#also i find it interesting how the internet reacts to the evil white men

[hatshepsut9]

There’s no way I’m finishing another book tomorrow, so here’s a tiny wrapup:

Mini reviews below the cut (non-spoilery as much as possible!) 

The Calculating Stars: I read this because of booktube and enjoyed it— sometimes the internet can be trusted! This is an alternate history 1950’s space program book about a pilot/calculator becoming one of the first female astronauts. Overall it’s short, sweet, and smart. It does feature female and minority characters navigating typical 1950’s identity politics, but it’s not so frustrating as to be unreadable (of course it should be frustrating, but sometimes you’re just not in a patient enough mood that you’re willing to watch white men complain about the existence of women and black people when there is an actual global crisis looming over their shoulders!) If you can overlook some very cheesy flirting of the “rocket in your pocket” variety (yes, we get that you’re in the space program, you don’t have to use that fact in all your pickup lines) and you liked Hidden Figures, read this.

The Jasmine Throne: I’d never heard of this before but I got it for Christmas via a bookseller’s recommendation. I could see some people finding the writing style to be a little... affected(?), but I didn’t mind it. This is an Indian-inspired fantasy world with political rivalries, an old magic returning, and characters confronting fate. The cast isn’t huge, but there are enough characters that you get to explore things through comparisons. Trying to avoid spoilers here, but you get two characters in the exact same boat re: what happened when one of their family members got caught up in some royal family succession drama, and how each of them reacts completely differently with respect to how they view the royal character involved. And you also have 3 people who came from the same place who are dealing with colonization in 3 different ways. I really love the magic system(s) in this and I can’t wait to see what happens in the rest of the series. There is a plant/human magic system that is related to a kind of curse (that I suspect is really a power a la Elantris), a prophecy-based magic system/religion, and probably more aspects of magic that will come into play. The magic seems very localized, with religions that are tied to their locations. Halfway through the book I finally googled the series and only the first 2 books are out... I’m hoping it’s a trilogy but whatever it is, I’m in for the ride now. I would recommend this to fans of Baru Cormorant, The Poppy War, and maybe ASOIAF (but I haven’t finished any of those series so take that with a grain of salt). 

The Origin of Satan: I picked this up one night because I was at the house of a religious studies major with nothing to read, and it was interesting enough that I took it home and finished it. This book goes through internal drama between Jewish groups, then once Christians became a group made up of mostly gentile converts the dramas between them and pagans (mostly Romans), and then back to internal drama between different Christian groups. It traces the way people in these conflicts would use the idea of Satan-- first meaning an angel sent to challenge a human or stop humans from doing something bad, later meaning a sort of evil angel or evil god-- to talk about their conflicts with their various opponents both internal and external. (Side note: this book is why I noticed the localized religions/magic systems in Jasmine Throne, because it talks about how before Christianity, everyone took it for granted that your religion was determined by where you live). Overall this book is interesting but it just pointed me towards related topics that I now want to read about. For instance, it’s hard for me to imagine a time when people didn’t regularly frame their conflicts as part of a battle between the forces of good and evil, because that concept is so ingrained in popular culture even though we don’t usually think of it as coming from the idea of angels and demons/God and Satan, so I’d really be more interested to get immersed in examples of how people talked about their conflicts and their opponents before all this happened. The book also just made me want to read up on gnostic Christians (luckily she also wrote a book on the Gnostic Gospels, so that’d going in my list.) 

#books #booklr #book wrap up #book wrapup #tasha suri #mary robinette kowal #elaine pagels #the calculating stars #the jasmine throne #the burning kingdoms #the origin of satan #sci fi #alternate history #fantasy #history #religious studies

[tessatechaitea]

Metamorpho #4

I cannot read "Bad Chemistry" without singing it and adding "Til the day I die!"

That feeling when you run into an ex after a lengthy period of time and think, "Oh yeah. We're gonna fuck!"

