#Sturm and Drang OBVIOUSLY

[rex101111]

finally got my hands on Granblue Relink, because while i fell off the Gacha the world and characters are too likeable to just divorce myself from completely. Pretty fun so far! A fairly standard if very enjoyable ARPG. Also since Vaseraga is apparently a character you can unlock, you can bet im making that a priority.

[batsplat]

follow up to this post that provides the context of the donington 2008 race, and also some photos with more than three pixels of valentino and casey with their arms around each other

so. *cracks knuckles*. let's talk about jorge and valentino. if you want to understand the texture of the early years of that dynamic, there are worse places to start than checking out the bit of jorge's biography where he talks about valentino attempting to calm down the crowd at misano 2009

the post about that rivalry linked to above doesn't go into much detail about this passage, mainly because that thing was quite frankly getting long enough as it is. but the passage really does capture some key elements that give you a sense of what the vibe was like back then - including jorge loving the donkey ears and needing the world to know how much he loved the donkey ears. you've got jorge's desire to learn from valentino, acknowledging the skill with which valentino bounced back from a disastrous weekend, talking about how he can orchestrate a crowd. jorge's professed belief that there is nothing wrong with the crowd reaction as they are simply backing one of their own. this intense preoccupation with public personas, with fan perception, with what constitutes acceptable standards of conduct within a rivalry, how to engage in honourable combat, man to man and all of that... the air of pompousness, of earnestness verging on self-seriousness that is so central to young jorge's whole deal. and on valentino's end, it is important to pay attention to how he is willing to make gestures in the name of keeping the rivalry civil. in truth, he knows that he can still rely on the public sphere to make jorge's life rough. let's not forget, after all, that the way-too-online jorge was far more affected by spaniards talking shit about him on the internet on valentino's behalf - italians just don't matter as much because their partisanship is essentially already factored in. unlike at certain other stages of his career, however, valentino can throw in these little symbolic acts to calm the waters, to show he doesn't actually want to be jorge's enemy. they're just rivals, after all; they can behave respectfully towards each other. below all the sturm and drang and drama, valentino's approach to managing rivalries in that era involves a general reticence to allow things to get too nasty between himself and his new rivals. that will not always mean that the non-valentino side of those rivalries perceived valentino's behaviour that way - but obviously they are not applying the same standards. valentino's points of comparison are fist fights and curses. what feels excessive to him is rather radically different to where some of his younger rivals would draw the line

while jorge will at least outwardly claim he takes no issue with the hostility of the fans, casey takes a rather different approach. it is one of the biggest themes of his rivalry with valentino: casey having an awful time with the public and resenting valentino for it. valentino will not have been the only reason for how poorly the fans received casey - there are elements of casey's personality that would probably have always made him a tricky sell to the fanbase. still, the extent to which the public adored valentino and wished him to win above all others obviously and undeniably contributed heavily to the vitriol with which casey was met. (to return to jorge, he is the more clear cut example where his lack of popularity was a combination of different factors - plenty of fans already hated him for his antics in 250cc well before he was anything approaching a threat to valentino.) abusive fan mail, fans physically assaulting him when he was riding around on scooters, booing... the main country casey associates with that hostility is england. italians specifically don't actually ever really come up - probably in large part because there were plenty of ducati fans in italy who supported him even when fighting valentino. but the english fans? no such conflicting loyalties whatsoever. obviously, they loved valentino - and the sports culture in that country being what it was... well, that love could easily get ugly for anyone who posed too great a threat. (not to get into the ins and outs of british vs european identity but it is funny sometimes how casey talks about english speakers in the paddock As Good - "I only speak to english-speaking riders" he says in 2009 - and also european fans As Bad, but then the only specific european fanbase he ever properly complains about is the english. casey radically pro-european in essentially separating out the concept of 'english-speaking' from The English and also then treating The English as like... quintessentially european. anyways.) and for whatever reason, they had it in for casey in a way they never quite seemed to for any of valentino's other rivals. there's obviously also the deeply personal element where he has family in england, he moved there directly from australia as a teenager... on paper, this should have been a country that offered him support, or at the very least didn't actively hate him. it felt more like a betrayal - it's a similar dynamic to why jorge was particularly frustrated by the spanish fans not backing him. the english fans being so unkind to casey was a particularly bitter pill to swallow because he never would have expected it from them

casey obviously feels quite strongly that valentino should have done something about this behaviour and didn't. depending on how much stock you put into certain write-ups of races in britain over the years, it is at least possible that valentino quite deliberately made casey's life more unpleasant in britain. all of which would make it particularly interesting if valentino did go for a little bit of a symbolic gesture with casey too, like he did with jorge. during the race weekend of donington 2008, casey was having a rough time of it (well, outside of the actual racing, where he was slaughtering the field lol) and was as ever outspoken in his irritation. he tended to have plenty of complaints about donington whenever he went - not just with the fans but also the track and just, like, the vibe being off, wasn't really ever enthusiastic about the place. none of this stopped him from winning the race by a country mile, of course. back then there were still track invasions after races, which is a safety nightmare at the best of times - but it was worse for casey, who talks afterwards about the "abuse" he got from the crowd on that lap. which does make you pay closer attention to how valentino catches up, darts ahead of casey, and basically leads him quite closely through the worst bit of the crowd to parc fermé; it's something that is remarked on in the commentary, how valentino has essentially gotten casey to follow him on their 'shaky' cooldown lap

here you have the traditional post-race thumbs up and shake of hand

and then a few moments later, the densest part of the crowd

deliberate gesture to ward off the worst of it by essentially providing a line to follow to casey, or just a coincidence?

then you have the podium, where... well, you can barely ever actually hear booing on the broadcast for any race lol, dismal sound quality, casey definitely complained about it after the race so we know it happened. but having turned up the volume all the way, in the process permanently damaging my hearing - I'm fairly confident I can hear something that sounds vaguely like jeering and boos turn into what is definitely louder cheers when valentino puts his arm around casey, as depicted at the top of this post. I have watched way too many valentino podiums over the years, and I will say that a full arm around the shoulder isn't exactly common from him. amateur body language analysis corner, but there's something interesting in how valentino doesn't actually meet casey's eyes while he's doing it, looks straight ahead at the crowd while putting his arm around casey - there is obviously something quite performative about it, something quite pointed, something the crowd immediately picks up on and responds to... hold, hold, hold as they get the photos done, pat pat on the back, and then valentino lets his arm drop. casey of course reciprocated with his own arm vaguely around valentino, and he does also bust out the full grin right at valentino at the end there (you can see it if you lean really close to your screen). which the amateur body language analysts might conclude indicates appreciation for the gesture

now, look, I have fuck all reporting and only a few forum posts to back up what essentially amounts to squinting at footage of a race you've watched for the nth time in order to induce motorcycle racer-themed hallucinations. I'm about 50/50 on the cooldown lap, that might just be reading too much into it, but the podium does feel a lot more clear cut - and the combination of the two (plus jorge's testimony establishing that this sort of behaviour might be something valentino is vaguely inclined to do during this specific time period) is JUST enough to make me buy there's something deliberate there. your mileage may vary. also important to note that valentino's actual response in 2008 to casey's english fan situation was a big old shrug - aka some talk about how casey did complain rather a lot about everything to do with this race and also rumination about the ancient hatreds still raging between the anglo nations of the world to this day. he certainly was not willing to go on the record and admit to any responsibility for the animosity. given that valentino is not an idiot, he did obviously know that partisanship in his favour was in large part to blame for casey's reception in britain - not something, at the end of the day, he's going to be losing too much sleep over. still, he's aware of it, which is why the arm around the shoulder works the way it does, right? because he knew the crowd would respond to it. and it's just... these little symbolic touches that do matter when establishing the tone in 2008. valentino was willing to use pretty much the whole toolkit against casey to crack the toughest of nuts - hell, give him two more races and he'd bust out a hithertofore unseen couple of tools - but it was not quite the ugly fervour of past feuds at their peaks. instead, here we have someone simply playing the game and trying to judge how far to push things at any given moment, when it made sense to twist the knife and when it was better to play nice. valentino didn't actually want casey to hate him. given what valentino was willing to do to win motorcycling competitions (including not stepping in more firmly against his own fanbase, yes), casey coming to hate valentino was very much the end result of valentino's actions in those few years. which still does not mean that this was the intent behind valentino's actions; there are feuds of his where he is actively attempting to provoke his rivals, but this was not one of them (during the years where they were meaningful on-track rivals, which is just a blanket caveat I'm applying to the rest of this post). if casey came to hate him, then of course that was a price worth paying - but given a choice, valentino would generally opt for the cordial approach

