#songs of an eastern humanist
Text
I fled with my heart's
Roof torn open, blown apart
Excerpt from Wistful Music by Edward Said
#alliwanttodoiscollectpoetry#poem#poetry#poems#poet#poets#anthology#tumblr poetry#poem of the day#poetry blog#poemblr#poetblr#Edward said#songs of an eastern humanist#wistful music#poemsdaily#India#Pakistan#subcontinent#literature#history
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
Holidays 5.16
Holidays
Biographer's Day
Coquilles St. Jacques Day
Drawing Day
European Maritime Day
HAE (Hereditary Angioedema) Day
Honor Our LGBT Elders Day
International Celiac Awareness Day
International Day of Light
International Day of Living Together in Peace
International Day of Protest Against Shock Treatment
International Day of the Boy Child
Love A Tree Day
Martyrs of Sudan Day (Episcopal Church)
Mass Graves Day (Iraq)
Middlesex Day (UK)
Moonwalk Day
National Biographer’s Day
National Check Your Wipers Day
National Coquilles St. Jacques Day
National Day (South Sudan)
National Dengue Day (India)
National Denim Day for the CURE Foundation (Canada)
National Do Something Good For Your Neighbor Day
National Horse Rescue Day (Australia)
National Piercing Day
National Take Your Parents to the Playground Day
Nickel Day (US)
Ohio Players Day (Dayton, Ohio)
Pencil Day
Red Hill Holiday (Russia)
Romani Resistance Day
Sea Monkey Day
Sikkim Day (India)
Sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" in Rounds Day
Sneeze Without Embarrassment Day
South Sudan Day
SPLA Day (South Sudan)
Sun Bear Day
Teachers’ Day (Malaysia)
Try Not To Be As Stupid Today As You Normally Are Day
Ubald (Jesus, Pennsylvania)
Wear Purple For Peace Day
World Agri-Tourism Day
World Barrett’s Day
World Bloodless Surgery Day
World Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG) Awareness Day
World Day of Heavy Metal
World Education Support Personnel Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Gluten-Free Beer Day (Portland, Oregon)
Hires Root Beer Day
International Pickle Day
Mimosa Day
National BBQ Day
Root Beer Day
Spaghetti-O's Day
3rd Tuesday in May
International Dinosaur Day [3rd Tuesday; also 6.1]
National Stop Nausea Day [3rd Tuesday]
Sex Differences in Health Awareness Day [3rd Tuesday]
Independence Days
Boshka (Declared; 2007) [unrecognized]
Intercontinental Republic of the Americas (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]
New Somerset (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]
Feast Days
Aaron (Coptic Church)
Abda and Abdjesus, and companions (Christian; Saint)
Abdas of Susa (Christian; Saint)
Advanced Tree Hugging and Arborial Sex Day (Pastafarian)
Andrew Bobola (Christian; Saint)
Beige Fraggle (Muppetism)
Bismarck Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Brendan the Navigator (Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church)
Caroline Chisholm (Church of England)
Gemma Galgani (Passionists Calendar)
Germerius (Christian; Saint)
Hadrian (Positivist; Saint)
Honoratus of Amiens (Christian; Saint)
John of Nepomuk (Christian; Saint) [Bohemia, Czech Republic]
Margaret of Cortona (Christian; Saint)
Martyrs of Sudan (Episcopal Church (USA))
Peregrine of Auxerre (Christian; Saint)
Simon Stock (Christian; Saint)
Skinny Dipping Day (Pastafarian)
Tamara de Lempicka (Artology)
Ubald (Christian; Saint)
Woody Herman (Humanist; Saint)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]
Uncyclopedia Bad to Be Born Today (because Wikipedia launched.)
Premieres
Agent in Place, by Helen MacInnes (Novel; 1976)
Annie Get Your Gun (Broadway Musical; 1946)
Beer The Movie (Film; 2006)
Breaker Morant (Film; 1980)
But Seriously, Folks…, by Joe Walsh (Album; 1978)
Day of the Locust, by Nathanael West (Novel; 1939)
The Eighth Day, buy Thornton Wilder (Novel; 1967)
Fame (Film; 1980)
Godzilla (Film; 2014)
Great Lion of God, by Taylor Caldwell (Novel; 1970)
The Iceman Ducketh (WB LT Cartoon; 1964)
I’d Love to Take Orders from You (WB MM Cartoon; 1936)
(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again, by Elton John and Taron Egerton (Song; 2019)
Live at Leeds, by The Who (Live Album; 1970)
Moonlight Becomes You, by Mary Higgins Clark (Novel; 1996)
Oops!… I Did It Again, by Britney Spears (Album; 2000)
Pet Sounds, by The Beach Boys (Album; 1966)
Que Sera, Sera *Whatever Will Be, Will Be), by Doris Day (Song; 1956)
Shrek (Animated Film; 2001)
Star Trek: Into Darkness (Film; 2013)
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (Film; 2002)
Summer Wind, recorded by Frank Sinatra (Song; 1966)
Sweet Liberty (Film; 1986)
Tennessee River, by Alabama (Song; 1980)
Top Gun (Film; 1986)
Two Gun Goofy (Disney Cartoon; 1952)
Today’s Name Days
Adolf, Johann (Austria)
Adam, Cvjetko, Ivan (Croatia)
Přemysl (Czech Republic)
Sara (Denmark)
Esta, Este, Ester, Esti (Estonia)
Essi, Ester, Esteri (Finland)
Brendan, Honoré (France)
Adolf, Johann Nepomuk (Germany)
Botond, Mózes (Hungary)
Adamo, Margherita, Oderzo, Tiziano, Ubaldo (Italy)
Edijs, Edvīns, Inese, Inesis (Latvia)
Andrius, Ubaldas, Vaidmantas (Lithuania)
Sara, Siren (Norway)
Andrzej, Honorat, Jan Nepomucen, Jędrzej, Szymon, Trzebomysł, Ubald, Wieńczysław, Wiktorian (Poland)
Natan, Paisie, Sila, Teodor (România)
Svetozár (Slovakia)
Honorato, Simón, Ubaldo (Spain)
Ronald, Ronny (Sweden)
Brand, Branden, Brandi, Brandon, Brandy, Brannon, Brant, Brenda, Brendan, Brenden, Brendon, Brenna, Brennan, Brent, Brenton (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 136 of 2024; 229 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 2 of week 20 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Huath (Hawthorn) [Day 3 of 28]
Chinese: Month 3 (Bing-Chen), Day 27 (Jia-Xu)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 25 Iyar 5783
Islamic: 25 Shawwal 1444
J Cal: 15 Bīja; Oneday [15 of 30]
Julian: 3 May 2023
Moon: 10%: Waning Crescent
Positivist: 24 Caesar (5th Month) [Hadrian]
Runic Half Month: Ing (Expansive Energy) [Day 7 of 15]
Season: Spring (Day 58 of 90)
Zodiac: Taurus (Day 27 of 30)
0 notes
Text
Holidays 5.16
Holidays
Biographer's Day
Coquilles St. Jacques Day
Drawing Day
European Maritime Day
HAE (Hereditary Angioedema) Day
Honor Our LGBT Elders Day
International Celiac Awareness Day
International Day of Light
International Day of Living Together in Peace
International Day of Protest Against Shock Treatment
International Day of the Boy Child
Love A Tree Day
Martyrs of Sudan Day (Episcopal Church)
Mass Graves Day (Iraq)
Middlesex Day (UK)
Moonwalk Day
National Biographer’s Day
National Check Your Wipers Day
National Coquilles St. Jacques Day
National Day (South Sudan)
National Dengue Day (India)
National Denim Day for the CURE Foundation (Canada)
National Do Something Good For Your Neighbor Day
National Horse Rescue Day (Australia)
National Piercing Day
National Take Your Parents to the Playground Day
Nickel Day (US)
Ohio Players Day (Dayton, Ohio)
Pencil Day
Red Hill Holiday (Russia)
Romani Resistance Day
Sea Monkey Day
Sikkim Day (India)
Sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" in Rounds Day
Sneeze Without Embarrassment Day
South Sudan Day
SPLA Day (South Sudan)
Sun Bear Day
Teachers’ Day (Malaysia)
Try Not To Be As Stupid Today As You Normally Are Day
Ubald (Jesus, Pennsylvania)
Wear Purple For Peace Day
World Agri-Tourism Day
World Barrett’s Day
World Bloodless Surgery Day
World Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG) Awareness Day
World Day of Heavy Metal
World Education Support Personnel Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Gluten-Free Beer Day (Portland, Oregon)
Hires Root Beer Day
International Pickle Day
Mimosa Day
National BBQ Day
Root Beer Day
Spaghetti-O's Day
3rd Tuesday in May
International Dinosaur Day [3rd Tuesday; also 6.1]
National Stop Nausea Day [3rd Tuesday]
Sex Differences in Health Awareness Day [3rd Tuesday]
Independence Days
Boshka (Declared; 2007) [unrecognized]
Intercontinental Republic of the Americas (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]
New Somerset (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]
Feast Days
Aaron (Coptic Church)
Abda and Abdjesus, and companions (Christian; Saint)
Abdas of Susa (Christian; Saint)
Advanced Tree Hugging and Arborial Sex Day (Pastafarian)
Andrew Bobola (Christian; Saint)
Beige Fraggle (Muppetism)
Bismarck Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Brendan the Navigator (Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church)
Caroline Chisholm (Church of England)
Gemma Galgani (Passionists Calendar)
Germerius (Christian; Saint)
Hadrian (Positivist; Saint)
Honoratus of Amiens (Christian; Saint)
John of Nepomuk (Christian; Saint) [Bohemia, Czech Republic]
Margaret of Cortona (Christian; Saint)
Martyrs of Sudan (Episcopal Church (USA))
Peregrine of Auxerre (Christian; Saint)
Simon Stock (Christian; Saint)
Skinny Dipping Day (Pastafarian)
Tamara de Lempicka (Artology)
Ubald (Christian; Saint)
Woody Herman (Humanist; Saint)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]
Uncyclopedia Bad to Be Born Today (because Wikipedia launched.)
