#cabaret interior

[thepaintedroom]

Paul Hoeniger (German, 1865 - 1924) • Moulin de la Galette • 1894

[dreveel]

Neon Speakeasy; {Credit}

[postcard-from-the-past]

Interior of the Cabaret du Néant venue in the Montmartre neighbourhood of Paris

French vintage postcard

[warner-york]

And a one a and a two a and a three A band take it away...

Beyond the Blue Horizon (2015)

A short film by Bill Domonkos featuring the music of The Three Suns and archive film footage from the Prelinger Archives.

[addictedgallery]

Get Your Art Fix!

"What good is sitting alone In your room? Come hear the music play. Life is a Cabaret, old chum, Come to the Cabaret." ~ Cabaret, Liza Minnelli, 1970

"CABARET COLOUR, Shanghai, China" by Florian Innerkofler, 2022

Arty-Fact: Florian Innerkofler is a Canadian contemporary photographer born in Innsbruck, Austria. He graduated from the Higher School of Architecture in Innsbruck, during which time he began his photography journey.

Florian moved to Vienna after graduating cum laude from the State School of Photography. He assisted renowned photographer Andreas H. Bitesnich for multiple years and worked with Hollywood photographer Greg Gorman.

Florian now travels around the globe on assignments from New York City to Tokyo, exploring East and West. He works for magazines and clients as diverse as Vogue Beauty, Glamour, Marie Claire, L'Orèal Paris, Rimmel London and Universal Music, to name a few.

See It On Your Wall

[cardula]

Happy birthday Liza Minnelli! "Cabaret" digital graphic 2018 #cardula #lizaminnelli #inkdrawing #ink #digitalart #digitalgraphic #woman #artdeco #cabaret #film #movie #lizaminnellifans #lizaminnellicabaret #elegant #fashion #cabaretmusical #inspired #interiordesign #homedesign #interior #decor #homedecor #livingspace #homedecoration #design #artist #art #arte https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpr2bjgDDAT/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[morbidology]

In the heart of Montmartre, Paris, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a district known for its bohemian lifestyle and artistic community, there existed a nightlife destination that was unlike any other—a place where visitors could literally descend into hell.

This was the Cabaret de l'Enfer (Cabaret of Hell), a unique establishment that combined the dark, gothic themes of the macabre with the lively spirit of Parisian cabaret. Its eerie atmosphere, theatrical decor, and devilish performances made it a legendary spot that left an indelible mark on Parisian culture.

The cabaret’s exterior was designed to resemble the gaping mouth of a monstrous demon, with the entrance framed by jagged teeth, inviting the brave (or curious) to step into the underworld. Above the entrance, ominous signage warned, "Enter and be damned!"

Upon entering, guests were immediately enveloped in an otherworldly experience. The interior of the Cabaret de l'Enfer was meticulously crafted to give a feeling of descending into Dante’s Inferno. The walls were adorned with fiery reds and deep blacks, with grotesque figures and depictions of torment etched into every surface. The lighting was dim and flickering, adding to the eerie ambiance, and the air was thick with the scent of incense and smoke, further enhancing the atmosphere of a nightmarish underworld.

The staff played their roles to perfection, dressed as devils, demons, and other creatures of the night. The host, known as the "Master of Hell," greeted patrons with sinister charm, welcoming them to the afterlife and inviting them to enjoy the torments of the damned. The waitstaff, similarly costumed, served drinks with names like "Flame of Hell" and "Devil's Delight," maintaining the theme down to the last detail.

However, like many cultural phenomena of the Belle Époque, the cabaret eventually faded as the times changed. The original Cabaret de l'Enfer closed its doors in the 1950s.

[random-brushstrokes]

Joaquim Sunyer - Cabaret interior Montmartre (ca. 1898)

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Reginald Marsh, Cabaret, 1938. Tempera and pencil on gessoed panel.

