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incorrect-ikevamp-quotes · 5 years ago

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I mean in Leonardo's route he mentions Comte used to be a smoker! AND, it's heavily implied Comte used to be a wild child so!

Comte spoilers below, please don’t open if you’d prefer to wait to find out! I know I’m 100% feral for Comte but I don’t want to diminish anyone else’s experience~

Yes, there are indications that he once engaged in smoking, and was implied to be even worse than Leonardo (a chainsmoker of epic proportions, so to speak). As for whether or not Comte was a wild child, I have no way to confirm that with the current information that Cybird has provided, but there are heavy allusions to him going off the rails (at least for a vampire of noble blood). There are several mentions–if I recall correctly he states it himself–that he’s been running from his legacy for a very long time, and only recently settled down and took up the full weight of his aristocratic title. Unfortunately we don’t know much more than that. But I wouldn’t be surprised, he wandered quite a bit around Europe before turning the men of the mansion. In the few glimpses into his backstory we receive there is also plenty of fuel for a so-called teenage or adolescent vampire rebellious phase. Both he and Leonardo have a profound compassion for other people/creatures, and vehemently reject the social hierarchy/power dynamics that other purebloods seem to want to enforce.

Among the few scenes I have seen that can testify to his more wild behavior is an event that is likely headed to the english app very soon. There was a story event that featured the suitors–as a pair–enjoying a drink and often reminiscing about the past. Comte and Leonardo are seated at a bar, and they’re drinking their own weight in alcohol and bewildering nearby patrons. Leonardo asks if Comte remembers when it was that they became good friends, and Comte is all “I have no idea what you’re talking abt MORE BOURBON.” Spoilers: he likely knows, or at least has an inkling, and doesn’t want to remember his own punk ass going feral. Anywho, Leonardo goes into it anyway, and describes a situation in which he and Comte attended some kind of social event. Upon exiting the venue, they see/hear a young woman being assaulted in an alley by several men. Now, Leonardo is already cracking his knuckles, excited to unleash a can of whoop ass–but Comte actually beats him to it. He goes stone cold and starts knocking out the people hurting her, asking them how they like being on the receiving end of violence. He then gingerly lifts the young lady and asks Leonardo to get the carriage, since it’s raining out and he would hate for her to catch a cold. This is the moment in which Leonardo learns that–for all of Comte’s adherence to his noble title’s customs–all of that ceases to matter when somebody is in need of his help. And that’s why they became friends; because all of Comte’s money, all of his prestige and social recognition doesn’t mean shit to him. He would give it up in seconds if it meant doing the right thing. His principles and his convictions outweigh any of his perceived materiality, no matter how he conducts himself or seems to others.

One of the greater issues Comte seems to struggle with–and could very possibly have been the reason he distanced himself from his own family–is the way that vampires drop humans like flies. Even if they aren’t engaging in a predatory relationship, in some ways humans are deemed expendable regardless. He had the privilege of being born into a family that treats human beings with respect and perhaps even affection, but every single one of his teachers, caretakers, and the servants in the house he grew up with were fired long before he became an adult. But he was just old enough to understand why they left, and it crushed him. Getting too close was deemed dangerous, for both parties; it would hurt the purebloods more to leave somebody they were attached too, and the humans in their employ would grow suspicious/fearful, perhaps even violent, if they noticed that they didn’t age. But like Leonardo, Comte loves the company of all kinds of people, and to be forced to cut ties for the sake of his own emotional and physical health was shattering for him (death is impossible as far as we know, but that doesn’t make vampires impervious to pain).

I think he spent a very long time rejecting that mindset, until he started to live life on his own and saw how difficult it was. To love people fully, and watch their lives end what felt like hours later. Over and over and over again. Four hundred years is a long time to love and lose people, and while it can be easy to believe that all grieving really requires is letting go, such a thing is much easier said than done. Leonardo wrestles with it just as much as Comte does; the only reason Comte fairs a little better is because he exercises considerable restraint. He’s been burned before, and he’s edging the flames more carefully now. Even so, we see several moments in which this self-control collapses; he will never stand in the way of MC’s happiness with someone else–but the attraction is always simmering beneath the surface, never fully realized. Literally the entire crux of his own route is that he’s trying, trying desperately not to just move where is heart is taking him, but failing anyway because MC has the courage to meet him halfway–wants to meet him halfway, despite their differences.

One of the hardest things Comte is probably forced to contend with is that, no matter how vehemently he feels that his family was wrong, life proves that in some regards they were right. It is extremely difficult to engage in the kind of life they live without a modicum of self-restraint, or at the very some kind of healthy grieving process. Eternity isn’t going to wait for them to feel better, life isn’t going to stop taking the people they love just because they were born under different circumstances, or are another species altogether. Life doesn’t have any mercy, in that regard, and so they must be merciful and understanding with themselves. In the course of his lifetime he’s forgotten how to be gentle with himself, and he’s forgotten how to look forward to each day to come. For better or worse, his answer to the pain of forever was to shut himself down as swiftly and powerfully as he could to stop the growing whirpool of poorly resolved grief, or perhaps better described as melancholia. He was able to survive the first downspiral, but that doesn’t mean he’s confident he’ll survive another. And survival doesn’t necessarily entail living well, it means doing what you must to forge on–no matter how much it hurts.

(I will say that I can clarify what I mean by the specific term melancholia, because I don’t mean it in the colloquial sense. But I’ll give the disclaimer here for the sake of sparing everyone a technical argument they might not care about lol keep reading after the dashes for the conclusion)

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Essentially, Freud contends that people process grief in two distinct ways, as I will loosely summarize. Mourning is the reaction to some kind of loss (whether a person, a concept, an opportunity, etc.) that inspires a short-term level of discomfort and unhappiness. Most people heal on their own over time, and it’s something that most people have experienced before. Melancholia, on the other hand, is more or less mourning that has never ended. It is described as a prolonged state of dejection in which all the color in life has dissolved and left, in which one’s self-regard often diminishes (not usually a side effect of mourning, but specific to melancholia) and they lose their will to go on slowly but surely.

In Comte’s route he literally says that MC eases the void in his heart, makes him look forward to every single day; that “his time” starts moving again. That the reason he reciprocated her feelings at all instead of stifling them was because he just fell into the comfort and joy of her presence, couldn’t help himself in wanting to see and talk to her. He describes her love as an irresistible “magic,” something with the capacity to transfigure the fragments of his experience into a de facto life.

Sound familiar?

—

And that’s the whole point, that’s what we as the player are here to do. We’re supposed to help him find the magic in the little things again, hope for better again. Make it so that when he does open his heart and lets himself feel freely again, anguish isn’t the only thing that finds him. We’re supposed to help him stop living in the hellscape of anxiety that he’s been forcing into silence, a depression so wide and deep it’s a wonder he never went mad.

So uh, this kind of became ridiculously meta, but that’s why I love Comte? And that’s as much as I know about him, as of now. Hoping for more details in the jpn app in the future! I know I got a little sidetracked, do forgive me–I get really in it when I discuss Comte LOL

#ikevamp #ikemen vampire #ikevamp spoilers #ikevamp comte #ikevamp saint germain #ikevamp meta #not incorrect quotes #rambles #good lord idk what is with me this week i cant use two brain cells without showing up with a thesis #if any of yall find the energy to read through this bless #i promise i will be back with those heady memes soon #quarantine deadass be like: room for self-improvement??? fuck no we obsess over 2d men instead #anyhoot that's my five cents on that topic and what i've learned from the rt #comte propaganda #i literally cannot breathe without thinking about my love for him #well-played monsieur

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cjdemooi · 6 years ago

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I contracted HIV in early 1988 while I was sleeping on the streets and earning a little money as a beggar and prostitute in London.

I had been feeling unwell so went to the Chelsea and Westminster hospital. I had a blood test and was shortly after told of the diagnosis. The only emotion I felt was relief and, walking down the road, I remember smiling broadly. This was it. My brief but awful life was coming to an abrupt end and frankly I was glad.

I grew up in an atmosphere of racism, homophobia and violence, had no friends and had been bullied daily at school. I was told repeatedly that I was worthless and unloved so was now facing the right and proper outcome. I actually had something to look forward to.

Later in the year I stowed away on a ferry to Amsterdam as I simply didn’t want to die in Britain. While there, something changed. I met an English guy called Keith who worked at the Dutch version of The Salvation Army. We talked and he even let me stay with him for a few nights as I was, shall we say, somewhat different to most of the clients he encountered.

He persuaded me to see a doctor and start taking medication although I was very loathe to do so. I agreed because he was the first person I’d ever met who was genuinely kind to me without demanding anything in return. He only wanted to help. He was my inspiration and the reason that since then, I’ve volunteered for HIV and homeless charities. I began helping out at the Army immediately even though I was still officially using their services.

The medication I began taking was not at all pleasant. A daily dose of 30 capsules, each quite large and to be kept refrigerated. This meant it was a very uncomfortable sensation to swallow each one. I began dreading the next batch of 5 to such a point that I was dry heaving every time. In addition they had quite severe side effects and I became increasingly unwell and frail.

My physical appearance wasn’t helped by the development of dark blotches on my skin, most noticeably my arms. This was Kaposi’s Sarcoma, a cancer known to be an AIDS Related Compound. The capsules weren’t working, I was becoming very ill and needed to escape. I made a half hearted suicide attempt with another young man I knew from working in a brothel as I’d just given up. I didn’t go through with it as to take my own life would, as I saw it, give too many people satisfaction. I was too angry for that.

Amsterdam had now become synonymous with my impending death so I jumped on a train to Cologne. I was begging outside a bar and, by pure luck, was presented with the opportunity that finally got me off the streets.

A few weeks later, having finally secured a long term job and accommodation, I began tentatively to think about where I should go from there. I’d never believed I was going to have, or deserve, any sort of future so this was a brand new concept. I started new medication, this time only 8 tablets a day, although their dimensions made them far more suitable for horses! The Sarcoma on my arms faded over time and my CD4 count began to cautiously rise. I continued with the same regime throughout my time in Germany, another stint in the Netherlands and eventual return to Britain in 1995.

I’m still not sure why I came back but I was inexperienced and naive so the procedure to apply for residency or full time employment in Europe may have seemed daunting.

However, I think this was a mistake. As soon as I got back I became very depressed and stopped taking the drugs. My health immediately deteriorated and, as has been well documented, a large tumour developed in my mouth. After trying to ignore it for many months, I had surgery.

By now I had met the man who I would one day marry but in the early days I was a less than pleasant partner. I knew I’d fallen in love with him the very first day we met but kept pushing him away. I had no doubt I wasn’t going to live to see the millennium so what was the point? I didn’t want to hurt him by dying or hurt myself by being forced to leave him so early.

Against the odds, he stuck by me and would not leave. He persuaded me to start with new medicine so I was put on a course of only 4 tablets a day which was far more manageable. He talked to me, supported me and most amazingly, became the first person to love me.

My health improved (it’s true what they say about the love of a good man!) and I grew fitter and stronger. In about 2007 I changed medication once again, this time to just 2 tablets a day. I began running which is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made as the benefits have been sensational.

Then, in 2016, my world was destroyed. My career, reputation and livelihood were decimated in one fell swoop as lies upon lies were published about me. I was on a downward spiral but was still relatively okay. Unfortunately, in mid 2017 matters deteriorated severely and my physical and mental health did so too.

Towards the end of 2018, my doctor advised I was so seriously ill to be hospitalised. The stress and pain of everything I was going through was quite literally killing me. My CD4 count dropped below 100, I visibly lost weight and became lethargic and withdrawn. My doctor wrote to the other side pleading he was seriously concerned about me and there were terminal risks due to the pressure I was under. This letter was completely disregarded and described as irrelevant. I had lost everything and now my house was in imminent danger. I was about to become homeless with an AIDS diagnosis. Through no fault of my own, everything was about to come full circle.

My supporters, especially on social media, kindly contributed to a GoFundMe page that was set up and for which I am immensely grateful. It’s unlikely to raise enough save my house but the longer I can fight, the better. The problem is, how long I’ll have the strength to do so.

A few weeks ago, my doctor desperately switched my treatment, now down to a single tablet a day (a far cry from the 30 cold capsules all those years ago) and it does seem to have helped. I’m also on iron and vitamin supplements in an attempt to maintain vitality.

The fact is, I’m still seriously ill although thankfully back from the brink I was on earlier this year. My immune system was almost obliterated and I was so vulnerable, any infection might have killed me. In preparation, I wrote my will, not that I had much of anything left to give.

Even after all this time, people continue to lie about and bully me. Only this time, they’re willing to gamble with, or even destroy, my health. My doctor closely monitors me and I see him for a variety of blood tests every 8 weeks. He has suggested other invasive procedures which may help but I have refused, at least until the current situation is resolved and I feel stronger.

I still don’t want to die in this country but, more urgently, I don’t want to die because some cowardly bullies think they can get away with it.

I am not defined by my HIV status although it of course has a daily impact. Even someone as fit as me can be reduced, shockingly quickly as was all too obvious for everyone to see recently, to a very weak shadow. I am seriously ill and cancer remains a lingering threat but I can’t live my life in fear. I don’t know how much time I’ve got but I now have, and deserve, a reason to fight.

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dxmedstudent · 6 years ago

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Answer the even ones 50+

Yessir!50: what's an odd thing you collect?Answered :)52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far?Years are meaningless to me, but of the recent memes? Absolue units. 100% good content every time.

56: what are some things you find endearing in people?Enthusiasm, kindness, a dorky sense of humor.

58: who's the wine mom and who's the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why? Hahaha well I wouldn’t out them on tumblr, but I can deffo imagine who is the occasionally tipsy mom friend and vodka aunt XD

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves?I do! I have lots of faves, but I’ll just say that when I’m in a foul mood I often end up picking up an old volume of Blake and reading it. Something about melodramatic poets is soothing when you’re mad.

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind?No, I drink coffee in the morning. When it’s not a work day then I don’t really bother with coffee.

64: what color is the sky where you are right now?Dark because it’s the middle of the night. Not much of a moon. A little cloudy.

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like?Just answered :)

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel?Hey, I’m from the UK, so that’s like 90% of our weather! I don’t like dingy days particularly, but they end. Misty days can be nice because it’s more atmospheric. What I really don’t like is when it gets dark really early, and being cold.

68: what's winter like where you live?Just answered :)

70: have you ever used a ouija board?No. I’ve had superstition ground into me, and you don’t mess with the dead in case they mess with you in return. 72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you'll forget it?I would lose my own head if it wasn’t screwed on. Yes, I prefer to note thigns down; my memory for trivia is bloody incredible, but at work we often have to remember a lot of important stuff that I can’t afford to half remember. There’s a saying where I’m from that translates to ‘only the crazy ‘remember’; the smart write things down’. So even though at work I remember a good deal, I still try to jot everything down, because you process a ridiculous amount of information in medicine. I’m forever disposing of my notes in the confidential waste. 74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. I think I just answered an ask about a friend neutrally, so I’m not going to repeat that. 76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren't?Blissfully, no. I’ve been doing a lot of revision but am guilt-free at present. 78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?Neither. They are cute, annoying, and not more of either of the above than many other uh...ficitonal inventions. 80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why?My room at my parent’s house is purple (lavender/lilac, really) because I wanted it to be relaxing, and it was, I love that colour. Most places I’ve lived in after I moved out have always painted everything magnolia, to the point where I’m bored of that colour; so my past several bedrooms have been pretty similar for the most part. If I ever get my own place, I don’t think there will be a magnolia room in the entire house. 82: are/were you good in school?I was ‘naughty’ in primary school (but I was really just bored and put upon by some of the other kids), and got bullied by most of the class when I joined my second school and found it hard to make friends for ages. But in secondary school I worked hard and played by the rules; inherently I . Compared to a lot of the teenagers, I gave them minimal trouble (I don’t think recurrently forgetting my French homework counts), and fell in with the geeky high achievers even in an already pretty high-achieving school.84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones?I wish! Not right now. Hmm... I would have to think long and hard before committing an image to my body for the rest of my life, because I’m a fickle artist, and I fear I’d be bored of it/want to change it/want to get another one after a week. 86: do you like concept albums? which ones?I like the concept of concept albums. The idea of tracks working in harmony to create one artistic piece. However, I’m also a compelte musical phillistine. My new flatmate is a complete hipster; he’s always playing artsy vinyls of bands I’ve never heard of; I’ve looked through his entire music collecion and recognised maybe like, 3 artists I know. I think half of it sounds awful to my ears, but hey, he can enjoy what he wants. I’ll be listening to Mozart and Sia on my earphones like a cranky old millennial. 88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy?I will festoon my walls with Art Nouveau intol I die. 90: talk about your one of you favorite cities.The last place I went to for a proper holiday was Krakow, and I really love seeing the various cities in Europe. I loved learning about local hisory (and I’m a sucker for museums and palaces). There’s a lot to see in Poland, but I went to a torture museum, and that’s my stick-out memory for that city. 92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch?My previous answer will make this clear, but CHEEESE RULES. I won’t lie, I try to be healthy, so sometimes I include no cheese at all in my pasta, and usually I include less than I want. But in my soul? I am drowning in cheese. 94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday?A friend I haven’t seen for a long time because she lives in the States. She’s super smart and kind and hilarious, and I wish she visited more often. I sort of inadvertently set her up to be friends with my sister (they were in the same year at school a few years below myself, but I knew them both before they knew each other) and I’m so glad they hit it off as friends because she’s a good egg. 96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?I try to be good. I also end up doing the IT upkeep for my family’s computers sometimes.

