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Post by crowblack on Aug 25, 2023 11:54:24 GMT
Confusion usually happens when people are over-relying on one or two of them. Also a young generation so wrapped up in a befuddling mix of reality star post-Kardashian culture and gender identity ideology that a bog standard 80s 'Diana' or 90s indie kid haircut or a preference for trousers and comfy clothes rather than an insta-pout and spray-on leggings is now rebranded a sign a girl is 'non-binary' or wannabe-boy.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 24, 2023 9:53:30 GMT
There will always be a woman who is tall or deep-voiced or broad-shouldered who may be stopped and questioned by someone who is not as able as they think to identify a trans woman. And if that happens she will say, oops, apologies, I thought for a moment you were male (because men do try to get in here sometimes, despite the signs on the doors*), and the other woman will say that's fine, I understand, it happens from time to time because I'm tall and I dress quite butch (btw, when you stay 'stopped and questioned' you make it sound like it's the Gestapo!)
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Post by crowblack on Aug 14, 2023 7:11:13 GMT
Badenoch's phrasing is vague when it comes to people who are transgender. Many people's phrasing is vague when it comes to transgender. That's the issue: we used to understand it as people with gender dysphoria seeking and obtaining permanent lifelong physical changes, in good faith, to present more like the opposite sex and personal legal changes to accompany that: people like the late April Ashley. Now it's an ever expanding and increasingly vague, undefined umbrella, achieved by simply announcing you're changing your pronouns or name, if that. No need to even shave your beard off, apparently.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 19:49:15 GMT
My question is though, say you have a trans woman who has lived happily as a woman for 30 years. Has had surgery, hormones, is as feminine as any other woman you'd walk past in the street, just as an example. Would you be ok with her using the female toilets? I'd be fine with male born people like April Ashley or Jazz Jennings as I know their 'story', that they've had surgery, in Ashley's case ( don't know about Jennings), was attracted to men. I've lived in houseshares with gay men, one of whom sometimes 'crossdressed', as we'd call it then, and as I knew their sexual orientation felt perfectly safe with them. What's become evident over recent years is that the definition of trans has shifted from 'transsexual', generally same sex attracted and having surgery, to the far wider and looser term 'trans' which now includes a lot of heterosexual males who have no intention of having what's euphemistically referred to as 'bottom surgery', are 'intact', and are sexually aroused by women, use terms like 'cotton ceiling', and also use very misogynistic, sometimes violent language towards women (on social media, many are the 'anime avatar' users). Like many women, I do not think these new style 'trans' individuals' motivation for wanting to get into spaces where women get undressed are in good faith: we've seen a lot of evidence that it is not. And they have muddied the waters for what we did consider 'good faith' male born individuals who used women's facilities, in small numbers, and with little fuss. My personal feeling is that, if they are no longer able to easily access women's changing rooms, toilets, prisons etc. many of these opportunistic heterosexual males will move on to some other activity and we'll get back to talking about people with genuine gender dysphoria.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 18:37:58 GMT
But it isn't a solution. I wouldn't want to use a urinal in a mixed space. And I suspect I am not alone in that. Some men might be but that isn't enough to justify making the men's toilets open to all. What's the situation at the Young Vic or Royal Court? Anecdotally I hear that women won't go in the former-men's-now-unisex, but I've seen men (who dress like men) use the former women's toilets as well. I don't know who decided to put urinals by the sinks at a trendy local venue but it's been that way for a decade now - despite comments on tripadvisor by both women and men that it's nasty. When I go there to see a show, I call into the single sex traditional loos at a nearby venue first.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 18:28:37 GMT
No one has a magical built-in radar that accurately tells you who is trans and who isn't. I think many people, especially women, can tell. People with intersex conditions like XXXY syndrome plus surgery can pass but that's rare - and that's not what we're talking about here. Females who take testosterone, grow beards, go bald, drop voices, have surgery, 'pass' better, but they are not the issue when we're discussing concerns around women's safety in single sex spaces (btw, re - sports, once female to male-presenting transitioners start taking testosterone, they are no longer allowed to compete with women because of the obvious advantage that confers, similar to Soviet era Olympic doping).
