#but its supposed to evoke that stereotype

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

Bit of an odd question: Does Duval have an accent in the original Japanese?

In translation, he has a country accent and it's specifically noted that it comes out when he gets mad. Does he also have an accent in the original text and if so, what kind?

yeah, he slips into a sort of generalized touhoku (northeast japan) dialect when he gets worked up! touhoku-ben is treated as a stereotypically rural, 'hick' type of accent in japanese media- bartolomeo also speaks with a fairly heavy touhoku dialect. with duval, it's particularly noticeable in how his personal pronoun slips from the typical masculine ore to the dialectal ora, and he starts appending the particles be and ccha onto his sentences, which are characteristic of touhoku-ben.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

In the original format of the Chinese Miraculous Box there was a Yin-Yang and the Ladybug Miraculous was placed in the Yin half while the Black Cat Miraculous was placed in the Yang half. It's just me who finds it very strange? Like, Tikki represents Creation and Plagg represents Destruction so Tikki was supposed to be the Yang half while Plagg was supposed to be the Yin half but at the same that would mean that Tikki was supposed to be the male half while Plagg was supposed to be female half.

Yeah, there are a lot of things that Miraculous seems to get wrong if you start looking into the source cultures on even a surface level. I'm with you on the placing potentially being off. They could be going for the classic look where there's a spot of yin in yang and vise versa, but Tikki and Plagg are pure Creation and Destruction, so I'm not sure how well that works. I've been trying to do some research on this topic for the next time it came up and I am still woefully uneducated, but I can say that yin and yang are complex concepts. Just reading through the Wikipedia page will tell you that much.

The more I learn, the more I applaud the movie for its version of the miracle box which just vaguely evokes the "classic" image of a yin-yang and doesn't try to commit to anything too hard:

They went with colors and matching dragon motifs instead of the traditional white-and-black, making it less clear who is supposed to be yin and who is supposed to be yang if there even is a direct association at all! Which I think works much better for the following ranty reasons:

The kwamis' are "officially" genderless so their gender associations can potentially be ignored and we can just focus on their Force associations when discussing the symbolism. However, that feels like a copout to me because no one watching the show or the movie will know that. The genderless thing is a twitter-only bit of canon and you all know how I feel about that BS. If you want a thing to be canon, then put it in canon. Otherwise it is by definition not canon!

There's also the issue that no one watching the show will inherently know that yin and yang have associations with Creation and Destruction because the both versions never discuss the Chinese influences that the writers love to claim credit for. You have to already know them going in to get what's going on. No five-year-old is going to walk away understanding - or even knowing the words - yin and yang. They will also have no idea that the zodiac kwamis are based on the Chinese zodiac because I don't think that we ever even hear the word "zodiac" in the actual text. Given all that, I think that it's way better to remove yourself from direct association and just go with some vague influence since that is all these things are in the context of canon. They are not meaningful representation by any conceivable metric.

Is even vague influence going to far? I have no idea! That's an incredibly complex topic that I don't have the knowledge or training to meaningfully discuss. That's why I will repeat the thing I always say in posts on this topic: if you want to rep a culture that you're not part of and have no deep understanding of, then do some research and - if you have the funds - pay for a cultural consultant to help guide you. Don't want to do that? That's fine, just don't pick a real culture as a major influence to your magic system. Especially don't pick one that has an unfair stereotype of being "magical and weird" to the cultures that will be consuming your creation.

[heliphantie]

“Bubo Marquez, what it is, dark magic?”

Local fauna enthusiast has discovered an exceptional specimen.

Local goddess of flora has inherited gene that makes one falling for nerds.

A lot to say about Bubo under ‘read more’…

Bubo! The man who was cut from the story and replaced by cactus:D

I believe real reasons for it is that his storyline would’ve been excessive for already crumped timing of the movie. Sure, in concept art his and Isabela’s couple looks like comedic stereotype, but then, underlying theme of the story is how deceptive surface picture in human relationships (and humans in general) can be. Aren’t Pepa and Félix embodying a cartoon duo cliché (a stocky man and tall, often spindly woman: Boris and Natasha, Popeye and Olive Oyl, Gomez and Morticia, you name it) as well, yet they have enough personality and chemistry to feel like full-fledged people in genuine relationship. And it’s not like Disney had problem with pairing statuesque confident woman with dorky/nerdy man just not so long ago: Captain Amelia and Dr. Doppler, Kida and Milo, Sgt. Calhoun and Felix Jr. … I’ve had written here my thoughts on this plot point as it appears in revealed animatic of scene: there is no much further context to it, but from what the scene discloses, it may create unfortunate impression of Isa’s character, as she seemingly tries to ditch her family and elope with somebody who can promise her future and allows her to indulge in her interests rather than maintain a respectable image she doesn’t want. Compared to her eventual storyline she appears more egoistical, and her feelings for Bubo seem self-centered too, as she only talks about loving what he loves in her. So, based just on that scene only, it could give Isa rather unsympathetic air and hurt her character arc (as it doesn’t reflect faithfully on cultural values it’s intended to portray). But her arc, I suppose, was intended to evoke sympathy after all, as, amidst all the comedy bits, the scene implies genuine and deep affinity between two (and, as another storyboard for epilogue shows, Isa’s happy ending did involve getting married to him). I guess it was decided that focus on sibling and intergenerational bonds was more pivotal for the message, thus any romance got sidelined as it was (even though different romance plot was squeezed in, it’s got even less room for development). /And, after all, love story is in the heart of the plot, it just deals with its consequences rather than blooming stage of it./

Back on the subject of stereotypes: well, yes, scrawny nerd type and model beauty together is an odd pair that may rise brows and ill suspicions in real life (presumably) and taken as joke in fiction, not particularly fresh too. But the catch in this particular case is, in all production materials and in the movie itself, it’s implied to various degree, Isa is a nerd too, by her nature. in concept art, she’s shown with books in hands (only her of all characters), and her song shows she’s knowledgeable of botany far beyond her typical repertoire, and it’s strongly implied the magical gifts stem from one’s deep inclinations. /It also stealthily upturns the presumed dynamics of three sisters: gorgeous one is really a Brain, while Luisa, a sensitive one, is Beauty, and finally, strongheaded and determined Mira (presupposed “Brain” of trio) is a figurative Brawn./ The scene from the animatic, in its turn, implies Bubo may be just as much into zoology (fearless in the woods and, that, I guess, why he has these animal urinе samples). So, romance or not, they apparently have something to see eye-to-eye and grow mutual affection over it. And the scene is quite essential in showing a gist of his personality: smart, brave, bit of eccentric, - enough to see him as likeable charismatic figure without needs to question what may be so charming about him. /Quite obviously, after he was cut, a lot of him went into final character of Bruno; he is basically just younger (well, not *smaller*) bespectacled Bruno sans all the gloom and drama./ Inner kinship under contrasting façades makes effectual portrait of a functional couple, I think.

Also, his name, which is likely a nickname, referring to his oversized glasses (Bubo is Latin and Spanish for “horned owl”.) Emphasis on eyeglasses again, like in case of Mirabel, a metaphor of “seeing beyond the obvious” through the movie. And owl is a symbol of wisdom, of course.

TL;DR: In this house we respect Bubo Marquez. I’ve finally come to giving tribute to him, at last. (This is not the last you’ve got to see of him, I gotta warn you.)

All the butterflies are based on actual species that can be found in Columbia, even though I didn’t check on correct sizes and a habitat of each, sorry for that. Hey, it’s all magic after all.

The last, related to this piece of fanart of mine: Bubo is said to be an outsider from the big city who had arrived one day in Encanto, in my version he is, perhaps, born inside the village (like Agustín, who has ancestry from big city) and was a friend of Isa in their adolescence, but eventually left Encanto to see the world. Maybe he even suggested Isa to consider joining him, but she was adamant to stay… They said goodbye, their feelings for each other left unexpressed.

[workersolidarity]

Anti-Communism is something bred into Americans from the time we are children. We are taught how anything related to Stalin is automatically bad and anything involving the Soviet Union is inherently secretive and authoritarian.

This bias is so deeply ingrained, that, having finally after years of Marxist and Geopolitical study, I've finally reached a point where those little anti-Communist tropes and sound bites inserted into our political conversations catch my attention automatically.

