#and the circus would have been very diverse

[clockwayswrites]

Orange, Mavis (Song Thrush), Danny/Dick

@wisteriavines cw: stitches

“You know, we do have people paid to do this,” Dick commented idly as he pushed the needle through Phantom’s skin.

“Yep.”

“People who are far better at it than me,” Dick added.

“You do fine.”

“They’ve got this great stuff to numb your skin—”

“’Wing,” Phantom said. Dick could tell from Phantom’s tone he was a hairs trigger away from actually snapping.

Dick sighed.

He wanted to push the mater. He always wanted to push the mater. To ask why did no one else seem to know that sometimes the wounds Phantom got carried over to this other side. To ask who even knew about this other side. To ask why Phantom trusted him above everyone else.

But he wouldn’t. Phantom and him were too much alike. They both kept too much buried under quips and grins and a devil may care attitude. Dick refused to be the one that broke Phantom’s carefully constructed damn keeping the real emotions back. It would happen and Dick worried sooner rather than later, but Dick refused to be the one who caused the break.

He would be there to help after though, just like he was always there to help patch Phantom up like this.

Dick sighed and pressed a fleeting kiss to the skin above the wound and went back to stitching it up. In out, in out… the rhythm of the needle brought an old song to mind, one his mother used to sing. He thought he half remembered the words…

“Luna și cu stealilii Să-ți păzească viselii Să-ți mângâie geanilii Geanilii sprânceanilii…”

Yes, he’d be there when the damn broke.

-

prompt set 3, feel free to continue this is you'd like to song link

[jokeroutsubs]

[📝ENG Translation]: Souvenir Pop Through the Eyes of Joker Out Members

Original article written by Boštjan Tušek, published 27.11.2024 on 24ur. Photos by Miro Majcen. English translation by @kurooscoffee, review by drumbeat, proofread IG GBoleyn123.

Full translation under the cut 👇

We visited Joker Out in their rehearsal space, where the band members shared their thoughts on their new album and explained all the songs from their third full-length album, Souvenir Pop, in their own words. The album has already been released on digital platforms and CDs, and they are promising a vinyl edition as well.

About the Title SOUVENIR POP:

Bojan: We were sitting here in the rehearsal space, struggling to find a short, universally understandable way to summarise everything that happened to us during this time. After some serious thought, we realised that the music is essentially a collection of memories—“souvenirs”—that we’ve gathered. For the first time in our lives, we traveled so much and spent so much time away from home. Everything was very “pop,” and we lived out all the pop star dreams we used to admire. We shortened this journey into “pop,” making it a souvenir pop journey.

Photo: Joker Out recently unveiled their third album, Souvenir Pop. Together with Bojan, Kris, Jan, Nace, and Jure, we analysed all the songs on the album. PHOTO: Miro Majcen.

On the Cover Photo Taken in Bed:

Jure: The cover photo was born long before the album got its title. It was captured on the morning of the semifinals last May in Liverpool. We kept it under wraps for almost a year and a half. We liked it already back then and immediately thought it could one day work as an album cover. When we started looking for a cover, it still best reflected our feelings.

Bojan: It was taken on an iPhone during the filming of a promotional video, so basically a completely randomly captured moment.

On the “Circus” Surrounding Them Because of the New Album:

Kris: What's particularly noticeable is the mental and emotional fragmentation. The songs are quite diverse and colourful, and at first glance, they didn’t seem to belong on the same album. But as Bojan said, they remind us of fridge magnets, which perhaps reflects that we were “all over the place,” and that we were exploring ourselves on a broader musical, lyrical, and instrumental level than usual.

Nace: You can tell the songs are “hyped up” because we were in that mindset. Different things influence you, and it would have been quite different if we had stayed home for a month before that instead of being on tour.

PHOTO: Miro Majcen.

On Lack of Time:

Kris: We had to intentionally carve out time to write and record songs. We spent two months in London, a month in Hamburg, and last year we took a week in Kočevje to work on 'Everybody’s Waiting'. Carpe Diem took 14 days. We were maybe even under a bit of pressure, knowing we had to produce something.

On Three Languages on the Album:

Bojan: We spent a lot of time with all three languages; speaking, listening, and thinking in them. The stories naturally emerged in all three languages, and we didn’t resist that because it would have been truly foolish.

I see language as just another tool for conveying information, like how a specific guitar effect suits one song but not another.

PHOTO: Miro Majcen.

On Egos:

Bojan: Egos have to clash because they’re an important part of our drive. I wouldn’t say our egos fight; they occasionally disagree, but everything generally moves in the same direction—to create something the five of us like. We have a healthy dose of competitiveness, and we’ve never truly had a fight. We separate the person from the musician, which I think is important.

Kris: There was never much ego, but for this album, we threw out what little was left. On this record especially, we faced moments where someone else did something on your instrument that you should have done. But that opened new possibilities and ideas—a fresh perspective. This happened to all of us except Bojan with vocals.

Kris: Today, a friend sent me a message from Venice; they were playing 'Carpe Diem'. Last year, we made it onto the top 40 charts of a Lithuanian radio station. PHOTO: Miro Majcen.

Comments on the songs from the album SOUVENIR POP:

1. MUZIKA ZA DECU (Serbo-Croatian):

Bojan: When the idea came to me, I was thinking about how much I liked what was coming out of the speakers; quite grown up. Then I had a flash of cynicism and sarcasm: it’s all just for girls, for kids. Hence, “muzika za decu” (music for children). Initially, it was called Zlatna kosica (Golden hair), haha. I wrote the intro, then improvised the rest of the lyrics in Hamburg while we were playing it.

Nace: You might have changed two words.

Kris: The intro I play on guitar was originally done by Bojan on the piano. While recording, I was strumming along, imagining a piano intro. But when we listened to it later, everything felt so wrong that we started liking it. That’s how it stayed. We recorded it all together in one room, in one go.

Bojan: Žare was thrilled that he had to “clean up” the vocals (laughs), which we recorded in the kitchen.

Jure: This is one of the songs which features guest performers; a children’s choir at the end.

Nace: The kids from our crew and their relatives sang. The first group sang too in tune, so we recorded another group that was a bit less perfect. In the end, we combined the two recordings, and it turned out just right. There were about 15 to 20 kids altogether.

Jan: The guitar sound came from my Whammy pedal, which the producer Žare Pak didn’t always like, haha.

Nace: We have to commend Žare for producing in such a way that everything unnecessary is stripped away. He never hides anything like some other producers might.

PHOTO: Miro Majcen.

2. ŠTA BIH JA (Serbo-Croatian):

Kris: This was the first song we created in London. Within a week, we already had the structure, though it initially resembled Bijelo Dugme. Some elements were later removed.

Nace: Yeah, Žare came in and said, “Guys, this is unnecessary” (laughs).

Kris: His reaction was hilarious. When he heard it, he said, “Did I send you to the UK to make yugo music?!” (laughs). It was our first Balkan reaction to being foreigners in a foreign country, and it just poured out of us. Bojan already had the lyrics “šta bih ja u ovoj crnoj noći bez tebe radio” (what would I do in this dark night without you), and we recorded it.

Bojan: I actually prefer hearing my voice in Serbo-Croatian over Slovenian, the position of the voice seems more natural.

Jure: It's interesting how the colour of Bojan's voice changes with different languages, which is actually quite normal.

Kris: Yeah, Bojan, in a 'Balkan language,' your rocker alter ego comes out even more, I think.

PHOTO: Miro Majcen.

3. CARPE DIEM (Slovenian):

Bojan: This is the original souvenir. And pop. It’s hard to believe how one song can change everything for you like that. It’s literally just one of our songs; not necessarily better than the others, maybe not even one of my favourites. But as our Eurovision entry, it perfectly conveyed our message. The whole story and image of the band are captured in those three minutes. It’s an excellent channel for our energy, which got people to believe in us and become interested.

Kris: Today, a friend sent me a message from Venice; they played 'Carpe Diem' there. Last year, we were on the Lithuanian radio top 40 charts.

Bojan: The most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen in my life was when an older Mongolian singer and his band played and sang Carpe Diem live at a reception for our president, Nataša Pirc Musar, in Ulaanbaatar. We also received a recording from Zanzibar, where someone played it on a hotel terrace.

Bojan: I wouldn’t say our egos fight; they occasionally disagree, but everything generally moves in the same direction—to create something we all like. PHOTO: Miro Majcen.

4. STEPHANIE (English):

Bojan: Of course, Stephanie isn’t really Stephanie, but these are real people who exist.

Jure: I didn’t have any part in this one since there are no drums; everything is programmed (laughs).

Nace: Yeah, everything was done by Casio, haha.

Kris: For many songs, we had a sample beat to practice with, and in some cases, it stayed in the final version. 'Stephanie' is one of those songs as well.

5. AKO TOGA VIŠE NEČE BITI (Serbo-Croatian):

Bojan: You believe in Santa Claus until you realise he doesn’t exist. It’s the same with love; until something destroys everything so thoroughly that you simply stop believing in it. This is a song about very raw disappointment with love.

Nace: I’m in a long-term relationship, and when you leave home, it’s a sacrifice both partners make. In the spirit of it being good for both of you and your partner supports it, everything is okay.

Kris: Full respect to your partner for enduring how you went from ‘zero to a hundred’ in six months.

Nace: We have to commend Žare for producing in such a way that everything unnecessary is stripped away. PHOTO: Miro Majcen

6. BLUZA (Serbo-Croatian):

Bojan: I wrote 'Bluza' a long time ago, up to the chorus, about three years ago. For a long time, nothing happened with it until I presented it to the guys on an acoustic guitar. From there, it developed quickly, in a day or two. We even played it on tour before its release. Initially, it was more guitar-driven than it is now. The title, 'Bluza', literally just comes from the lyric “u ritmu tvoga bluza” (in the rhythm of your blues), but I quite like it.

Jan: A lot of our songs are titled after a phrase from the first verse that has no connection to the chorus.

Bojan: Similarly, back in university, my friends kept nagging me about 'Gola' (Naked), why we gave it that title, but nobody thought of the phrase “za naju” (for us), haha.

Kris: It’s probably because, during the creative process, we repeat the first part a lot, and that phrase naturally becomes the title.

Bojan: The story of a song always takes shape in the first verse.

