#WWII bunker conversion

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep1 Musings - Dreams, Nightmares, and Faith

Wow. 😍 I love the new title card, with the bomber jets & explosions over upside-down...Paris? Romania? IDGAF--it's cool! I am SO glad AMC took us through war-torn Europe!

Something I found so interesting was the question of whether vampires dream or not.

(Armand stfu omg, him & Les both calling Claudia Infant Death 😅)

In the books, AR's vamps go into deathlike sleep--they're not really conscious, don't get woken up by much unless THEY'RE ready to wake up, and don't dream.

Vamps are like the dead, but UNdead--they're DAMNED. The damned don't get to wish for rainbows when they dwell in darkness. They die with their heartaches and grief, and spread it to others as harbingers of death.

In WWII Europe, societal vampires (Nazis, Soviets, etc) and actual vampires coexist, each preying on the innocent & vulnerable. Louis & Claudia literally tear through the battlefields and waypoints. I was wrong about them eating the dead/blown up body parts--they were feeding on dying soldiers, not ones already dead, but TBH at this point I don't know which is worse?

You feel sorry for Darciana and her revenant "child," sure, but there's also Morgan & Emilia--and what about everyone in that bunker (all those old women & kids), who'll probably starve now that their sole hunter/trapper can't get food for them anymore? Just so these serial killing vamps can eat!?!

Louis thinks "the blood is bad here" cuz they're drinking "misery and hopelessness" in war survivors & POWs etc; but really the misery & hopelessness is IN THEM. LOUIS is miserable (without Lestat). CLAUDIA feels hopeless (with Louis/her own companion). THEY (as vamps) bring misery wherever they go, internally & externally.

You're the walking DEAD, Louis. :( You will ALWAYS be cold. U_U

It's bad EVERYWHERE--love & community is what keeps people going--

--even in the middle of what seems like an apocalypse--be it WWII, or the "flying vampire apocalypse/Great Conversion." Even in a hellish place like the Theatre and the Children of Satan/Darkness. We all need/want a HOME.

Louis & Claudia have been stuck in a figurative nightmare, walking through the valley of the shadow of death along the Devil's Road. But poor AMC!Claudia has actual nightmares. 😭

She tells herself (through her diaries) that she doesn't dream, denying the suffering she goes through, trying to stay strong and not give her trauma power.

The tabula rasa of "infants" and child-like innocence that Armand refers to is just The Void for her. By avoiding her troubles, she's probably giving more power to the things that scare her the most.

AMC KNOWS what they're doing! Claudia's in denial too, and DreamStat's calling them BOTH out on it--but like Delainey said: unlike Louis, Claudia doesn't need a hallucination version of Les to tell her what she already knows--he's in her; he's her father--moreso than Louis, who only ever gets called "Daddy" now when they need to fake it! (Or is it REALLY fake for her? When she gets hurt, she yells for Daddy Lou's attention....)

There's her behavior with Louis', and her nightmares, compared to DreamStat. Cuz Louis' not asleep--he's wide awake, but being awake for him is like living in a nightmare with his eyes wide open. Louis said his own dreams were "erratic and often," but which ones is he even talking about, REALLY? His actual dreams? Or DreamStat; the figment of his imagination he admitted to "inviting" inside his head?

The Disney song goes "Have faith in your dreams and someday...the dreams that you wish will come true." For Louis his dream is obvs Lestat, and obvs by PLatRoA and Blood Communion Looustat's dream finally comes true. But for Claudia her dream is companionship, but also knowledge. She wants/demands answers.

(Only for us to find out 2 books later that all the legends really ARE true!)

Louis's having a crisis of faith--he is SCARED of his dreams, and what it says about himself, and has accepted his damnation with fatalistic & willfully blind cynicism--just like Armand does with the Childrren of Darkness/Satan, he's slowly losing his religion/faith in God (read: their "dead" exes: Lestat & Marius), while doubling down on the idea that they are damned and that all that exists is Hell/Damnation/Satan/etc.

He'd rather believe that baboons are roaming Europe than face another vampire who might reveal more about him than he's ready to accept.

He talks down to Claudia just like Lestat did; and constantly crushes her dreams by being a wet blanket. He gives her NOTHING positive or affirmative to look forward to.

Daciana's suicide is a wake-up call: she IS a good vampire (reltively speaking, ofc). She has dreams and wishes and loving feelings, too. She's visibly in emotional turmoil & pain, which Louis can relate to; acknowledging her as human, and finally looking forward to the future Claudia wants for all of them: companions sharing stories & knowledge & love; "we're a family?"

Louis COULD'VE followed Daciana into hopeless misery, but luckily he DOES have Claudia; them helping e/o to stay out of the fire.

And as sick as it is, Lou also has Lestat, and the comfort of knowing that no matter how bad he acts/gets, he's still alive.

There's still that glimmer of HOPE: "a spark in the dark."

As an aside:

Romania as the "ancestral home" of vampires is hilarious. Claudia's desperate to find out the truth--and she's close, for sure, as there are obviously vamps crawling all over Europe--but my heart just aches thinking about how mind blown Claudia would be if she found out that the REAL ancestral home of AR's vampires was Egypt.

Cinematic poetry, putting AR in the same frames where Louis talks about Dracula--only to drag vampire superstitions a few minutes in, as Louis and Claudia bicker over garlic & crucifixes. XD

[carefulfears]

my thoughts on the field where i died, as promised!

first of all, i just have to say, this episode is so visually stunning. glen morgan/james wong + rob bowman behind the camera is a dream team, and i’m inclined to be a bit more open to the content than i probably would be if it came from the perspective of another writer.

the criticism that i hear the most regarding this episode is that it implies that mulder and scully aren’t soulmates, but i've never interpreted it that way

the field where i died opens on an FBI raid of a cult in tennessee headed by vernon ephesian, where mulder intuitively leads the team to a bunker housing ephesian and his six wives, including melissa riedal-ephesian.

throughout the investigation, FBI focus turns to uncovering the location of the cult's weapons, in a search to find enough evidence to charge ephesian. otherwise, he will be released in 24 hours.

throughout the 24 hour holding period, multiple interrogations of melissa reveal not only the depth of the connection that mulder feels to her, but that she seems to exhibit multiple personalities, each with differing information about ephesian's crimes.

in what is possibly my favorite frame of the series, mulder suggests that these alternate personalities might actually be melissa recalling her past lives, and suggests that she try regression hypnosis, with the goal of revealing where the bunker holding the weapons is

this is where this episode starts to lose people, as both mulder and melissa undergo regression hypnosis, and both claim to recognize each other as their spouse in each previous life

however, as the wikipedia summary points out, the recollected histories all end with the two being separated.

melissa describes watching mulder's death during the civil war, while mulder describes witnessing her being taken away (by CSM?? i'll admit this is a weird one, folks) during WWII, with mulder having the line "we're always taken away."

also a frequent flyer in the past life regression session, is scully, who appears in each of mulder's previous lives, an occurrence he describes as souls coming back "different, but always together, again and again, to learn"

personally, i don't think that mulder and melissa being married in each life, or even the emotional connection that they have to each other, is implying that they're soulmates or supposed to be together.

i think that the repeated theme of mulder and melissa being separated and mulder and scully "coming together" in each life is the more meaningful note from morgan and wong. and more than that, i don't think that any of this matters at all.

if you recall, the goal of the regression hypnosis in the first place was to find the bunker. to locate the weapons, to charge ephesian, and to hold the cult members in custody.

ultimately, the regression doesn't assist in the investigation at all, and a planned FBI search of the grounds finds every member of the group dead in a mass suicide, including melissa.

the stand-out of this episode, however, comes before the revelation of the ending.

"dana, if early in the four years we've been working together, an event occurred that suggested or somebody told you that...we'd been friends together. in other lifetimes. always. wouldn't it have changed some of the ways we looked at one another?"

following mulder's regression, the episode pauses. and mulder asks scully (calling her by her first name, i believe for the first time since season one) if having known they were fated to come back together, to always be friends, would have changed things between them.

this is a conversation that is ongoing throughout the series, the question of fate vs. free will, and as the incredible @scullysflannel has written about before, mulder loves free will.

while fated past lives might be the MOTW, might be the supernatural phenomenon that we're focusing on, that doesn't mean that the episode, or mulder, comes out on the side of fate.

fate can't find the bunker. fate doesn't save anyone's life.

frequently, when this debate is brought up, as is scully's involvement in the x-files.

scully was assigned to the x-files, she was positioned there by CSM purposefully, and they both know that. but she has chosen to commit herself to the cause, and specifically to mulder. she sought him out when they were shut down, she describes herself as having "followed" him, and she continuously fights to stay involved in his journey.

this is something that mulder rebels against from time to time, feeling responsible for the things that have happened to her since she became involved in his quest

and feeling that there's more for her than what a life with him offers.

in fight the future, he tells her to leave and go be a doctor. in requiem, he laments "everything that's been taken" from her, including her health and chance at being a mother.

over 15 years later, in nothing lasts forever, he admits to the scenario he envisions, a world where she "left that basement office" and married some brain surgeon, became everyone's boss at the FBI, her family and health and babies intact.

regardless of the underlying level of guilt and responsibility that he always feels when it comes to the losses that scully has suffered

he needs this life to have been her choice, for her autonomy in that decision to have been intact, for a life with him to not have been her irrevocable, and somewhat tragic, fate

and so in the field where i died, shortly after exploring the connections of his past, he looks up at her and asks...if this were all because we're supposed to know each other, would it have been different?

and she tells him, no.

the way that in fight the future she tells him that she'll be a doctor, but her work is with him. the way that in requiem she told him that she won't let him go alone. the way that in nothing lasts forever she told him that she doesn't begrudge him anything, that her "leap of faith forward" is the future she wants with him.

maybe they have been friends in every life that they have ever lived. maybe they are fated to always come back together, to always learn from each other.

but fate doesn't save the day, fate doesn't show you what you need to find.

they choose each other, and more than anything else in this episode, that's what he needed to hear.

[bizarre-blorbo-bracket]

Round 2 poll 4: Fraszka from the 2004 Warsaw production of Cats! the musical vs Otto the Otter

Propaganda under the cut:

Fraszka:

Okay, so in 2004 there was a production of Cats which is widely known as the first Non-Replica, which means it doesn't use the same costumes/choreo/theming as the West End and Broadway productions. Cats has a lot of nonreps, like a weird number of "what if they were cats.... in a circus" productions, and at least one "what if the cats were in a WWII bunker in London?" production. So Cats Warsaw is kinda set on a closed film studio, and kinda on a roof in Warsaw. And for some reason in this nonrep they had just loads of characters. Like 36 characters, and seven of them are original. That's where Fraszka comes in. She's a Warsaw exclusive kitten and she is the love of my life. She's so bubbly and excitable and lovely. She looks a little like a racoon. She's a random chorus character. She's inexplicably on the Wikipedia page for Cats. She's almost indistinguishable from Kocik Le Miau, an adult character. I had to recheck my reference guides for Warsaw to double check the Wikipedia pic is her. I have included her in a fic. I don't have a 100% rate of recognising her. I think I might be her 2nd biggest fan on all of Tumblr. I'm not sure if she sings any lines by herself. And I don't speak a word of Polish. Well that's a lie, I know several Cats themed words in Polish. The picture included is the one of her on Wikipedia.

Otto the Otter:

I love all big animal statues, but Otto is very special to me. I've brought him up in conversations with friends to let them know how cool he is. (We do not live by him). I just think he's so neat and cute.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2006): Operation Overlord

You know, after playing through this total conversion, it made me miss WADs filled with slaughter maps, like both Hell Revealed WADs, Alien Vendetta, both Scythe WADs, etc. With these at least I felt like it wasn’t filled with 24/7 bullshit time like this map/WAD.