Now this took a really long time to reach. Anti-Communism is so deeply ingrained in our society, so embedded in our information space, and this completely by design, that we don't notice it in our everyday lives. We're not meant to. We're meant to internalize these stereotypes until it affects every aspect of our political thinking.

And I'll give you an example of how even the most obscure media consumption can result in our exposure to anti-Communist propaganda.

So I'm watching one of these obscure science channels on YouTube, being interested in the science behind nuclear criticality. So in the first video, which is about a famous incident in which a Russian scientist was exposed to a particle beam in an accelerator that resulted in serious injury but he survived. And at the end of the video, they start talking about how he really suffered under that awful Soviet Bureaucracy when he was denied his free government healthcare in 1997. 🙄

I seriously face palmed on that one.

But then I'm watching an entirely different science video on an entirely different nuclear accident. This one the only fatal Nuclear reactor accident in American history.

So I get to the end of this video, they've done a great job at really helping you understand the science behind what triggered the accident, and I'm really satisfied with the video, and then, right at the end they throw this little tidbit of information out as though it too were a statement of fact:

[Speaking factually about the fatal design flaw responsible for the US accident in 1961 that was also present in the design of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986]

"When we don't learn from history (deeply accusing stare at the Soviets) it tends to repeat itself"

Ugh!!!!!!!

🤯

Okay, so basically he has to throw in the insinuation that somehow the Communists are even more deeply responsible for Chernobyl than the Americans were for SL-1, the destroyed US nuclear reactor from 1961.

Now on its face, most people aren't going to think twice about such a statement. It is meant to evoke a response inside you of "ugh those Communists were just terrible to see our mistakes and repeat them anyway!" without ever giving any kind of critical nudge at the thought whatsoever. After all, we Americans all know how evil and awful Communists, and especially Russian Communists were.

And that's supposed to be the end of that. Two science videos, both ending with throw away lines of anti-Communist propaganda, both meant to leave me feeling superior as an American and especially an American Capitalist!

But the reality exposes the absurdity of American anti-Communist propaganda!

How would the Soviets have known about the US design flaw years earlier?

Am I just mistaken and it was common practice from the 1960's to the 1980's to share our nuclear trade secrets with our greatest adversary??? To share nuclear designs with the great evil empire the USSR at the height of the Cold War?

Please. How the fuck could the Soviets have known the details of the SL-1 design flaws?

But that's not even really the point, because in the end, it does not matter how ridiculous or absurd or counter factual US propaganda becomes because the public is just so deeply propagandized, so well trained, and so peppered with this kind of subliminal propaganda all day every day.

And it truly took years for me, not just to be able to recognize propaganda anyone can do that, but to really begin to understand the depth and nature of which we are being saturated in this constant stream of pro-Imperialist, pro-Capitalist, often conflicting narratives that are intended to make us accept without ever critically analyzing what "approved" sources tell us.

I cannot stress enough the importance and personal responsibility of every worker to educate yourself on the nature of advertising and propaganda and their relationship to Capitalism and Imperialism.

It is so important that we understand how Wall Street, the Big Banks, Big Investors and Big Corporate bosses, how they use the tools of the media and internet to control and maintain the information available to us and how they use that control to maintain the myths of Capitalism, Neoliberalism and an Imperialist Foreign Policy, as well as maintain the myths of "authoritarianism " and "human rights violations" maintained around US Adversaries like the Soviet Union and now Russia, Iran, Cuba, DPRK, Vietnam, China and on and on and on.

[darkest-depravity]

New to the BDSM and LGBTQI+ community and would love to know your insights for a rich and happy sex life in this new world

Thank you mistress 💜

Thank you for asking! I love seeing you so eager to learn ;)

A few things here:

Communication. If you're uncomfortable with something, say so. If you really want to try something, say so. If you're unsure or feeling nervous, say so! There's being big strong burly grrr Domly Dom 👿 and being cute weak defenseless lil sub 🥺, and then there's you and your partner(s) as individual autonomous beings. These two facets of your relationship exist simultaneously. Don't neglect to mention a thought or experience you're having because you feel like it may compromise your role in the power dynamic. Kink, when at its best, involves the ability to fully believe in the power dynamic AND also never lose sight of you and your partner(s) own actual personhood. It's both. And. They aren't actually opposites, even though it can seem like it sometimes because the power dynamic feels so real (and it is! it's as real as you want it to be!) but they don't actually need to conflict with each other at all. A Dominant should be allowed to be vulnerable without losing the respect of their submissive, and a submissive should be allowed to be strong and powerful without the Dominant’s power feeling threatened. You might not always be perfect at this. And that's ok!! You're human. If something doesn't work out, the important thing is to communicate it to the other person/people involved, and reflect on what you could do differently next time :)

In a similar vein, watch out for rigid & binary archetypes constricting your thinking. If you have a certain idea of what a Dom/sub is "supposed to be like" and “supposed to do” you might find yourself overly critical of your partner(s) every tiny move. Alternatively, you could find yourself doing things you might not actually be comfortable with because you feel like you need to fit a certain pre-packaged role. You also might miss out on some great and very pleasurable opportunities! Some good food for thought is this scenario: You walk into a restaurant and see two kink people sitting at a table. One of them is serving food to the other's plate, and hand feeding them off of a spoon. Which one is the sub, and which one is the Dom? The answer is that there's no way to know off of the information you have! Any action can be an act of submission or Dominance. What matters is the mentalities and intentions of each person performing the act, and what feelings the action evokes in you and your partner(s). The possibilities are truly endless when you free yourself from any preconceived stereotypes about BDSM :)

Watch out for red flags. Seriously. This is a big one. BDSM is one hell of a drug. You're going to have Big Feelings in both roles. One of the (many many) reasons that aftercare is so important is that post-scene feelings can be kind of a roller coaster sometimes, and everyone is different in how they react to it. In my experience, the rose-colored glasses phenomenon is even more prominent in kink relationships because the emotions and sense of connection can be so strong. This can lead you to miss important details of their behavior. This is why it's important to start slow (especially since you're new) and work up the intensity gradually. It's also important to do your best to take a step back and try to be objective about the relationship. Is this person respectful of my limits and desires? Does this person give aftercare effectively and consistently? Does this person respect my autonomy? By the way, there are absolutely manipulative and emotionally abusive submissives out there (but also keep an eye out for unworthy “doms” who use that fact as a cover story for their own abusive bullshit). In other words, protect yourself. And don’t take anything for granted until you’ve built a solid foundation of trust with the person.

Finally, and this one’s a lil bit more controversial, the preeminent axiom in the BDSM community is Safe, Sane, and Consensual. I, personally, would argue that this saying is inadequate. In my opinion, not only does the word “sane” in this context have ableist implications, but would additionally contend that many (not all!) of the actions performed in kink are inherently unsafe. HOWEVER that does not necessarily mean that they cannot be done ethically and responsibly. Here I would draw a parallel between BDSM and skydiving, scuba diving, mountaineering, or any other dangerous recreational activity. One will always incur some level of risk by the very action of jumping out of a plane. BUT. A responsible skydiver is going to do everything in their power to ensure that all possible precautions have been taken & have emergency procedures in place in the event that something goes wrong, and it is required of a company which offers tandem skydiving to ensure that their business practices are ethical. Personally, I prefer Consensual, Ethical, and Responsible as a modus operandi. But again, that’s just my opinion, and you’ll likely encounter those who disagree with me :)

Thank you again for your question. I wish you all the best in your endeavors. You be a good boy out there ;)

[a-trick-or-two-with-lepers]

Hair (1979) Soundtrack Personal Ranking

I have fallen in LOVE with this musical; particularly the movie version. It encapsulates its message of peace and love in the time of war very well in my opinion. Since I'm also a freak for numbered lists, I've decided to rank the songs from my least to most favorite. Even my least favorite songs make me bob my head a little. This is a very groovy movie and everybody should watch it a least once. I'm going to be ranking these songs based on sound and meaning alone, rather than including the filmography of the scenes that go along with them, just to make things a bit fairer.

19. Hashish - This is less of a song and more of a chanting of the names of different drugs. The walking bassline and lackadaisical percussion are reminiscent of the effects of depressant drugs, which is pretty cool.

