Latest news with #BatMitzvah
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Raphael Bob-Waksberg on Life and Work Post-‘BoJack,' His New Netflix Series, and Its Call to Industry Action: ‘We Don't Want AI Art'
'Long Story Short' cuts to the point. Coming from 'BoJack Horseman' creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg, it's without the parody dressing 'BoJack Horseman' presents, instead getting closer to the heart of human conflict and comedy. Screening at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival this week, the first episode of the 'BoJack' creator's latest animated Netflix series sees Avi (Ben Feldman) bring his new girlfriend Jennifer (Abbi Jacobson) to meet his family ahead of his little brother Yoshi's (Max Greenfield) Bat Mitzvah. It drowns you in overlapping dialogue, religious anxiety, and eccentric family members, immediately distancing itself from Waksberg's past work. The series then follows the Jewish family through the years, their hopes, and disappointments. More from IndieWire Jacinda Ardern Documentary 'Prime Minister' Shows Us How the New Zealand Leader Is the Anti-Trump TV's Hottest Club Is Philadelphia - Why This American City Is a Perfect Playground for New Shows 'I was thinking about family, time, and identity,' Waksberg told IndieWire at Annecy. 'In the writers room, I wrote those up on a board, like this is what the show is about. More specifically, I was thinking about how our relationships with our family change over time, and how our identity changes over time, and the ways we see ourselves and think about ourselves, and how so much of that is defined by our family. When we have kids, oftentimes we are trying to either emulate or correct the ways that we were brought up. In some ways, we succeed, and in some ways, we fail. In some ways, we repeat what our parents did, and in some ways, we overreact to what our parents did. To think about that cause and effect on a longitudinal scale was really interesting.' As much as the themes resonate with him personally, Waksberg hesitates to label 'Long Story Short' as autobiographical. 'I would say it feels more personal than autobiographical, because you don't know my biography. But I wanted it to feel real and lived in. It's not really about my family, but it is about family, and it's about my thoughts on family, the rhythms of family and the way family interacts. I'd say all my work is personal in that way. I'm of the belief that on some level, all art is autobiographical, sometimes in ways you don't even realize.' Authentically depicting family made Waksberg write in a different register than what 'BoJack' offered audiences. 'We definitely do more dual dialogue than we ever did on 'BoJack.' That was very intentional. I wanted to have multiple conversations happening at the same time, and an awareness that the audience is not going to hear everything, and that's okay, that's a little leap of faith that people aren't going to feel like, 'Wait, what's going on?' Part of making a show is teaching your audience how to watch it. We want to be intentional in signaling to the audience that, if you missed something, don't worry, you're not supposed to get everything, maybe watch it a second time and pick out what other people are saying. We wrote and edited the dialogue, trying to move the conversations faster.' He added, 'This part is actually very autobiographical. It's based on my family and probably other families as well. You don't wait till the end of the sentence to start talking, especially when you know what the other person is saying, you're gonna start before they're done. If you're not raised in that mode, it can be very overwhelming and off-putting, but I'm interrupting you because I'm showing that we're in this together. So I think trying to write in that mode was very intentional.' 'Long Story Short' also feels so personal because of its exploration of Jewish identity, depicting Yoshi as having a crisis of faith. 'Being Jewish means so many different things to different people,' said Waksberg. 'A lot of stories about religion are centered around faith, because that is the Christian narrative, and faith is such an important part of Christianity and Judaism as I've experienced it. I'm not speaking for all Jews, but it's not as based in faith. That's not all what being Jewish means. I'm interested in religion as far as culture and community and history and identity.' Returning from working on 'BoJack' with Waksberg, as well as Netflix's 'Tuca & Bertie,' is character designer Lisa Hanawalt, whose work is more restrained, more minimal, than what she showcased on her previous series. 'It was very intentional,' added Waksberg. 