G5: Operation Overlord

Main author(s): Nigel Rowand (Enjay)

Release date: August 11th, 2005 (original release)/January 2nd, 2006 (revision b/GZDoom release)

Version played: Revision b

Required port compatibility: GZDoom

Levels: 1 (MAP01 replacement)

Operation Overlord is one of the more unique specimens when it comes to Doom WADs. Its author, Nigel Rowand, created this map for a friend who wanted something that, quoting, [you] could do lots of sniping, hide behind stuff and fight enemies in depth positions where the enemies do not chase you all over the level. Well, looks like the friend got what he wanted. I don’t think most of the WADs enjoyers wanted something like this.

But why is this TC map like this? Don’t worry, I’ll get to it in time.

The basic plot of this map is that there are prisoners held by evil south-Americans. Now go save the prisoners.

...

Still sounds better than CoD: Ghosts.

One thing I can give credit for this map is that it looks rather good. Operation Overlord is based on the WWII operation of the same name, where Allied forces stormed Normandy (including the most notable D-Day in the history of Earth). And let me tell you, this map definitely feels like you are storming the Omaha beach and killing enemy soldiers (even though it’s a more futuristic version of those events).

Shame that it also has these annoying weapon-picking and explosion sound effects from most of the pretentious (G)ZDoom WADs.

The two music tracks that play before and after reaching trenches are also good. They have the warfare vibe that fits with this map.

As I said earlier, your task is to free prisoners. You have to go through the beach where you have to set some charges to blow up barbed wire. Then there is a minefield, trenches with three keys to grab from the guard posts, and finally, the bunker where the prisoners are. It’s a rather simple task and I don’t think you will get lost playing this map.

Like in Heretic/Hexen, you have some inventory items. In case of this total conversion, there is a portable medikit that heals you by 25% and grenades that are rather pathetic if you ask me.

If you actually manage to pass the beach in Operation Overlord, you definitely deserve a title of a Doom God, for this map is way too fucking hard, even on Hurt Me Plenty. I tried to beat it legitimately three times. I failed every time due to Uber Hoovies devouring all of my health in a second. I had to use God mode to actually see what was behind the beach. And that’s only the beach I described to you. There are still three sections that I mentioned above.

I understand that this isn’t the typical Doom gameplay; that you have to duck behind cover and from one to another (the ducking was implemented before it became an official feature in (G)ZDoom), but even while doing that, there are too many goddamn hitscanners everywhere. Where is the fun in a Doom WAD when you are surrounded by these twats? And no, ducking won’t help you for the long term. You step out by just a single pixel and you turn into a Swiss cheese.

It’s kind of hard to talk about new enemies since most of these are hitscanners + some dogs, rocket turrets, and a pig tank from Duke Nukem 3D.

The worst hitscanners are the previously mentioned uber Hoovies (or as the map likes to call them Inca static guns). Shit ton of damage, shit ton of health, little to no attack wind-up. This map would’ve been actually playable without these wankers.

There are also two new weapons added to your armory. One is Thompson which fires faster than the Chaingun (and it might be slightly weaker than that weapon). The other is Railgun. Just a regular railgun. It can kill uber Hoovies in two shots and each shot costs 10 plasma ammo.

Operation Overload is not worth your time. Sure, it looks like something that would be enjoyed by people who like a more tactical approach, but the sheer difficulty will highly make you lose any interest in playing it. You can pass on this map. You won’t miss much.

I’ve heard there is a sequel/spiritual successor to this map that also won one of the Cacowards but I don’t know if I’ll do a proper review of it when we reach Cacowards 2008. I’ll definitely take a look at it and if it won’t be filled with such an amount of bullshit like this map, I’ll do a review of that WAD.

Next WAD on the list belongs to one of the NDCP contributors. So we will see what he has to offer with his solo project.

See you all next time.

Bye.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

When you buy an old WWII bunker and do a terrible home conversion, then try to sell it for £275,000 ($388,185.87).

This is advertised as a detached home. Your living room decor includes genuine antique artifacts from the war. Hyacinth Bucket’s (Bouquet’s) Daddy would love this!

The two openings on the left are bedrooms. 

Is that a kitchen on the left?

It has 2 bedrooms, so I’m assuming that this is one of them. Black mold is included.

Modern toilet on boxes and a sink- no bathing facility, unless you count the hose. 

The drive- is that a shed? You could paint it like a Dalek.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/108097586?fbclid=IwAR2Wn6KcjBUMfK5Bd_xmYffX8ocTAMbg1ljsfd8pzq4Jypr_g7cZMgC0p7U#/floorplan?activePlan=1

[lonestarbattleship]

USS Texas (BB-35): Fuel

When originally built, USS Texas's boilers burned coal to generate steam for power her main engines and systems. USS New York (BB-34) and her were the last US Navy Battleships to built to run on coal. She could carry 2,891.51 tons in 14 bunkers at midship that spanned 4 decks. These coal bunkers added an additional layer of armor. It was estimated 1 foot of coal equals about an 1 inch of steal. She could burn about __ tones a coal a day.

When it came time to refill her coal bunkers, it was a labor intensive job that took almost the entire enlisted crew, the entire day to complete. First, USS Texas would ether pull up to a coaling station in a port or a collier, a coal transport ship, would pull up next to her and latch together with ropes. Next, cranes would then dump coal on the main deck of USS Texas.

If she was recoaling from a coal barge, the crew would take wool bags down into the barge. There was 16 booms, 8 on each side, would be swung out over the barge. The crew would fill the bags up to be hauled to the main deck to be emptied by the booms.

The booms were rigged to a gypsy head that was powered by a steam engine on 2nd deck.

The crew would then shovel coal from the main deck into her 28 chutes that fed into her bunkers.

The ship's band would play and the crew would only stopped for meals and trips to the head. If the coal was dumped on both sides of the ship, a competition would be held to see which side would be finished first. As you can see this was very labor intensive process and would cover the entire ship, inside and out, with a layer of coal dust. This was one of the factors in the transition to fuel oil.

Oddly enough, being coal powered was the reasons by New York, Wyoming and Florida Classes were sent over to England to fight during WWI. By 1917 and 1918, fuel oil was being rationed while coal was not since England plenty of coal deposits.

Conversion to Fuel Oil

During the modernization in 1925-26, she was converted to fuel oil. There was several reasons for this, oil has more BTUs (18,900 vs 13,500), more efficient, cleaner, required less men to operate (140 less) and it doubled her range while occupying less room.

The space dedicated to coal storage on third deck was turned into crew space with 285 bunks added. This became useful during when crew was added to man new equipment added during WWII and all the AA guns.

source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source

NHHC: 80-G-85099

[p-artsypants]

I bet your search history during longest night was weird😂 But seriously I’m really sad it’s over, you’re a great writer and i’m loving i’ll handle this

OH MY GOD IT WAS!!! 

I did a lot of stuff in safe search, just in case. But I remember reading testimonials about people being flogged in war camps and sharing what it was like. How much electric current a person’s body could handle. A story of a man that was a prisoner in isolation for like 40 years before getting parole and what it was like coming back into society.  I held an in depth conversation with a lady at my church who was having heart problems, and I knew all the terms she was talking about because of all the research I did about heart attacks (Wait, that might have been for Nine Lives?) 

While working on Longest Night, I had a second browser window that was all tabs of research, like 50 tabs at a time.  Note, when looking up torture, most of the results that come up are going to be for medieval torture, which was mostly fatal. So I had to take some creative liberties figuring out ‘okay, what’s painful or humiliating that wouldn’t kill someone?’ Which then resulted in some...BDSM results. 😬 OH And then I had a ‘forbidden’ map of the Paris Catacombs, because people aren’t supposed to go down there. (There’s two WWII nazi bunkers down there! One’s preserved, and the other is graffitied.)  And I watched a lot of youtube videos of thrill seekers with gopros exploring the catacombs with a guide. 

And as every good writer knows, sometimes you do an hour of research to find what wine pairs well with a Whooper, and end up just writing ‘wine’. So some reading was wasted, but I filed it away to throw into random conversation. 

I actually used some of the info I found for a DnD campaign! So not a total loss! 

Thanks for letting me ramble! lol

[skarsgard-daydreams]

Let’s chat about Anhalter Bahnhof, a former train station in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin. My hotel was adjacent to this weird ruin when I visited on 2014, and I am basing the old bombed-out train station in “Voices Carry” on it, though with certain liberties taken. What you see above is all that remains today. During WWII, tens of thousands of Jews were deported via trains from Anhalter Bahnhof. It was bombed during the war, and subsequent attempts to restore it faltered during the Cold War before the majority of the structure was ultimately demolished, leaving this piece standing as a strange testimony to Berlin’s physical history. It’s difficult to get this sense from the photo that I retrieved from Wikipedia, but it feels like this structure looms over the street when you walk past it. My American classmates and I crossed the street in front of it 6-7 times a day for a week, and it became a major topic of conversation over dinner as we gradually learned the history of the station. It disturbed us that the structure still stood, knowing that tens of thousands of Jews crossed through its arches and never returned. But we also didn’t think it should just be torn down. Maybe it should remain as a testament to the past. We didn’t know the right answer. And I think that sums up one of the strangest aspects of Berlin. I’m reading a book right now called Stasiland. In it, the author describes how Germans were undecided on what to do when they unearthed Hitler’s bunker in Berlin. If they destroyed it, were they erasing history? If they allowed it to remain, would it become some kind of dark memorial to that man? By the time I visited in 2014, the site of the bunker was a parking lot, where, as our German tour guide informed us with a sort of very, very dry humor, many Berliners brought their dogs to shit.

[theredandwhitequeen]

Roswell New Mexico thoughts 2.10 Tripp with Louise, at reservation, she was shot They’re not from around here, they’re from up north.  Tripp was good. Sad about Nora You’re the only person I trust Took him to a friend. Family, both at Okinawa during wwii Taking temp and checking heart rate Road trip Jenna back in hospital  Been weeks Fractal burns Maria with tourism board Contact cantina pop up bar  Maria had a flashback/vision of herself Isobel interrupting Max/Liz and Michael/Maria is hilarious and when Alex and Michael reunite can she do that to them too Road trip with aliens, Alex and Maria Alex and Forrest At the crashdown  Town where Alex’s grew up New prosthesis for Alex Alex is writing music, Forrest offering to help with words. :) Isobel and Maria needed a time out from each other I love that Elizabeth Warren percent navajo, damn Isobel Is this your girlfriend? Oh my god is that how I present? Gross.  Jenna and Liz at hospital, migraines Arturo at hospital  Using jenna to get to charlie  ICE Nurses are good Arturo I love you Leave my Arturo alone, ICE We respect the law in this country  Evil ice Alex got shot gun Gregory Trading post with Alex and Maria  Jenna helping Liz with Arturo, being a good friend and person 100 mile zone, not wearing a sweater Kyle at a conference  Nobody to call Calling Diego? Louise’s grace, Flowers grow year round, Baby didn’t survive The flowers Talk about the necklace  Necklace made here All drinking  Talking about babies Max going feral Turkey blaster thing, baby gravy Michael and Isobel are cute and sweet You would be an incredible father Interpretation of guidelines  Harrison spoke to Louise only And seriously Alex or Maria Mind walk with Harrison You can’t be his sponsor Jenna hurt Being deported, nooooooo Tripp and Harrison, evil is my brother Baby was born She survived There should be music where she goes The devil Would come It’s hard being a woman on this planet, Roy Bronson was her dad A little star on the ground 2 daughters, no sons. You came from something else She loved you Jenna back in hospital  Spinal headache, hole in your spine, yikes You used your privilege to help me Being chained up when I was a kid I wish I could kill him a thousand times Alex and Gregory  Congratulate on you getting out Of the navy Let me hate him for you I love them as brothers Arturo is out, safe. Diego saved him Maria’s grandmother was Isobel’s sister!! I love that. She’s Maria’s great aunt. Actually it explains a lot. I love you Michael Diego is fine, his mom is a senator, they are so cute. Seeing someone They can be friends Not wasting anything Max is back and they meet.  Alex and Michael in Michael’s bunker He’s different these days I don’t trust him, I need you to trust me I love this talk I promise to keep you safe Goodnight Michael No hurting Alex, boooo hissss A crutch Hurt my boy Juarez Mexico I know so little about my own family Max feeling angry and bitter at Liz You are objectively better in bed Maria is a tiny bit alien Maria and Isobel Tried holding hands Michael and Maria are cute, he made her a alien bracelet Max drinking Drinking to figure out past Memory eraser - violent context Louise broke max out And pretty sword fighting I love the music at the end

This was such a great episode and I loved it

Max is probably not related to Michael or Isobel at all

Louise had 2 daughters, Isobel and Maria’s grandmother. Roy was her great grandfather? I think

Michael and Alex’s talk was so important, they needed to have this talk. They may have never had this complete of a conversation about the shed ever. Also Michael hiding his hand with bandanas.

