#beautiful art gets transferred to another medium in this way..

[bernardisgross]

i watched Doukyuusei (movie) for the first time today and.. and... i'm a changed person.. i feel like a brand new person...

[luvhhannie]

freshman year

“hey, yn!” a brunette yelled across the hallway.

minghao, trying to figure out where his art history lecture is, looked towards the brunette figure who just yelled. it's not common to yell as early as 8 in the morning on the hybe campus, but for some reason, today is different. minghao watched the brunette girl run towards another figure, laughing.

"after all those years in highschool, we still end up being in the same building in college." the other figure said to the brunette. the brunette chuckled and hooked their arm on their friend's shoulder.

"oh come on, yn! the universe is telling us we're soulmates...even though jaehyun has a little crush on you." the brunette said as the two of them started walking. minghao watched the two as they walked past him. minghao accidentally made eye contact with the h/c girl as they stroll past him. she smiled shyly at him, before continuing her conversation with her friend.

"jaehyun doesn't like me! and besides he's not my type."

"is mark your type? i didn't know you were into younger people."

minghao shook his head off and continued going his way to his first class in his first day in university. he made his way to his lecture room, thanks to wonwoo who called him and told him where it was. entering the room, he saw easels and various art mediums and substrates filling up the room, as well as art stations and their own stools. he saw a familiar raven haired male and walked towards him

"hey hyung, i hope we don't have assigned seats here." he said to wonwoo. wonwoo chuckled and motioned his hand toward the station next to his.

"it's alright, miss dawn doesn't really care as long as you do your work. i'm kinda surprised that she's teaching all of art history." wonwoo mentioned. minghao looked around the room and saw people that looked older than him.

"i didn't even know that this was a mixed class-"

"yn!" a voice cut him off as he rolled his eyes. how many times is he going to get cut off with people calling the same person? he thought to himself.

"oh? ten? didn't know you attend this uni." yn said as she placed her bag next to "ten"'s station. they were both sitting in front of wonwoo and minghao.

"yeah, i'm transferring to smu next year though. most of my friends are there." the slender male said to his friend, who only scoffed.

"oh wow, now that i'm here, you're transferring? what a great friend you are, ten." yn mumbled. minghao watched the two figures bicker when suddenly wonwoo cleared his throat. he shifted his gaze from you to wonwoo.

"you know them?" wonwoo asked minghao. he shook his head no as wonwoo giggled.

"you're friends with jaehyun right? he's also friends with ten." wonwoo stated as minghao just nodded his head.

"we're not really close though" minghao simply replied as he just stares looks at yn's way.

when minghao first saw yn that morning, he thought to himself that if the birth of venus was personified, it would be yn. he didn't really believe in love at first sight, he just thought that yn was beautiful, really. not until it was their mid first semester when minghao accidentally smeared yn's piece with the black charcoal he was using.

"fuck..." he whispered as he just stares at the now flawed art piece. it was once radiant and bright, not until minghao's charcoal smudged the vibrant landscape. yn was getting a paper towel to correct her shadows and highlights when she finally came back to her station, seeing her piece. minghao expected her to be mad, furious even. but he was only met with a shocked face.

"what happened?" she asks him. minghao looked at her with solemn eyes and bowed his head ever so slightly with fear.

"I was passing through your station and I accidentally smeared charcoal all over your piece...I was trying to avoid toppling over your easel but this is just...worse. I'm really sorry...I know that you put all of your handwork in this and I just...I'll tell miss dawn about it!-" he rambled on as yn just sighed and looked at him fondly.

"it's alright, it's just a tiny smudge! and besides, it even looks better with it. kinda gives off a harry potter and willy wonka crossover universe." yn joked as minghao just looked at her. he just made the worst mistake ever as an artist and yn was just making light of it. he just stared at her and she smiles softly.

"don't worry about it, your so called mistake may be the one I've been looking for, for this piece." yn said to him. yn sat on her stool, minghao still standing next to her. she looked up at him and reached out her hand.

"i'm yn ln. you're myungho right?" yn asked minghao. minghao nodded his head and finally smiled, gently wrapped his hand on hers.

"yeah, that's my korean name though. i'm xu minghao." he said, shaking her hand.

"well, it's nice to properly meet you, minghao, even though I have always admired you as an artist ever since the first semester started." yn giggled and blushed. minghao widened his eyes and smiled.

"so did i."

at that moment in freshman year college was the moment that minghao realized that it was definitely not just a crush.

˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖

yes or no I x. minghao x reader - blast from the past

𓇢𓆸 synopsis: where jaehyun is forced to be yn's wingman for mingyu, but unbeknownst to him, mingyu is also getting some help from his friend.

previous <- -> next | masterlist

𓇢𓆸 taglist (open!): @writingbarnes @90s-belladonna @leewonkyeom @to-mi-yo

[aregnier21]

Understanding the Medium

Having an understanding of the medium you decide to use can be an essential factor to take into consideration. When creating a painting – specifically an oil painting – there is a quality of the paint that transcribes into the finished project. The way that the paintbrush strokes can be followed throughout the canvas, as well as the subtle mixing of colors when the paint is still wet.

This knowledge can inevitably change the outcome of a piece, but don't fear! This does not always have to be a bad thing. One of the qualities of creating art is the ability to explore different mediums in a single artwork. Some people go crazy with the amount of mixed media they use on a singular art piece.

Tip of the Post

The media used is very influential on the outcome of an art piece that may be overlooked – especially in the digital art world. For example, I recently learned a transferring method, called sellotape printing, from one of my friends that allows you to transfer ink from paper to tape that you can then stick on another surface.

You start by putting masking tape onto the image or text that you would like to transfer. Then you put the paper under water until it essentially dissolves and all that is left is the tape. If done gently, there will be nothing, but the ink left on the tape. From there you are able to place the tape on another piece of paper to overlay images etc.

One thing I noticed while doing this is that the tape would no longer be as sticky as it was before, and I realized that it would have to be adhered with some sort of additional adhesive. The first few times that I did this I used rubber cement to attach it and I noticed that it released the ink from the tape and I was able to move it around with my nail once I placed the tape down. I used this to my advantage originally, but at one point I was trying to create a specific effect and the rubber cement basically dissolved the colored ink and it did not turn out the way I envisioned it to. I then found that a glue stick didn’t dissolve the ink and it worked much better for certain effects. This is a trial and error that I stumbled upon that I believe made aspects of my work better than they would have been without experimentation.

Beating Perfectionism

Being a perfectionist is something that many artist are plagued with, and many others go against. Don't get me wrong, perfectionism can be a good thing . . . in moderation. Perfectionism often gives the idea of "pixel perfect" or "hyper-realistic" which is what some people want. However, this idea of perfection can sometimes limit the potential of an artist and their work.

Being in a mindset where everything that you make must be perfect can make it hard for a piece of work to grow into its full potential. For example; say you have an idea for a drawing, and in your head, you know exactly what you want it to look like. You start drawing the first subject matter and you realize you don't like the way it looks. Maybe you get frustrated and erase it, throw it out, or lose confidence and ambition altogether and give up. For this example, let's say you push through and continue the drawing. You may find yourself being hyper-critical over every line you put down, and in the end, you are less than satisfied with the product. It may even go as far as deterring you from starting another drawing in the future because it was more a project for robots than a passion project. This can be the outcome of a perfectionist mentality because the desire to make something perfect can become overwhelming and unrealistic.

Don't fear the art of imperfection! In Japanese aesthetics, a worldview called wabi-sabi embraces the art of imperfection in the world around us. An example of this is Kintsugi which is the art of fixing broken pottery by adhering the broken pieces back together with gold. The idea is that this creates a stronger and more beautiful piece from the formally broken.

Don't Fear Experimentation

I know it's hard to leave your comfort zone, but don't let that stop you from creating new things. A hard lesson to learn as an artist is that not everything you make is going to be good and that is okay! Playing - and yes, I really mean playing - with different mediums can help you gain a better understanding and appreciation for certain techniques and art styles. It can also help your creative juices flow and lessen the feeling of obligation towards the pieces you make. Grab some markers, a couple pages from a random magazine, some tape, and your favorite color of paint, and go wild! It doesn't have to be "good", it just has to be real.

[penkraft123]

Everything You Need to Know About Resin Art

As a resin artist, I'm always asked the same questions. "What are you working on? How long is it going to take?" "Is it worth it?" and so many more. So I decided to write this guide in hopes of giving you all a comprehensive overview of what resin art is and how to get started!

What is resin art?

Resin art is a type of art that uses resin to create sculptures and other objects. The material is a durable and colorful polymer, which has been used by artists for centuries to create beautiful works of art.

The benefits of resin include:

It's durable; you can leave your work around for years without worrying about it breaking or cracking.

It's weatherproof; if you find yourself in an area with lots of rain or snowfall, your piece will stay protected from the elements.

It comes in many different colors and styles so you can choose how you want it to look based on what suits your tastes best!

Basic techniques for resin art:

There are many different ways to apply resin art. The most basic technique is to mix the resin, dip a brush or roller into it and then paint over your piece of paper with that mixture. You can also use trowel-like tools and applicators made specifically for this purpose, such as an airbrush or spray gun.

If you want to add more detail or color to your pieces, there are several techniques that can be used alongside one another:

Mixing colors by hand (using liquid mediums)

Adding pigments directly onto paper using brushes/rollers

Spraying pigments from an atomizer onto paper using brushes/rollers

Resin Art tips and tricks:

Use a heat gun to soften the resin.

Use a drill with a sanding bit to create intricate patterns.

Use a Dremel tool with small drill bit to create fine details.

Use hot glue gun for small details and for attaching small objects

Resin art can be a fun hobby and learning some basic techniques from the pros can help you start your journey as an artist sooner.

Resin art can be a fun hobby and learning some basic techniques from the pros can help you start your journey as an artist sooner. You don’t have to be a professional artist or even an expert in order to create resin art. Many people are making their own pieces at home, using various methods of creating resin pieces.

There are many different ways that you can make resin art, including:

Using polymer clay (a mixture of clay powder mixed with water)

Sculpting plasticine (a modelling material made from modelling clay)

Pouring liquid plastic into moulds.

Conclusion

Resin art is a fun hobby, and it can be easy to get started with the basic techniques. With some practice and patience, you will soon be making beautiful pieces of resin art that you can proudly display in your home or office.

