#did a lot of translation work -- including some with Russian which was new but incredibly fun

[bsd-bibliophile]

Survey Dates: November 15, 2020 - December 15, 2020 Number of Participants: 331

You can view and download the full results here.

Comments:

:)

:p

#BringBackYumeno2020

How cool you included translators in this! You ROCK.

bsd kunikida needs a vacation

Bungou Stray Dogs have been a blessing for me ever since I started watching the series last year. I had lost my drive for reading and writing as a hobby, university and disillusionment with the publishing industry killed that, but now I have been revitalized thanks to the series. Not only did it drive me to go back to writing original works, but I have started writing fanfiction again after almost ten years of hiatus from story writing. The BSD online library has been a blessing not only as a source of research for the writers for my fanfic, but also has been the only way that I have been easily been able to get a hold of some works by the authors in English, my preferred reading language. Please keep up the good work! Thank you so much for everything that you have provided for this fandom.

Buraiha,,,, just them

Do not make me choose between Dazai and Chuuya, I cannot, they are both my favs lol.

for the question about how many books by japanese authors i own, i responded with more

Hello friend! Twain’s my favourite in bsd but this is about japanese literature soooo than 10, but to clarify: they are not all from bsd authors.

hello!! just a quick thank you note!! im polish and variety here in japanese literature (either in polish or english) is very limited, but thanks to your website it's very easy to find works i want to read both by japanese or russian authors. i also like the fact that i can read abt the authors' connections and how they influenced each other in their works, and get some historical context. i want to be a translator in the future, so i'm incredibly grateful for this kind of accessibility. keep up the good work and thank you once again!!! <333 - julia sz

I will like to thank you for all the information that you have supplied us on the tumblr page. Also I will like to know if you have any information about "A New Hamlet" the adaptation Dazai made of Hamlet. You will really help me if you know anything about it.

hi, i really enjoy your blog and "no longer human" as well as "the moon over the mountain" are on my christmas list. i hope to learn more about these authors and i wish you a good day!

Hi! Just hope you have a great day!

I am currently learning Japanese and I hope one day I can read these authors works in Japanese instead of a translation

I am interested in reading literary works translated into languages other than English, but have difficulty finding ways to read them. For BSD, I also watch the recordings of stage plays. Also, BSD and the authors have sparked my interest in other Japanese literature (I really like Banana Yoshimoto's books). Lastly, thanks for the online library, it's such a huge help!

I am sad to have to answer that I’ve not read these authors. I just watched the whole anime in the last two weeks and am going to go read some of these authors now. I actually have two literature degrees from US institutions and have become increasingly aware of how awfully western they are. I love this anime and am glad it’s opened me up to these authors. I’m excited to read them.

I can't wait to see what you do with these results!!

I cannot thank you & your blog enough for helping me fall further in love with Bungou Stray Dogs. Keeping so many works in an easy-to-access place is also a total lifesaver--and you just made it all the more easier to realize my love for literature. I know I'm rambling, but thank you so much!

I have a question, is it better to read these Japanese novels in their original language (Japanese) or does it not really matter if you read the English translation? I guess it's a given that reading it in Japanese is more authentic, but I'm just wondering if it's really worth it to learn such a complex language just for the sake of authenticity. Are English translations at least 90% legit anyway?

I have read most Japanese works in English except for the poetry of Nakahara Chūya, which I read in/translated from Japanese.

I have very mixed feeling towards BSD, I prefer the side stories rather than the main plot and I only like a small choice of characters, but I appreciate the series for introducing me to many great authors that I hadn't known.

I hope you have a great day!!

I just found BSD Biblio blog recently, but still I get to know about the real life authors a lot. I can't understand japanese much, so this blog truly helps me to know more about the authors and their remarkable works. I'm greatly appreciate the efforts that had been put on this blog ^^ My deepest gratitude to the translators~♡

I just wanted to say thank you for your big interest in sharing japanese literary œuvres on the internet. Here in Spain there aren't many works translated in spanish, and those that are translated, have a poor translation, except the works of Dazai. Your page lets me enjoy many pieces of art from the great japanese writers!

I love bsd and bsd-bibliophile is a great blog

I love the blog and my favorite things are the quotes! Keep up the good work. <3

I love the universe that taught me to love books.

I love this blog and thank you sm for all the love and hard work you put into it. Thank you.

I love your blog, but I didn't know you had a library! I'm definitely checking it out, since where I live it's not easy to find the books of all the authors and I want to read at least one book of each! ❤️

I love your blog:)

I love your blog!

I love your tumblr! Thank you so much for collecting all the information about the authors!

I LOVE YOUR WEBSITE ITS AMAZING THANK YOUUUU

I love your work and dedication!

I mostly make do with the books that are available in my public library, thus the only physical copy I own is "the key" bu tanizaki (if that's the correct translation of the novel)

I play the BSD mobage; that is about as far as I am into BSD as a fandom, as I've only began a couple months ago.

I prefer print, but ebooks are good when that's what's available. I started reading the BSD manga, but stopped. I enjoy it much more just vicariously through my friends who read the manga and novels. Thanks for providing Japanese lit content all the time! I'm trying to learn Japanese, but I've a long way to go, so it's cool to learn about authors and possible English translations.

I read a lot more Japanese authors than I used to before, due to the anime Bungo Stray Dogs

I really adore what you do. Though I have not been very active in the library due to real life issues, I look forward to sitting down and looking through it!

I really appreciate BSD-Bibliophile. I've learned a lot and I know without it, I might not have gotten this into Japanese literature!

i really enjoy seeing your posts on my feed and reading quotes from various writers. thank you for your effort, i really appreciate it :)

I really like that you share quotes of these authors, they're really interesting to read! :) It also helps me to decide what I want to read next haha

I really want to read the light novels, I wish one day you can upload them! Love this page so much!!

I saw a few posts from your blog on Twitter and I'll definitely follow it from now on! What you all are doing is truly amazing and I wish you and your blog only the best! (I don't have enough free time to dive into as many books as I wish I could, so your blog is really helpful)

I think Asagiri-sensei try to promote these famous Japanese authors and I really glad he did because I actually like the poems and story by these authors and whenever I read you guys post a quote from any of their books, I feels the need to buy the book. Thank you for your hardwork!

I think your work in organizing and encouraging people to engage in Japanese literature beyond the series that introduced them to it is awesome.

I use BSD-Bibliophile so much and am very grateful to have it!

I wanted to read some of Dazai's, Kenji's and Akutagawa's works, but they are hard to find in physical stores

I wanted to thank for both the blog and the online library for granting me acess to works that are either too expensive or not available in my country <3

I'm following BSD for 4 years and I read literature of BSD authors as much as I can. I'm deeply in love with its characters, and I'm delighted every time I discover the references from the real life authors and their works. I recommend for those who want to go in-depth with BSD to read the literature, or at least learn about the real life authors. It worths the time. You'll love BSD even more, and maybe the real life authors and their works as well.

I'm new to Bungou Stray Dogs, and I plan on getting my hands on the manga soon! and also the works of the real authors the characters are based off of. :)

I'm so thankful for the site! Since I can't afford the actual book, I am able to read them thru here and if you don't mind, please add Hagiwara Sakutaro's Hownling at The Moon and Kikuchi Kan's Beyond the Pale of Vengeance. Thank you!

I'm so thankful to the amount of effort put into this blog. Thank you so much.

I've been following you for years, your blog is one of my favorites. Thanks for all you do!

I've come by this website a few times, but today is the first time I've really read anything on here. The posts provide a lot of insight. I'll definitely be coming back here to make use of the online library. Thanks for making this available!

I've read and enjoyed Dazai's works, and he's the one I choose for favourite, but it's hard - if I had to choose a second I'd go with Chuuya's poetry. I've somehow wound up reading and re-reading it both for reference in my own works, and just because I want to, when I like.

I've thoroughly enjoyed all the works I've found through this series and I highly recommend people look into Tachihara's poetry! He's my favorite poet ever and his work is highly underrated. 

I'm very thankful for this blog. It's heaven-sent for a booklover and fan of Japanese literature for me. I'm sure you're constantly trying to update the library, but there are a few very rare books I've always wanted to read but I'm not sure if I'll get to. Can you add "Azamukazaru no Ki" by Kunikida Doppo? I'm not sure if there exists an English translation, but I'd be eternally grateful even if you uploaded the original Japanese (actually, I would prefer that to the translation, even though it would take a million years for me to decipher the whole of it, at my level of knowledge of the Japanese language. Japanese and English being poles apart in grammatical structure, a lot of the nuances of a Japanese piece is lost in a translation, and this being a record of Kunikida's innermost feelings, I would prefer to read the original.) I also want to read the reports Kunikida made while he was a war correspondent during the Sino-Japanese war, that made him famous as a writer and journalist, but I'm not sure if those could be available. Please include Kunikida's wonderful poetry too. I have mostly read some them in the original Japanese, or Bengali translations made by a senpai of mine, but I would love to read more. As you can probably tell, Kunikida is one of my favourite Japanese authors (although I selected Akutagawa as my favourite in the survey... I love both of their writings equally, but the survey only wanted one answer, so I chose Akutagawa.) Please include writings of other Japanese authors who are not featured in BSD as well, if that is possible (you could maybe create a different section for them?) One of my favourite Japanese authors is Komatsu Sakyou, but I've only been able to read one book of his ("Japan Sinks"). I also want to read "Virus: the Day of Resurrection", "Take Your Choice" and assorted short stories written by him, but Japanese literature is unfortunately not at all easily available where I live. Which is all the more reason I'm so thankful for your blog. I wouldn't have been able to read so many amazing books of some of my favourite authors if it hadn't been for your blog. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope you will read this and consider my requests. Have a nice day :) 

it is through bsd-bibliophile's blog that i am able to go in-depth about japanese authors, so thank you so much! and just a little suggestion, though you don't have to do this if you don't have time or there's simply not any reason for you to do it, i would really love to answer a survey not only featuring japanese authors but all authors across different literatures (japanese, american, english, russian) who are featured in bsd because i think that would be fun as well. and this is really a fun survey~ thank you so much!

It was very fun to fill this list.

It's too hard to choose only one character or author

Keep doing what you do, it's amazing!

keep the great works!

Loved this!!! 💕

Nothing in particular. I just wanna thank you for having this survey. Loving BSD forever.

Since I only recently fell into the world of BSD and Japanese literature I haven't been able to read many of the works I want. I'm quite eager to read "No Longer Human" by Dazai-sensei since I really liked his style. An interesting thing is that I wasn't very fond of reading poetry until I discovered Yosano-sensei and Miyazawa-sensei, I enjoyed their work a lot. I'm very grateful to this blog, I wouldn't have been able to immerse myself this much into Japanese literature and read all this wonderful works if it wasn't for you so thank you so much! Keep up the good work!! ♡

Thank you for all of your hard work in these translations; reading Japanese literature has always been my wish. Being able to find and read their works in English is the greatest thing that's happened to me.

Thank you for all the hard work! You all curate the content so carefully and do so much for the fandom. It's one of my favorite bsd

Thank you for all the work you do~ and thank you for the library as well~

Thank you for all the work you’ve done💕✨

Thank you for all your hard work!

Thank you for continuing your work on this blog!

Thank you for everything you do!

Thank you for helping me find the translated copy of Return to Tsugaru by Osamu Dazai a while back!

Thank you for making the online library available! It's a great way to read some of these works that are not easily found elsewhere.

Thank you for providing the PDF's of these books, I don't want to buy them until I know I like them because it's hard for me to read because of my ADHD, so thank you for providing them in English!!!!

Thank you for the survey!

Thank you for this site! It really helps me to learn more about the Japanese Literature. Thank you to everyone who worked hard to translate the manga and light novels! I cannot decide which author I liked the best nor which book I liked most. It really is hard for me too choose! *sends love to everyone in this site*

thank you for this site! this really feeds my reading and BSD obsession <3

Thank you for your hard work :)

Thank you for your hard work, BSD Bibliophile! You are amazing! ;)

Thank you for your hard work!

Thank you for your work ♥

thank you so much for all that you do!!

Thank you so much for all your work on the BSD Bibliophile website!

Thank you so much for both your blog and the online library!!

Thank you so much for bringing closer the translated works and thanks for the authors who translated them

thank you so much for creating this special blog! I love it and really adore it

Thank you so much for your great work! your blog is a treasure for those who don't speak Japanese but are in love with Japanese literature (─‿‿─)♡

thank you so much for your website!!! sending love from hk!! :DD

Thank you so much for your wonderful work in making Japanese literature more accessible, so people who cannot find them in their country are also able to enjoy them <3

Thank you very much for your efforts in providing information and reading materials for everyone! I find your blog and website especially useful since I can't seem to find any physical copies here where I'm from. 

Thank you!

Thank you.

Thanks for all of your hardwork!

thanks for ur hard work <3

Thankyou so much for this amazing collection of Japanese writers and BSD!

The translations from the BSD Library are amazing.

there's always more than one favorite character or author but it is hard to pick between them

This blog is has so many posts that have helped me to read these literary work and became an important part of my life. Thank you for all moderators for sharing these beautiful works.

This is an interesting survey for bsd franchise also for the people who like and read Japanese literature. As a casual franchise wanderer, I'd like to fill this for showing my country existence//slaps wwwwwwwww. Thank you for providing this survey. Salam Literasi!

This library is amazing!

This was fun!! I use the bsd-bibliophile tumblr a lot - reading the quotes helps me pick which book to read next!! Through reading the Japanese literature written by BSD characters, I’ve since found other Japanese authors I love like Sakutarō Hagiwara and Dan Kazou, too!!!! <3

To clarify some of my answers, The Japanese books I own are mostly children's books. My parents however, have some Japanese novels and short stories as they are from Japan (for example my mom has a copy of Kumo no Ito by Akutagawa). I never finished Setting Sun nor Kokoro. I got about halfway through both before I had to return it to the library. The only other jp lit I've read not including poems is like a quarter of Snow Country by Kawabata Yasunari.

would just like to thank you for always providing the resources for BSD fans! i have been introduced to some of my favourite all-time works since discovering your blog and your resources!

You have a great blog, thank you all!

You're doing amazing work. Thank you so much for all you do for this fandom and the Japanese literary sphere in general.

You’re the best!

Your blog is absolutely amazing and if i hadn't found it i wouldn't have been able to read any of the BSD authors' works, i downloaded each one that interested me in PDF from your blog, hence why i admire it so much and i am so grateful for it. It is obvious that you put a huge amount of work into this blog and i love to wake up to new quotes and fragments every day. Keep up the great work, with love, a reader from Romania!

Your blog is amazing. Keep up the great work! Much support ♥️

your blog is SO helpful for my master's thesis on japanese literature. there is basically nothing in my country about japanese authors and i cannot thank you enough for the work you have done. seriously you are saving my life !!!!!!!!!! i really hope you have a good day!!!! you are really awesome™

Your BSD Library is very helpful for me, thank you for your efforts on creating it!

Your website is great, and I really appreciate your work, it’s makes it so much easier to find Japanese literature and to find new authors.

Your work is beautiful and you have expanded my knowledge of international literature so much; thank you :)

#survey #results #2020 #japanese literature #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bsd-bibliophile

[enrychan]

Burakovsky fanfiction recs

ok so I read every single Burakovsky fanfic on AO3 (no, really) and I started thinking about writing down a list of those I particularly appreciate. because the Patho fandom is tiny, and the Burakovsky fandom is even tinier, but there are a lot of incredible talents in it, and they deserve all the recognition we can muster.

I apologize to those who did not make it into this list, unfortunately I can’t read Russian (for now... that might change in the future😏) AND I have very specific tastes. Which is why some authors are repeated more than once (sorry!). Also I’m following at least a couple of beautiful fanfics that are currently unfinished, and I’m probably gonna include those in the next list.

You’re all extremely talented though, and I hope to read more of your works very soon (do I refresh the Burakovsky tag each day? yes I do)

anyway here’s my list, in no particular order! Enjoy all the love, hate, death and philosophy!🥰

In Vivo by meradorm. After a long silence, the Haruspex travels to the capital to seek out his old companion.

Arguably the best fanfics in the Patho fandom; and one of the best fanfics I’ve ever read. The writing style simulates the first translation of Patho Classic, which was weird and sometimes almost incomprehensible, but somehow it enhanced the odd, alien experience of the first game. Using this particular and sometimes difficult language, this fanfic gives the impression of being an integral part of the original story. The characters and the love story are beautiful and raw, sweet and cruel, and the ending is so... so perfectly Pathologic it makes me angry. Prepare lots&lots of tissues because you’re gonna cry your eyes out!

How cleverly the trap is made by Modlisznik. "My apologies." Daniil clears his throat. "Usually I reserve views like this for at least fourth, maybe fifth date."

Ok yes I’m going to recommend a lot of fanfics by Modlisznik, I just really really like their style. This is one of my favorites because Daniil is so in character, trying his best to appear strong even while in pain and almost blind with one of his migraines... and I’m always weak for Artemy being sweet and caring for Daniil. Just *chef’s kiss* excellent

Of the Town and the Steppe by Modlisznik. Artemy wonders how Daniil feels about this vastness, autumnal grass as far as the eye can see, the sky so clear, hanging so low, so close you can almost touch it, you can almost get swallowed whole. Insignificant, a little speckle on the face of Earth. Daniil is a creature of the city, Artemy thinks, of clear boundaries, of walls to hide behind, of places to be alone in. He must feel exposed. I'm a bad host, Artemy thinks.

