#support africa music

[afrofusionn]

Make E No Cause Fight 3

#alté #afrofusion #bojonthemicrophone #ajebutter22 #yoruba shakespeare #spotify #nija #afrovibes #afro beats #music #west africa #support africa music #play music #relaxing music

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

Quarterfinals, Match 2

expand to see all propaganda received! (wall of text warning oh my god this is a severe cautionary message)

Lauryn Hill:

"she paved the way and was hot as fuck the whole time"

"Girl c'mon. Look at her. You're gonna try and tell me that isn't the most beautiful and attractive person alive? Okay. You're lying but okay."

"if u freaks don't give ms. lauryn hill the respect she deserves..."

"actually one of the prettiest women ever I'm such a lesbian for her. like irl I'm already a lesbian but she is helping"

Damon Albarn:

"Don’t think Damon should be here? Why don’t you get your head checked by a jumbo jet? Maybe you’ll feel heavy metal and calm down."

"If Damon is in the “some guy” category, he’s the heavenly and heartbreaking version. Damon is the sort of significant stranger I’d see on the train out of Colchester but could never speak to, just a face seen in passing yet too radiant to be real. I’d fall in love for an hour and carry the ache for a month."

"Damon sets the standard for me. I think he’s the most fascinating man alive. What I find attractive in Damon is not just his gorgeous bone structure and boyish charm, but how wholly he’s committed himself to music. Damon is an artist who walked the walk: in one of his roughest years with some of his rawest songwriting, he said he was no longer excited by anything except the creative process. He was disillusioned with the celebrity of it all, with his relationships suffering for it, and only wanted to make art: nothing more, nothing less. He would go on to compose film scores, write operas and stage musicals, produce other artists’ records, form collectives to fulfill his passion for world music, and create some of the most globally successful music of his career in a completely innovative format that placed him as the phantom behind the characters. Whenever one band takes a break, he makes a solo record or puts together a supergroup to stay busy. He’s uniquely collaborative and still writes personal letters inviting artists to record with him, and yet can function as a one-man show, acting as a multi-instrumentalist, a singer-songwriter and a producer. He’s been a constant voice of bringing British music to the world *and* bringing world music into Britain. Sure, he’s won Brit Awards and a Grammy among others, but he also has a Guinness World Record and was named an Officer of the British Empire for his services to music; his long work with Africa Express earned him respect even from peers who’d previously dismissed him, and his commitment to support his Malian collaborators in the face of violence earned him the title of Local King in Mali. There is so much talent in the world, but there is truly no one else with a career that looks like Damon Albarn’s. Damon is far more than just a prettyboy to look nice on a magazine cover, but looks are the ultimate point of this tournament, so make no mistake: he was terribly, terribly pretty. You watch him performing in the 90s, you sift through photoshoots and interviews and documentaries, and it feels *cruel* how beautiful he was. If his talent was god-given, so was his face. To put a bow on this thesis: I don’t know if Gorillaz and Damon’s musical universe would be the experimental, globe-trotting, boundary-pushing community affair it is if Blur hadn’t become such a central figure in Britpop and if Damon had not been made such a media spectacle, and I don’t know if Damon would have been that spectacle if he wasn’t so ungodly pretty. The domino effect is that Damon’s cherubic face launched a thousand multimedia art school projects for decades to come."

"I wish I was basically any bloke in the 90s so I could tongue Damon Albarn down. Damon will see a man and ask “is anyone gonna kiss that?” and not wait for a response."

"I have a pillow with his face on it. I sleep with it every night 😊"

"“I’m more homosexual than Brett Anderson, always have been. As far as bisexuality goes, I’ve had a taste of that particular fruit, or have been tasted you might say…” is just the rawest most Shakespearean statement ever"

"he is the ultimate Pretty Boy ™. his glorious golden locks, his electric blue eyes. he is if Princess Diana was a Britpop Dude. he is the Regina George of Britpop. he is if Aphrodite took male form. Zeus would come down to earth to fuck him if he knew. he is a caffeinated orange cat let loose. he is deranged. he is unhinged. you never know what will come out of his mouth. he had sexual tension with every single man who knew him. he pulled justine fucking frischmann. his aura knows no bounds. he is a siren. he is a weird guy. but being so gorgeous stunning ethereal didn't stop him from also being one of the most prolific songwriters of his generation"

"THE MAIN BLUR"

"literally where do i even begin. i could write entire essays on this man. a good place to start would be the beetlebum music video, i suppose. i'll never forget the first time i watched that music video. something in me changed, my brain chemistry was altered, my life was never the same, i view the world a lot differently now. and a lot of the viewing i'm doing is of pictures of damon albarn's face because of boy do i have a lot of those saved. every time i try to look for a photo of something on my phone i can't find it because there's so much damon. okay that's maybe an exaggeration but this man has the most unfathomable beauty ever. his eyes? HIS EYES. god dammit i love his eyes i want to stare at them until the end of time like nothing else exists. i'm so normal about this man (lying) and while i'm usually very shameless about my interests i'm actually incredibly glad this propaganda is anonymous because otherwise. yeah. but the world deserves to see damon albarn's beauty and also hear his fantastic voice because what the fuck. his voice is literally the most gorgeous sound ever produced like bro sounds like that and expects me not to fall in love? i want this man to sing his silly songs and talk absolute nonsense to me until the sun eventually blows out and the world ends. cmon damon girlies let's demolish this tournament i know there are a lot of you."

"He’s beautiful. He’s a little rat. He’s a sweetheart. He’s a dickhead. He’s a musical genius. He’s a dumb bitch. He’s a jock. He’s a weirdo. He’s real. He’s an illusion. He’s everything. He’s just Damon."

"DAMON DAMON DAMON where do I begin oh jeez I've hyperfixated on this man for a solid 4 years and still going strong. Damon makes me wish that British people are real. That says A LOT. This man created a whole ass ANIMATED BAND WITH A SHIT TON OF LORE as a SIDE HUSTLE??? Not to mention, what other man has collaborated with Stevie Nicks, MF DOOM, Del the Funky Homosapien, Snoop Dogg, AND Beck?! People, we're literally in the presence of a god. And he's STILL GOING. Anyways, TL;DR, damon is so so so neat and cool and he should definitely win this competition. Thank you."

"Okay 90s Damon is The Perfect Boy yes yes, but the people who parrot the Daily Mail and say "he's ugly now" will never understand. I would still suck every drop from him on his deathbed."

"Vote for whoever you want to. But Damon is so pretty."

"i did not spend hours admiring this beautiful man's face on pinterest just to see him lose."

"Damon Albarn just brings me joy. When I'm watching him perform, following along as the camera lingers on and adores his pretty face, I get butterflies like I'm 15 again. It's nice to still feel that totally unguarded giddiness sometimes."

"God let the intrusive thoughts win making Damon. What if he's a beautiful blond twink with eyes like saucers and dick to his knees, he reads Herman Hesse and plays footie and is insufferable about both, he'll be the most prolific musician of his generation and write operas and seminal albums in 5 different genres and also he's gonna be the dumbest bitch alive? He'll also be kinda bi, but only kinda. And send."

"when i found out about his existence, my life was changed forever. i wish i could use him like the hannah montana boot milk pillow and chuck him at the wall so he makes a loud thud"

"Think of the drama and anon fights it'll cause if Damon wins it all! And think of how quiet it'll get after Damon's out. You'll miss him when he's gone, like memories of a noisy house years after it's grown silent. Choose Damon, and keep the messy train chugging."

"Even the Gallagher brothers have the hots for him."

"Kiss kiss I love him also you can't vote for any of the Seattle men they're literally copy and paste it's not fair. We need Brit representation"

"I want to take care of him, I want to provide for him. I need to gauge his baby blue puppy dog orbs out to I can clean them with wood varnish, paint shades of Pantone 320 C in his eyes, spray eau de parfume by dior in them and sew it back into his eyes like that scene in Toy Story 2."