98: when's the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it?I go on regular walks, but hiking not so much. The last time was right after my grandmother died; my cousins took me up a local mountain in my hometown to cheer me up and distract me. It worked. Though I was worried my uncle would get eaten by a wild boar when he got out of the car to take a closer look at the wild piglets.

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why?Answered just now :)

#ask meme #askdx #ask dx #ask #hella cute ask meme #personal #my life

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nowtravel · 4 years ago

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Puffin Rally to the Látrabjarg Cliffs

On a road trip to Iceland's remote Westfjords, I explore the travel bloggers insatiable quest for novelty, and the decline of the iconic Atlantic Puffin. Includes an interview with puffin researcher Erpur Snær Hansen.

We are driving north from Reykjavik, to the westernmost point of Europe — the Látrabjarg Cliffs of Iceland’s Westfjords.

The cliffs are a massive promontory, just a few degrees south of the Arctic circle, pointing towards Greenland. The granite cliffs slope vertically downward for up to 1,400 feet into the North Atlantic, and hold the largest colonies of nesting seabirds in all of Europe.

I had packed several cups of skyr; the stunningly tasty cultured cheese, for our long journey north. I immediately fell for the low-fat, high protein Icelandic food, reminiscent of thick yogurts. One of my great joys in travel is to form a ritual around a simple local food.

Iceland’s post World War II diet is heavy on hot dogs, road meats and gas station junk food. The restaurants are often insanely expensive. Skyr, with a few berries, is the antidote: breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Reykjavik to Borgarnes

It’s remarkable to find how quickly you can leave the city of Reykjavik. Within minutes of driving out of the city center, it’s the suburbs. Minutes after that, a long road with little traffic, fewer towns. To our right, steep, treeless mesas, peppered with sheep and oystercatchers. To our left, inlets, bays and mud flats.

For almost all of its 1,100 year human history, Iceland’s population hovered around 50,000. Today, the island’s total population is 350,000 — a phenomenally low population for a geography about the size of New York State. Reykjavik, where most people in Iceland live, features a population about the same size as Killeen, Texas.

Because of these low population levels, Iceland is to some degree a blank slate, with seemingly few stories for traveling writers to tell. It’s easy to fall for the idea that Iceland is encapsulated by the same stories we keep hearing about, as if there a bait has been dangled for us in front of the Icelandic Tourist Board.

Tourism in Iceland has boomed so quickly that it has also become a bit like a wild west of travel documenting; a frontier to rehash the same story over and over again.

One recurring story you hear almost constantly is: I went to Iceland and ate a daring, gross and controversial food.

I am perennially repulsed by this trend in travel. Imagine the meaty head of Andrew Zimmern, (Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern), gullet open to the sky, swallowing something rare for the camera. A reminder of how unnecessary eating gross foods for a smart travel audience is.

In Iceland, however, weird and gross foods often cross a distinct line of ethics, which travel bloggers gleely cross, often while downplaying that line in their writing, or even explicitly crossing it to shock their audience. When travel bloggers and tourists consume Minke Whale, Atlantic Puffin or Greenland Shark, for example, aren’t they crossing a firm line of global conservation ethics?

Low tide flats in typical scenery from Reykjavik to the Westfjords.

THE ETHICS OF EATING PUFFIN IN ICELAND

ravel blogger Candie Walsh writes in her blog, Free Candy, “On one of my final nights in Reykjavik, the Obesity Gods intervened.”

In her home province of Newfoundland, Atlantic Puffin is treasured and revered. “In fact, it’s a heavily protected species of the most adorable order,” she writes. “Hunting puffins in my home province is treason. Obviously I had to eat one in Iceland.”

The explicit statement of understanding that the species is threatened is a common theme among travel bloggers talking about their daring cuisine in Iceland.

“Surprisingly, the puffin was delicious...the puffin was prepared in such a way that you’d hardly know you were eating one of the most adorable creatures on earth.”

Responding to commenters, Candy Walsh advertises her wild and crazy ability to eat. “I’m a heathen...Hahaha. I will apparently eat just about anything!”

Like any travel blogger around the world, Candy knows that seabirds have a precarious path to survival. Throughout North America, from Panama to Canada, we protect our rocky offshore islands vigilantly. We know that their manner of nesting in cliff and island colonies puts them at a particular risk. With so much input and education about the fragility of seabirds, it is impossible for us not to know the line the behavior crosses.

THE ETHICS OF EATING WHALE IN ICELAND

When weighing whether it’s okay to eat whale in Iceland, travel bloggers repeat the conclusion that the controversy surrounding whale is simply whether the animal is endangered; Ultimately, whales are just another animal, and a quick internet search on whether the species can be ‘sustainably harvested,’ is enough to satisfy the travel blogger advertising to their international audiences that they too can also eat whale.

There are a few animals which modern civilization has deemed morally repugnant to kill and consume. Obviously, among this short list is all the great sentient mammals. We find human flesh morally repugnant, as we do the flesh of the great apes, the elephants and the cetaceans.

But then how did Lauren Monitz of iExplore come to such a different moral conclusion? She writes, “Often served raw, I also sampled whale tartare with a fine blueberry sauce that tasted like ahi tuna albeit refreshingly fruity thanks to the topping.”

Like with Candy, Lauren dismisses the moral weight, a way of telling her international readers that they too can ignore the moral implications of eating whale: “It was in fact one of the better dishes despite obviously being discouraged by animal activists who regularly campaign to get the protected creature taken off menus.”

THE ETHICS OF EATING GREENLAND SHARK IN ICELAND

Travel bloggers visiting Iceland love to eat a fermented shark dish called Hákarl, or fermented, rotting Greenland Shark. They refer to it as a traditional Icelandic dish, and a ‘Reykjavik delicacy’. Others call it Iceland’s national dish. They cite the weirdness of it, and the excitement of trying a dish that tastes like rancid urine, on account of the poisonous, ammonia-rich flesh of the Greenland Shark---the large, docile shark pees through the fabric of its body to stay warm.

Icelanders will tell you that the idea that Hákarl is a national dish is a bit of a fabrication. Through most of the twentieth century, it was virtually unknown to most Icelanders, who would have nothing to do with it. Others will tell you that it would be served only once a year in certain seaside towns, usually as a Christmas tradition. Its existence in grocery stores and fancy Reykjavik restaurants has appeared alongside the recent boom in tourism.

Kiki, of The Blonde Abroad, calls Greenland Shark all those things at once. She writes, “Rotten Shark...is a traditional delicacy in Iceland that dates back to the time of the Vikings. While it might not be at the top of your must-eat list, it has always made practical sense in the kitchens of Iceland.”

Kiki shares a large photo of herself with a grossed out face, eating the shark. And a youtube video, that also shows her being grossed out during a bold act of consumption.

The problem with Greenland Shark is a different one from both puffins and whales. If Icelanders eat a small amount of shark bycatch as a holiday delicacy, it is a local act that is harmless to the species. But, everybody knows the dual stories of how fishing sharks devastates their populations and the story of the speedy decline of Orange Roughy, the fish popular on dinner tables around the world in the 1980s. Because the fish grows slowly, lives deep in the ocean and matures late, nobody realized they had nearly decimated the world supply of the species until it was nearly too late.

The Greenland Shark, similarly lives for hundreds of years: it is the world’s longest living vertebrate, and slowest moving of all fish, and, as a mysterious deepwater denizen, we really don’t know how many, or how few, are left. We literally have no concept of their remaining population. While we often hear that most Greenland Sharks are bycatch, the rise in demand from the tourist trade puts more pressure on the annual catch of a species now designated by the IUCN as near threatened.

Eurasian Oystercatcher foraging on tidal flats on the Seltjarnarnes peninsula near Reykjavik.

Borgarnes to Búðardalur

rom Borgarnes to Búðardalur, Highway 1 crosses through inland terrain. Some of the terrain is forested with birch and conifers, a reminder of Iceland’s pre-human past, when over thirty-percent of the island was covered in trees.

In this inland wilderness, the ubiquitous sheep and horses are a reminder of the near absence of native mammals. Arctic foxes are the island’s only native land mammal; knowing this puts a damper on our desire to spot for wildlife while driving north.

My son and I will sometimes make up stories while traveling together. The history of skyr is somewhat bland, and certainly not as exciting a backstory as rotten urine shark. Skyr production was a technique common in Scandinavia when Iceland was discovered, but later forgotten everywhere but here.

So, my son and I invent a more Instagram-friendly backstory for skyr:

The skyr squirrel, named for its ability to escape raptor predation by sliding down a snowy slope on its hind-haunches, was common in the interior of Iceland up until the eighteenth century.

Fernando, a wealthy Spanish trophy hunter, took up employment among the whalers of Northern Europe, making his way north to Iceland, where his hope was to bag the island’s greatest mammals.

Upon finding only non-native sheep and horses, he grew weary, turning his bloodlust on the common skyr squirrels, which he discharged by the thousands. Luckily for trophy-less Fernando, he found delectable the milky-white substance that erupted when that musket-shot struck the skyr squirrels. Pleasant was the slightly sour, slightly sweet yogurt-like substance, which he made into a local commodity, exported to Denmark by the barrel.

But, little did he know, the skyr squirrels were on the verge of extinction, just like the Passenger Pigeons of North America.

My son has learned about Passenger Pigeons in school, and we have seen a rare stuffed specimen at our local science museum. But today, we talk about the specific way in which the species declined so rapidly. Passenger pigeons are believed to have been the most populous bird in the world prior to the 1800s. When they crossed the sky in their millions, they would blacken it. The spectacle of this mass of life, moving like an interstellar starling undulation, was one of the great natural spectacles of the planet.

On September 1, 1914, Martha, the last of her species, passed away at the Cincinnati Zoo.

But how did the species go from billions to zero in two decades? Passenger Pigeons were tasty creatures, and after the Civil War, a network of roads and railroads allowed a network of hunters easy access to their entire range in the East, Midwest and Canada. They killed them in every way possible, sometimes by just waving a stick or a net in the air. Sometimes by torching their roosts or simply by blasting a pellet into that mass of black.

The exact cause of their quick demise is unknown, but the general belief among ornithologists is that they had adapted to live in as ultra-social creatures in super-huge groups. Imagine a bird that lives like humans in Manhattan. Once their numbers were hunted to a point of just a few million left, their advanced social structure - their population dynamics - could no longer function.

My conversation with my son, on the road to Búðardalur, prompted me to want to learn more about whether there were similarities between the Atlantic Puffins of the North Atlantic, and the Passenger Pigeons.

The carcass of a US Navy Douglas C-117D sits on the property of the Hnjótur Farm, near the Látrabjarg Hotel. The Hnjótur Farm makes up most of the village of Örlygshöfn, just south of the emerald and turquoise waters of Patreksfjörður fjord.

Interview with Erpur Snær Hansen

I caught up with seabird researcher Erpur Snær Hansen, director of the South Iceland Nature Research Center, whose research into the decline of Iceland’s puffins has begun to reverberate on the world stage. With access to time series unheard of in other bird populations, Hansen and his colleagues have begun to piece together the correlations between the puffin’s prized fish; Silvery Sandeels, warming seas, and overhunting of the species for Reykjavik’s ritzy tourist restaurants.

ERIK: HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH PUFFINS AND SEABIRDS?

Erpur: I was a birder at age 11, and later, I built up an interest in science with plans to become an ornithologist. I moved into seabird research, Trying to answer questions like, “Why do they raise only one chick, and what determines their growth patterns?”

In Spring 2007, I was asked to give a talk in the Westman Islands, because they were worried about persistent chick death in the colonies. I had a good background, because I had studied puffins for my honor’s thesis, on their habitat selection.

An intense decline in seabird chick production had started in 2003 and peaked in 2005, involving not only puffins, but most Icelandic seabird species, which constitute about twenty-five percent of North Atlantic seabird biomass. We really needed to understand the key factors of the decline. They were keen enough to hire me, and I began working to find out what was going on.

I started out in Iceland’s Westman Islands. Our methodology was to use infrared illuminated video cameras to peer into their burrows. We learned a lot in these three years.

We received a grant together with sandeel researchers at the Marine Research Institute, which demonstrated that the sandeel stock collapsed in 2005, and one puffin year class after another disappeared from the puffin harvest.

We expanded our methodology developed in the Westmans to twelve colonies throughout Iceland in 2010. The research is funded by the trust, which is financed by the annual hunter permit fees.

The idea was that we would visit each colony twice each year. First, in early June to see how many eggs were laid in our study burrows, and again in late July to check the same burrows to see how many chicks remained. We also photograph adults carrying food in July. This is the Icelandic Puffin Population Monitoring Program, or less formally what we call the Puffin Rally. This is exhausting work, in particular, a lot of travel. We travel about six-thousand kilometers by car, and then from there a variety of boat and airplane travel.

ERIK: WHAT ARE YOU FINDING IN THE BURROW?

Erpur: That differs between both regions and time. The puffins have been doing moderately fine in the north; in the Westfjords and in northeast Iceland. In the South and East, they have been faring poorly, and taken together, not well enough to sustain the whole Icelandic population. The West started out like the south, but have been improving considerably in the last 4 years and sandeels are being seen again in the last few years. Things have improved in the Westmans, although the sandeel is still scarce.

ERIK: IN ICELAND, WHERE PUFFIN ICONOGRAPHY IS UBIQUITOUS, DOES THIS MAKE YOU A CELEBRITY?

Erpur: Puffins are one of the main reasons people are visiting Iceland. Seeing them is a huge industry for us. Special tours to see puffins all over the island are extremely popular. The Atlantic Puffin is actually ranked the number one bird globally in terms of people’s favorite bird.

Does that make me a celebrity? No, but of course, with everything that is happening now, I was reporting our results to the media.

The bill of the Atlantic Puffin is designed to hold several fish at once. The fleshy yellow roseate at the base of the puffin's beak is a stretchy material that allows the seabird the ability to open its beak very wide, to enable catching more fish and for communicating.

ERIK: LET’S TALK ABOUT PUFFINS WHEN THEY ARE AT SEA. WHAT IS THEIR LIFE LIKE?

Erpur: We have participated in a multicolony international collaborative program named SEATRACK, deploying geologgers on the Atlantic Puffin, together with ten other seabird species in order to map their winter distributions. Icelandic puffins have a triangular migration pattern, they head into the Labrador Sea in fall, stay there until the end of the year when they move south over the Atlantic ridge centering on the Charliecr-Gibbs fracture zone, and in spring, they head north.

The Charlie-Gibbs fracture zone in the Atlantic ridge is rich with prey in winter and is a mega hot spot for sharks, whales, as well as many seabird species of the North Atlantic It’s a fascinating place, with summer conditions in the middle of winter and undoubtedly the reason for the large size of many seabird populations in the North Atlantic.

ERIK: AND WHAT ABOUT WHEN THEY COME BACK TO ICELAND?

Erpur: After a completely pelagic existence like other ‘true’ seabirds; they come back in the middle of April to meet up with their mate.

Puffins have monogamous relationships for life. We say that puffins have a pretty low ‘divorce rate’ - seven percent. For example, if the mate dies, or if they have breeding failure.

Between Iceland and Norway, there have been sharp declines, which is why Atlantic Puffins were put on the IUCN red list in 2015.

I am able to study puffins backwards in time, because we have data on the harvest records in the Westmans Islands going back to 1880. Eighty-percent of the puffin harvest is composed of three year classes that are 2, 3 and 4 years old. Since the effort has remained relatively constant, the harvest in any given year reflects how many were born 2-4 years before.

This gives us one of the longest and perhaps the most interesting time series of birds, as the data show that puffin chick production has a very strong correlation to sea temperature. When sea temperatures are warmer, fewer puffins are harvested, and vice versa.

We know that temperature is key, and temperature in the Atlantic follows a seventy year cycle termed the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation or AMO, characterized by 35 warm years, followed by 35 cold years A warm period started in Icelandic waters in 1996 with temperatures peaking in 2003. In Icelandic waters, the warming is greatly intensified by contemporal contraction of the Sub-Polar Gyre, a circular current system, which opens for great flow of warm and saline Atlantic seawater northwards.

In the process our waters warm by about one degree Celsius, in less than a decade the same warming as predicted by global warming for this century using the IPCC A1B1 “business as usual model!”

The polar currents coming from the north mix with the warmer waters and thus create three marine ecosystems. We have essentially a natural laboratory of extreme temperature variation gradient. That’s exactly where our study colonies are located.

ERIK: THE PUFFINS ARE DECLINING BECAUSE THEIR PRIMARY FOODSOURCE, THE SILVERY SANDEEL, ARE IN DECLINE?

Erpur: The sandeel is one of the most commercially harvested fish in the North Sea, and is studied by a number of specialists. There are a number of exciting hypotheses for their decline and how this relates to seabird declines. One hypothesis is that the sandeel’s first winter survival is negatively related to temperature by increase in their Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), leading to a premature depletion of their fat reserves, prior to the onset of their zooplankton food in spring. They die of starvation during these warmer years.

