#we have beautiful old streets maintained for decades you can see the history in the walls | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jacqueline314 · 3 years

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Desirable Greetings

Part 1

Carts, farmers, scholars, and merchants occupies the streets of large and massive, bright structures.

Welcome to Vria. A city, made out of columns of a mixture of limestone, sandstone, and other bright colored materials. There are districts with buildings that look similar to one another, it almost feels like a maze in certain spots of the city. Other structures are consist of columns with no walls, walls with no columns, columns with no roofs, columns with roofs, and walls with no roofs.

The history of this city takes back a hundred years ago. The founders were architects. They come from the distant east, after a kingdom had fallen. They were hired by the remaining survivors of the royal family. Their down fall was caused by a war, and they accept defeat. The architects were paid with a hidden stash of gold and treasure that were passed from generations. They were tasked to locate a land that would be best suited for not just the survivors’ taste, but also where the architects would paint their canvas.

It took a few decade of travelling, maneuvering and surviving to find their canvas. As they set foot to a beach with a cliff side, where the peak could just reach the heavens, and a stable slope from the back, they settled and put their lives’ effort to build Vria from the bottom up. The surviving royal family helped maintaining the resources and financials while building their home. After Fifty years, the city was built. It was then ruled under, the royal family’s most organized sister, Queen Luisa Sevada. And every year, they celebrate on two separate days of the start and end of the harvest season. To dedicate the memory of their new found home. And that is the story of Vria.

With in the middle of the day, a tiefling merchant was selling goods to shopper. His shop consist of dried meats, fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs. He to wards a new face that was approaching to him. He sees a human girl with Short, shiny black hair, olive skin, and dark brown eyes, wearing goggles with magnifying lenses, a brown cloak, studded armor with one glove attachment, modest orange clothing under the armor with only one sleeve that's opposite to the glove and a bag that hangs across her body. Strange to see someone wear any armor, considering that she seems to be over ten years old for a human.

As they get closer, the merchant goes “Hello and what can I get ya?”

She then replies “Hi, what can I get with five copper?” Her voice sounds lightly squeaky.

“Well, that will get you one fruit, half a meat jerky, and a hand full of herbs.”

“What kind of fruits do you have in stock?”

“Umm...just the usual oranges and apples. Oh oh! I just remembered we have one mango left in stock. These are our best sellers.”

The human girl smiles as she says “I will try one then.”

He hands over the mango to her and she pays the five copper. As she walks away from the merchant, peeling the fruit, the merchant goes “Pleasure doing business with you.” As she bites into the mango, she turns around and waves goodbye to him.

“He’s very nice.” She mutters while chewing the mango in her mouth.

He wasn’t kidding about the mango being sold out very quickly. the texture is soft, moist, and the taste is really sweet. Sweeter than any apples and oranges combined. The fruit is very drippy with every bite intake. The juices falls onto her cloak. Other drops slide to her chin and falls on her leather armor. Eventually, her hand will get soaked with the juice when she finishes it.

Amongst the big crowd, she finds a fountain in the middle. She heads towards it to take a seat. She finishes eating the fruit, but she doesn’t know where to put away the scraps. The streets are relatively clean. She finds two families sitting on the fountain as well. One of them are sitting near her and the other is on the opposite side. The human tries to secretly wash her hand and the scraps to get rid of the sticky juice, but the small toss of the fountain water, towards her hand, creates a splash loud enough to get their attention.

They glance over to the human in concern. She smiles at them and says “Hi.”

They continue to watch her as she dips the scraps with her hand into the fountain, washes it, shakes off the excess water, and places it into her bag.

The family then stood up, gather their things and walked away. “You look lovely today.” She said as they left.

A moment passes, then she hears a loud voice that goes “Attention! Attention! A big event has occurred!” It seems to be the Town Crier, giving announcements.

“The queen has said word that the princess’ coronation will be at sundown, today!”

The blacked haired human looks around and sees the surprised discomfort of the crowd. She hears some of them mutter “Sundown?”

“Our attires aren’t ready.”

“Strange.”

The Town Crier finishes handing out the papers and shouts “Alright, go and get ready! The Queen also says that she wants every one to witness this!” And they all rush their walking pace in order to not be looked down upon the royal family.”

As they all nudge and push through each other, our human swiftly maneuver through the crowd, pretty well handedly. After a while, it fells less crowded that it was. In order to not take the chance of being over run, she finds the nearest, stable column that’s short enough to climb on to, but as her hand gets a grip of it, someone bumped into her and she was pushed away from her safe zone. She’s prone to the ground and crawls towards a corner to hide in. People didn’t seem to notice her presence, considering the task at hand. She sit’s there until the sun is about to turn the sky orange.

Carts and horses are tucked away and fed by the owners before they leave for the coronation. The streets are clear of the market stands, that it’s even less crowded than it were previously. The locals are wearing formal attires, some with hints of yellow to intimidate gold. Our human comes out of her corner and walks along the crowd as they all head to the ceremony.

She eventually arrives to the palace. It’s ginormously large, bigger than any other large building she encountered. On what she can see on the front, there are two watch towers on either side, and small statues of Aasimars. One on top of each tower, and center peak of the front. There are also a set of stairs on the base of the palace, and giant columns that support the roof. Upon entering though the iron bolted doors, the main hall/throne room, has many tables and chairs, exclusively for everyone. Torches hanging on the walls and columns. Above there are a couple of large bowls of fire, hanging from the ceiling and interior balconies that over look all the central bottom floor and the opposite side of where the viewers can see. The thrones are located at the back, there are two of which belong to the queen and her mate. And a red curtain behind them.

A lot of people seem to have taken their seats. Our human finds hers as well, located near the second column from the front left. Upon sitting, she sees other people who attended the coronation, not wearing what the locals wear. They seem to be dressed modestly like her. There are mixtures of races within the building. There are Aarakocras, Dwarves, Goliaths, Elves, and a group with a tiefling, a couple humans, a pale soldier, what seems to be an orc, a pink firbolg, and a green halfling. Perhaps it’s an open house party.

Time passes as the tables are being filled. Then, a clinking sound appears from the thrones. The choir sings in a beautiful tune, in front of the thrones. What comes out of the curtained background of the thrones is the king. A Tiefling in his late fifties, with a white color stripe on his beard, wears a blue robe. He bows forward to the audience, stands up, and walks towards his throne that’s on his left, to sit down. Another clink occurs and comes out, the queen. A Goliath and also in her late fifties, wears a pink dress. She bows as well and walks toward her thrown on her right to sit. And after that, comes out the princess. A Tiefling like her father, and seems to be almost in her twenties. Has majestic long hair, a round face, and tanned skin. Wears a green dress, and seems to be holding a scepter with two hands. It’s made out of valuable material and the top of it is in a circular ring shape. There are six spikes around with non pointed shapes, and four chains, linking towards a central jewels, what appears to be a Jasper.

She then clinks the ground with it, and what appears to be an elderly female bishop. The princess then drops the scepter into a compartment, so it will stand in front of the throne. She turns and the bishop hands her, what seems to be a family heirloom. A crystal, covered out of a precious metal. The princess faced towards the audience, and the bishop raises a golden choker with a pearl attached, as the choir stops singing. She chants in a Zemnian language as she lowers the jewelry to the princess’ shoulder levels and as she was about to attach it to the princess’ neck, she finishes her chant by saying “Queen Bree Sevada” And every one in the building cheers in her name.

Then, while the audience clap, our human notices that the bishop twirled the princess’ hair on her right as she placed her hands on her shoulders. A moment passes, and servants came down the stairs on each side of the hall, bringing the guests food and beverages. When all of them were set, Queen Bree says “May the feast fill your desires.” and bows to them, then turns and joins her parents on her own throne that the servants brought to her after the coronation.

The food is consist of pastries, roasted chicken, potatoes, fruit and vegetables. And the drinks are pitchers of water and bottles of wine. Everyone, and our human, starts gathering food and eating their plate. There were not enough chairs for every one, because of tourists, though the former queen had already thought this out. There is a buffet amongst the sides of the main hall, for the extra guests to grab a plate and have their free evening meal.

When everyone finished their dinner, it has turned dark. And all of a sudden, they all hear a tune playing. There are a hand full of people who are just holding their plats while standing in the doorway.

They all looked outside and one of them shouts “There’s a band playing outside!”

One of the guests says “I wanna go dance.” And it encourages more people to go out and dance as well.

Our human stands at the door way, sees the band at the bottom of the stairs, and pairs dancing to the beat.

She hears a couple of guests, sitting on the side of the stairs, one of them tells the other “This is so weird. First the early coronation, and now a band outside? They say that there will be a dance after, but don’t coronation dances take place inside? They even said that the palace has a ball room big enough for all of us.”

It brought concern to her. If that were the case, that would mean they want to watch us dance. As she turned to check on the royal family, she finds no one at the throne area, but she does catch a glimpse of the king and queen walking through a door on the left of the throne. She rushes over them as the echoing sounds of her steps fills the room.

She reaches to the door and knocks on it “Your majesties, is there something wrong?”

The door creaks open slightly, then a voice goes “They no longer hold that title and are very busy right now, please do not disturb.” She can’t see anything from the door crack. There is no torch light in there.

The door closes and she tries to keep the gap open, but her middle and ring finger ends up being crushed by the door. “AHH-” She screamed in agony, but blocked off her sound with her off hand.

She didn’t want the citizens to panic over the disappearance of their new queen.

She then pulled in her fingers and held them tightly to numb the pain. “I know you have a ball room in the palace, why are we dancing outside anyway?”

There was silence, no reply. “I’ll help you with anything, please tell me what’s wrong?”

A minute passes, then the door opens, they waved their hands to for her to enter. She gets in, and the door closes behind her.

The sound of a spark creates a fire to light and the inside is a ten by ten feet room. A door that leads to the back and another door where the human just entered. There is a shelf of brushes and a broom. It seems to be a a cleaner’s closet.

The Goliath former queen and Tiefling former king are wrapping each other with their arms, holding one another. “What’s wrong?” said the human.

“Tell us your name.” Asked the Tiefling.

She replies with “I am Ezuvae.”

“Ezuvae what?” says the Goliath.

“It’s just Ezuvae, madam.”

“You are very young” says the tiefling.

Ezuvae replies “I helped out my master when he needed things like errands and monsters that encountered his home.”

“I see”

“But I want to help you. I have the sense that you’re in trouble.”

The two glanced over at each other and back to Ezuvae. The former queen goes “Our daughter is in trouble.” They then tell what happened two months ago. Bree was studying in her room. She wanted to learn how to solve problems, and help our people. However, she had trouble understanding some particular books she had because they were written in Zemnian. They hired the bishop since she spoke and read Zemnian. It wen’t fine until earlier today. The bishop ambushed their meal with pirates and snatched Bree. She demanded to have the coronation at sundown or the pirates will harm her. Once the coronation was over, they have to draw out the guests in order to have the new queen all to herself. She even told the two to not disturb them.

“Where is Queen Bree right now?” Asked Ezuvae.

The former king lets go of his wife, and places both hands on Ezuvae’s shoulders and goes “The bishop took her to our room. It has our family’s mark on it.”

Ezuvae is guessing that the mark is in a hexagon shape with what seems to be a weird looking pine tree going through. The trunk is too short & thin, and the leaves and branches forms a kind of tall pyramid separated into pieces. She has seen that mark when she arrived here.

As she starts to turn to the door, the tiefling hold her still and continues “What ever you do, don’t let your guard down. The bishop hasn’t been herself lately.”

She nods to him as the guard, who was holding the door the entire time, opens it and she swiftly heads up to the closest flight of stairs.

Just as soon as she reaches to the top the stairs, a crossbow bold flies pass her face and pierces to the stone wall. She lost balance when she leaned back, but she quickly grabbed hold of the railing and stands back up again. She glances to her right, she sees for a brief moment, what could be the captain, and their crew member.

A deep voice occurs and goes “Get them!” as foot steps are fading to the left.

They are in a 10ft wide/ 180ft long hall way with a set of doors on the right that lead to a room she doesn’t know. and two path that lead to the left

The pirate rushes towards her, swings his hook, but she dodges the out of the way, still holding on to the railings. She then goes pass him, grabs the pirate’s back, leans backwards, sets her feet on him, and launches him across the hall as she rolls to a three point stance. The pirate falls on to his back., just laying there. As Ezuvae stands back up, another pirate takes her swing with a light hammer, but Ezuvae manages to stop it on time. The pirate then disengages, going 10ft backwards into the open path. The other path is an intersecting hall way. The human can see the captain heading into another path, behind the pirate.

Ezuvae force kicks the pirate and tries to punch her, but she immediately gets out of the way. The human tries to kick her again, but she blocked it and punched Ezuvae right into the face. She steps back 5ft. Meanwhile, the pirate that was prone, stands up and sees Ezuvae, backing up from the punch. He rushes towards her from the back. The other pirate takes a swing at her. The hammer hits her stomach. Ezuvae pulls out her dagger and stabs the pirate on the back (literally) By this time, she notices the first pirate rushing. She passes by the other and quickly heads towards the end of the hall way. The two Pirates rush towards her, one of them throws the hammer but it misses.

As Ezuvae was running, she pulls out a small metal barrel with a wooden base and points it at them, it made a small explosion and the wall seemed to be hit my a mysterious force. With that, the pirates stop themselves from chasing. Ezuvae continued on forward into another hall way.

Based on where she saw the captain headed, she follows. Upon looking for the master bedroom, Ezuvae finds an open door. In it, was an alchemist’s lab. There is a lot of equipment, chemicals and elements, fully stocked. She finds a greater healing potion, on one of the desks and a container of sulfur pieces. She takes this opportunity to craft equipment and drinks the potion. After twenty minutes, she has crafted a blasting powder within a pouch. After that, she rushes out to the door, she accidently bumped a shelf, and a weird potion spilled on her. There seems to be no effect, so she continued onward.

Racing against time, she finds the family’s mark on the door. Ezuvae looks around and finds a few paintings on the wall. They’re portraits of the royal family. At least, what’s left of them. She takes Princess Bree’s, the painting before the coronation. Holds up the painting’s back towards the door and kicks it open. As the doors flung open, a bolt appeared on the painting. The tip nearly touches her armor. Ezuvae drops the painting to see the captain standing on top of the bed. He has long hair, wears a purple robe, and welds a hand crossbow with a long sword on his side. The room itself, is large. About 40/50ft. Four columns supporting another interior balcony, two flight of stairs, and a huge window behind the bed. The captain quickly reloads his crossbow then the human hides behind the column. He fires but it misses.

“Just c’mon and give up!” Yelled the pirate.

“Our master promises she will give us great pleasure when she’s done with the queen. She may be old, but she knows how to satisfy a man.”

Ezuvae muttered “Ew.”

He then hops off the bed and walks toward the pillar she’s hiding. He draws his sword as he continues “You might have a taste of her, if you’d stop interfering.”

He stops at the pillar and peaks around, “I promise we’ll go slow.”

And all of a sudden, she quickly draws the barrel and points it at the captains face and *Boom* nothing happened to him, except for the loud sound. He got startled and stepped back.

Ezuvae drops the blasting powder underneath him, runs away from him and points the barrel at the pouch. It explodes, launching him 3ft into the air and prone to the ground. The human rushed over to him, kicks away his crossbow, tries to steal his sword but that was unsuccessful. She then proceeds to punching his stomach and miss stabbing his wrist that welds the sword. She backs up as the captain gets up. Unable to do anything at the moment, Ezuvae stabs him twice but misses, and she grabbed him to head-butt him.

The pirate captain slashes his sword at her, but somehow, Ezuvae didn’t get cut. He aimed at her stomach, so why aren’t her gut spilled out?. With out even thinking, Ezuvae slashes him with the dagger. Her two attempts miss, but the third and punch succeeds. He aims towards her head and misses, but she manages to slash him. She also kicked the back of his leg to fall on one knee.

