#was unprepared for the 20th anniversary | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

spiritintheinkwell · 2 years

Audio

Fire Logic was published on 5/17/2002. Here’s something to listen to on the 20th anniversary (or anytime).

My ninth work for A Year In Shaftal, the Elemental Logic fandom event hosted on @shaftal

Prompt 9. Music: a playlist/fanmix

A collaboration with @samwisestouthearted, my girlfriend and Taylor Swift consultant. Cover art by me.

Track descriptions below the cut:

Closer To Fine (Indigo Girls) "There's more than one answer to these questions/And it points me in a crooked line" Making the case for fire logic.

You're Aging Well (Dar Williams) "Now when I was fifteen, oh, I knew it was over/The road to enchantment was not mine to take" For Karis and Dinal, and maybe even Chaen.

Firewater (Amythyst Kiah) "How many nights until I finally can breathe?" For Medric, before we meet him.

Colne Valley Hearts (O'Hooley & Tidow) "Hand over heart over hand" The people of Meartown, and how they see Karis.

Earth Song (Frank Ticheli) "Oh war and power, you blind and blur/the torn heart cries out in pain" On the longing for peace. Desperation Song (Carbon Leaf) "Right on time/Through the night/Your laughter is my light" For a country at war.

Outside Myself (k.d. lang) "I have been/In a storm of the sun/Basking, senseless to what I've become" For Karis, struggling under smoke. You Are The New Day (The King's Singers) "One more day when time is running out for everyone/Like a breath I knew would come/I reach for the new day" For Leeba, hope in an uncertain time.

Safe & Sound (Taylor Swift) "Don't you dare look out your window darling, everything's on fire/The war outside our door keeps raging on" On raising a child in wartime. Gifts From The Crows (Carbon Leaf) "And we're telling the tales of our longings/And we're piercing the veil/With our stars that we scored from memory" Preceded by the ravens, the family gathers. Vermont (Lorelei Ensemble) "The spreading wide my narrow hands/To gather Paradise" A time of happiness, before thought must become action. Under The Wire (Carbon Leaf) "I bear the pressure of oil and moving steam/Unaware of my gaining speed/Unprepared to move ahead or take the lead" For Karis, bereft, a very large dish to place on a full platter. Hammer And A Nail (Indigo Girls) "Gotta tend the earth/If you want a rose" Making the case for earth logic.

Absolute Lithops Effect (Carrie Elkin) "And I feel sure that my wounds will heal/And I will bloom here in my room" On recovering from trauma. You Build A Wall (Grace Petrie) "Hide in the dark/And we'll light a fire/You build a wall/We'll a bridge" Against the garrison wall. Of course, the wall is handled in a different way in the end. Block of Wood (Carbon Leaf) "In the ash I found an ember/Something warm to help remember/A block of wood that used to be/A strong tall family tree" A family without Zanja. Zanja without her people. Alaudidae (Crowfoot) "By the churchyard wall you lie/Wildflowers, their blooms gone by/No comfort for the tears I cry/Grieving at your going" For Clement, Gabian her mother, and Sainna the homeland left behind. Pioneer (The Band Perry) "Take my life, they will replace me/I won't hush, no you can't make me" For Clement, who rises to fight again. Arrival (Dar Williams) "And that's when you knew this world can't be saved, only discovered/And you knew things could be different than before" For the G’deon’s family.

Apple Tree (Social Band) "We must be wise enough to know when to hold on/And strong enough to let go" For the Shaftali, in praise of simple philosophy.

Storm To Weather (Grace Petrie) "Heavy was the winter, love/And what's become of spring?" On love and fellowship. The Road Goes On (The Lord of the Rings) "Mountain and valley and pasture and meadow/stretching unending for mile after mile" For the journey ahead.

#elemental logic #a year in shaftal #fire logic #earth logic #playlist #fanmix

6 notes · View notes

rpmemesbyarat · 3 years

Conversation

RP meme from "Chapter One: A World of Darkness" in Changeling: The Dreaming (20th anniversary edition)

Dreamers are taught that they won’t amount to much, that their creativity is a pale imitation of what came before.

Well-meaning, or envious, parents and friends consistently suppress talent in their loved ones, secure in the knowledge that they’re saving them from a huge mistake.

Repeated altercations eviscerate creativity until all that remains is overwhelming self-doubt and insecurity.

Every day is a struggle.

It’s not that they don’t care, they are just unable to grasp circumstances beyond their own social circle.

Old legends define a changeling as the offspring of mortals and faeries, or a faerie child switched out for a human one.

Ancient curses affect entire landscapes, monsters hide in withered forests, roads made of stardust allows travelers to visit vistas hidden among clouds, and ancient dragons and bygone beasts still roam the skies.

In order to survive this onslaught on their very essence, the fae turned to an ancient ritual which locked their immortal souls in human bodies.

The child talking to her teddy is, in fact, discussing courtly politics with her chimerical bear companion.

The most common means of learning about the past, then, is through the traditional art of storytelling.

Despite the thrill and excitement of hearing legends brought to life by storytellers, academic history is an extremely important factor in the pursuit of lost faerie knowledge, turning myth into truth.

Ancient texts are written in several, often pictographic, faerie languages, and quite often the words seemingly come alive, constantly realigning, rotating, and shifting locations to avoid being decoded.

Even when enough common denominators exist for a decent decoding, the end results often cause further questions, rather than providing answers.

Events become history. History becomes legends. Legends become myths, and myths are forgotten.

Religions told mortals to worship new gods and to turn away from old traditions and rules.

As scientific methods began to explain what mortals previously considered magic, the common folk took to the church’s teachings, foreswearing their old ways in exchange for salvation and a steadfast faith on which to cling in the darkest days.

On July 20, 1969, humanity witnessed the moon landing live on television, and all of the hope, fear, and wonder of the previous decade burst forth.

Mortal witnesses describe friends or family collapsing for a brief moment, then rising, confused for a short time, but brimming with confidence and an aura of regal quality.

However, no matter the chosen human body, they all belonged to someone wealthy and influential, or were members of highly-valued and powerful families in society.

