#Builders of China

[karlsanada13]

If you enjoy building cities, empires, or even towns, city-building simulation games are a popular genre. There are numerous upcoming city-building games with unique twists and challenges.

To find out the best upcoming City Building games 2023 and beyond here: [Top 20] Upcoming City Building Games 2023 And Beyond | GAMERS DECIDE

[bcb-and-b-368-lindsay-road-40]

Russia, Northern India, China.

Wikivoyage is my tool (to safely explore other places).

[kiteparty]

Dining Room - Enclosed Large 1960s medium tone wood floor enclosed dining room photo with yellow walls and no fireplace

[aplaceonthisworld]

Kitchen Dining - Dining Room Kitchen/dining room combo - large transitional light wood floor and coffered ceiling kitchen/dining room combo idea with a standard fireplace and a stone fireplace

[prismatic-bell]

It’s 4am and I’m having emotions about calling Mesopotamia “the cradle of civilization” so y’all are just going to have to bear with me.

Like okay, there are technically six so-called cradles of civilization: Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, ancient China, ancient India, and two civilizations in south and Central America called the Olmec (Mexico) and Caral-Supe (Peru). But the one we all learn about in school is Mesopotamia, bleeding into Egypt.

But.

The oldest of those is the Fertile Crescent (Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia), clocking in around 12,000 BCE. That’s the 121st century BCE, if you’re wondering. “Behavioral modernity,” I.e. the thing that separates Homo sapiens from Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis, began 160,000 to 60,000 years ago. Homo sapiens was found in most of Africa before ever beginning the migration to other continents—by over 80,000 years, in some cases.

And we all know how Africa got treated in the post-Roman era.

How do we know there was no cradle of civilization in Africa? Like. It’s generally taken that “cradle of civilization” means cities, agriculture, and usually-but-not-always a writing system. We also know that if all humans on earth disappeared right now, in 15,000 years the only sign we were ever here would be a millimeters-thin line of plastic in the geologic record. And that’s in a world where we have stainless steel, concrete, the ability to carve in stone…

What I’m saying is, the oldest piece of string in the world is 50,000 years old and it was found in a cave. Huge swathes of Africa used to be green and lush. If some group ten thousand years ago decided to build a settlement out of mud bricks and tied-up pieces of wood in the African jungle, we’d never know today. The entire thing would have washed out and rotted away centuries ago. “Okay but agriculture—” one, not all agriculture is white people agriculture, and some of it is so different we wouldn’t recognize it at all (consider the terraforming east coast Native tribes did in North America that was so different from European farming methods it was taken as divine intervention in primeval forest). And two, I forget how many years it’s estimated to take before our fancy modern crops return to their wild roots once we’re gone, but I’m pretty sure it’s less than a hundred. We literally would have no way to tell anything was ever there.

And let’s say something did, by some miracle of preservation, survive to the “modern cradles of civilization.” Would it have survived subsequent wars and colonization? How about the changing climate as continents broke apart and ice ages came and went? Would we even have found it, given how gigantic it is and how little regard it’s received through the years?

Like. I could be totally wrong. But I also don’t see why it’s impossible for a civilization to have popped up in Africa like thirty thousand years ago for a century or two and then everyone went “ah, fuck this” and went back to being nomads. It happened at Cahokia. The city was abandoned and we don’t know why, but we do know there’s no evidence the mound-builders ever tried to rebuild somewhere else. And right here in my proverbial backyard, in Arizona, we had the Sinagua tribe, and in like the 1500s or so they just…dipped. There was a whole city built into the side of a cliff (two of them, actually, a few miles apart) and for unknown reasons they were abandoned. Archaeological evidence suggests the Sinagua moved northeast to join the Yavapai and Hopi tribes, but we have no idea why they left the Verde Valley. Water was still plentiful and even if Beaver Creek had started to dry up in summer—which is what it does today—only five miles away was a second city built around a sinkhole that’s still full of water today year-round (although it’s not potable by modern standards due to arsenic content in the water). Both were abandoned sometime in the 1400s for unknown reasons, and before you say “white people,” I will remind you white people didn’t come to America until 1492 and the site wasn’t discovered until over 100 years after it was abandoned.

So yeah. Maybe ancient civilizations in Africa so long ago, or so thoroughly erased by racist Europeans, that we’ll never know.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[whencyclopedia]

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall (known in antiquity as the Vallum Hadriani or the Vallum Aelian) is a defensive frontier work in northern Britain which dates from 122 CE. The wall ran from coast to coast at a length of 73 statute miles (120 km). Though the wall is commonly thought to have been built to mark the boundary line between Britain and Scotland, this is not so; no one knows the actual motivation behind its construction but it does not delineate a boundary between two countries.

While the wall did simply mark the northern boundary of the Roman Empire in Britain at the time, theories regarding the purpose of such a massive building project range from limiting immigration, to controlling smuggling, to keeping the indigenous people at bay north of the wall. The wall continued in use until it was abandoned in the early 5th century CE.