Premieres
Agent in Place, by Helen MacInnes (Novel; 1976)
Annie Get Your Gun (Broadway Musical; 1946)
Beer The Movie (Film; 2006)
Breaker Morant (Film; 1980)
But Seriously, Folks…, by Joe Walsh (Album; 1978)
Day of the Locust, by Nathanael West (Novel; 1939)
The Eighth Day, buy Thornton Wilder (Novel; 1967)
Fame (Film; 1980)
Godzilla (Film; 2014)
Great Lion of God, by Taylor Caldwell (Novel; 1970)
The Iceman Ducketh (WB LT Cartoon; 1964)
I’d Love to Take Orders from You (WB MM Cartoon; 1936)
(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again, by Elton John and Taron Egerton (Song; 2019)
Live at Leeds, by The Who (Live Album; 1970)
Moonlight Becomes You, by Mary Higgins Clark (Novel; 1996)
Oops!… I Did It Again, by Britney Spears (Album; 2000)
Pet Sounds, by The Beach Boys (Album; 1966)
Que Sera, Sera *Whatever Will Be, Will Be), by Doris Day (Song; 1956)
Shrek (Animated Film; 2001)
Star Trek: Into Darkness (Film; 2013)
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (Film; 2002)
Summer Wind, recorded by Frank Sinatra (Song; 1966)
Sweet Liberty (Film; 1986)
Tennessee River, by Alabama (Song; 1980)
Top Gun (Film; 1986)
Two Gun Goofy (Disney Cartoon; 1952)
Today’s Name Days
Adolf, Johann (Austria)
Adam, Cvjetko, Ivan (Croatia)
Přemysl (Czech Republic)
Sara (Denmark)
Esta, Este, Ester, Esti (Estonia)
Essi, Ester, Esteri (Finland)
Brendan, Honoré (France)
Adolf, Johann Nepomuk (Germany)
Botond, Mózes (Hungary)
Adamo, Margherita, Oderzo, Tiziano, Ubaldo (Italy)
Edijs, Edvīns, Inese, Inesis (Latvia)
Andrius, Ubaldas, Vaidmantas (Lithuania)
Sara, Siren (Norway)
Andrzej, Honorat, Jan Nepomucen, Jędrzej, Szymon, Trzebomysł, Ubald, Wieńczysław, Wiktorian (Poland)
Natan, Paisie, Sila, Teodor (România)
Svetozár (Slovakia)
Honorato, Simón, Ubaldo (Spain)
Ronald, Ronny (Sweden)
Brand, Branden, Brandi, Brandon, Brandy, Brannon, Brant, Brenda, Brendan, Brenden, Brendon, Brenna, Brennan, Brent, Brenton (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 136 of 2024; 229 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 2 of week 20 of 2023
Celtic Tree Calendar: Huath (Hawthorn) [Day 3 of 28]
Chinese: Month 3 (Bing-Chen), Day 27 (Jia-Xu)
Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)
Hebrew: 25 Iyar 5783
Islamic: 25 Shawwal 1444
J Cal: 15 Bīja; Oneday [15 of 30]
Julian: 3 May 2023
Moon: 10%: Waning Crescent
Positivist: 24 Caesar (5th Month) [Hadrian]
Runic Half Month: Ing (Expansive Energy) [Day 7 of 15]
Season: Spring (Day 58 of 90)
Zodiac: Taurus (Day 27 of 30)
0 notes
Text
TJ Doyle “Shine”
TJ Doyle Singer. Musician. Songwriter. Producer. Humanist
TJ Doyle, is an American artist with a world view, a love of Earth and a feel for what it takes to care for the planet we are on. He also takes a song, wraps it in melodic yet compelling music and delivers it with a sense of fun, responsibility and subtle but strong Americana sensibilities. The result is amazing success on the world’s stage including entering 2018 in the #1 position on the Radio Indie Top 40 Charts with 2 new releases from his 2nd album “Everything” and “Living In Our Dream”.
Sitting at or near the top of the charts is not new for TJ Doyle. During the year 2017 he was in the Top 5 of the Indie Top 40 from late summer with his song “Anonymous” followed by “Unconditional”, and now “Living In Our Dream”.
TJ was nominated for the prestigious Round Glass Award in the Rock Song category with “Anonymous”. The Award is designed to reward musicians who create socially responsible music for Wellness, Environmental Consciousness and Peace. TJ says, “Even to be nominated makes me feel honored, humbled and “Anonymous” is a tribute to anyone who has felt marginalized”, says Doyle. As TJ’s lyrics say, “Don’t you know that you are golden, Don’t believe you’re anonymous”.
In addition, various songs by TJ have been played on well over 600 radio stations over the past year and continue to be heard in regular rotation.
TJ has been lauded by critics for having his own musical and vocal styles, although he admits to his strong vocals being reminiscent of Neil Young . “That’s the way I sing. Can’t help it”.
Raised in 5 Eastern cities by the age of 10, TJ now lives in a community on the edge of the Angeles National Forest above LA where he writes songs that transmit an authenticity harking back to the 60s. Does “harking back” mean he lives in the past? Not at all. “That era of music was when artists were writing about the challenges of a generation instead of the more personal and relationship-oriented pop and rock that currently dominates the airwaves.” He goes after that vision delivering his passion for the environment. “Nature is free from the human condition that afflicts humanity, and is an inspiration that can help us all. By observing nature we can learn more about our own true natures.”
Musically TJ, who has a touring history covering the northern American Midwest and Southern California, surrounds himself with some of the top musician’s musicians to be found today on his recordings like Rock Deadrick, Drums & Percussion (Tracy Chapman) David Sutton, Bass (Tracy Chapman) Matt Laug, Drums (Slash’s Snakepit), Lance Morrison, Bass, (Don Henley) Tim Pierce, Guitar (Crowded House, Dave Matthews) or in his live performances like Phil Parlapiano, Keyboards, (Lowen & Navarro), and Hank Van Sickle, Bass, (John Mayall). Legendary venues such as The Whiskey and The Roxy have hosted his band, “but it’s time to expand on that. The plan is to get out into the rest of the world,” fostered recently by extensive airplay in Europe, from his most recent album “On The Horizon”. The TJ brand of music is also picking up steam in Australia, New Zealand and, of course, across North America.
At a time when divisions seem to be so loud in people’s minds, TJ Doyle feels music can bring calm, so he presents ideas that help dissuade the internal discourse that is prevalent in our society today. In “Anonymous” particularly, the singer/songwriter says, ” It is my hope the listener can take away the thought they have something very special in them, and start to fan the flames of this ‘self’, so they can ‘spread their wings and FLY’!”
Doyle, describes his music in general as a vehicle to “help people make sense of themselves and the world. That is my prime directive with my music and lyrics.”
“Anonymous”, produced by David Z Rivkin (Prince, Fine Young Cannibals) is part of a planned EP, “or maybe an album. “It doesn’t matter anymore. People can now enjoy music from an artist one song at a time. The album will arrive when it’s the ‘right time
Incendiary American: “As TJ Doyle Music releases albums and singles, you can hear that he’s more than just a songwriter. He’s a visionary whose work calls for the collaborative effort of musicians who are determined to see it through. Once the textures and dynamics in the music are appropriately executed, Doyle’s unique voice makes that vision complete.”
Additional Artist/Song Information:
Artist Name: TJ Doyle
Song Title: Shine
Publishing: tjdoylemusic
Publishing Affiliation: BMI
Album Title: Shine
Record Label: Totem Artists
Radio Promotion:
Loggins Promotion
Paul Loggins
310-325-2800
Contact Loggins Promotion
Publicity/PR:
Loggins Promotion
Paul Loggins
310-325-2800
Contact Loggins Promotion
Read the full article
0 notes
Text
Sorry for doing it this way, I think OP deleted their post or blocked me like a mature, balanced person would, so I have to tag you in
@mr-laugh
Oh boy, lot to unpack here.
So you didn’t even know there were that many subgenres of fantasy, one of the most popular classifications of fiction on the planet... And you think you know enough to tell ANYBODY what classic fantasy is?
And where exactly I attempted to do that, huh?
If you don’t even know the most common subgenres of this vast pool of fiction, why are you jumping into this discussion? You just admitted you don’t know anything!
There is no discussion, there is a stupid ass post. Don't flatter yourself, you don't know jack shit.
Me not knowing what exactly are the precize subgenres of a genre of literature, which, btw, are completely arbitrary and for your information, sword&magic is a legitimate category, has absolutely nothing to do with what that post you were so keen on agreeing with above. It was you who said pretty much any classic fantasy is like that: some poorly written, self-indulgent and borderline racist.
Did ya read the link, buddy? Howard talked about knowing what burning black man smelled like. He was quite approving of these things! And the books are pretty racist, it’s not hard to see, unless you ain’t looking.
Yes, I started reading and by the end of the first paragraph I was convinced he was ahorribly racist man. And? Still doesn't change the fact, that for my 12 year old self, there was nothing racist about it. I definetly wasn't looking for it, that much you got right. If I'd read it again, I'm sure I'd catch on to it now, that I know what kind of asshole he was. So the implied racism would be there. You got a point for that.
Rugged individualism? It always amuses me how that argument always pops out of the mouths of guys who are aping what they’ve heard their buddies say. If ten thousand mouths shout “rugged individualism”, how individualistic are they?
Then you should amuse yourself by looking up why this thing crops up as of late. It's coming from certain, supremely racist yet unaware of it publications that claim ridiculous shit like "rugged individualism" is a hallmark of white supremacy, among other, equally laughable things, like punctuality. It's a joke.
Again, I will give Howard to you, if someone that racist writes a black man saving the hero of the story, I bet there was something else still there to make it wrong.
Conan’s not some avatar of rugged individualism.
Uhm, yeah, he pretty much all that.
He’s as unreal and unrealistic as the dragons are,
It's called fantasy for a reason, buddy.
but more dangerous because White Men model their ideas of reality on Big Man Heroes like him;
Glad you are totally not racist, yo!!! It's such a relief that White Men are the only ones with this terrible behavior of looking up to larger than life, mythic superpeople and nobody else. Imagine what it would be like, if we would have some asshole from say, hindu indian literature massacering demons called Rakshassas, by the tens of thousands, or some bullshit japanese warlord would snatch out arrows from the air, or a chienese bodyguard would mow down hundreds of barbaric huns without dropping a sweat, or some middle eastern hero would fight literal gods and their magical beasts in some quest for eternal life.
it's a poison that weakens us, distracting us from actually trying to solve the world’s issues, or banding together to deal with shit.
This is what you just said. It's up to the white man, to get their shit together, be not racist and solve the world's problems, because those poor other people's just can't do it. If we would just not be oh, so racist, then China would surely stop with the genocides they are doing now, or blowing more than half the greenhouse emissions into the athmosphere, the muslims would stop throwing their gays from rooftops or ramming trucks into crowds and would just start treating women as equals, India's massive rape problem would be gone, subsaharan African would be magically bereft of the host of atrocities committed there on a daily, yeah, you sure have that nonracism down, buddy!
A rugged individualist would be smart enough to realize that even the most individualistic person needs others; no man’s an island, and a loner is easier to kill.
Individualism doesn't mean at all what you think it means, it's a cluster of widely differeing philosophies that puts the individual ahead of the group or state, it's ranging from anarchism to liberalism and is also has nothing to do with my point.
Central Europe? What, Germany? Because let me tell you, historically they are SUPER concerned about race!
Germany traditionally considered western european, central europe would be the people stuck between them and the russians, to put it very loosely. We are equally nonplussed by the self-flagellating white guilt complex and the woe me victim complex of the west. We did none of the shit those meanie white people did to the nonwhites and suffered everyting any poc ever did and then some. We don't give a shit about your color, we care about what culture you are from and if you respect our values.
I’m an American from a former Confederate state; trust me, race is everything. It always is.
No it really isn't. How old are you? Asking without condescension, genuinly curious, because if you are in your low twenties at most, it's understandable why you think like this.
See that hike? Do you know what happened at that time that made virtually all american media suddenly go all in with racism?
Occupy Wall Street, that's what. It's a brilliant way to sow victimhood and hate and desperation amongst the people who have one common enemy, the powers that be, the banking sector, the politicians, the megacorporations.
Can't really blame you if you are in your early 20's at most, you grew up with this bullshit hammered into you. If you are older, step out of your echochamber please!
If you actually believe, that mankind doesn't progress naturally towards a more accepting society purely on the merit of there being more good people than bad and sharing a similar living with all the hardships in life, seeing that our prejudices inherited by our parents are baseless, that's how we progress, not virtue signalling courses and regressive policies. I was raised as any other kid, I had a deep resentment towards the neighbouring nations, I said vile, racist shit against people who I actually share a lot of genes with, of which fact I was in deep denial about, and then as I gradually got exposed more and more actual people of these groups, I started to realize I was wrong and everybody should be judged by their individual merits. It works throughout the generations, my grandma was thought songs about Hitler and how all jews are evil in school, she legit thought all black people at least in Africa are cannibals and shit, my mother stillsays shit that would get her cancelled in the USA, and I will probably have a mixed race kid as we stand now.