Just a romantic, intimate moment between our two idiots out in the steppe. Daniil imagining all the places in the Capital he would like to show Artemy is so unbearably sweet I think I’ve cavities now. Totally worth it though.

All about Blood by Modlisznik. Daniil is aware that Isidor has been murdered just a few days ago. That his memory is still fresh, his touch lingers in this place. That Daniil, an intruder, shouldn't come down here to Isidor’s workshop - his laboratory - his sanctum - and most certainly, he shouldn't be here to fuck Isidor’s son. Even less, to use the elder Burakh's table for that purpose. He's aware of that. He also doesn't care.

Hot damn. This fanfics pushes all my buttons at once and then dances on the keyboard just to be sure. Artemy/Daniil kinky sex? Check. On the stone table in Artemy’s lab? Check. Subtle power games between the two? Check. Artemy marking Daniil with his blood? Check. A sprinkle of bondage just to spice things up a bit? Check. Um... is it just me or it’s kind of hot in here?

The Line of Red by Modlisznik. Bachelor Dankovsky does not believe in luck. Artemy wants him to understand, that the charm he's offering will protect him - just not in the way Daniil thinks it does.

Another sweet moment brought to you by or Official Sweetheart Artemy Burakh: Artemy wants to give Daniil something to remind him that he’s not alone, even in his darkest moments, that Artemy is his tagloor. Daniil doesn’t understand all that steppe folklore, but recognizes a precious gift when he’s given one.

Something old, something new by Modlisznik. In which Artemy considers the importance of not being watched, and Murky's doll needs urgent medical attention.

Just an adorable fanfic and a joy to read from start to finish. Artemy is best dad, Murky is best daughter, Daniil is back with a new title, and I’m always ready for some teary-eyed happy reunions.

Bloodflood by Xyloto. A flood of blood to the heart.

Artemy is used to be on top, and the relative new experience of being on the receiving end doesn’t start particularly well for him, but he is determined to let Daniil have what he wants. Daniil has other ideas on the matter. I have a thing for “top that bottoms for his bottom”, and especially in this case because this fanfic is written beautifully. It keeps all the more abrasive traits of Artemy’s personality&speech, while remaining very sweet and romantic somehow.

A Curse Befalls Your Heart by CurrieBelle. Daniil Dankovsky suffers from a Steppe curse. Burakh performs triage.

Speaking of sweet and romantic, are you ready for a good bucket of literal honey? This is my comfort fanfic, the one I return to every once in a while when I need something soft and lovely to shut off my brain. Not only that, but the story is awesome too, because it is based on an actual canon curse in the Patho lore. Remember when Anna Angel was cursed with the “returning heart” in Patho 2? What if something similar happened to Daniil? Luckily, Artemy is there to help.

Ode to the Body by kylee. In which Bachelor and Haruspex flatter each other shamelessly.

The Powers That Be have always destroyed Daniil’s self esteem by reducing him to a list of failures. Artemy wants him to understand that he’s not just his failures, nor his accomplishments, but so much more. Sex ensues. Praise kink anyone??? (yes please)

life overflowing by Yellow. Artemy needs someone to look at what he's done, to see he's done well, to take over for him, his head and his heart. just for a little while.

This is both lovely and kind of heartbreaking, with some suicidal tendencies/ideation? I feel it is completely appropriate after all Artemy has gone through by this point in the story. But Daniil doesn’t have any intention of letting him go.

Vae Soli by Adoxography. Daniil becomes Artemy's unwilling caretaker when Artemy is infected with the Sand Pest and is forced to take a Shmowder to cure himself, or die in the attempt.

There are a lot of sick fics in the Patho fandom (obviously), but I particularly love this one because it doesn’t embellish the pitiful state of Artemy, caught between two terrible ailments, nor makes Daniil appear too soft and generous. There is rivalry between the two idiots (as it should be), but also trust and even some attraction on Daniil’s part. In other words, it rings true and believable!

sub derma by Jagged. Dankovsky takes to the Town better than he thinks, but less than he'd like. Artemy would know.

Super sexy fanfic! dom!Daniil turns Artemy on with some pain play which Artemy is only too happy to be subjected to. I just love the power dynamic between the two, it’s visceral and even a little bit cruel at times, but the absolute trust they have in each other makes everything weirdly romantic.

foreign bodies by hoverbun. They have some time to themselves between dissections and the sharing of alms.

So it turns out that I also have a Thing for fics about shaving. apparently??? Artemy has some free time and a beard to get rid of. He asks Daniil for help with that. And everyone knows there are few things sexier than a hot doctor with a very sharp blade pointed at your throat!

I hope you blink before I do by vespirus. Maybe he was fated to gravitate towards men like these; the men with loose morals, the men who understood what it meant to be an arbiter of life and death decisions, the men who felt the weight of the future on their shoulders. Or maybe he just had an inescapable interest in the macabre.

AU fanfic about Daniil as an unscrupulous researcher and Artemy as a medical undergraduate willing to kill to make enough money to keep living and studying in the Capital. In other words they are both horrible people, and the tension between them is so thick you could slice it with a knife. There also a sequel, but it’s a death fic and I personally don’t like that. I hope the author will write an alternative ending where they become an awesome couple of gay criminals in love sooner or later!

#pathologic #burakovsky #haruspex #bachelor #daniil dankovsky #artemy burakh #bull blood snake heart #long post

[prince-liest]

fic writer interview!

How many works do you have on AO3?

37, though another one is going up tomorrow because haunted AO3 hours started and I don't want to post it in the middle of the night on a Monday. Also like 4 or 5 more in reserve from zines/bangs. I'm kinda impressed with myself, but also, side-eyeing y'all with fic counts in the 100s. Phenomenal. Effervescent.

What's your total AO3 word count?

257,246

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

In chronological order of first fic on AO3: Percy Jackson, Soul Eater, Steven Universe, My Hero Academia, Dragalia Lost, Avater: the Last Airbender, the Witcher, and Genshin Impact! That's 7 fandoms and I'm not counting Homestuck (I only wrote OC stuff) or D&D (same thing).

I also have works from Axis Powers: Hetalia and Katekyo Hitman Reborn! on Fanfiction dot hell that none of you will ever see. I definitely posted and deleted a Twilight OC fic once.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Dish Duty | ATLA

The Sword of Damocles is Swinging | MHA

The Ancient Art of Jerkbending | ATLA

Dishabille | MHA

Summer Break | MHA

ATLA is a powerful fandom so I'm not surprised both my ATLA fics made top five. Dishabille's popularity continues to pleasantly surprise me. Damocles is only surprising because it isn't first. I am so proud of Summer Break and that entire Shinsou series, I'm glad it made top 5 and is gonna break 1k kudos soon. <3

(Now get Dog-Tired up there, I fucking love that story. q^q)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

To quote Mido: I do, but not consistently. Q^Q I read them all and I really want to reply to them all, but I very frequently simply to not have the energy. I have it posted on my AO3 profile, though, so hopefully it doesn't hurt anyone's feelings... I have recently been trying to at least answer all new incoming comments and not let the backlog increase! (That said, the backlog is over 100.)

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't tend to do angsty endings (I am a hard lover of angst with a happy ending), but I've written some questionable and bittersweet ones. I think arguably the best contendor for angstiest ending is probably Kindred Spirit. I wrote it to low key revenge myself on @thegc4life for insisting that Shinsou gets a hug (he does! technically!) and it certainly ended ominously.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

As much as I love "Edward Elric gets transported into X universe and proceeds to kick everyone's ass" crossovers, I don't relaly write any. I do enjoy full transplant AUs, though, and the one I recently posted on AO3 is an MHA-at-Hogwards AU called the Birds and the Mares that I wrote for the HP/BNHA Zine!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Deeeeepends on what you mean by 'hate.' :X has gotten two comments (one much politer than the other, haha) complaining about my use of the r-slur in Shinsou's internal narrative in one of the chapters, but one person backpedaled and said they understood the purpose of it while the other (more vehement) one never replied to my explanation. That's all, though!

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yeah. It's never going on my main AO3 (and the one time it did, I orphaned the fic). I have a side account I might post it on once I get over the fact that people who know me also know about the account. It's all 100% PWP of stuff I personally am into, and I have a very specific set of things I'm into, so... idk, feels a little personal! ^^"

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, but I've had people adopt general concepts I used (fabulous!) and steal my RP OCs back in ye olde fantroll days (not at all fabulous! incredibly hurtful, actually). I am vehemently opposed to plagiarism, even of concepts. It feels so gross.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Someone in the comments mentioned that they are translating Bloodied Hound into Russian and I am SO EXCITED. I desperately want to read it. Of all the languages, it happened to be the only other one I'm decently literate in! I also want to show my grandparents. I really hope the person follows through. <3

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I've roleplayed a lot, but I can't see myself ever co-writing a fic. I'm not even sure how it works, to be honest!

What’s your all time favourite ship?

Urgh. Pass. I can't pick one. Perils of a multishipper.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I was going to proudly say "I never post things I don't plan on finishing!" but in reality that is a lie, because Falling Down A Rabbit Hole exists from back in 2015 and is in fact the reason I made that rule for myself. ^^" Honestly, what's there still holds up, but the reality is that I didn't actually come up with a plot, so there's nowhere for it to go.

What are your writing strengths?

Interesting/relatable/funny dialogue, and also writing feelings in a 'show, don't tell!' kind of way that leaves strong impressions with people!

What are your writing weaknesses?

Plotting out long stories with good pacing! People thought Damocles had a plot, apparently? Joke's on you, it was a series of "I wanna see this happen" scenarios that I made Hawks suffer through and subsequently strung together like a haphazard multicolor plastic bead necklace that I told everyone was actually pearls.

That's why all my stories after Damocles are either short or split into a series. Shinsou's Bad Days is my attempt at proper pacing, hence it being so episodic.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I'll do it if I know the language well enough (so, Russian and ASL, I don't trust my casual Japanese), but I'm generally a stickler for making things come off naturally, so I otherwise will instead try to find the closest tonal equivalent in English (such as having Childe call Zhongli "professor" instead of "xiansheng"). Sometimes there just isn't one (like Kazuha calling Beidou 'big sis' but in a way that doesn't sound kiddish and overly casual for him), though, which sucks. :( Language is cool!

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

T. Twilight. QUQ I wish that fic still existed, it was like a single chapter of two multicolored hair OCs befriending Alice Cullen and being cool. I deleted it but I SHOULDN'T HAVE. IT WAS HISTORY.

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

This totally changes with each new slew of fics I post. I think currently it is Dog-Tired because despite being unsatisfied with the title, I think the story itself turned out amazing. I also am extremely happy with the entire Shinsou's Bad Days series (including upcoming installments).

Tagged by: @touchmycoat (THANK U LOVE <3)

Tagging: anyone who's read this far, LOL. seriously, though, I have a lot of writer moots and I don't have the time to tag them all but PLEASE do this and tag me so I can read it if you are so inclined! <3

#personal #tag memes #my writing

[yurimother]

LGBTQ Manga Review – ‘Eve and Eve’

Reviewing an anthology presents unique challenges. Each story must be considered as a standalone piece able to present a cohesive and engaging narrative (or not) by itself. However, being bound together intrinsically adds something greater to the works. They are no longer independent pieces but contribute to the book as a whole. I will admit this is the first time I have had the pleasure of reviewing an anthology but given the current trend of Yuri anthologies in Japan, and with the many English adaptations looming on the horizon, I figured I best get used to the prospect.

Eve and Eve is a mature Yuri manga anthology featuring six stories by Nagashiro Rouge. When I say mature, I mean it! the stories contain explicit (although not pornographic) depictions of intercourse. Two of the stories were originally published in Yuri Ninshin, a hentai publication, all explicit genitalia or nipples were edited out in re-printings in Japan. These edited editions are the ones which appear in Seven Seas’ Eve and Eve. Given these alterations, Eve and Eve is actually one of the few Yuri works in English I classify as an adult piece containing sex that is not pornographic, a classification I rarely make outside of visual novels, such as Kindred Spirits on the Roof. However, as this review does discuss the explicate content in the manga I am warning that you should read the following at your own discretion.

Now that the long-winded introduction is finished, let’s go over the universal aspects of Eve and Eve before I break down each of the six stories. Nagashiro’s artwork is clean and detailed. With each panel being full of detail except in a few circumstances to accentuate a character, object, speech bubble or interaction when white space is used. Their character designs are extremely impressive, with almost every character having a distinctly different hairstyle, face, and body type that mesh properly and make each individual feel distinctive. This is especially important for an anthology, as the short stories leave little room for individual personalities, so a lot of what has to be memorable is the design.

On the note of the characters, none of them are extremely complicated, often only having one distinctive personality trait. However, this lack of sophistication is to be expected and helps cut down on needless fluff. None of the personalities or dynamics between the characters feel overused or played out. Instead, they compliment the story well and allow for engaging short narratives. An example of this is Eko, in the second story, whose timid nature is the main conflict of her romance.

The content of the stories varies but there are shared elements. Half of them are science fiction stories with elements of aliens, robots, artificial intelligence, and the apocalypse. Additionally, unlike many of Yuri titles, those presented here are about adults (save one exception) who have consensual sexual encounters. Many of the pairings in Eve and Eve are women in relationship with each other that have a life together, which is tragically rare in this genre.

As previously mentioned, Eve and Eve has more than a few moments of intercourse. While these are certainly lewd, I did not find them disgusting as I do with so many instances of sex in Yuri. Part of this may be due to the omission of genitalia but mostly it is in the way sex functions in each story and how it is depicted. I will examine the former aspect later, but in the depiction, the intercourse itself, it is universally well done. While it is explicit and salacious, the sex does not contain gross moments of overly exaggerated orgasms or uncomfortably manipulated breasts. It feels mature and thoughtful, at least most of the time, something I greatly appreciate.

Finally, I need to talk about the “Summary of Stories” page that appears at the end of the book. This glorious spread gives me precious information about each of the six stories including when and where they were originally published. Alongside each story is a blurb from Nagashiro Rouge describing each story and their thoughts on it. I subscribe to Barthes’ “Death of the Author,” so I usually care little about the creator or their intent when evaluating a text. This belief is especially useful as an English teacher; that’s right, we know Fitzgerald may not have intended to put that much symbolism into The Great Gatsby, we just do not care! But I am also a hypocrite so I will on occasion use Nagashiro’s summaries to contribute to my thoughts and arguments about each story.

The first story, I Want to Leave Behind a Miraculous Love is about Sayu and Nika, the last two survivors of the apocalypse. They do not speak the same language, with Nika’s limited dialogue being written in Russian (only a few lines, even if you do read Russian it adds almost nothing to the story). Despite this difficulty, the two of them grow incredibly close and eventually become lovers. Through narration and effective visual storytelling, this story actually does an effective job of communicating how close the two are and how they care for each other despite the women's’ inability to talk to each other. This is seen in scenes where the two wander the dilapidated remains of a city and during their sex.

The intercourse here is the best that Eve and Eve has to offer, both in is salaciousness and the deeper meaning. The sex is a physical expression of their love and the way in which the two can communicate their feelings and devotion to each other. It is more than two characters smashing into each other to achieve climax, but an act that physically confirms their love. I applaud this depiction.

I Want to Leave Behind a Miraculous Love, is one of the stories originally published in Yuri Ninshin. To remind you, this is a hentai work and thus contains a lot of sex (although again, this is the edited version). It is also worth mentioning that “Ninshin” translates to pregnancy, Yuri Ninshin is a fetish work about pregnancies occurring between women. I will admit, I LOVE stories about women having and raising kids together, typically not biological kids, although I have done some quack reporting on the real world possibility (something I am in no way qualified to talk about. However, pregnancy fetishizing is absolutely not my things. It is easy for most people to dismiss this story because of its inclusion. I, however, will take a different approach.

Sayu repeatedly mentions her worries about one of them ending up alone if the other were to die. The pregnancy produced by magical science shenanigans produces children to keep them company in the isolation as survivors of the apocalypse. They are physical results of their love which shall endure beyond either of their lifespans, demonstrating the strength of Nika and Sayu’s devotion to each other. Additionally, they are a symbol of life returning after the tragedy of the apocalypse. The final panel of the story depicts life in both their children and returned plant-life surrounding the two female figures, mothers to the new human race, Eve and Eve.

The second story, The Case of Eko and Lisa, is about an artist, Eko, and Lisa, a sexbot that she uses to pose for drawings (but not for her intended purpose). Lisa malfunctions and begins to develop feelings for Eko, who spurs her advances.

The two characters struggle to confess their actual feelings for each other because of Eko’s anxieties about their possible relationship. During the climax of the story she reveals the source of her trepidation in a very human moment, she is scared that if they were to have sex she would be disappointing or that things between the two might change. It is a fear that many people in the real world have and Nagashiro is able to use it so well in this story, complete with some of the best art in this book. Equally as incredible is the response of Lisa, “just be honest with yourself and love me however you like.”

