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yasmine-arslan · 3 years

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( melisa pamuk, female, she/her. ) — see yasmine arslan (murray) ? that’s the broken bird of fairview . the twenty-nine year old has been a resident on wisteria lane for four years and currently works as a registered nurse (rn). yasmine confided in rose with the death of her son and grew close enough to her to help her cope with the his loss. since the news broke, any progress they’d made toward yasmine becoming a person again has sent her into regression. her returning-optimism has seemingly been replaced by a dark, cynical sense of humor cracking under the surface. maybe it’s the fact that a dark cloud in the form of one or two secrets is hanging over their head. they are described as smelling of ysl’s black opium, having a bronze-glow with enticing eyes and dark, long tresses with full lips and being able to save a life just as quickly as they can take one. // (jessy, she/her, twenty-four, cst). + disciplined, resourceful - cunning, perfervid

tw: child death, miscarriage, depression.

short version:

yasmine arslan comes from a wealthy family, primarily involving the shale or oil companies they own. she didn’t want to follow in her four older siblings’ footsteps (with yasmine being the youngest) and continue delving into the family business. she joined the military at a young age and became a medic for the u.s. marines with her family’s full-support.. it was meeting adrian that encouraged her to wrap up her contract and become honorably discharged from the marines seeing as fraternizing was forbidden. however, her devotion to helping people didn’t cease and she accepted an offer as an rn in the hometown they decided to settle into.

it came to little surprise to either of them, even after a miscarrige, when yasmine became pregnant with their little boy, josiah. those around her were shocked to see her excel at being a mother seeing as she seemingly didn’t possess a single maternal bone in her body, but motherhood changed her. she adored her son and josiah was absolutely adored to bits by both of his parents.

adrian had been in the military a lot longer than yasmine and had a lot more blood on his hands than she did. he had a harder time adjusting to the civilian lifestyle than she had and ultimately decided to cope by becoming a mercenary. he was a loving husband and father by day, but a killer, gun-for-hire by night. all of the killing began to take a toll when he sloppily allowed one of his marks to get away. he didn’t think it would come back to haunt him until it did. their four-year old son was killed in cold-blood in their arms, forever changing their lives and their marriage.

yasmine was never a warm person, by any means, but she lived for her son and her family. his death forced herself into a recluse unable to do much other than autonomously meander throughout life.

instead of separating, the family moved to wisteria lane to try and start over and discuss the idea of trying for another child. despite her cold demeanor, nursing is her passion. she seldom shows her emotions and really only allows adrian in long enough to get a glimpse of a person beyond her beautiful, bronzed, cold demeanor. she doesn’t know her husband is responsible for the death of their son because heaven forbid. when she isn’t in her nurses scrubs or work uniforms, she’s seen in designer attire. very little people know of josiah’s existence because no one is allowed in their home. those who are hardly make it far enough to see his room or any lingering pictures of him.

statistics:

TW: Miscarriage, PTSD, Drug and Alcohol Usage, Child Death, Divorce, Infertility, Depression

Basics:

☾ ━ Portrayal By: Melisa Pamuk ☾ ━ Full Name: Yasmine Arslan-Murray ☾ ━ Nicknames: Yas, Yaz, Yazzy, Mina, Arslan. ☾ ━ Age & Birth Date: 34 / 17 April 1993. ☾ ━ Sex & Pronouns: Female / She & Her. ☾ ━ Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual. ☾ ━ Marital Status: Married (Complicated). ☾ ━ Current Location: Fairview, Illinois. ☾ ━ Place of Birth: Ankara, Turkey. (Central Anatolia Region). ☾ ━ Hometown: Corpus Christi, TX, USA. ☾ ━ Ethnicity: Turkish & Italian. ☾ ━ Race & Nationality: Middle Eastern & Caucasian / Turkish (birth) & American (naturalization). ☾ ━ Languages Spoken: Turkish, English, Italian, and Spanish. ☾ ━ Religion: Non-practicing Muslim. ☾ ━ Occupation: Assistant (previously) / Registered Nurse (currently) / Medical Assistant (formerly). ☾ ━ Education: High School Diploma / Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi. ☾ ━ Affiliation: Unapplicable.

Relationships:

☾ ━ Parents: Nina & Yousef Arslan. ☾ ━ Siblings: Yousef Arslan (brother; 39), Zayn Arslan (brother; 40), Maha Arslan (sister; 19). ☾ ━ Significant Other: Adrian Murray (husband; on-again, off again). Yasmine met Adrian in Corpus Christi while she was still in nursing school. (Insert their complicated history/timeline here). Eventually the duo became married, and had a son together. Later, after their son’s death, she attempted to separate herself from him after being unable to look past blaming him for Josiah’s death, but can’t seem to be without him. ☾ ━ Children: Josiah Zayn Russel-Arslan. Adrian (an ex-military, gun-for-hire mercenary) and Yasmine lost their son brutally for reasons unbeknownst to her, though Adrian knows who is responsible and why. They’d meant to shoot her or Adrian, but their son got caught in the cross fires. He died shortly before his fifth birthday. ☾ ━ Pets: 3 Coy fish, 2 dogs (Lilly; pitbull) & (Saguaro; german shepherd), 1 snake (Rose; mud snake). ☾ ━ Familial Ties: ☾ ━ Others Worth Mentioning: ☾ ━ Height: 5”4’. ☾ ━ Weight: 119lbs. ☾ ━ Eye Color & Shape: Deep brown & almond shape. ☾ ━ Hair Color & Style: Dark brown; naturally wavy with thick curls. Usually worn either curly, straight, up or tied back with two braids and loose tresses. ☾ ━ Complexion: Golden-bronze. ☾ ━ Distinguished Features: Two small beauty marks on the right side of her chin and cheek, prominent jawline, big, sultry eyes, a subtle accent. ☾ ━ Style: When she wasn’t wearing her military or nursing attire, Yasmine is found wearing any series of designer jeans or other bottoms including skirts and pants. Silky camisoles, satin blouses, plain tees, oversized sweaters, and over-the-shoulder shirts dominate her closet. She also wears dresses, sundresses or bodycons and anything in between, and even dual-utilizes her blazers as dresses. Yasmine can also be found wearing her ex-husband’s tees and jackets when she isn’t wearing her own cardigans, denim or leather outwear, or workout gear. Bralettes are always fashionably seen poking out of her shirts. She mostly wears neutral or minimalistic hues such as black, white, nude, baby pink or blue, gray, and any variations of these shades. Her obscene shoes are a vast collection of chunky booties, long boots, heels, wedges, and flats, mostly black with the occasional color. She can always be found wearing a designer bag and accessories. Her ears only wear one singular set of diamond earrings, while she wears a small cross around her neck that she interchanges with a lock that consists of a photo of her son, Josiah. She still wears her wedding bands and no other rings. ☾ ━ Physical Description: Barely standing at five and a half feet and a little over a hundred pounds, Yasmine can be described as petite. She is often underestimated as she can put anyone on their ass before they can anticipate it. Her go-to makeup look consists of a natural look unless she’s purposely going for a subtle glam look. Either way, her lipstick choices are subtle nudes, pinks, browns, and the occasional red. Mostly, she sticks to matte lips or clear glosses. Her lashes are thick and long without mascara, but she piles it on to accommodate her thick eyebrows and full lips. Now that she is no longer in the military or nursing, she can be found wearing black pants, booties or heels, and blouses. When she’s summoned to aid one of the Bianchi members or associates with medical attention, she will wear her nursing outfit if she can, but she always keeps her nursing bag handy that she mostly substitutes with her handbags. ☾ ━ Tropes: The Healer, The Grieving Mother, The Vengeful. ☾ ━ MBTI: ENFJ (Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging). ☾ ━ Temperament: Choleric ☾ ━ Zodiac: Aries - The Ram. ☾ ━ Alignment: Chaotic neutral. ☾ ━ Element: Fire. ☾ ━ Sin: Wrath. ☾ ━ Hogwarts House: Slytherin. ☾ ━ Greek Goddess: Athena, Goddess of War and Wisdom. ☾ ━ Negative Traits: Impatient, moody, short-tempered, impulsive, aggressive. ☾ ━ Positive Traits: Courageous, determined, confident, enthusiastic, optimistic, honest, passionate. ☾ ━ Personality: She hadn’t had an easy childhood and it hardened her from an early age. Although she’s a nurse, her personality doesn’t fit the bill of a healer. She’s cold to nearly anyone initially other than her patients and her son before his death, and her ex-husband pre-divorce. She has a cold, dry sense of humor that consists of sarcasm and beration of others. She is easily set off and has been known for her violent outbursts, none of which she’s ever lost because she’s underestimated. While she can come off as neurotic and moody, Yasmine can be loyal to a fault and always puts the physical wellbeing and needs of others before her own. She was born from a wealthy family and has always chosen to help others in need, despite her lack of compassion. Losing her son only made her more aggressive and passionate, closed-off and even malicious. Few get to see past the fortress she’s created around her heart. ☾ ━ Fixations (Likes): ☾ ━ Aversions (Dislikes): ☾ ━ Vices: Red or white wine, tequila, the occasional cigarette, prescription anti-anxieties and opiates. ☾ ━ Medical History: Two pregnancies (one unsuccessful via miscarriage, one successful), fertility issues, a broken arm, two bullets in her shoulder, chicken pox, occasional seasonal allergies. ☾ ━ Psyche: Yasmine was diagnosed with a mild case of PTSD following her two tours overseas, but was easily cured with therapy and an antidepressant. She despised taking medications until she was diagnosed with a slight case of postpartum before giving birth to her son instead of after birthing him. Josiah was the light of Yasmine and Garrett’s lives, completely curing her of any depressive state she might’ve been in as she had always considered herself mentally strong. Since his death, she’s been unable to recover from the pit of despair and meanness that consumes her life. The only person capable of even coming close to making her feel a sliver of emotion is Garrett. She abuses prescription drugs, especially opiates, to cope with the loss. Occasionally she becomes roped into a state of mind where she seeks comfort in Garrett and sleeps with him, subconsciously trying for another child despite her aversion to exposing another child to their childhood.

Other:

➤ Yasmine was born in the country of Turkey into a strict household that consisted of three additional siblings (two older brothers, one younger sister), four including herself. Her parents own a shale corporation within the country and gave their children trust funds to jump start their educations and futures. For a better chance at a future, she was sent to live with an aunt and an uncle who raised her in Texas. They’d always envisioned their daughter as a doctor, but nursing was her passion. They were proud of her for graduating with honors and still continuing to work her way up the ranks in the medical field.

➤ She spent the entirety of her career easily surpassing the people around her at every milestone and every skill while healing those around her. She witnessed death until it desensitized her and tried to heal anyone, enemies and allies alike.

➤ Yasmine met Adrian Murray early-on in her nursing schooling career. He was infamous, more than a man but less than a God as far as other soldiers were concerned. After years of despising men and swerving them at every turn, she became infatuated with him despite the differences in their age. Garrett Russell was a Force Recon Marine, Scout Sniper, 2nd Lieutenant, and was a Silver Star recipient, with over a decade and a half of military experience under his belt. He reciprocated his feelings for her and chose to continue their relationship after he retired. Not shortly after she graduated, Yasmine became a nurse at a local hospital in Corpus and they began to see each other.

➤ After many false positives, difficulty with their fertility, and a miscarriage, Adrian and Yasmine successfully conceived a son, Josiah Zayn Murray. He was the best parts of his parents, the only good thing either of them were capable of. Adrian became a mercenary to support his family, even though Yasmine had her trust fund to keep them living a comfortable lifestyle. Regardless, he chose to funnel his energy and skills into something he was good at rather than let the trauma of his experiences as a soldier consume him.