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 15:56:33 GMT
Where is the room coming from at most London theatres coming from? Old Vic had a refit, using money fundraised specifically with the words more women's toilets. Could have added extra space then. Young Vic has four toilets 'blocks' - could have left two womens, one men, one unisex, but they instead made one of the women's unisex too so in practice - I've seen this - men use it, even though there is a male (now unisex with urinals and cubicles) block right next door to it (in practice as we all know, there are long queues for the women's toilets, short queues for the men who take less time to 'go', apart from The Inheritance where the audience was almost all male and there was no queue at all for the women's) There are listed venues with limited space that have, as I said in an earlier post, kept the women's single sex and made the male toilets open to all. Tate - I think - has, or had, female, male, unisex, and disabled with entrances close together. All these points have been made before on this very very long thread.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 15:38:02 GMT
Not sure that's always the case. Plenty of trans women do pass after surgery and voice work They'd have to be very short, with small hands, small feet, narrow shoulders, wide hips, a lot of facial bone surgery - Asian 'ladyboys' might do but not Europeans. Venus will have to unlock disabled toilets. It wouldn't be safe or ethical to make a trans women go in the gents if they banned from the ladies nor would it be safe or ethical to put a transman in the ladies if they banned from the gents. If this was about safety or ethics, venues wouldn't have made toilets entirely unisex, as many have (Old Vic, Royal Court, Kazimier - urinals by the sinks, ew! - Young Vic upstairs etc). No one seemed to care about women's safety then: they didn't even bother to make the doors and partitions full height at these venues to stop cameraphones being used. If a transwoman is in danger in the gents, why was the 'solution' to rechristen all toilets unisex and let any men into the women's? This move was about the affirmation of 'identity', not safety. And there was all of lockdown when theatres were closed for them to install a third space, but they didn't (btw, it is not ethical to use the disabled toilet)
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 15:09:01 GMT
Are you going to stop every woman from heading into the ladies if you think her shoulders are a little broad or her voice is too deep? Women have a different build from men, regardless of how we present. We're very good at identifying each other. If social, and legal, rules are laid down one would hope people have the decency to follow them. If they don't respect boundaries and enter spaces set aside for the safety, privacy and dignity of females, that's a red flag. Some venues have the toilet entrances by the cloakroom, with attendants, to police this. Up until, what, 2018, 2019, this went without saying. It was how we all knew and agreed to behave for the sake of privacy and safety. Women's spaces exist for a reason, and that reason hasn't magically gone away.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 13:45:44 GMT
Venues could simply do what they are now starting to do in UK sports: one block of female sex-specific toilets, another block labelled 'open - cubicles and urinals' for males however they identify or dress, and females who id as men if the male users are ok with sharing a space with them too. A lot of sports crowds are heavily male orientated but that would make sense as it gives women a safe space. I meant in the actual competition: males who identify as women or girls have been allowed to enter - and, unsurprisingly, given their physical power advantage, win - women's sports categories. In the UK this is now being addressed by specifying that women's sport is for females, and the men's category has been retitled 'open' so theoretically anyone can enter that regardless of how they identify. I've heard of some theatres that have already done similar with toilets - kept the women's women's, renamed the men's block 'unisex'.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 13, 2023 12:27:51 GMT
Venues could simply do what they are now starting to do in UK sports: one block of female sex-specific toilets, another block labelled 'open - cubicles and urinals' for males however they identify or dress, and females who id as men if the male users are ok with sharing a space with them too.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 12, 2023 11:27:06 GMT
Does anyone know if there are plans for this to be recorded / streamed at some point?
