#This is actually a portrait for Nina (and so was the one I posted a month or so ago of transbian Nine) - she’s in my system

[esrah-rah-rasputin]

Don’t worry ms Doctor I saw your leather jacket

[ID: a digital portrait of the ninth doctor from the shoulders up. She’s looking over her shoulder to the left, and her hair catches the air around her. She’s wearing a v neck shirt and her leather jacket, and he hair is shoulder length with buzzcut sides. The background has little flecks of white in it, and the lighting goes from yellow, to pink, to purple. /End ID]

[fancifulplaguerat]

Proper (but non exhaustive!) Nina Kaina post. 

I continue to obsess over how Nina is framed within Patho Classic's text and how players may be meant to view her. To me, she occupies a half-divine or mythic role to other characters and within the text itself that portrays her as an epitome of utopian ideals. I think Nina's character is, to an extent, the ideal of utopia that the Kains and other utopians are fighting under. In particular given Victor deadass says that “Nina is not just my beloved wife. She is a spirit in whose name one could charge into battle with despair itself.” But another line that haunts me about Nina being revered as an ideal is when Yulia tells Daniil “They loved her for being a true queen. They love her for having died young.” She likewise says that “people adore her even more now than when she was alive.” Whether purposeful or not, Yulia brings to mind the objectified ideal of a beautiful woman who dies young and thus retains perpetual beauty alongside the potential of youth and all the possibilities which attend that.

The player’s understanding of Nina is often informed by those who desired or adored her, with character descriptions generally reiterating that Nina was foremost imposing and attractive—that she had a “terrible and powerful presence” and “imperial deportment;” that she was “a radiantly beautiful woman,” “The most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen.” These descriptions further paint her as charming virago type, “So wild and fierce and intimidating! Just one brief look at her walking down the street—with or without her escort—could make you weak in the knees. You could almost picture her upon a throne. She could cut you with a knife looking you in the eye—and no one would say a thing.” Even Aglaya’s vitriolic description of Nina forefronts her as beautiful, blue-blooded, and fierce: “Nina was  the embodiment of absolute evil. The charming, intoxicating, beautiful evil, the evil that can drive you mad. The graceful and elegant evil that is fast to capture anyone in its web—even those who stand up to evil till the very last.” Thus that, I feel, is the primary portrait of her offered in passing—that Nina was beautiful, regal, and untouchable. 

Yet Katerina offers more insight into Nina’s actual self when she confides Victor/Nina’s history to Clara. She says, “Nina Lilich [was a] bright, refined, devilish aristocrat who fell for Victor for some reason, and he brought her here, in this faraway corner of the Steppe. It turned out then that Nina was harbouring plans concerning this place… And the Kains’ elders, Georgiy and Simon, had certainly impressed her… To put it briefly, Nina became the ruler of this land. […] Nina was striving to get to a place where no human being is allowed, and dragging her followers along, believing that her goal justified their suffering.” Is this conversation, Katerina further notes, “To Nina, human lives were tools.” Little Vlad similarly says, “Nina the Wild never held human lives in high regard.” An implication of cruelty, yet one employed to achieve noble aims. Yulia too points to this, saying that “Whatever power Nina had to dominate the souls of her subjects, she hardly ever resorted to it. Not that she needed to. She was worshipped all the same and her most inhumane endeavours were eagerly forgiven […] The reason would be, perhaps, that whatever Nina did, she did to appease the people. However cruel, her every undertaking would illuminate the town with festivity and high spirits.” 

Katerina, Yulia, and Vlad’s dialogues suggest that Nina was cruel by necessity, but adored nonetheless because her aims were ultimately for a greater good—similar, in my mind, to how the game engages with utopia itself. I feel even the emphasis on her attractiveness plays into this (though. hardy fucking side eye) to frame her in-text as synonymous with utopia. 

Yet! I feel Nina is not confined to being the dead beautiful woman, in particular through her involvement with the Polyhedron. Katerina does, after all, state that Nina had her own pre-existing plots. Peter corroborates this, that “Nobody would have allowed me to even model them… if not for Nina the Wild! Nina gave me a whole living town—a town aching and craving to go heavenwards, to the stars—a town desperately hungering for a crown—the crown I’ve given to it!” Given this; yes, the Polyhedron is for Simon, but to me Nina seems no less instrumental to it, namely the Polyhedron’s powers (though I might be misinterpreting this. lmao.) I completely overlooked thus far that it’s seemingly Nina’s soul which affords the Polyhedron its power to allow children to see their dreams. That is, both Victor and Georgiy tell Clara that should she enter the Polyhedron, she is unlikely to see anything because of Nina specifically, not merely because she is no longer a child (debatable, gentlemen). Georgiy says, “I’m afraid Nina will show you nothing, since you’re no longer a child.” Likewise Victor: “I am afraid you’re not going to see anything there. I doubt that Nina will be favorably disposed towards you.” This to suggest the that Nina actively gives the Polyhedron its power, which I feel is further corroborated by Andrey. He describes the Polyhedron as a “mirror that preserves the reflection of the person that has looked into it the last. You know, when Nina died, Maria said she may never be able to cope with grief […] That is when Focus was created.” And another thing!!! Yes, the Polyhedron was created for Simon, but Andrey implies Focus was only created due to Nina; he explains that Peter created Focus likely “because he loved Nina so much […] he ended up creating a space she could inhabit. Can you imagine? You come into a room and can definitely feel that she's there-as if you've simply turned away from her for a second... And you can talk to her.” 

It just compels me to think of the Polyhedron’s machinations not as fucked-up magic (for want of a better word) but Nina actively allowing these children to see their dreams. In this way, Nina is the literal utopia/miracle, but not merely a passive representation of it; rather the active author of it. I think Nina’s role here ties into broader themes about childhood/imagination/motherhood in Patho from which I will abstain because God knows this post is too long already and I am NOT done. Anyway. I think Nina’s involvement with the Polyhedron affords her more characterisation beyond these immortalising/alluring descriptions which more so confine her to occupy the role of utopia incarnate in-text, just as she does in the Townspeoples’ minds. 

Also that as Daniil, the player can converse with her; though I think there is something to be said that it is still through another’s mouth. I trust that we speak to Nina herself, that it is literally her soul—especially given that Maria tells Daniil that she had been sheltering Nina’s memory before Victor; it feels quite literal. BUT. Let’s indulge ! It compels me to consider the ramifications if the player rather speaks to Nina’s ‘memory’—how Victor remembers her, rather than necessarily Nina as she was. That if we speak to Nina’s memory, our interaction her is merely with Nina as an ideal. I wonder whether Victor saw her more as utopia or a woman he fell in love with or both. I mean. I am leaning towards both, given what he tells Clara or how he refers to Nina with the epithet “divine.”

On this note I want to conclude with Victor/Nina’s relationship. In particular that several characters say that Nina was held back by Victor, that Maria’s lack of a husband is what will allow her to surpass her mother. This is echoed most notably, in my opinion, by Khan and Maria herself. Khan also adds that because Nina was “held back by Father […] her power brought more good than evil.” That latter clause interests me in connection to when Peter claims that “Victor was the only person that Nina used to obey not out of fear, but having recognize his superiority […] she rendered complete obedience to Victor, even though he never asked for it.” This implies that Victor could or would stay Nina’s hand from more unsavory means to achieve her goals. That seems consistent with Victor’s character, given that from tossing him on the vivisection table he does seem most compassionate of the Kains. But he never asked her to listen to him, per se, so that implies he would have let her do whatever necessary. 

I do genuinely think that Nina loved Victor rather than potentially seeing him as an instrument for her own aims, given that she only learned of Georgiy/Simon post-marriage (though I do think the opposite reading is possible). Also that simple line when Victor tells Clara that “[Nina] loves me, and is pained by the thought of me having to part with my life…” So perhaps Nina answered to him from her own affections? But then, Peter does make that distinction of ‘superiority,’ which. Perhaps that is clearer in the Russian but it admittedly confuses me. Superiority as in ye olde husband-wife dynamics? That feels doubtful to me; it’s inconsistent with Nina’s character, and the game seems to point away from this—when Daniil states that many wives obey their husbands, Peter argues, “Wives like Nina? No way in hell.” So. Where does that leave us. Was Victor just 'darling if you want. could you perhaps be slightly less evil today but only if you feel like it <3' and Nina decided 'alright perhaps I could be a little less evil. for you <3' but AGAIN Victor did not actually intend Nina to listen to him, which suggests that he would not have stopped her like the domesticated househusband he is. Or the Kains in general, who will purportedly sacrifice anything necessary to achieve their aims. To me all this hinges on what that ‘superiority’ is and honestly I have no satisfactory answer. Does this whole 'Victor held Nina back' insinuate that it was Nina's decision, that Nina chose to hold herself back? 

By way of conclusion I would say I don’t think Nina is truly “evil,” nor are players meant to consider her so. Capella says as much, and I think her characterization ultimately parallels Classic’s preoccupations with utopia. Someone motivated entirely by love and good intentions who is willing to achieve miracles by any means necessary; the latter informing her supposed cruelty or indifference to human life. 

[givehimthemedicine]

some of the footage the lab is feeding El in NINA is of a MIRRORED Rainbow Room.

continuing off my recent post about why NINA has 4 cameras inside of it watching El. some more realizations:

those six screens around the sides are actually just the same three video feeds doubled. the only unique feed is the center one.

which gives us a total of FOUR feeds in NINA even though there are seven screens.

and one of them is backwards.

in reality, if you're standing at the mirror, the benches-and-drawing-tables side of the RR is on your right - as it appears, correctly, in the red feed and green feed. their footage makes sense coming from the cameras I've circled here (not the events within, I'm just talking about the angles these cameras see)

but the yellow feed has been flipped horizontally:

if we are SEEING the drawing/chess corner of the room in the yellow feed, that means it was filmed by the camera in the other corner - over by the plinko/puzzle table. that is the camera circled in this shot of El playing plinko. except we're seeing the wrong side of the room behind her.

"oh Nat, that's all so normal. I wish this was harder to understand." I GOTCHU

we get another shot where the yellow feed IS oriented correctly! like, in the shot where you see all the NINA screens at once, the yellow is wrong. but in the subsequent shots where El is looking woozy at individual screens, that version of the yellow is correct. that is what this camera should see.

and both are the same footage flipped horizontally.

well. the same footage except one of them is a wider angle where you see a lot more of the plinko board on the right but shh I'm too tired to think about that

anyway maybe this helps explain the moving bodies/blood locations, specifically the cases where I swear the sides of the room keep getting conflated.

the live massacre scene is unreliable because it's poor El's brain's mashup of the doctored / contradictory footage she's being shown. El doesn't know which way the RR really was. she doesn't remember it at all. so all footage is given equal weight, rather than her brain autocorrecting the wrong ones.

the RR is so hard to mentally map because it's a mind-numbingly-almost-symmetrical room, and we're frequently shown it via its mirror reflection, which confuses our perception further. El is canonically just as confused.

