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myelocin · 3 years

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love, sicily | kozume kenma

Synopsis: Perhaps it’s through serendipity that you’ll begin to look at the world past the rose colored lenses and finally see the kaleidoscope of gold that it brings.

Characters: Kozume Kenma, Sugawara Koushi

Genre: Fluff, Travel, Eventual Romance, (Mutual) Pining | WC: 4000+

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A/N: This is a commission from @haiikyuuns ! I had a lot of fun with this one so thank you for trusting me miss maam ;A;

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Track 1: Paris in The Rain | “I look at you now and I want this forever; I might not deserve it but there’s nothing better.”

Sugawara Koushi is what comes with Paris.

He’s the first, the only, and the current. It’s through summer nights under city lights, where you first are introduced to what love could be.

Where it could be this. Only this.

The summer of ’13 looking like living in an okay city that doesn’t really have much to offer in the rural side of southern Japan. One convenience store by the train station, and a teashop that most teenagers wouldn’t exactly prefer to frequent. Sunsets by the shore are nice, because your world had always just been nice.

It was okay.

Watermelon and ice drops in June, falling leaves in September, snowy paths you had to shovel every weekend in December, and the Sakura blossoms in March. Routine was okay, so you settled that you were too.

Koushi was who looked like what love could be to you. The word “eventually,” fitting. To be in a constant state of pondering if the word love could ever be redefined.

And in a way, it does. He doesn’t exactly become love, the more you think about it, but rather he just remains as is. Your constant; a day one of some sorts. Serendipity as a thing reserved for what could only be thought of as fiction, because reality had never been an ugly place for you.

So looking through rose colored lenses it was.

From your place you settled the most comfortable in—in the sidelines—you sat and watched Koushi bloom. Where for years it stayed okay. As is. Still a routine that frankly neither of you wanted to break.

Where eventually, the first crack of that well maintained schedule looked like a roundtrip ticket from Tokyo to the city of Paris, a suitcase, backpack, and a map of a city unknown to you.

The sight of Paris and Sugawara Koushi. Silver hair and hazel eyes. Every color that’s linked to what you’ve always known as home found in him. The pastel pink of his lips like the rose petals from outside his home, the silver of his hair as the clouds in the sky because for some reason rain always triumphed over sunshine.

And Paris, in the rain, with what you think as love, in front of you. Seen through your eyes as what you tell yourself is it—the greatest that love could ever become, because all you’ve known are shades of pastels with just a hint of silver.

Just one, perfect, palette that seemed to be enough for you.

(Until it wasn’t for him.) (It never occurred to you that just a few shades and a set of familiar streets would never be enough for him.)

“Paris is great, isn’t it?” Koushi turns to you and says, where he holds his hands out and past the balcony to catch a few drops of rain.

He looks beautiful. (Always has, you think.)

You nod your head.

“I’m coming back here next month because I got the job, actually,” he smiles, looking wistful.

You pause.

Rain still pours, and there’s a little bit of thunder. You think to yourself that if he chose to say any other set of words other than a watered down version of “I’m-leaving-you-and-that-good-for-nothing-town-forever,” you’d already be pulling him down into the streets and kiss him under the rain.

“Like,” you say, trying to sound out your thoughts; your throat feels dry. “—like forever?”

Koushi looks far away, and when he leans further to catch more raindrops, he feels far away. Further away, you think. Has he always been this far away?

“I hope forever,” he laughs, then turns to you. He’s smiling like you share his happiness with him. Are you happy along with him?

Silver hair kind of white against the backdrop of Paris in the rain, and hazel eyes that still look like all the shades of home stare at you. Your palms feel clammy, but you smile.

He turns away, and the rose colored lenses you’ve always seen the world with suddenly crack.

(When you sleep that night, Paris in the rain just becomes a city caught in a thunderstorm.)

Track 2: Paris | “if we go down, then we go down together.”

Kozume Kenma’s always hated looking at a city caught in a downpour.

He was never much for traveling, but he knew a city like this was meant to be explored.

He sighs, suitcase in tow as he opens the door to his hotel room and face plant into the bed. The skies above a city meant to live in sunshine continue to weep, so he turns on his side, facing the window to ponder. Not necessarily about much, because his thoughts have always been quite linear.

Kenma liked schedule. Predictability.

Booking a ticket to Paris three days after Tetsurou’s drunk speech was not predictable.

And because he spoke of the devil, his phone rings, flashing Tetsurou’s name in big, bold letters.

“You know,” Tetsurou’s voice drawls. “I don’t know what on God’s green earth even possessed you to jump on the first flight out of here to fucking—“ he pauses to inhale, before continuing, “—Paris out of every other city, but you did, and everyone’s confused as fuck.”

Kenma shifts in place, frankly wondering the same thing, but of course he’d never tell him that. There’s an ache that comes when he cracks his neck, but it’s a familiar one. He supposes that he’s used to a lot of things. The ache in his neck; the black roots that always grows faster than he can retouch them; Tetsurou’s voice that still sounds worse than his mother’s nagging.

“Why are you even there?” his voice comes again over the phone.

“You told me that I needed to do more,” Kenma replies.

The city still weeps. He wonders if someone’s out there trying to catch raindrops, or perhaps dance and kiss in the rain.

After all, it’s Paris, he thinks. A lot happens in a city people shroud with love.

“Do more,” Tetsurou parrots, confused.

Kenma nods, blinking with the tap, tap, tap that comes from the rain against his window.

The gears don’t turn in Tetsurou’s head until after a few more moments pass, his eyes eventually widening at the memory from three nights ago. It’s always been known that Kenma’s been more of a reserved person when it came to most things in life. Ever the calculated, side character type of person. For the most part it was okay, but he supposes that even the most silent could still have moments where they want to peek a little outside the view from inside the box.

Over the phone, Tetsurou smiles, nodding his head.

“You gotta live a little more, Ken, “ he remembers himself telling the younger man. Given that he was a little past tipsy when he made that impromptu speech, there was never an intention to say it as something to be understood as more than just a passing comment.

“See the world,” he said.

Kenma booked a ticket that night, and three days later he finds himself looking at Paris in the rain, with not much of a plan in mind.

“Do more,” he remembers.

And Tetsurou thinks that this counts.

“You trying to prove something to someone?” he asks Kenma, voice suddenly honest.

Kenma sighs, closing his eyes and thinking of the little world he lives within the big wide universe. He’s never really felt small, but sometimes even Tokyo gets lonely.

“Something like that,” he answers.

“—let’s show them we are better.”

The funny thing about serendipity is that it looks nothing like how it’s supposed to look like.

All your life, when you thought of happy moments in regards to love it was always an image that you thought was set in stone from day one.

Instead, it looks like this:

Wet concrete, a cup of coffee, and the rooftop with the view of the city that’s done nothing but weep since the day you arrived. The rain smelled nice, at least. There was always something about the way it lingered that reminded you of home.

—Of silver, and hazel, and pastel colors, and a goodbye that was said like a hello.

You sigh because you just know Sugawara Koushi’s the kind of person that means to linger after the exit.

But like the nature of serendipity, it’s three minutes later where things take a turn.

It turns into looking like a stranger with golden stars for eyes, a question always looking like it’s wanting to break past the barrier.

He shuffles awkwardly in place, looking like a deer caught in the headlights when you turn your face to look at him. You squint, having half the mind to greet him with a broken bonjour before he’s eventually bowing his head profusely and explaining that he’s sorry with an accent familiar to you.

Classic Tokyo boy, you snort.

“Rain kinda ruined the skyline, huh?” you prompt, breaking the silence.

He shrugs. “Not really here to see the city.”

You blink, not exactly phased. You came here following Koushi, so you were practically in the same boat.

“To do more,” he answers. Vague, you think.

