Oxford professor begins traipsing after a shy London banker, insisting she is the long lost heir of Henry VIIIs last queen (Katherine Parr), an enthralling contemporary romantic mystery heats up. Add in secret agendas, family drama, international money-laundering rings, and European locations, and this is a terrific romp for history buffs and adventure lovers.

7.All Inby Billie Jean King

The tennis champion writes about her life with self-awareness and humility, while not underplaying her role as a trailblazer for womens rights. She gently criticizes her younger self for feeling a need to hide her sexual identity to safeguard her career, and touches on the toll that secret exacted. Find the full review here.

8.Pastoral Songby James Rebanks

English sheep farmer and writer James Rebanks offers a sustainable method for raising animals, preserving habitat, caring for the environment, and nurturing small farmers all at the same time. Find the full review here.

9.The Ambassadorby Susan Ronald

Susan Ronald, who wrote a thought-provoking biography of Cond Nast, turns to a different name-brand plutocrat: Joseph Kennedy, the patriarch of the Kennedy family, concentrating on his disastrous turn as ambassador to England. Ronald respects her readers by not trying to rehabilitate Kennedy; instead, she presents a three-dimensional portrait of a flawed but fascinating man.

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10.All the Frequent Troubles of Our Daysby Rebecca Donner

Rebecca Donners harrowing book tells the story of American-born Mildred Harnack, a bright, unassuming young woman who played a central role in organizing German resistance to the Nazis planning sabotage and helping Jewish people escape.

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Carry the summer into fall with the 10 best books of August - Christian Science Monitor

1 Hard Knocks Life

The HBO show Hard Knocks does an excellent job every year of giving fans a taste of the NFL in August. Sometimes they focus in on players on the bubble, other times an entertaining coach or player may take center stage. One of the most interesting seasons featured the Cleveland Browns, Head Coach Hue Jackson, and number one overall pick Baker Mayfield. Jackson compiled a 1-31 record during his first two seasons in Cleveland but acted like the second coming of Bill Walsh. A stunning display of a lack of self-awareness.

This season, Head Coach Mike McCarthy and the Dallas Cowboys take center stage and I get similar fraud vibes. I never got the sense that McCarthy deserved a ton of credit for the success in Green Bay and thought the Packers would move on quicker than they did. Given the divorce in GB, the PR job McCarthy managed to pull off to get his gig in Dallas might be more impressive than any Super Bowl run.

The Browns fired Hue halfway through the season and you cant convince me that his odd performance on the Hard Knocks show didnt have something to do with it. I wonder if the Cowboys have another lackluster year if McCarthy doesnt suffer the same fate.

2 Oh, oh, oh, Fitzmagic

Call me a sucker, but Im cheering for Ryan Fitzpatrick and Ron Rivera to win the NFC East this year. I think the Washington Football Team made a good decision to bring in the journeyman vet as hes playing some of the best football of his career. He takes over a fun roster that could quickly make things interesting in that division. For my money, Id much rather take the longer odds that Washington puts it all together with a good defense and a solid offense than hope that Dak can overcome the injury, the bad defense, and McCarthy.

The line for WFT to win the division moved over the last few weeks from +260 to +225. Seems like others have bought in as well.

3 Value at the Draft Table

Fitzpatrick currently rates as QB21 on average in your local drafts. His top WR, Terry McLaurin, and his top RB, Antonio Gibson, both rank in the top 12 at their respective positions. We know Fitzpatrick can sling it around the yard with the best of them and while that comes with the risk of a higher turnover rate, he should score plenty of fantasy points. I love pairing Fitzy with another QB late in drafts so that you can play matchups during the season or sit and wait on a rookie. How about someone like Matt Ryan (QB15) to be the boring caddy? If you can play favorable matches, you can build a QB1 that can finish near the top without the premium investment. Alternatively, Fitzpatrick could keep the seat warm until one of the electric rookies earns the starting job. Give me Fitzy and Trey Lance or Justin Fields for big upside play.

4 Personal Foul, He was Giving Him the Business

The NFL wants to crack down on taunting. Who asked for this, exactly? Reverend Lovejoys wife from the Simpsons?

NFL rosters currently employ all humans and zero robots (Russell Wilson is not a robot, right?). Sure, maybe at some point in the future theyll let robots play but until then, they need to be careful pushing points of emphasis on moments of emotion. Officials already can throw a flag for taunting. It wont take long for this point of emphasis to cost a team a game because an official interprets a players actions in the wrong way. Im not sure how this improves the game.

5 Top 100: Still Stupid

The NFL Network continued their annual tradition of making everyone mad with their Top 100 list. All lists like this contain plenty of issues but because the NFL puts the network name on it, more people tend to get upset.

Heavily biased toward skill positions, the lack of offensive and defensive linemen makes you wonder if people would like to just watch a 7 on 7 league. I do enjoy a good ranking, but this one never makes a lot of sense. I mostly ignore everything about it... and then get mad at the lack of Bears despite myself. For the record, the Bears only put two players up on that list Khalil Mack and Allen Robinson.

6 Desert Dogs

I think the Rams will win the NFC West and push for a Super Bowl appearance once again. The 49ers might push them with Kyle Shanahans crew boasting some terrifying offensive playmakers. The Seahawks still have Russell Wilson and while I wont make the case for their ceiling, they will have a solid floor and win plenty of games. The Cardinals? Not so sure.

I really liked the Cards coming into last season, thinking Kyler Murray would get the Year 2 bump and take the offense to new heights. Instead, it exposed Head Coach Kliff Kingsburys scheme and lack of creativity. The Cardinals competed for a playoff spot mostly due to an unexpected boost from their defense. Heading into Year 3 with Kingsbury-Murray, it feels like this team could get used as a doormat by legitimately competitive teams in the division and finish well under their 8.5 win betting line.

