#the fortieth anniversary

[heidismagblog]

#rolling stone magazine #rolling stone #the fortieth anniversary #the rolling stones #charlie watts #bill wyman #mick jagger #keith richards #brian jones #pete townshend #the who #pink floyd #roger waters #syd barrett #nick mason #rick wright #paul mccartney #linda mccartney #george harrison #the beatles #andy summers #the police

[n7india]

अतीक-अशरफ के 'चालीसवें' पर भी यूपी पुलिस के हाथ नहीं लगी शाइस्ता व जैनब

Prayagraj (UP): माफिया से नेता बने अतीक अहमद और उसके भाई अशरफ की मौत को गुरुवार को 40 दिन पूरे हो गए। इनकी फरार पत्नियों को पकड़ने के लिए अतीक व अशरफ के चालीसवें का इंतजार कर रही पुलिस के हांथ खाली रहे। 15 अप्रैल की रात मोतीलाल नेहरू (कॉल्विन) संभागीय अस्पताल में तीन हथियारबंद हमलावरों ने पुलिस हिरासत में उन दोनों की गोली मारकर हत्या कर दी थी, जब उन्हें अदालत द्वारा चिकित्सा परीक्षण के लिए ले…

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#absconding wives remained empty #The hands of the police waiting for Atiq and Ashraf&039;s fortieth anniversary to catch their #UP news

[jpechacek]

I remember when the fortieth anniversary edition of Goncharov hit local theaters. transformative.

#goncharov #poster design #art #this is the only time I'll participate in this! I swear! #unreality #poster #gonchposting

[pollyna]

tw: mention of suicide (both implicit and explicit but without description); non linear narrative.

Growing old is such a strange concept for them. None of their parents got old enough to be old at all: Mav's dad died he was shy in his forties and his mom not even in thirty-six, Ice's mom was twenty nine and his dad shoot himself at forty six. But they got to be in their forties and then in their fifties. A son, then none and then twelve of them. Slider's kids, of whom Ice was the godparent, and their birthdays and ballets and recitals and graduation parties and weddings. Too many of Ice's promotions and not enough of Maverick's.

(Pete used to joke he was going to die before his fiftieth birthday and when it come around Tom rented Penny's entire bar for the night and end up dancing and kissing with all his friends around them. The cake was horrible and the DJ even more nostalgic then them. Everyone had a great night.)

Tom's cancer (ah, we were relativitly close to grow old together love, 'm sorry) and Pete's God complex (do you think they'll give you a fidelity card? Once you reach ten visit a month at the hospital they'll offer us a free coffee?), Wolfman and Hollywood making Admirals and missing their own promotion party because they forgot to set the alarm, Bradley's fifteenth birthday and Bradley's fortieth, the shovel talk they give to Jake and their emerald anniversary. Falling in love behind closed doors, being the secret you hold against your chest and marrying in a spring day under the tree they used to plot revenge against every new class that came up at Top Gun. Blonde hair dryer swapped with black and then none at all because you look distinguish with all that salt and pepper Pete. The stack of letters they used to send one another when they were deployed that became e-mails, text messages and video calls. Soft hands and stupid back pain because they should think to invest in ergonomic sits for the new F-A, I'll make sure to pass the recommendation. The year that marked that Goose was gone as many years as he was alive. Their first apartment in only Ice's name that years later become a house with a single surnamen on it (Mitchell-Kazansky).

They know they still have so much time to grow older than that but sometimes, in mornings where the meeting aren't before 10 and the house is peacefully quiet, Pete can't help but study all the marks time left on Tom's face and he can feel the happiness bubbling in his chest and making him a little teary. We made it, he finds himself thinking before kissing is husband awake, we really made it.

#they grow old together #it went incredibly sappy incredibly fast omg #tom iceman kazansky #pete maverick mitchell #they're in love your honor #and they had such a full life #they saw it all and there still is so much they're going to see #ron slider kerner (mention) #bradley rooster bradshaw (mentioned) #nick goose bradshaw (mentioned) #the dagger squad (mentioned) #penny benjamin #wolf & 'wood being late their day is the comedy ™️ #icemav #top gun(1986) #top gun: maverick #otp: i heard from the heavens that clouds have been grey

[railwayhistorical]

A Surprise—and then Another

I ran across some older images on a drive yesterday...

It turns out that 2011 was the fortieth anniversary of the creation of Amtrak. To commemorate this, among other things, certain locomotives were painted in the various former paint schemes. Number 66, painted in the Phase II scheme, was on point of number 350, one of the three daily Wolverine trains in Michigan. When I turned to bag the going-away shot of the train, I captured number 156, which is painted in the Phase I scheme.

I was a photographer of trains back in my teens and both of these schemes can be found among my Amtrak slides of an earlier era. Both locomotives here are GE P42DC units. These shots were made in southwest Michigan, between Decatur and Lawton—Amtrak’s own, former Michigan Central, right-of-way.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken on July 27th 2011.

#railroad history #railway history #amtrak #wolverine #michigancentral #heritagescheme

[suzcatonmars]

Happy fortieth anniversary to Goliath('s horn) Returns!

#honk honk honkkk #I missed the 40th anniversary of Goliath so I'm putting my heart and soul into celebrating Goliath Returns #david hasselhoff #knight rider #knight rider 1982 #Goliath Returns #garthe knight #ann turkel #k.i.t.t.