The relationship between Eko and Lisa is easily the best in the volume. Each of them struggles because of Eko’s anxiety around their relationship and trying to figure out how to best express their feelings. The resolution to their conflict is also one of the sweetest and healthiest things I have seen out of a Yuri relationship.

The third story is Top or Bottom? The Showdown! As the title suggests this story is comedic. It begins with a group of female students arguing about which of them is a “top” or a “bottom.” All the girls agree that protagonist Anzu is a bottom because of her small stature, something which she is outraged by. Anzu enters into a contest with the tall but passive Emi to decide who would be the better top. Hilarity and some (non-lewd) service occur.

I am on record as not easily crying but I am an easy laugh and Top or Bottom had me rolling in whatever the homosexual equivalent of “the aisles” is. The premise is ridiculous, as it should be which leads to some great jokes. The side plot of the girls “shipping” their male classmates together also ends up with one of the best twist punchlines I have read in a long time.

While it is easy to enjoy this story given what is presented in the book, it also invites some deeper analysis. Nagashiro plays with the expectation of the assertive and submissive, bottom and top, roles that often define relationships. The comedy comes from the characters struggles to fit into these defined roles, each possessing one of the traits of a “bottom” Anzu’s small size and Emi’s passive nature. Anzu eventually says, “deciding [roles] like that doesn’t feel right.” It becomes evident that deciding who should be the top or bottom is not something that needs deciding before a relationship begins but something more fluid which, if they are formed, are done so during the relationship.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the book that amusement ceases with the fourth story, An Infidelity Revisited. Two women, Azusa and Midori, who are former classmates run into each other on the street and cheat on their girlfriends with each other. When Midori suggests that they break up with their partners Azusa declines saying the only reason the sex between them is so good is because they are cheating. The two women begin to leave but stop walking away at the last second.

I really did not like this story for numerous reasons. First, cheating is such a lazy and problematic way to make sex feel scandalous and exciting. Secondly, because the characters never face any repercussions or consequences as part of their infidelity that we see. This could make for an engaging narrative if done properly and in a longer format. As it is, all the reader sees is their cheating, no fallout, no resolution, and no redemption. Some stories are able to present such a small window into the lives of characters without these aspects but An Infidelity Revisited does not have the literary chops to pull off such a narrative.

Nagashiro wrote that “I hope I was able to convey that way in which logic eludes us even as adults, and the incredible impact that our feelings can have on us.” While the mangaka succeeds with that first point, the total lack of logic, they utterly fail to deliver on the impact. The only effect that this story has on me is leaving me mildly exasperated and bitter. As I previously said, there may be an engaging, albeit unhealthy, narrative here but begins so incomplete robs it of the chance to deliver.

Continuing with the theme of stories I did not like is Heir to the Curse. This is a second Yuri pregnancy story and the third to feature explicit sex following I want to Leave Behind a Miraculous Love and An infidelity Revisited. However, while the first story is a tale of love and eternity between two women this one is far more manipulative and disgusting. The beginning and ending are both fine, a girl is cursed because she is born from two mothers and can only reproduce women and she ends up living happily with another woman.

It is the middle that I take issue with. The cursed girl, Ichika, forces herself onto her childhood friend Yui to implant her child. This is so absurd that I almost threw the book across the room, the only reason I did not was that I had an ebook which I was reading on a very expensive laptop. Moreover, this assault feels so out of place with the rest of the anthology which features (mostly) thoughtful and wholesome depiction of same-sex relationship where women have consensual and mutually pleasurable intercourse.

Sure, eventually Yui realizes that she loves Ichika and wants to be with her but this epiphany coming immediately after an assault is a whole other can of worms that I do not want to eat because they are freaking worms. Ichika displays some remorse and it becomes clear that she is doing what she has been raised and abused to know how to do. In the end, Yui “saves” her and brings her away from the village that labels the woman as cursed. I actually like this part, but I wish the action she had taken against her friend was not assault. Even a pained but consensual sexual encounter would have been preferable. Ultimately what I can say is “cool story, still rape”.

Nagashiro wrote that this as “a story about friendship and love.” I call horse dung on this description. If you only read the beginning and ending sure, but when you include blatant assault in the middle of the story that becomes a central element to the story which again, because of the short nature of the story, was not properly addressed.

The anthology ends with Eternity 1 and 2: Eve and Eve. This is the only work by Nagashiro Rouge I had read before this, having browsed the issue of Comic Yuri Hime it was published in, and it is easily my favorite story in the book.

In this tale, two lovers, Eternity 1 and 2, have their brains put into satellites and to act as the watchdogs of humanity. The artwork and symbolism are stunning! By itself, this chapter would easily earn a nine or ten rating from me in that department. One standout moment is in the opening pages, a display of the two women sitting in wedding dresses about to undergo the operation with a wedding officiant standing behind them. This scene replicates the themes of legacy and eternity in love seen in I Want to Leave Behind a Miraculous Love but furthers them even more.

The women, torn from their flesh live together only as minds and spirits. While this story is devoid of sexual intimacy between the two the emotional connection of having their minds work as one is so strong and transient. I will not spoil the stories climax but the actions of the women to display and finalize their love are so intimate and powerful that I was blown away. Nagashiro also does a great job of tying in the other science fiction stories, chapters one and two, to Eternity 1 and 2: Eve and Eve making these three works feel like one continuous world, an excellent shared world anthology.

Eve and Eve has its ups and downs. While many of the stories are spectacular they are bogged down by a few inferior ones. However, I did not outright hate any of the stories and find myself earning for continuations of the inadequate ones so that their potential could be realized. If you are willing to overlook a few questionable chapters Eve and Eve is a wonderful and salacious Yuri anthology with surprising depth and humanity. I definitely recommend that older readers give it a look.

Ratings: Story – 7 Characters – 5 Art – 9 LGBTQ – 9 Lewd – 8 Final – 7

Purchase Eve and Eve from Amazon - https://amzn.to/2WyC2BY digitally and in print

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#yuri #reviews #manga #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq+ #queer #r-16 #gay #lesbian #lesbians #pride #pride month #comic #comic book #eve and eve #literature #review #wlw #gl

[yack9999-blog]

Muama Enence Translator Review 2020

Very easily transportable Handling Attained Uncomplicated

It is quite annoying if you want to trip but don’t be aware of language in the nation you’re checking out. That’s why people often use interpretation applications, and before these, they used to depend upon pocketbooks of beneficial phrases.

Luckily, that is where by Muama Enence comes in.

The Muama Enence translator is not only another gizmo through the extended brand of portable language interpretation merchandise. It might convert a variety of various spoken languages for people, a lot more than 40 in fact. We forget about should devote our time for you to understand the neighborhood greengrocer or sales rep in this particular spectacular region we will. A mouse click is what is needed.

Do Transportable Translators Like Muama Enence Really Operate?

Let’s overlook all the other Muama translator recommendations for any 2nd and concentrate on the very notion of a translator system. Many people would request (and rightfully so) if these products are in fact helpful or even they’re simply a method to get money from unsuspecting people. Properly, we are here to describe how these products are perfectly safe to purchase. But do they really functionality?

Surprisingly, that has been certainly one of several queries The Huffington Post asked for after they looked after the disclose in the Ili back 2016. They didn’t such as the point how the business that produced the Ili skilled a streak of failures previously. Moreover, they found the Ili advertising creepy—it had been a male who wanted to demonstrate the gizmo did the trick effectively by asking for randomly women to kiss him and permitting these devices convert.

Regardless of these red flags, HuffPo ongoing being cautiously confident about portable translators total. Right now, you can find numerous businesses that make these products. It’s a developing market made up of nevertheless to obtain its highest.

Why Would You Use the Muama Fast Translator? Why Not Applications?

Muama Enence Translator Reviews

Programs are perfect and, but they have one main flaw greater than easily transportable translators. They are not that nicely produced to enable them to work properly. Additionally, which they will need regular updates. When talking with regards to their own personal items, Gmyle put out a wonderful record on why handling application aren’t as fantastic as cellular translators. Look for facts about it in this article.

While the issue isn’t just ‘why not use software?’ Additionally it is ‘why make use of the Muama Enence translator whatsoever?’ So let’s check out the system itself and find out just what makes it tick.

In-Variety Muama Enence Review: Specs and has

Described formerly, the Muama immediate translator can cope with over 40 different languages, which include:

•Arabic (Egyptian, Saudi, and Global)

•China (Cantonese, Processed, Sichuan dialect, Typical)

•British (Australian, Chinese suppliers, Indian native, BE, and AE)

•French (common and Canadian)

•Portuguese (standard and Brazilian)

•Spanish (standard and Mexican)

•Bulgarian

•Catalan

•Croatian

•Czech

•Danish

•Dutch

•Finnish

•German

•Greek

•Hindi

•Hebrew

•Hungarian

•Indonesian

•Italian

•Japanese

•Korean

•Malay

•Norwegian

•Improve

•Romanian

•Russian

•Slovak

•Swedish

•Tagalog

•Thai

•Turkish

•Ukrainian

•Vietnamese

Any time you take into account one check out the Muama Enence translator, you’ll be very satisfied to see that this will sustain every one of the dialects in the above list. It is barely bigger than an more mature MP3 player. Of course, the measurements works to its acquire it won’t use up an abnormal amount of place in your pocket or perhaps your case.

How Muama Enence runs is incredibly effortless. You may have two control tactics, imaginatively called the A combined with the B key. When you need to status one thing to the specific particular person before you, press the Some handle, and communicate your term. Once you relieve the move, it translates the sentence for your interlocutor. When they need to answer you, retain the B option whenever they communicate. Their key phrase will review you within your vocabulary. We must discover that one could even discuss a variety of phrases in a row using this translator.

Will It Go A Long Way That Nicely?

muama enence instant translator

Oh, it absolutely does. The respond time period of Muama Enence is in most 1.5 secs. Furthermore, it’s a system which can carry on for four full time prior to the electric battery quickly scans the blogosphere. All it will require then is really a fast charge.

But which is not the end of Enence’s great characteristics. You can even call for a image of some written text in the unfamiliar terms, and also the little translator will explain what’s published. You must hook it up to the smartphone via Bluetooth.

Muama Enence is likewise exceptionally tough. When it was sector-assessed with a group of interested end users, a few of them dropped these units on the sidewalk. Even after this challenging treatment method, the translators did the trick just like a allure.

You can’t really surpass modest, resilient, and handy in relation to interpretation products. But, even Muama translator’s prices are great it is neither too expensive nor economical.

We must also speak about the range. The Enence translator can choose your dialog up far of 2 m (6.6 ft .). Additionally, it provides a wireless network sending extended extended distance of 10 m (32.9 feet). Additionally, it performs effectively even though you’re in the bundled location with plenty sound. Roads and pathways early spring to mind, as do cusine establishments and pubs. Put just, places through which lots of people are conversing as well, however, you simply have to know the individual directly in front of you.

Experts:

•Above 40 diverse spoken languages available for handling

•Mobile sizing allows you to hold about

•It is difficult

•Good transmitting collection

•Very lengthy electric battery life-span

Disadvantages:

•It mistranslates from time to time

•Not to work with in daily living-or-reduction in existence circumstances

Which Are The Flaws for the Muama Enence?

As fantastic since the Muama Enence translator is, it’s not greatest. As one example, you will get situations when the product will mistranslate a key phrase. That typically takes place when somebody mumbles when they discuss or should there be excessive disruption given by other individuals near by.

One more serious problem is essentially which you shouldn’t use the translator in everyday life-or-loss of life situations. If someone is hurt or unwell, you must choose a medical doctor that talks their terminology. Depending on a translator for any kind (app or product) might cost somebody their lifestyle.

Which Can Muama Enence Help the Most?

We are all aware studying another terms is truly the smart choice for anything at all. If you want to touring or predict operating overseas, you must know the essential principles inside the not familiar terminology. But some folks are hardly intended for comprehending them, and that’s perfectly normal. These represent the standard those who would take advantage of Muama Enence essentially the most. They could quickly hold the common words across to people they’re talking with without worrying that they’ll receive everything poor.

Enence can also be ideal for individuals who don’t have the time and effort to be common with a brand new language in addition to individuals who be aware of very fundamentals from it. It’s an awesome shortcut when you’re in a dash or can’t added at any time.

If only to purchase Muama Enence. Can Anyone Help Me To Get It?

Though it comes with its defects, Muama Enence is a great modest translator. It genuinely works effectively, functions a long time before its up approaching fee, and it’s sturdy for its sizes.

If you’re considering buying a Muama Enence translator, look into our storefront beneath. For those who call today, you will definately get a 50Percent cheaper and cost-free freight. Furthermore, when you select three Muama Enence translators, you may definitely get two far more free of cost. If you’re unsatisfied because of their performance, you will have a 60-working working day money-back guarantee.

[alena-kostornaia]

An angel flew through the sky of midnight

Russian blog Mixing Genres released an article written by Leica that analyzes Alena’s Departure/November short program, including its music, choreography, dress, etc. Translated by Google Translate, edited by @birdie02​.

“People are so used to living in an atmosphere of ugliness and disharmony that, naturally, a person is naturally drawn to beauty in all its manifestations. It calms the soul and helps people find inner stability, which they often don’t have.” © V. Wulf.

When it became known at the beginning of last season that in the short program Alena Kostornaia would appear in the form of an angel, fans worldwide unanimously expressed their approval: indeed, who, if not her, can portray an unearthly creature on ice with her beauty and skating, to which the epithet “divine” is so often applied.

What is divine skating? How can it be described that distinguishes it from the “earthly” gliding? Divine skating can be described with a lot of words, but the essence boils down to two things. The first is gliding. Alena’s skating is perhaps the best illustration of what extension and soft knees are. Her blades move on the ice with a smoothness similar to a sharp knife cutting warm butter. The second is amazing clarity. There is no excessive movements in Alena’s skating, there are no awkward positions: every second of her programs can be cut into frames, and there will be no bad ones.

It is also striking that Alena has demonstrated such an extraordinary level of skating already not for the first season, but she only just debuted in the senior ranks. Few manage to achieve such perfection as a senior, and it was subjected to her as early as 14 years old.

I think, in many ways, this is her innate gift, thanks to which everything that Alena does on ice seems graceful and aesthetic, even if she just crosses the ice rink, doing cross-over for a warm-up. However, such mastery due to natural grace alone is impossible - this requires daily work on posture, on the work of each muscle, on each phalanx of the fingers. So talent turns into genius.

The Departure/November program will be performed for a second season by the decision of the coaches, and the decision is quite justified. This program was very successful [last season] and after a difficult off-season [at Finlandia Trophy 2019]. During the off-season, Alena was recovering from an injury that did not allow Alena to perform at the World Junior Championships. For the same reason, it was not possible last season to successfully complete these programs by demonstrating them at the main competition of the year. And of course, the contrasting “angel” and “demon” characters in short and free programs is a great opportunity to demonstrate the artistry and versatility of Alena’s skating.

A new dress was sewn for the program: the color scheme and some elements were left unchanged, but the style has changed. I personally like this version: I like the fact that Alena opened her shoulders and back, the embroidery on the back is also very good. The only thing I’d change would be the gloves - I really liked the translucent gloves worn by Alina Zagitova and Anna Shcherbakova, and here I would prefer the same with silver feathers as seen on the back of the dress. However, the long white gloves [Alena currently wear are] beautifully emphasize the details of the hand movements.

Since the program is not new, we already know the story:

“I am an angel who descended from heaven and lived some time on earth. At the end of the program, I was finally able to return to heaven.”

To perform this story, Daniil Gleichengauz selected the music composed by Max Richter from the series Leftovers, a British film composer and pianist. Perhaps the idea of using this particular soundtrack for the program about the director’s angel came up with this poster, where the crumbling stucco looks like wings:

The Leftovers is a dramatic supernatural series, and the musical accompaniment for it is written accordingly: tense and anxious, perfectly suitable for displaying the internal state of a resident of heaven who, by the will of fate, ended up on a strange land for him. The first part of the program is performed with a solo piano: this is the story of the tragic fall of an angel from heaven and his acquaintance with the world of mere mortals:

In this part Alena shows her magnificent 2A, 3Lz and completes it with combined rotation. For the execution of the axel, two members of the judging panel rated Alena 5 out of 5 possible GOE points: in fact, the ideal blend of elements for a 2A is an entry from an Ina Bauer, arching the back, altitude [on the 2A jump itself] (such that it’s a sin not to put another turn there [for a 3A]), and exiting with an elegant falling leaf. You can not imagine a better 2A.

The beginning of a new part: in this beautiful choreographic composition, the angel spreads its wings. Then the music changes, the strings come in and a high, tense whistle sounds in the distant background.

In this part, the angel is fighting to return to heaven, here we see several elements and movements symbolizing his attempts to break away from the earth:

And the final pose, take off, catharsis. By the way, it is noteworthy that the composition of the program is mirror: at the beginning of the program we see the Kerrigan back-spiral, and here - forward:

Angel Alena Kostornaia is not a frivolous cupid. This angel is a strict creation, one that is detached and “not of this world.”  Alena copes with this role perfectly - let's pay attention to her facial expression, half-closed eyes:

It will be incredibly interesting to see how this program will be finalized and transformed during the season, and I think that the changes will affect not only the jumping parts, but also the choreographic elements. For Alena, this is a challenge. For the audience, this is the opportunity to take a fresh look at the already known program and enjoy the beauty and harmony. Indeed, for this, we are watching figure skating.