Alex called him Michael. I need Michael to have found the paper. Who hit my boy?

I love Gregory, Harrison, Forrest and Diego already, damn. Anybody who saves Arturo Ortecho is #1 in my heart. Also Jenna is amazing and I love her.

Ice are the devil

I want Gregory to be good and a good man. I loved his talk with Alex,

I love Alex and Maria’s friendship so much.

Tripp is a good man!!!!!!! We stan him a lot. We appreciate the good Manes men, Tripp, Alex and maybe Gregory.

[ewh111]

Annual List of Favorite Film Experiences of 2019

Happy New Year! All the best to you for a fabulous 2020 and new decade! 

2019 was a busy year of traveling. Work took me back to China (three times), Japan, Korea, and first time visits to the Czech Republic and Australia. 

I had the opportunity of a lifetime when I helped lead a group of Harvard-Westlake faculty members on a culture and food themed trip to China with James Beard Award-winning food writer/chef Fuchsia Dunlop. As a big fan of hers, I invited her to join us as our culinary tour guide and she accepted, leading us through three regions of China with distinct cuisines (Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Shanghai). Over ten days, she curated 19 meals with over 300 different courses! For more, go to my first annual food post: https://ewh111.tumblr.com/post/189972112494/2019-food-lists

And now, here are my favorite film experiences of the past year. 

Cheers, Ed

The Best and The Favorite of the Year

Parasite

The less you know before viewing this metaphorical, fiercely dark, genre-bending comedy/horror/social satire of haves and have nots where everyone is arguably a parasite, the better. Korean filmmaker Boon Joon-ho creates a memorable, twisty, thought-provoking film experience with exquisite storytelling, stunning visuals, sudden tonal shifts, unexpected turns, and a terrific cast. Just take the journey and enjoy this masterful work that may be the best film of the year. Trailer: https://youtu.be/isOGD_7hNIY

Jojo Rabbit

Appealing to my affinity for the quirky, this one is my favorite film of 2019. Who knew that a story during the waning days of WWII about a 10 year old Hitler Youth, his imaginary friend Adolph Hitler, and his single mom who is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic would be so sweet and funny. While an absurdist witty satire on the surface, it’s really an anti-hate, coming-of-age story as we experience the world through the eyes of 10 year old Jojo as he confronts and reconciles “the other” he’s been taught to hate in the world around him. Delicately balancing whimsy and seriousness, Jojo Rabbit is a beautiful and soulful film thanks to a great cast, including a terrifically endearing Scarlett Johansson (while likely to garner more attention for Marriage Story, this is the more memorable character to me), the audacious Jewish-Polynesian director Taika Waititi as the sophomoric Hitler bestie, Sam Rockwell as an SS officer with a heart, and a wonderful Roman Griffin Davis in the title role. Trailer: https://youtu.be/tL4McUzXfFI

Racing Against Time

1917

Wow. Daring and bold filmmaking in one of the most realistic and visceral war film experiences since the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. In a role that may be overlooked during awards season, George MacKay is a standout as one of the two soldiers sent on an impossible mission through No Man’s Land to deliver a message to prevent British forces from entering a massive German ambush. Oh, and via pure movie magic, director Sam Mendes and master cinematographer Roger Deakins tell this story in what seems like one continuous shot. I was totally drawn in by the Gallipoli-esque race against time, the real-time pacing of 24, and the immersive POV of a video game. The result is breath-taking as the camera dances around the soldiers, trenches, bunkers, and towns in a beautifully choreographed dance without distracting from the gripping storytelling. Trailer: https://youtu.be/gZjQROMAh_s

Ford v Ferrari 

An exhilarating, high octane, crackling thrill ride. The story of two obsessively passionate crazies, ex-racer and car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and British race car driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale), who join forces with American corporate titan Ford to defeat Ferrari at the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1966. It’s pure adrenaline that non-racing enthusiasts can enjoy because of the well-crafted story and performances. Trailer: https://youtu.be/I3h9Z89U9ZA

Unforgettably Creepy and Disturbing

Joker

Joaquin Phoenix disturbingly and completely transforms himself into the pathologically deranged, downtrodden, and delusional part-time clown/aspiring comic Arthur Fleck in this origin story of Batman’s arch nemesis. Joker is a deeply disturbing character study of how an emotionally fragile individual on the fringes of society gets pushed deeper and deeper into the downward spiral of insanity to the breaking point.  Dark, edgy, and unsettling, Joker is not for everyone. But there’s no denying Phoenix’s brilliant, tour de force performance. (Unfortunately, my edginess was heightened in my screening by an audience member who was similarly laughing inappropriately like Phoenix’s character, which had me looking for the closest exit in the event of a disturbance). Trailer: https://youtu.be/zAGVQLHvwOY

Us

In his sophomore directorial effort, Jordan Peele has gone beyond the horror and social commentary of Get Out, and into even deeper, more chilling existential territory. In Us, Peele has created an All-American family terrorized by a creepy scissor-wielding doppelgänger family and spirals into more terrifying and mysterious terrain with a fabulous dual performance by Lupita Nyong'o. Who is Us? Is Us them? I’ll leave the metaphorical debate for later. Trailer: https://youtu.be/hNCmb-4oXJA

**Midsommar deserves notable mention in the creepy category–a slow-burn, dark tale of a young American couple’s vacation in the remote Swedish hinterland at a once-in-lifetime summer festival that goes creepily and morbidly wrong. Trailer: https://youtu.be/1Vnghdsjmd0

Masterworks by Tarantino and Scorsese

Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood

Perhaps Quentin Tarantino’s most mature film, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood beautifully captures in painstaking detail a specific moment in time: Hollywood, 1969. A passionate homage and love letter to Los Angeles and the Hollywood scene, Tarantino blends a concoction of history and fantasy (a la Inglourious Basterds) in a buddy movie with Leonardo DiCaprio as declining TV hero/star and an endearing scene-stealing Brad Pitt as his stalwart stunt double/best friend whose lives fatefully intersect with Sharon Tate and the Manson family. While at times meandering (it’s less plot and more a series of vignettes), it is also at times spellbinding (an on set encounter between DiCaprio’s character and a fellow 8 year old child actor; Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate watching herself on screen inside Westwood’s Bruin Theater). As the title implies, this is a quintessential Tarantino fairy tale: funny, yet warm, and, of course, violent. Trailer: https://youtu.be/ELeMaP8EPAA

The Irishman

An epic, career-capping entry into Martin Scorsese’s mob-themed oeuve, The Irishman appropriately brings De Niro, Pacino and Pesci together in this elegaic saga, complete with de-aging technology to tell the story of mob hitman Frank Sheeran (De Niro) through multiple flashbacks. And for those of us old enough to remember, the story helps to answer the unsolved question, what happened to Teamster head Jimmy Hoffa. Trailer: https://youtu.be/RS3aHkkfuEI

Family Dramas

Marriage Story

Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver are top-notch in this raw, yet poignant, and ultimately life-affirming journey through the disintegration of a marriage and the logistical mechanics of the divorce process and custody fight seen from both sides as each struggles to reestablish priorities in their lives and redefine family. Trailer: https://youtu.be/BHi-a1n8t7M

The Farewell

We are told the film is “based on an actual lie” in the film’s opening titles; director Lulu Wang’s heartfelt, deeply personal, and charming film stars Awkwafina as a young woman whose grandmother (in China) has been diagnosed with terminal cancer but the entire family has decided to keep it a secret. Under the guise of a hastily planned family wedding, the family gathers to say goodbye to grandma. Capturing the uneasy tension between Chinese and American culture, questioning where one belongs and the role of family in our lives, Awkwafina shines in her first dramatic role, as does the rest of the supporting cast.  Trailer: https://youtu.be/RofpAjqwMa8

Little Women

Director Greta Gerwig follows up Lady Bird with another achievement, giving the classic 19th century Louisa May Alcott period piece a thoroughly modern feel with an effervescent cast and 21st century non-chronological storytelling. Saoirse Ronan leads a fantastic cast. Trailer: https://youtu.be/AST2-4db4ic

Two Funny Smart Girls, Two Religious Guys, and Only One Baby Per Family, Please

Booksmart

More than just a female version of Superbad, Booksmart is an impressive directorial debut for Olivia Wilde with the fantastic duo of Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein (HW ‘11) as the “study hard” academic besties on a mission to “play hard” on the last night before graduation. Also memorable is the scene-stealing Billie Lourd (HW ‘10). This very funny and delightful coming-of-age pic stands out in the pantheon of teenage comedies not only for its quirky and smart tone, but for its inclusive and diverse three-dimensional characters, including LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming teens whose sexuality don’t define who they are. Trailer: https://youtu.be/Uhd3lo_IWJc

The Two Popes

I didn’t expect a film that is essentially an extended conversation between two people would be so intriguing and gripping. The imagined conversation in 2012 involves two very different men, one the sitting pope who finds himself standing increasingly in the way of progress, and the other, his eventual successor looking to retire from an institution he is increasingly frustrated with. But with spot-on casting and terrific performances from Jonathan Pryce as the ABBA-humming future Pope Francis and Anthony Hopkins as the stoic, humorless intellect Pope Benedict XVI, The Two Popes is a joy to watch. Trailer: https://youtu.be/T5OhkFY1PQE

One Child Nation

This one’s a doc. From 1979 to 2015, China instituted the “One Child Policy” as a means of population control to stave off mass starvation. Documentarian Nanfu Wang, herself an exception to the policy and now a first-time mother, explores the enduring ripple effects of the policy that included forced abortions, sterilizations, abandonment of baby girls, and child trafficking. This powerful and devastating documentary looks at the multi-layered trauma–how it was carried out and the heartbreaking human and societal toll it has taken. Trailer: https://youtu.be/gMcJVoLwyD0

**Other documentaries to check out: Cold Case Hammarskjold, Where’s My Roy Cohn, The Biggest Little Farm, Leaving Neverland.

All Out Pure Fun Movie Experiences

Knives Out

An enthusiastic bundle of joy, Knives Out is Rian Johnson’s stellar, intricately crafted, Agatha Christie-like whodunit with a stellar cast who seem to be having as much fun as the audience. Trailer: https://youtu.be/qOg3AoRc4nI

Rocketman

Can’t help but compare this to Bohemian Rhapsody, but Rocketman is the superior and more entertaining musical biopic (using the term loosely). It’s bold, magical, and fantastical, as befits Elton John. Trailer: https://youtu.be/S3vO8E2e6G0

Other notables: The King, Avengers: Endgame, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Honey Boy, Yesterday, Velvet Buzzsaw.

In the queue: Pain & Glory; Uncut Gems; Bombshell; Richard Jewell, The Last Black Man In San Francisco.

