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heroineimages · 3 years ago

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Extended Royal Family

So here’s the scene I mentioned in this earlier post about Queen Viarra’s cousin. King Edron of Lecne is Queen Viarra’s uncle through his marriage to Viarra’s aunt who died in childbirth. Prince Delernan is Edron’s son from his second wife, who has also passed away. Princess Aulnia is Edron’s stepdaughter with his current wife, Queen Pulnia. Though Edron’s name gets mentioned earlier in the story, the following scene is where these characters are first introduced.

The scene takes place around eight days after Queen Viarra usurps the Hegemony of Andivel and is where our characters first learn that King Edron’s niece is now his hegemonic overlord. I want this to be a cathartic scene for the characters, whose kingdom had basically been abandoned and left to the pirates by their former overlords. This is a whole new scene, btw, something I added that wasn’t in the first complete draft. As always, feedback is most welcome!

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Built up a hillside and against a cliffside, the island city-state of Lecne looked out over a natural harbor that had sheltered sailing ships since centuries before writing and recorded history. Docks, drydocks, warehouses, shipwrights, fishing huts, and repair-yards littered the beach, though nearly all of these facilities were seeing less and less use the last couple years.

Using the slope to their advantage, past settlers had built a mile-long crescent of palisades at the base of the hill to defend against raiders. The palisades had since been expanded into a seventeen-foot-tall stone wall with crenelations, gates, and defensive towers. The beach also lay within bow-shot from the walls, preventing invaders from conducting a proper land-based siege. Unable to do more than blockade the harbor, even powers like Andivel or Pellastor thought twice before considering an assault on Lecne. The city was long-regarded as a small beacon of safety amid a vast, dangerous sea.

The problem was getting people across that vast, dangerous sea.

And with three of his fourteen warships under extensive repair after an unseasonal squall, King Edron grimaced at his recent inability to keep his waters safe. Glaring at the drydocked bireme and pair of triremes surrounded by repair crews, Edron thumped his ceramic rhyton on the balcony in frustration, not quite slopping his wine.

Just today, what was left of a merchant convoy had sailed in a day late with only four of their seventeen original ships. He was trying. Gods, he was fucking trying to keep his territorial waters safe and secure for travelers and traders. With their navy’s upkeep crippled by debts, the Hegemony of Andivel had steadily lost control of their territorial waters over the last three years, forcing their island and coastal allies to rely more and more on their own fleets to police the trade lanes. But it wasn’t enough. Like every other island city-state on the northern and western Vestic Sea, Edron’s warships were just spread too thin.

“I heard what happened,” Aulnia’s voice came from behind him. “We lost most of another merchant convoy.”

“That makes five convoys since the winter storms stopped, along with Nyrus knows how many independent merchantmen,” Edron nodded, turning to his stepdaughter. She smelled strongly of perfume—which seven-in-ten times meant she was disguising from her fiancé that she was bumping cunnies with the kitchen girls again. “If there’s any good news, it’s that a lot of the bigger pirate groups are starting to charge protection fees instead of raiding and sinking. So hopefully that will improve their chances of a successful voyage.”

“Maybe that is a good thing,” Aulnia offered, her obsidian curls bouncing as she shrugged and leaned on the balcony next to him. “I mean, most of the Illaran Confederacy started out as pirate nations, and these days their maritime commerce seems to flow better than anyone’s. Hey! Maybe we should turn pirate!” she suggested.

“Oh, gods, I can just see it,” Edron laughed in return.

“Hey, I’m serious!” Aulnia insisted. “We’ve got fourteen perfectly good warships—well, eleven right now, but the others’ll be fixed—and we’re ideally situated to prey on shipping from Andivel or Pellastor. I think this is a thing that could work!”

“And Queen Sita would love us forever if we created a major pirate threat in Emperor Orvandius’s backwaters,” Edron added, still chuckling. He sobered as a thought occurred to him. “And it would be fitting revenge against Andivel for what they’ve done to our family,” he added, a familiar, heavy emptiness filling his gut.

Aulnia frowned and hugged herself as she looked back out over the sea. “Has… is there any word from Kel Fimmaril?” she asked, voice growing shaky.

“Nothing,” he shook his head. “I thought about sending a scout lembas to investigate, but we need all of our ships here. If I didn’t I’d have… have…” he trailed off, angrily wiping a tear.

“Hey, I know,” Aulnia insisted, reaching over to take his hand. “I understand. If you had the chance, you’d have sailed all fourteen warships and as many troop ships as you could muster to break Andivel’s siege and rush to Viarra’s aid.” He saw tears on her cheeks as she stepped up to embrace him. “I know you would have. But we both know you weren’t in a position to do that.”

“And yet everyday, I dream of doing exactly that,” Edron admitted as she stepped back from the hug.

“Dad, you told me yourself that it’s never the dreams that fail people—”

“—it’s the reality. I know,” he finished for her.

Laughter from further up the balcony interrupted their quiet moment. Edron frowned to see his wife and son rushing toward them, both laughing.

“Get back, I want to tell him,” Queen Pulnia warned, laughing and attempting to push Prince Delernan back.

Taller and stronger than his petite step-mother, Delernan picked her up by the waist. Pulnia gave a cackling squeal as he spun her out of the way. “No, no, it’s funnier if we tell him my way,” he insisted.

“Now, what the hell are you two on about,” Edron asked, crossing his arms but silently thankful for the distraction.

“There’s word from And—” Pulnia started before Delernan clasped both hands over her mouth. She scowled and gave a muted shout into his hands.

Edron heard Aulnia chuckle from beside him as her step-brother manhandled her mother.

“Just a few minutes ago, we got a missive via diplomatic courier from Andivel that—ow, ow, ow, biting!” Delernan protested as Pulnia attempted to wrest her way from his grasp.

“Unless the Tetrarchs are all dead, I’m pretty sure I don’t give a damn what Andivel has to say,” Edron scowled, feeling his fists clench in bitter anger.

The comment made Delernan laugh and Pulnia cackled again as she broke free of his grasp. “You guessed right!” she explained, a single snort punctuating her laugh.

“What?” Edron frowned, tilting his head.

“The tetrarchs of Andivel are all dead!” Delernan grinned, finally releasing Pulnia.

“All four of them,” Pulnia explained, smirking while miming a noose around her neck. “They’re as dead as Aulnia’s interest in husbands!”

“Are you two drunk?” Aulnia asked, raising a brow.

“No, just giddy as fuck,” Delernan admitted, grinning bigger.

Pulnia snorted another laugh before straightening up to her five-foot stature and trying to look official. “The missive is not from the tetrarchs or the council,” she explained, producing a parchment letter. “It is in fact from the new hegemon of Andivel.” She paused and smirked as Edron felt his brows raise. “Our new hegemon, Queen Viarraluca of Kel Fimmaril!”

“Are you fucking with me?” Edron gasped, snatching the parchment. Though the letter was written by a scribe, the signature at the bottom was indeed Viarra’s, but with Andivel’s official signet beside it instead of Kel Fimmaril’s.

“Oh my gods,” Aulnia murmured as she peered around his shoulder.

“Vi says she’s having a big meeting with all of her new allies, vassals, and client-cities starting around the twenty-fifth of Zupor’s Month,” Delernan explained, pointing to the letter. “She’s invited you to come help hammer out plans for the future of the hegemony and even asked a special request from you and me.”