➤ Their family was the epitome of picture-perfect, of happiness. It was enviable to watch a beautiful family live such a quaint, charmed life, despite Yasmine’s opposition to her husband’s occupation. She tried to focus on being a good mother and a supportive wife, but often found herself resenting him every time he’d come home covered in blood, smelling of gunpowder or burnt flesh. He was an attentive father, but became lost in the bloodlust aspect of being a mercenary and it eventually came back to haunt them.

➤ Shortly after completing a job, Adrian inadvertently left a loose end behind, or so she assumed.. Said ‘loose-end’ eventually found his family and remorselessly attacked them, spraying their home with bullets, leaving both of them unscathed. Their son, however, was shot repeatedly and died immediately and gruesomely in their arms. It took her awhile to figure out he was to blame, despite having her suspicions, but she resented him beyond her ability to remain married to him. They became separated because she couldn’t see him without thinking of Josiah, the spitting image of Adrian, but she refused to officially divorce him..

➤ Eventually, they moved to Fairview at the recommendation of a family friend and settled into the quaint neighborhood of Wisteria Lane, hoping for a chance at a fresh start where they could hopefully work on their marriage and try for another child.

➤ She doesn’t allow anyone to publicly see her grieve, choosing to break down on her own or amid her husband’s presence. Her coldness only amplified and she’s recently become more violent, hitting Adrian and throwing anything at him while purposely instigating so he’ll defend himself against her.

➤ She purposely finds and puts herself in situations that could cost her her life, unafraid of death and the morbid possibility of meeting her son soon.

#wisteriaintro #x. biography #tw: child death #tw: miscarriage #tw: death #tw: ptsd #tw: drugs #tw: alcohol #tw: infertility #tw: depression

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thecomicsnexus · 4 years

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BATMAN: A DEATH IN THE FAMILY BATMAN #426-429 DECEMBER 1988 - JANUARY 1989 BY JIM STARLIN, JIM APARO, MIKE DECARLO, ADRIENNE ROY, MIKE MIGNOLA, ANTHONY TOLLIN AND OVER 10,000 PHONE CALLS.

Jason Todd finds out his biological mother may still be alive and he discovers there are three possible women that could be his mother. He then decides to meet each other to find out which one is the one. But at the same time, the Joker escapes Arkham and decides to make some quick money by dealing with terrorists. Both missions will collide into each other and change Batman’s life forever.

SCORE: 8

This story was a big deal when it came out, and for Batman fans, it still is. But it has been cheapened by DC’s decision to bring the character back from the dead. I assume this is not spoiler, as it is in the covers.

I will talk more about the plot in the spoiler section. I feel like in general there is a lot of lazy writing in this story. I think the idea was good, but there are many things in the story that didn’t need to be this way. I would have just removed everything about the middle east, and I would also tried to find an alternative to yet another “diplomatic immunity” plot.

Jim Aparo did his usual iconic style here, but that also means that many characters look too much alike, which is a shame. Especially when Jason doesn’t really look like a teenager.

So, something I can discuss outside of the spoiler section, is the whole gimmick of this story. The phone number vote.

From Wikipedia:

Jason Todd, the second character to take the Robin persona, was introduced in Batman #357 (March 1983). He was initially depicted with a personality and origin identical to that of predecessor Dick Grayson. However, the history-altering events of Crisis on Infinite Earths and Batman: Year One allowed editor Dennis O'Neil, writer Max Allan Collins, and artist Chris Warner to revise his backstory and personality. The changes caused Todd to grow increasingly unpopular with fans during this period; unlike the cheery and optimistic Grayson, this new characterization of Todd was depicted as foul-mouthed, impulsive, and bad-tempered.

Aware of Todd's unpopularity, O'Neil and writer Jim Starlin began discussing ways to retire the character, and before long, began to consider killing him altogether. During an editorial retreat, O'Neil recalled the success of a 1982 segment of Saturday Night Live, in which Eddie Murphy encouraged viewers to call the show if they wanted him to boil Larry the Lobster on air. O'Neil proposed a similar idea involving Todd to publisher Jenette Kahn, who liked the idea. O'Neil would later state:

We didn't want to waste it on anything minor. Whether Firestorm's boots should be red or yellow ... This had to be important. Life or death stuff.

— Dennis O'Neil

On the back of Batman #427, an advertisement was run featuring Batman carrying a severely wounded Robin. In the ad, readers were warned that Robin would die of his injuries "because the Joker wants revenge", but that they could "prevent it with a telephone call". Two 900 numbers were given: one (1-(900) 720-2660) which would let Robin live, and another (1-(900) 720-2666) which would cause him to die. The numbers were active for 36 hours, beginning on September 15, 1988, at 8 A.M. EST and ending on September 16, 1988, at 8 P.M. EST. Readers were charged 50 cents per call. Approximately 10,614 votes were cast during this period. When tallied, the final results were extremely narrow, with 5,343 votes in favor of Jason's death over 5,271 for his survival—a margin of just 72 votes. O'Neil would later admit to having voted in Todd's favor, as he felt that Batman was incomplete without Robin and feared killing Todd would lead to backlash.

"A Death in the Family" was written by Starlin. The artwork was illustrated by Jim Aparo, inked by Mike DeCarlo, and colored by Adrienne Roy. John Costanza handled the lettering, and Mike Mignola designed each issue's cover. The four-part story line began in Batman #426 (December 1988), and concluded in Batman #429 (January 1989). Two versions of issue #428 were prepared: one that would be used if readers voted in favor of Todd's survival, and another to be used if he was to be killed; the latter version ended up being used. The story line was later collected in trade paperback and hardcover form as Batman: A Death in the Family after its conclusion.

When it was first released, "A Death in the Family" generated massive media coverage and backlash over the decision to kill Robin, a beloved comic book character and pop icon. Newspapers such as USA Today and Reuters published articles about it, the latter of which would state that "a group of comic book artists and writers has succeeded in doing what the most fiendish minds of the century... have failed to accomplish". Frank Miller, author of The Dark Knight Returns (1986), was highly critical of the story, describing the "toll-free" number voting as "the most cynical thing [DC] has ever done". O'Neil and his team were caught off-guard by the amount of attention the story drew; according to him, it lasted four straight days, and was unlike anything the team had previously experienced. The story line was a bestseller in both the standard single-issue and trade paperback format.

In retrospect, Hilary Goldstein of IGN called "A Death in the Family" one of the best Batman graphic novels ever written. He described the story as "worth the price of admission", and considered letting readers vote on Todd's fate to be one of DC's strongest decisions. Both Goldstein and NPR contributor Glen Weldon agreed with the choice of killing Todd, as both felt the character was poorly developed and inferior to Grayson. Screen Rant praised Aparo's cover for the collected version, describing it as "iconic" and perfect for showing such a grim, sad moment.

From DC in the 80s:

For Batman, we did Death in the Family -- which was their best-selling book that year -- but it turns out they had all these licensing (pajamas, lunch boxes, and stuff like that) and the licensing department was very mad, everybody got mad, and they needed somebody to blame -- so I got blamed. And within 3 months all of my work dried up - Jim Starlin

Spoilers after the break...

So one of the reason I say there was too much lazy writing in this story, has to do with all the coincidences. The Joker just happens to be in the same places as two of the possible mothers. And not only that, Joker even knew Sheila when she lost her license for doing abortions. I understand why Sheila betrays Jason (she was also taking money from the poor in Ethiopia and didn’t want any problems with the law), but it was never explained how the Joker and Sheila knew each other.

There goes mother of the year!

To be honest, while Jason’s death was brutal, I always felt it was the right thing. Being Robin was child endangerment, Starlin was right in that. But it also seems like Jason magically became Robin, without much thought to it. I tolerate the pre-crisis version more than this one, but the people to blame for how he ended up being... are Max Allan Collins and Jim Starlin.

There were two versions of issue #428, and the material ended up being used for Batman Annual #25 (Infinite Crisis tie-in... more lazy writing, by the way).

But to me the idea of using diplomatic immunity once again was ridiculous, and just the idea that the Joker would become ambassador and kill everyone in the council... while representing Iran... is also quite stupid, because it would be considered an act of war on all other countries.

There is also another idea happening in the last issue. That the Joker knows who Batman is. This would make sense as it was too much of a coincidence that Jason died in that same explosion (Batman even mentions Jason to the Joker). The issue may have been edited to remove all references from the Joker that he knows who Batman is, you can read more about it here.

Both Joker and Robin would drop off the radar for an entire year, a year that was quite important for the Joker, as the Batman Motion Picture created bat-mania around the world. In fact, I am lying, the Robin concept wouldn’t take long to start resurfacing (in just a few months we would have Batman: Year Three). But the consequences of this story were felt for years, until people at DC started basically publishing fan fiction, with reality-punching Superboy prime.

If I had to vote, I would vote for Jason to die. Mostly because I know now, how much potential him dying gave to the batman and robin mythos. Having that dead Robin there is a reminder that what they do is dangerous and has no place for amateurs. I wouldn’t vote for Jason to die again now, as it wouldn’t mean a thing. Like death in comics.

#mike mignola #jason todd #robin #batman #joker #superman #dc comics #comics #review #1988 #1989 #modern age #a death in the family #jim aparo

