#bleed american review

[celebelisnyc]

[spdk1]

REVIEW: Woe to Live On - A Novel (1987)

A book by Daniel Woodrell Woe to Live On by Ozarks-native, and perhaps one of Missouri’s most important novelists of our time, Daniel Woodrell, is the original novel that the Oscar-Winning film Ride with the Devil was based on. Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, the novel follows a group of young men from the Missouri-Kansas border, an area rife with tension and violence.…

[thenightling]

Dead boy Detectives review

I've watched all eight episodes of Dead Boy Detectives and it was a decent show. It's not something I may obsess over like The Sandman, or The Witcher, but it was decent.

Dead Boy Detectives is the story of Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland. Edwin was killed during a Satanic ritual in 1916. Charles died from hypothermia and internal bleeding after some bullies drove him into an ice-cold lake while throwing rocks at him.

(Note: That was not how Charles actually died in the source material. In the comics, Lucifer had quit and shut down Hell (the basis for the TV show Lucifer) so many evil souls returned to Earth, including the boys that sacrificed poor Edwin. They badly burnt Charles' back on a hot stove and Charles died from his injuries.)

The two ghosts decided to dedicate their afterlife solving mysteries to help other ghosts find peace. They are aided by psychic, Crystal Palace, who is haunted by her abusive ex-boyfriend who happens to be a demon.

Both Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland originated in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Season of Mists, The Sandman: Volume 4. Issue 25 of The Sandman comics, and within Act 2 of The Sandman audio drama.

The Dead Boy Detectives made their TV first appearance in Doom Patrol for HBO Max (now Max). During a shakeup at Max the show was moved over to Netflix as to better connect it with The Sandman since that is where they originated.

The show features different actors from the ones that played Charles and Edwin on Doom Patrol.

The Dead Boy Detectives is a decent show but ...it feels a bit like a CW teen drama. I had been told that some of the show's writers were originally writers for the CW... and it shows.

There are some deliberately surreal elements of the show that I think are a callback to their appearance in Doom Patrol.

I love the variety of supernatural entities in the show, including the appearance of two of Morpheus's siblings. Death and Despair. The things I don't like about the show can be considered CW tropes or cliches. The angsty romances and unrequited love. The ham-fisted abusive ex metaphor between Crystal and David The Demon.

And of course the most tedious of CW tropes, the end of the episode pining and angst while a sad pop song plays in the background.

If you look past the CW-ness of it, the show is enjoyable.

The only other things I can complain about is the "connecting thread" subplot of The Afterlife: Lost and Found feels like unnecessary filler. And I wish they would openly establish that Edwin, being an innocent, would NOT return to Hell if collected by Death now. I don't think that should be left hanging over his head. Especially since we're supposed to see Death as a kind entity. Also I think Charles says "Aces" a little too much. It's very distracting and makes me feel like the writers didn't know much late 80s English slang. It would be like if he was an American and they had him say "Radical" all the time. I get that it's kind of his catchphrase but it also got a bit annoying.

The parts I don't like are CW tropes and what I'd consider to be late 90s Vertigo edginess.

The thing I liked were plentiful though. The protagonists were and are likable. The ending is satisfying enough so that if there is only one season this was still good. I liked that it appears that one can ascend out of Hell after some self-reflection as is indicated by the boy Edwin confronted in Hell. The blue light was established to mean ascension, a good afterlife.

I also LOVE the opening credits theme music and animated sequence. It reminds me of the intro to Showtime's Creature Feature movies. (See the trailer for 2001's She Creature, not the 50s version. Watch the trailer at thirteen seconds in, on Youtube, and you'll see what I mean).

That's two Gothic themed shows from Netflix in the last two years with great opening credits sequences. The first being Wednesday. That one won Danny Elfman an Emmy.

It's funny, Wednesday and Dead Boy Detectives (which is a spin-off of The Sandman) have great opening credit intro sequences but The Sandman does not. Apparently Neil Gaiman was told people don't watch the opening credits anymore so The Sandman doesn't have them.

I feel we were cheated out of what could have been a great opening sequence for The Sandman.

Episodes 7 and 8 of Dead Boy Detectives were probably the best of the series. I liked it well enough that if Dead Boy Detectives gets renewed I'll happily watch season 2.

[cha-melodius]

2023 Writing Roundup

Thanks to @welcometololaland, @rmd-writes, @kiwiana-writes, and @orchidscript for tagging me for this one. I'm also going to say thanks to everyone who tagged me in the ao3 wrapped or other round up type things; I've been putting off doing my annual writing year-in-review because I always post it on the 30th or 31st. This one is new to me and I figured why not, I'll do it now. I published 31 fics this year (so far!), so safe to say I'm putting this partly under a cut to save your dashes.

JANUARY

How’s About Cookin’ Something Up With Me? (TMFU, T, 4k) Teachers AU, Napoleon helps Illya bake cookies for a holiday party.

Love is a Deserter (TMFU, T, 3k) Post breakup getting back together fic.

True Hollywood Romance (Lokius, M, 8k) Actors AU, fake dating, Mobius and Loki have a PR relationship that turns real.

It's Been a Bad Day Lately (Lokius, T, 17k) Time loop, Loki has to try to figure out how to defeat a deadly Kang variant and save the man he loves all at once.

FEBRUARY

All for a Taste of the Honey (RWRB, E, 6k) FBI Agents AU, Henry goes undercover as a stripper and Alex has a lot of feelings about that.

MARCH

All Comes Crashing (TMFU, E, 5.6k) Illya has one night left to live and is forced to admit the feelings he's been holding back.

Nova, Baby (RWRB, E, 67k) CIA/MI6 AU, forced to work together by their respective agencies, Alex and Henry take on high-stakes missions and fall in love.

APRIL

Kiss Me Like You Mean It (Firstprince, Napollya, Lokius, T) Various T-rated ficlets featuring kisses.

MAY

All the Old Showstoppers��(RWRB, E, 20k) Canon-divergent AU where Alex and Henry compete in the Great Celebrity Bake Off.

The Sky is Open (RWRB, E, 5k) 1970s Pan-Am pilots AU (with a twist!).

Just a Shot Away from You (TMFU, T, 4k) Five times Napoleon and Illya were ordered to kill each other, and one where everyone decides they’ve had enough.

JUNE

Tiny Little Movies (RWRB, various ratings) A drabble collection based on drabble prompts from the Brownstone discord server.

JULY

Always Where I Need To Be (RWRB, T, 5k) Alex's new roommate has a puppy with a penchant for stealing his glasses.

AUGUST

Please Don't Let Me Be So Understood (RWRB, E, 20k) Couples Therapy AU, Alex and Henry are workplace enemies and accidentally end up in couples therapy.

Black Moon (TMFU, E, 6k) For All Mankind AU, Napoleon and Illya are astronauts living on moon bases.

That's My Trouble (RWRB, M, 6k) Detective/ME AU, aka 'Rizzoli and Isles AU', Alex shows up bleeding on Henry's doorstop.

Theory and Practice (RWRB, T, 4k) My 100th fic! Grad students AU, former hookups turned enemies to friends to lovers.

Getting Clinical (RWRB, T, 2k) Non-famous AU, Alex and Henry meet at a sexual health clinic.

Cold Light (Lokius, M, 4k) Human AU, Loki and Mobius meet in Norway and their relationship grows under the northern lights.

Step Into My Office, Baby (RWRB, E, 2k) Office AU, friends to lovers, three scenes in a corner office.

The Harrowed and the Haunted (TMFU, T, 3k) Paranormal investigators AU, Napoleon and Illya visit a haunted house.

SEPTEMBER

Will You Brie Mine? (RWRB, T, 6k) Non-famous AU, Henry sells cheese at Harrods Food Halls and Alex is his best customer.

Lessons in Foreign Diplomacy (RWRB, E, 5k) Post-American Revolution AU, Alex and Henry are ambassadors to the court of Versailles from their respective countries.

Something To Be Proud Of (RWRB, M, 3k) Non-famous AU, Alex volunteers at Edinburgh Pride and Henry makes an embarrassing email typo.

Enemies of the Ocean (Lokius, T, 3k) Human AU, Loki and Mobius are stranded at sea on a life raft together.

OCTOBER

Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile (RWRB, M, 4k) Canon divergence AU, Alex stays another night after the hospital trip and their relationship gets a jump start.

In the Dog Days (RWRB, T, 6k) Modern magic AU, Alex is jealous and suspicious of Henry's shapeshifter boyfriend, David.

NOVEMBER

Taste the Way You Bleed (RWRB, T, 4k) WWDITS AU, the Super Six are all vampires living in the same house, and Alex and Henry still hate each other (until they don't).