Edron clutched a fist to his heart and felt himself chuckle as tears obscured his reading. “How…?” he started to ask, choking on the relief, joy, and pride swelling in his throat all at once.

“According to the messenger, Cousin Vi subverted the army Andivel sent to invade, then sailed back to Andivel and marched them right up through their gates,” Delernan explained. “They took the city without a fight and disposed of the tetrarchs.”

“Gods, she’s so awesome,” Aulnia whispered.

Edron barked a laugh as he turned to embrace his step-daughter. He laughed again as he felt Aulnia chuckle against his chest. Reaching out, he pulled Pulnia into their embrace, feeling Delernan’s arms wrap around them as well. Edron wept and kept laughing, the sheer catharsis of Viarra’s letter washing from him. It was a good, hard, loud laugh and cry like he hadn’t had in a very long time.

#my writing #my novel #First Empress #King Edron #Queen Pulnia #Prince Delernan #Princess Aulnia #excerpts

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straybookmarks · 5 years ago

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Audiobook Avalanche

In this age of self isolation, one would imagine I would be able to make progress with the TBR stack I posted two weeks ago. That has not been the case for me. A good chunk of my time has been devoted to home improvement projects on top of my usual household responsibilities.

Audiobooks from the library have been so beneficial. The only problem: my holds are becoming available quicker than anticipated. Further thoughts under the cut.

The Witches are Coming by Lindy West —I was a little wary of starting another cultural critique essay collection right after working on Trick Mirror for a local book club (via Zoom). Appreciating the humor and optimism so far.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel — Station Eleven was a wonderful book that is nigh-impossible to comprehensively describe. It made my honorable mentions list of favorite books I read in 2019 (post pending). I’m going to be honest here: It would have made the list if not for the ableist perpetuation of who is expendable in a crisis. (Oh my goodness, this just became available today. I will start listening to it as I continue writing this post.)

The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper — Contemporary YA about the bond formed between two sons of astronauts during the run-up to a Mars mission. After thoroughly enjoying Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut series, turns out I have a soft spot for character-focused stories with a focus on space agencies. (This also recently became available; I will get to this after The Glass Hotel.)

Crier’s War by Nina Varela — “I, for one, welcome our robot overlords.” This has an interesting premise and I like to keep an eye open for an enemies-to-lovers romance. (Just got a notification that this is also available. See what I mean about an avalanche?)

This Town Sleeps by Dennis E. Staples — Marion Lafournier is a gay Ojibwe man in his twenties living in a small reservation town in northern Minnesota. He accidentally raises a dog from the dead, who leads him to the grave of a local basketball star. Marion begins to investigate the murder on his own. This sounds cold and spooky and claustrophobic. (Wait time: 13 days)

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo —Famous last words: I’ve heard good things. I know it’s about the interconnected lives of Black women in Britain, but that’s it. (Wait time: It had been two weeks, but I just got a notification. Gah.)

We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia — We Set the Dark on Fire was a fast, engaging listen. Looking forward to returning to this interesting world. (Wait time: About 2 weeks)

Remembrance by Rita Woods — The stories of Black women at three different points in time (18th century Haiti, 19th century New Orleans, and modern day Ohio) are woven together in this historical novel with what looks like a speculative twist. (Wait time: About 2 weeks)

Here for It, Or, How to Save your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas —Leaning into this cultural criticism essay collection thing. (Wait time: About 2 weeks)

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin — This novel will be a followup and expansion upon “The City Born Great,” in which young homeless man fought “squamous eldritch bullshit” and became the avatar of NYC. It was a neat story with striking prose that was a pleasure to listen to in the audiobook of How Long ’Til Black Future Month? It was like slam poetry with references to Walt Whitman and H. P. Lovecraft. (Wait time: About 3 weeks)

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune — This is supposed to be “an enchanting love story, masterfully told, about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place - and realizing that family is yours.” The premise alone is interesting: A caretaker must contend with the possibility that six wards might bring about the end of the world. (Wait time: About 3 weeks)

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski — The Winner’s Trilogy is considered an underrated YA series, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. (Wait time: About 6 weeks)

A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen —Here and Now and Then was a fun and cinematic romp, so I was already on board for checking out Chen’s sophomore book. The premise (interconnected characters in a post-pandemic San Francisco) feels really fitting in this era of COVID-19 social isolation. (Wait time: About 7 weeks)

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus — The story of two Black girls from different places in the diaspora (Audre is from Trinidad; Mabel, from Minneapolis). Audre is sent to live with her father in Minnesota after her mother discovers she has a secret girlfriend. Mabel and Audre form a bond after the former helps the latter adjust to her new surroundings. (Wait time: About 8 weeks)

Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri — I want to reread Empire of Sand now that know how that story goes. The first time through, I felt mentally tired by the time the temple portion ended and felt the need to take a break once the narrative returned to the fresh air. The prose was lovely and it drew from a fresh historical well. I look forward to returning to this world. (Wait time: About 10 weeks)

#booklr #audiobooks #TBL #tbr list

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elvishescapades · 2 years ago

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Izirius Valantrim’s backstory.

“For nigh 390 years have I been in service of our great overlord, Talantir. At 20 years of age and after the completion of my studies at the Elysian University of Kal Shaatar I was recruited into the militant Order of the Watchkeeper due to my excellence in the study of religion. These Devine champions aided the peoples of Vroles in many a war against the Ceadrall scourge, boosting allied morale wherever they went.

However these years were terrible for we saw not only the vile deeds and crimes of the Ceadrall invaders, we saw also the despicable side of the Vrolesians. We were involuntarily witness to wanton pillaging and looting and what's more, we slayed countless men we thought allies. In due time the conflict grew in heinousness such that we, the Order of the Watchkeeper, were ordered to withdraw whence we came from. Upon our return to our incomparable and towering Temple-City of Kal Shaatar we were welcomed with cheer and festivities though we felt no joy nor content. It seemed, though, we weren't alone in our sadness and anger for the Great Consul of the Holy Temple of Talantir ordered our great gates shut and ushered in our era of isolation.

It was during this era that the Acolytes of Talantir were founded. Our patron, Elder-Acolyte Ebkeziam Ullioth, founded this new order out of pity for our Vrolesian brethren. Though none of us Kal Shaatarii are of any Vrolesian blood and we indeed spring from the woodland realms of Nocoth, we shed those ties long ago and fully consider ourselves fellow Vrolesians. Thus it was that Ebkeziam Ullioth felt it was not only his, but our duty to free our former Vrolesian friends from their own cruelty and mend their mental, esoteric and physical wounds and scars. He disavowed the isolationist policy of the Great Consul and openly preached in favor of the opening of the gates.

Officially the Acolytes of Talantir stayed put in Kal Shaatar and did nought but prepare for the inevitable opening of the gates. However Ullioth soon stealthily led the first Acolyte advance parties through the secret passages of the northern wall into Vrolesian territories. They ventured far and wide and prepared neighboring settlements for the forthcoming of the Acolytes of Talantir. They worked tirelessly for years upon years, rekindling lost friendships, mending withered alliances and proselytizing the ways of Talantir.