this preference is reflected in the way he generally talked pretty positively about his dynamic with dani and casey in 2008, e.g. "the relationship between me, casey and dani is more normal, whereas biaggi was always saying bullshit". it's there in the descriptions of valentino using charm with his rivals, being free in his compliments ("when rossi gets beaten he makes sure to praise whoever has defeated him"). and, look: valentino was skilled at being a gracious loser, he did tend to throw some pretty effusive compliments especially in casey's direction when he lost to him, always preferring to bite his opponents harder from a position of strength etc etc. (still fond of this line from the guardian article about catalunya 2007: '"truly, casey is riding like a god," said the italian, who is rarely guilty of making an understatement.' please allow him. also, what if casey is just riding so well that this actually IS an understatement, what then.) yes, casey felt like valentino wasn't being particularly complimentary, that the compliments had dried up by the end of 2007. that's the thing about this rivalry, right, like you do have to remember that casey obviously isn't able to perfectly read valentino's intentions lol. valentino did still lob plenty of compliments casey's way - and actually said in 2009 that casey had started criticising valentino more when casey started winning after having been more complimentary before that, which is such a lovely example of both of them just being so fundamentally at odds that their grievances perfectly mirror each other. but the problem is that even if valentino was still saying nice things about casey, 1) it's human nature to pay more attention to one insult than nine compliments - and casey is particularly susceptible to this, and 2) what valentino considers 'keeping a rivalry civil' looks completely different from casey's understanding of that concept. (at times casey would probably be better served applying a generational lens than a cultural one lol - there's a reason why some retired racers found it remarkable how nice valentino was about his opposition.) valentino cools off towards casey interpersonally as part of his working process in title fights, doesn't go out of his way to provoke casey but does want to apply pressure wherever possible using all the little tricks he can along the way. which is understandably received as active hostility by casey (who is also still extremely young at this point) - but that doesn't necessarily mean this was actually the intent. when valentino wants to make an enemy out of you, typically you do notice it pretty quickly

see too how both of them are willing to engage in the song and dance of calling a truce at brno 2008, with only a couple of barbed comments attached from both sides. casey had given valentino grounds to escalate the conflict in the aftermath of laguna (including obviously the 'I'm faster than him and he knows it' thing), but valentino more or less refrains from doing so. an arm around the shoulder to get the crowd to give it a rest, accepting an apology without too much fuss... smiles and jokes and plenty of civility in-person... there have been valentino feuds that are considerably easier to spot at a distance, such is the interpersonal rancidity. all this while valentino is concurrently stepping up the on-track intimidation, but to him there is no contradiction there. valentino wasn't provoking casey for shits and giggles - he believed he had to do something not to lose the title that year. and... well, you can find his actions morally questionable, but it's a bit tougher to argue with the actual logic underlying valentino's behaviour. laguna 2008 isn't a case of valentino's need to create enemies expressing itself in attacks on his rivals for no good reason - it's a case of valentino being willing to do whatever it takes to win, even if it ends up making a new enemy. again: valentino is certainly using his entire playbook to exert pressure on casey - but at the same time, casey is not being treated like an actual enemy. at times, casey will have read a little too much outright animosity into valentino's approach... even though by his standards, valentino was trying to keep things reasonably cordial. it's just that he had a comically different understanding of what that looked like from casey. to understand that rivalry, you do have to get that a part of valentino's toolkit in those years was the interpersonal friendliness - a public willingness to perform civility. all you need to do is compare how the pair of them act around each other in the aftermath of that rivalry's biggest flashpoint (aka laguna '08) to how things play out in literally every single other valentino feud. (I know I started this post off talking about jorge and broadly speaking valentino does adhere to the same approach in 2009. but, 1) his relationship with jorge was a lot icier than his relationship with casey right from the start, partly because valentino just flat out disliked jorge, and 2) 2009 might star that rivalry's best duel but does not feature its major flashpoints, cf motegi 2010 and *checks smeared notes* something about a spanish conspiracy? - so it's not quite as notable jorge and valentino keep it vaguely polite.) from valentino's perspective, he escalates only as far as he has to. he's not emotionally invested enough to be all that offended by casey's response to laguna 2008, if anything can derive additional satisfaction from it... the race did what it was supposed to - he'll gladly accept a handshake of apology in its aftermath

sometimes, hygienic rivalry management involves giving off some mixed signals to confuse the opposition, to keep them guessing. it's a more uncertain situation than being outright enemies, one that makes it a little trickier for the opposition to parse how to approach that rivalry going forward, how nasty to be in response... valentino is happy enough to play this game when it comes to casey. the compliments, the public cordiality, the little gestures when he's feeling like it... charming off the track and vicious on it - all while dripping a steady dose of poison into the public discourse, attempting to make casey's life as difficult as possible. casey is the worst victim out of any of valentino's rivals of this two-faced approach, this disconnect between person and character casey himself is well aware of. even when the feud on paper should have been at its worst, valentino does not feel the need to cut casey off entirely. usually valentino does skew more clearly one direction or the other at any given time - usually he's at least a little more willing to show his hand, not mix pleasantries with cruelty quite so liberally. but he does not want casey to be his enemy. what a nuisance, right... can't like him can't loathe him certainly can't get rid of him

[cantsayidont]

October 1981. In between the origin of the Huntress and the story that explained how the Earth-2 Batman and Catwoman married, Bruce and Selina's actual 1955 wedding was depicted in the "Mr. & Mrs. Superman" story in THE SUPERMAN FAMILY #211. THE SUPERMAN FAMILY, which outlived THE BATMAN FAMILY by about four years, was an anthology book originally created to consolidate the Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen books (which hadn't been doing well individually) and the Supergirl strip from ADVENTURE. The "Mr. & Mrs. Superman" feature, little seven- or eight-page stories of the Golden Age Clark and Lois as a married couple in the 1950s, was one of the anthology's few highlights, although writer E. Nelson Bridwell could easily become distracted summarizing obscure continuity details rather than telling an actual story. This installment, entitled "The Kill Kent Contract!" has a silly framing plot where Lois accidentally overhears (à la SORRY, WRONG NUMBER) what she thinks is a plot to kill her husband at the wedding. It's overshadowed by the wedding itself, as seen here:

Given the level of emotional sturm-und-drang of the Huntress origin and the (later) "The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne!" this little story feels awfully sedate, although if you share Bridwell's interest in obscure details of old comics, it does have certain pleasures. if you're wondering: Selina's brother Karl appeared in a story in BATMAN #69 (February-March 1952), where he attempted to rip off Selina's gimmick as The King of the Cats; the fact that he's on parole here tells you how well that went. On Earth-2, Jim Gordon had only one kid, his son Tony, first seen in the Batman story in WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #53 (August-September 1951); on Earth-1, Tony Gordon was Barbara (Babs) Gordon's brother, who was killed a couple of years before this story. As for Alfred, Batman's butler went many years without ever being given a last name, although a 1945 story (in DETECTIVE COMICS #96) had him briefly use the last name "Beagle," which Bridwell obviously remembered. (The name "Pennyworth" wasn't established until 1969.)

As for the murder plot, Clark and Lois eventually determine that the target is not Clark, but Harvey Kent, the former Two-Face. In the original three Two-Face stories of 1942–1943, Harvey's last name was "Kent"; it became "Dent," probably by accident, in 1948, and that version stuck. Bridwell helpfully declares that the discrepancy is one of the differences between the Earth-1 and Earth-2 characters, although he at least resists the temptation to suggest that Clark and Harvey are related.

[ingravinoveritas]

neil clarified that it's not the fans he's upset with and that all he asks for is for people to either stop showing the leak or to at least mark it and the conversation around it as spoilers, which is more than reasonable. i still can't believe that what is possibly the biggest moment for the fandom has gotten out like this and that people are so insensitive when it comes to not putting up any warnings. i was hit by the image on twitter this morning and i'm still unhappy, hours later, about something that usually would've brought me immense joy, because the show means so much to me and i wanted to experience the season in the way it was intended. maybe just don't say that you're not going reveal the spoiler only to then talk about it in a way that leaves no questions. you can tag for potential spoilers on tumblr and there is also a read more option, so you're able to put things under a cut. it takes so little effort to be more considerate.

(Grouping all of the Anons that I got in response to my post together. Not included in this array is another Anon that I am not posting by request, but the tone is very similar to Anon #1, so that should give you an idea of things.)

Okay, so...wow. Obviously there are a lot of feelings around what happened, which is understandable. But what I'm a bit taken aback by is the seeming lack of personal accountability in a few of these responses. At no point was anyone obligated to continue reading my post if they thought a spoiler was about to be shared, and I find it peculiar that some folks are getting angry at me because they decided to employ critical thinking skills while reading my post (and also, why would you keep reading if you didn't want to see a spoiler but thought one might be forthcoming?).

There's also the notion that The Thing by its very nature is a strange thing to categorize as a spoiler because it shouldn't be surprising or a "twist" for these characters to be in a confirmed relationship...unless Neil was hoping to score brownie points with it after all of the "queer-baiting" accusations from last season. But blaming me for somehow adding to the sturm und drang around the spoiler news is not on, because while I realize I am an easy target (certainly easier than Amazon, at any rate), all of the above is also failing to take into account that I did not actually share the spoiler in my post.

That being said, I am certainly glad that Neil did indeed clarify (on Tumblr and Twitter) that he is not upset with the fans. The problem is, by the time he did so it was already too late, as the post he reblogged had received much more traction than the follow-up(s) and fans were already taking his word as chapter and verse and turning on other fans. This was also another point of concern, seeing how intense the parasocial relationship between some of the fans and Neil seems to be. As I've said previously, it is absolutely understandable for Neil to be upset/angry about what happened and we can, as fans, say that his wishes as the creator should be respected.

But where I saw things go way over the top was what you mentioned, Anon #3. People seemingly breaking down and falling over themselves to apologize to Neil, as if we are his friends whom he would have come over with a cup of tea or a bottle of wine to cheer him up after a bad breakup. So it was that particular response that I felt was really disproportionate to the events that occurred.

Anon #2, the link you shared does work, and I had to laugh at the highlighted comment, as well as Neil's original one, which now seems to have aged like milk left out in the hot sub-Saharan sun for an entire week. In a way, we can definitely say that Neil did warn us, and what he said came true--that if one hung around the official channels, little bits and things would be released into the wild. Amazon very much did fuck up, but it's hard not to find the hilarity (and irony) of them fucking up in the most Good Omens-y, "incompetent angel and demon losing the Antichrist" way possible.

