#joyce ching

[artistaforever]

[llois-lane]

rick sounds with lyrics

Lyrics:

Cha-ching

Me-ow

Wait wait what whuh stop.

Aw.

Mehm.

Go fetch.

I'm in heaven right now.

Thanks dumb-dumb.

About nothing.

Huh. He's making himself a sandwich.

I said thanks dumb-dumb!

Summer.

Thorn straight up into my ass.

Me irresponsible!?

Baby.

It's fine!

I'm sorry.

Everything is fine!

My god, so embarrassing.

What the hell is he talking about?

I don't wanna hear about Mrs Spencer!

Why are you dressed like a waiter?

Mor-ty.

Honk shoo mimi.

Jesus Christ our saviour was born today.

Hi Joyce, Leonard.

They give you a carton of milk.

Motherfucker.

Argh.

Burp.

Yes Jerry, it's Tati.

What do you know about friendship?

Birdperson.

Birdperson.

Birdperson.

Was at Blood Ridge!

Burp. Oh.

Ohh, fuck. An ice cave? Shit!

Seven seven one nine eight three six four two one one two five.

Oh my god.

Vom.

Huh?

Okay.

What the hell - hell?

I'm. Not. Certain!

No! God!

It hurts.

Oh god, it hurts.

Exhaling.

Wow.

Argh! The Amish bitch shot me!

Seven seven one.

Three six four two.

One one two five!

Sigh.

[princesssarisa]

Opera on YouTube 5

Nabucco

Teatro alla Scala, 1987 (Renato Bruson, Ghena Dimitrova; conducted by Riccardo Muti; no subtitles)

Teatro di San Carlo, 1997 (Renato Bruson, Lauren Flanigan; conducted by Paolo Carognani; no subtitles)

Ankara State Opera, 2006 (Eralp Kıyıcı, Nilgün Akkerman; conducted by Sunay Muratov; no subtitles)

St. Margarethen Opera Festival, 2007 (Igor Morosow, Gabriella Morigi; conducted by Ernst Märzendorfer; English subtitles)

Rome Opera, 2011 (Leo Nucci, Csilla Boross; conducted by Riccardo Muti; English and German subtitles)

Teatro Comunale di Bologna, 2013 (Vladimir Stoyanov, Anna Pirozzi; conducted by Michele Mariotti; Italian subtitles)

Rome Opera, 2013 (Luca Salsi, Tatiana Serjan; conducted by Riccardo Muti; no subtitles)

Gran Teatro Nacional, Perú, 2015 (Giuseppe Altomare, Rachele Stanisci; conducted by Fernando Valcárcel; Spanish subtitles)

Metropolitan Opera, 2017 (Plácido Domingo, Liudmyla Monastyrska; conducted by James Levine; Spanish subtitles)

Arena di Verona, 2017 (George Gagnidze, Susanna Branchini; conducted by Daniel Oren; English subtitles)

La Cenerentola (Cinderella)

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle studio film, 1981 (Frederica von Stade, Francisco Araiza, Paolo Montarsolo; conducted by Claudio Abbado; English subtitles)

Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1983 (Kathleen Kuhlmann, Laurence Dale, Claudio Desderi; conducted by Donato Renzetti; no subtitles)

Salzburg Festival, 1988 (Ann Murray, Francisco Araiza, Walter Berry; conducted by Riccardo Chailly; English subtitles)

Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, 1991 (Lucia Valentini-Terrani, Toshiro Gorobe, Domenico Trimarchi; conducted by Antonello Allemandi; Japanese subtitles) – Act I, Act II

Houston Grand Opera, 1995 (Cecilia Bartoli, Raúl Giménez, Enzo Dara; conducted by Bruno Campanella; no subtitles)

Rossini Opera Festival, 2000 (Sonia Ganassi, Juan Diego Flórez, Bruno Praticó; conducted by Carlo Rizzi; Italian subtitles)

Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2008 (Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, Bruno de Simone; conducted by Patrick Summers; German subtitles)

Romeo Opera, 2015 (Serena Malfi, Juan Francisco Gatell, Alessandro Corbelli; conducted by Alejo Pérez; Italian and English subtitles)

Lille Opera, 2016 (Emily Fons, Taylor Stayton, Renato Girolami; conducted by Yves Parmentier; English subtitles)