It was, of course, the cataclysmic event of the weavebreak which brought about the end of the Kal Shaatari Isolationism. The utter chaos and extreme damage this apocalypse wrought shattered all contempt we yet felt towards the cruelty witnessed all those years past. It was indeed Ebkeziam Ullioth whom first proclaimed our aid was needed by those less fortunate than us. "We have been spared", he had said, "Talantir has not left his watch over us! Let us now take watch over our less fortunate friends!". It was then that he revealed his previously concealed works. Ullioth entrusted the Council of Devine Consuls with the dire requests for aid he had received through his dear Acolytes and pleaded with them to assist the peoples he had grown to love and trust. Though the council, and Great Consul Ulmith Pal-Resmin specifically, were not in the slightest amused by what they saw as Ullioth his scheming, they unanimously agreed the era of isolation had past into the era of return.

With great haste was the hurry in which we reopened our gates. Plans were made and it was with all speed that our engineers drew up the plans for the Glistening Refuge of Kal Linios beyond our graceful western wall. Some of us wished for the refugees to be aided inside our angelic Temple-City however our ancient traditions allows us still only to welcome those of High-Elven blood inside. Though the refuge of Kal Linios was build against our outer wall with the same splendor as the glorious Temple City itself.

It was at this critical moment that I was recruited into the Acolytes of Talantir. My extensive religious training and my experience from the vile war of years past had distinguished me from my peers. I took part in the second wave of Acolytes sent into Vroles and even though I had been privy to the lay of land ages ago, the world seemed novice to me then. The devastation shocked and saddened us but it also filled us with an unending determination to save and cherish all that was left and aid every one of those unfortunate Vrolesians.

Along the way we preached our ways, helped rebuild, escorted refugees to Kal Linios and partook in important diplomatic missions among many other things. However we were not needed only for peaceful endeavors, we were also put in command of brigades of Watchkeepers to counter roving bands of brigands and the vile beasts of the tear. Some of us even helped train and took command of the Kal Linios Auxiliary Legion, though I took no part in that.

My most recent assignment is one of great importance to the Great Temple of Talantir and my realm as a whole. My brother in faith, Reswial Asilien (may he forever aid Talantir in his watch), and I are dispatched officially on a diplomatic mission to the Caedrall Empire and it's separatist eastern province. Unofficially we are to find out how much and what they know about the great schism. Our mission is to research the very cause and the consequences of the weavebreak so our people may be better prepared in the future.

It is with great pain in my heart, however, with which I must proclaim my dearest brother in faith has unfortunately perished caused by some foul and arcane being which has not before been seen by my eyes. This will not hold me back from my quest, indeed I am now more determined than ever to find the answers I need!”

Izirius is a citizen of the gleaming Temple-City of Kal Shaatar, a veteran of the Order of the Watchkeeper and an Acolyte of Talantir. He has an unblemished, light purplish skin, gleaming black hair and coal-black eyes without discernible pupils.

#dnd character #dnd #dnd5e #dnd homebrew #dnd backstory #dnd backgrounds #miniature #tabletop #fantasy #dnd elf #high elves #high elf #sorry if my English is a lil wonky #ttrpg character #short story

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earlyandoftenpodcast · 7 years ago

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(New Amsterdam in 1664.)

We look at the history and government of New Netherland, the Dutch colony which would become New York after its conquest by England.

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Transcript and Sources:

Hello, and welcome to Early and Often: The History of Elections in America. Episode 17: The City on the Edge of Tomorrow.

Last time we sketched out the history of the Iroquois, a confederacy of Indian tribes living in upstate New York. Iroquois culture was changed drastically by contact with Europeans. They launched a massive war of expansion even as their numbers were being reduced tenfold by disease, until finally they fell under Western domination.

Today, we’re going to talk about the Europeans who were closest to the Iroquois in the 1600s, the Dutch in their colony of New Netherland, which stretched in between the Chesapeake and New England. This episode will draw especially from the book New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America by Jaap Jacobs [Yaap Yacobs], as well as The Island At The Center of the World by Russell Shorto, which is the more accessible of the two.

Our story begins in the Dutch Republic, or what is now the Netherlands. If you don’t know, the Netherlands are a low-lying country in Northern Europe, sandwiched today between Germany and Belgium. Throughout the 1500s the Netherlands were under control of the Habsburg dynasty in Spain, and so they were known as the Habsburg Netherlands. But in 1568 the Dutch revolted against their overlords, and over the course of a decades-long war, won their de facto independence.

After the Dutch broke away from Spanish rule, their society progressed rapidly. They were pioneers in banking, finance, and law. Much more so than any other nation in Europe they became a commercial people, filling the role that Venice and the Italian city-states had in the late Middle Ages. They were middle class and mercantile.

The Dutch were also pioneers in government. Upon independence they became a republic, which was highly unusual amid all the European monarchies of the day. They had at first tried inviting aristocrats to rule them, but everyone refused out of fear of offending the Spanish. So a republic it was.

The Dutch Republic was also known as the United Provinces, and as that name would suggest, it was a confederation of seven quite independent provinces. These provinces each had their own currency, their own laws, their own courts, and their own assemblies, with varying levels of representation and suffrage. Of these provinces, Holland, which was as home to the capital, Amsterdam, was by far the largest, the richest, and the most powerful. Holland paid for over half of the budget of the Dutch Republic. Which is why, even today, “Holland” is often used to refer to the Netherlands as a whole, even though that’s not actually correct.

The government of the Netherlands as a whole was in the hands of an assembly known as the States-General, which mostly just had control over foreign policy, since each of the provinces were in charge of their own internal affairs. Each province had one vote at the States-General, though they could send as many representatives as they wished. Under the control of the States-General there was an executive council, as well as various other officials and administrative bodies, as one might expect.

Although it was a republic, the government tended to be dominated by the elite merchant families as a de facto oligarchy, especially as time went on. And there were some offices, such as stadtholder, a very important position, which became openly hereditary over time.

That’s how the republic operated in a nutshell. It was complicated, decentralized, semi-representative, and relatively open by the standards of the day. Things were much more complicated than what I could describe in this extremely brief sketch, but there’s no need to get into more detail, since the government of New Netherland was actually nothing like this. It was much simpler and much less representative, as we’ll see. But I still want to give you an idea of where the colony of New Netherland sprang from.

The Dutch Republic was a strongly Protestant nation, but it was also known for its tolerance. The law stated that “each person shall remain free, especially in his religion, and that no one shall be persecuted or investigated because of their religion.” There was a national church, but membership wasn’t obligatory.

As a result, the Netherlands became a haven for dissidents. Jews from across Europe flocked there. And when the Pilgrims fled England, it was to the Netherlands that they went first, before they decided to press on to America. So too did John Locke spend five years there. Many controversial books were first published in the Netherlands, even if the authors came from elsewhere, like Galileo. According to Colin Woodard, “Modern scholars have estimated that Dutch printers were responsible for half of all the books published in the seventeenth century.” This tolerance wasn’t absolute, but it was certainly freer than the rest of Europe.

This openness helped make the Dutch Republic into one of the cultural centers of Europe. The philosopher René Descartes lived there for 20 years, and the philosopher Baruch Spinoza came from a Jewish family that had fled Portugal during the Inquisition. Painters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer were Dutch. You can see why they called the 1600s the Dutch Golden Age.

And the Dutch weren’t just developing domestically during this period, they were also expanding their presence overseas, through both trade and warfare. Their primary interest was in Asia. They had begun conquering parts of Indonesia in 1605 and they’d gone as far as Japan by 1609. This was at a time when English efforts at expansion and trade were really only just beginning. Although the Dutch Republic was young, it soon became a trading powerhouse, the envy of Europe.

