#its like from where in standing at least way more popular in latin america(where im from)

[samipekoe]

You just made me connect so many dots. Ranma was yuri all along. . . . That's why it's compelled me all these years. . . . Thank you for your service.

ranma may look overwhelmingly straight at first but you just need the eyes To See

[mariacallous]

This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. There is now little doubt that Putin failed in his initial goals: Kyiv is still standing, Ukrainians are determined to keep fighting, and the West has so far stayed resolute in its support of Ukraine. If Putin had hoped to weaken NATO, the very opposite has happened, with Finland and Sweden on the cusp of joining the transatlantic military alliance.

But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. By one estimate from Harvard University, more than 130,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or severely wounded, in addition to the deaths of more than 7,000 Ukrainian civilians. Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from.

What will another year of war look like? What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? I spoke with two of the very best Russia experts on FP Live, the magazine’s forum for live journalism: Angela Stent, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest, and Michael Kofman, the research program director of the Russia studies program at the Center for Naval Analyses. Subscribers can watch the full interview in the video box at the top of this page. What follows is a condensed and edited transcript.

Foreign Policy: Angela, we both just got back from the Munich Security Conference. Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion right after world leaders gathered in Munich and retained hope that he wouldn’t actually start a war. One year on, has Putin achieved any of his objectives?

Angela Stent: Russia has taken some more territory in the Donbas region in Ukraine and has wreaked havoc on the country as a whole, but it hasn’t achieved any of its major goals—one of which was to change the government in Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had a 25 percent popularity rating before the war began, is now very popular and is seen as a hero by many of his people.

Putin has succeeded in uniting Ukrainians, including the Russophone Ukrainians, against Russia. They now see Russia as the enemy in a way they never did before. And a year on from the war, we have a united West—despite all the predictions that this unity would fade—and a determination to help Ukraine succeed.

What Russia has succeeded in doing is ensuring that China is still supporting it. The U.S. State Department thinks that the Chinese may be contemplating supplying lethal weapons to Russia. Many other countries in what we call the global south—India, the other BRICS countries, countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East—have not taken sides in this war and look upon this as a localized European conflict and don’t want to be drawn into it. Russia has achieved either active or at least passive support from much of the rest of the world.

But in terms of the war aims, it’s very hard to see that Russia has achieved any of the goals Putin initially laid out. Now Finland and Sweden want to join NATO, which is something that Putin certainly didn’t want to see, either.

FP: Michael, let’s examine the state of play on the battlefield. Where do things currently stand?

Michael Kofman: Ukraine had two consecutive offensives that were rather successful in the fall, but then over the course of the winter, we’ve been in a transitional phase. The Russian military was quite vulnerable. Russian leadership was trying to reconstitute the force, trying to entrench in Ukraine, and trying to build out their military power from the onset of offensives.

The Ukrainian military pressured Russian forces, but they, too, were focused on reconstitution, trying to set aside for their own major offensive operation, which is likely to come in the spring. Then toward the end of January, the Russian military began a winter offensive to try to take the Donbas again. They have aims far beyond the Donbas, but, at the very least, it’s clear that Putin is still focused on trying to take this region.

The Russian military is still far too weak. It has restored a lot of the manpower deficit they had and replenished the military in terms of the losses they suffered, in terms of personnel, but the quality of the force is very low. You can’t replace experienced regulars with people you mobilize that have had about three months for training. They’ve lost a lot of officers. They’ve lost a lot of the best equipment, and they used far too much ammunition over the course of the last year and are either rationed now or will have to ration soon. Because of that, Russia’s offensive potential is quite limited. The Russian military may be able to offer a stubborn defense, although those lines have yet to truly be tested. What’s likely going to happen is that the Russian offensive this winter will make some incremental gains, but it may even come at strategic cost to the Russian armed forces because it will exhaust their military and make them more vulnerable to a Ukrainian offensive in the spring. It’s clear Ukraine is preparing a major offensive operation. Their goal is to liberate their own territory, and very likely it’s going to come in the south.

The one thing we can’t see very well is the impact on both forces. We often look at territory because that’s something we can easily see changing hands on the map. We can’t see the state of either military, the rate of attrition, the loss of quality, or the state of the ammunition that they have. It’s fair to say that a year into this war, neither military looks the way that [they did] at the start of it; both have had to adapt. The Ukrainian military has taken a tremendous amount of Western equipment, Western capabilities, and have mobilized from the very beginning of the war. It’s a different force. It’s a very experienced force, but it’s a force that’s had to adapt in order to survive and in order to take the initiative and take the fight to Russia. The Russian military has also taken tremendous casualties and is now dependent on mobilized personnel and the older generation of equipment.

FP: Michael, when you look at what the next few months of the war could look like—and consider the last week of diplomacy in Munich, Kyiv, and Warsaw—is there anything that you detect on the diplomatic front that could move the needle of the state of play on the battlefield?

MK: No. Right now, there’s no stalemate, nor is there a stalemate looming, and neither side is interested remotely in revising the minimal war aims or negotiating. Russia’s absolutely not interested in negotiating. They still think that they can achieve their objectives. Any sort of contrived armistice that might be proposed at this point would only serve to benefit the Russian military, which would then use the period to rearm and begin a follow-on offensive. You’d only be ensuring the continuation of war, and one that’s more favorable, most likely, to Russia.

FP: Angela, you’ve studied Putin for years. He knows things haven’t gone to plan, and yet he persists. What’s your sense of how he’s thinking about the war as it drags on into year two?

AS: He still believes that Western unity will crack. He’s seen the debates among U.S. officials and the Europeans about what kind of equipment and weapons to supply Ukraine, and he still believes that in the end, Western unity will weaken. He’s looking at what’s happening in the United States and who may come to power after 2024, especially given that some Republicans don’t want to go on supporting Ukraine. He’s waiting for different European countries to decide that the impact of the sanctions on their economy are too severe.

He still thinks that he can tough this out. If you watch the speech he gave to mark the one-year anniversary of the invasion, there wasn’t very much new in it, including suspending participation in the New START treaty because, in fact, Russia had done that before. What was clear from that speech was the belief that Russia has always won, and victory will be theirs. He said the West is waiting for a strategic defeat, but we will win on the battlefield. He still believes that, despite the tremendous number of casualties.

Putin used this year of the war to consolidate his power domestically. The outsider looking in might think, with a military record like that and not having achieved much in Ukraine, surely people would think that this man should go and someone else should come in. But, in fact, the opposite has happened. People who oppose this war have largely left. Those who have stayed have accepted that this war is going to continue, and that’s what he told people yesterday in the speech. Putin still believes Russia will prevail.

FP: Michael, when you hear what Angela just said, how does that impact the morale of the militaries on both sides?

MK: Ukraine clearly has an advantage when it comes to morale. But when you see a lot of the Russian military’s complaints, they’re complaining about the fact that they don’t have the equipment, or the ammunition. They’re not complaining about the fact that they’re being sent to this unjust war, and that’s worth paying attention to.

Putin has managed to create a degree of domestic political support or acquiescence for a war that Russia has in no way been winning. That said, this tells us something important. This is already a long war. It’s likely going to be a protracted war. Major wars tend to cluster broadly into two categories. They’re either very intense but rather short, or if they’ve gone on this long, they’re likely to go on for several years, and they’re going to go from one phase to another phase.

One thing we can be fairly confident about is that the war is likely to go on through this year and into the next. That’s what Putin’s counting on. He’s counting on this because in his mind, he’s informed by the mythology of Soviet perseverance in World War II—a mentality that, despite all the odds and all the losses, Russia can overcome. Of course, this isn’t World War II and Russia’s not the Soviet Union, but he is very committed to this conflict. And more importantly, so are Ukrainians, and they’re not willing to give up any of their territory and they’re not willing to give up their sovereignty. As Angela said, the West has maintained its support of Ukraine; it’s stayed cohesive. While this isn’t predictive of outcomes, it’s worth saying that the industrial defense capacity of Western countries greatly exceeds that of Russia. When folks ask who has the advantage long term, it’s probably Ukraine.

FP: Angela, one critique of the Biden administration is that it has followed a policy of incrementalism when it comes to arming Ukraine. Is that fair?

AS: The Biden administration has been clear from the beginning that it does not want to have a direct confrontation between the United States or the NATO military and Russia, because that could lead to a major war. For a long time, it was skeptical about how much the Ukrainians could do. The Biden administration, like Russia, overestimated the prowess of the Russian military, and they underestimated the abilities of the Ukrainian military.

The other thing that’s guided them from the beginning is this fear of escalation. We’ve had these threats from Putin and other Russian officials that Russia is a nuclear power and has weapons it could use. Even though you have to take these Russian threats seriously, Putin’s goal has been to intimidate the West, and particularly the United States, from doing more for Ukraine in terms of weapons because of this fear of escalation. There are people in this country, in Europe and other parts of the world, who take this very seriously and think World War III will happen if this goes on.

The Biden administration could have been a little bit less incremental because, in the end, it keeps supplying things to the Ukrainians that they’ve asked for and that it’s been very wary of doing. This fear of escalation may be somewhat overblown.

FP: While we’re at it, how worried should we be about Putin’s announcement to suspend the New START treaty?

AS: The New START treaty expires in 2026, and part of the treaty is that there are supposed to be regular on-site inspections, on both sides. What Putin has done now is to say that Russia is suspending its participation. In other words, it’s not going to allow these mutual inspections anymore.

I worry that if relations between Russia and the West continue to be as bad as they are, there may be no possibility of replacing New START when it expires in 2026 with another major arms control agreement that regulates the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals and possibly even the Chinese. The longer-term consequences of that are very serious, because that would promote nuclear proliferation in other parts of the world and would probably lead to Russia, and probably the United States, developing new weapons systems. In the longer run, it’s quite dangerous for the world, unless something changes and the Russians are willing to rethink this and at least get back into these mutual inspections, but I don’t see that happening as long as the war is going on.

FP: Michael, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week that the White House has some intelligence that China may be trying to offer lethal aid to Russia in its fight against Ukraine. While there are no details just yet, hypothetically, what kinds of things could China help Russia with?

MK: If China is deliberating on providing Russia overt military support, then it would be a significant factor, both in the medium and long term of this war. Russia’s already gotten much of what they can get from Iran. It’s in the hunt to get artillery ammunition from North Korea. China has an immense amount of artillery, ammunition of land warfare systems, and other things it could supply Russia, if it chose to put its thumb more firmly on the scale and not hedge.

China doesn’t want Russia to lose. They don’t seem to want Russia to become something akin to Iran or North Korea on their border. They don’t want the war to result in nuclear escalation. They don’t want the war to result in NATO intervention, either. They don’t want to be dragged into a conflict where they have to overtly support Russia’s misadventure at the cost of their policy toward Europe.

FP: Angela, what’s your sense of what the West has gotten wrong in trying to engage the global south in this conflict?

AS: They’ve underestimated the extent to which many of these countries look at the United States and say, “What about Vietnam? What about Iraq? What about Afghanistan?” The United States is criticizing Russia for doing things, some of which America has itself done. There is a charge of hypocrisy and the notion that the West is neglecting the problems that they face, from food insecurity, humanitarian crises, climate issues, and all of these other issues that they think that the United States and the collective West should be paying more attention to.

Particularly, in the case of India, which is, after all, a partner of the United States in the Quad, the United States and the other partners in the Quad have gone out of their way to try to persuade India to see this differently. But India’s interests are different. India has a long-standing relationship, first of all, with the Soviet Union, now with post-Soviet Russia, involving certainly arms purchases, but more than that. There are a number of other countries around the world who have their own interests in relations with Russia that they don’t want to break. We in the West have not been very astute at understanding this, and I’m not sure how much we can do to change people’s minds on this.

[kuramirocket]

Whenever I visit Olvera Street, as I did a couple of weeks ago, my walk through the historic corridor is always the same.

Start at the plaza. Pass the stand where out-of-towners and politicians have donned sombreros and serapes for photos ever since the city turned this area into a tourist trap in 1930.

Look at the vendor stalls. Wonder if I need a new guayabera. Gobble up two beef taquitos bathed in avocado salsa at Cielito Lindo. Then return to my car and go home.

I’ve done this walk as a kid, and as an adult. For food crawls and quick lunches. With grad students on field trips, and with the late Anthony Bourdain for an episode of his “Parts Unknown.”

This last visit was different, though: I had my own camera crew with me.

My last chance at Hollywood fame was going to live or die on Olvera Street.

I was shooting a sizzle reel — footage that a producer will turn into a clip for television executives to determine whether I’m worthy of a show. In this case, I want to turn my 2012 book “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America” into the next “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.” Or “Somebody Feed Phil.” Or an Alton Brown ripoff. Or a TikTok series.

Anything at this point, really.

For more than a decade, I’ve tried to break into Hollywood with some success — but the experience has left me cynical. Personal experience and the historical record have taught me that studios and streamers still want Mexicans to stay in the same cinematic lane that American film has paved for more than a century. We’re forever labeled… something. Exotic. Dangerous. Weighed down with problems. Never fully developed, autonomous humans. Always “Mexican.”

Even if we’re natives of Southern California. Especially if we’re natives of Southern California.

I hope my sizzle reel will lead to something different. I doubt it will because the issue is systemic. Industry executives, producers, directors and scriptwriters can only portray the Mexicans they know — and in a perverse, self-fulfilling prophecy, they mostly only know the Mexicans their industry depicts even in a region where Latinos make up nearly half the population.

The vicious cycle even infects creators like me.

As the film crew and I left for our next location, I stopped and looked around. We were right where I began, except I now looked south on Main Street. The plaza was to my left. City Hall loomed on the horizon. The vista was the same as the opening scene of “Bordertown,” a 1935 Warner Bros. film I had seen the night before. It was the first Hollywood movie to address modern-day Mexican Americans in Los Angeles.

What I saw was more than déjà vu. It was a reminder that 86 years later, Hollywood’s Mexican problem hasn’t really progressed at all.

Birth of a stereotype

Screen misrepresentation of Mexicans isn’t just a longstanding wrong; it’s an original sin. And it has an unsurprising Adam: D.W. Griffith.

He’s most infamous for reawakening the Ku Klux Klan with his 1915 epic “The Birth of a Nation.” Far less examined is how Griffith’s earliest works also helped give American filmmakers a language with which to typecast Mexicans.

Two of his first six films were so-called “greaser” movies, one-reelers where Mexican Americans were racialized as inherently criminal and played by white people. His 1908 effort “The Greaser’s Gauntlet” is the earliest film to use the slur in its title. Griffith filmed at least eight greaser movies on the East Coast before heading to Southern California in early 1910 for better weather.

The new setting allowed Griffith to double down on his Mexican obsession. He used the San Gabriel and San Juan Capistrano missions as backdrops for melodramas embossed with the Spanish Fantasy Heritage, the white California myth that romanticized the state’s Mexican past even as it discriminated against the Mexicans of the present.

In films such as his 1910 shorts “The Thread of Destiny,” “In Old California” (the first movie shot in what would become Hollywood) and “The Two Brothers,” Griffith codified cinematic Mexican characters and themes that persist. The reprobate father. The saintly mother. The wayward son. The idea that Mexicans are forever doomed because they’re, well, Mexicans.

Griffith based his plots not on how modern-day Mexicans actually lived, but rather on how white people thought they did. 

A riot nearly broke out as Latinos felt the scene mocked them. It was perhaps the earliest Latino protest against negative depictions of them on the big screen.

But the threat of angry Mexicans didn’t kill greaser movies. Griffith showed the box-office potential of the genre, and many American cinematic pioneers dabbled in them. Thomas Edison’s company shot some, as did its biggest rival, Vitagraph Studios. So did Mutual Film, an early home for Charlie Chaplin. Horror legend Lon Chaney played a greaser. The first western star, Broncho Billy Anderson, made a career out of besting them.

These films were so noxious that the Mexican government in 1922 banned studios that produced them from the country until they “retired... denigrating films from worldwide circulation,” according to a letter that Mexican President Álvaro Obregón wrote to his Secretariat of External Relations. The gambit worked: the greaser films ended. Screenwriters instead reimagined Mexicans as Latin lovers, Mexican spitfires, buffoons, peons, mere bandits and other negative stereotypes.

That’s why “Bordertown” surprised me when I finally saw it. The Warner Bros. movie, starring Paul Muni as an Eastside lawyer named Johnny Ramirez and Bette Davis as the temptress whom he spurns, was popular when released. Today, it’s almost impossible to see outside of a hard-to-find DVD and an occasional Muni marathon on Turner Classic Movies.

Based on a novel of the same name; Muni was a non-Mexican playing a Mexican. Johnny Ramirez had a fiery temper, a bad accent and repeatedly called his mother (played by Spanish actress Soledad Jiminez ) “mamacita,” who in turn calls him “Juanito.” The infamous, incredulous ending has Ramirez suddenly realizing the vacuity of his fast, fun life and returning to the Eastside “back where I belong ... with my own people.” And the film’s poster features a bug-eyed, sombrero-wearing Muni pawing a fetching Davis, even though Ramirez never made a move on Davis’ character or wore a sombrero.

These and other faux pas (like Ramirez’s friends singing “La Cucaracha” at a party) distract from a movie that didn’t try to mask the discrimination Mexicans faced in 1930s Los Angeles. Ramirez can’t find justice for his neighbor, who lost his produce truck after a drunk socialite on her way back from dinner at Las Golondrinas on Olvera Street smashed into it. That very socialite, whom Ramirez goes on to date (don’t ask), repeatedly calls him “Savage” as a term of endearment. When Ramirez tires of American bigotry and announces he’s moving south of the border to run a casino, a priest in brownface asks him to remain.

“For what?” Ramirez replies. “So those white little mugs who call themselves gentlemen and aristocrats can make a fool out of me?”

“Bordertown” sprung up from Warner Bros.’ Depression-era roster of social-problem films that served as a rough-edged alternative to the escapism offered by MGM, Disney and Paramount. But its makers committed the same error Griffith did: They fell back on tropes instead of talking to Mexicans right in front of them who might offer a better tale.

Just take the first shot of “Bordertown,” the one I inadvertently recreated on my television shoot.

Under a title that reads “Los Angeles … the Mexican Quarter,” viewers see Olvera Street’s plaza emptier than it should be. That’s because just four years earlier, immigration officials rounded up hundreds of individuals at that very spot. The move was part of a repatriation effort by the American government that saw them boot about a million Mexicans — citizens and not — from the United States during the 1930s.

Following that opening shot is a brief glimpse of a theater marquee that advertises a Mexican music trio called Los Madrugadores (“The Early Risers”). They were the most popular Spanish-language group in Southern California at the time, singing traditional corridos but also ballads about the struggles Mexicans faced in the United States. Lead singer Pedro J. González hosted a popular AM radio morning show heard as far away as Texas that mixed music and denunciations against racism.

By the time “Bordertown” was released in 1935, Gonzalez was in San Quentin, jailed by a false accusation of statutory rape pursued by an L.A. district attorney’s office happy to lock up a critic. He was freed in 1940 after the alleged victim recanted her confession, then summarily deported to Tijuana, where Gonzalez continued his career before returning to California in the 1970s.

Doesn’t Gonzalez and his times make a better movie than “Bordertown”? Warner Bros. could have offered a bold corrective to the image of Mexican Americans if they had just paid attention to their own footage! Instead, Gonzalez’s saga wouldn’t be told on film until a 1984 documentary and 1988 drama.

Both were shot in San Diego. Both received only limited screenings at theaters across the American Southwest and an airing on PBS before going on video. No streamer carries it.

How Hollywood imagines Mexicans versus how we really are turned real for me in 2013, when I became a consulting producer for a Fox cartoon about life on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The title? “Bordertown.”

It aired in 2015 and lasted one season. I enjoyed the end product. I even got to write an episode, which just so happened to be the series finale.

The gig was a dream long deferred. My bachelor’s degree from Chapman University was in film. I had visions of becoming the brown Tarantino or a Mexican Truffaut before journalism got in the way. Over the years, there was Hollywood interest in articles or columns I wrote but never anything that required I do more than a couple of meetings — or scripts by white screenwriters that went nowhere.

