#━━ ❛ jerome : long live jerome verse.

[opera-ghosts]

The Romance of Cavalieri and Muratore

How Lina of the Porta Salaria became a distinguished artiste, the wife of a celebrated tenor,and a renowned motion picture actress.

By Jerome Shorey

STRANGE, is it not, that while Romance is the very life of the theater, it is rarely indeed that actual romances find in the theater itself that happy climate wherein they can endure from year to year. It is one of the paradoxes of life that to a great de-gree the very men and women who bring the pictured romance to the world, are them-selves denied the emotions they por-tray. Nor is it diffi-cult to understand, for the emotions of the player, always keyed to such high pitch in his art, are too turbulent for permanence. Grop-ing for the reality they counterfeit in their profession they either demand too much, or are willing to give too little in return. The great lovers are few. The enduring romance is the exception—the attach-ment that stands the test of years. But there are exceptions, the more notable because of their rarity. Out near New London, Connecticut, there is a beautiful summer home, the grounds of which slope gently down under splendid old elms, to the shimmering Sound. Here, almost any summer’s day, you can find a man and a woman en-gaged in some light frolic. They are Lucien Muratore and his beautiful wife, Lina Cavalieri, whose romance has endured, and for this reason: that they have not forgotten how to play. And just as they have not permitted their adult years to banish the joys of childhood, they have not permitted eight years of marriage to keep them from being lovers.

In pic-turesque costumes from their operatic wardrobes they play at masquerades among the elms and beside the shore, and the chance spectator might well take it for a faery vision Of some gay creatures of the element, That in the colors of the rainbow live, And play in the plighted clouds. Eight years ago they met, Cavalieri and Muratore, at the Grand Opera in Paris, where a new opera by Giordano, “Si-beria,” was being produced. They met at rehearsal, they loved, they married. And that is all there is to tell. Happy indeed are the people whose annals are vacant. Muratore sings at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York—Cava-lieri plays in pictures for Paramount. And between times they proceed with the real business of life, which is the pursuit of happiness. For they are both of the land of eternal youth where Rome, granddam of nations, from her seven hills defies the passing years, the passing centuries—Rome, an ancient city when Christ was born, yet to-day younger than the latest upstart town of the Middle West. It was a long road, but seldom a dreary one, which Cavalieri traveled to reach this delectable destination. Glance at this picture of her earliest youth: In the poorest part of the city of Rome, near the Porta Salaria, almost under the very shadow of the great Villa Bor-ghese, in a few almost bare rooms, the family of a laborer. Nor even an unusual laborer—just a good, honest, hard-working toiler. And the family—six of them, lively, always more or less hungry. Yet not unhappy— for after all, some-how one lives, and papa is kind, and mamma is beautiful, and in the soft twi-light Lina, who is twelve, sings to the accompaniment of a cheap guitar. For this is Italy, where even the babes in their cradles are dra-matic, and when sor-row comes one looks upon it always a little with the eye of the artist, so that even suffering becomes picturesque by being somewhat self-conscious. To those who are not versed in the ro-mance of art, it may seem a remarkable career, this of Lina Cavalieri’s, from the poor quarter of Rome to the luxury of an operatic and moving picture star.

Yet it is not so remarkable after all. Did you ever hear of a great singer coming from a wealthy family? And besides, just as every soldier in the armies of Napoleon always carried the baten of a field marshal in his knapsack, so as not to be taken unawares by the great honor that he was sure would come to him eventually, so every Italian child is provided at birth with a blank contract for the Metro-politan Opera House: In Rome, where even the little children speak Italian fluently, Verdi and Donizetti are as popular as Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern are in New York, and as familiar to the whistling street boys. If, with such a background, La Cavalieri had become a disciple of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, or had made a name for herself as a missionary to the heathen in the Malay Penin- ' sula, it would have been remarkable. That she has succeeded on the stage and in the cinemas, after all, is not so astonish-ing after you have glanced at her beautiful face and have heard her sing. For while Cavalieri is not among the greatest singers in the world, she has the sort of voice you like to hear. She herself takes her success as simply and unaffectedly as a child accepts a toy which, while it evokes real gratitude, is not entirely unexpected. And she tells about it just as simply—that is if you can describe as simple a torrent of words,in half a dozen languages, bubbling over each other, in a musical jargon as sprightly as a dewtime argument between a bluebird and a bobolink. In speech, Italian is her birthright. French her adoption, Russian her experience, and English her. antipathy. She simply will not learn to speak English, and the world is the gainer in just so much music, for while it demands the service of an agile-eared interpreter for the average uni-lingual American to un-derstand milady’s flood of conversation, it is pleasant to hear whether you understand or not. And so the story was told: Little Lina of the Ponta Salaria had reached thirteen, and her voice was beginning to round out into promises of some-thing unusual. Yet they took it as a matter of course in the buzzing family, until one evening, as Lina was warbling to the twanging of the guitar, a very great man heard her. Very great indeed was the man to Lina and her parents—though if the fact must be set down truthfully, he was merely the conductor of the orchestra at a cheap music hall—something like the ten-twent’-thirt’ of American vaudeville, only that Italian audiences, even in these cheapest resorts, demand real music. NowW every maestro is always on the lookout for a genius to discover, and the maestro of the little music hall, stopping in front of Lina’s home, murmured, or perhaps ex-claimed, “Dio mio, quel bella voce!’ and Lina’s fortune was made.

But not father died, and the family was in despair. Hunger is not recommended by singing teachers as the best means of developing a young voice, but it was on hunger that Cavatieri trained in those darkest days of ait her lite. And just when it seemed that human endurance could continue no longer, the maestro found a place tor her on the program of the ten-twent’-thirt’ house at three lire—about sixty cents —a periormance. The beginning was all she needed. Soon a better theatre discovered the little song-bird of the Porta Salaria, and ofiered five lire—a dollar a day—as much as her father had ever earned- This was wealth. Within a very tew months, Little Lina, still not sixteen, was one of the favorites at the Eden, one of the best music halls in Reme, and there she was paid a salary that set wagging the tongues of the gossips around the Salaria gate—one hundred lire a week—twenty dollars. This was fame. There is little doubt that Cavalieri would have been a much greater singer if she had not been such a great beauty. The new sensation of the Eden was soon discovered by an impresario from Paris, not for her voice, which was still in the formative stage, but for her high visibility. To the child herself, for Lina was still little more than that, this magical world that opened to her, which meant ease and comfort, not only for herself but for that recently so hungry brood over by the Porta Salaria, was not a thing to be questioned. She had not taken her voice seriously.

She had not taken anything very seriously except hunger, and now there was no more hunger. There was no wise patron to tell her that in her throat was a delicate organ which by careful development and study could be made into a voice that would thrill the world. She could sing well enough for the music-halls, much better than most of her fellow artists, and that was sufficient. But with Paris, and the sensational success at the Folies Bergere, not to mention the salary of $2,000 a month, came the realization that beauty could carry her no farther, that if she was to rise still higher in the world of the theatre, she must be carried up by her voice. She studied intermittently, but was not greatly encouraged either by friends or teachers. She was one of those favored ones of whom her friends cannot understand why they are not satisfied with their tremendous successes and why they insist upon doing something else that seems so unnecessary. But the urge of ambition drove on, and she persisted in her vocal studies. This is the most remark-able thing about the career of Lina Cavalieri—mmuch more remarkable than that she should have risen from poverty and obscurity—that in the height of her triumph in the gayest city in the world, hailed as the greatest beauty in the world, the toast of Grand Dukes and millionaires, she kept her head, insisted that there was something greater in store for her, and went on with her singing.

It was not until she visited Russia and met the tenor Mar-coni, touring with Luisa Tetrazzini, that she received her first word of encouragement. He told her she could succeed in opera if she would really study under the proper sort of teacher. She then went into the business seriously. For nine months she worked, and after an unfortunate but luckily al-most unnoticed debut in Lisbon, she made her real debut in Naples in “La Boheme.” She was a success, only partly, per-haps, through her singing, for with her beauty one could allow other prima donna a considerable handicap and win handily. Her continental triumphs brought her to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, where she was a sensation but not an operatic success. Curiously enough, while America is not a musical nation, yet in this one operatic institution the high-est standards in the world prevail, and the truth must be admitted—Cavalieri’s voice is not one of the greatest. But she made New York sit up and take notice, just the same. It was inevitable that the moving pictures should claim such a beauty as this. Until she was added to the Paramount list of stars a year ago, she had not appeared in any pictures in America, but had been in numerous Italian productions. One of these, “The Rose of Granada,” served as a joint starring vehicle for herself and her husband, and will be released later in this country by Paramount.