(I need to dive deeper on the details of this idea when I get more time. @aemiron-main iirc you're the lead investigator on the changing bodies/blood thing so you'd know better off the top of your head - would you say a room mirroring accounts for many more of the discrepancies? certainly not all)

finally, back to the center feed -

I believe this is correctly oriented (you can see a sliver of the mirror on the extreme left, which tracks with where the plinko game is situated, and Little El(?) is operating it right-handed which is consistent with Big El.)

BUT, don't worry, there's still a weird problem with this footage!

this is a close-up low shot behind El(?) which was not filmed from any of the corner-mounted RR surveillance cameras like the other feeds. it would've had to be filmed from one of those tripod ones.

and they do keep a tripod camera in that area of the RR, but it's visibly not where it would've had to be in order to film this footage which causes El to "remember" One in the plinko scene.

btw, why is this the only footage filmed in portrait mode? if it was landscape, we could have seen One sit next to her. as it is, he wouldn't be visible in it at all. maybe that's why.

so why are they flipping just that one feed?

well, since they showed right and wrong versions of the yellow feed, I suspect they sometimes flip the other feeds too. I just only caught them once. they only seldom give us glimpses of what's going on inside NINA.

is the center feed important because it's unique?

the lab hasn't made sure El is watching that one right-side-up. you can see in the reflection in her eye that she's watching the center screen landscape.

which means the one and only of seven screens El is actually watching right-side-up is this one:

why wasn't NINA designed like this, with all the screens the same way, if you just want the viewer to watch and comprehend all the footage?

because NINA isn't for remembering or comprehending.

having all the screens side by side and right-side-up makes it easy to compare footage and spot discrepancies between them (is that why Brenner is watching multiple screens of the same event?).

the NINA weird screen angles is exactly what stopped me from spotting the mirrored RR problem until right now, and I've been scrutinizing this, and I'm not drugged like El is. with a bunch of screens of boring, redundant-looking footage at random angles, your brain tends to just kinda be like "eh, I don't feel like mentally righting that, I'll take your word for it. seems legit."

what's on the center screen when El banishes One?

they don't want me to know. I wish I did.

every time we see El in NINA, her body breaks the water surface in such a way that prevents us seeing a reflection of the center screen. which apparently tends to display the only unique feed.

is it fair to call this footage-flipping onscreen proof of NINA being not merely a memory-viewing machine but a memory-altering / memory-implantation / machine? so, a brainwashing machine?

which has major implications for the Henry and Victor Creel contradictory memories situation, as long suspected by folks smarter than I.

so the "memories" we experience live with El are actually a meshing of either: A) real events and doctored / fabricated elements B) real events but from 4 different timelines C) por qué no los dos?

not sure whether this "creates" a new timeline in any way besides in El's mind, but even if it were just that, that is valuable enough - to make arguably the strongest superpowered person on the planet remember whatever events you want them to.

but just that doesn't explain the 4 cameras inside NINA, does it?

El using her current mind in past memories

don't forget we have a whole scene of Big El, while immersed in a NINA memory, conversing with current Brenner about the events she's experiencing being a memory and not real.

which means Big El is talking while floating in the tank, or else current Brenner wouldn't know to respond by microphone.

and if she can access her current mind/knowledge and apply that inside of past (real or fake) events.... doesn't that mean she can also use her current powers in past events?

YES. HERE SHE IS DOING IT:

El very very rarely bleeds from both nostrils. two-nostril jobs are very strenuous in relation to her current power level (killing the cat guards and closing the gate are the only other times I remember).

which indicates she's doing something HUGE even in relation to her newly HIGHER THAN EVER power level.

I just find it funny that she also bled from both nostrils in the exact event she was remembering while bleeding from both nostrils.......

also Brenner and Owens see her EEG spiking at that moment, which they've shown us repeatedly throughout the show reflects power use. she's DOING SOMETHING.

so.... Iots I need to chew on.

did the massacre go down wrong and the lab needs to trick El into remembering it differently, and using her current powers inside of the "memory" to somehow actually either change the past, or switch/unswitch timelines, or merge timelines, or something?

is there a timeline where One kicked Little El's ass, or killed her, and the lab needs her to go back and win in that one instead? did little El banish the wrong guy and the lab wants them switched? something like that?

there's something more time machiney going on with NINA even beyond just brainwashing, I swear.

[pynkhues]

I recently watched The Newsreader because I saw some mutuals on another site posting about it and really enjoyed it! Was wondering (a) if you've seen it/the most recent series and (b) whether you had any other Australian tv recs? I just realized I've seen very very few Australian shows and am looking to check out some more.

Yes! The Newsreader's so good! I actually haven't gotten around to watching a2 yet, so I am a bit behind, but I loved s1 a lot. Sam Reid and Anna Torv are always great, but I have a big soft spot for William McInnes - he's lowkey an Australian TV icon.

And yeah! Look, Australian TV's a mixed bag - it's criminally underfunded and operates in a really different way to American and UK TV (funnily enough, a lot of what the WGA strike was fighting against - in particular mini rooms, writers not being on set and the lack of a showrunner - are industry standard here), so I do think a lot of Australian shows tend to be undercooked.

But! Let's focus on the good, because there is still a lot of good. I wasn't sure what you fancied, especially since The Newsreader touches on so many genres, so I've tried to breakdown genres and rec that way. Hopefully there's something here that piques your interest :-)

Drama

I've spruiked Safe Home on here a few times before, but it really is just such a great little series. It's about a women's community legal centre who poaches a publicist from a major lawfirm when they discover they're at risk of being defunded by the government. They mean to use her to try and raise the profile of the non-profit legal centre, but end up throwing her in the deep end when it comes to stories of family violence which make up the majority of the centre's clients. It's harrowing in parts, but also emotionally rich, full of interesting relationships and feels pretty tragically true to life. It's only a miniseries, which is a bit of a bummer, because I really feel it could've kept going.

Other dramas:

Total Control - an Aboriginal woman is recruited as a senator by the prime minister after she has a heroic moment facing off against a gunman outside a courthouse. The premise sounds a little soapy, but Total Control is a really compelling political drama that explores the complexity of being a First Nations woman and a First Nations politician in a colonial state. Deb Mailman is it as an actress too, quite frankly.

Love Me - a relationship drama, Love Me focuses on three different generations within one extended family as they pursue romance. The show steers clear of schmaltz though as its particularly about the desire for intimacy and the complexity of being vulnerable with a new person, and I think it lands to mixed effect throughout the series, but man, when it lands, it really lands. Fair warning, there's pretty explicit sex in this (although very tenderly done! And I went to an amazing panel with the intimacy coordinator on it who was so interesting talking about it all). Also: Hugo Weaving in his best role in a minute.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart - full disclaimer, I haven't finished watching this one yet, but I've enjoyed what I've seen so far! Plus they somehow managed to get Sigourney Weaver in it?? Wild. It's about a girl who's reunited with her estranged grandmother on a flower farm after her parents die in a mysterious housefire. CW though for incest and family violence (although that's before Alice ends up with her grandmother).

Dramedy

Offspring is proooobably my favourite Australian show ever? Or at least it will forever rank top five. It's part romantic-comedy, part family-drama, part medical procedural, and part ever growing portrait of birth and death as it follows Nina, who's both obstetrician and chronic sufferer of Middle Child Syndrome, her older sister and little brother, and their divorced-sometimes-still-hooking-up parents. It's funny and charming, but has also made me sob like no other show on TV, so if you're ever in the mood for something like that, this is your pick.

Other dramedies:

Deadloch - I've posted a million gifsets of this show, haha, which actually seems to have picked up tumblr traction (unheard of for an Australian show!) but it's both a hilarious spoof of nordic crime mysteries, and a genuinely great crime series. Plus it is the most sapphic show you'll watch in a minute.

The Let Down - a really sweet, funny dramedy about new parents navigating life with a baby, while also looking pretty keenly at postpartum depression. Just watching the trailer made me want to watch it again, haha, but also my sister worked on it, so I might be a little biased.

Bump - okay, I'm just realising how many dramedies Australia makes about having kids, haha, but this is just a cute little YA show about a teenage girl who doesn't realise she's pregnant suddenly having a baby. It's a lot about parenthood, particularly about her own relationship with her mother, but it also leans into so many

Comedy

I've actually only just watched Fisk with a friend, but am enjoying it so so much. It's got Kitty Flanagan, a beloved Australian comedian in it, and features her as a newly divorced, freshly fired contract lawyer who ends up back in Melbourne at a wills and estates law firm having to deal with people (and grieving people!) for the first time in a hot minute. It's very funny, but also just totally charming, and the cast of characters feels pretty fresh for this sort of fish-out-of-water sitcom.

Other comedies:

Utopia - imagine The Office, The Thick of It and Veep had a baby! Part office-drama, part bureaucracy political hellscape! It's set in a fictional government department called the National Building Authority that manages infrastructure and it's very funny. If you're in the Succession fandom too, Sarah Snook's husband's a lead in it!

Upper Middle Bogan - okay, the trailer for this one isn't very good, but I love this show a lot. The premise is a woman in an upper middle class family discovers suddenly that she was adopted, and her biological parents were teenagers when they had her and are - - well, bogans, which is basically the Australian equivalent of a hillbilly. It's funny, but also genuinely just has a really big heart.

Black Comedy - I do find this pretty hit or miss, but its a sketch show, so I feel like that comes with the territory. But! This is an Indigenous sketch comedy show! And man, when it's good, it's really, really good.

Period drama

Okay, this is kind of a cheat, because it's not really a period drama, but it's designed to feel like one. Plus! It has Sam Reid and Essie Davis in it! Three nuns who've been living isolated on an island together are faced with the modern world when a priest from the mainland arrives hoping to sell the island for redevelopment. Things get! Out of hand!

Other period dramas:

ANZAC Girls - World War I drama about ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) nurses in the Gallipoli peninsula, which is largely regarded as the battle that made Australia 'come of age' through the tragedy of the loss.

New Gold Mountain - miniseries set within the Chinese community during Australia's Gold Rush. It loses its way a bit towards the end, but it's also a really thrilling little miniseries that provides a compelling insight into the culture clashes and interests of this early chapter in Australian history.

Crime

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is such a cult hit, and it's for good reason! Set in the 1920s in Melbourne, Phryne Fisher becomes a private investigator following her sister's disappeaarance. It's equal parts camp and dramatic, romantic and personal, and it just really scratches the itch of an oldschool murder mystery series. It's perfect.

Other crime series:

The Principal - a miniseries set in a rough highschool in Sydney where the faculty is left to deal with the fallout when a student's murder reignites racial tensions among the school community. It's heavy and harrowing, but also an insightful look at the broader fallout of a crime.

Wentworth - imagine a darker, grittier Orange is the New Black. Australian shows so rarely get more than three seasons because they no longer get government funding at that point which often makes them untenable, so its a testament to the quality and the audience of Wentworth that it lasted eight. If you want a show about dangerous women, you can't really get much better than this.

Science fiction / fantasy

Australia unfortunately doesn't make a lot of science fiction, which always bums me out, but Cleverman was such an exciting series when it came out, and I think still has a real legacy in terms of entwining Indigenous cultures with genre storytelling. It's was created by Aboriginal writers and directors, and pulls Dreaming myths into a dystopian future in a way that's just so compelling. It's a pretty great series with a unique take on the genre.