Maybe not the same boat. The same ocean, riding the same current maybe, but not the same boat.

“Do more,” you repeat. “So like, are you soul searching?”

“This is beginning to sound like a bad fanfiction,” he mutters, shaking his head, then sighing. “I guess I’m trying to look outside my comfort zone.”

“Ah,” you nod your head. “So kinda like soul searching, but not really; I get it.”

Beside you, he straightens his back. “You do?”

You shrug. “Everybody’s always seeking for something aren’t they?”

He exhales a sigh that sounds more like a laugh so you laugh along with him.

“Mandy,” you say, giving him your name.

“Kenma,” he says, giving you his in return. “So what’s your story?”

You sigh, thinking about it and realizing that you’ve been feeling a little more lost than found lately.

“You really wanna dive straight into that?”

Kenma thinks of what do more exactly means, and settles that maybe this could be count as something to find the meaning to that.

He shrugs. “I’ll dive in if you do,” he answers, and just like that, the man besides you turns from just a rooftop stranger into a stranger with a name who knew just a little bit more about you than the usual you would think is okay.

(Maybe it’s Paris, or maybe it’s just the way your world has kind of tilted, but as you sound out your tale it feels kind of okay.)

Track 3: Roses | “Get drunk on the good life, I'll take you to paradise.”

“You’re going where?” Koushi asks you, eyes wide.

“Italy.”

Serendipity looks like this too. Wide eyes, and an unconvinced tilt to the head. It sounds like Koushi pacing back and forth in a room, his suitcase packed and ready to go, as is yours, but the destination on your respective tickets going somewhere different.

“Shit,” he says. You pause; he never was the type to curse much. “Do you need me to go with you?”

“I’m going with someone actually,” you decline, voice quiet. Mentally, you curse yourself. Why is your voice even quiet? Looking at it from an objective point of view, you’re an adult. You’re in control of your own salary, and sometimes impulsive decisions are granted because in the long run they’re good for the soul.

“You’re going with a stranger,” he deadpans.

You open your mouth, but no words come out. He had a point.

“Are you okay?”

The words he says sound familiar, and a part of you sighs to itself because in a way you’ve missed the familiar. Paris wasn’t familiar, and neither was the idea of Koushi telling you the forever kind of goodbye. Truth is, he could romanticize the see you later parting all he wanted, but that was kind of it. See you later becomes a couple photos you’ll stare at on social media then scroll past, then eventually into just greeting during the holidays before it dwindles into silence.

Just a box of photos of you and him from the coastal side rural city of your hometown, kept in a box, stored in an attic.

“I’m okay.”

You’re not. Sugawara Koushi and the little world back home is all you’ve known, and even if Paris in the rain became just a city caught in a thunderstorm to you, this wasn’t height of what the rest of the world had to offer.

So you smile. “I just wanna do something a little different for a change. I’m okay, I promise. A change is good right?”

The smile he gives you has you feeling terrified.

“—we could be beautiful.” | Italy

And the truth is, a lot of things really could be just that.

Kenma reminds himself that there’s a lot more to Italy than just the deeper saturated colors in the sky, and wider bloom of the roses, but sometimes his eyes wander. Doing more, rings in his head—again and again kind of like as if it’s a broken record.

So “doing more,” begins with thoughts.

He looks at you. A stranger he met by coincidence at a rooftop of a weeping Paris two weeks ago and now he’s suddenly walking along the coast of Italy with you beside him. He knows your name, a little bit of your story, and the fact that you have EDM music plus a couple of sad boy hour songs in your playlist.

He watches you smile when you lean down to smell the flowers, then wonders why you seem to look happier against the pink roses instead of the classic red.

All it takes is for you to smile at him, once, starry eyed and looking like all you know is the sun, and his thoughts stop for just a second before it spirals.

It fucking spirals. How does it fucking spiral?

The first thought that rings true and crystal fucking clear to him is that he’s certain that he wants to know than more than what he already does.

Why do you look happier next to pink instead of red? Why did it look like you wept with Paris? Why are you in Italy with a stranger you barely even know?

“—hideaway.”

Truth is, you think that Italy’s just a hideaway. One extra week away from home, so that goodbye isn’t goodbye yet.

When you look at Kenma whose eyes look distant when he stares at the distance, you wonder if he’s keeping his eyes on the horizon or trying to look past it.

Maybe Italy’s a hideaway for him too.

“Say you’ll never let me go.”

You fall asleep each night trying to tell yourself that he belongs with the city that cries, while the pastel colors of home would always be there for yours to cherish.

You don’t know what exactly you want to let go of just yet.

Serendipity has you looking at the world like it exists for you to conquer it, and perhaps for some it does. For you, you think you just want something to call yours, and for someone to call you theirs.

Track 4: All We Know | “Maybe we should let this go.”

Kenma’s the first to tell you about letting go.

You have half the mind to ask him of what exactly there even is to let go of, but it’s this one night in Italy where Sicily pours all over again.

“I didn’t know Europe liked to cry,” you laugh, staring at the streets outside.

“Maybe it’s just crying for us,” he offers as a response. To be fair, his words did work as if it’s consolation, so you give him credit for at least that and laugh with him.

Kenma’s nice.

He’s a stranger, but he’s nice.

It’s in Italy where you learned that he liked computer screens over window panes, and the buzz of Tokyo over the silence in Miyagi. He’s young, but he’s settled. There’s a house he’s trying to call home, and a kotatsu that serves him well during the winters.

He was a setter for a team, and has a friend that nags even more than his own mother.

Kenma likes apple pie, and despite the initial impression, he’s pretty good when it comes to conversation. He blushes when you look at him in the eye and smile, but eventually he stopped trying to avoid your gaze whenever you did do that.

You can feel him looking at you again, so you tug on your coat and walk towards where the awning of your impromptu shelter ends, palms stretched out to catch the rain.

(You think of Paris.)

“Wanna make a run for it?” Kenma suggests, hands shrugged in his pocket, and eyes looking like two pools of the most beautiful gold in front of you.

(—then you don’t.)

“Kozume Kenma’s getting kinda bold now,” you snicker, walking closer towards him then to the edge as the rain falls harder.

He puffs his cheeks, turning away from you to face the side, and shrugs off his coat to hold it above his head and your own.

And it’s true, you think; there’s something about gold eyes against dark streets and the bokeh of city lights that just fit. You think to yourself that you know his name, and a little slice of his life, but you want to ask him more.

You’re in Sicily with a familiar stranger, and it’s in this fleeting, little, perfect moment where you think that Paris has always just been a city. Never a chapter in a romance book or the postcard that you dreamed of standing in.

Italy looks like rain and now, and gold, and familiar strangers.

You’re not in love, but maybe you should let some things go.

A car drives past, and the streets clear. There’s more than just a few puddles on the ground, but Kenma’s eyes look like a prettier shade of the moon when it turns gold. He’s chuckling, in the way you think only you’ve heard among all the people in the world, and he feels close.

“—we’ve passed the end so we chase forever.”

So close that he could kiss you.

Is this what doing more means?

Maybe, he thinks; there’s a lot of maybes that comes with serendipity. With a sharp breath, you look at each other, then break out into a run.

“—this is all we know.”

You’re drenched in the rain and you’re laughing. Kenma’s long past given up trying to squeeze out rainwater from his jacket and instead just leans against the wall to look at you.

He likes to think that he’s part of the reason as to why you’ve smiled so much today.

“You good?” he hears you ask, and he nods.

“All good.”

He means it.

Track 5: Right Here | “Can we just talk it out like friends?”

“Are you running away because of someone?” Kenma asks.

You let his question sit for a few moments to think it through. Are you?

You don’t know, so you sigh, then look at him. “What does love look like to you?”