To your point, Anon #3, the leak happened because a 2-frame clip was included in a compilation video that Amazon posted that included clips from multiple shows. But it's for this very reason that most fans didn't think or realize that it was a leak in the first place. So I think you could classify it as a poorly done promo, because whether it was intentional or not (and goodness knows I've seen plenty of theories floating around as to which is the case), it still generated buzz and discussion around the show, which is what promotion of any kind is meant to do.

As you said, however...in the end, is this truly going to make anyone not watch the show? I was away/nonstop busy last week and weekend, so I haven't really had time to process everything, but now that it's sinking in, I am SO incredibly excited. While, yes, it would've been lovely to learn this information in the context of the show and I do understand people who feel disappointed due to this, I genuinely cannot imagine how this news could make the experience of GO 2 less joyful, or why any GO fan would not watch the show because of it. I also have posts from as far back as a year and a half ago alluding to these developments only as a possibility, and I'd very much like to reblog some of those just because of how amazingly/hilariously well they have aged.

With all of that in mind, as I stated previously, any posts I do make from here on out that allude to the spoiler even slightly will be tagged as such (with the tag #go2 spoilers), and will be placed under a "Keep Reading" cut. Because I know there are folks who are dying to talk about all this, whose excitement may have been tempered somewhat in the wake of the fallout but who I am sure are feeling elated and full of anticipation now more than ever.

So those are my thoughts on the follow-up to last week's fandom implosion. Hopefully I've addressed some of the concerns people have, and while I know I likely won't change anyone's mind, I have plenty of other feelings and thoughts to share that I hope folks will stay tuned for...

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

The Clean - Live in Dunedin 1982

We've been losing great musicians at a painfully steady clip over the past couple weeks — Christine McVie, Angelo Badalamenti, and most wrenchingly Clean co-founder Hamish Kilgour. The outpouring of love and admiration for Hamish since the tragic news broke shows what a positive impact he had on so many people.

Robert Scott: “He was the yin and the yang, the sturm and the drang, the bucket, the glue, the whole shebang.”

I always kind of loved that even though they were one of the greatest rock bands of all time, the Clean rejected most of the trappings of careerism, disappearing for years at a time, staying off of the treadmill for the most part. I think I heard Hamish say in an interview that they were "the band without a plan." Of course, that kind of dedication to music/art/creativity above all else comes with its fair share of difficulties; you always hope that musicians of that ilk are able to carve out a life for themselves somehow. Even though he was obviously struggling, I'm grateful that Hamish shared what he could while he could.

And of course, the wondrous sounds he made with the Clean, with Bailter Space, with the Mad Scene, with Tiny Ruins, solo and with many many other bands live on. And it's literally impossible not to feel better listening to the Clean, whose music is as life-affirming as it comes. For a limited-time treat, dig into this rare audience tape of the band right towards the end of their first run. Lo-fi for sure, but absolutely beautiful. That Dunedin Sound, ringing out for eternity.

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[legobiwan]

If it's alright to ask, would you mind going into a lil more detail about Mario and Luigi's school days? Every single time Mario has a stray thought or memory about it during Expiate I'm just over here with the eyes emoji

Absolutely love seeing people's different interpretations of the bros' past and how it affected them later on in life

You may absolutely ask, this is actually a topic I am thrilled to have the opportunity to talk about :)

Buckle in, this one is going to take a while. :)

I originally conceived of Mario and Luigi's backstory before the movie came out, so it's not going to align. I think what the movie does is great and fun (although they really didn't explore Luigi's relationship with his family all that much, aside from Uncle Tony, may he stop infringing on my boy's space, please - which I thought was interesting), but that's really as far as it goes for me in terms of my writing.

My Mario and Luigi grew up decidedly in Bensonhurst in the 80s and 90s. They lived with their mother and father (and for a time, a grandmother who passed away when they were young) in a rundown apartment, their father a plumber (obviously) and their mother and off-again/on-again teacher and administrative assistant who, unfortunately, had a bevy of intensifying mental health issues and was eventually institutionalized upon their father's death when they were in their very late teens. (This becomes important later).

K-8, the brothers attended a Catholic school named St. Ephram's (which does exist in Dyker Heights - a short commute from Bensonhurst - and what I'm basing their early school days off of. Beyond the name and place, everything else having to do with the school is wholly made up). While the boys' father didn't really care for the whole setup, there were some other, more traditional members of the family that were insistent on it (mostly their mother's mother) and supplied the part of the tuition that wasn't covered by scholarships. (Inflation was also far less crushing back then. Oof).

Mario was actually a bit of a shy kid at first, minding all his ps and qs, never getting into trouble. Luigi was more of the live wire, a bit of a blabbermouth as a kid, but also gawky and just different than his peers, and that gap only continued to widen as the boys hit the Sturm-und-Drang which is puberty.

At this point, Mario starts to bulk up and fill out his stout frame whereas Luigi continues to be a little more willowy and uninterested in sports and the like. This doesn't go over well with a lot of the other boys in school, on top of which, Luigi's anxiety starts to manifest as irrational anger because he's thirteen, hormonal, and a dumbass that has no emotional regulation to speak of. He also hates the school, super-hates religion class and that old bat Sister Catherine (and that's a whole thing in their family, when Luigi starts to refuse to go to Mass), hates the popular bully Sal Imbargiana with a burning passion, and his mouth tends to write checks his ass cannot cash, leaving Mario in the position of bodyguard more often than he wants to be, which is definitely a bone of contention between the boys as Mario is also thirteen and a hormonal dumbass and wants to look cool for his friends and his nerdy, robot-loving little brother is anything but (again, this is way before nerd culture became a thing. All this being said, Mario will pound anyone who hurts Luigi into the ground).

This is exacerbated by their home life - their mother's worsening condition, their father being out at all hours of the day and night pulling in jobs and working for some not-always reputable characters (it's Bensonhurst in the 80s/90s. Enough said). On top of this, their father is well-meaning and he loves his boys, but he's a little old-school and he and Luigi are at constant loggerheads about something all the time as they just can't get on the same wavelength.

So around this point, in eighth grade, the incident occurs in Religion class (the exact nature of which I will actually get to at the end of Expiate, so stay tuned for that one) and Mario is fed up with his brother's intensifying antics and aghast at what he did (it's nothing terrible, by the way, objectively speaking. But it also would not have gone down well in that time and place - like, at all). And being dumbass thirteen year olds, they decide to settle this by engaging in fisticuffs in the school hallway, because that's a great idea, boys. Really using the one braincell there. Sigh.

It's at this point the grandmother who was pushing all of this dies, the scholarships dry up due to a school grant issue and the boys end up in different schools for high school. Mario ends up in a public school (FDR) where he actually flourishes socially and athletically (maybe not so much on the academics, even though he's capable, but he was planning all along to take up his father's business). Luigi busts his ass after the whole debacle in religion class, getting accepted into Brooklyn Tech because he wants badly to be an engineer, to do robotics and get a degree in engineering. (He's even willing to go all the way upstate to Albany, or, he can't believe he's saying this - Jersey - for college, if that's what it takes).

And like Mario, Luigi also flourishes, finally, at Brooklyn Tech, meeting peers with similar interests and finally being in a place where being a bookish nerd isn't a social death sentence. But this is also where the anger turns back into anxiety and starts to hit for real as he's finally in a position to lose something he wants so badly and he's no longer pissed at the world. (And unfortunately, that's exactly what happens. Their Dad dies suddenly of a heart attack in the middle of the boys' senior year - Mario's 18, Luigi's 17 - and their mom ends up out of the picture. The boys get screwed out of the family business by one of their father's partners and Mario has to scramble to take on as many plumbing jobs as he can and Luigi has to help, if only to keep them financially afloat. Luigi scrapes by the remainder of his senior year, and it's not even a question if he'll follow Mario. Of course he does. And with all the chaos, his anxiety worsens and Mario's protective streak intensifies as Luigi isn't a plumber, this wasn't what he wanted to do and he's a good enough engineer to get the basics down, but now he's stuck. This isn't ideal for either of them, but they make it work, downsizing to a crappy studio in Bensonhurst until one day, a few years later, they find this warp pipe and the rest, as they say, is history).

There are a lot of other factors I haven't touched on that get alluded to in many of my stories: the boys' relationship with their cultural Catholicism (important to both of them for various reasons); with their whole Italian-American heritage; the general tenor and mores of these neighborhoods and life in general in the 80s and 90s. I kind of get into it a little here if you are interested. I've had another short story cooking for a while that gets into the origin of their hats and explores younger versions of the boys that touch on some of these elements. Probably should finish that one of these days.

Anyway, YMMV, but that's kind of where I place the boys at growing up. Luigi, hot-headed but asocial and nerdy in a time and place where that was not really accepted. Mario, shy and solid, finally coming into his own and wanting to be cool. And a very complicated home life with well-meaning, but deeply flawed parents.

And to touch on movie Luigi for a moment - if I had to make one criticism of Luigi's character (aside from the lack of screentime), it's that I think he may have been portrayed as a little too passive and too dependent at times. I get that the brothers seem a little younger in this version, but even the cartoon Luigi of my youth wasn't so deferential to his brother. Again, I adored the movie and loved seeing Luigi's big moment (and he does show signs of that quirky sassiness we know and love in Mr. L), but I will say that it skirted the line of excessive, at times. I think a prison break scene, which I think at this point we can all agree was in an early draft, would have fixed that issue easily.

[icharchivist]

Maybe Drang can finally win Sturm over by dancing 🤔

I BELIEVE IN HIM. We have to believe it can help.