"Seeing as simply filling the page with ‘Damon’ written 10000000 times isn’t going to cut it 😅 may I admit/submit: I DO have him tattooed on my being (no descriptive, is this anon?); he’s inspired somewhat unhinged late night/early morning fandom conversations in which I’ve served as ‘parish’ priest hearing confessions from all manner of folk about what they’d like to do to him/receive from him; sadly I lost an essay where I detailed why the letters that make up his name suit him so well, and described him as the hot caramel sauce to Graham’s cool vanilla ice cream. He’s a faerie princess with a nose that makes people weep and a voice that feels like the warmest home and he gives amazing hugs. He loves trains and chickens and his tuxedo cat. He’s annoying and sweet and somewhat unhinged and his music saves people and all this is on top of that fantastic dick. He’s a dream yet very real and we’re fucking blessed to be on earth at the same time as him, amen"

"Damon Albarn was a beautiful, beautiful boy. The world saw that, regardless of if every individual reading this has the same taste in men; it felt like a truth of the universe at the time. They don't make celebrities that angelic in face and erratic in personality anymore."

"I need to touch his eyebrows, nose and prostate just one time JUST ONE TIME COME ON"

#most attractive 90s musician #poll #polls #lauryn hill #fugees #damon albarn #blur #90s music #tournament

[canmom]

So a little over a month ago I was reached out to by @peterkats, a gay refugee currently living in a camp with a small group of other gay and trans refugees.

Peter has, to put it mildly, had a fucking time of it. In his home country, Uganda, his partner was murdered for being trans. He stayed for some time in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya with a group of gay and trans people (pictured above), but violence from police forced them to move, and they're currently in a refugee camp run by the UNHCR. (I've been asked not to explicitly name the country but you can probably figure it out.)

Unfortunately this has not in any way been a reprieve. They've managed to flee right into an impending famine, and if that's not enough, they're still facing violence from police and other refugees, and general indifference from the UNHCR medical staff - who are also facing supply shortages. But it's not completely hopeless. When Peter contacted me, he needed money for food - I sent him some via an intermediary and he was able to get quite a bit (the exchange rate seems to be favourable). With help, things can be quite different.

We've stayed in touch since then, talking about our respective lives, the lgbtq situation in different countries, even videogames and music. He's a really sweet guy, despite it all still trying to find a place he can live free. For real, I would not survive any of this shit.

Recently a couple of people in Peter's group have caught malaria. They are currently sleeping on bare mats without mosquito nets. There seems to be some confusion about the exchange rates but as far as I have been able to gather, about €150 (~20,000ssp) gets a mattress and €10(~1000ssp) a malaria net. The UNHCR have not been able to provide any medication except paracetamol, and it's raining which promotes mosquito activity, so this is kind of an emergency.

I would very much prefer if the new friend I've made doesn't die of starvation or malaria. Unfortunately, I do not have the money to support Peter and his group alone. I've sent him money for one mattress (via PayPal for expediency, it won't show up on GFM), and I would be immensely grateful if you would be able to contribute a bit to getting them another (which would be just about enough to keep six people safe from mosquitoes if sleeping three to a mattress).

Beyond that, these guys are prohibited from working so they would definitely benefit from food money. And if anyone has an idea for a long term plan to get them somewhere safer where they're less likely to get bashed, I am sure Peter would appreciate hearing about it. We talked a bit about the UK asylum process but getting everyone here would be very difficult (passports, flights etc.).

But still like, I can only do so much on my own, and I want to give these guys a fighting chance. So if you could pass this around and donate if you can spare a bit? I'd be insanely grateful.

#signal boost #lgbt #gay #refugee support

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - September 11, 2023

Sorry for not sending last week's issue as I got covid again :/ I passed it, so here's the best things that happened last week :)

1. The IRS plans to crack down on 1,600 millionaires to collect millions of dollars in back taxes

The IRS announced on Friday it is launching an effort to aggressively pursue 1,600 millionaires and 75 large business partnerships that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in past due taxes. The newly announced tax collection effort will begin as soon as October. “We have more hiring to do,” Werfel said. “It’s going to be a very busy fall for us.”

2. The NGO African Parks announced it would purchase the world’s largest population of privately owned white rhinos

Africa’s beleaguered rhinos have been thrown a significant lifeline with the announcement that nearly 2,000 semi-wild rhinos owned by South African rhino breeder John Hume will be “rewilded” into reserves across South Africa and other parts of the continent over the next 10 years.

3. Mexico supreme court decriminalizes abortion across country

Mexico’s supreme court has unanimously ruled that state laws prohibiting abortion are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights, in the latest in a series of victories for reproductive rights activists across Latin America.

Wednesday’s ruling came two years after the court ordered the northern state of Coahuila to remove sanctions for abortion from its criminal code, a decision which prompted a tortuous state-by-state process of legal battles. So far 12 of Mexico’s 31 states have decriminalized the procedure.

4. The first human organ created inside an animal opens the door to manufacturing ‘spare parts’ for people

It is a historic image. A team of researchers in China has successfully generated a blueprint of a human organ in another animal for the first time. The experiment, conducted with humanized kidneys in pig embryos, represents a step toward the still-distant dream of using other mammals as source of organs for transplants.

5. Study Shows a Single Dose of Psilocybin's Astonishing Impact on Depression and Could Change Medical Treatments of Mental Health Forever

Psychedelics are making a comeback, and this time, they're dressed in the respectable garb of clinical research. Recent studies have reignited interest in these substances, particularly psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, as a potent treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD).

6. Missing cat reunited with owner after it disappeared during Alaska flooding

Twenty-six days after he went missing, an adorable black and white cat named Leo has been reunited with his family. Brave Leo went missing after historic glacial flooding swept away his home and all his owner's belongings.

7. Dogs perform Mozart with orchestra in Denmark

A classical music festival in Copenhagen, Denmark, has opened with some canine additions to the orchestra.

---

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation here:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog this post with your friends.

#Youtube #best news of last week

[gothhabiba]

Germany’s leading Jewish newspaper advocates genocide in Gaza

(January 21, 2024)

The largest Jewish newspaper in Germany, Jüdische Allgemeine has published an opinion piece on Thursday, effectively endorsing genocide in Gaza, amid Israel’s ongoing war against the Palestinian people in the densely populated enclave.

In the five-paragraph piece entitled “The civilians in Gaza are not innocent,” the “freelance journalist” Tobias Huch said that “If there is such a thing as collective responsibility for crimes, then this applies to Gaza’s people. That is the bitter truth.”

Ignoring the fact that Israeli military had been responsible for most of the deaths at the Nova music festival and killed many Israelis at a kibbutz during the Palestinian resistance operation Al-Aqsa Flood three months ago, Huch attributed the massacre to the “civilians from Gaza who had worked in the kibbutzim for a long period of time.”

Germany has been notable in having abstained twice in a UN vote for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, which has claimed the lives of over 25,000 Palestinian civilians. According to DW, this decision was because the General Assembly resolution “neither mentioned nor condemned the Hamas terror attacks.”

Last week, Namibia condemned Berlin’s “shocking decision” to support the occupation state in the genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) brought by South Africa. At the time, the President of Namibia, Hage Geingob, said in a statement that “Germany has chosen to defend in the ICJ the genocidal and gruesome acts of the Israeli government against innocent civilians in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian Territories.”

[hummussexual]

BY ABBY MONTEILApril 30, 2024

More than 60 LGBTQ+ organizations are calling for broadcasters, competitors, workers, and viewers to boycott 2024’s Eurovision Song Contest following the competition’s decision to include Israel in this year’s event, which takes place in Sweden.