DECEMBER

This Hell of a Season (RWRB, E, 21k) currently posting Nova-verse missing scenes and sequels, 3 times Alex & Henry spent Christmas on missions and 1 when they didn't.

[Redacted] (TMFU) My fill for the annual TMFU winter holiday gift exchange.

WHEW. Ok, tagging! @cricketnationrise, @heytheredeann, @mirilyawrites, @loki-is-my-kink-awakening, @dewdropreader, @celaestis1, @myheartalivewrites, @14carrotghoul, @clottedcreamfudge, @indomitable-love, @dumbpeachjuice, @indestructibleheart, @lizzie-bennetdarcy, @inexplicablymine, @sherryvalli, @iboatedhere, @tintagel-or-cockleshells, @leaves-of-laurelin, @three-drink-amy, and anyone else who wants to play.

[ranahan]

Free tactical medicine learning resources

If you want to learn first aid, emergency care or tactical medical care for real, you will need to practice these skills. A lot. Regularly. There’s no way to learn them just from books. But if you’re looking to supplement your training, can’t access hands on training, are a layperson doing research for your writing or otherwise just curious, here are some free resources (some may need a free account to access them).

TCCC

The current gold standard in the field is Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), developed by the US army but used by militaries around the world. There is also a civilian version of the system called Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC). Training materials, Standards of Care, instructional videos, etc. can be accessed at deployedmedicine.com. You’ll need a free account. This should be your first and possibly only stop.

There’s also an app and a podcast if those are more your thing, although I haven’t personally tried them.

More TCCC (video) resources

STOP THE BLEED® Interactive Course

TCCC-MP Guidelines and Curriculum presentations and training videos

EURMED’s Medical Beginner's Resource List has suggested list of video materials (disclaimer: I haven’t watched the playlists, but I have been trained by nearly all of the linked systems/organisations and can vouch for them)

Tactical Medical Solutions training resource page (requires registration; some of the courses are free)

North American Rescue video downloads

Emergency medicine

WHO-ICRC Basic Emergency Care: approach to the acutely ill and injured — an open-access course workbook for basic emergency care with limited resources

Global Health Emergency Medicine — open-access, evidence-based, peer-reviewed emergency medicine modules designed for teachers and learners in low-resource health setting

AFEM Resources — curricula, lecture bank, reviews, etc.

Global Emergency Medicine Academy Resources (links to more resources)

OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology textbook

Open-access anatomy and physiology learning resources

OpenStax Pharmacology for nurses textbook

Principles of Pharmacology – Study Guide

Multiple Casualty Incidents

Management of Multiple Casualty Incidents lecture

Bombings: Injury Patterns and Care blast injuries course (scroll down on the page)

Borden Institute has medical textbooks about biological, chemical and nuclear threats

Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers

Prolonged field care

When the evac isn’t coming anytime soon.

Prolonged Field Care Basics lecture (requires registration)

Aerie 14th Edition Wilderness Medicine Manual (textbook)

Austere Emergency Medical Support (AEMS) Field Guide (textbook)

Prolonged Casualty Care (PCC) Guidelines

Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines

Austere Medicine Resources: Practice Guidelines — a great resource of WMS, PFC, TCCC, etc. clinical practice guidelines in one place

The Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Journal (you can read past issues without a membership)

Prolonged Field Care Collective: Resources

National Park Services Emergency Medical Services Resources

Guerilla Medicine: An Introduction to the Concepts of Austere Medicine in Asymmetric Conflicts (article)

Mental health & PTSD

National Center for PTSD

Psychological first aid: Guide for field workers

Combat and Operational Behavioral Health (medical textbook)

Resources for doctors and medical students

Or you know, other curious people who aren’t afraid of medical jargon.

Borden Institute Military Medical Textbooks and Resources — suggestions: start with Fundamentals of Military Medicine; mechanism of injury of conventional weapons; these two volumes on medical aspects of operating in extreme environments; psychosocial aspects of military medicine; or Combat Anesthesia

Emergency War Surgery textbook and lectures

Disaster Health Core Curriculum — online course for health professionals

Médecins Sans Frontières Clinical guidelines

Pocket book of hospital care for children: Second edition — guidelines for the management of common childhood illnesses in low resource settings

Grey’s Quick Reference: Basic Protocols in Paediatrics and Internal Medicine For Resource Limited Settings

The Department of Defense Center of Excellence for Trauma: Trauma Care Resources (links to more resources)

[dreamweaversfavsandthoughs]

Some thoughts on Rick and Morty: The Anime

Spoilers ahead

Instead of doing a review for every episode I’m going to give some thoughts on the first episode and then do a final review at the end when the whole series has wrapped.

Voice Acting

I’m still baffled that they didn’t use the original voice actors for the English language dub. Maybe there were scheduling conflicts or they wanted more of a separation between the American version. Regardless, the actors do a fine job of being faithful to the characters. I really love Rick’s Japanese voice actor (Yōhei Tadano) who captures Rick’s personality and yet makes seem like the 70 year old man he’s actually suppose to be.

Morty and the VR Bisexual Sandwich

The majority of the episode revolves around Morty’s adventure in a VR game created by Rick to keep Morty distracted while Rick and Summer are doing more important things. We are introduced to our first original characters, Elle and Frank. Elle has appeared in several of the previews and has been set up as the main love interest. In fact, it’s implied that have a history even before he first meets her in the VR game. Frank, on the other hand, we haven’t seen before and we don’t yet what their relationship will look like at this point, but there are some romantic undertones. Throughout the game (which seems similar to Roy from Mortynight Run) we see Morty or Morties live a life that parodies Citizen Cane, has a romantic dinner with Elle, share a warm embrace with Frank, and is gifted a Nander Dragon’s Tear/Sweat from his partners. It is implied, however, that the VR game may not purely be a simulation due to the introduction of…

Long-Haired Rick and Troubles in Interdimensional Paradise

During the simulation, Morty meets a version of Rick we’ll just call Long-Haired Rick who informs him that the lines between dimension are becoming blurred and flowing into each other hence the reason this Rick is able to interact with a Morty even though his Morty has long since died. It’s rather nice to see a Rick who openly mourns his lost Morty and is a nice departure from the cynicism of the original show. Of course, the reason LHR and Morty are speaking with one another is the same reason our Rick is stuck in limbo with a nonfunctional portal gun and entropy bomb/not bomb with nothing but Summer to help guide him home. The dimension are bleeding into one another setting up the main conflict (possibly) of the series moving forward.

Final thoughts

I will say it did take a few watchthroughs to understand what was going on in the story because there is a lot of jumping around to different dimensions that can be easily missed if you’re not focused. This is not going be a show you can have on in the background while scrolling on your phone, so if you plan on watching this series expect to take your time with it. From what I’ve seen, I’m intrigued enough to keep watching to see how the story unfolds. I want to see how Morty’s relationship develops with Elle and Frank and what is LHR all about? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

[barkingbonzo]

Lizabeth Scott in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, 1946

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is a 1946 American film noir drama directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, and Kirk Douglas in his film debut. It follows a man who is reunited with his childhood friend and her husband; both the childhood friend and her husband believe that the man knows the truth about the mysterious death of the woman's wealthy aunt years prior. The screenplay was written by Robert Rossen (and an uncredited Robert Riskin), adapted from the short story "Love Lies Bleeding" by playwright John Patrick.

Though Milestone is the film's sole credited director, Byron Haskin temporarily took over directorial duties during production while Milestone participated in a Hollywood set decorators' strike, and the film's producer, Hal B. Wallis, also directed reshoots with Milestone's approval.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers was entered into the 1947 Cannes Film Festival and premiered in London in June 1946, before opening in New York City on July 25, 1946. It received largely favorable reviews from critics, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing, Original Motion Picture Story. In 1974, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication

[mariacallous]

Today the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in a consequential case that threatens to curb access to medication abortion across the country.

A central issue in the case is the safety of the drug mifepristone, the first in a two-pill regimen used to induce an abortion. The drug blocks a hormone needed for pregnancy and has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration since 2000.

That FDA approval is being challenged by a coalition of antiabortion doctors and activists, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, which is asking for the pill to be removed from the market. The group has alleged that mifepristone is dangerous to patients, citing a 2021 study that found higher rates of emergency room visits following medication abortion. However, that study was retracted in February after an independent review found problems with how the authors analyzed and presented the data.

During Tuesday’s arguments, a major line of questioning from justices was about ER visits following mifepristone use and whether the FDA’s loosening of regulations on the drug in recent years has resulted in an increase in these visits.