Purpose

The military effectiveness of the wall has been questioned by many scholars over the years owing to its length and the positioning of the fortifications along the route. The argument goes that, had the wall actually been built as a defensive barrier, it would have been constructed differently and at another location. Regarding this, Professors Scarre and Fagan write,

Archaeologists and historians have long debated whether Hadrian's Wall was an effective military barrier…Whatever its military effectiveness, however, it was clearly a powerful symbol of Roman military might. The biographer of Hadrian remarks that the emperor built the wall to separate the Romans from the barbarians. In the same way, the Chinese emperors built the Great Wall to separate China from the barbarous steppe peoples to the north. In both cases, in addition to any military function, the physical barriers served in the eyes of their builders to reinforce the conceptual divide between civilized and noncivilized. They were part of the ideology of empire. (Ancient Civilizations, 313)

This seems to be the best explanation for the underlying motive behind the construction of Hadrian's Wall. The Romans had been dealing with uprisings in Britain since their conquest of the region. Although Rome's first contact with Britain was through Julius Caesar's expeditions there in 55/54 BCE, Rome did not begin any systematic conquest until the year 43 CE under the Emperor Claudius (r. 41-54 CE).

The revolt of Boudicca of the Iceni in 60/61 CE resulted in the massacre of many Roman citizens and the destruction of major cities (among them, Londinium, modern London) and, according to the historian Tacitus (56-117 CE), fully demonstrated the barbaric ways of the Britons to the Roman mind.

Boudicca's forces were defeated at The Battle of Watling Street by General Gaius Suetonius Paulinus in 61 CE. At the Battle of Mons Graupius, in the region which is now Scotland, the Roman General Gnaeus Julius Agricola won a decisive victory over the Caledonians under Calgacus in 83 CE. Both of these engagements, as well as the uprising in the north in 119 CE (suppressed by the Roman governor and general Quintus Pompeius Falco), substantiated that the Romans were up to the task of managing the indigenous people of Britain.

The suggestion that Hadrian's Wall, then, was built to hold back or somehow control the people of the north does not seem as likely as that it was constructed as a show of force. Hadrian's foreign policy was consistently “peace through strength” and the wall would have been an impressive illustration of that principle. In the same way that Julius Caesar built his famous bridge across the Rhine in 55 BCE simply to show that he, and therefore Rome, could go anywhere and do anything, Hadrian perhaps had his wall constructed for precisely the same purpose.

Continue reading...

[city-of-ladies]

Kōgyoku/Saimei (594-661) was Japan’s second empress regnant according to the traditional chronology, with the notable particularity of having reigned twice.

Her first reign ends in blood

Though stable during Empress Suiko’s reign, the court reverted to a state of unrest after her death. Emperor Jomei, died without designating a successor. To put an end to the power struggles, his widow, Princess Takara, was chosen in 642. She was 49 years old and would thus be known as Kōgyoku Tennō.

As the region was hit by a severe drought, Kōgyoku prayed and the rain fell. She thus won her subject's respect.

In 645, her son, Prince Naka no Ōe , killed minister Soga no Iruka in front of her in the throne room. Kōgyoku knew nothing of the plot. As she confronted him, her son explained that Iruka was guilty of treason. 

The empress left the scene and abdicated two days later in favor of her brother Kōtoku, with Naka no Ōe becoming heir apparent. 

In 654, Kōtoku died of an illness and his sister took the throne again as the 37th Tennō, called Saimei. 

A mediator and a builder 

Saimei fostered international relations by sending envoys to Tang China and opening exchanges with the three kingdoms of Korea. She undertook many building projects to show the prosperity of her realm and receive foreign envoys.

Many of those buildings were made of stone. However, not all her projects were met with approval. Such was the case of a facility with an imposing stone wall and necessitating the manual digging of a canal. It nonetheless seems that this canal had two purposes: irrigate the fields and form a moat that would deter enemy invasions. 

At the end of her life, Saimei planned a military to help the kingdom Korean kingdom of Baekje against Silla and China. She was at Tsukushi, readying her troops, when she died at age 68. Before passing away, she told her son Naka not to waste a great amount of labor in building her tomb.

The navy suffered a terrible defeat after her passing. Her son Naka no Ōe would later rule as emperor Tenji.

A loving grandmother

Saimei played an important role in politics by achieving peace between rival factions. She also raised her granddaughter Jitō, who would become a powerful empress in her own right. Extremely saddened by the death of her grandson prince Takeru in 658, she asked to be buried beside him and wrote two poems:

Above the hill 

At Imaki 

If even a cloud

Would only appear, 

Then why should I grieve? 

I did not think of him 

As being a mere child, young

Like the young grass 

By the river bank, where they track

The wounded deer. 

