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themusicenthusiast · 7 years ago

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Album Review: ‘Erase Me’ by Underøath

Metalcore. Post-hardcore. Whatever you want to label Underoath, there’s no denying that they rose through the ranks of the genre(s) they fit in to become a definitive voice of it, helping establish a gold standard for it and being inimitable in the process. Their breakup was inevitable, just as it is for any band – certain to happen sooner or later. The same could be said of the reunion tour that brought them back to the stage throughout 2016 and 2017. But just what kind of implications would the Rebirth Tour have? Was it simply a way for Spencer Chamberlain, Aaron Gillespie, Tim McTague, Chris Dudley, Grant Brandell, and James Smith to reunite and savor the past one last time before laying Underoath to rest for good? Or would that word “rebirth” become more symbolic than any fan would dare hope for? After all, with now eight years having passed since their last album, new music from the acclaimed group seemed destined to be nothing more than wishful thinking. And then came the announcement of Erase Me.

Set for release on April 6th (and out via Fearless Records), it will be the boldest collection of songs to date from Underoath, who abandoned their former way of thinking when it came to penning this new music. “That’s not Underoath enough,” Chamberlain has been quoted as saying, that being their previous criteria when crafting music. Unshackled by it, they have become free to let the music take them where it may instead of working to achieve one specific sound. That has allowed the six-piece outfit to grow and expand as both individuals and a collective. The result may be surprising to some longtime fans, and others may be unreceptive to it all together. However, even if the mindsets have evolved and the styles have progressed, the eleven new songs that comprise Erase Me aren’t a complete departure from Underoath’s roots. That’s demonstrated with the lead track, “It Has To Start Somewhere”. Some melodic chords to get it underway, it quickly hits the ground running. “If my tongue is the blade, then your hand is the gun. One of us ain’t going home tonight!” Spencer Chamberlain loudly proclaims, making it sound like a threat, his voice complementing that intro as he clearly enunciates the words. Nothing on Erase Me may be the same type of heavy as stuff from Underoath’s past, though they compensate for that with a newfound sense of intensity and urgency, that first track thrusting the listener right in the midst of the beautiful and elegant chaos. Chamberlain frequently taps into his heavier abilities as a vocalist, guttural screams punctuating the desperate cries that are the choruses. The percussion is the clear driving force behind “It Has To Start Somewhere”, Gillespie’s drumming being merciless and adding immensely to the ferocity of the track. A full throttle song that has a no-holds-barred approach, lyrically it establishes a thread that will be a common one for the duration of the album. They haven’t changed their approach to writing songs in that regard, this one hinting at a lack of self-worth while also alluding to subjects like substance abuse and dependency and the desire to be something more than what you currently are. The two singles released in advance of Erase Me come in rapid succession, as Underoath hastily works to fully captivate the listener. It works, “Rapture” standing not just as one of the strongest tracks on the record, but one of the best of the band’s career. If any song is deserving of representing this new era, it is that one. It marks a foray more into hard rock or alt-metal territory, the group excelling at it. Dudley’s work on the keys is more prominent on the riff-centric number that features a gorgeous lull and an impassioned delivery from Chamberlain as they continue to delve into a toxic relationship. Be it with or person or personifying a substance. By the time the third song, “On My Teeth”, is finished, Underoath has the listener hook, line and sinker. No matter how many times fans may have already listened to what was the lead single, in the context of the full album it’s presented in a different light. After the previous songs, it strikes one as being more vehement and aggressive than ever, proving that Chamberlain, Gillespie, McTague, Dudley, Brandell, and Smith are still in touch with their brash side. It’s stunning, the way the guitars, bass, drums and keys coalesce, such as how the heaviest beats are timed perfectly with the loudest of the vicious screams, enhancing the overall impact. In absolute control and evoking their earlier years, the six of them demonstrate pure mastery over the heavy and devastating track that is tinged with metalcore elements, making it the most blistering song that Erase Me has to offer. An unflinching and self-reflective look at the creature a person has become, “ihateit” is easily the most personal and emotional song found on Erase Me. It’s abounding with phenomenal lines, like the regret-filled “…Somehow, I fell back into habits that tear me apart. I never got to say I’m sorry…” or the chorus, “You’re the only thing that gets me high and I hate it!” and the second verse, “I’m tangled up in my own image, but I hate who’s staring back at me,” both of which are drenched in self-loathing. Chamberlain very much sounds like a person who despises what they are, going on to admit being a user of not just things but people, disgusted by those personal actions. It ebbs and flows spectacularly, building from something serene that is behooving of the self-reflective nature of the track to a monstrous piece, the seething anger seeping through at every turn, symbolic of self-hatred that is being experienced. “ihateit” is a shining example of how powerful a song can be when everything is done in a full concerted manner. The lyrics and the music work in perfect harmony with one another, the vocalist working overtime to ensure every nuanced emotion is articulately expressed. In this instance that results in a grand scope for a song whose magnitude is off the charts. Fans may perceive other songs as being different, though the only truly offbeat one is “No Frame”. It’s a venture into, of all things, electronica, hints of rock eventually being worked into it. Ambient and dystopian, it is, without question, uncharted territory for Underoath. Heavy on the keys and with some synthesizers brought into the mix, it is totally experimental by their standards. Surprisingly, as out of their realm as it may be, they pull it off magnificently. Another song with an immaculate flow, the guitars, drums and bass are slowly layered atop everything, culminating in an epic counterbalance to the otherwise atmospheric tone and at times effects-laden, soupy vocals. One could view “No Frame” as being outside of Underoath’s wheelhouse, as it is. It could also be viewed as them expanding their wheelhouse and exploring some intriguing and profound new depths that further revitalize them. Plenty of other excellent offerings also adorn Erase Me, further fleshing out the story that helps tie everything together, ultimately reaching a thrilling conclusion; the album as a whole having somewhat of a cinematic flare to it. It may not be as overt as some artists make it, but it’s present, every song in one way or another circling back to that theme of dependency, concluding with a track that admits the ways a person has failed themselves and those that care for them, asking for a hand in helping them on the road to recovery. That’s one of the most engrossing components of Erase Me. There’s a larger story driving everything, one that the musicians are wholly invested in and one that is apt to resonate with a lot of people. Perhaps not every song, but many are certain to connect with one or two on a personal level. Now, that’s not meant to undercut what the six of them have accomplished in the musical realm with Erase Me, either. This is Underoath making an attempt at longevity. Their legacy always will be intact or would have been had a reunion not been in the cards. Despite what the title may suggest, Erase Me isn’t trying to negate that at all. Rather, it’s more about starting anew. Getting a blank slate so that embarking on a different path is easier. Something that’s applicable to a life journey every bit as much as it is a musical one. Erase Me is the product of a mature and refined Underoath, but honestly, it isn’t as radically different as some may consider it to be. The band has been perpetually evolving since day one, every album bringing something new to the table. The only thing different now is that they’ve embraced the maturity that comes with age and allowed that to be reflected in their music, no longer chasing after one specific sound. But don’t think for a minute that they have sacrificed their edge because of that. This record has it all. It’s daring and dangerous. Violent yet serene. Mournful and angry. It incorporates some fantastic lulls that add to the enormity of the emotions that are woven together throughout it. There is some familiarity to the music, segments being a bit radio friendly, yet it all still sounds new and different. It’s also worth noting that Erase Me is practically a complete separation (for the band as a unit) from the faith that was so crucial to them early on. Nevertheless, several of the songs could still be construed as having some subtle Christian undertones. The beautiful thing about that is that it’s left completely up to the listener to discern. If you want to read into it in that way, that’s fine. It’s also just as easy to listen to the songs and not even be aware of such possible connotation. In the end, Erase Me is Underoath s biggest move to date. Chamberlain, Gillespie, McTague, Dudley, Brandell, and Smith boldly blaze new paths while still honoring the evolutionary steps that got them to where they are. The excitement generated from that creative revival shows, the band carrying themselves with a more determined and energetic spirit than ever on what isn’t just a definitive record but a crowning achievement of an already stellar career. From front to back this album in an enthralling listening experience without a single weak spot to be pinpointed. And as varied as it may be, no track sounding quite the same, it’s remarkably cohesive. There’s something to be found on it that will satisfy old fans, along with some material that’s sure to win over new listeners. Just give Erase Me a few listens and this latest step in Underoath’s career is sure to charm you. Pre-order Erase Me on: iTunes | Google Play | Amazon MP3 Visit Underoath’s websites: Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter Current Shows: 2018 April 20--Downtown Las Vegas Events Center--Las Vegas, NV 27--Metropolitan Park--Jacksonville, FL 28--Markham Park--Sunrise, FL 30--Iron City Bham--Birmingham, AL May 1--Georgia Theatre--Athens, GA 3--The Mill & Mine--Knoxville, TN 4--Rock City Campgrounds at Charlotte Motor Speedway--Charlotte, NC 5--Phase 2 Dining & Entertainment--Lynchburg, VA 6--Sands Bethlehem Event Center--Bethlehem, PA 8--Rams Head Live--Baltimore, MD 9--The Dome at Oakdale--Wallingford, CT 11--Fete Music Hall--Providence, RI 12--The Rapids Theatre--Niagara Falls, NY 14--Wooly's Des--Moines, IA 15--Pop's NightClub & Concert Venue--Sauget, IL 16--Piere's Entertainment Center--Fort Wayne, IN 18--MAPFRE Stadium--Columbus, OH 19--Manchester Music Hall--Lexington, KY 20--Gillioz Theatre--Springfield, MO 22--Concrete Street Amphitheater--Corpus Christi, TX 23--White Oak Music Hall--Houston, TX 24--Bomb Factory--Dallas, TX 25--iHeartMedia Metroplex--Little Rock, AR 26—Rocklahoma--Pryor, OK June 2--Kansas Speedway--Kansas City, MO 15--BA217--Paris, France 16—Melkweg--Amsterdam, Netherlands 18--Kulturzentrum Schlachthof--Wiesbaden, Germany 19--Zona Roveri Music Factory--Bologna, Italy 20--Magazzini Generali--Milan, Italy 22—Eichenring--Scheessel, Germany 22--Take-Off Park--Neuhausen Ob Eck, Germany 23—Stenehei--Dessel, Belgium 24--Take-Off Park--Neuhausen Ob Eck, Germany 24—Eichenring--Scheessel, Germany 26--Dürer Kert--Budapest, Hungary 28--Panenský Týnec--Prague, Czech Republic 29--Caja Magica--Madrid, Spain 30--Agrobaan 15--Ysselsteyn, Netherlands July 12--Country Fest--Cadott, WI 13—Oshkosh--Oshkosh, WI 14--Country Fest--Cadott, WI 16--KeyBank Pavilion--Burgettstown, PA 17--Budweiser Stage--Toronto, Canada 18--Blossom Music Center--Cuyahoga Falls, OH 28--Parc Jean-Drapeau--Montréal, Canada 29--Darling's Waterfront Pavilion--Bangor, ME August 24--Little John's Farm--Reading, United Kingdom 25--Bramham Park--Leeds, United Kingdom