But “Bordertown” opened up more doors for me and inspired me to give Hollywood a go.

While I worked on the cartoon, I got another consulting producer credit on a Fusion special for comedian Al Madrigal and sold a script to ABC that same year about gentrification in Boyle Heights through the eyes of a restaurant years before the subject became a trend. Pitch meetings piled up with so much frequency that my childhood friends coined a nickname for me: Hollywood Gus.

My run wouldn’t last long. The microagressions became too annoying.

The veteran writers on “Bordertown” rolled their eyes any time I said that one of their jokes was clichéd, like the one about how eating beans gave our characters flatulent superpowers or the one about a donkey show in Tijuana. Or when they initially rejected a joke about menudo, saying no one knew what the soup was, and they weren’t happy when another Latino writer and I pointed out that you’re pretty clueless if you’ve lived in Southern California for a while and don’t know what menudo is.

The writers were so petty, in fact, that they snuck a line into the animated “Bordertown” where the main character said, “There’s nothing worse than a Mexican with glasses” — which is now my public email to forever remind me of how clueless Hollywood is.

The insults didn’t bother me so much as the insight I gained from those interactions: The only Latinos most Hollywood types know are the janitors and security guards at the studio, and nannies and gardeners at their homes. The few Latinos in the industry I met had assimilated into this worldview as well.

Could I blame them for their ignorance when it came to capturing Mexican American stories, especially those in Southern California? Of course I can.

What ended any aspirations for a full-time Hollywood career was a meeting with a television executive shortly after ABC passed on my Boyle Heights script (characters weren’t believable, per the rejection). They repeatedly asked that I think about doing a show about my father’s life, which didn’t interest me. Comedies about immigrant parents are clichéd at this point. So one day I blurted that I was more interested in telling my stories.

I never heard from the executive again.

A pair of boots

Five years later, and that Hollywood dream just won’t leave me.

I’m not leaving journalism. But at this point, I just want to prove to myself that I can help exorcise D.W. Griffith’s anti-Mexican demons from Hollywood once and for all. That I can show the Netflix honcho they were wrong for passing on a “Taco USA” series with the excuse that the topic of Mexican food in the United States was too “limited.” And the Food Network people who said they just couldn’t see a show about the subject as being as “fun” as it was. Or the bigtime Latino actor’s production company who wanted the rights to my "¡Ask a Mexican!” book, then ghosted me after I said I didn’t hold them but I did own the rights to my brain.

When this food-show sizzle reel gets cut, and I start my Hollywood jarabe anew, I’ll keep in mind a line in “Bordertown” that Johnny Ramirez said: “An American man can lift himself up by his bootstraps. All he needs is strength and a pair of boots.”

Mexicans have had the strength since forever in this town. But can Hollywood finally give us the botas?

[beevean]

3 years of Sonic Forces, the biggest love-hate relationship of the series

[note: this is the translation of @latin-dr-robotnik​’s article]

Today is an almost special day, today it’s the anniversary of a rather peculiar game in this series.

On this day 3 years ago, the (to this day) newest game of Sonic Team was released: Sonic Forces. After waiting a year and a half since its announcement (and four years since Sonic Lost World’s release), it was finally time to see what the last chapter of the main series had in store for us, and the results were… okay.

There were so many warning signs in the months before the release: a marketing campaign that was noticeably absent until the very last month, opting to focus more on Mania (let’s not forget that we still get videos about Mania even after the game’s release, not so much about Forces), which added to the uncertainty caused by the footage already available at the time, which ended up being confirmed a few days before the release, when some people managed to get the game early and streamed a good chunk of the game. While one of the leakers was just a bad player, the quality of the game itself was put into question…

A harsh reality

I’m not going to soften up my words here: for being the latest Sonic game, in a post-Generations and post-Boom era, Sonic Forces fell short of everything it tried to do (if it tried). Anything positive comes from the roots of something negative, and in the context of this anniversary, after 3 years without knowing a thing about the next game, it only emphasizes the frustration and the disappointment it caused.

Sonic Forces promised a world devastated by Eggman, an epic battle to save the world and win against a powerful enemy. However, of so many promises, not even the first one, the most basic one, was kept: it was an empty takeover, explained poorly (because they didn’t even show it, they told it through text) and developed even worse. All the potential of such an exciting world was thrown away as soon as the game didn’t even try to explain some of its most important questions (like why Green Hill was in the process of desertification); to this day we still don’t know what the fuck does the Phantom Ruby do, in Mania it has some powers, in Forces it has different powers, and it’s not clear where does it come from or if it’s more powerful than the Chaos Emeralds. It is disappointing to not be able to discover all this untapped potential, and it is so disappointing that one of the oldest works on my blog was an attempt to rewrite the beginning of the game, give it more context and a better footing to start the adventure.

This old leak dates back to 2016, when the game was barely announced, and surprisingly it ended up being real, very very real. Even the title “Sonic Wars” is true, and if you don’t believe me you can open the game’s folder and read the names that appear. Source.

The confusion and disappointment don’t end here. If you have read the mess of opinions and emotions that is my analysis of the game [translator’s note: the link is in Spanish], you may have noticed that one of the biggest questions never answered was, what’s up with the order of the levels and why is it so confusing? Between 2016 and 2017, there were some leaks and statements going around places like Sonic Stadium that confirmed that the game went through numerous changes, not just in the plot, but in the levels as well. Right now I can’t find these old posts (I’m surprised that the fandom didn’t archive them), but it was said that the original idea for Forces, then still called Sonic Wars, was to shine the spotlight even more on the Avatar, or Buddy as it was called; the decision was unanimously rejected by SEGA of America and Europe, forcing SEGA of Japan to order that the game was modified. In fact, I remember that the leak that mentioned this meeting between the SEGA branches was rather bad, with a very tense atmosphere and lots of disagreements.

This is the closest thing to a confirmation of the scrapped plot that I could find. At least it’s proof that I’m not crazy and that Forces was indeed more focused on the Avatar. Source.

The mess that is the order of the levels, the questionable presence of characters like Classic Sonic, and some of the details of one of the leaked scrapped scripts such as that apparently they considered to reintroduce Mephiles – all of this shapes the network of a mediocre game, created under the premise of “from the creators of Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations” but taking all the wrong parts of those two games, using an engine that has been proven to be less efficient than Unleashed’s and Generations (and I’m not talking about the Hedgehog Engine, which is the graphical engine – I’m talking about the game and physics engine of Lost World), and with short levels and… polarizing bosses, to say the least.

The result is a game that shows a lot of potential, but in practice it doesn’t live up to it at all, be it for its own limitations (being rushed like hell) or for a noticeable lack of attention to details; it didn’t succeed in creating a cohesive and coherent world, with levels that could be worthy of what has been learned in these years. This is the reality of Sonic Forces.

And yet...

Despite everything I’ve just said, despite all the unacceptable errors that Forces made, and despite all the terribly wasted potential… we still talk about this game.

There are many reasons. On one hand, Forces and Mania have been the latest Sonic games for 3 years now, which is tragic in on itself (Team Sonic Racing disappeared from the face of the Earth); on the other, we still talk about Forces because there is something that still attracts us to it.

It’s not the same attraction we feel for Sonic ‘06, though. Forces is not a complete, almost-franchise-killing disaster like ‘06 was, it’s not a giant meme that spread from the fandom to popular circles and internet figures such as the Game Grumps. People have been trying to fix Forces’ mistakes, but not on the same scale as projects that tries to completely recreate ‘06 with a radically different engine, or fix each and every bug in the original version. Forces is nowhere near as infamous, and so the discussion goes in different directions.

Episode Shadow is still one of the most entertaining parts of the game, and one of the most important as well, as Shadow himself hadn’t been a playable character since… well, Sonic ‘06.

On one hand, there is a cult surrounding Infinite, one that I personally don’t agree with, and I don’t know if it’s bigger than Mephiles’ 15 years ago, but I do know that it exists and it’s still present. One of the ways Sonic Team tried to “go back to its roots” was to introduce a character like Infinite in a plot that was supposed to be “more serious”. Final results notwithstanding, Infinite managed to win the heart of a sizeable portion of the fandom, which still wishes for his return and development.

On the other hand, there is the Avatar, our personal OC with an impressive customization system, which allows us complete freedom, to the point that we could recreate characters introduced in Sonic IDW like Whisper the Wolf. What at first looked like a questionable idea, nothing more than a source of memes, ended up becoming the smartest idea Forces had, with a gameplay style that, in my opinion, retains a little of the old Adventure spirit, and even had some of the most fun levels in the game. While Classic Sonic ruined one third of the game, and Sonic was somewhat mediocre compared to his past feats, the Avatar’s gameplay style manages to keep its quality throughout the game, despite the fact that the plot keeps revolving around their presence instead of focusing on the other aspects of saving the world, which is... well, a little unfortunate.

Even I, who I’m not really into Sonic OCs, had a lot of fun recreating some of the characters.

And finally we get to the best part of the entire game: the music.

Even after three years my opinions haven’t changed much. Forces’ music isn’t perfect, it has its low moments (I feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t like Light of Hope) and some disasters (F*ded H*lls lol), but overall it has good intentions and it has some pretty good highlights.

The use of synths, as overdone and criticized as it is, was an honest attempt to follow a trend present in older games, like Sonic Unleashed, where this instrument symbolized Eggman’s influence. An interesting touch that, while wasn’t completely successful, is appreciated.

I still say that Fighting Onward is one of the best themes of the entire game, and Spaceport as the level benefits from having it.

Then there’s the best part of the entire soundtrack: the return of vocal themes, such as the main theme, the villain theme, and some of the level themes. I cannot explain with enough words how much fans were waiting for this, and it was brilliantly handled by the advertising campaign: a preview of the instrumental version of Fist Bump, a short peek of the Avatar themes, and finally the reveal of some of the major themes. It’s not surprising that it became one of the most appreciated parts by the fans. From the iconic intro of Fading World to the subtle nod to Green Hill in Set In Motion, every theme has something that makes it stand out from the rest of the game.

But even so, the rest of the music in the game has redeemable points as well. Forces in general distances itself from the music styles previously used in the series, especially from the variety of incredible sounds of Unleashed or even Lost World; but from time to time it still recognizably Sonic, like in the half-Megaman, half-Runners Network Terminal, in the extremely epic and underrated Last Judgement, or in the always-mentioned Ghost Town (not the only “good” Classic theme in my opinion, but the first one that comes to mind). Even the remixed Zavok theme sound better in Forces than in its original version.

A love-hate relationship

At the end of the day, the only thing left I could say is that Forces is still one of the most polarizing games in the series. 3 years aren’t enough to heal some of the wounds left by the 4-year hiatus, plus the disappointment of the time, but at the same time these 3 years kept alive the memory of its best moment, the discussions about the music and the uncountable groups of fans reunited to share OCs like the fandom has always done.

In this anniversary, I thought it would be interesting to revisit a bit the peculiar relationship I have with this game, as we wait for a new hype cycle for the next game. And maybe, just maybe, that will be the moment Forces will fade from our collective memory, at least for a decade, until new fans will look back to the good and bad this game has done. And I hope that, in the future, the situation of the franchise will also be different from what it has been these last years, in a good way of course.

This is all we have left of Forces today, a game that did not manage to capitalize on its opportunities, and a game that shames the legacy of the Unleashed-Colors-Generations era; but also a game that had some genuine, interesting ideas, and a different musical direction, one that (with some exceptions) was what the fans wanted. It’s a polarizing game, it’s a love-hate relationship.

[newstfionline]

Friday, February 19, 2021

NASA rover lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life (AP) A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet Thursday, accomplishing the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars. Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, leaped to their feet, thrust their arms in the air and cheered in both triumph and relief on receiving confirmation that the six-wheeled Perseverance had touched down on the red planet, long a deathtrap for incoming spacecraft. The landing marks the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around Mars on successive days last week. All three missions lifted off in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars, journeying some 300 million miles in nearly seven months. Perseverance, the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft since the 1970s to successfully land on Mars. Over the next two years, Percy, as it is nicknamed, will use its 7-foot (2-meter) arm to drill down and collect rock samples containing possible signs of bygone microscopic life. Three to four dozen chalk-size samples will be sealed in tubes and set aside to be retrieved eventually by another rover and brought homeward by another rocket ship.

Share of U.S. workers holding multiple jobs is rising, new Census report shows (Reuters) The share of Americans working more than one job to make ends meet has been growing over the past two decades, and the pay from second jobs make up a substantial share of workers’ earnings, according to a paper published by the U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday. An estimated 7.8% of U.S. workers had more than one job as of the first quarter of 2018, up from 6.8% in 1996, according to new data unveiled by the Census bureau. The earnings from the workers’ second jobs make up an average 28% of their total earnings, showing that workers are likely relying on that pay, researchers said. In general, women were more likely to have multiple jobs than men, with 9.1% of women holding multiple jobs as of 2018, compared with 6.6% of men.

Desperate for Light and Warmth (NYT) Halfway through the week that Texas froze over, everything seemed to be in a state of frigid chaos. Some homes had no water at all while others watched it gush from burst pipes into their hallways and living rooms. On Wednesday more than 2.5 million people were still without power [now down to 330,000], while at least twice as many were being told to boil their water. In Houston, Catherine Saenz and her family, like most of their neighbors, have had no power or water for days, as the city remains in the grip of the fiercest winter in memory. But they are fortunate: They have a fireplace. Even fireplaces have to be fed, though, and to keep the two parents, two daughters and two grandmothers from freezing, her husband has spent hours in the afternoon scouring the neighborhood for fallen trees and rotten wood. “I never imagined that we would be in this situation,” said Ms. Saenz, who grew up in Colombia but has lived in Houston through Hurricanes Ike and Harvey. “No one is prepared, it is dangerous and we are very vulnerable.”

A silent killer inside: Carbon monoxide (Washington Post) With no electricity in their home for hours, the Houston family tried to fight off the freezing cold by running their car in the attached garage, authorities say. When Houston police officers entered the property to conduct a welfare check, they found the two adults and two children, police said in a statement Tuesday morning. The woman and girl did not survive, and the man and boy were taken to a hospital. The deaths are among a rising number of reports of people being poisoned by carbon monoxide as Texans face a deadly winter storm that has brought record-low temperatures and demands for electricity that overwhelmed the state’s grid, leaving more than 3.2 million people in the dark and with no heat for more than 24 hours. As more reports of poisoning emerged Tuesday, government officials sounded the alarm. “SPREAD THE WORD: The number of people being admitted to local hospitals for carbon monoxide is rising at a disturbing rate. Do not bring any outdoor appliances (grills, etc.) inside, or run your car inside the garage,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo wrote on Twitter.

Word of flight to Cancun from frozen Texas lands Senator Ted Cruz in hot water (Reuters) U.S. Senator Ted Cruz faced widespread criticism on social media on Thursday after images went viral online that a journalist said showed him flying to a resort in Cancun while his home state of Texas struggled through a deadly deep freeze. Photos circulating on social media appeared to show the Texas Republican in airport line, in a passenger lounge and aboard an airliner. “Just confirmed @SenTedCruz and his family flew to Cancun tonight for a few days at a resort they’ve visited before. Cruz seems to believe there isn’t much for him to do in Texas for the millions of fellow Texans who remain without electricity/water and are literally freezing.” former MSNBC anchor David Shuster tweeted shortly after midnight.

Rare Earths (Financial Times) It takes 417 kilograms of rare earth minerals—more difficult-to-obtain bits of the periodic table that have uses in elaborate semiconductors and instrumentation—to build one F-35 fighter jet, a critical set of components that are about to be much harder to find. China is considering an export ban on rare earth minerals, and given that they control about 80 percent of the global supply, that would put Lockheed Martin, which makes the aircraft, in a bit of a pinch. As it stands now, even ore mined in the United States has to be sent to China for refining.

Migrants on the move again in Mexico and Central America (AP) In the first Mexican shelter reached by migrants after trekking through the Guatemalan jungle, some 150 migrants are sleeping in its dormitories and another 150 lie on thin mattresses spread across the floor of its chapel. Only six weeks into the year, the shelter known as “The 72” has hosted nearly 1,500 migrants, compared to 3,000 all of last year. It has halved its dormitory space due to the pandemic. That wasn’t a problem last year because few migrants arrived, but this year it’s been overwhelmed. Latin America’s migrants are on the move again. After a year of pandemic-induced paralysis, those in daily contact with migrants believe the flow north could return to the high levels seen in late 2018 and early 2019. The difference is that it would happen during a pandemic. The protective health measures imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, including drastically reduced bedspace at shelters along the route, mean fewer safe spaces for migrants in transit.

Weary of COVID restrictions, Finns take up running in deep snow in socks (Reuters) Finns keen to avoid gyms and other indoor sports venues this winter because of the coronavirus pandemic have found a new way to keep fit—running in the snow wearing no training shoes, just thick woollen socks. Finland has seen particularly heavy snowfall this winter and running outside in just socks provides great exercise as well as a sense of freedom, said Pekka Parviainen, a helicopter pilot and an avid barefoot runner. “This is traditional Finnish crazy stuff, I think we all agree,” said Parviainen. In Finland, where taking a sauna in winter and then running through snow to jump into an ice-cold lake is a traditional pastime, barefoot running has become popular in the past few years during the warmer months. Running in socks through heavy snow, now about half a metre deep in many places, takes this to the next level. Parviainen recommends wearing at least two, preferably three, pairs of woollen socks to get the most out of the run.

Two journalists jailed for two years in Belarus for filming protests (Reuters) A Belarusian court sentenced two Belarusian journalists from Poland-based TV news channel Belsat who filmed protests against President Alexander Lukashenko to two years in prison on Thursday. Katsiaryna Andreyeva, 27, and Darya Chultsova, 23, were detained in an apartment in November from where they had been filming protests taking place over the death of a protester who was killed several days earlier. Both women pleaded not guilty after being accused of orchestrating the demonstrations by filming them. Neighbouring Lithuania urged Minsk to end a “spiral of repression” while Poland said Belarus should end its persecution of journalists. More than 33,000 people have been detained in a violent crackdown on protests against Lukashenko’s rule following a contested election last August that his opponents say was rigged to extend his rule. He has been in office since 1994.

Protesters out again in Myanmar, police use water cannon in capital (Reuters) Protesters were out again across Myanmar on Thursday to denounce the Feb. 1 coup and arrest of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with police resorting to force to disperse crowds, using water cannon in the capital and catapults in a northern town. The daily protests and strikes that have paralysed many government offices show no sign of easing despite a junta promise of a new election and appeals for civil servants to return to work and threats of action if they do not.

Facebook blocks news access in Australia (AP) In a shocking act of retaliation Thursday, Facebook blocked Australians from sharing news, a milestone in the increasingly frantic jockeying between governments, media and powerful tech companies. Australia’s government condemned the decision, which also blocked some government communications, including messages about emergency services, and some commercial pages. The digital platforms fear that what’s happening in Australia will become an expensive precedent for other countries. Facebook took the drastic action after the House of Representatives passed legislation that would make Facebook and Google pay for Australian journalism, said Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Facebook said the proposed Australian law “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it.” Both Google and Facebook have threatened retaliation if Australia enacts the law, which the government contends will ensure media businesses receive fair payment for their journalism being linked on those platforms.

Jerusalem’s Old City turns white after rare snowfall (Reuters) Jerusalem woke up to the rare experience of seeing its holy sites covered in snow on Thursday, with the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall under a layer of white after an overnight snowstorm. Before dawn children were up hurling snowballs at each other outside the Old City gates, as the faithful trudged to sites holy to Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The snowstorm began on Wednesday evening, leading the authorities to shut down public transportation and block the main road to Jerusalem.

After delay, Israel allows vaccines into Hamas-run Gaza (AP) Israel allowed the Palestinian Authority to deliver the first coronavirus vaccines to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday despite objections from Israeli lawmakers who suggested they be used as a bargaining chip for the release of captives held by the territory’s militant Hamas rulers. Israel has faced international criticism for largely excluding Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza from its highly successful vaccination campaign. It held up the shipment for two days as the government faced questioning from a parliamentary committee before ultimately approving it. The dispute highlights the Palestinians’ reliance on Israel even as they struggle to combat the pandemic on their own.

