#Had to include the fabled Pencil scene | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tired-college-student-writing · 5 years

Text

The Merchant of Death isn't just for Show: Chapter 3

Summary: Tony Stark was one of the most well-connected people on the Globe, and yet there are places you wouldn’t expect him to have connections, the Assassin Underworld being a prime example. Tony lives to surprise, however.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 (HERE)

Part 4

_______________________________________________________________________

1997

_______________________________________________________________________

“How did a Marine become a hitman?”

“It’s complicated,” John mumbled into his bourbon.

“It always is.” Tony just sighed as he tossed back his scotch.

“Cheers to that,” Happy sassed, lifting his glass up mockingly.

Tony’s meeting with Winston had just ended and he was honestly expecting his new buddy to be a bit more talkative. Most assassins were, Tony had found out over the years. In the Underworld banter and quips were like bread and butter to the members of the society. Snark was a simple pleasure in the painful life of an assassin.

John wasn’t like that, however. John was quiet, soft-spoken, each move calculated, no matter how mundane. Every answer he had given Tony had been five words or less, and he had yet to ask any question himself. He could see the military training in this man, but there was something more…

“Is the interrogation over now?”

Tony blinked in surprise, “Interrogation?”

John nodded, “Isn’t that what this is? You're trying to figure out who wormed their way into Winston’s favorite position? Figuring out how best to utilize my skills to freak out Winston?”

Tony’s smile fell as Happy let a low whistle and grabbed the empty glasses and with a call of, “I’m getting another round,” He fled the table.

The tension was thick around the table as Tony gulp downed his drink.

“Did I say something wrong?”

Tony snorted, “You just did what every fucking person does, and Happy knows it pisses me off.”

“Should I warn Winston about me disappearing after I leave the Continental?” John asks, and with anyone else in this field Tony would assume they were joking, but there was nothing but serious intent in John’s voice. John recognized him as a threat it seemed. That was certainly a change. Even being out of disguise now, no one really treated him as a threat, more like an oddity.

“No,” Tony said, “Happy just asked the same question when he started working for me and still feels guilty about it.”

John didn’t say anything just tilted his head to the side slightly. If Tony didn’t know this man was a talented assassin he would compare him to a puppy… maybe a trained attack dog.

Tony just shook his head, “You do know who I am, right? Your accent is American. My face is basically plastered on every tabloid every other weekend here. ”

John gave a shrug, “I figured you were either narcissistic enough to talk about yourself extensively, or you would be tired of the questions. Since you didn’t say anything about yourself so I chose not to be rude,”

The billionaire couldn’t stop the laugh from escaping his lips.

“Well, that’s a first.” He admitted, “Usually people are too curious to give a rat’s ass about being polite.”

“I’ve been told I’m a bit of an oddity,” was the only explanation he was given.

“Well Johnny Boy,” Tony ignored the raised brow at the nickname, “ There’s one thing you should know about me even if you don’t want to ask questions.”

They stared at each other for a long moment as Tony tapped his glass with his nails.

“Don’t assume I’m trying to manipulate anyone. If I’m manipulating someone, you’ll know, or if I did try and manipulate you, you would know until it’s too late.”

_______________________________________________________________________

1998

_______________________________________________________________________John blinked as a blond stormed up to his table at the hole in the wall bar he was staking out for his contract.

“Can I help you?”

The redhead scowled and slid into the seat, slams ten golden coins onto the tabletop. His eyes flash up to the face of the agitated man. His hair was a dusty blonde and slicked back, his bright blue eyes burned into him but his face was undeniably familiar about his face and his stance even if he wore a much cheaper suit then last time.

“Tony?”

“Antonio,” The man snapped, “Antonio Carbonell.”

John had no problem reading between the lines. This was the disguise Stark used for his work in the Underworld, the one he had mentioned their first meeting.

“What is this for?” He asked instead, pocketing the coins before anyone else could see them.

Tony huffed, stealing John’s drink and taking a swig, “I visited the old man today.”

John just raised an eyebrow.

Tony rolled his eyes, “Winston, geez keep up, Johnny Boy.”

John felt his lips twitch upwards as the pieces slid into place, “It has only been nine months. Much closer to three months than two years.”

“I know!” Tony whined, “I found him getting his roots touched up by some barber! His roots, John! Like he could actually stop us from finding out he was greying!”

“Well,” John couldn’t help but chuckle, “Your trips to Morocco probably didn’t help matters.”

Tony’s jaw fell slack for a beat before his face morphed into a bright grin, “Oh my trips to Morocco tipped him over the edge? What about your trip to Vianna? Or the one to Syria? No one really figured out what happened with al-Eryani did they?”

“No.”

Tony couldn’t help, but enjoy the lack of arrogance in the man’s voice, the absence of smug pride that so many assassins had in their voices, just a simple emotionless no.

“What are you drinking, cause it’s amazing and I want more?”

_______________________________________________________________________

2000

_______________________________________________________________________

John should have known that this was going to happen when Tony, disguised as always, showed up at his door with that cheeky grin like he had nearly every month since their second meeting.

He should have known it when Tony ordered his seventh scotch at the third bar he managed to convince John to come to for a ‘bar crawl’.

He should have known that when he saw those punks following them between bars after Tony hustled them at the pool table, especially when he saw one that he recognized from McGowan’s men.

And yet he really didn’t expect to be choked against a bar top tonight, the only gun Tony allowed him to bring on their night out kicked away if he was being completely honest.

His hands scrambled across the bartop behind him as his vision blurred. He found something hard and long, it would do. He lashed out feeling the hands fall from his throat as his weapon stabbed through his jugular vein. Blinking the spots away from his vision he saw the man collapses, dark crimson blood pooling on the floor already under the down man. In his fist was a pencil.

A pencil, really?

Better then nothing, John thought as he ran to where Tony was smashing a bottle of vodka over one of his attacker’s head. John quickly grabbed one of the men trying to attack from behind around the head and drove the pencil into his eye socket, felling it burst into goopy bloody slush as the man screamed, falling to the floor. John would have tried to push it further, into the man’s brain but he could feel the wood creaking under his fingers. He would let him bleed out instead.

“Oi Wick!”

The assassin only needed to glance up for a second to see Tony kicked the last assailant over towards him. Without even thinking he held the pencil down on the table to his left and slammed the man down on it, feeling it cutting through the back of his neck and luckily diving between two vertebrae, severing the man’s spinal cord.

Panting they met each other eyes and Tony broke down laughing. Wick just rolled his eyes.

“Tony.”

“You went full Austin Powers on those guys, Johnny boy!”

“Tony.”

“You killed three guys with a pencil! A pencil! That was probably the second most badass thing I’ve ever seen you do!”

“Is the first still eating Harold's chili without getting sick?”

“Absolutely, I doubt you’ll be able to top that.”

“Господи…”

The quiet word drew his attention to the only table that didn’t flee when fists started flying. There was a group of five men, staring wide-eyed at them. They were familiar.

“You’re Viggo and Adram Tarasov,” Tony said, confirming John’s thoughts, “What are you gentlemen doing here on this fine evening?”

“Viggo became a father yesterday,” Adram replied weakly, “Business going well, Antonio?”

Tony glanced down at the bodies, “Oh this? Nah this was just a personal issue.”

“Personal?” one of the other Mobsters asked. John gave a shrug.

“We just went for a drink. McGowan needs to keep a better reign on his men.”

_______________________________________________________________________

2000

_______________________________________________________________________

John had barely taken one step into the hideout when he was told to head to Viggo’s office.

Something was wrong.

He entered without knocking or saying a word to his boss, simply waiting for the man to start talking.

"What did you do to the phones?"

That made John blink, he hadn't expected that question.

"The phones?"

Viggo raised an eyebrow, "You can't honestly tell me, you have no idea what is happening."

John just stared harder, an eyebrow just barely cocked.

Viggo threw his hands up, "Call my phone then! See for yourself!"

John didn't hesitate to pull out his cell phone. It was a much sleeker model then the flip phones most carried around, a Stark prototype, given to him to see how they faired against the wear and tear of assassin life.

The dial tone didn't even finish when John groaned, hearing the familiar lyrics,

Cause this may be the last time now that you hear the boogie song-

John hung up the call. He didn't even want to know how many phones had been affected by this.

"I need to make a phone call." He said stiffly.

"I would like to listen in." Viggo requested. John knew however that his words were more of a polite command so he swiftly placed the phone on speaker as he dialed the number.

"Junebug!" was heard answering the phone, making Viggo sputter in disbelieve, "How's my favorite hitman doing?"

"What did you do to Viggo's men's phones?" John asked, ignoring the bewildered look from Viggo.

John could practically hear the cheeky grin over the phone, "Oh? I haven't got a clue what you're referring to, Johnny Boy."

John rolled his eyes, warning a dumbstruck wheeze from the old Russian who was used to seeing nothing but stoic professionalism from his newest hire.

"I can hear your mask cracking,"

"Change it back Tony," John said blowing past the accusation that would count as grounds for a duel in most assassin circles.

"Oh come on John! It's hilarious! You're the boogeyman! You have a theme song and I'm using it properly!"

"The title of Baba Yaga isn't supposed to be funny,"

"No, but it's hilarious to me!"

"Don't make me call Pepper, Stark, we both know she will kick your ass harder then I could."

"Ohhh Last names! I'm getting to you."

"I'm calling Pepper."

"Wait! No, don't! I skipped out on a board meeting, she will kick my ass."

"Change them back then."

There was a deep sigh, "Fine. JARVIS, send the counter virus to all the phones we affected."

"Already done, Sir."

"Thank you, JARVIS," John responded, picking up the phone again.

"Hey, where's my then-"

John hung up before he could finish.

"It's done," He said to his employer.

"Who the hell was that?" Viggo asked, face pale.

John gave a shrug, "Tony Stark." He answered honestly.