“I think ER visits are definitely the wrong measure when looking at safety,” says Michael Belmonte, an ob-gyn and fellow at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “It’s important to recognize that the vast majority of people that go to the emergency room are going just for reassurance rather than a true safety concern.”

Belmonte says the more important measure is serious adverse events, which are extremely rare with medication abortion. “Adverse events happen with any medication or procedure and, quite frankly, the adverse events that occur with these medications are extremely rare in comparison to things that we use every day,” he says.

Significant adverse events include hospital admission, blood transfusion, infection, and death. A 2013 peer-reviewed study found that, among 233,805 medication abortions provided in 2009 and 2010, these significant adverse events or outcomes were reported in 1,530 cases, less than 1 percent.

“Many women might go [to the ER] because they’re experiencing heavy bleeding, which mimics a miscarriage, and they might just need to know whether or not they’re having a complication,” said US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who is defending the FDA, in oral arguments on Tuesday.

Belmonte says it’s worth noting that the abortion pill regimen is meant to cause bleeding and cramping. While those effects may be troubling to some patients, it’s a function of the medication and a sign that it’s working. “Mifepristone really just prepares the uterus for evacuation, and so, inherently, mifepristone alone doesn’t tend to cause any bleeding, cramping, or other side effects,” he says. Misoprostol, the second drug used in a medication abortion, is what causes bleeding and cramping.

Ushma Upadhyay, a public health social scientist at the UC San Francisco who studies medication abortion, says many patients who visit an emergency department after a medication abortion are alarmed by the bleeding the medication causes, but that doesn’t mean they’re experiencing a serious adverse event. “When people have a medication abortion they’re experiencing it alone, and they don’t have a provider with them to ask questions,” she says. “People are going to the ER to understand whether the bleeding that they’re experiencing is normal and to assess whether the medications worked.”

She says some patients just want an ultrasound to confirm they are no longer pregnant, since pregnancy hormones stay in the body for several weeks after an abortion, and thus an over-the- counter pregnancy test may not be accurate.

One factor that seems to influence ER visits after a medication abortion is greater distance traveled to obtain that abortion, according to research published by Upadhyay in 2017. She says that’s likely because those patients don’t have an abortion clinic nearby or a reproductive health clinic nearby that they can go to with questions.

“It is rare for a patient to experience even a minor complication from a medication abortion, and the risk of death is so small as to be nearly nonexistent,” wrote Jack Resnick, immediate past president of the American Medical Association, in a March 15 statement. “Continuing a pregnancy poses far greater danger; the risk of death during or after childbirth is approximately 14 times higher than the risk of death from abortion-related complications.”

As of December 2022, the FDA reported that approximately 5.9 million women have used mifepristone in the US for medical termination of pregnancy, and 32 women have died after taking it. The agency cautions that “these events cannot with certainty be causally attributed to mifepristone” because not enough information is known about the patients’ health, care they received, or other drugs they were taking at the time.

Ultimately, the Supreme Court case may hinge not on the question of the drug’s safety but on a technicality called “standing”—that is, whether the plaintiffs are the right party to bring this case to the court. Plaintiffs must show that they are the aggrieved or injured party in order to sue.

The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine argues that physicians could be harmed by treating patients who suffer adverse health effects after taking mifepristone. Much of the justices’ questioning on Tuesday focused heavily on whether this group had proven such harm. If the justices find that the plaintiffs do not have standing, the case would be dismissed. The court is expected to rule by the end of June.

[the-book-guild]

Book Guild Reviews #1—The Gilded Ones

Book Stats: Author: Namina Forna Publisher: Delacorte Press (imprint of Random House) Page Count: 418 Genre: Fiction—Fantasy Star Rating: 5

Diversity Portfolio: BIPOC Author: Yes—African American (literally, Sierra Leonean-American) Female Author: Yes Non-Binary Author: No LGBTQIA+ Author: No (as far as I know) LGBTQIA+ Content: Yes, but it’s subtle and understated; it’s not a focal point of the plot Original Publication Language: English Author Under the Age of 25: No Disabled or Other-Abled Author: No (as far as I know)

Reader Stats: Why I Acquired the Book: The social media hype around it piqued my interest plus I liked the look of the cover. Dates Read: 01 Jan 2024 to 05 Jan 2024 Experiences While Reading: I self-commentated throughout the entire read and nearly every theory I came up with was spot on. That was a lot of fun for me and did not detract from the  novel experience in the least.

Recommend? Yes, to all young women regardless of race or color.

Notes & Opinions:

This book speaks quite clearly and effectively about female empowerment, the heroes of the story are all women. This isn’t to say all men in the novel are the villains, quite the opposite, but the point is picking women up out of the dirt and putting them side-by-side with men as equals in all possible ways. Equally strong, equally brave, equally wise, equally intelligent, equally wicked, equally weak-willed, equally confused, equally scared, equally vulnerable, equally abused, etc.

It speaks to strengthening women while also allowing men to break free of toxic masculinity. The book features strong black leads and showcases the different natural and protective hair styles of black women. It also has a diverse cast that never draws attention away from the leads or giving a voice to black women while at the same time it also doesn’t push the diversity of the other characters down. Each race, each color, each culture has a chance to shine on its own and stand on its own two feet. The good and bad are diverse together, no one color/race is drawn out to be inherently good or inherently bad.

It does feature the enemies-to-lovers trope which progresses naturally to the point of being genuinely believable. It also strongly features the trope of found family, championing Supernatural’s catchphrase “family don’t end in blood.” In fact, by blood isn’t what makes you family it simply makes you related. Deeper ties that cannot be quantified make family.

The book covers quite a range of topics but the ones that stood out to me were religion, oppression, government, & inner turmoil.

The book neither espouses nor eschews religion. What it does is point out the dangers of fervent, mindless, fanatical worship. It shows how deeply entrenched the fanatics are in their own lies and their twisting of scriptural/sacred writings, rewriting of histories, and hypocrisy in their hierarchies.

The biggest oppression highlighted is that of women. The female deities were rewritten to be demons who had to be overthrown. Daughters must go through a blood ceremony to make sure they are “clean” enough to be allowed to live with their families, villages, and pure enough to be married off. Marriage for women purely means a life of servitude to husband and children, the marriages can be strategic for powerful or wealthy families. Women must hide their faces behind masks, the masks also show off their wealth or lack thereof thus creating a caste system based on economic status.

If a girl’s blood is differently colored, she is ostracized at best and executed at worst. Religious elders will lie to the villagers and lead them to believe the “cursed ones” have been executed but often they’re being held elsewhere to be bled dry. Gold is currency after all, even if it is the life in your veins. Families will literally turn on their daughters if they bleed gold instead of red. It shows how quickly bonds can be broken if you truly believe lies and believe you are doing right and just things in the name of those lies.

The laws of the land are pulled from the laws of the religious texts, there is no true separation of religion and state. The laws allow for the murder, rape, and constant physical and verbal abuse of girls and women. The blood ceremony is just one more way to control the female species, the masks are another, the permission to outright kill your own daughter if she bleeds gold. All of these are ways to oppress women. It gives the woman’s right to live into the hands of men.

This isn’t to say all fathers and mothers sought to destroy their own daughters, some tried very hard to hide their daughters or quietly send them away to live in safety. But those were few and far between.

Government was highlighted but not really how it worked so much as the complete and utter blind acceptance of the authority of government. The lies of the rulers were as accepted as the lies of the twisted faith. Since the leader of the country was appointed by gods, you can see how there was no separation of the two and how the two work in concerted effort to destroy women who are literally half the population. It’s not that government is bad because anarchy can be just as bad, but it was the complete acceptance of everything without question.

No one stopped to ask if a law was moral or just. No one stopped to ask any questions, to ponder the ethics and morality of what they were doing or saying. If something was decreed to be so, then everyone just went along with it. It was staggering to see how this blind loyalty with no regard to thought or contemplation led families, who supposedly loved their children would instantly revile them as soon as they were shown to be a bit different.

Inner turmoil was granted to our protagonist who struggled left and right with reconciling her faith with her reality, accepting her lost familial bonds for her new found family, admitting her worth as a woman against her fear of her own power, and relishing in love versus running from it. She had to learn to trust herself, her “sisters”, the female powers that be, truth, and a few decent men. She had to unlearn her faith, unfollow her government, let go of family ties that did not bind after all, and understand that men currently ruled the world but they weren’t all to blame.

She also had to experience the horror that is war. She not only shed her own blood time and time again, but had to spill the blood of others. The world was at war and she had to become a warrior. It’s a miracle the girl didn’t get whiplash from all the ways she was pulled. Beloved daughter to scorn of her village, being bled out for cash to being enrolled into the military, from demon to hero, from lowly girl to independent woman.