18. LBJ/Initials - This is a pretty short song, and I don’t have much to say about it. It doesn’t have many lyrics. I don’t care to know much about history, but evidently LBJ did become a hippy of sorts, which is interesting.

17. Sodomy - Whenever I hear this song, I always imagine two things: one, the faces of the audiences hearing this on stage for the first time were probably hilarious, and two, someone who doesn’t speak English probably thinks this song is beautiful and pure. The main vocals provided are really pretty, and the same goes for the instrumentation and background vocals. However, the lyrics are rather shocking. Woof literally just says the most heinous sexual words he can think of, and then questions why they evoke such disgust in people. In his opinion, which reflects the opinions of many hippies during this time, these words represent joy and good feelings among humans, so he doesn’t understand why so many people call them “dirty.” Although, I’m not sure why pederasty is included in this song. The relationships that word represents truly ARE nasty… 

16. Colored Spade - So. I’m white. I couldn’t nor would I ever want to sing the lyrics to this song, considering they literally just consist of every black slur under the sun. However, they are sung by black people, along with stereotypes associated with their race. It is genuinely a progressive song if you look at it a certain way, considering they are diminishing the importance of these words that have been used derogatorily against them. Additionally, Dorsey Wright’s voice here is fantastic. He sounds like a young Louis Armstrong in some parts, and he was just out of high school! I can fully understand how some people might feel uncomfortable with this song- I definitely do- but I think that’s the point. These words have been used to make black people uncomfortable for so many years, so by reclaiming them and using them satirically, the black folks in this song make everyone else feel uncomfortable for using them.

15. 3-5-0-0 - This is a really impactful protest song. I wouldn’t put it on my playlists or anything, but I can’t say it doesn’t hold a lot of meaning.

14. Electric Blues - This song is really interesting. It’s fully rebellious, and the fusion of R&B, rock, and jazz is just so, well, groovy! The bass and keyboard really shine in this song. If I were at a gathering in central park and this song was being performed, I’d be losing all my inhibitions and vibing with the crowd.

13. Good Morning Starshine - This one makes me want to ride down a highway in a roofless car with my homies. Although, I’d probably be sputtering and moving my hair out of my face the whole time. Still a cute song nonetheless. Also, Johnny Depp Willy Wonka reference! Yay!

12. Black Boys/White Boys - I don’t know what to make of this song. It makes me giggle. Especially with how they have the militia men also singing it in the movie. I think that’s supposed to represent how strange it was that men had to be examined by other men to be deemed worthy to fight. It was a similar process to how some women would choose men to sleep with. This song might offend modern viewers, but it was once again progressive for the time. Bi-racial couples weren’t quite accepted by society, so mixed races lusting over each other was about as radical as it got. 

11. Walking in Space - This song is quite the trip. I really like the soloist. I won’t go into an analysis of this song, as it’s so packed with metaphors that I fear it would take me all day, but the footnotes are basically that hippies saw drugs as beautiful, and they didn’t understand why someone would want to end this beauty for others, and they were very, very anti-war. I rather like the verse “To keep us under foot/They bury us in soot/Pretending it’s a chore/To ship us off to war.” 

10. Donna - I spent some time not understanding what this song was about. I found a small analysis online that suggested “Donna,” being a teenager and a virgin, represents the virgin Mary, and rather than looking for an actual young girl to corrupt, Berger is searching for salvation through his actions. This spiritual theme is present in many lines of the song. “I’m evolving through the drugs that you put down” seems to represent how Berger and many others feel closer to God when they are intoxicated. I really like this reading of the song; it makes it much easier to listen to. I’ll admit, I was a bit put off by “16-year-old virgin,” so I was just convincing myself it was okay because it was from a very different time, but thinking of the song this way makes me enjoy it a lot more. It’s a very upbeat and catchy tune. Also, Treat Williams really shows his range here!

9. Hare Krishna - Many hippies believed that chanting this phrase (and also ‘Hare Rama’) would have a direct impact on the soul, as it called upon pleasure and divine femininity. They chant other words with the same phrasing and melody, such as marijuana. This represents how they saw the use of drugs as a spiritual joy that brought pleasure and happiness to the user. It’s a really pretty song.

8. Manchester, England - This song is so much fun! You can tell Claude and Berger really enjoy each others’ presence. A lot of people don’t know what the fuck these lyrics mean, but here’s how I see it: the title itself is sort of a double-meaning. On one hand, Claude comes from a small town in Oklahoma, which is so different from NYC that it might as well be another country. On the other hand, at this point in the film, Claude is tripping balls. Get it? He’s on a trip? Anyway, I really love this song. Some of the references date it a bit, but it was representative of the time. Sometimes I just sing “MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, ENGLAND” for absolutely no reason. Treat Williams really lives up to his name, and John Savage is adorable. 

7. Hair - This song is super delightful. It shows how and why the hippies valued their hair so much: it was a symbol of their freedom, like their own flag. The military and social sensibilities told them to cut their hair, which they saw as oppression. They also sing about how their lifestyles and appearances reflected that of Jesus, who the American military sent them out to fight for. In the opinions of the hippies, Jesus would have agreed with their own lifestyles rather than the lives of those fighting in the war. According to nearly everything the Bible says, this is true. “My hair like Jesus wore it, Hallelujah, I adore it, Hallelujah, Mary loved her son, why don’t my mother love me…”

6. Aquarius - Due to the popularization of this song thanks to The Fifth Dimension band, this is probably the most well-known song from “Hair.” It’s the first song in the movie, and the bass and drums work to get the audience relaxed and excited for what they’re about to see. When the brass comes in, it helps to set the tone of the song, which is optimistic and warm. Then, of course, there is the solo vocalist. Her name is Ren Woods, and her voice is absolutely stunning. She was apparently only 19 when she sang this, and yet her voice sounds at least 30. I’m a sucker for mature voices that emphasize vowels and rhythmic intonation. The lyrics of this song may seem confusing at first to people who don’t know anything about astrology (I’m talking about myself here), but the main message of the song is about the sexual freedom movement that was occuring in the sixties. Despite the name, this movement was about much more than sex. It was about connection, love for one’s neighbors, mutual understanding, and empathy, among other ideas. From what I’ve learned, the ages of the zodiac signs last thousands of years each, and it was said that during the sixties, the Age of Aquarius would begin. This age was meant to bring a sense of peace and harmony to the world, and the hippies/flower children believed their own morals to be in line with this new age. 

5. I’m Black/Ain’t got No - The beginning of this song is so addictive, both instrumentally and vocally. These men proclaim their skin color with self-confidence and joy, and then Claude sings his bit about being invisible. I feel that Claude should have had more characterization in this movie, so I really like that part in particular. Then “Ain’t got No” starts, and I seriously can’t express how much I love this song. It’s almost tear-jerking in how passionate it is; the vocalists here really felt what they were singing (especially Kurt Yaghjian, who was also Annas in JCS 73)!! The hippies sing what they’re constantly told by higher class citizens: that they are lacking, dirty, and worthless. However, they intersperse these comments with what they’re grateful for not having, such as attachments to material possessions that strip them of their individuality. It’s amazing how a song with not much variation in its lyrics and phrasing can be so impactful. I could go on and on about it. 

4. Easy to be Hard - This particular rendition of the song, of all the versions I’ve heard, is my favorite. The soloist here has the most incredible voice, and the key fits her very well. The lyrics mean a lot to me in the context of the movie as well. While the movement the hippies were starting and going along with was morally admirable, the kindness and love they impressed onto the less fortunate did not always translate to their personal lives. Hud abandoned his fiancee and child and verbally abused the former in public. While he may be socially progressive, he was still upholding harmful patriarchal standards in his own life because they benefited him. (I still wish he received more on-screen comeuppance for this, but it is implied that Berger and the gang made him apologize). 

3. Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine In - Aaaaand this is where the tears begin to flow. Seriously, the entire time this song was playing in the movie I was just sobbing. It’ll probably be my next lyrical analysis. I think this is probably the most impactful moment in the film because of this song. Berger reprising “Manchester, England” broke my heart in two. 

2. I got Life - This song makes me want to jump on a table and sing at the top of my lungs. Of course, I would never do that, what with my following of social norms and safety, but George Berger had no such inhibitions. He is just mesmerizing here, and that is thanks to the spectacular acting of Treat Williams. Just like “Ain’t got No,” this song repeats very similar phrases over and over again, and yet it is one of my favorites in the whole musical. This song almost feels like a sister song to the former; instead of singing about what he lacks, Beger sings about what he has, and with just as much, if not more, joy. “I got my ass!” Yes you do, Berger! Go off king!!

