#which is a bold statement in 2021

[eveningepiphany]

tease | H.S oneshot

summary: seeing harry tonguing his guitar last night has you finally admitting the state he puts you in. and that’s never good when you’re a tour photographer. especially now you have photographic evidence of the moment.

warnings: SMUT, oral (fem rec), dirty talk, praise, swearing

a/n: can’t stop thinking about that fucking video? like it’s on loop in my head I can’t. he was so slutty last night it’s illegal. also this isn’t 100% proofread so enjoy I hope it’s okay!

———

Some days at work are harder than others for you.

Today, you knew was going to be rough the second Harry walked out in single-handedly the most revealing outfit he could have. Borderlining absolutely slutty.

And as his tour photographer, that is quite a bold statement to make when you’ve seen every single outfit— and when his top half is often found shirtless up on stage.

But tonight, out backstage when you were prepping your SD cards and ordering your camera lenses, he walked out of his dressing room adorning his stage outfit to show you, and your stomach dropped the sight of him.

It was a new style, something he hadn’t worn before. A cropped, tasseled blue vest, paired with low rise pants that looked like they were clinging onto his hips for dear life.

“Alrighty, what d’ya think?” He asked, doing a little spin to shake the tassels.

Your mouth opened and words struggled to form as your head fogged over from just seeing his body. And the way his ferns were fully out— along with almost all of his other ink on display. Arms, chest and all.

You had sworn this, many times, was just your eye for art. For people like him who made photography electric. But as time and the tour progressed on from its earlier start in 2021, it was getting harder to convince yourself. Because even if you didn’t acknowledge it, there was no way to justify the heat that stirred in your stomach as just admiration.

“Oh— wow— I like the tassels,” you paused, tongue swiping over your lips, “they’ll be really fun in the photos, I’ll try to get some motion blur type shots with them.”

Your hand reached out before your brain even computed what it was doing, grabbing one of the rhinestoned threads at the base of his vest and running down it. Knuckles brushing the side of his chest.

“Excited to see them as always, m’lovely.” He smiles, the pet name making you flush.

“10 minutes till you’re on, H!” Someone called out.

You laughed at the panicked expression on his face as he realised he was probably dawdling, and in fact behind on his own schedule.

“Alright!” He confirmed back, then chuckling as he whispered to you, “I still gotta brush m’teeth.”

“Well, cmon let’s go, I’ll see what behind the scene shots I can get.”

And you thought that the time spent with him pre-show would ease your racing mind a little, but now that you’re out on the floor you’re almost jittering.

He looks fucking delectable. And by the sound of the stadium around you, they notice it too.

As he steps out you have to force your camera up to your face, which is something you never have to do? But looking at him through your viewfinder is hardly enough to satiate you.

Especially a little later in the show, when your camera is aimed to the back of him— and he’s squated down to get a drink of water…

His pants slipping so far down his hips that the waistband of his Calvin Kleins are easily visible.

Some girls on barricade behind you are going feral simply at the sight. And you can hardly blame them, because the sight of them makes you a little light headed too. Tonight he’s really not leaving much to the imagination.

You feel obliged to take a photo of it, lens aiming up to him— hearing the girls from behind you as your cameras shutters open to capture the moment. They’re shouting clearly, “Y/N, you get that pic girl!”

Another one yelling from your left, “SHES ONE OF US!”

You laugh at them. The fans are always an amazing part of the show. You leave with an array of adorable bracelets, funny shirts, and always lovely compliments.

You snap a few more photos before someone calls your name again, and you turn. A brunette girl, in an incredible replica of his recent purple and black heart overalls from the recent Wembley show, is standing.

“Y/N!” She reaffirms when you’re looking at her.

“Hi lovely, your outfit is amazing.” You smile, and she has fresh tears streaming down her face— a common love on tour occurrence.

“Ohmygod, thank you so much. I made you this tshirt, i wanted to give it to you!” She pulled a white shirt from her feet, presumably from a bag.

She held it out, unfolding it to show off the print on the front.

You immediately couldn’t help but let out a shocked laugh at it. A big pink shaded heart, with 2 also heart-shaped photos on each side of it— of you and Harry. But the best bit was the bubble written font, “my favourite parents!” that is above it.

“I— can I please take a photo of you with it first.”

She slaps a hand over her mouth, “No way, of course you fucking can.”

You take a few photos of her posing with the shirt, “I have 2, please feel free take them both!”

You can only assume one of them is intended for Harry. And even if it’s a little weird of you to take them, you do anyway because the girl was too lovely to even consider denying them.

“Thank you so much.” You chuckle as you hang them over your elbow. She still looks starstruck at the interaction that just occurred and you’re overly excited to edit the photos later on.

In the time of the short interaction, you turned to find Harry. He’s about to transition into she, and is over on the main stage.

You hustle to get yourself up from the floor and onto the stage area. Moving to chuck the shirts on the bench, where most of the bands essentials are for easy access.

Harry sees you over there and you decide to show him the design on the front before you can overthink it.

He’s beginning to sing the intro, and he chuckles the lyrics into the mic as he sees it. And fans around the whole arena scream at the shirt— which you didn’t realise was being displayed on the big screens.

You shake your head, struggling not to admire the tone of his laugh that just echoed around the stadium.

Also blushing a little at the fact you did genuinely just show him a shirt with both of your faces of it, deeming you both as a fans ‘parents’.

You go back to doing your actual job, moving to get a good angle, aiming to blend back into the background as you take more photos for the night.

Capturing the sway and jolts of his tassels as he sings. Getting a few shots that not only capture his energy but also his outfit perfectly.

You smile at yourself and at your work.

And you glance up as Harry joins in with Mitch while he absolutely shreds his guitar solo.

Sweat is beading on Harry’s chest and you’re all too aware how much money people would pay to see it from your angle. Thank god for Barcelona’s heat.

And, fuck, not only is it that. His arms look perfect as well. This outfit is really just showing as much of himself off as possible.

You change the settings on your camera hastily to alter the outcome of these next few shots.

He’d stepped away from the mic, turning to look at the band, mouthing something you couldn’t decipher.

He starts to lean down head getting closer to guitar. His tongue juts out…

Your eyes immediately pull back a little from your camera because, there no fucking way he’s about to let some kind of intrusive thought win here.

Time seems to slow. But not the movement of his tongue. It’s flicking fast, as if to mimic it playing the strings of his guitar. Or something like that anyway, because all you can think of is… well… something too inappropriate to even be entertaining in your head given he’s literally your boss.

You can hear the piercing screams around you, someone in the front shouting what the fuck loud enough you swear someone in the back of the stadium could’ve heard it.

You’re not even aware you bought your camera back up to your face and that you’d clicked the button a few times until it’s done and the moments over.

Harry’s laughing at himself, and Sarah is face palming at his lewd action. His smug smile after solidifies the fact he knows what the fuck he just did. And exactly the kind of effect it’s left on some people.

Just not aware you’re one of them…

Because you can’t deny the way you spent rest of the night with a nagging warmth between your legs. One that festered long after the moment was over.

After the show came to a close and you eventually ended up in your hotel room, freshly showered as you edited some of your favourite photos. Including the shots you’d captured of him and his guitar.

Which were fucking insane. You had just the right amount of contrast going on in them, and a certain degree of motion blur that indicated the movement his tongue was making.

The final product was amazing once you had edited it on photoshop. But you spent the remainder of the night in your hotel room ridiculously worked up. Left in bed toying with your clit lazily as you stared at the celling, acting like you didn’t have a specific person in your thoughts.

It got to the point in the next day where you stressed about what photos to show him. And whether or not that included the one you literally came to the thought of last night?

Usually you wouldn’t hesitate, especially since it looked incredible. But you were embarrassed internally. What would he think, or say? And could you even play off your sheer attraction to the image.

You placed your head in your hands with a groan, sat in the chair over by the window. You’re tired, and swear on your life your decision making is going to be impaired when he walks into your room.

Which you didn’t have much more time to stress much about it as a knock came to your door that you knew was him.

You rushed over to open it, finding him standing there, hair freshly washed and clad in much more clothing then you last saw him in. A plain white shirt and some gym shorts— that still made him look hot as fuck, without even trying?

He greets you with a good morning, voice a tad hoarse from last nights show. And he’s smiling as he hands you a cup, one you know is filled with hot chocolate. Just for you.

“I owe you like 100 hot chocolates for how many you’ve bought me just in this leg of the tour alone.” You laugh, letting him past you.

He glances at the unmade bed— you stopped making it a while after he started to come visit your room the morning after the show to pick which photos he liked best, and ones he also wanted edited. Sometimes he’d settle himself on it, legs crossed like a cute little kid.

“Think of it as a gift for all your talent. And putting up with me.” He chuckles, and plops himself down on the chair that’s opposite to the one you were sitting in.

So you follow suit, walking back over the your chair. Taking a small sip of the sweet liquid in your hands.

“Have any favourites so far?” He asks, taking a quick swig of his own drink— which you can only assume is hot tea.

Yes, you think, the one where you’re about to practically fuck your guitar strings with your tongue.

You substitute that for, “A few! The tassels were so fun to try and capture.”

You rotated the laptop screen to show him a cool shot you edited of him. It was a front on photo, his arms extended and washboard abs in their full fucking glory along with his tattoos.

He nods, a smile coming across his lips, crinkling the corners of his slightly tired eyes.

You showcase him a couple, all that he gives relentless praise on— regardless of if they had been edited or not. But you just want to show him your favourite.

You swallow as you stare at it on the screen of your macbook. Working up the courage to turn the screen to him as he waits cluelessly. Does he even know you took this?

“This one too…” you hesitate a little as you swivel the laptop around on your lap.

“Oh. I like this one a lot.” He says, nodding and then glancing up from the screen to your semi-flushed face.

“Didn’t know you took that.” He chuckles, shrugging and almost seeming… like he has more to say about this situation.

Like something is laying on the tip of his tongue, just waiting to be said.

You think he’s not going to though, after a beat of silence, you nod.

“Yea… what actually are you doing in this photo?” You nervous laugh, and wonder what kind of answer he’s going to provide.

He runs a hand through his curls, brows raised a little at your question.

“What did you think I was doing?” He quizzes, the corner of his mouth turning up.

“I- well it looked quite… everyone in the audience was going wild. Were you trying to be a tease?”

“I wasn’t! I swear. I was playing the guitar.” He confirmed, yet smirking like he knew there was a two-way perception of the event.

“With your tongue?” You sighed out a laugh.

“You still didn’t answer me. What did you think I was doing?” He backtracks, eyes watching you intensely as you’re both entering some rather dangerous, untouched territory.

You’re quiet again, and he raises his brows still expecting a response.

You flush under his gaze, hand coming to cover your eyes. “It just looked very…”

“Very…?”

“Inappropriate.” You laughed, feeling like you were emotionally torturing yourself by letting this situation happen.

“How so?” He continues to push, wanting to hear more. Secretly adoring the way you get all flustered about it. How badly he wants you to tell him exactly what the movement of his tongue reminded you of.

“It just— you know what I mean, Harry!” You say, now being the one trying to backtrack out of this entire situation. That in the end is still technically your own fault.

You distract yourself with other photos, going in and trying to find another possible contender for his new post on instagram.

“Don’t try and avoid the conversation, love.” He chuckles at your sudden shy demeanour.

“Harry.” You place your hand over your face again trying to mentally reset yourself. Put your thinking back in line.

“Cmon! I’m just curious.” He tries to brush it off, but if he has to resort to begging, he honestly wouldn’t hesitate.

“I know you are, but— it’s weird!” You whine, wanting to die at the fact you had let this happen in the first place.

“I promise I won’t judge.” He places his hand over his heart, face serious, like he was swearing it on his bloodline.

You thought about it a little longer. He clearly was not going to leave you alone if he didn’t get an answer. You could try and lie, but he already knows anyway. He just wants to hear you say it.

“You know, Harry. You just want to hear me say it.” You murmur, bringing up the chocolaty drink to your lips to distract yourself.