Like the foaming waters 

Of the Asuka river, 

Moving on ceaselessly:

Without pause

Does my mind dwell on him

And:

Though I cross the mountains 

And sail over the seas, 

I shall not forget

The happy 

Times in Imaki. 

 The salt current 

At the river mouth 

Flows back into the sea:

With darkness at my back,

 Must I go, leaving him behind? 

Must I go, 

Leaving behind

My beloved young child?

Feel free to check out my Ko-Fi if you want to support me!

Further reading:

Toshio Akima,  "The Songs of the Dead: Poetry, Drama, and Ancient Death Rituals of Japan"

"The story of Empress Saimei"

Aoki Michiko Y., “Jitō Tennō, the female sovereign”, in: Mulhern Chieko Irie (ed.), Heroic with grace legendary women of Japan

[florydaax]

Alphabet Legacy Hi everyone! I started the Alphabet Legacy on stream and I'm going to share the rules that I'm going to follow here! Each gen is a different letter, so there will be 26 gens basically. That's definitely a lot so I'm going to combine some gens if the gens don't really have a lot to do or if there are no traits/lifetime wishes etc. with a certain letter (the sims will be married then or siblings etc.) The rules are that you have to master all skills that start with the letter, complete a lifetime wish and career with that letter and all traits also have to start with it! I'm also adding drama to each gen that starts with the letter. My YouTube playlist with Alphabet Legacy streams Generation 1: A ♡ Name: Adelyn Ashwood ♡ World: Anne Arbor ♡ Zodiac: Aries ♡ Favorites: Autumn salad, Classical (there's no music that starts with an A so I just picked the word with the most amount of a's in it), Aqua ♡ Traits: Absent-minded, Adventurous, Ambitious, Artistic, Athletic (you can also choose Avant garde, Angler or Animal lover) ♡ Career: Alchemist (you can also choose Acrobat, Angler, Architectural designer, Art appraiser or Astronomer) ♡ Lifetime wish: Alchemy Artisan ♡ Skills: Advanced technology, Alchemy, Artisan and Athletic ♡ Drama: Affair ♡ Other: have an alien baby, travel to Al Simhara Generation 2: B

♡ Name: Braxton Benson ♡ World: Brooklyn Heights ♡ Zodiac: Libra ♡ Favorites: Beach Party, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Blue ♡ Traits: Bookworm, Born Salesperson, Bot Fan, Brave, Brooding ♡ Career: Bot builder (you can also choose Band, Bot arena or Business) ♡ Lifetime wish: Blog Artist (you can also choose Become an Astronaut, Become a Creature-Robot Cross Breeder, Become a Master Thief, Become a Superstar Athlete (note: you will have to complete two careers if you pick one of these lifetime wishes) or Bottomless Nectar Cellar) ♡ Skills: Bass, Bot building ♡ Drama: Betrayal ♡ Other: throw a Bonfire party, throw a Bachelor(ette) party Generation 3: C

♡ Name: Celia Caylor ♡ World: Crystalline Cove ♡ Zodiac: Cancer ♡ Favorites: Country, Crepes, Spice Brown ♡ Traits: Cat Person, Charismatic, Childish, Commitment Issues, Couch Potato (you can also choose Can't Stand Art, Clumsy, Computer Whiz or Coward) ♡ Career: Culinary (you can also choose Criminal) ♡ Lifetime wish: Celebrated Five-Star Chef (you can also choose CEO of a Mega-Corporation, Chess Legend or Celebrity Psychic) ♡ Skills: Charisma, Cooking ♡ Drama: Cheater ♡ Other: have a clone, become a five star celebrity, have a lot of cats, travel to China, travel to Champs Les Sims, have cows and chickens, throw a Costume Party

[balkantalia-enjoyer]

Hetalia Characters Playing Minecraft

Italy

- plays on peaceful. he's TERRIFIED of hostile mobs

- his fav biome is the flower forest. he always tries to build there bc he thinks it looks pretty

- has a fully organised 10x10 storage room, with item frames for every chest and everything. not automatic tho

- he has a pet cat named Carbonara

Germany

- probably built a tiny hut in the mountains. it's a pain to get up and down and he kinda regrets it now

- has a pet dog. he actually takes it on walks sometimes

- "why would i fight the dragon?"

- he actually likes wandering traders

- likes making redstone stuff. most of his farms are automatic

Japan

- he has like 20 bases that he travels between through the nether

- builds nicer houses for the villagers

- he just likes building in general

- always has the worst luck finding diamonds. he could mine through 7 iron pickaxes at y -58 and still not find any

- trying to get every achievement in the game (he can actually do it)

America

- pure chaos

- doesn't even have a base, he just moves from place to place and sets things on fire

- tried to get a pet creeper, which ended very badly. anyway, he's now trying to befriend a guardian

- "enchantments?? pfft, who needs those?"