"Tony Stark? As in the billionaire tech genius Tony Stark?"

John was starting to worry that his boss was going to go into shock, but continued anyway just to see what happened, perhaps Tony was rubbing off on him after all, "He's a friend. He's been teasing me about my title of Baba Yaga since he found out about it."

The older man sat there for a few seconds, eyes distant before he waved for John to leave. He closed the door behind him when he heard a dull thud and a muffled swear.

"Блыат..."

John cracked a smile, before schooling his features once more. Maybe he could see the humor in the situation.

_______________________________________________________________________

2003

_______________________________________________________________________

John had frozen the second he had thrown open the door to Winston’s office.

Charon had said to wait, that Winston was meeting with an arms dealer from SI, but John knew that Tony had no problem with John interrupting.

The man across from Winston was not Tony. The fact he was sitting in the offered chair instead of on the desk was the first clue.

No, this man was wide-set, wearing an ill-fitting grey suit. He turned his bald head to glare at John with his beady little eyes.

“Ah John,” Winston greeted him, “I hadn’t realized we had been talking for so long, is it 3 o’clock already?”

John’s shoulders relaxed a single degree at the offered excuse, “Yes, Charon said your last appointment was supposed to leave at two.”

“Well as you can see,” The man interrupted, “We were not finished when you rudely burst into the manager’s office-”

Winston cut him off, but John couldn’t stop his eyebrow from traveling up his forehead. Was this man implying something about Winston’s managing ability?

“Now Mr. Stane,” Winston soothed, “I’ve always allowed those with meetings to just enter when I’m supposed to be free for almost an hour before them. All those that enter these halls show tangible respect without all that pomp and circumstance.”

“But-”

“We were wrapping up anyways,” Winston’s voice left no room for argument, “We’re already impeding on Jonathan’s time, we wouldn’t want to hold him up now would we?”

John stayed quiet until Mr. Stane cleared out of the office, feeling the ire raising off of the man even if his face was mostly blank. Winston raises a brow at the intense stare.

“Now Jona-“

“Where’s Tony?”

“Well yesterday he was in Rome with Julian, today I imagine he’s in Barcelona meeting Miguel,” The manager explained, but he didn’t stop there, “Then to Tokyo with Madam Ono, then he’ll probably find his way to Arthur in England before returning here by the end of the month. After all, he’s been on a bit of a whirlwind already through Venice, Russia, and Pakis tan. Though the near-miss of an international incident in The UAE was a bit much to keep up his image.”

The silence around them was filled with confusion before Winston sighed and retook his seat.

“Obadiah Stane was a good friend of Anthony’s father, as well as a business partner. He was the one that first entered the Stark Industries into the Underworld, though it wasn’t until Anthony stepped up that the company became a true player in our world.”

John nodded but he felt there was more to be said, “Then why aren’t Tony and Stane traveling together?”

Winston’s face cracked into a wicked smirk, “That would imply the insolent man had enough brain cells to see how integrated Anthony is in our world, or that he even is aware of the Underworld that is. So instead Tony follows him around the world in a glaringly obvious way, giggling like a teenage girl the whole time.”

John knew the genius too well at this point to not crack a bit of a smile, “He’s playing him.”

Winston nodded, “He thinks it will be funny once Stane realizes he’s been played like a fiddle. I think I might have to call a cleaning crew if such a moment should come to past.”

John’s eyes narrowed As if I’d let him touch Tony, could be heard without John opening his mouth

Winston chuckled lowly, “Oh I have no doubt the cleaning crew would be deposing of Stane’s body should he try anything. The Monger has no respect for our world, he would hardly be worth the Baba Yaga’s skills.”

_______________________________________________________________________

2005

_______________________________________________________________________

It was supposed to be an easy job.

A quick in and out with against the Halabi clan, but now he found his left side pounding and his head swimming, as he forced himself to move. Suddenly a face appeared in his line of sight. The thin shrunken face of the Cario concierge raised an eyebrow.

“Should I contact the manager, Mr. Wick?” The voice barely penetrated his ears. He simply shook his head.

“Need the surgeon,” He grunted, knees giving out slightly as he was forced to grab hold of Anubis.

“One will be sent for right away, sir,” was the final thing John heard before everything tilted dangerously and white overtook his vision.

When his senses started floating back to him he could feel a presence next to him, the bandages around his torso tugging tight against the stitches. There was a long line down his side from what he could feel, much more than would be needed for a simple bullet wound.

“Your spleen ruptured and nearly took you out with it,”

The voice made John crack open an eye. After a second of letting his vision adjust, he made out the figure of a short blond man. Tony, didn’t even glance over at him disguised blue eyes focusing on something in his hands.

“Your breathing pattern changed when you woke up, don’t be so surprised. Though I have to ask what the hell you were thinking.”

“A job is a job,” John answered gruffly, his throat raw and aching.

“Oh Fuck off,”

John cocked his head, a deep frown painting his face. The genius sounded pissed, more pissed than John had ever heard him.

“To- Antonio?”

The slight misstep could be excused by the painkillers he could feel flowing through his system but it was enough to draw Tony’s glare to him.

“How fucking dare you,” He growled, “After everything I’ve done for you, and you pull a stunt like this.”

“It was just-”

“Don’t you fucking say ‘It was just a job,’” Tony mocked, “It was just a job that nearly killed you because you decided to bring this trash!”

John’s eyes finally fell onto the thing in Tony’s hand.

A sleek-looking silver gun lay there, the slide half closed as a casing poked out of it. John didn’t even have to search to see the obnoxious black logo of Hammer Industries.

“I can-“

“Shut it,” Tony growled, and John had to fight not to flinch back. There were few things John feared on this earth, that look in Tony’s eye, cold as Siberian Winter and as bloodthirsty as a shark, was one of them. Not to mention he had cut John off twice now, a deed he never did, not out of fear like most did around John but because the billionaire actually cared about what John had to say.

“Naifeh called Winston,” Tony seethed, pacing the room, “Told him he wasn’t sure you’d make it, the doctor gave you a 15% chance of waking up after how much blood you lost. And I fly all the way out here to find that they physically couldn’t pry this fucking gun out of your hand without breaking your fingers.”

His stomach sank. He didn’t mean to use the gun, having no more clips to load into his gun he had grabbed one off of the guard he had killed, only for the gun to jam and give the guard a chance to get in a free shot. His tongue refused to move, and he’d never felt more frustrated by the fact then he did at that moment, throwing a pleading look at his friend.

“Don’t give me that look, Wick. I’m going to keep worrying about someone that’d rather risk their life with this shit instead of trusting my tech to keep you safe” The venom in Tony’s voice made John freeze, bracing for the hit to come…

Instead, the genius spun on his heel and left, slamming the door hard enough to shake the walls.

A dramatic exit to John’s life that mirrored the first time the assassin had met the genius.

_______________________________________________________________________

2006

_______________________________________________________________________

John has a soft spot for very few things, not that the general populace would ever guess the legendary Baba Yaga could be anything other than a bloodthirsty hunter.

Even so, those that knew the list knew there were only three items he deemed scared.

Animals are one, the cuter the better, innocent children is another.

Anthony Edward Stark is the unlikely third.

But Tony had exited John life thirteen months ago in a whirlwind of emotions, leaving John quieter and more frightening to the members of the Underworld. The brightest part of the assassin’s life gone, and even the most oblivious member of their world could see it.

So when John heard a familiar voice from outside Viggo’s office he couldn’t help but stop his report mid-sentence, stomach tightening as he turned his back on a baffled Viggo to open the door into the hallway.

The guards stopped trying to push the shorter man away when they saw him. Happy looked slightly relieved before dark concern painted his features.

“Harold,” John greeted, but Happy didn’t even bother with a greeting instead muttering the three words that made John’s blood burn.

“Boss’s been kidnapped.”

The guards around Happy wilted under the ice that filled John stare at those words. He wasted no time turning to Viggo and telling him, “I’m taking a month off.”

“No,” Happy cut him off, shouldering his way past John and into Viggo’s office, “We’re hiring John to recover Boss.”

“I don’t-”

Happy waved John off, “Yeah Yeah, you don’t need or want the money from Boss, but that doesn’t change the fact that Tony wanted it this way.”

John raised an eyebrow, making Happy sigh and continue.

“Tony Stark being part of the Underworld is still considered a myth, mostly so that people don’t try and use the people he cares about against him.”

The fire in John’s veins cooled slightly at the implications.

“Nothing is Personal,” he recited from the rules he grew up knowing.

Happy snorted, “Yeah for the rest of us. You should know by now that everything is personal to Tony.”

John sighed, but had to fight to keep a fond smile from sliding onto his face. He did know this.

And when he finds himself clutching onto the small genius two nights later, blood and grim painting both of them, as Tony sobs into his shoulder apologizing over and over again, he realized he took things a bit more personal then he was trained to too.

_______________________________________________________________________

2007

_______________________________________________________________________

Pepper’s morning had been planned out to the minute, down to the very second on how long she would verbally debate her boss. She had it down to a science at this point, after six years of working with him, effortlessly knowing how much time to allot to any given job the tech genius would throw at her before he even woke up, that is if he had gone to sleep the night before which was a rarity.

So when there was a large wrench thrown into her carefully balanced agenda, she was understandably rattled. Especially since said wrench was shaped like ten bullet holes through the glass walls of Tony’s lab.

Tony barely blinked an eye at the bullets, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her deeper into the massive maze, down a hallway she never seen him use before.

“JARVIS,” Tony called, “Initiate Lockdown procedures once we reach John.”

“Tony?” She asked, mind reeling as she heard more gunshots at the end of the hallway. She tried to pull from his grasp but he just held tight and turned back to look her in the eye.

“Don’t worry, it’s just John in the shooting range testing out the new weapons I made, he won’t hurt you.”