Despite conflicts, both parties openly declared their intent to find peaceful solutions, regardless of acts of violence intended to derail such hopes.

However, this decree didn’t prevent individual members of the houses to cast their allegiance with the side for which they felt an affinity.

The time for discussions ended with blood on the walls, and only war remained.

Theirs was a passionate, whirlwind romance, but one that ended in tragedy.

Without warning, the sky seemingly ripped open and, to those with faerie sight, a red sun appeared, bathing the world in a sinister scarlet light reminiscent of blood.

Behold! Your true king returns!

Better a nightmare than dreamless sleep

Nonetheless, the nobility is not immune to the changes in the world.

No matter how well hidden, however, the child’s true nature marks her as different.

It may start small, with a mortal witnessing strange occurrences no one else sees.

Those that are found are the lucky ones.

The term fosterage comes from the medieval practice, where nobles would take on the children of another family to cement alliances or to build connections between noble children for the next generation.

She will take the lessons from her mentor forward, spending the rest of her days honing what she has learned.

Banality seeks to explain away the fantastic and categorize, empiricize, contain, and render mundane anything outside of the scope of accepted mortal understanding.

This process doesn’t happen all at once.

Many legends and epic stories came from the search for extended life, with outcomes ranging from sad hilarity to outright horror.

Legends speak about treasures that can extend youth or grant immortality once more, like the fabled Fountain of Youth, but so far none have been recovered.

The adventure might be worth it, though.

It is a place woven into the fabric of the mortal world, hidden behind and without, though its magic and influence can affect the physical world and those that live in it.

The land responds to the thoughts and deeds of the creatures that live there and adapts to their every whim.

The shifting landscape is so unpredictable as to throw off any seasoned traveler.

Only a few trods lead to this wholly unpredictable and constantly-shifting landscape.

The space is influenced by the strong dreams of mortals and the expression of powerful mortal feelings and creativity.

They held nothing but hatred and contempt for one another.

History has taught them through many a hard-earned lesson that they are able to accomplish these tasks much more effectively when they work together than when they’re at each other’s throats.

The pageantry and rituals serve as thread that runs through the ages, tying the generations together.

Their customs and lore serve as the glue that binds each individual to one another.

Everyone, from the lofty noble on his throne to the lowly chambermaid, has their duties in a well-organized society.

Without everyone working together, doing what’s expected of them, society would not be able to support itself.

Even a lifetime of tragedy and loss has its own poignancy.

The act of creation holds an inherent beauty.

Each new work of art, new performance, and new thought is a unique manifestation of creativity undreamed of in the world before.

Beauty must be preserved because it is the basis for all life.

Society cannot operate effectively without an inherent fairness.

A favor is always paid back with a reciprocating favor.

An object or service given is returned with something of equal value.

Loyalty deserves fidelity, and acrimony deserves hatred.

The self comes from within. It is the basis of being, granting the ability to reason, to question, to strive for improvement.

To know oneself is to make life worth living.

Identity requires freedom — the freedom to buck trends, to say no, and to try new things.

The only things that remain eternally unchanged are those that are dead.

The alternative is nothing but stasis.

Even at its most benign, stagnation leaves people woefully unprepared when everything they know eventually gets upended.

Once outside rewards are involved, whether tangible or simply accolades, the concept of honor twists people, making them do monstrous things.

Honor is nothing more than an ugly little lie told by tyrants designed to keep their slaves docile and obedient.

No one can follow his dream when an overlord is standing above him, micromanaging his life.

Everyone has responsibilities, but if given the freedom to be themselves, people will find ways to do the necessary things in their own way that doesn’t prevent them from doing the things that make life worth living.

Pranks were played, sometimes in jest and at other times scathing, at the expense of those in power.

A merry time was had by all while allowing the disenfranchised a chance to air grievances and have an outlet for their frustrations.

Their only goal is to force a response from those capable of alleviating some of the suffering.

To fit in as part of the mundane world they became traveling circuses, freak shows, or other transient groups.

Those of higher rank are respected by those of lower rank and are also expected to meet their obligations to the less fortunate.

Many nobles see their main business to be that of gaining — or retaining — power.

Alliances may shift between the nobles and circumstances may change, but all try to expand their holdings and rise higher up the social ladder.

Something has to give.

A noble expects obedience from his vassals and respect from all others. In return, the noble respects those superior to him.

Whether they like it or not, the nobility has had to concede that modern ideas of democracy and popular rule are realities now.

Still, most nobles rule through force, cunning, personal magnetism, and custom.

They must never reveal their true natures to humanity.

Some battles are fought to first blood.

#rp meme #rp memes #rp starters #roleplay meme #roleplay starters #roleplay memes #changeling the dreaming #owod #World Of Darkness

20 notes · View notes

mesaylormoon · 4 years

Text

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again - A Review

With the 41st anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on the horizon, it no doubt made sense for 20th Century Fox to capitalize on the lucrative nature of such an iconic property. Their 2016 remake of the cult classic would offer old and new fans increased production values with an all-star cast, better set designs, energized music and dance numbers, a more flowing narrative, and a special appearance from Tim Curry as the criminologist. In spite of all these additions to this updated version of the midnight movie sensation, however, it still falls fantastically flat.

Films often suffer greatly if the actors involved are incapable of presenting believable, compelling performances, and this remake employs nothing but terrible actors. Ryan McCartan and Nickelodeon starlet Victoria Justice fill the roles of Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, and they are what absolutely destroys the potential of this version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Both performers fail to capture the endearing personalities of their characters, and neglect to pay homage to the offbeat charm of their predecessors Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon. McCartan’s nervous, stiff attitude is apparent throughout, and contrasts distractingly with Bostwick’s friendliness, confidence, and eagerness to socialize with others. Brad Majors was not a particularly special character, but even in his dorkiest moments, Bostwick was able to convey a laid-back, likable energy for his role that this new actor could not.