Another, complementary hypothesis is that in warm summers, the sandeel´s elevated BMR wastes energy, instead of building energy (fat) reserves and growth. We don’t always have warm and cold summers in conjunction. In 1948, for example, summers cooled during an otherwise cold winters AMO period, which allowed the sandeels to really strengthen, judged by the increase in Puffin harvest. In 1996, we started to see the reverse of this, and sandeel numbers declined very rapidly, much more than in the last warm period in the 1930´s. Oceanographers are modeling to see if global warming will buffer against the cooling of the AMO cycle, essentially terminating the cooling period.

If this warming trend continues, the puffin colonies here will be a shadow of their former past. In the north, the colonies would remain. We would have a northern coast with current numbers, and losing more than half of the rest of the populations. This IUCN red listing is really about this: If you would have been here in the 1980s, you would have seen so many birds! Now there is nothing like that! The puffins haven’t even socialized normally in the troubled colonies in the last decade. These social birds are known to spend a lot of time communicating with each other, they don’t have the time to hang around anymore. They need to put all their attention on acquiring food.

What is happening differently during this warm period now, I think, is that the algae blooms that normally occur in March and April, happen much later. The sandeel eggs are hatching about the same time as the algal bloom. The algae are grazed on by zooplankton, which is the prey of sandeels. If there is a delay in the bloom timing, we have what is termed a trophic mismatch. Basically the sandeel prey show up so late that they are already dead from starvation.

Puffin chicks have been fledging in September, rather than in late August. 2019 is however the sunniest year on record, creating a massive algae bloom that you can easily see from space. There is a huge amount of food in there. So there are a lot of variables out there.

Sandeel numbers are expected to increase when you have a good bloom year: early and intensive blooms benefit the the entire food pyramid.

We have satellite data since 1998 that shows that the blooms have been really late in the last decade or so, and one could expect that to increase with global warming: more evaporation and more clouds in our region, and consequently, less sun. That delays and reduces the blooms.

Traditional Southern Westfjords fishing vessels on display on the grounds of the Hnjotur Museum.

ERIK: HOW DOES THE HUNTING OF PUFFIN FOR TOURISTS PLAY INTO THEIR DECLINE?

Erpur: Between 1995 and 2017 there has been a ninety-one percent reduction in the Icelandic puffin harvest. Interestingly, sixty-six percent of this decline, or two thirds, occurred before I advocated for a moratorium in 2008.

The puffin harvest went from over 200,000 to about 30,000 annually, and the prices went up. Now the restaurant business is selling most of the catch to tourists. Chef Hrefna Sætran has a couple of the most exclusive restaurants in Reykjavik. She was asked on Facebook in spring 2019 why she was selling an endangered animal in her restaurants. she replied: “While it is legal to hunt them and sell, I am selling them.”

The problem is the legal aspect of it. The government plans on addressing the issue in 2020 with a new law. But today, the ‘traditional hunting loophole’ has been interpreted to be exempt from the sustainability clause in the law, anyways. The problem is that landowners regulate the hunting on their land—- they are in many cases also the hunters, thus regulating themselves. It’s up to the landowners, who are allowed to hunt their land during the hunting period without limits.

Since the populations are doing okay in the North, the hunters there have used that to justify their continued hunting, despite the fact that the whole population is doing poorly. They are earning a lot of money from this—greed is put above the welfare of the species.

ERIK: ARE OTHER SEABIRDS IN ICELAND HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM OF REPRODUCTIVE FAILURE?

Erpur: Yes, we think of the puffin as a model species. Most of the other seabirds, the auks, the fulmars, and the kittiwakes, they all eat the same prey. Most seabird populations in the North Atlantic are going down. Counts show similar declines are happening to the other species.

ERIK: TRAVEL BLOGGERS SAY THERE ARE 10-15 MILLION PUFFINS IN ICELAND AS A JUSTIFICATION FOR EATING THEM. TWO QUESTIONS. ONE, IS THIS NUMBER ACCURATE OR OUTDATED? TWO, IF THERE WERE BILLIONS OF PASSENGER PIGEONS, IS MILLIONS OF PUFFINS A SAFE NUMBER TO TAKE FROM THE SKY?

Erpur: These numbers they quote, they are getting from Icelandic tourism sources, which are all wrong. Today, there are about 2.7 million Puffin burrows in Iceland, and about seventy-four percent are active at a given time, so there are 2 million breeding pairs in our country. This comprises the production unit of Iceland’s puffin population. Let’s say that you have almost the same number of immature birds. That ideal represents the maximum population: about 6 million individuals in total.

Since the population is not maintaining their numbers, but declining, the principle of long lived – low chick productive output life histories applies, that any hunting adds to the decline. In seabirds, the killing accelerates the decline. People who only see the millions of individuals and do not think how many are needed to maintain the numbers are illiterate in population dynamics and have no valuable contribution to make but to pseudoscience.

ERIK: IS THERE A FEAR OF THE PASSENGER PIGEON SYNDROME?

Erpur: When the sand eels collapsed, there was definitely peril for the puffins. But this hunting on top of that is not sustainable. It’s certainly not helping, and it is not ethical. We manage our fisheries well for the most part, we are looked at fondly by other countries for how we manage them, at least we had more success than many others. Sure, we fucked up a few times with capelin and halibut. We biologists are saying that all wildlife should be treated like we treat our fisheries, that will be the nature of the new law bill.

These Puffins are much more valuable alive than hunted, providing revenue year after year. They bring Iceland serious tourism money. That’s millions of euros each year. That is a lot of foreign currency pumping into Iceland because of the puffin.

ERIK: IS PUFFIN A TRADITIONAL ICELANDIC DELICACY, OR AN OLD STARVATION FOOD IN ISOLATED COASTAL VILLAGES?

Erpur: Puffin was initially a just part of normal food. They were harvested as soon as the settlement of Iceland. This was often the only meat people had until spring. Puffin was a sustenance food until between World Wars. After that, the hunting became a ‘traditional sport’ using a polenet called háfur.

Evening looking over the Látrabjarg Cliffs. Puffins burrow on such treacherously steep slopes here, they are safe from the Arctic Fox, which are wise to steer clear of the famously steep cliffs.

Búðardalur to Flókalundur

he village of Búðardalur, at the very end of mainland Iceland, is known mostly for the nearby Eiríksstaðir, the homestead of Erik the Red and the birthplace of his son Leif, who went on to explore North America five hundred years before Columbus anchored in the Bahamas.

From Búðardalur, we’ll be driving across the Westfjords Peninsula, one of the most exciting pieces of geography on Earth. Our final destination will be the furthest western point in Europe, even though, like Americans with Leif and Columbus, Europeans disagree.

When I told a tableful of Europeans that we were headed to the westernmost point of Europe, they pointed to the fact they all learned in school: Portugal’s Cabo da Roca, a peninsula just went of Lisbon, is Europe’s westernmost point.

But this commonly held fact is misleading, and wrong, on several points.

Cabo da Roca is indeed the westernmost point of the Eurasian landmass, that is a point to which no one disagrees.

However, the question is not about a landmass or a continent, but an area, a place, specifically, Europe. Europe is not a continent. While it is often taught in school that Europe is a special case continent; in which the Caucasus mountains somehow separate it from the other half of itself, most geographers see Eurasia as one big thing: Europe and Asia are the same large landmass. From a biological perspective, this is certainly the case. When we look at the mammals and birds and plants of the region, we recognize that the history is one.

Europe, then, is better defined as a place with distinct shared human history and culture.

Nobody doubts that England and Ireland are a part of Europe —they share language borne from mainland Europe, a common culture and history, but Portugal’s Cabo de Roca is actually further west than the most western points of these islands. Only Iceland, which shares a common history and language to mainland Europe, is further west than Cabo de Roca.

Well, that’s not quite true either. Monchique Islet, a rock jutting out from the westernmost point of the Azores Islands of Portugal, is much further west than Iceland. Although, as a remote island that actually sits within the North American plate, it can’t be categorized as being part of the place called Europe, even though it belongs to a European country. This is the same as saying that Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa are all part of the United States, but they do not fit into the definition of being part of North America.

So by this evening, we hope to reach the westernmost point of Europe.

A view of the Patreksfjörður fjord a few minutes before midnight.

Flókalundur to Látrabjarg

riving along the southern coast of the Westfjords is dizzying: The spectacle of the geography, the immensity of it, is confounding.

As we head west, the sense that we are at the edge of something feels very real. The geography becomes more surreal, often bays are shrouded with rocks in peculiar linear formations.

Treeless slopes grade steeply into vast inlets. And something unimaginable this far north in the world: white sand beaches and clear turquoise shallows. Arctic Terns, gulls and sandpipers abound along rocky shores, and at one point, a viciously precise Parasitic Jaeger crosses in front of our car, tailing a gull at high speed.

We stop to check in briefly at the 9-room Látrabjarg Hotel, one of a handful of structures in the area, before heading the final forty minutes to the Látrabjarg Cliffs. These cliffs are known as the largest tourist attraction in the Westfjords. The fact that there are only fourteen cars in the parking lot is a testament to the isolation of the region.

Right next to the parking lot is the Bjargtangar Lighthouse, the very westernmost point in all of Europe. From here, we can see hundreds of gulls, fulmars and kittiwakes; an explosion of bird life at the top of the largest seabird cliff in Europe.

We walk along the path that rises along the sloping edge of the cliffs, watching the spectacle of seabirds speeding along the water below.

As late evening approaches, the puffins begin to ascend onto the cliffs after a day of fishing. We sit just feet from a group of three of them, hobbling around a burrow. What singular creatures! Tiny Mannequins in masquerade. They are also, as travel blogger Candie Walsh stated, adorable. If you’ve seen the porgs of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and sense their cuteness resembles that of a puffin, it’s not coincidental. The porgs were a last-minute fix to the ubiquitous puffins on set. The miniature aliens were CGI’ed over the plump seabirds, who remained unafraid of the busy sets.

As the sun grows weaker, we rush back to the Látrabjarg Hotel, just in time for our meal. “My father’s best friend caught this cod this afternoon. We have prepared it with a tomato compote and local herbs.”

Jane and I agree, the fresh fish is one of the finest meals we’ve had in our lives, and after a long day of continuous road travel, to have this quiet meal at the edge of the world, looking out over a turquoise bay, is an exquisite end to our puffin rally.

The owner’s son comes out and says, “And for desert, we are serving Skyr!”

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baekwin · 4 years ago

Note

No worries! I’m just glad I was able to find you again :) RL is okay, just so busy because of work (I’m a teacher, haha so kinda weird to still be on tumblr but oh well, twitter can get really toxic so I’m trying to stay off it as much as I can) I was surprised, then not surprised lol to see Junmyeon! I was like oh! But makes sense since he’s not active military type like Kyungsoo and Minseok, but I’m glad he’s laying low on SNS for now since he is doing his military duty still (1/?)

Did you get to watch heart4u? I keep saying I will but I haven’t yet ;_; I still actually need to watch the beginning as I’ve only seen certain episodes but I will definitely watch soon. We’re getting Jongin’s solo soon!!! Everything is pretty much done he says so sljdfsalkfjsadf hahaha (2/?)

I saw them at the first KCON too! That was when I was unsure if I would follow them or not, I went because KPOP and we never got anything back then. But I got hooked haha And loved it! I remember hearing them rehearse “What is Love” and died because they never had done it live before so *_* Then I tried going to all their States-side activities if possible. The only one I couldn’t go to was when Yixing went to NY even though I did get a free ticket. Plane ticket/hotel was $$$ :(

I really want to visit Europe too! If COVID didn’t happen, we were supposed to go to Australia for winter holidays but well… definitely not happening. So besides Japan/Korea, I want to visit all over Europe.Haha summer is definitely full of sunlight — I’m going to assume CA since you went to KCON too haha unless you flew in and most people in CA love summer haha I love spring/fall haha winter can be nice too because of snow (I travel between CA/WA because work/family) but we’ll see how things r

UN Village of course counts! And yay for Obsession! I will definitely keep these mind for your gift! Haha Do you prefer raps vs singing (like Baekhyun singing solo)? Just a random question haha Job hunting right now is completely hard I feel since the pandemic. I’m glad my job is pretty stable but with the whole WFH my eyes are getting tired. I just bought the glasses with the blue light blockers with prescription. What type of jobs are you looking for?

What type of genre do you what EXO to do when they have a comeback? I always want a cutesy one for once but they don’t usually do those haha unless you count Power hehehe I love Power’s concept so much, even though it was repackage. Well I hope today is beautiful and that you find something soon for a job!! - ss anon 🤶🏻

hello! i have been very absent here (mentally) because of all the election madness and all and i’ve been meaning to respond for days i just haven’t had the mental capacity to, i’m sorry ss anon 😭

do not even get me started on twt being toxic omG i will never make an account unless my life depended on it, people are so mean 😭 oooh what do you teach? props to you for having the patience, i can’t teach anyone anything skdjfhjd also dude same i keep saying i’ll watch heart4u and then i don’t T_T i’ve just been all in my head about job searching, so i haven’t even been able to focus on relaxing properly lmao fml but it’s okay i guess. yes omg so excited for jongin solo, the teasers are so not what i expected at all but really cool!!

LMAO yeah living out here it was like a once in a blue moon thing to ever get any kpop idols, i think i only knew exo out of the whole kcon lineup and after that i got kind of into nu’est and vixx for a bit because they were there but i never really knew anything about them before that LOL

omg i know i vaguely said mama era in my last answer but what is love is specifically when i fell for baek :( i remember when it came out and he opened his mouth and i was like ok wow you’re my favorite person that exists on this planet UGHHH still my fave vocalist today by far. you’re so lucky you were around when they came here omg i bet it was amazing ;;;; but yeah you are correct, traveling is very $$$

ok then yes un village!!! i did love him in cmb and kkb also but like....rolling rolling rolling hills supremacy 😂 also random but i loved chanyeol’s recent release!! i love when he sings, it’s so soft and warm and ahh he’s wonderful. and no i don’t think i have a preference for baekhyun singing solo vs with exo (is that what you’re asking bc i think i misunderstood SORRY ;;; )

australia for winter sounds so nice!! mostly because i hate winter so i’d do anything to have summer again HAHA yes i do live in CA! lived here most of my life and i honestlyyy cannot imagine living anywhere else. i can’t handle any sort of cloudy weather lmaoooo it rained today and i’ve been so mellow and unamused all day 😂 do you mainly stay in CA or WA and which do you like better? i’ve never been to WA so i have no idea what it’s like!

i’m glad your job is stable, that definitely takes a lot of stress off even though everything is kind of stressful as a baseline right now. i have blue light blockers too, i swear to god my headaches stopped the week i got them!! hopefully they help with your eyes getting tired! hmm my job was pretty stable, i was an essential worker, but i had already been dealing with a ton of BS from coworkers for a couple years, and then the stress of being (kind of) frontline/essential was getting to me really badly and it all snowballed and i decided it was best for my mental health to leave and look for something else. i’m a biomedical engineer by education but trying to break into ux right now :)

i have no ideaaaaa but one of my mutuals put the concept of royalty-exo into my head and now i can’t get it out so i think i would absolutely love that 😂 power was so fun, i loved it!! i think love me right was the other one where they strayed more into cutesy territory though that was very much high school sweetheart cutesy which is not at all the same as power cutesy lol.

thank you for being so nice to talk to, ss anon!! i know i take forever to respond asjdhfksd but it’s because i wanna make sure i respond to everything and i do get really happy when i see your messages :) hope you are having a wonderful day/week too, and let me know how those blue light blockers work out!!

#ask #ss anon 🤶🏻

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didanawisgi · 8 years ago

Photo

John William Waterhouse, A Mermaid

A mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish.[1] Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Africa and Asia. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same tradition), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.

The male equivalent of the mermaid is the merman, also a familiar figure in folklore and heraldry. Although traditions about and sightings of mermen are less common than those of mermaids, they are generally assumed to co-exist with their female counterparts.

Some of the attributes of mermaids may have been influenced by the Sirens of Greek mythology. Historical accounts of mermaids, such as those reported by Christopher Columbus during his exploration of the Caribbean, may have been inspired by manatees and similar aquatic mammals. While there is no evidence that mermaids exist outside of folklore, reports of mermaid sightings continue to the present day, including 21st century examples from Israel and Zimbabwe.

Mermaids have been a popular subject of art and literature in recent centuries, such as in Hans Christian Andersen's well-known fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" (1836). They have subsequently been depicted in operas, paintings, books, films and comics.

Etymology and related terms

The word mermaid is a compound of the Old English mere (sea), and maid (a girl or young woman).[1] The equivalent term in Old English was merewif.[2] They are conventionally depicted as beautiful with long flowing hair.[1] As cited above, they are sometimes equated with the sirens of Greek mythology (especially the Odyssey), half-bird femmes fatales whose enchanting voices would lure soon-to-be-shipwrecked sailors to nearby rocks, sandbars or shoals.[3]

Sirenia

Sirenia is an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit rivers, estuaries, coastal marine waters, swamps and marine wetlands. Sirenians, including manatees and dugongs, possess major aquatic adaptations: arms used for steering, a paddle used for propulsion, and remnants of hind limbs (legs) in the form of two small bones floating deep in the muscle. They look ponderous and clumsy but are actually fusiform, hydrodynamic and highly muscular, and mariners before the mid-nineteenth century referred to them as mermaids.[4]

Sirenomelia

Sirenomelia, also called "mermaid syndrome", is a rare congenital disorder in which a child is born with his or her legs fused together and small genitalia. This condition is about as rare as conjoined twins, affecting one out of every 100,000 live births[5] and is usually fatal within a day or two of birth because of kidney and bladder complications. Four survivors were known as of July 2003.[6]

Folklore

As the anthropologist A. Asbjørn Jøn noted: "these 'marine beasts' have featured in folk tradition for many centuries now, and until relatively recently they have maintained a reasonably standard set of characteristics. Many folklorists and mythographers deem that the origin of the mythic mermaid is the dugong, posing a theory that mythicised tales have been constructed around early sightings of dugongs by sailors." [7]

Near East, Ancient Greece

The first known mermaid stories appeared in Assyria c. 1000 BC. The goddess Atargatis, mother of Assyrian queen Semiramis, loved a mortal (a shepherd) and unintentionally killed him. Ashamed, she jumped into a lake and took the form of a fish, but the waters would not conceal her divine beauty. Thereafter, she took the form of a mermaid — human above the waist, fish below — although the earliest representations of Atargatis showed her as a fish with a human head and arm, similar to the Babylonian god Ea. The Greeks recognized Atargatis under the name Derketo. Sometime before 546 BC, Milesian philosopher Anaximander postulated that mankind had sprung from an aquatic animal species. He thought that humans, who begin life with prolonged infancy, could not have survived otherwise.

