#Austro Control

[pressmost]

Ardagger - Frühstücksnews - Donnerstag, 22.2.2024

(c) Kathrin Dattinger Sehr geehrte Gemeindebürgerin! Sehr geehrter Gemeindebürger! Kennst Du die “META-POSITION”? “Sie wird auch Beobachterposition genannt und ist neben der Ich-Position und der Du-Position eine der drei Wahrnehmungspositionen, die Menschen mit Hilfe ihres Geistes einnehmen können. …….. Im Drei-Positionen-Modell des NLP liefert die Metaposition Überblick und eine Ergänzung der…

[koushirouizumi]

{My Fam}

{DO NOT COPY} {DO NOT RE-POST} {DO NOT RE-PRODUCE WITHOUT PERMISSION FOR ANY USAGE WHATSOEVER}

If you want to use for referring to, PLEASE ASK ME PRIVATELY FIRST OR I WILL REFUSE.

[sgiandubh]

Fanfic galore

S is spotted on a boat in London by a French fan. Crazy comments ensue in Mordor:

AHAHAHAHA, out of all nations on this planet, they just had to come up with a Brazilian suspect!

And the host (that petty racist I refuse to name) immediately and somewhat gleefully gets on the choo-choo train.

The woman who posted that London pic is not Brazilian. She is desperately (and even provincially) French, but then it does not seem to suit your agenda (for what reason? I wonder 🙄) and then you just couldn't help yourself, could you?

Let's unpack. Yesterday, the X user Véesse, aka Drfolledamour, posted this innocent pic:

In the process, she gives us plenty of info on her real identity, because she is a normal human being with an average number of social media followers and being middle-aged, she does not give a crap about silly, sick hiding games on the Internet.

First, her initials, V.S (Véesse), with a rather cool & clever pun on the French word déesse/goddess. I like her and would definitely have coffee with her: my type of happy go lucky character.

Then, a very important clue, the X handle - @Drfolledamour. Anon and the vast majority of the non French or Francophile users would be excused not to know that is the French translation of one of my favorite Stanley Kubrick movies, Dr. Strangelove:

Then, the short bio, in her X profile. We are informed her grandfather was born in Lviv and her grandmother in Krakow. Lviv is in this country:

This country, if you don't mind reading, is called the Ukraine.

Krakow is to be placed here:

The country is called Poland. It is bordering Ukraine.

Until Brusilov's army got there, in 1914, Lviv was a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and Krakow was under Russian control until 1794. Both cities featured sizeable Jewish communities, out of which a hefty chunk emigrated to the more tolerant France, especially in the Interwar period.

V.S. is a French woman proud of her Jewish roots, that's all. She also teaches economics in a French high school near Paris, in Chaville. But that's too complicated for you, I suppose.

However, her spelling sucks: 'j'ai dit que ma fille le kiffais' should be correctly written ' j'ai dit que ma fille le kiffait'. I told him my daughter liked him (a lot).

You see, 'kiffer' means 'to like/enjoy something a lot'. It comes from the Arabic Algerian colloquialism kif (ك��يفْ), which means pleasure or amusement, and it went on into the French colonial slang, back in the day Algeria was a French colony. And onwards to the mild, mainstream jargon of today, keeping its meaning intact.

I am sorry, Brazilian friends. No woman of your country and few foreigners would spontaneously kif something or someone, nor make the sort of puns only a French native speaker would. Ask *urv, she just said she speaks French (proficient in buying a metro ticket using Duolinguo, I suppose).

Yes, these people are that stupid. And racist.

This is pathetic and the blogger should excuse herself, at a minimum. Which she won't. Of course.

[radykalny-feminizm]

Hedy Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000) was an Austro-Hungarian-born American actress and technology inventor. She was a film star during Hollywood's Golden Age.

Although Lamarr had no formal training and was primarily self-taught, she invested her spare time, including on set between takes, in designing and drafting inventions, which included an improved traffic stoplight and a tablet that would dissolve in water to create a flavored carbonated drink.

During the late 1930s, Lamarr attended arms deals with her then-husband arms dealer Fritz Mandl, "possibly to improve his chances of making a sale." From the meetings, she learned that navies needed "a way to guide a torpedo as it raced through the water." Radio control had been proposed. However, an enemy might be able to jam such a torpedo's guidance system and set it off course. When later discussing this with a new friend, composer and pianist George Antheil, her idea to prevent jamming by frequency hopping met Antheil's previous work. In that earlier work, Antheil attempted synchronizing note-hopping in an avart-garde piece involving multiple synchronized player pianos. Antheil's idea in the piece was to synchronize the start time of identical player pianos with identical player piano rolls, so the pianos would be playing in time with one another. Together, they realized that radio frequencies could be changed similarly, using the same kind of mechanism, but miniaturized.

Based on the strength of the initial submission of their ideas to the National Inventors Council (NIC) in late December 1940, in early 1941 the NIC introduced Antheil to Samuel Stuart Mackeown, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Caltech, to consult on the electrical systems.

Lamarr hired the Los Angeles legal firm of Lyon & Lyon to search for prior art, and to draft the application for the patent which was granted as U.S. Patent 2,292,387 on August 11, 1942, under her legal name Hedy Kiesler Markey.

In 1997, Lamarr and Antheil received the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award and the Bulbie Gnass Spirit of Achievement Bronze Award, given to individuals whose creative lifetime achievements in the arts, sciences, business, or invention fields have significantly contributed to society.

In 2014, Lamarr and Antheil were posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

[pinturas-gran-guerra-aire]

1918 06 15 Francesco Baracca Last Victory - Mark Postlethwaite

Ranking Italian ace Maggiore Francesco Baracca of 91ª Squadriglia obtained his 34th, and final, victory on 15 June 1918 whilst at the controls of SPAD VII 2445 during the fierce aerial dogfights on the first day of the last Austro-Hungarian offensive against Italian forces defending the River Piave.At 1300 hrs, Baracca had shot down a Hansa-Brandenburg Br C I two-seater of Fliegerkompagnie (Flik) 32/D near Saletto for his 33rd success. Flying with his veteran wingman Sergente Gaetano Aliperta, Baracca subsequently wrote in his combat report;' We spotted a great patrol of 25 fighters flying at a height of about 1200 m. They chased our aeroplanes for a short while, then headed back toward their lines. One of them had drifted away from the patrol, and we quickly surrounded it. I repeatedly hit the aeroplane with my machine gun fire until it struck the ground and nosed over onto its back.' Baracca had succeeded in downing Albatros D III 153.266, which crashed in a cultivated field near San Biagio di Collalta. The ace generously shared credit for this victory with Aliperta, Baracca recalling that 'he had helped me out by continually blocking off the enemy pilot as he attempted to retreat'. The latter, Ltn von Josipovich of Flik 51, emerged unscathed from the wreckage of hisAlbatros and was immediately captured. After the war, he resumed his career in aviation, but this time as a civilian pilot. Josipovich subsequently perished in a flying accident

[mapsontheweb]

Actual territory of the free state of Fiume (red, 1920-1924) and what it could've been (dotted line).

The Free State of Fiume (officially known as the Regency of Carnaro) was a short-lived state that existed from 1919 to 1924 in the city of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) and its surrounding territory, which had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to World War I. After the war, there was a dispute over the control of Fiume, with Italy and Yugoslavia both claiming the territory. In response to this dispute, a group of Italian nationalists led by Gabriele d'Annunzio seized control of the city in September 1919 and declared the Free State of Fiume, with d'Annunzio as its leader.

[loneberry]

Notes on Palestine

The geopolitical situation right now is extremely unstable. In such moments it always feels like incentive structures are such that all parties are pushed toward war and escalation. I saw how this all unfolded with 9/11; it left an indelible mark on my psyche–to observe the world careening, the hysteria, the march toward endless war. The Iran hawks in the US are out calling for war with Iran (US intelligence and even the IDF have said Iran did not help *plan* the Hamas attacks, though the idea that Iran was behind the attacks is being presented as fact). 