This whole racism is an eternal problem is laughable and disingenuous and I am actually sorry for you that you feel like that.
Moving on.
As for Dany, the “noble white girl sold to scary dark foreign man” is a very popular trope, especially in exploitation films, which Martin draws on much more heavily than most authors do.
No, he fucking doesn't. I already wrote a bunch of examples from the books you seeminly ignore willfully. First of all, she is sold to those olive skinned savages by a white man, who is a terrible, increadibly evil man. He want's to fuck the then 11-12 ish Dany so bad, she picks his slave most resembling her and rapes her repeatedly, "until the madness pass." He also maimes children and traines them as disposable slave spies by the hundreds. There is no boundaries colour here, GRRM prtrays all kinds of people as reprehensible, evil and disgusting. Just like you can find plenty of examples to the opposite.
What is he drawing from your exploitation movies exactly? He writes about the human anture, he writes about the human heart at war with itself, that's his central philosophy of writing.
ASOFAI is basically just a porn movie with complicated feudal politics obscuring it, which is probably why it worked so well as an HBO series (up until the last two seasons or so.)
There is no gratuitous sex scene in the books, the rapes are described as rapes, they are horrible, they are very shortly described and usually just alluded to.
The people commiting them are not put into generous lights and one of the single most harrowing stories hidden behind the grand happenings of the plot is a girl named Jeyne Poole, whose suffering although never shown, is very much pointed out, along with the hypocrisy of the people who only fight to try and save her, because they think her a different person.
Honestly, if you actually read the books and they came of to you as porn, you might want to do some soulsearching.Btw, the HBO series was a terrible adaptation, it immedietly started to go further and further from the books with every passing season and the showmakers made it very clear to everybody, that they didn't understand the very much pacifist and humanist themes of Martin. And neither did you.
We also get no indication Essos will eat it when Winter comes; hell, they seem to not know Winter exists, given the way people act, even though that is also unrealistic and weird. Essos was just super badly designed, and Dany is a terribly boring character.
to be continued
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
New Balance: (1) Sleep Aide
new balance masterlist
Summary: Boxing AU. Bucky Barnes, once someone sunlight dulled in comparison to, is angry. At himself, at his metal arm, at the US Army, at the National Boxing Association, at the universe. Boxing cools that down a little but you provide him with balance, with the silence to his violence. And he’s your salvage.
Pairing: bucky x reader
Warnings: language, talk about marijuana (is that a warning?)
A/N: in the first few parts, things are partially inspired by creed. but only in the first few parts. idk i hope this is good lol, the reading character is one of my fav that i’ve ever written. gif below is not mine
He didn’t think moving a few boxes up a couple of flights of stairs would render his flesh arm sore— he didn’t think soreness was even a possibility for the appendage anymore unless under extreme circumstances.
But as Bucky stood in the middle of his new shared living room, stacks of cardboard boxes labelled “Books” and “Shit to be THROWN OUT” staring right back at him, he took a deep breath and flexed his fingers— flesh and metal alike.
The apartment looked much smaller in person than it did when Steve gave him the grand FaceTime tour just two weeks before. Walls were bluer, furniture was more worn out, the view was shittier. So much so that he wasn’t sure if he’d just romanticized the idea of leaving Silicon Valley to a point that his memory embellished the Downtown Los Angeles apartment into some sort of nirvana rather than the thinly-walled loft it really was.
It wasn’t as if it was a bad place to live—at least that’s what he told himself in order to justify the rent he’d be paying half of. Smells from the Middle Eastern restaurant only a few floors below wafted up a bit too much and the laundry room didn’t have the front-loading machines he was used to, but he wasn’t living on Skid Row and Steve agreed to cover him when finances went south— he convinced himself that constituted a win.
A clock bolted onto the wall a few feet from the door read half-past three in the morning, the bright neon green numbers burning his tired eyes, which he rubbed with tired fingers, which he then dragged down tired legs. He didn’t think there was a cell in his body that wasn’t exhausted, purple undertones beneath his lower lashline and unhealed bruises splotched over his left ribs a clear indication of that, yet peaceful sleep evaded him.
He’d given up after two hours of conscious tossing and turning, and two hours of restless, sweaty sleep marred with nightmarish flashbacks of desert sand, splattering blood, and terrified civilians allowed to wear the facial expression he was required to suppress.
It didn’t help that the music from the apartment below his made the floors practically vibrate, a heavy stench of marijuana flowing in through the vents. It’s what pulled him from his bedroom in the first place and the sudden switch in song reminded him as such, breaking his focus from the ache that had long ago settled in his bones and the numerous boxes containing what remained of his possessions.
Now Bucky Barnes had never been any sort of a square, he liked a good joint and a song he could shut his eyes and drown out his thoughts to as much as the next person— but it was a Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, his arm was sore, his ribs still pulsated subtly, and he had to begin his search for a decent back-up gym in just four hours. It may have been his mind that partially kept him from sleeping, but he would be damned if he blamed himself entirely for yet another thing.
He shut the door softly behind him and started down the stairs, the sound of metal digits against the wooden railing drowned out by the continuing beats. He shook his head to himself, muttering, “Gonna kick this guy’s ass.”
He began pounding on the door the sound and smoke came from, flesh fist battering the splintering barrier relentlessly until the soreness became too much. He set his hands on either side of the doorframe, his head bowed so growing chocolate brown hair fell into his field of vision and his back was relaxingly curved.
He resorted to kicking the door then, the heel and ball of his foot rapping against the chipped paint three times before he stood up straight and lifted his palm with the intention of continuing the assault.
The music clicked off the instant the door was thrown open. And Bucky found himself staring.
Eyebrows knit together in frustration, lined eyes half-lidded from the smoke he could see ribbons of in his peripheral vision, and lips chewed raw, you stood with your paint-stained left hand still wrapped firmly around the doorknob and your right hand clutching an angle brush. You tilted your head expectantly.
He cleared his throat, gaze downcast to regroup focus only to follow the length of your bare legs peeking out from under a faded denim button-up shirt. He shook his head then and met your dilated eyes once more. “I’m Bucky. James, but everyone calls me Bucky.”
You narrowed your eyes further. “Okay?”
He wondered if his lips were smiling or if they’d fallen in a frown. “I just— I just moved in upstairs. 5-D.”
“With Mr. Rogers?”
“‘Mr. Rogers’?” he asked as he found his own head tilting.
“Yeah. You know, like the old guy that used to be on PBS. Wore shawl collar cardigans and ties, had the little trains.”
He nodded after a moment, chuckling. He leant his shoulder against the wall beside him. “Right, Mr. Rogers. S’a dig at Steve’s behavior, I get it.”
You let go of the doorknob and crossed your arms over your chest, frowning when he neglected to speak for a few beats. “Okay, did you need something, Bucky? It’s almost four.”
“Your, uh, your music— it’s shaking my floors and the smoke’s comin’ through the vents.”
Your frown grew deeper. “Right. I didn’t think it was that loud.”
“It is. And I’ve gotta wake up in three hours, gotta find a decent fuckin’ gym around here.”
“It’s indica.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“The smoke. It’s from indica. Should help you fall asleep.”
“Not when your music’s making my brain rattle ‘round my skull.”
A corner of your lips quirked up in a momentary, miniscule smile.
“So could you turn it down? I gotta—”
“Be up in three hours and find a gym,” you finished, detangling your arms and taking hold of the doorknob once more. “Heard you the first time. Wouldn’t wanna impede on your ability to keep that body tight.”
There was a bit of taunting in your voice, a slight challenge in the arch of your brow, but only annoyance in your frown. You looked right back at him as he continued to stand in your doorway. “I’ll turn it down, you won’t hear a thing.”
“Tha—” the door slammed shut and the deadbolt immediately clicked into place, he frowned, “ —nks.”
He was only five steps up the flight when the music resumed at the same volume, shaking the railing ever so slightly as he laughed through his nose despite himself.
After rummaging through the large box labeled “Sleep aides” and pulling a container of earplugs from the collection of useless junk, he managed to sleep for the remaining two and a half hours fairly well. The scientific and egotistical parts of him didn’t want to attribute that to his deep inhalations of the smoke you’d described to him but the unreasonable, humanistic side could find no other reason.
He brushed his teeth quickly and quietly, wiping his moist, minty lips on a rough white hand towel he’d snagged from some crappy hotel in Mexico about thirty-six hours prior.
He knew it was useless to bundle-up entirely for his run, the weather of Southern California never imposing the burden of fleece-lined running pants or woolen beanies, so he wore a pair of black Nike shorts and a matching fitted hoodie. Shoes snuggly tied, he emerged from his bedroom to find the scent in the air an odd mixture of stale indica smoke, fresh coffee, and shawarma.
Steve, in all his tall and blonde glory, stood at the kitchen island spreading a pat of butter over toast. A mug of what Bucky assumed to be coffee sat atop an open manila file that Steve was intently studying the pages of, his forehead creased before he even managed to change into his work clothes.
Though he wasn’t one for speaking just moments after he’d awoken, Bucky cleared his throat and gruffly greeted, “‘Morning.”
Steve looked up from the page he was scrutinizing and offered his new roommate a gentle smile— a smile that was once filled with sympathy and pity now saturated with an abhorrent admiration. “Good morning, Buck. You sleep well?”
“Do I look like I slept well, Stevie?”
His pink lips fell into a frown. “Nightmares?”
Bucky half-shrugged. “I think one of the neighbors might be runnin’ a nightclub out of their apartment.”
“Ah, I probably should’ve warned you about that.” He took a long sip of his coffee and turned around to put the carton of milk back into the stainless steel fridge. “Y/N’s a little loud sometimes.”
“Y/N?” Bucky repeated, plugging white earbuds into his phone.
He nodded as he took a bite of his toast. “Cute girl, lives right below us. Artist— did that mural for the burger place down the street.”
Bucky frowned in consideration.
“Says she works better with louder music. Got on my nerves at first,” Steve continued with a fond chuckle. “But she grows on you. Always has a good stock of apology pot, too.”
“Apology pot?”
He nodded with a smile. “S’what she calls it.”
“Cute,” Bucky snorted. “She could just try turning her music down.”
“I won’t question the creative processes of an artist that good.”
“She ain’t Van Gogh. You won’t be changing the course of art history by asking her to lower that shit.”
Steve frowned. He knew the way Bucky had been since being back. A little short with everyone, a bit more irritable.
The latent anger at himself, at his missing arm, at the US Army, at the universe had eased up after getting the prosthetic and going through rehabilitation. It was mostly at bay during his time back at the state school in San Jose, too, and it was only when he entered the working force as a low-level programmer in a pretentious, highly competitive area that it all returned. He’d discovered soon enough that boxing helped— it gave him an outlet.
It was when the anger and pressure heightened to incomprehensible levels that he realized he’d need to be boxing twenty-four hours a day just to be half the person he once was. So he began self-training more, spending every hour that he wasn’t working or struggling to sleep in a shitty gym in East Palo Alto.
Eventually that turned into fighting underground, the murky regulations and rules of the National Boxing Association regarding prosthetics in professional boxing keeping any trainer worth their salt from working with him just as they kept away any opponent worth even spitting in the vague direction of. While that should’ve shifted off with the lawsuit a leg amputee had won, change was a slow process and Bucky needed his release to bring him some benefit extrinsically— in other words, he wanted to make some money off his skill.
