#also as an american we need humbling & i think being forced to confront something that much bigger on your (shared) home turf

[the-hawks-rye]

ID: two replies by pinesodaexists reading "The dodo bird" and "i want one [frown emotion]"

If you could bring back one extinct animal solely for the impact it would have on the world (considering factors like ecological impact, tourism, any other benefits), what would you pick, and why?

[smeezyapp-blog]

Assistance With Your New Years Resolution

Today, not tomorrow, not starting next year, I challenge you to grow. Change is easy over time, but very difficult at the beginning. One must seek, and be open to change in order to grow. And everyone grows in their own way at their own pace. My vision of personal growth is my own vision of personal growth and if it doesn’t work exactly for you, try to alter it in a way that fits your goals and lifestyle.

The first step is taking a step. Get off your ass and spend 5 minutes doing something to better yourself. It doesn’t take much to see the effects of trying, because it gets easier, and you get better every day that you continue this path. Of course there will be ups, downs, and obstacles, but if you put your focus on the things that fulfill your goals, no one can stop you from reaching them but yourself ...And put down that cookie right now, and stop telling yourself that this is the last one or that you’ll start your diet tomorrow. The body and mind are connected more than you know and fueling your system properly can improve mental health, and allow your body to heal more easily.

Write down long-term and short-term goals, your strengths and weaknesses, and your passions. Be positive with your language, and set challenging goals. Set goals that will make your life better, and allow you to have more freedom in the long-run. Because freedom, at least in my opinion, is true wealth. Freedom also doesn’t mean being lazy, but rather pursuing something that you’ll want to do for the rest of your life. Chances are you will be working well past 65, so make sure that you make the best of it.

Everyone is at their own place and has their own desire for how they want to spend their energy, confronting challenges that face them or running away. I was lucky enough to be forced into a place where I didn’t have a choice but to conquer my fear. As a last ditch effort to save my marriage, I quit my job and went to Italy with my wife to her hometown because she was sick and didn’t trust the American health care system. After just a few days there we realized that it was over and I needed to go my own way, so I ended up spending the rest of my time there in a tent along the coast of Tuscany. I don’t speak Italian, and had very little money so I decided to spend my time there committing to personal growth.

The important thing to remember is to try to be open minded, and accurately reflective of ourselves, and to love ourselves. Loving ourselves, or in my case loving myself has been one of the hardest things to accomplish in the 34 years I’ve been alive. I was flooded with insecurities and wounds from birth and for me to grow through these things I had to open up old wounds. Opening up old wounds can feel like going backwards with our feelings and emotions but in all reality we are opening ourselves up to a world of freedom. And it really does feel like you are going backwards for a while, and I hit some very low points along the way but knew that my old way of life was not the life my hero would live. And I decided along my journey that no longer can I look up to other people, I can learn from them, but I must look up to no one but myself.

Many of us do struggle to see things for how they are because what it takes to grow is very difficult and even humbling in many ways. And that’s ok too, even if an innocent person is living life with blinders they still have great qualities and we can always learn a thing or two from anyone around us. Try to wake them up if you can but don’t waste too much energy on those people who are stagnant or who slow your own personal growth. It is so important to be open to these lessons, because when we don’t think we will learn a lesson we have a much harder time learning a lesson… think about it. And if people don’t belong in our life that is a valuable lesson too. 

Surrounding yourself with the right people is something that is so important, yet so difficult. We get so comfortable with the people around us because they are familiar to us, and it is easy to feel obligated to a friend or family member because we want others to be committed to us. And growing doesn’t mean that we need to cut cut people off, because it is important to have a community. But don’t feel obligated to spend time with people without a purpose, because if you have obligations to yourself you must fulfill these first. And the energy you'll put into those people will be much more powerful as you grow as an individual.

As long as you are looking at other people as better or smarter or more deserving than yourself, you’ll be stuck in a loop of uncertainty. This was my problem for the longest time. Whether you look up to a god or have no spirituality whatsoever, in order to fulfill our own personal will we must make an effort to become better. Do yourself a favor and become your own hero. 

Peace and Love. Take it Easy, take it Smeezy! 

And thank you for being here.

William Smariga

www.smeezy.com

[cwl190]

Week 4

Benjamin Percy’s “Designing Suspense”

“Start with reality. Come up with a moment when you really, really wanted something. Could be you wanted to land a job or could be you wanted to quit a job... Recall tha tmoment. Then inject it with a healthy dose of imagination. What is the worst-case scenario for this character?” (80-81)

“Some of my characters are on a quest, moving from point A to point B. But by flashing back and forth between the Sancturary and the journey west, I’m able to enhance suspense (by leaving the reader hanging with every chapter break) and to contrast the terrors and hopes of two very different worlds. The more tiem we spend in the Sancturary, the more we understand why the perilous escape from it is so necessary” (87).

TC Boyle’s “How Stories Say Goodbye”

“When the narrator says “It’s really something.” it tells us that he’s feeling deeply, but it doesn’t tell us what he’s feeling. That’s the beauty of the story: It’s up to us to know what he’s feeling” (298).

Talks a lot about your work flowing organically, not everything being structured

Ethan Canin’s “Rehearsals for Death”

“Endings are about emotion, and logic is emotion’s enemy. It’s the writer’s job to disarm the reader of his logic, to just make the reader feel” (305).

“The biggest problem for young literary writers, besides plot, is how to characterize: how to make a character seem like a real human being. One of the more subtle ways... is to have a character describe other people” (307).

“Writers tend to think that their own prose is the most compelling thing. You have to strangle that off, I think. Talk about killing your darlings. It’s not just about killing your good scenes, it’s about killing your instinct to try to impress with witticism and handsome phrasing- becoming, instead, a vessel for telepathy in a way. The less present you can be, the more you can be the character you’re trying to write about” (308).

“With characterization, you have to let go. You’ve got to release yourself from your grandiose intentions, your ambitions, your ideas about humanity, literature and philosophy by focusing on the being-another-person aspect of it- which, by the way, is freeing, delightful, and one of the few real joys of writing. Stop worrying about writing a great novel- just become another human being” (308).

“Whether or not a novel actually contains death, it’s often about the highlights of a life. Literature allows us to experience thousands of lives, to understand how we might want to live our own” (309).

DESIGNING SUSPENSE; Or, FLAMING CHAINSAWS: 

The authors were able to keep those flaming chainsaws “dancing” through the momentum they managed to keep up throughout both of their novels. In “The Minature Wife”, things continue to escalate right after the climax of the story. We had just gotten over the fact that the wife had cheated on the narrator and the narrator had literally fed his co-worker to the birds. We aren’t given a pause or hope things will get better because the tension between the narrator and the wife overflows and she attacks him, kills the cat as well as gouges out one of his eyes. 

The same thing occurs in “The Infamous Bengal Ming”, where the author hits us with a murder after a murder. The entire thing is veiled in confusion and unreliable narration until the tiger caves into his natural instincts and we are given a sense of violent euphoria from him as he tears into his final victim for the last time. We feel overwhelmed by sensory and emotional overload the same way the narrator is. It’s due to the fact that the narrator is a tiger that we are able to buy into his corruption.

HOW STORIES SAY GOODBYE: 

When I read “The Infamous Bengal Ming”, I think the story was finished for me. At the start of the story the tiger seems to have a very idealistic sense of love, but by the end it’s devolved into something warped beyond our comprehension, something more sensory and without reason or limits. We know that the tiger will eventually get caught and things will most likely not end well for him, but his emotional arc is already finished. I didn’t feel the need to see anything more.

For the “Minature Wife”, I think I am still compelled to see what happens next. Does the wife end up killing the narrator? Is the narrator able to capture his wife? I also want to learn more about the shrinking machine, and the consequences that extend beyond the narrator’s own personal circumstances. However, I don’t think that’s the direction the author set out to do and I thought the blowout confrontation between them was satisfactionary enough.

REHEARSALS FOR DEATH: 

I don’t believe that quote because there are several classics that have been praised to no end with super ambiguous endings. One of them that comes to mind is “The Giver��. We have no idea whether or not Jonas finds his way into the real world, heaven, or if the entire thing was a hallucination he created in order to help him cope with the deadly circumstances in which he escaped from. I think it depends on the story you want to tell. I agree with the idea that you should definitely feel something, but just because an abstract conclusion pushes you to think logically doesn’t mean you aren’t feeling something at all. If done right, you might leave confused, but with a drive to pick at the story. It might make you want to talk about it with other people who read the same book, or even revisit sections of the book to design your own interpretation of what happened. 

This is partially applicable to “The Minature Wife” because we don’t know what happens to the narrator or his wife at the end and we have an even fainter idea of the lab the narrator works at, which means that even after they are done ripping each other to pieces we still have questions for the world the narrator lives in. becoming, instead, a vessel for telepathy in a way.

CONNECT THE DOTS: 

“It’s not just about killing your good scenes, it’s about killing your instinct to try to impress with witticism and handsome phrasing- becoming, instead, a vessel for telepathy in a way” (Rehersals for Death, 308).

I think Orringer applies this piece of advice really well into her novel because in the section of the story where Ella goes to fetch her parents after burying Claire’s body, we are not given any insight into what Ella’s thinking at all. Orringer utilizes show not tell to the maximum here. We don’t get a window into Ella’s emotions because she is focusing on her present goals and senses. She needs to fetch her parents and leave that place immediately, and she’s probably in shock over what had just happened. We’re being fed that Ella is paranoid through what she sees, which is a portrait of someone who resembles who Ella had just saw die.

THE END: 

Orringer’s story simultaneously invites me back in as well as makes me hope the story is finished because I want to know what happens while the family makes their escape, but also not because if they’re stopped from their escape I’ll be upset, and also because they’ll be held accountable for the death of Claire.

EMOTION v. LOGIC:

I was feeling a sense of unease and sadness throughout the novel because of how helpless it was. Ella and Benjamin have no control over what happens to them all throughout the novel and it just made me feel upset from them. The circumstances before they entered the house was very depressing because of their ill mother. I just felt uncomfortable when they moved into the new house because of how unnerving the adults were, the violence of the kids and the weird foods they were forced to eat. The story seemed to be setting itself up for Ella to evolve emotionally and appreciate this more “humbled” enviornment due to how she kept wanting to return to the past, but I didn’t even want that to happen to her because of how awful it seemed there. When Claire died it completely subverted my expectations, and honestly made me relieved because her family was able to bag it and run. It was still completely horrifying, I don’t understand the point of why they came there. If it was for treatment, the mom was better off going to a regular hospital.

HOW’S IT GOING?: 

It’s okay. I really like the texts we were given. If it was something boring like American history, my entries would probably be halved. I wasn’t expecting Benjamin Perry’s “Thrill Me” to be so good, and honestly I’m glad I’ve been forced to read it because I don’t know if I would’ve been able to finish it if I couldn’t. There’s some super helpful advice there and some examples of suspense/horror/escalating that seem to be done well that I’m interested in checking out. I don’t know if I have that much faith in his recommendations though because he describes the horror of what happened to the professor in Paul Bowles’s “A Distant Episode”. It really intrigued me when I read it in the context of Perry’s book, but recently I was assigned to it in another class and I didn’t even recognize that gorey scene until it happened. While it seemed horrible in description, I didn’t feel much of the fear and disgust I think I should’ve. It just felt like it was being described to me but there was nothing to be scared of or dread.

[thespinningworldaroundus]

A day in the life of a business executive with his life turned upside down by one thing....

I am a VP of Operations. I have twenty years of experience under my belt in my industry, and people use me as a resource at my company. I have an earned reputation and my voice is taken seriously at meetings. I go to them and usually command respect with my colleagues.

I have a meeting today. I’m pitching an idea that my colleagues have praised privately. It’s well-researched and I expect it to be given a fair shake.

I walk in and lay everything out. I begin to.

During my introduction, I’m interrupted. During my introduction, for a presentation only being given by me. During the introduction. I was barely even there! They didn’t even let me make my case before giving their own comments, before they even know what the blessed message of the presentation is. Why interrupt when you don’t even understand the proposal yet?

I politely told the interrupter that I would get to his question once the presentation is over.

Midway through the proposal, I’m interrupted again. Again, I wasn’t even done. This time, it was to make a trivial correction.

I had said that the population of Puerto Rico was roughly 3 million people. My colleague, a Puerto Rican native himself, pointed out that the population was actually about 3.4 million. I didn’t find that very important, and it was a minor fact anyway. I had said roughly, anyway. Did he really have to interrupt me and make me look incompetent over a trivial misstatement? Do we have to be so perfectionistic?

As general etiquette, you don’t interrupt someone’s proposal because it takes away from their message and disrupts their train of thought. You generally save comments for the end, unless there is some urgent matter, like a safety hazard. I had never been interrupted before during a proposal for anything like this. Yet it one day it happened to me twice.

Now. For the end. I humbly expected some decent praise at the least. My colleagues had been privately cheering this proposal on for a while.

Yet. The first things I got were nitpicky questions and skepticism. A lot of what-if scenarios that supposedly might ruin the project, even some easily resolved. Some additional corrections on small facts (similar in triviality to a small difference in the population of Puerto Rico) and small misspoken statements I made.

I got modest praise. My colleagues told me they liked some aspects, but some they were unsure on. I also met a good deal of apathy. Yet these were the exact same people who had told me a few days before that the proposal was close to perfect, a gem. How had they had a night and day response today? Were they cranky from the early morning start? Was there bad news last night?

This was an internal meeting, so we all had rapport. I could speak directly in front of my colleagues. Or so I thought.

“Just a few days ago, I told many of you these same ideas and you seemed assured. Yet today some of you seem skeptical on some of this. I’m only curious. Has anything changed in our company? In our industry?”

“No.”

“Then why do you seem to have new-founded skepticism? I can accept skepticism, I just wonder why you seem to view this differently.” I was starting to get impatient.

“This is how we feel.”

I was dumbfounded. The same proposal got fairly different responses.