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ahickey2000 · 4 years

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Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan was released on July 24, 1998 in the US by DreamWorks Distribution. It opened in 2,463 theaters and was very well received making over $30 million opening week. The movie had a $70 million budget and ended up grossing over $216 million domestically and $265 million internationally, making it a whopping $481 million release worldwide. Saving Private Ryan is a war drama that stars Tom Hanks, with a strong core supporting cast that is set in World War II and begins with the invasion of Normandy. The movie went on to win and be nominated for several awards in almost all major categories. The movie was recognized by both the Academy and the Golden Globes as nominees and in some cases winners for Best Motion Picture, Director, Cinematography, Sound, Editing and Writing. One thing that was noted as a controversial point was Spielberg’s use of graphic violence to depict the battle scenes. It was the first movie to use so much graphic violence, but many felt that including that violence was what created the realism and made the viewer feel like they were really watching a true depiction of war. The violence in Saving Private Ryan is important as a tool to allow viewers to consider that the movie is more about the war than it is about the plot of the movie. The movie’s premise is that three brothers from one family have died in the war and that in order to ensure that the fourth brother survives, so they send a group of soldiers on a specific mission to find him and send him home. While the plot is important and there are truths embedded in the story, the movie itself is about the war, and the violence and horror the soldiers faced. The initial battle scene of the invasion of Normandy is filmed in a way that makes it like a documentary and gives the feel that it was filmed during the actual battle. “In the first battle sequence, the camera is handheld which creates a jittery but not blurry picture of the fierce battle. Critics believe that Spielberg shot this sequence in double speed using every other frame, this is what made the film appear sharper, edgier and less soft”(Nora Emanuelle Boehmer). Spielberg also uses the sound in the movie to create realism. During the invasion scenes on the boats the motors are very distinctly heard and you can almost feel the chop in the water and smell the salt in the air. When the soldiers end up under water the sound goes out into a dreamy sort of quality, just like when you actually end up under water and then when the soldiers come up for air the sound is crisp again and you can hear the battle going on. These techniques, creating such realism, draw the viewer into film and make the audience feel like they are a part of the history of the scene. “The viewers are supposed to be emphatic observers who feel a personal closeness to the tragedy, the viewers are supposed to dive into that battle scene on D-Day at Omaha beach”(Nora Emanuelle Boehmer). Spielberg’s intention seems to have been to have the audience feel the emotions that were felt during the battles and between the different characters. Without the graphic violence the audience would not have been able to fully grasp what the soldiers felt during those battles. One of the things that critics mentioned when discussing Spielberg’s use of violence in Saving Private Ryan, is that he is very careful to handle the graphic violence in a way that does not glorify senseless killing of the German soldiers. All of the battle scenes are appropriately reverent to the emotional toll the soldiers faced. Spielberg is able to show how difficult the war is with both physical and emotional wounds. “The battle scenes avoid conventional suspense and sensationalism; they disturb not by being manipulative, but by being hellishly frank” (Lisa Leigh Parney). The response of movie goers after seeing it in theaters for the first time was reflective of this. In an article by Lisa Leigh Parney they did exit interviews and overwhelmingly the audience felt that it was very authentic. One viewer noted “The violence was authentic. My brother was out there in France, missing in action for six months, but they got him back. The movie honors him and his fellow men. It was accurate all right.” And other viewer who was an unnamed veteran said “war is hell – it showed hell”. Saving Private Ryan’s remarkable success was in great part due to this realism including the use of realistic violence. “The first 30 minutes are considered the most realistic recreation of war in movie history”(Columbia University Press). It was marketed as such and included the use of veterans verifying its authenticity. In a press conference about the movie Spielberg said “It would have been irresponsible for me to undercut the truth of what that war was like… My hope is somehow to resensitise audiences to how bad it was for the men who survived, as well as for those who perished”(Columbia University Press). The criticism of Spielberg is that Hollywood sensationalism is ever apparent in any movie. In fact, the sound and music as well as some of the visual choreographed effects are clearly technology used in a Hollywood megamovie rather than a documentary. Critics note that although it leans toward the idea of authenticity, it is still, in fact, a blockbuster movie that is made and marketed as a profitable venture. While this is true it is important to remember that it was in fact produced as a feature movie and not a documentary and so that distinction is irrelevant. “Nobody squinting through a viewfinder could have lasted thirty seconds on Omaha Beach, and synchronized sound was impossible… Reconstruction is the only mode of naturalistically portraying events where cameras could not be present” (Columbia University Press). In order to portray a realistic and authentic tribute to the horrors of D-Day, Spielberg deliberately and carefully uses his sound and camera techniques to guide the audience through the graphic scenes. In order to confirm authenticity and the truthfulness of the story it’s important to listen to veteran accounts of the invasion, and their critique of the movie and the battle scenes. In a news clip about the day, a WWII veteran talks through a shaking voice and tears about his duties on the boats that day. He frankly details the numbers of deaths, and how he prayed over a fallen comrade to ease his pain “I couldn’t help him, I couldn’t even help myself” (Inside Edition). During the interview he is emotional and reports that Saving Private Ryan accurately depicted his experiences. In the initial battle scene we see Tom Hanks with his head down and hands shaking, and his young men looking to him for strength (Jade Docs & Movies II) and you can feel the words of veteran Frank Devita and his description of the men whom he saw that morning leaving the boats. It is important to acknowledge that in addition to portraying accurate battle scenes with gruesome brutality, Spielberg also very beautifully captured the emotional side of his characters. While the movie’s focus is on the battles encountered, it is easy to see that there is a brotherhood that is formed by the men in the movie. By the time the final battle scenes on the bridge take place there is an obvious bond that has formed between the soldiers. It is different than the initial invasion and Spielberg brilliantly takes care to develop this throughout the movie. The relationships in part are built on the conflicted feelings about the mission and how they are risking their own lives for the sake of one man. In the scenes depicted after the loss of two of the men, Ed Burn’s character is very vocal about his frustration with the mission and Tom Hanks’s character continues his process of building the brotherhood. As Tom Sizemore’s character is physically and verbally fighting with Ed Burn’s trying to pull ranks and get him back in line, Tom Hanks humanizes and quiets the debate by calling out the bets on what he does for a living. He speaks calmly about home and his family and connects the characters and thereby the audience (The Paramount Vault) in a very human way. This scene shows the emotional hardships of war and reminds viewers that these were very young men; regular everyday men who were required to fight in this grueling war. Saving Private Ryan became known as the most realistic portrayal of WWII ever. It was a huge financial success that garnered praise and awards for masterfully and authentically recreating the hardships of WWII. It would have been impossible to have such a reaction from veterans and the movie industry without the graphic violence. It was difficult to watch, but more difficult to live through and that was the point. Saving Private Ryan would not have been able to connect with those who had fought the battle, as well as those who studied the battle if it had not been honest about the loss and devastation the soldiers lived through. Spielberg created a beautiful tribute for the world even with the graphic violence that was necessarily included.

By Abby Hickey

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bookishreviewsblog · 6 years

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Sarah J. Maas: Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass #7) | Lara

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas’s #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an epic, unforgettable conclusion. Aelin Galathynius’s journey from slave to king’s assassin to the queen of a once-great kingdom reaches its heart-rending finale as war erupts across her world. . . Aelin has risked everything to save her people―but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. Aware that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, though her resolve begins to unravel with each passing day… With Aelin captured, Aedion and Lysandra remain the last line of defense to protect Terrasen from utter destruction. Yet they soon realize that the many allies they’ve gathered to battle Erawan’s hordes might not be enough to save them. Scattered across the continent and racing against time, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian are forced to forge their own paths to meet their fates. Hanging in the balance is any hope of salvation―and a better world. And across the sea, his companions unwavering beside him, Rowan hunts to find his captured wife and queen―before she is lost to him forever. As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.

4,5 STARS

“Once upon a time, in a land long since burned to ash, there lived a young princess who loved her kingdom …” After eight books of this amazing story I still can’t believe it is over. Although I started Throne of Glass series in May, I still find these books very dear to me and Celaena’s journey will stay with me for a while. I will most likely put a lot of spoilers in this review, because I am not sure I will be able to write it without some references, so be careful (there will be warnings of course). Even though this book was almost a thousand pages long, it wasn’t anything near boring. It was filled with action and twist from the beginning to the very end. Story and Celaena/Aelin herself have changed so much, that it seems so painfully far to look at the beginning of Throne of Glass. Maas introduced many more characters and storylines, that the length of the book seems quite fair since there was a lot of questions unanswered and stories unfinished. I like world-building and concept of Sarah’s worlds. In fact, if there is a map I can follow through the book while reading about war tactics there is 90% chance I will like the book. By now I can say I know the whole continent by heart since I used to check every city, river or mountain that was mentioned. Something about Sarah’s world-building that bothers me since A Court of Thorns and Roses is that there is no magic system. There are no rules of inheriting power or knowing how powerful one can be. Characters are just born with enormous power and every one of them has some different magic. Book was easy to read, chapters were short, each from different perspective. Descriptions were thorough and beautifully written as well as dialogues. I always admired Maas’s writing, but in this book, I was amazed by all those remarkable descriptions of places, battles and of course characters and their feelings in this amazing world she created. I could picture every scene and even empathize with characters I don’t like. Maas certainly knew how to make this one last story epic and unforgettable, while still pleasing us readers and fangirls. I still feel like there isn’t anything I can write that will put my feelings about this book in one place, but I will try with the characters. As I said before, long way since that lonely assassin in castle, hating the king and struggling to choose between crown prince and head of the guard. Story, characters, even villains have changed, completely. Perhaps I should start with Aelin, because she was character, I was most pleasantly surprised with in Kingdom of Ash. My perspective of her character changed a lot through the series. I loved her character from the beginning. She won my heart in The Assassin’s blade and I loved her strength and determination as well as the idea of 16-year-old assassin. Somewhere in Queen of Shadows, after she took her role as a Queen of Terrasen, she became annoying and I started to dislike her character. She kept her plans to herself and everyone praised her a bit too much, to the point where it felt like she was supposed to be the only important character in the story (where there are dozen main characters). I guess author was trying to make an impression of her being a good queen, still learning to rule, but it was rather annoying more than convincing. But I must say from the beginning of Kingdom of Ash, I started liking Aelin immediately. Maas did a really good job in writing her in state of torture, recovering and finally, continuing fight she started. *spoilers about Aelin’s character development ahead*Aelin showed her strength once again, during two months of brutal torture, by Maeve who wanted her to tell her where are the keys. She never once broke thinking about her country and how she must save it. During that period, I started to understand Aelin more, her motives and personality: how ashamed she was that she left Terrasen for 10 years and now she suffered so her people could stop suffering. From her recovery (which was very realistically described!) to her return to Erilea I forgot all about how she annoyed me. She has changed, started trusting her friends and allies, but those traits that made her one of my favorite character of all times still remained. Brave, willing to sacrifice herself for her friends and her country. She fought through all her pain and loss to glory and love. That scene where she ran out in golden armor in battle and when she stopped the river from destroying entire army were one of my favorite scenes in whole book. Maas did really good job with Aelin in this book, putting her a little bit on the side and creating some space for other characters, but still keeping Aelin as the initiator of everything and never letting her loose her value. There is nothing much to say about Rowan, my opinion on him remained the same as in the past two books – I feel like he is there only to play the role of love interest. Yes, I love him and Aelin together, but I could never connect with his character on a level I could with others and I haven’t seen much development of his. My favorites and the best power couple ever are Manon and Dorian. They were my OTP from the moment Manon was introduces to the series. I love them both so much and hey are my favorite characters from these books. Lots of angst and feelings, but I was disappointed *spoiler* they got separated at the end. I love cruel Chrochan Queen who was raised to kill and torture, but still finds her way and believes in herself. Her character was one of the best developed and most interesting character of the entire series. I loved her from the very beginning, but in Kingdom of Ash she showed not only her brutal side of a warrior and Ironteeth, but merciful and brave side of a queen who will unite and bring her people home. Her relationship with Abraxos and The Thirteen were one of my favorite friendships, **BIG spoiler* the scene of The Thirteen’s sacrifice was really painful. “The choice of how our people's future shall be shaped is yours," Manon told each of the witches assembled, all the Blackbeaks who might fly off to war and never return. "But I will tell you this." Her hands shook, and she fisted them on her thighs. "There is a better world out there. And I have seen it.” I wasn’t particularly fond of other characters, except Dorian and Chaol because they are part of the original trio. There was a whole lot of new and old characters and I couldn’t make myself care for all of them. I literally see no purpose of creating Elide or Lorcan than to add another perspective. Elide wasn’t even that interesting and her so called powers were brought up twice (I even forgot what were they). Sure, I started to like Fenrys, Lysandra was inspiring and I loved Aedion from time to time (although I find his character annoying and poorly developed). *SPOILER* When they are all summed up, we end with a big specter of main characters and, surprisingly, not single one of them died. I mean, I get it, it was a lot of pain and sacrifice throughout the book, but there was so many characters and I guess I even expected to be some painful deaths (that were not sideline characters). *following paragraph contains major spoilers for ending of Kingdom of Ash* “Let’s make this a fight worthy of a song.” I have a desperate need to comment on the ending of Throne of Glass series. As I said before, I was disappointed in lacking of deaths. It is not that I enjoy watching my favorite characters die, it is more about the impression certain ending leaves. I think ending should be emotional, especially after such a big finale. After finishing Kingdom of Ash, I was in state of “book hungover” for two hours (which is negligee compared to few-weeked depressions I endured after really emotional endings). Actually, the only things I was sad about was Aelin’s loss of power and separation of characters. Another thing that slightly bothered me, although I can’t say I am entirely unhappy with the outcome, is how forging of the lock turned out. I expected it would kill Aelin in some very emotional way, or at least it will take an enormous toll on her or Dorian, but at the same time I am glad they survived since they are my favorite characters after all. The whole ending just leaves the huge expression Maas didn’t want to kill of any important character and tbh I find that quite unrealistic and disappointing. Final battle was really tense, well written and I enjoyed reading it. I loved how it was all untangled between Erawan and Maeve. It would be pretty predictable and boring if it ended by them being destroyed with the keys, so this final battle gave the ending an epic note. “Aelin looked at Chaol and Dorian and sobbed. Opened her arms to them, and wept as they held each other. “I love you both,” she whispered. “And no matter what may happen, no matter how far we may be, that will never change.” All in all, I can say I am quite satisfied with this book since I have waited it for a few months and have been dying to see how will it all turn out. Throne of Glass series are really good work and I recommend it to any fantasy lover. The journey of young assassin has come to an end, but I can’t say I regret one moment of it.

