#Japanese Horseshoe bat | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

centrally-unplanned · 5 months ago

Note

(Ash mentioned! <3) Endorsed, I think this nails his place on the spectrum of politics in multiple ways. I will toss in a few thoughts:

-- I am on the record somewhere as a "liberal Gunbuster" truther, so no surprise here from me, but yeah I think the Gunbuster case tends to be overblown and is imo the source for most of the "right wing" discourse. It's a bit tough for westerners to see the ways Japan sees WW2; apocalyptic in outcome but typical in stakes. Using iconography from Ghengis Khan or Napoleon is fine for us, because while awful human beings it was in that typical "war is always awful" way, it isn't a poisoned well. WW2 is not that for us, but the typical Japanese person is likely to see it through that kind of lens. As such all the Gunbuster homages to the Battle of Okinawa, Japan annexing Hawaii, etc, are all just the touches of the genre of Space Opera and military otaku things. Putting a space lesbian in a steampunk Napoleon uniform a la modern YA books doesn't imply the author endorses the Confederation of the Rhine or anything; and meanwhile Gunbuster's actual setting is UN-on-Steroids international liberalism, it is not apologia for the East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. The imagery just doesn't carry the same implications. (IMO this perception of WW2 is wrong, Japan was in fact atypically awful? And this is tied up with a whole bunch of cultural-political stuff in Japan. But Anno/Gainax as creators aren't water-carriers for all of that, just downstream of it)

-- Anno is definitely in that post-Anpo "apolitical otaku" generation, but I think if you move a bit past the left-right binary you can find a lot of politics in there. They are in a way "anti-left" in the sense of wanting to remove what they see as overbearing political content from media, but it isn't just so they can play with their toys in peace. Anno has lost faith in politics as a solution to societal problems:

--In Gundam, the main character, Amuro Ray, has a clear enemy and a clear political structure that encourages his growth, but "Eva" doesn't have that. Anno: From a generational point of view, I myself don't have that concept anymore. I don't trust politics or society. I can't create works that adopt what is not there.

(Interview: STUDIO VOICE October 1996)

“…For [my generation, after the political failures of the previous], there was nothing to speak of but what was within the ‘magic box’ (television). It’s pathetic, but we had no other options. I think admitting that is a start.”

(A Dream World That Hasn't Forfeited its Goal, ~August 1996)

And you see more of this whenever he discusses things like the Aum Shinrikyo cult/Tokyo Sarin Gas attacks (which occurred during the airing of Eva); he will see them as case of extreme involution, obsession with the self & disconnected from society; a problem that political orgs are now incapable of fixing or addressing. And otaku are a calmer-but-still-troubled side of that same coin, a response to capital-M Modernity. That is a deeply political stance, right? It just isn't one that lends itself to voting for this or that party.

This was a pretty big ~vibe in the 90's all over, honestly, and at the time I would say it was still pretty left coded? But it had its sources on the right as well (horseshoe theory continuing to bat a hundred), and fell out of favor in the West at least - idk maybe something happened in American in the 2000's to distract from the ennui, couldn't say. It lasted longer in Japan, and I think you can trace an arc from many anime creators being actively political in the 1970's/1980's, to a new gen being intentionally anti-political as its own politics in the 1980's-1990's, to anime being dominated by truly apolitical creators starting in the 2000's. Anno is part of that middle wave. But it is all by degrees of course.

-- Finally; Anno is in his mid-60's, his politics have changed! He definitely doesn't discuss them that much - but like you can't look at Shin Godzilla and say "yeah this guy has no thoughts on the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster", its a film clearly dealing with the bureaucratic limitations of any system being able to "contain" the mess of reality. He didn't have those opinions before because Fukushima hadn't happened. I know this one quote from these rountables Anno did with a bunch of high school students during the production of Kare Kano? Which, btw, were printed with this logo:

"Anno Hideaki X Highschool Boys & Girls" lovely, 10 out of 10, no notes. But anyway, he goes off at one point about the US & Japan and international relations.

Anno: Asia is where it’s at now. We’d best get in good with our neighbors. The previous generation is with America. Those currently in their 50’s typically think in terms of America. In reaction to losing the War to America, they all want to live the American lifestyle. Like all going to Europe, that sort of thing.

And idk I bet that the past 20+ years of declining relations with and rising bellicosity from China has soured him on this! I don't have a money quote, but i'd be shocked if he stands by this off-hand comment from the 90's. People do this a lot, you see an interview with someone, they say something, Miyazaki will tell you Humanity is Doomed or some shit, and that becomes their canon opinion. Which is understandable because it's printed, but maybe they were just shooting the shit, and maybe they believed for ~5 years or something. Maybe they never believed it, who knows right? They are artists, not politicians or academics, so they aren't normally in the business of making their political evolutions robustly explicit. And this generation of creators in Japan loved to run their mouths.

So I think, like many people, you can't say Anno over the course of ~50 years of having opinions on politics, is going to fit on one side or the other that neatly.

--- How many Left Points does Anno get for making fujoshi gayboy flagship Kaworu and leaning into that so goddamn hard in the mid 90's? Guy did a 30-page interview for JUNE, the oldest yaoi magazine around! That has to get you at least 10 Ikuhara-blazoned gold stars right?

Do you think Hideaki Anno is right-wing or is it too difficult to tell from his works?

Haha that's a question.

I'll focus on nationalism rather than trying to get into, say, gender politics here, since that's the accusation that most seems to follow Anno around.

Anno's politics are... hard to pin down from his work alone, I think. He's like... a prototypical case of that generation of 'apolitical' otaku that followed after the Anpo generation, with Eva pretty much the definitive statement of the 90s psychological turn. But that said... I can definitely see the argument that there are nationalist themes in some of his works like Gunbuster, though I definitely don't buy every reading in this series (lots of dubious kanji reading). He definitely has that otaku fascination with war machinery and war media (apparently he's a big fan of The Battle for Okinawa and watched it over 100 times), which can easily blend into imperialist ideology.

But there's complications here. For example, the Animekritik series cites the setting of Gunbuster in Okinawa as something formative to the nationalist ideology they are trying to illustrate - in part in relation to the ongoing controversy over American military bases in Okinawa. Anno has at least been on record as saying he's disinterested in Western culture, and I can see the reading of Jung-Freud as an external Other who is shown up by the Japanese girls, somehow simultaneously representing the USSR, Europe and the States. But anti-Americanism in Japan can come in both left and right wing flavours (c.f. Anpo). Communists want the Americans out too! Portraying Okinawa as a military training camp in a Japan-led military coalition certainly comes across as a more nationalist take on that whole matter, but I feel like it's got about the same level of serious nationalist commitment as Doctor Who putting random British people all over space.

When Gainax has played around with nationalist imagery it's usually been in a kind of ironic sendup way - see Ash's writeup about the Aikoku Sentai Dai Nippon controversy, in which Daicon Film staff were disdainful at the accusation that their goofy toku film reflected a genuine nationalist sentiment. While Imaishi takes it further, a lot of Anno's work is also about playfully reappropriating past works. In Anno's case a lot of that is classic tokusatsu, Ultraman in particular, and also Leiji Matsumoto's scifi, notably Space Battleship Yamato, which, well... you know the deal there lol. But it's not so simple to go from that to 'Anno is a nationalist'.

Eva doesn't tend to attract these accusations, but I recall the controversy came back around with Shin Godzilla, though to my mind it's hard to find a straightforwardly nationalist reading of that movie. (It's a film about the experience of the earthquake and Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown, and it's critical of Japan's bureaucracy, but equally one where the JSDF repeatedly get their shit handed to them and civilian infrastructure is what actually stops Godzilla - not to mention Godzilla is painted as quite a tragic figure here!) It all feels pretty tenuous.

I haven't seen as many of Anno's live action films as I'd like, so I can't comment as much on the more recent Shin films, Love & Pop, Shiki-Jitsu etc. And it's always possible for subtler allusions to slip by the anglophone viewer. Still, I don't personally think Anno's post-Gunbuster work is particularly nationalist in outlook. I certainly haven't seen any evidence of him favouring, say, war crime denial, anti-Korean sentiment, remilitarisation, etc etc. - he's definitely not as dubious a figure as someone like Hajime Isayama. But it's not like, anti-nationalist either! It's just kind of hard to read in those terms.

So I lean towards your second option, I'm not convinced he's a nationalist or particularly right wing. He happily associates with Hayao Miyazaki, who's definitely not a right wing guy. But Anno'll also let hilariously cooked stuff like whatever On A Gloomy Night was supposed to be into the Animator Expo. So I don't think he's particularly left wing either, he's no Ikuni! But Anno's fiction is very individual focused, full of psychoanalytic themes and internal conflict. He can vividly portray trauma and complex power dynamics. There's a lot to appreciate in works like Eva from a left-wing angle. I don't really know why this association of nationalism follows him around.

