deerstalker

https://blackgirlnerds.com/the-wendy-williams-show-end-of-an-era/

Wendy Williams was unlike anyone else on daytime television. While others were super polished, prepared, and read exactly what was on the teleprompter, Williams always leaned towards the opposite. She was messy, constantly belching, picking her teeth, and even farting. She could be rough — too real and out of line. Her iconic facial expressions, eye-rolls, and pauses matched her quick wit. Wendy Williams was unapologetically herself, which is the reason why we love her.

Her daily greeting of “How you doin’?” had a life of its own. Yet after nearly 14 years, The Wendy Williams Show came to an end on June 17, 2022. Truly, this marks the end of an era.

With all Williams’ success in radio and television, she never quite received the respect she deserved. Maybe it’s because she gossiped about celebrities instead of reporting “real” news. Maybe it’s because she had fierce opinions and could be rude to the people she talked about. Or maybe it’s because she was a Black woman so far ahead of her time, living life on her own terms, and sharing in a way no one else did.

Wendy Williams is a major part of media history. She deserves her seat at the legends table, even though she was never placed in the same league as Oprah or Ellen.

The show always started with Williams discussing “Hot Topics,” where she recapped and shared her opinions on celebrity gossip. When something would happen in the entertainment world, I couldn’t wait to hear what Wendy would have to say about it. The real gem of her show was making the audience feel like they were a part of the production, even referring to them as her “co-hosts.” She offered advice in the “Ask Wendy” segment, compared audience members to famous people in “Celebrity Lookalike,” and in my favorite segment “Fan Out”, people could send in photos of themselves with celebrities.

Williams’ journey began while attending Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, where she was a DJ for the college radio station. She began working as a fill-in DJ at 98.7 KISS FM in New York City, and a year later hosted her own show in the 6–10 p.m. time slot. The Wendy Williams Experience ran for over 20 years and was listened to annually by more than 12 million people. In 2009, she ended her radio career to pursue television. On July 13, 2009, her daytime television talk show The Wendy Williams Show debuted. She was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame four months later — one of only a handful of women.

In 2017, many of us watched Williams faint on live television. It was the Halloween episode, and she wore a Statue of Liberty costume. In true fashion, by the time the commercial break was over, she had gotten up and was ready to continue on with the show. But that episode was the beginning of health issues and rumors that would keep circling her. At the start of the 2021 season, Williams went on a hiatus due to complications from Graves’ disease and COVID. She never returned to her purple chair.

When we think about successful, long-standing daytime talk shows, Oprah is it. She showed us that Black women could successfully occupy the space. Let’s also not forget about Rolonda Watts, who hosted the Rolonda show from 1994–1997, and supermodel Tyra Banks, who gave us The Tyra Banks Show from 2005–2009.  There have been others including KeKe Palmer, Queen Latifah, and Ananda Lewis.

After The Oprah Winfrey Show ended in 2011, I wondered what was going to happen to daytime talk shows. Media outlets questioned if Williams could be the next Oprah. Upon receiving her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2019, she said that she didn’t want to be the next Oprah — she wanted to be the first Wendy.

After Oprah’s exit, we saw changes happen, almost as if the sea of opportunity was there for the taking. Who would dive in? Oprah sort of handed the proverbial baton to Ellen DeGeneres, and she ran with it, until she exited after just shy of 20 years on air. Dr. Oz left his show to pursue politics. We also said goodbye this year to The Nick Cannon Show, The Doctors, The Real, and Maury after his show ran for 31 years.

Tamron Hall, Kelly Clarkson, and Drew Barrymore are now carrying torches for our beloved daytime fix. Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson will host her own show this fall, and Sherri Shepherd will have her own show as well — in the same time slot, in the same studio, and produced by the same production team as Wendy’s show.

Daytime talk shows have always been a challenge because we have seen many come and go over the years. The Wendy Williams Show began as a test run, and not a lot of people took it seriously. I remember thinking, “What is this?!” and next thing you know, I felt like I was missing something if I didn’t tune in. There were times I didn’t agree with anything she said or with how she talked about someone. But it didn’t stop me from wanting to know what she thought about something. That was the power she had.

I couldn’t understand how the final episode of The Wendy Williams Show took place without Wendy Williams! It had a weak, seven-minute tribute — at the very end of the show — to a woman who deserved better. Come on, after 14 seasons, this is what they did? The entire show should have been a tribute. It should have gone out with a bang, with her front and center.