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Post by crowblack on Aug 3, 2023 13:50:55 GMT
I've got one leggy aeonium and a herd of agaves so it was wonderful to see so many flourishing - I'm in the rainy North West not frost-free Cornwall so have to lug them all in the house in the winter, which is getting difficult now they're big! Yep mine have to come inside in the winter. Only one agave and a miniature one at that. Quite a few succulent varieties but aeonium and echevaria are my favourite. Started my collection last year and I am getting on for fifty plants now. Currently sat in the garden waiting for the postman to bring the latest selections. Which are coming from surreal succulents just around the corner from the Minack I'm jealous! I'm ok with cacti - I've had one, an Easter cactus, since my childhood & that has survived a lot (including the cat using the then tiny pot as a litter tray on a narrow window ledge!) but manage to kill most of the succulents I get within a year.
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Post by crowblack on Aug 3, 2023 11:55:10 GMT
I wanted the gardeners world piece to focus a little more on their aeonium collection. But i guess that is just tailoring the piece for me really. I've got one leggy aeonium and a herd of agaves so it was wonderful to see so many flourishing - I'm in the rainy North West not frost-free Cornwall so have to lug them all in the house in the winter, which is getting difficult now they're big!
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Post by crowblack on Jul 29, 2023 18:24:45 GMT
I'm hoping it will prompt some sort of strengthening of homegrown UK independent cinema and production: we lost that rich landscape in recent years, and it would be great to get it back.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 29, 2023 11:11:31 GMT
I'm hearing of others due to be premiered at the Venice film festival next month shifting to next Spring or date unknown, September's Emmys postponed. My brother works on the promotional photography side of films and TV in the UK so he is obviously reporting the impact on that whole sector here too (promo images, posters, fashion mag shoots with the stars etc).
What are the impacts on theatre? Many UK actors are involved in (committed to?) halted or postponed US-led productions so presumably that will cause problems with involvement any upcoming UK film, TV and theatre work?
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Post by crowblack on Jul 28, 2023 22:54:37 GMT
Seeing a few films already finished having their openings pushed back from their scheduled Autumn / Winter 2023 release dates into 2024. Might give indies / UK films more of a chance to shine though.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 28, 2023 19:24:32 GMT
Minack (?) theatre garden on gardener's world right now
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Post by crowblack on Jul 27, 2023 10:44:32 GMT
Is there any likelihood of writers, actors forming their own production studios like early Hollywood's United Artists or UPA (the latter founded by animators in the 1940s after a strike)?
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Post by crowblack on Jul 26, 2023 15:34:46 GMT
Bit dusty in the basement here .. Tonight there's a novel piece on BB4 at 11.05, hopefully on the iplayer as well. Bertolt Brecht’s Baal, starring one David Bowie (from 1982) - it's only an hour long. There's also a 10-minute piece beforehand with Zoe Wanamaker talking about it. The Telegraph has a piece, probably behind a paywall (I posted a link before about how to circumnavigate). Wonderfully talented in so many respects, though acting wasn't one of them: www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/david-bowie-bbc-brecht-baal/Good to see some Alan Clarke getting an outing: I thought there were some nods to the 1970s David Rudkin / Alan Clarke film Penda's Fen in the first episode of The Sixth Commandment last week too. Looking at the Radio Times, Baal was originally shown at 9.30 on BBC 1 in the early 80s, not tucked away late at night as such films are now.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 20, 2023 19:58:35 GMT
Also seeing on Twitter a lot of anger about Universal studios apparently cutting back the leaves on trees by the studio that were providing shade for strikers (and nesting habitat for birds, which may mean this is unlawful).
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Post by crowblack on Jul 20, 2023 13:50:27 GMT
Popular tweets on this today: "Extreme tinfoil hat theory is that studios have been juicing their streaming numbers and they don’t want to pay residuals on a ton of fake views" "They’re in a bind. Admit to shareholders numbers are inflated. Lose value. Pay less residuals. Keep inflating numbers. Shareholders happy, have to start paying creatives more."