Kenma shrugs, but doesn’t ask about your question. Instead, he looks forward, twiddles with the frayed string of his sweater and gives you his truth. “It looks like a lot of things.”

He takes your silence as a response, so he continues.

“I love grocery stores at midnight,” he shrugs. “No lines.”

You nod your head, accepting his answer; you suppose that love could be that too. “I love League of Legends,” you try. “Even if some players can get toxic.”

“We should game then,” he mutters.

“Bet.”

You snicker, looking to the side and pretending like you didn’t see the faint dust of red on his cheeks. If he asks, you’ll just say that it’s because of the red in the sky and leave it at that.

He doesn’t, but he does ask for more slices of you. “What else?”

“I love how sunsets look in my city,” you say. “Cosplaying. The stars. My immaculate playlist. Pink roses over red. Purple hair.”

He nods, happy with the fact that he’s piecing together little bits and pieces of you.

“You love someone too,” he says, but the lilt in his voice gives away that he’s asking rather than just stating it.

You think about what he says. When you thought of love it’s always looked like all the shades of silver and maybe a couple palettes with just pastel. It looked like the beige of Paris and the cotton candy skies from home.

Then in comes the rain, the world drenched, and past the rose colored lenses you finally begin to see the first hues of every other color.

Italy, with this vibrant, beautiful kaleidoscope, and Kenma, who stands in the center of it.

You see gold, gold, gold.

“You love someone,” he says, and when the world love registers in your ear you think about how much you loved getting caught in the downpour from last night.

“I do love someone,” you tell him, because a part of you would always call that love. It’s in Italy, next to a stranger, where you learn that love doesn’t always have to be this or that. In reality, it’s actually as simple as being this and that.

The waves off the coast, and the sunny city from the postcards drenched in front of your eyes. The calm before the storm, then the beauty of how the rain falls and wind howls right after. You come to love running from point A to point B in a downpour, with a stranger who held his jacket over you and him as an attempt to keep you dry.

Love can be Koushi, still, and always.

As you calling him later that night and telling him about the adventure that serendipity took you in. He tells you a little bit about Paris, and how he’s always going to be right there, when you need it.

You nod to yourself as he says those words, because you’re fine with the fact that even if he won’t, you can always tell yourself that you’re right here for you.

Track 6: Nobody Compares To You | “Nobody, nobody, nobody compares to you.”

To Kenma, you are what comes with both Paris and Italy and the serendipity found after trying to find a face to correlate with “doing more.”

You’re sitting beside him, on the window seat of a plane headed home, and he spends the duration of the flight above seas thinking that he doesn’t want to approach a goodbye.

At the end of the day, he realizes that he’s just a stranger. And maybe to you he’s just going to be a photograph in an old SD card you’d look at once every couple of years before forgetting about it in an attic, or losing in some corner of a house that would you see you for the rest of this lifetime.

He’s never looked at unpredictability in the face. His whole life he’s sneered at the sight of a break in routine, and what’s unfamiliar, because not everything is laid out for him to acclimate to.

He thinks to himself that maybe Italy would be enough, and the downpour of Europe are wild enough of a memory to catapult him into seeing a little more.

Because he saw so much.

“Do more,” he hears Tetsurou say.

Was booking the first flight out of the country without a plan enough?

Kenma shakes his head no. It was a step, but it wasn’t enough.

Telling himself that he’s always going to have Sicily isn’t enough. Leaning in close, almost kissing you once, and watching the hues of the world burst like fireworks and settle into paintings against the depths of your eyes just once isn’t enough. Knowing that you love to play league but not know who your favorite champions are don’t even come close to being enough either.

He wants this, and wants to know you.

He’s certain that Mandy is a name he’s always going to remember despite the age, but he wants to ask you so much more.

Kenma acknowledges the thought that he wants more photographs on his phone and nights where he’d have no choice but to run across the street in a downpour. The truth that he finds in Italy is that there’s nobody like you, because you are who comes with the colors that he never thought he’d discover outside of Tokyo.

Suddenly the routine he’s bound to come home to isn’t enough anymore.

You’re both skies above Japan, and he wants to look at you watch the sunset and talk about all the things you love again. Whether it be in Italy or Paris. Japan or the rest of the world. Under the shelter of sunlight or in the eye of the storm.

He wants to ask you why you love pink roses more than red.

This isn’t love—not just yet, but it could be.

Track 7: Something Just Like This | “How much you wanna risk?”

All you’ve known is silver, but perhaps gold works too.

Kenma stands beside you, luggage in hand, and the exit a few steps away. How much does he want to risk exactly?

Not a whole lot.

The routine that used to be enough was never a whole lot.

He shifts his weight back and forth between each foot as he wracks his brain with thoughts of what he could say.

On the other hand, you don’t want to say goodbye.

Something just like what you have now is nice. The company of a stranger you saw the world be doused in colors in with is nice. Parting then potentially forgetting isn’t nice.

You think to yourself that maybe all you’ll be to him is a face to match a name, and a stranger meant to remain in only photographs of this slice of his life.

As you close your eyes, the colors of pastel and silver flashes behind your eyelids, but they aren’t blinding. You know it’s not because of just Italy and that rooftop in Paris that gives an answer as to why you’re suddenly seeking gold.

How much do you wanna risk? What exactly is there to risk?

Kenma’s the first to break the silence. “Do we say goodbye here or are we going to do something dumb like book another ticket to another country?”

You bite back a laugh, peeking at him through the curtain of your bangs. He doesn’t look away this time, so you offer him a smile when he meets you halfway.

Now that you think about it, Kenma’s always sort of met you halfway.

(It’s nice.)

“I don’t think my bank account would appreciate me booking another ticket on impulse right now,” you laugh.

Kenma’s eyes glimmer, and you think, gold.

“So you’re saying you’d still go with me?” he asks.

“Not everybody is a CEO to their own company, so maybe next time,” you chuckle, amused at the way he seems to deflate ever so slightly at your words.

“Next time,” he mutters, nodding to himself. “We’ll see each other next time?”

You shrug. “I mean, I’d run in the rain with you again.”

He laughs, shoulders shaking a little, eyes crinkling along with his smile. “See you in the next time?”

The way you smile at him has Kenma thinking about the boundaries evident between saying that he wants to do more than actually doing more. So it’s when you’ve turned your back, a few meters already away from him where he exhales a sigh and calls out your name.

You turn around before he even finishes.

What you see is gold. Gold, gold, beautiful gold; as the center of the kaleidoscope of colors.

“If I kiss you the next time, would you kiss me back?”

Kenma’s still as he sounds out his words, the taste of it foreign in his tongue. But he welcomes it this time. You’re looking at him like he gave you the sun, and he holds his breath.

“Earlier in the trip, back in Paris you said you were looking for something,” you tell him first. “Did you find it?”

A pause, then a smile. “Answer my question first.”

You think about what you’d have to risk if you answer yes, but the only thing that comes to mind are colors you know you’re starting to grow out of, so you roll your eyes, laughing. “Then I’ll look forward to that next time.”

He exhales, shoulders feeling light. “Good to know because I think I found what I was looking for too.”

You prolong the see you later. “Was it yourself or something else?”

The answer comes to him naturally, and he grins. “A little bit of both, actually.”

#nc.commissions #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu imagines #kozume kenma #kozume kenma x reader #kozume kenma scenarios #kozume kenma imagines #kenma x reader #kenma #kenma scenarios #kenma imagines #kenma fluff #sugawara koushi x reader #sugawara koushi imagines #haikyuu fluff #hq!!#hq!! x reader

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j-r-macready · 3 years

Video

HIMARS fire by Fort Bragg Via Flickr: Soldiers assigned to Battery B, 3rd Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment (HiMARS), 18th Field Artillery Brigade, fire a round from an M142 HIMARS at Sicily Drop Zone, Fort Bragg, N.C., Jan. 28, 2015. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Steven M. Colvin)

#HIMARS #M142 #XVIII Airborne Corps #Fort Bragg #North Carolina #United States #US

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ja-khajay · 3 years

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2020-2021 Animation Watch(ed)list

I haven’t posted about animation in a while that I remember, and I know a lot of my followers are into it as much as me so I decided to make a list of the animated movies and series I watched on the past year or so, coupled with my short, spoilerless take on them. Enjoy!