Like her or not, Wendy Williams’ legacy cannot be denied and the impact her show has had on pop culture is undefeated. She helped reshape the daytime talk space, and there will never be another show like it.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/navigating-growth-complexity-and-black-fashion-an-interview-with-kristin-dodson-of-flatbush-misdemeanors/

Co-created by Kevin Iso and Dan Pearlman, Flatbush Misdemeanors is a comedy series centered on the complex lives of characters residing in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Now that Season 2 is available to watch on Showtime, BGN had the opportunity to converse with the lovely Kristin Dodson who plays Zayna, a strong and outspoken high school student whose uncle, Drew (Hassan Johnson) conflicts with the lives of the show’s lead characters, childhood friends Kevin and Dan. 

What attracted you to this role? Particularly, a very young role, and one that takes place in the real Brooklyn?

Honestly, I feel like it was divine. I’m born and raised in Brooklyn and am also of Caribbean descent, so Zayna just fits like a glove. The language in the script just flows; it’s real and organic. When I read the script, I was like “Who wrote this?!” It was really cool because I had not seen anything like that before. Nor had I had the opportunity to play such a complex character. 

Even though Zayna is young, there is something so deep about who she is, what she likes, what she doesn’t like, her whole background, where she comes from. It makes it very appealing. It’s a testament to the writing. 

Another thing I love about your character is your friendship with Dami, played by Zuri Reed, and how it completely exceeds the viewer’s expectations about how complex it is. What can viewers see in Zayna and Dami’s friendship this season, especially after the question mark of the first season’s finale?

Oh man! Well, their bond is tight as ever. You’ll definitely see in one of the episodes where she Zayna makes Dami a necklace that says “Zayna and Dami Forever.” We still get to see that sisterhood relationship. 

But we also get a new best friend as well: Amaya, played by Angella Katherine. That dynamic is hilarious because Amaya is with the sh**s, and very much like, “I’m a bad b****.” She’s very much Brooklyn. 

My wish and hope is, if we get another season, that we get to see all three of them [Dami, Amaya, and Zayna] together! 

In the trailer, we see Zayna and Drew spend time together, which I was not expecting after last season. How did you and Hassan prep for this specific season given how much your characters have been through together?

I think as an actor you know that all characters are very complex. I can’t speak for Hassan personally, but I can say that we both have so much love for each other and Zayna and Drew have a lot of love for each other. They just want the other one to do what’s right. 

Whether they’re right is up in the air, but when both actors are leading with definite care and love, it makes it so much easier for us to navigate this world where these two characters live. 

Did I hear correctly that you are getting close to completing your MFA?

No, I already got it! 

Congratulations!

Long time coming. I’m still kind of shocked! It’s a really big accomplishment. I’m the first in my family to get a masters. Not just any masters, but from an Ivy League [Columbia U, NYC]. 

How did you deal with making sure you got your education while also making sure you met your goals with Flatbush Misdemeanors?

Girl! Dunkin’ Donuts, if you wanna sponsor me, hello! [Laughs.] 

But all seriousness, my school was super excited and they were more than willing to be flexible with my schedule. I’m jumping from a Zoom class meeting, then jumping into a rehearsal, then jumping into set. We have something called “showcase,” so that was going on. 

Thankfully, the lovely Showtime and Avalon gave me time off to do a whole showcase, which was great. That’s the opportunity that you get to be in front of the industry reps and get seen. 

What surprised you this season of Flatbush?

That Zayna gets a little boyfriend, [and how that gave] the opportunity to show a softer side of Zayna. It is so refreshing to see that not all Black girls are these harsh stereotypes. 

We get to see her soft, in love, and unsure. There’s a whole scene between her and Amaya where she says, “I think I like him. Do I want to have sex with him?” It’s all the things that teenage girls go through. It is so beautiful to see that, and the director [Jordan Cam for that episode] did the damn thing. 

Can you tell me more about the fashion this season?

Yo! The costume designer [Dajia Milan] and her assistant, Kareem, did their motherf****** thing. The fits are always bomb as f***. This season, we have elevated. We get a chance to see Zayna’s curves! 

When I watch a lot of shows, sometimes there’s this idea of what teen youth look like. What I love about our show is that we have a variety of shapes and figures. I love that we get to see that more with Zayna and see it morph and grow as each show goes and goes. We get to see her mature and develop, and her fashion does the same thing. 

