Art Department Weekly | Issue 113 Vol. 14

ADW ART DEPARTMENT WEEKLY ISSUE 113 VOL. 14

EUPHORIC

JUST NOT ABOUT THAT FINALE

Talk abou t

LEGO MODELS SPIDER-MAN OSCARS SPORTS FOUR YEARS SINCE WE SAID GOOD-BYE TO THIS PLACE

MINI BOARD

LOVE FOR THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD When Betty started Sunday morning soccer practices a few blocks from where Luis grew up, he immediately knew we needed to go to the cash only Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop while she was in practice. The line wrapped the old school dining space and out the door February 27. A manager announced that everyone inside would eat for free so more tips could be collected for a woman behind the counter who had family in Ukraine. The donuts (one with yellow and blue sprinkles) were delicious.

Hopefully her family is doing well.

—MV

A LESSON IN GIVING BACK THIS MONTH Abbott Elementary, ABC’s new workplace comedy focuses on a young teacher eager to do her best for her underfunded second graders. After seeing fictional staff scrape and scheme to secure books, rugs, and other supplies for their classrooms, the news that Scholastic was teaming up with ABC to provide real supplies was heartening.

According to Variety, book fairs at seven schools in March, including Philadelphia’s Harrity Elementary, on which Abbott Elementary is based, provided students with two free books and each teacher with 10. ABC also relaunched its Traveling Teacher’s Lounge initiative to provide teachers with books, classroom supplies, breakfast, and show merchandise. The first round of the lounge, which began on Jan. 3 and visited schools in Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, donated more than 1,000 books, 10,000 notebooks, 100,000 writing utensils, and 15,000 art and craft materials. Six more stops were added to the traveling lounge in Dallas, Houston, Santa Fe, Phoenix, Reno, and Los Angeles. Erin Weir, executive vice president of marketing, told Variety, “Giving back to this deserving community has been a pillar of our campaign from day one.” We hope they keep celebrating teachers.

—MV

Art Department Weekly is published by Dinosaur Girly Productions, 184 Bay 26th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11214. The entire contents of ADW are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without expressed written consent of the publisher. ADW accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and/or photographs and assumes no liability for products or services advertised herein. ADW reserves the right to edit, rewrite, refuse or reuse material, is not responsible for errors or omissions, and may feature same in other mediums for any and all purposes.

D

AR E H R

T R NA

OVE

I

And now St. Peters is on their way to the Elite 8! This meme was posted in the opening round.

HOW IS HE NEWS?

“Don’t be assholes.

Shit won’t break.

Fucking mantra” -Luis

“I wasn’t a failed DJ. I was pre-successful”

After 39 days of retirement, Tom Brady used Selection Sunday to come back to work and steal the headlines. Reasonable people had already wondered, “What if Russia had Tom Brady in custody?” Other than Americans have always had a problem with the way Brittney Griner looks, how can a WNBA star just disappear? Griner plays for a Russian team and was arrested on drug charges in mid-February, but the embassy in Moscow only recently was allowed access to her.

Her detention in Russian jail will last longer than Brady’s retirement.

—MV

-Jianyu

“She brought seeds to a gun fight and still won” -John

“You said it.

I just say it louder” -Luis

“That’s boss shit right there” -Luis

“You can’t just stare at it and hope something magically fucking appears” -Madeline

DON’T LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER Apparently all the times I tell Kal not to wear with white socks with his black sneakers because it looks bad, I’m wrong. The look reminds me of Michael Jackson, but what’s old is new again (and all is forgiven?) I guess. Go crazy. Be cooler than me.

—MV

“Whoa, Danielle, are you wearing a shirt?”

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PERCEPTION PATTERN Rounding up and sorting out what warranted a screenshot between issues

What we were all thinking Mass

LOOK AGAIN Pick up trucks in Brooklyn are typically decorated to advertise how not-urban the driver feels. This tag might not be so welcome outside the city

RENEWED Pinterest showed me these Little People by @jasonkotecki and it was too bright and nostalgic not to share RIDDLE ME THIS

Brilliant

Despicable

Why not sparkly Batman?

DOG? I can’t wait for Google to add Kal’s latest haircut to a pet album

BOOM! HE’S 10 With ten times the sass

WORD PLAY Cleaning up art supplies means finding old craft projects, like quarter back and blue period

DRAW YOU IN The Post-Its are so perfectly matched, I had to zoom in to read the ad

Selective

Now equipped with a bandolier to catch them all 4

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THAT’S ALL? Euphoria left us hanging after the finale Whole characters seemed to drop out of the story this season (remember Kat?), but, for like the last three episodes of Season 2, Sam Levinson left us worrying that something would happen to Fez. A fellow fan posted the window knocking gif as soon as the finale ended and it’s the only reaction.