Support for the boycott has come from LGBTQ+ organizations around the world, including QPEN in the United States, Queers in Palestine in Palestine, Pride in Protest in Australia, and Dyke March Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

“Israeli soldiers wave rainbow flags atop the ruins of Palestinian homes destroyed by the Israeli military in Gaza — a cynical attempt to rebrand Israel’s genocide as an act of queer liberation,” the boycott’s organizers said in a press release statement.

The statement likely refers in part to a viral November 2023 post from the state of Israel's official X account, which showed an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier standing amidst rubble it what was reportedly northern Gaza holding a Pride flag that had “In the name of love” written on it in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. The post said that the soldier is “a member of the LGBTQ+ community” who “wanted to send a message of hope to the people of Gaza living under Hamas brutality.” The post was criticized by LGBTQ+ advocates for being a prime example of “pinkwashing.”

The statement continued: “Allowing Israel to participate in Eurovision — an international pop cultural event with a massive LGBTQ+ audience — further contributes to Israel’s desperate pinkwashing attempts.”

The groups’ press release noted that although Eurovision excluded Russia the day after the country invaded Ukraine, similar measures have not been applied to Israel following the January International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that it is “plausible” that Israel is committing acts of genocide in Gaza. While the ICJ stated that it would proceed on South Africa’s case charging Israel with violation of the 1948 Convention of the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the court did not order Israel to stop its military operations. Since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 and took 250 hostages, Israeli military actions have killed over 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza and injured more than 75,000 Palestinians.

This isn’t the first time that artists and LGBTQ+ organizations have protested the international music competition’s inclusion of Israel. Back in 2019, over 100 LGBTQ+ groups endorsed a Palestinian call for a boycott of that year’s competition, which took place in Israel, following what Amnesty International described as “deliberate attempts” to kill and maim Palestinian civilians participating in protests in Gaza.

This past January, more than 1,000 Swedish musicians, including LGBTQ+ icon Robyn, called for Eurovision to exclude Israel from the 2024 competition in an open letter to the European Broadcasting Union, who said in a statement to Billboard that the Israeli public broadcaster KAN has met all the competition rules for this year and is eligible to compete.

Later, in March, over 1,900 queer artists and organizations called on the UK’s Eurovision contestant, queer actor and musician Olly Alexander, to boycott the competition out of solidarity with Palestine.

Eurovision 2024 is set to begin on May 7.

#eurovision #israel #palestine #gaza #hamas #settler colonialism #colonialism #zionism #zionist entity #from the river to the sea #ethnic cleansing #genocide

[joblrcensus]

it’s time for the JOblr census results 🧡🙌

before we start i want to thank everyone who took their time to answer this silly little project, gathering responses from 203 baby boos!! it’s my first time doing this so hopefully i can bring some excitement with the results <3

so buckle up and let’s get into it

general questions

Which continent are you from?

Unsurprisingly, the majority is European with a total of 80.8% but it’s amazing to see that they’ve crossed the continent’s border and we also have 9.9% people from North America, 3.9% from Australia & Oceania, 3.4% from Asia and 2% from South America. No person chose the Africa option.

Which country are you from? (optional)

With this being an optional question, 162 respondents out of 203 opted to answer it. Let’s take a look at the top countries by number of people in JOblr (small note: I counted the few people who wrote England or Scotland as part of the UK answer)

Drumrolls 🥁…..

Finland - 29

UK & USA - 15

Germany - 11

Poland - 9

Italy - 8

Australia - 7

Sweden - 6

Austria, Spain, The Netherlands - 5

Croatia, Slovenia - 4

Czechia, France, Romania - 3

Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Lithuania, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Ukraine - 2

Bolivia, Brazil, China, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, India, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Russia, Switzerland - 1

How old are you?

45.8% of us are between 18-25, following by 23.6% between 26-30, 18.2% between 31-45, 10.8% under 18 and two people who are over 45 years old.

Are you part of the LGBTQ+ community?

Remember when they said Joker Out are for the girls and gays? 🏳️‍🌈

Well that was absolutely not wrong since 77.3% baby boos answered that yes they are part of the community, while 11.8% are questioning and 10.8% have answered no

tumblr activity questions

How do you participate on JOblr?

a majority of 98 people are mostly reblogging posts in the fandom but sometimes making posts of their own, 38 are only reblogging while 36 lurkers have stepped out of the shadow and made themselves known. The least amount of people (31) said to be active posters

Do you post any of the following?

It’s already known this fandom is mad talented and entertaining!! It’s always a joy seeing everyone’s creations and posts no matter the type. And the people who are only enjoying and supporting the content are just as important 🫶

Do you also post about Käärijä?

Since these two fandoms are basically overlapping, sometimes even seen as one fandom, I was curious just how much

50.7% also post about Käärijä outside of Joker Out, while 35% don’t post about him at all (or perhaps very rarely). 14.3% are mainly coming from Käärijä’s fandom

joker out questions

How did you find out about Joker Out?

Another unsurprising result, with 89.7% of us finding out about them through Eurovision. But it was really cool to see that there are people who discovered them differently. Ten people found out about them through Tumblr or other social media, to four they were recommended by someone and one through a music platform. The “other” option was chosen as well and included:

finding out about JO through Käärijä

through a music blog review

on slovenian radio

Who from the current members is your favorite?

One of the hardest questions but it had to be done

So Tumblr’s top favorite members areee:

Bojan - 69 votes

Jan - 42 votes

Kris - 40 votes

Nace - 35 votes

Jure - 17 votes

Have you been to a Joker Out concert?

I did not expect this one to be so balanced but I am pleasantly surprised! 104 people have been to a JO concert, while 99 haven’t. It often feels like you’re the only person who hasn’t seen them live yet but it’s nice to see that you’re not alone, so if anyone feels the same don’t worry our time will come too 🥹

If you answered yes, have you seen them multiple times?

Out of the 104 people who previously answered yes, there’s still a balance between those who have been to only one concert and those who have been to multiple

If you’re into RPF, which one of the most popular ships (according to AO3) is your favorite?

Another optional question where 181 out of 203 opted to respond to.

Oh boy, ooooh boy this was a tough battle. It felt like I was watching a horse race. I can tell you that all three ships have been at some point in the first place, or even equal. Are you ready to see the most interesting result yet?

Drumrolls again 🥁…….

BoJere - 58 votes

BoKris - 57 votes

Jance - 56 votes

The “other” option was also chosen and the following ships were included:

BoMartin

Jan/Jure

Kris/Jure

Nace/Kris

Nace/Jere

poly!JO

aaaand that’s it, you made it to the end 🫶 hope you enjoyed and why not see you on the next census!!

#sorry in advance for any grammar mistakes:)) #joker out #bojan cvjetićanin #jan peteh #jure maček #kris guštin #nace jordan

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Today, two Palestinian terrorists from the city of Hevron had carried out a combined, multi-scene terrorist attack in the city of Ra'anana, killing one woman in her 70's and wounding at least 17 more people. The exact details are still being investigated, but the two terrorists are said to be from one family, 24 and 44 years old, they were denied a work permit in Israel due to terrorist activity in the past, but someone in Ra'anana agreed to hire them illegally. They have both been arrested. The combined method they used was a stabbing and vehicular terrorist attack, they stabbed people, stole the first car, used it to run people over until they crashed it, then they stole a second, then a third car, and continued ramming into people across several streets, before they were stopped. 7 of the injured are reportedly kids, and at least 3 are seriously wounded.

As 136 hostages are still held captive in Gaza, 100 days after Oct 7, we got some data on the treatment of those released roughly 50 days ago: 85 are still under a nurse's supervision, 2 are still hospitalized, 54 are receiving mental health treatment of one type or another, only 18 have returned home, all the rest are still displaced, out of 40 kidnapped kids, 38 were released, but only 21 have returned to the education system, some in their own schools, some in schools improvised for their evacuated community.