At the end of the meeting, I was spoken to privately by my colleagues. I was reprimanded harshly for my tone. I didn’t know why.

“Just a few days ago, I told many of you these same ideas and you seemed assured. Yet today some of you seem skeptical on some of this. I’m only curious. Has anything changed in our company? In our industry?”

That was what I said. I wasn’t trying to be defensive. I was trying to be honest. I accept constructive criticism. I don’t expect ego-gratification or acceptance of all my ideas. I understand that every business proposal will have some flaws to be smoothed over. I thought that maybe something really had changed, since I heard criticism I didn’t hear before and much less of the praise I did hear before.

My colleague said my response seemed very defensive and even sarcastic. He also said that I had been brusque or impatient at times during the presentation. He said it was an overall pattern in the way I talked and not something I did occasionally. He told me I should never show anger, even in internal meetings where I knew everyone well.

This time and I genuinely got angry. I think showing rightful anger at the right times shouldn’t just be allowed, it should be encouraged. Anger shows you care. Anger shows you are passionate. Anger shows you are righting a wrong. If my anger is justified, I’ll show enough of it.

How can you tell me I’m not allowed to show people my anger when I’m truly upset and need to make my message clear? Why was I being spoken down to and told what to do? How dare you take away my right to express myself? I was an adult.

At the end of the day. I found out that my proposal was turned down. The team told me it was pretty good, but not worth the budgeted amount it would need, which was modest anyway. I was flabbergasted and heartbroken because just a few days ago I was told it was an almost certain winner and that our company could afford things that were cost-savers in the long run (mine was pitched as such).

Something was deeply wrong. What was it? Was our industry changing? Was our company hit with bad news I never heard?

Or did it have to do with me? That would seem more logical. Did someone spread a nasty rumor about me?

I went home, crying. I looked in the mirror.

Something had changed. I had long hair. I had thick eyelashes. I had high cheekbones. I had no facial hair. I had a very different body shape and was much more petite.

I was a woman.

It hurt, but at least it all made sense. Something had changed, and it had everything to do with me.

I thought about my wife. She was an avid supporter of women’s equality. I always supported her cause in theory but thought it was silly and exaggerated.

Women were allowed to work, vote, drive, and speak their minds. We were in a very different decade. It’s illegal to discriminate based on gender, and you’ll get sued for a lot of money if you get caught doing it. Women have been CEOs, and they serve as Prime Ministers in some nations. Why do we need some silly women’s equality movement when we’re fighting in wars and we have poverty in the developing world? Isn’t it kind of trivial to spend so much time on a small issue?

Oh, how painfully wrong I was. No, we shouldn’t devote too many resources to any small issue. This was an enormous issue. It keeps women from earning money, reputation, and success. It keeps them from speaking their minds and even sometimes being treated with decency and respect. All things that you need to be happy and will suffer from depression if you don’t get enough of.

Yet I blew this issue away for years. Even though my wife, mother, sister, and female colleagues talked about these issues. I gullibly believed these issues were minor. How painfully wrong I was. Why didn’t I see it sooner?

I was in denial. An easy answer to a painful reality is to truly convince yourself it doesn’t exist. People used to do that with smoking. People truly believed it had no health hazards. No one debates anymore (although some people still smoke anyway).

I had privilege I never lost until today. When you have the privilege of not suffering something because it will never affect you personally, it’s very issue to be in denial and do nothing because you personally have no price to pay for it.

This prejudice was also subtle. No one would outright say that women should be treated differently or be discriminated against. Almost no one would say that they don’t belong in the workplace, unless maybe they have young children who need to be taken care of at home. People don’t mind 45-year old women working.

It’s still powerfully, painfully real. People have strong prejudice that is been absolutely proven through research.

Once a male resume editor switched emails with a female colleague with the same job and was suddenly questioned by his clients (the people seeking advice from him mind you. As an editor he was supposed to give them advice and critiquing, generally not the other way around). Look up Martin Schneider and Nicole Hallberg.

You know the last thing keeping me from confronting this hard truth? It was a myth in our culture.

This myth I call the three bigs. “Hard work, talent, and opportunity will earn you whatever you want. You can be President if most qualified”

We instinctively believe this. We’re told you can achieve anything you dream if you want it badly enough. Sorry, sir, or ma’am, you can’t with only that.

It needs the four bigs. “Hard work, talent, opportunity, and recognition of others”

The frustrating thing is that there is nothing you can do about how people react to you. You cannot force them to give you recognition. We are 100% dependent on other people for this.

1) A trial prosecutor can have a guilty defendant and absolute proof, yet if the jury does not take the delivery seriously, the prosecution will lose.

2) Even worse, an innocent defendant can be accused of murder and have little evidence against oneself, yet be condemned of murder and executed anyway. This will happen if the jury has severe prejudice-which has happened.

3) A business executive can give a near-perfect proposal and have it turned down, if the presenter does not have the audiences respect.

Sad? Pretty hard luck, huh? That’s the world we live in.

Trial lawyers have lost cases they should have won on based on case merit. People have been given the death penalty wrongfully because of societal prejudice (this happened to African Americans in the Deep South). Business executives have lost good deals because of audience bias.

That’s probably why we are often in denial of these difficult truths. We avoid them because they are difficult to think about! This is especially true of men, since they do not carry the burden of most sexism and do not pay a personal price for ignoring it. If you Google the polls taken of whether sexism is a serious issue and how often sexual harassment happens, you get pretty different responses from men and women.

The very good news is that we can actually-surprisingly-achieve real equality. I think we can in a generation. We need the willpower.

How? Once people are consciously aware of unconscious bias, it mostly goes away. Know your own self.

I know this from my own experience. I used to have a prejudice I’m not proud of against working class people.

I realized I often didn’t treat cashiers, receptionists, and shelf stockers at stores with a lot of respect. It was an unfortunate product of being taught that such jobs were only for young people and that working hard always led to middle class jobs. So sometimes I was brusque and impatient with people in these jobs. I didn’t really engage them when they tried to speak with me and would often talk at them not to them.

Yet one day I realized I was when I read Nickel and Dimed, a book about a woman who lived working class and discovered the treatment she never got as a respected journalist.

I stopped talking to people in retail and other working class jobs the way I used to. I was courteous to them and answered questions when they asked me them. I always listened to them instead of sometimes talking over them. I noticed that store staff suddenly warmed up to me and gave me better service! It was incredible. It proves I could do it. It only took willpower.

All I had to do was confront a difficult and sometimes ugly truth.

We can all do this.

[daresplaining]

Hey, me again. This may seem like a weird request, but have their been any memorable times, in your opinion, where Matt has been really kind and compassionate to others in the comics? Not just in a 'willing to do violence on your behalf sort of way' but in any other way as well.

   Sure! Matt is generally a very empathetic and compassionate person. That’s one of his myriad reasons for being a superhero (and a lawyer too, for that matter). Of course, he’s (usually…) kind and caring toward his loved ones, but it’s telling that he has also been known to show compassion not only for strangers, but for his enemies as well– so that’s what we’re going to focus on here. There are more moments than we could possibly include here without making this post ridiculously long, so rather than trying to cover everything, we’ve narrowed it down to some of our favorites.  

Matt: “The media likes to pigeonhole anyone in a costume into easily digestible sound bites. ‘The Man Without Fear’ is the title they’ve stuck me with. What they’ll never understand, of course, is that it’s not a matter of fear. It’s about honestly asking yourself, ‘What other choice is there?’ It’s about caring.”

[Daredevil vol. 1 #303 by D.G. Chichester, M.C. Wyman, and Christie Scheele]

    First and foremost…

Matt: “Gee, you’d think someone would help that blind man across the street! Say, mister… can I give you a hand? He didn’t seem to hear me! He might be deaf, too! Say… there’s a truck turning the corner… coming towards him! […] He won’t have a chance… unless I can reach him in time!”

[Daredevil vol. 1 #1 by Stan Lee, Bill Everett, and Sam Rosen]

    Matt’s origin story is characterized by what is inarguably an act of courage– but more than that, it is an act of compassion. He notices a stranger in peril, he sees that no one else is going to help, and he puts his own life at risk to do something about it. This willingness and desire to be a force for good in the lives of people he doesn’t know is at the core of why Matt becomes a superhero, and it’s a desire that keeps him going later on, in spite of everything it costs him. After all of the pain this preliminary selfless act brings him, young Matt could very easily have lost interest in helping others right then and there. But he doesn’t.

Willie: “Skip it, DD! It ain’t a pretty yarn anyhow! And it’s something– I gotta ‘tend to– by myself!”

Matt: “Okay, mister! I’m not about to pry! But, let me leave you with this thought– There are lots of people– without sight– who lead useful, productive lives! All it takes is guts– the kind of guts you’re loaded with, Willie!”

[Daredevil vol. 1 #47 by Stan Lee and Gene Colan]

    1960s Matt did a lot of 1960s things, including once performing for American soldiers in Vietnam. In the audience at one of his shows is a young man named Willie Lincoln, whose battle injuries have left him with rapidly deteriorating eyesight. While watching the performance, his vision gives out completely, driving him into a fit of panic. Matt hears about this, tracks Willie down, and visits him in the hospital, wanting to offer someone suffering through a life change he knows all too well some encouraging words. They talk, and when Willie tells Matt that he is in legal trouble with some corrupt cops at his job back home, Matt immediately agrees to represent him in court pro bono (courtesy of his *cough* lawyer friend). Matt helps Willie to restart his life once he returns from service, and provides him with hope in what he’d previously seen as a hopeless situation.

Willie: “Y’know, boy– just a short time ago I thought I’d really hit bottom! But then I found me a friend– and cleared my name! Now, even without my eyes– I’m looking forward to tomorrow– for the first time! I feel like I’m part of the human race again! Murdock never made a big deal about it– but, when you get down to where it’s at– maybe that’s what brotherhood is all about!”

[Daredevil vol. 1 #47 by Stan Lee and Gene Colan]

   The two end up becoming close friends, and Willie sticks around for a while as a recurring member of the Daredevil cast. (Sadly, however, he hasn’t been seen in a long time. Marvel, bring him back!)

Foggy: “…You’ve really let yourself in for it this time, Matt. I mean, since it’s been named a federal case– there’s nothing a lowly district attorney could do to help the Hulk– even if I wanted to!”

Matt: “And you’re probably right in advising me to withdraw from the case… but somehow, I just can’t! The Hulk is alone– friendless– as much sinned against as sinning. Thus, I feel that I have to defend him… even if it may mean the end of my legal career! If you can’t understand that… then I don’t know who will!”

[Incredible Hulk vol. 1 #153 by Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers, and Herb Trimpe]

   We’ve mentioned Bruce Banner a number of times when talking about Matt’s friends, and he is someone who Matt will always drop everything to try and help. In their very first encounter, Matt is hired to defend the Hulk in court. When the Hulk turns violent (no surprise there) everyone else involved with the case treats him as a threat. But Matt sees past the violence and understands that the Hulk is suffering, and reacting in the only way he knows how. Matt offers Bruce/Hulk his support and friendship, and places both his legal career and his life on the line to help him get a fair trial and a chance at a normal life. This is a choice he makes again and again over the years, as Bruce continues to be betrayed and abused by the system and the world in general.  

Matt: “Melvin, we’ve come so far. I know how much you want to be well… to go straight. We can help you, Betsy and I.”

Melvin: “I been trying, Matt. I been sitting in that courtroom, listening to them say those things about me, feeling my guts churn up, wanting to rip them all to pieces… They hate me. They all hate me… so I’m gonna hate them back!”

Matt: “I’m not letting you off that easy. If you want to become the Gladiator again, you’ll have to get past me.”

Melvin: “Past you?! Look at you– you’re just a skinny little blind guy! I’d break you in half! It’d be easy […] Why not? I’m the Gladiator! The Gladiator! When I’m wearing my armor, I’m unbeatable. I’m… I’m all alone. Help me… please…”

[Daredevil vol. 1 #173 by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Glynis Wein]

     The Gladiator is an early DD villain who was gifted with a lot of extra complexity and the possibility of redemption by later writers. After fighting him for years, Matt is finally confronted with Melvin’s humanity and suffering, and immediately joins forces with his parole officer/psychiatrist/eventual girlfriend Betsy Beatty to give him both legal and emotional support. Matt comes to understand that Melvin’s fits of criminal behavior are brought about by feelings of isolation and helplessness– and while he doesn’t always succeed, Matt at least tries to be there for him when he needs help.

Jester: “A moment ago, you unmasked. Now I shall perform a similar gesture… I am, your humble and obedient servant– the Jester! At your service!”

Matt: “You deserve the bow. You were magnificent.”

Jester: “Indeed! I trust the critics will change their tune.”

[Daredevil vol. 1 #218 by Denny O’Neil, Sal Buscema, and Christie Scheele]

    This is a touching issue– surprisingly so for a story about the Jester. Despite his goofy appearance and Silver Age-y backstory, the Jester is a dangerous criminal. He specializes in misinformation and mass media manipulation, and he has wrecked the lives of Matt and his friends on a number of occasions. However, at heart he’s just a spurned actor looking for an appreciative audience. When Matt learns that the Jester has kidnapped an actor who was supposed to perform on live TV, and jumped into the main role himself, he hurries over, ready for a fight. However, when he gets there he discovers that all the Jester is doing is… well, acting– and doing a really good job of it. Realizing that his enemy is achieving a harmless lifelong dream, Matt decides to leave him alone, and distracts the cops who have arrived on the scene long enough to allow the Jester to get his longed-for applause.  

Number Nine: “A girl should look her best in battle!”

Brandy: “God give me strength, and keep me from slapping the lipstick off that bimbo!”

Matt: “Brandy, you fight for so many humane causes, can’t you muster up some compassion for that poor girl?”

