“You aren’t OK with AI Voices but you’re OK with Miku????”
First off, never insult my dearest friend Miku like that ever again.
Second, Miku isn’t stealing the voices of other people. That’s the issue with AI voices. They’re stealing real people’s voices. Miku is her own funky little hologram with a funky little hologram voice.
Big difference.
Hatsune miku, and all vocaloids, are also syhnthesized from a real persons voice.
However, unlike ai, those people gave their voice to the voicebank consensually, and with compensation. Theres no identity theft of any form goin on cos they gave it willingly and knowing full well for what purpose
Also, someone still has the name the songs. They’re just a voice, someone still has to DO something with it
Thank you for the correction! The point is she isn’t stealing. She’s just a funky lil hologram.
I think a key difference here is also the fact that vocaloid requires work. The songs made with vocaloid are actually written and created by the people that made them — Miku and the other voicebanks are essentially just virtual performers. Given the fact that the people who contribute to the voice banks do so willingly and are paid for their time, it’s much closer to hiring someone to perform something you made than fully stealing someone’s voice little mermaid style
Cool and all but I don’t think Raytheon cares there’s blood on their hands. That’s like the whole point of the company.
activists and protesters are not trying to appeal to the [total lack of] morality of corporations like Raytheon; the point of these demonstrations is to draw attention to their cause & disrupt “business as usual”.
Unironically waiting for the bus in the rain rn. Real ones know ✌️🌧️🚌☔
I’ve been here for over an hour soaking wet and pathetic and a truck driving by fully stopped in the street and reversed into the parking lot behind me. This older gentleman got it and came up to me and said “can I give you a gift?” And I asked “what’s that?” And he gave me an umbrella from his truck and left. Now I’m dryer. The world is full of kindness and beauty btw. If you even care. Message to all my sopping wet sweeties
List of Academic and Literary Books Compiled by Dr. Kiran Grewal
Academic Books (many available in Goldsmiths library)
Rosemary Sayigh (2007) The Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries, Bloomsbury
Ilan Pappé (2002)(ed) The Israel/Palestine Question, Routledge
(2006) The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, OneWorld Publications
(2011) The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel, Yale University Press
(2015) The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge, Verso Books
(2017) The Biggest Prison on earth: A history of the Occupied territories, OneWorld Publications
(2022) A History of Modern Palestine, Cambridge University Press
Rashid Khalidi (2020) The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, MacMillan
Andrew Ross (2019) Stone Men: the Palestinians who Built Israel, Verso Books
Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir (2012) The One-State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine, Stanford University Press.
Ariella Azoulay (2011) From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947-1950, Pluto Press
Jeff Halper (2010) An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel, Pluto Press
(2015) War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification
(2021) Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State, Pluto Press
Anthony Loewenstein (2023) The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the Technology of Occupation around the World (CURRENTLY FREE TO DOWNLOAD ON VERSO)
Noura Erakat (2019) Justice for some: law and the question of Palestine, Stanford University Press
Neve Gordon (2008) Israel’s Occupation, University of California Press
Joseph Massad (2006) The persistence of the Palestinian question: essays on Zionism and the Palestinians, Routledge Edward Said (1979) The Question of Palestine, Random House
the decrease in costuming quality over the last 20 years has been soooo precipitous & nauseating. i’m not even talking abt marvel’s cg supersuits or anything this time, look at the fabric quality, structure, layering, character, and craftsmanship of older costumes in 102 dalmations (2000) vs cruella (2021)
ever after (1998) vs cinderella (2021)
lord of the rings (2001-2003) vs the rings of power (2022)
this trend should upset you not just because it looks cheap, but because it suggests a strong anti-art and anti-labor movement in film and tv making. don’t forget costumers are unionized
I WORK IN COSTUMES AND CAN TALK ABOUT THIS MORE SPECIFICALLY
It’s not just that we’re unionized, though that absolutely plays into the financial aspect of it to a degree. There is 100% not just an anti-labor and anti-artistic sentiment, but also just an overall shift from these productions being treated as less like storytelling and performance, like they were in the past, and more like corporate investments and business endeavors. Everything is bottom line vs potential profits, marketability, and modern trends, or what will trend on tiktok, and you have to design to that constantly.