In Turkey, an Israeli soccer player, Sagiv Jehezkel, who plays for a local team, scored a goal for it, and raised his hand, revealing to the cameras that on his bandage, he wrote "100 days," drew the Star of David, and added the date of Oct 7. It's obviously a gesture to the Israeli victims of Hamas, the ones murdered during or hurt by the massacre, and the ones still held in captivity.

For this, Sagiv was condemned by the Turkish Football Association, suspended from his team, which annoounced he'd be fired, and then he was ARRESTED and interrogated by Turkish police. For making a humane gesture to honor his country's victims. This is how Sagiv was portrayed in an antisemitic Turkish cartoon, with blood dripping from his lips, evoking the antisemitic image of the Jews who feed on the blood of non-Jewish kids:

Sagiv has been released after an appearance at court, and flown back to Israel immediately, but the head of the Israel Football Association said they're still worried for 2 more Israeli soccer players and 2 Israeli basketballers, who are currently playing for Turkish teams.

Shabak, the Israeli equivalent of the FBI (also sometimes referred to in English as Shin Beit), has confirmed today that Iran is operating social media platforms in Israel, that allow it to harass the families of the Israeli hostages, and Israeli security forces (for example, by exposing their addresses, or sending them flower bouquets with offensive messages). The Islamist regime of Iran is also using these to collect from surveys personal info on Israeli citizens.

I wanna share with you this screenshot from the article, as a reminder that just because someone says online that they're Jewish, or puts "Jewish" in their account name, doesn't make it so.

The chief rabbi of South Africa, Rabbi Warren Goldstein, in protest of his country's decision to file a false lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, has changed the customary prayer for the well being of the country. He said: "This government is on the wrong side of history. Its support of Iran and its proxies - Hamas and Hezbollah - encourages a global Jihad,and harms Jews and innocent people worldwide. It's impossible to pray for such a government."

This is 36 years old Osama Abu Assa.

He was a Bedouin, from the village of Tel Sheva. On Oct 7, he was at the Nova music festival, and one of about 367 people who were murdered there. I got to hear several people talking about what a huge heart Osama had, how he was all about giving to others and helping people. May his memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

#israel #antisemitism #israeli #israel news #israel under attack #israel under fire #israelunderattack #terrorism #anti terrorism #hamas #antisemitic #antisemites #jews #jew #judaism #jumblr #frumblr #jewish

[aevyk-ing]

Watching the making of Wish

-Patting their backs for reusing animation as an homage. Like yeah, it’s nice, there’s work behind that, but it’s the way they say it, like: “We’ve worked hard! Trust us!” We know animation is hard and the problem with Wish was never the animation.

-I didn’t know Sabino was based on Roger from The Aristocats. I love Roger, he’s delightful. Poor Sabino just looks bland in comparison.

-They say Asha has her good and bad traits (which isn’t true) and is so brave to go against what she has believed her whole life. I've seen that done way better and with actually compelling characters.

-“She has to balance being a good friend and family member to speaking the truth and I think we can all relate to that” Well… nope. All those things can be different things. And both your friends and family should help you or at least listen to you.

-Saying that the “I want” song explains how the character is, like… duh.

-Well, yes, Ariana DeBose did great with what she was given.

-So Asha has freckles because some people of North Africa and Southern Spain have freckles… what? Any skin color can have freckles. And I can’t talk about North African people but Andalusian aren’t quite freckled (yes, that’s the name of Southern Spain). Also, I never saw her as mixed. She totally follows more of her mother’s culture. That’s why I don’t like her calling her father’s father saba. Her mother’s father would be her saba and her father’s father her abuelo.

-I love Bill Schwab’s designs, he’s a great artist. But he was only told Asha’s age, race and height. Which yeah, it’s important, but for designing a character you should think about their personality too, because that also translates into their features, hairstyle, clothes and mannerisms. We still don’t know anything about Asha. Is she shy? Likes comfy clothes? No, wait, she’s adorkable.

-They talk about Disney Princess gowns using elements from the current period where they were made (something quite interesting) but they just put the Modern twist in Asha’s hairstyle. Like, what were you afraid of?

-Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but Schwab’s just did his job with a model sheet and that was the ONLY reference they had for animating Asha for a while. Then one of them used his daughter as inspiration and then Ariana came with lots of ideas. They didn’t know how Asha moved for the longest time! Their lead character!

-They say Asha is pure energy, which is… somehow correct? Like she’s just awkward and making those weird moves and trying to be cute and funny. The movie is done and nobody knows yet who the heck is Asha as a character.

-Apparently, Asha has details of pumpkin seeds all over her clothes and she’s wearing periwinkle because of the idea of making her THE Fairy Godmother. I still think she looks better in orange.

-Seeing the voice acting outtakes was good. But now I wish the Bland Dwarfs looked more like the actors. All of them have interesting features that could have been implemented in the designs instead of making them clones of the Encanto family and the mother from Strange World.

-The first deleted scene is after Sabino retrieves his wish and he sings a song. I would have put it in the end as a farewell song with everyone joining it.

-"The Wish equation" is to have a true wish, be responsible of it and… finding support? Fight for it? Exclude fear? Accept change? What are we even talking about? A dream career?

-They say the FG gave Cinderella the dress but couldn’t make the Prince fall in love with her, so she was supporting her! Like… Cinderella just wanted to go to the ball. BAM, there you go, a new dress, WISH GRANTED. Cinderella’s wish wasn’t to make the Prince fall in love with her, she didn’t even know him yet!

-“Music happens when you’re too overwhelmed with emotion.” This clip plays AFTER a snippet of "Welcome to Rosas". I guess Asha was too overwhelmed with being late. That shouldn’t have been a song, she should have told us about Rosas in the book opening.

-They wanted it to be like a fairytale and then hired a pop composer. Like the director says she grew up with the Disney Renaissance Era. Which used Broadway music!

-They talked about this earlier but “This wish” was the song that helped them write the movie, just like "Let it go" made them rewrite Frozen. So you can tell they didn’t have much to work on, maybe an idea: “Hey, just do a fairytale about wishes for our anniversary.”

-The songwriter was so overwhelmed with the commission she had to reach a friend to help her.  Maybe because nobody actually knew what the movie was about? But hey, she’s the youngest to ever write a Disney OST.

-You know? The more I hear “This wish” the more I’m sure it’s the best song of the entire soundtrack.

-Hey, I know that guy in the archive! I’ve seen this clip before!

-I’m just hearing they didn’t know what the heck to do and dived into the archive for inspiration. I like the idea that they studied the greatest artists for some scenes, but sadly, all that is lost in the movie. They scenes are too short to appreciate the animation, but A+ for effort.

-They thought doing a fairytale illustration style was difficult to do… in 3D. Just don’t do it in 3D! Also, I don’t think it’s that difficult, Blue Eyed Samurai did something great.

-The composition is interesting and the backgrounds too, but the characters look quite bad.

-The illustration style led to the backgrounds (and everything) being in focus, which I think it also makes the movie look weird. Look at any old painting: the background is less detailed than the main focus (less brush strokes). They could have gone that direction. The backgrounds of Wish are too detailed a lot of the times and always in focus, so it’s distracting.

-BTW, most of this is: “We did this like in this movie, that like in that movie…” but, what’s original? What makes Wish its own movie?

-They talk about lines like lineart in animation, which we’ve seen it masterfully in Spiderman. But here is so subdued it doesn’t add anything.