[fatehbaz]

Hello, I hope you're well. Do you have any recommendations about where to start with decolonization theory? I've heard a bit about it but nothing substantial.

Hey, thanks for the question. Before I start rambling, I’ll just give a really short, blunt response: Despite all the jargon-heavy academic content written about decolonization, especially as a trend in the past 15 years, I think that the way to learn about decolonial thought and practice is to read the work of people living in the Global South; the work of marginalized environmental activists and agricultural workers, especially in the Global South; and the work of Indigenous scholars, knowledge holders, and activists who are explicitly willing to share their knowledge with non-Indigenous people. That said, I’m not too well-versed in technical decolonial theory per se, and instead I try to read more of the ecological/environmental, social/anthropological, and activist writing of Indigenous people and people from the Global South, what you might call decolonial thought. Rather than focusing on the technical theory and writing of wealthy Euro-American academics, I prefer more radical decolonial writing that integrates local/Indigenous cosmology, environmental knowledge, and ecology alongside the social and political aspects of radical anticolonial resistance. Something that I’m really interested in, regarding decolonial thought, is the importance of Indigenous and non-Western cosmology (ontology, epistemology, worldviews) because these ways of knowing actually provide frameworks that stand in contrast to extractivist thinking, suggesting alternatives that could be implemented. So, below I’ve listed just a couple of the most accessible authors that I’ve been reading recently, and I’ve split recommendations into four categories: (1) Indigenous authors writing about sovereignty and ecological consequences of colonialism; (2) technical decolonial theory and Indigenous resistance; (3) decolonial theory and ontology; and (4) synthesizing technical decolonial theory with writing on Indigenous worldviews and environmental knowledge. This definitely isn’t meant to be an extensive or definitive list of resources; and I know other people might have some better or different recommendations to make. But I hope this helps, if only a little bit, as an introduction!

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Y’know, I think there’s a tendency among a lot of Euro-American academics to make the concept of decolonization much more mysterious, obtuse, and complicated than it needs to be; there’s an awful lot of discourse about metaphysics, ontology, and other intellectualized aspects of decolonization that are probably less important right now than concrete actions like reforestation and revegetation projects; healing soil integrity, health, and biodiversity; dismantling monoculture plantations; ending industrial resource extraction; ending de facto corporate control of lands, especially in tropical agriculture; allowing local Indigenous autonomy; preserving and celebrating Indigenous languages and ways of knowing; etc.

So, I’m not all that knowledgeable with technical decolonial theory. Instead I mostly just try very hard to read the environmental, anthropological, activist, etc. writing of Indigenous and minority communities, people from the Global South, and Indigenous traditional knowledge holders. Often, this kind of writing doesn’t always take the form of “theory.” A lot of decolonial theory - that I’ve seen, at least - is concerned with discussing trends/currents in academia and Euro-American discourse about the Global South. (In other words, a lot of decolonial theory written by white authors seems more concerned with talking about what decolonization means for academia and discourse, rather than actually exploring the worldviews of Indigenous peoples and the Global South.) Instead, the kind of stuff that I try to read explores Indigenous and non-Western resistance, community-building, and ecology; and so the resources that I recommend might not qualify as decolonial theory but they are decolonial, if that makes sense?

In my experience, some of the works that best demonstrate or embody decolonial thought are not works of theory, but are instead works of social history, nature writing, natural history, or works that explore bioregionalism, food, and local folklore. I also like to note that there is a trend among activists and scholars in Latin America to use the term “anticolonial” instead of “decolonial” or “postcolonial.” These latter two terms might imply that existence or identity in the Global South is doomed to always be defined by its relationship to Europe, the US, or imperialism generally. However, “anticolonial” might connote a more active role; you may still suffer the effects of imperialism, but you’re also an active opponent of it, living and thinking outside colonialism, with a unique worldview that exists autonomously rather than being defined always in reference to colonial actions or standards.

Indigenous authors writing about sovereignty and ecological consequences of colonialism:

So here are a few Indigenous scholars that I read, who write not just about decolonial thought, but also about place-based identity, environmental knowledge, and how decolonial theory can often be Eurocentic:

– Zoe Todd: Metis scholar and environmental writer, who famously criticized academic discourse about decolonization for itself being Eurocentric and colonial; here’s a nice interview (from 2015) about decolonial theory, where Zoe Todd criticizes Western academics and the ontological turn in anthropology.– Kyle Whyte: Potawatomi scholar, who writes about Indigenous sovereignty, Indigenous food systems, colonization, contrasts between Indigenous and Euro-American worldviews, and preservation of Indigenous enviornmental knowledge; here’s a list of Whyte’s articles and essays, most available for free.– Robin Wall Kimmerer: Potawatomi ecologist, bryophyte specialist, and educator, who discusses contrasts between Indigenous and Euro-American ways of knowing; here’s one of my favorite interviews with Kimmerer.

Technical decolonial theory and Indigenous resistance:

And here are two recommendations on more technical anticolonial/decolonial theory. These texts are both a bit dense:

– Boaventura de Sousa Santos wrote a wonderful work of decolonial/anticolonial theory and thought, titled Epistemologies of the South: Justice Against Epistemicide (2014). This work is a bit technical but very interesting and thorough, and explores how a major function of imperialism is to deliberately dismantle Indigenous worldviews, ways of knowing, and environmental knowledge, to replace Indigenous ecological relationships with “extractivist” and “industrial” mentalities.

– Arturo Escobar wrote a good work of anticolonial theory in direct response to de Sousa Santos’ work; Escobar’s text is called Thinking-feeling with the Earth: Territorial Struggles and the Ontological Dimension of the Epistemologies of the South (2015).

Both of these texts and authors explore the Global South’s active resistance to industrial/extractivist worldviews; they both also largely focus on Latin America and reciprocity, communal relationships, agroecology, and active resistance in Latin American communities.

Decolonial theory and ontology:

The ontological turn in anthropology is kiiind of a manifestation of decolonial theory, though it’s kind of problematic and often Eurocentric, popular among wealthy academics. The Metis scholar Zoe Todd, referenced earlier in this post, has written about the problematic aspects of the ontological turn. The ontological turn was big news in academia around 2008-2012, happening alongside the rise in popularity of Mark Fisher, “capitalist realism,” and Graham Harman’s object-oriented ontology. Basically, I guess you could summarize the ontological turn as an effort to decolonize thinking in anthropology departments of Euro-American universities, to better understand the the worldviews/cosmologies of non-Western people. Here’s a summary by environmental scholar Adrian Ivakhiv, which references the role of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Phillipe Descola, two anthropologists working adjacent to decolonial theory.

Synthesizing technical decolonial theory with writing on Indigenous worldviews and environmental knowledge:

– Phillipe Descola: A renowned anthropologist whose work inspired much of the decolonization trend in US anthropology departments and the ontological turn in anthropology; Descola’s work deals with epistemology and ontology (so it’s often pretty dense) and takes a lot of cues from the work of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, the Brazilian anthropologist who popularized the study of Amazonianist cosmology. Other Euro-American anthropologists who write about technical decolonial theory: Bruno Latour (kind of problematic); Isabelle Stengers.

– Eduardo Kohn: An anthropologist focused on decolonization and Indigenous worldviews; Kohn also takes cues from Viveiros de Castro and Descola. Kohn authored How Forests Think, which is a study of Indigenous Amazonian worldviews and how Amazonian people perceive nonhuman living things and the rainforest as a community. You can look up interviews with Eduardo Kohn

– I don’t know if you saw this post I made recently, but it shares a fun publication called The Word for World is Still Forest, which is an exploration of the cultural importance of forests from decolonial and Indigenous perspectives, and it’s a good example of decolonial theory being explored by visual artists, geographers, poets, anthropologists, and activists.

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So, these are just the first examples that come to mind. I’m sure other friends/readers/followers might have some better recommendations. [ @anarcblr ?]

Often, I feel like a lot of technical decolonization theory is written by white professionals and academics, and I, personally, don’t think it’s important to have a white academic acting as a “middle man” whomst “translates” the thinking of Indigenous theorists and people from the Global South. In my experience, there’s a lot of “decolonization theory” content in journals, books, etc., over the past 20-ish years, mostly written by white academics who seem to have just recently “discovered” the “utility” of decolonization theory for “improving their field” or something. Discussing the “utility” of Indigenous knowledge is itself a kind of colonialist way of thinking, since it sees the knowledge as profitable or valuable or something to be employed like a machine, a way of thinking that is itself extractivist. (I’m not anti-intellectual, and anti-intellectualism is a problem, especially in the US. But I’ve not really found academics willing to just straight-up say radical things like “capitalism has to be confronted if we’re going to be serious about decolonization.”)

Like, they write about decolonization as if it’s major benefit is its practical/pragmatic application to improving science, metaphysics, conservation, or climate crisis mitigation. One example of this behavior is a huge amount of headlines in mainstream US news sources and environmental magazines, from late 2018 and 2019, that say some version of “Indigenous knowledge may be the key to surviving the climate crisis” or “planting trees might be the single best defense against global climate collapse, and Indigenous peoples’ knowledge can help us implement it” And this just doesn’t sit well with me. Firstly, because it frames Indigenous knowledge as an inanimate resource to be “tapped,” appropriated, employed, “put to use.” And secondly, because this not news. This - the role of vegetation and healthy soil microorganism communities in mitigating desertification, biodiversity loss, and local adverse climate trends - has been well-known to Indigenous peoples for centuries or millennia, and has also been very well-known to Euro-American environmental historians and academic geographers for decades.

I guess I’m saying that the current Euro-American discourse of decolonization has a lot of issues.

Anyway, the theory that I personally like best isn’t too academic or jargon-heavy; I like the work that which synthesizes human elements (anticolonial; anti-imperialist; anti-extractivism; anti-racist) with ecology (cosmology and folklore; traditional environmental knowledge; place-based identity), since ecological degradation and social violence and injustice are inseparable issues, and this is an interconnected relationship that decolonial theory and Latin American worldviews seem to understand very, very deeply.

And, I guess another element to the kind of decolonial writing that I enjoy is the importance of Indigenous and non-Western cosmology (worldviews, epistemology, ontology, ways of knowing) to providing alternatives to imperial, colonial, and extractivist mentalities. This is how decolonial thinking is not just about finding ways to defend against further imperial violence, but also proactive in promoting healthier alternatives that can be implemented.

I hope that some of these recommendations are useful!

[franzbiblio]

Content Journal: 7/5/20 (I want to try to keep a list of stuff I’m reading/watching on a weekly basis since it seems like a fun thing to look back on. To future self: I didn’t list the last two weeks because work was a nightmare and then I was in a place with limited internet access for a week, so here have what I’ve read in the past two weeks)

Mutant by Henry Kuttner (and C. L. Moore): So it looks as if the original print of this short story collection was published under Lewis Padgett, the pseudonym of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore , a husband-and-wife science fiction writing team, but the majority of copies I have seen usually only list Henry Kuttner as author. The edition I have was printed in 1963 which is after Kuttner’s death but before Moore’s death and is under Kuttner’s name only, so assumably Moore at least signed off on that?

The stories were printed in the early 50s originally and my interest was primarily in the fact that I read somewhere they were colloquially referred to as the “baldy” stories because they feature telepaths whose distinguishing trait is their lack of hair (including lack of eyebrows and eyelashes). The stories themselves I can’t really recommend for sheer reading pleasure, while there are interesting concepts some of the underlying political assumptions about how post-atomic war America would ideally organize itself around autonomous city-states with product specialization gets a weird amount of focus in a story about “normal” telepaths fighting the “paranoid” telepaths who in the text must be killed whenever discovered because otherwise the human population would figure out that telepaths have dissenting opinions about telepaths integration and automatically try to commit total telepath genocide. Weirdly at points the story even admits that the “paranoid” telepaths may have a point about how telepaths shouldn’t have to be forced to hide the characteristics that identify them as telepaths (the “normal” telepaths wear wigs and it’s even brought up how there’s a lot of shame about how bald telepathic women don’t meet cultural beauty standards, but the fact that “paranoid” telepaths don’t wear wigs is a huge strike against them for daring to stand out and draw attention to themselves), but the fact that “paranoid” telepaths might not be completely wrong means nothing. Our “heroes” still have to kill them without mercy or reflection because their ideology endangers the rest. There’s obviously a lot to unpack here in how it reflects on thought about marginalized groups, and in my edition there’s even a small introduction which explicitly links the plight of the telepaths to that African-Americans and Jewish people, so any plausible deniability is gone on that account that this wasn’t a deliberate metaphor about marginalized groups. It seemed pretty obvious to me that this likely represented an influential text in the development of silver-age X-Men and a lens to understand the series focus on conflict between the “evil” mutants that must be stopped by the “good” mutants.  

Children of the Atom by Wilmar H. Shiras: Of all the early twentieth century sci-fi I’ve been reading to gain a better understanding of the mutant genre and the cultural milieu that Uncanny X-Men was coming out of in the 1960s this probably represents the text I’ve enjoyed the most on its own merits as a story. To be fair I can understand why it didn’t become a widely regarded text in American science fiction (I mean it was written by a woman, already a strike against it) it’s actually not really all that much about the typical science fiction tropes and conceits. The basic setup that the book is about children whose parents were involved a fictional nuclear reactor accident that ultimately killed the parents but children born after the disaster turn out to be super-geniuses. The majority of the story is just gathering the group of very intelligent children who then learn from each other and have interesting conversations. The book it honestly most reminded me of was The Secret Garden in that the children characters were all very distinctive and felt like actual intelligent children who are still emotionally immature in a lot of ways. I appreciated how it made a point that intelligence can take many different forms with each of the children having very distinctive interests and fields of study that they enjoy, and there’s a whole subplot about the importance of emotional intelligence as well. There are even two prominent little girls who are very distinctive and interesting characters! Of course I didn’t love the use of intelligence tests as a means of identifying the children, though there is a conversation with one of the girls where she points out the limits of such tests (IQ tests have a lot of baggage see Shaun’s video essay on the Bell Curve that can be found on YouTube) and also the characters are all white and of all the sci-fi I’ve read in the mutant genre this is probably the only one not interested in saying anything about race at all. But overall I really enjoyed the book, and it makes me a little sad that especially with the popularity of Uncanny X-Men (which there’s not really a doubt in my mind that this was an influential text, beyond the title there’s a character in the story whose last name is Worthington, and just the idea of mixing the idea of a school for special children with an atomic cause) that it didn’t raise the profile of this book as well because it is a breath of fresh air of the genre.

A Universal History of Iniquity by Jorge Luis Borges: I read a fair about of Borges as a younger person, and now coming back to it I got to have that strange feeling of realizing just how much a certain writer influenced your own aesthetic sense. Really fun and cool, I’m definitely going to be going back and reading more of his work this year.

The Tempest by Shakespeare: What struck me on this re-read (The Tempest much like Cymbeline and Midsummer Night’s Dream are basically on my constant re-read list) is the dual personality of Prospero in his introduction where he’s kind and loving to Miranda but cruel and callous to Caliban and Ariel. Of course then his relationship with Ariel grew more loving throughout the play and my theory is this duality of Prospero in the audience creates tension of whether he will choose mercy or vengeance in his dealings with those who wronged him. If that’s so it’s especially interesting that it’s Ariel who then prompts Prospero in the final act to show them mercy and Prospero agrees.

On Writing by Stephen King: There was a lot more biography in this than I was really interested in but I found his suggestions overall solid and useful.

African Kings and Black Slaves: Sovereignty and Dispossession in the Early Modern Atlantic by Herman L. Bennett: Absolutely fascinating read, and I obviously can’t do it justice here by any margin I must have at least five significant quotes that I’ve pulled from the book. I really appreciate the framing of the text in pointing out the way that in conversations of our colonial past there’s a tendency to take the 19th century incarnation of it focused on the Anglo and Francophone world and project it into the past. Bennett is a scholar of Latin America and in this text examines the ambiguities and the multiplicity of meanings that can be derived from Iberian early encounters with African Kingdoms. This is definitely not an easy text, and I can’t say I’d advise it as an entering point for early modern African history, but it does reference a lot of sources that I’m definitely interested in tracking down!

[alexsmitposts]