Organized by

Things I saw for the first time

Things I rewatched

Under a cut for the sake of your dashboards! PS: I have not added any images yet. If you are interested in knowing more about the visuals of these movies, I might make an old fashion ask-prompted imageset list.

Part One: Things I saw for the first time

The Bear’s Famous Invasion of Sicily

Movie, 2019, Italian/French

9/10, a delightful little movie with amazing visuals. It feels like an animated picture book.

One of those “plot is in the title” media! I had never heard of this before but was heavily recommended it by my family members, who all loved it! It’s a sweet story, nothing groundbreaking but the unique colorful visual style alone makes it worth it.

The Castle of Cagliostro

Movie, 1979, Japanese

10/10. Reminded me of all the books i loved reading as a child

I assume its because it’s so old and the art style and themes are so different that it gets little to no love compared to other Ghibli movies, which is a shame! It’s fun with an endearing cast and as always, great animation and music

Mushishi

Series, 2006, Japanese

10/10 three episodes in I knew it was going to be my favorite series ever

One of the few things I’ve seen I’ll describe as life-changing. It’s absolutely lovely but never toots its own horn about it. Humble, calming, emotional and surprisingly mature. It’s pretty impossible to binge due to how intense the experience is. I just want to walk in the forest now...

FMA: Brotherhood

Series, 2009, Japanese

6/10 Dissapointing adaptation of a classic story

I read the manga for this when I was in middle school and remembered loving it. The animated version does an ok job of presenting the characters and worldbuilding and has some nice action scenes but overall looks really damn cheap and just. Not very good. Seeing I already knew most of the plot I did not have the element of discovery that made me marvel so much reading the original. It’s still a nice series but I really recommend reading it instead.

Code Lyoko (s1+2)

Series, 2003, french

3/10. 1.5 being for the opening song alone

This show sucks ass if I hadn’t been watching this with my bestie I would have dropped it two episodes in. The art style is ugly the stories are always the same and the first season has a (later removed thank fucking god) LITERAL “erase any consequences” button as a plot device in every episode. If you watch it for one thing let it be the nostalgia factor of early 00s Vidya Game Plot

The Legend of Hei

Movie, 2019, Chinese

7/10. Impressive visuals and a poor story

I finally watched this, peer pressured by the load of gifsets on my dashboard! It’s a sweet movie with really impressive animation, sometimes a bit too flashy for my taste (the action sequences go so ham they become not very readable...) but the story was just ok? The setting is barely explained and you are instead bombarded with vague epicspeech about powers and stuff that made me fondly remember Kingdom Hearts lol but that asides it’s a really good time! I need to watch more Chinese movies the few I know are just delightfully off the shits in how they approach action and I love that

Hunter x Hunter

Series, 1999, Japanese

9/10. Superior to the recent one!

I first got introduced to the series via the 2011 one. Comparatively, the 99 series focuses way less on action and way more on the characters, which I love because that fits my personal preferences! Despite mediocre filler episodes and some weird slight pointless plot changes, what it changes from the original manga doesn’t have much of an impact on the characters. The animation quality isn’t always consistent including a huge art style change for an arc (???) but it’s overall pretty nice. The series really shines in the last arc it adapts.

Oban Star-racers

Series, 2006, Japanese/french

9/10 a lovely surprise

This series is completly obscure despite having been created by people famous for their other series (Cowboy Bebop, Code Lyoko that i can name) and it’s a crime! It’s a kids show but without being stupid about it who tells the story of an inter-planetary race. If you liked that one scene in the star wars prequels you know what I mean. It’s got surprisingly nice animation for a TV series, and some truly great character design. The art style is a bit unique in a not for everyone sense, but I didn’t mind it much. It’s also THE most offensively 2000s series i’ve seen in terms of visuals. y2k kids assemble

The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon

Movie, 1963, japanese

8/10. Classic fairytale format with incredible visuals

Watched this for the art style because I know it inspired Samurai Jack, and it delievered! I dont’ have much to say about this one, it’s a very simply film but it’s sweet. For my pirates out there if you want to find it in good quality with english subtitles it’s VERY hard to find. If you just want to see the looks of it, it’s on Youtube with portugese subs.

We now enter the Gobelins Shorts Zone....!

My Friend Who Glows In The Dark

10/10 makes me cry each time

Pure delight...great animation writing everything. A little short about death and friendship but not in the way you imagine!

Colza

9/10

Visual treat...homely and nice :) not far from a 10 but a 9 because nothing about it is that groundbreaking

Sundown

9/10

If you’ve ever been ten minutes from failing a group project because of a single dude you will REALLY enjoy this. Loved the colors and personality

T’as vendu mes rollers?

10/10

It’s SUCH a sweet little short I loved that one so much

Dix-huit kilomètres trois

10/10

Surprisingly well written dialog. Visuals are great but the humanity of the characters carries this to another level

Un diable dans la poche

9/10

Amazing visuals and the most tense/creepy of Gobelin shorts i’ve ever seen. Chilling

La bestia

8/10

I had some issues with the pacing. Interesting story and visuals choices but I was not fond of the art style

Goodbye Robin

5/10

Confusing but predictable. Both at once??? Yes!

Le retour des vagues

6/10

Cool animation stuff but felt pretty pointless

***

Part Two: Things I rewatched

Ruben Brandt: Collector

Movie, 2018, Hungarian

10/10. Underrated as hell

Watched this fully blind for the first time in an animated festival and rewatched it with friends. It’s a crime I never see anyone talking about it given the amount of whining I see about the lack of both adult animation and 2D movies? This film is a unique love letter to art in the form of a weird mix of charming crime story and psychological horror with amazing visuals. I recommend watching it blind and also buying it to show appreciation for how nice it is!!! WATCH THIS MOVIE...

Mononoke

Series, 2007, Japanese

10/10 Visual/storytelling masterpiece in the weird shit departement

If you can stomach intense stuff watch this. The visuals are incredibly unique and beautiful and under the jewel tones and art direction high takes it’s a really cool horror series. My only obstacle to enjoying it the first time I saw it was how dense it is - simply put, it’s so...culturally Japanese it’s not very accessible to me who doesn’t know anything about the culture? Watching it for the second time helped understanding the stories more!

Corto Maltese in Siberia

Movie, 2002, french

9/10 but really close to ten. A great adaptation!

I’m a huge fan of the original comic so I entered this a biiiittttt suspicious it would suck but it was a really pleasant surprise! It has all the wonder and charm of the original and the animation was surprisingly good for the little budget. If you’re not familiar with the series, it’s a sort of geopolitical action/adventure movie but with it’s own really poetic vibe to it. It’s almost impossible to find online but happens to be fully on YouTube so go ham I guess?