Penkraft conducts classes, courses, online courses, workshops, teachers' training & online teachers' training in Handwriting Improvement, Calligraphy, Abacus Maths, Vedic Maths, Phonics and various Craft & Artforms - Madhubani, Mandala, Warli, Gond, Lippan Art, Kalighat, Kalamkari, Pichwai, Cheriyal, Kerala Mural, Pattachitra, Tanjore Painting, One Stroke Painting, Decoupage, Image Transfer, Resin Art, Fluid Art, Alcohol Ink Art, Pop Art, Knife Painting, Scandinavian Art, Water Colors, Coffee Painting, Pencil Shading, Resin Art Advanced etc. at pan-India locations. With our mission to inspire, educate, empower & uplift people through our endeavours, we have trained & operationally supported (and continue to support) 1500+ home-makers to become Penkraft Certified Teachers? in various disciplines.

[chainofclovers]

Ted Lasso 2x8 thoughts

I am so lucky that the creators of Ted Lasso decided to make this entire show specifically for me. #blessed

If last week felt like a bit of breathing room (albeit tense, poignant, character-progressing breathing room) with distinct narrative lines, this week’s episode was a chaotic yet tightly-written swirl of pain and hope and sadness! No neat subject headers for this one, y’all. Just my brain and heart in the inadequate form of a bulleted list. It is the medium available to me at this time.

I am going to remember the moment when Ted calls Sharon and tells her his father killed himself for the rest of my life.

(I could say a bunch of stuff about his face and what he says and how he tries to hide his tears from Beard right after and how insanely much I adore this character and ahhhhhhhh but I’m just going to leave that scene there in our collective memories.)

Jamie. JAMIE. Higgins has given some great advice about love on this show, but his musings about his up-and-down relationship with his own father were not helpful in the context of Jamie’s dad, who is an abusive piece of shit. I really adore that all of the main AFC Richmond staff members are realistically a bit hit-or-miss with their advice and life philosophies (some are mostly miss this season, of course).

And I am completely in awe of the moment when Jamie punches his father. The way he just stands there after Beard kicks his dad out of the locker room. The way you can hear a pin drop. And Roy—Roy who is learning in so many areas of his life about his influence on people, learning that the things he needs aren’t necessarily the same as the things other people need—is the one to cross the room and hug him. Hold him, really, with the tenderness Ted used when he hugged Rebecca outside the gala in 1x4. God.

I’ve thought a lot about how s1 was about giving people a soft place to land. There’s always an angel there when you need one. There’s always an opportunity to be kind. If you look for someone, you find them. If you look for the good in someone, you find the good. And as everyone works through their individual journeys in s2, that can’t always be the case anymore. But there are still so many moments of angels on this show, and it’s not about chance and serendipity and fate [not that it was about that in s1] but about the effort it takes to become someone who can be there for someone else. Or who can be there for yourself. I’m so proud of Jamie for physically fighting back against his father. I’m so proud of Roy for being the one who recognized what Jamie needed.

I have every feeling in the world about how Ted is almost totally frozen both times (s1 and s2) he witnesses Jamie’s father abusing him. In s1, he was still there for Jamie after, and I have every reason to believe he’ll be there for Jamie after this incident as well, but that frozen stance HURTS. He’s in so deep with his pain about his own father that it’s like he physically cannot snap out of it to act in the moment. It seems entirely outside of his control, and it breaks my heart, because Ted wants so badly to be a good father, a good coach, a good friend, a good partner, a good patient. He’s there for people in all kinds of ways, even in his current less-than-capable state. He takes care of Sharon post-concussion and even gets her a new bike! During the disastrous match at Wembley his coaching is ineffectual and everything is chaos but he’s the last one standing on the pitch! But this really awful thing keeps happening to Jamie and Ted is just…frozen in the face of it. Like one of those nightmares where you’re running in place.

The frozen-in-place nightmare also kind of applies to the way the total separation between Ted and Rebecca feels, too. I have never for a moment doubted the writers’ intentions in setting these characters up as soulmates on parallel journeys, and I’m actually really digging (on a story level) how disconnected they are right now. It is IMPRESSIVE that their absence in each other’s lives feels like such a glaring loss, one we cannot forget even as there are so many other things happening onscreen. It is 100% not just shipper goggles making me process information about Ted while thinking about Rebecca and information about Rebecca while thinking about Ted. I know there are a lot of really angry and frustrated people in the fandom right now (both T/R shippers and T/R antis and non-shipping fans who don’t get why s2 is different from s1) and while I understand being frustrated by choices characters make, and frustrated by the feelings the show makes us feel that we just want to feel more of or less of, I continue to agree with pretty much every narrative choice happening right now.

Agreeing with the narrative like this?! This is such a unique experience for me as a viewer—to feel like I’m on a ride that is at once absolutely wild and incredibly sensible and well-crafted, and to feel simultaneously completely invested and anticipatory and speculative but also totally willing to trust where it goes. I long for Ted and Beard to really talk. I long for Ted and Rebecca to stop missing each other. I long for Roy to have a serious conversation with Ted about what’s happening with him. I long for Keeley to find a vocation, something that drives her beyond her projects. I long for so many things! But I wouldn’t long for them if this show was less good. If the show was less good, I wouldn’t have a wish list a mile long because I wouldn’t be so attuned to the details and potential lurking in every scene. THIS IS SUCH A GOOD SHOW, I CANNOT HANDLE IT, I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

(To that end, a great deal of the Ted Lasso tag and so many Twitter reactions reactions to the show feel super stressful right now and I am kind of just trying not to look?! I love this fandom so much because of the amazing conversations that happen and because of brilliant fic and because there are some awesome people I never would have encountered were it not for this show. That little bubble is wonderful and I’d stay in this fandom no matter what in order to keep experiencing those things. But fans’ catastrophic reactions to every little thing that happens, every little choice a character makes that isn’t the “perfect” choice? The takeaway that the writers—on this show of all shows—wake up in the morning ready for another day of torturing shippers rather than another day of writing a beautiful story they genuinely want to write? I do not enjoy those parts at all. I would like to opt out of those parts. I’m having such a magical experience watching this show and talking about this show and listening about this show and writing about this show with a variety of people who feel all kinds of ways. I truly wish I could somehow transfer the energy of this experience onto all the people who are hating it right now. I don’t mind at all that people are having vastly different reactions to this show and are sharing their honest feelings, including the really angry ones (I can appreciate something and disagree with it!), and I get that sometimes the language of fannish reactions is intentionally, ironically hyperbolic. But there feels like this very serious trend of people legitimately thinking writers on this show are targeting shippers and have lost respect for their characters, and I just feel like an alien from another planet when I see that stuff. I guess I just feel like people make art because they want their art to be visible to other people and to themselves, but that doesn’t typically involve specifically catering to or torturing a subset of that audience?)

I am more fascinated by Sharon Fieldstone than ever before. I have been running through every single action with her and Ted so many times. The confirmation that she’s living in club-provided housing (that could not look more different from Ted’s club-provided flat). Ted clearly noticing the many bottles. Sharon’s face while she tries to casually recycle them. (Sharon could legitimately have a more problematic relationship with alcohol than Ted does, and I find that extremely interesting and am very curious to find out what happens there.) Sharon leaving him voice notes while she’s concussed, probably because she’d been thinking about him shortly before the accident. The way Ted calls her and does all the funny voices and it’s not frustrating like all the times he uses his silliness and allusions to deflect during their prior conversations because this time, those behaviors are just a part of him showing care for another person. The way they stretch each other, and Ted is still wrong about the things he’s been wrong about, but they both grow all the same.

While it is pretty much impossible for me to imagine that this show would include an actual romantic relationship between Ted and Sharon (it would be beyond unethical even if they could write it well, and Sharon in particular is so professional and committed to her work, and it would erase so much of the powerful message about the importance of seeking therapy from a professional who is not your friend or partner, and I would totally hate it), watching this episode was the first moment I had this queasy little feeling that it’s possible that Ted could end up developing really complicated feelings about Sharon since, at this point, he’s been honest with her about things he’s hardly spoken about before and you can really form an attachment to people you feel safe with in a new way. (I mean, I’m sure Michelle knows what happened with Ted’s father, but I’m not even certain if Beard does.) He’s so broken right now, and Sharon is such a great person and so different from anyone else in his life (even though Rebecca is also different, and Beard is also different, and Roy is also different, and so on), that I could see things getting really fuzzy for him. I continue to have faith in the way the storylines on this show are handled. I’m just. Putting this here.

(In saying that, though, I also wanna make it really clear that I don’t just automatically assume anytime a new female character is introduced that they’re going to end up becoming a romantic complication. Like, Phoebe is allowed to have a teacher who is an attractive woman and AFC Richmond is allowed to have a sports psychologist who is an attractive woman and Keeley is allowed to talk to Jamie Tartt without it threatening what she has with Roy and all these people can exist as human beings without the introduction of romantic drama.)

Isaac gives every player one haircut per season, OH MY GOD. The JOY during the haircut scene. YES.

KEELEY AND REBECCA. Their text thread. The affirming video call right before Rebecca goes into the restaurant. The way Keeley sits all snuggled up against Rebecca in her office.

I was pretty thoroughly spoiled for the Sam and Rebecca plot through 2x8, and I was bracing for something far more problematic and tortured than what happens in this episode. The words I would use to describe their scenes: awkward, cute, cringy, and understandable. There are a million reasons why this relationship isn’t sustainable, but I felt completely understanding of both their choices here. This show has a lot of thesis statements, but I keep going back to the idea from 2x1 that there are people who enter your life to help you get to the next point, and I think it’s entirely possible that Sam and Rebecca will mutually be that for each other.

I find comparisons between Rupert and Rebecca super upsetting. There are absolutely meaningful things to say about the irony of ending up in a situation with an uncomfortable resemblance to certain taboo elements of an ex’s situation. But that ex is abusive and manipulative and cruel and Rebecca has exhibited NONE of those behaviors, and it makes me really sad to think that people feel that the writers on this show have betrayed Rebecca in giving her this storyline.

As always, I reserve the right to keep blathering about this show. I’ve had a headache for a couple of days, but my head is also so full of 2x8 thoughts that I couldn’t keep them in even if the circumstances for writing this were not ideal. I kind of hate that I’ve included frustrated fandom thoughts within the analysis of what I felt was an absolutely gorgeous, complicated, heartbreaking, near-perfect episode of television, but if ya can’t be a little dramatic on your own tumblr while you’re feeling raw and under the weather, where can ya?

[hobeemin]

Memories

🌼 Genre: Romance, Fluff, College AU, f2l

🌼 Pairing: Kim Namjoon x (f) Reader

🌼 Rating: pg13

🌼 Warning(s): Unless you count Monie’s appearance 😁😊

🌼 Word Count: 1.2k

🌼 Credits and Shout outs: @spicykoreantatertots a huge and warm thank you for reading this over and giving me great feedback 💜 @taerseok​ for helping me with the f2l’s questions 💜, and to my lil bro @guktro for his guidance with helping me with this banner. I was ready to pull my braids out!

🌼 Banner resources found here and here

🌼 A/N: To @editingverse​ this is a special gift to you :3 Editors deserve just as much credit as writers, if not more. 