A popular Greek legend turned Alexander the Great's sister, Thessalonike, into a mermaid after her death,[8] living in the Aegean. She would ask the sailors on any ship she would encounter only one question: "Is King Alexander alive?" (Greek: "Ζει ο Βασιλεύς Αλέξανδρος;"), to which the correct answer was: "He lives and reigns and conquers the world" (Greek: "Ζει και βασιλεύει και τον κόσμον κυριεύει"). This answer would please her, and she would accordingly calm the waters and bid the ship farewell. Any other answer would enrage her, and she would stir up a terrible storm, dooming the ship and every sailor on board.[9][10]

Lucian of Samosata in Syria (2nd century A.D.), in De Dea Syria (About the Syrian Goddess) wrote of the Syrian temples he had visited:

"Among them – Now that is the traditional story among them concerning the temple. But other men swear that Semiramis of Babylonia, whose deeds are many in Asia, also founded this site, and not for Hera but for her own mother, whose name was Derketo.""I saw Derketo's likeness in Phoenicia, a strange marvel. It is woman for half its length; but the other half, from thighs to feet, stretched out in a fish's tail. But the image in the Holy City is entirely a woman, and the grounds for their account are not very clear. They consider fish to be sacred, and they never eat them; and though they eat all other fowls they do not eat the dove, for they believe it is holy. And these things are done, they believe, because of Derketo and Semiramis, the first because Derketo has the shape of a fish, and the other because ultimately Semiramis turned into a dove. Well, I may grant that the temple was a work of Semiramis perhaps; but that it belongs to Derketo I do not believe in any way. For among the Egyptians some people do not eat fish, and that is not done to honor Derketo."[11]

In his Natural History 9.4.9-11, Pliny the Elder describes numerous sightings of mermaids off the coast of Gaul, noting that their bodies were covered all over in scales and that their corpses frequently washed up on shore. He comments that the governor of Gaul even wrote a letter to Emperor Augustus to inform him.[12]

One Thousand and One Nights

The One Thousand and One Nights collection includes several tales featuring "sea people", such as "Djullanar the Sea-girl".[13] Unlike depictions of mermaids in other mythologies, these are anatomically identical to land-bound humans, differing only in their ability to breathe and live underwater. They can (and do) interbreed with land humans, and the children of such unions have the ability to live underwater. In the tale "Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman", the protagonist Abdullah the Fisherman gains the ability to breathe underwater and discovers an underwater society that is portrayed as an inverted reflection of society on land. The underwater society follows a form of primitive communism where concepts like money and clothing do not exist. In "The Adventures of Bulukiya", the protagonist Bulukiya's quest for the herb of immortality leads him to explore the seas, where he encounters societies of mermaids.[13]

Due to their vaguely anthropomorphic shape, dried skates have long been described as mermaids. Often their appearance is deliberately modified to make them look even more human. In Europe, dried skates, sometimes called devil fish, (not to be confused with devil fish or devil rays, two species of ray native to the north Atlantic) were displayed as mermaids, angels, demons, or basilisks. In Britain they are known as Jenny Hanivers, perhaps in reference to Antwerp, where they were made by sailors. Dried skates are also known in Mexico, where they are believed to have magical powers, and are used in healing rituals.[14]

British Isles

The Norman chapel in Durham Castle, built around 1078 by Saxon stonemasons, has what is probably the earliest surviving artistic depiction of a mermaid in England.[15] It can be seen on a south-facing capital above one of the original Norman stone pillars.[16]

Mermaids appear in British folklore as unlucky omens, both foretelling disaster and provoking it.[17] Several variants of the ballad Sir Patrick Spensdepict a mermaid speaking to the doomed ships. In some versions, she tells them they will never see land again; in others, she claims they are near shore, which they are wise enough to know means the same thing. Mermaids can also be a sign of approaching rough weather,[18] and some have been described as monstrous in size, up to 2,000 feet (610 m).[17]

Mermaids have also been described as able to swim up rivers to freshwater lakes. In one story, the Laird of Lorntie went to aid a woman he thought was drowning in a lake near his house; a servant of his pulled him back, warning that it was a mermaid, and the mermaid screamed at them that she would have killed him if it were not for his servant.[19] But mermaids could occasionally be more beneficent; e.g., teaching humans cures for certain diseases.[20] Mermen have been described as wilder and uglier than mermaids, with little interest in humans.[21]

According to legend, a mermaid came to the Cornish village of Zennor where she used to listen to the singing of a chorister, Matthew Trewhella. The two fell in love, and Matthew went with the mermaid to her home at Pendour Cove. On summer nights, the lovers can be heard singing together. At the Church of Saint Senara in Zennor, there is a famous chair decorated by a mermaid carving which is probably six hundred years old.[22]

Some tales raised the question of whether mermaids had immortal souls, answering in the negative.[23] The figure of Lí Ban appears as a sanctified mermaid, but she was a human being transformed into a mermaid. After three centuries, when Christianity had come to Ireland, she was baptized.[24]The Irish mermaid is called merrow in tales such as "Lady of Gollerus" published in the 19th century. In Scottish mythology, a ceasg is a fresh-water mermaid, though little beside the term has been preserved in folklore.[25]

Mermaids from the Isle of Man, known as ben-varrey, are considered more favorable toward humans than those of other regions,[26] with various accounts of assistance, gifts and rewards. One story tells of a fisherman who carried a stranded mermaid back into the sea and was rewarded with the location of treasure. Another recounts the tale of a baby mermaid who stole a doll from a human little girl, but was rebuked by her mother and sent back to the girl with a gift of a pearl necklace to atone for the theft. A third story tells of a fishing family that made regular gifts of apples to a mermaid and was rewarded with prosperity.[26]

Western Europe

A freshwater mermaid-like creature from European folklore is Melusine. She is sometimes depicted with two fish tails, or with the lower body of a serpent.[27]

The best-known example of mermaids in literature is probably Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Little Mermaid, first published in 1837. In the original story, a young mermaid falls in love with a human prince whom she saves from drowning when his ship is wrecked in a storm. Although her grandmother tells her not to envy humans, who live much shorter lives than mermaids, and whose only consolation is an immortal soul, the mermaid chooses to risk her life in order to be with the prince. She trades her tongue and her beautiful voice to the sea-witch in exchange for a draught that will make her human and allow her to live on land. She will have to rely on her beauty and charm to win the prince's love, as she will be entirely mute.

The sea-witch warns the mermaid that, although she will be graceful, each step will feel as though she is stepping on knives; and that if she does not earn the prince's love, she will die of a broken heart after he weds another. The spell is worked, and the mermaid is found by the prince, who sees the resemblance between her and the one who rescued him from drowning, although he does not realize that they are the same person. Although the prince cares deeply for the mermaid, he is betrothed to the daughter of a neighboring king, and the mermaid cannot prevent their marriage.

The mermaid's sisters trade their beautiful hair to the sea-witch for a knife that the mermaid can use to break the spell and return to the sea. She must kill the prince before dawn on the day after his wedding. But the mermaid still loves the prince and cannot harm him. She flings the knife into the sea and jumps in after it, then begins to dissolve into foam. Then she is transformed into one of the daughters of the air, ethereal beings who strive to earn an immortal soul by doing good deeds in the world of men.[28]

A world-famous statue of the Little Mermaid, based on Andersen's fairy tale, has been in Copenhagen, Denmark since August 1913, with copies in 13 other locations around the world – almost half of them in North America.[29][30][31]

In 1989, Walt Disney Studios released a full-length animated film based on the Andersen fairy tale. Featuring an Academy Award-winning soundtrack with songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman,[32] the film garnered glowing reviews, and was credited with revitalizing both the studio and the concept of animated feature films.[33][34] Notable changes to the plot of Andersen's story include the elimination of the grandmother character and the religious aspects of the fairy tale, including the mermaid's quest to obtain an immortal soul. The sea-witch herself replaces the princess to whom the prince becomes engaged, using the mermaid's voice to prevent her from obtaining the prince's love. However, on their wedding day the plot is revealed, and the sea-witch is vanquished. The knife motif is not used in the film, which ends with the mermaid and the prince marrying.[35] Among other things, the film was praised for portraying the mermaid as an independent and even rebellious young woman, rather than a passive actor content to let others determine her destiny.[36]

Eastern Europe

Rusalkas are the Slavic counterpart of the Greek sirens and naiads.[37] The nature of rusalkas varies among folk traditions, but according to ethnologist D.K. Zelenin they all share a common element: they are the restless spirits of the unclean dead.[37] They are usually the ghosts of young women who died a violent or untimely death, perhaps by murder or suicide, before their wedding and especially by drowning. Rusalkas are said to inhabit lakes and rivers. They appear as beautiful young women with long pale green hair and pale skin, suggesting a connection with floating weeds and days spent underwater in faint sunlight. They can be seen after dark, dancing together under the moon and calling out to young men by name, luring them to the water and drowning them. The characterization of rusalkas as both desirable and treacherous is prevalent in southern Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus, and was emphasized by 19th-century Russian authors.[38][39][40] The best-known of the great Czech nationalist composer Antonín Dvořák's operas is Rusalka.

In Sadko (Russian: Садко), a Russian medieval epic, the title character—an adventurer, merchant and gusli musician from Novgorod—lives for some time in the underwater court of the "Sea Tsar" and marries his daughter before finally returning home. The tale inspired such works as the poem "Sadko"[41] by Alexei Tolstoy (1817–75), the opera Sadko composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the painting by Ilya Repin.

China

Mermaids are included in the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) compilation of Chinese geography and mythology, dating from the 4th century BC. A 15th-century compilation of quotations from Chinese literature tells of a mermaid who "wept tears which became pearls".[42] An early 19th-century book entitled Jottings on the South of China contains two stories about mermaids. In the first, a man captures a mermaid on the shore of Namtao island. She looks human in every respect except that her body is covered with fine hair of many colors. She can't talk, but he takes her home and marries her. After his death, the mermaid returns to the sea where she was found. In the second story, a man sees a woman lying on the beach while his ship was anchored offshore. On closer inspection, her feet and hands appear to be webbed. She is carried to the water, and expresses her gratitude toward the sailors before swimming away.[43]

Hinduism

Suvannamaccha (lit. golden mermaid) is a daughter of Ravana that appears in the Cambodian and Thai versions of the Ramayana. She is a mermaid princess who tries to spoil Hanuman's plans to build a bridge to Lanka but falls in love with him instead. She is a popular figure of Thai folklore.[44]

Africa

Mami Water (Lit. "Mother of the Water") are water spirits venerated in west, central and southern Africa, and in the African diaspora in the Caribbean and parts of North and South America. They are usually female, but are sometimes male. They are regarded as diabolical beings, and are often femme fatale, luring men to their deaths.[45] The Persian word "برایم بمان" or "maneli" means "mermaid".[46]

Other

The Neo-Taíno nations of the Caribbean identify a mermaid called Aycayia[47][48] with attributes of the goddess Jagua and the hibiscus flower of the majagua tree Hibiscus tiliaceus.[49] In modern Caribbean culture, there is a mermaid recognized as a Haitian vodou loa called La Sirene (lit. "the mermaid"), representing wealth, beauty and the orisha Yemaya.

Examples from other cultures are the jengu of Cameroon, the iara of Brazil and the Greek oceanids, nereids and naiads. The ningyo is a fishlike creature from Japanese folklore, and consuming its flesh bestows amazing longevity. Mermaids and mermen are also characters of Philippine folklore, where they are locally known as sirena and siyokoy respectively.[50] The Javanese people believe that the southern beach in Java is a home of Javanese mermaid queen Nyi Roro Kidul.[51] The myth of "Pania of the Reef", a well known tale of Māori mythology, has many parallels with stories of sea-people in other parts of the world.

According to Dorothy Dinnerstein's book The Mermaid and the Minotaur, human-animal hybrids such as mermaids and minotaurs convey the emergent understanding of the ancients that human beings were both one with and different from animals:

[Human] nature is internally inconsistent, that our continuities with, and our differences from, the earth's other animals are mysterious and profound; and in these continuities, and these differences, lie both a sense of strangeness on earth and the possible key to a way of feeling at home here."[52]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaid

#mermaid #mythology #Greek Mythology #assyrian mythology #atargatis #derketo #sirens #mythology campaign

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dakotahiggins-blog1 · 5 years ago

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It’s ALL that and much more. Underground nightlife scenes will blow your mind and ruin your entire next day (lol). Berlin is so many things wrapped up into one city, and the only way I can adequately describe it is this: it’s anything but mainstream. What’s “in” is actually “out” here. The WWII history and rise/fall of the Wall not only materializes museum after museum but complexities and pieces left for Berliners to pick up. Any attempt to put a label on the city becomes futile because it chooses to be defined by its complexities and contradictions – not by beauty, wealth, or industry. And I absolutely love that.

Population of Berlin: 3.5 million

Language: German

Currency: Euro

Climate: Cold winters, hot summers, mild autumn and spring

Getting Around

Jump Bikes – Highly recommend these electric bikes by Uber…even in a dress

U-Bahn – The underground railway in Berlin is fast, cheap and pretty decent as far as pubic transportation systems go

Uber – Available all over Berlin!

Foodies

Silo Coffee – Ethically sourced specialty coffee house in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg with bomb poached eggs and avo toast (above)…however next time I’m ordering the oven baked pancake due to massive food envy from the table next door.

Roamers – Set in the Neukolln neighborhood, this cozy space has a DECADENT chai tea latte and avo toast offering

W-Der Imbiss – In the heavy foot-traffic neighborhood of Mitte lies an Indian food spot that’ll satisfy all of your taste-bud needs. Order the Tasters Menu full of alllll the winners and bask in the naan glory.

POTS – Hands down my favorite dining experience in Berlin because not only was everything in copper pots as seen in the open-concept kitchen but also the food inventions were delicious (think classics with a modern twist) and the staff was crazy memorable. Many thanks to Sommelier and host Mathias Brandweiner for somehow knowing my tastebuds better than, well, me.

Boxhagener Platz Market – On Sundays, go here hungry

Lots of food stalls and clothing stalls to indulge in! I ate my body weight in foreign foods.

Markthalle Neun (Market Hall Nine) – I ADORED this place. What’s not to love about cannoli, ice cream, pizza, empanadas and Trdelník (cinnamon/sugar pastry wrapped around a stick with creme inside) all being served under one roof?! Thursday in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighborhood stuffing your face with street food. BE THERE. More markets throughout the week as well!

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Biergartens

Cassiopeia – Nightclub by evening but an even better biergarten by day! Berlin is FULL of hidden gems around every corner – which is why lots of walking is required to find said gems (or just keep reading this post). With a rock climbing wall, biergarten and food stalls, I could spend many hours at this repurposed rail station.

Holzmarkt – SO nice we went here twice

This eclectic spot by the river is full of yummy coffee, beer (duh), lively crowds and delicious pizza. Learned here that customers pay a deposit, or Pfand surcharge, to the bar/food stall and can get it back when bottles are returned.

FUN FACT: The German Pfand system was brought into force to ensure that there was a responsible policy in place for the recycling of plastic bottles. It encourages drinks companies to supply their product in multi-use, refillable plastic or glass bottles. These can be refilled up to 25 times for the plastic variety and up to 50 times for glass which reduces the average CO2 emissions per bottle in circulation because fewer new bottles have to be manufactured. The process of washing and sterilizing these bottles is loads more environmentally friendly in terms of CO2 output than the production of single-use bottles.

Klunkerkranich – Sprawling open-air bar on top of a shopping mall garage…bringing new life to rooftop bars

Berlin, you’re so damn cool!

Urban Spree – Sometimes all you need in life is live music, German craft beer and some pretty art to enjoy. Love the vibe here in this multi-faceted, multi-leveled space!

Museums & Memorials

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe – Also known as the Holocaust Memorial, this space holds 2,711 concrete slabs of varying heights and wavelike in form. There’s a somber mood over the area with a side of uncertainty as the observer wanders through the tall slabs. Don’t miss the underground Rooms for more information from families and victims.

Topography of Terror – It’s strange that this history museum, the former site of both the Gestapo and SS headquarters, was a highlight of Berlin for me. How something entitled “Topography of Terror” where terror is so tangible could possibly make its way to the top of my list is all a bit morbid, but the amount of history and information pouring out of this place in an organized fashion is truly mind-blowing and educational.