Other science fiction / fantasy series:

Glitch - I mean, technically its a zombie series, but it really feels like so much more than that. A bunch of people come back from the dead in a small town in regional Australia, only they have no memories of their life before they died. It's a deeply felt series about grief, but also identity and relationships, and if you're into genre shows, this is definitely one to watch.

[guitarnacle]

i never do these so im making a ten songs post, if you feel like it i love seeing peoples music taste please do this also 👁👁 !! i want to see

(first ten songs that come up shuffling my liked songs/most used playlist btw)

1. that life by unknown mortal orchestra

i really like this band even tho normally im not about quiet rock or house or whatever theyve got going on but these guys from auckland of all places have got so much groove. i always forget theyre from nz. also the bassist is named Jacob Portrait <- extreme jealosy

2. chick habit, april march by bound

i like this song a lot its very catchy and i like that it was in but im a cheerleader

3. rise up with fists!! by jenny lewis, also the watson twins

this song is okay

4. tonight i feel like kafka by jealous of the birds

this was added when i was 16 going through my alt pop phase and it stuck around because it sticks in my head and i actually do want to pierce my nipples. their other album is better

5. the look of love by nina simone

I love her <3 she reminds me so much of being in my jazz friends kitchen peace and love. nina simone gets it, little girl blue and high priestess of soul are my favorite of her albums

6. PJ Harvey's version of red right hand

scaryyyy <3 i love pj harvey but i honestly prefer the nick cave version this one is too slow for me. i love the key its in though she sings like a violin sometimes. stories from the city and to bring you my love are my favorites of hers also plants and rags

7. the only living boy in new york by simon & garfunkel

my friend had a phase where she would sing this in every conversation she liked it so much

8. the spy by the doors

sometimes i have the music taste of the most basic dad in the world im just glad the shameful 3 dylan songs in my liked songs didnt come up

9. the real slim shady eminem

i listened to this a lot and i mean a lot for a period of 2 weeks so its on my spotify charts forever now, the same thing happened with the bad touch

10. mantra for the lost by catatonia

!!!! im so happy this came up. mulder and scully by catatonia is soo fun everyone listen to it NOW

[rotzaprachim]

I posted 4,429 times in 2022

1,421 posts created (32%)

3,008 posts reblogged (68%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tovezza

@micamicster

@daphneblakess

@seavoice

@broekhart

I tagged 2,737 of my posts in 2022

Only 38% of my posts had no tags

#andor - 88 posts

#supernatural watch - 82 posts

#cassian andor - 72 posts

#helnik - 66 posts

#crowpernatural - 56 posts

#delete later - 54 posts

#a hartz iz nisht kein meleks trone - 53 posts

#nina zenik - 53 posts

#greywaren spoilers - 47 posts

#my writing - 46 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#she’s just eating kaz’s lunch out of the fridge [even though it’s bland] to leave him to think he’s loosing a few marbles when he can never

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

the way andor makes it so clear that actually, no, under fascism the trains do NOT run on time, the Empire can be dysfunctional, disorganised, corrupt, staffed to the gills with lackies who don’t care about their job or Imperial purpose, and none of that makes it less terrifying or fucked or brutal or violent 

374 notes - Posted November 7, 2022

#4

funniest part of greywaren was the implication that if the lady in the opal story was marie lynch (they’re described in the same ways!) then niall’s mother has been periodically booking flights from ireland to virginia solely to break into his house and say heartfelt “fuck you”s to the portraits of him and  mór left in their bedroom. all of this while not doing a single thing to contact her three newly orphaned grandchildren or provide a lick of support. they can handle this

502 notes - Posted October 18, 2022

#3

really haunting call backs in andor: the explicit repetition of the idea that no one outside of narkina 5 knows about narkina 5 because no one survives narkina 5, now, and lives to tell the tale. and then in episode 1 of andor timm casually mentions the “shipment from wobani,” which we know from rogue one is another imperial death camp. how fucking many of them are there, and to what extent do galactic citizens- especially bootlickers like timm- just. live with this knowledge. how many of the parts that cassian and bix smuggled at the start of the show were made by prison labour?

760 notes - Posted November 16, 2022

#2

i don’t want to be overly essentialist or talk outside my cultural lane but... there is something so intensely not anglo-’murican about the way the way andor treats death and it’s so fascinating and refreshing. like on one level this is a show profoundly about death from the very structure of its narrative, but it’s about how you live knowing you will die rather than the glorious death-from-martyrdom-death-as-redemption narrative, and therefor, inversely, about the profound interconnections between the dead and the living and those on the liminal in-between. now we have maarva’s death, and the very introduction of her death comes through the assembled chorus of communal voices who have come to clean her house and take her to rest. (i also love the fact that maarva died, explicitly, of old age and so many of the other related issues. i don’t think you can make the case that the empire *wasn’t* involved because she’s someone so utterly and clearly destroyed by its actions, but i do like that this was a so-called “ordinary” death, because of the thematic purpose that even “ordinary” deaths are heartbreaking and awful and worth remembering.)

andor makes it canon that there are communal aid organizations- i immediately think chevra kadishas! though many cultures have their own organisations and social structures for how to support the grieving and honour the dead- which is just one of the ways it highlights community and the complexity of interpersonal relationships. the daughters of ferrix are introduced an episode earlier, and i realised on a rewatch with my family that the daughter of ferrix - keezy maybe?- introduced at the beginning of the episode is also mentioned by bee in the first episode as being someone who helps maarva with her dinner and medication. we don’t see maarva’s body go alone, we see her transported through the streets by the women of ferrix. andor makes the case of elder care as communal connection and antifascist work, AND that it is done by the same people as those that bury the dead. and the way that andor is building up t having the season finale be the funeral, the thing that drags cassian home and into the line of fire being his mother’s funeral, the storytelling possible about funerary customs and memorialisation as acts of cultural resistance and aggressive rehumanisation... i’m too verklempt to say much more but i think the way this thematic arc is so intertwined with cassian’s time in narkina 5 and the scene with him and melshi at the end of the episode like! no one is lovingly honouring every one of those men with two-day funeral ceremonies through the streets. NO ONE remembers but cassian and melshi. two episodes earlier ulaf died, but the closest thing he had to the daughters of ferrix was the doctor, the fellow prisoner, who refused to learn his name and quietly euthanised him in the hallway. until we know more there were nearly five thousand other deaths. and the episode ends with melshi saying, it’s our duty as survivors to carry the weight of memory so that other people will know and remember this. they are also carrying the weight of mourning those whose time it was not to die. fuck. this show guys. it has me 

837 notes - Posted November 16, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

“hallelujah” by leonard cohen being played as an easter and christmas song, “zombie” by the cranberries” being played as a halloween song, and “born in the U.S.A.” by bruce springsteen being played as a Fourth of July/generic us patriotism song have got to be a special trifecta of the most no-listening-comprehension musical moments that happen on seasonal playlists every single year 

66,969 notes - Posted October 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[sillylittlestoryblog]

Jesper Fahey Imagine

Jesper x female Reader

This is my first imagine ever. So pls don’t be to harsh😅

Also i m not a native English speaker so if I made horrible mistakes pls tell me nicely🙂

+ I m new to the grishaverse so there is a lot I just made up... again If I made horrible mistakes.. enlighten me 🥰

I wanna post this with he/him and they/them pronouns too. Just so nobody feels left out ✨

The winter air was terrible cold against y/n`s ears. Instinctively, she buried her face further into her scarf. She hated this time of year, especially in ketterdam. Because of the docks and the sea, it was even colder here than in her former home. She came to Ketterdam years ago, but she still didn’t seem to have gotten used to the city. The city with its dark alleys and dangerous corners. She had been told to get a decent job. Never be Outside in the dark. And above all she should Stay Out of the criminal gangs and their streetfights. And yet here she was, running again in the direction of the Crow Club to meet dirtyhands in person.

After the heavy oak door closed behind her, she took a deep breath. The warm air felt wonderful on her skin. There wasn't too much going on in the club tonight. Which pleased her very much.

" well who do we have here? I was afraid that you wouldn't come because of the snowstorm out there. ”Jesper's voice sounded happily through the room. In his hand he was holding a drink that he halfway spilled on his way to her.

Y / N didn't want to admit it, but she was happy to see him. Most of all, she was pleased that he was already a Bit drunk, so she hoped he wouldn't notice how she blushed while he hugged her.

Together they went to a table in a quieter corner of the crow club. Kaz Brekker sat there with his crowcane in his hand and sighed as Y/N and Jesper approached. Shortly afterwards she noticed Inej emerging from the shadows. She quietly sat down next to Kaz, keeping a safe distance as always. Y / N wasn't sure if she was doing it to give Kaz more space or to better protect herself. Y/N sat down next to Nina who was sitting on the other side of the table and apparently had a lot of fun giving a already drunken Mattias more and more alcohol.

Jesper sat down next to Y/N with a loud noise and started talking about his win today. He had lost a lot of money in a few card games and then won the Same Money back again after a round of chess. Inej had to explain the rules to him beforehand and was shocked that he really didn't understand how the game worked. His only luck was that his opponent understood it even less and so he had defeated him after a few rounds despite his moderate knowledge of chess.

Y/N was happy to have this group. For her, it almost felt like she had a found family, a home. The others also appreciated her very much. Nina was glad that there was another Grisha in the group. She loved challenging Y/N to play pranks on the other crow members. Even if the others wouldn't admit it, everyone loved the jokes they made up. Only Kaz usually looked offended when the two kept his people from their serious work.

She had also built up a good relationship with Inej in the two years that she had been part of the crows. Both were rather calm and liked to spend time alone. But they loved to talk about novels and books together. Inej and her had already broken into the library of Ketterdam several times at night to be able to read there in peace. Y / N fondly remembers those evenings. Especially Brekker's red-hot face when he found out what they had done. He was incredibly angry and didn't even let them be on the next mission. Meanwhile, Jesper just stood there, amused. Although he was disappointed in both of them too. But more because they didn't ask him to come along. Inej had smirked at the time and said that he was probably jealous. And to this day Y/N kept thinking about it. She could hardly imagine that he wanted to tag along because of the books.

"Hey are you even listening to me"

Jesper moved his hand up and down in front of her face.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Y / N knew this wasn't the first time he'd caught her thinking about him. She reached for the glass that Nina had put in front of her nose a few minutes ago. Hopefully that would take his mind off the nervous expression on her face.

"I thought it would be incredible if I would open a bakery with the money. You know the Money i won earlier"

Y/N looked deeper into her glass. In fact, she hadn't noticed what he'd told her. "Hmm interesting. I uh... would not have thought you were the bakery type. "

"Why not?" Jesper started to grin in amusement. Now he was glad that she was just so embarrassed and looking down. She was indeed looking really cute, while trying to come up with a logical answer that hopefully wouldn't hurt his feelings.