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goldeagleprice · 7 years ago

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‘Sensational’ discoveries in Knight sale

By Peter Huntoon

Lyn Knight will be offering two sensational national bank note discoveries that just came in from the cold in the upcoming PCDA auction held in conjunction with the PCDA National Currency & Coin Convention from March 1-3 in Rosemont, Ill.

These notes were so fresh, they weren’t in holders when I got a look at them.

This $10 brown back discovery note on The Cochecho National Bank of Dover gives us at least one reported note from 77 of the 79 issuing banks in New Hampshire.

Cochecho National

The $10 brown back on The Cochecho National Bank of Dover, New Hampshire, is the discovery note for the bank, which was chartered April 29, 1865, and placed in receivership June 6, 1899, for fraudulent management in the form of excessive loans to its officers, directors and others.

By the time the receivership was closed on Sept. 30, 1901, the depositors had recouped all their money and no assessments had been levied against the shareholders so things were not as dire as they seemed two years earlier.

The bank had a modest circulation of $33,750 when it closed in 1899. Normal attrition of notes in circulation tended to be devastating, so it is no wonder that no notes had been reported from the bank until this find.

Adding to normal attrition through wear and tear, receiverships were bad news for the survival of notes because the National Bank Note Redemption Agency in the Treasurer’s office preferentially scavenged them from circulation as notes passed through that agency.

The note has everything going for it – acceptable grade for a rarity, excellent centering, strong penned signatures of president Jas. E. Lothrop and cashier Harrison Haley, and especially a great bank name. No one has been foolish enough to have doctored it either.

