#BRAZILIAN LOCKDOWN

[sca-rian]

my childhood mcyts are on qsmp. its time i return to this website.

[brandiisgoingtohell]

Episode 26: The Velvicks, Brooklyn's Brazilian Rockers

BRANDI IS GOING TO HELLEP. 26: The Velvicks, Brooklyn’s Brazilian Rockers LISTEN HERE EPISODE DESCRIPTION I kick off this episode with new releases that I dig, which includes Annie DiRusso’s God, I Hate This Place, Meet Me @ The Altar’s Past // Present // Future, Algiers’s Shook, Bilk’s Bilk, and The Luka States’s More Than This. My special guest includes Brooklyn’s Brazilian “stadium rock”…

[smizzy]

no words

i been doin that brazilian dance on tiktok hmu if you wanna battle ive been practicing

You know dating Wednesday Addams comes with more lows than highs but you don't seem to be picking a fight, although she doesn't show emotion -generally speaking- but you can tell by the neutral comments she makes, or the loving -cold- stares, letting you copy her homework when you don't feel in the slightest mood to put your brain to work, maybe on a good morning she'd greet you with a kiss and leave you with a kiss at the end of the day.

~~

But now, during this time you wouldn't say you and Addams aren't on speaking terms from a heated disagreement that left you both even Thing in disturbing silence. You were sitting on her bed while she was doing her daily 1-hour writing but since the argument it would be a 10-hour writing or maybe until one of you apologize you were thinking so many thoughts you didn't notice Thing silently move towards you signing that 'it felt weird, maybe you should talk to her' You're thinking about it for a quick minute but if you remember very vividly she was the one who popped off on you, said majority of the words being said, didn't acknowledge your presence before and still doesn't now.

You shook your head to Thing and put on an annoyed face and mouthing a "she started it. So she should." Crossing your arms over your chest seeing Thing go back, sorry's from Wednesday Addams were only said if it was needed and you knew a sorry wasn't what you were gonna get. You kept thinking of what to do around Nevermore knowing Enid, Yoko, and Bianca were out doing whatever and Weems has the whole school on lock down.

An idea popped up in your head saying you were gonna leave and even though you didn't have no where else to go except your own dorm it would be better than staying in a tormenting dorm room, You already felt annoyed from the silence. Motioned to Thing to moved to your side of the bed and told him your idea he looked like he didn't wanna get punished by Wednesday but was still willing to go along.

Picking up your shoes from the side of her bed and grabbing your sweater from a coat rack all the way in the webbed corner of her side and if you looked back a little faster you'd see the Addams girl looking at you up and down not wanting to say anything but she definitely didn't want you leaving and instead looked at Thing to which he shrugged back.

"Where are you going." "Out?" "It's past curfew." "mmmkay?" "It's a lockdown tonight so you should wait." "Since when do you care about those"

She stood up now so you two were both standing facing each other, as she looked up right into your eyes trying to find an answer you already had the urge to kiss her lips, wondering lovingly if those colored lips would smudge yours but kept it together because you still felt annoyed that now she wants to speak to you.

"Since when do you wish to leave the room so badly." "I'm not going to argue with you on this right now, if you need time to sort stuff ou-" You didn't even know she grabbed your uniform collar making you lean forward til you felt a pair of lips meeting yours, a soft kiss that lasted a little bit more than a 'peck' And you knew she purposefully made it longer than it should've but you weren't even complaining in the slightest, feeling like an hour already she finally let go of your purple striped uniform and pulled away already looking back into your eyes again.

"You still want to go?" "mm yes! actually as a matter of fact" You were joking of course because now you were intrigued with those kisses. She could not believe what she was hearing right now so she devised her final plan: to hug/trap you in her room at least until Enid came back which you both didn't know when she would return. Opening her arms in a swift motion and wrapped them around your waist while she was listening very closely into your beating heart, confused clearly you just missed the whole thing. "Don't go" "Please" You didn't want to fold into the hug but once you heard that last word coming out of her muffled mouth you couldn't help but bringing your arms out and embracing her, though it sounded more of an order than a question you'd rather be happily in love with your girlfriend who wants you 25/8 but would never admit it but that's okay because you know she knows that you know now....yea

[learningsanctum]

May 8th, 2024

DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to offend anyone, this is only my complex and conflicting journey to connect myself to my culture.

Why am I ashamed?

What am I ashamed of?

Growing up my parents ultimate goal was to move to the USA, they told me "the green card makes your life easier". All they wanted was to make more money so they could afford a better education for me.

I went to private schools for as long as they could pay it for me and they still couldn't put Brazilian private schools on the same level of USA public schools.

They had me having English lessons for years. "English is the most spoken language in the world" my father said "you have to know English to be successful". And I was an impressionable child with corporate dreams to pursue, so I committed to the bit.

Soon enough I started writing in English.

Then, one of our acquaintances made it to the USA. He made the dream real, solid, reachable. We had hopes for a better life.