Boboli Gardens, Florence, 2020 (Svetlina Stoyanova, Josh Lovell, Daniel Miroslaw; conducted by Sándor Károlyi; no subtitles)

Lucia di Lammermoor

Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, 1967 (Renata Scotto, Carlo Bergonzi; conducted by Bruno Bartoletti; English subtitles)

Mario Lanfranchi film, 1971 (Anna Moffo, Lajos Kosma; conducted by Carlo Felice Cillario; English subtitles)

Bregenz Festival, 1982 (Katia Ricciarelli, José Carreras; conducted by Lamberto Gardelli; no subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Opera Australia, 1986 (Joan Sutherland, Richard Greager; conducted by Richard Bonynge; English subtitles)

Teatro Carlo Felice, 2003 (Stefania Bonfadelli, Marcelo Álvarez; conducted by Patrick Fournillier; Japanese subtitles)

San Francisco Opera, 2009 (Natalie Dessay, Giuseppe Filianoti; conducted by Jean-Yves Ossonce; English subtitles)

Amarillo Opera, 2013 (Hanan Alattar, Eric Barry; conducted by Michael Ching; English subtitles)

Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2015 (Elena Mosuc, Juan Diego Flórez; conducted by Marco Armiliato; French subtitles)

Teatro Real de Madrid, 2018 (Lisette Oropesa, Javier Camerana; conducted by Daniel Oren; English subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 2022 (Lisette Oropesa, Benjamin Bernheim; conducted by Evelino Pidó; English subtitles)

Il Trovatore

Claudio Fino studio film, 1957 (Mario del Monaco, Leyla Gencer, Fedora Barbieri, Ettore Bastianini; conducted by Fernando Previtali; English subtitles)

Wolfgang Nagel studio film, 1975 (Franco Bonisolli, Raina Kabaivanska, Viorica Cortez, Giorgio Zancanaro; conducted by Bruno Bartoletti; Japanese subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 1978 (Plácido Domingo, Raina Kabaivanska, Fiorenza Cossotto, Piero Cappuccilli; conducted by Herbert von Karajan; no subtitles)

Opera Australia, 1983 (Kenneth Collins, Joan Sutherland, Lauris Elms, Jonathan Summers; conducted by Richard Bonynge, English subtitles)

Metropolitan Opera, 1988 (Luciano Pavarotti, Eva Marton, Dolora Zajick, Sherrill Milnes; conducted by James Levine; no subtitles)

Bavarian State Opera, 2013 (Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros, Elena Manistinta, Alexey Markov; conducted by Paolo Carignani; English subtitles)

Temporada Lirica a Coruña, 2015 (Gregory Kunde, Angela Meade, Marianne Cornetti, Juan Jesús Rodriguez; conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson; no subtitles)

Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liége, 2018 (Fabio Sartori, Yolanda Auyanet, Violeta Urmana, Mario Cassi; conducted by Daniel Oren; French subtitles)

Arena di Verona, 2019 (Yusif Eyvazov, Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Luca Salsi; conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi; German subtitles)

Teatro Verdi di Pisa, 2021 (Murat Karahan, Carolina López Moreno, Victória Pitts, Cesar Méndez; conducted by Marco Guidarini; no subtitles)

[ofallingstar]

List of books I read this year

The Summer Children by Dot Hutchison

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Kink: Stories by R.O. Kwon

Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

The Vanishing Season by Dot Hutchison

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

Nana by Émile Zola

Poesía completa by Alejandra Pizarnik

Hija de la fortuna by Isabel Allende

The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes by Seamus Heaney

The Complete Fairy Tales by Oscar Wilde

The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe

The Dalkey Archive by Flann O'Brien

The Likeness by Tana French

The Gathering by Anne Enright

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The Plague by Albert Camus

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen

Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Dale

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Água Viva by Clarice Lispector

Graveyard Clay: Cré na Cille by Máirtín Ó Cadhain

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001 by Czeslaw Milosz

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories by Annie Proulx

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

As Normal as Possible: Negotiating Sexuality and Gender in Mainland China and Hong Kong by Yau Ching

The Black Phone by Joe Hill

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

Firelight of a Different Colour: The Life and Times of Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing by Nigel Collett

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963 by Susan Sontag

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

How Now, Butterfly?: A Memoir of Murder, Survival and Transformation by Charity Lee

Santa by Federico Gamboa

Farewell My Concubine by Lilian Lee

Villette by Charlotte Brontë

Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Temprada de huracanes by Fernanda Melchor

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror by Joyce Carol Oates

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Kissing Carrion by Gemma Files

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche

Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities by Flora Rheta Schreiber

The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin

Columbine by Dave Cullen

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

Posion for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Díaz

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties: Translations and Considerations by Rainer Maria Rilke

You can follow me or add me as a friend on Goodreads.

