This week (December 3rd) marked the 50th birthday of actor Darryl Hannah, who among many other roles played the replicant Pris in Ridley Scott's 1982 future noir movie, Blade Runner. Pris is a "basic pleasure model", designed as, essentially, a robot prostitute for the Off-World colonies. Cursed with a four year lifespan, and born on Valentine's Day, just a few years before the movie takes place. Memorably, she disguises herself as a doll - spraying raccoon make-up markings across her eyes, veiling her face and sitting very, very still - before launching herself at Harrison Ford's replicant-hunter and clamping her thighs around his neck. This photo is from a series of portraits by Dr Will Brooker, as a tribute to Pris' 2019 style. The model is Laura-Jade. Happy birthday, Ms Hannah.
A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.

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