'We wanted it to not look like 'BoJack' or 'Tuca.' We didn't want it to be mistaken as a spinoff and feel like BoJack can walk in any minute. That was the main guidance I gave her. Working with Lisa as long as I have, there's trust there, there's faith there, and I often feel the less direction I give her, the more I get to be surprised and delighted. I was really interested in her idea of having dots for eyes, instead of full eyes. We did a lot of tests to see how expressive they could be, and you look at old 'Peanuts' comics. Those characters are very expressive. It was really fun to think about new ways of using eyes on this show.' When he spoke to IndieWire last year, Waksberg discussed how 'BoJack Horseman' had to be tailored around how audiences watch shows on streaming: linearly and often all at once. In the 11 years since, the landscape has changed yet again, which led him to think differently about the structure of 'Long Story Short.' 'I was interested in thinking about how audiences watch shows. One thing I have felt is that 'BoJack' has done very well, even for people who weren't watching when it was on. One of the reasons for that is because it's long-running, there are 77 episodes of it, and when you get to the end, you're ready to start it all over again.' Waksberg said, 'That's harder to do with fewer seasons with shorter episode orders, which you see a lot of in streaming. On a show like this, the goal is to make you fall in love with the characters. Can you shortcut that a little bit by jumping around time and watching these characters grow up? Can you feel, by the end of the first season, that you've watched five seasons of this show? Can you feel that same kind of warmth that you feel with something you've seen 100 episodes of? That's the great experiment. Given the landscape of television right now, I'm probably not going to get 100 episodes. Is there a way to get some of that same effect?' At the end of the credits, 'Long Story Short' makes a point to stress that 'This Programme Was Made By Humans.' 'It's a bit of a toothless guarantee, because there's no standard at this point, there's no Humane Society of Anti-AI to certify this as the correct amount of non-automation,' said Waksberg. 'But as a statement of value, it was worth saying out loud, 'This is important to us,' and what I love about the show is that it is made by humans. Even in the artwork, we were really deliberate in saying, 'Let's color outside the lines a little bit, let's, let's make this feel handmade.' In the writing, too, we want it to feel personal. We want it to feel specific.' He added, 'One of the things I love about getting to do this work is how collaborative it is. I get to work with these other humans who come in with their own stuff. I could see a world in which I had an idea for a show, and I could write up a paragraph about it, and then a machine could kind of spit it out exactly the way I was imagining it should. I don't think we're there yet, but I could see that scenario. But I don't want a show exactly the way I'm imagining it. I get to be surprised by the brilliance and the experience of these other people that have worked on it. And I do feel like we need to draw some lines in the sand. We all do, every single day. I don't know what that line is, but I think it is worth talking about, as audiences [are] saying we don't want AI art.' 'Long Story Short' premieres on Netflix August 22. Best of IndieWire The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in June, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal' All 12 Wes Anderson Movies, Ranked, from 'Bottle Rocket' to 'The Phoenician Scheme' Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear'
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Former News 8 reporter brings new personal film to ROC film festival
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The Rochester International Film Festival is back at the George Eastman Museum's Dryden Theatre. It's one of the longest-running short film festivals in the world, and all of the screenings are free. One of them comes from a former News 8 reporter returning to ROC as a filmmaker. It's called 'Thirteen' and Allison Norlian stopped in our Sunrise studio to share more about her movie ahead of Saturday's screening. She describes it as a very personal film inspired by real life — her mom and sister. It's told through the eyes of a determined mother fighting tradition to honor her child, who faces a profound disability, with a Bat Mitzvah. Learn more by watching the interview in the player on this page. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘Share your stories with me': Meet Jessica Tzikas, the new Jewish Journal editor