As he gets up and turns around, he was met with an upper cut. Falling backwards, he becomes prone once again. Ezuvae stabs his wrist, making him let go of his sword. He screams from the pain and then she kicks him in the face. He quickly gets up and grabs his sword with his other hand., but as he stands up, he gets greeted with a kick in the stomach. He manages to keep standing after backing a few feet.

Looking at his condition, he looks really beaten up. Blood is comming out of the stab wounds and from the head-butt.

Ezuvae says “You should be the one to give up.”

Without saying anything, He swings at her, but missed. She then slashes him, and points the barrel at his right shoulder. *Boom* blood splashed on to the floor, and He lies there unconscious.

After a relived sigh, Ezuvae hears a sinister laugh. And behind her are the sound of chains clanking. She turns around to see Queen Bree being lowered down. Her wrists are shackled over her head. Her dress, completely shredded, leaving behind a shoulder piece and strips of her dress. And her one-piece girdle is exposed to see. And her face expresses in a miserable exhaustion. She can see the leftover trail of tears on her cheeks.

Shocked to see her condition, Ezuvae shouts to her “YOUR MAJESTY!! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!”

The voice echoes the room “Ha ha ha ha ha,”

Glancing up, she sees a red humanoid figure falling from the ceiling and circles around her before it hits the ground, and continues saying “She cant hear you. I drained all of her energy. But don’t worry, it’ll return after a few hours of rest.” It then stops and floats in front of her.

What Ezuvae sees the figure with red skin, sharp nails, a pointed tail, giant bat wings attached to the back, and wears the attire of a bishop. Taking a closer look, she realizes that the winged figure is the bishop she saw before. Ezuvae was frightened for seeing a being like this for the first time. The bishop smirked. Ezuvae glances towards the queen behind the bishop, and shrugs off the fear. She then puts away the barrel, holds the dagger with both of hands in front of her. The bishop was impressed. Like it is her first time encountering such bravery.

But she gives Ezuvae a remorse look. “Delicious, but annoying. So, DIE!!!” She then takes her claws and swings it at Ezuvae.

Before the claw meets, Ezuvae felt a shattering force hitting on her back. Then what comes a blue mist surrounding her. The red bishop backs away from the mist, cause it harmed her mildly, and what comes are two individuals running into the bedroom. As the mist fades, Ezuvae sees them in front of her. On her right is a wood elf, welding a staff, wearing a brown robe with the royal family’s marking on the back. And on her left is a tiefling wearing chainmail armor, welding a mace and a shield.

“What was that?” asked Ezuvae.

“I just gave you an upgrade.” answered the tieflng.

Confused, she was about to ask- but was cut off when the wood elf goes “No time for questioning. We have to save her.”

He’s right. Ezuvae positions herself by widening her stance, lowering her body, points the dagger at the bishop, and rests her free hand on the bottom handle.

The elf walks forward to the bed and releases a lightning bolt, from this chest, at the bishop. The strike boils her veins, painfully. Ezuvae then gets closer underneath and throws her dagger, right on to her stomach, and backs away. The tiefling then summons a spiritual weapon next to the bishop. The weapon is in a form of Darlin the Baseball Bat. It takes a swing and hits the back of her head. The bishop leans forward from the blow.

Looking at the bat, the bishop notices Ezuvae and casts a charm spell on her. Evuvae felt her body being paralyzed as the speel takes over. She can’t speack either. All she can do is watch and feel the world around her. The bishop then flies towards Ezuvae. The elf runs toward the human and tries to hit her with his staff, but she dodged the impact. She then kicked the elf and pulls the dagger out of the bishop. But then, *POW* Ezuvae gets hit right at the face by the tiefling’s handle. The hit was able to brake off the spell. As the bishop was surprised, she gets hit on the head again by the magic baseball bat.

Frustrated, she charges toward and slashes Ezuvae and the tieffling with her claws. Ezuvae got scratched on her shoulder, it felt worse than a slap, while the tiefling blocks it with her shield. The bishop scratches the shield, and the tiefling pushes forward, grabs her arm, and the bishop feels her arm being pierced over and over again like salt rubbing her wounds. And then was pushed 180 degrees around the tiefling. As all of that is happening, the spiritual weapon flies over, behind the bishop and smacks her once again. After that, the elf also smacked her head with his staff. The bishop is weaken. The necroticy did a number on her. As she lies prone, Ezuvae kicks her over, pulls out and points the barrel at her beaten face and says, “You’re gross.” And the bishop’s head explodes, leaving a splatter of blood and bits of scorch marks all over the floor..

It’s now over. They won. After a minute passes the elf created a magical hand to unshackle the queen’s wrists. Ezuvae stands underneath Queen Bree to catch her. As the chains are freed, she falls onto Ezuvaes arms. She manages to catch her, but being bearably clumsy, she falls back, onto the bed. The queen lands flat on top of her. Her head rests next to Ezuvae’s, arms still over her head. In a brief moment, her arms contract and wraps them around Ezuvae. She’s still unconscious, but she feels like there’s someone there. Whatever happen to her, whatever she experienced, she holds that person tight and does not wish to let go. She wants to feel safe. Ezuvae felt Bree’s sorrow.

She wraps her arms around her body, holds her in close and whispers “Don’t worry, you’re safe now.”

#oc #d&d inspired #fan writing

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sellhousefast323 · 3 years

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9 Top-Rated Attractions & Things to Do in Roanoke, VA

Roanoke is a popular tourist destination, whether you're a culture vulture seeking out unique museums and attractions or an active vacationer seeking out outdoor adventures. The city is a four-season destination for avid hikers, rock climbers, recreational boaters, and sportfishing enthusiasts, and is located in the picturesque Roanoke Valley in southwestern Virginia. In-town greenways, cultural diversions, diverse dining, and unique shopping discoveries await urban explorers. Whatever your vacation style, keep our list of Roanoke's top attractions and things to do handy.

1. Mill Mountain Park & the Roanoke Star

Mill Mountain Park, which is home to the famous Roanoke Star (also known as the Mill Mountain Star), has more than 10 miles of multi-use trails (hiking, walking, and biking) where visitors can experience the region's all-season natural beauty.

Take the Mill Mountain Star Trail, a 3.5-mile round-trip from the base trail, to the summit of Mill Mountain, the city's highest point at 1,703 feet, for a moderately challenging hike. Hikers are rewarded with two scenic overlooks atop the mountain after climbing 838 feet in elevation. The Star Trail parking lot, located just off Riverland Road SE at the Star/Wood Thrush Connector, has plenty of free parking and clear signage.

Connect with the short Watchtower Trail for the best panoramic views and photos right at the base of the Roanoke Star, one of Virginia's most famous landmarks. The National Register of Historic Landmarks has listed this unusual landmark, which was built in 1949 as a temporary Christmas decoration by the local merchants association. The giant star, at 89 feet in height, is America's largest star. It is visible from up to 60 miles away and is lit every evening until midnight.

Hikers are welcome to bring their leashed dogs, and there are picnic tables, restrooms, and water along the Mill Mountain Spur Trail en route to the Discovery Center, a naturalist centre with exhibits on the park, local wildlife, and trail maps. Mill Mountain Zoo, a small but lively enclave with local critters such as the Indian crested porcupine, red wolf, and yellow-spotted side-necked turtle, will appeal to children of all ages.

2. Carvins Cove Natural Reserve

Carvins Cove Natural Reserve, with more than 60 miles of trails surrounding an 800-acre reservoir, is known among locals as a haven for off-road mountain biking. The reserve, which is the second largest municipal park in the United States, spans nearly 13,000 acres, the majority of which is protected by the state of Virginia's largest conservation easement.

Trail maps are available for purchase, and bikers can get local advice on which trails are best suited for their experience level at Just The Right Gear, a cycling shop near the Bennett Springs parking lot (one of three reserve entrances — the others are Marina and Timber View). There are also rentals of high-end bikes and gear.

On the Easy Street, Kit & Kaboodle, The Skillet, and Enchanted Forest trails, beginners will find a gentler rise and more flats. On the Comet, Gauntlet, Hoe Trail, and Clownshead, riders seeking more difficult challenges will get exactly what they want. On the most difficult trails, expect to gain up to 2,400 feet in elevation.

Along these well-kept trails, riders will encounter packed dirt, loose gravel, and tamped soil. Canoeing (equipment rentals and instruction are available) and fishing are also popular activities at Carvins Cove.

3. Smith Mountain Lake

Smith Mountain Lake, one of Virginia's most popular — and the state's largest — has nearly 500 miles of shoreline, earning it the title of "Jewel of the Blue Ridge Mountains." Because state fisheries keep the lake well stocked, SML, as it's known by locals, has an especially impressive striped bass population. Anglers can book half- or full-day charters with a number of licenced guides who have plenty of experience traversing the 21,000-acre lake. They'll provide bait, equipment, and all of the necessary expertise to ensure that those fishing have a safe and enjoyable time on the water.

Crappies, bluegills, largemouth and smallmouth bass, as well as stripers, are among the tasty fish that make freshwater fishing at SML a popular tourist destination.

Waterskiing and wakeboarding, boating and sailing, and jet skiing are all fun activities to do on the lake. Swimming is also available at a family-friendly beach, and there are several golf courses nearby.

4. Roanoke Valley Greenways

The interconnected Roanoke Valley Greenway allows visitors to walk or bike along miles of trails in the area, which are safe, well-populated, and well-maintained. A popular trail in and around Roanoke is right along the Roanoke River, where deer, herons, geese, and other wildlife can be seen even in the city. Vic Thomas Park, just off Memorial Drive south of the river, is a great place to start your exploration. From there, you can easily join the Roanoke River Greenway.

A short distance away is the well-known Black Dog Salvage. Every visit to this nationally recognised purveyor of reclaimed architectural, commercial, and industrial fixtures and elements yields a fascinating, one-of-a-kind inventory. Visitors come from all 50 states to see Black Dog, which specialises in doors, windows, wrought iron, period lighting, garden statuary, and other specialty home components.

Head southeast on the Roanoke River Greenway towards Wasena Park after visiting Black Dog. At the Wasena Skate Park, kids can be seen hanging ten on their longboards. The park is always bustling with activity, and the locals' fancy footwork on their skateboards and blades is entertaining to watch.

On your way to the Tinker Creek Greenway, continue on the greenway and cross the Mill Mountain Greenway. Follow that road north for less than a mile and reward yourself with a picnic at Fallon Park's picnic area.

5. Taubman Museum of Art

The Taubman Museum of Art, one of the city's newest attractions (it opened in 2008), is a must-see for art lovers and casual culture consumers alike. The museum's permanent collection of 2,000 unique pieces is spread across 11 different galleries, including works by Thomas Cowperthwaite Eakins, Purvis Young, and John Cage, and is housed in a stunning modern design by renowned architect Randall Stout.

Visiting exhibits featuring work by some of America's best artists, including John James Audubon and Norman Rockwell, to name a few, are common. Photographic, folk art, and design-related exhibits are among the other highlights.

If you're travelling with children, look into children's programmes, such as hands-on workshops and interactive displays. On-site amenities include a café.

6. McAfee Knob

McAfee Knob is one of the most photographed places on the Appalachian Trail, thanks to its incredible vistas and spectacular rock overhang perch. The 3.5 miles of intermediate-to-difficult trails that lead up to the knob from the Virginia 311 parking lot are popular with hikers.

Climbers know it for the more than 70 gnarly sandstone and slick quartzite boulders that make for days of mini-summits. The majority of boulders are between 10 and 20 feet tall, with many crimps, jugs, pockets, and edges. Bring pads, lunch, and a buddy; it's never a good idea to go rock climbing alone, and McAfee is often deserted.

Another popular recreational area in Roanoke is the recently re-opened Explore Park, which is located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. The park features 1,100 acres of breathtaking scenery, numerous walking and hiking trails, as well as thrilling ziplines and a treetop adventure course that is appropriate for families with younger children. It also has a visitor centre and a gift shop, as well as camping and rustic cabins.

7. Bottom Creek Gorge Preserve

Bottom Creek Gorge Preserve is a popular destination for birders, nature lovers, and photographers. Bottom Creek, located less than 20 miles south of Roanoke, is one of the most important headwaters for the Roanoke River, and it offers visitors several well-marked trails to enjoy the vast hardwood forest, unspoiled landscape, and Virginia's second highest waterfall.

For the best vantage point to photograph the 200-foot cascading waterfall, the second tallest in Virginia, photographers should take the Red Trail (the longest trail here, at five miles round-trip). Bring a long/telephoto lens because the overlook at the end of the trail offers a clear, open shot, but the falls are a long way away. A side path off the Yellow Trail leads to other viewpoints of the falls.

8. Roanoke City Market

The historic City Market, also known as the Farmers' Market by locals, is open all year and offers boutique shopping, local produce, flowers, meat and cheese, local dining favourites, and some of Virginia's best people-watching. Pay close attention to the market's four mosaic tiled entrances, each of which contains over 2,000 pounds of porcelain tiles that reveal a little bit of the history of this storied public space.

9. Roanoke Pinball Museum

We’ve recently started a new family hobby – vintage record collecting! In keeping with this new found connection over the beloved old, we were delighted to take our girls to the Roanoke Pinball Museum and show them how we entertained ourselves long before the internet.

From the 1932 styles to the slightly more modern Munster’s machine which had a baby pinball inside the bigger one to play, you could get lost in here playing over 65 machines for hours.

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polkahotness · 4 years

Text

SHORTAKI WEEK, DAY 3

FFN // AO3

Satellite

"You're my satellite

You're riding with me tonight

Passenger side, lighting the sky, always the first star that I find

You're my satellite."

--'Satellite' by: Guster--

One year. Today marked an entire year of dating Helga and this time, I knew it was real. In fact, I knew within the first week of our dating that this relationship was the one that would end in marriage. In all the years that we'd known each other, Helga and I had engaged in a relationship at least a dozen different times. We were that couple that was always on and off again—neither of us ever truly giving our entire selves to the other with vulnerability and unyielding honesty.

All that changed a few years ago.

We had begun talking fairly regularly again—the two of us had always maintained a casual friendship, even despite our complicated romantic history. But one day, something inside of me wanted to reach out to Helga in a closer way; something beyond the occasional 'like' on a post she shared or a comment on a status she'd written.

That's right.

I slid into Helga's DMs.

At first, I think she was really shocked that it was me who had done the 'reaching out' part. Almost every other time since before our high school graduation, it had been her who had outstretched a line of communication towards me. After we graduated, though, she stopped trying. I supposed that was my own fault. I mean, how many times can someone reach out to another until they realized that they themselves were the ones holding the relationship together?

I guess that means that the old adage, "absence makes the heart grow fonder," is pretty accurate. At Helga's absence, I found that I missed her quick wit, poetic words, and frankly, her overly romantic gestures. I missed her love because, at age twenty, I finally admitted to myself that I wanted to and was ready to fully love her back. Love her to the fullest extent.

Fast-forward a few years from that initial first message on my part, and you'd wind up here, at Chez Paris, one year ago. We'd met up to talk and hang out countless times in our last few years of regular conversation and friendship, but this time was different. I had specifically asked her out to dinner at a restaurant that was much more expensive than we typically went to. I'm sure Helga knew that something was up, but then again, maybe I caught her off guard.

Trapped on a public dinner date with me, I exposed my every feeling. I explained how I really was as dense as she had always told me I was because it took me nearly two decades to come to terms with my feelings for her. I told her that each time we dated, I knew that I was holding back the inner devotion that I felt towards her—this bond, this connection that I could never shake, not even when we were children back at P.S. 118. I expressed that for me, it had always been Helga; even though I didn't realize it at the time. The desire I felt to reach the true Helga that hid behind the guise of a bully was really just my heart trying to get to it's other half.

Then I went on blathering about how she was never an enemy, or an acquaintance, or even just a friend to me. That she was my soulmate. I listed off countless times that it had been Helga who had saved my skin from a bad situation, impending trouble, myself, or even the depths of the jungles and the evil river pirates who dominated them. I called her an angel—always there, always protecting me, always thinking of me and always loving me. I said I'd taken her for granted.