Favorite Binge-worthy TV Shows

Dark, Succession, When They See Us, Chernobyl, Mindhunter, Barry, Veep, Sex Education, Silicon Valley, Stranger Things 3, Don’t F**k with Cats

Special Shout Out to Dark

With elements of the mysterious strangeness of Twin Peaks and Stranger Things (minus the humor and camp) and the intricate intertwined storytelling and compelling characters of The Wire, Dark is the story of four families who live in a tiny German town situated next to a nuclear power plant (add a little of Chernobyl) who are inextricably connected through some strange cosmic phenomenon. Oh, and throw in a big dose of time travel. Dark is incredibly compelling and addictive. It is hands down the most complex and thoughtful (i.e., sophisticated and makes sense) time travel-themed story I’ve seen. Do yourself a favor and resist Googling anything about the show to avoid spoiling the experience. Just watch. There are two seasons worth at Netflix. And one more on the way. Trailer: https://youtu.be/S3vO8E2e6G0

[janiedean]

ah well, enough’s enough.

so, I noticed that tumblr used @gamoralives who of course has preventively blocked me is going around publishing SCREENCAPS of my replies to that op about the holocaust but not of my actual replies because of course not and I was trying to reblog it from @galactic-jewce-box who in turn was reblogging it from @jewish-privilege but ALL THREE OF THEM HAVE BLOCKED ME OF COURSE SINCE I CANNOT TAG THEM, from which we can ABSOLUTELY NOTICE how strong is their spine since they can’t even talk to me properly.

okay then, I know that this post is not gonna get screencapped as a whole but since y’all are a bunch of immature assholes who think they can get away with slandering people behind their backs, spread misinformation and be honestly disgusting people because first they accuse ME of holocaust denial and then

 deny that categories other than jewish and roma people have died in it

completely ignore that queer people died in it

ignore that disabled died in it

ignore that the pacific front had another genocide going on that had equal if not higher numbers of dead people

have suddenly decided that wwii and the holocaust are two separated things when before they weren’t

spread misinformation about auschwitz works

complain about polish ppl not fighting the nazis enough and then literally spit on the ones who did by going like IF A HANDFUL OF POLISH GENTILES DIED IT DOESN’T MATTER guess what you completely fucking asshole those people were political prisoners and I have absolutely no qualms calling you an asshole by this point so they died to fight the nazis but I guess that’s not good enough for YOU ALL FUCKING AMERICANS WHO HAVEN’T EVER SET A FOOT IN EUROPE HAVE YOU

I’m going at it. bye.

so, what my pals had to say about me.

THIS is what gamoralives screenshotted:

of course, she didn’t, like, LINK TO EITHER OF MY OPS, one and two in which I said a lot of things, INCLUDING:

like no one is denying that jewish people were the the most targeted category and no one is even dreaming of it and no one is denying that everyone had responsibilities in the jewish ethnic cleansing but the ‘blame the polish at all costs’ mentality I’m seeing in some comments on this post is honestly baffling and not really what brings us to a constructive discussion on the topic.

but of course y’all could not, like, directly engage with me on my op. nooooo. YOU SCREENSHOTTED THE REPLIES TO MY OP BY PEOPLE WHO WERE AGREEING WITH ME AND THEN GO AROUND SAYING I’M ANTISEMITE. GOD YOU’RE FUCKING COWARDS.

but never mind that.

so, what else does my pal, my friend gamoralives (WHO NEVER ONCE TOUCHED THE TOPIC DIRECTLY WITH ME lmao) have to say about me?

OOOOH, IT DISGUSTS YOU?

let’s see what disgusts me instead.

this is one of the OPs that got the screenshot from the OP of that post which we all know was yours like shut up don’t even try to deny it is:

that’s what some pal of yours had to say:

THEN YOU GO AND SAY THIS:

like YOU GODDAMNED IDIOTS YOU REALLY THINK Y’ALL CAN SPIN THIS AGREEING WITH ‘HOLOCAUST AND THE WWII BELONG TO ONE GROUP ONLY’ AND THEN YOU DO A 180° AND SAY THAT WWII AND THE HOLOCAUST ARE TWO SEPARATED THINGS????????????

LIKE???????

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS????

YOU SAID THAT WWII ***AND*** THE HOLOCAUST ARE PROPERTY OF JUST JEWISH PEOPLE AND ROMANI AND THEN YOU GO AND CLAIM THAT WWII IS NOT THE HOLOCAUST?

LIKE??????

but it’s not even the worst because honestly I still have fucking vomit in my mouth from this:

and then you do this:

YOU GODDAMNED - I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO CALL YOU, I HONESTLY HAVE EXHAUSTED THE WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, BUT SINCE YOU’RE SO EXPERT IN ANYTHING WWII, PLEASE LET ME FUCKING C/P YOU A THING YOU CAN FIND ON THE FUCKING AUSCHWITZ WEBSITE MUSEUM PAGE which you’d know if you actually set foot in there (spoilers: my antisemite ass did and I actually went to krakow 40% for the rest and 60% because I’ve been wanting to visit since I was fucking eight because I started reading up about concentration camps and studying wwii when I was in elementary school because I was interested and I never stopped, differently from you who most likely only learned how to *research* now by c/p-ing together information that doesn’t count the other side but oKAY THEN):

Gas chamber I

Auschwitz I, Crematorium I and the first gas chamber

This object is preserved in an original state to a large degree. Crematorium I operated from August 1940 in a prewar ammunition bunker adapted for its new function. The largest room was a morgue, which was changed into a provisional gas chamber. There were three furnaces for burning corpses in crematorium I, ordered by the camp administration from the Topf and Söhne company, which installed them.

When the gas chambers in Birkenau were going into operation, the camp authorities transferred the mass killing operation there and gradually phased out the first gas chamber. In July 1943, after the completion of the Birkenau crematoria, the burning of corpses in crematorium I ended. The furnaces and chimney were dismantled, and the holes in the roof used for introducing Zyklon B were closed. Two of the three furnaces and the chimney were reconstructed (from original parts), and several of the holes in the roof of the gas chamber were reopened.

Outside the boundaries of the Museum, the railroad siding and unloading platform (the so-called Judenramp or "old ramp") is commemorated. Transports of Jews deported for killing, and also of Roma and prisoners of other nationalities, arrived here from 1942-1944.

YOU GODDAMNED FUCKING ASSHOLE, YOU ARE SAYING THAT *AUSCHWITZ AND BIRKENAU WERE DIFFERENT CAMPS AND THAT NO ONE DIED SYSTEMATICALLY IN AUSCHWITZ BUT THEY DID IN BIRKENAU WHEN BIRKENAU WAS BUILT WHEN THEY DIDN’T HAVE SPACE IN AUSCHWITZ ANYMORE TO KILL PEOPLE *INCLUDING FUCKING POLISH POLITICAL PRISONERS WHO WERE THE FIRST CATEGORY IN THERE FOR TWO FUCKING YEARS* AND THEN *I* AM THE ONE DOING HISTORICAL REVISIONISM??? ARE YOU FOR FUCKING REAL??

MISCONCEPTION?????

MISCONCEPTION???????

and *I* m the revisionis according to you???????

and you actually don’t have the decency to realize you’re wrong and like drop this conversation and shut the fuck up already?

nooooooo trash talk me and say to pre-eventively block because why the fuck not?

here, you want pictures because you don’t trust the website?

I FUCKING TOOK THEM WHEN I WENT. HAVE YOU? SINCE YOU’RE FUCKING ***AMERICAN*** I DOUBT IT AND TBH YOU BEING AMERICAN IN THIS CASE TRUMPS WHATEVER ELSE YOU ARE BECAUSE AMERICANS TALKING ABOUT WWII AS IF THEY LIVED IT WHEN THEY DON’T HAVE A RELATIVE THAT FOUGHT IN IT CAN, AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED, SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY, SIT BACK AND LEARN FROM US PEOPLE WHO LIVE WHERE IT WAS ACTUALLY FOUGHT.

anyway, this is the gas chamber + ovens in auschwitz 1. I was inside it. it wasn’t nice. I still wanna vomit if I think about it. sure as hell I wouldn’t be using it to prove a point about fandom if I were you.

that’s the ovens:

BUT NONE OF THAT EXISTED IN AUSCHWITZ 1????????

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME????

then again, have a few other choice things that I took pictures of while I was having my merry stroll around the place while trying to not throw up in my mouth:

LOOK AT HOW MANY CATEGORIES ARE LISTED IN THAT HANDY, PRETTY CHART, HMMMMMM? I even put the high-res picture in case you wanna look at it in depth :D

that’s the monument for FRENCH PATRIOTS OF WAR BUT I GUESS THOSE don’t count either. aaaah and wait a moment I went into the barracks and took pictures of the explanations and look at what I have for you:

just in case you can’t bother to open it: that’s about the execution of polish citizens and the quote of the nazi commander in the white tag is:

‘'if I wanted to put up a poster for every seven poles who were shot the polish forests wouldn't be enough to produce the paper for such notices'.

UHM. A HANDFUL OF POLISH GOYIM, @gamoralives? god, you’re such a blatant, spineless hypocrite I can’t even.

ah, but wait, I’m not done:

I think that one’s large enough you can read it yourself.

like, wow, and I am the revisionist.

I’d say kindly shut the fuck up just based on that, but hey, then you went and reblogged this piece of shit post which has been making me almost vomit my tea all over again:

POOR

DEFENSELESS

EUROPEANS IN NAZI OCCUPIED COUNTRIES

for WILLINGLY HANDING THEIR JEWS OVER TO GERMANS?????????????????? MOST EUROPEANS WERE GLAD?????????

@tikkunolamorgtfo I’M TAGGING YOU BECAUSE APPARENTLY YOU HAVEN’T BLOCKED ME YET, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? FUCK. YOU.

NAZIS FORCIBLY INVADED MOST OF THIS GODDAMNED FUCKING CONTINENT. THE FRENCH CERTAINLY DIDN’T WANT GERMANS ON THEIR SOIL. THE POLISH DIDN’T AS WELL AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT GIVEN POLAND’S HISTORY WITH BOTH THEM AND THE RUSSIANS. THE SLOVENES, HUNGARIANS, CZECHS AND SERBS SURE AS FUCKING HELL DIDN’T ASK FOR IT EITHER, NOR THE NETHERLANDS WHICH WERE NEUTRAL AND NOR THE DANISH NOR BELGIUM AND YOU GODDAMNED LYING ASSHOLE, if you go to the copenhagen jewish museum there’s an entire part of it just dedicated to how the danish rallied and tried to send off to sweden as many jewish people as they could.

but no, you’re here saying that we’re all happy that the nazis/russians/americans/whoever else occupied our damned nations and did whatever the fuck they wanted just because we wanted to get rid of the jewish people?

well I’m going to tell you a story since y’all are so sure I can’t talk about wwii because I’m neither jewish nor roma but never mind. one or two. to you, gamoralives and all the goddamned assholes on that thread who didn’t even have the guts to engage with me directly because you know you’re wrong. and since I’m from italy, THE LAND OF THE DOUBLE-CROSSING PPL DURING WARS, let me just tell you a few things I can say as someone who’s studied this shit for twenty years.

1) hitler thought mussolini was his role model and shit. guess what, fascism initially targeted some categories, which were either killed or sent off to ‘confino’ which was basically ‘we’re sending you to a small town in the middle of nowhere where everyone knows you don’t like the regime’. who got sent to confino? political adversaries, gay men, prostitutes and trans people. and while sad to say ghetto is an originally italian word so we have our bad history of antisemitism as well, guess what, there were no laws against jewish people until ‘38 when mussolini officially allied with hitler and had to get on with the plan, and actually ALL THE NEOFASCISTS IN ITALY WHO JUSTIFY HIM SAY THAT ‘HEY HE WAS GOOD BUT THEN HE MADE THE MISTAKE OF LISTENING TO HITLER AND DOING THE RACIAL LAWS’, but you wouldn’t know that, would you? while europe has never not been antisemite BUT actually at the beginning of the 20th century things had been going better until hitler showed up, NO ONE WAS FUCKING THINKING ABOUT GENOCID-ING ANYONE IN THOSE TERMS. but okay.