Her inner struggles were believable and she showed how hard it is for women who have been embroiled in abuse for years struggle to break free. It’s not enough to be presented with truth. You have to weigh truth against the lies and be willing to not only learn but to see it fully and accept it. Once you accept you can finally begin to heal and grow and move onward and upward.

Honestly, the book is extraordinarily powerful and uplifting. I look forward to reading the remaining two works of this trilogy.

[forthegothicheroine]

One of my favorite negative reviews

I can’t find a full text of it online, so I’m going to copy out some big chunks of Stephen Hunter’s retrospective on Gone with the Wind, which apparently resulted in lots of angry letters to the editor.

Long, stupid, ugly and, alas, back for the sixth time (in theaters, innumerable television showings have preceded this rerelease), it is probably the most beloved bad movie of all time, as its adjusted box office gross of $5 billion makes clear. If you love it, that is fine; but don’t confuse its gooeyness, its spiritual ugliness, its solemn self-importance, with either art or craft, for it boasts none of the former and only a bit of the latter. It is one of the least remarkable films of that most remarkable of American movie years, 1939. In fact, far from being one of the greatest American films ever made, I make it merely the twenty-eighth best film of 1939! It may not even have been the best movie that opened on December 15, 1939! It is overrated, overlong, and overdue for oblivion.

Of the various characters and actors:

It’s profoundly misogynistic...the secret pleasure of the film is watching Scarlett O’Hara being punished for the sin of selfhood. The movie delights in her crucifixion, even to the point of conjuring the death of a child as apt punishment for her ambitions. Her sin, really, is the male sin: the pride which goeth before the fall...

Leslie Howard was a great actor and a brave man, who raced home to join his unit when World War II broke out, thereby missing the famous December Atlanta premiere. He was killed in 1943 when the Nazis shot down a plane he was in. Let us lament him as we lament all the men who gave their lives to stop that evil. That said, the truth remains that on screen, he was a feathery creature, best cast as the foil to Bogart’s brutish Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest, where his cathedral-abutment cheekbones gave him the look of an alabaster saint in the wall of an Italian church. But he was about as believable as a sexual object as he would have been as Duke Mantee...

The wondrous Olivia de Havilland was an actress of spunk and pizazz, and she gave as good as she got, even across from such hammy scene stealers as her longtime costar Flynn. But she, too, is trashed by Gone with the Wind as sugary Melanie Wilkes, a character of such selfless sweetness she could give Santa Claus a toothache.

Of the film as art:

Too much spectacle, not enough action. David O. Selznick, who produced the film and rode it to immortality, didn’t understand the difference between the two. Thus the film has a fabulous but inert look to it; the story is rarely expressed in action but only in diorama-like scenes. It is curiously flat and unexciting. Even the burning of Atlanta lacks dynamism and danger; it’s just a dapple of flickering orange filling the screen without the power and hunger of a real fire. And the movie’s most famous shot- the camera pulling back to reveal Scarlett in a rail yard of thousands of bleeding, tattered Confederate soldiers- makes exactly the wrong point. It seems to be suggesting that Scarlett has begun to understand that the war is much bigger than she is. And yet she never changes. The shot means nothing in terms of character; it’s an editorial aside that really misleads us.

Of the film’s message:

From its opening credits, which characterize the South as a lost land of lords and ladies, to its final images of Tara nestling among the Georgia dogwood, the movie buys into a myth that completely robs the region of its truth. Love it or hate it, it’s a land (as Faulkner knew) in which the nobility of its heroism lived side by side with the ugliness of its Original Sin: slavery. I’m not attacking the South here, just Margaret Michell and Selznick’s version of it. Other movies or 1939 were beginning to find the courage to express some subtle ideas. One of them was John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln.

Of its comparison to other 1939 movies:

I found 797 titles from the year 1939, had seen fewer than a tenth of them, and even on that small list there were 27 that struck me as fundamentally better than Gone with the Wind, movies that I would watch again with utter delight. They are: Allegheny Uprising, Another Thin Man, Babes in Arms, Beau Geste, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Dark Victory, Dodge City, Drums Along the Mohawk, Golden Boy, Gunga Din, Juarez, The Light that Failed, Made for Each Other, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The Real Glory, The Roaring Twenties, Stagecoach, The Story of Alexander Graham Bell, The Three Musketeers, Union Pacific, The Wizard of Oz, The Women, Wuthering Heights, and Young Mr. Lincoln.

Dammit, my dear, I’m just being frank.

[growing-yet-into-magic]

Ahem. Dipping my toes back into the realm of reviewing books.

Working the Roots by Michele Lee

This is a wonderful book for all the Black and African American folks interested in herbal remedies used throughout the south during the last...I want to estimate most of the century. The cover claims for longer, but the interviewees were all alive when the author went out to gather information for the book.

Before the modern medical movement became accessible to Black people, families had to rely on their knowledge and their agricultural skills to make it when someone fell ill. Lee does a wonderful job of hunting down the oldest folks she can find to tap their brains about how they survived and what they used to do so, and the elders involved seemed very eager to pass on what they knew on their land and in their homes before it was forgotten.

I would tap this more as an herbal book rather than a spiritual book, although I use it as both. (I think I got the title recommendation from @biglizconjure's online course, but it's been a whole year since then so what do I know.) It goes biography by biography, detailing whose information comes from where and from what backgrounds, and the compiles to a glossary-by-symptom in the back. I've reviewed a lot of folk herbalism books and I have never been a big fan of poorly substantiated information, but this book is a well-organized historical record of folk remedies more than it is straight up declaring all recipes as fact. I wouldn't try all of them without serious research (there are a LOT of folk remedies that work, but, like, with really dangerous mechanisms, like using foxglove to stem bleeding on serious cuts), but a lot of the ones I've put a few other modern herbal research texts against have come out clean.

@ancestralmedicinemagic actually helped me tidy up one of these for a cramps tea a good while back. So, cheers! �� 10/10, do I recommend this title! I remember it being a touch expensive, so try asking your library to buy a copy if you can't afford a personal one. That way it's accessible for you to borrow and your library has one more interesting book to set out this February 😛

Blessings!

[bookaddict24-7]

REVIEWS OF THE WEEK!

Every week I will post various reviews I've written so far in 2024. You can check out my Goodreads for more up-to-date reviews HERE. You can friend me on Goodreads here.

Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts?

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337. Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I finished GAMEBOARD OF THE GODS and immediately came onto Goodreads to see how the rest of the series was and if they would be nearly impossible to buy because it was an older one...only to find that Mead never had book 3 published. So...I'm never going to read book two, sadly, because I don't want to be left hoping.

And it truly is too bad because this was an entertaining read! It was definitely a product of its time--meaning it came out when this genre was very popular in fantasy. I can think of a few series that this reminded me of, but this one had more of a dystopic feel.

For all intents and purposes, this is a detective novel set in a dystopia, featuring a badass FMC and a down-on-his-luck-but-very-smart-and-persuasive man. This type of duo was not uncommon in the 2010s, so I'm surprised this one didn't take off like Mead's prior big series. Maybe it was the wrong time to jump from YA to Adult Fantasy.

I liked the mystery and the character dynamics. Everyone worked off each other so well and there were some reveals that were pretty impactful. The banter between the characters was entertaining, and their sexual chemistry was pretty great too--this was a lot spicier than I expected (and though we don't get a lot of spicy scenes, the ones we got were only spicy to me because I wasn't expecting it in this book).

The world-building was great and I really liked the realistic touches here and there that morphed this from a fantasy to dystopic novel for me. I wasn't expecting it and actually really enjoyed it. The pacing was also great.

Essentially, there was a lot of "great" things about this book and I'm sad that it will never be finished and if going by what the author wrote on the synopsis of book 3, we will never get a conclusion to this series because of low sales. Alas.

I'd recommend this one to those who love confident women who kick ass in a dystopic mystery novel. But be aware that this series will never be completed.

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338. All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

I finally picked this book up and honestly, I'm really glad I did. Even though it had moments that were really hard to read, it was eye-opening and powerful. Cosby truly didn't miss with this one.

ALL THE SINNERS BLEED explores racism and how it can take many different forms. These scenes were jarring, but so important. It goes to show that no matter where you are in the power hierarchy, you can still be the target for racist rhetoric. But this was also a heartbreaking look into how society, specifically North American society, treats missing Black children. The fact that no media coverage had spoken on the missing children in this book before that fatal shooting that starts the book is very telling and very reflective of today's society.

Some of the best parts of this book, beyond the obvious, were the moments where the MC was a total badass against the racists in the town. I think the irony of the Black main character being the sherif in this town isn't lost on the reader, but beyond the obvious of having this MC be a strict law-abiding citizen, he does not let the badge overshadow who he is at his core (no matter what others accuse him of).