After I finished the long speech that I had rehearsed over a hundred different times throughout the last week, I took Helga's hand from across the table. It was the kind of touch that we hadn't shared in years, and I can only speak for myself in the fact that it sent a jolt of electricity throughout my body. It was like fireworks before the kiss.

That was when Helga dropped the bomb of the century.

She went on to talk about the extent of her feelings for me. Suddenly, Helga was purging all of these things she had done out of adoration for me and moments we had shared that I'd never known were her doing all along. Towards the end of her long string of stories, she admitted that us being at Chez Paris was ironic—the two of us having shared one of the most special moments of her life here.

Naturally, I thought she was talking about the time she brought Gerald, Phoebe, and myself here in mistaking it for Chez Pierre, which ended in a night filled with way too much food, cockroaches, and a stack of dirty dishes taller than the two of us combined. However, it wasn't this night that Helga was referring to—it was a night long before that, a night that my young mind had never forgotten and never believed would be resolved.

Especially not by Helga G. Pataki.

That night was the night that sealed our fate. By the two of us baring our souls to one another in a fashion that neither of us had ever done, it was like this key had unlocked the two of us so we could finally reach each other. It was as though our entire lives, there we were, stuck in two jail cells that were right next door. We could hear each other and see each other, but we could never truly reach each other.

Our year together had been perfect. Sure, there were a few hiccups of arguments that weren't worth having, but overall, our first year had gone by without a hitch. We'd moved into an apartment together and had talked about looking for a house within the next few years. She was a regular at Sunset Arms when I'd visit and my family—both biological and chosen—had accepted her as one of their own. My parents loved her.

And I loved her.

For our big anniversary, I decided to take her once again to Chez Paris—a place that seemed to be a fixture in our lives; a hub where we always connected on a different level. It may have been expensive, but it was always worth every penny, but not for the food. The conversations and moments that were shared between us while there were the meals that really satiated me; they satiated my soul.

We'd chosen to walk to the restaurant. It had been a nearly perfect autumn day and the walk was a pleasant one; a soft breeze propelling us onward for our upcoming reservation. Once inside, we took the spot that we usually sat in—a corner towards the back of the restaurant that offered a bit of privacy other parts of the eatery didn't have.

All throughout the dinner, I couldn't help but stare at Helga. She looked so beautiful with the way her golden hair framed her face. On her face was just the hint of make-up; a gentle sparkle catching my eye every so often when she'd turn her head just right. The blue of her eyes was so deep that I could have drowned in them as she looked at me and her voice, her laughter, resounded in my ears like a melody I couldn't shake.

The woman that sat in front of me was just that: a woman. Helga had grown up to be an elegant, graceful albeit feisty woman with a wit so fast one could hardly keep up. She was clever and wickedly smart—smarter than her sister, who may have had the book-smarts down but lacked that of the street-smarts which Helga possessed. Everything that sat before me was what I had never anticipated Helga to become, not because she was incapable, but because I was incapable.

Until recently, I had been unable and possibly unwilling to see how incredible Helga had grown into, yet had always been. Though the unibrow was gone along with her bow and pink dress, Helga was still there, only wiser and more mature. She'd blossomed into a flower that I'd never expected to bloom so effortlessly. Each part of her was intoxicating, a scent that I would spend eternities entertaining and indulging in.

My year with Helga had really opened up a different side of me.

It's funny what admitting your true feelings can do—Helga was onto something with that, even when we were only nine. A year with my feelings out in the open, and actively out in the open at that… well let's just say that it had certainly evoked the poet inside of me that Helga had been molding since we were children.

It was her love and those confessions of hers that had planted the seed of a romantic.

"One whole year together," I stated when our waiter came by to take our empty plates away from the table. "It feels like it's been a lot longer."

Taking a sip from her water glass, Helga set it down before swallowing and saying with a smile, "Yeah well we've kinda known each other since before we can remember. You really could say that we've been together for much longer."

"Do you also find it weird to think that we used to be so young?" I asked as Helga eyed me curiously at the question I posed. "I mean, I look at you as Helga, but every once in a while, I see glimpses of Helga… The angry, mean girl with the pink bow and her not-so-secret crush."

Without missing a beat, she responded, "Eh. To me, you'll always just be some twerpy, football-headed sap." I frowned at this; the hint of sneer tugging at Helga's lips before she added, "But at least now you're MY twerpy, football-headed sap."

"Sap?" I repeated in surprise. "I was never a sap, Helga. If anyone is the sap in this relationship, it's you." Even after my explanation, Helga merely looked at me through a deadpan. After a few seconds without response, I said blankly while giving her a bored look, "You were in love with me."

"I am in love with you," she stated matter-of-factly.

"And I'm in love with you, but that's not what's up for debate right now, is it?"

A long pause followed my utterance and I watched Helga carefully as the faintest of smiles played on her lips. Our eyes were locked on each other—a silent stare-off occurring from either side of the restaurant table. After about a minute of this, I engaged in trying once more to illustrate my point. "Now. Can you honestly say that you weren't the sappiest one out of two of us? Think of how many dramatic and intensely-romantic confessions you've given me over the years."

She seemed to think this over briefly; her eyes shifting upwards as if looking at the ceiling would conjure the memories of her each and every display of feelings she'd given me throughout our lives together.

Holding out her hands, she began to list off moments of our history together on each of her fingers as though they were the capitals to states that she'd had to memorize for a test. "The FTi roof. The crows nest on the boat to San Lorenzo. Oh! There was that time that I confessed everything to you on a voicemail at the boarding house while I was high on laughing gas—"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Nothing," she quickly dismissed and soon moved on with her thought process without giving me a chance to interrogate her further on what she had so casually just mentioned. "In 6th grade there was another one… that time I told you that I wanted to be with you in the official sense, but you had been apparently 'under the impression' that we were already dating."

"That's because we were already dating."

"Well, that's debatable," Helga retorted with a scoff before yet again moving on too quickly for either of us to linger on the details. "Then there was that confession our Junior year. That one was fun."

"Fun? Helga, you're crazy," I told her as the waiter stopped by our table to set down the leather pocketbook that held the bill for our dinner inside. Nodding to him, I reached out to take it while continuing with my sentiment towards what Helga had brought up. "You cornered me at Rhonda's 'Summer Beach Spectacular' party and proceeded to drag me into a closet."

"I did not drag, I invited you—"

"Helga, you grabbed my wrist and demanded that I follow you by yanking me into the mansion. I spilled my punch." I recounted as Helga simply laughed at the memory.

"You were wearing swimming trunks, Arnold. What, your skin not waterproof?" She teased, and I ignored her to go on with my story.

"And when you slammed the door to keep the two of us crammed inside that closet, you slammed it so hard that the doorknob fell off," I reminded her, a light blush coloring the pale flesh of Helga's cheeks as I kept on with the events from years ago. "Of course, you didn't realize that the doorknob had fallen off until after you had given your big confession, which meant that we were trapped in there with our teenage shame until the party ended nearly three hours later."

As if offering me some kind of consolation prize for the traumatic incident, Helga muttered, "At least we didn't die in there, seeing as Eugene had brought a coat to a summer party for some unknown reason."

Opening the billfold to reveal our check, I reached into the pocket of my pants for my wallet and plucked out my credit card. "I think it had something to do with a sunburn," I mumbled while sliding the plastic card into the appropriate slot and closing the billfold. Within moments, our waiter was at our table to collect it so he could run my card and pay for our dinner.

After the waiter had left with my card, Helga held up one hand with her fingers proudly splayed. "Well, if my fingers are correct, that equals a total of only five confessions." She then wiggled her fingers individually while playfully saying, "Read 'em and weep, Hair Boy."

"Why am I weeping, again?" I wondered while gesturing towards the hand she was holding up. "That's four more confessions than I've ever given."

"Ahh, but that one confession happened exactly a year ago, didn't it?" Helga taunted, her mockery going on to say, "and boy, was it a DOOZY!"

Knowing exactly where she was headed with this, my smile faded as I said without emotion, "Helga..."

"You took me out to dinner," she began to tell me as though I had forgotten the events of that day. As if I ever could. "You took me here, to Chez Paris. Little did you know at the time that it was here that we technically had our very first date when we were only nine."

"Okay, you cannot continue to claim that that was a date, Helga," I defended with a slight shake of my head and a narrowing of my eyes. "You gaslit me until we were in our twenties that the 'Cecile' I met that Valentine's Day was some mystery girl that I would never, ever find again."

The waiter soon returned with the familiar leather billfold and a pen which he handed to me for my signature. Taking it, I once again offered him a thankful nod of my head while setting it down and opening it to take out the receipt I needed to sign. Just as I clicked the pen in preparation to endorse the paper, Helga spoke softly.

"You didn't need to find her," she said just above a whisper. "She was around."

A smile spread across my face and I set the pen down so I could reach across the table and take Helga's hand into my own. "I know. You've always been there."

For a moment, the both of us shared a look that was filled with love and adoration that could be unmatched by even the most famous of lovers. It was a look of sincerity, of mutual devotion that could power entire cities with the energy of it. I allowed us to linger in this gaze for a long while before I at last broke eye contact and slowly slid my hand away from Helga's to pick up the pen that I had previously been holding.

Just as the pen returned to my grip, I pulled the receipt closer to me so I could begin signing my signature. As I did so, I said in a firm, yet mocking tone, "It's because you stalked me all throughout elementary school. You were a stalker, Helga. Of course, you've always been there."

Catching onto my humor, Helga gave a lackluster defense. "Okay, true, but at least I told you about it."

"Last year!" I exclaimed mid-laugh as I finished signing my name and set the receipt back into the leather pocketbook. "You can say that my confession was top notch all you want, but it was your addition; your confession-that-you-don't-consider-a-confession, that was the real confession."

Not buying my argument, Helga leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. "It wasn't a confession; it was a response." At my confused stare, Helga soon added, "A confession is in the initiation."

Eyeing her skeptically, I mirrored her pose while asking, "And what does that mean, exactly?"

Unfolding her arms, Helga sat up straight for a second before leaning in towards me over the table and speaking softly as though divulging some kind of salacious secret. "You know. Like if we were in a movie or something, there would be an orchestration lead up that blooms with—you guessed it—a confession." She then leaned up to sit with perfect posture and said confidently, "And since it was you who initiated it with that whole bit about me being a fixture in your life and the universe pushing us together and you were tired of not being with me—"

My mouth curled up into a grin as I interrupted her to state rather than ask, "You remember it in verbatim, don't you?"

"Unimportant," she said instantaneously before continuing as though I hadn't disrupted her at all. "You see, that confession was the bloom of the metaphorical score! My response, as sappy and romantic as it was, doesn't count because it happened during the cool-down of the music. Do you see what I'm saying? It's in the music, Arnoldo."

"The music that isn't real," I described as Helga nodded her head without thought at how ridiculous the notion sounded.

"Right."

"Okay," I let her have the win so I could come in with, what I had hoped would be the final word on what started this entire conversation. "But you do realize that you just admitted you were sappy. Just now, you said that."

Without so much as a blink, Helga responded, "No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did," I argued before leaning forward myself to tell her from across the table, "You said, and I quote, 'my response, as sappy and romantic as it was…'" I waited for acknowledgement at what I'd so perfectly played as if we were each showing our final hands in a wild game of poker. "By saying that, you admit that you are, indeed, sappy."

Not giving me any satisfaction in my obvious victory, Helga shrugged her shoulders calmly. "Sure. I'll admit that. I'm sappy."

Once again, I waited for my big 'gotchya!' moment, but it never came. After a few beats of awkward silence, I decided to voice my victory. "So, I win then."

"Oh, ho, ho," Helga let out a laugh while waving her hands in front of herself to stop me. "Absolutely not, Shortman." Sensing my confusion, Helga explained herself. "You see, the debate was never if I was sappy. I think it's pretty obvious that I'm a sappy human being. Unfortunately for you, the original argument was who was the sappiest, and that, my sweet, good-hearted, football-headed love-god, that's you."

I looked at her incredulously at the statement she'd just given me complete with what may be one of the sappiest statements ever voiced aloud in a public place. "Oh, c'mon! All of that and it's somehow still me who's the sappiest?"

"You called me an angel," Helga reminded me.

Raising my brow, I reminded her of the words that she had just spoken. "And you just called me a love-god. Among other things."

The candle that flickered between us on the table at Chez Paris was the only movement around us. As we'd paid our bill, the waiter left us alone to sit and stare at one another in a staring contest that could go down as one of our most intense yet.

Finally, it was Helga who broke at long last to say, "Alright. So, maybe we're both sappy. I'm really sappy and you're super sappy, but neither of us is more sappy than the other." She waited momentarily to be sure my facial expression told her that I understood what she was saying. Just to be sure, Helga verbalized, "You got that bucko?"

With a satisfied smile and a softening of my gaze, I simply said, "Whatever you say, Helga."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time we left the restaurant, the sky had deepened into a soft navy-blue. The light from the moon above helped to light the cement of the sidewalk we followed in the direction of our apartment complex that was located only a few blocks down the road.

With Helga's arm wrapped securely in mine as though I were escorting her somewhere important, both her mind and eyes were far away—her attention fixated upward on the night sky and the pinholes of light that rained down on us in a drizzle of illumination.

"I think if I hadn't gotten into writing, I might have liked to be an astronomer," Helga noted while continuing to look up passed the roofs of the many buildings that made up Hillwood. "I always thought that stars were fascinating."

"Why is that?" I questioned while glancing over to her, though she didn't turn to look my way as she answered.

"I don't know," she mused while concentrating on articulating whatever it was that she felt when looking up and out towards space. "I guess I just think it's kinda neat how there are potentially billions of stars we can't even see because they're so far away that their light hasn't even hit us yet." She shook her head at the concept before blinking her attention away. "That's just crazy."

"Are you saying that your mission, if you were an astronomer, would be to try and discover the stars that were so far away, light itself hasn't even caught up to us yet?" I assumed, and Helga sighed as though unsatisfied with my interpretation of what she'd told me.

"I'd just like to get a closer view," she said. "They're so far away. They're out of touch. Don't you think that stars like attention too?"

"I think that stars are just stars," I replied flatly. "They're just really hot balls of gas that emit light."

"Maybe in the scientifical sense they are," Helga stopped us from continuing our walk and turned to face me. "Just be that dumb, dreamy footballhead that we all know and love for two seconds here, okay?"

At her instruction, I huffed out a breath and grinned while shutting my eyes and trying to follow what Helga was saying. "Okay. I'm ready."

"Imagine you're a star," she told me as I envisioned myself floating out in a vast abyss of space just above the Earth below. "Imagine all the other stars that are around you, all while knowing that you are just one of many, many, many, immeasurable amounts of stars. Kind of like people on the Earth or grains of sand."

"Okay…"

"And there you are," she went on in a soothing voice, "floating out there in space while all your other friends shine brighter than you because they're just a little bit closer to the action than you are. But that doesn't mean you don't exist, right? You still want to be seen, to… to spread your light and brighten some little kid's life with a wish or whatever."

Opening one of my eyes, I looked at Helga with a tiny upturn of my lips, "Is that how wishes work, then, Miss Astronomer?"

"Shut it," she insisted before returning to entwine her arm with mine and pulled me to follow her in our walk home. "I just would want to see them. Hell, I'd be happy at this point if I could see the stars we can see with the naked eye."

"What do you mean?" I wondered aloud and Helga gestured up to the buildings that surrounded us.

"All these tall skyscrapers… they're in the way." She noted while letting out a heavy sigh. "I wish we could just… demolish them all for a second so we could see the sky."

Triggering a memory that I'd all but forgotten, an idea popped into my head. Moving to unfurl our arms and instead take Helga's hand, I began pulling her to follow me off course from the direction of our apartment. Without so much as a question, Helga followed blindly behind me; her trust in me so strong that it didn't matter where it was that we were headed. As Gerald had once told me years ago on a bus to nowhere: the journey is the destination.