#alena kostornaia #season: 2019 2020 #program: departure/november #analysis #ft 2019

[rigelmejo]

progress

i started trying to learn some chinese like idk in august. and i have never related more to a story i read once, of a 60-ish year old woman suddenly striving (and managing) to learn enough russian to read russian classics like war and peace in their native language.

because that’s how i feel... like i’m desperately trying to get to the point where i can read priest’s novels... because the translation is fine, and also sometimes impressive, but i know just enough to see all the details i’m missing, and 

i actually am gonna have a physical copy of guardian and imperfections/defected goods and i feel like The Pressure to be able to read them at least basically 

which. ahahahaha ;-; That is SUCH a lofty goal for the Near Future. Maybe long term, a very long term goal, but soon? Ahaaahaha ;-;

Anyway, i need to appreciate my progress. In about 3 months of studying, I have managed to go from knowing nothing but hello/thank you, to being able to read some subtitles, make out some long video titles/captions gist, to be able to look at a novel text and at least pinpoint moments of action taking place (which has been enough to at least look at an english translation, that says something like ‘shen wei’s right hand was kissed’ then look to the chinese version and find that line in text, so that i can word-for-word look up things with more precision). And these are things I should be very proud of myself for.

When I started studying French, the first language I took serious when trying to study - it took me 6 months to read most general texts and gleam the gist of the meaning. It took me 3 months to read the gist of titles/some captions/some summaries of nonfiction nature like instructional texts and news. And then it took me a year maybe to start being able to look at FICTIONAL things like novels or shows and start being able to follow the gist. With Japanese - it took me 1.5 YEARS to get to the point of being able to read the gist of titles/short captions/some small dialogues in manga. 

Studying chinese for 3 months, i can now: follow short comical manga-based audios on youtube about 70-80% (I followed a lan wangji/wei wuxian short video audio), read very short fanartist comics (saw some guardian short comics and managed to follow them without looking anything up), can look at the chinese titles of videos on youtube and maybe 1/2 the time reasonably get the gist of what it means, i can look at chinese subtitles on the shows i’m watching and grasp maybe 50% of what i’m looking at. Mostly, again, the action oriented dialogue like ‘i said’ ‘he’s dead/what happened’ ‘what’s that’ ‘madam, help me please’ ‘10k years ago’ ‘brother/sister/etc can i’ ‘no need/worry’ ‘smile’ ‘the meaning is/so/therefore/but/however/still’... and clearly most of the more specific words I know that are adjectives or nouns, are catered toward the shows/stories I’m consuming - since ghost/demon/puppet/bright/smile/dead/murderer/chief/god/lord are the first kinds of nouns I started recognizing. 

All of those achievements though... I should be grateful to have gotten to this place. In august, when I first looked at Guardian’s original text... the ONLY things I could understand were the numbers, and ‘hello/thank you/cat’. Now, even though I couldn’t read a chapter, I could skim through and find the names of people, and see if they’re doing something like speaking/smiling/looking/waiting, or if a ghost has appeared. Which is miles more than I could do three short months ago. And it is incredible to me, because it really is a lot of progress for me, in such a short time. 

It really points out to me how starkly different japanese was to start learning. I think part of the huge difference, is chinese really is somewhat easier structurally for me to look at and parse through (and I get now why it’s rated Slightly easier to learn for native english speakers than japanese is), and I think part of it is because I’ve spent enough time studying languages now that I’m more efficient at it. It certainly appears I’m more efficient than I was in the past. My reading in japanese is... still pretty awful. I really... can only glance at maybe manga dialogues, or real short image captions, or real short physical comedy skits, and understand the gist. Anything more, and I quickly get lost. And I studied Japanese pretty consistently for 2ish years. Whereas with chinese, I am already at the point where I can look at a wall of text like an actual fictional novel (not comic, novel), and start parsing out at least some of what’s going on. Where I can watch a show and follow at least some of the main ideas without translation. I do think part of the difference also, is which words I tried learning first in what language - in Japanese I learned comedic words first, and everyday ‘go to school/work’ words, so for daily life comedy vlogs/slice of life simple manga I can follow some of the gist - but for more literary things I am completely lost. With chinese, I was watching shows from the get-go, so immediately action words/nouns that are repeated a lot, were the first words I started understanding. And I think learning action words helps a lot with following what is physically going on - which is something I did not focus on immediately in japanese. Now, in chinese, I’m focusing on a lot of literary words like ‘its just/its only a’, ‘but even/however’ etc kind of words, and adjectives, so I imagine over time those kinds of words will pop out to me easier as well.

I have learned how it is I tend to learn the fastest, although it’s not quite in line with the perfectly-rigid approach I wish I could manage instead:

 - I need to start using the language immediately.  - Not coddled. I need to use it. Get thrown into it. Throw myself into actual materials IN the language. The textbooks and readers with english are a crutch. I learn faster the more I dive straight into the actual language materials IN that language. - As usual, find a vocabulary guide and/or flashcard set with the most common words, use that as a place to start for vocabulary. With Chinese, that was the 1000-most-common-words-in-chinese-dramas memrise deck, some other anki decks i look at on occassion, and the words-by-most-common clozemaster chinese.  - As usual, find a grammar guide, start CRAMMING through it. Inevitably, I am not going to understand the grammar until I see it working in the real language. But if I just make myself READ grammar points, then I’ll have a framework to understand the grammar I’ll see later being used. I’m currently working through https://www.chinese-grammar.org/ , which has been a very nice guide to just chug through. There are some other helpful guides - nanchinese is okay, but I HATE how slowly it progresses a user through the material. Again, I seem to do best when I’m just thrown into the deep end and FORCED to progress faster than I want to. Inevitably, I will always stop myself and keep covering the same basic material longer than I need to, if given the chance. So for myself, I really do need to just force myself to look at materials that look more difficult than I feel I am ready for. Again, future self: even if you feel you haven’t mastered the material, even if you haven’t memorized it yet, LITERALLY JUST PROGRESS as soon as you understand the gist of it. That’s it. Literally keep moving forward once you think you somewhat understand.  - As usual (for non romanized alphabets), get a book/guide that covers the characters by most common, and start CRANKING THROUGH IT. Again, do NOT pause until you’ve memorized, just KEEP PROGRESSING once you feel you understand the basic gist, move forward. You will look over the same characters again and again later, there’s time to reread a whole book/guide later - the point is to get exposed to those characters and words, so that the next times you see them it’s reinforcing the learning instead of your first time. For this, there is a great book: Reading and Writing Chinese: Third Edition, HSK All Levels (2,349 Chinese Characters and 5,000+ Compounds). I got this one, which I like because as far as I can tell, it includes all the characters and words I’d need to learn for the HSK levels (which at least somewhat prepare you to have some command of the language/some ability to comprehend the language). So, this book prepares a learner decently by at least teaching things that are more likely to be commonly found in the language, and therefore going to pay off to learn overall. I also have been looking at this guide: http://www.mementoslangues.fr/Chinois/Sinogrammes/Table3000CaracteresChinois.pdf . It has 3000 chinese characters in order of frequency. Which, again, is useful in trying to learn what will be most applicable to understanding many things. When reading through it, I’m on the 50th character and pretty much knew all of them already in 3 months - which is good, and probably why I’ve felt what words/characters I’ve learned have paid off in understanding so much. If I had more time to read it, I might find I know a whole lot more. In the RaWC book, I’ve been highlighting the characters I know, and I’m still reading through the book, but maybe 300-500 I’ve highlighted so far cause I already knew them. For learning characters, any book/word guide that at least partially prioritizes for frequency, and for broadly what is going to be useful to comprehend that language, helps a lot to focus you on studying things that will improve basic understanding. I also found a book by Lingomastery, Chinese Most Common 1000 words - which I’m looking through too, when I get the time. Again - for me it’s not about looking things over until I’m perfect - it’s about looking once, understanding just basically, then as I see it over and over multiple times learning it fully. Because for me that is faster than slowly memorizing, because I’m a perfectionist and I often choose to move on much slower than I can actually learn.  -Other things that have helped a ton: decent translators. The app PLECO is great, and can also translate some idioms. Google translate is nice because the app allows you to draw or speak the word instead of typing it so that if you don’t know the exact pinyin you can just draw the character you see. These three apps I found useful for translating chunks of sentences: https://fanyi.baidu.com/#zh/en/%E5%8F%AB%E5%89%8D%E8%BE%88 (I especially like how this one handles chunks of texts, and gives more precise footnotes of words/idioms at the bottom), https://translate.systran.net/translationTools/text?source=zh&target=en , https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary - The app Idiom is GREAT for looking at a chinese website/webnovel, and just translating word by word - it will give the character and pronounce it out loud. The translations are pretty freaking rough and sometimes not quite correct, but for super fast translating in-line on the same page while reading, it’s incredibly convenient. Likewise, the app BaiduTranslate allows you to just highlight text on your phone in any app, select ‘share’ select ‘baidutranslate’ app, and then it will translate the whole chunk of text - pinyin, audio, english, and some keywords/idioms more precisely translated in a footnote.These two apps, along with google-translate to draw in characters you can’t copy/paste, are good for super quick rough translations when working through a text/show. - Honestly, I think it has been helping as well that I’m watching so many chinese shows, and chinese youtube fan-made videos. I don’t personally think I do much with the audio to help myself learn, but I think it’s been helping me get better at looking up words (by pronouncing the tones closer to correct, and by drawing a character in the subtitles, and in youtube when there ARE english subs by looking from the english to chinese-hard-subs and matching some characters to specific words - it’s how i learned meaning/but/however/therefore). Even though I don’t notice significant improvement because of doing this, I do think it simply helps I’m interacting with chinese a lot. (And, of course, I love getting to the point in knowing a language, where you know JUST enough to be able to tell when the english subtitles CLEARLY DO NOT match what’s actually being said - that’s always fun). I do think that because I’m hearing chinese a lot, it’s easier for me to transfer my reading skills to listening skills - since I’m practicing both at once when I see the chinese subtitles, since I listen enough that they sound relatively familiar to what I think characters sound like in my head when reading (which, my internal voice still isn’t necessarily accurate, but it’s improving). This is significant, because I know in french I did NOT do this. So as a result, in french I could listen and would struggle significantly to match words to subtitles or text - I could read quite well but my listening lags behind. In chinese, I can reasonably follow along to audio with the text - they’re close enough in similarity to me that I don’t fear my listening comprehension is lagging as considerably as it does in french. Pretty much all the chinese words/phrases I am most sure I understand, are the ones I heard before reading. In french this was not the case, in part maybe because french has so many english cognates i could slide by in reading without necessarily learning the french pronunciations for a lot of words. Also - in chinese I generally plug new words into google translate or Pleco, both of those translators provide audio. I listen to the audio, because I want to make sure my tone is right. So for a majority of the words in chinese I learn, I listen to them several times at the beginning. I do think short term, so far it’s been paying off in listening comprehension a LOT with shows. And long term, I think if I continue doing this it will pay off in helping to keep my listening/reading comprehension a lot more balanced then it is in french. Which personally, I find hilarious, just because - when I started trying to learn chinese, I was literally ONLY concerned with reading comprehension. I didn’t care at all if I could pronounce or even knew what the words I was reading sounded like. But... to be fair, in chinese (thankfully!!!) many of the characters hint at their pronunciation based on how they look. So for chinese its often a matter of ‘okay this is gui/wei/shi/etc but which tone is it?’ Which I personally find... eons easier to come to terms with, then japanese characters, which often have multiple pronunciations, and those pronunciations rarely have to do with the appearance of the character. But with chinese, I see my favorite little ghostie radical, and know it might be pronounced gui or wei, and know it will probably have something to do with spirits. I see the speech radial and know it’ll probably have to do with speaking or communication or words. I see the ‘up’ radical and know it might be pronounced similar to ‘shang’. I deeply appreciate that in chinese the characters clearly have a logic - and though of course there are exceptions to those patterns, there are exceptions in many languages anyway, and for the most part those patterns are greatly useful. 

Just a little thing I’ve noticed, but also I find the characters/words are much easier for me to remember BECAUSE I have names of characters, story plotlines to relate them to. Because I’ve seen Shen Wei/Wei Wuxian, it’s easy for me to remember Shen Wei’s wei has a mountain on top and is a high tone, and wei’s doesn’t have the mountain and is a different one. Because I’ve seen the ghost character in so many plotlines, I can recognize when it’s spirit, or ghost, or puppet, or demon. Cat, wolf, dog, owl... they’re all easier for me to remember because I can think of specific sentences and situations where I’ve read/heard those words. If I was just reading them in a textbook, they would not be so vivid in my memory. In a way, it’s like the words I pinpoint in a story stick out in my head as these bright points, and then new things I learn connect outward from them like spiderwebs. I know daren from guardian is like a lord, so then when I see lord-god in Destiny and Love I know what to relate it to, when i see furen as madam i know how to relate it to what i already know. And so on and so forth. 

While I think there is definitely a place for learning in a structured way (and god I wish I was like that), I think my mind personally learns the fastest when I approach things based on most useful then work outward, and when I cover things quickly and broadly at only an understanding level of basic-gist-grasped, and then just start throwing myself into challenging material. I really think my mind prefers to dive headfirst into challenging things - it appreciates a challenge, it wants to problem solve, and it seems to work harder and focus better when it’s in the middle of being challenged. Now, working through challenging material can be very draining - and it still is, even though my brain learns faster by doing it. But seeing the progress after just 3 months, clearly its worth it. 

3 months ago, I looked at a wall of text and understood nothing but the calendar number dates. Now I can look and sometimes even follow whats going on! Now I can see chinese subtitles and follow some of the action! I looked ad Mo Dao Zu Shi the other day, and managed to read the first few paragraphs! I just looked at Zhen Hun today, and scanned through it to pinpoint a few scenes - some I managed to find and read in chinese, some I only managed to make out one line from. But ALL of that is still miles above what I could manage to do at the start. I’m personally... very excited. I have so much more that I want to be able to do in the language. But I’m extremely happy with how far I’ve managed to progress so far.

---

Literally... my goal had been... to be able to start getting through the guardian novel in chinese at least grasping the gist... in the end of November this year. HA.

That is... not a reasonable goal. If I can manage it, even just like small snippets of the novel... then I will be floored with myself. We’ll see. 

#rant #I was just reflecting #I really... have gotten through a lot #I can't believe I only started this in August.

[magistralucis]

Russian Sweets Review [Part 1]

😍☕️ IT’S A HAPPY TEATIME ☕️😍

Today is my birthday, This year I received a most generous gift from @absolut--kurant in the mail: a package full of Russian confectionery! Me being all the way over in the UK, so many of these sweets I’ve only ever seen in images and didn’t think I’d see for a long time, if ever. To express my joy and gratitude, and because I love talking about food (news to no one, ahaha), I’ll be writing reviews of the contents as I work my way through this wonderful present. This is just part one of several, dealing with the small collection pictured above: four types of конфеты (chocolate sweets) and some very crunchy сушки (sushki).

The tea is Red Label (Fairtrade) with a spoonful of honey. Let’s begin.

(Note: I intended to take pictures of the actual sweets but I was so lost in savouring them that I forgot ffffffff and I really want to save them and eat them slow. So I’m going to do this scrapbook style, with the wrappers folded out to show what they look like. I collect exotic sweet wrappers so this serves me well, but I think I’ll include pictures of конфеты proper in the next installment of this review as a supplement.)

Сушки (Sushki)

This was on the top layer of the parcel you sent, @absolut--kurant! It’s the first thing I took out when I unwrapped the box, and accordingly the thing I surveyed for the longest as I sorted all the other delicacies.

From what I understand, the relationship of these мини-сушки to full size is that of mini pretzels to actual pretzels. Mini pretzels usually have so much rock salt tossed on them I don’t enjoy them half as much as soft pretzels - but these, I loved. These sushki are smooth and glazed with a faint yeasted aftertaste. Provided that they aren’t too heavily salted or spiced, I actually love dry flour-and-water-based foods like these. I get through packages of cream crackers, water crackers, and hardtack faster than I do any kind of cookie. I don’t even need to put cheese on them or anything, they’re moreish on their own.

Sushki taste of savory and nutrition. I just took one more out to sample while I was writing this section and then ended up grabbing five more. God save me. Also this is one of the very few things in the parcel with English labeling on the back, so I was perfectly informed of what this contained 😂

“Красная Шапочка” - Красный Октябрь (Red Riding Hood - Red October)

This sounds strange, but here goes: part of the unreality of Russian sweets for me was the way they are folded. That triangular-tipped fold is something I have literally never seen anywhere else. That’s probably why I picked up this one first - I saw there are other конфеты available with that fold, which I will sample in the next review - and examined it.

The fold was simpler than I thought it was. I’d always assumed it was some kind of tucked-in origami.

As for the chocolate itself: I expected solid chocolate, but was surprised by the wafer inside the chocolate shell. Russian chocolate is noticeably of different quality than British. Much smoother, I think, with a darker edge and a deeper flavour. The wafers were laid with some kind of nutty praline and it was a gorgeous thing to nibble. Are there конфеты that are especially good to take with tea, perchance? This was a good one for a quick dip.

