British actress Ophelia Lovibond has landed the role of Patty Failure in Disney's Timmy Failure and the movie is being directed by Tom McCarthy. With Wrinkle In Time producer Jim Whitaker on board to produce the movie.
The movie went into production and began filming in June in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
"Timmy Failure" has a budget of $42 million and is set to come to Disney Plus in late 2019.
Are you excited for a "Timmy Failure" movie?


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Home › Culture › arts & entertainment › Comedy: The boys' club asserts itself, Feminist Killjoys destroy the vibe
Comedy: The boys' club asserts itself, Feminist Killjoys destroy the vibe
By Helen on 2012-11-16 • ( 21 )
Content Note: discussion of rape jokes
You know that old chestnut. COMEDY SHOULD BE SACROSANCT. YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO JOKE ABOUT ANYTHING. TO ANYONE.
Station 59 is a smalltime comedy venue in Melbourne where beginner comics can come to an Open Mic night to try out their skills. A week ago they advertised a "debate" on the topic There's Nothing Funny About Rape: A Comedy Debate.
Aleksia's post will fill you in about what happened then. As she points out, a debate like that isn't impossible, but in this context, and with as she says "an all-dude lineup", it was shaping up to be un-promising to say the least. The "debate" was canned after a bunch of, you guessed it, ber-loody feminists got wind of it and suggested that the event was a bit suboptimal.
The event organiser invited one of the women, who is a rape survivor, to speak on Wednesday night (the open mic night) about rape, comedy and her own experience. (One or two others were invited but declined, expecting the kind of evening you'll see described in a moment.) "Male-only rape comedy debate replaced with… rape comedy panel. Hm….What even."
Sensing an impending pile-on, some young twentysomething feminists went along to support her. Disclaimer: A couple of them are known to me, in fact, a couple of them are related to me. And I'm so proud of them.
This is the story from one of the people who were there:
So, the MC [Kieran Butler] basically introduced the issue and as soon as he got on stage he accused the feminists there of censorship, assault and breach of privacy. He said someone had threatened him over the phone (which we had no knowledge of and wouldn't condone). He turned that into a general diatribe against our group which was there to support Gen and Hilary. He made it clear he had not cancelled the event because he recognised it was distressing to victims of sexual assault but because, as he saw it, he had been "censored". That pretty much set the tone.
All of the patrons felt [Butler] was using the night as a platform to justify the cancelled night as a "debate about controversial humour". He argued that comedy has been taken over by a "meritocracy" [!] which imposed Political Correctness™ on the comedy community. Therefore, the Station 59 stage needs to be made into a protected space for "free speech". He went on in this way for some time.
Then a female comedian and RAW judge who has worked in the industry for 2 decades took the stage and asserted that what he was saying was crap, that rape jokes aren't necessarily edgy or controversial and all have pretty much been done already. She was repeatedly interrupted by [Butler].
They finally allowd Gen [Genevieve Stewart] to speak. Gen took the stage and announced that she was trying to explain why rape jokes normalise rape and harm rape survivors. She set out to talk about the topic of rape jokes generally then describe her own experience, but she was interrupted and heckled so many times during her general discussion she decided to go straight to the story of her own rape at age 15. Again, she was repeatedly interrupted. When she expressed her anger and hurt that comedians could listen to such stories and still heckle, she was heckled further.
When Gen left the stage, we all left with her. [According to another account, being grabbed and called "faggots".] The MC accused us of being "a mob" (there were about 15 of us). We didn't see the other acts but we did talk to other comedians outside of the bar. I can't speak for the others, but one of the female comedians in the club came out and tried to defend the organisers – "nice guys, not pro rape".
When it was pointed out how many times the MC had inerrupteed Gen they implied that her story of her own rape was "inappropriate" on stage.
Then we left.
So, it looks as though the Station 59 comedy organisers got their wish, that is, they got a debate. With opposing views. Most of us would say that was the definition of a debate, but according to Station 59, it's CENSORSHIP!
I found it especially interesting that the female supporter of the "debate night" found Gen's actual rape story too confronting and suggested she shouldn't have shared it on stage. Isn't this being a little selective with the "freedom of speech" which is supposed to be the cornerstone of their culture?
Andrew P Street, on Facebook:
"…not only is there no need for Melbourne comedians to have that conversation right this minute, I would argue that – with Jill Meagher's body barely cold – there's a really fucking good reason why Melbourne (and, y'know, Australia generally) might not think that right now was an awesome time to start bleating that everyone's a bit too sensitive about violence against women. I thought timing was everything in comedy?"
Aleksia Barron (author of the blog linked above) also on Facebook:
"The comedy booker from the venue started posting in the comments of my blog post on this topic. He wanted me to come down to the venue, get up on stage and "defend my point of view". I declined, partly because I think this guy's a total hack, but also because I knew I'd be playing with the deck stacked against me. I'm embarrassed that I didn't go now, though, because what happened to the poor girl who did stand up to speak is disgusting.
The booker's name is Kieran Butler, and it's him, not the venue management, who chooses the comedians who speak on the open mic comedy nights. I guess it was obvious whose side he was on when he added one of the most aggressive commentators from the FB thread to the bill for this event.
Kieran Butler has made no secret of the fact that Station 59 is a venue for comedians on their training wheels. ""Comedians need to fall [I think he means "fail"] and test out their material and this is a venue for that. It is a comedy night for comedians to try out their material and see whether it will work." That is pretty much the kind of venue in which rape jokes won't work. Let me recommend this article by the US comedian Curtis Luciani.
…It is accepted, for example, that you probably should not go in front of an audience that contains several black people and start tossing around the n-word unless you have an EXCEPTIONALLY sophisticated and road-tested routine built around it, one that you are confident will overcome the very significant risk you are incurring. If a comedian did this and did NOT overcome the risk, no one would be shocked if the audience shouted her down and stormed her out of the club, nor would anyone be particularly eager to defend her.
… Here's what YOU need to understand:
1) Rape is way, WAY more prevalent than you seem to think it is. Are there more than five women in your audience? You do the math, and then you run the little fantasy scenario that I just put together in your head, and you tell me how it feels.
2) I ain't buying any of that "If I can make jokes about genocide, why can't I make jokes about rape?" Horseshit, unless you made those genocide jokes during a gig at the Srebrenica Funny Bone. You got away with making a joke about genocide because your odds of having a holocaust survivor's kid in the audience were pretty fucking low.
And if you did happen to have one in the audience, and he heckled you, walked out, and wrote something nasty on the internet… would you be more likely to be a human being and say "Wow. I can understand why that person's authentic response to what I was doing was so emotional and negative. Maybe my genocide material just isn't good enough to justify the pain that it inflicts. Maybe I need more skill in order to pull this off." Or are you gonna be a lousy piece of shit and say, "Yeah, I apologize, I guess, IF YOU WERE OFFENDED."
I recommend Mr Butler reads the whole thing.
In answer to Andrew Street's question – why was the whole thing necessary in the first place – it seems to me this constant pushing of "transgressive" comedy (unless, of course, it's genuinely transgressive and brilliant, the real thing, but sadly that's rarely the case) is a bit of ordinary male territorial dominance. You reckon I can't lift my leg and piss on that post over there? Watch me! Nyah!
Good work, Feminist Killjoys!
‹ Terrible horrible no good very bad science journalism headline of the day
Otterday! And Open Thread. ›
Categories: arts & entertainment, culture wars, ethics & philosophy, gender & feminism
Tags: comedy, feminists, rape culture, rape jokes
Are cultural politics worse than no politics at all?
The Henson photo scandal: so many knees jerking, so little real debate
Ever found that whole Mars/Venus male/female thing sorta suss?
2012-11-16 • 8:16 AM
Great post, Helen. With regard to the "I can joke about genocide, why not rape?" argument, I have only ever seen truly powerful/challenging Holocaust comedy done by people who belong to families that actually lost a relative to that genocide, or who have had a close personal relationship to a Holocaust survivor. Otherwise, unless it's a simple anti-Nazi one-liner, Holocaust jokes rarely work. I would expect it to be the same with other genocides, it's definitely the same with n-word jokes, and it's my belief that it's the same with rape.
Comedians: if you are not a rape survivor yourself, or have never had a detailed conversation with a rape survivor about that experience, or have never even read some of the academic literature around rapist characteristics and rape survivor narratives, then it is most unlikely that your rape joke will be either substantive or subversive enough to be worth making. How can you think it's transgressive or a display of comedy skill to simply mouth off glib, predictable, dismissive crap about rape? Every other arsehat in the pub can and does do that, every other day of the week.
I have seen occasional one-liners work so long as they were mocking rapists who were currently in the news, but only one per set please. Being jolted into thinking about rape more than once in your set just for a one-liner ruins any possible fun.