Days before the Hamas attacks, I was in an article + podcast rabbit hole focused on Iranian nuclear politics, Saudi-Israeli relations, and the current situation in the “Middle East” (I prefer the term “South West Asia and North Africa”/SWANA but will use “Middle East” for readability). I had also been reading that the US’s attempts to broker a US-Saudi-Israeli deal would piss off the Palestinians. It filled me with immense grief—nobody, not even Muslim Arabs, seem to care about Palestinians anymore. The international community has failed. Now it seems that the world has consented to a protracted genocide of Palestinians. It used to be the case that Arab countries would not considered normalizing relations with Israel without Israel making concessions to the Palestinians. The sad reality is that since the Arab Spring, the resolution of the Palestinian issue has become a low priority for many countries in the Middle East, many of whom have their own feud with Iran and see pivoting toward Israel as a path toward greater security. Of course I’m talking about the Abraham Accords, the so-called “peace deal” brokered by the Trump administration that enabled the normalization of relations between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain, yet excluded any input from Palestinians. That event had brought me so much grief. It really felt like any hope for the Palestinian cause was dying. There seems to be little political will from any side to put pressure on Israel.

In moments of crisis like these I try to be sober and pedagogical, but such a task feels nearly impossible when it comes to the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. People say the conflict is “complicated” and rooted in hundreds of years of religious hatred. It is really not that complicated and only requires basic knowledge of 20th century history. Prior to WWI, the territory of Palestine (and much of the Arab world) was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for over 400 years. The Allied Powers (Britain, France, Russia, and others) were at war with the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary, the Ottomans, etc). The Brits saw Palestine as a crown jewel and coveted Jerusalem in particular. They recruited Arab assistance in the war by whipping up hundreds of years of resentment against the Ottomans and promising the Arabs that they would break up the Ottoman Empire and help the Arabs create their own nations (see theMcMahon-Hussein correspondence). Yet the Brits were also keen on recruiting Jewish support on the side of the Allied Powers. In 1917 the British government made a declaration (the Balfour Declaration) that announced British support for the creation of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. At the end of WWI (which, as you likely know, ended in Allied success), the European empires on the winning side sought to expand their empires while Woodrow Wilson believed more in self-determination. The compromise was the “mandate” system, where the Europeans on the winning side took administrative control of territories lost by the Central Powers—France and Britain carved up the Middle East. Enter the British mandate for Palestine. The Arabs had been betrayed by the Allied Europeans (no surprise there). One form of colonial rule was swapped for another. 

Prior to the end of WWI, the Zionist movement was gaining momentum, partly as an answer to the perennial problem of European anti-Semitism and partly because of the 19th/early-20th century discourse around nationalism. The idea of creating a Jewish state in Palestine began in the 19th century, but it was really in the 1890s that modern political Zionism began with the figure of Theodor Herzl. European Jews began to immigrate to Palestine to form settlements. Yet when the mandate was established, the Jewish population was still relatively small—around 9%. While the territory was under British rule, the Brits facilitated a dramatic increase in European Jewish immigration to Palestine. Between 1922 and 1935, the portion of the population that was Jewish grew to 27%. It’s hardly surprising that violence broke out between Arabs and Jews, as well as Arabs and the Brits (see the Arab Revolt of 1936-39). 

The Brits promised a territory to an oppressed people (the Jews) that was never theirs to give away in the first place. The Arabs were quickly being displaced from their home. All of this would come to a head in WWII, when Europe’s vile anti-Semitism was on full display with the Holocaust. How would Europe atone for the atrocities committed against the Jews? There was much momentum around creating a physical state for the Jews in Palestine. This was also a convenient solution for deeply anti-Semitic Europe, as they preferred that the Jews leave rather than be integrated into their societies. In 1947 the UN voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, with Jerusalem coming under international administration. 13 voted against the partition (basically all the countries in the Middle East, plus India and several others). 55% of the land would be set aside for the Jews. War broke out soon after the UN resolution. The (WWII) battle-hardened Zionist paramilitaries (backed by European countries) undertook a campaign of ethnic cleansing and captured additional territory. Between 1947-49, 750,000 Palestinians became refugees—around 40% of the entire Palestinian population. 78% of historic Palestine was taken by Zionist forces. This is the event of settler violence and ethnic cleansing that Palestinians refer to as the Nakba (or catastrophe). 

There is so much obfuscation about the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict. What ultimately happened: Europe decided it wanted to create a nation for Jews. It picked the territory of Palestine for this project (other territories were also considered) because the Brits controlled the territory and because of its religious significance. There were already people who lived on the land that was to be used to create a Jewish state. Now Palestinians are stateless and live under a brutal military occupation (the West Bank) and even more punishing blockade (Gaza)—or as refugees. Palestinians were ultimately made to suffer for the sins of European anti-Semitism. 

*

There is a lot more I can say here, about the history of the Cold War and how it relates to the US’s alliance with Israel, about internecine conflicts in Palestinian politics (the split between Hamas and the PLO/Palestinian Authority), about the current geopolitical situation, about contemporary domestic politics in Israel (which currently has the most right-wing govt in Israel’s history) and the Hamas attacks themselves. I see friends gleefully posting about the murder of Israeli civilians. I just can’t get on board with that. Neither can I get on board with Israel bombing hospitals and shelters in Gaza, or calling Palestinians “animals.” All life is sacred, all life is grievable. (People are right to point out that most of the world does not grieve the loss of Palestinian life.)

Events do have a context. Gaza is one of the most unlivable places on the planet. Around 67% of Gaza's population are refugees displaced during the Nakba. It has been under a brutal blockade for 16 years. It’s the 3rd most densely populated place on the planet—over 2.1 million people are crammed into a space half the size of London. The residents have been deprived of electricity, clean drinking water, medical supplies, and food. Nearly half of residents are unemployed and civilians have died by thousands under Israeli bombings (6,407 Palestinians have been killed since 2008). It is referred to as an “open air prison” because the residents are literally hemmed in by a high-tech fence. Given these dire conditions, an eruption of violence did seem almost inevitable. 

What I fear: a ground invasion of Gaza. A broader conflagration involving Lebanon and Iran, and potentially the rest of the world. The US going to war with Iran. If the world genuinely wishes to see the end of the “cycle of violence,” Palestinians must be free. Any attempt to bring about “regional security” while ignoring the Palestinian situation is destined to fail.

[canmom]

Animation Night 157: Hungary

Jó estét mindenkinek! Eljött az Animációs Éjszaka ideje.

Good evening everyone! It’s time for Animation Night.

Hungary!

Tonight I’m going to continue the grand tradition of ‘copying Aniobsessive-senpai’s homework’, and take us to visit the ‘Hungarian school of animation’, aka magyar rajzfilmiskola. They were a bunch of experimental weirdos from the period when Hungary was ruled Much like the Zagreb School from across the border in Croatia (AN 136), who were a biiiig influence, they launched away from the midcentury UPA style and experiments like Yellow Submarine to make something unique.

The best known Hungarian animated film is Son of the White Mare (1981) directed by Marcell Jankovics. Lemme quote Aniobsessive:

[White Mare] is hard to compare to other animated features. Marcell Jankovics and his team used Hungarian folk art and folk tales as the basis for a huge, mind-expanding, psychedelic adventure movie. It tells an accessible story in an art-house style — 90 minutes of searing colors and spellbinding patterns, with each character in a state of constant transformation.

This film was wildly influential, reaching people like Genndy Tarkovsky to form a big part of the DNA of Samurai Jack. But White Mare didn’t spring out of nowhere.