It started off simple. He offered you his chocolate milk and that alone solidified your friendship. Thick as thieves, two peas in a pod. Practically attached at the hip, you two were inseparable. Kim Namjoon was your best friend in the entire world, your soulmate perhaps, but all you knew then was that life would be pointless without him there. 

But the inevitable happened.

You had to move away.

A new job transfer for your mom was the reason for the move. Still, Namjoon made you promise to stay in touch.

“One mind, two bodies, moon child.” 

That was your mantra. And for a while, things seemed normal until you got older. The calls and texts became sporadic, emails left unanswered, time moved on and so did you. The best friend you had was now a distant memory of the past. 

Autumn had arrived. The vibrant leaves crunched under your boots as you walked through the quad, earbuds in, bobbing your head to your favorite song. Throughout your time in college, you spent much of your time to yourself but managed to collect a tiny group of friends. Deciding that your passion was art, you spent your alone time sketching and painting anything you came across. Wrapping your infinity scarf tighter around your neck, you found a bench off the path and plopped down. Humming to yourself, you set your bag down and pulled out one of your sketch pads and a charcoal pencil. 

“What do I wanna draw today,” you ask yourself, tapping the tip of the pencil under your chin.

With a smile, you began to create the shape, adding the shading as you went along. Focused, you hardly noticed anything around while you drew until a fuzzy white blur ran up to you. You jumped in surprise dropping your sketchbook on the ground. In front of you stood a medium-sized dog, wagging it’s nail while his tongue lulled happily.

You plucked your earbud out and gave a laugh.

“Who do you belong to? Your mom or dad isn’t gonna be happy you ran off.”

The dog barked, jumping up to lick your face and you giggled giving him a pat on the head. “You’re certainly friendly. You remind me of another dog I used to know.”

A smile formed as you recalled the name.

“Monie.” 

“Monie!”

Your eyes widened as a man jogged around the quad holding a leash. By his expression, he looked distraught. Turning his head his eyes zoomed on the fluffy American Eskimo dog. Scowling, he ran towards you and the dog, tripping over himself. He placed his hands on his hips and stared hard at the dog. 

“Monie! You nearly gave me a heart attack. I take your leash off for two seconds and you decide to zip across campus. What am I gonna do with you?! I swear dude. Not cool.”

You snorted, watching him fuss at the dog, not taking any notice of you. You cleared your throat making him look at you for the first time since he ran over.

“Hi. I’m guessing you’re his owner?”

He nodded, a smile forming for the first time. His dimples deepened as he looked away in embarrassment. “Yes. I’m so sorry. He usually doesn’t do anything like this. I don’t know what came over him. Monie just freaked as we were walking.”

Dressed in a light hunter green jacket, white shirt, dark khaki pants, boots, and a maroon beanie, he looked comfortable. He stopped rambling once he spotted the sketchbook on the ground. “Oh, is this yours?”

You nodded picking up the other items Monie knocked over. He picked it up looking over your recent drawing. Nostalgia hit him at once looking at the image. Two children playing under the full moon.

“Moonchild,” he murmured.

Your head jerked up staring at him. “What did you say?”

He pointed to the picture. “Moonchild.”

Your jaw dropped open. “One mind.”

His eyes crinkled as he grinned. “Two bodies.”

You screamed from your spot and practically jumped into his arms. “Joonie!”

He wrapped his arms around laughing. “Y/N! I can’t believe it’s you!”

You pulled away, beaming. “Small freaking world. I can’t...This is...Wow.”

Namjoon nodded in agreement. “I’ll say.” He looked you over, shaking his head. “You look amazing. How long has it been? Jeez, almost ten years.”

“Ten long years,” you mused. “What are you doing here of all places?”

He joined you on the bench, Monie laying between you both. “I transferred here this semester. I start classes soon, philosophy,” he answered happily.

You smiled fondly at him. “I’m not surprised. You were too smart for your own good growing up.”

He laughed, clapping his hands. “I couldn’t help it. You didn’t seem to mind back then.”

You coughed as pink dusted your cheeks. To lighten the mood you poked him playfully in the side. “True, but who was it that got you out of trouble all those times?”

He raised his brow, poking you back. “Touche.”

It was almost as if you both hadn’t been estranged for almost a decade. Getting back into a familiar groove. It felt comfortable. The bell from the clock tower chimed signaling that it was close to the early evening. Frowning in the direction of the clock, you sighed. “Crap I’m gonna be late.”

Namjoon looked at you, trying to hide his disappointment. “You have to leave?”

You sighed as you packed your art supplies. “I’m supposed to meet up for a group project.”

He fidgeted a bit as he turned to face you, taking your hand into his, making you freeze. Your eyes met his, and he began to speak. 

 “Y/N, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about you. You were my best friend.”

You felt a pang in your heart as he spoke. You felt the same. Time just got in the way. With some hesitation, you reached over and squeezed his hand. “I missed you too, Namjoon. I regret not staying in touch. And now you’re here.”

He smiled at the warmth coming from your hands. It was something that he missed from when you were younger. It gave him comfort. Now that Namjoon was sitting next to you, he took in your features. Gosh you were beautiful, just like he remembered. Time had been good to you. And he was determined not to let you get away this time.

He scratched the back of his neck nervously trying to come up with the words to say.

“Y/N, I need to say this cause I don’t know if I ever will–listen, I’ve...I’ve liked you since we were kids. The day you left, I had planned to confess my feelings to you, but then you moved and I never got the courage to do it again.” He squeezed your hand gently, those dimples appearing once more. “I-I know this is sort of sudden, but would you consider letting me take you out? I would love another chance to see where this friendship takes us.”

He gazed at you with hopeful eyes with determination behind it. Something that was always present when you were younger. Truthfully, you wanted to see him again too.

“Yes,” you answered.

His smile spread wide. “Really?!”

You nodded. “Of course, but I get to pick the place.”

He poked your forehead gently and chuckled. “Still bossy as ever.”

You leaned in and placed a kiss on his cheek sweetly. “One mind.”

He blushed giving you a wink. “Two bodies.”

[yurimother]

LGBTQ Manga Review - April Fools' Suicide

As much as I LOVE covering and reviewing the latest and greatest releases from the “big” names in Yuri, such as they are in what is still a niche genre, it is nice every once in a while to take a look at an up-and-comer. Unfortunately, the vast majority of English releases are from works that have already obtained some modicum of success in Japan and are well known. However, thanks to the power of the internet, I occasionally get the privilege of reviewing something a bit more obscure, such as Sumire’s April Fools’ Suicide. This original doujinshi began as a short comic on Twitter, then morphed into the author’s graduation project, and finally was completed as the volume I am reviewing today.

April Fools’ Suicide begins as the protagonist Miyata stands on a rooftop, prepared to jump to her death. Immediately, this sets off a barrage of red flags. While topics such as suicide and mental illness should not by any means be avoided in manga, far from it, they are essential to discuss in media, I am always wary of their presence. There is a right way and a very wrong way to depict suicide or suicidal thoughts. April Fools’ Suicide falls somewhere in between these two categories. April Fools’ Suicide does not work to link the suicide with any mental illness or demonstrate how help is available to those suffering. I will admit, I am probably more aware of these pitfalls than most, given that I work with a crisis line and train people in suicide prevention.

However, credit where credit is due, there are some aspects of the manga and its depiction of suicide I really like and appreciate. For one, Miyata does not die by suicide. Another girl, Tanaka, appears on the roof and declares that she has fallen in love with Miyata. This savior or lifeline character arc is incredible, although it is, of course, compounded with the sudden ridiculous declaration of love from a complete stranger, but such is Yuri. Additionally, as the manga progresses, Miyata’s life improves. The harassment and bullying she was experiencing stops, thanks to Tanaka, and she eventually makes friends and is able to stand on her own two feet. Major props to Sumire for showing how life can go on and be better.

Okay, enough about suicide, although if that topic makes you exceptionally uncomfortable, you probably want to avoid this manga regardless of the contents of this review. The plot continues as Miyata is shocked to discover that Tanaka is a new transfer student to her school. The two become friends, but Miyata eventually pushes Tanaka away. There are some shocking revelations, which I may add are appropriately foreshadowed and fit with the work’s overall tone, a bunch of wholly unrealistic decisions, and voila the girls are together. Yes, it is a standard girl-meets-girl, Yuri storyline. Although the drama, in this case, is not blown out of proportion as it usually is in this genre, although the heavy contents are not necessarily a plus.

April Fools’ Suicide’s plot is nothing too special, although the presentation is tight and focused. The pacing also feels hugely rushed, with no real-time for a relationship or bond to develop, which is more of a byproduct of being a one-shot doujin than anything else. It is not impossible in this medium, but it is extraordinarily difficult to do right. The characters are not as rushed nor as tepid, however. As previously mentioned, Miyata grows significantly in confidence and contentedness over the course of the volume, although her initial personality is not very defined at all beyond suicidal and lonely. Tanaka is a much more interesting character. She presents a playful and brave face but has a reputation for getting into fights, a status which she uses to her advantage. However, her vulnerabilities and struggles are highlighted in a beautiful, if disturbing, way.

Much like the core plot, the art of April Fools’ Suicide, is competent but unimpressive. It is nothing astounding in it, but neither is there any content that truly offends my eyes, aside from one misaligned double-page spread. Sumire has a few good pieces of art, a landscape shot of the city, a dramatic closeup during an emotional moment. She also uses the standard artwork effectively, with dynamic direction and smart choices compensating for the mediocre aspects. However, the cute moe character designs greatly detract and distract from the intense material the manga attempts to portray. Perhaps the great Moto Momono could pull off this combination, but here is unfortunately awkward. Additionally, on the note of presentation, while Macaron Press did an excellent job translating this manga, the typography is a severe flaw. The mixed-case font used throughout most of the manga makes it hard to read, as character heights are all over the place.

While I have pointed out some of April Fools’ Suicide shortcomings, it should be noted that this is not a bad manga. In fact, I was perhaps harder on this manga than I would typically be with a doujinshi because its presentation is so slick, aside from the glaring lettering problems. The story handles a complicated and risky story competently, though not gracefully, and the quality is consistent. Ultimately, April Fools’ Suicide is a true Yuri manga through and through, taking in all the drama, lack of realism, and metanarratives the genre has to offer. I had a pleasant time and with it and found it heartfelt and think you might too. The first part of the manga is available to read for free on Pixiv, so you have nothing to lose by checking it out.

Oh, one last thing, the bonus chapter/epilogue is so sweet, pure, and adorable. I am not saying buy it just for that, but I am not dissuading it.