The painting’s subject, Casa Mañana, was a nightclub at 50th Street and Seventh Avenue, equidistant between Times Square and Carnegie Hall in the center of the theater district. In 1938, the Club was owned and operated by the flamboyant entertainment impresario Billy Rose. Fortune magazine commissioned Reginald Marsh to paint a picture of the interior during a performance for a full-page illustration in its planned article, “Put Their Name in Lights,” an examination of the very substantial business of the William Morris Agency, the “oldest theatrical agent in the U.S.” The article ran in Fortune’s September 1938 issue. …

Fortune accompanied the illustration in its September 1938 issue with a text explaining that vaudeville, “with its old-time acts has almost vanished. But variety as an entertainment form lives and thrives in theatre restaurants like Billy Rose’s Casa Mañana … The roster of artists who passed through Casa Mañana in its brief year-and-a-half run (it closed in May 1939) illustrates Rose’s ability to present the talent that the people wanted to see: Helen Morgan, Abbot & Costello, the Three Stooges, Jimmy Durante, Bert Wheeler, Betty Hutton, Louis Armstrong, and Millie Picon among many others with orchestras led, at various times, by Vincent Lopez, Louis Prima, and Paul Whiteman. …

In classic Marsh fashion, the artist focuses his attention on a few figures of special interest. In the left foreground, a waitress leans over in conversation with a male patron. Behind her, a waiter makes his way through the crowd, holding aloft with one uplifted arm a tray with food and drink balanced high over his head, an acrobatic feat as much a part of the nightclub show as the activity on the stage. Two women and a man share a table near the stage, all watching the show intently. A bottle in an ice bucket sits adjacent to the table, the economic engine that made this whole scene a working business model. The patrons are dressed neatly in street clothing, the ladies with everyday hats. They are decent but there is no show of finery. While Billy Rose was famous for glamorous showgirls and as much bare skin as the law would allow, he also had an enduring fondness for vaudeville-style family entertainment. The two performers on the stage appear to be some version of acrobatic dancers, the excitement in their performance the result of breathtaking agility and grace with nothing to arouse either the libidos of the audience or the attention of the licensing authorities.

Photo & text: Hirschl & Adler Galleries

[simtleman]

El Dorado Cabaret & Casino (Download Tray Files & CC)

Yes, I'm back to playing TS4 and that means I'm back to building. I created a sim called Octavia who used to be an exotic dancer (until she married money and started the black widow challenge), so I needed to have a Generic lot that worked as a cabaret/casino for gameplay purposes and I decided to build it from scratch. I'm now sharing it with you guys in case you also need something similar for your vintage 1920s/30s/40s save file.

The exterior is obviously inspired by the infamous El Dorado Berlin while the interior I kinda reimagined myself. Here are some screenshots:

Tickets counter:

Main lounge:

Stage area:

Showgirl's dressing room:

Sky view:

Before you go ahead and download it into your game, a few IMPORTANT disclaimers:

The lot is a 30x20. I built it on Magnolia Promenade.

I used items from a few expansions and packs (listed below), so if you don't own them those items might be replaced with others.

This lot is designed to work as a Stripclub, therefore you'll be needing the Wicked Whims mod in order to obtain the pole and have your sims being able to dance for money.

Like all my builds, this is a heavily CC based lot. If you don't have a powerful PC, it might get laggy while trying to play with it.

Regarding the CC, I do not own nor take credit from any item included within this lot. All credit goes to their amazing creators.

The .ZIP file (2.76 GB) includes two folders: one for the Tray Files and another one with all the CC. I'm 100% sure all the CC I used is already public for everyone; if it's not, it's been definitely longer than three weeks since it has all been in my game and you (the CC creator) shouldn't be putting content behind permanent paywalls to begin with ;)

I did use bb.moveobjects on while building and have playtested it, so it should be fully functional. Let me know if otherwise.

Like I said before, the lot is currently set as Generic so I could turn it into a Stripclub with Wicked Whims and have my burlesque sims make some simoleons while dancing. Wicked Whims is not included within the CC folder, you'll have to download it and install it yourself.

That's all for me! This is only the second piece of content I share for others to download, so if you run into any kind of issues do not hesitate to let me know and I'll try to help best I can :)

If you do like it, please make sure to like this post (heck, maybe even comment on it if you feel like it!) and please, please, PLEASE do tag me on your screenshots if you share them here on Tumblr. I'd love to see what you guys make with it!