Under the Zukor management she has ap-peared in four features, characterized by re-markable beauty, such as the star’s charm requires for a background. These are “Love’s Conquest,” “The Eternal Tempt-ress,’ “A Woman of Impulse” and “The Two Brides.” So there you have the twin romances of Cavalieri—the romance of her career and the romance of her marriage. Hers is the true birthright of her country—child of Italy, child of laughing skies and lyric seas, child of the land of song, and beauty, and eternal youth.

From Photoplay Magazine 1919-03: Vol 15 Iss 3

[doamarierose-honoka]

Over the past decade, Miles Morales / Spider-Man has risen to a unique prominence in the superhero space — and a new rumor might shed light on his long-awaited live-action debut. During a recent appearance on The Hot Mic, Jeff Sneider claimed that Sony Pictures has begun the process of casting a live-action Miles Morales. No other information is available at this time, including which movie this version of Miles could appear in.

One prevalent theory has been that the forthcoming Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse might dip into a live-action universe in some capacity, so that could potentially be a possibility, as well as a standalone movie from Sony pictures or even Marvel Studios' multiversal Avengers: Secret Wars movie.

When Will Miles Morales Appear in Live-Action?

The topic of Miles Morales making his live-action debut has been talked about at length in recent years, with the cast and crew of Sony's Spider-Man Universe advocating for the character to appear in that context. Spider-Verse producer Amy Pascal has been repeatedly vocal about the possibility, indicating that it would not happen until the conclusion of the current animated Spider-Verse trilogy.

"Someday," Pascal explained earlier this year. "Not until we make two more movies. Someday. Someday. We're very happy doing [the animated Spider-Verse movies]."

What Is Beyond the Spider-Verse About?

Beyond the Spider-Verse is expected to deal with the fallout of the cliffhanger ending of Across the Spider-Verse, with Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) stuck on an alternate universe with a more villainous version of himself (Jharrel Jerome).

"Here's what I can promise, and I said it about the second one when we were in the middle of it: Phil Lord, Chris Miller, everybody, the producers on this, the directors they're going to bring in ... What they did on the first one is all the directors became executive producers. So they just keep adding to it. What I can promise is they are not going to stop until it's excellent," Peter B. Parker actor Jake Johnson confirmed to ComicBook.com. "And if that means it takes a little bit longer, if that means it's even bigger, if that means it's longer -- they don't play by anybody's rules. They work really hard. As actors in it, we're always shocked that we get called in to record on this last one. I think it was a month before it screened, where we could not believe we were still recording. So they're not going to quit until it's great and I have nothing but faith in them. But in terms of giving anything away [about the story], can't do it."

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse does not currently have a release date.

[lboogie1906]

Dr. Jerome R. Riley (March 17, 1844 - December 31, 1929) From the age of ten he was able to recite long passages in Latin from Virgil’s Aeneid and then translate the sense of the verses. In 1856 he was among the first four graduates of the Buxton Mission School, where he gained a classical education in an integrated setting. He attended the University of Toronto, Ontario’s Knox College, graduating with honors. By 1861, he received his license to practice medicine in Canada West.

He left his practice in Chatham, Ontario, and joined the Union Army as a contract surgeon. He remained in the US after the War, becoming one of the five founders of the Freedmen’s Hospital, the forerunner of Howard University Hospital.

He attended the Chicago Medical College for a year in 1869. He transferred to Howard University in 1870, from which he an MD in Allopathic Medicine in 1873.

He moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, quickly rising to the post of Jefferson County Physician and Acting Coroner. He became an active Democrat and participated in the 1874 Constitutional Convention in Arkansas.

He returned to DC. He married the former Agnes N. Nalle of Virginia (1977-1910). He was hired as a Watchman for the Senate in the Forty-fifth Congress.

In 1891 the DC Democrats elected him as their president. He served two terms as head of the William J. Bryan Colored Democratic Club. In 1899, he formed the National Negro Anti-Expansion, Anti-Imperialist, Anti-Trust, and Anti-Lynching League.

He published The Philosophy of Negro Suffrage (1895). He wrote Evolution or Racial Development (1901) by Reach the Reached Negro (1903).

He and his wife lived in Seattle, Hartford. When his wife died in 1910 he moved to Brooklyn, where he would remain politically active and continue to write and accept speaking engagements until his death. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[gis-but-also-lit]

I guess it was lucky that, for once, dad made it home from work on time last Wednesday. It wasn’t his fault, and it actually wasn’t his boss’ or his company’s either, he had a knack for helping a couple coworkers when they got behind on reports. I always asked why he didn’t this when he wasn’t getting paid extra, and he’d say that wasn’t the point.

We hadn’t all been together to celebrate his birthday for a couple years by that point - Macy is being split every which way for work while Jerome’s got his kids using his last never as a ladder. Me, I don’t have much of an excuse but I also live with them still, haven’t missed a birthday since I was born (except my first year at college I guess, but, disappointingly to my mother, school never got in the way again). It’s hard to wrangle in everyone and yet my father’s always been grateful even when my siblings can only manage to call or video chat.

“Your mother and I know how it goes, as you might guess,” he used to say with a soft chuckle and a warm smile. “No need for excuses, although Ker’s shown you up again Macy,” which made me cringe inwardly whereas Macy had a great sense of humor about it and merely giggled with a frown while putting her hand up to the screen. Jerome wasn’t a video call kind of guy - he and dad were close in their own way, so whenever he couldn’t make a party he’d call about an hour before my parents went to bed. Dad would answer the phone delightedly and wander off to the kitchen.

Dad always wanted more out of me when it came to my own life though he never imposed those thoughts to me. I felt it in waves during our conversations. After so many sessions of therapy with so many different clients, he was well versed in navigating tough issues without pressing. I hated that, honestly, because he was so good at it I couldn’t only tell what he did after our talks. I didn’t hate it enough to get angst about it, never got mean to his face. I had my fair share of imaginary fights trying to tell him off, tell him it was my life and that I was gonna do what I wanted, what I felt passionate about. He’d win every argument in my own head. He didn’t hammer away his points, he didn’t try to undermine me or what I wanted. He just recognized that bit of my soul better than anyone, and once I rifled through my own thoughts this way enough, I’d come to terms with that too. He was proud of me for staying true to those parts of myself despite disagreeing with my methods, but I guess I’ll never really know how he feels about where I’ve ended up.

Macy and Jerome didn’t cry when I called them, nor when they arrived at the hospital. They both surprised me in this way because neither of them are steeled to wearing their emotions. My only explanation now is that they had come to terms with reality long before I had, which makes sense since I’m the youngest by nearly a decade. Still, I’m not the emotional one out of us three and I found it impossible to look at them, or my mother, or him. The rush of blood, the air conditioned room feeling like a sauna, I struggled to choke down my sobs. After a bit of breathing, and focusing only on his hands, I calmed down. I shed no tears, like the rest of them, but my body struggled to grip the floor.

Last Wednesday, it was nice to have him home on time. Perhaps he’d helped everyone he could, and that was enough.

[weaversweek]

"The 'Unchained' melody" - Righteous Brothers

1965 Music: Alex North; lyric: Hy Zaret

Into the top twenty of Let's Do It, my part of a crowdsourced collection of singles from 1954-76. From here, I've thought carefully about the order.

Many films of the era have been completely forgotten, or are remembered only for their music. The 1954 prison flick Unchained lives on only through its theme tune, and the words set to it. Hy Zaret's lyric is written from the point of view of a prisoner, who hasn't seen his paramour in so very long.

Todd Duncan sang the song in the film: he was lying on a bed, plaintively calling as someone else strums their guitar. Nominated for the Best Movie Song at the oscars, and propelled to worldwide attention.

Back in the 1950s, the important thing was the song, not the particular performance. "The 'Unchained' melody" attracted lots of renditions, Harry Belafonte and Jimmy Young had excellent vocal versions, Liberace played all the right notes and lots of others on his piano, Les Baxter had his admirers, Reg Snipton's version is best forgotten.

A standard by 1965, the Righteous Brothers recorded their version in a bit of a hurry - it was going to be the B-side to "Hung on you". Bill Medley played a Wurlitzer piano while Bobby Hatfield sung and emoted. He took the song to new places, the soaring vocal in the final verse is all his work. Hatfield said he could do another take better; Medley replied, "No, you can't."

"The 'Unchained' melody" has become a standard: over 1500 recordings, from performers as talented as Perry Como, as young as Gareth Gates, as old as Elvis Presley, and as fivestar as Robson and Jerome. Modern-day impressario Simon Cowell loves the song, it is just the sort of emotion he can comprehend. But we cannot hold that against Medley and Hatfield's version.

(This song-and-performer combo is also eligible for #UncoolTwo50; the Righteous Brothers re-recorded the song in 1990 after it was used on the soundtrack to the movie Ghost. I won't be nominating it in the 1977-99 poll.)