It is All about Race, Awful Hypocrisy Hypocrisy to Say it’s Not! While I am following closely various discussions on Western mass media and social media, simultaneously engaging in several direct exchanges, one overwhelming leitmotif that I see is clearly emerging: “What is happening in the United States (and the UK, France and other parts of Western Empire) is not really about the race. Let us protest peacefully, let us not allow ‘rioting’ to continue, and above all, please let us not single out the white race, Western culture as a sole villain. Let us have peace, love each other… Then things will miraculously improve; terrible occurrences will soon go away.” I have worked and lived on all continents, from far away island nations of South Pacific (Oceania), to Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. Of course, I lived in Europe and North America, too. Colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism – these are all my topics. Seriously! I have been studying them, investigating them; I wrote and made various documentary films about them. On several occasions I came very close to losing my life, confronting them. My conclusion after all that I saw and experienced and survived? You can probably guess it: “To claim that the race is not what has been, for centuries, dividing our Planet, is outrageous hypocrisy. Or deranged wishful thinking. Or something much worse: it is calculated blindness that serves only the ruling, white group of people.” To make it blunt: Our Planet has been reduced to only two races: White and “the other”! On top of it, the color of one’s skin is not always identical to what the West, in general, perceives as the Caucasian/white race. To be “white” is the state of mind. It means: belonging to the culture which perceives itself as “superior”. The culture which sees itself as ‘exceptional’, and somehow ‘chosen’ to judge and advice the entire humanity. It also means ‘a state of indoctrination and obedience, as well as lack of intellectual courage’. All this, in exchange for the privileges; fabulous privileges! “Plunder the world, and live well above your means; live grotesquely plush life! And while you are living it, do not forget to whine, demand more, and keep repeating that ‘you are also exploited and, actually, a very poor victim’”. Denying the privileges is part of racism, too, as it demonstrates unexpectable spite for the real victims! Or, perhaps, self-imposed blindness. Citizens of some countries, such as Russia, Cuba, and Turkey, may look mainly ‘white’, but they are actually not. They are not invited to the ‘club’, because their mindset is different because they are not submissive because they think on their own. *** Such conclusions may not be popular in New York, London, Paris, or Berlin. Especially not now, when the United States and the entire West are in turmoil. The culture which was built on blood, bones, rape, and theft, ‘culture’ shaped by more than 500 years of colonialist terror, is now turning, twisting, and trying to justify itself. It tries to survive while staying in a driving seat. Countless editorials penned by both ‘conservative’ and so-called ‘liberal’ scribes are carpet-bombing the pages of newspapers at both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Fear of perhaps mortally injured beast – Western regime and its citizens – is delectable by its repulsive stench, and it stinks for miles. Suddenly, most of the so-called ‘progressive’ publications do not want to hear from those writers and thinkers who are shooting powerful projectiles in the form of highly uncomfortable truth. Actually, in the West, there are hardly any true “left-wing” sites or magazines left, of course with some shining exceptions. What is really progressive these days? I don’t want to name the sites or publications here, but you are most likely aware of which ones I am talking about: they almost exclusively carry the stuff written by the Western/white men, for other white men’s consumption! They never cross the line: their criticism of the Western white-dominated world is half-hearted, “peaceful”; in short cowardly. A white man is an individual who has been brought up and indoctrinated in a certain way, who thinks, speaks, and writes in a manner that is expected from him or her by the Western regime. And all these ‘non-whites’, all over the world, including the minorities in the Western countries, are expected to sit on their asses, shut up and listen to him or her, but mostly him. And of course, to obey. Or else! Or else: they will be verbally attacked and humiliated, eventually, they will get sanctioned, their governments were overthrown, countries invaded. There will be corpses all over, the stench of burning flesh, overflowing mass graves. And ‘at home’, in the West? Bullets shot at their eyes, or necks squashed by military or police boots. So, what actually happened a few weeks ago to Mr. George Floyd, has been constantly happening to non-white people all over the world, to the entire communities and countries. Then, suddenly, people, all over the world, had enough! Almost everywhere, not just in China, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Enough of being treated as some lower, subservient races. Enough of being treated like a scum; brutalized, killed like Mr. Floyd! *** Now, in the West, both liberal and conservative media is making noises, claiming that Mr. Floyd was “not a saint”, that he used to serve some time in prison. What can I say? People, in general, are not saints. People and countries. Very often, circumstances make them behave in a very nasty matter. But if you are raised as a second-class citizen, if you are beaten, day and night, by your own regime, are you expected to turn out to be a romantic poet? Get real! Our countries, non-Western ones, are not always behaving like saints, either. But they are still better, much better, than those that have been murdering hundreds of millions in their colonies! Don’t they understand, in Washington, London, and Paris, why those millions of people, from Tokyo to Buenos Aires, from Africa to Asia, are now marching in support for the African-American people? It is because all of us, outside Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand, are somehow related to Mr. Floyd! Yes, we read those phony essays. We observe those cynical little smiles on the faces of the people who are denying racial and racist division of the world. Individuals who are defending the status quo, the rule of that tiny minority over the planet, so they could maintain their advantages. Some defenders of status quo are now going as far as claiming that the rebellion against the white rulers is actually some sort of dark conspiracy theatre, triggered by the well-concealed business elites, or that it is connected to COVID-19; but above all, that it is not spontaneous at all. It is clear, where they really stand and what they want to achieve. It is never “them”. It is always somebody else. They keep pointing fingers at some invisible bankers, or the minorities in their own countries. You know precisely what I mean. As long as it is not them! But it is all much simpler: most of Europe and North America are constructed on white racism. And so is imperialism, colonialism. Citizens in the West are voting right-wing scum, voluntarily, and consistently. Can you imagine a genuine North American or European “internationalist”? Maybe a few. Perhaps 1%. Not more! So, the proverbial gold keeps flowing in. And billions of non-whites are rotting alive, in all corners of the globe. My friends, my comrades, all over the world, are now opening their eyes, realizing what is happening in the United States and its colonialist daddy: Europe. Many of them, of course, already knew. At least they knew something. But those who did not, are now wide awake, getting well aware of the brutality of the Western regime, as well as of the racist nature of the “global arrangement”. Those who were, for centuries, manufacturing consent, justifying and glorifying colonialism, imperialism, racial discrimination, as well as Western supremacy, can suddenly do nothing to stop the avalanche of awareness. This may be the beginning of the end of segregation, of global apartheid. Just the beginning of the true struggle for equality. A knee of a beefy white racist cop in Minneapolis, which had cut the supply of air, killing an African-American person, somehow managed to trigger that avalanche. Nobody wants to live like this. Oppressed nations do not want to be threatened this way by those white Western cynics and nihilists: like Clinton and Trump, Navarro, Pompeo, and others. What a hellish troop of third-rate violent people! Oppressed minorities inside the empire, be they of African descent, Hispanics or Chinese, are sick of the vicious and repulsive racism. Mostly, they are frightened to speak. But now, day by day, they are gaining courage. *** The United States of America has been built on the genocide of the non-white people. The great majority of native folks had been slaughtered so the small number of the first and brutal European settlers could thrive. This is “to some extend” known fact, but learning in-depth what really happened to the original inhabitants of ‘America’ has been thoroughly discouraged. Word ‘genocide’ is hardly ever uttered, in connection with the first chapters of U.S. history. Actually, it is taboo. Slavery has been turned into folklore. Millions, tens of millions of broken, methodically destroyed human lives, is hardly ever presented in its real, nightmarish authenticity. People in Africa were hunted down like animals, tortured, raped, killed, and shipped like cattle to the so-called ‘free’ and ‘democratic’ “New World”. Does a country constructed on such macabre foundations have really any moral right to call itself ‘free’? Can it be allowed to police the world? It is as if you would allow that murder cob who killed Mr. Floyd, to run a nation! And those states which are now forming Europe? Their citizens are the descendants of those who were hunting down millions of human beings. Offspring of those who perpetrated and then got rich on such mass-slaughters as those of the Namibians, or people who used to inhabit what is now known as Congo. When dragged to the broad daylight, it is all very, very uncomfortable, isn’t it? Better to sweep the truth under the carpet, and talk about “love”, “goodwill”. And then keep robbing and murdering as before, far away from the cameras! This way, nothing would ever change. Repeating over and over again: “race does not matter; it is actually all about class”, could make those who are in control of the world feel good about themselves, even sometimes sorry for themselves, which is actually their favorite state of mind. But it is a terribly hypocritical and deceptive position. And it has to be unveiled if there is ever to be justice! *** On 3 June 2020, UN News, published an essay condemning the situation in the United States: “Voices calling for an end to “the endemic and structural racism that blights US society” must be heard and understood, for the country to move past its “tragic history of racism and violence”, the UN Human Rights chief said on Wednesday. “The voices calling for an end to the killings of unarmed African Americans need to be heard”, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement. “The voices calling for an end to police violence need to be heard”.” Ms. Bachelet, a Chilean, knows precisely what she is talking about! She knows what it is to have someone’s knee choking your aorta. Her father, an army General during the socialist era of President Salvador Allende, was murdered after the US-sponsored coup led by Augusto Pinochet. Ms. Bachelet herself was kidnapped and tortured. She looked ‘white’, but obviously not ‘white enough’ for Washington and its local assassins. What is truly significant is that even the United Nations (usually subservient to the US) is now unwilling to remain silent. *** Race ‘issues’ have to be addressed. Racism, inside the national boundaries, as well as on the global scale, has to be fought against, by all means. The depressing state of our planet is a result of racism. Look at the map of the world at the beginning of the 20th century, and you will see: a great majority of the nations were colonized by the West. Colonialism is one of the most evident forms of racism. It humiliates victims, it robs them of everything: of culture, dignity, land. To a great extent, most of the world is still being colonized. Even right now, as this is being written. Almost the entire Planet is brutally controlled by the racist West-centric education system, and by the mass media which is controlled by the White boy’s Western narrative. Things have been arranged, so that the people in non-Western countries have been ‘learning’ and ‘getting informed’ about themselves from the Western curriculums and the fraudulent sources disseminated by the US and British media outlets. That is grotesquely racist, isn’t it? Close to 10 million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in just a quarter of a century. It is because they have coltan, uranium, and other essential raw materials, desired by the West. But also, because to the West, their black lives matter close to nothing. My film, “Rwanda Gambit”, is clearly addressing the issue. But who cares? In the West, they rather watch porn, instead of learning the greatest genocide of the 20th Century, which they helped to trigger! And who cares about the West Papuans, who are murdered with almost the same intensity by the Indonesians, on behalf of their Western masters? After all, the West Papuans are blacks, therefore matter nothing. On those millions, mountains of corpses, huge companies, and even entire countries are thriving, prosper. While their CEOs and Presidents are talking rubbish about some ‘corporate responsibility’ and love for democracy. And most of the white Europeans, Canadians, Australians, have to sacrifice very little, in order to live their obnoxiously luxurious lives. Isn’t this racist? The entire arrangement of the world is! Soon, it will be impossible to hide behind all those lies. I work at the frontlines. Where human bodies are crushed by all that “love” of the white colonialism and racism, directly but also indirectly. Racist violence is the most repulsive and the creepiest thing on Earth. I want it to end; once and for all. I don’t care if some shops get looted or trashed in the process. Peaceniks who are crying over them are mostly sitting in their plush living rooms, watching censored news. They do not see those tens of millions of victims of racism rotting in tropical heat, floating on the surfaces of polluted rivers, thousands of kilometers away! Images of Mr. Floyd being murdered, slowly and sadistically, is as close as they ever got to reality. For centuries, they did all they could in order not to see. Now they are running out of excuses. Not to see, not to fight against the endemic global racism is a terrible crime. A crime that has been taking place for more than 500 years. The crime against humanity.

[doptimous]

Vloeistofmechanica en chocolade (Fluids mechanic and chocolate) – A RebelCaptain Food Travel Show Collaboration

A huge thanks to @moonprincess92nz for the organization and the beta. It was supposed to be one chapter for two destinations, it’ll be two chapters for three cities because I couldn’t escape Brussel and it became a bit of a monster. Sorry not sorry? Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter one – Netherlands

Amsterdam was cold and so incredibly humid Cassian was pretty sure he may lose a toe or two if they stayed outside any longer. After Scotland, he honestly thought no weather could really get him but he was wrong. Very wrong. At least Scotland had some mystery, a charming side that warmed you up the moment you walked in a building. Amsterdam was just cold everywhere, people were incredibly rude and there were bikes everywhere. Of course, tourists were the worst: a bunch of stoners who only came here to enjoy coffeeshops and girls in underwear behind their window. Pathetic.

“Hey, loosen up, hombre! It shouldn't be long.”

Kes’ arm wrapped on his shoulders and Cassian fought the urge to shrug it off. He was having a bad day but the team wasn't responsible so he wouldn't blow on them. Plus, Kes was having a hard time too because of all those damn bikers, so really, Cassian knew he had to behave. Bloemenmarkt, the flower market, was a must see in the city and if he wasn't so cold, maybe he would have appreciated all the stalls full of bulbs and seeds of every known decorative plants. At least, some of the stalls were a bit warmer but Cassian couldn't linger. They had a show to film and even if it would be nice to have some shots of the popular sites of the city, it wasn't the main purpose of their presence here. Or at least, it wasn’t why he was there.

Glancing around him, Cassian caught Jyn's eye as she was waiting for Draven's signal and he wondered how she could stand being there, in the middle of the street with nothing more than a sleeveless jacket and a scarf over her shirt. He had a huge parka line with fur and he was freezing! Finally, they managed to get a clear shot of the place and Cassian could ask for the famous herring sandwich he was supposed to taste. The Frens Haringhandel was a very small wooden box just on the south side of the Singel, the first canal around the heart of Amsterdam and it was a good place to get fresh fish but it was a cold meal and truly, Cassian wished he had something hot to at least warm his hands.

But the smoked fish was pretty good, the pickles crunchy and the sauce, soft and creamy wasn't too heavy. The taste of dill was a bit too much for him but it went pretty well with the rest of the ingredients. After doing his part and talking with the people in the restaurant, he watched with envy as Wedge picked something akin a fish 'n chips that looked awfully greasy but hot and when he saw Jyn stealing a nugget out his cup, he truly regretted going for the local especially when he could have had a hot meal and something to share with his camerawoman. But at least Draven was happy with the shooting and since he wasn't needed outside any longer, he crossed the street to the Starbucks he'd found a block away.

“Already feeling homesick?” Shara joked beside him in the line and he shrugged because unlike her, Starbucks wasn’t something he really enjoyed at home. “You know, I saw a nice Argentinian place near the station earlier and since we don't have anything scheduled for tonight, I thought we could go. Do you wanna join us?”

“Who is us?” Cassian asked because he saw the looks exchanged between Kes and her and even if it was nice of her to propose, if he had to be the third wheel between a newly formed couple, he'd rather stay alone in his room. Or he could go to a pub with Wedge and Kay, or maybe try some of the city museum.

Shara grinned at him and pushed his shoulder to signal him to place his order, which he did without really thinking. He wanted something hot and since he had no idea what the drinks were called, he just chose a plain coffee with double cream while Shara took some spice latte with lots of extra. As they waited by the register, she told him Jyn would be here too, because like him, she didn't have anything to do for the evening and Cassian may have stopped listening to whatever she said after that because suddenly his hands where blissfully full of warm cardboard cups for the whole team.

Apparently, Shara wasn't ordering a very fancy drink but many drinks for everyone, so she used Cassian to help her carry everything. As she went on her free time for the afternoon and the evening, Cassian wondered why they even had to stay so long in this frigid town if they didn't film anything else and he must have been too loud about his recrimination because suddenly both Draven and Mothma were pulling him to the side.

“Look,” Draven began in a stern voice, “we all know that Netherlands aren't the good place for food, right? But we're doing a family food show so we can't just have you drinking beers and eating a round of space cakes, even if Skywalker seems pretty eager to make photos of all the kind of weeds available here. And after all you ate in France, it couldn't be that bad for your blood system to take it easy for a few meals.”

He eyed him carefully and Cassian could only nod, because honestly, he was quite pleased with the slowdown in the calories intake. He just found this town tiring.

“We've only got two days here and we've already did one, at least for your part. We'll meet with Luke and Kay who went to get some pictures for the social media and for editing later but we don't need you. Tomorrow we have a typical breakfast and a fancy Indonesian place and then, we’ll move to Belgium,” Mothma said in her most appeasing voice. “Try to enjoy your free time here, maybe go out with your friends. I can ask Jyn to come with me for the outdoor filming instead of Kay, that way, you two could catch up.”

“No, it's okay.” He spoke a bit too fiercely and both Draven and Mothma raised their eyebrows at him. Cassian cleared his throat and added, “I don't want to mess with your schedule. It's okay. I'm tired anyway so I'll just go back to my room and catch some sleep. Thanks.”

Shara smirked behind her cup and mouthed at him with a wink, “See you tonight.” She seemed awfully pleased but Cassian refused to think about it.

--–

tellmewhatyoueatofficial Welcome to Netherlands! Ready to enjoy the ride?! #tellmewhatyoueat #Amsterdam #Netherlands #Bikes #biking #streetfood

@K2SOff Please, don't smoke and drive, even if it's just a bike. You're dangerous and some of us are working just there on sidewalk

@Jynserso erh, @K2SOff, you may want to rephrase your contribution, it can be misleading...

@walkstheskies BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!

--

The Argentino Luna was a small place on the ground floor of a nice red brick house and all the windows were covert with fairy lights and old ivy. In summer the place must be gorgeous. It still was in late November but with the grey sky and the grey street all around, it lost a bit of its southern charm. At least, since it was on one of the few roads of the center, there weren't too many bikes. And the moment Cassian passed the door, he felt better.

The smell, the music, the decoration, everything spoke of Latin America. There were soccer player's jersey on the wall and lots of black and white photos along the bar that showed tango dancers and singers. And the waiters all spoke in Spanish and even if their accent wasn't quite right, it was better than anything he heard in days. Dutch was truly an awful language and even if all the people he had to interview spoke English easily, they all had that heavy accent that made things difficult for him to understand.

Here he could speak easily. It was warm and dry and the light was soft, and when he went to the bar and found Kes and Shara already sharing a bottle of red wine. He would have felt bad to intrude on them if he didn't see Jyn in a corner sipping a beer by herself. He took a glass to pour himself some wine before making a tour of the small room to read the menu on one of the slate hooked on the wall.

He must have been still for too long because he felt Jyn move beside him and when he turned to face her, she asked, “Aren't you a bit too hot?”

Cassian frowned a bit but the question died on his lips when he saw Jyn flush.

“I mean, your parka isn't necessary here, right?”

Realization helped him relax and with a chuckle, he admitted, “I may be a bit of a nesh.”

Jyn smiled at him and his heart fluttered dangerously.

“Yeah, I've seen that. But I agree with you, it was cold this afternoon.”

“Say the girl who stays outside for three hours with only a scarf. That's nice of you to spare my feelings but it's okay. I'm totally conscious of my dislike of cold weather.”

She smiled again and turned her head to the side, looking for something, someone maybe, and he didn't know what to say anymore. If she was as uncomfortable as he felt maybe he should spare her the boredom of his company. Then she surprised him by taking his arm and leading him to the window.

“Come on, we've booked a table, you can at least get rid of that coat. If not, you’ll really feel cold when we leave.”

He saw she had her vest and scarf down on a chair and he chose to put his parka on the one right beside it before sitting down.

“How many are supposed to be coming?”

Jyn sat across from him, leaving all her mess next to him and she shrugged. “I'm not sure. Luke said he'll join us later but he may be a bit-” she made a gesture with her hands in the air and smirked slightly, “and maybe Kay would want to come since you're here.”

It was more of a question but Cassian hadn't any answer so he looked back at Kes and Shara, still talking in hushed tones by the bar and he asked, “Do we wait for them to remember they're not on a date or do we order without them?”,

Jyn looked at to the couple but before she could answer her stomach grumble and she flushed some more.

“Okay, they obviously have forgotten about us, I'm hungry and if I have another of this devil drink without eating anything, I'll make a fool of myself. So...”

He peaked at her bottle and saw a white snake wrapped around something red but it couldn’t read more than Mamba on the label so he didn’t know what to expect. When a waiter arrived, Cassian exchanged a few words in Spanish with him but he didn't get any real advice on the food. It was a steakhouse with good Argentinian beef but nothing out of the ordinary. So he picked a mix of grilled meat with potatoes and Jyn followed him, ordering the same.

“I have no idea what you said but I suppose you know your stuff, right?”

Cassian smiled at the compliment and explained to her briefly what he chose then he asked her about her strange bottle. He was pleased to listen to her when she began a tirade on the different beer brews the restaurant had to offer.

“I’m not an alcoholic, you know,” she said suddenly without looking at him in the eye and with her lips nicely pursed.

“That’s totally the kind of thing an alcoholic would say but I believe you.”

“How nice of you! No seriously. I usually don’t drink much even if since we started working together I may have had more than my share and…”

Cassian put his hand on her wrist to calm her and he was surprised by how warm her skin was under his fingers.

“Don’t worry about it. This job is crazy and from what I got, beer is the only thing Dutch can do.”

She pouted and stopped picking at the label of her bottle.

“And that’s why we’re here, amigos!” Kes said loudly behind him.

“Oh nice of you to remember us!”

“Yeah, well, I wanted to let you enjoy the very good company of miss Erso all for yourself for once!” Kes winked heavily at both Cassian and Shara who shook her head fondly.

“Well, they have nice cheeses too. But for now, meat!” Jyn’s smile brightened when she saw the waiter with his arms full of huge plates of grilled steaks and Cassian shared eagerly her enthusiasm. 

---

When Luke and Wedge arrived, they were already waiting for their dessert but he didn't seem to notice. Kay, on the other hand, looked peeved no one waited for him but didn't say a word about it. Jyn saw Cassian tensed a bit, probably prepared for an earful at the first occasion but for now, the Social Media Manager was high, both on weed and excitement so it was difficult for anyone to do more than listen to his rambling.

“I love this city!” He was bouncing on his chair and Kay had to intervene two times to prevent him from falling while Luke related their trip in the Red Light district. He showed them the photos he took and Kay and Wedge commented here and there about the shots he made to get a bit of the atmosphere but Luke kept on interrupting. Kes seemed fascinated but tried to play it cool because Shara was watching closely but the poor guy lost it when Luke told them about the weird condom shop he found.

“Why would anyone wear something like that?”

“Hey! I love condoms!” Shara must have had a glass or two too much because she was speaking way too loudly, especially for such a topic but Jyn refused to acknowledge anything around her and she kept looking for the waiter. She missed some exchanges but was suddenly brought back into the conversation when Shara grabbed her arm and asked, “Don't you too prefer when men have condoms? I mean, it makes things so much easier... No mess around, no stain on the sheet...”

Jyn blinked at her and she regretted her choice to face Cassian because he was looking directly at her and she didn't know what to say. Luckily Kes saved her by saying proudly, “I'm sorry, Bonita, but if your partner does his part right, it's not him who would make a mess and stain the sheet!”

Shara gaped at him and as if it wasn't embarrassing enough, he had, “Don't you agree with me, Cassian? It's your role as a man to make sure your partner is a mess before you even need a condom!”

Cassian looked as horrified as she felt but at the same time, Jyn really wished he voiced his opinion on the subject. Not that she even contemplated the eventually of needing a condom in her very professional relationship with Cassian Andor, but it was always good to know. On a very professional and informational way.

“That's the most nonsensical statement you could ever utter, Dameron. If you engage in a sexual encounter with a partner you need to protect yourself from, you can't really do anything that would involve fluids without being protected. The notion that a condom is sufficient to prevent infection is fairly biased. Most STI can be caught without intra-vaginal sex and-”

“Thank you, Kay,” Cassian cut brusquely, “we already know. Do you want something to eat?”