[Daredevil vol. 1 #273 by Ann Nocenti, John Romita, Jr., and Christie Scheele]

    The “Lone Stranger” arc of Matt’s story presents a fascinating exploration of his mindset and morality. In the aftermath of his first major run-in with Typhoid Mary, Matt is left physically and emotionally destroyed. Unable to face life in New York City, he gets on a train upstate with no plan or destination. The method he comes up with to cope with the pain of his lost life is a complete smothering of his thoughts and emotions. He lives from moment to moment, immersing himself in his immediate sensory experiences, and emotionally cutting himself off from the world around him. 

    Over the course of his trek across upstate New York he has brief encounters with people in need. One of the most notable of these encounters is with a woman called Number Nine. She is an escapee from what is essentially a slave trade, in which women are genetically engineered to be beautiful, docile, identity-less, and are then sold to men looking for “perfect” wives. Having been through this process, Number Nine remembers nothing about who she was or where she came from, and struggles to understand her new existence. She imprints on Matt (another effect of the procedure), and while he is initially hesitant to let himself get involved, still determined to avoid personal connections, he tries (with… varied success and tact) to provide her with support as she negotiates the confusion of her new life and programming.      

Number Nine: “Oh! It’s okay, I have a healing power! They gave it to me… […] You’ll see, my cuts will heal, fast, like magic!”

Matt: “Number Nine– try to tell me what you were doing just now…”

Number Nine: “Cutting. I think it’s… Physical pain– it helps drown out the pain in my mind… Cutting helps…”

[Daredevil vol. 1 #273 by Ann Nocenti, John Romita, Jr., and Christie Scheele]

    This is a loaded story arc, and Number Nine is a character who deserves a lot more attention and analysis than what we have time for here– but we wanted to at least mention her.

Matt (caption): “The words don’t come easy… but ultimately, they must come. Leave it unsaid, risk dwelling on the evil this man’s done– the injuries he’s brought down on my life, onto others’– and the road traveled is one of bitterness. Of revenge. But let go of the hate, rise about it, and maybe there’s something worthwhile that can provide the inner drive. Maybe then there’s hope for something noble.”

Matt: “I forgive you…”

[Daredevil vol. 1 #300 by D.G. Chichester, Lee Weeks, and Christie Scheele]

   This is a big moment from the pivotal “Last Rites” arc, in which Matt finally topples Fisk’s criminal enterprise and destroys his life, in much the same way that Fisk once destroyed his. When the final fight is over and the Kingpin is left physically and emotionally beaten, hunched in the remains of his once-great empire, Matt finds the will to look past all of the pain his nemesis has heaped on him over the years, and to offer forgiveness and a chance to remedy their mutual hatred. It’s not exactly an act of compassion, and it’s a gesture that Matt angrily takes back not long afterward… but given the circumstances, it’s a testament to Matt’s willingness to try to be a positive force for others– even for those who least deserve it.

Matt: You’re going to make it, hear me? You’re gonna–

Owlsley: “You should’ve let me…”

Matt: “Unh-uh. You take my hand– you’re willing to take my hand– I don’t let go. You’ve got some long ways to go, mister… but you can count on me…”

[Daredevil vol. 1 #303 by D.G. Chichester, M.C. Wyman, and Christie Scheele]

   The Owl has always gotten the short end of the characterization stick as far as Matt’s villains are concerned. He’s your typical over-the-top, hilariously avian-themed bad guy in his early appearances, and a bumbling Kingpin-wannabe later on. Only a few writers have attempted to add nuance to his story. The most notable development in this direction is a story arc that sends him into a literal physical breakdown. He discovers that the procedures he has subjected himself to over the years in order to make himself more birdlike are slowly destroying his body, and he is forced to face the truth of his own mortality and legacy. When he attempts a desperate scheme to reestablish himself as a power within the criminal underworld, Matt is, of course, right there and waiting to stop him. But when he witnesses firsthand the broken, haunted person Owlsley has become, he steps in to save his life, and to offer him the hope of moving forward in a positive direction.

   Sadly, this step forward in their relationship has been ignored by most of the creative teams since. Clearly, Owlsley is most useful and fun to write when he’s completely villainous.  

Matt: “Why are you doing this to her?”

Natasha: “She thinks she’s Natasha Romanov. She thinks she killed Yelena Belova. But she is Yelena Belova. She’s coming undone.”

Matt: “But why, dammit?”

[Black Widow (2001) #2 by Devon Grayson, Greg Rucka, and Scott Hampton]

    “Breakdown” is one of our favorite comics, and one we’ve been meaning to post about for a while, so this seemed like the perfect place to mention it. It’s also known as Black Widow (2001) #1-3, and features Matt in the role of sympathetic outsider. The previous arc of the series introduces Yelena Belova, a young graduate of the Red Room who is determined to prove her skills by killing Natasha and usurping her as the Black Widow. She faces Natasha and Matt (who cameos in that arc as well) as an enemy. But in “Breakdown” the situation becomes a bit more complicated. Wanting to teach the arrogant young agent a lesson about the realities of being a spy, Natasha has Yelena kidnapped and surgically switches appearances with her. Yelena wakes up in Natasha’s apartment, frightened and confused, and is forced to live Natasha’s life while rapidly losing grasp of her own identity. Having previously seen Yelena only as a threat, Matt is initially happy to involve himself in Natasha’s plan to mess with her. However, when confronted firsthand with her terror, he tries to stop the mission and steps in to comfort Yelena, despite Natasha’s insistence that he not interfere with her breakdown.              

Yelena: “…You…know?”

Matt: “Yes.”

Yelena: “Then who… Who am I?”

Matt: “Yelena Belova.”

Yelena: “Yelena… I’m… Yelena Belova… the Black Widow…”

[Black Widow (2001) #3 by Devon Grayson, Greg Rucka, and Scott Hampton]

   Of course, Natasha knows Matt very well, and we can assume she knew all along that he would react this way.

Matt (caption): “Over the deafening house music, I pick out one heartbeat. It has to be one of the kids… because my gut clenches with anxiety the closer I get to him.”

Matt: “Ssssh. It’s all right. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m a good guy, see? No fear, kiddo. No fear. You’ve got to be brave–”

[Daredevil vol. 4 #10 by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, and Matt Wilson]

   Matt has had a lot of great moments with young children over the years, and we weren’t planning on including them because showing compassion toward suffering kids– while always touching and wonderful– isn’t really that notable. He’s a good guy. Come on. (We may end up doing a separate post on that, actually…). But we had to include this one because the Purple Children technically count as antagonists, and because we just really like it. He helps them, despite how dangerous they are and the horrible things they do to his emotions, and it seems that his willingness to help them again in the current run may be what caused his life’s most recent implosion.

Matt: “I’m worried about him, Tasha.”

Natasha: “Oh, come on! Clint’s a big boy now– and an Avenger, to boot. He’ll be fine.”

[Daredevil and the Black Widow vol. 1 #99 by Steve Gerber, Sam Kweskin, and Stan Goldberg]

   And of course, there’s this memorable exchange from the masterpiece that is DD 99, which we’re contractually obligated to mention whenever possible. 

Foggy: “He will confound you. He will frustrate you. He will make your choices FOR you, he will manipulate you without CONSULTING you, and you will want to PUNCH him in his self-assured face at least ONCE AN HOUR. […] But he will care about you in a way that no one else ever could.”

[Daredevil vol. 4 #5 by Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, and Javier Rodriguez]    

    We wanted to end with this great quote from Foggy, because it exemplifies this side of Matt’s character. He’s not perfect, and he may not always show it, but he does care– to a gut-wrenching degree– about the people around him. 

[takethepresent]

(There’s a song by Chris Tyson on here at first, sorry lol)

Kendrick Lamar releases one of his best albums of all time. The messages, the layers, the content, the flow, the creativity. This is real hip-hop. I won’t be reviewing what I think Kendrick meant in his songs because they are pretty layered. If you want to look into that kind of thing, you can look on Rapgenius. Rapgenius is not 100% correct, but it will at least get you thinking.

Instead, I will leave a lot of this open for your own interpretation. I will be talking about what I believe should be taken from many of these songs.

Kendrick does attempt to penetrate the subconscious of his listeners. Each song targets a certain emotional pattern. The song that you like the most probably says something about you and your subconscious patterns.

Kendrick is becoming a master of his craft. The way he crafts the message, both subliminal and explicit, is perfect for influencing the masses. The production on this album was also great. There is a great variation of sounds while all of the songs could be universally enjoyed. It is a true work of art, something you can put on shuffle.

Here is my take on each song:

BLOOD.

This intro is very interesting. It plays with ideas of duality that are developed further in the album. I’ll let you decipher it for yourself.

DNA.

This song is probably one of the best songs to bump on the album.

Our DNA stores much more than we can possibly imagine. Scientists will say that more than 90% of your DNA is “junk DNA” because they can’t explain what it does. However, how can 90% of your DNA be useless? This song attempts to describe the kinds of energy patterns that may be stored in your DNA. Many things can be passed from generation to generation through DNA.

“ I got power, poison, pain and joy inside my DNA I got hustle though, ambition, flow, inside my DNA “

YAH.

New Kung Fu Kenny! This song has a very chill vibe. I am unsure of the actual purpose of this song in comparison to the others, but it does provide some meaningful commentary. Below are two I’ve picked out. I do believe that “Yah” is a reference to Yahweh.

“ I'm not a politician, I'm not 'bout a religion “

Politics and religion will enslave your mind and breed separation and conflict

“ I know he walks the Earth But it's money to get, bitches to hit, yah Zeroes to flip, temptation is, yah First on my list, I can't resist, yah Everyone together now, know that we forever— “

People choose worldly things over spirituality.

ELEMENT.

This song has a catchy hook that will probably stick for some time. I don’t really have much to say about it.

“ Last LP I tried to lift the black artists But it's a difference between black artists and wack artists “

FEEL.

This song is a collection of many different feelings. Many of these feelings are things other people in society feel. Hopefully, this song allows them to bring up those feelings from their subconscious. Many people feel alone, like “nobody prayin’ for me”.

I encourage you to really listen to the lyrics in this song. Some things may stick out to you. Those things say something about you and your subconscious patterns.

“ I feel like the whole world want me to pray for 'em But who the fuck prayin' for me? “

LOYALTY. (feat. Rihanna)

This song explores the idea of loyalty and trust. Many people have these commitments to money, fame, drugs, sex, power etc as if they were real people.

“ Tell me who you loyal to Is it money? Is it fame? Is it weed? Is it drink? Is it comin' down with the loud pipes and the rain? Big chillin', only for the power in your name Tell me who you loyal to Is it love for the streets when the lights get dark? Is it unconditional when the 'Rari don't start? Tell me when your loyalty is comin' from the heart “

“ Tell me who you loyal to Do it start with your woman or your man? (Mmm) Do it end with your family and friends? (Mmm) Or you're loyal to yourself in advance? I said, tell me who you loyal to Is it anybody that you would lie for? Anybody you would slide for? Anybody you would die for? That's what God for “

PRIDE.

"Love's gonna get you killed But pride’s gonna be the death of you and you and me And you and you and you and me And you and you and you and me And you and you and you and me and—”

“ Hell-raising, wheel-chasing, new worldy possessions Flesh-making, spirit-breaking, which one would you lessen? “

Again, Kendrick talks about problems felt collectively by our society. Pride is a big problem in our society. It breeds this false sense of confidence or superiority due to surface level things. It breeds conflict.

He talks about the impact of these worldly things on your soul.

HUMBLE.

" I'm so fuckin' sick and tired of the Photoshop

Show me somethin' natural like afro on Richard Pryor Show me somethin' natural like ass with some stretch marks “

I was a little surprised to see people offended by this. The only women who would be offended by this are the ones who are dependent on unnatural beauty standards. Who would be opposed to us embracing the natural look more? Who would be opposed to the beauty industry not being able to exploit insecure women as much?

LUST.

Lust is not exclusive to sex. Many have a lust for life; this unnatural, unnecessary, destructive desire for surface level things. It shows how the person who obsessively seeks sex is no different than the person who obsessively seeks drugs or friends or social validation or money etc. Many people in society need to have a deep look within themselves. They will find that they use these lustful desires to satisfy this deep, emotional, subconscious “itch”.

“ Lately, I feel like I been lustin' over the fame Lately, we lust on the same routine of shame Lately, lately, lately, my lust been hidin' (Lately) Lately, it’s all contradiction Lately, I’m not here Lately, I lust over self Lust turn into fear Lately, in James 4:4 says Friend of the world is enemy of the Lord Brace yourself, lust is all yours “

Lust is used to runaway from fear. Fear of what?

LOVE. (feat. Zacari)

“ If I didn't ride blade on curb, would you still love me? If I minimized my net worth, would you still love me? Keep it a hundred, I'd rather you trust me than to love me Keep it a whole one hund': don't got you, I got nothin' “

You could think this is about a specific girl or about something else. However, I do think it’s important to mention these lines. These feelings are often deep within our subconscious. It is what we call conditional love. We think people only love us for ___ or ___ because we only love ourselves for that reason. If we can find a way to love ourselves unconditionally, we can alleviate the many problems that arise from conditional love. In reference to the last line, if you don’t have unconditional love for yourself, you don’t got nothin’. You will always be trying to fill that void caused by conditional love with surface level things.

XXX. (feat. U2)

“ Ain't no Black Power when your baby killed by a coward “

Kendrick talks about the hypocrisy present in America. We respond to violence with more violence, hatred with hatred. People want to talk about black empowerment but won’t fully acknowledge the destructive forces within their communities.

“ The great American flag Is wrapped and dragged with explosives “

This just reminds me of America meddling in other countries with our imperialist military operations. It is time for America to confront the fact that they have been the biggest source of military conflict in recent history. This could also refer to police brutality.

FEAR.

This is one of my favorite songs on the album. I love the chill beat on the background. This song especially captures the feeling of fear, and attempts to show how it manifests over time. Emotional conflicts from our childhood that are never dealt with create external conflicts later on down the line.