Ratings: Story – 5 Characters – 5 Art – 6 LGBTQ – 4 Sexual Content – 1 Final – 5

Purchase April Fools' Suicide digitally in English and Japanese on booth and read part one on Pixiv

Review copy provided by Macaron Press

[theeasterlymedia]

A Normative Discussion on Andrei Rublev

Meghnad Mukherjee 

While watching Rublev, I couldn’t help but think about Béla Tarr and his The Turin Horse. Tarr developed his distinctive style over time, and so one should presume Rublev was a stage in Tarkovsky’s development towards perfecting his almost magical cinematic philosophy that we admire today. In this essay we will be discussing only some of the scenes (and a short general discussion) of this three hours long masterpiece otherwise the obvious following rant would not have stopped.

Holiday, 1408, June

The scene opens with the greatest of all Russian Icon painters Andrei Rublev and his crew of apprentices and helpers on their way to a job in the once-powerful feudal fortress city Vladimir in June of 1408. It is probably the evening of June 23, St. John the Baptist Eve, which falls immediately after summer solstice, the end of spring. The Kliaz'ma River rises north of Moscow, flows between Moscow and the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery and eastward past Vladimir.

Gathering firewood, Andrei gets caught up in a village pagan ritual. We should notice the sounds of nightingales and of ritual bell percussion.Some would say he seeks a way to join his high spiritual calling and art to the real soil of Russian folk experience, his "civilization" to his "culture". One way to describe the linkage of Christian "civilization" with Russian pagan "culture" is dual faith. Andrei is about to have a "dual faith" experience himself, and so are you if you let the film have its way.The making of a straw effigy and the burning of it are documented features of peasant ritual on St. John's Eve. The sexual license portrayed here is characteristic of peasant spring and summer rituals. Andrei stands over a smoldering camp fire and his monkish robes catch fire. Fire and water are central to the pagan rituals of St. John's Eve (they are also central to Tarkovsky's own personal film imagery). The men and women are performing a characteristic ritual of St. John's Eve. Also don't miss the scene downstream from the two lines of naked folk---a white horse comes into view and begins to thrash the river's surface as the ritual boat approaches.

Andrei is captured and bound in a stable by villagers who do not want him to interfere with their dear ritual. Marfa approaches him and plants an earthly kiss: physical contact of native paganism with highly refined and civilized Christianity. Notice the necklace she wears. Also notice how Andrei sheds his monkish cowl (identifying "uniform" of the black or monkish clergy) as he decides to melt into the woods and rejoin the village fest. As the next morning follows someone has squealed on the village revelers. The local landlord and his ruffian men-at-arms on horseback appear, accompanied by clerical enforcers, all bent on doing their official Christian duty. They hope to run down participants in last night's ritual. Sure enough, here comes Marfa and her significant other, chased by authorities. He doesn't get away, but she swims toward the middle of the river, immediately past the boat carrying Andrei, but he will not look at her. She splashes bravely out to deep waters.

Raid, autumn, 1408

Now we jump ahead a few weeks to the fall of 1408 and the outskirts of the city Vladimir. This army is led by a Russian prince who is a rival of his own brother for power in Vladimir. A tatar Khan’s army and his one will join up at a difficult river ford in preparation for an attack on Vladimir. As the two armies link up, the Khan and the Russian prince vie with one another to see who is faster. The Russian prince recalls an event in the previous winter in which the church tried to reconcile him with his rival brother. The wintry church is the great in Vladimir, built in 1194-1197. You can just barely make out the remarkable animal, vegetable and human figures carved in relief in the white stone outer walls of this ancient cathedral. These figures are taken to be themselves representatives of the combination of old pre-Christian "Scythian" motifs with Biblical themes.

Two times later in this section of the film, the Russian prince flashes back to this treacherous "kissing of the cross" which he and his Tatar ally are now about to betray. The second flashback occurs as the Russian prince witnesses the Tatar humiliation of the captured prince's brother and family and receives from the Tatars the vestments of the now deposed brother's power. The sounds of the Orthodox mass can be heard again, now in the courtyard as the Tatar khan nervously walks his war horse back and forth in anticipation of breaking into the church. A dying horse comes down a stairway and falls to the ground, bleeding to death. This is a disturbing and powerful scene. We may be more touched by this cruel death than by all the other film portrayals of human death. As the horse stumbles to its death, from the church we hear the most characteristic phrases from the Russian mass: Hospodi, pomilui, Hospodi, pomilui... [Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy...].

Soon, we see inside the cathedral being rammed by the Tatar army.We spy Andrei again. He is with a young blond woman. The actress is Tarkovsky's wife, and she is playing a paradigmatic Russian cultural role: the holy fool. She is a "durochka", not able to take care of herself, but in her naive simplicity representing something very dear to Russian tradition. Andrei has made himself her protector in earlier scenes, and now they are trapped together as the cathedral door breaks open. What a scene, as the Tatar khan paces his horse around inside the cathedral, asking the Russian prince taunting questions about the holy images on the walls, most now burning. The brave and defiant Foma is tortured, molten lead is poured into his mouth, and he is dragged to his death by a stallion stampeded through the devastated streets of Vladimir.The traitorous prince is beset with deep misgivings about this destructive adventure. Large white geese float from cathedral rooftops to the disordered streets below, all in slow motion. Andrei and Durochka are still in the church and try to come to terms with what has just transpired.

Tatar's Wife

The final scene I have selected is four years later, the winter of 1412. It is a hard winter, and famine stalks the land. Andrei is heating large stones and trying to transfer them to wooden casks to heat water. Durochka is eating an old apple. The Tatar khan rides into the monastery with several of his warriors. They are in a playful mood. The khan feeds frozen meat to quarrelsome dogs. Durochka wants some too. What follows is one of the most intriguing "falling-in-love" scenes in all of filmdom. Andrei tries to intervene, but this situation is beyond his or just about any imaginable power to change. As the khan sweeps Durochka up behind his saddle and he and his warriors gallop out of the monastery courtyard through a roofed gateway, our time is up.

Some commentary or rather a casual discussion --

Tarkovsky created a film about faith in a time when there were no films about religion, apart from satire or anti-religion propaganda. At the same time, people who were religious have tended to view film as a profane medium, inappropriate for religious topics. Andrei Rublev was a 15th-century monk regarded as Russia’s greatest icon writer. While his work is well known and celebrated throughout Russia, little is known of his life except for the handful of icons he left behind. Tarkovsky invented life for Rublev. It is then not an investigation into the painter’s life, but Tarkovsky’s response to what the filmmaker saw and felt by looking at Rublev’s icons.

Moving through ‘a sequence of detailed fragments’ in which Rublev is sometimes present, sometimes only an observer, the film works toward difficult questions: how is experience related, and how can it be communicated? How can art be true to its subject and its audience?How do you paint the trinity without just reducing it to the sum of its parts?

At once humble and cosmic, Rublev was described by Tarkovsky as a “film of the earth.” Shot in widescreen and sharply defined black and white, the movie is supremely tactile—the four classical elements appearing here as mist, mud, guttering candles, and snow. A 360-degree pan around a primitive stable conveys the wonder of existence. Such long, sinuous takes are like expressionist brushstrokes; the result is a kind of narrative impasto.The film’s brilliant, never-explained prologue shows some medieval Icarus braving an angry crowd to storm the heavens. Having climbed a church tower, he takes flight in a primitive hot-air balloon—an exhilarating panorama—before crashing to earth. Fifteenth century Russia was a tumultuous country, never really at peace, and Tarkovsky shows this in particular in the latter half of the film. The theme of conscience is present throughout the film.Tarkovsky plays here with sound and silence, almost deafening silence.

Shooting the entire movie in black and white, Tarkovsky finally dazzles the audience with close-ups of Rublev’s works, revealed for the first time during the movie in all their brilliance and colour. After more than two hours of sombre and austere imagery, the beauty of the frescoes amazes the viewers. The art, born from the endeavours and aspirations of the artist, is presented to the audience in all its grandeur, rising over the everyday like the man on the balloon at the beginning of the movie. This universal quality of the artist and his work makes the historical period irrelevant, performing a spiritual sweep, casting an ethereal spell on the audience.

Andrei Rublev is itself more an icon than a movie about an icon painter. (Perhaps it should be seen as a “moving icon”) This is a portrait of an artist in which no one lifts a brush. The patterns are God’s, whether seen in a close-up of spilled paint swirling into pond water or the clods of dirt Rublev flings against a whitewashed wall. But no movie has ever attached greater significance to the artist’s role. It is as though Rublev’s presence justifies creation.

[thesorceryman]

Possession is defined as ‘‘the belief that an individual has been entered by an alien spirit or other Para human force, which then controls that person and alters his action and identity. The word Jinn in Arabic (Alujonnu in Yoruba "borrowed from Arabic word JINN") refers to something that is (concealed and hidden from the human eyes ) in Al-Qaamoos Al’muheet ( which is the biggest Arabic dictionary of all times ) said this about the word ” JINN ” { Jannahu al-layla } which means ( the night covered him ) ( or concealed him) so this word simply means some being who is Hidden from the normal human eye. JINNS (demons or devils) are unseen creatures that are believed to exist in all major religions and have the power to possess humans and cause them harm. Jinn possession can manifest with a range of bizarre behaviors and unusual movements which could be interpreted as several different psychotic, non-psychotic mental disorders as well as feelings of the implant by foreign bodies or aliens. They do, common with humans, such as they also have the ability to, however, possess some characteristics in the ability to think and reflect. Similarly, choose between the path of good and the path of evil in the same manner as humans.

These are conscious beings, which are invisible, among the ordinary people they are known as ‘fairy’, ‘giant’, ‘genie’, ‘ghost’, ‘JINN’, ‘elf’, ‘aliens’ and various other names are given to them depending on the image they display. The people think that they are the SPIRITS of the dead people, so they try to establish contacts with them by calling them. Last but not least, these conscious beings introduce themselves as ’BEINGS FROM OUTER SPACE’ to those people whose level of knowledge is insufficient to be able to buy their stories. The JINN takes its existence, its liveliness, and its ‘self’ conscious from the absolute ‘SPIRIT’. With regards to the perfection it possesses within the consciousness, it is something that comes after the ‘HUMAN BEING’ in the whole universe. It is fully aware of its own consciousness only after it can enfold itself in the periphery (the body of light). This, in a way, can be considered as the birth of the JINNS concerning their structures.