1. Where do I Go - I was really debating whether to put “I got Life” or this first. But then I realized I spent almost two hours making a lyrical analysis of this song last night (stay tuned for that post >:)) and decided, yeah, this is probably my favorite. The instrumentation at the beginning is so… just… I don’t even have the words to describe it. Just know that movies about young people dying in wars they didn’t start hit me in a really personal way somehow. I’ll go into more detail in my analysis post.

I know my blog is mostly about Jesus Christ Superstar, which still ranks above this movie for me. However, I was completely entranced by the music of this film, and since seeing it I have felt the intense need to analyze its lyrics and musicality. If you like JCS and haven't seen this movie, I sincerely suggest checking it out.

[byneddiedingo]

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris, Fumihiro Hayashi, Catherine Lambert. Screenplay: Sofia Coppola. Cinematography: Lance Acord. Art direction: Mayumi Tomita. Film editing: Sarah Flack. Music: Kevin Shields.

Lost in Translation won Sofia Coppola an Oscar for best original screenplay and a nomination for best director, along with nominations for best picture and for Bill Murray as best actor. But I have to admit that it left me cold when I first saw it, and my opinion of it has warmed only somewhat since then. I grant its originality of concept and its effective use of Murray and co-star Scarlett Johansson, who was only 18 when the film was made, a major step in her career as a film actress. Murray and Johansson have a fine chemistry together that stops short of inducing the queasiness that might result from their age difference. Coppola effectively portrays the melancholy of these Americans lost in a lively, vibrant culture they can only glimpse superficially. But I can also sympathize with the Japanese critics who found its depiction of the people of Japan to be little short of caricature. I felt this most strongly in the scene, early in the film, in which someone sends a prostitute to the hotel room of Murray's character, and she demands that he "lip" her stockings. Much supposed hilarity ensues from the stereotype of the Japanese confusion of "l" and "r," which was funny when the Monty Python troupe performed "Erizabeth L," with such characters as "Sil Wartel Lareigh," but I think it falls flat here. Otherwise, Coppola evokes the experience most of us have felt in a country where we don't speak the language. Murray plays a film star, Bob Harris, in Tokyo to shoot a Suntory whiskey commercial with a Japanese director who gives complicated instructions that are reduced by a translator to little more than "turn and look at the camera." A New York Times article after the film opened revealed what the director is actually saying, but Coppola chose not to provide subtitles, leaving the non-Japanese-speaking audience as much in the dark as Bob Harris -- and in fact Bill Murray himself -- was. Coppola also subtly suggests what her characters might be feeling, without spelling it out for us, as when Charlotte (Johansson), who has been left on her own in Japan while her photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi) travels about, visits a Buddhist temple in Kyoto where a wedding is taking place. But Coppola's lapses in control of the film's tone, as in the scene with the prostitute, are sometimes needlessly jarring.

[aces-to-apples]

wait how are zabraks black-coded if you don't mind me asking? this in good faith btw

I recall the diversity-instarwars blog having written a meta post about Dathomir and its lore but the blog is now empty so I'll do my best to be concise, though I'm emphatically not an expert or authority on racial coding. Through pretty bog standard Star Wars racial stereotyping, cultural appropriation, and exoticization, the Nightbrothers are pretty blatantly ""inspired"" by historical atrocities committed against African peoples by European colonizers, with a Star Wars-typical White Feminist Hashtag Girlboss filter thrown over it.

The men of Dathomir, the Nightbrothers, are canonically acknowledged (and it's widespread, everyone knows) to be subjugated and enslaved by the Nightsisters. They're used as laborers, defenders, and, let's be frank here, breeding stock. In the episodes where we meet Savage and Feral, it's very clear that Nightbrothers do not get a say in whether they become "mates", that they are not allowed to refuse, that they are forced to hurt each other to "prove" themselves, and that they are afraid of being chosen by the Nightsisters. None of the "tests" that Ventress demands they be put through are portrayed as unusual.

In addition to how familiar that sounds—forced into labor, forced to create children against their will, not free to leave or refuse because their bodies aren't there own—the Nightsister "magic" (despite Mother Talzin's fucking ridiculous Transylvanian(???) accent) is clearly based on white American stereotypes of "voodoo", which I understand is itself a pejorative and bastardized version of a living religion. The "dark magic" vibes, the scary green mist, the nonsense chanting, the zombification of its victims, the mind-control, etc., isn't actually anything specific but like. We all know what it's supposed to evoke, especially in a franchise well-known for stealing and twisting pieces of other peoples' culture.

There's also the hyper-aggressive, "savage" portrayal of the Nightbrothers towards outsiders when OBW and Anakin showed up, the way they live in rickety-looking shacks and huts and wear plain and rough homemade clothes, the way they're divided into "tribes" and are visually singled out by their distinctive skin markings (either natural coloring or ritualized tattoos, ymmv), the obsequious treatment of the Very White Woman who shows up to "select" a "mate" without warning or consideration... And then on top of all of that, the White Women In Charge chooses Savage as her "champion" and then uses that "magic" to non-consensually change his entire body, control his mind and actions, and then forces him to murder his family as proof of "loyalty" to her, when he only offered himself up as basically a sacrifice to keep her from killing said family in the first place.

It's all just. So bad and messy. And gross. It's so gross. And look, none of this is like, "proof" or anything. Coding as a concept is really complicated, and can be done deliberately and thoughtfully or subconsciously and without any intent whatsoever but whoops, you did a racism/ableism/antisemitism/etc.! But like, regardless of whether you think the Nightbrothers are (intentionally or unintentionally) analogous to real-life groups of people, it's all super gross and fucked up and the fact that so many people like Ventress as this empowering girlboss character when she's basically a white radfem with a laser sword and systemic power over a group of marginalized men of color that she abuses on-screen super skeezes me out personally.

*shrug*

[transeuropexpress]

Record Mirror interview with Ralf Hütter, conduced by Mark Cooper (1982)

I mean, let's start with the obvious, and perhaps the funniest thing about this interview. The photo on the first page is of Florian and they spelled 'Ralf' as 'Ralph' underneath it, despite the fact it's spelled correctly everywhere else. Some poor editor wasn't too interested, it seems... anyway!

"Ralf Hütter is the voice of Kraftwerk. He writes the words and gives the interviews, talking in the kind of perfect English which no English person can manage... Ralf is small and precise, giving an overwhelming impression of neatness. Like Kraftwerk, he likes a joke. Bad puns are his favorite and he underlines them with his eyebrows as if to explain, "I make joke" ... Polite and shy, Ralf is extremely reasonable and pleasantly ponderous -- like German bread."

Mark Cooper gives a strange first impression of Ralf, which I suppose isn't all that strange in itself for a Kraftwerk interview. First considering the header ("I'm not nuts," is he or isn't he?) which leads you to suspect Ralf is actually unusual, then being described as "ponderous" and "normal to the point of being weird," Cooper appears to have something of a grudge against him. In fact he admits to it, writing that "A part of me is convinced he's quite mad, another that he's dangerous," which... okay? I can't conceive of any reason why interviewers keep bringing up this concern of Ralf (and Florian) being dangerous somehow, whether that's in reference to the way they use their instruments or in their own persons, besides being a bit sensationalist. Kraftwerk was something new, something unlike anything else, and the members presented themselves in a very manicured and un-sensational way... so you have to make something up. Being clinically precise and intimidating fit right into both the German stereotype and idea of being robotic.

Which isn't to say it's all bad. Cooper also describes Ralf as having a sense of humor, which he acknowledges Kraftwerk incorporates into their music, and that he's polite, rather pretty, intelligent, and earnest. Ralf has nerves -- he's "Germanically human." Well, enough about the people, what about the music?

