#im not the biggest fan of the translation but its decent

[dumber-alek]

I was thinking about this poem by a Jewish-Polish poet written in the 1920s which horrifyingly sounds like it could be written today, or ten, or twenty years ago and it never stops being accurate:

Here's a translation by Marcel Wetland:

TO THE SIMPLE MAN

When every wall is hid by many

new posters freshly pasted up,

when ‘to the people’, ‘to the Army’,

in black print stare appeals alarming,

and any dolt, and any pup

will take for gospel each old lie

that one should go and shoot off guns

and murder, poison, rob, at once;

start drumming into all our noggins

the ‘Fatherland’; the mob incite,

bamboozle with bright-coloured slogans,

egg on with ‘Our historic right’,

‘every inch’, ‘glory’, ‘sacred borders’,

with ‘our forebears’, ‘pay the price’,

with ‘heroes’, ‘flag’ and ‘sacrifice’;

when bishop, pastor, rabbi come

to say a blessing on each gun,

for God has told them, that His will

is that for Country – you should kill;

when gutter tabloid screams and rages

in letters huge on its front pages,

and herds of females lose their voice

throwing bouquets at ‘our brave boys’,

– O, my untutored simple friend,

mate from this land, or other land!

Know that the bells for these alarums

kings strike, with girls with ample charms,

Know it’s all hogwash, lies perverted,

And when these call out: ‘Shoulder arms!’

That somewhere from the ground oil spurted,

With dollars soiling the bright colours;

That in their banks there’s something rotten,

They smelled some moneybags, it looks,

Or cooked some scheme, the oily crooks,

For higher import tax for cotton.

Drum on the pavement with your gun!

Ours the blood, the oil is theirs!

And through each capital and town

Scream out, to guard your cash blood-won:

‘Tell us another, noble sirs!’.

And the original polish under the cut

Gdy znów do murów klajstrem świeżym

przylepiać zaczną obwieszczenia,

gdy "do ludności", "do żołnierzy"

na alarm czarny druk uderzy

i byle drab, byle szczeniak

w odwieczne kłamstwo ich uwierzy,

że trzeba iść i z armat walić,

mordować, grabić, truć i palić;

gdy zaczną na tysięczną modłę

ojczyznę szarpać deklinacją

i łudzić kolorowym godłem,

i judzić "historyczną racją"

o piędzi, chwale i rubieży,

o ojcach, dziadach i sztandarach,

o bohaterach i ofiarach;

gdy wyjdzie biskup, pastor, rabin

pobłogosławić twój karabin,

bo mu sam Pan Bóg szepnął z nieba,

że za ojczyznę - bić się trzeba;

kiedy rozścierwi się, rozchami

wrzask liter z pierwszym stron dzienników,

a stado dziki bab kwiatami

obrzucać zacznie "żołnierzyków". -

- O, przyjacielu nieuczony,

mój bliźni z tej czy innej ziemi!

wiedz, że na trwogę biją dzwony

króle z panami brzuchatemi:

wiedz, że to buda, granda zwykła,

gdy ci wołają "Broń na ramię!",

że im gdzieś nafta z ziemi sikła

i obrodziła dolarami;

że coś im w bankach nie sztymuje,

że gdzieś zwęszyli kasy pełne

lub upatrzyły tłuste szuje

cło jakieś grubsze na bawełnę.

Rżnij karabinem w bruk ulicy!

Twoja jest krew, a ich jest nafta!

I od stolicy do stolicy

Zawołaj broniąc swej krwawicy:

"Bujać - to my, panowie szlachta!"

[luciferofthesouthpole]

My Shitty Anime Masterpost

alright so this is mostly just for myself and @twilight--fades bc i can never fucking remember what i’ve watched or what it was even abt in the first place and also to turn my best friend into a weeb. most of it’s yuri or has rlly gay subtext aside from a few.

just a disclaimer these are all my personal opinions and i’ve no doubt that i’ve given some of these shows ratings they don’t deserve. also a 10/10 rating for Gay means that it’s canon and has been explicitly established in the show. anything short of that means that it’s still considered subtext and not confirmed by either the show itself or the ppl who worked on it.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear (aka symphogay)

Senki Zesshou Symphogear (戦姫絶唱シンフォギア - translated as Superb Song of the Valkyries: Symphogear) is a sci-fi series about Gay Magical Girl Warriors who use Power Armor fueled by The Power of Rock to battle Eldritch Abominations (from r/symphogear).  that’s it. that’s the show.

Gay: 9/10  Personal rating: 11/10 (please i beg you all to watch this it’s amazing)

Kill la Kill

i honestly can’t even remember much abt this other than the fact that there’s a shit ton of fanservice and the animation/art is rlly good.  the story was decent although it’s confusing in the beginning.

