#Cheap ladies accommodation

[intergalacticfop]

Minoan Kilt

The large, structural skirt worn by Minoan women in art is instantly recognizable, and when I made my own I combined current best guesses with my own personal tastes.

My kilt shape follows the hypothesis laid out by Bernice Jones in her book Ariadne's Threads: The Construction and Significance of Clothes in the Aegean Bronze Age. She describes the shape of that of a labrys, a double-headed axe with apparent ceremonial significance in Ancient Minoan culture. This garment may be depicted in Linear-B logogram *166 + we, we-being the backwards-s-shaped squiggle in the center which identifies the piece as a garment.

See pages 336 and 341 in Marie-Louise B. Nosch, The Textile Logograms in the Linear B Tablets

Actual details on construction and materials below the cut:

Construction:

The top and bottom edges of the kilt are concave, so the sides are longer than the middle. This gives the chevron-shape seen on layered kilts in art. In addition, the curved top half makes the skirt flare out, accommodating the hips and giving more freedom of movement to the legs. My kilt measured from my waist to my anklebone at the longest point, and about 1.5 times around my waist.

I chose to make a flounced kilt, with smaller strips of fabric and trim applied to a large base piece, rather than a tiered kilt, in which multiple kilt shapes of varying length are layered one on top of the other, so you end up wrangling 3 layers of fabric around the waist. The flounced kilt saves fabric and gives you a lot more freedom with whatever trim you might want. Jones' diagram for a flounced kilt is seen below:

Unlike the version in the diagram above, I chose not to attach ties to the garment itself both because the linen I used was very heavy and I was concerned about weight, and also because folding the skirt and securing it with a separate tie worked just fine for my tastes. In total I had four flounces: 2 alternating rows each of fabric and fringe.

The vertical edges of most kilts are left plain, probably representing either the selvage or an edge otherwise finished off to prevent fraying. For my kilt, however, I ended up with a couple inches of self-fringe on either side as I adjusted the fabric to the correct width. At least three examples of kilts with fringed vertical edges are known, all three from the so-called "House of the Ladies" in Akrotiri

Photos from Wikimedia Commons. Image 1. Image 2.

The vertical edges of these kilts are reinforced with a colored band or tape, probably to keep the garment from unintentional further fraying. Accordingly, I did the same on my kilt. I also like that it gave a nice vertical diagonal to counterbalance the horizontal ones.

Materials

I tried to use mainly linen and wool, the fibers most available on Ancient Crete, but some of my trim was cotton because sometimes you just have to use what's cheap and available in the today times.

The base of my kilt is a heavy, patterned linen in what's called a diaper weave, meaning that a repeating diamond pattern is woven into the pattern itself. A lot of the Minoan textiles depicted in frescoes are characterized by repeating geometric patterns, likely woven into the fabric itself, and that was something I wanted to capture in my own piece. My linen is woven with both cream and natural colored threads. The heavy weight is important to give structure to the garment--otherwise it would be kind of limp. My linen was from Burnley & Trowbridge (shameless plug), as was the plain cotton twill tape I used to bind the top and bottom edges of the kilt, and the dark red wool twill tape I used along the vertical edges.

I bought my cotton fringe from a rug supply store. I had to search a while to find a fringe that would work for me, and I ultimately chose fringes with a woven header rather than the more common knotted one, so that it would lay flat against the kilt. I hid the woven header under a layer of cotton fringed trim from Michaels (yes, Michaels) with this really great diamond and dots pattern woven in black.

The blue layers are from a bolt of vintage wool Kimono fabric. Blue appears frequently in frescoes, likely achieved with indigo or woad dye, or even murex/mollusk dye. The fabric is printed with an imitation ikat pattern of diamonds and squares that made me think "the vibes seem right!" because quite frankly, you aren't going to get "historically accurate" Minoan textiles (which there probably isn't enough archaeological evidence to definitively describe) without, like, hand-weaving it yourself or paying someone hundreds of dollars to do it for you (and that price is if the weaver really likes you). Neither of which appealed to my desire to just make a fun, low stress project. Good enough is good enough.

The narrow trim on the bottom of the blue flounces is vintage cotton/poly woven trim. This trim, while narrow, was quite thick and stiff, which was great because it added more weight and structure to the end of my flounces since the wool fabric itself was quite thin.

The top layer is a custom tablet-woven wool trim that I commissioned from MAHTAVAhandicraft on Etsy. I imagined this as the "centerpiece" of my kilt, and I'd arrange everything to complement it.

It's a kivrim pattern, which has itself only been traced to 19th-century Anatolia, but I didn't care. The way it looks like waves reminded me of how central the sea was to life in the Ancient Aegean and Mediterranean and it captured the idea and aesthetic I was pursuing. I mean, doesn't it remind you of these dolphins?

(I like the dolphins)

The whole thing was machine sewn with the exception of hemming and adding trim to the blue flounces. If you were to look at it from the back, you'd see lots of zigzag stitches, because i wanted to be fast! and have fun! not chase some unreachable ideal of "accurate."

As for wearing it, I chose to wear it with the top part folded/rolled down over a belt, so I have a thick tube of fabric around my waist. Many images, like the frescoes above of women with fringed kilts, appear to just show the kilt being tied closed. Other images are so fragmented or stylized that it's unclear what kind of skirt closure was used. Sculptures and figurines definitely show some kind of SOMETHING around the waist, whether this is folded fabric or a kind of belt is unclear. Different art could show different things!

I think I see evidence of a continuous line from the skirt to the waist-roll on the figure on the left, found in Troas, which I think indicates some kind of skirt-folding situation. The woman on the right, found in Crete, looks more like she's wearing some kind of long coiled belt, or perhaps snakes. Who knows? I don't! For my own part, I found the combination of rolled waist + tie belt the most secure for doing things like kneeling, stomping around, and wading into rivers to rescue bees. I also liked that it gave me the bulk around the hips that gives Minoan figurines such a powerful silhouette, and proportionally gives more of an hourglass shape. If you wanted to do something more firmly grounded in the sources, stick just with the waist tie or belt, wrapped around a couple times and tied in back. If you want to be like me, just say "well we don't KNOW it didn't happen" and just do whatever you want. Have fun! Whatever happens, it should be fairly easy to move around in the kilt--this is not a restrictive garment, just a heavy one.

[melanieph321]

Ruben Dias x Reader - Flight Hours Part 2/3

+18

It's so filthy yet so sweet 🙈

Part 1 Part 3

Ruben and Reader are flight attendants on their way to Portugal. Although they are of to a bad start, the two end up finding common ground.

Enjoy!

"I'm sorry miss Y/L/N there's unfortunately no booking with us in your name."

"What?"

After eight hours in the air, your flight from Dubai to Lisbon finally arrived. The layover between your next flight was 72 hours, meaning you had three days off in Portugal. However, without anywhere to stay.

"But if you're willing to pay the price of a hotel room, we'll be more than happy to help you." Said the lady at the hotel front desk, who really tired to be helpful.

"H....how much would that be....for a room, I mean?" You prayed for anything below what you were getting paid an hour.

"Aproximetly 200 euros per night."

"Oh for fuck sakes."

"I'm sorry ma'am, perhaps I can check for rooms in the hotels nearby?" Said the startled lady. She seemed fairly new at her job. Otherwise, she would have known that you as a flight attendant could only be accommodated to hotels approved by your airline. If not, there'd be no dilatory compensation for your expenses.

"It's fine, I'll figure it out." You said and sounded real convincing when in reality you had no idea what to do. You could always stay in a cheaper hotel in the city, however, your airline required that you stay near the airport in case they ever decided to reschedule and put you on an earlier flight.

It was really messy indeed. You remained in the hotel lobby for the majority of that day, really clueless on what to do. You sat with your hands covering your face when suddenly, a familiar voice.

"Have you been rescheduled for an earlier flight?"

"Huh?"

You raised your head, surprised to see the asshole flight attendant from your previous flight. "Ruben?"

He was out of uniform. No vest. No tie. He didn't smile at you either. He more so looked concerned, regarding you still wearing your flight attendant uniform with a small suitcase next to you. "Are you leaving already?" He asked.

You thought of something sarcastic to say, like, "Why do you care?" However, you were simply too exhausted to be bickering. "My airline forgot to book my accommodation in Portugal. I assume everything got mixed up between my layover in Dubai this morning."

"Oh."

"Yeah, so I'm stuck here for now until I've figured out where I can stay cheap and without being too far away from the airport."

"In Lisabon, that's nearly impossible. Unless you're staying in the city, of course, which I'm assuming isn't an option for you."

"No." You groand, hans covering your eyes again.

"Hey, hey...."

Ruben must have thought that you were breaking out in tears. He crouched down before you, forcing you to meet his eyes while he caressed your knees with his thumbs. "It's not that big of a deal, okay."

"Oh, please, Ruben, I've had enough of you today. Just leave me alone, will you?"

"I could, and I should." He smiled. "But there's no way I'm letting check into some sketchy hotel just for the sake of it."

"What are you doing?"

Ruben rose to his feet, grabbing your suitcase.

"Ruben, what the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing. I'm offering you to stay with me."

It was bizarre, completely bizarre for you to stay with Ruben. Then again, what were your other options? Ruben also explained that his layover was only 24 hours and that his airline would pay for his accommodation as long as he was checked into it, meaning you could continue staying in his hotel room even when he was gone.

"So, should we grab some dinner?"

"Excuse me?"

To your suprise, Ruben's airline wasn't as strict as yours, meaning that he was staying at a hotel in the city, free to roam its streets as he pleased.

"You must be hungry, no?"

You were, you really were. However, you imagined that dinner with Ruben would be a nightmare.

"I'll wait for you to take a shower. Unless... you want me to join you?"

"Fuck off."

You grabbed some clothes from your suitcase and made your way to the hotel bathroom. Ruben was a pain, sure. However, there was something about him that made you feel safe, or at least trust him. Perhaps it was his flight attendant manners? The way he accepted your boundaries and didn't push your buttons any further than you could handle. Or maybe it was the looks. There was no denying how attractive he was. Perhaps he'd let you fuck him with a pillowcase over his head? If it ever came to that, you'd make sure to ask.

"Where are we going?"

It was funny. After your shower, you stepped out of the bathroom wearing a red summer dress with white and yellow flowers. Ruben's eyes had widened at the sight of you, his mouth coming ajar as if he wanted to tell you something. However, he never did. Ruben remained quiet even as you stepped out onto the streets of Lisbon, the city with a nightlife like no other.

"Ruben?" You stopped in the middle of the street. He turned back to look at, confused as to why you stopped walking. You folded your arms. "I'm not taking another step until you tell me where we're going?"

His lips twitched into a smile. "Don't you trust me?"

"No, I don't."

His expression faltered, but only for a split second. "Fair enough. I have a friend, he owns a restaurant near the beach. You'll like it, come on."

Ruben offered you his hand. It was so arrogant of him to assume that you would take it after literally admitting not to trusting him. Still, you took it. You let the size of his palm cover yours, the walk to the beach continuing in silence.

Arriving at the restaurant, you were welcomed with open arms by Ruben's friend. It was a family business, with kids running around the tables chasing each other around. If someone would fall, an adult would be sure to pick them up, soothe their tears, and then give the child a slap on the wrist for them to go running again. You didn't mind the liveliness. It was actually quite lovely.

"I always come here if I have a layover in Lisabon." Ruben told you over dinner.

"I thought you were Portuguese. Why wouldn't you just go home to your parents?"

"My mother doesn't like it when I stay for short periods of time. It breaks her heart whenever I leave."

"I see." You nodded.

"How about you?"

"Me?" You frowned.

"Yeah, do you visit your parents when you have a layover in Germany?"

Something tightened in your chest. "I....My parents, my entire family really, are gone...." Suddenly, the sorrows of your life washed over you, reminding of the escape you had as a flight attendant. Ruben was right when he said that up in the sky was a no mans land. Down on earth is where all mans problems actually existed.

"I'm so sorry Y/N."

You flinched. Ruben had gone to cover your hand with his, his gaze sympathetic and gentle. You quickly realized that you were crying, that the tears had welled up in your eyes quicker than you could control.

"Excuse me." You stood from the table, leaving the restaurant in a hurry. You only left to get some fresh air, though. Nevertheless, Ruben found where you had gone to sit by the beach,  joining you in the sand.

"Flight attendant rule number one, never get too personal." He sighed. I fucked up and I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault." You sniffled. "They died in an accident when I was six. I barley remember my parents or my siblings."