[argyle-cove-the-comic]

Issue One: Dog Days (Cover and Summary)

After the idea is weeded into his head, Eyepatch takes his nephew to visit a famous theme park on its fortieth anniversary. However, the day doesn’t go as either of them were expecting.

#comics #artists on tumblr #original characters #anthro #original comic #robots #argyle cove #argyle cove comic #issue 1 - dog days #here it is! the cover at long last!

[aimeedaisies]

Court Circular | 1st November 2023

St James’s Palace

The Duke of Edinburgh, The Princess Royal, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and The Duke of Kent this morning attended the Senior Serving and Retired Officers’ Briefing at the Army and Navy Club, 36-39 Pall Mall, London, SW1.

Her Royal Highness, Chancellor, Harper Adams University, this afternoon attended the launch of the University’s Strategic Plan at London Bridge Arches, Glaziers Hall, 9 Montague Close, London SE1, and was received by Colonel Simon Duckworth (Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London).

The Princess Royal, Royal Bencher, the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, accompanied by Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, this evening attended the Grand Day Choral Evensong Service at Temple Church, Temple, London EC4.

Her Royal Highness, Liveryman, accompanied by Admiral Laurence, later attended a Dinner to mark the Fortieth Anniversary of the Worshipful Company of Engineers at Mansion House, London EC4.

#court circular #princess anne #princess royal #tim laurence #timothy laurence #prince edward duke of edinburgh #prince richard duke of gloucester #birgitte duchess of gloucester #prince edward duke of kent

[popping-your-culture]

In December of this year, Brian De Palma’s Scarface (1983) will celebrate its fortieth anniversary. At nearly three hours long, Scarface tells the mythic tale of the rise and fall of Cuban drug lord Tony Montana (Al Pacino), whose obsessive quest for the American Dream ends in a hail of bullets.

Read the full post over at our Wordpress site!

#scarface #1983 #brian de palma #michelle pfeiffer #al pacino #goddess #movies #80s movies #40th anniversary #crime film #gangster

[theirishaesthete]

A Double Anniversary

This month marks two anniversaries, one of which is that the Irish Aesthete now turns eleven, having made his first appearance on the internet in September 2012. But the month also commemorates an older anniversary: the fortieth anniversary of the Irish Aesthete’s first job, as resident curator of the Damer House in Roscrea, County Tipperary.* The house has a complex history, made more so by the…

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#Architectural History #County Tipperary #Damer House #Georgian Architecture #Historic Interiors #Stately Home

[scumbag-monthly]

The Young Ones Were: A Final Word from Scumbag Monthly’s Editor 🖕💚

I was going to post this on 7th March – the birthday of the pan global phenomenon himself – but I think the emotion will be stronger tonight. Either way, I’ve chosen this post to say my last farewells to Scumbag Monthly and thank the people who helped make it what it was.

It was my decision as editor to end SM at Issue #25 and it was a difficult one to make. Although SM has come with both pros and cons, it’s something I’ve enjoyed creating and is something I’m very proud of. In a way, it would have been easier to carry on – sticking with the familiar is always easier – but I didn’t want our fanzine to drift off into nothingness. I thought twenty-five was a good number to end it at. Three years; twenty-five issues; three Rik specials; a zine for the fortieth anniversary – I think we’ve done alright, all things considered. More than alright! I’m so happy that we were able to add to the fandom in some small way.

I have a head for dates, so I can tell you with 99% certainty that I took on the reins of editorship at SM on 14th May 2020. It’s weird that that time feels both close and far away – international pandemics will do that to you. I’ve seen engagement and interest in this zine ebb and flow over the years. We’ve never really received enough submissions to keep us afloat long term. I used to ask my mutuals if I could add old art of theirs to zines to keep the Drawing Room full, and the amount of my fic that made its way into SM was not the result of an overinflated ego (I promise!), more the result of fic submissions falling even lower than art submissions. We’re a small fandom; that’s always been a problem for SM. While I’ve continually emphasised the importance of submissions to SM – how else would SM involve those not working behind the scenes? – the truth is that the end products simply wouldn’t have arrived on our website be it not for the so-called scumbag staff who dedicated their free time to making pages and content.

With a small fandom and ergo a small team, SM’s ambitions had to be realistic. We would all have loved to bring new segments out in every issue but, with a lot to do and limited time to get it done each time, this often wasn’t possible. I never wanted SM to become a burden to the people who made pages for it, as we all lead offline lives and SM was simply a passion project – we made this because we wanted to, because it was fun.

I won’t deny there have been points where SM burnt me out a tad. I think it was easy to lose sight of things during the lockdowns, or simply fall completely into one project. There are some zines where well over twenty of the pages were made by me because they had to be, and I’ve often feared that The People’s Poetry suffered because of this. I’m very pleased and grateful to point out that the page share became slightly less exaggerated after we found different people for each character, but (and I’m afraid I am going to have to be egotistical now XD) I’d be lying if I denied every zine since Issue #4 isn’t drenched in my blood, sweat, and improvised version of graphic design (not actually my passion, me being primarily a writer and all XD).