“Well you've shot at least 5 people in the last two days. And uh ... "

Jesper had to laugh out loud. "Hey hey little one, I was just kidding. I was Joking... Something like that happens when you don't listen. ”There was a big grin on his face. It felt like it went from one ear to the other. His dark eyes began to glow. Y/N didn't even notice how long the two had been staring at each other. Jesper looked away with a jerk and began to stammer something to himself, “I actually wanted to ask you something. Are we both going to break into that one library tomorrow night? I heard about this one book. And well we could steal it together. "

Y/N just had to grin. Maybe Inej was right after all and Jesper wanted to spend time with her.

"Sure, why not ... but you know that this is illegal?"

"It's only illegal if we get caught"

The next evening they both met below the roofs of Ketterdam's university district. Jesper's hair was disheveled, probably because he had slept until a few minutes ago. The night before had stolen both of their strength. None of them could really remember much. Once again, Nina had endured the most alcohol, but probably only because she was the one who made the others drink. Inej had gone to bed relatively early and in the early morning twilight still heard the singing voices of Matthias and Jesper. Y / N could roughly remember participating in a drinking game. And somehow she thought she had seen a smiling Kaz, but that would be too improbable.

It wasn't quite as cold as the night before, but because of the tiredness Y / N was all the more cold that day. Jesper didn't seem to have any other way. He had wrapped himself deep in his coat and was wearing a much too long scarf around his neck that he had stepped on twice while running. It was unusual for the shooter to be so calm. Most of the time he would talk out loud about his achievements in playing cards or he would consider a daring mission to get rich. He was very talkative, only today he was speechless.

Getting to the library was very easy there was a secured part in the south wing. Valuable writings from Kerch were stored there. But the two were only looking for a novel that would be insignificant for most People. It didn't take long for the two of them to get into the building over the roof of an adjoining building and through its courtyard.

Y / N knew her way around the library halls; after all, she had often come and gone there at night. Jesper ran right behind her, afraid of losing her between the tall bookshelves. It didn't take long for Jesper to find the right book. It was about tales and horror stories that used to be told to children in front of the campfire. Jesper had overheard Inej talking about this book. She had shared how she loved these stories as a child. That seemed like the right book for the right reason

y / n to dare a night break-in. He had longed to spend time alone with her for a long time. He admired her for her courage and caring. Jesper had been alone for a long time. Far from everything that felt like family. But the Crows gave him a home. Kaz was the protector of the crows and Jesper was happy to have someone like him, but somehow the warmth in the crow club was missing. But the warmth was suddenly there when the young grisha girl ran into his arms two years ago. She has been on his mind ever since. How many times had he caught himself paying special attention to her on missions. Or the many times she was turned on by drunkards and he would have loved to draw his revolver. Even now he could only think of her smile.

She had spread her coat on the floor and was tapping the spot next to her. Jesper sat down next to her, grinning, and began to read.

The warm sun shone on Y / N's face. What a nice way to be awakened. Most of the time she woke up by hearing gunshots in the street or the loud talk of seafarers stumbling towards the port. It smelled of old books, dust and leather. Only now did she realize that she was not in her bed. She opened her eyes carefully, hoping not to wake up in a prison or a cargo ship. But her surroundings were not unknown to her, only she had never seen them in this light. Next to her lay Jesper who had embraced her with both arms. She had never seen him so calm before. His chest moved slowly up and down as he breathed. How beautiful he looked.

"You should hire someone to make a portrait of me, believe me that will last longer."

Jesper's eyes were still closed. Y / N's face turned red again. She had to stop looking at him like that.

"Good morning, how did you sleep between so much Important literature?" She tried to distract from the subject.

Jesper opened his eyes and looked at her. Only now did she realize how close they were. He still had his arms around her. Jesper also noticed now what kind of situation they were in. He opened his mouth to answer when Y / N suddenly perceived voices from outside. She put her finger to his lips and turned her head towards the window. There were three library guards in the courtyard. They had just noticed the open window through which Jesper and Y/N had entered the building the night before.

Without thinking further, both started running. If they hurried they could still get outside via the west entrance before the university square is full of students.

Luckily for them it was easy to run through the great hall into the foyer, Jesper tried hard not to pull out his revolver to get them out of the situation, but Y/n insisted that they could flee without getting noticed. But it was too late, the guards had already spotted them. Jesper took Y/N by the hand and the two ran laughing like two school girls through the corridors until they could escape over the balcony of the west wing.

They laughed and hugged. "Oh Jesper that was close"

"Yes, If i had not been there, you would have never made it out of there"

"If you hadn't been there I would have never fallen asleep in there"

"That's right, but then I would never have been able to do this either."

He leaned over to her and looked at her with an asking expression. For a moment he was afraid of having lost his self-confidence. He wondered if he had misinterpreted anything. All the times she looked at him with a blushing face and glowing eyes. Maybe he was just wrong ...

But He couldn't think clearly anymore because he had already been interrupted by Y / N's lips. At that moment they both forgot everything around them. The dirty city, the cold winter air and the screams of the guards who were still looking for them.

Fuck, I think that's how it feels at home.

Thx for reading this😅 if you liked it pls write a comment. Just so i know if i should continue writing or not✨ if somebody has a request for an imagine just comment it or text me in my direct messages 🥰💗

Mai 🦋

[canonicallyanxious]

sarah’s top 10 wlw media [that i consumed] in 2020

i noticed i read/watched a lot of really stellar wlw media this year so i wanted to make a list shouting out some of the amazing stories I found bc seriously this was a good year to be a wlw

note: these aren’t necessarily 2020 releases, just stories I happened to read or watch this year

1. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Brilliant. Showstopping. Spectacular.

In all seriousness anyone who knows me will not be surprised at all to discover this ranks at the top of my list. It checks every box on the list of “Things Sarah is an absolute hoe for”: period romance, tender angst, references to Orpheus and Eurydice, GAYS IN WATER, a beautiful reconsideration on the relationship b/w the artist and the muse, “did you dream of me?” “no, i thought of you”, H A N D S... listen. i don’t have anything to say for myself this is just one of the most beautiful movies i’ve ever seen.

2. The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth

If I’m going to be totally honest I have a lot of trouble finding wlw YA novels I really vibe with. Nina Lacour’s books are pretty up there on my list, I loved Leah on the Offbeat when it came out, but for the most part i just find wlw ya stories hard to connect to. Reading this book changed that for me. Its portrayal of a tomboyish girl growing up in a really conservative area resonated with me so deeply, as well as her queer friends she was able to find and connect with even in the most traumatic environment. Cameron goes through some really heavy shit but the book ends on such a beautiful and poignant note of hope. This really is a book that made me feel seen.

3. The Half of it (2020)

Alice Wu said “I’m going to make a movie about a vaguely gnc Asian American protagonist who is a literary hoe and passionate about writing and music so basically Sarah as a coming of age teen movie protagonist” and you know what it gave me rights! This movie has no business being this fucking good for a teen coming of age “romcom”, for real. the absolutely phenomenal character work... the LAYERS in the writing... the cinematography... “gravity is matter’s response to loneliness” who said that” “I don’t know” “then you said it” I’M GONNA LOSE MY DAMN MIND!

4. She-Ra - season 5

The build-up to the series finale was just so incredibly well thought out and beautifully crafted months later i’m STILL shook about it. Catra and Adora’s relationship has been the driving force of the entire show, literally the nexus the whole story revolves around, and to know that all of it was intentionally building up to a romance is one of the most satisfying things narratively speaking I’ve ever experienced in real time. Also this entire season was just so beautifully written. Catra’s redemption arc, Adora’s arc and learning to harness her power without the sword, Spinnerella/Netossa’s heartrending side story, the final showdown with Horde Prime, just absolutely chef’s kiss.

5. The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake

This truly was the year of “Sarah finally gets all the quality wlw YA they have been needing and craving”! I just think the writing in this book is so brilliant, i love all the things Drake does with style and pov, and as a coming of age romance it’s just so charming and i love the aesthetic of it so much! Also i think this story is a brilliant adaptation of Twelfth Night, I mean frankly it didn’t even register for me that this was a twelfth night adaptation until after i finished it skdjnfsdknfs but as soon as I realized it it all made stunning sense. as well i just adore that the protagonist is allowed to be so complex and messy bc i feel like that’s actually pretty rare for female protagonists. it makes her all the more compelling as a main character!

6. On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

Gorgeous art, spell-binding world building [soft and dreamy space sci fi aesthetic!!!!!!!!!], there’s basically not a single man in this story, and all the characters are absolutely to die for. And the story is just so achingly tender, i love it so much. 10/10 would reread over and over and over again.

7. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

The fantasy wlw story of my absolute dreams!!! This book is over 800 pages but it doesn’t feel like it, seriously, i inhaled it all in one day bc the story moves along at such a good pace and everything feels so naturally laid out. i absolutely adore the world building in this, i mean really how can you go wrong with DRAGONS??? and also the love story b/w Ead and Sabran in this story is insanely fucking good. nothing makes me more tender than the bodyguard/royal trope ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

8. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

The writing in this is so, so breathtaking. I don’t even have the words to describe, it’s just such a beautiful book. it’s so beautiful that it made me, a known epistolary hater, into an epistolary lover. ITS POWER.

9. The Owl House - season 1

This one is only not as high as the others on the list bc I’ve had less time to get invested in it than shows like She Ra. But it is an insanely cute watch, i love the characters so much especially Luz, I love her relationship with Eda, I LOVE EDA, i love the way her friendships with the other characters evolve so naturally over the course of the show, and really it’s just such a fun and sweet show I adore it so much. [and fine okay amity’s crush on luz is the cutest damn thing i’ve ever seen are you happy]

10. Druck - season 6

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT @ ME also if i’m going to be 100% honest the only reason why this isn’t higher on the list is because at the time of writing this only two and a half episodes have aired sdkjfndksjfnsdkjfnskdnfskjn but really if you thought i wasn’t going to put a story about a black lesbian falling in love with a vietnamese bi girl on this list you are out of your damn mind

[honorary mention: @boxesfullofthoughts​‘ and my cyberpunk OCs Charlie Tang and Harper St. Clair I mean i am extremely up my own ass at all times but i can’t put my own characters for a story i haven’t even written yet on this list skjnfskj STILL I LOVE THEM AND WOULD DIE FOR THEM AND I HOPE THEY BOTH KNOW THAT]

[clairecrive]

“Six of Crows” - book review

so basically this is what I think about the first book of the duology. I'm putting the actual review after the cut bc there will be some spoilers. Not plot wise but in regards to characters dynamics. And also cross-reference to the trilogy so maybe if you haven't read those, there are spoilers for that, plot wise.

Also, I'd love to talk about the grishaverse if any of you has read them, agrees with me or not or simply to fangirl together. So if you do, give me a shout however you want.

Yes, yes, yes!

I'm here after reading the "Shadow and Bone" trilogy and seeing a lot of posts claiming that the duology was far better.

And oh yes, it definitely is.

There were none of the things that made me go "meh" about the trilogy. I get it that it's a whole other kind of story: none of that "chosen one" narrative, none of good vs bad, hero vs villain who's not really a villain and actually far more interesting than the hero. None of that.

The one thing I really enjoyed about the trilogy was second characters. You know, Nikolai, Genya, Toya and Tamar and all of the others. Of course, the Darkling too but that's not the point. But that likeness about the characters was the one thing that connected the two series for me, besides the grishaverse of course.