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Post by crowblack on Jul 19, 2023 11:14:08 GMT
Really surprised that it has had hardly any advertising and I could have easily missed it. True - I was aware of it because I follow the screenwriter Sarah Phelps on Twitter, but other than that I haven't noticed much in the way of publicity, though I've seen trailers for other BBC shows multiple times.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 19, 2023 8:47:03 GMT
I heard 'Johnny Cash sings Barbie Girl' on the radio yesterday. I was also wondering, how far off are we from a situation where we could simply scan in, say, some old 2000AD stories from the comics and AI would use them as a storyboard and create a movie? Or a novel - choose your actors, choose a directorial style: whatever wills and agreements hold regarding legal licences in the US won't mean much in a globalised world (for example, there's a Russian ad at the mo using a living Hollywood star's AI likeness).
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Post by crowblack on Jul 18, 2023 22:55:11 GMT
Indies like David Lowery's are being given the go ahead to carry on production.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 18, 2023 17:35:20 GMT
The Sixth Commandment is superb so far: we watched episode one yesterday, though all four episodes are already on iplayer. It's based on a real murder case but very sensitively done.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 18, 2023 9:03:46 GMT
gee some people are just vying for conflict all the time arent they. winging because they dont like the title. winging because they dont like the format. without even having seen it. This play is trying to stand up for a marginalised community. Go see it. Give it a chance. Open your mind. Learn something. Be challenged. Or stay comfortably ignorant. Your choice. I'm not whingeing about the title. As a sometime writer myself I am curious about its impact. It's an unusual, very atypical, spiky title - very noticeable but also potentially offputting to some. In my experience, the more youth-oriented or punky plays at the RX are staged in the studio space which it easily packs out. I'd like to see it but my health isn't good at the moment and a combi of that plus the shocking state of public transport (had several experiences pre lockdown of trains home from mancs being cancelled) means I haven't managed to make it to any of the shows I've booked since lockdown ended, when I used to see several plays a month.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 18, 2023 8:54:55 GMT
The AI issue kind of overlaps deep fakes. If you've ever used the Reface app, you know how easily and quickly your likeness can replace a film star on that platform. Like everyone else, I was bored out of my mind during lockdown, and played with Reface, shocked at how easily it transposed my face onto Elizabeth Taylor's and Julie Andrews' faces. The technology already exists. Corporate Hollywood is risk averse and looking to maximize profits. Using AI to create non-human background players is going to save money when it comes to paying performers. I'm sure they'll find a way to create templates for the bodies and costuming (pity the poor, overworked EFX people) to create more efficiencies at the expense of union/guild members. It won't happen, but Hollywood needs a clear out and reset: creatively much of it is a stagnant pond, hugely focussed on old IP. The remake culture will be screwed when we can simply do it ourselves through AI, which is probably not that far off. How many years before we can simply enter a storyline, setting, actors whose faces we like, even friends and family, into a film generator and up it pops? Just looking at all those 'Lord of the Rings if it was Wes Anderson' things a few weeks ago, or the current ad for the women's football refacing female players with male (it's a feminist ad - though one feels the same could be done with movies in those regions where women's faces are forbidden to be seen). To quote a line from the old cartoon LOTR, that's doom's footstep for a sector of the industry, the part that has relied so heavily on 'toybox' movies rather than the sort of serious fare for mature audiences that Hollywood was built on in the 20thc.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 16, 2023 20:16:00 GMT
Loads of empty seats so doesn't seem to be selling well Title maybe putting off an older crowd?
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Post by crowblack on Jul 14, 2023 15:28:59 GMT
And when the writers union is demanding 10-20 writers and a certain make-up in the writers room at one time, Hollywood is going to look at that and scoff at it. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Many of the most popular and well received shows were the result of one of two people's vision. And given the decreasing quality in film scripts over the past few years I have less sympathy for a lot of these writers. Inevitably the writing jobs will shrink and Hollywood is going to rely on a few writers who can deliver quality scripts. Agree on this to some extent - Hollywood now is a shadow of its former self creatively, mostly turning out films which could just as well have been written by AI: feed a bunch of old Star Wars toys or Marvel comics plus 'Save the Cat' into a script generator and away you go, or remake your cartoons as live action or vice versa. Barbie and Oppenheimer will likely be the tentpole films of the year and the first of them is yet another toybox movie.
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