In one of our Skype calls he told me the weirdest - and most wonderful - part was the "dreaming in English", as he put it, when after a long day speaking the language you couldn't help but dream on it too.

In my mind, then, it clicked: the more English I consume the more native I become.

A though.

Everything always starts with a thought.

One damn thought.

It was what it took to put me on the road to self-hatred and to make me detach myself from my culture. All it took for me to segregate all the culture available to me- to categorize and "villainize" my culture as a whole. Music, poetry, movies, soap operas, everything was inferior if compared to the big nation.

My cellphone settings were changed to English and I proudly carried around the fact I spoke the language as a badge. I was over the moon when I first read USA texts and could understand them.

For long - too long in my opinion - I was the "English girl" I knew about stuff kids from my country around my age didn't because I would spend a lot of time on forums and alike consuming media like I was about to move to there any moment. I molded my personality to fit their standards so I wouldn't be a fish out of water once I got there.

I found friends who spoke English and taught the ones who didn't so we would speak it in school. A way to talk bad about someone in front of them. A way to mock teachers at the same time they would compliment us for being - god help me, this one will always haunt me - "way ahead of the other children our age". If I could go back and make they take it back...

American high school was the dream to be achieved.

So long being superior, knowing more, quoting Edgar Alan Poe.

"The higher you step, the bigger is the fall".

I didn't go to the USA.

Never even traveled by plane 'till this day.

And in no time, the lack of knowledge of my culture started to catch up with me.

High school took a tool on me. Of all the problems I had probably the frustration of being in Brazil was the biggest of them. Classes weren't interesting because they weren't in English. I didn't have to change classrooms every period and I wouldn't get my driver's license by sixteen. I didn't have a locker. There are no lockers on Brazilian high school.

I was devastated and fought furiously with my - this guy is a saint, I swear, watch it - Portuguese teacher. Professor, actually, he had a doctorate if I remember correctly. Me, a fifteen years or something old fighting a doctor on how Joaquim Machado de Assis is not "good literature". In my head, back then, it wasn't even literature worthy.

God, if I knew back then.

I wasn't "the prodigy" anymore. I was just rebellious. At everything. Closed in the trap I designed to myself and unable to connect with other teenager.

It wasn't until lockdown that I started to feel a certain need to be a proud Brazilian citizen. Not for politics, economy or raising poverty rates. Those are always present and I was never aware to them. There wasn't time to pay attention to my country's situation if my dream was a white picket fence house instead of a big terrain with a gate or bars and electronic security system.

With TikTok came the trends, and even in my self spite I couldn't help but keep my social medias American.

Call it irony if you will but it was an USA trend with a Russian song that brought me back to my roots. Or at least helped me question my actions towards my country.

"I'm just a simple Russian girl, I've got vodka in my veins, so I dance with brown bears and my soul is torn apart."

I stopped and then thought "after everything I have done and I am still not American enough. I will never be a USA citizen" and then "but I am American" and I was in shock. Because I always have been American. Not USA but Brazilian. Sharing the same America with them. Living on the same America they do.

Such a line of thought, however controversial, made me think that if I were to make an edit to this trend what could I use to refer to Brazil?

Making me follow all the way to the question I dreaded the most: "what do I love about Brazil? what is it that even makes me Brazilian after so long hiding from my nationality?"

To be completely honest I was stupefied by how quick the culture flowed in my blood and I realized:

I don't need Little Red Riding Hood. I have the Saci.

We don't have the big white house but we have a fucking palace in our capital.

I want to play games with Narizinho, Pedrinho and Emília at the Yellow Woodpecker farm.

I want to draw in any sheet a yellow sun burning bright.

I can read Capitães de Areia instead of Lord of Flies.

And I should study more about the anti-asylum movement and read about Barbacena's tragedy documented by Daniela Arbex in her GENIUS book Brazilian Holocaust instead of hearing more and more about the USA "gun problem" or "cameras on police officers' clothes".

I don't mean it as disrespectful or unimportant but I had spent so many time trying to reach the outside, the exterior, that I never once looked around to see the wonderful culture surrounding me.

The soccer, the music, the dance- God, I want to try capoeira before I die, I want to travel to see the Cataratas do Iguaçu and I want to truly understand my ancestors and the explosion of ethnics and cultures my country has to share.

And as the thoughts came and went I realized that I love being Brazilian.

"Festa de Ipanema, meu amor" - Movie: Rio, 2011.

Carnival, axé, samba, pagode, I want to dance.

Mônica, Cebolinha, Cascão, Magali, Chico Bento, I want to live at Limoeiro street.

O Auto da Compadecida (A Dog's Will), - and even Minha mãe é uma peça - it's a comedy I can laugh to with no effort, I can understand the accent and from which region of my country it comes from and I can relate to the joke.

Carolina Maria de Jesus is my Anne Frank.

Coconut, avocado, passion fruit, lime, mango, melon, cashew are not "exotic" foods, those are natural fruits I find with "seu" João at the small vending at the end of the block.

My fruits, my music, my tragedies, my country.