PHOTO: Miro Majcen

7. LIPS (English):

Bojan: We heard there’s a lot of money in music for films, so the song sounds like an apocalyptic ballad (laughs). Initially, it was quite Franz Ferdinand-esque. We even considered a duet with a French singer but didn’t have a clear vision, so we dropped the idea. Later, Žare and I restructured it, and then Nace tied everything together into a cohesive piece.

Jure: The song went through quite a few iterations.

Nace: Originally, it was a completely different song called 'Je t'aime'.

PHOTO: Miro Majcen

8. MESTO DUHOV (Slovenian):

Bojan: Trumpeter Luka Ipavec collaborated on this track, adding trumpet parts to the choruses. We created it in England and named it after the street we were living on; it had quite a dark vibe. Initially, the song was about a girl who cheated on me, leading to my suicide. Then we introduced the “papapapa” part, creating an atmosphere of a funeral, a procession. When we decided the song should be in Slovenian, we tied it to how the current social climate feels incredibly negative overall. People are always ready to quickly react to something negative. It’s no longer pleasant to go outside; everything reflects the weight of what’s happening around us. There’s unfortunately an air of superficiality around us.

Jan: The solo came to life in Hamburg. Later, when we were finishing the songs, I had the idea to rhythmically slice the solo so that it spells out “baby boo” in Morse code.

Jan: A lot of our songs are titled after a phrase from the first verse that has no connection to the chorus. PHOTO: Miro Majcen

9. SONCE (Slovenian):

Jan: I play the keyboards on this one. Bojan had already outlined the song on guitar with chords. The idea was to create something orchestral, like in 'Novi val'. I, however, approached it differently and arranged the piano part. I showed Bojan a melody that, in my view, reflects the essence of the song.

Bojan: This song is a direct reaction to events in Palestine. It’s the story of a deceased son speaking to his mother. It’s undoubtedly the most emotionally heavy song on the album. The structure is also unconventional; no part repeats, and the chorus appears only once. Jan captured perfectly what the vocals are saying with his piano part. It’s like a haiku, a single thought; not a classic pop song. Jan nailed the final take on his first try.

Kris: We could quickly get stuck creatively if everyone only insisted on their own instruments. Many songs only broke through when someone pressed something different. There were many moments where we needed that kind of freshness.

PHOTO: Miro Majcen

10. EVERYBODY’S WAITING (English):

Kris: This was a song we didn’t know what to do with until Žare offered the most basic beat, and Jan started working with the Rhodes electric piano, which set the direction for the album.

Bojan: Jan picked up the Rhodes out of nowhere and according to Žare, he plays better than 90 percent of Slovenian keyboardists (laughs).

Kris: Žare’s modus operandi is to break your conventional thinking and enhance your intuition. He believes intuition is superior to thinking.

PHOTOS: Miro Majcen

[gh0stofstarman]

A Ramble about X-Men

I’m a pretty big Marvel comics fan. I’ve had a Marvel Unlimited Subscription since the pandemic and I’ve pretty much run the gamut of heroes. Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Fantastic Four, Peter Parker Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, Quasar, Thor, Eternals, Hawkeye, Howard the Duck, What if?, Deadpool, I could go on forever. And I can pick a run for each of these characters that I specifically clicked with a certain author and the themes they chose.

Except X-Men.

Which is ironic, because I love the X-Men shows, the characters, their major themes, their designs, their movies. Heck it’s not like I haven’t read most of Claremont’s run and beyond.

But I’ve never had a run that actually fully clicked with me, and I kinda wanted to ramble about why. No idea if this will be a series or whatever.

Chris Claremont

Admittedly I’ve never really been one to seek out every single spinoff of a series so most of my experience with the “golden age” of X-Men is with the mainline Uncanny X-Men rather than stuff like the New Mutants. I know it’s sacrilege in some circles not to go in full chronological order with the spinoff series bouncing between but I’m just not that way.

Anyways while Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created the blueprint for what would define X-Men on a fundamental level, Chris Claremont would be the author who made the heroes popular. Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Banshee … Sunfire, Thunderbird … okay not all of them stuck. But Claremont would write iconic stories that are beloved and I love as well such as the OG Giant Size X-Men comic, Proteus, Days of Future Past, God Loves, Man Kills, and the Dark Phoenix Saga. Stuff that truly gets to the heart of the X-Men fighting against discrimination and hate, proving they deserve a chance to live as they want.

Then that should settle it! I like Chris Claremont, then! These are the most iconic storylines that means I love the most iconic incarnation of the X-Men.

Not really.

Chris Claremont founded a lot of good ideas that would be the springboard used by other authors in years to come. But it’s not as though his stint was as brief as Lee/Kirby or Roy Thomas.

16 years.

And most of what I mentioned is spread far across the first 8.

So what about the bits in-between?

Well, if I had to describe the majority of Claremont’s writing as X-Men outside of these storylines is that it’s kinda a roulette wheel.

This was back in the day where you had to have some bonkers concepts to hook the reader in. Vampires, sci-fi tech, aliens, gods, demons, etc. And most of the time Chris chose a random one to analyze the X-Men under and reevaluate how they can be used for the X-Men’s explicit purpose of fighting against discrimination and promoting equality and diversity.

Which often leads to those aforementioned storylines where they build on this very well. X-Men vs Televangelism does go out into creating weird devices to mind control people but it’s all in service to the team’s message. The bad future the sentinels create in Days of Future Past can easily be seen as a dystopian future where discrimination is normalized.

However sometimes Chris can’t help himself and adds more layers of insanity to the plot, to the point the message kinda gets lost in the mix.

Here’s an example.

X-Men go mysteriously missing, only for Beast to find them working at a circus freak show. Interesting. Leads back to the idea of them being demoralized and treated as freaks rather than real people.

Beast does some snooping around, finding that Magneto is the mastermind behind this. Perhaps he’s trying to humiliate the X-Men and get them to give up their hope for equality seeing how humanity makes fun of them while also getting revenge because he’s the bad guy.

They fight Magneto but are bested in combat. It’s then revealed that Magneto, after being turned into a baby in a previous comic did want revenge, so he took the X-Men to his Antarctic base to … mentally regress them into babies and torture them with a nanny bot.

Huh?

And I’d be lying if I said this sort of weird progression isn’t a repeating theme.

X-Men go to space to fight aliens; makes sense because all the other heroes were fighting aliens so they gotta prove they’re on the level. Alien fighting leads into them meeting Xenomorph-like aliens that slowly transform the X-Men into them; drama is created. X-Men escape but still are transforming, so Storm befriends a space whale and then becomes one to cure everyone; buh?!?!

Like I feel like some of these stories increase the insanity progressively but they go a little step too far. Sometimes it’s just out of nowhere like when demons kidnap the X-Men even though they were never hinted before to care about them, and somehow age up Magik to an adult. Or just Storm becomes a vampire suddenly even though last issue there was nothing even slightly referencing vampires.

It’s kind of a curse because X-Men is constantly trying to get bigger and bigger under Claremont but sometimes you’d prefer it just to take it slow and get back to the more straight forward connections to fighting oppression and discrimination.

Ironically it causes me to appreciate the more mundane moments that aren’t trying to be huge plot twists one on top of each other. Stuff like Kitty Pryde and Storm hanging out, going to Japan and getting to know Wolverine better, Nightcrawler trying to socialize more, and just Beast’s witty banter.

But even that can be a little fumbled at times because well,

Chris Claremont is a straight white guy.

And there’s nothing wrong with that at all. But you can tell he has hang-ups trying to write about race or women because he doesn’t really have those experiences. Therefore, sometimes when he tries to write soliloquies and romances (which is pretty common), sometimes it can fall flat because of his perspective.

There is a lot of romance and relationship drama in X-Men, which is understandable and needed for the narrative. But so much becomes either bland, unintentionally problematic, or just too brief to make any true impact.

I’d say the biggest exception is Jean/Cyclops because they’ve been established for years and it’s very clear they care about each other. However, Jean dies in Dark Phoenix (at least that was the intent of the time) so a lot of the time the series bounces between other couples.

He later meets and then marries Madelyne Pryor, who is noted to look nearly identical to Jean. However that just makes things awkward as Madelyne often plays the role of “Not-Jean.” It at least has an interesting through line of him working through his grief, but little time is actually given for Madelyne’s own agency to break out of “Not-Jean,” which makes it really awkward when it’s revealed she’s a clone of Jean and Jean was alive all this time. So … what was the point?

Charles Xavier has so many love interests but often times he comes off as a jerk. Moira MacTaggart, Liliandra … even at one point Jean herself but everyone buries this for good reason. He comes off as very manipulative both to his partner and the X-Men. Charles is very unsympathetic to Moira’s predicament in raising Proteus. Liliandra he’s willing to bend over backwards for even if it means that he’s breaking his own morals in the process. And we don’t talk about Jean. However this would mostly be used by other authors to analyze how good of a leader Charles is, and more of his flaws. Meanwhile, Chris Claremont normalizes his behavior and rarely calls him out on it.

Colossus and Kitty Pryde.

What can I say about them? Colossus is an adult, Kitty Pryde is still a kid. It’s gross, but Chris wants you to really know they love each other more than a brother-and-sister relationship would. And they even point out it’s creepy, yet they still do it anyways.

Wolverine is entirely a whole other can of worms that I could write about separately.

Ironically some of the relationships that aren’t confirmed because of the times but are implied like Mystique and Destiny or Storm and Stevie are actually a lot better and written with much more nuance. However again nothing is confirmed and could be left to interpretation such as with Storm and Stevie. After all they do try to pair up these characters in straight couples … problematically but still.

Ultimately I feel like Claremont does have a lot of good ideas but the execution of them is where the ball is dropped. I would never call his run bad but I’ve never really felt compelled to return to it. I can’t deny the impact it’s made by any measure. However, returning to the originals just makes you wonder, how did some of this lead to Claremont’s X-Men being held up as an absolute gold standard comic?

I don’t know this was a long rant and I dunno if I’ll do it again. If you liked this let me know

[contemplatingoutlander]

The House GOP is a circus. The chaos has one source.

Republicans spent two years sabotaging the U.S. House. Another two years would be ruinous.

Dana Milbank does a masterful job of describing just how dysfunctional the House GOP members have been in the past two years.