Idk, maybe there's a bunch of interviews I'm missing! Presumably you have a reason for asking this question...

#hideaki anno #evangelion history

141 notes · View notes

polythremed · 4 years ago

Note

wheres the essay op i want whitsun bugs

there might not have been an essay before, but there is now! bugs and inverts are hugely overlooked. however, the victorians loved insects! they were huge inspirations in art, shells were used in fashion, so what would be more vogue than a giant bug for a pet?

(Punch, September 29, 1877)

the bulk of this talk will be under the cut but tl;dr is that arachnids still offer a lot of potential, beetles and moths live in the neath and were popular at the time, and there are a lot of lesser-known bugs that fit fallen london

also cw for bug images because there’s a lot of them beyond here, this is for people with good taste only

firstly: arachnids

FL has a lot of arachnids and this year’s whitsun saw the introduction of a squirrel with a scorpion tail! i think it’s a fun design personally, but arachnid companions are Not obsolete. the most relevant arachnids are crabs, and crabs are more varied than you might think!

(image by abc.net.au)

the yeti crab was the first crab to come to mind, related to hermit crabs and living in hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean. it means we’ve got another underground beast, and could you imagine this as a spired crab? it could be the product of shapeling arts, and the yeti crab’s famously hairy arms have the potential to be used as arm warmers or 1890s uggs for the discerning londoner!

there’s also the japanese giant spider crab, which might be more lanky than it’s neathy angler crab cousins, but look at those legs! how big do you think it is? how about taller than the average person?

you have to understand how badly i want to be this man they also inhabit vents near the bottom of the ocean (the crabs, not this man), they’re omnivores and one specimen’s measured in at 3.8 metres (12ft) across its outstretched legs! it’d probably be a dreaded companion by the sheer size of it, but imagine the walking sticks you could get from those legs

arrowhead crabs and horseshoe crabs are also runners up for this!

mites also came to mind, being small arachnids- the mite above is an adult female tea mite, and not much is known about mites! they’re primitive but have a terrible reputation, and FBG have shone the spotlight on other unloved creatures in the past. there’s also Caveat Emptor which tells us that the bazaar has parasites which are probably like mites? you could have your own romance vampire, surely nothing could go wrong

and if you’ve come here for spiders, how about the pelican spider? with a pelican-like head, pelican spiders prey exclusively on other spiders! isn’t that a fun way to counter sorrow spider infestations? introducing new species is a good thing, right?

higher tiers of this companion could start to own the whole pelican thing. i’ve seen monster designs of spiders with human heads but never a spider with a pelican head!

(image by me)

all he needs is some love and spiders

close arachnid contenders that i want to mention before this whole post is made up of eight-legged companions: camel spiders, harvestmen, and whip scorpions!

secondly: beetles

as john b. s. haldane once said, “god has an inordinate fondness for beetles”. and he’s right because there are more known species of beetle than types of mammal

in fact, the victorians fucking loved beetles (and butterflies but we’ll get to that)

we have phosphorescent scarabs as luminosity items and a few mentions of beetles in airs texts and in sunless sea, the latter where a beetle has been eating through your ship’s supplies. being from england, i have a vague idea of what sort of beetles would end up in london!

there are still stag beetles, rove beetles, and even cardinal beetles, but these by themselves might feel pretty basic. they’d be good t1 companions, but why not have a companion that’s a whole insect keeping setup? there’s even some colourful beauties like the scarlet malachite beetle which are now incredibly endangered

but if you want something Huge and Large and easily convertible into a fashion accessory, hercules beetles have a lot of potential! horns that can be used for knives in dockside brawls, or you could take most of the bug features and place them on a furry animal like a guinea pig since seas already gave us the guinea page

these beetles could also add diversity for the phosphorescent scarabs- and speaking of phosphorescent beetles, why not look to fireflies? they aren’t fire and nor are they flies, but to carry on with FBG’s habit of “slapping animals together to see what happens”, you could easily make something with the features of a firefly larvae

or you could take the even more interesting approach of having a grub the size of a cat, for example. hercules beetles have some of the largest larvae and the feast of the rose gave us maggots, so why not have one of these babies but the size of a cat? and glowing? they’re a possible light source that might make you more bizarre or respectable

a close runner up that i wanted to mention was diving beetles and how freaky they can get if they’ve adapted to the zee but the sabretooth longhorn beetle is going to close this segment as an embodiment of a dangerous and respectable companion- it already looks like it’s been carved out of wood! i think a carved polythreme beetle would be incredible

(see also: bombardier beetles, weevils, oil beetles, tiger beetles, harlequin beetles, trilobite beetles, and giraffe weevils!)

moths, and less commonly found underground, butterflies

another love of the victorians: butterflies!

butterflies are basically moths by a different name (there are way more moths than butterflies) and we do have canon dreams where a frostmoth the size of your head appears in your window, and wouldn’t that be useful for hunting in parabola? much like the beetles, there’s a lot of diversity that can be explored especially if we add shapeling arts

white plume moths are also found in the UK and just look at those wings

we can have a usual approach of adding the wings to something else, like a particularly unlucky bat, or just have something bizarre with the moth itself! more eyes? more eyes has been a common theme lately, or you can combine an insect with an arachnid and give it whip scorpion hands

these wings would be one hell of a decoration because white plume moths are considered to be micromoths

on the other end of the spectrum and taking the role of a respectable companion, the white witch moth is considered to be one of the largest insects on earth because of its wingspan! maybe they’re a more risky cousin of the frostmoth, maybe you could turn the markings on these wings into shifting sigils? don’t set your moths on fire

(image by Acrocynus)

white witch moths themselves have a lot of diversity while cup moths are another contender for an animal you could combine with another animal

(image by itchydogimages)

why not add the tail of a squirrel to this one? or a scorpion’s tail? a lion? with enough of these, you could end up with a very striking tawny coat. this thing is the embodiment of being neathproofed. even if they’re opposites of frostmoths and are associated with embers because of it, or if the tail is closer to being a candle!

moths are also good at mimicking in order to defend themselves, which is why you see so many moths and butterflies with eye patterns on their wings. birds hate eyes so much so there’s room for some real eyes on your brand new butterfly or moth companion

but some moths also mimic snakes, so for any fingerking fans out there: behold the atlas moth

this is such a mithridacy companion. can you imagine the t3 version of this where the snake heads are alive? we have a two-headed terror bird, so why not snakes on a moth? there’s even jokes to be made about one head telling truths and another telling lies, maybe the only head that could tell you the difference is the moths!

for butterflies themselves, we have butterflies that drink the tears of alligators and tortoises- so melancholy butterflies that only appear to feed on lacre? (and they might not be butterflies down here, you might’ve already mistaken a day-flying moth for a butterfly, not that the difference matters for much in the neath)

another strong mention is vampire moths if we’re carrying on the theme of insects drinking odd things, but a vampire moth with bat wings could be wonderful at ruining the lives of taxonomists

luna moths are also massive and could be more fitting now that we know who the creditor is, and that whitsun is talking so much about the bazaar and the masters

other lesser-known but interesting insects

we don’t entirely need to cover bees and wasps but it would be nice to have a piece of media showing wasps in a way that doesn’t present them as evil, but wasps could wait until hell is really significant again since wasps and bees are incredibly cool cousins. and thread waisted wasps!

(image by Bev Wigney)

get a load of that! these don’t even have the ability to sting humans, what would a thread waisted wasp-themed spindlewolf look like? how much shadowy with something with these colours give you? imagine the corsets inspired by these things

assassin bugs are another dangerous option considering how good they are at hunting other insects, and the neath wouldn’t be complete without more creatures that burrow underground and can find themselves in this weird cavern

(image by Fir0002)

their forearms are specifically developed to dig! perhaps they can dig through a rival’s belongings, or perhaps you can fashion their claws into brass knuckles or a belt buckle?

(image by faraaz abdool)

another fashionable, lesser-known invert is the velvet worm! we have plenty of slugs in fallen london, but you know what they’re lacking? legs

about 200 species of velvet worms have been described and they’re already quite rare! they all fall under the onychophora name and there isn’t anything else like them. you could easily have some persuasive with this, or if you turn it into a stole that can hold however many hands you want!