Cochecho is the original Colonial name applied to Dover; specifically, Cochecho Plantation in 1623. The plantation was purchased by English Puritans in 1633 and received many immigrants from Bristol, so they in turn renamed the place Bristol. According to Wikipedia, when the town was incorporated in 1637, it was renamed Dover by new governor Reverend George Burdett, possibly after a Robert Dover, an English lawyer who resisted Puritanism. There has to be a good story there!

The name Cochecho is a Native American word that is supposed to mean “rapid foaming water,” which refers to the waterfall in downtown Dover. The name was applied to the entire river. The river is tidal below the falls at Dover. From there, it flows southeastward where it joins the Salmon Falls River at the Maine border to form the Piscataqua River.

The Cochecho Falls provided hydropower to run a major textile mill that originated there in 1812. In time, huge brick factories dotted the downtown with one behemoth built right across the river immediately downstream of the falls. The mills closed in 1937.

Out of the 79 issuing banks in New Hampshire, only two remain with no unreported notes. Whenever such a note like this Dover is discovered, it is big news for collectors of that state.

Sensational first reported $5 1902 date back from the Territory of Arizona.

Globe, Arizona Territory

The $5 1902 date back just discovered from The Globe National Bank is huge news because it is the very first $5 1902 date back territorial reported from the Territory of Arizona.

Of the 27 issuing banks in Arizona, of which 18 issued territorials, only two issued territorial 1902 date back $5s. The First National Bank of Douglas used 2,583 sheets of them, whereas The Globe National got only 538 sheets.

Any time an Arizona territorial is discovered, it is news. This Globe is the 45th to arrive out of 365,494 that were issued, yielding a survival rate of 1 per 8,122 issued. Arizona territorials are under-represented in the grand scheme of things because the survival rate for all territorials now stands at 1 per 5,162 issued. Conditions were rough on notes in that territory.

Only one other note is reported from The Globe National Bank, a $20 red seal that I used to own that is higher grade but with fairly weak but readable blue rubber-stamped signatures. I like the strong stamped signatures on this $5 a lot better.

The Globe bank was a short-lived affair that lasted four years with a modest circulation of $50,000. It was organized April 12, 1906, chartered April 25, 1906, and liquidated Jan. 11, 1910, when it was merged with The First National Bank of Globe.

However, that is not the full story for the bank. Globe is a major copper mining town and the economy there took a significant hit during the Panic of 1907. The panic was triggered by a failed attempt in October by speculators to corner the market on the stock of the United Copper Company – not a Globe firm. This brought down the Knickerbocker Trust Company, New York’s third largest trust, and the price of copper fell through the floor. The contagion spread across the economy and country wherein the stock market fell 50 percent from the previous year high, liquidity vanished and banks across the country failed right and left.

Both the First National Bank of Globe and Globe National Bank suspended in the face of runs, the Globe National on Nov. 4, 1907, and First National on Nov. 21. Their fundamentals were sound, so both were restored to solvency. The larger and older First National was the first to stagger back to its feet on Feb. 29, 1908, followed by the Globe National on May 23.

There were five banks in Globe, which included three state banks. That was a bit too many for the times. The officers of the younger Globe National sold out to the First National in 1910. That liquidation came two years into the date back era, so it cut short the 1902 date back issues from the bank, thereby accounting for an issuance of only 538 5-5-5-5 and 400 10-10-10-20 sheets of them.

Abijah G. Smith, signer of the Globe $5, as he looked in 1922, 12 years after the $5 note was sent to the bank from the Comptroller of the Currency’s office on Dec. 20, 1909.

The signers on the $5 are Patrick Rose, president, and Abijah G. Smith, cashier. I know nothing about Rose, who was late to that position at the bank, other than he is listed as a vice president of the bank in the July 1908 Bankers Register.

The founder of the bank and chief operations officer was Smith, who cut a wide swath through early Arizona banking. He came to Arizona in 1899 and was the architect and one of the principle organizers of The Gila Valley Bank, which eventually became The Valley National Bank of Phoenix (charter 14324). The Valley National Bank of Phoenix became the largest bank in Arizona, which gobbled up most of the surviving former note-issuing banks in the state after the close of the national bank note era.

Smith resigned from the Gila Valley Bank in 1906 to organize the Globe National. Later, he bought The First National Bank of Tombstone and served as its president before selling it to the Cochise County State Bank in 1926.

1902 Date Back Rarity

The date back era in national bank notes as defined by the Aldrich-Vreeland Act, which authorized the notes, ran from mid-1908 through mid-1915. For Arizona, the era was split in two by statehood on Feb. 14, 1912. A total of 104,284 1902 date back territorials was issued as contrasted to 144,840 state notes.

Survivors are decidedly scarce with 11 territorials and 10 state notes reported. Out of these 21 survivors, there is only one each of the territorial and state $5s! The $5 state note happens to be from The Prescott National Bank and as such was one of my most prized Arizona notes even though it graded G-VG.

The fact is, date back national bank notes are significantly under-appreciated by virtually every National Bank Note collector. This is especially true when it comes to the Series of 1902 date backs because they look so much like their common plain back successors.

The survival rate for all the 1902 date backs from Arizona currently stands at 1 for every 11,863 issued, whereas the survival rate for the 1902 plain backs stands at 1 for every 3,351 issued. This is a huge disparity and it holds across the country.

The elephant in the room was the normal turnover of the notes in circulation. The reality is that the entire circulation of the typical bank turned over about every three years. This means that if the bank had a circulation of $100,000, $100,000 worth of replacement notes had to be sent to it every three years to replace worn notes redeemed from circulation. It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that when bankers pressed notes into circulation, it was the death knell for the notes.

Contrast the number of these three-year cleansing cycles that the 02DBs endured versus the far smaller number that the 02PBs experienced, and you can readily see that the chances for survival of date backs cratered. The 02DBs went out the door of the banks much earlier, which greatly reduced the probability that they would survive. The last of most of the date back issues went out between 1915 and 1917 versus the last of the plain backs in 1929.

I have been tracking census data for decades and long ago concluded that the true rarity of the date backs – either 82DBs or 02DBs—has always been greatly under-appreciated by collectors and dealers. Because 02DBs and 02PBs are blue seals, collectors and dealers don’t notice just how few of the blue seals that they handle are in fact date backs.