Kay sniffed, clearly offended at having been interrupted but he was also clearly hungry so he focused on the menu and let the topic drop. Kes was more difficult to deter but Shara did a pretty good job to grab his attention. So they could finish their night without glitch and it was only when they stepped outside that Jyn noticed how late it was. Maybe the idea of ordering another White Mamba hadn’t been such a good one because the world around her was swaying and she was fairly sure she was still on the ground and not on the canal.

“Are you going to be okay tomorrow morning,” she asked Kay and Cassian on the way back to the hotel.

“Of course,” Kay scoffed, “I'm used to getting up early and I'm perfectly able to function properly with minimal sleep.”

Jyn blinked, a bit stunned by his prissy answer but she saw Cassian shake his head and smiled when he told her in a conspiracy tone, “He's always more uptight when he's tired, don't worry about it. And thanks for your concern, but we'll manage. What about you?”

She shrugged and put her scarf a little higher on her nose. The night was colder than she thought and as they went along the canal, she caught in a freezing wind that made her shiver.

“I napped nearly half the afternoon today so even if we start early tomorrow, it’ll be okay.” She shivered again at a crossroad and suddenly, felt something heavy on her shoulders.

“You look cold,” Luke whispered in her hair as he wrapped his arms around her. “You should have put a coat or at least, something with sleeves.”

“Maybe it's just her way to get someone to heat her up,” Kes suggested before getting punch in the arm by Shara.

“Well, sorry to disappoint, then,” Luke answered with a laugh but before he could move, Jyn grabbed his wrist and said, “Actually, I think I prefer it that way.”

“Oh, come on, girl! You wouldn't say that if Andor were the one trying to warm you up and...”

“Cassian is always cold,” Kay cut, “so he won't be of any help.”

“That wasn't what he meant,” mumbled Shara but Jyn glared at her so she closed her mouth and made sure Kes get the message too. Suddenly Jyn didn't feel cold anymore but she still walked briskly, without Luke, just to avoid looking at Cassian. Her heart in her throat, she didn't say a word till she bid the whole team goodnight, praying for the low lights in the lobby to mask her burning neck.

---

tellmewhatyoueatofficial Careful, Amsterdam  is very humid! Don't forget to take cover if you're going outside! wink wink!#tellmewhatyoueat #Amsterdam #Netherlands #Safe love #humour #Red Lantern District

@sharathebae I love those condoms, they're all so colourful and fun! Stay safe people and have fun!

@bodhitherook oh please, please @walkstheskies, @jynsereso bring me some green stuff!

@jynserso YOU WANT WHAT?! I'm shooked, mate!! Did you meat someone when I'm not here?! We totally need to talk!!

---

If Cassian thought English breakfasts were greasy, heavy things, he had to admit it was nothing compared to the traditional Dutch breakfast. He was sitting in front of sausages, cold meats and a soft-boiled egg but mostly different slides of dark bread, some buttered some not and he had a variety of toppings, from various cheeses to chocolate chips called vlokken, and even colourful aniseed sprinkles. And yes, he was supposed to put the candy on the buttered bread and maybe he was a bit of a prude but he found it weird. Really weird. And honestly, it tasted even weirder.

Although he was used to cocoa in his meal, here it wasn't just cocoa, it was real chocolate, sugary and heavy with butter and cream and to put on very buttered bread, it was... something. But he had to try and to make it look good on camera. After three bites, Jyn put down her camera to Draven's chagrin, and she smiled sympathetically at him.

“Maybe you should just have some cheese. The orange one, the mimolette, is quite good. Not too strong, it tasted a bit like cheddar. Or the other one with cumin seed in it. It's quite good.”

As if to prove her point, she took a slide and rolled with some kind of ham, or maybe smoked fish, he didn't know, and put it all in her mouth.

“It's good, I promise,” she said while chewing and Cassian felt his smile grow. Trusting her was easy and he didn't see Luke with his phone out to take pictures of them nor did he see Draven mentioning for Kay to resume filming while he tried bit after bit, following Jyn's advices.

When finally, the filming was over, he moved to thank Jyn but she waved him off with a smirk.

“Honestly, I don't get why we're here. It supposed to be a food show and...” Her face was priceless when she looked at the horrendous amount of food on the table. Kes was having a good time with the vlokken and kept on teasing Shara to taste it but he was clearly the only one.

“I can't tell you. Draven himself told me yesterday that it wasn't a good place for local food so I don't know. Maybe that's why we have an Indonesian restaurant-”

“Actually, it's because Indonesian used to be part of the Dutch kingdom,” Kay cut in crisply and Cassian couldn't help but roll his eyes. For once, he was able to have a conversation with Jyn and of course, his friend had to interfere. But then he saw Jyn's teasing smile and they shared an amused look while pretending to listen to Kay's impromptu history lesson. It wasn't so bad until she announced, “Well, since you know the subject so well, I'll let you do the shooting. I want to enjoy a bit more of the city before we move. Because even if the food is pretty lame, the buildings are really great and I want to see more of it.”

She packed up her camera and went to tell Draven about the change of plan. He didn't seem pleased but when Luke suggested they take more outside photos, he relented and Cassian couldn't do anything but watched them go, a heavy feeling on his stomach that had nothing to do with his horrible breakfast.

---

Part of her knew she was acting like a brat but some other part was quite pleased with herself. Luke wasn't difficult and he went on his merry way without asking any question, as if he perfectly understood her mood without a word from her. So she was free and alone at last and even if she regretted leaving Cassian like that, he would be glad to work with his best friend again and she needed time for herself. The days in France had been hard, reviving too many memories she thought she had buried and the worst was she didn't have time to speak to Bodhi. The only free time she had had been in the middle of the day when he was working so she couldn't have a real conversation to maybe sort out some of her feelings.

Crossing another bridge, she stopped to look down at the water moving lazily under her feet. Amsterdam was peaceful and truly beautiful. Every house was different, some of red brick, some yellow stone, other forest green with huge windows and white timbering... It looked right out of a fairy tale book. And since so many people traveled on foot or bike, it wasn't noisy like other town its size.

Taking a deep breath, she turned to lean on the railing and looked up at the sky. Maybe it was the only drawback of this place. The sky was always grey, even if the sun tried to peak every now and then. On the other hand, it was the last days of November so maybe summers were better. With nowhere to go and nothing to do for half of the day, Jyn wandered the city by herself and she was quite happy to sit down in the back of the bus later that evening when they had to move to their next destination.

Cassian went to sit beside her and she couldn't repress her smile even if she saw how he mostly did it to avoid being with Draven and Kay any longer.

“Long day?” She asked in a hush tone and she enjoyed the slight flush of his neck when she came closer.

“You have no idea. And you? Had fun with Luke?”

She chuckled and whispered in his ear, “I ditched him at the first canal. All he wanted was to go back to the Red District and I couldn't care less about girls in windows. Plus I'm pretty sure they don't work before noon, at best.”

He chuckled too and she felt warm all over at listening to the sound. He stayed pressed against her and kept his voice low when he said, “Maybe he found love, you know.”

“In a bong of pot, yeah. I'm pretty sure his luggage is full of glass.” She smiled brightly then looked very pointedly at Kes and added in the same hushed tone, “But he's not the only one, and at least, Luke didn't try to get into anyone pants.”

“Did Kes hit on you?”

The question caught her of guard and she blinked stupidly before laughing out loudly. “No, I'm not talking about me. Nobody in their right mind would want to...” She shook her head and missed the confusion on his face. Then Shara's voice interrupted whatever she could have added by saying, “Hey, lovebirds, do you want some beer? I picked a few bottles earlier and I think we should try them to train our liver.”

“Why is that?”

“Because we're going to Belgium and from what I get in the planning, we'll be drinking a lot. Or at least, you will.”

She beamed at Cassian and made her way to the back of the bus and showed them an impressive collection of beers and a few snacks all shove haphazardly in her bag. Jyn chose one for her and one for Cassian and she rummaged through her own bag to get a small packet of dry waffles line with chocolate.

“Aren't you the thoughtful one”, Shara teased with a wink and Jyn felt her neck burn but before she could say anything Cassian answered with a smile, “Don't be jealous, you already have someone who looks out for you so go back to him and let us enjoy some calm for once.”

He waited for her to be out of earshot to apologize without looking at her and Jyn mumbled, “It's okay,” before taking a long gulp of her beer. It wasn't long before she started regretting it. Even if her T'IJ IPA was a light blond beer, she saw too late it was at seven percent so that explained why it quickly made her head spin. And after a day walking outside, she was tired and now in the back of a slowly moving bus, her eyelids felt more and more heavy. She tried to stay awake. She tried to make small talk with Cassian because he seemed to really enjoy being here with her and he asked questions about the placed she'd seen, what she'd liked and she couldn't focus.

She felt herself fall but she also felt Cassian catch her and when her head rested on his shoulder, her body curled against his, she didn't feel embarrassed at all.

Cuddling Cassian felt dangerously like home.

[queernuck]

The Ballot Box, And Nothing Else: Aesthetic Radicalism in American Political Thought

There are, fundamentally, three different approaches to voting that must be considered when discussing the particular weight of voting in an election, more specifically American elections, Presidential and Midterm alike: the ontological consideration of what a meaningful vote is, the metapolitical and metacultural significance of a given vote as a statement regarding American political discourses, and the potential effect of a vote on the outcome of a given race, ballot measure, so on. Through one example of Judith Butler’s discussion of assembly, as implied through its shared space in an interview where she gives a halfhearted endorsement of Hillary Clinton as a candidate and realized in examining the semiotics of such an example in relation to her work both on assembly and on performative, discursive creations of the body, as well as some irreverent analysis of the spectacle of voting, a certain sort of space wherein the act of voting can be at once affirmed and rejected, held in a kind of tense compromise as simply one performance in the pornographic life of an American settler, emerges.

To begin with a precursory exegesis of Butler’s interview, her reasoning behind Clinton is one that was not terribly uncommon, both in liberal and radical discussion of the election: Hillary Clinton was the better candidate due to the likelihood that she would appoint relatively liberal (by American parlance) judges to the Supreme Court, a likely task given the death of Alito and the age of other Justices. Butler’s position, that this makes Clinton worth voting for, can then be read either as reformist (that meaningful change can come from the Supreme Court) or as a practical consideration (that the reduction or restriction of certain reactionary aspects of American legal practice could be achieved within the Supreme Court’s decisions given the right makeup of the Court). The former seems to be more in line with Butler’s own thinking, or at the very least easily emerges from it. However, a more meaningful reading of her words reveals that the second is a far stronger interpretation, even if Butler’s own thoughts on the matter do not match up with it. Given the domestic nature of the Supreme Court, how it exists as a kind of solipsistic point of consideration for Americans looking toward their electoral interests, choosing Clinton would be worthwhile so long as a secondary series of conditions were met, which would imply a larger acceptance of the structure of voting as present, but not a personal involvement by necessity. One can only vote so many times; there are so few hours in Election Day and if one lives in a state that is part of a similar voting bloc, such fraud is only meaningful on a local level, if at all. The legitimation of voter registration drives as a tactic is one that works well in the face of disenfranchisement, but in large part specifically because it allows for the choice of abstention to become a possibility rather than a foregone conclusion. The nomination of a Supreme Court Justice requires a great deal of political collaboration, and the means by which obstruction and selective acts of resignification have been used by Republicans to select and confirm favorable candidates for the Supreme Court provides such an example. The supposition goes that, if turnout against Trump had been higher, straight-ticket votes had been more common, so on, there would not have been such a situation. Of course, this ignores that participation was, in many cases, a secondary consideration if one at all. The extent to which Republicans had been aided by the Supreme Court already in rolling back laws preventing various efforts of voter suppression was already in place, and in fact accepted by Democrats as simply part of the disparities of American politics. The electoral system had been rigged intentionally, gerrymandered on a national scale, and yet “going high” was still the Democratic strategy.  

One example, in Romania, shows that electoral structure can register abstention in a way far more meaningful than a vote, specifically due to the tension within the means that electoral significance, thresholds of democratic recognition, are placed in referendums like the one on a constitutional change to ban gay marriages in the country. Given the support of the ruling party and a comprehensive campaign to support the measure by many of the nation’s churches, the voter turnout was overwhelmingly in favor of the measure. However, the measure failed specifically because it did not maintain an electoral coherence: for a referendum to be recognized at least 30% of the eligible voting population must take part in it, but the referendum only reached 20.8% all votes included. Given the fervent support the Yes vote was maintaining, that the Yes vote was in fact the intended outcome of the campaign, a vote of No would have effectively been a support of the measure, as it would have pushed it closer to a point where it reaches that threshold of 30%. Due to the massive disparity between those supporting and those opposing, a conservative majority would have all but certainly won had the referendum met standards of legal acceptance, and as a result the only means of opposing it effectively was to refuse to vote, to take a specific stance of objection and maintain it in the face of temptation to participate. That so many accounts of Hillary’s loss note her victory in both the Popular Vote and large states often relies upon a kind of dual consciousness: some of the most likely Democratic voters who abstained due to objecting to Clinton as a candidate were ones who considered this in light of their own assessment of conditions akin to Butler’s: there was no need to vote for Clinton in their own state specifically because of the high likelihood of her carrying it. That the Supreme Court had been the one to hand Bush an electoral victory despite a loss in the popular vote should have been an indictment of a similar difference between popular and electoral results in the 2016 election, but instead the concentration on singular notions of abstention as due to a kind of uncaring privilege, a sort of radical liberalism that posits the non-voter as a nihilist white man within a standpoint theory framework. Radical liberalism, as a strain of thought, frequently makes genuinely incisive critiques of capitalist social formations while still maintaining a fundamental anticommunism. It looks to radical figures, takes on radical class character and consciousness, may even openly espouse certain radical ideologies within itself. There is absolutely room within radical liberalism for these critiques, so long as the tendency toward socialism is in fact a reaction to the very anticommunist ideology they too tend toward. The DSA is too far for most, if not all, and Marxism as a whole is anathema to their projects of decolonization, occasional opposition to imperialism, their naming of colonialism and thus the potential for postcolonial thought. Radical liberal notions of Marxist thought often position either Marx himself or those who adopt the label “Marxist” as racialized specifically as white, in a fashion that itself results in a kind of racialized maintenance of political hegemony. The appropriation of Marxist assemblies throughout history by this hegemonic ideation of whiteness is an Orientalist approach which names Marxism as simply flowing from colonial dominance, with a reactionary concept of a “return to nature” being invoked in some postcolonial thought. Ignoring that anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism have been almost uniformly Marxist movements over the past century, have been either started or maintained in relation to class struggle, have established national identity in opposition to a national bourgeoisie, a kind of colonial landlord resting on the plantation, a masked agent of bourgeoisie control standing in for a white body that cannot be present, is all ignored. Instead, a “self-actualization” which concentrates on bourgeoisie individualism, on the satisfaction of certain denatured goals surrounding colonial structures of power, of a refusal to enter into critical theoretical inquiries of postcolonial thought, a refusal of postcolonialism as a critique that recognizes and in fact fundamentally relies on the capitalist, imperialist resignification of culture as itself a distortion, reshaping, creation of time and history itself, the imperialist character of genealogies of cultural identity as part of a new bourgeoisie state, are inserted into the neoliberal development of a state’s identity. This has already been completed to a great degree in post-socialist nations like the former Yugoslavia, and is continuing through the presence of American colonial power through AFRICOM, the resurrection of the positions once held by the Chicago Boys in Latin America, the insistence by the United States on an irreconcilable gap between the ROK and DPRK, the necessity not of reconciliation but rather the completion of an absolute genocide against the DPRK begun during the Korean War. Radical liberalism can present itself as radical specifically because it maintains a kind of edgy aesthetic presence, using twitter wonk and various memes, irreverent positioning disguising a hegemonic structure of acceptance and belief, and a perspective on postcolonial culture like that condemned by Spivak, the acceptance of a cultural hegemony ossified in reaction to colonial control as itself a genuine and irreducible part of the culture-at-hand, one that must be not only accepted but maintained as part of a certain relativist positioning. That this relativism serves to further colonial power, that it involves a specifically anticommunist critique and requires one refuse to enter genuine discursive consideration regarding the sorts of bodies maintained by this control, instead requiring an anthropological and metapolitical distance for a “Western” onlooker, the insertion of a concrete Orientalist “other” into the space wherein such relativism could in fact be a tool of genuine postcolonial critique, is part of disguising the anticommunist character of such ideologies.

That voting is a favorite topic of theirs, then, is hardly surprising. It involves a singular action of masturbatory character, alone and yet denoted as an exhibitionist exercise, the kind of late capitalist commodification of voting as just another sort of transaction, akin to the purchase of an electorally appropriate Pumpkin Spice Latte (or, in rejection thereof, a more proletarian black coffee). Due to the means by which citizenship as marked by voting rights in America is specifically racialized, based in extending class violence to other significations of identity, the push to register voters purged from the rolls by new laws can take on a radical character in that it involves raising an awareness of how fragile the maintenance of a certain order within politics is, how much the apparent-democratic relies on not the voting itself, but the aesthetics thereof. The coverage of political candidates themselves casting votes is part of this, the notion that they too are included within their own system, that they are no more able to effect its course than the average voter, when even a cursory inquiry into this notion finds that an elected official in fact profoundly dictates the very terms on which voting may occur. Accepting the spectacle of voting, that it presents a kind of fetish within organization and moreover using it as a means of organizing other actions, of raising class consciousness, of discussing how the American government is able to create Reservations as non-places, as an absence-of-place, as part of an ongoing and centuries-long genocidal course of action necessary to maintain the settler-colonial libido, to keep fantasies of Manifest Destiny alive, to push toward an absolute genocidal end, the full settling of America, coupled with the intentional antiblackness of other voter laws, the way in which structural inaccessibility is found in so many different fashions, how maintaining barriers to entry is part of a larger hegemonic operation regarding antiblackness in America, how the policing and jailing of black Americans involves specifically creating a felon as a subject to take away voting rights, the ability to own a firearm, job prospects to increase the power of police to arbitrarily enact violence against a black person (by increasing the likelihood that any given brutalized subject will be a felon, presenting an a posteriori justification of the brutality) how protections around age, gender, ability, are all specifically forgotten within intersections and assemblages of race, blackness most particularly, is shown by the effort to organize voters. Thus, when this is made clear, when voting is used in order to show the profound failure of such a civic system, it creates potential for organization past the ballot box: after all, the old IRA slogan mentioned the ballot, but it mentioned other courses of action as well.

However,  the singular outpouring that radical liberals have around electoral politics specifically imagines the elected official as somehow beyond any consideration, as an ontological necessity, that the democratic structure of voting cannot take place outside of electing representatives. As Laclau describes with his concepts of Radical Democracy, the character of a vote takes on a far different meaning when it is radically shrunk, out of the infinite arborescence that is electoral politics and into a rhizomal interfacing of democratic affinity, where the most basic structure of organization is itself based on democratic agreement, direct affinities that do not require voting to be masturbatory, but in fact part of a schizophrenic exchange of ideation, the acceptance that loss of a vote can in fact be not only an acceptable outcome, but one that will be celebrated. Certainly, there are cases where metapolitical considerations lead to an “acceptable loss” within liberal politics, but these are rare given the acceptance of certain sorts of politicians within mainstream discourses. That the cynical reference to the “white working class” so common in radical liberal vocabularies often specifically excludes white working-class voters except through other acts of explicit inclusion, individualization of a potential proletarian subject, a rejection of the potential of an American proletariat not as a call for Third World consciousness or a revolutionary opposition to the colonialism of the American state, but rather as a means of focusing on certain standpoint theories, of using identity in order to justify the election of reactionary candidates that have goals well in line with many white voters due to the white supremacist power that extends in a vector outwards from them, separated from their positioning of themselves by the measure of politics, favoring overwhelmingly white bourgeoisie interests in the name of opposing a “white working class” imagined by vulgar considerations of socialist theory by other members of their party. This leads to a kind of paradoxical rejection of subjects outside of hegemonic whiteness specifically because their needs may be identified alongside those of the supposed “white working class”, in that the disproportionate violence done in rejecting those interests is not to those in these areas who are white, but specifically those outside of it, those who are rejected due to gender, or orientation, or race but still are marked as belonging more meaningfully to the area, the district, the population marked in electoral terms as that of a “white working class” area.