(image by docj96)

also, thrips! i found out about these today and apparently you’re likely to hear about them if you’re into gardening. sometimes they have crab claws for forelegs, so hey- more bazaar similarities! they have an interesting method of flight (clapping their wings together) but this might not bee too impactful unless you want a novel way to raise your investigating

flies are also criminally underrated, but i couldn’t tell you how many flies live in fallen london. stalk-eyed flies, however, are gorgeous things that would work so well as t2 companions! you could even go all out with a horsefly taking on attributes of an actual horse

(image by minden pictures)

the stalk eyed fly sees you five minutes before you can see it

there are genuinely so many more that come to mind (even neathy types of mantis- orchid mantids that have adapted to blend in with mushrooms! imagine!) but a good way to finish this off is with a love story

there are centipedes who will guard and hold their young close to them! giant centipedes are protective mothers and you can get hundreds of companions in one- or perhaps just one companion who really misses her hundreds of kids. and they hold their eggs just as carefully whilst waiting for them to hatch!

isn’t that a good love story? there’s a lot you can combine this with, but i’ve spent most of today writing this one! do with these creatures what you will, i definitely enjoyed talking about neathy possibilities for insects!

(bogleech also has a fantastic article on insects that should be used as the basis for pokemon designs, if you want even more out there bugs be sure to look here)

#memento of a post #asks #snippity #whitsun #insects #fallen london #bugs #spiders #im not tagging all of these but ohh my god this was so fun to write about #thank you for the ask!

42 notes · View notes

route22ny · 4 years ago

Link

What My Korean Father Taught Me About Defending Myself in America

Born in 1939 during what would be the last years of the Japanese colonial occupation of Korea, my father, Choung Tai Chee, also called Charles or Chuck or Charlie, came to the United States in 1960. He was flashy, cocky, unafraid, it seemed, of anything. Wherever we were in the world, he seemed at home, right up until near the end of his life, when he was hospitalized after a car accident that left him in a coma. Only in that hospital bed, his head shaved for surgery, did he look out of place to me.

A tae kwon do champion by the age of 18 in Korea, he had begun studying martial arts at age 8, eventually teaching them as a way to put himself through graduate school, first in engineering and then oceanography, in Texas, California, and Rhode Island. He loved the teaching. The rising popularity of martial arts in the 1960s in Hollywood meant he made celebrity friends like Frank Sinatra Jr., Paul Lynde, Sal Mineo, and Peter Fonda, who my father said had fixed him up on a date with his sister, Jane, in the days before Barbarella. A favorite photo from his time in Texas shows him flying through the air, a human horseshoe, each of his bare feet breaking a board held shoulder high on each side by his students.

When I complained about my wet boots during the winters growing up in Maine, he told me stories about running barefoot in the snow in Korea to harden his feet for tae kwon do. His answer to many of my childhood complaints was usually that I had to be tougher, stronger, prepared for any attack or disaster. The lesson his generation took from those they lost to the Korean War was that death was always close, and I know now that he was doing all he could to teach me to protect myself. When I cried at the beach at the water’s edge, afraid of the waves, he threw me in. “No son of mine is going to be afraid of the ocean,” he said. When I first started swimming lessons, he told me I had to be a strong swimmer, in case the boat I was on went down, so I could swim to shore. When he taught me to body-surf, he taught me about how to know the approach of an undertow, and how to survive a riptide. When I lacked a competitive streak, he took to racing me at something I loved—swimming underwater while holding my breath. I was an asthmatic child, but soon, intent on beating him, I could swim 50 yards this way at a time.

For all of that, he was an exceedingly gentle father. He took me snorkeling on his back, when I was five, telling me we were playing at being dolphins. There he taught me the names of the fish along the reef where we lived in Guam. He would praise the highlights in my hair, and laugh, calling me “Apollo.” And as for any pressure regarding my future career, he offered something very rare for a Korean man of his generation. “Be whatever you want to be,” he told me. “Just be the best at it that you can possibly be.”

Only when I was older did I understand the warning about being strong enough to swim to shore in another context, when I learned the boat he and his family had fled in from what was about to become North Korea nearly sank in a storm. In Seoul as a child, he scavenged food for his family with his older brother, coming home with bags of rice found on overturned military supply trucks, while his father went to the farms, collecting gleanings. His attempts to teach me to strip a chicken clean of its meat make a different sense now. I had thought of him as an immigrant without thinking about how the Korean War made him one of the dispossessed, almost a refugee, all before he left Korea.

When I began getting into fights as a child in the U.S., he put me into classes in karate and tae kwon do for these same reasons. He loved me and he wanted me to be strong. I just wasn’t sure how I was supposed to take on a whole country.

We moved to Maine in 1973, when I was six years old. My father had taken us back to Korea after I was born, to work for his father, and then moved us around the Pacific—from Seoul to the islands of Truk, Kawaii, and Guam, in his and my mother’s attempts to set up a fisheries company. Maine was his next experiment, and not coincidentally, my mother’s home state. On my first day of the first grade, in the cafeteria, after a morning spent in what seemed like reasonably friendly classes, my troubles began when I went up to take an empty seat at a table and the blond haired, blue-eyed white boy seated there looked up with some alarm and asked me, “Are you a chink?”

“What’s a chink?” I asked, though I knew it wasn’t a compliment. I had never heard this word before.

“A Chinese person. You look like a chink. Is that why your face is so flat?”

This was also the first day I can remember being insulted about my appearance.

“I am not Chinese,” I said that day, naively. In a few years I would learn I was in fact part Chinese, 41 generations back, but at that moment, I tried to explain to him about how I was half Korean, a nationality and situation he had never heard of before. Half of what? And so this was also the first day I had to explain myself to someone who didn’t care, who had already decided against me.

He was a white boy from America, and he was repeating insults that seem to me to have come from a secret book passed out to white children everywhere in this country, telling them to call someone Asian “Chink,” to walk up to them, muttering “Ching-chong, ching-chong.” To sing a song, “My mother’s Chinese, my father’s Japanese, I’m all mixed up,” pulling their eyes first down and then up and then alternating up and down.

I was struck, watching Minari a few months ago, when the film’s Korean immigrant protagonist, David, is asked by a white boy in Arkansas in the 1980s why his face is so flat. “It’s not,” David says, forcefully—so many of us have this memory of someone saying this to us and responding that way. Why did a boy in Arkansas and a boy in Maine, in their small towns thousands of miles apart, before the internet, each know to make this insult?

When I got home from that first day at school, I asked my mother what the word “Chink” meant, and she flinched and covered her mouth in concern.

“Who said that to you?” she asked, and I told her. I don’t remember the conversation that followed, just the swift look of concern on her face. The sense that something had found us.

I was the only Asian-American student at my school in 1973, and the first many of my classmates had ever met. When my brother joined me at school three years later, he was the second. When my sister arrived, four years after him, she was the third. My mother is white, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed American, born in Maine to a settler family. I have six ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War, but none of them had to fight this. I don’t know how to separate the teasing, harassment, and bullying that marked my 12 years of life there from that first racist welcome. It makes me question whether I really had a “temper” as a child, as I was told, or whether I was merely isolated by racism among racists, afraid and angry?

My father dealt with racism throughout most of his life by acting as if it had never happened—as if admitting it made it more powerful. He knew bullies loved to see their victims react and would tell me to not let what they said upset me. “Why do you care what they think of you?” he would say, and laugh as he clapped me on the shoulder. “They’re all going to work for you someday.”

“Don’t get even, get ahead,” was another of his slogans for me at these times. As if America was a race we were going to win.

Two decades after his death, writing in my diary while on a subway in New York City, I began counting off all of my activities as a child—choir, concert band, swimming, karate and tae kwon do, clarinet, indoor track, downhill and cross country skiing—and I asked myself if my parents were trying to raise Batman. Then I looked down to the insignia on my Batman t-shirt, and I laughed.

These lessons my father gave me—to be the best you can be, to fight off your enemies and defeat them, to swim to safety if the boat sinks, and in general toughen yourself against everything that would harm you—these I had absorbed alongside certain unspoken lessons, taken from observing his life as a Korean immigrant. To have two names, one American, known to the public, and one Korean, known only to a few intimates; to get rid of your accent; and to dress well as a way to keep yourself above suspicion. Did I need to train like a superhero just to be a person in America? Maybe.

But if I thought of superheroes, it was because my father was like one to me, training me to be like him.

One legend I heard about my father when I was growing up is the story of a night he was being held up at gunpoint, while he was unpacking his car. Whoever it was asked him to shut the trunk and turn around and raise his hands in the air. He agreed to, slamming the car trunk down so forcefully, he sank his fingertips into the metal.

By the time he turned around, the would-be stick-up artist was gone.

He would often ask me and my brother to punch him, as hard as we could, in his stomach. He was proud of his abdominal strength—it was like punching a wall. We would shake our hands, howling, and he would laugh and rub our heads. One time he even used it as a gag to stop a bully.

A boy on my street had developed the habit of changing the rules during our games if his team started losing. We had fights over it that could be heard up and down the street, and one day I chased him with a Wiffle bat, him laughing as I ran. My father stepped in the next time he tried to change the rules during a game and prevented it, telling him all games in his yard had to have the same rules at the beginning as the end—you couldn’t change them when you were losing. When the boy got mad, he said, “I bet you want to hit me, you should hit me. You’ll feel better. Hit me right here, in the stomach, as hard as you can.”