The pacing of ALL THE SINNERS BLEED was great and kept the story flowing pretty well. And the side characters gave this book a lot of personality beyond being just a murder mystery--which, by the way, was incredibly compelling. Much like the MC, I really wanted them to catch the remaining killer. It kept me hooked until the end.

There was a love interest in this, but much like the MC, I think the reader will lose focus on her and just want answers regarding the murders. It's sad to say and it could be because of how Cosby wrote her with such disregard, or like a side note, but it was to the point where the book could have survived without her. I think the MC would have benefitted from having this character be more developed. But it definitely helped to show that he was very much a flawed character. But it's kind of sad that this female character with so much potential was so easily disregarded because of the male main character's fickle affection.

Shock-full of commentary on social justice issues that make this a very timely read, ALL THE SINNERS BLEED should be on most people's TBRs--I say most because there are some very triggering moments in this.

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339. Phantom of the Auditorium by R.L. Stine--⭐️⭐️⭐️

I enjoyed PHANTOM OF THE AUDITORIUM for what it was.

I think this is one of those GOOSEBUMPS books where it can be a very entertaining October read because it had that spooky atmosphere of the school and the being that haunts the underground of the school. The whole concept of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is creepy to me, so it only makes sense that this one was kind of the same for me.

We had, yet again, more adults being jerks to kids and not listening to them. Sigh. I think narratives like this feed into the mistrust that kids have in adults and in the idea that if you talk to an adult, they won't believe you.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the ending and it finally pulled my attention fully to the story. This wasn't a favourite, but I was entertained.

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340. Adam & Evie's Matchmaking Tour by Nora Nguyen--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

First off, I know reading is subjective but I need to say that this book is better than the rating it currently has (it used to be worse than what it has now).

ADAM & EVIE'S MATCHMAKING TOUR had so much going for it--culture, adventure, romance, wit and banter, and characters who worked so well off each other. I really enjoyed the push and pull between them because they're also fighting familial expectations.

I also liked that author had the complexities that come those above-mentioned familial expectations, mainly reputation, how difficult it can be to navigate familial relationships, and how to follow your heart despite having that family be so heavily against what you want.

One of the best things about this book is that not only is the FMC is on her own journey of rediscovering herself while grieving, but the MMC is also on his own journey. These two characters were perfectly suited (despite others saying otherwise), because he was so set in his course and she was trying to find a way to break that life track she thought was meant for her. They are both helping each other in bettering themselves.

There was some spice, but it wasn't the made point of the story. I think it won't be spicy enough for most romance readers, but this book is so much more than the potential spice. For example, it has some pretty great side characters that give this book so much personality.

If it isn't obvious, I really enjoyed this one. I was hooked from the first chapter. And while this might not be a life-changing read, it was great for what it was. Plus, you get the chance to go on this gorgeous tour with the characters!

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341. Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio--⭐️⭐️

This is a novella, but it felt like a full novel. The pacing was not great. Man, it was an exhaustingly long read.

I think this was another case of me going into a book with high hopes. I loved Rio's IF WE WERE VILLAINS, so I was really hoping to get some of that writing in this one. And while the writing itself is actually very good, it was the pacing that killed me and where the story went.

The draw of this book was the promise of a creepy atmosphere (or at least, that's what the cover felt like for me), but the creepy set lasted for about a chapter. What followed after was a mystery that...kind of lacked reasoning. I get that need to solve the mystery of the sudden hole in the cemetery, but it felt like it went off the rails a bit. I would have loved more exploration of the night life surrounding this cemetery or the old abandoned church. THAT would have been cool.

I did like that we got to see from different perspectives--some a bit more relevant than others. Hannah was a particular favourite because of how unhinged she was. I could probably read a whole book from her POV. And seeing as how the author also comments on how she has a complicated relationship with sleep, it makes sense that this would be the most intriguing character because it is the one with the most personality in the whole novella.

GRAVEYARD SHIFT was one of those books that both felt like it belonged as part of a longer book, but also definitely shouldn't have felt as long as it did. Rio makes a comment in the introduction of the book about how she was approached by the publisher to write a novella, and while she mentions that this story has lived in her head for years, it kind of shows that this was an...approached story.

Anyway, that cover is stunning and creepy, but the story is not. Some will love this, because again, the writing itself is beautiful, but phew, that pacing and SO MUCH potential. It all tied up at the end, so at least we got that, but man, it had so many ways it could have gone.

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342. The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

THE MESSAGE by Ta-Nehisi Coates was a great collection of essays that explored various topics that are all incredibly timely. One being about identity and how important it is to acknowledge and learn more about who you are. I liked this essay because of how it felt like Coates was truly learning more about himself and his heritage and we were lucky enough to hear about it.

Admittedly, I first picked this up because of that awful interview Coates had about Palestine and I wanted to see what he had written. I wanted to see why this Z was so hot and bothered about the section on Palestine. I wasn't disappointed. That section was incredible and I liked how he experienced Palestine with multiple guides. And his genuine fear during some moments were palpable. This section unfolded much like when a person first finally understands the truth.

THE MESSAGE was POWERFUL and had some great and insightful commentary on various issues plaguing society regarding racism, apartheid, and the internalized racism built on trauma.

This may have been a short read, but it packed quite the punch. I think this should be a must-read for a lot of people. Especially when Coates dives into his own difficult past with a learning disorder and how fraught the American education system is and how learning disorders are looked at by society. And also, how book banning not only has affected so many authors throughout the The States, including Coates himself.

While THE MESSAGE was sad in its truths, it still held a note of hopefulness.

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343. The Rule Book by Sarah Adams--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

THE RULE BOOK was such a fun little surprise. Adams wrote one of my favourite second chance romance tropes, which is that of young lovers who come back together and don't immediately fall back into love. That added bit of "enemies" to lovers made this even more enjoyable for me.

The banter between these two was so much fun and heated. I loved seeing the MMC slowly thaw out as the book progressed, but I also liked seeing the FMC gain confidence through their banter and his unfair treatment born out of long-held anger and heartache.

The MMC had to deal with his anxiety and confidence and it was refreshing to see an athlete acknowledge his insecurities (even if it IS a fictional character). But it was still nice to have that incite into his character, especially because we had that perspective. Truly, one of the reasons why I love dual perspective so much. But I also liked that despite his fears, he was genuinely good at his sport.

The FMC was a badass. Not only did she have to deal with the raging sexism in her work space and career, but she didn't let it ruin her goals. Her confidence was incredible and she would definitely be someone I'd like in my corner.

Finally, I loved the communication between the characters AND the surprising spice. It wasn't overly spicy, but it was spicier than book one.

If you like sports romances, second chances, and a sassy FMC that the MMC stands no chance against, then this might be one to add to your list! Also, to add, there are SOME allusions to the couple in book one, but I'd almost say that you can read this without having read book one.

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344. A Shocker on Shock Street by R.L. Stine--⭐️⭐️⭐️

A SHOCKER ON SHOCK STREET had a pretty great ending and I enjoyed that.

This would have absolutely kept me up at night as a kid--both to keep reading it, and because of all the creepy crawlies that the characters faced. This was a fun and creepy adventure perfect for an October night of reading for a kid.

I will admit that some parts were a bit confusing, but i think that can be expected for a story that is so fast-paced and focused on getting to that ending. I think this is definitely one of those Goosebump books that would have benefitted from being just a bit longer.

I think that ending was on par with another one of Stine's books that I really liked and it saved the book for me. BUT the creepiness wise was definitely one of the better ones. It was a lot of jump scares and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if people would actually love to go on the ride in this book.

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Happy reading!

[psalm22-6]

Source: San Bernardino Sun, 13 March 1987 by Donald Kaul

This review from 1987 is too funny and I love that he calls Valjean the student’s uncle but also, it’s too optimistic about American politics lol. 

Save your McGovern buttons, folks; liberalism shall rise again. And soon. You can feel it. It's not merely that the air is going out of Ronald Reagan's balloon, it's that the times they are achangin'. Many liberals these days don't even bother with a secret handshake when greeting each other. Others have taken to openly advocating such controversial liberal ideas as public education, clean water and help for the homeless. You think I'm rushing it, don't you? Well, perhaps, but you'll have to forgive me. I've just seen "Les Miserables." 

Perhaps you haven't heard about it yet? You will. "Les Miz," as we on the fast track call it, is the latest stage phenomenon to hit this country. It is a grandiose musical  — really more of an opera —  based on Victor Hugo's novel. Like the last such phenomenon, "Nicholas Nickleby," it comes from London, and like "NickNick" (fast track again), it is going to be a smash hit. It is a genuine, hand-tooled, gold-leafed, can't-miss, must-see show. 