#books #bookreviews #sarahjmaas #kingdomofash #throneofglass #youngadult #fantasy

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trevorbailey61 · 6 years

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Joan as Police Woman

Stoller Hall, Manchester Tuesday 24th February 2018

February 2011. Cyclone Yasi battered the coast of Queensland, Julian Assange was facing allegations of rape that would see him spend most of the following years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy, “The King’s Speech” won the Academy Award for best picture, the last surviving World War 1 veteran died in West Virginia and the BBC had to apologise for comments made about Mexicans during “Top Gear”. That tragedy was always ready to strike was seen when an earthquake in New Zealand killed over 100 people but the events with with the most lasting consequences were to be seen in North Africa and the Middle East. The Arab Spring protests in Cairo that were soon to bring an end to the Mubarak administration had spread to other countries, often provoking a vicious response from the Government. The Libyan air force launched airstrikes on crowds of protesters leading to the UN imposing sanctions on Gaddafi and a no fly zone being declared over the country. The uprising spread to other states including Syria where dissidents called for a “day of anger” against the Assad regime. Despite the brutality in Libya, it was still possible to have some optimism about how these events would unfold, a movement of ordinary people calling for democracy, open Government and an end to being subject to the whims of dictators.

It was also in February 2011 that I last saw Joan as Police Woman. I had already seen her twice before, the first time following the release of her second album, “To Survive” and the second where she performed cover versions of songs by, amongst others, Jimi Hendrix, Britney Spears, Public Enemy and Nina Simone. On both of these occasions, I was accompanied by my wife but after booking tickets for a third concert, I was informed that she unavailable that night and I needed to find someone else to go with. This was most likely due to a work commitment but something of a Joan overload may also have contributed to her decision. Where my wife was unable to or didn’t want to go to a gig, my next concert buddy was my niece who had already developed a wide ranging and extensive knowledge and interest in music; years before when she was very young, she had arrived at our house whilst I was playing “Rocket to Russia” and immediately began head banging to “Rockaway Beach” which made me very proud. We had already seen Bob Dylan and John Grant together but as the JaPW was on her eighteenth birthday, I assumed that she would have better things to do than spend the evening with an audience most of whom would be pushing fifty. Incredibly she didn’t and as the gig was at the Glee Club, which had an over 18 policy, she would have been the youngest person in the audience, most likely by about twenty years. Thankfully Joan didn’t disappoint with a set mostly drawn from her third album, “The Deep Field” and Grace was able to leave with a JaPW t-shirt, one in which she is rather provocatively reclining on a chair with a gun resting in her lap; being an uncle means that parental censorship can be ignored.

Seven years later: those southern hemisphere disasters have been filed away along with all those other acts of God that suddenly leave families bereaved, Assange is still in the Ecuadorian embassy and seems a rather seedy individual instead of the champion of free speech that he liked to portray himself as then, Clarkson’s thoughtless and confrontational manner brought his time at the Beeb to an end and he has taken his casual racism to Amazon and “The Shape of Water” has been named as best picture. The optimism of the Arab Spring has long since evaporated, leaving instead the war in Syria that has so far claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions. Whilst the image of a dead child being washed up on a Turkish beech and the chilling use of chemical weapons have occasionally brought home the horrors occurring on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, the conflict is now largely background noise and their was precious little compassion for the refugees arriving at the borders of Europe in an attempt to escape the slaughter. Instead, there has been a resurgence of populist right wing politics that offer apparently simple solutions to these complex problems largely based on building walls to keep the others out. On the fiftieth anniversary of Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech and the 25th of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, it seems as if the dragons that we long since thought were slain are very much alive and there are plenty who even try to deny that the horrors of the twentieth century ever happened.

Seven years later is also when my niece and I are having some family time seeing JaPW, although as she is the one who is now economically active, I am the elderly relative who is being treated to a day out. It has been a typical Manchester day, raining from the moment I arrived and a penetrating wind that made it feel colder than it was. With my clothes soaked through, wandering around the city centre soon loses its appeal and I decide instead to spend most of the afternoon sitting in a cafe sipping Earl Grey. I am the only person in there and I soon get the feeling that the two girls behind the counter wish I would bugger off so that they can continue their conversation without having to be sensitive to the customer in their presence. We meet up for some Tex Mex and happy hour cocktails a little later, although mine was on draught and arrives in a pint glass, before making our way to The Stoller Hall and our appointment with Joanie. Built as a medium sized concert hall for Chethams School of Music, it is an appropriate venue for the classically trained multi-instrumentalist we are here to see. Like the students we see wandering around as we wait for the concert, Joan Wasser learnt the piano and violin as a child which led to her being awarded a place at the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, her prodigious talent meant that she gained entrance a year early. She soon, however, grew disillusioned with the classical world and started adding violin and keyboards to the backing bands for a range of diverse artists including Anthony and the Johnsons, Rufus Wainwright and Lou Reed. Her most personal collaboration, however, was with Jeff Buckley which led to a relationship that lasted until his tragically early death in 1997. Struggling to deal with her grief, she continued working as a backing musician but started to take a more prominent role in both writing and performing, recording the album “Debt and Departure” with Black Beetle, a band made up mostly of Buckley’s backing musicians. It was apparently Lou Reed who, in what must be the only occasion that he ever showed an interest in any musician other than himself, encouraged her to set out on her own and taking her name from the Angie Dickenson TV series, her debut album, “Real Life”, appeared in 2007.

Whilst largely critically acclaimed, her music appeals to a select audience and her previous tours have been to small venues such as the Glee Club. This has meant that she mostly provided the accompaniment herself, bringing just one other musician with her to add rhythm or, on one occasion, having the backing tracks recorded on cassettes, now that really is old school. In the years since we last spent some time together, however, her popularity has grown to the extent that she has moved into bigger venues and as a result she now has a full band with her. The sounds are still very much based on what can be produced from the keyboards which she plays along with two others but there is a rhythm section to provide the beats that were once contained within a rectangular piece of plastic. With her jet black hair and the carefully assembled costumes, she and the band all arrive on stage wearing lilac tour jackets, she remains a sultry and brooding stage presence but inevitably she does look a little older than last time. In terms of the music, however, she could be picking up from where we left off, her last two albums, “The Classic” and an uneven collaboration with Benjamin Lazar Davies called “Let It Be You”, are ignored completely and aside from her most recent release, “Damned Devotion” which could be her best, the rest of the set is drawn from the songs that she performed at the Glee Club.

Despite the enhanced firepower, however, it is a subdued and delicate start to the concert. “Wonderful” is a smooth velvet opener, Wasser’s vocals drawing her voice into the back of her mouth capturing her fragility as she struggles to regain her piece of mind. The slight percussion finds spaces in the melody rather than driving it forward as ghostly chords hang in the air. “Warning Bell” is similarly sparse, a break up song where she wishes for finality of a tolling bell to announce the end of a relationship; “If there was a warning bell, I'd know; But all I hear is music soft and low”. With a steady 4/4 rhythm, “Tell Me” is catchier and the first song to incorporate the full sound of the band; Wasser herself picks up a guitar whilst counter melodies and falsetto harmonies delicately weave their way around the vocals. It is a fine example of her strengths; calm and wistful melodies in a beautifully arranged musical setting where voices and instruments combine perfectly, the hours spent studying orchestration were not wasted. The two older songs that follow were pared back even from the minimalist recorded versions, “Eternal Flame” and particularly “Honour Wishes” were simply breathtaking, the haunting and tight harmonies in the latter providing a really quite special moment.

With “Honour Wishes” paring things back as far as they could go, the sound builds as she uses the rest of the set to showcase the remaining songs from the “Damned Devotion” album. Like with “Tell Me”, drums and bass outline the rhythm, although the intricacy of playing took this well beyond just laying down a beat, while the keyboards and occasional guitar filled out the arrangements and whilst it never became loud, the songs gained a harder edge compared to the restrained opening. Whilst her music has always been fascinating, words have not always been her strong point and underdeveloped and sometimes clumsy metaphors have often provided the weakest points in her albums. This is something, however, that she seems to have mastered with “Damned Devotion” where perfectly constructed lyrics work alongside the exquisite music to capture moments of raw emotional honesty. “What Was it Like” is a touching tribute to her late father which she introduces by explaining how he never passed judgement on others, noting that he would say; “I could never see what passing judgment; On anybody else would ever do for me”. The most poignant line, however, is when she notes how he always supported her musical development; “My dance recitals, they were never concise; You never missed one, you were always there for me”. His selfless devotion, together with her feelings following the death of Buckley, has provided an impossible standard against which she has found others to be wanting. The ideal of finding someone with whom she can share her life remains but this is tempered by the experience that anyone she allows in will inevitably fall short of this. A breakdown in communication is a constant, “Talk About it Later” follows the earlier songs in the set in looking at the barriers we set up to keep others out of our deepest feelings. A deep descending bass makes itself felt through “Rely On”, “Valid Jagger” and “Damned Devotion”, each dealing with the complexities of her own emotions and her interpretation of those of others. With its funky collage of high pitched vocals, frantic percussion and chopped up synthesised brass, “Steed (For Jean Genet)” is just plain filthy. The highlight, however, is “The Silence”, a darkly brooding piece, again dealing with communication but this time taking it from the personal to the political, ending with the repeated chant; “My body, my choice; Her body, her choice” that provides a chilling conclusion to the set. Alongside her most recent work she includes two from “The Deep Field”, “Human Condition” and her first encore “The Magic” that both seem a little more optimistic that her recent songs and rounds things off with an almost unrecognisable cover of “Kiss”, pared back to the point that it barely existed whilst still capturing the essence of the song.

After the show and despite my age I am not above playing the fanboy and I join the queue to buy a copy of the album and get it signed whilst also asking Grace to take a photo, something I hope didn’t cause her too much embarrassment. The dark themes in much of her work made it a deeply emotional concert but also very uplifting. For years her reputation has exceeded the sales of her music and concert tickets but despite this she has been able to develop her music and a few more, at least, are now beginning to appreciate her talent. Into her late forties now, in a business as unforgiving as music she could now be considered a veteran but always being on the periphery has allowed her music to develop and she is still capable of surprising even her long standing supporters. There may not have been the intimacy that there was seven years ago but in every other respect this was a show from an artist at their absolute peak. A brilliant, moving and exciting gig which just leaves the question of who will be paying next time.

