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| | | Some like it overheated: how Marilyn Monroe is betrayed by Blonde | | by Lauren Mechling Sep 28, 2022 | | Andrew Dominik’s explicit, button-pushing take on the life of the superstar, uses shock tactics to replace insight and depth Before Diana, there was another blonde whose potent blend of fragility and beauty stirred up pity and lust, and whose tragic death at age 36 cemented her status as a cultural obsession. Half a century after her fatal overdose (or suicide, or murder – the conjectures and conspiracy theories abound), Marilyn Monroe’s star still burns bright and hot. Her name appears on the latest cover of American Vogue, which features an essay by Lena Dunham on the icon’s legacy. The ever-growing library of biographies includes volumes by avowed fan Gloria Steinem (who said the vulnerable and childlike Monroe represented everything women feared being) and Norman Mailer (his Marilyn was: “blonde and beautiful and had a sweet little rinky-dink of a voice and all the cleanliness of all the clean American backyards”). More recently, the hummingbird-prolific novelist Joyce Carol Oates was moved to shade in the story. Her critically acclaimed 2000 novel based on Marilyn’s life is the source material for the writer and director Andrew Dominik’s psychological thriller Blonde, now available on Netflix after premiering at the Venice film festival. Continue reading... | | | | | 'We can continue Pratchett's efforts': the gamers keeping Discworld alive | | by Rick Lane Sep 28, 2022 | | A text-based, multiplayer role-playing game based on the works of Terry Pratchett, the Discworld MUD has been in constant service for 30 years Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld has a long association with video games. Not only was the author himself a fan of Doom, Thief, and The Elder Scrolls, but the relationship between his satirical fantasy world and video games goes all the way back to 1986’s The Colour of Magic – a text-adventure adaptation of Pratchett’s first Discworld novel. Later games based on Pratchett’s work include 1995’s Discworld, a notoriously difficult adventure game voiced by actors including Eric Idle and Tony Robinson, and 1999’s Discworld Noir, a 3D detective game where you play as the universe’s first private investigator. But the most ambitious Discworld game in existence is not officially associated with Terry Pratchett at all. The Discworld MUD is a text-based “multi-user-dungeon” – an early form of online role-playing game where everything from places to in-game actions are described in words. Created in 1991 by David “Pinkfish” Bennett, the MUD has been in consistent service for over 30 years, and today offers the most detailed depiction of the Discworld outside of Pratchett’s books. Not only does it feature most of the key locations, from the city of Ankh-Morpork to areas such as Klatch and the Ramtops, it has seven guilds, player-run shops, and countless quests and adventures featuring many of the Discworld’s most notable characters. It even has its own newspaper. Continue reading... | | | | | 'It's the language of rebellion': the story of Slave to Sirens, the all-female Lebanese metal band | | by JIM FARBER Sep 28, 2022 | | In a new documentary called Sirens, the band – who are the first and only all-female thrash band in Lebanon – talk about their difficult road to success To Lebanese guitarist Lilas Mayassi, heavy metal music speaks a language. “It’s the language of power,” she said, “the language of rebellion.” For Mayassi and her band, Slave to Sirens, those two languages have given her group a voice in a country where power has been widely abused and rebellion has become increasingly dangerous. The dramatic challenges Mayassi and her group have faced over the last few years – exacerbated by their role as the first, and only, all-female heavy metal band in Lebanon – are chronicled in a bracingly frank new documentary titled Sirens. Directed by Moroccan American film-maker Rita Baghdadi, the doc immerses the viewer in the world of the musicians, the better to “present a more authentic, raw and complex portrayal of Arab women”, the director said. Continue reading... | | | | | |
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