The 20th century for Hungary was, to put it mildly, a rough time. Here’s a really really brief version. In World War I, Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which lost the war hard and basically collapsed. In the resulting power vacuum the country was separated from Austria and went through a brief communist revolution which fell to a monarchist counterrevolution; the monarchists surrendered to the Entente in 1920 and gave up most of the country’s land. In the new peace, the new monarchy set about their agenda of ‘doing antisemitism’, which predictably got a great deal worse in the 30s following the great depression and the rise of Hitler nearby.

So in WWII, Hungary sided with the Axis. They joined Hitler in invading the USSR, and got pretty much crushed. The Hungarians started negotiations to break from the Axis and surrender, but Hitler noticed and quickly ordered his soldiers to occupy, appointing a Nazi governor; at this point the Holocaust in Hungary kicked up a gear and the Nazi-backed Hungarian government deported hundreds of thousands of Jewish people to the death camps. To brush over a messy story, within a year the Soviets counter-invaded and destroyed the fascist government, establishing Hungary as in the Soviet sphere of influence in the aftermath of the war. The Hungarian communist party, which had existed despite its ban during the war, joined forces with communists from Moscow... uneasily.

After briefly playing with elections, the Soviets reorganised Hungary as a single-party Leninist state. The new government set about the whole show-trials-and-purges-and-statues-of-the-leader routine, attacking his rivals as spies in the pocket of the Americans, or maybe Big Trotsky. A lot of messy intra-party politics took place while the country struggled economically, attempting to copy Stalin in dismantling the peasants and building heavy industry. In the 50s, a certain prime minister Imre Nagy won popularity by relaxing some of the state control and closing labour camps and so forth, but this put him at odds with Moscow, and he was attacked as a right-deviationist and driven out of politics. But not for long...

(Did you think that was an end to the antisemitism btw? Lmao no of course not. In 1953 the government tried to frame three random Jews for the abduction of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish industrialist who saved thousands of people during the Holocaust, who in reality died in a Soviet prison. That whole affair abruptly stopped when Stalin died.)

In 1956 it all came to a head with the ‘Hungarian Revolution’, started by students, which like all such uprisings was messy but broadly was pro-Nagy and anti-Soviet. Nagy, who had only recently been returned from political exile in the wake of the ‘Khruschev Thaw’, took control of the party with his allies. He went so far as to announce that Hungary might even withdraw from the Warsaw Pact. ‘Excuse me?’ said Khruschev, and sent in the Red Army tanks to remove Nagy and his supporters, killing about 20,000 people in the process. This is one of the two incidents that led to the coinage of the word ‘tankie’, originally meaning someone who defended Khruschev’s intervention.

The next guy, János Kádár, started out by attacking the participants in the 1956 uprising, but changed his tune and declared an amnesty in the 60s, establishing a relatively relaxed set of policies nicknamed ‘Goulash Communism’ which encouraged foreign trade and consumerism. As such, it’s this period where Hungary started making a bunch of animated films.

Because yeah this is a post about cartoons actually!

In the 60s, Hungarian animators - funded by the state - were following in the footsteps of the Zagreb School, with its unique approach to timing and design philosophy. But eager ot put their own spin on it, they started introducing bright colours and textures to the UPA style, in films like Duel (1960) and Ball with White Dots (1961).

In 1968, Sándor Reisenbüchler, a colleage of Jankovics at Pannonia Film Studio with a wildly improvisational method, released his first short film The Kidnapping of the Sun and Moon, created with the assistance of his wife. The film is an absolute riot of shapes and colours, all relating a story of a many-headed dragon which devours all the stars until a hero comes to slay it. For Reisenbüchler it’s an anti-war metaphor. Despite being controversial back home, the government eagerly started spreading it abroad in Russia and US alike as a symbol of cool shit being made in Hungary.

Reisenbüchler would go on to make many more films, such as The Year of 1812 (Az 1812-es év) in 1972, but he’d still hold a special place in his heart for Kidnapping.

The British film Yellow Submarine dropped in 1968, and sent major waves into both Hungary and Yugoslavia. For Hungarian artists like Jankovics, it was the inspiration they needed to find a third pole of animation, distinct from both the Disney tradition and the UPA style. He appreciated the space it offered for inconsistency - character designs would no longer need to be identical in every shot, the messiness could be part of the style.

In 1973, Jankovics directed the first feature-length Hungarian animated film, titled Johnny Corncob (János Vitéz). Based on an 1845 epic poem, it tells the story of the worldwide adventures of a young soldier separated from his over, completed over a period of 22 months at Pannonia. The film was a huge undertaking, and its style is unlike pretty much anything before or since, with something of a Western flavour, and uniquely Hungarian outfits...

The next year, Jankovics released a much smaller project, the two-minute long Sisyphus. Jankovics was determined to constantly reinvent his style, lest his films get lost in the shadow of the ones before.

In contrast to the bright colours and textures, Sisyphus, completed in just six weeks, keeps things about as simple as possible: pure black and white silhouettes with a brush texture. Most of the 1800 drawings were by Jankovics himself, and much of the rest by Edit Szalay, who would soon become a key part of White Mare. Into the myth of Sisyphus, Jankovics channeled his own struggles with the nigh impossible task of creating the country’s first animated film. And this film proved wildly popular, running around the world from Yugoslavia to Iran. It threatened to overshadow everything else Jankovics did, and so he changed his style up completely for White Mare.

As the 70s went on, the films just got more experimental. Honeymation (Mézes-táncos) in 1975, directed Ferenc Varsáyani, decided to do a stop motion film entirely with gingerbread people. It was photographed by Gábor Csupó, who would later leave Hungary to America and co-create the Rugrats series. Eventually he would reunite with Varasáyani who would come to work on Rugrats too...

The 70s also saw the wildly popular TV series Rabbit with Checkered Ears, dir. Zsolt Richly and written by Veronika Marék. The two became friends while writing for a childrens’ magazine, and that magazine style would adapt perfectly to depict the clumsy, floppy rabbit. In a big cabin in the yard of Pannonia, Zsolt Richly oversaw the creation of the series for years. You can read more about the story here.

And of course this whole thing was a massive success in both Hungary and pretty much everywhere else, launching both into animation. The floppy plush main character reminds me a little of Marumi from Paranoia Agent, but this one isn’t so sinister. It’s just a very cute bunny in an appealing style. All the episodes are entirely wordless, relying on the expressive movement and music to convey the story. This person seems to have uploaded the full series on Youtube, albeit not really organised into a playlist, so check it out ^^

As then we enter the 80s, Jankovics got the studio working on their biggest project, Son of the White Mare, bringing all these threads together into one massive project, the magnum opus of the Hungarian school at large. So that’s what we’re going to watch tonight! A whirlwind tour of Hungarian animation’s important short films, and Son of the White Mare. (I would show Johnny Corncob as well, but it’s late and it’s proving slow to download, so another week.)

Eventually of course the Soviet Union fell, and Hungary’s Leninist state apparently transitioned to a regular capitalist one relatively gently. Pannonia continued to function, making films up to around 2011 with the final film of Jankovics, The Tragedy of Man, but ultimately closed its doors in 2015. Jankovics himself passed away in 2021. I would love to investigate some of this later Hungarian animation, but I’ll have to save that for another day...

And so! Animation Night 157 will go live in just a minute at twitch.tv/canmom, and I plan to begin showing films on the hour (22:00 UK time)! I’d love to see you there!! Let’s check out a corner of animation history that is far too unknown, and watch a film that’s said (by someone somewhere) to be one of the best animated films of all time...

[dieselpunk-1921]

check out Dieselpunk 1921 here!