The boy hauled off and punched my dad in the stomach. I knew what was coming. The boy went home crying, shaking his hand at the pain. His mom came over and they had a talk. The rule-changing stopped.

I tried teasing my classmates back after being told to by my father. Stand-up as self-defense requires practice, though: During a “Where are you from?” exercise in the second grade, I told my classmates and teacher I had “Made in Korea” stamped on my ass, which elicited shocked laughter and a punishment from my teacher. I remember the glee when I called a classmate an ignoramus, and he didn’t know what it meant—and got angrier and angrier when I wouldn’t tell him, demanding that I explain the insult. When told to go back to where I came from, I said, “You first.”

Increasingly, I just hid, in the library, in books. When given detention, I exulted in the chance to be alone and read. I was an advanced student compared to my classmates, due in part to my mother being a schoolteacher, and I learned to make my intelligence a weapon.

The day several boys held me down on my street and ran their bicycles over my legs, to see if I could take it, as if maybe I wasn’t human, that felt like some new horrible level. I don’t remember how that ended or if I ever told anyone, just the feeling of the bicycle tires rolling over the skin of my legs. The day I bragged about my father being a martial artist to my classmates, they locked me in the bathroom and told me to fight my way out with kung fu, calling me “Hong Kong Phooey,” after the cartoon character, as they held the door shut. This was the fourth grade. After I got out of that bathroom and went home, I told my father about it, and he told me it was time to take tae kwon do. I had to learn to defend myself.

I would never be like him, never break boards like him, but for a while, I tried. I still cherish the day he gave me my first gi and showed me how to tie it. I learned I had a natural flexibility, which meant I could easily kick high, and I took pride in my roundhouse and reverse roundhouse kicks. But after a few years, my father took issue with a story he’d heard about my teacher’s arrogance toward his opponents, and he pulled me out of the classes. “It is very dangerous to teach in that spirit,” he told me. And he said something I would never forget. “The best fighter in tae kwon do never fights,” he said. “He always finds another way.”

I have thought about this for a long time. For the ordinary practitioner, tae kwon do and karate prepare you to go about your life, aware of what to do in case of assault. They offer no guarantee, just chances for preparedness in the face of the violence of others as well as the violence within yourself. At the time I felt my father was describing the responsibility that comes with knowing how to hurt someone, but I came to understand it as a principled if conditional non-violence, which, in this year of quarantine and rising racist violence, is one of the clearest legacies he left to me.

Like many of us, I have been trying to write about these most recent attacks on Asian-Americans, some of them in my old neighborhood in New York, and I keep starting and stopping. How do we protect ourselves and those we love? Can writing do that? I know I learned to use my intelligence as a weapon to keep myself safe from racists, starting as a child, and suddenly it doesn’t feel like enough. The violence is like a puzzle with many moving parts, but the stakes are life and death. “You’re really going to homework your way through this one?” I keep asking myself. The people attacking Asians and Asian Americans now are like the boy I met on my first day in the first grade. They don’t care whether or not we are actually Chinese—the primary experience Asian Americans have in common is mis-identification. The person who gets a patriotic ego boost off of calling me a “chink” isn’t going to check if they’re right about me, and I don’t imagine they’ll stop their fist or their gun if I say, “You’re just doing this because of America’s history of war in Asia,” even though we both know this is true. And so I have been thinking of my father and what he taught me.

The most overt way my father fought racism in front of me involved no fighting at all. He founded a group called the Korean American Friendship Association of Maine, which helped new Korean immigrants move to Maine and find work, community, and housing, along with offering lessons on how to open bank accounts, pay taxes, file immigration paperwork, and get drivers’ licenses. For both of my parents, community organizing, activism, and mutual aid like this were commitments they shared and enjoyed and passed along to us, their children, and this led to much of my own work as an activist, teacher, and writer. I am not my father, but I am much as he made me.

There’s a difference between fighting racists and fighting racism. Where my father stayed silent, I have learned I have to speak out, which has felt, even while writing this, a little like betraying him. And as a biracial gay Korean American man, I don’t experience the same identifications or misidentifications he did. I am mistaken for white, or at least “not Asian,” as often as I’m mistaken for Chinese, and have felt like a secret agent as people speak in front of me about Asians in ways they would not otherwise. I learned most of my adult coping strategies for street violence from queer activist organizations after college.

Even as I write, “I wonder if he ever felt fear living in America,” it feels like a betrayal, especially as he isn’t around for me to ask him. I think again about how my father always made a point of dressing well, for example, but it always felt like more than that. Men wearing suits as a kind of armor, that isn’t so strange. He had his suits made at J. Press, wore handmade English leather shoes—shoes that fit me. I sometimes wear them for special occasions. Among my favorite objects of his is a monogrammed J. Press canvas briefcase, the name “CHEE” in embossed leather between the straps. After his father gave him an Omega Constellation watch when I was born, he eventually acquired others. For a time I thought he did this aspirationally, but most of his family in Korea is like this: Well-dressed, with a preference for tailoring and handmade clothes. All of my memories of my uncles coming from the airport to visit us involve them arriving in their blazers.

The first time I followed my father’s advice to wear a sports jacket when flying, I received a spontaneous upgrade. I didn’t have frequent flyer miles and the person checking me in was not flirting with me either. There was nothing but the moment of grace, and the feeling that my father, from beyond the grave, was making a point as I sat down in my new, larger, more spacious seat. Because I had never tried out this advice while he was alive.

Like much of my father’s advice, it came from his keen awareness of social contexts, and it worked. His wardrobe came from the pleasure of a dare more than a disguise. You don’t acquire a black and gold silk brocade smoking jacket in suburban Maine because you want to fit in with your white neighbors. Sometimes his clothes were a charm offensive, sometimes just a sass. The jacket advice may well have been an anticipation of racist treatment, of a piece with perfecting his English so he had no accent, and raising us to speak only English. My mother spoke more Korean to us as children than he did—a remnant of her time living in Seoul.

Now that I am old enough to choose to learn Korean, I still feel like a child disobeying him, just as I do when I dress too casually, or acknowledge that I’ve experienced racism. I know I am just making different choices, as you do when you are grown, but also, I am stepping out from behind his program to protect myself. I feel the fears he never spoke about, and instead simply addressed with what now look like tactics. At these moments I miss him as much as I ever do, but especially for how I would tell him, this may have protected you. It won’t protect me.

In my kitchen the other day, as I was making coffee, I fell into the ready stance, with my right foot back, left foot forward, and snapped my right leg up and out in a front snap kick. This is the basic first kick you learn in tae kwon do. And you do it again, and again, and again, until it is muscle memory. You move across the room this way and then turn to begin again.

I wasn’t sure if my form was exactly right, but it felt good. Memories came back of the sweaty smell of the practice room, the other students, the mirrors on the walls, the fluorescent lights. All those years ago, I had thought my father had put me in those classes in order to become him, but as I sent my practice kicks through the air, I remembered how even learning them made me feel safer, protected at least by the knowledge that he loved me. I could not have said this at the time, but after those attacks, I had feared I wasn’t strong enough to be his son.

I still fear that. I suppose it drives me, even now. It is dehumanizing to insist on your humanity, even and perhaps especially now, and so I am not doing that here. Each time I’ve tried to write even this, a rage takes over, and then the only thing I want to do with my hands doesn’t involve writing, and I stop. But I know from learning to fight that hitting someone else means using yourself to do it. My father’s advice, about fighting being the last resort, has given me another lesson: You turn yourself into the weapon when you strike someone else—in the end, another way to erase yourself—and so you do that last. In the meantime, you fight that first fight with yourself, for yourself.

You may never be able to protect what you love, but at least you can try. At least you will be ready.

Alexander Chee is most recently the author of the essay collection How to Write an Autobiographical Novel. A novelist and essayist, he teaches at Dartmouth College and lives in Vermont.