I hope this isn’t sounding too negative because SM really does mean a lot to me. I think it’s just that a mixed relationship is guaranteed with anything you give a lot of yourself to and I want to be honest here, at the end. It’s going to feel weird for me for a little while: no more new documents to set up, no more new pages to make, no more themes to discuss, no more Google Forms to collect. I will miss SM, but thanks to the internet it’ll actually still be here. We’ll be keeping the website up as an archive and the same with our Tumblr blog and Instagram (scumbag_monthly). For future runs of the Rik and Ade Fest, another blog has been set up (@rikandadefest). SM has also had a Redbubble on the down low for some time now and we’re planning on adding our designs of the lads there soon, if any of you fancy owning something with those on.

I realise this whole post comes at the risk of sounding pretentious and melodramatic… but sod it, you know? Here are the people I’d like to thank individually, on behalf of our fanzine.

@theevilesteviled -

First of all, the creator of SM: the reason you’re even reading this right now. During the period in which SM got going – that calm before the utter shitstorm of 2020 – we spoke nearly every day… though, living on different sides of the globe did limit our talk time to early mornings and late evenings. Ed is the reason SM ever launched. She did almost everything for the first few zines, often at the cost of her own sanity, and she inspired a passion for this fanzine within me.

In May 2020, when I found myself in lockdown limbo between college and university, Ed was struggling with the brunt of SM plus the new hell of online classes. When I took charge of Issue #4, I don’t think I realised the extent of what I was taking on – I certainly didn’t expect to still be editor nearly three years later! Even so, without Ed SM wouldn’t have gotten as far as Issue #4. I’ll admit when she initially proposed the idea for a The Young Ones fanzine, I didn’t assume it would ever actually happen. I agreed to take on Rick’s page, but never allowed myself to imagine we’d end up with a project that’d last three years. Surely, it was only other people who could pull off that kind of thing, right? Surely, a group of introverted young adults online weren’t really going to get anywhere with this, were we?

I’m not trying to make SM sound bigger than it is – I’m well aware how niche we are, have always been – but the point I’m trying to make is: thanks to Ed spearheading SM in the early days, I had the profound realisation that I can actually be creative and try new things and they’re not destined to fall completely flat on their faces. I think everyone involved with SM, be it through making pages or submitting their work, has experienced a version of this same realisation with the publication of each zine.

That’s thanks to Ed, so I’d like to formally express my gratitude. Thank you, ya bastard.

@xgardensinspace -

The lovely Deya! Deya has always been a big part of SM, right from the beginning. The portraits of Vyvyan, Rick, Neil, Mike, Balowski, and P that appeared regularly in our zines were drawn by them, as well as the ten portraits of our staff on our website. That’s not even mentioning the five exemplary covers they’ve whizzed up for SM!

Not only is Deya an exceptionally talented artist, they’re also an enthusiastic team player. From Issue #11 onwards, they’ve been our resident Mike. As most of us agree, Mike is the most difficult young one to characterise – Deya rose to the challenge with full commitment. Alongside taking on Mike’s Moments, for a period of time in late 2021 Deya posted as Mike to SM’s Instagram every Thursday, providing all of us with funny insights into Mike’s sense of fashion. There have also been times when my SM workload proved too much and they stepped up to write Comic Strip reviews for our Strip Tease – in fact, one of my favourite reviews is the one of Five Go Mad on Mescalin we wrote together for Issue #18.

Deya has always been passionate about SM, even when it seemed there were only a few of us who were. They’ve been incredibly supportive and understanding, often one of the first to volunteer to make art or write pieces for specials. To put it lightly, SM would be left severely lacking without their endless contributions and help and for that reason I’m incredibly thankful to them.

Last spring, I was lucky enough to finally meet Deya, when they visited the UK on holiday, and they were just as lovely in person as they are online. Thank you ever so much for your work on SM, you really are a cool person.

@drinkysketch -

I felt it only right to single out Julia here. Fandom spaces are ever changing and the individuals who’ve contributed to SM are no different. Despite this, Julia has been a constant cover artist for SM – not only did she create our first ever cover art back when SM was completely unknown, she’s since provided us with five more pieces for our covers. As the clever trousers among you will have worked out, that’s six in total. Almost a quarter of our regular zines!

There’s something instantly likeable about Julia’s art style: the shapes, the bright colours, the insistence on always giving Vyvyan one eye bigger than the other. The cover of Issue #1 especially is representative of SM – it’s the establishing shot – and I couldn’t imagine a better piece of art than the one Julia provided us with. I’d like to thank her for always being so eager to make art for us, even as the world’s gotten crazier and crazier. True scumbag style!

@codrington-road -

It was April 2020 when Haley first emailed SM with a fanfic submission and an offer to make pages for Neil. These were the early days of SM – Ed and I were just about keeping up with the zine’s Rick and Vyv content but were seriously struggling where Mike and Neil were concerned. It’s thanks to Haley that Neil is the only young one I’ve never had to make a page for… well, aside from that time we switched characters for April Fool’s in Issue #14… and she’s been a constant, reliable presence at SM since Issue #4.

There probably aren’t many people who could come up again and again with hilarious horoscopes on purpose, and I don’t know for exactly how many Wednesdays Haley manned Neil’s entries to our Instagram stories, but it was a lot. 9th June 2021 fell on a Wednesday – a little daunting for anyone. Yet, I think it’s that entry from ‘Neil’, a touching piece about missing people who are no longer here while still carrying the warmth they gave us within us, that sticks out to me the most.