-“Wouldn’t it be great to have a warmer climate than the one we’re used in fairytales?” Yeah, because there’s snow in Encanto and Hercules. Also, nothing tells us that’s a warmer climate. Google “Andalusia”, please. There’s flowers in bright colors everywhere, white houses, narrow streets and people, just a lot of loud and happy people. That’s Southern Spain for you all.

-At least with Frozen we CAN TELL it’s Norway. Here, there’s nothing that says SPAIN. Give us people eating serrano ham or tortillas, maybe put a bull around there, have them drink wine from botijos and play guitars!

-Again with the “this was based on this”. Rosas was inspired by The Sleeping Beauty: Germany and France. That’s a whole different architectural design! There’s no verticality as main focus in Mozarab architecture, is all about curves.

-“So it’s your fault.” Yeah, that doesn’t sound fun. I have the feeling you’re not telling a lot of things.

-You know, another Fantasia would have been great. Maybe one with all the Disney characters.

-This is now about the story of Disney, so yeah, padding. Also, way to use “At all costs” in the background. We don’t want to remember what you’ve done in the past, we just want you to tell a good story again.

-This should have been the beginning, the “wish upon a star” that put Wish in motion.

-It was going to be about the origin of the wishing star?

-“Return of Disney villain” Hahahahahahah…

-They didn’t know how bad Magnífico could be and made him do mean stuff like smashing Sabino’s guitar (they called it a guitar here).

-Also, apparently he was going to be shirtless in a scene. Like, you know, a Disney villain.

-We don’t watch him BECOME a villain, we watch a magic book CONTROL him!

-“With "This is the thanks I get" I was like, oh, yeah, we have a narcissist.”, so they didn’t know anything about Magnífico until the song was written! That’s why he doesn’t act like a narcissist much until that song and why the mirror ending felt rushed.

-“When Chris Pine came in I was like: that’s it, that’s the character.” Because they didn’t even had designed it? Like, that’s literally him!

-He did give it all to that song.

-Magnífico was an alchemist?

-“We didn’t want people to know he was evil right away.” Every poster and article: “Disney’s new villain, everybody!”.

-“Makes him more dangerous the quieter he is.” Magnífico in the end battle: eyes fully open, screaming, laughing.

-Oh, Star, here we go. He was going to be pure energy as well… just like Asha! Yeah, we were robbed. BTW, he’s not like Genie or Maui. Maui and Genie aren’t even the same!

-He could have been a fantastic creature as well. And all those designs look crazily fun. But also that’s the kind of exploration you do at the beginning of the production, not in the middle. Unless someone meddles…

-Someone went out to design different sparkles for Star but I could only see it being adorkable. Focused on the face so the sparkles weren’t even noticeable.

-“…they put their personality on it (Star)” Yeah, because none of these characters had any personality… nor have it now that the movie is done.

-People being made of stardust is one of the most beautiful scientific facts. “You are a star” is the worst song in the movie. No wonder it took so long to write.

-Nope, Doc was a leader. Dalia is just there… talking. Of course she’s a way to get the medal of  “we put a disabled character” but at least she has more personality than Asha.

-BTW, just saw the Story Artist wearing a pin with a Pride flag in the shape of a Mickey.

-“She’s just a young woman, going with her life.” “And succeeding.” Yeah, representation is good, but it’s better if you’re not talking about how good you are for doing it.

-Also, we have mixed-race representation, older people with dreams representation, etc. but hey, that girl has a crutch, we’re cool.

-“Animals in Disney have to be smarter than people.” Why? Just why? And also, Valentino is no way smarter than any of the other characters. So why say that?

-“(Alan Tudyk) He pretty much made the whole character.” Yeah, because it looks like nobody had any idea of how these characters were.

-“Inspiration can came from anywhere.” You just COPY-PASTED the ideas of others.

-“Everybody has seen me crying in the studio.” For a good or bad reason?

-Ending with a Walt quote proclaiming they always do their best job… huh…

-“It served the story better to have Amaya as a good person.” Yeah, nope. It made no sense for her to switch sides so easily.

-Sabino dying would have been such a strong way to start the story. Him stealing Asha’s diary… yep, not good.

-Reinforcing my theory that Disney wanted to move away from shapeshifters after the Nimona fiasco.

-Looks like they gave the chaotic energy Star was going to have to Valentino.

-Making any other animal talking surely was a mistake. What’s with the sassiness?

-Dalia wasn’t called like that?! BTW, the writers were so proud of her clutch not being mentioned but, in the deleted scene, it’s the first thing they do. Twice.

-“When you’re underestimated, they don’t see your power coming until it changes the world.” Whoa, just whoa. Disney writers, everybody.

-LOL, the deleted scene with the animals is so bad. But Magnífico was going to transform into a Beast, so… kinda interesting?

Here's the link, BTW.

And congratulations if you read this all. If you're interested, here are my own Wish rewrites: 1, 2.

#wish #disney wish #rambling

[reasonsforhope]

"More than 150 workers whose labor underpins the AI systems of Facebook, TikTok and ChatGPT gathered in Nairobi on Monday [May 1st, 2023] and pledged to establish the first African Content Moderators Union, in a move that could have significant consequences for the businesses of some of the world’s biggest tech companies.

The current and former workers, all employed by third party outsourcing companies, have provided content moderation services for AI tools used by Meta, Bytedance, and OpenAI—the respective owners of Facebook, TikTok and the breakout AI chatbot ChatGPT. Despite the mental toll of the work, which has left many content moderators suffering from PTSD, their jobs are some of the lowest-paid in the global tech industry, with some workers earning as little as $1.50 per hour.

As news of the successful vote to register the union was read out, the packed room of workers at the Mövenpick Hotel in Nairobi burst into cheers and applause, a video from the event seen by TIME shows. Confetti fell onto the stage, and jubilant music began to play as the crowd continued to cheer.

The establishment of the Content Moderators Union is the culmination of a process that began in 2019, when Daniel Motaung, a Facebook content moderator, was fired from his role at the outsourcing company Sama after he attempted to convene a workers’ union called the Alliance. Motaung, whose story was first revealed by TIME, is now suing both Facebook and Sama in a Nairobi court. Motaung traveled from his home in South Africa to attend the Labor Day meeting of more than 150 content moderators in Nairobi, and addressed the group.

“I never thought, when I started the Alliance in 2019, we would be here today—with moderators from every major social media giant forming the first African moderators union,” Motaung said in a statement. “There have never been more of us. Our cause is right, our way is just, and we shall prevail. I couldn’t be more proud of today’s decision to register the Content Moderators Union.”

TIME’s reporting on Motaung “kicked off a wave of legal action and organizing that has culminated in two judgments against Meta and planted the seeds for today’s mass worker summit,” said Foxglove, a non-profit legal NGO that is supporting the cases, in a press release.

Those two judgments against Meta include one from April in which a Kenyan judge ruled Meta could be sued in a Kenyan court—following an argument from the company that, since it did not formally trade in Kenya, it should not be subject to claims under the country’s legal system. Meta is also being sued, separately, in a $2 billion case alleging it has failed to act swiftly enough to remove posts that, the case says, incited deadly violence in Ethiopia...

Workers who helped OpenAI detoxify the breakout AI chatbot ChatGPT were present at the event in Nairobi, and said they would also join the union. TIME was the first to reveal the conditions faced by these workers, many of whom were paid less than $2 per hour to view traumatizing content including descriptions and depictions of child sexual abuse. ...Said Richard Mathenge, a former ChatGPT content moderator... “Our work is just as important and it is also dangerous. We took an historic step today. The way is long but we are determined to fight on so that people are not abused the way we were.”

-via TIME, 5/1/23

[Note: In addition to Big Tech outsourcing and exploiting workers for social media and AI moderation, many companies also exploit and vastly underpay mostly overseas workers to straight up pretend to be AI. I'm really glad issues around this are starting to get attention AND UNIONS because exploited overseas labor is so often the backbone of AI--or even the "AI" itself.]

