#balay balay

[thozhar]

The story, which was developed by both Eve and Gogu since October 2023, is partly rooted in the childhood of Eve, a Mindanao native who had grown up with the violence of the Marawi conflict. As the daughter of a Filipino army man, Eve had been exposed to the conflict from a different perspective. Although she too grew up with the intimate and brutal reality of violence, her circumstances did not allow her to view the occupation from the perspective of the oppressed Muslims. Her reality was one that shielded her from understanding the conflict more complexly; thus, in her childhood, she viewed Muslims as aggressors without realising what prompted them to initiate the struggle for an independent state. Through visualising the displacement of the Maranao Muslims in Walay Balay, Eve expresses the inter-connectivity between their alienation to the larger alienation of the many peoples of the Philippines, who have been uprooted from their indigenous consciousness by the violence of colonialism.

“It is clear and important to me to see the story of the Muslim refugees because the Philippines was not a Christian country before the Spanish colonisation. Our ancestors were forced to convert to Christianity so they cannot be seen as enemies of the colonisers. Our ancestors who once owned the land and their identity eventually became lost in their own land stripped away of their own name. In a way, this is my way of telling that tragic, part of our history through our characters who lost their home and are in  search of their identities.” – Eve Baswel

The siege of Marawi, one of the oldest Islamic cities in Mindanao, happened in 2017 when ISIS collapsed the local government, occupied the city, and was warring against the Filipino government for nearly 5 months. Due to the violent conflict, many of the city’s residents had to evacuate, displacing nearly 300,000 people from their ancestral soil. Even after the reclamation of Marawi by the government, the Maranao Muslim refugees who had returned to their native land had been met with many bureaucratic difficulties. Till today, nearly 7 years after the conflict, many Maranao Muslims have not been properly relocated by the government. Due to the strong anti-colonial history that the Mindanao region has in fighting against the imperial subjugations of the Spanish, the Maranao people also refuse to bow to the hegemonic reign of the Catholic-dominated Filipino government, which is aggressively trying to centralise the Filipino landscape against the will of the masses. A way in which the government tries to claim power over the land is by demanding registered land permits from the residents of Marawi, who, in defiance of this neocolonial bureaucracy, refuse to abide by the self-made rules that the puppet government imposes on their rightful native land, a revolutionary spirit they have critically carried on since struggling against the violence of Spanish and American colonialism.

“Displacement is not new to us,” says Gogu, referring to how, as a descant of indentured Tamils who at first faced uprooting from their ancestral land in Tamil Nadu, and once again during the aftermath of colonialism, from the plantations, he too can understand the struggles of displacement, but he states that to him, the uprooting that Maranao Muslims have faced is far worse than the displacement of Plantation Tamils, for the Maranao Muslims had been made landless in their own land while the Plantation Tamils had been made landless on alien soil.

— Gogularaajan Rajendran on Co-directing Walay Balay, Filipino Cinema, and His Cannes Debut

[vieuxmetiers]

Sabine Weiss, Vente de balais, Dun-sur-Auron, Cher, 1950.

[2t2r]

42 tatouages Halloween

Nouvel article publié sur https://www.2tout2rien.fr/30-nouveaux-tatouages-halloween/

42 tatouages Halloween

[adarkrainbow]

Tales from Broca street: The witch of the broom-closet

There are two witch-based fairytales in the Tales of Broca Street, and this one is even more famous than The Witch of Mouffetard Street ; in fact, this fairytale is probably the most famous fairytale of the Broca Street collection: La sorcière du placard aux balais. The Witch of the broom-closet.

The story is actually told in the first person as it is mister Pierre himself who is the hero of the adventure. It all began when, looking in his pockets, he found a coin of cinq francs (the "franc" was the currency of France before the arrival of the euro). Thinking himself wealthy with this coin, he decided to go buy a house and went to a notary to find one. The man mistakes his offer for him having five hundred francs, only for mister Pierre to insist: he just have five francs, what house can he buy with it? And the notary is of course appaled (know that the franc was even lesser than a euro, so to have five francs is not even to have five euros). The notary is clear, the smallest amount for a house is two million francs.