[undeadasshcle]

    @wingingthenight​ should have eaten him in the womb

    silence. boring. jeremiah is across the room, working on his next plan. a solo plan. jerome is supposedly still dead. a fun trick to pull on all of gotham. but death is dull. even when it’s fake.

    throws his head back, singing out as loudly and as obnoxiously as he can.

    ��JEREMIAH WAS A BULLFROG!!” slaps the thicker part of his thigh. once. twice. “WAS A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE!!”

[philosophical-discontent]

Closed Starter-Three’s A Crowd

Jeremiah was highly unaware of his twin brother’s rudimentary return and Jerome planned to keep it that way for the time being. Things have gone to plan for Jerome involving the gas that changed his brother. At least for the most part.

The city was brought to it’s knees and burnt to the ground just like he had hoped. His brother’s eyes were opened and he was finally seeing things from his maniacally insane point of view. Though Jeremiah puts on a good act.

His twin has taken over Gotham with the other villains holding different sections of the wasteland they deem their turfs. It was almost too perfect. But now he is back and ready to reclaim what is rightfully his at any and all costs.

What he and his twin do not realize is that they are in for quite the surprise.

@almostthesurvivor

[summersun4youforever]

✨ Tag 9 people to learn more about their interests!

tagged by my fav @loulovehome thank you pu hope that this quells your curiosity! 

MUSIC

fav genre? not to be that person but i think i have a toe in most genres, i suppose my favorites have got to be anything taylor swift does, pop punk, r&b pop/new age r&b, and bluegrass

fav artist? again, not to be that person but i love so many artists! let’s do this based off of genre: taylor swift, 1D, 5sos, massive focus on ZAYN, the Avett brothers, and counting crows

fav song? fav song of all time (since i was young) is going to be come around by rhett miller but more currently i’d say you are in love by taylor swift and dRuNk by ZAYN

song currently stuck in your head? i have no idea how it got there but i have stressed out by 21 pilots stuck in my head??

5 fav lyrics? ok let’s do this kids. edit: this went in a “fav love song lyrics” way so sorry in advance.

1)  I hope that I don't sound to insane when I say / There is darkness all around us / I don't feel weak but I do need sometimes for her to protect me / And reconnect me to the beauty that I'm missin' (January Wedding - The Avett Brothers)

2)  Hands around my waist / You're counting up the hills across the sheets / And I'm a falling star / A glimmer lighting up these cotton streets / I admit I'm a bit of a fool for playing by the rules / But I've found my sweet escape when I'm alone with you (Disconnected - 5sos)

3)  This is the worthwhile fight / Love is a ruthless game / Unless you play it good and right / These are the hands of fate / You're my Achilles heel / This is the golden age of something good / And right and real (State of Grace - Taylor Swift) 

4)  What if I changed my mind / What if I said it's over / I been flying so long / Can't remember what it was like to be sober / What if I lost my lives? / What if I said "Game over"? / What if I forget my lies? / And I lose all my composure (Back to Life - ZAYN)

5)   I never said I was perfect / Or you don't deserve a good person to carry your baggage / I know a few girls that can handle it / I ain't that kind of chick, but I can call 'em for you if you want / I never said that you wasn't attractive / Your style and that beard, ooh, don't get me distracted / I'm tryna be patient, and patience takes practice / The fact is I'm leaving, so just let me have this (Jerome - Lizzo)

radio or your own playlist | solo artists or bands | pop or indie | loud or silent volume I slow or fast songs | music video or lyrics video | speakers or headset | riding a bus in silence or while listening to music | driving in silence or with radio on

BOOKS

fav book genre? murder mystery and young love!

fav writer? jane austen, lisa jewell, and rick riordan (nostalgia ok?!)

fav book? the way i used to be my amber smith, rebecca by daphane du maurier, and then she was gone OR watching you (both by Lisa Jewell)

fav book series? i guess the whole percy jackson situations? i have everything RR every wrote, and i liked it all but i havent touched the older ones in ages

comfort book? not one specifically but the nancy drew books

perfect book to read on a rainy day? bird summons by leila aboulela

5 quotes from your fav book that you know by heart? i hope i can name five...

1)  “The point is, life has to be endured, and lived. But how to live it is the problem.” “I am no traveller, you are my world.” (both are My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier)

2)  “And I’m terrified he’ll see through the tough iceberg layer, and he’ll discover not a soft, sweet girl, but an ugly fucking disaster underneath.” (The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith)

3)  "I cannot make speeches, Emma," he soon resumed; and in a tone of such sincere, decided, intelligible tenderness as was tolerably convincing. "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me. I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it. Bear with the truths I would tell you now, dearest Emma, as well as you have borne with them. The manner, perhaps, may have as little to recommend them. God knows, I have been a very indifferent lover. But you understand me. Yes, you see, you understand my feelings and will return them if you can. At present, I ask only to hear, once to hear your voice.” (Emma by Jane Austen) (sorry for the length, the shortened versions were not cutting it for me)

4)  “Read, read, read. That's all I can say.” (The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene)

5)  “...amazing how boring you can get away with being when you’re pretty. No one seems to notice. When you’re pretty everyone just assumes you must have a great life. People are so short-sighted, sometimes. People are so stupid. I have a dark past and I have dark thoughts. I do dark things and I scare myself sometimes.” (Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell)

hardcover or paperback | buy or rent | standalone novels or book series | ebook or physical copy | reading at night or during the day | reading at home or in nature | listening to music while reading or reading in silence | reading in order or reading the ending first | reliable or unreliable narrator | realism or fantasy | one or multiple POVS | judging by the covers or by the summary (im a very judgmental reader) | rereading or reading just once

TV AND MOVIES

fav tv/movie genre? i like dramedies, mockumentaries, and procedurals 

fav movie? ive got a massive list on my phone but ill pick Doob (No Bed of Roses) and 3-Iron as my favs for today

comfort movie? 2000s romcoms, im talking clueless, 13 going on 30, how to loe a guy in ten days, ten things i hate abt you, legally blonde

movie you watch every year? mamma mia and all listed in prev question

fav tv show? too many, currently im rewatching arrested development

comfort tv show? new girl

most rewatched tv show? new girl

ultimate otp? shawn and jules from psych (ultimate bc ive been watching since diapers literally)

5 fav characters? winston bishop, stiles stilinski, bellamy blake, clarke griffin, lydia martin

tv shows or movies | short seasons (8-13 episodes) or full seasons (22 episodes or more) | one episode a week or binging | one season or multiple seasons | one part or saga | half hour or one hour long episodes | subtitles on or off | rewatching or watching just once | downloads or watches online

super fun even though it took me an hour lmao, I'm tagging @technosoot @hometothecanyonmoon @sassylilnoodle @sushiniall @rosegold-thorns no pressure and sorry if youve already been tagged!

edit: i somehow managed to forget what i consider to be one of the greatest opening verses ever???? so bonus lyrics:

Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog / Where no one notices the contrast of white on white / And in between the moon and you / The angels get a better view / Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right (Round Here - Counting Crows)

[literarypilgrim]

Read Like a Gilmore

All 339 Books Referenced In “Gilmore Girls” 

Not my original list, but thought it’d be fun to go through and see which one’s I’ve actually read :P If it’s in bold, I’ve got it, and if it’s struck through, I’ve read it. I’ve put a ‘read more’ because it ended up being an insanely long post, and I’m now very sad at how many of these I haven’t read. (I’ve spaced them into groups of ten to make it easier to read)

1. 1984 by George Orwell  2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 3. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon 5. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser 6. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt 7. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 8. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 9. The Archidamian War by Donald Kagan 10. The Art of Fiction by Henry James 

11. The Art of War by Sun Tzu 12. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 13. Atonement by Ian McEwan 14. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy 15. The Awakening by Kate Chopin 16. Babe by Dick King-Smith 17. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi 18. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie 19. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 20. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 21. Beloved by Toni Morrison 22. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney 23. The Bhagava Gita 24. The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy 25. Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel 26. A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy 27. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 28. Brick Lane by Monica Ali 29. Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner 30. Candide by Voltaire 31. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer 32. Carrie by Stephen King 33. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 34. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger 35. Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White 36. The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman 37. Christine by Stephen King 38. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 39. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess 40. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse    41. The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty 42. A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare 43. Complete Novels by Dawn Powell 44. The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton 45. Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker 46. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole 47. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 48. Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac 49. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 50. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber    51. The Crucible by Arthur Miller 52. Cujo by Stephen King 53. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon 54. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende 55. David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D 56. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 57. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown 58. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol 59. Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 60. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller 61. Deenie by Judy Blume 62. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson 63. The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx 64. The Divine Comedy by Dante 65. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells 66. Don Quixote by Cervantes 67. Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv 68. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 69. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe 70. Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook 71. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe 72. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn  73. Eloise by Kay Thompson 74. Emily the Strange by Roger Reger 75. Emma by Jane Austen 76. Empire Falls by Richard Russo 77. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol 78. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton 79. Ethics by Spinoza 80. Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves

81. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende 82. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer 83. Extravagance by Gary Krist 84. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 85. Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore 86. The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan 87. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser 88. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson 89. The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien 90. Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein 91. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 92. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce 93. Fletch by Gregory McDonald 94. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 95. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem 96. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand 97. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 98. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger 99. Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers 100. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut 101. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler 102. George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg 103. Gidget by Fredrick Kohner 104. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen 105. The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels 106. The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo 107. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy  108. Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky  109. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell  110. The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford 

111. The Gospel According to Judy Bloom 112. The Graduate by Charles Webb 113. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 114. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 115. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 116. The Group by Mary McCarthy 117. Hamlet by William Shakespeare 118. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling 119. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling 120. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers    121. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 122. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry 123. Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare 124. Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare 125. Henry V by William Shakespeare 126. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby 127. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon 128. Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris 129. The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton 130. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III    131. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende 132. How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer 133. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss  134. How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland  135. Howl by Allen Ginsberg  136. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo  137. The Iliad by Homer 138. I’m With the Band by Pamela des Barres  139. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote  140. Inferno by Dante 

141. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee 142. Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy 143. It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton 144. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 145. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan 146. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare 147. The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain 148. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair 149. Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito 150. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander 151. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain 152. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 153. Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence 154. The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal 155. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman 156. The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield 157. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis 158. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke 159. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken  160. Life of Pi by Yann Martel 

161. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens 162. The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway 163. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen 164. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 165. Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton 166. Lord of the Flies by William Golding 167. The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson 168. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 169. The Love Story by Erich Segal 170. Macbeth by William Shakespeare 171. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 172. The Manticore by Robertson Davies 173. Marathon Man by William Goldman 174. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov 175. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir 176. Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman 177. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris 178. The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer 179. Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken 180. The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare 181. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 182. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 183. The Miracle Worker by William Gibson 184. Moby Dick by Herman Melville 185. The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin  186. Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor  187. A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman  188. Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret  189. A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars 190. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway 

191. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf 192. Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall 193. My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh 194. My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken 195. My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest 196. Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo 197. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult 198. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer 199. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco 200. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri 201. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin 202. Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen 203. New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson 204. The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay 205. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich 206. Night by Elie Wiesel 207. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen 208. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan 209. Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell 210. Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski

211. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (will NEVER read again) 212. Old School by Tobias Wolff 213. On the Road by Jack Kerouac 214. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey 215. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 216. The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan 217. Oracle Night by Paul Auster 218. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood 219. Othello by Shakespeare 220. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens 221. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan 222. Out of Africa by Isac Dineson 223. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton 224. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster 225. The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan 226. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 227. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious 228. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 229. Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington 230. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi 231. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain 232. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby 233. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker 234. The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche 235. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind 236. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 237. Property by Valerie Martin 238. Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon  239. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw  240. Quattrocento by James Mckean 

241. A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall 242. Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers 243. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe 244. The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham 245. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi 246. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 247. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin 248. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant 249. Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman 250. The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien 251. R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton 252. Rita Hayworth by Stephen King 253. Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert 254. Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton 255. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare 256. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf 257. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster 258. Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin 259. The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition 260. Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi 261. Sanctuary by William Faulkner 262. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford 263. Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James 264. The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum 265. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne  266. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand  267. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir  268. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd  269. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman  270. Selected Hotels of Europe 

271. Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell 272. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 273. A Separate Peace by John Knowles 274. Several Biographies of Winston Churchill 275. Sexus by Henry Miller 276. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 277. Shane by Jack Shaefer 278. The Shining by Stephen King 279. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 280. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton 281. Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut 282. Small Island by Andrea Levy 283. Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway 284. Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers 285. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore 286. The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht 287. Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos 288. The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker 289. Songbook by Nick Hornby 290. The Sonnets by William Shakespeare 291. Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 292. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron  293. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner  294. Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov 295. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach  296. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller  297. A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams  298. Stuart Little by E. B. White  299. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway  300. Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust 

301. Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett 302. Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber 303. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 304. Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald 305. Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry 306. Time and Again by Jack Finney 307. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 308. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway 309. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 310. The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare    311. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 312. The Trial by Franz Kafka 313. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson 314. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett 315. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom 316. Ulysses by James Joyce 317. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath 318. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe 319. Unless by Carol Shields  320. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann 

321. The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers 322. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray 323. Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard 324. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides 325. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett 326. Walden by Henry David Thoreau 327. Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten 328. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 329. We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker 330. What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles 331. What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell 332. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka 333. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson 334. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee 335. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire 336. The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum 337. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 338. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 339. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

[sawyersthot--a]

multiples of 5 + my wifey sabine xx

TYSM BABES <3

5. What’s their outfit (transportation) like?

Sabine has driven her beat-up pick up she got from Earl for AGES and is gonna continue driving it until Joseph blows it up probably

10. How about Dutch? Do they get along with?

Sabine had heard of Dutch before everything went down but hadn't really met him due to not really going out to his island very often. She isn't sure what to make of him at first but comes to really rely on him as an informant AND a friend a little later down the line.

15. From Fall’s End which person they get along with?

She gets along with just about everyone in Fall's End! Though I'd say she's particularly closest with Jerome simply because of how there's been quite a few times that she's vented to him about her state of mind when initially arriving in Montana and then throughout the game as well

20. How do they feel about Jacob?

OH BOY, so jacob is an interesting one for her because alot of her conditioning centered around forcing her to confront the violent sides of herself that she hadn't had to think about in so long and for that while she really hates john the most for presuming so much about her from the things she did to survive on rook, i'd say she's definitely the most afraid of jacob because she hates feeling like she's lost control of herself

25. Which two of the GFH make up their dream team?

answered here!

30. What’s your character’s ending? (Can be one of the canon game endings or from your own canon)

So Sabine follows the canon of the game pretty much to a T, except at the end, when she gets in the car wreck, she's actually saved from Joseph by Nick and yanked into the Rye's bunker barely in time. Then fast-forward several years later and obvi we know everyone emerges and Sabine goes North ( because she's still grieving Faith like the pining bitch she is ) where she ends up meeting Thomas Rush, then the events of New Dawn occur and she ends up living out the rest of her life in this cabin in super close proximity to Prosperity, alone most of the time but in verses where she's being shipped with she'll usually be living with her partner <3 ( ps. she doesn't kill joseph because she thinks it's crueller to him to leave him alive in the ruins of new eden :))) )

[wordsandsound14]

Switchfoot albums ranked (not including interrobang)

I've been thinking about this a lot too recently. Ik I'm late to the party on this one but I don't get on reddit often. Only got on since the band did the ama. I won't include interrobang since it's so new and ranking it seems difficult. (worst to best)

11. Learning to Breathe - While this record has some of the best written songs (Learning to Breathe, The Loser, Love is the Movement), it also has some of my least favorites (Poparazzi, Innocence Again, Living is Simple). I often just find myself bored with this album and disappointed. There are plenty of dipping of toes in ideas and then abandoning them. For instance, the beginning of Erosion is such a cool unique sound and then it's abandoned for the rest of the song. The themes of this album are also really boring to me, even when I was a christian. I just found it wasn't taking a unique perspective or doing anything different with its themes when they have done so before.

10. Where the Light Shines Through - I feel this was the band when they were the most uninspired. It feels like it was trying to sell itself to the CCM crowd and make some waves there since it's been the most consistent place of making waves and it still didn't do that. Don't get me wrong, there are great songs here (If the House Burns Down Tonight, Float, Holy Water). The first half of this album is super good. It's that back half that feels like an axe to the first half. Every song on the back half has something that disappoints me. And I'm fine with christian themes and all but it felt like this album had more just praise songs vs the questioning of faith. Would've been a great EP and it kinda made sense that they went into hiatus after this album. I also feel that the themes of the album didn't really make it to it. Jon talked about how he was in a some struggle and storm before the album and then by the time they got recording it more so became an album after the storm. And I just wonder what was going on. Cause there's only small hints. I can only feel that an album that actually talked about that or coming out of the storm would've worked but we got way after the storm and leaving a lot of good inspiration behind in a ball of mystery that we still don't know about. I don't need to know every information that he went through but the songs got effected by it.