Even worse than McCartan’s performance is the acting of his co-star, Justice. Words cannot express how unprepared this young woman was for film acting. This remake presents a terribly strong case for why her career should not have expanded beyond tween sitcoms, as her forced delivery and dramatically flighty behavior does not at all recognize the sweetness of Sarandon’s character. Janet Weiss was undeniably a damsel-in-distress, but in spite of her overreactions to meeting the Transylvanians, she was innocent, polite, gentle and wanted nothing more than a simple life with her fiance. Nothing about Justice’s acting echoes this sentiment, as she opts to shriek her lines at every opportunity and cower behind her love interest. While this behavior is similar to Sarandon’s characterization, Justice is clearly uncomfortable with naturally expressing fear. She always appears to lack direction, looking lost no matter where she is on set, and is too confident in real life to make a performance for a character like this believable.

Laverne Cox, Reeve Carney, Christina Milian, and Annaleigh Ashford play Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Riff Raff, Magenta, and Columbia, respectively. In spite of obvious attempts to respect the performances of the original actors, Carney as Riff Raff is the only person who seems to be trying to properly convey his character without losing the personality expressed by Richard O’Brien. He slithers, gives creepy grins, delivers his lines nasally, and perfectly captures the persona of the original Riff Raff. Unfortunately, however, the rest of the cast characterize their performances by role-reversing. Cox is a whiny, fay flailer who utterly lacks the seductive and suave charm of Tim Curry; Milian submits an overly energized, overly happy performance of the hot-headed, mischievous, subdued Patricia Quinn; and Ashford is hideously miscast as a disinterested Nell Campbell. Ashford’s performance is particularly disappointing, as Columbia is a vivacious, bubbly, and lovestruck girl who is likable in spite of her sometimes annoying behavior. Ashford is purely annoying throughout, pandering to an audience of angsty individuals who would have loved her acting in the 90s. Stanz Nair and Ben Vereen are about as obnoxious as their co-stars, but considering what small roles and little impact they make in the remake, they aren’t worth focusing too much criticism on.

The humor in The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again is as desperate as the film itself. Instead of allowing hilarity to originate from character interactions or witty remarks, characters will often flail, scream, and suddenly widen their eyes. None of these moments are funny and just make the film seem as if it’s pandering to a younger audience.

While we’re dissecting less significant complaints one might have with this movie, the sexual content is disappointingly erased from this reimagining of the source material. Perhaps this could be considered a good change, but part of the reason The Rocky Horror Picture Show appealed to adult audiences was because it was such a shamelessly sensual movie. The filmmakers were not afraid to show scenes of characters having sex, and audience participation screenings have always featured raunchy references. One could argue that this is a defining feature of the film. Considering the convservative nature of 1970s attitudes, this is definitely a quality that helped The Rocky Horror Picture Show stand out.

However, because the remake was filmed for television, this material had to be largely scaled down to the point of non-existence, and there is little to nothing appealing about characters’ more intimate moments. It’s a bit disappointing considering there are some particularly funny scenes in which characters mistakenly have sex with people they thought were their romantic partners.

The increased budget of The Rocky Horror Picture Show remake allowed the crew to create beautiful setpieces and conduct highly stylized music and dance numbers. Each of these updates added a surprising amount of credibility to the source material that the original did not have. The choreography of every dance is much more complex and engaging than the original, and excites viewers in a way that the first film couldn’t. As much as I enjoy The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the dances were quite basic, employing little movement beyond awkward kicks, unimpressive jumps, and slow steps. The remake, however, requires more physical and challenging demands of dancers, who must be much more synchronized and ready to move at a fast pace. It’s easiest to appreciate when watching the film for oneself.

The songs, thankfully, are all derived from the original movie, but instead of retaining the ear-grating sound quality of decades-past, group recordings sound much more harmonious, and individual singers are allowed to shine as a result of a more carefully chosen vocal ensemble. If there are at least some things I can appreciate about this reimagining, it would be these things.

As much as I would like to continue acknowledging these improvements, I also believe that focusing on the polishing of the singing, dancing, and casting of conventionally beautiful actors is one of the biggest problems with the remake. The improvements that are made in this iteration of The Rocky Horror Picture Show are superficial, showing less concern for the quality of the narrative and characters and more concern for the quality of the “show-stopping” production elements. The cast of the remake are all attractive singers and dancers, but the original actors were not. They were average-looking people in a film that performed poorly upon release. Everything about the first movie - from a critical perspective - was awful, but that was the reason it found such a dedicated following. The source material relished in its awfulness. The actors, their performances, the narrative, the set designs, the songs, and the choreography never endeavored to be masterpieces. Midnight audiences could simply enjoy the community they found by participating in something of a “bad movie night.”

In any other remake, the beautifying of cinematic elements would not be an issue, but The Rocky Horror Picture Show was not meant to be a grandiose work of cinema. It always felt more like creator Richard O’Brien’s passion project - a project that, although it appeared insane on the surface, was a body of work that was not meant to conform to societal expectations. It was - and continues to be - a film that unites midnight moviegoers by the very nature of its strangeness. Audiences fell in love with it because it likely encouraged them to be themselves, unapologetically. The original film even seems to embody this philosophy, as nothing about the story nor set direction makes any sense in the first film.

In spite of my harsh criticisms of most movies, I have to admire how unafraid creator Richard O’Brien was of sharing such incredibly unusual ideas with a massive audience. Given the mass walk-outs he witnessed and how he most certainly knew how odd his film would be, it was a courageous feat on his part to not modify his vision to pander to people who would have wanted to see something different - something that made sense.

This is why an “upgraded” version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show will never satisfy fans. Fans appreciate the original film for silently encouraging them to embrace their strangest selves, and for being an insane piece of work they can enjoy and share with others. This is the reason why it continues to be a sensation of midnight screenings and enthusiastic shadow casts. Most producers of entertainment don’t recognize that inserting their ideas of what would make a movie or TV show “better” often ends up disappointing the audiences they are trying to captivate. If the source material was good enough to earn a loyal following, it is likely because they fell in love with what they originally saw.

The producers of The Rocky Horror Picture Show remake, unfortunately, lacked an understanding of these principles. As a result, audiences new and old were left with a superficially polished experience that disregards the most important elements of filmmaking - as well as what made The Rocky Horror Picture Show so special to so many people.