Download: Mediafire

Enjoy ♡

[manysketchbook]

Firffels: the Wuzzles Competitor That Disappeared

Recently, I found this toy at my local thrift store. I thought it was an oddly cute nativity toy, but upon closer inspection the tush tag read "FIRFFELS. I'm glad to be a SHAMEL." I did a quick search online and the first result was this page on Ghost of the Doll, a toy collector's site that archives information about 80s/90s toys and includes a forum where anyone can seek help with identifying toys. This lead me down a rabbit hole of figuring out just what Firffels were: a failed line of toys promised to be the next hot phenomenon, with minimal documentation online and a handful of toys floating around in thrift stores.

Other than Ghost of the Doll, I found info about Firffels in this 2010 blog post by Trish Babbles (written in an edgy, mean-to-be-funny style that I think is too uncharitable, but it was a different time to be online lol) and this blog post by AF Blog. My other info comes from Othello Bach's website dedicated to the book itself (her personal site is no longer functional) and from a handful of youtube videos I found of a Firffels commercial. Many thanks to these sources, without them there'd be like, nothing online about these creatures.

Firffels are based on the children's book Who ever Heard of a Fird? by Othello Bach, first edition published in 1984 by Caedmon Childrens Books (upon Googling, it appears that Caedmon is owned by HarperCollins now and focuses on audiobooks). The story follows Fird, a fish-bird hybrid, as he travels the world to find other firds. Along the way he encounters a goofy, lovable cast of other hybrid animals who have all never heard of a fird. The story ends with fird learning to love his uniqueness and find peace with being who he is. As is apparent in the Amazon link above (not sponsored, just showing my work), a used copy is $86 dollars right now. An audiobook narrated by Joel Grey (an actor that I'm unfamiliar with who is apparently known for his role in Cabaret) was also released on cassette, listed on Ebay for $75+. Luckily, there is a youtube video of someone doing a complete read through of the book, but the camera angle is poor. This is the only visual record I could find online of the interior illustrations by Michelle Dorman, other than a brief look at a few in a low quality VHS promo rip I'll get to in a minute, and the image below from an Ebay listing. There may be a few more photos in some Etsy listings that I missed.

In Trish's blog post they complain that Shamel is an ugly monstrosity and there were a few comments on Ghost of the Doll's forum of the same nature about Shamel, but I think Shamel is the cutest one! It just looks like a new breed of camel, meanwhile Fird in the background here is...he's so cartoonishly goofy. Idk how else to describe him. He's so fuckin' goofy. He'd make squeaky Spongebob-esque sound effects when he walks, I imagine.

The book was allegedly a hit and Remco bought the merchandising rights. They went all in, as is detailed in the 5 minute promotional video below. Based on a cast of 6 characters, plush toys and posable action figures hit the market with a promise that Hanna Barbera would develop an animated tv show starring Firffels, housewares would be made, there'd be a clothing line, and Design-a-Firffel contests would be held. A few housewares seem to have been made and plush toy sewing patterns were released, but I was unable to find evidence that anything else moved forward.

Absolutely fucking insane fact: according to this video, Caedmon Publishing was owned by Raytheon at the time. Thanks Raytheon for these cuddly children's toys and also, uh, horrific weapons of war?

After I bought Shamel, I went back to the store to see if there were more. There were! I found Bertle and Elephonkey, who still had the original tags. I swear the day earlier I had seen a frog toy with butterfly wings but it wasn't there anymore. I remember passing over it and thinking "eh, butterfly wings on a frog aren't cute," and did not bothering even looking at the tags. My mistake. Turns out that toy was worth a decent amount of money and was part of this whole story.

Bertle's pink belly super bright in real life, like neon. There is a sunbleached spot on it's front.

Elephonkey is the only one with original tags. I also included an image of the tush tag. For each toy the tush tag is the same but displays the character's name.

Hybrid animals are not a unique concept. Wuzzles, a line of plush toys that were animal hybrids with wings and likely made to compete with Care Bears, are brought up in most posts and forums where Firffels are mentioned--usually to disparage Firffels as being knock off, less successful Wuzzles. Wuzzles weren't exactly successful either, though they definitely lasted longer and had more reach, likely due to the backing of a Disney/Hasbro budget. AF Blog in 2015 makes a good point that I agree with: it's unlikely that Wuzzles and Firffels were ripping each other off due to production timelines. Toy lines can be in development for years before any information is made public. It takes a long time to design toys, then get them to a manufacturer, then go through the revisions process. Not to mention the time it takes to ship things out, negotiate contracts at every step of the way, etc. And, as AF Blog notes, Whoever Heard of a Fird? was released in 1984, a year before the first Wuzzles tv episode aired, and Firffels hit the market a year later.