Approaching a tall and abandoned old building, I looked up towards the roof as Helga stared at me with a furrowed brow. "So, what's the plan, Maestro? Something here worth seeing?"

Pointing towards the structure, I said, "Do you remember when we went to the boarding house the other day for dinner?"

Lifting her shoulders for a moment, she soon dropped them while shaking her head. "I mean, I guess so. Why?"

"Ernie had mentioned that he had a big demolition project coming up on this block. And that—" I pointed up to the building once more, "—is the demolition project. This building is abandoned and…" I tugged at her arm as we made our way towards the door that had once been an entrance. "I happen to know that it's unlocked and has access to the roof."

Catching on to what I was suggesting, Helga beamed at me before nodding her head rapidly. "What are we waiting for?" She asked, and the two of us took off to enter the musty building and begin our ascent up the flights of stairs leading to the roof.

Reaching the last of the stairs, the both of us stood before a set of double-doors labeled, 'Roof Access, Authorized Personnel ONLY.' Throwing caution to the wind, we pushed on the long metal bar that acted as a doorknob and made our way onto the open rooftop that revealed the plethora of stars shining brightly above us.

Slowly, Helga walked across the length of the roof until she reached the edge where she rested her body against the cement railing while looking up. Following behind her, I too leaned against the wall prohibiting an accidental fall; my eyes focused on something far more beautiful than a starlit sky.

My line of vision consisted only of Helga as she stood marveling up at the stars while I marveled over her. The way her eyes twinkled up in wonder at the stars was a beauty that even the best of photographers could never capture in one image alone. That twinkle which lived in her sapphire eyes was a star of its own; reflecting back the light which rained down on her and bathed her silhouette in a pale beam of unfiltered light.

She was beautiful; a beauty that writers couldn't describe, and artists couldn't paint. Helga's was a beauty that radiated from the inside out, though her exterior may appear hard at first glance. I was mystified by her, intrigued by her, and completely entranced by her.

How could I have waited so long to allow myself to be so in love?

"You've always been a star to me," Helga said out of the blue, her words forcing me to return to the present as she spoke up to the sky; her words directed at me. "You were this one bright spot in my life while we were growing up, but you were always so… so unattainable. You seemed so far away from ever truly being mine, as much as I may have wanted."

I listened intently as she talked, my ears hungry for her every sentence that I hung upon.

"And then the trip to San Lorenzo happened," she recalled with a fond smile. "You felt closer after all of that. You were closer like how the brightest of all the stars in the sky is closest to the Earth. Your light shined so brilliantly, that you were always the first one I could find among all of the others. Even so… you still felt light-years away. Too far away. A distant dream that I desperately wanted to return to but knew that I never could."

"Helga—" I tried, though she held her hand up to stop me while continuing to speak to the stars, though delivering a message straight to me.

"As we dated, and didn't date, merged from friends to enemies and back—"

"We were never enemies," I interrupted, and for the first time since she'd began talking, Helga turned to look at me from over her shoulder. "At least… not to me. I never saw you as an enemy."

Taking a beat to process what I'd said, Helga set her sights back on the sky to follow through with her thoughts. "You were still always there," she explained as if I hadn't spoken at all. "You were always shining—the brightest star in the sky. It wasn't until we started talking again a few years ago that I realized you were never a star."

Caught completely off-guard, I asked, "Is that an insult?"

"No," Helga cooly said as she pushed herself away from the cement wall and turned to face me full-on. "Absolutely not. You weren't a star because you were a satellite. My own, personal satellite." She took a few steps towards me as she went on. "You were always there, right by my side, through thick and thin. Even when we weren't together, you were still around. It's just that you were a little... well, a little out of reach."

Outstretching my arm to offer Helga my hand, she took it without hesitation and at last allowed me to voice my thoughts in response to what she'd said. "I hope you don't feel like I'm out of reach anymore," I told her thoughtfully while pulling her into my embrace and looking deeply into her crystal-cool pools of blue. "I'll always be right here. You don't have to see me as some faraway light in the sky, anymore."

"I know," she responded while resting her hands up on either of my shoulders. At her touch, my hands instinctively moved to gently take up residence on her waist. "You finally came down to Earth and out of that giant, freakishly-shaped head of yours. And for that… I love you, Arnold."

My left hand raised from her waist to softly brush my fingers against her cheek; Helga's eyes fluttering closed as she nestled into my touch. "I love you too, Helga."

We remained like this, basking in each other under the tranquility of the moon's delicate lighting for a good minute. After allowing myself to get lost in all that is Helga, I dropped my hand from her face which in turn cued her to open her eyes and look at me with silent confusion.

"So, a satellite, huh?" I repeated her description of me back to her as she looked up with me with an amused expression. "I'm just a satellite that revolves around you?"

"I'm your satellite too, football-face." Nodding in mock contempt at her nickname, Helga went further to say, "We... revolve around each other."

My eyes lit up at her observation. "I love that," I expressed while leaning in to lightly peck her lips. "And I love you," once again I dipped in to brush my lips against hers only to pull back and give her a sad, almost guilty look. "But I have to be the bad guy here and bring something to your attention."

Leaning away and taking a single step back from me, Helga folded her arms loosely across her chest. "Oh yeah? And what's that?" She was challenging me, and with an unruly grin, I merely lifted my hands to hold up six fingers.

"That, right there… the whole, 'satellite versus star' thing…" I shrugged my shoulders while wiggling my fingers one by one. "That was your sixth confession, so—"

"Arnold," Helga attempted to halt me, but I was already off and by all counts, unstoppable.

"—that means that you've officially given FIVE MORE—" I pressed on, my voice growing louder to try and talk over Helga who was trying to out-voice me with her own arguments.

"—that was not a confession, Hair Boy!" She guffawed, before reaching out to grab at my hands and push them down playfully as if it would silence me from my point.

It didn't.

"That's FIVE MORE confessions than me, Helga," I finalized with a confident raise of my brow. "Admit it. You're the sappiest. It's you."

Adding yet another stare-down to our anniversary night, this was one that would go down in the books as potentially the longest we had shared to date. I could tell from the way Helga glared at me that she didn't want to give up, she wasn't willing to give up, but a glint in her eye said otherwise. What had to be nearly three minutes of solid silence ended with a dramatic huff from Helga.

"Fine," she admitted with a tone of defeat, though her eyes kept their impish glimmer. "I'm the sappiest. Okay? Are you happy now, Arnold?"

Helga found her way back into my arms, her back resting against my chest as I enveloped her in my arms while we both gazed up at the stars. Planting a kiss on her head, I mumbled my answer into her silky, smooth hair.

"Blissfully."

#shortakiweek #shortaki week #shortaki #day 3 #satellite #heyarnold #hey arnold #hey arnold the jungle movie #tjm #the jungle movie #helga g pataki #helga x arnold #arnold shortman #fanfic #fanfiction

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blackfreethinkers · 4 years

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By Kwame Anthony AppiahOct. 7, 2020

How Black is Kamala Harris? That the question gets posed speaks to the ill-defined contours of an ill-defined concept. Ms. Harris, the daughter of an Indian-born mother and a Jamaican-born father, has been called in the media “half Black,” “biracial,” “mixed race” and “Blasian.” In online posts, people have ventured that she’s “partly Black” or — for having attended Howard University, a historically Black school — an “honorary full Black.” Others persist in asking whether she’s “Black enough.”

The old British concept of “political Blackness,” the heyday of which stretched from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, would make nonsense of such questions in a very immediate way: Ms. Harris’s mother, by this definition, is just as Black as her father. For proponents of political Blackness, “Black” was an umbrella term that encompassed minorities with family origins in Asia and the Middle East as well as in Africa and its diaspora. That’s not to say it was the sturdiest of umbrellas: It was never uncontested. Yet it may have lessons for us today.

In Britain, anyway, its legacy remains legible. Three years ago, in a public-awareness campaign designed to increase voter turnout among British minorities (“Operation Black Vote”), Riz Ahmed, a British actor and rapper of Pakistani parentage, appeared on a video. “Blacks don’t vote,” he said. “And by Black people, I mean ethnic minorities of all backgrounds.” The year before, the student union at the University of Kent attracted attention when it promoted Black History Month with the faces of six famous figures: Alongside four British people of African descent, it posted two of Pakistani heritage — the pop star Zayn Malik and Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London.

During its roughly two decades of prominence, the political Blackness movement, taking note of how Britishness had routinely been equated with whiteness, was especially devoted to the “Afro-Asian” alliance. (In Britain, the term “Asian” defaults to South Asian.) During the 1980s, the movement’s inclusive usage of “Black” went mainstream in Britain. The Commission for Racial Equality, a public body established in 1976, decided that “Asian” would be a subcategory of “Black”; other such organizations followed suit. The bien-pensant among the children of empire started styling themselves as Black, whether or not they had sub-Saharan ancestors.

Of course, this broadened sense of “Black” wasn’t exactly a novelty. Malcolm X, in a speech from 1964, heralded Black revolutionaries around the world and explained: “When I say Black, I mean nonwhite. Black, brown, red, or yellow.” Anyone who had been colonized or exploited by the Europeans qualified. And Malcolm X, in turn, was drawing on an internationalist tradition captured six decades earlier by W.E.B. Du Bois. “The problem of the 20th century,” he wrote, “is the problem of the color line; the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.”

In Britain, this capacious usage of “Black” scanted the enormous differences among the nation’s nonwhite minorities. But that was exactly its point, and its power. The great cultural theorist Stuart Hall — you could see this elegant figure on British television in those days, with his close-cropped beard and well-fitted blazers, lecturing for the Open University — was always warning against the way “race” presented itself as a natural fact about human beings. Using “Black” as an umbrella term, he felt, would weaken such illusions: It would helpfully emphasize the “immense diversity and differentiation of the historical and cultural experience of black subjects.”

In an influential 1988 essay on “black cultural politics,” for example, Mr. Hall celebrated a film by John Akomfrah, whose father (like mine) had been a Ghanaian politician. Yet he also cited the writer Hanif Kureishi’s two collaborations with the director Stephen Frears, “My Beautiful Laundrette” and “Sammy and Rosie Get Laid,” as significant contributions to Black cinema. That neither Mr. Kureishi nor Mr. Frears was of African descent didn’t make the work less Black.

Only such an inclusive conception of Blackness, proponents maintained, could effectively counter an exclusive conception of Britishness. Ambalavaner Sivanandan, a political thinker and the longtime director of the London-based Institute of Race Relations, saw strategic benefits in “the forging of black as a common color of colonial and racist exploitation.” As a young man in the late 1950s, Siva, as he was known to his friends, left behind the ethnic strife of Sri Lanka and went to London, only to witness attacks by white youth on West Indians in the Notting Hill neighborhood. “I knew then I was black,” he would write.

Opponents of political Blackness tended to suspect that Asians were being forced into a template set by Afro-Caribbeans. In the early 1990s, the sociologist Tariq Modood cited a survey that suggested only a third of British Asians identified as Black, and argued that Asians suffered more from racial prejudice in British society than people of African descent did. White working-class youth were drawn to Afro-Caribbean culture, he said, while turning against Asians. It galled him, too, to see anti-racist programs focused on Afro-Caribbeans when most non-white British people were Asian.

And there’s no doubt that the social reality on the street didn’t always harmonize with the high-minded aspirations to shared struggle. Claire Alexander, a sociologist at the University of Manchester, has dryly recalled that when she did fieldwork in the late 1980s about how Black British youth created their cultural identities, “one of my main informants, Darnell, commented, laughing, ‘you know, Claire, Blacks and Asians don’t get on.’”

Yet the various criticisms of political Blackness presented quandaries of their own. Sure, the umbrella concept didn’t give voice to all the differences it encompassed, but it wasn’t meant to supplant the many other sources of identity in people’s lives. Besides, a term like “Asian” itself ignored the immense internal diversity of the group it designated. Among British Asians, Sikhs and Hindus didn’t vote the way Muslims did. Islamophobia targeted Asians but was also promulgated by Asians.

Mr. Hall, warning against the fiction that “all black people are the same,” had no illusions that Afro-Caribbeans were a cohesive group, either. When he was growing up in Jamaica, he recalled, nobody was ever called “black,” but colorism — prejudice against those with a dark skin tone — was rampant: His grandmother could distinguish 15 hues of brown. Social groups, he knew, are fractal. By the logic of culture, creed, color or kinship, you could always split them into smaller groups. So why not lump them into larger ones, too?

In Britain today, the arguments for splitting and lumping — for specificity and commonality — remain unresolved. The Black Students’ Campaign, the largest organization of nonwhite students in Britain and Europe, represents students of Asian and Arab heritage as well as those of Caribbean and African descent. A few years ago, chastened by critics of the “Black” umbrella, the organization decided that it needed a new name and asked members for suggestions.

Those Black History Month posts at the University of Kent certainly came under fire for including people of Pakistani heritage. “Ill-thought and misdirected” was an institutional tweet from Black History Month UK. The Kent student union “unreservedly” apologized on its Facebook page. The offending faces were purged.

When Riz Ahmed appeared in the public service announcement for Operation Black Vote, some people were eager to see his face purged, too. The journalist Yomi Adegoke remarked, “When I’m followed around in an Afro-Caribbean hair shop or newsagent, an Asian vendor forgets all about political blackness and becomes far more occupied with blackness-blackness.”

But there have been voices for lumping, too. “As children in the 1980s,” Mr. Ahmed wrote somberly, “when my brother and I were stopped near our home by a skinhead who decided to put a knife to my brother’s throat, we were black.” Emma Dabiri, an author and broadcaster (“Irish-Nigerian” is how she designates herself), recently called for “the identification of affinities and points of shared interest beyond categories that were invented to divide us.” And, as it happens, the Black Students’ Campaign never found a replacement for “Black,” and the group still includes Arabs and Asians.

There’s a reason that “political Blackness” never gained much purchase in the United States. In Britain, what matters most is whether or not you’re white; in America, what matters most is whether or not you’re Black.

Still, in the United States today, similar debates roil over “people of color” and the acronym now in favor, BIPOC (for Black, Indigenous and people of color). Does such nomenclature suggest that all nonwhite people are interchangeable? Indian-Americans have a household income that’s two-thirds higher than the national median; for Black people, it’s a third lower. Should these groups share an umbrella? Does the language of generality blunt the sharp analysis of racial disparities we need?

Damon Young, the author of the memoir “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker,” calls “people of color” a “valueless catchall that extinguishes identity instead of amplifying it.” Jason Parham, in Wired, has dismissed “people of color” as an “idiomatic casserole of cultures and identities.” If you mean Black people, say Black people, such critics argue. And they have a point.

The hitch is that the term “Black people,” too, is a casserole of cultures and identities. Anti-Black racism can be a useful concept. But it’s equally an umbrella, casting its shade over the fact that in socioeconomic terms, British Caribbean immigrants and their children and grandchildren in the United States have fared better than “native” African-Americans and that those from the French- and Spanish-speaking Caribbean have fared worse. It also obscures the fact that colorism, even within Black America, can entail another set of disparities in treatment.

And while some African-American critics think “people of color” is hopelessly expansive, others think the same of “African-American.” The political movement ADOS, which stands for American Descendants of Slavery, wants to establish what it considers a properly “cohesive” notion of Black identity, fencing out people like Barack Obama and Kamala Harris as “New Black” usurpers of a native lineage of suffering. (For some of those who take Blackness as a badge of dispossession, Ms. Harris’s father’s elite education makes him a suspect member of the Jamaican comprador bourgeoisie.) Every tribe, it’s clear, contains other tribes. It’s umbrellas all the way down.

Reflecting on political Blackness, then, should encourage us to retrain some of our reflexes. The identity group that we invoke should be “right-sized” to our needs and aims. Sometimes we’ll want to contract a category for purposes of analysis; sometimes we’ll have reason to expand a category for purposes of solidarity. Indeed, if the context is white nationalism and the anxieties of membership in an eroding demographic majority, “people of color” may be an invaluable analytic term. The salient distinction there is between white and nonwhite.