Haley has always brought the exact right levels of surrealism, humour, and bloody hippie moping to Neil. She is probably secretly Nigel Planer. She’s helped keep the excitement for SM alive in me when I’ve been at my wit’s end with it and is in fact the main reason this fanzine didn’t fold after Issue #19. Honestly, she’s great. Have you read the fanfic she’s submitted? Pure brilliance. Her reviews of Rik Mayall's Bedside Tales and GLC were sublime.

Thank you, Haley, for encouraging not just me but everyone behind the scenes of SM and for being our resident Neil for so long. I know you’re a girlie, but I hope the seed of your loin is fruitful in the belly of your woman. Ta very much!

@martian-martian-martian -

Part of SM since Issue #18, Wisely is a person who truly deserves so much love. I first spoke to Wisely on Tumblr when they signed up to write about Rick and Kevin in our second Rik zine, in 2021. Needless to say, the results of their endeavours were some of the most memorable pieces in that zine. Rick still hasn’t recovered.

After that, Wisely only became more and more involved in SM, until they’d taken on the enigmatic fifth housemate, that scumbag named Petyr, as a regular in our zine. They did this despite the graphic design element being out of their comfort zone and even came up with a whole new page idea to spearhead. Cliff ‘sHits – as well as having a perfectly Young Ones-esq name – is exactly the kind of thing I always hoped would start happening with SM: that staff would strike out with new page ideas when they had the time. Wisely has a talent for twisting well known verses to fit the scumbag agenda and we thank them for it.

A keen promoter of SM – they could frequently be found suggesting submitting to our fanzine in the comments of TYO fanart on Tumblr – they’ve even written fanfic to keep zines full of content. I’d like to thank them for joining the team and enhancing the zine in the process. SM is all the better for having them.

@the-tardis-in-221b-baker-street -

Zoe already has a name for herself in Rik Mayall circles outside the scumbags; what fan wouldn’t go absolutely crazy at the sheer time and dedication she puts into her many cosplays? Zoe has a knack for morphing into the bastards she portrays… physically, at least. I’ve always found her to be as friendly as Alan B’Stard is devious. XD

It was during SM’s hiatus, when the spot of resident Vyvyan fell vacant, that Zoe immediately jumped at the chance to help SM out. Since Issue #20, she’s provided the voice of the beloved punk as well as producing a page of her own design, Top of the Plops. Zoe has also been quick to help out where reviews of Filthy, Rich and Catflap and of the music in The Young Ones are concerned, for which I am very grateful. Despite being the newest staff member at SM, she’s thrown herself fully into it and offered much needed reassurance and submissions whenever necessary. Zoe has been an optimistic voice at the fanzine: always up for new ideas and competitions, always there with schemes to boost engagement. Her DnD stats for the lads in Issue #24 were incredible.

We’ve had many scumbags writing for Vyvyan at SM over the years – more than we’ve had for any other character – and I’m thrilled we got Zoe in for our final run. She even made the cover art for our last issue. Thank you!

@aspinecone -

Aspen is someone I’ve shared online fandom spaces with since 2017. We’re both fans of Red Dwarf, but it was our shared enjoyment of The Young Ones that finally got us talking to one another. Last autumn, we finally met in person when we went to see Ade in A Christmas Carol - a brilliant day with a great friend that I'll always remember.

Aspen has had a presence behind the scenes of SM since the beginning, often submitting fanart and the odd piece of fanfic, until they took on the role of resident Balowski at SM from Issue #16 onwards. Creating content for the character most out of the loop with the others isn’t as easy as you might think, but Aspen has always produced insane, amusing pages for him. Aspen was also the original cover artist pencilled in for Issue #21, but graciously stood aside when they realised offline commitments were going to need more of their time.

During SM’s run, I’ve sometimes had hairbrained schemes such as making the badges several scumbags will be receiving very, very soon. I’m no design whiz – Ed and I always made SM out of Word Documents – and Aspen helpfully volunteered to remove the backgrounds from designs and clean them up. Like I’ve always said, producing SM has been a team effort. I’d like to thank Aspen for always being in my corner.

@cloubdustings -

Ava, the mad meme machine! If I recall correctly, Ava first popped up in scumbag circles in late 2020. She surprised SM with cover art for Issue #10 and kindly took on the role of resident Vyvyan from that same issue until Issue #19. 2021 was not a fun year – in fact, I’d argue it was worse than 2020 in some respects – so having Ava on the SM team to handle all Vyvyan content was a great help.

Ava has a very distinct sense of humour and you can usually tell which British comedian she’s most recently become obsessed with by checking her Instagram. XD Even with changing tastes, she’s still making content about Mr Mayall and her brand of whackiness is most definitely beloved by the fandom. Thank you for sharing it with SM!

@lumivarjo -

Lumi was around at the very beginning of SM and is actually responsible for the piece of grey tape bearing the zine’s name that became our logo. He was our original resident P, producing pages for us during the autumn of 2020. Lumi has always been more behind the scenes than at the forefront of SM, but has nonetheless also always been supportive. Being an artistic sod, Lumi is to thank for many of the key headers SM used, which were all vital pieces of the SM brand… if we want to get really pretentious. Thank you for being there for the zine!

@serenpop -

Pol was also around when Ed was proposing this insane new idea of a fanzine for The Young Ones and was our first resident Neil. Offline commitments saw them have to drop the role, but they reappeared again to help us out when we needed cover art at a pinch for Issue #9. A lot of SM’s Drawing Rooms have featured art from Pol, so I’d like to thank them for brightening up our pages!