Besides age, another factor that adversely affected the survival rate of 02DBs was that the 1902 series already was seven years old when they came along, so the notes seemed stale – certainly nowhere near as flashy as the red seals that they were replacing. Consequently, the bankers didn’t save their number one 02DBs anywhere as fervently as they did the flashy new 02RSs when they came along. The 02DBs simply turned out to be workhorse currency that no one paid attention to, so people didn’t go out of their way to save specimens.

There was one consideration that moderated the survival of 02DBs, and that is that $50 and $100 date backs continued to be printed as late as 1925. Also, some pre-printed stocks of 02DBs, regardless of sheet combination, were so large in 1915, the Comptroller was still shipping the last of them to a few banks in 1929. Even so, these late printings and late issues don’t skew the picture very much.

Even though you may not be a candidate for this rare Globe note, maybe armed with some of the information above you can go back into your collection with an awakened appreciation of the 1882 and 1902 date backs that you find among your notes. They may not be very glamorous in comparison to brown backs or 1902 red seals, but you can bet that in terms of rarity, they rank right up there because their survival rate was among the lowest in all the National Bank Note series.

When I collected Arizona notes, I never let a date back get past me if there was any way possible to swing a deal. When I liquidated that holding, I didn’t have many of them. And, the fact is, those that I did have truly dressed up my holdings and, in the case of the 1882DBs, they gave my collection much needed color. After all, even the most diehard of us gets a bit jaded sifting through all those 1902PBs and 1929 notes that dominate our albums.

This article was originally printed in Bank Note Reporter. >> Subscribe today.

More Collecting Resources

• Order the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, General Issues to learn about circulating paper money from 14th century China to the mid 20th century.

• When it comes to specialized world paper money issues, nothing can top the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Specialized Issues .

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caveartfair · 7 years ago

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From Dada to Bauhaus, How 14 Art Movements Got their Names

As anyone who’s read an Art History syllabus or walked through the Museum of Modern Art’s fifth floor knows, the history of modern art has been dominated by groups of like-minded artists with specific aims or approaches, otherwise known as art movements. Since the late 19th century, a quick succession of radically experimental groups has responded to rapidly changing social, political, and cultural climates—leading to the formation of countless movements, and with them, dozens of -isms, acronyms, portmanteaus, manifestos, and peculiar words like “Dada.”

And the stories behind movements’ names, while sometimes quite arbitrary, are often surprisingly revealing about their members, as well as a group’s historical context and mission. Here, we dig into the names of 14 unique and influential movements in recent art history, listed in chronological order.

Pre-Raphaelites

Coined in 1848

Ophelia, 1851-1852. Sir John Everett Millais Tate Gallery, London

Despite name-dropping the Renaissance master Raphael, the British artists who formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 wanted nothing to do with him. Rather, founders Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt sought to emulate the aesthetics that were popular before Raphael rose to fame in 15th- and 16th-century Italy.

Raphael continued to be a major influence long after his death in 1520, particularly on the Pre-Raphaelites’ fellow British painters, who practiced what the Brotherhood viewed as a clichéd, academic style. Indeed, the conservative Royal Academy of Arts and its late 18th-century leader, Joshua Reynolds, consistently promoted Raphael as the preeminent master of painting, along with the traditional Victorian style that emphasized Raphaelesque idealism. Rossetti, Millais, and Hunt rejected all of these conventions, instead finding inspiration in the Medieval period and the Early Renaissance (eras the Academy had deemed “primitive”), as well as in literary themes.

The group grew to seven members, painting whimsical works filled with naturalism, symbolism, and light, and often signing them “PRB,” short for Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. After a few strong years, however, the Brotherhood split in 1853 once Millais joined the Royal Academy as an associate, effectively turning his back on everything the movement stood for. (Even more, he became president of the Academy shortly before his death in 1896.)

Though the Brotherhood was no more, the term “Pre-Raphaelites” remained in use around Britain for the following two decades, in reference to a larger group of artists, such as Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, who were in turn inspired by the original trio’s ideas.

Impressionism

Coined in 1874

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

On April 15, 1874, a group of French artists who called themselves the Société Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, etc. did what none of their peers in the Parisian art world had done before: They organized their own exhibition. Held in a vacant studio on the Boulevard des Capucines for four weeks with an admission fee of one franc, the show featured 165 works by 30 artists, including Claude Monet’s 1872 Impression, Sunrise, a pulsating, highly saturated picture rendered in quick, visible brushstrokes.

Louis Leroy, an art critic for the magazine Le Charivari, was not a fan of this painting, nor of any others in the show. He made fun of Monet’s title, writing sarcastically in his review: “I was just saying to myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in the picture…and what freedom! What ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its formative state is more finished than this seascape!” He then headlined his scathing critique “Exhibition of the Impressionists,” implying that all artists in the show—which also included works by Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir—were only capable of painting simplistic “impressions” of the world.

Harsh? Yes—but Leroy wasn’t exactly wrong. Though these artists had differing styles and subject matter—Monet’s rapid, plein air renderings of landscape scenes; Degas’s dynamically composed paintings of dancers in motion—they shared a common desire to represent fleeting moments of modern life, moments that could otherwise be called “impressions.”

And despite the term’s negative connotations, many of the artists evidently liked it. After moving through other confident names such as the “Independents” and the “Intransigents,” the group formally adopted the label of “Impressionists” by its third exhibition in 1877—a term now associated with the world’s first true modern art movement.

Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider)

Coined in 1903

The Large Blue Horses, 1911. Franz Marc Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

The artist group known as Der Blaue Reiter—meaning “the Blue Rider” in English—was named after a painting by one of its co-founders, the Russian émigré Wassily Kandinsky. The artist’s 1903 painting Der Blaue Reiter is a blue-tinged composition showing a figure on horseback. But the group would not emerge until the following decade, by which time Kandinsky had evolved his style, developing his synesthetic technique of rendering musical sounds visually, resulting in colorful swirling abstractions like 1911’s Komposition 4.

That same year, Der Blaue Reiter formed in Munich, with the German-born Franz Marc joining Kandinsky. By this point, the title of Kandinsky’s painting carried new meaning for him and Marc. Both artists now viewed blue as the most spiritual color, and “the rider” came to symbolize their journey from terrestrial figuration towards pure, divine abstraction. Furthermore, Marc frequently painted horses, among other animals, to represent the concept of rebirth.