Redline

Movie, 2009, Japanese

10/10 cinema was invented for this, actually

Every review of this movie i’ve seen gives it five stars and starts by talking about how immensly stupid it is. I’m no different. It’s a masterpiece of escalating energy with the depth of a puddle and it fucking rules. It’s free on YouTube too so there really is no excuse to not watch it. Watched it for the first time on a huge cinema screen and despite this my second rewatch on my small laptop was as/even more enjoyable. If you watch this stoned with friends you might travel to another dimension

Spirited Away

Movie, 2001, Japan

10/10 deserves the love it gets

I watched this a single time as a kid and had little memory of it! I mean it’s Ghibli you know it’s going to be good as hell but this one rly shines in how colorful and detailed it is and in it’s world! It made me remember I had a huge crush on the dragonboy as a kid. I’m gay now

Kung-fu Panda (1&2)

Movie, Usa

10/10. KFP fucking rules

Honestly my favorite franchise of the whole disney/dreamworks/pixar hydra. It’s fun as hell, doesn’t skip a single beat and has amazing animation and character designs. If something is a good time I will not care if it’s deep or not and boy I fucking love these movies

Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas

Movie, 2003, Usa

5/10 Some great some really bad and overall generic

I tend to hate american cinema and this includes that era of animation I have no nostalgia for. Sinbad is in a weird place because I love adventure stories and the visuals of the movie absolutely deliver but it’s very predictable and TANKED by the addition of the female character, pushed in your face as “look we have woman!!!” despite her writing being misogynistic as hell lol. The evil goddess rules tho. This movie would have been a solid 9 if instead of the girl the two dudes had kissed

#j #animation #if you want links to these ill provide but not for the indie ones that arent free #i have no remorse p*rating disney or a movie thats over 50 but if its recent and underrated just legally get it!!!

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diversifiedcontent · 3 years

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Giant parachutes descend onto Fort Bragg’s Sicily Drop Zone after conveying Humvees and other heavy equipment to the ground during an airborne training exercise Feb. 25, 2013, at Fort Bragg, N.C. Paratroopers will descend once the heavy equipment is safely on the ground.

Paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team jump from C-130 Hercules aircraft during a mass-tactical airborne training exercise Feb. 25, 2013, at Fort Bragg, N.C. The exercise is officially known as a Joint Operational.

U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod

(via Mass-tactical Airborne Operation | Article | The United States Army)

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ainawgsd · 5 years

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Porcupines are rodents with a coat of sharp spines, or quills, that protect against predators. The term covers two families of animals, the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family Erethizontidae. Both families belong to the infraorder Hystricognathi and display superficially similar coats of quills: despite this, the two groups are distinct from each other and are not closely related to each other. The name "porcupine" comes from Latin porcus pig + spina spine, quill, via Old Italian—Middle French—Middle English. A regional American name for the animal is quill pig.

1. North American Porcupine

2. Baturite Porcupine

3. African Brush-tailed Porcupine

4. Cape Porcupine

5. Prehensile Tailed Porcupine

6. Mexican Hairy Dwarf Porcupine

7. Malayan Porcupine

8. Phlippine Porcupine

9. Stump-tailed Porcupine

10. Bristle-spined Porcupine

Porcupines' quills, or spines, take on various forms, depending on the species, but all are modified hairs coated with thick plates of keratin and embedded in the skin musculature. Quills are released by contact or may drop out when the porcupine shakes its body. New quills grow to replace lost ones. Porcupines were long believed to have the ability to project their quills to a considerable distance at an enemy, but this has since been proven to be untrue.

Porcupines vary in size considerably: Rothschild's porcupine of South America weighs less than 2.2 lbs; the crested porcupine found in Italy, Sicily, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa can grow to well over 60 lbs.

The Old World porcupines live in southern Europe, Asia, and most of Africa. They are large, terrestrial, and strictly nocturnal. The New World porcupines are indigenous to North America and northern South America. They live in wooded areas and can climb trees, where some species spend their entire lives. They are less strictly nocturnal than their Old World relatives, and generally smaller.

The 11 Old World porcupines tend to be fairly large, and have spikes grouped in clusters. The two subfamilies of New World porcupines are mostly smaller (although the North American porcupine reaches about 33in in length and 40lb), have their quills attached singly rather than grouped in clusters, and are excellent climbers, spending much of their time in trees. The New World porcupines evolved their spines independently (through convergent evolution) and are more closely related to several other families of rodents than they are to the Old World porcupines.

Defensive behaviour displays in a porcupine depend on sight, scent and sound. Often, displays are shown when a porcupine becomes agitated or annoyed. There are four main displays seen in a porcupine which are quill erection, teeth clattering, emitting of odour, and attack. These displays are ranked from least aggressive to most aggressive respectively.

A porcupine's colouring aids in part of its defense as most of the predators are nocturnal and colour blind. A porcupine's markings are black and white. The dark body and coarse hair of the porcupine are a dark brown/black and when quills are raised, present a white strip down its back mimicking the look of a skunk. This, along with the raising of the sharp quills, deters predators.

Along with the raising of the quills, porcupines clatter their teeth causing warning noise to let predators know not to come closer. The incisors vibrate against each other, the strike zone shifts back and the cheek teeth clatter. This behaviour is often paired with body shivering which is used to further display the dangerous quills. The rattling of quills is aided by the hollow quills at the back end of the porcupine.

The use of odor is when the sight and sound have failed. An invasive scent is produced from the skin above the tail in times of stress, and is often seen with quill erection. If the above processes fail, the porcupine will attack by running sideways or backwards into predators. A porcupines tail is also able to swing in the direction of the predator. If contact is made, the quills could be impaled into the predator causing injury or death.

Porcupines are only occasionally eaten in Western culture, but are very popular in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, where the prominent use of them as a food source has contributed to significant declines in their populations. More commonly, their quills and guardhairs are used for traditional decorative clothing. The main quills may be dyed, and then applied in combination with thread to embellish leather accessories such as knife sheaths and leather bags. Lakota women would harvest the quills for quillwork by throwing a blanket over a porcupine and retrieving the quills it left stuck in the blanket.

#porcupine #quill pig #new world porcupine #old world porcupine #north american porcupine #baturite porcupine #african brush-tailed porcupine #cape porcupine #prehensile tailed porcupine #mexican hairy dwarf porcupine #malayan porcupine #philippine porcupine #stump-tailed porcupine #bristle-spined porcupine #rodents #hystricidae #erethizontidae

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gardenofkore · 5 years

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Ref. 831

Outstanding Universal Value

Brief synthesis

The archaeological area of Agrigento, the Valley of the Temples, is on the southern coast of Sicily and covers the vast territory of the ancient polis, from the Rupe Atenea to the acropolis of the original ancient city, as well as to the sacred hill on which stand the main Doric temples and up to the extramural necropolis.

Founded as a Greek colony in the 6th century BCE, Agrigento became one of the leading cities in the Mediterranean region. Its supremacy and pride are demonstrated by the remains of the magnificent Doric temples that dominate the ancient town, much of which still lies intact under today's fields and orchards. Selected excavated areas reveal the late Hellenistic and Roman town and the burial practices of its early Christian inhabitants.

Agrigento has a special place among classical sites in the history of the ancient world because of the way in which its original site, typical of Greek colonial settlements, has been preserved, as well as the substantial remains of a group of buildings from an early period that were not overlain by later structures or converted to suit later tastes and cults.

Criterion (i): The great row of Doric temples is one of the most outstanding monuments of Greek art and culture.

Criterion (ii): The archaeological area of Agrigento exhibits an important interchange of human values, being undoubtedly one of the leading cities in the Mediterranean region with its outstanding evidence of Greek influence.

Criterion (iii): As one of the greatest cities of the ancient Mediterranean region, Agrigento is an extraordinary testament of Greek civilization in its exceptionally preserved condition.

Criterion (iv): The temples in the area exemplify Greek architecture and are considered to be among the most extraordinary representations of Doric architecture in the world.

Integrity

The archaeological area of Agrigento includes all the essential elements that contribute to the justification of its Outstanding Universal Value. The site boundary includes the entire territory of the ancient polis, including the extramural area of the necropolis, the substantial excavated areas of the residential area of Hellenistic and Roman Agrigento, the complex network of underground aqueducts and a wide portion of land where there are still unexcavated archaeological structures. The archaeological structures have been preserved in good condition, thus ensuring an authentic representation. However, land instability remains an issue.