“ Why God, why God do I gotta suffer? Pain in my heart carry burdens full of struggle Why God, why God do I gotta bleed? Every stone thrown at you restin' at my feet Why God, why God do I gotta suffer? Earth is no more, won't you burn this muh'fucka? I don’t think I could find a way to make it on this earth “

Kendrick attempts to convey the feeling of fear in a different light. The first verse starts off with “I beat yo ass” repeatedly. It really shows the subconscious thought patterns that become implanted in children at a young age. These subconscious patterns create internal problems that manifest over time into distorted, complicated, external problems. It should be no surprise that those who are physically beaten as children develop violent/aggressive tendencies later in their life.

“ If I could smoke fear away, I'd roll that mothafucka up And then I'd take two puffs I'm high now, I'm high now I'm high now, I'm high now “

This shows how people will do anything to runaway from their fears, or their subconscious patterns. Many take to drugs as well as other surface level things like sex, friends, social media etc.

Verse 2 starts off “I’ll prolly die” repeatedly. It shows more subconscious patterns of fear.

Verse 3 gives us a summarizing explanation of how the fear accumulates over time.

The outro is especially important. It highlights the major implications of mainstream religion. It shows how we are taught to believe that God is judgmental. This plays into all of the subconscious patterns of fear mentioned above. It says that God judges us and punishes us because he loves us, which opens the door for many people to become abused by loved ones and remain complacent to it. It also allows for people who are abused to become the abuser themselves later in life, creating a destructive cycle of judgment and punishment.

GOD.

There are two ways Kendrick could have meant this song to be perceived. I believe the most beneficial perception is that he is describing the feeling that many people feel when they “win” in surface level things. People use many things for a subconscious desire for power. When they attain those things, they actually feel “Godly”. Our obsession for power holds us back from ever realizing what true empowerment feels like. Only those who can let go of worldly desires will find this empowerment.

DUCKWORTH.

This song tells a story that you’d be better off listening to yourself. However, there are two notable lines that I want to explain.

“ It was always me vs the world Until I found it's me vs me “

Many people want to victimize themselves and believe their life problems are because of their external circumstances and not because of them. Your life will start to improve when you learn to hold yourself accountable for the life you are manifesting.

“ You take two strangers, and put 'em in random predicaments; give 'em a soul So they can make their own choices and live with it “

A little insight for why we are here.

[allyinthekeyofx]

Love is a quiet voice 4/4

CHAPTER ONE HERE

CHAPTER TWO HERE

CHAPTER THREE HERE

(Happy Birthday @science-mulder :D )

CHAPTER FOUR

It takes a while for Scully to stop crying and all the time she keeps her head burrowed in my chest, hiding herself from me, refusing to show me her tears and although I know that I could force her to confront this part of her that, for reasons only she knows, she is just so ashamed of, I respect her far too much to force her. The fact she trusts me enough to allow herself to shed tears in my presence is frankly, all the validation I need right now. 

And so I just let her do what she needs to do, feeling the warmth of her as she shudders in my arms, her small hands clenched in to fists against my chest, not bothering to hold on to me because she knows that I’m holding her tightly enough for both of us.

I don’t really know how long we stay in that same position or how long she cries, my only focus is on her and on letting her ride this out because I suspect it’s been a long time coming, this release that is so very much needed and it’s strange but I think it’s a release I also need. I’ve been tiptoeing around her for far too long, afraid to say the wrong thing, to do the wrong thing, allowing us to keep a distance between us that neither one of us knew how to adequately bridge; the Cancer living inside of her defining every aspect of our relationship even as it drove us apart. And so I just hold her, whispering soft words of reassurance in to her hair, platitudes that we have both used so many times to comfort and give affirmation to each other.

How long I have loved this woman I don’t know; it wasn’t something that happened on any conscious level, wasn’t ever something I either wanted or expected to happen but I do vividly remember one morning at work I just looked across at her and suddenly couldn’t imagine life without her. That without me noticing, she had silently and completely woven herself in to the threads of my fractured life and made me more complete than I ever hoped I would be. To be faced with losing her now is unthinkable which is probably why it’s been so easy to deny to myself and to her that her fight is real and maybe we both know now that it’s a fight she can’t hope to continue battling alone, sinking deeper and deeper in to herself until there is just nothing left. I can’t let that happen to her; can’t let it happen to us.

Her cries have stilled now although she still rests her head against my shirt, a shirt that is now damp against my skin, soaked through by the cleansing tears she has shed and slowly, gradually, she is coming back to me. I feel it in the subtle movements, as she uncurls her fingers and flattens them against my chest, allowing her to centre once again before she finally levers herself away from me, lifting her eyes to meet mine; eyes that are still bloodshot and puffy from crying for so long but to me, those eyes have never looked so beautiful because for the first time in months she isn’t hiding anything from me and even though I see pain reflected back at me, a pain that lives inside both of us, I can also see a semblance of peace and even though I know she is hurting, she allows just a ghost of a smile which lifts her expression and lightens my soul in equal measure.

“Hey”

And I smile back, sliding my palms to cup her face, feeling the sharp contour of her jaw beneath my fingers as I gently smooth the residual tears from her skin, dropping a kiss to her forehead, right above the spot where her cancer resides, because maybe, just maybe, if I kiss her enough right there I will somehow excise it from her and she won’t leave me.

“Hey back...... You okay?”

I half expect her to answer automatically, to go right to that verbal fall- back that started all this in the first place and I’m not sure how I will react if she does. But for once, just for once she doesn’t hide from me. Instead she shifts slightly to the side and leans against me again, closing her eyes as her response floats from her on the back of a sigh.

“I’m tired.”

For some reason the honesty of her words tighten my chest and just for a second I am completely transfixed by the sight of her lashes, their delicate colour rich against her pale skin as she lays herself bare to me for probably the very first time in our complicated relationship, because at least for today, she trusts me enough to fall asleep in my arms, trusts me enough to take care of her while she sleeps; it is a truly humbling moment, one that elates me even as it steals my breath and momentarily stills my heart and as she sleeps against me, she relaxes fully for the first time, not even awakening when the first tear slides down my face and settles in her hair.

XXXX

EPILOGUE

It’s another beautiful day and across the office, in her usual spot, Scully is bathed in the golden summer sunlight that filters through the skylight, a million glittering dust motes dancing and swirling around her and today, she looks whole once more.

By the time we both awoke yesterday, the shadows had lengthened and the whole apartment was consumed by that peculiar half-light that signifies that daylight is fading. If Native American folklore is to be believed, it’s considered the most mysterious time of day, a time where we hover between this world and the next, a time when anything is possible and where magic is real. And as I lay there, with Scully spooned against my back, our bodies fitting together like pieces of a jigsaw that, in some unfathomable way, were meant to always find each other through the darkness, I truly felt a sense of wonderment. Because even if I don’t always understand exactly my purpose in this life, I realise perhaps for the first time that I am destined to love her. For a day or a week or a month or years that turn in to a lifetime, we are meant to be together and by the feel of her fingers entwined with mine, holding on to me even in sleep, I know she feels it too; that through all the pain and the fear and the heartache, if we can only learn to listen to each other, to hear each other even when our voices are quiet, somehow we will be okay.

We talked last night. Really talked and I think in a small way we began to heal each other, to make amends for things past that simmered and burned within both of us, the harsh words, the unthinking words, the words we should have said but hadn’t, all finally being acknowledged and then discarded. We talked of our hopes and our fears and at times we both cried at the bitter injustice of it all; but amidst the fear we also found laughter again and the laughter somehow chased the tears away.

In the soft light of Scully’s apartment we connected again, discovered that really, we had been there the whole time that we just had to open our eyes enough to find each other; two lost souls who belong together, just like it’s meant to be; just like it’s always been.

And suddenly she is looking at me, watching me watching her and she smiles that soft smile at me that speaks a thousand words just for me, words I had forgotten how to hear; expressions of love, spoken in a voice so quiet that they are easily missed and just as easily crushed, because just for a moment her eyes are so full of sorrow that I forget to breathe, before just as quickly, her expression lifts again and she chases away the shadows.

“You okay Scully?”

And I know, I know before she even speaks, what her response will be

“I’m fine.”

But today that’s okay. Because just for today, right at this moment, I know it’s the truth.

End

[danfrederick]

March for Immigration

Last weekend I wrote to you from under a mosquito net on my bed at a Caribbean style guest house in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.  It was the night following the day of the Women’s marches in the United States & around the world.  I felt a sense of guilt for being unable to physically march in solidarity not only for American women but women from every country, for the women of today, the ones who stimulated this history & those who will come in the future.  

This weekend I was back on US soil & not too far from Boston.  Yesterday morning--Sunday, January 29--I woke & like most millennials that morning, I checked Facebook.  The first blip to hit my newsfeed was a notification that a friend of mine was attending the Boston Protest Against Muslim Ban & Anti-Immigration Orders on January 29.  I was not jet lagged but had completely lost track of the date.  January 29.  Today! (well yesterday now).  

In December 2015 I went on a three week college sponsored road trip along the Mexican-American Border with a professor from Union College and five other students.  Prior to driving 1,400 miles with a group in a mini-van I only had passing thoughts about the border but was always curious.  This is a major part of American politics but growing up in the North East, this complex and conflicted topic hardly reaches our nightly news broadcasts and local newspapers.  

For three weeks we confronted it.  We went to East LA & learned about the Race Wars, saw the Great Wall--a captivating work of art that dwarfs any human, reminding them the history we are part of, humbling us that we are all in this together, long before we stepped out into this world and we will impact what is yet to come--among other sites that exposed racial tensions within the US and the fact that many races existed in what is now the United States of America, prior to European settlers spreading out across the land.  From there we drove south to San Isidro, just on the border of Tijuana.  This was our first direct encounter with the wall.

We went to a shopping center right at the border.  American shopped and Mexicans commuted over to work.  At first I was appalled, then I listened & thought.

The fact that the mall exists here is okay.  Striking & a huge juxtaposition to the settings that rises above the hills just beyond the militarized, hideous wall (more about the appearance of the wall).  When the shopping center was built, another one, with similar shops & layout, was supposed to be built on Mexico’s side.  However, in the end a lack of funding prevented the second shops from being built.

Here I began listening more.  For too long America has developed the idea of Manifest Destiny & the persona of saving all people of the world.  I remember learning about this in high school & being quite bothered by this sentiment.  Who were we to know what worked well for other places?  Yes, we might be able to build a democracy & develop an admirable history that American citizens should forever be proud of.  Nevertheless, we cannot possibly know what works for every nation of the world.  Climate, size, history, religion, economics, cultural differences, minute esoteric details & so on, make each place & its people unique.  

It was not until this past spring when I took a course I had long been itching to take--Social Entrepreneurship--that my thoughts from high school began to sort out.  With social entrepreneurship, specific steps are taken slowly & with great awareness.  A large part of developing a social entrepreneurial endeavor is spent on listening.  Listening to the people you set out to assist, hearing, seeing, observing and empathizing with how they live life.  When there is an issue of poverty or hunger, the listening comes into affect.  An outside observer who knows how to remedy a problem has learned how the culture operates so when the help has been given & the outside party has left, they have left a solution that feels natural to the culture.  Nothing has been changed about how the culture operates, thus they can sustain the positive change.  This tactic encourages other cultures to support themselves from within, build themselves up.

In El Paso, Texas we talked to two women through the fence while they stood inches away in Juarez, Mexico.  Both women agreed that they did not want to come to America.  They wanted to stay in their country.  If they left, if everyone left for America, then how could Mexico ever rebuild its economy & perpetuate a safer place to live.  They thought in a socially and culturally aware way.

Ultimately, I do not believe in a physical wall, especially one that is highly militarized.  I do not think that America needs to let in every person of the world, although I support the notion of asylum for those escaping life threatening situation & who hope to work hard & better themselves & their lives.  That is what the American spirit was built on.  I think workers permits are a wonderful idea for those who live close to the border.  I think strides need to be taken to encourage people around the world, not just the people of Mexico, to think more like the two women in Juarez.  Stimulate & inspire a desire for the people of other nations to want to stay & being the seeds of positive, effective, culturally & socially effective change.  Only the people can make their country what they need it to be.  It will take time & at the start might feel idealistic but just as outside forces need to listen to the voices, needs & traditions of others, the people within the same countries need to listen to each other, from those who feel voiceless to those with the most power & loudest voices.

So when I stepped off the T at Arlington, the Copley stop was closed due to the marching, & turned to face the street, hardly paying attention for a moment, my head shot up.  There before me was a street, a street I have walked on many times before.  A view I have seen over again without thinking much but is now imprinted in my mind.  

From left to right the road was full of people walking forward with signs & chanting in unison, “No Ban. No Wall.”  I was struck.  I knew I was heading to the march but I went on a bit of a whim, without a sign, turning my car towards the T station when I had other errands to run.

I was overwhelmed.

I went to see & listen, just as I had been taught to do as a young girl.  Listen to people.  Open your eyes & open your mind.  Having been educated about the border & being passionate about it, I felt a responsibility to attend.  Also as an American citizen in a vibrant moment, I felt responsible.  As the daughter of a father who dropped me off at school, from kindergarten to high school, & called out as I hopped out the door, “Love you… & be nice to everyone,” I felt responsible.  Aside from feeling responsible I wanted to be there.  I want to listen.  I want to hear as many sides as possible.  

Fill my ears.  Fill my heart & mind.  Get me to listen more & think more & then come back with well educated ears that have heard from every crevice & corner that I have the privilege of learning from.

Our president’s thoughts are easily accessible.  I will listen to him.  Despite how we feel as a nation, he is our president right now.  He too is a person & deserves to be listened to.  The other day someone said that he will follow President Trump until President Trump does something to really mess up.  So far I may not agree with President Trump’s sentiments but I will give him the respect I give to each person of the world.  Since I can turn the news on & hear from him, I went to the march to hear from every group that Boston is able to represent.