People draw hybrid animals all the time. For example, furry adoptable artists draw hybrids all the time (take a shot every time you find a closed species that is a feline with a fish tail or deer feet or some other animal's defining trait), the Lego movie had Unikitty, and I literally went to Walmart today and in the toy section there was a miniature rabbit-like rainbow animal with wings and a unicorn horn there. The thing that makes these toys potentially appealing, in my opinion, is that they choose safe and popular traits: sparkly horns and feathery wings, for the most part. Things that are easily marketable.

The thing with Firffels is that they combined animals with traits that are less immediately appealing. Image below from Ghost of the Doll.

Some of them are cute but the others miss the mark. Personally I like Shamel and Bertle (the plush version only tbh).

Worth pointing out is that the character illustrations do not match the toy designs. If you go back and watch the commercials included in the 5 minute promo video, you can see that the Bertle plush and action figure are brown and green rather than pink and blue, and that Shamel's hair is brown instead of purple. I saw varied photos of the Butterfrog plush: some were lighter green while others were darker. Could be an issue with differing cameras, but I don't know for certain. And then there's Elephonkey, who is the most inconsistent of the bunch:

The first image is the prototype toy as it appears in the commercial. It is grey and flesh colored, with odd looking plastic hair. The second image is from Ghost of the Doll, of how the Elephonkey action figure actually appeared in stores. Third is a photo of my Elephonkey plush. Compare it with the official character art...well, he's not my favorite design in any incarnation.

I think the toys in the commercials were prototypes that were changed to brighter colors so as to appeal more towards girls. In the 30 second plush commercial there are 4 girl actors and 1 boy actor, with the camera shots getting closer to and focusing more on the girls' faces, so it would make sense. In contrast, the action figure commercial features 1 girl and 2 boys, and most of the camera shots are of the kids' hands playing with the toys, giving off a more boyish, gender-neutral vibe. Classics of gendered marketing, am I right? lol. But I think the change was a good one. I wouldn't have picked up Shamel if I hadn't seen the purple hair, and I definitely would not like Bertle if he wasn't pink. It gives the toys more of a cohesive style, a unique identity, and they fit in more alongside the Wuzzles/Care Bears visuals with the vibrant, happy colors. There's more of a toy-like quality to them, which increases the cuddle-ability and inspires more of an urge to play.

Discovering and logging all this inconsistency has been pretty fun. But it makes me think that these toys were probably doomed by a chaotic, unorganized development process behind the scenes. And given that the book was published in '84 and toys hit the market in '85...the signs seem to point to production being rushed.

To be fair to Firffels, it was probably a little harder in the 80s to hit it big with kids. You had to be lucky, you had to have connections with the right distributors, you had to anticipate what is universally appealing to children--one of the most unpredictable audiences out there--and you had to pay to air your commercials during prime child viewing hours. These are all things that are still true, but we have the internet now and the advertising power of the internet is scary. Going viral on TikTok has the potential to skibidi someone's toilet career. iPad babies are growing up into grade school kids who throw birthday parties every year and get toys as gifts. We are living in an era where mass-producing cheap little polyester plushies and plastic figures is easier than ever and corporations have massive budgets to pump into kids' eyeballs through every advertising avenue they possibly can. They don't even need to come up with the designs anymore, they can just partner with whatever Roblox game is popular right now and capitalize on that. Maybe Othello Bach should get on Roblox.

Actually, it appears that Bach was given the short end of the stick by the time Firffels were pulled. Though her personal website is no longer up, her other website dedicated entirely to Whoever Heard of a Fird? has some info:

At the height of Fird's success, with over 100 licensees cramming the store shelves with children’s merchandise and an animation contract with Hanna-Barbera, the book and all the merchandise suddenly vanished from the shelves.  Although she lost the rights to several other published children’s books at the same time, Othello has never received a reasonable explanation for what happened.