This is a gift🎁link for the entire article. Below are some highlights:

The Lord works in mysterious ways. Six weeks after his improbable rise from obscurity to speaker of the House in late 2023, Louisiana’s Mike Johnson decided to break bread with a group of Christian nationalists. [...] “I’ll tell you a secret, since media is not here,” Johnson teased the group, unaware that his hosts were streaming video of the event. Johnson informed his audience that God “had been speaking to me” about becoming speaker, communicating “very specifically,” in fact, waking him at night and giving him “plans and procedures.” [...] Today, Johnson’s run looks anything but heaven-sent. In the first 18 months of this Congress, only 70 laws were enacted. Calculations by political scientist Tobin Grant, who tracks congressional output over time, put this Congress on course to be the do-nothingest since 1859-1861 — when the Union was dissolving. But Johnson’s House isn’t merely unproductive; it is positively lunatic. Republicans have filled their committee hearings and their bills with white nationalist attacks on racial diversity and immigrants, attempts to ban abortion and to expand access to the sort of guns used in mass shootings, incessant harassment of LGBTQ Americans, and even routine potshots at the U.S. military. They insulted each other’s private parts, accused each other of sexual and financial crimes, and scuffled with each other in the Capitol basement. They screamed “Bullshit!” at President Joe Biden during the State of the Union address. They stood up for the Confederacy and used their official powers to spread conspiracy theories about the “Deep State.” Some even lent credence to the idea that there has been a century-old Deep State coverup of space aliens, with possible involvement by Mussolini and the Vatican.

The above article was adapted from Dana Milbank's (2024) book: Fools on the HILL: The Hooligans, Saboteurs, Conspiracy Theorists, and Dunces Who Burned Down the House.

[See more below the cut.]

And this is on top of the well-known pratfalls: The 15-ballot marathon to elect a speaker, the 22-day shutdown of the House to find another speaker, the routine threats of government shutdowns and a near-default on the federal debt that hurt the nation’s credit rating. They devoted 18 months to a failed attempt to impeach Biden, which produced nothing but Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly displaying posters of Hunter Biden engaging in sex acts. One “whistleblower” defected to Russia, another worked with Russian intelligence and is under indictment for fabricating his claims, and still another is on the lam, evading charges of being a Chinese agent. As soon as Biden withdrew his candidacy, they promptly forgot their probe of Biden’s “corruption” and rushed to launch a new series of investigations into Kamala Harris (over her record on border security) and Tim Walz (over his military service and “cozy relationship” with China). After a number of failed attempts, they did impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (the first such action against a Cabinet officer since 1876) without identifying any high crimes or misdemeanors he had committed; the Senate dismissed the articles without a trial. House Republicans created a “weaponization committee” under the excitable Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), but it was panned even by right-wing commentators when it produced little more than a list of conspiracy theories from the likes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard. They lapsed repeatedly into fits of censure resolutions, contempt citations and other pointless acts of vengeance. In all of its history, the House had voted to censure one of its own members only seven times; in the two weeks after Johnson became speaker, members of the House tried to censure each other eight times. [...] In lieu of consequential legislating, they passed bills such as the Refrigerator Freedom Act, the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act and the Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards (SUDS) Act. On the House floor, the Republican majority suffered one failure after another, even on routine procedural votes. Seven times (and counting), House Republicans voted down their own leaders’ routine attempts to begin floor debates — something that hadn’t happened once in the previous 20 years.

[thecunnydiaries]

1842 January 1st Saturday

Was ushered in with joviality and hilarity; I hope it will go out so. Day very fine and a perfect Calm: no opening in the ice. During the day cleared away a four corner Ground and sKittle Alley on the ice, also a ring for a jingling match and a ball room for the Officers.

At 9 PM, on a Gun being fired from the "Erebus" a Silk Union jack Royal Standard & Ensin was hoisted on the ice and a Royal Salute was fired by a party of Seamen with Muskets who were acting "soldiers" headed by Mr Oakly and presented a most Ludicruous and Laughable appearance. The Officers drunk H Majesties health in Champagne and the Ships Company spliced the Main brace and drank her health with I dont Know how many cheers. After which dancing commenced and was Kept until midnight when Sunday morning walked in and hauled down the colors, and dispersed the Company. The jingling match afforded a deal of amusement: we in all spent a very happy New Years day Considering where we were and every officer deserves credit for endevouring to make every one comfortable.

(J.E. Davis, 1848)

Campbell's notes:

‘Jingling match. a diversion in which all the players are blindfolded except one, who keeps ringing a bell in each hand, while the others try to catch him.’ OED.

C. J. Sullivan, SPRI MS 367/22. ‘we kept up Dancing until 5 oclock in the morning When it ended with three or four Pugilistic matches in the Forecastle which peaceably Ended… The Games went off well, the Exhibition in the circus far Exceeded the Waltzing in the Ball room. James Savage carried the prize in the Bag. Jatter Welsh half strangled the pig and Bandy carried the prize for the pole. When the Essence of the Barley heated our Gents the Snow Balls went flying. After a round of coffee they withdrew from this Rare Scene of mirth So that the Tavern Tap and ball Room half Empty bottles in fact the whole ice berg belonged to our Jolly Tars until morning.’

Davis. Letter. pp. 13–15. ‘We all dined together in the gun-room, and after dinner, at about eight in the evening, we all went to a ball on the ice, a ball-room having been previously cut, with sofas all round, of course all made of snow. Flag-staffs were planted with the Royal Standard; two or three silk Union Jacks, besides other flags, presenting, I assure you, a very gay appearance. I must mention the sign-boards (for it was supposed to be an inn): one was The “Erebus and Terror”, and the other, rigged on a boat-hook staff and an ice-axe, presented the figure of Bacchus in one corner and Britannia in another, and something else equally fine in the others … But in the centre was painted The “Pilgrims of the Ocean”, and on the reverse … The “Pioneers of Science”, at which Captain Ross was greatly amused. On the signal being given (a gun from the Erebus) the two Captains made their appearance (under a rather irregular salute of musketry from a party of the men rigged as a guard of honour) and took their seats on a raised snow sofa, and soon after the ball commenced. Of course Captain Crozier and Miss Ross opened the ball with a quadrille; after that we had reels and country dances…. Ladies fainting with cigars in their mouths, to cure which the gentlemen would politely thrust a piece of ice down her back. But it would require a “Boz” to give any idea of the ridiculous scene; it was beyond all description, and the best of it was there was not an ill word the whole time, although there were some very heavy falls and many a sore face from the blows of the snowballs.’

[coimbrabertone]

Formula One's 1963 Christmas in South Africa

The Formula One World Championship initially struggled with the whole "World Championship" thing.

The initial calendars consisted of a smattering of European races and also the Indianapolis 500...which nobody from Europe (except Ascari) ever attempted, while nobody from the Indy 500 came over to F1 either, not in those days anyway.

Hell, come 1952, and with Alfa Romeo and Maserati pulling their factory teams - leaving Ferrari as the only major team left standing - the championship was run to Formula Two rules, meaning that it was neither Formula One, nor much of a World Championship, amusingly enough.

By the time the 60s rolled around, things started to change.

The Indianapolis 500 had faded off the calendar as the United States Grand Prix settled on a home at Watkins Glen, New York.

In 1962, it was joined by the South African Grand Prix, and in 1963, by the Mexican Grand Prix.

The first seven rounds of the 1963 season were in Europe, but then two rounds in North America with the USGP and the Mexican Grand Prix, followed by a trip to South Africa at the very end of the year, made for a more international appearance.

Now, it was still very much western - keep in mind, this was Apartheid era South Africa, so this is a far cry from a diverse and inclusion calendar - but three continents was an awful lot better than one.

The position of the South African Grand Prix on the calendar was also noteworthy, as it typically occurred in the last weekend of December, so between Christmas Day and New Years.

In 1963 for instance, it was held on December 28th at the Prince George Circuit in East London.

That's three days after Christmas, now consider practice and qualifying, flying the whole circus down to South Africa, and the fact that the non-championship Rand Grand Prix at Kyalami took place two weeks earlier, and...I'd imagine a significant portion of the F1 grid spent their Christmas on the Cape.

Jim Clark would be in high spirits, having been the runaway championship leader in 1963 and sealed up the title by winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

A BRM 1-2 at Watkins Glen - with Hill ahead of Ginther - would keep Graham and Richie happy as well, but Clark bounced back to win the Mexican Grand Prix in what was, at that point, just him and Lotus padding their stats.

John Surtees, meanwhile, began the South African adventure with a win at the Rand Grand Prix in his Ferrari, giving him reason to be confident going to East London as well.

Speaking of Hill, Ginther, and Surtees...

They were all fighting for best of the rest behind Clark.

American Richie Ginther, driving for BRM, sat in second on 29 points. He hadn't won anything yet, but he was the most consistent all season, having only retired once in France. That consistency was working against him though, since only the best six results counted for the championship. As things stood, Ginther would need to finish at least third to improve his points total, which in turn would knock his fourth place from the Belgian Grand Prix off the table.

Graham Hill in the other BRM, meanwhile, sat on 25 points and had two wins to his credit - Monaco and Watkins Glen - along with a podium at Silverstone and a fourth in Mexico. Hill also technically finished third at Reims, however, that required him to push his car over the line, therefore, the points did not count.

Hill could sit on the Jedi Council, but he was not awarded the rank of Master.

Anyway, this meant that Hill was behind, but he had the overhead to increase his points tally while Ginther didn't. On top of that, his two wins to Ginther's zero meant that Graham would win any tiebreakers.

Motorcycling world champion turned Ferrari driver John Surtees, meanwhile, sat on 22 points courtesy of a fourth at Monaco, a third at Zandvoort, a second at Silverstone, and his win at the fearsome Nürburgring. He also had the overhead to catch Ginther, but from seven points back...he'd need to win.

Could Surtees make it two from two in South Africa in 1963?

Well, not if Jim Clark had anything to say about it. The Scotsman put it on pole, followed by the Brabham teammates of Jack himself and American Dan Gurney. Surtees was a respectable fourth though, and with his teammate Lorenzo Bandini between him and the BRMs, maybe he had a chance after all.

Alas no, because Surtees' engine would blow after forty-three laps of the Prince George circuit.