7 The Jag with Swag

Obviously, the Jaguars will name Trevor Lawrence the starting QB and let the #1 overall pick take his rightful place under center to lead this team to well, a bad season. They surely wouldnt let Gardner Minshew actually win the job out of camp and let Lawrence sit, would they?

Honestly, I cant see it happening for anything short of Lawrence looking lost and for it to be a danger for his development to put him out there. And this is Trevor Lawrence, supposedly the best prospect since Andrew Luck, that were talking about. It would be a huge upset to say the least. It seems weird to me to let Minshew take practice reps away from Lawrence. Maybe Minshew plays himself into enough buzz that the Jags can flip the mustachioed man for a decent return to a desperate team. Whatever happens, I hope hes starting somewhere in this league and soon. The league is more entertaining with him playing.

8 The Mitch Switch

Mitchell Trubisky lit up the Bears defense in the second preseason game. Good for him. I hope he can rebuild some value in his career.

9 Vics Pick

I dont know who the Broncos will end up choosing to start the season for them, but Im hoping Teddy Bridgewater wins the job. Bridgewaters career has had more twists than an M. Night Shyamalan script but seems like a good guy. He fits the profile of a quarterback Fangio would prefer to pair with an elite defense and keep them in games.

Locks game is Vics worst nightmare, someone who puts the ball in harms way far too often. Vic Fangio deserves someone that can at least manage a game without a handful of turnover-worthy throws. I think the answer is Bridgewater.

10 Justin Freaking Fields

The numbers didnt shine quite as bright as his debut, but make no mistake, Fields looked the part. The improvisation and the scrambles make it clear that Fields gains very little from playing against 2s and 3s. Matt Nagys decision to play Andy Dalton for the entire first half can only be described as mind numbing. Give it up, Coach give this guy some real game reps throwing to top wide receivers.

The charade has gone on long enough.

Those are my thoughts what are yours? Sound off in the comments and find me on Twitter @gridironborn.

Excerpt from:
Ten Thoughts on the NFL - Windy City Gridiron

Baskin: I think one part of the answer goes back to Social Thought this idea of a conversation through the ages about the moral life and the good life. Religious thinkers have played a huge part in that, and in the DNA of the magazine there is a respect for that tradition.

In recent years, one of the reasons we decided to do the What is church for? symposium was that I was reading an interview with Dean Baquet of The New York Times after the 2016 election. He said something like, Yeah, we really missed a lot of the story, and part of the problem was we just dont have enough reporters covering religion.

Covering religion thats what secular magazines do: Lets put a reporter out there and find out what these people are doing. This is a weird way to talk about 50 per cent of the country. Even many of us who consider ourselves secular have indisputable ties to a sort of Puritan-Protestant way of thinking. As a magazine that is secular none of the three of us who started it would say we were shaped by a religious upbringing or something like that we always did feel, especially in recent years, that this was a missed opportunity in a lot of secular media. Weve tried to be a place not just that covers religion, but where serious religious thinking happens where intellectuals that are in that tradition feel like they have a place to write in their own voice.

This could be sheer fantasy, but I sometimes wonder if defenders of the humanities would have a better shot at selling their argument if they pointed out more often to conservative legislatures trying to shut them down how intimately bound up the tradition of the interpretive human sciences is with religious thinking and religious textual practice.

Baskin: I think wed have an easier time doing that if the people in those departments didnt say vicious and condescending things about religion all the time.

Wiseman: Theres a great line in Chad Wellmons piece in our symposium where he describes his experience of coming to be a literary professor. Its not just the books he read or the teachers he had; it was seeing his father, who hadnt gone to college, do Bible study.

Baskin: The religious roots of the humanistic tradition theres a real question of how far it can go without those roots.

Wiseman: Theres an old joke about UChicago: Its where Jews teach Protestants about Catholicism.

I know that joke, but in a different context: Art history is where Jews teach Protestants about Catholicism.

Wiseman: I feel like thats relevant to The Point.

It should be your motto.

Baskin: Hah!

My last question is inspired by Jonny Thakkars essay on elite education, which we reprinted. Theres a lot of critique of elite meritocracy right now. Whats the little magazines role with respect to the university as an agent of elite-formation?

Baskin: Little magazines traditionally have also been places of elite formation and elite influence, going back to Partisan Review. I still remember the n+1 editorial where they talked about burning their degrees as somehow a way to level the field. I think thats wishful thinking. You cant wish away your own elite status.

I think Jonnys essay is honest about that. We are in an elite position, we produce elites in the university, and at some level little magazines are always going to be vehicles for influencing elite opinion.

All that said, I think that if you start by being self-aware about it, there are ways you can try and check some of the worst habits of elitism. Weve always tried to think very broadly about our audience about who we would like to invite into our community of readers. I would like to think, with all due awareness of how it can be wishful thinking, that there is a democratic element in what were trying to do, an attempt to broaden both the scope and the ethos of intellectual life. Intellectual life need not be people with the right kind of education lecturing to people with the wrong education. It can be a conversation.

Wiseman: I think a lot about a Mark Greif essay that The Chronicle Review published a while ago. He uses the Partisan Review to talk about what a good intellectual magazine can do: create an aspirational community of readers. In publishing a magazine like ours, you dont want to talk down to your readers. You want to assume that they can meet you.

There are lots of people who are very hungry for this kind of access to new ideas. Amid the crisis in the humanities, you have to create spaces outside of the university, like magazines, like book clubs, that give people an entry point into the humanities.

Baskin: Trusting that your readers can think is one way that elites can practice anti-elitism.

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The Review: The New Intellectuals and the Academy; a Conversation With 'The Point' - The Chronicle of Higher Education