#'look at this beautiful scenery. look at this beautiful archetype

[justthatspiffy]

watch the ballad of buster scruggs on netflix if you want to be sad and troubled for maybe the rest of your life

[stillness138]

Since there won't be any more expansions (and i'm a chronic procrastinator), i updated my personal top 10 Gwent card arts into a top 20, including the few sets that came since then and shuffling things around a bit.

It's a long one, hence the cut.

Personal top 20 Gwent card arts:

20: Bone Talisman by Bogna Gawrońska It's still the most festive looking thing i like. My beloved blue-and-bright red fidget spinner. I really can't explain my weird attachment to it any other way; i generally tend to like the item arts, maybe it's the collector brain, maybe it's because after Homecoming and most of the expansion sets since later 2019 onwards, these base set trinket adjacent arts became more prominent to me among a lot of new, more dramatic and bleak character and scenery art.

19: Ceremonial Dagger by Katarzyna Bekus The entire set of strategem arts from Merchants of Ofir is honestly packed, but the dagger is the one i found myself putting in my in-game profile the most. Maybe it's the item hoarder brain again, maybe it's the color scheme i find relatable if that makes sense, most likely it's the premium helping a bunch to make that choice too. The background weirdly fascinates me. Does it have anything to do with The Spiral? I have never attempted to really assign any logical meaning to the strategem arts, they're clearly more symbolic than anything, but it still makes you wonder.

18: Ard Gaeth by Katarzyna Bekus Somewhat related, here's another piece of wonky multiverse lore. And once again, it's the color that first grabs attention; the contrast of teal and this dusty red. Then one starts realizing the implied size and scope, the birds help with that, apart from being a cute composition detail. The shattery effect makes it look volatile, unstable, dangerous. Ominous. Which ultimately makes it fit with the rest of the Wild Hunt archetype in more than just lore.

17: Coup de Grâce by Lorenzo Mastroianni There are two wolves in me, one loves bright colors, the other actually enjoys a lot of the bleaker scenes. Although to be fair, Lorenzo Mastroianni is a big contributor to that. And it's no wonder, when he casually drops stuff like this. It's almost symbolic, lot less than strategems but certainly more than other, straightforward "war sucks" Gwent art. How do you visually represent something sad in a way that makes it hard to look away not just because of the tragedy but because of the beauty put into making that image? You ask Lorenzo Mastroianni, the modern classical artist, to do it.

16: Viper Witcher by Valeriy Vegera I once described Valeriy's art as "where Lorenzo uses a tight color palette, he uses every pencil in the case". This one is perhaps not as obvious an example, the whole piece has a very unified atmosphere especially from afar, but still, there are so many colors especially in textiles and skin. They're harder to register sometimes but it's how Valeriy does texture and shading. And somehow, he bridges the bleak and the colorful world too. Admittedly, this card also had to be here because mr. Viper is my son, and the voicelines are done by an actor with the nicest, smoothest bass i've heard since Peter Steele.

15: Naglfar's Crew by Anton Nazarenko I was surprised by how much i ended up liking this one. It's the implications, i think; enchanted to laboriously upkeep this monster of a ship, this 'and if you see it emerge from a breach in the sky, you know you're fucked' symbol of death and decay. It's dark in a way i find compelling, i guess.

14: Serpent Trap by Marta Dettlaff Back to the bright ones, i liked this art ever since i discovered it as Nature's Gift in post-Midwinter beta. The card saw play in Scoia'tael spell decks, and to me it became linked to Francesca Findabair for their shared spectral snake thing. But that all aside, the art is just so pretty. Vibrant, yet not oversaturated. And like the item arts, needed to balance out the cool and badass and the dramatic and tragic. Looking at it now, another point comes to mind; it's still grounded? The way Gwent art at large is grounded compared to other card games. Like it's not trying so hard (both this piece and the game's art in general). That's refreshing.

13: Chort by Bartłomiej Gaweł It reminds me of the first game's main menu. The Witcher 1 main menu is, to me, one of the most accurate representations of this universe, its atmosphere. Even if the "you kill cows, you get ambushed by the fucking baphomet" is a meme game mechanic, something about it is...witchery. Superstition, folk legends, and ultimately, monsters. Or that's my takeaway, anyway. But the Chort art, beside being on the more rare side in-game, has always weirdly drawn me in.

12. Oneiromancy by Lorenzo Mastroianni This was the Novigrad expansion key art before they turned it into a card, and i sure am glad they did. Lorenzo can get a bit weird, as a treat, someone said. Are they Condwiramurs and Corinne? Possibly! But i'll abstain from the schizo theories now. It's a gorgeous, well composed and executed surrealist piece. Inception if it had strong palpable atmosphere.

Denis Villeneuve > Christopher Nolan. but Lorenzo beats both

11: Funeral Boat by, you guessed it, Lorenzo Mastroianni One final yippee for the last card set. And my god it's beautiful. Tight composition can get surprisingly hard to coordinate and make decisions for, but this is so well-balanced. The left end of the boat is closer to the frame, but right side has the most noticeable color, the character's face, and of course the bird to even it out. As if to defend the title i gave him earlier, Lorenzo references Isle of the Dead in a way that, even if symbolic, fits into the universe perfectly. Someone stop me before i start rambling about similar concepts in different mythologies.

10: Dana Méadbh (now the token spawned by Call of Harmony) by Anna Podedworna The most famous Gwent artist enters the list. With a piece made around two, when you think about it very bold choices. The goddess of nature and life, glowing with inhuman light in a black and barren forest. Obscured by thin, bare tree trunks. But to make her emerge and stand out, that was necessary. And it's working wonders. A lot of the Scoia'tael faction is obviously green, all kinds of green, but even a simple choice like making it pop out of black makes the card art stand out among others.

9: Circle of Life by Oleksandr Kozachenko It has everything i usually look for in Gwent art; nature, color, atmosphere. A certain tranquility, perhaps. A little bit of story - the orange badge is the Kerack coat of arms. It's that environmental storytelling thing gamers keep talking about, complementing the character and faction drama of the rest of its card set.

There's a slightly changed, extended version, too, and somehow it's even better.

8: Gezras of Leyda by Bogdan Rezunenko As much as i tend to dunk on Bogdan for having played Blasphemous once and making it his entire personality, Gezras is easily the best school founder card art of the set. Once again, the choice to have these prominent arts on the more symbolic side paid off, and the result is a stalking nocturnal animal out for revenge, backed by a giant image of what simultaneously did him irrepairable harm and gave him the means to defend himself. The premium doesn't disappoint either.

7: Rioghan the Undying by Daniel Valaisis To nobody's surprise, the atmosphere, once again, got me hooked. I love the cold color, the dramatic flow, the big imposing silhouette of a ship in the background. Poor boy is the picture of misery. It's pure melancholy (something not that common in the Skellige faction by the way, which is a point in favor of Funeral Boat too), that i, of course, am inevitably drawn to.

he's just like me fr...

6: Witches' Sabbath by Michal Lisowski Did i craft this card already or not? The realist's complaint towards near-greyscale card art. I share this sentiment, if only for the comedy of it, but with a few notable exceptions, and this piece is the main one. The Robert Eggers comparisons were made already i'm sure, but it really is a take on the last good Witcher 3 quest with a dramatic, more dreamy, or you could say cinematic quality ramped up to 11. Gone is the fanservice present in the game and the unnecessarily grotesque depictions of fatness of other parts of this card set, and what remains is a beautiful, ominous callback to folklore and classical art.

5: Tinboy by Valeriy Vegera This is a baroque painting. The drama. Tinboy doesn't take that scarf off, ever. And here this poor soul is, their last will to live dragging it off him. On purpose? On accident? Probably both. The pattern marking Tinboy as a gang member staining with blood of a victim, something something symbolism. All in Valeriy's signature 'which pencil should i pick up next' style. Underrated piece.

4: Lara Dorren by Toni Muntean They finally got our girl. And once again, despite heartbreak, it's gorgeous. Soft, sweet colors with a necessary hint of melancholy (the lighting suggests it's sunset?), and a pure, painted quality without the need for texture assets. A scene like this is better left a comparatively simple and laid back tribute. Beyond the technicalities, i also really, really applaud Toni for the outfit design. This is the Aen Elle princess, dressed well but for the weather. And the fact her mostly blue clothes with yellow sleeves mirror Cregennan's yellow jerkin with blue details, and her red brooch above the heart might, beside contrasting with the blue, very well reflect his fatal wounds... well. As much as death on card art isn't always done the best, Lara is represented together with that which mattered to her the most. Despite being categorized among the Wild Hunt, she remains herself.

3: Lydia van Bredervoort by Igor Klymenko The joy i felt when this was the art of Lydia they managed to get into the game. It's easily one of the best contest pieces and on par with the best Gwent has to offer - it has mood, and that ever present air of groundedness, realism, and in that, unfortunate tragedy. But similarly to Lara, it shows Lydia being her own person; doing what she loved and was good at without sight of Vilgefortz despite her being known as his ever loyal assistant. Likewise, it doesn't sensantionalize her condition, but references it in a subtle, tasteful, and even clever way. I also love her dress and the overall color palette. Igor understood.

2: Eldain by Anna Podedworna Couldn't help it, this asshole has me in chokehold and he's enjoying it. In my defense, this piece highlights everything Anna is known for, because she's damn good at it. Incredibly sharp main subject of the piece contrasted against a blurry background, which allows for insane details like the strings extending from the top of the lute. To add more fun to it, Eldain isn't even in the absolute foreground, but the piece is still composed smart, so he remains the main focus. His silly red collar on mostly green helps. On top of all that, the art tells a little story, something Anna often does too, and in this case it delightfully sums Eldain up. It's also the best premium in the game.

look at his little red ears from sitting against the sun aww

Honorable mention: Lake Guardian by Anton Nazarenko Like the following #1, this card has sentimental value to me as my second card reveal and artwork i made my best emote of. It was a perfect match, bird gals and all. It's a Sirin, bringing in a more obscure but not unwelcome mythology reference to the universe. And I love her vibrant, marble-like eyes.