#rocky horror picture show #2016 movies #movie reviews #remake

4 notes · View notes

kazynsims · 4 years

Text

20 Years of The Sims - A Reflection

What better way to kick off this blog, than to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of The Sims. To date there have been 4 Base Games, 34 Expansions, 34 Stuff Packs and 8 Game Packs. The game has been on 14 different consoles, spawned several mobile versions and console spin offs, such as The Urbz.

In addition to the console spin offs, PC players were given four stand alone games, The Sims Stories series and The Sims Medieval, which had it’s own expansion in the form of Pirates and Nobles.

There must also be a mention of the console exclusive My Sims, a stand alone series of six games, with a very different look and game play, but retaining Maxis’ humour and bringing The Sims to a younger audience.

So we begin with the original game, The Sims. As a fan of Maxis (I’d played SimAnt, SimCity and SimIsle), I was very excited with the news of this groundbreaking game. It did not disappoint. It basically gave the teenage me a legitimate way to play with doll houses. I spent hours and hours building and decorating houses for my sims. At one point I bought a programme to import actual faces into the game using photographs and created my boyfriend (now husband) and myself. The expansions were a revelation to me. I had no idea that it was even possible to expand an existing game and make it better. I naturally bought every one.

Then came the announcement of The Sims 2 and fully 3D graphics. Oh how I loved that game! The game felt the same as the original, it had the same vibe, but was so much better. My sims could age up, kids would no longer be destined to childhood for life, as fun as that sounds. They also now had a personality in wants and fears, and the memories system. I could control my sims, but they had their own desires, which was great for keeping story telling dynamic and interesting. With The Sims 2 came the emergence of the online community, a gallery of builds and a forum; The Sims 2 BBS, for players to talk about their games, share screenshots and videos. I spent almost as much time on the BBS as I did the game.

The Sims 3 followed five years later, with the huge addition of open worlds. This excited me so much. My sims could own cars and travel anywhere they liked without my hanging about waiting for loading screens. My absolute favourite feature of this version came in CAS and Build/Buy: Create a Style! The ability to change the colour of items to any colour I wanted, not to mention the texture. It opened up so many design possibilities and is responsible for my love of building in the game. One feature that I didn’t really use, was the new online store, accessed through the game. I wasn’t a fan of the premise of buying individual items in game, and to be honest I’m still not a fan of in-app purchasing at all, but plenty of others seemed to like it and the community was still as I knew and loved.

Now The Sims 4. I was skeptical about it’s release. It had been well publicised that the open worlds and story progression would not feature, but I was not prepared for the emptiness that the game shipped with. It wasn’t just the lack of additional packs, we had been through the slow process of building the previous games up, starting from scratch each time. No, it was the absolute lack of game play. I was so disappointed and to be quite honest shocked when the first map I opened was completely grey scaled. I thought I had a glitch. I didn’t read a lot of the information before hand, a toddler and new baby put paid to that, so I was completely unprepared for the fact that toddlers didn’t feature in the game at all. No building my own family then! With the subsequent packs and patches the features missing were added and today I have grown to love it, so much so that I think that it’s my favourite incantation to date and the community has gone from strength to strength.

So, on this, the 20th Anniversary of my favourite game, I wan’t to say Thank you Maxis, for being such a huge part of the last 20 years of my life. Here’s to another 20!

#thesims4

2 notes · View notes

krisihistoryblog-blog · 5 years

Text

The Zheltoksan uprising: Kazakhs’ attempt to make their voices heard despite the Soviet leadership being unprepared to listen

The spark of the demonstrations of 17th-18th December 1986 was the bureaucratic reshuffle - the replacement of leadership of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (one of the fifteen ostensibly autonomous republics of which the USSR consisted of). Said change seemed like a straightforward one as it would replace one Soviet apparatchik with another, which had been a part of Mikhail Gorbachev’s attempt to drive out entrenched local leaders. The problem stemmed deeper than the replacement of the leader itself.

Dinmukhamed Kunayev had been the country’s communist leader for over two decades and was about to be replaced by Gennadiy Kolbin, a former regional party boss in Soviet Russia. It reinforced the feeling that the Soviets’ view of Kazakhs was as second-class citizens, unfit to rule the country themselves. This is confirmed by Dos Kushim, a lecturer at the time, who describes the situations as such: “for years this discontent had been accumulating inside us, that we’d become second-rate. The affront had been building up in our souls”.

By the 1980s, parts of Kazakhstan had been under Russian colonial rule for 250 years, which in turn brought a flood of settlers. According to Kazakh historians, in the short period of time between 1907 and 1912, 2.4 million people had arrived from Russia. By 1917, the time of the Russian Revolution, 45 million hectares of the best agricultural land had been granted to Slavic settlers. The growing resentment resulted in a violent outbreak in which Central Asian Muslims attacked settlers during a rebellion against a tsarist conscription order during WWI.

The 1930s and 1940s had an extremely negative impact across the Soviet Union as they were years of famine, Terror and war. The effects were felt by the Kazakhs the most. Within the space of a decade, they became a minority in a land that they had populated for centuries.

In the early 1930s, the famine began, and Stalin made an order of collectivisation of agriculture. Ukraine and Russia were the so called ‘breadbasket of the USSR’ which is where grain was requisitioned from; in Kazakhstan meat was requisitioned.

As Stalin scrapped the result of the 1937 census, it is unknown how many people died in the famine, from hunger and disease, during those years in Kazakhstan.

Moscow takes no responsibility for the communist- era atrocities, so for fear of antagonizing Moscow, Kazakhstan avoids blaming them. Instead they regard the famine as a collective strategy and remain a Russian ally. However, historians do believe that one of the aims of the famine was to wipe out the Kazakhs’ nomadic way of life and integrate them into the Soviet mainstream.

The shift in Kazakhstan’s demographics was deepened following mass deportation of people whose loyalty to Moscow was doubted. Large groups of people were sent to Siberia and Central Asia.

Siberia and Kazakhstan were where Moscow would relocate kulaks, a ‘richer’ class of peasants, as punishment for supposedly hoarding grain and therefore sabotaging collectivasation of agriculture.

