#Robert Fisk

[deadpresidents]

You used to list the books you've been reading every few weeks but I haven't seen a post like that in a minute. Anything good that you've been reading?

It has been a long time since I last posted one of those lists of recent reads -- probably about six months, so I'm not going to list everything I've read since then. And I don't remember exactly what I included last time, so hopefully I don't double-dip.

•Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician [2024] by James M. Bradley (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) If you want to make me happy, just publish a new book about one of America's more obscure Presidents. And in December 2024, we got a new biography of Martin Van Buren with fresh research from sources not previously available to earlier biographers, resulting in an updated, comprehensive book about Van Buren that now becomes one of the definitive biographies of our eighth President.

•Lincoln vs. Davis: The War of the Presidents [2024] by Nigel Hamilton (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) I'm also an easy mark for books about Jefferson Davis -- not out of any sort of affinity for him or the Confederacy, of course -- but just because of his unique place in history as an American President who also wasn't really an American President (although, technically, he was.) Throw Lincoln into the mix and you don't have to sell me very hard on this book.

•Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East [2024] by Robert Fisk (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO) I wish Fisk had lived to write about the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it doesn't require much imagination to know what he would have thought about it: he wrote honestly, critically, and with deep understanding about the subject for 40+ years while reporting from the heart of the struggle in the Middle East.

•The Garfield Orbit [1978] by Margaret Leech and Harry J. Brown (BOOK)

•The World and Richard Nixon [1987] by C.L. Sulzberger (BOOK)

•John Lewis: A Life [2024] by David Greenberg [2024] (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

•Land Between the Rivers: A 5,000-Year History of Iraq [2024] by Bartle Bull (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

•The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare On How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall [2023] by Eliot A. Cohen (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

•A Very Personal Presidency: Lyndon Johnson in the White House [1968] by Hugh Sidey (BOOK)

•The Jesuit Disruptor: A Personal Portrait of Pope Francis [2024] by Michael W. Higgins (BOOK | KINDLE)

•The President: A Minute-by-Minute Account of a Week in the Life of Gerald Ford [1975] by John Hersey (BOOK | KINDLE)

•The Lone Star: The Life of John Connally [1989] by James Reston Jr. (BOOK)

•The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky [2024] by Simon Shuster (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

•Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great [2024] by Rachel Kousser (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

•American Gothic: The Story of America's Legendary Theatrical Family -- Junius, Edwin, and John Wilkes Booth [1992] by Gene Smith (BOOK | KINDLE)

•Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire [2002] by Tom Chaffin (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

•A Brief History of the World in 47 Borders: Surprising Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps [2024] by Jonn Elledge (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

•Eisenhower For Our Time [2024] by Steven Wagner (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

•The Ends of the Earth: A Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy [1996] by Robert D. Kaplan (BOOK | KINDLE)

•The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat [1983] by Ryszard Kapuściński [Translated by William R. Brand & Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand] (BOOK)

•A Heartbeat Away: The Investigation and Resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew [1974] by Richard M. Cohen and Jules Witcover (BOOK)

•American Roulette: The History and Dilemma of the Vice Presidency [Revised & Updated, 1972] by Donald Young (BOOK)

•Centers of Power in the Arab Gulf States [2024] by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen (BOOK | KINDLE)

•The Formation of the UAE: State-Building and Arab Nationalism in the Middle East [2024] by Kristi Barnwell (BOOK | KINDLE)

•Iranian-Saudi Rivalry Since 1979: In the Words of Kings and Clerics [2023] by Talal Mohammad (BOOK | KINDLE)

•The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned [2024] by John Strausbaugh (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

[drsonnet]

Bosnia War Crimes:

Bosnia War Crimes: 'The rapes went on day and night': Robert Fisk, in Mostar, gathers detailed evidence of the systematic sexual assaults on Muslim women by Serbian 'White Eagle' gunmen