Sapphire and Rex pursue Simon and Jillian who have gone off to the pyramid to get the Orb of Ra back. Remember Mason's claim that archaeologist's can't trust their partners? I bet Simon betrays Jillian! He's really gone daughter-fucking crazy. When Rex arrives to stop them, Simon Stagg uses the Orb to hurt him while taunting, "Never come between a father and his special daughter!" So is that why Mark Waid pitched this story? Did he grow up reading Metamorpho comic books thinking, "Man, that old guy really wants to fuck his daughter!" Did he actually pitch that story to DC editors?! Mark: "Pictures this: a four part Metamorpho story where we learn Simon Stagg's entire motivation is getting into his daughter's lady cave!" DC Editor #1: "Remind me. What's a lady cave?" Mark: "Virgin!" DC Editors #2-4: "Ha ha! Good one, Mark. Augustyn is totally a virgin! It sounds like a great idea! Are you coming to our party later? Brian isn't invited!" Mark: "But don't you want to hear about how the Orb of Ra is a metaphor for Simon Stagg's penis?!"

"Touch it, Rex! Just touch it! Feel my cock's power!"

Sapphire falls into her dad's trap and tackles him to stop him from killing Rex. Simon Stagg gets a huge boner. Although he drops the Orb of Ra which is the symbol of his penis so maybe he actually loses his erection when he realizes his daughter has stood up to him. If Sapphire tackled me, my Orb of Ra would only get stronger! And it would probably go off instantly! While everybody else is distracted, Jillian grabs Stagg's penis and thinks, "The orb's still potent!" See? It's totally a penis metaphor. She runs off to the chamber at the top of the pyramid where the Orb is supposed to be able to cure somebody who has been metamorphosized. Rex manages to climb back to his feet and he notices some dust on the hieroglyphics that Conway missed. He blows it off and reads the final line of the cure and yells, "It's a cookbook! A COOKBOOK!" He then rushes off to save Jillian for some reason. Metamorpho gets to Jillian as she's bathed in the Orb's excretions. Apparently the cure wasn't meant to reverse the transformation but to complete it! So that's why Rex and Jillian look so gross. Because they're only half baked. Jillian turns into a pillar of salt and Rex shrugs his shoulders and goes off to find his son. Joey has made his way to the meteor room because archaeology is in his disgusting, modified blood.

Don't encourage him!

Rex and Sapphire hear Joey laugh in the chambers below and Rex realizes he's with the meteorite. So he and Sapphire run into the chamber to fetch him. Luckily Joey has turned the meteor to lead so Sapphire doesn't have to become Metamorphess. Also, Joey is cured! His skin is normal! He doesn't look like a freak anymore! And his grandfather is going to be pissed that the little brat didn't turn the meteor into gold before losing his powers. So the Mason's are once again a family and Sapphire plans to turn Stagg in for the murder of Java. But I guess that never happens. Or maybe it does happen but Superboy's punch and/or Mr. Mind's devouring of the DC Universe brought Java back to life and made us all forget that Simon Stagg loves incest. What am I? A scholar in DC Continuity?! Does that even exist?! Nerd! Metamorpho #4 Rating: B-. It's a decent story if not a little boring. The best part was how Mark Waid had the gall to make Simon Stagg into an incestuous murderer. It's almost as if he realized before the rest of us that evil narcissists expose themselves in their desire to fuck their daughters! It's practically prescient!

#Metamorpho #DC Comics #DC

[lefilmdujour]

Another 500th movie celebration

My Tumblr just reached the 1000 movies mark, so I figured it’s time I write something about my last 2 and a half years of movie viewings and recommend 50 more movies out of the ones I’ve seen since the last 500th movie celebration.

Times have been strange in the last couple of years, and my movie habits have reflected it. There have been times when watching films was all I would do, but there have also been moments of complete disconnection from the medium. I went from watching several movies every day to spending months avoiding anything to do with sitting through a movie. 

Part of it had to do with the space I share with my demons, but mostly there has been a change of pace. My laptop died, it took me months to get another one only to also die on me. On the other hand, an enormous chunk of my viewings have been in cinemas or squats, which is a very positive change but led me to watch more recent films in detriment of classics or ancient underappreciated gems. I also got my first TV in over a decade this month, and my very first Netflix account last week, so I may be exploring streaming a bit more, although so far I am not finding the experience  at all satisfying. All pointless excuses since I went through 500+ movies in a little over two years, which is not bad at all.

