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This post, and the accompanying policy statement, was drafted by various members of the Ontario Pathfinder Society. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to respond to me directly or comment below. Your feedback is appreciated. |
A short while ago the Toronto Area Gamers (TAG) had to write out a sexual harassment policy in response to reports of inappropriate behavior by some of its members. We generally like to think that we have an inclusive community across Ontario, but in order to maintain and strengthen the Ontario Pathfinder Society’s high standard of respect and safety for all participants, here are a few things to keep in mind. |
Some PFS scenarios contain adult or slightly provocative themes. For example, anything with the Paracountess or a Calistrian Temple is likely going to have some PG-13 content. However, just because these story elements exist in some PFS scenarios and modules, it is not a license for GMs to over-state or abuse them in a way that makes players uncomfortable. Be aware that anything said by a player or GM that has sexual content or innuendo can impact the feelings of others at the table, and may cause genuine |
discomfort. Since everyone is welcome in the PFS community, the onus is on people (players and GMs) to monitor what they say. It is not on the other people at the table to monitor their feelings. People who are made to feel uncomfortable are the victims, and we don’t blame victims at PFS. |
Although everybody shares responsibility for creating an inclusive, collegial, and equitable environment, the importance of the GM cannot be understated. It is, after all, the GM who presents the world and characters that the players are interacting with. He or she has a much greater chance of inadvertently introducing elements that would make a player uncomfortable, and it is undeniable that players will tend to look to the GM for guidance. The GM must not only set the tone, but should monitor and moderate |
the behaviour of the players as well. |
If at any time you feel that the content presented in a game is objectionable or troublesome in any way, please let someone in authority know. Although there are several scenarios which do contain mildly provocative content, presenting that content is sometimes a fine balancing act for the game master. Don’t be afraid to tell your GM if you feel uncomfortable: they are generally flexible, and are more than happy to tweak the game to ensure enjoyment for all players involved. |
Issues of players and characters acting inappropriately towards each other are harder to deal with. If you’re the victim of any sort of harassment at the table, the most important thing to remember is that you don’t have to put up with anything that distresses you in any way. There are several methods to address this behaviour: Speaking to the person who is making you feel uncomfortable may be a good place to start, or alternatively, you can speak to the GM, the store coordinator, or your local Venture |
Officer. They are more than happy to assist you, as your safety and fun are their paramount concern. |
To go along with this announcement, some of the senior community members have drafted a short policy statement outlining the Ontario Pathfinder Society’s views on the aforementioned issues. If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments in regards to the policy statement, please do not be afraid to put them forward. We value your input! Working together, we can continue to make the Ontario Pathfinder Society an inclusive and dynamic gaming environment. |
Why does the first film starring both Meryl Streep AND Julia Roberts, based on a play that won both five Tony Awards AND the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, wind up disappointing? There are a couple of reasons why the film of August: Osage County, which opens on December 27th in New York and Los Angeles, should have been at least as good as the play: |
1. Both the play and the movie were written by Tracy Letts, and the story is the same, albeit cut from three and a half hours to two: |
After poet Beverly Weston (Sam Shepard) disappears, his three daughters, including Barbara (Julia Roberts) and other family members, return to their home in rural Oklahoma and their troubled mother Violet Weston (Meryl Streep.) One by one the characters’ afflictions, resentments and ugly secrets unfold. |
2. The cast is the best that Hollywood has to offer – performers who don’t just have star power and solid acting chops, but who individually and collectively signal “quality.” |
Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep are full-fledged movie stars who help sell any picture they’re in. Streep is also probably the country’s most respected screen actress: She has been nominated for 17 Academy Awards, more than any other performer. |
She delivers another riveting performance, nailing as usual the dialect and the precise (unflattering) look, offering a persuasive portrait of a woman who is in pain, and inflicting pain on everybody around her. The histrionics, self-exposure, unusual (mannered) line deliveries, the odd pauses, the little familiar gestures, are all vintage Streep — an acquired taste, perhaps, but one most of us have acquired. |
But the other members of the 12-member cast are no slouches. Ewan McGregor, who plays Julia Roberts’ estranged husband, can also lay claim to movie stardom. |