9. New Way to be Human - I think what holds this album down the most is it's lack of direction. I can feel them trying to tackle all of their ideas from folk to pop to indie while maintaining their identity. I just don't feel these ideas get fully fleshed out. But these songs are really well written and the philosophy bleeding into these tracks and ending up being a basis of many future songs can all be tracked back to this album. This album is just a very specific listen so I don't often turn to this album. I do think Something More is the most overlooked song, with Amy's song being a close second. I also think Incomplete is a just a better version of I Turn Everything Over so it feels like a repeat track. But I really appreciate what this record represents in their career and see it as a stepping stone of sorts. (Company Car is one of their best earlier works)

8. Native Tongue - Seems a lot of people have very different feelings about this work. I think the biggest thing that makes Native Tongue feel distinct is that it feels like a Jon Foreman project with Switchfoot. Like Jon was the only one who couldn't stay away from the studio and was calling the other members. They came and were happy to but it was Jon with the initiative. At least, it's how it sounds to me. A lot of these ideas are incomplete. But when they aren't, they hit really well (Native Tongue, Dig New Streams, Oxygen). And the amount of trying different things! Granted a lot of ideas of modern production ideas but I'm glad they happened. But some I'm not too fond of (Joy Invisible, Wonderful Feeling, The Strength To Let Go). I feel this album also really fell short without a good producer. It's not the production value that doesn't work but Switchfoot works best when there is a producer there that works with them and pushes them. I fell they could have been better but it also has some solid songs in here.

7. Legend of Chin - This is one of the most fun Switchfoot records but has such a distinct sound and charm to it. I understand that a lot of songs are about girls that Jon doesn't even know any more but there isn't a bad song on here. It's all just fun from 3 guys jamming in a room. I used to not like the closing track but it's grown on me and I crave that sound more and more. Some standout tracks are Home, Chem 6A, You. With Underwater being a super creative song. I don't have a ton to say other than this is root Switchfoot and their cores are on display here.

6. Fading West - I feel this is their most misunderstood record. The struggle this album went through is tremendous. Take the two best things Switchfoot is known for and strip them away and they still make a record worth listening too imo. It's not their best but it's really ambitious, even if accidental. Originally, they were going to only strip the guitars away but when you listen to the story of Fading West, going on a journey to feel inspired. There are plenty of lines hinting that Jon was having writer's block (blood clot pen). It does mean the lyrics suffered some here but I don't think they suffered a ton. They achieved the california surf music. However, I do think they missed a huge part that I feel the fans were wanting. It's the sound that's on the ep. It's the one we were advertised and didn't receive on the album. I would loved if the album had the sound of Edge of the Earth (the song). But I really appreciate the risk cause it's a huge one. (stand out tracks: Love Alone Is Worth the Fight, BA55, Slipping Away).

5. Vice Verses - This was the best they have ever been as musicians (you could argue this for Oh Gravity too tho). But the amount of pushing their musical talent is very apparent on this album. The bass lines and drum rhythms are amazing. The only songs I'm kinda eh about are Rise Above It (still has great production and energy) and The Original (still has amazing bass and guitar parts). This album does have a weird issue with the lyrics either hitting really deep parts of your heart or being a very vague or simple line. The production is also the best imo and everything is layered super well. The only production that I disagree on is on Where I Belong (the digital claps for why and some parts sounding a little inconsistent with the rest of the album). But the choices in the sounds of the guitars and genre jumps and the grunge. Still lacking in some areas but still a solid record. (Holds my favorite Switchfoot song Thrive)

4. Oh! Gravity. - Oh yes, the golden era as I call it. I pin this album as the core Switchfoot sound. If you want to hear what Switchfoot sounds like, this album nails it. Guitars, fun, great lyrics, and musical variety. I don't have much words like I did for Chin. It's a pretty simple album to digest and it's the quickest made one (from what i'm aware of) and it shows but in the best way possible. It's also only made better by the podcast series they made. The only things that hold this album down a bit is American Dream and Burn Out Bright being repeat tracks of another (American Dream being the better one) and the double edged sword of it being simple when surrounded by high effort long works that are beyond exceptional.

3. The Beautiful Letdown - The Classic Foot album that defined their careers. It's not a joke tho that everything went up a whole level with this album. Something clicked in Jon's head that turned out some of his best lyrics and the song formats and sound just grew a ton. Jerome being an essential new member. And only one song that's a little meh (Redemption) and even the meh song is still catchy. Overexposure might be why it's not higher but I feel I have more reasons being that it does sound dated. Most of the time for better but a little for worse. I also feel that if Drew was a part of this album, it would be up a another level also. There's just a slight amount of incompleteness to this record. Not sure exactly but regardless the songwriting on this album is amazing and the questions and the way they are asked remain timeless.

2. Nothing is Sound - Grunge at its best here. I'm still not certain what Jon was going through here other than what the lyrics mention but whatever he was feeling hits hard. It resonates so much. To this day, these songs hold my throat. Not a bad song on here. It's a really good album that only gets beat by it's production value. Some songs could've been produced better (ironically Jon mentioned that recently too lol). Golden, The Setting Sun, and We Are Young Tonight are the forefront of those. And it's not like they are terribly produced but they are missing a little from what they could be. But literally it. Front to back, this record just rocks while wallowing in despair from the fallen world and the loneliness and helplessness it brings. It also represents a huge decision on what to do after a breakout record and is one of the best records after a band reached public success.

1. Hello Hurricane - The whole sound of this record is the most complete the band has ever sounded to me. The writing on this album is so great. Not one song is a waste and process this album went through is amazing. I get that they can't (prob shouldn't) do this process but damn was it worth it. This project sounds so complete and so organically made, even with two songs that I feel could have been switched out. (Always isn't my favorite but I may having it be a song for a past relationship. But it also does still have a lot of raw emotion in it that I appreciate and can get past my own perceptions. It's the lesser of the offense. Free is the other one only cause it kinda is booty in studio. It's live version makes ya wish it was that way on the record). But i adore these lyrics and I love the sounds they used without washing it up with production but still using production (Sing it Out) as a tool. It's so good and I love this album so much

quick review of interrobang is that it’s a very solid record and I love the sound of it so far. It doesn’t take my top record but it’s an insanely catchy album with a lot of listens in the future. I’d probably rank it as 2 or 3. Not sure if it’s above or below nothing is sound. but really give it a listen. It’s exactly what i’ve been wanting from the band for so long

[sojourner-between-worlds]

Why the Idea of Disabled Jesus is Heretical

(Or, at best, a gross misinterpretation of Scripture. But really, it's heresy.)

@aspiringautistic asked on this post from my side blog: "what would be so harmful if there were people who perceived jesus as disabled?" and I am happy to oblige in expanding on those thoughts (though since the answer has little to do with autism and everything to do with Christianity in general, I thought it more appropriate to answer here on main). In case you hadn't prior seen the linked post and don't feel like clicking through, the short of it is this: the Gospel Coalition recently published an article in which the author, Andrew Abernethy, argued that Jesus was disabled. I'm here to tell you where he went wrong.

Hold on to your hats, folks. This is a long post.

(All Scripture quotations taken from the ESV translation.)

1. Disabilities are a result of the Fall. Before I get into anything else, I need to make this point abundantly clear. While being disabled does not dictate worth and it is not an indication of personal sin, it is still not how we are meant to be. Adam and Eve were created in the likeness of God, and were, therefore, created without sin or any of the things that came with sin. They were perfect -- at least until they disobeyed (Genesis 2-3). Sometimes people ask "if there is a God, why do bad things happen?" and the answer is because we live in a sin-cursed world. Disabilities, illness, and death itself exist because Adam and Eve sinned. (Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.")

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2. Old Testament laws regarding sacrifices. The Old Testament Law is very specific when talking about what makes an acceptable sacrifice. There are a lot of different types (everything from bulls to grain), but the relevant ones to this discussion are sacrifices made for the atonement of sins. 

There are two categories of sacrifices made for sin: sin offerings made for unintentional sins, and burnt offerings made for sin in general. Burnt offerings and sin offerings both ranged from bulls to doves (or flour for the latter, if nothing else could be afforded) and sin offerings varied depending on both the person and the sin as well (Leviticus 1, 4-5). But all of the animals sacrificed had two instructions about them in common: that they be "without blemish", and that the sinner must place their hand on the head of the animal. The difference between the two was that a sin offering was required as an act of repentance and a burnt offering was voluntary. In the case of burnt offerings, the requirements for bulls and sheep or goats are laid out very plainly: "a male without blemish" (1:3, 10). 

In addition to all of this, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, one bull and two male goats would be sacrificed for the people to remove their sins (Leviticus 16; only one goat was killed; the other was sent away, symbolizing the removal of sin). Again, these animals had to be without blemish, just as all the others. The person offering the sacrifice was to place their hand on the head of the animal. The action of placing their hand was symbolic: it was a way of showing that the person's sin was being "transferred" to the animal so that the animal could take the person's place and receive the punishment for sin instead. "Without blemish" meant that it couldn't be sickly or diseased or crippled in any way. It had to be as close to perfect as was possible in a sin-cursed world because anything less than perfect had to die for its own imperfections. 