Hello readers, I am honored to introduce myself as the new editor of the Jewish Journal at the South Florida Sun Sentinel. As a lifelong member of the South Florida Jewish community, the Jewish Journal has been a staple in my household since before I could even read the pages. I was born and raised in Boca Raton, had my Bat Mitzvah at Temple Beth El, and now immerse my own young children in local Jewish life. Growing up in Boca Raton meant that Judaism always surrounded me — whether through the friends I sat next to in class or the extracurriculars I attended after school. Still, I experienced my own share of antisemitism, like when a classmate drew a swastika in my fifth-grade yearbook. But it wasn't until I left the safety of my hometown that I realized just how rare, and special, being Jewish really is. I received my bachelor's degree in editing, writing, and media from Florida State University and quickly moved to Philadelphia after graduation to pursue a master's in publishing from Drexel University. There, I worked as an editor for Philadelphia-based magazines — but while I loved the city, I always felt a strong urge to be home. After five years away, and with a desire to start a family, I moved back to South Florida, knowing it was the best place to raise my children. Since then, I have written for a variety of local publications, covering restaurants, events, and the people who make our area so notable and diverse. When Oct. 7, 2023, happened, an uneasiness washed over me and my career trajectory took a turn. After my daughter's Chabad preschool received a bomb threat, I knew I needed to do more for our community. Raising awareness and continuing to be openly proud to be Jewish didn't feel like enough. I began to focus my writing on Jewish publications, hoping I could help bring a sense of familiarity and belonging to fellow Jews my age. And yet, I still felt I could be doing more. So when the Jewish Journal posted the job for a new editor, I felt it was, as my grandmother always said, 'bashert.' The Jewish Journal has always been a publication that helps local Jews feel connected. As your new editor, I hope to maintain that connection, continuing its legacy of strong storytelling and community building. We are living in a time of uncertainty, especially when it comes to the Jewish lens, and I hope to inspire conversations on both sides of the coin and to address the issues we face as Jews living in a post-Oct. 7 world. But more than that, I hope to bring more awareness to our amazing community, to shine a light on all the meaning we bring to South Florida, and to give you, the reader, a platform to share your stories, both big and small. The landscape of our local community is constantly changing. I had the pleasure of interviewing the new CEO and president of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, Igor Alterman, for my inaugural article in the Jewish Journal. We both expressed our shared goal of ushering in a new generation of South Florida Jews and creating a space for the ever-growing numbers of young families and young professionals moving into and growing up in our community. I aim to stay true to the generations who have come before and who laid the foundation for this publication, but to also grow alongside the younger generations and evolve the Jewish Journal into something we can all be proud of. I believe that its success lies within all of you, whether you are a lifelong reader or newly joining us. And I hope that together, we can continue to inspire others and write the narratives that deserve to be told. My inbox is always open — please feel free to reach out with your story, your ideas, or to simply say hello. We should never feel uneasy about telling our Jewish stories. I hope to make the Jewish Journal a space where we can tell them with confidence. Thank you for trusting me as your editor. I look forward to what's next. Jewish Journal editor Jessica Tzikas can be reached at jtzikas@
Los Angeles Times
17-02-2025
- Automotive
- Los Angeles Times
L.A.'s gone all in on hyper-specific bumper stickers — the weirder the better
Jeanne Vaccaro, a scholar and curator from Kansas, always wanted to become a bumper sticker person. For years, she collected stickers from artists, musicians and bookstores, but she kept them away from her vehicle, afraid that they'd damage the paint. 'It's like a tattoo,' Vaccaro told me in Echo Park this past December. 'Your mom tells you not to. It'll, quote, ruin my car, unquote.' But when she saw a scratch on her newly-purchased silver 2020 Subaru Impreza, she decided to cover the blemish with a sticker that said 'All I want for my Bat Mitzvah is a Free Palestine,' the last two words large and bubbly, and filled with green and red to emphasize its political message. It opened the floodgates. Now she has more than 25 stickers on the rear. There's so many, they wrap around the sides, blasting colorful messages above the tires. 