The Americas, however, were a secondary priority in all this. And to the Dutch, North America was even less of a priority than their possessions in Brazil. So the colony of New Netherland was at the time a sideshow to a sideshow. Nevertheless, it is to that colony that we now must turn.

The story of New Netherland itself begins with Henry Hudson, an English explorer. Hudson had led several expeditions for the Muscovy Company, one of those trading monopolies created by Queen Elizabeth. He had been looking for a northerly route to Asia, with no luck. Thanks to information sent to him by his friend John Smith of Jamestown, he now believed that he could find a route through North America to the Pacific. (Remember, no one knew just how wide the continent was back then.) The Muscovy Company declined to fund his next expedition, so he got support from the Dutch instead.

In 1608 the Dutch East India Company hired him to find a northeast passage, above Russia, but he disobeyed his orders and went to America instead. He reached the mouth of the Chesapeake but didn’t go in, instead sailing north, to a land which had still hardly been charted.

Now, I should probably explain the geography here. If you sail up the coast from the Chesapeake, after about a hundred miles you’ll reach the next big body of water, Delaware Bay, which today divides the state of Delaware from New Jersey. Hudson and his men entered the Bay, but they found it to be treacherous and so they turned back around and continued north. After another hundred something miles they reached what is now known as New York Harbor. This was a much more promising location. If you aren’t familiar with the layout of New York, it’s basically a tightly packed cluster of islands right near the shore, from the western tip of Long Island to Manhattan to Staten Island. It was a great spot for a port. And it was where the Pilgrims originally intended to settle.

But Hudson wasn’t interested in that. He wanted the Northwest Passage. So after some encounters with the local Indians he sailed up the main river which flows into the harbor, now known as the Hudson. But the river was just a river. It certainly didn’t lead to the Pacific. His mission was a failure, so he sailed back to Europe. He hadn’t found a route to Asia, but his report of New York Harbor piqued investors’ interest. It seemed like an excellent location for the Dutch to get in on the profitable fur trade which was at the time controlled by the French.

Hudson, by the way, would make only one more voyage, this time exploring Hudson Bay in Canada. His ship got stuck in the ice and they were forced to spend the winter there. In the spring, when the waters cleared, he wished to continue exploring further, but the crew mutinied and abandoned him, along with his son and some other loyal crewmen, leaving them to their fate in a small boat. They were never heard from again.

But that was of no matter to the future of New Netherland, as the region was named.

Within a few years Dutch traders sent several more expeditions to the area. They established an outpost up the Hudson river at what is now Albany, but for a while the Dutch presence was rather minimal. That began to change in 1621. That year, the Dutch government created the West India Company, which was to be the American counterpart to the Dutch East India Company, which had proved so successful in Asia. The West India Company was given a monopoly on trade with the Americas, and it was hoped by the government that the company would be an effective way to attack Spanish and Portuguese interests in the New World. The main focus of the West India Company was therefore in South America and the Caribbean, but New Netherland fell within their sphere as well.

One of the early goals of the Company was to send colonists to New Netherland, in order to more firmly support the Dutch claim on the lands. The exact borders of their new colony were ambiguous, but it began just above the Chesapeake and stretched into Connecticut, which was also claimed by the English. So basically the modern states of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.

It was hard to get people to go to the New World. Times were good in the Netherlands and there were no persecuted religious minorities like in England, so the pool of recruits was quite small. But the West India Company managed to scrape together a few dozen people, mostly foreigners, and convince them to sail away to America. One of the ships they sent was filled with 30 families. Four couples in the group were even married at sea.

The newlyweds and everyone else began arriving in New York Harbor in early 1624, so in between the arrivals of the Pilgrims and the Puritans. They set themselves up on an island just south of Manhattan. Their first homes were simple pits dug into the ground and covered with bark. It was the beginning of what would become New York City, although under the Dutch it was known as New Amsterdam. A few of the settlers were also sent south to the Delaware Bay and north to Connecticut, to ensure the Dutch claims on the land.

The year after that, settlement began on Manhattan itself. The common story is that the island was purchased from the local Indians for some beads worth $24, but that’s apocryphal. In truth the island was bought for goods worth perhaps a few thousand dollars in today’s money. Still a very good deal, all things considered. New Amsterdam, situated at the southern tip of Manhattan, soon became the capital and the center of economic activity in the colony. It was about 300 miles from Jamestown and 200 miles from Boston. It was also 100-something miles south of Iroquois territory.

This wasn’t a full-scale colonization effort like what the English were pursuing, however. There were some people who supported that approach, but it was deemed too ambitious. Instead, this was more an effort to secure trading outposts. The Dutch wanted a permanent presence, but it didn’t have to be too large. The economy was thus based on trade rather than on farming like in New England or the Chesapeake. There were still plenty of farmers, of course. But that wasn’t what New Amsterdam was about.

People continued to arrive in the colony, in dribs and drabs. (By the way, the mortality rate on a voyage like that was about 4 percent, according to Jacobs. Imagine if every time you flew across the country you had a 4 percent chance of dying. Not great.)

Many who came to New Netherland were merchants or craftsmen. Others were soldiers in the service of the Company. Most of these men left America after a time, but some remained, forming the nucleus of a new community. There were servants too, who were generally better treated than their counterparts in Virginia. Their terms of service were briefer, their contracts couldn’t be bought and sold and it was easier for them to escape from abusive masters.

In addition to New Amsterdam, the Dutch also continued their presence up the Hudson River, at Albany. This brought them to the southern edges of Iroquois land. Specifically, land controlled by the Mohawk. The land to the south was controlled by various Algonquian tribes, as I discussed last episode.

The Dutch had at first befriended the Mahican tribe, an Algonquian-speaking group that lived closer to the coast. The Mahicans had welcomed the Dutch as potential allies against the Mohawk, who were aggressively expanding their territory. But when the Dutch tried to support their new friends against the Mohawks, they were swiftly defeated. One Dutchman was even cannibalized. The Dutch soon decided that it was better to befriend powerful tribes rather than weaker ones, and so they became major trading partners and sometime allies of the Iroquois instead.

Like the Puritans, the Dutch also adopted the use of wampum as money, along with beaver pelts, although fur was a less than ideal currency, since the quality of the pelts was quite variable.

Trade with the Native Americans was always a fraught issue. In order to keep the Indians weaker, selling them weapons was prohibited, and could result in the death penalty, at least in theory. But that wasn’t enough to stop the trade. Certainly the Iroquois got their hands on enough guns to rapidly expand their territory, as we heard last time. Later on those restrictions on selling guns would be loosened, in acknowledgement of their ineffectiveness.

Alcohol too caused problems. Alcohol and the social ills associated with it were European exports just as much as guns and diseases were. Drunkenness and alcoholism soon became chronic problems among the Indians. Because of the disruption it caused, not just to the Indians themselves, but to relations between the Indians and the Dutch, selling alcohol to Indians could result in “a fine of five hundred guilders, flogging and banishment. In practice, however, punishments were much lighter,” according to Jacobs.

Dutch efforts to convert the Indians to Christianity were less successful than those of the Jesuits in French territory. The Dutch were less willing to meet the Indians halfway, as it were, to learn their languages, that sort of thing. There were some wars between the two groups, but they weren’t as bad as what happened in the English colonies. Overall, the Dutch presence was just too small and too focused purely on trade to cause the same sort of problems.