Because these sacrifices could never be truly perfect, they had to be repeated, but all of this was pointing to the time when Jesus would come as the final sacrifice made for the sins of the world.

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3. Jesus as the final sacrifice. If you know anything about the Christian faith, you know that this is at the heart of everything we believe. Without Jesus, there is no gospel. So here's why that matters to this discussion: 

"But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by the means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Hebrews 9:11-14, emphasis mine). 

This passage in Hebrews (as well as verses preceding and following) are all about how Christ made atonement for us with His death, and how His voluntary sacrifice of Himself is superior to the OT sacrifices. 

So allow me to direct your attention to the bolded phrase above: “offered himself without blemish”. If this sounds familiar, it should, since I talked extensively about this in the point above. “Without blemish” in Leviticus meant to be not crippled or disfigured or ill in any way. If this same phrase is also applied to Christ, then the same must be true. If the OT sacrifices were required to be so, why would the same not apply to the Final Sacrifice that ended the need for sacrifices to be made? It wouldn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense. Not when the OT sacrifices were pointing towards Jesus; not when we have a God Who created order and purpose. Jesus had to be perfect to take our places -- and that includes being free of deformities that are a result of a sin-cursed world.

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4. Isaiah 53, misinterpreted at best. This was one of Mr Abernethy’s main points, and it’s one he got disastrously wrong by reading what he wanted into Scripture (eisegesis) rather than letting Scripture say what it says (exegesis). See, the thing about interpreting prophecy is that you have to be careful how you do it, and, just like all Scripture, make sure it’s within the proper context. 

In the case of this chapter of Isaiah, the wider context is that it’s a prediction of Jesus’ suffering on earth and His death. One of the verses he tries to pass off about Jesus being ugly or deformed is the second part of verse 3: “and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” The problem is, this verse and one directly after it are not about his physical appearance at all. They are about emotions and grief: “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteem him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted” (vs. 3-4, emphasis mine). This is about Him bearing our burdens and our rejection of Him anyway. This is a parallel that continues as the chapter moves forward. 

There is only one physical description in this passage that is not related to His death, and it’s the second part of verse 2: “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” And this is the only point that Mr Abernethy got correct: Jesus wasn’t the Hollywood definition of drop-dead gorgeous. He looked like your average Joe. In order to not be conventionally beautiful/handsome, that does not dictate that a person must be deformed or “ugly” in any way. The only thing this verse means is that he didn’t stand out from the crowd with His looks. He didn’t look the way they thought their Savior should. That’s it. That’s all it means.

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5. Tradition isn't truth (no matter how much anyone wants it to be). I have to admit, adding in a section about a so-called “tradition” that’s nigh on impossible to find anything about was brilliant. The average person wouldn’t even bother looking in the first place, and most people who would look, would give up after five or ten minutes of searching. I spent an hour and found exactly nothing on this “tradition” of Jesus being a leper. So you just... have to take Abernethy’s word for it. 

Aside from not being able to find anything on it myself, the argument he uses is faulty anyway. Because tradition doesn’t equal truth, in the first place, especially a tradition that didn’t pop up until the 16th century. There’s no basis for something that apparently wasn’t known until 1400 years after His death. 

Aside from that, he calls on Jerome’s Latin translation of Isaiah 53:4 that translates a phrase as “he was like a leper.” First of all, “like a leper” does not mean He actually was a leper. C’mon, man. Any fifth grader in America could tell you that similes are used for comparisons and aren’t literal. 

Second of all, if you’d like to make a point, it’s a much better idea to go back to the Hebrew manuscripts rather than to any one translation. Now, I don’t know Hebrew myself, but I do have access to a little thing called the Internet, where you can find a plethora of commentaries from people who do know Hebrew. For this particular problem, I went to Albert Barne’s Notes on the Whole Bible. I’m not going to put his whole notes here (because there’s a lot), but if you’d like to read all of his notes, you can search the verse on studylight.org and use the ‘jump to’ feature under the verse to find him, but the bottom line of his notes on it are this: Jesus wasn’t literally being rightfully punished like the Jews would incorrectly think; leprosy was used here as an example because it was seen as a divine punishment for sin. It has nothing to do with literal leprosy at all. 

And to top off this cake of incorrectness... well, has he even read the New Testament? If Jesus had had leprosy, He: a. wouldn’t have been allowed in temples or synagogues, b. wouldn’t have been allowed in towns period, and c. wouldn’t have been nailed to a cross because no one would have risked touching Him in order to do so. Abernethy shouldn’t have even brought this up in his argument, it’s so far off base, and no artist in the 16th century should have painted a painting of a leprous Jesus nailed to the cross because, quite simply, it never would have happened.

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6. Jesus relates to us -- but not in the ways Mr Abernethy says. While he never cites any Scripture on this, I’m pretty sure I know where this idea came from. In his article, he states that in order for Jesus to have related to the disabled, He had to be disabled Himself. Since He relates to us, then He must have been disabled. 

First of all, the logical fallacy of this statement is this: if He must be disabled to relate to the disabled, then can the abled still relate to Him? The answer to that, of course, would be no, because if He wasn’t abled then He can’t relate to the abled in the same way that Abernethy asserts that He can’t relate to the disabled without being disabled. It’s one of those things where you can’t have it both ways. Another example of how this logic falls short is pregnancy. Can Jesus not relate to pregnant people because He Himself was never in such a state? And the rabbit hole just gets deeper from there: Can He relate specifically to the blind when He was never blind? How about the deaf or hard of hearing? Or people missing limbs, either from birth or through amputation? All disabilities are different, and experiencing one doesn’t mean you understand them all, so by Abernethy’s logic, Jesus had to experience all of them. Do you see how ridiculous Abernethy’s logic here is yet? 

Second of all, Abernethy is, once again, taking Scripture entirely out of context -- if, indeed, he got this idea from Scripture at all. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” The problem with trying to use this verse as proof is, obviously, that it’s talking about temptations (Matthew 4:1-11), not lived experiences. If he was, again, referencing Isaiah 53 -- well, that doesn’t work either, because, again, that is in reference to His death and the sins He bore for us on the cross. The fact of the matter is, there are no Scriptures to back up the idea that He had to personally experience everything we do in order for Him to understand our pain and suffering. 

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The source of this heresy is the same as many heresies, actually: People want to make Jesus into something He's not. I listened to a podcast recently where the host was talking about a couple of heretics, and while I don't remember the heretic's name, he said that to him, Jesus was Latinx because he himself is Latinx. Except that, ya know, Jesus was a Middle-Eastern Jew. It's the same fallacy to say that Jesus was disabled. Everyone wants Jesus -- and God, for that matter -- to be something He's not, rather than for Him to be what Scripture tells us He is, but you can't force God into the box you've carved for Him. He is who He is, no matter how much you want Him to be something different.

There's no getting around it: to make Him out to be anything other than what Scripture tells us He is -- especially when it contradicts Scripture, is heresy.

[philosophical-discontent]

“Dying is my brother’s specialty!”

Jeremiah at literally everyone: Bold of you to assume I’d be dumb enough to die.

[jazzicology]

The lost art of the jazz verse

Jazz is well known for having its own language. Jazz musicians use terms that aren’t used in other forms of music, or use them in ways which mean different things. An example of this is ‘verse’.

Pop and rock music often has a verse/chorus/verse/chorus structure, where the ‘chorus’ is a repeated section with identical lyrics each time, while the verses are the interleaving bits of the song that tell a story, with different lyrics each time.

In contrast to that, in jazz a ‘verse’ specifically means a section of music right at the start. The verse serves as an introduction. It is not repeated later on in the song, but rather provides a kind of stand-alone run-in to it. These verses often have wonderful, poetic lyrics and beautiful melodies which are quite different in character to the song which follows it. They are often (but not always) sung colla voce (meaning, led by the vocalist, with the instrumentalists following the voice) before entering the rhythm of the song.

These introductory verses are more common in older jazz pieces, and are used to provide background to the story being told in the song. Musically, the verse also allows the writer more creative freedom than the main refrain, which generally has to be straightforward and ‘catchy’.

Some jazz verses are very well known, and form such an important part of the song that not performing them is out of the question. For example, the incredibly complex and sad ‘Lush Life’, written by Billy Strayhorn in the 1930s when he was just 16 (surely a musical genius) has an incredible verse. In terms of word count, it outweighs the song which follows it:

“I used to visit all the very gay places

Those come-what-may places

Where one relaxes on the axes of the wheel of life

To get the feel of life

From jazz and cocktails.

The girls I knew has sad and sullen grey faces

With distingue traces

It used to be where you could see where they’d been washed away

By too many through the day

Twelve o’clock tales

Then you came along with your siren song

To tempt me to madness

I thought for a while that your poignant smile

Was tinged with a sadness

Of a great love for me

Ah yes, I was wrong

Again, I was wrong”.

Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Stardust’ is another example of a song with a verse that’s as memorable as its chorus — in fact, Frank Sinatra made a recording of the verse alone - you can listen to it here. 

Verses can be musically significant for other reasons. For example, a cornerstone of advanced jazz harmonic practice is ‘Giant steps’, based on the so-called Coltrane changes (tonal centres moving between B, G and Eb). Many musicians are aware that this motif occurs in the bridge of Richard Rogers’s ‘Have you met Miss Jones’. Not so well known is that a Jerome Kern song from 1917, ‘Til the clouds roll by’ (lyrics by PG Wodehouse and Guy Bolton) contains a verse which (in its second half) uses the same modulations.

The ‘lost’ verses

There are many well known jazz songs with verses that are overlooked and rarely performed. These wonderful verses deserve to be revived!

For example, ‘Round Midnight’ (by be-bop jazz god, Thelonious Monk) – officially the most-recorded song in jazz  - has a terrific verse and coda. The verse was actually added later, by Dizzy Gillespie, but was considered so successful that Monk added it to his own performances. Singers rarely perform the verse To be fair, that’s because it is quite challenging for a vocalist: the chords that accompany it provide very few clues to keep the singer from going completely off-piste! A rare example of a vocal performance of the verse is this live recording of the wonderful Carmen McRae. It is utterly brilliant and an electrifying start to the song.

Other well known songs with lovely ‘lost’ verses include: ‘A Foggy Day’ and ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ (both by George and Ira Gershwin); ‘You’ve Changed’ (Carl Fischer; lyrics by Bill Carey); ‘A Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square’ (Manning Sherwin; lyrics by Eric Maschwitz), ‘In the wee small hours of the morning’ (David Mann; lyrics by Bob Hilliard) and ‘Guess Who I Saw Today’ (Murray Grand; lyrics by Elisse Boyd).

One of New Zealand’s most well-loved songs, ‘Blue Smoke’, is another example. It was written by Maori soldier Ruru Karaitiana while on a troop ship in the second world war. It was later recorded by Dean Martin, among others. Yet, despite being New Zealand’s first really successful ‘popular song’, the verse doesn’t seem to be included on any of the well-known recordings of it (although one source refers to these lyrics as being spoken over the bridge, rather than sung as a verse). That’s a shame, because it provides a moving introduction to the song.

“Smoke drifts above me - whispering I miss you

Taking my thoughts back to you - across the sea

I know that when - I sail home again

I'll find you waiting for me”

Finding the ‘lost’ verses!

The verses aren’t really lost – they’re all out there, somewhere. They just take a little effort to find. Here are our tips on discovering verses.

First, always do your research when you learn a new song. Find out who composed it and who wrote the lyrics. There may even be alternative lyrics, which is always interesting to know about. (As an aside – knowing and naming the composer is an important act of respect. If you are at a jazz jam and announce that you’re ‘going to sing The Very Thought of You by Billie Holiday’, not only are you disrespecting the composer (Ray Noble) you can guarantee that behind your back, the entire band will be cringing and rolling their eyes.

Second, if you find out there is a verse, search for the original sheet music. Simplified ‘lead sheets’ which can be found online often lack the verses and other nice stuff. Similarly, online lyrics websites rarely provide lyrics for the verses (and incidentally, are often inaccurate, having been written down by listening to singers singing them – so for example, we have seen Strayhorn’s ‘distingue traces’ in Lush Life mistakenly written down as ‘distant gay traces’ in more than one website). Needless to say, you need the chords, the melody and the lyrics.

Third, search for recordings of the song to find one or two that include the verse, and then develop your own ideas for how you would like to tackle it. If the verse is to be sung colla voce, then you need to discuss that with the band. And, as a vocalist, you’ll need to practise the transition from the colla voce section, confidently counting in the band to the right tempo for the rest of the song.

This may all sound like a lot of work – but the efforts are really worth it. Often the verse ends up being the stand-out part of the song. You’ll be doing full justice to lovely songs, and showing that you know your jazz!

Resources:

• Lots of historical and musicological stuff can be found on https://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions/ 

• The standard work on the subject is by Alec Wilder (1972) American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950. Oxford University Press (reprinted many times)

Nance Wilson and Sid Thomas

Nance Wilson is one half of the new jazz duo, Jazzicology, with Mark Rendall Wilson, and has a long-standing collaboration with UK jazz pianist and composer Sid Thomas.  Facebook: @Jazzicology   https://soundcloud.com/nance-wilson-trio

Howard (Sid) Thomas is a British author, scientist and jazz musician. Website: http://sidthomas.net

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

OED Word of the Year expanded for ‘unprecedented’ 2020 (BBC) This year has seen so many seismic events that Oxford Dictionaries has expanded its word of the year to encompass several “Words of an Unprecedented Year”. Its words are chosen to reflect 2020’s “ethos, mood, or preoccupations”. They include bushfires, Covid-19, WFH, lockdown, circuit-breaker, support bubbles, keyworkers, furlough, Black Lives Matter and moonshot. Use of the word pandemic has increased by more than 57,000% this year. Casper Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Dictionaries, said: “I’ve never witnessed a year in language like the one we’ve just had. The Oxford team was identifying hundreds of significant new words and usages as the year unfolded, dozens of which would have been a slam dunk for Word of the Year at any other time. “It’s both unprecedented and a little ironic—in a year that left us speechless, 2020 has been filled with new words unlike any other.”

Jury duty? No thanks, say many, forcing trials to be delayed (AP) Jury duty notices have set Nicholas Philbrook’s home on edge with worries about him contracting the coronavirus and passing it on to his father-in-law, a cancer survivor with diabetes in his mid-70s who is at higher risk of developing serious complications from COVID-19. People across the country have similar concerns amid resurgences of the coronavirus, a fact that has derailed plans to resume jury trials in many courthouses for the first time since the pandemic started. Within the past month, courts in Hartford, Connecticut, San Diego and Norfolk, Virginia, have had to delay jury selection for trials because too few people responded to jury duty summonses. The non-response rates are much higher now than they were before the pandemic, court officials say. Judges in New York City, Indiana, Colorado and Missouri declared mistrials recently because people connected to the trials either tested positive for the virus or had symptoms. “What the real question boils down to are people willing to show up to that court and sit in a jury trial? said Bill Raftery, a senior analyst with the National Center for State Courts. “Many courts have been responsive to jurors who have said that they’re not comfortable with coming to court and doing jury duty and therefore offering deferrals simply because of concerns over COVID.”

The next few months could be rough for the U.S. economy (NYT) The next few months have the potential to be very unpleasant for the American economy. Many states are reimposing coronavirus restrictions, which will likely lead to new reductions in consumer spending and worker layoffs. As Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, recently said, “We’ve got new cases at a record level, we’ve seen a number of states begin to reimpose limited activity restrictions, and people may lose confidence that it is safe to go out.” Adding to the economic risks, several of the government’s biggest virus rescue programs are scheduled to expire next month. It isn’t clear whether Congress will renew them, because congressional Democrats and Republicans disagree on how to do so. A lack of government support, Powell has said, may lead to “tragic” results with “unnecessary hardship.” The longer-term picture is more encouraging, though. There is reason to hope that the next economic recovery, whenever it comes, will be stronger than the frustratingly weak recovery after the 2007-2009 financial crisis. “It’s a good guess that we’ll get this pandemic under control at some point next year,” writes Paul Krugman, the Times columnist (and Nobel Prize-winning economist). “It’s also a good bet that when we do, the economy will come roaring back.”

Student loan repayments (WSJ) The U.S. government stands to lose more than $400 billion from the federal student loan program, an internal analysis shows, approaching the size of losses incurred by banks during the subprime-mortgage crisis. The Education Department, with the help of two private consultants, looked at $1.37 trillion in student loans held by the government at the start of the year. Their conclusion: Borrowers will pay back $935 billion in principal and interest. That would leave taxpayers on the hook for $435 billion, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The analysis was based on government accounting standards and didn’t include roughly $150 billion in loans originated by private lenders and backed by the government.

Brazil’s local elections (Worldcrunch) Brazilian local elections can be fun to watch. Candidates come from every walk of life, and are notably allowed to use nicknames on the campaign trail—and there have been some true gems over the years: a loud man with thick sideburns and bushy hair campaigned as “Geraldo Wolverine”; an elderly man in army uniform and full beard was “Bin Laden for Governor”; and we’ve also seen a tropical, chubby Spiderman, an old Robin, and Jesuses in various shapes and sizes. Earlier this month, as Brazilians headed to the polls to elect local leaders in the country’s major states and cities—including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro—there were exactly 78 candidates who chose to run as some form of “Bolsonaro,” and even one as “Donald Trump Bolsonaro.” Results are in and 77 of them failed to get elected, including the president’s ex-wife, who campaigned as Rogéria Bolsonaro. The Brazilian leader personally chimed in on his social media accounts to endorse the 59 candidates (with and without familiar nicknames) he favored—only nine of whom got elected, according to Estadão de S. Paulo daily. Centrist and moderate parties made gains in the local contests, which also came at the expense of the other massive political force in the country, the leftist Workers’ Party.