I still accepting this reality. But I don't want to be ashamed to put, even if under a username, in my bio, description or whatever that I am Brazilian.

It's part of who I am.

It's reality is not perfect but it's mine.

I'm not ever giving it up again without a fight.

[hufflepuffhabs]

Im about to board my flight, but before I leave, I am giving you: Barça Players as Online Classes Types.

This is almost a throwback at this point, eh?

-frenkie, eric and franck seem like the smart guys here, so they would be bored in quarantine and learn out of boredom

-xavi has enough responsibility as it is, so he needs a break

-ronald and robert have a family, so they try to keep things going, pedri is just there too

-ansu and arnau seem like loud people, and raphinha is brazilian, so...

-gavi is known to be the guy that forgets something (thanks ferran), but so does ferran himself, especially if it’s about school

-the rest is just living in a different world since lockdown started, so classes are their least concern

[emma-dennehy-presents]

New hyperfocus just dropped. Got a couple burst beyblades at 5 below, and my partner gave me a bunch from their collection! :3 The one with the pistol grip launcher has limited IR controls! Probably won't go full Metabots with this (during the US COVID lockdown, I created a small price bubble on Ebay >_>) but definitely something I'll be getting too into for the foreseeable future.

Will probably start hunting out of box G1 blades, and saw a couple burst blades and accessories I need. Reserving judgment on Beyblade X until the line has time to mature. I like the launchers, so so on the initial blades. The x dash gimmick looks really fun.

Beyblade-Official has Beyblade, V-Force, and G-Revolution in both English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese (480p).

[goldenstarprincesses]

Henlo! You rebloged my post about France in fanfiction and I wanted to reply to it because I found what you said interesting, but because you used just tags would be goofy to reblog it again so I am sending an ask!

I agree about the cannon not helping, the thing is France got better in the cannon, he is more interesting now. I am not very into Prussia so I don't remember if he got better in later parts. But this thing about him being the worst in PruCan fanfic isn't something I noticed in Brazilian Fanfics or maybe I just don't remember lol

I wrote my post at 1 AM and now I stopped to think about what annoys me about how simple and awful Francis' characterization is and I noticed that it simply doesn't have a reason. When I was writing my fic, I wanted to make him bad in a European kind of way, he is France, France really did a lot of shit, he is kind of goofy and useless now? Yes, but that wasn't the case in the Early Modern era.

I also never saw no one exploring his sexuality. Why is Francis overly sexual? Why is he so dramatic? Why is he always trying to get in someone's pants? Real people have reasons to act overly sexual, they aren't just born this way, but WHY I NEVER SEE NO ONE ASKING THOSE QUESTIONS??

Thank you for rebloguing my post and confirming I wasn't just seeing things lol

Hiii! First, I adore your blog. Thank you for introducing me to the world of TurkFra. My eyes have been opened and my mind widened.

I almost think the fandom needed to go through the "dark times" or "dark age" of character interpretation to get where we are now. I know there was for sure a shift happing when I dipped out of the fandom in 2016ish. And when I started occasionally reading fanfics again during lockdown I was blown away with the shifts regarding the characterization of nearly all the characters.

Totally agree with you 100% about interpreting a character like France in a way where he is bad shit person, because of the actual actions of France. Imo its really important to include things like that into every nations characterizing when engaging in more "real life inspired" characterization. Almost have to wonder if the rise in popularity of historical hetalia has had anything to do with this change. While it was sorta a thing in the early years of the fandom, it didn't really seem to have much of a collective following and community. And now it seems that characters of empires/colonists like France/England/America/Russia etc. have shifted away from being written to have very goofy and comically negative traits more in-line with the 2008-2012ish canon to having their negative traits rooted more in the real-life negative habits or traits of the real world nations. I'd also wonder if the average age in the fandom has gone up which has helped characters simply be better developed.

The "bad touch trio" was super common back in the day. It was France/Prussia/Spain. Pretty much the entire characterization for them all ended up being sex addicts who went around well, SA or SH other nations. That mixed with the very silly "everything is based on basic national stereotypes" vibe of early canon I think just made i so a character like France ("nation of love"/the idea that the French are much more sexually liberated then the English or Americans) was very one-sided even when other charters were getting a little bit better of treatment. I also always felt like France was never as popular in the American/English fandom as American and England. So he (and often Canada) would sorta just thrown into things without much development character-wise.

You bring up so many good points!!! legit I have always thought about things like this.

[sphelelesworld]

Turkish dramas 🦋

Okay, alright, as someone who truly believes that the world is filled with so many entertaining stories and shows that all need to be explored regardless of whether they're in different languages or not ( and I think that if you don't watch something because you're reading subtitles, you're missing out) I mean there are so many pros to exploring other cultures and languages.

Now that I am done with my little rant todays focus will be in Turkish dramas I recommend.