“Халва в шоколаде” - Рот Фронт (Halva in Chocolate - Rot Front)

hello russian language reading skills please interact

I spent several minutes trying to read this wrapper and didn’t get far. I should learn cursive; this exercise showed me that I really am functionally illiterate in this language outside of print, because I can’t puzzle out the very frequent instances of cursive. At least it was obvious what was inside this chocolate. Халва couldn’t mean much else.

I love my halva, but I’m not versed in the different types. It took me ages to find a place that even sells them here, and it’s just the sesame variant. The halva inside this chocolate was very crumbly - but in a thicker, more tender way, not in thin layers like sesame halva tend to be. Brown, very sweet, extremely hearty. It’s one of the bigger конфеты in this package so I was satisfied.

I don’t know what type of halva it is, though. Some kind of nut?

Батончик - Рот Фронт (Batonchik - Rot Front)

WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT THE CHRIST ARE THESE THINGS???? WHY ARE THEY SO DELICIOUS?? WHERE CAN I BUY FIFTEEN HUNDRED KILOGRAMS OF THIS STUFF AAAA?aAa?aa??

This. This made me bolt upstairs and search for 1) what this was, and 2) where I could buy it in the UK. It’s like 2.29GBP for 250g and I’m honestly considering stocking up on these because these absolutely hit the spot.

I think I like pralines. I think I like pralines a lot.

According to my research these are peanut-cocoa praline rolls. They’re not covered in chocolate themselves, but the mouthfeel is so incredible I was enchanted from the first bite. Elegant and soft. It also has one of the few Russian sweet wrappers I recognized (only in terms of visuals - I am unversed as to what’s actually in them), red and gold. I might have actually read the ‘red and gold’ descriptor in a book, too, some months ago. I only can imagine this ascertains their popularity among Russians.

There’s a Russia Beyond recipe for those. I might follow it.

“Маска” - Красный Октябрь (Mask - Red October)

I think I like Russian pralines a lot.

Batonchiki-like filling covered with a thin layer of luxurious chocolate. I think maska must be a different kind of praline, though, it feels lighter somehow; batonchiki feel denser to me. I return again to the comment on the quality of Russian chocolate again for this one, because this is the конфета that helped define what feels so different between Russian and British chocolate. To me, it feels that the standard quality of British chocolate has fallen in recent times, and Russian chocolate reminds me of the time when it was good.

Don’t get me wrong. Fine brand name chocolates have always been available here, and they were always of excellent quality. Nobody’s complaining about the posh M&S truffles or the Rococos or the Artisan du Chocolat. The UK is not lacking in excellent chocolates or chocolatiers with flourishing personal businesses. But the quality of everyday chocolates, the sort from Cadbury and the like, that has fallen ever since Kraft took over a lot of chocolate makers here. I remember when Dairy Milk was sold in vibrant royal purple wrappers with thick, mouth-watering squares weighing easily 500g per bar. Now it’s dozens of flavours but with very thin, mediocre chocolate. The perils of selling out.

I think Russian chocolate hasn’t done that. I’d have had to experience the Soviet life to follow the full continuity of these конфеты, of course, but they taste more legitimate to me. These are some fine chocolates. Though now I’m thinking of that ‘Russian chocolate with a horse magnet inside’ post and wondering what that one’s all about

Guest of Honour: Зефир (Zefir)

It is her ; w ; I see that when your product consists of what is essentially jelly meringue, 250g holds quite a lot of zefir, given the size of this pack. This honorary mention is mostly to prove that these got to me fully intact.

I did not open the zefir at this time because I was concerned about how I would keep them. They seem to me the most perishable food, once opened, out of everything else in the parcel - and the weather here alternates rapidly between hot, cold rain, and humid-sticky at the moment. I have put the zefir away to rest in a nice cool dry place for now. They expire in August, so I will pick a cold afternoon in the next week or two to enjoy them for real. I will write a review about them, too.

Closing Words of Part 1

Overall, this made for an excellent tea break and an excellent treat for the tastebuds. I can’t wait to arrange the second teatime. I feel like I learnt quite a lot, too - I first encountered the word конфет(ы) in Duolingo, where they’re translated simply as ‘candy’ (e.g. ‘Купи конфеты, пожалуйста’ is translated as ‘buy candies, please’). I thought very little of this. Like... you know, candy.

These things.

Surely you mean these things.

these things??????

But turns out, no, конфеты did not mean these things. I don’t know what a fitting English translation would be for them now. ‘Buy candies, please’ is one level of abstraction, but ‘buy this very particular subset of Russian confectionery, often chocolate-coated and in bar form, that are sold individually wrapped in paper or foil, please’ is quite another. Some retailers seem to content themselves with ‘chocolate sweets’ (but batonchik doesn’t fall cleanly into that category) or just ‘sweets’, but none of these translations carry the nuance of конфеты proper. Something for me to think about.

Thank you so much, @absolut--kurant. You gave me a fantastic birthday, as well as several more teatimes to look forward to. Tune in soon for further reviews ;)

#reviews #russian adventures #russian food #russian candy #конфеты #сушки #absolut kurant #<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 #i am full of delight #soon i will tackle some of the others... sig. other already tried the bears konfeta #he praises russian sweets also :D

[monsterpal4thegaygal-blog]

Lich girlfriend

this is a short fic for day two of the #wintermonsterbang!

---- 

You would think sorcerers would make good cooks. After all, they always needed to work with the components of their spells, so that skill should translate to using recipes to cook right?

As it turns out, it didn’t. At least it didn’t with your girlfriend.

Edelgard was by far one of the most powerful casters in the land, experienced both with alchemy and necromancy. But you had quickly learnt that you should never leave her to cook something alone.

You weren’t sure whether it was a lack of talent or just the fact that she had gone for a century without needing to eat, but she was a disaster at it. A year ago she had allowed you to stay in her tower when you needed shelter from the rain. The storm had lasted long enough for the both of you to be forced to spend plenty of time together, and naturally you got to know each other. She wasn’t like the stereotypical liches in stories. Her studies in necromancy had been something of a necessity for her alchemy studies, as she wanted to make sure she would be able to continue her studies. As such she had succeeded in becoming a lich, combining her necromantic and alchemic magics to keep her body going past the point of death (and to make sure she still looked pretty, which you had to admit she did a very good job at. Aside from the missing nose that is, though even that was somewhat charming in a weird way.) She had been somewhat reserved but overall she had been pleasant company and a good host and a friendship soon bloomed, which eventually turned into something more. At the start she had just made sure to provide you with food you could use to cook yourself meals, but once you got more romantically involved she had taken it upon herself to do as many stereotypically cute couple things as was possible. That had included making you breakfast, and that was how you had found her treating some severe burns on her hand that morning. It was decided afterwards that she would stick to the alchemy and you would stick to the cooking.

But now it was the heart of winter, and the Feast of Candles was fast approaching. It had always been your favourite holiday, and you were excited to spend it with her. Your excitement had infected her quickly and by now the tower was already more festive than it had probably been in ages. You had gotten a tree from the nearby forest and magic garlands had been put up all throughout, with small ghostly blue flames flickering on all the candles you had set up. But the Feast of Candles wouldn’t be complete without the food. It was called the Feast of Candles after all.

There was the issue of how to enjoy it with Edelgard though. She herself couldn’t eat food. It wouldn’t digest and just cause build-up in her stomach that would rot. And just making food on your own to eat alone wasn’t terribly festive. That left only one option when it came to enjoying food together. You and Edelgard would try to make cookies.

You figured nothing too bad could go wrong. If you handled the fire, none of the other parts of making cookies should be a problem, right? You were wrong.

It started when you tasked her with measuring the flour while you cracked the eggs. Somehow she dropped it, leaving you both covered in it and causing you both to need a bath. Undeterred you measured the flour yourself when you came back and continued. Then she accidentally dropped the bowl she was stirring, absolutely ruining her pants and boots (luckily she had gone with her cheapest ones for the occasion). After that you pretty much took over and did the rest yourself, just idly chatting with her for the rest of the process and occasionally stealing kisses. By the time they were in the oven you figured nothing much could go wrong anymore, so you excused yourself for a quick bathroom visit while she watched over them.

A grave error.

When you got back there was black smoke coming from the ruined and smouldering oven, as Edelgard stood there, looking incredibly guilty. You sighed.

“What happened?”

She smiled sheepishly.

“Well, I figured, maybe I could use some magic to speed the process up? So I just manipulated the temperature a little with some extra ghost-fire and it seems it didn’t agree with the oven…”

You took out the tray, or what was left of it, out of the oven, looking at the few black heaps that were the cookies. Evidently your disappointment showed on your face, as Edelgard reacted quickly.

“I am really sorry dearest. I know this meant a lot to you.”

You shook your head, smiling weakly at her.

“Oh well, they’re just cookies. Let’s just clean up alright?”

You didn’t blame her for anything really, it was just a dumb mistake, but the mood was definitely low during the clean-up.

-----

The next morning you woke up to an empty bed. This was surprisingly rare. While Edelgard worked a lot, after you had gotten together she still preferred lazy mornings where she could wake up alongside you. After all she was immortal now, she had no reason to rush her research, so she might as well take advantage of the endless time she now had. You put on a robe and walked outside of the room to go find your girlfriend.

Eventually you heard voices coming from her workshop, as well as a wonderfully sweet smell.

“And you’re sure they’ll turn out alright now?” Edelgard asked.

Another voice, with a heavy Russian accent, responded:

“Like I told you, they will. Don’t worry, it’s a trusted recipe.”

Edelgard hmm-ed and they fell into silence again, so you walked into the room to see what was up.

Next to Edelgard was a shorter person in a maid outfit, a bushy fox tail full of feathers swishing behind them. Both them and Edelgard were intently observing a plate of cookies baking in the oven.

You coughed.

“Uhm, Edelgard, who’s your guest?”

She shot up in surprise, blushing when she saw you.

“Oh, dearest! Uhm, this is Natasha. She’s an old friend.”

The lady turned around too, smiling warmly and making a slight bow.

“It’s nice to meet you, miss y/n. Edelgard told me much about you in our correspondence.”

You smiled at her.

“It’s nice to meet you as well, I think Edelgard mentioned you a couple of times too. Though,” you looked between the two, “why are you both here so early in the morning.”

“Oh well,” Edelgard awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck, “I know the cookies yesterday meant a lot to you, and I was very sorry for destroying them, so I wanted to surprise you with new cookies! Natasha is a kikimora, so she’s a lot better with cooking than I am, so I called in a favour.”

You felt a smile coming onto your face, leaning in to hug her.

“Aww, babe! That’s really nice of you. I didn’t really care that much about the cookies, but I really appreciate it.”

She smiled too, tilting up your chin and leaning in for a loving kiss.

The cookies were indeed, very good.

#wintermonsterbang #exophilia #lich girlfriend #my story

[xsalems]

( cismale/ he/him ) ;; agent [ salem yakov ] better known as [ apollo ] is a [ 23 ] year old [ intelligence agent ] from [ moscow, russia ]. they’ve been with the circle for [ eight years ] and it’s noted on file that they’re often mistaken for [ timothee chalamet ]. the three songs they use to unwind are [ stabbat mater / woodkid, clair de lune / claude debussy & ave maria / alexander markov ]. if asked, people might associate them with [ bitten nails, stark white ballet shoes, catlike eyes in the shadows, and red wine spilled like blood ]. ( *ooc ;; nomi, twenty two, est, she/her )

hey, hi, hello, next up is the second of my two kiddos, salem. down bellow is pretty much about everything you need to know about him and i’m going to try and keep things short and sweet because i have the tendency to be longwinded af sksdkjs i did pretty good with mari though so here’s hoping! here is a pinterest board for salem

THE RUNDOWN 

TRAITS ; (+) intelligent, witty, resourceful, loyal (-) cold, vain, self-centered, conceited

Salem was born in Moscow, Russia and raised there for nearly a decade of his life by his mother Asja. During that time, despite being from a less than extraordinary background Salem displayed extraordinary intelligence that caught the attention of the Russian mob. 

The mobs interest in Salem was brought about by a desire to remain untracked. They planned to use of Salem’s memory, intelligence, and unassuming appearance to have a human computer of sorts, one that could never be hacked. Salem was both bribed and blackmailed into working for them at the age of seven, where he was given the option to either work for them, earn large sums of money and have his sick mother get treatment for her aids, or refuse them and have his mother killed. Salem chose the former and was quickly transferred over to America with a brand new identity and a brand new ‘father’.

Sasha Zima, a boss of the American branch of the mob was appointed to be Salem’s handler, and disguise himself as Salem’s father. Under Sasha’s watchful eye Salem was made to memorize codes for safes, keep track of the financial aspect of a lot of the mob’s businesses, and occasionally spy for them in places that only a cherubic seven year old child could avoid suspicion. Everything Salem was made to memorize was later burned or disposed of, though this was never a problem for Salem due to his photographic memory. That said, since Salem never got a single digit, letter, or word of anything he was told to memorize wrong, his word was treated as gospel. People were killed or tortured simply based on the things that Salem recalls remembering, and while that in itself was traumatizing, the level of power he held was almost frighteningly intoxicating. 

Soon, Salem was ‘homeschooled’ based on the needs of the mob. He was taught robotics engineering by university professors so that he could memorize and communicate blueprints to members of the mob who needed them, and build the mob tools they needed from memory if need be. He was also tutored in languages by international travelers so that he could translate any information he held. After a kidnapping attempt by the Yakuza, Salem was even taught self defense so that the mob could protect their investment. At the time, Salem thought that all this was all simply what was expected of a member of the mob. It was only later that he found out that Sasha had taken a liking to him and had given him some special treatment.

Being the son of Sasha Zima itself had some perks. While Salem’s true identity was secret, his fake one was that of a rich man’s son, so to keep up appearances Salem lived well. Because of Sasha’s fondness for him, he was given lessons in violin, harp, piano, ballet, archery, and fencing, that he was encouraged to show off at the grand luxurious parties his father would hold. Ballet and archery were what Salem really excelled at, although his skills on the violin were quite good too. 

For eight years Salem almost got used to life as the mobs pet. Yes, he missed his mother, but he was constantly being assured she was being taken care of and that the work he was doing here for her was ensuring that she never had to sell her body for money again. That she was safe and happy, and proud of him, and Salem knows that he was naive to believe it but at the time he trusted Sasha, and he was even shown pictures of her, videos of her, all of her getting better and making progress. And whenever Salem even dare to step a toe out of line or even think of doing so, his mother’s life was threatened. So to some extent, Salem thought that he was doing the right thing, even if he was doing the wrong thing. 

That was until he was approached by The Circle at the age of fifteen, through some... messy circumstances (lets just say, Salem was lucky he was a (very useful) minor at the time). It was through this interaction that he came to know that his mother had been dead for four years, and that the mob had essentially been lying to him to keep him under their control.  Again he was given yet another choice that could change his life. This time there was no reluctance. The betrayal that Salem felt burned too furiously for him to even consider second thoughts. 

Salem remained deep under cover for two years after that initial meeting with The Circle, working quietly as an informant and mole for them and bidding his time for the chance at revenge. After a year of careful planning an opportunity presented itself, and Salem was able to get several key members of the mob arrested with air tight evidence, including Sasha.

Salem still has mixed feelings about Sasha’s arrest. On one hand, he was the only father Salem had ever had, but on the other, that could just be the Stockholm syndrome talking.

Since then Salem has been working for The Circle. Despite his desperate craving for something different and challenging, he showed the most aptitude for the Intelligence Department, which really doesn’t feel that different from his time in the mob. His goal is to find a way to formally transfer to The Genesis Department, but until then he tends to tinker for his own entertainment. 

FUN FACTS

his backstory is based off of a jason statham movie i saw the night i found this rp. coincidence??? i think not

eats??? like trash??? this boy survives on sugar and junk food and he’s the PICKIEST eater you ever did see 

speaks english, russian, french, italian, spanish, japanese, and mandrin chinese, he’s currently working on polish in his spare time

is actually really good at building little gadgets, and probably could have gotten into Genesis if he had more experience creating his own designs. To the point that Salem joined The Circle he had pretty much been trained to be a copy cat, just recording and regurgitating information. If he was assessed again now there might be a different result. 

 A HUGE gossip. After years of having to keep his lips sealed about everything always, Salem relishes the opportunity to just talk shit. As long as it’s not national secrets he’s probably trying to whisper about it to somebody. 

Salem’s morals are incredibly grey. He is that friend who says ‘kill them’ whenever you talk about a minor inconvenience (”someone stole my parking space” “kill them”) so yeah, he’s definitely not the most noble boy

loves trash reality TV like the kardashians? and the real housewives 

WANTED CONNECTIONS ; i totally forgot to do this for mari but it’s fine

xoxo - gossip girl : if anyone wants to gossip and talk shit with this boy, come one come all okay. This would probably be someone he’s close to unless they’re purely binded by their love of talking shit in which case hell yeah i’m down for that too. 

reluctant partners : kind of specifically for a field agent i guess, but for some reason these two are always paired together? salem is always the one in your muses ear guiding them through things, probably because they work really well together, but unfortunately, they Hate each other. When it’s not a life or death situation they spend a lot of time bickering over the comm. 

exes : to put it simply, salem gets around and his relationships rarely end well? so having an ex at circle just makes sense for him honestly. also tbh he is very gay, but this could have possibly been before he found that out For Sure so open to all genders

friends with benefits : self explanatory I think!