Book Burning Memorial – I’d go ahead and assume that many people pass right by this memorial not having a clue what it all means. That, or you come upon a big crowd standing around a glass plate in the ground. The public square of Bebelplatz holds a sunken library with empty white shelves to signify the 20,000 books that went up in flames here on 10 May, 1933 at the hands of the Nazis.

Museum Island (Museumsinsel)- 1 island, 5 museums. Enough said

To-Do

Brandenburg Gate – 18th century monument in the western part of the city and historically a site for major events

Reichstag – With a war-torn past and many restorations later, this stunning building now serves as the German Parliament building

Checkpoint Charlie – Also known as Checkpoint C, this was the best known Berlin Wall crossing point between east and west Berlin. Lots of people are here taking photos of the checkpoint, but if you don’t know what it is exactly, you’ll likely walk right through!

Berlin Fernsehturm – TV tower in the center of Mitte in Berlin allowing spectators to get a 360-view of the entire city

Gendarmenmarkt – A beautiful square in Berlin with rotating markets and concerts showcasing an architectural ensemble with German and French influences

Eastside Gallery – Serving as a massive piece of history, this 4,318 ft. section of the Berlin Wall painted with murals acts as an open-air art gallery

Potsdamer Platz – Modern-day entertainment, shopping and business district with a loaded past as the Berlin Wall went through this area. Easily reached via U-Bahn.

Berlin Cathedral – A main landmark of Berlin, you can’t mistake this stunning dome for anything else! After the division of Germany, the Cathedral was in East Berlin. After many damages in WWII, the full restoration was only completed in 1993, four years after the Berlin Wall fell.

Tiergarten – Berlin’s most popular park coming in at 520 acres. Great spot for a run, some shade or a little peace and quiet.

Mauerpark – If you like flea markets, karaoke and lounging in the park with your friends – look no further. Sundays here are lots of fun, especially if you’re brave enough to belt it out while singing karaoke in front of a few hundred people

Badeschiff – Floating public swimming pool in the Spree River with a bar and views for days. Be prepared for an entry fee and mediocre service.

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Sleep

Ritz-Carlton Berlin – A grand marble staircase greeted us as we checked into the property. It’s hard to take your eyes off of it and pairs swimmingly with the recent remodel and art deco theme running throughout. Situated in Potsdamer Platz with a backyard of the Tiergarten, I hiiiighly recommend this gem!

The post What to do: The Best of Berlin, Germany appeared first on The Road Les Traveled.

#ffffff;

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harvjackphoto-blog · 6 years ago

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Written Report - PEP160

Introduction -

I will be discussing in chronological order of spreadsheet completion, through reflection and critical thought, the process of contextual research, planning, production of an editorial space for the PEP160 module. The practical outcomes of my work, I hope to gather through reasonings of decisions I employed and decisions I chose to disregard. By doing this, it enables an understanding of the process in which shaped the outcomes. From initial research establishing the context of the magazines to the application of professional skill, I will discuss my selection of a suitable narrative to the magazine’s particular context.

Music Spreadsheet -

The idea of “Music” generated my ideas through the love and passion I have developed over the past years photographing the scene. Subsequently, making me aware that I wanted to create a spreadsheet that incorporated my recent work with a large events company Casa, who put out incredibly large and diverse shows at a not so iconic nightlife hotspot. Through a professional relationship with the company, I used the connection and knowledge of their story as a basis for my music spreadsheet. Therefore, combined with the already established knowledge I had of the magazine publication Mixmag, that publishes articles that align with Casa’s story, the decision to produce the spreadsheet fell heavily on that compatibility. To broaden my research, I looked into other potential publications such as DJMAG and Attack Magazine that would have similar contextual features to the story I want to pitch to them. However, Mixmag was the ideal subject of choice. The magazine produces a section in their publication that discusses the most recent and vibrant club/scenes around the UK/Europe. The feature in this part of the magazine allows smaller companies and clubs who are predominately on the up rise, to become featured in their publication as a not so known or undisclosed event company. Pairing the understanding of Casa’s still up and coming status and

Mixmag’s favourable publication that diverges from mainstream events companies. The images I produced were to showcase the ever-progressing company CASA in its prime. From reading the article ‘Peripheral Vision,’ I was able to establish the demographics of Mixmag as student party enthusiasts, aged between 18-35 which I knew aligned with Casa’s audience making Casa’s story fit accordingly to Mixmag’s publication. The editorial choices I made designing the spreadsheet very much reflect the style in which Mixmag lay’s out there “scene/club” section. Coherently my design having a large opening double page spread with a photo lapping onto both pages as well as the fonts being more of a neutral grey tone the idea was to create a compelling title and opening which follows into more of a picture story followed with three soft columns that describe the story you are seeing.

Loneliness Spreadsheet -

For the concept ‘Loneliness’, I looked towards a particular theme of social media as its prevalence in conversation around my generation gave me a reason for me to research its effect on loneliness. When looking at an article from the website ‘brain pickings’, the connection between creativity and loneliness became a potential idea for the spreadsheet. However, due to the constant engagement with social media by myself and others around me and as a platform of creativity, I then directed my energy and idea towards social media platforms and their common reason to cause loneliness. Through conversation about where I would find a publication holding similar content that would fit the discussion of social media platforms and loneliness, a fellow student directed me to Readers Digest. The everyday magazine that covers daily issues and topics such as health, Art, food, fashion, travel and adventure lead me to produce my adapted spreadsheet after closely reading one of the articles titled ‘The Parents Saying No To “Keeping Mum”’ by Fiona Thomas in the publications section ‘Health’. Looking at the design layout of Readers Digest, the features throughout

their magazine show a large, usually digitally manipulated image, giving the reader an idea about the concept of the article. I used this idea to manipulate an image that I thought was suitable being the focus of this story and so I produced faint social media icons around the reflection of the phone screen to produce a photo that gives an idea central to the engagement of social media platforms. I then incorporated a friend’s story who has personally told me about her struggles regarding social media and mental health. With her permission, she allowed me to quote her and include her within my story as the articles throughout the publication quoted personal stories. The audience to Readers Digest seemed somewhat mixed aged as the materials ranged in age engagement. However, the topic of social media covers all ages, and I was aware of the other readerships that connected such as elder audiences and their family relations to younger audiences of which my story may concern. I felt this spreadsheet went successful and was appealing to adapt to a publication I haven’t encountered with much before this project. However, the story could have suited a more appropriate age demographic but still worked in relative context regarding the family association of the elderly demographic.

Surf Spreadsheet -

The creation of my “Surf” spreadsheet was to create an article based purely on the Perranporth legend Pegleg Bennet, Peg has been featured in numerous magazines, TV shows and newspapers over the years and has become a notable figure amongst surfers and Cornwall locals. From gathering some in-depth research about Peg, I discovered that his beloved ‘Beast of Perran’ (his motorhome) has been under reconstruction due to severe age and deterioration from his extensive travels. Therefore, this enabled me a real chance to put out a new, fresh story that would be relevant to my publication of choice. Through researching previous publication’s on Peg, this gave me a clear comprehension of who would be publishing stories about Peg and who would be a more suitable company to pitch an idea too featuring the construction of his motorhome. I choose Wavelength Magazine as the ideal choice to create my feature; Wavelength

provides surf coverage all over the Europe/World, it covers all sorts of surf related topics, features, clothing and surf accessories. I produced a story that involves a rather famous one-legged surfer but chose to narrow into a more specific part of his life which happens to be of vital importance to him, and his surfing world is relevant to the publication. The design of my spreadsheet adapted from the picture (top right) that displays a casual arrangement and particularly clean use of negative space between font and images. I used a similar design to Wavelength as it was adjacent to the overall feeling and impression I wanted to produce within my spreadsheet design. Overall, I felt the production and editing of my spreadsheet were successful, and the design, font and layout capture the same essence as Wavelength, aligning both narrative and design features. Conversely, in practical aspects I would have liked to have featured an image of Peg surfing for deeper visual engagement, however, due to his busy schedule, time restrictions and bad surf conditions, Peg was unable to provide this specific image. Although, this enabled me to focus and give greater detail towards Peg’s current situation.

Fashion Spreadsheet –

For my fashion spreadsheet, having been engaged closely with fashion affairs on social media at the beginning of the brief, I noticed London Fashion Week was in pursuit. I took the opportunity upon myself to go and capture the weekend and hopefully finding relevant context through magazine publication research that would align accordingly. The idea of the fashion week was to create a selection of images that showcase some of London’s unique streetwear fashion with the most desirable outfits. The problem that I dealt with this spreadsheet was the fact I had not found the publication that

would be suitable for publishing a story on London fashion week. I finally managed to collectively pick up a magazine that would relate to streetwear and London fashion week, ‘Hello!Fashion’ is a sub-branch of ‘Hello!’ which produces features, looks and the latest fashion. My idea was to use a double page spread that I found in the magazine showing the latest streetwear looks alongside what is in trend, mixed with a double page spread of a feature that explains my story. I enjoyed the design of the double page spread for its multi-layered and multiple perspectives of fashion and clothing that I felt was appropriate for showcasing my collection of London fashion week. I felt this feature was the only one that’s images conveyed more than the narrative. For this reason, I chose not to produce a story around the photos for this spreadsheet, as they are the most self-explanatory. Overall, contextually I found through research that for fashion weeks, many of the publications surrounding them used slideshow and multiple images to convey fashion rather than feature stories focusing on one particular subject.

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lichenloglichenblog · 8 years ago

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How a Guy From a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology

We here at the lichenloglichenblog encourage you to read this.

Biology textbooks tell us that lichens are alliances between two organisms—a fungus and an alga. They are wrong.

ED YONG, JUL 21, 2016 SCIENCE

In 1995, if you had told Toby Spribille that he’d eventually overthrow a scientific idea that’s been the stuff of textbooks for 150 years, he would have laughed at you. Back then, his life seemed constrained to a very different path. He was raised in a Montana trailer park, and home-schooled by what he now describes as a “fundamentalist cult.” At a young age, he fell in love with science, but had no way of feeding that love. He longed to break away from his roots and get a proper education.

At 19, he got a job at a local forestry service. Within a few years, he had earned enough to leave home. His meager savings and non-existent grades meant that no American university would take him, so Spribille looked to Europe.

Thanks to his family background, he could speak German, and he had heard that many universities there charged no tuition fees. His missing qualifications were still a problem, but one that the University of Gottingen decided to overlook. “They said that under exceptional circumstances, they could enroll a few people every year without transcripts,” says Spribille. “That was the bottleneck of my life.”

Throughout his undergraduate and postgraduate work, Spribille became an expert on the organisms that had grabbed his attention during his time in the Montana forests—lichens.

You’ve seen lichens before, but unlike Spribille, you may have ignored them. They grow on logs, cling to bark, smother stones. At first glance, they look messy and undeserving of attention. On closer inspection, they are astonishingly beautiful. They can look like flecks of peeling paint, or coralline branches, or dustings of powder, or lettuce-like fronds, or wriggling worms, or cups that a pixie might drink from. They’re also extremely tough. They grow in the most inhospitable parts of the planet, where no plant or animal can survive.

Lichens have an important place in biology. In the 1860s, scientists thought that they were plants. But in 1868, a Swiss botanist named Simon Schwendener revealed that they’re composite organisms, consisting of fungi that live in partnership with microscopic algae. This “dual hypothesis” was met with indignation: it went against the impetus to put living things in clear and discrete buckets. The backlash only collapsed when Schwendener and others, with good microscopes and careful hands, managed to tease the two partners apart.

Schwendener wrongly thought that the fungus had “enslaved” the alga, but others showed that the two cooperate. The alga uses sunlight to make nutrients for the fungus, while the fungus provides minerals, water, and shelter. This kind of mutually beneficial relationship was unheard of, and required a new word. Two Germans, Albert Frank and Anton de Bary, provided the perfect one—symbiosis, from the Greek for ‘together’ and ‘living’.

“That was the eureka moment. That’s when I leaned back in my chair.”

When we think about the microbes that influence the health of humans and other animals, the algae that provide coral reefs with energy, the mitochondria that power our cells, the gut bacteria that allow cows to digest their food, or the probiotic products that line supermarket shelves—all of that can be traced to the birth of the symbiosis as a concept. And symbiosis, in turn, began with lichens.

In the 150 years since Schwendener, biologists have tried in vain to grow lichens in laboratories. Whenever they artificially united the fungus and the alga, the two partners would never fully recreate their natural structures. It was as if something was missing—and Spribille might have discovered it.

He has shown that largest and most species-rich group of lichens are not alliances between two organisms, as every scientist since Schwendener has claimed. Instead, they’re alliances between three. All this time, a second type of fungus has been hiding in plain view.

“There’s been over 140 years of microscopy,” says Spribille. “The idea that there’s something so fundamental that people have been missing is stunning.”

The path to this discovery began in 2011, when Spribille, now armed with a doctorate, returned to Montana. He joined the lab of symbiosis specialist John McCutcheon, who convinced him to supplement his formidable natural history skills with some know-how in modern genetics.

The duo started studying two local lichens that are common in local forests and hang from branches like unruly wigs. One is yellow because it makes a strong poison called vulpinic acid; the other lacks this toxin and is dark brown. They clearly look different, and had been classified as separate species for almost a century. But recent studies had suggested that they’re actually the same fungus, partnered with the same alga. So why are they different?

To find out, Spribille analyzed which genes the two lichens were activating. He found no differences. Then, he realized that he was searching too narrowly. Lichenologists all thought that the fungi in the partnership belonged to a group called the ascomycetes—so Spribille had only searched for ascomycete genes. Almost on a whim, he broadened his search to the entire fungal kingdom, and found something bizarre. A lot of the genes that were activated in the lichens belonged to a fungus from an entirely different group—the basidiomycetes. “That didn’t look right,” says McCutcheon. “It took a lot of time to figure out.”

At first, the duo figured that a basidiomycete fungus was growing on the lichens. Perhaps it was just a contaminant, a speck of microbial fluff that had landed on the specimens. Or it might have been a pathogen, a fungus that was infecting the lichens and causing disease. It might simply have been a false alarm. (Such things happen: genetic algorithms have misidentified plague bacteria on the New York subway, platypuses in Virginia tomato fields, and seals in Vietnamese forests.)

But when Spribille removed all the basidiomycete genes from his data, everything that related to the presence of vulpinic acid also disappeared. “That was the eureka moment,” he says. “That’s when I leaned back in my chair.” That’s when he began to suspect that the basidiomycete was actually part of the lichens—present in both types, but especially abundant in the yellow toxic one.

“Toby took huge risks for many years. And he changed the field.”

And not just in these two types, either. Throughout his career, Spribille had collected some 45,000 samples of lichens. He began screening these, from many different lineages and continents. And in almost all the macrolichens—the world’s most species-rich group—he found the genes of basidiomycete fungi. They were everywhere. Now, he needed to see them with his own eyes.

Down a microscope, a lichen looks like a loaf of ciabatta: it has a stiff, dense crust surrounding a spongy, loose interior. The alga is embedded in the thick crust. The familiar ascomycete fungus is there too, but it branches inwards, creating the spongy interior. And the basidiomycetes? They’re in the outermost part of the crust, surrounding the other two partners. “They’re everywhere in that outer layer,” says Spribille.

Despite their seemingly obvious location, it took around five years to find them. They’re embedded in a matrix of sugars, as if someone had plastered over them. To see them, Spribille bought laundry detergent from Wal-Mart and used it to very carefully strip that matrix away.

And even when the basidiomycetes were exposed, they weren’t easy to identify. They look exactly like a cross-section from one of the ascomycete branches. Unless you know what you’re looking for, there’s no reason why you’d think there are two fungi there, rather than one—which is why no one realised for 150 years. Spribille only worked out what was happening by labeling each of the three partners with different fluorescent molecules, which glowed red, green, and blue respectively. Only then did the trinity become clear.

“The findings overthrow the two-organism paradigm,” says Sarah Watkinson from the University of Oxford. “Textbook definitions of lichens may have to be revised.”

“It makes lichens all the more remarkable,” adds Nick Talbot from the University of Exeter. “We now see that they require two different kinds of fungi and an algal species. If the right combination meet together on a rock or twig, then a lichen will form, and this will result in the large and complex plant-like organisms that we see on trees and rocks very commonly. The mechanism by which this symbiotic association occurs is completely unknown and remains a real mystery.”

Based on the locations of the two fungi, it’s possible that the basidiomycete influences the growth of the other fungus, inducing it to create the lichen’s stiff crust. Perhaps by using all three partners, lichenologists will finally be able to grow these organisms in the lab.

In the Montana lichens that Spribille studied, the basidiomycete obviously goes hand-in-hand with vulpinic acid. But is it eating the acid, manufacturing it, or unlocking the ability to make it in the other fungus? If it’s the latter, “the implications go beyond lichenology,” says Watkinson. Lichens are alluring targets for ‘bioprospectors’, who scour nature for substances that might be medically useful to us. And new basidiomycetes are part of an entirely new group, separated from their closest known relatives by 200 million years ago. All kinds of beneficial chemicals might lie within their cells.

“But really, we don’t know what they do,” says McCutcheon. “And given their existence, we don’t really know what the ascomycetes do, either.” Everything that’s been attributed to them might actually be due to the other fungus. Many of the fundamentals of lichenology will need to be checked, and perhaps re-written. “Toby took huge risks for many years,” says McCutcheon. “And he changed the field.”