Which outfit was your favorite?

In episode 10, Zayna has this gorgeous denim outfit — you gotta wait for the whole season to see it — designed by Brookland. 

Because each outfit gets better and better!

Right! I’m waiting to see if there’s going to be a panel on the fashion of Flatbush because we’re doing the damn thing. Brooklyn all day. 

I would really love for Nylon Magazine to do a whole cover story about that. Especially because we’re growing this season in a lot of retro fits and styles that are coming back. A lot of it is heavily influenced by Black culture, specifically Black female culture. Nails! Zayna and her nails are another big thing this season. I begged the producer for [my favorite] hairstyle. Shout out to Rashida Bolden with the makeup!

The fits are fire for everyone, and I love the story they tell. It’s so Black! Blackity, Blackity, Black! The fans are gonna eat it up. 

Season 2 of Flatbush Misdemeanors can be seen on Showtime. 

https://blacknerdproblems.com/dissecting-the-design-of-destiny-2s-duality-dungeon/

Back in high school English classes, there was this trend amongst my peers and I that after we learned about some common literary technique or archetypal type of character, we couldn’t help but begin seeing those techniques and characters in every piece of media. Of course, it’s not too difficult to draw a line between the hero Odysseus making his epic journey through the isles to return home versus the Superman stranded on a red planet after being teleported their by Toy Man in that one Justice League Unlimited episode.

That said, one of the things that we humans are likely to do when exposed to the underlying structure of a thing is to attempt to understand other things through that particular underlying structure. As such, one of the things I’ve become fascinating with is analyzing the different learning techniques involved when it comes to video game design.

Whether it’s Super Mario or Tetris, video games employ different styles and methods of learning techniques to help their players understand the game. This is no better exemplified than with the Destiny franchise, which due to the new aggressive cadence, releases end game content on a three-month cycle. During this Season of the Haunted, said endgame content was the Duality Dungeon, a three-person activity that tests the might and mettle of one to three Guardians and employs several different pedagogical methods to help guide players without explicit instruction.

A Brief Introduction to Learning Theory

Before we do a level by level break down of the mechanics of Duality Dungeon, we’re going to quickly go over two different learning models. The first is behaviorism, something that you may already be familiar with in some iteration or another. Behaviorism is a learning theory rooted in conditional training. If A happens, do B. If X happens, do Y.

Behaviorism is best exemplified with the classic Pavlov’s dog example, where a dog learns to associate the sound of a bell to food, or the related Skinner box where an animal has to do a task to get food. Both of this showcase the core of behaviorism, the Stimulus / Response model. When presented with a thing, the learner has to respond to the thing to see the outcome. Desired responses are rewarded, unwanted responses are punished.

The other learning theory I think would be prudent to briefly review before getting in Duality Dungeon is schema theory, which builds off the concepts of behaviorism. Schema Theory is a really fancy way of saying that our brains create hierarchical relationships between concepts and that we are able to insert/delete/replicate/modify these relationships to help us parse out new concepts when we are presented with new stimulus. The technical terms don’t matter for the purposes of this article, but just imagine schemas like branching roadmaps that we follow.

And with that, we can start digging into the design elements of the current endgame endeavor of Destiny 2.

Obvious spoilers for the mechanics and some of the lore of the Duality dungeon ahead.

The Bells

When you first start Duality Dungeon, you eventually end up in a locked room with a grated window. Off in the distance, there is a bell and given the lack of any other interactable components, eventually you’ll shoot the bell. Doing so will teleport you to a red nightmare-ish world. The colors are mono-tone, the contrast is high, and the environment is slightly different. You then may either shoot the bell again from a distance, only to find that the “Darkness Consumes” and you’re back in the starting room, or you may be patient and wait to shoot the bell when you’re right next to it, at which point you find yourself teleported back to the normal realm, alive and well.

This presents the principle mechanic’s Stimulus/Response. You need to shoot to bell to navigate the world, however, you’re not allowed to shoot the bell from a distance lest you wipe. It plays into the player’s natural schema (Wiping is bad, progressing is good) as well, and the dungeons requires you to repeatedly demonstrate a mastery of this concept before continuing. And when you do, you’re also expected to do a little bit more.