The difference in Turkish dramas compared to the rest of the other dramas I’ve watched like ( k dramas/ Korean dramas, Brazilian-dramas, telenovelas and more …) is probably just how entertaining they are without further ado my top recommended Turkish dramas

1. Hercai

The drama was recommended right smack in the middle of lockdown, so let's just say it saved me from boredom! In my opinion, this is the best Turkish drama I've ever watched. The storyline was amazing and filled with plot twists and crazy storylines. You'll never get bored watching it for a moment. You end up falling for the characters and getting caught up in Hercai's world. 10/10

summary

Miran is seeking revenge for his parents death so he plans to marry daughter Reyyan from the family who was responsible for that. unexpectedly he falls in love with Reyyan.

2. Adim Farah

alright running second is Adim Farah is the most recent drama, I've watched and oh my soul it's amazing its got action, comedy and a beautiful love story and if you're a big fan of a bit of mystery as well. 10/10 ( second season coming soon)

summary: farah is a 28 year old Iranian woman who works illegally as a cleaner in istanbul and witnesses a crime commited by the mafia her life takes a huge turn

3. ask 101(love 101)

Someone said summer, yeah, this is the one. This show is two seasons and is a gripping story of friendship, love, and coming of age. 8/10

summary: love 101 ( ask 101) is a Turkish teen drama, that follows a group of 17-year-old misfits who set their mind on keeping their favourite teacher in town through a whole lot of scheming.

4. midnight at pera palace

It's so good, I binge-watched the whole series in one go. It's giving mystery, it's giving suspense, and it's giving what it needs to 9/10

summary: a young journalist, Esra’s encounter with the legendary Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul. When Esra is assigned to write a piece about the hotel, she accidentally discovers that one of the historic rooms is a portal to the year 1919. Thrust into the past, she lands in the middle of a political conspiracy against the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Together with Ahmet, the quirky hotel manager, Esra must protect the course of history and the future of Turkey. But Istanbul in 1919 is a dangerous place, and when Esra meets Halit, the handsome and mysterious owner of Istanbul’s wildest club, she realizes that in the Istanbul of 1919, nothing is as it seems and no one is who they say.

5. Who were we running from ( Biz kimden kaçiyorduk Anne)

Another thriller packed drama, with a while lot of mystery overall you will not regret watching although trigger warning things can get intense. 7/10

Summary: mother and her young daughter Bambi are on the run, away from someone, staying in luxury hotels, keeping on the move, leaving a trail of bodies behind…

Alrighty folks that’s just the few of my fav recommendations !! I hope you enjoy 🙂

There’s many more recommendations 🤭to come

[shinidamachu]

As someone who is not well versed in Brazilian politics, may I ask what change do you want to see with the new presidency? Thanks. ☺️

It's less about structural change and more about going back to normality.

The first thing you need to understand is that Brazil just lived four years of literal fascism. A less explicit version of fascism, but fascism still. And so, the bar for the next government is underground low.

All I want is a president who won't pick up people with dwarfism thinking they're children.

Twice.

Someone who won't steal somebody else's dog and then having to return it to its rightful owner.

A president whose environmental policies aren't reduced to "only pooping every other day..."

...Or getting beef with Hollywood celebrities.

I want a president who won't have to eat pizza on the streets of New York city because no restaurant would allow a non vaccinated person to go inside.

Someone who won't ask what golden shower is. On his official Twitter account.

Or encourage a crowd to chant "imbrochável," a slightly vulgar Portuguese word that translates roughly to "never limp," to himself.

I dream of a president who can eat like a normal human being.

And who won't send a humorist to a press conference just to fuck with the journalists and take focus away from our pathetic economy "growth."

I'd honestly settle for someone who won't gratuitously offend the First Lady of France.

Or who won't wait hours in a hall to say "I love you" to Donald Trump just to get blatantly ignored.

A president who won't salute other countries' flags.

Or neglect international obligations in order to cut his hair.

Most importantly, I want a president who, in the middle of the worst pandemic of recent history, won't offer an ineffective medicine for covid to a fucking emu.

I purposely kept this relatively funny, but the sad truth is that Bolsonaro is military scum. He defends the Military Dictatorship Brazil was under (1964-1985) to this day.

He has openly said he's a torture enthusiast. He has told a woman he wouldn't rape her because she doesn't even deserve that from him. He has said there was "a mood" between him and some 14 years old girls he met. He has lied about indigenous people indulging in cannibalistic practices, stating that he'd eat an indigenous man himself, no problem.

Bolsonaro is a negationist. Of the pandemic, of the vaccines, of the climate changes, of our very history. He called covid "a little flu," mocked people wo died due to the lack of air, neglected buying the vaccines, said he wouldn't be responsible if the ones who took the shot turned into alligators, constantly fought against the use of masks and the implementation of lockdown.

To him, the Military Dictatorship of '64 wasn't a dictatorship at all and it should have killed more people. When he was a congressman, he voted "yes" to impeach president Dilma Rousseff, while paying tribute to the man who tortured her in that very same dictatorship se fought against.

He has made easier for people to get guns. Women, LBGTQIA+, black and indigenous people everywhere didn't feel safe anywhere anymore because police brutality and bigotry escalated to alarming levels. Under the first three years of his administration, Amazon's deforestation rate rose 73%.