Of course, these radical politics are hardly anything without their counterparts. The radical right, in America, needs little introduction but I feel compelled to take a genuine look at it, given the means by which it has reorganized itself from a neoconservative worldview into one that is increasingly adopting not merely the past fascist fetishes of neoliberalism, the kind of pornographic displays of a fascist libido seen in colonial action, but in fact is itself tending toward a fascist aesthetic, is accepting and creating new fascist ideological positions, is tending toward certain kinds of fascist thought which are themselves absolutely comprehensible, are not the aberration that they are made out to be but in fact a fully American phenomena, truly patriotic and truly acceptable within this electoral system. This has fueled, as well, the emergence of a radical centrism, an apparently-apolitical movement that has a cryptofascist character to it, that either spills out into neoreactionary thought or hides it behind acts of political renaming, a measuring of distance between the content of thought and its intention, the action at hand regarding it. It serves to distance itself from the American moderate conservative, the “Boomer” figure, by adopting a kind of neofascist ironic appearance, one that eschews the duplicitous substitution of language so expertly crafted within neoconservatism for a new kind of duplicity based in an outright declaration of fascist principles followed by a kind of tunneling underneath: it shows a kind of “weakness” to the aesthetics of fascism, their own grandiosity and decadence, in order to create a means of realizing them. It is almost akin to the sort of seriousness found in Drag and Camp, the blending of humorous separation and earnest engagement into a unified whole that can be easily excused as “just a joke” despite the totality which it serves to influence. A reliance on voting, here, is far less necessary specifically because fascism presents itself in a hegemonic articulation, its anticapitalism is in fact a transition into a stage of development which maintains capitalist orders of production, simply redistributed in a new fashion amongst representatives of a chosen class, a newly-minted bourgeoisie that hardly looks any different from the old one, but with a refreshing totalitarian candor and a passing resemblance to the workers in their factories.

Meanwhile, the average “centrist” of American politics, caught within this shift toward a neoliberal aesthetic of rebellion and one that accepts a turn toward fascism, sees a principled objection in declaring potentially revolutionary sentiments from absolutely incorrect reasoning. Voting is done “independently” in a way that, effectively, boils down to a particular kind of capitalist acceptance, a weighing of exactly how they see capitalist ideology as developing, as a means of crafting a political identity that is as unobjectionable as possible within American political discourses. Voting, then, is an exercise like any other personal choice, one that will lead to an ultimately good conclusion even if it involves a good-natured defeat on the part of the centrist themselves. That their condemnation of fascism is far less spirited, far more sympathetic than their reliance on continuing American realization of anticommunist ideology, the way that one finds many “centrists” opposing Antifascist Action, seeing soldiers and police officers as fundamentally good people simply following orders rather than the enforcers of a violent colonial regime, the sort of refusal to acknowledge any politics beyond the ballot, involves a larger strain of liberal thought which emphasizes the singularity of voting as an act of political determination, of one that radically signifies all other political actions. Your vote is your life, and your life is only as good as your vote.

And so, Clinton lost, Trump won, the Supreme Court took a turn further toward its already-present fascist identity, and liberals again believe that voting can fix this, even if it requires their most fundamental misunderstandings of what ends are achievable through this liberal-democratic process. Rather than accepting the sorts of strategies around voting that see it as an opportunity to organize, to highlight opposition as a larger series of positions, to accept the symbolic and ineffectual quality of certain votes, it is instead held up in spite of its impotence as the absolute model of the democratic position stopping the fascist creep. It would do these people well to remember that “blue” is not usually the color used to describe those who most ardently stand against fascism, but that is something that will take a long time to understand without it being sublimated into an appropriated history of polite and peaceful change against apartheid, sexualized oppression, the making of war and sexual violence and genocidal maintenance of global hegemony into a blase concept such as “foreign policy.”

Maybe this guy will give you better taxes.

[brianha402]

Code a Game of 안전공원 with Python #4

This is a $5 "red light" progressive side bet that pays $1,000,000 for a royal flush in spades, using the player's five-card hand. For all the rules and analysis, please see my page on the Millionaire Progressive. To play the progressive jackpot, drop a chip in the slot, which turns on the light for that seat for the duration of the current hand. In US casinos, the rules of Caribbean Stud Poker vary somewhat depending on where you are playing. Its origin is disputed, but it is certainly related to several French and Italian gambling games. In this case, the player would request the bet be working in which the dealer will place an "On" button on the specified chips.

In medieval Europe, card games occasioned drinking, gambling, and a host of other vices that drew cheats and charlatans to the table. For whatever reason, modern gamblers love their table-style poker variants. Caribbean Stud Poker is one in a series of such games trademarked by Scientific Games, similar to the story of Three Card Poker. The addition of the progressive side bet is a nice concession to players who aren’t used to these games giving the house an edge above 3 or 4 percent. Half the suits use reverse ranking for their pip cards. There are many motifs for the suit pips but some include coins, clubs, jugs, and swords which resemble later Mamluk and Latin suits. Dealing is done either clockwise or counterclockwise. If this is omitted from the rules, then it should be assumed to be:clockwise for games from North America, North and West Europe and Russia; counterclockwise for South and East Europe and Asia, also for Swiss games and all Tarot games.

It surrounds the Ace of the supreme power, whose symbol is the fasces, and provides it with its name. http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?action=click&contentCollection&region=TopBar&WT.nav=searchWidget&module=SearchSubmit&pgtype=Homepage#/���이저공원 Utterly ubiquitous, playing cards blend comfortably into the background of experience as a way of passing time, and because they are used as randomisers or markers in games, playing cards are most often seen as a means to an end rather than the focus of attention. The most common situation is someone calling bingo using the next number in the screen before it has been called. Like the Pass bet, this bet must be at least the table minimum and at most the table maximum.

Court cards designed in the 16th Century in the manufacturing centre of Rouen became the standard design in England, while a Parisian design became standard in France. The payout for this bet if the chosen number wins is 392 chips, in the case of a $1000 straight-up maximum, $40,000 bet, a payout of $392,000. The player's wagered 40 chips, as with all winning bets in roulette, are still his property and in the absence of a request to the contrary are left up to possibly win again on the next spin.USPC's current brands are among the most popular in the world including Bicycle, Bee, KEM, Tally-Ho and Aviator. American casinos predominately use Bee decks in the gaming pits. KEM cards are popular in poker rooms, especially at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Bicycle decks are hugely popular with magicians. Number 35 is a 24-chip bet which pays 264 chips.

Before any cards are dealt, you place a bet in the "ante" box in your table layout. This ante bet can be any amount within the posted table limits.With each hand you may also play for the optional progressive jackpot. If you want to do this, you place a $1.00 chip in the chip slot in front of you. Like the come, the don't come can only be bet after a point has already been established as it is the same as a don't pass line bet when no point is established.By the 1940s there were Bingo games throughout the US. For example, after 10 rounds at 1 unit per round, the standard deviation will be 2 × 1 × √10 × 18/38 × 20/38 = 3.16 units. After 10 rounds, the expected loss will be 10 × 1 × 5.26% = 0.53. As you can see, standard deviation is many times the magnitude of the expected loss.

Comps are most frequently distributed through player rewards clubs. Racinos differ from traditional VLTs in that all video lottery games are played on a gaming machine.Thus, a player may stand on the two cards originally dealt to them, or they may ask the dealer for additional cards, one at a time, until deciding to stand on the total (if it is 21 or under), or goes "bust" (if it is over 21). The combination of a Day or Teen with an eight results in a Gong, worth 10 points, while putting either of them with a nine creates a Wong, worth 11. However, when a Day or Teen is paired with any other tile, the standard scoring rules apply.

State-licensed or state-operated lotteries expanded rapidly in Europe and the United States during the late 20th century and are widely distributed throughout most of the world. The expected value of a $1 bet (except for the special case of Top line bets), for American and European roulette, can be calculated as 모바일현금섯다 Drag Bingo events were first launched in Seattle in the early 1990s as a fundraiser for local HIV/AIDS charities. These are typically "Place Bets to Win".

which is registered as an historical object. Most VLTs are multi-game devices, allowing the players to select, from an on-screen menu, the game(s) they wish to play. They are also known as poker machines and fruit machines in some areas.In the United Kingdom, the farthest outside bets (low/high, red/black, even/odd) result in the player losing only half of his/her bet if a zero comes up. That is, it can be shown mathematically that a player will (with 100% probability) lose all his or her money to the casino in the long run, while in the short run the player is more likely to lose money than make money.

[burialsocietyrpg]

Far away, a door creaks open, and an unknown voice mutters a spell you’ve never heard before. Suddenly, a porcelain masked figure in bright fuchsia robes apparates into view before you, hand outstretched in welcome.. or is it a warning? 

WELCOME TO BURIAL SOCIETY, Admin Pixie! You have been accepted for the role of FLEAMONT POTTER. This is where I would gush and talk about what I liked about the app, but it seems a little self-congratulatory and I’m not sure that we’ve earned that. Insert clever joke about how well you seem to know the character here. Pause for canned laugh track.

Now that you’ve been initiated, travel by floo network to THE CHECKLIST –– remember to enunciate, we don’t want any accidents –– and be sure to send in your character blog within the next 48 hours unless you want to come down with a bad case of vanishing sickness!

O U T  O F  C H A R A C T E R

NAME/ALIAS: I’m Admin Pixie, but when I don’t have my admin hat on, you can call me Moe!

PRONOUNS: She/Her

AGE: 23

TIMEZONE: GMT+3

TRIGGERS:  [redacted]

ACTIVITY: 10/10 –– If I’m not online I’m lurking, and if I’m not lurking I’m online. In the circumstances under which I’m neither online nor lurking, I’m probably doing uni stuff or other real life nonsense.

ANYTHING ELSE? [redacted]

I N  C H A R A C T E R

NAME/ALIAS: Fleamont Rashmik Potter

FLEAMONT ––  latin & french. fleeing mountain RASHMIK –– gujarati. little light beam POTTER –– english. pottery maker –– OFTEN NICKNAMED: Monty by friends, Flea by foes

FACECLAIM: Avan Jogia

PRONOUNS & GENDER: Cis man, he/him

BIRTHDAY: April 17th, 1925. Aries.

Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, and that’s pretty much how those born under this sign see themselves: first. Aries are the leaders of the pack, first in line to get things going. Whether or not everything gets done is another question altogether, for an Aries prefers to initiate rather than to complete. Do you have a project needing a kick-start? Call an Aries, by all means. The leadership displayed by Aries is most impressive, so don’t be surprised if they can rally the troops against seemingly insurmountable odds—they have that kind of personal magnetism.

BLOOD STATUS: Fleamont is a pureblood wizard, and was raised as such, although it seemed to always mean a little more to his mother than it did to his father. His mother had always impressed upon him the importance of representing their family well due to their reputation and legacy. His father had irritated her greatly when he’d earned their exclusion from the sacred twenty-eight due to his outspoken views on muggles and muggleborns. Fleamont in this case, as in most cases, tended to agree with his father. He’d never thought himself special for any reasons due to his blood or lineage and thought it insulting that worth or value in people should be decided on anything other than their individual accomplishments. 

OCCUPATION: Fleamont currently works for the ministry as a licensed Obliviator. It’s not the job of his dreams, but due to his background experience in charms and defensive magic built up after a childhood spent bullied for his name, it was easy enough to rise up in the ranks to the mid-level position he finds himself in today. His five year plan has illustrated the distinct possibility of him being able to snag a seat amongst the wixen of Wizengamot, however–– though now that remains to be seen, as for the first time since his graduation from Hogwarts, Fleamont has been occupied with other pursuits and goals.

POSSESSIONS: Describe at least three ( 3 ) possessions of theirs. They don’t have to be prized or valuable in any way.

001 –– INVISIBILITY CLOAK. An heirloom from his father’s side. It was what Fleamont had been swaddled in as a babe when returned home from St. Mungo’s after he’d been born, had been the main component of every pillow-fort he’d ever constructed, and now almost always stayed within his reach either used instead of a blanket when sleeping or carefully tucked away into one of his pockets enhanced with an undetectable extension charm. Henry had never taught Fleamont to treat the cloak as a fragile herloom, but Fleamont revered it all the same, coming to think of the beautifully embroidered artifact as an extension of not only himself, but now also his late father and the ancestors who had used the cloak before them. 002 –– FOEGLASSES. After his father’s disappearance and subsequent reappearance, Fleamont has been struck by a bolt of paranoia so intense, it turned his way of thinking and seeing the world upside-down. Having many friends and acquaintances in all offices and departments at the ministry was what made it possible for him to get his hands on this prototype. Foeglasses, named after the type of reflective material from which their lenses were crafted, are a type of bifocal spectacles that were crafted to allow the wearer to detect the proximity and identity of their enemies. Fleamont feels safer when he wears them, even though he knows they’re still in the early stages of development and are rather defective–– laughably, they even marked Lysander as a foe before he’d gone to the inventor to have him fix that issue, charming them to ignore whatever it was that made Lysander stand out as anything other than the most loyal friend Fleamont had ever known. 003 –– ENGRAVED POCKET WATCH. It was the one that had belonged to his father. The one they found on his waterlogged corpse. Of course it didn’t work anymore, now cracked and water-damaged, but Fleamont refused to let anyone else touch it or repair it, instead wearing the defunct device as a reminder of what he’d vowed to himself the moment he and his mother had realized his father had gone missing in the first place: that he would figure out exactly what had happened, and that he would bring those responsible to justice. Sleepless nights often found him ruminating on his plan of vengeance, thumb rubbing over the engraved words that his father had so often quoted aloud –– Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.

CONNECTIONS: 

LYSANDER ZABINI — partner in crime justice — Fleamont has always considered Lysander to be his one and only best friend, from the very first time they’d met looking up at the Hogwarts express with awe in their wide eyes at eleven. He’s one of the only people Fleamont still fully trusts, and that’s saying a lot, as after the murder of his father Fleamont doesn’t trust anyone. AUGUSTA ABBOTT — proselytization — Though he knows the kind of people Augusta calls her friends, Fleamont can’t help but try and get closer to her in order to convince her to join his cause, having heard from several people all about what an asset she would be. EUPHEMIA GIBBON — star crossed — Euphemia has been the object of Fleamont’s affection on and off, secretly and not-so-secretly, from as early as his his fifth year. However, no matter how close he tries to get to her, something seems to stand in the way, to pull her away from him, much to Fleamont’s constant and confused heartache.

HEADCANONS: 

001 –– Ashwina Potter, née Kaushik, raised her son as any fine wizard back home would have been raised –– she made sure he knew of and respected the traditions Ashwina herself had been raised with; that he respected and observed each holiday and festival, abstained from consuming certain dishes and meats, memorized at least three different prayers, and that he knew enough Gujarati to be able to read and write letters back home to their relatives in India. As a young adult now, the way he was raised often manifests in Fleamont choosing meals without meat at all when dining out at unfamiliar establishments, apologizing and cancelling plans with friends because he’s forgotten a certain holiday or festival was scheduled to take place on the same date, and during formal events, to make his mother happy he dons a beautifully embroidered Jodhpuri suit. 002 –– The first time Fleamont had ever tasted coffee, he’d had to quickly cover up the grimace his expression wanted to twist into, and instead swallowed that bitter hot bean water down and tried for a queasy, shaky smile. Never again. He's always held the opinion that if anyone should be drinking anything, it was tea. Black tea clouded with fresh milk and sweetened with a respectable amount of sugar was what made his world go ‘round. If he wasn’t amongst plebeians he would of course steep that tea with cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and sometimes when he wanted to feel special he would add in candied ginger and star anise. 003 –– Growing up with unmanageable and untamable hair that seemed to have a mind of its own as well as its own idea of what length it should be, Fleamont Potter had spent much of his adolescence looking for a solution. This slowly turned into an affinity for potions and brewing, resulting in his experimentation for various balms, salves, and other brews that he had no choice but to experiment with on himself. At some point in his sixth year he seemed to have struck gold, and for once he was bombarded with a flurry of compliments and questions as to what he’d done with his hair. He’d patented the solution, starting a small company and selling a few tins of the hair cream under the name Sleekeazy's Hair Potion –– He felt guilty about liking potions so much, especially because he and his father had always agreed that Fleamont would be following in Henry’s footsteps, and didn’t want this venture to affect the future that had already been mapped out for him –– and now he has it on good authority that it’s gained quite a bit of popularity across the pond, over in America.

004 –– Growing up, Fleamont Potter had always hated his name. No matter how many times Henry assured him that it was a fine and upstanding family name, it did nothing to shield him against the merciless bullies that would target him and call him names almost half as cruel as his given one. Eventually, Fleamont had had enough and, against his father’s wishes, studied up on defensive magic enough to beat anyone who had anything to say about his name in a duel so thoroughly that larger-than-life rumors began to spread about him and what he could do, and the bullying swiftly stopped. His father grounded him for three months when he found out, marking it as Fleamont’s first and last defiance against his father’s wishes, but even so Fleamont couldn’t help but smile every time he walked down the halls of his school after the fact, unbothered and unworried. 005 –– After graduating Hogwarts, Fleamont had entered an internship program at the Ministry of Magic almost immediately, and moved out of his family home to live in a small flat just above the Leaky Cauldron. Though his mother had been reluctant to let him go, Henry Potter had assured her that it was good for the boy to gain some independence. Fleamont has lived there to this day with a golden-eyed tabby cat he’d affectionately named Odoti, and a roommate. Though he could certainly afford to live alone off of his earnings from Sleekeazy’s, he still preferred to share the space with another person, more for company than anything else. Lately, though, Fleamont has been spending less time at the flat and more time either in his office or back at the Potter manor, caring for his mother. 

WRITING SAMPLE: [redacted]

ANYTHING ELSE? [redacted]

O P T I O N A L

[redacted]

[otapleonehalf]

Defining Anime

What is anime? Before we can define something we have to know what it is we’re defining.

The Entomology of Anime

Remember the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding and how he insisted that every word comes from Greek?

So no one is actually sure where the word “anime” (written in Japanese as: アニメ) actually came from, but there are two main theories.

The first, is that it’s effectively an abbreviation of the English word “animation”.

animation -> animeishiyon -> anime

This is the currently more popular theory. The second theory, which was more popular in the 80s, is that it’s derived from the French word “animé” meaning animated or lively.

animé -> anime

But it doesn’t matter which theory you like because both the English and the French are derived from the same Latin root “anima” meaning spirit. And the Latin is in turn derived from the Greek “anemos” meaning wind.

anemos -> anima -> animation -> animeishiyon -> anime

anemos -> anima -> animé -> anime

So there you go.

Defining Anime

Anime as it’s used in the Japanese language is simply the word for animation, any and all kinds.

But anime as it’s used in the English language is used to refer to animation that originates from Japan.

Look up “anime” in an English dictionary and we get this:

Dictionary definition an·i·me noun: a style of animation originating in Japan that is characterized by stark colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in action-filled plots often with fantastic or futuristic themes. – Merriam Webster Dictionary (2017)

The dictionary definition is obviously just meant for someone who has never heard of anime and has no concept of what it could be. It gives a very generalized idea of what anime is, and isn’t useful to those who specialize in the niche interest.

As a result, English speaking anime fandom has been left to their own devices when it comes to defining the word that describes what it is they’re passionate about.

Defining by Nationality

I want to get this one out of the way. Monty Oum, the director of RWBY, puts it nicely in an interview from 2013:

“Some believe just like Scotch needs to be made in Scotland, an American company can’t make anime. I think that’s a narrow way of seeing it. Anime is an art form, and to say only one country can make this art is wrong.“

It’s not as if only Japanese people are allowed to write haiku or play the biwa. There’s no reason anime should be enforced as an art form that’s dependent on the artist’s citizenship status. So let’s move on to a different method.

Defining by Geography

Animation that was entirely made in Japan and then solely released in Japan may have once been a commonality but contemporary anime is a vaster art form that can’t be pinned to a single point on a map, thanks to globalization. After all as western fans, we’re proof that anime has crossed boarders and expanded beyond Japan.