But since mister Pierre insists the notary suddenly remembers something... a house he describes as a "small villa located on a big street, with a bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, a living-room, a pipi-room, and a broom closet". (The "pipi-room" is actually a joke. The "living-room" part is written in English in the original text, because at the time people thought it was fancier to use the English term "living-room" than the French salon, and so for the toilets Gripari wrote a mock-fancy term, "pipi-room"). And this house is only worth... three francs and a half, but with the notary's own fees, it becomes five francs exactly. Mister Pierre immediately buys the house, but he notices that the notary keeps laughing - the kind of laugh one has after playing a nasty trick... So he asks "Is the house real? Is it solid? There's no problem with it, right?" and the notary says the house is fine.

With the key in hand, mister Pierre visits the house, which indeeds turns out to be a nice, regular little house. He then goes to salute his neighbors, but on one side he only meets a man who shuts his door into his face, and on the other an old lady who keeps wailing and crying "What a misery for someone so young! But maybe you shall escape it, who knows? But it is still so sad to see someone like you undergo something like that." and she refuses to explains herself. Mister Pierre, angry with the situation, returns to the notary's office and threatens him with breaking his head if he refuses to tell him the secret of the house. And so the notary accepts the reveal the truth...

The house is haunted. But not by a ghost... by a witch. The witch of the broom-closet. Mister Pierre otes that he just saw the broom-closet and it was empty ; the notary explains the witch only comes there at night. He explains that most of the time the witch just stands quietly in her closet, not harming anybody. But if anybody sings "Sorcière, sorcière, Prends garde à ton derrière!" (Witch, witch / Beware for your bum!"), the witch will come out and the unfortunate victim wll never be seen again... Mister Pierre, who was already angry at the crooked notary for selling him the house without warning him of the witch's presence, is even angrier, pointing out if the man hadn't sung the song, mister Pierre would have been unable to sing it in turn and everything would have been fine... The notary only answers that he sung the rhyme on purpose to trick mister Pierre, but he escapes before the angry narrator can strangle him.

The rhyme is not one that goes away or is forgotten - but after living one year and a half in the house, very careful of never singing the words, mister Pierre starts to grow comfortable with the situation. He starts singing it in the street, where the witch cannot hear him ; and then in the day, while the witch is not there. After a certain time he grows bolder and starts singing the rhyme at night - but always stopping before pronouncing the last words. The door of the broom-closet shivers, creak, but the witch never comes out. However, one Christmas night, after celebrating with his friends, mister Pierre comes home slightly drunk at four in the morning. And, carelessly, he sings the full rhyme while in the house...

Immediately the broom-closet opens and the witch appears, holding one of mister Pierre's brooms in her hand. She gloats because she has been waiting for two years to punish him, patiently waiting for the day where he would finish the rhyme. Mister Pierre begs her with all he can think about: he pretends he didn't want to offend her, he carelessly sung it, that he has very good friends who are witches, that his late mother used to be a witch, that it is Christmas night and out of the goodness of her heart she can't harm him... The witch finds no pity in her, but she is amused by mister Pierre and so she gives him a trial. She leaves him three days: during these three days he shall ask her three different things, and if she is unable to give them one of these things, he will be spared and she will go forever. However if she brings him all three requests, she will "take him away"... Then the witch disappears and mister Pierre is left quite anxious for his life.

Unable to find any idea, mister Pierre goes to visit his good friend Bachir, who lives rue Broca and owns two magical goldfishes. Bachir brings his fishes (one red, another yellow with black dots), but it is impossible for regular humans to talk to the fishes directly, so Bachir has to summon a helpful mouse with a rhyme ("Petite souris / Petite amie / Viens par ici / Parle avec mes petits poissons / Et tu auras du saucisson") (Small mouse, small friend, come here, talk to my fishes, and you shall have some saucisson). A small gray mouse comes out, starts talking to the fishes with little "hip! hip! hip", and then talks to Bachir who in turn translates for mister Pierre. After mister Pierre told to the fishes all of his story through the mouse, fishes answer (po - po - po) to the mouse, and Bachir translates: mister Pierre shall has the witch for rubber jewels that will shine and glimmer like real jewels. Bachir then feeds both the fishes and the mouse, and mister Pierre returns home.

In the evening the witch appears, and mister Pierre asks her for the jewels. The witch notes that the idea isn't from mister Pierre, but she doesn't care: she gets out of her "corsage" two bracelets, three rings and a necklace, each shining like gold and glittering like diamons, but soft like rubber. The witch mocks him, saying tomorrow he should be more clever, and leaves.