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newsnigeria · 4 years

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COVID-19 – What people say, and only 5 realities

by Amarynth, drawing together a braintrust from The Movable Feast Cafe We set up a ‘brain trust’ in the Cafe in order to write a combined sitrep for The Saker Blog about the Coronavirus. The new name in the taxonomy is COVID-19 but let’s stick to Novel Coronavirus for now. It is of course too early to come to any conclusions, but we can start isolating the discernible high level trends and perhaps get an early glimpse as to what effect the outbreak may have geopolitically and economically, although it is very early days. We will not attempt to look at the technical picture here – the numbers of recoveries, the death rates and the infection rates, rates of transmission, life of virus on surfaces and so on because the technical picture is not yet clear and all data is in a state of flux with opposing and inconsistent reports from all sides. One cannot expect otherwise as the world is still shooting at a rapidly moving target in terms of statistical ground and epidemiological analysis. In addition, we have professional organizations like the WHO and the CDC not really in lockstep and giving different pronouncements on a professional level. It is too early to draw conclusions. What people are saying: – Let us look for a moment as to what ‘people are saying’. (If you want to end up deeply into conspiracies, I would suggest you go to subReddits /r/Coronavirus and /r/China_Flu ) – What ‘people are saying’ runs the gamut from messages received in meditation, prayer, even channeling, and this information is being put out there as valid for everyone else in the face of no definitive information you can hang your hat on. – Every talking head on youtube has suddenly turned into an expert, both on China and on the Novel Coronavirus. Every uninformed blockhead has now turned into a specialist. Every Twitter feed out there now considers itself an insta-influencer. – Most of the western alternative news medias have suddenly decided to follow their governmental lead on China, and the message is overwhelmingly that Brutal China is indeed very Brutal and very Bad. Note this curse, and the spat is still continuing:

– It is a bioweapon because of how the Chinese are reacting. This was a conspiracy theory just a week ago, but now it is reaching mainstream. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/tom-cotton-demands-beijing-prove-ncov-isnt-bioweapon-another-conspiracy-theory-goes – It is bioengineered because some Indian researchers have found strands of HIV in the analysis of the virus, but then had to retract their studies. – The Chinese stole it from Canada. – The US has a patent on Coronavirus. – Just a short time before the outbreak became public, Bill Gates et al did some kind of a scenario planning on the corona virii becoming a global pandemic – http://thesaker.is/moveable-feast-cafe-2020-02-17/#comment-762067 – China is attacking her own people to reduce population – Lab Accidents happen. (this is of course a pragmatic view, but usually Level 4 laboratories are situated very far away from the center of busy cities). – Chinese dissidents spread the virus – So, China is killing its dissidents and carrying out genocide against its own people. Here is an example of this thinking: https://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=140446 – Wuhan was on the point of massive riots, Hong Kong Style against their government – The Chinese government is lying and not reporting correctly. The death rate is much higher. – The Chinese Defense Forces are riddled with virus infected soldiers, and they are being contained somewhere else. There is no information on this excepting wild speculation. – Every non-flattering video from China is being passed along salaciously; usually grainy and one cannot really figure out where it is from – no markings, road signs, store names or anything where anything can be identified. The scuttlebut is that these mostly security camera videos and actively distributed by Falun Gong. Your guess on this is as good as mine. As you can see from this list, and it is by no means exhaustive, all over the show, and there are literally 10’s more of these What the timing indicates The timing is suspicious no matter how you look at it. Manufacturing usually shuts down or goes slow over Chinese New Year / Spring Festival which can last as much as 15 days. So, economically, this was a good time for a virus (if China ‘did it’). On the other hand, this holiday gives rise to the greatest migration of people on our planet which also makes it an ideal time to infect a population (if someone outside of China ‘did it’). The timing so close to the signing of the of the US/China Phase I Trade Agreement, which the Chinese referred to as only a ‘cease fire’ in the trade war, and the US referred to as a great breakthrough, is suspicious. The Chinese were indicating that they are very hesitant to even go to a phase II negotiation. And of course, there is a black part of the actual agreement that we do not know about. The Main Tropes 1. The main trope out there is that this is a bioengineered bioweapon. But right at that point opinions diverge so widely that one can only ask questions, and not conclude anything. 2. The second trope is that people are being arrested widely. We’ve seen reports of arrests in Canada and in the US, and out of Harvard. Here is but one: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/harvard-university-professor-and-two-chinese-nationals-charged-three-separate-china-related Not only are people being arrested, some are most probably being taken out. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/canadian-scientist-center-chinese-bio-espionage-probe-found-dead-africa 3. The third trope is that China is “The Sick Man”, and we hate them for dumping this virus on the rest of us. Let me just say that the level of invective against China is not only unprecedented, it is also suspicious. Rebranding of the Coronoa Virus to the Chinese Virus is proceeding apace, even though it has a formal name now – COVID-19. In my life I have never seen such an overt manipulation of the common headspace such as this, since ‘weapons of mass destruction’. 4. The fourth trope is that the US, on a public and governmental basis has decided to vilify China, correctly or incorrectly. Note Mr Pompeo. Is he only taking an opportunity that is presented to him, or does he know more than what we think? https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pompeo-warns-governors-of-china-infiltration 5. The fifth trope is that the civilizational fear against China is suddenly out in the open for everyone to see. It is almost a morphic resonance of fear expressed against China and that China is the culprit. However, we don’t really know who the culprit is actually. We don’t even know if there is a culprit. Is China the culprit, or is China the victim, or is this a virus that spread from animal to human or has it escaped from some or other lab by accident (or on purpose)? We do not know any of this and this trope just creates more FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). 6. The sixth trope is that China is wrong no matter what she does. Quarantine and even forced quarantine is expressed by the blockheads of Brutal China Cracking Down on Their People, without thinking what is actually necessary to do for this kind of outbreak, no matter where it comes from. One after the other video supposedly from China showing the so-called Brutal Chinese government is distributed with relish, with nary a thought that you and I are actually being protected by these heavy handed tactics. The snoflakes are out in force talking about human rights, yet, by the looks of things, China is going all out protecting the many. Because there is a strange consistency in what the State (used generally) says, and what the alternative media says, this is more worrying than anything else. On the one hand nobody can believe the State, and on the other hand alternative media is reproducing and disseminating the message of the State. 7. The seventh trope is that the few voices, even here on The Saker Blog, that try to look at this realistically are drowned out in the general societal willingness to believe the worst. Viva free speech!?! The formal state, and the western alternative media are generally in lockstep on this issue. China is now attempting to go back to work. We do not know how successful this is, but some are trying to measure the actual air pollution to try and figure out if China has gone back to work, or not. Economically China has also given guidance to business, saying that this event is a force majeure, known colloquially in contractual terms as ‘an act of God’, and therefore they can renegotiate contracts, delivery dates and completion. Let us look at what is clear. 1. China is fighting for its life. The death-toll or even containment is not truly visible in any numbers as yet. This will have tremendous impact on supply lines and not only on China’s economy, but all parts of the international supply chain, upstream and downstream. China is acting on expressed unhappiness of their people. They are firing those who do not perform, who put red-tape in the path of directly fighting this virus. It may look brutal to lock people into their homes, but how many do they save by this action? Where do these get food? It is in the Chinese media that food gets delivered. This is something that the western youtube pundits (and their a-hole brothers) forget to report, although this is open and publicized in the Chinese media. 2. This is a catastrophe. It is not a flu, it is not a common cold, it is not something that 5G brought onto China, it is not God punishing the Godless red commies. Whatever it is, it is a catastrophe with world-wide consequences. We do not know enough to come to any meaningful conclusions except to say that considering the timeline, we are right to be suspicious and we may be right to prepare with the basic masks, gloves and limited public exposure, i.e., not visiting large gatherings, for a period of time. 3. If this virus continues, it will have societal impact that may be severe – we won’t shake hands, we won’t hug babies, social interaction will be vastly compromised, and a few more common contact methods like music concerts or sporting activies for humans will be left by the wayside. 4. If it continues much beyond the current level, the extensive economic fallout cannot be estimated. You and I and no analyst in the world can truly get their arms around the economic fallout and the breakdown of worldwide supply chains. Who knows, we may be out of a specific little part for a normal service of a vehicle, we may be out of medicines (the idea of the many people that are taking anti-depressants and such types of medicines having to go cold-turkey is quite scary, and there may be a severe shortage of simple medical equipment, like masks and gloves that are even now getting hard to source – just try buying masks on Amazon). 5. In the current analysis and according to what we have available, we do not yet know enough to be meaningful. Much more than that is pure speculation and gives rise to other agendas being seeded into the public narrative. What is clear, is that people are scared and terrified. Read the full article

#China

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dreamworksworddump · 7 years

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Allura: The day her world ended

Diplomatic meetings were a duty that she had to endure, but that didn’t mean that she had to pay attention. While Princess Allura knew that she would one day have to represent Altea at a meeting like this, she’d prefer to daydream while her father, King Zarkon, and the othercouncil members of the Four star alliance discussed the intricacies of outer galaxy commerce.

She wasn’t the only heir forced to the table. Across from her sat Prince Lotor, his long, white hair draped across his face as he struggled to stay awake. She smiled as his head jerked forward and he woke himself up. He lifted his head inconspiciously, and wiped away sleep from his eyes. He winked, and they both went back to ignoring the proceedings.

OoOoOoO

The next time that they meet, Allura does not daydream.

The meeting room is tense when she and her father enter. It seems strange, in such a light and airy room, to feel as if one should watch their back. Again, they sit, her father across from Zarkon and her, across from his son.

“This meeting has been called to discuss the actions of the Black Paladin, and of the future of Voltron.” C’ghar says. His wings tilt downwards, just like his mouth. “The first action that we would like to discuss, is that which occured on Dhalra during the fifth movement of the thrid quarter.” He pauses, a heavy blank for King Zarkon to fill in. King Zarkon says nothing, and his expression gives nothing away. “The Black lion left the scene of battle, abandoning the other four lions, to destroy the Kwani colony on the moon, which was a civilian base comprised of women, children and men who were unarmed. This action left Red Paladin Jahwer of Rancoult unprotected, wich resulted in his hospitalization. Do you have anything to add?” C’gahr lifts his gaze from his papers.

Her father watches with a grim expression, as Zarkon speaks. “It won the battle, did it not? And that is all that matters.”

Allura knows that one day, she too will pilot a lion. Ever since they were built, it had been the intention for the Alliance rulers to pilot, and as King Alfor grows older, her ascension grows closer. It does not surprise her that he disagrees with Zarkon’s methods. Although they had been friends since childhood, he had always regarded Galran methods as brutal; She had been taught to be careful of them since she had known of their race. What does surprise her is that her father speaks up, out of turn.

“You killed Children, Zarkon. If you will not admit your wrongdoing, will you at least atone for them?” There is a quiet hush that takes over the room at King Alfor’s words. No one has dared to strip a title in this room before, and if his accusatory words were not enough, his tone adds more insult.

Prince Lotor’s eyes are not glued to her father, as the rest of the councilmen are, but onto her. With the knowledge that she has an audience, she closes her mouth, slighty open in surprise, and molds her expression into one that expresses nothing.

King Zarkon stands. “I do not recall you stopping me when I did the same for Altea, Alfor.” He turns, his predator like gaze locked onto Emperor Mwanhay. “Nor did you, Mwanhay. In fact, not a single Paladin complained against my methods when I used them in defense of their planet, but against a hostile invader on one of my realm, you choose to take offense.”

“Perhaps so,” King Alfor begins.

Zarkon cuts him off. “If you shall complain against my methods as the leader of Voltron, then perhaps you should not be a part of this alliance.”

If the room cold get any more tense, it does. There is silence amoungst the five councilmen. A conclusion is reached. “No one suggested that, King Zarkon.” Emperor Mwanhay finally breaks the silence. His usage of Zarkon’s title seems to emphasize how no one else has been using it. “We concede to your judgement, as you are the head of Voltron, but we would appreciate it if you soften your methods.”

King Zarkon does not reply. He stands, and leaves without a word, his son trailing after him.

OoOoOoO

The first act of war was denied at the begining.

Emperor Mwanhay was so afraid of war, that he allowed King Zarcon to take the first planet in his realm without a fight. Zarcon ravaged the planet anyways.

And then he did it again.

He father calls her to the bridge of the castle, and when she arrives, she has no words to respond with. Rather than a view of Alexandrai, the neutral planet where races from all planets of the alliance meet, she sees an unfamiliar dead, rock. Where the planet was once covered in purple Klafgha, so bountiful that it was visible in orbit, the planet is brown.

“He did this.” Her father says. His eyes don’t leave the screen as pictures ghost past him. Animals dying on the side of the road. Plants, dead and wilted. People, dried and dead, like focroshes left out in the sun. “And no one even tried to stop him.”

Allura doesn’t even realize that she’s crying until her father hugs her and wipes the tears from her eyes. “I-I never thought that he could do something like this. He-he never seem-” She hiccups, and stops talking. Her father brushes her hair.

“I thought that we could trust Zarkon, too. I thought...but it’s too late.”

And Allura cries for the dead, and the planet that is no more.

OoOoOoO

Even before the meeting is over, Allura knows how it will end.

The Black lion is missing, and they all know who has it. The only person who could ever get close enough to it to take it is King Alfor. So they call a meeting, and Allura can’t help but think that it’s too small. The number of people at the table has shrunk from seven to four, amoungst them one person whom she notices the most: Prince Lotor.