Overlooked in the hoopla of a hit, however, is the fact that it, again like "Nickleby," is a liberal show. Its story is the triumph of bleeding heart liberalism over hard-hearted conservatism. And people are going crazy for it. 

"Rambo" is out; "Les Miz" and "Nick-Nick" are in. 

"Les Miz" is the story of a poor Frenchman during Napoleanic [sic] times who steals a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving child (which is, basically, the only reason liberals ever steal). He is caught and given 19 years in prison. Released from jail, Valjean is unable to get work because of his prison record, so he breaks parole and assumes a new identity. He is a great success in business and becomes mayor of a small town. 

Valjean is pursued through the years by a cop, Javert, who wears black clothes and smiles only when he steps on a butterfly. 

Javert keeps rediscovering Valjean and trying to arrest him, but the ex-con is too smart for him; he keeps slipping away. In the meantime, Valjean helps any widows and orphans he finds in his path. He is a sweetheart of a guy.

But does this cut any ice with Javert? Not a cube. He's determined that Valjean pay the price for breaking parole. He reminds one of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, actually. (If Valjean had been arrested for income tax evasion instead of stealing bread, they'd have probably let him off with a warning.) 

Finally, or almost finally, Javert is captured by idealistic rebels during a student uprising and is delivered into the hands of Valjean, who is being a sort of uncle to the students. Javert, naturally, expects to be shot. Instead, Valjean does the liberal thing; he lets him go. Javert later has a chance to return the favor and does, but he feels so unhappy at having violated the conservative code of honor by helping a liberal that he commits suicide.

Anvway, it all ends happily. Valiean dies, but he goes to heaven, where all good liberals go. Javert is conspicuous by his absence.

It is a great snow, the night I saw it at the Kennedy Center, Washington's liberals clapped so hard I thought their jewelry was going to fly off. 

The production is a return to the drama of the late 19th and early 20th century, before movies, when one of the things you went to the theater for was spectacle, crowd scenes, chariot races, waterfalls. The effects in "Les Miz" are magnificent. A pitched street battle with students and troops is reproduced on stage, then within moments we are in a Paris sewer with the escaping Valjean. The next minute we stay with Javert as he jumps from a bridge and plunges to his death.

As I said, it’s a great show and a harbinger of things to come. You still don't believe me? Listen: in his current film, Sylvester Stallone plays an arm-wrestler. Conservatism is being downsized. In his next film he'll probably play a social worker.

Remember, you read it here first. 

[popculturebuffet]

American Pop Review: All Those Dreams, All Those Sons (birthday review for Brotoman.exe)

In Loving Memory of Ron Thompson 1941-2024

Hello all you happy people and it's time to kick off your shoes i'm breaking the news as it's time for a LONG delayed look at American Pop. So as a bonus my patrons get, in addition to a 5 dollar review a month for 5 dollar or higher patreons, a review on their birthday. As a gift for their support. I forgot to ask about Brotomans and gave him his late... and even later as some delays kept hitting this poor thing and I kept feeling awful about it. Thankfully we're FINALLY here and talking about Ralph Bakshi's American Pop.

While most of you seeing this probably know who Ralph Bakshi is , a quick refresher for those who don't: Bakshi was an animator, and one of the rare ones who focused on animated films geared at adults. He'd branch out on occasion, doing the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings and in his mind and no one elses Wizards for a family audience, but he primarily stuck to tales breaking down society and being filled with sex and drugs. It's remarkable to me he could do this and saddening we don't have more people trying to make animated films for adults. And I love children's animation, I do, but ther'es some stories you simply can't tell and also have kids come see the movie. Sometimes i'ts because you want to have a cat do drugs, sometimes you want to have a man fuck a cartoon, sometimes you want to write a riveting generational saga about a families constant all too real tragedies.

If that last one sounds like a bit of a departure, it is. After making Lord of the Rings Bakshi wanted something more down and earth, a musical fable with more relaistic characters, pushing rotoscope as far as he could. The result was.. only a million more than it's budget, but still resulted in a critical darling and cult classic among animation fans. It probably didn't help it was promoted as a rock n roll epic.. when only half the film , if that, has rock in roll in it. The rest is a stark generational saga of failure, loss, and dreams and it slaps. So come see what I mean under the cut.

Production wise I don't got much that I haven't already said and the few bits I do are best so let's get cracking.

American Pop is, as mentioned, a generational saga following 4 diffrent men from boyhood to manhood. It's not an easy watch as only one of these stories has a happy ending the rest all being some form of tragedy as the shortsighted choices and passiveness of these men destroy them and damage their children. It's a hard saga yet anchored by moments of joy humor and music and a triumphant ending, and to tell it properly i'm going to break it up into 4 sections, one for each main protaganist. Now some of our protaganists spill into their kids sections, as you'd expect but it's pretty clear when their story ends and their child's begins. It's a neat sweet spot between anthology film and a narrative film: the film is still essentially one long narrative, but each protaganists story has a clear ending bleeding into the next generation.

Zalmie

Our story begins with Zalmie, a small child as he and his mother prepare to flee russia during one of it's many porgoms, targeted riots designed to wipe out the jewish people that resulted in many lost lives and immigrants. It's a genocide I didn't honestly know happened till this movie and should be talked about more, as it's all too chillingly familiar to the kinds of tactics we see used against minorties today. The porgoms are also the inciting incident for Don Bluth's american tail.

So our hero and his unnamed mother come to New York, where the bulk of our stories take place and the love of Bakshi's life. Most of his films are set in New York. The only one's that don't are his 4 fantasy films and Cool World, which chooses Vegas again. It's clear the city is in his bones and every frame we see of it is lovingly drawn.

That's one of the films strengths: It's backgrounds: only a few characters are rotoscoped to life, a process where ink is drawn on real photos of people to help get thier movements down. Bakshi seemed to use this a lot using it for his tolkien duology and this film. For the backgorunds he uses photos resembling cartoons from the time or historical photos, giving us nice impressionist faces in the crowds. He'll also frequently use live action stock footage to segue scenes which is less effective to me , but I get the budget wasn't that high so you have to make do.

The rotoscoping itself looks pretty good. It can look uncanny valley in places as this was long before they could easily edit it digtially, and even then as we've seen modern equilvents can still look really weird, see in a scanner darkly (Which I need to watch) or polar express (Which is still really good). But it mostly works here.. the teeth never look right and shots with a lot of teeth can look hilarously bizzare, but for the most part it allows some nice flexible expression on the faces they gently edited the best they could and for the big bombastic emotions to really pop.

Zalmie gets into the music scene and begins a generational love of the craft via a burlseque club he happens upon. He's quickly hired by Louie a man with big ears, and a bigger mouth and who takes the kid under his wing, with some minor reluctance but it's clear while he tries to put up a wall he takes to the kid and his talent at handing out chorus sheets for the crowd to sing along to. Sadly back then David Byrne wasn't born yet to summon perfect choruses with his telepathic powers, you had to make do.

Zalmie's mom isn't super happy with his new life, but accepts a gift of a banana he got from an organ grinder.

Sadly.. we don't see his mom for much longer as next scene.. she dies. And it's a historic incident too, thank you wikipedia as I otherwise woudln't of known as they link to it in the plot summary for the film, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. So in the film you see women banging on locked doors.. and it's real. Employers locked the doors to stairwells to prevent unathorized breaks. I don't have a gif for that as it's so inhumane and horrifying to basically lock your workers inside a possible oven I can't joke about this. it's just.. my god. Thankfully this nightmare lead to better saftey standards.. but also cost 146 people their lives in truly horrifying ways... and in this reality Zalmie's Mother was one of them.

In a truly moving scene though without saying a word... Louie takes him in, putting an arm on the kids shoudler. While he tries to deny he's bascially Zalmie's new dad, it's very clear he is.

So cut to puberty which isn't good on our hero: While Louie had him as a singing act puberty's cutting into it homer simpson style. Unlike Abe instead of wrining his hands Louie is TRYING to keep his adopted boy afloat and assumes it'll change back.

Tragically.. it never gets the chance. Zalmie gets drafted into world war one. The good news is he gets uso duty. He ends up as a horses ass, figuratively, and wants to sing again, to get back out there, but it's still not bad... till the planes raid and a stray bullet hits im in the throat. For the rest of the film Zalmie has a deeper voice and it's clear the impact leaves a mark on more of his neck. Louie once again shows he's a stand up guy by showing up at his bedside. Awww.

So later Zalmie's become a deep voiced clown.