What I learned is that I might not be a physical protester.  There were some signs I found to be to radical.  I think the form of protest, marching & rallying is through conversation & writing.  Maybe that makes me weak but this is where I feel I can be most effective & true to my beliefs.  I will support, I will witness, I will love & welcome & nurture who ever needs that.  I will empathize.  I am here for anyone who needs an ear, who ever needs help raising their voice in a positive & effective way.  I am here for you, who ever you may be.  Open to all ears & waiting until I feel as educated & open minded as I need to be in order lift our country from this confusion.  Hopefully America will again be a beacon for other nations of the world to do the same, on their own terms & social sustainable way.

This is a highly saturated & loud time for America.  We have not seen protests like this since the ‘70s.  It is a privilege for us to get out there & share our feelings, but balance our vocalism with our ability to listen, learn, reconsider & formulate.

[bucklemonster]

24/08/2020 The mountain is sick. A very long and vivid dream!

24/08/2020 The mountain is sick. A very long and vivid dream!

“It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.” - Carl Sagan

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” - also Carl Sagan

Here is another dream I had.

Another dream about the orange man. We were going back into the blue jungle, the place of the whispering woods. I ask the Orange Man: What day is the 3 gorges dam in China gonna break? Om: I cannot tell you that, it pays to be prepared for disaster, that is all I can say. The Orange Man is sad. He says, within the mountain there lives a blue bat that shoots arrows. The blue bad is our fear about the disease. We must wear our mask, and keep the distance. It is the only way we can overcome this mountain. The Orange Man cried, the trees where crying too very quit. I hugged the Orange Man. "All will be alright, we will find zero" said the Orange Man.

When we hugged all became black.

Then I opened my eyes, It seemed like we had teleported back into the whispering woods

I walked trough a dense jungle with the Orange Man. The jungle looked like a jungle from our planet yet I cannot say for sure because I never was in a jungle before. Yet the plants were blue in colours in staid of green. Wood was purple in staid of brown. There it reminded me of James Cameron's Avatar but there were no light-emanating plants.

Om (orange man) had a big machete and used it to cut tall grass. They were like big leaves and came up to my eyes, they must have been 1m50 high I think. (4,9 foot). He had to cut the grass for us to proceed.

I asked:

People talk about a being with bat wings that shoots arrows. Is it real and is it related to covid-19?

Om said:

The virus is something new, therefore we project our fears on to it. Humans have lived trough many hardships this time it will be no different. I do not know if the bat creature we shall face will be the same that has been spoken of.

I was shocked. I: Will we see the bat creature, in real life? When, who, how?

Om: What is real or not is not for me to say but you will see it in this 7th realm, we shall confront it in the cave.

I was still a little scared and confused, but this was my dream, nothing can hurt me right?

I tried to focus back on the questions.

I: Is the American president an avatar of an orange man, does he know about them?

Om: We are not in contact with the worlds elite, we believe more in a bottom up approach. If the soil of society is well connected happy and free of hatred, many things wonderful things can sprout forth out of the land. Yet we can offer mere guidance, the personal growth of each individual is up to ones own. Yes that can be frustrating but it is worth the work.

I: Does the president try to emulate the Anunnaki with spray to emulate them?

Om: The personal hygiene of one elderly man is none of our concern. It is up to humans to take care of their bodies. When humans are healthy in mind, brain and body we can start our deep work upon civilization. I do not know of the Anunnaki, I have not aces to the information crystals regarding them. They might be mere projections from the present into the past, filling suspicions and speculations.

I: What is 5 September 2024 for? Om: A great leap forward will be taken, there will be a birth of thousand planets. The child in the eye will be born, the eternal birth will start, the snake eating its own tail holding the universe together. Spread the word and remember remember the 5th of September.

I: I was heard that in a dream you said. If nuclear disaster breaks out go North. Om: Perhaps it must be one of my associates, if it was not an artificial mental projection. If it was indeed one of my associates then I do not have aces to his information crystal.

It is a sad fact that the way we use energy can lead to disasters. But such occurrences are rare. We encourage humans to find new ways of energy ones that do not destroy nature, the mother of us all. If disaster strikes remember humanity has survived many ordeals, many genetic bottlenecks have been in existence in the space of time. Even when all is lost hope remains, whatever happens happens and whatever happens you will be fine even in this. Yet one must not look for death, only in life one finds meaning. Not in spite of death but because of it. I: Why did he suggest to go north? Om: I remember an associate telling me about the North Star within the Northern Lights, there in the river we can find peace. Within the 17th division he met two humans called Alberta and Mc Kenzie. He helped them towards a higher understanding. Then Alberta and Mc Kenzie spread the word, yet they would like to remain humble. Helping should not become bragging. They know more about the 7th realm. I: Will there be a new world order? Om: We do not wish to reform the world completely, we do not wish to make it worse but better. What we shall do will not be painful. Except for you. Sometimes order is better than chaos, order will not be forced on those that do not want it. Chaos is the order of nature. Order is a form of chaos. Chaos guides the creative power, when order and chaos clash and cooperate many things can come forth. I: Will you hurt me? Om: No, but certain things in life are painful. We cannot deny that. I shall confront you with pain. We want you to tell the others that sometimes life is full of pain, but that is okay. We must make pain bearable, accept suffering. We will realize pain is not so bad. Sometime when one focuses on pain, pain feels like something else without meaning. Who says pain is bad?

I: How can we strengthen our connection to our dream memories?

Om: Practice creates art. Just like swinging this knife, first you wont be able to cut anything, but when you practice enough the knife flows swiftly trough the grass.

I: Are you part of the organization? Om: I am a part of the organization and the organization is a part of me. We are all organized out of atoms and energy.

I: Is the organization meant to mislead and spread misinformation? Om: We are here to inform and clear the waters. A clear mind makes things easier to see. Yet we also need a mind full of knowledge, a mind that can make connections and be creative. We love all minds for each mind is unique. Everyone has dreams, aspirations, fears, weaknesses they are all beautiful each and one of them. I hope humans realize this to. Everyone has the right to exist, be loved and be happy.

We arrived at a mountain. There was an opening, a cave.

Om: Next time we shall be confronted by the fear of the small.

We walked further, into the cave, into the darkness until I saw nothing, then I woke up.

This is the end of my dream.

From now on I identify as a Non-theist Discordian and believer of science. Also labels are just labels. I don't believe in God, but there may be one, there is no scientific proof (yet). It also depends on what you see as a god. I'm not Atheist because I'm not against religion. Whatever helps, helps. However I now identify as a Discordian. That means, to me, I play

with many religious theories, ideas, conspiracy theories, myths, urban legends and so on. I can throw these theories and legends against the wall and see what comes out of it. I believe this is may how religions get shaped and started. They lead to new ideas and insights about life, insights that may not be true scientifically. But true as in wisdom about life, social en psychological truths. It is modern folklore. They show how afraid and superstitious people can be. They show all is well and love is all. And we should help each other. As a Discordian I follow Zero, the Ouroboros residing in the 7th realm keeper of the Dead Farm and Gatekeeper of the Home of Judges and the Orange Man, the Guide. Zero lives in the mountain as well protecting gold. Those who chase gold will get lost within the caves. Yet I am aware these are myths holding morals not objective truth. These morals are love, respect and realizing life is games within games. My personal believes have nothing to do with a server online or a Greek movement.

[ecotone99]

[SF] A College Admissions Essay From The Future President Of The World

Dear Mikirken State University Admissions Board,

For my college entrance essay, I have chosen the three prompts:

Why should we choose you for Mikirken State University?

Tell us an experience that humbled you.

What do you hope to accomplish at Mikirken State University?

I hope to prove with these essays that I am MSU material and will be a unique and valuable contribution to the MSU student body… and humanity.

Why should we choose you for Mikirken State University?

I have a 3.4 GPA, my SAT score is 1350, and I am the proud son of a hard-working single mother.

But my most important qualification is that I will become the first president of the world.

That is to say, that sometime in the year 2062, I will be inaugurated as the first president of the United World Order, a democratic, federal government with jurisdiction over the entire Earth.

Why do I know about my destiny?

Although I don’t have the full story, I have preened this information from the hundreds of time travelers who have visited, stalked and harassed me since my birth.

That might sound unusual, and it is.

At least, it is for normal people.

However, for People of Historical Interest (POHI), it’s quite regular. In fact, every POHI from the Egyptian King Narmer to the 24th century Cyber Warlord Bob has been swarmed by curious, fact-finding time travelers.

You might also think it’s strange that the time travelers have told me so much about my history. The truth is, they’re not supposed to reveal themselves as time travelers or tell me anything about the future.

But time travelers, while being generally intelligent people, are so enthusiastic about meeting historical figures that they tend to let things slip.

When I was four, our mailman would deliver mail three times a day and regularly ask if he could join us for breakfast in our home.

My mother assumed he was romantically interested in her, but it quickly became apparent that he was more interested in her parenting. What she fed me, what books she read to me, if I showed any traits that might facilitate my future greatness, etc.

He was writing a book.

They’re always writing a book.

When confronted with the fact that the post office had never heard of him and his uniform was clearly made of a chrome-colored, synthetic fiber unknown to modern science, he confessed.

Since then, my mother and I have become adept at spotting time travelers. They almost seem relieved when they’re exposed, admitting their professions, but adding that they cannot reveal anything about the future or risk dire consequences for the timeline and humanity’s destiny.

But slip-ups happen.

When I was nine, a woman asked me what influence the U.N. declaration of human rights had on my understanding of Neo-Gramscian International Relations theories.

I asked, “why?”

She said, “because you quote the declaration in your inauguration speech as first President of the United World Order in 2062.”

That’s when I knew.

Since that embarrassing slip-up, it’s been easier for me to collect information about my future self and explore why I would make a great MSU student from the perspective of Post-Doctorate level historical analysis.

In the future, I will lead a band of highly-talented individuals to save the planet from the worst effects of climate change, mitigate the chaos and violence caused by depleted world resources and unite all nations in the greatest endeavor ever taken to end war, forever.

Although I’m not the most brilliant POHI or the strongest, I have a high degree of honesty and moral courage, or so I’m told, and yet I am strangely evasive.

I will be regularly compared to Abraham Lincoln, although my place in history is closer to that of foundational leader like George Washington, speaking from a strictly American historical perspective.

Also, my favorite subjects are math and biology.

Tell us an experience that humbled you.

This answer is also related to the time traveler/future president of the world thing.

My college prep tutor told me that I needed to show a variety of experiences in my essays, but seeing as that tutor is also a time traveler in disguise, I have decided to write more about this particular aspect of my life.

I also realize that being a POHI with a constant retinue of time traveling observers hardly seems like a humbling experience.

Certainly, my mother has taken enormous pride in my future. She has used it as affirmation her all-bran breakfasts are the cornerstone of a healthy childhood. Time travelers seem reluctant or unwilling to dissuade her of that idea… unfortunately.

Nevertheless, many conversations have been disturbing.

Most travelers come from the years 2130 (roughly the year time travel was invented) through 2180. But I also get people from 2200 through 2240, a period where my legacy becomes “problematic.”

During my rise to power and administration I made (or will make) several compromises and had a variety of moral blind spots that were perfectly acceptable, or at least overlooked, until the year 2200, when citizens of the first world order start to “wake up.”

These moral failings include not recognizing Kurdistan, the Basque Country, Tibet, Somalia and France as independent states within the global federal system.

Supposedly, that’s due to the racism and ignorance of my “America-centric perspective.”

I also blocked amendments to the global constitution that would grant human rights to cyborgs and genetically enhanced humans. That backwards view will lead to a century of discrimination.

Time travelers tell me about these problems regularly with almost no observance of temporal law. I suspect that many of them hope to change the timeline, and maybe they have.

Whereas other time travelers are looking for the keys to greatness, these people are looking for the seeds of evil.

They hate bran.

My mother doesn’t like those travelers and tries to shoo them away whenever possible, but they keep coming. They argue a lot with historians that praise my administration. Sometimes, they’ll even start fist fights.

I used to argue with them too.

I’d become defensive and scream. Tell them they wouldn’t even be alive without future-me.

I’ve grown. I recognize their pain and try to listen now. They’re right to be angry or even hate me, because I could have easily made their lives easier by a simple admission of their humanity.

But I didn’t (or won’t).

These historians have made me realize that I’m not perfect, and I never will be.

How I come to forget these lessons in the future is beyond me. I suspect that I will be forced to compromise my morality for some sort of greater good.

I don’t know.

But I’m the only person who regrets something they haven’t done yet.

What do you hope to accomplish at Mikirken State University?

As you are probably aware, Mikirken State University currently ranks towards the bottom of universities nation-wide. There are almost no notable alumni or programs with significant acclaim.

I’m sorry for my honesty and the arrogance of this observation — but why would the future president of the world want to go to your university?

This application was inspired by one time traveler from the year 2567.

You see, after the year 2240, I stop being a POHI with such an emotionally controversial legacy and I start becoming a stale subject of academic interest.

I still get visitors from past that year, but they usually stay hidden, my failings and victories too distant to be provocative.

One morning, a dirty old man burst into my bedroom. His eyes were blood-shot and crazy. His hair hadn’t been washed in some time and he had a long, wiry beard.

He made no attempt to disguise himself for our time. Instead, his clothes were dirty and as grey as his beard.

I thought it was a time assassin, but before I could even scream, he held his hand to my mouth and pleaded with me to hear him out. I figured I had no other choice.

He told me that in his era, the government I founded is gone. The world is suffering from a terrible, man-made blight that’s left billions to starve to death. Competing cults have turned people against each other and freely destroy the world’s technological infrastructure and kill off engineers and scientists.

War and nuclear destruction envelope large sections of the planet. The ideals of justice, equality and freedom are taboo. Even the words used to describe them are being expunged from the future global languages.

The man told me he had saved the last known time traveling device and used its last charge to come talk to me.

He knew that in his distant past I prevented the horrors his world faced. He and his followers had come to worship me as their last hope for fixing a broken world.

And after telling me every detail of his time, he asked what I would do to heal the planet.

I said, “dude, I’m only 12.”

It wasn’t the answer he was looking for.