"What kind of accident?"

You shot Ruben a glance, however the way he was staring back at you softened your furrowed expression. "A plane crash." You muttered.

Ruben's eyebrows lifted.

"I always hope to feel closer to them by taking this job. Maybe even one day I'd...."

"Y/N..." Ruben shifted beside you, his hands stroking your cheek. However, you slapped it away. "Don't feel sorry for me."

"I'm not. I mean I don't."

"Not all of us are in this to join the so called Mile High Club, okay."

"Y/N, I never...."

"Yes, you did Ruben."

His expression told you that he remembered your encounter on the plane.

"Like why would you even ask me that?"

"Cuz I'm an asshole." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm an asshole who doesn't know how to act after the first encounter with the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen was while she was naked in the shower."

You snorted. Like a piglet you snorted.

"Yeah, what an icebreaker." Ruben laughed. Your laughter fuelled each other's and slowly came down to the sounds of ocean waves crashing against shore.

"Fuck, you're really beautiful." Ruben said, not even hiding the fact that he was checking you out.

"Thanks, you too." You chirped.

"And that red dress..."

Ruben's breath was in your ear, warm and soft.  "Why did you have to wear that damn dress?"

"I don't know." You sighed and turned your head so that your cheek caressed his stubble. "Perhaps I wanted to tease you?"

"Well, no more teasing." Ruben grabbed your chin, tilting your body backward for you to lay down in the sand. He kissed you gently as if your lips were made out of flower pebbles. You hymned in response as his hands crept up your thighs and under the skirt of your dress. Ruben then deepend the kiss with his tongue, beginning for its access into your mouth. The white sand was warm against your back. Ruben's weight pressing you further into it, his hips grinding against your thigh.

"Can I...with my finger?" Ruben's fingertips were already brushing over the wet patches of your panties, but when you gave him the green light to go further, you were done for.

"Shit."

"Sshhhh." He hushed. "Relax baby. You're already so wet for me."

Ruben made fast circles over your clit, alerting every inch of your nerve endings. His mouth then went from your lips to your breasts, where he used his teeth to pull down your cleavage, freeing your breasts. They bounced with your grinding hips, you were begging for Ruben's fingers to enter you. However, he seemed determined to make you come this way.

"God, you're sexy. So fucking sexy." He said, in between sucking on your nipples, his hand still tucked between your thigs. You arched your back with the pleasure it gave as you moved further to the edge of your orgasm.

Ruben rose to his knees, quick to unbuckle his belt. His dick felt out of his pants throbbing and hard, with the tip leaking with cum. He was on the verge of erupting just like you. He positioned himself between your legs. You reached for his hips and used your legs to lure him in. "Fuck." You squealed as his cock crashed into you like a train through a tunnel, however not as smooth. Ruben was big and hard. Perhaps too big and too hard. Nevertheless the two of you continued to fuck each other sensless on the beach. The sound of your sinful panting evaporating into the night. It all came down to one frantic orgasm, shared between the two of you, your bodies squirming in the sand until the spasms became less frantic and more loving.

"Are you cold?" Ruben asked, kissing your lips. He then went to lay on his back beside you, pulling up his pants as he did.

"A little." You whispered.

"We should get back to the restaurant and pay for our food."

You chuckled. "I'm not going back like this."

Ruben's head shifted, seeing the damage that he had done. Your dress was practically ripped at the front, exposing most of your thigh and the bite marks that Ruben's mouth had left on the insides of the.

"Fuck, Y/N, I'm so sorry." He sat up and started checking for more bruises, however, all you did was laugh at him and the way he seemed to genuinely worry.

"What's so funny?" He asked and help you up to stand on your feet. He went to brush off the sand on your legs before pulling you towards him with his hands on your hips.

"You." You said, wrapping your arms around his neck.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. It's funny how you pretend to be this asshole flight attendant when you're really a sweetheart."

Ruben smiled, his eyes squinting as he did. He then leaned in to kiss you, not pulling away until your need for air. "Maybe I am a sweetheart." He said. "Just don't tell anyone."

Part 1 Part 3

[vintagesimstress]

Roman Palla (Zeussim's Desi Gita Redux)

TSR's latest collection prompted me to finally finish a thing which was sitting in my WIPs' folder for months. I'd been hoping to make some more add-ons for it, but let's face it: I lost my steam halfway through, it's not happening, so the best I can do is to release it as is. Still pretty good, I hope!

As my GBSC playthrough is slowly but steadily approaching the Roman Britain era, I found myself in need for some outfits for my sim ladies. There's a bunch of stuff out there, but rather on the 'what we'd like Romans to have dressed like' side, not necessarily what history tells us about how they really dressed. Tbh I thought it was a hopeless endeavour, but then dear Buzzard directed me towards this amazing post by Zeussim - more specifically, the Desi Gita dress, which with a bit of imagination could work for a Roman palla. So I set off to work and romanised it even further. Big thank you to @buzzardly28 for the tip and to @zeussim for her generous ToU!

The mesh is slightly edited (cutouts on shoulders, adjusted headscarf position to accommodate a wider variety of hairstyles) and recoloured in my Iron Age palette, in two versions: 'silk' (or just any smooth textile, really)* or 'wool' (or anything rather on the coarse side). AND it comes with overlays - for both versions! Which means you can mix and match not only different colours, but different textiles as well. You're a well-off lady who just arrived in Londinum and is now freezing her butt off in the cold northern climate? No worries, put a wool palla over your pretty silk dress! Or you by some miracle managed to get your hands on one piece of silk? Wear it with you wool dress to a party to show off!

Many of the wool swatches, especially in combination with different pale/greenish overlays, work quite well for common folk:

There's also an accessory fibula - pretty and golden (or silver), for the richer ones. Found somewhere on Sketchfab. (That's exactly where I got stuck - I wanted to make a variety of different ones, so that the poorer women would also have something to choose from... Alas).

As always, all packages come in HQ (default) or non-HQ versions (for those of you who want to save some HDD space). Download only one per package!

If there are any other Roman era players out there: hope you enjoy :)

DOWNLOAD (free on Patreon, no ads or EA)

*OK, I feel like I have to add a little note: my quick research revealed that silk was insanely expensive for the majority of the Roman era. Like, 'only for the emperor and fams' level of expensive. Only at the end it became... emmm... 'cheap' enough to be accessible also to the aristocracy. So just pretend it is whatever the heck you want it to be, not necessarily real silk

[lizzy019]

Do you think you could write a blurb of johnny or twobit with y/n bringing up the idea of riding his face? She'd be like "johnny/twobit d'ya think i could like..." Johnny/twobit: "🧍huh, ya sure...?" LMAO idk im sry i suck at asking requests 💀