I loved the crew. All of them.

Each of them have their own unique characterization and interesting backgrounds. Each of them have their own special thing that makes them so important for the job. But what I like most is that, despite them being basically soldiers, people who resort to violence without much problem, they're still so very human. I loved when we get glimpes of their past and emotions because it's so easy to forget that they're basically a buch of teenagers and it's nice to see that the Barrel hasn't devoid them of emotions completely.

I so very much enjoyed that this is truly a coral story. This is a group of people, from whose pov we see the story but it's also equally divided between them. Yes, Kaz may be their leader but he's not more important than the rest of them. I liked that, because usually there's always one character than sticks out the most.

Another thing that I liked was the narrative style. I'm not a fan of a first person point of view and that was one of the biggest problems I had with the trilogy. This worked way better. And I feel like it achieved what a first narrator does anyway, seeing things from the character's point of view.

Maybe it's beside the point but I also felt like this book also makes you kinda of sympathize with the Darkling cause. I mean, look at how Grisha are treated. Wouldn't you want to do something about it too? (I know he's problematic but we have to admit he has a point.)

Following that, let's talk about love.

I cannot spell how I appreciated that love and romantic relationships were portraited but have not been made the center of the attention or the main feature of a character. Yes, love it's there but that's not the point. Finally. (If you can't tell, I really have a big problem with Alina making Mal her sole purpose) And with have the same dynamics we can find in the trilogy, only ten times better. While I agree that Darklina has unmistakable chemistry, they have their obvious problems. So, that makes it a bit harder for me to enjoy them. None of that with Mathias and Nina. Enemies to lovers excellence. I love them. But I also really enjoyed Kaz and Inej's dynamic, although far more complicated because of course, we're dealing with two different people here. And Jesper and Wylan awkward and not so subtle flirting? Amusing and so adorable.

So basically, I loved this book. If you love complex characters and a good plot, Peaky Blinders kinda vibe, you will too.

[booksoanahasread]

Wrap Up 2020

Welcome to my first calendaristic year review of books. I know that normally I just review books and I rarely post anything else, which I find to be the right thing to do, after all this is a blog about books that I’ve read. 

This year, however, I’ve decided to write a post about my year in books, somewhat like what you would find on Goodreads. I want to tell you all about my favourite and least favourite books from this year, but I can’t do a top ten list, I would much rather tell you about some of the books. 

These books are in no particular order, because I find I can’t quite rank books all that well. Here are some of the books that I loved: 

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake. 

It’s just a wonderful fantasy book that I fell in love with, especially the fact that it is a matriarchal society. I haven’t read anything quite like it.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

I’m not sure why I decided to start this series, but I’m glad I did. You can easily fall in love with the characters and fast-paced action. 

Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin 

I devoured this book and you might as well. I adore the enemies to lovers trope and in this novel it is executed brilliantly. 

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

A dystopian future where humans have cured all diseases and it is almost impossible to die. Doesn’t it sound promising? It is one of the most amazing series I’ve read and I hope that next year I’ll get my hands on the last book.

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi 

While the first book was hard to get through, this one was absolutely amazing. I loved the love triangle and subject matter was fascinating. 

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Who doesn’t love a good romance story set in Paris? This book was heart-warming and gripping. It was also the first ebook I read this year. 

Again but Better by Christine Riccio

If you’ve met me in real life, I’ve probably gushed about how good this book is. I loved the author’s style and the way it was structured, I loved the travels described in the book and the life of a student learning abroad. 

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

This was a light read that left me with a smile on my face. I can see why it won a Goodreads choice award in 2019. I loved the representation and the political theme. 

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I reread this book in December with no clue what actually happened in the novel. I loved this book probably as much as the first time I read it. The depth with which the author portrays the characters is wonderful. 

 Love Her Wild by Atticus

I didn’t read that many poetry books or anthologies this year, but this one is clearly the best. It gives you hope and makes you feel in love, the short poems don’t follow classic structures, therefore it packs a punch. 

Sapiens. A Graphic History. The Birth of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, David Vandermeulen, Daniel Casanave

This is easily one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read. It is very informative but also entertaining and I loved it. 

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

This series was incredibly heart-warming, easy-to-read, and enjoyable. I really hope more people read these books because they are phenomenal and adorable. 

 The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

This was one of the most fascinating books of the year, even though it was quite short. I loved the whole premise of the portrait that changed due to the sins that Dorian committed. 

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

This was a reread and I finally gave this book a fair shot. I ended up changing my opinion and falling in love with Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. I loved Jane Austen’s sarcastic tone in the book, it was incredible. 

 Hamlet by William Shakespeare

How can you possibly forget this story? It is haunting but also hilarious at the same time. Although it is a tragedy, the play has many moments where the audience can laugh. I found the whole premise interesting and the fact that the main character being kidnapped by pirates was a minor aspect of it made the novel all the more ingenious. 

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I found the point of view from which it is told rather odd, but otherwise this is a solid book that should be read. The way it talks about racism in America is compelling and the intrigue with Bo is also fun. 

 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

I found this book to be absolutely riveting. The unreliable narrator was incredible and the way you piece together slowly, but surely what the past was truly like was unrivalled. 

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

I was supposed to go to Paris this year with my family and because of the pandemic we had to cancel. Although, reading this book did make me feel as if I were there, it had magically transported me across the continent and I loved it. 

 A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

I loved the whole premise of multiple Londons that are linked together. The magical system was wonderful and I loved reading this series so much. The characters are lovable and relatable. 

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman 

This is a love letter to books and I adored it. I still think about it. The worlds that we are introduced to are astonishing and the action is impressive.

On the other side of the spectrum, here are some books I couldn’t quite stand, without describing them: 

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Twisted Palace by Erin Watt

My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan 

Reflecting on this year is something that is necessary before 2021 comes. I read eighty books, some I loved and some I hated. I hope that by this time next year, I will have read fifty books and loved a lot of them. 

Dear reader, I hope you’ve had a year with as many moments of joy as possible. I hope that you’ve read books that have made you feel so much more than bored. I hope that you fell in love with at least one book. Thank you so much for reading my reviews this year and I hope they helped you a little, or at least entertained you. We will see each other in the new year, where I hope we read as many books as possible. 

Sending love to all of you!

Oana. 

[purplesurveys]

1153

survey by septictankyank

What song are you listening to right now? I turned off my Spotify like 2 minutes ago because it was interfering with my focus on another survey (which I ultimately saved in my drafts to take for another time lol) but the last song I played was Always in My Head by Coldplay.

Have you heard of the band Repeat Offender? Never heard of them.

Are you currently talking to/texting/instant messaging anyone? No, not talking to anyone at the moment.

Whats your name? Robyn.

How old are you? 22.

If you could do anything right now, what would it be? I wish I can do some arts and crafts right now, honestly. I have a 4-day break thanks to Holy Week and I have no clue how to spend it. I don’t feel like embroidering at the moment; buying art kits online right now would be useless because they’d most definitely arrive after my break; and the arts I do have rn were bought by Gab and I have no intention to pull them back out anymore.

Are there any words that you just absolutely hate? I don’t really like the word fluids, but I get why it’s sometimes necessary. Gunk can also be icky depending on the context.

Are you hiding something from someone? Yes.

Have you ever been looking for something and it was already in your hand? It was either in my hand or I was already wearing it, yeah happens a lot.

Is there anything about you that not many people know? Probably. I don’t know how much people know about me.

Who was the last person you commented on MySpace? I’ll use Facebook for this instead; it was Clarisa, an old friend of mine from high school. I shared a post from her small business’ social media page and she commented basically saying thank you.

Is the last person you texted your friend? No, I only use text for work purposes now. And actually, the last person I texted is this super popular local influencer, as in millions of followers and goes viral every week levels of big. I was honestly surprised they returned my text, and even though they had to decline the thing I was pitching for them, I felt starstruck for like 5 seconds haha.

Have you ever seen someone you knew and purposely avoided them? This has happened many times. And for a variety of reasons, too; it can be because I don’t like them, can be because I know of them but not close enough with them to say hi, or just because I don’t feel like talking that day, etc.

Have you been to the mall in the last 2 weeks? Nah, it’s been around 3 weeks to about a month, I think. Shortly after that Covid cases began to surge again and now we’re stuck in the same community quarantine imposed this time last year while the country gets 10,000 cases a day.

What was the last movie you saw? I can’t remember the last movie I watched all the way through to the end; but I looked up and watched the final scene from Portrait of a Lady on Fire last night because I wanted to feel things.

What was the last song you listened to? See first question.

What do you like best about yourself? Continued from this afternoon. I really like how I’ve always managed to pull and claw myself out successfully from any terrible situation. There’s been a lot that I’ve been through and I love myself a whole lot more for being able to survive everything.

How long until your next birthday? 20 days.

Are you mad at anyone right now? There’s resentment perpetually brewing towards one person in particular, but I keep it tucked away at the back of my head.

What was the last book you read? Not sure, probably a memoir of some sort.

Do you like summer? I hate it.

Are you single or taken? Single.

Have you ever kissed someone with braces? Yes, for a time. It was very tricky lol, but fortunately there were never any accidents.

If you could change your eye color, would you? No, I think my current one suits me already.

Do you buy songs on iTunes? I never did. If I wanted to update my iTunes, I’d go to YouTube and look for the song I wish to add, convert it to MP3 on some third-party site, then upload it to my iTunes once it’s finished downloading. And then I’ll get the album cover and other details from Wikipedia to make it look really legit lol.

Are you overly sensitive sometimes? Yeah I am pretty sensitive.

Do you smile at people you don't know? Only whenever I’m with one of my dogs because they’d usually want to pet them, especially Cooper. Otherwise there’s really no reason to smile and say hi to everyone I come across; that’s not a common practice here and people usually like to keep to themselves.

Do you feel guilty right now? No reason to be.

Have you ever had a crush that you tried to stop having? Sure.

Have you heard of the band Nina May? I don’t think so. It doesn’t ring a bell.

Do you think long distance relationships are worth it? It can be, given the right amount of effort and commitment put into it.

Do you tend to judge people? Only if they make a Karen-esque scene in public. I understand people have bad days sometimes and that’s fine, but I won’t hesitate to judge someone who consistently berates service staff, makes side comments at a restaurant, etc.

Valentines Day: Love it or hate it? I don’t mind it. I would celebrate it too; I’d just keep the festivities lowkey, like having dinner at home or having an unconventional date. Going with the rest of the wave is exhausting – most restaurants are fully booked and it usually ruins the vibe.

Are you American? No, thank you for asking first.

Have you ever been made fun of for being weird? Probably while I wasn’t looking.

Who do you want to see in concert? Beyoncé is at the top of my list. Then Paramore, over and over again. It would be neat to watch a Hozier gig too.

How many songs are on your iPod?

Do you play any sports? Table tennis.

Are your parents together or divorced? They’ve been together for 28 years.

Do you prefer black and white or color photographs? Color.

Do you eat breakfast? Only during weekends. I’m usually too busy during weekday mornings to be able to fix myself a plate.

Do you still trick or treat? Not anymore, but I’d be game if any of my friend groups wanted to.