Additionally, I'd like to thank the other scumbags who’ve made cover art for us: @frankenbolt (who made three(!) beautifully chaotic covers, including everybody’s favourite Modern AU); @whatacompletebastard (for the fab Breakfast Club parody that’s always been popular with the scumbags); @heinzpilsnerbloody (another talented artist who drew me a whole bunch of cool stuff in an exchange and kindly helped SM out); @colourshot-draws (our first anniversary zine cover artist and a genuinely lovely person); @postpunkpontypandyphantomthief (a massive Rik Mayall fan and integral part of the fandom); thedinodoodles (for being ahead of the curve and bringing us pirates before the Tumblr obsession); @rikhead (for the sheer dedication to detail on her cover and for her legendary skills in Rik Pic Hunting™); and @smashingblouses (for providing us with the brilliant TYO 40th anniversary zine cover art). I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: SM couldn’t have functioned without its cover artists. Thank you all. Big respec.

There are a few final scumbags I wish to mention and thank - SM's cheerleaders, if you will. These people have brightened up my day on various occasions and their enthusiasm helped make the zine what it was: @anglophobias, @my-blood-is-maple-syrup, @friedhofcreative, @shotsofnovacaine, @5gogh2, @mariigoldmayall, and @fourstarsandahamster.

Finally, of course, I’d like to say a quick thank you to the people who inspired this fanzine in the first place. Without the canon, there would be no fanon. They’re never going to read this thank Cliff but without the brilliance of Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan, Alexei Sayle, Ben Elton, Lise Mayer, and all the recurring comic guest stars of The Young Ones, SM would have quite literally never existed.

We need comedy in hard times – to call out the shits in power, to keep us grounded, to simply make us laugh. I count myself incredibly lucky to have stumbled across fans of this anarchic ‘80s sitcom on Tumblr. Despite the time gone by between 1982 and 2023 and the changes in society and sensibilities, I think it’s an incredibly good thing that this comedy still connects with us. Most of the people I’ve spoken to on here, like me, weren’t alive during TYO’s initial run. It’s often assumed by certain bastards who shall remain nameless that the youth are trying to kill comedy, that we take offence too easily, that comedy classics are a thing of the past. To them I say: UP YOURS, UGLY! As long as there are people, there will be laughter; and among those of us laughing, there will be the young ones.

So thank you, scumbag reader, for downloading our zines and supporting our bastardly endeavours.

Signing off from Scumbag Monthly for the last time,

- R / @neil-neil-orange-peel <3

"This is it! It's really happening! Who needs qualifications? Who cares about Thatcher and unemployment?! We can do just exactly whatever we want to do! And you know why? Because we're Young Ones. Bachelor boys! Crazy, mad, wild-eyed, big-bottomed anarchists!!" - The People's Poet, 1984

#scumbag monthly #the young ones #tyo #rik mayall #fanzine #notice #goodbye

[heidismagblog]

#rolling stone magazine #rolling stone #the fortieth anniversary #ad #anthony bourdain #no reservations #travel channel #this made me sad

[grandmaster-anne]

3 March 2023 The Princess Royal, Royal Patron, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, visited the Grange, Wycombe Road, Saunderton, on the occasion of their Fortieth Anniversary and was received by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire (Countess Howe). 📸: Hearing Dogs for Deaf People

#her smile 💘 #princess anne #princess royal #anne with doggos #annegagements

[howieabel]

“The missile crisis "was the most dangerous moment in human history," Arthur Schlesinger commented in October 2002 at a conference in Havana on the fortieth anniversary of the crisis, attended by a number of those who witnessed it from within as it unfolded. Decision-makers at the time undoubtedly understood that the fate of the world was in their hands. Nevertheless, attendees at the conference may have been shocked by some of the revelations. They were informed that in October 1962 the world was "one word away" from nuclear war. "A guy named Arkhipov saved the world," said Thomas Blanton of the National Security Archive in Washington, which helped organize the event. He was referring to Vasil Arkhipov, a Soviet submarine officer blocked an order to fire nuclear-armed torpedoes in October 27, at the tensest moment of the crisis, when the submarines were under attack by US destroyers, A devastating response would have been a near certainty, leading a major war.” ― Noam Chomsky, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance

[watercolourcritters]

I had the honour of making this commissioned painting as a gift from my Dad to my Mum for their fortieth wedding anniversary - Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is her favourite poem <3

(Big ol' watermark because this one was commissioned!)

[ID copied from Alt: A watercolour painting surrounding the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. The artwork is of a snowy woods at nightime, full of snow covered fir trees, holly bushes, and a few bare deciduous trees. A path winds through the woods, with two sets of boot prints and one set of dog prints visible on the snow. There is a sense of calm and quiet to the painting. The artist's watermark reads "watercolour critters." The poem reads as follows: Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

End ID.]

#art #watercolour #stopping by woods on a snowy evening #robert frost #poetry #commissions #watercolour critters art

[duhragonball]

Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return! (2008)

2008 marked the fortieth anniversary of the manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump.  To commemorate the occasion, Toei produced two anime shorts, which would be presented during the Jump Super Anime Tour.  One of these was One Piece: Romance Dawn Story, and the other was Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return.