I have to do this with Two-Bit lmaoo I have an idea!

~~~~~~~~~ 18+ ~~~~~~~~~~~🌿~~~~~~~~~~~ 18+ ~~~~~~~~~

Seated on the couch with a blanket draped over your lap, the screen's flashing lights displayed Mickey Mouse. Two-Bit was happily watching a rerun and drinking his beer as he did so.

He was enthralled with the cartoon, and his sweet laugh could be heard whenever something he found funny or amusing came up. It was nice in a way, to share something he enjoyed and see why he loved it so dearly. Maybe it was a bit childish, sure, but he really seemed to like it.

"Oh lord, Pluto's so dumb! The dog ate a damn piece of wood thinkin' it was a bone." Two-Bit giggled, turning to you and smiling.

You smiled back. Soon, the commercials had interrupted the show, and Two-Bit frowned.

"You alright? You haven't talked much." He asked you, putting his beer bottle down and looking at you.

You shrugged, thinking back to something Dally had mentioned earlier.

"Y'know, I met up with this girl who was drunk offa cheap alcohol and she told me she wanted to put her face on me. I ain't gonna lie, that was some good shit, man." His words rang clear in your head.

It was certainly a bold question, but you looked at Two-Bit, took a deep breath, and spoke.

"Can I ride your face, Two?" You had dropped the bomb.

The poor guy was stunned speechless, almost choking on a sip of his beer as he stared at you incredulously. You were struggling to keep your eyes on his, and you were so nervous that he'd start berating you on whatever the hell you just asked him.

But he didn't.

Instead, he smiled and shrugged.

"Is that what you want, little lady?" Two-Bit hummed his question, smirking down at you as he placed his beer down.

With a hesitant expression, you nodded your head vigorously and waited patiently for his next move. In all honesty, you began to question whether this was a good idea or not, but slowly enough, Two-Bit had accommodated.

His body was adjusted to lay flat onto the couch, his hands pulling your soft body onto him as he made sure to assist you in taking off your pants and undergarments to make sure you were ready for him.

Once your lower half was stripped naked, you haphazardly got yourself situated onto his face, nervously beginning to drag your hips forward and backward along his now open mouth to get his tongue to make friction.

Soft moans were happily fleeing from your mouth, making a lovely little melody that Two-Bit would absolutely adore hearing on the daily.

Your hips grinded against him, your hands grappling at the couch's arm rest as you let yourself slip away into a state of pure passionate pleasure.

Regardless of your pathetic movements, Two-Bit helped move you back and forth with his hands firmly cupping the fat of your ass. He was trying (and failing) to get you to slow down since you were getting a bit of your slick on his nose and cheeks. But did his attempts work?

...No.

It didn't take long until you had found a rhythm that had you climbing up the stairs of ecstasy in no time. It was fast, brutal, and his tongue was practically raw from how much you were using him like a sex toy.

The cord in your tummy was tightening, so much so that your legs began to tremble and your pace slowed. But luckily Two-Bit was there to help move you and keep you going up those stairs of pleasure.

"Oh, Two! Two, your tongue feels so good!" You mewled, your hands digging into the fabric as you teetered on the edge of pure passion.

And soon enough, with a cry of his name, your legs seized up as your pussy made the creamiest mess on his mouth and chin. It felt hot, your veins and your nerves. It rattled your body just a bit too much, and you slouched instantly after.

Two-Bit was lapping up the excess, relishing in how sweet your cum was and how much you so graciously handed to him.

But once he noticed that you were all tired and worn out, he made himself useful and at least put on your panties before putting you back in your regular spot and covering your lap with the throw blanket once again.

And for the rest of the evening, it was lazy cuddles and innocent kisses.

[positivelybeastly]

Hi!! Is me, Stray! After many a trial and error, I now have an RP blog! Just letting you know I'm here and, uh, favorite music genres & favorite song headcanons for Hank?

Welcome to the roleplaying community! There's always a few ups and downs when you're first getting set up, especially if you've only ever set up the one Tumblr for personal use, but there's always room to learn, and I find that people tend to be generally pretty accommodating if you're as polite as you've been on Anon! If you have any questions about roleplay etiquette or the like, feel free to send another ask or just IM me.

As for favourite music genres and song headcanons for Hank, I generally think he's a pretty open minded fellow? There are a good few bands and types of music we know for certain that he enjoys.

Jocko Homo, by Devo.

Dead Man's Party, by Oingo Boingo.

Chopin's Nocturne.

60s rock! I can see him being a Creedence Clearwater Revival kinda guy.

Acis and Galatea!

The Rolling Stones!

Something you'll often see assumed of Hank is that just because he's a man of the arts, well read, and eloquent, is that he's some kind of music snob, that he only listens to opera, that he only enjoys classical, that he looks down on 'lesser' forms of music. And I honestly just don't believe that would be the case?

Like . . . here's the thing. Hank may talk fancy, but he is still, at best, a middle class farm boy from Illinois. If he has an accent, it's probably closest to a Chicago accent, if he hasn't trained his voice to do something entirely different - he does mention his voice has changed during his feline mutation to a baritone, so it's not out of the question. But he is not (or at least, he should not be) a hoity toity snooty asshole.

This is something even writers often get wrong about him - they assume that he's the smart character, ergo he must be the snooty, elitist character, which is something Ben Percy leans into, but it's not even just him, it's Paul Di Filippo in X-Men Unlimited vol. 2 #8, too. It becomes an asshole trait, and it's just. Not. Accurate.

Hank likes all kinds of music. In fact, I struggle to think of a kind he's outright stated he hates, though he's been around for 60 years, I'm sure someone can correct me. He's a curious fellow! He likes to explore! He'll consume any media, he quotes 1940s Superman comics, he watches Robin Hood movies with Wonder Man, why in god's name would he be a snob?

As for headcanon? I have tons! I often think, hmm, this feels like a song Hank would like, or a song that feels like a Hank song, when I listen to music, because. You know. Big blue guy's p much always on the brain.

I have a Spotify playlist that I occasionally add to, but currently on there is:

Is She Really Going Out With Him? by Joe Jackson - self deprecating, but also kind of a banger.

Carry on by fun - fun is an amazing band, and I definitely feel the lyricism and scale of their music would appeal to Hank.

Rain on Me by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande - I don't know if Hank would listen to this, but it has his vibe.

Cells by They Might Be Giants - I'm sorry, but have you fucking heard a band that more encapsulates Hank's personality?

Dr. Wanna Do by Caro Emerald - my old Abigail RP partner used to use this as her ringtone for Hank. I think Hank likes some jazz.

Cure for Me by Aurora - again, not one I think Hank would listen to, but again, it feels like Hank to me.

Very Good Advice by Robert Smith - Hank totally digs new wave and the Cure, and literary references mixed in with that vibe? Totally.

Moonshine by Caravan Palace - this song leads into Lone Digger by the same band, which I put on Dark Beast's playlist, representing the continuity between them. It has the right energy.

There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards by Ian Dury and the Blockheads - songs Hank would sing in the middle of the fight if it weren't full of swearing and comics were allowed to do that.

I Want You to Want Me by Cheap Trick - he does.

On Melancholy Hill by Gorillaz - this just has exactly the right energy.

I Will Dare by The Replacements - "How smart are you? / How dumb am I? / Don't count any of my advice. / Oh, meet me any place or anywhere or anytime / Now I don't care, meet me tonight / If you will dare, I might dare."

Anti-Hero by Taylor Swift - another one that doesn't feel quite like something Hank would listen to, but I think we can all relate to this song a little bit (does that make me a basic bitch? Maybe), and some of the lyrics are so awfully Hank. "I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror," like, fuck.

Turning Japanese by The Vapors - Iunno, I just think he'd like it. I often think that if I were gonna make an OG X-Factor movie, this is what would start the movie during a fight scene.

I would also like to give @brw a shoutout for their excellent Hank playlist, which introduced me to, among other things, Touch-Tone Telephone, which feels like Hank's theme song.

Oh, also, The Plastic Age by The Buggles. Hank absolutely loves prog-rock, you know he does. Oh, and showtunes! The man just will not stop singing, in the middle of fights or while being filmed for the nightly news, so he totally vibes with some Broadway. I'd also be lying if I said that Dust and Ashes doesn't feel like a New X-Men Grant Morrison Beast vibe all over. And Hank would love it! A musical based on War and Peace? Sign him the fuck up!

[aminocamino]

Day 12 21st April - Navarette to Najera 17km 215m

We were both sad to leave our beautiful accommodation. Its been so relaxing here. We had a quick coffee and croissant at the local cafe, chatted to an Irish lady named Carol and arranged to meet her in Najero for food.

The walk today was probably the easiest so far. Very slow gentle climbs and descents. We took the detour to Ventosa - very pretty village well catered for with 2 cafes. The one we stopped at was spotless. Unfortunately the church was closed but the views from the church yard swept right across the vineyards and farmland.

Not sure what this is - looks like our dovecotes at home but don’t think its that.

We arrived in Najera at 12.40. The Albergue was closed till 1pm so we wandered over to a cafe nearby. The shops were all shut which was a shame as Carrie’s pole tip covers had come off in Viana. All poles usually have to go in a stand and when they were pulled out - Carrie thinks they slid off. We may end up getting them in Burgos but hopefully sooner.

The Albergue isn’t bad. We have a wee twin room in a very quiet area. Also there is a lit fire in the communal living area and the flue heats up the whole house.

Re Najera - neither of us liked it much. Noisy, dirty and too busy with a main road cutting through it. Its Sunday and we had difficulty finding somewhere to eat. Carrie ordered a vegetarian pizza and I ordered same but with ham. They took both our orders. They brought me red wine when I ordered white but worse - they only brought out one pizza - with ham. The ham was chopped up cheap processed ham not the advertised ‘Serrano’ ham. After much confusion we gave in and Carrie and I shared the meat pizza. It wasn’t easy getting the meat off it and Carrie ended up eating it. Then….then when we got the bill Carrie spotted they had charged us for two pizzas! 🤷‍♀️😡 Worst restaurant the entire trip!

The church in Najera on the way to our Albergue. But no stamp! Every church we go into we get our pilgrim passport or Credenzial is stamped at every church usually.

The monastery in Najera is the only part worth stopping for! It held some amazing sarcophagus.

[spectralsleuth]

HELLO - love LSoW! I'm curious as to if the boys being dumb rich celebrity kids will play into their schooling experience?

Mikey offering to buy his friends' snacks at lunch period like that meme where the lady says "it's one banana, how much could it cost? 10 dollars?"

I think Mikey would be more likely to be the kid who brings in food for everybody than buy lunches- which is its own kind of privilege itself!

It probably starts out with him bringing Japanese lunches to school(nothing fancy bc Yoshi can't cook anything fancy) and some kids maybe trying to tease him? The way that kids do about other kids lunches. But instead of letting it bother him he decided to start bringing in enough for everybody, and it stops the teasing real quick.

Yoshi, helping Mikey make enough onigiri for his class: And you didn't just fight them why? You know I'm fine with you boys fighting in school-

Mikey: This is better. :)

Mikey's that kid at school that has a lot of friends very effortlessly, and being mean to him just makes you feel like an asshole. Otherwise they have a pretty weird school experience; Leo filming movies, Donnie and his... projects. A lot of stuff I'll cover, but normal celebrity troubles. I think people underestimate how normal celebrity students become among a student body. When you see someone in class every day, often multiple years in a row, it becomes really easy to see them as normal and every day.

On the subject of money;

Yoshi is very very wealthy, and only getting wealthier since he is also working full time at the dojos on top of filming new movies. But outside of certain accommodations for the boys (soaking pool, full sized townhouse, LAWYER FEES, expensive lamps, etc) I think he probably lives relatively simple. He's probably lost a lot of his taste for fame and fortune, after the Nexus. he's the kind of rich person who would pay for your hospital bills without a thought, but he simply wouldn't think to do it, or see it where it's needed. Social warrior he is not. He is just a rich old(ish) man with little turtle kids.

Xander is his personal assistant on top of nanny, so the boys all pick up being cheap and thrifty from him. Even when Xander has the credit card, if he goes shopping for the Hamatos he brings coupons, supermarket flyers, etc. They'll go to three separate stores to get the best deals. I think Leo would love this the best; he gets very good at math as a kid, sitting in the grocery cart with a calculator and seeing how much they save while Xander piles in groceries around him.

AGAIN sorry this took so long to answer I got shy!! :') I hope this isn't too long either. But these asks are so good and are making me think.

[winterdeepelegy]

Prompt #22 - Fulsome

Trembling steps into a world she had forgotten Dusty roses on a royal velvet seat And the letter in her name brings her back again Familiar are the words upon the sheet -"Opus of the Night", Kamelot ------------------------------------------------------------

It would have been a lie to say she wasn't reluctant to accept the contract from a recently established opera house. This had once been her dream, and it was a dream she actively enjoyed for a time until the world and its problems decided she was needed elsewhere. Now, however, it felt so foreign to Ciel, sitting in a dressing room again and primping ahead of a performance. It didn't feel like "her" after so long away from the limelight. She tried not to focus on the mirror whilst stroking the soft bristles of a brush through her platinum hair to smooth it before working it into an elaborate coronet of braids around her head, and finally into one long braid down her back. Into this weave she intertwined delicate flowers of golden color and baby's breath. Makeup came last, a light application of powder, a soft swipe of rouge across her cheekbones, and a dob of rose pink lip paint from the tip of a fine brush. And just as she set the brush down and wondered if this was good enough, if she was worthy of reclaiming this moment, there came a knock at the door. It opened with neither hesitation or her blessing. "Lady Ciel!" A cheerful yet rotund Lalafell gentleman burst into the room, and she closed her eyes for a moment to steel her patience, and her response. "What an absolute honor it is for you to join us!" he chortled, his plump hands rubbing together under a bearded chin. "I've followed your career closely for years, my dear! Years! And now here you are, the jewel of the opera house, about to grace my stage! Oh, truly Nald has smiled upon me... us." Inwardly did she chide herself. Mistakes were made. She could feel the greed rolling off of him as easily as she could smell his cheap cologne, both threatening to spoil her mood and her own perfume. She smiled, "Aye, of course. What a fabulous opportunity, how could I possibly pass it up?" Sandy colored bangs bobbed around the Lalafell's head with his brisk nodding. "Grand fortune for us both! I trust the accommodations are to your liking? Is there aught else I can get for you? A glass of sweet red, mayhap? I keep only the finest in my stash but you're more than welcome to partake, of course." Mayhap a draught of laudanum, she thought. "No... ah, no thank you, sir. It tends to do my voice little favor, you see," she gently declined.