—MV

Disbelief SUSPENDED After seeing the way the school never objects to how female characters dress for class (left), viewers have to assume normal rules don’t apply here.

But the finale might be a bit much. The plot bends time to show Lexi’s real life inspiration with the premiere of her original play (on top of new action in East Highland). Lexi’s audience rolls along with huge delays between scenes, but the sets are Broadway quality.

PopSugar hunted down some answers, learning that’s how high school kids see their own productions. The TV audience has to be as compliant as the theater audience, though.

BREAK OUT STAR If you thought the girls’ faces looked toned down Season 2, you weren’t wrong. Doniella Davy told CNN she pivoted to 1960s modern minimalism to follow each character’s journey. The interview not only recaps how she got into the business but also the massive popularity of the looks she created for Euphoria. Davy said it’s a “super collaborative process,” sometimes discussing the crying in one scene and whether the actress would still have eyeliner in the next. See Davy’s work on Instagram @donni.davy

DRUG DEALERS WORRY ME The main character, Rue, is a drug addict.

We see her dealer, Fezco (right), and his adopted brother, Ashtray, try to keep Rue safe. Meanwhile Rue promises to sell thousands of dollars worth of drugs for a different dealer. Then what?! The finale has Rue all, “I stayed clean.” But... But...

Jules • Cassie • Faye

A warning to the face-blind

I don’t feel so bad about sometimes mistaking the newest blonde in the cast (Faye, far right) for other characters now that I know Chloe Cherry was discovered in parodies of Euphoria, playing Jules (Hunter Schafer, far left), not Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) like I would have guessed. Cherry told NYLON, “It was just absolutely unreal to see everybody in person. Everybody’s so beautiful and so nice, and they all have amazing personalities.”

—MV

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HAPPY 2-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

OF WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE TWO WEEKS AT HOME

Remember when we were going to flatten the curve through social distancing and consistent handwashing? Only frontline workers needed to leave the house! And maybe also the kids of those essential workers who couldn’t stay home alone. We won’t know for years how much damage was done to education and everyone’s mental health. The plan at the beginning of March was to quickly rehash what happened when we were more worried about a virus than World War III, but this anniversary is messy and news out of Ukraine is worse. Here’s our scrapbook about it...

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CELEBRITIES After COVID got to Tom Hanks, did they suddenly realize they were on the same level as normals?

Sia trying to inspire virus?

A roundup of cringey and funny posts from people who were famous pre-pandemic. Fuel for every wannabe influencer...

BOTH SIDES Madonna boasted that we are all equal from a luxurious bath while Vanessa Hudgens proclaimed death is inevitable.

A search for Metallica’s aid to Ukraine turned up these

REDEMPTION? In 2020, Arnold Schwarzenegger told everyone to stay home from his jacuzzi, but in 2022 he recorded a video for Telegram and Twitter to try to educate Russians about what was happening in Ukraine. Not as profound as the work celebrity chef José Andrés is doing with World Central Kitchen, but still an improvement.

Lockdown getting to someone at J. Lo’s?

IMAGINE THE REGRET Gal Gadot

EVERY GOOD STORY NEEDS A BAD GUY The silence from the White House made daily press conferences with the mayor and governor must see TV. They threw shade at each other and the federal government on top of updates about case numbers and new rules. Cuomosexuality spread rapidly. Had they not been squabbling over who could make decisions about school closures and mask mandates, maybe more lives would have been spared. Of everyone pictured here, I miss ASL interpreter Jonathan Lamberton the most.

—MV

told InStyle, “I was calling Kristen [Wiig] and I was like, ‘Listen, I want to do this thing.’ ... But [the video] was premature.” COVID hadn’t reached much of America yet when the video was posted March 18, so it came off as super tone deaf.

“All pure intentions, but sometimes you don’t hit the bull’seye, right?”

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DISTANCE LEARNING When we thought schools had closed temporarily, Kal was already set up with the Chromebook his school had given him for all of middle school. They jumped right into virtual classes. Meanwhile, Boom had to check for an emailed list of things to do.

Morning announcements appeared on Instagram to help them feel connected to the elementary school. Betty’s Pre-K was farther behind, though, on suggestions for what to do, so Dad school meant she had a notebook and worked her way through the alphabet and numbers.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES

blue light glasses styluses headphones base for tablet wifi extender UPDATED May 5, 2020, I broke down what it was like to be IT here. The best was when the school offered a 30-minute virtual event on BlueJeans to talk about families who were having tech issues. I couldn’t access it for 17 minutes across multiple devices. I get in and the principal says, “Well, that’s all” and tried to end the meeting early.