#labor unions #africa #kenya #south africa #open ai #chatgpt #facebook #meta #tiktok #workers rights #labor rights #exploitation #outsourcing #big tech #anti ai #nairobi #unionisation #unionize #good news #hope

[coolclaytony]

My take on Adam's Children in Hazbin Hotel:

Scripture from various sources attributes several sons and daughters to Adam and Eve, not counting the times they apparently seperated and had sex with demons. They had at least four girls (Aclima, Awan, Azura, & Jumella) and at least three sons (Abel, Cain, Seth).

In the interest of making it more (handwavily) "plausible" that Adam and Eve are the progenitors of all mankind, I envision each of these kids as indistinctly resembling people from one of seven major geographic regions [Please bare with me, I'm not confident in this idea either]: Abel (Americas), Aclima (Mediterranean), Awan (South-Asia), Azura (East-Asia), Cain (Africa), Jumella (Europe), Seth (West-Asia)

Abel lives in Adam's mansion in Heaven with his twin Jumella, where he cheerfully maintains a farm. He has a very hospitable and accommodating personality. He loves Adam and Eve unconditionally (even if he thinks his dad is a bum). Despite everything, Abel could never bring himself to be mad at Cain.

Aclima made it to Heaven but escaped to Earth where she hangs out with Cain. She has beef with Eve for undisclosed reasons. She is known on Earth as a wealthy philanthropist who operates the most successful charities. Her arch nemesis is a parody of a certain evil children's novelist lady who's name I won't mention.

Awan runs a law firm that helps to settle disputes between winners that had unresolved grievances in life.

Azura is the only one of her siblings still married to her brother, Seth (yeah, everybody thinks it's weird to, Seth especially). She, unfortunately, has not seen fit to define herself further than being Seth's wife. To his credit, Seth really wishes she'd find a life outside of him, but he doesn't want to hurt her feelings.

A popular idea about Cain is that he's the first vampire, having been cursed to walk the Earth for eternity. I like it, let's go with that! While Cain is still bitter over Heaven's rejection of him, he's grown very guilty over having murdered Able and secretly wishes he could apologize to him personally. Despite what people might think, the Cainites don't rule the world, and are in fact supporters of many anti-authoritarian and revolutionary groups around the world.

Jumella adopted her father's appreciation for hard rock music (though she leans more into British punk rock) and is the drummer and lead singer of a band. She throws concerts at the mansion every other night. She still finds time to help Abel on his farm.

Seth tries to maintain a healthy relationship with Abel, since he never got to know him in life. He regards all winners in Heaven as his family and his home is always open to them. If Azura's personality can be summed up to "everybody's mom" Seth's can be summed up to "everybody's dad".

Edit: I made a mistake with Jumella and redid that bit.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin adam #cain #abel #seth

[justforbooks]

In the childhood memories of more than one generation, Glynis Johns, who has died aged 100, will be best remembered as the Edwardian materfamilias of the hugely popular Walt Disney musical Mary Poppins (1964). Winifred Banks, married to David Tomlinson’s George W Banks, is the mother of Jane and Michael, the children in the care of the magical nanny played by Julie Andrews. A protester for the right to vote, Winifred delivers a spirited rendition of the song Sister Suffragette – “Our daughters’ daughters will adore us. And they’ll sing in grateful chorus: ‘Well done, Sister Suffragette!’” – as the children’s previous nanny tries to quit.

But the husky-voiced actor had other claims to fame from her more than 60 films and 30 stage productions. In 1973, Stephen Sondheim composed the song Send in the Clowns for Johns when she was cast in the leading role of the premiere production of his musical A Little Night Music, on Broadway. And she had won initial stardom in the British cinema as a mermaid.

In the title role of the film comedy Miranda (1948), she travels from Cornwall to London and causes romantic complications among the Chelsea set. Although the film’s whimsy may now seem strained, it was a great commercial success in its day, making Johns a top-liner in British movies. Miranda returned in a rather belated sequel, Mad About Men (1954).

By that time, Johns had moved almost completely from stage to films, where she was associated chiefly with lightweight roles, alternately fluffy and feisty. One of her most appealing opportunities came in the thriller State Secret (1950, released as The Great Manhunt in the US), playing a cabaret artiste in a fictitious Balkan country, and gamely singing Paper Doll in a wholly invented language.

It says something for her properties of youthfulness that at the age of 30 she could play a teenage schoolgirl in the melodrama Personal Affair (1953). The same year she played in two fanciful Walt Disney British productions, as Mary Tudor in The Sword and the Rose, and as the heroine wife of Rob Roy, and she went on to make her first Hollywood picture, the Danny Kaye comedy The Court Jester, in 1955. The following year she played a cameo role in the star-studded Around the World in 80 Days.

At the time Johns alternated between American and British films, generally in subordinate roles, but a rewarding one came in The Sundowners (1960), set in Australia, as a jolly barmaid who takes a shine to a visiting Englishman played by Peter Ustinov. It brought her an Oscar nomination as best supporting actress. Top billing came in a stylish horror movie, The Cabinet of Caligari (1962). She was well enough known to American audiences by this time to star in 1963 in Glynis, a TV sitcom series that ran for just one season.

In 1966 Johns returned to the London stage in The King’s Mare, as Anne of Cleves to Keith Michell’s Henry VIII. Her Welsh heritage came into play when she took the role of Myfanwy Price in a screen version of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood (1971) starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O’Toole, and two years later came her great Broadway success as Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, which brought her a Tony award.

Glynis came from a show business background: her mother, Alice Steele (nee Wareham), was a concert pianist who performed under the name Alys Steele-Payne, and her father was the prolific character actor Mervyn Johns. He was a stalwart in particular of Ealing Studios films: father and daughter appeared together in an Ealing drama, The Halfway House (1944).

Though her vocal intonations pointed to her Welshness, Glynis was born in Pretoria, South Africa, where her parents were on tour. She was reportedly carried on to the stage at the age of three weeks, and it was not too much longer before she was appearing there in a professional capacity, making her performing debut at the Garrick theatre, London, as a dancer in a revue called Buckie’s Bears (1935).

Educated at Clifton high school, Bristol, and South Hampstead high school and the Cone School of Dancing in London, she rapidly graduated to juvenile acting roles in both theatre and cinema. Her first screen appearance came at the age of 14, as politician Ralph Richardson’s troublesome daughter in South Riding (1938), and on stage she was the young sister, another Miranda, in Esther McCracken’s comedies Quiet Wedding (1938) and Quiet Weekend (1941).

That year brought the opportunity to appear in the film 49th Parallel, starring Leslie Howard and Laurence Olivier in a spy thriller intended to bolster second world war support in the US. When the prospect of playing a mermaid came after the war, she was able to draw on her theatrical versatility: “I was quite an athlete, my muscles were strong from dancing, so the tail was just fine. I swam like a porpoise.”

Johns returned to the London stage in 1977, as Terence Rattigan’s choice to play the murderer Alma Rattenbury in his well-received dramatisation of the Rattenbury case, Cause Célèbre. Her acting appearances became sporadic, though in 1989 she starred with Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger on Broadway in Somerset Maugham’s The Circle.

She was occasionally a guest star in US television series such as Murder She Wrote and The Love Boat, and played Diane’s rich mother, Helen Chambers, in the first series of Cheers (1983) and Trudie Pepper in the sitcom Coming of Age (1988-89). By the time of her final films, While You Were Sleeping (1995) and Superstar (1999), she was a characterful grandmother.