Their death in the absolute sense takes place right at the moment of the doomed event, just like human beings. Their death in the simplest sense (i.e. the kind of death we know in general) takes place whenever their periphery (body of light) gets isolated from them at the end of their planned life span. The JINNS can understand the death of each other simply by finding out the loss of another jinni from their group. Even though their lifetimes are as long as the humans in reality, due to their structure and some properties they possess, this period could be as high as the age of 700-1000 when compared with us. In actual fact, when their life span of 60-70 years concerning their own unit of time is compared with our unit of time, we can see that it amounts to a life span of nearly 1000 years. Due to their structural behaviour, they also possess quite sophisticated potentials and some of them are even more superior to humans in terms of their conscious level. However, it is known for sure that the superior human being is much more superior to the most superior JINN. Concerning their character, they are weaker than humans. They are more inclined to display such behaviours, which can be considered as negative. In general, they deal with such activities. Despite this fact, there are also good ones among them as well as the ones who are more religious and even ones who are saints although this is very rare.

Their most significant characteristics and pleasure is to manipulate the weak points of the people, make individuals depend on them and make them do what they want, make them serve as well as worship them as if they were their servants.

So what are the ” Elemental Spirits “ ?

Elementals spirits are what some call the Nature Spirits or Devas or the Faeries . this type of Spirits have only one element to their nature usually Air, Fire, Water and Earth , so Djinns are part of the Fire Spirits.

Yes, the Spirits of the Four Elements are divided into four categories, earth, air, fire, and water. Let us look at each of them in turn.

1. EARTH: Earth spirits, that is the beings, which relate to rocks, stones, minerals, precious gems, hills, and mountains are traditionally called in English ( Gnomes ). All aspects of the solid physical structure of the planet come under their domain. Although they can be found within rocks, they also have the freedom to move around but generally stay close to the ground. They are a) Gnomes b) Kobolds c) giants d) mountain spirits, they are short about 1 to 2 feet tall and thy look old with full beard those are the Gnomes or the Ghulz, the other type are bigger and bit taller, most of them live underground, under the trees or on hilltops.

2. WATER: Water spirits are connected to all liquids, but their presence can be felt in a much more powerful way by streams, rivers, lakes, and, of course, the sea. They are traditionally known as Undines, they have males and females. but their females are shining as if wet, is female, nude and without wings, the exquisite limbs gleam through the white auric flow, the arms are particularly long and beautiful, and she waves them gracefully in her flight. She is about four feet in height and her general coloring is silvery-white, with gold stars around the head.

3. AIR: The spirits of the air are connected to all gaseous substances but like water, beings are best sensed in winds and breezes. Because air moves so quickly they can be difficult to pin down. They are known as Sylphs in tradition although the perception of a ‘fairy’ with tiny wings that can fly is a close approximation to how they appear to children.

These live in the element air and are like light in the atmosphere. Sensitive to the movement of the atmosphere, they have a sleepy consciousness. Their task is to transfer light to the plants. The stream of air caused by a flying bird creates a sound they can hear. They like birds flying through the air. Sylphs are connected to movement in space, like modeling and directing the wind. Elves (or fairies) are more connected to the expansion of life in their area.

4. FIRE: (these are what most people call the JINN ) Fire spirits can be found in volcanoes in nature but also in any fire, from candle to inferno. They are known as Salamanders or Vulcanii and are the most difficult of all of the elementals to connect with, being said to the only associate with philosophers and adepts of the magical arts.

Possession worldwide is found more commonly in women and marginalized groups and maybe a vehicle through which they can express their complaints in a context in which they can be heard. Spirit possession generally occurs in cultural contexts in which the self is more likely to be fragmented. Whether or not possession is itself seen as pathological is dependent on the cultural context in which it occurs; by no means are all cases of possession seen as signs of illness. Being possessed by demons or evil spirits is one of the oldest ways of accounting for bodily and mental disorders. The idea that spirit possession and mental illness are related has a long historical legacy.

Possessed individuals sometimes exhibit symptoms similar to those associated with mental illnesses such as psychosis, hysteria, mania, Tourette syndrome, epilepsy, schizophrenia, or dissociative identity disorder; this includes involuntary or uncensored behaviour. Since possession is not normative in Western cultures, it is the cultural context that determines the distinction between psychosis and the spiritual. Spirit possession is a culturally specific way of displaying symptoms of psychosis, dissociation, social anxiety, etc., and is a fairly global idiom of distress. That is, whereas a person with psychosis in the West may believe he is being controlled by a computer, a member of a community that beliefs in spirit possession may believe his body to be taken over by a demon.

How does JINN possess people?

1. Weak spiritual protection

2. Hexing and cursing

1. WEAK SPIRITUAL PROTECTION : The JINNS establish their connections especially with nervous women following the time they’ve given birth to a baby or during illnesses accompanied by high fever or during accidents. This is because during those periods, the brain is busy with the extra activity taking place in various parts of the body and therefore the human being simply cannot have control over the brain’s activity in a desired manner. As a result, the JINN takes over the control in the related part of the brain at that particular weak moment by becoming visible

to the person in whatever form he likes and force him/her to do whatever he desires.

Sometimes this act of forcing can take place by the impulses that the JINN sends to the part of the brain that is connected with the faculty of pain centre and making the individual feel that pain. At other times, by triggering the centre of fear, JINN could make the individual even more frightened so that the individual can do whatever they desire. Most probably, what is simply being carried out is that they send out light signals to a certain centre in the individual’s brain and therefore create the desired effect. Whenever the mediums go into a trance, they experience exactly the same situation. This is the reason why they are asked to relax and let themselves loose in the first place. Here, the objective is to decrease the control that the human being has over his

brain. In this way, the JINN desired to be contacted would be able to possess the individual more easily. In such connections, the women particularly say that the JINN becoming visible before their eyes appear as a very handsome man.

The JINNS who establish contacts openly with the women or the young girls usually marry them and have sexual intercourse with them. During these connections, the women see the JINN as a solid object and have a sexual contact with it as if it were a male from the human kind. However, as the JINN do not have a tangible solid physical body, then the following question comes to the minds.

How on earth the JINN who cannot even be transformed into a complete physical object can manage to satisfy a woman belonging to the human race during this connection?. Under such conditions, the JINN stimulate the part of sexuality centre in the brain of the woman involved and cause her to get satisfaction. As a matter of fact, all the scientists who work in the field of physiology know very well that when an electro shock is applied to a certain centre of the brain, it is possible to make that person do whatever you want. In fact, these are just the sort of contacts, which do not only take place between a woman from the human kind and a man from the class of JINNS. There can also be a sexual relation between a woman from the class of JINNS and a man from the humankind as well. Moreover, it is also said that the JINNS have homosexual contacts too. In all of these connections, the point which is usually discovered in common is that a member of the JINN makes a contact with a human being only for the purpose of fulfilling his selfish desires on the human being forcefully. In general, the people who have been forced into such positions do complain about this. These events take place without consent of the individual.

In such cases, especially when there is a connection between a woman from the human kind and a man from the class of JINNS, the woman isolates herself from the world outside and most of the time she wants to stay in a room.

2. HEXING AND CURSING: These are done by individuals who possesed power to manipulate or control JINNS to do whatever they want. In this case, the JINN is sent to forcefully ententer the body of the victim and do as it pleases. The victim will exhibit some of the symptoms listed below.

SYMPTOMS OF POSSESSION

1. Hearing voices

2. Erratic behaviour in one's words, deeds, and movement.

3. Being quick to get angry or weep with no apparent cause

4. Seeing metaphysical objects

5. Irregular menstruation in women

6. Constant headache

7. Frightening nightmares which include seeing various kinds of creatures such as ghosts, or apparitions, seeing oneself falling from a high place, seeing people in strange forms and snakes.

8. Insomnia, anxiety, and fear upon waking.

9. Talking loudly in one's sleep, or moaning and groaning.

10. Having sex in dreams.

All these symptoms still need to be examined by a professional or priest before establishing the fact that truly one is possessed by JINN through reading or divination.

Nowadays, the medical science cannot diagnose these cases and therefore they try to cure the patient by means of applying electro-shock for the sake of the positive science. However, in these cases too, hardly any result can be obtained. At the end of the electro-shock process, there is a disorder and an agitation in the brain cells of the individual causing a state of calmness. This of course does not mean that the person has been cured, it is because of the disturbance that she had due to the shock. Generally, it is seen that the people who have good healing powers can correct such situations by way of prayers, spells and ritual blown upon to the depressed person.

If you're experiencing any of the symptoms above or needs spiritual help, contact me. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @thesorceryman

[acertaincritic]

Various Webtoon Reviews

So. Webtoons.

I discovered them a good few months ago and I’m still caught aback by how many people haven’t heard or them or think that they are exclusively BL.

Well, turns out that webtoons are just another medium, and what distinguishes them from your usual manga and comics is that they’re both LEGAL AND FREE. If you’ve got some spare coins you can support the artist by buying a fast-pass, but you can simply leave a like instead.

That said, it’s not a great mystery that a lot of webtoons out there are, well, by new artists. But less gatekeeping doesn’t mean there’re no gems out there. Following will be my reviews of a number of webtoons I’ve discovered so far and can wholeheartedly recommend.

Before we dive in, let it be known that I’m a pretty picky reader. I gravitate towards fantasy stories with solid plots and interesting characters. I do not care for romance, though I don’t go out of my way to shun it.

And my list isn’t anywhere near comprehensive.

Side note: Webtoons are a format specifically for phone scrolling. They don’t look nearly so well on a horizontal (e.g. desktop’s) screen.

Title: UnOrdinary

Throughline: A seemingly powerless student in a world of superpowered people with a strict hierarchy transfers to an elite school where he struggles to survive his daily live. Meanwhile, a mysterious organization is murdering vigilantes who are sometimes called “superheroes”.

My take:

+ Best. Webtoon. Out. There.

+ A full cast of fleshed-out characters and each of them gets an arc and a POV.

+ Themes such as power+responsibility but in a completely different way than typical for superpower stories.

+ Quick pacing once the plot really kicks in.

+ Doesn’t pull its punches. Seriously. Goes in directions most stories wouldn’t go in, and does it well.

+ Art’s nice and its quality is only improving.

+ People you’d think are good turn out evil, evil guys turn out to be not so bad...

+ Ugh. Just give it a try, guys!

- The beginning is a bit slow - I’d say it takes 10 chapters for the first plot hook to happen, and around 30 to get fully invested. Those are pretty short chapters, but still.

- There’s certain clumsiness to the writing, particularly in the earlier chapters. Not that it’s bad, more like, it uses cliche techniques. Examples such as a TV presenter spewing exposition or characters playing cards in a way that foreshadows future events.

Title: Purple Hyacinth

Throughline: A police officer with a supernatural ability to detect lies joins forces with a wanted assassin in order to bring down an underground organization that’s responsible for multiple crimes, including a terrorist attack that killed her childhood sweetheart.

My take:

+ DAT QUALITY. ARE YOU SEEING IT???

+ Seriously, there’s no comparison to your average webtoon. The art style looks nothing if not professional, there are beautiful and detailed backgrounds, the coloring is amazing, and yet the chapters are pretty long...