Der Blaue Reiter would soon grow into a loose association of artists, including Paul Klee and August Macke. They emphasized a kind of spiritual abstraction based on the belief that colors carry metaphysical meaning. Der Blaue Reiter Almanach, published in 1912 and edited by Kandinsky and Marc, defined the significance of each hue and remains an influential writing on color theory.

The group disbanded at the outset of World War I. Years later, in 1930, Kandinsky, reminiscing about his late friend—Marc was killed on the battlefield in 1916—revealed that the two conceptualized the name almost by divine coincidence. “We both loved blue: Marc, horses; I, riders,” he said. “So the name invented itself.”

Fauvism

Coined in 1905

L'Estaque, 1905. André Derain The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Before Cubism emerged as one of the most influential modern art movements of the 20th century, Fauvism made waves. And as with the later movement, the masses did not immediately take to Henri Matisse and André Derain’s unnatural approach to painting, nor did critics who were accustomed to artistic realism—particularly the critic Louis Vauxcelles. Fauvist paintings, with their shockingly unorthodox usage of vivid colors and rough brushstrokes, went on view for the first time at the 1905 Salon d’Automne in Paris.

In room seven of the Salon’s exhibition space at the Grand Palais, highly saturated works by Matisse, Derain, and fellow colorists Maurice de Vlaminck and Albert Marquet were displayed alongside a relatively tame, Renaissance-like bust that was placed in the center of the room. The resulting juxtaposition caused Vauxcelles to call the sculpture a “Donatello parmi les fauves”—an Old Master, like Donatello, amidst wild beasts. (The room was then unofficially re-named “la cage aux fauves.”)

Rather than take offense, Matisse, Derain, and their peers welcomed the comment—practicing the principle that all press is good press—and started calling themselves Fauvists. Soon afterwards, Fauvism became all the rage in avant-garde Paris, only to be overshadowed by Cubism a few years later.

Cubism

Coined in 1909

The Portuguese, 1911. Georges Braque Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel

Man with a Violin, 1911-1912. Pablo Picasso Philadelphia Museum of Art

As so often is the case with groundbreaking cultural innovations—like rock and roll—this revolutionary art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the early 20th century, was initially challenged by contemporary critics. The artists threw perspective out the window, dissolving spatial borders, abandoning any vestige of naturalistic representation, and flattening the picture plane. Cubists were interested in depicting everyday scenes from multiple sharp angles, resulting in jumbled, geometric compositions—and it was this angular style that earned the movement its name.

Braque, influenced by Picasso’s distorted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), incorporated similarly jagged, cubic and cylindrical shapes in his 1908 landscape Trees at L’Estaque. The painting was included in an exhibition of the artist’s recent work, held at the Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler Gallery in Paris that November, in what is now considered the first-ever display of Cubist art. One visitor happened to be the same critic that gave Fauvism its name, Louis Vauxcelles, who, unimpressed with Braque’s reduction of a lovely French landscape to simple shapes, wrote the following year of the artist’s “bizarreries cubiques,” or “cubic weirdness.” (According to some sources, Vauxcelles may have taken the word from another artist he once insulted, Matisse, who allegedly used it early on to criticize Picasso.)

Though intended as a jab—and Picasso or Braque were reportedly not thrilled with it—“Cubism” eventually stuck, and was cemented as the movement’s official moniker in Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes’s 1912 essay Du Cubisme. And just as he did with Fauvism, Vauxcelles had unintentionally coined the name for a strange new artistic development that he didn’t even like.

Orphism

Coined in 1912

Sonia Delaunay and two friends in Robert Delaunay's studio, rue des Grands-Augustins, Paris 1924. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. Courtesy of Tate Modern.

The term “Orphism” was coined by French poet Guillaume Apollinaire in 1912, when he described Robert Delaunay’s “Windows” series at Paris’s Salon de la Section d’Or as “orphique.” Apollinaire was referencing the ancient myth of Orpheus, the Greek prophet known for his divine musical talents, and who had served as inspiration for many artists who were interested in the musical qualities of painting. In doing so, Apollinaire had connected the works of Delaunay and his wife, Sonia Delaunay, with those of painters like František Kupka, Jean Metzinger, Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia, and Marcel Duchamp. These artists’ paintings all possessed a rhythmic cadence and featured lush color palettes, at least in the pre-Dada days—Picabia stopped working in the Orphist mode by 1915, and Duchamp abandoned canvases entirely after 1918.

Orphism had a lot in common with Der Blaue Reiter, which in some ways can be considered its German counterpart: Both promoted abstraction, emphasized a rich use of color, and were inspired by music, and each began around 1912, eventually getting cut short in 1914 by World War I. However, Orphism was more of an ad hoc movement—it probably wouldn’t have existed, nor been included here, if not for the connections made by Apollinaire; it’s better understood as a loosely connected group of artists who shared similar ideas at the same time and who represented a key point on the road to wholly abstract art.

Today, the term is primarily associated with Kupka and the Delaunays, each of whom continued working in the Orphist style long after its heyday, for the remainder of their respective careers.

Dada

Coined in 1916

Dada Group, . Man Ray Bruce Silverstein Gallery

Unlike most other movements discussed here, whose names tend to have clear origins, the story behind the term “Dada” is rather ambiguous—though perhaps that’s the point. Dada embraced nonsense, irreverence, and the absurd; its members engaged in making “anti-art” as a reaction to World War I, and against the bourgeois society that caused it. The movement emerged in two locations almost simultaneously during the war: New York, where Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia were showing in proto-Dada exhibitions beginning in 1915; and in the neutral city of Zürich, where foreign poets and artists like Tristan Tzara and Hans Arp escaped from their war-ravaged nations and pursued this avant-garde rebellion.

In February, 1916, the group held its first meetings as the “Cabaret Voltaire,” formed by writer Hugo Ball and singer Emmy Hennings in the back room of a divey tavern. According to the Tate, Ball wrote in a magazine later that year that the group would now “bear the name ‘Dada.’ Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada.”

Still, it’s uncertain exactly who came up with the name: Another common tale is that German poet and psychoanalyst Richard Huelsenbeck threw a knife into a dictionary, which must have punctured the entry for dada, a colloquial French word for a hobby-horse. “Dada” may also have been strategically chosen for its simultaneous meaning in some languages—MoMA notes that it translates to “yes, yes” in Russian—and complete nonsense in others. For English speakers, it sounds like little more than a baby’s first words.