"Then perhaps after the show?" he stepped a little closer to peer up from the floor to her face, and everything in between. "A private dinner. My personal chef will prepare the finest meal you could imagine." She looked again to the mirror and slowly inhaled with one of her hands pressed to her abdomen and released it the same way. "I must respectfully decline. After all, given my fame, I have a chef of my own and entire wine cellar to spare." She lied, of course. She cooked for herself and kept no such reserves but if it made him back down, she might still be able to salvage this night. "Oh, bugger." He seemed genuinely dismayed but this didn't last. Another hopeful perk up came with the next question, "Another time then? We are, after all, just getting to know one another, 'twouldn't do to be too forward, now would it?" "No, quite right. And now, sir, if I may, I should like to finish getting ready." He issued a sound affirming his realization and quickly turned to totter back out the way he came. "Right, right. I must beg the beautiful Lady's forgiveness for trespassing in such an unseemly way. I shall see you again after curtain call, madam!" A wink and he closed the door behind him. Ciel slumped back in the chair and sharply exhaled all of the discomfort and tension that had seeped into her shoulders. This was the first time she ever truly regretted her career choice, and the night was just starting.

[scamsm]

Hostel-hopping

Last year when I came back from travelling, my neighbour said ‘well, you must have been doing it on the cheap’, and wondered at how I could afford it. 

Odd comment aside, this is true. Of course I stayed in some shocking accommodations and returned with no money.  

‘Worst arrival experience’ prize can be given to the hostel pictured. With a modern art museum looking hallway in a bright yellowish green colour, the sense of unease crept in. When I burst into the dorm, it was empty of people... but not of cold meats.

Salami, pepperoni slices, beef salami and for some reason, gummy worms were strewn all over the floor. One bed was safe, the rest were covered in tobacco and coins.

The hostel receptionist arrived to show an older lady up to the dorm, and said to me ‘how have you done this to the room already?’ 

I replied that he couldn’t let the old lady can’t stay here and that we need to get a broom. For some reason I didn’t arrange to change rooms that night, as the  smell of raki covered the table (maybe explaining the person’s messy exit) and soggy towels gave a general feeling of dampness. I did take the coins though.

The rest of the trip was a mix of incomparably better hostels and also some situations I could’ve left earlier. 

Writing this from the warmth of my parents home, I sometimes miss the excitement of braving it through a shitty hostel: waking up to loud snoring, guys trying to sell drugs from their dorm bed, or extra charges for ridiculous things.

 What a rush you get from retelling bad hostel stories to new friends over a game of cards and whatever tea previous travellers left! Wouldn’t have swapped it for the world. 

[light-skin-dragon]

HOW TO MAKE A MAN ADMIRE YOU, CHASE YOU, FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU AND MARRY YOU!

If you don't want to grow white hairs before you get married, here are the things you need to do to attract your man and get married on time:

1. SMILE: Men love smiling women. No, not the one that begins and ends with the mouth, the one that starts from the eyes. Genuine, loving smile attracts people, creates friendship and unlock doors! Learn to smile at people baby, women who lack men's attention rarely smile. They are always cold and look as if they are carrying the problem of the whole world on their head! Some of these ladies even frown a lot! Look, everybody has a problem, no man wants to add another person's problem to his own. Be a genuinely happy person and show it by smiling at people. Men will find you irresistible and seek to know you more.

2. BE HUMBLE: Humble women don't lack suitors! One way to stay single for a long long time is to be proud and cocky! Proud women are a big turn off! If you always roll your eyes at people, segregate yourself from the company of common people, talk down on anybody and you are practically rude because of your class, money, car, social status, job, etc, you will stay single forever! Be humble! Learn to accommodate all class for people. Learn to serve others. Learn to use "sir" when talking to men. Some men may tell you it doesn't matter but secretly, they love it. Men love it when women address them with respect. Learn to be respectful and submissive to authorities.

3. BE CONFIDENT: Confident women are attractive any day any time. Knowing who you are, pursuing your dreams, vision, passion and goals makes you a confident person worth investing in. When you know your reason for being here on earth is far more than getting married, punch out few kids and stay locked in the kitchen forever, you approach life with a positive mind set, you are energetic and confident in who you are, you have a good, sound self esteem and men are irresistibly drawn to you.

4. BE FRIENDLY: Ladies who keep to themselves hoping some Prince Charming will find them are not ready for marriage. Be friendly! Being friendly is different from being desperate and cheap. Go out. Attend positive programmes, conferences, seminars, workshops, symposiums and serve in your local church. Enjoy meeting people and getting to know them purely for friendship not for marriage. A man can smell it a million mikes away if you are desperate and chasing him. Just be yourself. If you are just being friendly and he thinks you are cheap, that's his headache! Don't let that stop you from being friendly to people. Smile a lot, meet people and be a happy person to have around.

5. BE GENEROUS: Stingy women who can't part with anything don't know what marriage is about. Be generous to people. Be generous with what you have. Be generous with your smile, your love, your talent, your service, your money, your prayers, whatever you've got that can bless lives. Generous women are men attractors, they never lack admirers.

6. BE FORGIVING: Forgive all your EX, forgive the guy who abused you or rape you, forgive all who disappointed you in the past. Practice advance forgiveness, forgive people before they hurt you, more people will offend you. If you find it difficult forgiving people, you will grow bitter and people will move away from you especially men. Release the man who promised you marriage but disappointed you and married someone else. Actually, you were not meant to be. If you had married him, you may have been divorced or dead! Thank God for it and move on. If you don't release that man you may never find any man to marry! Men will unconsciously move away from you and you will be singe and miserable for the rest of your life!

7. BE INTELLIGENT: Men like intelligent women. Know when, how and where to talk. Don't be a dummy upstairs. Know what is going on around you. You shouldn't be a naive, empty-brained, beauty queen. Your face may get you into the marriage, your brain will determine how long you last. A man likes a woman who can give intelligent answers to questions and contribute meaningfully to discussions. If he asks you, "Why is Nigeria in the mess we are in?" And you scratched your head, looked at the ceiling, bite your finger and say, "I don't know" Your brain needs revival!

8. BE NEAT: Dirty ladies are not good marriage candidates. Some ladies look great outside but if you see where they step out, you will remember world war 2! Very dirty, disorganized and rough to say the least! No sane man wants to marry a dirty woman. Learn to be neat. Take good care of your underwear, learn to shave. Keep off the body and mouth odour. Deal with the eczema and pimples, do your hair on time or comb it well. Always appear neat and presentable.

9. LEARN HOW TO DRESS WELL: Wear something that fits you, not what is in vogue. Get a good tailor who can sew clothes that fits your body shape. Learn about your body shape and wear something that flatters your figure. Straight ladies need clothes that flatters the waist line. There are some clothes good on hourglass not good on pear, apple shapes will look great in shirts and suits, pears will look great in gowns etc. I'm not saying you can't wear different kinds of clothes, just wear the ones that fit you. They make you sweet to look at and simply irresistible!

10. LOVE YOURSELF: You can't love others if you don't love yourself. Celebrate yourself. Accept yourself the way you are, you are simply the best. Don't envy anybody. Not everyone's got what you've got, celebrate your uniqueness. Men love ladies who love themselves. Don't envy someone else's looks, love what you have. Don't wish you have a fuller chest, heavy bum, sexy nose or longer hair. The man God created for you needs someone exactly like you and will fall in love with you just the way you are so chill and appreciate God.

11. BE GODLY: Godly women carry God and carry gold. Men find you irresistible.

12. BUILD A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR DAD AND SIBLINGS: It tells a man how you will treat him in marriage.

13. BE FEMININE: Some women have masculine nature: the "Tomboys"! And there are men who love tomboys, honestly! Not with standing, learn how to sit like a lady and talk like a lady! It's "un woman" to sit with your laps thrown apart, you belch loudly after gulping a bottle of malt and barge in and out of a house like a soldier! Even soldiers are regal in their steps! Stop giving men the impression that they want to marry a man! Be ladylike! Learn it if it is not natural with you.

14: BE HARDWORKING: No man wants to marry a lazy, indolent, passive, idle, backward, sleeping, purposeless and visionless woman! You will attract your kind! If you want a hardworking man, be hardworking, up and doing, agile, proactive, versatile, business minded, creative and industrious. Learn how to make money and have an active bank account!

15: READ BOOKS: Ladies who read instead of jumping from house to house gossiping about nothing in particular don't lack good suitors. Read godly books that will bless your life and make you a testimony to others. My husband was attracted to me because I was a voracious reader. John Mason brought us together.

16: GODLY ASSOCIATIONS: Some women will never marry until they change their friends. If you want to marry fast, you will need to let go of your unserious friends who enjoy clubbing and get close to married women with beautiful marriages whom you can learn from!

These and more are the things you need to do to get a godly suitor and marry gloriously. You still need to pray though, some delay are spiritual in nature. No matter what you do, you may never get a man to marry if you don't break some yokes through earth shaking prayers and violent application of the word.

You should practice all these if you want to get married on time and also get in the word, pray against delay and deal with every stronghold and spiritual problems in your life. I see you getting married soon in Jesus name 🙏🏽.

If you disagree please let me know why and I'm open to hearing everyone's thoughts and opinions

[fancyladiesbags]

Discover the Charm of Ladies Leather Handbags

Ladies leather handbags have long been cherished as a staple in women's fashion, combining elegance, durability, and practicality. Whether you’re heading to work, out for a night on the town, or running errands, the right handbag can elevate your look while providing the functionality you need. Let’s dive into what makes leather handbags such a beloved accessory.

1. The Beauty of Leather

Leather is synonymous with luxury. Its rich texture and natural variations make each handbag a unique piece of art. Unlike synthetic materials, leather develops a beautiful patina over time, enhancing its character and charm. From classic neutrals to bold colors, there’s a leather handbag to suit every style.

2. Versatility for Every Occasion

One of the standout features of leather handbags is their versatility. A chic crossbody can take you from brunch with friends to an evening event, while a structured tote can seamlessly transition from the office to after-work drinks. With various styles—satchels, clutches, and shoulder bags—you can find the perfect bag for any occasion.

3. Functionality Meets Fashion

Today’s leather handbags are designed with both style and practicality in mind. Many feature compartments and pockets to keep your essentials organized, making it easy to find what you need on the go. With enough space for your phone, wallet, keys, and even a tablet, a leather handbag can accommodate your busy lifestyle without sacrificing elegance.

4. An Investment in Quality

While fast fashion may offer cheap options, investing in a high-quality leather handbag pays off in the long run. A well-crafted leather bag can last for years, even decades, with proper care. Look for brands that prioritize ethical sourcing and craftsmanship to ensure your handbag is not only stylish but also sustainably made.

5. Timeless Style

Fashion trends may come and go, but a leather handbag is a timeless accessory. It can complement both casual and formal outfits, making it a versatile addition to your wardrobe. Whether you prefer a minimalist design or a statement piece, a leather handbag will always be in vogue.

6. Caring for Your Leather Handbag

To keep your leather handbag looking pristine, regular maintenance is essential. Here are some simple tips:

Clean: Use a soft cloth to gently wipe away dirt and dust.

Condition: Apply leather conditioner periodically to keep the material supple and prevent cracking.

Store: When not in use, keep your handbag in a dust bag to protect it from scratches and sunlight.

Conclusion

A ladies leather handbag is more than just an accessory; it’s a statement of style, a testament to quality, and a reliable companion for everyday life. Investing in a timeless leather handbag is a decision you won’t regret, as it adds both elegance and functionality to your wardrobe. So, why not treat yourself to that perfect leather handbag that reflects your unique style and personality? You deserve it!

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

tokyo 2024 and a discussion about vegan food in japan

In March of this year, I went to Tokyo to take an important teaching exam so that I could find a job as a teacher in the US after my return. (By the way, I passed the exam AND I have a new teaching job in Michigan starting in August!) Since I was heading to Tokyo for the exam anyway, my partner and I decided to turn it into a mini weekend trip so that we could see some parts of Tokyo we hadn't yet seen.

I've been to Tokyo several times in my life and I've seen pretty much all of the main tourist spots. I'm not a huge city person and generally prefer the quiet of the countryside, so I haven't been keen on making many more trips to Tokyo. But there are some things that I had been interested in checking out, so I was glad to have an opportunity to see them while I was in Tokyo for my exam.

Since Tokyo is a huge city with millions of people as well as many tourists, it's pretty difficult to find cheap accommodation close to any of the more popular boroughs. Usually when I visit Tokyo I stay in a hostel with dorm beds and shared bathrooms for about $50 a night. Luckily, for this Tokyo trip I was able to find a really cheap and cozy, if not a bit eccentric, place to stay right in the heart of Shinjuku.

This place is called Tama Ryokan. According to the lady who showed me around, it's her own home that she's lived in her whole life that she turned into a small hostel. The rooms all use tatami flooring and futon beds on the floor, with a shared bathroom and shower room. While it was a bit worn down, it was really cozy and the woman was really nice, even bringing me snacks and greeting me warmly each day. Despite being in the heart of the city, she assured me it was very safe. There was no room key and the front door to the hostel was kept open 24/7, but she said she's never had an incidents of theft or unwanted visitors. It was a really interesting little house with a lot of character, and I really enjoyed staying there.

After arriving and settling in, I decided to walk around a bit while I waited several hours for my partner's flight to come in from Kumamoto. I decided to walk around Kabuki-cho, the city's red light district, since I had never been there before. On my way there, I passed this famous LED screen at the crossing outside Shinjuku station that's designed to look 3D. Its most popular image is that of a cat, usually doing something cute and mischievous. When I saw it, the cat had gotten its head stuck in a hole and was meowing into it. So cute!