It was hard to pick only 50 movies this time, and the list would have probably looked a little different if I did it tomorrow. Regardless, here are 50 movies I recommend, and why. Random order, all deserving of love and attention.

Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff) - This movie is unfairly  ignored in the best comic book adaptation lists out there on the internet. The opening scene is memorable, the soundtrack is a lesson in early Blues, and the characters are quirky and well written.

Hate (Mathieu Kassovitz) - An absolute classic about the class system in France and its tendency to end up in riots. Beautiful shot and highly quotable. Saw it a few times, the last of them with a live score from Asian Dub Foundation. One of the greats.

Audition (Takashi Miike) - Whenever I’m asked about my favorite horror movie, I tend to fall back on this one. Audition is very slow, starting out soft but with an underlying tension that builds until the absolutely gut-wrenching finale that makes us question our own sanity. Brilliant subversion of the “hear, don’t see” rule, just the though of some of the sounds used in the most graphic scenes still send shivers down my spine.

Kedi (Ceyda Torun) - A Turkish documentary about street cats, what’s there not to like?

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook) - The third in the loosely-connected Vengeance trilogy by Park Chan-wook, and my favorite of the bunch, especially the Fade to Black and White edition, in which the movie very gradually loses color as the violence grows. A visual masterpiece.

Paterson (Jim Jarmusch) - The poetry of routine. Adam Driver is one hell of an actor.

Love Me If You Dare (Yann Samuell) - Two people that obviously love each other but are not mature enough to follow it through. Frustrating. Beautiful. Made me sob.

The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel) - I am realizing that a good part of this list deals with frustration. A group of people finds themselves unable to leave a party for no apparent reason. Buñuel is a genious in surrealism, I have yet to watch most of his Mexican period.

The Mutants (Teresa Villaverde) - Kids on the run from themselves. Strong visuals, very moving interactions at times. A hard but very rewarding watch. Teresa Villaverde’s entire filmography also gets a seal of approval.

Bad Education (Pedro Almodóvar) - A movie about sexuality and problematic relationships, taken to unbelievable extremes.

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu) - The adventures of Mr. Lazarescu as he struggles to find help for the sudden pain he feels and ends up being passed on from hospital to hospital. Felt very real. Sold as a comedy, but I found it terrifying. 

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos) - A classic greek tragedy brought to the modern age. My favorite Lanthimos film, ranking slightly below Dogtooth. The deadpan acting and the unnerving sound serves as wonderful misdirection.

It’s Such a Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeldt) - Three shorts stitched together to create a confusing, philosophical, absurd, funny and deep masterpiece. The animation skills of Don Hertzfeldt needs more recognition.

Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu) - A movie so good it didn’t even had an English name. Three tales of love, violence and loss, all linked by a dog.

Endless Poetry (Alejandro Jodorowsky) - Jodorowsky’s romanticized auto-biography, played by his own sons.Bohemian and poetic.

The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer) - Show this movie to someone who refuses to watch silent movies. The acting is so impactful and emotional, and the use of close ups was highly unusual for the time. A 90-plus years old masterpiece.

Everything is Illuminated (Liev Schreiber) - Sunflowers.

Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan) - I have a soft spot for war movies, as to remind myself how brutal people can be to their fellow man and how meaningless the concept of nations truly is. This movie in particular achieves greatness due to its usage of sound, the best I’ve heard in recent memory.

Vagabond (Agnès Varda) - Be careful of what you wish for yourself, you may end up frozen and miserable in a ditch (spoilers for literally the first few seconds of the film).

Stroszek (Werner Herzog) - I know Herzog mostly through his documentaries. His voice brings me the feeling of a deranged grandpa sharing stories of a reality tainted by dementia. I have yet to explore his fiction work in-depth, and this has been my starting point. Stroszek is bleak and desperate but humor still shines through it at times. Ian Curtis allegedly hung himself after watching it. Not sure if this story is real, but it once more feeds into the Herzog myth.