#asian-american #anti-asian hate #racism in america #alexander chee #long reads

29 notes · View notes

can-scream · 4 years ago

Text

THE HISTORY OF ONTARIO SCREAMO

1ST WAVE: Ottawacore and Other South Ont. Punx Ruination (1992), Firestorm (1993), Grade (1993), Ignorance Never Settles (1993), Pezz/Billy Talent (1993/1999), Shotmaker (1993), Union of Uranus (1993), Acacia (1994), Drop Forge (1994), Gates of Dawn (1994), Happy Sockmen (c. 1994), Minnow (c. 1994), Pecola (1994), Seer (1994), Shoulder (1994), The Skies Beg to Differ (1994), Watershed (c. 1994), Acrid (1995), Blake (1995), Bree (1995), Choke to Start (1995), Eliot Rosewater (1995), Holocron (1995), Louis Mistreated (1995), New Day Rising (1995), Okara (1995), Smallmouth (1995), Union Young America (c. 1995) 30 Second Motion Picture (1996), Karenza (1996), Left for Dead (1996), Buried Inside (1997), Black Cat #13 (1998), Gaffer (1998), Mach Tiver (c. 1998), Standing 8 (c. 1998), Three Penny Opera (c. 1998) mini-wave: only dorks know these bands Rockets Red Glare (1999), The Newfound Interest In Connecticut (2000), Vincent Black Shadow (2000), Katja (2001), I Spoke (2002), Kill Mannequin (2002), Van Johnson (2002), Plant the Bomb (c. 2003), We, The Accused (2003), Mare (2004), Panserbjørne (c. 2004) 2ND WAVE: Golden Horseshoe Sellout Screamo Moneen (1999), Hung By Hope (2000), Farewell to Freeway (2000), I Hate Sally (2000), Silverstein (2000), Alexisonfire (2001), Boys Night Out (2001), Fucked Up (2001), illScarlett (2001), Protest the Hero (2001), Wheels on the Bus (2001), Attack in Black (2003), Dead and Divine (2003), Incite (2003), Is Grace Enough (2003), The Reason (2003), Cancer Bats (2004), Caught in the Fire (2004), Liferuiner (2004), The Red Carpet Affair (2004), Shotgun Rules (2004), Sydney (2005), To Cherish (2005), Today I Caught the Plague/The Kindred (2006/2013) mini-wave(s): International bands with Ontarian members A Wilhelm Scream (1999/joined 2006), Circle Takes the Square (2000/joined 2007), Gallows (2005/joined 2011), Hit Home (2012), This Place is Actually the Worst (2017), Swallows Nest (2018), Therapy (2018), Votive (2022) 3RD WAVE: Saugacore and Other South Ont. Punx 7ate9 (2005), The Love and Terror Cult (2005), Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (2005), Women In Tragedy (2005), Akroid (c. 2006), Etobicoke Death Squad (2006), Ghost Stories (c. 2006), Life in Vacuum (2006), Strawman Fallacy (2006), The Veil (2006), Burning Love (2007), Counterparts (2007), Dance Electric (2007), Gunnar Rapido (2007), Japanese Beaver Are Canadian (2007), Peace Be Still (2007), Soft Floors (2007), Syntaqst Error (2007), TONNN (2007), Whiskey Priest (2007), August (c. 2008), Lifestory:Monologue (2008), Ride at Dawn (2008), Ruzan Orkestar (2008), Single Mothers (2008), Vilipend (2008) 4TH WAVE: (Almost) Everyone Moves to Toronto Abstractionist (2009), Alaskan (2009), Ancestors (2009), !ATTENTION! (2009), Beat Noir (2009), Black Faxes (2009), Bottomfeeder (2009), CREEPER (2009), Cunter (2009), Like Animals (2009), Lost Cities (2009), Mighty Atom (2009), Purity Control (2009), The Smile/Authors (2009), TITAN (2009), Animal Faces (2010), Bandera (2010), Column of Heaven (2010), Currents (2010), Delo Truda (2010), Elos Arma/Breakfast (2010/2014), Exalt (2010), French Friar (2010), Greber (2010), Hellraiser (2010), Infernal Arms (2010), Masters of Finance (2010), Never Trust a Wizard (2010), Ramon Gris/The Year It Broke (2010), Sparrows (2010), We’re Doomed (2010), Arkham Awaits (2011), Bike Thiefs (2011), Camper (2011), Homage (2011), Hotknives (2011), HRS LVR/horselover (2011), Greys (2011), Gunt (2011), LND MMML/landmammal (2011), Shahman (2011), Sleepless/STRAYS (2011/2014), Thee Dull Sound Of Sharp Math When You Are Alive (2011), Town Ship (2011), Vices (2011), Araby (2012), Civil (2012), Ensign Bright (2012), Foxmoulder (2012), Heart & Home (2012), Holmolka (2012), John Smith (2012), LUNG (2012), Minors (2012), New Armour (2012), Pretty Mouth (2012), Pretty Odd (c. 2012), Quone (2012), Roughhouse (2012), Rising Crust (2012), Sarin (2012), Sartre (2012), Sketchbooks (2012), The Sustained Low 'C' of Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (2012), Tell-Tale Hearts (2012), Wolfs (2012)

mini-wave: originally from Alberta Brain Fever/La Luna (2009/2015)

5TH WAVE: The Fusion Era: Metallic and Mathy

Bird Death (2013), Blackbelt (2013), Black Baron (2013), Brauer (2013), Burial Permit (2013), Burn Victim (2013), Congratulations (2013), Dark Plains (2013), Fayereagan (2013), Fossil (2013), Good People (2013), Huge Cosmic (2013), ISM (2013), King Pin (2013), Le Vertige (2013), Mass (2013), Oracle Bones (c. 2013), Respire (2013), Two Crosses (2013), VENNS (2013), 4515 ED (2014), The 49th Parallel (2014), Coke Jaw (2014), DEAD TIRED (2014), Dervish (2014), Downstream (2014), Dry Heave (2014), Gold Finch (2014), Hiera (2014), Homestyle Cooking (2014), HX KY (2014), Raymond Luxury Yacht (2014), Robot (2014), Romancer (2014), Rosewater (2014), Shimmer (2014), shoelace (2014), Somersaulter (2014), Terry Green (2014), Triage (2014), Wimp City (2014), Woodlouse (2014), Big Evil (2015), Cedar (2015), Deathsticks (2015), Die Hexe (2015), Growing Fins (2015), Humanities (2015), KIKEN (2015), Nanette (2015), Pilcrow (2015), Salem Witches (2015), Spirit Desire (2015), Terrorista (2015), Vile Creature (2015), Witches From Everywhere (2015), The World That Summer (2015), And Always (2016), Fraera (2016), Husbands (2016), LILIM (2016), Not Down (2016), Pocket Child (2016), Quiet Earth (2016), Specifics (2016), STRESSER (2016), WLMRT (2016), Autumn’s Blind Embrace (2017), Digest (2017), iburiedyourflowers (2017), Life Post-Mortem (2017), Please Don’t Crash (2017), Loose Teeth (2017), Roach Lord (2017), Ultra Love (2017)

mini-wave: long-distance projects Never Better (2017), Notion of Distance (2020), sawara (2020), Sometimes Friends Fight (2020), Tired and Trustless (2020), de facto enscripture (2021), Felony For Existing (2022), Bitter Pill (2023)

6TH WAVE: The Plague Era Burial Etiquette (2018), Burner (2018), Elmer Flood (2018), Gouge Out (2018), Karloff (2018), Mile End (2018), Old Ceremonies (2018), Piper Maru (2018), Stay Down (2018), Tower of Silence (2018), AGGRO FACTS (2019), Losers (2019), Sea Noto (2019), WITCHXHAT (2019), you do not belong here (2019), Adam in the Bayou (2020), Agent Mulder (2020), GhidoraH (2020), meandthebirds (2020), Jenafur (2021), jouissance (2021), Kuklinkski (2021), The New Flesh (2021), Treehouse of Horror (2021), Youth in Pain (2021), All My Cousins from Sacramento (2022), Basque (2022), boxcutter (2022), Constrain (2022), Influx (2022), LINENS (2022), Losing Team (2022), Super Kill Me Now (2022), Wedge (2022), BE STILL (2023), Byentwined (2023), Cease (2023), flowersfightforsunshine (2023), FOXCULT (2023), Girldinner (2023), GUTMACHINE (2023), Koroshi (2023), lowheaven (2023), Mauling (2023), Slewfoot (2023), Sundowner (2023), Wolf Fang Fist (2023), Ceiling Fan (2024), Farron Keep (2024), KAVORCA (2024), Keening (2024), midnightcowboy. (2024), thereisapolicemaninsideallourheads&hemustbedestroyed (2024), TinkleTinkleHoy! (2024), Underwater Basket Weaving (2024), We could go on tour (2024)

I’m aware I’m being very liberal with the screamo classification, but I think it’s more important to highlight bands that were relevant to the scene(s) rather than not. If you’re a purist who thinks Billy Talent and Alexisonfire don’t have anything to do with screamo, then you’re probably not from here. If anything there are even more bands that I feel could be added that had an impact musically but never had anything close to screamed vocals such as 2 Line Filler (1991), Slow Loris (1993), Venus Cures All (c. 1995), Sinclaire (1997), The Fully Down (1999), The Fullblast (2000), Slow Parker (c. 2001), DD/MM/YYYY (2003) and Siberia (2007), though I guess this paragraph was a workaround!