Deja Vu and You

As you eventually work your way to the first encounter, you dropped into an arena and several things happen from a learning perspective. For long-term players of the game, they will recognize four iconic images in the four corners of the room and immediately begin recalling their schema about the last time they saw these icons. Newer players also benefit from the schema, since these are the symbols that are utilized in the Derelict Leviathan, although it won’t necessarily be as strong. The familiar bell calls to the player, and the encounter begins in proper when players shoot.

Upon being teleported to the Nightmare realm, those veteran players will recognize Gahlran from the Crown of Sorrows raid and immediately connect that some sort of ritual is required to get rid of the immunity shield, and newer players will similarly make the connection insofar that getting “immune” probably means something is up.

Upon exploring the arena, eventually the guardians will stumble upon a Standard Bearer (Stimulus) and upon defeating them, they drop a standard (Response). These standards have names like Axes, War Beast, Chalice, and Sun, which connects them to the holographic symbols and helps with memory.

However, the players have to contend with Bellkeepers (a new stimulus), whose death allow the bell to be rung (an old stimulus now part of a new response), a countdown timer (stimulus) which if it ever gets to zero wipes (response), and it may take an iteration or two, before they piece together the sequence. Upon the standards placement, the door to that side opens. This marks the first leap of logic that the players have to make, in that they need to ring the bell in the recently openly room to enter that locked room in the Nightmare realm. At which point, enemies appear so the natural schema kicks in, and after felling shades on both sides, a text prompt appears indicating vulnerability, and thus the players have learned the cycle and through repetition, they are able to apply what they learn to get loot.

Effect/Cause

As the players continue to descend downward into the mindscape, they continually apply these same fundamental principles to progress in the interstitial. They are continually asked to interact with elements in the Nightmare realm in order to illicit the desired response from something in the standard realm.

By the time they get to the second encounter, they have familiarity, and thus the challenge of the second encounter is less learning mechanics, but learning how to execute them in a high stress environment with an added twist. In this encounter, there are multiple standard bearers that can spawn, and killing the wrong one deducts precious seconds from the minute of Nightmare time. Not enough to completely make it impossible to complete, but enough to reinforce that correctness is crucial.

It was at this point in my first run through of Duality Dungeon, I also made another connection thanks to my schema. The bell mechanic here was not unlike the Effect and Cause mission of Titanfall 2, one of the most iconic campaign missions in a first person shooter, where the protagonist also had to switch between interconnected set pieces to progress. Another neat part of learning learning theory.

Final Exam

Of course, the final encounter of Duality has a couple more twists. There is a giant bell (stimulus) so immediately the question becomes how to ring that belt and as you approach, the Nightmare of Caiatl emerges from the amorphous form with a familiar red immunity aura. The holographic symbols once again appear and the arena has clearly marked balconies, and bell holders, so the recurring schema comes into play (including the part of the brain that knows to kill the bellkeepers to make the bells usable, and that killing an incorrect standard bearer comes at a time cost), although the last crinkles in Duality‘s design leave a little to be desired.

Firstly, after successfully depositing the four standards, the environment shifts, but it’s not immediately evident what the new stimulus is to progress the fight. You have to be at the right angle to see the purple jeweled locks that can be destroyed to ring the bell, but they are easily missed while you try to survive the onslaught.

Secondly, after doing all of that, you entered into a hectic DPS phase involving killing the bellkeepers and keeping track of Caiatl. Given the lack of a timer, you can maybe infer that the bells are interactable in some given that if the boss gets to one, she absconds leaving you with wasted time, and even if you do infer that you have to be at the correct bell to get a damage buff since unbuffed, you do next to do no damage, it will take a few cycles to realize that you can stall her approach by baiting a stomp (a relatively new mechanic in Destiny‘s schema) and even more few cycles to realize that to properly stun requires Caiatl to be within a certain radius of the bell.

But nitpicks of the final taught sets of stimuli/responses aside, the dungeon itself is a master craft of how pedagogical theory interplays with game design.

Lessons Learned

Behaviorism and schema theory are far from the only applicable learning models that can be found in video games. However, they serve as a solid foundation to beginning to uncover all of the tricks that designers do to help guide as long through difficult encounters, and it’s these same techniques that also help us learn how to do things. And we didn’t even touch on the different ways that the designers made their mechanics accessible via strict color coding, particle effects, and even the standard names for the different standard names. Nor did we go over how various content creators approach making their guides.