I never saw him again, and I’ve never seen a traveler from after 2567.

That doesn’t mean civilization was wiped out. It could be that my legacy was cleaned from history or time travel was banned or many other possibilities.

But getting back to the question — why MSU?

Right now, your institution may not be the best. And it won’t become significant in the next century. Or the century after that. Or the one after that.

Nevertheless, by 2567, it will be the last institution of higher learning left on the entire planet (at least, as far as that man knew). It’s from your university that that desperate man made his journey.

To be precise, he traveled from the basement of science center, which still exists in 2567.

I didn’t have an answer for him when I was twelve, but I plan on spending the next four years looking for one and leaving it for him.

I’ve been told (indirectly) that my college years don’t actually matter. There’s no record of my experiences during those years, and I will one day confess to being kind of idiot during this future time.

And so, I am not interested in a specific program, a career track, or even a degree.

I only hope to answer that one man.

I have included these essays along with my transcripts and other application materials.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and I hope to speak with you soon about my joining the student body.

Go Mavericks!

submitted by /u/Consito [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/2WF9J1Z

[theinquisitivej]

The New Century Multiverse Reactions – ‘Secret Rooms’ Definitive Edition: Weirwood Epilogue

You can listen to the full episode here.

Weirwood ends with an epilogue from Katherine Holloway as she tells us the Story of Weirwood. This chapter is taken from The Cartographer’s Handbook and is Katherine’s account of her life and the years she has led the inhabitants of Weirwood. This is a story we’ve heard before, but I’ve never actually talked about it in detail on the blog. Now that Maya Santandrea is playing Katherine, we have a new narrator and a new vocal performance to enjoy, so this seems like a decent time to go over it.

         The chapter details Katherine’s life before the emergence of the Wendigo, when the American Civil War had only just concluded. She had fallen in love and married a soldier named Lieutenant Preston Beauregard, who she had plans on marrying once he returned from the war and they could inherit her father’s plantation to live their lives in prosperity. Preston made Katherine laugh and feel like she was a lady, a grown adult that she could be proud to be. He made her so sure of what her life would be, and that they would share a happy life together. But Preston received a serious injury during one fateful battle and lost his leg along with three of his fingers. He came back a quiet shadow of his former self, withdrawn and lacking the vibrant spirit he once had. But Katherine stood by him. She would keep her resolve in the face of defeat and build a life with the man she had become devoted to, even if it was not the life she had envisioned.

         This and life during the aftermath of the Confederacy’s defeat made Katherine one of the hardiest people you could meet. When the Wendigo’s sickness started to spread, she planned for the worst and decided to fortify Weirwood and take in children like James and Abigail. Over the years they educated the children, set up vegetable patches and expanded their livestock, and generally set up a comfortable enough life for the people of Weirwood whilst also training them to be ready to dispatch Wendigos and fight when the day came when they would come face-to-face with danger. This is what we’ve been seeing in Weirwood and these additional chapters of Secret Rooms. Even Preston regained some of his fire, offering instructions on how to fight and telling Katherine everything about his own experiences and mistakes in battle.

         One day, however, a suspicious man approached the gates of Weirwood to ask about their living situation. After sending him away with as little information as possible, Katherine was confronted a few days later with a group of men who demanded they take them in. After Katherine refused to do so and made it plain that she was armed and fully capable of fiercely defending her home, the group retreated, and both sides begun preparations for the inevitable fight that would follow. That night, the attackers came, but Katherine and the inhabitants of Weirwood were ready for them. They used the darkness of night to their advantage and sent out some of their best people to take out some of the attackers’ scouts, and used bows and arrows to fire several volleys silently at the enemy. Eventually, however, the battle descends into a frantic close-quarters fight, and the people of Weirwood give everything they’ve got to repel these bandits. When dawn comes, every one of their attackers has been dispatched, and eighteen of Weirwood’s number has been lost. Among the dead was Preston Beauregard, who had died underneath the cherry tree that he and Katherine had once spent their early days together. The bodies of the three men who had taken his life were found alongside him, telling a story of how fiercely and bravely he had fought to the very end. As Katherine finishes her account, she knows that Abigail and James are the sort of resourceful people that the Cartographers will need in their fight to ensure the survival of the people of America.

         I can’t tell if any additions or changes have been made since this short story was first published in The Cartographer’s Handbook. Whether it’s always been there or if it’s been included now that we know who James and Abigail are, I like hearing Katherine talk about these two. Abigail is described as one of Katherine’s “very favourite girls”, even though her brashness caused trouble when she was younger, and Katherine sees James as a grave young man, but someone who has been invaluable throughout the years in his assistance to Weirwood’s resident doctor. In the context of Weirwood, we’ve spent nine chapters seeing Katherine from the perspective of the children in her care. As such, she has come across as authoritative and slightly unknowable, which is understandable for any stern older guardian figure when they are being looked at from a child’s point of view. Up to this point it’s been difficult to discern what Katherine thinks of Abigail and James, but here we’re plainly told that she values them. Hearing about their crucial roles in the battle to defend Weirwood after experiencing the story of Weirwood shows how far they’ve come in the intervening years. Abigail and James are now some of the most capable and indispensable members of this community. Katherine appears to be very proud of each of them. It must have been hard for her to send them away with the Cartographers.

         Listening to this short story again, I’m struck by how well the writing communicates how the sequence of events that made up the battle played out. It’s difficult to make describing action or battles engaging in a non-visual medium that relies heavily on descriptive narration like literature or audio dramas. This chapter manages to overcome this challenge by approaching the encounter like an historical documentary. Each step of the combat and the tactics involved in Katherine’s decisions is clearly laid out, and the reasoning behind each move is compelling to listen to. In addition to this effective overview of the different movements of the battle, the writing also makes a point of emphasising what this tense encounter means to the character we’ve been following and care about, and what it makes her feel. When the inhabitants of Weirwood have the lead on their attackers by taking advantage of the night and using silent volleys of arrows, Katherine comes across as a calculating tactician who knows the best way forward. But when the fight turns ugly and she’s forced to stay apart from it all as the people following her, the children who she has protected for years, are being killed by these intruders in a mindless close-quarters brawl, she understandably feels powerless, horrified, and furious that these men would dare to do this to her children. The encounter means more to the audience because we see what it and the losses mean to Katherine. As fictional battles go, this is an excitingly tense sequence that makes you shudder to think what it would be like to go through something like this.

         And that’s why this story is as important to establishing the tone and theme of New Century as it is. Trials and hardships like this are something that most of us hope to never go through. Katherine and the people of Weirwood have had to show incredible resolve and willpower to fight to survive and defend themselves from the monsters of this new frightening world. In telling this story, Katherine tells us that she hopes to inspire others to fight with their very last breath to defend against those who would take everything. But she realises that, if they’ve managed to stay alive this long, they likely already have gone through their own version of these events. Everyone who is alive in America has faced their own ordeals, and everyone has lost something or someone. Weirwood and Katherine show remarkable strength of character, and yet it’s suggested that stories like this may be relatively common in the America of New Century. It hammers home how trying life is for the people of America, and yet it also feels like a source of hope, because as much as we lose, as much as we fear what tomorrow may bring, this world is filled with people who have survived the hardships of yesterday. People aren’t always your allies, but there is something unifying about knowing that everyone is mourning something, and as bittersweet as that is, I find that to be a hopeful sentiment.

         As I mentioned earlier, this chapter has a new narrator due to Maya Santandrea now playing the role of Katherine. This is one of the defining moments in New Century for Katherine’s character, showing us what she has gone through and how it has made her one of the hardiest and most capable of leaders in the series. Maya has been selling Katherine’s compassionately understanding yet firmly authoritative nature throughout Weirwood in each of her appearances, but it’s here where she gets the chance to shine, and shine she does. Her vocal performance captures the character’s determination to hold her head high and push forward as well as her moments of vulnerability when she remembers the heartbreak of her Preston coming home a different man, or her frustration that she couldn’t do more to fight and repel the bandits attacking her home and killing her children. By the point in the chapter when Katherine supposes that everyone’s gone through their own hardships, she’s firmly established the character’s strengths as well as her humble disposition that prevents her from making more of what she’s gone through than she does. She hopes this will inspire others, but she figures plenty of other people have already gone through this, and that she has simply done what is necessary to survive. The thing that broke me, and breaks me every time I relisten to this segment of the chapter, is at the very end when Katherine tells us of Preston’s fate. Maya’s performance drove me to tears, conveying such love and admiration for the man she married as her voice crumbles and the sadness of her loss hits us like a bus. Her delivery manages to convey Katherine’s simultaneous pride and indignation that three men, including the bandits’ smug leader, were necessary to take down her crippled husband. Maya’s voice is filled with disdain when she speaks of the bandits, but filled with loving admiration for the bravery of her dear husband. And yes, the tears are once again coming as I write these words.

         The epilogue closes with a new section that has been added to the end of the Definitive Edition of Secret Rooms. In it, we see Abigail approach Virgil and Fuck Yo- I mean, Karl and strike up a conversation. It’s a touching and uplifting way to end Weirwood and a welcome addition to Secret Rooms. It shows Abigail slowly reaching out to make more friends and relieves some of the emotional strain we’ve been going through between the end of Lucy’s story and Katherine’s grief for her husband. Karl taking the piss out of Abigail is funny to listen to and you feel glad to see Abigail getting more comfortable around the pair and offering to buy them and their wives a drink later. The scene is one of those moments in life where, even if it’s not the most significant thing that will ever happen to you, it’s still one of those moments you treasure because things feel alright. Even if they aren’t, at least there’s pleasant company with the people who are going through it alongside ya.

         Join me very soon for the last Secret Rooms post – a general overview and review of the Definitive Edition of Secret Rooms.

[fugandhi]

FUGANDHI! ( An Elaboration)

KiMMM! had made these some time ago, and I think these are TOTALLY Hilarious and quite representative of our wacky and definitely zany sense of humor.

Our mission in FUGANDHI is to simply create excellent & awesome sounds and sights. We work hard for our results, and we fuel our projects entirely from our creativity and our independent spirits. We want to contribute something Good & Fun & Exciting to the world. We are rebels at heart, but always for the noble cause. We believe in giving back to the world from which we’ve been given. Our overall message is to maintain and reinforce positivity & faith into the world of which we are blessed to be within.

To elaborate on the actual name of “FUGANDHI”, for anyone who is not already familiar - I created the name some time ago as a joke, a spontaneous blurt, at home, with my wife, and it was based off one (of many) conversations we were having about 1980′s American Punk Rock music.

FUGAZI is a band from Washington, D.C., and they started in the 80s, and were essentially the antithesis to corporate mainstream rock music (along with a ton of bands prior to them). Their name, which wasn’t really their focal point, was originally a U.S. Military term: F.U.G.A.Z.I. (”Fucked Up Got Ambushed Zipped In”) that had came from the Vietnam War. The band’s music wasn’t really fixated on anything relevant to that usage of the term (although Ian MacKaye had stated it was an apt description of the world they had been living in at the time), however, the band did make a lot of socio-economical commentary through their Art in addition to their overall approach to their lives (it would seem) by being Straight Edge (not inducing Alcohol or Tobacco or any Drugs or anything like that in their lives), and having a very serious & experimental manner with their songs as well as their inevitable legacy as a band.

FUGAZI definitely inspired a ton of people, myself included, with their very non-commercially accessible portfolio. “Fucked Up Got Ambushed and Zipped In a body bag” - if that’s not a soberingly humbling concept then I don’t know what is. ...Either way, thinking in retrospect, this band definitely helps define what I believe to be an essential part of music history and culture as well as just overall American history and culture. The socially-relevant, and politically-aware and self-liberating type of attitude that appeared to drive FUGAZI, is just a very independent and somewhat singular approach to not only their music community but obviously their immediate community (since the two cannot go without the other). They were not my favorite band, they were simply one of the most influential and visceral of the many bands I have come across (and I have covered a lot of musical ground in my own listening).

Mohandas K. Gandhi (or “Mahatma” aka “Father” Gandhi as he is admired by many) was a man that walked this Earth with a lot of very high-minded existentialistic wanderings (so-to-say). I remember one of my high school English teachers asking students who they would choose to have a dinner or conversation with (whether living or not) and I said “Gandhi” without a doubt. I was always very fascinated and humbled by his story (since I was like a little kid) and considering he came from India, which was the Eastern part of the world - it definitely intensified my interest and research of his studies/teachings as I was a teenager/post-adolescent (especially since I was raised as a Buddhist with Catholic values). I discovered a lot about diplomatic resistance, and confrontational passivity through the beatings he (as well as many Indian people of their time) had taken simply for wanting liberation & freedom from a Western Imperialistic Nation so that they, themselves, as India could have their Independence.

As it would apply to me as an individual - Having been born in the Eastern part of the Earth, and then making travels back and forth from East to West on a somewhat intermittent basis (since I had the privilege of being able to Travel thanks to my family) - The balance of East & West have always been well within my own life as I have had to interpret my own life with a certain level of understanding (and regards to the various ways of being).

I suppose, on perhaps an entirely subconscious level, in that moment, I blurted out “FUGANDHI” due to my own particular life experiences & idiosyncratic interests. I always have held the Eastern principles of discipline, sacrifice for the greater good, and conformity for the sake of societal customization (and improvements) - although - I have always grasped (almost instinctually) the Western concepts of rebellion for liberation, progressive & conservative social values, and the passion of the frontier.  Both parts of the world do have Good aspects as well as a lot of problems. Finding my place within the whole has been my own life’s journey and learning experience (and it will probably continue into my elder years).

Either way, “FUGANDHI” is the name of my solo project, but it’s a band, and we’ve slowly, but surely, been starting to develop our team of players who will join forces with us to continue our Creative mission. Amidst the intellectualization of it all - we’re simply here to have a Great time and to be Successful in our Artwork & Music & overall Lives.