What about the ADOS movement? If ADOS activists flounder — they have fixed their gaze on slavery reparations and are intent that the wrong people don’t get in on the action — it will be because their certain-Black-lives-matter-more approach proves politically misjudged. An ambitious goal like reparations may require broad support, and in turn a broad conception of “Black.” Skeptics might think that, as with the prospectors and fortune hunters of “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” ADOS’s determination to keep the rewards for themselves imperils the chances of anyone getting them.

But let’s say you’re concerned about colorism. You might have been among those who were indignant when Zoe Saldana, a light-skinned Black woman, was cast in a biopic about Nina Simone, a dark-skinned Black woman. To talk about such prejudice, you’ll have to insist on one of the ways in which all Black people aren’t alike. You’ll have to split rather than lump.

Getting the identity aperture wrong — drawing a circle that’s too wide or too narrow, given our agenda — can lead to confusion or futility. When we’re told that about a third of Latinos support President Trump, should we wonder whether something has gone terribly wrong with Joe Biden’s ethnic outreach? Or should we wonder whether a demographic category that suggests a similarity of interests between Ted Cruz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may — for these purposes, anyway — be eliding distinctions that matter more?

For these purposes is always the crucial qualifier. One’s purposes can involve coalition politics, cultural interpretation or socioeconomic precision. The point is that none of these identity terms is stenciled by the brute facts of the social world; rather, they stencil themselves upon the social world. Each is invariably a decision — a decision made jointly with others — that arises from our interests and objectives. You don’t like the available identity options? Start a movement; you may be able to change them.

By the cultural logic, or illogic, of race, Kamala Harris, like Barack Obama, counts both as biracial and as Black. Among major-party vice-presidential candidates, she qualifies as the first Asian-American, the first Indian-American, the first African-American, the first woman of color. Identities, of course, are multiple, interactive and, yes, subject to revision. As the architects of political Blackness rightly insisted, collective identities are always the subject of contestation and negotiation.

Political Blackness may have had its day, but we’re still coming to grips with its central insight: Blackness, like whiteness, has never not been political.

#politics and government

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jtsodergren · 4 years

Text

The Best of 2019

2019, what an exceptional year for movies! A great way to close out the shittiest decade! Here are the 50 best films I saw this year... click on the title to go to the IMDB page, and I’ll try to post a link to where you can see many of them. Also for the first time this year, I’m including MOM WARNINGS! My mom reads this list and sometimes actually watches these movies... so to save her some grief, sadness, or general concern for my psyche, there will be a NOT FOR MOMS!! warning where applicable... here we go!

50. STAR WARS - EPISODE IX: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (Amazon)

People really hated this movie... I actually really liked it! Aside from the horses running around on the outside of spaceships (which makes no fucking sense... didn’t Leia get all space frozen exactly one movie ago??), it was a satisfying conclusion to a franchise I guess I don’t really care about as much as other people, so I was into it!

49. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM (Amazon)

Quickly becoming one of the more well produced action franchises of all time. Probably two too many machine gun shootouts in this one for me (I get a little exhausted with gun violence), but the hand-to-hand stuff is brilliant and bloody and badass! Not to mention the deepening of the mythology and Halle Berry and her dogs. It’s a fun time, a welcome addition to the series, and I can’t wait for number 4.

48. QUEEN & SLIM (Amazon)

Billed as the black BONNIE AND CLYDE and from first time feature director Melina Matsoukas, this atmospheric tragedy is gorgeous to look at, delivers a pair of standout lead performances, and proves to have one of the more stressful final 30min of any of the films I saw this year, even if you know the inevitable conclusion is just around the corner.

47. UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (Amazon PRIME)

A wild Los Angeles noir story from the director of IT FOLLOWS. Plays like if David Lynch directed THE BIG LEBOWSKI, a weird, screwball whodunit. It’s a little long, and there are so many loose ends that seem to be thrown in just to fuck with the protagonist (and the audience), but it’s a really fun time and you’ll want to stay to the end to see it all play out. LA looks gorgeous too.

46. KNOCK DOWN THE HOUSE (Netflix)

Truly inspiring. Really shows how if you put your mind to something, believe in yourself and that you can make a difference, you can accomplish anything. Regardless of your political leanings, or how you feel about AOC personally, this is well worth your time and it has a great message for young people, especially those young women of color who might not think they can achieve great levels of success. It made me cry the happy tears.

45. LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (Amazon)

Best known for it’s remarkable 59min-3D final take, this hallucinatory journey through memory and dreams is mind-blowing and breathtaking. Hard not to leave this one feeling like you’ve been put though some kind of experiment that you don’t fully understand, but you’ll want to experience again. Highly recommended if you have access to 3D, or simply have some killer edibles and want to be thrown for a loop.

44. CLIMAX (Amazon PRIME)

NOT FOR MOMS!!

Speaking of being under the influence, holy shit is this film nuts! From Gaspar Noe, who if you’re aware of his work, you kind of already know what you’re in store for here. It’s been described as “FAME directed by the Marquis de Sade”... incredible dance sequences and audacious camerawork that slowly but surely devolves into hell. It’s a blast!

43. HAIL SATAN? (Hulu)

A fresh and funny documentary about a group of smartass Satanists exposing the hypocrisy amongst bible-thumping Christians who’d rather stomp their feet and be the loudest in the room than listen to anyone else’s perspective. Frustrating and entertaining in equal parts, this compulsively watchable film makes you want to scream at these Jesus freaks as much as you want to laugh along with the antics of these harmless, intelligent and organized troublemakers. An excellent time well spent.

42. FIRST LOVE (Amazon)

(Probably) NOT FOR MOMS!!

Director Takashi Miike’s yakuza action-comedy is the most accessible of his films I’ve seen (he’s now made more than 100 movies, which is insane), but that doesn’t mean it’s not a gonzo wild time at the movies. The violence is here in full force, but unlike AUDITION or ICHI THE KILLER, you don’t need a barf bag close by to enjoy it. It’s often hilarious and moves at a breakneck speed. Super fun!

41. THE DEAD DON’T DIE (Amazon PRIME)

Jim Jarmusch’s star-studded, droll zombie-comedy came and went from theaters without much fanfare, but provided me with plenty of laughs. It’s also the second of 3 Adam Driver vehicles to be on this year’s list. Bill Murray and Driver lead the way along with plenty familiar faces in cameos throughout (including the RZA in one of my favorite scene’s of the year). Classic Jarmusch... a meditation on death and mortality in his vintage style.

40. EL CAMINO: A BREAKING BAD MOVIE (Netflix)

Dude, Aaron Paul is a legit GREAT actor. Picks up right where the show left off, and I was on the edge of my seat and filled with anxiety just like I was during the best moments of the now classic series. It was good to hang out with my old friends again.

39. DOCTOR SLEEP (Amazon)

A box office flop due to poor promotion and a title people weren’t familiar with, this sequel to THE SHINING is based on the Stephen King book of the same name, which I read, and I can’t recommend it more. Great suspense, and fantastic performances from both Ewan McGregor and (especially) Rebecca Ferguson. It’s a dark and scary film that is a fun trip back to the Overlook Hotel... provided you wish to return there...

38. THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO (Amazon PRIME)

About 90min into this beautifully shot film I was ready to lock it in as a possible Top 5 contender. Then the bottom fell out for me the last quarter of the movie and lost my confidence. No bother, it’s still wonderful enough to find a spot on the list and carry my recommendation. Young men and women watching their city change before their eyes, and wondering what the concept of “home” really means is a real challenge facing many people here in the Bay Area. This film does a fantastic job conveying that, for most of the film anyway.

37. THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (Amazon)

A bonafide crown-pleaser of a movie, and another example of the true talent Shia LeBeouf has and is capable of (more on him later). A young man with Down Syndrome escapes his assisted-living facility to track down his wrestling idol the Saltwater Redneck with the help of an outlaw and a social worker. Sweet, funny, and heartfelt... a feel good surprise.

36. A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD (Amazon)

I didn’t cry nearly as much as I did during the excellent documentary WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR from last year, but if you’re a Mr. Rogers fan, you’ll still shed a few during this heartwarming film. Tom Hanks does his thing, and even though this movie is guilty of borrowing a little too much from the previous doc, it’s still a great showcase for the truly selfless and beautiful force of nature that Fred Rogers was. Bring tissues anyway.

35. CARMINE STREET GUITARS (In Theaters Now)

A love letter to both New York City and the art, joy, and love that goes into honing and maintaining one’s craft. Meanwhile the looming doom of gentrification hovers over the proceedings, never letting you get fully enrapt in the sweetness that these artists (and their many famous customers) exude when talking about and playing their one-of-a-kind works of art. A stunning and lovely piece for musicians and talentless fans of music alike.

34. HOLIDAY (Amazon)

NOT FOR MOMS!!

A tough, cold film with nary a character to actively root for... until after about an hour of icy behavior comes (no pun intended) a scene so shocking in its graphic and disturbing nature, people left the theater without staying for the final resolution. First time director Isabella Eklof pulls off the bold and audacious maneuver, all while making it seem like she doesn’t care whether you like her characters (or her film) at all. It’s a very fine balancing act, executed to perfection. But be warned... it’s rough.

33. AVENGERS: ENDGAME (Disney+)

What can I say? You saw it. It’s good. A bunch of Supermans fly around and blow shit up. A satisfying end (until the next 20 films).

32. MIDSOMMAR (Amazon Prime)

NOT FOR MOMS!!

A disturbing slow burn of a gothic horror film. Characters do hallucinogens while ritualistic religious murders and tribal mating practices threaten to ruin everyones existence. Florence Pugh is phenomenal (more from her in a minute) in a very trying roll. Doesn’t pack quite the punch of the director’s last film, HEREDITARY, but it’s still well worth the watch. But yeah, it’s disturbing.

31. APOLLO 11 (Hulu)

A fascinating look at the first moon landing from rarely seen archival footage and audio. Seeing it on the IMAX screen was intense and exhilarating, unlike narrative pictures like the severely overrated FIRST MAN. This isn’t my favorite documentary of the year, but it is an absolute lock to win the Academy Award for Best Doc of 2019. It’s a must see, a must experience.

30. HIGH LIFE (Amazon PRIME)

NOT FOR MOMS!!

French auteur Claire Denis’ bizarre, erotic sci-fi mindfuck about isolation and humanity is not for everyone, but is a brilliant take on the genre, and is yet another showcase for Robert Pattinson, who is quietly becoming one of my favorite working actors. Juliette Binoche also is on fire here and has what one critic calls “the single greatest one-person sex scene in the history of cinema.” So it has that going for it.

29. TRIPLE FRONTIER (Netflix)

A fully loaded heist film with no real bad guy, but instead a group of recognizable badasses in a Netflix-released action thrill ride. There’s absolutely no reason this should’ve worked, or even been half as good as it is, but boy is it good! Compulsively watchable, and rewatchable. If this were on Showtime as much as DEN OF THIEVES is I’d have seen it 30 times by now. It’s one of the most pleasant surprises of the year.

28. 1917 (Amazon)

An unbelievable visual achievement from cinematographer Roger Deakins and director Sam Mendes. The story isn’t the greatest war story ever told (are there great war stories?), but it’s shot to look like one continuous long take, sustained for 2hrs. It’s really an unbelievable feat, but doesn’t come off as gimmicky or distracting. It’s intense, beautifully staged, and sad. A big screen spectacle.

27. TOY STORY 4 (Amazon)

Woody and the gang are back, and the films continue to keep the dust from collecting. It’s still so much fun to hang out with this group of misfit toys. There was talk that after the incredible TOY STORY 3 this was just a money grab and was labeled unnecessary, but I found it to be a sweet, charming, and nostalgic trip I was glad I took.

26. HONEYLAND (Hulu)

My pick for documentary of the year comes from the mountains of Macedonia, where a woman named Hatidze lives with her dying mother making a living cultivating honey. When a family of shitheads moves into a shanty next door, what seems like a fix for her lonely existence becomes catastrophic as they disregard her teachings and threaten her livelihood. I was an emotional wreck throughout the experience and it goes without saying it’s a must-see. Gorgeous and heartbreaking.

25. LITTLE WOMEN (Amazon)

I have never read the book, nor seen any of the film adaptations, so I went in blind to this lovely film. Director Greta Gerwig follows up the phenomenal LADYBIRD with this Altman-esque rendition of the widely beloved literary classic. I found it exceptional in its execution and performances, including the previously mentioned Florence Pugh, who is a knockout. A wonderful addition to the ever-growing stable of Christmas films I look to enjoy during future Decembers.

24. GREENER GRASS (Hulu)

It’s as if Tim & Eric made BLUE VELVET. Bizarre, outrageous, gross, and a guaranteed future midnight movie favorite. My sides hurt. A satire skewering upper-middle class suburban soccer moms and dads alike. Babies are given away. A boy turns into a dog. Everyone has braces. There’s a creep on the loose. It’s wild and flat-out hilarious literally from start to finish. Almost too many jokes to keep up with. Watch it! Bring weed.

23. RELAXER (Amazon)

NOT FOR MOMS!!

Speaking of gross, this film is disgusting, but in a good way. A satire about lazy consumerism and self-destruction. It’s a short hang, thankfully, but if you can stomach it to the end (remember, it’s nasty) you’ll be rewarded with not only a hilarious dark comedy, but also an unexpected haymaker of sadness you didn’t see coming. It’s a pretty impressive feat, and an overall success. But, yeah, it’s fucking gross.

22. AD ASTRA (Amazon)

APOCALYPSE NOW in space starring Brad Pitt. If you need more information than that, I don’t really know what else to do for you.

21. SLUT IN A GOOD WAY (Amazon PRIME)

(Probably) NOT FOR MOMS!!

A black-and-white raunchy French arthouse teen comedy that gives a middle finger to the double standard set by the equally raunchy teen-boys-will-be-boys genre. It’s so much fun, and honest, and the actors are such natural talents you forget the subject matter is at times shocking (only because of said double standard) and just go with it. I think it’s just wonderful. Seek it out!

20. US (HBO)

Jordan Peele’s excellent follow-up to GET OUT. Doppelganger home invasion terror with a killer twist. To describe more would be to risk giving something away. I’ll just say that Lupita Nyong’o is my pick to win her second Oscar, this time as Best Actress, here in a dual role. She’s incredible. If you haven’t seen it, try to go in blind, you’ll be rewarded.

19. THE FAREWELL (Amazon PRIME)

A heartfelt homecoming film about family, culture, and how the things we don’t say can be just as strong of a show of love as the things we do say. It’s sweet, tender, and bursting with personal flare and emotions from director Lulu Wang. Awkwafina also curbs her more manic and loud tendencies as a performer for more quiet, thoughtful, and somber choices. She’s phenomenal.

18. KNIVES OUT (Amazon)

A clever ensemble whodunit that’s just as funny and smart as it is mysterious. Everyone across the board delivers as the assorted motley crew. The film rewards repeat viewings and Daniel Craig knocks it out of the park, stealing every scene he’s in, reminding us all what a fantastic actor he can be when he’s not sipping the Vespers.

17. BOOKSMART (Hulu)

The female SUPERBAD is the elevator pitch, but this coming-of-age gem is really unlike any other example in the genre. They’re privileged, uber-smart, and have never partied. Yet they have the same neuroses as any other teen scared to death of what to do next or how to be normal. It’s also fucking hilarious. You wanna hang out with these girls and at the same time bury your head under the covers because you feel their pure terror/embarrassment. It’s a blast.

16. THE MUSTANG (Amazon)

Starring Matthias Schoenaerts, one of the finest actor’s working today, this understated and emotional drama about rehabilitation and redemption floored me upon first viewing. It is a gorgeous film. You’ve probably seen stories similar to this before, but rarely is one told with such compelling conviction. A borderline masterpiece.