2) the italian government seeing how the tide was turning in 1943 decided to change sides and go with the americans instead after deposing mussolini - fair enough, except that THEY DIDN’T WARN ANYONE LESS OF ALL THE ITALIAN ARMY which resulted in all the italian soldiers stationed in places not under allied control to end up deported to concentration camps and so on, except that then it gets better because italy got split in two with americans south of salerno and the germans north of it which meant we ended up in a civil war where partisans fought nazis in the north and americans tried to advance from the south and hmm

wow, just the russians whose total death toll was TWENTY MILLION did better than us but never mind that, SINCE YOU DIDN’T BOTHER TO READ MY OP, LET ME REMIND YOU THAT THE GERMANS WENT AROUND KILLING CIVILIANS RANDOMLY INCLUDING 130 CHILDREN AT ONCE FOR THE ENTIRETY OF THE CIVIL WAR AND THAT THE ALLIED FRENCH ARMY POST-CASSINO RAPED AN AMOUNT OF MOST LIKELY 7K PEOPLE CAUSING A RIDICULOUSLY HIGH NUMBER OF SUICIDES ESPECIALLY IN BETWEEN WOMEN, but if you’d fucking bother, never mind:

After the armistice with the Allies, some 650,000 members of the Italian armed forces who refused to side with the occupying Germans were interned in concentration and labour camps. Of these, around 50,000 died while imprisoned or while under transportation. A further 29,000 died in armed struggles against the Germans while resisting capture immediately following the armistice

how bad, but:

marzabotto massacre (700+ dead)

fosse ardeatine massacre

sant’anna di stazzema massacre (130 children including A TWENTY-DAYS OLD)

or you could go on the WHOLE WIKIPEDIA PAGE ABOUT WWII massacres here where idk I’m opening a few pages at random of stuff happened in PLACES THAT THE NAZIS OCCUPIED:

Kisielin massacre was a massacre of Polish worshipers which took place in the Volhynian village of Kisielin (Second Polish Republicuntil 1939), now Kysylyn, located in the Volyn Oblast, Ukraine. It took place on Sunday, July 11, 1943, when units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), supported by local Ukrainian peasants, surrounded Poles who had gathered for a ceremony at a local Roman-Catholic church. Around 60 to 90 persons or more, men, women and children – were ordered to take off their clothes and were then massacred by machine gun. The wounded were killed with weapons such as axes and knives. Those who survived (around 200 by some accounts) escaped to the presbytery and barricaded themselves for eleven hours.

The Kragujevac massacre was the mass murder of between 2,778 and 2,794 mostly Serb men and boys in Kragujevac by Germansoldiers on 21 October 1941. It occurred in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II, and came in reprisal for insurgent attacks in the Gornji Milanovac district that resulted in the deaths of 10 German soldiers and the wounding of 26 others. The number of hostages to be shot was calculated as a ratio of 100 hostages executed for every German soldier killed and 50 hostages executed for every German soldier wounded, a formula devised by Adolf Hitler with the intent of suppressing anti-Nazi resistance in Eastern Europe. (3k deaths total)

The Kraljevo massacre was the mass murder of approximately 2,000 residents of the central Serbian city of Kraljevo by the Wehrmacht between 15 and 20 October 1941, during World War II. The massacre came in reprisal for a joint Partisan–Chetnik attack on a German garrison in which 10 German soldiers were killed and 14 wounded. The number of hostages to be shot was calculated based on a ratio of 100 hostages executed for every German soldier killed and 50 hostages executed for every German soldier wounded, a formula devised by Adolf Hitler with the intent of suppressing anti-Nazi resistance in Eastern Europe.

In World War II, in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, the Lidice massacre was a complete destruction of the village of Lidice, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, now in the Czech Republic, in June 1942 on orders from Adolf Hitler and Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.In reprisal for the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich in the late spring of 1942, all 173 males over 15 years of age from the village were executed on 10 June 1942. Another 11 men who were not in the village were arrested and executed soon afterwards, along with several others already under arrest. The 184 women and 88 children were deported to concentration camps; a few children considered racially suitable for Germanisation were handed over to SS families and the rest were sent to the Chełmno extermination camp where they were gassed to death. The Associated Press, quoting German radio received in New York, said: "All male grownups of the town were shot, while the women were placed in a concentration camp, and the children were entrusted to appropriate educational institutions." About 340 people from Lidice died because of the German reprisal (192 men, 60 women and 88 children) and after the war ended, only 153 women and 17 children returned.

The Maillé Massacre refers to the murder on 25 August 1944 of 124 of the 500 residents of the commune of Maillé in the department of the Indre-et-Loire. Following an ambush a few days before and in reprisals against activities of the French Resistance, Second Lieutenant Gustav Schlüter and his men organized the massacre and burnt the village. Forty-eight children were among the dead. The SS unit believed to be responsible for the massacre is the SS-Feldersatzbataillon 17 of 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen (Lieb, 2007). In contrast to Oradour-sur-Glane, the village was rebuilt after the war to its pre-war state (Delahousse, 2008).

The Muczne massacre of 16 August 1944 was the massacre of Polish civilians committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) in village Muczne located in Bieszczady County in Poland.Among the Poles were mainly refugees after the repression of the population in Volhynia and retreating in front of - 70 Poles were murdered. They were residents of nearby villages such as foresters, priests and children. Members of the UPA murdered Poles with axes, pitchforks and scythes.In place of the murder in 2010 the memorial and a wooden cross was erected.

The Palikrowy massacre was a war crime committed by 4th police SS-regiment made up of Ukrainian soldiers of the SS-Galizien who were removed from the SS-Galizien at the time of the massacre and placed under German police command, Ukrainian SVK ("Self-defence", Ukrainian: Samoobronni Kuszczowi Widdiły) forces and Ukrainian Insurgent Army on Poles in the village of Palikrowy (since 1945 Palykorovy), which took place on 12 March 1944. A total of 385 Poles were killed. Palikrowy was an ethnically mixed village, with 70% Polish population. In 1944, the population was about 1880, with about 360 houses. The action in Palikrowy was coordinated with the attack on nearby Pidkamin including the monastery in Pidkamin, where some of inhabitants from Palikrowy were hiding during the massacre of Poles in Volhynia. All the inhabitants of Palikrowy were gathered on a meadow near village. The Ukrainian inhabitants of the village were released. Then the Poles were killed by two heavy machine guns. Only a few wounded people survived. Polish houses were burned down and hiding Polish civilians were murdered, and their property stolen.

or, SINCE WE’RE DISCUSSING THE POLISH: The massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia (Polish: rzeź wołyńska, literally: Volhynian slaughter; Ukrainian: Волинська трагедія, Volyn tragedy), was an ethnic cleansing (some polish scientiests think that was a genocide) carried out in Nazi German-occupied Poland by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the UPA) against Poles in the area of Volhynia, Polesia, Lublin region and Eastern Galicia beginning in 1943 and lasting up to 1945. The peak of the genocide took place in July and August 1943. Most of the victims were women and children. UPA's methods were particularly brutal, with many of the victims being tortured and mutilated, and resulted in 40,000–60,000 Polish deaths in Volhynia and 30,000–40,000 in Eastern Galicia, with the other regions for the total about 100,000.

The Janowa Dolina massacre took place on 23 April 1943 in the village of Janowa Dolina, (now Bazaltove, Ukraine) during occupation of Poland in World War II. Before the Nazi-Soviet invasion of the Polish Second Republic, Janowa Dolina was a model settlement built in the Kostopol County of the Wołyń Voivodeship by workers of the Polish State Basalt Quarry. The town was inhabited by 2,500 people. Its name, which translates as the "Jan's Valley" in Polish, came from the Polish king Jan Kazimierz, who reportedly hunted in the Volhynian forests, and after hunting — rested on the shore of the Horyń (Horyn) River. The town was destroyed during World War II by Ukrainian nationalists who murdered most of its Polish population including women and children

The massacre of Uus street was committed by German forces and local collaborators on 30 August 1941 in Tallinn.German forces occupied Tallinn on 28 August 1941 after the Soviet evacuation of Tallinn. The German occupation forces included a local Omakaitse militia. Einsatzgruppe Acommanded by Franz Walter Stahlecker closely followed the German front units, actively recruiting local nationalists and antisemitic groups to instigate pogroms against the local Jewish population.

The Huta Pieniacka massacre was a massacre of the Polish inhabitants of the village Huta Pieniacka, located in modern-day Ukraine, which took place on February 28, 1944. Estimates of the number of victims range from 500, to 1,200. Polish and Ukrainian historians disagree over the responsibility for the Huta Pienacka massacre. According to the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, the action was committed by the 14th subunit of the '1st Ukrainian' Grenadier Division of the Waffen-SS. Polish witnesses testified that the orders were given by German officers. According to Ukrainian sources, it was committed by the German police battalions. According to witness accounts and scholarly publications, SS Galizien were accompanied by a paramilitary unit of Ukrainian nationalists under Włodzimierz (Vladimir) Czerniawski's command, including members of the UPA and inhabitants of local villages who intended to seize property found in the households of the murdered.

I’m not going ahead because this post is already too long but I’d really like to ask tumblr user @tikkunolamorgtfo if they think that ALL THE PEOPLE WHO DIED AS A RESULT OF WWII HAPPENING IN THE AFOREMENTIONED INSTANCES WOULD HAVE SIGNED FOR IT IN EXCHANGE FOR HAVING ALL THE JEWISH POPULATION REMOVED.

LIKE.

ARE YOU *SERIOUSLY* IMPLYING THAT ALL OF THE ABOVE WAS A THING EUROPEAN CIVILIANS FROM OCCUPIED NATIONS WERE OKAY WITH BECAUSE IN EXCHANGE THEY COULD SEND JEWISH PEOPLE TO DEATH???? BECAUSE THAT’S LIKE, FUCKING DISGUSTING, AND YOU’RE HONESTLY OVERREACHING LIKE NOTHING ELSE HERE. but nah, sure thing, everyone was so antisemite they totally would have died as well because hey, at least the category we hate more than we love ourselves gets to die, right?

you fucking asshole, of course in an occupied country people will collaborate with the forces occupying it in order to survive and to not get killed especially if you have a family, but assuming that we all accepted it and actually wanted it to happen is disgusting, not true, a slap in the face of everyone who died fighting the nazis and it can only come from someone who has no fucking clue of the vast consequences wwii had on everyone in this fucking thrice-darned continent. 

also, y’all demeaning the polish deaths in auschwitz/during their occupation in WWII is fucking insulting af because sorry but:

first you say the polish weren’t doing enough to fight against the nazis (even i they also were specifically targeted but y’all keep on ignoring that)

then you ignore that most polish people who died in concentration camps (YES IN AUSCHWITZ AND BIRKENAU TOO YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES) WERE POLITICAL FUCKING PRISONERS

POLITICAL PRISONERS

WHICH MEANS THEY WERE EITHER COMMUNIST OR SOCIALIST OR ANTI-NAZI OR ONE OR MORE OF THEM

WHICH MEANS *THEY DIED BECAUSE THEY WERE ANTI-NAZI* 

WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANTED POLISH PEOPLE TO DO

AND YOU *DARE* SPITTING ON THOSE DEATHS SAYING THAT IT WAS A HANDFUL????

let me c/p it for you:

The number of Polish dead are estimated to number between 5.6 and 5.8 million according to the Institute of National Remembrance(2009). Documentation remains fragmentary, but today scholars of independent Poland believe that 1.8 to 1.9 million Polish civilians (non-Jews) and 3 million jews were victims of German Occupation policies and the war for a total of just under 5 million dead.

FIVE/FIVE-AND A HALF MILLION PEOPLE.

AND YOU CALL IT FUCKING HANDFUL?

NO ONE, LIKE LITERALLY NO ONE TRIED TO SAY THE JEWISH WEREN’T THE MAIN VICTIMS/TARGETS OF THE HOLOCAUST/WWII.

BUT YOU ARE SAYING THE ABOVE DOESN’T MATTER AND YOU’RE PROCEEDING TO INSULT THE MEMORY OF EVERYONE WHO FUCKING DIED THANKS TO THE NAZIS IN WWII and I haven’t even touched the russian war crimes but nvm that. honestly? HONESTLY?

AND I AM THE HISTORICAL REVISIONIST THAT YOUR FUCKING FRIENDS WON’T EVEN REBLOG FROM DIRECTLY AND BLOCK BEFORE SHE CAN DEFEND HERSELF BECAUSE DEEP DOWN THEY KNOW THEY’RE SPROUTING BULLSHIT?