'Next came, 'HONK IF YOU LOVE RELATIONAL AESTHETICS,'' said Vaccaro, who was dressed in a Betty Boop T-shirt and leopard print jeans the day we met. She gestured to a simple, black-and-white sticker in sans-serif font that reads 'I'D RATHER BE CRYING TO ENYA.' The collection has since become quite varied. It includes a red-and-white bumper sticker that declares 'I'd rather be withholding my labor,' which was designed by a poetry small press called Spiral Editions. (It's technically a replacement; the first one was stolen from her car.) Her favorite is 'Keep Honking! I'm thinking about the incomparable pool scene from Paul Verhoeven's underappreciated 1995 erotic drama 'Showgirls,'' a black sticker with white text that features lead actress Elizabeth Berkley's lean profile. 'But I just have so many more that I can't fit,' she said. In August, Vaccaro took a sabbatical from the University of Kansas to curate the exhibition 'Scientia Sexualis' at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In the brief time she spent in the area's Arts District, her vehicle became a local celebrity. 'I've had a lot of people send me photos from Instagram,' she said. 'Friends of theirs saw my car, and people know that it's me. I think that's so special.' Though some of her stickers are political, Vaccaro doesn't believe her car ruffles any feathers. 'I have not experienced any road rage or anger, and I've driven across the country many times,' Vaccaro said. Instead, she notices people through her rearview mirror, smiling. 'It makes me happy that my car is bringing joy to the world.' It's hard to drive anywhere in L.A. right now without seeing an irreverent bumper sticker. In my own neighborhood of Echo Park, there's 'My other car is a Spirit Halloween,' which incorporates the brand's grim reaper mascot; 'Let me merge, my dad is dead' on a contradictory glittery, bubblegum pink background; and 'KEEP HONKING! I'm Sitting In My Car Crying To The Cranberries 1993 Hit Single, 'LINGER'' in a smattering of different-sized fonts. Cars have been emblazoned with advertisements and political messages ever since they came on the market, but the first adhesive bumper sticker can be traced back to 1946, when Forest P. Gill combined two wartime inventions, sticky paper and fluorescent paint. The first message Gill used for his discovery is lost to time, but his invention had sticking power. Political organizers were enthusiastic early adopters, and in 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidential campaign became the first to embrace the art form. His supporters proclaimed 'I LIKE IKE' on the back of their Cadillacs. Bumper stickers quickly became a permanent fixture in popular culture. Over the last 80 years, Gill's company would churn out millions of stickers for politicians and tourist traps. They often communicate personal ideology, ranging from a hippie's transmission of peace and love to a veteran's pride for his country. Or taste: In the 1970s, classical music die-hards in L.A. adorned their cars with the phrase 'MAHLER GROOVES,' to show appreciation for the Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer and conductor Gustav Mahler. (Which the Los Angeles Philharmonic recreated this year to promote a Mahler-themed festival this winter.) In 1991, a Supreme Court case, Cunningham vs. State, ruled that bumper stickers were protected under the 1st Amendment, which made cars one of the few places where people could widely, but semi-anonymously, make bold political statements. In recent years, the creation of colorful, highly-specific bumper stickers have exploded, especially in the car culture capital of Los Angeles. At between $5 to $10 a pop, they're an economical tool to communicate personal values. This new wave of stickers, however, is more concerned with cracking self-deprecating jokes or aligning with a niche fandom. There's a bumper sticker for everybody. You can profess your love for John Cage, neon art or frogs. You can declare your other car is a poem, ask drivers not to stress out your dog or claim to be a silly goose. 'It used to be about expressing something universal,' says Claire Evans, an artist, writer and musician most known for being half of the synth-pop duo Yacht. 'Now it seems to be a signal of one's membership in a niche musical, artistic or internet subculture.' Evans has been documenting bumper stickers in Los Angeles for years, and has built a reputation as a bumper sticker expert and connoisseur. In an attempt to innovate upon the artform, Evans even designed a suite of miniature stickers for phone cases. Many of today's amusing slogans play off classic formulas like 'Keep honking, I'm [oblivious to the world because I'm listening to something obscure], or 'Honk if you love [a quirky interest or interesting activity] or 'I'd rather be [bleak statement confronting one's mortality] or 'My other ride is a [creative vehicle alternative].' The familiar templates allow people to endlessly iterate upon the genre and invite a conversation on any topic. Creators start with a broad concept, then fine-tune every word within the sentence, dialing in the message until it's personalized to their unique taste. Local businesses, like Silverlake lesbian bar The Ruby Fruit, have printed their own iterations to cater to their clientele. (Theirs, which sells for $5 online, reads: 'keep honking, i'm listening to THE INDIGO GIRLS.') 