- thinks the warden is easy to kill, also died to it like 15 times

- he names every mob he sees. his current favourite is a cow he calls Jim and he accidentally transported to the nether

- leaves trees mid-air

- trying to get every achievement in the game (he absolutely won't do it)

Canada

- probably gets the worst seeds ever

- he built a village for his base but he doesn't want to kidnap villagers and bring them there, so it's kinda empty

- his most common death is probably something like getting suffocated by gravel

- he really likes endermen but he doesn't wanna go to the end bc he'd feel bad to bother them at their home dimension

- really enjoys fishing

England

- doesn't build farms, he just steals crops from villages

- went to the nether once and got killed by a piglin. he refuses to ever go there again now

- actually likes the illagers

- loves enchanting. he probably has a book for every enchantment in the game

- tries VERY hard to be a good builder, fails miserably

- has a pink pet sheep he named Mr Wilson

France

- definitely prefers pretty farms over efficient farms

- wants to take over a woodland mansion

- may or may not switch to peaceful when he has half a heart left

- absolutely loves armour trims

- digs straight down, dies, gets confused, repeat

- he thinks the warden is hot

China

- built a huge base, he constantly expands on it actually

- probably made golden tools / armour at least once

- he doesn't understand how to spawn the wither, but still somehow makes better redstone contraptions than Germany

- has a pet panda that he built an entire bamboo mansion for

- tries to get max trades with every villager, insists none of them are useless

- regularly dies to desert / jungle temple traps

Russia

- loves the snow biomes, he always builds there and says they feel like home

- kills iron golems for early game iron

- probably built a really tall evil looking tower and decorated it with flower pots and pink wood inside

- he didn't kill the ender dragon and actually bridged through 1k blocks of air to get to the other end islands

- he hates acacia wood with a burning passion

[cetaceous]

Builders work on a Grain Silo, Jiangsu Province, China image credit: Costfoto/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock via: The Guardian

[sandrockianblues]

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of talks about the sandrock builder customization and how people been wanting more body types, although I’ve seen people being rude about it tbh, just the way talk about the female builder’s body is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. how do you feel about this?

Hi anon, thank you for asking me my opinion on this 💜💜

While it’s been more than a year of people vocalizing their desire in having sliders/ options/ different presets- only recently has the female builder’s body been complained about to the extent where I think a larger issue needs to be addressed.

Body shaming is still body shaming.

To pull some quotes I’ve seen:

“…small and childlike”

“…body types are definitely something that looks like an adult.” (In ref to Grace and Heidi bodies)

“…give us more mature body types too”

“I’m a baby.”

“…really awkward”

“Downright comical”

“…would love my builder to look more adult.”

“my builder looks like a toddler being walked to school by her husband haha.”

“I’m not a fan of looking like a child.”

“general proportions” (in ref to what the “issue” is)

“currently is kinda twigy”

And in discussion for future installments or advancements within the game:

“it’d be great if they got rid of that look.”

“I do hope they move away from it in the future.”

*this is about the female player body- I cannot speak on behalf of the male player body completely*

As someone who is personally significantly shorter than the builder myself and has a petite or smaller frame- this was very degrading to read comments of.

While I’m a huge advocate for any sort of character customization implements that can be involved such as height sliders/presets/ weight sliders/ whatever else, and I believe that you should have the right to vocalize your wants-

What I don’t believe is that it should come with mocking and criticizing the current female body of the player.

And I truly hope that this look isn’t just scrapped and gotten rid of.

Those under 5’2” are already misrepresented or just not represented enough as adults in games a large majority of the time. We often get stuck with characters that have larger or more curves than we do. Characters of average or taller height. Modelesque to curvaceous characters.

I’m not saying these physical wants for characters shouldn’t be implemented or that they should be ignored. I’m saying you can ask or wish for them without putting down those who do have smaller builds. Those without an hourglass figure or who legitimately are a foot or two shorter than the person they choose to become romantically involved with.

While this is something that me, family, friends, etc have dealt with our whole lives- those of us who have fallen on the very shorter side of the scale, I’m not going to standby and watch it be incorporated into a game that has quickly become one of my top two favorites in the past year of playing it.

Criticizing- not critiquing, there is a huge difference- the female player body as it stands right now and making harsh jokes about it is seen by those who happen upon these posts or threads and can identify with the body themselves. I know a number of short and petite people who are playing My Time at Sandrock, and if I’m being completely honest, this may be the first time we had a more comfortable experience with a character that can be customized for ourselves.

The builder is in their early 20s and also created by a small Chinese indie game company called Pathea. Think of how many of those who are more prone to those heights or body frames have been criticized alone. This game is possibly more prominent in China right now given that they have an online website we ourselves can’t translate. They’re aware of new merch and such we’ve yet to receive official news on.

Also for reference:

Yes, average height.

It may be fun to joke about how it looks to you, but for some people… this is our reality.