The yellowing bruises he would frequently sport after fights in numerous shady clubs across North and Central America had his bosses questioning his extracurriculars and, tired of the relentless interrogations, Bucky left the tech job and moved to Los Angeles to be with his childhood best friend.
The childhood best friend who promised to speak to the gym a friend of his owned, coax them into training Bucky while the National Boxing Association inevitably redrafted their terribly unclear and, quite frankly, discriminatory rules. The childhood best friend who said there was no need for Bucky to go foraging for a back-up gym with buzz words like that. The childhood best friend who went through school, break-ups, and war with Bucky only to emerge still confident and almost encouragingly optimistic. Almost.
Bucky paused at your door as he raced down the stairs to begin his six-mile run, shaking his head to himself when the impulsive side of him had the temptation to blast his own music as you presumably attempted to sleep.
Just as he began to turn away, however, your door flew open. And he found himself staring again.
Eyes lined with an additional wing on your inner corner, outfit dark and put-together, and lips chewed raw, you stood at the doorway to sling a burlap bag onto your shoulder and push a large colorful canvas into the hall.
You slid a pair of round eyeglasses into place and looked up from the keys in your hand to tilt your head, sighing heavily. “I’m not playing music right now so you’ll need another excuse for standing here with that face.”
“What face?” he asked before he could help himself.
You picked up the canvas and tucked it under your arm, the lower border hitting above your ankle. “The red face of anger.”
“‘M not angry.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
He followed you down the stairs, staying a pace behind and catching the smell of roses and turpentine. “You don’t sleep or somethin’?”
You glanced over your shoulder and he thought he might have imagined your eyes flitting to the metal hand he held his phone in. You shrugged as you faced forward again. “You never know. Last night might be atypical.”
“Heard you’re an artist.”
You sent him a small smile. “You asking people about me?”
He snorted in an unconvincingly incredulous way. “Steve said something about it.”
“After you asked him?”
“No.”
“Yeah? Believable,” you said dryly, pushing the lobby door open with your shoulder. “I catch you lurking outside my door again, I’ll blast the music even louder.”
He smirked, tucking an earbud into his right ear once he’d pulled his hood up. “That a threat, sweetheart?”
You spun around, walking backwards down the sidewalk in the direction opposite him. You raised a single eyebrow. “Yeah, baby, I thought that was obvious.”
PART 2: MUSEUM OF DEATH
teeny tiny tag list (if you want to be added, send an ASK) strikethrough means your tag doesn’t work: @sighodinson @sebstancial @dreamingofonceuponatime @eufeme @captain-what-is-going-on @little-miss-headphones @writingcroissant @desertrose-saku @lilypalmer1987 @addictionmarvel @fancybasementpersona @winterdoe @closerstars @donnatroy-writes @violentlybarnes @buckylovelybarnes @curiositywillbethedeathofme @demonsandfaries-blog-blog
#bucky#bucky barnes#bucky barnes x reader#bucky barnes imagine#bucky barnes x reader au#bucky barnes au#bucky barnes x reader fluff#bucky barnes x reader angst#bucky barnes fluff#bucky barnes angst
307 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Tribute to Satyajit Ray, the great filmmaker of this century, on his 97th birth anniversary today.
'Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.' said Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.
Among the dozen or so great masters of world cinema, Satyajit Ray is known for his humanistic approach to cinema. He made his films in Bengali, a language spoken in West Bengal, the eastern state of India, and Bangladesh. And yet, his films are of universal interest. They are about things that make up the human race - relationships, emotions, struggle, conflicts, joys and sorrows.
Satyajit Ray's films are both cinematic and literary at the same time; using a simple narrative, usually in a classical format, but greatly detailed and operating at many levels of interpretation.
His first film, Pather Panchali (Song of the little road, 1955) established his reputation as a major film director, winning numerous awards including Best Human Document, Cannes, 1956 and Best Film, Vancouver, 1958. It is the first film of a trilogy - The Apu Trilogy - a three-part tale of a boy's life from birth through manhood. The other two films of this trilogy are Aparajito (The Unvanquished, 1956) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959).
His later films include Jalsaghar (The Music Room, 1958), Devi (The Goddess, 1960), Teen Kanya (Two Daughters, 1961), Charulata (The Lonely Wife, 1964), Nayak (The Hero, 1966), Asani Sanket (Distant Thunder, 1973), Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players, 1977), Ghare Baire (The Home and the World, 1984), Ganashatru (An Enemy Of The People, 1989) and Shakha Prashakha (Branches Of The Tree, 1991). Agantuk (The Stranger, 1991) was his last film.
Ray directly controlled many aspects of filmmaking. He wrote all the screenplays of his films, many of which were based on his own stories.
He designed the sets and costumes, operated the camera since Charulata (1964), he composed the music for all his films since 1961 and designed the publicity posters for his new releases.
In addition to filmmaking, Ray was a composer, a writer and a graphic designer.
Satyajit Ray died on April 23, 1992 at the age of 70, due to heart complications.
The world misses Satyajit Ray every day, without whom the history pages of Indian Cinema would have remained incomplete!
Follow @bollywoodirect
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
Uchideshi at Integral Dojo, in the city of Tel Aviv, Israel, Middle East. Month 1 of 2 / May-June 2018
I think it’s time to write again.
If any of you have been visiting this blog/site from time-to-time to see if I’d posted, and seen that I had not, I’m sorry about that. A lot has been happening and up until the last few days, I’ve had fairly low-energy and have been sort of exhausted, or at least fairly worn out, most of the time, In fact, I haven’t really felt that good for the most part the last couple of weeks. There’s a shift happening though in my time here for the better, and I’m starting to feel it again. And so, I thought I’d use this new energy and spirit to return to the internet and write my time here.
Being an “uchi deshi”, which like I said last time is a Japanese term for “ inside student,” or “live-in student,” is hard. The following is written about it on the website for the place I am living and studying in and through my time here.
“As an uchi deshi you are making a greater commitment to a developmental life through Aikido and related practices, in a full time, total emersion environment. This residential apprenticeship program is designed to develop your Aikido and deepen your understanding of the art.”
“If you think you are ready to immerse yourself in the art of Integral Aikido and walk the path of practice, embodiment, and meditation, then you are welcome to apply to our uchi deshi program, and come to train and live with us in the Integral Dojo, in Tel-Aviv.”
It is basically 2x a day classes 6 days a week, with one class only on Friday the exception, and no class on Saturdays. It’s hard. Sometimes it’s been amazing and focused and other times I’ve felt like resting or reading a book or taking a break. And to be straight, he has been open to me missing a class if something comes up or I need it, as long as I’m also communicating about it. There’s also the ongoing maintenance and cleaning of the dojo, somethings daily and others weekly. Like I said, it’s not easy. That being said, it is very, very much worth it. I still know I am exactly where I want to be right now in life.
Part of that has to do with the last few days and meeting some people and a local community space, that has group dinners and workshops and yoga classes and music events. And its not far from where I live, maybe 10-15 minute walk from here. I want to know some of the people more, I really like some of them. I’ve really liked the people I practice/train with here at dojo too, but I haven’t really spent time with them outside of that environment. These people are also committed to well-being, connection, and embodying a sort of humanistic and even loving intention (to try and use a few terms that might describe the sort of ethos or spirit of the people I seem to connect to most in a depth-way). And they’re almost all Israeli. And, on of them is a Scot.
That was fucking brilliant. I’ll write more about that later, but I met a guy from Glasgow, 35 and living here in Israel for a few years, a Jew but most definitely Scottish. I wasn’t expected that. I’m still trying to figure out how making it to the UK is going to work and what will happen there. It was sort of synchronicitious (word? of a synchronicistic quality) to meet a Scottish person here. And he’s a climber. And does yoga, too. And after a night learned about “Pele”, the community space and learning how to become a volunteer which I think I’ll do for the rest of my time here, I found out he used to do Aikido too. We’re exchanged contact information and he said when/if I make it to Scotland, I can stay with his “mum” (as they say in that part of the world) for dinner if want a place to go. I think we’ll be meeting up again soon... I’ve always wanted to know a Scot, and I’m looks like that is happening which is really something.
Okay, this isn’t going to be as uber-long as the last one. The frequency of these writings seem to not be happening as much as I thought, but I want to try and keep to the lengths. I know people are interested in following this, but I also want to make it work with people’s limited time, not against it. And so I’m going to take a minute to sit here in front of my laptop, close my eyes, breathe... and be with the where I’m at and how the last month has been here. Then I’m going to open them, and like I did last post/entry, start writing out some images and moments of the last 4 weeks in this city and what I’ve seen and experienced here. And then I’ll finish it off, and you can all go back to living your lives. Which, I hope, is going alright, wherever you are and whatever it is your experiencing. All of it.
Okay. I’ll start with what just happened, as it does about if not everyday in the mornings, and go from there:
A man yelling outside my window coming from the garage body shop down below, which seems to be happen at exactly 9am throughout the week, who’s words are still unintelligible to me. Something like “bira shratav hestratif! Behema destrev asafif!” Again, not that but maybe close to it. Its muffled and not that clear, but I can’t make out any Hebrew words I know. If anything it sounds more Arabic. Who knows.
Walking down through the neighborhoods of Montefiore, the area of Tel Aviv I live in here. Loud and noisy filled streets or honking and buses are not too far away to one side, the main Ayalon highway (route 20) a few streets to the other side, but here it’s relatively quiet and nice. Residential apartment buildings alongside with auto body shops, mechanic garages, an office building or two, an AM:PM (the 24 hr convenience store here, sort of like Israel’s 7-11 or C-Stop), a music store, synagogue, and some other corner stores, cafes, and food places.
Bus Stop at HaChashmonaim, Hamesger, and Derech Manachem Begin, always different people, a diversity I only somewhat expected to see here:
- Middle-eastern-looking young men of different build more often than not very fit and athletic looking, in T-shirts and jeans around my age, maybe sunglasses, very short hair maybe some facial hair, usually not a lot of it. Also more “white” looking men, that is more “Ashkenazik,” or Jews of European, as opposed to those more middle-eastern “tsefardi” or “yemenite” in background.
- Israeli women of all heights and ages, seemingly from my own, (20s) all the way through 30s and 40s, less commonly older, in anything from professional business clothes to light dresses to jeans and blouses and t shirts as well. And its hard not to walk the streets of Tel Aviv for more than a few minutes and not see an attractive woman somewhere around you.
- Occasionally a religious Jew, either wearing ordinary clothes with a kippa, maybe tzit tzit, and sometimes too dressed fully in black and white as is often the way of the very orthodox here and elsewhere in the world.
- To put it descriptively, “black people.” That’s the term an American would use, because that is who they most resemble from our own culture and country. That is, both men and women, usually young or middle-aged, who look very much of African descent because, well, they are. Though they are a wide range of black people here, from all different countries of origins and appearances too. Some are Ethiopian Jews who came here for refuge, though because I’m close to south Tel Aviv, which is very much an immigrant area, many came for jobs as migrant workers from places in Africa such as Eritrea, Somalia, and other places. Apparently their are some tensions with this minority and the the majority of the population of Israelis there.
- Bicycles, with any of the previous demographics, riding by all the time.
- And motor-scooters, too. So many damn motor-scooters. It’s very characteristic of Tel Aviv, I’ve seen. They’re everywhere. Its a little ridiculous. More so are the little scooters people ride around on everywhere, where upright handles and all, on the sidewalks. They’re like as common here as long boards in California.
All of those types of people could be seen at the closest bus stop 5 minute walk from the dojo where I live, where the main streets of Hamesger and HaChashmonaim and Derech Menachem Begin all converge in one place, a hub of sorts.