1: Dol Blathanna Sentry by Lorenzo Mastroianni ...remains my favourite card art since that fateful day sometime in January 2018. I was just discovering what there was to know about Witcher, downloading Gwent in the first place out of need for more content as i was slowly reading through the first book. Gwent has done a lot to explore and build on this universe, and it has helped me contextualize a lot of things early on. I remember scrolling through the deckbuilder, seeing this art, and being struck by its mood, this aura of secret and wonder. "Oh, so this is what Dol Blathanna looks like..." It's quintessential older Lorenzo. Very much admitted brush work, fog, tight color palette. The little specks of blue in flowers and face paint work just right. Maybe it's a reference to Arthurian myth and Avalon, maybe to Greek myth and Hades, or maybe, as is often the case and was the case later (or earlier in this list), both. It spoke to me and my sense of wonder back then. It speaks to me when i search for comfort now.

now, time to tear Karol Bem to shreds in the top 20 least favourites xd

[captainqster]

Dawntrail thoughts below. Major spoilers of course

I'll start off by saying that I enjoyed it. Some of the cutscenes were so fun and DT managed to make me cry at the end. The most important thing for me is that the story have an emotional impact on me and this one did. Not as much as SHB or even EW, but that's to be expected given they were the final two expansions in an ongoing story.

ANYWAY I don't intend to rant too much so I'll just make some key points about what I remember (which is never much, I have a terrible memory).

The environments! I'm not one to veer off course during msq to explore the scenery but this time I was doing that constantly. I was in HEAVEN in the desert areas especially, as I live in the Sonoran desert but Thanalan and Ahm Araeng never did much for me. Urqopacha was just beautiful, I could afk there all day. Solution 9 is even more incredible than I'd dared to hope. And Tuliyollal...my goodness.

The worldbuilding. I enjoyed the time spent fleshing out these cultures and the 'why and when' of some of their traditions. Cooking the...what was it called...was fun, I come from a Hispanic family and cooking massive batches of food together was always a big part of get togethers, especially around the holidays (I am made to suffer the tamale assembly line every year). So I liked when you were made to understand the people and why they do what they do and the impact it has on their community bonds.

The duties. Really liked those as well. Can I remember anything? No. Do I have a lingering feeling of "that was new" leftover? Yes.

The NPCs. New cast! Somehow I didn't anticipate the turnaround of both Zoraal Ja and Bakool Ja Ja, but I love a reformed cartoon bully and a Golden Child who crumples under the weight of expectation. Koana is incredible, I was iffy about him at first but you could hear the desperation in his voice when Wuk Lamat was kidnapped (fantastic job by the voice actor, sincerely) and from there I just continued to love him more.

For Wuk Lamat specifically she really grated on my nerves for the first few levels. I know the intention of her archetype/character growth, but it felt like some of her frequent complaining was played for comedy and it just fell flat for me. But the moment she said "hey I'm gonna turn around and be better" she really did do that. Asking to hold the WOL's hand and her little "um...do you want to explore with me?" AND WANTING THE WOL TO STAY IN TULIYOLLAL WITH HER god those just hit me right in the heart. She grew on me.

The final zone. I cried. I've seen some complaints about whiplash with the direction DT took from the first to second half, and I kind of get that, but for me it kept things a little fresher. I would have liked to see more payoff in Tural after all the time and energy you spent learning about the different cultures but it is what it is.

I love that SE decided that once you shut down a terminal you will lose the beauty of that area. It really made me hesitate and want to look around more, which just drove home the point of saying goodbye to the Endless. I was teary-eyed leading up to Cahciua's terminal especially. IDK I love my mom and it HURT SO BAD.

The cutscenes: Some of them were such a delight that I was in tears. I don't care if people found it cheesy, I LOVED the train bomb. At first I was disappointed that it wasn't going to be an interactive duty but watching G'raha Tia pull Alisaie back onto the platform just for the WOL to save them both? Jumping off the train? Everything my southwestern heart could want.

And the cowboys. The duels. The accents. I was in love.

Last thing I'll say is I've seen a lot of "do you need to be the hero?" questions/polls/etc. For me it's not about whether you're the hero, I just need to have that rapport with the NPCs and to feel present. So I appreciated the few times we got a bit of that.

Anyway I'm not gonna say anything negative because I just don't feel like it. There were a few things I would have liked to see done better, differently, whatever, but I'm satisfied enough. I'm really looking forward to what comes in the patches.

[citylighten]

SUBMISSIONS OPEN

There are two things Tartosa is renowned for - beautiful scenery and its wedding industry. A third thing, well-known by sims who are aficionados of World Culture Network, is their reality television series Tartosa Unreal, a reality show which focuses on the lives (filled with altercations and physical confrontations) of eight  charismatic sims as they reside under one roof within the luxurious Villa Rosa.

Is your sim tired of their 9 to 5 job? Are they an aspiring influencer looking for a means to boost their fame? Well, good news, applying for a spot on Tartosa Unreal is open! Send in those applications, but first some quick rules!

Seven sims will be chosen.

Occults are not allowed. 

In-Game, they will be on full autonomy.   

All sims/genders/sexualities are welcome but they must be Young Adults

If your sim is accepted, they need at least one outfit per category.

CC is welcomed on your sims. Alpha clothes are fine, but Maxis Match hair is required.

Any CAS traits allowed, but none can be custom! 

Feel free to add a little backstory to your sim in your submission!

Wicked Whims is in effect

The sims you create can remain in your game, whether they are accepted or not.

This is my first time doing a challenge so I’m going to make things light on myself. This will be structured like a gameplay with minimal dialogue - if any dialogue. As we go along, I’m welcome to take suggestions in how to make the storylines more immersive. ✨

Submission Deadline March 31(ish) Willing to extend.

Please use the tag #tartosaunreal so I can keep up with the submissions!

🍇 Housemate Number One & Application Form Undercut🍇

Name: Gianna Nicosia Nickname: Gigi Age: 25 Birthplace: Tartosa, Terra Amorosa  Sexuality: Heterosexual, but willing to experiment  Reality Show Archetype: The No-BS Pretty Girl

Gianna “Gigi” Nicosia was born to a well-off family in Terra Amorosa that operate a winery, however she desired for more outside of her small neighborhood which brought her to Villa Rosa. Finding herself in love with the camera and the reactions of watchers, she has swiftly embodied the personality of the pretty girl who takes no mess. To her female house mates she’s feisty, loud. To her male house mates she’s flirty and fun, the latter trait being inclined to cause annoyance. 

[ghostreviewsstuff]

Dr Stone (manga)

dr stone is.... a mixed bag. but the parts of it that are good are FAR more interesting that the parts that are bad. dr stone is "bad" in the more boring, predictable, and expected ways typical adventure shonens tends to be bad. you can probably guess what most of those issues are just from the genre.

but dr stone is good in ways ill probs be searching for a way to articulate for years to come.

i do consider it to be the greatest deconstruction of both the lone super genius archetype, and the nihilistic asshole super genius archetype. and i think it succeeds where others fail in part bc Senku is presented in a way easily mistaken for that Type Of guy, but he isnt. it doesnt matter how smart he is, he needs the power of friendship if he wants to get literally anything done. he isnt a nilihistic asshole, he's just immature and rude, and he's actually very optimistic and has an upbeat attitude. he's a great protag i have a lot of love for.

but while i can wax poetic circles about my fascination with how intellect is handled in dr stone, thats an essay for another day. lets talk about the story as a whole.

dr stone's setting is set by a mysterious light turning all of humanity to stone for 3700 years, sending everyone back to the stone age. however its less a time travel isekai so much as it is a lord of the flies caveman arms race. it primarily functions under the typical shonen formula with the notable factor that it's magic system is... real life science. altho a bit elevated for dramatic effect.

the true zeitgeist of dr stone is the back and forth problem solving to build various contraptions to achieve various goals. every character has their own skill sets and personalities that allows them to bounce off of each other and play a role in reaching goals. the cast also has pretty great chemistry making exchanges and banter very entertaining 99% of the time.

while i think the characters are very well written, i have that opinion within the context of dr stone being a plot driven story, not character driven. character arcs are subtle and take a backseat to the wider plot goal posts. i dont consider the low level of character development to be a bad thing, the story just isnt about that and the cast is charismatic and enjoyable for the roles they play.

the setting of dr stone is very well realized in its simplicity. the artist, boichi is capable of drawing some beautiful scenery. the art overall i think is much more good then bad, and the character designs are fun and distinct if you can tolerate the girls looking kinda busted (boichi.... can not draw women i fear) ironically i found the moe eyes growing on me. but ill be real, the fan service isnt that bad. annoying, yes, but not nearly as bad as it could be. you wont ever see a guy fall on top of a girl and accidentally grope her boobs, so much as the occasional jarring ass shot and weird angles around badly drawn women. that said the young girl and mascot character, Suika, is never sexualized in this way, even though she is grown up by the end of the story

i wont claim the girls in the cast dont suffer from some of the typical shonen misogyny, but Kohaku and Suika at least are very well realized characters and solid female leads i like a lot.

i always feel like i should be harsher in my criticism towards this series, i do genuinely consider it enough of a mixed bag of quality ill hesitate to recommend it to people (tho lets be real, the fan service is always the biggest barrier recommending any animanga regardless of quality despite that) but i really do struggle to make a nuanced critique. even things that are more controversial among its fans, like the way the story progresses in its final arcs, i struggle to complain about. structurally the story delivers on its foreshadowing and progresses in ways that make sense and i do think was planned out by at least the half way point of the story.

the biggest most glaring issues are... extremely basic. very typical levels of shonen misogyny and weird politics. it gets kinda weird in the middle in a way i dont really feel equipped address in detail but am grateful a lot of that.. mess doesn't carry over into the rest of story. it gets tied up in bad, but also very common and unquestioned, colonialist mindsets and tropes just as much as it SUBVERTS and DECONSTRUCTS those same bad ideas. which honestly drives a lil nuts if i think about for to long. the narrative loves to kneecap its own themes and progressive philosophies to a frustrating degree, but i do genuinely think the end product is far more good then bad.

i have a lot to say about this manga, but know are to actually articulate maybe a fraction of it. after watching enough youtubers attempt to review it, im clearly not alone in that. lots of people seem to share my struggles in expressing why they also think dr stone is so good. and i think that complexity of how it grabs people in ways that arent easy to understand, are in itself is an aspect of what makes it what it is.

its a very good adventure shonen series that i think deserves a bit of staying power

[jasminebutintaiwansojiemin]

July 18th, 2024 星期四 - Old European Consulate Office and Museum, Ferry Ride, Waterside Exploring

I woke up around 12pm today after doing a bar crawl and clubbing the night before. Thankfully I wasn’t too hungover, so I showered and went to go get Korean takeout with one of my classmates. We’d been trying to eat from this place since our first day in Taipei and we finally got to eat it today. I ended up getting this beef soup thing and it was sooooo good. Since being in Taiwan, I want to eat soup all the time. Since we cut it so close to when we needed to meet for class, we sped ate in the common area of our hotel before quickly returning it to our rooms.