No, not all short people have dwarfism. No, not all petite people are just not eating enough. And yes, some of us may not have the ample assets that most women do have. And it’s something we’ve had to deal with our whole lives.

Implying that a taller height and a curvy figure or an incredible bust size is what makes a “mature” and “more adult” look is beyond insensitive. To imply that it is “what makes a girl a woman” is horrifically humbling to read.

And I do mostly see this body shaming of short or petite stature and height coming from mostly women. One cannot preach for body positivity if they continuously exclude and demoralize a body type. It’s hypocritical, it’s demeaning.

Comparing the female player body to the likes of Grace or Heidi or Jane- beyond saying it’s just the type of build one may want, as in, using them as a comparison to further degrade the current body, is yes, still body shaming and something a lot of us have worked hard to try and not compare ourselves to.

Does this have to do with me writing short female characters? Beyond the fact that I am short myself? Yes. Because it’s gotten to the point where if it’s not body shaming, it is fetishizing or glorifying the idea of being smaller than the average short height. And I want some readers to be able to read of a short character that isn’t “gremlin” or “closer to hell evil” or “feral” sometimes. Because that’s stereotyping. And we’ve been stereotyped our whole lives.

The female builder is in her early to mid 20s, around 5’2”, taller than some characters (that aren’t children), has a notable ass and chest- and yet while that’s how some of us look or it’s a bit more, “she’s not a woman”?

I have dated and befriended men from 5’ to 6’5”- and shockingly, men have been less prone to making me feel as less of a woman than the comments from my own gender have. I have shown and read these comments to my father, male friends, brothers and such only to see them become irritated that women are body shaming this body type. Pointing out the hypocrisy and some of the shallow remarks.

This is akin to a post I saw:

Unrealistic and far fetched right? How do you think we felt- those of us who were 5’2” or below.

Someone who is quite literally the same exact height as Andy irl and in my twenties.

I could go into the whole aspect of having to reanimate or rig the characters and players for cutscenes and interactions. I can dive into the whole deal with the “baby face” expressions (and yes, some people just do have a “baby face”). I can stand on Pathea’s side who has worked tirelessly and with several issues they had to work past. The deadlines and due dates they’ve had to push back while early access fans still cheered them on for support. Or I can point out that this game is rated with an E10+ rating.

But this post isn’t about that.

Preach for what you want or options you’d like to see. But no, let’s not make callous remarks and harsh jokes on the player’s body. Let’s not just suggest they get rid of it entirely.

Women are supposed to support women. How about we stop deciding bust size and height is what makes you a “real woman”?

[angels-roses]

Builders building a mountain road in China.

No way!

[qin-shi-huang-di]

O First Emperor of Qin Qin Shi Huang Deng, The Son of Heaven, His Majesty, Your Royal Highness, may your reign be eternal and your empire prosper, builder of the wall and leader of China, may I entreat of you but a single question; might you please click on this link?

https://boulderbugle.com/macd9vip

Finally, a peasant who knows their place and addresses me by my correct title. Now that wasn't so hard was it? His Royal Highness is in a generous mood and will grand your request.

[standbuilder]

China stand builder,booth design company in Shanghai, Beijing booth contractor,Hongkong exhibition service 中国展台搭建商

[sgiandubh]

So about TCND. NO I'M KIDDING. Don't throw me away. What else are you watching or reading or interested in lately? There isn't actually anything to talk about regarding OL (the show or actors therein) and TCND is off the table until someone has actually seen it. Anything interesting going on?

Dear What Else Anon,

Oh, I am definitely not going to throw out such a wonderful question! I do think there are more things of interest regarding OL and actors therein (more on this, tomorrow and mood/current drama allowing). But your ask reminded me (and should remind anyone) there are other things happening under the sun than this.

I am still fighting with The Fiery Cross. Sometimes, I get tired of its unjustified slow burn and briefly seek solace somewhere else. While I quit the horrible habit of reading two books simultaneously years ago, I find soothing to sometimes take a break with a good poem.

This one, for example: Brecht's Questions From a Worker Who Reads (translated into English by M. Hamburger - probably the most satisfying version I could find on the Internet, right now - the original is um, more complex)

Who built Thebes of the seven gates? In the books you will find the name of kings. Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock? And Babylon, many times demolished. Who raised it up so many times? In what houses Of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live? Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished Did the masons go? Great Rome Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song, Only palaces for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis The night the ocean engulfed it The drowning still bawled for their slaves.

The young Alexander conquered India. Was he alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Did he not have even a cook with him? Philip of Spain wept when his armada Went down. Was he the only one to weep? Frederick the Second won the Seven Years' War. Who Else won it?

Every page a victory. Who cooked the feast for the victors? Every ten years a great man. Who paid the bill?

So many reports. So many questions.