Most importantly, if your joke in any way implies that the rape victim was not careful enough or somehow deserved to be raped, then you have descended into horrible human being territory, and should climb back up into halfway-decent human being territory ASAP.
TimT
Hooray, Feminist Killjoys!
Mark N
Here's a thought for some "comedians": would the joke be funny it was about your daughter/mother/sister? Depressing thing is that still probably wouldn't discourage all of them.
I'd prefer to ask them that about a female friend, Mark N. Asking it about a female relative or gf ties into traditional male-protector tropes that are part of the problem.
As orlando commented on a previous rape-joke post here:
What you have to ask is: is this joke designed to make the rape victim laugh and the rapist squirm, or to make the rapist laugh and the victim squirm? I think you'll find most rape jokes fall into the latter category, and we all need to have a really good think about what that means.
Fantastic post Helen.
Thankyou so much for this post. Immediately after we left and Gen had a panic attack, I regretted going ahead with this. But now? I'm so glad we did. The outpour of support and condemnation of these fifth-rate comedians from all walks of life in Melbourne has just been so wonderful. It was a DISGRACE what they planned to do, what they did, and what they through their actions condone.
I'm so glad to have an aunt like you. You inspire me, you inspire your daughter, and what can I say? We're feminist killjoys 4 lyf.
I was reminded of this 2007 Shakesville post about a rape-joke made by Jerry Seinfeld:
If you're going to make a joke about rape, it's got to be funny to rape victims. And yeah, it's possible. I got more approving emails about my "Soberest Fuckhole" trophy than any other graphic I've ever done. That's some serious gallows humor, wickedly subversive, and it made a hell of a lot of survivors of sexual assault and their advocates laugh and cheer, because it played on all the stupid bullshit surrounding victim-blaming and rape. It's a rape joke, but it didn't treat rape like a joke. And that's what most "rape jokes" do—including Seinfeld's.
Up above I spoke about other controversial jokes I've heard which "worked" (i.e. made the audience think rather than storm out in disgust), and the crucial point they all share is that in none of them was actual genocidal/racist/sexual oppression treated like a joke – the perpetrators of the oppression were the ones being mocked, not the atrocities themselves nor their victims.
From the reports above, it appears that Butler et al set up and vigorously defended an event where rapists would be much more likely to be laughing along with the comedians than rape victims would be. If this was done deliberately, this was unethical and inhumane. If this was done unwittingly, this was empathy-deficient and lacking in intellectual rigor. Either way, it seems generally indicative of having their social and entertainment priorites utterly topsy-turvy.
Well done, Feminist Killjoys!!
I heard Margaret Throsby (I think?) interviewing Michael Palin the other day, and she asked him the standard "do you think there are any topics off-limits for comedy?" question, and it really irritated me, because I realised it's the wrong question. The answer a comedian gives is always going to be "no, because [all these virtues of gallows humour]." Comedians need to be asked "are there any targets who are off-limits?" Then we would get to find out whether they are "kick up/kiss down" types or conscienceless self-cranial-colonoscopers.
Ugh. What on earth inspired Fairfax to open up those articles to online comment?
Thanks for all the good comments – I neglect to mention that I work F/T at a place with a very stern internet policy, which means I can't read or moderate HAT during the day.
Special thank you to Hilary for that lovely comment *BLUB*
So glad you are directing some sunlight/a spotlight onto these cockroaches. As always, a sharper focus on the perpetrators' actions is helpful. This "comedian" and his barrackers seem to have trouble heeding words such as 'no', 'stop', 'don't do this' and 'you're hurting people'. Like all abusers, they are adept at rationalising and deflecting, avoiding responsibility and playing the victim. It is very distressing to witness this occurring from afar, I can only imagine what the people up-close are going through.
Hopefully the public exposure will stop this man, albeit belatedly, from the career trainwreck he seems hell-bent on pursuing. Do the Studio 59 Managers have any regard for the future viability of their business? Making it clear to the world that your nightclub is not a safe space for young women looking for a fun night out is commercial suicide, quite apart from the ethical and moral issues. Although on their current form, they seem not to understand signs that say 'wrong way, go back'.
I hope Melburnians will take this opportunity to show Australians and the world once again that they are prepared to stand up for women's public safety. It may also be just a coincidence, but it makes my skin crawl to think how close this publicly-condoned humiliation and hatred against a rape victim follows on the heels of that much graver crime of a few weeks ago. Do Melburnians in particular have some work to do about the culture in their inner-city? Sorry, easy for me to say from a thousand miles away in a sleepy country town, and we have our own issues here too…
Was the audio up on the linked AGE article before? Because I've only found it today. May have been the net-nannied computer I copied the link from, then didn't open it on my puter at home.
That MC (I assume it's Butler) is astoundingly patronising and the counter arguments to Genevieve are particularly mediocre and unconvincing.
Jezebel has covered the whole debacle now.
Just a quick question; what do you consider actually transgressive comedy?
what do you consider actually transgressive comedy?
Basically, transgressive comedy has to subvert the status quo. If a joke simply reinforces existing marginalisations, then it's not transgressive, it's just trivialising uncomfortable truths about how society views certain classes of people as lesser than others.
What I see in a lot of standup is too many unsophisticated understandings of how various social taboos reinforce the status quo, so that some comics appear to believe that simply making people squirm about something is "edgy" and "making them think". The whole reason that some things are taboos is that by making them embarassing and awkward subject matter then people compartmentalise them as things they don't/shouldn't think about it, so sending one's audience into squirm mode does exactly the opposite of "making them think". People can relish being made to squirm because it does tend to generate a small adrenaline rush due to the associated fight/flight reaction, and that squirm-rush can be something an audience will come back for from certain comedians (e.g. Little Britain, Ricky Gervais), but the reason they often come back to the same old squirm-makers is that they know that it's a safe-squirm, squirm within certain tightly managed gross-out-the-squares boundaries, not anything that's actually going to change the way that they view the world.
Basically, if the audience is saying that the comic is "saying what we're all thinking" or "I nearly died when s/he said that" or "did you see so-and-so's face? Bwahahaha" then it's most likely not transgressive. If the audience is saying "I never thought about it like that before" then some transgressive comedy may have just occurred.
P.S. I don't think all comedy should be transgressive, btw. There's nothing wrong with somebody being good at taboo-based comedy that makes people squirm with laughter, since there will always be audiences who love being propelled into horribly hilariously awkward territory. Just don't represent playing around with taboos as something more noble than it actually is.
The best taboo-trampling comedians have a very sophisticated understanding of which taboos can be played around with without trivialising the pain of other human beings, and tread the line delicately because they take great pains with how they frame their material empathically. (e.g. Eddie Izzard, who does cross over into truly transgressive material fairly frequently too)
The hack taboo-trampling comedians, on the other hand, simply aren't knowledgeable enough or don't care enough to avoid trivialising other people's pain as part of their material, and then get their hackles up about the purity of transgressive comedy when they are challenged for being insensitive to other people's pain.
That's not a quick question!
But with some things, like, for instance, a "debate" advertised on an open mic night with an all-male line up on both sides, one can safely say
I hope you read Curtis Luciani's piece.
SunlessNick
Basically, if the audience is saying … then it's most likely not transgressive.
"It's funny because it's true" is usually a bad sign as well.
Not necessarily a sign of bad/unfunny comedy, Nick. Just a bad sign for ground-breaking comedy.
For example, a staple of comedy festivals is the confessional show about the comic's history of drug addiction or coming out of the closet etc. These shows do challenge some social taboos regarding shame expectations, but nowadays are not considered especially transgressive (20-30 years ago was a different story). These shows are still somewhat transgressive regarding mainstream entertainment, since they're rarely the shows that get featured in a TV best of the fest compilation; transgressive because they do show members of marginalised social groups as full human beings.
Confessional shows are often exceptionally poignant and powerful comedy in the hands of a seasoned performer who has decided to take off their most tenacious masks, and much of their impact comes from the "it's funny because it's true" moments they are sharing. Rarely these days is there anything that a festival audience won't know about in principle regarding what happens to kids growing up same-sex-attracted or to those who become addicted to illegal substances – the skill lies in how the comic structures those stories to elicit humour from shared humanity rather than just shock value.
I've yet to see a confessional "I used to be a homophobe/sexist/racist" show. I've seen a very few comics play around with those ideas as part of their routines, or at least the "we're all kinda homophobic/sexist/racist" idea, but I've not seen anybody tackle it as the major theme of a 1-hour show. Now that would be transgressive.