HyperNormalization (Adam Curtis) - Put together through found footage and newscasts, HyperNormalization is an unforgiving study on how we got to where we currently are. Fake becomes real. Trust is an abandoned concept. “They've undermined our confidence in the news that we are reading/And they make us fight each other with our faces buried deep inside our phones”, as AJJ sings in Normalization Blues. Which you should also check out.

Chicken with Plums (Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud) - A man decides to die, so he goes to bed and waits. An apparent simple plot that uncovers a world of beauty and poetry, as life passes slowly through the man’s eyes.

The Florida Project (Sam Baker) - William Dafoe was born to play the role of a motel manager. He is so natural in his role that I think he would actually be great in that job. The rest of the movie is great too, but his performance is the highlight for me.

Lucky (John Carroll Lynch) - Speaking of great performances, Lucky is Harry Dean Stanton’s final movie and a great send off. IMDB describes it best: “The spiritual journey of a ninety-year-old atheist.“

Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders) - More Harry Dean Stanton. The desert plays a more than decorative role in this wonderful movie, representing the emptiness that comes from estrangement. A story about reunion and all that can come from it.

On Chesil Beach (Dominic Cooke) - I sometimes cry in movies, but this one shook me to the core. A play on expectations and reactions and their devastating impact on relationships. We all fuck up sometimes. Try not to fuck up like these characters did, not on that level, you will never be able to make up for it.

The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson) - An absolute classic. A movie about the concept of family.

No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers) - Murder mysteries and bad haircuts.

Dawson City: Frozen Time (Bill Morrison) - I highly recommend this documentary for anyone who professes their love for cinema. The story of how hundreds of lost silent movies were preserved though sheer luck and human stupidity. Seeing these damaged frames coming back to life is truly magical.

Mandy (Panos Cosmatos) - Some films turn into cult experiences through the years, some selected few are already born that way. Mandy is a psychedelic freak-out and Nicholas Cage fits like a glove in its weirdness. If you didn’t catch it while in cinemas, you’re already missing out on the full experience. Mandy is filled with film grain, which adds to the hallucinogenic experience with its continuous movement, a feature that does not translate when transferred to a digital medium. 

City of God (Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund) - A masterpiece of Brazilian cinema, very meaningful and relatable if you grew up in a similar environment. One of the most quotable films in my memory, something that gets lost in translation if you don’t speak Portuguese. My Tumblr is mostly pictures because I “só sei lê só as figura”.

Loro (Paolo Sorrentino) - On the topic of languages, I watched this Italian movie with Dutch subtitles, by mistake. It is actually an interesting exercise, watching something without fully grasping every word and letting your mind patch the pieces together to make a coherent narrative. Impressive cinematography, amazing script. I learned a lot about corruption, not everyone has a price. I also learned I can speak Italian now.

Roma (Alfonso Cuarón) - Beautiful shot, every frame of it can be turned into a picture. Roma is about the meaning of family, seen from the eyes of someone who will never be part of it. A lot of people considered this movie boring and pointless. These people probably have maids at home.

Bad Times at the El Royale (Drew Goddard) - Engaging heist movie, well developed characters, amazing soundtrack.

Melancholia (Lars von Trier) - The World is coming to an end and the date and time has been announced. How would you react to these news? Would it matter?

Climax (Gaspar Noé) - A very scary experience, equal parts trippy and evil like all Gaspar Noé’s movies. A dark ballet that that shocks and confuses the senses. Dante’s Inferno.

Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold) - A strong story about ambitions, neglect and survival. Katie Jarvis is very realistic in her performance, a little too much judging by her history after the movie.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour) - An Iranian feminist movie about vampirism and records. Watched it with live score from The Black Heart Rebellion for extra cool points.

Another Day of Life (Raul de la Fuente & Damian Nenow) - Based on Ryszard Kapuściński‘s autobiography, Another Day of Life consists of rotoscopic animation sprinkled with interviews. A look at the Cold War in the African continent, and an important watch for everyone, especially Portuguese and Angolan nationals.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino) - Rich in dialogues and paced very slowly until the insane climax, this is probably the best Tarantino film after Pulp Fiction. Filled to the brim with cinematic references, it’s a delight to all film nerds. Looking forward for an Bud Spencer/Terrence Hill film adaption with Leonardo Dicaprio and Brad Pitt after this.