“Sure, maybe I do. I wanna confirm my suspicions.” He proposes, a small shrug of his shoulders. You place the drink back on the coaster, staring at him. Eventually caving.

“It— everyone definitely thought it looked like you were, uh, giving oral.” You rushed out, trying to now act as nonchalant as possible to avoid further questioning.

I didn’t work.

“So everyone including you?” He asked.

“Well… yea.” Your cheeks were pink, and he smiled at your flustered voice.

“Dirty thing.” He chuckled, and you almost breathed a sigh of relief thinking maybe you could move on and pretend as if this never happened, but he continues on.

“Had you a little worked up, did I?”

“May I touch on how unprofessional this conversation is?” You bring up, trying to save yourself. But it’s evident in your voice you hardly mean it. You are admittedly a little curious as to where he’s going with this. Equally, if not more embarrassed than anything, but still curious.

“I suppose you can, yes.” He nods.

“But may I bring up how you undressing me with your eyes yesterday was unprofessional? Because unless I’m insane, you definitely were.” He’s cocky, and overconfident with his accusation.

Not that it can be really labelled as an accusation, given he’s not wrong at all.

“I—“ you swallow, “Okay. Whatever. Point proven.”

He laughs at your surrender, shuffling forward on the chair.

“So you were— that’s the kind of stuff you were thinking about me?” He rests his elbows on his knees, watching you intently.

“You are really trying to get something out of me aren’t you? What do you want to hear me say?” You raise your brows, adrenaline coursing through you.

“Just want you to tell me the truth. Be honest with me, since we’re talking about being professional. I think that’s a good start.” He sounds so gentle yet firm, and your devouring this dominant kind of trait he’s showing you.

“Communication and honesty is very important when it comes to professionalism.”

Pleasure has been simmering in your stomach since he walked through the door, and his persistence is beginning to pay off, since you’re starting to let your guard down.

“So you want me to tell you how wet I got after your little stunt last night? That if I wasn’t your employee, after the show you would have found me in your dressing room bent over on the table.”

“Waiting for you to come in there, all sweaty and ready to strip that teeny fucking vest off, and put your mouth to use.”

He’s got a dusting of red over his own cheeks now, blood rushing to his cock as he realised he cracked you open now. Your dirty words spilling out of your mouth after holding back seemingly since last night.

“That what you would’ve done? Bent yourself over my dressing room table waiting for me like a pretty little post-show gift?”

“Maybe so.” You feed into it, watching as his eyes darken with desire.

He sighs out, standing up promptly, “Alright, darling. I’m gonna offer you something. You don’t have to agree, but if you do we can stop at any time. Okay?”

“What exactly are you offering?” You ask as leans his tall frame down to you, hands bracketed on your hips.

“For me to pick you up, put you on that bed and strip you until I can bury my head between your legs.” He stated, matter of factly.

Your thighs are shaking so hard you’re clenching them together— clit throbbing at the pressure.

You can only look up at him and nod, to which he doesn’t take as an answer.

“Baby, need you to use your words. Tell me what you want.”

“Yes, Harry. Want that please.” You whine, very quickly becoming delusional at his close proximity.

He grunts as he picks you up, his arms firm around your body and he carry’s you the few feet to the bed. His lips hot as they suddenly come in contact with your jaw.

He pushes your legs open with his thigh, making you moan and push your hips forward.

“Needy girl.” He whispers, voice dirty and hot near your ear as he sucks on the skin below it.

His hands cascade down your body, finding the waistband of your sweatpants and tugging it down.

“Please, please touch me.” You’re wild, bucking your hips up. Wanting to get his tongue on you so bad.

He chuckles at your sudden spiral, how quickly you’ve unravelled before him. Truly like a present, all laid out waiting just for him.

He palms his hand over your damp front, “Soaking through already, fuckin’ hell.”

You groan as he rubs a pressured circle on your fabric-covered clit.

“Want to tell me who got you so wet?” He coos, slowly moving his fingers over you as he waits for an answer.

You give it to him shamelessly, “You. Want you so badly.”

He’s over the moon to finally have you like this. Because it became apparent rather quickly the crush he’d developed on you since you were hired. And he would be lying if he said he hadn’t fucked his fist at the thought of getting to touch you.

“Oh, you’re being so good for me now. Because I’ve got my hand between your pretty legs I bet.”

You cant even respond as he slides your drenched underwear down away from your tingling core.

He audibly groans at the sight of your bare, glistening pussy. Watching as you squirm under his stare.

“Jesus fuck, Y/N. How long have you been hiding this gorgeous cunt from me?”

“Too long.” You whimper.

His fingers slid through you, and he gathered up your arousal to play with your clit. Relishing the way it slides under his fingertips.

You were clenching around nothing as he gently rolled your clit between calloused fingers. Playing with it until you were a mess. Moaning and grinding up against his fingers. Begging for what he’d promised earlier.

“Your mouth, Harry. Need it. Anywhere.”

“S’that why your little hole is clenching so hard? Like it’s begging for me.” He watched, mesmerised as your hole pulsed around nothing, and leaked more clear arousal.

You look so delicious to him. And he took a moment to appreciate the fact you were about to let him clean up all that arousal pooling at your hole

He sunk down between your legs very slowly. Distracting himself a few times with mouthing over your fabric covered breasts.

Eventually making it there, so he could blow over your clit, letting you squirm at the teasing stimulation. You smelt amazing too, your sweet tangy scent making his mouth water.

He was grabbing at his cock, pushing at it trying to relieve pressure down there as he peppered kisses along your inner thigh.

“Stop teasing, H. Please I— fuck.” You hissed as he bit the seam of skin of your thigh.

“Cant handle it huh? Are you gonna come before I even get my tongue on you.”

“Want to finish around your mouth.” You plead with him. And he shakes his head with a laugh, anticipating your reaction as he leans forward to drag a long stroke through your slit.

Your whole body shakes with a moan. His velvety, hot tongue immediately leaving you a wreck.

“Harryyy…” You cry out, bucking your hips into his face.

“Gonna ruin your cunt, darling.” He murmurs into you, and you know it’s true with the way your hole is clenching.

He sucks your clit into his mouth before placing fast strokes over it. Flicking and rolling it between his tongue and lips.

The sounds of him lapping up your pussy are echoing through the room, further fuelling the fire that’s started in you.

Your whole jaw goes lax as he moves further down, gliding over your hole— pushing his tongue past your entrance.

“Fuck!” You moan, hips jolting, causing his hands to slide up and hold them into place.

He slides it into you as far as he can, nose bumping your clit. Making you realise very quickly that you’re going to finish around his mouth.

He moans into you, again the vibrations makes you writhe in his tight grip. “I- Harry- more!”

It’s making your whole body shake, and he’s pressed so far into you that it’s all you can feel. And it’s obvious that you’re about to come, just with the way your cunt is pulsing around his mouth.

“Fuck! Fuckfuckfuck. Harry, please, I’m gonna come!” You felt the burning spark fly through you, hitting you like a truck when his tongue curled and rocked inside you.

He’s humming and pressing himself so close you genuinely think he can’t breathe. And you realise immediately when the rubber band in snapped inside of you.

It gushed through your whole body, making you moan and cry in his grip. He couldn’t even explain the feeling of having you clenching around his tongue. It almost made him finish in his pants.

He lapped up every single drop he could. But he didn’t stop.

Your clit was so sensitive as he came back up to it with the same intensive pace.

You tried to push him off, “be a good girl, baby, give me another one.”

“So sensitive, Harry.” You whined, hand threading into his soft hair.

“Y’can take it.” He states, going back to sucking on your clit, and the outside of your entrance.

It made you a mess. A proper fucking mess.

You legs were being spread wide by the palm of his hands, and you were almost crying at how sensitive your pussy was.

You were always a five-minute-scroll-break kind of girl when it came to masturbation. So this came as a whole shock to your body. And it was so fucking hot from his perspective.

All he could hear was your filthy fucking whines, begging him one minute to stop and the next to go faster. And he was going insane at how sensitive your little hole was.

That was all he could feel. The clenching of your cunt, the absolute shaking mess your body was becoming.

His tongue flicked over your clit, just as you imagined he would after seeing him last night. And it was getting to messy, your arousal absolutely coating his mouth and chin.

“I-“ a deep suck of your clit, “I’m gonna fucking come!”

You writhed the whole way through your orgasm. Fucking into his face like it was a toy, grinding into it so hard your sure he was completely consumed by you.

And as you came down from the high, still shaking, he cleaned up down there again. Too good to waste, was his thought process. ‘You tasted like a dream’ you’re pretty sure you hear him mutter against you at some point.

His thumbs run over the dips of your hips to bring you back down to earth.

“Good girl, Baby. Took my mouth so fucking well.” He presses a final kiss on your clit as he stood up, your hands dragging up his back did.

“Feeling a little better too, i hope.”

“Yes. So good. H.” You panted, still in a bit of a daze.

“Next time,” he peppered a kiss on you shoulder, “tell me when you’re feeling all worked up okay.”

You nodded, hands sliding to rest in his hair.

“Or by all means, lay yourself out in my dressing room so I can make make come like you deserve.” He smiles at your little nod, still so out of it.

“My little gift, hm?” He coos, stroking a gentle hand down your face.

And he knows he’d do this moment a thousand times over with you. Just to see that smile flash over your lips.

———

#harry styles #harry styles imagine #harry styles smut #fanfiction #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fluff #harry styles oneshot #harry styles x reader #harry styles x you #harry styles x y/n #harry styles barcelona #he is so fucking hot I cant #that clip 🧎‍♀️ #smut

[justinspoliticalcorner]

News Corpse at Daily Kos:

On the first day of testimony in Donald Trump's election interference (aka "hush money") trial in New York, the defendant sat ruefully contemplating his fate. When he wasn't nodding off, he is reported to have appeared tired and annoyed as the opening statements were delivered. Trump's attorney embarked on a bold strategy to argue that reimbursing his lawyer for a $130,000.00 payment to buy the silence of a porn star in order to improperly influence an election, then lying about it on his financial reports, had nothing to with him. Of course not. He's just a pure-hearted, selfless, martyr trying to save America. As the trial proceeds, Trump is undergoing some severe stress and annoyance at how his MAGA cult is failing to sufficiently support him in his hour of need. On Monday morning he took to his floundering social media scam, Truth Social, to whip them into shape and incite them into taking more forceful action on his behalf. Trump wrote that...

["America Loving Protesters should be allowed to protest at the front steps of Courthouses, all over the Country, just like it is allowed for those who are destroying our Country on the Radical Left, a two tiered system of justice. Free Speech and Assembly has been 'CHILLED' for USA SUPPORTERS. GO OUT AND PEACEFULLY PROTEST. RALLY BEHIND MAGA. SAVE OUR COUNTRY! 'THE ONLY THING YOU HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF.'"]

Trump is implying that "America Loving" protesters (which in his noxious narcissism means "Trump loving") are not being "allowed" to gather to support him. But who is stopping them? There just isn't any real enthusiasm among his minions to show up. So in his dismay over the tepid turnout, Trump is trying to fire up his flock the way he did on January 6, 2021, for the insurrection at the Capitol. Only this time he wants them to crash courthouses across the country.

@newscorpse writes in @dailykos about Donald Trump whining over the fact that his MAGA cult isn't protesting at courthouses across the nation to protest his supposed "persecution" in the People of New York v. Trump election interference case.

#People of New York v. Trump #Donald Trump Trial #Donald Trump #TRUTH Social

[someoctober]

Home Video is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus.[4][5][6] It was released on June 25, 2021, via Matador.[7] It was promoted by the singles "Thumbs", "Hot & Heavy", "VBS", "Brando", and "Going Going Gone". The album received critical acclaim and placed on many critics' year-end lists.

Background[edit]

In late February 2021, certain fans of Dacus received a VHS tape of a new song in the mail. On March 9, 2021, the song was released using the title "Thumbs". It had long been a staple of Dacus' live performances prior to its release. Dacus explained the way the song came about in a press release.