We never get rid of anything, but technology isn’t supported forever. When Kal’s Chromebook stopped working, we technically had 15 other devices that access internet browsers but most could not support the newest version of Chrome let alone Kami or BlueJeans. We kept him in class with an old laptop and a phone at the same time, but he was removed from hosting a coding showcase.

l

“Zoom is better, less glitchy than BlueJeans” Kal 8

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Boom’s Nyan cat (next to an emailed list of work to complete) made the cover of Issue 85

Start of quarantine

New shirt to replace his previous favorite

THE HAIR CUTS

When I thought we’d wait to cut their hair until school started in person again, I didn’t expect Kal to cut off 14 inches Boom is back to where he was two years ago in terms of looks. Now he can type and multiply fractions. He had a short punk look for a few months until I decided he had too much of a punk attitude.

2021

2022

Start of quarantine

2021

INFLUENCER Kal’s major asymmetrical cut in April 2021 was an inspiration to Boom and Betty to go even shorter. Betty went long to short in August 2020.

Social posts ended up in presentations

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SOME OF THE THINGS THAT CHANGED FOREVER THERE’S NO EASY WAY BACK TO NORMAL

TWO YEARS OF UNPRECEDENTED TIMES IS GOING TO LEAVE

a mark. Now that masks aren’t required and my kids are all vaccinated, the First Grader doesn’t understand she constantly has a cold because she refuses to wear the mask at school.

She’s free to touch her mouth and nose all she wants after touching other germy surfaces. Her runny nose is about the only “normal” thing happening, though.

It used to be easy to kill an hour at the library when my kids were being dismissed at different times. Some locations are hosting in-person events, but it looks like ours is still only functioning as a pick-up point for books ordered online. Which is probably okay because I don’t know that I remember how to parent in public yet.

I’ve been all for bringing the system back online slowly, but my Apple Watch has gone from celebrating that I stood up twice in one month to telling me I should complete 30 minutes of exercise 25 days in a row. Easy there, Watch. I’m still working on being around people I’m not related to for 30 minutes a day.

One friend has a helmet for extra protection

YOU HAD THIS.... NOW THIS Amy Coney Barret

Ketanji Jackson Brown

One couldn’t name all the First Amendment’s protections Murder Hornets

Joro Spiders

Those hornets suddenly disappeared. How? Black Lives Matter

Don’t Say Gay

Legislation triggers new rounds of protests COVID

WWIII

Attacks on Ukraine trigger a new spike in anxiety Drinking a lot one day

Drinking every day

The new normal has a higher alcohol content Page 22

Murder Hornets fell off the national news cycle.

Sprint 2022 will be the real test if the hornets were eradicated. As the Washington State Department of Agriculture says, “A lack of evidence is not evidence of lack.”

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American Civil Liberties Union fights for racial justice and trans youth

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https://www.aclu.org/action/

Joro spiders likely traveled the globe on shipping containers but will terrify the East Coast using their own parachutes. Unlike how Murder Hornets were a threat to the honeybee population, Joro spiders are friendly.

Border Crossing We should have worked a visit to the Canadian Toys ‘R’ Us locations into a trip back from visiting family in Chicago right after all the U.S. locations closed, not after COVID restrictions.

“The worst part of working from home is still better than the best part of working at the office” —Luis DIFFERENT FOR NOW

There are few days out of the week where sometimes no one is home If LV decided to catch another falling knife, the only solution would not be catch COVID in the ER or glue his fingers together and apply pressure

IS IT A CONSPIRACY?

NEW RULES THAT STUCK

Not shaking hands Masks on public transportation Chromebooks for schoolwork 10 o’clock snacktime Curbside pickup

If Bill Gates was warning about pandemics long before March 2020, did all the venture capitalists and Fortune 500 CEOs know this was going to happen? The amount of schools and offices ready to convert to work from home but still connect through Slack and cloud services is rather astonishing when you think about it. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google were all ready to be downloaded and put to use if they weren’t already on your machine.

LV couldn’t argue against the suspicion. “You start to think about everything becoming more virtual, who benefits most? Tech tycoons.” Who didn’t get vaccinated right away? “Impoverished and underdeveloped countries don’t help the bottom line. Corporations and tech giants can’t monetize them. They are an ancillary figure.” Maybe we should stick to being thankful, but maybe it was too perfect.

Taxi Workers Alliance is partnering with Uber

HEROES OF LOCKDOWN

High speed WiFi Cheap tablets Uber Eats, Instacart, etc.