#circle: intro #this probably has loads of typos bUT #here it is #two for two now i can get on replies skjdjk

[zashamalkin]

Sport24 spent the whole day with Kasterova and found out how the wife of the three-time Stanley Cup winner lives.

Translation below the cut.

Sunday afternoon. The film crew and I drive up to the Malkins' house at 11:00. Anna's morning begins with a workout. The gym is located on the first floor of the house, where we meet the heroine and her coach Igor Kim, the CrossFit champion. “I always try to start the day with a workout, sometimes more intense, sometimes less. Today I will show you the standard workout that I do on the day of the broadcast. It gives a boost of energy, good mood, "  Anna begins.

First, warm up on a treadmill for ten minutes. Then there are jumps and squats, several types of "planks". “I train almost every day. I make myself indulgences: one or two days. To be honest, in Moscow I train less often and less intensively . "

An obligatory part of the program is work with dumbbells. With them, Anna lunges. This is followed by exercises with TRX loops and on the machine. “We work a lot on posture, gait,  ” explains Kasterov between approaches. While the trainer puts “pancakes” on the barbell, Anna talks about working with “weights” and her diet.

- You can't pump your ass without weights. This is unrealistic. And it's not a fact with weights. All have their weak points. I was once asked on Instagram the question: "Is it possible to pump up the ass in two months?" No you can not.

- Nutrition is also very important. - Of course! You kill so much in the gym, work for the result ... Well, what kind of rolls and gingerbread can we talk about? Already somewhere you have to choose steamed fish, vegetables. For example, now I don't eat sweets at all. In general, I have a sweet tooth: I don't eat fruits, but I like milk chocolate, kinders. But over the past two months I have not eaten sweets at all.

After squats with a barbell of 30 kg, jumping with an elastic band. The workout has been running for forty minutes, so it's time to cool down and stretch. At this time, Evgeny and Nikita Malkin appear at the door, who have come to say goodbye to their mother. Dad is taking his son to hockey practice. “When it comes to hockey, Evgeny is mainly involved. He himself sees and understands what load the child needs, how many times a week he needs to do it,  ”says Anna.

After training, Anna leaves to get ready. And in a few hours we go to the Suistudio store to meet with Match TV stylist Ruslan Shakurov and try on clothes for the television broadcast next week. On the way, we discussed with Kasterova her return to the big screen.

- The news of your return to Russian television excited the public. When did you receive an offer from Match TV and how long did you think about it? - Everything always happens spontaneously with me. As practice shows, if you prepare for some projects for a long time, then something will definitely happen. We knew a lot of guys from Match TV, including managers, chief editors, and sound engineers, and worked together at Russia-2. We basically kept in touch all this time. Before the anniversary of Match TV (November 1, 2020, the channel celebrated its fifth anniversary. -  Ed.) I got a call from one of the channel's top managers and invited me to a festive broadcast with Dima Guberniev. I was just about to fly to Sochi on vacation. I was very inspired by this proposal, immediately changed tickets, returned earlier and came as a guest presenter. The broadcast went easily, even there were such reviews: “We understand that you had a five-year break, but you worked so well, it was obvious that you were comfortable. Professionalism is not lost. How do you think about working while Zhenya is in Russia? " We discussed everything with the management, including Tina (Kandelaki, general producer of Match TV. -  Ed. ). By the way, she just charmed me. An incredibly smart, wise, amazing woman.

- When the season begins in the NHL, will you fly with Zhenya to America? “I don’t want to reveal all our secrets, all our agreements with Tina. We have a specific goal with her for the next year, to which we are moving. Perhaps I will periodically appear on the air. I will stay with Eugene in the USA, then I will return to Moscow for a month. All this does not exclude my possible journalistic activity in America.

- Before the first broadcasts after your return, were you very nervous? - No. Many thanks must be said to Dima Guberniev, who was able to relax me, create a comfortable atmosphere, and it was all “for fun”. The first broadcast was easy, there was no excitement. Another thing is when I was offered to return. Here I am already responsible, I am the one who broadcasts with the guests. Before the first broadcast, I was worried. But everything went well. I know how to cope with nerves, years of work and experience have not gone anywhere.

- Has it become difficult now to combine personal life and work? - In general, I spend a lot of time with my child. Of course, now it turns out less. But you have to think about yourself somehow. All these years I really missed work, broadcasts, these feelings. Fortunately, I have a very understanding family. First of all, my husband, who supported me incredibly strongly. Before each broadcast, he tunes me in, gives me parting words. He's happy for me. Understands that I will not stay in Moscow forever.

- From the outside one gets the impression that your life in recent years has been ideal. Husband with son, Miami, high income and the ability to buy whatever you want. Why did you decide to return to television and what did you miss? - In general, I was not born in some kind of golden cradle. In order to achieve some results in my career, I had to work hard. Actually, it hasn't gone anywhere. Yes, we are definitely lucky. We have a wonderful life filled with comfort. But understand that there are pros and cons everywhere. This does not mean that I wake up when I want and do what I want. Living with a professional athlete is also a certain job. A lot of time and attention is spent on Eugene. He is the head of the family, he is the main earner. We are all adjusting to it.

The desire to work never left me. By the way, many acquaintances said to me: “Nafig do you need this? You already have everything. Live, get high. " But, probably, I am so arranged that I cannot. There was a feeling that I had not completely done something, that I still want ethereal emotions, sensations. It's like a drug.

- You are constantly included in the ratings of the sexiest and most beautiful women in Russia. When you open these articles and news, what emotions do you feel? - It is very nice. Recently, a rating of Maxim magazine was compiled, at first the publication announced a list of girls who were included in it. By the way, they have a very cool editor-in-chief Alexander Malenkov, we have known each other for a long time. He has a cool editor who deals with Instagram. And they wrote that I am one of the few who does not appear in the media, but at the same time do not lose the love of the electorate. For me, this is also a pleasant moment. We come to Moscow for just a couple of months, but nevertheless, people do not forget. The guys from my fan group leave comments under the posts all the time. Naturally, this attention spurs.

As for all these ratings, I will not say that it gives me confidence. I am a very self-critical person, I will find a bunch of flaws and flaws in myself. But, apparently, it means that people cannot be fooled. I like it, it's cool. I really appreciate all this.

***

- When you first moved to America to your Zhenya, how difficult was it to get used to your new life? Here you had a job, loved ones, and there is only him. - It was difficult, especially in the first year. A new country, people, a language that at that time was not at the same level as it is now. Naturally, there was a certain barrier. Zhenya was constantly on the road, plus pregnancy, no one canceled hormones. It was very hard, there was not enough work. I reflected very hard on this at the time.

- In the hockey world, it is often discussed that you spend more time in Miami, and Eugene in Pittsburgh. Doesn't he take offense? - It's all not true. I don't understand where it came from at all. I heard that from someone too. Miami just has more opportunities to take cool photos. And even then, if you look at my instagram, then there are photos from Miami and Pittsburgh approximately equally. But people are strange. If Zhenya leaves for three weeks, then, naturally, my child and I will fly to Miami. We, in fact, bought apartments there for this. Plus Nikita goes to an American school there, learns the language.

- Anastasia Ovechkina told me that if she and Sasha go to the shopping mall to buy groceries, they will recognize him everywhere and ask to be photographed. Do you and Zhenya have the same situation in the USA and Russia? - As far as Pittsburgh and Moscow are concerned, Zhenya is one hundred percent recognizable. Going out somewhere and not taking a picture with someone is unrealistic. He's so reliable. Now, maybe because of the coronavirus, he is somewhere afraid, after all, he is responsible for his family.

At first, his recognition was a problem for me. When we started dating, I understood who he was, but did not imagine the extent of his popularity. Going out somewhere to eat so that no one stares at you is really difficult. I don’t remember that. But now we already know certain places, we can sit in a separate room in the restaurant in order to calmly spend time alone or with a family.

- Is it unrealistic for you to go to Gorky Park with your family in good weather? - Get out this way we'll get out. But it will definitely not work out there quietly.

- Is the situation in America the same? - Yes.

- When you first started dating, was it difficult for you to get used to the fact that the schedule of the second person should be put first and your life should be adjusted to his schedule? - Now it's harder for me to talk about it, because I've already forgotten my feelings, whims. I'm used to being adjusted to me. But everything was smooth. Yes, and I fell in love, I wanted to please him, create a comfortable atmosphere so that everything in our family would be good. Everything was calm, harmonious, without any hysterics. There were, of course, small ones (laughs) .

- And you are still in a foreign country, alone. - Yes. Zhenya supported me. Sometimes, however, it seemed to me that he was not doing it enough. But then it passed, there was a complete mutual understanding.

***

For a pleasant conversation, we quietly reach our destination. In the boutique, stylist Ruslan Shakurov is already waiting for us. He takes a tour of the store, shows him the bows he likes, and we go to the fitting room. For the broadcasts Ruslan picked up three pantsuits: bright yellow, beige and blue with stripes. By a collective decision, we choose the brightest - yellow. In it very soon Anna will appear on the air. At the exit from the store, she even admits: “I never thought I'd say this, but I'm really a little tired of shopping” (laughs) . We go to a nearby coffee shop to discuss some more interesting topics.

- The first question suggests itself. Are you a shopaholic at all? - Well, in general, like any normal girl, yes. I love it. Cheers up. It's always nice to pamper yourself.

- In quarantine, your husband posted a video of how he plays computer games. Do you mind? And does he not involve his son? - Absolutely all children play with gadgets: be it a phone, an iPad. Of course, there are limitations. But I cannot completely forbid. He still pays attention to his peers, to older guys who play. I try to offer alternatives, some interesting games. As for Zhenya, I am also calm. Each person has their own ways to relieve stress: someone needs to go for a drink, someone has a smoke, someone needs to play computer games. I don't see it going off scale. Plus, he communicates with many guys there, who, like him, play. Zhenya is not the only hockey player. If it relieves stress, for God's sake. This is not the worst thing that can be.

- You have repeatedly said that you have a difficult character, both of you and Zhenya are hot-tempered. How is it in your family after unsuccessful games? - I relatively recently caught up to the end what my husband experiences after unsuccessful matches. When around, perhaps, no one noticed his mistakes, but he knows to himself that he played badly. I had such a broadcast when I was left very unhappy with myself, but everyone around liked everything and no one said anything bad. I went out and was not at all, because I realized that I did not spend it as I could, and reflected on this for several more hours. Probably at that moment I compared myself to Zhenya and realized that it was difficult to find some words at that moment.

In general, my husband doesn't have many bad games. Zhenya always shows himself, in almost every game. But if the match was not very successful, I step aside, do not torment me with questions and conversations. We had dinner, he went to play a computer game or read a book. At such moments I try to just not go to him. A person needs to be alone, to come to his senses.

- You somehow teased each other in the comments of Instagram. Is it the same in life? - Constantly! This is our communication style. Of course, in some moments there is tenderness, warmth. But we often joke about each other, everything comes from his side. Moreover, Nikita is becoming more mature, and her husband begins to involve the child in his events. It's funny! In general, in our family you will not get bored.

#evgeni malkin #anna kasterova #off season 2020 #moscow #match tv #sport24

[thewidowstanton]

Jessica Connell, Circa ensemble member, specialising in aerials and hula-hoops: Peepshow

Australian circus artist Jessica Connell trained at the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne, having formerly been a member of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus in the twin cities of Albury-Wodonga, where she spent most of her childhood. She has performed all over Australia, and in 2009 contributed to A4 circus ensemble’s first production, Downpour. Two years later she joined leading Australian circus company Circa and undertook an eight-month season of Wunderkammer at the Chamäleon Theatre in Berlin, and a three-month tour of the Helpmann Award-winning show, Circa.

Her first new creation for the company was ‘S’ at the Brisbane Festival in September 2012, and she has since appeared in – and helped create – many of the company’s productions, including Opus and Il Ritorno. Now Jess returns to London – having performed in a season of Opus at the Barbican – to appear in the European premiere of Peepshow. It runs during the Underbelly Festival at the Southbank Centre in London from 27 June – 18 August. She chats to Liz Arratoon.

The Widow Stanton: How old were you when you started at the Flying Fruit Fly Circus? Jessica Connell: I started at around 13 or 14 in their professional training group. Before that I’d just dabbled in a few weekend classes and done a bit of dance, a bit of tennis, a bit of martial arts.

What made you choose to go there; were you sporty? I was always probably more creative than sporty. I had a big family and we were home-schooled for a little bit but my parents were quite art orientated. We did a lot of plays and a lot of art at home, which was really lovely. My sister pursued ballet and I got into that for a little bit and I did a little bit of gymnastics but I think I really missed the artistic side of ballet and things I’d been doing in my youth. So my father suggested trying out the circus because he’d had an affiliation with them when he was younger. So it was kind of the mesh of two worlds that I’d been playing with since I was quite young.

Is anyone else in your family a performer; your sister? No, my sister became the mother of four beautiful children. Much to my dismay no one has yet followed me. [Laughs] It’s always been my dream for one of my sisters to come onstage with me but my youngest sister, who’s still in high school, is pursuing music at the minute. She’s been in some young productions so maybe there’s still hope. 

When did you graduate from NICA? I actually didn’t graduate. I went there for a year. Kind of before going to NICA I had introduced myself to Circa and about halfway through, Yaron [Lifschitz, Circa’s artistic director] just got in contact with me and offered me some short contracts, but it wasn’t until he offered me a full-time contract that I left at the end of that first year.

Impressive, Jess! Circus-school dropout is what I call myself. [Laughs]

Not at all. Wonderful to be so good that you’re spirited away! But which aerial disciplines did you do there? Primarily swinging trapeze, but since joining Circa I’ve done static trapeze and I’ve slowly moved into the world of single point as well. I don’t do trapeze in Peepshow; we have another stunning trapeze artist.

How useful has it been to have an aerial and a ground-based discipline? It’s been really good. It definitely made me more versatile, which was fantastic. Hoops was something I kind of came into later and it was probably the key that made me more versatile as a performer, so in a show if an aerial can’t be rigged I have another skill to draw on. And as I get a little bit older, it’s also incredibly interesting how to use, not just the physical skill, but perhaps the performance skill or the physical exploration and try to translate them from one to the other. Hoops has this beautiful flow, as does a dance trapeze. However, to try and disrupt that flow both on a trapeze and a hula hoop has always been something that was really fun and interesting.  So they definitely made me more versatile but they also challenged me mentally as to how to approach those two disciplines.

And to keep both skills at the required level is quite something. Definitely.

So what had first attracted you to Circa? It’s different for everybody but coming from an artistic background – and while I absolutely love the physical side of circus – circus was such an exciting world for me, because I had started what I thought was a little bit late. The Flying Fruit Fly takes kids as young as eight and most of my friends had been there since they were that age, so starting at 14… they even made a note of: “You’re pretty old to be starting but you have the right mentality so come on in.” So coming into this world of people who can be physical within their own… means, like, I wasn’t forced to be flexible or forced to be strong or forced to be tiny; I was accepted for who I was and asked to explore that.

So that got me into circus and then in my first year I went to see Circa’s The Space Between in Melbourne – we would go on excursions to see other shows – and for me what I loved about the circus was amplified by Circa. I saw these three individuals on stage with unique and interesting, not just bodies, but mentalities and personalities and it really shone through to me, so, yeah, it just amplified what I was finding I already loved about circus and it really brought it to life. It expressed it on stage in a way I’d never seen; that honesty and beauty is what just drove my desire to work for them.

So, you approached them; what advice would you offer to someone wanting to get into the company? Definitely making yourself known and expressing an interest in why you like it. In all honestly I can’t even remember what I said to Yaron [laughs] but maybe I told him why I wanted to work for the company from definitely a young age, because I knew that one day I wanted to work for Circa or a similar company. The idea of working for a home company was pretty exciting. But I also  channelled my creative energy and what I trained in so my disciplines were honed in on that world, and even then I pursued swinging trapeze less and got more into static trapeze because I knew that Circa was a smaller touring company.

Let’s jump ahead a bit, how did you cope with doing the same thing every night for eight months in Berlin? And we’re about to do it again! There’s something really exciting about doing the same show for eight months, and what I’m most excited about and how I coped the first time was… there’s a level of precision and exploration that you can get into when you do the same thing every night that I could never get touring a show or doing multiple shows like we normally do. For a whole week I could experiment onstage with breath, or timing, or just micro things like eyeline, and those sorts of things that really make an act unique and precise.

Because in circus you have so much freedom, we do a trick roughly in this musical timing together, and then we get from A to B however we want. That freedom is incredibly liberating but I don’t think you always get that. In Circa we’re quite lucky and we do get that freedom, which keeps things alive and interesting and rich.

Circa’s schedule can be relentless. How do you protect yourself from injury? Making sure I’m physically ready before we go on tour is really important. I just try to be as strong and healthy as I can be and, when we’re on tour, relentlessly doing physio programmes and those sorts of things, ensuring that the parts of your body that are weaker – because everybody has weaknesses – are always being maintained or in check. And then massage and lots of saunas and swimming if possible. And also kind of being smart, like it is a big tour, be sensible.  