The Free Peoples' Republic of Ukraine

Ukraine has never been a stranger to violence. The breadbasket sandwiched between Czar, Kaiser, and King-Emperors, there have always been interests beyond the confines of Ukraine that desired control. As Russian influence waned, and their forces were pushed beyond the Dnipro, then Siverskyi Donets, questions rose about what power would fill the vacuum. In the east, radicalism and anarchism took root, a rising tide of free soviets taking arms against Boss, Czar, and State alike; In the west, a feverish nationalism has swept the hearts and minds of those in power, the flame of hate fuelled by Austro-Hungarian interests attempting to halt the rise of radicalism. The interests of power have sought to rapidly build the industries of Ukraine, though not those of food, shelter, or dignity – those are not the facets of society that maintain power. Arms factories, prisons, and barracks are built in record time, with little regard for safety, all in the name of maintaining control in the Republic.

Even five years after the Russian withdraw from the territory, the vast majority of people in the republic have seen little change; the face of oppression changing from Czar to Hetman, the flags of the occupying soldiers bearing the emblem of Ukraine rather than the Russian eagle. Fear governs streets of the republic, and though most of the peasants desire change and liberation, most simply keep their heads down and try and avoid trouble.

For professionals without morals, opportunities for staggering wealth abound – dissidents, unions, and many more present valuable targets for Skoropadsky’s regime. Yet for all others, work is plenty, but pay is limited. Dissidents have a wealth of targets, and anarchists from the Free Territory are always seeking allies to fight against the rising tide of nationalist violence. The rapid construction of factories has left many with fatal and obvious flaws, and sabotage is far more common in the republic than most other states.

[wifeguyrambles]

Bram Stoker Doesn't Understand Maps

Good Morning degenerates, My girlfriend has finally got me to use tumblr because I need an avenue to vent my rage and frustration. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dracula Daily was off to a great start. I was sending wholesome messages to my lovely partner until all of a sudden. I was filled with rage. Despite being set in the 1890s. As a contemporary text set when it was written, and being in the wake of the great Hungarian Revolution of 1849. There are too many geographical issues and I can only come to a single conclusion.

Bram Stoker doesn't understand maps.

Let's start with what killed me first. His claim that by claiming that crossing the Danube into Budapest "Took us among the traditions of Turkish rule"

But my friends. HUNGARY WAS (almost) NEVER RULED BY THE TURKS. The Ottomans got close, they owned most of the Balkans until big daddy Russia beat their asses in the Crimean and Russo-Turkish war. But even at their territorial peak they hadn't crossed the Carpathian Mountains into Hungary since 1699.

And even then, they'd only controlled Hungary since 1541. Nowhere near enough time to describe Hungarian architecture as "among the traditions of Turkish rule", it's fucking blasphemous.

It's like saying the Welsh bear "the traditions of Viking rule" just because they controlled parts of England.

And don't even get me started on this nonsense Transylvanian nationalism. The Hapsburgs had annexed that territory since 1683 and Transylvanian princes were quickly replaced with Habsburg imperial governors as the Roman Catholic Church was weaponized against the traditionally Protestant lands.

Now don't get me wrong. Austria Hungary was notoriously decentralized, and despite this what I've said above. Transylvania had some level of freedom, I could almost understand Bram if his writings were set 50 years earlier, or perhaps partway through the Hungarian revolution. But unfortunately for history, it was completely and unequivocally crushed by the Russian and Austrian forces. And following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 any special status Transylvania once had, had ended. It became a province under the Hungarian diet and referring to it as though it was an independent nation is laughable.

Or is it? You see, just like sex and gender. A nation and a state are two different things. You see, a state is defined by its ability to have sovereignty, (control) over the going on within its defined borders. Whereas a nation is basically a group of people with a common language, history, and culture. And just like sex and gender, despite the fact that most countries (after ww2 at least but that's a different tangent) are nation-states, there are many nations without states (like the Kurds or the Palestinians). We're not lucky enough to have states without nations just yet but I'm holding out hope.

Perhaps Signor Stoker was simply referring to this concept of nationality instead. IS WHAT I WOULD SAY IF I WAS AN IDIOT. YOU SEE "In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North"

This quote proves that this foppish fool of a man is clearly not viewing Transylvania as a nation in the sociological sense either.

BUT IT GETS WORSE. FOR BRAMOTHY STOKERSON SAYS TRANSYLVANIA BORDERS "Moldavia and Bukovina". BUT MOLDAVIA HASN'T EXISTED SINCE 1877, WHEN IT AND WALLACHIA UNIFIED INTO ROMANIA. AND BUKOVINA (as part of the Austro-Hungarian empire) HAD ITS SOVEREIGNTY DESTROYED AT THE SAME TIME THE TRANSYLVANIANS DID.

In conclusion. Big Boss Bram has never read a map in his life.

[estbela]

pleaseeee elaborate on your robul marriage post bc i've been thinking about this concept all day....!!! i need a full length post 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

I'll try my best but I am terrible at explaining myself sometimes but I will for you anon!!! (and also because RoBul has been consuming my thoughts lately)

(Also this post is a mess and I probably got some info wrong i'm sorry)

First of all, before actually talking about RoBul I do need to mention the history behind the proposals!! So during the Middle Ages, you probably know that Bulgaria was an empire, twice! And At times, Wallachia & romanians(who were called vlachs at the time alongside probably othee ppl who were also called vlachs, which yes, makes it confusing to research.) were part of it. The guys who founded the second bulgarian empire (Asen & Peter) were also probably vlachs, so there was cooperation between the bulgarians & vlachs in the empire.

This was one of the reasonings for the union essentially, that bcs they worked together well in the past, they would also work well tovether now, and together be pretty strong. Bulgaria especially would have had a lot to gain through the union(it wasn't independent and had only recently gained some autonomy from the Ottoman Empire), which was the reason proposals mostly came from the bulgarian side.

Anyway yada yada yada all the proposals for the union were fruitless, because of a lot of factors, which could be basically summarised like this: Neighbouring countries didn't want this to happen, and both Bulgaria and Romania had different goals and plans, sometimes that contradicted eachoter.

But if somehow they had succeeded to unite, well, that's certainly an interesting scenario. And now I will mention the union of Moldavia & Wallachia, which would form Romania. You see, those two principalities weren't allowed to truly unite by the powers of Europe, but they had not said that the danubian principalities could not elect the same leader to form a personal union, which led to Romania.

During the reign of king Carol I, he had considered doing this, aka being elected by Bulgaria too, to form a union of this king, but this was strongly opposed by Russia & Austro-Hungary, so yeah. But if he had somehow done this & Austro-Hungary & Russia didn't like...attack...uhmm...Romano-Bulgaria (I GUESS???) immediately, I guess Robul would officially be married!! Let's say they unite in like the 1880s.

Which comes with a lot of questions, obviously, that I will gloss over and just focus on RoBul. Thing is, I think Ro & Bul have somewhat different opinions on marriage. I mean, I see Bul as being way more keen on the concept of marriage than Ro is, so like Ro isn't very into marriage I guess? I see him aa someone who really values his freedom and independence, and isn't very willing to tie himself down, thought he'll do it for someone he loves. And that someone is Bul in this scenario.

Honestly...I think at first it is alright. I think Ro would have more control thought, similar to Austro-Hungary in a way, since from what I read, it would have been a similar kind of union to this one. I think Bul would be fine with this tho, especially at the start. He trusts Ioan(my human name for Ro) and his judgement, and Ro would also seek his opinion on things. Ro is happy about having control on some stuff.

But they do clash, quite a lot. Their personalities and view on things and their friends are different. Serbia is Ro's friend...while him and Bulgaria often don't see eye to eye. Russia and Bulgaria as well...yeah. Ro does not like Ivan very much, and Tsvetan also has conflicted thoughts on him, but veers towards liking him.

And also!!! Unless Bulgaria somehow achieved independence, Romania qould go back to being a vassal. Which well, I doubt Ioan would be fond of that. Honestly, I cannot say if being an union would help Bul achieve independence sooner, but it is not that important I suppose.

Also the capital of such a state would probably be Bucharest, like how the capital of Austro-Hungary was Vienna.