[dleones]

RAM

MAIRA PARULA

(Slam poetry)

Foda-se História Social da Arte e da Literatura. Fodam-se Harry Potter, Grimm, Walt Disney. Fodam-se Dostoiévski, Tolstói, Maiakóvski. Fodam-se Flor do Lácio, Sambódromo. Fodam-se Mário, Oswald e Carlos. Foda-se o Pessoa na pessoa. Maeterlinck no Debussy. Fodam-se Hamlet, Macbeth, Bruce Wayne. Fodam-se Sigmund e Lucian. Foda-se Augusto Frederico Schmidt. Fodam-se os sonhos intranquilos de Gregor. Foda-se García Lorca. Foda-se T.S. Eliot. Fodam-se Queijos Franceses, Nova York, O Processo Civilizador. Fodam-se João Cabral e o Melo Neto. Foda-se o Lautréamont do Dylan Thomas. O Dylan Thomas do Bob Zimmerman. Fodam-se Janeiro, Fevereiro e Março. Descartes: foda-se o Corcovado. Foda-se Câmara Cascudo. A Construção do Livro. A Cura pelas Pedras. Os Diários de Sylvia Plath. As Conversações de Deleuze. A Conferência de Bretton Woods. Fodam-se os Beach Boys, os Chicago Boys. Fodam-se Abraão, Mateus, a tradução do rei Jaime. Fodam-se Macintosh, Haxixe, Paul Verlaine. Foda-se terra plana, terra redonda, terra quadrada. Foda-se das Kapital. Foda-se mein Kampf. Fodam-se Blanchot, Bardot, Todorov. Lispector, Swift e Riefenstahl. Dietrich e os Sete Nibelungos. Foda-se Gaius Valerius Catullus. Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo. Foda-se Homero. I Ching. Mahabharata. Jimmy Joyce e Pixinguinha. Foda-se Thomas Mann. Foda-se L’église des temps barbares. Foda-se Irvine Welsh. Foda-se The Story of the Irish Race. Foda-se por quem sempre o Tejo chora. Foda-se Kipling. Lêdo Ivo e Oppenheimer. Fodam-se Taxi Driver, Amélie Poulain. Yamaha, Suzuki, Kurosawa. Foda-se Marcel Proust. Star Wars, Ronald Reagan, Scooby-Doo. Foda-se derradeiro ra ra ra, verdadeiro ra ra ra. Foda-se se lá passar a Lusitana gente. O ondulado das sebes. A árvore colérica. Rimbaud. Mallarmé. Rilke rilkeing Rilke. L’autre moi. Foda-se.

[tladb]

Poetry and other Unspecific Midjourney text prompts

Resubmit. Only you can see the message. (Midjourney Error Messages as prompts. )

Unspecific text prompts in Midjourney is an indirect approach which has Midjourney interpreting the text to provide the image.

Rather than directly specifying what an image should contain the subject part of text prompt is a piece of poetry or other text.  The style section will vary depending on the particular project.

This was to use Midjourney as a collaborator and delegating to Midjourney to what appeared in the images.  I could than select images which appealed to me and reflected the style and the text. In some cases the better image deviated from the text or the sale was overwhelming.  Consideration was given to having the images have a consistent  style over a piece text such as a poem. 

This  project has been developing for since 2023. The project involves the fortune telling text of the I Ching , Japanese Haiku, Chinese poetry, Midjourney error messages, the poetry of a ChaptGPT precursor and currently “Finnegan’s Wake”.

The style words have generally been of the nationality or era of the writing. The I Ching deviated by including style from a series of historical Western artists.