The satirical mash-up of Gandhi’s (and the like) face over some very, very hardcore punk dudes from the 1980s cracks me up every time I look at these! KiMMM! is So FUNNY! She’s also the most punk rock person I’ve ever met in my whole life! (WWWOOOOOO!!!!) We go way back - like, we first met each other back in 1998 (I still remember what she looked like on the first day of school), and there was a time in our lives (I refer to as “the dark ages” Hahaha) that we didn’t see each other due to life circumstances. Thankfully, we found each other again years later, and even though we are not like perfect people - we’re definitely perfect for each other. (Don’t hurl, I know, moments-of-tenderness seem to make people squeamish hahaha)... Ya know, there were a lot of people who made extensive efforts to like sabotage us and we’ve been through a heck of a lot of negativity simply due to the attempted interference of others (since we were kids) so I’m like you know what - I’ll speak well of us because we don’t ever ask for anything other than to be Happy like anyone else. “It’s Our Time, Down Here!” lol..Goonies quote... no for real though - we’ve been through hell & back and I thank God that I’m still blessed enough to have her in my life. You should know, she’s literally my favorite person EVER (more like my Guardian Angel) and I know it’s kinda corny, but you know what it’s okay - “YOU ARE THE WIND BENEATH MY WINGS” HAHAHAHAHA.....I’m just kidding I don’t even think I really know that song all the way through hahaha...Either way.. She’s amazing, funny, talented, compassionate, intelligent (more than anyone else I’ve ever known and I’ve literally known Rocket Scientists, literally) and has a heart of Gold. She’s also the most creative human being I’ve ever met and is definitely the most inspiring person I’ve met (just listening to her Vision). I’m so very excited for all of her efforts and visionary goals (since I’ve known her since wayyy back) and trust me - we’ve got plenty we will release to the wild (haha).

...Aside from that...

..We will soon start collecting funds for FUGANDHI as well as CHEAP FIX RECORDS! As of now, we are not a Corporation. We are an Organization. We are not here to assemble an empire based off of our ambitions - I decided the only way, I as a person, can serve my spiritual path and do what I believe to be God’s work - is directly through my efforts running the record label and my own band(s). So, with that said - as I’ve stated before - All of the money we make will be prioritized so that we have enough to survive and basically run a successful organization - and the remainder will go strictly to donations for groups or organizations who we deem are needing the necessary support and promotion for each respective cause.

“MASS HYSTERIA!” is still not finished. I have been listening to a lot of our songs that still need some more parts, and trust me - there’s plenty you have not heard yet (a lot of songs I’m really excited about that I had already made after the currently-released stuff). 

With that all in mind - Keep checking us out (as well as Cheap Fix Records!) We will do our best to create more AWESOMENESS - so keep on’ jammin’ and dancin’ and also support your local music scene & overall community! 

Live long & live well.

ATOMIK 1

[reviverradio]

The 14 Most Visionary Sound Pictures of 2017

Set your pitchforks and delight in some of the finest 2017 had to offer you.

Since  I wash off so lots of people in sharing my preferred music videos of 2016, I have decided to go a slightly different route with this year’s version. We’re all conscious of it. The whole issue with each one of these end-of-the-year lists that ranks songs, film, TV shows, etc. is that–guess what? –art is subjective and everyone has different preferences. Nobody is wrong in their opinions!  

As somebody who has a very unique set of preferences, I am really conscious that what I enjoy isn’t for everybody (just ask my father). With that   disclaimer in place, I’m discussing what I believe to be among the most visionary music movies of this year. Instead of rank them, the songs movies are listed in a manner that, when played with in sequence, should mash up into its own story.

When it’s their budget, theme, or moderate, these selections push boundaries in every sense of this term. Most of all, all of them highlight precisely how fascinating the music video kind could be. It’s been a difficult year for a great deal of individuals, but one positive is an extraordinary urgency apparent in art, an outpouring of voices from every portion of the world.    

You may either sit back and let it ride or you can take a look at the highlights from 2017 in almost any order you would like.

Kendrick Lamar – Element.

Manager –  Jonas Lindstroem & The Little Homies

This isn’t the only time you’ll visit Kendrick Lamar on this list.   King Kendrick put three amazing music movies this season at  Element. , DNA, and HUMBLE. , and every was fueled by gorgeous vision, Don Cheadle, or powerful social messages.   Element.  Introduces us with the artist at his strongest.  

The juxtaposition between beauty and violence combines perfectly with Lamar’s lyrical content. In actuality, after several watches, it is difficult to separate the songs in the movie. If you think about one, you immediately think about the other, and that’s what makes this movie great. A number of these images are direct   recreations of this work of Gordon Parks, the photojournalist who captured much of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

As Cassie da Costa wrote at The New Yorker back in June, “In Element. , blackness, or the dynamic existence of black bodies and the lifestyles that inhabit them, is reimagined not just lyrically and narratively but also visually. The movie’s aesthetics are not additional but, instead, essential to this activity within and significance of every scene.”  

Kamasi Washington – Truth

Manager – AG Rojas

Yep, this is a lengthy one. That is no real surprise considering Kamasi Washington’s last record The Epic clocked in at almost a three hours long. This year’s launch, Harmony of a Difference, is a far simpler record to digest because of several reasons.   Washington debuted his suite earlier this season at the Whitney Biennial, and because  Truth  acts as the record’s culmination and climax, it is only fitting that part of this installment  contains  this short film from celebrated music video director AG Rojas.  

At just 37 minutes in length, it won’t require an eighth-of-a-day to listen to, and also its memorable theme weaves in and out through every track, directing the listener together. The exact same could be said about the above video which goes back and forth through space, time, and topic, constantly returning to a picture on which you can grasp while still keeping a sense of cosmic mystery. Kinda like Terrence Malick, wouldn’t you say?

Björk: The Gate

Manager – Andrew Thomas Huang

Just Björk being   Björk.

Un Lock – Drowned Beast

Manager – Dr. D Foothead

Very few people can inform an epic work of science fiction in just under 5 minutes. Dr. D Foothead, whose function is featured on Adult Swim, is the rare exception. Having made a name for himself along with his brand of comedic, music movie psychedelia, you might dismiss his art as “trippy,” however the apt way to describe it is “characterized by hypnotic detail, hyper-saturated color and lively, flowing kind. The characters in his work navigate outer and inner worlds, experiencing conditions of mental abstraction, mystical sin, and transformation.”   The pen and paperwork is, very  simply, some next level shit.

In addition, this is a sterling example of how a visual artist can create a story entirely of his own from just a grain of sonic inspiration. As un Lock frontman John Dwyer stated of this animator/director, “I wrote this song largely from the studio and it had been, in my head, about the insatiable appetite of mankind, but kind of bent in this weird fantastical way.” Once Foothead got control of it, however, it appeared to change into something else completely. ” I enjoy working with Dr. Foothead,” Dwyer continuing. “Due to his take is always coming from another planet.”  

Pipe-Eye – Sweets & Gamble

Manager – Alex McLaren along with Sean McAnulty

Jumping from pen and ink to stop-motion cartoon, Sweets & Treats   is something along the lines of which you have probably never seen (or heard) before.   Clay and candy aren’t the key tools you would usually encounter when seeing a multimedia job, but I will be damned if the mix doesn’t work perfectly for this sweet yet nightmarish clip.  

St. Vincent – New York

Manager – Alex Da Corte

This one definitely takes the cake for best use of color palettes and art management. Da Corte also led St. Vincent’s music video for Los Ageless which acts as a companion piece to New York.   Being a lover of Da Corte’s visual art, St. Vincent seemingly reached him out using a pitch along the lines of “do whatever it is you do this well.”

In an interview with Pitchfork, Da Corte pointed out one of the best benefits of this moderate, saying, “Moving images and moving movies, set to songs or not, are all artworks in themselves. What is really special about creating a music video is all the fact that it may be shared so quickly and so widely. Everybody can gain access to it. It is actually free.”

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile – Over Everything

Manager – Danny Cohen

Whereas New York shows us the possibility of vibrant color, Over Everything  proves how its lack can prove just as successful. For people unfamiliar with this particular international supergroup, Kurt Vile, an American rock staple, and Courtney Barnett, an up and coming Australian celebrity, found their music preferences aligned so closely that they needed to come from across the world to collaborate on a record together.  

In Over Everything, we get a glimpse of just how similar these two  are as they swap verses. The actual stars of this movie, but are the artists’ respective backdrops.     Danny Cohen took the movie in Philadelphia and Melbourne, sourcing a new team from every city. His excruciatingly close attention to detail has been observed with every mirroring background. No matter how stark the contrast is between our two society’s cultures, the settings show how music is able to bridge the gap. Particular kudos to the place scout, a hat that I can only envision Cohen wore as well.  

Manchester Orchestra – The Sunshine

Manager – DANIELS

The DANIELS are always a divisive directing duo, but I am firmly on the side of “I’ll like these men put out since they truly don’t give a f***.” Both are no stranger to the art of audio movie, catching their biggest breakl using the legendary clip for Lil Jon’s Switch Down For Everything back in 2014. However, with the success of their debut feature Korean Army Man this past year, some were bound to wonder whether they had outgrown the moderate.

It appears they are at least ready to do it one more time to the man who scored their feature. Manchester Orchestra given the sonic vibes for Korean Army Man, therefore it was only reasonable to refund with a visual favor. The result is this movie for The Sunshine, which comprises a few of DANIELS’ trademark out-there humor and capacity to blend CGI oddness into seemingly normal conditions.  

The Babe Rainbow – Peace Blossom Boogie

Manager – Kristofski

The Babe Rainbow is probably the closest thing to a group of traveling hippies that we have in today’s music landscape. Together with Peace Blossom Boogie, manager  Kristofski masterfully captures the spirit of this group through what appears to be a Super 8 film straight out of 1964.   The YouTube page also has what I believe are the most precise comment of 2017 using “I can not believe these folks exist.” Everybody in Australia is seemingly beautiful, forcing double-decker buses to bright areas where they could frolic the afternoon off. Seems like an alright life.

Jay-Z – Moonlight

Manager – Alan Yang

JAY-Z came out with his new record 4:44 this season and with the launch came the opportunity to bend some TIDAL muscle. Many of the music movies he dropped were initially only available to see on TIDAL for a lengthy window following their premiere. This, obviously, was utilized as an incentive for people to sign up for the streaming support. If that money has been used to fuel the creation of movies like   Moonlight,   then I’m all for it.

The hype around this audio video was certainly real. A reboot of Friends starring some of the freshest African-American confronts in Hollywood and led by Master of None co-creator Alan Yang? Who wouldn’t wish to see what that looks like? The result is an allegory that’s more melancholy than funny, more short film than audio video. It has to’ve generated a great deal of new subscribers for HOV.  

Young Thug – Wyclef Jean

Manager – Pomp&Clout

You do the best with what you got, and this movie illustrates that.

Tyler, The Creator – Who’s Dat Boy

Manager – Tyler, The Creator

Tyler, The Creator is one of those rare few who can do it all. At just twenty-six years old, he’s been, well, producing, because the beginning of the Odd Future move back in 2008/2009. That includes everything from several albums to multiple TV shows, his own clothing line, and music festivals.

This year’s release   Flower Boy was clearly a significant step forward for this artist. Previously criticized for leaning too heavily on sophomoric humor, Tyler, The Creator’s movie for Who’s Dat Boy is the consequence of many years of satisfying his irreverent, damaging style. He’s unleashed his private struggles with identity out to the world, and when it is too dreadful for some to witness, then so be it.

Ty Segall – Split a Guitar

Manager – Matt Yoka

Many guitars were hurt in the making of the film. The great Matt Yoka strikes using his kaleidoscopic music movie for Ty Segall’s Split a Guitar. If you’re a lover of this rock-and-roll, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as watching guitars being obliterated to smithereens, particularly if Jack Black, Henry Rollins and Fred Armisen would be those accountable for their own destruction.  

The thing to note here is that none of all these explosions were set together in post with VFX. They are all the practical work of the   pyrotechnicians at Court Wizard, and also this movie simply wouldn’t be the same if the  consequences were not completed on set.   Do not worry, there has been a set medic in place to ensure nobody got hurt. Cronenberg fans will also be Delighted to find an almost frame for frame Scanners tribute at the end.      

Kendrick Lamar – HUMBLE.

Manager – Dave Meyers & The Little Homies

As I said initially, this is Kendrick’s entire year, therefore it is only fitting we feature at least 2 of the movies on this list. While Element. May be the more powerful of both, HUMBLE will wind up being the one that we most remember. It could just be the most iconic movie of 2017.

from reviverradio http://www.reviverradio.net/the-14-most-visionary-sound-pictures-of-2017/

[rokthespot]

A msg from our friend Abby Hertz of LustNYC

------------

I have to say something. The past two days it's been hard to watch white friends and family either a.) defend the Nazis under freedom of speech more than they disavow bigotry b.) not care or c.) clutch their pearls in disbelief that our country is still like this.

It is 1 million percent white ppl's privilege to a) march in the streets with semi-automatic weapons and not immediately be shot by cops b.) not care and c.) not have realized before now the insidious bigotry that is rampant all over our country.

I grew up in a small town in Indiana with an active KKK. I am a Jew, and my family is Jewish. I wasn't allowed in several people's homes bc I was a Jew. I was kicked out of my peer group at the local civic theater for being a Jew and yelled at, spit on, and attacked for "lying" to them about who I was/ ie not disclosing I was a Jew.

I was repeatedly forcibly checked for my horns and tail on the playground. I was called dirty, disgusting, a murderer, and kids made threats to me for being a Jew.

Our lunch table was me, my best friend that was Hispanic, the one Asian girl from China that didn't yet speak English, and the one black girl that thought we were a bunch of gross tomboys (she was a girly-girl). Nonetheless, we all sat together bc we were "other."