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Tag: Morrowind
Good artists borrow, great artists steal
So let my show you my loot haul.
I am never able to restrain my gushing over the worldbuilding of Morrowind. While the gameplay of that game is of somewhat dubious quality and characters and quests leave a lot to be desired, the kind of very unique world it presents always had a huge influence on my perception of fantasy world, similar to Star Wars for space settings. There is a lot of the world of Morrowind, and to a small extend also Skyrim, that I am just blatantly ripping off for the new setting. The dominant civilization are strongly bases on the Dunmer and their three living gods, Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Vivec. Except that in my setting, they are not a tribunal ruling over one kingdom, but three bitter enemies that go to war with each other on a near regular basis. The Camonna Tong and Morag Tong are very interesting templates for criminal organizations, and I like the way the Ashlanders represent the idea of barbarians who have escaped to the edges of civilization because they oppose the changes in traditions enforced by the god-kings.
I also think that the Redguard and Orsimer are quite interesting as well, at least as they are represented in Skyrim. I think I can use them for another urbanized kingdom to the south near the lands of the naga, and for the highland barbarians.
I also really like the way the Daedra fulfill the role of demons in the setting, though I want to take that idea and make it much more actually alien and weird. More Hermaeous Mora than Sheogorath. And of course, Morrowind is where I got the idea of the wildlife consisting primarily of various dinosaur-like reptiles and insectoid monsters instead of the typical familiar dogs, horses, cows, and pigs. I'll definitely be reviving the honey caves ideas that was based on the kwama egg mines. I used them once and it was really fun.
While I love the Dark Sun campaign setting for AD&D, the things that I see as worth stealing basically just mirror things that I'm already taking from Morrowind. The sorcerer kings are like the Tribunal, the Templars as their warrior-priest enforcerers are just like the Ordinators, and the approach to slavery is very much the same. I feel you can't really evoke the style of a Bronze Age society that is different from a medieval one without large parts of the population and economy being slaves.
Various ideas with a similar style come from Kenshi. This weird little game is actually a lot like Dark Sun, except that before the world turned into a desert wasteland, it wasn't a magical fantasy world but a technological sci-fi world. But in the state that it is now, life turns out to be very similar. My two favorite idea from this setting are the Shek and the Hivers. The Shek are a take on something not too different from orcs, and one of the main inspiration for the highland barbarians. The Hivers already served as the main inspiration for my take on slightly insectoid goblins. Which were one of the last things I created for Kaendor, but I think will be a much better fit here. One of the two main powers on Kenshi is the Holy Nation under their Phoenix King, who rules over a nation of slaves with the help of his elite Paladins. Yeah, basically the same points as covered by the Tribunal and Ordinators of Morrowind and the Sorcerer Kings and Templars of Dark Sun. The other one are the United Cities. Who are despotic slavers in their own right, but still come out looking much better from the Holy Nation. They gave me the idea to have a fourth nation of the dominant culture consisting of loosely allied city states in the coast that have banded together to stay out of the grasp of any of the god-kings.
In the post about my ideas on magic and demons, I already mentioned Demon's Souls. While the design styles of the setting is completely different from what I am going for, I find the supernatural concepts of the game very inspiring. The ideas that humans can become demons if they consume their energy opens very interesting possibilities, and the idea that regions can become shrouded in permanent fog while demons rampage inside of it is also really cool. The lands of Boletaria have little in common with what I am working on now, but conceptual ideas like these are pretty big in my mind.
A very similar case is Thief. Another game I've been gushing about many times in the past. Again, the type of city that the series is set in looks nothing like the kind of cities that will be found in the new setting. But everything that has to do with the Pagans is just pure gold for what I have in mind. The Pagans are a reclusive cult that exists somewhere between druidism and rural demon worship. Exactly the kind of interactions I am going for with my spirit worshiping barbarians. I am actually pretty sure that this game is where I came across the idea originally. The Trickster demon-god and his leafy lieutenant are great spirits, and I totally love the witch that is the main antagonist in the third game as a villain that might work wonderfully in my campaign. I also think that the organization of the Keepers is a really cool archetype for a cabal of arcane scholars who have much more benevolent intentions than the demonic cults they oppose, but are far from being clear cut good guys either.
Something I remembered only a few days after I've already been tinkering with ideas for a coherent setting concept was my experiences with diving deep into the published setting material for the Unapproachable East region of the Forgotten Realms. When I decided that I want to make a new setting from scratch that better represents the ideas I am interested now than organically grown tangle that Kaendor had become after close to a decade of trial and error, I made a decision to stay away from any Dungeons & Dragons or Middle-Earth material. But as I did mention in my post about reading through the various sourcebooks, there actually is fairly little of the typical Fantasyland™ stereotypes in that section of the Forgotten Realms. There's no orcs, dwarves, drow, mind flayers, or beholders to be found anywhere, or mentions of trivial teleportation or magic item shops. It is quite strongly inspired by medieval Eastern Europe, but scratch a bit away at the paint and there's actually a lot of stuff that I think can go straight into my new setting. My final thoughts had been that the setting material that existed for the region was full of great ideas, but at such a surface level of detail that you would still basically have to create your own content that is inspired by those prompts to run a great campaign. And in that case I could just make a new world myself. And now seems like a perfect time to completely carve up that setting and scavenge it for its most interesting parts!
The barbarians and witches of Rashemen look like a great starting point for my forest barbarians. I planned for them to have a Baltic style anyway, so the weird mix of Slavic and Germanic elements should be pretty easy to switch out. The Red Wizards of Thay in their original incarnation are just what I need for one of the three god-king nations. Blend them together with House Telvanni from Morrowind and you got a great magical oligarchy. The barbarians of Narfell are more steppe nomads as presented, but I think I can still take a good amount of stuff from them for my highland barbarians. I think I also want to have something like the ancient demon summoners of the Nar Empire whose ruins are still slumbering under the ground, many still haunted by summoned demons. I've long been fascinated by what snippets I had read about the independent city Telflamm and its Shadowmasters thieves guild. As it turned out those snippets were really all there is about them, and this is now a great opportunity to have some fun with expanding them. And finally there's the kingdom of Impiltur, which is really more an alliance of city states than a centralized nation. And as such the second inspiration for the alliance of city states that oppose the god-kings, together with the United Cities of Kenshi.
While outside of this specific region, the biggest disappointment for me when reading the classic Forgotten Realms material was the city Westgate and its Night Masks thieves guild. I thought these were something big like Baldur's Gate or Silverymoon, but the actual content is severely underwhelming. I want to make the port city of crime and vampire assassins that I envisioned a reality.
Finally, another important resource that I added to my pile is Red Tide. When this resource on running sandbox campaigns came out in 2011, it made quite a splash, and when you read it for the first time without much knowledge about running sandboxes, it's really quite amazing. The setting that is presented is quite interesting, but there's not a lot worldbuilding ideas that I find useful to copy. Much more important are its thoughts on how you set up and expand a sandbox campaign. The tools provided in the book where later overhauled in Spears of the Dawn and then more recently in World Without Number, but I actually really like the version in this one a lot more. The most interesting to me is the system for creating courts with just a very small number of NPCs and conflicts and complications between them. With the way that I envision the new campaign to play in practice, dealing with the important leaders of other strongholds, villages, clans, cults, and gangs will probably be a primary driver of the action. The tables for creating villages with interesting local problems might also come in very handy at a later point. And while I don't expect there to be an awful lot of dungeons in the campaign, the ruins sites tables might also turn out a quite useful tool when the antics of the players require new content to be welded together on very short notice.
Author YoraPosted on 14/10/2022 15/10/2022 Categories sword & sorcery, worldbuildingTags Dark Sun, kenshi, Morrowind, New Frontiers, Red Tide, sandbox, ThiefLeave a comment on Good artists borrow, great artists steal
I have a very important question
What if The Witcher were wuxia and set in Morrowind?
I have a strong hunch what it would be: Awesome.
Author YoraPosted on 09/11/2017 27/04/2019 Categories sword & sorcery, worldbuildingTags Dark World, Morrowind, The Witcher, wuxia3 Comments on I have a very important question
Author YoraPosted on 13/03/2017 10/05/2022 Categories creatures, sword & sorcery, worldbuildingTags Ancient Lands, Avatar, Bound by Flame, Dragon Age, Morrowind, Mushishi, Planescape, Princess Mononoke, Retro Kaendor, spirits, Warcraft, writingLeave a comment on Spirits
Baroque Fantasy?
My view of creativity is very much in agreement with the thought that great ideas come from filling a mind with lots of fascinating concepts and evocative images and letting them ferment until one day something new comes growing out of the compost heap. A considerable amount of my creative "work" consists of looking for more ideas to add to my heap by reading lots of stuff remotely related to what I am working on (professionals call it "researching") and pondering of what use they could be to me. It's totally not slacking!
One thought that has occupied my recently is that many of the fantasy worlds I find highly inspiring for the Ancient Lands seem to share some common features or at least aesthetic. The two biggest influences are Morrowind and Planescape, and I know that the former was directly inspired by Glorantha. And I was actually surprised that Glorantha came into existance completely independently from Tekumel. I had assumed that there's a direct link between the two, but both appeared in the world of fantasy games in 1974/1975, the very dawning days of RPGs. I've been wondering if there's a name for the style shared by these worlds but it doesn't seem to be the case.