We met up with our class and took the MRT to the very last stop on the red line, all the way up in the mountains. The scenery was very pretty as we drove through but the ride was so extremely long. The archetype in Tamsui is so beautiful and seeing it with the mountains was pretty awesome. Then we got on a bus to the former British consulate residence area. Unfortunately, the original place we were supposed to go was closed, so we just explored the old building for a while. It was pretty cool getting to see how they lived (their stairs are so short and steep I don’t know how they managed).

After the museum, we headed down to the distant water and walked through a long waterfront area towards the ferry. That area was pretty cool and had a lot of shops and restaurants. I ended up buying a coconut and a king crab leg. I’d been waiting the whole trip to drink a coconut hehe. Coconut rating: 7/10 not the type of coconuts I usually drink but it was still yummy and fresh. After a bit of walking around, we caught the ferry to the other side of the water. In the water, there were many jumping fish you could see even from the shore. There was also a large fire that occurred in one the restaurants that we could see from our side.

As soon as we got off, the tide was so low that we could see tiny crabs and mudskippers!!!! They were so incredibly cute and tiny and I wanted to pick them up and put them in my pocket. We walked around that area for a bit and saw a very stereotypical looking duck bathing in some water!!!! So cute haha! We all walked around for a bit before taking the ferry back to the other side and taking the looooooong MRT ride home.

Academic Reflection

Today I decided to do some research on European/Australian influence on and presence in Taiwan. It seems like we always talk about Mainland China and Japan, when there are other influences. Of course to begin, there was the Dutch colonization and Spanish settlement in the 17th century. That’s when the island got the name Formosa, given by Dutch sailers who saw the beautiful island from the water. Unfortunately, most countries are in a weird limbo between recognizing and not recognizing Taiwan as its own country. As we did our tour of the former consulate building, it was a reoccurring theme that a country had a good relationship with Taiwan would then retract so that they can have a google relationship with Mainland China.

Something else i found interesting was the Australian flag being a part of the flag lineup. Till we reached the consulate building, I was yet to hear/read/learn anything about Australia in Taiwan. What i found out from my research is that, in 1966 Australia recognized Taiwan as the “Rwepublic of China” and opened a full embassy there (in comparison to the U.S.’ controversial American Institute in Taiwan). However in 1972, these diplomatic ties were severed as the governor of Australia wanted to forge better relations with Mainland China, thus choosing to now recognize the Mainland’s People’s Republic of China instead. I think this is very interesting in light of the U.S.’ own back and forth with recognizing, not recognizing, and halfway acknowledging Taiwan.

[resortsbythebaagh]

Discover The Most Popular Hotels And Resorts In Uttarakhand

As the monsoon season winds down, Uttarakhand is an appealing option for a relaxing and refreshing vacation. The once-drenched landscapes gradually change into an oasis of clear skies and soft breezes, making today a great time to enjoy the region’s tranquil beauty. Uttarakhand, nestled in the lap of the great Himalayan valleys, is a secure refuge for those seeking serenity and relaxation.

The energising atmosphere and the clear mountain air promise to revitalise the mind and body. Uttarakhand invites you with open arms, whether you’re drawn to the mystical aura of its ancient monuments, the best resort in Bhimtal, the excitement of outdoor adventures, or simply the appeal of resting in nature’s lap. With the monsoon season coming to an end, now is the ideal time to start on a tranquil tour and submerge yourself in the relaxing environment of this Himalayan paradise.

Monsoon Thrill In Uttarakhand — Bhimtal Adventure

Embracing the rainy season does not imply remaining inside; it provides an opportunity to participate in some of the best monsoon-friendly activities to enjoy with family and friends. There is no shortage of exciting possibilities for people looking for adventure. From nature hikes along lush paths decorated with rain-kissed greenery to adventurous white-water rafting down raging rivers, the monsoon adds a new dimension of excitement to these activities. The season also brings new life to the landscapes, making activities such as zip-lining and ATV rides over muddy terrains an exciting adventure.

If you prefer peace and quiet, the Bhimtal Valley is a haven of solitude during the monsoon. The moderate drizzles create a beautiful ambience around the unambiguous Bhimtal Lake, inviting boaters to enjoy a calm sail while taking in the scenery. The surrounding hills take on new life, encouraging you to relax in the foggy peacefulness. For those interested in culture and history, visiting old temples and local marketplaces gives an authentic touch to the trip. You’ll need a peaceful and revitalizing spot to rest after visiting these places. Then, before visiting Bhimtal, make sure you have reserved the best Bhimtal resort.

In essence, the monsoon season provides a variety of activities that appeal to both thrill seekers and those seeking tranquil getaways. This time of year is ideal for enduring recollections with loved ones, whether in the middle of adrenaline-pumping thrills or the magnificent peacefulness of Bhimtal Valley.

Nustel In Bhimtal Surroundings — Resorts Along The Baagh

Resorts by the Baagh — the archetypal one of the greatest five star hotels in Bhimtal — are the ideal of leisure and refreshment. Designed for your ideal vacation. Our resort, nestled among quiet landscapes, offers an oasis of tranquillity that promises to relax your senses and rejuvenate your soul.

Escape the mundane and enter a world where every element has been thoughtfully designed to provide you with an unforgettable experience. Our staff of committed specialists manages every aspect of your stay, from elegant rooms to top-notch amenities.

Resorts by the Baagh, one of the best five star hotels in Bhimtal , is the ideal venue for a romantic getaway, a family retreat, or simply a personal rejuvenation. Relax by the pool, enjoy spa treatments that refresh your body and mind, and experience delicious culinary treats that excite your taste buds.

Discover a destination where every minute is planned to make lasting memories. The tranquillity of the surroundings, along with the sincerity of our hospitality, guarantees your stay is nothing short of unforgettable. Welcome to Resorts by the Baagh, where revitalization and relaxation merge to offer an amazing experience amidst one of Bhimtal’s most beautiful 5-star hotels.

Source: https://resortsbythebaagh.blogspot.com/2023/08/discover-most-popular-hotels-and.html

[trulyinspiringmovies]

Eternals

“Eternals” is a beautiful mess of a film.

Ajak, Sersi, Ikaris, Kingo, Sprite, Phastos, Makkari, Druig, Gilgamesh, and Thena are all Eternals created by the Celestial Arishem. Their purpose was to protect humans from Deviants, a race of monsters that kill off creation. The Eternals are told not to interfere with human affairs unless Deviants were involved. When they thought they killed off the last of the Deviants, the Eternals were split on how they should use their powers from that moment on. They all split up for 500 years only to be reunited through the possibility of the end of the world.

Right off the bat, I knew this was going to be a gorgeous-looking film. I wish I could’ve enjoyed the scenery more, but the aspect ratio kept flickering back and forth each shot and it was driving me absolutely insane. It’s due to the fact that not everything was shot in IMAX, but having fight scenes with quick cuts being two different aspect ratios was not a good move. Still, this movie handles its visuals well. The settings are always scenic and the visual effects were always on point. Some of the fight scenes involving super speed really impressed me because the visuals were stunning. The Celestials themselves are really worth watching this movie in IMAX. I feel like it’s the only way to truly capture their scale and size. The Eternals were great too. Each one felt like a unique person. Most of them were deep and complex as well, which is impressive when you consider that there are ten of them in total. The only problematic character was Sersi. Sersi is basically the protagonist of this movie, yet she’s given no defining character trait other than liking her iPhone. Literally, everyone else was given something to do in this film. Sersi is just here to be the love interest and forced leader. Speaking of love interests, Sersi and Ikaris are supposed to be former lovers who were together for 5,000 years, yet the movie never made me feel like that was the case. The plot sort of implies that there’s still chemistry between them, but it’s really gross to watch Ikaris’s advances since he and the audience know that Sersi is with someone new. The only love subplot that I really enjoyed was the secret gay romance. I thought that was handled respectfully and added a powerful element to the overall story. It also doesn’t seem forced. In fact, none of the diversity feels that way to me. The fact that this character is gay doesn’t feel like he’s gay to complete a checklist. It actually added credibility to his love for this world. The movie is at its strongest when the Eternals interact with one another. They have great chemistry together, no matter who you pair with. They’re the heart of this film and I’m glad that this aspect was handled well. The whole concept of Eternals, Celestials, and Deviants is an exciting direction to take the MCU. Still, this movie has major glaring issues that cannot be ignored. For starters, the plot is frustrating. There’s a twist in this film that seems to come out of nowhere. I have a personal pet peeve with movies and shows that pull this character archetype off. The concept got stale years ago and people still talk about it as if it’s something new. I’ve seen it in “Injustice”, “Red Son: Superman”, “The Boys”, “Invincible”, and even “Brightburn”. I’m pretty much spoiling the twist by naming all these movies and shows, which further proves that this concept is getting stale. There’s also a lot of exposition in this movie. It’s not like they had to do it since most of the scenes without exposition didn’t really have much going for it anyway. I feel like the runtime could’ve justified actually showing and not telling. The main villain could’ve definitely been more fleshed out. Instead, he’s some generic bad guy with a vague goal because of an unexplained past. The villain doesn’t even have a name. I felt like this movie could’ve done more with its two-and-a-half-hour runtime. It’s a good thing I didn’t feel the length of this movie. Otherwise, this movie could’ve gotten a way lower score.

★★★

Watched on November 12th, 2021

[maxwell-grant]

Downfall of a Dark Avenger Part 1: El Sombra

Having finished reading Al Ewing’s El Sombra trilogy and having had enough time to digest it, I’d like to talk about the trajectory of it’s titular protagonist, the character and series’s relationship with it’s influences. Relating to The Shadow and Zorro and general pulp archetypes, and also the way it incorporates Astro Boy’s Pluto into the mix. My interest in Pluto’s imagery led to me reading Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto, and I will go into the correlation between all of these seemingly random sources coming together. 

But before we can talk about what El Sombra becomes, we must talk about what he is, and where he starts.

The very first chapter of El Sombra is dedicated to establishing the happy scenery of the village of Pasito, as a big wedding is drawing the entire town together, eager to see one of it’s greatest heroes marry his sweetheart. We get a great description of said hero Heraclio...and then the reveal that the character we’re gonna be following for the rest of the story is not Heraclio, but instead his loser brother Djego, a morose, slow-witted poet largely considered a joke by the village, currently being rejected and beaten by the love of his life, which is just about the 2nd worst thing that happens to him that day, followed by winged Nazis storming the village, murdering scores of men, women and children, killing Djego’s brother as he watches helplessly, and then said brother cursing Djego with his dying breath as Djego just barely escapes into the desert, with nothing but a sword and a wedding sash in hand. Djego is probably the last man in the village anyone could have possibly expected to become a hero (which may be part of why he ended the way he did). 