The government of the colony was in the hands of the West India Company. The Company was not totally independent from the Dutch government — the state had a representative on the board of directors and it was also partly subsidising the Company — but it was a private, for profit enterprise. So the ultimate loyalty of New Netherland was to the Dutch Republic, but in practice administration was in the hands of the Company. Well, in actuality, a small committee within the Company made most of the decisions.

Within the colony itself, administration and justice were in the hands of the Director-General and an executive council, all of whom were appointed back in Europe. The Director-General was the equivalent of a governor, although of a slightly lower rank, since New Netherland wasn’t deemed important enough to have a full governor. The Director was the chief executive, but he was obligated to seek the approval of the council. He wasn’t free to act on his own. And all of their decisions and laws were ultimately subject to approval from the Company.

There were no elected positions within the colony at all. The West India Company was directly in charge. They appointed the Director-General and his advisors, with no equivalent to an elected lower house.

In its early years the colony was beset by bureaucratic infighting and weak yet authoritarian leadership. The officials who were willing to go to America were generally second rate, and in 1632 the Company, according to Jacobs, had to “replace the entire administration”. According to Charles M. Andrews, one director alone was “charged with pride and vainglory, with indolence and carelessness, with drunkenness ‘as long as there is any wine’ and with hostility towards religion.” The next director started a fruitless years-long war against local Indian tribes, only to be recalled in disgrace and then die in a shipwreck on the way back to Europe. Needless to say, this sort of general mismanagement didn’t help in attracting more settlers.

In the beginning, New Amsterdam was a rough town, violent and boisterous. Bars, prostitution, pirates, etc. Like Jamestown had been, the colony wasn’t yet a fully realized society, it was just an outpost.

In these first few years New Netherland didn’t prove very profitable. This led to a split in the company. Some wanted to minimize further investment. That way, the Company could still reap the profits of the fur trade without much further cost. Others wanted to expand the colony into profitability by attracting enough farmers to make the colony self-sustaining. Then, perhaps, even bigger profits could be made thanks to their monopoly on trade.

The two sides compromised by coming up with the patroonship system. The patroonship system was an attempt to attract wealthy settlers by offering them large estates. In exchange for bringing 50 or more colonists to New Netherland, these wealthy settlers, or “patroons” as they were known, would each be given a great deal of power on their lands, similar to what the Lords Baltimore enjoyed in Maryland. They would have near-absolute authority, with all powers of government, even the right to execute subjects. The goal here was to make others bear the costs of colonization, since the Company was unwilling to pay for it itself.

A number of members of the West India Company set up patroonships of their own, but unfortunately for them, few people wanted to live under such conditions. Some patroonships never got off the ground. Another was entirely wiped out by Indians. Only one lasted longer than a few years.

Just as in the English colonies, any attempts to establish feudalism in the New World were pretty much dead on arrival. Overlords like the Baltimores could keep things going for a while, but only in the face of ongoing resistance from the colonists.

You might think that it would make sense to go in the opposite direction and make the colony more politically open. That worked well enough in Jamestown, after all. Well, perhaps they could’ve, but the situation in New Netherland was different. The Virginia Company had had constant money problems, and Jamestown was the only settlement they controlled. The West India Company, on the other hand, had other, more important possessions in the Caribbean and Brazil. New Netherland was a secondary concern and they didn’t feel the need to attract a lot of migrants, as the Virginia Company had. And they weren’t sure about the financial wisdom of expansion anyway. Perhaps partly as a result, there wasn’t the same pressure to add some sort of representative element to their rule.

Nevertheless, over time towns popped up across New Netherland, but all of them remained small. A number of these towns, particularly on Long Island, were settled by the English rather than by the Dutch. As I mentioned, the border between New Netherland and Connecticut was unsettled. As a result, a number of English towns were founded in territory that was thought to be English but wound up being controlled by the Dutch instead. Other times, it was because settlers were fleeing the persecution of New England. You’ll recall that Anne Hutchinson left Massachusetts for Rhode Island and then went to New Netherland, only to be killed by Indians along with much of her family.

These English towns were given a good deal of independence, and to some extent they just replicated the New England way of doing things, although there was nothing like the full-on town meetings in New England proper that we’ve heard about.

Local towns often had at least some say in the officials who were put in charge of them, but their choices were still subject to Company approval. These local officials were tasked with routine administration and the hearing of minor court cases. But overall, as you can see, there was very little popular participation in government. Things were done in a top down way, even if the colonists were given at least some input from time to time.

Residents of the colony were also sometimes called on to give advice to the Directors, through the creation of informal groups of counselors. But in practice things often got more complicated than you might expect.

For example, in 1641 a farmer in New Amsterdam was killed by an Indian. In response to this attack the Director-General, Willem Kieft, the guy who would drown in a shipwreck, called together the heads of local households to give him advice. Those men then chose from among themselves twelve men to counsel the Director. That was at least kind of an election I guess.

This body, known conveniently as the Twelve Men, went well beyond its instructions, offering the director more than just recommendations on policy towards the Indians. They also requested changes to the colony’s administration and courts. The director was reasonably receptive to some of their proposals, but he nevertheless soon dismissed them and forbade them from meeting again, lest they start to get ideas.

However, relations with the local Indians broke down further, with a massacre of some 80 natives followed by further reprisals against the settlers. Kieft felt it wise to summon the burghers, who were sort of the equivalent of freemen, for further consultation. From those 46 burghers, eight were elected to serve on a new body, known conveniently as the Eight Men.

The Eight Men had a bit more power than the Twelve Men had had. They weren’t just there to provide advice on a specific issue, they also had the right to recruit soldiers as needed. But they weren’t supposed to have any real authority. Nevertheless, just like the Twelve Men, they also went beyond their instructions, going over the director’s head by sending requests for assistance back to the Netherlands. In the next year, 1644, they even tried to get the director removed, and convince the West India Company to grant them a representative government. They asked for the right to “elect from among themselves a Bailiff or Schout and Schepens,” (those are just the names for government positions), “who will be empowered to send their deputies and give their votes on public affairs with the Director and Council; so that the entire country may not be hereafter, at the whim of one man, again reduced to similar danger.”

This was quite a big request, to completely change how the colony was run. For the most part, the Company ignored it. They did decide to recall Kieft for incompetence, but that was about it.

Kieft’s replacement, Peter Stuyvesant [STY-vuh-sunt], would serve as Director-General for the next seventeen years. Stuyvesant, the son of a minister, was only 35 when he arrived in the colony. A college dropout, Stuyvesant joined the West India Company as a young man and quickly rose through the ranks. He was named governor of the island of Curaçao in the Caribbean. While serving there he led an attack on another island, only to get hit by a cannonball and lose his leg in the fighting.

He returned to the Netherlands to recuperate, and while there the West India Company named him the director of New Netherland. Beyond his bravery, he also had a reputation as a strong leader and a solid administrator, so he was a natural choice for the position, despite his new peg leg.

When he arrived in New Amsterdam Stuyvesant faced the problem of what to do with the Eight Men. After all, in their appeal to Amsterdam they had been quite disobedient to the previous director, even treasonous. And the new director was certainly no fan of representative government. After a trial in which the colonists refused to back down, Stuyvesant sentenced a few of the ringleaders to banishment.

The Eight Men were thus disbanded, but in their place Stuyvesant created a new grouping of nine men, conveniently known as the Nine Men. Realistically, he had to give the colonists at least some input if he wanted to raise funds and keep things running smoothly. The way this worked was that the local burghers named eighteen men, and Stuyvesant and the council picked nine of those men to actually serve. This practice is sometimes known as “double nomination”. It was a way to balance popular control with central control. Both the people and the government had veto power over nominees.