Johns was married and divorced four times. Her first husband, from 1942 to 1948, was the actor Anthony Forwood. Their son, Gareth, also an actor, died in 2007. Marriages to two businessmen followed: David Foster, from 1952 to 1956, and Cecil Henderson, from 1960 to 1962. She was married to Elliott Arnold, a novelist, from 1964 to 1973, and is survived by a grandson and three great-grandchildren.

🔔 Glynis Margaret Payne Johns, actor, born 5 October 1923; died 4 January 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#just for books #glynis johns #in memoriam

[bomikalover]

Did my yearly rewatch of Austin and Ally (all 4 seasons) and now I’m hyper fixated on it. So I decided to yap my head off on here so if you don’t care for anything A&A specific then just scroll and enjoy my other posts or edits of the stuff you do like 🫶🏾

Anywaysss, why I’m here.

AUSTIN AND ALLY’S PARENTS ARENT GOOD PARENTS!!

There i said it.

The only one I give slack is Ally’s mom as she mostly lives in Africa for work (I think?? I kinda black out the parents storyline since I’m here for any else but the parents) plus she wrote a book and when she was in Miami with Ally she spent all her time WITH HER DAUGHTER. She gave advice, presents, and even gave her an opportunity to sing at her event which was the event she overcame her greatest fear. She was polite and sweet to all the kids, put effort to talking to them, and getting to known them. We’ve seen her for maybe 2-3 episodes TOPS in the whole show but I never disliked her. Do I think she could have had a talk with her ex-husband and made him work at his own business?? Yes but they spilt for a reason and maybe she was just already mentally clocked out of anything dealing with him…cuz I know I am.

Her dad on the other hand I majorly dislike. He opened a business just to leave in the hands of his only daughter between ages 14-18 while she was already occupied with school and then her career as an artist. Plus she had friends and a young life that she wanted to live. Fortunately Ally was lucky her 3 friends stuck around all day in Sonic Boom helping out and hanging there instead of completely leaving Ally out since she was constantly busy with work.

He was also extremely cheap. Like being cheap with urself is fine but with ur daughter is a whole nother thing. Like when he gave her emergency funds for when she went to go on tour with Austin and she actually needed it as she was stranded in an unknown state. Just to find out that her dad only gave her $6 and an expired coupon. She once again was on her own and performed for her own well-being.

And he was also unsupportive of Ally sometimes. Like in the first episode when he said that she had one in a billion chance of making it into the music industry. (Austin’s dad said that as well, but we’ll get to him later) WHAT?! Is it so hard to be supportive of ur daughter. (He does support her in future episodes but for me it’s says a lot that the first impression we get of her father is that he’s unsupportive and only wants her to run the family store)

Speaking of no support and forcing their child to follow their footsteps…Mike and Mimi Moon.

They also came out the bat being unsupportive but seemed to care enough to not force Austin to work at the Mattress Kingdom. But they heavily offered the job every time something went slightly off course with Austin’s Career. (Him getting vocal nodes or when he chose loving Ally over his career that he’s been passionately working on for years)

Both of A&A’s parents were just letting their kids travel by themselves or go on tour by themselves. (It’s EXTREMELY common for parents to be MIA in kids tv but these rubbed me the wrong way) like we rarely saw Mr.Dawson at Ally’s performances Vice versa with Austin and his parents. It took Austin having to go the doctors or Ally moving away super far to accomplish her goals to get their attention.

I’m not surprised Auslly has such a strong unbreakable bond when they’re two only children with neglectful parents who are unsupportive of their dreams. They have no one to relate to and share the passion with beside each other. They both have best friends that have been in their lives YEARS before each other yet Auslly talk of each other as if that’s all they have is each other. (Side note: the way Auslly write their songs make me question how much stuff they truly went through together. Like “You can come to me” lyrics are so sweet and intimate but also so deep but it’s extremely evident that they are singing these lyrics to each other and only each other. Like they surpassed hurdles that Dez and Trish weren’t there to surpass with them. I wonder how much of Auslly we haven’t seen and will never see.)

Dez and Trish aren’t only children like Austin & Ally. Dez has a (older?) sister and Trish has a little brother. Both their families seemed extremely happy, loving, and outwardly supportive of them…I can’t say the same for Austin and Ally.

I could go on and on about this topic alone but I’ll spare your eyes from all the reading and stop yapping. But I’ll gladly talk about all my other thoughts about certain A&A things. Like the Auslly dynamic in a whole, why Austin’s passion for music is so strong, or even why Trish can’t keep a job.

But that’s a yapper-sation for another time.

#Yappin’ with Shy #analysis of kids tv shows is so funnnnn #yapping about A&A till I can’t no more #austin and ally #auslly #austin moon #ally dawson #trish de la rosa #dez wade

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

New Rule: Identity Crisis | Real Time with Bill Maher

And finally, New Rule: now that we're all recovered from St Patrick's Day, let's make it the last one. You know, I never understood Irish Pride or any pride in anything other than what you've actually accomplished. And as holidays go, St Pattie's is kind of malarkey. You don't get presents like Christmas or candy like Easter or joyless appointment sex like Valentine's Day. You don't even get a Peanuts special.

There's just a parade. And what rights are we marching for? The right to drink in the day? Do we still need to take to the streets in a public expression of support for Irish migrants?

I think now more than ever we need to stop talking about the things that make Americans different from each other and start honoring the things that make us the same. So let my people, the Irish, lead the way because again, the Irish think I don't give a shit.

But, I do give a shit who wins the next election. And outdated racial pandering is one reason Democrats lose elections. When Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi put on Kente cloth, I don't think it earned them one vote for their powerful emotional ties to Ghana.

Here in California, we're now segregating kidnapping. Really. California doesn't just have amber alerts for missing children, we have ebony alerts for black children and feather alerts for Native American Kids. What is that we look for them by listening on the ground?

Look, even if you like identity politics, this kind of thing is antiquated. From 2010 to 2020, the number of people identifying as multi-racial in America went up 276 percent. One in five newlyweds now are in an interracial marriage. And that number goes up to 100% in ads for Subaru.

You couldn't do a remake of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" today because almost 100% of Americans approve of interracial marriage. Especially with rich in-laws. And 95% of white women would leave their husband to marry Idris Elba. Idris Elba who says, "As humans we are obsessed with race and that obsession can really hinder people's aspirations." Actress Raven-Symone agrees. She told Oprah, "I'm tired of being labeled. I'm not an African-American. I'm an American." She says, "I don't know what country in Africa I'm from. My roots are in Louisiana."

And you don't have to agree with that, but it's a point of view a lot of people have. It should be respected. Morgan Freeman says the way to finish off racism is, "stop talking about it. I'm going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man."

There's even a movement now to ban racial questions on the census, and many of its leaders are people of color like Professor Sheena Mason who says, "to undo racism we have to undo our belief in race."

The liberal group moveon.org formed in 1998 to urge Republicans to move on from the Clinton impeachment. Today's Democrats should move on from identity politics. It's not working. It's not working for them or for us. Democrats are hemorrhaging the very voters they think they're pandering to.

The Financial Times writes, "Democrats are going backwards faster with voters of color than any other demographic," and suggests the reason is that, "A less racially divided America is an America where people vote more based on their beliefs than their identity." Exactly. Far-left liberals are living in an old paradigm. Americans don't fit into into neat little boxes anymore.

Who has the number one country song right now? Beyonce. Lil Naz X won a country music award, and he's black and gay. And a brand ambassador for the waspiest purse in America, Coach. The biggest new star in country is Jelly Roll who was a drug dealer, then a prisoner, then a rapper and then a face tatted country music star. Not to mention a giant middle finger to the idea of staying in your own lane.

No, in America now, you're allowed to be many things all at once and that's a good thing even when it's really stupid.