Cut to 9 years later, Pasito has been transformed into a mechanized nightmare, a clockwork city of endless toiling and suffering ruled by Nazis, freely enacting their every dark whim on it’s population, revealed to be little more than just a large-scale experiment conducted by the Nazis to increase workforce enough to match Britain’s. After two agonizing chapters with little more than Nazi atrocities to occupy our time, we get our first look at the intrepid hero, Djego. And how does El Sombra introduce himself? Through laughter.

The laughter. Rich and strong, echoing around the square, freezing the milling workers in their tracks. An awful laugh - a terrible laugh of hope and joy and strength! A sound that had not been heard in the clockwork-town for nine years.

as the sound of laughter echoed across the town, the men shuddered and glanced at each other briefly, as though hearing the first sounds of an approaching storm.

The smile on the creature's face was powerful and confident and utterly unafraid. To Alexis, it seemed like the smile the devil might have in the deepest pits of Hell.

For the most part, El Sombra is heavily modeled after Zorro. He’s got Zorro’s swashbuckling fighting style, wields primarily a sword, his main outfit is styled partially after Douglas Fairbanks’s costume, he can be quite friendly and charming and peppers an “amigo” at every sentence. His name is the same as Diego’s minus one letter, his main enemies specifically consist of tyrants who rule over his town, and his mission of vengeance gradually turns him into a rebellious, inspirational figure for the city he strives to liberate. El Sombra is Zorro vs Nazis and it delivers on that.

But nothing is ever quite as it seems in this trilogy, and the first installment of El Sombra goes to great lenghts to establish that El Sombra is a long, long way from being the pure and heroic fantasy that Zorro embodies. He doesn’t live in a world where problems can be solved with guile, luck, good swordplay and a good smile. He doesn’t live in a world where he can show up, humble imperialists and get the people behind him. He lives in a world where the only recourse available to him, to even stand a chance, was nine years of an extended fugue state trip through the desert, ingesting hallucinogens, having his soul shattered and then repaired into something much, much darker. And it’s in those moments that we start to see why exactly his name is El Sombra.

There was something in his voice as cold and unyielding as a gravestone.

"Djego is dead, Father Santiago. He was useless and stupid and pathetic. And he died and left good flesh behind. So I took his place." The eyes behind the mask met Santiago's then, and the priest breathed in sharply. There was nothing of Djego in them. There was nothing human in them.

Something bigger had lodged there, something stronger and faster than a man, something with a laugh that could shake mountains and a spirit like hot iron and fire. Something better.

"I am his shadow. El Sombra."

Atop of his inhuman speed and agility and skill at combat and murder, Djego repeteadly demonstrates skills and traits that, not only did he not have prior, but he couldn’t have picked simply in his desert sojourn. He knows how to apply advanced first aid, he speaks German, in Gods of Manhattan he is able to get the drop on Blood-Spider with a textbook Shadow hypnotic trick, and for all of those, the only explanation he gives is a shrug and “I picked it up somewhere”. Djego had the same trip to the unknown that defined The Shadow and so many other pulp heroes, except Ewing never provides any explanation for El Sombra’s advanced skills other than what the character says. Because there is no explanation. El Sombra is bigger than that. 

El Sombra has to be, because a mere man with training and skills and strength and inspirational heroism isn’t going to cut it against what he’s up to. His brother had all of those things, and he died in the first chapter. Like The Shadow, El Sombra has warped himself to address calamity upon mankind, and morphed into something bigger and darker than just another vigilante. 

In that moment, El Sombra knew himself to be no longer a man. He was, instead, what the ticking clock had made of him. He was a monster.

In fact, with the devil imagery Ewing grants upon El Sombra at points, and the reocurring “itch in the back of the skull” prelude to crucial moments, you can pinpoint exactly the points where El Sombra’s character traits would later manifest in Immortal Hulk, with Ewing’s reinvention of the Hulk plumbing the darkest possible alternatives for said character by digging into the greater horror roots of the character. This will be more relevant when we get to Pluto though.

But to put it plainly, Djego may be Zorro in every aspect at his surface. He may desperately strive to be Zorro, and it may be his Zorro traits that allow him to truly save Pasito. But Djego is not Zorro. He is El Sombra, as illustrated most in the following sequence. The moment where he pulls the most Shadow-esque destruction of a Nazi ever since The Shadow convinced a Nazi general to gut himself with his own sword.

The chained man began to laugh. Softly at first, then louder, the sound rolling through the quiet, cold room like the skeletons of winter leaves in a chill and bitter wind. It was not a laugh of joy, or of hope, or of strength, or of anything associated with sunlight and clean air. It was a laugh that belonged in these dank and fetid conditions, a snide chuckle, a sneering, contemptuous snicker. A laugh like a thousand beetles marching across a sheet of glass.

It was a sound that would have been sickeningly familiar to anyone who had once been a guest of the Palace Of Beautiful Thoughts. The old man started back, looking at the features of his chained captive, breathing in sharply as the handsome face of the terrorist became foreign and strange, warped by the noise emanating from it. He recognised the sound too, recognised the dry, hollow chuckle. And it chilled him.

The chained man turned his head, as though on aged bones, and smiled, a dry and sinister grin. And then he spoke. And the voice that came from his throat did not belong to El Sombra at all.

The chained man spoke with Master Minus' voice.

The chained man's smile froze him in his tracks. It promised terrible cruelty, a mephistophilean love of manipulation, and the eyes sparkled with fire from the depths of Hell itself. The old man sucked in another breath scented with sickly yellow and looked desperately away, to find himself staring once again at the mirror, at the face that was surely not his own...

The old man, who suddenly felt neither old nor a man, raised his hands, fingertips touching the aged, wrinkled face with the unfamiliar eyes. Could he fool himself that his fingertips travelled across soft, worn flesh, lined with years of service? Or was he feeling sterile plastic, soft, loose latex? He shuddered, the motion travelling up his spine, his hands shivering and twitching as he tugged ...

"Take off the mask."

... and the old, wrinkled, false face was torn away, coming off in long strips, pulled away bit by bit to reveal another face underneath. His eyes were wide, unblinking, unable to close as he stared at the face underneath, the face that had been there all the time.

Behind him, the thin beetle-voice spoke once more.

And this is what it said:

"APRIL FOOL! Quién es el hombre? Quién es el hombre? I'm the hombre! I'm the hombre! Now all I need are some pants."

El Sombra grinned down from the vertical rack at Master Minus, slumped on his knees in front of the blood spattered mirror, staring without eyelids at the remains of his face. He had succeeded in tearing all of the flesh from it, and all that remained were a few scraps of muscle clinging to a crimson, bloodstained skull, with two grotesque eyeballs gazing mercilessly at their own reflection. El Sombra smiled and did the voice, again while he made another attempt to work his left hand free of the shackle that held it in place.

"Creatures of the night... what music... they make... I vant to suck your blooood... yeah, you keep looking, amigo. Intense shame boosted by mind-warping drugs, hey? That's very original, I wouldn't know what that's like at all... ah, these bastard cuffs!" He was babbling, a result of the endorphin rush from the intense pain and the thrill of victory. 

The yellow mist coursing through his veins - the mist Master Minus relied on so heavily - had been counterbalanced by the Trichocereus Validus already in his system, the desert cactus that had destroyed and rebuilt his mind. But while El Sombra was in a stronger position than the torturer realised, Master Minus was weaker than he knew, far too used to the easy victories the mist brought him, not realising that his own exposure to it made him ripe for psychological attack. The old man had spent years claiming that he was immune to the yellow mist, but nobody had ever been in a position to test that claim - until now.

In the end, El Sombra is able to drive the Nazis out of Pasito, and he’s succeded in ultimately inspiring the population to rally against them, eventually winning not because of said darkness granting him power, but by turning said darkness into a tool of good. The true victories of El Sombra are not in the violence, but in selfless heroism, in actions big and small. And in the end, He’s given even the opportunity of a happy ending, to settle down in the town he’s wanted so long to rescue. And if this were the story of Djego, the poet turned hero of his hometown, that’s where it would end. 

But this is not Djego’s story. It’s the story of a man who’s destroyed himself to be rebuilt as an avenging force of nature. Someone who’s subsumed as much of his humanity as he could, who now can see and done things much beyond the scope of ordinary man, and now must pay the price of said terrible gifts. Who will pay much, much bigger prices for them in the future. It’s the story of El Sombra, and it’s only just begun:

It was too bad about Djego. El Sombra regretted little, but he regretted denying Djego that one small chance at happiness. But it couldn't be helped.

Until Adolf Hitler was dead, El Sombra could never rest

The man walked west, towards the sinking sun.

[herasyndlla]

What do u love so much about star wars rebels and who is ur favorite caricature

oh gosh, maybe the hardest question to answer, what i love so much about rebels. the short answer: just about everything!

the longer answer: there are a few things that just so perfectly clicked for me. i love the era of star wars it's in. the rebellion era is such a rich time to really explore, there's a reason sw keeps going back to it through the 40+ years it's been around. i love the fight from the underdogs working to stop such a giant evil. i love that at it's core, one of the big messages of the rebellion era is that every single action, no matter how small and isolated, can have a huge impact (the build up to the death star in rebels is stunning, every action there leads to rogue one happening and thus a new hope succeeding in its destruction).

i love the characters, they all fill a wonderful archetype without just being that. they get to be so full and complex. everyone has numerous moments to shine but they are also allowed to fail. and the story never punishes them for failing. even if it's frustrating, you can see and understand and empathize with the characters and the decisions they made.

also just gosh, the animation is just so pretty! i'm rewatching season 1 and while yes, it's easy to just look and see "wow where the animation team is now is miles ahead of where they were here" i think rebels in the be step forwards for that team. i think they really came into their own here and grew and learned how to grow. (this is skill level talk, not about design choices they make are making now in the present). the scenery, the character designs, the lighting. stunning and fun. also those clouds from joel aron, WE STAN.

as for fave characters, it's ezra and kanan. what can i say, i love a jedi duo. i love them learning together, struggling together, fighting together. i love both them becoming jedi in their own ways while needing the other still to have that journey with them. i love watching them navigating ezra growing up and kanan learning what it means to be grown up. it's really beautiful. also i just love jedi so obviously i love them. (now, if i had to choose only one, it would be ezra. i love protagonists the most, always lol).

thank you for the ask! i love talking rebels!!! :D :D :D

[laufire]

Black Sails

Top 5 favourite characters: Max, Silver, Jack, Madi, and Flint.