Do you use metric or imperial? I use metric in most contexts but because of wrestling, I got used to using pounds for weight.

Have you ever skipped class? Definitely many times during college. I was cautious in high school though.

Did you like this survey? It was okay.

[animal-moon-harvest-crossing]

Magical Melody Remake - A Wishlist

Based off my post from yesterday that I wrote!

MM generally gets a bad rap, I think, from the fandom overall. Which is fair, in all honesty! And as a kid, it was frustrating to play! But now as an adult, I treat playing MM as a challenge to overcome, and once you get past the clunky controls, it’s actually a very fun game to play!

So, if I were in charge of remaking MM for the Switch, here’s some of the changes I would implement, or like to see.

The controls are the first, obviously. MM is so notoriously slow, with how it takes a few seconds to get your character moving into a run, the menus, pretty much...Everything. And there was no real reason to have it like that, so I would hope that would be the first thing to get fixed lol.

Proper volume control!!! I dunno how I put up with it as a kid, but now as an adult, I can’t stand hearing all the little “beeps” and “boops” when I’m going through all the menus. I now turn the volume of my tv way down, or just off when I’m playing the game because there’s no option to turn the SFXs off. I have the same issue with basically...All older HM games. But that’s probably just a me thing :’D

So I actually am a fan of the layout of Flowderbud Village 2.0! MM’s unique gimmick is that you start off with 1 of 3 properties to build on, then start buying up more and more as you progress, to the point where you can basically own more land than the town itself! I really enjoy this system, and I feel it makes the farming experience much more unique being able to have your “main hub” kinda anywhere on the map. 

So of course we gotta talk about the character models- Most people have an issue with everyone looking like weird chibi baby things. I personally was never too bothered, but I wouldn’t mind them getting “updated” either. Not like the models that are in the current FoMT game, but something that just doesn’t make everyone look like...that lol. I wouldn’t mind it as much if they were also given portraits as well when you talk to them.

And not just updated models, but also updated designs as well! So the cast of MM is a mix between characters that appeared in SNES AND in Save the Homeland/Hero of Leaf Valley. The SNES characters did get some updated looks, as they’re not those EXACT same characters, but I would love to see everyone get a wardrobe update that set them apart as brand new characters, or as the decendents of who they’re based off of. 

Interesting to note though, that some of the characters who share a name and likeness to SNES...Are actually their grandkids! Or, most of them are! Eve will mention that she’s named after her grandmother, who she looks very similar to. The implication is that Eve from SNES is her grandmother! I think she’s the only one who mentions it, but other SNES bachelorettes are also clearly based off those counterparts. MM!Ellen works on the ranch, but she loves to bake, and your rival for her is Carl, a patissiuer. Ann is an aspiring inventor, just like her SNES counterpart. Maria, the Mayor’s daughter, was also his daughter in SNES and also worked at the library. Nina looks basically the same, and also works on the farm that sells seeds, and still loves flowers! There’s a lot of hidden lore for these characters that you can only learn about if you happen to catch them at the right places (usually at home, try it out sometime!)

I would...Totally get rid of their “voices”. Some of them sound okay, but others...Ahheehhhh. May as well just dump ‘em altogether lol.

Let! Us! Continue! Playing! The! Game! If! We! Marry! Jaime!! In the original Japanese version, Jaime was just like all the other bachelors/ettes, and in that same version, there were rival marriages! Both these features were removed for the North American version. I’m not sure if they were put back in for the Wii re-release, but I doubt they were.

Which speaking of marriage...Of course the chance to romance both bachelors and bachelorettes!! But also, keep Jaime androgynous! The original (English) player booklet for the GCN mentions only one that Jaime will “always be the opposite sex” of your character. But even then, Jaime is never referred to with pronouns or gendered language in the English version of the game. I know something similar happened with Inari in Trio of Towns, so I just hope xSeed would continue it!

The child growing up into an actual, well, child! Back in the day, your son (and yes it was usually always a son) would learn to walk at most, and then that would be it! He’d be stuck in diapers and his little mouse hat forever! I would love for the child to now wear clothes, take off the hat (or maybe wear a baseball cap??), and be able to talk to you and participate in events around town.  As for the look of your child, I’ve always been a sucker for “your child physically resembles who you married but dresses like you”. 

Make training the horse freeaaaaaking easier!!! I’ve never won a Horse Race because I couldn’t figure out beforehand how to properly train my horse. It’s based off hearts but also star level?? But getting the horse in and out of the barn is so tedious that I just...Don’t bother half the time. Sorry horsey!!

And speaking of the barn, and the coop for that matter, an actual, proper bell that you can use from the outside. Also, maybe not use up stamina when using the makers?? I don’t know why that was a thing to begin with, but it’d be real annoying to waste stamina on that first BEFORE getting to water your crops. Luckily, this was back in the day when crops only needed to be watered once a day but still.

The whole stamina system would need a re-do. I hate that just about EVERYTHING cost stamina to do, requiring you to basically stop playing for that day or to go out of your way to get food to restore it. This is especially annoying in your first spring before the inn and the bar are built, and money is harder to come by.

Keeping the tools separate from the inventory? I really hated how this became a thing moving onwards, where tools would take up precious item slots in your tiny rucksack. And since the basket didn’t really make a reappearance in this game in particular, it was extremely difficult trying to explore and forage in the early game with all your tools taking up space. I make a routine of running in and out of my house and keeping the tool box right by the front door to swap them in and out, and...I shouldn’t have to but that’s the best system I have. So it’d be nice to Not have to do that again!

Music Notes; I can take ‘em or leave ‘em. I don’t mind the challenge of them being there, and it feels kinda nice to always have something to work towards. I know they’re a part of the plot, but it’s still so exciting to even now unlock them at random.

That’s all I can think of for now! Did you think of something different? What are you feelings on Magical Melody as a whole, and what would you like to change about it?

[ireadyabooks]

The Best Summer Reads! 🏖

Even if you can’t read a book on the beach this year, it’s still summer! 

We’ve pulled together some binge-worthy summer reads that will have you swooning over an adorable romance or turning the pages of a fast-paced thriller.  

I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn

Kimi Nakamura’s mother disapproves of her passion for fashion design, and when they get into an explosive fight, Kimi's entire future seems on the verge of falling apart. So when a surprise letter comes in the mail from Kimi's estranged grandparents, inviting her to Kyoto for spring break, she seizes the opportunity to get away from the disaster of her life. And what begins as a trip to escape her problems quickly becomes a way for Kimi to learn more about the mother she left behind, and to figure out where her own heart lies. Start reading!

The Night of Your Life by Lydia Sharp

All year, JJ's been looking forward to going to prom with his best friend, Lucy. But nothing goes according to plan and the best night of their lives quickly turns into the worst. That is...until JJ wakes up the next day only to find that it's prom night all over again. At first, JJ thinks he's lucky to have the chance to get innumerable chances at perfecting the night of his life. But each day ends badly for him and Lucy, no matter what he does. Can he find a way to escape the time loop and move into the future with the girl he loves? Start reading!

Lie to Me by Kaitlin Ward

Ever since Amelia woke up in the hospital, recovering from a near-death fall she has no memory of, she's been suspicious. Her friends, family, and doctors insist it was an accident, but Amelia is sure she remembers being pushed. Then another girl is found nearby -- one who fell, but didn't survive. Amelia's fears suddenly feel very real, and with the help of her new boyfriend, Liam, she tries to investigate her own horrific ordeal. But how can she tell who's trustworthy, and who might be -- must be -- lying to her? Start reading!

Screenshot by Donna Cooner

Skye's social media game is always on point. Until her best friend, Asha, films an embarrassing video of Skye at a sleepover and posts it online. But Asha quickly deletes the post, so everything's okay. Right? Then Skye gets an anonymous message. Someone has texted her a screenshot from the video. This person threatens to share the shocking photo online . . . unless Skye does whatever they say. Skye's perfect image -- and privacy -- are suddenly in jeopardy. What will Skye do to keep the screenshot under wraps? And who is trying to ruin her life? Start reading!

Listen To Your Heart by Kasie West

When Kate’s best friend, Alana, convinces Kate to join their high school's podcast, Kate is not expecting to be chosen as the host. But to Kate's surprise, she turns out to be pretty good at the hosting gig. Then the podcast gets in a call from an anonymous guy, asking for advice about his unnamed crush. Kate is pretty sure that the caller is gorgeous Diego Martinez, and even surer that the girl in question is Alana. Kate is excited for her friend . . . until Kate herself starts to develop feelings for Diego. Suddenly, Kate finds that while doling out wisdom to others may be easy, asking for help is tougher than it looks, and following your own advice is even harder. Start reading!

Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten

Nina was artistic, fearless, and wild. She inked landscapes onto the soles of her Converse, and covered her tank tops in portraits of people she saw on the street. She was Ellie's big sister and favorite person. And then one day she was gone. Two years later, Ellie stumbles upon a drawing of Nina's that might just contain a clue of where to find her. So she takes off on a road trip with the one person who believes she's got a chance. Start reading!

Faceless by Alyssa Sheinmel

While on a run one day, Maisie gets into a terrible accident. A hot-burning electrical fire consumes her, destroying her face. She is lucky enough to qualify for a face transplant. But with someone else's features staring back at her in the mirror, Maisie looks -- and feels -- like a stranger. The doctors promised that the transplant was her chance to live a normal life again, but nothing feels normal anymore. Before, she knew who she was -- a regular girl who ran track and got good grades, who loved her boyfriend and her best friend. Now, she can't even recognize herself. Start reading!

It’s Not Me, It’s You by Stephanie Kate Strohm

Avery Dennis is a high school senior and one of the most popular girls in her class. But a majorly public breakup with the guy she's been dating causes some disastrous waves. It is right before prom and Avery no longer has the perfect date. Post-breakup, Avery gets to thinking about all of the guys that she has ever dated. Avery decides to investigate: she tracks down all of the guys she's ever dated, and uses that information, along with the thoughts of her friends, family, and even teachers to compile a total account of her dating history. Avery discovers some surprises about herself and the guys she's spent time with just in time for prom night! Start reading!

The Beautiful Lost by Luanne Rice

Ever since her mother left, Maia has struggled with depression -- which once got so bad, she had to go to an institution for a while. She doesn't want to go back. Maia's sure that if she finds her mother, if the two of them can talk about whale songs and constellations, then everything will be okay again. When Maia sets off on a road trip in search of her mom, her crush Billy unexpectedly comes along. They drive up the East Coast, stopping along the way for lobster rolls and lighthouses. Maia learns that Billy has dark secrets of his own -- and wants to outrun his past, too. But what will the future hold if they reach their destination? Start reading!

Where She Fell by Kaitlin Ward

Eliza knows the legends about the swamp near her house -- that people have fallen into sinkholes, never to be seen again, maybe even falling to the center of the earth. But when her best friends drag her onto the uneven ground anyway, Eliza knows to be worried. And when the earth opens under her feet, there isn't even time to say I told you so. As she scrambles through one cave, which leads to another, and another, Eliza finds herself in an impossible world -- where a small group of people survive underground, running from vicious creatures, eating giant bugs, and creating their own subterranean society. Eliza is grateful to be alive, but this isn't home. Is she willing to risk everything to get back to the surface? Start reading!