In the mid-1950s, Nikita Khrushchev (Stalin’s successor) adopted an agricultural program, which aimed to plant grain in Kazakhstan. This in turn drew another 1.7 million Slavic settlers.

By 1939, Kazakhs formed 38% of the population- the decade before it had been 60%-, Russians and other Slavs made up 50%. By the time of the Zheltoksan protests, Kazakhstan was the only soviet republic in which the people after which it is named, are a minority.

Kazakh poet, Mukhtar Shakhanov was one of the many who feared the Kazakh language faced extinction. He remembers being told to speak a ‘comprehensible tongue’ while in public. Other protestors recall being berated on the streets for speaking a ‘monkey language’. To help build social cohesiveness, the soviet government would recite a mantra: ‘druzhba narodov’ meaning national friendship or ‘friendship of the peoples’.

By the mid-1980s the sense of alienation among Kazakhs increased the tensions. The news of Kunayev being replaces with Gennadiy Kolbin, a Russian, were spreading. A protestor- Gulbakhram Zhunis- explained that the Kazakhs were angered due to the fact that “he didn’t even know what kind of nation this was, our traditions and culture” the appointment of a person who unfamiliarised with the country, just further proved to the people that the soviets didn’t view them as fit to rule.

The replacement was a part of a broader reform adopted by Gorbachev (General-Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR sin 1985). He launched his policies of perestroika- restructuring the economy- and glasnost – openness to new ideas and discussion. These policies opened up years of building up of resentments all across the UUSR, but most visibly in Kazakhstan.

Younger people thought that now is the time to make their voices be heard as Gorbachev seemed to soften the policies. This unusual sight of demonstrations and open criticism of the regime spread fear among the Soviet leadership, especially as demonstrations seemed to be spreading to other Kazakh towns. Having a traditional reaction, Moscow sent nearly 8 thousand armed police and paramilitary forces into Kazakhstan to disperse of the protestors. People were hurt as Brezhnev square where beatings took place. Two women died from interrogation facilities: ruled as suicides in the official reports. Of the 8500 people interrogated over the protests, 900 were convicted of crimes, including murder, and 82 were jailed. Mukhtar Shakhanov says hundreds of young people’s lives were “ruined forever”.

The Communist leadership engaged in a cover-up, including damage control. Although everyone knew there were casualties, this meant no one knew exactly how many. In 1987, Moscow based western journalist were invited to Kazakhstan and were told the official toll: 2 deaths and 200 injuries.

In 1989, Gorbachev appointed Nazarbayev (pictured above) to replace Kolbin as Kazakhstan’s leader. Two years later, Nazarbayev was elected the first president of an independent Kazakhstan, following the collapse of the UUSR in 1991. In the aftermath of the Zheltoksan protests, he criticized them, calling the protestors ‘hooligans’, but after the independence he presented himself as supporter who played an active role in the protests. Protestors recall him going into the crowds telling people to disperse. He became very ambiguous because of this.

In 1889, Shakhanov took the podium of the Congress of People’s Deputies, which was a new Soviet parliament instituted by Gorbachev in Moscow, and declared:” The words ‘Kazakh nationalism’ are an accusation against the entire Kazakh nation!”. He then demanded an open inquiry. Gorbachev was in present and he acquiesced.

The inquiry turned up interesting testimonies. A KGB officer said that the death toll had, in reality, been 168 (155 civilians and 13 law-enforcement officers) and not the two deaths the government had previously declared.

In modern day Kazakhstan, Zheltoksan is celebrated as a turning point of their country’s history, however many doubt the full truth about the events of that day haven’t come out yet. Nazarbayev remains the country’s president.

The Dawn of Liberty monument was built in 2018 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Zheltoksan.

#Zheltoksan uprising #zheltoksan #kazakhstan #gorbachev #mikhail gorbachev #nikita khrushchev #stalin #ussr #ussr history #kazakh history #history #nazarbayev #1968

2 notes · View notes

a2znewsplace · 3 years

Text

Anniversaries and the cyclical nature of grief

Watch CNN’s “Shine A Light,” a commercial-free 9/11 20th anniversary tribute, hosted by Jake Tapper and featuring musical performances by Maroon 5, H.E.R., Brad Paisley, and Common on Saturday, September 11 at 8 p.m. ET. Somehow, the day still sneaks up on him each year, catching him unprepared so that he sometimes winds up driving around directionless until he can decide on the best place to…

View On WordPress

0 notes

xtruss · 3 years

Text

“Boak Bollocks Mitch McConnell” Calls for Airstrikes Against Taliban to Stop 'Overrunning' of Kabul

— By Daniel Villarreal | 8/13/21 | Newsweek

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has called on the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden to conduct airstrikes against Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The airstrikes are necessary, McConnell said, to prevent the Islamic militant group from "overrunning" Kabul, the nation's capital.

McConnell issued his comments on Friday after speaking with Adela Raz, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan. As U.S. troops have begun withdrawing under Biden's command, the Taliban has quickly retaken most of the country.

"This debacle was not only foreseeable, it was foreseen," McConnell said. "The President and his team actively decided against a far more responsible approach to preserving our national security interests and protecting our Afghan partners."

"With that said, it is not too late to prevent the Taliban from overrunning Kabul," McConnell continued. "The Administration should move quickly to hammer Taliban advances with airstrikes, provide critical support to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces defending the capital, and prevent the seemingly imminent fall of the city."

"If they fail to do so," McConnell's statement concluded, "the security threat to the United States will assuredly grow and the humanitarian cost to innocent Afghans will be catastrophic."

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has called on the Biden Administration to conduct airstrikes against Taliban forces to prevent the terrorist group from "overrunning" Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. In this photo, taken on August 13, 2021, a Taliban fighter holds a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) along the roadside in Herat, Afghanistan's third biggest city, after government forces pulled out the day before following weeks of being under siege. AFP/Getty

The U.S. used airstrikes around July 22 to aid anti-Taliban Afghan forces. A variety of combat aircraft—including bombers and warplanes on an aircraft carrier—carried out the strike. However, by that time, Taliban forces had already overrun roughly half of the country's 421 districts, the Pentagon said.