Gay: just don’t   Personal Rating: 7/10

Little Witch Academia

super cute and heartwarming. animated by Trigger, like Kill la Kill, except this does like a 180 and has basically 0 fanservice. the first half is slice of life while the second half has much more drama and plot. all the girls are likeable and have very distinct personalities and i love them all.

Gay: 7/10 (mostly subtext but you don’t have to look too hard)   Personal Rating: 8/10

Love Live! School Idol Project

high school anime abt a group of girls who become idols to save their school from getting shut down. mostly slice of life, but there’s enough drama in there to keep the plot going.  good music and rlly pretty art. the concerts/songs are 3D animated, but its not too bad; just very noticeable. (can’t remember too much abt this since i binge watched it a while ago)

Gay: 5/10 (subtext but you rlly have to squint to see it)  Personal Rating: 7/10

Love Live! Sunshine!!

sequel spin-off to love live. the plot of the 1st season basically follows the original which is kinda boring, but it’s not bad enough to make you stop watching the show. i personally like the cast for sunshine more than the original, but that’s just me. the 3D animation improves a lot and i sometimes couldn’t tell btwn the two when i first started watching this. this has more slice of life in it with the plot being kind of a background thing, but stuff does still happen.

Gay: 7/10 (more obvious w/ this one but still subtext)  Personal Rating: 8/10

Konohana Kitan

gay fox spirits help run an inn, basically. p much all slice of life and while it may seem boring at first, the themes for the episodes are rlly heartwarming and will give you feels. art is rlly pretty and the characters are cute too.

Gay: 9.5/10   Personal Rating: 8.5/10

Sakura Trick

best friends turned lovers kind of thing. its a high school slice of life anime so don’t expect too much out of it. there’s quite a bit of kissing but all of it is rlly eroticized for some fucking reason???? so im just conflicted abt all of it. other than that i actually rlly like the art style.

Gay: 10/10   Personal Rating: 6/10

Yuru Yuri

slice of life but very fluffy and cute. i can’t remember too much abt this one but there were some p funny moments and definitely a lot of adorable ones. (yes this is the one where our personal disc server icon is from)

Gay: 8/10 (subtext but it’s fairly obvious)   Personal Rating: 7.5/10

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

meguca is suffering

Gay: 9.9/10  Personal Rating: 9.5/10

Strawberry Panic

this one is an oldy but still good.  it’s a high school anime with a lot of drama but all the gay in it is canon.  a little frustrating to watch bc you’re gonna spend the whole time yelling at your screen for the girls to just get together already.

Gay: 10/10   Personal Rating: 6.5/10 (i’m honestly not a fan of high school anime hence the low rating, but it’s still good; one of those yuri anime you watch to get into the genre since its very well done)

Kannazuki no Miko (Priestesses of the Godless Month)

(this isn’t cover art like what i’ve done w/ the other ones but this pic is way too iconic to not use)

oh boy this one. i have a love/hate relationship w/ this one bc on one hand its absolute garbage but on the other hand the ending completely makes up for it. like, this fits into the sun and moon trope perfectly and i’m weak for that shit. the pacing is p bad and you have a forcefully inserted boring male love interest cock-blocking my lesbians the whole time. but god that last fucking episode makes all the pain and suffering worth it because its SO. FUCKING. GAY.

Gay: 10/10   Personal Rating: 7/10 (i’m giving this a much higher rating than it deserves and it’s only bc of the last episode and the fact that it has my two favorite things: mecha and lesbians)

Akuma no Riddle

lesbian assassins. that’s it.

Gay: 9.5/10 (canon in the manga but the subtext is obvious in the anime)  Personal Rating: 7.5/10 (Note: i went back and skimmed through the manga ending bc when i initially started reading it, the last volume hadn’t been released yet. that said, i recommend watching the anime then reading the manga if you want even more gay bc it is canon and way more explicit abt it in the manga.)

Candy Boy

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Gay: 10/10   Personal Rating: no

Citrus

i know this hasn’t come out yet, but i’m caught up in the manga. the art is very good, both in the manga and from what i’ve seen in the anime PV’s. high school drama but it’s actually not bad (also they’re step-sisters so it’s some weird pseudo incest thing   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) 

Gay: 10/10   Personal Rating: for the manga - 8/10 (i’ll update/change this when the anime comes out and finishes its season)

Princess Principal

lesbian spies in victorian london. i love the aesthetic of this anime but it’s one downside is a lack of a solid plot. it’s very vague for most of it except for the last few episodes. characters are likeable and interesting with diverse backstories. this one does get a dark at times and pulls in a lot of real world issues. (note: the episodes are not in chronological order so things may seem confusing at first and you’ll have a bunch of questions, but everything p much gets answered at one point. i recommend watching the episodes in release order and then in chronological order so you get fully acquainted to everything initially then are able to pick up on anything you missed the first time.)