There’s so much else I could write, but it’d take hours. Pages and pages of descriptions, let alone if I want to write reflections on it. I can tell you about the night I walked down Meir Diezengoff street, full of its well-known Tel Aviv night life of cafes and bars and stores open until really late, maybe 2, 3am.
It was like 9, 10pm and I walked alone passed countless restaurants and food places packed with young Israeli’s crowded at outdoor tables watching the world cup and eating and drinking together, and then looking over and seeing a homeless man laying with his head away from people on the pavement behind a bus stop with a box in front of him for money. I remember looking at this and stopping myself to see it and feel it, because I realized that although I noticed and it did effect me, there was a thought of acknowledgement and empathy but not deeply felt compassion... which is what I think people like that need most... not the ignoring and not looking that most people do to have it not ruin their night out, but still not where I know I to be and exist from in this world.
I recall looking at him asleep there, and this beautiful girl walked by with a friend, and buses flew past, and the air had cooled off because it was evening and was full of activity and sound of people having a time, and there I was walking alone, so much where I wanted to be doing in my life, but also with a “hole in my soul” to quote that song, which I hope and believe soon will be finally taken care of as well. As I walked on I saw two religious Jews next to each other on a bench, intensely conversing, while girls overly dressed up to go partying walk by in tall heels, and others, others, so much stimulus, so much humanity, so much dichotomy of both the lively and exciting and sad and painful and for me, freedom and as some know its occasional companion, loneliness.. is there too.
All part of this existence on earth, now in the 21st century, as people in this world. It’s not all good. So much of it is, and I’m experiencing that more and more. And here in Tel Aviv, this urban center in the middle of the opposite side of the planet from home in the United States, I’m developing myself to really be able to sustainable and with centeredness and well-being navigate it all, right now and when I return home, into and through the future.
To finish off I’ll say this, somewhat in reference to my comment in the last paragraph; if things happen the way I hope, not only will I be cultivating the abilities I am here with being an Uchideshi of centeredness, focused mind, open and relaxed but alert body, and embodied awareness and intent, but also find someone and people to open my heart again. That’s the one thing that’s missing from this picture, and there are possibilities there. I sense it happening soon. Maybe. Possibly. For sure maybe.
Hope you all are having an okay time back home. My parents reminded me recently its the 4th next week there. I hope you find a way to not just have a great time but develop in someway, even work on as some of the language is the Sensei’s words here, “evolve”. The idea of really working with life, and conflict, our experiences good and bad and neutral, and ourselves.. and developing into better and better humans, both for our own well being and longevity, but for that of all people in our lives and the the ones we continuously encounter throughout our days and weeks through time.
Final note: I am immeasurably grateful and appreciate to have the opportunity to do this trip and experience what I am here. I am from time-to-time aware, as I focus on the intensity of my training and self-development, that most of the people in this world will never have an opportunity to do something like this, even if they really wanted to and it could be really something for them and their life, too. It’s either because of time, or money, or both. I think of all the people I pass on the streets, everyone going to work, here and back home. I think of people from all classes back in the States, both the 40 year old working class parents who work two jobs just to pay the rent, or the more middle-class and affluent ones like my own parents and background, who might live more comfortably but only at the cost of non-stop working, frequent stress, and not a lot of time for themselves. I think of all the people pursuing advance degrees and further education, from people my peers, millennial in and finishing graduate school, in academics or in trade schools trying to secure financial security and a reliable future.
I from the soldiers my own age on the streets everywhere here, in uniform and looked very much like ordinary kids- kids, listen to me. They’re younger than me, that’s clear. They’re very much not kids though. 18, 19, maybe 20. They’re my sister’s age, and very much young adults. They are committed to this duty, and some of them might never live to be my age and live the rest of their lives. Most will. There are no wars happening here, only ongoing tension and conflict on and off. Still.. I thought of this as I passed a cafe with a few eating together yesterday not far from here.
All of this again makes me so fucking appreciate to be here. To be focusing on my being. So much of it is really honing my consciousness, making my my body supple, flexible, and even powerful, and the idea is in this process, create a form that is me that can handle anything, throughout the rest of my life. It’ll be an ongoing process endlessly, of knowing myself and who I am, and the world and other people, but this existential effort... to know oneself, and hone oneself too... it’s all about being more “on point”, as I and others sometimes call it.
This and hopefully soon more fully opening my heart to the vast array of emotions and human feelings that are possible that even now are still not really a part of my experience of life... it’s like that overused mission statement used these days, from the Y to other business and non-profits and education and medicine, somewhat cliche but based in truth so its actually valuable “for the body, mind, and spirit”.
If body is our physical form and its external strength and flexibility as well as internal processes and wellness, and mind is cognition and emotion, identity and personal history/memory/life story, as well as thought... I think “spirit”, or maybe “soul”, is that “somethingness” that holds it all together. It’s the ethos and life-force, the sort of half consciousness, half heart, that love and truth and connection come from, both our awareness of ourselves, and that which we base our ethics, and therefore our choices, on each moment of our lives.
The reflection I’ll leave you with is this; I’m not in graduate school, and I’m not working. I have 2 jobs back home, but no career. And yet, I have a vision. I really believe now that if you strive to optimize and enhance your being, your spirit/body/mind connection of who you are, things can and likely will fall into place. To be both fully in life, and in yourself, integrated and focused and open and with intent, is to be really alive and in touch with things. From there, each conversation is valuable, each time you’re with someone it has meaning, and each breath is “life-spirit” entering your lungs and blood and running through you with all the molecules of energy and sustenance from the environment and earth itself.
Alright, I’m really finishing now. Breath. It’s so important. Breath. Breathe. Inhale, exhale. “Life-spirit” might be a poetic term I just came up with in writing, but there is more truth to it that most realize. It is the difference between going through your days, and really living. Being. It nourishes your internal organs, and opens your body, if done right and full as often as possible. It can clear the mind and help navigate emotional states and feelings of all kind. It can return us to center.
It is the only link between the mind and body that is both voluntarily, and involuntarily controlled. It is the foundation of meditation practices, though you never to meditate to know its truth. If you can’t having a sitting practice or do yoga, or even if you do, make life your meditation.
Breathe. It’s the link. When you, I, we, are with it... we’re really there. Here.
Josh Berson, alonaryk.
1 note
·
View note
Text
Why Learn Czech? Why Study Czech and Slovak Culture?
I found this great article about the reasons to study Czech for different kinds of people
FOR THE SLAVIST:
Since Russian language and literature are usually the Slavist's main field, another language and culture is generally required. Outside the East Slavic group, Czech is an excellent choice. One of the two most significant West Slavic languages, Czech has the advantage of a simple orthography using three diacritical marks, and a simple stress rule (stress is always on the first syllable).
Bohemia - The Czech lands are the birthplace of the first Slavic literary language, Old Church Slavic, formed by Constantine and Methodius in the 9th century. Later, in the 19th century, Slavic Studies was conceived as a discipline in Bohemia, the site of the first Slavic Congress. Finally, in the 20th century Prague became the site of the development of one of the most important linguistic, literary and semiotic schools in the world, the internationally based Prague Linguistic Circle. Since many important works can be read only in Czech, study of the language can greatly benefit the Slavist in his or her research.
FOR THE LINGUIST:
Czech is of importance because of a considerable German lexical element, which has interesting stylistic functions, especially in the spoken language. For historical reasons, Czech has a well-developed diglossic system, where a spoken and a written variant are kept separate by the speaker and are also used in an intertwined way for stylistic purposes. The extremely rich and original linguistic tradition is exemplified in the well-known Prague School of Linguistics and Semiotics, a monumental movement of thought in the 20th century influencing linguistic thinking all over the world.
FOR THE STUDENT OF LITERATURE:
Many American readers know of one of the greatest satires of all times, Hašek's Good Soldier Švejk, others know Čapek's philosophical relativist novels, his artistic detective stories or his science fiction. (The word "robot" was created by Čapek from an old Czech word for heavy work, "robota"). But not many people are aware that these two authors are but a fraction of a rich and unique literary culture, especially rich in poetry (Nobel laureate Jaroslav Seifert is a significant, but again a small fraction of it). Bohemia and Slovakia have produced a great pléiade of outstanding poets, such as Mácha, Vrchlický, Neruda, Král', Holan, Halas, Nezval, and many others, as well as the writers Kundera, Škvorecký, Vaculík, Hrabal. Others still rest in darkness for the Western world. It is also barely known that Czechs produced their own avant-garde movement, poetism, a unique synthesis of constructivism, dadaism and cubism; these were all transformed into a qualitatively different, playful movement with its own theory and interdisciplinary applications (one creator of this movement was Jaroslav Seifert). Jan Mukařovský's theory of literature is only now making its full impact on Western theory.
The social and cultural milieu of Bohemia produced such important German language authors as Franz Kafka, Franz Werfel and Rainer Maria Rilke; writers such as Werfel, Rilke, Max Brod, and E. E. Kisch wrote in Prague between the First and Second World Wars.
Czechoslovakia also produced a remarkable new wave of cinema, concerned with realistic, understated insight into life, as well as poetic surrealist films. Names like Forman, Jireš, Němec, Kádár, Chytilová, Passer, have gained world renown ever since the 1960s.
FOR THE HISTORIAN
Today's Czech Republic lies on the border of East and West. The earliest state of the region, the Great Moravian Empire of the 9th century, saw two important developments: the democratic concept of the linguistic accessibility of religion and culture (unheard of in Western Europe at the time), and the birth of the first Slavic literary language, Old Church Slavic. Later, Bohemia posed the first successful challenge to the outdated practices of the Catholic Church as the first carrier of the Protestant idea in Europe; it was the home of the early encyclopedist Comenius, who reformed the outdated scholastic education so effectively that he is to this day known as the "teacher of the nations." His ideas even now serve as the basis of modern pedagogy. This great humanist also shares the fate common to the Czech people--he is one of the first of hundreds of thousands of Czechs, Moravians, and Slovaks who for historical reasons and reasons of conscience or profession were forced to emigrate. The wealth of Western cultures owes much to such exiles.
Many important historical events — the Thirty Years' War, the First and Second World Wars — had their inceptions or took decisive turns precisely on the territory of this early industrialized country on the crossroads of the East and West.
FOR THE STUDENT OF FOLKLORE, THEATER, FILM, VISUAL ARTS, OR MUSIC:
The Czech lands are a place of important developments in modern semiotic theory, not only of literature and linguistics, but also in visual arts, music, theater, film and folklore.
FOR THE STUDENT OF ART:
During many culturally and artistically rich periods, Bohemia was at the heart of Western Culture. It played the role of catalyst, ready more than any other nation to absorb foreign influences, but also to creatively transform them into something unique. Thus during the Gothic period, Bohemia created the so-called "beautiful style", and much more recently, during the European avant-garde, poetism. Some modern painters (Toyen, Šíma, Štyrský, Muzika, Kotík, Zrzavý, Tichý) not only achieved broad renown, but anticipated new art forms. Those forms included artificialism, mental countryside painting, and magic realism. The application of modern forms to content and value concerns had taken place in Czechoslovakia as early as the 1940s - earlier than in other countries. Only a few Czech painters have achieved worldwide acclaim, like Kupka or Mucha, who created a unique Art Nouveau style ("le style Mucha"). Much translation work remains to be done in bringing so many exquisite artists to the attention and awareness of the North American public.