+ That extends to the writing, too! It’s subtle, and really the only webtoon so far that feels actually mature to me. And I’m not talking about content warnings, but the general.... uh, tone of the story? The way it’s told? Hard to pinpoint, but it’s there.

+ Great music, too!

+ Unusual setup - the lie-detecting ability - and the world building. We get a secondary fantasy world with guns and trains instead of swords and sorcery.

+ I also have a soft spot for police officers/detectives and mysteries, and the plot’s centered around that.

-/+ there’s romance in this, but it’s not the primary focus. And it’s not straightforward, either. At present, I’m not 100% sure there will be an endgame (Which is good!)

- I didn’t fully connect with the characters the way I connected with unOrdinary’s characters. This subtle writing might be working against the creators here - we’re rarely told a character’s thoughts directly, we’re showed them instead, but it’s not that easy to infer everything. Besides, some characters are purposefully veiled in mystery, and the lack of understanding (e.g. of their motives) hinders the ability to sympathize.

- the plot is both easy and hard to follow. It’s easy on the chapter-to-chapter basis, but it’s hard on the large-scale basis. There’s not enough information for the reader to reasonably predict what will be the next arc, where the characters will go, etc. We don’t know enough about the world and the players involved to anticipate what might happen next.

Title: Not Even Bones

Throughline: A teenage girl dissects supernatural beings for her mother who hunts them and sells their body parts - until one day the mother brings home a living boy instead of a corpse.

My take:

+ Another webtoon with a professional feel to it, doubled by the fact that it’s based on a YA novel.

+ The MC is an interesting, gray character.

+ The pacing is quick, and the plot doesn’t pull punches.

+ My first webtoon!

- TBH not many flaws here... My artist friend spotted some iffy frames, but I guess this ranked third not because I don’t like it, but because I like other things better. While the above are more flawed, they also have more things I love.

Title: Lalin’s Curse

Throughline: A group of young teenagers in a small town decide to solve a mystery at the insistence of their believer-in-the-supernatural friend. Little do they know that the supernatural truly exists and might be closer than they think...

My take:

+ A cast of sympathetic characters.

+ The MC has loads of agency.

+ Great art style and climate.

+ Once the action kicks in, it kicks hard!

+/- the story at the beginning seems less supernatural than it turns out later.

- the first few chapters except for the prologue are pretty slow.

- overall, while I like the execution, the plot in general seems pretty standard. Better for younger audience.

______

Now, these are not all the webtoons I’ve tested out in the past few months, but they are the ones I’ve read up-to-date and decided are the best of the bunch.

Other notable mentions in no particular order:

> Third Shift Society

> Code Adam

> Lone

And I’m looking for more in the similar vein! If you didn’t find your fav on the list but it feels like it belongs - hit me up with a rec and I’ll check it out!

PS. I’m aware of “Tower of God”. But I heard it’d come out as an anime, and now that it’s ongoing, I’m waiting for the season to end to watch it.

[drewdodge]

Corina  Critique Notes

- One way of thinking about movement would be to recognize the gravity fo the paint. What happens when you paint upright? More water/ medium… etc. - Concerning your want to capture nostalgia… I see opportunity to do an all over glaze/ wash to these images to give them a film— a window, or a frame. - The work you made responding to graphic qualities is interesting. I think that is a print out with a wash over top. Consider silkscreening, image transferring, tracing, moving image. Talk to India about collage— there are similarities between both of your work with sewing, collage, and nostalgia. Also consider what it means to transfer/ print/ draw on top of/ embed an image. - Dolls and puppets is such a cool way of thinking. I see potential for these figures to become three dimensional. You can stuff them with things of importance. Embed things within the figures. You should totally watch this viral video from 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdYaTa_lOf4 - National symbols… national symbols can symbolize whatever you want. Consider laying— going back to collage/ sewing/ mono printing on top/ stacking. Let national symbols interact and communicate with their opposites, things they stand against. Create ambivalences. - I think sometimes we get caught up in doing more— more to the fabric. I love the. Lightness and fairness in your work. The layering and stacking of fabric is beautiful, and the subject matter of your work is not boring. I am attracted to the clean flat surface(s) of your stacked fabric. I think to incorporate braiding and knotting could overwhelm the images and symbols you are using. I think you could look into relief art and think about lightly stuffing some of the layers to give dimension. Or add braided/ knotted frames/ borders to you work if you see that important. - Protest... scale/ color/ symbols— your paintings being symbols. Simplifying the picture and really editing and revising what is important and why. Braiding national symbols into your work— into figures. Where the work hangs, how it hangs, orientation, material. There was a show where the museum had a cracking dirt floor, which obviously changed the feeling of the observer. - Catholicism has a color pallet, ornamentation, dress, grooming, stances of figures— all of which can be adopted into your paintings and combined with contemporary/ personal ways of living. - I’m interested in you making pictures within pictures within pictures etc. I think of your work as a quilt. Smaller parts make up a symbol, a symbol exists within a picture— now what happens when a picture is next to another picture— another etc. I totally think you should make diptychs. I think that could be a nice way of literally comparing two scenes where nationalism and Catholicism do and do not exist/ exist in different ways. - Overall, I’m thinking about quilts, hand sewing, reliefs, flags - Look at Vivian Suter’s work...  I think there are major parallel between you and Do Ho Suh and his use fo fabric and drawing/ RUBBING (you should totally explore rubbing)!

[royalalbertamuseumblog]

The Basket Tree (Part 2)

By Skye Haggerty

This summer, RAM has two Indigenous Student Museum Interns working in various areas of the museum. Each of them has written a blog post about a project they’re creating during their time at RAM. Read the other posts here:

Barking Up the Right Tree (Part 1) by Skye Haggerty

Babies Wrapped in Love by Rogan Alexis

For many Indigenous Peoples, the availability of birch and spruce trees made their bark and roots essential materials for the creation of every-day items such as baskets. Not only is this material extremely practical, it also provides a unique medium to showcase artistic talent.

Some of my favourite memories involve going into the bush with my grandmother to collect the papery birch bark for her crafts. In the winter, I’d get to chew on spruce gum while she collected roots from the muskeg in our backyard. Sometimes these trips came with tea and cold bologna sandwiches, sometimes not, but they always included a teaching or two about Grandmother Tree and her gifts to us.

In this two-part blog post, I’ll explore the importance of these materials, the process of harvesting them, and a few of the traditional crafts my grandmother taught me to make from them. Read part 1 here.

The Basket Tree

After harvesting the needed materials for a birch bark basket from the forest in my prior post, my grandmother and I set to making the baskets (and a few other items too).

The baskets created from this natural material can be used for anything ranging from berry-picking to water hauling (if sealed with a resin commonly called pitch) to being a decorative container for household knick-knacks. To create a birch-bark basket you’ll need a few more tools:

A good pair of scissors

A pencil or pen knife

Construction paper

Sinew or spruce root

A needle

A dowel for puncturing holes

Clamps or paper clips

Now, you draw your pattern!

Once you have a pattern drawn and cut out, it can be traced with pencil onto the bark or scored with a penknife.

Cutting out the pattern is easy enough, but you want to work with the natural curl of the bark. Utilizing the bark’s natural tendency to curl opposite of its original shape by making the papery exterior the interior of the basket lends additional support to the basket’s structure. The sides can be easily folded and held together by paper clamps while you stitch it together.

Sometimes the bark is thin enough to puncture with a needle, but it’s best to use a dowel to poke the holes and plan how you want the stitching to go. A decorative trim can be made from the scrap of the bark. It adds strength to the basket’s structure and can be attached using either the same stitch or something different.

And here we have the finished products!

My mom also took a moment to make my knife a sheath from two long strips of bark woven together. She also took the time to make a conical tool called a moose-caller out of the remaining birch bark for her nîcimos (sweetheart).

Birch bark biting is another art that utilizes the unique qualities of the bark. Stripped into thinner layers, the bark becomes paper that can be used for both artwork and for transferring patterns. Birch-bark biting was traditionally done by women and served as a kind of friendly competition between them. The individual would bite her pattern into the bark using her incisors and picture the design in her mind. Holding up the bark to the light would reveal if the pattern had transferred all the way through. Once satisfied with the design, it could be transferred onto any item they intended to do bead or quillwork on.

This was done by laying the bitten pattern over the item and using a thin layer of ash or chalk to transfer the image. The ash or chalk would fall through the holes in the bark and recreate the pattern on the other side.

An example of birch bark biting from the RAM Indigenous Studies collection, created by Angelique Merasty from Beaver Lake, Saskatchewan.

With the availability of pencils, paper, and other materials the practice of birch bark biting is not used as frequently but there are still practitioners that produce beautiful pieces of artwork such as Halfmoon Woman (Pat Bruderer). The biting, of course, takes many hours of practice and as Angelique Merasty once said, it takes “wasting a lot of birch bark” to develop the art.

These objects showcase a union of utility and art that is characteristic of many Indigenous creations. Yet they are more than that. Through these we transform the material of the birch bark into a carrier of not just berries or buttons but traditional knowledge to be passed from generation to generation. In this way, waskway is not merely a resource but grandmother tree embodied.

Missed part 1? Read it here: Barking Up the Right Tree (Part 1) by Skye Haggerty

[animereviewsandotherstuff]

Top 5 anime of 2018

Pop Team Epic

Anime as a medium is something that allows for great experimentation and artistic expression that not every delves into, and that is ultimately okay. Not every show has to be something new and exciting. But then there comes a show like Pop Team Epic. A 4-koma manga that takes the slice of life genre and plays with it by adding absurdist ideas and a healthy dose of meta humor. A manga like that is not something I would ever expect to see adapted into anime. The jokes are super quick and sometimes work on anti-humor, the art is simplistic on purpose, and there is no story just gags. But I am very happy someone had more foresight then I did and just adapted it whole hog. This anime takes what it means to be an anime and turns it on its head. The first episode started on a completely different generic anime about a guy and idols and a possible harem and immediately swerves into the show proper. Every show ended with a preview for that fictional show. The ending theme was sung by different people every episode. The who was only half the run time and then it would run again with a different set of voice actors, swapping from an all woman pair to an all guy pair. Sometimes this would change whole jokes as the voice actors would make different choices. They would swap between different art styles and redo whole segments between episodes swapping between Pop Team Epic proper and Bob Epic Team. They had a segment all in french, animated in a third completely different style from the previous 2 which cost a ton of money to make and was written by a french intern who never read the series or something. The last episode had a live action pop singer bring the one of the main characters come back to life. This show was beautiful. It was a true work of art with layers of meaning and references, an experimentation of what an anime could be. Not every show should be this, but more shows should be able to just go wild with what an anime could be. Or maybe I was just thinking of Hellshake Yano.