Totally not because i want to see him dance obviously, this is purely altruistic. Obviously.

[writer59january13]

Plagued with lifelong lower gastrointestinal Sturm und Drang

Ever since a young lad irritable bowel syndrome

in my humble pinion wracked

lower abdominal area gurgled and ballooned gastrointestinal tract (similar to following Colonoscopy preparation slated for January 24th, 2024 at Phoenixville Hospital)

posterior issuing vis a vis borborygmus crooning in tandem and/or subsequent expulsion

eliminates fecal waste witnessing sprinting to bathroom, this scribe

(against time) and jet propulsion

of sphincter muscles'

spasmodic desperately raced

unpleasant symptom of anxiety/ panic attack

twas a stranger to this rhyme stir,

who now finds himself barrack cay did, and held hostage, where thoughts

about mooning doth not crack a smile, or baring derriere tubby more exact me up - matter of fact

no source of laughter, nada one ha intact (despite usual presence of chuckles

from this fan of good humor) high jacked for what seems a maternity leave

from all mothers tub be

thus envision, a bevy of pregnant gals

aching with cramps he

ving (times square of the hippopotamus)

with cervix fully dilated key

ping alert, when mother nature ready

to pull up all stops (via umbilical cord) to deliver nee, sans bundle of joy, followed

in quick succession with after birth re:

placental sack, hence

said effort to expel newborn

the closest scenario

experience ill suited to dance afflicting this anxiety prone

lovely bones, an all expense paid (seat of the pants)

accursed bane of proletariat grants no truce to attend finds me

pampered asper this rants.

Germane generic geeky guy

about one twelfth (knight) enroute to complete lxv luxurious Earth orbits

experienced chronic, demonic, physiologically hegemonic...

irritable bowel syndrome

without shadow of a doubt,

yet aforementioned plight

the following lines of poetry will not be about

problematic posterior plague.

After contemplating discomfort

linkedin with said medical condition,

yours truly realized aftermath

of Hurricane Ian concerning

those who weathered category storm

suffered a fate much worse

subsequently, I took a brief hiatus

typing lines of impossible

to understand questionable verse

challenging proclivity of one

yawping wordsmith being terse

yeah right you probably think

crowning glory upon

mine nonestablishmentarian literary endeavors

hands down majority of anonymous readers

would immediately qualify

his swiftly tailored prolix harried style unquestionably, obviously, and irreverently

imposing expansive vocabulary as perverse,

no doubt hurling expletive donned curse

at me with every stinging breath they took.

The previous writing endeavor

attached catchy title

at outset intent to brook

unspoken protocols analogous to river,

which overflows banks swallowing

entire metropolitan areas

categorized as biblical flood

believed to occur once

every five hundred year

exhibiting impact greater

than storied facebook

(as personal side note,

said creation a markedly popular

social media platform)

influencing great swaths of populace

allowing, enabling, and providing

user trademark friendly look,

which ineluctably draws innocent naif

into webbed wide world,

where coders fashioned

innocuous virtual pitfalls

many a stalwart devout

online interoper figuratively snagged

courtesy tempting virtual,

lock, stock and withal ingenious scandalous tailhook.

[astralartefact]

I had to read a shitty take about how bad the german FFXIV localisation is so as its Number 1 Fan have my favorite german translation detail:

The german version of Scholar's Expedient is called "Sturm und Drang" (which grants the buffs "Sturm" and "Drang") which was a historical german cultural movement (which fits Scholar really well) and is often translated to "Storm and Stress" (Drang can also mean "urge" but in this case its more often translated as stress) which fits the skill really well - It's such a good name for that skill in particular I was genuinely shocked to learn that that's a DE only thing

hiding this below the cut but i genuinely feel defensive over this game's DE localisation. and i don't want to put down the EN team, they're doing amazing work obviously, but it feels shitty when FR and DE are constantly treated as if they don't exist while EN is praised for things any other localisation would be hounded for.

like any other game wouldn't hear the end of it if they dared to change the writing to the degree that EN does it - but it's fine, no actually it's better that they do their own thing! something something but actually koji said that one time they write the game in english too so EN is its own thing, they are allowed! But when DE dared to change Zenos final lines? Prison. How dare they change the source material so much?! Don't they know that only EN gets to do that?? EN players could be missing out?!

Let's just say it: It sucks that I have to learn this game in two languages to talk about it online! EN people generally don't have to know the names of skills I don't even know in my language in two languages to talk about them. And they probably don't even know that the planet is only called Etheirys in EN! It's 2.5 versions against 1 for Ætheris(DE)/Ætherys(FR) (JP is Aaterisu, which I award .5 points for using an A even if Æ is not a japanese A sound). I guess EN was embarrassed to use the Æ all of a sudden even though they're the ones who decided to write the game in olden speak. (btw DE is not written in old speech (and thank the twelve for that i (personal opinion alert) can't even stand hearing it in trailers))

And no 'but the german voice over is bad!!' isn't a rebuttal to any of that. There's a lot of german self-hate in english speaking online spaces where any kind of german VO is automatically bad because it's not "as good" and I don't support that line of thinking - German VAs work just as hard and deserve our support! It's just that german gaming/anime VO (compared to other german VO genres where (when they don't hire youtubers) the quality is perfectly fine) is in a similar position as EN was five to ten years ago when Sub vs. Dub was still a thing and people absolutely hated any EN anime voice over:

All german gaming/anime VO is kind of meh and unnatural sounding because there's just not really a fully grown industry behind it in the way that even just other entertainment genres in german have it. Because you can't really release a movie or a TV series in Germany without german VO and expect it to sell well. Aside from special screenings with subtitles basically everything in cinema and TV has german voice over. The thing is you can do that with video games - as long as you provide subtitles it's perfectly acceptable to ship them even without translated VO! And even then it's already getting rare for games to receive german translations at all btw - compare that to the increasing drive of english speaking audiences to complain about the lack of complete voice acting for every single line in a game.

All of that to say I will protect the DE localisation with my life even if actually it's not all that good - which it is, they're doing a great job! I know it's different enough to actually be off-putting if you're used to EN's style, but I think it's a little more whimsical and cute :) I love the ways they translate job titles and stuff like that (we even have our own official job abbreviations!!) and they more often than not actually go back to older titles' official translations for recurring things!

But also enjoy what you enjoy. If it's not for you then move on, you have a broad array of choices to make your own fun without having to put people's hard work down. I personally always watch the german trailers at least once but even with all of the things above I am a JP Subs child at heart and will take JP VO whenever presented with the choice.

[oneminutereviews]

Vögel, die verkünden Land: A Biography of J. M. R. Lenz

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz is one of the most important figures of the Sturm und Drang movement in German literature. He wrote his most important works in the years 1774–1776 and met authors and thinkers such as Goethe, Herder, Wieland and Lavater. An important part of his work is a direct or indirect critique of social injustice (something which the well-to-do Goethe didn’t understand).

Writing is the only thing Lenz ever wanted to do. He was obviously gifted as a writer; some even considered him a genius. Unfortunately, living from one’s pen was impossible in the 18th century and Lenz was never able to secure a permanent position during his entire life. His mental instability, which started to manifest itself in 1777, probably didn’t help.

In 1779 he moved back from Germany to his native Livonia, and from there to Petersburg and eventually to Moscow. One morning in 1792, he was found dead in a Moscow street.

His work received little attention during the 19th century (except from Tieck and Büchner) until Gerhart Hauptmann (naturalism) and Bertolt Brecht began to see him as a precursor of their own work.Sigrid Damm wrote a beautiful biography of J. M. R. Lenz, which some reviewers have described as a historical or biographical novel. However, Damm never leaves the reader in any doubt about what is based on evidence and what is her own extrapolation. Extrapolation is often necessary because much information about Lenz has been lost or destroyed. (Goethe was among those who destroyed their correspondence with Lenz.) Damm’s biography was first published by Aufbau in Berlin in 1985 and has been reprinted several times by Insel. Unfortunately, it has not been translated into English.

Review submitted by Tsundoku.

[darthstitch]

Strange Things That Happened In History Class

Cryptid Teachers

Professor Gadling had to take a moment. He really did.

It was that or explode into hysterical laughter right that very second and that really wasn't going to help his cause now, was it?

The paper he was trying to grade was supposed to be an essay on the suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf at Mayerling and its indirect effect on World War I. Instead, what he got was "Our Four Cryptid Teachers on Campus."

And a List, which deserved to be quoted in its entirety:

a. Professor Robert "Hob" Gadling - Probably knew Shakespeare IRL; explains why he has such a hate-boner for him

b. Professor Adam Pierson - has an actual motherfucking SWORD hidden somewhere in his clothes (maybe it's like Hammerspace?!!) and might possibly DUEL other immortals; maybe the OLDEST immortal because he talks about ancient EGYPT like he's been there, done that and worn the t-shirt

c. Professor Duncan Macleod - the OTHER sword-wielding immortal

d. Professor Nicholas Chevalier - VAMPIRE?!!! OMG?!!! Also, his Dad is legit creepy and we sincerely believe he's legit a vampire?!!!

Honestly, there was only one, sane, sensible way to respond to this.

Dustin, interesting essay choice there, lad, but I was rather expecting something about poor Crown Prince Rudolf and not speculations about my cryptid status. Incidentally, thank you for realizing that I'm not the Oldest Immortal around, yes, Professor Pierson wears his Ancient Egypt T-shirt with pride and yes, you'd do well to steer clear of Lucien Lacroix, that one gives me the willies.