It’s also that filmmaking has developed the expectation of making movies on such a short production time that there’s no time to MAKE amazing beautiful pieces like this. A good gown may take weeks or months to complete and many rounds of fittings and mockups, and might be very heavy or restrictive to actors and limit how long they can shoot in a given costume. From my experience, things are decided on one day and have to be ready to shoot in a few weeks, and that’s only if the writers aren’t constantly having to make last second changes because the directors and producers change their visions constantly on a dime, down to the very last minute, and there’s nothing we can do as the costume team except make it happen or make a REALLY good case for why we can’t just find some cheap option fast that would work instead. So you might spend thousands on that beautiful dress only for them to completely cut the scene, change the context entirely in rewrites, or just decide they don’t like the dress and want something else.
And because directors and producers get last say, and often they have Bad Taste and want things that are modern and marketable, and often will think things look great that are actually pretty unfitting for the character or make no sense for the design of the film, they insist on bad choices that then get pushed through to the end result of the film. Actors do this too sometimes, like what happened with Emma Watson and Belle’s dress in the live action Beauty and the Beast remake, but usually only the big name actors have enough star power to swing full changes like that.
And of course, yes, there’s not enough budget for high quality work. Costumers, like everyone else on film sets right now, are expected to stretch the budgets they’re given to ‘make it work’ because so many have (in order to make the producers happy and keep their jobs). And in return, quality goes down, because in order to build a costume you need good fabric, embellishments, and labor. Good fabric costs a lot of money, embellishments cost a lot of money, hand fitting and skilled labor cost a lot of money, and costume budgets are being given none of that because the studios are incredibly strict and frugal with what they expect you to spend so they can make the most profit off of a given project, so cuts to quality end up being made somewhere in order to make up the difference and get the actors clothed.
I’ve rambled enough, but basically, yes, unions, but also there’s a lot of deeper layers that go into why these things have been declining that are all interconnected and related to the general commodification of art and framing of art as content to consume rather than stories to tell that’s happened in the past ten years or so.
and it results in VERY VERY GOOD costumers being hampered
Rings of Power? that was Kate Hawley. who also did Crimson Peak (2015) and produced costumes like this:
so it’s not always a skill issue, to be sure
To continue with “it’s not always a skill issue”, Jenny Beavan designed the costumes both for Ever After and Cruella.
It just shows what a talented designer can do with time and resources (and no interfering from directors, producers or actors).
So at my workplace, we fund a Food Is Free shelf. It’s the basics: take what you need, give what you can - our town has a high level of poverty, there’s a cost of living crisis, be the good you want to see in the world etc etc.
Today we had a guy knock on the door and ask if we had a plastic bag he could use to carry a few things - I said sure, got him a plastic bag, and he started packing up his 2 rolls of toilet paper, his 3 or 4 foodstuff items. He said he’d been to a funeral out of town (1500 kms away) and spent his paycheck on fuel - he was only broke till Friday, he said.
And I said, well I’m glad we could help, it’s why we have the shelf. We want the community to use it.
And he said:
But people ABUSE it! I’ve seen people take heaps of stuff from it - and they don’t even have kids or anything. And it’s fair enough, some people are struggling until the next paycheck, but other people just ABUSE it. You need a sign that says TAKE ONE ITEM ONLY or something. I’ve taken something from here maybe twice, but I’ve seen people coming round every week! I’ve even put stuff on the shelf! Yeah, you need CAMERAS or something. People abuse it.
So here is a man who is actively utilising a public resource that we created to support our local community…And yet he is so brainwashed by capitalism into thinking that people don’t deserve basic needs - if they’re not working hard, or maybe they’re struggling but they don’t have it As Bad as others, or they’re using a FREE RESOURCE more often than HE thinks is acceptable. He thinks that we should use security cameras to crack down on people “STEALING” from the Food is FREE shelf. Like he’s more worthy, like he’s a better person, because he doesn’t need as much help as others might.