Gay: 8.5/10   Personal Rating: 8/10

Izetta: The Last Witch 

just look at the cover it’s already gay. in a nutshell, gay witch helps her princess gf win a war by using her op magic. this is more of an action/war anime but the gay is very prominent and one of the main focuses of the show. the story wasn’t too bad and falls on a few cliches; nothing too bad and interesting enough to keep you watching.

Gay: 9/10   Personal Rating: 7/10

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

yeah let’s just ignore the title. slice of life w/ some comedy. there’s not much to it, but it’s a nice fluffy anime to watch. this was actually better than i thought it’d be and way more gay than what i expected, too. (just a warning: there is a shit ton of fanservice in this one and some weird ass loli and maid stuff so watch at your own risk)

Gay: 9.5/10 (it’s glaringly obvious and p in your face but idk if it’s actually canon) Personal Rating: 7.5/10

Katana Maidens ~ Toji no Miko 

this one honestly surprised me (in a good way); i thought it would be one of those anime that had a creative concept at the start but ends up disappointing bc of bad writing but this wasn’t the case for toji no miko. there’s nothing amazing about this, but it’s a p good anime to watch if you want some action. (note: one problem i have w/ this is that there are so many characters in this that it’s hard to keep track of all of them) (note 2: this is a 2 cour anime so i may or may not change my rating when it ends)

Gay: 7.5 (literally every character in this show is female except for some one’s grandpa so there’s a shit ton of shipping material) Personal Rating: 8/10

Yuru Camp△

one word: comfy slice of life anime abt winter camping. this anime is one of the most relaxing things i have ever watched and never failed to brighten up my day. good music, good humor, and a cute cast of characters.

Gay: 6.5/10   Personal Rating: yuru camp cured my depression, cleared my skin, and actually made me want to leave my room for once 10/10

Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru (Yuki Yuna Is a Hero)

meguca is suffering 2.0 this is honestly a very good successor the pmmm and i highly recommend it if you hate yourself enough to endure all the pain again. (note: watch the original show, the prequel, then the 2nd season in that order)

Gay: 9/10 (was originally 8/10 but Togo exists and she is one of the biggest lesbian ever) Personal Rating: 9/10

and w/ that, i’m done w/ all the “yuri” anime (subtext or actual canon). the rest of these are from all kinds of genres and basically anything i’ve actually really enjoyed and recommend to anyone regardless of what they prefer to watch.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

kind of a classic and an anime a lot of ppl first watch when getting into anime. its a mecha anime thats all 2D/hand animated so that’s already a huge plus for me. there’s quite a bit of fanservice, unfortunately. from what i remember the plot was p solid and complex. def one of my favorite anime of all time.

Personal Rating: 9/10

Steins;Gate

this is rlly good but also rlly depressing. it starts of fairly slow (mostly the 1st half), but when it picks up, shit goes down.

Personal Rating: 8.5/10

Houseki no Kuni (Land of the Lustrous)

ok, so this is actually all 3D/CG animated, BUT it pulls it off amazingly well. this is how you 3D animate an anime. the environment and characters look absolutely stunning and the animation is actually fluid and very good. the plot is a little vague and just goes in a general direction, but shit happens to constantly keep you on the edge of your seat. characters are likeable and have a wide range of personalities.

Personal Rating: 9/10

The Ancient Magus’ Bride ( Mahoutsukai no Yome)

everything about this anime is amazing: the art, the animation, the characters, the story.  i honestly have nothing bad to say about this one. definitely a must watch for everyone. it’s kinda fucked up, but still amazing and you rlly feel for the characters. unfortunately, the 1st cour is a lot stronger than the 2nd one in terms of writing and starts to fall flat and a little frustrating to watch. aside from that, it would have been a perfect 10 for me.

Personal Rating: 9/10 

Made in Abyss

the world-building and environments in this anime are fantastic and i love it. the art is gorgeous and the animation is very fluid. warning: don’t let the cover fool you, this gets p fucked up later on. the majority of the cast are children so there’s some perverted jokes abt them that try to come off as comedic relief but it’s only just uncomfortable for everyone.