There are so many new Aussie circus companies coming up; is circus regarded as a new sport option for young people there now? Australia is obviously quite a young country and I’ve been watching circus change and develop there since I was little. We have influences from all around the world, like in Fruit Fly we had Chinese, French, Russian in the skills we learnt but I also think now especially I’m seeing Australia have its own voice in the circus world. We still draw from those inspirations but I feel in the last decade Australia is starting to find its own voice.

I think that’s drawing people in. It’s becoming more known, because it’s more ours. And because we’re touring Australia more and more as well, it’s just the awareness of circus as an option, and the more circuses pop up, the more they offer workshops or classes, or even just shows to spread the awareness. Even Circa, when I first joined, we toured very little in Australia. We’d have a small tour every year, but as the company’s grown I’ve spent more and more time in community outreach and Australian tours and I think other companies are using that too and it’s spreading the word.

What can you tell us about Peepshow? Peepshow is our new little baby, and has been pretty exciting and wonderful. It’s still very new and fresh trying to find the right words to describe it, but ultimately it’s about showing and about looking and about being looked at. For some people the name might make them think of something quite sexual, which it can be but it’s also about having the freedom to show and be looked at and take your own emotions or stories… as often in our work, we’re not really telling a story or even trying to tell anybody what to think, we’re merely showing them something and hoping that they will take their own story from that.

Which of your skills will you be using? Mostly I do group acrobatics and hula hoops. Interestingly, when I first joined the company, I was more of a middle and base, but now I’ve moved a little bit more into the flying world, so that’s really new and fun and fresh for me to evolve through the world of acrobatics. I’m also involved in a few kind of quirky less-physical acts, which is really fun.

I’ve seen Libby McDonnell’s wonderful sequinned costumes for Peepshow! Yes [laughs]. As well as doing the costumes, Libby is also assistant director so she’s been a powerhouse woman as always. What do you like about creating a show as an ensemble with Yaron? I often think we’re quite lucky. Sometimes Yaron does come in with a really strong idea but he allows that to form and grow depending on who is expressing his idea. That’s really wonderful for a physical performer, and then at the same time, he sometimes says: “Has anybody got any ideas?” And we have the freedom to try to bring something on to the stage.  It’s incredibly rewarding. And what’s really lovely is how the shows at Circa can influence one another, like I see so much of ’S’ in other shows but a better, stronger more developed version of the ideas we came up with when we made the show.

Do you enjoy travelling and life on the road? Yeah I do, definitely. There are always moments when you get a bit nostalgic, you miss home, Australia. And my family don’t travel very much so to see them it’s usually me flying home. So there are those parts of it but I’ve been doing it for so long, it’s very much a way of life. I have my suitcase and I do enjoy it. I love exploring and taking photos; travelling and photography and circus, I guess, really go hand in hand. At the minute I still really love the lifestyle. 

Is photography one of your hobbies away from circus? Yes, definitely. My friends used to call me The Hobby Queen, because I can’t sit still. I also sketch, which I did when I was younger with my family. I’m trying to learn guitar but I’m pretty terrible. I love cooking. I’m definitely Jack-of-all-trades. I don’t really specialise in anything else. Circus is probably my main drive.

Can you pick out the best bit of your career so far? There are probably a million amazing things but last year we went to a small circus community and maybe, having grown up in a circus community, it really resonated with me. We spent a week with these kids from Yak Yak Yak and Cycas Circus making a quick pop-up show for the festival they were in and yeah, it was in Cairns, so regional Australia, and circus kids making a show. I don’t know how, but this show came together. I’d probably only known the kids for a week, but I had not felt this sense of pride in a really long time. It kind of reminded me about why I love the circus and how it helped me as a young child. Probably that is my most recent wonderful experience I’ve had at work. It’s still sitting with me and still makes me really proud and happy to do what I do. 

Do you have any particular ambitions for the future? I’m not sure. I’m quite happy where I am; I really do love photography at the moment but I couldn’t see myself leaving the world I’m in now to just do photography. It’s so hard. As long as I’m in this world I’m happy and excited and I’m hoping the future will unfold… I’ll find myself becoming a circus photographer and director if I have the right skills, if I keep pushing myself and growing in this world, my next path will reveal itself to me.

Jess appears in Circa’s Peepshow during the Underbelly Festival at the Southbank Centre in London from 27 June – 18 August 2018.

Picture credits: Pedro Greig; Kurt Petersen; Chris Herzfeld For Peepshow tickets, click here Twitter: @CircaPresents @UnderbellyFest @southbankcentre   

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#jessica connell #circa circus #peepshow #acrobat #hula-hooper #circus interview #underbelly festival #southbank centre #Yaron Lifschitz #libby mcdonnell #aerilaist

[aion-rsa]

“Why am I Watching This?” Firefly Lane and the Compulsion of Newness

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The weekend before last, I found myself bingeing the entire series of Firefly Lane. Not for work. Not because anybody asked me to. Just because it was new.

The series has been trending on Netflix for some weeks now and it appears to be very popular with viewers – more so than with critics – which is great, and no disrespect to anyone who loves the show. However, I personally thought it was quite bad. This isn’t a review and I’m not here for a debate on the merits – we are living in a world in crisis so anything that brings anyone joy is gold in my book.

Firefly Lane, however, did not bring me joy and yet I still felt compelled to sit through the entire thing. I also watched the whole of Emily in Paris – I liked it while fully acknowledging its trashiness. I binged the whole of Netflix’s weird Egyptian horror Paranormal, devoured a couple of seasons of A Discovery of Witches and even had a good crack at Fate: The Winx Saga – I couldn’t finish that one but I may go back.

This, despite never having seen Game of Thrones, The West Wing, The Sopranos, Seasons 3-5 of The Wire and countless other classics. 

2020 saw a lot of us doing TV catch ups and comfort re-watches. I have watched Schitt’s Creek and Russian Doll three times apiece, all of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and The Good Place twice and rewatched the whole of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Mad Men. Even new things I sometimes go back to. I watched Gangs of London twice, and I am tempted to go back and do Succession again. 

In these times when so many of us are stuck indoors staring at the same walls day in day out newness has become increasingly important. And not just ‘new to you’ but actual newness. 

In part it’s about shared experience. We can’t go to the cinema anymore, there’s no equivalent of the big movie release that many people see at the same time, so the best equivalent is a flagship Netflix show. Even if your friends and family aren’t watching the same show, at least people will be talking about it online.

There are many, many streaming channels, serving a wealth of new and old shows and while you’d have to be seriously minted to afford them all, it can be incredibly difficult to navigate the enormous volume of content available. It can be overwhelming and so there is a massive comfort in just watching ‘the thing that Netflix has told you to watch’. It’s far better than the nightmare scrolling which inevitably leads to watching nothing at all or just resigning and putting on Friends eps.

So many shows are several seasons in, so even just finishing something feels like a real achievement – Firefly Lane: tick! Done! Did you enjoy it? No, not much, but at least it’s finished – though I admit this might be unique to me and related to the job. And to be fair, there have been some brilliant shows on over the last year. I’ve binged some crackers including The Queen’s Gambit, Bridgerton, The Undoing, I Hate Suzie, I May Destroy You, and as many true crime documentaries as I could squash into my eyes.

Another reason why to some of us newness – particularly with new limited series – is so important is that major universes like Star Wars, Star Trek, The Walking Dead and the Marvel and DC TV shows are now so incredibly sprawling that it takes dedication and work to keep up and it’s frankly intimidating. I love WandaVision and have seen all 23 of the MCU movies but I still feel like I need a translator to fully get it (thank god for my colleagues at Den of Geek…). So there’s nothing like a brand new show to make you feel like your weekend hasn’t been wasted. There’s something unconscionable about flicking through endless first episodes never quite settling on anything.

There’s a comfort too in knowing that things are still being made. That even though most of us are stuck inside, the idea that somewhere people are making things and the world will open up again is hopeful. 

When the world returns to normal – or rather a new normal exists – it will be fascinating to see how our viewing habits have changed. Will we dive back into cinemas or will we cleave to the comfort of home ents? Will we crave weekly shows which bring us together in short bursts over marathon binges, or will we have become so sick of TV that we reject it altogether?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

And how have your habits changed? Are you a binger or a week-by-week person? Do you need newness or are you more comfortable with the familiar? Have you gone right off TV and movies altogether? Let us know in the comments!

The post “Why am I Watching This?” Firefly Lane and the Compulsion of Newness appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[khalilhumam]

‘The house search was the last straw&#039;: colleagues react to Russian journalist’s death

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/the-house-search-was-the-last-straw-colleagues-react-to-russian-journalists-death/

‘The house search was the last straw': colleagues react to Russian journalist’s death

Slavina's self-immolation has shocked Russia's journalistic community

Russian journalist Irina Slavina. Photo from Irina Slavina's Facebook account.

On October 2, Irina Slavina, editor of KozaPress, died in Nizhny Novgorod, after setting herself on fire outside an interior minister building in the city. In her last Facebook post, Slavina wrote: “I ask you to blame the Russian Federation for my death.” Slavina’s death has shocked many, with several groups calling for a criminal investigation into the actions of Russian law enforcement that may have contributed to her death. On 1 October, Slavina’s home was searched as part of an investigation into the Open Russia movement – local law enforcement broke down the door to her apartment and confiscated all her computer equipment. She is survived by her husband and daughter. Slavina’s website KozaPress covered a range of local issues — from public utilities and pensions to property development and the security services — and by 2019 was the second most-cited media in the Nizhny Novgorod region. In 2017 and 2018, Slavina wrote three articles for openDemocracy — about how people who migrate to Russia are targeted by the security services. This work included exposing a horrendous fabrication of an “Islamic State” plot in her home region. The Russian online publication Holod.Media asked people who knew her for their reactions, which was translated to English by oDR, openDemocracy's section on Russia and the post-Soviet space. RuNet Echo republishes this text with the permission of both publications. Alexey Sadomovsky, deputy head of regional Yabloko party in Nizhny Novgorod Irina was the founder, publisher and chief editor of the most popular independent media in Nizhny Novgorod — KozaPress. In recent years, she dedicated her entire life to working on this media. It’s clear that she was completely independent, because the security services pressured her constantly. They created several administrative cases against her — about insulting [a representative] of the authorities, the “undesirable organisation” law, for organising a march in memory of [Boris] Nemtsov, some other cases. She lived under constant pressure these past few years, in constant fear, anxiety. It seems she couldn’t take it anymore, the search of her apartment was the last straw. Before she entered journalism, Irina worked as a school teacher. She worked for different regional media in Nizhny Novgorod, then she decided to set up her own – she lacked space for self-realisation, she didn’t want to be limited by some kind of administrative barriers, she didn’t want to serve, she wanted to tell the truth. She built the outlet from the ground up. She collected money including via donations. I donated too, like other people here. When we first met, KozaPress had not been set up yet, but Irina was already a journalist. She loved Russia very much, her city, she wasn’t planning on emigrating, she wanted our society to become more civilised and for it to become a nicer place to live. She was always joking, and seemed happy. Now it’s clear that there was a lot of anxiety behind this, but she never talked about this publicly. As a journalist, she was marked out by the fact that she always tried to get to the truth, whatever it cost her. There’s no other journalist like her in Nizhny Novgorod. Public officials knew her well and were afraid of her. The last time I saw her was last week when deputies to the city council were receiving their mandates. There was nothing depressive, no strange remarks from her — we had a normal chat, then she asked me for some photographs to publish with an article. She never published any article that investigators could have had a go at. You have to understand that the case wasn’t started against her, but someone else who had a lot of administrative cases outstanding, enough to start a criminal case. We don’t have Open Russia in Nizhny Novgorod. She couldn’t have worked with them. I think that the pressure of the court, the house search led to her taking her own life, nothing else. As someone whose home was also searched yesterday, I can say that it’s a lot of pressure. Especially when it happens over a couple of years. This can totally lead someone to take their own life. It’s hard to live like that, it’s true. Stanislav Dmitrievsky, rights defender It’s very hard to speak. Ira Slavina is one of the best journalists I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. A person of extreme professionalism and at the same time very strong civic position. To many people, she gave the impression that she was like a stone wall, but actually she was a very sensitive person. People will say a lot of things now, that it was an act of weakness… What she did is awful, but it wasn’t weak. It seems it was a cry of desperation, to protest against the horror that is happening. I punish myself: today I was going to drop some money to help with the computer equipment… As soon as I saw her post, I wrote her, but she didn’t answer. And then news came. I spoke to her last yesterday, I asked what help she needed. She said that it was very hard for her to speak, that she hadn’t yet recovered from the house search. As far as I understand, it was her first experience of that. We’ve got used to it, you see – a house search, so what? They’ve taken your computer equipment… But Ira had not developed cynicism. Just like with Anna Politkovskaya — the more she encountered the horror of war, the more sensitive she became. There are people who cover themselves with an armour of cynicism, there are people who just take the stronger side, they sell themselves. Take a look at our propagandists on television — many of them used to be perfectly decent journalists and decent people. But then there’s regression. Ira was someone who was hurt, traumatised by what happened around here, she couldn’t make her peace with it. There are moments when you are filled with anger to the point where it’s hard to live. Some people develop their own armour against this, but she didn’t. For her, the ideal of a real journalist – independent, dispassionate, unbiased — was very important. Read her last reportage — it’s about the house searches. She doesn’t even mention herself hardly in the text. Just facts, just facts. For her, the idea of journalism as a part of civilised society was a very important value. After all, she hardly ever spoke righteously. Of course, sometimes she did get mad and was annoyed, but she never let herself express it. Sometimes it’s better to express it and say, you’re all rotten, but she kept it inside, and then it exploded. I knew she was an emotional person, and I was, of course, afraid – but not that she would take her own life, that didn’t occur to me. I was afraid that she would lose it, give it all up… She reacted very emotionally to injustice. Not towards her! She had an instinctive sense of following the truth as a fundamental part of the world. She wasn’t religious, we spoke about this a lot, but she had an incredible sense for truth — which comes from above, rather than a person. She was killed by that gap between the truth that should be, and what she had to constantly face. Everyone loves to say the right thing and look good, but not everyone’s ready to sacrifice something for the sake of the values that they live by. What happened is awful, but she remained true to herself to the end. I just punish myself that I didn’t see it coming. Perhaps, that’s a lesson for everyone. Perhaps if we were more sensitive in Nizhny Novgorod, then perhaps we would have been worried earlier. Unfortunately, I only became worried when I saw her Facebook post, and then a few minutes later found out she had died. Too late. We’re all guilty. Of course, the cops and the FSB will just wipe their hands. But we’re guilty. Arkady Galker, chairman of Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Memorial human rights organisation This news has knocked me off my feet. Irina and I were in touch yesterday about the case connected to the house searches. I sent her the case materials that we’d managed to get, she thanked me, wrote something on social media on the basis of those materials. We offered her legal aid via Memorial and OVD-Info. It should be noted that seven activists’ homes were searched yesterday and, as far as I know, only two faced nasty treatment – Irina Slavina and [Mikhail] Iosilevich both had large groups of security services, who used chainsaws to cut down their front doors. Iosilievich has a specific situation, he’s the main suspect in a criminal case. In Slavina’s case, I think this was most likely an attempt to scare her by the state. The goal was to demonstrate state terror, to show that she was vulnerable to the state. It’s clear that all these searches aren’t really connected to Iosilevich’s activities. It’s just the state has taken the opportunity to scare people and get as much blackmail material that they can take off people’s devices. They hit Irina Slavina as hard as they could. Obviously it was very difficult for her. Irina and I met at an event to commemorate Boris Nemtsov. She was a resilient and courageous woman. There was an episode with the fourth march in memory of Nemtsov, when she was brought up on administrative charges. She came to the gathering point and then went ahead of the column with a small portrait of Nemtsov. She was basically leading people. She had this capacity for leadership, courage. And of course, I didn’t completely understand how much she was traumatised by the state’s act of terror. We used to seeing her a certain way and didn’t understand how hard it was for her. I feel an enormous sense of guilt, we didn’t support her as we should have. Nikolay Rybakov, chairman of Yabloko Irina was a journalist who didn’t just cover events drily. She wanted to influence them. She was a very soulful, good-natured person. We even had to put out a fire once together: we came to a polling station where someone had set something on fire, and we put it out, called the fire brigade. She was someone who could not brush past some problem. Of course, the current government isn’t ready for these kind of people — they want people to keep themselves to themselves, to stay quiet. It’s completely awful and unexpected that she made the decision she did, because it’s not worth it. She just couldn’t withstand the pressure from the security services, the persecution that was going on in recent monhs. Of course, yesterday’s house searches were the last straw. Law enforcement thinks that everyone is made of steel around them. But not everyone is made of steel. And now it’s the responsibility of those who organised this, the people who created this atmosphere in the country. Svetlana Kuzevanova, legal counsel for Center for Defending Media Rights Ira was a fighter. She was never afraid to write and speak, she always refused to be more neutral and accurate in her texts. And she loved and believed in her KozaPress. On 17 September, we went together to a court hearing in Nizhny Novgorod — I represented the interests of her media. I didn’t know her well, but I didn’t see anything concerning. Yesterday I offered the help of our centre, to appeal against the house search. We had a normal chat, I’m in shock at what has happened. Askhat Kayumov, director of Dront ecological centre This is a gigantic loss for the city and a huge sadness for people. Irina, it goes without saying, was one of the few honest journalists in Nizhny Novgorod. We were in touch on ecological issues connected to protecting the environment in the city, citizens’ environmental rights. And she always wrote about them honestly. Dmitry Mitrokhin, blogger Irina was a journalist with a capital J — a clear example for all the city’s journalists of how to work. Over the course of several years, she made her own news agency, which successfully competed with larger media companies. A news agency based on one fragile woman. I was always in awe of her capacity, her speed, the amount of information she could process to then produce quality texts. Honestly, I never saw this in Russian journalism – that one person could set up a serious news agency. And she was principled — most likely, this is what caused the tragedy. She could never give up those principles that she believed in. Pavel Miloslavsky, cultural manager Irina was an incredibly honest person. Perhaps inside she was afraid of something, but she was always fearless in what she did. And if she was completely sure of something, she either got it, or made other people understand what her point of view was. Of course, she represented the kind of person that’s hard to find today — someone who has a concept of honour. The fact that she took her life, I think she thought this through. Judging by the Facebook post that she published yesterday, she was in her right mind. There’s our swamp — we make some movements, we express dissatisfaction with our country. But real acts, like those by Nemtsov or Navalny now… She probably decided that she had to do something to draw attention to what is happening in our country, in our city. But what kind of act? Examples of self-immolation are well known. I think she decided that this would be a serious event that could bring people together, people who are not happy with what’s happening in the country. And the country is a piece of shit, we can see that already. Dmitry Gudkov, politician I knew Irina very well. In 2013, in Nizhny Novgorod, we set up a nationwide office for returning direct mayoral elections. Irina was one of the few journalists who actually covered it. I gave her interviews often — there’d be situations where everyone was banned from covering a press conference, and she would come along with a few local journalists. She knew Nemtsov. She was an independent journalist with opposition views, she always helped all the protest groups, always covered their protests. I heard the following: they constantly humiliated her, the security services constantly pressured her, the counter-extremism officers tried to frighten her. She was very concerned about this. She brought these problems to me when I was an MP [2011-2016]. I’m shocked at what’s happened. They did this to her. They pushed her to take her own life. And that’s a crime. Interviews conducted by Mikhail Zelensky, Liza Miller, Sofya Volyanova, Maria Karpenko, Olesya Ostapchuk, Yulia Dudkina. Editor: Alexander Gorbachev