Margo Martindale and Chris Cooper, as Violet’s sister and brother-in-law, elevate most every picture they are in, and this one is no exception. Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Holmes) plays their son in a standout performance as the clumsy, self-loathing first cousin beaten down by his own mother. |
The pleasant discoveries here are the actors playing the other two sisters, Juliette Lewis and Julianne Nicholson. |
Director John Wells has cast even the smaller roles with either first-rate veterans or stars on the rise who have their own fan following, such as Abigail Breslin (the kid in the film Little Miss Sunshine; Helen Keller in the Broadway revival of The Miracle Worker) as Julia Roberts’ teenage daughter. |
But the film of August: Osage County doesn’t measure up to the play, in at least three ways: |
Click on any photograph to see it enlarged |
1. Julia Roberts performance is like blunt-force trauma. |
At one point in the film (as in the play), Bill Fordham (McGregor) says to his wife Barbara: |
“You’re thoughtful, Barbara, but you’re not open. You’re passionate but you’re hard. You’re a good, decent, funny wonderful woman, and I love you, but you’re a pain in the ass.” |
But Julia Roberts mostly just shows us the half of Barbara that’s the closed, hard pain in the ass. |
This is the sort of performance that excites Oscar voters; impresses and shocks the vox populi – think glamorous Diana Ross as drug-addicted Billie Holliday in Lady Sings the Blues, or supermodel Charlize Theron sans makeup as a serial killer or drab mine worker. They’re given credit for their lack of vanity. Here is Julia Roberts — the great beauty, America’s sweetheart — angrily, bitterly and above all loudly in your face. I have little doubt many will praise her “brave choices.” |
But what’s largely missing from Roberts’ portrayal are the gradations and shades, the insecurities, the feeling of a character burdened beyond endurance – all present in Amy Morton’s performance on stage. Without this side of Barbara’s character, the audience cannot witness her evolution before our eyes. When Barbara barks, right before the Act II curtain, “I’m running things now,” we understand that she has been transformed….into her mother. There is no such evolution evident in the film. |
Ironically, Barbara’s quiet scene in the gazebo with her two sisters is among the most watchable in the movie, precisely because it’s one of the rare moments when Julia Roberts is toned down, nuanced. |
(To be fair, it is Roberts’ over-the-top performance that makes one of the best scenes in the play just as thrilling in the movie; since I am trying to avoid spoilers here, I’ll only refer to it as the “eat the fish, bitch” scene.) |
2. The filmmakers make poor technical choices |
The black comedy of August: Osage County is derived to a great extent from the characters’ ironic distance from their own misery. It helped that there was a literal distance between the characters and the audience in the play. But in the film, after some opening establishment shots of the rural landscape that feel obligatory, there is a Les Miz-level close-up of Sam Shepard’s Beverly Weston that more or less destroyed for me the arch humor of his opening monologue. We then watch Meryl Streep’s drug-addled |
Violet, whose short-cropped white hair is falling out because of chemotherapy, babble incoherently, then behave flirtatiously in front of the new maid (an under-used Misty Upham.) Nothing about this is funny. We feel Beverly’s embarrassment, and we ourselves, forced into so intimate a view, are embarrassed as well. There are moments later in the film that showcase Letts’ mordant wit, but one could certainly be justified in feeling misled by the producers’ billing of this film as a comedy. |
Similarly, the constant insertion of reaction shots during the characters’ speeches undermines them. |
It is a bit baffling that the producers would pick as director John Wells, known for TV shows like ER and The West Wing. I don’t know of any background he has in the theater, and this is only his second film. |
But you have to wonder whether any director could have turned August: Osage County into as fine a film as it is a play. The story’s pleasures, even its artistry, seem inextricably linked to theatrical rather than cinematic conventions. This leads to a glaring example: |
3. There are too many over-the-top revelations. |
We have come to expect the revelation of past secrets on stage. |
After all, the characters are just sitting there talking; it’s still mostly a verbal art. |
So, the drama comes from a verbal reconstruction of the past |
On screen however, we largely live in the present. It’s a visual medium |
Yes, there are films that hinge on the revelation of secrets, but these are often suspenseful thrillers (The Usual Suspects.) Other films replete with secrets – often with their origins in literature (Ordinary People) or with the feel of a play (The Big Chill) – are primarily portraits of characters; take away the secrets and these dramas could still work. And yes, there have been plays with secrets that have worked as films, such as Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, directed by Mike Nichols |
(whose background in theater is as extensive as in film), and starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. |