And to top it all off, this has been the most corrupt government since our redemocratization, but nothing is investigated because Bolsonaro is actively interfering on everything just to save his and his sons' asses.

After years of him putting our electoral system in check and saying without any proofs that the whole thing is rigged, his supporters are blocking important avenues, protesting against his loss even three days later and calling for a fucking Military Coup.

So yeah. I just want normalcy back.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Sexual violence against women and children reached all-time high in Brazil in 2022, says report

Experts believe numbers partly reflect effects of lockdowns and trickling down of Jair Bolsonaro’s ultra-conservative views

Brazil saw a disturbing increase in sexual violence against women and children in 2022, according to new figures which paint a worrying picture of a country that is failing to protect its young and female population, particularly in their own homes.

The data, published on Thursday by the Brazilian Public Security Forum showed that reported rapes increased 8.2% to an all-time high of 74,930 last year, while rape cases among minors grew 15.3%. Women make up 88.7% of rape victims, and a staggering 61.4% are children aged 13 or younger.

“Brazil has become more violent for children, adolescents and women in general. All the crimes that take place principally at home increased last year,” said Samira Bueno, the Forum’s executive director.

All types of violence against minors increased, including child maltreatment (up 13.8%), child and youth pornography (7%) and sexual exploitation (16.4%). “It would be hard to present a worse scenario in relation to violence against children and adolescents than that which emerged in 2022,” the report reads.

Continue reading.

[theageoftheunderstatement]

NME: Arctic Monkeys – ‘The Car’ review: a swashbuckling, strings-fuelled epic

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

By Thomas Smith, 18th October 2022

Atop a Los Angeles rooftop car park sits a lone white Toyota Corolla. There’s no knowing how – or when – the saloon got there, what’s lurking in the trunk or the glove compartment, or whether it’s responsible for the screeching tyre marks nearby. Decoding the artwork for ‘The Car’, Arctic Monkeys’ seventh album, feels akin to attempting to get under the hood of the band themselves; it’s mysterious, unusual and, crucially, all part of the fun.

While their peppy, game-changing 2006 debut ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ and 2013’s behemoth ‘AM’ will provide greater lessons in assessing rock’s place in 21st century music, ‘The Car’ best summarises the Arctic Monkeys story so far: sharp songwriting, relentless innovation and unbreakable teamwork. For the old-heads, it’s a satisfying toast to those who’ve stuck by and matured along with the band, while for the newbies – arriving primarily via TikTok and streaming services – it is a remarkable place to start their Monkeys journey.

True to drummer Matt Helders’ words, the band “pick up where they left off” on 2018’s ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’, their masterful – and divisive – collection that traded razor-sharp riffs and stadium-sized choruses for loungey space-pop, obfuscating characters and a shady lounge lizard persona for frontman Alex Turner. The songwriter himself appears to make a sly reference to the fallout from the last album on ‘The Car’s brooding highlight ‘Sculptures Of Anything Goes’, bemoaning someone – or himself – who’s “puncturing your bubble of relatability with your horrible new sound”.

Nevertheless, ‘The Car’ goes some way to addressing some of the last record’s flaws. While growing in stature once the initial shock wore off and proving to be wildly entertaining live, there were still some nit-picks to be had with ‘Tranquility…’: perhaps it was too slow and one-note, perhaps the full band were under-utilised as performers, perhaps it felt more like a Turner solo record. On ‘The Car’, though, Jamie Cook, Nick O’Malley and Helders are present and powerful; guided by Turner’s songwriting and delicate vocal performance, but never ceding to it: ‘Body Paint’, a swaggering ‘70s-inspired epic, features the full band at their most ferocious-sounding in years. If ‘Tranquility…’s monochrome palette boxed Arctic Monkeys in, here they’re flourishing in full colour.

The band began recording the album last summer while reconnecting post-lockdown at a 14th century monastery in Suffolk, fitting in sessions amid England’s almost-glory at Euro 2020. Decamping to La Frette – the studio-cum-mansion on the outskirts of Paris where they recorded much of ‘Tranquility’ – to capture Turner’s vocals, Arctic Monkeys then, most importantly, headed to RAK Studios in London. It was here that an 18-piece string section recorded their parts for ‘The Car’, bringing to life the arrangements composed by Turner, producer James Ford and Bridget Samuels, whose credits include the 2019 psych-horror Midsommar.

It is these musicians, as much as the band themselves, who provide ‘The Car’ with the vivid textures that this record’s predecessor. The grandiose funk-rock of ‘I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am’ soars in comparison to the version first played live this summer, and ‘There’d Better Be A Mirrorball’ is the band’s first real tear-jerker since ‘Cornerstone’, stirring strings soundtrack a relationship that’s gone off the boil. Del Schwartz, a not-so-secret Spotify playlist that AM fans have attributed to Turner (despite an unconvincing recent denial), provides ample clues to the frontman’s sonic inspirations this time round: The Rolling Stones producer Andrew Oldham, Brazilian rockers Os Mutantes and an array of French composers, including Francis Lai, all feature.