And to continue, as time goes on, I do think all these factors, including the political and cultural differences do put on a strain on their relationship. I cannot say if they would even enter the Balkan Wars, but this would also be a reason for fighting between them. Romania tends towards being neutral and really thinking things through while Bulgaria does tend to act based on instict and feelings, so I can see them participating in the first balkan war, and when Bul does not get what was promised for him, I can see him wanting to start the second balkan war, while Ro is trying to stop him from doing so, because it would be pointless in his opinion (as he was less focused on Bul's goal to unite with Macedonia and more focused on Transylvania and Moldova, which was definitely something they argued about!)

But I think they do have good times, really. I mean, being together like when they were children (in the middle ages) is wonderful for both of them. I think they can be very sweet together, and being marriage would def appeal to them because of being almost always together.

And now I am gonna stop talking about alternate reality and focus on their relationship more(because I suck at alternate history). The thing is, as I already said, where Ioan thinks, Tsvetan feels. And I think they do appreciate eachoter for these qualities, but in the end when you have different opinions about a lpt of things it's very hard to be in a marriage, especially if this marriage holds the fate of a country. I think they'd try to pretend those problems aren' there, thought, until they eventually have to face them with no way to run away from them. Alrhough I see Tsve as more willing to talk about things, while Ioan wants to pretend nothing is wrong and is non-comfrontational unless he believes talking will help him.

So at the end, things are...bad. towards the first world war, their relationship is already standing on it's last leg, but WW1 in this reality is what kills it truly. They each become their own country, like Austro-Hungary, and just, not talk to eachoter for a long time.

Althought...there is another scenario, in which they unite in the communist era. So like, everything happens the way it did in actual history until the communist period, where somehow those 2 manage to unite. I guess they'd fight for different reasons then, as again Bul kinda likes Russia & Ro Does Not. They probably separate in the 90s.

Also in these scenarios RoBul 100% has a way more complicated weird relationship going on and they do make it other people's problem.

[frida-kahl-of-the-rocky-horror]

I am very pro-Palestine (as someone who grew up in the Middle East) and while I think there are valid criticisms of how large movie studios are treating actors like Jenna Ortega who speak out in solidarity with Palestine, what is not cool or valid are people saying this is proof that “Jews run Hollywood��

Now let me be clear, this is mostly white Leftists who have no direct connection to this conflict saying this

But let me explain why Jewish Americans have such a prevalence in Hollywood

1. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, prior to the rise of the Nazis, antisemitism was still prevalent, particularly in France, Germany, and the Austro Hungarian empire. Jewish people in many places were barred from traditional jobs, with one job they were allowed to do being banking (since in the Bible, it says Christians couldn’t loan money to other Christians but it didn’t say anything about Jews loaning money and hey people need to borrow money. A similar thing happened in majority muslim countries with Christians). Because when filmmaking when to Europe after being pioneered in USA it was an unregulated market, many Jewish Austro Hungarians or Jewish Germans worked in this industry because hey, being an accountant FUCKING SUCKS AND NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO DO IT

2. As restrictions both on cinema as well as antisemitic laws became more prevalent in Europe, many of these Jewish filmmakers immigrated to the nation of immigrants USA, and, due to how immigration flows from Europe transpired, they landed in the Northeast of the USA, where the American filmmaking market was headquartered and thus were able to quickly continue their craft, especially as filmmaking was still seen as a underclass job

3. Funny Gene

4. If you aren’t a WASP in the USA, that is to say, you aren’t privileged, you’re more likely to have a drive do better and actually create talent. This extends to all minorities including Jews. And because Hollywood was still racist, minorities who were white passing enough — like Jews, the Irish, and Italians (think about how many Italian directors and actors you know of) — inevitably rose to the top

I think this scene from South Park says it all:

Kyle: My message is, we can't control what people say, so we have to be smart about what we choose to believe. If one idiot says that a certain group "runs Hollywood", look into it. With very minimal effort, you will find that "Hollywood" is a multi-tiered industry run by tens of thousands of people from all over the world. In the past, Jews were shut out of most professions, so they came to dominate vaudeville, which back then was considered too low-brow for good Christians. Those Jews eventually moved West and started the first movie studios when movies were also considered work for the underclass, and their descendents are now a decent percentage of the thousands of people of all races that make Hollywood run.

Fuck Antisemitism. Free Palestine

[rhetoricandlogic]

Whale Riders

By Austin Grossman

Nov. 5, 2009

Scott Westerfeld’s “Leviathan” is a tightly paced young adult novel set in an alternate version of the First World War and a welcome addition to the steampunk genre: a neo-retro period adventure. Just as cyberpunk reimagined science fiction with computers, steampunk reinvents it through a fantasy of the technological past. Its signature style is a whimsical Jules Verne-ian, 19th-century take on high technology — gadgets, gauges and goggles take the place of circuits and fusion reactors. Its genteel heroes and heroines display both the pluck of idealized Victorian adven­turers and their understanding of formal dress.

Westerfeld is best known for his sci-fi Uglies series (“Pretties,” “Specials,” “Extras,” etc.), about a future society in which people have a surgical procedure at age 16 that makes their faces beautiful but their minds frivolous and easily controlled. “Leviathan” is different. If it poses a big question, that question would be, Wouldn’t it be cool if the First World War had been fought with genetically engineered mutant animals, against steam-­powered walking machines like the ones from “The Empire Strikes Back”? And the answer is, Yes, it would.

The book begins the night the Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated and his son, Aleksandar, flees his home near Prague to escape being made a target or a tool as the potential heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. (Aleksandar is an invention, but like Ferdinand’s real children, he is not a fully legitimate heir to royal lands or titles, since his mother has “common blood.”) At the other end of Europe, a working-class Scottish girl named Deryn disguises herself as a boy to join the British Air Service. Intrigue and political instability sweep the teenagers out of their normal lives and into a world at war.

It’s not quite our world. In this version of history, Europe is divided between two rival technological cultures, a Mac-versus-PC contest on a geopolitical scale. The British, the “Darwinists,” have mastered the science of bioengineering. The Central European powers are the “Clankers,” and they use airplanes, zeppelins and walking machines that tramp through forests and fields. (We aren’t told what the French do, and I think that’s for the best.)

“Leviathan” shines when it lets us inhabit these cultures. British society is permeated by its signature technology, an inventive living infrastructure of a thousand elements, from lizards that can mimic and record voices to tigerlike beasts of burden to the leviathan of the title, a living dirigible grown on the genetic chassis of a whale. This marvelous creature makes a lovely entrance:

“The Leviathan’s body was made from the life threads of a whale, but a hundred other species were tangled into its design, countless creatures fitting to­gether like the gears of a stopwatch. . . . The motivator engines changed pitch, nudging the creature’s nose up. The airbeast obeyed, cilia along its flanks undulating like a sea of grass in the wind — a host of tiny oars rowing backward, slowing the Leviathan almost to a halt. The huge shape drifted slowly overhead, blotting out the sky.”

Westerfeld’s imagery is enhanced by Keith Thompson’s old-fashioned black-and-white illustrations, which lend an extra dimension of reality to this world. And the Darwinist and Clanker jargon crackles with an authentically techie feel. Who wouldn’t want to go up in a “Huxley ascender” or pilot a “Wotan-class land frigate”? If Westerfeld has a signature foible, however, it’s a weakness for vintage slang that ends up being more distracting than colorful. No amount of repetition made “Barking spiders!” feel like a natural exclamation.

I also wanted to like Deryn and Alek more. There’s something a little mechanical (or bioengineered?) about this pair; they resemble something called a “young adult protagonist” more than they do actual teenagers. It’s not that they’re not pleasant to be around, and each one passes a dramatic series of trials, overseen by a mysterious British lady scientist and a cranky Teutonic fencing master who both possess a charisma that makes you miss them when they’re offstage. Deryn and Alek lack the psychological sloppiness that makes for a living presence rather than an expert piece of craft. Where their feelings are concerned, the prose is a little vacant, as if scrubbed of the messiest and most personal aspects of growing up.