Other characters you like: Mr. Scott, Anne, Miranda, Idelle, Eleanor, Billy, Eme, the Maroon Queen, Featherstone, Ms. Guthrie, Muldoon, DeGroot...

Least favourite characters: Rogers, Ashe, Alfred Hamilton and Richard Guthrie are my Most Disliked People lol. Dufresne and Hornigold can suck it too xD

Otps: Silverflintmadi, Flintmiranda, Maxanne + Rackanne, Maxanor. Don’t ask me to choose lol.

Notps: Eleanor/Rogers, Silver/Thomas. Though not with the ~passion I dislike other notps of mine -I just find the first depressing in canon and the latter tiresome in fanon *shrugs*.

Favourite friendships: Silver & Max & Jack; Silver & the Walrus crew (THE LOVE THERE), Idelle & Max.

Favourite family: Madi’s family >>>>>>>>. It’s not like there’s many options to choose from lmao, but even if there was, I’d still pick them. What a gr10 reversal of one of most hated tropes *-* (aka: having a character of color save or prioritize a white character at the expense of their own relatives, to the point where sometimes it even costs them their lives).

Favourite episodes: this is one of the shows I have most difficulty picking favourite episodes tbh. Every one in s4 (I still haven’t watched the finale... I should stop putting that off lol) has hit me where I live. Same with s3, really. s1 and s2 were less !!!!! but I’ve never disliked a single episode, so. Choices, choices. To pick one of each so far (minus s4 since I haven’t completed it): 1x03 (probably a... controversial choice, but it’s when I knew the show was something else), 2x10 (I love having my heart broken and this episode provided that. And I love seeing Max & co-winning and I got that too!), and 3x05 (the Silverflint!! Madi’s family!! Flint & The Maroon Queen’s scene! Flint’s visions! Max forcing Rogers to make a place for her on the council!! Max’s “I AM Nassau”!! Spoken Spanish that didn’t make my ears bleed!!!).

Favourite season/book/movie: s4. Each episode has been just. too much xD. So thematically perfect. I hope the finale feels like that too.

Favourite quotes: oof. How to choose. Max’s quote about refusing to make enemies of those one day she could call friends; her rant about Rogers sitting “in [her] fucking chair!!”; her speech to Anne in 4x08; Silver’s “I am no one from nowhere” quote; Madi’s about the “multitude of voices”; Jack’s “did I make up a lot of ground to catch you” speech; Flint’s “no daylight between you and I” (WHO SAYS THAT. IN *PUBLIC*. I swear it’s somehow the most indecent moment of the show. It overwhelms me xDD); Idelle’s quote about Max when she confronts Anne; Mr. Scott’s “only YOU” to Madi. I’d say those are my ultimate favourites.

Best musical moment: the intro. I love it.

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: Silver and Max’s interacting again in s4 made me lose it. Also, that Look between Max and Flint and Jack confirming later Flint had argued to kill her so she wouldn’t fuck with their plans anymore lmao.

When it really disappointed you: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Saddest moment: me at the progressive erosion of Silverflint’s relationship -> DDD:

Most well-done character death: Eleanor’s, I’d say.

Favourite guest star: Idek what I’d count as guest star with this show... I’m going with Idelle. If she appears too much to be considered a “guest”, the Maroon Queen.

Favourite cast member: JPK. She blends so, so well with her roles? Sometimes I have an incredibly hard time remembering Max and Nora West-Allen are played by the same person, ngl xD

Character you wish was still alive: both Miranda and Mr. Scott, though the latter has an edge because I have the NEED of knowing how he would’ve acted if he was in s4.

One thing you hope really happens: that I get the time I need to finish my WIPs and that NO ONE, EVER, tries to do a spin-off/remake/ANYTHING like that with it xD

Most shocking twist: Mr. Scott’s reveal in 3x04, if only because it was one of the few major things I wasn’t spoiled at all about xD. But I love how it changes your perspective of his s1-2 storylines.

When did you start watching/reading?: a few months ago.

Best animal/creature: ... sharks xD. We owe them so much (if Silver’s parrot was canon here, well).

Favourite location: Nassau (aka Max’s Domain).

Trope you wish they would stop using: n/a. I love this show’s tropes and themes lol.

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: lots of stuff xD. Dialogue is one; deviating from expectations and archetypes is another.

Funniest moments: WHO’S BILLY. The Silverflintbones pseudo-triangle xD. Silver’s s1 antics.

Couple you would like to see: *coughs* I could’ve coped with Silverflintmadi going all the way xD

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: Maggie Smith should’ve had a cameo ¬¬

Favourite outfit: one?!? Have you SEEN everything Max’s worn in season four?? Or Eleanor in s1-2?? Jack’s Iconique Looks?? *sighs* I suppose I have a soft spot for Max wearing red, so that.

Favourite item: “La Galatea”, the book Flint gave to Miranda as an apology. My heart :((( (not to mention it reminds me to my own original WIPs).

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: ................ the DVDs xD. They were a little over 20 bucks total and I gave them to myself for my birthday lol (I just don’t trust Netflix anymore and I don’t want to lose easy access to a HQ version the show, so fork it). I own the Treasure Planet DVD (which came along with a computer game), but I have no idea of where I put it. And I have a copy of Treasure Island ofc (that I want to re-read when I finish the show).

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?: my heart is with Flintmadi’s cause but my brain and need to win with Max’s team xD

Most boring plotline: eh. I didn’t much care for Blackbeard’s deal (though I felt for his death, because it was so fucking awful).

Most laughably bad moment: n/a.

Best flashback/flashforward if any: The Sword Flirting Sparring flashbacks ofc *-*

Most layered character: Flint and Silver ofc.

Most one-dimensional character: the one-note characters that are just there at plot devices. And of those with a little more relevance to our mains, Thomas is the least expanded-on by far *shrugs* (which doesn’t mean “poorly written”).

Scariest moment: Silver’s state when he thought he lost Madi. No wonder Flint was so worried tbh.

Grossest moment: putting aside the physically gross moments (of which this show has a few, lbr. It did not shy away from injuries, etc.)... I had my most visceral reaction to Rogers speaking with Madi. Like, fuck off dude xD. ALSO: Billy’s beard. Kill it pls.

Best looking male: Joshua was a dork and a cutie. Flint is so not my type but there are... moments xD. Same with Silver when he’s in a shippy context, even if normally I’m all ??? at his face lol.

Best looking female: now this one is a lot harder xDD. I always end up saying Max because... have you seen her. They style her so lovingly *-*. But really, which of these women isn’t absolutely gorgeous in their unique way.

Who you’re crushing on (if any): Anne. She reminds me of my ~first love lol (looks-wise at least xD). And I know I’d be drawn to her...  sunny disposition lmao.

Favourite cast moment: in my lurking over blogs to add stuff in the queue, I saw twitter exchange where Silver’s actor says Silver’s actions against Billy were revenge for the potatoes xD, and Billy’s replied he should’ve made him peel carrots, since he “likes their colouring”. LMFAO.

Favourite transportation: the Walrus, obviously. I’m sentimental :(

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): Charlestown in flames was hella pretty :))))))

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you: n/a.

Best promo: I’ve seen a promo picture for s3 with Flint standing over a giant British flag on fire... very evocative.

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: 1x03. I liked the previous episodes alone, but it was Max’s insistence of rejecting Eleanor’s help that took it over the edge. I’ve said before that although it made things harder for her in the short term, to me it showed how different and impressive a character it was and, knowing that things would go really well for her afterwards, made me see just how much promise the show had.

[whatifitscool]

Netflix Reviews – Blood of Zeus

By Timmy Daytona

“The tales of Greek mythology were part of an oral tradition. Many were never transcribed and through the ages, some were lost. This…

Is one of those tales…”

With this introduction, Netflix’s latest animated series Blood of Zeus seeks to free itself from the constraints of having to retell well known stories from Greek mythology.

As viewers will also discover, less than a passing knowledge of mythology is required as this show lifts heavily from familiar tropes and archetypes from multiple influences, beginning with the poor labourer wishing for a better life far from their backwater village. The resistance lead by a strong female warrior. The elderly father figure who is later revealed to have a deeper connection to the hero. The demonic villain who also has a connection to the hero.

Throw in two droids and you may find yourself watching Star Wars: A New Hope.

The story begins long before the hero’s when the Gods toppled the Titans. In doing so, they were cursed to fight a new threat. The Gigantomachy that followed depicted the super powered Gods in a protracted war against the terror of the Giants.

Following their defeat of the Giants, the Gods imprisoned the Giants’ souls and hid their bodies away from the world. Apparently immune to the effects of decay, these bodies are discovered by Man and through some influence from beyond, Man is convinced to eat their flesh.

This unholy communion led to the birth of a demonic army. As they spread like a plague throughout the land, they eventually reach the protagonist, Heron, who lives a peaceful but otherwise miserable life as a bastard in a little known village. A hero needs to rise and defeat this threat.

Heron must become this hero. The saviour. The chosen one.

Though this type of hero’s journey has been depicted in similar stories, Blood of Zeus’ reliance on the trope is mixed well enough with Greek mythology so it still feels fresh and enjoyable. This results in yet another solid addition to Netflix’s growing animated line-up.

The animation is gorgeous throughout. Ancient Greece is a beautiful setting. The scenery on display moves deftly between kingdoms and villages to heavenly palaces and hellish lairs. And the details in the costumes of the Gods looks divine and befitting of deities.

The scenes with the Gods are a pastiche of comic books. While it has been said that the Justice League were modelled after the Greek pantheon, the animators appeared to have chosen for the Gods to bear a resemblance to the Justice League. Hermes could pass as an Ancient Greek version of Jay Garrick’s Flash, Poseidon looks like an aged Aquaman while Hera often resembled an infuriated Wonder Woman.

The Giants on the other hand bear a similar design to the animators’ previous work. They are enormous and when they emerge from the ocean depths, they look like demonic Kaiju.

Being a series that focuses on the often super powered struggle between good and evil, it is appropriately violent in its take on historical fantasy. Bodies are disembowelled, decapitated, dismembered or exploded. Fans of the violence in Castlevania will find plenty to enjoy here.

And like the set pieces of Castlevania, Blood of Zeus’ are a standout of the series. While not quite reaching the heights of the former’s climax of brilliantly choreographed carnage and brutality, Blood of Zeus understands the characters at its disposal and showcases the jaw-dropping abilities of the Gods, Giants and Demons. These sequences give a great sense of enlarged scope and scale.

Complementing the series is a sumptuous score that fits nicely with the epic and ambitious feel of proceedings.