‘Hello You’ is where it all comes together most effectively. Resurrecting the swirling guitar riff of ‘AM’s slinky cut ‘Knee Socks’, Helders’ percussion pushes the band forward as dramatic strings dance around Turner’s vocals. It’s immediate and playful, and as alluring as anything on Steely Dan’s 1980 classic ‘Gaucho’. Though more sedate, ‘Jet Skis On The Moat’ and ‘Big Ideas’ conjure colourful scenic images of The Talented Mr Ripley and ’60s James Bond flicks, a clear contrast to the art-house black-and-white cinema of ‘TBH&C’.

The characters that Turner assumes in his songs here are more nuanced and compelling than before. For all the costumes he uses as “writing tools” on ‘Body Paint’, he can’t help but admit that his “teeth are beating and my knees are weak” at the altar of romance, while on ‘There’d Better Be A Mirrorball’ he gives it the “old romantic fool” to little avail. Every moment of triumph is tempered by his own flaws: the faux-luxury of “the Business they call Show” (‘Hello You’) appears increasingly hollow, and by ‘Perfect Sense’, the record’s gorgeous Dion-nodding swansong, “a four-figure sum on a hotel notepad” is all it takes for him to realise the charade is up. There’s a ‘your mum’ joke on ‘Sculptures Of Anything Goes’, too.

‘The Car’ is almost overwhelming in terms of its ambition and scope, but provides ample motive to revisit this record over and over again. Whether it’ll be enough to reach across the divide and convince the naysayers is yet to be seen, but given they’ll be playing in stadiums up and down the UK and beyond next year seems to suggest a rapprochement is in motion. For now, though, Arctic Monkeys stand alone like the abandoned saloon on the rooftop: the last – and greatest – band of their generation still operating at their highest level.

[maulfucker]

Tagged by @better-call-maul :0

Last song: Vem Morena by Luiz Gonzaga (he is the june in Brazil equivalent of All I Want For Christmas Is You in december, which is to say he's playing everywhere)

Currently reading: I finished Maul: Lockdown last night! And now I might go back to reading The Devil To Pay In The Backlands (Grande Sertão: Veredas), a book I've been sloooowly reading for months now

Currently watching: nothing :3 I don't really watch stuff that often. But I rewatched a few bits of The Clone Wars (some Maul scenes) earlier, if that counts

Current obsession: ... Well I wouldn't call it an obsession but. It's june. I'm brazilian. I have to think about nordestine culture and the gangs of outlaws that terrorized the region around the early 1900s and influenced so much of the popular culture of the region since. I have to remake the silly little ocs I made ages ago to exist in that setting.

Also [points at my icon and url] that guy. He lives rent free in my mind. Every night I go to sleep thinking about the story I'm trying to write that I'll never finish in which a decade or so after the rise of the empire he decides maybe he should lean away from the dark side so he tracks down Obi-Wan to Tatooine to get him to teach him about the light side. And now they're roommates :] I can't wait to see where this goes <- says the guy who controls the story and is NOT writing it

Tagging... no one,, but if you want to do this you can say I tagged you

[literary-illuminati]

Hi hello I just very recently finished The World We Make and honestly I agree with so many of your comments. Like, the entire book just felt rushed and so many of the characters weren't properly explored, and it really fet like there were a bunch of budding plotlines that just.... never really happened.

A lot of it seems to be because covid hit right before the first book was published and Jemisin had a miserable time in lockdown, which meant that it was more her forcing herself to conclude the series than wanting to finish it. Also I absolutely agree that the political stuff was kinda awkward and didn't make that much sense plot-wise, though part of that is probably also because of Circumstances.

It's just that there's so much that was never fleshed out or given the attention it deserves. The part where Bel got city powers was one chapter and then never mentioned again. Veneza had one (1) POV chapter and then had some personal growth offscreen. Neek visited London but then nothing really happened. We were shown more cities but they were almost entirely unexplored. Hoboken or Yonkers (bonkers!) awakening was kinda touched upon but never fleshed out. The entire book was so frustrating because of this! Hell, it never even explored the consequences of an avatar of the city becoming mayor, except for a one-off line from some old grumpy city during the summit.

(I thought that Atlantis ressurecting itself due to Padmini's visits only to annihilate itself was really interesting. Wish we had gotten a bit more of it. And honestly a bit more of Padmini's character in general.)

So many conflicts were also resolved way too easily. You mentioned in a post the final battle, and like yeah Nemisin was absolutely taking shortcuts with it. But also Padmini getting fired and potentially deported was just.... resolved by her getting hired by Brooklyn's campaign. And then the issue of Brooklyn's campaign having to deal with the NYPD just never came to a head, and was just quietly swept under the rug.

Just, the book wasn't anywhere good as it could have been, especially when compared to the first book. I still tore through it, obviously, because it's N. K. Jemisin and I'm invested in these silly little cities, but the book still disappointed me. At least other people seem to agree. Perhaps I'll write fanfiction about it.