With respect to One Piece, I think the Dragon Ball special was a much bigger deal, as this was the first new anime from the franchise since Dragon Ball GT signed off in 1997.  Today, it’s kind of easy to overlook, because we have four new movies, 131 episodes of Dragon Ball Super, and however many chapters of the DBS manga.  But in 2008, it was pretty much understood that Dragon Ball had ended and would not return.  So even a one-off special like this was pretty historic. 

In the fall of 2008, Shonen Jump put the special on their website, and I remember having to install a special browser to watch it.  I thought I had downloaded the episode as well, but this afternoon I went looking through my files and apparently I only got the browser.  I guess that might still work after all this time, except they took down the OAV in 2009. The only official release was in 2013, when it was included as a bonus feature of a limited edition of the Battle of Gods DVD.  So it’s on track to become another “lost movie”, like “Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans”. 

You can track down Return on YouTube, but I couldn’t find a very good upload of the video.  A lot of fans tried to dub it themselves, probably  because there was never a proper English localization.  The only version I found with English subtitles was a “remastered” version, and from what I can tell, they just slapped their shitty watermark in the corner and did a horizontal flip of the footage to avoid a copyright strike.   So when I started this liveblog, I assumed this OAV was already in my collection, but it turned out to be the hardest one to arrange. 

There was also a 2009 manga adaptation of this anime, so maybe that version is easier to find than this special, but I sure hope they just put all this stuff out there where people can buy it.  Anyway, let’s take a look at what we’ve got.

So, in case you’re not familiar with this OAV, this is the one with Tarble, Vegeta’s brother.  I’m pretty sure he hasn’t appeared anywhere else since, unless you count his inclusion in the roster of Raging Blast 2, and some other video games.  He was also mentioned during Battle of Gods and the recent Broly film, but mostly this was done just to remind the audience that they didn’t forget about him.  In Battle of Gods, Vegeta says that he has no idea how to find or contact Tarble, and I suspect this means that we may never see him again.  Then again, I never expected Dragon Ball to return before 2008, and here we are.

This OAV also set the stage for a lot of what was done with the characters in Super.  Goku’s got the same farmer’s outfit here that we see him wear in Super, and he mentions that Mr. Satan recently gave him some money, which is depiced in DBS Episode 1. 

Continuity-wise, this takes place two years after the defeat of Kid Buu.  As I recall, Battle of Gods was supposed to be set four years after the defeat of Kid Buu, to give you an idea. 

So during that two-year peacetime, Chi-Chi has gotten Goku to start a radish farm, while Mr. Satan has built a new hotel.  The grand opening will take place soon, but he wants to hold a private party there the day before, and invite everyone from the Buu Saga to celebrate their victory. 

This greatly embarrasses Videl, so she calls Gohan to tell him about it.  Mr. Satan got all the credit for defeating Buu, but that isn’t true at all.  So she thinks his ego has gotten out of control. 

Also, there’s this cute sequence in the background as Satan and Buu give their dog a bath.  First they shove him down the hall, then Buu carries him back the other way, with suds all over him. 

That night, Gohan tells the rest of the family that they’ve been invited.  Goku and Chi-Chi aren’t interested, but Gohan casually brings up how it’s all-you-can-eat, and suddenly Goku’s on board.  The weird thing is that Gohan seems extremely relieved about this, and even thinks “Now Videl won’t yell at me.”  I don’t understand where he would have gotten that idea.  Videl just seemed frustrated about her dad’s extravagance.  I never got the sense that she wanted or needed Goku to come to this party, or that she would have been upset with Gohan if he couldn’t convince his dad to attend. 

Anyway, I just really like this shot of the four of them sitting at the table.  We never got to see this sort of thing in DBZ, but now we can.  It’s nice.

The next day, Videl arrives to pick them up, and Roshi immediately gawks at Chi-Chi’s boobs, so she hits him in the face with a frying pan. 

They get to the hotel, and Goku greets Buu’s pet dog.  He’s called “Bay” in the subtitles, and the name “Bee” seems to be official, as it gets used throughout the dub, but the weird thing I discovered in 2019 was that the dog never gets named throughout the entire Japanese script for the anime.  So I’m not sure when the name was finally introduced.  Maybe it was in the manga, but if that’s the case, you’d think it would have been used in the anime as well.  Or maybe it was one of those things they put in the guidebooks or whatever.

I just always liked this interaction with the two of them, where Goku greets Bee like a fellow veteran of the Kid Buu Saga, even though Bee was just a frightened puppy on the Sacred World of the Kais.  But he fought as hard as the others.  He borked and borked and then Kid Buu finally dropped dead, so I call that a win.

So one really weird thing about this special is how Mr. Satan somehow got Kibitoshin and the Elder Supreme Kai to show up for this.  Also King Kai, Bubbles, and Gregory are in attendance, they’re all dead.  I’m pretty sure this is the first and only time we ever see King Kai in the mortal plane.  Maybe this was why Gohan thought it was so important to get Goku to come to this thing.  Goku’s the only one who could get in touch with some of these characters, so without his help, Mr. Satan’s party would have been a very small affair.

Then the press shows up, despite Mr. Satan’s best efforts to keep this private.  They just want to know the name of the hotel, and it soon gets revealed as “The Mr. Satan World-Saving Defeat of Majin Buu Super Gorgeous Hotel.”  Try saying that three times fast. 