Regardless of who came up with it, Dada made the perfect name for the movement, what with its childish associations, international reach, and utter absurdity. It became official in 1918 with Tzara’s Dada Manifesto.

De Stijl

Coined in 1917

Theo and Nelly van Doesburg in the studio on Rue du Moulin Vert, Paris, 1923. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

This Amsterdam-based movement, known for its use of primary color palettes and straight-lined shapes, has an equally straightforward origin for its name. De Stijl adapted its moniker from a journal launched in 1917 by one of the movement’s leaders, painter and theoretician Theo van Doesburg. He and another founder, geometric abstraction icon Piet Mondrian, spread their ideas on harmony and clarity in art throughout interwar Holland via De Stijl magazine, which van Doesburg also edited.

De Stijl artists sought an ideal of balance—in art as in life—after the tragedies of World War I, and ultimately hoped their hyper-rational style would lead to a harmonious, functional, aesthetically pleasing world, and one characterized by greater moral clarity. As Mondrian wrote in an issue of De Stijl, such a “pure plastic vision should build a new society.” He initially dubbed these concepts “Neo-Plasticism,” a term still often used to refer to his own work. But De Stijl’s simple meaning—it’s Dutch for “the style”—made it even more apropos for the movement.

Bauhaus

Coined in 1919

Bauhaus, 1925-1926. Walter Gropius The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Dessau

Like many others in the aftermath of World War I, German architect Walter Gropius sought to reform his country’s defeated, anxiety-ridden society. In his case, this took the form of a school that he founded and named the Bauhaus (from the German words “bauen” and “haus,” roughly translating to “house of building”)—what he described, in his 1919 manifesto, as “a new guild of craftsmen without the class distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist.” The word Bauhaus has roots in “Bauhütten,” which were medieval lodges used as shelters for stonemasons in Gothic Germany.

The Bauhaus School indeed eradicated the boundaries between structural and decorative arts during the late 19th century, and became a massively influential center for art, architecture, and design. Though the school’s location changed multiple times during its existence—from Weimar to Dessau and finally Berlin, where it was shuttered by the Nazis in 1933—its curriculum remained consistently strong and innovative. (It would later morph into the “New Bauhaus” school, directed by Bauhaus alumnus László Moholy-Nagy, in Chicago.)

With faculty members like Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee, Bauhaus’s focus on industrial design, hands-on workshop training, and emphasis on functionality produced not only a slew of iconic alumni—including Marcel Breuer, Anni and Josef Albers, and Herbert Bayer—but also an iconic movement in its own right.

Abstract Expressionism

Coined in 1919

Selected Images of Jackson Pollock painting, 1950. Hans Namuth Phillips

When art historians talk about Abstract Expressionism, they’re almost always referring to the famed post-war movement based in New York—but the term had actually existed decades before Jackson Pollock started dripping paint all over his canvases. It first appeared in an article on German Expressionism from 1919; 10 years later, inaugural MoMA director Alfred H. Barr Jr. used it to describe works by Wassily Kandinsky.

But it was American critic Robert M. Coates that introduced the phrase as we know it today; in 1946, he described Hans Hofmann’s messy, colorful paintings as Abstract Expressionist; he subsequently applied the term to the chaotic canvases of fellow New York dwellers Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

More a loosely-affiliated circle of artists than a movement, the Abstract Expressionists developed the distinct (yet parallel) modes of action painting and color field painting. It wasn’t until the early ’50s that any of these artists formally came together—to boycott a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition titled “American Painting Today—1950.” Pollock, de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and 14 other artists wrote a protest letter to the museum, attacking it for alleged bias against “modern painting.” The letter soon landed on the front page of the New York Times.

American media quickly grew fascinated with these bold painters, an interest that apexed with a 1951 profile in LIFE magazine that (literally) brought “Abstract Expressionism” to the nation’s doorsteps. It included a now-legendary ensemble photo of 15 artists who practiced the style.

CoBrA

Coined in 1948

The blue bird, 1966. Asger Jorn HUNDERTMARKartFAIR

Composition with mask, 1952. Egill Jacobsen HUNDERTMARKartFAIR

On November 8, 1948, the 25-year-old painter-slash-poet Christian Dotremont invited a group of artists from Denmark, Holland, and his native Belgium to meet him at a café in Paris. This wasn’t their first encounter, however. Dotrement, Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, Carl-Henning Pedersen, and the other attendees all knew one another, but from an earlier world—one before the devastations of World War II. This informal circle of artists had been temporarily broken during several years of Nazi rule, and by the time the war ended, “we wanted to start again, like a child,” as Appel once said.

That November evening saw the official formation of this continent-spanning group that came to be known as CoBrA: a portmanteau of its members’ home bases of Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam. According to its manifesto, written by Dotremont shortly thereafter, the group chose to call itself “CoBrA” as “a tribute to the geographic passion which filled us in our refound freedom, giving birth to the animal myth.” (And they probably thought it sounded a lot cooler than “DeBeHo.”)

The CoBrA group spoke out against pre-war art movements such as Surrealism, and also rejected the geometric abstraction pioneered by De Stijl. In fact, the troubles of the war caused them to resent Western culture entirely and to turn to “primitive” cultures and children’s scribbles for inspiration. (“Primitive art” is a highly problematic term used in the late 19th and 20th centuries to mean, essentially, “non-Western art.”)

Though short-lived, CoBrA had a massive influence on a later generation of artists, and contributed to the development of the contemporary auction category called “Outsider art”—which itself was not coined as a term until 1972, and remains popular (yet understandably controversial) to this day.

Gutai

Coined in 1954

Work, . Kazuo Shiraga Whitestone Gallery

Circle, 1971. Jiro Yoshihara Whitestone Gallery

Gutai, another post-war movement, was formed near Osaka, Japan, in 1954. Its name is usually translated into English as “concrete,” which reflects its followers’ aims of creating works of art with more than just a tube of paint—incorporating materials such as mud, chemicals, plastic, and Elmer’s glue. According to its entry in the Tate’s dictionary of art terms, Gutai has also been translated into English as “embodiment,” perhaps pointing to its ties with performance art, and also functioning as a double-entendre: For instance, Kazuo Shiraga’s “performance paintings,” which saw him dipping his feet in paint buckets or writhing, half-nude, in a pile of mud, can be understood as literal embodiments of putting brush to canvas.