Biden initially set a September 11 deadline for withdrawing troops from the region. The date marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks which ushered U.S. troops into the country.

"The Afghan government, leadership has to come together," Biden said. "They have the capacity. They have the forces. They have the equipment. The question is will they do it?" However, the White House also said there would be no "declaration of victory" upon the U.S. departure.

"We're not going to have a 'mission accomplished' moment," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on July 8. "We feel it's in our national security interest to bring our men and women serving home, and ... for Afghan forces to be in the lead."

Even before U.S. troops began their withdraw, Taliban forces began recapturing ground they had lost during the 20-year U.S. occupation. Between May and June, 50 of Afghanistan's 421 districts had fallen to Taliban militants, Deborah Lyons, the United Nations' special envoy on Afghanistan, said. By early July, Taliban insurgents laid claim to over a third of the country's districts.

Numerous people have since criticized Biden for the troop removal.

“Question is What Loser United States and Its Puppet World’s Deadliest War Machines Have Had Achieved By Bombing Afghanistan Days & Nights?”

Ata Mohammad Noor, an influential Afghan warlord and key U.S. ally during the occupation, called the U.S. withdrawal "irresponsible." He said the country's military is badly weakened due to the United States' speedy exit. The remaining Afghani military is logistically unprepared to fight off the rush of insurgents, he added, lacking morale, down-time, food, pay and reinforcements for their efforts.

"We needed factories to produce our own ammunition and workshops to repair the aircraft and other vehicles that were given to the Afghan forces," said Noor. "But the international forces did not work to build a foundation, a self-sufficiency in Afghanistan."

He has since warned of a possible civil war. He has been promoting local militias as one possible way to fight off the Taliban threat.

On July 9, the Pentagon said a Taliban takeover of the country was "not inevitable", and pledged financial support to help Afghan troops fight back. Together, the U.S. and NATO committed to spending $4 billion annually on Afghan forces until 2024.

Despite the pledge, Illinois Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger lamented the withdrawal. He said the U.S. needed to stay longer.

"The Taliban have outlasted the will of the United States... and we may have to go back now," he added.

Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn called the withdrawal "arbitrary" on Twitter. She also said the decision "abandons the 20 years of sacrifice and dedication our brave men and women have expended to defeat the Taliban."

By July 19, the U.S. and 13 other allied nations released a statement calling on the Taliban to immediately end all violence and show commitment to the peace process. However, the very next day, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the Taliban had "no intention or willingness" for peace as a rocket attack hit near the presidential palace.

On August 8, British General Sir Richard Barrons said that the U.S. departure could create "a very poor strategic outcome" in the region. "We will run the risk of terrorist entities re-establishing in Afghanistan, to bring harm in Europe and elsewhere," Barrons told the BBC.

By August 11, the Pentagon said that the situation in the country was "deteriorating" as the Taliban had taken control of major roads and border crossings in the nation. The next day, the non-government organization Crisis Group estimated that Taliban forces had claimed 65 percent of the country.

While the president initially intended on leaving around 650 service members to help protect the U.S. embassy there, he has since decided to evacuate the embassy entirely.

Experts in Crisis Group said that if the Taliban overthrows Kabul and the presidential government, then it will immediately seize all power. After that, the fundamentalist Islamic group will begin rolling back any civil rights advancements made by women and girls. Any people seen as having helped U.S. forces will be executed, the group added.

To this end, Biden pledged to provide Special Immigration Visas for relocating thousands of Afghan interpreters and translators who assisted U.S. forces. They have since been relocated out of the country in an undisclosed location. Any translators left in the country will likely be "hunted down and executed like dogs" by Taliban forces, one former Army captain said.

By August 12, the U.S. military said it believed that Afghanistan could be under the Taliban's complete control within two months. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Department of Defense was "deeply concerned" by the speed with which the Taliban has retaken most of the country.

The Washington Post reported this week that the Biden administration is preparing for Kabul to fall within 90 days of the U.S. withdrawal on August 31.

0 notes

newstfionline · 3 years

Text

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Biden to propose free preschool, as speech details emerge (AP) President Joe Biden will call for free preschool for all three- and four-year-old children, a $200 billion investment to be rolled out as part of his sweeping American Families Plan being unveiled Wednesday in an address to Congress. The administration said the historic investment would benefit 5 million children and save the average family $13,000. It calls for providing federal funds to help the states offer preschool, with teachers and other employees earning $15 an hour. The new details are part of Biden’s $1 trillion-plus package, an ambitious next phase of his massive infrastructure investment program, this one focused on so-called human infrastructure—child care, health care, education and other core aspects of the household architecture that undergird everyday life for countless Americans. Together with Biden’s American Jobs Plan, a $2.3 trillion infrastructure investment to be funded by a corporate tax hike, they add up a whopping $4 trillion effort to fulfill his campaign vow to Build Back Better.

Navy SEALs to shift from counterterrorism to global threats (AP) Ten years after they found and killed Osama bin Laden, U.S. Navy SEALs are undergoing a major transition to improve leadership and expand their commando capabilities to better battle threats from global powers like China and Russia. The new plan cuts the number of SEAL platoons by as much as 30% and increases their size to make the teams more lethal and able to counter sophisticated maritime and undersea adversaries. That decision reflects the broader Pentagon strategy to prioritize China and Russia, which are rapidly growing their militaries and trying to expand their influence around the globe. U.S. defense leaders believe that two decades of war against militants and extremists have drained resources, causing America to lose ground against Moscow and Beijing.

Scientist: Extent of DDT dumping in Pacific is ‘staggering’ (AP) Marine scientists say they have found what they believe to be more than 25,000 barrels that possibly contain DDT dumped off the Southern California coast near Catalina Island, where a massive underwater toxic waste site dating back to World War II has long been suspected. The 27,345 “barrel-like” objects were captured in high-resolution images as part of a study by researchers at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. They mapped more than 56 square miles (145 square kilometers) of seafloor between Santa Catalina Island and the Los Angeles coast in a region previously found to contain high levels of the toxic chemical in sediments and in the ecosystem. Historical shipping logs show that industrial companies in Southern California used the basin as a dumping ground until 1972, when the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act, also known as the Ocean Dumping Act, was enacted. Disposing of industrial, military, nuclear and other hazardous waste was a pervasive global practice in the 20th century, according to researchers. The long-term impact on marine life and humans is still unknown, said Scripps chemical oceanographer and professor of geosciences Lihini Aluwihare, who in 2015 co-authored a study that found high amounts of DDT and other man-made chemicals in the blubber of bottlenose dolphins that died of natural causes.