Speaking of Byzantium, this reminded me of Bissera Pentcheva and Jonathan Abel's absolutely remarkable experiment into reconstructing (by computer) the acoustics of Constantinople's Agia Sophia and use it as an audio filter for sacred music recordings. In order to do that, she simply had to pop a balloon inside the cathedral (with special permit and adequate measuring and recording equipment) - it took her five days to get the perfect pitch. As a result, we now can hear those hymns the same way someone would around 1400, AD. This is probably the closest we could get to time travel:

Oh, and I am also watching The Crown's sixth and last season, as many in this fandom, I suppose. More on this, when we are completely done with it. OL was the only exception to my read/listen/watch it all before discussing it rule.

You are obviously Anon but I have to thank you for this! Brought up wonderful memories of week-ends in Constantinople, staying at the Hagia Sofia Mansions and nearly touching its roof from the window of my room in the Yeșil Ev villa. Today, it's over: the Hilton guys took the whole complex and revamped it, Mafia style.

But this memory will never go away:

... a room

....with a view:

Would it be a good idea to make a new, weekly series out of your ask, perhaps something along the lines of Life Beyond OL? I am seriously toying with it, if that's what it takes to try and keep a modicum of sanity during promo: you decide on this one, here is a poll.

[homomenhommes]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … June 24

1730 – Amsterdam: Five men who had been found guilty of sodomy two days earlier are executed. Pietr Marteyn, Janes Sohn, and Johannes Keep are strangled and burned. Maurits van Eeden and Cornelis Boes are drowned in a barrel of water.

1850 – Horatio Kitchener, the 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and British field marshal was born on this date (d.1916). Brits howled in outrage at the publication of Douglas Plummer's Queer People, a general history of homosexuality that sought to prove to the English people that Gayness was not limited to Oscar Wilde and a few assorted French couturiers. The book named names, among them, Kitchener, one of the great heroes of English Imperialism.

The proponents of the case point to Kitchener's friend Captain Oswald Fitzgerald, his "constant and inseparable companion," whom he appointed his aide-de-camp. They remained close until they met a common death on their voyage to Russia. From his time in Egypt in 1892, he gathered around him a cadre of eager young and unmarried officers nicknamed "Kitchener's band of boys." He also avoided interviews with women, took a great deal of interest in the Boy Scout movement, and decorated his rose garden with four pairs of sculptured bronze boys. According to one biographer, "there is no evidence that he ever loved a woman."

A contemporary journalist remarked that Kitchener "has the failing acquired by most of the Egyptian officers, a taste for buggery". J. B. Priestley noted in his book on "The Edwardians" that one of Lord Kitchener's personal interests in life included planning and decorating his residences. He was also known to collect delicate china with a passion (such allusions to an 'artistic temperament' were a common code for implying homosexuality at that time).

In Canada, in a surge of patriotism in 1916, in the middle of WWI, the town of Berlin, Ontario, even with strong German ties among its populace, voted to change the name to Kitchener. The British general had receently died.

1901 – The American composer and instrument builder Harry Partch, was born on this date (d.1974). Partch was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments he built himself.

It is said that Partch was sterile, probably due to childhood mumps. Although he seemed to consider himself bisexual, most of Partch's loving relationships were with men, including with the actor Ramón Samaniego.

Samaniego is better known as the actor Ramón Novarro. This affair occurred in Partch's youth, while he was working as an usher for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Samaniego/Novarro broke off the affair when he started to become successful in his acting career.

Partch supported himself during in his youth doing a variety of jobs, including teaching piano, proofreading, and working as a sailor. Under the pseudonym Paul Pirate, he wrote pop songs which he tried to sell to publishers; for a time, he wrote a song daily. Only "My Heart Keeps Beating Time" (1929) found a publisher, and is the only of these songs to survive. In New Orleans in 1930, he decided to break with the European tradition in music entirely, and burned all his earlier scores in a potbelly stove.

In 1934, The Carnegie Corporation of New York granted him $1500 so he could do research in England. He gave readings at the British Museum and travelled in Europe. He met W. B. Yeats in Dublin, whose translation of Sophocles' King Oedipus he wanted to set to his music; he studied the spoken inflection in Yeats's recitation of the text. He built a keyboard instrument, the Chromatic Organ, which used a scale with forty-three tones to the octave. He met musicologist Kathleen Schlesinger, who had recreated an ancient Greek kithara from images she found on a vase at the British Museum. Partch made sketches of the instrument in her home, and discussed ancient Greek music theory with her.

Partch returned to the U.S. in 1935 at the height of the Great Depression, and spent a transient nine years, often as a hobo, often picking up work or obtaining grants from organizations such as the Federal Writers' Project.

He kept a journal which was published posthumously as Bitter Music. Partch included notation on the speech inflections of people he met in his travels. He continued to compose music, build instruments, and develop his theories, and make his first recordings.

After taking some woodworking courses in 1938, he built his first Kithara at Big Sur, California, at a scale of roughly twice the size of Schlesinger's. In 1942 in Chicago, he built his Chromelodeon–a 43-tone reed organ.