She really didn’t believe him when they entered the room and the tall severe-looking man spun around and leveled the rifle in his hands at her head.

“Lockdown commenced,” JARVIS announced causing the man to lower his weapon as he looked at the ceiling then at Tony.

“Break in?”

“Break in,” Tony confirmed, “Looked like Plaksin‘s men.”

The man nodded, “Harold on his way?”

“Yeah, but Happy’s a few minutes out and they saw me take off so they might find us before he can show up,” Tony answered, “Protecting Pepper is top priority. Pepper, this is John Wick, a good friend of mine. ”

Another nod as the man shouldered his gun and sticking out a hand to her, “I wish I could meet the women that Tony babbles about under better circumstances.”

Tony’s ears flush red as he scowls, while Pepper takes John’s hand, “You finally speak a complete sentence and it’s to make fun of me? I’m offended!”

John’s lips twitched slightly, dropping her hand as he turns back to the range, “How many reservations?”

Tony shrugged as he walked after him, “At least four, but there could be more around the tower. JARVIS?”

“10 intruders located within the building. Three of them are contained within the lab, three are in the hallways around the lab, three are attempting to search your and Miss Potts’s Office, and the final man is waiting in a van off the back alleyway,”

“I got the three upstairs,” Tony called, lifting his hand like he was in school, his other hand was loading a magazine full of bullets, “and we can leave the one outside to Happy so he doesn’t get grumpy.”

John lifted a brow at him as he shoved a pistol into his shoulder holster, reaching for another one.

“Just because I don’t have a fancy title like the Baba Yaga doesn’t mean I can’t handle three guys on my own, Johnny boy,”

Tony wiped around at the tiny huff John let out.

“WhAt?” He whined.

“You do have a title.”

“Oh… What!” Tony cried, nearly dropping the handgun he was trying to holster, “I have a title?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

John gave a shrug and moved towards the door, only to stop and look over at Pepper who had gone deathly pale, eyes flicking rapidly between John and Tony.

“Oh geez Pep,” Tony winced, putting the Uzi he had just grabbed off the wall.

“What the hell is happening?!” She questioned, finger shaking as she pointed at John, “Who’s he? What are you guys planning on doing to them?”

"Pep," Tony tried to soothe, hands raised in surrender, "John's an old friend and what's happening is a long story."

"Then start talking," She screeched, "Because right now it sounds like we're talking about murder!"

"We are," John's quiet voice broke through the tension. Pepper paled as John stayed next to the door, "If we don't kill them first, they can and will kill everyone in this building, not just Tony, you and me."

"Bu-"

"Virginia," Tony cut her off making her head snap up, he never used her first name before, "I promise that I will explain as soon as this is taken care of, but the longer we take, the more likely the hitmen come across one of the other workers in the building, so John and I need to go. After the cleaners leave we'll sit down with four or five bottles of that white wine you really like and I'll explain everything about the Underworld okay?"

"The Underworld?" she practically whimpered. He nodded.

"Yeah the Underworld," He reaffirmed. She opened her mouth but then shook her head and closed it again.

"You'll explain after, right," She said firmly, "And you're so giving me a raise after this."

He snorted, "Oh absolutely, you name your price."

She gave him a shaky smile, "Go and be safe Tony."

He shot her a grin before picking up the Uzi once more and strutting to the door, John following behind him.

They just reached the elevator when John finally broke the silence.

"I didn't realize you how big your crush was."

Tony's ears turned pink as he stuck his tongue out.

However he didn't deny the fact, John noted with a chuckle.

#John Wick #tony stark #bamf tony stark #Tony Stark and John Wick are going to be quite the friendship #the continental #winston #viggo tarasov #pepper potts #Had to include the fabled Pencil scene

86 notes · View notes

thenightling · 5 years

Text

All Volumes of The Sandman placed in order of least favorite to favorite

First here is the order in which The Sandman should be read :

1. The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes 2. The Sandman: The Doll’s House 3. The Sandman: Dream Country 4. The Sandman: Season of Mists 5. The Sandman: A Game of You 6. The Sandman: Fables and Reflections 7. The Sandman: Brief Lives 8. The Sandman: The Worlds’ End 9. The Sandman: The Kindly Ones 10. The Sandman: The Wake The Sandman: Dream Hunters The Sandman: Endless Nights The Sandman: Overture (a very beautiful prequel)

____________________________

And now the order of least favorite to favorite.

Warning: This post contains some spoilers.

14. The Kindly Ones.

I won’t sugar coat it. I’m not really a big fan of The Kindly Ones. I don’t care for the stylized art or the plot that much. Though I love The Sandman this is definitely not a volume I would consider a favorite. Yes, The Kindly Ones has its fans. It has a few good moments, I particularly liked how Matthew was portrayed in it. All of The Sandman is good in its own way. But The Kindly Ones is just not a favorite for me.

13. The Wake.

I have to look at this as someone who got into The Sandman late. I do like The Wake but I think if I read a six month (or longer) story arc of characters grieving another character, teenage me (I was fourteen in 1996) would probably have gotten frustrated and depressed.

I love the art style. I believe I read somewhere that (at the time) The Sandman: The Wake was the only graphic novel drawn entirely in colored pencil. The artwork is beautiful.

I think I might have enjoyed The Kindly Ones more if it had been drawn in the style of The Wake.

As with all of The Sandman there are a few shining moments. I do like the issue dealing with Hob’s Dream (issue 73). And I liked seeing Nada’s reincarnated toddler self, and Orpheus, whole, and at peace in Ellysium (Greek Heaven).

12. Endless Nights.

Endless Nights is a collection of seven stories, each focusing on a different member of The Endless family.

Endless Nights has a sad but well-written story about Morpheus and Killala of The Glow, one of the first to harness the green light that would later be the catalyst for The Green Lantern corp. I wonder if things would have played out differently if Morpheus had just been more up front and honest with Killala from the start.

11. The World’s End.

The World’s End features a strange interdenominational inn that transcends time and space and serves as a refuge for the displaced during ... er... Let’s just call them what DC comics calls them. “Crisis.”

This is a collection of short stories from characters who have all been touched by Dream and his world in some way. My favorites include Cluracan’s story and Hob’s Leviathan.

There’s also some heavy foreshadowing for The Kindly Ones.

10. The Dream Hunters (Graphic novel version).

The Dream Hunters is a stand alone story set in Ancient Japan and works as a bitter-sweet fable.

9. The Dream Hunters (novella version.)

I like the novella version of The Dream Hunters better than the graphic novel version because the artwork is just so gorgeous.

8. Fables and reflections.

Here is another collection of short stories all tied into The Sandman. Most of them can be read on their own.

7. Dream Country.

Here’s another set of The Sandman short stories that can be treated as stand alone one-shot stories. My favorites of these is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is a brilliant and off-beat Shakespere story in which Shakespeare is made to perform a Midsummer Nights Dream for the real Seelie Court.

I also liked Calliope because we get to see Morpheus as a sort of avenging angel type.

I happened to be reading A Dream of Cats for the first time on the very day I adopted Loki and Vlad (two of my three cats). This was not planned out, just a strange coincidence.

6. A Game of you.

This is probably the most misunderstood volume of The Sandman. Though Neil Gaiman based it on the personal experiences of a real life trans friend of his, whom consulted with him through the writing of it, many modern readers (mostly thanks to a very misleading Mary Sue article) have called this volume transphobic.

In actuality for 1992 this was an extremely progressive depiction of a transwoman and one of the first (if not first) trans women of DC comics.

Some of the complaints are because Wanda dies (many characters in The Sandman die, including the main protagonist...) while others think that the story claims transwomen cannot use feminine magick. This is not true. That was a claim made by a very dark witch, Thessaly AKA Larissa, a character who later betrays the series’ over-all protagonist. She probably should NOT be trusted.

The scene showing Wanda’s soul pretty much confirms how wrong Thessaly was.

The story deals with Barbie on a Jim Henson’s Labyrinth-esque adventure in her own personal dream world, and her friends who come to her rescue.

5. Brief Lives.

Brief lives is the story that tells us what happened with Destruction of the Endless. It is beautifully drawn. And this is where Song of Orpheus finally comes to its bitter-sweet conclusion as Morpheus enables his poor son to find peace at last.

4. The Doll’s House.

The Doll’s House gives us the story of Rose Walker- a person who is also a “Dream Vortex” (A person whose mind has the potential to cause dreams and reality to collapse into each other and destroy both) and how dangerous that can be. We are also introduced to The Corinthian, a Nightmare who could give Freddy Krueger a run for his money.

3. Season of Mists.

The Sandman: Season of Mists is a storyline that some Lucifer show fans might recongize. The Devil decides to quit. There’s a lot more to it than that but Lucifer quitting ruling Hell is the catalyst for most of it.

After finally (after ten-thousand-years!) realizing he was wrong in leaving Nada in Hell, Morpheus resolves to rescue her, at risk to himself. However once he gets there he finds Lucifer is shutting the place down. In spite, Lucifer leaves Morpheus the key to Hell. Suddenly The Dream Lord has to deal with all the entities that might want that “Prime psychic real estate.”

2. Overture

The Sandman: Overture and The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes are both my favorite volumes of The Sandman. I tend to alternate between which one is number 1 based on my mood.

In The Sandman: Overture Morpheus discovers that The Universe is ending and “It’s all his fault” for refusing to put out a star back when he was reeling at the destruction of a world because he had not wanted to kill a Dream Vortex (a person whose mind has the power to merge dreams and reality).

Now he’s off on a quest with a cat (whom he believes is another incarnation of himself). He adopts an orphaned child, and sets out to save the universe.

This is probably the most gorgeously drawn of all of The Sandman. The print is a little difficult for me to read (Impossible for me to read in physical format) but I can make the digital version large and enjoy the story and all the lovely detail in the artwork.