So this passage actually clears something up for me. This whole time something that hasn't really lined up is that I had assumed that Othello Bach published the book first and then was approached for merchandising rights after the book sold well. I actually think now it's possible that from the get-go the book was written with the intention for it to become a worldwide sensation. Not so much Bach's intent, though. I have some professional familiarity with licensing and other such creative publishing contracts, particularly with books. Based on what I know, I believe it's more likely that Bach pitched her manuscript to Caedmon Publishing and Caedmon, seeking to create popular IP, was like, "this has potential and we are going to sign you on not only for the book, but for more." That might be why the character designs are so strange: they were trying too hard to get famous quick and had instructed the illustrator (it is regular practice for publishers to pair authors with an illustrator and given how much was on the line for this IP, Bach might not've had much input here) to design characters that could also become toys. It's unlikely that Michelle Dorman, a kids book illustrator, had product design skills needed to make standout, awesome toy designs. Not a knock on her, illustrators just have niches within their field that they're best at it. It's why you see so many illustrators complain about how often they get approached to design logos--that's not what we do, thank you.

What's sad is that clearly Bach had signed a bad contract that gave away most of her rights as the writer to the publisher. She openly says so above. My guess is that Caedmon told her they needed more rights than usual to be able to conduct so much merchandising (like signing contracts with Remco, much easier to do when you don't have a third party also involved), and because they were pouring so much effort into it on their end. Bach is just the writer, so while the original idea is hers, Caedmon would have matched her with an illustrator and taken charge of all the licensing and merchandising. For a publisher this is a huge commitment financially and personnel-wise, so it makes sense why they would have put forth a contract that gave them so many rights. If Firffels had become as popular as they'd hoped, they don't want to not own the IP. They would have poured all those resources into it and not be able to reap all the rewards because that pesky author would own it. It's almost like contracts like these are predatory and only serve the interests of the publisher. Almost like publishers are companies existing in a capitalistic system and therefore only serve profit, not people. Almost like companies will never truly have artist's best interests at heart, and if you are ever to sign a contract with a big publisher you need to have a good lawyer by your side.

It makes me so sad to read that they didn't even give her a reasonable explanation as to why everything was cancelled. She does not even appear to have any of the merchandise on hand, as all the photos on her website are from Ghost of the Doll. In hindsight we can guess, obviously, why the cancellation happened but I'm in the moment it was probably upsetting. It's still upsetting, given that she has included this in her website for the...revamped book!

However, like Fird, Othello refused to give up. For the next 20 years, she tried to regain the rights to her work. Entertainment attorneys assured her it would never happen.  They said, "It can't be done!" But... it could be done and Othello did it, regaining the rights back to all her work.

Yeah, so, I actually think this is the saddest part about the whole thing. She managed to get some of the rights back and republished the book with...new art...that looks so fucking BAD. Image from her website:

Sorry to this illustrator, but got damn. There is no sauce to this art whatsoever. It is unseasoned, not even salt and pepper. This looks like ass and would never fucking fly with any editor worth their chops. It took me ages to figure out that the long yellow curved line is Fird's tail. Like, this is so unbelievably sad to me. I don't even really like the original art a whole lot, but compared to this...

My informed guess as to what happened is that Bach lawyered up and fought. As we know, Caedmon is now owned by HarperCollins. I can't say for certain but there was probably some case to be made that Caedmon being sold breached the contract, or nullified parts of it, or perhaps the contract expired. It could even just be that HarperCollins didn't care about an old, unprofitable IP and granted Bach her rights back. There is also Remco to consider: they also hold some of the rights, but probably just for the merchandise? Given how prominently their logo is displayed on the toy tags, they might actually own a significant share. Perhaps they were happy not to have anything to do with the book so long as the merch rights weren't touched. I don't know! There's no info about it on the site and this stuff is usually under NDA.

So Bach got her rights back, but she's just the writer. She doesn't own any of the art, so in order to republish the book she had to hire a new illustrator. She likely did not have a huge budget for it, maybe even paying for it out of her pocket because the Choice Books logo she has in several spots on the Fird website appears to be for a distribute on demand service, in place of a traditional publisher.

As the writer, she also would not have gotten the rights to use the original audiobook, so she had one re-recorded. It also appears like she does not have the rights to the name "Firffels" either, as the only places it appears on the site are in photographs of merchandise and in titles specifically referring to the work that is still owned by Caedmon. She carefully refers to her own work as "Fird" for short or the book's full title, probably because she cannot legally imply that she owns or made anything else.