He had a disdain for the "gay liberation" bandwagon when it reached him in the–and his– seventies. For Partch, his homosexuality was a purely personal concern, not political. "Coming out" seemed to him less an avowal of personal liberty than a political alignment, as well as falsely assuming a "fixed sexual identity that could be confidently declared in public."

1919 – Michael Schofield was at the centre of British social reform in the 1960s and 70s, well known in law pressure groups and, in his quiet way, a figure of considerable influence through his books, reports and articles. He produced pioneering work about gay people, and his best-known book was the Sexual Behaviour of Young People (1965).

His first book, Society and the Homosexual (1952), was published under the pen-name Gordon Westwood, since homosexuality was then a criminal offence. It was the first non-medical book on homosexuality, a thorough study of its social aspects much quoted by journalists, politicians and sociologists during the discussions that led up to the Wolfenden report (1957), whose recommendations that homosexual acts be legalised came into effect 10 years later.

Born in Leeds, Schofield was the fourth child of a large, happy family. He obtained a degree in psychology at Cambridge University, where he also led and played the saxophone with the Footlights dance band. After spending six years as a fighter pilot in the RAF (1940-46), he went to Harvard Business School, expecting that he would join his brothers in the family business, Schofields, the well-known department store in Leeds. But after two years in the firm, he left. Part of his personality, he realised, was at odds with his conventional middle-class upbringing; it puzzled him that people found it so hard to accept his homosexuality.

This was the start of his career as a researcher and writer on sociological subjects. In 1960, another book, A Minority, was the first detailed research into the lives of homosexuals who had had no trouble with the law and who had not felt the need for medical treatment.

He campaigned to make contraceptives free on the NHS, and on behalf of the Abortion Law Reform Association. An early supporter of frank sex education, gay rights and a more tolerant attitude to marital infidelity, in the 60s and 70s he was often to be found opposing the current standards.

He retired in 1982 to spend his remaining years in private life with his partner Anthony Skyme. He died in 2014.

1973 – The Tragedy of the UpStairs Lounge in New Orleans: (adapted from Eric Ose's blog post at the Huffington Post)

On the last Sunday in June, 1973, a gay bar in New Orleans called the UpStairs Lounge was firebombed. The resulting blaze killed 32 people. At the time, the bar served as the home for a fledgling New Orleans congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church. Founded in Los Angeles in 1968, MCC was the nation's first gay-welcoming and affirming church.

The Upstairs Lounge firebombing was the third fire at a MCC church during the first half of 1973 and the church's Los Angeles headquarters was destroyed in January. That Sunday was the final day of Pride Weekend and the fourth anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. There was no Gay Pride Parade in New Orleans in 1973 as gay life in the Crescent City remained mostly underground.

The Upstairs Lounge had one entrance up a wooden flight of stairs. After a day of festivities, there were 60 people left in the bar, mostly members of the congregation. Members had prayed and sung in the bar and every Sunday night they gathered around the piano for a song they had adopted as their anthem, "United We Stand," by The Brotherhood of Man.

They sang the song that evening, with David Gary on the piano, a pianist who played regularly in the lounge of the Marriott Hotel across the street. The congregation members repeated the verses again and again, swaying back and forth, arm in arm, happy to be together at their former place of worship on Pride Sunday, still feeling the effects of the free beer special.

Around 8 pm a buzzer from downstairs sounded, the one that signaled a cab had arrived. No one had called a cab, but when someone opened the second floor steel door to the stairwell, flames rushed in. An arsonist had deliberately set the wooden stairs ablaze, and the oxygen starved fire exploded. The still-crowded bar became an inferno within seconds.

The emergency exit was not marked, and the windows were boarded up or covered with iron bars. A few survivors managed to make it through, and jumped to the sidewalks, some in flames. Rev. http://www.canadiangay.org/GHist/May/09.html, the local MCC pastor, got stuck halfway and burned to death wedged in a window, his corpse visible throughout the next day to witnesses below.

Bartender Buddy Rasmussen led a group of fifteen to safety through the unmarked back door. One of them was MCC assistant pastor George "Mitch" Mitchell. Then Mitch ran back into the burning building trying to save his partner, Louis Broussard. Their bodies were discovered lying together.

29 lives were lost that night, and another three victims later died of injuries from the fire. The death toll was the worst in New Orleans history up to that time, including when the French Quarter burned to the ground in 1788. It was almost assuredly the largest mass murder of gays and lesbians to ever occur in the United States.

Yet the city tried mightily to ignore it. Public reaction was grossly out of proportion to what would have happened if the victims were straight. The fire exposed an ugly streak of homophobia and bigotry. It was the first time New Orleans had to openly confront the existence of its own gay community, and the results were not pretty.