Viewers may also have fun picking up on the various references to other media that likely inspired the creators of Blood of Zeus. The confrontation between Zeus and Hera’s forces recalled Captain America: Civil War and the two sides storming towards each other on the battlefield. The Giants’ climbing Mount Olympus resembled God of War 3’s introductory sequence of Kratos on the back of the Titans, scaling their way up to the home of the Gods.

Heron’s training on Mount Olympus and visit to the Fates is similar to Luke’s time on Dagobah. Late in the series, Heron discovers his latent thunder powers in a scene that was not unlike Thor unleashing his powers on Hela without Mjolnir.

The God of War, Aries, wields a hammer that returns to him while Heron has a sword that looks and cuts uncannily like a lightsaber.

Re-watching the series will be a game to spot other inspirations lifted from other places.

If there are any quibbles to the series, it’s the shallow characterisation of Heron and his allies. Heron in particular is a bland hero. As the farm boy who must become a warrior, he goes through the motions and the result is not nearly as iconic as Luke Skywalker – the character they likely tried to draw inspiration from.

The star of this show is arguably Jason O’Mara in his performance as Zeus. His actions and lust triggered the events of the series and the predicament he faced in upholding his kind’s rules of not interfering in the affairs of Man while trying his best to not be an absent father make him a vulnerable, relatable and more human character than the mortals. O’Mara’s voice is the most versatile of the cast, being able to express the emotions of the character with ease. A similarly talented vocal performance is Claudia Christian’s as Hera. The two are fantastic.

The creators also found the opportunity to insert a Bruce Lee quote into the series that was perhaps their guiding voice when writing this story – “Absorb what is useful, discard what is not. And add what is uniquely your own.”

Blood of Zeus is a patchwork quilt of influences absorbed from other pop culture favourites yet it blends together wonderfully to still feel unique while drawing on Charley and Vlas Parlapanides’ heritage. And with the tease at the end, it suggests that the story is far from over.

[mediaeval-muse]

Book Review

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. Balzer and Bray. 2014.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Genre: YA fantasy

Part of a Series? Yes. Fairy Tales #1 of 3 (so far). But it doesn’t seem like the series is one narrative.

Summary: Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him. With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people. But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her. As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

***Full review under the cut.***

Trigger Warnings: forced marriage, child neglect, violence, madness; allusions to: tyranny, rape, murder

Overview: To be honest, this book came somewhat of a surprise to me. I wouldn’t have picked it up if a friend hadn’t recommended it, since the summary makes it look like a run-of-the-mill YA fantasy. In some ways, it does make use of tropes that are somewhat cliche by now; however, I think it also deals with ideas that are more interesting than the summary or many of the reviews give it credit for. Though there were some things that irritated me, such as the main character’s inner voice, the worldbuilding intrigued me enough to want to keep reading, and the focus on allowing the main character to embrace her anger was refreshing. Overall, I do think it made use of interesting ideas and had potential to be so much more, which is why I’m rating it 3 stars.

Writing: This book uses a first person point of view, which isn’t my cup of tea. Personal preference aside, I think Hodge did a good job balancing descriptions of her fantasy world and the main character’s inner voice, inserting some nice imagery here and there that really made for some vivid scenery and dark fantasy mood. Sometimes, the prose could border on the dramatic, especially when describing the main character’s inner thoughts or emotions, but it worked out well and fit with the overall mood and circumstances of the narrative.

Plot: This book is a "Beauty and the Beast” retelling that mainly follows Nyx, a 17 year old girl who has been betrothed to a demon lord named Ignifex in the hopes that she can destroy him and thus free her kingdom from his tyranny. It’s pretty straight-forward. I wasn’t very enthralled by this plotline, especially since the buildup consisted of exploring a house and Nyx kind of just reacting to what she found. I wish a little more purpose had gone into the rooms, so that they fit together to explore Nyx’s psyche or comment upon the major themes of the book - anger and hatred as part of a person, the role of duty, or the connection to one’s family.

I did, however, like the ending and thought it was quite clever. Without spoiling anything, I will say that it was a neat exploration of the darkness within a person, and I think the setup could have really brought out this consideration of human nature.

Characters: The main characters in this book include Nyx, Ignifex, and a shadow creature called Shade (who is something of a servant to Ignifex). Nyx, our narrator, is sympathetic in that she has been married against her will, but after a few chapters, I disliked being stuck in her head. She seemed to have no joy whatsoever in her life and was incredibly self-loathing, which, though understandable, was also quite irritating. I also didn’t quite think there was enough to her character to warrant her being especially equipped to take on this challenge. Nyx has very little agency (she never finds a single heart room - the things she needs to enact her plan - by herself) and I couldn’t quite believe that she was the first girl in 900 years to survive looking at demons (why? she just does) or think of stealing keys. I did like, however, that her arc seemed to be about embracing her anger; too often, women are told not to be angry, and giving her the space to feel her feeling was well-done. If the rooms had been more about developing that idea, I think I could have seen her as more of a heroine.

Ignifex, a demon lord, was less interesting to me because he seemed to fit the mold of that arrogant-hot-guy-who-is-actually-a-misunderstood-monster archetype. He’s strict without being a complete asshole (he doesn’t force Nyx to have sex with him, and gives her a lot of freedom to explore his “castle”), so I was inwardly groaning every time he appeared because he was another “beast” who is really just a conventionally attractive guy with a tragic past.

Shade, a “servant” made of shadow, was immediately likable because he was kind. I love characters who are low on the social ladder but intent on sticking it to the man and doing the right thing at great risk to themselves. Initially, his relationship with Nyx was rather sweet, and I very much enjoyed the interactions between the two.

The supporting characters are not very involved throughout most of the story, appearing mainly at the beginning and the end. Nyx’s family seemed altogether horrid, favoring her twin sister over her because Nyx was chosen to be the offering to the demon lord. I could understand her resentment, but I do wish there was more complexity in how she thought of them.

Nyx’s twin sister, Astraia, was naive but sweet, and although I was irritated that Nyx was so cold to her at first, I ended up enjoying that Astraia became central to Nyx’s motivations and emotional development throughout the book. I think sisters are positioned to hate each other in many fairy tales and their retellings, so seeing them connect was wonderful.

Other: Maybe this is personal preference, but I find marriage plots involving teens or young adults a bit off-putting, especially when the marriage is between a teenage girl and an immortal creature. I think I could have dealt with it fine if the marriage was just about fulfilling a bargain, but there were some scenes where Nyx was instructed to please her husband sexually, where she talks about her breasts and what revealing outfit she was wearing, how she might seduce the demon lord, where the fear of being raped is vocalized, etc. I understand that sexuality is a part of teenagers’ lives, and I’m not against depicting it in books. In this context, however, it didn’t quite sit right with me.

Speaking of the romance, I did enjoy the banter between Nyx and Ingifex, but I hated that there was a kind of love triangle with Shade. Nyx bounces back and forth between the two, and though it makes sense by the end, I loathed the moments when Nyx was basically like “Ignifex killed a bunch of people and ruined my life but he’s so hot and it’s arousing when I kiss him, so I think I like him.” This happens a lot in YA/New Adult, and I’ve never understood it. I did like, however, that the two love interests seemed to like different aspects of her. Shade treated Nyx as a hero who would save everyone, giving her confidence in herself; Ignifex allowed her to be herself and liked the darkest parts of her, which was liberating. So, in that regard, there was something interesting going on, but I’m just personally fed up with love triangles.

The major redeeming aspect of this book for me was the worldbuilding. The novel takes place in something of an alternate universe in which Greco-Roman culture and religion has continued for a few hundred more years, the gods and all immortal creatures are real, and magic is practiced and studied like a science. I loved the allusions to classical mythology, poetry, and philosophy, as well as the imaginative work that went into thinking about how a world might look if Greco-Roman society continued.

Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in fairy tale retellings (especially Beauty and the Beast), Greco-Roman mythology and culture, demons, curses, trickster gods and bargaining, and supernatural houses/castles.

[hadarmarkin]

The Sephardic Communities in Jerusalem - The Invisible Walls of the City

Diaspora is defined as the dispersion of the Jews beyond Israel or as Jews living outside Israel. Accordingly, this blog has thus far explored the life of Sephardic communities in various countries in the Mediterranean Basin and in the Middle East. This post, however, is a special one as it is dedicated to a group of Sephardic communities that have been residing in Israel for over 500 years. These Sephardic communities left their diasporic homes towards the ancient homeland starting in the 16th century, but still to this day operate within their old and somewhat isolated diasporic mode of speaking their own dialect, resolving conflicts in community structures, and marrying among themselves. As the holy capital, the city of Jerusalem became a hub for those types of Sephardic communities, and for that reason, it is the focus of this blog post.

A Peculiar City

As a sacred place for the three monotheistic religions, Jerusalem attracts people from a wide array of origins to settle in it. A short walk in the city streets reveals how incredibly diverse and complex it is. Every neighborhood encompasses a different world of language, culture, and worship. Sometimes within a distance of a few houses, the scenery changes dramatically: Arabic replaces Hebrew or Yiddish and affluent residences transform into low-income housing. It is not a rare sight, for instance, to witness an old Palestinian shepherd letting his sheep graze in the front lawn of an urban neighborhood. Being so hard to define or explain, no wonder that the late Amos Oz, one of Israel’s most renowned authors, called the city “one of the most peculiar places on earth.”

Unfortunately, as well reflected in global news, the relationships between the various ethnic and religious groups in the city are far from being harmonious. Clashes minor or major occur daily, fueling the already heated climate. The late Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, a longtime resident of Jerusalem, repeatedly lamented about the friction in his poems. Below is a passage from his poem “Jerusalem,” which beautifully captures the city’s animosity:

On a roof in the Old City

Laundry hanging in the late afternoon sunlight:

The white sheet of a woman who is my enemy,

The towel of a man who is my enemy,

To wipe off the sweat of his brow.

(Above- the different communities in the Old City)

Even within the Jewish context, there are invisible walls dividing the numerous religious sects and various ethnic groups, which exist beyond the obvious separation from the ultra-orthodox sector. The Sephardic community, as previously mentioned, is an umbrella name for multiple groups that are separated from each other linguistically and culturally, as they originated from various parts of the world, such as Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Yemen, Iran, and more. Although these communities have maintained friendly relationships on the surface, there is a strong sense of segregation between the communities, each keeping its gates closed for outsiders. Even the formation of the State of Israel that unified everyone under the idea of one nation could not dissolve these firm barriers.  

This post will look into these communities and specifically showcase two distinct groups: the Ladino speaking community and the Bucharian (Uzbek) neighborhood,  through art and culinary.