Reporter Gatecrashes EU Defence Chiefs’ Video Call After Login Details Posted on Twitter (Vice) A Dutch journalist managed to join a video call for EU defence ministers, much to his and everybody else’s surprise. Video posted on Twitter shows Daniël Verlaan, a technology reporter for broadcaster RTL Nieuws, in disbelief as he realises he’s actually managed to jump on the call. RTL said that Verlaan was only able to do so because of information tweeted by Dutch defence minister Ank Bijleveld, including a photo (since deleted) showing five digits of a six-digit PIN needed to join the call. Defence ministers representing EU members and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell were on the call. When Verlaan joins, Borrell asks, “Who are you?” After exchanging pleasantries, and as laughter is heard in the background, Borrell asks the reporter if he knew he was “jumping into a secret conference.” “Yes, I’m sorry, I’m a journalist from the Netherlands,” Verlaan says. “I’m sorry for interrupting your conference, I’ll be leaving here.” A spokesperson for the Dutch ministry of defence told RTL a staff member had accidentally tweeted the picture containing information that allowed Verlaan to join the call. “This shows once again that ministers need to realise how careful you have to be with Twitter,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

France’s Dragnet for Extremists Sweeps Up Some Schoolchildren, Too (NYT) Armed with assault rifles and wearing balaclavas, dozens of police officers raided four apartments recently in a sprawling complex in Albertville, a city in the French Alps. They confiscated computers and cellphones, searched under mattresses and inside drawers, and took photos of books and wall ornaments with Quranic verses. Before the stunned families, the officers escorted away four suspects for “defending terrorism.” “That’s impossible,” Aysegul Polat recalled telling an officer who left with her son. “This child is 10 years old.” Her son—along with two other boys and one girl, all 10 years old—was accused of defending terrorism in a classroom discussion on the freedom of expression at a local public school. Officers held the children in custody for about 10 hours at police stations while interrogating their parents about the families’ religious practices and the recent republication of the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the magazine Charlie Hebdo. The fifth-grade classmates are among at least 14 children and teenagers investigated by the police in recent weeks on accusations of making inappropriate comments during a commemoration for a teacher who was beheaded last month after showing the cartoons in a class on freedom of expression. As France grapples with a wave of Islamist attacks following the republication of the Charlie Hebdo caricatures, the case in Albertville and similar ones elsewhere have again raised questions about the nature of the government’s response.

France’s Sarkozy goes on trial for corruption (Reuters) Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial on Monday accused of trying to bribe a judge and of influence-peddling, one of several criminal investigations that threaten to cast an ignominious pall over his decades-long political career. Prosecutors allege Sarkozy offered to secure a plum job in Monaco for judge Gilbert Azibert in return for confidential information about an inquiry into claims that Sarkozy had accepted illegal payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign. Sarkozy, who led France from 2007-2012 and has remained influential among conservatives, has denied any wrongdoing in all the investigations against him and fought vigorously to have the cases dismissed. Next March, Sarkozy is due in court on accusations of violating campaign financing rules during his failed 2012 re-election bid. Next March, Sarkozy is due in court on accusations of violating campaign financing rules during his failed 2012 re-election bid.

Merkel, Germany’s ‘eternal’ chancellor, marks 15 years in power (AFP) In power so long she has been dubbed Germany’s “eternal chancellor”, Angela Merkel marks 15 years at the helm of Europe’s top economic power Sunday with her popularity and public trust scaling new heights as her remaining time in office ticks down. With the coronavirus raging around the world, the pandemic has played to her strengths as a crisis manager with a head for science-based solutions. Merkel, 66, has said she will step down as chancellor when her current mandate runs out in 2021, and leave politics altogether. Assuming she finishes out her fourth term, she will tie Helmut Kohl’s longevity record for a post-war leader, with an entire generation of young Germans never knowing another person at the top. The brainy, pragmatic and unflappable Merkel has served for many in recent years as a welcome counter-balance to the big, brash men of global politics, from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin, as liberals have looked to her as the “leader of the free world”. A Pew Research Center poll last month showed large majorities in most Western countries having “confidence in Merkel to do the right thing regarding world affairs”.

China tests millions after coronavirus flare-ups in 3 cities (AP) Chinese authorities are testing millions of people, imposing lockdowns and shutting down schools after multiple locally transmitted coronavirus cases were discovered in three cities across the country last week. As temperatures drop, large-scale measures are being enacted in the cities of Tianjin, Shanghai and Manzhouli, despite the low number of new cases compared to the United States and other countries that are seeing new waves of infections. On Monday, the National Health Commission reported two new locally transmitted cases in Shanghai over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to seven since Friday. China has recorded 86,442 total cases and 4,634 deaths since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

Singapore, a City of Skyscrapers and Little Land, Turns to Farming (WSJ) In this skyscraper-studded nation of nearly six million people, all the farmland combined adds up to about 500 acres—an area roughly the size of a single American farm. That explains why more than 90% of the city-state’s food comes from abroad, a feat of globalization that plays out every day as beef is brought from New Zealand, eggs from Poland and vegetables trucked in from Malaysia. But recent developments—from Covid-19-related border closures to international trade fights—have shown that near-total dependence on the outside world may not be the best strategy in a shifting global environment. The Asian financial hub long focused on growing investment is turning to growing food. It can’t be done the traditional way, however. Land is so scarce in Singapore that the government continually reclaims territory from the sea to build new urban infrastructure. Instead, businesses are trying to reinvent agriculture. Industrial buildings are being converted into vertical farms with climate-controlled grow rooms. Rows of lettuce and kale are nourished not by soil, but via automated drips of nutrient-infused water. LED lights substitute for the sun. The government’s goal is to have 30% of the island’s nutritional requirements produced in Singapore by 2030, up from less than 10% today. Earlier this year, it shipped 400,000 seed packets to households to encourage home cultivation of leafy greens, cucumbers and tomatoes. In September, it announced about $40 million in grants to expand high-tech farms.

Reports: Israeli PM flew to Saudi Arabia, met crown prince (AP) Israeli media reported Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia for a clandestine meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which would mark the first known encounter between senior Israeli and Saudi officials. Hebrew-language media cited an unnamed Israeli official as saying that Netanyahu and Yossi Cohen, head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, flew to the Saudi city of Neom on Sunday, where they met with the crown prince. The prince was there for talks with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. A Gulfstream IV private jet took off just after 1740 GMT from Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, according to data from website FlightRadar24.com. The flight traveled south along the eastern edge of the Sinai Peninsula before turning toward Neom and landing just after 1830 GMT, according to the data. The flight took off from Neom around 2150 GMT and followed the same route back to Tel Aviv. While Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates have reached deals under the Trump administration to normalize ties with Israel, Saudi Arabia so far has remained out of reach.

Cyclone Gati hits Somalia as country’s strongest storm on record (Washington Post) Tropical Cyclone Gati struck the arid nation of Somalia on Sunday as the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds, making it the strongest storm on record to hit the country. The cyclone made landfall after undergoing an extraordinary period of rapid intensification, which may have set a record for the entire Indian Ocean basin, at one point attaining the strength equivalent to a Category 3 storm, with 115 mph maximum sustained winds. Its landfall was farther south than any major hurricane-equivalent cyclone on record in that part of the world as well. Landfall occurred near Xaafuun, a small community about 900 miles northeast of Mogadishu, where the land juts east near the northern tip of the country. Hordio and Ashira, both desert communities, were also directly affected by the core of the storm. A broad four to eight inches of rainfall accompanied the system through northern Somalia, the driest part of the country, drenching desert regions with a year or two’s worth of rainfall in just a matter of hours to a couple of days. Rains also swept through the Gulf of Aden and brushed up against Yemen.

[undeadasshcle]

@wingingthenight​    

    he doesn't care who jonathan fucks. never has, doubts he ever will. pleasure can be fulfilled with anyone. finds it strange when others bind it to just one person. then they get mad because their sex life grows dull. and madder again when their partner seeks out something new and exciting. as if that shouldn't be expected?? you eat the same food everyday?? it becomes bland. you fuck the same holes everyday?? it becomes bland.

    but this isn't about sex.

    jerome seizes jonathan's shoulder before he can fully stand and pulls him back onto the bed. he's on top of him in an instant. knees either side of his thin waist. solid. unmovable. not unlike that night... except his hands are around his wrists this time and not his neck. eyes are trained on jonathan's, wide and unpredictable. like an animal waiting for the right moment to strike. things were fine just moments ago.

    "are you mine??" voice comes out as a low growl, pointed and sharp.