And then there’s the unpleasantness of fighting in World War I. The Great War in “Leviathan” is a little too picturesque, a little too much of a lark. As novels like “The Red Badge of Courage” show, it’s possible to reach young readers without editing out the catastrophe and confusion of wartime.

This isn’t to say that “Leviathan” is a superficial book. As Westerfeld writes in his afterword, the novel is “as much about possible futures as alternate pasts.” Its larger themes are less apparent and more deeply buried than in the Uglies books, and are the more powerful for it. The novel is a study in opposites, of boy versus girl, working class versus aristocracy, British versus German, and its overlying thematic division of Darwinists and Clankers gives all of these a distinctive torque, while avoiding mapping neatly to any specific agenda. The novel’s concluding set piece features a grand, elegant and very satisfying hybridization that suggests that opposites can meet, collapse and mingle, and that this story has natural sequels, which I will undoubtedly read.

LEVIATHAN

By Scott Westerfeld

Illustrated by Keith Thompson

A correction was made on

Nov. 22, 2009

: 

A review on Nov. 8 about Scott Westerfeld’s “Leviathan,” a young adult novel depicting an alternate version of World War I, misstated the nature of some of the language used in the book. It is vintage vernacular appropriate to the period, not “invented teenage slang.”

[tilbageidanmark]

MOVIES I WATCHED THIS WEEK #202:

HUNGARIAN CINEMA X 5:

🍿 ON BODY AND SOUL, my first film by Hungarian Ildikó Enyedi, was nominated for an Oscar in 2017. A very different and extremely romantic story of an unlikely couple. The man is an introverted treasurer in a slaughterhouse, crippled with withered arm. [So many Eastern European films take place in slaughter-houses!] The young woman is a new employee who is being ostracized because of her autistic behavior. There's not much in common between them, but they connect after finding out that every night they share the same dream, being a pair of deer in in a snowy forest. It's completely magical. 8/10. [*Female Director*]

[I didn't realize that the woman character was modeled tangentially after a real person, Temple Gardine, who's an inventor, academic and a proponent for the neurodiversity movement. Somebody on r/GuessTheMovie recognized it just from the cut of her yellow shirt!]

🍿 As I'm gearing the fortitude to watch his difficult Opus Magnum, I took in (Twice!) my first film by László Nemes, WITH A LITTLE PATIENCE (2007). It's a companion piece to his 'Son of Saul'. Told in a single 10 minutes shot, choreographed, intense, wordless and meandering. A young woman works in a dark office, and it's not clear what kind of office it is, until the very end. You can only hear unsettling ambiance and whispers, thuds and typewriters in the background: Your imagination can fear the worst.

It's strange that Nemes got into a public dispute with Jonathan Glazer last year, because of the latter's critique of the Palestinian genocide: This short is a condensed version of 'The Zone of Interest'. 10/10 - a must-see quiet masterpiece.

🍿 "My dinner with Zoltán". THE FIFTH SEAL (1976) is considered as one of the greatest Hungarian films, and is my second masterpiece by director Zoltán Fábri (After 'The Boys of Paul Street'). It's a dark and philosophical morality play exploring ethics, martyrdom and the moral choices one must make in life.

In the last year of the Second World War, four friends, a watchmaker, a carpenter, a book salesman and a bar owner, drink and smoke in a dingy tavern [Oh, how this place must stink!], and are having intense discussions all night. One of them posts a dilemma for the others: Would it be better to live as a slave and endure severe abuse but have a clear conscience - or to live as an abusive tyrant and have no conscience at all? They argue and struggle all night with their answers. But the next evening, the Hungarian gestapo barges in, and they really must face that question again, this time as if their life depends on it. Because it does. (Poster Above).

All that and Hieronymus Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights' metaphors too. 9/10.

🍿 On the other hand, I didn't get the point of Zoltán Fábri's absurd comedy THE TOTH FAMILY (1969). A military "Major" who's Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs lunatic, arrives at a small idyllic Austro-Hungarian village. Suffering from PSTD and in need of recuperation, he's supposed to stay there for two weeks. But then he discovers therapy by folding thousands of goddamn cardboard boxes (?) thus driving everybody around him mad. 3/10.

🍿Also, PROLOGUE (2004), my first by Béla Tarr, as I prepare to dive into His world. I picked the shortest one he made, a single 5-minute dolly shot simply of people standing in line (for food). Poverty / misery. I should also watch the “Visions of Europe” anthology, which this is part of.

🍿  

I haven't seen 'Inherent Vice' yet, but of all the other Paul Thomas Anderson's movies, my top rankings goes:

1. For the hungry boy.

2. Phantom Thread.

3. The master.

4. There will be blood.

and because of the first clip, I had to see PHANTOM THREAD again. It's a timeless masterpiece. The Jonny Greenwood ethereal score and the meticulous script, as well as Vicky Krieps graceful beauty are unmatched. Three personalities fight nearly to the death for love and control in a dance of power imbalance. A demanding and exacting "couturier", the waitress whose radiance he can't resist, and his fastidious, devoted sister. And poisonous mushrooms to boot. Re-watch ♻️. A perfect 10/10.

Extras: JUNUN is a musical documentary from 2015. PTA joined Jonny Greenwood (and his collaborator, Israeli poet Shye Ben Tzur) to an ancient castle in the blue city of Jodhpur, where they jammed and recorded some Hindustani inspired album.

Also: HAIM / VALENTINE (2017) was another, forgettable studio recording he did. The Haim sisters singing 3 songs, during the 'Licorice Pizza' shoot.

🍿  

MASAKI KOBAYASHI X 2:

🍿 After 'Harakiri', and before sitting down to watch his acclaimed 9-hour-long 'The human condition', I savored SAMURAI REBELLION (1967), a near-perfect Jidaigeki tragedy. Heroic Toshiro Mifune, introduced as a 'henpecked husband' re-discovers his true Samurai spirit, when his daughter-in-law is being kidnapped by his superior. Classically-austere, sparse and meditative like a Zen garden. The story about defying injustice and finding domestic love is graceful and gripping from the first to last frame. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. 9/10.

🍿 YOUTH OF THE SON (1952) was Kobayashi's first film, a simple and lighthearted family comedy-drama, unlike his serious, later works. An open-minded writer-father and his loving wife watch over their two teenage boys as the younger discovers girls, and the older one gets in a bit of trouble with the police. With frequent Ozu cast members Chishū Ryū and Kuniko Miyake.

🍿  

THE NIGHT IT RAINED is a strangely-controversial 1967 Iranian documentary. A story was published in the papers about an heroic 12 year old boy from some rural village who supposedly saved a train from derailing after noticing that the bridge it approaches had been washed off in the rain. The film crew interviewed everybody involved in the story in order to discover the exact truth of the event. But like Rashomon, after hearing the conflicting versions of the story, the actual 'truth' remains ambiguous.

🍿

A PURE FORMALITY (1994), my 4th film by Giuseppe ("Cinema Paradiso") Tornatore. It's an old-fashioned two-hander cat-and-mouse mystery, whereby Gérard Depardieu is a recluse writer possibly-accused of murder by nameless police inspector Roman Polanski. But it's also a theatrical allegory that feels made-up, artificial and unreal. For example, the story which takes place all in one night uses the wettest scenario imaginable, a neglected police station that is extremely leaky and flooded during a relentless rain storm. And the symbolism of the shocking revelation at the end is a head-scratcher of the 'was it all a dream?' or 'Was he dead all along?' kind. Too intellectually-obtuse for me. Ennio Morricone did the score. 3/10.

🍿

HIGH SIERRA X 2:

🍿 "Hey! Sit down, have a cigarette...."