Looking further into it I also remembered additional settings that seem to share at least some similarity. There's the Young Kingdoms from Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, Dark Sun, and what I've seen also the RPGs Talislanta and Exalted. But it might all have started with Clark Ashton Smith's proto-Sword & Sorcery tales set in Hyperborea and Zothique (though I admit only having read the former).
One term I've often seen to describe both Smith's stories and Barker's Tekumel is baroque. Which is described as an "artistic style which used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theater, and music" or "characterized by grotesqueness, extravagance, complexity, or flamboyance". Yeah, that seems to about fit.
Tekumel
What all these settings have in common is that they are clearly not an imagined ancient history of Earth, but set in worlds that are only distantly "earthlike" in having mountains, forests, and seas and populated by cultures and creatures that have no obvious earthly counterparts. (Glorantha and the non-Morrowind parts of The Elder Scrolls aren't sticking too close to that.) It's something you can also find in Star Wars that adds spaceships and lasers to the mix but otherwise plays it perfectly straight. This is what sets them apart from the Tolkienian mainstream but also Howard's Hyborian Age, which tend to be close to alternate histories with magic set on Earths with the coasts and rivers redrawn.
So: Baroque Fantasy?
It's not a term that has really been used so far, but I think it is definitly a thing that exist and has regularly shown its face through the last 40 years, often to very high praise. (I've found it used once, for exactly the same idea.) When you say baroque it comes with the connotation of "elaborate" and "complex", and often also "confusing". But I don't think that it's really necessary to have worlds with giant piles of information to evoke this aesthetic. Glorantha and The Elder Scrolls are massive beasts of settings, I've heard Tekumel is not very accessible either, and fully grasping Planescape means a lot of reading. (Though if you can get your hands on the box sets, the later is not too difficult to understand.) Hyperborea, Elric, and Dark Sun are all kind of borderline or fringe examples, but they all make do with very little exposition. And as a player, both Morrowind and Planescape can be a total blast even when you explore them without having any clue what you're getting into.
The key elements of the baroque that makes this term applicable to this style of fantasy are extravagant, flamboyant, and grotesque. And I think that few people would content these qualities in the worlds I named. There is a certain downside in that baroque also is the name for a time period in European history with a distinctive architecture, music, and fashion, which don't have anything to do with these works of 20th century fantasy. But it's certainly a term that would be quite fitting.
Author YoraPosted on 12/02/2017 28/09/2020 Categories literature, worldbuildingTags baroque fantasy, Clark Ashton Smith, Dark Sun, Elric, Moorcock, Morrowind, pulp, writingLeave a comment on Baroque Fantasy?
Thinking about NPC levels in an Old World campaign
So here I am again, writing about RPGs. Even though I am creating the Old World as a fiction setting, I can't shake the constant thought that it also would make for a really great campaign setting. And once more I am finding myself getting back to B/X, specifically LotFP. Yes, I know: Oh, the irony! Aside from the magic system (for which I have a complete replacement almost ready) I just really love the game in all its simplicity. Combat, character advancement, and monsters are just exactly the way I really want it.
With my experiences in fiction worldbuilding, my look on preparing a campaign setting for an RPG also changed a lot. In the past I used to attempt to emulate the structure of settings like Forgotten Realms, Eberron, and Golarion, and for a long while really didn't know what to make of things like Red Tide, Yoon-Suin, or the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. But having learned a lot about Sword & Sorcery worldbuilding in fiction, this very much changed and I am seeing what's the deal with the later and how it fits my own purposes. Often less is more, and in this case it is much more less that is so much more. I am no longer interested in precise maps, borders, or population numbers for cities and countries. Making up new villages and dungeons as I go will be good enough.
But even when you have a setting that is defined by culture and environments and not by specific places and organizations, to have a campaign in which the players have real agency is that you know who the movers and shakers in the campaign area will be. And one topic that none of the many guides and introductions for running unscripted campaigns ever touch upon is the creation of NPCs. What class level should the major NPCs in the campaign have?
Now one very easy solution would be to not set a level for NPCs until the players run into them for a fight. But that causes a pretty major problem. The decision of the players to fight an NPC or not is based on whether they think they can win such a fight or not. Chosing to start a private war with a powerful local leader is as big a choice as players are going to make, and it can only be an informed and meaningful decision if the strength of the NPC is fixed before the decision is made. If you create stats for an NPC only once you know that the players are looking for a fight, their choice will have been meaningless. When you decide to make the NPC beatable or unbeatable for the party at its current strength, the players are completely without power to influence the survival and victory of their characters. Over the years there has been a lot of talking over what makes the differences between the videogames Morrowind and Oblivion (and now Skyrim as well), and one thing that really changed how the games play is the adjustment of enemies to the level of the player, or the lack of it. In Oblivion and Skyrim it has become irrelevant what places you chose to visit and what quests to try, because the difficulty will always be the same. When you discover an area that seems too dangerous for your character, you might choose to leave and go somewhere safer for now. When you then return a long time later, after lots of great adventures and getting many powerful new weapons, and it's still just as hard as it was the last time, then it really feels like you didn't make any progress at all and didn't become more powerful in any way either. What's the point of reaching higher levels and gaining better weapons and armor if it doesn't make any difference? In Morrowind monsters and NPCs are always the same strength, regardless of how powerful your character is. While this does mean that you will occasionally have to admit defeat and retreat, it really makes a huge difference to the sense of accomplishment and progress, that is an important part of unscripted videogames and RPG campaigns alike. Losing is good, because it tells you that any victory you gain has been earned.
Continue reading "Thinking about NPC levels in an Old World campaign"
Author YoraPosted on 26/04/2016 28/06/2021 Categories gamemastering, sword & sorcery, worldbuildingTags adventurers, Ancient Lands, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Morrowind, OSRLeave a comment on Thinking about NPC levels in an Old World campaign
Stumbling around in Morrowind
I first played Morrowind right back when it was first released in 2002. But I didn't get very far as I was just too confused about what I was expected to do and how to figure out how the many aspects of the game work. A few years later I gave it another try but after 20 hours or so I gave up on it once more. Many, many years later I played Skyrim (though that was more than a year after it's release), and being a much more polished game I had a much easier time getting into it. But again, I soon got bored with it after 30 to 40 hours once I realized that doing all those sidequests is ultimately pointless. All the enemies are scaled to your level and the game is pretty easy to begin with, and nothing stops you from just doing the mainquests all in a row. And possibly be done with them in 20 hours. All the other stuff you do has some interesting sounding dialoges at the start, but then you always go into either a cave or a tomb and kill everyone you find there to get the item at the end and return it to the person who send you to get it. But for what? That person never again has any interactions with you after that and it's not like you established any relationships or made any progress towards something. You improve your skills and gain treasures, which you can use to make better equipment and learn more spells. But for what? You are already strong enough to deal with everything. You don't get any stronger because the enemies will always be adjusted to remain just as difficult. And unfortunately, the two main storylines both suck.
But from what I've heard, Morrowind is quite different from Skyrim in these respects. The main storyline is much more interesting and the culture of the land original and not just standard generic vikings. And there's a point to going on other adventures because you have to become powerful enough to be able to survive in the areas where the main storyline takes you to. So with new hope I installed Morrowind again yesterday and jumped straight into it after roughly 10 years.
And at first I enjoyed it very much. But after 5 hours or so, the initial excitement about the weird landscape and intriguing culture started to fade. And I think it was about 10 hours into the game when I made it to the big capital city of Vivec when all motivation to continue left me. And shortly after I've quite playing, I realized that this was pretty much the same part of the game where I stopped the last time, 10 years ago. Because in Vivec, the huge flaw of the game becomes terribly obvious. The game is totally dead. It's lifeless and lacks any soul.
If you're familiar, that might sound very surprising and completely unjustified. The world of Morrowind is one of the most amazing and creative fantasy settings ever made. Which is true. But the way this amazing world is presented in the game is just mind crushingly dull. It's so boring. Almost the entire game conists of nothing but deserted paths through the landscape and empty hallways that always look exactly the same. And unless you're in a tavern or guild house, there just isn't anyone around. Technical limitations are something that usually is not to be blamed on the designers. Back in the day, Morrowind actually looked very impressive to me. But aside from the giant mushroom trees, the world is really extremely monotonous. The only kind of decorations you find in the towns are wooden boxes. No plants, no animals, nothing. I had to think back to Baldur's Gate, which was released four years earlier, and while the towns in that game where technically extremely simple, they just felt so much more alive. The colors not as washed out and much more detail on the 2D buildings and flat landscape. And most importantly, it had ambient sound. You hear people yelling in the distance, noises from people working, and lots of animals. Morrowind doesn't have any ambient noise at all, and that's perhaps one of the things that really kills the game. Skyrim does and it makes a huge world of difference.
I've always loved the world of Morrowind and from what I've read it has a very good story. But possibly the worst thing you could ever say about a game is that it is vastly more entertaining to read about it than to actually play the thing yourself. But with Morrowind, this is exactly what is the case. I love the world, but the game is just bad.
Author YoraPosted on 20/11/2015 20/11/2015 Categories review, video gamesTags Morrowind2 Comments on Stumbling around in Morrowind