Also side note, but I absolutely believe Veneza to be trans. She and her love of those Brazilian pastries is so gender.

Oh so to defend the book - I'm like ~90% sure that Bel's thing was actually London looking out for him? The guidance to safety was specifically a woman's voice, and then the chapter ends with him running into her on a subway and then in the conversation with Neek she IIRC mentions checking in on one of her citizens?

But generally yeah - the book just was not nearly long enough to have so many POVs and so many plot threads - especially not with the repeated cutaways to the different world cities. So there's this urge to give everyone a subplot of their own, but then there's no time for any tension and you just kind of get the, like, synopsis of the personal struggle without any of the actual, like, storytelling. Or not even struggle - Bronca's whole subplot was just 'and then she went on a date! And got a girlfriend! And it was fine and basically irrelevant!" Which, I mean when you're stretching wordcount as much as the book was, kind of feel like those 2.5 scenes could have been put to better use. Veneza's thing with her racist asshole dad didn't even rise to that level - it was just, like, established as an issue in her only chapter and then resolved offscreen during the epilogue.

Which is probably the worst example but yeah, there was never really any tension, because no problem lasted long enough after it's introduction to actually feel threatening.

(Honestly on reflection I think the politics are kind of a structural problem with the book, in that it's relying on the Circumstances to provide all the tension and dramatic weight the book can't be bothered to, so it can be nothing but uninterrupted triumph and catharsis. Which is just, like, bad storytelling imo - if you're not already acutely aware of who the Proud Boys or Gavin McInnes or the 2022 Trucker Convoys or Trump or etc etc etc were, the book's basically unintelligible. As is, it feels like somewhere between cheap/unearned catharsis and the bit of the Inferno where Dante describes who all his political rivals end up in hell with worse meter)

I just don't think the sequel needed to exist at all, honestly. The City We Became had a great ending!

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Welcome to Too Much Information Tuesday.

There is a Mt. Clitoris in the Philippines.

In 1999, the president of Niger was Major Wanke.

30% of objects left in hotel rooms are sex toys.

Your hair grows more quickly when you’re anticipating sex.

At any one time, 45 million people in the world are drunk.

Generally, most peoples’ lips are the same colour as their nipples.

The Japanese word ‘kareishu’ describes the smell of old people.

Turning up the music in a bar by 22% makes people drink 26% faster.

Whoopi Goldberg got her nickname from her childhood flatulence.

More than one-third of men using dating sites are already married.

In London, women over 40 are giving birth at twice the rate of teenagers.

It takes a male flea six to eight hours to unfold all the different parts of its penis.

Until it closed in 2019, South Africa’s largest baobab tree contained its own pub.

Sharing an article makes you think you know more, even if you didn't actually read the article.

Shark Bay in Australia is now called Safety Beach. It changed its name to attract tourists.

Gorgone macarea is an Amazonian moth known for subsisting solely on the tears of sleeping birds.

Early Arabic texts refer to cannabis as ‘the bush of understanding’ and ‘the shrub of emotion’.

A bite from the Brazilian wandering spider results in an erection that lasts for several hours.

In 1423, London mayor Dick Whittington established a 128-seater toilet that hung over the River Thames.

Johnny Cash’s daughter Roseanne was named after Rose and Anne, his nicknames for his wife’s breasts.

A polling company in the USA once found 4% of Americans responded, “Yes!” to “Have you been decapitated?”

In 1879, the Belgian city of Liège commissioned 37 cats to deliver mail to nearby villages. The project was a complete failure.

In 2009, an anti-kidnapping expert in Mexico was kidnapped, after giving a lecture on 'How Not To Be Kidnapped In Mexico'.

On April 28, 1988, the roof of an Aloha Airlines jet ripped off at 24,000 feet, but the plane still managed to land safely.

In 1926, mystery writer Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. When found, she claimed to have no memory of the missing days.

Researchers believe women prefer larger penises during one night stands, but something a bit smaller for long term relationships.

A Mississippi social worker, Georgia Tann (born 1891), stole more than 5000 children from poor families and sold them to the rich.

In Ancient Greece, small penises were celebrated and seen as a sign of high intelligence and self-control. Men with large penises were seen as grotesque, laughable and barbaric.

Lockdowns in 2020 were identifiable on seismologists’ sensors because humans stopped making the Earth wobble so much by moving about.

In December, some Japanese people go to BŌNENKAI, ‘forget the year’ parties. Attendees eat and drink to forget the bad things that happened during the year.

In 1997 Frédéric Bourdin, a 23-year-old French conman, impersonated Nicholas Barclay, a missing 16-year-old Texan boy, and spent nearly five months living with his family.

A smock or naked marriage was an 18th-century custom in some parts of Britain and the US where a widow would be freed of her dead husband’s debt if she remarried with very few or no clothes on.

In 1951, a 21-year-old Clint Eastwood was on board a plane that crashed into the sea but, no problem for Clint, who successfully escaped and swam three miles through shark-infested waters to safety.