FOR THE STUDENT OF MUSIC:
Czechs are said to be a "nation of musicians." Already in the 17th and 18th centuries there was such a surplus of excellent musicians that they emigrated in large numbers to Western Europe. There, they formed important new directions in music, especially in Germany (for example, the Mannheim School, where they contributed to the development of the modern sonata form). The 19th century composers Smetana and Dvořák are well known; however, a great musical tradition preceded those composers, one that enriched the musical world with such forms as pastorella and melodrama. The modern composer Janáček, the pioneer of onomatopoetic music, has only recently been discovered by the Western world. The tremendous musical creativity of both Janáček and Martinů finds its source in the remarkable themes of Czech and Moravian folk songs. Other great neglected modern composers are Josef Suk (father of the famous violinist) and the Slovaks Ján Ciker and Eugen Suchoň.
FOR THE STUDENT OF JEWISH CULTURE AND HISTORY:
Bohemia, and Prague in particular, were the seat of a richly developed Jewish culture. The Gothic-Jewish quarter of Prague with its beautiful synagogues is the oldest preserved in Europe and embodies the continuity that this Jewish community enjoyed. It is not by chance that during the Second World War Hitler chose Prague for his "Museum of the Extinguished Race"; thus an invaluable collection of Jewish materials and objects was formed and is preserved to this day in the Jewish Museum there. One of the greatest Jewish writers of our time, Franz Kafka, grew up and wrote in Prague, in the center of this special mixture of intercultural relationships.
FOR THE STUDENT OF ECONOMICS OR POLITICAL SCIENCE:
Bohemia and Slovakia offer highly interesting and important resources for the study of political science. They are countries that historically and culturally belong primarily to the West; however, until recently they found themselves under the domination of the Eastern Soviet Empire. Czechoslovakia had its own communist tradition, conceived originally independently of Russia, and an extremely well-developed democratic tradition, being the only democracy in Central Europe between the wars. Because of these elements and because of Czechoslovakia's unfortunate and prolonged experience with totalitarian regimes, both the underground Czechoslovak and émigré literatures played an important if little-recognized role in the fate of the modern world. Today, as members of the EU, the Czech Republic and Slovakia offer examples of economic transition and business opportunity.
203 notes
·
View notes
Link
As Depeche Mode’s principal songwriter looks forward to playing in front of 70,000 people in their biggest ever UK show at the London Stadium, Tim Burrows talks to him about new album Spirit, his Essex roots and what it feels like to grow up as a British European
If there’s one thing Depeche Mode isn’t it’s favourite sons. A few years ago I went on a bus and walking tour of the band’s hometown, Essex’s (no longer) New Town of Basildon. In our party were Germans, Scandinavians, east Europeans - but if memory serves, no British people, and certainly no one from Essex. As we crept around the former garage of Vince Clarke, where the band rehearsed in their early days, a neighbour pulled up and smilingly explained she’d never heard of Depeche Mode. The Europeans were astonished at the fact this multi-platinum band who’d filled their lives were not known in the place where it all started
Depeche Mode have sold millions and millions of records, but they are still considered a cultish proposition on these isles. This year the band are on the road again. Five stadium shows in Germany; three in Italy. Three in France. But only one in the UK, at the London Stadium, the new home of West Ham. Yet this is still a triumph. It feels as if the band have struggled to escape their Basildon days in this country, the synthpop and the hair, the patterned shirts and the cheesy grins.
Only now does Martin Gore feel like the band are being taken seriously in the country they grew up. We’re in the kind of Mayfair hotel you’d expect a band like Depeche Mode to be ensconced in, fulfilling the last of the band’s press obligations in the promotional push for latest album Spirit. Gore seems relieved that he’ll soon be back in Santa Barbara, California, where his 13-month old and two-week old daughters are – he has only been with his youngest for 24 hours of her life due to band obligations. Spirit is emphatically humanist. A state-of-world summary that sounds like it could be about Trump or Brexit but was written and recorded before both were material game-changers, it gives apathy short shrift, calling for “revolution” no less. There is a beautiful lullaby ('Eternal'). It sounds like a record by a new father and all the more interesting for it.
Gore cracks a wide Californian smile before launching into a unaffected yet still controlled guffaw that punctuates time spent with him (I’m told to expect it so am relieved when it first appears in our conversation). I’m telling him about the Depeche Mode cover band Speak And Spell that I caught at last September’s Essex Architecture Weekend, part of the Radical Essex project put on by Southend gallery, Focal Point. Their version of Dave Gahan performed in front of some blue Fosters cans that lined the front of the stage, a tiny barrier between the tribute frontman and the locals, architecture fans, Essex geeks and arts press all dancing to the ‘Mode’s early hits. Tribute acts are the real “folk” musicians, the dancing and singalongs they inspire keeping some kind of collective spirit alive in pubs and village halls nationwide. But it’s a fractured collective these days in the UK.
'The Worst Crime', the third track on Spirit, sounds like it is about Brexit, but wasn’t it conceived before that?
Martin Gore: It wasn’t written for that at all. For me, it’s a song about humanity hanging itself and the worst crime being the destruction of the planet, because there are so many crimes that we’re committing on a daily basis, but this is the worst crime because we are not just doing it to ourselves but we’re also doing it to future generations. And, like I say, we’ve had so much time to implement things, to put things right.
You recently had a daughter, did that affect the songs?
MG: I had one 13 months ago and one two weeks ago. I have five children, four daughters and one son. I think that has definitely affected me. A lot of the songs would definitely have been written before my 13 month old was born but while my wife was pregnant. There is one song on the album actually about her, 'Eternal', which talks about caring for a child, but which also mentions the black cloud rising and the radiation falling.
How pessimistic are you about the future with Trump being elected?
MG: I was really pessimistic up until a few weeks ago. I now have a glimmer of hope because maybe the American system works, because the the Muslim ban obviously didn’t get through, the judges stopped that. And then now his repealing of Obamacare got scrapped. So now I am just hoping that everything that he wants to implement is just going to get rejected.
You live in Santa Barbara. How did you end up moving from Basildon to Berlin to there?
MG: I think I was in Berlin 85-86, 86-87. Then I came back to London, from 90-95. And then I moved to Hertfordshire until 2000 and that’s when I moved to Santa Barbara.
I once spoke to Alison Moyet, who also moved Hertfordshire. I remember she told me how in Basildon the milkman would come round to get autographs and wouldn’t stop hassling her so she had to move away.
MG: Yeah I used to live not too far from Alison. We only left Hertfordshire as I was married to an American [Suzanne Boisvert] and she had lived here for 11 years wanted to move back to America. I thought, 'OK, I can’t really get out of this one.' It wasn’t my choice at the time. We got divorced almost immediately, but we have children together and my son is still only 14 so I see him every other week when I am at home.
England never felt claustrophobic for me at all. I think it would feel more difficult for me if I lived in mainland Europe. America I think is really easy because Los Angeles has film stars everywhere and musicians and Santa Barbara a lot of people have homes there even if they don’t live there. You are kind of inconsequential, no one cares.
How do you view political changes in the UK. Do you feel you get a sense of what is happening?
MG: Obviously I understand the bigger changes, but I think it’s more the smaller stuff that’s going on ... I don’t feel part of it and I don’t think I have a right to. I’ve lived away for 17 years. I didn’t vote in the referendum because I think there was a rule, I think somebody told me was a 15-year limit. But I would have voted Remain.
Did it surprise you that where you were from in Essex voted to leave the EU at such a high rate? Basildon voted over 68 per cent to leave the EU.
MG: Yeah, it does surprise me, but I really think that people were fooled. A lot of people believed in the idea that all the money that was going to be saved from the EU was going to go to the NHS. It was a lie. And, in a way, they should redo the referendum as so many people voted on that. And the other thing, Andy in the band said this to me, and he’s absolutely right: even somebody who really understands the world of finance didn’t have any idea about the implications of that vote. If you’re gonna leave that to the general population to make that decision it should have been a minimum of a 60/40 split. It was so close, virtually 50-50. Such a huge decision and so many things hinge on that decision – but that’s it, it’s made.
There’s always been a split with the people in the UK who feel a cultural affinity with Europe and the people who don’t. I guess you always had a cultural affinity with Europe?
MG: Yeah. Most people at school I went to in Basildon didn’t take French very seriously. You would get laughed at even if you just put on a French accent, but taking [the idea of] German was completely laughed at. And then I took German, which was new at the time, one of the first people at the school to. When I was 15 I went to Germany on a school exchange. I felt an affinity with Europe before I was in the band.
A few years ago I wrote about a Depeche Mode themed guided tour of Basildon put on by Vince Clarke’s former girlfriend Deb Danahay. It was striking how many German, east European people there were, whereas the locals were nonplussed.
MG: I know Deb. I don’t know what it was that made us take off in those countries. If you go into the eastern bloc countries we are huge, and in Russia. Maybe there is something about the depressing nature of our music and lyrics that some people find an affinity with.
Do you think the UK has a cultural need for stasis and nostalgia, which means people don’t pick upon your messages so much?
MG: I don’t know. When I first started writing this album I realised that I was going down a dangerous route, because it is more about social commentary/politics. But funnily enough, 99.9% of the reviews I have seen have been amazing. I don’t know if it is just this album but gradually over time we’ve become more accepted and acknowledged in the UK, whereas in Europe we were embraced much quicker and for longer. The fans who get on the bus to go round Basildon, they’ve travelled there. I don’t know if they’re expecting to see Graceland but believe you me I didn’t live in Graceland!
It fits with this idea of Depeche Mode as the biggest cult band in the world but there currently seems to be a new wave of critical reevaluation for the band.
MG: I’ve noticed it particularly with this album, like I said. I think we have slowly got better press over the years [in the UK]. One of the things we did wonder about is if we were trying to lose the albatross of the early pop days. We were bigger here with Speak And Spell than we were in Europe, we were bigger in Europe around Some Great Reward, so they don’t remember that. So that embarrassing point still haunts us - that’s one of the things we think about but it’s probably nothing to do with that. But people probably don’t really care.
What songs are we talking about?
MG: We were really bubblegum pop when we started out. So Speak And Spell, A Broken Frame, 'See You', 'Meaning of Love'.
When Vince left just before that period was there a sense that you might have to go back to the commuter job if things didn’t work out?
MG: There were a couple of songs on A Broken Frame that I had written before for another band that we thought were quite good that could be used. Some of them I just made up as I went along in the studio. That’s why it’s my least favourite album. I was dropped in the deep-end with it. But I was young and I did relish it really to be honest - it was fun to do. And it wasn’t like we worried about it when Vince left because of the naivety of youth.
Did you have backing from the label?
MG: Yeah. We were on Mute so it was an independent label, it was Daniel Miller, who is still involved with us to this day, he’s one of out best friends. We never thought about it at the time and fortunately the first thing that we released after Vince left, 'See You', was really successful.
Going back to the album, when you sit down to write, are you writing from a certain character or position, or is it just instinctive.
MG: I think it really is me trying to do something organically as I possibly can. I start playing some chords on a guitar or a piano and get something on the computer and I just start singing along. And that somehow ends up going from a verse to a chorus and then that’s the start of a song. But sometimes I’m not 100 per cent sure where the words are going. They’re not actual noises I’m making, they’re words. I’ll look and I think about where I am going with that. And then start again, the same chords, try and get another verse, get to the chorus... Without wishing to sound like a hippy, sometimes I think that you tap into something.
How did you first start songwriting?