text:
'The Counterspace Of Pop Culture In Zaire' by Magolide Collective rethinks the historical representation of African power
by Marcia Elizabeth
art&culture 6 months ago 2019-07-26 14:43:48
The Counterspace Of Pop Culture In Zaire blends the worlds of augmented and virtual reality with visual language into a "multi-sensory digital art installation." The show makes use of universal symbols, images extracted from culture and theatrical sound to give to its viewers a near mystical experience. The works on display become a commentary on spectacle, identity politics and popular culture.
The Counterspace Of Pop Culture In Zaire creates an opportunity to rethinking histories of African power that have been cast aside, ideas surrounding representation as well as global inclusivity in humanity's story. Presented as a set of enquiries, the body of work is critical to the omission and assumption based depictions of African history. Magolide Collective (Mzoxolo Mayongo & Adilson De Olivera) pose a challenge to historic depictions that are monolithic. It is their intention to create new ways of knowledge sharing. Working with a number of collaborators they embody a variety of characters throughout the course of the exhibition. Making use of mixed reality their elaborate work acts as a way to think about lived histories and cultural happenings that become permanently fixed in the digital realm via digital technologies.
Performance based work and video art are brought together speaking synonymously through the amalgamation of photography and 2D animation. This manner of working breaks boundaries in mixed-reality media and allows for new forms of exploration. The show thus seeks to unravel and critique the influence of Western art history on our imaginations when we think about a true African history. The relevance of this exhibition is paramount as it reminds us of the gaping holes that exist and need to be addressed in order to have a history that speaks full spectrum.
The show opens on the 27 July 2019 at TMRW gallery.
More art&culture
Seeking Self: Ejatu Shaw's Photographic Work Explores the Intricacies of Heritage and Community in a Modern World
Isabel Okoro: the Neuroscience and Psychology Student using the Camera to Raise Consciousness
Acts of Witness with the New Black Vanguard
We can all tear a page out of Francis Buseko's book