Sometimes, when something is free, people might abuse it. But isn’t it better to offer the support to people who need it? To offer an opportunity for people to get back on their feet (even if they’re only broke till Friday)? To provide help, no questions asked and no conditions needed?
So what if people abuse it - isn’t it worth it if helps someone?
the “humans are inherently selfish” fanclub can genuinely and in all honesty go to hell. i once came back from a school yard where the kids had
heaped
piles of leaves and cut wildflowers on a narrow strip of grass bc a bee had
died. i actually want to cry.
when i was a child, my parents told me our houseplant would die of lack of sunlight. i was so young i don’t even remember this, but apparently, my response to this was starting to carry the plant around like an emotional support stuffed animal. whenever my family went outside i would hold the pot on my head to make it reach the sun better. i wasn’t in school yet, didn’t have any exposure to the lessons on caring they give in elementary, i don’t remember my thought process - but i can guess. kids integrally care about things, even tiny bugs and inanimate plants. humans care.
don’t let them beat it out of you
as someone in my 40s, may i also add: if they beat it out of you? put in the work to relearn it until it’s a part of you again. a part you’re proud enough of that if someone tells you it’s dumb and you should stop, you can laugh and say “oh, no. no, i don’t believe i will.” and then keep on keepin’ on.
compassion can often be a skill that needs to be relearned. so relearn it and revel in it.
Haven’t heard from family in days. I feel like it’s time to accept they’re gone. I know in my heart Palestine will, one day, be free, but it wasn’t supposed to be like this.
We feared another Nakba, and it happened. 700,000 pushed out of their homes in 1948 to 1 million being forced to leave their homes in 2023.
We thought it couldn’t get worse or more deadly than the Israeli invasion in 2014, and it happened. We lost 2,251 people in 50 days then. Now we’re past 2,300 in one week.
What I heard most from my grandmother the first days it’s that “this time is different”. And I feel like a rock is crushing my heart in pieces because i’ve been hoping that speaking out, teaching people about the historical oppresion of Palestine would help but it’s not helping. Nothing is changing.
I feel like I’m screaming into a void. There’s some sympathy from people online, until I see content documenting Palestinian oppresion being flagged as ‘hate speech’ or check the comments of any updates on Gaza and it’s: “blame it on hamas”, “tell them to give up hamas”, “the hamas asked for it”. They’re not even among civilians!!!!!
If there’s nothing left to do but to watch the extermination of my people, then I’m going to beg for anyone reading this to please don’t forget. Please.
Every single person and institution supporting and financing Israel is complicit. I hope the deaths of every Palestinian haunts you for the rest of your lives and that you never find an ounce of forgiveness, for you do not deserve it.
Just as in the Iraq War, the US government is financing and cheering for the slaughter of millions of innocent Arab lives. The media is complicit by engaging in biased propaganda and other nuclear powers, such as the UK and Germany, are complicit too. You are fascists and war criminals and every drop of Palestinian blood is in your hands. I hope every single day, for the rest of your lives, you look in the mirror and see nothing but the blood you’ve helped spill.
This serves as yet another proof that not a single Western in a position of power, be it in the media or in government, sees Arabs as humans beings.
For decades, the US has comitted terrorism and crimes against humanity in the Middle East and has NEVER been held accountable. Over one million in Iraq; over 150,000 in Afghanistan; and now they’ll turn Gaza into a graveyard. Punishing selected soldiers over the years does not erase the fact that the American military and its government validates their crimes during execution and are never punished for it.
Please never forget: Joe Biden is a genocidal terrorist, Rishi Sunak is a genocidal terrorist, the American Democrat Party and UK’s Labour Party are led by genocidal terrorists, the European Union is led by genocidal terrorists, fuckass Walt Disney Company is led by genocidal terrorists; every celebrity that called for Palestinian death or stood by silently while ignoring our suffering is a genocidal terrorist.
May Allah protect the people in Palestine and grant the martyrs the highest level of Jannah. Wallah what keeps me here is knowing that the Akhirah is theirs. May Almighty Allah grant us imaan and Taqwa as high as the people of Gaza. Ameen.
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