Satan seems mortified to have the name revealed, like he’s ashamed of it or something, but they were going to reveal this tomorrow anyway, so I don’t understand his reaction.  Then the media seem really pleased with the name, and he embraces it.  I don’t understand this whole plotline.

So, first of all, no one in the general public should even remember the name “Majin Buu”.  That’s because Goku used the Dragon Balls to wipe their memories of Majin Buu, so that Fat Buu could live among them without causing a panic.  They remember the Buu crisis, and that a terrible monster killed them all, but they don’t remember what the monster’s name was, or that it looked exactly like the big pink dude Mr. Satan hangs out with all the time. 

So I get Videl’s embarrassment, because it resembles her feelings in DBZ Episode 289.  As she put it, everyone believes her father saved the world from something, but no one knows what it was.   Also, it was during the Buu Saga that she learned her dad never beat Cell either, so I think she’s still coping with the fact that her dad’s business empire is all based on lies. 

However, Dragon Team takes the whole thing in stride, because they’ve known the truth all along, and they never resented Satan about it before.  Now, they like the guy, because he really did help them out with Majin Buu.  And now that he knows the truth about them, he’s been extremely humble around them, albeit privately.  I mean, the fact that he’s throwing this party in their honor kind of sums it up, doesn’t it?  He’s opening a hotel that commemorates “his” victory over Buu, but the day before, he invites the gang over to celebrate the true heroes of that struggle. 

And it’s kind of an awkward balance for Mr. Satan, made even more awkward when the press unexpectedly show up and he has to play both roles at once, but I don’t get how the hotel is an example of Satan’s ego getting out of control. 

Also, why a hotel?  This sounds like a museum or a monument would make more sense, but maybe hotels have a different significance in Japanese culture?  It’s also kind of weird how this is like Mr. Satan’s project.  You’d think that someone else would build the hotel and he would simply get royalties for attaching his name and likeness to it. 

Anyway, just before the gang can start eating, a pair of Saiyan Attack Balls land on Earth, and everyone senses a powerful ki.  It’s someone new, and that someone heads straight for the party, and Vegeta recognizes him as Tarble, his younger brother. 

Why have we never heard of this guy before?  Because Tarble had the same origin story as Goku.  During the rule of the Vegeta dynasty, Saiyan babies were tested for battle potential, and those determined to be unfit were launched into space to defenseless planets, where they could grow up and conquer in relative safety.  And say what you will about King Vegeta III, but he was no hypocrite, as he followed that policy with his own son, sending Tarble to some other planet because his test scores weren’t up to snuff. 

And this always illustrated the nonsense behind the Saiyans’ attempts to breed better warriors.  The whole idea was to remove the weakest specimens from their own population, and devote the best training and resources to the strongest, so that they could produce even stronger generations in the future.   Except Goku had extremely low test scores, and yet he wound up becoming the Legendary Super Saiyan.  Meanwhile, Vegeta and Tarble are brothers, yet one of them tested well and the other one didn’t, which sort of exposes the notion of Saiyan power is hereditary.

Anyway, Tarble grew up on some remote world, and apparently he became its defender instead of conquering it.  Then some new threat appeared, and it was too much for him.  So he went looking for help, and a Namekian once told him that Vegeta went to Earth after Frieza’s downfall.  So he’s here to ask Vegeta to save his adopted world. 

Vegeta finds it unseemly for Tarble to ask others to handle his problems, but he’s in the mood for a fight, so he’s down to clown.  But several other guests at the party want to fight, and Goku points out that they can’t all just gang up on the enemy, so he proposes a lottery.   They all teleport back to his house, where they can pull radishes out of his farm.  The one with the longest radish gets to fight.

Goten seems to have the game won, but then Trunks’ radish turns out to be like 100 feet long, so he gets the nod.

At this point, Tarble’s companion wishes Trunks good luck, and Vegeta finally asks who that is.  Turns out, it’s Tarble’s wife, Gure. 

Roshi makes some dumb remark about Saiyans always choosing strange wives, so Chi-Chi and Bulma beat the shit out of him with cookware. 

So they go back to the hotel just in time to meet Tarble’s enemies, who have followed him here.  Vegeta recognizes them as Frieza’s men, Abo and Cado, who were once on par with the Ginyu Force.  Tarble says they were away during Frieza’s downfall, and since that time they have gone into business for themselves, and they’ve become as powerful as Frieza himself. 

So you have to assume that Tarble must be pretty strong himself by now, if these guys came to his planet and he managed to put up any sort of resistance, right?  I mean, he didn’t know about Super Saiyans, but if Abo and Cado are as strong as Frieza, then Tarble must be at least as strong as Vegeta was on Namek, right? 

Anyway, since there are two bad guys, Goku finagles Goten into this contest to even things up. 

Also, Oolong is dressed up like a sexy maid, and serving coffee and sandwiches to the spectators.  That seems like a long way to go for a bit, but Oolong’s a shapeshifter, so maybe he can just will himself to have different outfits on. 

Oh, I didn’t notice Puar’s doing the same bit.  So why wouldn’t they both use their shape shifting powers to look like actual maids?  I mean, if that’s what they’re going for, right?