Next I decided to walk over to the famous Toho Cinema building which has a giant statue of Godzilla on top. I'm a big fan of Godzilla, so seeing it was super cool. When checking the showtimes of the theater I realized that they were still showing Godzilla Minus One, which I hadn't seen yet and wanted to see. So I decided right then that it would be perfectly fitting to see a Godzilla movie in THE Godzilla movie theater, so that's exactly what I did. Unfortunately, there were no English subtitles on the movie, and while my Japanese is pretty good, it was difficult for me to understand the combat and war-related scenes which used specialized vocabulary and a lot of what I like to call "gruff old man talk." Nevertheless, the action sequences and emotional scenes were easy to understand, so the movie was very enjoyable and I liked it a lot!

After the movie finished, I walked around Kabuki-cho a bit more and wandered in and out of some game centers. As it got later, some hawkers in the street working for shady clubs and bars started trying to reel me in to places so I decided that was my cue to head back and meet my partner back at the hostel. We nestled into our floor futons and went to bed, excited for what the next day would have for us.

The next day we headed to Odaiba area to go to Tokyo's TeamLab Planets, which is my personal favorite TeamLab exhibit, because it's huge and beautiful. I'd visited once before during my study abroad and was excited to see it again.

This TeamLab exhibit had many exciting rooms. One of the rooms was filled with long strings of lights that worked in unison to create brilliant light effects. It reminded my of the movie Interstellar.

Some of the rooms involved the use of calf-height water that you could walk through in your bare feet. This one had colored lights and moving projections of fish swimming across the surface of the water.

Another room was filled with huge inflatable balls that you could bat around as you made your way through the room. With the use of mirrors, white balls, and colored lights, the entire color scheme of the room could change.

In another room was a huge dome on which random generations of blooming flowers floated by. People were encouraged to lay down on the floor and get lost in the feeling of falling through a space filled with flowers. This was one of my favorite rooms and it was so relaxing. I could sit in there for hours.

I had seen these other rooms previously, but there were also two new additions to the exhibit since my last visit. One was these outdoor egg-like structures filled with light. Apparently the eggs change color depending on the weather and time of day.

The other new exhibit was a huge mirrored room filled with living orchids, which were suspended upside down. As you approach the flowers, they raise upwards, creating space for you. Since the orchids were living, it smelled wonderful and it was so magical.

We spent the remainder of that day wandering the city and eating lots of delicious food, which I'll talk about toward the end of this post. The next day after I finished my exam, my partner and I met up at the Hikarie building outside Shibuya station to shop and visit a few exhibits. We first went to the d47 exhibit, which showcases unique goods from each of Japan's 47 prefectures, but it was a bit disappointing because it was mostly just a shop to sell overpriced handmade goods.

We then wandered some more around the same floor of the building which held more creative exhibits. We found one exhibit about denim upcycling which featured many kinds of repurposed denim into jackets, shoes, bags, home goods, and more. Then we found an art exhibit by a Japanese artist named Kuniyoshi Kaneko. His works mostly featured female subjects with sharp features and many of them felt violent and/or erotic. I appreciated the distinct style of the artist, but wasn't very happy with the many depictions of women being sexualized and violated by a male artist.

From there we left the exhibitions and met up with a friend we had met at Kyushu pride, who was kind enough to take us to see Shinjuku Ni-Chome, Tokyo's gay district. If you'd like to read more about that, I talk about it in this blog post.

We got dinner at an American themed restaurant and I ordered a BLT, and was delighted almost to tears to find that it was made just the same as a diner in America would make. It was so comforting to have that piece of home after so long away.

After our night out, we hopped on the Yamanote Line, which loops through Tokyo's boroughs back to our cozy hostel for the night.

The next morning we went to a famous pancake shop called Flipper's to get their famous souffle pancakes, which are huge, fluffy, and jiggly all in one. They're so popular we waited in line for almost an hour, but it was worth the wait.

Next we walked through Harajuku to look at secondhand and antique clothing and accessory shops since my partner and I both enjoy fashion. On our way down a side street, we found a cherry blossom tree blooming with the year's first blossoms.

That night, we went to the Muscle Girls Bar. Yeah, you heard me right. Hostess bars (such as maid cafes) are very popular in Japan, where people pay for pretty girls (or boys) to entertain them or even flirt with them. In Ikebukuro, where many of these bars and clubs can be found, is the Muscle Girls Bar, which has become viral online for being the first hostess bar staffed by super buff women.

We paid a set fee to drink and hang out at the bar for about an hour and a half. During this time, the muscle girls chatted with us, danced, and served drinks. Each customer got a special drink in which the girls crush citrus fruits into a glass with their bare hands for you to drink. It exploded all over me and it was so fun.

You could also buy "muscle dollars" to get special services from the muscle girls, such as being carried by them or slapped by them. Yeah, so...I paid for one of the muscle girls to slap me as hard as she could. She even asked me if I wanted her to do it softly, but I was curious about how powerful these girls actually are, so I told her to hit me with everything she had and she sure did. It stung SO bad! My face went numb for the next hour, but it was really funny.

They also had a chest press in the corner of the bar set up with maybe 50 lbs? I'm not sure exactly how much. They told us that if we could successfully do fifty reps on the chest press, we could have 10 free muscle dollars to use however we like. I didn't try it because I'm a wimp, but watching the confident men line up and then fail one by one to get to 50 reps healed some deep patriarchal wound inside me.

Near the end of the night, a few of the women did pole dances for us. They weren't like ~sexy~ pole dances, but intense muscle-working displays. It was incredible to see the women hold their entire bodies in the air holding themselves only by their legs. I was so impressed with them!!

After this, our reserved time ended and we headed out. The muscle girl that was assigned to me and my partner was named Ren and we really enjoyed getting to chat with her. She told us that she works out six times a week and that during the week she's a high school civics teacher!! She was so cool. She told us she's just starting to join lifting competitions, and I hope that her journey is going well. <3

After this, we headed back to our cute little hostel and went to bed, then got up early the next morning for our flights back to Kyushu. Although I'm not a huge fan of city life, it's nice sometimes to join the fast-paced world where I can enjoy various art exhibits, food, and muscular women crushing lemon juice into my open mouth.

Before I wrap up this post, I want to take some time to talk about something I think is very important, which is the vegan/vegetarian food options, or lack thereof, in Japan. During my time in Tokyo, my partner and I were able to eat many kinds of vegan food due to the luxury of the big city, including pasta, ramen, burgers, and even buffalo wings! But finding this kind of food in Japan outside of metropolitan areas can be very difficult, so I wanted to talk a little about it.

Veganism is very popular in the US right now as many people consider the ethical and environmental problems caused by the meat and animal products industry. While some of the "trendiness" of veganism has reached Japan, it hasn't quite taken off in the same way, and it's incredibly hard to live a vegan or vegetarian diet in Japan, especially in the countryside. My partner was vegan prior to coming to Japan, but decided to switch to being vegetarian while in Japan to give herself some more food options, and even now has a lot of trouble finding things to eat.

Because of the rise of veganism, and because of the high number of people with allergies, American food plants often keep meat and animal products out of products unless they are specifically called for. For example, a "vegetable soup" found in America will usually not have any trace of meat in it, since it's advertised as only containing vegetables. Much to the dismay of many vegans and vegetarians in Japan, this is not the case here. Many times I've read a food ingredients label when shopping with my girlfriend and found that foods like "vegetable soup" and "vegetable curry" contain some sort of meat extract. It's very frustrating that food manufacturers are not cognizant of separating meat products and non-meat products for those that don't eat meat.

Traditional Japanese foods also often contain dashi, a soup stock made by boiling seaweed and fish flakes. It's used in almost all traditional dishes, from miso soup to ramen to even the flour of okonomiyaki. I found while at a sushi restaurant that even rolled Japanese omelets are cooked in dashi, making them inedible to vegetarians.

In bigger cities where the influence of newer thinking, trends, and other countries' influences are much more prevalent, it's easier to find vegetarian and vegan only restaurants. Even in more rural areas like around Kumamoto city they've been popping up, which is good news. But some restaurants incorporate vegan or vegetarian foods more for "trendiness" than for ethical or environmental reasons, which can cause some problems. For example, when at a restaurant with my partner, she ordered a lunch plate with a soy meat steak, but the sides that came with it contained dashi or other meat extracts. I also went to a cafe specializing in only soy milk drinks and soy donuts, but then accidentally served my partner a real hot dog from the menu assuming that everything on the menu was made with soy. While it's good that Japan is finally picking up more vegan and vegetarian options, I wish restaurants and food preparers would better understand the reasoning behind veganism/vegetarianism to avoid more mistakes like this.

Until I met my partner, I was completely ignorant of this problem in Japan and how hard it is for vegans and vegetarians to find food they can eat. While Japanese food is widely known for containing many vegetables and being very healthy, it's actually very difficult to find food not containing some sort of meat. My partner has to mostly cook her own meals and very rarely can find food to eat at restaurants, which makes going out for us challenging. I'm very happy to see some positive changes in recent years, for example the fast food chain Mosburger has a permanent menu item called the Green Burger, which is fully vegan. I've also recently found ice cream made from plant milk, vegan mayonnaise, and a larger selection of alternative milks like almond, oat, and soy. There's still a lot of work to do until Japan is vegan-friendly, but there's very solid progress happening!

This post ended up becoming a bit long, but I think it's important to discuss the dilemma of being vegan or vegetarian in Japan. During our trip to Tokyo, my partner and I went to every vegan restaurant we could find since she had been deprived of tasty and filling food choices for so long. So it seemed fitting to discuss Japanese vegan food in this post about our Tokyo travels. If you stuck around to the end, thanks for reading and I hope you were able to learn about some new perspectives to this problem! Have a great day <3

[world-cinema-research]

Week 11 Revised Essays

By Nathan Gruber

The following essays have been revised so that each (1) use the correct category, (2) use a featured image, and (3) state the main point in the first paragraph. 

The Great Race (1965)

The Great Race (1965) was a very unique, conventional film that cultivated a love of old classic cars, travel, and physical comedy. This cultivation and love comes from the story of old cars that were modified to race around the world while doing extraordinary things. The start of the race is in New York City and ends in Paris. The movie follows two rivals, the Great Leslie and Professor Fate as they experience different cultures and places as they race toward Paris. This movie aided and developed my humor as it utilized an assortment of comedy from physical comedy, tongue and cheek, as well as smart comedy that used double entendres and idioms. As rewatching this movie over the years, more jokes that would otherwise be hidden would appear.

After much research into the history of the film, The Great Race turned out to be the outcome of the best of two previous films created by the same director, Blake Edwards. Blake Edwards made two colossal comedy hits to make this film: The Pink Panther (1963) and A Shot in the Dark (1964). With notable stars for time such as Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Natalie Wood, the result was a 2-hour-40-minute slapstick comedy that was nominated for two Academy Awards: one for music and film editing and the other for sound. It also won an award for best sound effects. To dedicate this film, Blake Edwards dedicated it to Laurel and Hardy, two of the most well known comedians in film history for their comedies from 1921 and 1950. Here is more on The Great Race.

Although thought to initially receive negative reviews, The Great Race quickly became a massive success at being ranked at number five on the highest grossing movies of 1965. For this rank, the movie made $25 million at the box-office and only cost $12 Million to make. This budget surpassed Stanley Kramer’s three hour long comedy, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). To mark such a success, Blake Edwards had the focus of the advertising on the comedy, particularly the "Greatest Pie Fight Ever". The popularity of the actors was used to ensure a return investment by each of their portrayals of the characters: Tony Curtis as the Great Leslie; a brave and courageous ladies man and Jack Lemmon as Professor Fate; a clever and scheming villain. At the time the movie came out, people were affected by their proximity to theaters, showtimes, lackluster reviews and other big hit movies that were coming out at the time similar to Sound of Music and Dr. Zhivago. After five weeks in theaters, The Great Race started to offer 22 shows per week in order to accommodate families. Here are some interesting things from the time this film came out. Now, decades after its release, The Great Race is now officially considered a classic. Critics' reviews are more positive and highlight the slapstick comedy. 

The historical information provided context as to the social climate the movie was established in and why not too many people know about it today. This movie has been a favorite of mine since the first time watching it at nine years of age. At this age, no concept of what it took to make a movie, so the reason to watch it was because it was enjoyable and funny to watch. Here is one of the most classic parts in it.  After rewatching it, my appreciation for this movie increased because it used new technology for several effects in a timeless manner that didn’t make the film look older. A great example of this are the flying scenes which used several different techniques including a blue screen. 

Now movies that use CGI look older than they are because CGI makes the effects look cheap and unconvincing. Usually, stories aren’t as original as they once were because most films today are based on books or an adaption of a previous film. It truly is a rarity to see an original film with an original story in the theater. This adds authenticity to The Great Race as its story is loosely based on the 1902 race around the world. All characters, plot, and design are all original and have never been seen before the film came out. By growing up with this film, the interests that came from the influence of this movie pertaining to things of the past in similar fashion to the time this film takes place. Some of those things span my interest in classic cars to architecture. Amongst other films, The Great Race is the film that has me come back to other great films of the past that have all solidified the opinion that the old classic films are the greatest gems that are, luckily, accessible to watch and rewatch. 

Troop Beverly Hills