But he didn’t work alone, Watkinson notes. His discovery wouldn’t have been possible without the entire team, who combined their individual expertise in natural history, genomics, microscopy, and more. That’s a theme that resonates throughout the history of symbiosis research—it takes an alliance of researchers to uncover nature’s most intimate partnerships.

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anothergracekellyblog · 8 years ago

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Taken from Good Housekeeping, May 1977

A noted novelist visits Princess Grace and finds laughter and tears beneath her serene armor of “glacial perfection.”

The Other Princess Grace by Budd Schulberg

When I was invited to write the scenario for a television special on the life of Princess Grace of Monaco, my gut reaction was: What an odd bit of casting. I write about prizefighters, brawny longshoremen, the fight for survival in the inner cities. I root for underdogs.

Princess Grace wasn't exactly my idea of an underdog. Her father was rich and she is immaculately beautiful. Her career from Philadelphia to New York to Hollywood to Monaco seemed to be up, up, up to the top of the mountain. For a child of Hollywood who had been raised with - and, accordingly, took a rather dim view of - movie stars, and of establishments in general (from film moguls to European royalty), a pilgrimage to the crystal chandelier world of Princess Grace Patricia Kelly Grimaldi of Monte Carlo would not seem to be my cup of tea, or should I say, my Venetian glass of champagne.

Is that a nice way to talk about a princess? A princess, especially an American born princess, is the stuff and the fluff of fairy tales. Hans Christian Andersen (with an assist from F. Scott Fitzgerald) should be writing this story instead of a follower of the fight game, a self-appointed expert on Muhammad Ali.

But it's a little late in the day for Andersen or Fitzgerald. And so...

Once upon a time there was a beautiful Irish-American girl whose grandfather had sailed as an immigrant boy in search of his fortune in the New World. If we had told John Henry Kelly as he stepped off the gangplank of a creaky old sailing ship in Boston that his granddaughter would return to the Old World and become the Princess Grace married to Rainier III and help to rule a sovereign principality from a 200-room palace that is one of the most majestic living museums in all Europe, that sturdy greenhorn would have put us in our place.

Grandfather Kelly made his way in the green world of 19th-century New England. His sons moved on to Philadelphia, where they prospered. Patrick, the oldest, made a success of the construction business and Grace's father, Jack Kelly, went to work for him as a hod-carrier and a bricklayer. A fierce second-generation competitor, Jack thrived on work. He could lay bricks fast and make money fast and row fast - somehow he found time before and after work to train for hours every day in a racing shell on the Schuylkill river and to become the national sculling champion. Wife Margaret was an ideal mate, not just a successful magazine cover girl but an athlete, too: the first co-ed physical education teacher at the University of Pennsylvania. “Way ahead of her time,” Princess Grace would reminisce, “the completely well-rounded modern woman. Now there's someone you could do a special on!”

We were sitting with her in the drawing room of the Grimaldi’s Paris townhouse in a courtyard of lovely old houses just off the Avenue Foch. When we rang the buzzer, she came to the door herself, with a warm and easy welcome to Bill Allyn, who would produce the TV special. Allyn had been a friend of hers from live television days in the early 1950's when they were both young actors scrounging around New York for work.

I was pleasantly surprised at the informality. No liveried servants, no bowing or scraping. Dressed in slacks and a light brown sweater with another shade of brown sweater over it, she might have been a suburban housewife in her late thirties, an especially pretty housewife. Marvelous eyes, marvelous nose, marvelous bones, marvelous skin. Yet neither in dress nor in manner anyone's conception of a fairy-tale princess. More like the girl next door, albeit the beautiful girl next door, 20 years later. I had pictured the cool grace of the Hitchcock movies and palace receptions. Instead, in a most friendly manner she led us into the drawing room, tastefully furnished but lived-in and warm. A big old dog called Andy bounded at her side. Chatting and reminiscing with Bill, she was shy and diffident with me, a watchful stranger. But quicker to laugh than I would have expected.

Spread on the coffee table were snapshots of a recent family trip to the Sahara. "I'm the family photographer," she said. "I really think these are pretty good, don't you?"

She picked one out, a moody sandscape relieved in the distance by what looked like an oblong glass. A mirage, she said proudly. "That's awfully hard to get. Rainier didn’t seem so impressed. But even when you can see it with the naked eye, it's tricky to pick up with a camera."

We asked about her family, the Philadelphia Kellys. Jack Kelly Sr. had been a driving spirit whose motto in life was, "I don't care what you do but whatever it is, don't just be good at it, be the best!"

He had gone to England's Henley Regatta to race in the Diamond Sculls, but had been forbidden to enter because he had the hands of a working man. "This is an event for gentlemen." A generation later, the Kelly family had gone to England to cheer Grace's brother "Kell" on as he won the cup that had been denied his father.

"There aren't any words that can do justice to my feelings." Father Kelly had said. "I feel a tremendous sense of pride for Kell. He's the one that matters, not the thwarted ambitions of an old guy who once got his fingers publicly burned over here because he was born without a silver spoon in his mouth."

"It must have been a heavy load," I said to Princess Grace, "to keep up with the Kellys, to keep up with yourself - to be the best."

She crossed her legs and thought a moment, as if there were still a challenge in the question, some lingering sense of childhood hurt. We had heard from friends that not only had she been a shy child, but rather sickly, too - unlike her outgoing, tomboyish older and younger sisters. She liked to stay in her room and read, draw, sew and dream, try to turn her introspection into poetry.

"Yes, it was - it is - a heavy load," Princess Grace said. The silence that followed seemed to hold its own inaudible sentences: Loads are to be carried. Burdens are to be borne. Challenges are to be met. And overcome. You could almost hear the convent sisters teaching her character with a stinging ruler. And the voice of Jack Kelly Sr. echoed in the room: "Be the best, Grace Patricia, be the best!"

UNCLE WON PULITZER

The mood changed suddenly when we talked of her two theatrical uncles: Walter Kelly toured the vaudeville stages of the world as "The Virginia Judge," and the famous playwright of the 1920's, George Kelly, won the Pulitzer Prize for Craig's Wife. Grace warmed to his memory. "I think Uncle George was a great American playwright, but there's a whole new generation that doesn't know him as well as I wish they did. He knew his people. Exactly how they talked and what they felt. Both The Torchbearers and The Show-Off are wonderful plays, human, funny and moving. In his preface to The Show-Off, the great humorist Heywood Broun wrote, ‘This is the best comedy yet written by an American.’”

Then it was Uncle George who influenced you to go into the theater?" She thought a moment.

"We were always doing plays. I was Cinderella in my sister Peggy's play when I was twelve, and I had a part in an Old Academy Players production in our hometown, called Don't Feed the Animals. I did Peter Pan as our graduation play at Stevens - but we were talking about Uncle George."

Clearly, of the two theatrical careers, she was much more at ease with George's than Grace's. "Uncle George was one of the most fascinating men I ever met. He could remember every poem he ever read. He loved poetry and language and the theater. He could recite favorite poems all night long. So wise, witty, human - there was simply no one like him in the whole world."

I had once been aware of, and then half-forgotten, the George Kelly-Grace Kelly family relationship. Certainly I hadn't realized until now what a driving force it has been in her life.

Then, with both of them remembering lines from another of Uncle George's plays, Behold, the Bridegroom, Bill Allyn and Grace (for she was all actress now and not at all princess) fell to reminiscing about those live shows they had done in what is now looked back on nostalgically as "the Golden Age of television": Studio One, Lights Out, Philco, The Kraft Playhouse. They were both talking at once. "Those were really insane days... absolutely hysterical... things are so much more ordered now, on film or tape, but live, going on in front of all those viewers... how did we ever get through it?"

"It was like living on the edge of a precipice!" Grace was laughing. "I'll never forget one time I was playing a scene in bed with all my clothes on under the covers so I'd be ready to run into the next scene dressed. But the camera didn't stop in time and they didn't cut away, so there I was, on the screen getting out of bed with all my clothes on!"

Now she and Bill were trading bloopers. She was up on her feet, standing in front of the mantel, trying to stop from laughing so she could demonstrate a dreadful mishap in The Cricket On The Hearth. "It was supposed to be snowing and a wonderful English character man and I were coming to bring an orphanage a hot pie for Christmas. The prop men were throwing salt down but we were told to walk close to the window under the eaves, so it wouldn't actually fall on us, because there we'd be with snow on our costumes that wouldn't melt when we got inside. We were to wave through the window, and the pie was too hot. So I set it down and the old actor stepped in it. He came limping into the place with half the pie spread over his shoe. "Look what we brought you - this nice, hot pie - Merry Christmas!"

INFECTIOUS LAUGHTER

As I listened to her laugh, I thought of all the people who had warned me about her "glacial perfection." But the laughter was infectious - from a real live girl with an appealing, self-deprecating sense of humor.

She was still getting money from home in those early theatrical days, but that streak of independence led her into modeling to pay for the acting classes. Before she was 19, she was earning enough to move out of the Barbizon Hotel for women and into her own apartment. A nesting sort of person, she enjoyed fixing up the place.

"Remember giggle belly?" Allyn said.

"Giggle belly!" Again Grace laughed as she tried to describe this silly game. A group of young actors would lie on the floor with their heads on each other's stomachs and tell funny stories that would make their heads bounce up and down as their bellies giggled. "We did a lot of silly things," they both agreed. "And we all laughed a lot. But along with the fun there was hard work... "

"Like Strindberg's The Father," we prompted.

That was Grace's Broadway debut, with her name in small print under the starred names of Raymond Massey and Mady Christians. Grace still says she only got the role because both stars were tall and her rivals for the part were all too short. "Nonsense,” says Raymond Massey. "She got the part because she showed the most promise. All through the rehearsal period we were impressed with her earnestness, her professionalism and her good manners. She was organized and dedicated. Between rehearsals she would ask Mady if she could sit in her dressing room and talk about the theater. She was a delight to have in the company. A rare kind of young person who had a hunger to learn and to improve herself."

"It ran only a short time," Grace said, "but it was wonderful experience."

Young Grace Kelly soon became a favorite cover girl, so it was inevitable that Hollywood would tap her on the shoulder - Hollywood personified in the ebullient, English-fracturing Russian director, Gregory Ratoff, who screen tested her for a somewhat less than immortal film entitled Taxi.

The Taxi story turns out to be another funny bit. I'm not studying her anymore, I'm laughing with her. It has ceased being a job and has become a vacation.

The role in Taxi, she told us, called for an Irish brogue. Although her name was Kelly, she sounded not at all like forebears from County Mayo. More like a proper Philadelphian. But, like any aspiring actress, she assured Mr. Ratoff that the brogue was no problem. Then she ran home to ask how one went about acquiring an overnight brogue.

"One of my friends had a maid just ονer from Ireland I hurried oνer to listen to her speak. But she was too shy to open her mouth. I'd ask questions to try and get her talking, and all she'd say was, ‘Yes, Mum,’ or ‘No, Mum.’ So I handed her the newspaper and asked if she'd mind reading it out loud. The poor girl finally admitted that she could hardly read. I put together what thought might pass for a brogue - and flunked the screen test."

But Grace Kelly had what Frances Fuller, head of the American Academy, described as, "A very special quality. Also the face of a Grecian goddess, but it was that extra something that is more than beauty, some special poise, an inner light."

When her New York agent, Edith Van Cleve, described that "special quality" to Jay Kanter, a youthful but influential Hollywood agent, brogue or no brogue, Kelly was movie bound.

AGAIN THE PRINCESS

"You must be getting hungry?" was Grace's answer to the first question about Hollywood. “If it's alright with you, I've made a reservation at a club nearby - the food is quite good." She rose briskly. Suddenly she seemed the princess - a gracious, down-to-earth princess, but clearly in command. Now it was difficult to imagine her ever playing "giggle belly" or impersonating an old actor with a meat pie on his shoe.

A blonde, middle-aged, bejeweled houseguest materialized. A friend from Grace's Philadelphia days. Having lived at least four different lives in four different times, places and worlds, Grace cultivates a capacity for not losing touch with anyone of them.

There was a waiting chauffeur and limousine. The princess asked us if we'd prefer to walk. The gentlest of commands. People who recognized her pretended not to, as if they understood that she preferred it that way.

We were ushered to a round table in a corner of the Club Rothschild with the most muted of fanfare. Luncheon conversation was easy but disjointed because Grace's houseguest was something of a dangling participle to a life story I was trying to piece together. It was like a flashback to Philadelphia adolescence while I waited to move forward to Hollywood early maturity. The princess was being the perfect hostess, somehow managing to talk old times with her hometown friend and films and filmmakers with us. On her way out, I noticed that fellow members of the club stepped back or moνed to one side so they could gain a clear view without being ostentatious. She pretended not to notice.

Back in the comfortable and now familiar drawing room, we were returning to the Hollywood of my youth. After an uneventual role in a forgotten movie called Fourteen Hours, Grace was on her way to the most remarkable five-year career in the history of motion pictures. A mouthful of a statement, but there it is. In 60 months, a classically photogenic face, the stamina of a marathon runner, an obsessive drive for self-improvement and a little bit of luck that was parlayed into great gobs of luck by the power of the will, swept Grace Kelly from obscure starlet to international star.

The luck began when Jay Kanter "sold" her to producer Stanley Kramer and director Fred Zinnemann for High Noon. In her big scene, she is finally driven to pick up a rifle and kill the fourth outlaw to save her husband, played by Gary Cooper, after Cooper has dispatched the other three.

A nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Mogambo didn't convince her that she was all that good in it. "I really wasn't," she said straightforwardly. "I was lucky. I was in awfully good hands. I was new in the business."

To master film technique, so different from either live television or the theater, was a challenge. "Be the best!" was echoing in the hall again. But from the outset Grace Kelly was a different cut from the lovely blonde starlets so overjoyed and overwhelmed by Hollywood. With her two sisters to keep her company, she stayed at that Sunset Boulevard relic of lost elegance, the Chateau Marmont. She would only sign her seven-year contract at MGM with the provision that she could go back to New York and the theater every other year. Remembering her as a star on the rise 25 years ago, agents, producers, directors, fellow actors and friends all draw a consistent picture of a girl with a steel trap mind who could not be dissuaded once she set that mind on what she wanted to do.

LUCK AND WILL

Now the Kelly luck embraced the Kelly will: the screen test that had failed her in her quest for a role in Taxi impressed that crustiest of critics, John Ford, who cast her in Mogambo - a remake of Red Dust, with Grace playing the Mary Astor role of the genteel but adulterous wife, Ava Gardner taking on Jean Harlow's "Honey Bear" and Clark Gable repeating the role he had created in the original. Two more disparate ladies than Ms. Kelly and Ms. Gardner could hardly be imagined, but they got on surprisingly well. Ava threw tantrums while Grace tended to her lines and her knitting. Frank Sinatra, in Africa for a visit with his unpredictable Ava, pronounced Grace Kelly the squarest of the squares. Even when columnists hinted out loud that Graces love scenes with Gable were unusually convincing. Grace never lost her Kelly cool.

Back in Hollywood for the Mogambo interiors. Grace and fellow-actress Rita Gam found an unpretentious apartment on Sweetzer Avenue. A pair of hard working bachelor girls, they were an odd couple: the cool golden girl who all ways seemed to have her emotions in check and the dark, exotic beauty whose emotions kept spilling over, "We both kept falling in love with the wrong men,” Rita remembers.

But if there were emotional frustrations and dead ends, the Kelly career kept climbing smoothly upward. The same, now-famous test that Ratoff and 20th Century-Fox had thumbed down caught the eye of another film master, Alfred Hitchcock. There was Dial M for Murder opposite Ray Milland, Rear Window opposite Jimmy Stewart and To Catch A Thief vis-a-vis Cary Grant.

With top directors Zinnemann, Ford and Hitchcock and leading men Cooper Gable and Grant, could a girl ask for anything more? If her name is Grace Kelly, the answer is yes.

We were still sitting in the Paris townhouse, but our minds were now focused on The Country Girl. The Clifford Odets Broadway hit was to be done as a film Every female star in town was after the role of the drunken actor's wife, described by Odets as "the broom behind the door." Grace knew that this was a part that could prove she wasn't just an elegant clotheshorse.

But winning that role was one of the longer shots in the Hollywood sweepstakes. In the first place, MGM, her "home studio," didn't want to loan her out. In the second place, Paramount and the producers of The Country Girl - wanted a bigger name to match the star male leads, William Holden and Bing Crosby. And, finally, even Crosby, looking for all the help he could get in playing a complex and difficult dramatic role, expressed his doubts that the elegant Kelly girl could handle a part so totally out of character for her.

The more opposition, the greater the determination. Grace told Jay Kanter and Lew Wasserman, representing the sinew and brains of the powerful agency that represented her, that they had to get Metro to release her for the role. She had to get this part. Otherwise, she was ready to go on suspension, quit Hollywood and return to New York to concentrate on the theater.

Thus are Hollywood legends born. For the screen test, Edith Head, whose mantelpiece is a parade ground for Best Costume Oscars, and who had dressed Grace in dazzling gowns for those high fashion movies, now helped Grace completely transform herself into the worn and weary country girl. And in the film, which she subsequently made, it wasn't just an outward change. She gave a performance from the inside such as she had never given before. At the end of the first week, a convinced Bing Crosby said, "I'll never open my big mouth again!"