Robert Fisk

Monday 08 February 1993 

Bosnia War Crimes: 'The rapes went on day and night': Robert Fisk, in Mostar, gathers detailed evidence of the systematic sexual assaults on Muslim women by Serbian 'White Eagle' gunmen | The Independent | The Independent

[affascinailtuocuore]

S. Abulhawa-MORNINGS IN JENIN. Un viaggio umano e poetico tra i profughi di Palestina. Essere Ebrei, essere Palestinesi

A Thea Khamis che mi ha consigliato questo intenso romanzo. La storia “Palestine 1941. In the small village of Ein Hod a father leads a procession of his family and workers through the olive groves. As they move through the trees the green fruits drop onto the orchard floor; the ancient cycle of the seasons providing another bountiful harvest. Palestine 1948. The Abulheja family are forcibly…

[nellarw95]

Happy Birthday Vincent 🥳🎂🎈🎁🎉

Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio

June 30,1959

Buon Compleanno 🥳🎂🎈🎁🎉

30 Giugno 1959

[notnursenightingale]

He had the courage of a lion, and the cunning of a rat; and if he’s not in hell today, there’s no such place. I know but one good point to the man—that he was fond of his wife, and kind to her.

|| Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Beach of Falesa”

[alien-formed-on-earth]

JOE FIXIT/ JOE TIRA-TEIMA (2023) PT-BR N° 1

essa é uma tradução independente (NÃO é a da panini)

[hannahwatcheshorror]

ERASERHEAD (1977)

A very artistic and cerebral movie, think Andy Warhol and Don’t Touch Me I’m Scared. I found myself tense during the whole movie, I don’t know if it was the atmosphere, the sound effects, or if I was just matching the energy of our main character but I was going through something. RIP David Lynch.

⭐⭐⭐.5

The first eight (8) or so minutes of the film are this cerebral other worldly planet. It is so strange to behold when we are suddenly in reality and in a location that is something we can understand as being earth. But even once we are on “earth” there are things we don’t quite understand like an uprooted plant in soil just sitting on his bedside table. The synopsis calls it an “industrial environment” but it is unlike anything I have ever seen before. Yo, David Lynch straight up HATES Philly. This movie is basically set in alternate universe Philadelphia and Lynch did it like that because he lived in Philly for years and thinks it’s terrible (wack). I have never lived in Philly proper but I know and have known people who live there and they didn’t churn out Eraserhead. Maybe I have been away from the “City of Brotherly Love” for too long, I know Philly is responsible for the death of the hitchhiking robot but what did people expect from the place that birthed the Philly Phanatic and would later churn out Gritty? ANYWAY.

We learn the name of our main character, Henry, he is just a scared dude going through the world (think Beau Is Afraid energy). He goes to meet up with his gal who has been dodging him a while and has an awkward dinner with her family before the mother asks him if he has slept with her daughter. Then the mom starts to kiss up on him before Mary comes in to yell at her and we find out there has been a birth! There is a (maybe) baby at the hospital and it is Henry’s! The two are to be married at once! Flash forward we have Mary trying to spoon feed the thing she gave birth to. Henry comes home and is seemingly oblivious to the whole thing, he doesn’t seem to mind that the baby looks like it does (which is not very human) but also makes no attempts to help Mary care for it. He gets a little worm in the mail and doesn’t know what to do with it. Eventually the crying gets to Mary so that she storms out back to her parents house to try and get a night's sleep. 

Henry attempts to care for the baby but it gets sick and he doesn’t know what to do, he is terrified. When Mary is back she is having a fit in her sleep and Henry is pulling these fleshy nodes on what look like umbilical cords out from under her (maybe from inside her?) and he throws them against the wall. It is unclear if this is a dream as it breaks into a woman with enormous facial cheeks dancing on a stage. On another occasion when the wife is out, Henry’s next door neighbor just so happens to lock herself out of her apartment and asks to come in. At first she is distressed by the sight of the baby but she and Henry help distract each other. Henry cheats on his wife because he is stressed out which is not an excuse ever but the shot of them sinking into the bed that was a pool of water was really cool. Again our big cheeked lady on stage, this time she is singing that viral song that goes “In Heaven Everything is Fine.” 