Indeed, as Jiro Yoshihara, the movement’s co-founder and primary leader, wrote in its 1956 manifesto: “Gutai Art does not alter matter. Gutai Art imparts life to matter.” Gutai artists, including Shiraga, Atsuko Tanaka, and Saburo Murakami, experimented with new forms and media while also remaining inherently tied to painting; this set it apart from other performance-based, post-war movements, like Happenings, which totally abandoned any trace of the traditional art form. Further, Yoshihara himself was a self-taught painter, which likely explains Gutai’s continued connection to the medium even while artists pushed its limits.

The Stars Art Group (Xing Xing)

Coined in 1979

Femme Allongée AP WK16, 2010. Wang Keping 王克平 10 Chancery Lane Gallery

Beijinger, 1988. Huang Rui 10 Chancery Lane Gallery

Considered the first avant-garde Chinese art movement, the Stars Art Group (a.k.a. Xing Xing) emerged in Beijing during the late 1970s. Founded by Huang Rui and Ma Desheng in opposition to the state-promoted Socialist Realist art, the group grew to include like-minded artists such as Ai Weiwei, Li Shuang, and Wang Keping. These artists were mostly untrained and didn’t work in a particular style; rather, they created expressive works that commented on censorship and isolation in China. Primary examples include Wang’s bronze sculptures that satirized Mao Zedong, or Ai’s early Suzhou River in Shanghai (1979), in which the 22-year-old prodigy brought Pop art aesthetics to a traditional Chinese landscape.

As for its colorful name, Ma once explained that they called themselves the Stars “to emphasize our individuality. This was directed at the drab uniformity of the Cultural Revolution.” Indeed, the group’s first exhibition in September 1979—in which they hung their own artworks on railings outside of the state-controlled China Art Gallery (known today as the National Art Museum) in Beijing—was a protest against the Mao-instated rule mandating that public displays of art be approved by the government.

Authorities were quick to react, shutting the exhibition down after two days; in response, the Stars organized a march calling for democracy and artistic freedom. Their efforts proved successful: The group was allowed to re-stage the show in a different location, and it was said to have attracted over 80,000 viewers over 18 days. Despite this initial win, the government’s criticism and censorship of the Stars continued, and the group decided to split under political pressure in the early 1980s.

Afterwards, many of its members emigrated from China in search for greater freedoms, most notably Ai, who lived in the U.S. from 1981 to 1993 and is now based in Berlin, where he continues to use art as something of a political weapon—much in the spirit of the Stars.

Afrofuturism

Coined in 1993

Inertia, 2015. Jacolby Satterwhite LUNDGREN GALLERY

In Killing Fields Sweet Butterfly Ascend, 2003. Wangechi Mutu rosenfeld porcini

Spanning the fields of music, film, literature, and beyond, Afrofuturism is best defined as an Africanist movement to hypothesize, visualize, and understand black existence in a postmodern world. Early Afrofuturist works of the 1960s and ’70s, from Octavia E. Butler’s science fiction novels to Sun Ra’s cosmic jazz compositions, were informed as much by futuristic thinking and the aesthetics of the mid-century space age as by traditional arts of the African Diaspora.

Though its roots were planted in the mid-20th century, the movement’s name, “Afrofuturism,” wouldn’t emerge for a few decades. The term comes from the influential essay “Black to the Future,” first written by cultural critic Mark Dery in 1993 and published in the 1994 book Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture. “Speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th-century technoculture…might, for want of a better term, be called ‘Afrofuturism,’” wrote Dery. “Can a community whose past has been deliberately rubbed out, and whose energies have subsequently been consumed by the search for legible traces of its history, imagine possible futures?”

The term Afrofuturism has since been applied to numerous visual artists of later generations—like Renee Cox and Wangechi Mutu—whose works draw upon Butler’s utopian writings and Sun Ra’s mystical persona, and engage with Dery’s existential questions about race, identity, and community. And a younger generation of artists including Juliana Huxtable, Jacolby Satterwhite, and Elia Alba continues to employ Afrofuturist aesthetics.

from Artsy News

#Artsy News

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andyplayslongwar2 · 7 years ago

Text

Day 15: Operation Dragon Tower

This wasn’t a good one for X-Com. I was cocky on my first turn and walked our soldiers into an ambush. Not everybody came back.

Back at the base, Jennings became our second officer and another squad was made. We were inundated with missions and had to be choosy about how to go forward.

Operation Dragon Tower

Date: April 16th, 2035

We had a squad of six go in to rescue a scientist and deliver him to the evac point. Here was our team:

Sandra “Werewolf” Kennedy, ranger Hitomi “Kong” Nakano, grenadier Gunnar “Whiskey” Olsen, combat specialist Jane Friedhoff, sniper Jesus Sanchez, gunner Maria Pawlak, Shinobi And the Olufemi Essay, scientist

We landed on a rooftop to the South-West of our evac point. No concealment on this one as we already had the scientist in tow. We had 22 turns and “extremely light” alien forces between us and the evac point.

Because shinobis always start with concealment, even if the squad doesn’t, I had Pawlak run up and scout the area. Finding nothing, I decided to send Sanchez up as well, using both of his move actions. This was a fatal mistake.

Although his path was nearly identical to Pawlak’s, it crossed a few new tiles, and that was enough for three different pods to spot us. By the time they all scrambled we were looking at a sectoid, two sentries, an officer, and two drones.

To make matters worsw, one of the troopers had spotted Pawlak, causing her to lose concealment. Nearly all of them had flanking shots on both of my soldiers (who had exhausted their actions for the turn and would be unable to seek cover). It was bad.

Kong moved down to the second floor of the roof but was only able to catch two units at most with a flash bang. Still worth it. The sectoid and the officer became disoriented.

Jane used rapid targeting and took a shot at one of the sentires, killing it. She did not have cover but was far enough away that it most likely would not matter.

Werewolf moved next to Kong and aimed at the sectoid. She managed to hit, but only did three damage. Whiskey used Combat Protocol to take out one of the drones.

Before doing so, he sent aid protocol to Sanchez. Of the two soldiers in danger, Sanchez had more units closer to him. It was a tough decision, but I believed he had less chance of surviving the turn than Maria. As a side note, Sanchez has rotten luck: This was his second mission, his first being Operation Ice Walker, where Alex Thompson died.