Lucky in Love by Kasie West

Maddie's not impulsive. She's all about hard work and planning ahead. But one night, on a whim, she buys a lottery ticket. And then, to her astonishment, she wins! In a flash, Maddie's life is unrecognizable. No more stressing about college scholarships. Suddenly, she's talking about renting a yacht. And being in the spotlight at school is fun . . . until rumors start flying, and random people ask her for loans. Now, Maddie isn't sure who she can trust. Except for Seth Nguyen, her funny, charming coworker at the local zoo. Seth doesn't seem aware of Maddie's big news. And, for some reason, she doesn't want to tell him. But what will happen if he learns her secret? Start reading!

Truly, Madly, Royally by Debbie Rigaud

Zora Emerson is not here to play. She's enrolled in a prestigious summer program, and is ready to use what she's learning to change the world. Zora's not expecting to vibe with any of her super-privileged classmates. So she's shocked to find she's got chemistry with Owen Whittelsey, who is charming, funny, undeniably cute...and turns out to literally be a prince. As in, his parents are the king and queen of a small European country. What? Suddenly, Zora's summer is looking a lot more complicated -- especially when Owen asks her to be his date at his older brother's wedding. Can her feelings for Owen, not to mention her sense of self, survive the royal chaos? Start reading!

Maybe This Time by Kasie West

Name the occasion, and Sophie Evans will be there. Well, she has to be there. Sophie works for the local florist, so she can be found at every big event in her small hometown, arranging bouquets and managing family dramas. Enter Andrew Hart. The son of the fancy new chef in town, Andrew is suddenly required to attend all the same events as Sophie. Entitled, arrogant, preppy Andrew. Sophie just wants to get her job done and finish up her sketches so she can apply to design school. But every time she turns around, there is Andrew, getting in her way and making her life more complicated. Until one day she wonders if maybe complicated isn't so bad after all. Start reading!

Snow in Love by Melissa de la Cruz, Aimee Friedman, Nic Stone, Kasie West

It’s still summer, but we’re already looking forward to the holidays and snuggling up with a mug of hot chocolate! So what's better than one deliciously cozy, swoon-worthy holiday story? Four of them! Snow in Love is an adorable, wintry collection of four short stories about the romance of the holiday season, from some of today's bestselling YA authors. Start reading!

Fake by Donna Cooner

Maisie Fernandez is fed up with the bullies who taunt her about her size and her looks. So, one night, Maisie goes online and creates a fake profile. "Sienna" is beautiful, skinny, and confident -- and soon she's messaging the most popular kids in Maisie's school. Maisie doesn't care about being friends with them. She wants to use Sienna to take them down. But as Maisie's web of deception grows, she's in danger of being exposed. And what will happen when the actual Sienna -- the girl whose photos Maisie has been using -- shows up in real life? Start reading!

Sorry Not Sorry by Jamie Reed

Janelle and Alyssa used to be best friends. They knew each other's deepest secrets and went through the hardest times together. But that was then. Now? Their status is somewhere between frenemies and full-on rivals. Until the day Alyssa collapses and is rushed to the hospital. Suddenly, everyone knows about her declining health and race against time. And, in a stunning twist of fate, the only person who might be able to save Alyssa's life -- is Janelle. But will the girls' bitter past get in the way of their futures? Start reading!

[muirneach]

penny lane is just white in the heights and/or in the heights is just latino penny lane

okay hear me out here so penny lane introduces us, the listener, to the people and lives of penny lane, a district and street in liverpool, england. it appears to be a very closely knit place and everyone knows each other. so right there that sounds like ith. now, here are the people mentioned in the song. 

barber showing photographs: the salon ladies of course! and “all the people that come and go/stop and say ‘hello’” cmon who gets more gossip than the ladies? everyone goes to them

banker with a motorcar: okay i don’t actually know who the ith counterpart would be but imma say usnavi? the banker is just a weird guy apparently so yeah ig usnavi idk. 

the narrator (like the speaker of the song?): okay ik i just usnavi was the banker but he’s def the narrator, just a guy watchin it all going down and commenting on it occasionally. 

fireman with an hourglass: kevin! he wants his fleet of cars to look as classy as possible. i’m tempted to say the portrait is of nina because they do have one of those in the although kevin canonly calls abuela queen. but it’s probably nina or maaaybe camila. although i wouldn’t put it past kevin to be an anglophile

pretty nurse selling poppies: either nina or vanessa. the nurse is selling them because she has no money and also feels like she isn’t real and nina def has had that thought before so idk one of them

i don’t know where i’m going with this but i had this thought Ages ago and never posted it

[ana-annotated]

128 THINGS I LOVED ABOUT CROOKED KINGDOM (WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!) Part 1

1. It has WYLAN’S POV

2. Jesper is one of his biggest reasons for committing to being a member of the Dregs and he knows it

3. Kaz breaks into the house of a wealthy and probably dangerous lawyer in the middle of the night but first things first, he’s gotta give the guard dogs belly rubs before robbing their owner.

4. Nina is still facing the consequences of ingesting parem and yet here she is undercover, charming this lawyer out of his whistle.

5. Wylan’s dark side just gets darker

6. Kaz having a rare soft moment and telling Wylan where his mother is buried cause he knows what it’s like to lose someone suddenly and not get to say goodbye

7. Matthias trying to understand Kaz’s sleight of hand and still failing to see how he does it

8. Matthias wishing Wylan or Kuwei would wear a hat so he could tell them apart

9. Wylan blushing at Jesper’s touch

10. Wylan Van Sunshine

11. Leave my grandmother out of this

12. Jesper’s dad is so innocent and precious and must be protected at all costs

13. Are you all students? Of a sort

14. Matthias has a little sister

15. Matthias comforting Alys cause she reminds him of his mother when she was pregnant

16. Nina whining over Matthias sacrificing her biscuits to keep Alys quiet

17. Matthias jealous of Jesper making Nina smile

18. Inej laughing in Van Eck’s face for thinking he outwitted Kaz

19. Nina expecting Matthias to rub her feet from now on whenever she wants him to

20. Matthias longing for a domestic life with Nina

21. Nina longing for the comfort of family relationships like the one Jesper has with his father

22. Jesper as a kid

23. Jesper’s mom was the sweetest most badass person ever and taught him everything he knows at such a young age

24. The WYLAN’S MOM CURVEBALL WHO THE HECK DOES THAT TO A PERSON MY POOR BABY HOW DARE JAN DO THAT TO HIM AND HER?!

25. Wylan’s motivation to get revenge

26. Kaz giving Wylan a pep talk about strength when facing a weakness

27. Matthias’s relationship with his wolf

28. Matthias pretending to be a happy go lucky Fjerdan

29. Nina having to explain every single dirty joke to him and convince him they’re not insults

30. Nina and Matthias’s first kiss being straight out of a Disney movie 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

31. Everyone points guns at each other in Ketterdam it’s basically a handshake

32. Matthias going into full military general mode and leads a two-man Grisha army in a victorious mini war against the Dime Lions

33. Kaz literally CRASHING Van Eck’s dinner party

34. Dunyasha: “I am Dunyasha, a white human blade, a ruthless assassin princess, and my sole purpose is destroying you. Prepare to feel my ninja stars.”

Inej: “New phone who dis?”

35. Colm Fahey adopting his teen gang member son’s five gang member friends

36. Nina finally getting her waffles

37. Only to realize Matthias Helvar is possible better than waffles (just barely, but still)

38. Matthias believing waffles is Nina’s one true love instead of him

39. What’s new? Nm, Nina can raise the dead to do her bidding, Inej plummeted 20 stories and nearly died at the ninja stars of some assassin chick with a huge ego, and there’s a huge gaping hole in Jan Van Eck’s dining room ceiling. Hbu? Who wants waffles?

40. They’re all crazy but Wylan realizes there’s nobody he’d rather have by his side cause the Dregs are HIS CREW

41. Kaz Ankle Breaker Brekker sliding past a pair of Van Eck’s guards and knocking them off their feet at once with his cane

42. The Crows trying to outdo each other with the highest rewards offered for their execution or capture.

43. Kaz winning that contest in a landslide

44. Nina flipping off their Wanted posters

45. Nina changing out of her Fjerdan costume with Matthias’s “help.”

46. Jesper and Kuwei’s haunting the Dime Lions

47. Little Inej stopping hearts and scaring her family to death on the high wire but wanting to keep going back on no matter what

48. Inej only falling when a net is underneath her

49. Wylan’s first impression of Jesper

50. Jesper’s flair for neon fashion

51. “Mother, father pay the rent! I can’t my dear the money’s spent!”

52. “On a dare I ate a literal trough full of waffles doused in apple syrup and almost went back for seconds.”

53. Kaz treating Jesper like a brother, even yelling at him and calling him Jordie because he’s so protective of Jesper and wants to keep him from making a mistake too big because of his gambling addiction. Seeing Jesper get carried away with his best worries him and he just wants him to be smart and not make the same costly mistakes Jordie did.

54. Kaz and Jesper arguing like brothers and then proceeding to fight like brothers while Inej, Nina, and Matthias sit around bored, waiting for them to snap out of it cause they’re definitely not going to kill each other with their bare hands, and there are bigger things to worry about.

55. Jesper’s dad breaking up the fight with a single threat

56. Jesper Llewelyn Fahey

57. I KISSED THE WRONG BOY

58. Inej and Jesper’s friendship

59. Matthias being very okay with PDA with Nina

60. Colm’s presence making the Dregs feel like kids worn out from a rowdy birthday party

61. Kuwei being a straight up savage and lying about his language barrier

62. KANEJ WOUND BANDAGING SCENE DESTROYED ME EVERYTHING ABOUT IT I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS NOR DID I EXPECT HIM TO EVEN GET HALF AS CLOSE TO HER AS HE DID

63. Kaz trying so so hard to push away all memories of his trauma to be in the moment and touch Inej and just show her how much she means to him

64. She followed him anyway

65. Kaz reclaiming his rightfully EARNED Dregs throne

66. Inej watching him kick out Haskell and kick traitor Dregs ass with pride

67. “I suggest a cane”

68. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Same thing that’s always wrong with him, he’s Kaz Brekker.”

66. Nina constantly trying to get Kaz to warm up a little, whether by joining a group hug or letting someone help bandage him up post-fight for his life

67. Colm willing to do anything to help the gang without question

68. Wylan’s cute anger at Jesper for mistaking Kuwei for him (let’s be real tho he was pretty mad at himself too for not being more upfront with his feelings since he had no Tailor to fix him)

69. Wylan getting mad at Nina for failing to mention she found a refugee Tailor that could change him back

70. Colm feeding into Nina’s waffle/food in general addiction

71. The politics in the story are so intricate and it just continues to be built upon in Crooked Kingdom. It’s detailed enough that honestly, Leigh could probably write a whole Grishaverse history textbook. It’s pretty interesting to read from everything we get from the Dregs discussing their home nations, their histories, traditions, and relations with other countries. Leigh put in so much effort to build not just an authentic country in Kerch, but an entire alternate world. Really fun to read about.