The film for this week's review is called “Troop Beverly Hills” (1989) and it is one of my favorite films because of the unique comedy it offers and an original story loosely based on the experiences of one of its producers, Ava Ostern Fries, as a girl scout member. This film portrays the side of Beverly Hills we think about when one says “Beverly Hills” places them in a highly unusual scenario of them having to go out and conquer the wilderness. As you probably imagine, this is quite the spectacle that makes this movie such a classic comedy. When the film was made, it cost Sony Pictures International Entertainment $18 million to make and only brought in a little over $7 million. 

This failure was most likely due to the critic’s negative reviews of the film when it was released. These negative reviews have all stayed consistent because the film “proves to be an uphill, downhill trek” Rotten Tomatoes. However, there are positive reviews from blogs that mostly claim the film was relatable and funny even to this day. The negative reviews mainly focus on the characters as stereotyping the people of Beverly Hills while the positive reviews take a closer look at the story and values the film emanates as the characters never gave up something they wanted to do. As the bloggers tend to be more fair to the film and enjoy it, the consensus should be that it is a fun comedy that has a good lesson; all who have a goal just needs the willingness to accomplish it.

During the time the film was made, a shift was happening in show business as the 1989 “Batman” came out along with the first season of “The Simpsons.” These films were massive hits with “Batman” becoming the number one film of 1989 while “The Simpsons” is now on its 34th season and counting and is one of the longest running shows. This means that 1989 was a great year for entertainment, so the cause of “Troop Beverly Hills” failure was the marketing and reviews. 

The costumes and overall look of the film screamed 1980s Beverly Hills because most of the costumes were so over the top that one couldn’t help but laugh from the appearance of one of those. The film utilizes the costumes to make the character’s taste obvious and clear as the main character, in one scene, alters her uniform to be more comfortable for her. This scene then exemplifies how her, Beverly Hills attitude contrasts with the traditional and strict girl scout leadership. This isn’t used often, if at all, by any other film that I know of and it is very effective at showing the culture clash while making several great jokes in one.

As the film wasn’t a hit, it fashioned itself a cult following over the years. It was until a few years ago that a sequel was in the works. This does mean that the film has gained not only popularity, but the financial backing that trusts that a sequel will be a success and wise investment as well. The culture in the film aligns with three of Hofstede’s elements of culture: Masculinity, High Uncertainty Avoidance, and Collectivism. As seen throughout the film, Masculinity rules the culture of the Beverly Hills Girl Scouts as all of them see jewelry, fashion, and other material objects among the most important things in life. This is seen with the amount of jewelry, dresses, and money they possess. Their High Uncertainty Avoidance originates from their lack of experience outdoors as ruffing it in the wilderness actually means one hotel room with nine girls at the Beverly Hotel. In the film, the characters learn to get over their luxuries to achieve their goals. The film shows the character’s Collectivism as the girl scouts form a close bond to one another and grow friendships, but is also seen as the main character has close ties to her personal tailor and hairstylist. This culture can be seen in many parts of the world, the country that lines up with this culture the most is Guatemala because both share two areas of Hoftede’s model: Collectivism and High Uncertainty Avoidance. If the film were to transfer to my cultural values outlined by Hofstede’s model, the film would have to alter Masculinity to Femininity as well as Collectivism to Individualism. The result would most likely be a story about a group of girl scouts, who are not really friends, attempting to work together to accomplish their goals with an ease in nature that would make the film less interesting. “Troop Beverly Hills” (1989) nevertheless captures a realism as the characters all overcome their greatest fear; the wilderness. Which is an internationally understood concept.

“Troop Beverly Hills” (1989) is a conventional film that was made to make Sony Pictures International Entertainment lots of money, which failed. By getting popular stars such as Shelley Long from “Cheers” (1982-1993) to play the lead role, Phyllis Nefler. Being a conventional film, “Troop Beverly Hills” (1989) has a very simple story that wraps up neatly before the ending. The overall story along with its style are unique to it, it does have a resemblance of style to “The Money Pit” (1986) because of the character’s reactions to things happening in different scenes. Other than that one instance, the story is very original and, at some points, clever. That is what makes it a comedy classic of the 1980s.

3. Bonnie and Clyde

The film review this week is for the film, “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) because it is such a classic film to many. After watching this film for the first time, the history of these criminals comes to life with the same adventure and excitement felt with the real story. This film offers an unusual retelling of the story about the lives of the most famous bandits in American history. The story covers from the moment Bonnie and Clyde met to the point they were caught. When this film came out, it made $50,700,000 and took $2.5 million to create. With these numbers, it’s no wonder why this film was a massive success to Warner Bros. Pictures. Many movies and TV shows are similar to “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) including “Hidden Figures” (2016) because of how the historical events and conversations are written for an audience that is unacquainted with the historical material. The way in which these movies write in these facts is to create conversations and utilize realistic newspapers and photographs to educate the audience on the subject matter. However, this means that the conversations are more than likely historically inaccurate, but there is no great way to work around this issue. Especially when the events took place decades before the film was written. Now let's take a dive into the history of the film and use these facts to determine if the film was conventional. 

When critics reviewed the film, they were far from impressed, Variety claimed it to have “conflicting moods, racing from crime to comedy.” However, today when critics reviewed this film, they say that the film has a “punch whose power continues to reverberate through thrillers decades later” (Rotten Tomatoes). Rotten Tomatoes’ consensus best leads the audience's perspective today than Variety’s claim over fifty-five years ago due to most audiences considering the film a classic. 

During the release of “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967), the nation was in chaos due to riots over, primarily, the Vietnam War and Civil Rights. The photo above displays one of the most famous Vietnam War riots; The Pentagon Riot of October 21, 1967. This particular protest highlights the political and economic stance of the people at this time as the protestors wanted “to get national visibility for the anti-war movement” (U.S. Marshals Service). The protestors goal was to show that they didn’t support the Vietnam War because of the amount of money and resources being sent to fight in it. The photo below is another example of the political and economic stance of the people because of the injustice of the treatment of different races led to “the systematic denial of employment opportunities by white-owned businesses” (Britannica). This denial led to specific ethnicities, specifically African Americans, gaining little money through work even when granted a job. This unstable time could have led to people wanting to go to the theater even if the movies received poor reviews. Which could be why “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) was such a massive success. 

The film carries two prominent feelings throughout: the first of which is a soft, warm feeling with comedic undertones which explore the main characters’ personal lives. The second feeling is a dramatic exhibition of the fighting the characters did. These two feelings allow the audience to get emotionally attached to the main characters as the main characters struggle with the idea that they will never have a normal life. Bonnie particularly struggles with this idea as seen when she turns to poetry. Her most famous poem “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde” was used in the film to perfectly replicate her feelings for her lifestyle. In this clip, Bonnie feels as though their destiny has been written for them to die because the Law always wins. This is foreshadowing the ending as Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed and killed at the end of the film. Not many movies kill off the main characters, but this one made sure that their death tied into the feeling Bonnie had when reading her own poem. Her poem gives an insight into their lives as struggling gang members and how they are really kind-hearted people stuck in the life of crime. This is how the movie connects the audience to Bonnie and Clyde. Although highly criticized at first, the music gives the film a hillbilly feeling to aid in the idea that Bonnie and Clyde were always in an unstable lifestyle from their source of money and transportation. The music shines best when used whenever Bonnie and Clyde flee a battle with police because those scenes especially show how delicate their lifestyle is. These scenes draw our attention to the film simply because most of them start suddenly and last for quite a few minutes and all utilize different geographical features from a stream to a meadow. 

As the film is based in 1930s America during the Great Depression, this film had the responsibility to represent struggling Americans as accurately as possible because when the film premiered, only about thirty years had passed since the actual events the film is based on took place. This meant the film had to be specific to the events and align with the 1930s culture because many of the people who lived in the 1930s were around to see the film in theaters. According to Hofstde’s cultural model, the culture of America in the 1930s included collectivism, indulgence, and femininity. These dimensions are apparent in the attitude of the 1930s as the families always stayed together (collectivism), many people did things that made their life more fun (indulgence), and people cared for one another more than money (femininity). All of these dimensions are shown in the relationship between Bonnie and Clyde: their group always ended up staying together, they did all the things that were fun, and they all cared more about each other than the money they stole. This dynamic is seen all around the world because it is truly a family dynamic rather than a coworker dynamic. This makes the characters even more relatable around the world as the audience would see the character’s close-knit bond to each other. With this in mind, even if the dimensions given by Hofstede changed to be my family’s dimensions. There would be no change to the dynamics between the characters because the dimensions are the same. This highlights just how relatable Bonnie and Clyde are from the film to family dynamics today.

“Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) was an unusually successful, but unconventional film based on real events and people. The characters in the film were portrayed by some stars of Hollywood such as Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.The story is clear from the start as to what is happening as the beginning features real photos of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow along with captions describing who they are at a cursory glance. Then, the details emerge as soon as the film properly begins. The ending of the film ties itself together just as neatly as it can with all pieces included in the conclusion to the film. The film was similar to Netflix’s “The Crown” (2016-2023) with the way in which it handled the conversations between characters whilst wrapping the real events of the story in a manner that is close to historically accurate and gives the audience context to the events similarly to the poem mentioned earlier. That is unquestionably what makes “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) a brilliant film.

4. Blazing Saddles

Blazing Saddles (1974) is a hit comedic take of much older western films with an unusual twist. In the story, a town must learn to treat their new African-American Sheriff (Cleavon Little) with respect and admiration as he is the only person who is willing to stand up to the local gangs. Although simple, this story shaped the way the 1970s are now received as a type of healing and bonding from the 1960s Civil Rights Movement that has never been seen before. This is a plausible reason why it was a major success with $119.5 million made. For reference, it cost Warner Brothers $2.6 million to create this film. Blazing Saddles (1974) was a hit film because of three major components: the critical reception, the historical events, and the style.

The critical reception of the film all had high ratings, but most criticized the storyline as most of the story and humor “doesn't have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess” (Ebert, 1974). Although highly criticized, the critics gave the film similar ratings at about four out of five stars. Even today IMDB gave the film a similar rating of 7.7/10. It is no surprise why people would go see the film with those ratings. On a personal note, the film is rather humorous, but lacks a solid ending. Toward the ending of the film, it transitions to being at the Warner Brothers backlot for no obvious reason. After a few scenes of the characters running about in Hollywood, the film switches back just in time for the classic ‘riding off into the sunset’ scene. As you could imagine, this ending is confusing to say the least. This only adds to the lack of structure of the film and it leaves the audience on a confused note. 

Some of the historical events that took place during the production and release of this film include the resignation of President Nixon amid the Watergate Scandal and ABBA’s win at the Eurovision Song contest. Both of these events shaped a decade as Gerald Ford came into office and ABBA’s international legacy was successfully launched. However, to fully understand the intention of Blazing Saddles (1974), we must look back on the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. This movement created a small bridge into equal rights for all, but this bridge had to expand to fully be accepted and normalized. In fact, some plantations in the south remained in place until the early 1960s due to the descendants of the enslaved being held there by debt, so it makes sense that this normalization process would influence movies. As movies influence culture, Blazing Saddles (1974) aimed to use comedy to highlight how pointless racism is. As seen in the first clip below, once the townspeople started to realize that the Sheriff is helping, their opinion of him changed to be more accepting and respectful towards him. Although it took the townspeople a long time to adjust, it took Jim (Gene Wilder) nearly seconds to accept and respect the new Sheriff in the second clip below. This difference in acceptance and respect could be interpreted and seen as the good guys of the film, Bart the Sheriff and Jim, never use racial slurs while the bad guys of the film use racial slurs most often. All the while, the townspeople transition to almost never use such slurs and insults. According to The Guardian, the frequent use of the racial slurs, particularly the N-word, made Burton Gilliam “so ashamed to use the word that he apologized to the star, Cleavon Little, who reminded him of its villainous context in the script.” 

1st clip https://youtu.be/mjU03P_6nbQ?si=Mh522oCE72bmo3XP 

2nd clip https://youtu.be/LNTw3x40I0o?si=IvyGsSQRZD6Er-az 

The film has a very unique style that makes the audience feel at odds whether to laugh or not. For example, the townspeople would create awkward situations with their reactions and use of racial slurs. Given all of such scenes have a humorous undertone, one really can’t help but laugh. However, it feels wrong to do so. One such scene is in the clip below. This clip is one of the best scenes in the film because of the quiet, awkward situation created by the townspeople's reaction to the near appearance of the Sheriff. The quiet nature drives one’s attention to the sudden outbursts of racial slurs and gasps from the townspeople. This particular clip is the base reaction to contrast with how the townspeople get acclimated to the Sheriff. This is in stark contrast to the early westerns which this film was based on. The massage of the film can clearly be heard in the title song provided in the second clip below. 