You have a day to give me the right essay, so chop chop!

2. The Cat Thing

"So maybe his fursona is a cat, did ya ever think of that, genius?!"

"Ahahahaha, right, sure, Steve, he uses meows, purrs and trills like a legitimate language and the cats understand him - this is NOT a fursona thing my friend!"

"Also, Steve-o, I didn't think you knew about things like fursonas..."

"Eh, you've been around the Internet long enough, you pick up on some things, Wheeler."

"So Murphy speaks Cat like legitimately, actually speaks Cat, not just like us humans doing random meows."

"Yep."

"Score 1 for the Cryptid Candidacy! We're adding Murphy to the list."

"Actually, humanity knew how to speak feline once. The knowledge was lost, aeons ago. Isn't that right, Miette?"

"Meow!"

"I could tell you that Story, if you've a mind to listen."

"GYAAAAH!!!!"

3. Typhoon Morpheus

First off, Isabel didn't really actually mean to eavesdrop.

She'd submitted the wrong paper for the classwork they'd done today and while it wasn't as spectacular a mistake as Dustin Henderson's Cryptid List - it was still, obviously, the wrong paper. So she was just hurrying to fix things, although she was a little nervous, because Professor G seemed to be in a bad mood the whole day.

She was just about to knock on the door when she heard:

"Look, Gadling, you gotta do something. Caw!"

That voice sounded oddly familiar.

"Oh, Christ, what now?"

"Whatever it is you two did, fix it, for the love of Murphy. Do you see these feathers, man? I am soaking wet - it's been raining in the Dreaming and it hasn't stopped. Lucienne's already got all the rest of us trying to save the books in the Library from the flooding."

"Raining."

"Yeah. The boss thinks you don't love him anymore. So, boom, cue the rain. Thunder and lightning. Sturm und Drang - the works, you know?"

"Wait. Hang on, he thinks we've broken up?!!"

"Duh? Yeah?!!"

"Oh for Chrissakes, it was just a silly, ridiculous argument - I'm - hey, Matthew, remind me to kiss the stupid out of that idiot. After I yell at him. And kiss him stupid again."

"Reminder set, Other-Boss. Can we go now?"

Isabel told herself she was never, ever, going to speak of this to anyone - even if the fact that she had witnessed Matthew talking was probably enough to confirm Murphy's Cryptid Status on Dustin's stupid list.

4. Stranger Things

"Run this by me again, love," Professor Gadling said, in obvious bewilderment. "You're a Dungeon Master? What is that?"

"Not anything kinky, Professor G! AHAHAHA!" Dustin Henderson said in overly cheerful tones.

Murphy slanted the boy a look of wry amusement. "I think he understands that already."

"He's our DM for Dungeons and Dragons, Professor," said Will Byers. "It's a storytelling game."

"Ah, of course, a storytelling game, why wouldn't His Darkness the Prince of Stories be interested in that?" Professor Gadling said wryly.

"He's the best DM ever," volunteered Iggy Pop. "Like, the way Eddie went down fighting the demobats with Metallica, that was like, truly epic."

Murphy inclined his head in a regal almost-bow. "I can only but inspire. And I rather enjoyed young Eddie's performance. Truly something only a Master Bard could do."

"I'm still dead though!"

"Relax, man, we'll bring you back in flashbacks or something. Or maybe make you into a vampire!"

"Hey, you'd better - because I am this close to writing the Love Song of Eddie Munson and Steve Harrington and posting it on AO3!"

Professor Gadling knew when to give in. "Fine, you can use The New Inn for your session tonight. Just try not to wreck the place while you're off trying to fight the forces of darkness or whatever."

Murphy leaned over to drop a kiss into his hair. "We'll put all the breakables away before we begin our quest anew, dearest."

-end-

Footnote the First: Shortly after Dustin compiled his List of Cryptid Teachers on Campus, a new Professor joined the faculty, having retired from his former tailoring job at Kingsman. His name? Michael Percival Archangelus.

Footnote the Second: Dream of the Endless is not quite sure how he ended up adopting Hob's students and joining their D&D group, but he is quite charmed at their imagination and creativity and thoroughly enjoyed the idea of designing a villain formidable enough to test them.

Footnote the Third: Look, Dream still hadn't quite gotten all the nuances of a healthy relationship but he's at least figured out that minor spats and squabbles do not equate to breaking up and ending things forever. Hob's made sure of that. The kisses definitely helped.

****

Did I also just crossover Forever Knight, Kingsman and Stranger Things into this ridiculousness? Yes, yes I did. Nobody tell Neil.

Also, the "Michael" in this story is the headcanon Michael I came up with for the Lucifer show. Except obviously, this Michael isn't an evil twin douchecanoe but is an actual legit good guy... who uh.... spent a few years with Kingsman.

[sanstropfremir]

ok this took way longer than i expected because i got sidetracked looking at paintings and reading poetry and just admiring the mv, but it's finally finished!! let's talk about

higher

✨

i'm going to draw your attention to a few things.

firstly, these verses from rime of the ancient mariner by samuel taylor coleridge, published 1834:

The harbour-bay was clear as glass,

So smoothly it was strewn!

And on the bay the moonlight lay,

And the shadow of the Moon.

The rock shone bright, the kirk no less,

That stands above the rock:

The moonlight steeped in silentness

The steady weathercock.

And the bay was white with silent light,

Till rising from the same,

Full many shapes, that shadows were,

In crimson colours came.

A little distance from the prow

Those crimson shadows were:

I turned my eyes upon the deck—

Oh, Christ! what saw I there!

Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat,

And, by the holy rood!

A man all light, a seraph-man,

On every corse there stood.

This seraph-band, each waved his hand:

It was a heavenly sight!

They stood as signals to the land,

Each one a lovely light;

This seraph-band, each waved his hand,

No voice did they impart—

No voice; but oh! the silence sank

Like music on my heart.

secondly, this ivan aivazovsky painting, chaos (the creation), c. 1841:

and thirdly, the memorial of percy shelley, who drowned in a boating accident at age 29, in 1822:

there's a common conflation between the romantic and the pastoral in the general cultural consensus because the pastoral a) has been around as an art term longer than romantic, and b) romanticism does use some similar imagery. but there is a key difference: the pastoral is specfically an idealization of 'the simple shepherding life,' often for high class and urban audiences who have no conception of the details of this life includes. one of the more famous examples is christopher marlowe's a passionate shepherd to his love, published in 1599:

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove,

That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the Rocks,

Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow Rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing Madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of Roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our pretty Lambs we pull;

Fair lined slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and Ivy buds,

With Coral clasps and Amber studs:

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me, and be my love.

The Shepherds’ Swains shall dance and sing

For thy delight each May-morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me, and be my love.

whereas romanticism is a more pointedly specific movement that was active from around 1800 to 1850, primarily focused on intense emotion and catharsis as the primary experiential output of an artwork. which most prominently manifested in a deep fascination and glorification of the natural environment and historical nostalgia. the movement sprung from the german sturm und drang (literally storm and drive/stress) period of the late 1760s to early 1780s, which was a direct reaction to rationalism and enlightenment. romanticism had similar impulses; it was also a revival of medievalism and a reaction against the looming urban sprawl and mechanization of the industrial revolution. a typical romantic poem from one of the originators of the english movment william wordsworth, composed upon westminster bridge, september 3, 1802, originally published 1807:

Earth has not any thing to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty:

This City now doth, like a garment, wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still!

this romantic fascination with nature was underpinned by the philosophy of the sublime, generally agreed to be first treatised by edmund burke in 1756, the theory was also written about by kant and hegel. in the simplest of terms, the sublime is a quality of greatness beyond calculation, imitation, and human comprehension. the sublime is twofold; the greatness of the ocean is beautiful, but its power is also terrifying, and the experience of the sublime is to feel those two at once. to be in awe and also to be horrified of its ability to sink ships and drown a life in a tempermental change of tide.

let's take a quick detour to talk about

clothing

in the present day we have become much more lax thanks to the aesthetic movement in the late nineteenth century, but back in the early victorian period there are still highly structured rules about when and what clothing one can wear in public. and the clothing itself is also highly structured. anyone with a passing understanding of the victorian era knows about the whole flashing of the ankle thing and corsets galore, and it is true that the general day to day garments cover a lot of area. for men in particular, this manifests in no less than three layers in public at all times: shirt, waistcoat, and suit jacket, with a coat or mantle overtop in colder temperatures. this also includes a variation of a neck tie (depending on what year), hat, gloves, and any other decided upon accessories (this can also include a corset and other padded structural underpinnings). an important tangent to mention here is that this is the uniform of the upper classes, although the rules do apply to the lower classes if they wanted to appear 'sophisticated.' the working man's uniform was also shirt, waistcoat, trousers, but the difference here is in the textiles themselves; the colours tended to be much more drab, with less complicated patterns. obviously due to the price fabric itself, but also due to the labour of laundry. an indicator of class here is the white shirt itself and its pristine implications. (there is a longer conversation here about the invention of neckties and detachable collars and cuffs, but that's for another day). the silhouettes are very important to note here in the higher mv, as they are directly referential to the 'romantic poet' archetype of loose shirt and tight pants that we see in popular culture. but as i've just said, the reality is that men of the era were not dressed like this out in public. this look is essentially underwear; the implications are salacious. so where did this come from? well, we can blame it mostly on lord byron, who by all accounts was the first western 'rockstar.' notoriously called 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' by lady caroline lamb (a married women he publically had an affair with), byron was openly bisexual and deeply hedonistic with a lot of questionable habits, but his poetry was so popular that he was known to have women following him in the street and gathering in large quanities to see him at salons. and this was close to three decades before lizstomania. his close friends and contemporaries included percy and mary shelley, with whom he lived with abroad in italy for some time (this living arrangement resulted in the writing of both frankenstein and john polidori's the vampyre). byron's reputation was so eclipsing that the image of the lush poet lazing in his undergarments has become its own genre of romantic, slightly removed from the movement byron was writing in. it's also worth it to point out that there are no official portraits of byron dressed like this from the time. the visual assumption is somewhat apochryphal. now let's get into some specifics. a.c.e is not unfamiliar to this silhouette; as previously mentioned in this post i wrote about their styling, the boxy loose upper and fitted lower is their general mode for their styling because of its emphasis on legs. cactus was the most extreme example of this, and to prove my point, this specific silhouette is extremely common in classical ballet:

1. vaslav nijinsky, giselle, 1911 2. nehemiah kish, george balanchine's ballo della regina, 2011/12

higher fits very neatly into this same category: we have an emphasis on the legs through tightly fitted garments and also through light reflective textile, as well as a secondary emphasis on arm and shoulder movements with looser fit shirts. plus, the shirts are made from fabrics that have good drape and flow, and mimic the visual effects of water:

there are also several instances of scale patterning and wetlook hair styles, further elabourating on the siren theme. and the jewelry is the same, purposefully cut clear stones for oceanic sparkle or pearls, the gem directly born from water, as highlighting accents to specific parts of the body - namely eyes, hands, and torso:

the body jewelry also serves a double purpose in addition to being sparkly; it gives a semblance of shape to their torsos so their movements aren't totally lost in the shroud of their shirts, and it also invokes some of that salacious element that us as a modern audience doesn't necessarily perceive in the same way when we see a man wearing only a shirt. all of these points are especially prominent in the stage costuming. concerning the veils, these are an aesthetic choice following the theme of depicting water without actually using water. the song has a very breathless quality to it, and the lyrics directly make reference to water and breathlessness, so it only makes sense to have a physical manifestation of struggling to breathe.

now let's talk about

mise-en-scène

unlike most kpop mvs, I would argue that higher is not a spectacle in what we normally see spectacle to be. the overwhelming visual saturation of goblin (and the goblin remix) is more in line with what we expect, but how do you follow that, top it? the answer is that you don't. you aim for something with a completely different feel, which is exact what they did with higher.

the performing arts did not escape romanticism. the very start of the movement, sturm und drang, is actually named from a specific play written by friedrich maximilian klinger that premiered in 1777. the plays of the brief period are characterized by extreme and passionate emotions, and were siblings to one of the most famous genres of theatre, the melodrama. meant to appeal directly to the emotions of the audience using sensationalist plots and stock characters, the melodrama was the predominent form of entertainment in victorian england and gradually developed a specific form of its own. in this period we also start to see the development of 'stagecraft' into the recognizable form that it takes today. footlights, limelight/spotlighting, the separation of house and stage lighting, fly galleries, elevator platform mechanics, and the first (purported) western use of rear projection are all innovations of the late 18th and 19th centuries, as melodramas were known to have very intricate and spectacular stagings. and to go along with these stagecraft mechanics we see the rise in designated stage crews, which were predominantly off-duty sailors looking to make money. the rope systems that made up the fly galleries were very similar to that on ships, and much of the terminology and supersitions crossed over: this is the origin of the term 'rigging' being used for suspending set elements, and also the origin of the 'don't whistle in a theatre' superstition. as sailors communicated with whistle patterns on ships, the same system was adopted for changing scenery, and therefore whistling a random pattern could potentially drop a setpiece on an unsuspecting victim.

so with all this backstory out of the way, what is the very first full location we see? a stage, complete with forced perspective via the painted fabric legs (the side panels) and borders (the wavy upper panels). we even have a flat painted backdrop with a projection screen and hanging overhead lamps. there's also a second interior set, a desk in what looks to be a study of some kind. bit self explanatory on this one, taking the poet notion on the nose.

the locations have a bit of an obtuse arc, but it's there when you look for it. it starts interior spaces, where the ideas of sublime attempted to be recreated for the viewer. then it moves to transitory spaces; portions of nature isolated from a whole environment, interjections of human architecture into natural spaces:

(the white hut structure in the greenhouse is reminiscent of a skene (literally hut/tent), which is the structure at the back of the stage in ancient greek theatre used for the actors to change their masks and costumes. it was originally temporary, but slowly transformed into permanent stage architecture)

and then finally outdoors, into the sublime itself:

jwm turner, crossing the bridge, 1815

lastly,

lighting

there's a very clear lighting pattern here, primarily in light and dark. the base colour story is fairly simple complementary pairs; there's a lot of purple/red and green, and blue and yellow/amber, with everything relatively on the same tonal level. there are deliberate interjections of heavily saturated red for specific effect. there are also, most notably, a 'dark' version of all the sets. obviously as a reference to the eclipse that we see in the mv and in the concept photo series, but also as a reference to that darker undercurrent of the sublime, the upsetting, the uncanny, and the terrifying:

And the bay was white with silent light/Till rising from the same/Full many shapes, that shadows were/In crimson colours came.

[icannotreadcursive]

So we all know JKR is a moron, and one of the places that shows is in the official Wizarding Schools list. Mostly because there are way too few of them

There are officially 11 of them, and we know 8: 3 in Europe (one of which is in the British Isles), 1 in Russia, 1 in Japan, 1 in Africa, 1 in South America, and 1 in North America. That's a ridiculously tiny number, and almost all of them cover ranges that are ridiculously huge and with such diverse cultures and magical traditions within their range. So let's run through what I consider a sensible distribution of wizarding schools.

Starting with the British Isles, we know we have Hogwarts in Scotland.  There would also be one in Ireland—because of the way Irish history has gone, this school likely would have taken a side in the Troubles and therefore be, at least unofficially, either very Catholic or very Protestant. Irish wizarding kids whose families are religiously opposite to the school, or not particularly religious, may then choose to go to Hogwarts instead to avoid conflict. I think there used to beother schools—1 in Wales, and as many as 3 in England, 1 in or near London, and 1 each associated with Cambridge and Oxford universities. The Cambridge and Oxford schools I think would have evolved over time into magic colleges, because I do not believe for a second that there is no such thing as post-secondary wizarding education. The London school can't still exist and have it still make sense that all our Hogwarts friends end up at Hogwarts—if it's a fancy private school, Draco is there not at Hogwarts; if it's a public school Hermione and all the Weasleys are there, not at Hogwarts, and so on. I'm not sure exactly why or when I think it closed, but sometime before the 1990s, probably before the 1950s, Hogwarts absorbed the London school's student pool. The Welsh school I think was a victim of the English destruction of Welsh culture. If it still exists, or has been rebuilt, I think it's very small and teaches at least partially in Welsh.

Moving on to the rest of Europe. We know we have Beauxbatons in France, and I buy that. Then we have Durmstrang, which is allegedly in Scandinavia. “Durmstrang” doesn't sound Scandinavian to me, it sounds German, because it is German. It's obviously derived from the German phrase “Sturm und Drang” which means “storm and stress,” so I feel like Durmstrang must be somewhere that is or has been German-speaking.  I'm inclined to put it in Poland in one of the areas that used to be in Prussia, possibly near Danzig. Durmstrang would then serve most everywhere that has ever been part of that which is now Germany, so most of the middle of Europe.

I do think there is also at least 1 school in Scandinavia. And there's going to be 1 in Spain, 1 it Italy—specifically Rome—and 1 in the south-east of Europe, probably Romania or Bulgaria.

That brings us up to a total of 8 major magic schools in Europe, 2 of them in the British Isles, not counting any magic colleges.

You may note I sort of left out most of Eastern Europe. That's because I think there's probably a school somewhere between Moscow, and Minsk in Belarus that serves Eastern Europe and Western Russia. That is still a very large geographical range, but a lot of that area is quite sparsely populated so I think it works out, especially if we expect that there are smaller, more local schools and/or homeschooling coalitions going on. We'll say this is Koldovstoretz, the canon Russian school. But also, Russia is freaking enormous, there's no way there's only one magic school in all of Russia. I think there must be ant least 1 more, out east, but probably there's 2, one out east and one more toward the middle, possibly near Krasnoyarsk.

I'm willing to believe that there is 1 major magic school in Japan, and that's the canon Mahoutokoro School of Magic. That cannot be the only school in Asia.

There has to be 1 in China. Now, despite China's size, I'm actually okay with the idea of there only being 1 major official magic school. China has a long history of centralizing government and education and its vast bureaucracy. I can see there being one school that's been there since, like, the 800s AD. If there is only the one official school, though, there will also be smaller local less prestigious schools, and again homeschooling.

There's definitely at least 1 in India. Mongolia and Kazakhstan are both traditionally nomadic enough that I expect magic is taught much more on a familial, elder-to-child basis without any large centralized schools. I feel like there would be 1 in Korea, because while Korea is relatively small, it is culturally very distinct from both China and Japan and has historically made a point of maintaining that distinction, so I don't think they'd be sending their wizarding kids to either of the neighboring magic schools.

I am going to very conservatively say there's 1 on the Indochinese Peninsula.

That gives us 5 in Asia. With the 8 in Europe and 3 in Russia, we're already at 16 major magic schools.