The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine) - Google’s top voted tags: Boring. Mindless. Cringe-Worthy. Forgettable. Slow. Illogical. Looks like this movie didn’t resonate well with the audiences, but then again Harmony Korine’s stuff is not for the masses. I personally think this is one of his best movies, a true exercise on nihilism. The main character is lovable and detestable in equal parts, and every action is pointless. Such is life, the only meaning it has is attributed by yourself.

The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky) - A man reflects on his life. Memories tend to get fuzzy, conflicting and confusing. More like a poem than a narrative. A dreamy masterpiece.

The Spirit of the Beehive (Víctor Erice) - The most charming child of this list, she couldn’t memorize the names of the characters she interacted with so they were changed to the names of the actual actors. The innocence of childhood in dark times.

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson) - A series of absurd vignettes connected by a pair of novelty items salesmen and their struggle to bring a smile to a grey World. Slow, but humorous and delightful. An unconventional and memorable ride.

Man Bites Dog (Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel & Benoît Poelvoorde) - Fake documentary about a serial killer. Heavy, gruesome and hard to watch, despite the false sense of humor in some scenes.A glimpse at the darkness of human nature.

Tangerine (Sean Baker) - Shot with cell phones. A story about love, gender and friendship. Funny, sad, touching.

The Guilty (Gustav Möller) - Focused on a shift of an emergency dispatcher, the camera focuses only on his face and phone interactions with the callers.A very effective thriller, its setting leads us to create our own narratives just to subvert them at the most unexpected times.

Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowski) - Loosely inspired in Pawlikowski’s parents, Cold War is a beautiful love story set against impossible odds. Powerful and heartbreaking. 

Parasite (Bong Joon-ho) - Poor family scams rich family. Rich family takes advantage of poor family. Everybody feeds off of everyone. Drama/Comedy/Thriller/Horror/Romance about control, delivered in a masterclass on cinematic rhythm. Best film of its year for me.

The Straight Story (David Lynch) - More than the fact that this movie is radically different than the remaining Lynch work, The Straight Story is a wonderful exercise in pacing and storytelling. Mr. Straight’s stories allow us to fill in the blanks with our imagination, and their impact in him is also felt in us. An underappreciated gem in its apparent simplicity.

Thank you very much for reading.

#yay me #Movie Recommendation

[lifessentence-blog]

Black History Month: “Through Woke Eyes From Different Sides” Part 4

“Did you know black is ugly?” 

These words came from what is one of the biggest moments in my life that really cemented my knowledge of what people think of color– darkness to be more specific. This is a moment I shared with Desiree and a moment I’ve been longing to share for a long time. I figured we could talk about the importance of self-love, hatred of dark skin and the obsession with all things light, while were at it. But first let’s go back to that night. . .

As any other night during finals, we were exhausted from studying and this night we just needed a break. As it was pretty late we decided to walk down the street to get a snack and talk about things other than the steps to marketing online or how being a fashion buyer is definitely not in our future. 

So now I want you to step into our shoes. Just imagine, taking a late night break from studying with your friend to get some food. Imagine sitting in the establishment, with your friend, minding your own business, chatting about school and how stressful it is. Then imagine someone walking up to you and sitting down at your table and staring at you and your friend. Now imagine this person spurting out a statement of how your skin tone, religion, ethnicity, or belief system is ugly. How would you react?

“Did you know black is ugly?” is what this brown (I’m assuming Afro-latino) man had said to my friend and I. Immediately we are set back but tried to avoid eye contact with this man and continued our conversation. He continues to say how ugly black is. At this moment I have this sharp pain in my stomach and feel disgusted, I look over at my friend and look at her face. This man is sitting right next to her and telling her, right in her ear, how ugly black is. Now, of course we end up walking out, after we were not able to get him to leave us alone. We ended up forgetting about homework, and spent the rest of the night venting to each other and our close friend about what had happened.