Anyway, three of the nine men were to be merchants, three were burghers, and three were farmers. Six of the nine men would be replaced each year.

Like the Twelve Men and the Eight Men, the Nine Men had limited authority which they nevertheless exceeded. When Stuyvesant got word that the Nine Men were sending a new petition back to Amsterdam behind his back to undermine him, he had their leader Adriaen van der Donck, imprisoned for libel, though he was later freed. Afterwards, van der Donck returned to the Netherlands to argue his position, on behalf of the colonists. They had several demands, including the creation of a city government for New Amsterdam, which actually had less independence than the outlying towns did. Most importantly, they wished to be freed not just from Stuyvesant, but from the West India Company altogether. They wanted to be ruled directly by the Dutch government.

He arrived in the Netherlands in 1649, soon after the beheading of Charles I, as well as after the signing of the Peace of Westphalia, which ended both the 30 Years’ War in Germany and the 80 Years’ War between Spain and the Dutch Republic. Finally, Dutch independence was fully recognized. The treaties of Westphalia were also an important precedent in the idea of states as sovereign entities on an equal diplomatic footing, as opposed to the earlier system based around webs of feudal loyalties. Big changes were happening in Europe.

Anyway, the colonists presented their lengthy petition to the States-General, arguing that the Republic would be strengthened by the full annexation of New Netherland, which could in time hugely boost the income of the small Republic.

The ideas were actually favorably received, although the government didn’t go so far as to agree to annexation. They did, however, agree to some substantial changes, such as adding a number of elected men to the council. But thanks to delays within the Netherlands and the start of the First Anglo-Dutch War, which I’ll get to next episode, those proposals never went anywhere. The only real change was the creation of a city government for New Amsterdam, but there weren’t any elections even for that. Instead, officials choose their successors through a process of double nomination, much like with the Nine Men.

Overall, the Company was still in charge.

So that’s a brief summary of what the government of New Netherland was like. It may have been a bit confusing, since there were a lot of half-implemented ideas and whatnot, but let me give a brief summary to make sure everything’s clear.

New Netherland was ultimately in the hands of the West India Company, and it was the company which appointed the top officials in the colony, the director and the councilors, who had final authority within the colony itself. There were no elected assemblies, but there were occasional advisory bodies chosen from among the colonists, with few official powers. Towns weren’t self-governing, but they did have some say over the officials who were placed in charge of them. And throughout the second half of the colony’s existence, there was constant pressure for greater self-government.

The rule of the West India Company was always going to be an awkward fit once colonization took off. The Company was focused on profit, but the colonists themselves wanted good government, and those two interests didn’t necessarily go hand in hand. Things were rarely terrible, but the Company was seen as an impediment rather than an ally. The Company perennially underinvested in the colony. Teachers were scarce, and public buildings were shoddy. Even the fort was in a state of disrepair. Quite a contrast to New England, where the citizens were in direct control of public spending.

Just like how in the English colonies many would have preferred direct rule to the control of some proprietor, many in New Netherland would rather have been ruled by the Dutch government itself, or maybe even by themselves. We can see in New Netherland the same sort of mildly rebellious attitude that existed in the English colonies. Nobody was thinking about full independence, but the citizens did want to have a major say in how things were run, and the ability to veto policies they didn’t like.

It seems clear to me that sooner or later, changes would have been made as the colony grew and as demands for reforms increased. But because of the English takeover, all of that came to a premature end. Well, the pressure for self-rule would continue, but it was under an English flag, and not a Dutch one.

Next episode, we’ll both continue and end the story of New Netherland, by diving into its conquest by the English. So join me next time on Early and Often: The History of Elections in America.

If you like the podcast, please rate it on iTunes. You can also keep track of Early and Often on Twitter, at earlyoftenpod, or read transcripts of every episode at the blog, at earlyandoftenpodcast.wordpress.com. Thanks for listening.

Sources:

The Colonial Period of American History Volume III by Charles M. Andrews

History of Elections in the American Colonies by Cortlandt F. Bishop

New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America by Jaap Jacobs

The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America by Russell Shorto

The Dutch Republic in the early seventeenth century by J.P. Sommerville

American Nations by Colin Woodard

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ayalaatreides · 5 years ago

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The northern hemisphere kinda resembles the pink-striped lesbian flag, so my takeaway here is that lesbians rule the northern hemisphere, and I for one welcome our new lady-lovin’ overlords.

Average flag color by latitude

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arplis · 5 years ago

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Arplis - News: Hungry for Words Podcast: Vietnamese Chef Andrea Nguyen