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Countrywide Financial Corporation and the Failure of Mortgage Socialism
Angelo Mozilo is the Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of the failed Countrywide Financial Corporation. Mr. Mozilo co-founded this company, nearly 40 years ago, in 1969. To be in business for almost forty years, and to become America's top private home-mortgage lender, are testimonies to genuine business acumen. However, success can breed arrogance, and a sense of supreme power, to the point where a corporate chieftain believes his personal will can override the free market and reshape society according to a grand vision – which, for Angelo Mozilo, entailed making America a better country by bringing home ownership within reach of all and sundry. For Countrywide Financial, unfortunately, Mr. Mozilo's dream of social engineering demanded that sound credit-underwriting principles be abandoned. And now, Countrywide Financial Corporation's failure stands as a monument as to how integrating egalitarianism and political correctness, into a business plan, is downright poisonous.
February 4, 2003 marks the day when Countrywide Financial's shareholders should have dumped every last share of their stock. For on this day Angelo Mozilo made a presentation, at The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, titled The American Dream of Homeownership: From Cliché to Mission. This is the day that Mr. Mozilo revealed to the world that political correctness had infected his mind. He openly declared that sound credit underwriting was tantamount to judgmentalism and, therefore, anti-egalitarian. How dare anyone judge anyone else – credit standards be damned. Subprime mortgages, accordingly, were going to be a blessing for America since everyone deserves a house. Oh how political correctness feels so good. He worshiped the mortgage socialism hatched in the New Deal along with every federal-housing program introduced in the succeeding decades. A true credit professional would have been horrified by this speech; which indubitably was met with approving applause by the pseudo-intellectual, limousine liberals populating Harvard University. February 4, 2003 is the day Countrywide Financial's Board of Directors should have fired Mr. Mozilo.
Over the years, Angelo Mozilo has been handsomely rewarded by Uncle Sam's mortgage socialism. Here's how it works. Countrywide Financial makes a conforming home loan, sells it to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (both are government sponsored enterprises), and has its coffers replenished in doing so; hence, allowing Countrywide to keep churning out loans. Countrywide, in turn, remains the mortgage servicer on each loan and earns a fee for doing so. These fees most certainly add up when you are servicing $1.5 trillion in home loans (not all of which are Fannie and Freddie loans). Needless to say, Countrywide had other sources of revenues but mortgage servicing was top-shelf when it came to profitability.
Thus, it is no wonder why Mr. Mozilo waxed fondly, in his Harvard speech, regarding America's foray into mortgage socialism. After all, it made him very wealthy. Here is an excerpt:
Our Nation took another important step in 1938 – in fact, 65 years ago this week – when Fannie Mae was created to buy those FHA loans, and as a result, the secondary mortgage market was born. We took a few more giant steps in the 1940s with the G.I. Bill in 1944 and the Housing Act of 1949, which stated the goal of "a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family." We witnessed the Fair Housing Act in the 60s, the creation of Freddie Mac in 1970, the expansion of Fannie Mae's activities, the Community Reinvestment Act in the 70s, the introduction of adjustable-rate mortgages in the 80s, and more recently, the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990.
We have traveled so far – thanks to a mortgage-finance system that remains the envy of the world; thanks to a constant stream of creative and innovative mortgage products, and efforts directed at encouraging the offering of loans to those who have been previously shut out; and simply put, thanks to housing being an enduring public policy objective and the lasting commitment to that objective symbolized by our partnership.
We have transformed from a Nation of renters to a Nation of homeowners. The overall U.S. homeownership rate, which was at 44 percent in 1940, hit 68 percent by the end of the third quarter of 2002.
One can only imagine Mr. Mozilo's broad smile as he delivered these words. Between his compensation and stock sales, Angelo has made hundreds of millions of dollars. Socialism certainly can be beneficial for an elite few.
Do you remember President George W. Bush's initiatives to increase homeownership in the United States? His administration definitely played a role in creating America's housing bubble. When speaking about housing assistance, President Bush evoked the emotion of envy and declared that the U.S. had a "homeownership gap." Angelo Mozilo, being a kingpin of political correctness, couldn't resist playing the envy-card to an approving Harvard audience. He stated:
It started with the New Deal, and now, we're in a new century. But through it all, one thing has remained, more or less, constant. This constant is our challenge. And this challenge is to increase the access to affordable housing. And in order to do this, we must close the homeownership gap that still exists.
As President Bush said last October:
"Two thirds of all Americans own their homes, yet we have a problem here in America because fewer than half of the Hispanics and half of the African Americans own their home. That's a homeownership gap. It's a gap that we've got to work together to close for the good of our Country, for the sake of a more hopeful future. We've got to work to knock down the barriers..."
While the number of minority homeowners has advanced recently, climbing from 9.5 million in 1994 to 13.3 million in 2001 – an increase of 40 percent – the fact remains that it is still not at a level equal to that of white homeownership. And as President Bush pointed out, the homeownership rate for African Americans is 47 percent and for Hispanic Americans it is 48 percent, a stark contrast to the homeownership rate of 75 percent for white American households. That means there is currently a homeownership gap of over 25 points when comparing white households with African Americans and Hispanics. My friends, that gap is obviously far too wide. It has been far too wide for far too long. And when adding new factors into the equation – like an influx of new immigrants or continued reduction in the supply of affordable housing – it has the potential to become far worse.
Credit underwriting has nothing to do with race, creed, skin color, gender, or religion. Sound credit underwriting has everything to do with the "Five Cs" of credit – i.e., character, capacity, capital, collateral, and conditions. Under pure capitalism, a credit underwriter is not concerned about making people happy by lending money regardless of a person's creditworthiness. An underwriter's primary objective is to make profitable loans and this demands nothing less than effectively assessing risk on a case-by-case basis. This, undeniably, requires underwriters to exercise learned judgment. Ah, but to say this in the cradle of political correctness (Harvard) would have been met with resounding "boos."
To be sure, Mr. Mozilo did not disappoint his fellow limousine liberals. He goes on the attack and smears credit underwriters as being judgmental – the antithesis of political correctness. Considering that Countrywide had become the largest private mortgage lender in the U.S., the following words depict a man who had taken leave of his senses:
I have two issues with our industry's current underwriting methodology. The first is that the automated underwriting systems kick far too many applicants down to the manual underwriting process, thereby implying these borrowers are not creditworthy; and the second issue is that once arriving in the hands of a manual underwriter, the applicant is subject to basic human judgment that can be influenced by the level of a borrower's credit score.
Let's address my first issue. I acknowledge that credit scoring uses proven statistical methods to provide lenders with the ability to quantify the risk of extending credit. And there is little question that the technique effectively and efficiently separates those with very good credit from those with questionable credit.
However, far too many borrowers are being referred to an arduous manual and cumbersome underwriting process. To me, that is clear proof that the level deemed to be an acceptable risk by our automated underwriting systems is much too high. While many of these borrowers may ultimately be approved, it is because the manual process, or human underwriter, has analyzed non-traditional factors such as the borrower's rent and utility payment history, which should be imbedded in the automated underwriting process.
Now, let me address my second issue, and that is the manual underwriting process itself. While Countrywide's own internal evidence supports the notion that manual underwriters are approving a good majority of the loan applications that get referred, the fact of the matter remains that a human is involved in this step of the process thereby creating the possibility that a decision is made based upon the level of the borrower's FICO score.
Thus, the current protocol intentionally creates an environment where borrowers with lower FICO scores are subject to being disproportionately affected by the manual underwriting process. I say we need to amend these systems to do more than just approve the "cream of the crop," by creating a system that says "no" only to those deemed unwilling to make their mortgage payments.
We must understand that the credit scoring system we have built is still imperfect, and that if we are to have any chance at closing the homeownership gap, we must make a serious investment in improving its capacity and capabilities. We must do this through improved automated underwriting models that take into account more variables, and measure true indicators of risk and willingness to pay. We need an ongoing educational process, not only at the primary market level, but also in the secondary markets and with mortgage insurers to help lead this effort to recalibrate the scoring system. And finally, it must be recognized that borrowers with credit scores below what is currently defined as "creditworthy" levels can still be acceptable credit risks. Thus, the credit score bar dividing creditworthy from high-risk borrowers, must be substantially lowered by the GSEs, the secondary market in general, and with bank regulators. The GSEs have made good progress over the last few years in expanding their credit criteria, but I encourage them to become much more aggressive in this regard.
What Angelo Mozilo desires to accomplish is to replace human underwriters with computers. He never mentions the Five Cs of credit because sound credit underwriting requires human judgment; which can be aided with, yet never replaced by, technology. In Mr. Mozilo's daffy world of credit progressivism, he may as well distill the mortgage application down to a one-page document containing a single question: Are you willing to make your mortgage payment? If the answer is "yes" then the loan is approved and if the answer is "no" then it is declined. Under such circumstances, a computer would work perfectly.
As I have asserted before, political correctness is an enfeebling infection of the mind. Mr. Mozilo's vision of politically-correct, and "enlightened," credit underwriting was nothing short of daffy. Yet, one can only imagine how approvingly this pabulum was met by his Harvard chums.
Angelo Mozilo had no intention of disappointing his fellow travelers. There was hope as to closing the homeownership gap. It was something called the subprime mortgage. In his bizarre mind, the more subprime mortgage originations there were, the better off America would be. To wit:
Historically low interest rates along with new, creative and flexible underwriting techniques are continuing to fuel a record period of growth for our industry. According to the Federal Reserve, the amount of overall mortgage debt outstanding is nearly $6 trillion. And, increasingly, the sub-prime market is boosting that number and the industry as a whole. During the first nine months of 2002, sub-prime originations rose an estimated 26 percent over the same period in 2001 – outpacing the overall market.
Had Mr. Mozilo delivered this speech today, he would have immediately been fitted into a straightjacket and then driven to the nearest loony bin.
Countrywide Financial and many other financial institutions ended up throwing all credit standards out the window in order to package and sell as many subprime mortgage-backed securities as possible. To be sure, many did not do so sharing Mozilo's politically-correct and egalitarian hallucination – they just wanted to make a fast buck.
An important distinction to convey here pertains to the fact that Countrywide and others were not selling all of their loans to Freddie and Fannie. The aforementioned mortgage-backed securities were purely packaged and sold under private labels. When America's housing bubble was expanding, buyers of such subprime securities obviously felt there was no downside. Such are the delusions that materialize when central bankers flood the world with the opiates of easy money and credit.
Regrettably, by completely ignoring underwriting fundamentals, Countrywide and its ilk have set up so many borrowers for failure (as have the king and queen of mortgage socialism, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae; both of whom, by the way, may be on the brink of their own financial meltdowns). The pain and anguish of losing a home, and having one's family displaced, will be visited upon countless families. Of course, such borrowers must look in the mirror when the urge, to pass around the blame, emerges. Nonetheless, Angelo Mozilo's dream has transmuted into a nightmare for millions.
My, oh my, aren't political correctness, egalitarianism, and social engineering wonderful? You be the judge.