I dug into this thinking it would be a quick look at some strange, forgotten toys from a bygone era. Instead I found a story about how an artist can so easily be shafted by publishers. Everything always loops back around to workers' rights, it seems. Stories like this about shitty publishing contracts (see: Webtoon if you want to get into something current) still appear so often, man. It's depressing, and indicative that the publishing industry needs some reforming ASAP. Like, Illustrators, when are we getting a proper union?

But I'm glad Bach got her rights back and got her book republished within her lifetime. I'm sad she didn't have the budgets for a better illustrator. Sorry to bring that up again, I work as an illustrator irl and I have opinions about craft, lol. Also I just think that given how hard Bach had to fight, she deserved to have better art made. That being said, here's another link to her current website. There's not much there but what is there is a monument to a battle she fought and won, and is proud of.

The lack of detailed, clear, centralized documentation of these toys frustrates me. One of the most frustrating things about the internet for me is that there are few easily accessible, publicly available archives of toys--even for modern toys. I've had to use Amazon reviews and Ebay listings and broken online stores to decipher publication years. With this in mind I decided to do a write up and provide clearer pictures of the toys that I have (I'll take hi res pics in natural lighting too someday). Archives are important to me and the internet kinda sucks for it, I say as someone who started this blog for that purpose. If Tumblr goes down, so does everything I've posted here. As an artist who works primarily digitally, one of the scariest things is knowing that I'm laboring over an ephemeral body of work. It's just not going to exist for very long unless I print it out on archival materials. Data is not the same as a physical object. My Firffels have survived for 39 years but the digital art I draw every day is unlikely to last past 10 years because websites die and files get deleted.

I bought the Firffels from my thrift store thinking I'd resell them. I'm low income so I sell many of the things I thrift. I prefer to buy the older toys or the ones that need cleaning because it makes me feel better about being a reseller (I don't want to take away options from low income kids in my area, ya know?). But I'm putting in the labor to freshen them up and I'm putting in the effort to make unavailable toys available again, at least for one person. And I don't have a whole lot of shelf space to display the toys in my collection...but for now I think I'll keep them.

[thebrickinbrick]

Wherein Will Appear the Name of Enjolras's Mistress

Courfeyrac, seated on a paving-stone beside Enjolras, continued to insult the cannon, and each time that that gloomy cloud of projectiles which is called grape-shot passed overhead with its terrible sound he assailed it with a burst of irony.

“You are wearing out your lungs, poor, brutal, old fellow, you pain me, you are wasting your row. That’s not thunder, it’s a cough.”

And the bystanders laughed.

Courfeyrac and Bossuet, whose brave good humor increased with the peril, like Madame Scarron, replaced nourishment with pleasantry, and, as wine was lacking, they poured out gayety to all.

“I admire Enjolras,” said Bossuet. “His impassive temerity astounds me. He lives alone, which renders him a little sad, perhaps; Enjolras complains of his greatness, which binds him to widowhood. The rest of us have mistresses, more or less, who make us crazy, that is to say, brave. When a man is as much in love as a tiger, the least that he can do is to fight like a lion.

That is one way of taking our revenge for the capers that mesdames our grisettes play on us. Roland gets himself killed for Angélique; all our heroism comes from our women. A man without a woman is a pistol without a trigger; it is the woman that sets the man off. Well, Enjolras has no woman. He is not in love, and yet he manages to be intrepid. It is a thing unheard of that a man should be as cold as ice and as bold as fire.”

Enjolras did not appear to be listening, but had any one been near him, that person would have heard him mutter in a low voice: “Patria.”

Bossuet was still laughing when Courfeyrac exclaimed:

“News!”

And assuming the tone of an usher making an announcement, he added:

“My name is Eight-Pounder.”

In fact, a new personage had entered on the scene. This was a second piece of ordnance.

The artillery-men rapidly performed their manœuvres in force and placed this second piece in line with the first.

This outlined the catastrophe.

A few minutes later, the two pieces, rapidly served, were firing point-blank at the redoubt; the platoon firing of the line and of the soldiers from the suburbs sustained the artillery.