HIGH SIERRA (1941) was Humphrey Bogart's breakthrough film and at the same time, the one that helped his drinking buddy John Huston to transition from script-writing to directing. My third Ida Lupino vehicle. Bogie is a notorious career criminal who falls for two different women and then falls from the top of the mountain to his death. He also drives a goofy 1937 2-seater Plymouth De Luxe, and plays with (his own real-life) dog. No redemption for him.

🍿 I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES (1955) is a faithful, scene by scene CinemaScope remake of 'High Sierra'. Jack Palance and short haired bad-girl Shelley Winters bring their adopted dog to the hotel safe robbery. Instead of Willie Best who played the stereotypical "simple-minded" black bit in the original, here they used "Chico", a Mexican-American actor. Racial progress, I guess?... Also with Lee Marvin, and a split-second cameo of 19-year-old Dennis Hopper.

🍿

QUEEN ROCK MONTREAL is a concert film, recorded 24 and 25 November, 1981. A re-mastered Ultra-HD new copy looks great. But I was never into Queen, so this wasn't exactly for me.

🍿

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH X 3:

🍿 I was recommended to see Attenborough's latest 3-part nature series SECRET WORLD OF SOUND. Extraordinary footage in the famous BBC style, with amazing close ups, microscopic details, cutting edge audio, it gets into snake's brains, lion's mouths, bee's eyes and birds assholes.

🍿 DAVID ATTENBOROUGH MEETS PRESIDENT OBAMA. In 2015, he sat for an interview about the Natural World with Obama at The White House, but instead Obama interviewed him!

[In hindsight, what a disappointment did the Obama legacy turned out to be! How the transformative spark full of hope, fizzled into middle of the road Neo-liberal cosmetics, with zero achievements that will out-last Trump. What a pity!] [*Female Director*]

🍿 It's only a clip from one of his nature shows, but my interest came from the story of the CHRISTMAS ISLAND RED CRAB MIGRATION, where 120 million crabs gather to spawn.

🍿

The Danish KNIGHT OF FORTUNE was nominated for an Oscar this year. A grieving, old widower cannot bring himself to open the casket of his dead wife and view her corpse. it's typically Danish, slow, unexpectedly morbid and uplifting at the same time. 8/10.

🍿

A BUNCH OF SHORTS:

🍿 FOOD (1992) is Jan Švankmajer's final short film (So far; He's still alive, and could surprise us all!). It's his most accessible, my favorite, and one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. Think Czech cuisine from the 30's or 50's, jellied, congealed and unidentified dishes, with their slurping, guttural sounds, stick it in a surreal meat grinder, cover it with murky sauces and dirty condiments, and you're halfway there. Best film of the week - 10/10 on Yelp.

🍿 THE LUNCH DATE (1989) a masterful little story that won the Oscar, the Short Film Palme d'Or and was later selected for the 'National Film Registry'. An elderly woman misses her train at 'Grand Central Terminal' so she goes to the diner and orders a salad. But when she comes to her table, after fetching a fork from the counter, she finds a black man sitting and eating the salad! 8/10.

🍿 TEDDY GRAY'S SWEET FACTORY, an absolutely delightful 2011 story from documentarian Martin Parr. It tells of a small family-owned confectionery factory near Birmingham, England, which still produces old-fashioned, hand-made sweets. A must see! 8/10.

🍿 SLATE (1976), another of Krzysztof Kieślowski's shorts. A quick behind-the-scenes montage from when they were using the clapboard shooting the movie 'The Scar'.

🍿 TOMATOS ANOTHER DAY (1934) was a weird avant-garde short with unique dadaist aesthetics. Absurdly-stilted and artificially-played satire of a love triangle, it's like a 100 year old minimalist Lynch'ian joke.

🍿 A GUN IN HIS HAND, an early Joseph Losey 'Copaganda' film (1945), part of MGM 'Crime does not pay' series. A top graduate of the police academy 'Breaks bad', and uses his technical knowledge to do crimes. M'eh.

🍿 LES MAINS NÉGATIVES (1978), my second by Marguerite Duras. A moving car drives through the dark streets of Paris before day break, while her repetitive voice asks to be remembered. Like 'Hiroshima Mon Amour', it's a poetic stream of consciousness about cave paintings memories and unrequited love. I lived there around that time, and one of the walking shadows she filmed, unnoticed and forgotten, may have been me. [*Female Director*]

🍿 CANTOS DE TRABALHO (1955). Ethnographic work. Five Brazilian work songs depicting manual laborers. Not too interesting.

🍿 "They say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing, and the second time a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time..."

B MOVIE (2009) my second documentary about street artist Bansky (And itself an extra from 'Exit through the gift shop'). Subversive, anti-corporate anarchist rebel, (with a sense of humor which shocks, mocks and rocks), still anonymous.

🍿 PORKY PIG'S FEAT (1943, colorized) is Frank Tashlin's highest rated film on Letterboxd. Porky Pig and Daffy Duck's try to escape the Broken Arms Hotel manager without paying their bill.

🍿 AN OSTRICH TOLD ME THE WORLD IS FAKE AND I THINK I BELIEVE IT (2021), a strange, post-modernist Australian stop motion animation about a telemarketer who fails at selling toasters, and instead meets a mysterious ostrich. 3/10.

🍿"Wedding is like a fortress. Those who are in want out, and those who are out want in..."

GEFILTE FISH (2008). Before her wedding, a young Israeli woman must kill a live carp and prepare the traditional jellied fish dish, as per her family customs. Okay... [*Female Director*]

🍿

THROW-BACK TO THE ADORA ART PROJECT:  

Freddy Mercury Adora.

Bansky Adora.

🍿

(ALL MY FILM REVIEWS - HERE).

[eucanthos]

Vivian Maier   (US, 1926 - 2009)

Self-Portrait, 1955

Short bio of wonder [edited]

American of French and Austro-Hungarian extraction, intensely guarded and private, decidedly unmaterialistic (money-wise), Vivian would amass found items, art books, newspaper clippings, home films and thankfully her negatives. She recorded the 2nd 1\2 of the 20th c. Urban America, creating masterpieces of Street Photography.

Maier would leave behind over 100,000 negatives and a series of homemade documentary films and audio recordings.

Having picked up photography in Europe 2 years earlier, came back to New York City in 1951, where she would comb the streets. In 1956 Vivian left for Chicago, where she’d spend most of the rest of her life working as a Nanny and “quietly” taking pictures.

Her first camera was a modest Kodak Brownie (one shutter speed, no aperture and focus control) soon to be replaced in 1952 by her first (of many) Rolleiflex. She later also used a Leica IIIc, an Ihagee Exakta, a Zeiss Contarex and various other SLR cameras.

Maier’s massive body of work would come to light when in 2007 at a local thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest Side. John Maloof discovered, championed and archived her work. Now, with roughly 90% of her work reconstructed and cataloged, it's available to the public.

https://www.vivianmaier.com/gallery/self-portraits/#slide-13

https://www.vivianmaier.com/about-vivian-maier/

[autolenaphilia]

Aesthetic conservatism is inextricably linked with political and social conservatism. By aesthetic conservatism, I basically mean anti-modern art. It’s an aesthetic doctrine. Music should be tonal and melodious, instead of atonal. Paintings and sculptures should be figurative instead of abstact. Storytelling in film and novels should be simple and direct. It upholds the traditional forms of (western) art as superior to modernist ideas. This is not some innocent “aesthetic preference”.

This naturally takes the form of a kind of anti-urbanism, as the industrial city is the site of modernity. And an accompanying romanticization of rural life and farming, agrarianism. It’s also of course anti-intellectual. The anti-modernist art narrative goes that intellectuals and artists in the big city, because of their unnatural technological lifestyle have lost touch with the common people and indeed reality. The common people who do physical labor and work the earth are in touch in that reality.

Of course, the common people in this narrative are rural white gentile cishet people. And this is where anti-modernist ideas show their true face. The city in western countries are often more diverse than rural areas. It’s where jewish, black and queer people tend to live.