Electric Vehicle Appeal Loses Steam (Nature.com/ArsTechnica) California is the largest market in the US for plug-in vehicles. But a new study in Nature Energy has found that about 20% of those early electric vehicle adopters have given up their EVs to return to fossil fuel-powered transport. Survey responders said what they liked most about their plug-ins were recharging costs, reliability, and safety. What they liked least were the driving range and convenience of charging. Not surprisingly, those who decided to keep their EVS had more access to level 2 charging (240 V AC) at home, as well as more access to charging generally.

The real crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border (Washington Post) There’s a crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border, but it isn’t the crisis that the media has been covering and that the Republican governors of Arizona and Texas recently blamed on President Biden. The crisis I’m talking about is the one that is eroding the livelihoods of U.S. citizens on the borderlands. Just ask Blanca Gallardo, 45, or her colleague Ivan Caballero, 39, two of the three workers left at La Familia, a mega-discount store in the border city of Nogales, Ariz. The store once employed 24 people. La Familia occupies a prime piece of real estate on Morley Avenue, Nogales’s Main Street. Like other retail businesses on and around this thoroughfare, La Familia depends almost entirely on shoppers who live on the other side of the border fence a short walk away—Mexicans who have not been allowed to enter the United States since March last year, when land ports of entry were closed to visa-carrying nonessential travelers in an effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The result has been devastating. Sheriff David Hathaway, a lifelong Nogales resident and the top law enforcement official in Santa Cruz County, one of four border counties in Arizona, said that 90 percent of local businesses have shut their doors and may never reopen. “There is no migrant crisis,” Hathaway told me. “What we have is a big economic crisis.” That’s not just a Nogales problem, though. One downtown merchant in the border city of El Paso told Border Report in November that his store had lost as much as 90 percent of its customers since last March.

López Obrador’s bid to alter Mexican Supreme Court seen as threat to judicial independence (Washington Post) He won the presidency in a landslide. His party dominates Congress. Now, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is in a battle over the country’s judiciary, as opponents and legal analysts accuse him of making an unconstitutional power grab. Lawmakers from López Obrador’s party have triggered outrage by voting to add two years to the four-year term of the Supreme Court chief justice, Arturo Zaldívar. Zaldívar is generally regarded as sympathetic to the president. As in the United States, where some Democrats want to expand the U.S. Supreme Court, there are fears that the judiciary is becoming increasingly politicized. But the Mexican measure carries especially grave implications, analysts say, because it appears to violate a constitutional limit on the chief justice’s term. López Obrador is increasingly challenging institutions created as part of Mexico’s transition to democracy, including the national elections board and the freedom-of-information institute. Critics worry that the president, who came to power as a leftist political outsider, could use his popularity to reestablish elements of the one-party system that reigned here for seven decades.

With pools closed, Peruvians turn to open-water swimming (AP) The swimmers began gathering even before dawn glimmers on Pescadores beach, plunging into the Pacific surf for one of the few athletic endeavors permitted under Peru’s strict pandemic restrictions. Swimming pools have been closed for more than a year, but government has since Oct. 30 allowed open-water swimming, even if relaxing on the beach is banned to prevent mass gatherings. Forty-three-year-old Lorena Choy said swimming “relaxes me, unstresses me. ... It helps a lot psychologically.” Swimming coach Víctor Solís, 47, said he estimated that the number of swimmers out each morning has multiplied fivefold recently.

UK to come under scrutiny in Italy’s largest mafia trial in decades (The Guardian) In a high-security, 1,000-capacity courtroom converted from a call centre, Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades is under way in Lamezia Terme, Calabria. About 900 witnesses are set to testify against more than 350 defendants, including politicians and officials charged with being members of the ‘Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful criminal group. Several of the defendants will be asked to respond to charges of money laundering over establishing companies in the UK with the alleged purpose of simulating legitimate economic activity. The ‘Ndrangheta—based in the southern region of Calabria, the toe of the Italian boot—is reputed to be one of the richest and most feared criminal organisations in the world. A study by the Demoskopita Research Institute in 2013 estimated its financial strength as more than that of Deutsche Bank and McDonald’s combined, with an annual turnover of €53bn (£44bn). Investigators say the secret of its success lies in its ability to connect the underworld with the upper world, where often the “upper world” stands for London. In the last decade, hundreds of investigations have asserted how the ‘Ndrangheta has laundered billions of euros in the City.

The U.S. Built the Afghan Military Over 20 Years. Will It Last One More? (NYT) President Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that first propelled the United States into conflict, has prompted deep fears about the Afghan security forces’ ability to defend what territory remains under government control. For nearly two decades, the United States and NATO have engaged in the nation-building pursuit of training, expanding and equipping Afghanistan’s police, army and air forces, spending tens of billions of dollars in an attempt to build government security forces that can safeguard their own country. But despite this enormous effort, the undertaking has only produced a troubled set of forces that are woefully unprepared for facing the Taliban, or any other threat, on their own. What comes next is anything but certain. The Taliban already control vast amounts of the country, even with American military power present. Afghan units are rife with corruption, have lost track of the weapons once showered on them by the Pentagon, and in many areas are under constant attack. Some soldiers have not been home in years because their villages have been overtaken by the Taliban. Prospects for improvement are slim, given slumping recruitment, high casualty rates and a Taliban insurgency that is savvy, experienced and well equipped—including with weapons originally provided to the Afghan government by the United States.