Streaming services Popeye’s chicken sandwich Dr. Katalin Karikó

BLAST FROM THE PAST Two posts 11 years and a million lifetimes apart

2020

As cases were spiking in New York and parents were starting to demand schools close, I took over my kids’ school’s Instagram account to share videos about why I like school. The stories all used video recorded when the kids had no worries about getting sick. Somehow that ill-timed takeover doesn’t feel as old timey to me as when people wrote entire emails as public comments on Facebook and MySpace. That pre-Messenger life made it so easy for everyone to be up in each other’s business all the time.

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SOME QUARANTINES WERE EASIER THAN OTHERS...

Not everyone was sent home with a laptop and access to WiFi. Here are some more of our pampered thoughts on the pandemic

DUAL PURPOSE Issue 100 in September 2020 included a bingo board that could apply to pandemic: adopt a pet, buy a house, have a baby...

LEGO MASTERS premiered a month into lockdown and somehow filmed and aired a Season 2 before Delta shut everything down again.

THE POPEYES CHICKEN SANDWICH was originally released in August 2019. They were an instant hit— and impossible to find. During pandemic and with the ease of their app it was so easy to order these yummy sandwiches in a non contact way. We still order them regularly and they never disappoint.

Though Kal will tell you the fish sandwich is better.

Favorite Innovations PS5 Getting up early to play video games Elvarli IKEA shelves DISNEY + gave us so much to look forward to during

pandemic. Launching in November 2019, the constant Marvel, Disney animation, and Pixar releases were some of the best things on our TV. How else would we have see Hamilton? If there is a quarantine mvp ( besides Madeline) it’s Disney +.

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MANDATORY SICK DAYS When 83 Britons returned to England from China January 30, 2020, Horseman Coaches did not require PPE for their drivers because the passengers had already quarantined and did not show any signs of the virus.

But then there’s that guy behind the driver in a full hazmat suit... I can’t tell if the Daily Mirror is more aghast that the drivers would be on paid leave for 10 days following that run. Waiting for symptons to develop is not vacation time.

TAKE ACTION Following the civil rights protests that broke out after the videoed murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, Issue 92 tried to relay actions more knowledgeable people were offering up as a way to make a difference.

highs

2 years means to me that I have hope that the pandemic will end, it also means I’M ALIVE STILL

What does 2 years mean to you?

Hanging out with Dad Forbidden West, allowance, Pokémon Go, Spider-Man, streaming, remote school I feel like we are closer as a family. Spending so much time together was definitely the silver lining of quarantine Meg lives with us and I get to see Logan

The best thing I bought was Diamond Hillious Ultra

Madeline asked her family to contribute some opinions to this issue. They overlapped on more than a few feelings

Pokémon by Betty

I LOVE ROUTINES. The start of the pandemic threw a giant wrench in the

COVID Supply chain issues Not going out as much Cold school lunches The politicization of masks and vaccines The unbelievably high loss of life.

Don’t go out as much

lows

The coolest thing I got is Neon Dynasty Commander Deck and a Pokemon deck (rapid strike u shift (k strike))

Trump

mix. Then something happened, I created new routines. I would draw lesson plans for Betty in Pre-K. I would have wiggle breaks with Betty in Kindergarten. Once in person school restarted, I would walk back from school (1.5 miles), and then go through a workout. With return to office quickly approaching I will have to develop new routines.

—LV

Geeking on Luis with an audience for two years PEAK QUARANTINE

What better way to attend NYCC when it came back in 2021? As Luis says, he was willing to accept comped passes but not COVID. “I *could* have gone out, but I didn’t want to.” So I had to make tiny versions of him to drag around the show.

I’d say he was in on the jokes. See below: F JAR At the starting of quarantine I

implemented the F jar. I felt like I was cursing too much so this visual would serve as a reminder of how often I cussed.

I can’t say it worked but the kids enjoyed calling me out.

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SOFT LAUNCH

Tracking my posture from February to May 2020

While listening to a whole podcast series about how to get your business going, I cleaned out the office so it could function as a studio and workspace and resurrected ADW. Then reports started to come out of China about a scary new virus. I was already nervous about reaching out to people to photograph their work, and now it wasn’t safe to be out of the house.

When the city went into lockdown, it felt like I had just finished reclaiming my time and space only to lose it all. I tried to use ADW to keep things in perspective and be more than a lump on the couch. I did accomplish my published 2020 to-do list.

There’s a garbage can under the desk?!

—Luis more than a year into WFH

UPGRADE When Adobe came for my bootleg software, I ended up needing a whole new desktop to match the required iOS. The latest version of Premiere labeled one legacy “PrePandemic.”

Quotes are a permanent way of life around here now. We’ll keep a list on the living room wall even if Luis is back in a Manhattan art department.