Like most songs I write, I wasn't expecting it and it made me feel weird, almost sick.

Home video footage is used in the album's music videos, as Dacus "wanted to visualize the moment when you first reflect on your childhood, which I think can also be the moment that childhood is over."[9]

Promotion

Prior to the album's announcement, "Thumbs" was released as the lead single on March 9, 2021. On April 13, 2021, Dacus released the lead single for the album, "Hot & Heavy".[10] The release of "Hot & Heavy" was accompanied by the album's official announcement.[4] Dacus performed the song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.[11] On May 19, 2021, Dacus released the album's third single, "VBS".[10] "Brando" was released as the fourth single on June 8, 2021. The song was sent to adult alternative radio on June 14, 2021.[12] Dacus promoted the album with a 28-city tour across North America in 2021.[6] A shortened version of "Going Going Gone" was released as a single on August 7, 2021.[13]

Critical reception

Home Video was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 85, based on 18 reviews.[14]

Reviewing for AllMusic, Marcy Donelson wrote that, "With Dacus' warm vocals and melodies leading the way throughout, Home Video is an engrossing set steeped in life lessons and nostalgia."[15] In Clash, Rebecca Sibley declared it "a powerful album" and "another exquisite offering from Lucy Dacus",[16] while Pitchfork's Peyton Thomas appraised it as "a bold statement, a powerful post-adolescent text in its own right".[2] Exclaim! reviewer Dylan Barnabe claimed that, "Dacus has long been heralded for her ability as a raconteur, and Home Video further cements this reputation. It is a deeply personal album filled with raw vignettes of young adulthood that claw at our collective consciousness."[17] Writing for NME, Rhian Daly believed that, "for the most part, Dacus proves that looking back at your past might make you cringe, but there is beauty and value in those faltering, gawky days."[18] Rolling Stone magazine's Angie Martoccio hailed the album as "her greatest work yet — a cohesive and poignant collection of tales from her teenage years in Richmond, Virginia", with stories "woven like a quilt, with several dark patches reminiscent of her hero Bruce Springsteen's The River".[19] Jeremy Winograd shared similar praise in his review for Slant Magazine, saying that, "Ultimately, it's less the nuances of Dacus's writing than her willingness to expose herself and her past so freely—even the most difficult parts—that make the strongest impression on Home Video."[20]

In June 2021, Home Video was listed as the 15th best album of the year so far by Stereogum and was included on a similar list by Slant.[22][23]

you are SO real for this

#lucy dacus #asks #amelie tag

[blueiskewl]

Picasso Masterpiece 'Femme à la montre' Sells for $139 Million at Auction

A Picasso masterpiece entitled “Femme à la montre” fetched more than $139 million on Wednesday, becoming the second most valuable work by the artist ever sold at auction.

The 1932 oil painting took center-stage at a two-day event at Sotheby’s in New York, at the sale of late philanthropist Emily Fisher Landau’s private collection.

The piece, which measures 51¼ x 38 inches (130 x 96.5 centimeters), depicts Picasso’s lover and “golden muse” Marie-Thérèse Walter, who featured in many of his portraits.

According to the auction house, the portrait is from one of the most prolific years of the Spanish artist’s career, which was the subject of an entire exhibition organized by the Musée Picasso in Paris and London’s Tate Modern in 2018.

In a statement announcing the sale in September, Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s head of Impressionist & Modern Art for the Americas, said: “Picasso’s ‘Femme à la Montre’ is a masterpiece by every measure. Painted in 1932 — Picasso’s ‘annus mirabilis’ — it is full of joyful, passionate abandon yet at the same time it is utterly considered and resolved. Its bold primary colors sing from the five-foot-tall-canvas.”

Picasso first met Walter in Paris in 1927 when she was 17 years old and he was still married to his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, a Russian-Ukrainian ballet dancer. Walter would become the inspiration for some of his most sought-after canvases, drawings and sculptures.

As time went on, Picasso found it increasingly difficult to hide his feelings for Walter from his work — something that became clear during his first large-scale retrospective and finally ended his marriage.

The artist painted “Femme à la montre” in August 1932, soon after the retrospective at the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris ended.

According to Sotheby’s, “the sense of release from keeping secrets about his affair seem to have spilled out onto this extraordinary canvas, in which he gives full painterly rein to new-found freedoms, drenching the painting in strong primary colors and beautiful forms, while at the same time paying careful attention to every small detail, creating a composition that is both intensely complex and deeply harmonious.”

Picasso died in 1973, and Walter in 1977.

The painting is one of about 120 from the collection of Fisher Landau, a world renowned contemporary art collector who died earlier this year aged 102, according to The Art Newspaper.

The two-part sale, which concludes Thursday, also includes works by Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning and Georgia O’Keeffe. The collection is expected to sell for over $400 million overall. Other big-ticket items auctioned on Wednesday included one of Jasper Johns’ iconic American flag paintings, which went for $41 million, and an Ed Ruscha artwork — an oil painting emblazoned with the word “Boss” — that fetched more than $39.4 million.

Fisher Landau began seriously collecting after receiving an insurance payout following an armed robbery of her jewelry at her New York home in 1969.

In an interview for an exhibition catalog, quoted in the Sotheby’s statement, she said of the episode: “Even though Lloyds of London paid up, there was no way to replace that collection. It was so beautiful. And they got it in one fell swoop…. I was devastated. But I decided that I didn’t want the jewelry any more. I now had seed money for a collection.”

Last year, Picasso’s most curious painting of Walter, in which she appears as a tentacled sea creature, sold for $67.5 million at Sotheby’s in New York.

Picasso’s portraits of Walter have become highly sought-after, with his other 1932 works “Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse),” selling for $103.41 million in 2021, and “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” selling for $106.5 million in 2010.

In May 2015, Picasso’s “Les femmes d’Alger (Version “O”) sold at Christie’s in New York for $179.4 million — at that time, the highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction.

By Lianne Kolirin.

Pablo Picasso Femme à la montre

Signed Picasso (upper left); inscribed Boisgeloup and dated 17 Août XXXII. (on the stretcher). oil on canvas. Executed on 17 August 1932. 51 ⅛ by 38 ⅛ in. 130 by 97 cm.

#Pablo Picasso #Picasso Masterpiece 'Femme à la montre' Sells for $139 Million at Auction #Pablo Picasso Femme à la montre 1932 #spanish artist #painter #painting #oil on canvas #art #artist #art work #art world #art news

[deltaengineering]

Winter Anime 2024: Payday

Metallic Rouge

Metallic Rouge hasn't ended yet, but I am quite certain that at this point it's unsalvageable. I can give it one thing: it's going for a specific ~vibe~, and nails it. Why anyone would want to evoke the ~vibe~ of "deservedly forgotten 2000s sci-fi seasonal" is beyond me (I won't provide an example, because if I could remember it it wasn't forgettable enough), but there you go. Truly, Bones have outdone themselves with this celebration of their 25 year legacy.

It's hard to even start, but the one thing everyone is certain about is as good as any: The plotting and structure of this show is a complete mess. Some consider this "ambitious", but I don't think an ambition of "let's throw in every half baked thing we can think of and try to glue it together with proper nouns" is worth celebrating. We've got insipid and illogical worldbuilding that ultimately goes nowhere, brave political statements on the level of "slavery sure is bad but don't be rude about it", metaphor bombshells like a character who schemes behind the scenes and styles themselves the "puppetmaster" and constant plot twists that explain things long after I've given up on even trying to make sense of anything. That's where the ~vibe~ comes from: everything that has ever vaguely annoyed you in a mid anime is somehow in this one all at once.

This wouldn't be so bad if it had characters that are entertaining on their own, but here we meet the most bizarre creative decision: the one thing it has going for it is the Diet Dirty Pair banter between Rouge and Naomi, which elevates a few episodes to "decent", but of course they spend half the show seperated. And by themselves, Rouge likes chocolate and is as dumb as a brick with charisma to match, while Naomi is sassy and mysterious and that's it. The rest of the characters (and naturally, there are far too many of them) are either irritating or at best just bland.

So if this is Bones pulling out all the stops, at least you should expect the production values to be high, but even that is a mixed bag. Metallic Rouge looks quite mediocre for the most part until it's time for a dedicated Sakuga Cut™, which might be a fight or alternatively just a random one of the dozens of boring hallway conversations (that Crunchyroll of all things is treating this as a joke really says it all). And even the fights aren't all that great, because this show somehow manages to have bad sound mixing and music beds that I'd call interesting in theory but don't work well as a score. At least it has a stellar OP, but even that seemed a lot better before the show actually came out.

I might bump up the score a point if it ends exceptionally well (which it won't), but even in that case... it's still bad. Please go back to sourcing your deep plots from Weekly Shounen Jump, Bones. ~3/10

Bucchigiri...

Bucchigiri..., on the other hand, has the exact opposite problem: While Metallic Rouge is a convoluted tangle of inconsequential plot, this show is just happy to phone it in. It almost feels like a rerun of fall 2021, where Metallic Rouge is the new Fena and Bucchigiri... is the new Takt:Op. It leaves an agreeable first impression, with a bold, colorful look, unusual setting, expressive direction and kinetic animation – but everything not entirely superficial is an excuse, and a "dog ate my homework" level of excuse at that. If all you want is bromantic burly brettyboys going through the motions, get your fanfic pen ready, but don't expect the show itself to provide significantly more than character designs. It doesn't help that the main character is particularly bad, with his gimmick being "annoying disinterested horndog". These non-characters keep going in circles slapping each other's asses and being not very funny for two thirds of the show, until a very generic "sensitive best friend is tempted by evil" drama plot appears because even yaoi shippers realize that eventually something has to happen, which boils down to Matakara going around slapping everyone's asses again, but now it's supposed to be sad. And then that doesn't work at all, because for character drama you need characters. Who knew.

Of course the funny bit is that this is pretty much what I asked for. I gave SKOO shit for only being good at the wacky parts while the heartfelt drama and more fleshed out characters fell flat. Well, now the director's followup work is just the wacky bits and feels completely hollow for it, and then the exaggerated drama lacks anything to back it up. Maybe just do better, I suppose. Oh yeah, and this also hasn't ended yet but with how completely predictable it is I feel like I've already seen the final episode. ~4/10

Undead Unluck

You can take the Shounen out of the Jump but you can't take the Jump out of the Shounen. I don't usually touch the Weekly Shounen Jump brand for good reasons, but Undead Unluck definitely had one of the strongest first impressions for one in a long time, if only because it has leads that aren't Goku and Vegeta again. But it also had a flashy, devil-may-care attitude with absurd nonsense happening left and right, a bonkers setting that is actually interesting in its own right and production value to back it up. In short, it was Fire Force with arguably better characters. When it's firing on all cylinders, Undead Unluck is a very fun time.

The problem is that Undead Unluck is firing on all cylinders about as often as a Cadillac V8-6-4 with a flaky ignition distributor. Primarily it has a massive padding problem: The amount of recapping and flashbacks to things that just happened is patently ridiculous and I say that as someone who has watched two seasons of My Hero Academia. If you include things like OP and ED, I feel like calling roughly a third of this show's runtime literally repeated content is not a wild exaggeration. And that's only literally repeated content – since this is Weekly Shounen Jump, there is also a lot of restating of facts and tedious explanations. I can't even blame this just on Jump Editorial, because a lot of the time it seems to be in service of hitting the right cliffhangers – but if both source and adaptation have severe pacing issues, it all compounds to the worst pacing in any show I've seen a considerable amount of.