In India, Illness Is Everywhere (NYT) Crematories are so full of bodies, it’s as if a war just happened. Sickness and death are everywhere. Dozens of houses in my neighborhood have sick people. One of my son’s teachers is sick. The neighbor two doors down, to the right of us: sick. Two doors to the left: sick. I’m sitting in my apartment waiting to catch the disease. That’s what it feels like right now in New Delhi with the world’s worst coronavirus crisis advancing around us. India is now recording more infections per day—as many as 350,000—than any other country has since the pandemic began, and that’s just the official number, which most experts think is a vast underestimation. New Delhi, India’s sprawling capital of 20 million, is suffering a calamitous surge. A few days ago, the positivity rate hit a staggering 36 percent—meaning more than one out of three people tested were infected. A month ago, it was less than 3 percent. The infections have spread so fast that hospitals have been completely swamped. Although New Delhi is locked down, the disease is still rampaging.

US Navy fires warning shots in new tense encounter with Iran (AP) An American warship fired warning shots when vessels of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard came too close to a patrol in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy said Wednesday. The Navy said the USS Firebolt fired the warning shots after three fast-attack Guard vessels came within 68 yards (62 meters) of it and the U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat USCGC Baranoff. The incident Monday marked the second time the Navy accused the Guard of operating in an “unsafe and unprofessional” manner this month alone after tense encounters between the forces had dropped in recent years.

Hong Kong passes immigration bill, raising alarm over ‘exit bans’ (Reuters) Hong Kong’s legislature passed on Wednesday a controversial immigration bill, which lawyers, diplomats and right groups fear will give authorities unlimited powers to prevent residents and others from entering or leaving the Chinese-ruled city. The government has dismissed those fears as “complete nonsense,” saying the legislation, which will come into effect on Aug. 1, merely aims to screen illegal immigrants. The assurances, however, come in a climate of mistrust after the increasingly authoritarian path officials have taken the imposition of a sweeping national security law by Beijing last year. Lawyers say the new law will empower authorities to bar anyone, without a court order, from entering or leaving Hong Kong—essentially opening the door for mainland China-style exit bans—and fails to prevent indefinite detention for refugees. The Hong Kong Bar Association (HKBA) said in February the bill failed to explain why such powers were necessary, how they would be used and provided no limit on the duration of any travel ban, nor any safeguards against abuse.

#headlines #news

0 notes

coolcrownfury · 3 years

Text

Superdrag In The Valley Of Dying Stars Zip

How to use Crack and Download WebAcappella E-Commerce or how to get the full version: Download WebAcappella E-Commerce (archive) from the link below; Unzip and install the installer as usual (do not run the application) Copy the Crack file to the installation folder (or the folder specified in the Readme.txt file) Run the application; Enjoy it! Web acappella 4 licence cracker. Many downloads like Webacappella 4 may also include a crack, serial number, unlock code, cd key or keygen (key generator). If this is the case it is usually found in the full download archive itself.

Superdrag In The Valley Of Dying Stars Zip 2

Superdrag In The Valley Of Dying Stars Zip Download

Superdrag In The Valley Of Dying Stars Zip File

Superdrag In The Valley Of Dying Stars

Superdrug In The Valley Of Dying Stars Zip Codes

Name: 2000 - In The Valley Of Dying Stars (Japan Edition).zip. Size: 127.27 MB Uploaded: 16:53 Last download: 23:47. 'In the Valley of Dying Stars' finds Superdrag alive and well following their break with Elektra Records and the move to an independent label once again. Free program nav n go igo 8 r1 patch. Long past their 1996 Buzz Clip 'Sucked Out,' John Davis further expands his songwriting. A Newbury Comics exclusive color vinyl pressing. To commemorate its 20th anniversary, Superdrag have put together a limited edition vinyl reissue of their 3rd album, In the Valley of Dying Stars. This limited pressing comes in a gatefold sleeve with never-before-seen pictures & ephemera plus an 8-page booklet insert containing the complete, authorized oral history of the making-of with every.

Superdrag In The Valley Of Dying Stars Zip 2

In the Valley of Dying StarsStudio album by ReleasedOctober 17, 2000 (US) April, 2001 (Japan)RecordedWoodland Studios, Nashville, Tennessee, and Stealth Studios, Knoxville, Tennessee, by Nick RaskulineczGenreRockLength46:21LabelArena Rock Recording Co.ProducerNick Raskulinecz and SuperdragSuperdrag chronology

Señorita EP (1999)In the Valley of Dying Stars (2000)The Rock Soldier CD (2000)

Professional ratingsReview scoresSourceRatingAllmusiclinkPitchfork Media5.3/10.0 link

In the Valley of Dying Stars is a twelve-song album from Superdrag released by Arena Rock Recording Co. in 2000. In the Valley of Dying Stars is the third professionally released full-length record from Superdrag. The track 'Lighting the Way' appeared on the soundtrack for the film 'Dude, Where's My Car?'The Japanese version includes the two bonus tracks, 'Comfortably Bummed' and 'Diane'.

Track listing[edit]

All songs written by John Davis.

'Keep It Close to Me' - 3:50

'Gimme Animosity' - 3:23

'Baby's Waiting' - 3:08

'Goin' Out' - 3:51

'Lighting the Way' - 3:27

'The Warmth of a Tomb' - 5:54

'Bright Pavilions' - 4:56

'Ambulance Driver' - 4:00

'Unprepared' - 3:32

'Some Kind of Tragedy' - 3:16

'True Believer' - 3:08

'In the Valley of Dying Stars' - 3:56

Japan bonus tracks[edit]

Superdrag In The Valley Of Dying Stars Zip Download

'Comfortably Bummed'

'Diane'

Personnel[edit]

John Davis: Vocals, Guitars, Piano, Organ, Bass (except on tracks 1, 4, 11, and 12)

Brandon Fisher: Guitars

Sam Powers: Bass (on tracks 1, 4, 11, and 12), Vocals

Don Coffey, Jr.: Drums

Superdrag In The Valley Of Dying Stars Zip File

Tributes[edit]

On October 17, 2020, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the original album's release, a tribute album was released by Rochester, NY musician Steve Lopez (of the bands FMGreen and Burning Snella).

Superdrag In The Valley Of Dying Stars

External links[edit]

Superdrug In The Valley Of Dying Stars Zip Codes

Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=In_the_Valley_of_Dying_Stars&oldid=986951970'

0 notes