CREATIVE COOKING The fridge’s white board became a running list of what needed to be eaten. A cast iron skillet came our way after a shoot, but didn’t last long.

NOT DIVERSE Culture critic Soraya McDonald, a self-proclaimed Will Smith fan wishes Smith had pushed for more uncomfortable roles the past 30 years. He deserved to lose to Denzel Washington in 2002 because Training Day made Washington *and* the police look bad. As McDonald says, the Academy has a lot of work to do to overcome the way studios have treated women and minorities. Maybe we should all watch the Independent Spirit Awards instead of the Oscars.

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THE GOOD SHOW Having seen the commercials in 2018, I knew why there was a fork but I had no idea how clever the writing would be. Now that we finished the series, Trial by Trolley and gifs make so much more sense.

Issue 88 demonstrated POPULATION DENSITY

differences between where I learned to drive and where I drive now.

March 14, 2022, is the second anniversary of the first COVID-19 death in NYC. Nearly 40,000 residents (or 126 Lego people) have died since then— more people than the entire population of my hometown (103 Lego people).

Updated Charts

The last four lines of data are new with numbers based off New York Times and Our World in Data stats the first week of March 2022.

It would take about 108 Lego boards to represent global deaths. Each Lego board holds 176 mini figs that each represent 317 humans.

ILLINOIS

NEW YORK

FLORIDA

population

12,671,821

19,453,561

21,477,737

area

55,518.93 mi

47,126 mi

53,624.76 mi

density

231.1

411.2

350.6

Lego people

0.72819

1.29507

1.1047

2020 stay home order

March 21 at 5 p.m.

March 22 at 8 p.m.

April 3 at 12:01 a.m.

mask repeal

Feb. 28, 2022

Feb. 10, 2022

May 3, 2021

total cases

3.06 million

4.94 million

5.83 million

deaths

37,459

67,191

75,592

deaths per 100,000

259.6

345.4

351.9

2

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IMMEASURABLE IMPACT Observations from the comfort of Brooklyn Carrying on the ADW tradition of not actually being on the frontlines, these are some of the news and thoughts from smarter, braver people in Ukraine and elsewhere.

LOOK FOR THE HELPERS It seems like people always need a reminder that the first way to make a situation better is to not be a jerk. Russianspeaking neighbors and restaurant owners are not necessarily Russian let alone supporting President Putin.

Meanwhile, Tinder and Airbnb played into the fight for Ukraine with catfish collecting intel and money going directly to residents of Ukraine.

TO STICK WITH THE LEGO MINI FIGURE SCALE, based on UN

data and my scale of 1 mini fig equals 317 humans, it would take 76 boards to represent the 4.3 million Ukrainians who have fled the country. It would take another 116 boards to represent the 6.5 million Ukrainians displaced within their own country. That’s like Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, *and* Philadelphia completely evacuating in a month and a half.

DIPLOMATIC Historian Kimberly St. JulianVarnon explained on the Into America podcast how racism is everywhere but there are existing communities to plug into in Ukraine because of the work Chairman Vladimir Lenin did during the Great Depression and Jim Crow era to attract skilled workers and spur the Soviet Union’s industrialization.

Seaside towns became favorite vacation spots for the likes of Langston Hughes because Soviet police enforced that the beach was for everyone.

It’s the reason so many students chose to be in Ukraine before the attacks.

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OF COURSE I was not impressed by the use “I have a dream,” so it wasn’t shocking when Senator Murphy followed the above Tweet with another to name all the Republicans who voted against a bipartisan $12 billion aid package for Ukraine after holding a press conference to say President Biden isn’t doing enough: Risch, Sasse, Kennedy, Cruz, Marshall, Fischer, Lankford, Hoeven, and Sullivan.

FOLLOW Before NBC sent a dozen reporters to Ukraine, they called on Terrell Jermaine Starr.

1. Nemiroff Vodka 2. Khor Platinum Vodka 3. Zirkova One Ultra Premium Vodka

4. Ukrainian Heritage

Homemade Rye Vodka

THESE TWO. Every time Russia says something like a theater marked as sheltering children was a military target, I think of the U.S. saying they were justified in killing children in foreign countries.

5. Pristine Vodka 6. Mernaya Vodka 7. Khortytsa De Luxe Vodka 8. Pervak Homemade Rye Vodka

9. First Guild Vodka 10. Dima’s Vodka BUYING POWER Here at the Dubbs, we love vodka and our Ukrainian friends.

Liquor Laboratory breaks down best ten Ukrainian vodkas, the differences in each brands bottles, including whether to sip or mix: https://liquorlaboratory.com/best-ukrainian-vodka-brands/

REACTIONARY I took everything on my phone to be about the impending WWIII rather than, say, simply applying to a new job (center).