I often look back at this moment and think what I could have done. What I should have said. I also look back at how ironic it is that he too, was a brown man. I think about how every day, young dark-skinned girls are told literally and subliminally they are not beautiful. Which is not true. Look at the lists created by major publications of the “World’s Most Beautiful People.” On these lists you might find a couple women of color, however the three most popular you will find are all close to a caramel or light skin tone; Halle Berry, Beyonce, and  Rihanna. In the year 2009, black girls were finally able to see a Disney Princess that looked like them--it hasn’t even been a decade. Look at the imagery of black love shown to so many girls on the internet and more often than not, you will see a light-skinned woman with a dark-skinned man. For the most part white is used to represent something that is pure and nice where black is seen as bad and evil. Just look at how a bride wears white on her wedding day or how we wear black at funerals to show that we are in mourning. Think about the Yin Yang symbol and what each side represents. Listen to hip-hop music where woman are probably some of their biggest supporters. The music boasts about light skin or exotic woman, or there’s similar ideas shown through the imagery in the music videos.

I’ve recently thought about the times I’ve been told I was beautiful and how many of those times were also shared with comments about how exotic I looked, my “perfect shade of skin,” how I “don’t even look black,” or how my hair can resemble a white girls’. Then I thought about how dark-skinned black girls are labeled, and under-appreciated unless it’s for Instagram likes or Tumblr posts. Why do we envy European images, but love African culture? Why is it cool to have a girl who has the “right black features” but is not black? Or if she is black, let’s only put her on a pedestal if she’s “yellow” or a “redbone.” Why do we accept back-handed compliments for our dark-skinned women? Why can they only be “pretty for a black girl” and not just beautiful. When will we take these deeply rooted ideas and messages out of our vocabulary and life, and make it a habit to love all complexions in all cultures. When will we erase history, when it comes to idolizing those who can “pass” or those with less melanin? 

Of course this isn’t just about colorism issues for women, men go through it too. What we are introduced to everyday in our magazines, movies, and even news stories can really turn us against each other. Why is it important to pay attention to the shade of black one is when at the end of the day we are all the same. These things we are shown are ways to divide a community or culture, whether it be black or brown. Colorism is a weapon and a deadly one at that.

If people of color could completely forget about the images we are given, and uplift each other we could become a much less self-destructive community and in return become unstoppable. We could achieve the things we have yet to accomplish. This is already happening today across the globe; people of all ethnicities and backgrounds are coming together to fight for the rights of blacks, immigrants, transgender people, and Native Americans. In order to gain equality, I truly believe we need it in our own community first. We must love ourselves. We must love and respect each other, in order to continue our fight for true respect and equality amongst the masses. 

After some of the experiences I have had combined with what I’ve seen on the news and on social media everyday, I sometimes even find myself angry. I noticed other people becoming fed up with mistreatment that they buckle under pressure and only become a villain in the end. I think one of my biggest critiques for myself is that I need to not immediately become upset and react out of anger, but instead take my passion and put it into a positive message. I think it’s easy to become outraged, which I do believe is warranted in many of the situations across the globe, however it’s much harder to remain level-headed and a strong leader. It’s great that you can become outraged over something you believe in, because that means you are paying attention; that you care. Also, I know that not everybody will see what I see, or think the things I mentioned in our entire series on colorism is wrong or an issue at all, and I have to accept that. The importance of speaking out is not to open everybody’s eyes, but to open those that are willing to listen and accept the message. I truly believe the youth has it in their power to make a big change for our future grandkids and their children and so on. They are willing to speak up and promote change! This is so exciting, because these are the people who others will read about in the future! History is being made every day! I suggest you find what you are passionate about and be a part of the change! 

NOTE: These opinions are my own and do not depict all experiences or situations. Of course there are people who show the exact opposite of what was mentioned above, however the issues stated are still very much relevant today. That is the point. Please share your thoughts as always through twitter or on our Facebook pages. I have had a wonderful time with this series and I’m so glad I was able to share it with Desiree and you. These topics we touched upon are very close to my heart and I’m glad we could shed even just a little light on them. If you are interested in different topics you can contact me here: [email protected]. Thank you for following along with us this month! 

-Chelsea