"In love with machines, Kraftwerk spends a good deal of time extolling a world in which humans would live happily and equally with machines and just about as much time portraying a world of frightening uniformity in which humans, like 'The Model,' have lost any individuality and become as machines"

Hmmm... This interview is from 1982, so through the album Computerworld. While rough, I feel, in description, it's right to say there's a split between Kraftwerk's depiction of machines as friend and foe. Computerworld especially explores the imminent use of computer technology to monitor citizens, but also revels in the possibilities of everyone having their own personal computing machine (I'm composing, I'm controlling || I beam myself into the future!). This isn't a new sentiment from them. Ich bin Ihr Deiner und Ihr Herr zugleich...

"Their music extols order to a point beyond the classical, to a point where I sometimes wonder whether the record's stuck, all the while evoking one constant emotion, loss."

I have to admit, when I first listened to Kraftwerk albums I also thought they could be repetitive. Now I hear them differently, through a lens of biased love and admiration, so.. well... anyway, I have to agree wholeheartedly with Cooper's last line there. Yes, Kraftwerk's music is uniquely melancholy. It's the best word for it, a sadness you can't really place. In hindsight, 'loss' could be a good word, the loss of a dreamed future that never came to be. Then, perhaps, the loss of a present reality which was freer and less monitored. Trans-Europe Express is so achingly romantic you can't help but let the post-card views flash through your mind, marred here and there with bombshell craters. And Radio-Activity... that needs its own post.

"I ask Ralf if he thinks he's normal. The question seems to shock him"

Well I should think so. asshole. Cooper says Ralf's being either 'clever or naive,' which is 'just like Kraftwerk.' Unfortunately I think he's right again because Ralf does admit to feeling out of place when he was a kid and I mean, he's never wanted to incorporate himself or his projects into the mainstream, really. Kraftwerk never worked with another band/artist to make music. Ralf openly explains that the aesthetics and values of Kraftwerk should remain distinctly separate from the flashiness of rock n roll, that Kraftwerk began to define their own (and Germany's own) type of music, specifically to break way from the popular anglo-American scenes.

Ralf: "I was out of touch with others... But since we made Kraftwerk and discovered our productivity by making our own music and pushing off the old classics, we found our normalcy. We closed ourselves in and started the Kling Klang studio and asked, 'Where are we? What do we want to play? What is happening?' Now we're social workers, we have a holistic approach to our work."

Alright. I'll skip the armchair psychology but finding normalcy by closing yourself off from the world and doing it your own way... then there's the disregard of 'old classics' which might be a bit of arrogance coming through because I know for a fact Kraftwerk admires the work of many influential past artists, though he may just mean they were throwing off the shackles of expectation and formulae.

"Kraftwerk are more like some weirdo's notion of the normal than the scruffy, day-to-day normality that most of us endure. Ralf: "It's very basic and so very honest. You can't call it anything else but work."

When I go to hell there'll be a Kraftwerk journalist tied to a chair and a demon will hand me a baseball bat or other blunt instrument. Or maybe that's heaven? Anyway stop being so mean. Even if you're correct. Or be more accurate -- I wouldn't say Kraftwerk is truly trying to look "normal." Their aesthetics are polished and purposeful, as much a message as any punk rock group wearing patched-up secondhand leather jackets. The people behind Kraftwerk aren't supposed to be part of the spectacle, really -- they're made almost to blend in with their machines, appear the same as each other, give the impression of mechanical perfection as much as human care to human sense of style. None of which is overwhelmingly normal to me. But yes, they look more 'normal' with their shirts and slacks than traditional bands, and yet much neater than your average person on the street.

Then there's Ralf's philosophy on work. Musikarbeiter.

Ralf: "We are suggesting that people re-think their whole working situation, co-operate with one another and become productive. This is how work should be whether you are a musician, a journalist or a dentist."

A little ironic for the guy who just said he closed himself off to work on his music. But there's three other people in the Kling Klang Studio at that time, so, point still stands? He really wants the perception that he and the other members of Kraftwerk are workers, and derides the common notion of what working is. Ralf calls it slavery, says that the promise of a holiday doesn't excuse ten months of hard and unfulfilling work. But he and the other Twerkers, if you will, go into the studio for 'eight to ten hours a day, each shift,' so what gives? Like he said earlier, they do holistic work. Kraftwerk defines its own way forward instead of 'conforming,' as Cooper writes, and it would be better for everyone if the working world allowed for human expression and creativity, the ability to experience art in a way more than superficially observing it, if people could build from the ground up instead of scaffold the crumbling foundation. Well now that's very nice, if it were feasible. Cooper writes that "In insisting that they are workers like everybody else, they only succeed in making 'work' glamorous -- their work." And I have to agree to an extent. Yes, making music is work, and yes, making music is an occupation far removed from the realities of the average working man. It's easy to say from the outside how things should be, and I don't mean to say Ralf is wrong -- capitalism is hell -- but I always that the sentiment was a little self-important. What I'm doing is ideal.

"I tell him that, in the context of pop, remaining faceless is inevitably just another ploy, a means of making people more interested in them than less. Kraftwerk are in danger of becoming a gimmick. Kraftwerk pretend to reduce their making of pop music to the level of all health jobs."

I won't speak too much to this point because I constantly chide myself for finding the members of Kraftwerk fucking fascinating, precisely because I know just enough to be curious and not enough to stop speculating.

Ralf: "We were always very rhythmical. We always hated 'electronic' music whose connotations were intellectual only. We introduced the body to electronic music." And the heart? "The heart is a muscle so you could say we introduced the muscle." This is one of Ralf's jokes.

I'd like to know what electronic music he's referring to here, because I know that Karl is a big fan of Stockhausen, whose music I wouldn't necessarily dance to at the club. Also I just really like the quote about introducing the body to electronic music, because it's very close to the man-machine concept and it's kinda hot

"Unfortunately this attitude isn't reflected in Kraftwerk's own stage show in which the four figures of Kraftwerk operate their studio onstage while their audience stare on in awe and, mostly, in silence."

This is supposed to be calling out hypocrisy. It refers to how Ralf is quite comfortable in discos because there's no real ego to it and 'the spotlight is on everybody.' Then again, how on earth are you supposed to do a live show otherwise? And I think the whole 'looking so normal it's weird' thing we talked about earlier was supposed to alleviate some of the attention, too.

Ralf: "We are very anarchic, or rather, maybe we are what comes after chaos. And our machine-like state is maybe a step to being born in a new society. By bringing machines back to life again, we make them our friends. We treat them cooperatively as an equal part of the working process."

Wont lie "Maybe we are what comes after chaos" goes hard as hell. Because it's almost true, with how he's always talking about rebuilding a cultural life after it was destroyed by WW2. And then I'd like to interpret the machines as friends as almost a 'keep your enemies closer' type of thing. Computers and technology are an inevitable counterpart of human life and work, so best to get to know them now before they're too complex to comprehend. Keep them friendly, domesticated, in the interest of good.

Ralf: "Being brought up in Germany, there's not much that anyone can tell us about order. Order in Germany wasn't invented by the Nazis -- it was there before and it continues afterwards."

He said shut the hell up for once about the Nazis I'm tired of hearing the same question over again

"And yet there is something dubious about this new world, something cynical and overarranged, something altogether too healthy.. Ralf: "We're not interested in alcohol and other forms of darkening your mind... otherwise you're just abusing yourself. We have done this but now we have more confidence in the things we do." "An order beyond the older order, a simple and productive world of clean humans and clean machines."

I can tell you right goddam now that Ralf is being pretentious because Karl definitely wrote about getting quite drunk and wondering how Ralf could maintain such self-control. So the 'we' in his quote or more of a 'me.' On what Cooper writes: again, it's that melancholia just now mixed with his own reservations. Ralf is presenting a very orderly picture (which isn't quite reality) and I can imagine it may be disconcerting to hear in conjunction with music which, when first released, sounded beyond computerized, although after his mention of Nazis I feel his description is getting a little too referential.

Ralf: "In Germany there is a saying, 'If your morals are ruined, you can live quite easily.' The word 'morality' implies a certain codex from Hollywood and we work outside that. In German music we are observers, more concerned with mechanics and realism."

Kraftwerk's music never paints a clear picture (except for the condemnation of nuclear energy, although after the original release of Radio-activity which had no such decision) of the subjects it discusses. It leaves you guessing, it leaves you thinking, it makes you do the work. American media hates that. American media wants a good guy and a bad guy, demands a clear moral picture (Hays Code, anybody?) and as such limits what the public consumes, because artists can get blocked at the door. Of course, it's not just American media, but we're naming Hollywood here, and I'm thinking of modern Disney too.