Henry appears then his head pops off and his baby's head is where his head should be. A little boy scoops up Henry's head and takes it to a pawn shop where they bring it to a back room and remove sections of brain to make erasers. So it appears that the movie title comes from the fact that in this version of earth pencil erasers are made from grey matter. It isn’t entirely clear if this is just an unfounded fear of Henrys or if it is truly something done in his world and he is worried it might happen to him. Either way, Henry ends up killing the baby and it dies for so long, 1922 long, and Henry didn’t even do something that would kill it quickly and painlessly. Fucking yikes. No compassion for his own son-thing. The movie ends with more flashes of the planet from the beginning of the film and close ups of the baby's head.

[heckcareoxytwit]

A meeting and a showdown between Kingpin and Joe Fixit (along with Rhino, Electro and Spider-Man)

Kingpin has a meeting with his syndicate and he has supervillains - Electro and Rhino as his protection squad. Then, the meeting is interrupted by Joe Fixit who brings Spider-Man into the room as a "hostage" bargain. When Electro tries to unmask Spider-Man as ordered by Kingpin, it turns out that Peter Parker's face and hair were covered with face paint which allows him to "mask" his identity and it makes him look like he's wearing another mask. Peter Parker as Spider-Man had pretended to be a hostage so that he could find out what Kingpin is up to. Before Electro could do anything, Spider-Man punches him across the room, making the supervillain land onto Rhino.

Angered from being fooled again, Kingpin tries to spray the mind-altering chemical on Joe Fixit but this time, it doesn't work because Joe is wearing the nose filters. Then, chaos ensues when the two groups start fighting in the room. Joe Fixit, Kingpin and Rhino get into a major brawl while Spider-Man outwits Electro with fire sprinklers.

Joe Fixit #4, 2023

[velvetbronte]

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Dir. Martin Scorsese

[kitchenisking]

I just found out that Vincent D’Onofrio that’s plays Bobby Goren

Also plays… wait for it …. Just blew my mind… plays Wilson Fisk on daredevil

😱🤯

its shocked me so much! plus he's suck an amazing actor as is!

[bstroobery]

Warning: fake blood

MORE!

-🩶👻

[deadpresidents]

I'm a long time follower so I know you get sent a bazillion books by publishers in case you decide to review them but I'm curious how often you buy books, when was the last time and what did you get??

Oh God, I buy books constantly. I was just at a used bookstore on Wednesday and bought like two dozen books. I had to make two trips to my car to load them after paying for them.

Even though I'm fortunate and do get a ton of books from publishers to potentially review or suggest to my readers, there are many times where I'll still buy copies of those books when they are officially released. Sometimes it's because I'm a fan and just want to support the author, but a lot of times it's because the review copies are often uncorrected proofs. So it'll be an advance copy of what will eventually be released as a hardcover, but it will come to me in paperback form (or, on rare occasions, a folder of loose-leaf pages that aren't even bound) and they'll often be missing the table of contents, the index, footnotes, or even the entire back matter. I'm a book collector, so I like to have the finished product, so I'll frequently buy the book once it's actually released.

I won't give a rundown of all the used books I bought the other day, but I'll share the last two brand-new books that I purchased in order to make sure I received them on their release date. I pre-ordered the late Robert Fisk's final book, Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO), which I got this past Tuesday when it came out. And I made sure to buy Bob Woodward's new book, War (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO), so that it'll be delivered on release day, October 15th. I can't wait to read that one.

[gameofthunder66]

'Eraserhead' (1977) film

-watched 4/14/2023- 1 star- on Max

I don't know why this movie got pretty decent reviews- I like David Lynch's far-fetched, comical, horrific, artistic work, but when some of it doesn't make a lick of sense to me, I'm aggravated with myself for having sit there through the entire thing!