1st clip https://youtu.be/IZT7xLjxuhs?si=YY41Hbp3aGLP4cch

2nd clip https://youtu.be/hzRmp-O496Y?si=ip-bA_vMDH9f1M6P 

During the production of Blazing Saddles (1974), the director, Mel Brooks, was working on another film that had a similar style called Young Frankenstein (1974) which featured many of the same actors including Gene Wilder and Madiline Kahn. Other stars such as Harvery Korman and Liam Dunn all were well known through their other films and TV shows from The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972) to the Carol Burnett Show (1967-1978). As the story was new and unfamiliar, it makes sense for Warner Brothers to capitalize on such stars of the film industry. That was a major factor as to why the film was a massive success.

5. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) is an action adventure film based in the wildly successful Indiana Jones franchise. The film utilized a large budget of $28 million to take the audience to a new place in Asia that saw Indiana Jones save millions of kidnapped children and dismantle a death cult’s grip on nearby villages. This unique story required the directional lead of Steven Spielberg to fill it with the action and charm as the first Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the lost Ark (1981). Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom would be a prequel to the first to navigate one of Indiana Jones’s older adventures with his companions Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and Short Round (Ke Huy Quan).

Many critics praised the film for offering “the most impressive achievements in the whole history of Raiders and Bond-style thrillers” (Roger Ebert Review). Therefore, it is no surprise why the film earned $333,080,271 at the box office. Now, forty years after its’ release, the film still offers the same excitement felt from the first day in theaters. Nowadays, the Indiana Jones franchise is criticized for cultural appropriation that has been seen such as Indiana’s goal to put artifacts from other cultures in a museum. However, as Screen Rant points out, Temple of Doom is the only Indiana Jones film to return an artifact to the rightful owners rather than a museum. No matter what the case, the film offers an adventure to a unique culture that is no more than escapism. 

The culture at the time of the film’s release can be seen in two events: the first is Ronald Reagan’s U.S. Presidential Election win, and Micheal Jackson being in the news. Ronald Reagan’s landslide win comes to show the political stature as Reagan only lost one state. This victory for Reagan had him at “525 electoral votes to (his opponent) Mondale’s 13” (Britannica). His anty-communism stance in politics is what voters were looking for with the unstable situation with Russia. Possibly the best example for pop culture in 1984 was Micheal Jackson in the news because “His every move made news” (Billboard). In early January that year, Micheal Jackson was in the news for the famous Pepsi Commercial Accident that had him receive second and third degree burns as seen in the video below. This didn’t help him in the press as he later wrote a song called “Leave Me Alone” which is the video above. In the “Leave Me Alone" video, it clearly shows newspapers pertaining to all the news on him throughout the years as he is fed up with the press. These events highlight the culture of the 1980s in pop culture and in politics.

The entire film is filled with a rather intense style that rushes from one action-packed scene to the next. This brisk pace is seen throughout the entire film, however a couple of scenes stand out in this pace. These two scenes that stand out are the rope bridge scene and the mine cart chase because both have aspects that look as though they were taken out of a cartoon. The rope Bridge scene is the perfect example of the unbearable tension before the action takes place. This isn’t all that unique, but the way the characters, primarily Indiana and Willie, interact and argue with one another throughout the scene is truly what makes it fantastic to watch. Another excellent scene is the mine cart scene because of the unique way all of the characters fight between separate cars. Not to mention the visuals of the lava under the track that gives the entire scene a wonderful orange glow. This imagery can only be described as something exclusively from a cartoon or video game. The movement of the cars is really what holds one’s attention to the scene because of the speed at which the cars are moving.

Rope Bridge Scene: https://youtu.be/nPGxSotEa-c?si=Rnwjn5Ky5Swr8Ixs 

Mine Cart Chase Scene: https://youtu.be/hVGl1d8hRBI?si=EOslw31_FId1rQQ8 

The film is more conventional than unconventional because it is a sequel to a hit movie that came out just a few years earlier, it has some big actors in it, and it was directed by a a big name director. The entire film was made to make as much money as possible and keep the franchise going. The end wraps up as neatly as possible while allowing the freedom to add another sequel to the franchise. The style has been used in numerous TV shows and films such as The Goonies (1985) and some episodes of Inspector Gadget (1982-2023). You could say that the Indiana Jones franchise inspired all of those stories. That is what makes Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) a classic. 

6. Terminator + Chainsaw Massacre

The Terminator (1984) is a technologically advanced film that takes the audience into a world of time travel and assassins. This film greatly improved numerous special effects and film techniques which have since been used in many other films since it was made. Due to the film’s unique story, the special effects, and the emotions portrayed the film launched a critically acclaimed franchise that, similar to the Terminator, refuses to die. The reasons for this are found in the film’s story, the tones the film has, and the time the film came out.

The story of the film is rather unique as no previous film utilized such a mix of action and time travel. As peculiar as it sounds, The Terminator only had a budget of  6.4 million dollars which isn’t that large of a budget, especially for a film with this production size. Therefore, it only makes sense for the writers to use special effects that don’t cost too much such as stop motion models. One such model can be seen in the clip above. These low cost effects allow the budget to be used for very expensive effects similar to the below. As all of the effects are quite convincing, it makes the film look much more real than one would expect. In contrast, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) had an even lower budget and, to be honest, had even less convincing effects which made the film not as scary as some may say. The Terminator used its budget wisely to deliver the best possible experience.

As the majority of the film focuses on the violence the Terminator (Arnold Shwarzennegger) is causing in order to assassinate Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton), it only is logical for there to be soft, tender moments throughout the film that make the audience relate and connect to the characters. When compared to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), there are really no soft moments to give the audience that connection. However, it uses the terror and gore of the experience of Sarah Hardesty to make that connection, yet one feels more sorry for her than a genuine connection as one doesn’t know much about her by the end of the film. In fact, one doesn’t even know if she had the drive to catch the killers who tortured her. Meanwhile, Terminator established Sarah Conner as a fearful person and, by the end of the film, she became a much braver person who clearly has the same, nurturing personality. 

The historic events that took place during the making and release of The Terminator (1984) included a direct competition with another film that was utilizing cutting edge special effects for the time, Ghostbusters (1984). Terminator simply had to rely on its story and special effects to market against Ghostbusters. However, both films were resounding hits because Ghostbusters targeted a younger audience than Terminator. When compared to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre didn’t need to be a success due to its low budget. 

Once in theaters, The Terminator became a resounding success with the critics and the audience agreeing that it is one of the greats. With such reviews, it comes to no surprise that the film became a massive success with the box office nearly hitting 80 million dollars worldwide. For reference, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre made 26.5 million dollars 

at the box office. However, both films went on to launch successful franchises that are still making many new films from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) to Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). However, it is clear which of the two franchises is more successful as the Terminator franchise has always been massive hits since the first while The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise were much smaller hits. 

The Terminator is one of the greatest films to be released due to the emotional connection, story, and special effects used that all made it look and feel real. This film was one of the biggest critically acclaimed films of the time which gave it the momentum it needed to become a massively treasured franchise. This film not only used its budget efficiently, but it produced some of the best effects that brought a popularity in use of such effects, particularly stop motion in the 1990s. Such an influential film does not come around often, therefore it is a true treasure of a film  that created the best visuals, the best story, and the best emotions that have all made the film a modern classic that resonates with the modern viewer just as much as the original audience. This was one of the best films to watch as it was truly enjoyable from the beginning to the end.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Essay

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a very unique film that takes a rather remarkable dive into the day of an unfortunate chain of events that left five people dead and one survivor whilst displaying the mind of killers. This film greatly pushed the boundaries of goriful things allowed to be shown in the theaters. When compared to the modern slasher film, the film isn’t considered to contain that much gore, yet it still manages to frighten many who watch it these days due to the low budget, story, and the effects used. 

The budget of the film is the primary reason for the look and style of the film. This is because the budget added many constraints of what the writers could do for the action and gore in the film. The way they worked around the 140 thousand dollar budget  by creating a documentary-style atmosphere that made the events in the film look much more realistic. Another excellent way they worked around the budget was by having entire scenes dedicated to the sick mind of the killers as seen in the clip above of the infamous dinner sequence. In this sequence, the killers are taunting and terrorizing one of the victims while howling like coyotes of the night. Although the clip doesn’t provide the entire scene, the scene takes up several minutes that some may consider to be wasteful time as not much buildup or suspense takes place. However, the scene takes its time to allow the audience to see the full extent of the killers’ psychotic mind as they begin to laugh with joyful glee at her screams for help. When compared to the way Terminator handles its budget, it becomes obvious that most of the budget went towards the set of the killers’ house. Meanwhile, Terminator’s budget was spent on the effects that make the story convincing such as the scene of Terminator repairing himself. 

As the beginning mentions, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre focuses on the murders of five people that started from a chance meeting. The scene above is when all the characters first meet the Hitchhiker. As the Hitchhiker shares what he does it becomes obvious that the Hitchhiker is mentally ill and disturbed. The conversation continues with the characters being disgusted by his nature as he decides to cut his own hand with a pocket knife from one of the characters. The entire conversation in the scene does an excellent job foreshadowing the killers’ connection with the hitchhiker as the hitchhiker mentions his family and his home life. This is the only meaningful conversation in the film as all the other conversations are about what to do next, not about the characters' lives as individuals. One doesn’t know much about the character’s lives, especially the surviving character. It is as though the characters were thrown into the film just so they get killed, most of them don’t even have last names such as Pam, Jerry, and Kirk. They simply don’t have that connection that Terminator has because Terminator takes the time to develop the characters through numerous meaningful conversations in a tender tone that makes them relatable. The characters in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are put in place to die like lambs at the slaughter. 

During the creation of this film, the United States was in a crisis. The Watergate Scandal saw the first president’s resignation along with an infamous tornado outbreak throughout the Great Plains. These major events give way to a glimpse at the political and economic characteristics of 1974. The tornado outbreak was an extraordinarily rare occurrence that destroyed hundreds of miles of homes across several states. This devastation brought on a new technological mission to prevent so many lives from being lost as “modernized systems ensured more rapid detection of storms and led to the modern era of delivering timely forecasts and warnings to the public” (NOAA). However, these events didn’t have an impact on the film’s success because of the budget put in place. When compared with Terminator’s time and events, Terminator had to be a success because the investment in the film was large enough to cause concern over its competition, namely Ghostbuster.

When The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released into theaters, it became a massive hit as it made 26.5 million dollar compared to its 140 thousand dollar budget. With such a hit, it is no wonder why this film launched a well known horror franchise that has been scaring millions of people ever since its inception. Compared to Terminator, the Terminator franchise is much more enjoyed by the audience and critics alike for the story and effects it has. In either case, both franchises are widely successful and have stood the test of time.

Although The Texas Chainsaw Massacre isn’t the best film, it offers one of the greatest looks inside the sadistic minds of murderers. Its odd approach to tension with pure quiet and sudden death is what makes it good. However, it faces inexcusable plot holes as the ending doesn’t say or show if the killers were ever caught and, in the clip above, what happened to the semi driver. These thoughts could have been resolved by the film, but are not even addressed as issues. Another such flaw is the name of the film as only one victim died from a chainsaw, the majority are hammers. In any case, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) was a rather unique film that is beloved for its strange approach to achieving frights. 

7. Pleasantville

What is the point of the film Pleasantville? Pleasantville (1998) is a film about two siblings, who get transported to another world that resembles a community from a 1950s sitcom. Once there, the siblings bring their knowledge of their home world to this sitcom world. As they do so, the people in the sitcom world begin to change as they learn about the outside world. When this happens, the people change from black/white to color. However, the people do not change at the same time because each person is on their own path to self discovery and enrichment. Usually, this takes a person to develop an interest or hobby such as painting, but in some cases it takes behavioral changes such as confidence or truthfulness to reach full color. Just as long as that person finds themselves is when they will turn to color. This review will take a look at the film and take a dive into historic events, arguments, reviews, and how it compares to other films. 