Ralf: "We are not macho or anything, we are more androgynous."

Very swag ☑️ Electronic waves are an androgynous medium, after all... and to be real, this is an important part of Kraftwerk's aesthetic. The humans aren't supposed to be important, so who cares what they are? Kraftwerk separates itself as much as possible from anglo-American music scenes, so the forceful masculinity that's often perpetrated is thrown out the window. Androgyny and ambiguous messages in their music go hand-in-hand.

[demospectator]

“The Wild Cat (for the Highbinder’s feast of the uncooked meat),” c. 1902 - 1906. Photograph by Arnold Genthe (from the collection of the Library of Congress). A sidewalk vendor arranges his wild game products, including a wildcat carcass. One of the men in the background is an itinerant fortune teller.

Ruminations About Old Chinatown’s Wild Cat

Arnold Genthe's photograph "The Wild Cat (for the Highbinder’s feast of the uncooked meat)" presents a striking and unusual image from San Francisco's Chinatown taken between 1896 and 1906. It depicts the carcass of a wildcat suspended outside a storefront, flanked by other freshly killed fowl. Although the individual tending to the wild cat was not identified, historian John Tchen observed about the photo that “Wing Chew, the son of the original owner of the Tin Fook jewelry store, used to disappear into the mountains for a few days and bag a wildcat for sale in Chinatown…. ” (The telephone directory of 1902 first mentions the Tin Fook & Co. as operating a jewelry store at 711-1/2 Jackson Street, presumably up to the earthquake and fire of 1906.)

The photo provides a glimpse into the cultural and economic practices of the time. Wildcat meat was highly prized for its supposed medicinal and aphrodisiac qualities. It was often used in traditional remedies and consumed in concoctions that mixed the meat with ingredients like chicken, snake, and various herbs. Tong fighters, known for their violent turf battles and vendettas, would drink wildcat-infused wine for courage before going into combat.

The Wild Cat was taken in Chinatown during a time when the community was subject to the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. As a result, violence and other hostile acts drove Chinese out of rural counties and into San Francisco Chinatown even as it became more segregated and isolated. However, it remained a vivid and mysterious subject for outsiders like Genthe and his fellow photographers of the Camera Club. His images, including "The Wild Cat," were part of a broader fascination with Chinatown’s cultural practices, capturing a mixture of admiration and morbid exoticism. Genthe's work often walked a fine line, romanticizing and sometimes distorting life and referring explicitly to criminal organizations in Chinatown to fit white American perceptions.

The Wild Cat remains among his lesser known works, as it can evoke uncomfortable conversations around so-called "foreign" eating habits, particularly when viewed through a modern lens. The image, featuring a feline carcass hung outside a Chinatown store, serves as a historical record of traditional practices, but it also readily stokes long-festering tropes about Asian culinary customs, fueled by xenophobia and cultural misrepresentation. These tensions are not new, as they linger to this day.

In recent times, this discomfort resurfaced when presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate accused immigrants in Ohio of consuming dogs and cats, a false claim that played into harmful stereotypes and generated widespread backlash for its inflammatory nature. The episode reminded audiences about the long and dishonorable history of castigating immigrants’ eating habits as recounted in a Guardian article here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/14/racist-history-trump-pet-eating-immigrant

Curiosity about 19th century Chinatown's food and cultural practices was often accompanied by suspicion or derision from outsiders – influenced and exacerbated initially by the great encounter of white migrants from the eastern United States with Asian immigrants to California in the mid-19th century.

Five or more diaspora generations later, Chinese Americans still hear the insult or insinuation that Asians and immigrants are slaughtering dogs and other pets for meal time. Food continues to shape perceptions of immigrant communities, revealing the enduring impact of cultural misunderstandings. Not surprising, Genthe's The Wild Cat is seldom seen.

[citynewsglobe]

[ad_1] Sassy little brat nyt is a robust pressure. It’s that spark that lights up the room and instructions consideration with out uttering a single phrase. Enter the idea of the “sassy little brat.” This time period might conjure pictures of playful defiance, cheeky comebacks, and an unapologetic perspective. However there’s extra to it than simply being cute or rebellious—it encompasses confidence, attraction, and a magnetic character that pulls others in. In as we speak’s world, embracing your inside sassy little brat has change into not solely fashionable but in addition liberating. Whether or not you establish with the label or are merely inquisitive about its attract, this exploration reveals why sass holds such fascination for a lot of. From popular culture references to non-public empowerment methods, let’s dive into what makes being a sassy little brat so irresistible! The Energy of Sass: Why It’s So Alluring Sass is magnetic. It attracts individuals in, making a vibe that’s exhausting to withstand. When somebody struts with confidence and a cheeky comment, it ignites curiosity. This playful perspective typically turns heads. Those that embrace their sassy facet exude an air of authenticity. They’re unapologetic in expressing themselves. Sass may be disarming too. A fast-witted remark can diffuse rigidity or lighten the temper immediately. This means to mix humor with assertiveness is each refreshing and charming. Furthermore, sass challenges norms. It pushes boundaries and invitations others to rethink conventional roles and behaviors. Its attraction lies in its unpredictability—simply once you suppose you've gotten somebody found out, they shock you with their boldness. Individuals are naturally drawn to those that embody this spirit as a result of it evokes freedom of expression with out worry of judgment or conformity. Embracing Your Internal Brat: How one can Unleash Your Sass Embracing your inside brat begins with self-acceptance. Acknowledge the playful spirit inside you. It’s time to let that vibrant vitality shine. Discover alternatives in each day life to precise your self freely. Whether or not it’s selecting daring outfits or making cheeky remarks, small actions can ignite huge adjustments. Permit spontaneity into your routine; be daring and unapologetic. Encompass your self with fellow sassy souls who encourage confidence. Interact in conversations that encourage authenticity. Supportive associates amplify our sassiness. Observe assertiveness with out aggression. You don’t should be impolite to showcase your character. Communicate up when needed and stand agency in your beliefs whereas sustaining kindness. Discover inventive retailers like writing or artwork the place you'll be able to channel this newfound sassiness into one thing tangible and significant. Let your creativity circulate, revealing layers of enjoyable and mischief hidden inside you all alongside! Coping with Unfavourable Stereotypes of the Sassy Little Brat Unfavourable stereotypes typically paint sassy little brats as merely impolite or disrespectful. This notion may be irritating, particularly when sass is rooted in character and confidence moderately than malice. It’s important to problem these misconceptions by showcasing the constructive elements of being sassy. Confidence, humor, and authenticity are sometimes at play. Sassy people can spark pleasure and encourage others to embrace their true selves. When confronted with criticism, keep in mind that sassiness doesn’t equate to negativity. It’s about expressing oneself boldly whereas conserving a way of enjoyable intact. Partaking constructively with critics helps dismantle dangerous stereotypes. Surrounding your self with supportive individuals makes it simpler to navigate this panorama. They perceive your vibe and recognize your uniqueness with out letting societal norms dictate their views on you. Embrace who you might be unapologetically; in spite of everything, life’s too quick for blandness!

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[thenewwei]

Final thoughts on Milan: about to jet off to Genoa tomorrow, birthplace of the now reviled Christopher Columbus, but I wanted to gather my thoughts and impressions of Milan. Certainly an affluent city, but unlike the rumors of vain and cold model-like peeps (and most models I’ve known are very nice, so that stereotype was already false), people are pretty friendly. About 80% I’ve met have spoken some English and even those who don’t have been very helpful. One guy came out of nowhere yelling in Italian about how the bus was skipping my stop, and he was right—he even signaled to me when I considered taking the tram after following him to the next stop, that the bus was on its way, and a thank you just evoked a humble nod. It’s also A LOT easier to flirt with/gain interest from women here. I even got an interested stare from an attached blonde while eating dinner as her beau was using the bathroom. And yes these are good smiles and looks—in NYC you only get death glances from women, followed by a lawsuit, I’m kidding but yeah, a different culture indeed. I suppose I am a “dark handsome stranger” out here, but these are very attractive young women with 2-3K euro Prada bags on their arms, hip glasses and trendy clothes. So is it time to learn Italian and move out here? Given all I have going in NYC, probably not, but it’s fun to think about. Also Milanese are well-educated—tons of museums, educational institutions, lectures popping up everywhere. Smart, hip, nice, beautiful, talented—at least Milan is only a flight away!