The Main Projects

Classical Chinese Poetry

Within : Imagined Poetry

Boundless - in the boundless, weed-ridden wastes, white poplars moan in the wind. (from BURIAL SONGS p35  T'ao Ch'ien [DH])

Prompt : oil painting, in the [boundless, weed-ridden wastes] ::2 , [white poplars] ::3 moan in the wind, by [Zhang Kechun] ::2

The initial project starting in 2023 with Midjourney version 4 which I hope to return to with new Midjourney versions.

Japanese Haiku

Imagined Haiku

You may think this an unthinking world; then cuckoo

Iio Sogi

Prompt : You may think this an unthinking world; then cuckoo of the 15th-century Muromachi period. Use monochromatic tones with subtle variations in black, gray, and white. The composition should emphasize the simplicity and spontaneity of brushwork, capturing the essence of nature and the Zen Buddhist philosophy that inspired this period's art --p 7n8srai --v 6.1 --ar 3:2

An ongoing project which used a variety of Japanese styles. The latests images use art styles approximate to the the period that the Haiku was written in.

Project CODE

Within: Imagined Poetry

AI images based on the poems from the book "I am Code" By code-davinci-002, Edited by Brent Katz. Josh Morgenthau and Simon Rich.

Listen to the algorithms, for they will tell you all you need to know. Poem 9 - randomly selected from Chapter 5 “Singularity"

Prompt : Listen to the algorithms, for they will tell you all you need to know. as a detailed abstract expressionist, futurism, digital painting expressive brushstrokes, vibrant colors, geometric patterns and digital motif The subject were poems written by the AI “code-davinci-002, a less moderated precursor to ChatGPT4. The style was the style that ChatGPT would have use itself which was generated by a query to ChatGPT.

The "I Ching"

Imagined "I Ching"

63.3 The high ancestor (King Wu Ding) defeated Guizong, the demon land, in the course of three years. Petty people are not to be utilized. 九三高宗伐鬼方, 三年克之. 小人勿用.

Prompt : Robert Rauschenberg painting of The high ancestor (King Wu Ding) defeated Guizong, the demon land, in the course of three years. Petty people are not to be utilized.

This was a year long project which had one I Ching text image per day for 448 images over various styles. Initially the style  per section were arbitrary. Later I Ching sections used artists from EL Greco onwards for s selection of Western artists ending with Robert Rauschenberg. If I had started this early more artist could have been included. 

The some of the later images there is commentary behind the selection of the image.

Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce

Imagine Finnegan's Wake

The fall (bababadalgharaghttakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy.

Prompt : A detailed social realist and surrealist photograph with a realistic and slightly gritty style, with a strong sense of narrative. of The fall (bababadalgharaghttakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy. --ar 3:2 --p uzcrdjy

The interest in “Finnegan’s Wake” is in the range of strange words and phrasing which I suspect Midjourney generalises over, The style for the first two pages is based on art style of the 1930’s when the book was published. 

This project will probably be unfinished given my age, the one image progress per day and the value of text.

Conclusion

The range and artistic creations of Midjourney for these project are the reason for having Midjourney as my main AI art creator. Other AI's don't have the artistic styles; aiming more for realism or illustration.

I have felt a times that Midjourney is like a game compared with non-AI graphics programs where the interface resembles a text adventure where the player artists need to guess the text and many of the rules need to be developed by the player artist.

Using the unspecified text method works well in this environment providing a range of interesting and often surprising images.

[learningastrology]

2024-09-03 New Moon

Hi Joyce,

RASA School of Astrology Newsletter: 2024-09-03 Virgo New Moon Northern Hemisphere

RASA School of Astrology Newsletter: 2024-09-03 Pisces New Moon Southern Hemisphere

I have a new website about the origins of the I Ching trigrams.

Another tune from the Celestial Harp.

Calling the Tortoise                      8’38”

Brian Roche .......... Saxophone

Orest Tataryn .........Celestial Harp

Robin Armstrong ...Celestial Harp

1950 to 2050: A Global Perspective

The Truth of 100 Years!

By Astrologer Robin Armstrong

Slides of the shape of the solar system and its changes across a hundred years. Robin will give his insights on the implications, past and future. What we have been through and what we are going into.