15. HONEY BOY (Amazon PRIME)

Remember a few years back we had the McConaissance, where everything Matthew McConaughey did was solid gold after years of middling bullshit? I’m calling it right now: Shia LaBeouf is about to have the same thing. He wrote the script and plays a version of his own father in a brutal version of his own fucked up childhood as an up-and-coming child actor. It’s heartbreaking and absolutely riveting. I’m hoping he gets an Oscar nod, but regardless I implore you to seek this film out, he’s incredible.

14. MONOS (Hulu)

(Probably) NOT FOR MOMS!!

A bizarre, bewildering, chaotic, and unsettling film. Some of the most beautiful photography I saw on the big screen this year, yet some of the most surreal and disturbing imagery as well. It’s a militarized, Latin American LORD OF THE FLIES with commentary on tribal behavior and violence. It can be a tough sit, but boy is it beautiful.

13. DOLEMITE IS MY NAME (Netflix)

What a wonderful, welcome surprise! Eddie Murphy in an awards caliber performance as Rudy Ray Moore, the multi-hyphenate performer who created the alter ego Dolemite, spawning a film franchise and many legendary comedy albums. It’s obviously hilarious, and a great behind-the-scenes biopic, but also shockingly sweet and heartfelt, even between all the cuss words. I even teared up a couple times. The 3rd best thing Netflix released this year (more on that in a minute).

12. JOKER (Amazon)

You already saw this.

11. THE IRISHMAN (Netflix)

It’s far too long. It could’ve done with being cut as a three part miniseries or special. There’s about 45min worth of scenes that are quintessential DVD bonus features (I’m looking at you Action Bronson), but goddamn if it’s not Scorsese doing his Scorsese thing. It’s a gangster film, but it’s also a meditation on aging and death. Pesci is incredible and Pacino steals the show. Sure, the de-aging thing is distracting, the curb stomping scene is embarrassing. But still, I mean... IT’S MARTIN SCORSESE!

10. PAIN AND GLORY (Amazon)

Pedro Almodovar’s most personal work to date, a tale about making art and the loneliness of love. If you are unfamiliar with his work, this is a great jumping off point. His movies can be challenging and dark, but this film has such joy and hope amongst the heartache. The final reveal, while not earth shattering on paper, is nonetheless so moving it left the screening I attended without a dry eye in the place. It is his best film yet.

9. THE LIGHTHOUSE (Amazon)

From the director of THE WITCH comes another type of gothic horror, this time with the legendary Willem Dafoe and the (already mentioned) brilliant Robert Pattinson marooned on a lighthouse rock alone to drive each other completely insane. It’s hallucinatory, violent, disorienting, and flat-out brilliant. If it weren’t for another guy we’ll get to in a minute, Dafoe would be a lock for Best Supporting Actor here. It’s a slightly challenging film, with the period style mariner dialogue, but it’s just as funny as it is terrifying.

8. JOJO RABBIT (Amazon)

A beautiful, touching, funny, crowd-pleasing comedy about a little Nazi whose imaginary friend is Hitler. Yep, your read that correctly. There are about a million reasons this should absolutely not work. Yet, it’s one of the best theater going experiences I had this year. A must see... ESPECIALLY with Mom!

7. MARRIAGE STORY (Netflix)

The best written and acted film of the year, and the third Adam Driver vehicle to appear here. Sad but honest. Touching but brutal. It’s awkward and a bit of a bummer, but there’s such great work being done here, in front of and behind the camera. Noah Baumbach is a force of nature, and has yet to make a film I was even iffy about. He’s the real deal and this might be his masterpiece.

6. WAVES (Amazon)

Speaking of auteurs, Trey Edward Shults is now 3/3 on features after the brilliant KRISHA and IT COMES AT NIGHT. Here he follows a middle-class black family, led by a domineering father, through a tragic moment in all of their lives. The first half deals with the son’s story, then abruptly switches to the daughter’s life post said event. It shouldn’t work, yet somehow manages to be one of the most emotionally affecting pieces of art I saw this year. The camera never stops moving, constantly swirling and whirling and you can’t help to be sucked up into it. It’s a beautiful tragedy.

5. LONG SHOT (HBO)

The biggest and most pleasant surprise of the year. An opposites-attract rom-com with more brains, bite, social commentary, and laughs than it has any right to have. Easily the most fun you’ll have with (almost) the whole family... there’s a lot of cum jokes. But don’t let the vulgarity dissuade you! It’s a total riot with just the right amount of sweetness to balance out the saltiness. I love love love this movie.

4. THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE (Hulu)

What starts as a strange, dark comedy morphs into a FIGHT CLUB-esque thriller with allusions to disturbingly toxic masculinity and an offbeat take on what it takes to “be a man.” It is laugh-out-loud hilarious, and expertly made, while really having something to say, and it says it in a way I’ve never really seen before. It’s not surprising this didn’t get more attention, the characters are truly difficult to relate to, let alone root for, but as far as originality goes, you’d be hard pressed to find anything this year much better than this.

3. UNCUT GEMS (Amazon)

(Probably) NOT FOR MOMS!!

The cinematic equivalent of being locked in the brain of a lunatic having a cocaine-fueled anxiety attack. If that sounds like fun (AND IT IS!!!) then this is the film for you! Oh, and Adam Sandler is going to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. For real. It’s a chaotic, stress-filled masterpiece.

2. ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD (Amazon)

My favorite filmmaker’s 2nd best film. A personal story about the love of film during the late 60s, a time of dirty hippies and Charles Manson, as well as the passing of the torch from old Hollywood to the “golden age” of cinema. It’s a fairytale of sorts, with Tarantino’s trademark flare for spontaneous violence and mining multiple genres to make his most mature work since PULP FICTION. I’ve been rewarded with new takeaways upon each subsequent viewing, and my love and appreciation for it only grows and grows. Brad Pitt is a lock for Best Supporting Actor, he’s magnificent. It was always going to be my #1 with a bullet no matter what, because it’s just that great...

1. PARASITE (Amazon)

...but then Bong Joon-ho, the master of new Korean cinema unleashed PARASITE. Not only is it the best film of 2019, it’s one of the best films I have ever seen. Like EVER ever. He is in such astonishing control of his craft it’s hard not to sit back and marvel and the sheer skill on display. You can be laughing one moment and then recoiling in horror during the same breath. He’s using multiple genre tropes, incredible set design, pitch perfect acting/writing, and such exquisite planning you can’t possibly know what’s in store for you from one scene to the next. It is an absolute masterpiece and if it doesn’t sweep every category it’s nominated for at this year’s Oscars, it’ll be a travesty. If you have even a passing interest in film as an art form, the power it can wield, and the messages it can convey, you owe it to yourself to see this film. It’s perfect.

Well, there it is. Thanks for reading any part of this. Now go see PARASITE. I love you.

#movies #top50 #2019 #movies of 2019

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lthmath · 5 years

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Recently we have been reorganizing our LThMath Book Club. The whole idea behind it is to read and discuss books with other people. We are happy that the Goodreads Club grew to 272 people. Recently people have been asking if we can use other platforms for the Book Club as well. Therefor, we have created a Facebook Group with the same idea as the Goodreads one. After the first 2 months we have reached 226 members in the group and we have some really great book recommendations. Hope you all enjoy the idea.

Due to this change, we cannot do just a Goodreads poll for the bi-monthly book. Therefor, we decided to do a survey (created using Google forms). In this way more people can vote for the book. If you want to vote, you need to do it HERE.

“The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer” by Sydney Padua

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage presents a rollicking alternate reality in which Lovelace and Babbage do build the Difference Engine and then use it to build runaway economic models, battle the scourge of spelling errors, explore the wilder realms of mathematics, and, of course, fight crime—for the sake of both London and science. Complete with extensive footnotes that rival those penned by Lovelace herself, historical curiosities, and never-before-seen diagrams of Babbage’s mechanical, steam-powered computer, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is wonderfully whimsical, utterly unusual, and, above all, entirely irresistible.

“The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography” by Simon Singh

Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives. From Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code, to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the Allies win World War II, to the incredible (and incredibly simple) logisitical breakthrough that made Internet commerce secure, The Code Book tells the story of the most powerful intellectual weapon ever known: secrecy.

Throughout the text are clear technical and mathematical explanations, and portraits of the remarkable personalities who wrote and broke the world’s most difficult codes. Accessible, compelling, and remarkably far-reaching, this book will forever alter your view of history and what drives it. It will also make you wonder how private that e-mail you just sent really is.

“Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension: A Mathematician’s Journey Through Narcissistic Numbers, Optimal Dating Algorithms, at Least Two Kinds of Infinity, and More” by Matt Parker

In the absorbing and exhilarating Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, Parker sets out to convince his readers to revisit the very math that put them off the subject as fourteen-year-olds. Starting with the foundations of math familiar from school (numbers, geometry, and algebra), he takes us on a grand tour, from four dimensional shapes, knot theory, the mysteries of prime numbers, optimization algorithms, and the math behind barcodes and iPhone screens to the different kinds of infinity―and slightly beyond. Both playful and sophisticated, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension is filled with captivating games and puzzles, a buffet of optional hands-on activities that entice us to take pleasure in mathematics at all levels. Parker invites us to relearn much of what baffled us in school and, this time, to be utterly enthralled by it.

“A Beautiful Mind” by Sylvia Nasar

Economist and journalist Sylvia Nasar has written a biography of Nash that looks at all sides of his life. She gives an intelligent, understandable exposition of his mathematical ideas and a picture of schizophrenia that is evocative but decidedly unromantic. Her story of the machinations behind Nash’s Nobel is fascinating and one of very few such accounts available in print.

We are very interested in this book due to the movie “A Beautiful Mind”. It is an incredible, emotional and interesting movie about the life of John Nash. If this book was chosen, we believe it would be a great idea to watch the movie after we read the book. What do you think?

“Lost in Math: How Beauty Leards Physics Astray” by Sabine Hossenfelder

Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for more than four decades. The belief in beauty has become so dogmatic that it now conflicts with scientific objectivity: observation has been unable to confirm mindboggling theories, like supersymmetry or grand unification, invented by physicists based on aesthetic criteria. Worse, these “too good to not be true” theories are actually untestable and they have left the field in a cul-de-sac. To escape, physicists must rethink their methods. Only by embracing reality as it is can science discover the truth.

Looking at the general description, this sounds more like a book about physics but we are still interested to see how the author deals with the bondary between mathematics and physics. Also, this book was released in 2018.

“How Long is a Piece of String? More Hidden Mathematics of Everyday Life” by Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham

In this book, you will find that many intriguing everyday questions have mathematical answers. Discover the astonishing 37% rule for blind dates, the avoidance tactics of the gentleman’s urinal, and some extraordinary scams that have been devised to get rich quick. Also included are the origins of the seven-day week and the seven-note scale, an explanation of why underdogs win, clever techniques for detecting fraud, and the reason why epidemics sweep across a nation and disappear just as quickly. Whatever your mathematical ability, this fun, thought-provoking book will illuminate the ways in which math underlies so much in our everyday lives.

“A Brief History of Infinity” by Brian Clegg

Infinity is a concept that fascinates everyone from a seven-year-old child to a maths professor. An exploration of the most mind-boggling feature of maths and physics, this work examines amazing paradoxes and looks at many features of this fascinating concept.

After reading “Beyond Infinity” by Eugenia Cheng, this book might feel like a double kill especially if you feel like you need a break from infinity. On the other hand, we find the concept so mesmerizing that we just want to find out more about it.

“Gamma: Exploring Euler’s Constant” by Julian Havil

Among the many constants that appear in mathematics, π, e, and i are the most familiar. Following closely behind is y, or gamma, a constant that arises in many mathematical areas yet maintains a profound sense of mystery. In a tantalizing blend of history and mathematics, Julian Havil takes the reader on a journey through logarithms and the harmonic series, the two defining elements of gamma, toward the first account of gamma’s place in mathematics. Gamma takes us through countries, centuries, lives, and works, unfolding along the way the stories of some remarkable mathematics from some remarkable mathematicians.

“Magical MAthematics: The Mathematical Ideas that Animate Great Magic Tricks” by Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham

Magical Mathematics reveals the secrets of fun-to-perform card tricks–and the profound mathematical ideas behind them–that will astound even the most accomplished magician. Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham provide easy, step-by-step instructions for each trick, explaining how to set up the effect and offering tips on what to say and do while performing it. Each card trick introduces a new mathematical idea, and varying the tricks in turn takes readers to the very threshold of today’s mathematical knowledge. The book exposes old gambling secrets through the mathematics of shuffling cards, explains the classic street-gambling scam of three-card Monte, traces the history of mathematical magic back to the oldest mathematical trick–and much more.

We have read another book by Persi Diaconis (“Ten Great Ideas about Chance”) and we thought we could give it a try to another of his books, this time more fun and less stickt. If you want to find out more about “Ten Great Ideas about Chance” and what I thought about it, you can check the reivew.

“Here’s Looking at Euclid: A Surprizing Excursion Through the Astonishing World of Math” by Allex Bellos (also called: “Alex’s Adventures in Numberland”)

Bellos has traveled all around the globe and has plunged into history to uncover fascinating stories of mathematical achievement, from the breakthroughs of Euclid, the greatest mathematician of all time, to the creations of the Zen master of origami, one of the hottest areas of mathematical work today. Throughout, the journey is enhanced with a wealth of intriguing illustrations, such as of the clever puzzles known as tangrams and the crochet creation of an American math professor who suddenly realized one day that she could knit a representation of higher dimensional space that no one had been able to visualize. Whether writing about how algebra solved Swedish traffic problems, visiting the Mental Calculation World Cup to disclose the secrets of lightning calculation, or exploring the links between pineapples and beautiful teeth, Bellos is a wonderfully engaging guide who never fails to delight even as he edifies. “Here’s Looking at Euclid “is a rare gem that brings the beauty of math to life.

We hope this helped you decide what book you would like to read in August – September with us. Hope you liked this post. Have a great day. You can find us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram. We will try to post there as often as possible.

October – November Book Choice Recently we have been reorganizing our LThMath Book Club. The whole idea behind it is to read and discuss books with other people.

#book #book club #book review #Books #math #mathematics #maths

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davetheshady · 5 years

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how time travel works in the MCU

endgame spoilers!

SO i’ve been seeing a lot of people expressing confusion about wtf was going on in endgame, and since this is, like, my jam, allow me to illustrate the MCU’s apparent theory of time travel. (this isn’t officially confirmed or anything (ETA: it kind of is!) – just me elaborating on what other fans have said as well, which appears to be internally consistent in the movie.)

Avengers: Endgame uses a different mechanism than most time travel media (which Rhodey and Scott helpfully list for us, lol): it is impossible to change the past of your personal timeline in the MCU.

(fig. 1: a blurry and not-to-scale timeline for the MCU with data points for 1970, 2012, 2013, 2014, and Endgame)

their “time travel” is more like “time and dimension travel”: as soon as they use the quantum realm to go to an earlier date, it splits off* an identical parallel universe (or leg of the trousers of time). we simultaneously have canon and officially-licensed canon-divergence AUs. time travelers can never affect their own pasts; they can only change things in an AU for another version of themselves.