He is gone. He’s been missing since it all began, and Allura can’t help but worry for him. They had been betrothed since before they were concieved; a political marriage. Allura had grown to like him, not as a suitor just yet, but as a fellow heir, forced into a role that niether of them chose. There were others too; Kings, Emperors, the heads of the alliance were disappearing one by one. With each disappearance, a planet goes silent, and another Lion disappears.

Allura knows where they go. Not exactly of course, but she’s aware that each Paladin is sending their lions away, deep into space away from their conflict. But the Black lion is with them. Her father had taken it, and although she’s not sure how, has been able to pilot it. He had managed to lock it, until the other Paladins could retrieve it themselves. The only way for Zarkon to get his lion back is to destroy the castle, and even then, it wouldn’t allow him in.

The war will be over soon, she thinks. Zarkon can’t possibly go against Altea. Alfor and Zarkon had grown up together, almost like brothers. She has known the Galran King for her whole life.

She doesn’t go to the meeting. Her father forbids it, tells her to stay in the castle in case things go awry. She’s not the type to sit and watch; she’s been training to be a Paladin one day, and she’s begun to feel more at home on the battlefield than in her castle, safe and waiting. It doesn’t scare her, but Allura knows it firghtens her father. So she watches the meeting, from her castle until the feed is broken, and then she waits again.

Suddenly the doors open.

“Launch the castle.” Her father runs into the bridge, his armor still smoldering from whatever had shot at him. “Now!”

Coran pulls out from the Cryo-pod, still half broken, and rushes to the console. The ship launches before she’s even had a chance to speak.

“But why? I thought you were working on a treaty.” Her father doesn’t stop moving from window to console. He hands grip and ungrip nervously, and his eyes flutter but do not settle. He doesn’t even show that he had heard. Allura hasn’t seen him like this since the fall of Senersia, when her mother had been left behind. “Father!”

He looks up, and she realises how much of a toll all of this has taken on him. He looks old. Older, than he should look. He has bags under his eyes, and his marks are starting to fade under his eyes, starting to blend with the brown of his skin.

“Look outside.”

“What?” Allura manages to choke out in surprise.

“Look!” He yells, pushing her towards the window.

She stumbles forward, her feet catching over themselves. She steadies herself by pressing against the window, but what she sees makes her stumble again, backwards as if she can escape from the site. Fire, red and hungry consumes her home. Zarkon hadn’t even bothered to harvest it. He had burned it. Her people-gone. Just like everything else in the past year. Prince Lotor, the council, everybody who had crossed path with Voltron.

She wants to look away, but knows that she can’t. If she doesn’t look, if she doesn’t watch her people die, then everything her father has done is in vain, and they will have accomplished nothing.

So Princess Allura watches Altea burn.

#voltron #voltron legendary defender #voltron allura #allura #king alfor #altea #pre-voltron

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dylan-stableford-blog · 7 years

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Obama: Going to Newtown was the ‘toughest day of my presidency’

Obama is briefed on the details of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

As Barack Obama continues to reflect on his legacy in a series of exit interviews, the outgoing president says he still considers the day he met with the parents of the victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 the toughest day of his presidency.

“I still consider the day I traveled up to Newtown to meet with parents and address that community as the toughest day of my presidency,” Obama told the History Channel in an interview that will air on Jan. 15, five days before he leaves office. “It’s the only time I ever saw secret service cry at an event. So it was brutal.”

Obama himself has often been moved to tears when reflecting on the mass shooting that killed 26 people — including 20 children — in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012. He teared up delivering a statement the day of the massacre, at an interfaith vigil in Newtown, and even at the White House last January while announcing executive actions designed to curb gun deaths.

“Every time I think about those kids, it makes me mad,” Obama said Jan. 5, 2016.

At a CNN town hall event on gun violence a few days later, Obama said the experience of meeting with their grieving families “continues to haunt me.”

“It wasn’t just the parents,” he told Anderson Cooper. “You had siblings, you know — 10-year-olds, 8-year-olds, 3-year-olds who in some cases didn’t even understand that their brother or sister weren’t going to be coming home.”

In a 2014 book, “The President’s Devotional,” Joshua Dubois, former head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, described those meetings, which were held in classrooms at a different school two days after the tragedy:

Person after person received an engulfing hug from our commander in chief. He’d say, “Tell me about your son … Tell me about your daughter,” and then hold pictures of the lost beloved as their parents described favorite foods, television shows, and the sound of their laughter. For the younger siblings of those who had passed away—many of them two, three, or four years old, too young to understand it all—the president would grab them and toss them, laughing, up into the air, and then hand them a box of White House M&M’s, which were always kept close at hand. In each room, I saw his eyes water, but he did not break.

And then the entire scene would repeat — for hours. Over and over and over again, through well over a hundred relatives of the fallen, each one equally broken, wrecked by the loss. After each classroom, we would go back into those fluorescent hallways and walk through the names of the coming families, and then the president would dive back in, like a soldier returning to a tour of duty in a worthy but wearing war. We spent what felt like a lifetime in those classrooms, and every single person received the same tender treatment. The same hugs. The same looks, directly in their eyes. The same sincere offer of support and prayer.

The staff did the preparation work, but the comfort and healing were all on President Obama. I remember worrying about the toll it was taking on him. And of course, even a president’s comfort was woefully inadequate for these families in the face of this particularly unspeakable loss. But it became some small measure of love, on a weekend when evil reigned.

That night, Obama spoke at the vigil, delivering what he would later call the most difficult speech he’s ever had to give.

“We gather here in memory of 20 beautiful children and six remarkable adults,” Obama said. “They lost their lives in a school that could have been any school in a quiet town full of good and decent people that could be any town in America.”

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“Here in Newtown, I come to offer the love and prayers of a nation. I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depths of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts,” he continued. “I can only hope it helps for you to know that you’re not alone in your grief, that our world, too, has been torn apart, that all across this land of ours, we have wept with you. We’ve pulled our children tight. And you must know that whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide. Whatever portion of sadness that we can share with you to ease this heavy load, we will gladly bear it. Newtown, you are not alone.”

Obama closed by reading the names of the 20 children.

“Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine, Ana, Dylan, Madeline, Catherine, Chase, Jesse, James, Grace, Emilie, Jack, Noah, Caroline, Jessica, Benjamin, Avielle, Allison,” he said. “God has called them all home.”

#mass shooting #legacy #sandy hook #_author:Dylan Stableford #_revsp:Yahoo! News #barack obama #vigil #_lmsid:a077000000CFoGyAAL #adam lanza #president obama #_uuid:a12a0e9e-39b6-30f6-975d-fad607bd178f #newtown #gun violence

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nofomoartworld · 7 years

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Hyperallergic: How August Sander and Otto Dix Recorded Fascism’s Rise

August Sander, “Turkish Mousetrap Salesman” (1924-30, printed 1990), photograph, gelatin silver print on paper, 260 x 191 mm, ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Anthony d’Offay 2010 (© Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur – August Sander Archiv, Cologne / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn and DACS, London 2017)

LIVERPOOL — A stout, late middle-aged man turns to face the camera. His warm, dark eyes suggest his initial suspicion of the photographer’s intentions has diminished. His woolen suit jacket and neatly wound scarf conceal round shoulders and a thick neck. The man’s tired and scarred face reveals someone adept at surviving adverse seasons. The fact that the photographer, August Sander, identifies him as “Turkish Mousetrap Salesman” (c. 1924-30) is mostly extraneous.

In fact, there is a discrepancy between the boundless singularity of each Sander portrait and the narrow sociological label attached to it. His photo portraits are an extensive first act in Portraying a Nation: Germany 1919-1933 at the Tate Liverpool, which couples two of Germany’s most prolific 20th-century portraitists, Sander and Otto Dix.

Sander developed his aesthetic in the wake of the 19th-century pseudoscience of human physiognomy. He reached his peak in the 1920s, amid the rise of the Nazi party and cataclysmic racialism of The Third Reich, which was predicated on eugenics. Somehow, though, the artist’s preoccupation with faces, bodies, and social types does not come across as exploitive or repressive to his subjects. It is hard to disagree with German intellectual (and Sander’s contemporary) Walter Benjamin, who lauded Sander’s photography for its “tender empiricism.”

August Sander, “Secretary at West German Radio in Cologne” (1931, printed 1992), photograph, gelatin silver print on paper, 260 x 149 mm, ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Anthony d’Offay 2010 (© Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur – August Sander Archiv, Cologne / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn and DACS, London 2017)

The nearly 150 photographs featured in the Tate exhibition represent only a small portion of Sander’s open-ended and incomplete project, titled People of the Twentieth Century. Sander thought of portrait photography as “a mosaic that becomes synthesis only when it is presented en masse” and he believed that by taking unsentimental pictures across demographics, the camera can “fix the history of the world.” That lifelong undertaking was first conceived in 1910 and its early results were published in his book Faces of Our Time (1929).

Detached almost to the point of appearing clinical, Sander’s photography offers no explicit critique of Weimar Germany’s economic and sociopolitical climate or considerable class divides. Yet, because he shed so much light on the physical toll paid by the working class, farmers, minorities and displaced members of the upper class, he is hardly a propagandist for capitalism’s status quo.

Born in 1876 into a working-class Cologne family, Sander worked for a time as a miner. Following his military service, he apprenticed as a photographer throughout Germany before coming into his own with photography assignments in Linz, Austria, and eventually opening a studio in Cologne. After serving in the medical corps during the First World War, he departed from his Cologne studio and hit the road on a bicycle to take local portraits in the rural regions outside his native city and, later, in the nooks and crannies of urban spaces.

Sander favored large format cameras that could replicate what he termed the “delicacy of the delineation” in early daguerreotypes, over newer, compact technologies. Using mostly natural lighting, his minimally staged shooting and documentarian ethos — epitomized by a fully frontal approach with limited depth of field — reproduce their human subjects squarely within their milieu.

August Sander, “August Sander” (1925, printed 1990), photograph, gelatin silver print on paper, 258 x 195 mm, ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland. Presented by Gerd Sander 2009 (© Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur – August Sander Archiv, Cologne / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn and DACS, London 2017)

Sander’s photographs are organized chronologically and surrounded with detailed timelines explaining the political and economic fluctuations destabilizing a culturally vibrant and diverse Germany. Details of Weimar Germany’s war debt, hyperinflation, mass unemployment and ineffective domestic policies enrich the emotional impact of Sander’s portraits of ordinary people. How many of Sander’s subjects intuited the slow-burning political catastrophe? And who among these individuals was complicit in that reactionary sway? Who survived it and who did not? These questions reflect back on our own politically desperate era, often with eerie resonance.

And, as in our uneasy times, the material trappings of Sander’s world attest to the precariousness of daily life. The haves and the have-nots seem equally vulnerable. “Beggar” (1926) focuses on an elderly man’s quizzical gaze and serene dignity while foregrounding the dispossessed man’s contiguous space: the sooty pavement on which he sits; the iron gate looming behind him; and the brickwork pillars boxing him in. The up-close, softly lit compositions produce an aura of tranquility even in the midst of disconcerting situations, as with the burly and legless “Disabled Ex-servicemen” (1928) in his wooden wheelchair, alone at the foot of sidewalk steps, or in images of anodyne aristocrats or bureaucrats, like the lanky, nattily-dressed “Public Prosecutor” (1931), with his beady-eyed attentiveness.

Frequently, Sander’s framing of his subjects yields refined abstract effects. “Nun” (1921) shows a ruddy face, barely visible through an ovoid gap formed from the woman’s tight fitting wimple. A religious pendant dangles into the midpoint of her white scapular, which, in its granularity, resembles a painter’s blank canvas. Like many such portraits, these cold symmetries — visible in work implements, interior furnishings, and sartorial particulars — call the viewer’s attention to the far less assured facets of an individual face and body.