And I really like Zalmie's voice, that raw rasp to it. He's played by Jeffery LIppa whose wikipedia article is basically "he exists". That underlies his talent as Zalmie undergoes a bit of a transformation as the movie goes on. But we'll get to that for now Zalmie meets Doris, a stripper working at the club he's working at and is immeditly in love. With Louie's encouragment he goes after her and we get a really charming scene. He goes to her dressing room, she invites him inside and they just stare lovingly at each other as they strip down. While I try my best words really can't do this justice, it's just this look of pure love and attraction between two people. The proof that sex can be romantic in the right context even if we don't get this far because rotoscoping sex would be awkward as fuck.

So instead we cut to some time later as Zalmie's trying to encourage Doris to be a singer, having heard her voice and knowing she has talent.. but while I never have any doubts he actualy cares for doris... I have just as little doubt this is more for him. He could sing, he's badly wanted this, and now he can't so he's projecting onto his wife. He's already shown to be a pretty good manager in Louie's stead, an organizer, he could be happy with that. But he WANTS the big lights, the fame, and even if it's just through his wife it's something.

So they try it.. but let's say 8 months later they've hit a brick wall: Doris has talent but is heavily pregnant and Zalmie is forced to have her perform anyway as he can't afford to marry her. Enter Palumbo, the local mob boss who Louie introduces Zalmie too.. and he'll help both with Doris' career and the wedding.. if Zalmie delivers a few packages for him.

So Zalmie does reluctant at first.. but over a few scenes he settles into the life: his wife is performing in the top clubs, his son is by his side , a young boy at this point, and he has everything he could want. He's gone from hating what he has to do simply to get by.. to welcoming it while Delores is clearly more uneasy when their now having regular poker games at her home.

Sadly Delores.. dosen't get much fleshing out. SHe's mostly there to love Zalmie, be a tad reluctant.. then die horribly, stuffed in the fridge.. or in this case given the wrong package meant for Zalmie that winds up with her exploded off screen. She just dies to create angst for Zalmie and his son Benny, and in general the women in this film are more plot devices than genuine characters. The film does a good job giving the major romances belivieable chemistry, so it dosen't harm the film, but it's noticable as fuck that not a single one really gets to speak and are mostly shuffled aside.

So with Delores sad death.. we move on. Zalmie's story gets to continue the longest, spreading out across three chapters, but he's no longer the focus after that. No the POV shifts to

Benny

It's the late 20's early 30's at this point and when we see Benny next we've time skipped: It's something very common in this film, with big time jumps happening fast. It feels like a biopic in that regard, if for people who never existed: it has to cover a VAST swath of time but unlike a biopic isn't bound by real life so it can pick and choose what we see easier without feeling like it's cutting important stuff out. It still does here and there but most of the time skipped is stuff there wasn't a story for or we get the gist of anyway after we jump ahead.

So Benny is a young man now, working in a dive club with a do-wop act and denying his father's attempts to get him a better job, a conversation that feels well lived in, like this is far from the first time. It's also made clear, if not said WHY Benny refuses: he knows what his dad's up to, having been playing the piano, his talent and calling, when his mother died. He dosen't want any part of the Palumbo family.. which is unfortunate as Salmie needs him to marry Palumbo's daughter. He's resistant till he reads between the lins and gladly agrees knowing his dad probably can't say no and live long.

So we have a suprisingly charming wedding, with Palumbo and Salmie declaring each other brothers and everyone goofing around and Louie is there.. and Louie has not aged. I can't honestly tell if this is a pact with the devil thing or a John Stamos thing.

And.. the two hit it off.. we ge ta deeply romantic scene in their new mansion where again despite teh female characters mostly being props.. bakshi and his actors pull of honest to god chemistry. He makes something that should be schmaltzy, two people crammed together by their parents genuinely falling in love, and make it feel earnest and cute.

So some time later we're back where we started.. while Benny's performing in a much more upscale place, Zalmie is berating him... but this time.. it's because he thought about the army and Zalmie said son you fucking high. His reasons are also clear: if he makes it out of the war, he can support his family... and get away from THE family. As the next stretch will make clear his wife also isn't too keen on mob life and Benny likely dosen't want to fall for the trap his dad in: Getting in deeper due to debt and having to do worse and worse things that could get his family killed in the crossfire. Zalmie seems dead to it, accepting of what he lost.. but Benny remembers.

Tragically it's this heroic impulse, wanting a better mob free life for his family.. that leads to Benny's end. What happens to the poor guy in WWII is easily the best scene of the movie: Benny is inflirtrating a town when he spots a piano, playing it. Maybe he misses his art, maybe he just knows he dosen't have long to live. But this one moment of simply wantin ga break.. costs him as a German soldier sneaks up behind him... and even knowing he's going to die and leave his family behind... Benny plays. He plays soulfully from the heart, his last performance and his best... and he dies for it. the Soldier letting out a thankful danke.. before savagely murdering him. A reminder war knows no peace, no freinds.. and no hope. He leaves behind a wife greving her father forces to get remarried and a son...

Tony:

Tony grows up comfortably in the suburbs like his dad and thus catchs the end of his grandfather's story: Zalmie is brought before the senate to testify and while Palumbo is confident he won't talk.. he does. Zalmie's story ends here as he lays out why: his son died leaving him a wreck, he got thrown in prison, and Palumbo's assurances h'ed get out slowly stopped coming. Zalmie's story.. is a heartbreaking one: a kid with all the talent and potetial who slowly lost his parents, his wife, and his morals, and despite everything still lost his son. All he has left is the truth: he knows he probably won't live long.. and dosen't care. And given Palumbo dosen't come up after this it's safe to say he probably did go down. Did Zalmie go with him? We'll never know. Tony didn't find out, so neither do we.

Instead Tony becomes a beatnik, adoring poetry slams and really getting into it. Thus he's a bit pretentious and jokey, but a good kid and my faviorite of the four, with Ron Thompson giving a standout performance. Thompson originally auditioned for a bit part, but his delivery of "GREETINGS PIZZA MAN" got Bakshi's attention, he asked who he was then cast him as Pete, our Finaly Belenski and eventually Tony. As a result he got top billing thanks to Tony having a sizeable role and Pete getting used in all the promotion as the modern star.

But we'll get to him later.. for now the focus is on Tony who hammy as he is feels isolated at home, his sisters and brothers ignoring him and his mom and step-dad both not really paying attentoin. So he steals his step dads car and books it for California. It's also a large part of why I think Palumbo went down: while Tony's Parents never came looking his grandpa would've gotten pissy over what he saw as an insult. So without him around Tony gets a clean slate. We neve rfind out what happened to his family or his poor mother who already lost her husband nad, no matter how lax she might've been it's left unclear, lost a son.

So Tony heads to the wild cornfields of Kansas, doing dishes for a night and meeting a waitress named

While they have the standard Belenski starring at each other adorably we've come to expect, with him giving a fun monlogue about she's the prize in the box of cracker jacks we call life. Which yeah, is pretenious as it sounds, but also cornily sweet and fits given Tony's likely still 17 at this point. What Teenager isn't a tad corny? It's what makes the character works: he goes into operatic rants and what not, but he comes off like any overdamatic teen and tends to be funny in the process.

So Tony can't convince the waitress girl to go with a strange man she just met to california. It was the 50's, they didn't know how bad that sounded. So they have a one night stand as represented by a train going through a tunnel

And we cut to tony i'm guessing a year or two later, washing dishes in a dingy club. He clearly WANTS to be on stage but his boss points out he can't sing and he can't play guitar.. even though there's a wide wooly world of insturments. He quits after a rambling monologue about dish washing, that again is funny because we're clearly not entirely laughing WITH tony, and frankly given the boss is a douche and thinks there's only one insturment in the world, I support this.

Tony then gets lucky... metaphorically this time, as he plays the harmonica, Benny's harmonica likely recovered from his body, and his sweet groove attracts Frankie Hart, the lead center of a six piece band and her guitarist also notices and invites him up in the 60's sense of piece brotherhood and passing the joint around, which he gladly takes. To the films credit it dosen't portray weed as the reason some of these guys get into hard drugs later or evil, just something done casually which for 1981 is progressive as hell. We weren't to just say no YET, but it was coming.

Bennie can't sing, though guitar man poitns out the obvious EVERYONE can play guitar, and his harmonica skills aren't exactly prime. He can WRITE though and eagerly takes them up on their offer to read some running home to get it and making some on the way home. For this segment a lot of real 60's songs are used and if I haven't covered the soundtrack it's not becaause it's bad, more because I don't recognize a lot of the songs and they play breifly. Music is at the heart of this movie.. but it's only mildly a musical. It still counts as there are music numbres and several factor into the plot, as well as a load of montages, it's got music in it.. but it's all brief and mostly lisecned. IT's still good and Tony's chops get him a regular gig with them.