* or maybe this universe which was completely identical up to the point where they are visiting time travelers always existed and they just arrived, who knows ~wibbley wobbley~

(fig. 2: equally blurry and not-to-scale timelines plural: the MCU timeline and four AU timelines, splitting off from 1970, 2012, 2013, and 2014.)

note: i’m just guessing about the number of relevant AU timelines, because I’ve only seen the movie once. the avengers’ initial plan has teams going to NYC in 2012 during The Avengers, to Asgard in 2013 during Thor 2: Electric Boogaloo, and to the planets Morag and Vormir (sp?) in 2014 during Guardians of the Galaxy. Team 2012 messes up and tries again by going to New Jersey in 1970.

hence the Ancient One’s concern about Bruce taking the time stone: up to that point, things were on track to proceed exactly like the MCU timeline. now that’s off the table. if bruce doesn’t return the time stone, the events of doctor strange can’t happen and dormammu will destroy this 2012!AU timeline. the MCU timeline will be unaffected, but it still sucks for everyone in the 2012!AU. (i don’t think it’s necessary in each AU for events to go EXACTLY like the MCU timeline, but considering the MCU timeline consists of our heroes defeating challenges and saving the world/galaxy by the skin of their teeth, not changing too much is a good idea.)

however! there are definite changes keeping these AUs separate from the MCU timeline. 2012!AU Steve has been told by a suspicious double that Bucky is alive, and will probably get Hail HYDRA’d by Strike. it’s entirely possible that events in 2013!Asgard will happen completely differently due to Frigga’s knowledge of shit going down. And 2014!AU Thanos hops on over to the MCU timeline and attacks, ultimately resulting in the 2014!AU losing him, his followers, and Gamora.

essentially, we now know there are multiple copies of all the characters, but not clones or evil-bearded-mirror counterparts, because they share the same experiences... up to a certain point. 2014!AU Gamora is in the MCU timeline now, but she doesn’t have any of MCU Gamora’s experiences from the time of GotG to her death in Infinity War. However, she and MCU Nebula would still share their horrible childhood. If 2012!AU Loki pops up in the MCU timeline, he and MCU Thor would have had the same interactions all the way through The Avengers. (I personally find this delightful, because it’s a time travel crossover between canon-divergence AUs complete with character doubles and that’s like... all of my favorite things together.)

as for MCU Steve: he was hanging out in one of the AUs with Peggy (with whom he would have shared exactly the same version of the past in the 40s) for a whole bunch of decades. the movie vaguely implies that this really did happen in the MCU timeline by having him appear on a park bench instead of using their quantum realm tech, but this would require:

steve ‘civil war’ rogers just chilling for decades as Bucky runs around as the Winter Soldier and HYDRA infiltrates SHIELD, not to mention refraining from weighing in on countless other issues he cares deeply about

peggy ‘fight me’ carter, AN INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVE, not noticing her husband’s extreme lack of chill re 1. and cottoning on

us to forget literally the whole rest of the movie

so this, frankly, is nonsense. also, the obvious place to meet up with peggy was in his trip to 1970, but unless someone on her street had an old-ass car, they’re definitely dancing together in the 40s/50s; this means he didn’t just go back and stay, but went back to the 1970 AU, dropped off the tesseract and stole more of hank pym’s research, and then made yet another trip to the 40s/50s.

using this AU theory, MCU Steve was only present in the MCU timeline as a Capsicle between the 40s and the 2010s and you don’t have to worry about the canonicity of Agents of Carter. Endgame-era MCU Steve went to a 1940s AU, where he and Peggy almost certainly made beautiful Nazi punching as they cleared HYDRA out of SHIELD. stuff like that would make events unspool differently than Steve was familiar with from the MCU timeline, making his knowledge of his future less and less relevant, so he wouldn’t have too much of an advantage. (as a side note, I think there’s a practical aspect to him hanging around: it means he has plenty of time to observe the consequences of the MCU Avengers interfering and make sure there’s no, like, universal catastrophes. hell yeah longitudinal studies of scientific data.)

we already know from 2014!AU Thanos’ appearance in the MCU timeline that you don’t need to use the MCU portal to hop between timelines [ETA: whoops, i misremembered that part.] Steve knew where he was returning to, so between his MCU tech and everything he potentially could have stolen from hank pym over the years (or, you know, everything he was given by 1940!AU hank and janet van dyne, whom he could have just worked with) he had the ability to stroll back to the MCU timeline for the very end of endgame in a sufficiently dramatic fashion to troll everyone. or maybe he DID use that portal, but was the size of an ant just to be a dick. steve rogers: man out of time.

[ETA: as per this post: bruce DID detect him in the portal, so he definitely quantum leaped back instead of taking the slow path.]

[ETA: as per the Russos themselves: “If Cap were to go back into the past and live there, he would create a branched reality. The question then becomes, how is he back in this reality to give the shield away?” source )

anyway, unlike other kinds of time travel, AU theory lacks issues like erasing your own personal history or stepping on bugs and causing fascism. but i think it DOES have some serious consequences:

- if you visit/create an AU, the people from the AU can now come and dick around in YOUR timeline (c.f. 2014!AU Thanos and the entire end of the movie). they got rid of 2014!AU Thanos, but that leaves at least three other Thanoi who they HAVEN’T defeated, plus multiple versions of every other baddie they’ve ever fought.

- having so many similar-but-not-identical timelines clustered together might have bad long-term consequences on reality, like events bleeding through

- HOW are these AUs created and/or maintained? if there’s a finite amount of energy for them, connecting to too many might cause some to collapse

- headaches

it’s possible we will see some negative consequences in future MCU movies, if only to eliminate “time travel through the quantum realm” as a solution to every single one of their problems.

(@autumn-drifts also pointed out that the MCU Avengers are doing all their time travel shenanigans after the MCU infinity stones have been destroyed, so potentially the time stone (and maybe others) play a role in PREVENTING time travel, which is why we haven’t seen it before.)

(ETA: the energy from the infinity stones Thanos destroyed had to go SOMEWHERE; maybe that’s what creates the AUs?)

speaking of the time stone: this maaaaaay have a completely different set of rules. it’s possible that using it also spawns a whole bunch of AUs, which is why the Ancient One chewed out Dr Strange about playing with it. (do you want 20 different AUs whose only difference is Dr Strange’s fucked-up apple in the magic library? because this is how you get 20 different AUs whose only difference is Dr Strange’s fucked-up apple in the magic library.)

but it’s also possible the time stone is the only thing that have an effect on your personal timeline. i don’t think we ever see it used to jump directly from one point of time to another, so who knows if it CAN. but it can definitely rewind (MCU Thanos undoing Wanda’s decision to kill Vision and stealing the mind stone in Infinity War) and/or create time loops (the end of Doctor Strange).

(fig. 3: blurry timeline of the MCU showing a whole bunch of loops in Doctor Strange from his trap, labelled “Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain”, and a single loop in Infinity War labelled “Wanda kills Vision” and “Thanos unkills Vision”)

i’ve drawn them as loops because those events definitely happen, so they’re part of a timeline that everyone(?) experiences, but they all circle back to one particular point from whence only one line of events continues. you don’t have a million different versions of Dr Strange getting creatively killed by Dormammu, you have one Dr Strange getting creatively killed by Dormammu a million times; both he and Dormammu remember all of them.

one final observation: we still haven’t seen proper time travel forward through time. we know from Infinity War that the time stone can let you look at all the potential futures and use that knowledge to aim in your chosen direction, but it can’t show you “the” future. (and as to whether that’s looking at events playing forward then rewinding back to the save point, or just scoping out all the relevant AUs, I have no idea.) Scott technically skips five years forward from the snappening to Endgame, but he was pulled there by a rat activating the tech during Endgame, as opposed to him selecting a point five years in the future and choosing to go there. (we also don’t know when Steve left his 1940!AU timeline, but he was returning to the point in the MCU immediately after he left, not going farther forward than he had already been.) so it will be interesting to see how/if time travel into THE FUTURE! happens and what delightful problems it can cause.

in conclusion:

#endgame spoilers #the avengers: endgame #time travel #wibbley wobbley timey wimey #mcu #the avengers: infinity war #doctor strange #guardians of the galaxy #long post

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thevintageconnection · 5 years

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My Favorite Vintage Music: Part I

All graphics created with Canva

Hey, guys! Before we get into some of my favorite vintage music, I want to introduce myself and this blog!

Welcome to The Vintage Connection! I’m Morgan, a college student studying Digital Media and Spanish, who loves vintage aesthetics and content. After helping my grandma at my hometown’s historical society since I was ten, as well as growing up influenced by my grandparents’ and parents’ tastes, I developed my own interests in old music, movies, fashion, and more.

I am often known for recommending old artists like Fleetwood Mac and Sinatra over most current popular music and am ready to share some of my vintage favorites from the 1940s and on to a wider and younger audience via this blog, The Vintage Connection! The blog introduces audiences––anywhere from vintage novices to diehard vintage fans––to my favorites, and how to incorporate history and vintage aesthetics into the modern-day.

As an advocate for equality and activism, I also analyze the relationships between my vintage favorites and similar things today. What does it teach us in the present day? How do we feel about it now? How can we access or incorporate this content into our lives today?

The Vintage Connection is all about the various ways that we are still connected to the past, and how we can ensure that connection remains strong.

If you’re a newbie to the vintage world, or you’re a huge fan, or you are older and actually lived through some of these times, welcome! There’s room for everyone here.

Alright, let’s get into some of my favorite music from each decade, beginning with the 1940s, and how these connect to today!

While I’m not well-versed in much music from the 1940s, I couldn’t leave out some of my favorite pieces of all time!

Billie Holiday - “I’ll Be Seeing You”

What an absolutely gorgeous song to begin the list. It makes me feel a certain nostalgia for a time and a love I’ve never experienced. The piano, the trumpets, her melancholy tone, and the crackle of the old recording all produce such a calming and languid sound that makes you melt into your seat.

Édith Piaf - “La Vie en Rose”

Even though I’ve never been to Paris, I have an enormous adoration for that city. It’s at the top of my travel bucket list. This song makes me feel as if I’m strolling down the cobblestone streets of Paris at night, cafés glowing around me, while the Eiffel Tower shimmers in the distance.

Frank Sinatra - “I Fall in Love Too Easily”

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I have no clue how many times I’ve listened to this song. Whenever it pops up on my playlists, I’ll repeat it over and over and over again. Sometimes when I think of it, I’ll search on YouTube for the clip of him singing it in the movie Anchors Aweigh. I had to link it for you guys so you don’t live any longer without seeing this gorgeous scene. What a beautiful soul. I have a soft spot for young Sinatra, especially in this song.

Ugh. So many favorite songs and artists from this decade! 50s music is often so dreamy.

(Be prepared to read “dreamy” a lot from now on in this post and on the rest of my blog and other social media. It’s one of my favorite words, and I love dreamy content!)

Billie Holiday - “Blue Moon”

Here Billie appears again with another song! I have a particular fondness for the moon, and this song also makes me feel like I’m daydreaming when I listen to it, so it will always be one of my favorites.

Ella Fitzgerald - “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, “I’ve Got a Crush on You”, and “These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)”

I meant to choose just one to share, but I love Ella too much. Her music is always so dreamy and wistful. I can listen to it when I’m doing homework, just hanging out, or doing literally anything.

Paul Anka - “Put Your Head on My Shoulder”

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THE EPITOME OF DREAMINESS. This song makes you reminisce of young love, even if you’ve never experienced it. My favorite version of this track is the 1959 version, which features a young Anka. He definitely maintained a beautiful voice in the years following, and still maintains it today, but there’s just something about the original version that is so endearing and calming. Just like with Sinatra, young Anka holds a special place in my heart.

The linked video above is a live performance from 1962, a few years later than the 1959 recording, but it perfectly captures just how people––not just women––were so enamored of him.

Elvis - “Love Me Tender”, “Are You Lonesome Tonight”, “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, and “Suspicious Minds”

Okay, here I ran into the same issue as I did with Ella Fitzgerald. I tried to not list too many tracks in one decade, especially several from each artist, but I couldn’t help myself with these. And of course, some of my favorites of Elvis’ are his sad songs. I have a weird obsession with sad songs, and even have a Spotify playlist full of sad music. My love for Elvis definitely comes from my dad, who loves him so much. Thanks, dad! ♥

What a beautiful time for music. I have waaaaay too many favorites from this decade, but I managed to narrow it down to a few!

The Beatles - “Here Comes the Sun”

Do I even have to explain why I love this one? This song always gives me that euphoric feeling of that first day in spring where it’s finally sunny again, you don’t need a winter coat, and the snow is mostly melted.

The Drifters - “This Magic Moment”

As expected from the title, this track is pure magic. The swirling instrumental at the beginning before the vocals come in, and that repeats often during much of the number, reminds me of a Disney movie. This is one of those songs that I would love to twirl around to in a 1950s a-line dress until I fell over from getting too dizzy.

Frank Sinatra - “My Way”

Sinatra appears again, this time with one of his more well-known songs. If this music doesn’t make you want to get up and scream the words, I don’t know what to tell you. This track was an original power anthem.

Etta James - “At Last”

Ah, everyone’s favorite wedding song, even to this day. I love how timeless it is. Even if you’re single this song will make you feel like you’re in love.

Ben E. King - “Stand By Me”

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To end the first part of this list here is one of my absolute favorite songs of all time. I don’t know exactly what it is about this piece, but it is one of my favorites of all time. This is another one I can play on repeat nonstop for an hour. Hearing this song always puts a smile on my face, no matter how I’m feeling.

This is a section that I will feature on most, if not all, of my posts, that connects my vintage favorites to today!

I think when people look back on old songs, they tend to focus on the popular white artists of the time and forget about the minorities who often paved the way for various styles of music. I’m always looking for different music to listen to, especially by lesser-known artists and minorities, so if you have any suggestions––and not for just songs––send them my way!

When I listen to some of these songs, especially “This Magic Moment”, I always picture a 1960s dance floor filled with dancing couples. Images like these from movies and old photographs make people of younger generations wish dating, and sometimes life in general, was still like how it used to be back in the day. I do still sometimes yearn to be at a 1950s/60s dance, wearing a gorgeous a-line dress, but I try to not hop on the bandwagon of “I was born in the wrong generation”. I think most of this wish comes from the want to experience a time without modern technology, so I can kind of understand where people are coming from. I never sympathize too much, though, as society is still full of issues today, and I could do without the extra racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. of the past.

Thankfully, all of these classics are fairly easy to find online today: on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, etc.

For convenience, here’s a link to my Spotify playlist of these songs!

If you are looking for a more comprehensive list of vintage music from the 1940s to 1960s, check out this other playlist of mine, called “Darling”, that features almost 100 vintage tracks. I add to this playlist all the time!

I absolutely adore creating playlists for different moods and situations. Follow me on Spotify (it’s on my personal account for now) and check out any of my 50+ playlists!

Stay tuned for Part II of my favorite vintage music, which will continue from the 1970s to 1980s! I’ll update the Top Vintage Favs playlist when I post Part II!

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Morgan 💕

Social Media Links!

Twitter: @connect_vintage

Instagram: @connect_vintage

(Personal) Spotify: Morgan Krull

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iamcrimelord · 5 years

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Blood Borne: Sanguine Ardente Chapter 1

Daigo made his way down the stairs with the church acolyte leading the way. He only had on small clothes at the moment but that was why they were heading to the tailor and armorer. He stepped into the room once they reached it and looked around. The wall was lined with silver swords, black and white articles of clothing, and a row of simple fire arms. He nodded and got to work. The acolyte left him and he got ready. He put on a pair of black slacks and knee high boots and socks. He then grabbed a belt with slots for holding bullets, vials, and other tools onto his waist to both hold up his pants, but to also insure he had supplies on hand. He then put on a black shirt, vest, long coat with shoulder cape, and also a wide brimmed hat. He put on good sturdy leather gauntlets as well that he sliced the fingers off of so he could have more dexterity with his fingers. He then grabbed a silver sword and sheath, and then grabbed a pistol that he then put into a holster that he grabbed. He now looked like a right proper member of the church.

As he finished getting ready, Ludwig walked in. Daigo turned to look at the man and held out his arms. “Do I look respectable enough?” He asked with a coy grin.

Ludwig nodded. “Yes, you certainly pass as a church member...though perhaps you may wish to actually join us someday?”

Daigo burst into laughter. “No offense Ludwig, but my faith in holy men at the moment is very, very small. Because when push comes to shove, they’ll look out for number one every time.”

Ludwig shook his head. “A pity that is how you see us. But perhaps in time our actions will speak for themselves.”

Daigo drew his sword and gave it a few practice swings. “We’ll see. I’m not so jaded as to not give people a chance to show me that they’re better than what I’ve seen in the past.” he sheathes the sword and walks out of the room. “Having said that.....forgive me if I maintain my aloofness.”