Another cannonade was audible at some distance. At the same time that the two guns were furiously attacking the redoubt from the Rue de la Chanvrerie, two other cannons, trained one from the Rue Saint-Denis, the other from the Rue Aubry-le-Boucher, were riddling the Saint-Merry barricade. The four cannons echoed each other mournfully.

The barking of these sombre dogs of war replied to each other.

One of the two pieces which was now battering the barricade on the Rue de la Chanvrerie was firing grape-shot, the other balls.

The piece which was firing balls was pointed a little high, and the aim was calculated so that the ball struck the extreme edge of the upper crest of the barricade, and crumbled the stone down upon the insurgents, mingled with bursts of grape-shot.

The object of this mode of firing was to drive the insurgents from the summit of the redoubt, and to compel them to gather close in the interior, that is to say, this announced the assault.

The combatants once driven from the crest of the barricade by balls, and from the windows of the cabaret by grape-shot, the attacking columns could venture into the street without being picked off, perhaps, even, without being seen, could briskly and suddenly scale the redoubt, as on the preceding evening, and, who knows? take it by surprise.

“It is absolutely necessary that the inconvenience of those guns should be diminished,” said Enjolras, and he shouted: “Fire on the artillery-men!”

All were ready. The barricade, which had long been silent, poured forth a desperate fire; seven or eight discharges followed, with a sort of rage and joy; the street was filled with blinding smoke, and, at the end of a few minutes, athwart this mist all streaked with flame, two thirds of the gunners could be distinguished lying beneath the wheels of the cannons. Those who were left standing continued to serve the pieces with severe tranquillity, but the fire had slackened.

“Things are going well now,” said Bossuet to Enjolras. “Success.”

Enjolras shook his head and replied:

“Another quarter of an hour of this success, and there will not be any cartridges left in the barricade.”

It appears that Gavroche overheard this remark.

[postcard-from-the-past]

Interior of the Lerma Cabaret in Manila, Philippines

American vintage postcard

[jestersloverre]

Weepe and Saskia

This detail in the 3.09 appendix caught my eye and I’ve been thinking about it since.

Now at first I thought the “she” referred to Kozma, because Weepe makes several clear references to Kozma throughout the 3.09 appendix. However…

This feels like a very specific piece of information to know about someone, could Weepe really have know Kozma that well? Further, the tone and tense of this scribble are different from the rest of his Kozma scribbles, which are far more sarcastic and even malevolently gleeful.

Which makes me wonder if the “she” actually refers to Saskia.

Having run a business together for four years, Weepe could easily have learned a lot of miscellaneous information about Saskia, such as her preferences in interior design.

While it isn’t explored very much on the show (yet), I do believe that thoughts and memories of Saskia creep up on Weepe when is isn’t expecting it. For instance, ordering curtains for his house, seeing the pattern that she likes and being reminded of her.

While Weepe is undeniably a twisted person who cannot maintain interpersonal relationships because of his selfishness, it is canon that he does, in his own way, care for Saskia and he cares about what she thinks. For instance,

- He screams her name when Imelda is torturing him.

- In 1.19 the narrators explicitly say that he has a soft spot for Saskia

- He almost cries as he is leaving the cabaret after confronting Saskia and locating his medical case.

-In 1.18 he is specifically horrified to learn that Saskia knows about his betrayal, as she was ‘never supposed to find out’.

I wonder how Weepe will react when he finds out that Saskia survived the tearror tsunami. Will he be relieved? will he be terrified that his betrayal wasn’t buried with her death?

How will Saskia feel when she sees Weepe’s physical state? What Imelda did and how she continues to use him? his isolation from what little community he had on midst?

Waiting for the heartbreak that will be the Moc Weepe- Saskia reunion.

[your-neighbor-in-the-northblue]

Supernovas in a Modern AU

➼ Word Count » 0.6k ➼ Warnings » None ➼ Genre » Modern AU

Officially, Apoo is a DJ, and he’ll go around to different parties and weddings to do his thing. One time he was invited to a church to play the piano and was never invited again. However, in his free time, he streams. He mostly plays My Singing Monsters, Just Dance, or Beat Saber VR, but he's always open to suggestions in the chat. He started writing his own music as well and has grown a pretty loyal following.

Bege still runs his Mafia business but is also the founder of one of the local shoe shops in the heart of the city. It's a nicer place that sells dress shoes and occasionally tuxedos. He always uses the place as an alibi or a cover-up to excuse his whereabouts whenever the cops come and question him and his boys.