text:
Finding NYC
exploring New York City one adventure at a time
NYC Gift Guide
Exploring the James A. Farley Post Office Building
On May 7, 2017 May 7, 2017 By Susan at FindingNYCIn Architecture, Free
I've walked by the James A. Farley Post Office building, located across 8th Avenue from Pennsylvania Station, many times. I've always been curious about it, but until recently I had never gone inside. What a treat I had been missing – the building's architecture and art is fascinating, certainly worth a visit!
Here's the view of the post office from the Penn Station side. The original Beaux-Arts building, designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, was constructed in 1912. (An addition in the same architectural style was constructed in 1934.) It was originally known as the General Post Office Building but was renamed after the 53rd Postmaster General in 1982. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as designated a New York City Landmark.
Although it's too small to be legible in the above photo, a famous quote associated with the U.S. Postal Service stretches across the area about the columns: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Although many Americans believe that this statement is the official motto of the U.S. Postal Service, I learned from my research that it is not – instead, the quote was chosen the building's architects and comes from Herodotus's Histories. The exterior of the building has some interesting architectural details.
The inside of the building is a magnificent surprise. The high ceiling is incredible, with so many details it's hard to absorb them all. Included in the ceiling's design are the seals of ten countries all considered major nations at the time of the building's construction.
The building is still a working post office, with windows open seven days a week with long hours.
At either end of the lobby are smaller, round rooms with many special architectural details.
These smaller rooms also contain two unique monochromatic murals, painted by artist Louis Lozowick as part of the New Deal's Treasury Relief Art Project in 1938. They are titled "Triboro Bridge in Process of Construction" and "Sky Line and Waterfront Traffic as Seen from Manhattan Bridge."
In both the lobby and adjacent rooms, there are artifacts related to postal history, in essence a small postal service museum.
The post office building is part of future plans to expand and improve Penn Station, with new Amtrak access located in parts of the building that are not currently in use. Don't worry though, the historic details of the building will still be preserved, and the lobby and post office windows still open to all. The plan is to call the new Penn Station annex Moynihan Station, after former New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Want to visit the James A. Farley Post Office? It's easily accessible by public transportation. Many bus routes and subway routes are just a short distance away, and you can take the 1, 2, 3, A, C, or E trains to the 34th Street-Penn Station stop. Additionally, Amtrak trains and Path trains from New Jersey come into Penn Station.
James A. FarleymailNew York CityNYCPenn Stationphotographypost officetravelUnited States Postal Service
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15 thoughts on "Exploring the James A. Farley Post Office Building"
Frankie Beane
Love the ceilings–thank you for looking up! The murals are interesting I am not sure I like the colors used. It is interesting to me to see the historical buildings that have managed to stand the test of time. What other buildings were raised in 1912 and are they still standing?
Susan at FindingNYC
So many of the buildings constructed during that time period are no longer there. Prior to the creation of the New York City Landmarks Commission in 1965, older architecture was often not valued by developers. In fact, the original Penn Station, which was constructed during the same time period as the post office in a matching style by the same architects, was torn down and replaced in the 1960s. Its destruction was one impetus behind the creation of the Landmarks Commission.
K Taylor
What a marvelous building! I love all the beautiful, intricate details and that the post office's past is embraced and celebrated. This was such a treat – thank you!
Little Miss Traveller
Love the building. I'm a real fan of anything post related !
jfwknifton
Wow! What a building!
The ceilings are indeed a surprise. I love the photo showing the counters in action, and that second New Deal artwork looks as if it features a genii.
I love your research and what it uncovers. Either I'm a poor researcher or Poland and Billy's Beach aren't important enough for Mr Google to feature!
I love the mystery of things and just keep digging until I find things. There's a lot to find in New York City though – people document everything, I think!
Unlike the obscure south coast of NSW. Even in times of extreme flooding near here the news rarely mentions anything much south of Wollongong, 250 km north.
Sherry Felix
I like your images and the post.
artsny99
Great post! You are opening new corners of the city for me. Thank you!
Tatyana at http://www.arts-ny.com
Those ceilings are magnificent, Susan. Glad the building will be preserved. So much better if it can be incorporated. 🙂
Pamela Young
I saw this building from our "hop on/hop off" bus tour, but didn't realize it was accessible to the public. Next time I'm in NYC, I'll pay a visit!
houstonphotojourney
You have such a knack for finding the most interesting places!
Thanks! I enjoy exploring.
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© 2015-2017, Susan Landrum, FindingNYC, and the FindingNYC blog. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
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text:
Q: DocuSign - Send an envelope with unlimited number of PDF's Using https://github.com/docusign/eg-01-php-jwt
I have successfully implemented the above repository to send a PDF for signing.
What I am trying to achieve is the ability to send any number of PDF's for signing but the example only allows 3 documents.
The section in question is as follows:
$document1 = new \DocuSign\eSign\Model\Document([  # create the DocuSign document object
    'document_base64' => $doc1_b64,
    'name' => 'Order acknowledgement',  # can be different from actual file name
    'file_extension' => 'html',  # many different document types are accepted
    'document_id' => '1'  # a label used to reference the doc
]);
$document2 = new \DocuSign\eSign\Model\Document([  # create the DocuSign document object
    'document_base64' => $doc2_b64,
    'name' => 'Conditions of Sale',  # can be different from actual file name
    'file_extension' => 'docx',  # many different document types are accepted
    'document_id' => '2'  # a label used to reference the doc
]);
$document3 = new \DocuSign\eSign\Model\Document([  # create the DocuSign document object
    'document_base64' => $doc3_b64,
    'name' => 'Invoice e'.$S_invoiceID.'',  # can be different from actual file name
    'file_extension' => 'pdf',  # many different document types are accepted
    'document_id' => '3'  # a label used to reference the doc
]);
         echo $document3;
# The order in the docs array determines the order in the envelope
//$envelope_definition->setDocuments([$document1, $document2, $document3]);
$envelope_definition->setDocuments([$document2, $document3]);