Watching Hanna Hopko cry in a live interview March 8 was extra heart-wrenching because Katy Tur stuck to the American media script of not consoling. Six days later, NYT and other sources were suddenly tweeting after Marina Ovsyannikova protested on Channel One in Russia. NYT’s tweet is attached to an update that dances around how maybe Russia uses cease fires to reposition and re-arm.

Some responses to Ovsyannikova said no one should praise her, which lead the idea that even if she was peddled genocidal antiUkrainian propaganda for years it benefits the West to shower her with applause so more people break with Putin.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko calls bullshit on Russia’s claim that they are not targeting residential buildings.

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WHERE HAVE I SEEN THIS BEFORE? Russia invaded Ukraine February 24, 2022. That same day, Facebook fed me memories from eight years ago when Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2014. Esquire ran a story about normal people learning to fashion body armor and weapons. Four days later, they had the same story about Venezuela. Four years later, I have “memories” of Syrian sisters Noor and Alaa documenting on social media what it’s like to be trapped in Ghouta. There seems to be no end to humanitarian crises.

Ukraine

Venezuela

PROSECUTING WAR CRIMES Kal was aghast that anyone could look at the video of dead bodies on the streets of Bucha, Ukraine, and not see evidence of murder. The idea that no one ever is actually convicted of war crimes was only met with more disbelief from him. It’s not completely true, but the horrors of Darfur were almost 20 years ago and one trial is getting underway now. The Bosnian War started in 1992, but Slobodan Milosevic didn’t stand trial for war crimes until 2001. And then he died in 2006 before a verdict was reached. Wikkipedia will tell you the first trial for war crimes was in 1474, but I’m telling my kids international criminal tribunals are not going to solve a problem like Putin.

If observers were saying Russia was using its playbook from Chechnya and Syria when they started indiscriminately shelling residential areas of Ukraine, someone should already have been charged with war crimes.

—MV

AFGHANISTAN Forces folded up quickly, allowing the Taliban to come back into control this summer. Promises that girls would be allowed to return to school are evidently false as videos of students crying after being turned away were shared at the end of March.

The millions of Afghans facing an emergency level of food insecurity also deserves more attention.

SYRIA More than 10 years in, UNICEF reported Syria as the largest displacement crisis globally in February with nearly 5.7 million registered refugees, including 2.7 million children, now in neighboring countries.

Refugees have little or no financial resources, so all the problems baked into poverty follow them. Relief organizations provide medicine, cooking gear, insulation for tents, and other basic necessities.

LEARN MORE AND CONTRIBUTE https://www.unhcr.org https://www. doctorswithoutborders.org http://www.hrionline.org https://www. savethechildren.org

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Syria

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VENEZUELA The ongoing socioeconomic and political crisis in Venezuela started in 2010 during the presidency of Hugo Chávez and has worsened under Nicolas Maduro. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports more than 6 million Venezuelan refugees worldwide with people continuing to escape violence and the lack of food, medicine, and essential services.

SOME TRUTH While Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense posted an appeal on Facebook to consumer drone owners and pilots, the story of the woman who took out a Russian drone with a jar of pickles might have only foiled looters. Forbes reported the woman (who wished to remain anonymous) threw a jar of preserved tomatoes from her balcony at the approaching drone after noticing “suspicious young men.” Consumer drones were used by ISIS in Iraq to film propaganda and drop grenades.

Now they’re being used to locate Russian forces.

In a community newspaper in Barcelona’s Raval neighborhood, an anonymous hand wrote:

NO FLY ZONE I think the map came from a listical of things you wouldn’t believe. The tweets about yachts and jets could have been that close in my feed.

Your god is Jewish, your music is African, your car is Japanese, your pizza is Italian, your gas is Algerian, your coffee is Brazilian, your democracy is Greek, your numbers are Arabic, your letters are Latin.

I’m your neighbor. And you still call me a foreigner?

—Eduardo Galeano

SHOULD YOU SEE THAT NEW HARRY POTTER MOVIE? J. K. Rowling will directly profit from The Secrets of Dumbledore’s box office performance. If no one goes to see it in theaters to protest Rowling’s transphobic statements, Warner Bros. might cut off the Fantastic Beasts franchise instead of producing two more, damaging Rowling’s income and reputation. Sony is scheduled to release the Hogwarts Legacy video game, to which Warner Bros. says Rowling is not directly linked. Playstation releases games for free. Everything streams. Be patient.

INTERSECTION If you do not know why so many of these tweets are saying Black women are triggered, you should listen to the stories women of color have to tell. Imagine what it would be like to not have anyone trust what you’re saying because you’re female and not white.