Authenticity

The authenticity of the archaeological sites of Agrigento is outstanding. Although some restoration work carried out in the late 18th and 19th centuries CE did not follow the principles of modern conservation as set out in the 1964 Venice Charter, subsequent restoration works have resolved the problems of previous restoration methods and have compensated for past mistakes. Recent works have been conducted in full compliance with the principles of modern restoration.

Protection and management requirements

The site is protected by the national law for protection of cultural heritage, Decreto Legislativo 42/2004, Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio, and is subject to a safeguarding measure which ensures any activity must be authorized by the relevant Soprintendenza.

The Valley of the Temples of Agrigento was declared a Zone of National Interest under the Law of 28 September 1966. Decrees issued by the Ministries of Public Works (6 May 1968) and National Education (7 October 1971) defined the boundary and constraints on use of the site. The boundary was further confirmed legally by the President of the Sicilian Region in Decree No 91 (13 June 1991). This group of statutory instruments imposes an absolute ban on any form of construction within the prescribed area.

The regional Law n.20/2000 has founded the Archaeological and Landscape Park of the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento which aims not only to protect the landscape and historical heritage of the site, but also to improve and promote it. The park enjoys financial administrative autonomy. Therefore the Council of the Park can plan and carry out any intervention of preservation and improvement of the site.

The Council has adopted the Park Plan. This will create and organize visitor itineraries with the objective to extend the length of visits and benefit the local economy. The Park Plan aims to demonstrate the ancient urban organization to tourists, with its system of streets and roads (in part still to be excavated). Some street lines and entrances to the city have stayed in use since medieval times. The Park Plan provides various types of protection of monuments and archaeological sites that are tailored as necessary and allow for greater access by tourists. Expanding such security allows for the creation of new thematic routes and points of interest, more parking, easier accessibility and movement within the park, as well as alternative means of transportation such as a railway and electric buses. Flanked by pedestrian paths and equestrian trails (green ways), green corridors and patches of natural vegetation will be constructed to improve functional relationships between the coast and recreational landscapes as well as between agricultural land and cities.

Traditional methods of production regarding agriculture and the production of artefacts of value will be preserved, in particular for cultural diversity, farming techniques, arboriculture, and Mediterranean gardening. This provides support for the return of biological farming methods. The Park Plan provides active conservation and development of the housing stock, which has dropped in value and is under-used or otherwise available. This is relevant to the Park for the creation of services and cultural facilities, exhibition and educational-informational as well as non-hotel accommodation. An Action Plan for ecotourism has been prepared that includes nature and art in a complete “sea-river-mountain” tour, which opens the Valley of the Temples to new categories of users and expands the tourist season.

BY UNESCO

[photos from up to down- left to right: Temple of Concordia, Temple of the Dioscuri, Temple of Heracles, Temple of Juno Lacinia, Temple of Olympian Zeus]

#unesco #archaeology #history #sicily #greek history #agrigento #province of agrigento #greek sicily #myedit

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tyadelman · 2 years

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I am occasionally asked about travel safety tips. Nothing fancy or special really. Traveling as an OO isn’t as Jason Borne as one may think. Since we are in that season and many of us are getting on the road soon… 1. #Maintain a low profile. OOs don’t draw attention to themselves. 2. #Research your destination prior. Keeping a low profile is knowing the local customs & blending in. Act like you’ve been there before. 3. #Plan ground transportation & hotel arrangements. Never leave home without contact details for every stage of our itinerary. 4. Stay aware of your surroundings. [Do] the #research to know what fits in & what doesn’t. What does an OO always pack for a trip? A #doorstop. When you lock yourself into your hotel room at night, slip the doorstop under the door to keep intruders from being able to force the door open. The doorstop is effective, even when the chain or other external locks give way. What is your number one travel safety tip? Plan ahead! Travel is more enjoyable when it goes smoothly, & it goes smoother when you have a plan. Don’t take your passport out of your hotel. The number one way to ruin your trip is to lose your passport. You don’t need it on the street, & no one will steal it from your hotel safe. Plan for #safety & #security like you plan for #fun & #entertainment, & you, too, can travel like an OO. Calm winds & soft landings…we’ll see you on the Drop Zone! de SDNZ, out. #BeBetter #MakeAirborneGreatAgain #aatw #wetsu #LifeIsTooShortToBeALeg #airborne #warfighter #GMTMaster #mission #leadership #BringingSexyBack #TheDivision #ContinuousFlowState #porsche #jumpfightwintonight #canopykid #canopycartel #EnterTheFrey (at Sicily Drop Zone) https://www.instagram.com/p/CdE4VpkrL2Y/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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georgemcginn · 3 years

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Observe: DOD Featured Photos

Sicily Free Fall A soldier exits a Marine Corps KC-130 aircraft during a static line jump over Sicily drop zone, Fort… Photo Details > Line Labor Sailors take in a mooring line aboard the USS Rafael Peralta in Yokosuka, Japan, April 23, 2021. Photo Details > View All Photos ABOUT WHAT’S NEW HELP CENTER NEWSROOM Unsubscribe | Contact Us

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allisonscola · 3 years

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Sicily is currently at the height of its orange producing season, when many different varieties of this beloved citrus fruit is sweet, juicy, and ready to be eaten right from the millions of trees throughout the island. In addition, important today, Sicilians have reason to celebrate. Today the region moved from being designated a "Red Zone," having to abide by severe restrictions to help their post-Christmas COVID-19 numbers drop, to a "Zona Aracione," or Orange Zone. Despite, like here in the United States, there still is much time before social distancing will be a thing of the past, it's a great relief and a point of hope! (Photo of me with the orange juice vendor by Sergio Vasta at the Antico Mercato of Ortigia/Siracusa) #experiencesicily #sicily #speranza #arancie #arancia #succodarancia #siracusa #ortigia #anticomercato #mercatoantico #sicilia #siciliabedda #italy #italia #sicilyvacation #sicilians_world #ig_sicily #igerssicilia #instasicilia #siculamenteDoc #sicily_tricolors #ig_visitsicily #Sicilia_PhotoGroup #smallgrouptours #traveltogether #authenticsicily #smallgrouptoursitaly #whatsicilyis #viverlasicilia #sicilytour (at Antico Mercato di Ortigia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKvApU1F-Ri/?igshid=hguv726qz9z5

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go-21newstv · 3 years

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Italy Loosens COVID Restrictions In Five Regions, Including Lombardy

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ROME: The Italian government will ease anti-COVID restrictions in five regions from Sunday, including in the country’s richest and most populous region Lombardy, the Health Ministry said.

Lombardy, Piedmont and Calabria will be downgraded from red to orange zones, while Sicily and Liguria will drop from the orange to the yellow zone, which has least restrictions.

Friday’s decision…

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the-line-up · 3 years

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Nothing in It

Tensions were higher than ever going into the concluding stage of this year’s Giro D’Italia in Milan on Sunday. Usually in a Grand Tour, the overall winner of the General Classification has already been decided by the time the final day rolls around. However, this year with the UCI calendar already thrown out of kilter by Covid-19 and the Giro bumped from its usual May timeslot to a much colder and rainy October start, it should have been expected that the second Grand Tour of the year would be as surprising and unpredictable as the rest of 2020.

During this twenty-first stage, a 15.7km ITT from Cernusco Sul Naviglio to Milan, all eyes were firmly focused on the two young riders battling it out for the iconic Maglia Rosa: twenty-five-year-old Ineos Grenadiers domestique Tao Geoghegan-Hart and twenty-four-year-old fellow domestique Jai Hindley from Team Sunweb who wore the pink jersey on the day. With only a fraction of a second separating them, it would all come down to this final race to decide who would ultimately secure the win, a first in nearly one-hundred-and-twenty years of Grand Tour cycling.