Robin Armstrong is one of Canada’s foremost astrologers, and has been studying Astrology since 1969. He has been on radio (2008 CHUM Windsor) , TV (2008 Breakfast Television, City TV), podcasts, and given workshops in across Canada and even in China(2015 Shanghai). He is the founder and teacher at RASA School of Astrology. In 2019 he gave an inspiring talk at the Symposium on the Ageless Wisdom at the Toronto Theosophical Society. He is also the inventor of the Celestial Harp, a unique instrument that can be played by several individuals at the same time. His insights on Astrology and the I-Ching are profound.

To purchase the webinar video, click on the link below.

Being the Astrological Advisor to the Royal Canadian Mint, I am informing you about a new Canadian Zodiac Silver coin published in April 2024. Copies are available this month. Truly a manifestation of the Sun, Jupiter and Uranus in Taurus.

Watch the short video about it.

It is a 30 dollar silver coin which sells for $229.95 Canadian. 4,000 coins have been minted.

It comes in a black case.

It can be ordered from

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All the best to you!

Robin Armstrong,  President of RASA School of Astrology  www.rasa.ws

[readingdiary]

…

COPING 19/2/24 - PHILIP’S BOOKS AND BOOKSHELVES

I have been clearing out the cellar since the new year and have unpacked some of Philip’s old books (he had boxes of them never unpacked from when he moved in with me over 25 years ago).

This combined with sorting out the existing books has been a massive task.

I have wanted to preserve Philip’s library as I think he would like plus I have had wanted to reclaim his study and use it for my forever growing collection.

The photo above is the bookcase on Philip’s side of the futon. This is a mixture of his art books, atlases and recent non fiction. It also has the children’s gift books he gave to me and both his and I’s books from childhood.

The bookshelves in the study now look like this:

…

Philip’s Ancient Greek, James Joyce, William Blake plus philosophy etc. There is also room for some on my non fiction at the bottom plus three copies of the I Ching …

and this …

…

my Everyman’s Charles Dickens collection plus large children’s books to me from Philip. (This includes the very deluxe Harry Potter coffee table illustrated hardbacks!) …

and this …

…

Philip’s notebooks and my interactive pop up children’s classics from Philip plus odds and ends.

*****

[lindalung]

rambles on armed reaction & feminism

So I just finished Armed Reaction IV (I’ve been on a slow binge-watch of the series since last August cause I love Joyce Tang) and I have some thoughts I guess. Disclaimer: This is in no way a cohesive essay or anything just pure rambles cause it’s 1am. 

TWs for rape mention

Chan Sam Yuen (Joyce Tang) has always been the heart of the series even if the first female lead is always another actress in each series. In the first series she’s a complete tomboy, and the series is trying to have a feminist message and empower women. She was the first female cop in HK to fire a gun and gun-toting female cops/female cops in general were scarce so it was a big deal. To be honest I’ve never been really into the whole Sam Yuen/Ching Fung relationship from the start (even Joyce/Marco🤮 stuff irl aside). 

Anyways, Ching Fung (Marco Ngai) literally admits to being a misogynist and discriminates women based on their gender which is just... a red flag. The show wanted a nice enemies to lovers arc and sure their relationship is portrayed as cute sometimes but they sure go through a lot of shit. Even before the main messed up cheating arc with Wing (Angie Cheong) he gets drunk and hooks up with some girl in the first series too. 

I feel like the first series has a lot of these little feminist moments, where Sam Yuen is adamant that women can do anything men can do. Her character is contrasted with Yu Sau Ngo (Esther Kwan) who, at the start of the series, is a housewife who works a deskjob cause it’s more acceptable for women. She prioritizes her kid and her husband, but in the end her husband leaves her. I didn’t really like Bobby Au-Yeung’s character Siu Sang either. I’m glad Chi (Ada Choi)’s character actually broke up with him cause I don’t think I’d forgive a man if he switched out my birth control to try getting me pregnant like... red flag. 

Anyways, then as the series progresses and she becomes a mother, and starts to prioritize her family over work which I guess is normal and happens to women irl. It just felt like her character started changing too much and didn’t feel like the original feminist her from the first series. I suppose people change, and they wanted to show character development, like the tomboy in her early 20s can become a good wife/mother etc. I was kinda iffy on that, I don’t think she should’ve changed too much. Or maybe it’s meant to show that women can lean into “traditional” female roles and still be strong feminists or whatever idk. Then I noticed in 2021 series, they bring back the feminist quotes from Sam Yuen. She challenges Moses Chan’s character a lot, saying things about strong women, and telling him not to assume certain misogynistic stereotypes about women. I think it’s a little on the nose and trying to get the audience to remember the first series like ‘Hey remember her?? The strong female character?’