Many anime are not even physically made in Japan anymore. In 2012, Jonathan Clements estimated a third of the labor for Japanese animation was outsourced outside of Japan and speculates that number has only risen since.

Hand animation for in-betweens and other parts of the animating process are outsourced primarily to South Korea, but also other places like China and India, for the sake of cutting costs. A simple solution many take is to simply insist that only the lead creatives of an animated project must reside in Japan in order for that project to be categorized as anime. Yet there are many examples where none of the projects staff reside in Japan, providing widely accepted exceptions to the idea that anime must be created in Japan.

South Korean animation is included in online anime databases such as MyAnimeList, Anime-Planet and Kitsu. Films that are entirely produced and debut in South Korea like Yobi the Five Tailed Fox, The House and Oseam are counted as anime by the aforementioned sites despite having no apparent connection to Japan.

Simply expanding Japan’s aura to neighboring countries doesn’t tidy things up as one of America’s largest anime conventions has yet to realize.

Otakon tries to take the geography route when defining anime, as in anime music video, for its annual event. Here’s an except from Otakon’s AMV Guidelines via its website in 2017:

“’Anime’ footage is loosely determined by the animation studio that produced the art for the show. If it is an Asian studio, then the footage will likely be allowed. If it is not, then your entry could be disqualified.

Sorry, but by this definition, ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ and ‘The Legend of Korra’ are not ‘anime’ and will be disqualified.

We have to draw the line somewhere.”

Otakon defines anime as animation produced by an Asian studio, ergo making Avatar footage disqualified from its AMV competitions.

But whoever came up with this policy clearly didn’t choose the best wording. The studios responsible for the art and animation of Avatar are DR Movie, JM Animation and MOI Animation which are all South Korean studios. South Korea is an Asian country, ergo Avatar actually fits Otakon’s definition of anime perfectly.

It doesn’t make sense to narrow anime down to animation that was made in Japan, debuts in Japan and intended solely for the Japanese market just so it can be tied down to one spot on the planet. This method isn’t useful when there are anime conceived to cater to overseas markets like Afro Samurai, Space Dandy, and The Big O II which were developed with the intention of airing on American TV. Nor does it provide clear guidelines for when Japanese studios collaborate with talent from around the world, like in the cases Oban Star Racers and Mysterious Cities of Gold which are both French co-productions. Is it really worth excluding such titles from the category of anime in the current global era? I think not.

Defining by Art Style

This is a fun one. Anime is anime because it looks like anime, right?

But what does anime look like?

When most people hear the word anime, certain visual qualities spring to mind. Big shiny eyes, crazy colored hair that stands on end, long bodies in elaborate costumes. Shows like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Sailor Moon, Code Geass,  Tenchi Muyo!, and Lucky Star flash in our heads when we think about the art style associated with anime.

But if that’s what anime really looks like, then why would there be an discontent over shows like Avatar or RWBY being called anime?

We’ve already gone over why the country of origin of these shows isn’t the best measure, so what’s wrong with just judging an anime by its looks?

The issue with this approach is that it’s incredibly subjective. There’s no list a visual traits shared among all anime. Anime like Tekkonkinkreet and the Tatami Galaxy hardly resemble the same art style of shows like Sailor Moon.

They might not immediately come to mind when the medium of anime is mentioned but that doesn’t mean they don’t still exist within that medium.

And then there’s anime that imitate western animation and actively defy typical Japanese aesthetics, like FLCL or Panty and Stocking.

In the case of Panty and Stocking, not only is the whole show modeled after a western art style (as opposed to only a few seconds), but the content of the series is effectively a love letter to western media. Under the assumption that anime must have a certain look to it, a show like Panty and Stocking would have it’s anime status revoked.

So even if there is a supposive art style only anime can have, when did that art style come into being?

Classics that originate from the 1960s like Kimba the White Lion and Sazae-san pull heavy inspiration from western animation.

Astro Boy fits in much better with characters like Steamboat Willie and Betty Boop than he does with any of the characters from say, Akira or One Piece. So is it really okay to exclude works as important and influential as Astro Boy from anime because the art style is dated?

Personally, I’m glad not everything in anime shares the same art style. I’m not sure the medium would have the same appeal if every thing looked like this.

(This is from Kamichama Karin by the way.)

The medium of anime clearly encompasses infinite art styles that don’t necessarily share key qualities with each other, rendering art style a useless means of defining anime as a whole.

So what methods of defining anime are even left at this point?

Defining by Intended Audience

This is my personal method of defining anime and it’s the most practical method I’ve encountered, and that is  to define anime by intended audience. If an animated work is intended for a Japanese audience OR an audience of anime fans, then it’s anime.

Here’s a flowchart to help explain it:

Let’s run through some examples with this method:

Sailor Moon

Is it an animated work? Yes -> Was it originally made for a Japanese audience? Yes -> It’s an Anime

RWBY

Is it an animated work? Yes -> Was it originally made for a Japanese audience? No -> Does it resemble Japanese animation? Yes -> Was it made for fans of Japanese animation?

The creators of RWBY have been explicit about how they set out to create something that anime fans would enjoy, so the answer is Yes -> It’s an anime

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Is it an animated work? Yes -> Was it originally made for a Japanese audience? No -> Does it resemble Japanese animation? Yes -> Was it made for fans of Japanese animation?

Well, Avatar aired on Nickelodeon and was geared toward children who watch Nickelodeon, whether those kids knew about or liked anime wasn’t relevant. No -> It’s not an anime

But the creators of Avatar have talked about how they took inspiration from Japanese animation and Asian media and knew that what they made could appeal to anime fans and wanted those fans to be able to enjoy the show as well. Yes -> It’s an anime

So something like Avatar could be argued either way BUT AT LEAST YOU CAN ARGUE IT!

You can back up which ever conclusion you reach with this method using context that surrounds any title. No more debates that are baseless like:

“But Avatar looks like anime!” What does anime really look like? Style is subjective. There are plenty of anime Avatar doesn’t resemble at all.

“But Avatar isn’t from Japan!” Neither is a lot of anime. Anime is medium of art, one that can, has and will continue to expand beyond Japan’s borders.

This method gives one the ability to construct a logical argument on why something should or shouldn’t be considered anime.

That said, there is a hole in my method. That hole is a universal audience. What if an animated work is aimed at everybody?

There’s a few examples that I think fit this case.

Ghibli movies, specifically the more recent ones, are made while the staff is well aware that their work is going to be seen overseas and that their audience is not just confined to Japan. Ghibli films are popular all over the world, and not just with anime fans.

Pokemon is another example of an anime becoming a international phenomenon. It has effectively grown out of the label of anime and is something much bigger that’s meant for global audiences to consume.

So is it possible for something to expand beyond the label of anime and become something more universal? I consider the examples above to still be anime. I don’t think it matters, at least for now, but it is worth thinking about as our world and the media with it becomes more and more global.

So next time you’re debating what is and isn’t anime, try considering who was intended to consume the work. It could make navigating those grey areas of anime a little easier.

[This post was adapted from my panel “But That’s NOT Anime!”. The information in this post was last updated Aug. 2017]

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Original content owned & copyrighted by Green Global Travel.

Having thoroughly enjoyed our time exploring Beast Wildlife Adventures of K’uk Tours  invited us to spend 0 days on a customized adventure, we leapt at the opportunity.

We’ve long been fascinated by history, from the ancient and modern-day Maya peoples to the mingling of indigenous and colonial influences after the Spanish conquest led by 6th century conquistador Pedro de Alvarado.

Our action-packed itinerary gave us time to explore ancient Mayan settlements such as El Mirador and Tikal (posts on both coming soon). We also visited tourist attractions such as Lake Atitlán, the charming small town of Flores, and the National Archaeology Museum in City.

But, for our money, the can’t-miss tourist attraction in is Antigua, a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. Antigua (whose name means “old ”) offers an incredible array of activities for a town with just over 45,000 residents, with colonial architecture, rich indigenous culture, massive volcanoes, colorful wildlife, and more. 

Here’s a look at our picks for the Top 5 things to do in Antigua, , with an emphasis on natural and historical attractions. 

Getting from City to Antigua

Top 5 Things To Do in Antigua

Best Hotels in Antigua,

READ MORE: 40 Things You Should Know Before Traveling to

The Iconic Arco de Santa Catalina

FROM GUATEMALA CITY TO ANTIGUA

Antigua is located approximately 35 kilometers (2 miles) southwest of City, which makes it easy to visit Antigua during your vacation.

But if you’re coming from La Aurora International Airport, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get there quickly. Depending on traffic, road conditions, and other unpredictable factors, getting to Antigua could take anywhere from 40 minutes to several hours.

Here’s a quick look at the various ways to get from City to Antigua: 

• Take the Chicken Bus: Although this option is cheap (around $.25 US) and rich with local flavor, we don’t recommend using the public bus. For one, crime can be an issue, as can the language barrier unless you’ve mastered Spanish. 

• Book a Shared Shuttle: This is the best budget-friendly option– usually $0 to $5 per person– and can be reserved in advance. There’s even an eco-friendly option, READ MORE: Things to Do in for Nature Lovers

  5 THINGS TO DO IN ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA

The fantastic facade of the Antigua Cathedral

. Visit the Antigua Cathedral

Also known as the Saint Joseph Cathedral (or Catedral de San José in Spanish), the Antigua Cathedral is located right on the city’s popular Parque Central. 

The original church was built on the site sometime around 54, but suffered through a number of devastating earthquakes and was ultimately demolished in 669. It was rebuilt over the next decade, and by the mid-700s it was one of the largest 773 earthquake, which began on July 29 and lasted through December. Antigua (then known as Santiago de los Caballeros de ) was at that time the colonial capital of Central America. But the earthquake’s destruction was so bad, Spanish authorities decided to move the capital to what is now known as City.  

Fortunately, the two front towers remained mostly intact and were extensively restored in the early 800s, and the cathedral was partially rebuilt. Get up close to the gorgeous facade and you’ll notice hands missing from some of the statues of saints, which could not be repaired after the earthquake damaged them.

The inside of the church is now an extremely popular wedding venue (there was one about to start when we visited). And the outside looks especially beautiful at night, when the most beautiful of the many churches in Antigua, is illuminated. 

READ MORE: Inside Urnes Stave Church (The Oldest Church in Norway)

Violet Sabrewing Hummingbird at Finca el Pilar

2. Birdwatching at Finca el Pilar

Visiting Finca el Pilar doesn’t rank anywhere near the most popular things to do in Antigua, on TripAdvisor. That’s because this under-the-radar private nature reserve belongs to the family of READ MORE: 5 Beautiful Birds of the Galapagos Islands

The smoking summit of the Pacaya Volcano

3. Hiking the Pacaya Volcano

Located just over an hour from Antigua, the uber-active Pacaya Volcano has erupted at least 23 times since the Spanish conquered ’s READ MORE: Top 0 Volcanoes in the World (World Travel Bucket List)

Organic vegetables for sale at the Antigua Street Market

4. Shopping at the Antigua Street Market

Looking for fresh READ MORE: 50 Fascinating Facts About n Culture

Chicken Bus ready to roll out

5. Check Out the Chicken Bus Terminal

The Chicken Bus is a memorable, unusual part of the travel experience. These brilliant bursts of color are a common sight throughout the country, but it just so happens there’s an entire terminal of them right behind the Mercado de Antigua.

Known locally as La Camioneta, these vehicles begin their lives as U.S. school buses, which are typically auctioned off after 0 years or 50,000 miles. Most are purchased for under $2000, then driven back to and neighboring countries in Central America.

Once there, they’re transformed into something infinitely more interesting. The yellow paint is replaced by wild designs, with crazy colors running from hood and windshield to bumper. There may be artistic murals or names of the owner’s girlfriend, and you may find the exit doors plastered with wrestling posters.

The insides of Chicken Buses are typically decked out in festive READ MORE: The Chicken Bus, ’s Unusual Mode of Transport

Touring a Coffee Farm

6. Tour a n Coffee Farm 

As diehard coffee devotees, we’ve been blessed to tour some amazing coffee farms during our travels, from Antigua coffee for yourself. 

You can arrange a tour with breakfast or lunch included for an additional charge. Or, if you’re a serious connoisseur, splurge for a Professional Coffee Tasting Session, where you’ll learn all about identifying characteristics such as acidity, aroma, flavor, fragrance, and aftertaste. 

READ MORE: Best Coffee in the World (A Gourmet’s Guide to 30 Types of Coffee)

The Ruins of San José el Viejo

7. Explore the Ruins of San José el Viejo

Located just around the corner from the Antigua Cathedral in the READ MORE: 0 Ancient Archaeological Sites for Your World Travel Bucket List

A Child Vendor in Parque Central

8. Have a Picnic in Antigua’s Parque Central

Located at the bustling epicenter of Antigua, Parque Central (READ MORE: Complete List of US National Parks By State

Antigua’s empty streets at sunrise

9. Stroll the Empty Streets at Sunrise

If there’s any complaint to be made about the ancient city of Antigua, it’s that the tiny town (population of around 45,000) is in danger of being overwhelmed by READ MORE: 0 Simple Responsible Wildlife Photography Tips

Jade Mask at Jade Maya

0. Visit Jade Maya

Jade is a generic term used to describe two different types of stones, both of which are best known for their green varieties. Jadeite is a silicate comprised of sodium and aluminum, while nephrite is contains calcium and magnesium. Jadeite is the denser of the two, and comes in a more brilliant range of colors. 

Jade has been a prized part of Jade Maya was founded in 974 by archaeologist Mary Lou Ridinger with her husband, Jay. Mary Lou was the first to discover jade quarries in that had been lost for hundreds of years, since the time of the Spanish Conquest. As a result, Jade Maya feels as much like a museum as it does a store. 

We learned a lot about the history of Jade, not just in Latin America but also in Asia, as well as how to differentiate between the different types. (Let’s just say that nephrite doesn’t stand up nearly as well to a good hammering!)

There are some incredible jade artifacts and reproductions on display, as well as a slick modern shop offering jade jewelry, carvings, and museum replicas for almost every budget. Our favorites were the Mayan astrology jade necklaces, with signs based on the actual day (including year) you were born. 

READ MORE: Museo Maya de Cancun (Cancun’s Mayan Museum of Archaeology)

  . Eat at Restaurante Posada de Don Rodrigo

One of our favorite Antigua, restaurants, Restaurante Posada de Don Rodrigo is attached to the hotel of the same name. The hotel consists of three restored colonial residences, one of which, (the 300-year-old “Casa de Los Leones”) is a n National Historic Monument.

Located two blocks north of the Parque Central, the complex boasts an exquisitely landscaped courtyard with colorful flowers and a fountain at its center. Sitting outdoors on the shaded patio, it made a picturesque setting with Volcán de Agua looming large in the background. 

If stunning scenic views aren’t your thing, lunchtime at the romantic restaurant features lively music from a live Marimba band. Dinners is usually accompanied by a performance of n folk dancing (in traditional costume dress) by Baile de los Moros. 

But our favorite thing about this taste of old world Antigua was the tipical food. Traditional dishes such as Plato Chapin (barbecue platter), Chiles Rellenos, and Pepian (a spicy chicken stew that should be ’s national dish) were fresh and incredibly delicious.

As were the piping hot tortillas being made by hand right by our table!

READ MORE: 5 Weird Foods the French Consider Delicacies

Antigua seen from the Cerro de la Cruz Lookout

2. See the City From Cerro de la Cruz Lookout 

Wherever you go in Antigua, you’ll likely notice the Cerro de la Cruz (Cross on the Hill) on the north side of town.

The massive cross was installed in honor of the city’s patron saint in 930, and the hill was where American helicopters landed to deliver emergency supplies after roads from City to Antigua were destroyed by the 976 earthquake. 

Several years ago the road to Cerro de la Cruz from Antigua was the site of several muggings, but these days police officers patrol the area from 8AM to 4PM daily. We heard that police will also escort tourists up to the landmark from the Parque Central at certain times, but our tour guide took us up. 

Entrance to the site is free, but there is a 5 Quetzal (around 65¢) parking fee. Once you arrive, you’ll see numerous vendors selling water, snacks, and souvenirs as you make your way down to the Mirador de la Cruz (Cross’ Lookout).

The view from here is positively breathtaking, with the entire colorful city surrounded by the three dramatic volcanoes. The best time of day to visit is the morning, before the crowds arrive and the clouds gather to obscure the mountains’ summits. 

READ MORE: Ecotourism in Costa Rica (The Ultimate Guide)

Iglesia de la Merced

3. Visit Iglesia de la Merced

Semana Santa in Antigua, is widely considered to ranks among the world’s great cultural festivals. The exquisitely designed Iglesia de la Merced, which is located on the city’s north side, is where all of the pageantry begins. 

The Mercedarians (a.k.a. Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy)– a Catholic order established in Barcelona in 28– were the first to establish a monastery in the city formerly known as Santiago de . The church’s remarkable Baroque-style façade features an effigy of order founder San Pedro Nolasco, flanked by two Mercedarians and the order’s crest. 

The cross in the atrium and the rooms behind the main altar are the oldest parts of the church, dating back to the 7th century. The luxurious sanctuary and cloister were built by Juan de Dios Estrada, who wisely used low height and wide arches and columns to help the building withstand earthquakes. Iglesia de la Merced officially opened to the public in 767. 

The interior of the church is truly a marvel, but unfortunately there are no photographs allowed inside the building. The policy is easy to understand once you’re inside and realize that there are typically multiple different services and going on in the various chapels.

Antigua’s Holy Week celebration is one of the most popular tourist attractions, and it starts right at the church’s entrance. Natural rugs known as alfombras blanket the city’s sidewalks and streets, with vibrantly dyed sawdust, pine straw, fruit, nuts, and flowers arranged into intricate colorful designs using stencils.  

We’re hoping to go back during Easter at some point to see the famed Semana Santa processionals (which include 7,000 pound floats topped by statues of Christian icons) for ourselves.

READ MORE: The World’s Best Cultural Festivals

Photo courtesy of ChocoMuseo

4. Chocolate Indulgence at ChocoMuseo

Though many people associate chocolate with producers of artisanal chocolate (which makes sense, as many experts consider the birthplace of chocolate). This chocolate museum in Antigua is a great place to learn about the history of chocolate, as well as getting a hands-on introduction to the production process. 

ChocoMuseo offers an array of classes and workshops, as well as free museum tours. The most popular is their Beans-to-Bar Workshop, which is offered three times a day and gives guests a chance to make cocoa tea, European and Mayan hot cocoa, and a box of their own handmade chocolates to take home. 

Other offerings include 90-minute and 3-hour cooking classes (with meals included), a 2-hour truffle-making workshop, and a full-day tour that includes visiting a working cacao plantation. 

READ MORE: The History of Chocolate (& How Chocolate Is Made)

Photo by Kevin Sebold via CC BY 3.0

5. Watch Volcan de Fuego Erupt

Antigua has three massive volcanoes that dominate its landscape, with Volcán de Agua to the south of the city and Volcán de Fuego and Acatenango side-by-side to the southwest. Collectively, the later two are known as the La Horqueta complex.

Of these three behemoths, the “Volcano of Fire” (or Chi Q’aq’, which means “where the fire is” in Kaqchikel) is by far the most active. Located less than 0 miles from the city, Fuego lives up to its name by emitting small eruptions of gas and ash approximately every 5 to 20 minutes!

According to most records, it’s been doing this for hundreds of years, since the time of the Spanish conquest of . But occasionally these eruptions (which typically spew andesite and basalt lava) are much bigger, including significant events in June and November of 208.

The first one resulted in nearly 60 deaths and more than 300 injuries, with countless Antigua  residents evacuated and the international airport in City closed. The latter eruption led to preventive evacuations of approximately 4,000 people from communities in and around Antigua. 

In short, this is not a volcano I would personally be willing to hike, climb, or live anywhere close to. But the summit can be almost breathtakingly beautiful at night, when the fiery glow glimmers against the starry sky.  