Last updated Nov 4, 2024

4 notes · View notes

xidnaf · 7 years ago

Text

the signs as animals

arist: south african cheetah

aries: american black bear

argo: kordofan giraffe

arga: griffon vulture

arittanius: wildebeest

arittarius: yak

arpio: bowhead whale

arpia: african elephant

arlo: horse

aro: barn owl

ara: tiger

arza: white rhinoceros

aricorn: spider monkey

ariborn: ring-tailed lemur

arnius: tabby cat

arius: megabat

asci: rock dove

asces: pied crow

armino: lion

armini: eurasian wolf

arcer: gerbil

arcen: newt

arus: bush-tailed porcupine

arun: philippine forest rat

taurrist: asiatic cheetah

taurries: asian black bear

taurgo: nubian giraffe

taurga: cinereous vulture

taurittanius: roan

taurittarius: southern marsupial mole

taurpio: right whale

taurpia: asian elephant

taurlo: sea eagle

tauro: grass owl

taurra: sheep

taurza: sumatran rhinoceros

tauricorn: vervet monkey

tauriborn: aye-aye

taurnius: jungle cat

taurrius: flying fox

taursci: trocaz pigeon

taursces: american crow

taurmino: kit fox

taurmini: tundra wolf

taurcer: guinea pig

taurcen: seal

taurus: crested porcupine

taurun: nile rat

gemrist: north american cougar

gemries: atlas bear

gemgo: west african giraffe

gemga: white-rumped vulture

gemittanius: waterbuck

gemittarius: northern marsupial mole

gempio: blue whale

gempia: blue-ringed octopus

gemlo: snake-eagle

gemo: sooty owl

gemra: argali

gemza: black rhinoceros

gemicorn: proboscis monkey

gemiborn: sifaka

gemnius: european wildcat

gemrius: egyptian fruit bat

gemsci: laurel pigeon

gemsces: cape crow

gemmino: red fox

gemini: arabian wolf

gemcer: dove

gemcen: house mouse

gemus: long-tailed porcupine

gemun: moluccan prehensile-tailed rat

canrist: florida panther

canries: blue bear

cango: reticulated giraffe

canga: black vulture

canittanius: eland

canittarius: golden mole

canpio: bryde’s whale

canpia: dumbo octopus

canlo: black-chested buzzard-eagle

cano: itombwe owl

canra: mouflon

canza: indian rhinoceros

canicorn: pygmy marmoset

caniborn: mouse lemur

canius: black-footed cat

canrius: california leaf-nosed bat

cansci: hill pigeon

cansces: hooded crow

canmino: cape fox

canmini: steppe wolf

cancer: humming bird

cancen: mayor’s moue

canus: bristle-spined rat

canun: bulldog rat

lerist: african leopard

leries: eurasian brown bear

lego: angolan giraffe

lega: turkey vulture

leittanius: gerenuk

leittarius: eurasian beaver

lepio: fin whale

lepia: mimic octopus

lelo: black solitary eagle

leo: bay owl

lera: urial

leza: nile hippopotamus

leicorn: rhesus macaque

leiborn: cockatiel

lenius: sand cat

lerius: hondurian white bat

lesci: snow pigeon

lesces: somali crow

lemino: arctic fox

lemini: mongolian wolf

lecer: flying squirrel

lecen: sikkim mouse

leus: prehensile-tailed porcupine

leun: kerala rat

virrist: javan leopard

virries: eurasian brown bear

virgo: south african giraffe

virga: california condor

virittanius: steenbok

virittarius: north american beaver

virpio: see whale

virpia: blanket octopus

virlo: crested eagle

viro: scops owl

virra: bighorn sheep

virza: east african hippopotamus

viricorn: gibbon

viriborn: parrotlet

virnius: chinese mountain cat

virrius: big brown cat

virsci: specled pigeon

virsces: flores crow

virmino: fennec fox

virmini: dingo

vircer: unstriped ground squirrel

vircen: volcano mouse

virus: electric eel

virun: himilayan field rat

librist: northern goshawk

libries: grizzly bear

libgo: masai giraffe

libga: greater flamingo

libittanius: nyala

libittarius: star-nosed mole

lipio: chilean dolphin

lipia: coconut octopus

liblo: harpy eagle

libo: screech owl

libra: thinhorn sheep

libza: cape hippopotamus

libicorn: bornean orangutan

libiborn: caique

libnius: amazon weasel

librius: dwarf epaulettes fruit bat

libsci: wood pigeon

libsces: bismark crow

limino: grey fox

limini: dog

libcer: indian palm squirrel

libcen: indian field mouse

libus: hog-nosed skunk

libun: sunburned rat

scorrist: gray-bellied hawk

scorries: east siberian brown bear

scorgo: thornicroft’s giraffe

scorga: lesser flamingo

scorittanius: klipspringer

scorittarius: hairy-tailed mole

scorpio: arabian dolphin

scorpia: giant squid

scorlo: papuan eagle

scoro: snowy owl

scorra: snow sheep

scorza: west african hippopotamus

scoricorn: sumatran orangutan

scoriborn: lorikeet

scornius: mountain weasel

scorrius: split-nosed bat

scorsci: comoros olive pigeon

scorsces: white-necked crow

scormino: swift fox

scormini: tibetan wolf

scorcer: eastern grey squirrel

scorcen: ryukyu mouse

scorus: hooded skunk

scorun: aceh rat

sagirist: red-chested goshawk

sagiries: syrian brown bear

sagigo: pig

sagiga: chilean flamingo

sagiittanius: kudu

sagiittarius: eastern mole

sagipio: long-beaked dolphin

sagipia: colossal squid

sagilo: balck eagle

sagio: great horned owl

sagira: red kangaroo

sagiza: angola hippopotamus

sagiicorn: tapanuli orangutan

sagiiborn: parakeet

saginius: steppe polecat

sagirius: brown long-eared bat

sagisci: white-naped pigeon

sagisces: jungle crow

sagimino: plains bison

sagimini: japanese wolf

sagicer: colorado chipmunk

sagicen: cook’s mouse

sagius: striped skunk

sagiun: snake

capririst: besra

capriries: giant panda

caprigo: chicken

capriga: jame’s flamingo

capriittanius: lechwe

capriittarius: gansu mole

capripio: killer whale

capripia: humboldt squid

caprilo: spotted eagle

caprio: eagle owl

caprira: eastern grey kangaroo

capriza: north american ostrich

capriicorn: eastern gorilla

capriiborn: pianos parrot

caprinius: long-tailed weasel

capririus: mediterranean horseshoe bat

caprisci: stork

caprisces: fish crow

caprimino: wood bison

caprimini: indian wolf

capricer: grey-collard chipmun

capricen: cypriot mouse

caprius: spotted skunk

capriun: spider

aquarist: long-tailed hawk

aquaries: sloth bear

aquago: red junglefowl

aquaga: andean flamingo

aquittanius: springbok

aquittarius: long-tailed mole

aquapio: pilot whale

aquapia: japanese flying squid

aqualo: tawny eagle

aquo: fish owl

aquara: western grey kangaroo

aquaza: masai ostrich

aquicorn: western gorilla

aquiborn: cockatoo

aquanius: yellow-bellied weasel

aquarius: raccoon

aquasci: goose

aquasces: house crow

aquamino: european bison

aquamini: arctic wolf

aquacer: gray-footed chipmunk

aquacen: steppe mouse

aqus: fattail scorpion

aqun: alligator

pirist: chanting goshawk

piries: polar bear

pigo: cow

piga: american flamingo

piittanius: sable antelope

piittarius: japanese shrew mole

pipio: houglass dolphin

pipia: vampire squid

pilo: camel

pio: spotted wood owl

pira: antilopine kangaroo

piza: arabian ostrich

piicorn: chimpanzee

piiborn: conure

pinius: european mink

pirius: koalas

pisci: duck

pisces: palm crow

pimino: water buffalo

pimini: baffin island wolf

picer: uinta chipmunk

picen: meerkat

pius: pandinus

piun: crocodile

#homestuck #zodiac #extended zodiac #the signs as #long post #originality is overrated #i spent way way way way too long on this thing