Yuru Camp

There is a genre of anime I like a lot even though I usually know the return on investment for watching them is not super great. The best way to describe this genre is “the author has a very specific hyper-fixation and wants to write about it but doesn’t know how, so makes moe girls talk about it instead.” This is a very hit or miss genre but sometimes a show will come out of it that will stick with me forever. And Yuru Camp is one of those shows. Yuru Camp is a show all about girls camping. The authors love of camping really comes through, as the characters talk about the rules of camping and how to do it safely, and about how expensive the gear for camping is. The conversations the characters had felt surprisingly natural. Some of the back and forth the characters had felt like a conversation I could have with my friends. The best part about this show was how relaxing it was. This show was a calming breath. It was a show that knows how to set back and let a scene breath, like you are one with nature, fitting for a camping show. There is another genre of anime I like that can be hit or miss, known as healing anime. Healing anime are soft, kind, relaxing shows that are like chicken soup for the soul. Yuru camp is like that. It is relaxing and kind and made my day every time I watched it. But the most impressive thing this show did was make me, someone who hates nature and being in nature, actually consider camping for a few seconds.

Cells at Work

I am not someone who enjoys the intricacy of the human body. It is a gross thing we are all forced to live in. so when this show was first announced I had a bit of trepidation about this show. I don’t like watching the workings of the human body, it makes me uncomfortable. But this show was really was able to get past my initial discomfort and make the human body something interesting and more fun.  The story of the human body as told from the perspective of the cells who help run the body was perfectly told. It makes you sympathetic for your blood, fighting against the germs and diseases we come into contact with, rooting for the red blood cells who deliver your oxygen and the white blood cells who protect you, and makes you intimately familiar with your lymph nodes, and sweat glands. I really appreciated the small arc involving cancer of all things. Cancer as told from the perspective of the cells is really interesting, watching there fellow cells not become infected but born so, and the necessary need to kill them coupled with the inherent want to protect the body is an interesting perspective to take. It is not saying cancer is good or anything ridiculous like that, but it is just a perspective I was not expecting and one that led to an interesting story. The anthropomorphizing of the body and its cellular interactions was clever and engaging and made this a show I was glad to watch.

Planet With

I am not the first person to say this but this was the best show to come out of 2007. Everything about this show felt like a throwback to a very specific era of anime. A story about giant physic armors controlled by young teens and young adults fighting against aliens, the reversal of who were truly the good guys and truly the bad guys.  The larger themes of why one should fight and shouldn't fight, of growing up and reality being greater then any passive but beautiful fantasy, all fit into a show from a decade ago. Even the maid girl and the giant cat alien and the high school club for people who like supernatural stuff, the transfer student with amnesia being the main character, all of it fits a show that could have been a 52 episode series with slow reveals and mysteries and filler beach episodes. But instead this show was a tight 12 episodes. Each episode packed so much information and plot and action, it feels like watching more then your actually getting. It is concise but the emotional impact of every reveal and every hit is perfectly done. The best show of 2007 was also one of the best shows of 2018.

SSSS Gridman

Tokusatsu and anime are two great tastes that seem to rarely come together. It might be that there is something lost when live action goes to animation, at least when tokusatsu does so. Something intrinsic about tokusatsu, something that is fundamental to it, doesn't always survive the jump. This cannot be said about SSSS Gridman. This show captures the spirit and heart of tokusatsu shows and takes it to another level. It is a love letter to tokusatsu as a medium and to the original Gridman. The fact that the title of the show is a reference to the American adaptation, Super Human Samurai Syber Squad, alone shows a knowledge and love of the material. But at the same time I never felt the show was bogged down by references and external knowledge. Yes there were millions of references to other tokusatsu series, mainly Ultraman but not Ultraman alone, but you didn’t need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Japanese live action shows to enjoy the show. They enhanced but never detracted in my opinion. Same with the fact that the show itself is a sequal to the original Gridman series while still standing entirely on its own. If you never watched the original you are fine, but it is enhanced so much with that knowledge.  And the ending had me in tears. I don’t want to spoil anything for these shows but like many tokusatsu series finales this one too made me tear up slightly. Truly a show I will carry with me into the future.

And those were my thoughts on the year of anime. This of course isn’t counting tokusatsu I watched but I love Kamen Rider and Super Sentai enough that they would be a permanent place on this list, so its only fair I keep them off. There was a ton of good shows other then these five, but I am looking forward to the new year ahead. So until next time, keep on watching.

[uclavapae]

Emmanuel Galvez Machuca | Teaching Artist of April 2019

Hometown: Mexico City

Major: Fine Arts and Minor in Arts Education  

Q: How did you discover your interest in the arts and how did you know that it was something that you wanted to pursue professionally, as an artist or as a teaching artist?

A:  I started skateboarding in middle school and came to understand that to learn how to do a trick, I had to keep trying. That if I fell on the ground, I had to get up and try again. Eventually, I was able to land a trick. And, if I continued to work, I could perfect my style. When I began to draw cartoons, I naturally fell back on the lessons learned while skateboarding. My first drawings were clumsy, but eventually, through sheer determination and work, I became rather good at drawing cartoons. So, I learned that working on a skill, despite a failure, could lead to expertise.

I used this same process in art making. When I first start an art project I may not be successful, but if I spend time working, it improves. And the more I work, the better it gets. Generating new concepts also comes after much soul searching and mining memories. From 2010 to 2015 I have been involved in creating a series of paintings on the concept of “Pan Dulce.” The concept came to me as I thought of the days when I lived in Mexico City as a child and I walked with my Mom to the bakery where I could smell the fresh aromas of bread and see a beautiful spread of pan dulce. Those memories touched me so personally that I decided to set up a still life of these breads. As a result of these works, I now have gallery representation and have had two solo shows. Searching through my past experiences solidified what I wanted to do: to connect more closely with my childhood memories.

My success pushes me to work harder and make better art. I plan to become the first person in my family to receive a college degree. My motivation and hunger for knowledge inspires me to explore who I am as an artist, a teacher, and a student. I remember my mother’s words, “Echale ganas, mijo!” which means to [work hard, son!]. Her words allow me to push forward, to keep going, to perfect my greatest talent: art.

Q: Describe what the student artists in your VAPAE Afterschool or Arts Enrichment Program are working on and the process they’re using.

A:   Before I transferred to UCLA, I was working with two nonprofits. One of them was Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to K-12 underrepresented students interested in sports, music, and the arts. As the artist in residence at HOLA, I assisted in teaching art classes from teaching drawing, mix-medium and mentoring individual students. In 2010, Dan McCleary started Art Division, a nonprofit organization dedicated to training and supporting underserved artistically inclined youth in the Rampart district where I have been an active participant since its inception. HOLA and Art Division have given me the tools and practice to give back to the community.

Because of my experience working with these nonprofits, I was offered the opportunity to work with one of the VAPAE Afterschool programs where I worked with another nonprofit. Latino Producers Action Network (LPAN) is a program that provides art workshops by Fabian Debora that brings youth from various communities together with their parents to collaborate in art projects. It was my pleasure working with the East Los Angeles community. In this VAPAE Program, I worked as a teaching artist assistant with Fabian Debora and I was able to learn several skills how to work with this is specific community intergenerational families. While in my participation at the program, I had the chance to assist every person and see them grow in their process and skills. I was really impressed with the mothers and daughters and how well they work with each other. I thought that the daughters would end up helping the mothers more but both of them created an equal balance.

Q: Why is an enrichment opportunity like this important for those participating? What do they gain?

A:  If I had not had Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) program when I was younger and Art Division as a young adult, I probably would not have followed my dream as an artist. Today, as a result of these opportunities, I have confidence in my art skills and in my capacity as a student of the arts.

Since I participated similar programs, I understand the value and the impact that it can provide to a student's lives. I think students can gain so much knowledge, critical thinking, and work collaboratively. Understanding these basic elements can help students discover the different possibilities of creating art pieces. Therefore, applying similar process outside of the arts into different environment allows students to navigate their own personal experiences. At a very personal level, art has always been there for me. The role of art can definitely play a huge role in students’ lives.

Q: Did you have an opportunity like this when you were a younger artist? If yes, how did it help shape your love of art? If no, in what ways could a program like this have helped you?

A: In middle school, I found my voice by drawing cartoons. I would often lose myself in my drawings, especially during English classes. “You’re going to be good, but without reading and writing you’re never going to be successful,” my English teacher would say. I knew I should have listened, but I chose not to. Instead, I continued with the pattern of doodling and daydreaming and kept wishing of one day being an artist. The possibility of becoming an artist became more real when at 14 years old I found Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA). HOLA had tutors, classes, and other support systems to help usher us to college. Through college prep programming I discovered the possibility of the arts as a potential career with social benefits.   

Q: What do you personally gain as a teaching artist, arts facilitator?

A:  Even though I already have some experience teaching, I don't have words to describe the amount of knowledge that I gained from completing the Arts Education Teaching Sequence in VAPAE. It has reinforced my teaching philosophy and enriched my practice as artist. Personally, I have gained more structure of how to create lesson plans. And also I had the opportunity to work with a public school. When I came to this country I went to public school. Having this opportunity to teach at a public school, it was very rich experience. Many of the students whom I taught were their first time having art lessons. Another reason why I want to continue to teaching because I understand that not every community has access to the arts. Therefore, I do see myself working with marginalized communities. The VAPAE minor would reinforce my practice as an educator and artist. I hope my discipline in the arts and my educational pursuits serve as a model and that we can all continue to make our community a better place.

Q: What are the benefits to you as a student/graduate in the UCLA VAPAE program? Was this program a good choice for you? If so, why?

A: Even though I already have some experience teaching, I don't have words to describe the amount of knowledge that I gained from working with Fabian Debora through the VAPAE Program. I know for sure that everything that I learned will be reinforced and enrich my practice as both an educator and artist. When I started teaching I never took a formal class about art education. Through my previous history of volunteering for the arts as a teacher assistant, I was able to learn a lot of knowledge from both the classroom and the teacher. When I was offered a position of teaching art, of course, I said yes. Even though I did not have the proper training I still wanted to do it. It was not easy from the beginning. The more I communicated with other teachers and also with my supervisor, I was able to understand and get little more training about art education.

Once I transferred to UCLA, I was interested in taking classes in art education, and also became interested in completing the Visual and Performing Arts Education program. When I came to this country, I was part of the after school program, HOLA. I learned a lot from their academic education, especially when taking their art classes. Art has its own language, and not having been able to speak English, the arts allowed me to express and share my ideas with my classmates without language interfering. From my personal experience I want to complete the VAPAE program because I do see myself teaching art to kids and adults while still being able to continue with practice in the studio.