Sander knew when to pick his moments. The candor of his subjects challenges the stereotypes enforced in the photographs’ titles. The derisively titled “Cretin” (1924) depicts a dwarf standing between handles of a pushcart. Dressed in a dark three-piece suit and holding a lit cigarette in his left hand, the young man’s mien projects self-assuredness, streetwise skepticism and aggressive irony.

If Sander’s work makes visible the workaday vivacities of academics, bohemians, housewives and children, Otto Dix’s art tears away those surfaces to portray an unruly domain of endless combat and vain materialism, sadistic violence and drunken debauchery.

August Sander, “The Painter Otto Dix and his Wife Martha” (1925-6, printed 1991), photograph, gelatin silver print on paper, 205 x 241 mm, ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Anthony d’Offay 2010 (© Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur – August Sander Archiv, Cologne / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn and DACS, London 2017)

Like Sander, Dix, born in 1891, came from a working-class family. He volunteered for World War I, serving as a machine-gunner on the Eastern and Western Front, where he sustained serious wounds. By the early 1920s, Dix’s painting began to gain wider notice; the mid-1920s marked his most productive period. The polychromatic dynamism of Weimar Germany runs rampant in his drawings, etchings and paintings, including rarely seen watercolors featured in Portraying a Nation.

Dix’s postwar paintings exemplify the stylized realism of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), a predominant art movement in Weimar Germany. His paintings and prints draw on past masters, such as German Renaissance painters Matthias Grünewald and Hans Baldung Grien, as well as Francisco Goya, who retooled traditional realism to his own ends. While studying at the Königliche Kunstgewerbeschule (Royal School of Arts and Crafts) in Dresden, Dix absorbed the explosive harmonies produced by Vincent Van Gogh. This boisterous impressionism freed him to portray war and its consequences in uncensored physical totalities. His art speaks to infernal traumas and corporal tortures, spontaneous ferocities and methodical brutalities that define humanity as an insatiably war-hungry species.

Otto Dix, “Assault Troops Advance under Gas (Sturmtruppe geht unter Gas vor)” (1924), etching on paper, 196 x 291 mm, Otto Dix Stiftung (© DACS 2017. Image: Otto Dix Stiftung)

Comprised of five portfolios containing ten prints each, Dix’s 1924 etching series War (Der Krieg), based on his experience in WWI, will overwhelm the viewer’s senses. Life and death intermingle. Ravaged corpses resemble suffering bodies, gas masks evoke unburied skulls, human viscera dissolves into earth, and troops are indistinguishable from the fiery trenches and ravaged landscapes in which they advance and retreat, fight and die. Standing before these harrowing images of war, injury, and death, the viewer can almost touch the barbed wire and smell the mustard gas.

Dix’s portraits of Weimar Germany’s social life, including artists, bohemians, and his friends, brilliantly capture the affectations and styles of his subjects. His portraiture documents the hedonism and heady atmosphere that pervaded certain sectors of German life in the 1920s. “Portrait of the Jeweler Karl Krall” (1923) captures the campy arrogance of the nouveau riche in the middle aged, bespectacled jeweler’s ostentatious pose and self-congratulatory air.

Otto Dix, “Portrait of the Jeweler Karl Krall” (1923), oil paint on canvas, 905 x 605 mm, Kunst und Museumsverein im Von der Heydt Museum Wuppertal, Germany (Kunst- und Museumsverein im Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal / Photo: Antje Zeis-Loi, Medienzentrum Wuppertal. © DACS 2017)

Krall’s expertly tailored brown suit blends into a velvety backdrop of greens and browns. He appears both hyper-animated and superfluous, just another colorful object in a jeweler’s atelier. His disproportionately large hands, one adorned with a pinky ring, clasp his willowy hips, while his torso undulates upward in a sweep of feminine curves. His pursed lips, reddened cheeks and bald head blaze like gaudy jewels, rippling with pinks and blues.

For a portrait of photographer Hugo Erfurth with his dog from 1926, Dix depicts the man and dog in parallel profiles against a turquoise wall and a brown and gold curtain. As in the Krall portrait, a well-appointed interior serves as a stage for spotlighting the pathos of upper middle-class German life. Dix skillfully attends to the large dog’s vigorous musculature and firm posture, sleek hair, firm ears, half-opened jaw, beveled teeth and protruding tongue, and alert orange and brown eye; each canine feature has a counterpoint in Erfurth’s human figure — his stooped shoulders, sagging cheek, prominent chin and floppy ears, and mild, uncertain and glazed eyes.

Dix frequently conflates the animal and human kingdoms, undermining human civilization’s illusion of progress or superiority. Even the most passionate lovers in his artworks evoke prey and predator. In the frequently reproduced painting, “Reclining Woman on a Leopard Skin,” (1927), the scantily clad woman’s bare left arm, vanishing in and out of the leopard skin, suggests a metamorphosis, underscored by her feline gaze. Although she seems to lurch out from the picture plane, she appears to be arrested in her forward motion. As in many of Dix’s eroticized portraits, the viewer is both drawn in and driven back. We are voyeurs, complicit in Dix’s creation of an irresistible human zoo.

August Sander, “National Socialist, Head of Department of Culture” (c.1938, printed 1990), photograph, gelatin silver print on paper, 260 x 192 mm, ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Anthony d’Offay 2010 (© Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur – August Sander Archiv, Cologne / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn and DACS, London 2017)

The range of human situations and individualized histories in Portraying a Nation are nearly impossible to summarize. For Sander and Dix, as for the rest of Germany and the wider world, the aftershocks of The Third Reich continued for years after the war. Sander’s plates for Faces of Our Time were destroyed by the Nazis, and, in 1946, thirty thousand of his negatives were destroyed in a basement fire. As for Dix, he was dismissed from his teaching position at the Dresden Academy of Fine Art following Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, and his art was famously paraded in the state-sponsored Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition in 1937. Though both men lived on for decades after the war, neither totally recovered the creative momentum of the Weimar period. These images and histories linger in one’s memory long after the visitor leaves the Tate’s sharply curated exhibition.

With fascism on the rise — and, arguably, already governing in the United States and elsewhere — the cliché “it can’t happen here” comes to mind. As Portraying a Nation demonstrates, that it that can’t happen here, does. Moreover, it is hard to comprehend its mechanisms when they are working upon us, and harder still to grasp how what is happening now was already set in motion.

Portraying a Nation: Germany 1919-1933 continues at the Tate Liverpool (Albert Dock, Liverpool Waterfront, Liverpool) through October 15.

The post How August Sander and Otto Dix Recorded Fascism’s Rise appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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junker-town · 7 years

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NXT TakeOver: Orlando results: It’s a Glorious era in NXT

It was a historic night with new title belts and five jaw-dropping matches for NXT in Orlando.

It was a huge night for NXT at TakeOver: Orlando, with five incredibly intense matches featuring a long-running grudge getting settled, a massive new debut, and three huge title matches. Even more, all three championships were given new title belts, with three massively and fearfully talented champions all retaining their championships on the night.

We’re entering a new era in NXT, and it’s hard to imagine a better way to kick it off than what we saw on Saturday night. The future is bright — so bright, in fact, you could say that it’s Glorious.

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SAnitY (Eric Young, Killian Dane, Alexander Wolfe, and Nikki Cross) def. Tye Dillinger, Roderick Strong, Ruby Riot, and Kassius Ohno

After SAnitY assaulted No Way Jose at an NXT event earlier in the day, Tye Dillinger and his allies were left a man short ahead of a brutal clash against their vicious rivals. That left them scrambling to find someone to even the odds, and in stepped Kassius Ohno to join Dillinger, Roderick Strong, and the debuting Ruby Riot as a big-time equalizer against the brutal force of SAnitY.

Ohno and Ruby were able to control the early stretch of the match against Alexander Wolfe and Nikki Cross. A brief distraction from Eric Young allowed Wolfe to blindside Ohno, though, and SAnitY took control of the match, punishing Ohno and then Roderick Strong. Killian Dane made his presence felt in a big way, showing shocking amounts of athleticism in addition to simple, mean viciousness to grind Strong down.

Finally, though, Dillinger was able to get the hot tag and absolutely cleaned house on SAnitY, clearing the ring before the inevitable skirmish outside of the ring, but once things came back inside the ring, Dillinger took full control again, unloading on Eric Young before things broke down again, with Ohno cleaned out by Young, Strong taken out of the equation by Young moments later, Riot hurting herself trying to deal with Cross, and finally Dane and Wolfe combining to utterly destroy Dillinger.

After everything Dillinger has been through with SAnitY and all the struggles he had before clashing with them, it’s hard to see where he goes from here — but for Eric Young and SAnitY, it all looks up from here. All four members could easily soon be involved in title battles, with Nikki Cross well positioned to challenge for the NXT Women’s Championship, Dane and Wolfe looking like an excellent tag team combination, and Young easily able to insert himself into the NXT Championship picture. The coming months could be very, very successful for NXT’s strangest faction.

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Aleister Black def. Andrade “Cien” Almas

This was a big-time match for a big-time debuting talent, with Aleister Black making his long-awaited NXT debut. A dark and powerful entrance heralded an incredibly intense affair against one of NXT’s most arrogant talents in “Cien” Almas. Black and El Idolo went toe-to-toe in the early stages of the match, but Cien’s cockiness was on full display, and very clearly brought out the ire or Black, who was utterly disinterested in dealing with his antics.

Black used a vicious series of strikes to take control of the match, putting Almas on the back foot to a degree that we’ve rarely seen during his time in NXT. The man once known as La Sombra had to pull out some of his dirtiest tricks to slow Aleister down, including a try at a cross armbreaker while hanging from the ropes that seemed to take a toll on the Dutch wrestler’s left arm.

Almas spent a lot of time working on that arm to try and wear Black down, but Black was able to turn a tiny opening into a brutal series of strikes that ended with Cien tumbling out of the ring, setting black up for a big moonsault out of the ring that took a big toll on El Idolo. Almas was finally able to go back to work on Black’s arm, though, appearing for a short time to be about to ruin Aleister’s debut — but Black kept fighting out, leading to an incredible back-and-forth sequence that not only made Black look fantastic, but showed some of the best wrestling we’ve seen from Almas in a long, long time.

Finally, though, Black took full and final control of the match with a series of vicious strikes to Almas’ head, including one that looked like it knocked the Mexican wrestler out. Black wasn’t done yet, though, going so far as to toy with Cien, picking him up only to hit him with one more incredibly stiff spinning kick to the jaw that put the match to an end.

It’s clear that Black will quickly be positioned to be a major force in NXT, because his talent won’t allow anything else. One of these days, the NXT Championship will be won as the lights fade to black on whichever unfortunate soul is unlucky enough to face Aleister Black.

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Authors of Pain (c) def. #DIY and The Revival

A chaotic tag-team triple threat elimination match match was as entertaining as it was potent, with the Authors of Pain using their brute strength as a weapon against #DIY’s entertaining, high-energy style and The Revival’s craft and guile to

The early stages of the match saw the enmity between #DIY’s Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa and The Revival’s Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder take center stage, with each team refusing to bail each other out against the Authors of Pain after the initial brawl. They finally wound up being able to take the Authors out of the picture for a few minutes and go toe-to-toe, but that was put to a halt when the Authors’ Rezar started literally using Gargano as a weapon to take out Ciampa and The Revival.

Finally, though, Gargano was able to get a hot tag to Ciampa, who came in and cleared the ring, nearly eliminating Akam and the Authors from the match with two shocking snap suplexes and a huge knee to the head. A momentary alliance between #DIY and The Revival saw them put Rezar through a table while Akam was reeling in the ring, with Gargano and Dawson combining a pair of submissions on Akam before Rezar bulled his way back into the ring, getting through Dash and Ciampa to break it up.

It looked like their temporary alliance was going to see the Authors’ reign end early, but the overwhelming power of the two giant wrestlers was just too much to take on. Ciampa and Gargano were beaten down hard while The Revival were too far too help, and Ciampa was finally put through the Authors’ Last Chapter finishing move to eliminate the former champs, much to the fans’ chagrin.