Even if it hadn't, there was no stopping Jim Clark that day, who won by a minute over Dan Gurney in the Brabham - who, fun fact, took the Brabham team's first fastest lap that day - then it was Graham Hill completing the podium. South hemisphere boy Bruce McLaren was fourth, followed by Lorenzo Bandini in the Ferrari, and midpack regular Jo Bonnier completed the points in sixth.

This was Jim Clark's seventh win of the season, and because of the whole best six results thing...it turned out to be completely unnecessary. Clark already had the perfect season in the books - like I said, he was just stat padding on the fools.

Fortunately for everyone else, by 1964 the skill-based matchmaking caught up to Jim Clark and the Lotus team would stumble that season, handing the championship battle over to Surtees in the Ferrari and Hill in the BRM, a battle which Surtees would eventually win by a single point.

The South African Grand Prix, however, was not held in 1964, as it had slipped to New Years' Day, 1965, acting as the very first race of the 1965 season instead.

Jim Clark would win in East London, would miss the Monaco Grand Prix to compete at the Indianapolis 500 - which he won - and then proceeded to win the next five races in Formula One. Once again capturing the perfect season.

This can only mean that there is a direct correlation between South African Grand Prix at East London and Jim Clark dominating the championship. The evidence is there people.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little blogpost about the time that F1 raced mere days after Christmas.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, a Happy Honda Days, a Lexus December to Remember, and a Toyotathon is On to all, and to all a good night.

[homestuckreplay]

Gushers Tasting Notes

(page 974-979)

John is, once again, coming along in leaps and bounds with his sylladex activities. His array of queuestacks (great band name) looks like a circus tent in the panel overlay. Perhaps John is recalling the embarrassing memory of Cirque du Soleil filing a restraining order against his dad (p.253).

But mostly this update is Gushers themed, so let’s get some important historical context. Gushers were created and marketed by Betty Crocker in 1991, a subsidiary of General Mills. Betty Crocker is a fictional character crafted by the company to be relatable to 1920s housewives, and she also makes Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit by the Foot, so John needs to be careful.

Gushers were originally made in strawberry and grape flavors, but tropical and watermelon have since become popular. Since the start they’ve been made in the famous hexagonal bipyramid (‘grist’) shape. They’ve always been marketed to kids, as focus group testing showed that younger people liked the product far more, and are known for their weird commercials. From 2005-2009 they’ve run the ‘Gushers Re-Do Your Room’ flash game, where players can rearrange furniture and paint walls in a digital bedroom, and get extra items through codes on Gushers packs . The gushers-grist connection and this game being a simpler Sburb makes this a very unexpected, but possibly intentional, Homestuck intertext. In 2009 Gushers are also running the ‘Beware the Gush’ promotion. They’ve created thirteen pieces of web content, accessed by codes on Gushers packaging and ranging from a fake German TV commercial to a Google Maps tie-in, intended for kids to “gush their friends” – the multimedia aspects of this are also very Homestuck, and I bet John is gushing his friends.

I found a mini packet of Gushers in my craft box, so have done a taste test right now instead of relying on memory. Now my favorite candy is Welch’s fruit snacks blue variety bag, so to me Gushers are a pale imitation of the king, but even so I will taste these Gushers like they are a fine wine.

Appearance. Mass manufacturing takes its toll on the Gushers shape. The barest hint of the bipyramid is visible, but these candies have been squashed and battered into near-unrecognizable blobs.

Flavor diversity. The Gushers packet still includes nine candies, the same as in 1991, although the size of the actual candies has shrunk. I got all four flavors, but four blues and only one orange.

Smell. Gushers of all flavors carry a gentle aroma of wax, reminiscent of a basic candle, which makes me wonder how one would behave if set on fire.

Texture. The outside of a Gusher is a homogeneous squeaking silicone with just enough resistance to provide enrichment. The inside liquid is surprisingly cool, resulting in a pleasant contrast in temperature as well as consistency.

Taste. A lick of the Gusher’s smooth outside reveals The green Gushers are fairly sour, with notes of sherbet, while the red have the overt, juicy sweetness of a maraschino cherry. The common blue Gusher’s notes of pineapple and mango conjure ideas of ‘island time’, and the rare orange Gusher dares to suggest bright, ripe clementine.

After effects. Having recently consumed Gushers, I can feel a faint film of sugar clinging to my tongue. I have not begun tripping or suffered any adverse health effects as of (13.4 minutes post consumption) but I will update this post if this changes.

Overall opinion. As the ancient truism states, ‘Gushers don’t gush, they ooze.’ I found that the oozing center of the Gusher best revealed itself when eating the Gusher in two halves, otherwise, the liquid was too engulfed in its prison to come to the forefront. With this in mind, I award Gushers a 7.5/10. I would be cool with getting these for my birthday.

For a moment John considers taking an extended candy break, and honestly he’s earned it. Unfortunately it seems like John may never eat a Gusher again, because he’s realized for the first time that his arch nemesis the ‘heinous batterwitch’ is the mastermind behind them.

In [S] John: Mental breakdown (p.979), John, looking very smart in his new suit actually, is surrounded by pulsing Gushers and definitely-real flavors: Cool Fructose Monsoon, Kiwi Mango Colonic Rush, Wicked Watermelon Groin Injury, Mixed Berry Social Anxiety Disorder, Neon Green Ecto-Facial Blast, Jammin Sour Diabetic Coma, Wild Cherry Apeshit Apocalypse and Ranch Dressing Rampage. (His new box is Massive Tropical Brain Hemorrhage). He looks concerned, then afeared, then terrified and near-screaming, and eventually comes to the conclusion that ‘this is stupid’, accompanied by record scratch.

I do not think this is stupid. I do think it’s notable that John’s had similar breakdowns before when WV has been commanding him, and John doesn’t respond to anything besides the voice shouting in his head. Watching this I wonder if this is a problem John has dealt with more generally – I think there’s a solid argument that John has depression and/or autism, and freezing in the face of a difficult situation could be linked to either of these.

In terms of this specific trauma, John has had food pushed on him to the point of pain or sickness, I find it very believable that he’d physically struggle to eat anything made by the brand he associates that with, even if he knows it’s irrational. Betty Crocker also represents the ideal of the American housewife, someone who devotes her life to cooking and caring for the house and kids. Someone who, due to the expectations on her, might be considered stuck at home. Or something. Dad is filling that role in John’s life so it’s not quite so gendered in their house, and Betty Crocker the cultural idea could be another reminder of a suburban nuclear-family future that John wants to avoid.

On another note, I’ve noticed a few instances of color in the narrative text recently, which has previously always been black. This first showed up on page 919 where Jade takes over the narrative with her speech, finishing with a red ‘<3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’. It happens again on page 934 with the green word ‘ectobiology’, and it’s here on page 978 with John’s ‘WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY???????????’ in Betty Crocker red. The only earlier examples are page 640 (an embedded image reading ‘SWEET CATCH!’ in green) and page 663 (a link to Sweet Bro & Hella Jeff using red Comic Sans). Based on all this, I wonder if color enters the narrative text when one of the main characters ‘takes over’ and wants to add something. Although these uses don’t correspond to Pesterchum colors, they all seem intended as things the kids are saying or writing, except for ‘ectobiology’, which is so closely associated with John that it’s practically his name.

> John: Search house for non-Crocker branded candy.

[hcfiles]

I know this is huge. But, it's important you, at least, read it, especially the second part of this post, so you have some knowledge and maybe, open your eyes. You might not like the idea and it's OK. But it's important you, at least, understand what EXACTLY HENRY CAVILL AND HIS TEAM ARE DOING.

I'm really sorry for Henry's blind fans, for he really got to the bottom of the well. It's the destruction of a man. But unfortunately, I'll have to say this again, and again and again:

YOU ARE BEING MADE A FOOL AND MANIPULATED BY THE MOST UNSCRUPULOUS AND UNETHICAL PR TEAM AND ACTOR!

Henry Cavill and his team are using neurological and psychological techniques to build his PR damage control strategies, as in an experiment without your consent, what is at least, unethical and which include a) teasing, b) annoying, c) stressing, d) creating distraction and e) confusing (both to gaslight), f) abusing and g) causing distress, exhaustion and harm so as to make you depressed and discouraged to continue exposing him, his m*str*ss and his circus for what it is, while they try to make you accept the promiscuous redneck.

The goal is to create diversion to gaslight and deviate the attention from him to that diversion (in this case, Natalie and her freak show).

IT IS THE MOST UNSCRUPULOUS, UNETHICAL AND DISHONEST PLOT A PR TEAM HAD EVER PUT UP AND THAT AN ACTOR HAD EVER BEEN A PART OF.

SUCH INSISTENCE in putting up this circus and facing this bad publicity with SUCH UNETHICAL, UNSCRUPULOUS, CHEAP MANIPULATIVE AND DISHONEST DAMAGE CONTROL STRATEGIES, while motivating more and more theories, exposing a woman to public execration and destroying his integrity as a sacrifice, SURELY INDICATES there's something he's really ashamed of to hide.

No one gets so involved and determined to take such things further, destroying his integrity if not FOR A VERY, VERY STRONG REASON. And that makes me suspect I was probably right concerning some things.

One of my suspicions was always that he is probably EMOTIONALLY disabled and incapable of facing this bad publicity like any adult. He needed the worst human beings and the most unethical damage control to support and defend him. And, for his lack of discernment, he trusted the worst people to take care of that.

Shy, insecure and anxious, he always gave me the vibe of being emotionally fragile and dependent, incapable of taking care of nor defending himself. He seems to be a very scared boy trapped in the body of a man. If this is not it, there's something very wrong and bad about Henry Cavill's Character.

With time, his acting career and mainly, the escorting activity, gave him more self-confidence and he could deceive his public and hide his insecurities and lack of experience.

If so, that's the kind people would popularly call an idiot. Not an idiot by choice, because he can't help it. It's not his fault. Actually, a more proper word would be puerile. He was just incapable of evolving his emotional skills. Emotionally, he's probably a nine year-old and needs adults to always look for and defend him.

And Natalie is not only the diversion, but the perfect support, for she's used to exposure and has no self respect. The perfect shield and woman who would easily work on his defence if well paid.

But, this diversion wasn't enough and they had to bring esoterism and fake fan pages presenting fake theories and stories, supposedly coming from informants close to the couple. Please! This PR plot is ridiculous, it could even be planned by a 10-year old.