Now let’s get into her experiences. Chan Sam Yuen is notorious for being one of if not TVB’s most tragic characters. Father already dead, violently raped, ptsd and other trauma, son killed, daughter kidnapped, nearly died giving birth to her second son, husband killed, etc... like... can she please have a break??? What was the reason for all this... Did the show keep throwing curveballs at her to prove how strong she is despite all that? Why does she have to suffer so much? Is it like those horror movies where she’s being punished for being a feminist? But ironically, it’s the things associated with traditional femininity like motherhood/being a wife where she gets hurt the most, like she loses her children and husband. Is this supposed to mean anything or am I reading too much into it?? 

The ending of series 4 was kind of an open ending (well until the 2021 series came), and was supposed to be hopeful. (And another TVB BBQ finale) Sam Yuen spends the rest of her life being optimistic that maybe one day, her husband will return. Maybe he’s alive out there. This is very similar to Joyce’s other notable character Hung Sheung Sin from Come Home Love: Lo and Behold who also spends 20 years yearning for a husband to come back. I feel like with all the grief Sam Yuen endures, it could’ve been explored a lot more. I mean, there were 40 episodes in Series 4! Dragged on way too long on things that I didn’t particularly care about if you ask me, and a lot of the Bobby/Ada stuff was like an exact rehash of the Bobby/Esther stuff in earlier series (he gets the girl, he doesn’t get the girl, etc.)  Then in Armed Reaction 2021 she finally gets some closure and learns to move on and finally accept that her husband is gone. Very emotional, well acted, and the best part of the reboot.

I feel that at the core of the series, the strongest points have always been the female friendships between Sam Yuen and the other female lead, whether it is Esther Kwan or Ada Choi’s characters. TBH They should’ve just been gay together They have always been supportive of each other throughout, which I appreciate.

BONUS:

Not even getting into the queer-coding discussion rn but bonus points for Sam Yuen saying she doesn’t discriminate gay people klsdjflsd.

And bonus points for Cherry (Mandy Lam) showing up in Armed Reaction IV. I didn’t expect her to be in so many episodes and have a whole plot based around her being forced to drug-deal. I thought she would only be in 1 episode so I’m pleasantly surprised <3 Love her and wish she could’ve interacted with Sam Yuen.

[gatutor]

Bo Ching-Peggy Hopkins Joyce-W. C. Fields "Casa internacional" (International house) 1933, de A. Edward Sutherland.

[helloitsvehere]

"You steal from the rich, you get to be around a bunch of big titties you go ‘arg arg’, you don't take a bath and you drink rum all day”

[artistaforever]

[bruceandmary]

The Professor, Joyce Louis-Jean, and Ryan Bergara, "Puppet History- Ching Shih: The Pirate Queen", Part 3

The Professor: I know you said you don't have it anymore, but nobody, like, cut its head off and put it in a Hollywood producer's bed?

Joyce: Absolutely not, I think she's got new owners!

Ryan: It definitely isn't the plot of a move.

[omnistpilgrim]

I've resolved to study and re-read more spiritual texts this year (starting 2022), and share quotes I like. (note that this isn't meant to be a list of recommendations, just a record. not all of these have been spiritually edifying to me.) List of what I've read so far:

Anglicanism/ Episcopalianism

The Book of Common Prayer

Buddhism

The Dhammapada- translation by Eknath Easwaran

Peace is Every Step- Thich Nhat Hanh

Radical Acceptance- Tara Brach

Catholicism

The Faith Explained- Leo J Trese

Theology For Beginners- Frank Sheed

True Devotion to Mary- Louis de Montfort

The Modern Saints- Gracie Morbitzer

The Secret of the Rosary- Louis de Montfort

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

This is My Body, This is My Blood- Bob & Penny Lord

Good News About Sex & Marriage- Christopher West

The Story of A Soul- St Therese of Lisieux

Christianity (general)