But the revelations in August: Osage County are doozies — adultery, divorce, cancer, alcoholism, addiction, suicide, child abuse, pedophilia, incest – and they pile up higher and way faster than any soap opera. Indeed, soap opera would surely be the most fitting medium for all these afflictions, if the characters were younger and buffer, and the action spread out over two months rather than two hours – and if it were not for Letts’ leavening humor. |
So why did August:Osage County work so well on stage? Perhaps much of it had to do with that humor — and a sense that Letts was playing games with the genre even as he hewed to its conventions. Maybe it was also, strangely, the set. The “opening up” that filmmakers always subject plays to works against August: Osage County. I’m sure we are meant to understand the characters better through the landscape – and I suppose it’s helpful to see a shot of a bank thermometer recording the temperature as 108 degrees. |
But on stage, there is only the interior of the Weston house – a mammoth set that allowed for some half dozen playing areas on three different levels, but one that paradoxically induced a feeling of claustrophobia. It also gave us a feeling of connection; we were sharing this space with these characters in real time — in a way trapped along with them in the overheated environment — and we were more able to get past the artificiality of the proceedings. |
That the film of August: Osage County falls short of the play shouldn’t in theory matter to most moviegoers. Relatively few people saw the stage play, which debuted in Chicago and ran on Broadway from 2007 to 2009, followed by national tours and international productions. It’s possible that my personal disappointment at the film had to do with the high expectations set by the play, which left me dazzled, largely because of the performances. But won’t moviegoers have high expectations as well, because of the |
pedigree of the source and the quality of the cast? |
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Tesla Autopilot Director Makes Several Interesting Comments |
May 26th, 2016 by James Ayre |
During the event, Anderson revealed that, following the beginning of Autopilot hardware installations back in late 2014, and up until the launch of the feature in late 2015, the company downloaded data relating to literally millions of miles worth of owner driving. |
This extensive data — revealing the driving habits of owners, road conditions, etc — is what allowed the company to so rapidly launch such a superior product (as compared to competitors), according to Anderson. |
“The ability to pull high-resolution data from these vehicles and to update the vehicles over the air is a significant part of what’s allowed us in 18 months to go from very behind the curve to what is today one of the more advanced autonomous or semi-autonomous driving features,” stated Anderson. |
“Since introducing this hardware 18 months ago we’ve accrued 780 million miles,” Anderson continued. “We can use all of that data on our servers to look for how people are using our cars and how we can improve things.” |
He also revealed that, at current fleet size, the company collects about a million miles worth of data roughly every 10 hours. |
The really interesting part of his comments, though, is relating to how the company tests out new features. Gas 2 provides more: |
Anderson also said something even more surprising. When Tesla engineers come up with new software ideas, they can be tested by uploading them to customers’ cars without them knowing about it. Then the company can monitor how the tweaks perform in real world driving before deciding whether to activate the new features via an over the air update. |
“We will often install an ‘inert’ feature on all our vehicles worldwide,” said Anderson. “That allows us to watch over tens of millions of miles how a feature performs.” While ‘inert’, the software has no ability to actually control any of the functions of the car. |
Anderson said Tesla’s data-driven strategy allows the company to keep advancing the company’s Autopilot technology. It will allow the system to operate more effectively in urban driving environments that have challenges like intersections, pedestrians, and other less predictable factors. |
A very interesting approach. And one that to my eyes seems superior to the one being pursued by Google. Though, in Google’s case, the Tesla-approach wasn’t really an approach — owing to the company’s lack of a deployed fleet of vehicle to monitor. |
Related: |
Tesla Has The Right Approach To Self-Driving Cars |
Tesla Autopilot Outdistances Google Cars |
Images via LinkedIn/Sterling Anderson & Tesla Motors |
Do you have an addiction to Tesla news? Check out our new Tesla Obsessed Facebook group. |
Hip Hop circles have long debated the greatest rapper of all-time. The question has likely been the source of thousands of arguments in barbershops, hair salons, and around office water coolers. It’s a point of contention because answering the question, in any definitive way, proves difficult. Ask ten people and you’ll probably come away with ten different answers. |
Over the past decade, Jay-Z’s name has constantly been in circulation in such debates. Through the course of his 17-year career, he’s attained an unprecedented level of visibility and commercial success. He’s one of a small group of Rap acts to have transcended the genre. Jay’s career accomplishments are widely known, but does he warrant real consideration as the highest watermark in the annals of Hip Hop history? |