The Revival did their best to cheat and fight their way to a win, but they just didn’t have enough left in the tank to beat the Authors of Pain on their own. They came close several times, but all it took was one Super Collider to put The Revival away and claim the brand new, redesigned NXT Tag Team Championship belts as the lone dominant force of the tag team division.

WWE.com

Asuka (c) def. Ember Moon

A rivalry that had just been a passionate war of words until Saturday night did not disappoint once Asuka and Ember Moon got inside the ring. The NXT Women’s Championship has long been an incredibly important title to fight over, and tonight’s championship match certainly emphasized that, in a back and forth battle that left fans all over the world absolutely dazzled by its quality.

Asuka started with the early advantage, overwhelming Ember Moon with powerful strikes, but she got too deliberate in an attempt to apply her trademark Asuka Lock and left Ember Moon an opening to get back into the match. That kicked off a long back-and-forth spell that saw both women on top of the momentum at different times, with both women taking huge amounts of punishment in the process.

Ember Moon finally went up in the corner to try to hit her devastating and flashy Eclipse finishing move, but Asuka was able to slow her down for a moment before Ember fought her off. She went for the Eclipse a second time, but Asuka actually threw the referee into her to knock her off balance. After that, it was a simple task to finish off the stunned Ember Moon, and Asuka retained her title with ease.

This rivalry is far from finished, though — losing like that will almost certainly sit poorly with a wrestler like Ember Moon who has always shown that honor is important to her, and she will be back very soon for a rematch. She showed Asuka that she can hang with her very evenly, and if she can figure out how to keep the playing field level, Ember Moon could very easily come back and win the title from the still-undefeated Asuka.

WWE.com

Bobby Roode (c) def. Shinsuke Nakamura

This is a match that was as good and as brutal as it had promised to be when Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode faced off in San Antonio, a match that was ultimately decided largely by a knee injury to the then-champion Nakamura. Roode exploited that injury en route to winning the NXT Championship, and he tried to work on that knee again early in their rematch in Orlando.

Nakamura was resilient, though, and they had a tense, back-and-forth opening to the match that was very, very even throughout, though Nakamura was able to find a burst of momentum that saw him get a good run on top of the match. He had Roode set up for a Kinshasa knee strike in the middle of the ring — but Roode was playing possum, rolling out of the way before taking Nakamura down with a chop block to his still-healing left knee, then going to work on his bad leg in vicious fashion, including a long-held Figure Four leglock in the middle of the ring that Nakamura struggled to fight out of.

Shinsuke was finally able to roll Roode over to break the hold, though, and quickly transitioned to a series of submissions of his own, going from a Cross Armbreaker to a triangle choke, then back to the armbreaker. The momentum was well and truly reversed, with Roode struggling just to keep up — until he was able to slide away from Nakamura’s top-rope knee strike, forcing Shinsuke’s injured knee into the turnbuckle instead of Roode’s chest.

Roode couldn’t take advantage, though, with Nakamura stealing the momentum again, finally getting Roode set up for another Kinshasa, only for Roode to roll out of the ring before he could strike. That gave Roode the time he needed to gather himself enough to hit a Glorious DDT, though that wasn’t enough to finish Nakamura off just yet.

Frustration set in for the champion then, leaving Nakamura prone in the ring while he went outside to retrieve the match bell, apparently willing to take a disqualification to keep his title. Nakamura took advantage to hit an exploder suplex before trying for another Kinshasa, but Roode countered it into a huge spinebuster. With his injured arm, though, Roode struggled to get Nakamura up for another Glorious DDT, giving Nakamura one last chance to fight back.

It wasn’t to be Shinsuke’s night, though — he looked like he tweaked his knee again as he forced Roode up into the corner, allowing Roode to get up onto the middle rope and add a tornado spin to the Glorious DDT before putting Nakamura away for good.

The match may have had a slower pace than fans were hoping for, but that doesn’t detract from the sheer quality of their battle. Roode beating Nakamura the way he did cemented the legitimacy of his championship pedigree, and he’s going to be the new leader of a new era of NXT. Now, TakeOver: Orlando will forever be known as the place where Bobby Roode cemented his legacy as the top talent of NXT.

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superscrat · 7 years

Text

Harder Than You Know

Steve Rogers always ran without music. Natasha had offered to teach him how to load music onto his iPhone, but he’d politely declined, in part because he barely knew how to work the damn thing to begin with, and also because he had enough in his head without the barrage of beats and lyrics that were, quite frankly, irritating at best. Modern music had nothing on the big bands of his youth. Every morning, Steve put on a pair of beaten up Nike running shoes, and ran, just him and his thoughts. He ran for a lot of reasons, not just to stay fit, but also to try, desperately, to clear his mind. It rarely worked out that way, though.

Today, he laced up, quickly stretched his quads, and exited through the front door of Stark Tower. There was something to be said for being on ice for 70 years, Steve thought bitterly as he jogged away from the building. While frozen in the ice, he hadn't had to deal with the omnipresent nagging thoughts of Bucky. He shook his head and picked up the pace, heading for the Manhattan Bridge, and what was on the other side. Home. Brooklyn sure didn’t look like the Brooklyn that Steve remembered as a child, but running its streets occasionally soothed the raging thoughts flying through his head. The thoughts of Bucky remained, though, no matter how hard he ran; constant and inescapable. Steve had tried in the past to zone out and just run, but that was a poor life choice, having resulted in close encounters with three city buses, a semi or two, and more than a few taxis. He had to stay alert, but alert was a relative term.

Bucky.

When he was in the ice, he hadn't had to wrestle with the guilt and the gripping depression from the loss of his best friend, the only one who'd ever been in his corner ever since he was just Steve Rogers in Brooklyn. He hadn't had to find ways to manage the memories that were rudely thrust back into his brain every time he shut his eyes: playing catch in the street, the first time he saw Bucky as Bucky, the love of his life and not just his best friend…the first time he was able to save Bucky, instead of the other way around, at Azzano. He hadn't had to picture, daily, the time he failed in that duty. He’d never remove from his head the memory of watching his best friend fall to his death, and being powerless to stop it.

God, Buck, I'm sorry.

Steve kept running.

He'd finally accepted it, that Bucky was dead and he was still alive, that his bed would always be empty, and that his heart would never be whole again. It hadn't made things any easier. Even accepting that Bucky wasn't coming back didn't take away the guilt, and it definitely did not take away the fact that he'd never love someone the way he loved Bucky. Peggy had been sweet, sure, but even Peggy had understood that while Steve did love her, he was in love with Bucky. But both of them were gone; Bucky lost to him before he went in the ice, and Peggy lost to him through the natural human aging process and the toll it often took on the mind.

Then Bucky came back.

Believing that it was Bucky who had come back into his life was like believing Santa Claus was real, though, and Steve had never been one for fairy tales and blatant lies. While the Winter Soldier’s shell may have looked like Bucky, with the addition of that impressive metal arm, whatever was inside the shell was not the James Buchanen Barnes that Steve had grown up with.

Despite all of that, it had been hard not to run to him. It took everything Steve had in him that day to not take Bucky in his arms, and kiss him senseless, but reality set in remarkably quickly when the Winter Soldier’s eyes showed no signs of recognition. Bucky didn’t even know his own identity, not really. He’d try to kill Steve, and despite the busted lip and black eye, Steve still clung to the hope that Bucky, his Bucky, was locked away in some hidden recess of the Winter Soldier’s tormented mind.

“I’m not gonna fight you.”

Steve’s chest felt tight, and not only from the impressive pace he’d maintained for the last five miles. “Five down, a million more to go,” he muttered to no one but himself and, though he slowed to a light jog, he kept running. He was coming up on the streets of his childhood, but today, Steve had to turn around. He couldn’t bring himself to run past so many familiar places.

There was no reason, in his current state of mind, that he needed to run past the alley in which Bucky had first said, “I think I love you, Stevie,” and then kissed him full on the lips. He’d seen stars that day. They both had, and giggled about it later, while huddled under a blanket in a foxhole during a particularly brutal cold snap in the War, hiding from both the enemy and the prying eyes of their comrades. Steve already wanted to stop and crawl under a rock remembering both of those days, and all the days in between – he didn’t need to physically see the alley today in all its filthy glory.

He didn’t need to see the diner-turned-coffeehouse where they’d gone for dinner so many times, always careful not to let it slip what they really were to each other.

He definitely didn’t need to see the site of the old tenement in which he and Bucky had first discovered each other.

He didn’t need to see any of it, because his overactive neurons already wouldn’t let him forget. Something about the serum had drastically improved Steve’s memory, along with the rapid-fire of his thoughts, and he was rarely sure if either of those was a good thing.

Bucky, come on. You know me. You know who I am.

I don’t.

I know you do! It’s me. Christ, it’s me, it’s Stevie. You have to remember.

Get the hell away from me. I don’t fucking know you.

It felt like knives were shredding Steve’s lungs and he doubled over, suddenly winded, with angry tears stinging his eyes. It was a daydream, nothing more, but one that replayed in his mind just often enough to keep the wounds from his loss open and fresh.

He stayed bent at the waist for a few moments, breathing deeply, garnering a handful of curious glances from passerby, all the while struggling to reign in his emotions before continuing back to his home.

“Home,” Steve scoffed.

What the hell did home mean anymore? Home was still Brooklyn. Steve shook his head, because that was a lie. Home wasn’t Brooklyn, and home certainly wasn’t Tony Stark’s ultra-modern skyscraper. Home had always been wherever Bucky was. Home had changed so many times with Bucky…first the cramped tenement, then barracks at basic training, and the foxhole they’d shared. Steve would’ve followed him anywhere, and did, until Bucky had fallen that day so many years ago. He wished, more often than not, that he’d fallen from the train, too.

For today and every day since Steve was woken up, though, home didn’t mean Bucky. Home meant returning to Stark Tower. It meant walking in the door with a cool façade, making polite chit-chat with Natasha, Bruce, or whomever happened to be in the common area at the time, and then going to his quarters.

It meant locking his door, putting on a record, maybe The Andrews Sisters or Glenn Miller, and turning the music up as high as he could stand it to try to drown out the thoughts he couldn’t talk about with anyone.

It meant crying, curled up in a ball on the bed, wrapped in every blanket he had, hugging the pillow and wishing, praying that someday, Bucky would come back to him.

Steve stood for a minute, frozen in place on the sidewalk, unsure of what to do next. He didn’t want to go to Stark Tower, but he didn’t want to go anywhere else either. Finally, he settled on the only sure option, and started running back towards Manhattan.

Maybe tonight would be different. Maybe he wouldn’t cry tonight. Maybe he’d be the version of himself the rest of the world saw when he was Captain America: strong and oh so sure of himself. Ha, not likely. But maybe…maybe.

The only thing Steve knew for certain was that no matter what happened when he got back to Stark Tower, or how fast he ran, he’d never stop dreaming of Bucky, of happier times, and of the future. Until the day came to pass when Bucky finally woke up himself from his nightmare with HYDRA, Steve would maintain the status quo of simply going through the motions each day until he was able to lace up his shoes again and hit the pavement.

Running was easy – battling with his own mind was the hard part, but he’d manage. Somehow, he always did.

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Are we just lost in time? I wonder if your love's the same 'Cause I'm not over you. Baby, don't talk to me I'm trying to let go Not loving you is harder than you know – “Harder Than You Know” by Escape the Fate

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Loosely inspired by "Harder Than You Know" by Escape the Fate, the audio of which can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMMuGuli6fg

This is my first fic in at least 10 years, and it's un-beta'ed...apologies.

#harder than you know #stucky #steve rogers #bucky barnes #steve x bucky #bucky x steve #bucky barnes x steve rogers #steve rogers x bucky barnes #fanfiction #fanfic #captain america

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