Written by Holod Media

[wearecounterfeit]

Rolling Stone Russia interviewed Jamie before Counterfeit. headed on over for their gigs. You can find the interview in Russian here.

We have a rough translation for you below:

"I apologize for the late call," Jamie begins politely, carcassing one cigarette and pulling out a new one from the pack. Behind the back of a 28-year-old actor and musician, he can see a room lit by a floor lamp with a window almost to the wall. The atmosphere is very cozy, even in the absence of curtains. - Lately, a lot has happened. On Friday, I need to be at the funeral of my friend's father - we've known each other since I was eight, and before that I rehearsed a lot. The whole group now lives together in a country house, but because of the circumstances, I had to come to London for a short time. " Jamie's hair is combed back, with a black denim jacket that reveals a light blue shirt unbuttoned over his chest. The leader of Counterfeit is visibly enlivened when I tell him that I have just returned from a short but exhausting tour with Machine Gun Kelly. "I know Kelly! - with a smile of recognition, exclaims Bower, a handsome guy with delicate features. The earring glitters in his nose. - We had dinner with him somehow, and we have a lot of common friends. He is awesome!"

How do you, the musicians, survive on long tours? I was exhausted even four days.

It always happens - you just have to go through this state. The first week is always the heaviest, your body is shocked, and then you are drawn. I always thought that the most important thing for the band is the performances, so you need to make sure that everything that happens on the tour does not interfere with them. I love touring - it's on the road that I feel most comfortable. When the tour comes to an end, I try not to notice that this is the last concert - I do not want to stop. When it all ends, it takes me about a week for a kind of decompression - I understand that I'm exhausted, and I plan to spend this time in bed eating pizza and in every way imitating a sloth. However, at some point I get an incredible itch - the same happens when we get a day off during the tour - wake up at five in the morning and realize that you do not need to play any concert - you can rest. In any case, the end of the tour always causes mixed feelings - touring is exhausting, but on the other hand, you are on the road with friends, with the family that you chose yourself - this is a bonus. We've known my guitarist Tristan from the age of eight, so we perfectly understand when we start to enrage each other. The same goes for the other members of the group, the tour manager and the technicians - they are like a family, we have known each other for a very long time, and we understand when it is necessary to shut up.

Have you watched the TV series "The Tourists "?

Kelly was in it, was he not? I read that it was closed after the first season, but did not see it. We have one guy among the staff, whose name is Peter. So, Peter is a bloody pocket rocket! You know, we are always involved in the process of loading equipment onto the site. One day I went off to smoke one cigarette, and when I came back in a couple of minutes, all my shit - and it's a lot of it - was already on the stage. Peemar - that's what we call him, - a very short guy, and I do not know how he gets up such things. The guys from our team work very hard, and without them we just could not do it. I consider it very important to maintain friendly relations with them - often you see terrible examples when the group conducts between themselves and the staff a line dividing the guys into "them" and "us". For me, it's dog shit - we all work for the same purpose.

An hour ago I spoke on the phone with Isaac Holman of Slaves , and asked if he knew your group. He said he knew the name, but he had never heard your music. What, in turn, can you say about Slaves ?

I like Slaves ! I recently discovered this band for myself, and was impressed with how just two guys with a guitar and drums can create such a dense sound. They sound very cool and damp - I like it! They also have an incredible cover on " Shutdown " Skeptics - grime is perfectly combined with punk rock. For me, so generally now there is more punk in pimp than in punk rock - they send everyone to hell and talk about real shit. That cover simply blew up the airwaves when it sounded on BBC Radio 1.

Since we're talking about Skept, then how do you like his joint track with Mick Jagger?

I have not heard yet, but in general it's very cool: Skepta and Mick Jagger, two absolute icons of different generations, together! Skept in England is indeed a cultural phenomenon - he is at the forefront of the grime scene, working with Drake, directed by Boy Better Know .

What kind of music do you like lately?

I really liked the new album [Marilyn] Manson. Amazing record - he seemed to be back in those days when I first met his work - then only the track " Fight Song " came out . And after a softer, in my opinion, " Pale Emperor " - I'm a fan of Manson, but I listened to that album a couple of times and put it aside. When I really like music - like " Heaven Upside Down " - I lose it again and again without stopping until I'm already sick of it. This is an incredibly clever record, and I really like her deep aggression.

Also recently, I was mentally returning to the time when I was fifteen - then only came "The First Impressions of Earth " The Strokes , an album that summed up my teenage period - when I first heard it, it just gave me a brain. Recently I sat down and listened to their first three albums. " Is This It " and " Room On Fire " are quite similar, but in spite of this, both there and there are great songs. The third plate of The Strokes is just gloomy - Julian Casablancas, they say, he decided then to send everything to hell - so he was tired of everything.

In addition to The Strokes and Manson, there are many friendly bands that I like, for example, The Xcerts - I'm their longtime fan. Soon the guys have a new album; they play a melodic pop-rockin 'pop-pop, but without any reproduced shit. I like the latest release of The Story So Far ; The new single The Architects , which was released a couple of months ago, is simply amazing! I'm repeating these records, but, you know, when you're doing your music and you're very involved in it, then you start missing something new - I force myself to listen to new bands and be aware of what is happening in the music world.

A really cool service for such researches is Spotify with its section "similar artists". God, is he really inaccessible in Russia? It's terrible! We also have an excellent DJ Dan Karty on BBC Radio 1, he conducts a Sunday rock show and always tries to promote new bands, which is very cool - I learned about many newcomers thanks to him. I also have a brother Sam, who listens to heavier teams. This scene is very self-contained and full of cool projects, for example, thanks to him I recently discovered for myself Worthwhile - they play something like melodic hardcore. Hell, there are so many names of genres that I'm always confused in terms!

It's very cool when you find a group at a stage when they have very few followers - listen to them, go to concerts, and when they become popular, you are "Yes, hell! I have long loved them! "

Your latest video for the song You Can’t Rely turned out pretty halloweeny. Do you celebrate this holiday?

Of course! On this day everyone seems to dress the way we look every day.

What about horror movies?

I've always loved this genre - I like even bad horror movies. In general, I like all genres, because in the end it all depends on how interesting the story is. I think that I like horrors because, including them, you know roughly in advance that you will find out: there will necessarily be a protagonist who will be saved from the devil's wicked entity, or if you are on the side of this most evil essence, you just wait, when it will all dunk.

I also like science fiction, but again, the story should emotionally entice me. This succeeds in the production of the studio Blumhouse , as well as the authorship of James Wang - this guy is just a genius. The genre of horrors, having begun the way from a distant shelf, has strongly advanced in that to force spectators to perceive it seriously.

I have not seen the new " Blade Runner " yet, but I've heard a lot of good things about it. Did you like the movie? I'm a fan of the first part and I understand the general tension that arises every time a remake or a continuation of the classics is shot. Imagine that someone decided to remake your favorite record twenty years later in the spirit of "The album is excellent, but I want to write down my version." A natural reaction to this will be: "Wait, do you really think that this is a hell of a need? Maybe we'll leave it as it is? "This approach has to be resisted internally, and I'm looking forward to the moment when I can see" Blade Runner 2049 "- after all, it's a sequel, not a remake.

In one of the interviews you said that the engine of your creativity - both texts and music - is anger and aggression. With age, people usually become a bit calmer - what do you think will move you in the future?

You know, I once suppressed aggression - in the period from fifteen to twenty-five, but then I realized how it happens to many, that all these emotions are equally necessary in life - they are needed for the senses. In our first album, the malice I mentioned is not a reflection of my current state at that time, but rather there is my retrospective view of life. I believe that most of the art is born out of pain, and for me, as an artist, the pain is a powerful moving force - it concerns both songs and poems and some artistic scribbles (I'm not an artist, but I tried to draw). I do not know what will inspire me in the future - now we are starting to quietly work on a new album, and a lot of ideas are in the air. Usually I take as a basis one idea or written down on a line and build music around it - from this everything is born. It is important to establish an inner connection with yourself and pull out the words that you want to express, and also surround yourself with inspiring people. The new album will definitely have a lot of pain again - I do not know what will inspire me this time, but something definitely should - otherwise the record will turn out to be damn boring!

Say, and your name was never pronounced as "Bowie"?

Damn, no! Although I'm fucking waiting for such a case - I would like that when you check into the hotel, someone thinks I'm his son. By the way, my father's name is David - he will have to ask this question.

#interviews #counterfeit

[falkenscreen]

SF3 Celebrates Fifth Year with First Smartphone Feature

“My prediction is that a couple of years from now the fact a feature was shot on a phone will be totally unremarkable. When Blue Moon screened in Dublin the curator didn’t tell the audience until after the screening that it was made on iPhone – the audience was astounded.”

Championing film’s most democratic innovation, Australia’s dedicated Smartphone Film Festival has taken the leap from shorts to features. Having put out the call, SF3 are premiering Stefen Harris’ Blue Moon to an Australian audience which would not have been possible but for what’s now in all our pockets.

“I knew from the get go we were shooting iPhone – that’s what allowed us to green light the film,” said Stefen. “Not necessarily because the camera was cheap and accessible but because the iPhone gave us tremendous freedom – I was giving myself a green light to shoot a feature film in 30 hours over six nights.”

“All these limitations dictated the style of the film. The plan was to keep the camera constantly moving, using long takes up to 8 minutes in some cases. The time pressure meant the actors were under real duress and that translates into their characters on screen.  There was no stop start reset… Any other camera would have slowed us down to the point where we would not have completed the film.”  

Commencing at 4:20AM within a petrol station and concluding at 6AM, the first SF3 Best Feature winner reunites two men who have a tried, decades-old past

“Once the audience was along for the ride there was no opportunity to look away, no respite from the relentless,” said Stefen, who will soon be making the trip over from New Zealand with cast and crew. “There is a ticking clock device built into the story so the characters and audience know something has to happen at six o’clock.”

“We’re totally thrilled to premiere Blue Moon at SF3…. our first screening to an Australian audience is particularly significant for us.”

Hosting the inaugural SF3 Gala at the Chauvel in 2015, throughout each of the successive years the Festival, unique to Australia, has grown in scale, audience and reach. Achieving too a record number of entries at this new milestone, clocking in at over 200 this year and now over 1000 since the Festival started, SF3 has opened an uncommonly accessible avenue to filmmakers; local and international. With the smartphone advent dually attracting both seasoned filmmakers who want to experiment together with burgeoning Directors who can render ideas achievable with their new Galaxy, the Festival remains a unique networking opportunity and distinctively creative forum for filmmakers of wide-ranging experience.

Importantly, SF3 has also excelled in three major respects. Firstly, and this really shouldn’t be of note but here we are; the Festival has consistently highlighted the most deserving technicians and creative minds behind its crops of finalists.

In 2017, Ren Thackham’s Rearview deservedly garnered the bulk of SF3’s major awards with her stand-out short, as did Malwina Wodzicka with 2018’s no doubt best entry She Rose. Not all Film Festivals consistently reward the best addition to any year’s slate, a matter of familiar and ongoing frustration for fans and filmmakers alike. Winning at SF3 and moreover so for succeeding filmmakers so deserving of their plaudits is no minor matter for any up and coming creator.

Secondly, and to this point, SF3 has consistently achieved what any Festival should set out to do; providing a grounding for filmmakers to grow their career. Having served as a key breakthrough for creatives, Thackham, who this week was the only entrant to nab Jury and Audience Awards at the Short + Sweet Film Festival, too returned for the 2018 SF3 Finals and, amidst composing the SF3 2019 trailer, is now preparing for her first feature film.

Wodzicka, in 2018 a first-time Director, too returned to this year’s Finals and following the 2018 Gala has gone on to receive numerous accolades for She Rose at Festivals around the world.

Finally, SF3, an early Festival to recognise the soon to be much greater significance of Virtual Reality technology within the film industry, again returns to a now weekend of Festivities with the dedicated VR strand SF360. Preceding the Gala Awards this Sunday, the preceding Saturday will too showcase SF3 Kids, SF3’s Masterclass and Blue Moon.

“It was always going to be just a matter of time before we opened up our festival to include a smartphone feature film,” said SF3 co-Founder Alison Crew. “We thought, why don’t we just add it as a new category and put it out there and see what we get? We really didn’t know. If all else failed we could maybe do a retrospective screening of Tangerine.”

“As it turned out, we received 11 feature film entries! And to our surprise, they were all really good, We’d already made the decision to screen just one this year to test the water and demand. But having received so many great films, we’re considering growing the Festival next year to include more features. It may be that we bring back some of the other films that were entered this year, they really were that good. I definitely see smartphone features as where SF3 will grow into the future.”

“This is momentous for SF3,” said Festival co-Founder Angela Blake. “Since the beginning we knew we wanted to eventually screen a feature to complement our Gala and SF3 Kids. 5 years ago when we started, smartphone filmmaking was still relatively new, we were still convincing people that this could be done, that the films looked amazing.”

“We were blown away by the quality (of the feature entries). We wanted to screen them all! And they came from every corner of the world: Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Georgia, Italy, UK, and India. But just wait till you see Blue Moon, wowsers. It is shot on an iPhone 7+ but that just doesn’t matter anymore because the film is just so incredible. You forget it’s shot on a phone and instead are lost in the cinematography, the script, the actors and the world.”

This year’s Gala Finals, acknowledging changes in the medium, have too adapted as smartphones have become both more adept and ubiquitous in film circles.

“For the first year we extended our time limit from 6.5 minutes to 20 minutes, so that is a huge change for the audience,” said Angela. “We realised filmmakers are getting savvy on their phones and starting to make longer films… we have 15 films in our Official selection, ranging in time from a 1 minute French comedy about vegetables to a 18 minute Russian drama about the dangers of live streaming.”

Amid international entries there are numerous Australian Gala finalists including Colder; developed by local filmmaker and Kino Sydney regular Kenny Foo together with Kino Director Byran Fisher.

“Many months of hard work by a small and dedicated group of friends have gone into this 13 minute short,” said Bryan. “This was the first film shot on a phone that all of us had worked on… it’s incredibly rewarding to have your hard work recognised by such a prestigious Festival. It’s both exciting and terrifying to see this film on the big screen in a full house (but mainly exciting).”

“We have some beautiful Aussie finalists including comedies about the selfie culture among parents, a horror film set in the suburbs of Sydney, two inspirational tales, a Jewish wedding gone wrong and so much more,” said Angela. “It’s always interesting to see the issues of the world reflected in the stories of films we get. A change this year is that we have seen a lot of films entered telling tales of the dangers of living your life on line and live streaming your life via social media.”

With prizes worth in excess of $40,000 up for the taking, SF3 will take place at Event Cinemas George Street from September 14-15.

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