Initial news coverage omitted mention that the fire had anything to do with gays, despite the fact that a gay church in a gay bar had been torched. What stories did appear used dehumanizing language to paint the scene, with stories in the States-Item, New Orleans' afternoon paper, describing "bodies stacked up like pancakes," and that "in one corner, workers stood knee deep in bodies...the heat had been so intense, many were cooked together." Other reports spoke of "mass charred flesh" and victims who were "literally cooked."The press ran quotes from one cab driver who said, "I hope the fire burned their dress off," and a local woman who claimed "the Lord had something to do with this." The fire disappeared from headlines after the second day.

A joke made the rounds and was repeated by talk radio hosts asking, "What will they bury the ashes of queers in? Fruit jars." Official statements by police were similarly offensive. Major Henry Morris, chief detective of the New Orleans Police Department, dismissed the importance of the investigation in an interview with the States-Item. Asked about identifying the victims, he said, "We don't even know these papers belonged to the people we found them on. Some thieves hung out there, and you know this was a queer bar."

In the days that followed, other churches refused to allow survivors to hold a memorial service for the victims on their premises. Catholics, Lutherans, and Baptists all said no.

William "Father Bill" Richardson, the closeted rector of St. George's Episcopal Church, agreed to allow a small prayer service to be held on Monday evening. It was advertised only by word of mouth and drew about 80 mourners. The next day, Richardson was rebuked by Iveson Noland, the Episcopalian bishop of New Orleans, who forbade him to let the church be used again. Bishop Nolan said he had received over 100 angry phone calls from local parishioners, and Richardson's mailbox would later fill with hate letters.

Eventually, two ministers offered their sanctuaries - a Unitarian church, and St. Mark's United Methodist Church in the French Quarter. It was here that a July 1 memorial service was held attended by 250 people, including the Louisiana's United Methodist bishop, Finis Crutchfield, who would die of AIDS fourteen years later at the age of 70.

Although called on to do so, no elected officials in all of Louisiana issued statements of sympathy or mourning. Even more stunning, some families refused to claim the bodies of their dead sons, too ashamed to admit they might be gay. The city would not release the remains of four unidentified persons for burial by the surviving MCC congregation members. They were dumped in mass graves at Potter's Field, New Orleans' pauper cemetery.

No one was ever charged with the crime, and it remains unsolved.

1976 – Gay activist Stuart Russell, along with four others, are fired from COJO (Olympic organizing committee) in Montreal for political activity and sexual orientation.

1977 – Kristian Digby (d.2010) was an English television presenter and director who was best known for presenting To Buy or Not to Buy on BBC One.

Kristian Digby was born in Torquay, Devon to a family of property developers. In 1997, Digby's film Words of Deception won him a Junior BAFTA. The following year, his film Last Train to Demise which featured actress and model Lucy Perkins, won the Melbourne Film Festival Award for Best Student Film.

Kristian Digby started his television presenting career for ITV presenting Nightlife. At around the same time, he directed television programmes Homefront, Fantasy Rooms, She's Gotta Have It which also featured actress and model Lucy Perkins, Girls On Top and The O-Zone. In 2001, Digby presented That Gay Show on BBC Choice (now BBC Three).

In 2006 he appeared in Simon Fanshawe's The Trouble with Gay Men and bemoaned the lack of gay role models and how he refused to camp it up on TV - although his presenting was often characterised by a playful campiness. In the September 2006 edition of AXM he appeared nude for charity.

Kristian Digby was patron of gay youth homeless charity the Albert Kennedy Trust. He was also open about his struggles with dyslexia, which created problems for him at school and in the early days of his television career, so severe were his difficulties with reading and writing.

Kristian Digby was discovered dead in his London flat early on 1 March 2010. Police have initially described the circumstances surrounding his death as 'unexplained'. He was just 32.

His body was found by a neighbour when a friend became concerned that he could not contact him. Police sources said that they believe he died in a solo sex game which went tragically wrong. A belt and a bag were taken away for examination by officers, they told the Daily Mail. There are no suggestions his death was suicide. A first post-mortem on his body was 'inconclusive' according to a Metropolitan Police spokesman, and further tests were awaited. His inquest opened on 4 March 2010 at Walthamstow Coroner's Court; both his parents attended. The inquest was adjourned later the same day.

Cuomo signs same-sex marriage bill

2011 – Albany, New York – Lawmakers voted late Friday 24, 2011, to legalize same-sex marriage, making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples will be able to wed and giving the national gay-rights movement new momentum from the state where it was born.

The marriage bill, whose fate was uncertain until moments before the vote, was approved 33 to 29 in a packed but hushed Senate chamber. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York signed the same-sex marriage bill into law late Friday in his office at the State Capitol.

2016 – President Barack Obama announces the designation of the first national monument to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. The Stonewall National Monument encompasses Christopher Park, the Stonewall Inn and the surrounding streets and sidewalks that were the sites of the 1969 Stonewall uprising.