There's at least 4 in the middle east: 1 in Turkey, 1 in Iran, 1 in Saudi Arabia, and 1 in the vicinity of Israel that focuses on Judaic magic tradition. Exactly where that one is—whether it's within the modern state of Israel or not—is going to depend pretty significantly on how old it is, whether it's born of Jewish cultural revival and reclamation or if it's ancient. It's quite likely there would be more schools than this, it's a large region with longstanding emphasis on education, but let's just go with these 4.

We're at 20 schools.

Africa. Canon gives us Uagadou School of Magic in Uganda. The idea that there is only 1 school to serve the entire African continent is insane. And I don't think there's any way around the fact that it derives from the colonialist and racist idea that Africa and African people are uncivilized and uneducated.

In North Africa, I'm saying there's at least 2: 1 in Morocco, and 1 in Egypt. Because of regional histories, there's definitely 1 in Ethiopia and definitely 1 in Zimbabwe. I expect at least 1 in Western Africa, probably Nigeria. I was thinking that is there's 1 in South Africa (the country specifically, not the region of Southern Africa) there'd be 2, one white one black, because of Apartheid, but on second thought I highly suspect that until quite recently, most or all white wizarding kids in South Africa would have been sent to Durmstrang or Hogwarts, depending on their parents' backgrounds and socialaspirations, so I'm not sure what magic schools there might be in Southern Africa other than the one in Zimbabwe.

This puts us at (a minimum of) 6 schools in Africa, 26 worldwide.

Hopping the Atlantic to North America where it's just as ridiculous to think there's 1 school for the entire damn continent. There's going to be at least 8 in the U.S. alone. An old affluent white one up east that looks a whole lot like its European cousins (that's Ilvermorny), 2 in the south (one that started off whites only, one historically black), 2 in the midwest (again, one white one black), 1 in California, 1 that at least used to be girls only (this one is probably also East Coast), and 1 that focuses on Native magic traditions that's either west/midwest or in or near the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina.

There's at least 3 in Canada: an English speaking one probably east of middle, an English speaking one in the west that probably also gets kids from Alaska, and a French speaking one in Quebec.

I'm thinking another 3 in Mexico and Mesoamerica, one of which was or is closely tied to the school in Spain, and all 3 of which teach different, even conflicting, magical traditions.

We're at 40 schools worldwide.

In South America, we know we have Castelobruxo in Brazil, which allegedly serves all of South America, but that's also stupid, in no small part because Brazil speaks a different language from the entire rest of the continent. So that gives us bare minimun 2 schools: Portuguese speaking Castelobruxo, and another Spanish speaking school. I'm gonna say there's actually 2 Spanish speaking schools, for a total of 3.

Finally, Australia's gotta have 1.

So, using my numbers, which I fully recognize leave out a lot of places and still give most of these schools impractically large ranges, even taking into account home schooling and community-based education, we get 44 Wizarding schools. That's four times the official number.

Like, wtf.

[alexsmitposts]

The Nasty Truth About America’s Love Affair with Narcissism and Self Pity

Column: Society Region: USA in the World

📷There is a saying, “the crazy people have taken over the asylum.” They did that in the United States in 2016, a nation ruled by grifters, petty criminals and the delusional.The sane and decent became the “silent majority” as the not just America but the world learned that the darkness of the American soul depicted so often by Hollywood is not fiction at all and that a reality TV actor had tapped into a cesspit of sewage that has seeped into every American community.Then came 2020.By sheer luck along and, yes, the votes of 81 million Americans lucky enough to survive voter suppression and intimidation financed by a worldwide organized crime cartel, the insane are now out of power.The new “captain’’ of America’s “ship of state” may well, however, have something on his hands worse than the Titanic. The Titanic had the courtesy to actually sink while America, under this analogy, drifts lifelessly along.Extremism is big money in America, climate denialism, race hatred, social discord and civil war, hate is both a product and an addiction.It is also one of America’s biggest businesses. There would be no social media, no Google, no news organizations, no underbelly of device driven ecstasy, without fear and hate being marketed like cigarettes and CBD gummies.Roots of America’s Politics of Fear and Hate 2.0American extremism is not the result of poverty or oppression. It originates among the privileged, the “haves” who adhere to insane beliefs driven by boredom and generalized dissatisfaction at lives the rest of the word would envy, overpaid jobs, gas guzzling cars and trucks and fast food laden with fats and poisonous additives.If you asked many millions of Americans to define “reality,” their brains would grind to a halt. Reality is based, not on experience or observation but on “beliefs” and strongly held “opinions” which are invariably those scripted for them.Beliefs and opinions untested by the feedback loop of life has created a generation of Americans who are, essentially, living in a video game. This makes Qanon a AI program.Collective delusion has become the norm for many, and by “many” we mean up to 150 million lost souls, caught in an RPG game or, for some, a “first person shooter.”What does it make those who play? But then we have seen all this before, just without a population softened up to this degree by chaos theory conditioning. Some background:The Roots of Fascist AmericaIn 1940, Adolf Hitler was Time Magazine’s man of the year. The parents and grandparents of Trump’s supporters, following Huey Long, Gerald L.K. Smith, Father Coughlin and Charles Lindbergh sought to establish a “whites only” America based on the German model with carefully selected military leaders run by Wall Street pulling the strings.There is something magical, even today, about being “white folks.” That magic originated in the 18th and 19th centuries with the “Sturm and Drang” movement. Extremes of emotion and subjectivity were exalted above rationalism.Childish temper tantrums became a philosophy and eventually a political movement.The movement, which failed in Europe, found fertile ground in the United States in a society that increasingly defined itself though ritualized slavery and degradation and oppression of “coloured races.”This was a society built on the genocide that wiped out millions of indigenous peoples with the survivors now living on “reservations.”Imagine land where nothing grows, and no one could live. This is an “Indian reservation.” From time-to-time oil is found or minerals or there is a need to build a pipeline. Then even the worst land on earth is taken away.This was done in South Africa. It was done in Rhodesia. It used to be called “colonialism.”By the 20th century there were no indigenous people left to imprison. America then turned to warring against the freed slaves and millions of “undesirable” European immigrants, Catholics and Jews in particular.Curiously, this war was centered on banking issues, blocking trade unions, sustaining child labor and controlling farm prices. This created the alignments that

exist today, the strong tie between Wall Street and homegrown extremism built of bigotry and race hatred.You see, too many of the undesirables that fled autocratic Europe found that the long hand of international banking that maintained serfdom for millions, even in supposedly advanced Western Europe, had institutionalized the same in the United States under the guise of representative democracy.Leading the way was the resurgent Ku Klux Klan.By the 1920s national membership was estimated at over 8 million. Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and a dozen other northern and western states were governed by Klan controlled politicians who used the state militias and National Guard as a private army and local police as armed enforcers.Behind it all, the banks that brought Hitler to power and the American corporations that made millions financing Nazi Germany’s war machine, General Motors, Dupont-Remington, Lockheed, Alcoa and General Motors.Even Hitler Would Cringe…The new American revolution, driven by Donald Trump and his televangelist backers, is the result of as social anthropologists note, generations being allowed to live the life of spoiled children, steeped in narcissism and self-pity.The events of January 6, 2020 and how it tied to many American religious leaders has emptied churches across the US, with millions finding themselves humiliated with having followed “false prophets” in support of hatred and tyranny. From Salon:“…these religious figures (Trump’s powerful televangelist backers) and the institutions they led (have become) hyper-political, the outward mission (has)seemed to be almost exclusively in service of oppressing others. The religious right is not nearly as interested in feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless as much as using religion as an all-purpose excuse to abuse women and LGBTQ people. In an age of growing wealth inequalities, with more and more Americans living hand-to-mouth, many visible religious authorities were using their power to support politicians and laws to take health care access from women and fight against marriage between same-sex couples. And then Donald Trump happened.Trump was a thrice-married chronic adulterer who routinely exposed how ignorant he was of religion, and who reportedly — and let’s face it, obviously — made fun of religious leaders behind their backs. But religious right leaders did not care. They continually pumped Trump up like he was the second coming, showily praying over him and extorting their followers to have faith in a man who literally could not have better conformed to the prophecies of the Antichrist. It was comically over the top, how extensively Christian right leaders exposed themselves as motivated by power, not faith.”Jerry Falwell Jr., who introduced Donald Trump to America’s evangelical Christians, is himself an enigmatic figure.Falwell is typical of America’s religious leaders and stories such as this, from Fox News, are daily fodder for Americans:“Jerry Falwell Jr. allegedly played games with his wife Becki where they’d rank Liberty University students, they most wanted to have sex with, according to one pupil who claimed to have been intimate with Becki.The ex-student — who claims Becki initiated oral sex with him 10 years ago — told Politico that she bragged about playing the sex-ranking game while walking around the Virginia campus with her evangelical-leader husband.‘Her and Jerry would eye people down on campus,’ the former student of the conservative school told the outlet.Social Engineering Through PandemicAnyone who really lives in America will make this perfectly clear, this country has turned into a lunatic asylum. Our previous president told us COVID was a hoax, allowed over 40,000 from China enter the US while the threat of COVID was well known and turned his back while, today’s figure, 570,264 Americans died. Experts now cite that Trump was personally responsible for over 400,000 of those deaths. He is quite simply a mass murderer.Do remember that only 900 died in Australia. Canada lost 23,000. 35 died in Vietnam. 440 died in