HAHAHAHAHAHA.jpeg.

like. NO ONE like NO ONE IS EVER DENYING IT and fyi you’re talking to someone who has more than once defended the existence of israel in front of people who say it should be obliterated exactly because I think its *existence* is the least we owe jewish people for the european history of antisemitism that we have on our shoulders, and if you want the receipts I even did it on this hellsite once, HERE if you want to see how fucking antisemite I am.

but you and your friends are purposefully downplaying about everything that’s not what you want, and on top of that you are excluding from your holocaust victim list:

THIS IS A FUCKING OFFICIAL-ISH LIST OF HOLOCAUST VICTIMS.

all these categories were targeted under the holocaust.

that’s historical facts.

you cannot go and say that someone stating the facts is doing revisionism when the only people doing any such thing are you and your fucking friends.

ALSO, since y’all are absolutely denying the existence of the pacific front, I will remind you kindly a few things:

unit 731 existed;

the japanese made twice the victims compared to the nazist;

japanese war crimes have zero to envy the nazi war crimes tbqh;

and since y’all are so fond of doing math to prove that the polish were shitty and that they were, like, WORSE THAN ANY OTHER OCCUPIED NATION (spoilers: lmao) and to demean the fact that even with that they still have more than a quarter of the names in the just among the nations (ps: in krakow’s history of wwii museum [or the schindler factory now I don’t recall] there are two computers with a huge af database of names. on the left you have the people who helped the jewish people somehow, on the right you have the collaborationists and you can read their life story. SOUNDS TO ME LIKE THEY ARE AWARE SOME OF THEM WERE ASSHOLES), and since y’all are a bunch of hypocrites who use real life tragedies to make a fandom point and insult idek how many people in the meantime and are also a number of things I’ll say at the end, let me do some basic math for you and I’ll also show you that reading the war in black and white is lost effort:

see that chart above?

SEE THE NUMBERS?

okay then.

jewish people: six million.

roma people: between 130k and 5k.

serbians: between 300k people and 600k people. THEY EVEN CRANK THAT TOP FIVE. WOW, AMRITE?

now. let’s take the lowest one and say that the serbians killed were 300k people.

THE NANKING MASSACRE ONLY - THAT ONE ONLY - HAD A DEATH TOLL OF 300K PEOPLE.

which means that the japanese killed in one single occasion/war crime/however you call it as many serbians as the nazis did in the course of the entire fucking war, or half the number if you take the 600k figure. but wait a moment, who, during the whole nanking affair, saved 250k people?

A FUCKING GERMAN BUSINESSMAN NAMED JOHN RABE WHO WAS ACTUALLY IN THE NAZI PARTY AND STILL SAVED THAT MANY PEOPLE TO THE POINT THAT WHEN AFTER THE WAR HE FELL INTO DISGRACE AND HE COULDN’T EAT, PEOPLE FROM NANKING SENT HIM FOOD AND RALLIED UP MONEY FOR HIM AND GUESS WHAT AFTER HE DIED HE WAS EVENTUALLY BURIED THERE RATHER THAN IN GERMANY.

like.

as I said in my first op which of course you didn’t fucking bother to link, WWII and the holocaust and the asian genocide AND everything that made it up including the pacific front that y’all just don’t really want to acknowledge, is the most fucking mucked up ethical situation in existence because again, not counting the targeted categories of the mass genocide(s) and even with that we can discuss because as we said some polish people were collaborators, the russians persecuted jewish people themselves and so on, EVERYONE ON EVERY SIDE COMMITTED ETHICAL ATROCITIES AND WHILE OF COURSE THE ALLIES EVENTUALLY WERE IN THE RIGHT POSITION THEY CERTAINLY DIDN’T SHY FROM DOING EXTREMELY SHITTY THINGS AND I’M SAYING BRITISH, AMERICANS, RUSSIANS AND EVERYONE INVOLVED AND THE WESTERN BETRAYAL ISN’T EVEN HALF OF IT. and wwii is world war two because it involved the entire fucking planet, so trying to tell people that *TWO* CATEGORIES OWN IT AND NO ONE ELSE CAN TALK ABOUT IT IS A) DEMEANING EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED DURING IT, B) FACTUALLY INCORRECT.

ALSO, y’all are still glossing over the fact that - NOT EVEN COUNTING THE POLITICAL PRISONERS DISCOURSE because I know that getting you to agree that communists, socialist and prisoners of war could be a targeted category is wasting time - SPECIFIC TARGETED VICTIMS OF THE ****HOLOCAUST**** WERE:

disabled people because they were disabled (and most of those either were killed straight or were used for medical experiments and none of those survived) so thanks for being ableist fucks and forgetting 270k people;

gay people/queer people because they were fucking gay/queer and guess what MOST OF THE SURVIVED ONES GOT ARRESTED LATER BECAUSE BEING GAY WAS STILL A CRIME ANYWAY so hey thanks for forgetting those 15k people as well, I’m sure you love the smell of homophobia in the morning;

polish + serbians + slavic people FOR BEING SLAVIC and that chart isn’t counting the hungarians/czechs as well so like if we take it with the highest value we can say you’re forgetting four million people tops and HERE in europe it’d be considered as pretty damn racist because yes you can be racist against slavic people;

the poor jehova’s witnesses obviously deserved to die there because they like to press your intercom button to tell you about our lord and savior jesus christ I guess, but nvm it was enough of them they had their purple little triangle in auschwitz, the place where PEOPLE DIDN’T DIE;

we’re obviously not gonna touch the poor spanish revolutionaries who were from a place with a huuuuuuhhhhh fascist dictatorship? ah well, 7k is really not that much, right?

idk what you want to do with the data about russians pows/civilians which if we take the highest count as in 4.5 + 3.3 makes for a whopping 7,8 million people that makes a little more than 1/4 of the total 20 million ussr casualties on a total of 80 million total which means that one fucking fourth of ALL wwii casualties were russians, but hey, that’s math for you.

the entire point is that YOU CANNOT RECLAIM OWNERSHIP OF A HISTORICAL EVEN WHERE THAT MANY PEOPLE DIED AND THINGS WERE ETHICALLY MUCKED ON BOTH SIDES AND SIMPLIFYING THINGS IS NOT A THING YOU CAN OR SHOULD DO OUT OF INTELLECTUAL HONESTY and like... first y’all say wwii and the holocaust are one thing, then that they’re separate, THEN YOUR FUCKING PAL GAMORALIVES HAS THE GALL TO SAY THAT SHIT ABOUT AUSCHWITZ AND BIRKENAU WHICH IS LITERALLY THE FIRST THING YOU LEARN WHEN YOU OPEN A FUCKING BOOK ABOUT AUSCHWITZ AND YOU DON’T EVEN CALL HER OUT ON *THAT* BULLSHIT, BUT THEN YOU GO AROUND SAYING THAT WE’RE REVISIONISTS???

BECAUSE WE SAID THE FACTUAL TRUTH IE THAT A BUNCH OF DIFFERENT CATEGORIES DIED BECAUSE OF NAZI CRIMES?

like, especially if you’re american and your grandfather didn’t risk losing a limb or getting ptsd in this damned war: don’t. and tbh if you’re american and willingly ignore the pacific front when the usa basically shouldered most of that side of the war by themselves out of all the allied coalition idek what you learn in school but I’m fucking worried about your educational system.

but sure go around saying that that I’m an *antisemite* just because I told you the actual historical facts while you demean around, idk, 70 million people deaths with your arguments contradicting themselves and @gamoralives goes around sprouting factual bullshit about how auschwitz works (because excuse me that’s factual bullshit period) and y’all do it after having blocked me preventively (okay, the tumblr user I tagged hasn’t yet but I’m sure it’s a short time coming) and haven’t engaged with me directly once because I have an inkling that having my original OPs on their blog would have made them look like the assholes they are. totes makes sense. next time I run into my former ***self-declared fascist*** classmates who called me a jew-abiding commie when I was nine I’ll tell them that according to you I agree with them. jfc.

and fyi, I never, never, NEVER in my entire life read anything by a jewish wwii survivor or a jewish wwii historian or anyone jewish discussing wwii/writing about wwii/making movies about wwii where the message was your message. the message usually was ‘we were the main targeted party but other people were with us as well and we can only hope it never happens again if everyone knows about it and talks about it’, and I can assure you I read wwii fiction, nonfiction and such on made by people of every damned background including memorials of camps survivors.

I mean, you ever read this is a man?

written by italian jewish chemist-then-writer primo levi who survived auschwitz and later killed himself out of survivor’s guilt?

I mean, if I were you I’d consider reading this shit and then avoiding saying things that go directly against what actual auschwitz survivors had to say about the entire thing while automatically having a greater understanding of how human nature works than any of us in this discussion, but what have you, you have the infused truth given to you and no one else around here has and you’re all, constantly, treating world war two as if it happened in a social context that’s, guess what, the usa’s.

it. was. not. deal with it and for the love of fucking everything at least if you want to call me an antisemite do it to my fucking face and not vagueblogging about me and only c/p-ing comments and not, like, THE ENTIRE OP.

but hey, we all know that if you knew you were in the right you would let your followers read what I actually said in the first place.

but honestly, honestly, I’m fucking appalled that I had to write all of this crap down and that we’re fucking comparing AUSCHWITZ CAMPS BECAUSE Y’ALL WANT TO MAKE A POINT ABOUT A DUMBASS *FICTIONAL FANFIC THAT WASN’T EVEN WRITTEN YET* AND YOU’RE DOING THIS OVER SHIP FANDOM DRAMA.

I mean, it seems to me that discussing this shit over fucking fandom drama is tasteless and honestly insulting af but whatever, you have the incensed truth of it.

please come at me and tell me how wrong I am.

to my face, thank you. btw: it’s rich of you to assume that poland in wwii was the template for how every other country behaved especially bc poland has a specific history that’s not shared by most other european countries, but reading your posts one starts thinking that according to you most of wwii got fought in poland while everyone else was chilling back and sending targeted categories to concentration camps while sipping a few margaritas and then all of a sudden the americans decided to drop the h bomb on the japanese BECAUSE THEY FELT LIKE IT (I mean you didn’t say that but knowing how tumblr talks about wwii I have a feeling it’s where it’s headed) and then it was all over but let me tell you, it’s so wrong and simplicistic and misinformed and misleading that I don’t think the level of a-historicism in all of your posts - and your friends’s which I haven’t shared because otherwise I’d have been here until tomorrow - is so mind-boggling it’s not quantifiable.

cheers. ps: technically I could report you for slandering me because that’s just about what you did. think about that. and no, you couldn’t report me for the contrary because differently from you I never said anything that wasn’t true or sourced and most of all I never once said jewish people weren’t the most targeted group.

have fun, I guess, if you read this far.

ah, btw, just because you’re demeaning consequences of wwii on civilians: my grandmother didn’t fight in it and wasn’t part of any targeted category, but they were starving so much during the war (and they were in the american side of italy good for them) that for the following sixty years up until she died she wouldn’t waste a drop of food, she wouldn’t spend a cent that wasn’t absolutely necessary and wouldn’t go to the doctor’s because IT WASN’T AS BAD AS THE WAR and every time anyone told her to take a rest she’d say that WE WEREN’T IN THE WAR SO WE COULDN’T UNDERSTAND and it ended with all of her kids having... issues that more or less go back to that and her approach on life made sure that she spent her old age suffering for shit she could have helped but wouldn’t because THE WAR and she died after one year of real fucking bad conditions BECAUSE SHE ENDED UP IN THOSE CONDITIONS BECAUSE OF HER ISSUES THAT WENT BACK TO FUCKING WWII and if it was like that for her try imagine people who fought in it or survived it or their descendants and come tell me to my face again that no one else suffered because of the fucking second world war.

sincerely, go fuck yourself. all of you. and I hope you feel half-ashamed that you went as far as this but I have a feeling y’all are so self-centered you wouldn’t get it.

ps: I’m done with this discourse from this point on but like if y’all think I’m letting you shit talk me behind my back you can forget it. :)

[caribouv]

32 days of May.