William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, eventually freed his slave because he believed one cannot simultaneously fight for freedom and hold another person in bondage.

Harrison Okene spent 60 hours underwater in darkness after his boat capsized 20 miles off the coast of Nigeria and sank to the bottom of the ocean. He was discovered alive by divers who were sent to recover dead bodies.

On the set of ‘The Terminator’, Arnold Schwarzenegger argued with the director James Cameron over the line “I’ll be back”. Schwarzenegger believed that a robot wouldn’t abbreviate so wanted the line to be “I will be back”.

In 2003, Elm Park - where a gang problem meant train drivers were too scared to stop - became the first London tube station to try the classical music approach. Within 18 months, robberies fell 33 per cent, assaults on staff 25 per cent and vandalism 37 per cent.

In 1859, a book review in The Economist stated, “Novels by male authors are more in keeping with the natural world, and … are more delightful as well as more profitable than the best novels by women.” The book was ‘Adam Bede’ by George Eliot.

Okay, that’s enough information for one day. Have a tremendous and tumultuous Tuesday! I love you all.

[not-very-kawaii-of-you]

Pretty soon Brazil will release a new census for 2022, they did not make it in 2015 (not enough money), so the last one was in 2010 when its population was stated at 213 million, it's not finished yet but the results are already estimated at 207 million.

About 5,2 million people are missing, and the Brazilian population which was always estimated to have a growing population of around 1 million per year, has shrunk more than Japan (which went from its height of 128 to 125 now). Brazil is now on the list of shrinking society, and it's the largest country in the world that is losing people (if you trust the Chinese government which still claims they are growing).

Brazil ever since 2010 went on its most significant economic crisis in recorded history, impeached its president, and went into one of the most turbulent political periods of its history.

It still has not recovered from its height of 2012 2,6 trillion dollars in GDP, nowadays it's sitting around 1,8. Its fertility rate (1,6) it's below that of the USA (1,7) but it's been suffering from the economic crisis when people decide to postpone having children because of financial hardships, also the lockdowns made people afraid of having children too, creating another moment of very low birthrates.

Not to mention that Brazil has not attracted immigrants in considerable numbers since the 1970s. Its population is actually moving away in increasingly more significant waves. USA, Japan, Paraguay, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, China, and Switzerland, all have seen increases in their Brazillian migrant communities in the last decade.

Brazil is suffering the consequences of its own political games, their economy never thrives in a significant way and for a sustained period because of government intervention. Its people are poor and suffering and they know it. Their elites are too busy enjoying their wealth and playing their beliefs in politics (climate change policies, green energy subsidies, welfare programs to fight inequality).

In terms of freedom, Brazil can easily rank below countries that proclaim to be communists and/or dictatorships. This nation barely elect an outsider as president, for 4 years, and the machine made everything possible (even elevating a supreme court authoritarian regime) just to re-elect the most corrupt man in its history and bring back the old Brazil, one of the most corrupt and failed republics of South America.

Brazil is the country of the future, a future that will never come. Escape while you can.

[f1]

Ecclestone back in the F1 paddock for first time since saying he would 'take a bullet' for Putin

Bernie Ecclestone back in the F1 paddock for first time since saying he would 'take a bullet' for Vladimir Putin... mogul, 92, is accompanied by his wife Fabiana in Sao Paulo ahead of Brazilian Grand Prix Bernie Ecclestone returned to a Formula One paddock on Thursday Mogul, 92, was accompanied by his wife ahead of Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix Ecclestones own a coffee farm a 25-minute helicopter ride from Sao Paulo city  By Jonathan McEvoy for the Daily Mail Published: 17:31 EST, 10 November 2022 | Updated: 17:31 EST, 10 November 2022 Bernie Ecclestone returned to a Formula One paddock on Thursday for the first time since saying he would ‘take a bullet’ for Vladimir Putin. The 92-year-old mogul, who has since apologised for defending the Russian invasion of Ukraine, accompanied his wife Fabiana ahead of Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix. She is attending as vice-president of the FIA for South America. The Ecclestones own a coffee farm a 25-minute helicopter ride from Sao Paulo city, where the race will be staged. Bernie Ecclestone and his wife Fabiana in the F1 paddock in Sao Paulo on Thursday Ecclestone was due to visit the Austrian Grand Prix in July but stayed away amid the furore over his comments. His last race on site was Abu Dhabi in 2019, before lockdown. The sport’s current owners, Liberty Media, who took over Ecclestone’s creation in 2017, are wary of his presence, but made no attempt to void his paddock pass. A spokesman for Formula One told Sportsmail: ‘We made clear earlier this year that Bernie Ecclestone’s previous comments were something we disagreed with. ‘He was part of F1 for many decades and helped to build the sport, and he is attending the event with his wife, who is representing the FIA.’ The 92-year-old has since apologised for defending the Russian invasion of Ukraine Advertisement Share or comment on this article: Ecclestone back in the F1 paddock for first time since saying he would 'take a bullet' for Putin via Formula One | Mail Online https://www.dailymail.co.uk?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490