Q: Are there any anecdotes from your time as a VAPAE Teaching Artist at an Afterschool or Arts Enrichment Programs that stand out to you? Perhaps you had a breakthrough with a student or saw some particularly noticeable growth in that student through this program, collaboration etc. Maybe something surprised you or made you think about art or teaching in a new way.

A: Since I already have some experience working with nonprofits, I was able to adopt Fabian's style of teaching. Basically, he would give me instructions of what would the class be working before the class would start. For the most part, a lot of his lessons are very straightforward. Having my own artistic practice definitely helps me to follow him with his approach of having a responsive style of teaching that feels really community-based instead of a student vs. teacher approach. Within the two classes that I have taken at UCLA through art education, the way we approach art is so different than Fabian’s style of teaching. It was really interesting to see both styles of teaching. But as a teaching assistant, I have to recognize that one is working with the community and the other one it focuses on the education system. And also with various philosophies of teaching. As educators, we have to recognize the circumstances of this community such as understanding and learning how we help these communities. During my sessions, I was just starting to understand the difference between these teaching styles working both with Fabian and the community.

Q: What are your short-term and long‐term career goals?

A: One of my short-term goal is completing the Visual and Performing Art Education program. I would love to continue teaching with VAPAE after school programs. Another long-term goal is getting ready to apply graduate school. My dream would to one day go back to Mexico City and teach arts in communities that do not have access to the arts.

[jacereviews]

Review: Sakamichi no Apollon

Manga Consumed in English Also known as: Kids on the Slope

I first heard about this series due to the Shinchiro Watanabe directed anime, which I’d watched a long time ago. At the time I didn’t think much of it, but I was also a much younger and more close-minded individual. Years later, here I am revisiting the series in its manga form. Yuki Kodama’s 2007-2012 manga about life, love, and Jazz music. Let’s rock.

PLOT: 1966, a young Kaoru Nishimi transfers to yet another school. Due to his father’s work he’s always moved about, never really connecting with anyone. However he runs into the school delinquent, Sentarou Kawabuchi. The two form an unexpected friendship, helping each other through the ups and downs of life and playing jazz together. While nothing new, the set-up is effective. We follow Kaoru and Sentarou through their 3 years of high school and the events that come with. We see both characters deal with the damages of their past as they move on to the future. While, as with any drama, the situations were by and in-large caused by the main characters, it never really hit an obnoxious degree and very rarely did the situations feel particularly contrived. They were very natural and very impactful, and the manga’s brief length kept it from ever feel like it was repeating itself or dragging for dragging’s sake. The series mostly focused on the main trio, though it did spare some time for the stories of Yurika and Junichi which I found to be some personal highlights. If there’s any complaint I have it’d be that the original ending lacked much punch, however the bonus track volume adds more and wraps the story up in a rather nice manner.

8/10, a good drama story yet lacking in the horseshit that they sometimes come with.

CHARACTERS: A drama’s story is only as good as its characters. Our protagonist Kaoru starts off the series as someone damaged by his loneliness. We of course see him grow out of that over the course of the series. While many times he does let his emotions get the better of him and put himself in trouble, his genuine love for the people around him shows through. We see him not only grow up, but loosen up, such as his transition from rigid classical music to the reactive and improvising jazz. His character arc is quite satisfying. Next up is Sentarou, the force to shake up Kaoru’s world. Despite his delinquent reputation, Sentarou’s quite the nice guy, if a bit aggressive. He’s got a bright energy to him and the force to change those around him, even if that strength is built on a troubled past. He’s the one who gets our lead into Jazz and is generally the motivating force of a lot of the series. I found him to be quite likeable in his genuineness and learning of the scars he bears I found to be quite the emotional trip. Rounding out the trio is Ritsuko Mukae, Sentarou’s childhood friend, Kaoru’s crush, and the daughter of the owner of the record store at which the cast practice their music. She’s a very kind and gentle figure and adds a softness to the main cast balancing them out. Despite her affable nature and likeability, I found she lacked presence in comparison to the other two leads. While it’s natural I do wish we got to spend a bit more time with her as her rather than sticking to her in relation to the other leads.If there were to be a fourth main character it’d be Yurika Fukahori. She starts of simply and a crush at first sight for Sentarou, but moves into a leading role for a good portion of the manga. Unlike Ritsuko we do get to see a bit more of her personal life and struggles and her arc in the manga is one of my favorite portions. Lastly I want to give brief mention to the character of Junichi, while I won’t go into details on why I want to mention him for spoiler reasons, I also really liked his character arc. As for minor characters go, there were a few comedy characters and some other minor characters to flesh out the cast but the real focus was on prior mentioned characters.

8/10, some strong and likeable characters brought up by each other.

VISUALS: Yuki Kodama’s arts has its strengths and weaknesses. To start with the negatives, the art is really flat. Not in an emotional sense but everything felt really two-dimensional. (While duh it is two-dimensional, nothing felt like it popped.) On occasion I’d feel like characters felt off but not to any real demeritable amount. On the positive side however, is the expression and emotion tied into the art. There are a lot of scenes that come off as quite beautiful and really convey the feeling of the scene in a rather powerful way. This ability is also used masterfully in scenes with music, managing to convey the feelings of music in a soundless medium. A lot of the settings were visually interesting including the visual use of the titular slope. The characters all had unique and memorable designs and the quality was pretty consistent. As far as flow goes the series does just fine.

7/10, while not perfect the art does definitely have some very strong points.

FINAL SCORE: 8/10

While it’s not a hallmark or a master-classic, Sakamichi is a very strong manga about life and music. It pretty well utilizes a strong cast and finishes right when it needs to. While many people may be put off by the lack of a soundtrack, I find playing some of the music discussed by characters in the background helped me get in the mood but was by no means necessary. If you do read this just make sure to read the Bonus Track volume as well, it’s great. All in all I would recommend this series.

[greenishbucket]

for @lardo-week day 1: canon/canon divergence

“Hand me a hair tie,” says Lardo, voice muffled where her cheek is stuck against Shitty’s chest.

For all his family is rich white money, their AC doesn’t work for shit, is what Lardo has found this summer. She’s been at Shitty’s for two weeks -- despite her parents (and Shitty’s dad’s far stronger and uglier) misgivings about her hanging out with a dude from college without any parents around -- and it’s been two weeks of continual sweating. Lardo wants to shower constantly.

Shitty wriggles around to reach the hair tie pile Lardo has next to the bed without dislodging her. There’s no way they’re going to cut down on their cuddle and chill time, hot as balls and sweaty as it may be; Lardo hasn’t seen Shits all summer before this, and in a few days she’ll be back home and then off to Kenya til the spring.

Shitty finally hands her a hair tie and says, tying back his own flow with another tie, “At least you’re gonna be prepared as shit for the heat after this.”

“Don’t even,” says Lardo. “I’m gonna transfer my study to, like, Antarctica. I’m done with sweating.” She revels in the temporary relative coolness now her hair is off her neck, then mashes her face back into Shitty’s chest. It’s dumb, and she’s lowkey actually excited beyond words for Kenya, but she’s gonna miss him so much.

“That would be pretty swaesome, not gonna lie. Get in on those fucking penguin huddles.” 

“Wouldn’t that defeat the point? I wanna be cold, not cosy.”

“Dude, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we’ll buy one of those cooler bags, empty out the fridge and take all the draws out and shit, then you get up on a chair and climb right in,” says Shitty, Lardo listening with awful fondness as he attempts to persuade her for the tenth time in two days, “I’ll give you a flashlight and play Netflix with audio description for you.”

“Thanks, Shits. You’ve always got my back.”

Shitty shrugs and strokes her hair a bit, playing with the ponytail. “Hey, it’s what I’m here for. You come up for sicker burns for my dad’s CD collection than I ever could, I empty out my fridge and shut you inside. Mutually fucking beneficial, bro.”

They listen to the AC’s wheezy attempts for a minute or two.

“Would you cut my hair?” asks Lardo.

Shitty is quiet. “Uh. Well.” He pauses. “Lards, I am honored to the depths of my soul that you would, uh, trust me with that but I also feel it’s my moral-bound duty to warn you it would be the ugliest shit ever. Like, a mullet or some shit. Or worse.”

Lardo makes her voice small and sad and says, “Oh. Sure. Like, if you don’t wanna then no problem, it doesn’t matter.” She can feel Shitty growing uncomfy under and makes sure he can’t see the smile starting to spread across her face. She loves fucking with him.

“Lardo, no!” he protests unhappily. “I would cut your hair all day every day, bro, if I had a single fucking modicum of skill in these hands.”

“It’s fine, Shits.”

“No, no, no, wait,” says Shitty, and then with grim determination, “I will do my utmost to give you the sickest flow known to man. I’ll read one of those wikihows and watch a fuck load of youtube clips and we’ll be outta here, chopping and clipping and all that good shit.” 

He reaches for his cell to start researching and Lardo admires the dedication but knows it’s time to cut this off before Shitty is two hours and twenty videos deep.

“Shitty, I’m kidding. I wouldn’t let you in twenty feet of my hair with a pair of scissors, fully no shade.”

“No shit?” and then when Lardo gives him a come on, bro look, Shitty breathes out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank fuck. Holy shit, Lards. My God. I thought you were suffering some hardcore heatstroke there.”

“Don’t front, you were gonna do it.”

“Some intensive dehydration seriously fucking impeding your decision making capabilities, man.”

Lardo let’s him have it. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’m thinking I’m gonna do it when I’m back in the US of A, gonna get that Samwell chop.”

“Yeah?” says Shits, and Lardo knows he’s not just asking about a change in hairstyle. Everyone knows who it is that gets the Samwell chop.

Lardo shrugs. “Yeah. I’m not gonna tell my parents anything yet, but I’m gonna start building on those art student vibes.”

“Gonna finally get Camilla Collins to swoon at your feet?”

Lardo kicks him, medium-strength. “Fuck off, Shits, you were schwasted but I know you remember us making out at the tennis club kegster. You literally high-fived me about it when you saw her selfies on your FB feed, like, a week ago.”

“Just proud of you, dude. My hottest two BFFs getting with the one and only Camilla Collins in one academic year is a lot for one man to handle. Some stunning taste all round.”

Lardo can’t disagree with him. “Well, anyway. Your boner aside, bro, I’m just saying this all because if I cut all my hair off in Kenya with no plan and it’s fuck-ugly instead of reaching a peak bi aesthetic, it’s gonna be because all my heat-coping abilities were worn into oblivion by your shitty fucking AC.”

“Hey!” says Shitty, all put-on offense, “she’s old and she’s a beauty that’s just trying her best. Also, the fridge is right fucking there, Lards, I have told you the exact course of action.”

Lardo tries to sound snappy but fails, swallowing a laugh halfway through at the image as she says, “For fuck’s sake, Shitty, you get in the fridge if you love it so much!”