And then, even in the coinflip of time when it's actually doing anything, it's obviously not always at its best either. This is honestly acceptable from a show that goes wild – with these you have to take the bad with the good. I didn't care much for the lazily metafictional final arc for example, but it would be perfectly fine if it didn't (quite expectedly at this point) do its core statement twice in as many episodes in a row, only with more screaming the second time. It's good when it's good, sure, but it would have to be outstandingly brilliant to make the whole thing worth it – which it isn't, so it's not. 5/10

Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete (Gushing over Magical Girls)

My standard line regarding any extra spicy fanservice anime show has always been "you know you can find real porn on the internet easily, right". Gushing over Magical Girls (which is, aint gonna lie, a genius title translation) is a pretty good example why: Even though it is pretty damn explicit, it still isn't on the level of actual porn, and then the extended moaning and wriggling sequences just take up so much of the time that it gets tedious pretty fast. And a lot of the "other" content of the show is just blatantly an excuse to make the porn happen. There's some edgy comedy too, but I think characters like Kiwi are more annoying than anything, so that didn't do much for me either. Then the middle section of the show is an excursion where our protagonist villains go sex up a couple of more villainous villains, which feels like it's missing the point even by its own standards. Also, be aware that with hentai content come hentai production values, and this one is definitely below average. None of this is particularly unusual.

However, I kept watching this one, and the reason is pretty simple: I don't actually object to spiciness in principle, and in the beginning the show did a pretty good job of portraying Utena's awakening to a bunch of fetishes. That she then started an awkward on-and-off anonymous BDSM relationship with an actual magical girl was even better. I honestly have to say that this is a brilliant concept, even if it wasn't executed to a level where I was certain it was intentional. Also, while it's arguably the "main plot", it's a fairly small part of the show and when it didn't show up much in the middle I was sure the show had lost me. I do have to admit though that against all odds, Gushing does stick the landing, with a final episode that really pays off that plotline in the best way you could reasonably (see above) expect. It's a bit of a rough ride, but this show delivers.

So I'm two minds about Gushing over Magical Girls. If you just consider it a hentai OVA that somehow escaped to television (which is not an unreasonable standpoint), it feels surprisingly ambitious and well thought out. But as a regular TV show, it just has too many weaknesses to ignore. Still, even though I can't call it good, I still think it's a more interesting curio than the score might make it sound. 5/10

Hime-sama "Goumon" no Jikan desu ('Tis Time For "Torture", Princess)

Oh no, this has "torture" in the title, what could it mean? Yeah, I think at this point everyone knows that it's a joke (one might even say... The Joke) and let's leave it at that. It feels like every season there's some fluffy and cute comedy that I quite enjoy for no profound reason. The Alleged Torture here simply doesn't do anything wrong, manages to find just about enough angles to its one joke to not get boring, and features nice designs and enough production value to deliver a smooth ride all the way to the end. It occasionally does something beyond its one joke, and that tends to turn out cute and chill as well, like Tortura's modest OL home life. Really the only thing I don't like about this is the manzai reaction antics of the sword – explaining the joke is always questionable, but it's especially so when there is exactly one punchline that never changes. In any case, this one is hardly essential and there are many others like it, but sometimes you just want something sweet and inoffensive that still puts the effort in. And this is definitely one of those. 6/10

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (Apothecary Diaries)

I feel like I should like this show a lot more than I actually do. This is because it is made of great ingredients: Very nice looks, a setting with tons of potential, mostly interesting characters and in particular an amazing main character. Maomao is just great, she has tons of personality and a funny oddball charm that is tempered by a smart and stoic attitude. The beginning of the show, where Maomao plays the streetwise intruder into the stilted world of court intrigue and manages to cut through the bullshit like nobody else could, is pretty excellent.

However, as the show went on, it became clear that I just don't agree with the direction the plot takes. Of course it turns out that Maomao is actually deeply involved into the court drama in half a dozen ways (without ever telling the audience about it, which smells of retcon). Of course the focus shifts to other characters like Jinshi or later on Lakan, who are far less interesting. Of course there is a romance with Jinshi on the horizon. I don't want to be that guy that is mad that a show doesn't turn out to be what they had wished it to be, but it's still a letdown.

And that's not mentioning that the daily business of the show, various levels of detective work, is hardly solid gold either. It's just bad at mystery writing – most "cases" turn out to be massively contrived and then Maomao walks in and just guesses the solution out of nowhere. The large-scale mystery (who is Jinshi, really?) is not much of a mystery at all but Maomao can't figure it out because apparently she has to solve these complicated and tiny problems before she can realize the simple and obvious large one. And then there's the drama, which is effective enough in the moment but seems to be mostly built on a foundation of allegedly smart people acting much more stupid than they should.

So overall, I think this is still a good show simply because Maomao is fun to watch no matter what, but I just don't think the writing can quite hold up its part of the bargain, and that is kind of a bummer. 7/10

Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern

Bang Bravern arrived with a simple, but quite amusing thesis statement: What if you had a tacticool, Armored Core-like mecha setting but then everything changed when a super robot show invaded. That's pretty funny. It also just so happens that Masami Oobari knows that the likes of Top Gun tend to have a certain undertone, and also made Bang Bravern explicitly homoerotic. That's even funnier. Add to this the fact that the epic super robot action genre is inherently hilariously over the top, and you have the makings of a very amusing show. Now, I could just leave it at that, because that's what Bravern is. An over the top and self-aware love letter to the super robot shows of old, with a couple of additional comedic angles.

In other words, it's like all super robot shows that have been made in the last two decades. Yeah, Bravern is undeniably quite entertaining, but I also don't think it's anywhere as unique as people seem to think it is. The "super in a world of reals" joke in particular doesn't really come into play that often, apart from when that side of the show keeps introducing dozens of characters that then proceed to not do anything apart from standing on the sidelines. The gay love affair does matter more often, but seems to run into diminishing returns because once you've done "come inside me" (which it does in like episode 3), you really have nowhere to go. And besides those two, well... it's charmingly exuberant and features all the goofy tropes, but it lacks the absurd hugeness of a TTGL or the meaningful subtext of a Gridman – and that's only shows that I have actually seen as a non-fan of the genre. I suppose fans will gladly take it anyway, because the genre is somewhat rare nowadays, but Bravern doesn't exactly blow me away. Still, you can't deny the fun. 7/10

Sousou no Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End)

So here we come to the big dog. The show that's pulling Doraemon numbers on Japanese TV, has been riding a comfortable #1 spot on MAL for months, and has inspired an unfathomable amount of porn. And the real surprising thing is that it's the first show in a very long time that I think comes even close to deserving that level of hype, especially early in its run when it absolutely isn't the kind of show you'd expect to do this – apart from the production values being about as good as TV anime gets, naturally.

Frieren starts out as an uniquely focused narrative that explores as many angles as it can out of a complicated mess of legacy, memory and regret through the lens of a pretty simple and generic RPG trope. It achieves this almost entirely through one of the best casts I've seen in a long time – Frieren may not be quite as charming a protagonist as Maomao, but she has much more depth and more importantly, every character that matters in her show is almost as good, and their relationships are even better. In its first-cours adventure mode, when we're just wandering around having more or less episodic encounters and plot points that drift in and out of focus with a wistful tone but splashes of goofy comedy, Frieren is quite excellent and would have been my show of last year if I had considered it eligible.

But then it slams in a new gear with the elegance of a tractor driver who thinks clutches are for pussies. Suddenly we're doing a proper Shounen Exam Arc and we're getting a lot less of this and a lot more of this. Now to be fair, this is a long running manga and it probably could not have kept doing flashbacks to Frieren being too dense to realize that Himmel was hitting on her 80 years ago forever. But still, the mage examination arc just really isn't Frieren at its best. It's not even that the content is particularly bad (maybe apart from the really quite rough beginning), and I do understand the long-term benefits of introducing a bigger cast of characters for future use, especially when they turn out to be quite good eventually... but it all just takes way too long. There's still great moments here, but that's usually a small segment of the established good stuff or, failing that, Frieren dropping a sick ass spell. Yeah, I won't even blame this on the action, because said action is incredibly well done and still quite brief, but you really didn't need a full season of theorycrafting and skill discussions to get those explosions. In short. Frieren temporarily turns into Full Metal Alchemist with better leads, and while this would be high praise for almost any shounen manga, it isn't for the one that has demonstrated it can do far better.

There is one real upside to this distraction arc though: Unlike, say, the plot problems of Apothecary Diaries that are here to stay, none of this irreversible, which Frieren immediately makes clear by snapping back to its best behaviour the second they leave the designated raid zones. The ending is as good as any part of the show, with the skillful writing and great tone we have come to wish for. Frieren may not be as consistently excellent as it first appeared, but it is still pretty damn good – and not on a purely superficial level either, because it obviously can have outstanding writing when it wants to and the fundamentals are rock solid too. 8/10

Yubisaki to Renren (A Sign of Affection)

And the top spot of the season goes to... a show that may not be the most ambitious, but does absolutely nothing wrong. Yubisaki to Renren is a fluffy romance where a very cute girl meets a very nice boy, and then no drama happens because not everyone in the world is a fucking idiot. I think my delight with this says more about the absolute state of romance anime than it does about the show itself, but I also have to say that while the plot of this show might be simplistic, it takes great care to set everything up in such a way to get away with said simplistic plot.

Obviously the core of the setup is that Yuki is deaf. But, quite smartly, the author doesn't make the story about Yuki's problems with not being able to hear, but rather about how her world is just... limited. And Itsuomi is a dude with an uncommonly wide worldview and experience. Opposites attract, and there you go. The show basically gets all the grounding it needs from that simple setup for free, then throws in a bit of complicated history among the larger cast. Then just make Yuki incredbly cute and Itsuomi an uncommonly levelheaded adult who will take measures to prevent any pointless drama before it gets out of hand, and you have a show that's just 100% a good time all the way through. So the leads (i.e., the thing that matters way above all else in a romance) are great, and the rest of the cast is more than fine too, even those who would instigate such drama – it can't get annoying, because they never succeed.

Really if I had to say something negative about this show it would be that it's still superficial compared to a show at its skill level that does go hard. I mean, it's about two nice people falling in love and nothing goes wrong, which isn't exactly a lot. There is maybe also the idea that Itsuomi may be a bit too perfect, but I'm just more than happy to see a male lead in a shoujo romance that is neither an abusive jerk nor a bland cardboard cutout. In a perfect world, something like Yubisaki to Renren should feel a bit bland and generic, but in the real one, there just isn't much like it. 9/10

#anime #review #winter2024 #metallic rouge #bucchigiri?! #gushing over magical girls #undead unluck #hime sama goumon no jikan desu #kusuriya no hitorigoto #yuuki bakuhatsu bang bravern #sousou no frieren #yubisaki to renren

[infinitydivine]

Hii dr, I am genuinely confused abt certain things if u can answer, I want to know ur perspective..I read somewhere that when a person is in twinflame journey, he is so old soul, already learnt a lots of lessons, and being a womanizer is unlikely since he would know to find the balance and not get swayed by the materialistic things..

TBH we don't know Jungkook at all, whn the world says he is a womanizer, sleeps and date casually, there are also tarot readers and astrology predictrs from his new birthchart who say they don't get the player energy from him at all, he is afraid to date since he still has insecurities, and he must emotionally connect with someone to sleep with thm, to the anonymous saying tarot community is false, remember we nvr knew the real Jungkook, it's all the judgements the world is making abt him.

It's usually the theory of tf that it is easier for dm to date other people whn in seperation whereas the awakened df will not be interested in simply dating other people she will already know her worth, surrender to the Divine...but we can't ignore the fact that if Jungkook is an active womanizer remember he creates karma and have consequences for his every actions, he gotta deal with his karma now or later, timing is very crucial in a tf journey, if he can't align with the timing and still get stuck in low vibrational energy, we gotta take other possibility of them not uniting in this lifetime thats y readers say his tf is only a potential partner, the thing that is most disappointing here is when the universe is showing the path of spirituality,he is deliberately avoiding it not wanting to come out of his comfort zone, only whn he becomes the dm for his df,they can unite, so it's ALWAYS 50-50 possibility in future, people are so caught up making their own image of him, forgetting to be rational.

Yes, you are partially correct about the things you said. We can't generalize every old soul into one. Learned lessons are part of Spiritual awakening first and not always Twinflame journey.

It's not about DM or DF and who dates or not. Mostly it is about individual to individual. Sometimes it's our own personal choices too.