Apart from this unique aspect of the race, this final stage was also remarkable as neither Geoghegan-Hart nor Hindley had been earmarked as potential contenders for the Maglia Rosa by cycling fans, the media, or likely even their teams. Both riders had come into the Giro in domestique roles for their respective leaders, Ineos Grenadier’s Geraint Thomas and Team Sunweb’s Wilco Kelderman, and would not have initially been vying for any high placings in the GC with their focus instead on assisting their team’s primary cyclist towards the lead. Of course, we now know that none of this went to plan and that the tour, often described as ‘the most beautiful cycling race in the world’, unfolded in ways which no one could have anticipated.

Prior to the commencement of the 103rd Giro D’Italia in Sicily on October 3rd, some of the early favourites to take the lead in GC included Thomas, Kelderman, Team Jumbo-Visma's Stephen Kruijkswijk, Simon Yates from Mitchelton-Scott and Jakob Fuglsang of Astana. Deceunik-QuickStep's Remco Evenepoel had also been an early favourite to lead the Giro but was ruled out of the tour after he sustained a fractured pelvis and right lung contusion at August 15th's Il Lombardia.

After the first two stages, Geraint Thomas looked to be a main contender for the general classification, sitting in third place and just twenty-three seconds off the lead held by fellow Ineos Grenadiers teammate Fillipo Ganna. However, disaster struck the following day on a stage from Enna to Mt. Etna when Thomas crashed in the neutral zone after cycling over a discarded water bottle; a scan later showed he had fractured his pelvis and he was forced to drop out of the race. There was no luck either for GC hopefuls Stephen Kruijswijk and Simon Yates with both riders abandoning the Giro in week two after testing positive for Covid-19 and with their respective teams, Team Jumbo-Visma and Mitchelton-Scott, eventually abandoning the race entirely due to Covid-19 diagnoses.

With the early exit of these general classification contenders, along with the absence of many other top riders at the Giro due to the shortened time frame between start of this race and the conclusion of the Tour De France, some previously under-the-radar riders were brought to the fore and given the opportunity to showcase their talents on the world stage.

These include, most obviously, Geoghegan-Hart and Hindley, but also include the rider sitting in fifth place heading into Stage 21 and who had held the Maglia Rosa until only a few days previous. Deceunik-Quickstep's João Almeida had become the leader of the Giro D’Italia on Stage 3 in his Grand Tour debut and held onto the pink jersey for the next fourteen stages, fending off other strong GC contenders like Pello Bilbao, Domenico Pozzovivo and Wilco Kelderman. However, Almeida eventually conceded the Maglia Rosa to Team Sunweb’s Kelderman on Stage 18 after a tough 207km ride from Pinzolo to Laghi De Cancano, including a steep climb up the Stelvio, where he ultimately lost over two minutes and fell back to fifth place.

Some of the other young riders who enjoyed stage wins during the 2020 Giro D’Italia included Ineos Grenadiers riders Fillipo Ganna who won four stages, including all three ITT’s, and Jhonathan Narvaez who took Stage 12. Twenty-four-year-old NTT Pro Cycling rider Ben O’Connor took first place in Stage 17 after narrowly missing out the previous day, securing a new team contract for next year with AG2R La Mondiale into the process. Rounding out the group of successful young riders were, of course, the final day Maglia Rosa contenders Geoghegan-Hart, who had taken both Stage 15 and Stage 20, and Hindley, who had triumphed on the incredibly difficult Stelvio-punctuated Stage 18.

Coming into the final 2020 Giro stage in the Lombardy capital Milan, there was more room for movement across the general classification than is typical this late into a Grand Tour. Apart from Geoghegan-Hart and Hindley being neck-to-neck in the fight for the pink jersey, there was also room for other riders to potentially move up or down in the GC standings. Team Sunweb’s Wilco Kelderman, who the previous day had conceded the leader’s jersey to teammate Hindley, was riding to hold onto his podium position; an accomplished time-trialist, Kelderman would have to ride a quick pace over the 15.7km route to prevent Bahrain-McClaren's Pello Bilbao leapfrogging from fourth to third place. Equally Bilbao, who had ridden a fantastic Giro D’Italia following his work in the Tour De France as a domestique for Mikel Landa, would have to keep an eye out for fifth-place Almeida who would be looking to move up a spot to fourth in the GC after making up nearly thirty seconds on him on Stage 20.

While Geoghegan-Hart and Hindley remained friendly and affable to the end, sharing a Covid-compliant fist bump before they took to the starting ramp, it was clear from watching the television coverage that the atmosphere was incredibly tense for the riders and their respective teams. It would be a first Grand Tour win for both Geoghegan-Hart and Hindley, a possibility which neither likely expected when they began the Giro three weeks earlier in Sicily. For their teams, it was likely an equally unexpected scenario to face: for Ineos Grenadiers, they probably thought their hopes of contesting the GC were gone when Thomas exited on Stage 3 , while Team Sunweb would have been working for Dutch rider Kelderman to secure the pink jersey.

The 2020 Giro D’Italia, taking places months later than usual, had already thrown up a whole host of scenarios, GC leaders and stage winners which no one could have anticipated coming into this Grand Tour, so, in a sense, it only felt right that this most unusual of Giro’s should end with an all-out sprint to decide who would wear the Maglia Rosa on the final winner’s podium.

Geoghegan-Hart took off first at 4:09pm Italian time, with Hindley following in quick pursuit three minutes later. Keeping a close eye on the time difference between both riders, it appeared from the start that Geoghegan-Hart was riding a much better time trial; the Ineos Grenadier appeared to be working off a high gear and powering up the straight road towards Milan, while Team Sunweb’s rider was peddling furiously from the outset but could not seem to make up the lost ground despite his efforts.

Geoghegan-Hart's Stage 21 dominance was confirmed at the 5km time-check, passing at 12’06’’, while Hindley reached the same point over thirty seconds later, recording a time-check of 12’38’’. Geoghegan-Hart eventually crossed the finish line in 18’14’’, coming in thirteenth place and effectively securing the Maglia Rosa save for an increasingly unlikely last-minute resurgence by Hindley. The resurgence unfortunately never materialised and Ineos Grenadiers were confirmed as winners of the overall general classification before Hindley even reached the finish line.

After a brilliant final stage performance, Tao Geoghegan-Hart became only the second Briton to win the Giro D’Italia after Chris Froome’s success in 2018, and also became the only winner of the Giro D’Italia to never wear the Maglia Rosa across any of the previous twenty stages. It was heartbreak and disappointment in the end for Western Australian Jai Hindley who finished in second place after losing thirty-nine seconds in the final TT, while his teammate and former Giro D’Italia leader Wilco Kelderman held on to finish in third. The top five of the 2020 Giro was rounded out by Almeida and Bilbao, with the riders trading GC spots after Almeida secured a fourth-place TT finish and overtook the Spaniard by twelve seconds.

The 2020 Giro D’Italia was nothing if not unpredictable: GC favourite Geraint Thomas ruled out after only three stages, two major teams abandoning the tour entirely, a Grand Tour debutant leading Giro for fourteen stages, and the securement of the Maglia Rosa coming down to 15.7km of all-out cycling between two domestiques who had come into the race initially to support others, and Ineos Grenadiers, after losing their leader so early, to finish the second Grand Tour of the year with seven stage wins and the overall general classification with the most unexpected of riders, Tao Geoghegan-Hart.

#giro d'italia #tao geoghegan hart #jai hindley #joao almeida #wilco kelderman #pello bilbao #cycling

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hudsonespie · 4 years

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75 Years Ago: The USCG and the Amphibious Assault on Saipan

His courage and conduct throughout were in keeping with the highest traditions of the naval service. – Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, Bronze Star Medal citation for Clarence H. Sutphin, Jr.