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UNCOVERED Digging through boxes this winter to find samples for LV’s portfolio (and things that just needed to be tossed), I found the copy of Headstrong Ashley Tisdale signed for Meg on her Rolling Stone advertorial shoot in 2007. I used to listen to the whole disc on repeat while editing photos home alone. It’s shocking to listen to now because I forgot how popular auto tune was.

One more great toy from 2021 has us cheering

TEN HUT!

For those not familiar, Ashley Tisdale was the first female artist to debut with two songs simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 when the High School Musical soundtrack was released. (I had to read that sentence twice and confirm it.)

Now if you know Olivia Rodrigo came from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and won three Grammys, you might be wondering is Headstrong is as good as SOUR? No. But it’s fun. Hopes were sky high for Tisdale, but she doesn’t establish herself as a character in her own music. I’m totally going to keep blasting it in the car, though.

—MV

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When I heard the Major Wresting Figure Podcast rundown the top wrestling figures of 2021, I realized I omitted one of the best figures of the year from my Toys of the Year list (Issue 112): the San Diego Comic Con exclusive Ultimate Edition Sgt. Slaughter.

The packaging on this figure is insane. An oversized box utilizes the illustration from the traditional Legends figures along the sides. The box then opens to reveal an LJN blister pack with the figure posed like the original Sgt. Slaughter LJN. On top of the unreal packaging, the sculpt and likeness on the figure are perfect.

The blister pack also slides down to reveal a bevy of accessories, like his riding crop and swappable body parts. WWE SDCC exclusives continue to be the cream of the crop over the past three years (Slim Jim Macho Man, Wrestlemania Mr. T). I did not attend SDCC, but Slaughter is available online through the Mattel Creations site. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for 2022.

—LV

Art Department Weekly • March 2022

SPORTS in the time of COVID Trying to nail down Luis’ thoughts about the 2-year anniversary, Madeline suggested pandemic really started when Rudy Gobert ended a press conference by slapping a bunch of recording devices.

Two days later, March 11, 2020, Gobert tested positive and the NBA shut down the league.

“Lack of sports was a big time low,” Luis said. “There was legitimately nothing between March and July.” No college or professional sports until baseball and basketball came back in July. ESPN was airing NBA players playing 2K against each other. EGaming became such a thing for MLB network and NASCAR, too.

Sports entertainment never paused.

WWE, NXT, and AEW kept going. AEW had wrestlers in the crowd in an outdoor space in the Jaguars practice space. No plexi, just ringside outdoors.

WWE couldn’t cancel Wrestlemania in April 2020, but there were no fans at the performance center. It was a black box set up. It took WWE months to bring in an audience. First they had video screens in the Thunderdome that fans could sign up for like NBA virtual fans. They were better than no fans, but nothing picked up until Wrestlemania 2021, the first live event in front of fans. The whole locker room came out before the event. “Tears were streaming down Rhea Ripley’s face because she hadn’t seen fans in 15, 16 months. That endeared her even more to fans and wrestlers because she was so emotional. She’s the future of the entire company.”

Basketball handled the pandemic the best. The NBA created a bubble in Orlando. “Those were high quality games in the bubble.” The level of basketball in the bubble is the best Luis has seen in his life. “The games were more open scoring and the efficiency of it all—there were no cameras or fans along the baselines so players could drive more effortlessly because there was no threat of crashing.

It was more breakneck speed, more daring feats of athleticism.”

The MLB lockout was endlessly more annoying to him. “Everyone is sacrificing to make pandemic work. Ratings are going down nationally, rising on local networks so owners are still making more money than ever but refused to pay talent.” Now he has all his sports back.

PROGRAMMING FREE WILL

MANGA MANTLE

The brilliant manga artist takashiokazaki (Star Wars Visions: The Duel, Batman Ninja, Afro Samurai) not only did the art for the Legends Edition of MLB The Show, but he is also producing five new legends cards in his singularly unique style. The first of the five legends was revealed March 23 via MLB The Show’s social channels: Mickey Mantle. The card looks amazing (hands down the best looking cards in the game) and this exclusive pack will be available day of launch to all of those who preordered the Legends Edition.

Hopefully this is a sign that The Show is going to go the route of 2K and Madden and create more conceptual cards.

Coming of age stories where a teenage character has to overcome a fear to achieve a happy ending are great and all, but we seem to keep seeing movies where the main character has to decide to be a better person—and that saves the day. Harry Potter and Katniss Everdeen easily captured Kal’s imagination as they battled big obviously evil characters. That was so elementary school, though. Now he reads the most absurd humor he can get from the library. The movie options seem to have shifted as well. We streamed Free Guy and The Adam Project, both from star-producer Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy, that include big bad characters—but also main characters who had to decide they wanted to get involved. Free Guy in particular reminded me of The Truman Show in the way is plainly begs what is the point of all this and who is really in control?