Welcome to episode 2 of the Hungry for Words podcast starring best-selling author and chef Kathleen Flinn. In this episode, Kathleen talks to noted Vietnamese food writer, chef, and author Andrea Nguyen about everything from dumplings and pho to her dramatic escape from her home country in 1975 at the height of the war. Andrea is the author of several books, including the classic Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, Asian Tofu and Asian Dumplings, and The Pho Cookbook. Get more about Andrea - plus the recipe for the Rotisserie Chicken Pho - from the episode here on Hungry for Words. Below is a partial transcription of the podcast. Kathleen: Hello and welcome to "Hungry for Words, The Podcast," in which I talk to the most interesting people writing about the food, I make some of the recipes and then we talk about it, and you get to listen in. I'm your host, Kathleen Flinn. Today, I'll be talking to Andrea Nguyen, an award-winning author of numerous books on the cuisine of her homeland, including the classic, "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen." We'll talk about her latest book, "The Pho Cookbook" over steaming bowls of the noodle soup. We'll also talk about dumplings, tofu, and how her family dramatically escaped the war-torn country in 1975. This episode of "Hungry for Words" is sponsored by Wolf, encouraging you to reclaim your kitchen starting with one home-cooked family meal per week. Visit reclaimthekitchen.com for tips, techniques and recipes from Wolf cooking tools. And by our media partner, foodista.com. Join a passionate community of food lovers at foodista.com. And by our partner, Book Larder, Seattle's community cookbook bookstore. Learn more at booklarder.com. Tomorrow, I'm gonna interview Andrea, and I have her book, "The Pho Cookbook." Forever, I thought it was pho, I think it's still pronounced pho. And I have to say I've never actually attempted to make pho, but I am really excited about it. So I was looking through it and she has a whole bunch of different recipes. So she has the classic beef, classic chicken, and they look great, but they also look like they take four or five hours, which I don't really have. So then I was looking at her quick chicken pho, which sounded really good, but she said it was pho-ish, so it's not really pho. But then I'm flipping through and then I see something that she calls Pho Ga Quay, Rotisserie Chicken Pho, and I was like, "That has my name all over it." And I like this because, to me, I felt like it was sort of more real stock-ish because you take the actual chicken carcass, according to her recipe, you take it, you kind of break it up, and then you simmer it along with celery and apple and napa cabbage and carrot and cilantro. Now, I'm taking the star anise, cloves, some coriander seeds, and cinnamon, and then over medium heat, you toast the spices for several minutes. I'm now going to add some ginger and some onion. And then now, I'm gonna add in all the chicken and all the other stuff, and you let that simmer for about an hour, and then see how it goes. And now, I'm going to strain it. And I have to say, it smells pretty great. I'm going to put it aside till tomorrow. Hey, welcome to Seattle. Andrea: Thank you so much. And you know, I have to say, when I walked through you're door, I smelled this beautiful fragrance of pho, and I was so happy. Kathleen: I have to tell you, I started it last night, at like 9:00, and I wasn't done until about midnight. Because I had to go shopping, I just all of a sudden went, "Wait, she's coming tomorrow and I got to go get that stuff and figure out what I'm gonna make." But I picked the rotisserie chicken pho. Is it pho? Andrea: It's pho if you want to really impress a Vietnamese native speaker, but if you just say... Kathleen: Pho. Andrea: Yeah, pho, like you're asking a question. Kathleen: Kind of like how a Valley girl says it, like, "Pho?" Andrea: Yeah, like "I want some pho right now." Kathleen: Okay, I want some pho. Andrea: Yeah, yeah. Kathleen: All right. Well, this is, like, the most helpful pronunciation guide, I have to tell you. Andrea: Always add a question mark at the end of the word pho. Kathleen: Pho? Andrea: Yeah. Kathleen: All right. So other question I have to ask you is how you pronounce your last name. Andrea: It's pronounced Nguyen, like N-hyphen-W-I-N. Kathleen: "N-win." Andrea: You can always "Win" and it will always be like a win-win situation, I suppose. Kathleen: My husband and I were having this whole conversation about last night. And I thought, "Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna mispronounce your name. I'm gonna pho wrong." So here we go. So it's all good. Your other books are easier, there was tofu, I can say that. That's pretty clear. And dumplings, which are universal. Andrea: You know, pho is a new word for the American-English language dictionary. And so one of the problems is that we know we no longer have to put an accent mark on it, so it looks like pho. Kathleen: Yeah, that' true. Because if you walk around international district, they all have the, you know... Andrea: The diacritics. Kathleen: Yeah. Andrea: And those things look so funky, and there's like two of them on that letter O, and so I always tell people, like, in Vietnamese, when it's just P-H-O without any of funny little cookie dickies, you know, accent marks, that is pronounced pho, and once that you get a little side hook on the O, then that is pronounced pho. But then once that you have a little question mark above the O, it become pho. Kathleen: And pho is what we're talking about. Andrea: Correct. You know, pho is a word that is based upon a Chinese term for flat rice noodles, fun. I don't really believe that there is a precursor for, like, the other words for pho. It's just pho. It's almost like a word that Vietnamese people, they sort of...they adapted from Cantonese, or their pidgin version of Cantonese way back when pho originated in the early part of the 20th century. Kathleen: Interesting. In reading your book, you talked about that being the origin of pho, right, was in the early 20th century. Andrea: Yes, and there's a lot of murky mythology about the origin of pho. And so some people have, who allows it, "Oh my gosh, you know, it came from French pot-au-feu because look how pho sounds like feu, fire, in pot-au-feu." So the French were in Vietnam at that time as the colonial overlords of Vietnam. And they began slaughtering a lot of cattle. And the Vietnamese were using the cattle as draft animals, not as food. And all of sudden, there were these scraps sitting around. And there was a particular water buffalo noodle soup that was being served on the streets in and around Hanoi. So we're talking about the northern part of Vietnam, the northern part closest to the border with China. So this noodle soup made with water buffalo had like these little round rice noodles, like rice vermicelli. All of sudden, there were sales on beef. And people didn't have a taste for beef, but the sales were really good, because the butchers were like, "Hey, we got to get rid of these really like tough cuts of meat and bones." And the food vendors were like, "Oh, here's a business opportunity," and they started switching out the water buffalo for the beef. And then along the way, they were like, "This tastes better with flat rice noodles instead of..." So we're talking about noodles that look so, like, pad thai, or linguine shape. And so they made that switch and it became like this hit with a lot of working-class folks who were, like, working on the shipping, like merchant ships on the river there, in Northern Vietnam. And as Hanoi became more urbanized, the noodle spread throughout the city, and so it became this city thing, and it became a food vendor thing. So you can imagine, like, you know, the 21st century version would be like, I don't know, taco truck, you know, [inaudible 00:08:23] taco trucks gone wild. And here's like the noodle soup's like "Woo hoo!" Everybody goes crazy for it. And people from all different walks of life come to pho and have pho at the table, and they're eating it out on the street. Kathleen: And I bet it was probably inexpensive if they were making it, essentially, out of rice noodles and these super cheap cuts of beef. I have one question though. Where did the water buffalo come from beforehand? Andrea: They are also a primary draft animal in Vietnam and throughout Southeast Asia. They are placid animals that we love, and so like when you look at Vietnamese art, oftentimes, you'll see a little boy painted atop a water buffalo in the rice patty and everyone looks at that and everyone goes, "Oh, it's the water buffalo." And at certain times, you know, the water buffalo is harvested, but oftentimes, the water buffalo is just out in the field working. If you were to travel to Vietnam, you would still see in rural areas, sometimes, you know, water buffalo roaming. And they have a special place in our hearts. Kathleen: Let's try the pho that I made. I will say that I was kinda like, hmm, I'm kinda nervous because I'm making this for the first time and I'm cooking for an expert. Andrea: I love food that whoever cooks for me, and this smells really, really good. Kathleen: Oh, thanks. Andrea: I'm not gonna talk for that much, or I'm gonna talk with my mouth open. It's aerating things. Kathleen: It's aerating, I like that. Andrea: I think you did a bang-up job. Kathleen: Thank you. Andrea: Pho is about the noodle soup but it's also about the spices and it's about the experience and it's about the noodles. And I thought to myself, you know, how can I tell people about making, creating their own pho experience so the spice blend, the pho spice blend really allows me to do that. You know, it's got the star anise, and fennel, and coriander, and cinnamon, and clove, and black pepper. And I'll use it in lieu of five-spice. I will also mix it with salt and create like a rub for steaks. Kathleen: So let's talk about the whole condiment thing, because to me, this has always been part of the whole experience. You go and they bring you all the stuff and how are you supposed to eat it. And it's interesting, because earlier in the book, you said you guys didn't do that. You're much, much more purer. Andrea: It's because my parents were both born in Northern Vietnam. And their pho experience was one that was not born from bodacious Southern Vietnamese living. So they both migrated from Northern Vietnam to Southern Vietnam and settled in Saigon. And this is like the '50s and my father was a military governor and he went all over the provinces and stuff. So they were familiar with southern food, but there were certain things that they're very traditional about.

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/hungry-for-words-podcast-vietnamese-chef-andrea-nguyen

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takenews-blog1 · 7 years ago

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Right here’s how Vine alternative v2 will work

New Post has been published on https://takenews.net/right-heres-how-vine-alternative-v2-will-work/

Right here’s how Vine alternative v2 will work

First, don’t name it “Vine Two”. Particulars are beginning to emerge about v2, the forthcoming video app constructed to interchange Vine by its former co-founder Dom Hofmann. TechCrunch has realized that v2 has begun reaching out to former Viners and social media star managers in hopes of building ties with some high content material creators to get suggestions and gasoline the app’s eventual launch.

Twitter acquired Vine earlier than its launch in 2013 however by no means gave the short-form video sharing app the assist it deserved. Ultimately, going through financial struggles, Twitter opted to kill off Vine, leaving customers solely with an archive of outdated movies and a Vine Digital camera app for taking pictures however not sharing new movies. Instagram is targeted on images and longer clips as much as 60-seconds, so there’s nonetheless no viable dwelling for looking punchy 6.5 second movies.