Seventy-six years ago Coast Guardsman Clarence Sutphin served as landing craft coxswain on board the attack transport USS Leonard Wood (APA-12). By the end of World War II, Sutphin would be a decorated war hero, battle-tested landing craft operator and survivor of Saipan, one of the Pacific War’s bloodiest combat missions.

In November 1941, just weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 18-year-old Sutphin enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard. He was born in 1923 and grew up in Valley Stream, Long Island. At Central High School, he wrestled and played football and baseball, however, he also enjoyed sailing and fishing and worked as a deckhand on fishing smacks and pleasure boats. So, it was only natural that he would join a military service known for its small boats and watercraft. After enlisting, Sutphin attended boot camp at the Coast Guard Yard, near Baltimore. He then received orders to the North Carolina coast to train in amphibious operations and landing craft, also known as Higgins Boats.

Aerial photograph of the Coast Guard-manned transport USS Leonard Wood taken in April 1944, just a few weeks before it deployed for the Battle of Saipan. (U.S. Navy)

In May 1942, Sutphin reported on board the Leonard Wood, where he would spend the next three years of his life. One of many Coast Guard-manned attack transports, the Wood saw action in some of the war’s bloodiest amphibious operations. In November, Sutphin and the Wood served in the landings in North Africa, the second Allied amphibious operation of the war. In July 1943, Sutphin landed troops from the Wood in the invasion of Sicily. After Sicily, the Wood crossed the Atlantic and transited the Panama Canal to participate in the Pacific Theater of Operations. In November 1943, Sutphin landed troops in the Gilbert Islands, including the capture of Makin Island. And, in early 1944, he landed troops in the Marshall Islands, including the invasions of Kwajalein Atoll and Eniwetok Atoll. Over the course of these amphibious operations, Sutphin advanced through the ranks of boat operators from Seaman 2/class to Boatswain’s Mate 1/class.

Early in 1944, the Leonard Wood had begun preparations for its next amphibious operation. Allied and Japanese military leaders knew that American long-range bombers could reach the home islands from the Marianas and both sides planned for one of the hardest-fought battles of the Pacific War. Allied strategists labeled the operation “Forager,” which targeted the Mariana Islands of Saipan, Guam and Tinian. With 600 ships and 128,000 troops, Forager would be one of the largest invasions in the Pacific War and test Allied amphibious capabilities.

Strategic diagram showing the Mariana Islands of Saipan and Tinian and the planned amphibious landings on each island. (U.S. Coast Guard)

On Thursday, June 15, D-Day for the invasion of Saipan, the Wood positioned itself off the beaches and prepared to disembark its landing craft. By 7:30 a.m., all boats were away and landing operations commenced. The landing zone included nearly four miles of beaches on the southwest side of the island. By 9:00 a.m., in spite of heavy enemy mortar, artillery and machine gun fire, Sutphin and his fellow landing craft operators had rushed 8,000 marines onto the beaches.

For the rest of June 15, Sutphin and Wood’s landing boats defied death by running back and forth to the beaches to land troops, ammunition, water, food, blood plasma and medical supplies. In spite of stiff enemy resistance, the beachhead held and, over the course of the day, Sutphin and the fleet of amphibious craft had put ashore an additional 12,000 troops. By nightfall, Saipan held 20,000 U.S. troops or about two-thirds the number of Japanese troops occupying the island.

That evening, and for some nights to come, Sutphin anchored his landing craft with a boat pool of two dozen other Higgins Boats off of the landing zone. At night, using a secret password, a Navy patrol craft would check each boat and update the crews about possible attack by Japanese swimmers or suicide boats deploying from the island. The landing craft were subject not only to armed swimmers and suicide boats, but nightly air attacks. One of Sutphin’s boat crew would stand watch while the others tried to rest, however, sound sleep was unknown during the Battle of Saipan.

From sun-up to sundown, Sutphin worked on the beaches and ran his boat back and forth to the transports. There was only one channel through the island’s reef to reach the beaches, so once he entered the reef, there was no way to lay offshore and escape enemy sniper fire. He relied on the experience he gained through landings in North Africa, Italy and the Southwest Pacific to avoid coral reefs, enemy machine gun fire, and near misses by mortars and artillery. Those hazards, as well as sniper fire, forced him to steer his Higgins Boat on bended knee behind the boat’s steel plating.

During the battle, Sutphin helped oversee boat operations, including landing, loading and salvaging landing craft. He braved intense enemy fire to save others, including swimming a towline to a landing craft stranded on a reef and targeted by enemy mortar fire with five Americans trapped on board. After rescuing that boat, he saved another stuck on the beach that was targeted by Japanese artillery. While on the beach dodging mortar rounds and sniper fire, Sutphin came to the aid of eight marines struck by a direct hit. After finding five men dead and three seriously wounded, he provided first aid to the survivors and moved them out of the firing line to the nearest aid station.

During Saipan’s D-Day and D-Day+1, the landing zone had been a killing field. American forces focused their fire on land, but the Japanese hailed down artillery, mortar, machine gun and sniper fire everywhere from the reef to the beaches. After the first two days, the Leonard Wood departed the landing zone to escape attack by enemy ships and aircraft. On June 24, it returned, dropped the remainder of its cargo and treated 350 wounded troops before gathering up its landing craft and sailing for friendly shores.

It took nearly 30 days to defeat the enemy on Saipan. Of the 70,000 American troops landed on the island, about 5,000 were killed and over 20,000 wounded. The final count of Japanese dead was nearly 30,000, almost the entire force garrisoned on Saipan. These dead included the Japanese general in charge of Imperial Army forces and famed Japanese admiral Chuichi Nagumo. Both flag officers committed suicide in the final days of the battle. It was an inglorious end for Nagumo, who had commanded powerful Japanese fleets at the battles of Pearl Harbor, Midway Island and Guadalcanal.

Photograph of Leonard Wood landing craft delivering supplies to the beach at Leyte Island after Saipan. Notice .30 caliber machine guns mounted in the stern gun tubs. (U.S. Coast Guard)

During the months after Saipan, Sutphin and the Leonard Wood went on to participate in amphibious operations in the Palau Islands and the Philippine landings at Leyte and Lingayen Gulf. By the time Sutphin left the Wood, he had become the senior enlisted man overseeing Wood’s Landing Boat Division of nearly 20 landing craft while serving as a guncrew member and master-at-arms. As Boatswain’s Mate 1/class he had high marks in nearly all aspects of his work and was recommended for advancement to Chief Petty Officer, but all chief positions in his rating were filled at that time.

In June 1944, the conclusion of the war was more than a year away with some of the bloodiest battles yet to come. However, the capture of Saipan, and the nearby islands of Tinian and Guam, marked a turning point. The islands were not only strategic Japanese strongholds, they could support air fields for Allied bombers able to strike at the heart of Japan. These bombers included the famed B-29 Enola Gay, which flew from Tinian to Hiroshima initiating the Atomic Age of modern warfare and helping end the Pacific War.

Clarence Sutphin stayed with the Leonard Wood through May 1945. In his three years on board the transport, he had participated in all of the Wood’s eight major amphibious operations. These spanned the globe from North Africa to the Philippines and aided in the defeat of Vichy French, German, Italian and Japanese military forces. For his “exceptional bravery under fire” on the beaches of Saipan, Sutphin received the Bronze Star Medal from the Navy with a medal citation signed by famed Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. Sutphin was a hero of the long blue line and will be honored as the namesake of a Coast Guard Fast Response Cutter.

William Thiesen is the Coast Guard Atlantic Area historian. This article appears courtesy of Coast Guard Compass and may be found in its original form here.

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