The four combatants fight evenly at first, but we know Trunks and Goten aren’t even trying that hard because they’re still in base form.  This is just the beginning.  And see, this all makes sense, because none of the main cast is sweating Abo and Cado for a second.  Tarble is afraid of these guys, but everyone else knows they’re just jobbers, fit only for a little practice with the boys. 

Then Abo and Cado use some sort of multiform technique to turn the tables.  Goten and Trunks are stymied...

... until Gohan offers to coach them.   He tells Trunks which way to hit, and tells Gohan to use his ki senses to figure out which one of the multiforms is real.

Wait... I just figured that out.  It seemed strange to me that Gohan would give each one different advice, but maybe that’s the idea.  So it looks like Abo and Cado are doing the multiform technique just like Krillin and Piccolo did against Nappa back in the day.  However, that technique produces three copies of a fighter’s body.  There is no “real” one because they’re all real. 

However, the advice about closing your eyes and using ki senses sounds very reasonable for countering the Afterimage technique which produces illusions.  So what if Abo and Cado are actually using both tricks at the same time, switching back and forth to confuse their opponents?  Pretty tricky.  Well, not really, since Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and Piccolo all seem to see through it very easily, but it’s tricky enough to confuse Goten and Trunks.

Then Abo and Cado combine into a single, purple alien.  This form is known as “Abocado” although Goten and Trunks are the only ones who call him that, so maybe they made it up on the spot.  I think we all know what’s coming next...

Fusion!  Wait, they fucked it up.  Well, they haven’t had to do this in a while.

There we go.  I think this OAV is the first indication that characters can de-fuse and re-fuse quickly like this.  In the Buu Saga, Gotenks didn’t know how to separate, other than just waiting for the thirty-minute time limit to expire.  But maybe Goku showed him how.  And maybe it’s possible for Goten and Trunks to re-fuse without the rest period.  Originally, there was a cooldown period for the Fusion Dance, but that seems to have gone out the window in later works, such as this one.

So Gotenks uses the Wolf Fang Fist on Abocado, then follows up with the Volleyball Fist, which was Tien’s signature move in the 22nd Budokai.  This is kind of special, because Tien’s not even in this OAV.  His voice actor, Hirotaka Suzoki, had died of lung cancer in 2006, and so Tien wasn’t included in this production, to honor his memory.  And so the Volleyball Fist is kind of the only reference to Tien we get in this thing. 

And then Gotenks turns Super Saiyan to finish with the Dynamite Rolling Thunder Punch, which is one from his own personal moveset.  See, he started as base Goten and Trunks, then they fused, then Super Saiyan.   The fight escalated as it went on, and the different forms followed that progression.  That alone makes this little side-story better than every episode of GT.

But Abocado doesn’t go down so easily, and he starts shooting his big finishing blast.  Gotenks blocks it, but it wrecks the hotel, and the other Z-Fighters have to bust out their own signature moves to protect the civilians.  Goku and Vegeta finally step in, but Goku distracts Vegeta and teleports ahead...

Where he delivers a Kamehameha and big punch to put Abocado down for the count.  Not sure why he’s blue here. 

When it’s over, Vegeta complains about Goku distracting him in order to steal the win.  Goku’s like “Yeah, that was kind of inconsiderate of me, Vegeta.  Remember that time you broke every bone in my body and beat up my son?”

So the battle’s over, but Mr. Satan’s new hotel is destroyed.  Videl tells him he should take this as a lesson in humility, which seems to sink in, until Goku suggests that he use the Dragon Balls to ask Shenron to restore the place.  Videl scolds him again and that seem to talk him out of it. 

Also, Launch has been here the whole time, but she never says or does anything.  Just stating that for the record.

So they go back to eating, because I guess the food wasn’t damaged in the battle.  Gure is shocked-- shocked I say-- to see Saiyans eating lots of food.  Does Tarble just never eat in front of her?  That seems kind of like a strange way to live. 

Maybe Gure is finally realizing that this was what happened to her prize racehorse, Marmalade Thunder.  She didn’t escape from the stable that night after all.  It was Tarble.   It was Tarble all along. 

“This is a good spread, Kakarot, but you know what would make it even better?”

“I dunno, a racehorse?”

“Hell yeah.”

Also Abo and Cado have turned good and are joining the party.  I guess they just love radishes so they’re gonna eat all of those. 

Then Goku eats Vegeta’s sushi, and he takes some of Goku’s pork in retaliation, so they both turn Super Saiyan and look like they’re about to throw down.  But that’ll have to wait for some other anniversary special, I guess.

This special is about “an evil menace that failed to register in public memory.”  As the narrator points out, Abo and Cado might have been a big honkin’ deal, if they had shown up years earlier.   But they didn’t, and so they turned out to be a one-shot affair. 

And that’s it.  I’ll close out by noting that the opening credits for this OAV feature all new animation with Goten and Trunks worked into the classic DBZ opening. 

And the end credits feature a new song, “Orange Hero”, which features scenes of various characters just chilling out.  I like this one of the Son Family with Satan and Videl. 

So that’s it.  The special wasn’t too big a deal in terms of its plot.  The whole point was to introduce a threat that would only be dangerous enough to justify a lot of fun callbacks. Still, it added some new lore to the franchise, and it set the tone for everything that came after. 

#dragon ball #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #yo! son goku and his friends return! #goku #goten #trunks #tarble #gure #abo #cado #gotenks #mr satan #i don't want to tag the other characters there's too many of 'em