With the story in the film in mind, it is clear that the film seems rather unconventional. However, the fact that it had a cast of widely known stars such as Jeff Daniels and Don Knotts. As well as rising stars such as Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon. Surprisingly, this film was not the only film to make characters learn about themselves and their world. The Truman Show came out the same year as Pleasantville and follows a man discovering that his world is a lie as it is actually a reality show. With these films following similar plots, it could be said that both films are conventional. Even though both films are offbeat, both used effects that made the stories convincing, and both had some well known names in the cast. The films were marketed differently, made a different amount of money, and had different runtimes in the theaters. Pleasantville was only in theaters for a few weeks instead of The Truman Show’s months in theater. However, Pleasantville did make money for that short time and was well received. Robert Ebert is a great example of how the film was received as “one of the year's best and most original films.” With this information, we can conclude that Pleasantville was simply an artistic, conventional film that wasn’t successful at the box office.

Pleasantville’s story aimed not to alienate people, but rather to teach people how emotion and change can have a major impact on a town. Although it is extreme in demonstrating this with its rather obvious basis being the 1960s cultural shift, it demonstrates its point quite beautifully with its use of color. Color is a major component to the film’s story as the change from black and white to color is what makes the community’s leaders panic. This use of color is artistically done in a way that contributes to the story. Not only that, but the way color is used is quite technologically genius because, as seen in the clip below, David (Tobey Maguire) is putting black and white make-up on, now colored, Betty (Joan Allen). This is one of the most impactful scenes because of the use of color. It makes one look at themselves when they go out in public because these days are a time of reflection as social media pushes us to make ourselves look as beautiful as possible. As Reese Witherspoon states in her interview about the film above, “white middle class, suburban America which was portrayed as perfect families; two kids, two parents, one dog, nice house, picket fence.” This wasn’t accurate to the real 1950s as there were a lot of issues between civil rights and segregation. In the film, to avoid excluding groups of people, color was used to show the characters becoming human. Meaning that it is okay to make mistakes, learn, and grow to be better people rather than already being perfect. 

There have been very interesting arguments pushed forward about the film from how the film shows us that a shift in the dominant part of society needs to happen to how the film relates to religious text. “Fear as Desire: Pleasantville Film Analysis” on Medium shows how the film is an example that “individuals that are discriminated against are seen as monsters for disrupting the dominant’s preset social categories.” Meanwhile, the book, Mediating Religion’s chapter named “Paradise Lost, or Paradise Learned?: Sin and Salvation in Pleasantville” discusses how the film has religious subtext that resembles the most famous part of The Bible, the Fall with the council member’s view being that their town is falling apart from the cultural change. The article states that the film’s “(at times) overt religious connotations (indeed, this may actually have deterred many people from seeing it)” (Deacy, 201). The film’s plot doesn’t seem to be completely religious as the daughter introduces sex into the sitcom world as her first move. Then, as Robert Ebert's review explains, she “shares information about masturbation with her mother.” This action is clearly not supported by any Biblical text, so the film isn’t as religious as described. However, in the scene below, David (Tobey Maguire) fully becomes heroic and helps his sitcom world mother, Betty (Joan Allen), out of a verbally abusive, targeted attack on her for the fact that she is embracing her colored look. Although not overt, this scene is a great example of one of those biblical messages in the film because the Bible encourages heroism and the fact that this behavior is what made David turn to color.

During the time the film came out, The Truman Show came out and Bill Clinton was in the process of being impeached. These events show that there was a culture for finding the truth with The Truman Show being about finding the truth and Bill Clinton’s case being the process for finding the truth. As History.com states “the Starr Report outlined a case for impeaching Clinton on 11 grounds, including perjury, obstruction of justice, witness-tampering, and abuse of power.” This showcases what happens when a president “publicly denied the allegations, saying, ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.’” Years after Pleasantville premiered, another film set out to change film technology forever. Avatar premiered in 2009, but took about a decade to make because of the ambitious use of technology. Similar to Pleasantville, Avatar changed the film industry because of its use of technology. Both films tell great, timeless stories that have required great innovations in technology just to make them. For this fact, these films will never be forgotten and will stand as a testament of storytelling and innovation.

[kirukkals]

Ireland - "Love the place, Leave no trace"

Have you ever found yourself scrolling through social media, looking at pictures of gorgeous places, and wishing you could be there right now? Our trip happened just like that! April 2024, week long EID holidays here in UAE, and what better place than Ireland during the spring season! Ireland is the 30th country that I have visited to date and, for me, definitely falls in one of the top 5 places to visit if you are a nature lover! It was a pleasant surprise that there was no visa rush for Ireland, unlike Europe, where the wait times were long and the embassy turnaround time was quick.

Now don’t get me wrong, travelling is a privilege and it is definitely not cheap! Fortunately for us, we choose to save to spend on trips every year and give ourselves the experience to savour a new land and a new culture.

The thing that strikes us about Ireland is that the people not just love the outdoors but respect it too. They completely hate people who litter the outdoor. There were not many trash bins to be seen. Everywhere the display is put up in bold, “Love the place, leave no trace”. Yes, they want you to carry your trash with you to your home. The outdoors are so pristine that you wouldn’t want to leave a trace.

April 4th, we landed in Dublin, the capital city of Ireland. We rented out a car at the airport, avoided Dublin city, and headed outside. The next 10 days, the Nissan Duke Hybrid served very well for our long drives in the Irish countryside, 1700 kms, to be precise. That evening, we strolled through the streets of Swords, had a pizza for dinner, and took a basic accommodation in Travelodge, Swords. There is so much awareness of vegetarian and vegan food here that when we ordered our pizza, the guy over the counter asked us if we preferred that our pizza was cut with a fresh wheel cutter. I nodded with a big smile.

April 5th, we did the Swords castle first. Just taking in the landscape, weather, learning to drive on the left and stay on that side of the road. The air was clean, the ground was drenched with fresh rain, and the green was at it greenest. Later, we drove to the Trim castle and sought help with an expert guide who gave us a walk through with some humorous stories about living in a castle. There was one tricky narrow spiral stairs all the way up the castle & down! Had a very good view of the entire county from the top. It was good to visit a 11th century castle in ruin, but maintained well of what is left. We drove to Donegal, which served as a mid-way halt before we headed to the northern most tip of Ireland. Interestingly, we booked ourselves at a B&B above a pub and, surprisingly, a quiet one for a Friday evening.

April 6th, we first stocked up snacks at Lidl store. Having stayed in the UK for a year, we knew Lidl or Tesco stores were the ones to go to stock up for day trips! We did a quick visit to the Donegal castle. It was more like an exhibition hall with wooden stairs & models. Each castle had something different to offer. Some were cozy, some very elaborate, some ornate. But, that’s it, we had done enough castles for the trip. Then we began our exhilarating drive up north on the Wild Atlantic Way. The next few days, our drive was all over the Wild Atlantic Way, and the scenes were breathtaking. Our first stop was at Malin Head, the northern most part of Ireland.

We stayed at Whitestrand Home. The owner, a young 70+ lady, was so friendly and helpful. She gave the map of the county and marked the places to visit nearby. The next two days, we had great homemade breakfast and a lovely chat with her! The accommodation was a triple room with a balcony, which opened to a huge backyard and with an unobstructed view of the North Atlantic Sea. We could hear the strong winds, watch the waves splashing at the far end, and sheep grazing lazily at the farm nearby. Sunset in that setting is such a serene experience. That evening, we visited the beach. And it was so windy up north that the effects of Kathleen storm that had just battered the island hadn't died down yet, and wind speeds were more than 60 kmph! We were surprised to find an Indian takeaway restaurant, Taste of India, in one remote village! And food was definitely better than the standards I expected. We helped ourselves to nice hot food after some wild, windy weather. I wonder why they don't have chai in an Indian restaurant!

One of the main reasons to have come this far up was my hope to catch sight of northern lights. But there was no activity in the next two days, and I still kept an alarm at 12.30 midnight and 2.30 a.m. to check the skies. There were no fancy lights, but it was still worth it to wake up and stare at the sky. What a magical star-studded sky it was ! Clear skies with millions of little stars twinkling and no light pollution from the village. It was definitely worth waking up to this sight.

April 7th, we covered the places in Malin head. Banba's crown - Hells hole walk - Glenevin Waterfall - Lighthouse - World War 2 lookout point. I felt the best part was the Hells Hole walk in the cliff. It was such a windy day, no one around, yet we did the walk. At one moment, a crazy rain storm drenched us. A few minutes later, it had moved north. The sight in front of us was a cloud burst over the ocean and a beautiful rainbow and us basking in bright sunlight. That’s how unpredictable the weather could be, and if you don’t complain, you could be rewarded with some sights to die for.

April 8th, we stopped at Grianan of aileach or the Greenan fort. It is a stone ringfort in the Inishowen area, and this site is protected as a national monument. We met an American tourist who chose this spot to practice her bagpiper instrument due to the natural acoustics the site offered. In fact, the music pulled us toward the centre of the ring, a lovely, serene start to the day. We then did a long drive to Doolin, almost 5 hrs with some breaks. Later in the evening was a solar eclipse. With alternating sunlight and cloud, we could not know if we drove past an eclipse moment. We reached our room, chose to stay put for the evening and take good rest.

April 9th, one of the other best days in the trip. We visited the Cliffs of Moher. The sites from the edge are breathtaking. Not even the best camera in the world could capture the magnitude and magnificence of the place. A place this spectacular brings with itself some usuals, a site filled with tourists. After about 5 days, we finally saw some crowd and obviously some Asian tourists. We walked the pathway along the edge of the cliff, along with many others. If you were a little careless in the walk, the wind is strong enough to push you over the cliff. If you are a Harry Potter fan, the part of the 6th movie where Harry goes with Dumbledore to find a horcrux was shot in these waters!

In the second half of the day, we headed to our Mountain View resort, driving through the Ring of Kerry in Southwest Ireland. The ring of Kerry Drive is considered to be one of the most scenic routes. But having driven all the way up north and then west, to south, the entire country is scenic! Our resort stay is again worth mentioning here because we got an entire 1 BHK house for us in a lush setting. The kitchen was fully equipped, and we could help ourselves to some homemade food mid-way of the tour. We had a relaxing couple of days while we still visited some places.

April 10th, we did some spots in the Ring of Kerry. I say some, coz we chose not to do it all. As mentioned earlier, if you have done up north, the scenery is almost similar. We walked through the Killarney National Park at ease. You can take the horse ride, we found it a bit expensive, so instead decided to walk the park. After all, the trip is all about walks and taking in the fresh air! This is a huge park. We just did 1/4th of it. We then visited the Torc waterfall. Expecting it to be a bit similar to the previous one, we were in for a surprise. This is a lush forest, and the spring season showed all its shades of green so vividly here. The waterfalls were a sight to behold, and we trekked up for about an hour into the dense woods.

April 11th, we did the Farran National Park in the Ring of Kerry. It had a beautiful lake, walking path, we spotted some deer’s and it seemed they were surprised too to see some humans. They went about their day job of grazing, and we walked our path. From here, we headed to Cork about an hour's drive. Cork is a major town, We found it busy than the other places we visited. It also had a very young population, something we hadn’t seen much before up north or the west side.

If one cannot do Belfast, then visit the picturesque town of Cobh (pronounced Cove), most famous for being the last port of call on the maiden voyage of the ill-fated Titanic. A short tour inside, but as captivating as the Titanic always is! Oh yes, Cork is famous for the Blarney Stone. Legend has it that if you kiss the stone, you are blessed with the gift of sweet talk. We didn't want to empty our pockets to kiss a stone hanging upside down from a castle top. I guess there is enough gift of the gab in the family!

April 12th, Cork to Dublin Drive is another long one. We stopped at the Rock of Dunamese, and it had the ruins of a fort, a perfect stop to stretch, hike, and view the beauty of the land from the top. Stopping at Junction 14 on M8 was a good fuel break for the car and the body. It had an elaborate food court and washrooms facilities.

We had exited Dublin immediately after our landing. We decided to keep it for the last days since we were flying out of Dublin. This was our first proper evening in the capital city, and I felt 90% of the population of Ireland lives here. The city centre was bustling with activity. Sunset is only around 8 p.m. in this season, so tourists and residents are out on the streets until late. We did some shopping in Penneys and walked through the streets to eat at the multiple Indian restaurants option available!

April 13th, our last day in this enthralling country. We visited the most popular and oldest, Trinity College of Dublin. The main interest is in the old library with the long room. This is too highly priced, and books removed now, they only had an immersive virtual tour. So we skipped it. The college campus was nothing impressive. Too many tourists, students, and some renovation activity happening, all in the same grounds, not really what we expected. We did a quick visit to the Dublin castle grounds and St.Patrick's cathedral.

Letz get to the best part of Dublin visit during the spring season! Cherry Blossoms ! Yes, this is not just in Japan, but here too, we saw lovely blossoms! Lined up in the streets, in front of many homes, they were on full bloom, all smiling and welcoming the visitors. The botanical gardens right in the centre of the city is a really vast, magnificent place housing different varieties of trees and plants! We walked 3 hours around the gardens and then headed to the airport. One could have a full day's picnic at the botanical gardens if you have a love for plants!

On the way to the airport, it was time to give our Nissan a good wash. We had driven highways, country roads, through slush and grasslands. Not just the outer, the inner of the car too had seen the landscape. After the auto wash, we had the vacuum station. In Dubai, we are spoilt for service. At the car wash, you are served by 3-5 attendants who completely wash, wipe, and vacuum the car. Here, it was self-service. There is no one to even tell you how to turn ON the huge vacuum monster. The Nissan smiled clean and ready to return back to Europcar.

Time to say goodbye. Some trips are about losing yourself in the wilderness, to take a breather to calm the nerves. Then, revitalizing in the greens and the blues, finding your inner self with a deeper understanding of happiness. Ultimately, vacationing is not about where you go but who you go with! I am blessed with two who enjoy and make it memorable for me every time!