'You want to put a sticker on your car that's so obscure that whoever finds it funny is destined to be your friend,' Evans said. Perhaps no bumper sticker accomplishes what Evans describes better than, 'Keep Honking! I'm Listening to Alice Coltrane's 1971 Meteoric Sensation 'Universal Consciousness.'' The yellow and black declaration designed by Echo Park-based artist Christopher DeLoach in 2020, arguably kicked off the current trend of esoteric car accessories. DeLoach came up with the Coltrane sticker while working at Texino, a tech startup that sold luxury camper vans. The company asked him to make merchandise that would suit the vehicles, and he naturally gravitated towards bumper stickers. The design — simple Arial black text on a yellow background that changes size and position in different parts of the phrase — was inspired by a vintage pro-life bumper sticker a friend found from a small church in Mississippi. The feedback DeLoach received on the bumper sticker, as he puts it, was: 'No one is going to understand this.' So DeLoach decided to sell it through his social media under the moniker 'thatscoolthankyou.' It took off in 2021 and he estimates that he has since sold at least 3,000 of the Coltrane stickers, and has given away thousands more for free. When I met DeLoach at his garage studio in Echo Park, he was sitting behind a retro Steelcase desk in a gray diamond-patterned blazer and black, collared shirt. In front of him were a stack of pre-addressed manila envelopes full of stickers that would soon be shipped off to people around the U.S. Also on the desk was a framed photo of a young DeLoach, who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., posing with New York City's former mayor, the infamous Rudy Giuliani. In front of the portrait, a nameplate read 'Christopher DeLoach. Bumper Sticker Magnate.' Despite the humorous tone of his creations, DeLoach has a surprisingly dark explanation for his bumper stickers' success. 'The grave reality is that, in America, we exist in the most propagandized civilization of all time,' DeLoach said. 'Everywhere you look, there's branding and advertising. It has the secondary or tertiary effect of causing people to then want to act out and propagandize themselves.' Since the success of the Coltrane sticker, DeLoach has come up with more than 120 designs. They appeal to every type of fandom, from followers of mega stars like Taylor Swift to devotees of the shoegaze pioneers Cocteau Twins. His second-most popular sticker is another one I spot regularly in bar bathrooms: a spoof of the famous interfaith 'Coexist' bumper sticker of the mid-aughts. In DeLoach's version, the religious symbols spell out 'Cointelpro,' which refers to a covert operation led by the FBI to undermine radical political organizations. There's seemingly a sticker for everybody. But if you can't find what you're looking for, it's easy to design your own. When Catalina Elias, an engineer living in Wrightwood, Calif., couldn't find any stickers dedicated to flugelhorn player Chuck Mangione, she hopped onto Canva and made one that says, 'Go ahead, keep honkin! I'm listening to Chuck Mangione's 1977 hit 'Feels So Good.' ' Though they've never met, Elias's phrasing was inspired by DeLoach's Coltrane sticker, which she had seen on Instagram. Elias ordered 75 stickers, hoping she'd sell them, but never got around to it. Instead, she started giving them away for free. One day, she was hosting a yard sale and playing the song on repeat. It caught a neighbor's attention. 'Some guy rode by with a really cool bike, and we gave him a bumper sticker, and now he's one of our best friends,' she said. The stickers also helped psychotherapist Jack Lam build camaraderie. Like Vaccaro, Lam put their 'Honk if you're a silly goose' sticker on their Toyota Prius to hide a scratch, but it's also sentimental. A friend gave them the sticker because they knew they loved waterfowl. For Christmas, Lam bought stickers as gifts for their group of friends, choosing phrases that best fit everyone's unique personality. 'It's whimsical and cute,' Lam said. 'Now we all have a sticker, which is kind of beautiful.' In a city that frequently isolates people into their car-shaped boxes, Evans believes that spying a relatable sticker can remind people of their shared humanity. 'Sometimes this hyper specific bumper sticker is a way of reaching across the highway and making a connection with another person.' Do you have a favorite bumper sticker? Share it here.