MG: Somebody taught me two chords on a guitar when I was 13 and then I got a book and learned the rest of the chords. I used to buy Disco 45, a magazine that came out weekly or monthly. It had all the chart’s hits in it, the words not the chords. And I used to sit there from the age of 13 to the age of 16/17 or whatever and work out all the songs. At the same time I was writing songs myself. But I think that was great training because you learned the structures of songs subconsciously. By learning everything in the charts at that age when you are like a sponge it must have been good for me.
The London stadium gig - are you looking forward to that as a kind of homecoming as you were born not far from that neck of the woods in Dagenham?
MG: I was actually born in London, Hammersmith hospital. Then we moved to Dagenham, then Basildon. We’re particularly looking forward to it as it’s about time we made the step up from what we’ve been doing for so long. We usually do three nights at the O2 or something. We probably could have done this the last tour or the tour before but even with this one we felt it was a little bit of a risk. But we keep having to extend the capacity: I think we’re up to 68,000 now. My mum’s not very well so I don’t know if she will come this time, but my sisters and my kids and their kids and lots of friends. Because we’re just playing one show, we’ll probably know half the audience!
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
The present is sickly, pale, an effect
Rehearsed and taught, but imperfectly nice,
Just as pretty as a shop-worn bouquet
Of wax blossoms. There is no future here,
Excerpt from Desert Flowers by Edward Said
#alliwanttodoiscollectpoetry#poem#poetry#poems#poet#poets#anthology#tumblr poetry#poem of the day#poetry blog#songs of an eastern humanist#Edward said#desert flowers#poemblr#poetblr#bookish#book worm#literature#history#poems on hope#time#hope#present#future#subcontinent#india#Pakistan
3 notes
·
View notes
Note
2. 3. 4. 8. 10. 15. 16. 20. 84.
i am scatter brained and an open book so i wasn’t sure which one you meant so i did both.
Make Me Confess stuff
2. You talked to an ex today, correct?
Norpe. i don’t have any contacts with the few exes i have. It’s probably for the best there is only 1 that i should still be in contact with but she hasn’t talked to me in a while.
3. Have you taken someones virginity?
Depends on what you mean by this question. I have been a person’s first sexual experience. If that’s all then yes.
4. Is trust a big issue for you?
Yes.
8. Do you think it’s disgusting when girls get really wasted?
Not if she’s around people she can trust.
10. What is the last beverage you had?
Water, drinking it now. Before that Countrytime Pink Lemonade... is that that pixey sticks are made up? i swear.
15. Are you going out with the last person you kissed?
Norpe. Last person i kissed (on the head) was my older brother and i haven’t dated for 7 years.
16. Do you think you’ll change in the next 3 months?
i’m a living being, i’m always changing. But will i be as pathetic in next three months? Yes, yes i will.
20. Are you starting to realize anything?
i don’t take enough responsibility for my actions.
84. Can you hold your breath without holding your nose?
Yes.
Get to Know Me
2. How old are you?
30
3. When is your birthday?
February 28th
4. What is your zodiac sign?
Western=Pisces, Eastern=Rabbit, Primal=Silkworm
8. Where are you from?
Born in Dallas TX, lived many places, raised in Bentonville AR for most of my life, currently live with my older brother in Fairbury NE
10. What shoe size are you?
9 womens
15. Favorite song?
Wow... i am a music junkie. It’s hard to choose. One song has been my top song for nearly 20 years All Through the Night the Outlaw Star opening theme song.
16. Favorite movie?
Three way tie. August Rush, Holes, Zootopia
20. Are you religious?
-holds up index finger while catching my breath from laughing- No. i was raised Southern Baptist but it made me sick. i am a Humanist in general, i worship creativity, knowledge and Trickster Gods. i am always studying to find what i believe in.
84. What color is your hair?
My natural hair is black. Currently only my roots are, the rest is bleached. haven’t decided if i want to dye it teal and blue soon or not.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Thoughts on Original Sin, Utopianism, & Marxism
“The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.” –Karl Marx
I just listened to a couple episodes of a podcast (episode i, episode ii) that I recently discovered, which is distributed by the Christian Humanist network. The podcast is called “City of Man” and it’s a show about politics from a Christian perspective hosted by two academics, Ed Song (who is a self-proclaimed liberal) and Coyle Neal (a conservative). The episodes I listened to were a two-part series on Marxism, and I have to say that Ed and Coyle did a decent job summing up marxist theory, and they were fair…for the most part. I say “for the most part” because both Ed and Coyle were very adamant about making sure everyone knew they were NOT marxists in any way. The weird, paranoid disclaimers were almost comical.
That aside, the only other part of the two-episode show that made me cringe was Coyle’s argument against/dismissal of marxism based on the incompatibility of the doctrine of “original sin” and “utopia.” His claim, in a nutshell, was that at the heart of marxism is a utopian ideal and the assumption that humans are intrinsically good. Coyle suggested that marxism, when taken to its logical end, will always end in gulags and re-education camps despite how much we change social conditions because, after all, humans are inherently “fallen” creatures. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard this and I must say that I seriously CANNOT stand this argument from conservatives, especially conservative Christians. It must be in a conservative handbook somewhere or something. A few thoughts:
I’ll say right up front that if we’re dismissing philosophers and their perceived teachings based on past atrocities that were committed in their names, then Christianity should have been discontinued a long time ago. Similarly, It’s bizarre to me to hear a Christian be skeptical of some version of “utopia.” If the Kingdom of Heaven is not a utopian concept then I don’t now what one is. I don’t agree with Ayn Rand about anything except when she says that Christianity is the “best kindergarten of communism possible.”
OK, original sin.
It’s worth pointing out that Original Sin is not a “biblical” concept (i.e. that phrase is nowhere in the bible), but in marxism episode ii Coyle says, “Christians must have both the idea of man as created in the image of God and the idea of original sin.” I don’t think that’s necessarily the case, BUT there are many flavors of Christians who have both a doctrine of “original sin” and of imago dei and consider themselves to be marxists as well. (Tangentially related to this point, I’m curious why these two Christian thinkers didn’t touch on or even acknowledge the existence of Christian socialism and/or Christian anarchism in this series? ((e.g. folks like Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, liberation theologians and people like Gutierrez, or even folks like MLK ((who was a socialist!)), Tolstoy or Jacque Ellul were all influenced by Marx to some degree…))
Additionally, on this topic of sin, I think it’s a good idea to simply reverse the weird protestant formula of “sin causing death” and instead use the more Jewish and Eastern Orthodox version of “death causing sin”; trust me, this goes a long way in improving ones anthropological view, or understanding of human nature. Secondly (and relatedly), regarding original sin specifically, we don’t need to think of ourselves as morally stained and lacking in some metaphysical way ala Augustine, Calvin and Hobbes. We can read the creation story in Genesis as a theodicy instead of some weird soteriology. Accordingly, we (Christians) should heed the criticism from our Jewish friends, for instance, and recognize that the Augustinan/Calvanistic doctrine of original sin is actually profoundly hostile to the central teachings of the Jewish Scriptures. My blog post talks more about this.
Finally, in regard to marxism necessarily and logically leading to gulags and re-education camps, Edward was right to push back on this in episode ii, I’m glad he did. Changing social conditions does help things. Further, it’s worth noting that it took centuries for the transition from feudalism to capitalism to take place, particularly in Europe. There were a number of efforts in various cities across Europe to establish what we now look back on and call capitalist experiments, many of them lasted weeks, months, or years, but it took a whole host of conditions to come together to give the system we now call capitalism the conditions necessary for it to gel as a new way of doing things. This is a perfectly reasonable model to keep in mind when thinking about how the next system will come to be, after capitalism. Because there will be a new system, capitalism is not the last stop on this train. It’s not. All systems are born, evolve and die. The Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Vietnam are examples of experiments along the way (and are better classified as State Capitalist and/or Social Authoritarian states) that have achieved some things, and failed in others. The next experiments that are coming will learn from them in a manner rather replicating how capitalism emerged out of feudalism.
…
UPDATE: This post was adapted from a comment I left on the City of Man facebook page and Coyle Neal, one of the hosts, has responded to me there.
…
Painting above: Malevich, Girls in a Field 1928-1929
Thoughts on Original Sin, Utopianism, & Marxism was originally published on TURRI
0 notes
Photo
SHANTIH SHANTIH
Shantih Shantih is a four-piece band founded in Atlanta, GA in 2013. Their sound combines rock ‘n roll with dreaming harmonies over twanging guitars. The group consists of Italian native Anna Barattin on vocals and rhythm guitar,
Julia Furgiuele on drums, Anna Kramer on lead guitar, and Nikki Speake on bass, with the exception of a few songs led by Julia, in which instruments are switched.
The band shared the stage with the Black Lips, Gringo Star, Dan Deacon, La Luz, Shannon, and the Clams, Crocodiles, Subsonics, Peach Kelly Pop, Future Punx, and Night Beats. They also played SXSW, released a 7" (via Italian Indie-'shit music for shit people'), toured the Eastern United States multiple times and Europe twice, played the Atlanta Mess Around Festival, Intensified Festival in Athens, GA, Humanist SK Festival in Paris, and headlined the Indie Grits Festival in Columbia, SC.
Shantih Shantih finished recording their second studio album. Their first full length, Winter in September, was released on Dusty Medical Records (USA) and Wild Honey Records (Europe), their second single was released in October 2015 for Adult Swim’s annual compilation.
SOUNDCLOUD FACEBOOK
0 notes
Text
The Witcher 3 Wiki Guide.
The Tomatometer rating - based upon the posted viewpoints of numerous movie as well as television doubters - is a relied on measurement of motion picture as well as TELEVISION programming quality for countless spectators. I replaced a combination of brown rice flour as well as nuts meal for the oat flour (because I had these handy and failed to feel like cleaning the food processor), swapped walnuts for sunflower seeds (again, because that's what I possessed), utilized perhaps two times the encouraged amount from cabbage (who knows the amount of cabbage will find yourself one cup after chopping, right?), and neglected the sun-dried tomatoes (didn't possess any) and it was terrific.
The Irish author and also playwright saw off fellow shortlistees Keggie Carew for her profile Dadland, artist Alice Oswald for her assortment Dropping Awake, children's author Brian Conaghan for his publication The Projectiles That Brought Us Together and the valued non-fiction article writer Francis Spufford, which won the initial unfamiliar group for his launching, Golden Hillside Barry had actually pathed Carew as the much-loved to win, with chances of 5-2.
I go through the moment that Sting, when he composed the classic Police song Every Breathing spell You Take, mixed up a collection of banal clichés about love and loss as well as simply placed them entirely, therefore this amazing tune has some witticism about that. Similarly, the Support Clearwater Resurgence song Looking Out My Backdo This is either a wonderfully composed as well as fable-like depiction from common and easy honest truths or even a tons of foolishness.
Due to the fact that they possess cancer cells as well as this manual attempts hard to show that too, a great deal from enthusiasts claim that the personalities in the publication are prudent as well as unique. Burman and Nanale are focusing on extending use the application to other medical centers as well as assume this can potentially produce some well-balanced competition between staff down the road. In analogue, a brand-new Office of Wellness Advancement might function as an incubator for tips, creating novel, cross-cutting programs.
The neighborhood section of the website notifies all novice authors that they may have to see numerous evidences from their book up until they are actually fulfilled. The look at The lord is new and enticing; I've certainly never read a publication that so plainly shows how God's nature as a Trio displays his passion as well as kindness. The rest of the story concerns Mack's conference with God which differs from every other imaginary summary I have actually ever read through from a Supernatural confrontation. However,, Web Site around the Sun is actually everything about white colonialists as well as their self-enclosed world on their ranches in the Eastern African Protectorate, where the citizens are rarely over an unique scenery for the adventures and also love affairs from an English floozy.