Cuba.One might wonder how a Hitleresque figure such as Donald Trump could have millions of followers while the legal mechanisms in the US are amassing evidence for both criminal and civil prosecutions which quite probably will never come to bear.Groundhog Day, an Unending NightmareLet me tell you how I began my morning. As a journalist and intelligence briefer, I review incoming material, both open source and private intel. The big story overnight involves a revelation on a religious talk show involving theories on COVID 19 and vaccines.The show is by Jim Bakker, an important religious leader and political advisor. In 1989, Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison for mail and wire fraud but served on 5 of those years. He has stolen tens of million of dollars from his congregation to support a wild and lavish lifestyle of utter debauchery.In this area, he is typical of America’s evangelical Christian leaders.The guest on Bakker’s show was Steve Quayle. I know Quayle as an advisor to President George ‘W’ Bush on Middle East affairs. I know of no qualifications for this post.I do know of Quayle. After 9/11 he approached my staff in Amman, Jordan offering them generous payments to “launder” otherwise sourceless intelligence on Iraq into the Bush White House to justify an American invasion of that nation.Two million people died, maybe many more, due to fake US intelligence on Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found.Groundhog Day TwoLet us take the clock back a few years. I remember traveling to Kentucky, then and still a very backward area of the country, in 1956 to visit relatives. This was a presidential election year, and my father was working for Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic candidate that was opposing Dwight Eisenhower.Even I, at a fairly young age, was flabbergasted at the dinner table discussion that day as my “hillbilly” relatives expounded on their political opinions and version of historical fact. This is how they laid it out:We should support “Ike” because he killed Hitler personally after storming Berlin. They described a sword fight. What they described reminded me of the death of the Sheriff of Nottingham played by Basil Rathbone in the 1938 film Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn. They then went out to describe how the US beat both Russia and Germany who were at war with the US. It seems Russia did not fight Hitler at all but was actually Germany’s ally. My father, a reasonably educated person and longtime friend of Russia, found this somewhat disturbing. Next, we heard about how “godless communists” were going to take away our freedoms and destroy our standard of living. I might remind you that my relatives in Hazard, Kentucky had no electricity or plumbing. One of my cousins lived in an abandoned car parked in a slag field.During that trip, we visited my grandfather, a retired coal miner. He lived in a shack covered with tar paper along a railroad track. I loved my grandfather.Life Lessons Do not Come Over the InternetOver the next 60 plus years, I had shared tea with farmers in Vietnam, military veterans living in a small shack in the Khyber Pass and everything from heads of state to struggling farmers all over Africa and the Middle East. None would have guessed that there are Americans that live in not just utter poverty but steeped not only in delusional ignorance but far worse than that.A current obsession with American “conservatives” is the fear of being overrun with transexuals, who, according to many, represent a threat to our freedoms. I have never met a transsexual. From what I understand, up to 10,000 currently serve in America’s armed forces.Back during the 1960s when I served with a Marine combat unit in Vietnam, we probably had no transexuals, only gay or “homosexual” Marines and Navy. Absolutely nothing was thought of it as these individuals invariably served with honor and courage.They existed in significant numbers.Today aging “conservatives” who avoided military service in Vietnam continually harp about saving the rest of us from “homosexuals in the military.”Voting and

“Jim Crow”Let us take another look at efforts by the Hitleresque racists and bigots to save the rest of us from ourselves, against our will of course. In Georgia, the legislature recently passed a law that makes it a felony to offer water to someone waiting in line to vote.Water is an issue because, in Georgia and many GOP (Trump’s party) run states, polling places in areas where people of color vote have been closed causing day long lines. In 2020, volunteers offered food and water to those who would otherwise have either collapsed or left without voting. Now offering food and water can lead to being executed by racist police, quite literally, or spending 5 years in prison.In 2020, voters in many key urban areas were threatened by armed neo-Nazi militias or openly threated in emails from Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, organizations deemed terrorist in Canada and now citied by the US Department of Justice as trying to overthrow the US government.In January, during a US Senate runoff election in Georgia, 364,000 voters were challenged by the GOP in Georgia as “illegal.” All of them were African American. All 364,000 were qualified to vote and their votes were eventually counted, giving Georgia two Democratic US Senators.The Federal Elections Commission is now investigating that this effort to rig the Georgia senate elections was secretly financed by illegal contributions from members of organized crime.Groundhog Day ThreeI live in a rural and primarily Republican area. I parked my car less than 30 feet from the door of a polling place, a local church, and voted in less than 3 minutes with no lines or ID check.In order to limit mail voting, Trump ordered mail sorting machines destroyed with sledgehammers and over 40,000 mailboxes picked up and junked as scrap metal. Mail service in many cities simply ended. One letter I sent to Washington DC from Michigan took 45 days to arrive.Hundreds of millions of pieces of mail, starting in late September 2020 simply disappeared, not just votes but government checks, Christmas presents and medications from pharmacies sent to Veterans.All of this was not just publicly known, things are far worse than that. Those who so many decades ago believed the United States fought Russia in World War Two, would raise children and grandchildren with no respect for human rights, no understanding of democracy, no ethical norms nor any remote understanding of right or wrong.This is the reality for those living in America, a reality that those who watch America from afar through the distorted lens of Google Corporation and the press, can never fathom.Ah, but things are so much worse than that. It is not just having spent 4 years with a president who told us you could cure covid by drinking bleach or eating flashlights. It gets worse.Groundhog Day FourA few days ago, former Trump advisor Cirsten Welcon claimed that President Biden had been paid billions of dollars by China to let them test their newest “weather weapons” on Texas. Power outages there, now attributed to corrupt backroom deals by Republican politicians, led to many deaths and considerable suffering.Little did any of us know of the role of the magic Chinese weather machines.In another vignette, it has been a years since Trump advisor and televangelist Kenneth Copeland stood before a television audience raving like a lunatic. He then pursed his lips and blew at the television camera, the “wind of god” which he claimed destroyed COVID forever.This effort by Reverend Copeland, who has millions of followers and a vast financial empire, led President Trump to announce that COVID 19 was going to disappear.ConclusionSome would like to believe that the institutionalized insanity of America’s right is restricted to the “Untermensch” substrata of rural poor whites. However, for decades now, the most radicalized and extremist elements of America’s society, the most ignorant, the most warlike yet cowardly, have gained control of the US military through service academies which espouse their conspiracy theories.With the onset of Trump, they gained much

more than a foothold in American politics, they now control many states “lock, stock and barrel,” and are involved in not just voter suppression but a general quashing of human rights and free speech.The door to this turn of events began well into the 19th century. Laws, still on the books, are now being employed against Donald Trump, from CNN:The Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has filed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump that cites a little-known federal statute that was first passed after the Civil War.The complaint, filed Tuesday by Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, accuses Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers of violating the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act. The lawsuit accuses them of inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election.These same extremist elements and calling them “extremist” insults al Qaeda and ISIS (banned in Russia) who are moderate in their beliefs and practices in comparison. These statements might sound extreme in themselves were it not for so many Americans, religious and military leaders, members of government and business leaders calling for wholesale murder of their political opponents citing their personal communication with a non-corporeal authority they said is “god.”Americans hear this all day every day, the emails are unending, TV networks like Fox, OAN or Newsmax say little else, and that message is carried not just through media but lawn signs dotting the countryside.Hundreds of thousands of American homes are festooned with paraphernalia espousing murder of public officials and their families. Americans see it every day driving to work. What they ask themselves when they see things like this is how many others hold these beliefs but keep it to themselves?What if academics wrote papers on the issues, we discuss here? What if the BBC produced a documentary? Would things get better? The problem dates back not just generations but centuries.It is not a moral problem; it is not a political problem. It is one of degeneracy. At some point we may be required to reassess our definition of sentience.

[darlingeureka]

Update from the Anchorage Shatterdome

It has been... honestly, I’ve lost count of how many days it’s been since the Anchorage Shatterdome went into lockdown. The last time I left the Shatterdome itself was in March, when Uncle Hermann snuck us out for some last-minute quarantine necessities (tea, chocolate, etc).

How is life in the Anchorage Shatterdome?

Well, I celebrated my seventeenth birthday by vid-chatting with Chuck, Max, and Mako. That was almost three?? months ago, and that was probably the highlight of this whole quarantine thing. The Jaegers, obviously, are still being sent out, and the cadets had a mandatory two-week quarantine before the next term started at the Academy. That being said, most of the classes are still online.

Including Uncle Hermann’s classes. Good news, everyone: he finally figured out how Zoom works. Bad news: I share a wall with his quarters and can hear all of his classes. But he is doing well, morale-wise, and the cadets are certainly learning their engineering.

As for my classes, term hasn’t started quite yet, so I’ve been reviewing my Russian. And, of course, reading as much as I can. Uncle Hermann set me an assignment on the Sturm und Drang literary movement, so once I can get access to some books, that’s what I’ll be doing.

In the meantime, feel free to send me any questions you want to know about the PPDC or the Shatterdome or whatever.

-Anna Gottlieb

[egoschwank]

al things considered — when i post my masterpiece #829

first posted in facebook april 17, 2020

neo rauch -- "gewitterfront" [i.e., storm front"] (2016)

"the unconscious is a never-ending source of imageries that seem to just be waiting to reveal themselves in my paintings. it's an area where things are still all jumbled together and don't have specific intentions, material that the painter is allowed to configure at will" ... neo rauch "a cock is crowing far away ... and another soldier’s deep in prayer some mother’s child has gone astray, she can’t find him anywhere but i can hear another drum ... beating for the dead that rise whom nature’s beast fears as they come ... and all i see are dark eyes" ... bob dylan "for me, each blank canvas is a fog bank that i enter equally anxious and excited safe in the knowledge that i will come across things that i have never seen before" ... neo rauch "obviously, i'm just making this all up as i go folks ... the storm and the drum ... the sturm und drang ... the cock and the beast ... zimmer and the man" ... al janik