2nd part:

It is clear they hired a specialist in unethical and dishonest manipulation strategies. And, here I put some, according to Noam Chomsky, an American Professor working with Linguistics, Political Activism and (most important) Social Criticism, and one of the founders of Cognitive Science. And he might even be Henry's friend:

1) Distraction in flood: The goal is to create unimportant details, false information as relevant to make the public look the other way and lose focus, avoiding them from realizing what is really going on.

Obs: Each time, this circus has more and more details. The latest ones were the supposed baby (or doll) in the stroller and the fake ring to suggest new details to this circus.

2) Gradual Problem-reaction-solution: A preparation to present a future solution to the problem, bringing it with its false details gradually.

Obs: That's why so many appearances in different premieres, followed by periods of silence filled with theories from all sorts of pages on social media and paid articles of cheap tabloids.

3) The Strategy of Differing: To present an unpopular decision as painfully and necessary to make the public accept it for future applicability, because the public, the mass, always has the naive tendency to expect "things will be better tomorrow". According to Chomsky, this "gives the public time to get used to the idea of a change and accept it with resignation" when the time comes.

Obs: That's why you are having the WRONG impression that Henry is upset and can't stand Natalie. Some fake fan pages are trying to manipulate you to believe that. HE IS STAGING to make you have the wrong impression and think he is being blackmailed, obligated to do it and sacrificing himself, for not having an option. Maybe they intend to announce a breakup OR a wedding. Maybe, they have been married for a very long time and this SS shenanigan was to introduce his m*str*ss to his fans.

4) Talk to the public as if they were children or mentally disabled: Using suggestibility. The tendency will be the public will answer as children or mentally disabled, without critical sense.

Obs: The FO post is clearly an example, where his public was reduced to ignorant and unenlightened. Presenting a PR that has a childish and ridiculous plot is another example. Gives the public the idea it's all a big fat joke.

5) Use emotional appeal much more than thoughts: To cause a short circuit on the individual rational analysis and on critical senses. Also, it can open doors to your unconsciousness to easily establish ideas, thoughts, desires, fear, compulsion and induce behavior.

Obs: THIS IS, AT LEAST, UNETHICAL, NOT TO SAY ABUSIVE, TO USE THESE STRATEGIES ON PEOPLE (IN THIS CASE, HIS FANS AND FOLLOWERS) WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT.

6) Keep the public ignorant and in mediocrity without information: Make the public incapable of knowing and understanding the technologies and methods used to keep them controlled and in slavery. The quality of what is offered has to be the poorest and most mediocre possible up to the point that the ignorance planned for this specific public, makes them unable to achieve higher levels of perception.

Obs: Keep gaslighting the public and pushing the promiscuous and her blow job picture throats down. You have to accept that Henry Cavill is "dating" a m*str*ss and that he has a lot of Character flaws, without criticizing him for his hypocrisy and supposed narcissistic Character.

7) Stimulate the public to be complacent with mediocrity: Promoting in the public's mind that being stupid, vulgar and ignorant is trendy.

Obs: They need to push Natalie Viscuso, a redneck pr**t***te throats down and make her popular and acceptable as Henry Cavill's girlfriend/wife/woman. You have to believe their circus is real.

8) Reinforce the self-blame: Making the individuals (the public) believe they are the only ones guilty for their misery, because of their incapacity, unsufitient efforts and ignorance. This way, instead of reacting to what is presented, people blame and diminish themselves. The goal is to lead them to a depressive state, so they inhibit their actions. "Without action, there's no revolution".

Obs: They need you to believe you are sad for him because you are unenlightened, an inferior delusional being. Henry cant be seen as accountable nor responsible for his stupidity. He can't be criticized for his terrible decisions. It is imperative to protect him from any responsibility, criticism and exposure, from anything that can diminish or jeopardize his image or show the real reason behind this circus. So, they put the blame on his "delusional" fandom and try to sell the idea that this circus happened, not because of his team's mistakes, not because of his lack of discernment, his ingenuity, his stupidity, but because of jealous, crazy, delusional and toxic fans.

9) Know the individuals better than they know themselves: To have a bigger control of and power over these individuals, more than these individuals have over themselves.

Obs: This time, I think they lost it, for it's obvious they don't know his fandom as well as the fandom knows him. They underestimated this fandom and they haven't been able to control the situation, for their unethical and unscrupulous strategies are starting to become more and more obvious. And his image, heading more and more to the bottom of the well.

[the-angry-acrobat]

Helloo it's meee (btw my nickname is Ray, put that on my intro post like two minutes ago lol)

I've wanted to ask for a very long time and recently I've been doing a bit of "fuck being afraid of social interaction let my inner extrovert shine"

So

How does working at a circus as a minor work? It sounds so so so cool to me because I've never met anyone from a circus/even been to a circus my whole life.

Give me so many details (if it's ok and u wanna)

Is it like your family's? How often do you perform? Is it travelling?

hi!! great nickname :) 

wow, that’s really motherfucking awesome of you, it’s about time we fucked anxiety around social interaction. proud of you 

okay so firstly thanks so much for asking, I really appreciate your interest and I would loveee to tell you all about the circus! prepare for my large info dump lmfao

so for one, there are many different types of circuses around the world. circus is first and foremost performance art—some see it as a deeply-rooted, and perhaps even immutable, form of expression, and for others (including myself), its innate artistic inclination makes it destined to remain forever changing and incomplete. but both sides agree on this notion of genre; as global conversations have intensified and as the contemporary circus community has begun the process of dismantling categories, the focus is shifting to a widening of perspectives in time and space.

contemporary circus are performances designed to showcase circus acts and arts, an evolution of what has come before, drawing on dance, theatre, and philosophy as much as, if not more then, the circus in its original form. it’s synonymous with creativity, sparked with original thought and resulting in much diversity. 

circus nowadays is different to how the traditional circus was, which is now seen as classical, with various acts included in a lineup deemed essential by its proponents. it came with more narrative and aesthetic rules. the contemporary circus are shows that keep reinventing themselves overtime, a collective consciousness. 

the circus I work in is a performing troupe full of many different performers, acts, and arts included—and the troupe is like family. my older sibling and I grew up around them, and with some of them, and in the circus, because we have been working and performing there since we were really young. 

the circus is owned, run and managed by a really talented and experienced lady that has performed all over the world. our foundation is a building where we have all our equipment, apparatuses, rigging, tools, and much more, but we could technically be referred to as a travelling circus, seeing as we do quite often move around and perform in different venues, including different towns, cities and sometimes states, and if we’re not in a theatre or a festival, then we do set up tents and a big top etc, like devotees of the ring lol, or raison d’être. we’ve worked with and collaborated with other circus in the past, including multi generational circus families, road shows, and performances big and small. 

my sibling and I have basically always been in the performing world. we started training when ww were really little. some of the performers that trained us had worked in cirque du soleil, which is basically the crowned head of the circus industry today, and an institution for some of the biggest and greatest live performances of all time. we trained in acrobatics, aerial, tumbling, contortion, trapeze, hoop, silks, different forms of dance, corde lisse, spanish web, tightrope, miming, magic tricks, clownery, manipulation, stunts, flying trapeze, cloud swing, cabaret, musical instruments, drama, etc and have been performing and working in the circus for a long time. we love the circus, our home, a lot, especially because of how complicated and difficult our blood family situation is. 

a main aspect of circus in my opinion is razzle-dazzle — being big, bright, showy and entertaining. there’s no better way to showcase circus arts and talents. drawing in an audience’s attention for showcasing the strange and the unique is one of the greatest things to experience. circus performers are probably most accurately referred to as artistes, or artists.  we perform whenever we can, and there’s also always different shows and venues coming up.

this ended up being so long lol. thanks again for asking! I hope this was informative enough but let me know if you have any other questions, you can ask me anything at any time 🖤🎪

[xunzilla]

Having resolved to investigate the dubs vs. subs question, the DYEWSPH2TER SOCIETY watches the new Dungeon Meshi.

IZUTSUMI (DUB): The name of your race is pretty strange. I heard it came from your kind getting one of their legs chopped off for committing too much thievery!

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: She would not say that.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: Why not?

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: "Committing too much thievery"? She's a slave bought from a freak show and she speaks fluent Ciasslcal English?

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: Is the language of the island diglossic?

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: They're ruled by the elves. But let's not get into translatology. (A horrid, ill-formed word: two parts Latin, one part Greek.) The manga renders Senshi's dialogue in an atrocious fantasy accent, but it makes clear a nuance of the original: he's a weird foreigner who lives alone in a cave and his only friends are orcs.

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: Does Izutsumi's country have a different language?

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Izutsumi's country is fantasy Japan. Look at their names. "Shuro" is a mispronunciation of a name Laios is unfamiliar with.

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: The dwarves' names also fit Japanese phonology. Senshi, Namari...

DICTIONARY: 鉛 なま̅り̅ nàmárí, lead (chemical element). Perhaps related to Goguryeo 乃勿 *namur; cf. Korean nap, OC (Zhengzhang) ra:b.

TYPESETTER: U+0305 COMBINING OVERLINE should render above the characters ま and り, but on some systems may display as spacing characters following them. We apologize for our inability to reliably display simple linguistic text without platform-dependent markup in 2024. 😔👎💩

ENCYCLOPEDIA: Vowel length in Zhengzhang Shangfang's reconstruction of Old Chinese represents Type A syllables.

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Izganda?

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: Is that an official name? The scan thought Laios and Falin Touden were Laius and Farlyn Thorden.

ENCYCLOPEDIA: Lajos is a Hungarian masculine given name, cognate to English Louis. People named Lajos include Lajos Kossuth, who in 1849 presented the Hungarian Declaration of Independence. A bust of Lajos Kossuth was added to the Small House Rotunda of the United States Capitol Building in 1987.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: 1987?

ENCYCLOPEDIA: "A Gift to the People of the United States from the American Hungarian Federation"

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Did you think he was more important? At any rate, he was a nobleman.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: It sounds Greek to me.

HANPHECIUS HUMBUG: Hungarians don't have saunas.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: Didn't you think he was Faroese? It's a fantasy west.

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Why would Japan care about Hungarian names? But this is a stupid diversion. Where were we?

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: Dubs vs. subs.