Personal Rating: 9.5/10

Pop Team Epic

this anime is literally just one giant fucking meme

Personal Rating: i honestly don’t even know anymore

Girls’ Last Tour

kind of slice of life abt two girls who are exploring the post-apocalyptic world they live in. very atmospheric anime that always gives a bittersweet feeling. there isn’t much of a plot bc it focuses a lot on, i guess, mundane everyday things but through a unique perspective. definitely gives you something to think abt.

Personal Rating: 8/10

Violet Evergarden

an absolutely beautiful anime. art is gorgeous and the animation is one of the most fluid things i have ever watched. this is fairly depressing and each episode will make you cry. the main character is so well written and character development for her is A+.

Personal Rating: 9.5/10

this is what i have so far and i’ll most likely add things when i end up remembering them and watching more

New anime (Spring 2018): i’m gonna put any new anime that has caught my eye in the current anime season, mostly so i can keep track of what i’m watching and determine if they should be added to the list once they’ve finished airing. i won’t put any ratings or cover; it’s just a list for the sake of organization.

toji no miko darling in the franxx uma masume: pretty derby (horse girl anime) megalo box mahou shoujo site Saredo Tsumibito wa Ryuu to Odoru gundam build divers tachibanakan triangle steins;gate 0

[earpanel]

LEADERBRIEF: Gaana CEO Prashan Agarwal on growing from 60 mn to 100 mn, and the road ahead