Bonney owns and operates a small pizzeria located on the corner of the road. She hardly ever has any rude customers due to the place having a Waffle House type of reputation, girlie is always ready to throw down in the parking lot. And on the weekends, when her shop's not open, she'll go down to the local board game clubs and play Jenga with whoever's there.

X Drake joined the Military the second he got out of high school and never looked back. It always felt like the right decision for him, especially since his parents couldn't afford for him to go to college. Once he retired, however, he turned to zookeeping in the reptile exhibits. He loves his job and will go to Drake concerts whenever he has the money and time to go to one.

Urouge is the pastor at his church (and a regular at the clubs). Some are put off by him, whereas others find him to be comforting to confess to. He considers himself to be a man of the Lord, even if he frequents the cabaret clubs a tad too often.

Hawkins is, more often than not, operating his interior design business, but he does have a little voodoo shop on the side and will frequently read his tarot cards to people who walk in. He's also somewhat of a hit with the farmers as he makes them all scarecrows in August that help keep critters out of their crops.

Law is a traveling doctor who likes to help in areas that are in the midst of pandemics/epidemics. He always feels obligated to go to those places specifically. He always gives kids heart-shaped stickers whenever they've been treated by him. His reputation is very shrouded and some people consider him to be a modern grim reaper whenever he visits their country, blaming him for whatever illness that has spread.

Kid is an avid gun supporter and, as such, sells and makes them. He owns a shooting range and almost all of the Rage Rooms in the city. Whenever he's free, he and Kiler will go down to some of the nearby raves and party together.

Killer runs a pasta shop within Kid's shooting range. He's the one who usually deals with bad customers so that Kid doesn't get himself another lawsuit. He's also known for being the one to end all of the fights picked with Kid.

Blackbeard is one of those really cocky, know-it-all museum employees who make people feel dumb whenever they ask a question. He gambles a lot, has limited knowledge of most of the stuff in his exhibits, and probably deals crack cocaine with people in the alleyways.

[darkmaga-returns]

Senator Paul’s grievances are many, and rightly so. He says:

This year, I am highlighting a whopping $1,008,313,329,626.12. That’s over $1 trillion in government waste, including things like ice-skating drag queens, a $12 Million Las Vegas pickleball complex, $4,840,082 on Ukrainian influencers, and more! No matter how much money the government has wasted, politicians keep demanding even more. As always, taking the path to fiscal responsibility is often a lonely journey, but I’ve been fighting government waste like DOGE before DOGE was cool. And I will continue my fight against government waste this holiday season.

Among the gems uncovered this year:

$419,470 to study cocaine addiction in rats The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) funded a study to determine if lonely rats are more likely to seek cocaine than their happier counterparts. Because apparently, locking down the global population during the COVID pandemic wasn’t enough of an experiment in social isolation.

$10,000 for a climate-themed drag show on ice The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded a grant to a self-described “queer cabaret arts organization,” the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, for a performance featuring drag queens and polar bears to raise climate change awareness. “If we can get these drag queens to ice skate, maybe, just maybe, we can solve the climate crisis,” says the group’s artistic director.

$12 million for a pickleball complex in Las Vegas The Department of the Interior is hard at work turning 5 acres of Nevada desert into a 30-court pickleball complex. The goal is to put Las Vegas on the global pickleball map by hosting local and international tournaments. As Senator Paul says, “There's irony in a city synonymous with high-stakes gambling investing 12 million American tax dollars in pickleball — a sport often associated with retirees looking for a low-stakes, leisurely pastime.”

$2.24 million to infect cats with COVID-19 Cornell University received grants to study whether felines can contract and transmit COVID-19, leading to the needless suffering and death of over 30 cats. Apparently, curiosity didn't just kill the cat, government funding helped, too!

$4.8 million on Ukrainian influencers The Department of State spent millions to engage social media influencers in Ukraine. Because when it comes to foreign policy, likes and shares are the new diplomacy.

From redundant federal programs to grants so specific they sound like The Onion Babylon Bee headlines, the Festivus Report 2024 doesn’t hold back. Paul even includes a section on how government shutdowns ironically cost taxpayers more money, proving that inefficiency is an art form in Washington.