82% Rotten Tomatoes

[dalekofchaos]

MCU Recast

Just for fun, I will be recasting the MCU

Notice. Because of the 30 picture limit, will not be able to do them all the pics for the fancasts.

Timothy Olyphant as Iron Man/Tony Stark

Glenn Powell as Captain America

Alexander Skarsgard as Thor Odinson

Hugh Dancy as The Hulk/Bruce Banner

Yuliya Snigir as Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff

Jensen Ackles as Hawkeye/Clint Barton

Idris Elba as Nick Fury(if Ultimate)

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Nick Fury(if 616)

Morena Baccarin as Maria Hill

Ewan McGregor as Ant-Man/Hank Pym

Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Wasp/Janet Van Dyne

Hiba Abouk as Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff

Jesus Castro as Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff

Ryan Gosling as Star Lord/Peter Quill

Sofia Boutella as Gamora

Simon Pegg as Rocket Racoon

John Rhys-Davies as Groot

Jason Momoa as Drax the Destroyer

Maggie Q as Mantis

Ana de Armas as Nebula

Christian Bale as Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange

Katee Sackhoff as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers

Joe Keery as Spider-Man/Peter Parker

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Black Panther/T'Challa

Ben Barnes as Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes

Robert Pattinson as Daredevil

Alexandra Daddario as Jessica Jones

Trevante Rhodes as Luke Cage

Lewis Tan as Iron Fist/Danny Rand

Frank Grillo as The Punisher/Frank Castle

Jamie Chung as Colleen Wing

Sonequa Martin-Green as Misty Knight

Jesse Plemons as Foggy Nelson

Amanda Seyfried as Karen Page

Yaya DaCosta as Claire Temple

Dakota Fanning as Trish Walker/Hellcat

Stephan James as Malcolm Ducasse

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Stick

Rainn Wilson as Microchip/David Liberman

Jamie Foxx as War Machine/James "Rhodey" Rhodes

Michael B. Jordan as Sam Wilson

Amy Adams as Pepper Potts

Kevin James as Harold “Happy” Hogan

Christina Ricci as Betty Ross

Léa Seydoux as Sharon Carter

Daisy Ridley as Peggy Carter

Charlie Day as Ant-Man/Scott Lang

Amandla Stenberg as Shuri

Maya Hawke as Hawkeye/Kate Bishop

Sasha Luss as Black Widow/Yelena Belova

(I'm changing the direction of the MCU Spider-Man since there would be no mind wipe at the end of said trilogy, no Iron Man Jr, Peter is in college and already an established hero, there would be no pointless change to MJ's name and I would reframe from basically copying everything about Miles and give all his traits to Peter)

Brendan Fraser as Uncle Ben Parker(flashbacks)

Jamie Lee Curtis as May Parker

Stefanie Scott as Mary Jane Watson

Dylan O'Brien as Harry Osborn

Chloë Grace Moretz as Gwen Stacy

Jake Austin Walker as Flash Thompson

Keira Knightley as Jane Foster

Stellan Skarsgård as Odin

Saara Chaudry as Kamala Khan

Madison Reyes as America Chavez

Isaac as Moon Knight/Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Jake Lockley

Andrew Lincoln as Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic

Jodie Comer as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman

Paul Mescal as Human Torch/Johnny Storm

Liev Schreiber as Thing/Ben Grimm

JK Simmons as Iron Monger/Obadiah Stane

Dolph Lundgren as Crimson Dynamo/Anton Vanko(adding Dynamo as I felt not including him was a waste)

Danila Kozlovsky as Whiplash

Bob Odenkirk as Justin Hammer

Chow Yun-Fat as The Mandarin(No Trevor, he's The Mandarin and actually uses the Ten Rings against Tony)