1. Preludes and Nocturnes

This is the one that starts it all. An order of early twentieth century occultists summon and trap The Lord of Dreams by accident when they meant to capture Death. Though they realize their mistake relatively quickly they decide to keep him prisoner anyway. After seventy-two-years of captivity Morpheus finally escapes and seeks out his lost property.

This is the one that roped me and made me a fast-fan to The Sandman.

#The Sandman #Neil Gaiman's The Sandman #Neil Gaiman

5 notes · View notes

desperatlytryingtowriteabook · 6 years

Text

I was tagged by the lovely @unfocused-overwriter :) Thank you!

1. Is there any scene from any piece you’ve written that actually scared you? If so, describe the scene.

No, I haven’t got around writing those scenes yet. And I probably never will, since it’d be self-indulgent exploration that is safer in my head :p

2. What genre do you feel most awkward writing?

Poetry and anything happening after 1900. It’s just not my thing. Also horror.

3. How many different types of writing do you write? Types of writing include novels, short stories, poetry, song lyrics, etc.

Mainly novels and novellas. I never tried poetry not songs (okay, I have a few of those for Ijandia) and I gave a try at short stories, but my ideas and inspiration are more often for very long projects.

4. How old were you when you first started writing?

6? I think? As soon as I was able to write with a pencil.

5. How confident are you in your writing?

Not a lot? It improved with the years, but I know I still have a lot to learn. And I’m still surprised when people say they really liked a piece I wrote.

6. Have you ever written and posted anything that was very personal to you?

Written, yes. Posted, nope.

7. What inspired you to start writing?

I have too many stories, characters and sentence shards in my head, and I’ll drown if I don’t let them out at some point.

8. Which of your OCs do you relate to the most?

Right now, Alda and Costanza.

9. Have you ever written self-insert fanfiction?

Yes!

10. What is your favorite piece you’ve ever written about?

I’m a big fan of my very early PS work, because it had some...IDK, genuiness? that I never quite recaptured!

11. How frequently do you actually sit down and write?

Frequency and habits aren’t friends of mine. I’ll spend a lot of time seated, but less time writing.

12. How many hours at a time do you do research on your writing?

I don’t keep count. But definitely more than I actually write (because watching shows IS a way of research...)

13. Do you like to branch out in your writing or do you tend to stick to what you know?

I don’t often go straight into unknown country, but I like to test the boundaries a bit sometimes.

14. What would your antagonist of your current WIP say to you if they saw you in person?

He wouldn’t look twice, and that’s for the best!

15. Do you consider yourself your OCs’ god or just kind of a guiding hand (or other? If other, please list)?

Mmmh...More like the pyschopathic parent? I’ll take care of them and nurture them only to torture them afterwards?

16. What do you think you’d be doing with your time if you’d never gotten into writing?

Probably reading. But that would have let to writing. Or I’d have tried more seriously to draw.

17. Have you ever written a smut piece?

More than one.

18. What was the first thing you ever wrote about?

I think it was a fairytale about a princess and a dragon.

19. What is the most creative creature you’ve ever created for world-building?

The Creatures. Not sure how creative they are, but I like them and they’re the first “real” creatures from Ijandia.

20. Tell me one random fact about your WIP that you have yet to tell your followers.

I babble so much about this I think they already know everything!

I’ll tag @create-and-procrastinate @falling--in--place and @weaver-of-fantasies-and-fables and everyone else who wants to play :)

#tag #i was tagged #about the author

2 notes · View notes

xnxadultstore · 5 years

Text

Complicated Coloring Books for Adults

My favourite kind of coloring e book to paint in are the extra difficult ones. I feel that’s what first drew me to Johanna Basford’s books had been her inky treasure hunts on every web page. She has so many attractive particulars hiding all through the pages. But since our Queen has brought on the coloring sensation many different illustrators have began creating wonderful intricate, difficult coloring books for adults to paint in. A curated checklist of my favorites is under.

Top Complicated Illustrators

No checklist of difficult coloring may skip the wonderful illustrator Kerby Rosanes. Kerby Rosanes might be the primary illustrator that involves thoughts while you consider complicated coloring. Sometimes you actually have to pay attention to determine the place one part stops and one other begins.

Worlds Within Worlds

Kerby Rosane’s latest e book has some wonderful photographs in it and you’ll see what our colorists within the Facebook teams are displaying off. Come and be a part of within the enjoyable!

Click to Pre-order Amazon US, UK or Canada

Click to Order Colormorphia Amazon US, UK or Canada

Mythomorphia: An Extreme Coloring and Search Challenge by Kerby Rosanes

Click to Order on Amazon: US UK Canada or Book Depository

Fantomorphia – Another Extreme Coloring and Search Challenge Coloring Book.

This e book is like all his others, numerous cool photographs inside photographs, there are many skulls on this one and the designs are all one-sided. In the again of the e book is the important thing to the search problem portion. This e book ships March 27, 2018 within the US. You can see my fast flip-through right here on Instagram.

Click to Order Amazon US, UK or Canada or Book Depository

Mythomorphia: An Extreme Coloring and Search Challenge by Kerby Rosanes

Click to Order on Amazon: US UK Canada or Book Depository

Animorphia

An wonderful coloring e book for adults that includes the super-detailed animal photographs from artist Kerby Rosanes. Known for his standard Sketchy Stories weblog, Kerby works in intricately detailed black and white line to create creatures, characters, patterns, and tiny components to type compositions of mind-boggling complexity. Bring your creativity to finish the breath-taking drawings and discover hidden treasures and creatures scattered all through its pages

Order on Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon Canada ~ Book Depository

Imagimorphia Coloring Book by Kerby Rosanes

Fans of grownup coloring books are invited to enter the extraordinary world of Kerby Rosanes, the illustrator behind the Sketchy Stories weblog and Animorphia, the worldwide phenomenon and New York Times bestseller. In Imagimorphia, animals and objects morph and explode into astounding element. Bring every intricate picture to life with colour and discover the objects hidden all through the e book.

Printed on high quality paper, Imagimorphia is a unusual coloring and search e book for followers of grownup coloring books like no different.

Order on Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon Canada ~ Book Depository

Bennet Klein

Bennet Klein has come to the highest of the latest sensational illustrators with each nice line illustrations and grayscale drawings which might be each wildly distinctive and intricately detailed. His newest e book is Dragons.

Colour my Sketchbook – DRAGONS

All of the Bennett Klein Books are listed right here.

The Bicycle Coloring Book: Journey to the Edge of the World

This distinctive coloring e book is one-sided apart from backside left nook of every going through web page which holds a small cat illustration that while you flip the pages works like a flip-book. The different facet of the web page options attractive photographs of the adventures of a bicycle and a cat as they roam by way of city and countrysides.

The Bicycle Coloring Book follows the incredible journey of a bicycle exploring an unknown world with out its rider. Bursting with intricate illustrations that evoke each Japanese anime and Western avenue artwork, the gorgeous scenes cry out to be coloured in wonderful element. As you colour don’t overlook to look out for the bicycle’s cute companion (there are just a few pages I nonetheless haven’t discovered him in but) and the illustration particulars that type a cleverly designed flip e book. A shocking present e book that can enchantment to lovers of biking and concrete artwork, in addition to to dedicated coloring-in followers. You can see my present WIP (Work in Progress) From The Bicycle Book right here

Bicycle Coloring Book on Amazon US ~ UK ~ Canada ~ Book Depository

It appears as if probably the most difficult coloring books are from artists and illustrators exterior of the United States.

Fantasia Adult Coloring Book by Nicholas F. Chandrawienata

This attractive detailed difficult coloring e book simply turned accessible to the US/UK market, simply check out among the pages on Instagram right here. This second version incorporates 60 distinctive hand-drawn illustrations printed on each side of the perforated pages. It can be spiral certain on 100-pound thick paper inventory. The second version is reported to be a lot better than the primary, the designs will not be fairly as tiny and the paper is nicer high quality.

Click to Order on Amazon US ~ UK

Tim Jeffs Coloring Books

Tim Jeffs now has to intricately detailed coloring books available on the market now. I’ve the primary one and the attention-grabbing distinction of this e book than most is that it opens on the highest, so no worries about the place your hand rests or in case you are proper or left-handed.

Jeffs started experimenting with animal artwork throughout his free time. As his sketchbook stuffed with complicated illustrations of creatures massive and small, he realized he had discovered a strong artwork type.

Once he decides upon a topic, a thirty-plus-hour course of unfolds. Jeffs first researches the animal’s habits, habitats, conservation standing, and bodily look. Using pen and ink and coloured pencils, he channels his findings and inventive ardour into creating an animal portrait on Bristol board. “Then,” the artist says, “I cover the subject with a styled pattern of my own creation. It’s almost like creating a mosaic of lines, shapes, or colors. Not so much photorealism but more of an impressionistic approach that creates a realistic view.” It’s the alchemy of science and artistic license.

Intricate Ink – Animals in Detail Coloring Book

Order Intricate Ink within the US, UK or Canada

Intricate Ink – Animals in Detail Volume 2 Coloring Book

Order Intricate Ink within the US, UK or Canada

Intricate Ink: Animals in Detail Volume three

Order Intricate Ink within the US, UK or Canada

Gullivers New Travels

Illustrated by James Gulliver Hancock (You can’t assist however discover the center title!) He has written a number of books on “how to draw” books and this e book seems to be actually enjoyable to discover. This was all the time one in every of my favourite tales as a baby.

Click to order US Amazon

The Mysterious Library: A Coloring Book Journey Into Fables

by Korean illustrator Eunji Park

62 pages of attractive distinctive illustrations the place the artist tells the visible story of a younger lady who stumbles right into a library, get locked in tight after which finds herself the primary character of the storybook world. The story goes on to indicate the younger lady adventuring some very effectively know tales, together with Little Red Riding Hood, Gingerbread Man, Pinnochio, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Thumbelina, Swan Lake, Florence Nightingale, the Sandman, Princess, and the Pea, Aladdin, The Red Shoes, The Pied Piper, Town Musicians of Bremen, The Snow Queen, and Alice in Wonderland. The Rapunzel desires me

The finest place to buy this attractive e book is on Etsy. There are just a few folks there that promote, however this one is our go-to suggestion.