Look, we're all Jelly Roll now. We're sloppy, complicated and contradictory. Two-thirds of Republican voters support weed legalization. And 41% of Democrats own or live with someone who owns a gun. Ms Marvel is Pakistani. And the winner of the last two NBA dunk contests is white. The new Captain America is black. And Spider-Man is black and Puerto Rican, just like AI George Washington.

Latinos make up half of the Border Patrol. And the name of the coolest black dude on the planet is Lenny Kravitz. Ru Paul has a ranch in Wyoming that does fracking. Really. And has a fortified compound with a bunker to die for. And somehow the leader of the Village People was straight. Really. Je just went to the YMCA to work out. And the leader of the Proud Boys isn't an old white guy he's Enrique Toreo, an Afro-Cuban. He burns crosses on his own lawn.

Caitlyn Jenner is a pro-Trump transwoman who supports a ban on trans athletes competing in women's sports. And there's even an LGBTQ organization called "Gays for Trump." And why wouldn't there be? Gays love drag queens.

Our black president was half white. And our black vice president is half Asian. And Tiger Woods is, oh we don't even have the time.

My point is, look, you're still building your politics around slicing and dicing people into these fixed categories. Democrats need to get the memo that you can't win elections anymore by automatically assuming you're going to get every voter who's not these guys.

The more you obsess over identity, the more you ignore the bread and butter issues that win and lose elections. The real issue is class, not race, and the real gap is the diploma divide. And the real future of the party and maybe democracy depends on Democrats figuring that out.

==

Prediction: Trump will win, because even if the Dems wanted to change course on this identity politics bullshit, there are far too many identarians who have been elected into it on that exact basis. Look at The Squad, where every single one of them is a pathological liar who plays only by identity cards.

They can't undo a decade of abandoning their core constituency, the working class, in favor of privileged woke academic elites in the span of only six months. Even if they wanted to. Not with the wingnuts still around, doing what they've been doing for years: sucking up all the oxygen and screaming about their imaginary oppression. And there's no sign they do.

#Bill Maher #Real Time with Bill Maher #identity politics #us election #us politics #democratic party #democrats #religion is a mental illness

[scotianostra]

On 26th February 1950 the entertainer and songwriter, Sir Harry Lauder, died.

Born in Portobello,the first of seven children. His father died in 1882 and their mother moved them up the coast to the village of Arbroath where he worked in the mills aged just 12 before spending ten years in the coal mines after the family went to Hamilton, South Lanarkshire.

Lauder often sang to the miners in Hamilton, who encouraged him to perform in local music halls. While singing in nearby Larkhall, he received 5 shillings—the first time he was paid for singing. He received further engagements including a weekly "go-as-you please" night held by Mrs. Christina Baylis at her Scotia Music Hall/Metropole Theatre in Glasgow. She advised him to gain experience by touring music halls around the country with a concert party, which he did. The tour allowed him to quit the coal mines and become a professional singer. Lauder concentrated his repertoire on comedic routines and songs of Scotland and Ireland.

Lauder's range varied, from When I Get Back Again to Bonnie Scotland to Roamin' in the Gloamin'. He frequently took his act abroad, touring the United States no fewer than 22 times, in addition to tours to other English-speaking countries, e.g. Australia and South Africa.

During World War One Lauder worked tirelessly to organise and recruit performers for shows given to troops serving abroad. His own son, Captain J.C. Lauder, was killed on the Somme shortly before New Year 1917.

Despite his son's death he continued to publicly rally support for the war, ending each of his wartime shows with his theme tune, Keep Right on to the End of the Road. He once again entertained the troops on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

#scotland #scottish #history #MUSICIAN #singer songwriter #Entertainer #music hall

[howhow326]

ML X BNHA au Part 2!

Part 1 here

Chloe Bourgeois/ Queen Bee

Quirk: Subjection (Chloe's fingernails secrete an organic venom that can paralyze people. People that have Chloe's venom in their system will also obey any verbal commands she gives them. The venom lasts for about one hour.)

On the surface, Chloe Bourgeois is the egotistical daughter of the Mayor of Paris, a menace to the students of her local highschool, and the closet thing Adrien Agreste has to a friend. Beneath the surface, Chloe craves the love of a mother who abandoned her years ago, and takes out her pain on everyone else. Now, when Adrien leaves Paris to study at U.A. in Japan, it is only natural that Chloe follows after him. It is only natural that Chloe Bourgeois will become will become the number one hero, Queen Bee! Maybe then, with hundreds of civilains screaming her name will Chloe finnaly feel wanted...

Chloe's best "friends" : Adrien, Sabrina, Bakugo (but like, as a weird rival thing cuz they act the same)

Nino Lahiffe/ Carapace

Quirk: Bubble (Nino sweats a type of bubble liquid that he can use to create people sized bubbles that can be used as prisons are shields.)

Nino Lahiffe is just a normal boy with a normal life from Paris France. No really, he is completely normal. He wanted to be a DJ before changing it to filmaking, before changing that to being a Pro hero. Initially, Nino chose to U.A. as his hero school to get as far away as possible from Chloe, only to end up in the same class as her again! But this time, he's also in the same class as the world famous model son of a supervillain, a star exchange student from China that got into U.A. based on recomendations, and another exchange student from the Carribbean that Nino is like 75% sure is secretly a famous vigilante??? At least they are nice?!

Nino's best friends: Adrien, Denki, Eijiro, Rikido

Luka Couffaine/ Truth

Quirk: Inner Music (Luka's eardrum can detect the emotions of other people as melodies and harmonies of music.)

Luka Couffaine is the son of the American superstar & Pro Hero, Jagged Stone. While Luka was born in France, he spent most of his life traveling the world with his father after he won custody over him from his mother. Really, the only reason Luka started attending U.A. was because he heard his estranged sister was going their as well. After he's finished with school, Luka plans to become a musician just like his father, and a support hero on the side. But for right now, Luka is looking foreward to making new friends, and talking to those students that keep muttering to themselves.

Luka's best friends: Izuku (he's friend shaped), Juleka, Koji

Max Kanté/ Gamer

Quirk: Robostus (By looking at a Machine, Max can control it remotely. He can so this to multiple machines at once and can even change their software and code if the machine is a computer. His power shuts off if he looks away.)

Max Kanté is, accoding to several tests reaching back to when he was 10 years old, the smartest person in Mali and perhaps even all of West Africa. His intelligence was first demonstrated when he was recorded as creating the worlds first self thinking and feeling A.I., Markov. In schools all around the world wanted him to attend, and he finished most of them before he even turned 15. Now, Max is attending U.A. to finish his study in Hero support items and to gain a hero license. And also, to make some friends the same age as himself...

Max's best friends: Kim, Momo

Kagami Tsurugi/ Ryuko

Quirk: Dragon's Rule (Kagami's horns on her head that allow her to control the forces of lightning, wind, and moisture. Kagami's powers are tied to her emotions, so her mother forces her to keep a tight lid in so she dosen't lose control)

Kagami Tsurugi is the heir to one of the most famous super hero families in Japan, the Tsurugi company. Since birth, Kagami's mother Tomoe has been tirelessly training her to be the next number 1 Pro Hero of Japan and to surpass Allmight... because Tomoe herself last her eyes during a battle with a villain and was forced to retire from hero work. Although Kagami wants to become a pro hero, deep down she feels her mother puts too much pressure on her to be perfect, not allowing her to have many friends and spending all of her time training. Now that Kagami is attending U.A., she gets to meet her biggest rivals in life face to face, but she hopes they could be friends.

Kagami's best friends: Shoto, Iida

#ml x bnha #mlb x bnha #ml x mha #chloe bourgeois #queen bee #miraculous ladybug #ml au #nino lahiffe #carapace #it posted my wip again????????? #luka couffaine #viperion #i wish my phone would stop posting wip lol #max kante #pegasus #everyone is 15-16 in this au btw #kagami tsuguri