The urban intellectuals who have lost touch are often jewish.. Anti-modernism is often anti-semitism. In the US, this kind of anti-urban discourse is centered on New York because of its large Jewish population.

Thus anti-modernist thinking is intimately tied to anti-semitic thought. The negative reaction to Arnold Schönberg’s atonal and twelve-tone music is deeply tied to his jewish identity and anti-semitism. There was a scandal about how this jewish composed worked within the austro-german tradition, yet dared to make his own innovations to it. He was seen as “perverting” and “degenerating” that tradition.

It’s also homo- and transphobic. The unnatural “lifestyles” in such anti-urban discourses are often queerness. LGBT people tend to move to cities and form communities there. It’s no accident that the modern LGBT movement was essentially born in Berlin, or that the Stonewall riot happened in New York. And this is baked into anti-urban discourses. Since at least the 1920s, “the unnatural results of technology” condemned by anti-modern discourse is frequently medical transitions. The concept of degeneracy which I’ve written about here is closed tied to both this kind of homo- and transphobia and anti-Semitism.

Of course the kind of romantic anti-urbanism and anti-semitism existed in the 1800s, prior to modern art music and literature. Yet such discourses lead naturally to an anti-modernist ideology in the 1900s. All these ideological currents were often tied together with a romantic nationalism. The white gentile common people were of a specific nation, a specific ethnic and racial breed.

And in anti-semitic thinking, the point of the conspiracy of Jewish intellectuals is to weaken and control those white gentiles. In anti-semitic thinking, queerness is part of a Jewish plot to weaken the genes of various white peoples. Queerness is not viewed as something natural, but something induced by modern society, something you are recruited into. This is what the concept of “degeneracy” refers to.

And modern art was part of this conspiracy. Traditional forms of art are associated with traditional Christian values. So modern art becomes another Jewish conspiracy to weaken the mind of gentile white westerners and turn them away from these healthy Christian values.

This romantic nationalist and anti-semitic ideology originated in the 19th century and in the 20th century developed into fascism. As Umberto Eco put it “The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition.“ And “Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism.“

The nazis drew upon the anti-semtic romantic German nationalism of the Völkisch movement, extolling the virtues of “blood and soil.” They praised the simple German farmer who worked that soil and had pure German blood in his veins, and put him against the degenerate Jewish socialists in Berlin.

The nazis put the ideology I described into action when they came to power in 1933. In Berlin they destroyed the first modern LGBT movement, which was centered in Berlin. The nazis destroyed Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexology, where the first modern medical transitions were performed. They banned modernist art, and put on mocking exhibitions of “degenerate art” And of course, initiated a persecution of the Jews that culminated in what is probably the worst genocide in history.

All of these things are connected by the same romantic nationalist and anti-semitic ideology, of which nazism was just one particular variant.

So why I’m writing all this historical context? It’s because these ideas have not gone away, but in fact grown stronger with a fascist revival. Modern fascists trumpet this idea from their government offices.

And a kind of anti-intellectual and anti-modernist discourse has thrived outside of explicitly fascist environments. The idea that modern and non-figurative art, literature and films is too weird, too inaccessible and meaningless, created by (urban) intellectuals who have no connection to the concerns of ordinary people in the real world are ideas that you can find here on tumblr in spades. People will uncritically share whining about modern art from some “traditionalist” account on social media, it is worrying. Again, you don’t have to for example listen to atonal music, but this anti-intellectual dismissive attitude is not some innocent aesthetic preference.

And identifying as a leftist is no antidote. When the Soviet Union turned to romantic Russian nationalist ideas under Stalin, it lead to a cultural policy dictating a traditionalist and figurative and tonal aesthetic (called socialist realism). And it was tied to anti-semitic campaigns against “rootless cosmopolitans.” The campaign against atonality (so-called “formalism) under the Zhdanov doctrine and the anti-semitic campaign against foreign influences and “rootless cosmopolitans” were part of the same idea.

And since the 1960s/70s, the hippies have uncritically recuperated romantc anti-urban, anti-industrial and agrarianist ideas, and given it a leftist sheen. How shallow this leftism can be when you witness the many cases of seemingly leftist New-ager hippie turning to a q-anon conspiracy theorists.

And of course a lot of this nonsense comes under the heading of ecology or environmentalism. Not that I’m against ecology or environmentalism, I’m a eco-socialist. But romantic environmentalism ought to be distinguished from a political, scientific and rational approach to the present ecological crisis.

Derrick Jensen and his radical environmentalist group Deep Green Resistance becoming extremely transmisogynist was honestly no surprise to me, such ideology was implicit in Jensen’s romantic anti-industrial and anti-urban rants all along. Of course his romantic idealization of the natural excluded trans people as unnatural products of the industrial and urban society he hates. Nothing else makes sense in Jensen’s ideological framework, anti-queerness has been part of anti-urban ideology since the 1800s. It’s part of the ideological tap roots of such romantic environmentalism

Of course TERF ideology in general is a similar example of 70s hippie ideology giving this romantic and traditionalist idealization of the natural a false leftist and feminist sheen. Cis women’s womanhood is natural and biological and thus good. Whereas trans women are the products of a “frankensteinian” science gone wrong, as Mary Daly put it most clearly.

Radfem ideology has basically the same view of what is acceptable femininity as fascist traditionalists. Modern “sexualized” femininity, high heels and make-up is wrong and degenerate, whereas the feminine ideal of women as mothers is seen as good and natural.

This all might piss off all the groups I described in this from M-Ls to deep ecologists to radfems to people who just virulently dislike modern art. But this is just pointing out the ideological taproots of this form of thinking in 1800s romanticism. And that is not an innocent tradition. The idealization of the natural or agrarian in contrast to the degeneracy of modern urban living is not an innocent idea. It’s tied to racism, particularly anti-semitism, it’s tied to homophobia and transphobia, and ableism (the disabled lives which are reliant on modern medical technology are seen as another modern degenerate aberration).

And I say bollocks to all that. I’m happy to live in a city now. I used to live in a tiny rural town of about 300 people, it was miserable. Having my own apartment in the city, away from my father and the judgemental eyes of my neighbours enabled me to realize I’m a trans woman and transition. I’m happy that I have access to modern medical technology. It’s actually awesome that I take synthetic hormones that enable me to change my hormonal sex and I’m currently undergoing electrolysis to remove my facial hair. I hope to get surgery soon, so I could complete my frankensteinian transformation. Being an inhabitant of a degenerate modern industrial city far away from the judgements of narrow-minded racist and transmisogynist small towners is good, actually.

And I enjoy the art us urban intellectuals put out, even if it’s weird and noisy. Again, it’s all connected. Atonal and serialist music started with a Viennese Jewish composer, Schönberg. It’s no coincidence that perhaps the most important modernist novel, James Joyce’s Ulysses, celebrates a city, Dublin, and features a Jewish protagonist, Leopold Bloom. His “cylcops” in the book’s analogy to the Odyssey is an anti-semitic romantic Irish nationalist, who loses his debate with Bloom.

This continues in the modern day. Present-day Transfem musicians infamously tend to make industrial music and noisy hyperpop. Probably the best guide to this is the fantastic essay “A Sex close to Noise.” by Leah Tigers. It’s a great essay that maps the affinity trans women musicians have for “noisemaking.” She draws attention to Throbbing Gristle’s slogan “Industrial music for Industrial people.” And notes that trans women are “for better or worse, industrial people. Often, we make industrial music.“

And that gets to the central thrust of this text. Hatred of industrialism can’t be separated from a hatred of “industrial people”, like trans women. Hatred of the urban can’t be separated from the anti-semitic, racist, homophobic and transphobic horror that the city contains jewish, black, and queer people. And a hatred of modern art can’t be separated from that legacy. Condemning modern music as just “noise” can’t be separated from condemning the jewish people and trans women who cause all that noise.