Gaana’s mantra for the future, says CEO Prashan Agarwal, is great content plus a seamless UI for the Indian user who doesn't want to put in too much effort to discover the songs, and a strong focus on regional content An IIT graduate and a Dean’s Merit lister from ISB Hyderabad, Prashan Agarwal, CEO – Gaana, brings enormous experience to his current role. From a Senior Associate Technology at Sapient to IM Leader at GE, from a VP at Naukri to Founding Director at AllCheckDeals.com, Co Founder at PropTiger and 19miles.com to his current role of CEO at Gaana, Prashan Agarwal has been leading Gaana with the acumen of an accomplished business leader, Entrepreneur and Angel Investor for more than three years now. Karthik P K caught up with Agarwal on the sidelines of the launch of VYRL Cover Star by VYRL Originals and Gaana.com in Mumbai, to speak about the opportunities and priorities of music streaming platforms and how they are moving ahead to widen the spread of their content genres.  And of the phenomenal growth of Gaana over the past year from 60 million to 100 million users, plus its ongoing mission to create a platform which is personalized to the user and creates room for regional music to get its due. Read on Does Gaana have a library of content from private bands and performers? If so, what is that number? How do they help Gaana’s offerings? Well, We only work with labels, so we do have a lot of songs from private bands that come to us through a platform called ‘Okay Listen’ and other smaller platforms that are there in the country, and that is distributed through Orchard. These kinds of songs have a very niche audience they appeal to, and so we see a decent amount of traction on these songs. The usage is very high, but the number of customers who listen to these songs is limited as of today. How popular is this genre of music on Gaana? The popularity of private bands would be in low single-digit percent as of today. Because if you look at the country, there's a lot of evolution that has happened in regional music, English music. And then, of course, Bollywood music continues to grow. But what we've seen is the emergence of regional music and English music. Now, the band phenomenon continues to be a niche Indie music scene, if I may call it that. What is working out today, if you look at from a mainstream perspective, is hip hop to a certain extent. Gaana will help these promising private artistes by making their content available to its millions of users. Any other way you plan to help them? Will you actively promote this private content on the home page push notifications of Gaana on mobile and the web? When you talk about private bands, you talk about non-film music, which is pretty much the same genre. What is happening with non-film music is that with VYRL coming into play and us also doing bits and pieces in terms of promoting non-film music, we absolutely want to give the same kind of distribution to non-film music as a mainstream artist. So if you look at a band, the guys behind that band have now completely started showing up on the homepage as well. Secondly, we are also working on creating absolutely new offering for Indie music, which will focus on private offerings from smaller artists and  bands and basically open up the entire funnel -- much like what SoundCloud has done in terms of creating a platform where people can come and through some basic curation can upload their songs;  and if that song appeals to my customers, than definitely they'll make it to the showcase on the Indie music page. After the fan following grows to a certain threshold, we will be looking at the homepage offering for them. But essentially, if you are a local band and you are able to get a label to back you like VYRL, then definitely there are a lot more chances for you to make it to the homepage. After the fan following of an Indie act grows to a certain threshold, Gaana will be looking at the homepage offering for them. But essentially, if you are a local band and you are able to get a label like VYRL to back you, then definitely there are a lot more chances for you to make it to the (Gaana) homepage How has Gaana been faring so far? We are the market leaders in the music streaming space, we have now 100 million monthly users. The entire country today has about 150 million customers who stream music online. Broadly, if I look at the market, the entire Indian population -- which is  1.4 billion customers -- listens to music. All of us love antakshari, all of us know about 200 songs each. So from that perspective, there is still a huge amount of potential in the market. Over the next few years the market will grow phenomenally from this 150 million; it will grow to about 400 million customers, and we will continue to be the market leaders given the kind of focus that we have on regional music, the kind of brand salience and brand recall that we have amongst the Indian customers. We are definitely the first port of call when it comes to music streaming for the Indian customer. FM Radio is trying to maximize its existing content by taking conversations online, as with Red FM Digital Radio, which has done this very smartly. And Saavn has been putting up interesting podcasts like Bhai Ke Raapchik Reviews by Kirthi Shetty, who is an exceptional talent – he was the voice and producer of Mawaali Bhai on RED FM -- for example. Both pipes of music delivery are expanding their content framework. Would you comment on this? What is Gaana doing in this space? Radio Mirchi is exclusive to Gaana, so we have all the Radio Mirchi stations and programs on Gaana for the last 5 years. We have been promoting radio content much like other platforms. Radio Mirchi continues to be a big draw for a lot of our customers, Meethi Mirchi is one of the strongest programs that we have on the platform today. I do not differentiate between radio programs and podcasts. When I look at the Indian customer, he doesn't even understand what a podcast is. So for me, radio is podcast and that is the basic premise on which we are building our entire radio offering on the app. So, the radio pages today don’t just have Radio Mirchi, now we have programs like Comedy Nights with Kapil. We have a lot of programs that we are doing in terms of storytelling, with Ashish Vidyarthi. Our focus has been to bring more and more Indian radio audio content on the radio tab of Gaana and we have seen a decent amount of success. We don't call it a podcast; that's the only difference. For me, radio is podcast and that is the basic premise on which we are building our entire radio offering on the app. So, the radio pages today don’t just have Radio Mirchi; now we have programs like Comedy Nights with Kapil. We have a lot of programs that we are doing in terms of storytelling, with Ashish Vidyarthi What would help music streaming platforms like Gaana and Saavn perform better? These have created the category for the Amazon Primes and the YouTube Musics to move in, and soon other streaming platforms too will enter India. How do you see the streaming and FM Radio players evolving their offerings? The biggest thing is content. When we look at the way live streaming is kind of shaping up, most of the people are now coming online to listen to music. Given Gaana’s brand presence, we have been fortunate that people come to us as the first port of call. It is our job and duty to make sure the kind of content that we offering to the customer is absolutely top-notch, and that's why we have invested not just in Hindi music but in regional music, English music, and now non-film music, podcasts, radio programs… we are doing a lot of  meditation and devotional programs too…  all that will be part of our Radio Podcast offering. So the idea is to create more and more diverse content for the Indian consumer as he comes online, and to make the entire process of consumption easy through voice search, through a lot of interventions on the app where you can see the entire app translated into 12 languages, a voice-led recommendation approach where you mention just one song and you can lean back and listen to 15 songs on the platform. So the idea is to have the best content and then create a seamless experience for the Indian user who doesn't want to do much effort to discover the songs. The idea is to create more and more diverse content for the Indian consumer as he comes online, and to make the entire process of consumption easy through voice search and interventions on the app in 12 languages, a voice-led recommendation approach where you mention just one song and you can listen to 15 songs on the platform. Have the best content and then create a seamless experience for the Indian user who doesn't want to put in too much effort to discover the songs Gaana already has close to half its user base in the 15-25 age group, and you’re reportedly targeting a 600 million user base by end-2022. But looking back, what have been the best accomplishments of Gaana  in the last 12 months? The 100 million is a big, big milestone for us as we've grown almost from 60 million last year to 100 million as we close the year, and that is a big milestone because I think the way music streaming is catching up in the country, pretty much the entire population will be online in the next five years. That is the biggest achievement because we are not just growing, but are building a new category altogether in the music space. What future plans are you most excited about? The biggest thing that we are excited about is kind of creating more and more content for the customer, and that essentially is through backing the regional music. I think India is a diverse country, there's a lot of music to be explored. We are doing a lot of work, which will come to the fore this year. Because of what we did with Punjabi music in the last few years, today, Punjabi music is almost as big as English music on my platform, and it used to be half of English music; perhaps lower than that. So the idea is that I bring the same level of competence on Tamil, Telugu, Hariyanvi, Bhojpuri… because that's what the customer wants to listen to, because nothing is as close to your heart as the song in the language of the place where you were born, you're brought up, you have so many memories that are attached to those kinds of songs. So, create a platform which is personalized to the user and creates room for regional music to get its due. Read the full article