Michael Shannon as Abomination/Emil Blonsky

Mark Gatiss as The Leader/Samuel Sterns

Jamie Campbell Bower as Loki Laufeyson

Christoph Waltz as Red Skull/Johann Shmidt

Cillian Murphy as Baron Helmut Zemo

Javier Bardem as Thanos

Jeremy Irons as Ultron

Matt Smith as Malekith

Sean Bean as Alexander Pierce

Manu Bennett as Crossbones

Iain Glen as Ronan the Accuser

Oded Fehr as Baron Mordo

Brian Cox as Ego The Living Planet

John Malkovich as Vulture

John Goodman as Kingpin/Wilson Fisk

Boyd Holbrook as Bullseye

Tonia Sotiropoulou as Elektra Nachios

Jodie Comer as Typhoid Mary

James McAvoy as Purple Man/Zebediah Killgrave

Common as Cottonmouth/Cornell Stokes

Taraji P. Henson as Mariah Dillard

Barkhad Abdi as Bushmaster

Željko Ivanek as Agent Orange/William Rawlins

Wes Bentley as Jigsaw/Billy Russo

Dev Patel as Davos

Alexander Ludwig as Nuke/Will Simpson

Matthew Rhys as James Wesley

Kate Beckinsale as Vanessa Marianna

Marwan Kenzari as Bakuto

Brian Tee as Nobu Yoshioka

Lucille Soong as Madame Gao

Julianne Moore as Alexandra Reid

Eva Green as Hela

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Killmonger/Erik Stevens/N'Jadaka

Andrew Scott as Mysterio

(sidenote, Mysterio wouldn't die and would return to form the Sinister Six which would feature the villains from NWH, but it's the MCU variants, no Multiverse)

Bryan Cranston as Green Goblin/Norman Osborn

Mark Hamill as Doc Ock/Otto Octavius

Sam Worthington as Sandman

Sendhil Ramamurthy as The Lizard/Dr Curt Connors

Aaron Paul as Electro

Naomi Scott as Ghost

Henry Golding as Namor

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Adam Warlock

Antony Starr as US Agent/John Walker

Ted Levine as Thaddeus Ross/Red Hulk

Charlie Clapman as Doctor Doom/Victor Von Doom

[obsessedwithlarkin]

WELL-KNOWN DANCERS COMPETING AT RADIX ANAHIEM

4 PM:

• Adelynn Muesse - Witch

AVANTI:

• Rosie Zahoul - Grown Woman

• Presley Loomis - Stay

• Kalliope Lindstrom - Runnin Down

CANDANCE:

• Violet Rush - Bosorkanya

• Mila Hiatt - Finding My Melody

DANCE DELUXE:

• Remi Skidmore - The Raid

• Eva Gonzalez- Under My Skin

• Emily Collins- Asteria

• Brighton Taylor - Buisness Of Love

• Brielle Bailey- Miss Indipendent

• Breckyn Kawa - Fallen Angel

• Emily Kinion - Super

• Bradley Kawa- The Jester

• Colleen Heinze - Patènipat

• Vanessa Soto - Felt Like A Kiss

• Aracely Lee - Rise Warrior

• Junior Duo/Trio - Color Song

• Mini Duo/Trio - Rain

• Junior Duo/Trio - Slack Jaw

• Junior Line - My House

• Junior Group - House In Nebraska

• Junior Group - Movies

• Junior Line - Sweet Dreams

• Mini Group - Trapped

• Rookie Duo/Trio - End Of The Line

• Mini Line - How To Save A Life

• Rookie Group - Sugar Baby Bounce

• Haven Bryan- Say Something

• Rookie Group- Emotion

• Mini Extended Line- Sing Sing Sing

• Teen Line - Alchemy

• Teen Line - Precious Things

DANCEOLOGY:

•Aria McCrea - Shadow Journal

DOLCE:

•Brennyn Bishop- Snowing

EVOKE:

• Addy Paul - Funk

MATHER:

•Nyla McCarthy- Dreaming Awake

•Camilla Shuck - Roses

• Hadley Schulz- Dancing On The Waves

• Delaney McCarthy- Vow

• Helena Olaerts- New York, New York

• Sienna Morris - Mercy

OCPAA:

• Hadley Berokoff- The Dance

• Eden Roberts- All That Jazz

• Dylan Reuss - The Waitress

• Taylor Goldweski- We Clappin'

• Harlee Lozano - Broke

• Jillian Mahan- True Romance

• Alyssa Mastroianni- Hyperballad

• Brady Reuss- Stay Away

• Maggie Zhou - Only

• Grace Howerton- I'm Through

• Junior Group- Writers In The Dark

• Cerys Gogswell - My Darling

• Leighton Goldweski- Once Upon Another Time

• Charlotte Delong - Elegance

• Kailee Lozano- Halleluijah

• Makenzie Rowland- Elephants

• Kourtney Gampol- Snowing

• Charlotte Wolk - Too Darn Hot

• Jasmine Sison - The Flowers

• Lennox Silva- See Me Now

• Mini Group - And So It Is

PAVE:

• Dylan Gyger- Yet

• Delaney Blum - Trouble

• Bryn Zimmerman - Just Fine

• Harbor Pitkin - The Moon

• Wavy Hazen - One

• Joah Moore - Inhale Exhale

• Addison Sebellius- Just A Girl

• Kennady Peterson - Ain't No Other Man

• Junior Group- Purse First

• Junior Production - Time And A Half

• Junior Group - Hope

• JuniorGroup- Genetics

• Junior Extended Line- Woman In A Black Dress

• Mini Extended Line - Let Them Know

• Rookie Group- Country Girls

• Ava Muckley - Amazing Mayzie

• Sophia Smith - Let's Get Loud

• Kehlani Georgatos - Buisness Of Love

• Mini Group- Dreamgirls

• Teen Group - Body Language

• Teen Group - Corpse

• Teen Extended Line- Everyrhing Is Romantic

• Teen Line - Heroes

• Teen Line- Magazine

• Teen Extended Line - Wish You Were Here

• Teen Extended Line- Pose

• Teen Line - Diner

PROJECT 21:

•Cece Chung- Cuban Pete

• Liv Matson- Leaving

• Stella Fisk - Whole Lotta Shakin Going On

• Brooklyn Ladia - Everything Is Unreal

• Sara Von Rotz- So Long Dearie

• Regan Gerena - Work It

•Lexie Blanchard - An Urban Soundtrack

• Reese Arkin - Please Mr Postman

STUDIO 1:

• Kenly Carver - Daisies

STUDIO X:

• Braxy Montana - Motomami

• Emma Acosta - Red Football

• Baileigh McJimson- Hater

• Aliyah Almirez - I Love You

• Jordyn Rockett - Kinjabang

• Aubrey Horacek- Slow Me Down

• Jeanne Garcia - Wicked Games

• Bella Mendez - Mantra

• Emma Gerberding - My Mind

• Brielle Arias - Quitte Pas

• Kate Matthews - Do You Even Know

• Carter Walk. - Praying

• Hannah Martinez- Elephants

• Mini Duo/Trio - Dream

• Junior Group - Bad Girls

• Chloe Tyler - TBA

• Madison Luckman- Thule

• Juliana Markba- Blue Skies

• Cecily Renae- Wonder

• Teen Line - Capslock

THE ACADEMY:

• Patience Hughes - Poker Face

THE BASE DANCE CENTER:

• Roxie Onellion- Amor

THE COMPANY SPACE:

• Vivian Marcodes - Splintered

• Stella Marcodes - This Bitter Earth

• Taylor Smith - GT

MOXIE:

• Alexa Paul- Forever Young

THE SIX COMPOUND:

• Sophia Tooles - Over The Love

THE CREW:

• Starr Castro - TBD

[heaveninawildflower]

Floral illustrations taken from 'Sapphires from Burns' a Robert Burns poetry book.

Published 1900 by DeWolfe, Fiske & Co.

The Library of Congress

archive.org