Ludwig nodded in agreement and the two men left the room and proceeded to head out of the building. It was a bit of a lengthy walk but in time they found themselves out in the streets, watching the city of Yharnum go about its daily business. As they walked, Ludwig began to explain more about the city. “This is Old Yharnum. The city’s oldest section. A rather lovely spot in the city with the most history. Its also home to the oldest cathedral in the city. Its a popular visiting spot.”

Daigo looked around as the man spoke, seeing the old buildings, and people move. It was so peaceful it seemed amazing that there was any sort of beastly plague at all. “I like it. It has a very quaint charm to it.”

Ludwig came to a stop at one of the doors that lined the street and opened it. “Here is where you will be staying.” He said as he walked in.

Daigo followed him in and was led up stairs of what he could now see was a boarding house. They went to the top floor and came to a large black door with the communion symbol of the healing church on it. “This is your room.”

Daigo walked in and saw a cozy room with a large trunk, a work bench, a praying altar, a large number of books, and a beautiful view of the main square where the boarding house was at. He took out a cigarillo and lit it, taking a puff and inspecting the room closer. The bedroom was off the side of the main room and a wash room connected to the bedroom on the other side. Once he saw everything he looked to Ludwig. “So...when do I get to work?” He asked.

Ludwig reached into his belt and pulled out a black pocket watch with a golden communion symbol on it, tossing it to him gently. Daigo caught it with his free hand. “That is a Hunter’s Watch. It will alert you when a night of the hunt starts.”

Daigo opened the watch and inside he saw your typical black clock face with golden roman numerals inside of it. Each arrow gold as well. On the underside of the front clip opposite the watch face was an inscription: Praise the Good Blood. He smirked at that little statement as it reminded him of times past. He attached the chain to his own belt and put the watch away. “And what am I to do in the meantime pray tell?”

Ludwig leaned against the door frame. “Well, you are to be given a weekly allowance to use as you see fit of 100 gold coins. You can use it for food, weapons, supplies.....or if you so fancy....there are mmmm..... special ladies about town who offer other more..entertaining services.” He said in a straight manner.

Daigo cocked a very skeptical brow. “Huh...usually religious groups tend to teach its members to stay away from that.”

Ludwig shrugged. “For what we do...sometimes a good distraction is needed. At any rate, make yourself cozy. The Hunt starts three days from now.”

Daigo nodded. “Then I’ll have to make sure I’m ready. I look forward to seeing this...beastly scourge of yours.”

Ludwig grinned. “It will really get your blood pumping.” He then turned and left.

Daigo took another puff of his cigarillo and then noticed a book on the work bench, A History of Yharnum. Daigo shrugged his shoulders and sat down. Deciding to learn about the history of the city. He sat down, flicked some ashes off the tip of his cigarillo, opened the book, and began to read.

According to the book, the church had been here for a rather long time, almost a decade and a half. They first came to Old Yharnum when the city was suffering a plague of something called, Ashen Blood. A lot of people had been dying of the disease and there was no cure for it. But then the healing church appeared and began to administer blood healing to the populace which not only healed the sick, but made them even stronger than before. It was no surprise to Daigo then as he continued to read that the church eventually became the true power of the city and built many cathedrals, hospitals, clinics, and other such places all over the city to the point that it surrounded old yharnum and then grew outward. Turning a smaller city, almost a town really, into a metropolis of medical experimentation and progress. Its healing blood being hailed as a miracle from the gods. Now the whole city was dependent on the church’s blood healing for medical treatment, but also for the economy. Apparently blood is made in such high quantities here they mix it into their drinks, and women known as Blood Saints go about distributing vials of their own blood for charity purposes. Daigo looked out the window for a moment upon reading that and wondered if he had not been summoned to a city of vampires. But he shrugged and resumed reading. Certain businesses not of the church were also in the blood brewing business though instead of healing it was in the making of sweets, liqueurs, sauces, seasonings, and any other form of edible goods. Apparently the effects of their healing blood was intoxicating. Though it begged the question...how many people willingly gave up their blood? And even among the willing, do they check to see if they are diseased in anyway? This would be something Daigo would have to look into on the side. In fact, Ludwig said he had three days before the hunt started. That meant he had three days to do what he did best...dispensed the most thirst quenching forms of justice...Frontier Justice.

His thoughts were disturbed however when he heard a very heavy knock on the door. He went and opened it, and to his surprise he saw a giant of a woman with long red hair tied in a pony tail. She looked down and said in a husky voice. “You Daigo?”

Daigo nodded. “Indeed...and you are?”

The woman responded, “Name’s Gratia. I’m gonna be your partner for the time being for nights of the hunt.”

Daigo took a step back and looked her over more. She was clearly well muscled. Had quite a few scars on her knuckles as well as one on her lip. She had eyes as green as emeralds and on her hip hung a large hatchet. “well, would you like to come in?” He asked her.

She shook her head. “Sorry, got places to be. Just wanted to stop by and get an eyeful of ya.”

“And do you like what you see?”

“You’re a bit on the short side. I was told you were a real tough fighter but..then again people think I aint all that smart either.”

“And are you?” He asked.

“Nah, not really. But,” She held up a first, on it was a lump of metal that had finger holes in it, obviously for punching things. ��Brains don’t do a lot of good against a strong right hook.”

Daigo could not help but chuckle in amusement. “On that we can certainly agree.” Oh he knew he was going to get along with this one.

“Well, nice meeting you mate. See you on the night of the hunt.”

He nodded and watched her go. Now that was certainly an interesting encounter. He closed the door and made his way to the window. He opened it to let in a bit of the cool evening air. Down below was a man selling meats. He could hear him crying out to come and buy his fine imported meats. He could hear the slice and dice of his meat cleaver and heard people doing business with him. He sat down in his chair and took off his belt, coat, and hat. He propped his feet up on the window sill and leaned back. Now this was the life. He thought.

------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, not far from Daigo’s new home, someone watched him from afar with a spy glass. So...they had managed to summon the Pyromancer. That...was going to complicate matters...

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chikucabllp · 2 years

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Hiring a Car in the Nation’s Capital Delhi for a Ride in the City

(Delhi, the capital of India, is originally divided into two parts: The Old Delhi and The New Delhi. This extremely historic city is based in the North-Central side of India. To know more about Delhi read ahead.)

Based on the banks of River Yamuna and Ganga, at the foothills of Himalayas, lies the city of Delhi which is mix bag collection of urbanized and traditional India. According to a legendary story, the city was named after the King, ‘Raja Dhilu’ who was the ruler of the city in 1st Century BC. A number of colloquial names have come up for Delhi, the most famous being Delhi, Dehli, Dilli, and Dhilli. Delhi is the political hub of India making it an important commercial, cultural, and transportation hub of India. To roam around the city to discover its majestic beauty you can always do a cab service in Delhi, one of the easiest options to commute here. Right from historic times, Delhi has always been the center of many great rulers and their mighty empires. There are numerous ruins spread all over the city which keep on reminding us on the historic moments. This make Delhi famous for its enriched culture and heritage.

Let us know a few reasons as to why Delhi is the best city in the world:

Century old Town

Over the past various decades, Delhi has been known as Indraprastha, Tughlaqabad, Shahjahanabad, Lutyens Delhi amongst a lot more. This marks the cultural and historical architecture and design of the city. A traveler and a historian’s paradise Delhi has beautiful structures of archaic minars, forts, baolis, mosque, and temples. Indeed a city which is metropolitan to its true name. Hire a taxi service in Delhi to roam about these ruins and know a lot more on Delhi’s history!

Wide Smooth Roads

The best roads in India are undoubtedly found in Delhi. Beautifully planned and decorated on either side of the roads, driving through Delhi is a bliss in itself. Not to miss, even the service roads and foothpaths are well maintained. The width of the roads is an added feature due to which there is less crowding on roads. Numerous flyovers and make the journey shorter and better. Don’t forget to visit the AIIMS flyover with a cab service in Delhito get an awesome memory etched on your heart.

Scenic Delhi

Delhi on all sides is surrounded by numerous green patches which can be seen even on roads. When you are travelling on the roads of Delhi, you will see that the city is surrounded by gardens and green dots making it a pleasurable site to watch. Delhi Bleeds Green! Yes! you can say that.

Easy Commutation

Delhi can be travelled by public transport in a lot many ways. Modernized metros, DTC bus service, rapid metros of Gurgaon, and of course taxi service in Delhiare some of the best options one can explore the city with.

The Nights are Young

Delhi has one of the best nightlife parties in India. Filled with numerous clubs, pubs, and lounges you can always let your hair loose to seek peace of mind. If you want a proof, try travelling in the Connaught Place at night – we guarantee you, you will be stuck in traffic jams.

Foodie’s Paradise

Right from street food till high end dining restaurants Delhi has it all! All types of mixed cusine are found in Delhi along with the special Delhi way of cooking!

India Summed Up

Delhi is filled with citizens not only from different parts of India but also from the world as diplomats and expats keep touring Delhi. Thus, a mixture of food, fashion, and festival is experienced in Delhi which makes India’s capital the most colorful city.

Addicted To Shopping

There are just uncountable street markets in Delhi and the best part is that you can haggle and bargain at all these markets. Delhi displays everything from Flea Market, Weekly Markets, Designer Malls and Boutiques.

Studying in University

Delhi University is one of the most flocked universities in India. It has 16 faculties, 86 departments, and 77 colleges under its belt. No wonder the number of students in Delhi University keep on increasing yearly.

Made for Every Season

Let it be rains, winter, summer, or autumn, Delhi always is in the mood of the perfect climate. Believe it! Delhi is the city to be enjoyed in all seasons.

Instant Fix is the key

Jugaad as they call it, Delhi has a solution to all your problems under the sun.

#cab service in Delhi #taxi service in Delhi #car hire in Delhi #car hire in DElhi #car rental in Delhi

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travelonlinetipsofficial · 3 years

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Best Things to Do in Paris

New Post has been published on https://www.travelonlinetips.com/best-things-to-do-in-paris/

Best Things to Do in Paris

As the world once again becomes our playground, many of us feel compelled to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible. Here in Paris, that is a good impetus to follow, since most indoor venues now require you to show a vaccine passport in order to enter. This is true of museums, cafes, restaurants, theaters, cinemas…well, you get the picture. Lucky for us, Paris remains one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Beyond the obvious splendors of the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre-Cœur Basilica, Paris has a wealth of sites and experiences to offer.

And others, like Le Village St.-Paul, and the nearby basketball courts, the Terrain de Sport des Jardins St.-Paul, both in the Marais, make you feel like you’ve discovered a hidden nook of Paris all your own each time you stumble upon them. The Village St. Paul is recently renovated and is now an exquisite labyrinth of quaint shops, casual restaurants and bars and simply just quiet spaces where you can catch your breath underneath the shade of a tree. It was once the private gardens of King Charles V, but that was centuries ago. Likewise historical, and not to miss noticing, is the original old wall of Paris built in the 12th and 13th centuries by France’s then King, Philip Augustus. Today, it still fortifies one side of well-used open-air basketball courts of the Marais. In other words, you can both shoot hoops (or jump rope or stretch or do open-air calisthenics) while taking in one of the oldest exposed monuments of historical Paris.

The Parc Rives de Seine is another popular destination for families and sporty types, or even just people looking for a nice outdoor walk along the Seine or a place to picnic by the river. On warm spring, summer and fall evenings, you’ll find groups of friends enjoying bottles of wine or beer al fresco or ordering a beer at one of the many food stalls there.

New to the Parisian façade is La Samaritaine. Or, I should accurately denote, all things old become new again since this iconic department store in the Chatelet district of the 1st arrondissement is now fully refurbished and open again for business. It’s the LVMH group who undertook this project, which lasted for nearly a decade, and the architecture shows its modern bent. For architecture buffs and shopping enthusiasts, it’s a must-see.

In Paris, it pays to just wander because many Parisian gems and treasures can be found along a meandering path. Some of these treasures, such as the covered passage of Galerie Vivienne, are found right under your nose as you walk the city’s charming streets. Its main entrance is tucked in just behind the Palais Royal and once you enter into this covered passage, you feel yourself instantly transported through time.

One last reassurance when exploring the city: When your feet get tired of walking, there is a boat-bus service, the Batobus, that you can hop on and off. It motors you from the Eiffel Tower to just past the Ile St. Louis by riverway, and back again, if you so choose.

Getting outside these days can feel like something of a privilege. Who would have thought? But here we are. So, in honor of maximizing that privilege, these are outdoor basketball courts open to the public where you can shoot hoops and otherwise do open-air calisthenics. The kids from the high school across the street are often here playing on their sports hour, but there are many hours when there isn’t a single soul inside this expansive sports terrain. It’s a great place to bring your yoga mat and do some stretches, or a jump rope and get a vigorous workout. If you have some buddies you can shoot hoops with, go for it. The baskets are yours for the playing. While you’re here, don’t forget to notice the 12th century wall that holds up one side of the encircling façade.

Recommended for Best Attractions & Activities because: The great outdoors! Even in the heart of the Marais, you find these hidden oases where you can play, sweat and absorb some culture, too.

Paige’s expert tip: Come here for the outdoor exercise venue, stay for the history lesson… Right here on an ancient street in the Marais are these fabulous outdoor basketball courts. The playing field is large enough that if you want to do calisthenics like jump rope there’s plenty of room off to the side without getting in the way of the game. Be sure to notice the ancient wall to your right as you enter. It is one of the only remnants of the historic Paris city wall that once encircled what was then the outer limits of the city. It dates back to the end of the 12th c., beginning of the 13th c and was built by King Philip Augustus to protect against the threat of a pending Richard The Lionheart invasion.

Read more about Terrain de Sport des Jardins St-Paul →

Though not strictly an attraction, the Batobus is more than just river transportation along the Seine. A hop-on, hop-off shuttle between the major Paris monuments that’s easily accessible from the Seine, it’s nice to ride the Batobus for the sheer pleasure of seeing the city from a different perspective. And while the Bateaux-Mouches and the other wonderful dinner and cocktail Seine river cruises are experiences many rave about (rightly so), this little Batobus-that-could offers the same views at a fraction of the price – dinner and cocktails not included, of course. It’s a family friendly transportation option for getting around the city. Its stops are all along the river, of course. These strategic stops are at areas which make visiting the Louvre, St.-Germain des Pres, the Marais and Latin Quarter and the Eiffel Tower/Trocadero areas very convenient by foot.

Recommended for Best Attractions & Activities because: Paris, when seen from the river Seine, is even more beautiful. And that goes for day and night.

Paige’s expert tip: Hop on and hop off all day long. Or buy the 2-day pass and make the River Seine your main method of transportation to see many of Paris’s landmark sights.

Read more about Batobus – Louvre Stop →

The area along the Rive Droite (right bank) riverfront that was once a thoroughfare for cars, stretching from the Tuileries tunnel to the Henri IV tunnel, is now a pedestrian zone. You can either start at Hôtel de Ville and head east toward the Bastille, which is a shorter walk but will take you along the stretch where the eateries are, often packed with people on the weekends. Or you can head west, still along the Seine, towards the Pont des Arts which will take you along some of Paris’ most beautiful sites such as the Conciergerie, the Pont Neuf and Île de la Cité. It’s a win-win and, either way, will leave you refreshed. An equally beautiful walk awaits you on the Left Bank side of the Seine. Optimally, start from the Pont Alexandre III and walk towards the Eiffel Tower, allowing for plenty of pauses along the way.

Recommended for Best Attractions & Activities because: These green spaces and pedestrian areas along the riverbanks are well-loved, especially by the kids. They get packed in the warmer months with fun-loving crowds.

Paige’s expert tip: After big meals and sugary treats, the best thing to do to maintain equilibrium is to take a nice long walk outdoors. Start just under the Hotel de Ville (Paris’ City Hall) where you’ll find a children’s playground, a swing set, some water fountains and the Batobus ticket kiosk. From this point, you can walk West towards the Pont des Arts, or East towards Pont Sully. Either way, you’ll encounter eateries, refreshments, shady places to sit and picnic tables. No cars, the gorgeous River Seine, and some of Paris’ most beautiful landmarks await you on this walk.