Kids in my neighborhood would play with me, though. I'm not sure why it was different at school than in my neighborhood. For some reason, outside of school I had the privilege that comes with my white skin. The neighborhood kids didn't apparently care I was a Jew. Not so for the one black girl. The mean ass kids never let her forget she was different and she never played with any of the kids that I saw. When I invited her, she would go back into her house without even talking to me. Looking back now, I am guessing she was not going to play with us bc it would have inevitably entailed some racist shit happening, and she knew that...so it wasn't worth it for her.

Kids are mean, right? But who did they get their ideas from? Their parents, behind closed doors, are telling them that white people, that Christians are better, that you can't trust a Jew, that Jews are dirty, that anyone of color is inferior, that they don't want the Blacks, Jews, or Hispanic kids to come over and to please only invite their other nice white friends. The kids had to get it from somewhere. Children are not born racist. Their parents make them racist.

If you haven't seen racism or bigotry before, it's because you've never had it effect you personally, or someone you care about.

I've lived in Black neighborhoods most of my adult life. Let me tell you a story from this past winter, for those of you that live in white neighborhoods.

The neighbors were all out shoveling snow after a big snowstorm and a cop car drove by with his lights on, abruptly parked, and they got out.

Within a half of a second every one of my neighbors had dropped their shovel and put their hands above their heads in the "hands up don't shoot" that all black parents must teach their black children in order to be safe. Every person, every kid, automatically did this. I didn't. I had never been in a position where I needed to learn that or do that for survival. I grabbed my cell phone and put it on video just in case. The cops walked up and down the block inspecting and then got back in their car and left. The whole 5 minutes this took place no one dared move their arms. I stood by holding my breath with my finger close to the "record" button on my phone.

Yes, white people, it is our privilege that that is not our reality.

When my roommate moved here from London, a place where cops do not carry guns, I had to explain to him that, as a black man, he could not ever reach in his pocked for his wallet/I.D. when/if a cop confronted him. I had to teach him "hands up, don't shoot." White ppl. Think if you've ever had to teach your children this. No? Recognize that is your immense privilege that cops are there to protect you, that your kids admired cops and did not fear them.

It makes me so angry that it takes a literal Nazi rally to wake white people up to racism and bigotry.

Our country is built upon an incredibly intricate and deep system of racial oppression. If you don't realize this, you are privileged to not have to realize this.

As a white-skinned "ethnic" person, that has a white face y'all will recognize and feel safer around to say your bigoted thoughts to, I've been in the position, as many Jews traditionally have, to speak up to you, turn my white face towards your white face and explain as calmly as I can what oppression looks like on a daily basis.

I know you don't "feel" racist or think you're racist, or a bigot, because you're a loving person that just wants peace.

You are able to focus on love and peace and ignore oppression because you don't have to deal with it personally and you are not faced with racism and bigotry on a daily basis.

It's impossible to put yourself in a POC's shoes.

I know you are ITCHING to say "not me" right now and prove to me that you are not racist by stating things like "I have a black friend, I have a black brother-in-law, I judge people by the content of their character" etc etc. Don't. No one wants to look at themselves in the mirror and see a racist. Even the white supremacist guy that became a poster child this week for bigotry came out and said "that's not me" and said he wanted to keep people separate but equal, and wanted his right to think white culture was superior, but that didn't make him racist. People go to great lengths doing mental gymnastics to convince themselves "I'm not a racist, but..."

Instead, LISTEN. Stop talking. Stop saying "but...." LISTEN. Don't force POC to have a conversation or educate you. It is not their responsibility to educate you. If someone spends their time, energy, and intense emotional labor on you, listen, don't interrupt, and thank them. Recognize that POC in this country have a right to be angry. You'd be fucking angry, too, if you experienced half the shit they have to deal with.

We need to start talking about race in this country.

Ignoring it, attempting to be politically correct, just buried the racism for white folks so they/we didn't have to deal with it or face it.

It's time for our country to look at itself in the mirror good and hard. It's time for white ppl to start addressing white ppl on their own bigotry.

I for sure don't have the answer as to how we move forward, but Trump cracked open the surface of racist America by giving white people permission to be bigoted again and stop being "politically correct."

This needed to happen. It needed to come to the surface for white people to address it.

I can't tell you how many times people have not known I'm Jewish and said horribly anti-Semitic things around me, only to make excuses for themselves when I tell them I'm a Jew. They 9/10 say "well, not you, you're an exception" and sometimes "oh and this other Jew I know isn't like that...you are exceptions to the rule." So. The only two Jews you actually know on a personal level aren't like that. Don't you think if you knew more Jews on a personal level, you'd find out that they're all just people, like you and your white family and friends, with their individuality?

Stop making excuses for yourself. If you want to say "not all white people" right now and argue that white people are all individuals, then remember that when you're saying "Jews are greedy cheating liars" or "blacks are inherently xyz" or "Mexicans are..." etc. Do you not think it's racist to not allow them the same privilege of individuality that you fight so hard to retain yourself when you say "not all white people"?

I also hear the unaddressed pain coming from "generic" white folk that they might not recognize from not having a culture. I think that whites losing their ethnic identities has actually hurt our society more than helped it.

Do a "heritage" project and see where your ancestors came from. Learn their stories of coming to this country, of why they had to leave their countries. Learn what cultures you come from and learn what foods, dress, dances, stories, and music comes from those cultures. No one here is a generic American. That's what is so beautiful about our country. We all come from somewhere.

Please also recognize that even if your family, like mine, came here to escape oppression, or even genocide, we came here by choice. African Americans were brought here in chains, kidnapped from their homes, and turned into property. That is entirely different, even from Jews escaping genocide. We have not come far enough in our history as a country for the after-effects of slavery to have disappeared. Not even slightly.

It is scary to write all this out and press "post." I have no idea what my friends on here will remotely think of this. But I know that engaging in conversations about race needs to happen for our country to move forward. We can't hide behind fake and forced politeness anymore. My white friends say they don't talk about race because they're too afraid. You're not doing anyone any favors by completely disengaging, imho.

Again, listen. Don't force people to engage with you. Stop saying "but." Be humble. Be as understanding as you can about other people's experiences. Don't invalidate someone else's experience because it was not your own.

Burying your head in the sand right now and retreating into your safe white communities makes you complicit in perpetuating racism.

[interwebsfamous]

My Review of Todd VanDerWerff’s Review of Kong: Skull Island. SPOILERS GALORE for both.

I went to see Kong: Skull Island this weekend and loved it. It was not the world’s greatest cinematic triumph. It wasn’t even the best movie I saw in the last two weeks, which was Logan. However, having sat through a significant amount of films about giant robots and/or monsters punching each other, I can say definitively, that it is at the height of the genre. So, it surprised me to read Todd VanDerWerff’s review of Kong: Skull Island this Monday.

VanDerWerff is someone whose work I have been reading since his days at the AV Club. I frequently agree with his takes and find his writing style to be clear and concise, yet almost luminous and lyrical in its artistic quality. What I mean to say is that VanDerWerff is one of the greatest journalistic writers working today. However, I had such an odd reaction to his review that it compelled me to write a review of his review.

I have recently been following Alex Jones on social media. It has given me the stereotypical insight into how the other side thinks. One of the things I’ve noticed is the number of takes Jones provides that are simply accurately describing something I would be pleased with or disappointed in and then providing the exact opposite emotional response. In that sense, and only that sense, VanDerWerff’s review struck me as oddly Alex Jonesian.

IF YOU READ FURTHER, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! GIANT, END OF THE MOVIE TWIST-TYPE SPOILERS!

I don’t know what VanDerWerff was expecting from this movie, as he accurately lists movies that I would compare it too. He notes Gareth Edward’s Godzilla, which is vastly inferior to Edward’s movies Monsters and, of course, Rogue One. He also compares it to the previous King Kong films, particularly the 2005 remake, and Apocalypse Now. I think Kong: Skull Island compares favorably to all those movies.

VanDerWerff’s primary complaint is that this particular version of King Kong is not really faithful to the original story of King Kong. I’m not really sure why VanDerWerff makes this complaint. I’m sure that there are plenty of movies VanDerWerff has seen that he thought were improved by playing loose with the source material.

I absolutely loved the 2005 movie Kong. I have admittedly not seen the original 1933 film. However, the 2005 movie felt to me like it was about something, specifically, show business. In that movie, Kong was the pitied victim of the greed and voyeurism of the show business industry. Kong was a romantic lead in that movie. However, he was churned up and spit out by the modern entertainment industry.

What I’m saying is that this story has been told. We do not need another reboot or remake rehashing the details of King Kong’s rise and fall in 1930s Manhattan. We most certainly do not need yet another version of What About Eve, Gypsy, or Showgirls walking us through the rapacious apathy of the entertainment industry towards its subjects. Also, in terms of robots and/or monsters punching each other, we’re getting a Pacific Rim 2, Transformers Infinity?, a Power Rangers reboot, and whatever the Cloverfield monster is up to next. That genre is being fully exploited.

While I agree with VanDerWerff that the character of Kong was compelling in this movie, it is precisely because he does not get much screen time. The filmmakers wisely leave us wanting more. The glimpses we get of this monster are awe-inspiring. The scene where a downed American chopper pilot watches Kong take a drink from a lagoon was to me the most amazing use of special effects and a simulacrum of the normal laws of physics to both humanize and exaggerate a monster.

The biggest problem with movies about robots and/or monsters punching each other is that, by the third act, we frequently get bored of watching them fight. The traditional solution to this problem is to create even more ridiculous fight scenes involving even yet more preposterous monsters. What Kong: Skull Island did is that it told a relatable and thematically unified story about people that occasionally has fight scenes between monsters. The fact that this movie is holding back more details about Kong for inevitable sequels merely forced it to do better story-telling. Also, by showing us the corpses of Kong’s parents, we are reminded of both his mortality and his ultimate loneliness. Additionally, the final fight scene was really cool.

VanDerWerff, in fact, identifies the thematic unity of the movie in his review.

“Thus, Skull Island deliberately takes much of its central idea from perhaps the best Vietnam movie ever made: 1979’s Apocalypse Now. Like that movie, this one is about a long trip into the jungle to find a legendary figure…

“Jackson plays a very human monster, a man who gradually comes to be obsessed with having his revenge, which makes for a potentially intriguing flip of Apocalypse Now: Instead of having to find a monster in the jungle, what if the monster was in the search party all along?”

I would agree with everything VanDerWerff says here except for “potentially.” What he sees as a lost potential, I see as a potent retelling carrying a powerful critique of the original. The problem of Apocalypse Now, and, its source material, Heart of Darkness, is that both works attempt to understand the problems of imperialism and colonialism by “othering” the imperialists. Both Colonels Kurtz are seen as madmen who have lost touch with the civilizing forces of white civilization. They have lost themselves in a jungle, literally, becoming the savages they seek to rule.

This Eurocentric and patronizing view of colonialism merely buys into a racist narratives of the colonized as inferior and deserving of their suffering. If they were stronger and more civilized, they would have driven the Europeans away. Instead, they are unable to avoid the predation of the most savage of white men. Therefore, it is up to the superior white man to restrain the impulses of their own fellow whites. If you need more arguments along these lines, just Google “noble savage.”

However, Kong: Skull Island flips this narrative on its head. Jackson’s Packard is totally powerless in the face of Kong. Kong swats the helicopters from the sky as one would swipe away a particularly bothersome insect. Toward the end of the film, where Packard seemingly has Kong in his grasp, Kong is shown to be perfectly capable of protecting himself. He does not need the noble white man to save him. By naming Tom Hiddleston’s character Conrad, presumably after Joseph Conrad, author of the Heart of Darkness, the movie makes this implicit critique almost explicit.

Instead, it is the various good liberals who are problematic here. Every one of them plays a role in this hopeless journey of colonization. The scientists are doomed by their curiosity that does not carry with it a respect for the lives and feelings of those they are investigating. Conrad suffers from a lack of forcefulness in confronting Packard throughout the movie. Additionally, there are a number of moments in the film where the “good” characters inadvertently make Kong’s life harder, by lighting a cigarette or informing Kong’s adversaries as to their location.

Weaver, the photographer played by Brie Larson, is depicted as hopelessly naïve about the power of media to defend the powerless. Hiddleston critiques her for being a “war photographer,” which she reframes as being an “anti-war photographer.” Also, at a crucial moment in the film, Weaver herself fires a flare that alerts Kong’s adversary to their presence, endangering Kong and all the people left alive on the island. At the end of the film, Weaver appears to agree that she will never share any of the images that she has taken on her journey.

The reason why Kong is the most sympathetic character is because he’s the one hanging out at his house mostly keeping to himself and the humans are the ones that invade his homeland either for science, military aggression, or pure noxious curiosity. None of the people is quite as bad as Packard, whose brooding cruelty Jackson has a blast projecting onto the screen. These other characters are bad precisely because they are bland. All of them are depicted as simply going along with the mission even though they knew it was a bad idea because they did not have the guts to say no. To the extent these human characters suffer in this movie, it is clear that their own ignorance and lack of humility is the cause. VanDerWerff’s critique that they seem to be left with nothing to do ignores the fact that they are doing something important with that nothing.

However, the second best human performance of this movie belongs to John C. Reilly’s Hank Marlow, a sort of anti-Kurtz pushing a further ciritique of Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness. Marlow has learned to survive on Skull Island for decades by becoming humble. He made friends with the Japanese pilot who shot him down. He shows respect for the customs and traditions of his adversaries and the population of the Island. While he longs to escape, his considerable wisdom is ignored.

He is ignored precisely because he is somewhat out of touch with Western manners. He plays his character’s unhingedness with the kind of deft touch that Reilly brings to any portrayal. Reilly is at the same time both heavy handed and compassionate toward all his characters. The fact that Marlow is somewhat insane keeps the other humans from listening to his good advice. However, Marlow has actually gone somewhat saner than all the other humans by learning and respecting the world in which he was trapped. To the extent VanDerWerff thinks Marlow resembles Dr. Steve Brule, he has it backwards. Brule is a goofy know-it-all who doesn’t really know anything. Marlow is full of goofy humility, but actually understands what is going on.