Click to Order on Etsy Here

Rhapsody within the Forest II

Kanoku Egadu is a beautiful e book that Chris Cheng has been coloring in these days. Menuet de Bonheur Colouring Book by Kanoko Egadu or Rhapsody within the Forest II.

Japanese coloring books have a really distinctive type with a great deal of minute particulars which might be simply aching to have colour utilized to them.

“The Day we Finally Meet” a Korean Coloring e book has cute forest animal scenes to get pleasure from right here.

Daria Song was my first foray into difficult coloring and her books are so magical. Luscious thick paper printed with footage on each side of the paper telling a narrative.

Time Garden A Magical Journey and Coloring Book

In all of Daria’s books, you get to journey alongside along with her to her childhood creativeness after which out into the pages that her gifted arms create and illustrate. This first e book “The Time Garden” has a bit of red-headed lady escaping from a coo coo clock and exploring the large stunning world exterior. My finest recommendation is to not stick with a conventional colour palette and let your creativity wander when you fill in these attractive illustrations with colour. Order Online from Amazon US ~ UK ~ Canada ~ Book Depository

The Time Chamber: A Magical Story and Coloring Book

Korean artist Daria Song’s sequel to The Time Garden takes readers on a visible journey right into a magical nighttime world seen by way of the eyes of that very same little ginger lady.

This second e book in best-selling Korean artist Daria Song’s coloring sequence options the voyage of a fairy who, when the cuckoo clock chimes midnight, enters the human world. To the tiny fairy, all the things appears huge and magical, from the curtains to the chandelier to a mystical rowboat that takes her additional into an inky journey. Filled with the imaginative, intricately detailed illustrations Song’s readers have come to like, The Time Chamber presents a view of our world made new—and prepared for coloring.

Click to order on Amazon US ~ UK ~ Canada ~ Book Depository

“The Night Voyage: A Magical Adventure and Coloring Book by Daria Song”

Her third e book takes you on a magical journey stuffed with presents and journey

Romantic Country – The Third Tale – A Fantasy Coloring Book

Illustrated by Eriy in a novel approach through the use of toothpicks to attract the illustrations. Inside are pages and pages of provincial delights for you to convey to life by way of coloring: magical forests stuffed with fairies, pleasant city squares bustling with folks, whimsical village scenes, charming castles with towers―and a lot extra, certain to thrill folks of all ages. Romantic Country – The Second Tale Romantic Country – The First Tale

Click to Order Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon Canada Book Depository

Detailed Dogs: A Complicated Canine Coloring Book

Order Detailed Dogs US, UK or Canada

Day of the Dead – Sugar Skulls 2: Anti-Stress Coloring Book

Order Detailed Dogs US, UK or Canada

You can all the time make a sophisticated coloring e book easier by seeing tiny areas as one area and coloring them collectively. For the tiny areas in a few of these books, I like to recommend utilizing fine-lined markers and/or gel pens. They additionally add a combined media really feel to your pages which I get pleasure from from an artist standpoint.

If you might be new to coloring or simply wish to dive in a bit of deeper be sure you learn our expansive provide suggestions together with our ideas and tips articles.

*How to Get Started with Adult Coloring Best Colored Pencils *Best Gel Pens *Best Markers that Don’t Bleed Through the Paper * Background Supplies *Coloring Tutorials *13 Tips & Tricks for Colorists

You may be a part of our Coloring Book Addict Facebook Group Here.

The post Complicated Coloring Books for Adults appeared first on XNX Adult Store.

1 note · View note

jameswattsba2a · 6 years

Text

Weekly Review 5 (22/10/18)

This week we began the last of the three projects that make up the BA2A Unit, Motion Graphics, while also continuing to progress the work we are already doing with the Film Language and Inanimate Objects projects.

Film Language once again revolved around large quantities of information being given to us, this time with a focus on shot composition and framing, with some extra information on camera techniques. For the first part of this lesson, we examined how filmmakers use shot composition to focus the audience’s attention on different characters or objects by contrasting their size, colour, or even shape when compared to their surroundings. Furthermore, shot composition can also be used to suggest relationships between characters, based on their relative placements within a shot. As for camera techniques, there are a wide variety of different methods to employ, including: pan (moving the camera left or right), tilt (up or down), track (following a moving point of interest), crane (3D movement), handheld (pov style). After this, we covered the Golden Ratio, which is the mathematical representation of beauty, and the rule of thirds, which defines the ideal placement for points of interest, ideally lining up with the intersections of lines that run along the thirds of a screen. It is possible to have points of interest in the centre of the screen, but they must be symmetrically framed by their surroundings. Finally, we looked at the 180 degree rule, which is an imaginary line that runs between two opposing characters in a scene, which the camera cannot cross. This keeps the character on the same side of the screen at all times, regardless of any camera angle changes. I found this lesson to be incredibly useful to me, as it not only provides us with information for our essays in the project, but also informs the quality of our practical work.

In our Inanimate Objects project, I have continued my progress from last week, to the point where the animation itself is almost completely done. This means I have finished the in-betweens for both the pencil and the rubber, with the only animation left to do being to connect the close-ups of the pencil and the rubber so that they are one single shot with a quick 180 degree camera turn. The close up shot was also itself changed in this process, as a result of feedback I received about how the previous camera angles did not follow continuity with the shots both before and after. Instead, I now have a more front-facing angle with extreme tilts up and down for the pencil and rubber respectively, in order to suggest a point of view shot from either’s perspective. I did struggle slightly with the shot of the rubber tackling the pencil, as it required me to keep both on model and in proportion as they moved further away from the camera, eventually resulting in me having to edit some existing frames to keep proportions correct. Aside from this, I also needed to edit the timing of the jump, by rearranging the position of the characters at certain frames, as the animatic was not correctly timed. Despite the difficulty I have had in this process, and the inevitable difficulty I will have with the remaining work I have left to do, I remain happy with how the work is turning out.

Finally, this week we began the final of our three projects for this Unit, Motion Graphics, beginning with a briefing explaining the project. In this, we discovered that we would be working in groups to produce a short animation on one of Aesop’s Fables using Adobe After Effects. This animation will include basic characters made of shapes in the software, with each member of the group producing roughly ten seconds of animation each. My group has been given “The Two Frogs” as our story, which, as the name suggests, is about two frogs whose pool dries up, forcing them to search for alternatives. They eventually come across a well, with one frog wanting to jump in for water, while the other urges caution, with the moral of the story being to look before you leap. My group will follow this story fairly closely, with the only exception being that the brash frog will actually jump in. Following this, we produced our own designs for characters in the animation, with the intention of choosing our favourites. While I am proud of the designs I made, in particular the fact that I made both characters distinct in ways that leaned into their personalities, both were sadly far too complex for use in an After Effects animation. Our final Motion Graphics task this week was a lesson on using shape layers in the After Effects software, which is what we will be required to use for our own animations. In this class we experimented with using different effects in conjunction with shape layers, in order to test the things we will be able to do for our own animations. This resulted in me producing four different animations; the first being a series of circles where I piled as many effects on it as possible, creating a very chaotic scene; the second being a series of coloured dashes moving in a circular shape; the third being those same dashes moving in a different shape of my own design, with a glow effect placed on them; and the final being a polystar shape with extra points rotating, while also having its inside width change over the course of the video. All of this work has provided me with a base knowledge, from which I will hopefully be able to gain enough skill in animating in After Effects to be able to produce my animation.