Are stories about middle age characters going on exciting adventures that question reality and the purpose of their lives a new genre? I can’t wait to see Everything Everywhere All at Once, Michelle Yeoh’s multiverse action adventure.

—MV

If you would have enjoyed a less sappy Truman Show, I’m sure you will love Free Guy

MS. MARVEL I’m very excited for Ms. Marvel Disney+. Iman Vellani seems to perfectly capture the youthful exuberance of Kamala Kahn. The series set in Jersey City (is she the first Jersey super hero?) looks like it’s pulled straight from the Marvel Comics pages (created

by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, and Jamie McKelvie). Check out this teaser poster and the actual comic cover that inspired it.

—LV

March 2022 • Art

Department Weekly

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SWINGING INTO SPOILERS

We all watched No Way Home after making our way through every previous Spider-Man movie.

Into the Spiderverse might just be the perfect comic book film.

Its use of the comics as a base is prevalent throughout. No Way Home seems like the live action version of it while pulling on the emotional heartstrings. While Betty couldn’t remember all nine movies, here is how seven Dubbs readers ranked the movies:

Spider-Man (2002) 4 6 7 7 8

Spider-Man 2 (2004) 3 3 4 4 7 7 8 8

Spider-Man 3 (2007) 6 9 9 9 9 9

The Amazing Spider-Man

o (2012) w t e h t f o r e t t e The b 4 4 5 5 6

“I like all the Spider-Mans” Boom on why he didn’t vote

8

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) 1 3 5 6 7

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Great solo intro for

1 3 3 4 6 7

Tom

Zendaya as MJ is unstoppable, but Emma Stone as Gwen was irreplaceable

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

The only Miles version so far

(2018) 1 1 2 2 3 3 5

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) 2 2 5 5 6

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) 1 1 1 2 2 2 3

“I know a couple of magic words myself, starting with the word ‘Please’” —MJ

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Art Department Weekly • March 2022

ARTISTS WE LOVE: XERMANICO A rising star evokes praise from Luis with his bold framing and lush topography This month’s artist we love is the Spanish comic book artist extraordinaire Alejandro Germánico Benito Gonzalez who professionally goes by the pseudonym Xermanico.

Xermanico has created a name for himself over the past 13 years with work for DC Comics and IDW (for their WWE books). His painted covers are evocative of the work of Stefan Sepjic while his interior work features a thicker more masculine line with some of the best framing in the entire industry. His interior work reminds me of a young Ivan Reis but with thicker line work.

He rose to popularity with his collaboration with Aussie scribe Tom Taylor on DC’s long-running and wildly successful Injustice comic. Their expansion of the mythology of the Injustice world from the video game was the perfect mix of breakneck action and soap opera style elements all told with the specter of the super powered despot Superman lording over the entire universe.

His partnership with comic book powerhouse Grant Morrison on Green Lantern BlackStars elevated his profile even more. In this book Xermanico’s creativity was really able to shine as they reinvented the history between the Darkstars and the Green Lanterns. His takes on alien life and topography showed a great design work while lushly rendering foreign landscapes. His upcoming work on the covers of Flashpoint Beyond is some of the best work of his career. Xermanico is an absolute rising star in the comics landscape.

ale z n o G o it n e B o ic n a erm A.K.A. Alejandro G March 2022 • Art

Department Weekly

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FIVE THINGS ON LUIS’S MIND WHEN MARCH MADNESS KICKED OFF FILLING OUT BRACKETS We all love to fill them out, but once that Cinderella upsets your pick, your bracket is officially busted.

ONE SHINING MOMENT Even though I prefer the Teddy Pendergrass version to the Luther Vandross version the CBS Sports produced video recap is one of my favorite things in sports every year.

UNLIKELY HEROES The tournament is a great place for no-name players (Bryce Drew, Bo Kimble, and Ali Farokhmanesh to name a few) to make a name for themselves and become lifetime heroes. Fewer than 2% of all NCAA men’s basketball players will play professionally so for many this is their shining moment.

COACH K Will the greatest coach in men’s college basketball history (sorry John Wooden) hoist the NCAA Championship trophy for the sixth time?

CHET HOLMGREN I’m mesmerized by this 7-foot tall 19-year-old Gonzaga freshman. While he needs to fill out his frame (I outweigh him by almost 40 pounds), he has a tantalizing mix of inside out skills which will make him a high draft pick.

ment ended The whole tournack ish this before I came ba wtoe fiarne.. . illustration, so here

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Art Department Weekly • March 2022