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Of course! A critical matter. A noble pursuit. In this fallen world, in which the noblest by nature are forced to toil in drudgery while petty-minded merchants build generational fortunes that their mediocre heirs piss away, many are unfortunately unable to read Japanese. So we debate dubs vs. subs.

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: I grew up on 4Kids. I can't stand the English VA voice. The Japanese one is bearable.

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: Thank you for your valuable contribution.

VRISKA: why do you all have the same voice

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: We live in a bourgeois republic.

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: Let's grant that Izutsumi's country speaks a different language. "Committing too much thievery" is a clumsy phrase. "Thievery" sounds silly compared to "theft". And it's a vague Latinate verb that lets the noun carry the meaning - very indirect! We don't live in the kingdom of nouns.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: Why couldn't Asebi, Toshiro's retainer, have been taught to speak like that? Toshiro went to the island for training. But would they pay real islanders to teach them the nuances of the language?

SIMPLICIO J. RHETORICUS: She was bought at the age of six; even if the circus had the same language as the island, that's well within at least the tallman critical period.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: She would've been taught out of dictionaries, which don't say anything about connotation.

VRISKA: okay not to be rude but can i say something about some of the papers i've read

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: I didn't pay that much attention to "thievery". It's simpler, more regular. For all I know "theft" might be too hard a word to put in a mass-market translation. "Committing too much theft" would still sound too classical. It seems like the wrong intent.

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: Why couldn't a slave learn the acrolect?

GIANLUCA D'BOVRIL: How broad-minded. Would your escaped slave also write her own sermons?

VRISKA: oh my god shut up

VRISKA: what does the sub say

IZUTSUMI (SUB): That odd name for your race. I heard it's because lots of you got a foot lopped off for stealing.

VRISKA: the manga?

IZUTSUMI (MANGA): I hear that the reason your race got that name is because a bunch of halflings got punished for theft by having one of their feet cut off! Guess they had to deal with having half as many, huh?

VRISKA: yea the dub is bad

ZEPHANIAH EZEKIEL THUD: It could be a deliberate choice. I personally think that "thievery" is awkward, but it's a possibility to keep in mind. We'll see if what follows bears it out.

VRISKA: marcille sounds like a college republican horse girl

VRISKA: #notwrong

[primatechnosynthpop]

Bustin' meshi. Or something idk (click for full view)

[ID: drawings of fantasy versions of the real ghostbusters, specifically set in the universe of dungeon meshi. Peter is a cat beastkin and is sitting with his knees drawn up and a somewhat sullen expression. Ray is a half-foot who's reading with an excited smile from a book that's giving off magic energy. Egon is an elf who's wearing a cape and holding a staff, hair blowing in the wind as he casts a spell. Winston is a tall-man wearing armour and has a hand poised near his sword, but is otherwise relaxed. Janine is an elf hybrid holding a staff with a sly smile. The colours of their outfits evoke their designs from the show. Each drawing is accompanied by a short bio, transcribed under the cut:

Peter- His father had him made into a werecat as a young child so he could earn money as an attraction at the traveling circus his family worked for. He reluctantly agreed only because he and his mother needed the money. Unbeknownst to either of them at the time, the spell didn't include the ability to switch between forms. After his mother died, he took up refuge in the dungeon, scrounging and scavenging to survive while searching for a way to remove the spell.

He bartered with adventurers for supplies and sometimes ripped them off, but never robbed anyone directly. When he got a little older he started working as a rogue for hire, but never stuck around with anyone for long until he met his current party members. He has solid fighting skills, and lately his teammates have been trying to teach him magic, but he’s largely disinterested despite showing aptitude for it. He doesn’t care much for monsters.

Ray- When his parents died deep in the dungeon, he was taken in by gnomes who were their former party members. They taught him gnomish magic, but his curiosity ran deeper and he began researching elven magic as well. He can’t use much offensive magic himself, but he likes learning about it anyway.

Apart from an impressive collection of tomes and grimoires, he also enjoys books of the non-magic variety. Lately he’s taken up blacksmithing as a hobby. He’s weaker in direct combat and often has to stay on the sidelines during fights-- much to his own frustration, as he’d like to see monsters up close

Egon- A top student at the country's leading magic academy, he's obsessed with magic of all kinds, including the forbidden sort. He knows all there is to know about monsters and the dungeon.

His parents were court magicians and wanted the same for him, but he chose to venture into the dungeon against their warnings because he wanted to see monsters up close and prove to himself he could defeat them. His spellcasting ability is tremendous, but his arrogance has gotten him in trouble often and his healing magic, though effective, is quite painful for the recipient. His long-term goal is to destroy the demon.

Winston- He wasn’t interested in joining his father’s carpentry guild but knew he had to support his family somehow, so he left home and spent some years as a soldier in his youth. When he returned home, he put the fighting skills he’d learned to use as an adventurer for hire despite not being especially interested in dungeons. His lockpicking skills also came in handy here, as some parties would hire him as a rogue if they already had enough fighters. He’s skilled in his trade and has a lot of valuable experience, but knows very little about monsters or magic apart from what his grandmother taught him as a child.

His father didn’t want him exploring dungeons or hanging around magic users, which deepened the existing conflict betwen them. His mother doesn’t mind as much long as he keeps himself safe, and even gets along with some of his party members. He had never gone deeper than the third floor before joining his current party.

Janine- Raised in a diverse community in the Southern Central Continent, she has gnome ancestry on her mother's side, which often leads to her being mistaken for a half-elf. Because of this, she has some hangups about her appearance, particularly her red hair. Her magic is largely self-taught and there’s a lot she still doesn’t know, but several parties have hired her as a healer/support caster, and she’s proven herself quite capable. However, she’s not content to stay in support roles, and tries to contribute to fights even if she still needs to work on aiming her fireball spells. Her healing magic is only mildly painful, but her bedside manner leaves much to be desired.

She's not too interested in monsters, let alone the dark arts, but she'll follow the person she loves down any path, no matter how dangerous it may be-- although not without voicing her complaints now and then.

End ID]

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 11/28/2023

tuesday again no problem will be taking a break for the 12/12 edition (not next week but the one after)

listening

previously featured Os Mutantes, a countercultural brazilian rock group, is back bc i heard A Minha Menha on an instagram reel by @/ vintagepulps on a showcase of brazilian pulp magazine covers.

the SECOND that driving riff hit i experienced a brief moment of fuckor bc this is exactly and precisely the kind of song i like. this translation tells me it translates to My Girl. it's got moon/sun imagery. it's exactly the kind of song to drive around to in the summer while having an absolutely crippling crush on the person in the passenger seat. spotify

-

reading

you wouldn't download a woman...

TWICE

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watching

I'm No Angel (1933, dir. Ruggles) a 1936 black comedy written by Mae West and starring the babiest Cary Grant you've ever seen. i added it to my letterboxed bc i saw screenshots of this one specific dress. that’s so much sideboob. good for her.

we don't use the term "adventuress" anymore to describe a woman who does various physical or social stunts to land a husband and i think that's a shame. Tira (yes) is a burlesque dancer and (separately) a lion tamer at a down on its luck circus, becomes famous through putting her head in a lion's mouth, and leverages that fame to fall in and out and back into love.

your enjoyment of this movie will hinge on your tolerance for astrologers, circuses with animals in them, and depictions of black housemaids that have not aged super well, even if they're mostly there to stroke her ego. i'm sort of torn on what rating this would get today-- i'm assuming R bc there's a woman expressing desire but nothing actually happens beyond kissing and some sitting in laps. some peril for the lions i guess?

i do not think this particularly nailed its landing, and i'm not totally sure why they got back together, but mae west in straight up burlesque and the shimmiest dresses you've ever seen is so much fun to watch it doesn't really matter. this is sort of sidelining the her very funny, extremely quotable script. apparently any movie she wasn't allowed to write or heavily doctor her own lines just completely flopped, which i also think is very funny.

just straight up on the internet archive

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playing

triple header for Things That Came Out This Decade: Genshin Impact (September 2020), Deliver Us Mars (2023) and Gamedec (2021).

brief Genshin update: your main companion in the game, Paimon, the little fairy bitch, has been the recipient of some worrying foreshadowing lately. hey Paimon you wanna tell us anything???

Deliver Us Mars, free on Epic this week. i want to like this game. i think there should be more weird little eurojank original scifi B-franchises like this and you should be able to feed your family by making them. i do not want to continue playing this particular little franchise.

it's the second game by KeokeN (The Netherlands) and published by Wired Productions (UK, although they are partnered with Koch, which means they’ll be bought up soon), a studio of under 20 counting support staff (some of who are certainly part time or on hourly contracts) and an intern. after doing that basic background research i ratcheted my expectations back a couple notches and deleted a somewhat catty paragraph about video game hair.

this is a sequel to Deliver Us The Moon, which was a successful Kickstarter and Steam greenlight (TM (C) R) and it seems they spent the four interval years mostly polishing up the predecessor Deliver Us The Moon, which i do not own and do not plan on playing.

Deliver Us Mars bills itself as an action-adventure, but during my time with it, it was more of a cinematic movie/walking sim with extremely light puzzle/platform mechanics. there are extensive childhood flashbacks following a dad around as he trains his daughter to be an astronaut. the timing and insertion of these never quite clicked for me-- they take forever and they were never as interesting as what they interrupted.

this game is not good at signposting or tutorializing. i had to restart a chapter twice bc the unique controls popped up for a brief fleeting moment on screen and weren’t in the keybinding settings. i could never quite get the mouse and keyboard camera sensitivity right, and platforming/vertical elements seem to only be partially implemented: you can only really successfully approach certain segments from extremely specific dead-on angles. there are like three big boxes in your path that you have to clamber over at one point and i do not think it should take a solid minute and a half for me to get over them. some reviewers praised the lack of signposting during the launch sequence (causing you to frantically look around at a million unlabeled buttons and levers to see if any of them were highlighted as a thing you can click) as a fun way to ramp up stress but i fucking hated it.

after two and a half hours, and only just making it to a ship OUTSIDE mars, i decided there are other games in the world. this hits some sort of minimal viable story benchmark for me, i can see why some people love it, but i don’t want to find out what happens bad enough to play through a slow game that handles terribly and isn’t much fun to exist in.

does get points for big fuckoff dishes.