671 notes · View notes

orbemnews · 4 years ago

Link

The Wildest Animal Information From 2020 It was a tough 12 months for Homo sapiens. The coronavirus pandemic highlighted our vulnerabilities in a pure world that’s consistently altering. Many have been pushed to seek out new ranges of resolve and creativity to outlive. Whereas people quarantined, birds, bugs, fish and mammals put their very own ingenuity on show. The 12 months 2020 was when homicide hornets appeared in the US, scientists launched us to an octopus as cute because the emoji and researchers found that platypuses glow beneath a black gentle. What follows are some articles about animals — and the people who research them — that shocked or delighted readers of The Instances essentially the most. The longest 12 months, the longest animal In some ways, 2020 has felt just like the longest 12 months. It’s additionally the 12 months scientists found doubtlessly the longest creature within the ocean: a 150-foot-long siphonophore, noticed within the deep ocean off Western Australia. “It seemed like an unimaginable U.F.O.,” stated Dr. Nerida Wilson, a senior analysis scientist on the Western Australian Museum. Every siphonophore is a colony of particular person zooids, clusters of cells that clone themselves hundreds of instances to provide an prolonged, stringlike physique. Whereas a few of her colleagues in contrast the siphonophore to foolish string, Dr. Wilson stated the organism is way more organized than that. With the world on pause, salamanders personal the street This 12 months, amphibian migrations within the northeastern United States coincided with the coronavirus pandemic. Social distancing and shelter-in-place orders brought on vehicular visitors to say no, which turned this spring into an unintended, large-scale experiment. “It’s not too typically that we get this chance to discover the true impacts that human exercise can have on road-crossing amphibians,” stated Greg LeClair, a graduate herpetology scholar on the College of Maine who coordinates a venture to assist salamanders safely traverse roadways. He was a stick, she was a leaf; collectively they made historical past It was a century-old leaf insect thriller: What occurred to the Nanophyllium feminine? Within the spring of 2018 on the Montreal Insectarium, Stéphane Le Tirant acquired a clutch of 13 eggs that he hoped would hatch into leaves. The eggs weren’t ovals however prisms, brown paper lanterns scarcely larger than chia seeds. They have been laid by a wild-caught feminine Phyllium asekiense, a leaf insect from Papua New Guinea belonging to a bunch referred to as frondosum, which was identified solely from feminine specimens. After the eggs hatched, two grew slender and sticklike and even sprouted a pair of wings. They bore a curious resemblance to leaf bugs in Nanophyllium, a wholly completely different genus whose six species had been described solely from male specimens. The conclusion was apparent: The 2 species actually have been one and the identical, and got a brand new title, Nanophyllium asekiense. “Since 1906, we’ve solely ever discovered males,” Royce Cumming, a graduate scholar on the Metropolis College of New York, stated. “And now we’ve got our last, stable proof.” An octopus as cute because the emoji What lies off Australia’s Nice Barrier Reef, within the Coral Sea? The area was largely unexplored and uncharted till a latest expedition searched its darkish waters, uncovering an abundance of life, bizarre geologic options and spectacular deep corals. An expedition organized by the Schmidt Ocean Institute mapped the distant seabed with beams of sound and deployed tethered and autonomous robots to seize close-up photos of the inky depths. Their work captured video of the dumbo octopus — which bears a placing resemblance to the octopus emoji — and the area’s thriving inhabitants of chambered nautili. The group additionally discovered the deepest dwelling exhausting corals in japanese Australian waters and recognized as many as 10 new species of fish, snails and sponges. Time to hibernate like a hummingbird The vitality required to remain afloat in 2020 could really feel much like that utilized by the hummingbird. The flitting creatures famously have the quickest metabolisms amongst vertebrates, and to gasoline their zippy way of life, they generally drink their very own physique weight in nectar every day. To protect their vitality, hummingbirds within the Andes Mountains in South America have been discovered to enter exceptionally deep torpor, a physiological state much like hibernation by which their physique temperature falls by as a lot as 50 levels Fahrenheit. Because the 12 months ends, it could be a possibility for us to study from these little birds and take it sluggish. Glowing up just like the platypus When final we checked on the platypus, it was confounding our expectations of mammals with its webbed ft, duck-like invoice and laying of eggs. Greater than that, it was producing venom. Now it seems that even its drab-seeming coat has been hiding a secret: Once you activate the black lights, it begins to glow. Shining an ultraviolet gentle on a platypus makes the animal’s fur fluoresce with a greenish-blue tint. Platypuses are one of many few mammals identified to exhibit this trait. And we’re nonetheless at midnight about why they do it — if there’s a purpose in any respect. Scientists are additionally discovering that they will not be alone amongst secret glowing mammals. Bats, the probably authentic supply of the coronavirus A world group of scientists, together with a distinguished researcher on the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, analyzed all identified coronaviruses in Chinese language bats and used genetic evaluation to hint the probably origin of the novel coronavirus to horseshoe bats. The researchers, largely Chinese language and American, performed an exhaustive seek for and evaluation of coronaviruses in bats, with a watch to figuring out sizzling spots for potential spillovers of those viruses into people, and ensuing illness outbreaks. The genetic proof that the virus originated in bats was already overwhelming. Horseshoe bats, particularly, have been thought-about probably hosts as a result of different spillover illnesses, just like the SARS outbreak in 2003, got here from viruses that originated in these bats. Not one of the bat viruses are shut sufficient to the novel coronavirus to recommend that it made a direct soar from bats to people. The quick progenitor of the brand new virus has not been discovered, and will have been current in bats or one other animal. Kenya has its worst locust outbreak in 70 years “It was like an umbrella had coated the sky,” stated Joseph Katone Leparole, who has lived in Wamba, Kenya, a pastoralist hamlet, for many of his 68 years. A swarm of fast-moving desert locusts lower a path of devastation by means of Kenya in June. The sheer dimension of the swarm shocked the villagers. They’d thought initially it was a cloud full of cooling rain. The extremely cellular creatures can journey over 80 miles a day. Their swarms, which might include as many as 80 million locust adults in every sq. kilometer, eat the identical quantity of meals each day as about 35,000 folks. Whereas spraying chemical substances might be efficient in controlling the pests, locals are apprehensive the chemical substances will taint the water provide used for each ingesting and washing, in addition to for watering crops. Local weather change is predicted to make locust outbreaks extra frequent and extra extreme. Tens of millions of mink slaughtered to curb coronavirus unfold The Danish authorities slaughtered hundreds of thousands of mink at greater than 1,000 farms earlier this 12 months, citing considerations {that a} mutation within the novel coronavirus that has contaminated the mink might presumably intervene with the effectiveness of a vaccine for people. Scientists say that there are causes past this specific mutated virus for Denmark to behave. Mink farms have been proven to be hotbeds for the coronavirus, and mink are able to transmitting the virus to people. They’re the one animal identified thus far to take action. This set of mutations will not be dangerous to people, however the virus will probably proceed to mutate in mink because it does in folks, and the crowded situations of mink farms might put evolutionary pressures on the virus completely different from these within the human inhabitants. The virus might additionally soar from mink to different animals. Homicide hornets are right here to your honeybees The arrival of “homicide hornets” in the US actually managed to attract the world’s consideration this spring. The Asian large hornet is understood for its skill to wipe out a honeybee hive in a matter of hours, decapitating the bees and flying away with the victims’ thoraxes to feed their younger. For bigger targets, the hornet’s potent venom and stinger — lengthy sufficient to puncture a beekeeping go well with — make for an excruciating mixture that victims have likened to sizzling metallic driving into their pores and skin. This fall, after a number of sightings throughout the Pacific Northwest, officers in Washington State reported they’d found and eradicated the primary identified homicide hornet nest within the nation. The nest of aggressive hornets was eliminated simply as they have been about to enter their “slaughter part.” Even when there are not any different hornets discovered within the space sooner or later, officers will proceed to make use of traps for at the least three extra years to make sure that the realm is freed from the hornets. Supply hyperlink #Animal #news #Wildest

0 notes

akhylsthebat · 4 years ago

Text

A Big Day for Bat Facts!