[lowresolutioncryptid]

I think the unwillingness and aversion of leftists to (even illegally/without giving $ to the franchise) consume problematic media is problematic on its own because, in my personal humble opinion… you have to learn how to analyze and fully comprehend WHY a piece of media is problematic!!

You have to be able to logically consume a piece of media and/or propaganda, understand the difference between the two, understand why it’s harmful, and be able to watch it critically without becoming indoctrinated by it, without compromising your values, and while still being motivated by a goal of Understanding.

I need y’all to remember the reading comprehension exercises that they had us do in school, where they gave us a story to read and we had to give a summary, explain the overarching themes as well as the undertones and suggestive meaning and subtext and context, and then ASK QUESTIONS after!! And not only about the story but also the author !! Because media reflects the person/s producing the media!! Learning about the life and beliefs of the author allows you to understand their work in a deeper, clearer way! Even if and especially if they’re an asshole!!

When you consume problematic media- WHEN not if, this is inevitable given the exploitative nature of the entertainment industry- try asking yourself some questions and really think about and sit with the answers.

What stereotypes does this media perpetuate, and against what group/s? What are the historical roots of these stereotypes? What are the effects, consequences, and impact of promoting these stereotypes for the respective group/s?

Are there clearly defined power dynamics/structures within the narrative? Is there a clear aggressor and victim? How are these dynamics treated by the narrative- is it just background noise or does it serve as a plot device? Is oppression used for character development- & are its effects on the character/s fully explored? Or is it only expressed shallowly/from a surface level, in order to further the story? Why or why not? Do these dynamics reflect or resemble any power dynamics that exist in real life? If so, which ones and why? How do the characters respond/react to these dynamics? Do these reactions evoke empathy from the audience or alienate them?

Does this media have a diverse cast/crew? Why or why not? Who makes these decisions, and who benefits from them?

What are the audiences responses to this media? Is it polarizing for different groups? Why or why not? When having these interactions, who is safe, and who is at risk? Who benefits, and who is harmed?

Have I, subconsciously or unconsciously, internalized or integrated any of these harmful tropes? Have I, intentionally or unintentionally, projected them onto others? How can I reconcile? How can I offer myself & others an opposing narrative to challenge the harm that has happened?

like… never consuming problematic media does not make u immune to propaganda!! It just leaves you unprepared for not only recognizing it but also being able to internally, mentally criticize it. Media literacy is a SKILL that actually requires that you develop your critical thinking with PRACTICE and EXPERIENCE.

When you consume problematic media-WHEN not if, this is inevitable given the exploitative nature of the entertainment industry(in case u didn’t hear me the first time)— you Will Be faced with uncomfortable questions and maybe some emotions that are difficult to deal with But That Means You’re Exactly Where You’re Supposed To Be. Those uncomfortable questions are the ones you need to be asking !!! Those difficult emotions are the ones that need to be addressed and unpacked !!! You have to be able to look at something ugly and Not Flinch !!!

If you need to take time and pause the movie to reflect, silently or outloud, do that. If you learn better taking notes or with voice recording, that’s cool. If you learn better by having dialog with another person, find someone willing. If you feel overwhelmed and need to take a break, all fine. But keep going back and learning and questioning more. Don’t give up.

[notbryanray]

Moral desensitization of the U.S. populace with regard to the extremely powerful (a quote from a book)

[The following text is from THE POWER ELITE (p.338-342) by C. Wright Mills. The book was published in 1956.]

It should not be supposed that such few and small publics as still exist, or even the American masses, share the conservative mood of the intellectuals. But neither should it be supposed that they have firmly in mind adequate images of the American elite. Their images are ambiguous; they are mainly in terms of status and wealth rather than of power; and they are quite moral in a politically petty way.

Moral distrust of the high and mighty is of course an old American custom. Sometimes, as during the ’thirties, it is primarily of the corporate rich—then called economic royalists; sometimes, as between wars, of admirals and generals; and, all the time it is, at least a little bit, of the politicians.

One must, of course, discount the wonderful make-believe and easy accusation of campaign oratory. And yet, the rather persistent attention paid to such matters as ‘corruption’ in business and government expresses a widespread concern with public morality and personal integrity in high places, and signifies that it has been an underlying worry in almost every area of American life.

These areas include military and political as well as directly economic institutions; they include the elite as the heads of these major institutions as well as the elite as a set of private individuals. Many little disclosures, spurring the moral worry of those still capable of such concern, have indicated how widespread public immorality might be. *

What element of the higher circles—what would-be element—has such immorality not touched? Perhaps all those cases that come briefly to public attention are but marginal—or, at any rate, those that were caught. But then, there is the feeling that the bigger you are, the less likely you are to be caught. There is the feeling that all the pretty cases seem to signify something grander, that they go deeper and that their roots are now well organized in the higher and middle American ways of life. But among the mass distractions this feeling soon passes harmlessly away. For the American distrust of the high and mighty is a distrust without doctrine and without political focus; it is a distrust felt by the mass public as a series of more or less cynically expected disclosures. Corruption and immoralities, petty and grand, are facts about the higher circles, often even characteristic facts about many of them. But the immoral tone of American society today also involves the lack of public sensibility when confronted with these facts. Effective moral indignation is not evoked by the corrupt public life of our time; the old middle-class moralities have been replaced in America by the higher immorality.

The exploiting plutocrat and the corrupted machine of the ’nineties were replaced in public imagery by the uncultivated philistine and provincial of the ’twenties, who, in turn, were replaced by the economic royalists and the cohorts of the ’thirties. All these were negative images; the first of urban greed as seen through an indignant and rural moral optic; the second of mindless Babbitry as seen by urban strata for whom moral principles have been replaced by big-city ways; and the third, somewhat less clearly, of the old plutocrat turned more systematic and impersonal.

But the corporate rich of the ’forties and ’fifties, in their economic and in their political aspects—there are no such stereotypes of them; they are rather cynically accepted, and even secretly admired by members of the mass society. No negative stereotype has been widely formed of the corporate rich and the political outsider; and if one or two should crop up in popular imagery, they are soon vanquished by the ‘forward-looking,’ energetic, clean-cut American boy as executive.

Given the state of the mass society, we should not expect anything else. Most of its members are distracted by status, by the disclosures of pettier immortalities, and by that Machiavellianism-for-the-little-man that is the death of political insurgency. Perhaps it might be different were the intellectual community not so full of the conservative mood, not so comfortably timid, not so absorbed by the new gentility of many of its members. But given these conditions of mass society and intellectual community, we can readily understand why the power elite of America has no ideology and feels the need of none, why its rule is naked of ideas, its manipulation without attempted justification. It is this mindlessness of the powerful that is the true higher immorality of our time; for, with it, there is associated the organized irresponsibility that is today the most important characteristic of the American system of corporate power.

[faelapis]

Outside of Animal Crossing, what other video games are you playing right now/have played while growing up? What video game genres do you like, and what genres do you not like?

i've always been a nintendo boy - honestly i grew up with zelda and pokemon first and foremost, didn't pick up animal crossing until a little while after new leaf came out. still love those series, still hyped when a new zelda game comes out once a decade. pokemon not so much, because its very iterative, but its still something i play a lot. i just play it "my own way", ie i create challenges like finding shinies.

in terms of genre... yknow i'm not much of a genre person in general, most things can get my attention, it depends totally on what it individually is. i don't care if something is a rouge-like or platformer, i care if it's "good". if i had to choose, i guess i tend to like things that are a fusion of nintendo games and what people call "story-based" games or at least elements. like. this is just a small thing, but mario galaxy is one of my all time faves not just because of it being a fun game in an engaging environment, but also because rosalina's backstory makes me cry every time.

i wish nintendo would lean in to having more story in their games. its always pretty worlds that are fun to explore, characters and plot not so much. even zelda, which has a lot of lore fanboys, almost always has a very simple story and only rarely dares to emotionally engage the player. i know that miyamoto has like a weird allergy to story, explored by kingk here, but like kingk i dont share his sentiments.

oh actually, one genre i don't like - first person shooters, and anything gore-heavy. i have overactive empathy when it comes to gore, in the sense that i can imagine myself vicariously feeling all the torture and injuries. i've excluded myself from a lot of great art because i just cannot deal with gore, unfortunately, its much too visceral and almost borders on mental torture in the moment for me.