Gamedec is an isometric RPG, where you are a near-future private investigator who handles delicate personal matters inside wildly popular MMORPG VR games. unfortunately all the trailers suck shit.

this is catnip to me. i love a no-combat game where i have to walk around and talk to everyone and click on everything and write things down in a little notebook. i loooooooove being nosy. i've played through the first two and a half chapters (kinky second life, racketeering farmville, and real life uh oh) and i'm having a fucking marvelous time. the writing team clearly had a lot of fun, the VR game worlds feel very alive and vibrant-- there's a ton of possible weird little flavor interactions that go a very long way toward making me forget this is a limited-perspective isometric. this is like praising an RPG for doing what it says on the tin and being an RPG, but the most recent RPGs ive played have been fucking terrible. it's not shoehorning me into one-true or main-path choices. extremely forgiving of failure, which is good bc i straight up accidentally killed my first client. i know he was a kid but he kinda had it coming imo. sometimes kids just suck shit

im so delighted by this shitty little apartment-- it's got to be fucking bizarre to exist in, bc of the ultra-loft ceilings you need to make it be isometric, but it somehow manages to feel like a studio apartment and a seedy back office all at the same time. a game that is in general very fun to Look at. will have more thoughts as i continue playing but this is really scratching some sort of itch for me. commits to the bit. funny but sincere. a pastiche in ways i personally do not find annoying. has not hit me with like konami code style references yet. due to the fact this is also in my epic games store library i believe this was also free at some point

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making

fallow week for me. phil has been regrowing skin at a good clip and i can no longer feel each individual vertebra, AND we have another vet appt on friday to get more/different antibiotic goop and all of her vaccinations and microchipping done. mack made a hairball and is getting put back on an actual wire slicker brush grooming schedule. my beautiful girl seems to have a particularly dense coat among the domestic shorthairs of my acquaintance, although that may be bc she is a new england girlie and we constantly exist in air conditioning?? mixed feelings about scheduled brushies from her, even with short and light sessions. we’ll get there.

helping.

[baobhanlore-art]

So Vivzie just tweeted this and I have thoughts that won't fit well into tweets so here I am

For starters, the criticism of fanfiction isn't targeted towards the queer aspects. In fact I've found that some of the most extreme critics of fanfiction culture are also queer people. From the fujoshi fandom that causes an extreme rise in MlM shipping but largely for fem gazey smut, the unrecognised untagged unhealthy relationship tropes, to the misogyny often within these works, stories like these come with many issues.

The criticism of writing feeling like fanfiction, especially towards Helluva Boss, is that the elements of the stories people heavily critique feel unnecessary, tropey, and derailing from consistency.

In The Circus, I do not fault the idea of a queer character having a childhood crush on a same sex friend. The problem is more to do with how it stunts the desperation Blitz has to keep his business alive, since he's no longer just sleeping with some rich guy but an old friend, and the sudden unexpectedness of their situation. It's also a common trope where the live interests actually knew each other as kids so it feels overdone and generic.

In Exes and Oohs, the mafia setting feels completely bizarre considering the intense bigotry and classism within the world. Not only that but the daddy issues, fridged mum, forced marriage and overall unrealistic depiction of the mafia is very common in fanfiction written by teens who do no research and just want the aesthetics.

Secondly, there are plenty of straight works that have a similar label attached to them. ACOTAR and TOH both have writers who originally wrote fanfiction and they didn't develop out of the negative habits within fanfiction writing. Therefore their original work feels like fanfiction. Riverdales "I'm weird, I'm a weirdo" speech was heavily critiqued for sounding like a fanfiction line.

Thirdly, a big reason for being compared to fanfiction is the unfinished feeling of the scripts. I've already pointed out in a previous post that some of the dialogue in Western Energy felt like it needed to be cut down by an editor. And most people agree that the situations and logic aren't often very well thought through, such as how the aging machine could have just been reversed or how DORKS should have been killed off. The scripts feel like loose first drafts that could use additional edits. Fanfiction usually doesn't have an editor or even a beta reader, I've seen more "no beta we die like *insert character*" tags in many of the fandoms I read for than "beta" tags.

If people critiqued the owl house for feeling fanficcy because it had a diverse cast in a highschool setting with a quirky MC, I'd agree it's a bad descriptor because it's directly the queer and neurodivergent stories that are being attacked. Or if Murder Drones was labelled as fanficcy because it has an edgy teen female MC I'd say it's unfair because a lot of girls genuinely act like that and deserve to be represented and have our stories told. But most of the criticism about Helluva Boss to do with its LGBT rep is less to do with its inclusion and more to do with people feeling it's falling into yaoi tropes. Not the fact it includes queer stories.

This is something We Are Not Alive said recently that such with me, but just because it's an indie project doesn't mean we have to settle for subpar writing. There are loads of indie productions you can support! Murder Drones, Lackadaisy, the animated Anne Frank movie, and these are just some of the more popular ones!

And I wish people would stop weaponising every single argument to try and defend issues in Helluva Boss. The fandom says "of course it has issues" then cries when we point that out.

[carriagelamp]

I don't know what to say here this month. February, eh? Hate February, the Thursday of months, I'm just clinging to sanity while I wait for spring. Here are the books that helped me through what is basically a month of overcast skies and fucking winter rain.

Candy Color Paradox v6

Candy Color Paradox is a series I’ve been reading for years now and I’ve really enjoyed how the relationship in this one has progressed over that time. It started somewhat similar to how you’d expect a yaoi manga to start — lots of tension, drama, smut, and some light antagonism between the two main characters who both work at the same weekly magazine. But it’s eased into something that’s really quite genuine. This most recent volume focused entirely on moving in together and all the little complications and insecurities that arise because of that.

Circus of Fear

A 1980s D&D choose your own adventure novel so the quality is exactly what you would expect, but at the very least it was a fun little diversion. Doing a CYOA book with a friend can honestly be a blast, they just feel so silly, and the setting of a magical, vaguely sinister circus is always an enjoyable backdrop. We managed to get a good ending on the second try! So yay! I'd honestly like to read it again and try some of the other routes that also sounding intriguing.

Dungeon Meshi // Delicious in Dungeon v1

Me and my girlfriend started watching Dungeon Meshi because we’d seen so much about it on tumblr lately and wow. Just wow. It really is doing something special and we’re completely enamoured. Since we’re waiting for new episodes, I picked up the first book so we could compare it and the show — it’s really impressive how closely they align! And the art is really lovely, it stands out and not just for it's food glamour shots.

For those who haven't been seduced into watching the anime yet: Dungeon Meshi / Delicious in Dungeon is a DND-style parody in which the adventuring party needs to enter the monster-filled dungeon to save one of their companions who got eaten by a red dragon. They need to get to her and revive her before she entirely digested. However, to hasten their quest (and indulge one of their member’s strange obsessions) they begin to hunt and eat the monsters that fill the dungeon instead of trying to bring food in from the outside. This is 80% a cooking anime and 20% a comedic adventure anime. Book or show, doesn’t matter which, you should give it a try if you haven’t.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones

I really enjoyed the first book of the series, Every Heart A Doorway, and was excited when I found out there was a prequel about Jack and Jill and the world they visited. This can either be read as a prequel or it works fairly well as a stand-alone novella; the story is about twin sisters who have always been forced to fill very precise societal roles by their parents. One afternoon, they stumble across a magical door in the bottom of a chest and venture down into the sinister world of the moors where one sister is taken in by a vampire lord and the other by a mad scientist. The story looks at how the sisters grow and change when apart from each other and their controlling parents. Excellent story, the language is just so enticing.

Midnight Sun

My brother has been watching all the Twilight movies with a couple of his friends. Listening to him bitch about Jacob like it was 2007 reawakened something in me, so after laughing myself sick I had to go and relisten to Midnight Sun. Still genuinely and unironically love this book, it’s pure trash but by god it's my trash. I’m a simple soul.

Odder

I’ve been hearing great things about this book, and it’s hard to go wrong with Katherine Applegate so I was excited to finally read it. This is a book written entirely in free verse poetry about an orphaned otter and her experiences being rescued by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It’s inspired by a true story (several true stories, actually!) and it's very worth picking up even if you don't usually go for poetry. It's charming and reads very easily.

Old-Fashioned Cupcake

A middle-aged salaryman is feeling worn down by the humdrum nature of his life, which is filled mostly with work these days. This manga kicks off with his coworker suggests that if he wants to deal with the feelings of boredom and aging, then he needs to do something to shake up his life: so he suggests that they “act like a pair of teenage girls” and go to a fancy new pancake shop just because it seems fun, never mind that it’s not something grown men are supposed to do. This manga ended up being pretty darn cute -- it was slow and compassionate and loving -- and it managed to convince me to buy its sequel.

Professor Calculus: Science’s Forgotten Genius

A ridiculous little book I bought on impulse that was nevertheless a lot of fun to read. It’s a tribute to Cuthbert Calculus, celebrating the 80th anniversary of his first appearance in Tintin. It dives into some of the inspirations that went into the character, and also lovingly and cheekily explores some "facts" we know about Calculus as a person… and wildly extrapolates more from there. It was a cute little read for anyone who’s a fan of the series and wants something a little extra.

Return to Oz

I recently rewatched this movie and maintain that I like it more than the original film, sorry. It made me decide to grab the novelization because I’m always a sucker for a novelization <3 This one was pretty solid too, it actually included details that were left out of the film and improve the stories overall cohesion which is always the marker of a good novelization.

Return to Oz takes place several months after the original film, when Aunty Em and Uncle Henry are trying to build a new house and get the farm back in order before winter. Concerned by Dorothy’s continued belief in Oz and her increased insomnia, Aunty Em decides to take her to a doctor who offers healing through electroshock therapy. Yeah, it’s exactly as fucking creepy as it sounds… You get a scary aslyum, a sinister head nurse, being strapped to a hospital gurney, and new baddies that scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid. Anyway, before she can be electrocuted, Dorothy manages to escape back to Oz where she discovers her friends are in dire need of help. It’s like Alice: Madness Returns but from Disney. Go watch this movie.

She Drives Me Crazy

I had very mixed feelings about this book. It’s about high school basketball player, Scottie, who has suffered a bad breakup with her girlfriend who moved schools to play on the opposing basketball team. Things go from bad to worse when she gets into a car accident with her arch-nemesis, the cheerleader Irene. One things lead to another and bada bing bada boom we have a fake dating scheme so that Scottie can get back at her ex.