About him being a womanizer... that's a bold statement to make for who we don't know personally. That's only a guess. But yes he has a lot of Karma to deal with now and he is not accepting it wholeheartedly. Instead of running from it, he should just accept it. But I understand it's hard to accept such things. He has started his healing journey... especially the majority of them from 2021. If you see him in 2021 his energy feels all over the place, but now he has become more stable energetically which means he has done some shadow work. You have some interesting points to make Anon.

#bts tarot #jungkook tarot

[usafphantom2]

Russia's 'inability' to establish air superiority in Ukraine

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 01/09/2024 - 19:30in Military, War Zone.

Russia is once again showing that it is not able to achieve air superiority in Ukraine, as it did at the beginning of its large-scale invasion of the country, British defense officials said.

In the autumn, Ukrainian forces established a bridgehead, or a strong support point, on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, near the city of Kherson in the south. The river has long been a critical natural barrier that prevents advances, but Kiev has taken a bold strategic measure that is re-enarging this front area.

To make the Ukrainians retreat, Russia resorted to its available air power to attack the Ukrainian bridgehead at Krynky, on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River, controlled by Russia. But that changed on December 22, when Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk, commander of the Ukrainian air force, said that his troops shot down three Su-34 Fullback fighter-bombers.

Su-34 Fullback.

The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (MoD) noted on X, former Twitter, the importance of the overthrow of the three Russian Su-34 jets over southern Ukraine.

A U.S.-made MIM-104 Patriot air defense system shot down the planes, according to Russian military bloggers. Ukraine also said that, on December 24, its armed forces destroyed two other Russian warplanes, a Su-30 and a Su-34, on the fronts of Odessa and Mariupol in the Black Sea. There has still been no official confirmation of the statements from either side.

After the losses, the Russian Aerospace Forces almost completely interrupted manned operations in southern Ukraine, the United Kingdom MoD said on Saturday.

“This demonstrates once again that Russia's inability to establish air superiority in the early stages of the Russia-Ukraine war continues to undermine its daily operation,” the MoD said.

Russian Sukhoi Su-35 jet fighters fire rockets during the Aviadarts competition, as part of the 2021 International Army Games in the Dubrovichi mountain range, near Ryazan, Russia, on August 27, 2021. (Archive photo: REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov)

This lack of air support may have contributed “to the failure of an attempt by the 18º Combined Weapons Army of the Russian Ground Forces to clean the bridgehead,” British authorities said. In recent days, Russia has increased air strikes around the bridgehead, “but to a lower level than before the slaughters”.

Although the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in November on the X that its forces had consolidated positions in fortresses on the Dnieper River, the Ukrainian Marines questioned the operation around the bridgehead and spoke of high losses.

Some have told Western media, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, that the operation is useless, with many hit on the banks of the rivers or in the water before they even reach the other side.

Su-35 Flanker.

Open source military and intelligence analyst Emil Kastehelmi said last month that it was not clear what Ukraine's objectives were. “Although the operation itself may be somewhat questionable from the Ukrainian point of view, the Russians were not able to take the bridgehead,” Kastehelmi said.

“Instead, they continuously attack there with limited forces, suffering constant loss of equipment,” he added. "There is still the possibility of Ukrainians trying to open a new bridge elsewhere and expand the operation during the winter."

MiG-31 Foxhound.

The Russian military was expected to pave the way for their ground attack with air power that would destroy Ukrainian air defenses and ensure air superiority, but the Russian air force was practically absent in action, surprising many observers.

This unforced failure to compromise their air forces in combat at first was seen as a big mistake, which helped give Ukrainians an opportunity to combat. Russia has never had the same opportunity again and since then has paid dearly for this mistake with lost fighters and helicopters.

At the end of December, the independent think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) stated that, after the losses of aircraft, Russian forces were “concerned with Ukrainian air defense capabilities” and limited manned aviation near the Crimea occupied by Russia, particularly in the northwestern Black Sea region.

Moscow demonstrated that it can overcome Kiev in the skies thanks to disparities in the size of the force, in the electronic and technical capabilities and in the performance of missiles and radar, neither Russia nor Ukraine managed to establish air superiority due to the formidable capacity of the ground-to-air missile system on both sides. The airspace above the battlefield in Ukraine remains disputed.

Soon Ukraine will receive F-16 fighters.

Ukraine hopes that its fate will change with the eventual arrival of F-16 fighters manufactured in the US, some of which were promised to Kiev by some of its European supporters. But when exactly these advanced aircraft are scheduled to arrive is not clear and can still take months, if not more.

Tags: Military AviationRFSAF - Russian Federation Aerospace Force/Russian Aerospace ForceWar Zones - Russia/Ukraine

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[save-the-villainous-cat]

You used latin proverb “Homo Homini lupus” as the main inspiration for your snippet, I just look it up, and there's another line to it, "Lupus est homo homini, non homo, quom qualis sit non novit", which has been translated as "A man is a wolf rather than a man to another man, when he hasn't yet found out what he's like."

so , taking the "when he hasn't yet found out what he's like",

What if the Villain had a psychological condition? Like MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder).

People with this condition (im a psychology student so u can trust me) often have different names for all their personalities. For eg, if you have seen the 2021 movie Cruella (its my favorite movie in the entire universe pls watch it) the main character, Cruella, has 2 personalities. One named Estella who is polite, soft-spoken, and compassionate, and the other named Cruella who is bold, unapologetic, and very, very, VERY driven for revenge.

The villain in the story of yours, their (say personality A) tells them to seek revenge and kill the hero, which will thus reward them with the feeling of "Oh yeah I succeeded in my mission by killing my hero, I lost my lover but I stayed true to myself but im crying"

basically this personality of their's gets emotional. They understand feelings, however the other B completely lacks emotions and has no concern for feelings.

However their more scary (personality B) tells them that "okay but why kill the hero? Ill lock the hero up, go kill my entire family, and hero won't be able to stop me, I over power them anyway."

Their personality B sort of disregards hero's feelings of heroism, where the hero goes "I won't let you do that!!" Their pers.B goes "What will you do about it idc im stronger than you anyways"

So, in that moment, where you are ending the story, pers.A that wants to kill the hero, is overpowered by pers.B

And then they knock out the hero and leave them unconscious (and trapped) in their lair. Then they go kill their entire family with absolutely no concern or emotions (another trait of someone who is a psychopath acc to psychology)

And when they return to their lair, they are covered in blood. They go to check up on the hero who is safe and sound. And they are satisfied cuz their plan was successful and hero is safe, they didnt get to shed any blood.

Mmmm very detailed, very interesting.

However. I know homo homini lupus is from Plautus, not Hobbes. I used Hobbes’ interpretation though because I think that specific opinion on humanity is fucking wild and definitely something a villain would come up with too.

Man is violent. Man is aggressive. Man is wolf to man.

Plautus wrote something similar but his view on mankind’s nature is more like “as long as man doesn’t know man, he will be a wolf.” Which includes a reason for this behaviour at least, even though it’s still fucked up. But also valid? I see every man I see as a threat and I have good reason to.

I was more going for the Hobbes version because that’s such a raw and negative view on mankind that the villain uses this as excuse and the hero forgives them for their actions by saying it.

Homo homini lupus, I get it. The hero knows what the villain is like, they know they have this insane worldview of “man is destroying his own species if he has to.” And the hero uses that to build some lost connection between them. I get it. They understand. And that’s how they try to get the villain on their side again, despite knowing that it’s too late. Last hope, I guess.

The villain using homo homini lupus in the end could either be them explaining their next action (killing the hero) or them devaluing it. They say it and they actually believed in it but they don’t kill the hero because they’ve outgrown that statement.

And that’s why I was curious on your opinions hihihi.

I didn’t write the characters to have mpd (it would be more obvious if I had) but I think your thoughts are really interesting!

Also I will never watch Cruella because I truly believe that every Disney life-action remake or movie that focuses on old Disney characters is killing most of my brain cells ten minutes into the movie. But it’s good that this movie makes you happy!

#no writing

[yr-obedt-cicero]

you’re the only one I can think of that would know most about this, but is it true William S. Hamilton was gay? or what started the rumors?

The speculation of William's sexuality rose to question because William - unlike the rest of his family - never married and remained a bachelor throughout his life. With that being said, the whole discussion boils down to nothing but mere speculation. There's no actual evidence, or anything notable that could slightly confirm it.

Theodore Rodolf, a political rival of William's, wrote that; “He was a confirmed bachelor, and did not seem to care much for female society.” [x] Although Rodolf's account should be taken with a grain of salt due his evident bias against William as a political competitor. And historian A. K. Fielding tells a different perspective of William's regard to women, claiming;

Multiple accounts indicate that William had a soft spot for the ladies. Considering the rough frontier society he lived in, it is possible that he was involved in a tryst or two himself. Yet it is difficult to ascertain whether any such interludes left him yearning for matrimony, because he left no records on the subject. Did he prefer his freedom? Was he spurned by someone? Did he recall his father's adultery and the shame it had brought on the whole family? Without concrete evidence, it is difficult to prove any given theory. One can only conclude that if there was a special romance, William chose not to pursue it and remained a bachelor all his life.

Source — FIELDING, A. K. Rough Diamond: The Life of Colonel William Stephen Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton’s Forgotten Son. Indiana University Press, 2021.

I think if anything, Rodolf may have been referring to William's lack of special or flattering attitude to women, that he didn't alter his character or appearance for them. William led a very rugged and shameless life; chances where higher-class women would not fancy his lifestyle. When William moved from Illinois to Wisconsin in the late 1820s, he had established a mine known as Hamilton's Diggings, to which he later renamed Woita. In the March of 1831, Juliette Kinzie described the conditions as “shabby” and “unpromising”, [x] she was also appalled by the foul language of the miners and described them as; “roughest-looking set of men I ever beheld.” [x] Although William's closest family members were some of the only women in his family, like his mother and youngest sister. Both had traveled west to see him, and he had one day hoped to have them as part of his household.

Sylvan Muldoon makes a bold claim in his biography about William with the statement that apparently there were rumors of an affair between William and a family member of the opposite sex. Even going as far as to claim that his brother's believed such, and resented him for it;

It is true that many writers have expressed their opinions concerning Hamilton's morals in a critical manner, some even going so far as to accuse him of living too intimately with a certain member of the opposite sex, who was married to one of his relatives.

There I believe, an alienation between William Stephen and a couple of his own brothers on this score which we will not enter into here, for the simple reason that the charges brought against him were preposterous and based upon nothing more than supposition. Suffice it to say that Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, his mother; Mrs. Holly, his sister; James Hamilton, his brother; and several other of his relatives were entirely in sympathy with his action in allowing the wife of one of his nephews to keep house for him during a time when she was estranged from her husband.

Source — Alexander Hamilton's pioneer son; the life and times of Colonel William Stephen Hamilton; 1797-1850. Early New York, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and California, by Sylvan J. Muldoon

Then goes on to say he; “lived and died without ever marrying, and, so far as is known, he never participated in a love-affair.” I've found no evidence of any unpleasant feelings between the brothers concerning this particular matter, but William does seem to have been a bit alienated from them—Although it is more likely due to their differing political beliefs (A similar aspect in James's feud with Alexander Jr). Most of Hamilton's sons were Jacksonian Democrats, while William was a Whig. Additionally, William did not find himself comfortable in the wealthy aristocratic class that his family were associated with. Also, because William decided to move half across the country, so it would have been hard to contact him or see him. Some have speculated that William may have distanced himself from his family due to their unaccepting nature had he truly been gay, but all the priorly mentioned reasons are the solidly confirmed ones.