Mister Pierre visits a chemist friend of his in his laboratory to study the jewels and he is amazed to find out that indeed, despite looking like gold and diamonds, these things are made of rubber! Mister Pierre then return to Bachir. The mouse against has to translate for the fishes (pipi pirrippi hippi hip), and the idea this time is: to ask the witch for a branch of the macaroni tree, to plant in his garden. In the evening the witch gloats again that the idea isn't from mister Pierre but she doesn't care - and she against takes out of her corsage a beautiful flowery branch... a tree-branch on which grows macaroni, with leaves made of noodles, flowers made of coquilettes, and little seeds in the shape of alphabet-pasta. Immediately mister Pierre plants the branch in his garden, because he aske for a branc that would grow into a tree and he hopes that if it fails to do so he can escape the witch... Unfortunately by the following day, the branch had turned into an huge pasta tree with vermicelle roots...

Despaired, mister Pierre goes to Bachir to tell him farewell, he will be taken away by the witch. But Bachir refuses to give up: he summons against the mouse and brings out his fishes, and they all talk for a very, very long time. The result is a careful plan mister Pierre must follow to the letter. He must ask the witch to give him "the frog with hair". But she will be stuck, because the witch IS the frog with hair. The "witch of the broom-closet" is just the human shape of the frog with hair. So either she will refuse to give the frog to him, and thus mister Pierre won... Either she will turn into the frog to offer himself to him and win the bet. If this is the latter case, mister Pierre but tie the frog up solidly, to prevent her from growing back into the witch, and then shave all of the frog's hair. Because her magic power is located in it, and once shaved the frog will become just an ordinary animal. Bachir even sells mister Pierre a roll of string to tie up solidly the frog.

When in the evening the witch appears, mister Pierre demands the frog with hair. The witch is furious upon hearing this and asks for something else, getting very mad at mister Pierre, claiming he has "no right" to ask her for this... But mister Pierre insists, and the witch, very angry, decides to show him the frog. The witch starts shrinking and deflating and crumbling onto herself, until she becomes a large green frog with a head full of hair. Immediately mister Pierre captures the frog, ties up very tightly the beast, and shaves all of the hair.

The following day, mister Pierre brings the frog to Bachir as a gift - even adding a tiny ladder so that the frog would act as a barometer. Ever since the frog was brought in the fishes and the frog keep talking to each other (Coap coap / Po po). Curious, Bachir and mister Pierre summoned the little mouse to translate... But she refused, saying that the supernatural animals were just exchanging insults all day long. And the story concludes by mister Pierre saying that if you ever come by his house, you will be free to sing as much as you like "Witch, witch / Beware your bum!"

[dropboxofcuriosities]

Concerto en balai majeur, 1920s.

[transparentgentlemenmarker]

Un balai équipé d'un moteur thermique. Ce dernier fait tourner deux rouleaux munis de lamelles qui poussent les feuilles mortes et autres saletés en un seul passage.

A broom equipped with a heat engine. The latter rotates two rollers equipped with slats that push dead leaves and other dirt in a single pass.

November 27 2022

[mostlybrunettes]

[postcard-from-the-past]

Port scene in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, Indonesia

Dutch vintage postcard, mailed to the Netherlands

[guy60660]

Pierre Mahéo | © Ludovic Balay | Financial Times

[uneessencesensible]

Parfois, il faut savoir profiter pour soi, tout en restant raisonnable🍹

[incorrect-nmhe-quotes]

at a zoo Sun: What are they in for? Day: Sun, this isn't prison. Sun: So they can leave? Day: No, but- Sun, pointing at a meerkat: I bet that one murdered someone.

[vieuxmetiers]

Le fabricant de balais, retour de la forêt du Never à Plogonnec, Finistère.

[wolfsnape]

Je viens de recevoir un message de Partenaire de galère qui me disait : "J'ai encore retrouvé un de tes post-its où tu ne signes même pas, mais tu dessines juste des soleils, ça te dérange si je le garde ?"

[fidjiefidjie]

Bonne matinée 💙📽💙

Serge Reggiani 🎶 Ciné cinéma

(70 balais)

[dropboxofcuriosities]

Quand la bonne humeur était la seule 'énergie' nécessaire pour faire briller la maison, 1945.