72. Wylan’s offense for Jesper not being able to tell him and Kuwei apart in that moment

73. Jesper stealing a portrait Wylan’s mother painted of him to help them reconnect once Wylan’s features are returned

74. “I told you, I like your stupid face.”

75. Jesper helping Genya tailor Wylan’s “stupid” face because he remembers it quite well

76. Jesper nearly losing it when he returns to find the boy he had fallen for at first sight has returned to his original appearance

77. JESPER KISSING THE RIGHT BOY

78. “I really hope we don’t die”

79. Colm giving an award worthy performance in front of Van Eck to rope him and the Council into falling for Kuwei’s fake indenture auction

80. Nina’s underlining threat to Van Eck for messing with Kaz, only a fool would try to scheme against Brekker

81. Colm telling Wylan that he’d be good for Jesper ☺️

82. Wylan taking an actual beating from other Dregs to make Jan Van Eck believe the Dime Lions were going to kill his son for him

83. Wylan’s on point acting making everybody in the chapel believe his father was a conniving scumbag all along

84. THE FACT THAT JESPER CAN ACTUALLY USE HIS POWERS TO AIM HIS BULLETS

85. Kaz lying like nobody’s business to the Merchant Council and everyone bidding on Kuwei to throw Van Eck under the bus

86. Kaz freaking BLOWING UP THE MENAGERIE IF THAT’S NOT A DECLARATION OF HIS LOVE TO INEJ IDK WHAT IS

87. Kaz and Inej hand holding

88. Nina pretending to be pregnant

89. Matthias believing Kaz could fake a birth

90. Genya teaming up with Kaz and Nina to fake Kuwei’s death

91. I haven’t even read the Shadow and Bone trilogy yet but I love King Nikolai and his alter ego and I can’t wait to read more of him in the series and in King of Scars!!!!!

[armeniaitn]

Artwork by Julia Couzens, Richard Hoblock, Farzad Kohan on Display at Tufenkian Fine Arts

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/culture/artwork-by-julia-couzens-richard-hoblock-farzad-kohan-on-display-at-tufenkian-fine-arts-73672-18-05-2021/

Artwork by Julia Couzens, Richard Hoblock, Farzad Kohan on Display at Tufenkian Fine Arts

“A New Day” Exhibition at Tufenkian Fine Arts

LOS ANGELES—Tufenkian Fine Arts is honored to present “A New Day,” an exhibition featuring bright uplifting works by Julia Couzens, Richard Hoblock, and Farzad Kohan. The exhibition opening reception will take place on May 15, from 2 to 6 p.m. and will be on view through June 26.

It’s A New Day, with Thanks to Nina Simone BY CAROLE ANN KLONARIDES

Reconsideration, repurposing, recalibration, call it what you like, for artists Julia Couzens, Richard Hoblock, and Farzad Kohan, it is an ongoing process. Layering, marking, moving the paint (the eye never rests), weaving, wrapping, scraping (the hand keeps active), a cyclical loop of rediscovery. An inspiration, perhaps, is to reconstruct a new consciousness from the salvage of our yesterdays. Sometimes the old is reinvented yet the roots remain, and new growth appears, and as cliched as it sounds, a new day begins.

Birds flying high, you know how I feel Sun in the sky, you know how I feel Breeze driftin’ on by, you know how I feel

For Richard Hoblock, it began with writing screenplays commissioned as portraits; each portrait was an imagined cinematic scene, the patron as the protagonist with underpinnings of personal details they provided. As a skilled writer, he could have several subplots at variance with each other all happening at once. After a series of screenplay portraits, he began to make abstract drawings while looking at Baroque paintings, focusing on a gesture or detail. Referring obtusely to the act of writing, his leftover pencil stubs would be ground down using a Cuisinart into a fine carbon powder which was used as a ground and drawn into. When finished, they were photographed using an 8 x 10 camera, a digital file is created, and the original drawing was then destroyed (unintentionally so was the Cuisinart!) Each photographic print was unique as part of his “Baroque Series.” This practice of layering materials and procedures, several times removed from the original, began a cycle of deconstruction and improvement, a reauthoring with each transitional stage. Yet, it was not quite an appropriation as the original source of inspiration is not apparent. It is more a process of cite and re-citing.

Farzad Kohan’s “Blue Blossom,” Mixed media, 60×48

According to the artist, he started painting seriously after seeing the Willem deKooning painting “Excavation” at the Art Institute of Chicago. An obsession with the work inspired many revisits to view it. The painting has an intensive build-up of surface that has been scraped to reveal underlying layers of paint and gesture, hence the title of the work. Starting with a color or off-white ground of paint, Hoblock also would build up layers and then scrape the surface with a palette knife or kitchen utensils, leaving the residue of previous layers along the edges as a visage of the process. Not quite a revival of gestural abstract painting, Hoblock puts it, “I went from concrete as a language to abstract as a gesture.” With such a calligraphic gesture, perhaps a screenplay is hidden within. However, it is up to the viewer to project their own, as his is not revealed with the exception of an occasional hint hidden within the title.

The most recent incarnations are vertically oriented abstract paintings that have dramatic virtuoso paint strokes of discordant colors. These seemingly would not go together but with his deft precision are found to abide on the same canvas. Fleshy pinks, cranberry reds with lipstick orange, and dull browns. Acid Green! White cutout shapes are held in front of the canvas to help the artist’s eye create the blank space needed to find the relationships within and around the gestures and forms—there can be no signature image as there is always contingency in the shifting relationships. The trajectory of this thought process finds a way for intuition to play; the outcome is not set. The work “Champion” was painted listening to the Miles Davis’ recording “Bitches Brew,” which similarly gives dead air and timing to punctuate each note creating a jarring, yet magnificent composition of discordant sounds. Replace sound with color and form and the same can be said about these gnomic paintings–what shouldn’t work comes together in a harmonious celebration of defiance.

Blossom on the tree, you know how I feel It’s a new dawn It’s a new day It’s a new life for me

Farzad Kohan prides himself as a self-taught artist always in-flux. His signature process of building up bits of ripped paper collaged on board or canvas, then distressed by sanding the surface, exposes layers of the passage of time and history of application like the age rings of a fallen tree. Ghostly bits immerge; gestures of automatic drawing, cursive lines of Farsi or Persian, the edges of torn magazine pages come forward and recede, much like distant memories. Having left his family and country of Iran at the age of eighteen, escaping first to Pakistan, then migrating to Sweden and later, settling in California, he weaves all of his past into the layers that make up his paintings and drawings with gradual transformations that sometimes hide the stories or hint at untold truths. As an émigré, a desire to be part of something bigger than himself drew him to art making; his work is imbued with a desired sense of belonging and new beginnings. The use of repellent materials, such as oil and water, perhaps metaphorically reflect the difficulties of assimilation, and his labor intensive procedures, the process of migration.

An art instillation from the “A New Day” exhibition

Inspired by a homeless man who creatively repurposed found objects, Farzad found his own economy of artistic material by using everything in his studio and surroundings. He taught art to children and learned from them, made his own paper, repurposed regional maps, created drawings and then ripped them to shreds along with discarded magazines (most commonly the local Iranian magazine Javanan), and then adhered them with water and glue in layers. For an additional pièce de résistance, in which an occasional fragment of fabric would be woven.

Lately, a series of works has turned more recognizably figurative. In each, he has firmly rooted a blossoming tree in a pot, with branches appearing to reach out of the confines of the perimeter of the rectangle. The arrangement of the carefully orientated strips of paper and the use of color is driven by form and texture. Slowly, he stopped sanding the surface, letting the paper bits layer like the bark of a tree. Underneath is evidence of the artist’s personal history, tangled lines that appear like the roots of many years of drawing automatically from the subconscious. As we walked out of his studio, he pointed to a cypress tree so tall it looked like it touched the sky. “See that, it was here the whole time and I never noticed it until recently.” I immediately thought of Van Gogh’s painting of cypress trees reaching to the sun and moon, with signature swirls and whorls in the heavy impasto. Van Gogh painted many trees, and in retrospect, the trees influenced by Japanese woodcuts are the ones that Farzad’s trees most resemble, with their minimal canopy and heavy outlines, a mastery mix of many historical and cultural influences. Not rooted in the ground but in a vessel, they are ready for transport to a new home.

Dragonfly out in the sun, you know what I mean, don’t you know? Butterflies all havin’ fun, you know what I mean Sleep in peace when day is done, that’s what I mean And this old world is a new world And a bold world, for me

As she approached the Little Flower Café in Pasadena, Julia Couzens eyed and then scooped up a doggie toggle pull toy left behind, a tight bundle of many colored strings that actually resembled some of her own sculptures. “Oh, this is so perfect for what I am working on!”, she exclaimed to me as she quickly stuffed it into her bag, a catchall for similar urban detritus she finds as she walks about. Her sculptures, which she calls “bundles,” are obsessively wrapped asymmetrical masses of rope, wire, string, yarn, bungee cord, fabric, and plastic, that have a textural physicality that gives the expression “tightly wound” a whole new meaning. Gathering, twisting, weaving, sewing, tying, all make up the form. The resulting structure, in its solidity with an occasional sharp angle, seems architectural, but is actually derived from a long history of drawing from the model or nature. Each sculpture begins like a drawing, starting with a line and continues until the intuited end with an aim to visually and physically build up layer after layer of contained energy. Like the Japanese tsutsumi (“wrapping”), used as protection for precious temple objects, one wonders if something worth protecting is contained within the sculpture’s inner core, but the contents (if there are any) are safely secured and hidden.

In making the bundles, process and materiality is something Couzens privileges over the conceptual. Whether conscious or not, her work counters the historical patriarchy of monumental sculpture. Sculptors Eva Hesse and Jackie Winsor, process and materials artists a generation before, offered a more organic approach in comparison to the minimal and conceptual work of Donald Judd and Robert Morris, whereas Couzens’ work is closer aligned to the work of Michelle Segre and Shinique Smith. Replacing the chisel with a needle, and casting with weaving,  each work has a sculptural monumentality that comes out of craft traditions. They are light of weight, and if I were to wax poetic, I could see them strapped on the body as one’s total belongings carried on a nomadic sojourn. The use of color is as a force, one different from contemporary sculpture primarily made of wood, stone, and metal, with a simultaneity of color combinations that express the ineffable.

Given a rotation of 360 degrees, each side of the sculpture provides a new vantage point with a new face. There is no totality or instant read, they operate in the space like alien forms whose origins one can’t quite define and are so self-contained that they seem natural on the floor, hung from the ceiling, or protruding from a wall. It is the bringing together of these repurposed and disparate materials tightly bound in all their brilliant splendor that sends off a charge like a bundle of electrical circuitry ready to combust.

To paraphrase Couzens from a recent online response to our times, “Art’s nature is exploratory, peripheral to linear progress and predetermined order. I think its meaning sprouts from the cracks in life.”  A bundle titled, “Sweet,” has a long shoot of bright green yarn that escaped and at its end is hanging a smaller bundle as if to say from the entanglements we make, there is always the possibility of something new thriving from the mess.

It’s a new dawn It’s a new day It’s a new life for me And I’m feeling good

Read original article here.