One event that did contribute to some friction between John Church and William was concerning the female family member Muldoon references as being rumored to have had a love affair with him. Although it wasn't due to the supposed allegations that Muldoon mentions (That I'm not even sure existed), JCH's third child, John Cornelius Adrian Hamilton, was becoming more and more estranged from his family due to his disapproving actions and soon William took him in, only angering John C. more. I delve more into this here, but basically after Cornelius went against his father's wishes and married Angeline Romer, John was likely too embarrassed to introduce his new daughter-in-law to his friends in the New York elite society, so he sent Cornelius and Angeline out West with promises of giving them property there. And so, the newly wedded couple traveled from New York to Springfield, Illinois, where Cornelius worked as an engineer until August 19, 1839. It is there, the two likely met their uncle William. Sometime in 1839-1840, William took in Cornelius and his family in Woita at Hamilton's Diggings, after the birth their firstborn son, named after William Stephen Hamilton in 1839. Cornelius only became more defiant against his father, to which John faulted William's influence for. In 1844, Cornelius followed his father's orders and left his wife and children, after he and Angeline had become strained with time. Angeline and her children stayed with William, and she was likely the woman many had rumored to have been William's “mistress”.

Angeline seemed to enjoy her time living with her children, her uncle, and his slave. Edgar Hamilton wrote that “his kindness to them, especially to my mother was a theme she never tired to tell to my brother and myself when young” and he “always looked upon my father and mother and we babies as his special heirs and expected to educate us and leave his property to us.” [x] Even when Cornelius had abandoned his family, William's generosity and protection never left Angeline and her children. She looked after his house, even sewing suits and linen shirts for him to wear to legislative sessions in Madison, Wisconsin. Loss of a child, marital strife, and news of an ailing father all prompted Angeline to consider returning to New York by 1843. William at the time was running for elected office and hoped to become the new governor of the territory, he asked Angeline to postpone her travels until after the election. But she took her children and went home to be with her father. Even until the end of her life, Angeline held the deepest respect for William and never remarried. She considered him her; “truest friend in the family.” [x] and William had wished to invite her back to his household, alongside his mother and sister had he won the election. [x] Fielding makes the remark that; “If any romantic involvement between William and Angeline may have caused a strain between William and his brothers, no such evidence exists in primary sources.” Angeline's son, Edgar Hamilton - who grew up in William's cabin - continuously praised his great-uncle and worked in favor of preserving his memory and memorial.

Although, it is also likely William's only intent and nature with Angeline was to help her. Later Edgar describes his great-uncle as; “ever espoused the weaker party and his feelings always were quickened in behalf of the poor and distressed.” [x] Which we can see is evident in other events through William's life that weren't with romantic intention at all; William was once passing through the country in a sleigh with several friends, when he saw a Native American man riding on horseback alongside a native woman making her way laboriously on injured foot. William interfered when he saw the man take a whip and beat the woman; “cruelly with it while he uttered curses at her for not hurrying.” [x] He then took the woman in his sleigh and tried to remove her from immediate danger, the man followed William and tried to shoot him but missed. Before the man had time to reload his rifle and fire again, William turned around and fought with him, before he took hold of the horse whip and tremendously thrashed him and then took off in his sleigh.

Like Fielding initially suggested, if William truly had romantic feelings for another, it is likely he refused to commit to them. He was restless, and constantly moving, making it hard for him to maintain relationships and friendships—And being born at the same time as the Reynolds Pamphlet release, to losing his father at six years old and witnessing all that it had put his mother through, likely distorted his vision of love or romantic relationships. But it is not the first historians, or even people from the time period, assume bachelor men to be of homosexual inclinations. Not that it isn't ever true, for instance Baron Von Steuben was a gay man who never married. But I'd argue there is more substantial evidence surrounding his sexuality. John Gilbert McCurdy, who often writes about the revolutionary period in America, says;

Although this conclusion yields considerable insight into the evolution of sexual identity, it underestimates the complexities of the bachelor's masculinity and sexuality. It is certainly true that some colonists saw the bachelor as effeminate and morally depraved in a way that implied homosexuality, but the bachelor could also be the manliest of men and heterosexual to a fault. The bachelor's gender identification certainly could be problematic, although sometimes it was because he was too manly and at other times it was because he was not manly enough. As a result, we have to be careful about asserting that the bachelor was a proxy for the homosexual in early America. Beginning with Michel Foucault, historians of sexuality have largely accepted the social constructionist view that while some men in the ancient, medieval, and carly modern world had sex with other men, they were not homosexuals.

[...]

Sexuality was undergoing tremendous change in the century before the Revolution. Americans had begun to decouple sex and procreation but Freud had yet to formulate an understanding of desire as being determinative of sexual identity. The early American bachelor's sexuality straddled this divide and often created as much confusion as it did clarity. It had long been considered problematic by moralists and lawmakers who demanded total abstinence for all unmarried people. However, as the bachelor emerged as a unique identity, Americans reconsidered single sex and asked if one variation was more depraved than another. They did worry that bachelors were sodomites, but they also worried about bachelor fornicators. Indeed, far more ink was spilled by moralists agonizing over a new breed of bastards bankrupting taxpayers than was invested in innuendos about effeminate men. In time Americans would conclude that heterosexual bachelor behavior was preferable to homosexuality, but in 1800 this was far from assured.

Early American bachelor sexuality thus cannot be confined to a simple homosex ual/heterosexual dichotomy because it often contravened and confused this anachronistic division. Instead, we have to consider bachelor sexuality as a whole and understand how the perception of different sexual acts evolved over time. At the same time, the unsettled sexuality of the early American bachelor may offer some insight into the evolution of the modern-day homosexual. Historians seeking a gay American history have often looked to sodomy trials, curiously affectionate correspondence, and attacks on effeminate men to find the roots of the modern gay identity. Yet being a homosexual is not simply about sex acts and gender inversion. It is also about the disavowal of traditional marriage, the building of a subculture made up almost entirely of other men, and the assertion of a greater degree of sexual license. In this, the emergence of the bachelor is integral to the history of gay men.

Source — McCurdy, J. G. (2011). Citizen Bachelors: Manhood and the Creation of the United States. United States: Cornell University Press.

When regarding queer history, I would also advise being open-minded about aromantic or asexual figures. Undoubtedly, if a person did not marry it did not mean the only single cause had to be because they were gay but could have also been aromantic. In many cases, people tend to limit it down to so few options, it plays an effective role in queer erasure. In any case, I don't have any substantial opinions regarding the debate, it's all purely supposition and there is scarcely preserved material to call evidence or come to any true settlement outside of carefree head cannons. While William did live in the West, of predominantly male dominated areas, and did not marry—That is the only evidence we have in regards to this speculation. In the end, it's just another mystery surrounding William that we'll never know for certain about. I think William is an interesting individual on his own, and the need to try and determine a hypothesis that is so trivial in the wider picture due to its lack of standing ground seems fruitless. Especially when William has so many other complexities and intriguing characteristics outside of his love or sex life. I understand the desire to explore the censored field of queer history that is often ignored by historians, especially in the search for representation, but William isn't your best choice for that. I would suggest looking to several other queer figures with more opportunities for research and more solid confirmation.

#amrev #american history #jackson era #queer history #william s hamilton #william stephen hamilton #angeline romer hamilton #edgar augustus hamilton #history #hamilchildren #hamilton family #hamilton children #hamilton kids #hamilkids #queries #sincerely anonymous #cicero's history lessons

[mafaldaknows]

If by close friendship with Tim, they mean Armie will drop his name for clicks... then yes friends. Hammer's been riding on Tim's coat tails since got famous. 🙄

Hello, Anon:

Kindly please cite specific examples of your bold assertion.

Do you even know what that phrase means, Anon? If he’s riding Timmy’s coattails as you claim, they’re apparently not long enough. And FWIW, Armie was famous before Timmy was.

They’ve not even been seen together in over three years. Timmy was the one who mentioned Armie in his October 2021 Time Magazine interview, when asked about Armie. Armie hasn’t spoken in public at all since his appearance as the first late night talk show guest to appear during the pandemic on Jimmy Kimmel in October 2020. Armie then made a statement to the press addressing the smear campaign against him in January 2021. In neither of those events did he ever mention his connection to Timmy, which is a necessary component of riding someone’s coattails.

BTW, the effect of CMBYN and NobodyIsMovingOn™️ is out of Armie and Timmy’s direct control, if that’s what you’re referring to. They can’t help that people and the media still love them as Elio and Oliver, even after all this time.

I mean... just look at them.

This most recent Fox News article mentions the strong bond they forged during the filming of CMBYN, but again that’s completely out of Armie or Timmy’s control.

While I think your claim is baseless, it gives me an opportunity to mention the fact that NobodyIsMovingOn™️, with special thanks to @ragsandfeathers for carrying that mantle for the Charmie fandom.

And for that, thanks for your comment.☺️❤️🧿✨🤘💪✨

#hello anon #really anon #look it up #timothée chalamet #armie hammer #no coattails necessary #not what you think it means #not even possible #prove it #mafalda always looks for signs #tales from the charmiesphere

[isay]

“You feel hopeful when you meet people who genuinely care. The players really enjoyed meeting her. Sometimes you feel so lonely when you fight against an empire like Fifa. You feel so tired. You feel like you’re screaming but it’s too big, the building is too tall, and nobody can hear. When you find someone like Malala standing with you, bold and loud in making a statement and calling out Fifa, asking: ‘Which side are you standing on, are you standing with women, with female footballers or the Taliban?’ you feel hopeful”

– Khalida Popal, who cofounded the national team and helped evacuate players from Afghanistan in 2021, talks about Nobel peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai meeting with the exiled women’s team in Melbourne.

[vonkarma2]

10 + 24 + 27?

What's your favorite book?

Good question :3 I think a lot of the books I’ve read in the past like 2 years r common tumblr dot com recommendations, so saying them makes me sound very unoriginal like wow you liked frankenstein and piranesi and house of leaves. so did everyone else. annihilation. bold today arent we. I know this is favorite all time but I wanted to think more recent bc 1) all time is heavily skewed towards kids books 2) all time is such a broad statement I’d rather say like my favorite from the past 2 years. I want to say The Dispossessed but despite being good overall it took me a long time to get through and there’s aspects of the portrayal of sexual assault I really do not like. In terms of emotional impact I think the perks of being a wallflower might be up there 💀 sorry. Yeah it’s kind of corny but even so. He’s just like me FR. I think my answer is genuinely like there’s a lot of books I think are good or resonated a lot personally but none strongly enough that I would commit to calling them my favorite 👍 which is kind of nice bc it means I’m still actively looking for that yk

Your favorite pet name from your partner? (baby girl, honey, brat, etc.)

Brat being on the list?? What was op cooking. Anyway. I’m too shy to answer this 😔✌️ im pleading the fifth sorry king should’ve sent the first kiss one

3 things you love about yourself

This one is so funny bc I’ve sent it to people bc I think it’s nice to force them to be nice to themselves. but now that I have it myself I don’t want to do it. it would be so funny if I didn’t answer a single one of these questions. ok well I think Im decent to good at close reading things or at least willing to try ✌️. Ummm I like to think I’m understanding + willing to communicate + apologize if Im wrong. And I had good music taste for a 1.5 month period in 2021 followed by a 2 week period in 2023 👍

#thank you for asking :)) #I messed up not counting graphic novels for my list of books I’ve read in 2023 #I should have counted Persepolis at least

[itsmythang]

Amanual given to members of racist power group White Lives Matter acts as a how-to-guide for waging a race war, according to Rolling Stone which was leaked a copy.

The group, founded in 2021, has been behind several attacks including the attempted firebombing of an Ohio church that was planning to host drag events earlier this year.

The Active Manual starts with the statement, “We are in this until the end. Victory or Death,” Rolling Stone reported Saturday.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

It goes on to express the group’s aim of achieving “an absolute White majority population” in “all of the countries or continents that we have built.”

Among its extreme demands are that U.S. citizenship is reserved solely for “genetically White People,” and for “White Nations” to build populations that are 99% white.

That, it says, should be achieved by “any means necessary.”

“Nothing scares the anti-White rats more than our bold commitment to securing our children’s future even if we have to give our lives for it,” the manual continues.