This book had some genuinely fun moments (I’m always a sucker for a fake dating scheme, and the characters were reasonably fun) but it’s biggest failing is one that I’ve seen more than I like in current queer lit. It just tries so. fucking. hard. to be unproblematic. Like yeah, it’s great to see healthy relationships but it was SO explicit about it. So much therapy speak, way more than feels natural for a conversation or internal monolgue, especially when they’re in high emotions. The “banter” was very scripted. It was a book that felt like it had a laugh track. And while the ending was satisfying enough, it was also… I don’t know. Anticlimactic. We just spent so long tying everything up in a perfectly neat little bow that it really just strolled to an ending that was obvious from a mile away. 

Like look, I get it, we want this to be squeaky clean and beyond reproach, but I have NEVER entered a fake dating story hoping that everyone was going to be really sensible and respectful and level-headed. Fake dating is the slapstick of the romance world, I want some Shakespearean level bullshit, please don’t try to gussy it up for me. Gonna go and rewatch 10 Things I Hate About You or something just to feel things again. Or maybe pop over to AO3, your average fic writer at least understands that when I say fake dating I mean I want something absolutely fucking unhinged and filled to the gill with mutual pining.

So yeah, if you want a sports-based high school sapphic romance: it’s not a bad book. It went down easy, I liked listening to it in the mornings when I needed something light before work. Some bits I even quite enjoyed. But it’s not going to rock your world.

Shuna’s Journey

Well, if nothing else you can really, definitely tell this was done by Hayoa Miyazaki. I’m honestly not really sure how I felt about it. The art was beautiful, and the story was pure undiluted Miyazaki through and through. The narrative was very nice. The story and message was poignant. It was a nice book. I can’t say it’s stuck very heavily in my mind, but I enjoyed reading it. It felt like a precursor to Princess Monoke / Nausicaa, perhaps?

The Witches

The story of one child and his grandmother needing to contend with witches. Not fairytale witches. Real witches. And all their horrible, child-hating ways. One thing I will always love about Dahl is that when he wants to write about something Horrible, nothing will stop him. His villains are truly villainous and the witches are a prime example of that! I loved the description of the witches and their horrible, sinister deeds, especially in the first half of the book. This sure is Child Murder: The Novel! The ending was absolutely not what I was expecting, and I appreciate that. Such a bizarre book.

[celebstylefinder]

For this week, we are tracking on the journey of designer-couturier John Galiano.

Source: https://youtu.be/JgRAgvWpdhs

How John Galliano changed the face of fashion...

John Galliano is a British fashion designer known for his innovative and theatrical approach to haute couture. Rising to fame in the 1980s, he became one of the most influential designers of his generation, particularly for his time as creative director at Givenchy, and later, Dior. At Dior from 1996 to 2011, Galliano infused his collections with dramatic, imaginative designs and lavish runway shows, earning a reputation for redefining high fashion with his flamboyant style and creative vision.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240314-the-dramatic-rise-fall-and-rise-of-john-galliano

The turbulent journey of John Galliano’s rise, fall, and resurgence

John Galliano's first major commercial show in 1985 took a surprising turn when model Mimi Potworowska, who had purchased fresh mackerel for dinner, impulsively tossed them at the audience from the catwalk, nearly hitting fashion icon Joan Burstein, owner of the renowned boutique Browns and one of Galliano's strongest supporters. The collection, titled The Ludic Game, blended diverse inspirations: London’s pearly kings and queens mixed with forest nymphs with leafy headdresses. It was also influenced by Angela Carter's novel Nights at the Circus (1984), which features clowns, journalists, and its main character, Fevvers—a fin-de-siècle aerial performer claiming to have wings.

Some of John Galiano's creations:

For Christian Dior:

For Givenchy Haute Couture:

Linda Evangelista wearing a dress from the Givenchy Haute Couture Fall/Winter 1996 collection by John Galliano. Getty Images.

Source: https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/john-galliano-maison-margiela-contract-career-history-dior-givenchy

For Martin Margiela:

Galliano's work for Martin Margiela (centre) has been acclaimed, and McQueen's early work (left and right) retains its cachet (Credit: Getty Images)

Going back to his roots --- at The House of Marginal

Source: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/fashion-week/a46552616/john-galliano-maison-margiela-couture-spring-2024-show/

And his extraordinaire creations:

There's a lot more to see of John Galiano's creative allure. Follow the links below to see more of his work..

If you liked what you see in here, please leave a comment below and let me know how what and who you want to see featured. I'll be very happy to bring them on to you.

Thanks and xoxo.....

Rolando D. Suarez

email: rolandodsuarez@yahoo.com

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

Is Hedi Slimane Taking Over at Chanel? It’s Official—He’s Left Celine.

The fashion world is buzzing! Could Hedi Slimane be the next creative director at Chanel? Rumors are swirling, and we can’t wait to see what’s next. Known for his edgy, rock-inspired style and his game-changing work at Saint Laurent and Celine, Slimane would undoubtedly bring a bold, fresh vision to Chanel's iconic brand. Expect sleek tailoring, modern edge, and a whole new era of Chanel chic. The fashion industry could be on the verge of a major shake-up!

Source:

PARIS FASHION WEEK OCT. 3, 2024 Hedi Slimane unveils his vision for Chanel, featuring miniskirts, Fair Isle pullovers, and party shifts—paired with what may be a nod to Coco Chanel’s iconic flower

💥 #HediSlimane #Chanel #FashionNews #NewEra #ChanelRevolution #IconicFashion

Here are some of Hedi Slimane’s Best Celine Red Carpet Moments: From Lady Gaga, Kaia Gerber to Naomi Campbell and on to his Male Celebs List from Timothée Chalamet to Austin Butler.

"Like at his jobs before, Hedi Slimane wasn’t overly thirsty for celebrity placements during his tenure at Celine" . by Carolyn Twersky, Oct. 2, 2024

Image Source: MICHAEL TRAN/AFP/Getty Images

"Dakota Johnson was the first person to wear Hedi Slimane’s Celine on the red carpet, nabbing a bright red, sequin-covered mini dress for the premiere of Suspiria in 2018."

Image Source: Steve Granitz/WireImage/Getty Images

Paris Hilton’s 2023 Grammys dress, in a striking gunmetal hue, was the perfect choice for the occasion.

Image Source: Amy Sussman/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Naomi Campbell embodied pure glamour in a silver sequined gown as she graced the red carpet at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival's opening ceremony.

Image Source: Marc Piasecki/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Naturally, Slimane couldn’t resist introducing his signature sequins to menswear, creating a custom look for Timothée Chalamet at the 2024 Golden Globes.

Image Source: Gilbert Flores/Golden Globes 2024/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Austin Butler’s three-piece pinstripe suit at the London premiere of The Bikeriders exuded pure sophistication, while his steel-toe, cowboy-inspired boots brought just the right touch of rock and roll flair.

Image Source: Mike Marsland/WireImage/Getty Images

Emma D’Arcy brought their signature cool style to the New York premiere of House of the Dragon season two, rocking a Celine Homme ensemble with an embellished jacket and leather pants. Image Source: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety/Getty Images

PRODUCT RECS BELOW:

TAG US IN YOUR RECREATIONS AND INSPO PICS @celebstylefinder !

LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW WHO YOU WANT TO SEE NEXT WEEK... WE WILL BE DIVING INTO SOME MORE OF YOUR FAVORITE FASHION ICONS! UNTIL THEN...

xoxo

celeb style finder

Designer Rolando D. Suarez

Photo courtesy of Henry Nicdao, Dubai, U.A.E.

[centrally-unplanned]

Like some of the commenters on that post, i also have a pretty negative impression about twg bc if his association with jesse singals podcast. Less about the trans stuff (its just not a topic i have the energy to investigate, tbh) and more about that podcasts whole conceit. On principle i have never dived much into it, but my sense just from looking it over is that it is basically a glorified lolcow farm: deliberately seeking out otherwise obscure and usually psychologically unwell internet weirdos to gawk at them like circus freaks before a public audience

The david gerard piece is not itself in this vein, bc gerard is very much a public figure centrally involved in socially significant shit-flinging campaigns. But the techniques twg has on display in that post of are themselves tools of the lolcow trade, and it makes me kind of uncomfortable

Yeah I think that is fine! I have read my share of Jessie Singal/Blocked & Reported, not a big follower but I see it around, and I think some of his coverage is really good, and others are meh. (I actually helped Jessie get some very obscure sources for his book once in a happenstance moment using my earned-in-China torrenting skills lol, was a nice guy). I certainly would not describe B&R as always "lolcow" types, like it is often doing things like looking into niche-but-impactful local government fights or policy outcomes. TW for example has his biggest claim to fame leading on the B&R episode on the rigging of the air traffic controller exams by a connected union group, not at all "punching down". But while I haven't listened to them I know of what you speak, podcasts on like spatfests between Portland coffee shop owners or the like.

I would generally share your distaste of that content - it is just platforming irrelevancy, and has a sense of being invasive of the privacy we all deserve regardless of what we tweet. Still, while having no survey data or anything here I do find the few I have seen around tend to be say interviewing a victim of this or that thing, and that person deserves that right even if the stakes are petty to us. It is rarely just a "laugh at the idiot" podcast even if it includes that. Something I can only say having listening to a few episodes of course, not robust here.

Overall I am very viewpoint tolerant, particularly when people do diverse media. It would be incredibly cringe to be a 24/7 dunk show, but if you are blending true investigative journalism with the fact that, as a professional media outlet, you have to made content on a tight schedule and sometimes take cheap shots in that process, and doing that kind of work makes you view things a bit differently as you see it all as one big project or w/e, I am not myself going to be a hater for that. I will say this episode is bad and this is good, and respect the good. But nothing wrong with someone else having a different line, and I have them myself; an episode that trucked in anti-vax stuff would really piss me off while others would shrug it off as a bad day. TW's long form written journalism has been consistently interesting enough to me that I am tolerant of the level of snark in other projects, but I totally do get how one would see it as cringe. Not like any writer must be read!

(Though I do think TW was generally involved in primarily the more investigative stuff. Personally, if one wants to dunk on Jessie & Katie for their cheap shots go for it, but I do think TW shouldn't be seen as the third wheel on that just by default. God knows how hard any journalism job is to get)