Hofmann determined to step up, and since saying a plan to construct a Vine successor in November, has been slowly trickling out plans for v2 scattered by way of the corporate’s not too long ago launched group boards and on his Twitter. “Some issues will likely be very acquainted to individuals who have used vine, however what we’re planning is equally an homage, follow-up, remake, and model new factor” he writes.

Right here’s what it is advisable to find out about v2, in an inventory we’ll maintain updating as details floor within the run-up to the launch. We final up to date on 1/24 with monetization particulars.

“Please confer with the service solely as v2 or V2” says Hofmann, although he primarily makes use of the lower-case model. He explains that Twitter nonetheless owns Vine and it’s not technically related to v2, so mainly he’s seeking to keep away from being sued. Hofmann tweeted the emblem you see above, which at first look seems very related. However be aware the lighter inexperienced, how the letters are rounded, that they don’t join, and the dearth of a drop shadow. That could possibly be sufficient for v2 to flee trademark infringement, although it’d design one thing extra refined for the launch.

A block of the brilliant inexperienced is the present app icon, http://v2.co is the corporate’s web site that at the moment hosts the boards, and it has arrange the Twitter account @v2app however nothing of benefit has been tweeted. Nonetheless, Hofmann should tread fastidiously, as he in all probability doesn’t need to struggle Twitter in a authorized battle. Even when v2 doesn’t represent infringement, Hofmann’s acquisition and employment deal from Twitter would possibly nonetheless prohibit constructing a copycat.

There’s at the moment “no agency launch date” however Hofmann notes v2 will debut “undoubtedly in 2018, hopefully when it’s heat within the northern hemisphere, so that means a Q2 Spring or Q3 Summer time 2018 launch. The app is at the moment in a “very very very restricted alpha” testing stage, and there’ll finally be each an iOS and Android model. There’s at the moment no open beta or solution to reserve usernames, although Hofmann says that stuff would possibly occur by way of the boards so customers ought to get energetic there if they need first dibs.

Movies will vary from 2 to six.5 seconds, and easily loop time and again. They are often captured along with your cellphone or uploaded out of your digicam roll — allowing clips edited in different apps or skilled software program.

Hofmann says there will likely be no coloration filters, face filters, or geo filters, so that you received’t be capable to create completely manicured selfie movies, don canine ears, or spotlight the place you’re. Prototypes have proven movies captured in vertical full-screen, and customers will be capable to flip to and from selfie mode whereas recording. Not like Vine, v2 will likely be a bit stricter about copyrighted content material and take down movies that embody main document label music or film scene if it receives a DMCA discover. On the plus aspect, whether or not by way of elective watermarks or one other answer, v2 needs to forestall folks from stealing and reposting one another’s movies.

pic.twitter.com/dH8QIWuJIi

— dom hofmann (@dhof) January 18, 2018

In v2, “on the very least, there will likely be a chronological timeline” says Hofmann. Nonetheless, there’s more likely to be an algorithmically filtered feed or ‘Well-liked’/’Discover’ web page to point out you probably the most finest and most related posts as effectively. Hofmann tweeted the thought of including a “A ‘nope’ button that permits you to form your timeline”. Meaning relatively than simply exhibiting extra of what you Like or watch, v2 can steer away from movies or artists that annoy you.

v2 will take a stricter method to moderation than Vine. Hofmann writes “It’s okay to disagree with or be essential of somebody’s work, however identify calling, facetious attitudes, or some other type of oblique harassment received’t be tolerated.” That might give the app a extra constructive vibe, assist retain content material makers, and make it a extra welcoming place to share for folks of all backgrounds over age 13. In reality, v2 will provide the power to pick out your gender pronouns.

Vine’s outdated classes

You’ll be capable to disable feedback on a per-post foundation together with different controls. v2 will likely be considerably lenient about letting your showcase hyperlinks to your different art work or social presences, with Hofmann noting “spam is the primary situation, however I promise we’re going to be so much extra open on this than instagram/fb”. The group continues to be making a call about the place to attract the road on nudity, erotica, and offensive content material. Although Hofmann writes “i personally don’t have an issue with it”, he plans to make use of a mixture of workers moderation and group flagging to maintain the app clear.

And to stoke collaboration between content material creators that v2 calls “artists”, there’s a Workforce characteristic. “A Workforce’s profile web page will record its members, and the members have the power to advertise and repost Workforce posts to their very own timeline (even with alternate captions)” Hofmann explains. The collaboration conduct, the place artists seem in and promote one another’s movies, was popularized on Vine since movies took so little time to create and plenty of artists lived shut to one another in LA. The team-ups led to a few of the app’s most inventive content material, so v2 is hoping to facilitate co-starring.

One massive downside with the unique Vine was there was no means for creators to earn cash instantly from the app. They needed to work with outdoors sponsorship companies or transfer to different apps like YouTube that paid an advert income share. With v2, Hoffman writes “I would like everybody who needs to earn cash on v2 to have that chance. There are many concepts about learn how to finest deal with that, nevertheless it’s not but time to decide.” He additionally confirmed our scoop that he’s been reaching out to content material creators for suggestions and relationships, noting that “Proper now we’re in data gathering mode, and a part of which means speaking to folks. On the boards, on Twitter, on calls, and in individual.”

v2’s Dom Hofmann

Earlier than getting critical about v2, Hofmann was engaged on Interspace, which is making some mysterious and trippy 3D/VR/AR world factor. In response as to whether he’d abandon v2, this week he wrote that “I run one other startup which is actually my ‘day job’, so i’m fairly fulfilled on that entrance. v2 is being constructed out of affection and that i’d like for each the service and my involvement with it to stay on for a very long time.”

That additionally means retaining management, relatively than handing it off to company overlords for a fast pay-day. These excited for a revival of their favourite app will likely be heartened to know Hofmann says “there are not any plans to promote v2. By no means say by no means, nevertheless it’s nowhere near consideration proper now.”

Vine’s shutdown was met with a worldwide outpouring of assist and nostalgia. However the stars that made their names on Vine shortly moved on to YouTube and Instagram, and their audiences adopted. Influencers have grown extra savvy, with a give attention to viewers dimension and monetization the place YouTube guidelines, even regardless of current modifications.

Loads of former customers and smaller Vine stars that by no means made the leap elsewhere are longing for v2. However a social media expertise supervisor advised me they’d relatively see their purchasers add 1 million subscribers on YouTube or Instagram than 5 and even 10 million on v2, as a result of nobody needs to “begin from scratch” and “Instagram and YouTube are right here to remain.” A number of social content material execs advised me that it’s all about how v2 treats creators, and that was what Hofmann and his Vine co-founders have been by no means good at.

v2 might want to recruit nice content material that may’t be discovered elsewhere, stars who ship their followers, and loads of loyal customers to outlive. v2’s rivals are a lot stronger now than when Vine launched. Gaining traction on this social app panorama is like capturing lightning in a bottle, and Hofmann should make lightning strike twice.

The most effective factor about Vine was that there have been no information hyperlinks, few boring selfies, and many creativity. It was a spot to loosen up and be entertained with infinite comedy, artwork, absurdity, and micro-storytelling. In an age the place social media is getting a bit too critical and intense, v2 may carry the enjoyment again to taking part in round in your cellphone.

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arplis · 5 years ago

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Arplis - News: Hungry for Words Podcast: Vietnamese Chef Andrea Nguyen

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