The aliens began their turn. The remaining drone fired at Pawlak and missed. Then the sectoid shot at her and hit, but only for one damage.

Then the sentry ran to within a few spaces of her and took his flanking shot.

It was a critical hit and she died on the spot. The aid protocol may have saved Sanchez’s life but it may have cost Maria Pawlak hers, directing the bulk of the enemy fire to her. The other units fired at Sanchez and missed. We were one turn into the mission and had already lost a soldier.

The next few turns were hardly heroic, with shots being missed all around, but they were not (terribly) damaging either. We had time and so played a defensive long game, being unwilling to lose another soldier. At this point, I knew that most of the forces on the map were already right in front of us.

Kong launched a grande, damaging the sectoid and the sentry. Sanchez went on full time suppression duty after coming back up the the relative safety of our roof. Jane made the whole space more secure throwing a smoke grenade, obscuring our soldiers with red fog. Whiskey shot at the drone, damaging but not destroying it.

On their turn, the drone spent both actions to fly right to us, doing nothing else, making it a contender for mission MVP. The sectoid ran and was killed by Sanchez. The sentry got closer to us and went on overwatch and the officer marked Kong and then shot her threw the smoke for five damage, leaving her at one health.

On our next turn, Jane moved up, still out of range of the sentry’s overwatch, and took cover for the first time. She used her pistol to take out the drone below.

Kong needed to get to Whisky for a heal, but the sentry’s overwatch was making that difficult. Whisky had the best ability to remove the overwatch and so used his final Combat Protocol to send his gremlin to jolt the sentry, killing it.

Kong ran into the building and hunkered down. She could be healed next turn. Sanchez kept the suppression fire up, now focussed on the officer and Werewolf missed her shots. The officer was in high cover and made for a difficult target.

The officer moved, drawing reaction fire from Sanchez before firing back at him. Both missed their shots.

The officer had run to the West and Werewolf decided to follow him. Whiskey and Kong met on the roof for a heal. Nobody managed to hit the officer, but Sanchez reloaded and kept up the suppression.

On the officer’s turn, Werewolf’s overwatch shot missed but the officer missed as well.

On the fifth turn of the mission, we were still dealing with this officer. Werwolf continued to close on his position and managed to hit him for four damage.

Sanchez kept suppressing, and to really make sure the officer couldn’t dash away Whisky tossed in a flash bang.

Finally, on turn six, a full five turns after the officer had entered the fray, Werewolf was able to score a point blank shot on him.

It was a rough start. We had presumably dealt with most of the enemies Advent was going to throw at us, but we had lost a soldier and then had to spend a long time on clean up duty. If the mission clock had been anything other than wildly generous, we would have been in trouble.

Most of the squad reloaded and moved up a tiny bit or went on overwatch. Whisky attempted to hack a nearby tower. The result of a failure was enemies being altered to our location, but that was fine. Whoever was left represented a small group and it would be better to fight them now rather than when reinforcement arrived.

As usual, we failed the hack by a tiny margin.

We continued to move up towards a car dealership. The evac point was on the roof of one of their offices. While making our way over we were spotted by a sectoid and two troopers. Kong immediately launched a grenade, doing damage to the sectoid and one of the troopers as well as blowing up the car that the alien had taken cover behind, killing it.

Jane and Whiskey and both took shots and the troopers and missed. Werewolf went on overwatch and Sanchez suppressed one of the troopers.

On their turn, the non-suppressed trooper ran towards us and was taken down by Werewolf’s reaction shot.

The remaining trooper would take us three full turns to kill. We kept missing and it kept retreating. Luckily, it was taking us towards the evacuation point. Finally, we managed to deal the three damage necessary to kill it with two coming from Jane’s pistol and another two from Werewolf’s Walk Fire. A three turn group effort to deal three damage to Advent’s weakest unit. Not exactly the stuff songs are written about.

On the next turn we got the scientist to the evac point. Reinforcements were coming that turn. Nearly everybody could get out, but Sanchez was one tile out of dash range, so the whole team stayed, going on overwatch.

An officer and a trooper arrived, right next to us.

The entire team proceeded to miss their reaction shots against this nearly adjacent foes. Sanchez was the only one to land his shot, and luckily he killed the officer.

We reached the evac point next turn, and Kong tossed a grenade at the remaining trooper as a parting gift to a mission nobody was looking forward to telling their friends about.

My streak of flawless mission is over for now. Not a total disaster, but even beyond Maria Pawlak’s death, there wasn’t a lot to be proud of here as we spent multiple turns dealing with individual foes.

MVP: Jesus Sanchez?

Hard to call anybody an MVP here, but Sanchez landed a few shots and at least kept our enemies pinned down while we missed our shots. The drone that flew right to us was definitely up for consideration.

RIP: Maria Pawlak

She served well, and was faultless in her own demise. I wavered on who needed the aid protocol at the end of that first turn. It’s impossible to know what would have happened if I’d given it to her, but she will be missed.

Promotions

There were two.

Sandra “Werewolf” Kennedy reached sergeant and learned Center Mass.

Jesus Sanchez reached Lance Corporal and learned Center Mass as well.

Doing more damage with guns in invaluable.

Back at the Base

There was a nearby point of interest that rewarded us with a reprogrammed Advent mech to use if/when a haven comes under attack. The Avenger flew over to grab it.

Jennings finished his officer training and we created our second squad, named after what I have to assume is his favorite game.

Since this was only our second squad, it was easy to once again round it out with a good set of people.

I’m sure the third one will get trickier, and I may ultimately have to pull some more experienced soldiers from Crash Bandicoot or Dark Carnival, but we’ll deal with that later.

While I was waiting for 24 hours for Jennings to finish his training, we were hit with a flurry of missions, most of which I will be ignoring, but three seemed highly relevant.

Operation Hellborn Doom, which I wound up sending Crash Bandicoot out on, had 6 days left and offered some intel, which we need.

Two other missions that will counteract dark events came up. I want to take both, but I have a bit more time. I ignored another three that we cannot logistically take on.

We need to do Steely Fear, but with 16 days, one of the other squads can take it after returning from their mission.

Half-Eaten Prince has a little less time, but can still wait until Dark Carnival comes back from their smash-and-grab mission. No need to waste time, though. Dark Carnival is launching 12 hours early. See you tomorrow for Operation First Hydra!

If you want a rookie named after you, tweet at me here.

#xcom2 #long war 2

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