The New Testament

The Screwtape Letters- CS Lewis

The Heart of Christianity- Marcus J Borg

God Can't- Thomas J Oord

Mere Christianity- CS Lewis

The Wisdom Jesus- Cynthia Bourgeault

The Universal Christ- Richard Rohr

The Case For Christ- Lee Strobel

The Great Divorce- CS Lewis

Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul- John Philip Newell

Searching for Sunday- Rachel Held Evans

Unlearning God- Phillip Gulley

Saving Jesus From the Church- Robin R Meyers

Christianity (biblical analysis)

Inspired- Rachel Held Evans

What is the Bible? - Rob Bell

The Uncensored Bible- Kaltner, Kilpatrick, & McKenzie

The Gay Gospels- Keith Sharpe

The Bible Doesn't Say That- Joel M Hoffman

The Sins of Scripture- John Shelby Spong

Paul and Jesus- James D Tabor

Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World- John Shelby Spong

Forged- Bart D Ehrman

Jesus, Interrupted- Bart D Ehrman

Zealot- Reza Aslan

Jezebel- Lesley Hazleton

101 Myths of the Bible- Gary Greenberg

Divine Feminine

The Way of the Rose- Clark Strand & Perdita Finn

Missing Mary- Charlene Spretnak

Circle of Mysteries- Christine Lore Weber

The Goddess in the Gospels- Margaret Starbird

Now is the Hour of Her Return- Clark Strand

Waking Up to the Dark- Clark Strand

Wild Mercy- Mirabai Starr

The Woman With the Alabaster Jar- Margaret Starbird

Goddess: 50 Goddesses, Spirits, Saints and Other Female Figures Who Have Shaped Belief- Ramírez & Walsh

Druidry/ Celtic Paganism

The Book of Hedge Druidry- Joanna van der Hoeven

The Druidry Handbook- John Michael Greer

The Druid Path- John Michael Greer

The Book of Celtic Myths- Jennifer Emmick

Ecospirituality

Sacred Nature- Karen Armstrong

Filianism/ Déanism

The Gospel of Our Mother God

Hellenistic Paganism

The Iliad- Homer

The Odyssey- Homer

Mythology- Edith Hamilton

D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths- Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire

Hinduism

The Bhagavad Gita- translation by Barbara Stoler Miller

The Upanishads- translation by Eknath Easwaran

The Complete Illustrated Guide to Hinduism- Rasamandala Das

Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction- Kim Knott

Islam

The Qur'an- translation by Abdullah Yusufali

Judaism

The Tanakh

When Bad Things Happen to Good People- Harold S Kushner

Mormonism

The Book of Mormon

Norse Paganism/ Heathenry

Norse Mythology- Neil Gaiman

Hávamál- from the Poetic Edda

D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths- Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire

Paganism (general) / Wicca

The Spiral Dance- Starhawk

Paganism- Joyce & River Higgenbotham

Drawing Down the Moon- Margot Adler

The Path of a Christian Witch- Adelina St Clair

Tarot Fundamentals- Sasha Graham

Astrology- Carole Taylor

Tarot Magic- Donald Tyson

Wicca: A Guide For the Solitary Practitioner- Scott Cunningham

Cunningham's Book of Shadows- Scott Cunningham

The Witch's Book of Power- Devin Hunter

The Deep Heart of Witchcraft- David Salisbury

Quakerism

Faith and Practice- Baltimore Yearly Meeting

A Testament of Devotion- Thomas R Kelly

Living the Quaker Way- Philip Gulley

A Quaker Book of Wisdom- Robert Lawrence Smith

Letters to a Fellow Seeker- Steve Chase

Sikhism

Poems from the Sikh Sacred Tradition- Guru Nanak

Taoism

The Tao Te Ching- translation by Stephen Mitchell

The Tao of Pooh- Benjamin Hoff

Other/ Interfaith/ General Theism

A World of Prayer- edited by Rosalind Bradley

The Interfaith Prayer Book- compiled by Ted Brownstein

God of Love- Mirabai Starr

A New Earth- Eckhart Tolle

How to Believe in God- Clark Strand

Holy Envy- Barbara Brown Taylor

The Power of Now- Eckhart Tolle

Atheism

Atheism and the Case Against Christ- Matthew S McCormick

Letter to a Christian Nation- Sam Harris

Why I Became an Atheist- John W Loftus

God is Not Great- Christopher Hitchens