Tony still wants to perform.. but is happy to soak in his music being sung. He's honestly fine being simply a part of things.. at first. But a later performing session shows two problems: The first is a drug problem: Frankie has one and Tony's been knocked down to her suplier, the second issue being she dosen't seem to value his music or at least acts like it. She still invites him on stage for a performance.. but after he'd done some acid kool aid leading to a truly trippy rendition of don't you want somebody to love you that really works. The songs been used a fuckton for promotoin and stuff by my time, but it works well thematically her.e

Tony fall down and go boom and it's here his story really gets tragic: his grandpa fell to his ambition, his dad fell to simply wanting some peace... Tony's fall.. is drugs. He gets addicted to painkillers and starts to spiral, seprating with the band for two months , feeling they don't need him in his stupor and thinking they fired them. We think that too.. till he returns to the studio and instead has simply been misisng, mildly butthurt Frankie married the drummer for all of two weeks. His spirit returns when she shows up and slaps the shit out of him... and says she needs him.

The relationship.. is about as healthy as it sounds. The two are happy together.. but also feed into each others addiction and by our next time skip while Frankie and co's album is a huge hit and they've got jimmi hendrix opening fo rthem, with an awesomely animated stand in of him. And while usually I feel Purple Haze is overplayed as it gets used in pop culture all the damn time as the stock "I'M DOING A DRUGS" song, it works here.. for basically the same purpose but also to contrast Hendrix at the height of his powers.. and to have them ironically opened by someone who'd also die far too soon from too much drugs. Tony and Frankie are burnt out at this point, and clearly out of their mind.. and have a guest. A young blonde haired blue eyed boy. Their in kansas. And like you Tony quickly connects the dots and freaks out a bit over it.. and the heroin in his system.

He dosen't have much time to react as after she sings for the kid.. we cut to Frankie dead. And while over the top.. tony's reaction is utterly heartbreaking, his face broken as he clings to her. Their relatinoship wasn't healthy.. but he still loved her.

Tony decides to get out of music and take his son Pete with him. Tony is... no less stable, spending most of their time dealing drugs and selling drugs and yells at his son for buying cornflakes and taking care of the groceries and you know.. being the parent in the relationship. I'ts heartbreaking: Tony was a mild ass.. sure.. but he was just a wide eyed kid who could've gone far , as could've frankie had he not got hooked on drugs and she not died from it. INstead h'es just a washed out wreck of his old self, heavy bags under his eyes, not even THAT much older. It's a truly heartrending end and a sign of what heavy drugs does t oa person and it's not pertty.

Eventually things hit their breaking point on a park bench: Tony wants to sell Pete's guitar, pete obviously does not and reveals during the argument he knows Tony's his father.. and it's why he's been protecting him. Tony's eyes go wide.. and he realizes both that his kid has been trying his damndest to save him.. and that he's beyond it. He dosen't want to get clean and won't.. and being around his kid is forcing the poor kid to take care of him when ther'es more to him. Granted his solution of pawning the guitar and telling a random passer by to tell him goodbye is... something, he coudl've gone to his family, but the fact Tony got as far as "shit I need to leave before this poor kid ends up like me" is still something. And as tony fades into the abyss, to never return... we move on to our final scenes

Pete: Pete gets the least screentime. Techncially I consider the start of pete's story to come at tony's end but they overlap heavier than Zalmie with his son. At any rate Pete really only gets about 20 minutes of screentime, 10 of which are purely focused on him and not entertwined with Tony's tragic end.

Pete has done okay for himself but not great. On one hand he's got bitching shades, a love of music like his papa, and a slick purple jacket I really want. He also has a cool tendnecy to drop his shades when he sees something musical and intresting. Despite having a short runtime we do get a sense of who pete was: someone whose cool, has swagger.. and deals drugs to get by, but learned from his old man's horrifying example to not do them himself as far as we can tell. He also has a girlfriend. She sure exists.

He's tired of dealing though having the good sense to get out of crime his grandpa had his great grandpa learned too late and his father never learned so when dealing to a band he knows asks to play. They shoot him down and the exec says they can find anothe rdealer if he refuses... but when he almost walks out the need for drugs is too strong and the lead singer makes a compromise: they'll play ONE song. not recording it. Pete agrees and dosen't throw away his shot.

It's here he sings, or rather a recording of Bob Seger sings, night moves, a song I truly love and is awesome, a simple song about a first time.. fitting how his parents met and what his mom told him. Thing is.. that's not what bakshi wanted. Bakshi wanted Freebird, which fits the father son angle more, even if it's sung to a lover instead of a child. Me I prefer Night Moves as a song and feel it still fits.. but agree Freebird fits better tonally.

No matter the song the band and label is impressed and we end with Pete singing a medly of songs as he rises to rock stardom... and the film rises to batshit insanity, using green colored footage of the actors singing and performing, splices in bits of Pete's family history he likely dosne't know about, and in general being what I assume acid feels like. Ralph Bakshi would know. But i'ts a solid finale and I like the lack of finality: We know Pete made it but we don't know if that holds, if he stays sober unlike his old man, if he ever finds said old man or any of his family. Learns more about them. We just know for one breif moment, after over 70 years of strife, a belinskiy reached his dream.. and that just has to be enough.

American Pop is excellent and if this hasn't convinced you to watch it I don't know what will. At the time this article was pubished it's free to view with ads on youtube and I strongly recommend doing so: It's a tragic yet joyous tour through parts of music I hadn't really carred to look into before but might now. A love leter to music, new york, america and those who didn't quite make it. It's a wonderful film and well worth your time

thanks for reading

[beardedmrbean]

Texas investigators say the stabbing of a Palestinian-American man protesting against the war in Gaza meets the police definition of a hate crime.

The alleged attack took place on Sunday near the University of Texas in Austin.

The suspect allegedly rode a bike up to a truck carrying four Muslims and tried to rip down a scarf from the vehicle bearing the words "Free Palestine".

On Wednesday, Austin Police Department officials said Bert James Baker, 36, had committed a hate crime.

The ruling from the police Hate Crimes Review Committee says that it will now be up to the Travis County District Attorney's Office to determine what charges he will ultimately face.

Zacharia Doar, 23, was stabbed in the chest during a fight with Mr Baker, according to a police report of the incident.

The group was attacked after attending a pro-Palestinian protest at the state capitol, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has advocated for hate crime charges against their attacker.

Mr Baker is accused of trying to open the truck's tailgate, and yelling racial slurs at the group in order to provoke a fight, according to the police report.

One witness told the Austin American-Statesmen newspaper that he helped by using the scarf - a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh - to staunch the bleeding.

"In that moment, it was just extremely terrifying," said Suhaib Shah.

"Just seeing the amount of pain that this guy was in who had been stabbed and how much he was bleeding and just seeing how distraught the kids were."

Mr Doar has undergone surgery and is now in recovery, his family says.

Attacks on Muslims and Jews have risen since the 7 October attack by Hamas and Israel's ground invasion of Gaza.

In November, three men of Palestinian descent in Vermont were shot while wearing keffiyehs and speaking Arabic during a walk.

[theartisticgamingwitch]

KOKUYO Campus Notebook, Dot A 7mm Ruled, Semi-B5, 30 Sheets, 30 Lines, Pack of 5, Spy x Family Limited Edition, Japan Import review

That was a mouth full. I normally do book reviews on my other Tumblr channel, but this is a notebook which means i can use it for school and its Spy x Family meaning i have a excuse to gush about best family!

So lets get the nitty gritty out of the way. This Campus notebook is a semi B5. Meaning according to japanese paper standards, It is larger than 176 x 250 mm which is a versatile bridge between office use and large-format technical documents. College ruled paper, also known as college lined paper, typically measures 8.5 x 11 inches (US Letter size) with 7.1 mm (9/32 inches) between horizontal lines. So slightly bigger than what Japans used to but the normalish...for us Americans.

Like it says on the notebook KOKUYO Campus Notebooks are made speffifically for students however i have seen stationary lovers use them for diary entries. Its 70 gsm so its basicly printer paper but is resistant to bleed through so i can use a fountain pen or a roller ball. Its also lighter so thats a major plus!

The binding is lay flat glue binding and come with a dotted ruling style. Its basically lined paper with cute small dots evenly lined across the page. Perfect for my ass who needs a book on statistics. All campus notebooks use FSC certified paper but there is also a recycled edition if you are trying to lower your footprint.

I also bought the B with the semi B and my goal is to make study diaries out of them I already have an idea of what could go 1st. I might make that another blog entry in itself.