vimeo

#weeklyreview

0 notes

newsbelter-blog · 7 years

Text

The Strange Secret History Of Hair Removal Will Blow Your Mind

From Rome to Peaky Blinders, the 21st century has blessed our Netflix accounts as well as an array of period dramas praised for their attention to historical detail. But somewhere in the midst of Elizabeth I's apparently approaching-fleek eyebrows and complex 18th-century sex workers as soon as full-on Brazilians, the details profit a tiny uncertain While it's real that people have been shaving, waxing, sugaring, and tweezing concerning and off past the start of time, practices and preferences have varied wildly from generation to generation and across the globe. Ahead, discover some of the weird and fabulous things our ancestors got taking place to behind it came to their hair... Cropped Cavewomen Though its fair to publicize that body fuzz is a feminist issue in 2017, hair removal began after that equality in the midst of the sexes. Archaeological evidence suggests that both female and male yet to be humans shaved their heads and facial hair to avoid frostbite from water becoming trapped and deadened adjoining the skin. This was pre-archives and ably back the invention of the wax strip, even even if, so the main hair-removal method was a razor made from clam bombs, animal teeth, and aching flints. And we thought teetotal shaving was bad. Pharaohs' Facial Hair Ancient Egyptians were invincible fans of full-body hair removal, as they believed it was a signifier of hygiene and cleanliness and we still use some of the methods they pioneered today, including waxing and sugaring. Archaeologists even discovered a razor to the side of extra toiletries in the tomb of Queen Hetepheres. (Fortunately, we've ditched the less tempting methods, also the in the future depilatory concoctions of arsenic and quicklime described in Victoria Sherrow's Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History.) But for the female "kings" of the period, sporting a tie-as regards false beard was common for woman pharaohs subsequently than Khentkawes I and her successor, Hatshepsut. Ancient Greek Unibrows The trend of hair removal continued into Europe, where Ancient Greek women were traditional to cut off their pubic hair. A full bush was considered "uncivilized," Sherrow writes, and the artists of the era did not show-court lawsuit signs of pubic hair going a propos the subject of for the subject of statues portraying women. Above the waist, even though, hair was altogether in especially the prized unibrow and women used powdered minerals or soot to darken and intensify their brows. Meanwhile, in Rome, some women were actually fashioning court warfare brows made of fur, as Michael Sims describes in Adam's Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form when both Ovid and Petronius referring to the practice in their writings. For the female "kings" of , sporting a tie-concerning disloyal beard was common for woman pharaohs. Medieval Foreheads By the Middle Ages, the attitude toward all body hair had taken a resolved U-position. The edicts of the Catholic Church intended women were supposed to grow out their hair as a display of femininity but save it totally concealed past in public. As Paul B. Newman writes in Daily Life in the Middle Ages, plentiful and well-liked women of the 14th century started plucking the hair from their foreheads in order to lift the front of their hairlines, creating the magic of a well along forehead and an elongated perspective. When the blaze-haired Elizabeth I came to faculty in 1533, she revolutionized the brow game in England. Many of her subjects chose to dye their hair and brows same shades of strawberry blonde, as soon as some using a corrosive mixture of rhubarb juice and oil of vitriol (now called sulfuric acid) to lighten theirs. Ouch. 17th-Century Sex Workers Trends of all sorts come and go, and by the 17th century, women were loving a bit of put it on hair the length of there. In 1714, Alexander Smith wrote in A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen nearly "the hairy circle of prostitutes Merkin." For those who are uncharacteristic, a merkin is a wig placed regarding the vagina to replace natural pubic hair that's been removed, which was common practice together in the company of sex workers who didn't nonattendance to catch pubic lice and plus those who had something to hide sedated there, in the days past penicillin. Victorian Virgins During the 18th and 19th centuries, women were anew customary to display as tiny retrieve sexuality as attainable, and that included showing no body hair under long sleeves and even longer skirts. One Victorian doctor, William Acton, was even quoted as maxim, "The majority of women (happily for them) are not enormously much scared as soon as sexual feeling of any nice." Clearly, he had never watched The L Word. There's a the complete ably-known, very long-standing rumor that John Ruskin, England's leading art critic of the epoch, left his five-year marriage unconsummated as he fainted in report to his wedding night in 1848, allegedly at the sight of his auxiliary wife's pubic hair. While much-disputed, the fable can't be ruled out and the silence vis--vis female body hair probably did leave some Victorian virgins utterly horrified. The shortage of nylon during , accumulate behind the shorter skirts in fashion, even led ladies to shave their legs and paint almost a sham seam to recreate the see of stockings. 20th-Century Baldness Begins The position of the 20th century brought in a auxiliary age of hair removal. The first women's branded razor, the Milady Dcollet, hit the suspend sky, and an plan ad for depilatory powder, published in a 1915 issue of Harper's Bazaar, advised "the removal of awful hair," rebuke would-be flappers that "Summer Dress and Modern Dancing" could after that them to flash too much underarm hair. By the time World War II began, women were shaving regularly, as accurately as plucking their eyebrows to profit those unconditional '30s pencil-skinny arches. The shortage of nylon during the stroke, quantity along between the shorter skirts in fashion, even led ladies to shave their legs and paint in report to a play in seam to recreate the look of stockings. Mid-Century Mixed Messages Things started to acquire a small more complicated in the 1960s, as soon as the first advanced wax strips hit the push, and Raquel Welch's iconic portrayal of a olden cavewoman wearing nothing but a bikini made from the skin and hide of a deer sent many women admin to cut off hair from roughly everywhere. The fuzz-forgive swimsuit trend continued until the 1970s as the first "attach" electrolysis was qualified, and some women jumped at the inadvertent to be hairless from head-to-toe. But at the related time, the '60s and '70s were plus the decades of comprehensible worship and a full bush in 1972, The Joy of Sex brought illustrations of a distinctly unshaven girl's genitalia into approaching all residence. A Bald Brave New World? The near of the 20th century was a frosty become olden for body hair: Fashion trends then than '80s Daisy Dukes and '90s micro-minis intended there was just no room for body hair. In the 21st century, Brazilian waxes hit the truthful world and the small screen: Who can forget the infamous Carrie-gets-a-wax scene from Sex and the City, or the times that Jennifer Love Hewitt devoted a chapter in her wedding album to all matters of vajazzling? It wasn't just our hair beside there that we started to invest in; the brow industry once more tripled in value from 2011 to 2016. But the well along of body hair might not be every one roughly how to profit rid of it: Amber Rose's call to #bringbackthebush, for example, has inspired a entire quantity Instagram doings, even though even Emma Watson has unmovable the thumbs-happening to luxury pubic-hair grooming products. Big brows are pro and bolder than ever, and challenging icons later dissenter Harnaam Kaur are breaking the length of gender stereotypes each and every one hours of hours of day. Perhaps the most game-changing body hair trend of 2018 won't be how much fuzz women have, but the forgive to further anything the hell we lack, wherever we deficiency. Read the full article

#Strange Secret History

0 notes

nofomoartworld · 7 years

Text

Art F City: This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Djinns Against Digital Colonialism, John Waters Action Figures, and “Werifesteria”

Tyson Tabbert’s “Female Trouble” action figures will be on view at La MaMa Galleria.

This week you’re in for a weird ride. From Aaron Pexa’s installation inspired by faeries from Welsh mythology (opening Wednesday at UrbanGlass) to a show of fake John Waters memorabilia Thursday night at La MaMa, there’s a lot of idiosyncratic happenings to partake in. Add to that itinerary a Friday night group show of emotion-altering colors (like the opposite of a mood ring!) at Small Editions and Eva Papamargariti’s speculative mutant frogs at TRANSFER on Saturday.

Tue

Mitchell-Innes & Nash

1018 Madison Avenue New York, NY 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Website

Pope.L : Proto-Skin Set

A friend and I recently had a conversation about the trend of galleries putting together shows of famous artist’s lesser-known works from yesteryear and writing a vague exhibition text to explain why they’re important. Here, that means “an exhibition of early work by Pope.L dating from 1979-1994 that demonstrates the function of materiality and language in his practice.”

While that sentence doesn’t really say anything, we’re guessing this show will be good because Pope.L is a genius and the racial politics he’s addressed in his work since 1979 are sadly still all-too-relevant today. We’re guessing “the function of materiality and language” will always be “relevant” until we’re all telepathically linked by some Elon Musk gadget.

Wed

MoMA

11 West 53rd Street New York, NY 3:30 p.m. Website

Ulrike Ottinger’s: Johanna D’Arc of Mongolia

This week’s “most-likely-to-offend-someone” event is likely MoMA’s presentation of Ulrike Ottinger’s nearly-three-hour-long bizarre 1989 film Johanna D’Arc of Mongolia.

I’m recommending it because of it’s supposedly gorgeous cinematography and because it sounds weird as hell. Mostly, you’ll want to know what people are talking about when the inevitable flood of think-pieces hits the web Thursday morning.

The story follows a group of privileged western women (including an ethnologist who happens to speak Mongolian… grimace) as they’re captured by “the exotic, fierce Mongolian princess Ulan Iga”. They spend a Summer as hostages and ultimately find common cultural ground with the Mongolian clan. I haven’t seen the film, so I can’t say if it’s a thoughtful, culturally sensitive story about overcoming differences or cringe-inducingly problematic. Either way, we can pretty much guess how it’s going to be received (at least on the internet) by audiences in 2017.

UrbanGlass

647 Fulton Street Brooklyn, NY 6;00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Aaron Pexa: The Spoils of Annwn

Inspired by a Middle Welsh epic poem, “Preiddeu Annwn”, this immersive installation references King Arthur’s mythical voyage to the Glass Fortress, home of the faerie folk. Aaron Pexa is bringing this tale to life through surrealist glass sets, neon, video, light sculptures, and illustration.

All of this is supposed to evoke a feeling of “werifesteria,” which means to wander longingly through the forest in search of mystery.

Thu

San Damiano Mission in Brooklyn

85 North 15th St. Brooklyn, NY 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Website

Rally for a Better Loft Law

NYC Loft Tenants are organizing to demand a better version of the state’s “Loft Law”. Intended to protect housing in converted buildings, a new version of the Loft Law is making its way through the mess that is Albany and needs amendments and support. Basically anyone who cares about art in New York needs to come out and learn about what politicians are and aren’t doing to preserve affordable live/work housing.

Speakers:

Assemblywoman Maritza Davila, Senator Martin Dilan, Assemblyman Joe Lentol, Councilman Steven Levin, Councilman Rafael Espinal.

Legendary tenant advocates: Chuck Delaney – Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants and Michael Mckee – TenantsPAC;

Loft tenant lawyer: Michael Kozek;

Artists/Activists: Ximena Garnica – Leimay/NYLCT, Aniela Coveleski – Arts in Bushwick, Aaron Scaturro – NYCLT

La MaMa Galleria

47 Great Jones Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Lost Merchandise of Dreamlanders

During Frieze week I was wandering the stalls of a satellite fair and thought: “Someone should really make a guide of what art to not bother making. The top of that list would be anything involving Barbies.” But lo and behold, today I spied this Divine doll by Kyle Lords and changed my mind.

Kitschy, yes. But a fitting tribute to John Waters and his “Dreamlanders” (the Baltimore equivalent of Warhol’s factory scene). Except for Divine, most of the crew never achieved “superstar” status, sadly. But what if they did? Curator Tyson Tabbert imagines an alternate reality in which the trashy world of 1970s John Waters films filtered into pop minutiae: Pink Flamingos bed sheets and breakfast cereal, for example.

The project grew out of a Facebook community of likeminded fans, and now will have an IRL exhibition of things like the action figures for recreating the infamous “I WANT MY CHA CHA HEELS” Christmas morning scene from Female Trouble. The tagline is “The childhood you wish you had.” For those of us who had to resort to giving Cal Ripken (serious, he looks exactly like Divine) bobble heads colored pencil makeovers, that’s all too real.