[connorthemaoist]

“The ILPS Committee for Africa and West Asia salutes the Palestinian resistance for their latest bold and inspiring campaign against the occupation of Palestine by the Zionist state. On October 7th, the resistance launched “Al-Aqsa Flood,” a land, sea, and air operation against the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza. The operation was so named to commemorate the desecration of the Al-Aqsa mosque by Zionists in May 2021. Some 5,000 rockets were fired at targets in Israel. Palestinian fighters raided military camps and fought battles along the settlements in Gaza. Small boats harassed Israeli warships to prevent them from attacking resistance forces. Prisoners were taken by the fighters in hopes of effecting an exchange for the more than 5,300 Palestinian political prisoners being held by Israel.

ILPS recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves and oust the occupying forces. For seventy-five years, Palestinians have suffered from Zionist occupation, and Gaza in particular, has been under siege for fifteen years. The water sources of the people have been destroyed. Their homes, some of which have been occupied by Palestinian families for generations, have been demolished and their crops and farms bulldozed. Their land stolen and taken over illegally by settlers. Palestinian civilians are subjected to collective punishment. Many have died due to indiscriminate bombings and attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces which uses weapons and ammunitions supplied by US Imperialism and other Western imperialist powers whose complicity and strong support must be denounced. Since Nakba Day, May 15th 1948, when Palestinian villages were burned and the villagers were killed or driven out from their homes by the Zionists, Palestinians now comprise the largest stateless community in the world. Some 5.9 million registered Palestinian refugees live in West Asia alone.”

#ILPS #Palestine #Free Palestine #Gaza #Free Gaza #gaza under attack #solidarity #internationalism #international solidarity #international league of people’s struggle #national liberation movement #national liberation #refugees #nakba

[fearsmagazine]

UNICORN WARS (animated) - Review

DISTRIBUTOR: GKids

SYNOPSIS:  “For ages, teddy bears have been locked in an ancestral war against their sworn enemy, the unicorns, with the promise that victory will complete the prophecy and usher in a new era. Aggressive, confident teddy bear Bluey and his sensitive, withdrawn brother Tubby could not be more different. As the rigors and humiliation of teddy bear boot camp turn to the psychedelic horrors of a combat tour in the Magic Forest, their complicated history and increasingly strained relationship will come to determine the fate of the entire war.”

REVIEW: Alberto Vázquez’s UNICORN WARS is a hypnotic and surreal film that is an adult fable in the tradition of Ralph Bakshi’s animated films, most notably his 1977 film “Wizards.”

Vázquez’s screenplay replaces all the religious symbolism with fantasy, unions and teddy bears. There is a teddy bear priest who quotes a sacred scripture about the rise of the bears and the struggle with the unicorns. However, there are no god-like characters or elements, boarding more on something like the legends of Beowulf or King Arthur. Plot points reflect the numerous military conflicts Spain has been a part of, and is still a part of,  and most notably their civil war. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that there is no specific reason why the bears should hate the unicorns other than tones of species hatred standing in for racism and imperialism. One of the characters suffers trauma during a conflict and it fuels his fanaticism, driving him to destroy the last unicorn in order to take advantage of a legend he has put his faith in. That moment becomes an interesting transition point in the narrative as it is fueled by these insects containing a hallucinogenic drug that are consumed by the bears. It is this “Apocalypse Now” moment that goes full tilt horror.  In contrast, the wounded bear’s brother remains in the forest and comes to his own understanding of the true nature of the unicorns and the role they play in the world. In the background, there is an evil that is seeking form and trying to rise up that the unicorns have managed to keep at bay.

There are a variety of artistic styles employed in the film. These feral, warlike, teddy bears are designed after a fashion that reminded me of “The Care Bears.” The unicorns are not white, They are all black or dark brown, depending on the scene. They feel like these ethereal spirits of the forest. They feel more organic than regal, which is what we might expect from a unicorn. The design of the military base is sparse, utilitarian design that feels like a wasteland. In contrast, the forest has this flowing, magical environment that feels like a subdued version of the forest from the Disney animated feature “Sleeping Beauty.” All of this is enveloped in technicolor. It makes the bears stand out and the battle sequences pop. The graphic nature of the war scenes are more intense. Those scenes are even more impactful due to the epic nature of the sound design. They’re gritty and visceral sounds that transform the visuals. Joseba Beristain adds another layer to the visuals and creates the perfect movement for the hallucination sequence.

Distributed by GKids, this is clearly not their typical animated release. You might think that by dealing with teddy bears and unicorns it would eliminate genitalia, but all these teddy bears, of course males, have genitalia and we see it. In fact, the battle sequences are as gory as 2021’s animated epic “The Spine of Night.” But all that aside, UNICORN WARS is an adeptly constructed allegory that makes a bold statement as to what the loss of magic and innocence will give rise to. I appreciated the satire of an early scene where these ape-like creatures inhabit church-like ruins, upon which resides this unformed, alien evil. It’s indicative of the entire film where there scenes create these visual prophetic gestures, adding to the parable of the narrative. You can view this film as entertainment, and be in for one hell of a mind trip. You can view it as an intense thought-provoking piece. But it is a rare film that allows you to take due paths and come out totally blown away.

CAST (voice): Jon Goiri, Jaione Insausti, Gaizka Soria, Iker Diaz, Estívaliz Lizárraga, Pedro Arrieta, Alberto Vázquez, Txema Regalado, Manu Heras, and Ramón Barea. CREW: Director/Screenplay/Art Direction - Alberto Vázquez; Producers - Chelo Loureiro & Iván Miñambres; Score - Joseba Beristain; Editor - Estanis Bañuelos; Animation Director/Animation Supervisor/Character Designer - Khris Cembe. OFFICIAL: gkids.com/films/unicorn-wars/ FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/GKIDSfilms TWITTER: twitter.com/GKIDSfilms TRAILER: https://youtu.be/31ee-Ma9NxM RELEASE DATE: Alamo DraftHouse March 6th, in theaters March 10th, 2023

**Until we can all head back into the theaters our “COVID Reel Value” will be similar to how you rate a film on digital platforms - 👍 (Like), 👌 (It’s just okay),  or 👎 (Dislike)

Reviewed by Joseph B Mauceri

#film review #movie review #unicorn wars #gkids #animated #alberto vázquez #fantasy #horror #teddy bear #unicorns #joseph mauceri #joseph b mauceri

[amphtaminedreams]

Currently Obsessing Over, Debrief No.3: All Hail Queen Vivienne Westwood & Here’s to her Eternal Reign

-Vivienne photographed in June 2012-

“Fashion: I really love doing it. It’s really a kind of lifeline to me. It’s recharging my batteries. It’s exciting. I love what we’re doing, and I think the next thing we are doing is the best thing I have ever done. Because it’s totally political.”

-With Chrissie Hynde & Jordan at the SEX boutique in Chelsea, 1976-

-Clockwise L-R: making an appearance on the runway with husband Andreas Kronthaler at the Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood 2016 Menswear collection, in 1976 with Chrissie Hynde & Jordan, c. 1976, and in 2012 in her studio-

-in attendance at memorial for Vivienne @ Southwark Cathedral, Friday 17th February 2023, centre: Lila & Kate Moss, clockwise L-R: Alexa Chung, Matty Bovan, Christina Hendrix & husband, Helena Bonham Carter, Ellen von Unwerth, Farida Khelfa, Lucinda Chambers, Elle Fanning-

-Anson Boon in attendance at memorial for Vivienne @ Southwark Cathedral, Friday 17th February 2023-

Look, I am far from a royalist but as London Fashion Week draws to a close, the weekend saw a who’s who of the fashion mourn a Queen of the people whose crowning would’ve truly made me reconsider my position. It goes without saying that the impact Vivienne Westwood has had on both her contemporaries and a younger generation of up and coming designers is monumental, but above and beyond that, what made her such an incredible individual was the consistency with which she stuck to her principles over the years and championed a fairer world, free of structural barriers, discrimination and the destructive force of rampant capitalism on the earth. 

-Upper left portion: Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 2016, & bottom right: Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 2017, then whole image clockwise L-R: Vivienne Westwood RTW F/W 2010, & RTW F/W 2009-

-Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY collections, Clockwise L-R: Menswear RTW F/W 2020, RTW F/W 2022, RTW Menswear S/S 2018, RTW S/S 2023-

-Undercover collections, clockwise L-R: RTW F/W 2011, RTW F/W 2013, RTW S/S 2004, RTW S/S 2009, RTW S/S 2011-

-Matty Bovan collections,  L-R: RTW F/W 2018, & S/S 2019-

-Ambush Resort 2023-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW, top to bottom: F/W 2007, S/S 2013-

-Undercover collections, L-R: RTW F/W 2019, RTW S/S 2022, RTW F/W 2020-

-Stella McCartney collections, L-R: RTW F/W 2018, RTW F/W 2017, F/W 2020-

-Undercover collections, upper left portion, clockwise L-R: RTW F/W 2003, RTW F/W 2015, RTW S/S 2005, RTW S/S 2007, then whole image clockwise L-R: RTW S/S 2015, RTW S/S 2014, RTW F/W 2014-

She didn’t have to be That Bitch, in an industry which too often actively worked and continues to work against her goals, but she did at risk to her own success, and she made some fucking incredible clothes whilst she was at it.

Vivienne had every capability of being a thorn in the side of the industry figureheads operating business models domineered by overconsumption and yet her legacy will outlive every trend cycle imaginable ten to the dozen, reminding us that above all, principles & passion are the best thing we have if we want to truly make in impact.

-12 Emerging Designers on How Vivienne Westwood Inspired Them, AnOther Magazine, Autumn/Winter 2021 issue-

-”Pirates” collection, 1981: Though by this point Vivienne had already established a name for herself within the industry, namely through the widespread popularity of the Chelsea boutique she opened with partner Malcolm McLaren in 1971 and her work styling the Sex Pistols, whom McLaren managed, it wasn’t until a decade later that she made her runway debut with her “Pirates” collection. And you know what? She was so right for that. These are men who sail the world in pursuit of Jewells, ffs. How historically accurate that statement is, I have no clue; Peter Pan probably isn’t the best frame of reference. All I know is that ruffles and Jewells and big hats and bold patterns are absolutely my cup of tea and all those of us girlies with a preference for maximalism owe Vivienne Westwood a thank you for helping the stiff upper lipped power players of that period realise that.-

-”Britain Must Go Pagan” collection, S/S98 RTW-

-Clockwise L-R: Vivienne Westwood RTW F/W 1993, RTW S/S 1994, RTW F/W 1994, RTW S/S 1997, RTW F/W 1995, RTW S/S 1994-

-Arguably, the early years of Vivienne’s runway residency was characterised by a consistent drive to dissect, explore, and push the boundaries of the fashion of bygone eras through her work in a provocative, tongue in cheek kind of way, but one that ultimately showed her knowledge and love of fashion. Her flirtation with the whimsical, ethereal hallmarks of romantic period dressing and references to the costume-like decadence associated with the nobility and wealth of the post-renaissance world helped to torpedo a giant, jagged hole through the perfectly polished wall high fashion had built around itself to retain its status as an interest reserved for the privileged. 

Vivienne’s growing cultural relevance occurred in the midst of the 90s grunge movement that banished the illusion everything had to be perfectly refined at all times, and championed the gaudy, the over the top, the playful, controversial and performative. This time, counterculture was unruly, broody, and intentionally unyielding in a way that closely harked back to the values of the ‘70s London punk scene where VW had started out, and so it makes sense that interest in her work grew given the position her clothing came to be associated with in this decade

I don’t claim to be enough of a fashion expert to know the complete history of costume piece inspired designers and to be able to say Vivienne was the very first to bring this subversion of the expectation to appear aloof, elegant, and let’s be honest, occasionally boring as fuck, to the runway through her exploration of period clothing but she has to be one of the first to bring such a playfulness to it and her collections at the time certainly helped to reignite the childhood desire that exists in every person interested in fashion to play dress up.- 

-Christian Dior Haute Couture F/W 1998, “Les Incroyables” collection-

-Christian Lacroix Haute Couture S/S 1998-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW F/W 1996-

-Christian Lacroix Haute Couture S/S 1999-

-Clockwise L-R: Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 2013, RTW S/S 2012, RTW S/S 2014-

-Christian Dior Haute Couture S/S 1998-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 1996-

-Clockwise L-R: Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 2010, RTW F/W 2015, lower right portion: RTW Menswear F/W 2017, RTW F/W 2011, RTW Menswear F/W 2017, & RTW F/W 2011-

-L-R: Vivienne Westwood Bridal Made to Order 2022, Vivienne Westwood Bridal Made to Order 2020.