[alexiethymia]

Jeanne Theories (but more like questions)

A dump for all my questions and theories about Jeanne. In the manga, the third chapter is named after her (Chapter 1 is Vanitas, while Chapter 2 is Noe). Arguably, you could say she’s the third most important character. Among all of the main characters, her past seems to be the one we know least about. This actually ties to my questions relating to vampires and their ages. 

I am a bit confused about how aging works with vampires and how that reflects physically. We have Noe and Dominique who are chronologically the same age as Vanitas. Assuming nothing goes wrong, human Vanitas would die of old age (except we know that isn’t the case), while Noe and Dominique would look physically the same how many years later. Jeanne’s age wasn’t intentionally revealed because I think it ties in with the plot, but we know she’s centuries older than the main cast. She’s been with Ruthven since before the betrayal, and grew up with Chloe. This is where it gets confusing for me. Chloe became a vampire at four, but physically stopped aging at eleven years old. Jean Jaques was also a hidden vampire changed by Babel but he ended up growing and looking older than Chloe (at least physically). Same with Jeanne. She and Chloe met when Jeanne was younger than her, but Jeanne grew up to look like a young woman. I’m curious as to the difference as to why it was only Chloe who stopped growing physically at around eleven years old, although she’s older than Ruthven.

Jeanne’s link to Luna of the Blue Moon

I don’t think the line above is a throw-away line. Jeanne was of Ruthven’s time, and we find out that Luna had also seen her, specifically during the time of the Great War. She left that big of an impact on Luna that they would retell the story to Vanitas (and I presume Mikhail too), which had that much of impact on him as well.

They removed this context from the anime which makes it as if Vanitas heard of Jeanne through stories, except we know from the manga that it was more personal since he heard it from Luna. 

Why exactly did Luna have admiration towards Jeanne? Was it because she was slaughtering Vampires of the Red Moon? But contrary to the rumors, recent chapters would show us that Luna didn’t seem to be a vengeful entity or hold ill-will toward Vampires of the Red Moon. 

Luna was also probably the reason why Vanitas felt an initial connection with Jeanne. Like with his hourglass earring, the name, the book, the gloves, etc., despite their complicated past, Vanitas seems to be (consciously or unconsciously) maintaining a link with Luna. 

Jeanne’s Slumber (possible connections with Sleeping Beauty)

Why was it necessary for Jeanne to sleep all this time? And why did she have to wake up now, at this exact moment in time? What exact thing does Ruthven need to use her for, and for what purpose? Because let’s admit it, Lord Ruthven is shady af. 

It’s also ironic how Jeanne reads Sleeping Beauty and places Vanitas in the princess’ position, when she has more in common with the fairytale. Having to sleep for a hundred years, her mark is that of a rose with thorns evoking the imagery of ‘Briar Rose’ and the spindle, while her epithet ‘Hellfire Witch’ evokes imagery of the evil fairy who could turn into a dragon and breathe fire (admittedly I may be focusing on the Disney version too much). 

We know she’s named after Jeanne d’Arc, a martyr who was burnt at the stake (please, please, let this not be foreshadowing of how she dies) hence the connection to her epithet ‘Hellfire Witch’, but even disregarding how vampires (and perhaps humans as well?) have true names, Vanitas says she was ‘bestowed’ a saintly name. We know she was adopted, and we don’t know the circumstances of her birth which are shrouded in mystery, but could Ruthven have been the one to grant the name ‘Jeanne’ to her? 

If not for the fact that we already had Florifel and Eglantine in the first chapter, I would have thought Jeanne’s true name and malnomen if she gets one later would be connected to the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. 

Jeanne’s Malady

The vampires in Vanitas no Carte are different from the stereotypical portrayals of vampires, except for one - Jeanne. Jeanne has that uncontrollable desire to drink blood, and yet as of now, doesn’t appear to be a curse bearer. Based on her patchy memories, we can infer it was Ruthven who made her like this, is the one to supply her with her sketchy medicine, all the while forcing her to swear not to talk about it.

Is she in the same predicament as Loki, Luca’s older brother, forced to have the symptoms of a curse bearer and yet being prevented from being cured, by Ruthven? For what greater purpose? Why is it necessary for Loki to be a curse bearer? And more intriguing than that, why is he consenting to it? It all relates to the Queen somehow, something which no one is privy to except the Oriflamme Family. 

Sleeping Lions

Who could Marquis Machina be referring to? Everyone in the Oriflamme family, and by extension Jeanne, have connections with the imagery of lions and fire (they seem to have an elemental affinity like how Luca displayed, except that Ruthven’s is black fire, which makes me wonder what color Loki’s flames would be if ever). Jeanne can’t seem to manipulate the World Formula like Ruthven and Veronica though. The flames come out of her gauntlet, Carpe Diem. 

In relation to that, I think Misha’s patron is Marquis Machina. In the same way, Marquis Machina built Carpe Diem for Jeanne, I think he built Misha’s hand and dog for him. I mean Marquis Machina doesn’t seem to be working with Ruthven and Charlatan. His pieces seem to be the kin of the Blue Moon (Vanitas and Misha), the dhams, and the De Sade family. It could also be that the De Sade have their own agenda and are just using Marquis Machina or it’s just a mutual beneficial arrangement. If so, an eventually power struggle is bound to break out, possibly between the De Sade and the Oriflamme families, and poor Jeanne will be caught in the middle. Where then does the Shapeless One play into this? Perhaps a third faction? A silent observer? A loyalist to the queen? There’s still too little information to theorize. 

Who could the Sleeping Lion Marquis Machina wants to see wake up be? 

Jeanne, Faustina, Luna, and Naenia

It could just be a stylistic thing, but the long flowing light colored hair seem to be common among all of them. 

In relation to Pandora Hearts and its themes of will and what measure is a person, what if the Jeanne that we know now is just a consciousness inhabiting a body (kind of like Oz and Jack), specifically the queen’s body to be exact. It would certainly be foreshadowing to when she says ‘promise to kill me when I’m no longer myself anymore’.

Alternatively, the current Jeanne we know may just be a vessel or a golem to house the Queen whose body has deteriorated. It certainly would explain why she was treated as a doll even in her earliest memories. ‘Jeanne’ isn’t supposed to exist. 

Although it’s a long shot, since Ruthven has connections with Charlatan, and by extension Dr. Moreau, could ‘No. 70′ have been Jeanne? Again like I said, it’s a long shot. I think it’s likelier that No. 70 is a character we haven’t been introduced to yet. 

Jeanne’s Parents

This is a Mochizuki work. Of course, there’s got to be something to it. Why exactly did they side with the humans so suddenly in the war? What horrible thing did the vampires do to have over a thousand of their kind turn against them? And yet the way it reads, rather than betray Ruthven, I think Jeanne’s parents along with all of the vampires who were slaughtered were sacrificial pawns. Maybe I’m just really biased against Ruthven, but I think he was the one to lead the rebellion of his students, and like Chloe, although he presents himself to be an ally of the current Vampire Monarchy, perhaps he’s just biding his time to get revenge for his students. In working with Charlatan, it’s vampires who he’s harming.

What greater purpose could he have in wanting to assassinate his own nephew or ally himself with a known vampire extermination unit of the Chasseurs (Gano and his ilk) or in killing so many vampires by having their true names corrupted? 

Face to face with Noe, we see in their meeting that Noe says the exact same words Ruthven told Chloe when he was younger. Noe reminds Ruthven of his students, while Ruthven reminds Noe of his teacher. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, but it seems like the Ruthven of now scorns his past self’s moderate and progressive ideals of vampires and humans living in harmony. He speaks of our side, your side, and Noe having to choose one or the other. And yet all of his collective actions at this point have served not to protect but rather harm vampire kind, which puts him in direct opposition to Vanitas who wants to save vampires. 

In relation to Jeanne, there will be a boiling point. She’s loyal to Luca and she’s loyal to Ruthven. She’s incredibly fond of Dominique. As of now, she also loves Vanitas. And yet down the line, inevitably Luca and Ruthven will be on opposing sides, so I am curious to see how the betrayals and conflicting loyalties will play out.