It's called the Cool Zone. Shit that is super interesting to learn about but terrible to live through. How anyone is not glued to twitter and live feeds right now is beyond me. This will be in history books as the riots during the 2020 covid pandemic. So many takes, and in no particular order:

Mad about looting? Can't wait to teach you about Wall Street. Mad about ANTIFA? Can't wait to teach you about WWIII. Sorry WWII vets, memorial day was literally last week but you're all terrorists now. Oh and if you think looting or ANTIFA are bad, let me remind you more people die of the flu every year.

The looting? I don't know how I feel about it and I don't care to think much more about it. Frankly, I don't care about small businesses or anything. I drastically and without conversation always prefer tactical destruction of property, but I'm not going to bemoan expropriation of wealth by the working class.

The idiots who come to clean up the next day? Boot licking isn't the right word for it, but it is so fucking pathetic. Could you imagine providing your free labor to clean off CHASE bank or some $50 million high rise as they are literally and actively pillaging everything about your life? If it was 2011 I would 100% be there actively blocking clean up efforts of certain targets and/or heckling/viciously harassing these idiot proles. I would literally dress up like a king and go encourage my peasants to scrub harder.

The shit about ANTIFA is hilariously fucking stupid. It's an idea, not an organization. It is copy/paste the same shit they pulled with OCCUPY and "black bloc" tactics, opps I mean the criminal organization known as Black Bloc. And literally, these are Black Lives Matter protests, not ANTIFA protests.

People and protesters alike equating property destruction with violence is and continues to be frightening. It de-legitimizes the outrage of people and cuts off property destruction as a valid tactic. It's pretty fucking concerning. Imagine targeted destruction of the District Attorney's office, District Attorney cars, local jails, local police department office, corrupt politician cars / offices, police labor union lawyers' offices, etc. Now imagine if they couldn’t stop it.

These idiot protesters literally keep seeing cops taking a knee and think it’s a sign of solidarity. No you fuckers he is putting his gas mask on because the tear gas is coming. I literally watched it happen in Sacramento the other night, texted my friend the tear gas is coming the cops are gonna cause a riot - sure enough I am Nostradamus.

If I woke up tomorrow and my boss told me that today at my job I had to shoot rubber bullets and throw tear gas at people protesting racism because one of my coworkers killed someone in cold blood, I would simply quit that job and do something useful like stock grocery shelves.

My new thing is dead baby jokes repackaged as dead cop jokes. What's the difference between a truck full of bowling balls and a truck full of dead cops? You can't unload a truck full of bowling balls with a pitchfork. HHAHAHAHA man someone get me a mic.

Bunker bitch president. Literally went to go hide in a bunker as protesters got within 10 yards of the White House lawn.

A gang of 25 chubby white dudes walking around with clubs and baseball bats that I can only describe as brown shirts in philly. White supremacist boogaloo types have repeatedly been trying to infiltrate as medics to spread covid and/or beat the shit/kill protestors.

The police killed a protester in Kentucky. And it was literally a sweet old BBQ man. I think he's the 8th death now? It's just so so so so important to protect property above human life. Sarcasm obviously, and this is why exactly why tactical property destruction needs to be on the table.

Covid is still going on. I'm 100% down and always down for the protests, but shit these protesters gotta take way more precautions and take covid / sucking coughs way more seriously.

Sacramento curfew at 8pm tonight. FUCK YOU STEINBERG YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHEN TO GO TO BED.

[torontoseoulcialite]

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[hawaiwaii]

Nov 10

Adventure day. Well sleepless night adventure day. That air con of mine is like trying to sleep next to a 4 stroke lawnmower that starts and stops randomly throughout the night. Unbelievable. I gave up and finished off my drug dealer like packaging of the samples. Would be an interesting conversation if someone came in. No chance I’m heading to customs with those.

We walked up the road a couple hundred metres which was a bad idea (thanks Matt) to a bird cave. Up someone’s driveway nestled in the back was a massive cave half over grown and full of birds. It use to be a quarry back in the day. Truely impressive. Smelt like shit inside it but was really cool. All sorted of birds chirping and farting in and out. Bloody wicked. Naturally formed cave. No way they could have quarried it.

Fuel was needed - stopped in for brekky at Bully’s and caught up about our agenda and thoughts on the island so far. I realised that everyone is all good except for the accommodation. Bar that, things are actually pretty good.

We jumped in the car and made bearings for somewhere. Ended up at a site of an old Japanese tank from WWII. It’s on the beach and has trees literally growing through it. Rather funny and spooky. Timely reminder of what was happening down here many years ago. Over the road were the steps to a lookout used in the war as well. Some sort of concrete bunker was on top. Unsure what it was actually used for. Good spot. Possibly anti-aircraft guns. Hmmm. Anyway, we carried on in search of this mountain to climb. Plenty of wrong turns. We were driving through the jungle at one point. I shit you not, driving through the jungle. Matt gave the rental car a few kisses with trees here and there. Ah well, it’ll buff out. After asking about we found where to go. At the end of yet another partial jungle road was a house and tour guide. His name was Edward (I think in English), older fella, fro Kosrae. He and his two dogs showed us up through the jungle to the tunnels the Japanese build for the war and the waterfall. He got a professional guide licence in China, has been on the cover of many spear fishing magazines and has traveled much of the world. He and his wife always said they would come home, and they did, Kosrae.

It was deep jungle, temple run status. Vines everywhere, drop offs, dodgy footing. Lucky we signed a no liability for him waiver at the start. He told us stories at random spots along the way. The one about how Kosrae got a government was interesting. Two brothers kidnapped the kings daughter and the town stood together to overthrow the king - pretty cool I reckon! There are still tunnel digging stakes in the hills as well as oil drums which they used to fuel the lights that lined the tunnels. All rusted out of course. Pretty wicked network though. Amazing really. Would have killed many building them I’d say. Starvation, exhaustion, insert another deathly thing here. A bit short for me. Usual story, hunched over with the phone light out.

In we went to the waterfall. Was pretty underwhelming to be honest. He did tell a scaring story from one track last year where a person fell down two waterfalls and died. He is still shocked by it. We were. Took extra care. Freak accidents do happen. Not just to other people, but to people you know and you (hopefully not).

We tracked back the same way we came. Sweating controllably this time unlike the incline. I was soaked. Almost as much as yesterday!

A few nice look out points in the jungle across to other ridges and out to sea. Also, vines are super bad eh. They have riddled the jungle and are killing everything. Slowly crippling the trees and over growing. It’s out of control. Won’t be much left but vine here in the next 20 years. We are cherries from the trees and Edward showed us how to cut down a banana tree properly. I did want a turn with the machete but he didn’t think so.

They fed us well upon return. It was a little more than 2 hours. More like 3 and a half. Wicked time though. My Spiridons did a good job, but messed up but a good ride overall. Tell you what, if you are after a good pair of shoes for jungle walking and general stuff, can’t go past a pair of Nike Spiridons.

We hightailed it back to sneak in a snorkel at the famous Blue Hole. We launched from the wharf and cruised our over the reef. I sucked in several times thinking there wasn’t enough draft. There was. Just. Maybe a burger and chips worth. The reef was shallow making it difficult to get there. You can’t walk out there as you damage all the coral on the reef and likely stab your foot with something you really really didn’t want to. The water became deep and even more blue. Temperature dropped at least 5 degrees, maybe back to 27 or something. It was a nice change. We edged around the circle checking things out. Plenty of cool looking sponges and coral. Not much else through. A large portion was dead. Had my trusty reef slides with me. They were dirty but turns out seaweed kelp is good for cleaning them. Probably the only person to ever clean shoes in the blue hole.

Matt showed me this cool trick to get a type of sea critter to close. Happily went around doing that to the next few I saw. Good fun! The hole is mysterious. Who knows what is in the bottom. Don’t think anyone wants to find out either really. The name is very fitting though. It is blue, it is a hole. No irony. I decided that the other side was a bit far with the amount of light left so I cruised back to the wharf. Less water depth clearance this time. Pretty dodgy. The sea cucumbers got pretty bloody close. Again, I breathed in haha. At the stairs, I looked back - perfect photo spot. Sun was setting on the other side of the island and the sky was putting on a show. Camera out. It looked like a desktop screensaver. It really did. It changed every 3 minutes as the sun set. The photos don’t do it justice. Wicked. I’ll never forget that.

We showered and I scrubbed the crap out of my shoes. Went to Bully’s for dinner. Guess what, they don’t starve beer on sundays. Religion. Bugger me. Smashed back the iced tea. Would go well with gin. I’ll try it when I get home.

Packed up my room and samples. Departure day tomorrow to Honolulu. Fingers crossed the plane takes off!!!

[shannrussell-blog1]

When the words ‘Perth’ and ‘hiking’ are uttered in the same sentence there are good odds the conversation is about the Perth Hills, where the flat Swan Coastal Plain ends and the Darling Scarp emerges.

The bushland and undulating hills make for some great bushwalking (there’s one track that’s 1000km long!) among wildflowers, waterfalls, and the odd abandoned quarry.

But it’s not all grass trees and red-tailed black cockatoo flocks, don’t forget Perth also has some great coastline walks along the Indian Ocean, and the mighty Swan River.

Don’t have a car? Neither do I. So the five areas listed below are all accessible by public transport. Okay, I might be pushing it with Ellis Brook Valley, but I have to include it anyway.

So, grab your SmartRider card and let’s get hiking!

1. Kalamunda National Park

Distance from Perth: 28km

Walking 1000km along the Bibbulmun Track from Kalamunda, in the Perth Hills, to Albany is not everyone’s cup of tea. But, with the Kalamunda bus station at the doorstep of the Bibbulmun Track’s northern terminus, almost anyone can experience at least a small section of this famous trail.

Rocky Pools in flow in Kalamunda National Park

Apart from adding a feather to your hiking cap, there is also plenty to see, especially wildflowers, bushland panoramas, and birdlife. A popular spot is the scenic Rocky Pools, which was a popular swimming hole pre-1930s. Not sure how the kids back then coped with the freezing water. I’ll just enjoy the sound of running water and hopping amongst the rocks, thanks.

The Kalamunda local government provides a number of marked trails which traverse the area and are well worth exploring. The best time to visit is in the cooler months, especially after winter rains have filled the streams, and in late winter and spring when the wildflowers are erupting.

2. Mundy Regional Park and Lesmurdie Falls National Park

Distance from Perth: 24km

Located to the west of Kalamunda and Lesmurdie, the parks are accessible from all sides via public transport. Once again the Kalamunda local government has provided some fantastic marked trails.

My favourite would have to be the Whistlepipe Gully Walk – a 3km trail which loops around the banks of a winding creek with numerous small waterfalls. When the vegetation is lush from winter rains you could swear you are traipsing through a tropical jungle.

Attempting to not get wet at the foot of Lesmurdie Falls

Whistlepipe Gully is a great one for the kids, but if you are looking for a hike a bit more strenuous try a couple of the longer walks which loop around the hillier sections of the park. The reward for your effort will be panoramic views across the Swan Coastal Plain and an abundance of wildflowers and birdlife.

The jewel in the crown, however, would have to be Lesmurdie Falls, probably the most spectacular waterfall in the Perth metropolitan area. For a close-up view, take the Foot of the Falls Trail along Lesmurdie Brook but be careful hopping along those slippery rocks.

For a more panoramic view, take the high road along the southern shoulder of the valley and enjoy aerial views from the observation platforms.

3. Ellis Brook Valley

Distance from Perth: 25km

Okay, so Ellis Brook Valley isn’t that easy to access via public transport (about a 40 min walk from the closest bus stop), but it is doable without a car. And the effort is worth it. The area has probably the best display of wildflowers I have ever seen in the Perth metropolitan area.

There are a number of different trails to explore for different fitness levels. For those that like to take an easier walk try the Echidna, Eagle View Trail, or the Blue Wren Ramble Trail. These three trails have mind-blowing amounts of wildflowers if you come at the right time of year.