Ladino Speaking Communities: Jewish, Latin, and Balkan Mixed Together

The 16th century marked major shifts in Jewish demography. In the wake of the expulsion from Spain (1492) and the forced conversion in Portugal (1497), Jews wandered eastwards around the Mediterranean basin. About 200,000 Jews found refuge in the Muslim-ruled Ottoman Empire, which at the time, extended from the Balkan regions of Europe to the vast lands of the Fertile Crescent. As a result, cities, which had little-to-no Jewish population, such as  Constantinople and Salonika, became significant centers both demographically and spiritually.

A sizable group of deportees also arrived to the land of Israel, then a province in the Ottoman Empire, and settled mostly in Jerusalem. Since the expulsion created an acute theological crisis, many sought resort in apocalyptic beliefs. Jerusalem was, therefore, the ultimate destination for those who connected their plight with the arrival of the Messiah.

In addition, to those who came directly to Jerusalem, a constant flow of Jews migrated towards Jerusalem from the Balkans and present day Turkey throughout the late 15th and 16th centuries. Therefore, by the mid-16th century, the number of Jews in the city doubled. New Sephardic synagogues were established inside the walls of the Old City, and these attracted well-known rabbis and scholars, such as Rabbi Ovadia Bertenura and Rabbi Solomon Sirili.

Little by little, the immigrants from Spain and the Ottoman Empire evolved into a community known as the Old Sephardic community in Jerusalem. This community prided itself for being Sephardim Tehorim–Pure Sephardic– direct descendants of the glorious community from Spain, which generated some of the greatest Jewish philosophers and poets. Being extremely connected to their heritage, the community zealously maintained the religious practices and language called Ladino, a blend of medieval Spanish with some Turkish and Arab words, written in Hebrew script.

(Above- a Sephardic family in the mid 19th century)

The Ladino speaking community, also known as the Spanyolitim, saw itself as the elite of the Jewish society in Israel. They negotiated with the Ottoman officials and the Muslim populaition in the country. Many of them were merchants, who traveled to other cities in the Ottoman empire - mainly Beirut and Damascus-  to import goods. Given their socio-economic status and their attempt to keep their lineage unmixed, the Spanyolitim refrain from marrying outside their community. Marital relationship with the Ashkenazi community was banned, and even engaging with other groups within the Sephardic community  (such as the Mograbim,the North African Sephardim) was unacceptable. Wedding celebrations, as well as other communal gatherings, took place in the four Sephardic synagogues in the Old City.

(Above- Yochanan Ben Zakai Sephardic synagogue in 1927)

The thread of keeping a tight and pure community is in the center of the novel the Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai Levi. The story takes place in the late 19th century and early 20th century and it centers the Armosa family  - an archetypical old Sephardic family: well to do with a prominent ancestry. The older son, the handsome Gabriel, is the promise and pride of the family. However, much to his parents' dismay, Gabriel falls in love with an Ashkenazi Ultra-Orthodox woman and attempts to elope with her.

At this point, the story very much resembles a famous Jerusalem’s love tale between Itamar Ben Avi and Leah Abushdid occurring in the mid 19th century.  Ben Avi, the grandson of Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the father of modern Hebrew, was madly in love with Abushadid, a member of a distinguished Sephardic family. After years of persistent courting, Abushadid’s family finally gave its consent to the Shidduch, and the couple -at least as told- had a long and happy marriage. This love story became material for songs and novels in Israeli culture, but more so paved the way for “mixed” marriages.

Unfortunately, in the book The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, the end is far from being happy as Gabriel’s plan to escape ends in a fiasco: the death of his father from shame and grief. Guilt stricken, Gabriel returns to his mother’s house. Furious, his mother decides to teach Gabriel a lesson: a bad Sephardic Shidduch is better than a love based arrangement with someone “who is not one of us.” Accordingly, she forces him to marry the poor and unattractive, yet Sephardic, Rosa. From this point on, the motif of community pressure and unhappy marriage keeps echoing as the plot develops.

The novel walks the reader through some of the historical landmarks happening in the Sephardic community at the time. The first eminent one is the process of relocating outside of the Old City, known in Jewish history as “leaving the walls.” Given the poor sanitary conditions in the Old City, the Armosa family, like many other Sephardic, Ashkenazi, and non-Jewish families, moves outside of the Old City into a new neighborhood. The then new and today famous and classic neighborhoods, such as Yemin Moshe, Mishkenot Shaananim, and Ohel Moshe played an important role in shaping the unique landscape of modern Jerusalem as well as speeding social changes, westernization, and modernity among these old communities.  Another important development described in the book was the loss of supremacy to the Ashkenazi Jews, given the massive immigration waves from Eastern Europe throughout the early to mid 20th century. At the beginning of the book, Gabriel is portrayed as a strong,  business savvy, and revered young man, but as the novel prolongs his health and businesses deteriorate, and he is incapable to find his place in Mandatory Jerusalem, where Ashkenazi Zionist activists set the tone.   The analogy created through Gabriel’s character tells the sad story of many other Sephardic notable men, who were pushed aside and disregarded by Ashkenazi dominated Zionist leadership.

Beyond tragic love stories and unfortunate historical development, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem is a celebration of Sephardic culture and especially food. Dishes mentioned in the book, such as Sofrito and Avikas con Aroz (bean stew with rice) brings the reader back to Medieval Spain. But Sephardic Jerusalem food has more than a Spanish accent. Inevitably, Sephardic cooks incorporate ingredients used in the local Palestinian cuisine such as fresh sheep milk cheeses, garbanzo beans (used for hummus and other dishes), and lentils, into their home kitchen. Emulating their Muslim neighbors, they served their bitter coffee with overly sweet pastries and even added tamarind sauce to various dishes to obtain the sweet-sour flavor that is so prominent among the Spanyolitim. Another component in the Sephardic Jerusalem cuisine is the Balkan-Turkish influence brought by the Sephardic Jews, who lived in other regions of the Ottoman Empire before settling in Jerusalem. Dishes, such as Burekas filled with feta cheese, spinach, and Stoletch–rice pudding with dried fruit– are examples of the Balkan impact.

Perhaps the most important characteristic of Sephardic cuisine is resourcefulness. Living in a city that underwent numerous conquests, destruction, natural disasters, and famine,  the Spanyolitim learned the hard way how to source and prepare a wholesome meal with the local flora. In fact, it is said that during the siege on Jerusalem in 1948, in which the city suffered from great deficits, Sephardic women made bread, patties, and even omelets from Mallow, a local wild plant. Okra is another example of a vegetable popular among Spanyolit cooks as it is local, versatile, and nutritious. The traditional Sephardic way of cooking okra with acidic tomato sauce helps to diminish its texture, and highlights its nutritional value and flavor. Ironically, after years of having a bad reputation as a “grandma food,” Israeli chefs and dieticians are now embracing this vegetable and the Sephardic way of cooking it.

Okra in Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

3 cups of fresh or frozen okra

1 onion shredded in food processor

2 big tomatoes crushed

1 clove of garlic sliced

3 tbsp of olive oil

1.5 tbsp of sugar

2 tsp of pepper

Salt

½ cup of water

Juice from ½ a lemon

Making

Trim the edges of the okra

Warm the oil in the pan and add the onion, garlic and tomatoes. Once boiled, lower the heat and cover the pan.

Add the okra and the rest of the ingredients (except the lemon). Cook until softened but not mushy. 

Squeeze some lemon before serving.

Serve warm with rice or any other grain.

Uzbekistan

The Uzbeki community –known in Israeli as the Buchari community– in Jerusalem might be a tiny fragment of the overall population but it is a notable one. The Bucharim arrived in Jerusalem in several immigration waves from 1890 to 1914. The Russian conquest of Uzbekistan stimulated many to leave and because the community was observant by nature, Jerusalem was a natural choice for  resettlement.

Originally, the first Buchari immigrants opted to buy land in the Old City. However, the harsh living conditions behind the walls in addition to their needs as a young and culturally and linguistically unique community drove the Bucharim out to search for their own space. In 1894, after several years of community fundraising, a lot was purchased northwest of the Old City. The new immigrants initially named their new space Rechovot (meaning streets in Hebrew) but it was soon known by all as Shchunat Ha’Bucharim or the Buchari Quarter. Eager to replicate their old community life, the Bucharim hurried to establish communal facilities, such as a senior living home, orphanage, and several synagogues, including the Mosayof synagogue named after the community spiritual leader Rabbi Shlomo Mosayof. In addition, a Talmud Torah school teaching in both Hebrew and Parsi was founded to solve the language barrier problems that young Buchari boys were experiencing when visiting schools in other communities.  Unlike other new Jewish neighborhoods at the time that were built simply and in a haste, much thought and funds were put into the urban planning and architecture in the Buchari Quarter. Given the generosity of the wealthy members, the facades of the buildings were embellished with Jewish Stars and other decorations, trees were planted on the side of the roads, and empty lots were allocated for farming. Considered then exotic within the Jerusalem landscape, the quarter attracted visitors from within and outside of Jerusalem to admire its beauty and to explore its vivid community life.

(Above- The Davidof family, one of the most prominent families in the Buchari community, a portrait from the early 1920′s)

Today, Shchunat Ha’Bucharim is still a popular destination and several of the sites are protected by the Israeli Council of Historic Preservation. However, given various demographic and political shifts, the original Buchari population shrank and because of this, many of the structures suffer from neglect. As the quarter borders with Jerusalem’s Ultra-Orthodox residential complex, there is an increasing “invasion” of young Haredi families who cannot find housing in their overpopulated neighborhoods. The growing Ultra-Orthodox presence also impacts the moderate religious nature of the Buchari community, as shown in the Israeli film, The Women’s Balcony.

(Above- a street sign in the quarter)

(Above- an example of the Buchari’s quarter unique architecture- the Davidof “Palace”)

The Women’s Balcony (directed by Shlomit Nehama and Emil Ben-Shimon, 2016) is the story of the small but devoted community of the Mosayof synagogue. The men in the community compose a loyal Minyan, and take care of the synagogue maintenance. However, their wives are the burning candle, and the real power behind the joyous life cycle, holiday celebrations, and the community aid. One day, this peaceful life is disrupted. The synagogue ceiling collapses during a Bar Mitzvah ceremony, where the rabbi is badly injured and the structure itself requires serious work. Puzzled by this accident, the men in the community accept the authority of a young charismatic rabbi as their new spiritual leader. The new rabbi is indeed very knowledgeable and committed to repairing the damage, but his religious views are far more radical and do not match the community’s long tradition of religious moderation. The women are the first ones to be affected by his strict agenda. They are excluded from worship and are blamed for being overly permissive when it comes to modesty and Jewish laws. Caring deeply about their community, the women decided to fight back. For more on their struggle, watch the movie on Amazon prime video.