As a longtime fan of Rap and self-admitted Jay-Z Stan, I’ve often made the claim that he’s the Muhammad Ali of the artform. Ten years ago, the responses to that claim were impassioned and sometimes even vitriolic. Patent denials about the substantive reality of this claim were the rule. Very few exceptions were made back then and the opposition always required elaborate presentations to demonstrate his worthiness for such a distinction. |
In 2003, you had to argue the affirmative position. These days, the loudest appeals are coming from detractors on the other side of the debate. I’m the nostalgic type so today I’d like to re-issue a rejoinder to settle the argument once and for all. Don’t judge me, Hip Hop and hubris are familiar bedfellows. |
Without further ado, here’s my case: |
1. 30 million+ albums sold (domestically). |
Commercial sales are always the first casualty in the supremacy wars that dominate the general discourse in Hip Hop. Sales alone can never be a full measure of artistic merit. Vanilla Ice once sold 15,000,000 copies of his debut album To the Extreme. That album, to this day, is still one of the best-selling albums in the history of the genre, but in the pantheon of Rap respectability, Robert Van Winkle is little more than a footnote. Outside of the global Hip Hop community that commonly disfavors the |
uber-successful artists of Jay’s ilk, album sales are always included in the criteria that establish the greats. Think about it: Have you ever heard anyone gloss over record sales in a conversation about the Beatles? |
Jay-Z trails only Eminem and Tupac on the list of the top-selling Rap artists of all-time. According to the RIAA, his discography accounts for more than 33 million albums sold in the US (50 million worldwide). To put that number into perspective, he’s outsold the following non-Rap acts: Barry Manilow, Frank Sinatra, ZZ Top, Brooks & Dunn, Janet Jackson, Motley Crue, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police, and the Bee Gees. Jay-Z is in elite company irrespective of genre. His total sales number becomes even more |
impressive when you consider the fact that his biggest-selling album, Vol. 2…Hard Knock Life, sold 5 million copies more than 15 years ago. |
2. Real-time influence. |
Imitation has always been the highest form of flattery in the Rap genre. It’s not uncommon for younger artists to mine the flows, personas, and mannerisms of the predecessors who influenced them. We typically see pioneering emcees emulated in the aftermath of their careers though. In the Jay-Z case, he’s one of the most copied acts in the Rap world while he’s still a competitive force in the marketplace. The influence over his subordinates is clear. Traces of Jay can be heard in the likes of Kanye West, |
Lil’ Wayne, Young Jeezy, Drake, Rick Ross, Lupe Fiasco, Pusha T, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and a host of other artists. Despite often having been maligned by his contemporaries, he remains one of the most admired rappers in the music business. |
3. Far-reaching impact. |
In 2003, Jay-Z announced what would eventually become a short-lived retirement. He accompanied the announcement with his seminal project The Black Album. If that weren’t parting gift enough, he made the a cappella version of the album available to consumers (for remixes and mashups). What would follow is the one of the most interactive movements the genre’s ever witnessed. The vocals-only album spawned over 150 Black Album remix projects. The most notable remixes were done by: 9th Wonder, Illmind, Kev |
Brown, Kno, and DJ Danger Mouse, but it became a trend that spanned both the commercial and underground realms of Hip Hop. Only the ‘Roxanne Wars’ (of the mid-80’s) and the Kendrick Lamar “Control” responses were comparable in terms of sheer scale. |
Jay-Z’s now-infamous feud with Nas is another testament to how impactful he’s been over the music business. In a number of Hip Hop circles, fans credit their wax war of words for the resurrection of Nas’ career. Nas’ venemous “Ether” was featured on his 2001 release Stillmatic. Unsurprisingly, the album was highly successful, selling more than two million copies. It was the biggest-selling album he’d had since the late-90’s. He hasn’t sold as many records on a single project since. |
4. A long tenure. |
Jay-Z’s marriage to the music industry is nearing its China anniversary. It’s been 17 years since his debut album Reasonable Doubt (1996). Few in the Rap game have hung around as long. Even fewer have coupled this kind of longevity with lasting relevance and commercial viability. At 43, Jay-Z’s still at the top of his form. His partnership with Samsung to digitally distribute Magna Carta… Holy Grail resulted in a Platinum-certified album. MCHG went on to sell another 528,000 copies the following week. There |
are a half-dozen artists with fifteen year careers, but maybe only three, not named Jay-Z, who can still boast an elite-level contribution to today’s recording industry (Eminem, Lil’ Wayne, and Kanye West). |
5. Numbers on the boards. |
Jay-Z’s amassed an astonishing set of musical accomplishments. |
Consider the following: |
Record: Most No. 1 albums for a solo artist in music history (13) |
Record: Most Top 10s on the Billboard Hot 100 among rappers (20) |
Career Awards: Grammy Awards (17), Billboard Music Awards (2), American Music Awards (3), MTV Video Music Awards (6), BET Awards (6) |
5th on the all-time list of most appearances on the Billboard Hot 100 (79) |