Shin Gallery

322 Grand Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Grand Opening of Batu Museum

Batu Museum is a new nomadic curatorial platform dedicated to placing the work of artists at different career stages in dialog. Here, that means figurative work from canonical legends such as the late, great Louise Bourgeois will be shown alongside emerging artists and living art stars including Marlene Dumas. That’s an interesting curatorial concept, opening in a gallery I like for their wild installs. This show is dedicated to works that convey narratives about the body through figuration or related processes.

Artists: Hyon Gyon, Louise Bourgeois, Marlene Dumas, Goshka Macuga, Lucas Samaras and Keunmin Lee

Fri

The Jungle Lounge

248 McKibbin Street Brooklyn, NY 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.Website

For the Love of Barbara (DeGenevieve)

This is a show paying tribute to the late artist/educator Barbara DeGenevieve, featuring work by artists who collaborated with or studied under her. DeGenevieve’s NEA-funded work famously came under attack during the Culture Wars of the 1990s, and she became an outspoken opponent of censorship and a popular professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

This show also marks the inauguration of the The Jungle Lounge, an apartment gallery in Sean Fader’s plant-filled McKibbin loft. He’s fundraising to convert the space into a gallery with queer-centric programming and a paid residency (the Barbara DeGenevieve Memorial Fellowship) program for recent queer SAIC grads to work and show in NYC.

Artists: Barbara DeGenevieve, Amber Hawk Swanson, Aiden Simon, Jules Rosskam, Mayumi Lake, Brad Farwell, Lacie Garnes, Eileen Mueller, Oli Rodriguez, AnnieLaurie Erickson, Jenyu Wang, Marissa L. Perel, Jamie Steele, Miao Jiaxin, Ei Jane Janet Lin, Annie Hogan, Liz Nielsen, Young Sun Han, Charles Lum, Elise Rasmussen, Sean Fader, Carly Ries, Catherine Gass, Christopher Sonny Martinez, Scott Patrick Wiener

Small Editions

60 Sackett Street Brooklyn, NY 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Website

Four Steps to Self-Help: Color Therapy

Curated by collective Alt Esc, this show is all about the psychological effects of different colors. The description can read as a little-New-Age-y, but the work will likely be good. Aliza Morell’s radiant canvases seem to glow like a Lisa Frank screensaver or beauty shop neon signs. Evie Falci’s assemblage/painting technique is what Tibetan mandalas would look like if monks lived in a suburban craft store instead of the Himalayas. They’re so much better than how that description makes them sound. All of the work here is likely similar in the sense that it’s best experienced IRL.

Artists; Aliza Morell, Calli Moore, Nicole Ruggiero, and Evie Falci.

Sat

Eyebeam

34 35th Sreet, 5th floor Brooklyn, NY 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Re-figuring

Eyebeam artist-in-residence Morehshin Allahyari is in the midst of a two-year project exploring “digital colonialism”. That reads like a research paper I probably couldn’t get through, but this show sounds surprisingly engaging. She’s invited artists, activists, and scientists (Gelare Khoshgozaran, Nooshin Rostami, Ida Momennejad, and Maryam Darvishi) to create “Fabulation Stations”. Here, they’ll present new and appropriated fables through different media that relate to past and hypothetical future colonization. They’ll be inhabiting the archetype of the female Djinn and drawing inspiration from sources ranging from Italo Calvino to Islamic mythology and the immigrant experience.

TRANSFER

1030 Metropolitan Ave Brooklyn, NY 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Website

Eva Papamargariti: Precarious Inhabitants

We’re very excited about this solo show from Greek multimedia artist Eva Papamargariti. We’re big fans (and sometimes curators) of her digital works, which comprise everything from biting critiques of consumer culture to surreal landscapes (or both at the same time).

Here, she’s focusing on plastic—that ubiquitous, supposedly “democratic” substance that’s literally rewriting the fabric of countless species’ DNA as it accumulates in landfills, roadsides, slums, and oceans. What will these future creatures look like after millennia of ingesting errant molecules synthetic polymers? Papamargariti proposes new mutations as she traces plastic’s real and speculative lifespan from creation to all-too-distant decomposition.

from Art F City http://ift.tt/2rMNDd1 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Art F City

0 notes

aurriii · 8 years

Text

17 Must-Read Books Becoming Movies In 2017

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

Release Date: January 6, 2017 (watch trailer) Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Costner

Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.

Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South’s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America’s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam’s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.

Live by Night by Dennis Lahan

Release Date: January 13, 2017 (Watch the Trailer) Starring: Ben Affleck, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana

Meticulously researched and artfully told, Live by Night is the riveting story of one man’s rise from Boston petty thief to the Gulf Coast’s most successful rum runner, and it proves again that the accolades New York Times bestseller Lehane consistently receives are well deserved. He is indeed, “a master” (Philadelphia Inquirer) whose “true literary forefathers include John Steinbeck as well as Raymond Chandler” (Baltimore Sun). And, “Boy, does he know how to write” (Elmore Leonard).

A Dog’s Purpose: A Novel for Humans by W. Bruce Cameron

Release Date: January 27, 2017 (Watch the Trailer) Starring: Britt Robertson and Dennis Quaid

The soulful and surprising story of one devoted dog (voiced by Josh Gad) who finds the meaning of his own existence through the lives of the humans he teaches to laugh and love.

Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall

Release Date: February 3, 2017 (Watch the Trailer) Starring: Renée Zellweger, Greg Kinnear, Djimon Hounsou

A dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery. An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel. A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream. A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it.

It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana . . . and an East Texas honky-tonk . . . and, without a doubt, in the heart of God. It unfolds in a Hollywood hacienda . . . an upscale New York gallery . . . a downtown dumpster . . . a Texas ranch.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Release Date: March 3, 2017 (Watch the Trailer) Starring: Zoey Deutch

The Before I Fall movie—based on Lauren Oliver’s beloved first novel and starring Zoey Deutch, Halston Sage, and Kian Lawley—is opening in theaters in spring 2017.

This special enhanced edition of the New York Times bestselling Before I Fall by award-winning author Lauren Oliver includes two brand-new stories set in the world of Before I Fall, an essay by the author about the “greatest hits” of her life, and extra behind-the-scenes content on the making of this bestseller.

Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.

The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman

Release Date: March 31, 2017 (Watch the Trailer) Starring: Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh, Daniel Brühl

A true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

After their zoo was bombed, Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski managed to save over three hundred people from the Nazis by hiding refugees in the empty animal cages. With animal names for these “guests,” and human names for the animals, it’s no wonder that the zoo’s code name became “The House Under a Crazy Star.” Best-selling naturalist and acclaimed storyteller Diane Ackerman combines extensive research and an exuberant writing style to re-create this fascinating, true-life story―sharing Antonina’s life as “the zookeeper’s wife,” while examining the disturbing obsessions at the core of Nazism. Winner of the 2008 Orion Award. 8 pages of illustrations

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Release Date: April 7, 2017 (Watch the Trailer) Starring: Jacob Tremblay, Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson

I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.

August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. WONDER, now a #1 New York Times bestseller and included on the Texas Bluebonnet Award master list, begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Release Date: April 21, 2017 (Watch the Trailer) Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller

In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called “The Lost City of Z.” In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for “Z” and his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century.

The Circle by Dave Eggers

Release Date: April 28, 2017 (Watch the Trailer) Starring: Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, Bill Paxton

When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge. -Vintage Books

The Dinner by Herman Koch

Release Date: May 5, 2017 Starring: Laura Linney, Richard Gere

An internationally bestselling phenomenon, soon to be a major motion picture: the darkly suspenseful, highly controversial tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives—all over the course of one meal.

It’s a summer’s evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.

Captain Underpants by Dave Pilkey

Release Date: June 2, 2017 (Watch the Trailer) Starring: Ed Helms (voice), Kevin Hart (voice)

The first book in Dav Pilkey’s mega-bestselling Captain Underpants series. Now with super-cool foil covers! Shiny! Fun!

George and Harold have created the greatest superhero in the history of their elementary school–and now they’re going to bring him to life! Meet Captain Underpants! His true identity is so secret, even HE doesn’t know who he is! Acclaimed author and Caldecott Honor illustrator Dav Pilkey provides young readers with the adventure of a lifetime in this outrageously funny, action-packed, easy-to-read chapter book. With hilarious pictures on every page, THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS is great for both beginning and chapter-book readers. And like Dav’s other best-selling books of humor, it is sure to provide even the most reluctant readers with hours of fun. Great product!

The Dark Tower by Stephen King

Release Date: July 28, 2017 Starring: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey

A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger introduces readers to one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations, Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.

The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

Release Date: October 20, 2017 Starring: Idris Elba, Kate Winslet Release Date: October 20, 2017 On a stormy winter night, two strangers wait for a flight at the Salt Lake City airport. Ashley Knox is an attractive, successful writer, who is flying East for her much anticipated wedding. Dr. Ben Payne has just wrapped up a medical conference and is also eager to get back East for a slate of surgeries he has scheduled for the following day. When the last outgoing flight is cancelled due to a broken de-icer and a forthcoming storm, Ben finds a charter plane that can take him around the storm and drop him in Denver to catch a connection. And when the pilot says the single engine prop plane can fit one more, if barely, Ben offers the seat to Ashley knowing that she needs to get back just as urgently. And then the unthinkable happens. The pilot has a heart attack mid-flight and the plane crashes into the High Uintas Wilderness– one of the largest stretches of harsh and remote land in the United States.

Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews

Release Date: November 10, 2017 Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton

State intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the cast-iron bureaucracy of post-Soviet intelligence. Drafted against her will to become a “Sparrow,” a trained seductress in the service, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a first-tour CIA officer who handles the CIA’s most sensitive penetration of Russian intelligence. The two young intelligence officers, trained in their respective spy schools, collide in a charged atmosphere of tradecraft, deception, and, inevitably, a forbidden spiral of carnal attraction that threatens their careers and the security of America’s most valuable mole in Moscow. Seeking revenge against her soulless masters, Dominika begins a fateful double life, recruited by the CIA to ferret out a high-level traitor in Washington; hunt down a Russian illegal buried deep in the US military and, against all odds, to return to Moscow as the new-generation penetration of Putin’s intelligence service. Dominika and Nathaniel’s impossible love affair and twisted spy game come to a deadly conclusion in the shocking climax of this electrifying, up-to-the minute spy thriller.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Release Date: November 22, 2017 Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley

The Queen of Mystery has come to Harper Collins! Agatha Christie, the acknowledged mistress of suspense—creator of indomitable sleuth Miss Marple, meticulous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and so many other unforgettable characters—brings her entire oeuvre of ingenious whodunits, locked room mysteries, and perplexing puzzles to Harper Paperbacks…including Murder on the Orient Express, the most famous Hercule Poirot mystery, which has the brilliant detective hunting for a killer aboard one of the world’s most luxurious passenger trains.

Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

Release Date: December 22, 2017 Starring: Russell Peters (voice), Donald Sutherland (voice)

Ferdinand is the world’s most peaceful–and–beloved little bull. While all of the other bulls snort, leap, and butt their heads, Ferdinand is content to just sit and smell the flowers under his favorite cork tree. Leaf’s simple storytelling paired with Lawson’s pen-and-ink drawings make The Story of Ferdinand a true classic. Commemorate the 75th anniversary of the book’s original publication with this beautiful and affordable 8×8 paperback edition. Great book!

Thank You For Your Service by David Finkel

Release Date: TBD, Late 2017 Starring: Amy Schumer, Haley Bennett, Miles Teller

In Thank You for Your Service, Finkel follows many of those same men as they return home and struggle to reintegrate―both into their family lives and into American society at large. He is with them in their most intimate, painful, and hopeful moments as they try to recover, and in doing so, he creates an indelible, essential portrait of what life after war is like―not just for these soldiers, but for their wives, widows, children, and friends, and for the professionals who are truly trying, and to a great degree failing, to undo the damage that has been done. Thank You for Your Service is an act of understanding, and it offers a more complete picture than we have ever had of two essential questions: When we ask young men and women to go to war, what are we asking of them? And when they return, what are we thanking them for?

from Textbook Case | Bigwords.com http://ift.tt/2kpLAIY via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Textbook Case | Bigwords.com

0 notes

ttawoabw · 8 years

Text

Book Box Club: December ‘Magic By Night’ Box

Okay, so if you don’t know what a book subscription box then;

Where have you been?

Check out my blog post about them HERE.

Okay let me just start off by saying that I feel extremely let down by this box and feel as though I have been deceived. The theme for the December box was ‘Magic By Night’. A direct quote from the theme announcement states “As soon as I heard about the premise I was excited and it didn’t take many sittings of reading my ARC copy to know that we just HAD to have this book for Book Box Club. Kate was equally enthralled and called me to chat about it after she had finished the first chapter. It’s a tricky read to shoehorn into a particular genre, it has everything; romance, teenage angst, small-town prejudice and magical creatures. The writing is seriously beautiful and some nights I would read it before I went to sleep and wake up wondering if I had really read those magical scenes or actually dreamt them instead! If any of you are fans of Maggie Stiefvater and the vivid descriptions in Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus then this will be right up your street!” furthermore in their newsletter titled ‘An Exciting Reveal About Our Magic By Night Box’ they state that “This month, as a special treat, recipients of our Magic by Night box will receive TWO BOOKS: our featured book for this month, plus an advanced reading copy of a book due out in early 2017.” Now as someone who is a control freak and picky reader I usually try and guess the book included in a box BEFORE I order it. Based on what I read and what I’m showing you I made the logical conclusion that the book included would likely be Caraval by Stephanie Garber as it’s been promoted as a YA version of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and it’s being released at the end of January. All the promotion and reveals for this box, in my opinion, point clearly to the feature book being Caraval. I was wrong and because of that I feel extremely let down. Anyway, let’s get into the unboxing/review. Sorry if I sound bitter throughout but when things don’t go my way (or the way I expect them too) I get grouchy…

Okay, so let’s start out by saying that I can’t show you the box because it has my address right on top, but the box experienced some denting and damage in transit. I know from the theme reveal video that this artwork was hand painted then photographed (at least I assume so) so I can’t criticize it too much other than the colours don’t fit with the feature book. The actual information side of the introduction card is clear, easy to read and precise it also includes the full links to stores not just the social media handle or shop name – which is something very good in my opinion.

I also received this little Christmas card in the box, so that was cool.

The first product included is this cute star charm wish bracelet. It has a quote by Sarah J. Maas (‘You Could Rattle The Stars) on the packaging and on the back it says “Close your eyes, make a wish, tie your bracelet on your wrist, when the cord breaks in two your wish will then come true!” I think this bracelet is super cute and I’ll be putting it on once I’ve completed this post. It’s by The Woodland Folk on Etsy.

Next up we have this unicorn iron on patch. This is a nice design but I don’t really have a use for it. It’s by Rosie Wonders.

Then we have this adorable pencil which says ‘I believe in unicorns’. It’s made by the curator of this box and I absolutely adore it!

This magical notebooks by Fable and Black features a J.K Rowling quote on it. It’s not lined inside and is a decent size.

And this month’s feature book is….

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby. This is a YA Magical Realism Romance.

Everyone knows Bone Gap is full of gaps—gaps to trip you up, gaps to slide through so you can disappear forever. So when young, beautiful Roza went missing, the people of Bone Gap weren’t surprised. After all, it wasn’t the first time that someone had slipped away and left Finn and Sean O’Sullivan on their own. Just a few years before, their mother had high-tailed it to Oregon for a brand new guy, a brand new life. That’s just how things go, the people said. Who are you going to blame?

Finn knows that’s not what happened with Roza. He knows she was kidnapped, ripped from the cornfields by a dangerous man whose face he cannot remember. But the searches turned up nothing, and no one believes him anymore. Not even Sean, who has more reason to find Roza than anyone, and every reason to blame Finn for letting her go.

As we follow the stories of Finn, Roza, and the people of Bone Gap—their melancholy pasts, their terrifying presents, their uncertain futures—acclaimed author Laura Ruby weaves a heartbreaking tale of love and loss, magic and mystery, regret and forgiveness—a story about how the face the world sees is never the sum of who we are.

I had never heard of this book and that’s probably because it isn’t the type of book I would pick up. It was released in 2015 – so it’s odviously not our ARC copy. I expected Caravel to be this book and as I’ve said I am extremely disappointed. This book also came with a signed book plate which I haven’t used and won’t since I plan on selling this book.

The box also included an interview card with the author of the feature book. I like this idea but I never end up reading them, which is silly of me.

We also received some book promotion stuff, first up we have this promotion card for Frogkisser by Garth Nix. I’m glad this was included as I hadn’t heard about this book and it sounds like something I might enjoy.

Then we have this two sided teaser booklet for Unconventional by Maggie Harcourt and Broken Sky by L.A. Weatherly.

And the second book is….

The Memory Book by Lara Avery. This is supposedly the ARC, however this book was released in the US back in July of 2016 and I’ve seen it in Australian stores (we get the UK covers) since before Christmas. So it most certainly is not an ARC of a book being released in early 2017. I’ve been meaning to pick this one up however it seems extremely gut wrenching so I probably won’t pick it up til I’m in a good place mentally so I’m not upset about it being included. However it doesn’t fit with the theme AT ALL.

They tell me that my memory will never be the same, that I’ll start forgetting things. At first just a little, and then a lot. So I’m writing to remember.

Sammie was always a girl with a plan: graduate at the top of her class and get out of her small town as soon as humanly possible. Nothing will stand in her way–not even a rare genetic disorder the doctors say will slowly start to steal her memories and then her health. What she needs is a new plan.

So the Memory Book is born: Sammie’s notes to her future self, a document of moments great and small. It’s where she’ll record every perfect detail of her first date with longtime crush, Stuart–a brilliant young writer who is home for the summer. And where she’ll admit how much she’s missed her childhood best friend, Cooper, and even take some of the blame for the fight that ended their friendship.

Through a mix of heartfelt journal entries, mementos, and guest posts from friends and family, readers will fall in love with Sammie, a brave and remarkable girl who learns to live and love life fully, even though it’s not the life she planned.

PRETTY PAGES!

Final Thoughts:

While I admire the quality of the products included I hate to say I won’t be ordering from this company again. Not only is the feature book not a new release (and while that would be fine if they advertised that that was the case they don’t/didn’t) but to me (and I haven’t read the book so I could be wrong) it doesn’t really fit the theme. If you’re including a magical realism book make the theme more obscure and less ‘magic’. Also the creators should be more aware of the books being released and how they should make the theme more specific to what they’re including. I was expecting more dark creepy circus and fairy like things instead I got unicorns and a contemporary novel? I just feel like there was a lot of false advertising and I am disappointed with the company. Obviously you are free to judge based on your own opinions of the products included but to me I’ve been ‘wronged’ by them and just have no interest in using this service again. (Which is probably a good thing since I have so many other boxes I want to try and buy..) I really do love the bracelet and pencil though!

You can order your Book Box Club box HERE for £27.99 (not including shipping). If you want to check out past boxes you can click HERE and HERE.

My Links:

Goodreads : Becca Winter

Instagram : becca_theory

Twitter : @Becca_Theory

Facebook : The Troubles And Woes Of A Bookworm

Becca

xxx

The opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. This post is not sponsored I paid for the box myself.

Book Subscription Box Review: Book Box Club Book Box Club: December 'Magic By Night' Box Okay, so if you don't know what a book subscription box then;

0 notes