If you are more adventurous try the Sixty Foot Falls Trail which climbs to the top of the waterfall, providing brilliant views over the valley and to the city beyond. The trail also passes by the well-known Old Barrington Quarry, which for a hole in the ground is very photogenic.

A walk amongst the wildflowers on the Eagle View Trail

Ellis Brook Valley is a personal favourite of mine. I felt like a kid walking around here for the first time. Not sure what it was about this place.

Wildflowers I have never seen before? Pushing my way through tunnels of chickweed to find a babbling brook surrounded by colour? Hunting down my first ever sighting of a splendid blue fairywren? Or crawling through a hole in a fence to tip-toe my way to the edge of an abandoned quarry? Whatever it was, I had a blast and will forever be memorable.

4. Perth’s Indian Ocean Coastal Walks

Distance from Perth: 49km

That’s enough of the Perth Hills, time to give hikes along Perth’s stunning coastline some credit. There are plenty of walks all the way from Burns Beach in the north, to Mandurah in the south, but my favourite would have to be what I term the Unofficial Rockingham Coastal Hike.

Atop a sand dune enjoying the calm blue waters of Warnbro Sound

Stretching from the Rockingham City foreshore on Cockburn Sound, around Point Peron, along with the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park coastline, and then finishing in Port Kennedy after enjoying the expansive ocean views of Warnbro Sound, the Rockingham Coastal Hike is a big task at 25km.

Luckily the majority of the trail is a flat concrete path but you do get some adventure along the rocky shores of Point Peron. As the majority of the trail is easily accessed by public transport the hike can be broken up into much smaller sections.

So what can you experience on the walk? Plenty. Indian Ocean views, long sandy beaches, jagged limestone cliffs and outcrops, dolphins, bird life, rolling sand dunes, flocks of colourful kiteboarders, exploring WWII bunkers and gun emplacements, nude beaches (if you are so inclined), maritime history, and best of all absolutely stunning sunsets. A great summertime hike, so bring your swimmers.

5. Walking the Banks of the Swan River

Distance from Perth: 2.5km (to Narrows Bridge)

I’m not sure the exact length of the Swan River’s perimeter, but whatever it is it’s huge. This means plenty of walking opportunities. But where to start? Why not the Three Bridges Loop which joins the Narrows Bridge, the Canning Bridge and the Queen Victoria Street Bridge.

At a touch over 40km, you may want to break the walk into sections and spread the joy. Along the way there are obviously three bridges but also dolphin sightings, spectacular river views, Point Walter Spit (a sandbar that extends over 1km into the river at low tide), parklands, cafes to sample, black swans, sunsets from Como jetty and a glimpse into the lives of Perth’s wealthy (including one of Australia’s most expensive houses at $57.9 million).

Perth city lights reflecting on the Swan River

Want something a little closer to the Perth CBD? Try the loop from the newly developed Elizabeth Quay, over the Narrows Bridge, along the South Perth Foreshore, across Heirisson Island (don’t forget to say hello to the urban mob of Western Grey kangaroos) and then back along Riverside Drive. A great walk to take on a warm summer night while watching the city lights sparkle.

Heading interstate or maybe you live further east? Here are the best hikes near Adelaide, Brisbane, and Melbourne.

What’s your favourite bushwalk near Perth? Comment below.

The post Top 5 Hikes near Perth appeared first on Snowys Blog.

[galacticbugman]

My Nature Vest

A few years back my late grandmother got me a nature vest for Christmas one year. I wanted one to hold all of my nature gear when I went out on hikes and to show off the places I have gone. It has turned out to be one of my most cherished items that I wear on my outings. I wear it not only as a reminder of my grandmother but as a conversation starter. I must say it has turned many heads. Now these photos I have to show are older but all my patches have been added that I got back on the winter trek to the coast and all around Texas. I started to collect patches for it back when I got it. I wanted to have it like a billboard for all the cool places I have been. Every time I go out to a new place that has a gift shop I am always looking for patches. I have a lot so far but I am going back out to Colorado soon so I am going to be looking for some great keepsakes and patches on this next exciting adventure here in a couple of weeks. 

Here is the front left side of the vest. The top very top patch is one that I got my first time out to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge a place I didn’t know I would be volunteering for at the time. This is one of the coolest patches for it is a place that I volunteer at and often visit to do some nature hikes. It is also the place where I did the Texas Master Naturalist training class. People often get this thing mixed up for a boy scout thing but I am quick to correct them. I was never in the scouts even though it is popular belief that I was among my friends. I do lead scout hikes and things when I am volunteering but I am not a boy scout. No I am just an wildlife fanatic and a naturalist. The next patch I want to point out is the Caldwell Zoo Patch. That is by far one of my favorite Zoos here in Texas. I had this patch for years and finally put it on something so it wouldn’t be collecting dust. I love this one because of the many fond memories of that Zoo when I was a child up to adulthood. That place is so amazing; I love going out there from time to time even though I don’t visit many zoos anymore. I spend a lot of time out in nature. The Star one is for an historical area known as Washington on the Brazos; I went out there during my horrific time in junior high. I say horrific because I was not very appreciated and was constantly bullied and made fun of by a lot of people who didn’t understand me at all. I got this patch when I was doing a project with places that had historical markers. I took a bunch of weekend trips to get pictures of me in front of historical markers. This place is kind of cool for it was where the Declaration of Texas was signed. They have a lot there on site even a small living farm with people who tell how life back in the 1800s was. I don’t just have nature areas on this vest but some areas of Texas cultural importance. The last one on this section was an old Cave badge I got from who knows where. I was really young so I don’t remember where I got this one but it is on my vest because I love caves and caving. I don’t go to a lot of caves but there are some really neat ones I like to go to. I am going to see if there are any good caves in Colorado to visit that will be very fun. 

The next side will be the right side of my vest: 

I have a ton of patches on the back; if you are familiar with my blog posts you may remember my trip to the coast. The top middle then the middle row’s first and third patches are my most recent ones from my whirlwind trip across Texas last winter. Here in Texas we have a bunch of cool areas to visit. the ones shown here are all from Texas. The first one is from a beautiful place called Ink’s Lake which is really close to a favorite place of called Enchanted Rock. Hill Country Texas is full of granite and a lot of it. Ink’s Lake and more importantly the formation known as Devil’s Waterhole is right in a valley of Granite. I saw my first Earless Lizard right in that valley and also saw some cool plants and things. I even saw my first Black-throated Sparrow and my first Ladder-backed Woodpecker at this park. The one after the Waco Mammoth Site is from Texas’ only National Seashore in Padre Island. It is one of my favorite place to go birding in the early morning. I also went to one of their famous Sea Turtle Releases there for their Kemp Ridley Sea Turtles. That place is so cool there are birds of plenty and I went there over the course of my winter trek to the coast last winter right before Christmas. The next patch I want to draw your attention is the middle patch. This one is from the USS Lexington Museum by the Bay in Corpus Christi. I have a deep respect for history and WWII History has always interested us. We had a few veterans in our family line and we really respect the sacrifices the military men and women make each day to keep our country safe. I for one may be a naturalist but the way I see it you can’t be a naturalist without knowing a little history. It all goes hand in hand. I have said it many times; learn nature and you history because some times your natural areas have a rich history behind them. It is not boring it is really good to know what went on in history to edify you and to not make the same mistakes again. I love boats and ships and ship wrecks have always been of interest to me. This cool museum is a must for a trip to the Texas Coast. It maybe a little cramped in places but this place has it all. You can explore most decks of the ship and learn about the design and the history of the USS Lexington which was originally supposed to be called the USS Cabot but when the first Lexington went down in the battle of the Coral Sea this ship became it successor and was given the nickname of the “Blue Ghost”. This is just one of my favorite places and it is a big part of the coast life near the JFK Cause way for it is a facet in the bay’s architecture and landscape now. 

Now for three bottom ones; I didn’t go over the three from Waco Mammoth, Aransas National Monument, or the Inner Space Caverns for I already have a blog post about how I obtained those. The next one I wanted to talk about is the one with the Pelicans. That one is from the John Bunker Sands wetland Center. I went there for the first time back in 2016. It was during the time I was just starting to get really serious about birding. There was a birding festival and fun walk which was part of the 5th Anniversary celebration. It is not open all the time and they say a lot of the best birding spots are now closed off from the public so I have not been out there since but it was a really cool area. They have a nesting pair of Bald Eagles out there who have an amazing story to their nest. The place is so cool and many birds gather there year after year to feed and stop over on their migration routes during the winter and spring. The next patch is the green one across from the previous one. That was obtained when I went to Colorado Bend State Park. One of the most beautiful areas to visit in Texas in my book. This place has a really nice trail called Gorman Falls. It is a fairly easy trail until you get to the end of it. There are a bunch of slippery rocks and things and is kind of hard to navigate but they have support ropes to help ease you up and down. I still have yet to get back and go on the other trails but it is so neat to explore there. I got a bunch of neat cactus and some really nice bird photos there. The last one on my vest’s back as of now is the Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center patch. It has turned into one of my favorite parks; I have volunteered out there a couple of time and I am going again in a few weeks for an Orchid Walk on June 22nd. It is a nice place with a huge hill and in some areas you can get a nice view of Joe Pool Lake. Ahhh... this place is such a pretty place. I saw my first Brown Recluse Spider here and many other Arachnids and insects on my last Moth night out there. Such fun memories do these patches conjure up with good friends and good family moments. Each one is more than just a piece of fabric stitched on a vest; it is a reminder to me of some of the best wild lands of Texas and the world. Some are even reminders of hard work and achievement as you will see now. 

The first one I want to share with you is the patch that stands for what I am in the naturalist community. I got this Texas Master Naturalist patch when I graduated from the State Class of 2016 for the Cross Timbers Eco Region. This was the most proudest moment of my life to date. Being a Texas Master Naturalist may sound daunting but we are known as Masters not for us personally but for we uphold the lessons of the naturalists who came before us and continue their practices. It is very meaningful to be part of this group for in it I have found my voice to speak about nature and I help kids and the rest of community learn about animals and the environment and to make that connection and inspire future generations to care about our planet and to give back to their communities. This is something that I will always remember till the day I die. This is how I became the naturalist I am today. We are hard working volunteers who help make communities have a strong connection with nature. It is an honor to be working with some of the top minds and people in the naturalist field. It is nice to be among them and be one of them. The patch above this one is the one I got out in Arkansas at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. This place is not only a great place to look for wildlife but the river system that runs through it was the water way of the Trail of Tears. This place was also the place where I went on my very first night hike to look for owls and creatures of the night. I found my very first Eastern Hercules Beetle there which was really neat. But there is another patch here that is of both a memorable place and an achievement.

 Here is the last patch on my vest that I have so far. This one was when I became a Junior Park Ranger for the Garden of the Gods area. This place is one of the coolest places to go in Colorado. It was also a popular meeting place for when we would meet my aunt after she got out of class when we were there. We are all from Texas but my aunt teaches and takes classes out of state sometimes so on the week of my thirteenth year of live we went up there and did a lot there. It was a nice trip and I remember it like it was yesterday. I had to add this one for it is a nice patch and reminds me of one of my favorite achievements in life to better understand an area. Becoming a Junior Park Ranger is nothing to sneeze at. It is a great way for your kids to learn and explore nature and history. It is a nice way to learn and you receive really neat patches and swag sometimes. It is a really neat program that the National Parks and State Parks Service have to get kids fired up about their favorite parks. I for one think that the Garden of the Gods area is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. The big sandstone monuments are so beautiful and if you go look up and you might actually see two kissing camels sitting on top of one of the huge columns. They are not real camels but the way that nature made the rock it looks like two camels kissing. Naturalist get creative with some of their formations. So there you have it all the patches I have from my travels across Texas, Arkansas, and Colorado. I will be going to Colorado very soon and I have a feeling I will be buying some more cool patches from some new areas. I will be making a blog post all about the adventure to Colorado in a few weeks time. We won’t leave until the end of June or so but there is much to plan for there is a lot to see in that wonderful state. So until we meet again; I am Zachary Chapman AKA Galactic_Bug_Man and I will see you on the trail!