HOTELS IN ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA

Booking.com (function(d, sc, u) { var s = d.createElement(sc), p = d.getElementsByTagName(sc)[0]; s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.async = true; s.src = u + '?v=' + (+new Date()); p.parentNode.insertBefore(s,p); })(document, 'script', '//aff.bstatic.com/static/affiliate_base/js/flexiproduct.js');

EL CONVENTO BOUTIQUE HOTEL

Our favorite hotel in Antigua, , this boutique property is a gorgeously restored former convent located four blocks from the Central Park. Rated 9. on Booking.com, the hotel’s spacious rooms offer an elegant mixture of colonial and modern touches, including plush beds and pillows, fireplaces, retractable skylights, and free Wifi. But some of our favorite features were outside the rooms, including the open-air restaurant, posh courtyard, infinity-style lap pool, and spectacular rooftop views of Antigua’s volcanoes.

Filadelfia Coffee Resort via Booking.com

FILADELFIA COFFEE RESORT

Java lovers flock to this family-run historic plantation, which has been producing exquisite coffee beans since 864. The resort (which has an 8.9 rating on Booking.com) features coffee tours, a traditional n café, a French-influenced gourmet restaurant, swimming pool, hot tub, and gym. The posh colonial-style rooms boast Egyptian cotton sheets, fireplaces, and free Wifi. The only downside is that it’s .6 miles from the heart of Antigua, but they offer free shuttles five times a day.

Hotel Posada de Don Rodrigo via Booking.com

HOTEL POSADA DE DON RODRIGO

With a 9.0 rating on Booking.com, this charming Antigua hotel is located inside three restored colonial houses, one of which is a National Historic Monument. All of the rooms are decorated in antique colonial style, with antique wooden furniture and original lamps and ceilings (some even have fireplaces). There’s no pool, but there is free Wifi and parking, a spa, a lovely landscaped garden patio, and a courtyard with fountains. But our favorite features were the on-site restaurant (one of the best in Antigua) and the proximity to the heart of the city.

Villas Santa Ines Emekarsa via Booking.com

VILLAS SANTA INES EMKARSA

Perfect for families or anyone interested in a longer stay, Villas Santa Ines Emekarsa ranks among the most highly rated hotels in Antigua, . They have 8 types of villas ( to 3 bedrooms) available for up to 6 guests, with standard, superior, and dormitory-style sizes. All room include fully equipped kitchens, coffee makers, flat screen TVs, and free Wifi. There’s also a patio, great garden views, and free parking. It’s seriously one of the best budget hotels in Antigua!

The post Top 5 Things to Do in Antigua, appeared first on Green Global Travel.

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New Post has been published on https://travelonlinetips.com/exploring-panama-one-of-our-top-countries-to-visit-in-2019-lonely-planets-travel-blog-3/

exploring Panama – one of our top countries to visit in 2019 – Lonely Planet's travel blog

Sunset in the breathtaking El Valle ©Timothy Cohen

Lonely Planet Pathfinder, Timothy Cohen, is recently back from a whirlwind trip around Panama – one of our top countries to visit in 2019. From deserted beaches to bustling, urban hubs, here’s what he discovered…

Panama has always been a mystery to me. All I knew about the country was its world-famous canal. The closer I got to its border, the more fellow travellers I met who seemed dubious about my plan to explore the country for a whole month. It seemed that Panama is ‘travelled through’ rather than travelled itself. People do often transit there on their way to Colombia or Costa Rica, leaving behind them a country full of underrated gems. There are several ways to get into Panama from Colombia, but since entering by land is impossible due to the Darién Gap, I was left with three options – taking a flight, a five day boat trip from Cartagena, or a three day speedboat trip from Capurganá. I chose the latter – less popular and a little more adventurous…

The San Blas Archipelago

My boat trip took me through the archipelago of San Blas, inhabited by the Kuna people, an autonomous, indigenous group living on 49 of the 365 islands. I opted to use the services of a Kuna-based company, San Blas Frontera, to be sure that my money would end up staying within the community.

During the journey through the archipelago, we stopped off at a few islands. Some were inhabited, some had a small number of houses dotted around, and others were completely deserted. As well as meeting the Kuna communities, I was also lucky enough to enjoy the beautiful, sandy beach with not a care in the world (other than getting sunburn). A different sunny island for each day of the year – definitely something I could get used to!

Meeting the Kuna people

On the second day of the boat trip through San Blas, we dropped anchor on the island of Naranjo Chico. This small piece of land is home to a Kuna village and a handful of ‘cabañas’, in which my new travel companions and I spent the night. In Naranjo Chico, I met Johnny, a young Kuna local living on the island. He immediately befriended me, and was pretty intrigued by my camera!

Fun fact: until the late 1990s, the coconut was the principal currency in this region. Nowadays, although the Kuna people do still use the coconut as a currency, it has been overtaken by the US Dollar and the Balboa. Currently, one coconut is valued at only $0.40, but the Kuna people still find it amusing to say that, in this region at least, money really does grow on trees!

The Miami of Latin America

After three unforgettable days in San Blas, I set off to reach the mainland, and arguably the most cosmopolitan city in Central America. Panama City is the country’s capital, and a truly modern urban centre. Skyscrapers and huge malls are a common sight alongside the dazzling blue coastline. No wonder they call it the ‘Miami of Latin America’. Many worlds coexist here – west and east meet in a explosive cultural mix.

The business neighbourhood’s skyline, with its shimmering towers made of glass and steel, reflecting the azure of both the ocean and sky, could easily be mistaken for any north American megalopolis. As seen from the historical neighbourhood of Casco Viejo, with its crumbling convents, colonial architecture and cobble-stoned streets, the contrast with this skyline couldn’t be more pronounced.

Panama’s adventure town

In a country like Panama, which is synonymous with beaches, surfing and sun, the city of Boquete will delight the adventurers and lovers of balmy temperatures. Although it is only located 1200m above sea level, it lies at the foot of Baru, Panama’s tallest mountain standing at 3475m, which happens to also be an active stratovolcano. A popular hiking route finishes with watching the sunrise from the top. I had other plans however…

The surrounding area is teeming with trails and waterfalls hidden within the lush jungle, waiting to be explored. One of them, known as ‘The Lost Waterfalls’, is a three-hour journey through a cloud forest, leading to three beautiful waterfalls. During the dry season, the waterfalls surrounding Boquete are not as powerful as they are during the rainy season, but the weather is much nicer and the light is jaw-dropping!

The favourite

Bocas del Toro is one of Panama’s most popular destinations – easily accessible and teeming with things to do, the archipelago will keep you busy for days and days! Snorkelling, diving, partying, hiking, surfing, or just lazing around on a beach, you name it! Panama’s best parties can be found on the busy Isla Colon, while nature lovers may prefer to stay on Isla Bastimentos,where the eponymous national park can be found. I, of course, decided to stay on the latter.

The languorous Caribbean vibe emanating from the small town of Old Bank on Bastimentos’ shore is tangible. There are no roads, just a wide, concrete footpath lined on both sides with colourful wooden houses and plants. This particular footpath will lead you to the highest hill on the island, where the 360-degree view of the surrounding islands is outstanding. The icing on the cake is undoubtedly the organic cocoa farm nearby, perfect for taking a break while enjoying the natural surrounds.

Chasing sunlight

El Valle de Anton, more commonly known as ‘El Valle’, is a mountain town nestled in the crater of an extinct volcano. During my time here, I was truly chasing sunlight, sunsets in particular! On my first day, I decided to climb the mountain ‘Cara Iguana’ two hours before dusk, even though the peak was lost in the clouds. I’ve learned many times that weather changes extremely fast in the mountains, so I gave it a shot. Just as I was reaching the peak, it started to rain, and I couldn’t see anything at all, but then the wind slowed and suddenly the landscape appeared before my eyes, a big ray of sunlight breaking through the dark clouds and illuminating the hillside. I was in awe.

Even after so many years travelling, I am still constantly amazed by the world surrounding us. Gustave Flaubert once said that ‘travel makes one modest – you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world’, and I can’t help but think how right he was!

Do you love to write about your travels? Or perhaps Instagram is your thing? Find out more about how you can contribute to Lonely Planet here.

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20 Things to See and Do in Bogotá

Posted: 03/25/2019 | March 25th, 2019

The capital of Colombia, Bogotá was the home to the region’s indigenous people, the Muisca, when the Spanish came around plundering gold and resources, and it’s been the country’s main city ever since.

Before I went, everyone told me Bogotá wasn’t anything special: dirty, crowded, hard to get around, and lacking the charm of the other big cities in Colombia.

“Spend a few days there and move on,” they all said.

Well, I spent a few days there — and then a few more.

I LOVED Bogotá.

It felt like the most “Colombian” city I visited. It’s not like the gringofied cities in the rest of the country. Its “gritty” nature was what appealed to me.

Bogotá was a vibrant, lively city I couldn’t get enough of.

The museum scene is incredible, there’s a lot of history, a blossoming art community, an exciting food scene, a wild nightlife, and super welcoming people.

It is also a huge city with a ton of tours, day trips, and other things to do. You could easily spend a week here.

To help you make the most out of your visit, here are my top 20 things to see and do in Bogotá.

20 Things to See and Do in Bogotá

1. Take a Free Walking Tour

One of my favorite things to do when I get to a new destination is to take a free walking tour. It’s a great way to get the lay of the land, see the main sights, and have a local expert answer any and all of my questions.

BeyondColombia has a great free walking tour that will give you a solid introduction to the city. It also has a free food tour, which is a terrific way to get a taste of some local Colombian dishes (you’ll spend around 18,000 COP/$6 USD on food for the tour). Just be sure to tip your guides!

For a more specialized tour, check out the Bogotá Graffiti Tour. This one operates by donation, using the money raised to reinvest in future community art projects.

2. Stroll in the Botanical Gardens

Opened in 1955, the Botanical Garden of Bogotá is home to almost 20,000 plants. There is a focus on regional plants, usually those that are endemic to the Andes and other high-alpine regions of the continent. It’s a really peaceful place to walk around, and there are some food stalls nearby, so you can grab a quick bite as you explore the gardens and browse the exotic flowers and trees.

Cl. 63 No. 6895, +57 1-437-7060, jbb.gov.co. Open daily 8am-5pm (9am-5pm on weekends). Admission is 3,500 COP for adults and 1,800 COP for children.

3. Climb Monserrate

Standing tall at over 3,000 meters, you can see Monserrate from pretty much everywhere in town. It’s a popular spot to take in the view, and since there is a church at the summit, it’s also a popular spot for local weddings. You can walk up yourself in under an hour, or you can take a cable car or funicular to the top. Keep in mind that the walk up isn’t that safe at night or alone — thieves scout out the route. Be careful!

The funicular runs Monday-Saturday 6:30am-11:30am and Sundays 5:30am-4:30pm. The cable car is available Monday-Saturday 12pm-11:30pm and Sundays 10am-4:30pm. Tickets for either vehicle are the same price: round-trip tickets cost 21,000 COP for adults (12,000 COP on Sundays).

4. Visit the Museo del Oro (The Gold Museum)

This is the most interesting museum in the entire country and sees over half a million tourists every year. Opened in 1939, the Gold Museum documents the importance and use of gold in pre-Hispanic civilizations in Colombia and is home to over 55,000 gold items. There’s a lot of information to take in, so be sure to get the audio guide (8,000 COP) or join one of the daily free tours.

Cra. 6 No. 15-88, +57 1-343-2222, banrepcultural.org/bogota/museo-del-oro. Open Tuesday-Saturday 9am-6pm and Sundays 10am-4pm. Admission is 4,000 COP for adults and free for children. Admission is also free for adults on Sundays, but it gets busy quickly so be sure to arrive early!

5. See the Salt Cathedral

Located about an hour’s drive from the city in Zipaquirá, the Salt Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church that was built in the tunnels of an old salt mine. It’s 200 meters below ground, making this one of the more unique religious sites in the country, if not the world. Every Sunday, up to 3,000 people attend church services here.

Parque de la Sal, +57 315-760-7376, catedraldesal.gov.co. Open daily 9am-5:40pm. Admission is 58,000 COP for foreigners, with discounts available for seniors.

6. Check out the Museo de Botero

Founded in 2000, this museum is home to one of Latin America’s most important art collections. The museum was created after Fernando Botero donated hundreds of his works to the Banco de la República de Colombia with the promise that they would be displayed in a free museum for everyone to see. In addition to his own pieces, included in the donation were works by Monet, Picasso, and other world-famous artists. Take a free tour or get the audio guide (not free).

Cl. 11 No. 4-41, +57 1-343-1316, banrepcultural.org/bogota/museo-botero. Open Monday and Wednesday-Saturday 9am-7pm and Sundays 10am-5pm (closed Tuesdays). Admission is free, and free guided tours are available daily; see the website for updated times. Audio guides are available for 10,000 COP.

7. Explore La Candelaria

I really loved this neighborhood. This is the old part of Bogotá. You can wander the narrow cobblestone streets and take in the eclectic architecture, with art deco, colonial, and baroque styles all calling the neighborhood home. Many of the city’s best attractions (also, many hostels) are here too, such as the Botero Museum, the Gold Museum, and several churches and universities. Watch live music while hanging at Plaza Chorro de Quevedo, try the local chicha (a drink made from corn, often fermented to be alcoholic) on the side streets, and take in some of the amazing restaurants in this district.

8. See the Santuario Nuestra Señora del Carmen

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Carmen is a Gothic church located in La Candelaria. The church has a red-and-white striped pattern — both on the outside and inside — making it look like a giant candy cane. Built from 1926 to 1938, the church stands almost 60 meters tall has some incredible Byzantine and Moorish art.

Cra. 5 No. 8-36, +57 1-342-0972. Open Monday-Friday 7am-7:30am and 10am-4pm, Saturdays 7am-7:30am, and Sundays 7am-12:30pm.

9. Visit Simon Bolívar Metropolitan Park

This is one of the most popular parks in Bogotá. Created in 1979, it spans almost 1,000 acres. You can find people exercising, relaxing, or attending concerts here. The park is named after the famous Simón Bolívar, who led the liberation of the region from its Spanish overlords.

Open daily 6am-6pm. Admission is free unless there is a concert or event in progress.

10. Wander Plaza Bolívar

This is the main square of Bogotá, home to Colombia’s Palace of Justice, the Cathedral of Bogotá, the mayor’s office, and the Capitol Building. It’s the historical heart of the city, with buildings from as early as the 16th century. Under the Spanish, the plaza was home to bullfights, circus acts, and public markets. Watch out for the plethora of pigeons!

11. Head to the Laguna de Guatavita (Lake Guatavita)

If you want to take a break from the city and get some fresh air, head out on a day trip to Lake Guatavita. Located around 60 kilometers north of Bogotá, this small lake is a sacred site to the region’s indigenous people and is apparently where the rumors of El Dorado originated. There are also hot springs in the nearby town of Sesquilé if you’re in need of some relaxation.

Day trips to the area last around 6 hours and will vary in price. Expect to pay at least 180,000 COP per person.

12. Explore Parque 93

This is the area of town with some of the best restaurants, nightclubs, and bars in the entire city. The park itself is home to an ongoing rotation of temporary art exhibitions. Located in one of the nicer areas of town, you’ll find a lot of good restaurants and cafés lining the park.

13. Attend Gringo Tuesdays

This is a weekly language exchange that evolves into an international party. Every Tuesday, you can meet with other locals and travelers for a few hours of conversation. Once that’s over, the real party begins and goes late into the night. It’s a fun, social night out if you’re looking meet fellow travelers. A lot of hostels organize party buses to the event, so if you’re coming from La Candelaria, this is a good transportation option.

Street 85 No. 11-53, Promenade del Faro, +57 311-492-0249, gringotuesdays.com/en. Every Tuesday, the language exchange occurs 4pm-8pm, followed by the party, which runs 8pm-3am.

14. Discover the National Museum of Colombia

Situated in the heart of Bogotá, this is the oldest and biggest museum in the entire country (and one of the oldest on the continent). Built in 1823, it’s home to over 20,000 pieces of art and historical artifacts, some dating as far back as 10,000 BCE. The building was actually used as a prison initially (it definitely looks imposing) until it transitioned into a museum in 1946. If you’re a history buff or just want to learn more about the country, this museum is a must.

Carrera 7 No 28-66, +57 1-381-6470, museonacional.gov.co. Open Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm and Sundays 10am-5pm. Admission is 4,000 COp for adults, 3,000 COP for students, and 2,000 COP for children aged 5-12.

15. Wander the Usaquén Market

Every Sunday, artisans line the cobblestoned streets to sell all sorts of local crafts and goods. While it’s usually referred to as a flea market, things here are a bit nicer and more upscale than some of the other markets. It’s still quite affordable, though, and makes for a fun way to spend the day.

The market runs 11am-4pm every Sunday in Usaquén.

16. Explore the Museo Santa Clara

This church was built in the 17th century and is actually one of the oldest in the entire country. It was deconsecrated in the 1960s and converted into a museum by the government. There are over 148 baroque paintings that almost entirely cover its walls, making this one of the most beautifully decorated churches you’ll see in Colombia.

Cra. 8 No. 8-91, +57 1-337-6762, museocolonial.gov.co. Open Tuesday-Friday 9am-4:30pm and Saturday-Sunday 10am-3:30pm. Admission is 4,000 COP for adults and 2,000 COP for children.

17. Grab a snack from La Puerta Falsa

This little shop has been serving locals for over 200 years! La Puerta Falsa (The False Door) is a small restaurant with room for fewer than 20 people, yet the tamales and ajiaco soup have been community staples for generations. If you’re looking to try traditional Colombian food, this is the place to go!

Calle 11 No. 6-50, +57 1-286-5091, restaurantelapuertafalsa.inf.travel. Open daily 7am-10pm though its schedule isn’t set in stone.

18. Visit the Iglesia de San Francisco

Built in the 16th century, this Catholic church is the oldest surviving church in Bogotá. The interior is incredibly ornate, with a beautiful altar that dates back to the 17th century. It’s still in use, and you’ll likely see some locals praying during your visit, so make sure to dress appropriately and be respectful.

Av. Jimenez De Quesada No. 7-10, +57 1-341-2357. Open Monday-Friday 6:30am-10:30pm; 6:30am-12:30pm and 4pm-6:30pm on Saturdays; and 7:30am-1:30pm and 4:30-7:30pm on Sundays. Admission is free.

19. Sample the local brews

Bogotá (and the country has a whole) has a growing craft beer scene. Bogotá Craft Beer offers a four-hour tour that takes you to some of the best bars and breweries in town. The tour includes a knowledgable guide as well as secure transportation from place to place. I highly recommend it.

Tours are available daily 4pm-9pm and need to be booked in advance via their website. Tickets are around 95,000 COP per person.

20. Take a food tour

Bogotá is a great city for foodies, and the best way to get a sense of the culinary offerings is to take a food tour. Bogotá Food Tour will take you around La Macarena, Bogotá’s bohemian and artistic neighborhood. The tour lasts three hours and will take you to three different restaurants where you can sample a local dish and drink. Tours also include pickup and drop-off at your accommodation.

Tours are available Monday-Saturday and begin around 7pm. Booking in advance is required so you can secure your transportation. Tickets are 188,500 COP per person.

***

It’s true that Bogotá is an “edgy city” with a lot of petty crime. Yet I loved the atmosphere and vibe of the city. It had grit (kind of like Naples, Italy). I loved the art, the museums, the food. The city has so much to offer travelers. You can really fill a lot of time between all the sights, tours, parks, and activities. I would have liked to stay longer in Bogotá if I could.

I’d budget three to five days for your visit. It will definitely be worth it.

Book Your Trip to Colombia: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe, so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time. My favorite places to stay are:

Masaya Hostel – This is a cool hostel located in La Candaleria. It has lots of common space where you can meet people and some comfy hammocks you can relax in; it also hosts all sorts of activities and excursions, from live music to salsa lessons.

Botánico Hostel – This cool hostel is relvatively new. The beds are comfy, it’s in a good location, and it offers free breakfast too!

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it, as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those over 70)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel — and I think they will help you too!

Want More Information on Colombia? Be sure to visit our robust destination guide on Colombia for even more planning tips!

Photo credits: 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 20, 21

The post 20 Things to See and Do in Bogotá appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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