Today is a Big Day for Bat Facts! Why, you might ask? Today, I have officially reviewed 100 bats! I started this small project a year ago, and never did I think it would become something like this. I hope you all have enjoyed what I do so far, as there is more stuff in store! Below is a list of all bats that I have reviewed, in case you are curious! Here’s to 100 more <3 ~ Akhyls ~ Common Vampire Bat (TBT done) Pallid Bat (TBT done) Seminole Bat (TBT done) Hoary Bat (TBT done) The Painted Bat (TBT done) Desert Long-Eared Bat (TBT done) Spotted Bat (TBT Done) Little Brown Bat (TBT Done) Honduran White Bat (TBT Done, 5 parts) Ghost Bat (TBT Done) Northern Ghost Bat (TBT Done) Pied Bat (TBT Done) African Straw-Colored Fruit Bat Rodrigues Fruit Bat Lesser Short-Nosed Fruit Bat Egyptian Fruit Bat Grey-Headed Flying Fox Big Brown Bat Tri-Colored Bat Eastern Red Bat Eastern Small-Footed Bat Evening Bat Gray Bat Indiana Bat Mexican Free-Tailed Bat Virginia Big-Eared Bat Northern Long-Eared Bat Northern Yellow Bat Rafinesque’s Big-Eared Bat Silver-Haired Bat Southeastern Bat Greater False Vampire Bat Lesser False Vampire Bat Hardwicke’s Wooly Bat White Throated Round Eared Bat Pygmy Round-Eared Bat Niceforo’s Big Eared Bat Southern Yellow-Eared Bat Dark Fruit-Eating Bat Great Stripe-Faced Bat Great Roundlead Bat Dusky Leaf-Nosed Bat East Coast Free-Tailed Bat Chocolate Wattled Bat Arnhem Land Long-Eared Bat Bare-Rumped Sheathtail Bat Greater Long-Eared Bat Abo Bat Christie’s Big-Eared Bat Banana Bat Chapin’s Free-Tailed Bat Van Gelder’s Bat Parti-colored Bat Lesser Bamboo Bat Black-Bearded Tomb Bat Little Bent-Wing Bat Black Flying Fox Diadem Leaf-Nosed Bat Eastern False Pipistrelle Eastern Free-Tail Bat Gould’s Wattled Bat Inland Broad-Nosed Bat Hill’s Sheathtail Bat Large-Eared Horseshoe Bat Large Forest Bat Little Forest Bat Northern Blossom Bat Northern Broad-Nosed Bat Orange Leaf-nosed Bat Semon’s Leaf-nosed Bat Southern Forest Bat Eastern Broad-nosed Bat White-striped Freetail Bat Yellow-Bellied Sheathtail Bat Common Bent-wing Bat Common Sheathtail Bat Coastal Sheathtail Bat Brazilian Brown Bat Argentine Brown Bat Northern Bat (Common) Serotine Bat Japanese House Bat Azores Noctule Bat Greater Noctule Bat Common Noctule Fish-Eating Bat Large-footed Myotis Alcathoe Bat Whiskered Bat Bechstein’s Bat Lesser Mouse-Eared Bat California Myotis Long-Fingered Bat Cryptic Myotis Pond Bat Daubenton’s Bat Geoffroy’s Bat Hodgson’s Bat Hairy-Legged Myotis Keen’s Myotis

#batfacts #bats #bat #akhyls #education

0 notes

alexiebashly · 5 years ago

Photo

#56: Come At Me ♥

Credits: GENUS Project - Genus Head - Classic Face Pepe Skins - Pisces V2 @ Skin Fair Xuxu. Minnie Eyes .random.Matter. - Eura Ears DAZED. Horseshoe Septum -MUSU- Bandaids Upper Face Insomnia Angel . Japanese face mask Demon Doll - Combat Outfit @ Equal 10 {Sakura} Baseball Bat - Nails DAPPA - Bella Tattoo. @ Equal 10

0 notes

imagineshowbyrock · 8 years ago

Note

ChanBand: Part 1 (Confirmed Members) Sulawesi Fruit Bat - Leilah "Screech" - F - w/ Aion - Guitar/Lead Vocals - Sweet Mango Japanese Bobtail - Koneko - F - w/ Rom - Drums/Backup Vocals - Koi Pond Drums

ChanBand: Part 2 (Bandmate Ideas) Possible: Oriental Giant Squirrel - Laila - F - w/ Crow - Bass/Backup Vocals - Bass of the Desert Sands Hooded Skunk - Melaniya - F - w/ Demon Bat - Key/Backup Vocals - Prickly Pear Key

Standard Poodle - Gemma - F - w/ Shimiswans - Piano/Backup Vocals - Amour Piano Northern Tamandua - Hilda - F - w/ Deyan - Guitar/Backup Vocals - Antocolypse

American Marten - Edana - F - w/ Gengen - Keytar/Backup Vocals - Yellowbelly Pine Eastern Gray Kangaroo - Valentina - F - w/Argon - Didgeridoo/Backup Vocals - Great Gray

Reindeer/Caribou - Melantha - F - w/ Titan - Sleigh Bells - Frosty Mountain Bells Tampuli Llama - Harsha - F - w/ Hideniro - Mandolin - Cliffside String Hinny - Silva - F - w/ Kintaurus - Fiddle - Horseshoe Print

sorry to bombard your inbox like that but i couldnt fit it all in one ask

YAS QUEEN THIS IS GREAT STUFF

2 notes · View notes

blue-scorpion-king · 6 years ago

Video

youtube

A song like this, about death and wandering through life, feeling empty, is here today because me thinking that, if an trailer of the possible game, not an anime/cartoon/movie, of BLU Purge Trooper Petra Ral, and her fireteam, came to be, the trailer's song would be Metallica's 'Fade to Black'. Like the first trailer of the first Gears of War game, back in 2005/2006, it will have an solemn feel and be an call back where an sad song was used in the trailers for an war shooter game series like Gears.

The hypothetical idea of this 'Burzum Fireteam' trailer is simply Petra Ral and her four comrades-in-arms fighting, and struggling, against an whole battalion worth of Britannian troopers, that are as big as the five Purge Troopers, robot animals, Britannian White Magic (Banned in BLU lands, alongside black magic), and Britannian inner aura usage, while protecting their supply of EMP bombs and explosive bombs, in an cramped village within the Amazon rainforest. Also, the lives of Petra Ral and her fireteam mates flashes before their eyes a couple times each in the 7 minute long, no voice acting having cinematic trailer. In an ironic way though, even with injuries, none of the five Troopers of this Burzum fireteam dies, neither in their possible story.

And to clarify: The song, 'One', would be an good choice for this trailer idea. But, the trailer would not end with all limbs being blown off and that it already has been used in media enough, like the trailer for Marvel/Netflix’s ‘The Punisher‘. It would be too easy to use that song in an trailer for a Bagklock Universe-set war shooter game.

And the BLU Purge Troopers are the giant, fully encased armored, Warhammer Space Marine inspired soldiers of BLU military, one of 14 branches, which their heights range from 20 to 30 feet tall, and have 2 implanted, cyclops-like eyes on their foreheads, one out of 22 implants, fusing the brain's 2 halves together. They wield giant versions of V4 chainhander melee weapons, or other melee weapons like heated jackhammer spears, normal Purge-fitted melee weapons, magical weaponry, heated brass knuckles/piston heated brass knuckles, and militarized Nerf, Super Soaker, & Buzz Bee firearms. -The BLU Factional Empire is the imperial socialist empire, with elements of democracy, that rules 70% of the front of Bagklock Earth, which Empress Satsuki Kiryuuin The 1st, who is an Japanese/Russian, 443 meter tall, six-way 'chimera', is the ruler.

-I would prefer 'Burzum Fireteam' to be an non-linear beat'em them up/hack-&-slash/first & third person shooter mixture of a game, where it can switch between first person and third person at any time, real time cut-scenes, cel-shaded models, and an Adult rating, above Mature, fitting as it is in the X-rated crossover Bagklock Universe.- -Chosen game machines: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo-

-Possible story for this game idea about Petra and her Burzum fireteam on Thursday, Hephavenge 26th, 2046, three days after ‘The Day of the Iron Claws’/‘In die cum Lingulis Ferreis Excarnificatur’, Britannia’s sneak assault on many lands ruled by BLU [X]:

-Operation: ‘Horseshoe’- During the walkabout after the drop 100 miles away from their first targeted location, that is near the Negro river, Amazonas state, Brazil, a part of ‘Area 6’, being the whole of South America, that contains the Amazon rainforest, in one of Britannia’s 10 remaining 'Areas’, right in enemy territory. And in the beginning of monsoon season, while other parts of Bagklock Earth experiences the beginning of butip/dryness and metal flake season. Their goal was to sneakingly plant 100 EMP bombs, and 100 tons of explosives, and plant 5 clusters on an Britannian place of importance each; An Sakuradite/mecha factory in near the Negro river, an highly influenctial Britannian duke’s mansion in the center of Manuas, Brazil’s capital, Academy, an (not abandoned, but full) private academy 50 miles west from Manuas, underground to an hidden Britannian base & mine, under the point between the Amazon river and an branch of it going south, and the whole Britannian city of Gloveria in the border between the states of Amazonas and Rondonia, which has the objective of killing off one of the many Britannian princes, and princesses, 1st Prince Odysseus & 1st Princess Guinvere, added in. That is, until an plasma energy mortar strike from afar immediately kills off much of the #05 Hierophant Platoon, expect for Petra Ral and her four fireteam comrades, and First Lieutenant Levi Ackerman, who stayed beyond to give intel. Now, in an stupid and bold move, this BLU Burzum fireteam, of the #05 Hierophant Platoon, sets out to complete the operation. Only 5 Purge Troopers, not 39 in total, to go and do this possible suicide mission by themselves. Even with back up that will drop down and running into rebellion guerilla groups.

~The Bat~

Disclaimer: This song nor video belongs to me. It is that simple.

0 notes