One gamer is actually alleged to have actually entered into Bennett's suiting up space requesting for a reservation on the sound, and also yet another inquiring to get made a reservation for thus he really did not need to bet a details staff. One thing that struck me. as however strange regarding this manual was that towards the end of that the first individual standpoint changed off our MC to other personalities. Enjoyed guide- although i desire there was actually extra by the end- i believe this was actually the excellent means to end the book.
So, this has actually been three years considering that the release from the thinker's anxiety or even now, may/2015 the release time has been pushed many even more times for the doors from stone, checking out reviews coming from 2012 i may observe people counting on the book to launch in 2013, this was actually at that point pushed to 2014, to might 2014. Yet the men in her lifestyle ultimately leave her, as they sense she is indicated for independence, furthermore great journeys, one thing hard to fathom from a girl during that opportunity and also location. I have actually never ever gone through everything similar to this, may not also envision momentarily this appealing to lots of, but for this boy this was actually an overall life from independence.
Created these last night evening, not the best opportunity to accomplish a brand-new recipe as I screwed up the amounts a handful of opportunities yet got there in the end! Working the application has a couple of seconds and also that won't distract you from your purchasing or even a dinner in the restaurant. Although Falcio possesses a bunch of direct exposure to his character, along with the tale going back and on between the found and also previous by means of his eyes, Kest and Brasti didn't obtain the exact same procedure, however I am actually fine from it since this is still the 1st book away from 4, our team possess much more options for their characters. My current favored combo is actually avocado, yellow tomato (a lot less acid) and sunflower sprouts.
In 2009, after composing a publication claiming that harsh and growing economical inequality will trigger popular dangers, for our politics and also the health and wellness from our economic situation, I ended up being an energetic Twitter consumer. The good news is, a handful these days's artists are actually still committed to well-mastered, remarkably made audios which, in addition to an abundant source of more mature albums that were either initially grasped well or even have considering that been actually remastered, suggests there is actually a lot of wonderful songs to hear. And also right here are a few of our favourites.
If the humanists reside in the ascendant, at that point Grayling's self-help publication for the spiritually rudderless will certainly be bought. It is an easy-read purification from parables, terms and also sayings to obey, created coming from non-religious thinking coming from classic ancient time(s) in both East and also West with to the 19th century - with, I note off the resources pointed out, Grayling the single 21st-century rep.
On one hand, this tracks nutritional information for over 2 million food things and on the various other, this allows you file over 350 cardiovascular as well as strength instruction workouts while giving you the flexibility to incorporate your own details as required. One point that is actually other in latest readings is that I have actually checked out and rewatched the BBC Sherlock and the United States Elementary as well as I have this as background for a really Sherlock concentrated publication (it is actually Christopher's preferred collection from tales). Besides, there's over a many thousand testimonials of the publication on GR (hard to believe-I need to possess been just one of some people which haven't review this manual)!
0 notes
Text
Kunming Tourism in China Shows an “International Trend” and Moves forward to International Tourism Market
Now Kunming is in its full swing to build a worldwide famous tourism city, international tourist collection and distribution center and destination. And use the famous travelers on overseas social media to show the fascinating scenery and beautiful environment for all-region tourism in Kunming.
Kunming China boasts natural and human landscapes, it has annual temperature 16.5℃, agreeable climate and flowers full of blossom throughout the year, and Kunming was ranked in the 3rd place among 2017 top 60 spring cities in the world.
At present Kunming is in its full swing to build a worldwide famous tourism city, international tourist collection and distribution center and destination. In aligning with “international, upscale, feature and informationized” requirements, carry out tourism industry transition and upgrading deployment.
“Look for Worldwide Travelers to Kunming” Overseas Travelers’ Trip in Kunming is the highlight of Kunming tourism international marketing. The whole team is comprised of famous travelers on overseas social media and a professional photography team. The in-depth traveling, experience traveling and quality traveling and photography work presents the fascinating scenery and beautiful environment for all-region tourism in Kunming comprehensively in all levels, which is an international tourist destination.
This activity lasted for three months from preparation to promotion. 8 travelers walked in Kunming for seven days, setting foot on about 138 tourist attractions in 11 scenic spots, and they took about 20,000 steps every day, over 70km long in total. Boom from the Philippines, Yuiki from Malaysia, Chinese America TJLEE, Barbara from Germany, Derek and Kodak from the U.S., Poda and Ksyusha from Ukraine are from different countries with different cultural background, and they have been to many places in the world, but they are surprised in Kunming.
When these travelers and photographers came to the Green Lake, it was a warm winter and seagulls were dancing to greet visitors; Yunnan Military Academy, which was a famous modern military academy in order to defend frontier defense, is standing in the golden sunshine; the golden gingko street of Yunnan University demonstrates the natural climate advantage of Kunming in winter.
Stone Forest, which owns world natural heritage scenery and gets the fame as “number one wonder in the world”, is a huge natural stone art treasure you can image; Jiuxiang karst caves known as a world wonder, are stunning, strange and spectacular karst landforms, attracting attention of overseas travelers and photographers; The Golden Temple with thick pines and cypress trees is the largest and most intact copper palace in China, and overseas travelers and photographers appreciated and experienced Yunnan opera, Yunnan intangible cultural heritage; they ate roasted whole lamb in Jiaozi Snow Mountain, and appreciated towering cliffs, the sea of clouds, blue sky and alpine meadows.
The Grand View Park, which keeps the “longest couplets in the world” and concentrates Kunming ancient and modern gardening history and culture development, shows over 300 years’ gardening development history of Kunming vividly; Yunnan Nationalities Village displays folklores and customs of 26 nationalities in Yunnan, and overseas travelers and photographers had songs and dances passionately with ethnic groups and experienced exotic folklores; they took the cableway to overlook the Dianchi Lake, climbed to Longmen in Xishan Mountain, and experienced thrilling and steep rock culture; in order to present beautiful Kunming in a better way, Kunming Dianchi Fengxiang General Aviation Service Co., Ltd. arranged the helicopter tour for them to appreciate the beautiful scenery of the Dianchi Lake.
Kunming boasts plentiful geothermal resources, the hot spring water is rich in diverse minerals, and the water temperature is 38-42 ℃. It is very good for physical health to have hot spring bath in winter. This time we chose Colorful Yunnan ·Famous City of Ancient Dian State and Brilliant Resort & SPA Kunming. Colorful Yunnan ·Famous City of Ancient Dian State is located in Jinning, which is the cradle for Yunnan culture. Now it not only displays and restores the brilliant civilization of Ancient Dian State, but also has Yunnan mineral geothermal hot spring from 2,500 m deep underground, including 57 hot springs, 73 hot spring holes and 36 rooms for hot spring bathing, making it a great place for holidays and health maintenance; Brilliant Resort & SPA Kunming is located by the beautiful Yangzong Lake, and there are gardening hot spring in the open air, SPA, Yoga Studio, etc., so it is great for vacationers.
Hotels chosen for this activity are all the most representative boutique hotels with unique historic meaning and humanistic feelings. Kunming Silver Chest Hotel is located in Zhengyi Road. It is a quiet place in the bustling downtown, and every room here is named after the famous unincorporated bank in Yunnan history, nourishing profound humanistic atmosphere; Kunming Redolence Garden Boutique Hotel near Yunnan Nationalizes Village shows the architectural style of “the Old Town of Xizhou” in Dali, and we can experience folk house features and culture of Bai Ethnic Group in Kunming; Yunnan Mengjing Wangyue Boutique Hotel is located between eastern and western towers and in opposite to Jinri Building, it inherits the elegant style of the Ming and Qing Dynasty, and guests here can experience the daily life of old Kunming while enjoying high quality services; Sofitel Kunming displays the upscale taste, international standard facilities and services of French five-star international chain hotels to overseas travelers and photographers.
Yunnan food blends the spicy features of Sichuan cuisine and local features, and forms Yunnan cuisine which gathers food features of ethnic groups in Yunnan. In this activity, Kunming local specialties are presented to international tourists, and feature snacks are also recommended. In Huixiang Xilou between the Green Lake and Yunnan Military Academy, Yunnan Rice Noodles and Crisp Stuffed Bun are representative food of old Kunming; Fresh Hot Pot provides fresh beef every day with dedication and originality. QBX inherits traditional hand-made tofu skills, and maintains the original taste of food to the maximum extent. Flower 17 is a romantic flower theme hot pot restaurant, and it has fresh flowers as ornaments, quality raw materials and the freshest materials transported by air to guarantee the most authentic and natural taste; In Yunnan provides dishes of ethnic groups, and every dish tells an old story about an ethnic group.
Food is the realest emotional bond of a city. Kunming food cultural features are effectively displayed to international tourists. Meanwhile, Spring City Kunming is also a capital of humanistic feelings. Tourists can listen to allegro in Nanqiang Street with cultural and historic feelings; experience the Chinese culture essence in Qianxun Mowen Zen Hotel; and have Kunming style cocktail in Dream Bar while enjoying night view of Kunming City.
During Looking for Worldwide Travelers’ in Kunming/Overseas Traveling Photography Activity, travelers and photographers record the beautiful scenes, blue sky, warm sunshine, classic tour routes, quality scenes, feature guesthouses, boutique hotels, and Yunnan cuisines with cameras; meanwhile, in the perspective of international tourists, convey “Stunning Kunming- Spring City & Flower City” to the world, and display the “international style” of Kunming as a world tourist destination. Based on communication in overseas media, gradually build up the brand image and influence of Kunming in international tourism market.
Kunming Municipal Tourism Development Commission
Vigorous support for Looking for Worldwide Travelers’ in Kunming/Overseas Traveling Photography Activity is highly appreciated!
Kunming Municipal Tourist Attraction Association
Kunming Hotel Industry Association
Yunnan F-B& Delicacy Trade Association
Kunming F-B& Delicacy Trade Association
Stone Forest Scenic Spot Administration
Yiliang Expo Garden and Jiuxiang Tourism Co., Ltd.
Kunming Xishan Scenic Spot
Yunnan Nationalities Village Co., Ltd.
Kunming Municipal Grand View Park
Kunming City Golden Temple Scenic Spot
Kunming Jiaozi Mountain Tourism Development Co., Ltd.
Colorful Yunnan · Famous City of Ancient Dian State
Kunming Silver Chest Hotel Co., Ltd.
Yunnan Mengjing Hotel Group Co., Ltd.
Kunming Redolence Garden Boutique Hotel
Sofitel Kunming
Brilliant Resort & SPA Kunming
Kunming Municipal Huixiang Catering & Entertainment Co., Ltd.
Yunnan Flower 17 Catering Management Co., Ltd.
Kunming Qianzhenhe Catering Co., Ltd.
Kunming Dianchi Fengxiang General Aviation Service Co., Ltd.
Media Contact
Company Name: Kunming Municipal Tourism Development Commission
Contact Person: Media Relations
Email: [email protected]
Country: China
Website: https://weibo.com/u/3585936342?refer_flag=1001030101_
The post Kunming Tourism in China Shows an “International Trend” and Moves forward to International Tourism Market appeared first on Daily Press Release News To Whole World.
from Daily Press Release News To Whole World https://www.dailyprnews.com/kunming-tourism-in-china-shows-an-international-trend-and-moves-forward-to-international-tourism-market/
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
official-maverick
i lived bitch
hosieryaficinado
Nyloneer
a-maii
dear ANNA SUN
haosoah
A wolf`s place
melinamiller
Retro Girl 📷🎀