There’s an incredibly staggering amount of effort put into the design of these games and the subsequent analysis of said design, and I have a perpetual appreciation to the skill it takes to translate the abstract into an actual activity.

All images of the Duality Dungeon courtesy of the Bungie Press Site.

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The post Dissecting the Design of Destiny 2’s Duality Dungeon appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/review-the-black-phone-keeps-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat/

Blumhouse makes some of my favorite movies to watch with my siblings because we love horror films. 

The Blumhouse company has produced iconic genre film franchises like Halloween, Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge. They have produced culture-changing films like Get Out and BlacKkKlansman. Now, they give us The Black Phone, a film I knew I wanted to see right away the first time I saw the trailer. 

The film did not disappoint. You don’t know how it will end. You start to draw conclusions about what is actually happening. The film keeps you on the edge of your seat. What starts off giving Stand By Me vibes finishes strong with a story all its own.  

The Black Phone is directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister) and based on the short story by Joe Hill. Already, a prime combination. Joe Hill has written some cool ones like NOS4A2 and Locke & Key. The screenplay is written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill (Doctor Strange). 

The film at its core is about a smart 13-year-old boy who gets abducted by a sadistic serial killer of children and is locked in a soundproof basement. The basement has a broken black phone that rings with the killer’s previous victims on the other end. They try to help the boy escape so he doesn’t become another name in the newspaper. The film stars Mason Thames (Walker) in his first feature film role, Madeleine McGraw (Secrets of Sulphur Springs), Jeremy Davies (Sleepy Hollow, TV Series), James Ransone (It Chapter Two), and Ethan Hawke (Moon Knight).

The last horror film I saw four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke in was The Purge (2013). He was a victim then. Now we see him in what could easily be considered the most terrifying role in his career. Ethan Hawke plays The Grabber. It is a chilling performance, complete with masks and a personality disorder. There is no gray area when it comes to The Grabber. He is evil. There is no room for an explanation of why he does what he does — a fact left out that makes it even more chilling to watch. You don’t know what he will do next. You sit there wondering, why would a man do this to kids, to young boys? Only bad thoughts. Hawke portrays a character that makes this horror film feel like it could happen to anyone. Children are kidnapped all the time. Every 40 seconds, a child goes missing or is abducted in the United States. It’s a scary story where the villain isn’t the supernatural element. Hawke does a great job of making us think we are witnessing something truly evil.

There is an underlying tone of mental illness in The Black Phone. Finny (Thames) and Gwen (McGraw) have a family history of mental illness. There is a murky link between a mental illness that is bad and a mental illness that can be spun as supernatural-like and seen as a positive. Gwen has dreams that sometimes come true, but can it save her brother in his time of need? Finny is hearing voices on a phone that does not work. But his time in the basement is almost like therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to be precise. 

CBT treatment can involve efforts to change behavioral patterns with strategies like facing one’s fears instead of avoiding them, using role-playing to prepare for potentially problematic interactions with others, and learning to calm one’s mind and relax one’s body. It is also used to change thinking patterns with strategies like gaining a better understanding of the behavior and motivation of others, using problem-solving skills to cope with difficult situations, and learning to develop a greater sense of confidence in one’s abilities. The Black Phone is set in the 1970s, a time when cognitive and behavioral approaches were combined resulting in cognitive behavioral therapy. It’s masterfully incorporated into the film.

A theme in The Black Phone is family and, more importantly, the ties that bind us. The values, beliefs, characteristics, etc. that are shared between people can and often do result in a unique and unbreakable connection. Finny and Gwen are brother and sister who have that connection. They come from a complicated home. They are bullied, beaten, and almost loners, save for one friend, but they have each other’s backs constantly. The relationship portrayed on screen makes it hard to think they are not brother and sister in real life and that this is just for the cameras. Their chemistry is perfect. I could watch these two young actors all day.

It’s always so hard watching child abduction films because I have a gaggle of kids in my family. The idea of one of them going missing is beyond something I want to think about. Supernatural I can deal with — evil people are another story. There are rules to the supernatural. Serial murderers have no rules (unless you’re Ghostface from the Scream franchise. That killer is all about the slasher film rules). The Black Phone follows no rules or gimmicks. It’s just horrifying. Entertaining, but horrifying. Viewer beware. 

The Black Phone will hit theaters on June 24, 2022.