Marriage:

*Reasons AGAINST: too many to list 

*Reasons FOR: Vivienne Westwood’s bridal collections (and also a big party with all your friends that they feel morally obligated to attend, where you get to pick all the food and cheesy music is socially acceptable)-

-Vivienne Westwood Bridal Made to Order 2021-

-She further developed her brand’s reputation as a disruptor of the status quo in a time which saw young people in the Western world grow tired of the straight laced conservatism of the Thatcher/Reagan (forget Charlie Kelly and Frank Reynolds, these 2 were the OG gruesome twosome) and the tastemakers of the fashion world followed suit, lauding her work. As much as the impact of massive industry players is portrayed as having a trickle down effect (see what I did there) on the trend cycle, designers inevitably draw inspiration from the current social climate whether acknowledged or not and in this way the aesthetics adopted by boots on the ground, the influence of art and pop culture, makes its way back up to the runway where the Anna Wintours of the world have to like it. For people like Vivienne Westwood, Rei Kawakubo (founder of Commes Des Garcons), Ann Demeulemeester, and Yohji Yamamoto, who occupied much of the same avant-garde, anti-establishment scene from the ‘70s onwards with all 3 having been customers at Vivienne’s boutique and setting up shop in London at one point or another, incorporating that disruptive spirit probably felt like a return to their roots as designers.-

-Vivienne Westwood Bridal Made to Order 2019-

-Yohji Yamamoto collections, L-R: RTW S/S 2015, & S/S 2016-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW, top to bottom: F/W 2008, S/S 2012-

-Yohji Yamamoto RTW S/S 2023-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW, top left: S/S 2009, remaining photos: S/S 2011-

-Top to bottom: Ann Demeulemeester RTW F/W 2019, & RTW F/W 2017-

-In this period where anti-fashion established itself as an integral part of what was decidedly “in”-fashion, new roots, which would go on to produce some of today’s boldest designers, buried themselves deep and inevitably soaked up Vivienne and her contemporaries’ celebration of androgyny, experimentation with subversive silhouettes and prints, and embrace of the dark and dramatic to tell stories through their styling which served as the antidote to the immaculate coordination of looks showcased by fashion giants like Chanel. Vivienne collections managed to grasp hold of the psyches of even the most prestigious designers, and the lasting effects were visible in the heavily period themed, almost theatrical collections, the debuts of which broke the expected mould for labels traditionally associated with a sense of refinement and/or glamour. That Donatella Versace, for example, would draw influence from punk aesthetics is unexpected but once you’re aware she’s expressed her admiration for Vivienne Westwood, there are a number of Versace collections over the years where you can’t unsee that inspiration. John Galliano was known to sit front row at her shows! John Galliano. That, baby, is one mighty flex.-

-John Galliano collections, top to bottom: RTW S/S 2018, RTW F/W 1997, RTW S/S 2019-

-Valentino RTW F/W 2005-

-Versace collections, L-R: RTW F/W 2017, RTW F/W 2013, RTW F/W 2018-

-John Galliano RTW F/W 2018-

-Ralph Lauren RTW F./W 2016-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW, upper left portion, clockwise L-R: F/W 2016, “, “, RTW F/W 2016, then whole image, clockwise L-R: RTW S/S 2015, RTW F/W 2012, F/W 2013, & F/W 2012-

-Versace RTW S/S 1994-

-John Galliano RTW S/S 1993- 

-You could argue the prevalence of Westwood gowns amongst the rich and famous is kinda antithetic to its founder’s manifesto but we can’t be delusional and forget it’s a high fashion label we’re talking about and well, a business. Ultimately the craftsmanship and time which goes into original designs means red carpet photos are probs the closest 99% of us are gonna get but I’ll take it. I’m thirsty. Helena Bonham-Carter, one of the many prominent figures in attendance at Vivienne’s funeral, kinda symbolises the dichotomy; as much as her public image is of her as someone who exists outside the boundaries imposed by a privileged, aloof, very airbrushed elite, we are talking a woman with a double-barrelled family name which carries with it the exactly the kind of wealth and lineage you’d expect it to. But at the same time, she is someone who has chosen to break away from the expectations set upon her by this kind of background and do things her own way. Not so much so that her whole mismatched, slightly dishevelled whilst simultaneously very cool outer appearance isn’t made up of expensive, designer subcomponents, but if you’re going to have some brand loyalty, Helena being a Vivienne simp feels correct:

“I have an obscene amount, a sinful amount of her clothes. Decades’ worth. She wouldn’t like it, given she was always telling us to buy less.” Helena recalled buying her first pirate shirt, aged 15, from Westwood’s shop in World’s End “so I could be Adam Ant.” She explained how she once reprimanded a red-carpet journalist who asked why she always wore Westwood, because it was always “the same, same, same.” Bonham Carter replied: “No, no, no…. You have no idea how many ideas and choices have gone into this dress. She is never boring. And the dresses do all the work. All the actresses on this red carpet haven’t eaten for weeks—and I have had a full-fat English breakfast.” Of wearing Westwood she said: “I feel like who I want to be. I feel like a woman…. She has given me my armor to face the world for so many years.” She added: “Thank you for the cutting, the draping that makes your clothes so dynamic and alive, so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised to wake in the night and find them dancing in my closet, alive.”

-Extract from “Vivienne Westwood is Remembered in London” Vogue article, Luke Leith, published 17th February 2013 @ https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/gallery/vivienne-westwood-memorial-

-Helena Bonham Carter in Vivienne Westwood-

-FKA Twigs wearing Vivienne Westwood, photographed for her zine, published May 2019-

-You can’t talk about Vivienne’s impact on street style and its adoption by today's anti-it girl (which in itself has made her kinda the ultimate it-girl in my eyes, lmao) without a section dedicated to FKA Twigs, whose love of the designer is evident in her ethereal take on ‘90s grunge inspired fashion. If anyone doubts the existence of Vivienne’s influence on Twigs’ street style, may I gift you with knowledge that she included an absolutely STUNNNNINGGG feature about her whole COLLECTION of VW corsets in her zine. Money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you archival designer pieces by the Grand Dame of Punk (no, I’m not talking about Karen from RHoP) and the ability to circumvent a year long waiting list for treatment of your ailments on the NHS sooo I mean…we’re talking substantial quality of life improvements here.-

-FKA Twigs personal style-

-Public figures in Vivienne Westwood over the years, upper left portion, clockwise L-R: Dua Lipa on the red carpet @ the 2021 Brit Awards, Kim Kardashian via Instagram backstage @ the 2019 Emmys, Winnie Harlow on the red carpet @ the 2019 British Fashion Awards, Kim Kardashian photographed in 2019, Kristen Stewart hosting SNL in Vivienne Westwood suit in November 2022, Lashana Lynch on the red carpet @ the No Time to Die premiere in 2021, Jade Thirlwall on the red carpet @ the 2021 Brit Awards, Elle Fanning on the red carpet @ the 2021 Vulture Festival, upper right portion: Bella Hadid’s street style ft. a love of Vivienne Westwood, bottom right portion, clockwise L-R: Dua Lipa on the red carpet @ the 2021 Brit Awards and on stage for the event, Billie Piper @ the 2021 UK Fashion Awards, Thandie Newton on the Cannes Red Carpet in 2018, Rihanna performing @ the 2012 Victoria’s Secret fashion show, Zendaya on the red carpet @ the Art of Elysium gala in 2016, Maude Apatow via Instagram photographed @ the 2022 Emmys afterparty, Alexa Demie @ an event for Tiffany & Co. in 2022, bottom left: Winnie Harlow on the red carpet @ the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty-

-Vivienne’s personal style over the years, clockwise L-R: making an end of show appearance in December 2011, photographed c. 1995, @ the V&A museum in London in 1998, with Naomi Campbell at the 1993 Designer of the Year Awards, @ the opening of the Costume Institute’s Anglomania exhibition in 2006, with husband Andreas Kronthaler at Ascot in 1995, photographed by paparazzi c. 2009-

-Vivienne Westwood’s “Portraits” collection, 1991-

-You really can’t talk about the common appeal of Vivienne Westwood and the label’s legacy without an acknowledgement of the irreverence of the Portraits collection, which most likely constitutes the strongest imagery of the brand in most people’s minds. For all that rambling on I did about her challenging fashion conventions, the corset is probably, like, one of the most stereotypically feminine garments out there, and so it seems contradictory that it’s probably the most famous VW piece. That being said, you just have to look at the earliest prominent iteration of the staple showcased in Portraits; the way the shape was utilised flew in the face of all that was conventional and “demure” through its combination with religious iconography, micro skirts and nude illusion cut outs, in the ‘80s ffs, so need I say more about what it is that made it so groundbreaking? It was a moment that was emblematic of the middle finger to the world attitude that Vivienne’s collections are known for, and which makes it such an iconic, and true to brand piece that is still loved, emulated, and collected by a very lucky few today.-

-Vivienne Westwood RTW S/S 2023-

-It’s only half the picture to say Vivienne’s participation in the fashion industry contradicts her personal politics, which completely ignores how much of her fortune has been redistributed through her activism over the years; to advocate for her brand is to advocate for the anti establishment mission she has made an inextricable part of it, which over the past few decades has ranged from her vocal commitment to fighting climate change, her stance on sustainability, her support of Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange, and notably her Ethical Fashion Africa campaign, shots from which feature below.-

-Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood RTW, clockwise L-R: S/S 2008, S/S 2007, S/S 2019, “-

-Andreas & Vivienne at Paris Fashion Week, 2nd October 2021-

-Andreas Kronlather for Vivienne Westwood RTW, top: S/S 2016, bottom L-R: S/S 2018, S/S 2014-

-”, top L-R: RTW S/S 2006, RTW F/W 2014, & bottom: RTW S/S 2023-

Ending with the content Vivienne would most likely find to be closest to her heart is a reflection on the Andreas Kronlather for Vivienne Westwood, surely the purest form of her punk spirit that will go on without her. Undeniably, Vivienne has had no greater influence on anyone than her husband, Andreas, with whom she publicly entrusted the more affordable offshoot of her brand, and whose creative relationship first began when he began working under her wing in the late ‘80s. They were artistic geniuses, revolutionaries, and basically the much more aspirational version of the rockstar bf/gf model bc/gf duo. Above all they were cutie pies<3 

-Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood RTW, clockwise L-R: S/S 2010, “, F/W 2017, & F/W 2015-

-”, L-R: RTW S/S 2017, RTW S/S 2009, RTW F/W 2016-

Though for the majority of the 30+ years they spent collaborating Andreas chose to be a silent contributor, the name change of the red label offshoot to Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood was the clear realisation of his journey in becoming an equal partner and suggests that over time, the direction of influence evolved from the latter over the former to a much more reciprocal force.

-”, L-R: RTW F/W 2012, RTW F/W 2018-

-”, left portion: RTW F/W 2010, top right portion: RTW S/S 2011, bottom right portion L-R: RTW F/W 2013, RTW F/W 2011-

-”, L-R: RTW S/S 2006, RTW S/S 2014-

-”, L-R: RTW F/W 2019, RTW S/S 2015-

 I’m going to get real cheesy here but I have to say it: there is no doubt that whilst he continues to showcase his designs, Vivienne’s presence in the industry will not cease to be felt. Regardless-we’ll miss you anyways, Queen.-

-Vivienne photographed at the end of her RTW F/W 2016 runway presentation, February 2016-

-Vivienne photographed attending premiere screening at Regent Street Cinema, November 2022-

Vivienne Westwood, April 1941-December 2022

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