It was Oscar time and Grace was nominated for Best Actress. But everybody agreed that Judy Garland had a lock on the little statue - the sentimental favorite making a dramatic comeback (on and of the screen) in the musical remake of A Star Is Born. But when Bill Holden opened the envelope on the stage of the Pantages Theater, we heard: "And the winner is . . . Grace Kelly!"

That same night Marlon Brando won his Oscar for On The Waterfront. While they posed together, swarming photographers shouted, "Kiss Marlon, Grace! Go ahead, kiss him!”

Suddenly Miss Kelly was from Philadelphia and the Stevens School, and her father was Jack Kelly, Sr. and her uncle was George Kelly, who had won a prize she respected perhaps even more, the Pulitzer. "Don't you think he should kiss me?” asked Grace Patricia, looking cool and elegant in aquamarine satin. On she swept to a party at Romanoff's - the girl who had everything. "Miss Perfect," people were calling her, some in awe and some inspite

"How did it feel?” I asked her in Paris.

Another long pause. "I was unhappy. Now I had fame, but you find that fame is awfully empty if you don't have someone to share it with."

As she sat there remembering that triumphant and lonely night, I found myself thinking of a note that F. Scott Fitzgerald had written to himself while preparing to write his heroine Kathleen in The Last Tycoon: "People simply do not identify with people who have all the breaks. I must endow this girl with a little misfortune.” I was beginning to find it in the girl who had everything.

Meanwhile, back at the Palace...

In 1955, the principality of Monaco was not the flourishing place it is today. The casino was run-down, the ancient palace itself in disrepair. Aristotle Onassis, George Schlee and Gardner Cowles were meeting to discuss how to save it.

Running the troubled affairs of Monaco for seven years, already in his mid-30's and still a bachelor, Prince Rainier III knew he must find a suitable wife with whom to share his life and the duties of the principality. Remembering his own unhappy childhood (a broken home at age six, lonely and disoriented at a British boarding school), Rainier insisted he would not make a marriage of convenience.

LOVE STORY OF THE CENTURY

And so the stage is set for what the press of the world called, "The love story of the century." The Prince had met Grace casually in Monaco when she attended a showing of To Catch A Thief the year before. Now he came to Hollywood on a visit less casual. Then went on to Philadelphia to meet her family.

I begin to ask direct questions and get surprisingly (although less surprised now than when I first met her) direct answers.

"Did you ask your parents for permission to marry Rainier?"

"No, I made up my own mind. I had asked them once or twice before and it hadn't worked out. This time I knew I had to make my own decision."

In fact, Father Kelly disapproved of the match. Rainier seemed like a nice fellow. But European princes are notorious playboys. And she'd be an American living far away in a foreign land.

I took a breath. “Princess Grace, do you mind if I ask you a very personal question?"

"Well, suppose not."

"I'm trying to put myself in your place. Every writer has to do that. It must have been a terribly difficult moment. You were marrying a man you barely knew… going off to a strange world… knowing as a member of your church there was no turning back. Giving up a film career on your way to becoming a superstar - you must have felt... well, how did you feel as you went up that gangplank?"

This time the pause was so long that I thought she resented my question too much to answer. She stared at the floor. When she looked up, her eyes were wet. If she had glacial perfection, the glacier was melting. She spoke quietly, with total simplicity:

"The day we left, our ship was surrounded in fog. And that's the way I felt - as if I were sailing off into the unknown. I had been through several unhappy romances. And although I had become a star, I was feeling lost and confused. I didn't want to drift into my thirties without knowing where I was going in my personal life."

As if she had been conceived by Scott Fitzgerald, here she was, endowed with a certain misfortune.

"I guess I'm a homebody at heart, she was saying. But I didn't have a home. Rainier came into my life at just the right moment. I needed someone who wouldn't be Mr. Grace Kelly. I could see that Rainier was a dedicated man. He had liberal ideas for making the principality more than a playground. While life on board ship must have seemed to the world like one continuous party, I couldn't help looking out into the fog and wondering: ‘What is going to happen to me? What will this new life be like?’ I had never met his family, except for his father, I must say he was wonderfully supportive. But I had no idea how the rest of the family, and the Court, would accept me. What sort of world was waiting for me on the other side of that fog?"

A friend said to Princess Grace, "But it was such a gorgeous wedding. The loveliest royal wedding of the century. European royalty. World celebrities. And so beautifully organized."

Now Princess Grace laughed.

WEDDING SHEER CHAOS

"Chaos! Fifteen hundred invited guests. And most of them wanting extra tickets for the balls and the dinners and the two weddings, first the civil one in the throne room of the palace, then the religious one in the cathedral. The weather was foul. And more journalists than they had covering D-Day. The language barriers! And the palace wasn't ready to be lived in yet. Sheer chaos!"

Bridesmaids, including Rita Gam, remember it as the most romantic time of their lives. But for Princess Grace the summer was long and hot. There was resentment from the traditionalists. What was an American, and from Hollywood at that, doing in their palace? Rainier understood the difficulty of the transition and was of great help to her But there were times, Grace admits, when she would stroll the palace walkway and wonder....

But time is a patient teacher. "Once Caroline was born, and then Albert, I began to feel my roots in Monaco. I was finally beginning to master the language, by osmosis. You might say I worked from the inside out. Now that I had my new family around me, I could move outside the palace into the community."

Once she got her bearings, Grace of Monaco became the most active princess the principality has ever had. Realizing that the local hospital was run down, she found ways to modernize it. She founded a daycare center and enlarged the old people's home. "She brought us heart," an old man says.

"She brought the palace back to life," says a staff member. "Inviting the children of the village into the throne room for a Christmas party. And the flowers everywhere. The Garden Club that grew into an International Flower Arranging Festival. The Children’s Village she set up through the Monegasque Red Cross to help keep together children of the same family who have lost their parents. Bazaars promoting the arts and crafts of Monaco. Using the courtyard of the palace as a natural stage for the International Arts Festival."

I was standing in the courtyard of this ancient castle, with its gracefully winding stairway. The chief of the secretariat was speaking with an enthusiasm he had drawn from Princess Grace. "She wants the palace to be used, to be alive, to help make the world more beautiful. Nureyev has danced here, and Danny Kaye has entertained, and the Paris Opera Ballet, Yehudi Menuhin, the Mexican Ballet Folklórico... She's brought a special quality to the palace that enriches the life of the principality. That's why we love to work with her. She gets up early and never stops.

"It's not just because she's our princess,” says Paul Choisit, the former consul for Monaco in New York, who now runs the secretariat, "I think she's the most unusual person I've ever known And with all the demands on her, the official duties, she still manages to save a great deal of time to share with her children. It's a known fact throughout the principality that Caroline, Albert and Stephanie are blessed with a supporting and loving mother."

I'm back at the townhouse in Paris, having returned from the old-world new-day atmosphere of the palace. We're talking of the ballet school I’ve toured (where teenage ballerinas are schooled by masters), through which Grace of Monaco hopes to restore to its former grandeur the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. The phone rings and it's Arthur Rubinstein. The phone rings again. It's Moscow. The International Television Festival is coming up and her staff has been at work on it, reaching out to renowned guest artists to appear at the gala after the awards. Monaco's Festival, far purer than the now corrupted Film Festival in Cannes, gives awards for such shows as the best on protection of the environment and best children's program, as judged by children themselves.

I see that Grace Kelly of Philadelphia, daughter of self-made millionaire Jack, niece of the Fabulous Uncle George, has found her way through the fog to a creative world she has made for herself on the other side.

As Hans Christian Andersen might have said, "And so the princess lived happily - and busily - ever after."

#grace kelly #princess grace of monaco #budd schulberg #1977 #good housekeeping #sheila scan

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silenceisbetterthanbs · 8 years ago

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K-pop question tag

I was tagged by @suju-bangtan and @jinilin <3

a. Always post the rules. Answer the questions asked then write 11 new ones.

b. Tag 11 people and link them to the post. Tell the person who tagged you that you’ve answered their questions.

@suju-bangtan:

1) Who is your favorite girl group?

Tough question. I used to love 4minute and 2ne1 but if we’re talking about active groups then it’d be either GFriend, Blackpink or Mamamoo. Dreamcatcher is slowly going up my list too, I really like their style.

2) Who is your favorite boy group?

B.A.P. I just love them and their work so much, all their songs are perfectly crafted in every way, and they’re so lovely, hardworking and talented. They’ve been through so much but they fought together and are still trying, I really admire them.

3) Are there any choreographies that you love the most (from any group)?

I have to answer B.A.P again. I just love their choreographies, I think they’re so complex and well executed. I particularly love Power and One Shot but all of them are amazing, really. There are other incredibly talented groups I love too: GFriend, SHINee, Infinite and BTS, to name a few.

4) Do you prefer when groups release hype songs or when they release chill songs?

Normally I like hype songs better, there are some ballads I love but they’re usually my least favorite songs in an album.

5) What was your favorite debut song (from any group)?

I don’t want to turn this into a B.A.P biased meme buuut I love Warrior lol, I’m not a big fan of the all-blond style but I really love the song and the choreo. My other favorite debut song is Fanfare by SF9, I fell so hard for it, had it on repeat for days.

6) Are there any groups you wish that were not underrated/would get more recognition?

I’m going to write a lengthy answer for this and it might not even make any sense so I apologize in advance lol.

I try not to think too much about this because it’s dangerously close to what I personally consider “bad fan-etiquette”. Doesn’t matter how much someone screams underrated, it’s always a biased opinion. A specific group might be the best thing on earth for me but it doesn’t have to be for the rest of the people, everybody has their own taste and their criteria of what’s important in a group. Not only there’s no real way to objectively rank idols based on how good they are or how popular they deserve to be, but I feel like it shouldn’t matter much anyway. I know there’s a limit of how “nugu” a group can be before they disappear so we all worry and fight hard to make sure our groups are known, but as long as they get by well enough to survive I don’t care too much about awards and number of views or stans. Sadly, that’s not really how you measure talent or professionality (even if some people like think so), let alone how lovely or hardworking they are. And sometimes talent isn’t even relevant, in my opinion, sometimes you just like a group simply because you do and you’re perfectly entitled to. I don’t like forcing anything on anybody and I don’t like putting value where it doesn’t belong.

Stuffy rant said (sorry for that, it’s a topic I’m somewhat passionate about and I couldn’t help it lol), I’m going to answer this question anyway. I personally wish B.A.P and Monsta X had more recognition, in my very biased opinion. B.A.P was on a really good path before everything went to hell because of the lawsuit issue, and I think it’s really unfair because they were brave enough to fight back and they ended up being punished for it. And Monsta X is doing so well and they’re so good but they still haven’t won anything and they think it’s their fault, so it’s frustrating. But there’s nothing I can really do about it besides “doing my part” and buying/streaming/recommending them when asked, so why complain about it.

7) Do you choose your biases or do your biases choose you?

They choose me. I always try to choose and stick to it but it’s inevitable, they come for me hahaha. When I get into a new group I choose the cutest member and go with it, but then I get to know them and usually someone else does something that makes me go ‘who are you and where have you been all my life’.

8) What’s the first Kpop song you heard?

Fantastic Baby by BIGBANG.

9) What made you fall in love with Kpop?

I just love the aesthetics and how professional they are. I was in awe, the way they train for this and how hard they work for every single comeback after they debut. They have to sacrifice so much to become idols, they spend so many uncertain years trying to debut without even knowing if they ever will – and when they do, it’s not like everything is done and they’re going to live in luxury the way popular Western artists do. Being an idol is really hard and the competition is brutal, you never know how long you’re going to be up. It’s amazing, you don’t see this kind of commitment and professionality around here, in my opinion.

10) Do you have an merchandise of your favorite groups?

I do! I’m very picky when it comes to merch but I own several t-shirts/hoodies, lightsticks, photocards and some other goodies.

11) Do you have any song or group recommendations?

You seem to have a very nice taste! I feel like you’re going to know everybody I mention. I saw you just got into SF9, Pentagon and 24K. Do you know MVP? They debuted recently and I love their stuff so far! I also got into Victon recently thanks to Eyez Eyez.

@jinilin:

1) Favorite kpop music video?

Aw man, how am I supposed to choose. I’m going to say B.A.P again, sorry. I love Skydive, 1004 (Angel) and Wake me up, such good videos. I love VIXX’s mvs as well, they’re always so dark and dramatic. I love EXO’s Monster, Monsta X’s All in and BTS’ Run too. I can’t really choose one hahaha.

2) Favorite girl group dance practice?

I love 2ne1 and GFriend’s dance practices.

3) Favorite boy group dance practice?

Monster by EXO. It’s so artistic, I love it.

4) Who’s your ultimate bias and why?

My ult bias is Bang Yong Guk from B.A.P. Where do I even start. I feel like we’re very similar, he looks introverted and quiet and someone who is very active inside his mind, but who is also funny, quirky and sassy. I feel like I’d feel really comfortable around him. I don’t know how to explain it, he seems to have a nice and calm aura and I feel so at ease with such people (introverted things lol). He’s really smart and socially aware, he doesn’t speak much but every time he does he says the right thing. He’s such a good caretaker, all the boys love him and respect him SO much, I feel like it says a lot about him and how he makes people close to him feel. He’s an amazing person as well, he does so much for other people and gives so much to charity, I feel like we don’t even know half of it but it’s already impressive. He’s so incredibly talented too, he plays such an active part in the creation of their songs and they are always so good (and so is the rest of the work he does under his known pseudonym.) I could go on forever but I won’t do that to you lol basically, he’s an incredibly amazing and gorgeous human being, an amazing leader and a talented artist.

5) Who’s your ultimate bias wrecker?

Most of the people I stan, really. I just love everybody so much, they move up and down on the messy list all the time. They’re all amazing. I guess I’d say the rest of B.A.P if I had to choose, specially Youngjae.

6) Have you ever seen a kpop group live/been to kcon?

I have! I went to KCON LA 2016 and I’ve also seen EXO, GOT7, SHINee, Red Velvet, AOA, FT Island, Tiger JK and Dean live. Amazing experiences, all of them. I’m really hoping they’ll do a KCON in Europe this year.

7) Is there a group you want to see live?

B.A.P! They’re coming to Europe next month but nowhere near me and I can’t take the time to travel far because of work (all the dates are weekdays, WHYYY). I’ve already seen Monsta X and GFriend at KCON but I’d love to go a solo concert, that’d be lovely. I’d love to see BIGBANG, VIXX, BTS (if it’s in a seat far away from the rest of fans), Mamamoo, Highlight and Block B too. Who am I kidding, I’d love to see everybody I stan lol.

8) What was your favorite comeback of 2017 so far?

B.A.P, of course hahaha. I’ve loved many comebacks and debuts actually, obviously Highlight’s “debut” is a close second but I also really liked GOT7, Winner, Day6, Victon, SF9, Teen Top, IMFACT, BTS, CLC, AOA and CNBlue. If we’re talking about debuts, I really liked Dreamcatcher, MVP, Seven O’Clock, Black6ix and UNIT BLACK. I’m probably forgetting a couple debuts/comebacks I loved lol.

9) What upcoming comeback are you looking forward to?

Highlight’s Junhyung is making a solo comeback soon and I’m super excited about it! He’s my BEAST/Highlight bias, and I love his work and rapping style. I’m high key excited about Triple H’s debut too, I love Hyuna and Pentagon so I’m looking forward to see what they come up with!

10) Is there a group that you know of that you want to get into?

I have what I call my “side-children”, it’s basically groups I check out when they come back and occasionally see on my dash but I don’t actively follow. I’d like to get more into them, I don’t know much beyond the music and I wish I did. Groups like KNK, IMFACT, B1A4, 24K or Brave Girls, among others.

11) What’s your favorite kind of album concept? (royalty, cute, gang, elegant, sexy, etc.)

I usually like any concept as long as it’s well done and it fits the group, but I’m not very into cute concepts. I tend to favor dark and aggressive concepts best but I don’t have a favorite, I’m in for anything if they can pull it off successfully.

I didn’t give you straight answers, I’m sorry hahahaha. I just love so many groups, it’s really hard to only choose one. I really tried to keep it small, I swear.

I’m procrastinating at work and I can’t think of anything original to ask so I’m just going to recycle your lovely questions, sorry :P

What made you fall in love with K-pop?

Who’s your ultimate bias and why?

Who’s your ultimate bias wrecker?

Do you choose your biases or do your biases choose you?

What was your favorite debut song (from any group)?

Are there any choreographies that you love the most (from any group)?

Favorite dance practice?

What was your favorite comeback of 2017 so far?

What upcoming comeback are you looking forward to?

Have you ever seen a K-pop group live/been to KCON?

Do you have any song or group recommendations?

I tag: @bumgee, @b-laxk, @lovelyzc, @kirspel, @gotsoulmates, @the-princejinyoung, @daehdream, @tzefoxes (I can’t tag you for some reason :/) and if someone else wants to do it consider yourself tagged!

#as usual #you don't have to do it #i just don't know who else to tag haha #if you like these things let me know and i'll tag you #mine #tag game

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rachelweiszcraig · 8 years ago

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On Her Birthday, 5 Reasons We Treasure Rachel Weisz

Born on March 7, 1970, Rachel Weisz fell in love with performing as a teenager, quickly developing a knack for portraying smart, passionate, and caring women, a perfect combination for a Pisces. She has graced two Focus films––The Shape of Things and The Constant Gardener––with her radiant talent and intelligence. Today, we salute her remarkable achievements by exploring five things that make her one of our favorite actresses.