(Above- a scene from the movie)

Although food is not the focal point of the movie, many of the scenes  take place in Shuk Machne’ Yehuda, a traditional Middle Eastern Marketplace that is a destination for pre-Shabbat shopping as well as culinary tourism. Zion, one of the characters in the movie, is the owner of a spice store in the Shuck, and is also famous for making delicious fruit salads using fruit from the nearby stands. And indeed, as the movie portrays, the Buchari cuisine very much relies on the use of local and fresh produce as well as aromatic seasonings.  Given Uzbekistan’s location in central Asia on the  Silk Road, the Buchari food incorporates Russian, Turkish, and Iranian influences. The result is a cuisine that has bold flavors and rich seasonings. Lamb is the favorite meat, and its fat alongside some herbs and leafy green vegetables are highly used to flavor foods. Accordingly, the traditional dishes are Manto- meat dumplings with vegetables and Legman soup made with noodles, lamb and fresh veggies. Similar to the Iranian cuisine rice is the wide-used grain. Bachash, the traditional rice, has many variations from a green one with cilantro, dill, and spinach to a simple white version with thin noodles (or orzo in this case) at the bottom. The movie shows a quick glimpse of a basic white Bachash, and therefore this is the recipe I chose to highlight.

The recipe for Bachash is taken from the book Jerusalem. Palestinian chef Sami Tamimi and Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi pay homage to their hometown while curating a plethora of recipes from Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities. Their seminal groundwork into the Jerusalem cuisine truly helps with understanding the different influences and flavors that make Jerusalem a synonymous name for unique yet comforting food. The beautiful photos, as well as the interesting historical and cultural segments, make this book a nice possession even if not used for cooking.

Unlike many dishes in this book (or in other Ottolenghi’s books), this rice recipe is extremelya to make and does not require any speciality ingredients. My rice recipes are usually taken from the Persian cuisine, which requires longer cooking time and prep. When I made this dish, I was pleasantly surprised how incredibly quick and easy was the process without compromising the texture and flavor.  

White Bachash

Ingdientes:

1 ⅓ cup basmati rice

1 tbsp ghee (or butter)

1 tbsp sunflower oil

2 ½ cup chicken/ veggie stock

1 tsp salt

½ cup orzo*

Process:

Rinse rice and soak it for 30 minutes in cold water. Drain and rinse again.

Melt butter and oil on medium heat in the pot.

Add orzo and fry for  3-4 minutes or until orzo turns dark golden.

Add the stock , bring to a boil, and cook for 3 minutes.

Add the drained rice and salt, bring to a gentle boil, stir once or twice, cover the pan, and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. Try not to uncover the pan- keeping it closed helps the rice to steam properly.

Turn off the heat, remove the lid, and cover the pot quickly with a clean kitchen towel. Place the lid back on top of the towel, and leave for 10 minutes.

Fluff the rice with a fork before serving.

* I used GF chickpea flour orzo, which I think added a nice flavor to the rice.

[pineforphantompain]

4, 19, 24 & 32 (kdrama ask meme)

(I didn’t realize you had sent this for a while, and then forgot to post until now, so sorry for the late reply, but thank you very much for the questions!)

4 Do you prefer chinese, thai, japanese, or korean dramas?

Probably Korean, since that’s what I started with and have watched way more of. Kdramas are usually the most popular and easiest to find to watch online. While I’ve seen very few, when I do watch jdramas I tend to really take to them, so I’d probably say Japanese dramas as a close second. 

19 Favorite drama couple?

As for main couples in romance dramas, I really like the ones from Flower Boy Next Door and Descendants of the Sun (as well as the wonderful secondary couple!). 

 Now, apparently I cannot just answer this quickly so, with the qualifications being that at least one character is a lead and that the pairing is actually a couple in some capacity at some point, others I love include: 

Kay and Bunny (Nail Shop Paris)

Wang Jung and Hae Soo (Moon Lovers)

King and Taliw (Kiss Me)

Eulji Hae Yi and Ki Yoo Jin (Room No. 9)

Jang Ha Na and Robin (Hyde, Jekyll, Me)

Go Hye Ran and Kang Tae Wook (Misty)

Yoon Jin Myung and Park Jae Wan (Age of Youth)

Go Ae Shin and Kim Hui Seong (Mr Sunshine)

Special mention to a few that were just too one sided to fit in the category, but are also very dear to my heart: 

Lee Jung Joo and Do Han Joon (Judge vs Judge / Nothing to Lose),

Cha Eun Sang and Choi Young Do (Heirs),

Nakatsu Shuichi and Ashiya Mizuki (Hanazikari no Kimitachi e) 

Yoon Se Na and Shi Woo (My Lovely Girl)

24 Favorite male lead character archetype?

I don’t think I really have one... Does second lead count?? Not that there aren’t any I like, but I don’t think there is a specific kind of male lead I will most likely enjoy.

32 Most aesthetically pleasing drama? 

Mr. Sunshine is beautiful, (though the excessive close-ups on dead hands detract from the visual appeal), along with DoTS, Moon Lovers, and Memories of the Alhambra. 

Arthdal Chronicles has some gorgeous scenery shots too, though I didn’t like the look of most of the other scenes.

Literally anything snowy and wintery. Winter clothing, wintry colours, snow!? Automatically beautiful. 

I also enjoy, not just the sweeping scenery shots, but on the small scale, just cute locations like in Age of Youth with the Belle Époque house or Nail Shop Paris.

[rachelbethhines]

Quick thoughts on a 130 years in film Part 9

1925

There’s probably a lot more notable films I could have gone with for this year; Phantom of the Opera, Ben Hur, Battleship Potemkin, just to name a few. However my love of Cinderella won out over all of these. I’ll probably cover at least one a decade. And indeed this is one of the more interesting takes on the story I’ve seen.  

Written by J. M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, this charming tale is about a quirky young  woman living in London during World War I. She’s obsessed with the story of Cinderella and desires nothing more than to bring the fairy tale to life. Her odd behavior catches the attention of a police officer who suspects her of being an enemy spy. What follows is a whimsical and yet also somewhat heartbreaking romance.       

I’ll be honest this was a delight to watch. I actually enjoyed this more than any version of Peter Pan. It’s a shame Barrie never novelized this play as I’ve would’ve read the hell out of it. 

1926

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the world’s oldest surviving full length animated film. I’ve seen it hundreds of times already but it didn’t seem right leaving it out of the marathon due to it’s historical importance. 

The film is utterly memorizing, but it is very much a style over substance type film. A mish-mash of various Arabian Nights’ tales the story is simplistic and the characters little more than archetypes. Some, such as the Witch, can be quite charming despite this. Others however, like the two main leads and their very forced romance, leave a lot to be desired. However, the art is the true star of this film and it’s beautiful scenery and classical puppetry style will leave you breathless. 

1927

The Jazz Singer might just be the most important film ever made. The first movie to feature synchronized sound, it completely changed the industry and how films are made even to this day. Every time you sit down to watch anything on a screen, and you hear music, dialogue, and/or sound effects you owe it to this movie.  

That said the film isn’t nearly watched or talked about enough. Though still a moving and effective film in it’s own right, it’s sadly ignored due to many of the films most important scenes being considered controversial today. The main character, who is white, dons makeup to make himself look black. Don’t mistake me, this is in no way a defense of “blackface”, a shameful practice that rightly belongs in the past, but the past does need to be viewed and discussed. And it needs to be viewed and discussed in both the context of when it was made and the implications it has upon us as a society today. 

The story is about a Jewish man who wants to be a stage singer, against the wishes of his strict and very traditional father who wants him to become a Cantor like himself. Through out the film the main character, Jack, is torn between wanting to peruse his dream career and wanting to make his parents proud. The controversial “blaceface” scene is a very obvious metaphor of Jack hiding his true feelings and his true self beneath the falsities and fantasies of the pretend world of the stage. At the time this was lauded as being progressive, even by other black people, and indeed the actor who plays Jack was a well know civil rights activist, but over time as “blackface” became rightfully less respectable people ignored the movie altogether rather than study the changing attitudes of society and how such important movies both helped and hurt minorities. And indeed while representation of black people in film has grown in leaps and bounds over the decades, when’s the last time you saw a film about Jewish people, and their culture and religion, that was a top grossing film? One that doesn’t double as a world war 2 film or a biblical story. 

Two steps forward and one step back. That’s why it’s so important to remember history, to discuss it, and continue to challenge, question, and promote proper representation on all fronts. If you’ve never seen this movie before I would encourage you to do so if nothing more than to expand you’re own knowledge of representation in film history. 

1928

1928 was a very strong year for silent film. The Wind, Jujiro, The Man Who Laughs are all considered must see classics by cinephiles and I would agree with them. The Wind is perhaps my favorite silent film ever. But as we draw to a close upon the silent era in film I realized I had failed to feature a Buster Keaton movie yet, and that simply won’t due. Therefore I give you the film that inspired Mickey Mouse. 

Buster Keaton plays a simple but heartfelt teen fresh out of school. He wants desperately to prove himself to his estranged father, but complicates matters by falling in love with the daughter of his father’s business rival. 

The story is a little slow going at first, the humor is  kind of dated too, and the romance not very fleshed out and used as simply a plot device more than anything, but oooh the stunt work! Keaton was a master at physical humor and choreographing and staging fantastical acrobatic stunts. The climax with the main hero trying to survive a hurricane is a worth the price of admission alone. There’s more impressive effects, stunts, and dramatic tension in this film than there are in many modern day action blockbusters.   

1929

Well we’re officially out of the silent era. The Broadway Melody (1929) is the first full talkie musical. Unlike The Jazz Singer which still featured silent scenes in-between the songs, this movie is a fully voiced, scored, and sung. Such a technical feat earned it the second Academy Award for Best Picture.   

And it’s rather weak. The songs are few and far between, the cinematography and editing primitive, the sound quality iffy, the acting very stagy and over the top, and it’s all hung together with a very thin story. If you hate love triangles then don’t bother with this one folks cause that’s all it’s got to offer. 

I’ll give the story this though. As much as watching uncommunicative jackasses being idiots drives me up the wall, at least the story has the guts to end on a bittersweet note and not give everybody a happy ending. It’s a love triangle, someone’s going to get left out in the end. And to the films credit that someone is a likable character and not a one note villain.  Kudos. 

Also the choreography is nice. I was particularly impressed by a woman who taped danced in pointe shoes. That’s gotta hurt and is something not even most professional ballerinas can do. And “The Wedding of Painted Doll” while completely pointless to the story is easily the best number in the show.