I have tried the following but to no avail:
$InvoiceIDArray = ["9329","9328"];

foreach ($InvoiceIDArray as $InvoiceID)  {

    $content_bytes = file_get_contents($demo_docs_path . "e".$InvoiceID."_invoice.pdf");
    $doc3_b64 = base64_encode($content_bytes);

    $document[$InvoiceID] = new \DocuSign\eSign\Model\Document([  # create the DocuSign document object
        'document_base64' => $doc3_b64,
        'name' => 'Invoice e'.$InvoiceID.'',  # can be different from actual file name
        'file_extension' => 'pdf',  # many different document types are accepted
        'document_id' => ''.$InvoiceID.''  # a label used to reference the doc
    ]);

    $this->newDocs = $document[$InvoiceID];

}

# The order in the docs array determines the order in the envelope
$envelope_definition->setDocuments([$documentA,$this->newDocs]);

I want to pull ID's from an array for example and then send those PDF's with the matching ID's.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

A: Your loop is overwriting itself with $this->newDocs = $document[$InvoiceID];.
Untested:
$InvoiceIDArray = ["9329","9328"];
$this->newDocs = [];

foreach ($InvoiceIDArray as $InvoiceID)  {

    $content_bytes = file_get_contents($demo_docs_path . "e".$InvoiceID."_invoice.pdf");

    if (empty($content_bytes)) { continue; } # prevent adding empty contents

    $this->newDocs[] = new \DocuSign\eSign\Model\Document([  # create the DocuSign document object
        'document_base64' => base64_encode($content_bytes),
        'name' => 'Invoice e'.$InvoiceID,  # can be different from actual file name
        'file_extension' => 'pdf',  # many different document types are accepted
        'document_id' => $InvoiceID  # a label used to reference the doc
    ]);
}

# The order in the docs array determines the order in the envelope
$envelope_definition->setDocuments(array_merge([$documentA], $this->newDocs));

or a little simplier
$invoice_ids = [9329, 9328];
$documents = [$documentA];

foreach ($invoice_ids as $invoice_id)  {
    $content_bytes = @file_get_contents("{$demo_docs_path}e{$invoice_id}_invoice.pdf");

    if (empty($content_bytes)) { continue; }

    $documents[] = new \DocuSign\eSign\Model\Document([
        'document_base64' => base64_encode($content_bytes),
        'name' => "Invoice e{$invoice_id}",
        'file_extension' => 'pdf',
        'document_id' => $invoice_id
    ]);
}

$envelope_definition->setDocuments($documents);

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