She’s one of our Oscar winners

At the 78th Academy Awards, Rachel Weisz took home the statuette for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the spirited Tessa Quayle in The Constant Gardener. Adapted from John le Carré’s novel about corporate corruption and conspiracy in Africa, Fernando Meirelles’ thriller casts Weisz as the wife of Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), a career diplomat trying to juggle his staid job and his independent spouse. Still early in her career, Weisz brought to the part the complexity and dignity for which she would become renown. “She’s so human. I remembered when we first met, Rachel had the same passion that a political activist would have,” Meirelles tells film writer N. P. Thompson. To comprehend the film’s labyrinthine politics, Weisz flew to Kenya to talk directly with actual aid workers and political activists. As an artist, she wanted to realize fully the rich complexity of le Carré’s character. “I loved the fact that she wasn’t entirely sympathetic,” Weisz explains to the Guardian. “She was a lone warrior with all the contradictions that that brings.” And her hard work paid off. Variety’s Todd McCarthy applauded how, stepping “straight from the pages of the book onto the screen, she fully embodies the driven, lusty, unstoppable Tessa.” In addition to winning the Oscar, she also won a Golden Globe for her unforgettable performance.

She never forgets her first love, theater

Before stepping onto a movie set, Weisz had trod the boards of many a stage. At Cambridge, she started her own theater group, Talking Tongues, whose piece, Slight Possession, won the Student Drama Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 1994, she turned heads in Noel Coward’s Design for Living as, in the words of the Independent, “a devastatingly sexy Gilda.” Even as her TV and film career started heating up, Weisz stayed true to the theater. In 1999, she had to skip the world premiere of her first blockbuster, The Mummy, because she was due on stage to play Catherine in Tennessee Williams’s Suddenly, Last Summer. Focus Features’ 2003 film, The Shape of Things, gave Weisz the opportunity to bridge her two loves. Originally staged as a play in 2001 with, as the Guardian’s Michael Billingon put it, “a knockout performance from Rachel Weisz,” the drama was adapted for film by its writer/director Neil LaBute with the same cast. Weisz plays Evelyn, a smart, sexy grad student who transforms her dowdy boyfriend (played by Paul Rudd) into the man of her dreams––as well as the subject of her thesis––in this philosophical drama of love and change. Weisz transformed her theatrical role into a cinematic tour de force.

Weisz continues to garner applause and critical raves for her theatrical work. In a 2013 production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, Weisz, along with her real-life husband, Daniel Craig, and Rafe Spall were commended by The Hollywood Reporter as being “at the absolute top of their game.” Most recently she dazzled audiences in a revival of David Hare’s Plenty at New York City’s Public Theater.

There isn’t a genre she can’t conquer

Describing working with Weisz on The Constant Gardener, her co-star, Ralph Fiennes, tells the Guardian, “She’s not fearful, she’s willing to throw caution to the wind in order to get to the core of a scene.” Fearless also describes Weisz’s passion for tackling any type of genre, subject matter, or character. In 1999, appearing both in an epic historical drama, Sunshine, and a big-screen popcorn pounder, The Mummy, Weisz made it clear she was not going to be typecast. With sublime grace and dramatic agility, she moves effortlessly from a coming-of-age comedy, like About a Boy, to a serious drama like The Shape of Things. Or from a mega sci-fi saga, like The Fountain, to an international thriller like The Constant Gardener. Part of her drive comes from her being a movie lover first and foremost. “I just really liked stories,” Weisz tells the AV Club. “Film and theater are very powerful storytelling mediums. You sit in a dark room and enter another world. I love that as a member of the audience, and I sort of wanted to get on the other side.”

Celebrated for her beauty, but known for her brains

Starting a modeling career at 14, Rachel Weisz continues to shine as one of the world’s great beauties. She is on Empire Magazine’s list of the 50 sexiest female movie stars and was featured in Glamour’s “The 50 Most Glamorous Women of 2009.” In 2010, she topped an Esquire poll of the woman men would most like to marry. Fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez names her as one of his most important creative muses. But her beauty is definitely not just skin deep. After graduating from the prestigious St. Paul’s Girls School, she went on to take a degree in English literature from Cambridge University where she wrote a dissertation on the American writer Caron McCullers and the southern concept of femininity. A friend of the family and newspaper columnist, Matthew Norman, told the Guardian, “She could have become an academic, and often talked about how she might become a barrister. It feels like an accident of fate that she’s become a huge movie star.“

She honors her family by giving back

One of the reasons Weisz so poignantly captures women, like Tessa Quayle in The Constant Gardener, who fight for human rights is because social justice is part of her DNA. “Both of my parents were [Jewish] refugees from Eastern Europe,” Weisz tells People magazine. “My mom, she got out of Austria, the first country to fall to Hitler, in 1939.” Her father, George Weisz, left Hungary just before the Nazi occupation, moving to London to pursue his work as an inventor. “My father invented thousands of things—a metal detector which clears a safety path for land mines, an artificial respirator, [and] a milking machine so humans needn’t milk cows by hand,” Weisz told the New York Post. “I am very proud of him.” Her parents’ history and legacy has influenced her own desire to give back. After her Oscar-winning performance, she helped set up–– along with Ralph Fiennes, director Fernando Meirelles, and author John le Carré––the Constant Gardener Trust, which benefits the impoverished areas of Kenya where they filmed. And she wants her charitable work to provide an example for her own son. “Kids watch their parents closely,” she tells the Evening Standard. “Hopefully they grow up in a culture of caring about others, and it will be up to them to decide what they want to do, but hopefully it will rub off on them.”

Source: focusfeatures.com

#Rachel Weisz

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okayish-omens · 8 years ago

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Multiples of 2

You're making me suffer ='D i love it 2. How old are you? 20  4. What is your zodiac sign?Leo!   6. What’s your lucky number?Don't really have any particular number but for some reason I've always stuck with 4  8. Where are you from?The Netherlands  10. What shoe size are you?39/40 in Europe   12. What was your last dream about?That i ran into Benedict in full Strange attire (which was honestly great) and...i don't remember the rest  14. Are you psychic in any way?Yeah, i get a headache every time someone is talking shit 16. Favorite movie?Well right now Doctor Strange  18. Do you want children?I... don't know? Not particularly i guess 20. Are you religious?Nope. But I am and always have been open to the concept of different religions. They intrigue me.   22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law?Nope  24. Baths or showers?Showers. I don't have the patience for a bath 26. Have you ever been famous?I've been on tv a couple of times, and in/on a magazine, both for school. My Strange cosplay is getting more attention than my other ones (which it deserves tbh) but other than that no  28. What type of music do you like?I've thought this through a lot recently but i think. It needs to be either overwhelming, or inspiring. I can't really pin it down any further  30. How many pillows do you sleep with? just the one, a really big one. And my arm usually 32. How big is your house? my own room is just right for me. My parents' house is pretty large! 34. Have you ever fired a gun? fake ones only 36. Favorite clean word?Good lord. Aesthetic? Design? I really do not know.  38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep?I don't know. I haven't really done all-nighters? But i guess when I went to London last year. Didn't really sleep properly in the bus so I was awake for like 2 days  40. Have you ever had a secret admirer? pfft no never 42. Are you a good judge of character?Yep. Do i heed my own damn advice? Of course not!  44. Do you have a strong accent?Only in English. I sound very Dutch with a hint of Irish  46. What is your personality type?Infp i think  48. Can you curl your tongue?Yes. I'm very flexible ;)  50. Left or right handed?Left! 52. Favorite food?Asparagus is definitely up there. The Dutch way of course. And any kind of thing-i've-never-had-before  54. Are you a clean or messy person?Definitely messy. I try to be clean but well  56. Most used word?BOI. no idk. Maybe "oh man" 58. Do you have much of an ego?Too much. Way too much.   60. Do you talk to yourself?If i'm alone, sometimes  62. Are you a good singer?No, but I love to pretend to be 64. Are you a gossip?Yes oh god too much  66. Do you like long or short hair?Really love both i mean short hair is bamf man like show me that strong independent shit. But also having long locks flow down your back is just- the best. On myself I prefer short, although I actually am really tempted to let it grow long again  68. Favorite school subject?Right now my capstone, in general i think Theatre & Media Studies. At uni that is. In high school, definitely IB English.   70. Have you ever been scuba diving?No, but I'd love to!! I want to join my dad one day, he goes on a diving vacation like once a year  72. Are you scared of the dark?Only when i'm in the light. If i'm already in the dark my eyes will adjust and it's usually fine. Familiar areas are no problem, and even in unfamiliar areas the dark kinda gets the adrenaline going 74. Are you ticklish?Again, too much.   76. Have you ever been in a position of authority?I've been a leader or organiser of things quite often actually. It's something i can do pretty well, as far as group work and getting shit done goes.   78. Have you ever done drugs?No, thank god. (I'm kinda.. tempted to see what LSD and such, the mind-warping drugs, are like)  80. How many piercings do you have?Just my earlobes  82. How fast can you type?Both hands, pretty fast. One hand, a disaster  84. What color is your hair?Right now, very dark brown (for Strange!). My natural colour is ash blonde.   86. What are you allergic to?Bullshit, and people demanding attention when they think i care (i get those kinda moods where everyone and everything is just pathetic).   88. What do your parents do?My mother works as administrator, and my father is manager  90. What makes you angry?DENSE PEOPLE or people who do not understand the full story yet continue to take their own word as gospel and make judgments despite not knowing the actual situation. Also, narrow-minded people. The world isn't made to be limited. 92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they?HAMISH. (No i have not.)  94. What are you strengths? I do not give up? Sometimes. Also, i'm fiercely loyal no matter what someone does to me. But i can also now see all the shit a person does at the same time. I'm learning to be really confident and stand up for myself nowadays. And apparently i'm good at things xD like my cosplays and such, and art.  96. How did you get your name? my parents literally put up a list of baby names for a boy and a girl and mine actually came in last minute, and was immediately on top.  98. Do you have any scars? i have a spot on my knee i think, from where i fell off my bike years ago. I have two tattoos, one of Adam and one of Mickey which i did with my mother.  100. Color of your room?Two black and two white walls, and a wooden/laminate floor. Light-coloured wood furniture as well.

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storiesbehindthefog · 8 years ago

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“I do have a story ‘behind’me.” Daniel

I was born in Denver, Colorado. As a young boy I was taught how to hunt and fish, how to process meat and use the skin for clothes. I learned the survival techniques in order to live off the land. It was important to my dad to pass these skills onto me.

In school I was a good student, always earning an A in most classes. I was definitely a loner of sorts, and became interested in music and martial arts. Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Lee were my heroes at that time. I think the message then in the late 60’s and early 70’s was to expand the mind, to become “experienced” as Jimi Hendrix sang, through the experimentation of psychedelic drugs.

“Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Lee were my heroes.”

In early 1981 I signed with a band called the Blitz Girls in Boulder, Colorado. I was the lead guitarist and wrote and produced the music. This was my first major original rock band and we were the hottest act on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. I was 21. It was a glamorous time with limos, girls and local stardom. My early music success was parallel to my introduction to drugs. In the early 80’s my reward for being a good guitarist was a cocaine bullet in the nose. We were set to make it with all the greats of the early 80’s, but my addiction had other plans.

“In the early 80’s my reward for being a good guitarist was a cocaine bullet in the nose.”

I ended up leaving the band in 1983 and I moved to San Francisco in 1984. I was looking for a heavier experimental type of music in the realm of King Crimson, Nirvana, and Nine Inch Nails. In the mid 90’s I joined the band Hoi Polloi. We had well-written songs, it was like REM meets Jane’s Addiction. We got some interest from Geffen Records but the band broke up in 1996.

In 1999 I moved to Zurich, Switzerland to pursue a relationship with a Swiss girl. My mother had just passed, and felt like this opening was not a coincidence. I loved living in Europe. I focused on learning how to design websites, while my girlfriend finished her degree in Marketing & Economics. I designed my first professional websites in a very cool rooftop apartment that overlooked Zurich. I made a little income as a freelancer, but was ultimately unable to get a work visa, so I returned to the States to work in the declining dot com boom in 2001.

“I taught myself web design in Zurich, Switzerland. I decided to come back to San Francisco, so I could work in dot com.”

I think for me there was a seeking for spirituality in all this, too. The music, art and visuals made me yearn for understanding and identifying God. I got into reading the Tarot cards, the I-Ching and reading the Bible metaphysically. I got very deep into the Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception.

At some point my “experimenting” with drugs crossed the line and I became an addict. I was dependent on them to deal with the world and where I fit into it. I became lost and began using drugs to escape the frustration of how to get to where I saw myself being: playing music, doing art, being creative, without the struggle just to survive. All the survival skills I had learned from my dad didn’t work in this world of addiction. It was a never-ending downward spiral.

In the early 90’s I sought an answer in attending Narcotics Anonymous. I found fellowship and a spiritual approach to addiction. Since then, I have had many relapses and setbacks that interrupted my progress. Basically the “Manic Depression” Jimi sang about. “Manic depression touchin my soul. I know what I want but I just don’t know how to go about gettin it”. But I have remained open-minded and haven’t given up on my spirit; always returning to AA/NA to work the steps, and practicing meditation, yoga and other means to seek a spiritual awakening.

“I haven’t given up on my spirit; always returning to AA/NA to work the steps, and practicing meditation, yoga and other means to seek a spiritual awakening.”

In 2010 I was studying radiology at CCSF, had 3 1/2 years clean and I was living in a big house in the Bayview district with the other guitarist of Abu Ghraib, a performance act that I played guitar in. We were the headlining act at the Elbo Room for the Karla Lavey’s Black X Mass Show. The band members were all professionals and the music was very well written; I really enjoyed being a part of this music project. It was equal to my abilities and gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment.

I lived in that house for 4 years and, and after a falling out with my friend, moved out in December of 2012. I guess I took it for granted that I would find another place where I could have a garden, grow my own food, and cook a meal in a kitchen that the whole house could enjoy.

This began a hard time for me concerning my instability with housing and substance abuse. A lot changed for me along this road. After a couple of years of moving around in bad housing situations, my girlfriend and I split up and I ended up in a hotel in North Beach, where I live now.

“After a couple of years of moving around in bad housing situations, my girlfriend and I split up and I ended up in a hotel in North Beach.”

I had some really dark times during the first couple of years living there. I experienced a lot of loss and isolation. The relationship, the band and the lifestyle I had been living creatively, all went away. Using drugs was so painful and left me feeling near death; physically, mentally and spiritually.

In December 2016, I had a total hip replacement on my left side. I think about the future with employment and there is a lot more I can do now. I met Arjanna, from Stories Behind The Fog, through the Downtown Streets Team, a great program changing the face of homelessness in San Francisco by finding opportunities for people to work and contribute to keeping San Francisco clean and beautiful.

Of course, the first thing Arjanna noticed about me was my companion dragon Jupiter. He is my precious pet. About 5 years ago, I adopted a bearded dragon named Juniper from Animal Control and I fell in love with these awesome creatures. When Juniper died I was heartbroken, and after some time, I went to find another dragon. Jupiter is totally connected to me and I enjoy educating all the people who stop me on the street to ask about what is hanging on my back.

“My bearded dragon Jupiter is totally connected to me. I enjoy educating all the people who stop me on the street to ask about what is hanging on my back.”

Luckily, Arjanna has also given me encouragement with my art and helped put me in contact with some amazing people; all working together to tell some of life’s stories.

Doing my artwork has become important to me recently. I have always drawn psychedelic flowers and now I’ve developed a style on OSB particle board which seems to reach people in a positive way. So, I’m getting that all together through the Community Art Program at Hospitality House, and a merchandising website Artlifting. I’m looking forward to the future with this as a serious business.

“Doing my artwork has become important to me recently. I have always drawn psychedelic flowers.”

Recently I’ve had a change of mind, a real change of heart. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and wiser. Maybe it’s because I’ve become more aware of how my own mind, with all its potential, has interfered with God’s reality and my ability to work within these boundaries.

God has always been here. Relying on my own will and my perspective being out of sync clouded my reality and caused me to experience misfortune. The psychosis of drug use is a terrible place to contemplate one’s position in the universe. I’ve always had a strong desire to figure it all out and, one day, in desperation I opened up the Bible, closed my eyes and asked: “Please God, help me with this answer I am struggling with.” I opened the Bible metaphysically and my eyes landed on Deuteronomy 10:13 (NIV)

“God has always been here. The psychosis of drug use is a terrible place to contemplate one’s position in the universe.”

“16 The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17 You have declared this day that the LORD is your God and you will walk in obedience to him, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws-that you will listen to him. 18 And the LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. 19 He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.”

I recently played a live show again at a club in North Beach called Munroe’s. They host a classical showcase featuring music from the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and the twentieth century. I asked if I could come in and perform a Gregorian chant set on guitar synthesizer. These days that is what I really want to do, is play guitar, and do music and art.

So yeah, I do have a story behind me. One about overcoming adversity, and the behaviors I have branded within my own mind. And another one about my dear friend Juniper.

Shared weekly on Medium, and soon to be published in a book, ‘Stories Behind The Fog’ is a compendium of 100 stories of people affected by homelessness in San Francisco. The project was triggered by one man’s story that will be released next year in the form of a feature-length documentary:www.moses.movie

This story has been co-written by Arjanna van der Plas and Daniel Henry. Photographed by Juli Lopez in collaboration with our partner organization Downtown Streets Team.

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